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A month ago, I wrote that National's moves to gut the Emissions Trading Scheme would increase government debt by $73 billion by 2050. A Treasury report said that National's ETS changes to subsidise polluters would see government debt 6-8% of GDP higher than it otherwise would be.…
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The Finance and Expenditure Committee has released its report on John Key's Emissions Trading Scheme. ACT, Labour, and the Greens refused to support the changes which will see taxpayers subsidising big business. We were unable to reach agreement on whether to recommend that the Climate…
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Over the weekend r0b reckoned the shambles of the Key government would start to really hurt. I was sceptical. Winning the next election for the left is going to bloody hard. But Key's cracks are showing. As the ever thoughtful Colin James noted in his…
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Recessions are meant to be about fixing economic problems that built up during the previous boom - unwinding imbalances in the parlance. Higher unemployment, with all its consequences, business failures, and higher government debt are the price of putting the economy on a more sustainable…
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We've been in the tunnel of love too long. (You youngsters can go look it up.) The media's affair with our personable but apparently useless PM has been a trying time for we lefties. But I think there are glimmers of light at the end of…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Over to you...
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I know this point/counterpoint series of posts on Hone Harawira maybe getting a bit tiresome but I have to disagree with the assertion in a couple of recent ones that Harawira has been treated more harshly Bill English and Rodney Hide or, by implication, than a Pakeha…
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OK, this has nothing to do with NZ politics, but I'm trying to stick to my resolution not to rant as usual on Sundays. Instead I'll sometimes post on a random interesting topic - interesting to me that is, if it isn't interesting to you…
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Throughout the mana enhancing relationship between the National and Maori parties, we haven't yet seen a lot of give and take. Well, I guess that's only half true - we've seen a lot of taking for granted by National and a lot of giving concessions…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Over to you...
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Whatever argument there is between the hierarchy of the Maori Party and Hone really doesn't concern me. While I'm sure Kelvin Davis is watching with considerable interest, Hone was elected by the voters up north for being exactly who he is. This isn't a political…
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Here is one excellent article from Tracey Barnett in the Weekend Herald ... Admit it: John Key's most memorable moment in one year of office was seeing him on the stage of The David Letterman Show, smiling like somebody's brother-in-law you'd forgotten you went to…
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Labour needs to stand up for its electorate, the worker. While National is gutting the infrastructure Labour set up in the last nine years it had in power, like KiwiSaver and the Cullen fund, Labour's protests are little more than the weak cries of a lamb…
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The Greens have announced the collapse of the cornerstone of their Memorandum of Understanding with National. With Gerry Brownlee as Minister for Energy, National hasn't only failed to make progress on energy efficiency and conservation, it is taking illogical, retrograde steps. So why are the Greens…
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Here's a prediction for you. National will lose the next election. The reason that they will lose is that they are running a hollow shell of a government. They haven't had a plan to deal with the recession, they have just muddled through claiming the…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Over to you...
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At about 7pm on Saturday 14th there will be an outage while the server gets another upgrade to a new OS kernel. Your server should be down for 5-10 minutes, we will restart it at the conclusion of the maintenance window. Yeah right - last…
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The Maori Party was never going to be a sustainable political vehicle. No political movement that tries to exist in defiance of the material conditions of its constituents can be, and the economic interests of the wealthy Maori elite and the Maori working class are…
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In 2006 Wellingtonians resoundingly rejected a proposal to build a Hilton on their waterfront (834 submissions out of a total 994 were against), and the plan was again resoundingly rejected last year by the Environment Court. In response, Kerry Prendergast and her Council have changed the District…
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One of the UK's most influential newspapers, The Guardian, carries a stinging attack under the title New Zealand was a friend to Middle Earth, but it's no friend of the earth. It damns us for our abject failure to live up to the clean, green…
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I was sent a press release from financiers JPMorgan in Australia. There's a line in it that reveals much about how the capitalist class views the rest of us. "labour shortages and wage pressures probably will rear their heads again. This will, of course, be…
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Welcome to a new NZ blog, Sciblogs. From the About: Sciblogs brings together the best science bloggers in the country on one website, creating a hub for scientific analysis and discussion and facilitating reader interaction. The website is for scientists who want to reach out…
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Frankly, I don't appreciate being called a white motherf**ker, by Buddy Mikaere and Hone Harawira. Before you start, that's not to deny that Pakeha stole vast amounts of Maori resources despite the treaty signed between the Crown and iwi, and in spite of the Crown's own laws. The…
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According to Stuff Bill English is planning to pull back the stimulus spending. The problem is there hasn't been any significant stimulus spending. So my question is what exactly is the government going to cut back on? Will they cancel the cycleway? Or are they…
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There's no question that Hone Harawira's comments were stupid, but I don't believe they were racist. For a start, the white mofos reference began in Buddy Mikaere's email to Harawira, so it's not entirely inappropriate that those words were used in return. I quite often,…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Over to you...
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Our government is stupid. Sorry, it's the only conclusion I can draw. Our government is made up of confused, muddled thinkers incapable of planning further ahead than lunchtime. It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic. National have decided to "scrap the Energy Efficiency…
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NZPA reports on a new poll from UMR which shows Kiwis don't want to dump MMP for a less proportional electoral system. The survey used the proposed wording of the referendum and found 48 percent in favour of keeping MMP and only 40 percent in…
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The Government has today announced a full inquiry into all instances of politicians calling for 'heads to roll' following the controversy over Mr Harawira suggesting Mr Goff should be shot. Mr Key said "It's just not good enough that people have been going around literally…
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A very well-produced youtube vid on National's distortions over ACC The clever thing National has done is set up ACC as the agent of its own demise. With Business Roundtable member John Judge in charge ACC has become a propaganda wing for National's anti-ACC rubbish.…