People are waking up to National's plan to remove the democratically-elected Christchurch City Council and replace it with its own hand-picked commissioners, who will then give a green light to Brownlee's developer mates and the sale of council assets. You can already see the vultures…
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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?
New Zealand schools achieve excellent results and they are very cost effective. (There are kids who fail at school in all countries but this is largely for socioeconomic reasons.) The Nats are determined to break our excellent school system. For purely ideological reasons they are…
When National decided to seize control of Canterbury Regional Council to remove roadblocks for unsustainable irrigation by their mates in the dairy industry, they didn't do it overnight. They spent months creating a crisis. The same thing's happening in Christchurch. There are real issues with…
Armed Police assisted by the Eagle helicopter, the counter-terrorism unit, customs officials, and the police launch towed on its trailer have raided Prime Minister John Key's Parnell mansion, executing warrants relating to the illegal 'DJ Key' election ad. Simultaneously, a joint Police-SAS taskforce has stormed…
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After the PM's office received the Electoral Commission's advice from the the day before Radio Live's PM Hour broadcast, an internal memo says: So the Electoral Commission has replied, and basically said they can't make a judgment on a radio show without seeing a transcript.…
Radio Live and the Prime Minister pushed the boat out in the PM's hour programme, broadcast on September 30 last year. Radio Live asked the Commission for advice two days before the programme was run, although they had been planning it for months. When Key's…
There's a few interesting threads to the Kim Dotcom saga. At the base is the question of copyright and the internet. Should merely providing a tool that can be used for piracy be a crime? Isn't it time copyright law evolved to the reality of…
Yesterday, the opposition parties worked together to hammer John Key on asset sales. He faced questions from four parties during one question; the breadth of opposition showed, and Key was stumbling. Some say Shearer should be taking a more leading role but, for mine, this…
I/S at NoRightTurn writes - Fresh from his attempt to censor programmes likely to embarrass the government during the election, National's hack on the NZ on Air board, Stephen McElrea, is now actually selecting the topics of political documentaries to receive NZ on Air funding:…
The Electoral Commission's decision on the 'DJ Key' hour on RadioLive has been leaked. It shows that Key's hour-long DJ spot was an election ad. It's the only sensible decision. Key was clearly on the show to promote his brand to win votes. He made…
Steven Joyce (Minister for Economic Development etc.) had an interesting piece in The Herald on Tuesday: Steven Joyce: Each time we say 'you can't' it carries a cost Most of us agree that for New Zealand to be successful longer term, we need more and…
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It's slipped down the news agenda but is about to come back up it: The Ports of Auckland Dispute. The next round is beginning as the dispute is only just warming up. The Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) has had leaflets in suburban newspapers…
Publicly attack an All Black and loving father for how he chooses to raise his child. This isn't about the rights and wrongs of breast vs formula vs expressing. I can't speak to the science of that. But I'll tell you that La Leche, Plunket,…
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here Steven Joyce writes in the Herald that the answer to our economic woes is to open up resources to entrepreneurs, and to hell with the…
Shame you couldn't raise it to a living one though. The working poor will appreciate the extra $1000 per year coming this April, but it still won't cover their bills... I guess we'll be aiming for $14 by the 2014 election. Too little. (But still,…
Steven Joyce reckons that the 'can'ts' are holding us back. I agree, just look at these facts: National can't create growth - the economy has expanded less than 0.1% per quarter on average under the Nats. The weakest growth record since the previous National government.…
The UN High Level Panel on Global Sustainability has delivered a report that combines pretty much all the big issues of our time. The Panel is chaired by Finnish and South African Presidents Tarja Halonen and Jacob Zuma. It contains the likes of Kevin Rudd and…
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Tariana Turia is making hollow threats to leave the government but she might be pushed first. Winston Peters has wasted no time showing how opposition politics is done, using his first question time back to skewer Turia, exposing the massive rorting her Whanau Ora programme.…
Mana, NZF, the Greens, and even the Maori Party, are suddenly grabbing the asset sales issue from Labour, just when it actually started to be a really valuable issue to lead on. Shearer should stop playing pundit on whether the Maori Party will go and…
The Herald looks like it has an excellent series this week, on Auckland: A city divided by income. It's an issue that has been waiting to be examined in the local context in more depth. It's been quite a big issue in the UK for…
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I've just watched John Key say on Sky Australia "We don't need the Maori Party - we have the votes for stable government." But without the Maori Party, all we've got is an Epsom government. It hangs by the thread on the meeting over the…
David Shearer wants to move the New Year's and Queen's Birthday honours to Waitangi Day. I reckon that's a goer. If honourees were advised ahead of time, they could attend a public ceremony at Waitangi, to add to all the other events. With thousands there,…
I feel a bit sorry for Key and co. The coming term isn't going to be nearly as much fun as the first one. Here, for example, is one issue that they'd desperately like to go away. But Treasury have dumped it right in their…