Bennett floundering over Saunders
Apparently Paula Bennet is not aware quite who she has appointed to advise the Welfare Working Group…
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Rising education costs undermine our future
You might say that National’s new $50 a year graduate fee is a small thing. But it’s another discouragement for a young person who is looking at either going straight into low-skill, low-pay work or borrowing thousands to get some skills. The last thing we need to be doing is discouraging more people from going on to polytech or uni.
Key “short-sighted, irresponsible”
Today’s Herald has a front page piece criticizing Key’s abandonment of his Middle East trade mission to return home for the funerals of […]
Aussies build trains “for a living” – that’s why their standard is better than ours
Steven Joyce has virtually ruled out Kiwirail building its new trains here in New Zealand. The Aussies have a completely different view about government purchasing, as I learnt from my years on the Industrial Supplies Office management committee in the 1990’s. They believe in Australian jobs for Australian money.
From bad to worse for workers
While John’s off playing soldiers, things are getting worse and worse for Kiwi workers. Wages are falling for the first time in a decade. The average hourly wage was $25.80 when National came to power. Now, it’s $25.30. I had hoped unemployment would start falling about now but the signs are discouraging. Only unionised workers able to protect themselves from the storm.
My cellphone isn’t made of gold
The Nats and miners have this weird freeloader argument. ‘Those protesters are hypocrites. Their cell phones and ipods and cars all use mined products. They should support us mining’. They won’t be mining needed industrial minerals. But what’s under Paparoa? Dirty coal. What’s under Coromandel and Barrier? Gold. which is nearly all used for jewellery and ‘investment’.
Govt agencies should look at the big picture
Government bodies should base their actions on what’s in the best interests of New Zealand as a whole, even if its not necessarily best for that government body. I would have thought that was unarguable. But, oddly, the Right doesn’t agree. There’s no economic justification for their position. It seems more like a cultural cringe, a lack of faith in New Zealand.
So much for ‘ambitious for New Zealand’
A new report says that building the half a billion worth of new rail rolling stock for Auckland in New Zealand would boost GDP by $250 million, improve our current account deficit by over $100 million, add $70 million to government revenue, and create 1200 skilled jobs. But the Government just want the cheapest price for the rail cars, and that means going overseas.
Why the miners are so keen on public land
Most of this country’s mineral wealth lies under private land, according to the government’s own figures. So, why are the Nats so determined to override public opinion and let their mining allies dig up our precious protected lands? Simple: mining on private land means paying a lease to the owner. Mining on public land is cheaper: we’re played like chumps for bigger profits.
Protection for workers in hard times
Darien Fenton’s Redundancy Protection Bill is before the House this week (provided National doesn’t cancel Private Members’ Day again). The Bill will give all working Kiwis some income protection if they lose their jobs, like people get in other developed countries. You can help make it happen.
John, it’s time for Paula to go
[Update: TV3 now admits its ’emails’ were a Facebook exchange between Fuller and a friend and Fuller says she made up the money offer. For fuck’s sake, TV3, you can’t run a story based on someone’s Facebook comments. Still, Bennett should not have been meeting with a complainant just before the report is due out. It’s clear she is looking to avoid an embarrassment]
Maori Party turns against beneficiaries
The Nat/ACT/Maori Party government has seen 55,000 more people go on benefits. They want to work. There aren’t enough jobs. How to make […]
Maori Party turns against workers
Labour’s Darien Fenton is a gutsy, tireless advocate for working Kiwis. She was left gobsmacked by the Maori Party’s decision to vote for weakening Kiwis’ rights to work breaks. Maybe there’s a cunning plan that the Maori Party’s backing of a party that wants higher unemployment, weaker work rights, and lower wages will see more Maori in better paid jobs with improved conditions.
The future for oil…
The US Department of Energy shows a comparison between the world’s likely demand for liquid fuels (including oil) over the next 20 years and the various components that will make up the supply of liquid fuels over that time. The emerging gap is alarming, as “Unidentified Projects†would actually be more accurately described as “unfulfilled demand†– meaning quite literally a demand for oil that will not be able to be met.
Forget wondering when peak oil might happen in the future – the answer to that question is: it’s already happened.
ECan protest today
Live in Canterbury? Value democracy? What are you doing today after work? Come to the ECan protest, 5:30 pm @ ECan office 58 Kilmore St. Because Canterbury is only the beginning…
Corrupt
It looks like Paula Bennett is getting desperate as the Privacy Commissioner’s report looms.
Perhaps it’s time someone explained to her that “personal responsibility” is more than just an attack line to use on beneficiaries.
Fags bad, piss good
Here’s a great interview by RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan with Professor Doug Sellman, Director of the National Addiction Centre, on Government’s bizarre inconsistency in […]
More Muldoonism
The government announced a package of measures for the aquaculture industry – including a power for Ministers “to amend regional coastal plans in exceptional circumstances where it is in significant regional or national interest”. The Minister can unilaterally decide what is in a region’s interests, irrespective of what the people of that region may say to the contrary.
This continues this authoritarian government’s assaults on voters ability to choose the own representation.
Tax hike but why no display ban?
I’m not against rising the excise on tobacco but everyone knows that if this government was serious about reducing the harm from tobacco this isn’t the best way to go about it. The best thing to do would be to ban tobacco displays. Upping the excise takes more money out of the pockets of the poor but it has only a minor effect on reducing smoking.
Nats plan to subsidise greenhouse polluters
National is predictably planning to put the cost of polluters’ actions on to the rest of us by canning the major parts of the ETS. This stupid game of pass the buck is played out all over the world – polluters refuse to accept their responsibilities, governments refuse to act – as more greenhouse gases are pumped into the atmosphere, locking us in to economic and ecological devastation.
Call your broker…
As recently discussed, sovereign debt may well be the next crisis point in the world’s unstable financial system. In breaking news, things aren’t looking too rosy right now.
Another blow to families
Not content with raising the cost of living through a GST increase, the Nats are clearly planning another blow to young families. In a move that breaks yet another election promise, Bill English is preparing the ground for the axing of 20 hours free early childhood education.
Conscience and alcodollars
How does the government decide which are good drugs and which are bad?
And how much does it have to do with big money?
Another hand-out for bludgers
Our glorious capitalist system should mean farms that can’t handle a bad time fail. Just like any other business. Land gets used for something better. It’s the market. But capitalists don’t really believe in the market. Come the bad times, the farmers want another hand out. So government’s giving them the dole. Yup, the dole.
Goff: I’ll reverse unfair tax cuts for the rich
Labour leader Phil Goff has come out swinging against National’s proposal to cut the top tax rate. It’s great to see Phil living up to his promise to stand up for the many, not the few. National’s plan to cut the top rate will only benefit the very wealthy, like John Key. Now we can stand assured, the 6th Labour Government will fix that injustice.
Weeding out low quality
The Nats are looking to cut $1.8 billion in spending over four years. Where from? What and who will be deemed to be “low quality” in need of “weeding out”? The answers are going to tell us a lot about the National Party’s values…
RNZ reveals ACC privatisation agenda
National’s hysteria around ACC last year was focused on creating an air of crisis. Now they’re going to ‘do something’. That something is privatisation of ACC. It won’t work, it won’t save money. The costs of injuries will still exist. Privatisation will put more of that cost on the injured. Added ligation and profits will mean worse cover for more cost.
John Key to slash public services
John Key is planning to slash and burn $2 billion out of our public services. Key says the slashing is needed to pay for increasing health and education costs. Bullshit. It’s about paying for John Key’s and his rich mates’ tax cuts.
English & Key cost us another $18mil
The other week Vernon Small said that canceling the Cullen Fund contributions was “a dumb, short-sighted decision that has cost the fund heaps in the long run“. Hell, don’t worry about the long run just yet, Vernon, it’s been only 8 months. And the losses are accelerating. Last month the Nats cost us a further $18 million – that’s basically a million a work day.
More on Crosby-Textor, mining, and the Nats
We all know that long before John Key got into the gold and uranium mining industry, Crosby Textor Chairman, Robert J Champion de Crespigny was pushing the mining industry’s cause in New Zealand. So, who is this CT man who has been called Australia’s ‘Mr Gold’, a “mining magnateâ€, a “resource-sector heavyweight†and “a legendâ€?
Battlers vs billion dollar banks
Finsec’s Andrew Campbell introduces the union’s Better Banking, a trans-Tasman campaign they’re running with their Aussie counterparts to get a better deal for bank workers and bank customers. Campbell notes the banks’ $1 billion profit in the last 3 months alone and asks “Have your fees gone down? Has your mortgage payment become more manageable?”
English misleads the House, again
Bill English continues to tell outright lies about the economic performance of this country under Labour. This time it’s even more blatant. You don’t have to do any maths to check if he’s lying or not, you just have to go to the latest GDP stats. This has reached the point of purposely misleading the House and the public.
Paula Bennett prematurely opens the champagne, again
Paula Bennett is celebrating the fact that job ads are on the rise. The bad news is the numbers indicate like we are still, a year after the official end of the recession, not at the point where the economy is creating enough jobs to keep unemployment in check, let alone bring it down. Time to put away to bubbly, Paula, and get to work getting Kiwis back into jobs.
Give that bludger a tax cut
Patent lawyer John David Hardie is a bludger. You and me, we pay our taxes. We know we get public services and a decent society out of it. This rich prick is trying to get out of a $10.3 million tax bill. What to do with this rich bludger? How about give him a $1.25 million tax cut. That’s what that other rich layabout John Key is planning.
Bogus bullsh*t on the costs of copy and counterfeit
Over the last decade or two there have been some extraordinary claims about the cost of digital copying and counterfeiting on businesses and economies. However there has been little information that hasn’t had some pretty major and almost certainly incorrect assumptions. The upshot is that the cost of copying and counterfeiting has been hugely overestimated.
If smiles equaled FTAs Key wouldn’t be a do nothing PM
Journos. Obama didn’t meet Key before dinner on a big stage in front of the media because it was just practical. The leaders didn’t stand with awkward grins for the group photo because it was a crucial step in the diplomatic process. This is being done for you. Only you. It is meaningless apart from the fact they know the media will lap it up. They think you’re saps. And you keep proving them right.