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Mark Ames has a very good analysis of the "Rally to Restore Sanity" over at the exiled in which he points out exactly how liberal individualism has decimated itself (and I recommend you read the whole damn thing): It’s the final humiliating undoing of Enlightenment…
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There was in interesting snippet in The Herald on Thursday: NZ scores fifth place in world prosperity stakes New Zealand has been ranked the world's fifth-most-prosperous country, with the highest level of education and civil liberties, by an international think-tank. That plays well to our…
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Now the dust has settled on the Hobbit fiasco and it's become clear the issue was tax breaks all along the media have done a very good job of post-fiasco analysis. On Wednesday it was clear this was all about the money. Bryan Rudman went…
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How poorly have the Nats run the economy? Between 1999 and 2009, the economy grew by $8 billion a year. It's so bad now the Prime Minister kowtows to foreign capital. Hands over $33 million and our sovereignty because of a hollow threat to take…
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Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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It's a strange world we live in when comedians step out of the box and become the best political interviewers that America has to offer. But so it goes! Here is Jon Stewart interviewing President Obama. Actually, damned if I can get video embedding to…
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Seems like the Maori Party conference is off to a rocky start. Likely to get even rockier as they move on to the main event, the vexed foreshore and seabed situation. The Maori Party, even within its parliamentary wing, is divided on the issue. It…
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After the Hobbit debacle, no-one can fail to understand the power that those who control capital exercise in a capitalist economy. The system is set up for them, hence the name, and their power is never stronger than during recessions. Unionised film workers tried to…
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Neither major party has a particularly proud record on encouraging transparency with respect to MPs' spending. But The Greens certainly got something moving last year: MPs' expense accounts are likely to be opened to public scrutiny after a face-saving move by Prime Minister John Key…
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Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Charles Chauvel made a very good point about the Hobbit Enabling Act that National pushed through Parliament on Warner Bros' instructions and National's lawmaking practice in general last night. The HBA says that the provision that all film workers are contractors "does not apply if…
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Another 5-second film. Joyce might want his holiday highway Road of Personal Significance but has he considered the benefits of buses for crime fighting? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAK1t2afjQ Also, you know Dino Comics, eh? Ryan North, the author, wrote a book with some other web humorists called 'Machine…
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This post was initially going to concern itself with the recent death of Nestor Kirchner. But then I decided that rather than concentrating on the person, it would be better to concentrate on political contexts he helped develop and comment on those vibrant ongoing dynamics.…
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It takes a lot to screw up a great country like New Zealand. It can't be done overnight. But if you're really negligent, anti-worker, and focused on hand outs to the rich, you can start to make things worse pretty quickly. Let's look at the…
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I'm confused by the up beat coverage of the tourism figures released on Wednesday. Have people actually read the numbers? Total tourism spending was up 2.1% in the year to March. But that's before inflation. After inflation it was flat. International tourism sector, the part…
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Much like the ongoing earthquake aftershocks in Canterbury, the rumblings following on from the tumultuous Hobbit wrangling are going to echo on for some time yet. Today we learn just how extreme some of the anti-union nutters in our country are: Death threats fly over…
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Pity Anne Tolley. She is required to hold two completely contradictory views in her head. The first is that our education system is terrible, in disarray, in need of reform. In particular our primary school education is so broken that "one in five children" is…
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Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Wellington's Embassy theatre hosted the New Zealand premiere of the Ring movies a few years ago. There's another good movie showing there now. It comes from the producer of "Calendar Girls" and is called "Made in Dagenham". It tells the story of women sewing machinists…
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I'm not sure exactly why the government is changing employment law today. They claim it's to provide certainty to Warners but there are a couple of things to note about the bill: It stops film workers from taking drawn out and expensive legal action to…
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During the whole sorry Hobbit saga two commentators stood out well clear of the pack for the depth of their coverage and the accuracy of their insight. Those commentators were our own Irish Bill, and Scoop's Gordon Campbell. As the dust settles today Campbell has…
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The last Labour government introduced 20 hours free early childhood education. It's a resource that many parents have since come to rely on, taking some pressure off household budgets as every other cost seems to keep on going up and up. Well, don't get too…
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The Supercity legislation imposed on Auckland without referendum, ECan abolished, the 90-day law imposed on workers without a select committee process, CERRA slammed through making Gerry Brownlee dictator, The Rugby World Cup Empowering Act, and, now, the Hobbit Enabling Act to be rushed through today…
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Q. What were the actors asking for? A. Actors in NZ are usually employed as independent contractors. They have a set of guidelines (The Pink Book) which set out the standard conditions for the employment of actors, but this is a guideline only and not…
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Select committees are very important parts of the Parliamentary process. They take Bills that have gone through first reading, hear submissions, and recommend alterations. Ministers do not (usually) sit on them and they are not meant to be mere rubber stamps for the government. But…
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There was some expenditure that didn't qualify under the old scheme...We've looked to broaden that out. John Key on Warner Brothers, 27 Oct 2010
capitalism caption contest film International tax welfare workers' rights
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Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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The Government will give the Hobbit producers an extra $33 million (USD$25 million) to stay in New Zealand (just above the prediction I made the other day) and it's going to use this 'crisis' as an excuse to slam through more anti-worker laws. New Zealand…
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John Key will be making announcement on The Hobbit this evening, with a press conference due to be held at 7.20pm. Will update this post after the announcement. Make your predictions! Here's my prediction. Key will roll over and sell New Zealand's employment law for…
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As foreshadowed by a comment here yesterday, Matt McCarten is chucking his hat into the ring for the Mana by-election. This is a typically gutsy move by McCarten, who announced only recently that he has "the killing kind of cancer". Facing such a struggle, some…