Ideology trumps science for the Right
Consider these results from opinion surveys of experts different areas of research, I won’t tell you the areas of research just yet: In one, […]
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Great expectations
“This is his most important speech since he entered Parliament in 2002.” That’s Duncan Garner on Key’s speech today. Other political commentators have […]
When was the last time Key mentioned the ‘underclass’?
I was thinking the other day about John Key’s underclass speech. It was always pure gimmickry, as was the whole exploitation of Aroha. But how long would he keep up the facade once the PR value had worn off?
Unemployment: real action, not vague promises needed
The Herald reports: “[Key] also raised the 15 per cent Maori unemployment rate, saying improving education outcomes for Maori children would help address […]
Paula, John, seriously, put away the champagne
Paula Bennett and John Key have been, once again, prematurely popping the bottle of champagne to celebrate the end of rising unemployment. […]
Tax Working Groupthink
The Tax Working Group’s summary presentation at their December seminar came from a senior partner from one of the Big 4 accountancy firms, […]
The 59,000 failures of John Phillip Key
Nearly a year ago, John Key, shaken by the first whispers of disquiet over his government’s month-long holiday at the height of an […]
That’s gotta hurt
The CTU is launching its “that’s gotta hurt” campaign against government cuts to ACC on the big screens at the Sevens today and […]
Unemployment? Blame someone else – Key
A panicked, chaotic series of excuses poured forth from John Key’s mouth yesterday as he attempted to shift the blame for the shocking […]
The Government is to blame for record unemployment numbers
Andrew Campbell It should come as no surprise that unemployment hit 7.3% today. That’s what happens when a government does virtually nothing to […]
Welcome to the 1990s
Unemployment is now 7.3%. The highest since the 90s. What, you don’t remember that decade? Well, you’re in a for a treat. Govt […]
22,000 more jobless Kiwis
Unemployment hit a startling 7.3% in the December quarter, far higher than the 6.8% expected. There are now 159,000 officially unemployed workers in […]
More jobs lost, govt does nothing
Telecom is threatening to throw up to 1,500 workers out of their jobs so it can increase profits by offshoring. A good government in this situation is […]
Translating Tories: “Incentives to get ahead”
This is the first post in an occasional series that will translate Tory speak into plain language (fellow writers and guest posters are […]
Wages dropping under Key, as promised
Remember how John Key said he “would love to see wages drop“. You might remember the big corporate media refused to run it, […]
Unionised workers win pay rises, others get cuts
The latest round of the Labour Cost Index is out and it shows that the nation’s 400,000 union members are the workers holding […]
Don’t go, oh mighty Atlas. We’ll give you tax cuts
So, I’m at a cafe having lunch and there’s some fat middle-aged businessmen having lunch at the table beside me. One of them […]
Nats soft on crime
Oh, sure, the Nats will lock a person up longer after they commit a crime, if they get caught. But what they won’t do is prevent them […]
Minimum wage myths: unemployment
One of the old saws that the Right brings out whenever the topic of increasing the minimum wage comes up is ‘oh no, […]
XT Outages
Last week thousands of Telecom XT network customers were without service, some for three days. This comes just weeks after a similar outage […]
Anonymous Dom editor has a cry
I see the DomPost is running a sniveling editorial claiming Labour’s commitment to raising the minimum wage can’t be done. It then breaks […]
Tim Watkin slams tax cuts for tax cheats
On the Q+A blog, Tim Watkin rips into the proposed tax changes. Part of the post: …You might think that such a new […]
Goff on Q+A
A good appearance from Phil Goff on the first Q+A of the year. I liked this part especially: Guyon Espiner: You spoke in your […]
Goff: no GST hikes or tax cuts for rich
In his speech yesterday Phil Goff articulated Labour’s position on tax in no uncertain terms and came out very strongly against wealthy tax dodgers […]
Turei pushing me back to RAM
Check out this exchange between Trevor Mallard and Metiria Turei on his Facebook page (great how the new media allows these spur of […]
Keys ‘Master Brand’ marketing.
The John Key led National Ltd® government lands yet another axe blow on our 100% Pure brand by cancelling a scheme recognised internationally as a best practice model. This latest announcement caps off a busy year for National Ltd® on the environmental front. Its list of actions include spending millions on establishing the 100% Pure Brand as the “Master Brand†of Aotearoa while simultaneously it has:
Minimum standards
Colin, I missed you
Colin Espiner’s back with his first blog of the year. It’s so much fun having him back. In his first outing, he comes […]
Year of the wolf?
I really thought the rumour that the minimum wage would only rise by 25c had been put out by the government to make […]
Nats in line for big $$ from own tax reforms
Fran O’Sullivan has a piece pointing out the vested interests of senior Nats regarding tax reform: “More than two-thirds of the National line-up have […]
On intellectual failure & economic crisis
Before they were swept along by the latest incarnation of US Right anti-intellectualism, National used to have some smart people. One of the […]
Minimum wage: what will it be?
The Government is set to announce its decision on the annual adjustment to the minimum wage today. So what’s it going to be? […]
Double-dip recession on the horizon?
Leading US economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman sees a 30-40% chance of the US re-rentering recession this year, and the conditions that […]
Why should the rich get to queue-jump?
Rahui Katene is worried that people who can’t afford stomach staplings here (which supposedly cures diabetes, although the evidence is mixed) are getting […]
Campbell and Hooton on do nothing Key
I can’t work out how to embed audio alone, so here’s a YouTube of Andrew Campbell and Matthew Hooton on the Key Government. […]
The power of public condemnation
Phew, that was quick. Yesterday John Kingi writes to us about Club Physical promoting homophobic myths. I publish his email. The same day […]