The 2016 Child Poverty Monitor Technical Report is out today. As usual it paints a bleak picture. What will Bill English’s government do about poverty – evasions, words, or actions? Update: Bill fails.
It’s more than a “dreary lack of ambition”, it’s a deliberate plan to underfund / rundown the stock to “justify” selling off, so that the Nats can indeed “wash their hands” of their obligations.
Warnings from the government and the Reserve Bank that first home buyers are taking on too much debt. Prices are too high, wages are too low, interest rates are rising. These warnings are effectively telling the average first home buyer to give up.
A short video produced by US unions “to support a fairer tax system”.
A 2015 court decision forced National’s hand on pay equity. This week the equity working group reported back. To its credit National is accepting the recommendations, and unions are hailing a big win. But the final form of any law is not yet clear.
Take a deep breath and transcend your fear.
Trump is going to be a figurehead, not a president, leaving governance to an unfettered Republican machine. That machine is no friend of the disenfranchised, never was, never will be. How will Trump’s base react to being betrayed?
The Nats are determined to keep flogging the TPP horse in Parliament. Someone should buy them a newspaper.
Millions of dollars are being poured into reducing rheumatic fever in NZ. However rates of the disease in Auckland are at least double the target level – and rising.
Donald Trump’s last campaign ad lifts the mood of a relentlessly negative campaign between two massively disliked candidates.
This really happened. Contains crimes against music, dance, fashion, and irony. Also some recent headlines from “John Key’s Paradise”…
The Standing Rock water protection movement continues in the face of increasing state violence.
The culture being addressed will be familiar enough to many here in NZ who deal with Work and Income. Government strategies to address that culture? Well, that’s another story. This isn’t just happening half a world away. It might as well be happening in another universe – back on the sane side of some looking glass NZ has fallen through.
Recent decision in the UK is a victory for workers and their rights.
Trump is the “human molotov cocktail” that many Americans have been waiting for.
Convincing workers not to organise in their own best interests is one of the great successes of right-wing politics.
Barack Obama recently talked about the possible need for a universal basic income because of the disappearance of work. Is a UBI so different to collective ownership of wealth?
National have slammed the door shut on the parents of already settled migrants who wish to move to NZ to complete the family unit. Minister Michael Woodhouse accuses elderly Asians of bludging off the NZ taxpayer. You won’t believe the howls of outrage from the right!
Round 2 of the Presidential debates. Trump is on the ropes, can Clinton land the knockout blow? Certainly, there’s a lot of Republican Party grandees hoping Hillary puts them out of their misery. Seconds out at 2PM, NZ time.
UPDATE: Obama nailed Trump’s real issue a few minutes ago; it’s insecurity. Video in post.
UPDATE 2: LIVE STREAM now in post.
What we know is coming largely from outside the mainstream. Which is how it should be.
It looks all its over for Donald Trump. On the eve of the second Presidential debate, his polling has tanked, the Russians have come out in support of him and his team have run out of money for TV ads. Plus, truly awful video has emerged overnight of him admitting sexual assaults. Has there ever been a worse candidate? And will he still be the right’s candidate in a month’s time?
UPDATE: Trump says he will be a better man. Pearl Jam sue.
For seven months the next movement of social and environmental justice and resistance has been growing. We should be paying attention.
In which we learn that Colin Craig had already lost another case months before being done over in his defamation trial.
The downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17 was a Russian sponsored war crime. When will Vladimir Putin be arrested?
UPDATE: Animation and actual photos and video of the BUK launcher added.
The first Presidential kicks off this arvo. Who will win? Do we care? Should we care? Stay tuned Standarnistas, it’ll be a doozy!
Young people, union members, and other Aucklanders will meet in Aotea Square today to make some noise about the devastating Auckland housing crisis. Stand Up Youth Union Movement and Unions Auckland are hosting the Monopoly-themed event, which will highlight the damaging effects of the crisis and call on local and central government to do a lot more to fix the housing market.
When highly educated people end up being idiots, and uneducated people end up being smarter.
TS regular Tony Veitch has some practical ideas as to how we insulate NZ from the ravages of neoliberalism and climate change. Readers may agree with some, none or all of the suggestions. However, whichever way you look at it, the time for hand wringing is over. It’s time for action.
Matt McCarten is to head a new Labour party office in Auckland. The party is going to take to fight to National in the city that decides the election. Yet another bold step from Andrew Little, who is looking more and more like the next PM.
Uber is great for the consumer but terrible for its contractors.
Illustrator and commentator Toby Morris has animated TA’s story: “What do you want most in the world,” John Campbell asks TA, who has been living in a van with her family since February. “A library.”
John Key has announced an inquiry into the Havelock North water crisis. But has it been set up to fail the residents of the Central Hawkes Bay?
Hickey: “The best way for an economy to grow is for the market to allow wages to grow. Allowing a flood of low-skilled migrants is frustrating that market mechanism with the short-term aim of keeping wages low for employers.”
New Zealand is slowly losing faith with this Government and this is why.
A right wing “think-tank” wants to load students up with even more debt.
Once again this country under National is rightly shamed in the international media.
