Gordon Campbell: On The 2013 Budget
Among Thursday’s main talking points:
We are apparently on track for a margin-of-error $75 million surplus, now in sight for 2014/15. But this sickly creature is hobbling out of the lab on the basis of all kinds of facilitative conjuring: such as trimming by $200 million the amount of new spending next time around.
With this strictly nominal surplus in sight, the 1984-ish justification for eternal austerity will have a news talisman: namely, getting Crown debt down to 20% of GDP by 2020. More>>
Budget Report, Lockup Audio & Images: Budget Day 2013 As always and especially after the managerial mishaps of the past few weeks and months, (e.g. Aaron Gilmore, the Mighty River Power share float, the GCSB mishaps) Budget Day 2013 was always going to be a pageant of reassurance... More>>
Budget 2013 Comment: Plain Sailing, But It's No America's Cup Pattrick Smellie: Compared to the last four budgets, this year's reflects an economy moving out of recession and into calmer waters... Yet if the fastest annual growth rate we can expect over the next two years is 3 percent - with the Christchurch rebuild in full swing - then you'd have to say New Zealand's underlying low-growth problem is far from fixed. More>>
Auckland Discord: Govt’s Power Hungry Housing Approach A Threat - Labour
Last week the Government said this, ‘The Government commits not to use any proposed or existing powers ... to override the council's planning and consenting processes’. But its housing Bill says this; ‘If an accord cannot be reached in an area of severe housing unaffordability, the Government can intervene by establishing special housing areas and issuing consents for developers’. More>>
Extending Protest Ban, Relaxing Permit Rules: Govt Abuses Urgency To Extend Anadarko Amendment
The Government is trying to pass legislation under urgency which would make the Anadarko Amendment – which limits protest at sea – apply to an additional 1.7 million square kilometres, the Green Party said today. More>>
News Alerts
RSS
News Alerts
Gordon Campbell:
On Stonewalling About The GCSB And MMP
This week has seen two examples of turkeys refusing to vote for an early Christmas – while busily denying the evident self interest involved. First, the GCSB is refusing to identify the 88 people it has illegally spied upon – as revealed in the Kitteridge report – and is donning the cloak of national security to justify its refusal to be transparent.
… More>>
Canterbury Quakes: Residential Advisory Service Going Live
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the Residential Advisory Service available from tomorrow to all property owners having difficulty with insurance and other repair or rebuilding challenges will play an important role in recovery. More>>
School Audit Costs: Another $2 Million From Taxpayers For Novopay
Taxpayers will fork out another $2 million for auditors to deal with the mountain of complications created by Novopay, Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins has revealed. More>>
Second Reading: Education Reform Bill Progresses
The bill setting up partnerships schools or charter schools as they are commonly known has progressed in Parliament… More>>
MMP: Rethink Urged On Reluctance To Progress Changes
The group that campaigned to keep MMP at the 2011 referendum is urging the Justice Minister to reconsider her stance on not implementing changes to the MMP system. Judith Collins has announced that the government would not be introducing legislation to make the modifications to MMP recommended by the Electoral Commission. More>>
Parliament Today: Gilmore Goes Peacefully
National MP Aaron Gilmore has said goodbye to Parliament saying it was the not place or time to attack those who he believes did him wrong. Aaron Gilmore sought and received leave to give a personal statement after he handed in his resignation as an MP. More>>
RSS
RSS
News Alerts
RSS
News Alerts
Scoop Business: MRP Senior Managers In Line For $1.2M In Bonus Shares
Senior executives of newly listed, state-controlled MightyRiverPower are in line for shares in lieu of cash bonuses worth $1.2 million for the year to June 30, one of the company’s first disclosures to the NZX and ASX as a listed company show. More>>
Scoop Business: NZ Houses Overvalued By 25%, IMF Says
New Zealand housing is already overvalued by about 25 percent and if it continues to rise may force the Reserve Bank to hike interest rates, according to the International Monetary Fund. More>>
Odometer Moments: CO2 Hits 400ppm
As the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit the symbolic milestone of 400 parts per million (ppm), youth climate change organisation Generation Zero says it is time for New Zealand to rise to the challenge of building a zero carbon future. More>>
Trust Planned: Shared Vision For Mackenzie Basin Welcomed
Conservation Minister Dr Nick Smith and Environment Minister Amy Adams today welcomed a report proposing a way to manage the contentious land intensification, water, landscape, and biodiversity issues in the Mackenzie Basin. More>>
Scoop Business: Fidelity Acquires Most Of Tower’s Life Business For Net $70M
Fidelity Life Assurance has acquired most of Towers life insurance business for a net amount of about $70 million, propelling the closely held company to the third-largest in the market. More>>
The Friendly Skies: Air NZ Pressures Regulator To Drop ‘Untenable’ Cartel Case
Air New Zealand, the national carrier slated for a partial sell-down by the government, has ramped up pressure on the Commerce Commission to drop its long-running pursuit of the airline’s alleged involvement in a global cartel on air cargo surcharges. More>>
Scoop Business: NZ Jobless Rate Falls To 6.2% On Record Employment Jump
New Zealand’s jobless rate fell to a three-year low in the first three month of the year as the employment rate grew for the first time in four quarters, fuelled by demand for workers in Canterbury. More>>
New SOP: No Patents For Computer Software
“Following consultation with the NZ software and IT sector, I am pleased to be further progressing the Patents Bill with this SOP. These changes ensure the Bill is consistent with the intention of the Commerce Select Committee recommendation that computer programs should not be patentable,” says Mr Foss. More>>
RSS
RSS
RSS
News Alerts
Ramzy Baroud: Israel, Hawking And The Pressing Question Of Boycott
It is an event “of cosmic proportions”, said one Palestinian academic, a befitting description regarding Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott an Israeli academic conference slated for next June. It was also a decisive moral call which was communicated on May 8 by Cambridge University, where Hawking is a professor. More>>
Binoy Kampmark: Angelina Jolie: Breasts, Celebrity And Choice
Popular culture, and celebrity, have come to this. A well-endowed personality, a figure of celluloid appeal, has to justify to the other-worldliness of an action personal and specific to the person in question. That a woman has to have a mastectomy brings with it pains within and without – not merely the challenges to her body but her family and friendship circle. In the case of celebrity... More>>
David Swanson: How Your Town Can Stop Drones
Local resolutions have helped advance many issues, including war opposition, when they've been passed in large numbers. When we passed a resolution in Charlottesville, Va., last year opposing any attack on Iran, I heard from numerous cities that wanted to do the same. As far as I know... More>>
John Spritzler: Uri Avnery's Specious Attack On The One State Solution
Uri Avnery may be the most sophisticated defender of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. He defends this ethnic cleansing while posing as a great friend and sympathizer of Palestinians, supposedly proven by his opposition to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and support for a "two state solution." More>>
Syed Atiq ul Hassan: Pakistan: The Election Watered Down On Change Lovers
Political observers, experts and senior analysts were predicting that the election 2013 in Pakistan will write new history in the country. The 11th May 2013 election will bring a new change in the corrupt political system of Pakistan. Those who were praying for the betterment of Pakistan were expecting that the political system which has been dominated by feudal cum politicians... More>>
Binoy Kampmark: Stopping The Drones: Pakistan-US Relations In The High Court
Alternate realities in the conflict Pakistan is waging against insurgents in its tribal areas tend to be regular affairs. Intrinsic to them is the contorted relationship the country has with the United States, three bits domestic violence to two bits political expediency. This produces unhealthy effects, if one is to see Pakistani sovereignty as a creature that has been abused and discredited during the course of its campaign against “terror”. More>>
Ramzy Baroud: The Pain Of Bangladesh: T-Shirts Made With Blood And Tears
As they spoke to a BBC correspondent in their run-down room which they call home in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a man sobbed as his 12-year-old daughter sat close to him. His face, wrinkled before its time, was a picture of utter anguish. It could only be understood by a parent whose child was dying under giant slabs of concrete where nothing could be done. More>>
David Swanson: Death Penalty Dying Out
Most of the world's governments no longer use the death penalty. Among wealthy nations there is one exception remaining. The United States is among the top five killers in the world. Also in the top five: the recently "liberated" Iraq. But most of the United States' 50 states no longer use the death penalty. More>>
Bangladesh: New Safety Agreement between Garment Industry and Workers
The United Nations labour agency today welcomed an agreement signed by international fashion brands and retailers, and trade unions to prevent workplace disasters. “The need for urgent improvement in workplace safety requires the industry to work together to implement a scalable and transparent plan of action... More>>
Pakistan: UN Secretary-General Hails Successful Elections In Pakistan
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has congratulated the Government and people of Pakistan on the successful conduct of national and provincial elections, hailing the polls, for which millions of voters turned out, as a major democratic step. More>>
United States: Monsanto Wins U.S. Supreme Court Case Over GM Soybean
Agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto won a patent infringement claim in the U.S. Supreme Court on 13 May 2013 against an Indiana farmer who planted genetically modified soybean seeds in violation of his agreement with Missouri-based multinational. More>>
Egypt: Risks Drifting Further Away From Human Rights Ideals
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday urged the Egyptian Government to take steps to ensure that the current version of a draft law on civil society organizations is laid open to careful examination by Egyptian and international human rights experts, and, based on their advice, is brought into line with international standards, before it is adopted by the Shura Council. More>>
Fiji Military Government Unnerved By Union Info Campaign
Fiji's Military rulers have reacted angrily to an international union campaign to raise awareness over the stripping away of workers' rights in the Pacific nation. More>>
West Papua: U.S. Must Condemn Indonesian Attacks On Papua Protesters
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) strongly urge the U.S. government to condemn the unwarranted assault by Indonesian government security forces on peaceful May 1 demonstrations in West Papua. They called for U.S. security assistance to be curtailed... More>>
Syria: 'No Conclusive Findings' On Use Of Chemical Weapons
With its investigation continuing into violations of human rights in Syria, an independent United Nations panel today said it has “no conclusive findings” regarding the use of chemical weapons by any of the parties to the conflict in the country. More>>
Save the Children: DR Congo World’s Toughest Place To Be A Mother
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the toughest place in the world to be a mother – while Finland is the best – according to Save the Children’s State of the World’s Mothers report for 2013. More>>
RSS
RSS
News Alerts
Pink Shirt Day: Bullying - Where's The Power?
People in schools and workplaces will think they’re seeing through rose-coloured glasses on May 17 as New Zealanders join together to show solidarity and raise awareness around bullying by wearing pink and celebrating Pink Shirt Day. More>>
Triennial: NZ's Biggest Contemporary Visual Arts Festival Opens
On 10 May Auckland’s art scene bursts to life for the opening of the 5th Auckland Triennial, New Zealand’s largest contemporary visual art festival. More>>
Werewolf: Les Blank - The Quiet American
Gordon Campbell: His unblinking quietness could be intimidating, yet it made him usefully invisible. It was sometimes hard to tell if Blank’s subjects consciously developed a tremendous amount of trust in him, or whether they simply forgot he was there. More>>
Sounds: New Zealand Music Month 2013
It's the first day of May – that means NZ Music Month 2013 begins. Thirty-one days of music across our clubs, libraries, airwaves, screens of all sizes, schools, parks, and theaters starts today. More>>
Comedy Festival: All-Star Gorilla
In All-Star Gorilla a motley crew of WIT's seasoned veterans (and the occasional piece of up-and-coming cannon fodder) will take turns directing improvised scenes, stories, sagas or songs – silly or serious – in a bid to win audience approval (and bananas). More>>
Cleanup: Bay Of Plenty Flooding - Public Health Advice
There was extensive surface flooding across the coastal Bay of Plenty over the weekend. “We can assume that all flood water is potentially contaminated with farm run-off, faecal matter from feral and domestic animals, and, in some cases, sewage,” says Medical Officer of Health, Dr Phil Shoemack. More>>
RSS
Podcast