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Social issues

Categories under Social issues

Paid parental leave bill progress towards anti-democratic veto

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, May 26th, 2016 - 49 comments

Sue Moroney’s bill to extend paid parental leave passed its second reading last night – bravo to all those who supported it! The Nats’ threat to veto is profoundly anti-democratic, overriding the will of Parliament.

Bennett’s housing “announcement” is a re-announcement and a lie

Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, May 25th, 2016 - 140 comments

Paula Bennett’s “big” housing “announcement” today is a re-announcement with a twist of lie.

Newshub poll – Key’s government has failed on housing

Written By: - Date published: 3:10 pm, May 25th, 2016 - 48 comments

Quite apart from falling to his lowest level ever as preferred PM, the Newshub poll had more bad news for King John.

The Government thinks that poverty is the fault of the poor, and some budget advisers

Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, May 25th, 2016 - 121 comments

The Government is planning to change funding for budgeting services and to require providers to become “financial mentors” rather than “budgeting advisers” as if this will improve things.

Bennett admits she was wrong

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, May 25th, 2016 - 18 comments

Paula Bennett has basically apologised to Parliament for claiming that National would create 3,000 new social housing beds when all that it was doing is funding existing beds to make sure they did not disappear.

Budget choices – ignoring domestic violence refuges

Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, May 25th, 2016 - 7 comments

Green Party MP Jan Logie: “The Government has made it clear that more funding for refuges will not be in this week’s Budget.”

Another strong piece from Little

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, May 24th, 2016 - 36 comments

Andrew Little had an excellent piece in The Herald yesterday: “It’s always about choices, and National has made some terrible ones”.

Nick Smith 0.75% successful on Auckland housing!

Written By: - Date published: 7:18 am, May 24th, 2016 - 27 comments

One year later Nick Smith has delivered three quarters of 1% of his promised 430 ha of new Auckland housing land. The Brighter Future strikes again.

Latest Roy Morgan Poll

Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, May 23rd, 2016 - 105 comments

The Latest Roy Morgan poll result has been released with both National and Labour recording a significant improvement in support.  But Winston is still the king maker …

Grant Robertson’s pre-budget speech

Written By: - Date published: 11:08 am, May 23rd, 2016 - 31 comments

Grant Robertson has just delivered his pre-budget speech. One takeaway message: “Labour’s finance spokesman Grant Robertson says Labour will set out a tax package before the 2017 election to set out how it will raise revenue to address issues in education, health and housing”.

Budget 2016 – the real deal

Written By: - Date published: 3:42 pm, May 22nd, 2016 - 11 comments

Each budget day the CTU produces an analysis based on what it means for working New Zealanders.

You can register for your copy here.

Andrew Little’s pre-budget speech

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, May 22nd, 2016 - 170 comments

“If there is one thing I am clear on it is this: the next Labour government will not tolerate poverty in New Zealand in the 21st century.”

Structural injustice

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, May 22nd, 2016 - 54 comments

Structural injustice alive and well in NZ.

Dodgy Niue deal back in the headlines

Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, May 21st, 2016 - 200 comments

Good of the hotel to keep the Nats’ dodgy deal in the headlines. Andrew Little has called their bluff – of course.

All aboard the charter schools gravy train

Written By: - Date published: 7:34 am, May 21st, 2016 - 32 comments

Charter schools are pretty nice work if you can get it, no wonder groups are lining up. But there’s no evidence that they are good for education.

Petition to forgive emergency accommodation debt

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, May 20th, 2016 - 18 comments

A petition: “As Minister of Social Development we call upon Minister Anne Tolley to urgently forgive all debts incurred by people who have been forced to stay in Motels as emergency accommodation….”

Incoherent, unfair and unaccountable

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, May 20th, 2016 - 48 comments

That is how officials from the Ministry of Social Development described the emergency housing system to Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett – a year ago. What has Bennett done in the year since?

We’re going to burn it all, until we burn it down.

Written By: - Date published: 12:11 am, May 20th, 2016 - 173 comments

What does it really mean to reduce NZ’s total fossil fuel use by 50% by 2030: a warm up discussion for an upcoming thought experiment.

Portugal

Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, May 19th, 2016 - 114 comments

There are bits of good news out there, but there’s a lot of denial around the mess we’re in.

Vernon Small on Key’s fiscal Tardis

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, May 19th, 2016 - 21 comments

Small: “Only this week Prime Minister John Key managed to spend one, save it and outline a plan to give it back to taxpayers all at the same time.”

Glib words and false hope aren’t going to cut it

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, May 19th, 2016 - 151 comments

This is a massive market and moral failure. The problem isn’t going to go away, it’s going to get worse, and the media are going to stay on the case. Time for National to borrow some more Labour / Green policy thinking.

Labour would legalise medical cannabis

Written By: - Date published: 5:26 pm, May 18th, 2016 - 99 comments

On Stuff: “Little said cannabis products should be available to anyone suffering chronic pain or a terminal condition if their GP signed off on it.”

Government’s plan for housing crisis: tread water

Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, May 18th, 2016 - 54 comments

The Government’s promised funding for 3,000 new beds for the homeless will not create any but will make sure that existing beds are kept available.

Homeless coverage goes international

Written By: - Date published: 2:52 pm, May 17th, 2016 - 97 comments

Coverage of Auckland’s homeless goes international. The working poor are now the working homeless.

The hidden homeless and the speculators

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, May 16th, 2016 - 44 comments

Speculators keep buying houses while families live in garages and cars. This is a moral failure, a leadership failure, a market failure – it is every kind of failure.

Economic Leadership

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, May 15th, 2016 - 19 comments

The Reserve Bank is doing more for New Zealand than the National Government.

75% of group discussion is dominated by men

Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, May 12th, 2016 - 221 comments

But how do they achieve that? Watch and Learn The online version is written bullying. The patronising part is the same.    

Land tax – what’s the down side?

Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, May 12th, 2016 - 75 comments

The Nats are using spurious data to justify dropping a proposal for a land tax on foreign buyers of housing. Why?

Random impertinent question: Why did Cameron get diversion?

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, May 11th, 2016 - 32 comments

Why did the police offer Cameron Slater the soft option of diversion when he doesn’t qualify?

Hickey on Housing data

Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, May 11th, 2016 - 26 comments

“Mr Hickey said the actual figure for foreigners buying homes here could be anywhere between 3 and 48 percent.”

Broken

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 pm, May 9th, 2016 - 253 comments

The Standard is broken. We are not a safe place for women. How do we fix that?