The Standard

Economy

Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour

Categories under Economy

They all do it…

Written By: - Date published: 5:16 pm, June 6th, 2026 - 4 comments

FiveEyes issues warning re possible Chinese intelligence recruiting methods! Beware! China issues warning re already recruited anti-China MPs. Cue shock horror!

Should Kiwis dream of Electric Sheep?

Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, June 6th, 2026 - 10 comments

Electricity and Data Centres are a major problem and opportunity for New Zealand. 

BHN: The Peoples’ Budget Lock-Up 2026

Written By: - Date published: 5:39 pm, May 28th, 2026 - No comments

The Peoples’ Budget Lock-Up 2026 brings together unions, iwi, students, community organisations, advocates, and workers to collectively respond to Budget 2026 and help shape a people-centred alternative.

At 9pm BHN will talk first with Chris Hipkins, then later with Ricardo Menendez.

The absurdity of the Move on Orders law

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, May 24th, 2026 - 5 comments

Paul Goldsmith’s move on orders bill applies to young people aged 14 even though existing legislation provides police with all the powers they need to deal with homeless young people.

Walking backwards off the cliff

Written By: - Date published: 1:36 pm, May 22nd, 2026 - 6 comments

The coming oil shock is not just about oil. The future is baked in, and its not good. National’s backward-looking budget will make it much worse.

Do We Still Want Socialism? 

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, May 22nd, 2026 - 32 comments

There are still those who pine, from the readership of Jacinda Ardern’s biography, for a state that is perfectly kind, does everything with speed and authority, and brims with patrician wisdom for us all.  Her 1.5 terms held many instances in which the state operated on the extremes of control to respond to massive crises.

National wages war on the poor

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, May 22nd, 2026 - 32 comments

How cruel do you have to be to raise rents for some of our poorest citizens during a cost of living crisis?

New Zealand And Palantir

Written By: - Date published: 3:13 pm, May 21st, 2026 - 7 comments

Palantir, founded by Alex Karp and New Zealand citizen Peter Thiel, is at the centre of an array of A.I. driven kill programmes for the US, Israeli and other militaries, including the NZDF.

Should we renationalise the BNZ?

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, May 18th, 2026 - 46 comments

Winston Peters is trying to appeal to the far left by calling for the renationalisation of the Bank of New Zealand.

Reformism or bust?: Making the best of a bleak future

Written By: - Date published: 2:42 pm, May 15th, 2026 - 4 comments

Some initial ideas about the integrated policy package Labour must consider if it is to meet contemporary challenges posed by emerging populism and the narrowing of the Labour vision over the past five decades

Stop This Madness

Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, May 14th, 2026 - 33 comments

Why is Chris Bishop wanting to review the cost of the City Rail Link while at the same time is happy to proceed with roads of national signficance that are very expensive but provide limited financial return?

“Interest rates, oil and gold”

Written By: - Date published: 4:23 pm, May 7th, 2026 - 11 comments

That RNZ tricolon has always been infuriating fluff. In the real world, analysts warn we are heading for a cliff.

Yes Test Before Getting NZ Super

Written By: - Date published: 9:36 am, May 2nd, 2026 - 83 comments

Superannuation is the ultimate Don’t Go There of New Zealand politics. But unless this benefit becomes means tested rather than subsidises rich asset-hoarding old people, it is going to sink every other part of the government. 

Who’s best on Foreign Affairs?

Written By: - Date published: 1:58 pm, May 1st, 2026 - 6 comments

When Ambassador Chen Mingming sent Zhang Wei in 2005 to ask me whether Winston Peters would follow government policy, I said I didn’t know but would ask. I did, and he did.

Uncertain Futures and Political Change

Written By: - Date published: 5:54 pm, April 21st, 2026 - 65 comments

The world is turned upside down and challenges progressive politics to change gear.

Greens’ State Of The Planet Calls For National Electrification Plan

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, April 21st, 2026 - 28 comments

“The plan would electrify homes, transport and industry, ending New Zealand’s dependence on unpredictable global fossil fuel markets, cutting household power bills, and building real energy security at home.”

I could be completely wrong, but…

Written By: - Date published: 3:17 pm, April 18th, 2026 - 36 comments

My hunch is that Luxon stands down as Prime Minister, to be replaced by Mark Mitchell.

Missing in action

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, April 6th, 2026 - 48 comments

As this Government’s inaction over the oil crisis becomes more pronounced more and more people are noticing that Christopher Luxon is missing in action.

In a crisis the left does better

Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, April 2nd, 2026 - 31 comments

The Government’s complete reluctance to do anything about the approaching oil crisis is in stark contrast to the approach adopted by more progressive administrative governments overseas.

A change of government this close or this far away…

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, April 2nd, 2026 - 59 comments

reasons to feel hopeful but not complacent.

“The future of everything is in New Zealand-made energy”

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, March 31st, 2026 - 27 comments

This is the kind of Just Transition story that turns us in the right direction.

The oil crisis: what we should be doing now

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, March 30th, 2026 - 24 comments

Responses to the government’s National Fuel Plan.

Wise Response: What can I do in response to the Fuel Supply Crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand?

Written By: - Date published: 12:41 am, March 29th, 2026 - 13 comments

In the tradition of Community Mutual Aid, Wise Response have published When the Trucks Stop: Mutual Aid Arrangements for a Fuel-Constrained New Zealand

The Government’s National Fuel Plan

Written By: - Date published: 12:36 pm, March 27th, 2026 - 23 comments

Nicola Willis and Shane Jones present the details in the current plan for the Hormz oill crisis.

The Government wants to make workers more unsafe

Written By: - Date published: 1:43 pm, March 26th, 2026 - 7 comments

Stand with Pike representatives have submitted to the Government that its proposed changes to worker safety laws will make people less safe at work.

Keep calm and screw it up later – current government policy on fuel

Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, March 26th, 2026 - 20 comments

Officials have been doing private, media excluded, webinars with selected businesses. That seems pretty dodgy while our diesel stocks look like they will run out in a few weeks. Rather than (maybe) tomorrow, the government should have been rationing the unproductive Remuera tractors weeks ago.

Destroying Business 2025

Written By: - Date published: 1:22 pm, March 25th, 2026 - 6 comments

This government has an appalling record of large scale business closures, which continue to damage the careers of thousands of New Zealand workers.

Why does this Government hate poor people?

Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, March 24th, 2026 - 23 comments

The Government will today announce its response to increasing pressure on household budgets cause by the oil crisis. And it seems inevitable that poor people who are not working will be excluded from its effect.

We owe a great debt to Grant Robertson

Written By: - Date published: 5:16 pm, March 22nd, 2026 - 9 comments

Today I learned, we owe a great debt to Grant Roberston and just wanted to say thanks

What We Can Do

Written By: - Date published: 6:50 pm, March 20th, 2026 - 30 comments

In absence of a concrete leadership plan from this government to address the impending oil supply crisis, this post is for us to simply note down what actions we are taking ourselves. 

The oil crisis: “We live in challenging times”

Written By: - Date published: 4:33 pm, March 19th, 2026 - 46 comments

The government has shifted position and is now directly talking about the need to plan and prepare for a potential crisis and doing so for the worst case scenario.