Nicky Hager recently participated in a multi-country investigation of a huge leak of tax haven information. He will speak about what they discovered and the implications for New Zealand and other countries. 5:30pm, Friday 21 June, Connolly Hall, Guildford Terrace, Wellington. All welcome – should be fascinating.
Simon Bridges’ loose relationship with the truth has got him in trouble just a few weeks into his first big test as Minister of Labour. It started last week when he got caught off guard by an innocuous question from Darien Fenton…
The Nats’ strike breaking Bill is in trouble, with the Employers & Manufacturers Association and Peter Dunne both stating their opposition. Let’s hope it’s another win for workers and for MMP.
Kim Hill has been awarded a Gold Medal at the 2013 New York Festival Radio Awards. Congratulations! What a pleasure it is to have a real interviewer on Morning Report for a change.
Many praise Jackson and Weta for the work it brings to NZ. However, a recent US-focused survey by Scott Squires, shows how subsidies, like that for the Hobbit, plus lack of unionisation are contributing to increasing exploitation, income insecurity and competition among skilled VFX workers internationally. [Update: Squires’ response]
Well, Slater’s reverse midas touch has struck again. It’s remarkable that Slater should be able to take a 125-year old publication and kill it in 6 months, especially when Judith Collins says he’s better than the mainstream media. Or, perhaps, he had been so successful in turning Truth into the new media dreadnought that its jobs was done. Ah well, lets remember how it began.
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Truth has had a long and proud (and often not so proud but bloody fun) history. But now it’s over. Killed off by one of the biggest failures in the blogosphere.
Have you done this yet?
The parliamentary inquiry into the future of manufacturing has released its report today. I’ve not had time to read it, but it’s great to see a report by 4 out of parliament’s 7 or 8* parties, showing a united stance to one of our country’s biggest economic problems. 40,000 lost jobs in 4 years; the worst current account deficit in the developed world (overtaking Greece) – and a government that’s ignoring it. We need some big solutions and a combined force committed to it.
This National government has an unprecedented contempt for democracy. The media keeps noticing pieces of the picture, but never seems to put them all together. Susan Edmunds’ piece in the Herald on Sunday is a rare and welcome exception.
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
What can one (anyone) say about this image? Well, I guess we will find out.
On this coming Wednesday’s episode of The Vote – our monthly break from the awfulness that I hear is 3rd Degree – a […]
The NZ Transport Agency’s “Drive Social” programme looks like one gigantic waste of money, and the Greens are hammering it. Key’s response? “They just want everyone to cycle everywhere.” Is he looking a little tired to anyone else?
The Right’s favourite sprawl example at the moment. Sections for $50,000. Wow! But they haven’t asked why new sections in Houston are so cheap. They’ve just assumed its because Houston doesn’t have tight zoning rules. In fact, they do – but their rules encourage sprawl. And, while the land may be cheap, it means much higher living costs – particularly transport.
A Sunday feature – each week a random section scanned from a copy of The Standard, September 15th, 1938. Find out more here.
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
New Zealand’s issue of child poverty has lingered around for the past thirty-odd years, and although the rate is lower than it was in the 1980′s, it is by no means at an encouraging level. 1 in 4 kiwi kids live below the threshold, that’s around 270,000, equivalent to filling Eden Park five and half times with impoverished kids
Water is becoming a precious resource, under threat from pollution, over use, population growth, & commercial profiteering. The Green & Labour Parties are very critical of Key’s government weakening the RMA in favour of commercial gains, while over-riding local government plans.
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, a brief note about a coming episode of “The Vote” on the following topic: “Our kids – The problem’s not poverty, it’s parenting”.
Your favourite smug, self-aggrandising Tory and mine, David Farrar, wrote a post yesterday about something called the “Performance of Manufacturing Index”, which is a wee survey that the BNZ does. Apparently, it shows manufacturing on the grow. ‘How inconvenient’ for people worried about the crisis in manufacturing, Farrar chortled. Then, Blenheim’s largest manufacturer laid off 84 workers.
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Lieutenant General David Morrison schools the misogynists and shows how you can be tough and liberal.
Best quote:
“You may find another employer where your attitude and behaviour is acceptable but I doubt it. The same goes for those that think toughness is build on humiliating others.”
Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no […]
Key’s government is continuing its attack on workers’ rights, pay, conditions & collective bargaining with Jami-Lee Ross’s ‘Strike Breaking’ Bill. Darien Fenton, the CTU & EPMU say why it is wrong. All parties and MPs should oppose this and other proposed changes to employment law.
While it was stupid of Labour MPs to muddy the waters, the real scandal goes unremarked.
Bernard Hickey asked such an interesting question on Twitter that it’s worth a post and discussion here. When and how will the young revolt?
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Bad day for National’s favourite blogger yesterday (plus journalist David Fisher on the Kiwiblog comments section).
We don’t know how often John Key has met with Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir which developes cyber-intell systems like PRISM, & is now operating in NZ. Thiel’s involvement in NZ is extensive. He has been pursuing his “utopian” libertarian, cyber-focused agenda in NZ for a few years.
A classic case of classy right wing politics from Australia is currently in the news. Reminds me of a similar example here last year.
The angles and implications of the GCSB / PRISM / Palantir story are multiplying at a frightening rate, and only a mug would trust anything coming out from the government about it. Key is openly contradicting himself on the GCSB law, it’s farcical.
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
