The Standard

Economy

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

Categories under Economy

The left should unite on tax, fast

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, July 20th, 2025 - 39 comments

… before the election starts to get real.

Do humans have to respect the limits to growth?

Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, July 19th, 2025 - 11 comments

we don’t have to, but we probably should.

The ultimate Fuck you, to your neighbours, the community and the environment. Private helicopters!

Written By: - Date published: 7:18 am, July 18th, 2025 - 12 comments

Again, we were woken up by a bunch of hoodrats drifting on the intersection by our house. Great clouds of smoke and lots of noise. As you do at three o clock in the morning, my brain started tying this together with recent articles about private helicopters in urban areas, and other forms of antisocial “Fuck You’s” to the rest of us.

China is not a threat to Regional Peace

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, July 15th, 2025 - 35 comments

The real threat to peace in our region does not stem from China, but from a “China threat” narrative—promoted by the United States to rally other nations behind its China containment agenda.

We Have a Human Right to Water, and to Democracy

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, July 1st, 2025 - 25 comments

hand rising out of the dark ocean

National is rolling out comprehensive water corporatisation, across New Zealand.  For those who don’t live in Auckland, Wellington, or other centres with commercialised water services already, this is coming to you fast. “Water Done Well” is the policy of this government to require all communities to decide on forming commercial water delivery entities, to run […]

State-run food stores anyone? 

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, June 30th, 2025 - 26 comments

What if we broke New Zealand’s grocery misery with our own grocery store?

National Wants to Increase Retirement Age to 67

Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, June 28th, 2025 - 75 comments

If Luxon and Willis go ahead with it as a policy platform for the 2026 election, and win, a raise in the age of entitlement for national superation will most likely be implemented.

The mother of the mother of all budgets is unrepentant

Written By: - Date published: 3:07 pm, June 20th, 2025 - 15 comments

Ruth Richardson remains totally convinced that her “mother of all budgets” was appropriate and claims that it was responsible for slaying inflation and promoting a high-growth high-wage high-employment economy.

Cecilia Robinson’s Tend Health Win

Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, June 12th, 2025 - 37 comments

For-profit healthcare continues its acceleration under National as second largest private healthcare provider in Australia shuts down

Trump and Musk: One Big Beautiful Break-up

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 pm, June 7th, 2025 - 5 comments

The world’s richest man has fallen out with the President he helped elect. Elliot Crossan asks: does this mark the beginning of the end for Trump 2.0? And might we hope for the same fate to befall the NZ Coalition Govt? January 2025. The richest man in the world walks into the White House as […]

Homelessness up by 58% in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 5:35 pm, June 7th, 2025 - 8 comments

$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

Trump vs Musk

Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, June 7th, 2025 - 16 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 3:01 pm, June 4th, 2025 - 11 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, May 30th, 2025 - 9 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, May 28th, 2025 - 18 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, May 28th, 2025 - 26 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, May 28th, 2025 - 8 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, May 27th, 2025 - 25 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, May 24th, 2025 - 11 comments

Nicola Willis’ Budget is bad for growth and a Big throwback unfit for NZ.

Our growing stress is everywhere

Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, May 24th, 2025 - 22 comments

We don’t know where this country is going and it’s getting worse. 

BHN and CTU’s Craig Renney on the Budget

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, May 22nd, 2025 - 98 comments

Open discussion post for the Budget. BHN livestreams at 2pm and 9pm

What would the Greens’ inheritance/gift tax mean for farming?

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, May 20th, 2025 - 48 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, May 18th, 2025 - 6 comments

Another science fund bites the dust in New Zealand.

The Green Budget

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, May 15th, 2025 - 49 comments

An economy for the people, by the people.

Louisa Wall – This Is Not Feminism – It’s Fiscal Evasion Dressed in Lipstick

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, May 15th, 2025 - 24 comments

Louisa Wall eviscerates Government claims about pay equity.

The worst Finance Minister ever?

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, May 13th, 2025 - 70 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, May 12th, 2025 - 45 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, May 11th, 2025 - 24 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, May 10th, 2025 - 58 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, May 8th, 2025 - 20 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, May 7th, 2025 - 27 comments

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.