The smallest coffins are always the heaviest.
The US-Israeli killing of children must be stopped.
Social issues
families
RNZ’s report on its Israel/Gaza coverage is not credible
Radio New Zealand’s decision to conduct a review of its Israel-Palestine coverage post-7 October 2023 is commendable. We believe the presented report does not meet a credible standard in terms of breadth, methodology and analysis.
How not to make friends and influence people
An increase in lung cancer rates and a decrease in the amount that working families receive so that tax credits for landlords can be put in place tells you everything you need to know about the priorities of this Government. Your blood should be boiling by this stage and it is only two days in.
So, You Want To Buy Your First Home?
Money does not grow on trees, it grows on houses. It is pure magic!
Te Whare Pounamu #1
When an organisation that exists to help abused people, itself abuses people, I suspect many people will have a lot to say. Here’s my initial take.
The Teachers’ strike
Teaching is approaching a crisis point. Sure it has taken 9 years of the last Government’s rule to wreck the system. But this Government is expected to repair quickly the damage that the last Government caused.
Bene bashing
National has engaged in the most crass form of beneficiary bashing in opposing Government changes to the benefit system announced in the budget and passed under urgency.
All hail our computer overlords
IBM has staged a debate between an IBM computer and the world debating champion. The human won but the debate suggests that it may be just a matter of time … and the computer had remarkable things to say about poverty.
The UN is shocked by NZ’s child poverty rates
Earlier this year the United Nations expressed shock and concern at New Zealand’s rates of child poverty, homelessness, incarceration and violence. What is this Government doing to address these issues?
The right wing media’s infatuation with breeding
Elements in the media clearly think that the payment of a modest amount to families with young babies will cause them to breed babies for a business.
Coming up, Babies!
Jacinda’s baby is going to be big news soon.
Housing Band Aids
What lies behind the homelessness crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand? Is it a housing crisis or are the homeless to blame? If the problem is a housing crisis, why is there an assumption that the homeless themselves need extra services to secure and maintain rental housing?
Voltairine de Cleyre
When history buries treasures, those treasures don’t have to remain buried.
Malnutrition – in NZ FFS
Stunningly depressing piece by Kirsty Johnston in The Herald yesterday – Number of New Zealand children hospitalised with malnutrition doubles as food costs bite.
Proud of your legacy, National?
Labour’s families package
Under Labour’s Families Package 70% of families with kids do better than they do under National’s tax plan. Labour launched their online calculator yesterday…
The Catholic Church is urging its parishoners to vote
The catholic bishops of Aotearoa have released a pamphlet urging parishoners to vote. And apart from conservative positions on euthenasia and drug liberalisation the policies they support have a decidedly progressive bent.
Nat / ACT don’t think poor people should have kids
ACT’s David Seymour thinks that poor people shouldn’t be allowed to have kids. If that sounds familiar it should – the Nats have said more or less the same thing over the years.
Labour’s Targeted Families Package
As covered by Vernon Small on Stuff: “Labour is promising to scrap National’s Budget tax cut plan. Instead it will funnel the cash into higher Working for Families payments and extra help for those with young children. It’s a package it says will deliver up to $48 a week extra to middle income families.”
What’s going on at the BBC?
And now for something completely different.
Social investment meets the surveillance state
First they came for the budgeting services. Now we know that every social service agency has to provide clients’ private personal data to […]
Russia’s ‘traditional family values’
Constructive and positive ‘conservative’ organisations everywhere should be outraged at the way the use of ‘traditional family values’ gets corrupted, and they should be doing more to speak out against it.
QC describes Pike River mine as a ‘homicide scene’
On Checkpoint Nigel Hampton QC described the Pike River mine as a ‘crime scene’ and a ‘homicide scene’, and he questioned the motives of those rushing to seal the mine.
Dr Kate Amore on Homelessness
Dr Kate Amore and Rev Tric Malcolm will discuss this issue on Friday 26th August at 5:30pm at Connolly Hall, Wellington. Amore’s research released today shows “As the housing market gets tighter, single people have more flexibility and potentially more options open to them, whereas families with children don’t. People [landlords] are less likely to want them, and they have more requirements of housing,” she said. All welcome.
CYF massively underfunded
National pays electoral homage to our vulnerable children. They talk a big game about putting “the needs of our most vulnerable children and families at the centre of decisions”. Their actions tell a different story – of under-funding at CYF and falling numbers of social workers.
Maori health and children not a priority
Essential reading, two pieces highlighting institutional racism today. Someone needs to ask the Maori Party how proud they are to be propping up this government.
Be Like Dad, Keep Mum (in fear).
Temuera Morrison has made a powerful video for the Women’s Refuge annual appeal. He’s making a difference. You can do something the Key Government won’t do. You can make a difference. You can stop keeping mum about domestic violence and you can help fund your local refuge.
Parental leave – did English know or care what he was vetoing?
Bill English didn’t know the cost of the parental leave bill that he vetoed on the grounds of cost, and he didn’t care enough about it to speak to the matter in Parliament last night.
Petition against the veto of the paid parental leave bill
“We request that you withdraw the financial veto certificate against the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill.” You can sign the petition here.
Nats overrule Parliament to veto parental leave extension
So – like Canterbury, like Auckland, the democratic process can get stuffed as far as National are concerned.
Has NZ hit this milestone too?
For the first time in 130 years, more young adults (18 – 34) in America live with their parents than with a partner. How long before we pass the same milestone – or have we done so already?
Paid parental leave bill progress towards anti-democratic veto
Sue Moroney’s bill to extend paid parental leave passed its second reading last night – bravo to all those who supported it! The Nats’ threat to veto is profoundly anti-democratic, overriding the will of Parliament.
In Defense of Tony Veitch.
I was asked by trp to respond to his post earlier today separately. I’ll start by re-quoting a comment from Anne: I can […]
House Tales.
If ‘home is where the heart is’ then what’s the story when everything’s heartless?
The problem with free market capitalism
This morning’s Herald contains a story about a young man who with a family gift has managed to purchase eleven houses over the past five years and can afford to pay World of Warcraft all day.
Coleman to regulate high sugar industry
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said there is a voluntary regime in place for the manufacture and sale of high sugar food but where there is is self regulation it is often ignored.
Because of the danger high sugar foods potentially pose it’s important to have a regulatory body and licensing/education regime to ensure manufacturers and retailers only provide food that has healthy outcomes.
NZ number one in the world – and it’s all bad news
Rachel Stewart writes about a disaster for this country.