English’s story disintegrating
Pete Hodgson is continuing to chip away at English’s ministerial allowance story. English looks very uncomfortable as Brownlee and Key cover for him. […]
I don’t know if it hurts my eyes or my heart more
WTF is this? I mean look at it. It’s got to be the worst website I have ever seen and I’ve been around […]
Short term thinkers
It never ceases to amaze me what short term thinkers National are. The plan (with the Maori Party) to gut the ETS highlights […]
Nats attack democracy on two fronts
Again, National has put the House into urgency to slam through unpopular legislation. This time, it’s the Supercity legislation. National whinges that it […]
Lockout at Bridgeman Concrete
Last week I wrote: We’re seeing a new pattern in work relations emerging. The big employers, emboldened by having their party in power […]
Sell state houses? Not like this
National has announced that it will begin offering to sell 3,800 state houses to tenants living in them on market rents. I don’t […]
What next, Soylent Green?
The Wall Street financiers crapped out on their sub-prime gambles, inflicting economic devastation on the taxpayers who generously bailed-them out in return. Now, […]
Taxpayer shafted again
National seems to be making a bit of a habit of shafting the taxpayer. Before the election we were promised significant tax cuts, […]
Labour Grasps Nettle: Nettles Usually Sting
By Rob Salmond It sounds like Phil G did a great job at Labour’s conference setting out where the party should go from […]
No deal
Hot Topic has obtained a copy of a draft memorandum of understanding for a meeting on the ETS that was meant to take place […]
A hollow gesture
Some good comments from CTU president Helen Kelly in the Dom today on the Government’s posturing over MP pay increases. “The Government is […]
Kaupapa for sale
A few important passages from the special select committee report on the Emissions Trading Scheme: In the long term, price caps stand in […]
It’s the economy, stupid
What a lot of people don’t seem to understand is that an emissions trading scheme has two points: 1) encourage reductions in emissions […]
Maori Party to help Nats kill carbon emissions cap
Nick Smith has just announced a deal with the Maori Party to replace the existing Emissions Trading Scheme with a do-nothing joke. The […]
DL Auckland: The Republic
Drinking Liberally is on again in Auckland this Wednesday, with guest speaker Lewis Holden of the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand speaking […]
The emerging consensus to keep MMP
Unexpectedly, a consensus is emerging to keep MMP. A search of the Herald, Stuff and other sites shows that most editorial pages and […]
Condoms and democracy
Have to disagree with Zet’s call for Labour to ‘just put it away‘ on the remit to conference calling for subsidised condoms in […]
Close the loopholes
I am heartened that Phil Goff is trying to work with the Government to address over-investment in residential property. However, I think a […]
Be bold on smoking
Very good piece by Anthony Hubbard in the Sunday Star Times: The Maori Party is pressuring the government to take tough new anti-smoking […]
Says it all
From the firefighters’ protest against John Key’s pay freeze: Really highlights the double standard in a government that tolerates Bill English’s rorts then […]
Another lagging indicator
The New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services has released its annual Vulnerability Report. Due to rising unemployment, 219,000 children now live in households […]
No good faith from Nats
Finance Minister Bill English has told doctors, teachers, and other public servants that they will not be getting pay-raises when their collective contracts […]
Just put it away
I know this free condoms idea is just a remit, not Labour Party policy, but it’s exactly the kind of thing that the […]
SIS? Or who’s spying now?
On Thursday Animal Rights Activists did a protest outside the Norwegian Embassy against the fur trade there. This was to support the campaign […]
Examining the scientific consensus on climate change
There was an interesting preview paper published back in January by by Peter Doran and Maggie Kendall Zimmerman. It sheds light on how […]
A bit of culture
If you’re looking for something to do on a Sunday that’s a bit more uplifting than arguing politics, why not check out some […]
Those pesky boundaries for Auckland
There are a couple of things that I hadn’t realised about the rather strange changes to the Auckland super-city boundaries. They are just […]
Which side are you on?
Following on from the workers’ rights/class war theme of the last few days, here’s an old classic:
Labour needs to get back to its roots
Goff is using Labour’s national conference to swallow some dead rats, distancing himself and the party from the social reform agenda of the […]
Jim Anderton on organisation
The most interesting feature of the Labour conference so far has been from Jim Anderton. It looks like the Progressives are now able […]
Ninny state
Phil Goff is quoted today as saying “we made mistakes” with policies that were perceived as “nanny state”: Asked if he would apologise […]
Redundancy protection – it’s only fair
A coalition of unions, Labour, the Greens, the Maori Party, and community groups has come together to support Darian Fenton’s Redundancy Protection Bill. […]
Battlelines
We’re seeing a new pattern in work relations emerging. The big employers, emboldened by having their party in power and using the recession […]
National-linked dairy company threatens six week lockout
There’s a nasty dispute brewing at Open Country Cheese involving a six week lockout threat, some highly aggressive anti-union PR, calls for the […]
Welfare for whom?
Remember the iconic photos of the first Labour Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage and his cabinet celebrating the introduction of State Housing by […]
Time for Telecom to come to its senses
Today, 200 Telecom engineers in Auckland and Northland will be fired. Not because there’s no work for them but because Telecom and it’s […]