Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, February 26th, 2023 - 44 comments
National has announced its alternative to the Three Waters Policy with the standout feature being greater central control of asset management and investment plans than offered by Three Waters and even greater loss of local control.
Written By: - Date published: 7:52 am, November 7th, 2022 - 32 comments
The text of an excellent speech given by Kelvin Davis to the Labour Party conference on climate change.
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, January 2nd, 2022 - 15 comments
The Standard server is going down for a few hours later today for maintenance. Some of the drives in the archive array are getting old. The SSDs in The Standard array are showing wear. Needs a good vacuum – for which I mostly blame the cat….
Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, December 12th, 2021 - 23 comments
New Zealand is seeing a strong, business-led recovery. But what will we do with this success?
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, October 6th, 2021 - 53 comments
With all the unfortunate rhetoric around “giving up on the elimination strategy”.
Small businesspeople around me, who have quietly carried on with the program, and have been supportive of the Government strategy of elimination, even though, in many cases, it has been personally costly, are telling me,, “why did we bother”!
It doesn’t matter if it is the actual Government intention, or the media interpretation, the damage has now been done.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, September 24th, 2020 - 100 comments
This is a backpocket election – and that’s where most of Labour’s effort is going as it rightly should.
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, September 4th, 2020 - 78 comments
Everyone has recently had an education on “Socialism” working in practice.
And a graphic illustration of the shortcomings, of under regulated “Free market” Capitalism, Globalism, tax cuts for the rich, and the mania for monetising everything in sight, and “running it like a business”.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, July 26th, 2020 - 126 comments
The Greens have released a detailed policy document that sets out what they want to achieve if they are part of the next Government and their Labour Relations policies could be considered to be more pro union than Labour’s policies.
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, July 26th, 2020 - 41 comments
What is the strangest recent proposal for development in New Zealand?
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, April 26th, 2020 - 69 comments
Just as most industries in New Zealand are firing thousands of people to cut costs, local government is getting ready to do the same.
Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, April 25th, 2020 - 20 comments
“Othering” has long been a staple of Governments that want to remain in power for the benefit of an Oligarchy, an “Elite”, a small ruling class, or the ones with, “the money”. Deflecting blame for economic and social issues on, an ethnicity, a class, the elderly, the poor, the young, the unemployed, young solo mothers, the disabled, immigrants, or any other convenient group that can be demonised. Very soon more of us may become the “others” we didn’t care about.
Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, April 2nd, 2020 - 22 comments
Idiot/Savant writes: “While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in”
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, March 25th, 2020 - 10 comments
Fairly soon every group and their dog are going to come out with recovery plans for New Zealand. First off the block – even before we went into lockdown – is the ten point plan from Infrastructure New Zealand.
Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, December 1st, 2019 - 35 comments
Is the Government commitment to the budget responsibility rules weakening? Because at the Labour Party Conference Grant Robertson has indicated that the Government will shortly announce a big capital spend on infrastructure.
Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, October 8th, 2019 - 33 comments
Stuff had an interesting piece looking at rates, taxes and local infrastructure “Rates are much lower than you think, and they’re responsible for miserable growth in cities”. They just missed out one crucial factor. The way that PPP debates often block infrastructure. Interesting that got missed..
Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, July 13th, 2019 - 52 comments
A tunnel is like a wormhole to another dimension. It changes people’s behaviour ever so slightly, ever so briefly, without them realising.
Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, December 21st, 2018 - 287 comments
China has apparently been sprung hacking hundreds of western businesses and Government agencies, including some here in NZ. Should we be worried?
Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, December 12th, 2018 - 56 comments
Letting fees are a thing of the past. Labour’s Phil Twyford has outlawed the practice of charging tenants an upfront fee for a non existent service. It’s about fairness and it’s about time.
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 pm, December 8th, 2018 - 62 comments
I like my Huawei phone. Apparently the US National Security Agency can’t break its encryption. That’s presumably the “security” issue why Spark is being blocked from using Huawei, and why Meng Wanzhou is held hostage in Canada at the behest of US neocons.
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 pm, November 20th, 2018 - 82 comments
China certainly has interfered in New Zealand politics, most notably by the offer of a free trade deal which delivered huge benefits to our economy. Party and government officials all stressed to us that they were grateful for New Zealand’s support for their accession to the World Trade Organisation, the rule-based trade body. The US and Australia in contrast want to build a military base on Manus Island north of Papua.
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, November 2nd, 2018 - 215 comments
More than that, it needs to be torn down before it makes a serious bid at flight.
Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, October 30th, 2018 - 339 comments
National is complaining that Labour is not solving the National imposed housing crisis quickly enough.
Written By: - Date published: 1:53 pm, October 21st, 2018 - 59 comments
The Mariana Trench is pretty huge. And deep. And if the idea is to fill a hole in the ground with ‘stuff’, then it’s a fair sized hole to be filling, right?
Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, October 14th, 2018 - 96 comments
There has been some push back against the Government’s light rail proposal for Dominion Road from some unlikely sources. But they are concentrating on what is best for airport users, not what is best for the city as a whole.
Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, August 17th, 2018 - 26 comments
With the change in Government and ever increasing costs of construction it appears that the Waimea dam project in Tasman District is going to be scuppered.
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, August 16th, 2018 - 72 comments
This Government has probably one term to show progress in dealing with the country’s infrastructure deficit.
Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, August 1st, 2018 - 44 comments
Hand in hand with “compassionate liberalism”.
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, July 27th, 2018 - 76 comments
There’s a sickness affecting our health system.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, July 22nd, 2018 - 46 comments
The polls are great. Top work. But I’m getting worried about the entropy of this government already. Matthew Hooten and Karl Marx agree with me.
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, June 13th, 2018 - 32 comments
If the political class think liberalism has failed, then why is it that the process of killing off NZ Post is approaching completion?
Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, April 4th, 2018 - 89 comments
The Government has released a draft Government Policy Statement on Transport for consultation. A radical shake up of the Transport system is being proposed.
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