Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Since becoming Children’s Commissioner, Andrew Becroft’s strong left leanings have become increasingly apparent. In this interview he gets right into blaming Rogernomics and neoliberalism for child poverty. But this is the soundbite I heard: Becroft says the present Government has done more than
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com When I get annoyed with National for taking positions I disagree with it makes it harder to support their MPs. But Chris Bishop has been a highly visible and effective local MP and this seals the deal for me: Hutt South MP Chris Bishop helped
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com According to John Tamihere, who has regrettably in my view taken the Maori Party down a full-blown victimhood track: Maori make up 60% of the prison population in New Zealand Women’s’ Prisons alone. “We are the most incarcerated indigenous population in the world. This
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Michelle Duff claims in an ‘analysis’ for “trustworthy, accurate and reliable” Stuff: 90 per cent of those who have lost their jobs post-Covid are women Yesterday I quoted another source that debunked the number. The shocking revelation – that of the 11,000 fewer people in
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com National’s ‘subsequent child’ policy said a woman who has another baby on welfare would still have work obligations when that child turns one. It wasn’t discouraging the habit though because seven years after implementation (in 2019) 6,000 babies were still being born
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Our Prime Minister entered parliament vowing to make New Zealand, “…the best place in the world to raise children.” Even before COVID she had over two years to advance this goal. She said she devised a plan to reduce child poverty on a flatmate’s
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Ten days ago I wrote a post entitled “The Young Don’t Vote” Here are the latest enrollment stats: And here are the actual voting percentages in 2017: In raw numbers, there are an estimated 450,500 18-24 year-olds with 277,151 or 61.5%
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com As the election looms, two minor parties, both likely to feature in the next parliament – ACT and the Greens – couldn’t be further apart in their tenets regarding welfare and child well-being. Perhaps the single-most underrated and under-reported issue in New Zealand is the practice
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Judith Collins has been in parliament for a long time and I have blogged about her for the duration. Not extensively but when I agreed or disagreed with her comments. She was, after all, National’s spokesperson on Social Development from 2005-08. She once made
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Who knows what goes on in the National Party? Like most of the public I can do no more than speculate on the veracity of the reasons Todd Muller has given for resigning this morning. But I can limit my response to that perspective. Todd
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Extension of the government’s “It’s Not OK” anti-violence strategy was released yesterday. The campaign has run since 2007 but it is now turning it focus wholly on “gendered intimate partner violence.” Men as perpetrators. Some extracts: The campaign has re-set its strategic intent,
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Peter Williams on Magic Talk picked up on my report and read it. Invited onto his programme at 9.30 Wednesday morning, I listened from the top of the hour wondering what there would be left for me to say! He quoted from it extensively
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com According to Agnes Loheni, National List MP, after another domestic murder of a female by a male: “If you are a man stand up for the mums, the wives, the daughters, the grand-daughters in your lives and demand accountability of yourselves,” she said. “I challenge
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com “100 reasons to vote Labour” just arrived in my email inbox. Here’s number 30: Here’s number 99: It really should be titled, “100 99 reasons you are going to be paying a shitload of tax in the coming decades.”
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Social Security benefits were legislated in 1938. The Labour government harnessed the collective financial power of all workers to provide for those who fell on hard times through no fault of their own (quite removed from today’s premise where own-fault is ignored). Participation was
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Simplicity of idea is always desirable. But the idea still has to make sense. A professor reported on RNZ says: “I think the pandemic spells the end of the neoliberal era and I think the idea that government should be small and inactive and everything
