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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: Billionaire interest…
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The Greens have revealed that National has spent $26m on asset sales so far. They haven't even sold anything yet! They haven't even really begun the sales process! And they've wasted $26m of our money. The bill's going to get a whole lot longer if…
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There are many similarities between the political situations in Britain and NZ. In both cases we are well in to a tory government that came to power with a popular new leader, facing an ongoing world economic crisis. In both cases the governments adopted 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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In comments Ad proposed this interesting taxonomy of Kiwi social types. It's an exercise that takes place in the context of social inequality. It's unfair, it's highly damaging, and it's at it's highest level ever in NZ. Ad wrote: "my intent was to broaden out…
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In recent posts in this series we've focused on the Children’s Social Health Monitor 2012 Update Report, see the the full report (pdf) here. Today we'll carry on with a look at the remaining Economic Indicators. UNEMPLOYMENT RATES No surprises here: Firstly, research suggests that children…
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There's a book I've heard about that I'm hoping helps push the inequality awareness barrow a little further this year. Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis by Max Rashbrooke is due out in May. The ideas surrounding the inherent unhealthiness (social, but also actually physical &…
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Yesterday I rather shamelessly threadjacked one of Irish's posts on a Colin Espiner column in the direction of the Universal Basic Income idea. In this post I want to also shamelessly filch from Gareth Morgan's book The Big Kahuna, specifically Ch.5 "The Five Big Issues"…
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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 Aaron Gilmore returns as ex-speaker Lockwood Smith heads to London. His Prime Ministerial ambitions can finally continue... Ever since Lynn wrote his sad goodbye to Aaron after he was knocked out on special votes at the last election, we've been waiting for his return. …
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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. We've all been giving Richard Prosser such a hard time this week, but he's actually done us a favour. Thanks to Prosser's intemperate language and offensive views…
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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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Don't you love hearing the rich say the working poor can't have more pay? The faux concern that higher wages cost jobs from the same people who support huge executive pay packets and tax cuts? If you really believed higher wages meant fewer jobs, you…
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From I/S at No Right Turn: Unconstitutional and dangerous That's the Ombudsman's view of National's plan to exclude its charter schools from the Ombudsman's and Official Information Acts: The bill exempts partnership schools from the Ombudsman's Act and the Official Information Act, but Dame Beverley Wakem…
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What's up with the Treasury and Reserve Bank presenting clearly trumped up, fake numbers to pretend the economy is doing better than it is? Wheeler was caught out claiming the banks weren't excessively profitable by international standards - they are. Treasury said private electricity suppliers…
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The Nats like to accuse their critics of "the politics of envy", so in the spirit of fair play I think it's fair to characterise their raison d'être as "the politics of greed". It's all about the money, making more money, and never mind the…
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For those of you who've missed it Colin Espiner is back on the NZ interwebz with a new Stuff blog, the (rather earthily titled) Bull-Dust. Colin was a bit of a pioneer of journalist blogging in New Zealand. He was, I believe, the first Gallery…
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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 Herald reports that the Supreme Court will not meet the Government's timetable for its decision on the Maori Council's challenge to Asset Sales. It may only delay things a couple of weeks, but it all adds pressure to the Government's timeline - every little…
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsyqqHW-Iac To find out how visit Kereru Count
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Thanks to stargazer at The Hand Mirror for permission to reprint this piece... questions that were never asked since there's no avoiding it, i thought i may as well do a post about a certain mr prosser. contrary to what it might, my post of…
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The first State of the Union of Obama's second term was widely anticipated. He can't seek re-election, he now has experience, he understands futility of expecting cooperation from Republicans, he has four years to act. So what is he going to do with his final…
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The Living Wage Coalition has released the results of their research, calculating that a wage of $18.40 is needed for workers and their families to have a decent life and participate in society. About 40% of workers currently earn less. The pressure is now on…
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It's an occupational hazard of being political obsessives of course, but we (bloggers / writers / commenters) tend to over react to individual polls. Polls come with built in "noise", error that means that the figures quoted can only be approximate. The last Roy Morgan…
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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 ever, too much National to complain about, too little time. So just 3 quickly - Wrong: As excellently covered by Karol, but too quickly dropped by our papers, the Salvation Army's excellent annual State of the Nation report gives the Government a D on…
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Yes, the Nat's economic policies are a crime against common sense and the vast majority of the people. But currently in the news is the other kind of economic crime - white collar crime - fraud and tax evasion. We have a new report on…
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The Salavation Army "State of the Nation" report is out today, and, as Metiria Turei says, it makes depressing reading. It confirms what many of us have been seeing and discussing for a few years now. Kate Chapman says on Stuff, The Government is not doing…
child welfare class war cost of living education equality housing jobs Metiria Turei national/act government poverty tax workers' rights
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It's not often I agree with Judith Collins but when she describes Richard Prosser's racist filth as an "international embarrassment" I couldn't agree more. That said, her government's collusion in the Pacific Solution is probably even more damaging to our international reputation. New Zealand 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...