The Standard

Economy

Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour

Categories under Economy

Reserve Bank predicts economic growth under new government

Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, November 9th, 2017 - 128 comments

Leaving aside the issue of economic growth as a panacea, Bill English and many who voted for him say it is the be all and end all for NZ. The Reserve Bank isnt a communist lacky, right? So they will all be happy now, right? Read here I look forward to the discussion.

Bouquets for the new government

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, November 9th, 2017 - 64 comments

Mining, big data, social investment, paid parental leave, and pēpi in the House. The new government’s not mucking around remedying some of the previous government’s plunder and pillage policies.

TPP, Corporate Coup or “Free trade”?

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 pm, November 8th, 2017 - 99 comments

However. TPP ( The trans Pacific partnership) is NOT a “Free trade” agreement. It is an attempt to cement in corporate power, to override inconvenient  local Democracy, and collect rents from local communities in perpetuity.
Since when was giving large companies extra rights in law, and rights to extract even more economic rents, “Free trade”?

This TPP…

Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, November 8th, 2017 - 68 comments

Some aspects of the TPP no-one’s mentioning.

The Missing Noun.

Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, November 8th, 2017 - 88 comments

When they said they wanted to eradicate poverty, I didn’t suspect they simply meant to expunge the word.

Suck it up political sleazers.

Written By: - Date published: 8:22 am, November 8th, 2017 - 113 comments

Winston Peters has launched a legal fishing expedition to identify who exactly breached privacy on his superannuation over payments. A problem that he shares with about 50 thousand other pensioners. Unlike them, his problem wasn’t trying to find money to repay it. It was that the breach was deliberately timed to be a classic dirty politics ploy, almost certainly by National, in the leadup to the  recent election. I wish him good fishing.

 

Paradise lost

Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, November 7th, 2017 - 19 comments

The Paradise Papers have provided further evidence of a small group of very wealthy people are using complex trust arrangements based in tax havens to avoid paying tax.

NRT: About time too

Written By: - Date published: 6:06 am, November 7th, 2017 - 3 comments

Idiot/savant writes about Labour’s legislation to extend paid parental leave.

Labour and rural voters

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, November 6th, 2017 - 94 comments

In recent years Labour has allowed National to dominate rural politics. Maybe it is time for Labour to think about reaching out to rural voters and suggest to them that a progressive vote is in their interests.

Trust, Labour and the TPPA

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, November 5th, 2017 - 96 comments

A look at Labour’s PR around the TPPA-11, and a campaign by Action Station to stop the signing.

Home Sweet Home

Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, November 4th, 2017 - 23 comments

The changing face of New Zealand.

NRT: Good Riddance

Written By: - Date published: 6:35 am, November 3rd, 2017 - 7 comments

“The government is throwing out pay equity legislation introduced by National, saying it makes it harder for people to make a claim for fair wages.”

Labour plans to stop overseas purchases of residential properties

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, November 1st, 2017 - 192 comments

Labour has announced plans to prevent foreign residents from buying residential homes in New Zealand.

Deary me.

Written By: - Date published: 4:26 pm, October 30th, 2017 - 87 comments

It would seem Labour’s got nuffin when it comes to the TPP.

Welfare reform 15 point plan

Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, October 30th, 2017 - 108 comments

With the ongoing revelations, stories and court cases showing the terrible state of welfare services in NZ, Lawyer and journalist Catriona MacLennan has written a list of what needs to change.

The repeal of the Hobbit law

Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, October 29th, 2017 - 70 comments

Labour has indicated that as a priority it wishes to repeal the Hobbit law, a clumsy attempt in breach of International Law to prevent workers in the film industry from organising collectively and to divert attention from the fact that the National Government had been played by Warner Brothers.

Catalonia

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, October 28th, 2017 - 62 comments

The predictable reactions of regional and world leaders.

The new government and the TPPA-11

Written By: - Date published: 6:45 am, October 28th, 2017 - 150 comments

An update from Professor Jane Kelsey on the TPPA-11, a look at the issues for the new Labour-led government, and reasons why we still need to be concerned.

Overseas land sales, Landcorp land sales, and the environment

Written By: - Date published: 6:28 am, October 27th, 2017 - 194 comments

Our land needs threefold protection.

No Right Turn: Here’s hoping

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, October 27th, 2017 - 11 comments

Julie Anne Genter as the new Minister for Women is likely to revisit a private members bill that would advance pay equity in NZ.

Loans to feed kids are income and disqualify benefit, says MSD

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, October 26th, 2017 - 86 comments

Lawyer and journalist Catriona MacLennan explains the details of a case before the High Court this week. Anyone who wants to understand how the Ministry of Social Development and WINZ are utterly failing as a government department needs to read this.

Better roads rather than fighting to maintain them against trucks.

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, October 25th, 2017 - 46 comments

Truckers don’t own the roadways. We do. If Ken Shirley wants a stricter adherence to user pays, then he should start with his trucking members. In the meantime the best thing we can do for improving the roading network is to get large trucks off of the road – they damage it way too much.

Begone, capitalism! You don’t own me

Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, October 25th, 2017 - 73 comments

Do we want to be owned by capitalism and stay in its trap of wage and debt slavery, or do we want to boldly go to post-capitalism, whatever that might be.

Say goodbye to roads of national significance

Written By: - Date published: 7:29 am, October 25th, 2017 - 55 comments

National’s roads of national significance programme looks to be no more with an early casualty being the East West Link in Auckland, which per kilometre was destined to be the most expensive transport project the world has ever seen.

A Sugar Coated World

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, October 24th, 2017 - 42 comments

Yum! That would make for generations of ecstatic kids, no?

The mess that the new government inherits

Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, October 23rd, 2017 - 51 comments

This post is too long to read. Its purpose is to serve as reference material, a “one stop” snapshot of where we are as a country. The mess that the new government inherits. The consequences of the nine long wasted years of National. The magnitude of the challenge ahead of us.

Labour Day

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, October 23rd, 2017 - 19 comments

Extra sweet this year.

Don Presland obituary

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, October 23rd, 2017 - 23 comments

Long time Unionist and Labour supporter Don Presland died last week. Family friend Ad writes about Don’s decades of standing up for workers’ rights and in celebration of the life of a really good man.

Happy Birthday Ursula Le Guin

Written By: - Date published: 2:37 pm, October 22nd, 2017 - 15 comments

An unsung hero of the civilised burn.

Jacinda Ardern’s speech

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 20th, 2017 - 25 comments

If you missed it last night – Jacinda Ardern’s first speech as PM elect is everything that we could want and expect. But the take-home line of the drama belongs to Winston Peters.

Books but no beds

Written By: - Date published: 6:11 pm, October 18th, 2017 - 19 comments

Most viewed story on the Guardian website today: “New Zealand library cracks case of missing books.” Turns out some of Auckland’s 23,000 homeless were hiding bookmarked books in odd places so they wouldn’t lose their place. The library will now keep their books safe. Good on them. Finding homes for homeless must be a high priority for Aotearoa’s next government.