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Brian Gaynor: Decline and fall of Kiwi private enterprise In December 1986, all of the 10 largest companies had private sector origins, and most were named after their creators. Top 10 company founders included Ron Brierley, James Fletcher, James Wattie, Bob Jones and Frank Renouf.…
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Statistics NZ succinctly states the scale of the problem in NZ with the aging of the population By 2051, there will be over 1.14 million people aged 65 years and over in New Zealand. This represents an increase of 715,000 or 166 percent over the…
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What provokes a populace to take to the streets in violent uprising? Is it the inexorable power of a demand for justice and democracy? Or is it something much simpler than that... Take the case of the recent "Arab uprising", often claimed (here in the…
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Child abuse. Poverty. Suicide. Our shockingly high rates of all three are a condemnation of this country. Following the release of data by the Chief Coroner, suicide is once again getting some time in the headlines: PM promises to combat suicide The government is seeking…
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Thanks to Wikileaks we now know that Key reckons that all New Zealanders have a "socialist streak". It's attracted a bit of media attention. But I particularly liked a further Key admission yesterday, that cropped up at the end of this acccount: Key stands by 'socialist…
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Dr Campbell Jones (Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Auckland) had an excellent piece in the Dom Post yesterday. Some extracts are below, but the whole article is well worth a read. The secret to making money Who creates wealth? Last month we learned that the "wealth creators" of…
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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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Ok, now we have you in looking at this silly idea. Well it makes Wellywood look pretty darn pathetic and I'm sure that a combination of Peter Jackson and Warner brothers could help John Key drop his pants looking for the spare change to get…
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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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Yesterday William commented to Cuts and Consequences to the effect that who needs policy analyst and that big private companies don't bother with them and so neither should government. I'm paraphrasing a little bit but it did strike me that many people (including it seems some…
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2 and a half years after giving herself the nickname 'Crusher', Judith Collins still hasn't crushed a single boyracer car. Collins says the car-crush laws are working. Boyracers don't want their cars crushed. So they don't break the law. Convenient theory. Pity the stats don't…
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Waihoroi Shortland, the Maori Party candidate in the Te Tai Tokerau electorate, has been warned to "Watch your back, lest it be bitten by the Maori Party dogs". What makes this warning so extraordinary is that the person issuing it is none other than Shortland's…
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Remember Greg Clydesdale? He caused quite a fuss in 2008 when the Dom uncritically ran a frontpage story based on his "research" that concluded Pacific Islanders are a drain on a society who are, amongst other sins, crowding 'our' beaches (dismantled from an academic perspective…
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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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The "authorised by" promoter statement has become a political tool. Intended to prevent anonymous campaigns, now political parties, particularly National, try to find materials that are unambiguously from another party but lacking a promoter statement and try to get them defined as election ads. There's…
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Angry Old White Man Party (ACT) Leader Don Brash is to launch another attack on young people. It's strange that this once significant and principled party has sent its dying days picking the on the young. The latest stupid idea is to remove the minimum…
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The government reckons it can cut the number of public sector workers without cutting services. That wasn’t the experience of the 80s and 90s when vital institutional knowledge and expertise were lost in a frenzy of asset sales, privatisation and brutal job cuts– when public service…
bill english employment jobs national/act government public services
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http://youtu.be/NwgsqhMH3oE h/t http://www.politicaldumpground.com/
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Everyone wants freedom, and everyone wants security. But there's a tension between the two, one person's freedom is another person's risk. Benjamin Franklin was pretty clear where he stood on the issue, in one of his most famous quotes he writes: "They who can give…
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John Hartevelt ran a piece yesterday about National's paint by numbers press releases. The problem here is not with National MPs and candidates using the same words to describe their policies or government spin. It's when they claim, in identical words, to have had information…
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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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Over recent months we have seen sustained attack on the professional autonomy of those working in the tertiary education sector. Most recently the vice-chancellor of one of the University of Auckland, Stuart McCutcheon, is insisting that academic staff be subject to ‘managerial will’ in regard…
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During his disastrous campaign trip to Kapiti yesterday, John Key said the Kapiti Expressway would be paid for by asset sales. Labour will do neither. National won't release the Expressway's benefit-cost ratio but it will cost $500m ($30K per metre). To get it, we would…
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It's interesting to watch the economists flip as the economic system implodes. The most dramatic (and welcome!) NZ example has been Bernard Hickey but many of his colleagues are also throwing off their neoliberal blinkers. In the post below, a former NZ Reserve Bank adviser…
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Has there ever been an election in this country that illustrated such a strong disconnect between substance and style? Voters are clearly still enamored with their image of John Key. He's a well managed media product. He does popular "feel good" stuff like hang out…
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Gareth Morgan and Susan Guthrie's piece in the Herald brilliantly elucidates the crisis of capitalism and the inadequacy of an economic system that only recognises value in work that produces market goods and services. Their book, The Big Kahuna, on their alternative tax system has…
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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...