Owning Auckland
Last Friday the report of the Select Committee on Auckland was tabled in Parliament. The lack of media attention is a measure of […]
Who is Kate Wilkinson taking aim at?
By John Ryall, SFWU National Secretary While The Standard readers know that the air traffic controllers were the excuse that Kate Wilkinson used […]
A rort is a rort is a rort
And by any other name it smells as bad. John Key has annouced a reform of the rules for ministerial accommodation allowance. A […]
Soak the rich
Coming soon to a workplace near you, if Kate Wilkinson gets her way: According to this report by Roll on Friday, a receptionist […]
Shock, Horror – Infratil managers strike for more pay!
Yesterday Infratil got their NZ Bus hand-puppets to announce that they will be going on strike. On Wednesday, if the bus-drivers refuse to […]
Rod Oram: Burn after reading
As usual Rod Oram presents an insightful argument: New Zealand’s climate change credibility is hanging by a thread. If the government indulges in […]
Tim O’Reilly on “Gov 2.0”
Five years ago Tim O’Reilly coined the phrase “Web 2.0”. Now, in this post at TechCrunch, he argues it’s time for “Gov 2.0”. […]
Michael Laws, ambassador
From The Guardian: It used to be loony left local government that attracted ridicule. Now it is the outpourings of mad mayors. …[UK mayoral […]
Angry sadsack still at it
Michael Laws: get on with your job and stop prancing around on the media stage. Laws has put out a second (yes, a […]
Going forward…
Like r0b, I’m the new kid on The Standard’s block. Sounds like he got the cool initiation. I, on the other hand, had […]
Heavy-handed tactics from NZ Bus
Auckland bus drivers have been in negotiations with NZ Bus (which is owned by Infratil) for a 70 cent an hour pay rise. […]
Political debate done right
The last video I posted had Democratic Congressman Barney Frank taking the fight to a woman in the audience of a townhall meeting […]
Let’s have a proper debate
Larry Baldock (organiser of the “smacking” referendum) has decided to launch a petition for another referendum on whether such referenda should be binding. […]
Flood Maps
Marty G’s last post just reminded me of this – visualise who goes under as the oceans rise with Flood Maps. And yeah, […]
Climate change in action
The world’s oceans reached a record high temperature in July of 16.37 degrees, 0.59 degrees above the 20th century average. That might not […]
The mire
Last month’s Time magazine has an article that starts “to understand why the United States is losing in Afghanistan…” It’s a bombshell phrase, […]
Sohole.
In Ponsonby there is a bloody great big hole which is all that remains of the unlamented DYC Vinegar factory. It has been […]
Climate change is racist
Climate change is racist. Not literally of course, but in the sense that how people are affected by climate change is going to […]
The song of the sewer
An old favourite came around on the playlist. It sounded like the ostriches that occupy the sewer and appear here for our entertainment… […]
A return to elected dictatorship?
Back in the days of First Past the Post elections, we had what Geoffery Palmer termed ‘the fastest law in the West’ and […]
Diffusion of responsibility
Diffusion of responsibility means that the bigger the group the less chance that anyone in the group will take action. In a typical […]
Why blog?
So, against my better judgement I’m now a card carrying Standardista. Finally managed to get through the initiation ceremony without fainting. I’ve been […]
Kate’s pretext falls over
Yesterday, National’s Kate Wilkinson tried to use a dispute over how to apply the new rest breaks law for air traffic controllers as […]
OECD child poverty report
I’ve been having a look at the OECD’s report on child poverty. A lot of the data is quite of of date and […]
Wanganui: a Laws unto itself
The Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Act 2009, which prohibits the display of gang insignia in a public place, so clearly infringes of […]
10:10
The scientists say we need to reduce our greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 if we want to even […]
Rest-breaks under attack
In 1908, the miners at Blackball took a famous strike over the right to take rest breaks at work. For most of the […]
Protect our natural heritage
The Greens are leading a petition campaign, asking Parliament to: reject any move to mine our national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, marine reserves, protected […]
An angry little sadsack
I know a dude who went to law school. In one of his lecture theatres was this ‘old guy’ who was always whining […]
Politically illiterate authoritarian git
There are an interesting couple of posts over at Red Alert about an editorial in the Dominion Post yesterday. Grant Robertson describes it […]
Does John Key believe a word he says?
This 2007 quote from John Key is doing the rounds among angry “No” voters: Labour shows contempt for New Zealanders The Labour Government […]
Are you smarter than a 10th year?
Meet Robert Wadlow. When he died in 1940, he was the tallest ever recorded person, standing 8 feet, 11 and a half inches […]
Foodstuffs: Voluntary regulation fails
I find myself in the curious position of sympathising with a company reneging on an environmental promise. Foodstuffs announced yesterday that the charge […]
Wee gripes: temporal confusion and the recession
The Herald editorial this morning calling for mining DoC land: “That resource represents wealth which this country is in little position to ignore. […]
Wee gripes: Business confidence
Question: ‘Do you expect business conditions to improve in the next 12 months?’ Answer: ‘Well, we’re in the worst recession in a life-time […]
More votes than voters
The Economist has an article on the recent election in New Zealand’s current region of conflict – Afghanistan. The title of the article […]