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David Cunliffe’s valedictory speech party

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, April 11th, 2017 - 33 comments

David Cunliffe delivers his veledictory speech today at 5:30 pm. Eanna Doyle, one of David’s most loyal of supporters (there are many tales to tell) will be hosting a veledictory speech party for Aucklanders at his bar at Toucan Bistro in Albany starting 5 pm. The speech will be shown live. Update: Video of the speech added.

Bid for Helen (for Women’s Refuge)

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, April 10th, 2017 - 5 comments

A rescued portrait of Helen Clark is raising money for Women’s Refuge via TradeMe.

Mediawatch on Hit and Run

Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, April 10th, 2017 - 77 comments

“Has the meaning of book Hit and Run been obscured by all the claims and counter-claims in the media?” – Yes of course it has, and that is a deliberate strategy on the part of people who are desperate to avoid an inquiry.

Property porn vs. reality

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, April 10th, 2017 - 92 comments

Sick of the property porn on the Stuff and Herald websites? It was refreshing to read the truth for a change.

MSD and our privacy

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, April 7th, 2017 - 16 comments

National’s plans for our privacy and access to social services are a perfect cocktail of over-reach and incompetence.

Dirty Politics done in the Netsafe style – part 3

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, April 7th, 2017 - 25 comments

No further information from either Netsafe or the complainant. I can’t proceed any further apart from writing explicit site HDCA instructions. The Daily Blog has had the samehappen, with an attempt to gag any public debate on their actions by Netsafe. Amy Adams has hurriedly issued a press release saying how wonderful the HDCA is… I guess she doesn’t like debate.

Banks and the Housing Crisis

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, April 5th, 2017 - 15 comments

Because of our our central government’s refusal to build social housing and both NZTA and AT rigorously avoiding urban development integration, the default control of housing supply lies with Australian regulation of New Zealand’s retail banks and their lending.

Nurses ask us to vote for our health

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, April 5th, 2017 - 50 comments

You could vote for three more years of “brighter future”. Or you could listen to the nurses.

Typhoid in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 3:48 pm, April 4th, 2017 - 76 comments

The typhoid outbreak in Auckland is very bad news. Now would also be a good time to reflect on NZ’s generally poor record on child poverty and disease.

The sure fire way that a young person can own a house in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, April 3rd, 2017 - 36 comments

The Standard has on your behalf read the Herald’s latest article on how young people in Auckland can own their home and worked out the most important thing a young person can do to buy a home in Auckland.

Scientology awarded major contract by new Ministry for Vulnerable Children

Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, April 1st, 2017 - 46 comments

People who do not agree or who wise-up to what’s going on are, as per the instructions of Scientology founder, L Ron Hubbard, to be “disposed of quietly and without sorrow”.

Dirty Politics done in the Netsafe style – part 2

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, March 31st, 2017 - 41 comments

Ok. Round 2. Still no more relevant information from Netsafe.

I’m getting somewhat irritated with them. When exactly are they going to get off their arses and provide the information that we need to make a decision?

Warnings on Auckland Housing

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, March 31st, 2017 - 60 comments

Warnings on the state of the Auckland housing market are coming thick and fast now. People who bought recently (at the peak of prices and low interest rates) are likely to get burned.

National’s policing problem

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, March 30th, 2017 - 48 comments

National is facing increasing public concern about the ability of the police to do its job properly.

Motels are not state houses

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, March 28th, 2017 - 39 comments

It’s almost as if deliberately running down state housing stock doesn’t make the need for homes magically go away – who could possibly have predicted that?

Scots git on Q+A

Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, March 27th, 2017 - 12 comments

I went to Q+A yesterday in search of political comment and was astonished to see John McTernan aka “Malcolm Tucker without the charm” given ten minutes to burble. McTernan promotes himself as a former political adviser to Blair and Gillard, but his last real job was chief of staff to Jim Murphy who led the Scottish Labour Party to oblivion in 2015.

Spinoff series – rent week

Written By: - Date published: 12:51 pm, March 27th, 2017 - 58 comments

While much of the coverage of the housing crisis focuses on buyers, the situation facing renters is just as bad. Last week The Spinoff ran an excellent series on renting in NZ: “It’s getting desperate out there”.

NZ is number one – for domestic violence

Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, March 23rd, 2017 - 96 comments

It’s great that the government is planning some action on this shameful situation. It’s a pity that they are treating the consequences, not the underlying social problems that contribute so much to the causes, and it’s a pity that it’s taken so long.

“Dumbing down a generation”

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, March 21st, 2017 - 137 comments

An excellent piece by Simon Collins in the weekend Herald. NZ’s educational scores in international comparisons are locked in a downward spiral. National’s ideology has failed, while we ignore successful models.

Nat branch chair calls for “corporal punishment”

Written By: - Date published: 6:27 am, March 21st, 2017 - 38 comments

Bill English should have spoken out to dissociate his party from Price’s archaic views. Why hasn’t he?

What are we America now?

Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, March 20th, 2017 - 58 comments

Last night ONE News had an important exclusive on Syrian-born Kiwis who say they are being subjected to “intrusive and unnecessary searches” at our border, including demands to pass over social media passwords. This needs an investigation, and if some officers are crossing the line, it needs to be dealt with quickly.

Fix our tax law!

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, March 20th, 2017 - 128 comments

Multinationals exploit our tax laws to pay no tax in NZ. Matt Nippert has been doing great work on this, and his latest this weekend on Apple is a powerful example. Planned changes to our laws don’t go far enough. We need to fix this. What’s the downside? What’s the delay?

The media prepares for Key’s final hurrah

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, March 19th, 2017 - 65 comments

With John Key’s imminent departure from Parliament attempts are being made by the media to sum up his reign as Prime Minister.

Reducing substance abuse – what actually works

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, March 18th, 2017 - 66 comments

If, instead of macho posturing (like the “War on P”), we wanted to actually tackle substance abuse, we would be looking at what actually works. Interesting case study in Iceland.

What’s going on at the BBC?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 18th, 2017 - 7 comments

And now for something completely different.

Andrew Little’s speech on housing

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 pm, March 16th, 2017 - 47 comments

Excellent speech from Andrew Little in Parliament yesterday, on the government’s willful blindness to the housing crisis.

#Trumpcare

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, March 16th, 2017 - 22 comments

The proposed Republican replacement of Obamacare will, surprise surprise, result in lower benefits, reduced coverage and a tax cut for the wealthy.

National’s flawed RMA ripoff still failing

Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, March 15th, 2017 - 13 comments

Maori Party Co-Leader, Marama Fox, is playing hardball over Nick Smith latest attempts to weasel out of commitments on the deeply flawed RMA changes that National has spent the last few years trying to find any support for in Parliament. The bill is crap. The Maori party should just drop it regardless how many baubles they think they will get from it.

Free market efficiency in health – not

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, March 15th, 2017 - 37 comments

The idea of free market efficiency is not nearly as powerful or universal as its (often fanatical) proponents would have us believe. The sorry state of the USA’s health system is yet another compelling example of its limitations.

Call to teach consent in schools

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, March 14th, 2017 - 127 comments

Yesterday evening saw a well attended rally at Parliament to protest rape culture in NZ, and call for the teaching of consent in schools.

RIP Murray Ball

Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, March 13th, 2017 - 10 comments