Open mike 06/10/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Breakfast bigot suspended
Paul Henry has been suspended from TVNZ. He will return on air on Monday 18 October. That simply isn’t good enough – he needs to be sacked because he is a recidivist offender who appears to be incapable of learning. As Mike Treen says “Paul Henry has become the poster boy for bigotry. He has no place on a national broadcaster paid for by taxpayers – taxpayers who include many of the people he humiliates.”
The leadership vacuum
Paul Henry has a racist rant to the Prime Minister and what does John Key do? He laughs along and tries to make a joke. A PM that is afraid to be a leader. A Leader of the Opposition who is afraid of ticking off racists. A Green Party that is afraid of making a claim for the Left vote when Labour fails. Come back, Helen, all is forgiven.
John Key’s blue-eyed baby misdirection
John Key really does say some extraordinary things when he’s trying to placate the media, and often it works because journos are bamboozled into accepting what he says as fact. Yesterday, he defended the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act saying the Governor-General tests the appropriateness of each CERRA law. Dead wrong.
NZ’s new racist international image, proudly brought to you by TVNZ
Here’s some of the international coverage of New Zealand that Paul Henry’s racist outburst against our Governor General Anand Satyanand has sparked. In […]
Sack Paul Henry – protests at TVNZ
Join the protests this evening outside TVNZ in both Auckland and Wellington calling for Paul Henry to be sacked.
AUCKLAND: 5pm, TVNZ HQ, 100 Victoria Street West
WELLINGTON: 5pm, TVNZ, 86 Lambton Quay
Open mike 05/10/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
A couple of points about the Hobbit dispute
Actors Equity have the Aussie actors’ minimum standards up on their site and they look pretty minimal.
So what’s all the fuss about and why is John Key suddenly interested in getting involved in an industrial dispute?
After all he’s previously claimed it’s “not appropriate” for the government to intervene in other disputes.
Quick thoughts on Henry’s “apology”
So he’s apologised to the Governor General personally but not to the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who he has described as […]
Wade-Brown with a chance to beat Prendergast
Everyone had pretty much assumed that Kerry Prendergast was a sure thing to win another term as Wellington’s mayor. But a Dompost poll shows Celia Wade-Brown is in the hunt. With a small gap and low turn-out every vote matters – so cast yours for Wade-Brown today.
Dompost says CERRA needs to go
The Dompost has joined the chorus of outrage over CERRA (The Gerry Brownlee Enabling Act). Parliament got it badly, badly wrong in signing away its powers but it’s not too late to make things right. The Greens are calling for a review. Labour should join them.
No rest for team Brown
The weekend headlines make it seem like Brown has the Auckland Mayoral election all but won. That’s an invitation to self-defeating complacency. Team Brown needs to keep up the hard work — it ain’t over ’till it’s over.
Paul Henry: we all pay for his unending bigotry
New Zealand’s most infamous anti-Ambassador Paul Henry has shamed us all once again. On TVNZ’s Breakfast this morning, Henry asked John Key (at […]
Shamed by Kiribati
The tiny island nation of Kiribati puts the “developed” world to shame.
EPA: Enabling poor accountability
When National announced it would create an ‘Environmental Protection Agency’ and a short-cut resource consent process for projects of ‘national significance’, the implications were clear. The new agency and process would be used to override local opposition. Sure enough, that’s what’s happening with Waterview.
Open mike 04/10/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Carter’s piss-poor blackmail & careerism
So, Chris Carter is threatening a ‘tell-all’ book on the Fifth Labour Government published at the next election. But he says he won’t publish it if he gets to stay in Labour. It’s blackmail, a further act of treachery for which he deserves to be evicted from the party. Carter’s rot is the corruption of all MPs who forget who they were elected to serve.
Be rad: vote Yani and James
OK, so it’s quite up with the best campaign ad ever, but Yani Johanson and James Dann’s anti-Bob Parker rap brought a smile to my face. Yani is running for councillor in the Hagley-Ferrymead ward and James is going for the Hagley-Ferrymead Community Board, both on the People’s Choice ticket.
Big ups to Helen Kelly and a question for the lawyers out there
Helen Kelly has brought the two parties in the hobbit dispute together.
That’s a job well done and a big step in settling this dispute.
But there is still the broader issue of independent contracting being used to circumvent employment law and whether it could be fixed by legislation.
India: Ignorance at a distance
It’s been pretty painful watching the media coverage of the Delhi games buildup over the last few weeks. What a lot of xenophobic nonsense we’ve been served up.
ECE cuts hurt kids & parents
Early childhood education is great stuff. Those first few years shape a child’s future more than any other. Getting into learning and into socialising early on leads to huge rewards later in life. Parents can go back to work if they want or need too. For every dollar spent on ECE, society gets 13 back in benefits.
Extremist NZ Actors Equity demands outrageous fortune
Wondering who Actors’ Equity are and what they do? Well here’s a video from AE explaining just that. Actors’ Equity also have a […]
One of these things is not like the other XII
One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same. Can you guess which one […]
Open mike 03/10/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Banks and the South Auckland bashers
John Banks has made bashing South Auckland part of his campaign “strategy”. That didn’t work out so well for Melissa Lee, and it won’t work out so well for others that are now trying the same tactic…
Some advice for Actors Equity
The Hobbit dispute is being run to a very familiar playbook.
Let’s have a look at the employers’ tactics and what the union can do to counter them.
What will future generations condemn us for?
This question is something that has been on my mind for some time. In this article, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosophy professor at Princeton, sets out four examples of current policy that he believes those in the future will look back and say “What were people thinking?”
Ryall: Our Only Plan Is Cuts
Treasury in their first year under National tripled their expenditure on contractors whilst forcing all other departments into cuts. Bill English decided against having any public accountability, and left Tony Ryall talking rubbish trying to explain it.
Open mike 02/10/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Something odd in crime stats
The crime stats are not good news. Homicides are up, violent offences are up, sex offences are up, harassment and related offences are up, drug offences are up, public order offences are up. Oddly, though, the total number of offences is down (by 0.1%). The decrease is all down to a 25.6% decrease in recorded fraud offences. What’s up with that?
From Hounds to Foxes
As you sit there reading this, think about how industrial action is growing across the country – Secondary teachers, Junior Doctors, Radiographers, State Servants, Actors. There is a lot more to come as National and business try to force wages down. Do you want to wait for them to come for you?
GST is going up today
Remember how John Key used to talk about GST? Here is a video reminding everyone of the past before he did his usual flip-flop to favour the rich while increasing costs on most people. The GST increase and the consequent inflation will make almost everyone worse off unless they are wealthy enough to bribe the NACT’s.
A brief point on union meetings
Peter Jackson’s in the paper today whining about being denied entry to a union meeting.
There’s a really simple reason for that – union meetings are for union members, not for employers.
Digested Read – Spirit Level 5: Sustainability
The fifth of 6 in a series summarising the argument of The Spirit Level. This post looks at how a more equal society may also be a more sustainable one.
Quick question
Why does our Minister of Tourism always take his holidays overseas?