Firestarter
r0b’s post on John Key’s ‘uprising’ comment (which was written last night) seems grimly ironic in light of this morning’s news. Someone has […]
Eddie
Fran lets the plan slip
Fran O’Sullivan has rather given the game away on the MMP referendum. Frog has explained it so well, I can’t do better than […]
Backdown from Infratil?
Infratil-run NZ Bus has called off its planned capital strike for tomorrow. The company had been going to prevent bus drivers and other […]
Soak the rich
Coming soon to a workplace near you, if Kate Wilkinson gets her way: According to this report by Roll on Friday, a receptionist […]
Heavy-handed tactics from NZ Bus
Auckland bus drivers have been in negotiations with NZ Bus (which is owned by Infratil) for a 70 cent an hour pay rise. […]
Kate’s pretext falls over
Yesterday, National’s Kate Wilkinson tried to use a dispute over how to apply the new rest breaks law for air traffic controllers as […]
Rest-breaks under attack
In 1908, the miners at Blackball took a famous strike over the right to take rest breaks at work. For most of the […]
Protect our natural heritage
The Greens are leading a petition campaign, asking Parliament to: reject any move to mine our national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, marine reserves, protected […]
Wee gripes
Seeing as Zet’s taken to writing serious posts these days, I thought I’d try my hand at a few wee gripes: – I […]
Victory for Zeal320 workers
A good outcome from the Zeal320 dispute. The deal doesn’t quite close the gap between Zeal320 workers and other AirNZ flight attendants but […]
Why no referendum for Auckland
How come the Government says that the people of Auckland should decide whether they want Maori seats in a referendum after the supercity […]
Who do you think you’re fooling, Kate?
“I’m not going to resign” – Kate Wilkinson It’s one of the truisms of politics that when you’re a minister and you say […]
100% Pure Opencast
This must be Minister of Tourism John Key’s idea of a sick joke. Letting Gerry Brownlee run rampant and declare NZ National Parks […]
Collins’ smear backfires
Excellent piece by Patrick Gower in the Herald today on Judith Collins’ attempt to smear Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon. Collins has leaked […]
Contract and converge
There’s a limited amount of carbon emissions we can make as a world in the coming decades if we are to avoid runaway […]
Hoist with his own petard
Last week, Tony Ryall used his time in the big chair for, surprise, surprise, a little preening. He decided to take credit for […]
Beating lobby loses the plot
Beating lobby spokesman Larry Baldock appears to be losing the plot now that it’s dawned on him that his gaming of the smacking […]
It’s not OK, resign
The judgment in the case of ‘high-profile political figure’ involved in a domestic violence dispute has come back. Cameron Slater has published parts […]
The smiling snake bites
The Herald editorial is pretty scathing of Key’s Government for rejecting Maori seats on the super-council but I have to take issue with […]
Want local democracy? Too bad
Remember when John Key and Rodney Hide were saying that nothing was decided on the super-city, that the select committee would listen […]
Fisking Farrar
I don’t know what it is about the word “Labour” that the right finds so hard to understand. David Farrar has a piece […]
Herald calls win for Hide
The Herald has an exclusive claiming that National will go with ACT and reject the Maori Party over the issue of Maori seats […]
Referendum results
I can’t say I’m all that surprised about the results of the ‘smacking’ referendum. As any good pollster will tell you, if you […]
When preening goes wrong
Tony Ryall had his chance in the big chair yesterday, sitting in for the Prime Minister in Question Time. A chance for self-promotion, […]
Hide would go for principles, Sharples would stay for baubles
Rodney Hide has said that having Maori seats on the Auckland Supercity council would go completely against his party’s principles. So, he would […]
Keep it up, Chippie and co
Good on Chris Hipkins. The other day, he wrote: “National won the last election quite comfortably. Kiwis are fair minded people and will […]
More National sleeze
There’s been an attempt to force Peter Goodfellow, the brand new President of the National Party, to step down. The move came from […]
DPB: it’s for the kids
A lot of right-wing beliefs can be traced back to a few core values. Two apply to the DPB debate: a penny-pinching self-centredness […]
Heart you too, John
In former journalist John Armstrong’s piece today, he also writes: “a frustration and impatience towards National still displayed by some of the shriller […]
Eventually but not yet
John Armstrong quotes a man who ran into Phil Goff during Labour’s reconnection tour last week: “Listen, mate. You know we voted these […]
It’s not OK
You may have noticed the article on Stuff about a ‘senior political figure’ in court today. A woman is seeking a protection order […]
Standing up for our rights
Remember the petition to state your opposition to Paula Bennett’s attack on our privacy rights. The idea is it will be tabled in […]
Kate’s CEO talkfest
The Minister of Labour, Kate Wilkinson, is holding a meeting today with 25 top CEOs on the number of New Zealanders who are […]
Still too far
Farrar has come back with a defence of his icky and outragous ‘satire’ post that proports to be a Green press statement announcing […]
Afghanistan for the Afghanistanians
It was a bit strange listening to Key’s interview on RNZ yesterday morning about deploying the SAS to Afghanistan. He kept on awkwardly […]
Holding Bennett to account
NZPA reports: Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has confirmed she will investigate Social Development Minister Paula Bennett after the release of details of two […]