The labour dispute is turning into a fiasco for Ports of Auckland. Thousands marched today through Auckland in protest, and cargo loaded by non-union labour is being blacklisted internationally. How long will Ports of Auckland stay on their self-destructive course?
I’m no fan of the people who threw the Lamington at Len Brown. They are the same crew who waltz into every social movement in Auckland, suck the life out of it and move on. But the only winner out of this lamington incident was the Port’s board and the (I’m sure) the self-image of the egotistical morons who threw it. It cost the Maritime Union. It belittled those of us who are infuriated at the Mayor’s response. And it was just plain stupid.
Josie Pagani has this to say about casualisation and the POAL dispute: On Sean Plunket’s ZB show today. Talking about the ports. ‘Casualisation’ scares […]
Our Labour activist guest poster asks where the coherence is in Labour’s communications strategy. Having a look at the lack of narrative across the Labour parties here, in Australia, and in the UK; he points to a place where narrative is done well in left politics – it is in the USA.
Can anyone tell me why the Nats are spending $300m to build and $36m pa to run a 960-bed PPP prison when there are 2000 spare beds in the system and prisoner numbers are projected to fall? Or why Joyce is cutting a dirty ‘convention centre for pokies’ deal when international convention numbers are falling? Or why they’re spending $1b a year on low BCR highways when vehicle numbers are falling?
You betrayed the people you pretended to represent Len.
Union’s have gone global in response to global financial capital’s push to drive wage costs to the bottom. Canadian United Steel Workers (USW) will meet local workers in Invercargill on Thursday at the Working Men’s Club at 8pm and picket outside Rio Tinto office in Wellington on Friday at 12:30pm. All welcome.
The Nats have announced their asset sales legislation. Mum and dad aren’t at the front of the queue. No provisions to ensure 85-90% stays in Kiwi hands. Nothing to stop the companies being sliced up and sold after partial privatisation. No real way to stop one company owning more than 10%. There’s 1 vote that can stop this. It’s all down to Dunne now. Will he be the hero or the villain?
Christchurch is changed forever and there’s no going back. Let the heart of the old city become its memorial.
In my previous post I laid out the reasons why a NATO/US intervention in Syria is unlikely, even though the alternative will almost certainly be defeat of the freedom fighters and even more mass murder by the regime. There’s no strategic gain from the Right’s perspective and many on the Left would rather see a massacre than US military action. Homs has fallen. So, what next for the rebels?
Remember the hagiographies after the first hundred days of National’s first term? In the second term, things couldn’t be more different. The Sunday-Star Times has printed dozens of emails it obtained (a leak?) that were sent to Key opposing the sale of Crafar farms. Many of them are brutal comments from former National supporters. Key didn’t even provide comment for the article.
Vodafone appears to be billing for at least two text scams run by the same Greek, Photis Photou who runs a Cyprus law firm specialising in shelf companies and tax business. I haven’t asked for the texts, and wonder why Vodafone is clipping the ticket for Photis and presumably themselves as well.
For reasons that I just can’t fathom, iwi fishing quota-holders have decided to use their fishing rights, not to create 2,000 jobs for […]
No-one wants to see people who are likely to hurt people released on bail. That’s why successive governments have tightened bail rules. Now Sensible [sic] Sentencing wants every charged with a crime bearing 2 or more years locked up without bail. Not the first organisation with those initials to favour guilt upon accusation and punishment without trial. Michael Bott takes up the story.
SkyCity is shrugging its shoulders after 2 adults left 5 children in locked in a van while they gambled in its casino. This is the 25th such incident this year. Yes, these are bad parents. SkyCity profits by problem gamblers acting impulsively and irrationally chasing rewards ignoring the costs – that’s exactly what its customers do when they leave their kids in cars to go gamble.
Offical result has 71 for Gillard and 31 for Rudd. Not a base for a comeback for Rudd. He must now be asking why he did it.
Directorships are the golden ticket in the world of the business elite. You attend maybe 10 meetings a year, sign whatever’s put in front of you, typically get paid $3-4K a pop, and do it over again half a dozen times or more for various companies. It’s a gravy train for managers past their use by date. But customers and shareholders have to trust what directors sign off on.
David Shearer spoke to Greypower in Auckland today about the difference between Labour and National. The speech shows Shearer is his own man. He wants a new style of politics, focussed on the future, planning to make a difference. I think he will.
The option that most eligible voters in NZ supported in 2011 was “don’t vote”. Nearly 7% didn’t enroll, and if enrolled then more than 25% didn’t vote. Of the eligible voters from the 2006 census, over 30% didn’t vote at all. And since 2006 the voting population has almost certainly increased. It means that National’s large vote is probably less than the biggest “party”. Not a particularly good mandate unless you’re as deluded as John Key.
Google news has 1.5 pages of articles mentioning David Shearer to John Key’s 13 in the past week. The only ones directly about Shearer or Labour are saying ‘where’s Shearer? He’s wasting his honeymoon’. I wondered what his strategists are thinking. Then I saw they’re all the same people who just led Labour to 27% and I realised the scary part – they’re trying their best.
In a perfect world, we would all live free, in some kind of ideal democracy. We’re not there. But what we and the rest of the developed world have is a hell of a lot better than what the people of Syria have: despotic rule by the murderous son of their former murderous despot. The Syrians are trying to overthrow their tyrant, should the world help?
Since New Zealand skulled the neoliberal cool-aid, hospital admissions for infectious diseases, the diseases of poverty, increased 51% while dropping in the countries we should consider our peers. The working class life has gotten worse; our wages are lower, our jobs gone, and our families living in unhealthy houses owned by slum landlords.
Kevin Rudd resigned as Australian Foreign Minister in a midnight speech from Washington. He will now return to Australia, consult, and issue a statement as to his intentions. Nobody seems to think Rudd has the numbers to win a ballot this week; the issue will be whether he stays on the back bench and continues to undermine. I can’t see that lasting.
Consciences are uncomfortable things and mine’s been giving me a bit of trouble lately. I’ve been on the horns of a dilemma (sorry […]
RadioLive asked “Did the PM’s hour influence your vote?” on its website last Friday. Billy the Kid commented: “It was my first election. I heard Key and thought he sounded pretty cool so yeah I voted for him.” All it takes is one to confirm that RadioLive broke the law.
It’s not Helen’s dad but former Scottish TUC Leader Pat Kelly who will speak at St John’s this Tuesday 21st at 6pm on his book Scotland’s Radical Exports – Scottish expats who led unions and Labour around the world. All welcome.
Last night, I saw Kevin Hague on the news talking about mine safety – mining, West Coast, labour rights, and no Labour voice. Same with minimum wage and asset sales. A hungry Green Party is leading issues while Labour appears immobilised. No wonder Metiria Turei is saying they won’t play little sibling; I see them being a third or more of the next governing coalition.
Whitney’s funeral was today’s news – across the BBC, Fox and CNN for over three hours. It was riveting; a great tribute to a warm and loving woman, and a reminder of how hard it can sometimes be for those whose gift it is to sing from the heart, but also of how much love and forgiveness is available to them.
Paula Bennett, in her rush to action, has a Green Paper that intends to create a White Paper that may result in some […]
National’s in retreat on every front. Its had to break its economic promises, again. Asset sales are a disaster. Ministers are exposed over the Crafar Farms, NZ on Air, and DJ Key affairs. The media’s gone off Key ever since he declared war on them. The bad stories that were getting nowhere a year ago now keep rolling. Even Mallard’s boorishness can’t halt National’s slide. But don’t celebrate too soon.
The best contribution by far IMHO at today’s VUW post-election conference in Legislative Chamber, held under Chatham House rules, came from Colin James. True to Colin, his paper is public, with much food for thought. My comments here too.
On November 30th, after the election, National received a $55,000 donation from Oravida, a company formerly owned by Terry Lee, director of Pengxin’s Crafar Farms vehicle, Milk New Zealand. In light of National’s illegal decision to let Pengxin buy the farms despite a lack of real benefits to New Zealand, maybe we ought to examine that donation a little more closely.
If the evidence against the Urewera 4 is so strong and what they were planning to do so serious, how come they’ve only been charged with a handful of minor offences? And how come the others had the charges dropped? Where are the treason and conspiracy charges? After 4 years of delays, lies, secrecy, and official fuck-ups, do we trust the cops’ evidence?
“Not to the best of my knowledge – that is absolutely correct – I wasn’t even aware these emails existed until I heard about them yesterday” a flustered Key said in Parliament today. He didn’t know a thing about control of the programme. But his office suggested that Radio Live get the Electoral Commission’s opinion on the show’s legality. Watch this space.
Lockwood ‘small hands’ Smith is digging himself deeper into a hole that is going to destroy his legacy as Speaker over the Mojo Mathers’ right to participate in Parliamentary debate. The Minister for Disabilities, Tariana Turia, is missing in action (probably off granting more of your money to her mates). Key wants nothing to do with it. So, I/S at NoRightTurn has proposed the ‘nuclear option’.
