National, under the direction of Gerry Brownlee, continue to abuse parliamentary procedure and make bad law. They tried to ram 12 bills through on Thursday, resulting in them sitting under urgency until Saturday night. There is no proper oversight, no thinking through the possible problems with bills, and far too little chance for the public to have their say. We have procedure for a reason…
I saw this old American comic and the coincidence was just too bizarre. I had to share.
You not only can expect to be spied on more after an overhaul of the SIS, but you sure as hell shouldn’t be […]
Minister for Minorities (Womens, Pacific, Ethnic and Assoc Maori Affairs – when she’s not busy with Courts or Disarmament) Georgina te Heuheu was […]
The NBR reported yesterday morning that Murray McCully had awarded the $8 million RWC Opening Ceremony contract to Aussie firm David Atkins Creative. […]
So our kiwifruit industry is in peril. PSA may be here to stay, vines may start being burnt today, and a $1.36 billion […]
Dr David Suzuki has given the keynote speech at the Green Party Conference on Sustainable Economics. Here is a fantastic presentation of his, about why our obsession with economic growth is suicidal. Watch it – it’s pretty powerful stuff.
John Key got to Japan for his Apec meeting a couple of days ago, and he’s been telling the Japanese they need to drop their tariffs, and the US he’d like to have a chat with Obama on the sidelines of a meeting, any meeting, please… But nobody else is there. They’re all still at the G20, across the ditch in Korea. What’s John Key doing?
The PM’s Chief Press Secretary Kevin Taylor thinks he’s above those who are actually elected. So much so he feels free to tell journalists that an elected Member, who represents the people of New Zealand who voted for him, is a “fuckwit” and that they can “quote him”. Or perhaps “Captain Panic Pants” will claim that it’s just the pressure getting to him.
The Government is removing your Right to Silence in TWO Bills before the House. The much-improved Search and Surveillance Bill, and the Alcohol Reform Bill. Ripping up civil rights fought for over centuries that ensure a fair legal system, destroying a free press – all without much thought or care.
Incredibly efficient cars can be manufactured now… but they aren’t being made.
What would it take to kick-start what would be a major part of making our future sustainable?
Wages rose for the rich and fell for the poor this year, according to a Employers and Manufacturer’s Association survey. Managing Directors got a 3.7% rise from $190k to $197k, whilst the unskilled production workers beneath them saw their wages drop 6.5% or $2000 to $29.5k.
The recession, combined with this government, hurts the poor the hardest.
The gender pay gap is increasing by about 1 percentage point each year under Pansy Wong’s watch – it’s now 13%. And a new report out shows women’s level of participation in key leadership areas is static or falling. Female unemployment had passed 7 percent for the first time in 12 years. National’s policies equate to an attack on women.
Do you remember when John Key declared War on P a year ago? The action has been… underwhelming. The Police have been getting on with quietly doing a good job, to be sure, but when you grandiosely declare “War” on something, you expect a bit more attention to have been paid to it.
This NAct government is so anti-worker that they have managed to re-arrange the calendar so that we get 5 fewer holidays in this government’s term than the last Labour one. And that’s before they sell off our 4th week.
National are continuing their privatisation by stealth. Hospitals services and a new prison are the current targets. Tony Ryall, Judith Collins and Bill English are the ministers currently pushing their ideology in their respective areas.
A pot-pourri of a few things that have come up in the media of late, and thoughts on other media matters…
National are a land of broken promises – from GST rises and tax cuts to falling wages and attacks on education. Here’s my list – help me with any I’ve forgotten.
At the last election we chose tax cuts and unemployment instead of stimulus and stability – which was the more ambitious, high wage way to go?
National are not fulfilling their government’s core reason for existence: closing the wage gap with Australia. No, we’re fast going backwards on that score, and it’s predictable: high unemployment causes low wages.
So the question is: will John Key turn us into a tin-pot banana republic by changing employment law to suit Warners, and make one movie?
Are we going to change our laws, and remove protections every time a company demands it to invest in Aotearoa?
There was an excellent piece in the Saturday Herald by John Armstrong. A large 2-page spread, fairly prominent in the paper, and not critical of Labour. Not fulsome praise; just great, unbiased reporting.
Now admittedly I shouldn’t get excited by such things, but the steadily slipping standards of New Zealand’s papers, combined with a media love-in with National at the last election, leaves good quality newspaper journalism a sight to behold.
I’ve just been reading The Age of Absurdity, which has many good ideas on modern happiness.
One of the ideas that won’t cause happiness – but will decrease motivation and quality of work – is performance related pay.
(Consumerism and a Sense of Entitlement also causes unhappiness, but big ups to Personal Responsibility. None of that is in this post though)
Different voice, same message: instead of Stephen Joyce or John Key, we now have Bill English saying that they don’t have any money for Public Transport. Just money for roads. They’ve been forced to commit to $1.5 billion of ongoing Auckland rail projects, and that’s all it’s going to get, thank-you.
Phil Goff made an excellent speech yesterday. One that showed far more direction, and a lot of promise for going forward. Hopefully Labour […]
So John Key was unusually forthcoming to a question this morning – he was very keen to give poor Kerry Prendergast a job.
Key knows how hard his government has made it to get a job, so he’s eager to help her out.
Treasury have made their submission to the Welfare Working Group. Amongst the usual beneficiary-bashing and demands for privatisation, there are a couple of rare admissions that workers’ rights need strengthening. Which do we think will make it through…
According to Kerry Prendergast, STV may cost her election as mayor of Wellington, and therefore it is undemocratic. Good doublethink there Kerry.
UPDATE: Prendergast really doesn’t get it – Celia is Mayor!… Lost by 176 votes.
John Key has claimed that he doesn’t turn down many interview requests – but he turned down another one from Morning Report this morning. In fact you can count on one hand the number of times he has appeared on Morning Report in each of the last 2 years.
The last in a series of 6 summarising the argument of The Spirit Level. This post looks at how we might achieve a more equitable future.
Len’s in in Auckland, but it’s not just the man at the top the left can be happy with. Auckland may have provided a few new seats to National at the last general election, and Hide may have done his best to set up the SuperCity for his mates to win – but the Council doesn’t look so bad either. Add in the Local Boards, and it wasn’t a big day of celebration for the right.
This government seems to have confused the means and the ends. Growth and money have become the ends, when they only ever should have been the means. Surely what should matter now is that we have a happy, fulfilled society, where people have the opportunity to do what they want.
This government doesn’t seem to have the human touch. It fails to see the personal, just the numbers. So it’s sending 3 New Zealand children to live as ‘untouchables’ in an Indian slum, without the limited access to schools or hospitals that even the locals have – as they won’t (and can’t) be Indian citizens.
Our Minister for Sport now gets to pick the teams. He’s pushing out two of our best ever Olympians from coaching, because Murray knows best.
What future for TVNZ? Paul Henry’s words show us their current car-crash course – bigotry for ratings, price over quality, drivel over culture. Isn’t it time we asked for something better?
Treasury in their first year under National tripled their expenditure on contractors whilst forcing all other departments into cuts. Bill English decided against having any public accountability, and left Tony Ryall talking rubbish trying to explain it.
