The Standard

Social issues

Categories under Social issues

Reduce Poverty – Climate Change – Clean Rivers

Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, September 28th, 2017 - 28 comments

Why the Greens can sit outside Government…

Today is the last day to enroll – and you should

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, September 22nd, 2017 - 34 comments

Today is the last day you can enroll to vote in the election. Historically far too many people in the 18-24 age group have not enrolled. The same again would suit the Nats very well indeed.

Update: Newsroom: “A record turnout of early voters suggests a youthquake in action – and the polls might be wrong.”

Update: If you are trying to enrol and the queues are long, here are the other ways you can do it, including online!

Update: you can enrol up until midnight Friday online, and then vote at a polling station on Saturday. Details here.

Daily Review 21/09/2017

Written By: - Date published: 5:33 pm, September 21st, 2017 - 155 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other … Graphic courtesy of the outstanding @nzsaysfun

Vote for compassion and competence

Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, September 21st, 2017 - 44 comments

National has created the perception that it is a better manager of Government than Labour and is suggesting that it is more compassionate. Neither claim is true.

Gower – Nats the biggest liars

Written By: - Date published: 6:38 am, September 20th, 2017 - 53 comments

Sure would be good if some other media called the Nats out on this too.

Malnutrition – in NZ FFS

Written By: - Date published: 6:20 am, September 20th, 2017 - 49 comments

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?

The failure of TOP’s Youth UBI policy

Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, September 19th, 2017 - 97 comments

Safety nets should be for all people and the best way to ensure that is to design them for social need not as economic tools. Despite Gareth Morgan’s assertion that policy is everything, The Opportunities Party has managed to create a youth policy that is discriminatory.

“The Green Party is committed to reforming renting so that every house is a home”

Written By: - Date published: 6:47 am, September 19th, 2017 - 29 comments

People who rent should have security so they can put down roots and benefit from being able to participate in their community.

Women readers of the site

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 pm, September 18th, 2017 - 49 comments

Apart from the usual election year rise of the readership, the demographics on this site have been moving a lot earlier this election. The most noticeable statistic in the recent months has been to do with gender. Most of it appears to me to have been associated with female interest in Metiria Turei. There is a lot more interest by women in this election than in 2014.

Green Party announces a better deal for students

Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, September 14th, 2017 - 8 comments

“Students are the only group in society expected to borrow just to get by. We believe that students should be supported so that they can focus on learning the skills they need to contribute to a smart, innovative economy and a fairer society”

Labour’s families package

Written By: - Date published: 6:22 am, September 14th, 2017 - 5 comments

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…

Bryan Bruce’s documentary ‘Who Owns NZ Now?’

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, September 13th, 2017 - 27 comments

Reviewed on Stuff: “Who owns New Zealand now? The NZ On Air-funded documentary that screened on Three on Tuesday, September 12 confronts the housing crisis head on and it’s an eye-opener.”

Guest Post: The Spectre of the Bloody Fetus Placard

Written By: - Date published: 12:40 pm, September 11th, 2017 - 2 comments

Reprinted with permission from Julia Schiller’s blog Enough is Enough.  Julia analyses Abortion politics in New Zealand and details a recent interaction she had with National MP Simon O’Connor.

After nine long years National discovers there is child poverty in New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 7:57 am, September 10th, 2017 - 98 comments

Bill English has finally committed the Government to doing something about Child poverty.  But why has he and National taken so long?

Stupid myths on immigrant construction workers

Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, September 8th, 2017 - 31 comments

One of the dafter myths about the current burgeoning immigration industry is that we need skilled immigrants for the construction industry. As usual the talkback idiots are wrong. We don’t get many. We need more. We need to get rid of the migrant dross to get them. A Kiwibuild quota is a good idea.

National enters panic mode and goes tough on beneficiaries

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, September 8th, 2017 - 27 comments

National has tried to divert attention from the budget hole fiasco by promising to get even tougher on beneficiaries.

Excitement mounting for Part 2 of Audrey Young’s analysis of Parties financial promises

Written By: - Date published: 5:03 pm, September 6th, 2017 - 20 comments

After the first in her series of articles inviting a bank economist to analyse and comment upon Labour’s spending promises, tomorrow she turns to the second in the series with a close analysis of National’s promises.

I will resign before raising Super beyond 65

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, September 5th, 2017 - 33 comments

John Key and Jacinda Ardern have some things in common it seems. She has a pony tail and he likes pony tails (I was drawing a long bow to say that was something they had in common, I know). National are being beaten at their own game, or the beat is in the air. So […]

National plays the lauranorda card

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, September 4th, 2017 - 42 comments

National is panicking and Paula Bennett has gone full dog whistle in claiming that gang members should have less rights than others.

Labour’s support for renters

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, September 4th, 2017 - 54 comments

While National revert to type with populist scaremongering, Labour is getting on with the business of releasing practical policy that supports real people and addresses real problems.

Regeneration Minister’s Mysterious Non-appearance

Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, August 31st, 2017 - 13 comments

Nicky Wagner seems to shy away from the hard stuff. First gazing dreamily out a window wishing she was somewhere else (when being addressed by Disability groups) and now a no-show at a debate about her City and Portfolio.

Shameful poverty – why we must elect a Labour led government

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, August 31st, 2017 - 48 comments

Two excellent but very disturbing pieces in The Herald yesterday. This crisis in poverty, housing and health is a national disgrace. It is why we desperately need to elect a Labour led government in September.

Is Justice Binnie vindicated by the Teina Pora decision?

Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, August 30th, 2017 - 53 comments

What we can learn about Collins, Adams and the national Cabinet from Teina Pora’s Judicial review win.

“All I can do … is tell the Truth”

Written By: - Date published: 2:47 pm, August 30th, 2017 - 50 comments

“Our integrity and our role as Ministers in holding confidential information is absolutely pivotal to our role”  Bennett 2017

Public Event in Christchurch

Written By: - Date published: 7:35 pm, August 29th, 2017 - 16 comments

Thursday August 31 Cardboard Cathedral at 7pm   Meteria Turei speaks about the importance of addressing poverty, for all of us. See you there.

National announces free house for everyone!

Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, August 29th, 2017 - 16 comments

Effective 2020. Terms & Conditions apply.   House may or may not resemble the one pictured. Must prove you voted National in Election 2017    

Labour announce affordable tertiary education

Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, August 29th, 2017 - 54 comments

As the Nats stand exposed in another apparent dirty politics hit, Labour gets on with the job of winning the election. Jacinda Ardern today announced new policy: Making tertiary education and training affordable for all.

National is telling fibs on housing

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, August 29th, 2017 - 16 comments

During the weekend one of National’s rising stars Amy Adams debates housing with Labour’s Phil Twyford.  Adams was supremely confident but the data she relied on appears to have problems …

WINZ and Super Scandals

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, August 28th, 2017 - 138 comments

Here’s the scandal.

Nats double down on failed national standards policy

Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, August 27th, 2017 - 124 comments

The centerpiece of National’s campaign launch was an education package that doubles down on the demonstrably failed national standards policy. Out of ideas.

Congratulations Black Ferns!

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, August 27th, 2017 - 24 comments

The All Blacks won a game last night, but it is the Black Ferns who own the front page of the (online) Herald today. An overdue sign of changing times. Good stuff.