As Eddie posted, Cunliffe made a very important speech to the CTU conference yesterday, re-committing parliamentary Labour's to unions and to strengthening workers' rights. There was a bit of a discussion, started by Mary, last night on The Standard, about whether Cunliffe's Labour would continue…
David Cunliffe showed that he wasn't just pandering for votes in the leadership race by reaffirming and strengthening his commitment to work rights at the CTU conference yesterday. When David is PM the minimum wage will rise to $15 an hour, the public service will…
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This is from a contributer about the Christchurch East by election. "It’s no secret that National’s campaign in East hasn’t exactly gotten off to the most inspiring start, what with picking someone who lives in Waimakariri, and who has only just arrived back in the…
Hadyn Green was at the Brunei TPPA talks in August for Consumer NZ and a couple of other groups. His post on Public Address today is an excellent run through many of the points that bother me. For instance this section on intellectual property The…
Freely available, no or low cost broadcasting, media and communications are essential for democracy to thrive. NZ's broadcasting and digital communications policies, provisions and regulations are failing to measure up. Cunliffe's Labour has at least twigged that broadcasting and digital communications policies need to be…
Stopping contributions to the Cullen Fund was always going to stand out as one of John Key and Bill English's most economically inept decisions. They chose to stop the Fund buying assets just when they were at decades low prices, Crown borrowing was cheap, and…
Sorry for the repeated reminders but this is important. Today is realistically the last day for people to record their vote in the 2013 local body elections. If they are keen they can deliver their votes to various local collection points which in Auckland includes…
A recent study gives a strong indication of the extent of, and the recent increases in, insecure work in NZ. It is being released at the CTU conference today, along with the launch of a campaign to improve worker security. Simon Collins in today's NZ…
One of the more enduring myths presented by the proponents of treaties like the TPPA is that they have to be approved by the NZ parliament. This isn't the case. As usual with most right wing myths, they appear to be taking their civics lessons…
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It's curious than John Key has stepped into the breach to chair the TPP discussions, in Obama's absence from APEC Summit. Of course the anonymous NZ Herald Editorial claims it is something to cause kiwis to be proud. I guess we won't hear or read…
As the US federal government shutdown drags on, an even more crucial point is approaching. The US government will hit its debt ceiling in ten days. If that happens, the results will be cataclysmic. But the Republicans who control congress hardly seem to care. Having…
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The Fabians have organised a debate between Jane Kelsey and Wayne Map this Wednesday at 6pm at the University of Auckland's Owen Glenn Building. There is a current meeting in Indonesia that is trying to resolve the differences between states in hope of an early…
The census night population data result has now been released. There will be one new electorate in the North Island, the number of South Island seats is set by law at 16 and the number of Maori electorates will remain at 7. Overall the population…
The asset sales costs just keep on rising. The tally so far is $124 million. The 'buy now, pay later' scheme for Meridian is going to cost $61 million. There will be tens of millions in other sales costs. Now, the Greens have calculated the…
The US is creeping toward a week of government shut down. Held hostage by the Republicans Tea Party wing. It will be fascinating to see what this does to the GOP. Will it split into two parties one essentially fascist and one more like the…
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The saga of the Ruataniwha Dam raises a number of interesting issues. The Nick Smith appointed Board of Inquiry includes ex National MP Alec Neill who also served as the chair of Environmental Canterbury before the board was sacked by the Government. As said by Marty G…
The Sunday programme this evening has Rob Gilchrist, police spy and provocateur, breaking his silence about the decade he spent amongst mostly peaceful activists. He was one amongst the very many sworn officers and informants that the police, spy agencies, and their civilian detective agencies…
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Old man Armstrong's out on the Herald's front lawn this morning, shaking his fist and telling those bloody kids in Labour to stop questioning whether the Reserve Bank is doing the right thing. They should sit quietly and accept whatever the Bank decides to do.…
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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?
There is just over a week to go to the end of the current local body elections and turnout is small. In Auckland as at yesterday the return of votes was running at 14.64% compared to 22.6% in 2010. Things are not much better in…
That would be Steven Joyce describing university councils, but he could be describing any democratic governance - including parliament. Dictatorship is so much more efficient. That's why we praise the likes of Bainimarama. The getting rid of "large unwieldy representative bodies" is such a good aim.…
Earlier this year, National attacked the Greens' Progressive Ownership housing policy, a 'rent-to-own' scheme that effectively gives first homebuyers access to the Crown's low cost of capital (like State Advances used to do). Nat fanboi John Armstrong said "It is a dog of a policy.…
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In the wake of the astounding victory of the NZ team in San Diego, Scott at Imperator Fish offers these words of sage advice. He has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here. The…