Coward
Hekia Parata has refused to front up to education groups against her bigger class sizes.
Bunji
Sunday reading
Last week I put up some Sunday reading – longer, thoughtful pieces I’d found. I liked that other people also put up their links, with some very interesting topics. So I thought I might make it a regular feature. I’d put up a couple of interesting things that I’d come across in the week, and other people could share their links.
Retail Deposit Guarantee: When’s the enquiry?
Labour are pushing for an enquiry into how Treasury oversight of the Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme was so poor that it has cost us hundreds of millions of dollars. Bill English can’t be allowed to hide this under the plus Treasury carpet, so his lack of oversight of Treasury isn’t shown up.
Sunday reading
A couple of good BBC articles: what have the Romans done for us? and can we have a society that doesn’t depend on us becoming ill with our fatness? And Kim Hill’s excellent interviewee Steve Keen.
Budget nasties
This afternoon a couple of ‘hidden treasures’ have come out of the budget. In changes not announced, but discovered 1122 teachers could be losing their jobs and changes are being made to the assets old people are allowed to keep once in residential care. Sneaky, Bill, sneaky…
National’s budget priorities: Roads to Nowhere
The 3 most expensive items in the Budget: 1. $10.24 billion: Superannuation, 2. $3.69 billion: Debt Servicing, 3. $3.32 billion: National Land Transport Agency (Roads of National Signficance etc) – up $334 million. National are prepared to sack teachers, raise prescription costs and pick paperboy’s pockets to defend their roads that make no economic sense.
RWC Tickets
So Key is ‘surprised’ that David Shearer, the local member for Eden Park, accepted tickets to a local game, and doesn’t feel beholden to corporate interests? He can accept hospitality and still criticise a company is somehow shocking? I think this tells us more about John, than it surprises the rest of us about David…
Stealth taxes
Bill English has introduced a number of stealth taxes over his time in office, to partly balance the loss his tax cuts for […]
A good move
The government has correctly bowed to pressure and banned foreign-flagged fishing boats from operating in our waters.
We don’t have too many posts praising this government, and to have 2 today may surprise some. But credit where it’s due.
Poor people NIMBY
John Key is doing his best to keep poor people from coming to his electorate. Whilst it’s not like he visits there often himself, he’s still aiming to keep poor people committing the “economic vandalism” of living in a nice suburb – where apparently only the rich should reside.
Green and you have kids? Really?
Here’s a quick way to reduce your carbon footprint: don’t have kids and save 80 years worth of human greenhouse gas output per child… This is my Voluntary Human Extinction Movement post.
Austerity = low tax take “surprise”
The government has a $1.8 billion income shortfall. But it’s alright, it’s not their fault… Their policies don’t affect the economy. Unless they need to take credit. 6.7% unemployment? Nothing to do with us, and nothing to do with our tax shortfall…
Birth Control
At first glance it seems strange to have Sue Bradford, a former Green MP, against what is a very ‘green’ policy – free contraception. But she has a point when she talks about beneficiaries feeling forced into sterility they don’t want. Meanwhile, what’s with the right’s obsession with targeting women having babies while on a benefit?
1000 more jobless each week
The unemployment rate has jumped to 6.7%, as National delivered only 20,000 of the 36,000 jobs promised last budget. Last quarter there were 12,000 more jobless.
Where’s our recovery John? Have you sold that off too?
Into Black-Scholes: where all the money went
A very interesting article on the BBC – the financial formula that ruined the world. Well, that’s a bit sensationalist, but it’s a […]
Wages rise faster than inflation!
For the first time under this National government, average wages and salaries actually rose (2%) faster than inflation (1.6%), so in the last year people are ever so slightly better off – I think congratulations are in order!
Join the Hikoi!
Join the Hikoi against Asset Sales, 24 April – 4 May. If you’re anywhere near Auckland on Saturday 28 April, be at Britomart 3pm to send a message against this Government’s Asset Sales.
Europe to reject ACTA?
Despite 22 member states signing the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement, the EU’s parliament is looking like it might reject the treaty on the grounds of it curtailing civil liberties. The EU’s first rapporteur MP on the treaty resigned in protest at the plans. The second has now reported back: “The intended benefits of this international agreement are far outweighed by the potential threats to civil liberties.”
Pulitzer Prize winning…
Are we this racist?
A day after a Sunday Star Times piece about how racism is getting worse in New Zealand comes the apparent proof.
Employers back Paid Parental
When even your friends are telling you you’ve got it wrong, it’s time to reconsider. So Bill: the Employers Union (EMA) and Family First want Paid Parental leave. It’s not too expensive, it’s back by all childcare experts, and the cost is even delayed. Just do it.
Paid Parental
Sue Moroney’s 6 months of Paid Parental Bill looks like being a second Labour private member’s bill that will proceed against National’s wishes.
How wealthy do you feel?
If everyone earned the same amount (including babies) across the entire world, we’d each get about $USD10,000 each. So a family of four anywhere in the world would get about $NZD49,000. That figure makes world poverty pretty hard to stomach. It’s not that there’s not enough in this world – only that some people haven’t learnt to share.
Bernard Hickey – Ouch!
Bernard Hickey has a great piece in the Herald on Sunday that you shouldn’t miss.
Suing the taxpayer
Judith Collins is suing Radio NZ for airing 2 Labour MPs defamation. The taxpayer will be paying her costs, Radio NZ’s costs and the court costs. Oh, and should Collins win? The taxpayer will pay any settlement…
Blinglish’s Treasury not so hot
Bill English and Treasury adopted a “see no evil, hear no evil” approach to the Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme. And it’s cost us $2 billion. The Deputy Auditor General has delivered a damning report on a ministry used to judging others, not suffering any oversight itself…
Back to fluff
It appears there is something irresistible about travelling with the PM. While the fact that only 2 news organisations can send a journalist to cover our leader’s involvement in a 54 nation conference is disappointing, so is the fact that being part of that cosy group travelling with JK makes everyone a bit too matey.
‘Finn angry
The ever-diplomatic Gerry Brownlee has got New Zealand coverage in the European press. In an effort to try and score a point against […]
John Key: Aussie miners’ stooge
John Key was busy last night working for the causes of Aussie miner Bathurst, “officiating” at the opening of their lobbying office, and pressuring DoC to give them concessions to the Denniston plateau and help them destroy a unique ecosystem. How much more of him can NZ’s “clean, green” image take?
More from the Port…
Emergency Council Meetings, mediation, court action – the fight continues on a number of fronts. But at the core of the dispute is the SuperCity structure National set up – to give Council company boards free-rein, and democratically elected members no say.
Republican Humour
With Super Tuesday closing inconclusively in the US Republican Party Presidential Nominee race, here’s a chance to laugh at the contenders…
Disgusted by the Poor
“The idea that ultimately the poor must help themselves as social mobility grinds to a halt is illogical; it is based on a faith for which there is scant evidence. Yet it is the one thing that has genuinely ‘trickled down’ from the wealthy, so that many people without much themselves continue to despise those who are on a lower rung.”
Save our Port
It’s slipped down the news agenda but is about to come back up it: The Ports of Auckland Dispute. Tony Gibson is wasting our money on his union-busting campaign that will result in reduced profits for ratepayers. Sign up to make him see sense.
Congrats on raising the minimum wage John
Shame you couldn’t raise it to a living one though. The working poor will appreciate the extra $1000 per year coming this April, but it still won’t cover their bills…
Maori Party to quit Govt?
News in on the Herald says the Maori party are talking the talk over National’s latest insult to Maori.
Will they quit the Government? Or will the smell of those limo seats mean another backdown in a couple of weeks?
Banks a fine ACT MP…
There are a couple of nice pieces in the Herald today on upstanding ACT MP John Banks – on his advising arrested Kim Dotcom on residency and the Overseas Investment Commission, and on his “National” billboards…