Posts by Sue Bradford

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  Key charity advice adds insult to injury - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  John Key’s advice to those lucky enough to benefit from the April tax cuts to donate them to charity simply adds insult to injury for all those people currrently struggling just to get by. Most people earning less that $40,000 won’t get anything in April; high earners will get more back the more they earn, [...] read more
  March 19, 2009 1:41 pm - 128 Comments
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  ACC – Game on! - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  ACC has been hitting the headlines all week, starting with the sacking of Board chair Ross Wilson on Monday and culminating with a total shambles at the Select Committee financial review of ACC yesterday. Amidst all the verbiage it is a mission trying to work out the true state of ACC, whether there really is [...] read more
  March 13, 2009 10:00 am - 50 Comments
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  Lowest paid should not be expected to bear the cost of recession - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  Rumours are growing in Wellington that National will not increase the minimum wage this year. A Government announcement is expected on or before 9 February. Intimations that Kate Wilkinson, the new Minister of Labour, will recommend a nil minimum wage increase to Cabinet have hit the blogosphere despite her own Department supporting a rise from [...] read more
  January 27, 2009 1:57 pm - 105 Comments
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  New domestic violence bill kept secret from public - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  The Green Party has just received a copy of yet another bill which the new National Government is pushing through under urgency – the Domestic Violence (Enhancing Safety) Bill. We don’t think most members of the public or interested organisations have had a chance to see it yet so here it is. We only got [...] read more
  December 17, 2008 12:40 pm - 33 Comments
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  ‘RentExpress’ an express route to disaster - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  I am alarmed – to put it mildly – by this week’s news of a new company established with the sole purpose of making it easy for tenants to pay their rent by credit card. Based in Auckland’s K’Rd, ‘RentExpress’ charges tenants a ‘small’ fee for the privilege of paying their rent on tick. Landlords [...] read more
  December 3, 2008 11:03 am - 28 Comments
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  Children’s policies and the ever changeable Mr Key - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  John Key appears to be in volatile mode this week on two key matters relating to children – the s59 amendment and the future of the Families Commission. From the NZ Forum on the Family held in South Auckland on Monday, the NZ Herald reported: He [Key] said if National gained power it would consider [...] read more
  September 12, 2008 9:03 am - 39 Comments
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  Challenge on Auckland mental health services - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  On Tuesday this week I  used Question Time in the House to ask Health Minister David Cunliffe about Auckland Hospital’s psychiatric acute unit Te Whetu Tawera, as I had just heard that Selwyn Wallace, the man whose body was found floating under Wynyard Wharf in mid-August, had  been released from the unit just prior to his death.  [...] read more
  September 4, 2008 9:17 am - 9 Comments
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  Rugby legend strikes out on s59 - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  Today’s Herald reports former All Black coach Sir Brian Lochore as saying, ‘Yes, I smacked my children, but I’ve never hit them.  Yes, I smacked other peoples’ children, but I never hit them.’ In making these comments to a Parents Inc breakfast attended by more than 1000 fathers, Sir Brian is repeating the common fallacy [...] read more
  August 27, 2008 7:17 pm - 279 Comments
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  Sir Roger Re-emerges - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  Last Friday 8 August I had the interesting experience of sharing  a political platform with Sir Roger Douglas, nearly 20 years after our last encounter when I was part of an unemployed workers’ demonstration challenging what he and his Labour colleagues had done to the country. Like a ghost from Christmas past, Sir Roger re-emerged in the somewhat [...] read more
  August 11, 2008 2:45 pm - 54 Comments
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  No obscenities in the House – but OK for beneficiaries? - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  There was quite a scene in Parliament today when I dared to use the ‘f’ word not once but twice, when challenging the Government over the way some beneficiaries are treated by Work & Income staff. The Speaker and MPs from other parties took instant umbrage when in the course of general debate I quoted a [...] read more
  August 6, 2008 7:29 pm - 371 Comments