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Drinking Liberally is returning to the London Bar for a session with Greenpeace Executive Director Bunny McDiarmid. When: 7pm WEDNESDAY 21 October Where: The London Bar, upstairs cnr Queen and Wellesley Streets, Auckland CBD Who: You and like-minded left-wingers. All welcome. What: The climate change…
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Tim Hazledine, a professor of economics at the University of Auckland, has a nice piece in the Herald today that lays out just how absurd National's spin about the ACC "blowout" really is. Suppose you and your spouse are in charge of a family of,…
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John Dalley makes a good point in the comments section of our last ACC post: About now would be a good time for Labour to state publicly that they will do away with private insurers when next in government. I say absolutely right. It would…
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An interesting post from David Farrar calling for National to implement radical rightwing policies while it still has the support to get away with it: The long-term goal is lifting our economic growth. No. As we know, lifting GDP growth is not an end itself,…
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I'm not going to repeat the list of all the things that are starting to make people angry and scared or catalogue the broken promises (privatising ACC fast approaching in National's first term) or go over in fine detail the fact that National are anything…
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With the absolute dearth of informed political commentary in this country it's a breath of fresh air to have Gordon Campbell back from the US. In his latest column at Scoop he makes a good point about the state of our political media: Management. There…
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It seems certain National will begin the privatisation of ACC starting with opening the work account to private competition. As happened in 1998, private insurers will cream off large and low-risk employers with loss-leading special deals to gain market share, leaving the taxpayer to shoulder…
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Before the election National made promises about extra resources to tackle problems in schools: Schools Policy Strengthening the Ladder of Opportunity National is determined to ensure our school system helps every child climb the ladder of opportunity. We will bring New Zealand schools into the…
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We're trying a daily "Open mike". This is a place for anyone to post comments on topics that might be of interest, and for any discussion following up on the comments. Over to you...
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"You can get away with anything, as long as you're respectful about it" - former Maori Party strategist Matt McCarten on National's dealing with the Maori Party. So, another day, another little humilitation for the Maori Party. All that matters to the leaders is that…
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On RNZ's Nine to Noon today Andrew Campbell rips the shit out of National's grotesque mismanagement of the Rugby World Cup fiasco and laments the lack of talent in the PM's staff, all the while Matthew Hooton gently weeps. There's also talk about how despite…
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Pausing for a moment from the steamroller of local politics - here we have some of the significant moments of the last nine years, courtesy of the Guardian. They've put together these images of the '00's. What would a Kiwi version look like?
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Today hundreds of people around the country marched against the cuts to sexual abuse counselling due to be implemented by ACC next week. The protests were widely covered by the media, with excellent coverage by both TVNZ and 3News. I was at the Auckland march…
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Wellington's Drinking Liberally speaker is Celia Wade-Brown. Celia is a sitting Green member of the Wellington City Council, and one of the first announced candidates for the Wellington Mayoralty. With the recent changes to the local governance of Auckland, resulting into amalgamation into a "super-city" -…
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Last Thursday, Colin Espiner was mocking all of us who said that National and other rightwing groups were trying to create a sense of crisis around ACC to soften us up for privatisation: "That somehow this is all just a VRWC* to derail the ACC,…
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Last week, David Parker asked Nick Smith what the "whole-of-life cost to ACC of all new claims" for the last year were. Smith's answer surprised everyone because it made no sense. He told us that claims made last year alone would cost $7 billion over…
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A fascinating interview with the Sir Owen Woodhouse in the Herald today. Sir Owen has led an amazing life - after helping supply Yugoslav partisans fighting the Nazis, he rose through the ranks of our judiciary becoming a Privy Councillor and President of the Court of Appeal, and…
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The current National led government clearly regards the processes of democracy is an inconvenience to which it must pay lip service, but nothing more. The first signs appeared very early, with repeated abuse of the mechanism of urgency. This got to the point that even…
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We're trying a daily "Open mike". This is a place for anyone to post comments on topics that might be of interest, and for any discussion following up on the comments. Over to you...
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As I scanned the stuff website I came across the latest TV3 poll results. Scarcely what I'd regard as cheerful Sunday night reading (National on 59.9%, Labour 27.2%, Greens 6.9% ). But upon reading Duncan Garner's blog I decided that while the sea change might…
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The Sunday Star-Times details hitherto secret proposals from the John Judge-chaired ACC to cut back entitlements and increase user-pays. The hidden agenda: Introduce a $100 excess on every claim. Reduce income compensation from 80% to 70% after one year and 60% after two. Impose a…
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Two readers offer their reflections on our collective reaction to the Aisling Symes tragedy: The Best of Us, The Worst of Us, revealed in Aisling Symes Tragedy Sadly the body of Aisling Symes has been discovered and the means of her tragic death are understood.…
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I think I might have joined the dots in what it is that is causing me such unease about the arrival of Crime Stoppers. Sure, there's the whole 'Big Brother' thing as citizens are rewarded for anonymously spying on their neighbours, colleagues and team mates,…
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Len Brown seems to have the Right in a bit of panic. Remuera Mayor John ‘in your guts you know he's nuts' Banks is speculating that Brown's already toted up $150-$200k of campaign spending. Banks has always been screwy but he seems to have just…
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[Pulling the following comment from Toad in Open Mike up to the front page.] If you are in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or Dunedin tomorrow, please try to find the time to support the protests against ACC's proposed cuts to sexual abuse cover and therapy. There…
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I had a free education. Most of the politicians in this and recent parliaments had a free education. More recent students have not been so lucky. Student loans are a 10 Billion dollar burden on the young. It's crazy - the state spends all this…
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We're trying a daily "Open mike". This is a place for anyone to post comments on topics that might be of interest, and for any discussion following up on the comments. Over to you...
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The Guardian reports today under the headline "Crisis looms in Kabul over Karzai election results:" Frantic diplomacy under way as report looks set to give Afghan president less than 50% of the vote, forcing run-off. Karzai's share of the vote is expected to drop to…
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If we're to believe National's version of events, Pita Sharples kept secret from his colleagues that he was going to take $3 million from a contestable Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) fund meant for job initiatives and give it to Maori TV (MTS) to subsidise their World…
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Fran O'Sullivan's piece today tries to resurrect the 'Key=Obama' line for some reason. She even refers to Obama as Key's 'alter ego'. I'm not quite sure she understands what the term means. Alter egos are like ying and yang, contrasting parts of the same whole.…