Search Results » bill fear
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Cometh the Hour
ChrisH submitted this incredibly knowledgeable and well-researched post on the rebuilding of Christchurch a few days ago. The announcement that large parts now lower-lying eastern suburbs will be abandoned lends more strength to his call for a visionary urban plan for the new, more resilient Christchurch. And Phil Goff has the history to present it.
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The Domino recessions
I read a book a while back that was set in the near future after what it called the ‘Domino recessions’ – successive oil shocks had created a series of economic and political crises, each one before the world had recovered from the previous recession. As the second oil shock in three years hits, that scenario looks to be coming to true.
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Salvation Army: welfare proposals ‘defining moment’
The Salvation Army has a Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit that comes out with some very well researched material. Their State of the Nation is compelling reading and their fear of the government’s welfare proposals coming out tomorrow speaks volumes.
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Key out of touch on food & poverty
Hunger and malnutrition are stalking New Zealand families. Hundreds of thousands are just one shock – whether an illness, or a large bill – from not being able to afford basic food. This is not good enough in our land of plenty. Multi-millionaire John Key doesn’t empathise. To him poverty is a moral failing but he’s seriously out of touch.
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Key, Beck & the end of empire
John Key’s support for Mubarak arose from the American far-right’s fear of Egyptian democracy. We laugh at Glenn Beck’s crazy conspiracy theories and the hypocrites who invaded Iraq to ‘spread democracy’ yet oppose free elections in Egypt because of who might get elected but there’s a deeper story here: the end of the American Empire.
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In Defence of the Nanny State
I get frustrated with the right claiming “Nanny State” on everything (except when it’s them banning cell-phones when driving etc). So it was with interest I read famous philosopher Alain de Botton’s piece on the BBC yesterday: In defence of the nanny state.
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Stupid but dangerous
The Republican Party may be entering its death throes. In an unprecedented move, there were two competing Republican response speeches to President Obama’s State of the Union address. One from Paul Ryan, the powerful Chair of the House Budget Committee. The other from a Teabagger who looked into the wrong camera the whole time.
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Debt an excuse for enriching the elite
In 2008, John Key’s line was ‘New Zealand doesn’t have a debt problem, it has a growth problem’. In Budget 2010, he said the Crown would be back into surplus in record time. In December, he said debt wouldn’t force a downgrade. Now, he says debt is such a problem we need to slash and sell. When did he mean what he said? Never. It has never been about debt.
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Newtering the rhetoric on crime
As has been amply demonstrated by comments on The Standard in recent days, there are many who believe that the answer to an ineffective deterrent is more deterrent; that leaving in place the likelihood that fleeing from a police car will result in your death is somehow discouraging an unknown number of drivers from fleeing. Increasingly, though, people who respond with their critical faculties as opposed to their knees are realising that the present model of law enforcement and incarceration is a failure.
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English Confident Voters Gullible
Blinglish is confident that voters understand the economy and back the government’s (lack of) direction. In fact he better hope that voters don’t understand the economy, or notice National’s lack of help to an economy shedding jobs and headed into double-dip recession, or he won’t get voted back in.
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Tea Party turns violent
Only one US Congressperson has ever been assassinated – Leo Ryan during the Jonestown Massacre. Gabrielle Giffords may become the second after a gunman shot her and others, killing at least one, in Arizona. This appears to be part of a rising tide of violence from America’s far-right Tea Party movement, driven on by Glenn Beck and others.
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Nats & Jackson played us for fools
The Herald has used the OIA to get hold of emails Peter Jackson sent Gerry Brownlee during the Hobbit shakedown. They show that the Actors’ Equity blacklisting was not a threat to the film staying here – yet Jackson and Brownlee told us it was to justify handing Warners $34 million and rushing through an anti-worker law.
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Is enough being done for Canterbury?
I was in Christchurch this weekend for the second time since the quake. It felt like things are gradually getting worse. Compared to the pre-Christmas bustle in other cities, Christchurch CBD was a ghost-town. The public service’s emergency preparedness got us through the initial disaster – has enough been done since? What are your impressions?
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Doing nothing in the face of climate change crisis
The Commissioner for the Environment says New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions will be 26% above 1990 levels in 2020, compared to the Nats’ promise to cut them by 10-20% – leaving us with a $1b bill. Worse, the IEA shows that even if we and other countries meet our promised cuts its only half of what’s needed to avert disaster.
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House prices show double-dip
House prices are a good indication of how the economy is going. They rose rapidly in the 2000s, stalled in 2007, plummeted in 2008, and made a slight recovery in 2009. Now they’re heading down again. The median house price is over 16% below the peak in late 2007 and I reckon they’ve got a long down way to go yet.
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Govt Attacks Right To Silence
The Government is removing your Right to Silence in TWO Bills before the House. The much-improved Search and Surveillance Bill, and the Alcohol Reform Bill. Ripping up civil rights fought for over centuries that ensure a fair legal system, destroying a free press – all without much thought or care.
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The other great tax lie
The Budget 2010 tax cuts for the rich were supposed to be paid for by magical extra growth. But the growth isn’t happening and the government now has a $2.2 billion shortfall in income. So the tax cuts aren’t “broadly neutral” at all. We’re paying for them with borrowing. Is that “Ambitious for New Zealand”?
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National’s Privatisation Agenda Continues
National are continuing their privatisation by stealth. Hospitals services and a new prison are the current targets. Tony Ryall, Judith Collins and Bill English are the ministers currently pushing their ideology in their respective areas.
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Mark Ames on the rally to restore sanity
Liberals too cool to be caught standing for anything sit on the fence and make clever whithering comment while oligarchs who realise just how serious it really is wage war on the poor and the middle class.
No, it’s not the Hobbit fiasco, it’s Mark Ames’ take on the rally for vanity and what it really means for the US.
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A rushed law, a bad law
The Hobbit Enabling Act is meant to do is say ‘you’re an employee if you are called an employee in your contract, if not, you’re a contractor’. But it doesn’t say that and it doesn’t override the Bryson case that caused the ‘uncertainty’ Warners supposedly feared. Now, nobody knows what the law actually is. Well-founded disagreements will mean court cases.
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The price of our hysteria
The Government will give the Hobbit producers an extra $33 million to stay in New Zealand and it’s going to use this ‘crisis’ as an excuse to slam through more anti-worker laws. New Zealand has been played like naive hicks. The Hobbit was never leaving. We let Jackson and his Hollywood mates whip us into a frenzy of fear – now we’re paying the cost.
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The Hobbit ‘crisis’: cui bono?
Does anyone believe that a $660 million project moves countries over the ‘threat’ of a few actors wanting better standards? Would Jackson really betray NZ when Weta is based here, the casting is underway, and Hobbiton is built? Cui bono, this talk of ‘crisis’: how much will the Government fork over to appease the threat of foreign capital flight?
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The failing polls..
community democracy, democratic participation, election 2011, labour, polls, telecommunications, vote smartAn article in The Economist looks at the failing basis of polling techniques in the USA. It isn’t that much different to the circumstances here.
“The proportion of those called who end up taking part in a survey has fallen steadily, from 35% or so in the 1990s to 15% or less now, according to Mr Keeter. Reaching young people is especially difficult. Only old ladies answer the phone…”
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Key’s culture of impunity
Despite a slew of scandals, Key has not enforced any ethical or professional standards on his ministers (apart from Worth, for whatever he did). Ministers know that Key will keep his personal brand clean but won’t do anything to pull them into line. This has created a culture of impunity in the government, which has started to spread wider.
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Digested Read – Spirit Level 6: Future Options
The last in a series of 6 summarising the argument of The Spirit Level. This post looks at how we might achieve a more equitable future.
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Labour grassroots revolt against Quake Act betrayal
A couple of days ago Labour MP Brendon Burns posted a self-congratulatory piece over at Red Alert celebrating the ‘rare unity’ among parliamentary parties in voting to make Gerry Brownlee dictator of New Zealand for the next 18 months..The response from Labour’s grassroots in the comment section was swift and brutal. The Parliamentary Labour Party may have abdicated its role as opposition but that doesn’t mean everyone is happy. -
Commentators waking up
Some within Labour believe that the tide of popularity is beginning to go out on the National government. Commentators seem to be waking up too. John Armstrong takes the Nats to task for their scare-mongering on benefits. And Fran O’Sullivan, cuts to the chase – it’s the economy stupid.
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Holmes truths on useless Nats
In his own surreal and ultra-privileged way Paul Holmes has discovered the recession. And it seems to have shaken him up a bit. Paul cuts loose with some Holmes truths about the useless Nat government. But in claiming that there is no alternative Holmes reveals nothing but his own lack of vision…
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Labour can win led by Phil Goff
Chris Carter is wrong. Labour can win the next election led by Phil Goff. The objective conditions make it possible, and there is […]
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The states of John Key – Flexible in telling the truth
Fourth of a series by Guest poster Blue.
Honesty, transparency and trust were central planks of Key’s 2008 election bid. However the ‘Key wriggle’ was well on the way to becoming a signature dance move -
Brownlee backdown predicted on mining
Predictions abound that the Government are today to announce a backdown on plans to mine Schedule 4 land..
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Financial regulation in USA
The recent global recession represented a spectacular failure of unfettered capitalism. We never felt the full force and completeness of that failure because the worst was averted – or rather just delayed – by vast injections of Government bailout money. America has learned its lesson, yesterday passing the strictest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression.
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The Right unravels in Auckland
Things really are getting desperate for the Right in the super-mayor race. National and its allies keep up the attack but the public aren’t buying. Now, John Banks’ campaign is facing more right-wing candidates and is crapping itself that Stephen Tindell might enter the race.
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Credit card scandals & false economies
It is good to cast light on ministers putting personal spending on the taxpayer but the media is attacking legitimate spending too. As a result, MPs are being prevented from doing their jobs properly for fear of appearing profligate. Is this the desired effect of the chill wind blowing from the media on our representatives’ expenses, that even John Key warned about?
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Kerre Woodham on three strikes law
Kerre Woodham’s just penned an endorsement of the three strikes act.
She admits that it probably won’t do what it sets out to do. She accepts that it might be unjust. She understands that it will be expensive. Nevertheless she supports it.
Here’s why…
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National’s ETS chickens home to roost
National is under extraordinary pressure on its ETS, and it seems to be starting to panic. While I can commend them for sticking to their guns (better a gutted ETS than none at all), I don’t have any sympathy over the backlash they are facing. They bought it on themselves.
