class war

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Skepta remix – Tory Magic Money Tree

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:09 pm, June 18th, 2017 - 1 comment

A little bit of UK political parody grime…

Our brilliant economy

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:49 am, June 16th, 2017 - 51 comments

We need new thinking on the economy – zero emissions, sustainable, a big redistribution from rich to poor. But the list of current economic woe shows that even on their own old conventional terms the Nats are useless economic managers.

UNICEF on our appalling child welfare record – but apparently we don’t care

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:22 am, June 16th, 2017 - 199 comments

UNICEF has another major report ranking the wellbeing of NZ kids 34th out of 41 developed countries. This is not new news, and apparently a lot of voters just don’t give a damn.

Signals

Written By: weka - Date published: 7:00 am, June 16th, 2017 - 124 comments

The politics of the Grenfell Tower fire.

When immigration means exploitation

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:03 am, June 15th, 2017 - 37 comments

Those arguing for unrestricted immigration are – wittingly or unwittingly – fueling higher levels of exploitation in NZ.

Fabian seminar tonight: What would a people’s Budget look like?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 12:23 pm, June 14th, 2017 - 5 comments

Something to check out if you are in Auckland tonight, the CTU’s Bill Rosenberg discusses the budget. He will “examine the Government’s priorities and look at what needs to be done”.

Slum rentals in the brighter future

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:01 am, June 8th, 2017 - 24 comments

The Sunday Star Times had some gut wrenching coverage of the conditions in some of Auckland’s slum boarding houses. How can anyone vote for three more years of this?

Andrew Little – Last Labour PM of NZ?

Written By: Bill - Date published: 4:48 pm, June 3rd, 2017 - 136 comments

A wee bit of speculation for a long week-end.

Postcards from the brighter future

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:58 am, June 1st, 2017 - 3 comments

Part of an occasional series. It all seems to be going according to plan.

Tax cuts and 1600 deaths per year

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 2:53 pm, May 31st, 2017 - 16 comments

One of the nasty little fishhooks in the budget was the cutting of the home insulation scheme (Warm Up New Zealand). The scheme had a benefit-cost ratio of $6 for every $1 invested. Around 1,600 people die in NZ a year of cold-related factors. Hope the tax cuts are worth it eh?

English on our low wage growth

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:38 am, May 30th, 2017 - 40 comments

Bill English knows that our low wage economy is a ticking time-bomb for the government. He must be starting to get worried. The repeated promises of jam tomorrow are well worn out now.

The Greens and voting on the Budget

Written By: weka - Date published: 6:45 am, May 29th, 2017 - 150 comments

Wondering about what the Greens are voting for? It might not be what you think.

Good news for landlords

Written By: weka - Date published: 7:19 am, May 28th, 2017 - 141 comments

How nice of the government to help out property investors.

White middle class male privilege

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:07 am, May 27th, 2017 - 19 comments

Rohan Lord this week pulled out from being a Labour candidate because he thought his prospects of being elected were remote because he was a white middle class male. His comments displayed a complete lack of understanding of how the Labour Party works and ignores the fact that having a truly representative caucus is a virtue.

Campbell on the budget

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:05 am, May 27th, 2017 - 31 comments

Campbell: “As I asked Joyce at the Budget lockup: ‘What is to stop landlords from treating this increase as a green light to hike up rents?’ … In reply, Joyce said that the government would be ‘keeping an eye’ on landlords, to ensure they did not abuse the situation.”

NRT: A constitutional change

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:01 pm, May 26th, 2017 - 8 comments

I/S at No Right Turn writes: “The Court has ruled that the High Court was right to declare that National’s 2010 prisoner voting restrictions (the ones which were so shabby and shoddily passed that they brought Parliament into disrepute) were inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act“

The three big fails in the budget

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, May 26th, 2017 - 72 comments

It was National’s best budget. Which means there are only three critical areas of failure.

Keith Ng’s four tax myths

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:31 am, May 25th, 2017 - 23 comments

A useful piece from Keith Ng on myths about tax. It’s an extract from The PSA’s “Progressive Thinking: Ten Perspectives on Tax” booklet.

Budget 2017 – general discussion post

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:04 am, May 25th, 2017 - 20 comments

Budget Day.

Tipping vs fair wages

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:46 am, May 24th, 2017 - 39 comments

I don’t know of a single piece written in support of Bennett’s proposal. She has been in the bubble too long, and lost touch with the values of NZ.

Pre budget positioning for a government that says it is “doing all it can”

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 1:37 pm, May 22nd, 2017 - 10 comments

National does the bare minimum that it thinks it can get away with for those in need. This positioning is just preparing the ground for a budget that does more the same not enough.

The other conference

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:05 am, May 18th, 2017 - 26 comments

Richard Harman on the Politik blog: “Overall, to use a favourite Government saying, it was an ‘untidy’ weekend capped by a flat speech from English which saw delegates ignore placards they’d been given to wave when he finished speaking.” The B-team is missing John Key.

Property speculator panic

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 12:26 pm, May 15th, 2017 - 128 comments

Labour has set the cat among the property speculator pigeons, and they don’t like it at all.

Still spinning “social investment”

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:04 am, May 7th, 2017 - 36 comments

Directing welfare spending where it will do most good makes sense. But let’s make sure that that is what it is, not an excuse to simply cut funding, stigmatise, and target “undesireables”. National’s record does not inspire confidence, to say the very least. Then there’s the hypocrisy…

Targeting deceased estates, divorcees and dummies

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:06 am, May 6th, 2017 - 30 comments

Good work by Lane Nichols in The Herald, a window into the minds of what we must hope is small subset of “property investors”.

NRT: Inflation and poverty

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 4:13 pm, May 4th, 2017 - 8 comments

I/S at No Right Turn writes: “The CPI is out today, and it shows that the poor are getting poorer … This is a long-term trend. Since National took office, inflation for poor households has been nearly twice that of rich households.”

Bill English doesn’t get it – literally doesn’t get it – how messed up the “Brighter Future” is

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 11:30 am, May 4th, 2017 - 55 comments

“There are approximately 92,700 Kiwis aged between 15 and 24 who aren’t working, in education or training. That’s up 19 percent during National’s time in power, and Prime Minister Bill English admits he’s not sure why.” Could it be because…

Pencilsword on renting

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:16 pm, April 29th, 2017 - 14 comments

Pencilsword does brilliant analysis and commentary in cartoon form. Go check out the latest on the invisible rental crisis…

Anzac Day

Written By: KJT - Date published: 3:36 pm, April 26th, 2017 - 15 comments

Am I the only one who is upset, over mealy mouthed politicians making flowery speeches saying “We will remember them”

when they manifestly don’t.

The case for higher wages

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:01 am, April 26th, 2017 - 31 comments

In the warm afterglow of the huge wage increase for health care workers the case for addressing NZ’s creaking low-wage economy is getting some recognition (along with the effect of immigration on wages).