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The Government have been pushing a line that Christchurch is holding us back as an economy. The poor people of Christchurch are to blame for all our woes apparently, with their earthquake. We shouldn't blame National, just Cantabrians. But it's not true. Since the earthquake…
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Weekend social is for non political chat. What's on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can't we all just get along?
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The 3 most expensive items in the Budget: 1. $10.24 billion (more than 1/8th of whole budget): Superannuation (problem growing 6.8% this year alone, and unaddressed) - and we could add another $673 million for the unfunded liability hidden in the accounts. 2. $3.69 billion:…
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A total of 68,000 children who do paid work will lose their tax refunds...:
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Can't be a good sign for Key that the media are starting to ask if there is a plan: John Key: We do have a plan Prime Minister John Key has denied his Government does not have a plan for growing New Zealand's economy following…
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With enough conditioning, our psyches will adapt to believe almost anything. Like that pain is good. What chills me the most about this is not just that 1 in 3 people believe that they should be made to suffer for some 'greater good' that they…
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In his Budget speech, David Shearer labelled John Key 'Mr Australia'. Because that's where he's pushing us. The zero hope budget offers a thousand and one nasty little cuts for students, for kids, for low-income workers, for schools, for community groups, for your public services.…
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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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As expected Bill English has served up a budget with no greater focus than reducing a government deficit that really doesn't matter much at all. Of course he's doing this at the expense of a whole lot of things that do matter - our kids'…
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Zero = Fail. Four years of economic stagnation. Four years of failed promises, we've heard them all before. While waiting for budget details, try this background reading: A series of excellent posts on GDP by Rob Salmond at Pundit: Lies, damned lies, and National party…
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David Shearer, with Shane Jones' support, has stood Jones down and asked the Auditor-General to investigate his handling of Bill Yan's citizenship affair. It sets a new, high standard. Whether Jones was right or wrong, he at least has a coherent story and there's no…
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The latest piece from Bryan Gould should be compulsory pre-budget reading for pundits. Here's the first few paragraphs: Bryan Gould: Austere Budget adopts blind 'Greek-lite' outlook The Budget, Bill English tells us, will provide a further step towards a strong long-term economy. That step is…
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This year's budget has been quite unlike any others. Coming off a nightmare few months for the government of Nick Smith, asset sales hikois, SkyCity scandals, rising unemployment, John Banks etc etc their pre-budget announcements were greeted with anger at what they're cutting, not approval…
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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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So Key is 'surprised' that David Shearer, the local member for Eden Park, accepted tickets to a local game, and doesn't feel beholden to corporate interests? He can accept hospitality and still criticise a company is somehow shocking? I think this tells us more about John,…
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Oh - John Key and his crocodile tears: Mr Key says Mr Jones now has to answer, why did he ignore his officials? "I just can't answer the question of why he said yes, when the officials told him to say no. He must have…
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Bill English has introduced a number of stealth taxes over his time in office, to partly balance the loss his tax cuts for the rich has generated. The latest in this budget will be prescription costs and raising the price of Early Childhood Education (again). …
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The Service and Food Workers Union is launching a campaign for a living wage at 12 o'clock today. The launch is at St Stephen's Church in Ponsonby, and will be a colourful, musical event with speakers from clergy, budgeting services as well as unions. They'll…
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Perhaps a little bored with the multiple National / ACT self-inflicted fiascos, the media (and the braying right-wing blogs of course) have been bleeding plenty of ink over Shane Jones' actions in granting citizenship to a decidedly dodgy Chinese immigrant. Jones hasn't really put his…
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It's great that foreign fishing vessels in New Zealand waters will now be required to be flagged here and, in theory, will be subject to New Zealand law. But I reckon that abuses of those crews is only half the problem. The other problem is…
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National has undershot every one of its growth promises. I bet that doesn't stop them promising big tomorrow. ($33,918m was the quarterly GDP in Q3 2008, immediately before National came to power) Apparently, it's going to be more 'jam tomorrow' with strong growth promised for…
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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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Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here. You've probably heard a lot about the National government's austerity measures, and I know you're probably worrying whether this belt-tightening is really worth it. It's going…
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Don't blame Greece. I was fortunate enough to go to David Parker's pre-budget speech to business people this morning. He coined it his "Greece-proof paper" as he talked through how New Zealand's problems are for our government to solve - rather than just blaming Greece.…
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The government has correctly bowed to pressure and banned foreign-flagged fishing boats from operating in our waters. We don't have too many posts praising this government, and to have 2 today may surprise some. But credit where it's due. The labour, safety and fisheries concerns…
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Labour has published its budget website and a video ripping John Key's record of broken promises. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hhYU2K7C5c Right now, John Key is simultaneously blaming Labour for the recession and making excuses for the dismal economic performance of his government by blaming the world economy. And…
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Ko Hikaroroa te mauka Ko Waikowaiti te awa Ko ngā waka ; ko Uruao, ko Araiteuru ko Takitimu hoki Ko Waitaha, Mamoe, Kai Tahu ka Iwi Ko Ka hapū ko Kāti Huirapa, Ko te marae te Puketeraki Ko Pat Newman ahau Tihei Mauriora! Tena…
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It's an interesting fact that the one area in which National is going against its traditional approach and moving towards what the experts advocate is prisons. And I think I know why. In education, health, welfare etc National's ideological positions correspond with cutting spending. But…
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1,376 days ago a handful of us, led by Lynn*, got together to set up The Standard. There was an idea for a strong left-blog to counter the dominance of the Right in the blogosphere. I reckon we've succeeded. We've had 413,000 comments and over…
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Every now and then, as an amateur blogger, I read an article that is so powerful that it makes me wonder why I bother writing at all. Matt McCarten's latest column is one such example. Extracts below. But go read the whole thing. Thank you…
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