Modern life has most of us over a barrel. An oil barrel. The price of oil is a fundamental force in shaping our quality of life and how much take home pay is left for other needs and wants. This has all hit home in the last few weeks as the price of fuel at the petrol pump has reached its highest ever.
The neoliberal public service that Shane Jones was recently blasting is there to do as little as possible while building their own fiefdoms. All we have leant from them is that they are as useless at looking after cows as they are beneficiaries and miners.
When Smith City was ordered to back pay the workers it had been ripping off for 6 years for all unpaid staff meetings, it didn’t take three witches or a crystal ball to know that the flood gates would open. They have. At First Union along with over 1500 people responding to a survey, the call centre and organisers are all being contacted with people wanting to lament all the unpaid hours or the time off never taken in lieu. As the National Organiser for The Warehouse and Cotton On I have received more than my share.
No wonder National are starting to panic.
your gracefulness at offering your resignation for this phone call on a plane only makes you a better human being and leader.
It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Christchurch city councillors hearing submissions on the council’s long-term plan. A vast range of community groups and individuals, fronted by positive, passionate people concerned for Christchurch’s wellbeing, have presented funding wish lists both great and small. However, there is a finite amount of money and hard decisions need to be made.
Labour have just sent this out to their Northcote support team, and if true could be one of the biggest upsets in a safe National electorate since Winston took Northland!
QUESTION TIME IN PARLIAMENT this afternoon was a useful reminder of what Jacinda and her government are up against. In theory, Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition are supposed to impress the Visitor’s Gallery as a government-in-waiting: sagacious, witty and (to use a favourite parliamentary term) honourable. In practice, Simon Bridges’ National Party Opposition comes across as ignorant, boorish and disturbingly truculent.
One of Key’s greatest gifts was knowing what the average Kiwi shopping at a mall believed. Time and time and time again the incredibly clever focus group value mining that David Farrar managed to get him allowed Key to side step criticism by playing to the petty ignorances of muddle Nu Zilind.
Great news today with the Government announcing it is considering bringing forward the binding referendum on legalising cannabis to next year, 2019, rather than during the 2020 general election.
