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No Social welfare handouts for multinational corporations

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, November 2nd, 2019 - 98 comments

Rio Tinto is practising further brinkmanship and have reportedly sent in a closure team to assess the viability of Tiwai Point and no doubt seek a Government handout. Is it time to say no and provide cheaper cleaner power to the country instead?

Twitter announces end to paid political advertising

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, November 1st, 2019 - 11 comments

Jacinda Ardern’s campaign against harmful social media has had an effect with Twitter deciding to ban political advertising on the grounds that internet advertising brings significant risks to politics.

Can’t Simon Bridges prove a double negative

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, October 30th, 2019 - 33 comments

Simon Bridges has announced new National Party policy to take benefits off gang members and their families if they can’t prove they don’t have illegal income or assets.

Small start to inflated bullshit.

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, October 29th, 2019 - 14 comments

I was reading one of Chris Trotters reflections which looked at the Corrections Amendment Bill 2018, that just passed its 3rd reading. “Putting The Check In Right-Wing Prisoners’ Mail”. It sounded odd and oddly lacked detail. I came to the conclusion taking press releases at face value without thinking was a very bad idea.

Brittle cities

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, October 29th, 2019 - 10 comments

It is pretty hard to miss a variety of cities around the world going nuts for apparently minor offences.

Truth, boomer memes and the next election campaign

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, October 26th, 2019 - 54 comments

Thanks to Facebook’s lax attitude to fact checking it appears that the next election campaign is going to be a rough one.

Dog whistling Housing Corp tenants

Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, October 25th, 2019 - 29 comments

National has announced that it will put an end to a “state house for life” if it gets into power next year.  But its rationale is not only cruel but based on a faulty understanding of the local reality.

Zero Carbon Bill reported back

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, October 22nd, 2019 - 18 comments

The Zero Carbon Bill has been reported back largely unchanged.  But National has a series of talking points that suggest it will not cooperate with the passage of the bill into law.

NZ First Youth drags party screaming and kicking into 20th century

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, October 21st, 2019 - 24 comments

At New Zealand First’s weekend conference the party’s youth wing has forced the party to rethink its ultra conservative view on pill testing services being offered at festivals.

Why unions won’t give up on Fair Pay Agreements

Written By: - Date published: 7:11 am, October 18th, 2019 - 40 comments

The CTU has launched a campaign to raise awareness about a discussion paper released by the Government on fair pay agreements amongst media comment that government support may not be secure.

Australia gets tough on climate change activists

Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, October 17th, 2019 - 22 comments

Following on from Weka’s post yesterday concerning attacks on the right to protest in the United Kingdom, Australia has also shown a concerning tendency to attack and undermine that most important of rights.

Burning down the house

Written By: - Date published: 5:03 pm, October 15th, 2019 - 28 comments

Why is it that conservative politicians throughout the world engage in rhetorical attacks on laws that in many situations actually serve important purposes?

Goff returned as Super City Mayor

Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, October 12th, 2019 - 30 comments

Preliminary results suggest Phil Goff has been returned as Auckland Super City mayor.

National’s extreme gang rhetoric

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, October 10th, 2019 - 39 comments

National has engaged in some extreme rhetoric concerning gangs which is not reality based.

About the $7.5 billion surplus

Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, October 9th, 2019 - 37 comments

The announcement of a $7.5 billion surplus for the last fiscal year combined with a $5.5 billion surplus the year before proves once and for all that Steven Joyce’s claim of a $11.5 billion deficit in Labour’s costings was bollocks.

National’s plans to torment poor people leaked

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, October 4th, 2019 - 110 comments

National’s plans to torment poor people for political gain have been leaked.

Fonterra, again

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, September 29th, 2019 - 24 comments

Why New Zealand – and its government – need to engage much harder about Fonterra.

Unrelentingly negative

Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, September 26th, 2019 - 29 comments

National has chosen to attack Jacinda Ardern on her trip to New York for doing too much and not enough at the same time.  It seems to be a pattern.

Civilian offers a bleak look at our future.

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, September 26th, 2019 - 13 comments

The Civilian ‘reports’ in “Trump repeatedly asked Ardern if New Zealand gives asylum very often”. Oh shit! We need to reverse National’s large donation policy and proactively and preemptively pass a law against bolthole refugees.

Fairy tales of eternal economic growth

Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, September 24th, 2019 - 67 comments

Greta Thunberg has spoken at the UN Climate Change summit and has warned the world that it is stealing the dreams and hopes of young people through its failure to address climate change.

National’s rhetoric problem

Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, September 21st, 2019 - 19 comments

National has displayed a concerning level of rhetoric this week involving a misrepresentation of the GDP figures and the attacking of a board appointee who cannot respond.

Ihumaatao must be returned to mana whenua says Kiingitanga

Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, September 18th, 2019 - 149 comments

“Mana whenua agree they want their land returned, so they can make decisions about its future.”

Every day New Zealanders

Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, September 18th, 2019 - 20 comments

Simon Bridges thinks that Jacinda Ardern’s international campaign to change the way that social media handles hate speech and terrorism a big talkfest that will achieve nothing, even though Facebook has as a result announced significant changes to its platform.

China, Climate Conference, and New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, September 18th, 2019 - 4 comments

At the United Nations Climate Action Summit next weekend the question may be asked what would happen if China stopped buying Australian coal?

The strange case of Oravida and the rupturing of the Ruakaka jet fuel line

Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, September 17th, 2019 - 16 comments

An independent inquiry has concluded that an Oravida associated company was most likely responsible for the rupturing of a jet fuel line in 2017.

An unfortunate rush to judgment by the media?

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, September 17th, 2019 - 124 comments

A release of information from Labour Council member Simon Mitchell has raised issues about what members of the Labour Party knew about recent sexual abuse allegations and when.

Legitimate target, daft war

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, September 16th, 2019 - 30 comments

The war that Saudi Arabia and its allies has been waging against the Houthi side in the civil war in Yemen took a interesting turn yesterday. Houthi claimed an attack on Saudi oil processing facilities using drone strikes. It is likely to significantly reduce the output of the Saudi exports for a while as the […]

How This Government Can Still Win

Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, September 16th, 2019 - 91 comments

Some suggestions on how Labour can retain power at the next election.

National’s double standard

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, September 15th, 2019 - 100 comments

National has a rather murky past when it comes to dealing with issues relating to the behaviour of its Members of Parliament.

The biggest loser

Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, September 10th, 2019 - 21 comments

Boris Johnson has lost a sixth Parliamentary vote in six days as Britain lurches into a constitutional crisis.

National attacks Labour for not cleaning up National’s mental health crisis quickly enough

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, September 9th, 2019 - 37 comments

National has complained that the Government is not fixing up the problems with the Mental Health system created by National quickly enough.