In the second part of our double header for Drinking Liberally this month we've got director of Rethinking Crime & Punishment Kim Workman to come and talk about justice policy. When: 7pm TUESDAY 22 September - (not our normal Wednesday night) Where: Galatos - 17…
Found this gem at Fighting Talk. Lyndon Hood examines the act of leaking. Lyndon Hood: Act Doesn't Feel Climate Heat Click to enlarge The Act party, in their minority report on the recent review of the emissions trading scheme, have argued that man-made global warming…
A virulent attack on Greenpeace in a press release by Federated Farmers president, Don Nicholson, convinces me that Greenpeace are hitting the mark. In a hysterical rant, Nicholson as well as accusing Greenpeace of "lying", accuses Greenpeace of "economic treason", and even claimed that "Greenpeace…
I've got no problem with the government helping out those who are genuinely in need but forcing the taxpayer fork out $400 million (or is it 1.6b?) to subsidise corporate polluters is a disgrace. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/2864572/Public-to-pay-tab-for-polluters This is corporate welfare at it's worst. These businesses are…
Labour's Charles Chauvel has released the paper records of Labour's attempts to agree a bi-partisan ETS with National. In total, Labour presented three draft MOUs detailing possible agreements, each moving towards what they believed to be National's position. Additionally, there was a letter from Phil…
We told him here months ago - acknowledge what everybody knows: that he lives in Wellington with his family, and he should claim the out-of-town allowance when he visits Dipton. That would be the honest thing to do. Bill says there is a perception problem,…
The Open Country Cheese dispute is underway. Workers are striking against the bosses' attempts to casualise their hours and reduce their conditions. They are not striking for huge pay increases, despite the lies of Open Country. Open Country Cheese, part-owned by the notorious Talleys and…
I just read that the Troy Kennedy Martin, the screenwriter responsible for Edge of Darkness died earlier this week. I wanted to mark his passing because I think Edge of Darkness is one of the best things I have ever viewed on television. I was…
Lhaws puts on his usual prima donna act over the H which is set to leave Whanganui an uninhabitable, post-apocalyptic wasteland: "I have a constitutional responsibility to fight this decision until there is no fight left in my body. [The Geographic Board] has deliberately put…
Some photos from the picketline at Bridgeman Concrete in East Tamaki, where workers have been locked out indefinitely unless they submit to a two year pay freeze. Good to see them standing strong. Click the thumbnails to see the full size pics: Hat tip: NDU…
Bill English is not holding up well to the persistent questions put to him in Parliament about shuffling around his financial appearance to rort the taxpayer by claiming $1000 a week in housing allowances. Today, Bill English was stuttering his way through questions put to…
'In these tough economic times, the government must buy smarter,' said Vivek Kundra, the US federal chief information officer, as he unveiled the Obama administration's new government storefront for cloud computing applications and services. It's not ok for the government here to blame it's lack…
People who treat politics as a game annoy me. People who see it all in terms of power and cliques and scoring points and winning at all costs annoy me a lot. These people have lost the plot. Politics is not a game. Politics matters.…
Westpac has this ad campaign about how they're doing their bit to reduce their environmental impact. The dumb thing is they make begin green appear unattractive. You know the ads. The kid trying to get the idiot dad who works at Westpac to be…
Over at Red Alert, Darien Fenton tells the story of just one of the thousands of workers currently being laid off without redundancy compensation. Really brings home how important it is for the Government to back the Redundancy Protection Bill: Tanya has worked for Chong…
Last night, Sandra Goudie, the big-mouth of the National Party caucus, said the words out loud that the Nats usually keep in their heads. During the debate on the Supercity, one of the Labour MPs was talking about the success of Maori seats in the…
Two chilling articles from last week's Guardian Weekly just finished, both about the consequences of the world's water getting warmer faster than expected. The Greenland ice sheet is melting, "far faster than the climate models predicted and far more decisively than any political actions to…
Gerry Brownlee in Question Time yesterday. He's asked a question, just sits there and refuses to answer. Doesn't even open his mouth, just sits there with a smug look on his face. Lockwood, out of his depth like always, just ignores the rules to cover Brownlee's arse.…
Pete Hodgson is continuing to chip away at English's ministerial allowance story. English looks very uncomfortable as Brownlee and Key cover for him. To my mind, this is yesterday's crucial exchange: Hon Pete Hodgson: If the Hon Bill English has no pecuniary interest in his ministerial…
WTF is this? I mean look at it. It's got to be the worst website I have ever seen and I've been around since well before the web existed. More to the point, how did this get up? What kind of process could possibly have…
It never ceases to amaze me what short term thinkers National are. The plan (with the Maori Party) to gut the ETS highlights this issue very starkly. For the sake of short term appeasement of their backers in the polluting industries National are prepared to…
Again, National has put the House into urgency to slam through unpopular legislation. This time, it's the Supercity legislation. National whinges that it has to use urgency to pass legislation that could be passed anytime in the next months because they only get 17 hours…
Last week I wrote: We're seeing a new pattern in work relations emerging. The big employers, emboldened by having their party in power and using the recession as an excuse, are attacking workers' pay and conditions. Now, on the same day Talley and National-linked Open…
National has announced that it will begin offering to sell 3,800 state houses to tenants living in them on market rents. I don't automatically oppose selling state houses but there needs to be four conditions: Housing NZ must use all revenue from sales to buy…
The Wall Street financiers crapped out on their sub-prime gambles, inflicting economic devastation on the taxpayers who generously bailed-them out in return. Now, they need a new gamble, a new game in which they bet using other people's money while skimming off the cream for…
National seems to be making a bit of a habit of shafting the taxpayer. Before the election we were promised significant tax cuts, "North of $50" per week. We had John Key's personal guarantee. Key said "New Zealanders will be able to believe our tax…
By Rob Salmond It sounds like Phil G did a great job at Labour's conference setting out where the party should go from here. Unfortunately, his KISS message didn't get to all attendees. Labour apparently now wants to propose modifications to MMP, including more electorate…
Hot Topic has obtained a copy of a draft memorandum of understanding for a meeting on the ETS that was meant to take place today. It shows that Labour was prepared to do more to help compensate polluters for the costs they would have faced while…