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Aaron Gilmore has given into pressure from his National "mates" and resigned. The dirt National continued to fling at him - in a desperate bid to remove the stain from their beloved leader - eventually became too much embarrassment. The media pressure and gossip that they…
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There is an award for forestry workers in Australia. It has a whole range of terms and conditions including hours of work and time off, penal rates for overtime including weekend work, travel allowances and training provisions. The accident rate is half the rate of…
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My semi-regular Sunday piece 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 fit in anywhere (no linkwhoring). This week: Dhaka t-shirts,…
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Rob Stock at the Sunday Star Times reports that National plans to dump state housing on NGOs and flog land to developers. From what I can gather from Nick Smith's typically abstruse comments the plan seems to be to hand housing stock stock over to…
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In an article in today's Sunday Star Times, Martin van Beyen, Francesca Lee and Adam Dudding, produce evidence that there is an organised business of assessment cheating, through providing students with assignments for their tertiary education courses. Their headlines put the focus on the nationality/ethnicity of the…
democracy under attack employment exports privatisation tertiary education
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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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This morning news revealed an inadvertently humorous story about particularly stupid bigot - Karen Ruskin of the Pilgrim Planet Lodge in Whangarei. After causing a lesbian couple to seek alternative accommodation she made this statement to a reporter.... "This is our home, we are not a big motel,"…
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In the current series of posts we're looking at the Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCCC) 2012 report "Child Poverty in New Zealand evidence for action". Continuing from last week... Chapter 5 Our Recommendations The previous chapter highlighted the priority recommendations, this chapter sets out…
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So, Key wants Gilmore gone. Gilmore lied to Key about the whether he threatened the waiter with the wrath of the PM's office. Bringing Key's office itself was bad enough but Key accepted Gilmore's lie. When that lie was exposed, Key knew his authority as…
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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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Last year Labour shook up the political landscape with KiwiBuild - a serious plan for addressing the crisis of unaffordable housing in NZ. At the time the Nats and their spinsters were scornful (of course), saying among other things that we couldn't build 10,000 new…
auckland supercity housing len brown local government national
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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?
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Key on Gilmore on front page of today's DomPost: Mr Key said. "In the end, to make a contribution, you have to have integrity, and to have integrity there has to be a directness and fullness in your answers." That's why Key has no integrity…
accountability brand key democracy under attack john key slippery Spying
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The working age population grows by around 30,000 a year. A bit over two-thirds of them work or want a job. So, to keep unemployment from rising, the economy needs at least 20,000 additional jobs per year. So, the drop in unemployment must mean we…
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The Nats' spin is that 'mums and dads' were scared off investing in Mighty River Power by the Green-Labour NZ Power plan to reduce power prices but sophisticated buyers bought in. Look at the evidence: 80,000 of the 113,000 retail investors are new to the…
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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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An editorial in yesterday's NZ Herald gave the hard-line conservative and quite stupid view of what a charity should be (and has been). According the anonymous author, charities should and must deal with problems of society without attempting to fix the problem through advocating changes that would fix…
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National admitted today that the sale of Mighty River cost around $100m, and that the paltry 2.5% of New Zealanders who bought an average of $8,000 each are not typical Kiwis. The figures themselves are shocking but the politics is really revealing. English didn't try…
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The latest Household Labour Force Employment statistics are out, and on the surface, look good for John and Bill. James Weir and Hamish Rutherford, breathlessly report on Stuff today that: The job market stormed ahead in the March quarter, with unemployment tumbling to 6.2 per cent in…
capitalism grant robertson jobs john key national poverty uncategorized unemployment wages
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Check out the climaterealityproject.org/pledge (ht The Jackal). The Pledge: “I pledge my name in support of a better tomorrow, one powered by clean energy. I demand action from our leaders to work on solutions to the climate crisis. I pledge to get involved. And I…
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When I was growing up in the 60s, my mother used to make most of our clothes. By the time I was in my late teens, in the 60s, it became easier to buy relatively cheap, off the peg clothes in shops. Many people now…
capitalism class war cost of living International news poverty workers' rights
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Because things aren't quite tough enough for first-time home buyers yet: First home buyers in the firing line First-home buyers are in the firing line as the Reserve Bank aims its first direct shot at the overvalued housing market. They can expect to face higher…
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Here are the numbers that sum up the MRP sale fail: 113,000 Kiwis actually bought shares. But the government spent between $100 Million and $300 Million on the process ($100 Million to a single Australian bank alone). Let's be generous to the Nats and call…
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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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Well Key's cornerstone policy, the one that many commentators claimed was him showing his mettle, has come to fruition. And it's such a poison chalice he didn't even have the guts to show up for the big reveal in person (spoiler: less than half the…
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I struggle to find a properly punchy intro to this review. Because all I really want to say is, if you have an interest in the history of the reproductive rights struggle in New Zealand, read this book. If you don't have an interest in…
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We don't often take Key's side here at The Standard, but I think that most of us here would agree that on this occasion John Key has been cheated out of a victory that was rightfully his: John Key third on 'most ridiculous world leader'…
humour International Media Minister for International Embarrassment
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Stuff is reporting that John Key is signalling for Aaron Gilmore to stand down. Prime Minister John Key says he can't "reconcile" Aaron Gilmore's text messages with his version of events of a boozy diner and has signalled he should stand down. He contacted party…
accountability john key leadership national national/act government slippery
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This morning David Shearer gave Labour's "pre budget" speech. No new policy, but plenty of good one-liners and a strong statement of Labour's position. Full text here, some extracts below. Speech: Putting people first John Key isn’t interested in the problems faced by hardworking families…
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You've got to hand it to Kim Dotcom for his great choice of timing and ability to make the MSM headlines. John Key is leading the House into unnecessary, and politically motivated urgency to push through his anti-democratic Big brother GCSB surveillance Bill. Meanwhile, Dotcom's…
accountability activism capitalism copyright democracy under attack john key nz first slippery Spying telecommunications us politics winston peters