Explore the archive
Find articles and conversations by date, subject or search expression.
Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 31–60 of 196
Post
National's Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill will do significant damage to local democracy as they seek to restrict councils to "core" services, put in fiscal constraints, put power into fewer hands and override local concerns with amalgamations. Overall the legislation is shoddy. The Regulatory…
Post
Now we learn that directors' fees are set to double after National sells our assets. Who pays for the fat-cats to get twice the cream for the same work? We do. Through higher power prices. It's just another cost of privatisation that we all pay…
Post
"More than 20,000 unemployed people will be moved off the benefit within five years if the Government manages to meet its newly announced targets." Yes, but a target isn't a plan. Being out of work increases the risk of poverty, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett…
Post
National's latest plan to save the country - make another list of targets! Targets that we won't know have been achieved or not until 2018 - National would need to be a 4 term government to ever be held accountable to these targets. Once again,…
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
There - "Cameron announces Tory plan to slash benefits." Here - "The Government wants Work and Income to cut the number of long-term beneficiaries on a working-age benefit by 30 percent over five years, Prime Minister John Key has just announced." Probably what the posh…
Post
You'll really want to know this - the queen has just updated the curtsy order. "Blood princesses" come first, so if William isn't there Kate has to curtsy to Anne, Alexandra, and even Beatrice and Eugenie!!! What is the world coming to, I hear you…
Post
Everyone knows the "Nanny state" meme. If, heaven forbid, a government should try and reduce energy consumption (carbon emissions, people's power bills and the like) by mandating energy efficient lightbulbs, then a certain kind of political opponent can paint that as "Nanny state", too much…
Post
This free Fabian Society seminar is on tomorrow Tuesday in Wellington at Connolly Hall in Guilford Street, starting at 5:30pm All welcome; you can register here. Will be interesting.
Post
The Greens have discovered that National is having world heritage areas in Northland and the West Coast aerial surveyed for minerals. They're exploiting a loophole where some of the heritage areas haven't been included in Schedule 4 of the Conservation Act Crown Minerals Act. The…
Post
The Right would have us believe that the election was a referendum on asset sales and nothing else. Well, let's take a closer look at the results of that 'referendum'. Yeah, there's no mandate there.
Post
There is a sociopathic policy of the leadership at ACC, which sees staff financially incentivised to push long-term claimants off ACC leading to many of them going on the benefit rather than getting rehabilitation. Now, we have proof that this policy came right from the…
Post
National's record on local government is horrific: the lack of consultation as they rammed through the Supercity; the canning of ECAN, and continued suspension of democracy in Canterbury; the pushing of asset sales on an unwilling Christchurch. And their latest attack - the Local Government…
accountability community democracy democracy under attack local government national privatisation
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
One of the (many) areas in which I am woefully uninformed is the The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). It's a “free trade” agreement being negotiated between NZ and 8 other countries (including the USA). What is it going to mean for us? Let's draw together…
accountability capitalism democracy under attack economy International trade
Post
It's sickening to see rich ministers and columnists saying 'of course we need to green the economy' and then turnaround and promote fossil fuel extraction and agricultural intensification - things that will ultimately wreck the environment and the economy that is built on it. The…
Post
I'm going to try and put up a piece each Sunday 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…
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
That's what we're doing - it's official according to Treasury. It was revealed on Friday at a lunchtime seminar in Wellington with Dr Girol Karacaoglu, recently appointed Chief Economist at the Treasury. The best response came from Dr Geoff Bertram, who asked "What's intelligent about…
Post
and I'm sick of people telling me how I feel: "Markets have become increasingly concerned that the austerity programmes in the eurozone are causing a vicious circle of recession", and "Markets were confused by mixed messages from European capitals". I have only one word of…
Post
National pollster and Herald columnist (I know!) David Farrar has revealed what National has up its sleeve for asset sales. No, I'm not talking about how they would put 'mums and dads' at the 'front of the queue', or any such nonsense. I'm talking about…
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
Grant Robertson and David Cunliffe will be talking environment & economy at Titirangi tomorrow. It'll be interesting to watch how Labour positions itself on this pivotal question vis-a-vis the Greens. So far we haven't really seen much of Labour on the environment. The Greens have…
Post
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here. One of the biggest drawbacks of our democratic system is that it encourages politicking. This is a problem because whenever a major issue is before…
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
Major changes in the media in Oz will have their impact here - some already have. Fairfax's mastheads the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age are going tabloid, cutting staff, and putting up paywalls on their websites. Gina Rinehart, the world's richest woman has bought…
Post
Post
One of the things that has struck me about the Bronwyn Pullar debacle has been the difficulty she has had with the ACC despite having five-star political connections and supporters with education, savvy, and money. Imagine how the other 99% of claimants get on. Frankly…
Post
When the government is hooting and hollering over 1.7% annual growth, it's time to admit we've entered a new paradigm. In the past, you would have expected 4-5% growth coming out of a recession. Now, anything above the rate of population growth is treated as…
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...