Labour will guarantee a job for graduate nurses
“Nurses who trained here should be able to work here. A good job. A future here at home. Better starts now.” – Chris Hipkins
Economy
jobs
Four Promises, Fifty Years On
Norman Kirk once said people do not ask for much: someone to love, somewhere to live, somewhere to work, and something to hope for.
Walking backwards off the cliff
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.
“Interest rates, oil and gold”
That RNZ tricolon has always been infuriating fluff. In the real world, analysts warn we are heading for a cliff.
I could be completely wrong, but…
My hunch is that Luxon stands down as Prime Minister, to be replaced by Mark Mitchell.
Destroying Business 2025
This government has an appalling record of large scale business closures, which continue to damage the careers of thousands of New Zealand workers.
Affordability is not about prices – it is about extraction
The real affordability crisis lies in the systematic extraction of income from households.
Privatisation and Plunder
Privatisation and Plunder is essential reading for those who want to work for a society where prosperity for all is the aim.
Fiscal Choices: Scandinavia or America?
Brian Easton says we cannot attain a sustainable Scandinavian-type quality of life while keeping the existing tax system in place
China is not a threat to Regional Peace
The real threat to peace in our region does not stem from China, but from a “China threat” narrative—promoted by the United States to rally other nations behind its China containment agenda.
The Coalition Continues to Defund Science
Another science fund bites the dust in New Zealand.
The Greens’ Industrial Strategy: Green Jobs Guarantee and Ministry of Green Works
New Zealanders should be in control of our economy, our jobs and our future. We don’t need to leave our fate to be decided by international shareholders
NZ Science is in Big Trouble
Science and tertiary education are being ignored in NZ, which is just dumb.
New Zealand’s worst leadership speech since 2008
The PM’s ‘State of the Nation’ speech about the New Zealand economy titled “economic growth the key to better days ahead” was a bag of words with no plan.
Luxon Takes A Beating
Five recent polls show that Kiwis are tired of the Coalition government, but will the trendline hold?
The Fast Death of Our Major Forestry Mills
2024 is the worst-ever year for our forest export industry as a whole, with most of our largest sawmills closing and the loss of hundreds of jobs.
Uber Drivers in Court of Appeal
Uber Drivers are in the Court of Appeal today. Uber is appealing against Employment Court decision they they are employees with worker rights. Its a no-brainer, so they are and should have them.
USUKAs
US Undersecretary of State Bonnie Jenkins is in Wellington this week with a hard sell for us on AUKUS Pillar 2 wunderwaffen maybes. We should say tai hoa.
What Do The Maori Party Want Anyway?
Since they’re touted as 2023’s electoral ‘Kingmakers’, it’s time to understand what the Maori Party really want.
In praise of Michael Hudson
82-year old polymath Michael Hudson is my favourite economist. He currently lectures in China to million-strong audiences. His latest book is The Destiny of Civilisation: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism. His latest article is well worth a read.
Business claims crisis as country approaches full employment and wages increase
Anyone else getting tired of the media presenting the fact that New Zealand essentially has full employment is a very bad thing?
The 2022 Economic Boom
New Zealand is seeing a strong, business-led recovery. But what will we do with this success?
So! You want a “plan”?
Expecting a bit much aren’t you? We haven’t had that since Muldoon. At least he had them. The kind of people now asking for a plan were those who complained about governments that “interfered with the sacred ‘free market’” and screamed about “central planning”, “picking winners”, “protectionism” etc. They prefer just getting cheap labour to give the illusion of economic growth. And build a cycleway!
So, You Want To Buy Your First Home?
Money does not grow on trees, it grows on houses. It is pure magic!
C’mon Grant
This government must demonstrate that it has the ability to lead the New Zealand economy where it has stated it wants it to go. It does not want more headlines like the average house in Auckland now being priced at $1 million.
Vote Labour To Support Your Job
This is a backpocket election – and that’s where most of Labour’s effort is going as it rightly should.
“Reds under the Bed”.
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”.
Why you should vote Labour this election
Four very good reasons why you should vote Labour in this election.
Who are you going to trust with your job, Jacinda or Judith?
Defying expectations official labour force data from Stats NZ released today shows that the unemployment rate dropped to 4 per cent from 4.2 per cent in the June quarter.
Can A Renewed Provincial Growth Fund Save Us?
With the simultaneous decline of Southland’s Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, the retrenchment of Waikato/South Auckland’s New Zealand Steel’s Glenbrook Steel mill, and the near-total shrinking of NZ Refining in Whangarei’s Marsden Point it’s not unreasonable to ask what will happen to the 10% of New Zealand who are employed in major manufacturing plants.
Fixing Unemployment – Zoom meetup Saturday 10am
Is it time to completely rethink how we deal with unemployment? We face a tsunami of job losses not seen in generations. Two ideas — social insurance and a job guarantee — are gaining prominence as ways to change how we deal with the problem. One provides income protection for those who lose employment, the other aims for something bolder: the elimination of unemployment. All welcome; register here.
Things that will live
Despite downbeat economic predictions and an imminent global recession, the New Zealand recovery offers opportunities for entrepreneurial success that exceed anything we’ve seen for decades.
Kim Hill asked “Why…
…is the US sharemarket roaring away – up 44% – while economic recovery prospects are grim?” ANZ’s Sharon Zollner’s answer on Tuesday was the Fed printing money, but worried markets were turning a blind eye to the bad news. The bad news hit today as the sharemarket nose-dived. Wolf Richter’s answer was more to Kim’s point: “Fed bails out the wealthy while America convulses in pain.”
Is National Just Inconsistent or Incompetent?
National’s new job-creation scheme appears to be inconsistent with their desire to fully re-instate the 90-day trial period.
New leadership same old tactics
National has released a social media ad suggesting that New Zealand’s per head of population Government debt figure will be worse than Greece’s by 2014. But the data used presumes the effects of Covid 19 in New Zealand’s figure but no effects of Covid 19 in Greece’s figure.
What the Greens did
A round up of the Green Party’s achievements in the 2020 Budget: funding for nature, the commitment to ending violence, and public housing and insulation. And a look at the pragmatics of what the Greens can currently accomplish.