Open mike 17/04/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Are we this racist?
A day after a Sunday Star Times piece about how racism is getting worse in New Zealand comes the apparent proof.
Govt not monitoring overseas investors
The Right says selling all our stuff and letting the profits flow offshore is great. At least $2b of the asset sales programme will be bought by foreigners. But does overseas investment actually provide the benefits it claims? We don’t know because the government doesn’t monitor the outcomes. The Nats’ obsession with selling our stuff is ideological, without any evidence it’s good for the country.
Sack or be sacked
Ports of Auckland management admit they gave Slater/Lusk the confidential employment details of a worker who criticised the bosses’ disastrous bargaining strategy. At least 2 other workers were victims of the same misdeed. CEO Tony Gibson needs to sack the senior staff responsible. If he can’t or won’t, he’s incompetent or complicit and ought to go himself.
Save the Gisborne rail line
Looks like the Nats are going to use the bridge washout on the Gisborne-Napier rail line as an excuse to close it. Despite wagon volumes growing 12-fold this year. A massive piece of capital, mothballed for want of $4.3m. More has been spent so far clearing a slip from the nearby Waioeka Gorge road, no questions asked. The Nats’ anti-rail agenda = more trucks tearing up our roads and more oil imports.
Choices, choices: Golf, PM holidays, or paid parental leave?
Key is on another holiday trade mission to Indonesia, starting with a round of golf followed by a BBQ. While researching this, I learned something: You know how Key and Boag were both at the same golf tournament when the Nat Civil War blew open? Turns out you and I paid the $500K prize for that tournament. On an unrelated note, we definitely can’t afford to extend paid parental leave.
Open mike 16/04/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Losing the debate on global warming
The facts don’t seem to matter when it comes to our understanding of climate change. As the evidence grows stronger and stronger, so too, apparently, does public skepticism.
Brain drain getting younger
Oh great. Now we’re losing Kiwis overseas straight out of high school…
Open mike 15/04/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Another asset sale lie
The Nats promised to sell no more than 49% of any given state owned assert. Now they’re trying to get cute with semantics and effectively remove all limits.
Unfortunately for them their previous promises are on record and very clear. Hey Peter Dunne – are you going to vote for this latest lie?
Open mike 14/04/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Frack Free NZ
Christchurch has declared itself a fracking free zone. Symbolic gesture? Perhaps – but this was how Nuclear Free New Zealand got started…
Weekend social 13/04/2012
Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no […]
Employers back Paid Parental
When even your friends are telling you you’ve got it wrong, it’s time to reconsider. So Bill: the Employers Union (EMA) and Family First want Paid Parental leave. It’s not too expensive, it’s back by all childcare experts, and the cost is even delayed. Just do it.
Nash to depart
Looks like Stuart Nash is going to quit as Shearer’s chief of staff and return to Napier. He has 2 solid reasons to do so: his 3 month old and beating Tremain in 2014. What worries me is the machinations behind this show some in Labour are more focused on internal politics than improving Labour’s performance against National. Put it another way, I think the odds of our first gay PM just grew.
A(nother) bad day for the dynamic duo
It was a bad day yesterday for the ‘heavy hitters’ of the Collins faction, Slater and Lusk. First, Ports of Auckland admitted supplying them with a workers’ private details. Then, the smear on the Meatworkers that they had orchestrated with Talley’s was shot down by the SFO in record time. Finally, Michelle Boag gave them a public serve on RNZ, fueling civil war talk.
Choices, choices: Farrar seeks parental leave funding
Last week, David Farrar demanded to know where the government is getting $62m for youth mental health services… Actually he didn’t (they’re stealing it from other health funding) but he is demanding Labour explains where it would get $125m a year for extending paid parental leave. I guess he just really wants to make sure it’s feasible. Lets help him out with some options
Open mike 13/04/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).
Step right up to the mike…
The PoAL dispute and facilitation
Ports of Auckland has called for facilitated bargaining.
How might this play out?
We pay for pollution
As National tell us they can’t afford the pittance required for parental leave, they also announce that they will continue to wear the multi-billion dollar cost of farmers’ emissions by deferring their entry into the ETS. That’s us, the tax-payers, subsidising Fonterra.
ImperatorFish: This Week’s Political Gallery
Nat Civil War: Nothing to see here
Every time Simon Lusk’s name gets mentioned, Whaleoil (which is only Cameron Slater and has nothing to do with Lusk </sarcasm>) responds with a vitriolic and revealing tirade. In the latest, Whaleoil insists there are no National factions, before insulting and demeaning each of the factions except Collins’, and accidentally confirming the leadership tussle is on.
Consultancy blowout
In opposition the Nats were critical of Labour’s spending on consultants. Thanks to Keith Ng we now have some figures on sending under the Nat government. Guess what…
Ounce of prevention, pound of cure etc etc
Vetoing extra paid parental leave doesn’t make social sense and it doesn’t make economic sense either.
Which is why National have said they’ll do it.
Vetoing democracy
Parliament is supposed to be the sovereign body in our government. So, how come the Executive has an unchallengeable power to veto any legislation it chooses? As I/S explains, the roots of the financial veto go back to when Parliament was a servant of the Crown, but its legislative justification has been repealed. Time to drop the archaic, undemocratic financial veto.
Another classic Slater/Lusk own goal
Slater/Lusk have been running a series of posts on the finances of the unions. Pretty weak stuff. All Slater/Lusk have proven is that they don’t understand the corporate structure of unions, they can’t read accounts, and they can’t do research. Still, you knew they were seeding something. And then came the Talleys’ complaint to the SFO about the Meatworkers’ Union.
Open mike 12/04/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Romney vs. Obama
With the effective withdrawal of Rick Santorum from the Republican primary process, Mitt Romney is now all but certain to be the Republican nominee to go up against Barack Obama in the Presidential election this year.
Hidden away
Hidden away at the end of this story, hidden away out of most media view, hidden away from Housing New Zealand, and from society… ordinary people being shafted by National’s cuts.
Nats need better excuses on billion dollar tax cut borrowing
As the Nats try to spin us into accepting another zero budget, focus is turning to 2 big holes that their policy decisions have created. First, the $1b+ a year spend on the low to negative value Roads of National (Party) Significance. Second, the $1b+ annual cost of the 2010 tax changes. That’s $2b+ that could be spent elsewhere, avoiding spending cuts without more borrowing.
Choices, choices: parental leave too expensive?
The Rightwhingers are saying extending parental leave is too expensive. We’re talking about a tiny sliver of government spending – 0.2% to be precise. And a tiny fraction of what the government is borrowing. If money is really so tight, there’s plenty of poor quality decisions that National could reverse first.
Open mike 11/04/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).
Step right up to the mike…
Paid Parental
Sue Moroney’s 6 months of Paid Parental Bill looks like being a second Labour private member’s bill that will proceed against National’s wishes.
A three-legged stool
Ruth Richardson has forced every subsequent policy to be sized up for ‘fiscal responsibility’. I’d like them to be sized up for ‘social responsibility’ and ‘environmental responsibility’ as well.
Grubby politics
Cronyism. The politicisation of the public service. Internal power struggles. It’s all just grubby Nat politics as usual. Why do we put up with it?