Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
Well, John Key is a very wealthy man, and if the Panama Papers have shown us anything it is the extraordinary lengths to which very rich people will go to protect their financial affairs from the scrutiny and criticism of those who are not very rich
The most important local target is the NZ Superannuation Fund, which invests in several companies that profit from Israel’s stranglehold on Palestine. It’s not pretty – among these are several manufacturers of military equipment used to massacre and maim Palestinian civilian populations, banks operating in and financing the illegal Israeli settlements and Caterpillar bulldozers that destroy Palestinian homes.
National Makes Good on 2008 Threat to Sell Kiwibank
With the focus on the super-rich using New Zealand as a tax haven it’s worth remembering that even without tax evasion the rules here in New Zealand are so distorted that the super-rich, like Prime Minister John Key, pay a pittance in tax while the lowest paid workers bear the heaviest tax burden.
Peter Willcox was captain of the bombed Rainbow Warrior in Auckland in 1985. Now he has a new book out next week that tells his agenda-setting story over three decades from the Rainbow Warrior sabotage to being thrown into Russian jails for two months and charged with piracy as skipper of the Arctic Sunrise in an oil drilling rig protest.
THAT THE SECURITY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (SIS) has failed to protect the privacy of the people it has “vetted” is no surprise. Information is power, and what is the SIS if not the official gatherer of the information by which the power of the state is protected?
Labour inspectors have found that every one of the 20 employers they have looked at so far were found to have breached the 2003 Holidays Act.
The fourth Palestine Marathon took place in Bethlehem last Friday and I was lucky enough to be among the 4,300 participants running a 10km, a full marathon or a half-marathon in my case. The event is organised by the Palestine Olympic Committee and a group called Right to Movement,
Hillary Clinton’s backers keep announcing that she has the Democratic presidential nomination in the bag. But Bernie Sanders keeps shrinking her lead.
I didn’t once hear the words ‘Keynes’ or ‘Keynesian’ at the Future of Work conference. The issues we face today were all apparent and widely discussed in the late 1920s. The debate in 1928 was equally off the mark. Then, as now, we responded to a crisis of inequality and environment by, as individuals, trying to be more ‘competitive’ and arguing about immigration.