The New Zealand labour movement used to have its own newspaper. A group of us thought that now might be a good time for it to be digitally reborn: The Standard v2.0.
The power-sharing arrangement Helen Clark has permitted after the opposition National party’s election victory may dissolve into violence at any time, reports an anonymous blogger who continues to insist New Zealand has become exactly like Zimbabwe.
There is increasing concern for the blogger, who appears to be trapped in the imaginary alternative universe where he lived for the last two terms of the Labour government.
Readers had believed the blogger to be freely interpreting real world events, and expected the tone to settle following the election of a National-led government. But they have now realised he is in fact mentally locked in “a whole nother universe”.
His recent posts indicate that in ‘HelenGrad’ violent unrest and oppression are increasing, inflation has hit a record 500 000% and refugees are fleeing across the border to South Africa.
John Key’s first test as Prime Minister in a crisis is turning into a bloody fiasco, with the leader of the opposition having to tell him how to do his job through the media. Read the linked article, it’s extraordinary.
For the sake of the hundreds of Kiwis stranded in Thailand, can’t John just spare us the dithering and let Phil Goff handle the crisis?
The Sunday Star Times reported yesterday that ACT had “snapped up” former Brash advisor Peter Keenan, one of the lead stars of Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men.
The Hollow Men revealed, among other things, that Mr Keenan counselled Dr Brash to campaign on populist issues such as law and order and the Treaty of Waitangi “gravy train”, rather than his desire to sell state assets, increase the age of entitlement for superannuation, introduce education vouchers and further privatise the health system.
I’ve got to say, it’s a good match. Peter Keenan’s style should fit right in with the “tough on crime” and Rodney-as-celebrity schtick ACT uses to deflect attention from its extreme right-wing economic agenda.
Of course, in a sane world someone with Keenan’s background should be unemployable in New Zealand’s political scene. I guess Rodney Hide really is as shameless as he seems.
The Council of Trade Unions is calling on National to re-jig its tax package to give it more balance. And fair enough too - despite the media narrative about National’s ‘moderate’, ‘centrist’ policies the figures show its tax package is actually incredibly regressive.
In fact, you could argue it’s been explicitly designed to divert money out of the pockets of working families and into the pockets of the already very wealthy.
According to the CTU’s economist Peter Conway:
“under the Government’s proposals a worker on $20,000 a year will pay $300 a year more tax in 2010 than what is set out in current legislation whereas someone on $500,000 a year will pay $9,202 less tax. This is unfair”.
“A two-child low income family where the parents work 50 hours a week to earn $50,000 will also pay more tax of around $300 a year by 2010 whereas the high income family earning $120,000 in the same circumstances will pay $900 a year less tax.”
Yep, you read correctly. Under National’s tax plan 40% of the cash goes to the top 10% of income earners, and it’s being paid for by gutting your retirement savings and taking money off low-middle income families.
If National really were the moderate, sensible centrists the media keep telling us they are then they might consider the CTU’s advice and introduce fairer, more progressive tax cuts like Gordon Brown is in the UK. Somehow, I don’t see that happening.
The Green Party initiative to have electoral reform reviewed and managed by a citizens’ jury has been scrapped by the National government today. While not surprising, it does mean that electoral reform falls back into the hands of the politicians - putting the wolves back in charge of the hen house. The press release came at the usual “don’t look now” time of 4 pm on a Friday, a trick that both National and Labour use to hide unpopular announcements.
Over the last few weeks I’ve heard the odd grumble in Wellington leftie circles about the proposed Basin Reserve flyover but until now haven’t really paid much attention. Nor, does it seem, have many others. The 3D artists’ projection above shows why we probably should.
According to the Save the Basin Reserve campaign, the NZ Transport Agency and the Greater Wellington Regional Council are planning:
“to build an enormous concrete flyover across the northern face of the Basin Reserve linking the entrance to the Mt Victoria tunnel on the eastern side with Buckle Street on the western side - along with a series of onramps and offramps to enable traffic to flow around the Basin. This huge concrete construction will be around 10 metres tall, will cost (we estimate) more than $50 million, and will completely ruin the Basin Reserve as a sporting and cultural venue.
Following the fiasco that was the Inner-City Bypass, this is yet another kick in the face to Wellington’s urban environment. But it’s not just about the Basin - in an age of peak oil and climate change we should be investing in public transport, not in more roads to fill with cars.
If you want to find out more or get involved in the campaign there’s more info here, And there are a couple more 3D models up on Scoop.
The results are in from the NZ Post-sponsored Kids Voting project, and while it’s a worthy project it nonetheless shows why we don’t allow children the franchise.
More than 13,000 school students nationwide took part in the project aimed at encouraging kids to take an interest in our democracy. The resulting Parliament had Labour and National hold their places as the major parties, but the stand-out winners were the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party with 10.5% and 13 seats, and the joke Bill & Ben Party with 11.7% and 15 seats.
However, due to Bill & Ben only having two candidates on their party list they would lose 13 seats, giving Parliament an ‘underhang’ of only 107 seats. On these numbers Labour, the Greens and the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party could easily form a government.
Hmm… come to think of it, why don’t we give kids the franchise?
No Right Turn reports that TVNZ has cancelled Agenda, New Zealand’s only in-depth political interview and analysis show:
According to Dennis Welch on Radio NZ this morning, TVNZ has cancelled Agenda, New Zealand’s top current affairs show. No word on what, if anything, they plan to replace it with, but it would be interesting to know their reason. Agenda is a successful show, which has been attracting record viewers in the leadup to the election. It is widely regarded as a vital part of our current affairs landscape, and its longer interview format provides a better way of holding our politicians to account than the traditional five-minute slot on Campbell Live. But I guess intelligent political discussion just doesn’t sell advertising; easier just to use recycled reality TV instead.
I have to second that - it’s an unforgivable move on TVNZ’s part and reflects just how far they’ve strayed from their public broadcasting obligations under the Charter. Ironically, the word around the traps is that the privately-owned TV3 is very interested in picking up Agenda if public funding becomes available. Let’s hope they do.
National’s David Farrar has been running a series for some time trying to paint NZ Labour as out of step with Labour Parties around the world when it comes to their attitude on tax cuts. His intention, of course, is to portray Labour as extreme left and his mates in National as centrist and middle of the road. Problem is, he’s more interested in spruiking for the National Party than he is in getting his facts right.
Yesterday he reported excitedly that while NZ Labour was “almost alone in the world with its hostility to personal tax cuts”, in contrast the UK Labour Party is “delivering a massive package of tax cuts” to deal with the economic crisis.
We’ll forgive him for selectively ignoring the huge family tax cuts in Working For Families, the cut to the corporate tax rate, the personal tax cuts in this year’s budget and the tax credits for Kiwisaver and R&D - these are things National has to omit for its spin to make any sense.
But despite his obvious disdain for the intelligence of his readers he can’t get away with this one - under Gordon Brown’s tax plan that he endorsed so wholeheartedly the wealthy will face a hefty tax increase, while the cut is to VAT, a regressive tax similar to our GST that hits the poor the hardest.
Essentially, it’s a more progressive tax system, with tax reductions for those on lower to middle incomes paid for by tax increases on the rich, and it’s being described in the media as a rejection of Blairism and a return to traditional Labour values - values that would fit in very well with those of the Labour Party here that Farrar has tried to paint as extreme and “almost alone in the world”.
The only question is, given his enthusiasm for Gordon Brown’s plan, will Farrar now be rejecting National’s regressive tax plan - where families on less than $44k pay more tax so the rich can pay less - in favour of a system that’s fairer and more progressive? Somehow, I doubt it.
Watching this new ad from the Australian Council of Trade Unions on employment law reform was kind of depressing - while the Aussies are looking forward to getting their work rights back under a new government, ours is drafting up legislation to take them away.
Time for a change eh? Guess we should have read the fine print.
There’s a lot of fuss about at the moment over Ayman al-Zawahri’s labelling of Barack Obama as the kind of “house negro” described by Malcolm X. It’s a rather absurd comparison, and in my view probably more a sign of Al-Qaeda’s increasing irrelevance than anything else.
But as it turns out, I was listening to that exact Malcolm X speech just a couple of nights ago. While I disagree with a lot of Malcolm X had to say, he sure knew how to say it. And, unlike with Obama’s vacuous rhetoric, Malcolm X left his audience in no doubt what he stood for. Here’s the video for some context:
Workers from Farmers stores in the Auckland area will take part in a ‘Skinny Santa’ parade down Queen Street today to protest against their low rates of pay and for a $15 minimum wage.
Most Farmers staff are only paid between $12 and $13.50 an hour and the company’s latest pay offer would give the majority of workers a pay increase of just 20 cents an hour or less.
The parade is being organised by the National Distribution Union and leaves QEII Square at 11.30 am. It will stop to deliver a petition to the Chairman of the Board of Farmers before finishing at Aotea Square.
At the end of the parade Green MP Keith Locke will talk to workers about the Green Party’s policy for a $15 minimum wage.
So if you’re in Auckland today make sure you pop on down and show your support.
What: Skinny Santa Parade
When: 11. 30 am today
Where: Queen Elizabeth Square to Aotea Square
Labour leader Phil Goff has announced his shadow cabinet. As announced already Cunliffe takes finance, Clark takes foreign affairs, Hughes and Chadwick are whips.
Annette King takes on social development in addition to the deputy leadership - a smart move, she’ll make mincemeat out of Paula Bennett. Ruth Dyson takes health, Chris Carter holds education and Clayton Cosgrove takes law and order (including police and corrections) as well as associate finance. Cosgrove’s a fighter so he’ll do well, but it does signal Labour will be clinging to its reactionary stance on law and order in opposition.
David Parker, in addition to shadow attorney-general, has two potentially big roles in ACC and electoral reform given National’s plan to reform these areas. Chauvel will take the fight on climate change as National and ACT try to weaken, delay and possibly even dump the ETS.
From a personal perspective I’m happy to see Trevor Mallard keep labour. Like many I was dubious at first but over the last year he’s more than proven his strength in that portfolio - something we’ll need as National and ACT start rolling back our rights at work.
Overall, a strong shadow cabinet with the strength and experience to come back in 2011. More encouraging still is the depth of talent further down the list - people like Jacinda Adern, Grant Robertson, Phil Twyford and Kelvin Davis. I’m sure we’ll see more of them very soon.
The National Party’s decision to resurrect the idea of a carbon tax is one of the most cynical plays I’ve seen in a while, coming from a party that opposed a carbon tax from day one.
In fact, for all their hollow attacks on Labour’s climate change record it’s been National that has campaigned harder than anyone to frustrate and delay any real action on climate change or force business to pay their own way. This latest about-face merely confirms that trend.
After all, who could forget National’s bitter opposition to the so-called “fart tax” in 2003? Here’s a series of photos from the raucous protest National held outside Parliament, tractors and all. Boy, they made a noise. Bill even advocated pulling out of Kyoto. John Key called it a hoax.
The fact is every move Labour tried to make on climate change was opposed by National, and every time Labour timidly backed down. It wasn’t until Al Gore’s film came along and opened up the political space for them to move that Labour finally introduced the Emissions Trading Scheme, which National claimed it supported when it became clear they needed to look serious on climate change to remain electable.
Now with the election won, National are saying they’ll not only weaken and delay the ETS, but they’re considering dumping the whole thing and starting from scratch with the previously hated carbon tax. No doubt they figure it’ll take another year or two to discuss and consult on, then another few years to phase in - by the time they have to worry about it actually coming into effect it’ll be 2015 and they can start the whole process again.
Let’s be clear. National and ACT don’t really want a carbon tax. Nor do they want an ETS. Many of them don’t even believe in climate change. They simply want to force you and me as taxpayers to continue to pay for business’ emissions. And they will frustrate and delay action for as long as it takes.
For voters who believed Key’s promise during the election campaign that he’d take climate change seriously and keep the ETS broadly as it is this represents a major betrayal. I doubt it’ll be his last.
The Wellingtonista has a cool post up with a breakdown of Left vs Right voting patterns in Wellington this election.
The map above shows party vote on a booth by booth level. The blue bloc represents National, Act and United Future, and the red bloc is Labour, Green and Progressive. NZ First and the Maori Party have been excluded. As for the breakdown:
It certainly seems that the Wellington CBD, Aro Valley and inner suburbs voted left, but it’s not all about hippies and the trendy urban liberal elite. The traditional Labour heartland of working class, Maori and immigrant neighbourhoods also stayed staunch, with several booths in Cannons Creek voting for the left by over 90%. The affluent neighbourhoods (Oriental Bay, Khandallah and Seatoun) kept to their blue-blood roots, but there’s also plenty of blue in the Hutt Valley and parts of Tawa: is that the “Joe the Plumber” vote? The only booth to vote more than 75% for the right was in Whitby.
It’s also interesting to see that while National is bragging about winning the party vote in Wellington Central, when you add the Greens’ 20% to Labour’s tally it’s solid red.
You can click on the image to see the full Google Map including Porirua.
While most of the big media are giving John Key his criticism-free honeymoon (”OMG! A solo mum! An Asian! And a gay chap!”) the good old ODT has seen through the centrist spin:
Prime Minister-elect John Key showed a clear intention yesterday to move the National-led government more to the Right of the political spectrum than had previously been signalled.
His new Cabinet, which will be sworn in tomorrow, shows a bias to the Right despite moves during the election campaign to position National as a centrist party.
Meanwhile, over at Pundit.co.nz Tim Watkins has some hard questions about National’s coalition deals that you won’t see being asked anywhere else.
It’ll be interesting to see whether the media’s honeymoon continues through Key’s first 100 days, when he’s hoping to put through some pretty radical reform on issues like tax, superannuation, climate change, the RMA and workers’ rights. It’s times like these that we need a critical media the most.
National’s cabinet has been announced. No major surprises, though Maurice Williamson has been dumped outside cabinet and unpopular newcomer Steven Joyce has taken Transport. Lockwood Smith is speaker.
More detail and analysis later, but for now the full list is over the break.
