Get ready for your water to be privatised
The National Government’s repeal of the Three Waters Legislation and its pursuit of “new forms of infrastructure funding and financing” suggests that privatisation of water is on the drawing board.
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
A sad lament from the serial left
Attacking leftists attempts to expose the Atlas Network of right-wing think tanks, Chris Trotter offers this gem “Morally speaking, is taking money from oil companies really all that distinguishable from giving money to oil companies every time we fill up our petrol tank?”
Alex Foulkes To Stand For Green Party Co-Leader
Faulkes describes himself as a staunch Eco-Socialist and trade unionist
Mr Bates vs The Post Office
Originally published on Nick Kelly’s blog Many question the value of the performing arts and drama. At the start of 2024, the ITV […]
Coffee and Cigarettes
Coffee and Cigarettes is an in-depth study of the human condition by Jim Jarmusch.
Economy improves dramatically thanks to Labour
This week there were two pieces of economic news showing a dramatic improvement credit for which should be given to the last Labour Government.
Operation Poseidon Archer
CNN reports that the US has named the ongoing operation against Houthi in Yemen “Operation Poseidon Archer, suggesting a more organized and potentially long-term approach.” New Zealand has joined it – cue the slippery slope.
What If Trump Wins Again?
New Zealand has gained prosperity over 40 years within a free flow of trade under peacetime supported by minor attacks to shipping and planes, low international trade costs such as tariffs, and confidence that international trade disputes will be settled by law rather than by might is at risk: all of that required a United States President prepared to support that.
Not all Americans are Neocons
But the ones that run US foreign policy are. Matthew Hooton in a typical smear wants to label Helen Clark as anti-American because she warned that involving us in attacking Houthis was a ”slippery slope.” She’s not and he’s wrong.
The Coming Oil Crisis
An expanding Middle East war that puts the Red Sea and Suez tanker route at risk is a major risk to us because it could hit the global price of oil.
Our Resistance
There are still groups of people in New Zealand who can and do organise to resist the damage of the right.
Atlas smirked
A George Monbiot article in the Guardian made me wonder what effect the Atlas Network is having on New Zealand politics through the Taxpayer’s Union. Publicly available information suggests considerable funding is being made available and that the current Government’s priorities are precisely those that the Atlas Network would approve of.
The Useful Rich
New Zealand’s rich are endlessly fascinating, but as wealth concentrates ever tighter we are poorer.
Wanaka Has No Crime
The purpose of everyone in New Zealand is to keep Wanaka pure.
National wants to hide huge potential rates rises caused by canning of Three Waters
Someone should tell the Taxpayer’s Union. Some Local Councils are planning to put rates up by double digit figures. And the Government is planning on exempting them from discussing this with ratepayers.
Is the Coalition Government Back Jabbing Māori?
The coalition government robs Pita to pay Paora to appease its voter base.
The Mini Budget Today
Don’t let anyone be fooled this Christmas dinner by what National is setting out today.
Why Labour must change course
“A Left government with any claim to progressive credentials will focus on three policy areas – first, high-quality, high value production; second, taxation measures to reduce significantly wealth differences; third, strengthened democracy, including industrial democracy beyond collective bargaining. These three are indispensable. A Left politics, which does not build on these three, will founder.”
90 day trials – Don’t come Monday
This coming week, under urgency and leading into Xmas, the Coalition government will expand 90-day trials to all workers, in yet another payback to National/ACT/NZ First’s (NAF) business backers.
The week of going backward
National has this week chosen to smash through under urgency legislation that will increase unemployment and interest rates, reduce workers wages and increase the country’s emissions of greenhouse gasses.
Who leaked the Fair Pay Cabinet Paper?
My initial impression was that the person who leaked the Fair Pay Cabinet Paper to the media was probably a disgruntled Public Servant but was it?
Willis’s budget analysis is either deeply cynical or evidence she does not know what she is talking about
Recent claims by Nicola Willis that the Governments Finances are full of fiscal cliffs is evidence either that National will cynically make baseless claims to attack Labour or that Nicola Willis has no idea about what she is talking about and has not been doing her most basic job of reading and comprehending previous budget documents.
Cutting fair pay agreements will disproportionately impact women, Māori and Pasifika and young people
The Cabinet Paper dealing with the Government’s proposal to do away with fair pay agreements has hit the media. And the advice suggests that Cabinet is completely disinterested in the on the ground reality of what their shitty policy will do to ordinary Kiwis.
100 days of chaos
National’s 100 days of action is to address the rhetoric of economic difficulties but the announced policies will do nothing to help the pressure that ordinary people are feeling.
How not to make friends and influence people
An increase in lung cancer rates and a decrease in the amount that working families receive so that tax credits for landlords can be put in place tells you everything you need to know about the priorities of this Government. Your blood should be boiling by this stage and it is only two days in.
Aotearoa the way you want it?
The new Government’s policies give the impression they were formulated by members of a Workingman’s club in the 1970s and negotiated over a few beers.
Highlights quoted out of the National-New Zealand First coalition agreement
Some of the more unusual policies from the National-New Zealand First coalition agreement.
Green growth or degrowth?
There is growing scepticism among climate policy researchers about green growth, as concepts of degrowth go mainstream.
Hipkins endorsed
It was never going to be anything else, but two positive emerged. All policy options are back on the table, including tax, and there is a realisation that the main task ahead is to rebuild a strong and progressive party.
Has Labour become a cadre Party? Pt 1 Leadership
In 2021, I voted against Labour’s conference proposal for midstream leadership change to be determined by Caucus alone, saying that it risked Labour becoming a cadre party for elites. A series of posts will start with why the Caucus should not rush to a leadership vote.
The Injustice of Blackball
There is no “just transition” occurring on New Zealand’s west coast and there should be.
Pagani and Edwards do not understand the working class
Bryce Edwards and Josie Pagani have suggested that there should be more working class in Parliament. But the quality of their analysis leaves a lot to be desired.
The long wait
As it stands right now with the indecisive election result, we’re probably into having a caretaker government for some time. The election results after the special votes are targeted to be declared on November 3rd. The last day for the writ is on November 9th.It may then take some time to form a governing number of seats in parliament.
Multimillionaire landlords are the real squeezed middle according to National
Craig Rennie of the CTU has continued his excellent work analysing National’s proposed tax cuts and has come up with a doozie. Landlords who own multiple properties will get huge tax cuts if National’s policy is put in place.
National’s credibility problem
National has suffered further damage to its credibility with its promise of a $250 tax cut per fortnight for an average family only being realised if that family spent at least $300 per week on childcare and was a two income family with each adult earning between $53,500 and $66,000.
Even Capitalists think that too much Capitalism is a bad thing
In recent times Goldman Sax has warned National that its policies will hurt the economy. And S&P has praised Labour’s handling of the economy and expressed a high assessment of various factors relating to the country.