The Standard

Social issues

Categories under Social issues

The shame of homelessness

Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, January 18th, 2017 - 54 comments

A rich old white idiot, who would only be amused at our anger, has vented about the homeless, in a piece that shouldn’t be rewarded with our clicks.

Love Trumps Hate Festival Wn Sat 21

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 pm, January 17th, 2017 - 1 comment

‘Love trumps Hate’ Festival in Wellington to celebrate democratic values and human rights will take place in Wellington to coincide with President-elect Trump’s inauguration on Saturday 21 January. Civic Square, noon- 2 pm, Saturday 21 January 2017. Details inside

Bradbury should be ashamed

Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, January 16th, 2017 - 149 comments

Martyn Bradbury has hit rock bottom and suggested that Pike River is somehow Andrew Little’s fault.

More Multi-millionaires than ever!

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, January 16th, 2017 - 98 comments

In this glorious  ‘go ahead’, ‘get ahead’ land of opportunity…

The Lighthouse

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, January 14th, 2017 - 19 comments

The lighthouse is a piece of public art recently erected in downtown Auckland. It is to celebrate the institution of the State House and has been paid for by real estate barons.

Trump’s First Press Conference

Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, January 12th, 2017 - 41 comments

You have to say he is not afraid to take on the heavy mob. A very direct attack on Big Pharma – a US version of Pharmac? A very direct attack on the armaments industry’s star program the F-35 fighter-bomber and its cost overruns. Then there is the intelligence community and the mainstream news media.  Read  the transcript for yourself.

Screwing more out of Auckland renters

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, January 10th, 2017 - 12 comments

Already sky-high Auckland rents are set to rise further.

Advertising Standards Authority rules in favour of Greenpeace ad on river quality

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 pm, January 8th, 2017 - 163 comments

The Advertising Standards Authority rejects all 12 complaints about the ad, including one from Dairy NZ. 

The St Johns Industrial Dispute – #HealthyAmbosSaveLives

Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, January 7th, 2017 - 51 comments

St Johns is one of the first organisations to use new Industrial powers brought in by the Government and is attempting to refuse to negotiate with First Union and is docking workers pay for wearing a campaign t-shirt.

A word of thanks

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, January 6th, 2017 - 11 comments

Robert Guyton deserves many thanks for the series of posts he recently wrote for the Standard.

Positive

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, January 2nd, 2017 - 19 comments

This is a difficult concept for the left to address in election year in New Zealand but it’s possible to be positive about 2017.

Briefing Papers: And so this is Christmas…

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, December 23rd, 2016 - 107 comments

Alicia Sudden reflects on Christmas at The Briefing Papers: “Yet this brief annual window excludes the elephant in the room: that this poverty is a consequence of our welfare system failing to provide the support it was intended to.”

Rudman on Nats’ total housing fail

Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, December 21st, 2016 - 196 comments

Rudman: “The Prime Minister, in his role in charge of Housing New Zealand, and Smith have spectacularly failed to solve Auckland’s housing crisis over several years.”

Of Leaks and Hacks

Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, December 20th, 2016 - 24 comments

Maybe the Russians weren’t coming. Or we must believe that “KGB chief Vladimir Putin put Inspector Clouseau in charge of Russian security and left him to get on with it.” George Washington discusses the evidence. Fodder for the net-savvy

Donate to Auckland City Mission

Written By: - Date published: 6:55 am, December 20th, 2016 - 6 comments

Auckland City Mission is calling for donations to meet Christmas demand. You can donate here.

A warning from post-truth Turkey

Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, December 19th, 2016 - 22 comments

A Turkish journalist writes about the “post-truth” collapse of human rights in Turkey, and warns “western” readers that the same thing is happening to them.

What Paula is proud of

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, December 17th, 2016 - 76 comments

Apparently it’s “getting homeless people into homes”. Given the ongoing explosion of homelessness, just think how much scope she has to make herself proud next year…

Housing? A National mess

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, December 15th, 2016 - 97 comments

3 stories from Checkpoint yesterday that add up to a picture of National’s response to housing: waste on unacceptable temporary housing; empty state houses where they’re needed most; and vilify anyone who dares complain.

NRT: Even more expensive

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 pm, December 14th, 2016 - 5 comments

NoRightTurn: The police’s illegal raid on Nicky Hager’s home has got even more expensive

Fare well David Shearer

Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, December 14th, 2016 - 51 comments

This pattern of Kiwi’s exploiting migrants is shameful

Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, December 14th, 2016 - 88 comments

A depressing feature in The Herald this morning explores the exploitation of migrant workers. The same pattern as the private sector’s treatment of foreign students. This paints a shameful picture of New Zealand. Greed has made us forget who we were.

The cusp of something “special” in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 12:47 pm, December 13th, 2016 - 29 comments

Could be that the Auckland property market is turning downwards.

Caption competition

Written By: - Date published: 1:31 pm, December 12th, 2016 - 48 comments

Whaleoil and Rachinger – the final chapter starts

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, December 12th, 2016 - 88 comments

In the Manakau District Court later this morning the trial of Ben Rachinger on fraud charges related to a admitted solicitation attempt to hack this site by Cameron Slater begins. The trial is set down for 5 days. Unfortunately I won’t be there. However there aren’t any court orders to prevent me from expressing my views and advice on the trial.

Cabinet reshuffle – Haere ra McCully?

Written By: - Date published: 9:46 pm, December 10th, 2016 - 31 comments

Bill English gets to name his own cabinet on Monday. It will be interesting to see what happens to McCully. In February McCully announced his intention to stand down in East Coast Bays and that he would seek a list place, but only if he remained as Minister of Foreign Affairs after the next election. It’s an ultimatum he may have cause to regret.

Charter schools fiddling their results

Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, December 9th, 2016 - 110 comments

Charter schools are fiddling their results. Just another example of the way that education for profit is all about profit, with education hardly getting a look in. All of National’s ideological interventions in education are failures.

David Shearer resigning?

Written By: - Date published: 6:56 am, December 8th, 2016 - 167 comments

The Herald has reported that David Shearer is expected to resign, forcing a by election in the new year.

Meanwhile, the Housing Crisis

Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, December 7th, 2016 - 18 comments

Bill English and Paula Bennett won’t be thinking about it this week, but Auckland’s Housing Crisis continues to get worse.

The alt list of the most influential Aucklanders

Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, December 4th, 2016 - 15 comments

And now for an alternative version of the Aucklanders most likely to make a difference to our city but who will not feature in the Herald’s spy column.

Hickey on surpluses and Key’s bullshit

Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, December 4th, 2016 - 36 comments

Bernard Hickey: “It is extraordinary for the Prime Minister to call the Treasury’s short and long term forecasts a “load of nonsense” and yet rely on the medium term ones to promise all manner of riches to voters on the eve of an election.”

Press editorial on failed state house sell-off

Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, December 3rd, 2016 - 11 comments

It’s more than a “dreary lack of ambition”, it’s a deliberate plan to underfund / rundown the stock to “justify” selling off, so that the Nats can indeed “wash their hands” of their obligations.