So even at the time of announcing the death of neoliberalism the Prime Minister knew her Party was going to keep the economic philosophy it had introduced in 1984 on life support
The fact that over several years New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) – the government agency responsible for economic development- encouraged China’s largest Water Bottling company to come to our country and plunder one of our most vital resources is testimony to how entrenched neoliberalism is in government departments.
OK.. so far we have had the Tax Working Group review and the government rejected it’s key recommendation that there should be a capital gains tax in some form in order to address our growing problem of inequality.
So the panel advising the PM on censuring the internet is an industry spokesperson, a corporate media interest, an angry Twitter rage tech person, a lawyer, a state wonk and someone who used to sing Popera?
And this isn’t a joke?
Let us have a serious debate about sexual assault in prisons by acknowledging double bunking has been an enormous failure in keeping prisoners safe and that it must be removed as a policy if we are to do anything meaningful on sexual assaults in prison.
The underwhelming decision on climate change follows the disappointments of the non-binding marijuana referendum, timid welfare responses, the jettison of a recommended capital-gains based redistributive tax system, labour reform limitations, and KiwiBuild’s failure to deliver affordable homes, I’m too cynical to expect much improvement in frameworks to protect endangered species from extraction, waste or exploitation.
A couple of tech people, a lawyer, industry interests, corporate media interests and Lizzie Marvelly???
This Week – Police visits, Te Mata Peak, James Cameron, Zero Carbon Bill, Speaker Mallard , JLR latest crack at Simon Bridges
What in particular I find disturbing, is the penchant of police (and other government agencies) to use private investigators to conduct enquiries which are by statue, attributed to different government departments. This is tantamount to some (invariably) poorly educated self-styled James Bond, given the right to look in your nickers draw.
Mayoral candidate John Tamihere (JT) has today announced that an immediate priority if elected Mayor will be to sack the…