Guest and sponsored opinion pieces published on The Daily Blog, offering diverse perspectives within clear editorial guidelines.
Like a lot of folk, I’ve had the allegations of youthful criminal behaviour by current Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett pop up in my facebook feed. They’re not entirely new and they do seem to confirm what many feel is her character (or, rather, lack of character).
We, as a community and society based on law and the values of justice and mercy owe Teina Pora because Pora was the victim of a racist justice system and we as New Zealanders need to acknowledge that.
Increasing the minimum wage by 75cents an hour would give workers on the minimum wage working a 40hour week an extra $30 in their pay-packets each week.
I know that a lot of my fellow members of New Zealand First agree with me on this (some to the point where they’ve said they’ll resign their membership, which is something I had also previously threatened to do, but have been tentatively convinced to refrain from – for now).
#NeverShane
After nine years of National, working people’s share of the economy has fallen.Right now, 40% of children living below the poverty line are from working families. And under National, everyone’s employment rights have been eroded in a ‘race to the bottom.’
The issue is not whether Barclay was putting the high into Otago High Country or rooting like a Ranfurly rabbit.
The question is this: What did Bill English know?
Now 8 years after Palestine Kairos and 100 years after the Balfour Declaration, the Christian churchs of Palestine, in desperation, have issued another plea, this time in the form of an Open Letter to the World Council of Churches (WCC).
We need Politicians who aren’t afraid to admit mistakes and who move to fix those mistakes as soon as they become apparent, we don’t need politicians who tell us different stories that keep turning out to be false.
I do know that this well-intentioned educational program which somehow turned into a “scandal” has been completely blown out of proportion by the media. I am writing this because the lack of sensitivity that has gone along with criticizing this program is despicable.
In contrast to the rest of the world, NZ seems to be sleepwalking towards an election. If you want too see an ambitious, radical and progressive political voice, the options are sadly limited. For the radical left, the question is how do we turn this around? How can we build a radical political instrument to express the popular frustration with the status quo?