Explore the archive
Find articles and conversations by date, subject or search expression.
Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 1–30 of 43
Post
Today we again have the Herald's resident ignoramus Damien Grant sounds off about something he knows nothing about. As usual just looking at numbers without understanding what they represent and leaps to wrong conclusions. For a start he tries to compare the $8000 Watercare charge…
Post
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...
Post
... which I have no doubt will be blithely reported by our mainstream media as though it's meaningful. The actual question asked: “Should families where there is both a mum and a dad have priority for the adoption of babies and children?” The headline which…
Post
The funeral was a very full house and hard. You may have even seen it on Campbell Live; The Herald gave it front page this morning. Now comes the hard part, surviving the aftermath, the years with a hole in your heart, the family with…
Post
I/S at No Right Turn on youth rates... National: Restoring discrimination National's bill to restore age-discrimination in pay rates passed its third reading last night. So, from May 1st, National's cronies will be able to pay someone less simply because of their age. And this is…
Post
Three of the Herald's political staff has a crack at trying to explain why National polled 48.5% in the latest Herald-Digipoll. Consensus seems to be that John Key's an angel sent to earth to do very little but keep enough of the middle class happy…
Post
Over the next few posts in this series I'll be looking at the Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCCC) 2012 report "Child Poverty in New Zealand evidence for action". It's a substantial document, prepared by an Expert Advisory Group after an extensive process of consultation,…
Post
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...
Post
The poor tend to be understood as the rational inferiors of the well-off, to the extent that political arguments now largely revolve around their management rather than their representation. Olwyn
Post
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?
Post
2.5% GDP growth last year. The Right's jumping out of their skin at finally achieving the long-run average growth rate (btw, from 1999 to 2008, the average was 3.4%). But even on their good days, they're doing it wrong: "The "consumer-centric" mix of growth was…
Post
No Right Turn asked an interesting question yesterday about how the appointment of Susan Devoy was made. Yesterday Justice Minister Judith Collins appointed former squash player Susan Devoy as Race Relations Commissioner. Other people have already argued strongly that this is a poor appointment, and I agree.…
Post
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. The revenue portfolio looked like a pretty big step down for someone of Cunliffe's experience and skill - it's usually a training ground for first-termers - but that experience and skill has allowed him to make something of…
Post
Rather than add my two cents to the debate about whether she's up to the job or not (she's clearly not), I'd like to point out that this is essentially Judith Collins telling liberal New Zealand it can go f**k itself. Given this fact, the…
Post
The Herald Digipoll does not exactly have an impressive record of accuracy, but for what it's worth the numbers in the current poll (compared to the previous in August) are: National is on 48.5 (up one); Labour 36.4 per cent ( up 4.4); the Greens…
Post
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...
Post
3 News reports: No inquiry into Solid Energy Solid Energy will not face a Select Committee Inquiry after Government MPs voted against it this morning. The state-owned energy company is $389 million in debt and despite bosses fronting up to the commerce select committee and…
Post
When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? From the beginning all men by nature were created alike, and our bondage or servitude came in by the unjust oppression of naughty men. For if God would have had any bondmen from the…
Post
The current Speaker in the House, David Carter, is a disaster. Yesterday was beyond a joke as he let the government get away with avoiding providing serious answers to important questions. It began with a question that had been diverted from the PM to the…
accountability clayton cosgrove democracy under attack Parliament russel norman Steven Joyce
Post
3 News' Patrick Gower seems to be incensed by the latest Dotcom revelations: Dotcom: A systematic cover-up by police and spies It is sad to say, but it is becoming increasingly clear there was a cover-up by our spies and the police in the Dotcom scandal. I…
Post
There's this almost puritan kind of myth that we've got so much international debt as punishment for our spendthrift ways. We 'live beyond our means', apparently. But it's not true. If 'our means' is the money we make in exports, then most of the time,…
debt / deficit exports jobs monetary policy overseas investment
Post
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...
Post
I "attended" a fascinating "town hall" meeting last week of artists from around the world in the Visual Special Effects sector. Ignited by the failure of the company Rhythm and Hues (despite recently completing most of the special effects for the film The Life of…
film International internet social democracy twitter Unions workers' rights
Post
The Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill is up for its second reading in the House this afternoon. It is first up on the provisional order paper for today (i.e. probably some time after 2pm, which would likely be after Question Time…
act benefits child welfare class war education greens human rights labour nz first paula bennett welfare
Post
Key hid his Tranzrail shares while asking questions about Tranzrail because he's a sneaky, avaricious bastard. Banks filed a false election return keeping his big money donors secret because he's corrupt. Shearer forgot to declare his UN Bank account because he's a bit of a…
Post
The Nats are in trouble with their budget deficits and looking to raise money via increased taxes. But they are tinkering at the edges of the problem, with their petrol tax, and the proposed car park and gadget ("iPad") taxes. The latter proposals were so…
Post
February's Roy Morgan had the Nats up and Labour down, prompting Zetetic's post "Latest Roy Morgan… a bit shit". The Roy Morgan out yesterday had National down 4 to 43.5, Labour up 2 to 32.5, Greens up 1 to 13.5, and overall a projected win…
Post
Our wee James Bond wannabes had a code name for Kim Dotcom (you know, in case their comms were intercepted by the bad guys). They called him Billy Big Stepper. So witty! But Labour's uncovered something more serious too. It seems that the GCSB was…
Post
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...
Post
[Trigger warning: rape, rape culture, victim-blaming] I was honestly surprised to learn that two of the boys heroes football players men charged in the Steubenville rape case had been convicted (albeit sentenced to paltry terms with the possibility of serving longer). I was honestly completely unsurprised to…