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Sensible Solution for Transport is Back to the Future – PTUA

By
The Daily Blog
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The discussion over new Mayor Phil Goff’s decision not to appoint Councillors to the AT Board highlights that “there’s little debate that Auckland Transport’s governance arrangements need reviewing” says the Public Transport Users Association.

“While there are differences of opinion about the solutions, there is widespread agreement about the problems”. “Poor performance on some indicators, a perceived lack of accountability, inefficiencies, a lack of contestable advice – all show signs of typical transport capture with AT”, says PTUA Chair Christine Rose.

“But the most sensible solution may rest in Auckland’s past” says Mrs Rose. “Up until 2010, and everywhere else in the country now, citizens have the value of a broadly representative Regional Land Transport Committee to help shape important strategic transport decisions”.

“Everywhere else in the country high-level transport direction is informed by political representatives. But these are supplemented by voices from the community too”.

“PTUA recommends that in addition to the two re-established political Board roles, key Board members could also include those mandated for the rest of New Zealand”.

Regional Land Transport Committees (RLTC) elsewhere in New Zealand develop Regional Land Transport Strategies that set out the region’s transport vision and objectives. In Auckland, Auckland Transport already has the legal functions of an RLTC.

“It makes sense therefore, to reflect what is essential and works well for the rest of the country. For a Unitary Authority like Auckland, the main transport decision making board (the RLTC equivalent) should include five elected representatives from the Council, one from NZTA, one cultural representative, and one to represent each of the objectives in the 2008 NZ Transport Strategy – economic development, safety and personal security, environmental sustainability, public health and access and mobility”.

PTUA co-ordinator Jon Reeves says there are clearly many voices missing from important transport decisions in Auckland, that are mandated to sit at the table elsewhere in the country. “Where are the voices for those with disabilities or cultural knowledge, or for sustainability?” “Up until the latest decision to axe the meagre two elected representatives, these Board members carried those cudgels. Now even that opportunity is being removed”.

“Ultimately on an enhanced AT Board that takes on the equivalent role of an RLTC, those positions might be filled by sector representatives, such as the AA, the Employers and Manufacturers’ Association, cycling advocate representatives, other advocates” says Mr Reeves. “But we’d be ensuring statutory objectives were being considered openly, as is required elsewhere in New Zealand.”

“There’s no case for Auckland exceptionalism and the prohibition against political and community representation here”, he says. Mrs Rose, who was Chair of the region’s last Regional Land Transport Committee before the creation of Auckland Council and the Auckland Transport CCO, says the monolithic, hostile AT Board edifice would well benefit from more open governance, rather than closing it down. “Inclusive and consensus based decision making is essential for transport governance elsewhere in the country, and it worked well in Auckland until amalgamation”.

“We may have to look to the past – and elsewhere in the country presently, to enhance Auckland Transport in the future”.

 

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Corrections despise the living prisoners they imprison – why would we be surprised at their cruelty towards a dying woman?

By
Martyn Bradbury
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Dying prisoner Vicki Letele left in pain for almost four hours, family claim

Terminally-ill inmate Vicki Letele was ignored by a nurse and a guard when she called out in distress early this morning, her mother has alleged.

Letele, 35, has asked for an early release from a three year and two month sentence for fraud because she is dying of cancer.

The Parole Board decided the mother-of-three, who has served eight months of her sentence, does not meet the exceptional circumstances test for early release, but Corrections has agreed to review the decision. The outcome is expected next week.

The fact that a Pacific woman went to prison for 3 bloody year on fraud while white white collar crime are given home detention is the true disgrace here. Adding insult to the injury of this racist justice system is that Corrections will not allow Vicki to go home to die.

This spite is the NZ of today, and we need to stare deep into the ugly reflection of what we have become to truly  appreciate how awful we have become.

Judith Collins could rule on this right now, but she won’t because she knows that NZers love punishment over justice. Our system is corrupt and racist and we like it that way because it mostly benefits white people. Letting a Maori woman out early to die with her whanau is just not an option.

Look at the contempt corrections treat their living prisoners. They have locked up 500 prisoners longer than their sentence, they are currently in a test case in Hamilton trying to extend ESOs on prisoners on their last day of probation and they have removed Prisoners rights to vote.

This is a culture who have been led by media crime headlines and tough on crime politicians to agree to a spiteful public service whose only goal is to punish and make those being punished suffer.

This is who we are now, lap it sleepy hobbits. We allow mass surveillance, we allowed Helen Kelly to die as a criminal, we allow CYFs to torture children, we allow 560 NZers kill themselves each year, we allow mental health services to fall over,  we allow Housing NZ to throw people onto the street, we allow WINZ to spy on beneficiaries, we allow 1 in every 100 NZers to be homeless and we allow a corrupt and racist justice system to remain unchallenged.

You want to be angry at the ugliness of this reflection – blame yourselves and this Government.

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TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Man Trouble

By
Kate Dickie-Davis
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Whenever I end up yelling at people and chained to something there’s always someone who asks me why I bother. When Auckland Action Against Poverty highlight an issue about the rights of beneficiaries we too are asked why we bother and on occasion suffer some severe talkback backlash. This week as Manpower encountered people power and I was led handcuffed to a paddy wagon no one raised an eye brow, let alone an objection. That is simply because Manpower’s actions are indefensible.

As the matter is now ‘before the courts’ I shall add little commentary to what happened on the day, nor will I talk about the other members of the ‘Manpower 8’ except to say they are a great and reliable crew of people who I am proud to be arrested with. There were a far larger group involved who did not get arrested and every person involved played an integral part. That includes everyone who ran the picket outside and whose chants we could hear on the ninth floor. All of us involved in the Manpowered story so far are just extras.

This is the story of someone seeking work and sent by Work and Income to Manpower. The hero of the story was and still is “Tony” who came to AAAP with his complaints and concerns. That takes courage. The villain of the piece is not who you might suspect, it is not Manpower. They are just parasitic middlemen pimping poverty. The real villain is Work and Income.

Manpower are not a recruitment company. Recruitment companies work legally, they advise on your CV, they interview you about your skills, strengths, experience and then they match-make you with an employer who they charge for a service. Recruitment companies broker a relationship with employers and facilitate people into work. They don’t ask who you are sleeping with, voting for or which religion you practice. Manpower is a labour hire company. A bad labour hire company that is using an illegal contract that does not specify where you will work, for how long, what you will be doing and how much you will be paid. Manpower are signing you up to be on permanent standby for nothing guaranteed. They are also questioning applicants about a range of sensitive private issues. We still don’t know what they are doing with the data. I believe this is the reason we didn’t suffer the media backlash we often attract. This is story about a middle man scam.

Labour hire companies in New Zealand are unregulated. Not all of them are bad but as is often the way with any unregulated industry it will attract some dodgy characters and at Manpower they’re all dressed like clowns and cowboys. What isn’t so commonly known is the Work and Income practice of pushing people into work with companies like Manpower. On Thursday we closed down Manpower and with the help of News Hub exposed how Work and Income are getting people off benefits and onto Manpower’s books. When there is no work forthcoming and people have to return to Work and Income they face a thirteen week stand down. On Friday media reported that unemployment was at its lowest since 2008.

The public are not stupid. We at AAAP and First Union know that the stats stink. Unemployment is not a measure of under-employment. Daily we work with people who are underemployed, scrapping for extra hours and desperately in need of a top up from Work and Income. People are hanging on by a thread and an extra hour. When a person on a benefit is sent to Manpower for a job it is like evicting a family from a secure house and giving them a tent in cyclone season. When the work dries up they are left drowning in debt and hoping for rescue sometime in the next thirteen weeks. Desperate people, with no security will put up with a lot of shit and do a lot of unpaid overtime in order to keep their head above water.

Work and Income putting vulnerable people into this kind of work is negligent. It shows that they have no respect or empathy for the people whom they are charged with assisting. It illustrates that they have absolutely no concern for what happens when the people walk out the revolving door as long as the stats say they have placed someone in work. It is cruel and callous. Manpower might be cancelling work without notice, but it is Work and Income that are cancelling people’s faith, undermining their confidence and putting them at risk by cancelling their income.

The labour hire industry needs to be regulated. That is evident. It is not just beneficiaries but also students, migrants and other workers looking for decent and dependable income that are being exploited and mined for deeply personal information. It is the government’s responsibility to do this and it is the government’s responsibility also to ensure that Work and Income stop participating in this farce.

It needs to stop. Sign the petition

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

2016 – Ongoing jobless tally and why unemployment statistics will no longer be used

By
Frank Macskasy
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Continued from: 2015 – Ongoing jobless tally

So by the numbers, for this year;

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Events

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January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

October

November

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Statistics

This blogger previously reported how Statistics NZ recently implemented a so-called “revision” which would materially affect how unemployment stats were counted and reported;

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On 29 June 2016, Statistic NZ announced that it would be changing the manner in which it defined a jobseeker;

Change: Looking at job advertisements on the internet is correctly classified as not actively seeking work. This change brings the classification in line with international standards and will make international comparability possible.

Improvement: Fewer people will be classified as actively seeking work, therefore the counts of people unemployed will be more accurate.

The statement went on to explain;

Change in key labour market estimates:

  • Decreases in the number of people unemployed and the unemployment rate
  • Changes to the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate range from 0.1 to 0.6 percentage points. In the most recent published quarter (March 2016), the unemployment rate is revised down from 5.7 percent to 5.2 percent
  • Increases in the number of people not in the labour force
  • Decreases in the size of the labour force and the labour force participation rate

The result of this change? At the stroke of a pen, unemployment fell from 5.7% to 5.2%;

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And on-cue, National was quick to capitalise on Statistics NZ’s figure-fudging;

On 2/3 July, TV3’s The Nation, Dear Leader Key told Corin Dann;

“The unemployment rate in New Zealand is now falling pretty dramatically.”

On 8 August, Key was quoted on Interest.co.nz;

“On the other side, we need these people in an environment where unemployment is 5.2% and where growth is still very, very strong. You’ve just got to be careful when you play around with these things that you don’t hamstring certain industries that need these workers.”

On 12 August, in Parliament, English also gleefully congratulated himself on the “fall” in unemployment;

“The Reserve Bank is forecasting an increase of about 1 percent more growth in the economy over the next 3 years, compared with what it thought 3 months ago. It is forecasting that unemployment is going to continue falling from 5.2 percent this year to 4.5 percent by 2019 and that job numbers will increase by more than 2 percent on average over the next 2 years. A significant component of that, of course, will be the construction boom, where thousands of houses will be built over the next 2 or 3 years. These forecasts are in line with Treasury’s forecast for the labour market and show an economy that is delivering more jobs, lower unemployment, and real increases in incomes when in many developed countries that is not happening.”

The latest Statistics NZ (soon to be re-branded Ministry of Truth) unemployment figures showed another “fall”. The unemployment rate for the September 2016 Quarter is now purportedly 4.9%;

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Can that figure – 4.9% – be trusted?

When Statistics NZ “re-jigged” its criteria for measuring unemployment in June, unemployment dropped from 5.7% to 5.2% (subsequently revised again to 5.1%);

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Predictably, National were quick to once again exploit the September statistics, as their Twitter-feed showed on 2 November;

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And three days later;

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It’s all nonsense, of course – made worse by Statistics NZ’s other dodgy criteria used when considering their definition what constitutes being “employed”;

Employed: people in the working-age population who, during the reference week, did one of the following:

  • worked for one hour or more for pay or profit in the context of an employee/employer relationship or self-employment
  • worked without pay for one hour or more in work which contributed directly to the operation of a farm, business, or professional practice owned or operated by a relative

Statistics NZ’s mis-representation of our “low unemployment” environment has gone largely unnoticed and unchallenged. No one in the mainstream media has picked up on the questionable data;

This meant the size of the labour force rose 33,000 and unemployment fell by just 3,000 to 128,000. The unemployment rate fell to 4.9% from a revised 5.0% in the June quarter. This was the lowest unemployment rate since the December quarter of 2008. Unemployment has fallen by 7,000 over the last year and is up 1,000 from two years ago. – Interest.co.nz

Unemployment has fallen below 5 percent for the first time in nearly eight years thanks to the growing economy, but it is still not translating into booming wages. Official figures show the unemployment rate declined to 4.9 percent in the three months to September, or 128,000 people, the lowest rate since December 2008. – Radio NZ

According to Statistics New Zealand, the unemployment rate fell to 4.9% in the September 2016 quarter. This is the lowest unemployment rate since the December 2008 quarter. There were 3,000 fewer people unemployed than in the June 2016 quarter and 10,000 fewer over the year. – Maori TV

The unemployment rate has fallen to 4.9 percent for the September 2016 quarter, according to new figures from Statistics NZ. That’s the lowest it’s been since December 2008. – TV3 News

New Zealand’s unemployment rate fell below 5 percent for the first time since December 2008 as employers took on more staff than expected, although that didn’t spur wages to rise at a faster pace. The kiwi dollar rose on the figures. The unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30 from a revised 5 percent rate in June, Statistics New Zealand said. – Sharechat

New Zealand has recorded its best unemployment rate in almost eight years with third quarter figures falling to a better than expected 4.9 per cent. The jobless rate declined from a revised 5.0 per cent in the June quarter, according to Stats NZ, taking it to its lowest point since December 2008. – NZCity/NZ News

New Zealand’s unemployment rate fell below 5 per cent for the first time since December 2008 as employers took on more staff than expected, although that didn’t spur wages to rise at a faster pace. The kiwi dollar rose on the figures.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.9 per cent in the three months ended September 30 from a revised 5 per cent rate in June, Statistics New Zealand said. – NZ Herald

New Zealand’s unemployment rate fell more than expected in the third quarter to drop to 4.9 per cent – the lowest rate since last 2008. The jobless rate declined from a revised 5.0 per cent in the June quarter, according to Stats NZ taking it to its lowest point since the December quarter nearly eight years ago. There were 3,000 fewer people unemployed than in the previous quarter and 10,000 fewer over the year. – TVNZ News

Of course there were “3,000 fewer people unemployed than in the previous quarter and 10,000 fewer over the year“! Ten thousand unemployed people vanished from the data, at the click of a mouse, as Statistics NZ worked their “magic”.

Statistics NZ could potentially make unemployment vanish entirely, overnight, by changing the unemployment criteria to people with only two hearts and scaly blue skin.

Only Hamish Rutherford, at Fairfax media, pointed out the questionable value of Statistics NZ’s data;

Unemployment has fallen to the lowest level in almost eight years, as the economy creates more than 10,000 new jobs a month. Official figures show the unemployment rate dropped to 4.9 per cent in the the September quarter, the first time it has fallen below 5 per cent since December 2008.

Earlier this year Statistics New Zealand revised the way it conducts the quarterly household labour force survey (HLFS), in a bid to bring the survey more in line with international standards. However the changes mean Statistics New Zealand cannot make confident comparisons with all of the figures from previous surveys.

But even in Rutherford’s article, the all-important point of dodgy stats was lost amongst the ‘rah-rah‘ of the mythical drop in unemployment.

The Otago Daily Times made an even less impressive, passing, reference to Statistics NZ’s fudged figures;

Unemployment in New Zealand is at its lowest level since 2008 but there will be lingering concerns about the lack of wage growth and the impact this will have on the inflation outlook.

Statistics New Zealand has changed some of its survey data to measure unemployment and employment and those changes are still bedding in. – Otago Daily Times

Government Statistician, Liz MacPherson, has rejected any suggestion of political partisanship in the way unemployment data is now being presented.

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She was defensive in the face of criticism from Labour’s Grant Robertson and on  16 August, Ms MacPherson stated;

Like my predecessors I am fiercely protective of the statutory independence of the role of the Government Statistician and strongly refute any assertions made by Grant Robertson that there has been political interference in the production of official statistics.

This independence means that I maintain the right to make changes necessary to ensure the relevance and quality of our official statistics. Changes to the Household Labour Force Survey have been made to ensure that we produce the best possible measure of the current state of the labour market and to maintain consistency with international best practice.

Far from ignoring technological change during the past 30 years, such as the advent of the internet, we are incorporating these changes so as to be technology neutral.

Within the survey questions, to be regarded as actively looking for a job you must do more than simply look at job advertisements, whether it is online or in a newspaper.

It is not uncommon for revisions to be made to official statistics as a result of more accurate information becoming available or changes to international standards and frameworks.

In addition we are introducing new measures – for example underutilisation – enabling a deeper, richer understanding of New Zealand’s labour market.

When this does occur it is standard practice for Statistics NZ to communicate reasons for revisions and anticipated changes well in advance of their official release, as we did on 29 June 2016. […]

Statistics NZ has a legislative obligation to release objective official statistics. We will continue to do this at all times.

One of many ironies not lost on this blogger is that other government departments extoll the virtues of jobseeking on-line. As CareersNZ and WINZ state the blindingly-obvious, “most job vacancies are listed online”;

Careersnz;

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WINZ;

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Ms MacPherson’s assertion that Statistics NZ has changed it’s definitions of unemployment and jobseeking  “to maintain consistency with international best practice” is not an acceptable explanation.

If “international best practice” does not recognise on-line jobseeking as constituting a definition of unemployment – then that in itself is worrying and suggests that global unemployment may be much, much higher than current international statistics portray.

As a consequence of Ms MacPherson’s decision to exclude on-line jobseekers from official stats, this blogger concludes that official unemployment data is  severely flawed and unrepresentative of our real unemployment numbers.

In simple terms; the numbers are a sham.

Unemployment statistics will no longer be presented in on-going up-dates of the Jobless Tally.

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This Statement has not been endorsed by MiniTruth (formerly StatsNZ)

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Addendum1: Definition of Employment

Employed: people in the working-age population who, during the reference week, did one of the following:

  • worked for one hour or more for pay or profit in the context of an employee/employer relationship or self-employment

  • worked without pay for one hour or more in work which contributed directly to the operation of a farm, business, or professional practice owned or operated by a relative

  • had a job but were not at work due to: own illness or injury, personal or family responsibilities, bad weather or mechanical breakdown, direct involvement in an industrial dispute, or leave or holiday.

Source

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References

Statistics NZ: Household Labour Force Survey – Revisions to labour market estimates

Scoop media: On The Nation – Patrick Gower interviews John Key

Interest.co.nz: Key deflects calls for migration review; says migration needed with 5.2% unemployment

Scoop media: Parliament – Questions & Answers – 11 August 2016

Statistics NZ: Labour Market Statistics – September 2016 quarter

Statistics NZ: Labour Market Statistics – June 2016 quarter

Twitter: National (2 Nov)

Twitter: National (5 Nov)

Interest.co.nz: Jobs grew 35,000 or 1.4% in Sept quarter, but unemployment fell just 3,000 and jobless rate falls to 4.9%

Radio NZ: Unemployment drops to lowest level since 2008

Maori TV: Work force grows despite youth unemployment

TV3 News: Unemployment drops to lowest rate since 2008

Sharechat: NZ jobless rate falls below 5% for first time since 2008, wage inflation muted

NZCity/NZ News: Jobless rate falls to near eight-year low

NZ Herald: NZ jobless rate falls below 5 per cent for first time since 2008, wage inflation muted

TVNZ News: Unemployment rate falls to near eight-year low

Fairfax media: Unemployment drops to lowest level since 2008 on booming job creation

Otago Daily Times: Unemployment lowest in eight years

Radio NZ: Statistician denies political interference over job seeker figures

Statistics NZ: Government Statistician responds to Grant Robertson

Careersnz: Job hunting tips

Work and Income: Where to look

Additional

TVNZ: Q+A – Interview with John Key

Previous related blogpost

Lies, Damned lies and Statistical Lies

National exploits fudged Statistics NZ unemployment figures

Lies, Damned lies and Statistical Lies – ** UPDATE **

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To be periodically up-dated.

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TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Why Story had to get axed, why Duncan Garner isn’t much of a saviour and why the new TV3 comedy news show will probably fail

By
Martyn Bradbury
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Story had to get axed. It’s been a ratings failure, remember this was supposed to be the brand new current affairs show to replace Campbell Live and it would be hard hitting?

It’s been crap.

Story was always weak, never lived up to Campbell Live and the current affairs viewing audience would prefer to shoot themselves than listen to these two clowns wank on about shit that doesn’t matter.

I’ve got Bravo to watch for inane small talk, why would I voluntarily watch it at 7pm?

The true travesty here is that Seven Sharp is even worse, and yet Story failed. When your competition is an arrogant rich arsehole who merely mouths neoliberal mythology, how can you lose? Well, Story lost.

Story were so devoid of actual ideas, they ended up copying what we were doing on Friday nights with Waatea 5th Estate. The incredible ratings success of Waatea 5th Estate showed to news producers that you could host panel discussions that were insightful, funny and intelligent (we are waiting on NZ on Air funding in December to look at relaunching the show next year) yet they still produce crap.

We did more public service broadcasting on Waatea 5th Estate in 7 months than Story + Seven Sharp have managed all year.

With Paul Henry sick of not being loved and about to leave Breakfast, Duncan Garner is being lined up as his replacement.

That will be a kiss of death.

Paul Henry, despite his right wing madness, is a talented broadcaster, Duncan is about as appetising as a 3 week old mince pie. He doesn’t have the intelligence or skill of Henry. Duncan taking over Breakfast will be the death of their ratings gains in the morning and will be an immense relief to TVNZs Breakfast who are a train wreck of a show.

The 7pm replacement that is being mooted just won’t work.

The Project in Australia, which is where TV3/Newshub are aiming for can’t be reproduced in NZ. In NZ we think 7 days is cutting political satire. Dick jokes, poor jokes and fart jokes aren’t satire, but in NZ they are because NZ satire doesn’t actually exist.

To be real satire, the comedy has to be intelligent and firmly on the side of the weak. NZ doesn’t do that because it would terrify the establishment too much. The Project is like the Daily Show or Last Week Tonight, and nothing NZ has produced in the last 20 years would even be close to those shows.

The Project is the perfect choice as a new 7pm Show, but to be as edgy and dangerous as it would need to be to gain any real attention is just too far outside the comfort zone of TV3 and I doubt they could find any comedian/host who would even know what neoliberalism is.

Look at the train wreck Story’s Friday night panel shows were compared them to what Waatea 5th Estate did on Fridays. Theirs was poorly thought out and just plain stupid, ours was hilarious and had people like Rachel Stewart, David Cunliffe, Dita De Boni, Efeso Collins, Chloe Swarbrick and Oscar Kightly on it.

You know, interesting and intelligent people who can critique the news media in a way that provides actual insight.

How can you critique the hegemonic power structures of society when your host don’t know what the fuck hegemonic means? It will probably become fart and dick jokes, with the tall bugger from Jono and Beno hosting and some of their female comedians thrown in to try and make it seem diverse.

Imagine if Campbell Live had not been killed off for political reasons?

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GUEST BLOG: Ben Peterson – Opportunities for Who? Gareth Morgan’s New Political Party

By
The Daily Blog
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Last week, eccentric investor Gareth Morgan announced a new political party. Morgan-famous for offering money for kiwis to kill feral cats, has called his new project The Opportunities Party (TOP). TOP is concerned that politicians are unwilling to make real change, and many kiwi’s are lacking the opportunities they may have had in the past. In a video on the TOP website Morgan goes so far to say that TOP is being created to ‘light a fuse’ under parliament. Pledging to blow up the halls of power is an unorthodox move, but is this new project as radical as the rhetoric?

It is hard to actually know what TOP stands for. At present there is very little of substance available on what this new party would actually do. The TOP website has no policies, instead has three pages- ‘Vision’, ‘Issues’ and a blow by blow life story of Gareth Morgan. The ‘Issues’ comes closest to articulating what this new party may campaign around:

“We believe that government policies should provide:

Opportunities for all to participate fully in society
Opportunities for all to participate fully in the economy – whether through starting a business, paid or unpaid work
Opportunities for all to enjoy our beautiful nature
Opportunities for all to own their own home
Opportunities for all to get educated
Opportunities for all to lead healthy lives
Opportunities for New Zealand to articulate our unique identity”

As slogans this all sounds nice- how could anyone be against opportunities?

The problem with this is the closer these slogans get to the real world, the harder they are to hold together.

The reality is that New Zealand/Aotearoa is not a cohesive society with everyone working together. Class and race divisions run deep- and these tensions cannot simply be dissolved by ensuring an ‘opportunity for all’.

The reality is that there are plenty of opportunities, but they have only gone to a small part of society. It is not enough to just say ‘more opportunities’, a political project will have to be willing to critique and challenge deep structures of political and economic power.

For example- opportunities already today exists for some people to take out a business loan set up a company- say a fast food franchise. This business owner will see hiring people for minimum wage as offering an ‘opportunity’ to work. But maybe these workers will want to take up an opportunity to join a union and go on strike for better pay. Who’s opportunities come first- the opportunity to maximize the profit of a business, or the opportunity to get a decent income from your work?

Similar dynamics will flow through all the issues that TOP wants to address. Does the opportunity to own a home trump the opportunity of wealthy people to invest in housing- just like Gareth Morgan did? Public Health and education can be dramatically improved, but this will require more funding. Reversing tax cuts for big business and the very wealthy can easily cover the expenditure, but the big end of town will see this as an attack on their ‘opportunities’.

At some point we all have to chose which side we are on. There is very little to suggest that Gareth Morgan will opt for choosing working people- his whole career has been built around working with the business sector.

We do need dramatic change, but do we believe the vehicle for this change will come from a frustrated investor getting miffed at his mates? Parliament is already full of businessmen, lawyers, career politicians and technocrats. TOP looks to replace members of the political elite- but their replacements seem to be more of style than substance.

Real change can only come by empowering those who do the work in our society. The protests against the TPPA showed the potential power of working people. Auckland was shut down in defiance to the powers that be. It wasn’t because of a lawyer, or a good lobbyist, or a millionaire building a political vanity project. It was because ordinary people took action.

When a political project is created that channels these energies, it will be an opportunity for the left that is long over due.

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GUEST BLOG: Martin and Lois Griffiths – PATH TO SANITY

By
The Daily Blog
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Depleted Uranium! The US admits to using Depleted Uranium in Syria.

 I thought the world had stopped using Depleted Uranium years ago. We used to have here in Christchurch a small group, DUET, Depleted Uranium Education Team. Three of our members spoke to a select committee , calling for, if I remember correctly, our Government to follow the example of the Belgian Government and ban our  NZ Forces from  having  anything to do with DU weapons.

I first heard about DU at a talk after the First Gulf War, given by visiting Swedish peace people, at the Christchurch Quaker Meeting House . They passed around photos of horribly deformed foetuses from Iraq, caused by DU.

Militaries like to use DU, a waste product from the nuclear industry because it very cheap and effective. Missiles made with DU can tear right through a tank, as if were made of butter.

The military defenders argue that the alpha rays emitted from  DU  are harmless, as the fissile part of uranium 235 has been removed .

Harmless ? Yes and no. Coal burning the fireplace is harmless but a hot coal in your mouth is very harmful. When a DU missile pierces a tank say, it burns at a very high temperature creating  fine aerosol particles. Outside the body these are harmless but if inhaled or ingested the alpha particles damage DNA, hence the deformed foetuses. Iraq has been left so DU polluted that women in some areas have been advised not to have babies.

Shame on the US. Perhaps the PM or Mr McCully could diplomatically rise this with the US?

Another issue Martin and I have taken up in the past has to do with cluster bombs. Whenever cluster bombs are used, some remain unexploded, ready to keep on killing after hostilities cease.

Depleted Uranium missiles should be banned, cluster bombs should be banned , white phosphorus used on populated areas should be banned, biological weapons should be banned, whatever type of bomb that still litters  Laos should banned.

Nuclear weapons should be banned. There are real fears that some day, nuclear weapons will be used maybe as a result of a misunderstanding. Wasn’t Obama awarded a Peace Prize in anticipation that he would oppose nuclear weapons? And now Obama has allocated a trillion dollars  to ‘modernize’ the US nuclear arsenal.

Drone warfare, turning indiscriminate killing into computer games, should be banned.

Now we’re told that cyber warfare is the up and coming WMD. (Did anyone see the film Zero Days?)

What’s really going on? Why are more and more resources and scientific ingenuity being employed in weaponry? Don’t the world’s powerful understand that the survival of our species depends on facing the reality of possible runaway climate change? Don’t the world’s powerful understand that we, all of humanity, are in this together.

Maybe it’s to do with money, big money. Governments are  willing lavish obscene sums on military corporations. Arms fairs are held, tempting governments into buying the latest in killing technology. It’s time for civil society  to demand that the world  ban war, not just individual weapons such as Depleted Uranium, but war.

A good start would be for civil society to shut down  arms fairs, such as the one about to be held in Auckland.

New Zealand could by example lead the world down a path to sanity.

Lois and Martin Griffiths are retired teachers who share an interest in justice issues, peace issues, Palestine.

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Working people call on Dunne to vote down TPPA Bill – First Union

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As the Government drives the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Amendment Bill through its committee stages in Parliament this afternoon, a union representing 27,000 working people is calling on United Future leader Peter Dunne to side with the 52 per cent of New Zealanders who oppose the “investors’ charter.”

“Peter Dunne isn’t voting for a trade agreement, he’s voting from an investors’ charter,” said FIRST Union General Secretary Robert Reid.

“Under the TPPA overseas investors can sue our government in secretive tribunals for doing nothing more than acting in the public interest.”

“That’s a threat to our sovereignty.”

“The deal also locks in protections for big overseas pharmaceutical companies with biologics patents, meaning we’ll have to wait longer for affordable medicines to arrive on the market. The TPPA isn’t just a threat to the economy, it’s a threat to health,” said Reid.

“Our 27,000 members are calling on Peter Dunne to withdraw his support for the Bill.”

 

• Economic modelling commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Government department most invested in the deal’s success, predicts an economic benefit $2.7 billion by 2030, meaning the upfront benefit is less than 1 per cent of GDP and spread across fifteen years;

• Analysis by leading economists found after extrapolating from current growth rates GDP is expected to increase 47 percent by 2030 without the TPPA and just 47.9 percent with the TPPA. The projected benefits from the TPPA essentially amount to a rounding error. Unexpected changes in commodity prices could wipe out the projected gains;

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Malcolm Evans – Bonfire of the Vanities

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Malcolm Evans
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Political Caption Competition

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TDB Top 5 International Stories: Wednesday 9th November 2016

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5: TEXAS REPUBLICANS TARGET ELDERLY LATINO VOTERS WITH FRAUD ACCUSATIONS

GOV. GREG ABBOTT of Texas boasted on Twitter last month that his attorney general had launched the state’s largest ever voter fraud investigation — targeting allegations of illegal electioneering in Fort Worth’s Tarrant County. “Texans will crack down on cheating at the ballot box,” Abbott wrote. “We will crush illegal voting.”

Coinciding with weeks of speeches in which Donald Trump implored Americans to distrust the results of this year’s election, news of the investigation was seized upon by outlets like Breitbart, Fox News, and Townhall as evidence of endemic voter fraud. Summing up the implications of the state’s investigation, Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said that fraud-obsessed Republicans “may finally have their white whale.”

The Intercept

4: Battle for Mosul: Peshmerga push into ISIL-held Bashiqa

Iraqi Kurdish forces have exchanged heavy fire with ISIL fighters as they move from two directions into the centre of Bashiqa, a town along a key supply route for the armed group on the way to Mosul.

The offensive to reclaim the town 13km east of Mosul city is the latest push in a broader offensive to drive the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant out of Iraq’s second-largest city, the group’s last major stronghold in the country.

Aljazeera

3:Greg Palast in Ohio on GOP Effort to Remove African Americans from Voter Rolls in Battleground State

In an on-the-ground report from the battleground state of Ohio, investigative reporter Greg Palast has uncovered the latest in vote suppression tactics led by Republicans that could threaten the integrity of the vote in Ohio and North Carolina. On some polling machines, audit protection functions have been shut off, and African Americans and Hispanics are being scrubbed from the voter rolls through a system called Crosscheck. “It’s a brand-new Jim Crow,” Palast says. “Today, on Election Day, they’re not going to use white sheets to keep way black voters. Today, they’re using spreadsheets.”

Democracy Now

2: Don’t Panic: The Election Isn’t Going to Doom America, No Matter Who Wins

It’s Election Day eve, and America is worried.

The part of America I live in—big-city, liberal, too many brunch places—is worried about Donald Trump. These are the people who obsessively check the FiveThirtyEight forecasts, who are talking only half-jokingly about leaving the US if the Republican wins, who have been calling Trump a fascist since last year. Every presidential election is always the most consequential election in history until the next one, but in 2016, the fear is not solely over Republicans taking control of the government, but of the end of democracy itself.

Everyone from Glenn Beck to documentarian Ken Burns has compared Trump to a Hitler-esque dictator. “America is a breeding ground for tyranny,” declared Andrew Sullivan in New York in May. “An American dictatorship is now a realistic possibility,” wrote Mario Loyola in the right-wing but anti-Trump National Review back in February. “Donald Trump undermines the legitimacy of our democracy,” was the headline for an October Boston Globe op-ed by Michael A. Cohen. “Donald Trump’s success reveals a frightening weakness in American democracy,” warned Ezra Klein in Vox on Monday. “This reads like hyperbole. But is it?” asks Klein.

Vice News

1: Russia to launch ‘large-scale’ airstrikes on Syria as Americans vote

Russia has threatened to launch “large-scale” cruise missile and airstrikes on Aleppo to coincide with the US election, according to media reports from Moscow.

The strikes, predicted in the 24 hours from Tuesday morning, would be targeted at the outskirts of the city where rebel groups have been seeking to break the Assad regime’s siege of opposition-held eastern districts. They would involve cruise missiles, carrier-based and land-based warplanes, the reports said.

A military source told the Gazeta.ru website: “While in previous cases, when missile attacks were launched from the Caspian Sea, there were dozens of targets destroyed, this time, in literally two to three days, hundreds of terrorist targets will be destroyed from long range.”

The Guardian

 

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The Daily Blog Open Mic – Wednesday 9th November 2016

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openmike

 

Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

 

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All We Need Now Is Jack Bauer! Is America’s Deep State Attempting To Influence The Race For The White House?

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Chris Trotter
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THE EXTRAORDINARY INTERVENTION of the FBI in the US Presidential Election is unnerving. There is now considerable doubt whether the American republic can survive the events of 2016.

Earlier today, the Director of the FBI, James Comey, announced that his unprecedented intervention of 28 October had actually been a false alarm. For the past few hours he has been doing his best to persuade Americans that: “There’s nothing to see here, folks. So, please, move along.” But this “as you were” strategy raises many more questions than it answers.

Why, for example, didn’t Comey simply obtain a warrant to search the lap-top of Anthony Weiner, and determine confidentially whether there was anything in his former wife’s (and top Clinton aide) Huma Abedin’s e-mails that bore upon the Bureau’s earlier investigation of Secretary-of-State Clinton’s use of a private server? Had Comey done so, he would have (as we now know) found nothing incriminating in Abedin’s e-mail cache, and the enormously destabilising effects of his leaked letter to Republican Party congressmen would have been avoided.

In terms of an answer, America’s leading political journalists are offering the following.

Comey was aware that the New York field office of the FBI was – as one informant put it – “Trumpland”. He was further reasonably sure that one or more agents in New York were briefing Trump’s campaign team about the discovery of Abedin’s e-mails. (How else was Trump surrogate, and former New York Mayor, Rudi Giuliani, able to alert Fox News to the existence of a big story that was about to break?)

This intelligence placed Comey in an impossible position. If he attempted to conduct a confidential investigation, Clinton’s enemies in the New York office would simply leak that fact to the right-wing news media, and Trump’s people would then accuse the FBI Director of corruptly attempting to protect Clinton from the voters’ wrath. Of course, by writing to the Republican congressmen Comey was also inviting wrath – this time from Clinton’s campaign team. But, he must have reasoned, wrath was heading his way whatever course of action he chose. He was damned if he did, and damned if he didn’t.

By tasking his agents to work night-and-day to ascertain whether there was anything pertinent in Abedin’s e-mails, Comey was at least able to clear Clinton before 8 November. In around 48 hours we’ll know whether or not their efforts have afforded Clinton enough time to halt her slide in the polls.

Another, more important, question remains: What does it mean when the FBI is so riven by partisanship that its probity and independence are squandered in the interests of advancing the cause of a political candidate?

One possible answer is that key representatives of America’s “Deep State” have become so alarmed at the drift of events that they are prepared to intervene directly in the electoral process. It is, for example, the contention of WikiLeaks’s founder, Julian Assange, that in the upper levels of both the US armed forces, and the huge National Security apparatus, there is a determination to prevent Trump becoming President.

If Assange is correct, then what we have been witnessing over the past week is an attempt by middle-ranking agents of the FBI’s New York field office to even up the scales on behalf of Donald Trump. Just how far these rogue elements are prepared to go to keep Clinton out of the White House remains to be seen.

One can only imagine the extreme nervousness of the Secret Service agents assigned to protect Hillary. The next time somebody in a campaign crowd cries “Gun!”, the “perp” may turn out to be an FBI agent from New York.

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Journalists union welcomes draft decision to reject NZME-Fairfax merger

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The journalists’ union, E tū has welcomed the draft determination by the Commerce Commission, rejecting the merger of NZME and Fairfax.

The draft determination says the Commission is not satisfied the merger wouldn’t substantially reduce competition in the New Zealand media market; nor that it would be in the public interest.
The Commission also cites concerns the merger would drive up prices for newspapers and advertising, and could compromise content quality.

The Commission Chairman Dr Mark Berry said the merger would result in a media entity which controlled nearly 90% of New Zealand’s print media market – making this the second highest level of print media ownership in the world, behind only China.

E tū’s National Media Organiser, Paul Tolich says the concerns raised by the Commission echo E tū’s submission on the merger.

That includes the issue of reduced competition, which E tū’s journalist members believe could drive down quality and reduce media diversity, which is not in the public interest.

“Our members believe they made a strong case for rejecting this merger and now they feel they’ve been heard,” says Paul.

Paul says the comparison with China, in the event of any merger was also telling.

” A very powerful position has been stated about the Fourth Estate and the role of a free press to hold the powerful to account in our society,” he says.

“Our submission recognises that competition strengthens the news business, as does this draft determination.”

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Vote-swapping app highlights unfairness for third parties in America

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Keith Locke
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Amit Kumar’s vote-swapping app for the US presidential election shows up how third parties are disadvantaged by the one round, first-past-the-post race.

Kumar’s frequently-used app allows Clinton voters in a solid Democrat state, like California, to swap votes with a third party voter in a “battleground state”, like Florida. The idea is that third party voter now votes for Clinton, in exchange for the Clinton supporter voting for a third party candidate like the Greens’ Jill Stein. Clinton gets an extra vote against Trump in a key state, and the Greens keep up their national tally.

Of course it would be much better to have a two rounds system, like France, where in the first round where all parties have a fair go, followed by a second round between the two leading candidates. Or there could be an STV preferential system, as we have for mayor in Wellington and some other towns.

Lots of progressive Americans want Hillary Clinton to beat Donald Trump, as seems likely, but are also quite opposed Clinton’s pro-corporate, pro-war policies. The threat of a Trump presidency is pushing them to vote for Clinton, even when they’d be more in tune with the “Jill Stein for President” platform.

The Greens have run a good and necessary campaign, raising issues that really need to be raised if, as likely, Clinton assumes the presidency.

Jill Stein and her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, wrote a piece for the Guardian acknowledging the fears of a Trump presidency and his ability “to wreak considerable havoc if elected.” But they point out that “Hillary Clinton represents the entrenched interests of the status quo. Her election will expand the excesses of global interventionism and corporate welfare that have characterized US policies for several decades.”

Stein and Baraka argue that Clinton’s “waffling on the TPP – gives credence to the belief that she will sacrifice the welfare of workers here and abroad for the unfettered profits of the business elites whom she has always served.”

The Green team offered policies similar to Bernie Sanders, but going further. For example, they promise to “cut military spending by at least 50% and close 700+ foreign military bases” and put the money saved towards “medicare for all” and “tuition-free, world-class public education.”

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