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David Shearer was on The Nation on Sunday, continuing to emphasise for us all that he sees absolutely no problem in psychically diagnosing people's health based on their neighbour's greedy, judgemental envy. Per the transcript: And he rejected criticism from his party’s left over his…
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As Split Enz once sang, “History Never Repeats”…. Or does it? With Paula Bennett’s punitive and destructive welfare reforms, many are now contemplating the rise and fall of social security in NZ. They look back to Labour PM Savage and the Social Security Act of…
activism benefits blogs child welfare class war crime greens labour mana paula bennett political alternatives political parties politicans Politics poverty Social issues socialism welfare
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John Key refuses to accept any responsibility for what his spies get up to. The only point of democratic responsibility for our spies doesn't monitor them and won't take the blame for failing to do so. He won't fire a corrupt, lying minister, either. The…
bill english corruption Gerry Brownlee Hekia parata john banks john key police
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My regular Sunday piece 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 fit in anywhere (no linkwhoring). This week:…
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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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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDTT1yRNsFE
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Welcome to Poverty watch, a weekly update on the National government's lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. A lot of background issues and links are set out in Poverty Watch one two and three. In news this week,…
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Labour has written to Key calling for a much wider-ranging investigation into the Dotcom spying affair than Neazor's narrow, tell-us-nothing-we-don't-already-know report. They would have been better to go straight to the Auditor-General. The Greens have gone for the established illegality and called in the cops…
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I originally wrote about this way back in February 2011, and though the political landscape has changed since then, the point still needs to be made: the Left, specifically Labour, cannot focus on a narrow pure economic set of arguments and expect to get majority support. It's the…
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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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Show us the jobs, John This week, miners from the state-owned company Solid Energy came to Parliament asking the Government to help save their jobs. I was there with other Labour MPs to welcome and support them. Unfortunately their plea was rejected in a decision…
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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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I was reading an article looking at the aftermath of the Rena shipwreck in the Herald. In it I read some ridiculous statements by Gerry Brownlee that seemed (like so much from him) to come from the early part of the last century. It appears…
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Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce has launched a broadside against the environmental opponents of the privately owned Denniston mine project. To do this Stephan Joyce has tried to draw a bow linking those who wish to stop the opening of the Dennistion mine, with the…
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The early effects of climate change are now here, and in some respects the situation is deteriorating more rapidly than the models predict. We're already facing the costs. But because of our stupid, short sighted political systems, we don't have the capacity to respond to…
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Chief Ombudsman Dame Beverley Wakem has done us all a favour with her comments government privacy: Top-level alarm over secrecy trend Attempts to keep information confidential highly dangerous, Chief Ombudsman says. The Ombudsman's Office has warned of "highly dangerous" moves by the Government to keep…
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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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Oversight of a nation's security agencies is vital to democracy. Our government's spies are overseen by two people - the Prime Minister and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. According the to government narrative, the former asked the latter to investigate he found out the…
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I have been following National's new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearing, the board of inquiry is considering an application by New Zealand King Salmon for a plan change and resource consents so it can create nine new fish farms in areas of the Marlborough Sounds…
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When I first started studying economics at Uni the tutor told us that:- Economics is the study of the distribution of scarce resources This seems reasonable but then we started studying the distribution of money and how to make a profit which didn't. Resources are…
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The UK and USA make for interesting case studies in their differing responses to the global recession. Cameron's Conservative government opted for austerity - huge cuts to the public sector. Based on the (loony) theory of "expansionary austerity" this was supposed to lift the economy…
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Professor Peter Davis will present a seminar asking what does social democracy have to offer in addressing our current discontents (loss of sovereignty, emigration of some of our best and brightest, commodity-dependent standard of living, structural deficit, inability to retain our key assets, solidifying underclass)?…
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A couple of days ago Duncan Garner did a bit of stirring. Noting the obvious, that the Nats are in trouble for the 2014 election and their obvious coalition partners are dog tucker, Garner speculated on the prospect of a Key / Peters coalition. Key…
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John Key put on a scary display of incompetence - like resignation-level incompetence - in the House yesterday over the Dotcom spying affair. He claimed not to know a laundry list of basic facts that, if he didn't know them before, he bloody well ought…
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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's a lot of it about in right-wing parties at the moment. For John Key, John Banks and David Cameron it appears to be becoming the strategy of choice. It's not working very well for any of them - Banks and Key have become walking…
brand key john banks john key same old national slippery uk politics
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The Christchurch Press as part of Fairfax released National Standards data over the weekend, but had a number of articles with a curiously sensible line on it: ...the standards' main effects will be to impose on schools a crude, misleading and unhelpful form of accountability…
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I have been reading Colin James writing on politics for decades because he spends less time pushing his opinion and more about presenting the stories about the topics of the day. I get more actual new thinking from his political articles than I do from…
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Courtesy Transition Towns: Richard Heinberg's quest for a more resilient, sustainable, and healthy future comes to New Zealand thanks to the Post Carbon Institute, Grey Lynn 2030 and Sustainable Business Network. Richard will bring his challenging and compelling message. He'll ask — and answer —…
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"Ignorance gets us nowhere", it's National's new slogan and it certainly applied with Key's feigned ignorance in answer to questions on Banks' corruption last week. Key's behaviour is jeopardising our reputation as a democracy that doesn't tolerate corruption. And he's got a lot of questions…