Open mike 28/05/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Locally Left: Budget Special
Night of politics at the pub on May 31 7pm-9pm at the Wine Cellar, St Kevin’s Arcade, K Rd, with panel: Jesse Mulligan (Comedian and commentator at-large), Rhema Vaithianathan (Economist) and Jacinda Ardern (MP).
Operation 8 documentary
I have been bemoaning that I’d missed the Operation 8 documentary. But there are more screenings around the country. Catch a showing near […]
Weekend social 27/05/2011
Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no […]
More budget backhanders
PEDA last year. Parents Inc this year. Ministers giving backhanders to their mates is a growing trend. $1.5m is being cut from the Community Organisation Grants Scheme that funds things like Rape Crisis. Instead of this democratic, accountable process, the money will go to four groups hand-picked by Turia. Dodgy as hell.
March against the budget cuts
A new organisation, the Coalition for Social Justice, is calling for a march in Auckland tomorrow.
Vote Key, get asset sales
Based on the Herald’s latest poll, that is a message the Left will be well advised to push hard. The poll shows 62% opposition vs 29% support for asset sales, while NACT polls at 56%. So, at least 18% are prospective NACT voters AND oppose Key’s main policy. The Left can win over many of these people on this vital issue.
Peak oil enters mainstream: Labour listening, Nats not
The Greens and environmentalists have been talking about peak oil forever. Now, the IEA and IMF have joined them in warning that governments need to act immediately. Labour has pledged to cancel one of National’s white elephant motorways but that must only be the beginning. Meanwhile, the Nats are planning more ‘Roads of National Significance’.
Genuine progress
This story didn’t get any big headlines. This story slipped by almost completely under the radar. But it’s a very important story. Much more important for New Zealand’s development than the smoke and mirrors of the do-nothing budget.
Open mike 27/05/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Key: making shit up
John Key just rumbles on from one lame excuse to the next on the ETS. First bringing farmers in was going to raise dairy prices, now he’s making other claims that don’t stack up.
Your chance to ask John the hard questions
John wouldn’t answer our readers’ questions but he’s out in New Plymouth this Tuesday.
Get along and ask him the hard questions if you can.
And if you can’t get there make sure you email your question to editor@dailynews.co.nz
Caption contest
Labour’s new online game
Labour’s new online game is hilarious. Choose whether or not to take the options presented and see the results. Politics is all about choices
So much for seeking a mandate
Remember when John Key was promising that he would seek a mandate from the people at the election before starting to sell public assets and cutting Kiwisaver. It was only a week ago. And he’s breaking his promises already: the Kiwisaver cuts actually kick in on July 1, and the privatisation process is underway.
Parents Inc: it’s PEDA redux
In last year’s budget, the Nats awarded a $4.8m contract to an unknown organisation called PEDA without tender and against official advice. The people behind PEDA were apparently tied to Bill English via his wife. The full truth still hasn’t come out. Now, the Nats are up to the same trick with Parents Inc.
Who has the ideas?
Last week we had National’s budget and Labour’s conference. A chance for both parties to set out their ideas for the future. National’s do-nothing budget went down like a lead balloon, while Labour started setting out promising new policy. Looks like the 2011 election campaign will be a contest between ideas and schoolboy mockery.
Open mike 26/05/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Hansen calls for Key to lead on climate change
Visionary climate change scientist James Hansen has written an open letter to John Key.
Caption contest
Key’s dodgy scheming
*Key says that we will get to vote on his Kiwisaver cuts in the election. Truth is, they passed the law last week and the tax credits are cut from July 1. *What’s up with the dodgy Kiwibank numbers? Plans for sale? *The govt is importing World Cup workers while 270K are jobless. *Key’s jokes falling flat with pissed off voters.
CTU research on minimum wage
The response to two recent posts here at The Standard have shown what a contentious topic the minimum wage is. So it’s timely that yesterday saw the release of the CTU’s summary of research on Minimum Wage and Jobs.
Climate change: Farmers can afford the ETS
No Right Turn on the cost of the ETS to farmers. Forecast to be paid over $8 per kilo for milk solids, what cost do you guess that the ETS subtracts from that sum?
R&D: Our future
National are bleating about Labour’s Research & Development tax credit – largely because as they have no economic plan of their own, so they can only talk about other parties’. But Labour’s R&D tax credit is in fact part of what’s desperately needed to get our economy moving in the right direction.
Open mike 25/05/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Joyce’s broadband back-down
Steven Joyce has been forced into a embarrassing back-down on giving a regulatory holiday to companies who won contracts for the Government’s Ultra Fast Broadband plan. But MrSmith wonders if leaving it up to Commerce Commission is going to be any better given its poor record under National.
How’s this for employment conditions?
Here’s a stunning headline from the Herald on the glamour of working at SkyCity casino:
Flea collars for SkyCity staff
Perhaps next they could introduce compulsory de-lousing baths at the end of each shift?
Jacinda Ardern’s ‘Dear Don’ letter
Labour’s Jacinda Ardern replies to Don Brash’s letter to John Key: “In many ways though Mr Brash, I fear that you have written off not just my generation, but New Zealand. There was no hope in your letter, no sense of aspiration or of the idea that we can build a prosperous country”
Disgraceful
“The worst display from a Prime Minister since the schnapps election” – that’s what a journo said about Key the other day. No, it wasn’t about him being a multi-millionaire who gave himself tens of thousands of tax cuts opposing a fair wage increase for the lowest paid workers. It was this disgraceful behaviour on Budget Day. Watch.
Choosing to be poor
Prominent scientist Sir Paul Callaghan thinks Kiwis are choosing to be poor. I reckon he’s right too, but we probably disagree about the reasons.
$15 per hour unaffordable?
I just love seeing fat, rich men who have received massive tax cuts paid for with borrowed money like John Key and Phil O’Reilly saying that a $15 an hour minimum wage is unaffordable (Key also says governments can’t raise wages, yet he claims to have done just that). Lets check out one large minimum wage employer’s ability to pay.
Open mike 24/05/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
A big gap to close
The latest Roy Morgan poll is not good reading for the political left. But it’s not quite time to despair yet!
Lunatic prophecies
Cartoonist Guy Body in The Herald, with one of those pictures that is worth a thousand words…
Key clueless on Chch rebuild
John Key thinks he can smile and wave his way through the worst natural disaster this country has faced. He acts like all he has to do is cheer-lead and the city will rebuild itself. It’s a stunning dereliction of duty. The contrast with the vision and leadership the Left is showing is marked.
The lazy unemployed
John Key reckons the unemployed need “a kick in the pants”. Paula Bennett reckons the Nats’ harsh reforms mean that “the dream is over” for beneficiaries. Meanwhile, back in the real world…