Jackson’s employment law fibs

Peter Jackson and others film industry employers are claiming they can’t employ their workers as employees.

That claim is simply untrue.

So what’s the real reason for their reluctance to employee people on proper agreements?

Open mike 29/09/2010

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]

Anne Tolley is a fool

Anne Tolley, Minister for wrecking primary education, doesn’t have the first or faintest idea of what “national standards” are actually going to mean in practice.  She is “appalled” at the idea of labelling children as failures.  But that is exactly what the standards are designed to do.

Open letter on the CERRA

A group of 27 legal scholars from New Zealand and overseas has written an open letter outlining their deep concerns over the constitutional implications of the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act 2010.

Nats’ shortsighted penny-pinching will cost us big in the end

While the cat’s away the mice will play. And while the clown’s sunning himself in Hawaii the ideologues in his Cabinet will launch vitriolic attacks on public service workers. As teachers are forced to endure another day of the country’s most powerful figures attack them, lets consider the consequences of undermining vital public services.

English spins on GST with no traction

It’s worth having a look at Bill English’s performance on Q+A the other day. What’s telling, to my mind, is that English can’t present a real vision or even any spin-free information. Why not? Because his tax swindle is about taking from us and giving to the elite, and he can’t just come and say that.

Solo parent bashing

Life isn’t hard enough already for solo parents, according to the Nats.  So they’re going to make it harder.

Meanwhile, in some good news…

While the Anglo – Saxon or English speaking left seems unable to shake  a deep malaise that began afflicting it some thirty years ago, the left in the Spanish speaking world is making some remarkable strides forward.

Open mike 28/09/2010

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MEAA fisks Jackson tirade

The MEAA has responded to Peter Jacksons Tirade.

And it looks like he’s not been very straight-up about how the situation got to this.

Denier dissected 2

Christopher Monckton has been one of the “highest profile” climate change deniers.  But it looks like his days as poster pinup for the denier movement are well and truly over. He’s busted.

Key’s bunker of spin

According to NBR Key is locked down in a bunker of spin that separates him from his party and his caucus.

And it seems like that’s holding the hard right policy back for now.

But things will change in a second term.

A suggestion for students

The voluntary student union membership bill is based on a false premise, and a reflexive tory hatred for the word “union”.  I have a suggestion for students…

Union boycotts Jackson

Film workers in New Zealand have been exploited for years

Now their union is standing up for them.

And Sir Peter Jackson is throwing a tantrum about it.

Open mike 27/09/2010

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Ed Miliband UK Labour Leader

Ed Miliband has narrowly beaten his brother David to become the new leader of Labour in the UK.  They now get to move on from the Brown-Blair era and fightback against the Tories.

Vote fraud fallout

It looks like a Labour candidate may be involved in electoral fraud.

If this is the case the party says it will come down on them hard.

But it may also have to take a look at how local body candidates get on the Labour ticket.

Key and Shirtcliffe conspire against MMP

Leaked notes from a meeting between Peter Shirtcliffe and Wayne Eagleson have revealed backroom dealings to kill off MMP.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the party of big business and the big-business-backed anti-MMP lobby would be colluding.

After all, it’s in all of their interests to take power from the voters and put it back in the hands of the elite.

Super City Picks

Matt McCarten’s website for who to pick for a progressive Super City is finally up.  If you’re in Auckland and haven’t voted yet – make sure to have a look.

200,000 comments

We like to make a big deal over the comments because it is you coming on here, contributing your thoughts and ideas, that make The Standard what it is. Without all of you, it would just be a dozen or so people arguing with themselves/ If we wanted that we could just hang out with the Libertarianz. So, who was comment 200,000? Well…

Asbestos City

In the aftermath of the twin towers, the dust that accompanied their collapse gave rise to a health crisis in the medium/long term that continues to play out to this day.  And given the prevalence of asbestos in Christchurch buildings, it just might be that the earthquake will result in a number of preventable deaths after all…

Open mike 26/09/2010

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]

Dunedin North – David Clark

Long serving Dunedin North MP Pete Hodgson is stepping down at the next election.  The local Labour party today selected their next candidate, the Rev Dr David Clark.

China rising

The idea of The Chinese Century has been around for a long time now.  But a couple of articles that caught my eye recently make me think that the start of that century is well and truly upon us.

200,000th comment: who will it be?

We’re about to hit 200,000 comments. We’re past 199,700 now and increasing by an average of 250-odd a day. It took 688 days to get to the first 100,000 and just 450 for the next 100,000. The 100,000th comment was good old Felix in fine form. Will you be the 200,000th? We totally meant to arrange a prize. Next time.

Open mike 25/09/2010

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]

Enjoy Dave Kent

You’ve only got a day left to see “Dave Kent, a Listening Eye” at Enjoy Gallery on Cuba Street. If you’ve got the […]

“My foolish actions 26 years ago”

Rodney Hide and David Garrett would have us believe that Garrett’s downfall is about youthful indiscretions and skeletons in closets. Let’s nip this in the bud straight away. It wasn’t Garrett’s “foolish actions 26 years ago” that sealed his fate, it was the confirmation that even to this day he is still a liar, a criminal and the worst kind of hypocrite.

Re: Chauvel on CERRA

A few days ago Charles Chauvel wrote a piece on Red Alert on why Labour voted for CERRA. I have two big problems with it. 1) Labour may have won concessions that improved CERRA but they didn’t get the key one. 2) There’s a dangerous mindset in the position that Labour had to vote for dictatorship or get pilloried in the media and lose votes.