Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
Essentially, the attitudes of staff heavily interfered with the welfare transaction. This is despite clear rules (which are NEVER displayed in WINZ offices) and a lot of money paid to consultants to bring about culture change in WINZ offices. The practice of putting down beneficiaries is alive and well at many of these sites (there were some exceptions).
The Greens’ Medicinal Cannabis Bill will have it’s first vote in Parliament next Wednesday 31st Jan. This is sooner than we expected, so it’s really important to hit that keyboard and urge your MP to support the bill.
While these changes will make the unions job a little bit easier it will not significantly enhance workers power.
In other words, Canada’s government showed political backbone and it succeeded. Ours caved at the first post-election meeting and rationalises that as the best they could do.
One of the most telling sections in the terms of reference is the recognition that underlying causes of poor mental health and suicide, such as poverty, poor housing, unemployment and discrimination will be considered as part of the Inquiry’s work – without that, such a review could easily descend into a debate between mental health professionals over issues like best levels of medication, or how many mental health beds there should be in hospitals, rather than looking at the factors that cause mental unwellness.
I probably wasn’t the only one out there who was a little bemused by Labour’s election slogan, ‘Let’s do this”. Let’s do what? I thought at the time. Now the ‘doing’ is at last unveiled as we learn that our Prime Minister is going to have a baby.
The notion of free education in this country has become like our “clean and green” environment and “100% Pure” rivers: a fiction. New Zealanders are deluding themselves if they believe education is still free.
The specter of a woman having a child out of wedlock whilst drawing tens of thousands of dollars a year from the state in income must cause absolute paroxysms of political pyroclasmis!
The government has opened or will be opening, some doors that will enable unions and other progressive movements to push for far more than is currently being offered.
We now cross live to Mark Richardson and The AM Show for comment…