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In the last 12 months we have had two stories in the news about promising professional rugby players whose careers have been disrupted or curtailed due to childhood illnesses associated with poverty in New Zealand: Robbie Fruean (Crusaders) and Buxton Popoali’I (Highlanders). Sa

Whether the departure of Shane Jones was a clever plot by National or the result of a man who felt the need to move on, the timing appears designed to cause the most harm to the Labour Party. According to the slant of the media, the move is the death blow for Labour’s election chances

They are wasted in the sense that we have so many people regularly underutilised and not allowed to fulfil their potential. Not in in the sense popularised by the current National Government of being permanently under the influence of substances that preclude them from work. The histo

It is vital that there is balance in the relationships between employers, shareholders and employees; between retailers and wholesalers; between companies and customers; and between lobbyists and the Governments. As soon as one party becomes too strong then the economy as a whole suff

Disenfranchised During the Labour leader election campaigns we regularly heard about the ‘800,000 voters who didn’t vote’. That Labour’s job was not to appeal to the disenchanted in National or to steal voters from its natural allies, the Green Party, but to inspire those who felt dis

Working for Families (‘WFF’) is failing. It is failing its recipients, their employers, the Government, and the poor who should be receiving it, but aren’t. Don’t get me wrong, WFF is desperately needed at the moment, and contributed to reductions in child poverty, but it was the wron

When the Treasury persuaded Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson to back their respective neo-liberal ‘briefings to incoming government’ reports, they included the ideas that education and health should be run like businesses. Education Since 1984 NZ education has deteriorated. Each neo-

The Green Party’s announcement of a policy to link MP’s pay to the median income in New Zealand ‘to be a part of the solution to inequality’ has provided reactions that show how deep seated inequality is now ingrained. Are MPs representatives or CEOs of their electorates? The cu

The neo-liberal culture of greed has become so ingrained in New Zealand society that left of centre politicians fear to suggest policies that would reduce the wealth or income gap between our richest and poorest citizens or, heaven forbid, ease the hardship of our poorest children for

We regularly hear our Government’s policy for poverty and its related consequences as using an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. I would like to take the analogy a little further. Seismic shift As John Key recently stated, quoting from renowned economist Brian Easton’s work, the l