Escape Velocity: The Greens Rocket Out Of Labour’s Gravity
WHERE DOES LABOUR go from here? Because their Big Plan is fluttering down to earth in flaming tatters – burned out of the sky by Metiria Turei and the Greens.
Labour’s Big Plan? What’s that?
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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Israeli military exercises force families from their homes and threaten lives
The military forces of most UN member states conduct their training exercises away from heavily-populated areas and civilians are prohibited, for their own safety, from entering such areas. Israel is an exception to this norm. Where Israel has chosen to rule over a captive population, its military exercises are held in civilian areas.
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Dave Macpherson – Scientists, politicians and vested interest professionals don’t have the answer to youth suicide epidemic
From a 6-year Health Minister who only acknowledged the problem this month, to a Prime Minister who opposes the call for a full-scale review of the mental health system, the Government has been floundering on this life and death issue. Gluckman has been rolled out in an attempt to show – seven weeks out from the election – that some high-powered thinking is going into the issue.
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Migrant worker exploitation to continue under new policy
The government has partially backed down from some changes to immigration policy that would have reduced the flow of cheap labour to New Zealand employers. The changes maintain the essence of the policy which was to keep access to cheap labour from abroad, and keep that labour vulnerable and easily exploited when here.
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Some background info for Guyon Espiner
Either Espiner has forgotten the lessons of history, grimly recounted to him by former Prime Minister Jim Bolger – or he wilfully chose to ignore the dire circumstances that Metiria Turei, and thousands of other New Zealanders, found themselves in at the time.
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Election 2017: Spell-Binder Or Spell-Breaker?
For a distressingly long interval it appeared that the Greens had abandoned this revolutionary narrative for a kinder, gentler, more environmentally friendly iteration of the neoliberal programme. Thankfully, Metiria Turei’s promise to make a bonfire of the infrastructure of neoliberal oppression – most especially of its poverty traps – has extended the promise of a better and fairer future to Kiwis who had almost forgotten how to hope.
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BATTLEGROUND WAIRARAPA
Every Election, there’s a seat or several whose outcomes are fantastically interesting to watch. This is because they are the ones that are actually balanced upon the knife-edge – where a few dozen votes one way or ‘tuther will actually help to determine the shape and course of our politics for years or even decades to come.
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Have you ever asked for help and hated having to ask? Then you can empathise with Metiria.
Thanks to my socioeconomic privilege, it is unlikely (not to say impossible) that I will ever end up as dependent on our corrupt welfare system as Metiria once was. And I don’t pretend to know exactly how that dependency felt for Metiria, because I can’t know. Maybe I can’t know, but I can guess. Because I can guess, I can empathise with her.
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Sudden Shifts: Bill English Backtracks, And Winston Peters Changes Tack
Conservative voters in the regions are much more willing to tolerate foreigners prepared to work their land for low wages, than they are indigenous New Zealanders preparing to reclaim their patrimony. As Bill English noted of National’s and NZ First sudden shifts: “the policy direction is going to be driven by the strength of the economy”.
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Who pays more tax – the super-wealthy or beneficiaries?
Wealth is not created from thin air. It is made from manipulating the wealth created by working people. In other words, you and I and every person living in New Zealand has been fleeced $1,489 more this past year so these bloodsuckers can build a bigger pile of unearned income. And they don’t pay tax on it.