Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, May 27th, 2016 - 31 comments

— Deborah Russell
Written By: - Date published: 6:21 pm, May 26th, 2016 - 89 comments
There are budgets and there are budgets. And for all the presence or absence of bright ideas, there’s a budget that threatens to subsume all others…
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, May 26th, 2016 - 84 comments
Live coverage of the budget starts around 2pm.
Well that was boring.
Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, May 26th, 2016 - 20 comments
Budget day! Here’s a little light reading to get us started. Write your own line for the budget!
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, May 25th, 2016 - 121 comments
The Government is planning to change funding for budgeting services and to require providers to become “financial mentors” rather than “budgeting advisers” as if this will improve things.
Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, May 25th, 2016 - 18 comments
Paula Bennett has basically apologised to Parliament for claiming that National would create 3,000 new social housing beds when all that it was doing is funding existing beds to make sure they did not disappear.
Written By: - Date published: 11:08 am, May 23rd, 2016 - 31 comments
Grant Robertson has just delivered his pre-budget speech. One takeaway message: “Labour’s finance spokesman Grant Robertson says Labour will set out a tax package before the 2017 election to set out how it will raise revenue to address issues in education, health and housing”.
Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, May 23rd, 2016 - 25 comments
In a guest post, regular commenter Tony Veitch takes some learnings from Noam Chomsky’s latest documentary Requiem for the American Dream. The neo-liberal plan has been in place for over thirty years. How come we’re only just starting to understand it?
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, May 23rd, 2016 - 116 comments
A great reception for Little’s speech, and a take-home message that resonates well.
Written By: - Date published: 3:42 pm, May 22nd, 2016 - 11 comments
Each budget day the CTU produces an analysis based on what it means for working New Zealanders.
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, May 20th, 2016 - 49 comments
John Campbell is covering the homeless crisis with stories that highlight the personal tragedies that are occurring and the complete indifference of the Government to their plight.
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, May 20th, 2016 - 48 comments
That is how officials from the Ministry of Social Development described the emergency housing system to Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett – a year ago. What has Bennett done in the year since?
Written By: - Date published: 12:11 am, May 20th, 2016 - 173 comments
What does it really mean to reduce NZ’s total fossil fuel use by 50% by 2030: a warm up discussion for an upcoming thought experiment.
Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, May 19th, 2016 - 114 comments
There are bits of good news out there, but there’s a lot of denial around the mess we’re in.
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, May 19th, 2016 - 21 comments
Small: “Only this week Prime Minister John Key managed to spend one, save it and outline a plan to give it back to taxpayers all at the same time.”
Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, May 18th, 2016 - 54 comments
The Government’s promised funding for 3,000 new beds for the homeless will not create any but will make sure that existing beds are kept available.
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, May 18th, 2016 - 54 comments
Prime Minister John Key has today announced a radical plan to solve the housing crisis. The homeless are now welcome to go flatting with him in his Parnell bach. The plan includes draining the swimming pool and subdividing it into flats, putting hammocks in the palm trees and making soup in the pool cabana’s kitchen. Max Key may have to move out to make way for the homeless, but the PM described that as a painful sacrifice he was now willing to make in the light of his son’s most recent social media posting.
Written By: - Date published: 2:52 pm, May 17th, 2016 - 97 comments
Coverage of Auckland’s homeless goes international. The working poor are now the working homeless.
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, May 17th, 2016 - 90 comments
English is right, Key is lying and he knows it. But Key would rather we were talking about the mirage of tax cuts (again) than current events like the protection of corrupt tax havens or our homeless living in cars.
Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, May 16th, 2016 - 183 comments
… and a freight train coming down the tracks.
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, May 16th, 2016 - 163 comments
Despite record Crown debt and a crisis in the social sector National is getting ready to campaign in 2017 promising a tax cut.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, May 16th, 2016 - 15 comments
“The findings also reveal how the Quota Management System, despite its intentions and international reputation, actually undermines sustainable fisheries management by inadvertently incentivising misreporting and dumping,” University of Auckland’s Dr Glenn Simmons said.
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, May 16th, 2016 - 44 comments
Speculators keep buying houses while families live in garages and cars. This is a moral failure, a leadership failure, a market failure – it is every kind of failure.
Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, May 16th, 2016 - 22 comments

Written By: - Date published: 6:29 pm, May 15th, 2016 - 84 comments
Last week, Andrew Little gave Phil Goff permission to vote with National for the TPP. Bryan Bruce asks if it is time for all MPs to be given a conscience vote on the TPP.
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, May 15th, 2016 - 43 comments
TV3’s excellent current affairs show, The Hui (Mihingarangi Forbes) just screened a special report on poverty. What happens to people who are kicked off a benefit?
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, May 15th, 2016 - 30 comments
William Black consented to a rare interview with a young New Zealand local radio host and longtime Standard commenter.
Written By: - Date published: 3:04 pm, May 14th, 2016 - 51 comments
The Nats are all over the place on this, and they’re trashing our reputation in the process.
Written By: - Date published: 7:43 am, May 14th, 2016 - 43 comments
“The newspaper market is buggered anyway. I wouldn’t expect we will have any daily newspapers in ten year’s time,” says Brian Gaynor.
Written By: - Date published: 4:49 pm, May 13th, 2016 - 35 comments
When a corporation launders its earnings in a tax haven, it is completely upfront about where the money came from and who it belongs to, which differentiates the activity from “money laundering.”
Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, May 13th, 2016 - 26 comments
Maybe you didn’t hear that this week is NZ sign language week…
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