home.social

Search

728 results for “thespino”

  1. Max Rashbrooke gave the NatACTs way too much credit back in 2023

    "... an incoming administration can hardly cancel signed contracts or halt work underway."

    thespinoff.co.nz/politics/25-0

    If only that were true.

    #MaxRashbrooke #governance

  2. "Administrative waste in US healthcare – generated by every private player trying to shift the cost onto another – is so great that it would pay for every uninsured American to get insurance. It is also greater than the entirety of Britain’s NHS budget."

    #MaxRashbrooke, 2025

    thespinoff.co.nz/politics/30-0

    #healthcare

  3. "The maddest examples have come when monopolies – water, rail – have been sold to private firms, even though competition is the only thing that makes markets work. A private monopoly is the worst of both worlds: no competition-based incentives to improve, and no public-good ethos pushing the organisation to look out for citizens’ interests."

    #MaxRashbrooke, 2025

    thespinoff.co.nz/politics/30-0

    #privatization #NaturalMonopolies

  4. "In 1993, financiers Fay Richwhite were allowed to advise the government on the sale of the state-owned New Zealand Rail – and then be one of main shareholders in the winning bid.

    After that things really went downhill ... And while cutting maintenance to a level [economist Bill] Rosenberg labelled 'abysmal', Fay Richwhite and their fellow owners took out at least $370m in profits from a firm for which they had paid just $328m."

    #MaxRashbrooke, 2025

    thespinoff.co.nz/politics/30-0

    #privatization

  5. As #MaxRashbrooke pointed out on TheSpinoff;

    thespinoff.co.nz/politics/13-0

    "Our spending is not really the problem: our failure to raise enough tax revenue is. The projections of a surplus by 2027 rely on the annual allowance for new spending shrinking from the current $3.5 billion to just $1.6 billion in 2026 (once existing commitments are factored in)."

    #NZPolitics #tax

  6. "[Aotearoa] continues to run current account deficits – importing more goods and services than it exports, often loosely described as 'living beyond our means'. The deficit will be a large 8.1% of GDP this year, falling to 4.3% in 2027."

    #MaxRashbrooke

    thespinoff.co.nz/politics/13-0

    A result of successive govts doing anything they can to increase exports, while being effectively banned from reducing imports - even of designer landfill like the garbage sold in $2 stores - by "free trade agreements".

  7. The right claim National are better protectors of economic health than Labour. It's never been true, and still isn't;

    "No recession is expected. The economy will continue to grow at 2.6%, on average, over the next four years. Inflation will be back under 3% some time next year, and wages will easily outpace it. Unemployment will rise, but only to 5.4%, a below-average amount.

    Government debt remains low by global and historical standards..."

    #MaxRashbrooke

    thespinoff.co.nz/politics/13-0

    @Salty

  8. 'At the end of last month, the Waitangi Tribunal wrapped up its hearing regarding the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, or the Māori Health Authority. An urgent inquiry as part of the wider Health Services and Outcomes Kaupapa Inquiry, the hearings took place over the space of a week and saw dozens of expert witnesses provide their insights into the state of Māori health in Aotearoa.

    Established through the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 under the previous Labour government, Te Aka Whai Ora was an independent government agency charged with managing Māori health policies, services and outcomes. It was pitched as a pivotal step towards addressing the long-standing inequities in hauora Māori, grounded in a Tiriti partnership model. Its disestablishment on June 30, 2024, came less than two years into its operation.

    “Te Aka Whai Ora was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to not only change Māori health outcomes, but to also change the health system,” said indigenous rights advocate and business leader Chris Tooley in his submission.' thespinoff.co.nz/atea/09-06-20 #nzpol #nzlaw #health #IndigenousIP

  9. I’m listening to the excellent #juggernaut2 podcast series from #TheSpinoff about the 4th National Government.

    The thing that has struck me the most so far is the absolute callous disregard that #RuthRichardson appears to have toward the vast numbers of Kiwis hurt in the welfare cuts she undertook.

    #JimBolger has always been an empathetic figure given the way that he talks about his government’s cuts. He did what he believed was necessary and yet seems genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of New Zealanders.

    Richardson on the other hand comes across as gleeful when talking about the enormous cuts to the welfare state. An absolute zealot who seems to not care about the human cost of pursuing “balanced books”.

    And rather than being consigned to an unfortunate and socially damaging part of our history, she’s unfortunately now the chair of the astroturf “Tax Payers Union”.

    thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/jugg thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/jugg

  10. @norightturnnz Have you seen the TOP policy on doing a land value tax instead of a CGT, and allowing payments to be deferred until the sale of the house, so it kind of, sort of, doubles as an inheritance tax? Thoughts?

    New leader Raf Manji talks about it in the 26 Oct interview with Toby Manhire on the Gone By Lunchtime podcast:
    thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/gone

    #podcasts #GoneByLunchtime #TOP #RafManji #CGT #LandTax

  11. Remembering Henry Fambrough from The Spinners

    (May 10, 1938-February 7, 2024)

    #Music, #HenryFambrough, #TheSpinners

  12. The latest recently departed #Black artist I helped get on the front page of @wikipedia is #HenryFambrough, last surviving original member of #TheSpinners. Fambrough sang with The Spinners from 1954 to 2023: 69 years! He died on February 7 at the age of 85.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fa

    #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackMastodon #Wikipedia

  13. America is forcing allies and rivals alike into a "captive" relationship with the US energy grid.

    The message is simple: We own the energy, we own the money, we own the future.

    #GlobalEconomy #USD #TheSpigotStrategy