Archive for December, 2009
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Gordon Campbell on the government’s plans for welfare reform
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At a time of the year when family care and social generosity should be on everyone’s mind, we find Finance Minister Bill English announcing the government’s intention to get tougher on welfare in 2010. The details are still ...
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Friday, December 18th, 2009
Peter Jackson is expected to deliver his ministerial review on the New Zealand Film Commission to Arts Minister Chris Finlayson just before Christmas, and its contents will be publically released soon after Finlayson returns to work on 17 January.
In the meantime, the most recent pointers we have on Jackson’s thinking ...
Posted in Articles | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Any future built on Treasury forecasts is on shaky ground, but lets assume the relative optimism expressed by Treasury in yesterday’s half yearly fiscal update is well founded. Should Finance Minister Bill English respond by keeping the screws on government spending – and by spending we mean not only on ...
Posted in Articles | 6 Comments »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Education Minister Anne Tolley is painting herself into a dangerous corner by threatening to sack the boards of trustees at any primary schools still refusing in February to implement the national standards. Tolley seems hellbent on treating the issue as one of disobedience of the law, which is a needlessly ...
Posted in Articles | 5 Comments »
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Click for big version
Cartoon by Malcolm Evans.
For more, see Copenhagen: Cartoon Comment from Malcolm Evans
So, Barack Obama was in Oslo yesterday to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize and cheque, only nine days after expanding the war in Afghanistan. No contradiction there since – as Juan Cole has pointed ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell: Obama’s Peace Prize (+ Al Quaeda)
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
On current indications the Buckle Tax review will provide the final draft of their recommendations to the government just before Christmas – to enable it to digest the content – and then release the document to the public during the third week of January.
While speculation about the report’s likely findings ...
Posted in Articles | 12 Comments »
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Media coverage of the battle against P has tended to focus on the role of Maori gangs in the P trade. Yet most of the intercepts of the pseudoephedrine precursor to P that were being touted by John Key at his press conference yesterday originated from China – which suggests ...
Posted in Articles | 9 Comments »
Friday, December 4th, 2009
In any other industry, the taxpayer/ratepayer subsidies being offered to the professional rugby industry for its World Cup event in 2011 would be being slagged off as government handouts.
Surely, no other business gets its premises built and budgeted losses covered quite so readily by government, not to mention the ...
Posted in Articles | 2 Comments »
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