Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, May 12th, 2013 - 43 comments
An article in today’s Sunday Star Times, provides evidence of an organised business in providing students with assignments for their tertiary education courses. The focus is on Chinese ethnicity. Ultimately, the blame for such rorts lies with the neoliberalisation of universities: the undermining of the critical endeavour of education.
Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, May 11th, 2013 - 10 comments
Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week we continue with the 2012 report from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, and “sympathise” with those poor Herald readers who are just sick to death of all those beggars on Queen St…
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, May 10th, 2013 - 11 comments
The working age population grows by around 30,000 a year. A bit over two-thirds of them work or want a job. So, to keep unemployment from rising, the economy needs at least 20,000 additional jobs per year. So, the drop in unemployment must mean we did that and some last year, eh? No. Just 8,000 jobs were added last year. Unemployment fell because people dropped out.
Written By: - Date published: 5:26 am, May 10th, 2013 - 35 comments
Yesterday’s NZ Herald editorial gave a hard-line conservative view of what a charity should be. Charities should and must deal with ills of society on a person by person basis without attempting to fix the causation. That sounds more like a parasitical “charity” like the workhouses of the 19th century or the adoption factories of the 20th than anything that a person of goodwill would choose to support.
Written By: - Date published: 1:07 pm, May 9th, 2013 - 31 comments
The latest Household Labour Force Employment statistics are out, and on the surface, look good for John and Bill. But this is driven by improved employment in Canterbury over the last quarter. Grant Robertson says, “Disaster recovery is not a plan for jobs”.
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, May 9th, 2013 - 23 comments
Big Western retailers provide us with relatively cheap clothing, through paying low wages in countries where industrial health and safety is poorly regulated. Last month a big garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 700 800 people. Ultimately we are all damaged by the profiteering of the elites.
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, May 9th, 2013 - 24 comments
Because things aren’t quite tough enough for first-time home buyers yet.
Written By: - Date published: 6:03 am, May 9th, 2013 - 194 comments
Here are the numbers that sum up the MRP sale fail – foremost among them the $1,000 that the government has spent per Kiwi investor attracted.
Written By: - Date published: 8:44 pm, May 8th, 2013 - 95 comments
Well Key’s cornerstone policy, the one that many commentators claimed was him showing his mettle, has come to fruition. And it’s such a poison chalice he didn’t even have the guts to show up for the big reveal in person (spoiler: less than half the number of people who signed up to oppose asset sales signed up to buy).
Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, May 8th, 2013 - 20 comments
This morning David Shearer gave Labour’s “pre budget” speech. No new policy, but plenty of good one-liners and a strong statement of Labour’s position.
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, May 8th, 2013 - 47 comments
John Key is using “urgency” to push through his anti-democratic Big brother GCSB surveillance Bill. Dotcom’s lawyers have released a 39 page white paper making a range of allegations against the FBI, Obama & NZ authorities. Peters is keeping his cards close to his chest. Update: Peters’ calls government “bully boy” & will vote against the Bill.
Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, May 8th, 2013 - 7 comments
The EPMU has won back millions of dollars of back-pay for workers at Tiwai point after taking a case at the employment authority.
Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, May 8th, 2013 - 22 comments
We’re in yet another round of talk of “green shoots” of economic recovery, complete with the hype of an optimistic budget. Maybe they’re right this time, but the recovery, when it does happen, will be in spite of the National government, not because of them. All National have done is hold us back for four years.
Written By: - Date published: 7:34 am, May 8th, 2013 - 66 comments
The Warehouse has adopted a policy of paying a living wage of $18.50-$20 an hour for longer-term employees. It’s a really positive move and The Warehouse is to be congratulated. It’ll cost about $2.5m a year, or 5% of profits. As we’ve seen in the NZ Power debate, it’s a rare thing for major companies to look beyond their balancesheets to the community they exist within. Now, who’s next?
Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, May 7th, 2013 - 143 comments
Breaking – The asset sales referendum petition has collected 292,000 valid signatures. It needs 16,500 more (about another 5%) to reach the threshold. The Keep Our Assets Coalition has 2 months to get the remainder – and says it will get them…
Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, May 7th, 2013 - 95 comments
John Key says that Wellington is dying and “we don’t know how to turn it around”. Coupled with Brownlee’s slow suffocation of Christchurch and the Nats’ refusal to unblock Auckland’s transport arteries, its not good news for the major cities. But if Wellington is dying, who killed it? The guy who sacked all the public servants? The guy who killed manufacturing?
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, May 7th, 2013 - 18 comments
Following the Labour and Greens’ rejection of their demand that the parties drop their NZ Power policy to lower power prices, the business elite has announced capital flight. ‘If Origin Energy loses its rentier profits, who’s next? said Phil O’Reilly, close to tears, ‘The banks? The Telecoms duopoly? The petrol companies?* The construction materials oligopoly? The ports and airports?
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, May 7th, 2013 - 51 comments
US universities’ budgets partly rely on endowment funds. Harvard University investment activities in poor countries exploit people and lax regulations, damaging communities, the environment & economies. They are one of the biggest foreign owners of NZ land.
Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, May 6th, 2013 - 12 comments
The chief executive of the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association supports the Labour / Green electricity proposals.
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, May 6th, 2013 - 12 comments
It’s UN Global Road Safety Week, with a focus on pedestrian safety. NZ statistics for pedestrian injuries and deaths are sobering. Children are especially vulnerable to careless driving practices. In the interests of our people and environment, walking and cycling need to be less dangerous, and more fun.
Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, May 6th, 2013 - 30 comments
John Key’s excuse for the planned veto of the extension of paid parental leave is that it would put the 2014/15 surplus at risk. There’s several reasons that’s bullshit, the main one being: why is going just under or just over some arbitrary line in the Crown’s books the Nats’ one aim for the economy? The truth is, Key’s using the surplus as an excuse for not doing the right thing.
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, May 5th, 2013 - 78 comments
The “market specialists” say that the loony left have scared of all the Mum and Dad investors. The “investment sources” say the Mums and Dads are signing up in droves. I’m so confused! Why oh why would those nice “market specialists” be lying to us about the effects of the Labour / Green electricity policy? I just can’t work it out…
Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, May 5th, 2013 - 45 comments
John Key promised a “brighter future” – “wave good-bye to higher taxes not your loved ones”; a higher standard of his MPs, and honesty for the PM. John Key’s NZ is actually one of callous entitlement of the elite, and dis-entitlement and Struggle Street for battling Kiwis.
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, May 4th, 2013 - 192 comments
Supporters of the sale of the powercos, portray the Labour-Green NZ Power policy in terms of political strategy and game-play. They focus on the “market”, risk, profits & “fat cat hatred”. They avoid dealing with the guts of the issue: fuel poverty, income inequality & damaged lives.
Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, May 4th, 2013 - 13 comments
Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week we continue with the 2012 report from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. We also take a look at Mana’s Feed the Kids campaign, and the difference between the Nats’ glib promises in opposition and their actions in government.
Written By: - Date published: 2:16 pm, May 3rd, 2013 - 180 comments
Aaron Gilmore, eh? He’s clearly finished in the National Party. Not for the view he expressed when he threatened to get a young waiter sacked, but because by doing so he’s lifted the veil on the carefully covered elitism that drives the national party’s agenda.
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, May 3rd, 2013 - 61 comments
Today’s NZ Herald editorial on Auckland’s up-coming mayoral election campaign, says Brown has vision, but Minto and Williamson lack it. What sort of vision should the left provide in the up-coming local authority elections around NZ, and in NZ’s parliamentary elections in 2014?
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, May 3rd, 2013 - 80 comments
Yesterday, Phil O’Reilly’s Business New Zealand basically declared war on Labour and the Greens. Their ‘open letter’ demanded opposition parties to withdraw the NZ Power policy or risk a capital strike. Unprecedented in modern NZ history. It was a boots and all attempt by the capitalist elite to try to monster the Left. It proves that they think NZ Power is both practical and popular.
Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, May 2nd, 2013 - 18 comments
John Key’s networks of influence include the bosses and directors of Anadarko Petroleum, which is doing some oil exploration in NZ. Gordon Campbell’s excellent piece of investigative journalism shows Anadarko and it’s bosses are not to be trusted.
Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, May 2nd, 2013 - 34 comments
To say Brian Gaynor is excited about the Mighty River sale is an understatement. Of his last five Herald columns, two have been about how great it will be, and two have been about how awful NZ Power is. His other media appearances have been in a similar vein: Mighty River = good, NZ Power = bad. It’s in his financial interests that investors aren’t scared off Mighty River.
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, May 1st, 2013 - 32 comments
To the Herald the Fourth Estate must be a greenfield development on the outer margins of Auckland: a Dickensian space, hiding the poor from the upper middle-classes. The Herald lacks critical balance & equal weighting for diverse views: it scaremongers about the Akl Unitary Plan & undermines public transport.
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