Rimu Atkinson

If people are especially concerned about oppression of indigenous people or other oppressed groups then I'm really happy about them trying to do something about that. There are often very real issues of discrimination which need to be addressed. Read more

The political terms Left and Right were coined during the French Revolution, referring to the seating arrangement in the Estates General; those who sat on the left generally supported the radical changes of the revolution, including the creation of a republic and secularisation. The left represented the values of the Enlightenment - universal human rights, rationalism, science and progress. The right were the old school - aristocratic, feudal and religious. Read more

Peak Oil is pushing up energy and food prices all over the world. WikiLeaks is discrediting various power structures globally. Countries that have had a simmering discontent for a long time are starting to crack under the strain. This time the riots are more serious than 2008, the year of the first oil (food) price spike.

All of these news stories are very recent: Read more

The unemployment benefit will only last for 1 year. Yes, during in the worst recession in 70 years

also Read more

Hi

I oppose the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill, mostly because of the intensity based allocation. Intensity based allocation offers polluters little incentive to reduce emissions, instead it merely provides an incentive not to emit any more (as a ratio of production) than they do already. So if production goes up then emissions can also, as long as emissions only go up by the same amount. Further, when this happens the taxpayer will pick up the tab for the extra emissions as this ETS only allocates carbon within NZ and we (the country as a whole) will still need to meet our international obligations. Read more