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Cut the public service to save money and what happens? Well, lots of things, but one of them is that you end up spending more money on consultants. Surprise surprise: Spending on consultants rises under National Some government departments have tripled their spending on consultants…
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The government (at least, the National and Act parts of it) have signalled they’ll veto Sue Moroney’s bill to extend paid parental leave on the grounds that it would cost too much. (May I just say as an aside, GO SUE!) Zetetic has shown that…
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Parliament is supposed to be the sovereign body in our government. So, how come the Executive has an unchallengeable power to veto any legislation it chooses? As I/S explains, the roots of the financial veto go back to when Parliament was a servant of the…
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Slater/Lusk have been running a series of posts on the finances of the unions. Pretty weak stuff. All Slater/Lusk have proven is that they don't understand the corporate structure of unions, they can't read accounts, and they can't do research. Still, you knew they were…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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With the effective withdrawal of Rick Santorum from the Republican primary process (how he ever made it this far is a scary mystery to me), Mitt Romney is now all but certain to be the Republican nominee to go up against Barack Obama in the…
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Hidden away at the end of this story, hidden away out of most media view, hidden away from Housing New Zealand, and from society... ordinary people being shafted by National's cuts. Housing NZ offices getting shut (with the workers not even allowed to attend their…
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As the Nats try to spin us into accepting another zero budget, focus is turning to two big holes that their policy decisions have created. The first is the billion dollar a year plus spend on the low to negative value Roads of National (Party)…
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The Right says that extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks is too expensive. Typical. The bastards know the price of everything and the value of nothing. If anything, Sue Moroney's Bill doesn't go far enough as it doesn't extend eligibility to the nearly 60%…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Sue Moroney's 6 months of Paid Parental Bill looks like being a second Labour private member's bill that will proceed against National's wishes - Mondayisation of Waitangi / ANZAC being the first. United Future campaigned on increased Paid Parental, and the Maori Party are apparently…
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Ruth Richardson pushed Fiscal Responsibility and as part of her legacy we have the Fiscal Responsibility Act, meaning that all policies are measured for their financial implications. This hasn't always worked brilliantly. It's pushed Treasury to the fore, and their required predictions aren't always very…
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The Nats are awash in the grubby side of political power. Take cronyism, for example. Political appointments to the boards of RNZ and TVNZ. Judith Collins cutting corners in the appointment of Nat Wayne Mapp to the Law Commission. Brownlee's appointment of Jenny Shipley and…
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http://vimeo.com/39937744 h/t Carol. Apparently some people are only seeing a blank white space where the opening frame of the vid should be. Clicking on the blank space should start the vid. Sheesh. Then it didn't embed at all when I added the explanation! So 'fraid…
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Despite losing nearly one in four of its supporters, 300,000 voters, in a little more than six months according to the Roy Morgans, National's 44% still looks superficially impressive. Until you realise they need to be able to form a majority more or less alone.…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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This isn't strictly political, and there's no partisan edge here, but I think it is important that democratic participation informs the way the judiciary works. The Law Commission is looking at better trial processes, to get a fairer system. You can have your say on…
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If everyone earned the same amount (including babies) across the entire world, we'd each get about $USD10,000 each. So a family of four anywhere in the world would get about $NZD49,000. That figure makes world poverty pretty hard to stomach. It's not that there's not…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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It's interesting to see Fran O'Sullivan, fresh from attacking the Boag faction and praising Collins over the ACC affair, now having a crack at Joyce's crony capitalism. Without doubt, Joyce's dirty deal is a juicy target for his internal critics and an example of this…
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Two recent pieces in The Herald are a study in opposites. This one by John Roughan is truly awful - so far divorced from reality that I'd call it unprofessional: National defies the pundits For months they have been saying the gloss has gone, that…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Perhaps it has been a misnomer talking about the Boag faction in the Nat Civil War. Boag has the networks and money but it's the man she brought into Parliament in 2002 that Collins will have to roll if she wants to be PM before…
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No Right Turn on another sad chapter for democracy in NZ. Voting against democracy Two years ago, the National Party repealed democracy in Canterbury, replacing the elected Canterbury Regional Council with a clique of unelected dictators. Last night, Labour finally managed to bring a bill to reverse that…
accountability act democracy under attack maori party national
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It's the annual Easter ritual: Shops caught breaching trading law Twenty-two shops across the country have been caught flouting the Good Friday Easter trading laws, according to the Labour Department. The breaches come in the wake of a new poll which shows opinion is split…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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3 years on and Crusher Collins has yet to crush a single car. There's one car meant to be crushed. But it turns out PC Plod got tricked into seizing some old wreck instead of the car in question. So, cars crushed by 'Crusher', as…
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Here's a puzzle for Friday. If you get it - don't tell (hint if you must). Science will not help you!
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The Nat's misguided austerity program is stiffling prospects of recovery. The tax take is down, there's no money, and they made the last election all about getting back into surplus by 2013/14. Put it all together and it adds up to another "zero budget". Vernon…
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Weekend social is for non political chat. What's on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can't we all just get along?