Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
The case manager looks her straight in the face and says “you don’t look blind to me” then pulls out a piece of paper from her drawer and asks my aunty to read it, as proof that she’s visually impaired. About to explode with rage I sit there allowing my dear Samoan aunty to handle this despicable situation, with the case manager sitting behind her desk, arms folded with that ‘well, go on prove me wrong look’.
Big ups for New Plymouth mayor Andrew Judd who last week led a hikoi from New Plymouth to Parihaka to help local Pakeha get a better understanding of Te Ao Maori.
The US labour movement and US politics more generally are undergoing a profound transformation. Titanic battles are brewing, between the working class majority and the one percent, and between radicalising political forces on the right and left. The future of life on the planet may well hang on how this battle is resolved.
When it comes to helping out the victims of war – refugees – the government says it can only afford $25 million a year for an extra 250 refugees, a derisory amount.
OWEN JONES: democratic socialist, LGBTI activist and Guardian journalist: takes homophobia seriously. So seriously, that earlier this week he pulled off his microphone and stormed out of Britain’s Sky News studio in protest at the network’s treatment of the Orlando massacre.
“The biggest human rights disaster in the Pacific is happening [just north-west of New Zealand] and we West Papuans are worried that if this genocide and illegal occupation continues to be ignored, in the next few decades we will be completely wiped out from our own country.” – Benny Wenda
This week Labour’s bid to get an extension to Paid Parental Leave (PPL) is likely to be stopped in its tracks by a veto from Bill English. For all the wrong reasons.
The decision to raise the quota to 1000 refugees per year from the current 750 does nothing to redress the three decades of no increase to our refugee quota. It is a token gesture designed to mollify proponents for more resettlement and to be able to tell the general population that the government is “doing something”.
There are many different and gradiated responses to the recent tragedy in Orlando. Some are coherent and desirable (for instance,…
ACCORDING TO PATRICK DUNN, the Catholic Bishop of Auckland, his church is haemorrhaging “New Zealand-born” and “New Zealand-bred” followers. He calls this Pakeha turning away from the church “Kiwi Drift”. Its effects, says the Bishop, have been masked by the recent influx of thousands of Catholic migrants.