Government is considering changes to how much sick leave workers get

You just have to give it to Crook van Velden – Girlfriend just wants it more.

After crippling Unions with anti-Union laws, gutting work safe and kneecapping pay parity, she’s now coming for sick days and the Unions only response is a stern telling off.

She’ll listen to that.

Brooke saying she doesn’t want to steal your sick pay is like Israel saying they’re only targeting terrorists – no one believes them.

ACT believe in allowing the market to decide if children should go up chimneys level deregulation so she will almost certainly steal your sick days the way she robbed pay parity workers.

How does it feel to be so slavishly supporting the Bosses Kiwis?

It’s weird because most of the political right are anti-vaccine, hate Māori and despise trans, but who picked simpering prostitutes for Corporations?

This Government with its anti-worker agenda and a budget where they literally took from the pockets of workers to stuff it into the pockets of the bosses is surprising because it speaks to the ease with which the right have manipulated your post Covid bitterness  by parading culture war revenge fantasies in front of you while they implement their donors interests.

This is who we is now, this simpering coward for the boss man is what we have become.

 

 

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‘Despicable monster’ jailed for life, victim’s daughter says: ‘You took my mummy’

Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao’s killer will spend at least 17-and-a-half years behind bars following an unruly court hearing that laid bare Bao’s young daughter’s grief and the murderer’s bizarre and “chilling” behaviour.

Tingjun Cao, 54, sat quietly for 15 minutes in the High Court at Christchurch before standing up in the dock, pointing, waving and yelling in Mandarin. Justice Lisa Preston had just started outlining the timeline of his sentencing.

Cao, who was flanked in the dock by interpreters and a three-strong team of Corrections guards, was briefly removed from court.

When he returned from the break, Cao was told by Justice Preston that she would not tolerate any further interruptions. He began yelling again. The judge ordered he be removed and Cao was taken away by the guards, tearing up documents and throwing them to the floor as he left.

He watched the rest of the hearing from another courtroom.

This clown has acted in a way that just screams ‘guilty’ doesn’t it?

I’ve followed the case because the sudden disappearance was so odd and all the evidence seemed to point in one direction.

I always want to hear their defence, and Tingjun Cao’s defence was such a joke.

It amounts to everyone is lying and framing him.

Ok, sure, but what about all the forensic evidence and the phone tracking evidence and evidence evidence?

According to Tingjun Cao it’s all been a campaign against him.

His frustration as his bullshit lies melted in the heat of scrutiny has resulted in immature behaviour you would expect from a child rather than an adult.

There are times when you are certain of a persons guilt by the way they behave when challenged, and based on that alone, without even looking at all the corresponding evidence of his guilt, Tingjun Cao is very guilty.

 

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The polling numbers don’t lie, Farmers are culturally sectarian in their allegiance to the polluters and they will never, ever, ever change…

How would farmers vote if an election were held today? The results might surprise you

• • National:54%
  • ACT:19%
  • NZ First:8%
  • Labour:3%
  • Greens:2%
  • Te Pati Māori:1%
  • Other:1%
  • Unsure:12%

…THEY CAN NOT BE NEGOTIATED WITH!

They are sectarian!

Labour foolishly (enabled by James Shaw) tried to cut deals with Farmers and Farmers turned and shat in our face!

Dark money from the agricultural industry soaks into the astro-turf Taxpayer’s Union stable of clients and enables Groundswell to stop any environmental improvements.

National disgracefully appointed a Dairy Industry Stooge as the Chief Scientist while bring back the 100% Pure greenwash tourism campaign!

The truth is the Left need to be brutal on one hand and supportive with the other.

Just consider the manner in which Corporate Dairy have seized control of NZ’s political right…

The Climate Change Commission recommends methane cuts of 35-47%. However, under pressure from lobby groups like Federated Farmers – whose ex-President Andrew Hoggard is now an ACT Party MP – the Government established a separate panel to review the methane target in line with this controversial tool. That panel landed on a much weaker methane target.

Larsson says, “The Luxon Government chose to sideline its independent, science-based climate advisory body by setting up a separate review panel with the very narrow task of giving it the answers it wanted. No wonder international climate scientists are raising the alarm.”

Further OIA documents show that the Methane Review Panel only met with agribusiness stakeholders, including a Groundswell-linked lobby group.

Greenpeace says this is just the tip of the iceberg. The organisation has unveiled documents showing the startling level of influence that groups like Federated Farmers, Dairy NZ and Beef+Lamb NZ have had over government policy. This includes writing draft policy and communications plans for Ministers. 

…consider the criticisms of Professor MacCulloch…

Perhaps the most under-explored aspect of MacCulloch’s critique is his consistent condemnation of corporate New Zealand’s underperformance. He argues that the real drag on New Zealand’s productivity isn’t just government bureaucracy, but the incompetence of private sector leadership.

Business is too focused on getting either special legislative deals from the government of the day, or else corporate subsidies from the taxpayer. According to MacCulloch, the last Government’s Covid Wage Subsidy Scheme was a giant transfer of $18bn to some of the wealthiest businesses in the country, most of whom didn’t need it.

Pointing to the stagnation of the NZX50 and the dismal share performance of dominant companies like Fletcher Building and Air New Zealand, he suggests that cushy directorships and an old boys’ club mentality have entrenched mediocrity.

…this total policy capture by polluter interests is the reason we are being attacked on the global stage by International Climate Scientists…

Scientists accuse New Zealand and Ireland of trying to cover up livestock emissions

Leading climate scientists have accused politicians in New Zealand and Ireland of using an “accounting trick” to back their sheep and cattle industries, warning their support for methane-emitting livestock could undermine global efforts to fight climate change. In an open letter shared with the Financial Times, 26 climate scientists from around the world warned that New Zealand’s proposed new methane targets risk setting a dangerous precedent. 

…that’s right!

The Corporate Dairy industry has spent millions donating to National and putting dark money into Right Wing astroturf organisations to shut down any meaningful climate emissions targets that the rest of the world has noticed the policy corruption and are now calling us out.

We are being attacked internationally for being a climate criminal all because National refuse to stand up to their Corporate Dairy interests.

The Carbon Capture ‘technology’ that National have banked all our emission offsets on doesn’t work…

Carbon capture: Pivotal project for cutting greenhouse gas emissions looks shaky

A critical part of the government’s plan for cutting greenhouse gas emissions over the next five years appears to have fallen over.

…and in the last budget National cut 50% to climate finance, barely any cuts to emissions, all while slashing foreign aid for our Pacific brothers and sisters by cutting climate aid by $100m.

This Government is a Climate Denial Government who are refusing to do anything about the coming adaptation because they are paid by the polluters.

So how does the Left respond?

The truth is the Left need to be brutal on one hand and supportive with the other.

NZ Dairy farms were forced to take on huge debt for Dairy intensification that our environment couldn’t sustain WHILE enslaving us to our new Chinese Economic Overlords.

We pay a price for NZ dairy and NZ meat that is set by an international market, so we are competing with the 400million others wanting that product!

A cow shits the same as 14 humans, we have 10 million cows, that’s the equivalent of 140million humans pissing and shitting into our rivers.

A recent report on food security found NZ had incredibly low food security because it was so open market driven and refused to subsidise farmers.

Which is where we on the Left must drive the debate.

We should absolutely consider subsidising food grown by NZ farmers and horticulturalists and our seafood and meat and dairy that generates a 15% price reduction for all NZ produce consumed here.

For growers we need to protect our most productive growing land for food by giving those producers tax breaks to ensure they can continue to feed NZers first.

Rebuilding a direct link between the harvest grown here, the people who grow it and a grateful local market who enjoy the product WITH a 15% price reduction.

Climate change will kill global free market supply chains, we are locked into hyper-regionalism. We need to build new economic structures, subsidising NZ kai for the domestic market would lock in certainty for producers while strengthening food security for the population.

So we should work with Farmers to ensure stable food production and prices for our own people AND we must brutally take the Framing Industry ti court for their environmental crimes, which is exactly what happened this week…

Climate Legal Action Necessary Response To Govt Inaction – NZCTU

The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi welcomes the legal action taken against the Minister of Climate Change by a coalition of legal experts as an important step in ensuring that Aotearoa meets its climate action obligations.

“We strongly support legal action to ensure that the Government is held to account for its legal obligations under the Climate Change Response Act,” said NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff.

“The union movement is deeply concerned by the Emissions Reduction Plan 2026-2030, which contains no significant policies to reduce emissions and will fail to get New Zealand meaningfully closer to our 2050 net-zero commitment.

“The actions – or lack of them – by this Government on climate change are the actions of climate deniers, not responsible leaders.

“Workers and communities need real political leadership that combats global emissions and invests in creating a just transition for industries and workers. We need leadership that develops and upholds long term consensus, not more U-turns.

“Instead, we have a government that cancelled 35 climate policies without consulting the public first, as required by law. Robust public engagement is essential.

“Climate policy is yet another area where this Government is prioritising corporate interests over democratic accountability and the interests of working people.

“Evidence is clear that a near-total focus on tree planting through vast pine forests is not a sufficient response – we must reduce emissions at source.

“Alongside the weak emissions budget, in Budget 2025 we saw a total abdication of responsibility on climate change and ensuring a Just Transition for working people in an increasingly volatile world.

“The NZCTU supports bold climate action to reduce emissions, adapt to the changing climate, and transition to a zero emissions economy that provides full employment for workers,” said Wagstaff.

…we need to work with Framers to ensure our local food security but we must forget negotiating with them and use the law to force them to change their polluter ways.

LOOK AT THOSE NUMBER AGAIN

• National:54%
• ACT:19%
• NZ First:8%
• Labour:3%
• Greens:2%
• Te Pati Māori:1%
• Other:1%
• Unsure:12%

You can’t negotiate with a sectarian culture like that, Federated Farmers thought they were being clever promoting this poll, what they have in fact shown us is the Farming community are slaves to the polluters interests and will never ever take their climate change obligations seriously.

Send in the lawyers, use the law to force the polluters to change, no more negotiations!

 

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Let.

Me.

Be.

Clear.

I have zero time for political Muslims preaching an absurdly paranoid and angry Islam, but I understand how American intervention helped create that mutation in Iran.

I don’t support the Iranian abuse of civil rights, or the killing of women in custody by the religious police or their persecution of the rainbow community – but I understand how it came to be thanks to America’s coup!

Ironically the crippling economic sanctions have only allowed the Theocracy to maintain their power over the people.

That said, this war on Iran is baseless and illegal and immoral.

I don’t agree with any theocracy and I am appalled by the abuse of human rights in Iran, but this war is wrong.

Ever since America led the 1953 coup in Iran to ensure dominance over oil, the Iranians should never have trusted America.

It really does say something about the cruelty of the Shar under the CIA coup reign that the only ones left standing in Iran after the purges were the extremist Mullahs who took over the country and mutated it into the Theocracy it is now.

That’s American exceptionalism for you, believe you are God and are immune to blowback.

Iran should have known better than to trust the West.

Republican fixers asked Iran to only release the hostages after Regan won to deprive Jimmy Carter of any victory and the double dealing over the Iran-Contra affair should have taught Iran that America could never be trusted.

After Obama cut a deal to prevent Iranian uranium enrichment and the return of money America stole during the 1953 coup, Trump ripped it all up and Iran are where they are now.

Under attack by Israel with the empowerment of America.

Iran should have built a nuclear bomb to defend itself from the West when they had the chance, they trusted us and our fake sense of honour and the rule of law and now they can’t stop the naked aggression being applied to them.

Iran should never ever ever trust the West.

We, the West, are the aggressors here in a never ending massacre of Muslim lives for Christian/Zionist ends that we didn’t agree to.

 

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Experts warn Regulatory Standards Bill threatens future public health laws

Public health experts are worried the government’s proposed Regulatory Standards Bill will act as a disincentive for future law-makers to limit harmful industries.

A group of scholars in health and policy have worked together on a briefing, titled “Regulatory Standards Bill threatens the public interest, public health and Māori rights”. It’s authors are Jonathan Boston, Michael Baker, Andrew Geddis, Carwyn Jones and Geoffrey Palmer.

The Regulatory Standards Bill was introduced to Parliament in May, and is now being considered by the finance and expenditure committee.

It would set up a Regulatory Standards Board to consider how legislation measures up to the principles.

Let’s be very clear, the Regulatory Referendum Bill is Class War in action…

The Origins: ACT’s Neoliberal Dream

To understand the Regulatory Standards Bill, we must start with ACT. Founded in the 1990s as the ideological successor to Roger Douglas’s Rogernomics project, the ACT Party exists to finish what the Fourth Labour Government started: the total commodification of public life. With its roots in Chicago School economics, ACT idolises the free market, loathes the state (except when protecting capital), and views regulation as an obstacle to “freedom” — defined narrowly as consumer and investor liberty.

In 2009, the National-ACT confidence and supply agreement commissioned a taskforce led by arch-neoliberal Graham Scott to look into “regulatory responsibility.” Its conclusion: regulation should conform to a strict set of principles designed to prevent the state from interfering too much with market activity. This taskforce gave birth to the Regulatory Standards Bill.

Rodney Hide introduced the first version in 2011. It was met with scepticism, even from centrist legal scholars, who warned that the bill would judicialise politics and constitutionalise neoliberalism. While the bill didn’t pass, its zombie-like persistence over the years shows how committed the New Zealand right remains to embedding capitalist ideology in law.

What the Bill Proposes: Rights for Capital, Not People

At first glance, the RSB reads like a list of nice-sounding principles: laws should not be retrospective, should respect property rights, should avoid creating unnecessary costs, and should be clear and accessible. But a closer look reveals its insidiousness.

1. “Property Rights” as Sacred

One of the central tenets of the bill is that laws should not “take or impair property” unless justified. This may sound reasonable, but in practice, it elevates private property above public interest. It would give courts — not the people — the power to decide whether environmental protections, housing controls, or land use laws unduly infringe on property rights. It shifts power from democratically accountable institutions to unelected judges, many of whom are steeped in commercial law and capitalist ideology.

This is a direct threat to mana whenua struggles for land justice. Imagine if land reform legislation, urban rent controls, or even a future law to nationalise fossil fuel companies were struck down because they infringed on “property rights.” The bill constitutionalises the most reactionary legal principle of all: that the right to own and profit from land or capital is inviolable.

2. “No More Than Necessary”

Another clause says that regulation should not impose “obligations, costs, or risks” that are more than “reasonably necessary.” But who decides what’s “necessary”? Under capitalism, this often means what’s necessary for profit. Environmental laws, workplace protections, or rent freezes could all be challenged for being “too costly” to business. The bill invites judicial activism — not in the progressive sense, but as a means of protecting capitalist interests from redistributive policies.

3. Parliamentary Veto in Disguise

The bill would require that every new law be accompanied by a “certification” that it complies with these principles. If it doesn’t, it must be justified — and could be challenged in court. This sets up a system where legislation is no longer judged on its social merit, but on how well it conforms to market logic.

In essence, it’s a regulatory veto wrapped in legal procedure. The aim is to make it politically and legally risky for any future government to pass redistributive or transformative laws.

Embedding Capitalist Ideology into Law

What makes the RSB especially dangerous is not just its content, but its method. It doesn’t ban socialism outright. Instead, it sets up legal roadblocks that make any move toward economic democracy more difficult, expensive, or outright unconstitutional.

This is classic capitalist strategy: not just win political battles, but rig the rules. It’s the same logic behind investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses in trade agreements, which allow corporations to sue states for regulating in the public interest. It’s the logic behind independent central banks, which remove monetary policy from democratic control. And it’s the logic behind “fiscal responsibility” laws that force governments to prioritise debt repayment over social investment.

The RSB is part of this neoliberal constitutionalism. It transforms what should be political questions – Who owns the land? Should rent be controlled? Should fossil fuels be nationalised? – into legal technicalities. It makes revolution, or even reform, illegal by stealth.

Aotearoa’s Class War by Other Means

The Regulatory Standards Bill must be understood in the context of Aotearoa’s broader class structure. We live in a settler-colonial capitalist state where wealth is concentrated among a small elite – disproportionately Pākehā – while working-class, Māori, and Pasifika communities struggle under the weight of exploitation, housing precarity, and intergenerational poverty.

In such a context, regulation is one of the few remaining tools communities have to fight back. Whether it’s tenant protections, limits on corporate land use, environmental regulations, or worker rights, regulation is one of the few levers available within capitalist democracy to redistribute power and resources.

The RSB seeks to destroy that lever. It cloaks itself in legal neutrality, but in reality, it is a ruling class weapon designed to foreclose collective action. It represents the judicialisation of class war. One where the capitalist class doesn’t need tanks or cops to crush resistance, just well-written legislation and friendly judges.

The Limits of Parliamentary Critique

It’s important to note that opposition to the RSB has come not just from the left, but from mainstream legal figures and centrists worried about the erosion of parliamentary sovereignty. The New Zealand Law Society, in a rare political statement, warned that the bill would shift power from Parliament to the judiciary, undermining democratic accountability.

But for anarcho-communists, the issue goes deeper than defending Parliament. Parliamentary democracy in a capitalist state is already limited, corrupt, and structurally skewed toward the ruling class. Our concern is not that the RSB undermines Parliament per se, but that it further consolidates capitalist power within the state, making radical transformation through any legal means even harder.

In this sense, the RSB is not an aberration but a logical outcome of a capitalist democracy reaching its authoritarian phase. As global inequality deepens and ecological collapse accelerates, capitalist states are preemptively locking in protections for the wealthy – insulating themselves from the possibility of revolt.

…the Regulatory Referendum Bill is Class War in action!

Firstly, the Consultation time for a law as enormous as the Regulatory Standards Bill had a tiny window open over the holidays, and of the 20 000 submissions, barely .3% agreed with it!

Submitters oppose David Seymour’s regulation law. Why he’s charging forward anyway

David Seymour is intending to turn “up the heat on bad lawmaking” with a new piece of legislation outlining principles of good regulatory practice and establishing a board to keep politicians accountable for any red tape they impose.

A discussion document on the proposal drew significant attention over summer, pulling in more than 20,000 submissions. It coincided, however, with Seymour’scontentious Treaty Principles Bill also being out for public feedback, itself receiving a record number of submissions.

A just-released summary of that feedback found 88% of submitters opposed the bill, with just 0.33% supporting or partially supporting it. The rest didn’t have a clear position.

…only .3% supported out because it is such an egregious abuse of democratic power in favour of corporate power!

David has responded to this by attempting to claim a ‘Bot Army’ had falsified the real numbers…

ACT leader David Seymour suggested ‘bots’ drove ‘fake submissions’ against his Regulatory Standards Bill

ACT leader David Seymour has claimed 99.5 percent of the submissions received on the Regulatory Standards Bill were created using “bots”.

The Ministry for Regulation received approximately 23,000 submissions regarding a discussion document about the bill in January.

Submissions on the bill itself are open until June 23

In summarising the feedback, it found 88 percent of submitters opposed the proposed regulations, and 0.33 percent supported or partially supported them.

But in an interview on this week’s episode of 30 with Guyon Espiner, the newly-appointed deputy prime minister claimed most of the opposing submissions weren’t valid.

“You’re smart enough to know that those 23,000 submissions, 99.5 percent of them, were because somebody figured out how to make a bot make fake submissions that inflated the numbers,” Seymour said.

The figures quoted were “meaningless” and represented nothing more than somebody “running a smart campaign with a bot”.

When asked what evidence Seymour had that the submissions were fake, he said it’s because “we’ve looked at them. Because we know what the contents of them is”.

In a subsequent written statement to RNZ, Seymour said he was referring to “online campaigns” that generate “non-representative samples” that don’t reflect public opinion.

“Any decent journalist would know the online campaigns I was referring to, I suspect the general public certainly will. Any decent journalist would also know that presenting non-representative samples as reflecting public opinion is breaching basic standards of journalism,” the statement said.

“Thankfully I think most Kiwis see right through this, which might reflect RNZ’s declining listenership.”

…ummmm. I submitted against this terrible Bill and I’m not a Bot.

What evidence does David have that Bots were creating fake submissions because using Bot Farms would be incredibly dishonest and an affront to the democratic process…

In a statement, Ministry for Regulation deputy chief executive policy Andrew Royle would not address Seymour’s claims about bots directly.

Royle said the ministry undertook a “robust process” to analyse all of the submissions received.

“Our approach was carefully designed to reflect all submissions in the final analysis, noting there were many similar points made across most of the submissions,” he said.

The ministry’s summary shows its process included a “qualitative” analysis of about 1000 individual submissions. Group submissions and submissions over 10,000 words were read separately. The rest were summarised using AI.

There was nothing in the report about bots or other interference in the submissions process.

…so David has no evidence?

Maybe he should talk to his mates at the Taxpayers’ Union, because they seem to have the details on Bot Farms.

Interestingly…

…hmmmm.

The Regulatory Referendum Bill is Class War in action!

It is Property Rights over Human Rights!

ACT have tailored an economic straight jacket that will make it impossible to counter corporate interests ever again.

We require regulated capitalism not free market fantasies!

This is a blatant power grab by those fearful climate change will provoke electoral demands they don’t want to pay for!

Why on earth are we placing democratic break peddles on legislation the people have mandated by popular vote?

The Regulatory Standards Bill is an ideological vanity project that will have the real world impact of strangling off the popular will of the people!

Creating a Board of Corporate Warlords to vet all legislation to ensure it doesn’t impact their property rights is so crazy, why would you allow this to happen Kiwi?

Why?

Once upon a time, Kiwis stood on their own two feet on this land, they bowed to no one and I remember those NZers and those Kiwis, but the way post-Covid bitterness burnt us, something changed didn’t it?

Somehow you have all gotten so twisted by the trans debate, by Māori road signs and orange road cones that you have dropped to your knees to kiss corporate arse.

Look at how National, ACT and NZF ram through deregulation policy for their donors interests.

Look at how the Agricultural Industry bought and paid for the environmental policy under this government!

Look at how ACT destroyed 2000 local jobs for school lunches so they could give the multi hundred million dollar contract to a large international transnational.

Look at how the NZ Initiative plus the Atlas Network are pushing the deregulation agenda for National, ACT and NZFs donors interests!

You are willingly being slaves to corporations because fuck that Trans kid right?

You are handing over your personal sovereignty to corporations because Māori is spoken during the weather!

You are agreeing to be a prostitute for corporate profit margins because a vaccine against a once in a century pandemic somehow doesn’t  meet you standards?

Comrades, your enemy isn’t some kid transitioning, it’s not a Māori woman in politics, Māori women in media, Māori women outside walking (we really do have a problem with giving our Māori women comrades crap)

Your enemy isn’t drag queen story time, it’s not environmentalists, it’s not beneficiaries, it’s not state tenants, it’s not renters, it’s not the Treaty.

Your enemy is who it’s always been, the banks, the billionaires, the corporations, the powerful who use social media hate algorithms to warp you into believing their interests are your interests when nothing can be further from the truth!

How have you allowed you post-covid bitterness, hatred of trans, fury at vaccines and rage at Māori to blind you all to being whores for corporations?

Get off your knees Kiwi!

I demand you stand Kiwi!

You bow to no one, especially not the fucking corporations.

Stand Kiwi, stand!

We may have disagreements over social policy, but to be tricked as easily as you have been for corporate interests?

Your rage and anger has been manipulated by the Right and put into empowering the corporations.

What have you allowed your hate to make you Kiwi?

What have you self mutilated yourself into?

 

 

 

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