Nick Smith today announced proposed changes to the Resource Management Act. It is likely he will resuscitate the reforms that were stalled after Peter Dunne refused to support them last year. ACT’s David Seymour has said he will support the changes even though he did not know what they are. Treasury are to release a paper with proposals for change. Updated lprent – yep National stupidity reprised.
Yesterday it was announced that Auckland is the ninth least affordable city in the world requiring 8.3 times their average wage to buy a home. Reducing regulation hasn’t worked, otherwise more than 20 homes would have been built under the 2013 fast track accord. The problem is a shortage of affordable housing.
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Winnie Biyanyima of Oxfam is one of six co-chairs at the Davos World Economic Forum. She says her role is to challenge the powerful elites, and she goes armed with a new report that shows that on current trends by next year the world’s richest !% will hold more wealth than the other 99%. She’s got some good ideas on what to do about it too.
An interesting milestone in inequality is about to be passed.
UK PM David Cameron thinks freedom will be enhanced by monitoring everything – something we used to call totalitarianism. We need more encryption and to make sure the internet is built for the people, not the data-miners – be they our security agencies, criminal gangs, or facebook.
We’re not good at learning from history.
Andrew Little will give his state of the nation speech on 28 January. What can we expect to see in it?
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As widely reported, 2014 was the hottest year on record. And that’s a good thing!
The team at Scoop are running a series called “The State of the NZ News Media – A Public Conversation”.
James Griffin has written a tongue in cheek article on what John Key should be doing this year. But the article is full of political fluff and has no real proposals for action. What should John Key be doing this year?
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This the time of year when papers are thin and economic prognostications abound as the pop-star economists from banks and brokers look to […]
TV3 recently interviewed Cameron Brewer to provide adverse commentary on a story about Labour seeded by David Farrar and Cameron Slater. And they did not even mention Brewer’s links to the National Party.
Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi has been sentenced to 1000 lashes. The international outrage is growing.
Generation Zero encourages you to make a submission on the Skypath. All those in favour – say so!
The evidence is surely mounting that the remedies to recession proposed by orthodox policy have failed.
The whole basis of monetarist policy is revealed to be a charade.
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It makes for great reading and throws the net wider than last time… just Check it out here
The latest excuse for John Key deleting his texts wholesale is wafer-thin.
The continued rise of rheumatic fever is an indictment of our society.
New figures show that there is no quick fix for diseases of poverty.
Your move, National.
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The United Kingdom is debating entry into the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which like the TPPA will allow investor-state disputes to be resolved by unappealable unaccountable private arbitration. George Monbiot in the Guardian describes the issue well and has suggestions on how the proposal can be challenged.
How many governments are using the Paris / Charlie Hebdo attack as an excuse to increase surveillance or otherwise remove civil protections? The UK and Australia for starters…
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Idiot Savant speculates on why GCSB Director Ian Fletcher is standing down so unexpectedly. Maybe another GCSB stuffup? Which of course someone has to fall on their sword for, but which must be kept secret for “security reasons” (aka “if the victims knew, they’d sue us and complain to the police”).
What is with the paparazzi-like obsession with Max Key?
An excellent piece by Dame Anne Salmond in the Dominion Post yesterday. Salmond reviews the government’s attacks on journalists, institutions and privacy.
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The self righteousness of the leaders who marched in Paris was there for all to see, but few in the media decry and […]
For family reasons he is stepping down… Nothing to see here says Chris Finlayson, great guy who did a great job. For national’s supporters of course there is far more importance in receiving speeding fines Woodhouse is moving quickly to say the enforcement is ambiguous. It appears that he sees a universal right to speed and kill people…
No surprises to find that The Herald is sliding in to the muddy waters of “advertorials”.
Political Scientists Bronwyn Hayward and Mark Boyd were interviewed on Radio New Zealand yesterday on New Zealand politics in 2014 and what happened during the election. They talked extensively on dirty politics, on the role of the media and how things can be improved in 2015.
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