If the Union movement in NZ wants the new Government to get a second term, they need to urgently start planning a counter strike capacity they currently don’t have, and if the Union movement don’t like what I’m saying to them now, just imagine how much more unpleasant you’ll feel when I start the ‘I told you so’ blogs.
The Greens’ Medicinal Cannabis Bill will have it’s first vote in Parliament next Wednesday 31st Jan. This is sooner than we expected, so it’s really important to hit that keyboard and urge your MP to support the bill.
Unions must demand more, the right to strike, a worker levy and open Union membership are ideas they need to build and push if the pathetic union membership rates are ever to be expanded and real inequality challenged.
…the Human Rights Review Tribunal is the only mechanism open to citizens of NZ to hold the Police (and the State) to account for their abuses of power. The Independent Police Conduct Authority only has the power to recommend or suggest resolutions, the HRRT can force the Police to comply.
While these changes will make the unions job a little bit easier it will not significantly enhance workers power.
The irony that Mediaworks are bitching about Labour’s broadcasting policy when it was John Key’s mate, Mark Weldon, who killed off Campbell Live for political reasons is eye rolling, but let’s put aside all the self interest and consider the argument against RNZ being the de facto public broadcaster because there are good reasons why Labour’s plan to drown RNZ in cash is a bad idea.
In other words, Canada’s government showed political backbone and it succeeded. Ours caved at the first post-election meeting and rationalises that as the best they could do.
One of the most telling sections in the terms of reference is the recognition that underlying causes of poor mental health and suicide, such as poverty, poor housing, unemployment and discrimination will be considered as part of the Inquiry’s work – without that, such a review could easily descend into a debate between mental health professionals over issues like best levels of medication, or how many mental health beds there should be in hospitals, rather than looking at the factors that cause mental unwellness.
If the NZ Police can get away with taking personal information from a political blogger that breaches the privacy act and my civil rights, they can do it to anyone and the supposed watchdogs that are there to protect us are so underfunded they’ve become lap dogs to police abuse of power.
I had agreed to be interviewed earlier for a piece on education, but it wasn’t conducted by either of the above mentioned journalists. Nor was it ever mentioned that my interview would be included in the article by Wall and Parahi.
What has unfolded, including the use of photographs of myself and my elderly mother without permission in the article, is something I’ve laid a complaint over. Below is my formal letter: