Cecilia Robinson’s Tend Health Win
For-profit healthcare continues its acceleration under National as second largest private healthcare provider in Australia shuts down
Social issues
The other Jacinda Book
Shortly after the release of Jacinda Ardern’s autobiography comes news of the release of a new biography for which the funding of and motivation for are not clear.
The Thunberg dilemma
If the Madleen activism was largely symbolic, did it work?
Homelessness up by 58% in Auckland
$250mn in emergency housing “savings” a year under National, while government increases corrections budget to ~$2b a year, and will surpass NZ’s ”moral and fiscal prison failure prison rate” by 2026
Writing in the time of Genocide
I want to share a writer’s journey – of living and writing through the Genocide. Because my country provides support to Israel and the US, I feel compelled to support Palestine by doing the one thing I know best: writing.
The existential moment we are in
As the world re-entangles and pushes our interdependence to the foreground, we need a new thesis on freedom.
Shut up you dickhead
Chris Bishop has chosen to say loudly and publicly “what a load of crap” during a song celebrating Te Reo Maori performed during the Aotearoa Music Awards ceremony.
Seeing Is Believing
A video post, starring Christopher Luxon, Chris Hipkins, Nicola Willis and Winston Peters. Featuring Debbie Ngarewa-Packer as star prosecutor.
Nicola Willis’s Debt Higher Than All 6 Years of Ardern Government
Current & planned debt will surpass Labour’s full term debt in less years. Willis also admitted Budget 2024 had a higher deficit than all of Grant Robertson’s bar Covid.
The Peoples’ Select Committee on Pay Equity
In very bad news for the Government former National MP Marilyn Waring has announced that she will be doing something the Government did not do, organise hearings to consider the Government’s sabotaging of Pay Equity.
Willis’ Roundup Budget will not grow new shoots of the economy
Nicola Willis’ Budget is bad for growth and a Big throwback unfit for NZ.
Our growing stress is everywhere
We don’t know where this country is going and it’s getting worse.
Privileges Committee recommendations are partisan, indefensible and racist
The Privileges Committee recommendation for suspension of three Maori Party MPs for performing a haka in Parliament has been described as appearing to be partisan, indefensible and open to attacks of racism. Parliament’s response tomorrow will show how political the issue has become.
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.
The Coalition Continues to Defund Science
Another science fund bites the dust in New Zealand.
Louisa Wall – This Is Not Feminism – It’s Fiscal Evasion Dressed in Lipstick
Louisa Wall eviscerates Government claims about pay equity.
We’ve Lost Australia
New Zealand was once in a sustained Australasian partnership. Now, with New Zealand tracking further and further into policy extremes, Australia – and our children – are leaving New Zealand behind.
Get ready for the Regulatory Standards Bill
Following on from the undermining under urgency of the current Pay Equity scheme the Government intends to introduce the Regulatory Standards Bill which if passed would have a significant adverse effect on collective rights and environmental action.
Vale David Parker MP
David Parker’s Deputy Leader ‘s speech in 2014 at the Wellington Labour Party Conference was the best I ever heard from a Labour Leader. Vision matched values in intensity and scope. Parliament now loses one of its very best.
It’s Time — To Fight.
Pay Equity Amendment Bill passes through all stages under urgency late last night, destroying decades of progress and putting men and women alike back.
Lies damned lies and Pay Equity Repeal excuses
Christopher Luxon yesterday tried to claim that budgetary considerations were not the reason for repealing the Pay Equity Legislation even though David Seymour had said that the monetary savings from the bill would save the Budget.
National wants to make voting harder
National’s recent announcement that it will take away voting rights from all prisoners may be nothing more than a distraction from its real intent, screwing the electoral scrum by making it harder to vote for some of us.
National yet again wants to take away prisoner voting rights
Despite the prospect of it being struck down by the Courts being very high the Government has announced a plan to reintroduce a prisoner voting ban.
Culture wars and the Waitākere Ranges
Claims have been made that Auckland Council is giving away rights to the Waitākere Ranges to local iwi. But the claims suffer from that important characteristic of not actually being true.
Tory Whanau leaves Wellington mayoral race for Māori ward
Smart move by Whanau and great for the green and the left.
On Gallipoli and Gaza
Gallipoli was then. Gaza is now. Gallipoli was a disaster, driven by arrogance and incompetence. Gaza is an atrocity, driven by unconscionable evil.
ANZAC Day.
ANZAC Day.
Never Again.
Did someone mention “class”?
The “Win the Wealth Tax” group offers a welcome return to Labour’s political and policy roots.
Farewell Pope Francis
“Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change. The system has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature.”
The National MP and the religious sect
National MP Hamish Campbell has been the subject of a media pile up recently for being a member of the Two by Two Christian Sect. But the treatment appears at this stage to be an overreaction.
Spare a thought for poor Nick Mowbray
Nick Mowbray, who has supported and promoted a number of right wing causes, finds himself losing out big time because of Donald Trump’s tariffs. And is complaining.
Why Write (and Read)?
Art has political power and every voice counts.
The Trump Shock: Why the US President Crashed the Global Economy
There is a method to Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff madness. The chaos and confusion is deliberate; the aim is nothing less than the […]
Tamatha Paul on BHN
The Sensible Sentencing Trust’s free publicity, and what defunding the policy means.
All they are saying is give War a chance
At a time when the need for increased spending in health, education and the environment is so pressing the Government wants to spend a further $12 billion over the next four years on rearming.
Aotearoa take a bow
The Justice Select Committee has returned Act’s odious Treaty Principles Bill to Parliament. And in its report it has noted that the overwhelming majority of submitters opposed the bill.