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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...