In an effort to be seen to be doing something about a housing crisis that they say doesn’t exist, the Nats have offered to lend councils $1 Billion that they can already borrow. Homeless families will also be offered a free deckchair on the Titanic to re-arrange as they please.
— Deborah Russell
Bill English didn’t know the cost of the parental leave bill that he vetoed on the grounds of cost, and he didn’t care enough about it to speak to the matter in Parliament last night.
The attempt to oust Corbyn was orchestrated by Portland Communications, blown up by a fake Gay Pride heckle, supported by the UK Fabian Society, and predicted in the Telegraph. It’s definitely a plot, but will it work?
A recent interview with Barack Obama displayed an understanding of the problems offered by globalisation but also understands the complex relationship between trade, elites, workers, and redistribution.
Yesterday was a big day for both UK and US politics. Brexit revealed the political consequences of social inequality. Meanwhile in America the Trump Train is derailing.
Top Tory David Cameron has resigned in the wake of the Brexit vote. The buffoon Boris Johnson is tipped to take over at No 10 Downing St.
From the “Brighter Future”, four personal stories published recently are all well worth reading.
Doubt has been cast on the utility of John Key’s claim that New Zealand is not a tax haven because there are disclosure treaties with the revelation that Mossack Fonseca’s primary New Zealand agent instructed clients to avoid investing in those countries.
Eva Hartshorn-Sanders on the background to the Holiday Leave Protection Bill, why it is important for the Bill to be passed into law and what you can do to support it.
Not only has Compass being serving below quality food to hospital patients but it appears that they may not have paid some long term employees what they are entitled to.
The military mission to Iraq is to be extended by another 18 months, much to nobody’s surprise. John Key has put the creep into the mission.
An update on Te Puea Marae, a homeless teen cancer sufferer, and how to help.
Co chair of the New Zealand Coalition to end homelessness Corie Haddock writes about the causes and implications of New Zealand’s homelessness crisis.
“We request that you withdraw the financial veto certificate against the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill.” You can sign the petition here.
It’s been a hard week, and many of us could do with some kindness and good news. Let’s take a moment to remember Matariki. What would Standardistas and other politically progressive people like to see for the coming year?
Or not. More National ideology burned to the ground by facts.
A very sincere good morning to the “Park up for homes” folks who have just spent the night in their cars, protesting in support of the homeless.
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
So – like Canterbury, like Auckland, the democratic process can get stuffed as far as National are concerned.
The government that will pay you $5000 to leave Auckland and $3000 to move to Auckland has been selling state houses so recklessly that it is now considering building temporary ones. Headless chickens make more sense.
The Nats’ quota increase has now been described as “shameful and inhumane”, “stinks of a Government that doesn’t care”, “pathetic”, “mean-spirited and callous”, and more. Will they get the message?
As Bryan Gould put it – “In any other country, and especially in those where such deals are commonplace, no one would be in any doubt as to what had really happened. In New Zealand, however, we are naively inclined to accept the blank-eyed, slack-mouthed assurances that it was all a coincidence and that nothing untoward had happened.”
The ham fisted attack on Hurimoana Dennis by Paula Bennett’s office must make National yearn for the heady days when Cameron Slater was in charge of their smears.
Guardian journalist Owen Jones nails the failure of many to call the Orlando killings what they are; homophobic terrorism. It’s not an excuse for anti-muslim hysteria, as Trump, Seymour and Peters would have it, it’s the worst single attack on LGBT people since the holocaust.
Reaction to Key’s pathetic increase in the refugee quota – “shameful and inhumane” (Amnesty International), “stinks of a Government that doesn’t care” (Double the Quota).
Last year there were officially 22,000 unoccupied properties in Auckland. This year 33,000 are officially classified as empty. “Auckland’s 6.6 per cent vacancy rate is higher than either Sydney (5.2 per cent) or Melbourne (4.8 per cent), where there has been an uproar over “ghost houses” deliberately left empty by speculators trading on a soaring market”. This is madness.
Hickey: “Helping employers to bring in low-skilled migrants instead of investing in new technology and becoming more productive so they can pay local workers more is essentially stunting our productivity and real GDP per capita.”
Good piece by Jo Moir on Stuff this morning, about National’s train-wreck week. Follow it up with Andrew Geddis on the legality of the Collins blurt.
In the middle of a housing crisis the Minister of Social Housing Paula Bennett is nowhere to be seen.
* according to Nick Smith and Paula Bennett.
Despite Key’s barnstorming 2007 speech on the housing affordability crisis, National these days prefer to deny that it exists. Apparently fed up with waiting for the government to take action, banks are moving to reduce their risk and limit foreign buyers.
