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Westpac has this ad campaign about how they're doing their bit to reduce their environmental impact. The dumb thing is they make begin green appear unattractive. You know the ads. The kid trying to get the idiot dad who works at Westpac to be…
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Here's something to look forward to New Zealand. Another round of that trumped up little egotist stirring racist populism to get himself in the news.
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Over at Red Alert, Darien Fenton tells the story of just one of the thousands of workers currently being laid off without redundancy compensation. Really brings home how important it is for the Government to back the Redundancy Protection Bill: Tanya has worked for Chong…
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Last night, Sandra Goudie, the big-mouth of the National Party caucus, said the words out loud that the Nats usually keep in their heads. During the debate on the Supercity, one of the Labour MPs was talking about the success of Maori seats in the…
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Two chilling articles from last week's Guardian Weekly just finished, both about the consequences of the world's water getting warmer faster than expected. The Greenland ice sheet is melting, "far faster than the climate models predicted and far more decisively than any political actions to…
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Gerry Brownlee in Question Time yesterday. He's asked a question, just sits there and refuses to answer. Doesn't even open his mouth, just sits there with a smug look on his face. Lockwood, out of his depth like always, just ignores the rules to cover Brownlee's arse.…
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Pete Hodgson is continuing to chip away at English's ministerial allowance story. English looks very uncomfortable as Brownlee and Key cover for him. To my mind, this is yesterday's crucial exchange: Hon Pete Hodgson: If the Hon Bill English has no pecuniary interest in his ministerial…
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WTF is this? I mean look at it. It's got to be the worst website I have ever seen and I've been around since well before the web existed. More to the point, how did this get up? What kind of process could possibly have…
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It never ceases to amaze me what short term thinkers National are. The plan (with the Maori Party) to gut the ETS highlights this issue very starkly. For the sake of short term appeasement of their backers in the polluting industries National are prepared to…
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Again, National has put the House into urgency to slam through unpopular legislation. This time, it's the Supercity legislation. National whinges that it has to use urgency to pass legislation that could be passed anytime in the next months because they only get 17 hours…
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Last week I wrote: We're seeing a new pattern in work relations emerging. The big employers, emboldened by having their party in power and using the recession as an excuse, are attacking workers' pay and conditions. Now, on the same day Talley and National-linked Open…
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National has announced that it will begin offering to sell 3,800 state houses to tenants living in them on market rents. I don't automatically oppose selling state houses but there needs to be four conditions: Housing NZ must use all revenue from sales to buy…
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The Wall Street financiers crapped out on their sub-prime gambles, inflicting economic devastation on the taxpayers who generously bailed-them out in return. Now, they need a new gamble, a new game in which they bet using other people's money while skimming off the cream for…
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National seems to be making a bit of a habit of shafting the taxpayer. Before the election we were promised significant tax cuts, "North of $50" per week. We had John Key's personal guarantee. Key said "New Zealanders will be able to believe our tax…
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By Rob Salmond It sounds like Phil G did a great job at Labour's conference setting out where the party should go from here. Unfortunately, his KISS message didn't get to all attendees. Labour apparently now wants to propose modifications to MMP, including more electorate…
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Hot Topic has obtained a copy of a draft memorandum of understanding for a meeting on the ETS that was meant to take place today. It shows that Labour was prepared to do more to help compensate polluters for the costs they would have faced while…
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Some good comments from CTU president Helen Kelly in the Dom today on the Government's posturing over MP pay increases. "The Government is trying to make a hero out of anybody who doesn't get a pay increase, and I'm worried about that because there are…
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A few important passages from the special select committee report on the Emissions Trading Scheme: In the long term, price caps stand in the way of market development and shield business from the real price of carbon to the economy...[National and United Future] recommend to…
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What a lot of people don't seem to understand is that an emissions trading scheme has two points: 1) encourage reductions in emissions 2) allocate the cost of emitting. The ETS does not, ultimately, create the price on carbon for New Zealand. That is created…
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Nick Smith has just announced a deal with the Maori Party to replace the existing Emissions Trading Scheme with a do-nothing joke. The new ETS will allocate polluting rights (carbon credits) free to polluters for the first years and then at a low capped price thereafter. Agriculture,…
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Drinking Liberally is on again in Auckland this Wednesday, with guest speaker Lewis Holden of the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand speaking about their new book, The New Zealand Republic Handbook. When: 7pm, Wednesday, 16 September Where: Galatos, 17 Galatos St, Newton, Auckland [hat…
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Unexpectedly, a consensus is emerging to keep MMP. A search of the Herald, Stuff and other sites shows that most editorial pages and political commentators are against changing systems, citing MMP as fair and a check on the unbridled power the largest party enjoyed under…
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Have to disagree with Zet's call for Labour to 'just put it away' on the remit to conference calling for subsidised condoms in shops to help reduce unplanned pregnancies and our high rate of sexually transmitted diseases. Sure, if Labour were putting it up as…
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I am heartened that Phil Goff is trying to work with the Government to address over-investment in residential property. However, I think a capital gains tax is the wrong way to go about it. In my view, the rush to get on the rental property…
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Very good piece by Anthony Hubbard in the Sunday Star Times: The Maori Party is pressuring the government to take tough new anti-smoking measures including a hefty price rise and a ban on retail displays and is calling for a select committee inquiry to "bring…
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From the firefighters' protest against John Key's pay freeze: Really highlights the double standard in a government that tolerates Bill English's rorts then has the cheek to turn around and tell the rest of us to show restraint. On another note, it was interesting to…
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The New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services has released its annual Vulnerability Report. Due to rising unemployment, 219,000 children now live in households whose main income is a benefit- up 20,000 in the past year - and one in six newborns are born into a…
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Finance Minister Bill English has told doctors, teachers, and other public servants that they will not be getting pay-raises when their collective contracts come up for renewal. That is constitutionally outrageous and a big political mistake. Ministers are not allowed to direct public sector pay negotiations.…
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I know this free condoms idea is just a remit, not Labour Party policy, but it's exactly the kind of thing that the right has used to drive a wedge between Labour and it's working-class base. It is a liberal idea that conservatives on the…
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On Thursday Animal Rights Activists did a protest outside the Norwegian Embassy against the fur trade there. This was to support the campaign in Norway, where activists have just released an investigation into 50 fur farms. During the protest a man was observed sitting in…