How much does New Zealand spend on refugees?
The Government is under increasing pressure to increase the number of refugees that it takes. Amnesty International’s proposal to double the number could be met by less than the cost of a flag referendum.
Crazy Corbyn?
Jeremy Corbyn’s popularity in the UK Labour leadership race has the political establishment in a tizzy. So of course, out come the dirty tactics. Private Eye has done a great job of showing up one of these….
Open mike 03/09/2015
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Daily Review 02/09/2015
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.
Stewart on our rubbish media
Rachel Stewart has had some time out with the flu (sorry to hear it). It has left her with time to reflect on our media…
Emmerson – flag distraction
Is Syria the first failed state because of climate change?
A climate change induced drought from 2006 to 2009 appears to have sparked the instability that has caused the Syrian Civil war. The mass exodus of citizens that we are witnessing may be the first of many climate change induced events.
2.1 Times More Likely to get a pay rise…
If you still wonder WHY anyone would want to join a union, the fact that union members are 2.1 x more likely to get a pay rise might make you wade through the anti-union propaganda. Some unions escape scorn, like the Police Union which is referred to as an Association. It’s probably an oversight though, not anything deliberate…
Open mike 02/09/2015
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Daily Review 01/09/2015
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.
Caption contest
Keep it seemly …
NRT: Meh
Today the government announced the four candidates for John Key’s vanity flag referendum: three ferns (one of them the logo of Immigration NZ and the Companies Office) and a koru. And really, all I can say is “meh”. So how about defining a good way of doing a informal or invalid vote on this stupid first referendum on selecting John Key’s underwear..
Bread and circuses. Hold the bread.
Peter Lyons hits the nail on the head in Nothing but spin coming from our Government. Garner misses the point in National gets a case of the dreaded third-termitis.
Key is relaxed about widespread refugee crisis
John Key has ruled out an emergency intake of refugees and claims that New Zealand is doing its bit and that bit is enough.
Away with the economic fairies
The ANZ survey shows business confidence at the lowest levels since the financial crisis. Yesterday John Key insisted that it was “reasonably positive”. He was either completely wrong or lying through his teeth. Either way it’s unacceptable.
Open mike 01/09/2015
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Daily Review 31/08/2015
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.
Regional Realities.
FYI. The most populous town in Clutha District is Balclutha, which lies 81km south of Dunedin by road. Balclutha’s population, by the 2006 census, was 4,062 (down from 4,137 in 1996). Other towns are Milton (pop. 1,887), Kaitangata (pop. 810), Tapanui (pop. 744), Lawrence (pop. 432), Owaka (pop. 327), Stirling (pop. 309), Clinton (pop. 291), Kaka Point (pop. 201), and Benhar (pop. 96). For a while in the 1980s Balclutha was New Zealand’s most wealthy town, per capita
The politicisation of the All Blacks
All Black fan boy John Key opened up Parliament to allow the New Zealand Rugby Union announce this year’s world cup All Black squad on the weekend.
Black Monday wasn’t so bad, John Key is worse
Black Monday on the casino Chinese stock markets wasn’t a particular problem for NZ. John Key’s short-term thinking government will be. Both us and our next biggest trading partner Australia are now heavily exposed to falling Chinese imports and falling commodity prices. That is going to hurt over the coming years.
Open mike 31/08/2015
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Serco – the company that fails at providing public services
They were, until a few months ago, the biggest company you’d never heard of. They failed in the UK, they failed in Australia and they’ve failed here in our prisons. But they are still making good profits here. They’re a company dedicated, it seems, to making a profit while failing to deliver lots of different public services. We don’t need or want them here.
Imagine if National had not sold the shares in our companies 2015 version
The latest financial reports for the privatised companies suggests that the New Zealand Government has lost in the past twelve months $470 million in dividends it would have received had it held onto the shares.
Open mike 30/08/2015
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Mike Hosking – The case of the vanishing journalist
To try and excuse his obvious bias Mike Hosking is now claiming not to be a journalist (unfortunate that his bio material says he is). That Hosking would try and disown journalism speaks volumes to his character.
Border Force fiasco – how would NZ respond?
Yesterday Melbourne stood up for human rights. Would we in NZ have done the same?
Open mike 29/08/2015
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70 refugees dead in small truck on Austrian roadside
When European and NATO countries participate in destabilising and destroying nearby countries, the human tragedy doesn’t stay neatly confined to the other side of the border.
Daily Review 28/08/2015
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.
WMBAD: Trade
The White Man Behind a Desk on trade. Reckon we should ask them to do the TPP?
Weekend social 28/08/2015
Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no […]
Tom Scott on housing
Another farm death
Last night the Nats passed their widely ridiculed health and safety legislation. This morning a Waikato farm worker died in a workplace accident. Sincere condolences to his family and friends.
No, National shouldn’t have balanced the books.
Simon Louisson recently made a post about National’s profligacy, and all of the debt they have racked up. Guest poster Michael disagrees with Simon and says that “Yes, National was profligate.” and “No, National should not have balanced the books.”
Finlayson criticises Law Society but gets it wrong
Chris Finlayson has criticised the New Zealand Law Society for not being aware that a change to the Health and Safety Reform Bill affecting human rights introduced after submissions had been heard was itself being changed. But all this does is reinforce the Law Society’s criticisms that such provisions should have been part of the original bill.
Open mike 28/08/2015
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