Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 3:56 pm, December 12th, 2013 - 97 comments
The decision announced today (but made when?) to withdraw the charges against Pike CEO Peter Whittall cannot be left to rest. When did a Judge of a New Zealand Court participate in a deal where criminal charges were dropped and money paid. It is insufficient to say the two are not connected. The money has […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:32 pm, December 12th, 2013 - 42 comments
So many choices! What’s a body to do?
Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, December 12th, 2013 - 45 comments
The charges that Peter Whittall faced concerning the Pike River deaths have been withdrawn. And he and the then directors of Pike River are paying $3.4 million compensation to the victims families. While it is pleasing for the families to receive some compensation for their loss does the sanctity of our justice system require that the prosecutions should have continued?
Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, December 12th, 2013 - 22 comments
A Statistics NZ Census quick stats page is both useful and puzzling. Nearly a 3rd of adults are not in the “labour force”, unemployment stats mask true unemployment, the young and low income women particularly are struggling, distorted occupation categories, and more….. [Update: Occupation categories]
Written By: - Date published: 11:08 am, December 12th, 2013 - 97 comments
Right wing, excuses reasons, for not doing anything about children in poverty.
Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, December 11th, 2013 - 53 comments
Welfare benefits and how you provide for the disadvantaged is one of the primary distinguishing features of the difference between the left and right of the political spectrum. Here is a proposal on how to make sure that the wealth of society is better distributed. It would require consensus from most people to implement as it would fundamentally change the fabric of society.
Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, December 10th, 2013 - 54 comments
Confronted with a protest about the government’s lack of action on child poverty, John Key’s response is: “So yeah, they just protest because that’s all they’ve got to do all day.” As though protesting – participating in our democracy – was a particularly unimportant thing to do. Also, if the people he was writing off […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, December 10th, 2013 - 7 comments
Scott gives us John Key’s full response to the Child Poverty Report.
Written By: - Date published: 10:53 am, December 10th, 2013 - 172 comments
With ACT’s imminent demise, the Conservatives appearing to be decided flakey and National losing its free market credentials by engaging in crony capitalism the temptation to set up a new political party on the right is increasing. And you can be assured that money will not be a problem.
Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, December 9th, 2013 - 354 comments
The findings of the child poverty monitoring report are being released today. One in four or 265,000 children live in poverty and one in ten live in severe poverty. Children’s Commissioner Dr Russell Wills has called for a bipartisan political approach to the issue but Paula Bennett has replied by saying that she is incredibly proud of the Government’s record. How can you be incredibly proud of allowing one in four children to live in poverty?
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, December 8th, 2013 - 212 comments
The Herald on Sunday this morning has produced a series of chilling articles showing that a computer glitch has caused the under reporting of abuse notifications, and a worrying increase in admission to hospital of children suffering form third world diseases. And the Children’s Commissioner had to secure funding from a private trust so that the data for this report could be collated. It makes you wonder if the Government wants to know the extent of child poverty in Aotearoa.
Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, December 7th, 2013 - 247 comments
Just when you begin to think Labour are looking like a Government, one of the has-beens from the Rogernomics era, again! shows that they have NFI how to get elected and they are still clinging desperately to the Neo-liberal paradigm.
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, December 6th, 2013 - 109 comments
Business NZ says sick leave costs us $1.26 billion per year. Some might say that illness costs us more than that, and that’s business paying their share, to look after their employees which will benefit the business in the long run.
Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, December 5th, 2013 - 30 comments
The Government are lowering their lowest estimate for how much they’ll raise from asset sales. They’ve done a terrible job implementing a stupid policy – if you’re going to put your ideological blinkers on and do it, at least do it right. Now it must stop.
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, December 4th, 2013 - 26 comments
NZ Census 2013 shows a widening income gap: rises for the haves; more struggle for the have nots. Gains for women in education and some in the highest income brackets; more struggle for those on low incomes, especially beneficiaries impacted by Bennett’s punitive welfare reforms. Welcome to Key’s “Brighter Future”.
Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, December 4th, 2013 - 36 comments
I welcomed Amy Adams independent review of Chorus’s financial claims in response to Chorus’s sad song. Not something I should say in a left leaning site but it does show an increasing awareness from government of big business endeavours to manipulate NZ to their advantage. I felt that the Minister had a gun to her […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, December 3rd, 2013 - 18 comments
The 2013 census data is being revealed. The initial information is presented in Stats NZ’s package, with some curious slants/biases: e.g. on income, occupations and housing. What else do the stats reveal? [Update: Stats NZ on income]
Written By: - Date published: 12:34 pm, November 30th, 2013 - 18 comments
Some things don’t require much in the way of brains. Shame then that we tend to let no brain people determine shit so often.
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, November 29th, 2013 - 122 comments
In the Budget, the Government said asset sales would increase the net worth of the Crown by half a billion dollars because eager mums and dads were going to snap the shares up for more than they were worth on the government books. As we know, it didn’t quite work out that way. The Greens have updated the Budget and found the impact is $1.5 billion worse than expected.
Written By: - Date published: 6:49 pm, November 28th, 2013 - 32 comments
Every other political party has said an emphatic no to National’s proposal to override the Commerce Commission’s reduction in broadband charges. I suspect that Cabinet and Chorus’s board are not having a very good day …
Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, November 28th, 2013 - 61 comments
The National government is destroying NZ’s state housing system. Right of tenure removed, a shift towards private provision of “social housing”, housing campaigners marginalised, & Tracy Watkins crowing about the shift from the “welfare state”. Greens & Mana are for more state houses. And Labour? [Update] Picket of (Nat) Party for the Rich Dec 8 Akl. NZH article.
Written By: - Date published: 5:46 pm, November 27th, 2013 - 111 comments
The latest Roy Morgan poll is out and things are neck and neck.
Written By: - Date published: 12:36 pm, November 26th, 2013 - 21 comments
From the you have to be out of your freaking mind file comes this gem from England. Boris Johnson thinks that the ultra wealthy are a put upon bullied minority just like the homeless and Irish travellers and ex-gang members and deserve our thanks and gratitude.
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, November 25th, 2013 - 26 comments
Scott laments the hard life of the rich white man.
Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, November 22nd, 2013 - 72 comments
Te Reo Putake speculates on exactly what plan that National and John Key have to distort the MMP review and Iain Lee Galloway’s private members bill so that it allows them to stay in power. Most probably by gifting Crazy Colin and the Conservatives with several chances to get several partners into parliament while discarding the husks of their former coalition partners.
Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, November 21st, 2013 - 30 comments
Key’s government has destroyed the weak attempts by Labour to enable some public service broadcasting on Freeview. The NActs have employed ideologically-driven, irrational, bad faith, underhand, agreement-breaking moves to protect commercial monopoly. The CBB is campaigning for non-commercial TV channels.
Written By: - Date published: 6:57 pm, November 20th, 2013 - 106 comments
The Greenpeace Yacht Vega has set up camp in the area that Andarko wants to drill for deep sea oil. The recent law changes designed by Simon Bridges was meant to cover all possible loopholes. But has he left one open?
Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, November 20th, 2013 - 239 comments
Since he came to office, John Key’s government has spent over $350 billion (and borrowed over $50 billion). It has handed out taxpayer largesse to casinos, rich sailors, finance companies, and international corporations. So, why the blunt refusal to pay just $3.4 million to the Pike families and lean on the shareholders to get the cash back? Tin ear or cold heart?
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 pm, November 19th, 2013 - 23 comments
David Cunliffe has pledged that the next Labour government will pay the court-ordered compensation owed to the families of the disaster’s victims, and will then recover the money from Pike’s shareholders. As he succinctly puts it – this is the right thing to do.
Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, November 19th, 2013 - 41 comments
If you aren’t currently enrolled or are unsure, then you will have to be enrolled in the next few days. We can shove the lie of “mandate” straight back into this National government’s lying face. Maybe when National are deprived of that silly excuse for their theft, they will stop stealing.
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