And just like that the Labour-Green-New Zealand First Government has announced that all employees in the core public service will be paid a minimum of the living wage. From the Beehive website: All employees in the core public service will receive an hourly rate of…
Babies! With Jacinda's impending pregnancy about to come to full term, the world media are waking up. With a fresh wave of female idealism spreading across the world, Bloomberg puts the story out for the world in full heroic form. The Prime Minister is about…
It can be tough being a Minister in a progressive Government. Having a truck load of ministerial staff wanting to keep you on the non contentious straight and narrow, lots of laws to comply with, well resourced business interests wanting to ensure that every decision…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
A report led by scientists in the UK and US found the rate of melting from the Antarctic ice sheet has accelerated threefold in the last five years and is now vanishing faster than at any previously recorded time. A separate study warns that unless…
Look who was pinged playing Solitaire in Parliament? None other than Gerry Brownlee. It was reported in this article in Newshub which said this: National MP Gerry Brownlee has been snapped playing a card game on his phone during Question Time in Parliament. However, there…
From the you have to be freaking joking file ... National is criticizing Labour for not solving the last National Government created housing crisis quickly enough. From Jayne Patterson at Radio New Zealand: There were fractious exchanges between Housing Minister Phil Twyford and his National…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
A recent poll conducted by Colmar Brunton indicates that trust in the Government to do what is right for New Zealand is now 65% compared to 48% two years ago. I wonder what happened to cause this significant change? From Victoria University's website: A new…
I'm hazy on all the shenanigans around NZ Post over the years, but it looks like things are coming to an end, and that the functions of NZ Post will be wholly carried out by private business concerns in the near future. Think Oamaru -…
This meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and United States President Trump is not the first and is not the most important play afoot. The first meeting Kim Jong Un had since taking power in 2011 was with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Over…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
There's something quite heartening about the public nature of this latest spat between "our" leaders. Over a number of years, the liberal consensus they expressed by way of their nakedly capitalist - okay, maybe not "naked" but with a lot of skin on display in…
Statement sourced from barrister Felix Geiringer on twitter and the Herald: Full text of Police acknowledgement and apology 1. Mr Nicky Hager has instituted High Court claims against the Crown resulting from: 1.1 the search of his property at Wellington on 2 October 2014 after…
I have mixed views about this. I can understand how annoyed Winston Peters must feel that his private information was leaked during an election campaign for political purposes. And his political targets, Anne Tolley and Paula Bennett, must be first on the list of whodunnit,…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
If someone had said two years ago that the President of the United States would be picking a fight with Canada while at the same time buddying up to North Korea they would have been met with ridicule. And questions about their sanity. But this…
The 1991 “Mother of All Budgets” led to welfare reforms that are responsible for Aotearoa New Zealand’s growing poverty and inequality. The reverberations of those reforms are reflected in our current negative statistics and the numbers of families living in hardship. That hardship began during…
It’s a question that most books on business etiquette don’t really cover. Maybe that’s why Wellington Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive John Milford seemed to bring it up. It’s uncharted territory. Speaking on behalf of Business NZ at the announcement of the the panel considering…
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Matthew Hooton and Fran O'Sullivan have recently published articles in the Herald criticising Labour's decision to stop off shore oil exploration. Hooton thinks it was part of a nefarious plot designed to divert attention away from other issues and O'Sullivan thinks it was "disturbingly Orwellian".…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
We are in the last couple of days of the Northcote by election with tomorrow being voting day. If you want to help Shanan Halbert get elected Labour will be maintaining a full get the vote out system. You can sign up to help here.…
As we enter the era of relative world wide population declines (apart from Africa), we are are also seeing the era of populist movements trying to put the finger in the dike. The two are related. Many in the big cities beset by congestion and…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …