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It strikes me that the coming welfare reform is less a welfare policy and more another industrial relations policy in drag. That's because it won't just be beneficiaries that suffer under this new regime but the majority of Kiwi workers too. Basic supply and demand…
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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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Apart from Radio New Zealand, which is doing an excellent job as our public broadcaster, and The Press, the media's coverage of the quake has disappointed. It's first job should be to supply needed information to people in the quake zone. Instead, we have this…
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Last week, Treasury issued a press statement saying it had commissioned research on the impact of governments' fiscal stimulus packages, now published in the influential publication the Economic Journal. One article, "Tax policy for economic stimulus and growth", had this to say: The tax change…
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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 is with a great deal of reluctance that I have to actually support Whaleoil on a post about a rather obnoxious website blaming the Christchurch quake on 'depravity'. In between his usual obnoxious style of wanting to gut shoot looters, he actually proposes a…
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I read a book a while back that was set in the near future after what it called the 'Domino recessions' - successive oil shocks had created a series of economic and political crises, each one before the world had recovered from the previous recession.…
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We hear a lot of, frankly, trite comments in times of disaster about how the people affected are 'tough' and a special breed. People are people. But communities can be more resilient in the face of disaster if they have existing civil society organisations to…
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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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Frustration had rightly been growing at the lacklustre leadership of the recovery from Christchurch's September earthquake. Obviously, this new quake is going to require a whole new level of energy and resource. I don't think the government will be so negligent as to go at…
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When I looked at Geonet this morning, I found this image mapping the velocity of the earth movements in the 6.3 magnitude Lyttelton quake. It is astonishing - click the image for an expanded view. With ground accelerations of up to 220% of earth's gravity…
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guest post - QoT There's a hard truth to NZ politics at the moment. It's not one people like to think about, it's not one people readily accept, and it's not one that gives Labour/the Left any actual tools to dismantle the shitty state we're…
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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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They're doing a fantastic job. The Civil Defence centre, the police, the ambulance services, the firemen, the hospitals, the army, the search and rescue specialists, the social services - they're all part of the bureaucracy, as are all those who provide their back office support.…
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Radio New Zealand are reporting that Hone Harawira and the Maori Party have decided to go their separate ways after the Maori Party disciplinary committee recommended he be thrown out. In a more peaceful resolution than the acrimony that has surrounded their dispute, they have…
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The Welfare Working Group wants to get poor women to breed less by offering them free long-term contraception. Jeez, I know this is all an exercise in proposing extreme options along with less extreme ones to make the less extreme ones appear moderate when the…
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Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has appeared on TV saying he will die a martyr in Libya, rather than flee into exile in the face of gathering protesters. The scale of the loyalist military's response to the protests seems to be intensifying, while evidence of more…
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We all know by now that the new earthquake has created massive destruction and loss of life in Christchurch. Once again, the emergency services and the people have performed admirably. Help is on the way from around New Zealand and overseas. The physical, economic, and…
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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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With everyone quite rightly focussed on the destruction in Christchurch, the Maori Party have kicked out Hone Harawira and cancelled his membership. The Te Tai Tokerau part of the Maori Party were already angry over a lot of things, most recently their not being told…
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Christchurch has been hit by another serious earthquake. Reports are pretty thin on the ground but it seems to have been 6.3. I've been told by family down south that it felt bigger than the September quake. Here's hoping that everyone is okay. update: not…
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It looks like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi will be the next dictator to fall to the wave of protests and revolts sweeping the Arab world. The military initially sided with the regime and fired on the protesters, killing hundreds. But the loyalty of the security forces…
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National's grand plan for the economy in the age of peak, peak food, and climate change: lets give tax cuts to the rich and take from the poor. It's classic Nat class war. They want to force 100,000 people off the benefit in the ludicrously…
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From Sue Bradford: Aucklanders - the fight back against the worst recommendations in the Rebstock report starts now. Join us - Auckland Against Poverty - in a picket, 2pm today outside Work & Income, Sel Peacock Dr, Henderson. Sorry for the late notice. I will…
benefits class war employment notices poverty unemployment welfare
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Audrey Young reports that John Key is trying to soften the ground for some "unpopular concessions" in the TPP arrangement. He was speaking at the US-NZ Partnership Forum in Christchurch - an event sponsored by Warner Brothers. A free trade agreement with the US could…
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Monday 21 Feb: Key apologises over handling of BMW purchase Prime Minister John Key has apologised over the handling of the purchase of 34 ministerial BMWs. ... “The whole thing has been sloppy and frankly, the public deserves better,” he said. “I’m not going to…
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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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Look past the tattered remains of Brand Key and the Nats have not changed in the past 20 years. They still don't have a clue how to create a wealthier New Zealand but they know how to hurt people. As in the 1990s, they are…
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Aren't our MPs, and ex-MPs, a rich and diverse bunch of people? I find it endlessly fascinating, the sorts of issues on which they choose to spend their time and energy. Take ex ACT MP David Garrett. (Far away - take him - please!) Apparently…
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Overnight carers have won the right to be paid at least the minimum wage for time when they are not working and free to sleep, as well as when they need to provide care to their charges in the middle of the night. National seems…