Petty, intrusive, destructive and just plain wrong
In a few months’ time the Winter Energy Payment (WEP) will start for beneficiaries and superannuitants. Underpinning this badly-targeted policy are unexamined assumptions about living arrangements.
Setting the Agenda
Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
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Both RNZ Concert and Youth Radio – Not Either/Or.
By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of New Zealand’s cultural traditions.
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Dave Macpherson: We’re not seeing on-the-ground action on mental health, David….
The clamour got so loud and so persistent, and the idiot stuck his head in the sand for so long, that even the mainstream media acknowledged the impact concerns about the state of mental health were having on public perceptions of the various parties, and elevated it to a ‘key election issue’.
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‘Peace to Prosperity’ plan imposes total Zionist control, denies all Palestinian human rights and violates international law
Trump and Netanyahu’s so-called ‘Peace to Prosperity’ plan ignores the Palestinian right to self-determination, 1967 borders, international humanitarian law and a stream of United Nations Security Council resolutions, including UNSCR 2334, which New Zealand helped to bring forward in 2016. The Resolution was passed in the UN by 14-0, with even the UK voting in favour and the isolated US obdurately abstaining.
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Jacinda’s Political Faith Broader Than Any Church.
AS ELECTION-YEAR GAME-PLANS go, it’s a good one. Why bother to reconstruct Labour as a “broad church” when the same effect can be achieved by creating a broad political “faith” out of three separate parties. Broad churches were mandated by the first-past-the-post electoral system; proportional representation allows a broad faith to have “many mansions” – and even more voters.
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Chaos in the Caucuses – Iowa Democrats’ Corn App A Real Bad Dud
There is a quotation ascribed to Stalin – “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.”
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Bringing justice to Palestine is in our hands
The NZ Herald published an Opinion piece by John Minto, National Chairman, Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa yesterday.
Here is the full unabridged version:
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How we can get the $100 billion we need to spend on infrastructure at no extra cost
The Economic commentator Bernard Hickey made an important point about the proposed infrastructure investment. It is way too small to make much impact on the years of neglect.
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The housing crisis intensifies……government response hopelessly inadequate….”empty homes tax” is part of the answer
The housing crisis drags on for tenants and families on low incomes while the government looks the other way.
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What if you were a pig?
When the smoke from the Australian bushfires turned the sky yellow at the beginning of the year, it felt like shit got real. Armageddon was upon us.