The Mt Albert by-election is a good opportunity for the Greens to get their message out. It will essentially be a two-horse race between two capable candidates, the Greens Julie Ann Genter and Labour’s Jacinda Adern. Whoever wins, both will still be in Parliament, as both are now sitting party list MPs.
Nothing sums up how inncoulated the NZ population are to the debate about inequality than today’s Political Roundup in the NZ Herald by Bryce Edwards.
Not content to have the poorest New Zealanders face the biggest tax burdens and corrosive social problems our lowest income communities also face a plague of what can only be described as “parasites on poverty”.
Another year, another hike in the price of cigarettes.
Activists from many campaign groups united pledging material and physical solidarity to stop the ethnic and social cleansing of working class Glen Innes, built on Maori land to provide “homes for heroes” after the suffering of two world wars and the Depression.
The joint State of the Nation address is a very smart move by Labour and the Greens. The purpose of Unity and the symbolism of that Unity is what gives voters confidence to vote for them. No one wants to vote for a Party that looks like it’s going to rip itself to pieces 30 seconds after getting elected.
I learned that Rogernomics had unlocked something ugly and selfish in older and younger middle class New Zealanders alike. In the minds of those 10,000 students – the people we would come to know as “Generation X” – a free tertiary education was simply their entitlement.
…when 2 NZers have more than the poorest 30% of the entire nation, the time for debate is over and the time to riot is upon us.
How grotesque a joke is our egalitarianism now?
What we’re actually asking people to do is get involved in movements. If you want to fight for rent control, then join the housing movement. If you’re concerned about low pay, join a union. We’ll come and show you how to organise your workplace, how to fight back, get a big pay increase. These things are possible without politicians but it IS politics. Working class politics.
