The Nats are in trouble with their budget deficits and looking to raise money via increased taxes. But they are tinkering at the edges of the problem, with their petrol tax, and the proposed car park and gadget ("iPad") taxes. The latter proposals were so…
February's Roy Morgan had the Nats up and Labour down, prompting Zetetic's post "Latest Roy Morgan… a bit shit". The Roy Morgan out yesterday had National down 4 to 43.5, Labour up 2 to 32.5, Greens up 1 to 13.5, and overall a projected win…
Our wee James Bond wannabes had a code name for Kim Dotcom (you know, in case their comms were intercepted by the bad guys). They called him Billy Big Stepper. So witty! But Labour's uncovered something more serious too. It seems that the GCSB was…
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[Trigger warning: rape, rape culture, victim-blaming] I was honestly surprised to learn that two of the boys heroes football players men charged in the Steubenville rape case had been convicted (albeit sentenced to paltry terms with the possibility of serving longer). I was honestly completely unsurprised to…
Connect these dots. One: Foreign students turned off by NZ Labour blames dodgy education providers and agents for drop in fee-paying customers from abroad. Immigration "hiccups", dodgy education providers and unscrupulous student agents are damaging New Zealand's export education reputation, says Labour export education spokesman…
The withdrawal of News Corp from SkyNZ, and the recent deal about press regulation in the UK is a symptom of the demise of media moguls, like Murdoch and a shift of balance between the corporate media and politicians. It is part of the demise of…
I/S at No Right Turn on the insanity of scrapping the home insulation programme. Insanity The Warm Up New Zealand / Heat Smart home insulation program is one of the government's few policy successes, producing health benefits four times greater than its costs. So naturally, they're…
So, some Republican Senator has become the first of his ilk to, um, come out in favour of marriage equality after he learned his son is gay. Apparently, this is just lovely. The man wrestled with his prejudices and his Christian love and tolerance won.…
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here. Labour Party leader David Shearer has moved quickly to discipline one of his MPs for failing to declare a pecuniary interest. "I expect high standards…
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...
So much for all this propaganda about the asset sales being all about deepening markets here and giving Kiwis a chance to invest. When it came to building the website for the pre-registration, where did the Nats go? To Aussie. They got an Aussie company…
Apparently the government is concerned for the general health of people in New Zealand. Apparently, an expression of this concern is the roll out of policy initiatives that will result in New Zealand being smoke free by 2025. As a fairly heavy smoker of some…
Irrelevant fringe group "Family First" really only has one drum, so I guess that they have nothing better to do except continue to beat it. But they really are (to mix my metaphors) flogging a dead horse: Poll: People want smacking law changed Better headline…
Micky savage of Waitakere News looks at John Key's involvement in the Solid Energy fiasco. National's undeserved reputation as sound economic managers takes another hit... Has John Key jumped the shark? Happy Days was a highly successful American sit com that screened for a decade.…
Corin Dann interviewed Bill English very well on climate change and the drought yesterday on Q+A. It was clear that English has his head in the dust. Despite claiming that the government is leading on climate change, English would barely let the 'cc' words pass…
I've just been alerted to the fact that Danyl from the dimpost has a novel out called Unspeakable Secrets of the Aro Valley. If it's as entertaining as his blog it'll be a must read. I'm looking forward to getting a copy.
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...
The Draft Auckland Unitary Plan, which was released this week, is a massive endeavour with much to commend it. It focuses on resource management and links in with the Auckland Plan that was released last year. Like the Environmental Defence Society, I am pleased with…
Remember the "underclass"? John Key pretended to be concerned about them for a while as a gimmick for the 2008 election. Since then his government has managed to increase their number. Rodney Hide was part of that government for a while, and without a trace…
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: the squeezed…
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You would have thought that, less than 24 hours after another 185 manufacturing jobs were lost, the Right might be keeping their head down when it comes to the crisis in manufacturing. But no. Farrar's popped up to cite a rinky-dink survey from Business NZ…
In what is sure to be an interesting test of our amnesty, I want to point out that Steven Joyce is probably the most over-rated politician in living memory. The man has literally never achieved anything. He lost the unloseable election, his fossil fuels-centric economic…
Just a brief Poverty Watch today, before we start on the report from the Office of the Children's Commissioner next week. It's very (very!) encouraging to see the number of perceptive, committed, compassionate young people that we have in NZ. The Net and other technology…
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Ah yes, we've banned a few folks in the many years we've been in the blogosphere (although far less than expected). Some with damn good reason and some in the heat of the moment. But now we're all older and wiser it's time to open…
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?
As Bill English gives us death by a thousand cuts - searching for any cut against the vulnerable that he thinks the media won't notice - he's also always on the search for more stealth taxes. So Peter Dunne & Revenue have the task of…
It's usually the bad employers who make the news, and who occupy the attentions of unions, workers, and the labour movement. So let's hear it for the silent majority, the good employers who are out there! Case in point - look at this: First employer…