Radio New Zealand has reported that Paul Rebstock, chair of the Government appointed committee engaged in the review of Child Youth and Family, is being paid $2,000 a day to perform her job. This is the equivalent to the daily pay of thirteen social workers.
Communications Anat Shenker-Osorio has some simple messages for Labour in its quest for Government. The left’s strongest advantage is its care for people rather than the economy and the message that will resonate is a positive one emphasising the care of people and the environment.
In March of this year National recycled a private member’s bill that Mike Sabin originally championed. The bill if enacted would have permitted […]
Turns out the Education Minister overrode Ministry advice to protect National’s pet charter schools from being evaluated on their actual outcomes. Plus a bonus side order of hypocrisy on class sizes.
When Catherine Isaac (wife of Roger Kerr (deceased) of the former Business Round-table and ACT party stalwart) is at odds with Parata, something must be amiss.
The normal rules apply. Keep it seemly …
A young Auckland Green, Renée Rose Annan is fundraising to travel to the Paris Conference on climate change.
If this report is accurate it opens an interesting can of worms!
The TPPA has been agreed to. Dairy access improvement is minimal, there will be a cost hit on Pharmac and every industry but Tobacco will be able to access the investor state dispute resolution procedure.
Hekia Parata has announced that student achievement and not need caused by poverty will be a central part of any future funding system.
The TPPA is said to be close to being concluded with resistance to change in Pharmaceutical rules being provided by Australia, not New Zealand. And John Key says that the deal isn’t a very good deal for Dairy.
Rodney Hide also reckons that Collins is positioned to challenge Key.
This week we have had the release of the Priestley Report into the escape of Phillip Smith which details a litany of problems within Corrections and overnight there have been reports of rape and assault on a person moved from segregation in Serco managed South Auckland Correctional Facility. But no sign of Corrections Minister Sam Lotu Iiga. Where is he?
A guest post from Ad analysing Bill English’s speech where he blames planners for Auckland’s housing woes.
National’s announced intention to create a marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands looks remarkably like Labour’s policy from the last election. And why did John Key not tell his caucus beforehand?
How Corbyn gets taken out.
There’s a hard-hitting piece in the Herald today – from Jarrod Gilbert on how National has lied to the country’s face and got […]
There is hope that the cumulative effect of all the international pledges for the Paris climate change conference may buy the world some time to prevent runaway global warming. Some countries are pledging to becoming carbon neutral. New Zealand’s pledge is pathetically weak in comparison.
The Rebstock Panel inquiry could be read to confirm that Child Youth and Family is unable to perform its job properly because of it is not properly resourced to provide the job. But it is clear that National is loathe to provide it with any more resources. And the elephant in the room is that the Government fails to understand that escalating child poverty is the cause the crisis.
Goff has attempted to throw a fire-cracker into the notion of the National Party leadership and caucus being one big happy family. Is this the Labour Party’s way of sowing seeds of discontent without tainting the image of their leader? It is NOT Dirty Politics by any normal understanding of that term as captured in the book of the same name. Is this Goff’s role now? To box from the shadows?
Goff: “Judith’s column this week is the opening shot in her campaign to succeed John Key as National’s leader.”
The Nats are obsessed with the reproductive rights of those they deem “unfit”. Once again they are floating the idea of compulsory controls.
Think the Green Party have just sold out and will do a deal with National next election? Think again…
The Green’s agreement with National to allow for Red Peak to be a referendum candidate potentially helps John Key out of a major difficulty and raises issues about the state of the Labour-Green relationship.
Gareth Morgan pulls no punches on the flag fiasco, and a breaking story on the Greens’ move to add Red Peak.
The Government has admitted that at least some of the loopy rules mentioned by Paula Bennett in support of the Loopy Rules review do not actually exist.
Nick Smith is being his usual dickhead self again suggesting that self-certifying electricians, directly subject to criminal prosecution, are the same as self-certifying builders who do not. The Government’s rules reduction taskforce is repeating the same mantras from the 1990s that lead directly to the destruction of productivity by National’s policies to create leaky buildings.
John Key is trying to divert attention away from the numerous problems the country is facing by talking about pandas.
One News has discovered that over the past five years Housing Corporation has divested itself of 2,472 houses at the same time that the need for social housing has escalated.
A year after the last election John Key lists his government’s achievements. It’s a pretty desperate effort.
Twelve months on from the last election and that brighter future we were promised has not happened.
The Nation has been putting highlights up on Youtube. The one that caught my attention was Paddy Gower not listening, and redefining his question partway through. Eventually Andrew Little had to force the ever interrupting Paddy Gower to stop and listen to the answer.
Two pieces this week on how National’s mismanagement of the economy has left us in the doldrums.
The Herald editorial this morning suggests that Andrew Little is handling the flag referendum poorly but makes some stunningly simple mistakes that undermines its conclusions.
Not only is Housing Corp planning to pay a $118 million dividend to the Crown this year but hidden away in its accounts is the payment of a further capital contribution of $336 million. Talk about strip mining …
Last night in Parliament Labour MP Sue Moroney’s bill extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks passed its first reading by one vote, with only National and ACT opposed.
