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Darien Fenton's port transparency Bill is due for its first reading in the house tomorrow and, as far as I can tell, it's got a pretty good chance of passing. Right now council owned ports are exempted from the Official Information Act. This appears to…
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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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Went for a ride through the Red Zone yesterday, and I am feeling it today. Not so much in the legs, as it wasn’t a particularly long ride. More in the heart. 14 years ago we were looking for a house after moving back to…
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The Collins Faction is tooling up again. While Judith Collins herself has been trying to present a more reasonable face in the House, her Slater/Lusk campaign team is trying to undermine her challenger, Joyce, and the incumbent, Key. Upping Tau Henare's ridiculous run for Speaker…
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It must be pretty sweet when your full-time job is to write 4 500-word columns of opinion a week.* It's even sweeter when you can use those 500 words to have a whinge at your critics rather than write about things that your audience, you…
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So, this is what Key is reduced to: refusing to read the Police Report on John Banks so that he can avoid answering questions on it. Key's circular position is that Banks will remain a minister as long as he has Key's confidence. The test:…
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A sampling of recent headlines: "Arctic sea ice shrinks to smallest extent ever recorded" "The staggering decline of sea ice at the frontline of climate change" "Arctic sea ice melt 'may bring harsh winter to Europe'" "Balkans Suffering Worst Drought in 50 Years" "Drought in…
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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 looks like PoAL is gearing up for another go at their workers as the one year carry-over from the collective agreement runs out. As Matt McCarten points out: In two weeks the wharfies union's employment agreement lapses. The term of the document actually expired…
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My regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere (no linkwhoring). This week:…
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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 must be the new tabloid format. Or perhaps Steven Joyce talking about the death of print news. On Friday John Drinnan highlighted APN-internal media spats speaking of "Frenemies"; today John Armstrong launches forth at so-called bloggers Gordan Campbell and Bryce Edwards. Armstrong's article does…
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Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on the National government's lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. National used to talk about "the underclass", but talk is all they ever did. During their four years in power poverty…
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The government recently released a figure of $78 billion as the 'lifetime cost' of the benefit system. That number is the estimated answer to the question: 'how much would we have to have put aside now to pay for the expected future cost of benefit…
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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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Today's Dilbert...
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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?
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It's a regular gripe of mine about our media that they don't establish facts. I don't find the "he said, she said" reporting style in the slightest bit helpful, and indeed encourages us, the public, to see all news as gossip and reduces our respect…
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John Key is wrong, John Banks has broken the law. He just did not get prosecuted. The return of donations he signed and submitted in 2010 is false, as the Police have stated. He should now correct it, or he is still in breach of…
accountability democratic participation electoral commission Ethics john banks john key local body elections police
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Somebody get me a Tui's billboard please: Benefit tally 'not an excuse for hard line' Finance Minister Bill English denies the Government will use a $78 billion valuation of the lifelong cost of benefits as an excuse to get the public to buy into a…
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John Banks is trying to blame the Police for the fact that the transcript of his 3-hour interview with detectives over his campaign donations was held back from the OIA release of the Police file. Another lie. It was Banks' choice for the transcript to…
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Yesterday's national hui on water rights has resulted in the best possible outcome for Maori, a decision to present a unified front in the face of National's divide and rule tactics. Tracy Watkins at Stuff reports: Maori speak as one on water rights A 1000-strong…
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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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Hot on the heels of the chaotic back-down over class sizes, I think we've just witnessed the quickest U-turn in the history of politics. In early coverage: Thirteen Christchurch schools set to close The Government is set to close 13 Canterbury schools and merge another…
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Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here. * Average taken from figures from 2008-2009 to 2010-2011 financial years. Source ** Child Poverty Action Group’s estimate of annual cost to provide…
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So the current people on benefits (superannuation excluded) will cost $78 billion over the course of their lifetime. 5% is to people on the unemployment benefit, because National can't organise an economy to provide jobs. But largely we're paying for those unable to work (sickness…
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Some excellent myth-busting via Facebook. What isn't a myth is that there are 80,000 more people on benefits under National. As with their economic management (which is integrally related) their management of the welfare system has been a complete disaster. They've given people no option…
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Puddleglum at The Political Scientist has written an encyclopedic and scathing critique of the Nats' dictatorship in Canterbury. Some extracts below - but go and read the whole post here. ECan, the government and the ‘Picture of Dorian Gray’ It is hard to understand why…
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Over 2,200 children, according to the Government's estimates, will end up living in households with their already meager benefit incomes cut in half under National's plan to punish families who can't afford to or don't want to send their children to supposedly voluntarily early childhood…