Posts by Andre
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@Matthew: Re "A government commitment to ‘buy local’". If limited as you suggest that would be fine. Maybe they should define their policy a bit more...
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@Marcus Turner: my initial post was in response to George Darroch's asking if Labour was undemocratic and a resulting convo with a request to shift the thread to this page: http://publicaddress.net/system/topic/2923/?i=25#replies
Then I was attacked by an angry Green party member. Sorry for interrupting your train of thought... -
I have to say that there are a huge number of environmental, race etc policies of the Greens that I have not included that I agree with that will still cost money but make a lot of sense... like all of the proposed changes to the fishing industry for example. It took hours to wade through it all but feel free to do so yourselves at http://www.greens.org.nz/policy2
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I still think making buying locally compulsory will end up costing a lot more.
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@Matthew: Stagflation may be more correct but either way it's not business as usual...
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I think that employers take more risks than employees and should originally be given more control over their business decision making than employees. Number 14 is actually okay… I probably just copied it as part of a stream. Temporary workers are taken on because of the nature of the industries involved or often because the companies doing the hiring literally can’t afford a longer-term arrangement. I don’t agree with 90-day probation – but this policy doesn’t seem to cover that.
If it costs a lot more to buy local then the government should buy overseas. Many of our local products are made for niche markets and are therefore more expensive than mass produced imported versions. Like buying 42 Below instead of Kristov (before their sale to Barcardi of course but you get my drift hopefully).
Well on second thoughts I think there is always going to be an inequality of power between employers and employees no matter how much we legislate against it... one of these parties will always own the business and the other won't. Why not just bring back compulsory union membership and get it over and done with to achieve that? -
Chris Trotter - Dim Post had a good article on him recently... http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/chris-trotter-dislikes-milk-and-apples/
A lot of the policies I've posted are worthy - but just expensive in the middle of a depression. -
Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Worik Stanton,
@Worik – sorry it’s taken a while to respond. And apologies for the long post. I agree with most of the policies of the Green party, but also think that to implement many of them will result in prices going up and will cost a lot. Here is a list of 68 policies that could be delayed because we are suffering the costs of a natural disaster in the middle of a depression (I also wish we’d fess up to that fact instead of blindly calling it a “double-dip recession") . I also have some ideas about ways to fund these changes – none of which I disagree with philosophically – such as the government growing and making money on the sale of marijuana if you are going to legalise it anyway, but it all comes down to a question of what will win you votes at this stage. I also think that you have a lot of policies that support women, families and minorities but none that support men – such as addressing the fact that girls get better marks than boys in our education system and end up more qualified than them for example.
We’re in financial schtuck – shouldn’t we spend the Tobin tax here for example? Many of the Greens policies make sense long-term but have high short-term costs.1. Protect business from outright competition with products and services from countries with poor human and worker rights records and with poor environmental practices
2. Support mandatory certification of imported goods to show that they comply with minimum New Zealand environmental, safety and health standards
3. Support research and development of new energy systems, transport systems, housing materials, organic production, information systems and technology
4. Promote the target of half of New Zealand’s production becoming certified organic by 2020.
5. Short-term loans and guarantees to producers making the switch to organics.
6. Redirect funding for research into the development of organic systems, design and practice.
7. Promote and encourage the establishment of educational opportunities in organic production.
8. Limit urban sprawl to prevent loss of prime agricultural land
9. Properly funding environmental and Treaty education
10. Invest in preventative health care, to keep people well rather than wait till they are sick
11. Improve funding and support delivered through the Ministry of Economic Development by focusing on clustering that increases energy efficiency and use of transport hubs
12. Tobin tax – We would join the group of countries working to agree on a tax on international currency movements, to set up a fund to provide capital for poor countries to improve their social and environmental wellbeing. This would discourage currency speculation without being high enough to impede genuine trade.
13. Workers, employers and unions all involved in decision-making about the workplace.
14. Workplace democracy and collective organisation are essential to address the inherent potential for inequality of power between employers and employees.
15. Improve rights and protection for casual, seasonal, fixed term and temporary workers.
16. Reduce the introduction of unwanted exotic species (eg by more public education, six-sided inspection of cargo containers, more staff training and technology.)
17. A government commitment to ‘buy local’.
18. Establish a high-level commission into the future of work.
19. Use a combination of incentives and regulation to ensure that the negative environmental effects of E-Waste and IT products are internalised by the industry.
20. Set a timetable for the transition to mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
21. Promote the development and use of energy efficient IT products.
22. Fund organisations that collect, process; reuse and resell used IT products.
23. Ensure that E-Waste is not exported to regimes with weaker environmental and occupational standards than our own
24. The Green Party will change the funding model for research so that multi-disciplinary environmental and social issue projects are emphasised.
25. Develop fuel efficiency standards for all motor vehicles entering New Zealand
26. Make emissions testing part of warrant of fitness inspections.
27. Encourage integrated land-use planning; help communities move away from car-orientated ‘big-box’ retailing, towards ‘urban village’ models of development.
28. Introducing a carbon charge on fossil fuels, and using the revenue to reduce income tax on the bottom band, for everyone.
29. Require an urgent independent review of Transpower’s planned grid upgrade with a view to developing alternatives that have less impact on the environment and better facilitate a sustainable energy system.
30. Require energy retailers to buy or generate a proportion of their sales from renewable resources.
31. Shift the West Coast economy away from coal mining.
32. Fund an intensive programme of energy efficiency, renewable energy and transport programmes.
33. Assist low income and vulnerable sectors of society to adjust to the resulting changes in the economy.
34. Specific Policy Points – Conservation on Land:
35. Oppose carve up of DoC
36. Increase funding to restore capacity in science, education and field work
37. Support advocacy role in RMA cases
38. Increase funding for ground-based pest control
39. Increase funding for conservation on private land, eg Nature Heritage Fund
40. Tighten biosecurity measures
41. Public Access
42. ‘Access Commissioner’ to: negotiate, advise, report and develop code of conduct
43. Financial support for landowners who need signs and fencing
44. Boost Nature Heritage Fund to be able to purchase more leases
45. Expand Greens’ environmental legal aid fund established in ‘Budget 2000’
46. Establish a contestable fund to support sustainable land management practices on farms, paid for by a levy on nitrogen and phosphate fertiliser matched by government funding.
47. Prohibit the import of vehicles older than 7 years unless they can demonstrate they meet strict emissions standards
48. Increase funding and capacity in colleges of education and schools so that environmental education can be delivered in all schools, and develop cross-curricula achievement standards
49. Support and fund research into the development of non-toxic alternatives to toxic substances.
50. Investigate a national levy on all waste disposed of in landfills;
51. Increase the level of funding to DoC, MfE and MAF for pest control
52. Ensure that the Q E II Trust and Nga Whenua Rahui are adequately resourced
53. Increase incentives for private landowners with indigenous forest on their property to protect, maintain and expand their forests.54. Support Research & Development of benefit to the forestry industry, including:
55. Projects on the use of wood and wood waste as an energy source;
56. Promoting wood as an alternative to energy intensive building products; and
57. Funding research and development into converting lignin and cellulose from wood into fuels, chemical feedstock and other products to replace oil and coal derived materials.
58. Extend economic incentives currently offered only to large overseas film productions to locally written and produced smaller budget films.
59. ecognise the value of community arts and community arts organisations through Creative Communities funding.
60. Provide funding for Arts Education officers (from the Ministry of Education) to support the Arts Education strategy and ensure it’s accessibility and implementation.
61. Re-launch the Authors’ Fund under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.
62. Establish a Literature Commission to act as a champion for New Zealand writing and writers, examine issues such as copyright and digital rights and examine ways of raising remuneration for writers.
63. Establish a Commission of Inquiry into the New Zealand education system.
64. Increase the Operations Grant by 10%.
65. Increase funding levels so that there are adequate resources in te reo for kura, kohanga reo, and other full immersion and bilingual learners.
66. Increase the number of places and scholarships available for the training of Māori teachers and teachers in te reo.
67. Increase the number of Māori advisers and resource teachers.
68. Legal aid available for community organisations in matters of public interest, including Environment Court proceedings.The words “increase”, “promote” or “fund” indicate new or increased spending – that’s a lot of dosh to come up with…
Implementing stricter regimes on importing and manufacturing food and products will result in higher prices.
As I mentioned earlier, the Green party is the only one that would currently attract my vote and that means that a lot of left-wingers who are less concerned with environmental, feminist and race issues are left disenfranchised currently. -
There is no political alternative to Labour and National currently - except for the Greens and unfortunately many of their utopian policies might just sink the economy before we taste nirvana. The Greens are of course the only party to have the nous to posit a capital gains tax which helped them reach 38% support in a recent poll at www.interest.co.nz. for example.
Many left-wingers see a Hone Harawira-allied party as a potential avenue to gain at least some seats but many potential supporters wouldn't vote for him (me for one). A Matt McCarten and Sue Bradford-lead party would be okay. In reality though we need Russell to stand for PM. He needs a job next year and it would be lovely to watch National's decision to dump Media7 really bite them in the backside! -
Please feel free to join us at 10am tomorrow on Grafton Bridge protesting against Executions of political prisoners in Iran. They arrested 200 more on Tuesday (and 1500 on February 14th) and are charging many with sedition – punishable by execution. 117 political prisoners are already on death row, many sentenced to die by stoning. We’ll be attempting to form a human chain across the bridge as part of a worldwide protest taking place in ten cities. I hope you can come along. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1103/S00116/worldwide-event-stop-executions-in-iran.htm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=203089629705681