Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, July 1st, 2013 - 35 comments
Hekia Parata seems to have noticed that we have a problem with trades education and apprenticeships in NZ. It’s a problem that is the making of National governments past and present, and they will need to completely rethink their blinkered approach to education in order to fix it.
Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, July 1st, 2013 - 41 comments
John Key’s u-turn on Auckland City Rail is all smoke, mirrors and sleight of hand stealth of the common good. Phil Twyford and the Auckland Transport Blog are skeptical. Funding? Roads over public transport? Asset sales?
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 pm, June 29th, 2013 - 89 comments
The National Party are the good economic managers, right? So why are they spending money we don’t actually have yet?
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, June 29th, 2013 - 76 comments
Slippery John Key continues with the theft of the common weal, while the Kiwis with the least powerful voices are being neglected. Labour MPs, it’s time to get over your personality politics, your divisions and careerist maneuverings, and step up.
Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, June 29th, 2013 - 56 comments
National’s spend-up promises in Auckland look like panicky policy on the hoof. Where is all this money going to come from? Key says they’ll just write a cheque!
Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, June 28th, 2013 - 42 comments
So John Key has today re-announced the Auckland plan, albeit delayed. So the Central Rail Link is on. There’ll be a 2nd Harbour crossing that’s tunnels. Combine it with Christchurch and Key’s spent about $10 billion this week. Bill English will be having a heart attack… but then, it’s all spending in the distant future […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 28th, 2013 - 11 comments
1. This potato will not lie, prevaricate, or have convenient memory lapses.
Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, June 28th, 2013 - 72 comments
Key’s grubby little deal on the Sky City convention center is about as popular as halitosis. Public opinion is against it, and so is the Auckland City Council. But Key will carry on regardless, because he is much too arrogant to back down.
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, June 27th, 2013 - 20 comments
Dear Prime Minister, It appears that we may have made a terrible mistake. We made a detailed submission outlining our concerns about your government’s plans to increase the powers of the GCSB. But it looks like we were wrong. You have told Parliament and the media that you disagree with us. You haven’t said why, but we now accept that you know better than us. What use is all our combined wisdom when arrayed against your everyman common-sense?
Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, June 27th, 2013 - 11 comments
There’s something to be said for Fairfax and Westpac’s launch of the Women of Influence NZ awards. Many women do not receive social recognition, or a fair financial reward, for their valuable contributions to society. The Fairfax-Westpac, right-leaning, individualistic awards foreground money, profits, leadership and business.
Written By: - Date published: 7:34 am, June 26th, 2013 - 91 comments
Yesterday Key actually ran the classic justification for “police state” surveillance: if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. This argument is bollocks. Here’s why…
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, June 25th, 2013 - 45 comments
Back in 2008, a bright new thing called John Key said that, if he became Prime Minister, he would take the Tourism portfolio. He said “it’s an industry that’s particularly important in maintaining and boosting this country’s employment levels and growth prospects” and “we can do an awful lot better”. International tourism revenue has fallen 20% since 2008.
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, June 25th, 2013 - 34 comments
The Law Society is not exactly a hotbed of leftie activism. So the supporters of this appallingly arrogant government should sit up and take notice when they speak out as clearly as this against the GCSB spying bill. Two faced Key is simultaneously claiming that the current law is both unclear and “very clear”. He needs to be called out on it.
Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, June 21st, 2013 - 42 comments
The leaderless uprising in Brazil exposes unbearable inequalities in a dysfunctional post-growth world. Extravagant sports events and expensive stadium contrast with anti-public service austerity measures. Home building lags in Christchurch, while Key looks to asset sales to fund a stadium.
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, June 19th, 2013 - 112 comments
John Key can’t admit there’s a crisis in manufacturing. His response is to huff and puff and call people bozos. Not good enough. Here are some basic questions that Key should be able to answer…
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, June 18th, 2013 - 50 comments
Many praise Jackson and Weta for the work it brings to NZ. However, a recent US-focused survey by Scott Squires, shows how subsidies, like that for the Hobbit, plus lack of unionisation are contributing to increasing exploitation, income insecurity and competition among skilled VFX workers internationally. [Update: Squires’ response]
Written By: - Date published: 7:24 pm, June 16th, 2013 - 120 comments
What can one (anyone) say about this image? Well, I guess we will find out.
Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, June 16th, 2013 - 26 comments
On this coming Wednesday’s episode of The Vote – our monthly break from the awfulness that I hear is 3rd Degree – a very angry-making important moot is to be discussed: Our kids – The problem’s not poverty, it’s parenting. Do you agree? I first heard of this on Twitter, was informed of this, and […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, June 16th, 2013 - 54 comments
The NZ Transport Agency’s “Drive Social” programme looks like one gigantic waste of money, and the Greens are hammering it. Key’s response? “They just want everyone to cycle everywhere.” Is he looking a little tired to anyone else?
Written By: - Date published: 8:12 am, June 15th, 2013 - 38 comments
Water is becoming a precious resource, under threat from pollution, over use, population growth, & commercial profiteering. The Green & Labour Parties are very critical of Key’s government weakening the RMA in favour of commercial gains, while over-riding local government plans.
Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, June 14th, 2013 - 85 comments
Key’s government is continuing its attack on workers’ rights, pay, conditions & collective bargaining with Jami-Lee Ross’s ‘Strike Breaking’ Bill. Darien Fenton, the CTU & EPMU say why it is wrong. All parties and MPs should oppose this and other proposed changes to employment law.
Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, June 13th, 2013 - 70 comments
We don’t know how often John Key has met with Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir which developes cyber-intell systems like PRISM, & is now operating in NZ. Thiel’s involvement in NZ is extensive. He has been pursuing his “utopian” libertarian, cyber-focused agenda in NZ for a few years.
Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, June 12th, 2013 - 34 comments
If there was a national standard in scientific method than the right wing spinsters talking up yesterday’s national standards results would all fail it.
Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, June 11th, 2013 - 69 comments
Similar neoliberal, corporate-friendly, beneficiary-bashing, anti-worker, anti-democratic & big-brotherish measures favoured by the US & UK governments have been adopted by Key’s government. Prism, Thin Thread and Kim Dotcom documents, show the GCSB & SIS need to be reigned in. How to ensure a fair, just & democratic society?
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, June 10th, 2013 - 57 comments
Two leakers (one a true whistleblower), are in the news right now, both focused on the US-led surveillance society, operating in the interests of corporate power. And today, in relation to this, 2 journalists show the importance of the fourth estate to democracy. Kim Hill & Glenn Greenwald take a bow.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, June 10th, 2013 - 31 comments
In politics, one week is a long time.
And for this year, the week on either side of Queen’s birthday weekend was especially interesting. And particularly hectic for some key people!
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, June 9th, 2013 - 106 comments
John Armstrong follows Lusk’s plan in attacking The Green Party’s democratic change to Conference remit procedures. Isaac Davison gives a more balanced account& points to preparation for a Labour-Green government. How much bottom-up democracy can there be in a top-down parliamentary system?
Written By: - Date published: 4:03 pm, June 7th, 2013 - 241 comments
Having resigned as Minister, how long before we see a by-election in Ohariu as Peter Dunne’s credibility keeps dripping away? And will we see an early election?
Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, June 7th, 2013 - 45 comments
Outrage over the Key Muldoon comparison? We thinks they doth protest too much. Not only is John Key a big fan of Muldoon, but his list of personal attacks and constitutional shenanigans has already grown more than long enough to challenge the old master.
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 pm, June 6th, 2013 - 36 comments
Dr Brent Layton of the Electricity Authority has produced a 28-page paper to refute the claims of Molly Melhuish, Dr Geoff Bertram and Bryan Leyland that “the Authority’s approach is a light-touch approach to regulating the electricity markets.” Layton says that forcing prices and asset values down will have a “chilling” effect on fearful investors. The ‘”chilling” metaphor is particularly inapt when used to defend wealth transfers from the poor to the rich.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, June 6th, 2013 - 116 comments
(Socialist) feminism seems to be on the rise internationally, exposing how threats to “old boys” corporate-aligned power are countered by policing women’s bodies. Sue Bradford highlights the contradiction between Owen Glenn’s paternalistic corporate capitalism and the feminist-aligned participants in his Inquiry. Jan Logie addresses the gender pay gap.
Recent Comments