‘If you think education is expensive, try ignorance’ – never has that observation been more relevant.
The country – along with much of the world – is being pounded by the economic crisis. Unemployment is rising while everyone agrees we need more qualified school leavers.

Under the guise of the government's Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme the New Zealand taxpayer will pay over $400 each to bailout South Canterbury Finance. That means over $1.77 billion of your taxes handed over to the rich speculators, known to the media as investors, at a time when we are constantly being told there is no extra government funding for the public services such as schools, hospitals etc, and that cuts are the order of the day.

We are constantly being told that there is one year to go to the Rugby World Cup.    What is not being stated that often is that it is also one year to go to the next general election, with the National Party still riding high in the polls!

This will be the last Labour conference before the election.  The need for coherent socialist policies has never been greater.  Worker are under attack from the bosses and their government     

Rudd said:

“I've been very plain about what I said before and you've heard me say things about asylum-seeker policy recently, I believe it is absolutely wrong for this country to and absolutely wrong in terms of the values which we hold dear, to get engaged in some sort of race to the right in this country on the question of asylum-seekers. I don't think that's the right thing to do. That's the direction the Liberal Party would like to take us - under my leadership we will not be going in that direction”