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Today is the last day for submissions to the MMP Review. If you haven't done so yet, make sure your have your say - it only takes 5 minutes for the short submission. If you're looking for ideas, I posted about my submission, and called…
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In the full knowledge that we've written about such reports before, and in the dreadful expectation that we'll be writing about them again, here is yet another shaming report on poverty in NZ: NZ poverty result 'appalling' - Labour ... The report, Measuring Child Poverty,…
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Labour's got its Auditor-General inquiry into Jones' approval of Yan's citizenship. We've seen this movie before. In a year, the report will recommend better procedures but nothing more. Jone will be reinstated. The politics is more important. Shearer's shown he has the power to control…
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Judith Collins has tried to go for a lower bar in her defamation suit against Andrew Little and Trevor Mallard to get it over with quicker. But asking for a declaration, rather than damages, doesn't reduce the legal test. There's just no way Collins is…
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Budgets allocate money not just for 1 year, but for the next 4. When National says its putting $511m into education, that's actually $128m a year over 4 years (less than inflation). So, it stands out like a sore thumb that National has promised to…
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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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A while back Eddie had a post on how the Nats have abandoned any pretense of ambitious goals ("roaring out of recession", "catching up with Australia", “brighter future"). They have replaced it all with one and only one accounting goal, surplus by 2014/2015, a goal…
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National blew the VIP entertainment budget for the Rugby World Cup by $5 million, despite none of the promised big names actually turning up. They got the extra dosh out of Mfat's budget. In unrelated news, the government is cutting the Greens' Warm Up New…
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Winston Peters is on the attack over Tariana Turia's slush fund again. This time, Turia and John Key find themselves defending a $60,000 grant to a rugby club to investigate "undertake whanau development research" on "whanau connectedness" and "resilience" (which sounds like code for a …
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There was a time when John Key used to promise solutions to any problem you could name. Or he would act sympathetic and concerned by the consequences of his government's own policies. But the broken promises and falseness wore thin. Key's new tactic is simply…
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National has copped a hell of a backlash for increasing class sizes. The internal polls are said to be diabolical. There are a million parents of school-age kids out there, and they're pissed off. Particularly when, out of what appears to be sheer incompetence, the…
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So, half the Cabinet sends their kids to private schools. Those schools - which National has upped the taxpayers subsidies for - boast of small class sizes. Kings, where Key sends his kid, says: "Class sizes are limited and our policy of a low pupil-to-teacher…
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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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No Right Turn on the World Wildlife Fund report... Twenty years ago, New Zealand attended the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. While there, we signed up to the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the "Agenda 21" sustainable development plan, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in…
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National is crowing that 8,600 people downloaded the Budget App. Pity it doesn't work. Crashes every time on my phone and my mates'. Everyone on twitter says it doesn't work. The one person who got it to work says its not actually the budget, just…
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The impact of class size on educational outcomes is a political issue, and that influences and clouds much of the research on the topic. (I regard this, and other examples of the politicisation of science, as an absolute condemnation of our society, but that's an…
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Colin James contrasts Shearer with Key: At a post-budget standup on Thursday he lacked leader-like fluency, deferring readily - and necessarily - to finance shadow minister David Parker who had his lines off pat.This factor should diminish over time as Shearer settles - though don't…
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We're told that these are tough times and we all have to share in the pain. Yeah, right. National dug this hole with $2 billion in 'fiscally neutral' tax cuts, billions in subsidies to polluters, and white elephant motorways that aren't worth what they cost.…
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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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Some of the most riveting television for those with an interest in politics is available on-line at the Leveson enquiry. Tonight at 9pm our time Tony Blair will be questioned by the silken Robert Jay QC, with no doubt the odd interjection from the careful…
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So tobacco is a ridiculously addictive drug that offers no accompanying high for the user. It has pretty dire health consequences and was promoted for years as harmless, chic and sophisticated and the government even gave it away to combatants during WWII by the carton…
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National's got this love affair with 'outcomes, not outputs'. Means funding teachers and community groups on the achievements of their students or clients, not the number they have. You don't have to have seen The Wire to know the results. Schools and community groups will…
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Just as a quick update on my pre-budget Spin v reality about a Government that has the worst growth record of any since before Michael Joseph Savage, and has a 52% increase in unemployment despite more than 1,000 NZers leaving for Australia each week: John Key…
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If you were a rightwinger, who believed the route to a prosperous society (for the elite, at least) was through private endeavor, wouldn't the way to help that along be to invest heavily in education? Then, people would be equipped to work out the rest…
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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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Just a couple of intriguing articles on the BBC for you to read to while away your Sunday afternoon: Firstly a view looking at Britain, struggling at a time of unrest across Europe, with rising unemployment and inflation leading to riots. The populist right-wing is…
economy equality International interweb radio sustainability water
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Bad news from Bonn: Bonn climate talks end in discord and disappointment Climate crisis is not caused by lack of options and solutions, but lack of political action, says Greenpeace spokeswoman The latest round of international climate change talks finished on Friday in discord and disappointment, with…
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Adding to the canon of reasons and commentators on why you don't sell your assets (particularly to pay for your maintenance) is an excellent article on The Guardian. It is an article exhorting the countries of the Arab Spring to resist Western countries pressure to…
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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...