1938 10
A Sunday feature – each week a random section scanned from a copy of The Standard, September 15th, 1938. Find out more here.
Open mike 21/07/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Kevin Rudd and the boat people
Kevin Rudd announced yesterday that boat people will not be allowed to apply for refugee status in Australia and instead will be shipped to Papua New Guinea and they will have to try their luck there. Tony Abbott thinks that the proposal is promising, Greens leader Christine Milne thinks it is ruthless and repugnant. It seems that Rudd will do and promise anything for power.
Poverty Watch 40
Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, poverty and educational outcomes.
Inequality: Fallow vs Rashbrooke
Yesterday The Herald ran two pieces on the latest Ministry of Social Development’s report on household income. They have very different conclusions – Brian Fallow’s Rising inequality largely a myth and Max Rashbrooke’s Rich get richer. The poor? Have a guess. So who’s right?
Open mike 20/07/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Weekend social 19/07/2013
Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no […]
Outsourcing: Scamming the system
A new report on the UK government’s outsourcing of public sector work is damning. Necessary and basic work to fulfill individual and social needs, (eg social security, unemployment, health care, education) is being “gamed” and scammed by monopolistic private contractors. Key’s government favours outsourcing to private profiteers.
No free speech at convention centre
National’s dirty deal with Sky City includes the right for the government to ban groups it doesn’t like from booking the convention centre.
Free speech. Use it or lose it.
Mixed news
The latest Roy Morgan poll is mixed news for the Left. A second high result for National, but Labour’s vote holding steady after difficult weeks.
Open mike 19/07/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
NRT: A surfeit of caution
I/S at No Right Turn on Street’s End of Life Choice Bill.
The benefit fraud card
Even Treasury slammed SkyCity stitch up
Yesterday, National released hundreds of pages of documents on the SkyCity deal. They paint the picture of a government that locked itself politically into getting a deal and locked in SkyCity as the only option then was surprised when SkyCIty screwed them for everything it could get. Even the far from bleeding hearts at Treasury said it wasn’t worth the cost.
Sick bastards
The Nats resent every cent spent on welfare. They want our consent to keep “culling” people off it as fast as they can. They hope that they can get our consent by re-framing New Zealand’s social safety-net as – quite literally – a dangerous addiction. It is a ludicrous framing, equivalent to blaming the bandage for the wound.
Peter Dunne’s chance to shine
Peter Dunne may be the best chance that we have of defeating the GCSB amending legislation. He has said that there is a principle at stake in that his rights of privacy have been breached and I believe that he is right. Time to seek his support?
Open mike 18/07/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Bridges can’t even lie straight in bed
They say you can tell a pathological liar by the fact they’re no longer just lying about the big stuff, but start telling petty, irrelevant lies that hardly even seem worth it.
Tale Three – the Death of Sean Mortensen. Killed 20 January 2010
Sean Mortensen was killed at Robin Hood Bay, Port Underwood in Marlborough. He was 34 years old. He worked for Pelorus Contracting Ltd and was in a forest managed by Merrill and Ring Ltd.
No Milford tunnel
Nice to be able to congratulate the Nats on an environmental decision for a change!
Parata and the media
A tale of two housing policies
Houses are seriously unaffordable, especially for first-time buyers. Labour’s policy settings will help first-time buyers, the Reserve Bank under the current government is proposing tougher requirements that will make matters worse for them. Parties of the Left need to take this issue and run hard!
The truth makes them angry
A visiting Professor of Economics says he was bullied by Bill English when they met between their respective Q+A interviews. His crime was to point out that National are governing for the rich. Seems English can’t handle the truth.
Dropping the pretense: Whanau Ora privatisation
So, Tariana Turia is finally dropping the pretense that Whanau Ora is anything but a scheme to privatise social assistance and put it in the hands of unaccountable private groups. Not content with funding family reunions and other bollocks, Turia is now handing the funding decisions to three private groups. Oh, and she doesn’t want them to be covered by the OIA.
Open mike 17/07/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Simon Bridges – pants on fire
It looks like it’s not just workers’ rights and health and safety that Simon Bridges has truth issues with…
Unbelievable
No Right Turn points out how useless our security minister is. To say this is astonishing would be an understatement John Key’s chief […]
Keeping it in the Family Commission
Tale Two – The Death of Shane Frater. Killed 1 May 2009 – Struck by Flying Debris.
I have collected up the available documentation on the men killed in the forest since 2008. I am going to try, using the […]
John Key, Crosby & corporate lobbyists
Joining the dots: David Cameron is under fire for his links with lobbyists for big tobacco & big oil, via his link with Lynton Crosby. John Key, with links to Crosby Textor, has also bowed to big tobacco. Networks of Influence.
Generation Zero: What’s the holdup?
The Generation Zero speaking tour kicked off last night to a packed house in Dunedin. Generation Zero are asking – “What’s the holdup?” Why is there no action on carbon emissions and climate change?
Len is standing again
Len Brown has announced that he will again seek Auckland Super City’s mayoralty. I know this will provoke a mixture of views but style wise I think he is great and substance wise he has had successes but should have done more with MUNZ, the living wage project and Sky City.
Open mike 16/07/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Lusk/Slater to run negative Auckland campaign
According to the tip line the farcical duo of Lusk and Slater will soon be kicking off a large negative campaign against Len Brown.
Defending democracy – then and now
There have been strong and compelling criticisms of the Nats’ spying Bill, similar to the situation that occurred under the previous government with electoral finance. But the responses of the two governments are very different – and very revealing. Where Labour revised its errant Bill to address the criticisms, John Key has threatened the HRC with funding cuts. Predictably, the response of The Herald to the two cases has been very different too…
War on social security: demonisation of beneficiaries
Sweeping changes to NZ’s Social Security system begin today. This is a major shift from the the 1938 Social Security Act: a shift from support of those in need, to treating them as potential criminals, self-serving addicts, and malingerers. Shame on John Key & Paula Bennett! [Update: RNZ & BAF & AAAP]