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The final Auckland Drinking Liberally takes place NEXT TUESDAY upstairs at THE KINGSLANDER and features political commentator/national campaigns director for Finsec/all round nice guy Andrew Campbell. Andrew has a weekly spot as the leftwing commentator on National Radio's Nine-to-noon show on Mondays. He's coming to…
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Strongly worded piece by Chris Trotter this morning: In the war for nature, the deniers are traitors ... The question of why war, alone of all our endeavours, possesses the power to inspire such tremendous collective exertions and unstinting sacrifices by human communities is not…
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Associate Professor Earl Bardsley, Waikato University: taking Tekapo A and B power stations from Meridian and giving them to Genesis means Meridian must now rely on a rival company, through some kind of protocol, to provide a significant amount of the water inflow to Lake…
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I'm sorry, but I just can't see the point of this atheist bus campaign. New Zealand is one of the most secular countries in the world. Religion here is seen as a private matter and apart from a few fringe idiots we don't have a…
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Thanks to our dear Prime Minister John Key, New Zealand is being branded an international 'fossil' on climate change. Stuff.co.nz reports Prime Minister John Key's comments on climate change have come to the world's attention, earning New Zealand a "fossil of the day" award at…
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It has been treated as gospel that if the Australians, for inadequately explained reasons, drop their corporate tax rate from 30% to 25%, then we, for inadequately explained reasons, will have to follow suit. Why? Where is the proof that the $900 million a year…
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As expected, Nick Smith has imposed substantial ACC levy hikes on families. For a worker on $40,000 with a car, you're looking at $150 more a year. I would say that would take a large bite out of most people's tax cuts but the fact…
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Fitzsimons: If Barack Obama comes to Copenhagen saying 'yes we can do much more' will the Prime Minister say 'no we can't, but can I still have a photo-op?'
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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No, this post isn't about the 2025 Taskforce, it's about Rodney Hide's round the world holiday with his girlfriend on your dime. Heavily censored official papers reveal that on this 12-day, $100,000 trip (not including the salaries of Hide and the two officials who went…
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Sean Makes Crafts. A new blog by Morning Report host Sean Plunket, who writes about his passion for crafts. As some of you may know, recently my 'employers' at Radio NZ decided that I would not be permitted to write a column in well-known Auckland…
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I'm kind of embarrassed. I should know by now never to trust a word out of Bill English's mouth. I should have checked his repeated claims that government spending rocketed under Labour. English likes to say that because of Labour government spending increased by 45%…
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So the Nats have decided to kill public service television broadcasting: TVNZ's charter is to be repealed in a move commentators say will end its public broadcaster role and turn it into a "cash cow" for the Government. Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman introduced a bill…
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About a month ago I used the Stats NZ Labour Cost Index to come up with the approximate distribution of payrises for unionised and non-unionised workers. I showed that most union members got payrises this year and most non-union members didn't. Turns out that was…
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A victory for New Zealand's 270,000 retail workers and their families last night, with Parliament voting 62-59 to reject National MP Todd McClay's Easter Sunday trading bill. This debate has never been about observing a religious holiday as the neoliberals try to paint it, it's…
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Check out Phil Goff's general debate speech yesterday on In The House, a handy new site paid for by the Office of the Clerk (can't work out how to embed from it yet). The speech is excellent and it focuses where Labour should be focusing:…
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From the Meridian Energy web site. Meridian Energy Limited has confirmed it has suspended offering new Renewable Energy Notes under the investment statement dated 29 October 2009 following the decision from the Ministerial Review into the Electricity Market to transfer ownership of two of its…
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Climate change has melted the sea ice where polar bears catch seals. Starving, they are turning to cannibalism. Here a male bear takes the remains of a cub, which it had taken from its mother. This is climate change. This is just the beginning. I have a…
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Family Commissioner Jan Pryor says she can't give a definition of Whanau Ora, Tariana Turia's pet programme that Pryor's Commission will be helping to run. What a bunch of utter crap. Saying that she can't give a definition because she is "a middle class white…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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A friend just texted: "Brownlee's power reforms look relatively benign, what's the catch?" It's true, Brownlee's reforms are just minor tinkering. The only thing of note is the needless little kick in the guts for environmentalists by making Meridian take on Whirinaki. And that tells…
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It turns out I understated the latest National ministers' rort. Not only were the rules changed to allow ministers to have their taxpayer-funded self-drive cars in Wellington while pretending their primary residence was elsewhere so they could claim the taxpayer-funded out of town accommodation allowance, they…
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By Andrew Campbell Shame on the Labour caucus. If it's true that they back Phil Goff's Nationhood speech without reservations and therefore his strategy to use dog whistling racist tactics to win back the white male vote then they deserve the long period in opposition…
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In America the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just ruled that greenhouse gases "threaten the public health and welfare of the American people", and that they are pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Ho hum, so what? Quite the opposite. It…
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RNZ, Nov 6: Sean Plunket "Most commentators say you're leadership style has been one that has sought to avoid personal attacks and name calling" John Key "Well, I don't think that [personal attacks and name calling] get you anywhere" Parliament yesterday (just examples from one…
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An excellent question from Labour yesterday, using some familiar numbers: Hon Annette King: When he was reusing 'unreliable, highly volatile, and potentially misleading' [Paula Bennett's words] figures yesterday, was he aware that unemployment drops around this time every year and that this year we are experiencing…
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O'Sullivan"[Key] indicated that one of the reasons why he had been loath to sign up earlier for the Copenhagen event was because it would clash with the Fleetwood Mac gig". He went on to make some bad puns about Fleetwood Mac-based headlines. Let me get…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Ministers are given self-drive taxpayer-funded cars for official business in their electorates (in Wellington they have crown limos at their disposal for official business). Pretty logically, the cars were always based at the ministers' primary place of residence because that's where they would need it.…
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The Green Party celebrated 10 years in the New Zealand Parliament yesterday. Happy birthday! It was especially fitting that the anniversary coincided with the beginning of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. In the past ten years climate change has evolved from a…