The Standard

Social issues

Categories under Social issues

Is NZ as Stable as Luxon Claims?

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 pm, March 15th, 2025 - 13 comments

By pursuing cuts, selling off assets to multinationals, enabling ACT’s attacks on the Treaty and cutting back on climate commitments, Luxon is guaranteeing that NZ will not be stable for long, writes Elliot Crossan.

Does the Government not like Māori and Pasifika?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 15th, 2025 - 17 comments

Health officials advised the Government “significantly” more lives could be saved if it lowered the bowel cancer screening age for Māori and Pasifika further than the rest of the population. But it refused to accept this advice. Why?

NZ Science is in Big Trouble

Written By: - Date published: 5:36 pm, March 13th, 2025 - 12 comments

Science and tertiary education are being ignored in NZ, which is just dumb.

Where Is the Resistance to Privatisation and Austerity?

Written By: - Date published: 5:19 pm, March 11th, 2025 - 13 comments

As the Coalition moves to partially privatise our healthcare system, and Seymour fatally undermines the free school lunch programme, it is time for us to take to the streets and fight back, writes Elliot Crossan.

Deloitte’s Health NZ Review Falls Short

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 pm, March 10th, 2025 - 8 comments

Shane Reti and Simeon Brown

This week Simeon Brown used a Deloitte report to criticise Health NZ and accelerate his privatisation message. But, writes Mountain Tui, the Deloitte report appears to reveal a lot more from what it omitted, than what it covered.

Playing politics with peoples lives

Written By: - Date published: 2:23 pm, March 10th, 2025 - 25 comments

Simeon Brown’s gutting of funding for earlier bowel cancer screening of Maori and Pacifica will increase health disparity.

Climate change?

Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, March 10th, 2025 - 101 comments

Chris Hipkins has released his priorities should he be Prime Minister. They do not include addressing climate change.

Another blow against decency and truth: the flourishing of evil.

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, March 8th, 2025 - 83 comments

I am an ordinary citizen of Aotearoa. I am deeply angered at and ashamed of the actions of Winston Peters in dismissing Phil Goff as our High Commissioner in London. It is a deplorable decision.

Canadian billionaire linked to right wing websites buys a near 10% of NZME shares

Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, March 3rd, 2025 - 14 comments

James “Jim” Grenon spends almost $10 million to buy a ~10% stake in the publisher of NZ Herald and owner of Newstalk ZB.

3 Things To Know About This Government – 8 Things We Should All Do Now

Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, March 3rd, 2025 - 10 comments

This is an excerpt from a longer article: What Can We Do Again?

Some more thoughts about National’s vigilante justice policy

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, February 28th, 2025 - 16 comments

National’s forary into supporting vigilante justice raises some thorny legal issues it appears National has not thught about.

Vigilante justice is apparently our birth right

Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, February 26th, 2025 - 147 comments

Amongst the most dangerous, extreme and downright stupid policies the Government has come up with is the decision to be announced today to allow citizen’s arrests of shoplifters

Radio NZ’s bizarre handling of the Bayly fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, February 25th, 2025 - 42 comments

This morning on Radio New Zealand there was sharp questioning of Christopher Luxon by Ingrid Hipkiss and sharp analysis by Jo Moir. But they allowed Brigette Morten air time to spin the issue in a National friendly way.

Come Rich Foreigners – New Zealand Is For Sale

Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, February 24th, 2025 - 4 comments

Long signaled, all right wing parties are opening the doors for wealthy foreigners to easily acquire our significant assets and lands.

New school lunches waste appears to exceed 70% as David Seymour’s incompetence and PR reliance rises to the fore

Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, February 24th, 2025 - 13 comments

The Associate Education Minister has defended the new school lunch program even as the government says it is not collecting any official feedback. Meanwhile no word from National’s Education Minister Erica Stanford.

Seymour is wrecking the school lunch program

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, February 24th, 2025 - 26 comments

David Seymour’s handling of changes to free school lunches has been an unmitigated disaster. Is the plan to make the scheme that bad it can then be cancelled?

Good as gold

Written By: - Date published: 3:44 pm, February 22nd, 2025 - 19 comments

A fascinating expose from Michael Hudson on the causes and implications of the recent rise in the price of gold. When Nixon took the US dollar off the standard in 1971 you could get an ounce for $35. Not now; Hudson explains why.

A Commercial Peace Agreement? 

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, February 20th, 2025 - 68 comments

Trump’s opening bid for peace towards Ukraine was that the United States would gain access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.

About Karen Chhour’s youth offending claims

Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, February 19th, 2025 - 11 comments

Karen Chhor has made two recent claims, that youth crime is at an all time high, and that serious and persistent offending has increased dramatically to justify her boot camps policy. Neither claim appears to be true.

Happy Pride weekend everyone – except to you Brian Tamaki

Written By: - Date published: 9:36 am, February 16th, 2025 - 40 comments

Yesterday Destiny Church followers terrorised some children in Te Atatu library watching a children’s science show hosted by drag artist Hugo Grrrl and then disrupted Auckland’s Pride parade in a misconceived attempt to prove their manliness.

State of the Nation – dire

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, February 12th, 2025 - 18 comments

Remember National’s promise to get us back on track? Salvation Army’s latest state of the nation report suggests that for ordinary people things are getting much worse.

Kieran McAnulty is underrated: How Chris Bishop Got Away with Blowing Up Kāinga Ora & State Housing Momentum

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, February 11th, 2025 - 13 comments

Kieran McAnulty’s points are fair and important – so why is media ignoring most of them? Also – Labour delivered 14,000 homes in government – so why is Chris Bishop blowing that trajectory up?

Leadership D.O.A.

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, February 10th, 2025 - 31 comments

As we approach the half-time oranges for his government, I thought I’d give Mr Luxon some feedback and a few suggestions on how he might turn things around – if becoming a real leader interests him.

The Anti-China Consensus is a Matter of World War III

Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, February 8th, 2025 - 24 comments

Team Biden might have believed that it kept America out of World War III, but
it’s far too early to declare even that much. Zero-sum biases plague US foreign policy, especially toward China.

Dear Mum and Dad

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, February 4th, 2025 - 5 comments

I had a great week at school!

Cancun Cruz’s crazy tweet

Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, February 2nd, 2025 - 17 comments

Ted Cruz has criticised New Zealand for requiring all Israelis to detail their military experience before coming to New Zealand. But there is a problem with this. He is wrong.

Tim Jago is part of a bigger ACT Party issue

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, February 2nd, 2025 - 95 comments

The former ACT Party President’s name suppression ceased 2 years after Jago was charged, allowing ACT to bypass critical scrutiny during the 2023 election

The Second Major Offensive of Neoliberalism in New Zealand Since the 80s

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, February 2nd, 2025 - 28 comments

The Coalition is fighting a multi-front blitzkrieg to entrench neoliberal hegemony in NZ.

What will he do next?

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, February 1st, 2025 - 29 comments

I did not think it possible but it seems that every week Donald Trump does something that makes me think even worse of him.

Better Late than Never?

Written By: - Date published: 6:13 pm, January 31st, 2025 - 10 comments

Davey Seymour’s Disgusting School Dinners, and the faster you go, the bigger the mess, but does Chris Bishop look bothered?

Keep on Digging

Written By: - Date published: 3:44 pm, January 30th, 2025 - 30 comments

The latest outbursts and brain farts from the great Kumara of the North…

Open to all today in Nick’s Kōrero – Shane Jones calls climate change ‘woke’ and says, ‘Send the Mexicans home’.