Archive for May, 2012
Thursday, May 31st, 2012
Over the course of the past week, the news bulletins have featured a series of nightmare events – the fire in Doha, the murdered hitchhiker in Waimate and the latest round of carnage in Syria. Of them all, the deaths of the New Zealander triplets in the Doha shopping mall ...
Posted in Articles | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012
It may be called “National” Superannuation, but the relationship between the National Party and retirement income has rarely been a happy one, over the last three decades. In the mid 1970s, Robert Muldoon torpedoed the Kirk government's compulsory superannuation savings scheme which, had it lasted, would be worth in the ...
Posted in Articles | 6 Comments »
Monday, May 28th, 2012
Every couple of years, a disturbing report is released into the standards of care for the elderly in this country. At quick count we had the report by Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson to the incoming government in 2008, the Auditor-General’s damning report in 2009 into the auditing of ...
Posted in Articles | 4 Comments »
Friday, May 25th, 2012
It wasn’t as if expectations were sky high, exactly. Chances are, it was always more likely that we’d be seeing Bigfoot rampage through the Beehive lock-up than catch a glimpse of a credible growth agenda from this government. Finance Minister Bill English did not disappoint on that score. Ever the ...
Posted in Articles | 7 Comments »
Thursday, May 24th, 2012
The decision to stand down Labour MP Shane Jones pending the Auditor-General’s inquiry into his 2008 decision – when Jones was associate Immigration Minister – to grant residency to Chinese businessman William Yan is pretty much a model of how these kind of accusations should be handled, and it stands ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012
A week can, in fact, be a short time in politics - and the beginning of Budget week was probably as good a time as any for the Greens to try and tackle head on the government’s credibility as a competent steward of the economy. Nominally, the BERL report released ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 18th, 2012
Evidently, Breakfast TV is now to be considered an official arm of government. It happened like this: on 10 May, the government formally announced its plans to change the rules about citizens or residents being able to bring their parents to New Zealand. Submissions on the process would close five ...
Posted in Articles | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
Clearly, the government now thinks the public mood in this recessionary climate is so hostile to beneficiaries that it can afford to indulge its own worst impulses towards them. There are so many outrageous aspects to the appointment of Paula Rebstock and a raft of like-minded business and insurance types ...
Posted in Articles | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
It would be nice to think that the basis for yesterday’s decision to raise prescription charges wasn’t just “ We haven’t lifted them for 20 years” and/or that it didn’t sound like much of a price rise if like Health Minister Tony Ryall or Prime Minister John Key, you were ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 11th, 2012
The global financial system seems to be once again (sort of) in crisis mode. Greece is heading for fresh elections and to (maybe) an eventual exit from the euro, France’s new leader is trying to add some face-saving growth policies to the package of austerity measures co-authored by his predecessor ...
Posted in Articles | 7 Comments »
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