Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, September 14th, 2014 - 119 comments
David Cunliffe has announced his final big policy. It’s called NZ Inc and it’s a bloody smart move.
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, September 13th, 2014 - 44 comments
John Key reckons increasing the minimum wage would hurt “the hairdressers in Levin or Foxton”. So Rob McCann, Labour’s candidate for Ōtaki, asked one how she felt about that.
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, September 13th, 2014 - 26 comments
Nicky Hager has exposed the two track strategy of the Whale Oil, Kiwiblog, Nat smear machine. Why is it allowed to continue?
Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, September 13th, 2014 - 46 comments
National is not interested in doing anything about poverty in NZ. They won’t even officially measure poverty, because they don’t want to know.
Written By: - Date published: 5:15 pm, September 10th, 2014 - 19 comments
On Firstline this morning, John Key tried to compare National’s and Labour’s policies by saying “You can’t grow the economy when you restrict labour laws.” It’s nonsense, and it’s scary.
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, September 10th, 2014 - 82 comments
Advocacy groups are calling for action. People are marching for action. The parties of the left are ready to take action. Only National stands in the way.
Written By: - Date published: 5:45 pm, September 9th, 2014 - 66 comments
Nothing so clearly demonstrates John Key’s contempt for the New Zealand voter as his confidence that we will believe whatever he tells us. He has had ample experience to back up that confidence. The course taken by the dirty politics saga is perhaps the most obvious case in point. If the polls are to be […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, September 9th, 2014 - 8 comments
A bit over a week ago, I complained about the empty void at the heart of the election: Nationals refusal to release policy. And it has struck again today, in the form of Nationals fiscal “plan”. We actually have a government seeking re-election while offering no specifics about what it intends to do in office. But don’t they have a lovely picture of John Key?
Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, September 9th, 2014 - 34 comments
Nationals hypothetical tax cut package has not gone down well. People do not appear to like the fact that it is small, hypothetical, and irresponsible, all at once.This is what you get when you have a prime minister so weakly desperate for public approval that they make up policy by accident and then push that poor decision through their cabinet and caucus.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, September 9th, 2014 - 49 comments
The economy is a mess, the Nats have no ideas, and their current policies (e.g. hypothetical tax cuts) are getting laughed out of town. National is useless on the economy, and the sooner we the people wake up to this fact, the better off we will be.
Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, September 8th, 2014 - 19 comments
Jason Ede’s disappearance from public view suggests a cover up in response to Hager’s Dirty Politics. The book implicates Ede (past PM staffer) in a coordinated black ops smear machine working with blogs like Whale Oil. Key may need to come clean soon about some of Ede’s activities.
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 pm, September 7th, 2014 - 84 comments
Duncan Garner asks – “when we’ve just borrowed $55b over 6 years how on earth are tax cuts suddenly affordable?”. Presumably it’s a rhetorical question…
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, September 7th, 2014 - 111 comments
In today’s Sunday Star Times, is an article on a Matthew Hooton & the VRWC (Vast Right Wing Conspiracy). Hooton criticises John Key, does a couple of mea culpas, but ultimately, airbrushes the whole disgusting mess of dirty politics. [Updated: comment from Bill]
Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, September 7th, 2014 - 69 comments
Name one new thing you’d do in the next 3 years in government. Bill English: “-“
Written By: - Date published: 8:32 pm, September 6th, 2014 - 14 comments
There was a great protest up Queen St today, as 1000-odd people (including me!) marched against child poverty, and government and societal inaction over it.
Written By: - Date published: 1:24 pm, September 5th, 2014 - Comments Off on Child Poverty March tomorrow
TAKE STEPS AGAINST CHILD POVERTY WITH CPAG
Britomart to Aotea Square, Auckland
This Saturday – 6 September, 11am
Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, September 5th, 2014 - 16 comments
The University of Otago had a symposium on Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics book now. The event has ended but video on youtube: Interviews with Hager, speakers, panel.
Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, September 4th, 2014 - 76 comments
John Key and National are talking about tax cuts. But when you think about the actual cost of the Christchurch rebuild and tumbling international milk prices you have to question if tax cuts are affordable or even justifiable.
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, September 4th, 2014 - 20 comments
National’s been lying about increased teacher numbers, and the state of the economy – and now they’re promising unaffordable tax cuts.
Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, September 4th, 2014 - 51 comments
I was in the front row of the audience at the Press leader’s debate between David Cunliffe and John Key. While the media in Auckland and Wellington might have called it one way, the people in Christchurch were only presented with one leader who understands the issues in this city, and it wasn’t the Prime Minister.
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, September 1st, 2014 - 76 comments
My condolences to those close to the victims of the horrific actions in Ashburton today.
Written By: - Date published: 4:53 pm, August 30th, 2014 - 10 comments
The NACT way is Not Our Way. We need a better way of governance and democracy. One that is for all the people. I joined the hardy souls who went to the Not Our Way rally and march in Auckland.
Written By: - Date published: 2:04 pm, August 30th, 2014 - 113 comments
The English faction is now calling the shots inside the National party.
Written By: - Date published: 4:37 pm, August 29th, 2014 - 85 comments
They care about Child Poverty (and presumably he doesn’t)
Written By: - Date published: 3:46 pm, August 29th, 2014 - 8 comments
Roy Morgan has a poll out today looking at the issues affecting New Zealanders and therefore this election. Social inequality is rising as an issue as the world economy has stopped getting worse.
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, August 27th, 2014 - 69 comments
The NZ Herald has been notable for the blind stupidity of their editorials since its formation in the 1860s and its enthusiastic fostering of the New Zealand civil war for short-term profit. Today’s editorial continues that long tradition of blind stupid ignorance by being surprised (yet again) at Labour’s long tradition of fiscal responsibility.
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, August 26th, 2014 - 7 comments
So National are both so out of ideas and so desperate to take the spotlight off their Dirty Politics that they’re now promising tax cuts. Tax cuts straight after we have a panel of our most prominent economists warning that the ‘rock star’ economy is going to hit the rocks.
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 32 comments
Dirty Politics shows why we urgently need a revitalised public service broadcasting & online media. The domination by corporate media is poisoning democracy, providing openings for ruthless manipulators like Cameron Slater. An article by David Fisher provides some insights.
Written By: - Date published: 6:20 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 52 comments
According to the PM, Bill English saying there won’t be tax cuts was both true and untrue at the same time, like a fiscal Schroedinger’s Cat.
Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 32 comments
Labour has the bold set of policies to take New Zealand forward into the 21st century – National’s “same old same old” tinkering will see the Kiwi skiff swamped. That was the clear conclusion from the debate between David Parker and Bill English on National Radio this morning.
Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, August 25th, 2014 - 31 comments
For me the funniest thing that happened last week was Cameron Slater proudly announcing that he’d put in a privacy complaint about the someone hacking his data. Three days later he finds out that he was the target of a privacy act prosecution for similar acts.
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