Housing New Zealand is going to build some affordable houses in Christchurch and then sell them. It’s not a bad idea. In fact, if it were done right and en masse, it should have been a centrepiece of National’s empty ‘affordable housing’ announcment. But I fear it won’t be done right. It’s not enough just to build affordable homes: you need to make sure landlords don’t snap them up.
Sugarbags are a symbol of self-help in the 1930s Depression. Foodbanks are a symbol of the failure of consumer capitalism. Should the left reclaim Labour’s original core values? What are those core values, and are they still relevant today?
The Secretary for Education has drawn the wrong conclusions from data on educational performance, and a bunch of commentators (including a particularly egregious anonymous editorial in The Herald) have been quick to follow. We certainly have a world class education system. The fact that not every child can take advantage of it is our real failing and our shame.
If any good can ever be said to come from a natural disaster, then let the good of Sandy be its function as a clear and present wake up call. It’s a crisis, and it’s an opportunity.
National are economic failures. Unemployment is up two thirds under their watch and still rising. Household incomes are falling behind inflation. Manufacturing firms are closing up and making workers redundant. People are fleeing to Aussie in record numbers looking for jobs and decent wages So, what’s Key’s solution? Drive down wages by attacking workers’ right to organise.
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No Right Turn on the overthrow of local democracy in Canterbury…
It is poor timing for an extension of surveillance powers. Cases where the police have flouted the law have been coming thick and fast recently. Without Ministerial oversight it has been up to the courts to provide balance, but that’s a method of last resort, and very much an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
It’s fine not to agree with someone’s politics. It’s fine to weigh up the attributes of one prospective leader against another and decide that one is the better choice. But the Anyone But Cunliffe clique didn’t do that. They literally wanted anyone who wasn’t Cunliffe. When Parker wasn’t going to win, they went to Shearer. It was a childish way to play with Labour’s future.
It was almost funny listening to Bill English on Checkpoint. He had identified all, or at least most of, the problems with housing in Auckland: in short, nobody’s building affordable houses, the prevelance of bespoke houses pushes up prices, and speculative capital raises them even more. But his solutions were all, well, not solutions: try to make consenting even quicker, more sprawl.
The US Presidential election is close. Really close. The political futures markets favour Obama about 2 to 1 but polls of the nationwide popular vote and the polls in key states, such as Ohio and Virginia, are essentially tied. Enter the October surprise – Sandy, the latest ever recorded Atlantic storm, now coming ashore and pounding key battleground states.
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Bugger the environment – who needs it? That’s the message from National, both domestically and internationally.
Gillard’s ‘Asian Century’ white paper, and negotiations of the ASEAN trade agreement (RCEP) are significant developments in US-China struggle for dominance in the region. Aussie wants to be a major player. How should NZ respond?
Listening to the Nats on housing affordability, it’s pretty clear that their only plan is to allow more sprawl. So, let’s say this clearly: sprawl is expensive, not cheap, and it is not lack of housing but over-investment in house price speculation that leads to high prices. National’s ‘solution’ is for the country to needlessly spend tens of billions.
The latest Roy Morgan also includes a poll of what people think is the single most important issue facing New Zealand.It makes informative reading. Jobs is the largest: 1 in 5 consider it the most important issue. Combined, the economic categories are 57% of people’s top issue, up from 49% a year ago, and 43% the year before that.
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In my opinion the MP signed their own death warrant when they allowed the split with Mana to happen. Coverage arising from their Conference paints a picture of a party in terminal decline.
The latest Roy Morgan poll bodes badly for Labour.
If they are to take the government benches in 2014 they need to get their house in order.
On Planet Key natural body processes are ignored, and nature has been tamed into a golf course. It’s a place where mothers don’t lactate or have a heightened sensitivity to their babies’ cries; a place disconnected from the chaotic consequences of climate change.
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
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 party that wants to help, and a party that doesn’t.
Plain packaging isn’t just an unproven idea, it’s pointless, illogical in the current circumstances, and seriously condescending.
The latest Roy Morgan poll has Labour down 4.5% to 29%. There’s no way to varnish it, this is a very bad poll […]
David Shearer’s weekly e-newsletter, this week on Greymouth, jobs, and privatisation.
We’re happy to post similar newsletters from other opposition leaders – our email is on our contact page.
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 is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no […]
Detective Inspector Grant Wormald and his Organised and Financial Crime Agency appear to be a rogue police unit that thinks it’s above the law. They acted illegally in the Dotcom raid, they had GSCB illegally spy on Dotcom, Wormald appears to have perjured himself, and, now, there’s the illegal fake prosecution that has led to 21 accused criminals going free.
Yet National’s position is that there isn’t a problem, let alone that they can do anything about it.
Cuts have consequences.
Combine that with a culture where ministers are never held accountable for anything, and you have a recipe for bungling incompetence.
This National government is a very small government indeed.
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Two recent posts from NRT on aspects of sexism in NZ, and a scathing reply to Business NZ from Sue Moroney.
The Maori Party has pulled its support for the latest weakening of the ETS. As usual Peter Dunne will be personally responsible for propping up the worst of the Nats’ agenda.
Here’s Business NZ’s shill on extending paid parental leave: “Employers who have been forced to bear considerable replacement costs, or to find those amongst their other employees willing to provide cover, may well think hard before again employing a woman of child-bearing age”. 1) that makes no sense 2) it’s illegal under the Human Rights Act.
All Police are tainted by the illegal, unethical actions of the few, which the Police Association under Greg O’Connor endorses, defends, and tries to cover-up. O’Connor’s latest outrages are dismissing a report into systemic sexism and sexual abuse by Police as a “ritual humiliation” and justifying Police laying false prosecutions.
