The Government’s estimate of the extent of the housing crisis has recently been shown to be totally out of touch and to add further pathos it is counting kiwi families urgently housed in motels in tourism statistics.
I’m used to hearing some pretty pathetic excuses out of the National government. But this will really take some beating.
Being tenants in our own country is starting to look like the good old days.
This is what you get with a hasty, reactive, “top down” policy process.
So National’s great plan for swimmable rivers by 2040 is to allow twice as much shit in them and still call them “swimmable.”
What if we based our politics on relationships not power?
We should probably just schedule this as a monthly post.
The Privacy Commission issues a ruling that should not have been unnecessary.
The living wage rises, and an odd argument for abolishing the minimum wage.
We sometimes give employers a bit of a hard time on this blog, so it’s nice to occasionally celebrate a good one. Dunedin gaming company Rocketwerkz is in the headlines for all the right reasons.
In a guest post, Labour’s Ōhāriu candidate Greg O’Connor responds to some of the topics of comments in the post “Greg O’Connor selected for Ōhāriu” and elsewhere on the blogs.
Andrew Little’s announcement yesterday in Gisborne of Labour’s pledge of up to $20million to build a prefabricated timber plant there is a much-needed boost to the area and a sign that Labour’s 100,000 new house pledge first made by David Shearer in 2012 has legs.
We need one – and an apology. Bill may wonder aloud whether we’ll learn much, but I wonder if he’s more concerned we’ll learn too much…
Marama Fox and Bill English have painted themselves into a bit of a corner, and Fox is threatening to “walk away from the Government”. Key would have handled this better.
Time to take action against the destruction of communities and privatisation of social housing.
In the middle of a housing crisis “Housing New Zealand documents obtained under the Official Information Act show that there are nearly 2,500 empty state houses, more than 500 of which have been empty for over a year.”
If Auckland as a city wish to retain representative samples of our past, then we should concentrate on how to preserve those rather than trying to deny the migration that increases its population by something like 50 thousand people per year. This is a working city – not a museum.
There has been an unfortunate trend developing in recent weeks, of negatively labelling people who dare to have a different opinion on equality to the labeller, as identarian. This description is something to be appreciated in these times when dark forces appear to be on the rise again.
English is a less convincing liar than Key.
In the story that keeps rolling on, Mossack Fonseca founders arrested for money laundering.
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.
With this vicious infighting exposed the government is clearly in total disarray.
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step […]
“The absence of any meaningful progress in reducing child poverty rates over the past decade—and the lack of interest by Government in using welfare and income support programmes to do so—points to wilful indifference toward the long-term personal and social impacts of this avoidable harm.”
Socioeconomic status is a major health risk factor. Not exactly a surprise is it.
Compassionate conservatism in action. No wonder English was so tame in his criticism of Trump’s Muslim ban.
Fair to say that Bill English’s “big” policy announcement today was a total flop.
From a Business Insider article in the OIA papers: Thiel is a long-term thinker, so what’s the big picture? What could the contrarian investor see in a country of 4 million people whose economy is based on agriculture and tourism? Maybe Peter Thiel wants to turn New Zealand into the next Silicon Valley. Or maybe even the libertarian utopia of his dreams.”
Donald Trump’s attack on human rights is nothing new. American history has many examples of attacks on basic rights.
One border and a world of difference away…
Bill English has failed his first test of real leadership. Compare and contrast, English and Little’s responses to the Muslim ban.
Update: The image is Emmerson’s take in The Herald.
Killed in the USA?
I/S at No Right Turn writes on a political refugee – from Australia.
World leaders are condemning Trump’s Muslim ban. What does the PM of our country have to say on the matter?
National needs to do something to address spiraling education costs in both the secondary and tertiary sectors.
