Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, March 6th, 2013 - 40 comments
Amidst the froth of predatory “excitement” about the sale of our power generation assets, it was refreshing to read in The Herald yesterday a single lone voice who was thinking long term.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, March 5th, 2013 - 38 comments
TTPA talks under way in Singapore. Jane Kelsey leads critical discussion in NZ: Obama skewing the agenda in favour of US corporates; pharmaceuticals, internet, copyright & more; John Key’s dodgy figures. In Aussie today, a seminar on the TPPA & corporate dominance over women’s rights & health provisions.
Written By: - Date published: 5:24 pm, March 4th, 2013 - 41 comments
Prepare for the government’s million dollar asset sales ad blitz…
Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, March 4th, 2013 - 45 comments
News Corp is selling shares in NZ Sky TV. What does these mean for the on-going decline of public broadcasting? It is possibly part of the shift away from media moguls, and towards control of news media by bankers.
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, March 4th, 2013 - 140 comments
One of the promises that Key made about asset sales was that Kiwis would be “at the front of the queue”. So why will up to 30% of the current offering be heading overseas?
Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, March 4th, 2013 - 67 comments
The NZ Forestry Sector is completely unmonitored – It is one of our most dangerous industries and no one seems to know what is going on. From my perspective it appears within officialdom and the Forest Owners themselves, no one really cares.
Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, March 3rd, 2013 - 154 comments
Why must we turn welfare, an important safety net and part of the social fabric / contract of our country, into a stupid pissing match about a minister’s “reputation”?
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, March 3rd, 2013 - 35 comments
As the result of their political deadlock, automatic sequestration (budget cuts) have been triggered in America. This won’t end well for the economy – or the Republicans.
Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, March 2nd, 2013 - 47 comments
I’ve got to stay that I stand in awe of this latest tax policy suggestion from the IRD. Simple, fair, easy to implement, it will be wildly popular. I think the Nats should adopt it at once.
Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, March 2nd, 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, more from the Children’s Social Health Monitor 2012 Update Report, and the British government’s maneuverings on the definition of poverty…
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, March 2nd, 2013 - 80 comments
A British report on the implications of their ageing population structure highlights, yet again, the lack of any planning on this issue from the Key government…
Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, March 1st, 2013 - 51 comments
Yesterday, David Cunliffe,on Peter Dunne’s Student Loan Amendment Bill, & the related inter-generational swindle, labelled Dunne as “Minister for Small Changes” & “for Small Things”. Dunne further showed his support of the “neoliberal” swindle, with a couple of tweets on non-residents buying NZ property, smearing the Greens as racist.
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, March 1st, 2013 - 106 comments
Emails released on the Standard today show that, during the Hobbit “dispute” the Government and others lied to the people of New Zealand to maintain a perception of a crisis.
It was a shameful moment in New Zealand’s political history.
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, March 1st, 2013 - 22 comments
Come one, came all to National’s fire sale! See how fast we can flog off your assets! Low prices, great returns to foreign investors!
Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, February 28th, 2013 - 24 comments
As a Canadian currency dealer dubs the NZ$ the “new gold”, John Key sings the praises of a high dollar
Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, February 28th, 2013 - 172 comments
If we can’t afford to buy the assets back, we should at least make clear we will regulate them severely and take the profit out of electricity companies…
Written By: - Date published: 3:20 pm, February 27th, 2013 - 127 comments
Unanimous decision by the 5 judges to dismiss the Maori Council’s appeal.
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, February 27th, 2013 - 90 comments
The minimum wage should be at least $15 per hour. A living wage is estimated at $18.40 per hour. So what have the Nats done? Raised the minimum wage by $0.25 per hour to $13.75. It’s a derisory increase. Even their own supporters think so.
Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, February 27th, 2013 - 30 comments
The average CEO got a 10% pay rise last year. The average worker got 2.6%. Minimum wage workers will get 1.9% – a 25 cent an hour token gesture. And 30,000 fewer of us have jobs than a year ago and are not earning at all any more. And now we learn the finance sector sucked $440m more out of us last year – a total of $4 billion. No wonder the planes to Aussie are full.
Written By: - Date published: 4:01 pm, February 26th, 2013 - 315 comments
The government has released the Hobbit documents. The Ombudsman ordered them to. The full release is available at stuff and what stands out (apart from the insistent and narcissistic tone of every film industry correspondent) is the fact that Peter Jackson himself noted the “do not sign” advice from the union was being called off. TWO DAYS before he went public with his “evil union” story.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, February 26th, 2013 - 41 comments
A wheelchair got caught in the rail tracks, resulting in critical injuries. Pedestrians are low priority, and people with disabilities even lower, making them/us vulnerable: poor pavements, hazardous road crossings, some inaccessible public transport… and more.
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, February 25th, 2013 - 30 comments
I’m a big fan of the Living Wage campaign. And I really liked the Herald’s series covering the launch week. But part of that coverage highlighted a big problem that I don’t think the Living Wage campaign will reach.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, February 24th, 2013 - 5 comments
My regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere. This week: Feminism, tax and juries.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, February 23rd, 2013 - 15 comments
I/S from No Right Turn describes another brick in National’s wall of stupid. “New Zealand will be locked out of the international carbon market in retaliation for our refusal to sign up for Kyoto’s Second Commitment period.”
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, February 23rd, 2013 - 11 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, more from the Children’s Social Health Monitor 2012 Update Report, and poverty in Christchurch…
Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, February 22nd, 2013 - 164 comments
A look at Solid Energy’s books highlights the diseased culture of the corporate elite in this country and National’s failed bet on fossil fuels. The blistering pace that executives’ ridiculous paypackets rose at shows a culture of pocket-lining in the company. The massive expansion of liabilities in the lignite bet, which has crippled the company, was part of National’s fossil fuels strategy.
Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, February 21st, 2013 - 15 comments
A year ago, I wrote that SkyCity was pursuing the dirty practice of ‘subvention’ – where owners of white elephant infrastructure extort governments for subsidies – for the convention centre. The msm has caught up and is reporting on it now. MED denies there will be any subvention; but Joyce says it’s all on the table. And what about the $10m+ in operating subsidies the centre would need?
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 pm, February 20th, 2013 - 10 comments
An accidentally-mis-addressed email from ACC’s HR department reveals much-needed changes are going to be made to their sensitive claims unit.
Written By: - Date published: 1:16 pm, February 20th, 2013 - 85 comments
No-one likes fraudsters, whether they’re ripping us off as beneficiaries or as suit-clad businesspeople. National’s announced some ineffectual steps to ‘crack down’ on the minor amount of benefit fraud that occurs (no similar crackdown on white collar fraudsters). But they’ve gone to far in trying to criminalise people just for being partners of benefit fraudsters.
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