Archive for November, 2010

  • frog

    The banning of “police pursuits” - by frog



    By September this year, 16 people had died in 11 fatal police pursuits – already the worst year on record. The Police have come up with a novel solution to such a tragic loss of life – banning “police pursuits”. They are not banning the actual high speed chases though. read more
    November 15, 2010 11:20 am - 72 Comments
  • Russel Norman

    Parliamentary scrutiny compromised by Nats use of urgency - by Russel Norman



    A while ago, I posted about this government’s use of urgency to force legislation through parliament. The problem with urgency is that it often means that laws don’t receive the kind of scrutiny they should. So it means you get laws with mistakes and laws that do bad things without ever giving the people a chance [...] read more
    November 14, 2010 10:09 pm - 5 Comments
  • frog

    Some Sunday levity - by frog



    If you watch just a single 6 minute video about current financial events this decade – make it this one. It’s funny, quirky and pitched at a level that most people can get into. The computer-y voices work great most of the time. Take it as seriously as you wish. But wait there’s more! A [...] read more
    November 14, 2010 2:57 pm - 3 Comments
  • frog

    Fear and loathing in the agrarian sector: A rural perspective on fire@will - by frog



    This family not only lost their jobs under the fire at will legislation but have been, hopefully only temporarily, split up by it: Their “crime”, apparently, was to stick up for another worker who was a recent immigrant, and was being victimised in a racist manner by the employer. This family is now off off [...] read more
    November 13, 2010 8:53 pm - 30 Comments
  • frog

    MP expenses: Another one bites the dust - by frog



    Metiria Turei went in to bat on the issue of MP expenses today, following the resignation of Ethnic Affairs and Women’s Affairs Minister Pansy Wong. The current arrangements encourage rorting by maximising so-called “entitlements”. As Metiria says, it is time for an independent review. read more
    November 12, 2010 7:05 pm - 10 Comments
  • Keith Locke

    Right to silence cancelled - by Keith Locke



    It’s great that the NZ Herald, in an editorial this morning , recognises that “New Zealanders stand to lose some hard-won freedoms under a bill [the Search and Surveillance Bill] moving largely under the radar through Parliament.” Decoding that sentence, it means we should have taken the Greens and community organisations more seriously when they [...] read more
    November 12, 2010 2:44 pm - 4 Comments
  • frog

    You’re using too much sauce and aioli. You’re fired! - by frog



    As the Government presses on with the ACT Party’s policy of extending its fire at will law to all employees in their first 90 days on the job, the NZ Council of Trade Unions are highlighting more instances of employer abuse of the existing fire at will law. Here’s Aaron Greave, a Timaru chef who [...] read more
    November 12, 2010 10:57 am - 46 Comments
  • frog

    Alcohol Bill is a weak drink - by frog



    Sue Kedgley just delivered the Green Party’s first reading speech about the Alcohol Reform Bill (ARB). The final bill glosses over a lot of the essential recommendations from the Law Commission’s report. It fails to address the main causes of alcohol related harm: price, saturation advertising and marketing, and decreasing the blood alcohol limit to [...] read more
    November 11, 2010 5:50 pm - 1 Comment
  • Catherine Delahunty

    Just when you thought girls could do anything - by Catherine Delahunty



    The front page of today’s Dominion Post carries the story of a Newlands college pupil who was told she “looked like a slut” for wearing her school skirt short by her school dean. The verbal apology that was given notwithstanding, this incident is very disturbing. As a former girl who formerly wore very short skirts [...] read more
    November 11, 2010 3:45 pm - 122 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    No Minister, it’s not getting better for women - by Catherine Delahunty



    On Tuesday I asked the Minister of Women’s Affairs whether she was happy with the progress towards her goals of getting more women into leadership positions and closing the gender pay gap. She had to dance around a bit because no one could be happy with the evidence as presented in the 2010 Census of [...] read more
    November 11, 2010 2:09 pm - 4 Comments
  • frog

    General debate, November 11, 2010 - by frog



    A friendly reminder to our regular commenters to log in before commenting. It gets a bit tiresome having to clear lots of good comments in the moderation queue, and surely you like them to appear when you post them rather than when I get around to clearing them. read more
    November 11, 2010 8:28 am - 38 Comments
  • David Clendon

    ‘Rethinking’ – solutions to mass imprisonment. - by David Clendon



    Last night I spent Parliament’s dinner break at the launch of a new website, an initiative of the Robson Hanan Trust led by Kim Workman. To quote from the introduction on the site: “Rethinking Crime and Punishment” is a strategic initiative to increase public debate about the use of prison and alternative forms of punishment in [...] read more
    November 10, 2010 5:41 pm - 42 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Tonight: taking the tea and bikkies out of public meetings - by Gareth Hughes



    I love new technology and tonight I’m hosting a virtual public meeting. I’ve teamed up with NZUSA Co-President David Do to discuss online the Government’s significant changes to the tertiary education sector. It’s a bit of an experiment but since the Government’s policies are making tertiary education less accessible, affordable and sometimes down-right impossible, along [...] read more
    November 10, 2010 5:00 pm - 4 Comments
  • David Clendon

    Who’s slowing Auckland down? - by David Clendon



    The skirmish that has broken out between Mike Lee and Steven Joyce could well herald the opening of an all out war. Len Brown came into office on a platform (among other things) of advocating strongly for public transport investment, with a key project being the CDB rail loop to open up the ‘dead end’ that is Britomart, which will reduce the congestion in the inner city area that imposes significant cost on businesses as well as compromising the ability... read more
    November 10, 2010 3:23 pm - 33 Comments
  • Kennedy Graham

    Judges pecuniary interests bill gets an early debut - by Kennedy Graham



    My third member’s bill – the Register of Pecuniary Interest of Judges Bill – got an unexpected early debut yesterday. An Urgent Debate requested by Labour was granted on the resignation of Judge Bill Wilson which took effect last Friday.  Labour had always concentrated its fire on the alleged shortcomings of Attorney-General Chris Finlayson, and [...] read more
    November 10, 2010 12:46 pm - 5 Comments
  • Kevin Hague

    Sweet sweet Movember reign - by Kevin Hague



    It seems other MPs are running scared from my Movember challenge to them. One week in and I don’t detect any new facial hair from other MPs (caveat here: it’s possible that some efforts just aren’t visible yet). By my reckoning this makes me the unopposed champion in the House (though not necessarily amongst my [...] read more
    November 10, 2010 8:05 am - 4 Comments
  • Russel Norman

    Coleman reads wrong speech - by Russel Norman



    The Govt introduced a new bill tonight — Taxation (International Investment & Remedial Matters) Bill. Unfortunately, Jonathan Coleman, as the Minister introducing the bill, was given the speech notes for a different tax bill – the Taxation (International Taxation and Life Assurance and Remedial Matters) Bill. He gave this speech from 2008. Now we all make [...] read more
    November 9, 2010 9:13 pm - 19 Comments
  • Russel Norman

    Flight tax vs oil price - by Russel Norman



    I have posted earlier about the PM’s short sightedness when it comes to considering the potential impacts of oil price increases on tourism, versus his loud complaining about the potential impacts of flight taxes being imposed by the UK govt. But I wondered if it was possible to quantify the comparison between the departure tax [...] read more
    November 9, 2010 7:29 pm - 41 Comments
  • frog

    Ghost of Melissa Lee haunts Mana by-election - by frog



    Public meetings on the Kapiti expressway have been postponed until after the Mana by-election, but Stephen Joyce had nothing to do with it…honest. It is apparently pure coincidence that the NZTA announced the postponement of the public consultation process on 2nd November, the same day that Kapiti residents protested against the expressway outside the campaign [...] read more
    November 9, 2010 4:24 pm - 2 Comments
  • frog

    Drinkin’ yourself to death - by frog



    Alcohol is a pretty cheap commodity in New Zealand. This video shows some of the best ways you can try and drink yourself to death and offers a remedy This of course brings up the question: Why is John Key’s Government not even considering raising the tax on alcohol? Their own advice admits it is [...] read more
    November 9, 2010 3:54 pm - 14 Comments
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