Yesterday a former Health NZ Chair said the government is intentionally manufacturing a crisis to privatise healthcare. However privatisation will not solve anything and will only lead to worse financial and health outcomes for all Kiwis as confirmed by Lancet Medical Journal and case studies around the world.
“You just fake it until you make it. I have spent a whole career doing that” – Christopher Luxon.
Casey Costello’s decision to give Phillip Morris a $216 million tax cut was based on alternative advice that she has received but which she is not disclosing. And Christopher Luxon is comfortable with this.
There appears to be an impasse in the Coalition’s ranks with Act and National not wanting rail enabled replacement ferries but Winston Peters demanding that they be rail enabled.
New Zealand has the most right wing government it’s had since Governor George Grey determined to eradicate all Maori power by systematic war and then systematic legislative theft in 1863. But the left shows no sign of unifying.
Nigel Haworth argues that the 2012 reforms of the Labour Party created a perverse effect. Not to engender stronger member voice, but to empower a managerial model akin to a Piketty’s Brahmin caste. It weakened the Party’s ability to act strongly at arms length of Caucus and Parliamentary Leader.
The police’s recent successful operation against the Comanchero gang could concievably have been compromised by National’s proposed gang patch ban.
The government plans to put up to 2000 more Kiwis behind bars by 2034 at a potential cost of up to $1.2bn per budget in today’s money. Meanwhile crime, including violent crime is increasing across all of NZ.
Yesterday it was confirmed that Act’s Treaty Principles Bill had been approved by Cabinet for drafting and introduction into Parliament in November this year. Get ready for the circus to start.
Proposed policy for the Labour Party. New Zealand’s power system should empower the people in their lives and systems, secure electricity use and production for New Zealand in perpetuity, and make the electricity system serve New Zealand not the other way round. How do we achieve this?
The Government has mistakenly released confidential legal advice confirming that the Charter School legislation breaches ILO conventions, free trade agreements and potentially the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
Remember when Christopher Luxon told the National Party that we had a maths teaching crisis? Experts have concluded that the statement is misleading. And an OIA dump suggests that behind the scenes there is an attempt to radically rewrite the existing curriculum.
Nicola Willis’s bungling of the Kiwirail Interislander project cancellation has so far cost Kiwis $1bn, but that’s not all. Today RNZ’s reporting reveals the government may have also undermined NZ’s relationship with South Korea.
This is going to take some explaining. The police have decided to take no action against National MP David MacLeod for failing to declare $178,394 in electoral donations. No this is not an Onion headline.
Today marks the day 50 years ago when former Labour Prime Minister Norm Kirk died.
Guest post by Nigel Haworth discussing recent publicity given to the Labour Party’s debate around tax reform.
NZ Parliament sitting where Labour’s Kieran McAnulty implores the Coalition government to stop deceiving Kiwis, and Winston Peters and Louise Upton both get fired up. Meanwhile, Casey Costello still doesn’t know who wrote her tobacco Ministerial papers.
Dan Bidois has unwittingly exposed that National has a list of well honed talking points that are used and repeated ad mauseum. Normally within context, sometimes not.
We are in a power crisis and the government has had to respond, but will their response make any difference?
Casey Costello and the Coalition government have already halved tobacco excise at a cost of up to $216mn. Today RNZ reports there remain more questions on who wrote her Ministerial papers begging for tobacco industry benefits.
It won’t come from the working class. But we know where it will come from.
There is increasing concern that recently introduced policy changes by National have made housing for the most needy amongst us more tenuous.
Roger Douglas, the most revolutionary minister in the postwar history of Aotearoa, knew how to exert change in three years. Rogernomics transformed the economy with dizzying speed, from protectionist welfare state to a neoliberal free market. Elliot Crossan argues that the left needs to take the same approach to end the era of neoliberalism.
Ditch the NZ culture wars if we really want challenge status quo.
David Seymour’s new Ministry has 91 staff, including 3 Deputy CEOs who earn up to $348K each – more than Ministers. Seymour wants to use it as a vehicle to change how NZ makes laws and invokes Ruth Richardson in his vision.
Even though National and NZ First have ruled out supporting Act’s Treaty Principles Bill beyond the first reading David Seymour thinks that the Bill has a chance of succeeding and wishes to proceed with introduction of the bill.
Lester Levy again asks Kiwis to pray for him. But who will pray for us, Dr Levy?
It is a painful experience, to have fought long and hard for something you knew was inadequate and to have even that taken away. The Labour Party has long urged activists to be ‘realistic’. Elliot Crossan argues that it will not return to be a socialist party of the working class.
The Waitangi Tribunal has in a scathing interim report slammed Act’s Treaty Principles Bill. And Christopher Luxon has underlined his weakness by refusing to halt the bill.
It is a shame that Ipredict is not still around. Otherwise I would be putting money on Chhour being the first to go.
Te Ao Māori forms an increasingly important part of our cultural identity. And most of us realise this and celebrate it. This Government’s stance is at odds with this increasingly strong consensus.
Shane Jones, went onto radio yesterday and pledged a solution to high power prices. What are his chances and why are we in this mess?
National’s decision to cancel the replacement Cook Strait ferry project is developing into a full blown political crisis for the Government with estimates that it could cost the Crown up to a billion dollars and with further costs to come.
National has been caught out yet again using dubious analysis of data to justify policy.
Seymour was once called the “most dangerous man in Aotearoa right now.” But is he just misunderstood? Let’s revisit Section 7AA and Karen Chhour’s tears too.
Another minister is lauding themselves falsely. David Seymour bragged about school attendance at the start of term three, and claiming the credit for that happening. The problem is that it was worse than the attendance for the start of term two. It was a worse school attendance after he tried to improve attendance. Is he competent as a minister?
