Category: politics

Liar, liar, pants on fire! English just makes up a new reason why we sold our electricity companies

With the Paris Climate Change Conference beginning today and the public memorial service for Jonah Lomu, you may have missed the news that “tens of thousands” of investors who bought shares in the sell off of Genesis and Meridian Energy in 2013/14 have in turn sold off those shares which has seen an increase in,… Read More Liar, liar, pants on fire! English just makes up a new reason why we sold our electricity companies

grahamcameron

My (over-priced) house, my castle? Tauranga’s catching Auckland’s housing fever

Tauranga City Council has just completed its latest housing valuations from which it will determine the rates we pay for the next few years. Our personal house and property value jumped a massive 22 percent from the previous valuation. Only 28 percent of that increase was improvements to the house; the majority can really only… Read More My (over-priced) house, my castle? Tauranga’s catching Auckland’s housing fever

grahamcameron

Part II: A quick critique of the Understanding Whānau-centred Approaches report

Having done the GP comparison report, I thought I’d also have a look at Understanding whānau-centred approaches: Analysis of Phase One Whānau Ora research and monitoring results. Te Ururoa and Winston have been at loggerheads over what we’ve actually learnt from this report. It says nothing about where the money has gone. But what it… Read More Part II: A quick critique of the Understanding Whānau-centred Approaches report

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The State cannot understand whānau; the State cannot restore whānau

“There are close connections between the structure of the family and the structure of the nation.” – Frantz Fanon, Black Skins, White Masks pp 141. I was struck still for a moment when I read these words. I have been involved with supporting whānau in a myriad of settings over 15 years as a professional… Read More The State cannot understand whānau; the State cannot restore whānau

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Monsters amongst us: inhumane commentators damn us all in their refugee crisis response

[Trigger warning: the photos of Alyan Kurdi’s body and Laith Majid with his children are in this blog] This is not a blog about Alyan Kurdi. But it is a blog about who we allow to speak to us about Alyan Kurdi. The public outpouring of grief and the demand for change in the pathetic… Read More Monsters amongst us: inhumane commentators damn us all in their refugee crisis response

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“These are all instances of time”: NZTA’s 8,500 speeding drivers & their philosophy of speeding

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has a speeding problem. After an OIA by the NZ Herald, it has been reported that in nine months there have been 8,500 instances of speeding of at least 10km above the speed limit. Geoff Dangerfield, Chief Executive of NZTA, was asked for an explanation by Susie Ferguson on… Read More “These are all instances of time”: NZTA’s 8,500 speeding drivers & their philosophy of speeding

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Revenge of the Miffed: why Māori leaders are conspiring to end Native Affairs

About sixteen years ago in Wellington my wife and I were breakfasting with my parents and their friends. They had come to visit us and shouted us breakfast at their hotel. We had an inadvisable breakfast conversation about politics, and my Dad laughingly declared that when we grew up, we’d vote National. We were in… Read More Revenge of the Miffed: why Māori leaders are conspiring to end Native Affairs

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A home is not an asset: the flawed belief of the property investor in selling our social housing

If the admiring New Zealand Herald coverage given to Brandon Lipman’s ascension to his own property investment portfolio is anything to go by, the New Zealand mythology of the right to home ownership, the quarter acre section, has been decisively dethroned. The interregnum, a period of disquiet and uncertainty about the prospects for the middle… Read More A home is not an asset: the flawed belief of the property investor in selling our social housing

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