Better Health & Safety Laws Could Have Stopped The 1981 Tour!
The 1980s were such unenlightened times. The appalling events of that era could never happen in the Aotearoa-New Zealand of 2018. Our health and safety laws simply wouldn’t permit it!
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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MUST READ: Trade for All is a lie
It has taken almost a year for the not-so-new Labour-led government to act on its promise of an inclusive and progressive new trade strategy. Only, ‘act’ a far too generous description. It’s too little, too late. The terms of reference signed off by the Cabinet are not going to explore the real reasons why Kiwis, among many others around the world, have turned their backs on these agreements.
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How The New Zealand Left Transformed Southern And Molyneux From Unknown Rightists Into Free Speech Heroes
The debate stirred up by the repeated denial of both public and private stages to the pair on account of threats and intimidation has placed the issue of free speech squarely on New Zealand’s political agenda. The Left will find it much harder, now, to sell its arguments in favour of limiting New Zealanders right to free expression that would have been the case if Southern and Molyneux had simply been allowed to come and go without incident.
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An Open Letter To Winston Peters
It was with some personal disappointment that despite several letters from my friends and colleagues, there appeared to be no action by the New Zealand government to protest the hijacking of the boat I was travelling on, Al Awda, and from which I was kidnapped and detained by the Israeli military from international waters on Sunday, July 29.
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“Trade For All” consultation lacks credibility while negotiations on old model continue
‘It is worrying that the Prime Minister aims to ensure New Zealand’s values and sovereignty were not “unduly compromised” in the quest for more market access. But the shroud of secrecy continues, leaving us in a “trust me” zone with a government that has given us no grounds to do so’.
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While the Left fiddles, the Right beats their war-drum
While the Left has been fiddling about with much gnashing of teeth and tears of concern over the right of two Canadian neo-fascists to speak at an Auckland City council venue – National’s focus has been laser-like at regaining power in 2020.
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Dr Liz Gordon – Disrupting our lives
In her book Everyday Sexism, British author Laura Bates explains how girls and women are shaped by everyday discourse into gendered disadvantage. Whether it be pay, employment, daily life, love, or whatever, the systematic disadvantaging of women takes place all the time in every place that we live. How to explain the ‘inexplicable’ equal pay gap? Women are conditioned to have lower expectations and are much more likely to accept less. They value themselves lower than men do.
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MUST READ: On freedom of speech and racism most vile
The most significant injustice isn’t that some barely credible white supremacists travel the world vomiting diatribe, but that racial inequality still informs and shapes life outcomes marginalising ethnic groups here and in every nation on a daily basis.
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“Who Are You Calling ‘Mate’, Mate?”
Right-wing Australia would like nothing more than to close its borders to these damned annoying Kiwis. Unfortunately, that would involve tearing up the Australian-New Zealand Closer Economic Relationship and toppling New Zealand into a full-scale economic and social crisis.
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Working for families is a payment for children
The debate about WFF including Matthew Hooton’s extreme view that WFF is communism by stealth is full of sound, fury and little substance. Eric Crampton contributes a more academic approach to support the view that Working for Families is an employer subsidy.