As the public and private mourning for the Pike River 29 continues, focus will begin to shift to how this event occurred with no less than five inquires soon to begin. John Armstrong has a very good article on the issues that will be in the spotlight. This is not about political point-scoring, it’s about preventing future tragedies. I ask for comments to be in that vein.
The UK government is currently trying to balance its budget by shifting costs onto the young, through a trebling of university fees. This will prevent many kids from poor families from going to university, and they’re not happy about it…
On Monday the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference begins in Cancun, Mexico. This is the successor to last year’s spectacularly failed Copenhagen Summit. Nothing useful will be accomplished there. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that we lack the will to save ourselves.
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Pike River chief executive Peter Whittall has called on the country to mark one week since the West Coast mine exploded with a moment’s silence at 3.44pm today, in remembrance of the 29 men who died
Feel like some Friday fun? Do you know a haycorn from a heffalump? If you answered “yes” to both questions then I think you’re going to appreciate this piece of genius from Lyndon Hood.
The new foreshore and seabed deal is going sour for the government at both ends. The Maori Party is in a state of virtual civil war with the fundi faction led by Hone Harawira gaining support against Tariana Turia’s sell-out faction. Meanwhile, National is feeling the heat as ACT targets its redneck vote.
It’s a special breed of people who can deny workers a cost of living pay increase while pocketing a hundred thousand dollar a week pay cheque. It’s a special breed who can take people’s livelihoods or risk their health and safety to add a few cents to the share price. Research names that breed: psychopaths. Capitalism is built by and for them.
It’s pretty bloody late in his tenure to be saying it, but Police Commissioner Howard Broad has joined with every expert in telling politicians that their braindead, populist policy of increasing the number of crimes and ramping up prison sentences has to stop. It’s not a solution to crime, it’s making it worse.
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The Fabians’ Resilient Economy series run through this year has been stressing the looming problem with New Zealand’s private debt and the need […]
I’m not going to waste a lot of time on the Welfare Working Group’s report. It follows the Brash-esque formula of mis-representing the issue as some massive problem and then presenting ‘solutions’ that have failed overseas. Like the Brash reports, it will be used by the Nats for bait and switch, making their actual cuts seem moderate by comparison.
Labour revealed yesterday that Pansy Wong traveled abroad an astonishing eleven times as Minister for Women’s Affairs and Ethnic Affairs, spending $147,000 in two years making her one of the highest spending ministers. Six of those trips were to China. What was she doing? Why did Key sign off on these trips?
It’s an incredibly sad day for NZ. Today the country mourns for the 29 miners who have lost their lives after a second explosion at the Pike River mine. Our thoughts are now with the families, the communities, and the people of the Coast. The Standard will keep its half mast headlined all day today. Anyone wishing to donate to help the families of the miners, the details are here.
Some of the journalists covering Pike River have resorted to extreme measures (even posing as victim support workers) to try and contact grieving families. This is an example of all that is wrong with the media taken to the very worst of its extremes. I can see the problem, but I can’t see the solution. Are the light and dark sides of the media simply inseparable?
It’s official: the Auckland CBD rail loop would bring more benefit to the country for its cost than any of National’s ‘Roads of National Significance’. And that’s even before we talk about peak oil. Any rational government would put the money into the project that gets most benefit for the taxpayer buck. Not this one.
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There has been a second explosion at the Pike River mine.
“Superintendent Gary Knowles told the Herald the miners couldn’t have survived a blast of that magnitude, which occurred at 2.37pm. Family members were seen crying as they left a police briefing a short time ago.”
My heart goes out to the families.
In Question Time yesterday, Bill English said Ireland is an example of how bad the recession might have gone in New Zealand. That triggered a memory of John Key three years ago saying we should follow the Irish economic model. I guess we can just be thankful Key wasn’t in power at the time to put that crazy ‘aspiration’ in effect.
As of April 1 next year, I’m going to be a whole lot less confident moving to a new job. If I do, I’ll probably find the new contract gives the boss the right to fire me without giving me the right to justice if the firing is unfair. Reducing workers’ confidence to change jobs is just one of the stupid consequences of universal Fire at Will.
Reading the news on the current plight of the Irish with a economy in a tailspin and a tottering government. I can but […]
9/11 seems to have driven America crazy. Most Americans, I think, don’t realise how much their country has changed around them. But one very visible manifestation of the brave new world is getting right in the public’s faces, that is the new generation of airport security scanners. Dubbed “porno scanners” for the body images that they produce, they have finally provoked a reaction from the great American public.
Two Friday’s ago, corrupt Nat Pansy Wong resigns as minister. Key tells her not to talk to media. As if she can’t remember her own overseas trips. Gives her a week’s leave. Wong disappears. Week’s up – no Wong. Where is she? Mallard’s heard she’s overseas. Fundraising for the Nats. Is she using her travel perk?
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I’ve never been one for censuring cogent voices from the wilderness when they carry far enough on the wind to reach our ears because the wilderness can hold treasure troves of intelligent dissent. Today I came across a neat illustrative example of a ham fisted attempt to consign a voice from the left to the wilderness in the name of…well, it’s called fairness or some such. Apparently.
You remember John Key’s ‘blind trust’ that turned out not to be so blind. Key denied all but anyone could easily see into the ‘blind trust’. Key certainly knew of his wine and dairy interests, giving him a conflict of interest he failed to declare. Now, after the furor, the ‘blind trust’ has sold the shares. Funny things, coincidences.
Standard and Poor’s shock move to downgrade our credit rating caused markets to plunge late yesterday. Bill English’s reaction, predictably, is to pretend nothing is wrong. John Key says it’s about debt, even as he borrows for tax cuts. But let’s look at what S&P says is wrong with us:
In developing their replacement for the EFA the Nats have decided to limit what lobby groups can spend on election campaigning — despite strongly objecting to limits in 2008. Interesting how the responsibilities of government mean that the Nats have to repudiate so much of their irresponsible opposition rhetoric! But some of their spinsters are still stuck in the past…
Why are we waiting for Pansy Wong to resign from Parliament for her corrupt use of her MP’s perks or, failing that, for the Nats to evict her? The theory is the Nats want to avoid a by-election over summer. As Trevor Mallard puts it – Key wants to have his Hawaii holiday in peace. But the NBR’s Matt Nippert has other reasons for Wong’s soft treatment.
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Anne Tolley prefers instead to concentrate on the diversion that is National’s Standards. It must be easier implementing a political slogan than actually doing her job.
Key talking on Breaskfast about Mana: “we slashed the majority from 6,155 to 1,080. So by any measure, you’ve got to take that as a win.” Apart from the one measure that counts. Eh John?
Of course, this is also the dude who reckons that sitting “pretty much next to” Obama for a few minutes is a foreign policy achievement.
Seems Eric Cantona wasn’t listening.
I particularly liked the response given by Valérie Ohannesian of the French Banking Federation who, seemingly devoid of any sense of irony stated that, “One of the main roles of a bank is to keep money safe. This appeal will give great pleasure to thieves, I would have thought.”
The Commissioner for the Environment says New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions will be 26% above 1990 levels in 2020, compared to the Nats’ promise to cut them by 10-20% – leaving us with a $1b bill. Worse, the IEA shows that even if we and other countries meet our promised cuts its only half of what’s needed to avert disaster.
It can only be an unthinkably tough time for all Pike River miners, their families, and the communities on the Coast. I’m sure I speak for all The Standard writers and contributors when I say that our thoughts are with them. Despite all the dire news so far three days after the explosion, we simply don’t have the full story till the rescue team get down there and try to bring these guys back to the surface. Till then, we can only hold on and hope.
A new Horizon poll shows that the vast majority of Kiwis at all incomes level, but especially low-income families, feel worse off after the Nats’ October 1 tax swindle. John Key claimed the vast bulk of us would be better off but clearly we aren’t; shuffling money around and giving more to the rich leaves the rest of us with less.
