Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
There is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that the 2016 Budget is geared 100% toward building up a surplus for tax cuts to be announced next year. Just in time for the 2017 Election. John Key and Bill English have strongly indicated as much with their “kite-flying” with hints of cuts-to-come.
The New Zealand government is trying to exploit Auckland’s housing crisis rather than to solve it or to ease it. Its agenda appears to be threefold: to unseat a non-compliant Council, to force the sale of productive assets owned by the people of Auckland, and to reward those who seek to financially profit by holding rural land.
Independent critical analysis is not considered helpful. Whenever someone like Paul Henry asks someone from the Left for their opinion, the only acceptable response, apparently, is: “Hooray for our side!”
“Newstalk ZB, Radio Live’s Sean Plunkett and TV3’s Paul Henry operate like mini Fox News outlets reproducing the neoliberal outlooks and prejudices of the Party”
Unquestionably the biggest political news of this week was the joint announcement by Labour and the Greens of a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ to take them through to the next Election.
When John* came to Lifewise in March, he had been homeless for nearly 30 years. He had moved to Auckland looking for work, hoping to start a new life but had spent nearly 20 years doing odd jobs, looking for a place of his own, moving from one boarding home to another.
The Family First report, Child Poverty: Don’t Mention Family Structure by Lindsay Mitchell extols the value of the institution of marriage. According to her, family structure is the elephant in the room when child poverty solutions are discussed.
NZ doesn’t have a functional civil society. Unlike Europe where power is devolved through European law to the states and within many of its states to these “mediating institutions” of civil society, New Zealand devolved power and responsibility directly to individuals, bypassing civil society altogether.
This is how Bill English generates surpluses to justify John Key’s election year bribes of tax cuts to the rich.
A delegation of New Zealand business leaders is leaving this week on an “innovation expedition” to Israel to build business links with the Middle East’s apartheid state.
