FTT Day of Action
Information about the 22 June Global Day of Action in support of the Financial Transactions Tax (FTT).
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Drip, drip, drip of job losses
We are hearing no end of job loss stories in the news and the government has no plan for New Zealand jobs. Their best idea is to cut the wages of the young, rather than to create jobs of real value. We need workers paid a Living Wage so all Kiwis can have fulfilling lives.
NRT: Nats killing the Kiwishare
Out of the blue, National has decided to scrap the Telecom ‘Kiwishare’. This is the provision that ensures all Kiwis have free local calling and that Telecom can’t be majority owned by a foreign company. National has refused to supply any justification for opening Telecom to foreign control.
Nats to slash wages
Patrick Gower has revealed the Nats are poised to announce a policy to reintroduce the youth minimum wage at a rate of about $10 an hour, and potentially make it apply to people in their 20s. Outrageous and a breach of human rights. You should get paid for the work you do. Not your gender. Not your ethnicity. Not your sexuality. Not your age.
Fluff and a Jab
Green Party MP Metiria Turei asked some very important questions of John Key in Parliament today. Once again, the Prime Minister wasn’t there so Bill English tried to answer for the absentee leader. And what we learned is that National not only has no answer to poverty but also doesn’t really give a damn.
When will we learn?
Who is David Henderson?
Randian superhero David Henderson has withdrawn his genius from New Zealand in protest at the collectivist government that has persecuted him and attempted to distribute the fruits of his talent to parasites. In a short statement after leaving the country, Henderson said other Atlases would join him in strike and “stop the motor of New Zealand”.
Back to High School for English
My jaw dropped when I heard this listening to Question Time yesterday. Mallard: “Does he understand that real average wages go up when high-income earners get massive tax cuts-$1,000 a week, in his case-and low-income workers lose their jobs?” English: “No, I do not understand that, because it is not true.” Can’t English do simple maths?
SkyCity shows need to clamp down on lobbyists
“Substitute the words “convention centre” for “suitcase of cash” and the transaction looks very clear.”*
National wants to change the rules for another foreign corporate. Wouldn’t move an inch for Kiwirail jobs. Maybe that’s because Kiwirail didn’t donate 100K to National (and Labour) in the past decade like SkyCity did.
Nats plan lower wages for workers
So you support Maori being paid less than Pakeha for the same work? What about men being paid less than women? No, that would be discrimination, eh? Same work, same pay. So, what about paying a 17 year old less than a 18 year old for the same work? That’s what National is planning if we are stupid enough to give them a second term.
Law for sale, again
Auckland has 250 licenced gambling venues. SkyCity wants to build a $350m casino/convention centre but only if it gets a law change. Key has agreed to the law change. Calls it progress. Yet no help for Kiwirail jobs. National doesn’t believe in real jobs like manufacturing. Picking the pockets of gamblers is more in line with National’s economic vision.
Encouraging savings the National way
Amongst the many vacuous claims made in relation to the last budget, the claim that cuts to KiwiSaver would encourage savings always struck me as the dumbest. Now the facts are in, and guess what…
Bill’s Magic Numbers
Bill (and John and the entire National caucus) have been telling us that we are required to borrow $380 million each and every week. Apparently we aren’t.
Dimpost: reality TV concept
More incisive hilarity from Danyl: “It works like this: Paul Holmes gets to live in a state house for a year with a one year old baby, surviving on only the $288 dollars/week allocated to beneficiaries on the DPB, and at the end of the year Paul gets to decide whether he chooses to ‘breed for cash’….”
Jobs destroyed by indifferent Nats
Joyce was told that building the new train cars at the Kiwirail workshop in Dunedin would bring half a billion into the economy. Joyce insisted Kiwirail go with the ‘cheapest’ option. China. Now, another 40 jobs have been axed. Not to mention other economic losses. Joyce is unrepentant. Blind to the cost of ‘cheap’. Aussie’s do it smarter than Joyce.
NZ deserves better than budget lies
The Budget is unravelling at a startling rate of knots. Bill English is floundering to explain his dodgy asset sales numbers that count the benefits but not the costs. Now, a senior minister has admitted that John Key’s claim that “there are 170,000 new jobs being created as a result of this Budget” is a lie. We actually really do deserve better than this.
Drifting
The Nats haven’t got a clue how to run a successful country, and most of the things they do try just make matters worse. We’re drifting…
Chart o’ the day: fire at will
Fire at will was meant to help young people into work, wasn’t it?
Nats planning to drive down our wages further
National’s election plan is becoming clear. They are going to put a lot of nasty stuff on the table and trust that people love Key’s smiling face so much they will still vote National. If they win, they will take it as a mandate to do everything they’ve said, and more. The latest election policy is more attacks on our work rights.
Chart o’ the day: maybe we should buy back our shit
So, borrowing to save makes sense afterall…
Do you remember back in the day when Bill English didn’t want to put any money into the Cullen Fund? Remember how we were smugly told that borrowing to save was foolish? Well, since then the Cullen Fund has made a fortune and, we know learn, the government has been borrowing to build up savings for the Christchurch rebuild.
Bradford and the Greens
Is it just me, or is Sue Bradford working harder, and getting more media coverage than all of the Greens put together? She’s not just campaigning for beneficiaries. Yesterday Bradford came out with a strongly worded attack on the Greens’ positioning for the November election.
Nats testing the waters on eugenics
John Key “thinks” that parents on the DPB are “breeding for a business”. Now his government is testing the waters for a eugenics program, to single out these undesirables and forcibly control their fertility.
Chart o’ the day: the Savings Budget
Net International Investment Position is how much New Zealand owes foreigners and foreigners own of New Zealand assets minus the reverse.
Time for a cross party consensus on crime
All of a sudden National and ACT are sounding vaguely sensible on crime and prisons. There seems to be a golden opportunity to reach a cross party consensus, and get some evidence driven policy and practice in this area. Who is going to make the first move?
Chart of the day: peak oil squeeze
Better economic info
The CTU’s Economic Bulletin: The 2011 Budget was a victory of story-line over needs… The Budget has no plan to put right New Zealand’s social and economic imbalances, and does little to start cutting back the overseas private debt… The Budget of a thousand cuts put debt and deficits ahead of people’s needs and a plan for the future.
Treasury says own forecasts too rosy
Oh dear. Only two weeks after its Budget 2011 economic forecasts were released, Treasury is already warning they are too optimistic. In their defence, they say the forecasts were settled in April and growth prospects have got worse since then. Well, you’re not much of a forecaster if you can’t see that happening in the middle of an oil shock.
ACC privatisation plans announced
National has announced plans to privatise ACC’s work account. Currently, they don’t have the numbers to get it through the House. ACT won’t vote for it because its not completely rabid and the Maori Party won’t vote for privatisation. So, this becomes another election issue: another bloody good reason to vote National out.
Tell Key to keep Pharmac
Like the ACC, Pharmac is a Kiwi institution that delivers benefits to everyone at a lower cost than other countries. National has got ACC on the butcher’s block. We must make sure that Pharmac doesn’t follow.
Rearranging the deck chairs
Renaming, merging and splitting agencies is what a government does when it wants to look busy but has no ideas.
Hard to believe it has only taken two and a half years for National to get to this point.
Campbell on welfare reforms
Good old fashioned benefit bashing. Another electoral battle line has been drawn – arm yourself with the facts!
The great debt myth
This government’s got a real talent for manufacturing crisis to suit them. The debt disaster is a classic – in order to get out of debt we have to cut public spending to the tune of almost $1billion and sell assets.
Simplest way to get 100K off the benefit
Elect a Labour-led government. Create 100K jobs.
Just like Ruth, Jim and Jenny
Having wrecked the economy and put tens of thousands of workers on the dole queue John Key is now planning to give them another kick in the guts by cutting their benefits.
And of course that’ll help drive wages down too.
To anyone that lived through the 1990’s this bullshit should be very very familiar by now.
Support for raising retirement age
A Herald poll asked people their views on raising the retirement age. Surprisingly, support was strong – 52.3% think the issue needs addressing. National whines the country is broke so they have to cut public services and sell assets, but super for 65 year olds alone costs $625 million a year. Will any party have the courage to take on super?