Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, January 6th, 2023 - 116 comments
* or is it?
Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, November 20th, 2022 - 69 comments
2023 is going to hit New Zealanders hard. Since the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes New Zealand has been beset by a new major crisis about once every two years. 2022 was our year off and get ready we are in for a strange and hard recession.
Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, November 5th, 2022 - 86 comments
National’s recent press releases show that its approach to politics will be relentlessly negative, with no idea of what it will do as an alternative or how it will fund changes.
Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, November 2nd, 2022 - 148 comments
Chris Luxon has avoided answering this question so far but he needs to be asked continuously about it. Is it fair that he as Prime Minister would receive under National’s proposed tax cuts a tax cut of $349 per week while a minimum wage worker would receive only $2.15 per week
Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, October 27th, 2022 - 43 comments
Yesterday was a big day for the Progressive movement in Aotearoa New Zealand as the Fair Pay Agreements Bill made its way through Parliament. Many should be thanked but especially Michael Wood and Helen Kelly.
Written By: - Date published: 12:34 pm, October 24th, 2022 - 13 comments
Enjoying your weekend? Thank a unionist!
Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, October 3rd, 2022 - 36 comments
A list of improvements in workers’ rights that Labour has been able to achieve since gaining power in 2017.
Written By: - Date published: 3:37 pm, September 15th, 2022 - 47 comments
Ken Douglas was a big man, in every sense of the word, and a great man, deeply involved in his community right through his life, from the Drivers’ Union to the Porirua City Council.
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, September 13th, 2022 - 50 comments
The Government has announced that we will all have a day off to commemorate the life of Queen Elisabeth. Act has come out against it on the basis that we are in a cost of living crisis, even though the adverse effect on workers and the poor is essentially nil and even though there is analysis that suggests that holidays are good for the economy.
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, August 30th, 2022 - 33 comments
Last night a 4,761 word rant was published on Gaurav Sharma’s facebook page. In it he details information which on the face of it may have breached confidentiality requirements. And the overwhelming effect of the allegations is Meh.
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, August 15th, 2022 - 101 comments
Recent incidents involving Labour MP Gaurav Sharma are evidence of poor relationships with staff and not anything more sinister.
Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, August 14th, 2022 - 76 comments
With recent allegations of bullying of staff hitting the media it is important to understand the relationship between a Member of Parliament and their Parliamentary Services staff.
Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, August 5th, 2022 - 56 comments
Energy costs, supply line issues, worker rights.
Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, August 4th, 2022 - 57 comments
Hot on his confusion of Hawaii with Te Puke Christopher Luxon’s has dropped a couple of new clangers by admitting then denying that National will not increase health funding at least by the rate of inflation and then by displaying his class prejudice by saying people are not going to get rich on welfare.
Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, July 12th, 2022 - 124 comments
Anyone else getting tired of the media presenting the fact that New Zealand essentially has full employment is a very bad thing?
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, June 25th, 2022 - 30 comments
In the UK Rail Maritime and Transport boss Mick Lynch has caused a media sensation by strongly and clearly advocating for workers rights as the Conservative Government aims to deal with inflation by eroding further workers wages and job conditions.
Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, June 24th, 2022 - 73 comments
Plenty of experts will tell you about what Matariki ‘means to us’. Here’s what it means to Ardern.
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, June 13th, 2022 - 10 comments
BusinessNZ’s attempt to put New Zealand on the ILO naughty list because of fair pay agreements has failed.
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, May 17th, 2022 - 18 comments
Business NZ has claimed that the proposed Fair Play legislation breaches International Labour Law and that the International Labour Organisation agrees with it. But its claims appear to be on the wrong side of what we could politely describe as the truth.
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, April 29th, 2022 - 157 comments
The tide of this government is running out. There’s 18 months left in the term. What would you save?
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, April 26th, 2022 - 45 comments
Jack Tame’s interview of Chris Luxon on Q&A suggests that the post leadership change honeymoon may now be over and that Luxon does not really understand how difficult a job being Prime Minister would be.
Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, April 6th, 2022 - 15 comments
You get to a point – and Ardern must be close – where the most you can do is hang on.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 22nd, 2022 - 31 comments
Christchurch Council has billed Destiny Church for traffic management fees relating to recent protests. For once I am firmly if reluctantly on the side of Destiny Church. Exercising the right to protest should not attract Council bills.
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, February 15th, 2022 - 16 comments
It sounds like the Industrial and Trades sector of the economy has had a significiant wage rise over the last year. While we wait for the wages stats data, this is an interesting indicator. The national median hourly pay in the sector is now $27 an hour, up $2 from 2020/21. But this isn’t just here, the world labour market is shifting just as the supply chains are.
Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, February 2nd, 2022 - 107 comments
With Ardern getting a good-old media beat-down, remember here’s how to change a country for good like no one else but Labour can.
Written By: - Date published: 7:05 pm, January 8th, 2022 - 12 comments
The Helen Kelly biography by Rebacca Macfie provides a clear and intense overview of what has happened to New Zealand society over the past 40 years from a time of high union membership and equality to now where unions struggle and inequality is significant.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, December 28th, 2021 - 2 comments
What Starts off in Support of Alabama’s Miners turns into a homily from Beau on the power of getting community change going when and only when you have the organisational power to pull it off month after month after month.
Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, December 24th, 2021 - 12 comments
Fear and loathing on both sides of the fence, or adaptation and resiliency? We do have some choices.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, December 13th, 2021 - 14 comments
The draft report into Nick Smith’s treatment of a young staff member that eventually saw him leave Parliament has made its way into the public realm, just in time to be lost in the pre Christmas media wash up.
Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, December 11th, 2021 - 48 comments
BusinessNZ and Federated Farmers have this week attacked the Government for intending to implement policy designed to improve the plight of poorly paid workers.
Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, November 24th, 2021 - 120 comments
Remarkably low Covid death and infection rates, good and improving vaccination rates, low unemployment and debt to GDP …
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