Search Results » eco maori
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Suicide and community
Following the release of data by the Chief Coroner, suicide is once again getting some time in the headlines. Coincidentally, news from Christchurch supports the suggestion that stronger communities reduce suicide rates.
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End slavery in NZ, create 2,500 Kiwi jobs
Next week, a report will reveal the abuse of 2,500 foreign workers used as virtual slaves on ships employed by kiwi fishing quota holders in our waters. By rights, we should have a world renowned fishing fleet. Instead, we let our potential go to waste and employ foreign slaveowners and human traffickers to do the work instead.
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NRT on MMP threshold
I/S at No Right Turn looks at the arguments for lowering the MMP threshold instead, or as a trade off for, getting rid of the ‘win an electorate, win list MPs’ rule. The conservatives say that a low threshold would mean more parties and ‘instability’. I/S shows that’s not only mathematically false, it’s not a reason to deny people democratic representation.
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Turnaround is fair play
Some are linking Labour’s polling to National’s in 2002. Well, I think it’s worth remembering the other side of the 2002 polls. Labour’s support plunged 13% in the last month of the campaign from 50%+ support to the point where a Nat-led government was a real threat. Then, there was 1996, where Labour went from polling 4th to losing by a hair.
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Nats drop 5% in Roy Morgan, Left surges
TV1’s poll on Sunday was supposedly curtains for CGT, so what does it mean that the latest Roy Morgan has the Nats down 5% and the Left in striking range of an upset win? It means don’t draw instant conclusions linking one poll to one policy (although it must be tempting when you’ve spent $30K getting the numbers) – watch the trends.
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The problem is not in the schools
According to a recent report, disadvantaged NZ youth are at the “bottom of OECD league”. The report recommends various interventions in schools. The recommendations completely miss the point, because the problem is not in the schools, the problem is in society.
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Key has cried wolf too often
Key used to get away with spouting whatever kind of nonsense he liked. Not any more. His hysterical scaremongering on the subject of capital gains tax seems to have been a step too far. The teflon is long gone, and Key has cried wolf too often.
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Exit, stage right
It’s a big call, I know, but I’m pretty sure we’re seeing the end of the ACT party happening right before our eyes.
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Congratulations Hone Harawira, MP for Te Tai Tokerau
Hone Harawira has won the by-election for Te Tai Tokerau, despite the best efforts of the msm, John Key’s endorsement of Kelvin Davis, dirty tricks from the Maori Party, and despite Labour’s typically ill-considered, hamfisted attempts to wipe out Mana at its first election.
The best man won.
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Gamechanger?
The Te Tai Tokerau by-election has the potential to be a game-changer. If it comes off for Kelvin on Saturday the result may shake up a few other predictions for the general election – another example of the wisdom of Harold Wilson’s famous remark that a week is a long time in politics. Now it’s down to who goes out on the day. After the battle of the hustings will come the battle of the explanations – they will be fascinating.
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The wrong man for the job
I haven’t seen the full interview of Brownlee on the Nation. If the clips on the news were anything to go by, it was more of the same. No info for Christchurch residents. No empathy for them either. More haughty bullshit. More vague excuses for delays. More focused on himself than the people who need help. He needs to go.
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Nats plan lower wages for workers
So you support Maori being paid less than Pakeha for the same work? What about men being paid less than women? No, that would be discrimination, eh? Same work, same pay. So, what about paying a 17 year old less than a 18 year old for the same work? That’s what National is planning if we are stupid enough to give them a second term.
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ACC privatisation plans announced
National has announced plans to privatise ACC’s work account. Currently, they don’t have the numbers to get it through the House. ACT won’t vote for it because its not completely rabid and the Maori Party won’t vote for privatisation. So, this becomes another election issue: another bloody good reason to vote National out.
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Polls everywhere
Plenty of polls lately. Do we really need so many? Two released yesterday show some closing of the gap between National and Labour – but not nearly enough yet…
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The borrow and hope budget
It’s only taken two and a half years of mismanagement and reckless tax cuts from to run the country into a mountain of debt. How bad have they let things get, who will they make pay for their mistakes, and how rosy will the forecasts their plans hang on be? Rolling coverage through the day.
Updates: Plans for privatisation are set out. Families hit harder than expected.
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It’s official: Key reveals “inertia” strategy
Speaking to Audrey Young in today’s Herald, Prime Minister John Key stated “the one thing I’ve come to learn is that the single biggest driving factor in Kiwisaver is inertia”. This confirms what many in the community have been thinking, and a few in the business world have been saying, that inertia is also the single biggest driving factor in the National/ACT/Maori Party government’s economic policy.
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If only smiles were dollars
The minor party debate on Q+A was very interesting. Rahui Katene was self-contradictory and vague, like the Maori Party always is. Peter Dunne was pathetic. Roger Douglas slammed the government’s borrowing as did Russel Norman, who pointed out the other three had all voted for National’s debt-increasing tax cuts for the rich.
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Jackel’s week that was
This week in The Jackel’s week that was: deepsea oil protests continue, Prince Charles against business as usual, child poverty, Libya, bees, onshore oil protests, US flooding, Nats prepare for cuts as we pay for their mistakes, ACC’s hardline savings come at a price, Wikileaks, and more!
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The Dear John Letter
This letter is getting more media attention than it deserves, because its basically Brash regurgitating his 2025 task force stuff. Key and the Nats have, quite rightly, ignored it once, and they’ll ignore it this time too.
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Te Tai Tokerau by election 25th June
We have a date for what promises to be a fascinating by election. The pressure is on Hone Harawira…
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Harawira vs Davis vs ?
Labour has decided to stand Kelvin Davis in the Te Tai Tokerau by-election. I wish they hadn’t. First, Davis strikes me as quality and you don’t tarnish quality by making it lose in front of a national audience. Look what happened to Melissa Lee, former National rising star. And Davis will lose, let’s be honest.
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Rights and privilege
Righto. I’ve just watched the debate between Harawira and Brash on Close Up and about five minutes fifty into the second part Brash had the gall to challenge Harawira on whether he believed everyone should have the same rights.
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Russel’s mana
Russel Norman has followed John Key and Phil Goff in the attack on the Mana party.
I’d hoped for better from him.
Perhaps it’s time he reflected on his own mana.
Update: it seems the Dom Post quotes might have been a fit of pique. Russel has posted the following on his facebook page:[more over the break]
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NZMA position on health inequity
NZ’s doctor’s organisation is prescribing a healthier society: putting kids first, reduced income inequality (higher minimum income), investment in skills and education, and equity, not equality in our social services – helping most those with the greatest need. Take note Don, John.
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John Key’s shakey government
The Nats have ‘soft-launched’ via Kiwiblog and Whaleoil that Rodney Hide and John Boscawen will both lose their portfolios and ACT will have no ministers. Farrar points out this will benefit ACT’s taxpayer funding to the tune of $130,000, which is somehow sweet while spending $500,000 on a by-election to get a mandate is a serious crime.
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Farrar in an act of pure vanity…
In an act of pure vanity, David Farrar is whining about the a by-election that will probably be held in July – less […]
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Don Brash, defender of the poor & downtrodden
Average Joe, tongue firmly in cheek, welcomes the resurrection of Don Brash: His promise to “raise the income levels of all New Zealanders” leaves us with only one logical conclusion… raising the pension, raising benefits and increasing the minimum wage.
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Armstrong on Brash+Key
John Armstrong doesn’t get much wrong in the assessment of the Brash take over. Brash, with his Hollow Men legacy, anti-Maori posturing, and loony economic policies, is very much Key’s problem now.
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An open letter to all unionists & fighters for equality & social justice in Aotearoa
Via Socialist Aotearoa, an open letter from union activist Mike Treen on Hone Harawira’s Mana Party, which is due to be launched this Saturday in Auckland. The outline of Mana’s manifesto presented in the letter suggests it will be economically bold and not exclusively Maori nationalist. It should be very popular.
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Aug: Horizon Poll Easter 2011
Aug in Hamilton is a great little blog and Aug has given us permission to reprint some of the posts. In this post, Aug looks at the controversial Horizon tracking poll. It’s an interesting analysis and not great news for the Left. Time to get back on track.
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The Mana Party & the Money Party
Hone Harawira is set to launch his Mana Party next weekend, possibly triggering a by-election in Te Tai Tokerau at the same time. At the other end of the spectrum, Don Brash’s haphazard to take over ACT may actually just be casus belli for him to establish a New Right Party.
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A broad church
Ratana elders are unhappy with Labour over its list rankings, and have called on supporters to abandon the Party. Phil Goff needs to work on the relationship with the Church immediately. For Labour the only silver lining in this cloud, and the focus on its list in general, is the fact that it illustrates what a large and diverse group of people the Party has to represent.
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Skinheads in Suits
ChrisH has been goaded to write this post by a couple of Jim Mora panels last week, which created a stronger than usual temptation to throw the radio out the window. Here he writes a scholarly polemic castigating the implied or explicit assumptions of the people involved in these panels.
