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Conservative political types, like our Nats, have an essentially competitive model of the world. Willfully ignoring the massive generational continuity of wealth and power, they ascribe all success to "hard work" and inherent virtue, which "justifies" their indifference towards (or contempt for) those less fortunate…
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There ought to be a question asked of all prospective candidates: 'when is it OK to compare a political opponent to Hitler'. The only acceptable answers: 'when they start killing Jews' or 'when they invade Poland'. Anything else and they don't get to be a…
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The BBC news website's environment correspondent has cheekily shown up that nations inadvertently agreed to immediately stop all CO2 emissions at Rio (by agreeing to "prevent further ocean acidification"), and thus surely it was highly successful... but in reality there is: about 50 uses of…
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3 years ago, a National minister dancing on a flattened boyracer car would have been a PR coup. And certainly that's how National's spin doctors expected it to play out last week. But times have changed. Now, it's being criticised as an unseemly act and…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Seems the Nats' privatisation bill has just passed its final reading. The expected result was 61:60, with Peter Dunne's crucial vote in favour cast in absentia. The Nats short circuited the select committee process and rushed this thing through because they want to get it…
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Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here. John Key must think the New Zealand public have the memory of a goldfish. He's put forward bold plans before, but they…
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After a large number of meetings* around the country in the lead up to the turn off of TVNZ7 at the end of this month, we finally get to the rallies: Wellington 28th June - 12 noon from Civic Sq to Parliament Auckland 30th June…
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That's the Guardian headline. It is designed to give the Tories political momentum, but is late and over budget. The Treasury is resigned to the programme costing money rather than providing savings. The LibDems won't have a bar of it. Critics describe it as "pitch-rolling",…
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National's Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill will do significant damage to local democracy as they seek to restrict councils to "core" services, put in fiscal constraints, put power into fewer hands and override local concerns with amalgamations. Overall the legislation is shoddy. The Regulatory…
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Now we learn that directors' fees are set to double after National sells our assets. Who pays for the fat-cats to get twice the cream for the same work? We do. Through higher power prices. It's just another cost of privatisation that we all pay…
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"More than 20,000 unemployed people will be moved off the benefit within five years if the Government manages to meet its newly announced targets." Yes, but a target isn't a plan. Being out of work increases the risk of poverty, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett…
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National's latest plan to save the country - make another list of targets! Targets that we won't know have been achieved or not until 2018 - National would need to be a 4 term government to ever be held accountable to these targets. Once again,…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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There - "Cameron announces Tory plan to slash benefits." Here - "The Government wants Work and Income to cut the number of long-term beneficiaries on a working-age benefit by 30 percent over five years, Prime Minister John Key has just announced." Probably what the posh…
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You'll really want to know this - the queen has just updated the curtsy order. "Blood princesses" come first, so if William isn't there Kate has to curtsy to Anne, Alexandra, and even Beatrice and Eugenie!!! What is the world coming to, I hear you…
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Everyone knows the "Nanny state" meme. If, heaven forbid, a government should try and reduce energy consumption (carbon emissions, people's power bills and the like) by mandating energy efficient lightbulbs, then a certain kind of political opponent can paint that as "Nanny state", too much…
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This free Fabian Society seminar is on tomorrow Tuesday in Wellington at Connolly Hall in Guilford Street, starting at 5:30pm All welcome; you can register here. Will be interesting.
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The Greens have discovered that National is having world heritage areas in Northland and the West Coast aerial surveyed for minerals. They're exploiting a loophole where some of the heritage areas haven't been included in Schedule 4 of the Conservation Act Crown Minerals Act. The…
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The Right would have us believe that the election was a referendum on asset sales and nothing else. Well, let's take a closer look at the results of that 'referendum'. Yeah, there's no mandate there.
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There is a sociopathic policy of the leadership at ACC, which sees staff financially incentivised to push long-term claimants off ACC leading to many of them going on the benefit rather than getting rehabilitation. Now, we have proof that this policy came right from the…
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National's record on local government is horrific: the lack of consultation as they rammed through the Supercity; the canning of ECAN, and continued suspension of democracy in Canterbury; the pushing of asset sales on an unwilling Christchurch. And their latest attack - the Local Government…
accountability community democracy democracy under attack local government national privatisation
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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One of the (many) areas in which I am woefully uninformed is the The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). It's a “free trade” agreement being negotiated between NZ and 8 other countries (including the USA). What is it going to mean for us? Let's draw together…
accountability capitalism democracy under attack economy International trade
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It's sickening to see rich ministers and columnists saying 'of course we need to green the economy' and then turnaround and promote fossil fuel extraction and agricultural intensification - things that will ultimately wreck the environment and the economy that is built on it. The…
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I'm going to try and put up a piece each Sunday of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It's also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn't…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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That's what we're doing - it's official according to Treasury. It was revealed on Friday at a lunchtime seminar in Wellington with Dr Girol Karacaoglu, recently appointed Chief Economist at the Treasury. The best response came from Dr Geoff Bertram, who asked "What's intelligent about…
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and I'm sick of people telling me how I feel: "Markets have become increasingly concerned that the austerity programmes in the eurozone are causing a vicious circle of recession", and "Markets were confused by mixed messages from European capitals". I have only one word of…
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National pollster and Herald columnist (I know!) David Farrar has revealed what National has up its sleeve for asset sales. No, I'm not talking about how they would put 'mums and dads' at the 'front of the queue', or any such nonsense. I'm talking about…
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