The release of the candidate donation returns has shown us that the National Party are still rorting the system. However, there are issues for the NZ Labour Party as well. Four MP’s have taken money from sources that do not have the interests of the Labour party or, indeed, the majority of Kiwis at heart. Brassneck or bought and sold?
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 …
John Key has yet again asked the Remuneration Authority to limit the increase in MPs pay. And yet again they have said that the law required them to make the decision they did. So MPs get a hefty raise at the same time that the minimum wage is raised slightly. And the media report Key’s comments sympathetically. He is the Prime Minister. If anyone can change the law he is the person best placed.
David Parker recaps Key’s bluster on his Donghua Liu dinner, and it’s pure comedy.
Its 100 days since the NZ Labour Party elected Andrew Little as its leader. What an inspired decision that has turned out to be! Little has galvanised the party, united the caucus and looks set to be the next PM. How has he turned Labour around?
“The head of the Council of Trade Unions has confirmed she has lung cancer.”
The Electoral Commission has now released individual returns of donations and electoral expenses. And the Donghua Liu donation appears in Jamie-Lee Ross’s return. But the vast majority of electorate campaigns recorded head office donations and the overwhelming impression is that cabinet club donations are collected centrally and then distributed. So what happened with the Liu donation?
New Zealand banks (which are really Australian banks) are REALLY worried for us (oh, and for themselves).
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, we’re off to Iraq. If the answer to ISIS isn’t sending Kiwi troops, what do Standardistas think practical alternatives might be?
EDIT: Key announces 143 troops to go to Iraq and support staff.
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 …
National engages in Auckland’s Gay Pride parade by sending two MPs who voted against marriage equality and an Auckland Councillor who on Facebook calls a young man who pointed this out as a “little c*ck”. Way to blow relations with the gay and lesbian community. Update: And Linda Cooper has apologised, sort of …
One of National’s first five charter schools is a failure, and applications for new charter schools have been cancelled. Who could have predicted such a mess? Just about everybody…
According to some Ngati Whatua wanting to use Okahu Bay for a Mokopuna day has created something of a crisis. Maybe not for us or anyone who is reasonable but for the rednecks and the rabid right.
A new review of compensation for David Bain. Another fine mess courtesy of Collins/Slater and National.
An alternative view to Te Reo Putake’s proposal that Labour should support Winston Peters in the Northland by election. I believe that Labour should stick to its current plan and endorse Willow Jean Prime.
Sometime in the next few days, Winston Peters will announce whether or not he will stand in the Northland by-election. He should run unchallenged by the left and Labour and the Greens should endorse him for the greater good.
It was announced yesterday that Novopay has cost the country $45 million more than intended. The Ministry of Education has accepted some responsibility but in terms of ultimate responsibility the Ministers involved, English, Parata and Foss should be held to blame.
Professor Guy Standing will discuss the ideas in his new book ‘A Precariat Charter; from Denizens to Citizens” in Wellington on Thursday 19 February at St John’s Church Hall, Willis Street at 5:30pm. “Throughout history, class-based revolt has led to the creation of charters of demands, from the Magna Carta to South Africa’s Freedom Charter. It is now time for a Precariat Charter.” All welcome
The Government is planning to make charities pay for police background checks. You can’t make this stuff up!
It might well be in Labour’s best interests to cut the crap now and go into coalition with the National Ltd™ Cult of John Key. It would be the honest thing to do. Kiwis will then know where the boundaries lie and who actually is working to oppose the implementation of the wider neo-liberal ideology.
That may be what it takes to interest charities in becoming “social housing” providers.
So much to sell, so little time… When this Government is finished selling, we will have sold our right to make laws for ourselves too. Be under no doubt, if the effect of bringing in a law for the health and well being of Kiwis will cost a corporate millions of dollars, part of their lobbying after the TPP, will be threatening to sue the taxpayers of NZ and watch such a Bill slip into obscurity. And those corporates wielding that power? Most will never pay a cent of tax into the coffers of NZ taxpayers.
“We are demanding institutions do what is necessary to avert the climate crisis by divesting from fossil fuels. Together, we are making fossil fuels history.”
NZ is again being asked to go to war in Iraq. The Clark Labour Government said no a decade ago, but in 2015 there may be a compelling reason to join the fight; this time it’s the right thing to do. New Standard author te reo putake puts the case for NZ entering the battle against ISIS.
It seems that just as the 30’s offered the chance to turn dreams into reality, Syria is offering that chance up to ‘the left’ today. Suddenly, for me, the recent travel bans and the passport confiscation laws etc make sense since we are potentially looking at an international influx of non-nutters and non- psychopaths as happened during the Spanish Revolution of the 30s.
This morning the Salvation Army released their state of the nation report – A Mountain All Can Climb. It is mixed news, and most coverage has focused on the impact of the housing crisis.
I/S at No Right Turn on the most interesting event at the first session of Parliament for 2015. The Speaker’s actions open up an interesting can of legal worms…
Eighteen months ago Stephen Joyce said about the Sky City Convention Centre deal that anything not written down was not happening. It appears that he was wrong as John Key softens us up for more public money being spent on a private convention centre.
The Salvation Army has all but ruled out being involved in the Government’s Social Housing unless it is provided with capital. And if divestment occurs it considers that tenants should have a role in governance of the houses they live in.
Feinstein Doak has a post up with the Top Political Facebook Posts of 2014, and the results are interesting.
We are in the process of locking in inequality through the intergenerational ownership of housing, thus squeezing more and more mobility out of society.
It has been claimed that Andrew Little has advocated for Maori to have law making powers. What he has done is reflect on a recent Waitangi Tribunal decision which concluded that Maori never ceded sovereignty to the Crown and properly concluded that this is an issue that needs to be considered.
The only person to receive 100% in the world for her work was a young kiwi with only two years background. Read more […]
