Nats: Pay cuts for you, tax cuts for the rich
Bill English has put out a press release whingeing about Helen Clark’s promise to lift wages for low-paid school support staff, and fearmongering […]
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
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What will you do with your tax cut?
If your annual income is over $14,000, your tax will decrease by $12 to $28 a week from Wednesday. That’s a reduction of […]
Shallow recession this year but the future looks tough
We all knew New Zealand was in recession in the first six months of this year. The official figures have confirmed this. The surprise […]
Lockout lifted
News just in: GO Wellington has lifted the lockout of its 300 bus drivers. The drivers say they are pleased the lockout is […]
GO Wellington lockout: Day One
A reader sent in this photo from the Wellington bus drivers’ picket line at the Kilbirnie bus depot. The workers are said to […]
Go the drivers
Wellington bus drivers are striking this morning and good on them. I was happy to find my own way to work today. The […]
Did you pay the tax, John?
Generally, when you buy capital and later sell it, there is no tax payable on any profit. Unless you buy with the propose […]
Free trade must be fair
In principle, a free trade deal between the US and the P4 countries (NZ, Chile, Singapore, and Brunei) is a good thing. If […]
PSA launches campaign
The PSA’s campaign looks to get past National’s simplistic ‘tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts’ mantra and ask voters to consider what they […]
Questioning politicians
We’re keen to help you get active this election campaign. That’s why we’ve launched Campaign Hub 2008 and its Facebook group to give […]
Key on scrapping four weeks annual leave
Thanks to the wonders of Scoopit I’ve just come across this old TVNZ footage of John Key’s first day as National’s finance spokesman. […]
Greens good for workers
Work rights should be a big issue this election. National is proposing to strip workers of their rights to undermine wage increases. The […]
Chutzpah
When the EPMU released its investigation notes on Shawn Tan it was obvious that some right-wing bloggers would seize on the fact that […]
How would Nats cut tax? Where would the money come from?
Bill English has confirmed that National still intends to give the average worker a $50 tax cut. That’s $18 a week more than […]
Disappointing
I just have to say, it’s incredibly disappointing that a simple prank, a google bomb, gets three newspaper articles and coverage on TV3 […]
NZ – still a great place to do business
We can do good news here on the Standard! According to a World Bank survey shows New Zealand is still ranked second in […]
The polls and petrol prices
Updating a post from a few months ago, here’s how Labour’s Roy Morgan poll numbers are going compared to the price of petrol since the […]
The hypocrisy of the Right
Today, we have National’s Judith Collins attacking the Government because the number of Kiwis on the unemployment benefit rose from 17,710 to 20,465 […]
National bleats about wages, still has no solutions
The National Party are once again trying to make political capital over the Trans-Tasman wage gap, even though they created it in the […]
Market failure
An article on Stuff today shows “Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale”. It’s based on research by Dr. Jamie Pearce […]
Telco hits out at National’s fibre plan
John Drinnan in the NZ Herald: “One of the biggest challengers in the telecommunications business, TelstraClear, has attacked National Party plans for a […]
Stark
John Key’s attempt to ride on Obama’s coattails has been rightly ridiculed in the New Zealand press, but the differences go much deeper […]
Buy Kiwi online
As part of the Buy NZ Made programme that was part of the Government’s abstention deal with the Greens, the Get NZ Made […]
ToryAid: Wastewatch (4)
Because National has abandoned its wastewatch website, we keep track of the ‘waste’ National has promised to cut to pay for those magical, […]
Causes and effects
A series of graphs from the Social Report. First off, the unemployment rate When the unemployment goes up or down, the practical effect […]
Right to strike
Hundreds of Australian journalists walked off the job yesterday in protest at Fairfax’s 550 planned job cuts. Here in NZ journos employed by […]
Social Report shows Kiwis better off
MSD released its Social Report today, an annual publication that collates a wide variety of standard of living measures, and produces this awesome graph. […]
Workers demand decent work rights policies
6000 workers turned out in Manukau yesterday for the EPMU’s Wages Drive rally. With 25 events nation-wide over this month, which have attracted […]
Reflections on Shawn Tan
There’s a lot of heat but not much light in the debate about the EPMU’s suspension of Shawn Tan. What we know from […]
Mythbusting: Half of new generation is thermal
Reading National’s energy policy last week I was surprised to learn that of 1942MW of new generation that has come online since 2000 […]
Did you say “wages”, John?
Watching Key on Breakfast this morning I was surprised to see him talking about the need for higher wages (about two thirds of […]
Energy policy fails to energise
A positive and ambitious energy policy that reflects the personality of National leader John Key, was announced today. Old people wiped tears from […]
Renewable energy policy
A policy paper has been released on how the Government’s goal of 90% renewable electricity generation by 2025 can be achieved. Micro-hydro projects and […]
Pulling the ladder up behind him
A lot of you won’t remember it but there was a time in this country when being on a benefit wasn’t seen as […]
Should the sins of the father be visited upon the children?
When the DPB was first proposed it had a very simple purpose, to allow mothers to leave abusive relationships, to allow them to […]