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I see the media are now comparing the 'redundancy' packages on offer with all of the horse race vigour they applied to the tax cuts. That's understandable as the media like quantifiable measures so they can make simple graphs and X is greater or less…
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Some great political theatre from Greenpeace yesterday. A bunch of climate activists got up at the crack of dawn, plastered ready-made lawn around the outside of John Key's electorate office, then put up some wee pine trees and stumps alongside a billboard saying 'Would John…
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The Herald is once again trying to convince us that everyone is so scared of the EFA that there is no poltiical participation going on. Once again, they cite some rich right-wing organisations that don't want to have to identify themselves when advertising, and so…
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Two more examples of senior Nats hiding their conflicts of interest, in violation of Parliament's rules, were revealed on The Standard this week. This time, however, the Nats were smart enough to have the issue fronted by chief spin-doctor Kevin Taylor and Gerry Brownlee, who…
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National's redundancy package would effectively continue Working for Families payments for some people who would otherwise lose them after redunancy. Only people who have been in the same job for six months would get it, cutting out labourers, temps, and contract workers. For about the…
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In her blog column Teresa Arseneau discusses the polls overall, and what happens if the largest party doesn't form the government: Several of these polls suggest that while National is likely to "win" the election - receive both the most votes and seats - it…
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In a strange twist in the Franks billboard monitoring saga, infra red camera footage has revealed that Franks himself was responsibile for defacing his own hoardings. Franks had previously claimed that he was the victim of an organised campaign to deface his hoardings and had…
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I found it weird that National's attack ad is a series of newspaper headlines. Everyone knows newspaper headlines are sensationalist and everyone knows that things were much worse under National in the 1990s, as this new youtube vid illustrates: Meanwhile, the upbeat jokers at 08wire…
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So, you're talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it's wrong but you don't have the arguments and facts at your fingertips to make a decisive point. That's where our election series, The Standard line, comes…
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A new facebook group has started up called "I am killing a kitten for every person who votes for the Green Party" (*) This group is to encourage New Zealander's to join the fight against hippies and social engineering by killing a kitten for every…
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It's good to see Labour turning its focus back onto policy (and particularly the economy) today with its announcement of a "job search allowance" for people made redundant in the coming economic downturn. Basically, the allowance means if you lose your job you'll be eligible…
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[update: download this (tax-and-kiwisaver-calculator) simple excel table that will calculate tax cut and Kiwisaver losses under Labour and National, and the difference, for you and your family. No other calculator has included Kiwisaver losses] So, you're talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb…
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The CTU has released a second great youtube vid. Well worth a watch and emailing around.
humour john key kiwisaver national wages workers' rights youtube
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The good fellas and fellaresses of Drinking Liberally Palmerston North have organised three debates for the Rangatikei electorate. These will be the only candidate debates in the electorate, so really great to see DL making it happen. The debates are: 2 November, 7pm Feilding -…
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It turns out the Herald's story about John Key's H-fee involvement is a bust. Aside from Key not being straight with the dates he worked at Elders there isn't anything firm to tie him to the actual fraud. That's not the story I expected given…
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Feeling attracted to the idea of getting your mortgage covered should the sky fall in? Brian Fallow comments on the perils of Key's policy plans: "We are in the mess we are in because of a cavalier attitude towards debt and risk by households and…
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(Via: boingboing.net)
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A little more detail to flesh out Tane's post. The core of the H-fee story is this: In 1987, head of Equiticorp Allan Hawkins illegally helped Elders Merchant Finance in New Zealand with the takeover of another company. In return, Elders paid Hawkins $66m through a…
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It looks like the Herald has as a scoop on John Key's possible involvement in the H-fee scandal. According to the article: John Key faces accusations of misleading the public about his knowledge of one of New Zealand's most notorious white collar crimes. The allegations…
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Explained in detail
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Oh dear. In the same week Lockwood Smith made his racist remarks and Maurice Williamson committed the gaffe of talking openly about National Party policy, it appears Bill English pulled a wee Lockwood of his own. According to the Ashburton Guardian, English complained to a…
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In Wellington Central and Ohariu-Belmont, left-wing voters have the opportunity to use their candidate votes wisely to help good left-wing candidates to victory, and keep out two conservative dinosaurs. Wellington Central is a two-horse race between Labour's Grant Robertson and National's homophobic former ACT MP…
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Slippery John's flip-flops keep on coming. Here he is just three weeks ago in the Listener: "you either have a conflict of interest or you don't; it doesn't matter whether you hold one share or a million" and, today, on Breakfast: 'it's a very small…
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If you vote National, United Future, or ACT, you will be voting for the ACC system to be privatised. Consequences of this include: - $200 million in profits flowing offshore, according to John Key's former employers Merril Lynch - higher levies on most workers, as…
ACC act election 2008 greens health labour national progressives united future workers' rights
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The Nats' private prison scheme just gets worse. As No Right Turn points out prisons would be used to do contract work and prisoners would be forced to be used as cheap labour or lose their parole. Aside from the fact this would constitute slave…
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National's announcement that it plans to privatise the prison system says a lot about the party's underlying values. Say what you like about National's temporary flip-flops, underneath they haven't changed a bit. Whether it's ACC, privatising assets, drafting electoral law or reforming the Resource Management…
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There are substantive policy issues such as National's privatisation plans for the prisons that need to be covered but, first, an update on Gerry Brownlee's conflict of interest. According to the NZPA: Brownlee said his shareholding (496 shares, worth around $4,000 during 2002-2003) was too small…
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Over this year, we've seen John Key caught out lying on a number of occasions - the excuses for his "we would love to see wages drop" quote, his shares, numerous instances in the debate and other interviews. He has said things like 'I've aways…
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Last month, Key lied when he was asked whether he had more Tranzrail shares, over which he had failed to declare his conflict of interest. On Sunday, it was revealed on The Standard that Key had also held shares in Fletcher Challenge Forests, which was…
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Audrey Young is now acknowledging Key's reflexive tendency to lie, but she is incredibly soft on it: I was intrigued at Key's suggestion that cutting Kiwisaver to fund tax cuts had been part of National's response to the economic downturn because that has been the…