CTU: MBIE and Forest Owners Collude to Deny Workers Info http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1212/S00339/mbie-and-forest-owners-collude-to-deny-workers-info.htm
Christchurch teachers vote for strike action, challenge law http://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/christchurch-teachers-vote-for-strike-action-challenge-law/
Treasury documents show charter schools plan must be dumped http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1212/S00400/treasury-documents-show-charter-schools-plan-must-be-dumped.htm
Matt McCarten: The MPs who could and should have done better http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10856531
Fee rise a bitter pill to swallow for many http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/8123840/Fee-rise-a-bitter-pill-to-swallow-for-many
CTU: Public surgical centres should not be run by private contractors http://union.org.nz/news/2012/public-surgical-centres-should-not-be-run-private-contractors
Shocking disparities exist in child obesity – expert http://www.voxy.co.nz/health/shocking-disparities-exist-child-obesity-expert/5/143351
Beneficiary ‘Impact’ Sees Shocking Need for Food Grants http://www.indymedia.org.nz/articles/561
Child abuse fueled by poverty and lack of support – paediatrician http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10857042
STATS OF THE WEEK
Twenty years ago, the CEO of fast-food giant McDonald’s pocketed compensation that equaled about 230 times the pay of a full-time McDonald’s worker paid the federal minimum wage. The $8.75 million the McDonald’s CEO took home last year, notes a Bloomberg analysis, topped the take-home of a full-time McDonald’s minimum wage worker by 580 times.
Net worth of world’s richest rose by $241B in 2012: The richest people on the planet got richer in 2012, adding $241 billion to their collective net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 100 wealthiest individuals. http://is.gd/ZYvbqT
Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan Since 2001 = $1,409,195,692,685 http://www.costofwar.com/
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“It is alarming to see hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism.” Pope Benedict XVI , annual New Year’s message, January 1, 201
“Economic inequality begets political inequality and vice versa. Then the very vision that makes America special — upward mobility and opportunity for all — is undermined. One person, one vote becomes one dollar, one vote. That is not democracy. That is political decay.” Joseph Stiglitz, The price of inequality, Christian Science Monitor, October 17, 2012
