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Yesterday in Question Time, Bill English sent a message loud and clear to teachers, police, doctors, nurses, and all other public servants ('frontline' or not): under National, you'll be getting pay-cuts, don't expect cost of living adjustments, watch as your pay-packet buys less and less.…
bill english education health john key national/act government public services Unions wages workers' rights
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MAF has released the final report of their investigation into the pig farm owned by former Pork Board Director Colin Kay, exposed on the Sunday programme in May. As all those who knew anything about the Animal Welfare Act and subsidiary Codes of Welfare predicted,…
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Our first comment was on our second day, August 17th 2007 "Where will it lead? " by trythisone on our third post... who never showed up again. Number 100 was on September 15th, 31 days in, John laughing at Jacqui Dean for wanting to ban…
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Remember the hip-hop tours 'scandal' the National Party used over and over and over again to attack the previous Labour-led government? They went as far as to put it in their 2005 election billboards. It was a minuscule amount of money, yet National used it…
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I reckon there's a mood developing. People are getting sick and tired of what feels like a government that's got the country in reverse. But what they're looking for is an alternative. Increasingly people are starting to ask of the opposition "So what are you…
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Six years ago the Neocon Bush administration invaded Iraq, on the pretence of looking for "weapons of mass destruction" (that were never there). Steve Pierson at The Standard covered the Fifth Anniversary, and some aspects of the death and misery caused by the invasion. Now…
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Dear Labour I'll be the first to admit that sometimes my attention span isn't the greatest. Between Twitter and Facebook and texting it's frankly a wonder I have time for much of anything else. I'm mostly in a hurry and I think that's probably part…
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I'll be glad to see the back of the Foreshore & Seabed Act. For many on the Left, including myself, its been a monument to Labour's failure of nerve in the face of a campaign by National to exploit the underlying racism of Pakeha New…
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First, it was 'we're going to do everything we can to keep Kiwis in jobs' Next, it was 'yeah, OK, we haven't done anything significant to keep people in jobs (we borrowed a couple of small programmes from the Greens and the unions, though) but…
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Stuff reports that McDonald's is getting up to $16,000 of taxpayer money per person it recruits from the benefit. I doubt this per-person maximum is reached that often but it does seem that a lot of public money is going to the extremely profitable fast-food…
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National is overseeing the most dramatic rise in unemployment on record (yep, 2000 a week is more than the 1980s, more than the 1990s). They've got no answers, no ideas. All they can talk about is what Goff said 20 years ago and laugh. Like…
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When we talk politics we often use words like positioning, frame, context - words are a vital part of the programme of political communication. Here's a really interesting thought from US academic Lera Boroditsky, who asks How does our language shape the way we think?…
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This post by Scott Yorke over at Imperator Fish amused me. It is such an apt description of the differences between the two major political partisan blogs in New Zealand. I like to visit The Standard now and then. There's an occasional gem to be found…
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Richard Long, the main man behind Don Brash's racist Owera speech is just about the poorest propagandist you get: "Why only two to a cell? When that suggestion replaced the blackboard menu outside a cafe in Ngaio, Wellington, a few months ago, it was clear…
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The Foreshore and Seabed review panel have reported back with the recommendation that the law be scrapped and people be allowed to attempt to prove ownership rights over the foreshore and seabed in court as they can with any other land. Good. Ever since the…
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This goes out to all the dispossessed emos of Manners Mall, the forgotten victims of Wellington City Council's new bus lane: [Hat tip: the wellingtonista.]
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I wonder if Patrick Gower could keep a straight face while writing this: Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has dropped her additional Disability Issues portfolio because Prime Minister John Key wants her to concentrate on the growing numbers of people losing their jobs. Note his…
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I am outraged to learn that the Department of Labour told its employees they were not allowed attend the pay equity rally at Parliament yesterday. A leaked email from the department to its staff said: "Attendance at such a demonstration may well be perceived as…
activism democracy under attack democratic participation national/act government public services sexism workers' rights
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Fran O'Sullivan had some interesting things to say in today's Herald on Mark Weldon's recent address to SOE board members, telling them to develop strategic plans for part-privatisation, first mentioned by Trevor Mallard on Red Alert. This was the most revealing comment: Of course, Weldon's…
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I see John Key is promising new ideas to stop job-losses: We've got an economic strategy ... and I intend over the next few weeks to spell out my thinking in that area It strikes me as another one of his vague PR-driven promises. Like…
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Why does this myth that the private sector is better persist in this country? At every turn, the bosses show themselves to be a bunch of greedy, short-sighted half-wits. Take Line 7. Outsourced their production to China. Built their business model on the assumption that the NZD…