Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
One of the more unusual sights in the post-Key scramble for top jobs was that of nonentity Health Minister Jonathan Coleman putting his hat in the ring, and following up with the promise of more cash for the mental health sector.
So MSD have been forcing investigation staff to get at least one prosecution a month, often for the non-crime of ‘relationship fraud’. They have quotas to recover at least $30,000 in debt per month!
For those of us who live and breathe politics, the general indifference of our fellow citizens is perplexing. It shouldn’t be. Most people have enough to do just keeping their personal, working and family lives on an even keel. The idea that they should devote more than a moment or two of their precious time to the machinations of politicians would strike them as nuts.
For many on the neo-liberal Right, education is a business not a public good and therefore should be no different to electricity supply (semi-privatised); Air New Zealand (semi-privatised – again); or a whole host of other services and assets that were once owned by the tax-payer but have been sold off over the last thirty years.
UNICEF frequently reports widespread, systematic and institutionalised ill-treatment of Palestinian children by the Israeli Army, with armed soldiers seizing children as young as 11 years and taking them prisoner. Palestinian homes, even in UN refugee camps, can offer no security for terrified children, who are dragged from their homes, often in the middle of the night.
We must build existing unions and form new ones that are able to struggle much more effectively that we have. We need to forge allies with everyone in the community being exploited and abused. We need community organisations willing to fight as allies.
The Left are a pretty optimistic bunch. And with good cause – after eight successive years of grueling hard-neoliberal governance, and having to watch National’s number of seats only grow regardless, you pretty much have to be. It’s either that, or give up in despair.
As with the death of Princess Diana; Trump winning the Presidency, or (if you’re old enough) the assassination of JFK, you will recall where you were when you heard this sudden, unexpected and gob-smacking public announcement from John Key;
Of everything to say, that has to be said first. Not only is John Key’s resignation completely unexpected, it’s unprecedented and so far pretty much unexplainable.
John Key’s resignation just made the 2017 election a battleground that Labour and the Greens can win on. Forget the National Party spin that it’s business as usual. John Key just took a big breath and blew away the house of cards.