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While media, politicians and the Kiwi blogosphere are arguing about the wage gap with Australia, around four hundred NDU members at Bunnings Warehouse are taking matters into their own hands with a two-hour nationwide strike action today. Bunnings workers in New Zealand start on just…
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Even as he flounders from one excuse to the next over his 'we would love to see wages drop' statement, it has emerged that John Key is offering hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to his big business mates. Key promised a $200 million suspensory…
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Looks like John Ansell's finally got his mojo back. Hat tip: Ant.
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So without Bill to run interference like he did in the House yesterday, John Key has resorted to the age-old "memory lapse" (aka "Don Brash") defense regarding his statement to Kerikeri Business Association that "we would love to see wages drop". Key's use of the…
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Key's comment that "we would love to see wages drop" to a group of business-people last year has come under increasing scrutiny in the House today. Rather than defend his statement himself, Key sat squirming as English attempted to deflect Cullen's attack - hardly a…
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"We would love to see wages drop". You would think that given the simmering debate about our wage gap with Australia at the moment that would be the last thing you'd expect to hear from the leader of the National Party. Especially when he'd gone…
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While the David Farrars and Fran O'Sullivans of this world have been trying to create a storm over Owen Glenn's recent comments, real journalists have seen it for the non-story it is. Owen Glenn gave some money to Labour, he did so openly, unlike National's…
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The BBC reports that Fidel Castro has retired as Cuban leader. Castro has survived a US-backed invasion, numerous assassination attempts and the fall of the Soviet Union, but after nearly 50 years in power his ailing health finally got the better of him. His legacy…
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The Press has a good article on the political blogs. The Standard and our mates Kiwiblogblog are referred to as "Labour with its claws out". As has been explained before, we are not Labour: we are a loose group of Leftwing writers, some of whom…
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When a society goes through trauma, one of the first results is a drop in the birth-rate. People choose not to have children in a time of strife and uncertainty. When good times return, the birth rate bounces back. The pattern could be seen worldwide…
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John Armstrong's opinion is that: It is inconceivable that Helen Clark would have blithely offered a wealthy donor to Labour Party coffers a seat at the Cabinet table... Anyone who knows what makes Clark tick knows she is far too clever and far too cautious…
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The Press reports that "Christchurch Central MP Tim Barnett has announced he will not stand as a candidate for any seat in the general election." At the end of October, Labour MP Barnett announced he would not stand for the Christchurch Central seat again. Now…
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Many, many years ago lived an emperor, who thought so much of new clothes that he spent all his money in order to obtain them; his only ambition was to be always well dressed. He did not care for his soldiers, and the theatre did…
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Dairy farmers have rejected the Fonterra Board's short-sighted plan to sell 20% of the company. Fonterra wanted to raise cash with a stock-market float to fund expanding its dairying operations in other countries but in the long-run Fonterra would have paid out far more in…
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A bang and a fizz and another sort of a bang, and then it was gone. Does anyone know the whereabouts of John Key's "Ambitious" DVD online? It's mysteriously disappeared both from their site and from YouTube. They've even gone as far as to delete…
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Refreshing to see the fourth estate challenging the political spin from time to time. The Independent Financial Review has this on the myth of the Aussie brain drain: Far from losing our "best and brightest" as business lobby groups insist about half of Kiwi migrants…
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The polls seem to be all over the place at the moment, with last night's TVNZ/Colmar Brunton poll showing National out to a 19 point lead over Labour. That's quite a swing from recent polls, which have shown the gap between the two major parties…
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Mike Hutcheson has somehow made another appearance, this morning, on TV3's Sunrise programme. This is the guy who told viewers late last year that New Zealand's problems were caused by a "girltocracy" - presumably a reference to too many women running things for Hutch's liking.…
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I was just checking out the blogs and discovered this little gem on Kiwiblog: # Stephen Franks Says: February 16th, 2008 at 7:18 pm Britain's had an independent enquiry into Blair/Labour's 'Cash for Honours' scandal. Anyone want a bet on the chances of getting anything…
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It's been a few days now since the announcement of Katherine Rich's decision to stand down from politics, but articles such as in today's NZ Herald continue to try and explain "why". Perhaps they also have that sense that her departure could be a turning…
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Only days after trying to eat a plate, in yet another freak (can I call him that?) accident, National Party blogger David Farrar has glued his hand to his face. Bystanders (standing by too close by if you want my opinion) were powerless to help.…
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Had to laugh at this in The Herald on Rich's retirement: She has told all her caucus colleagues only that morning that she's retiring. One of them - Simon Power, who entered Parliament on the same date in 1999 - is quietly sitting beside her…
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Stuff reports the stolen military medals have been returned. I had expected they would never be seen again but when I think about it nearly every high-profile theft of art or artifact I can remember has resulted a successful return. Kudos to the police for…
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Fran O'Sullivan's continuing her ongoing philosophical project of interrogating the notion of truth in her latest repetition of Kiwiblog talking points Herald column. In it she picks up on the Owen Glenn interview and from a few disparate facts weaves a story of intrigue and…
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Well, I think it's funny.
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Colin Espiner reckons that Rich's departure will hurt the Nats. "She represented", he says, "precisely the sort of social liberal, moderate, youthful face that the party needs to counter the tougher, drier, and more conservative side of National. The one that the public is still,…
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Helen Clark has just announced a range of measures aimed at cutting down on graffiti vandalism. Presumably the initiative will be supported by the Nats. Who knows about the Free Speech Coalition though - their position on free speech seems remarkably dependent on who's doing…
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Vernon Small reports today that National party blogger David Farrar has taken out a complaint against the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union's registration as a third party under the Electoral Finance Act. Now aside from the fact that the founder of the Free Speech Coalition…
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The Herald covers it pretty well: 'He begins poetically - a narrator hooking an audience - with "furrowed brows in the dusty roads of countryside New Zealand, in the cowsheds, and woolshed and shearing sheds and the export works". When even the Prime Minister has…
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Affordable housing is the topic de jour. The foundation of affordable housing in New Zealand and other developed nations has long been houses built by the government and rented cheaply: state housing. Since the construction of the first state house in 1937, it has been…