Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
The release of the candidate donation returns has shown us that the National Party are still rorting the system. However, there are issues for the NZ Labour Party as well. Four MP’s have taken money from sources that do not have the interests of the Labour party or, indeed, the majority of Kiwis at heart. Brassneck or bought and sold?
The Christchurch earthquake was a catastrophe that was national in its impact and significance but that required the people of Christchurch to pay […]
If you analyse the many things said by Spock you would come to the conclusion that he was a strong progressive.
John Key has yet again asked the Remuneration Authority to limit the increase in MPs pay. And yet again they have said that the law required them to make the decision they did. So MPs get a hefty raise at the same time that the minimum wage is raised slightly. And the media report Key’s comments sympathetically. He is the Prime Minister. If anyone can change the law he is the person best placed.
John Key has said today that he has urged the Remuneration Authority not to give MPs a salary increase. Get that feeling of deja vu? Idiot Savant at No Right Turn explains why.
Its 100 days since the NZ Labour Party elected Andrew Little as its leader. What an inspired decision that has turned out to be! Little has galvanised the party, united the caucus and looks set to be the next PM. How has he turned Labour around?
Yesterday the families lost only a small bit of the battle for justice at Pike in an application to get some of the documentation on the Peter Whittall decision. It is clear from the decision that the process of filing itself caused MBIE to agree to release a number of the key documents.
New Zealand banks (which are really Australian banks) are REALLY worried for us (oh, and for themselves).
Prof Guy Standing is talking next Friday at 11am at AUT’s Auckland City Campus.
I’ve been involved in exporting from NZ for more than 35 years in everything from manufacturing to software. I support free trade. It is always embarrassing watching idiots waffling on a subject without any facts. But that is what you get with the secrecy of the TPP restraint of trade negotiations.
Celebrate International Right to Strike Day on 18 February by sending a message to Kiwi employers: stop undermining our right to strike!
The PM running from a yacht club when confronted with protestors against poverty. Pretty fair summary of where this country is at.
Steven Joyce has announced (because Key likes to stay clear of bad news) that SkyCity will not be seeking public funding for its convention center. So looks like it will be Key’s “eyesore”.
I/S at No Right Turn adds some detail to Matthew Hooton’s extraordinary piece at the NBR.
A staffer in Paula Bennett’s ministerial office has apparently mistakenly withdrawn cash from the Ministerial credit card. The money has been paid back and no harm caused and no further action should be necessary. If only Bennett extended to beneficiaries the same tolerance of predictable mistakes.
NZ is again being asked to go to war in Iraq. The Clark Labour Government said no a decade ago, but in 2015 there may be a compelling reason to join the fight; this time it’s the right thing to do. New Standard author te reo putake puts the case for NZ entering the battle against ISIS.
Drought has been declared for a huge region of the South Island. Weather extremes are going to be the new normal – why aren’t we adapting?
The focus group results are in and John Key is backing off from the Government injecting further money into the SkyCity convention centre.
Zero-hour contracts are the perfect illustration of when “flexibility” in employment relations goes all one way.
Another big tax evasion scandal with links to NZ. Don’t expect the government to spend any time looking in to this.
This morning the Salvation Army released their state of the nation report – A Mountain All Can Climb. It is mixed news, and most coverage has focused on the impact of the housing crisis.
Sir Edmund Thomas will discuss this topic in Wellington at Connolly Hall, Guildford Terrace, tomorrow Wednesday 11th at 5:30pm. All welcome – see synopsis – if you would like to come please register here.
Eighteen months ago Stephen Joyce said about the Sky City Convention Centre deal that anything not written down was not happening. It appears that he was wrong as John Key softens us up for more public money being spent on a private convention centre.
The Salvation Army has all but ruled out being involved in the Government’s Social Housing unless it is provided with capital. And if divestment occurs it considers that tenants should have a role in governance of the houses they live in.
We are in the process of locking in inequality through the intergenerational ownership of housing, thus squeezing more and more mobility out of society.
The social democracy of my youth has radically collapsed into our current culture of individualism, privatisation and personal greed.
The Productivity Commission has a new report out which looks at changes in the labour income share, or LIS, from 1978 to 2010. […]
Darien Fenton at Jobs That Count brings us the details of the fight for decent pay and conditions at Talley’s meat processing plants
We need a much better analysis of what kinds of jobs and conditions are out there in NZ, crude figures are not telling us enough.
“The Government’s continuing attempts to divest itself of state housing overlook the enormous benefits to society which these homes produce in alleviating severe housing shortages. They were built up by successive generations of New Zealanders, and to “sell them off” under the pretence of efficiency is a disservice to all of us, whether we’re homeowners or renters.”
A by-election is imminent – so how does Labour win in a safe National seat?
The choice is clear.
Rob Salmond has a bite at Eric Campton’s rather ideologically naive ideas about balancing up the GST playing ground between local and overseas retailers. Rather than not doing anything about it as Eric suggests and leaving local retailers flailing. Why not just make it simple as local collection of GST?
Greece has voted to reclaim its future from the banks.
The scale of the housing affordability crisis, particularly in Auckland, is now unmistakable. Not only do individual families suffer as home ownership increasingly […]
