Homelessness up by 58% in Auckland
$250mn in emergency housing “savings” a year under National, while government increases corrections budget to ~$2b a year, and will surpass NZ’s ”moral and fiscal prison failure prison rate” by 2026
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Trump vs Musk
Two overly emotional, sociopathic, super egos having a cock fight on social media, or a man using his power to speak edifying and crystal clear truth.
Work will not be so safe
Brooke Van Velden has announced changes to Workplace safety laws that will see prosecutions of Employers decrease but prosecutions of workers start.
Seeing Is Believing
A video post, starring Christopher Luxon, Chris Hipkins, Nicola Willis and Winston Peters. Featuring Debbie Ngarewa-Packer as star prosecutor.
Nicola Willis’s Debt Higher Than All 6 Years of Ardern Government
Current & planned debt will surpass Labour’s full term debt in less years. Willis also admitted Budget 2024 had a higher deficit than all of Grant Robertson’s bar Covid.
Migration: the spectre at the feast
The challenge posed by migration pressures is real and often underestimated. They are greater today than ever before in modern history.
The Peoples’ Select Committee on Pay Equity
In very bad news for the Government former National MP Marilyn Waring has announced that she will be doing something the Government did not do, organise hearings to consider the Government’s sabotaging of Pay Equity.
The weird similarities between the Trump and the Willis budgets
A comparison of Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Budget and Nicola Willis’s recent budget disclose remarkable similarities.
Willis’ Roundup Budget will not grow new shoots of the economy
Nicola Willis’ Budget is bad for growth and a Big throwback unfit for NZ.
Our growing stress is everywhere
We don’t know where this country is going and it’s getting worse.
BHN and CTU’s Craig Renney on the Budget
Open discussion post for the Budget. BHN livestreams at 2pm and 9pm
What would the Greens’ inheritance/gift tax mean for farming?
In a climate crisis world we should be treating farming as a national strategic asset.How would a wealth transfer tax affect that?
The Coalition Continues to Defund Science
Another science fund bites the dust in New Zealand.
The Green Budget
An economy for the people, by the people.
Louisa Wall – This Is Not Feminism – It’s Fiscal Evasion Dressed in Lipstick
Louisa Wall eviscerates Government claims about pay equity.
The worst Finance Minister ever?
Future historians may consider Nicola Willis to be the country’s worst Finance Minister, even worse than Rob Muldoon and Ruth Richardson.
We’ve Lost Australia
New Zealand was once in a sustained Australasian partnership. Now, with New Zealand tracking further and further into policy extremes, Australia – and our children – are leaving New Zealand behind.
Get ready for the Regulatory Standards Bill
Following on from the undermining under urgency of the current Pay Equity scheme the Government intends to introduce the Regulatory Standards Bill which if passed would have a significant adverse effect on collective rights and environmental action.
The beginning of the end
When the history of the sixth National Government is written I am confident that the events of this week when the Pay Equity system was smashed up will be described as the the beginning of the end.
Vale David Parker MP
David Parker’s Deputy Leader ‘s speech in 2014 at the Wellington Labour Party Conference was the best I ever heard from a Labour Leader. Vision matched values in intensity and scope. Parliament now loses one of its very best.
Lies damned lies and Pay Equity Repeal excuses
Christopher Luxon yesterday tried to claim that budgetary considerations were not the reason for repealing the Pay Equity Legislation even though David Seymour had said that the monetary savings from the bill would save the Budget.
The monkey still has the gun!
When John Oliver isn’t ragging on New Zealand, he and his writers have a keen senses in explaining complex topics clearly. He did one long section a couple of weeks ago that took apart the Trumpian view on the economic value of tariffs. Worth watching.. But first about that monkey image
The Greens’ Industrial Strategy: Green Jobs Guarantee and Ministry of Green Works
New Zealanders should be in control of our economy, our jobs and our future. We don’t need to leave our fate to be decided by international shareholders
Poking the dragon
Seven cross-party New Zealand politicians have just paid a “private” visit to Taiwan. They were received publicly by the Taiwanese government, who paid for the trip. In the current geopolitical environment, it was extraordinarily foolish.
Farewell Pope Francis
“Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change. The system has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature.”
Spare a thought for poor Nick Mowbray
Nick Mowbray, who has supported and promoted a number of right wing causes, finds himself losing out big time because of Donald Trump’s tariffs. And is complaining.
And now, the end is near …
It looks like the three way marriage made in hell is on the rocks.
The Empire strikes back
A recent run on US Government bonds showing possible coordination between different countries may have been the reason that Donald Trump walked back the worst of his tariff changes. And he has also realised the US can’t make cheap IPhones.
The Trump Shock: Why the US President Crashed the Global Economy
There is a method to Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff madness. The chaos and confusion is deliberate; the aim is nothing less than the […]
The maniac president blinks, but for a moment…
Faced with an inability to fund the the US government debt, Donald Trump halted his insane rush to toward a global depression. However the political system in the US that produced this global economic insanity is still there and is still nonfunctional. Time to disengage and let the US time to heal itself.
NZD Freefalls & NZ First Linked To Green Party Attack Ads
Headlines: NZD free falls, misleading Green Party attack ads linked to NZ First, making NZDF lethal, and American billionaires regret support for Trump
Trump Schadenfreude
All the fools supporting hard right political leadership will now be reminded of what they signed up for.
Trade Like You Mean It: How Aotearoa Can Lead with Values in a Volatile World
In an era of weaponised tariffs, crumbling institutions, and trade policy made on the campaign trail, New Zealand’s long game is trust, credibility, and coherence.
If we choose to play it.
US imposes 10% tariff on NZ imports
While 10% is at the lower end of this unjustified tax, it is very serious for our whole NZ economy.
Yeah, Nah, National Don’t Deserve A Second Term
A response to right wing commentator Matthew Hooton.
Winston’s war on wokeness
In what looked like an early election campaign launch Winston Peters has done his old man shaking his fist at the sky tirade against everything woke.