Secret ballots for strikes
Tau Henare has put a private members’ bill in the ballot that would require ballots by union members on strike action to be […]
The economy of hero worship
I wish that I got praise heaped on me at my job for exchanging a bit of small-talk with the popular dude. Don’t […]
Chauvel on the ETS
In his speech as Labour climate change spokesperson, Charles Chauvel confirmed the new information on the ETS that Jeanette Fitzsimons revealed today. It was […]
Nats to subsidise big polluters by $2 billion a year
Last night, non-government parties finally got a peak at the new emissions trading bill. Nick Smith still didn’t have it finished, it was […]
Building constituencies
On Tuesday, both Sue Kedgley and Sue Moroney tabled petitions in Parliament with over 15,000 signatures, on food standards in schools and pay […]
Sir Howard Morrison dies
This was always a favourite of mine.
Banning smoking
I have a lot of respect for Hone Harawira. The voting for a Tory government thing has lessened it but his hatred for the […]
Drinking Liberally Wellington and Dunedin
**Wellington** Today – September 24, 2009, from 5.30pm. The Southern Cross Abel Smith Street Phil Saxby on drug law reform *Dunedin** Tuesday September […]
Get it in writing
Watching the Maori Party get done over by National is getting painful. The MP thought they had a good faith dialogue on the […]
Open Country now assaulting workers
The Talleys-owned Open Country Cheese dispute took a new turn today after it was revealed that a senior manager, not content with just […]
Wee gripes: Bad looks
Espiner the Younger wrote: Hutch’s biggest mistake wasn’t reading and driving, in my opinion. It was reading and driving in a sign-written car […]
Farmers Weekly on Open Country
Reader sent in this cartoon from the latest NZ Farmers Weekly. Things have got to be bad for Open Country when even the […]
Yes, we’re screwed
On Monday, New Yorkers discovered their free rightwing rag, the New York Post, had suddenly come over all green. The front-page was typical […]
John and Bill cost us $7 million in two months
You’ll remember that in the Budget National decided to suspend payments to the Cullen Fund, which is designed to help fund the future […]
Back into growth
The newly released figures show 0.1% growth in the June quarter. The March figure was also revised up to -0.8% (from -1.0%). Here […]
NAB/BNZ pays tax – current account deficit shrinks!
What more can one say. Read it and weep for our country.
Billy and the Baroness
In an extraordinary coincidence, the Attorney-General in the UK is about to lose her job for pretty much the same rort as Bill […]
Can’t wait
More at: theyesmenfixtheworld.com
No pay freeze at the top
It seems the trend of rewarding company bosses with extravagant pay rises regardless of performance isn’t limited to Telecom’s $7 million man, Paul […]
Double standards for Double Dipton?
Our readers pointed out some interesting quotes in yesterday’s thread on Bill English’s attempt to bully journalists into silence over his housing allowance rort. […]
Nat-linked company tries to bully workers
The Open Country Cheese dispute is getting nastier by the day. The workers began their eight-day strike last week. The Talley’s and National […]
Pup on the pull-aside
Two stories from today’s Dominion give a hint as to what might be muttered under their breath as Key and Obama pose for […]
Understanding political behaviour
It seems political scientists could learn a thing or two from anthropologists after all. “Neanderthals were not the gentle, almost-human creatures portrayed in […]
The story Bill English doesn’t want you to see
On Wednesday last week, Labour released new information on Bill English’s housing allowance rort. Naturally, the media raised the issues with English. TVOne […]
Bullying the media
National are up to their old tricks again – bullying the media to try and shut down critical comment. This time the culprit […]
Outage
The outage earlier this evening was due to the hosting company taking the server down.. We will be rebooting the host machine to […]
The entertainer
It’s kind of funny how in a year we’ve gone from expecting a Prime Minister to be hugely competent and across the details […]
No, I’ll pay, I insist
So trucking companies are unwilling to pay for the extra damage that 53 tonne trucks will do. Companies trying to privatise the gains and […]
Talking union
Eddie’s piece on the importance of joining your union if you want to avoid a pay cut reminded me of another Peter Seeger classic:
Wake up
The Global Climate Wake-up Call is happening today. It’s a grassroots way for people to say we want our leaders to do more […]
Return of the Neanderthals
From Paul Krugman’s review of Skidelsky’s latest book on Keynes: “At research seminars, people don’t take Keynesian theorising seriously anymore; the audience starts […]
Are you worth less this year?
Right now, spurred on by the hypocritical words of Bill English and John Key, employers in the public and private sectors are saying they […]
Nats’ ETS a polluters’ charter
Rod Oram, as usual, has set the standard in commentary with his piece on the National-Maori Party ETS. The full article is here […]
A long time between drinks
The latest Roy Morgan poll puts National down 5% and Labour up 4%. Still a big gap, but it seems at last New […]
English owes us disclosure
I’ve posted before on “mainstream” media editorials, their variable quality and the paradox (in this world of blogging) of their anonymity. Every now […]
One of these things is not like the other VII
One of these things is not the other, One of these things is not quite the same… Can you guess which one is […]