Key misleads the house
Looks like John Key has been caught in yet another lie.
IrishBill
The right’s weird obsession with Darien Fenton
Darien Fenton makes a mean comment about a celebrity butcher on facebook and then apologises for it and offers to shout him a drink to make up for it.
No big deal? Well according to some hysterical righties that makes Fenton worse than Hitler.
You couldn’t make this sh*t up
I missed it at the time but apparently John Key’s big plan for Christchurch was to have a yarn to Oprah.
What kind of weird fantasy world does this guy live in?
Be careful what you wish for
On Friday the government announced a law change that opens the door to a whole world of cheap contract labour now available to anyone producing short projects like advertisements, tv episodes or parts of movies in New Zealand.
Many of the industry locals who will be most hurt by this are the same ones who were banging the drum against actors and for international producers during the Hobbit dispute. Ironic, huh?
Whaddarya?
There once was a time tory leaders would wield the power of the state like the powerful tyrants they were.
Nowadays that might is lent to important things like… throwing a wee party.
Those tough old bastards must be rolling in their graves.
“A commodity”
Big time businessman Damien Grant thinks we’re either rich or irrelevant commodities. And Granny Herald thinks it’s reasonable to give him a platform to preach this vile social darwinism. Suddenly the careless deaths of Kiwi workers and the systemic poverty of so many of our children becomes less surprising.
Third world NZ
The stories coming out of the Pike inquiry paint a picture of a company with a basic disregard for workers’s safety.
But we shouldn’t expect anything else after thirty years of putting the interests of business ahead of everyone else.
FFS
It’s bad to have a senior frontbencher attack the media.
It’s really really bad when that frontbencher is in charge of your election campaign.
Indeed
A classic from stuff:
Prime Minister John Key said the Government had had very little room to move on the economy.
”The public recognises that the rest of the world isn’t in great shape and so New Zealand is having to contend with that global environment,” he said.
The violent right
The kind of racist right wing opinions held by the Norway shooter are shared by quite a few New Zealand bloggers and commenters. Many of the same bloggers are now claiming the massacre is somehow the Left’s fault. We should be concerned that there are people with such hatred and self-delusion among us.
Exit, stage right
It’s a big call, I know, but I’m pretty sure we’re seeing the end of the ACT party happening right before our eyes.
Friday lolz
Even Bill’s readers like the CGT…
Aussies on Pike River
Why is it the Australians are getting better coverage of Pike River than we are?
The Australian, for example, ran a story yesterday asking some hard-hitting questions about safety at the mine including the lack of remote gas measurement and a second escape route.
(Another) Tory astroturf fail
The latest anti-MMP outfit is already unraveling with Pundit’s Rob Salmond uncovering the fact it’s basically the Peter Shirtcliffe club.
It’s a surprisingly clumsy effort. Especially given David Farrar provided strategic advice.
I guess he’s not learned any lessons from his previous PR fiascos…
A gutless strategy
Key is due to fly in to help announce the bad news in Christchurch tomorrow only to fly straight out to India the next day.
It’s seems the timing is all about keeping Key’s brand away from the bad news – he’ll do the sombre announcement and then leave others to deal with the fall out.
Gutless.
Curiouser and curiouser
It looks like the Labour party site was breached from National HQ.
Does this mean National are still laundering their dirty tricks though their pet bloggers?
Time to add parliamentary services to the OIA
Although the latest “scandal” the HoS and a couple of bloggers are getting excited about is a damp squib it does raise a few issues about the accountability and transparency of parliamentary services.
I think it’s time to add parliamentary services to the OIA.
Welcome molesworthst
A warm welcome to molesworthst – a new political blog recommended by Morgan over at his own must read blog, Maui Street.
Just like Ruth, Jim and Jenny
Having wrecked the economy and put tens of thousands of workers on the dole queue John Key is now planning to give them another kick in the guts by cutting their benefits.
And of course that’ll help drive wages down too.
To anyone that lived through the 1990’s this bullshit should be very very familiar by now.
Your chance to ask John the hard questions
John wouldn’t answer our readers’ questions but he’s out in New Plymouth this Tuesday.
Get along and ask him the hard questions if you can.
And if you can’t get there make sure you email your question to editor@dailynews.co.nz
A shoddy, shoddy budget
Poor accounting, bad forecasting, dodgy cuts and no vision whatsoever.
Yesterday’s budget was a fail on pretty much every front.
The Kiwisaver “employer contribution” scam
The media is claiming Kiwisaver cuts will be offset by increased worker and employer contributions.
But because of a loophole in the scheme National created in 2009, employers can simply take their “contribution” out of their workers’ wages.
No wonder business lobby groups are unconcerned by the move.
The “big issues”
John Key is whinging about how labour isn’t focusing on the “big issues”
But he and his government have been avoiding the big issues for years.
That’s not surprising given how badly they do on these big issues. But it’s still pitiful to see them whinging about it.
They made this guy the minister of tourism?
I was wondering why Key’s team weren’t trying to milk his upcoming hardtalk interview for PR like they have with his other international media appearances.
I guess now we know…
Two term John?
Selwyn Manning’s sources in the National party have confirmed John Key is considering leaving parliament next term even if National wins.
That’s not surprising: Key clearly wants to leave a popular legacy and the hard right agenda National has planned if it wins will make such a legacy unlikely.
John Key’s $800,000 funnies
Turns out John Key quite likes making jokes about his DPS entourage.
I wonder if he finds it even funnier that we’re the ones picking up the $800k bill for them.
Protocol
Judith Collins has broken protocol to defend John Key’s overuse of the DPS.
Looks to me like the threats they’re most concerned about are the threats to brand Key.
And they’ll pick and chose the rules they want to defend it.
Anatomy of a lie
Hone Harawira left himself open to attack with his comments on Te Karere.
But that doesn’t excuse the disgraceful beat-up executed so well by the right’s smear machine.
If this is how the election is gonna play out it’ll be no good for anyone.
$800,000 for PR props
John Key’s vanity has cost us another $800k
And the nats have the gall to tell us to tighten our belts?
What a joke.
Rights and privilege
Righto. I’ve just watched the debate between Harawira and Brash on Close Up and about five minutes fifty into the second part Brash had the gall to challenge Harawira on whether he believed everyone should have the same rights.
Russel’s mana
Russel Norman has followed John Key and Phil Goff in the attack on the Mana party.
I’d hoped for better from him.
Perhaps it’s time he reflected on his own mana.
Update: it seems the Dom Post quotes might have been a fit of pique. Russel has posted the following on his facebook page:[more over the break]
It’s all on Calvert
Hide’s gone if Calvert or Boscawen jump ship. But so is the one that doesn’t jump. I’m picking Calvert will be the key.
Update: As of noon today 3 News reports that Rodney may be about to go…
A challenge to Gerry Brownlee
Lianne Dalziel has left her political future to the people of Christchurch that she represents.
If it’s good enough for her to seek such a mandate, then why shouldn’t King Gerry do the same?
Brash to roll Hide?
Brash has thrown his hat in the ring for ACT’s leadership.
If the best the far right can do is a failed National MP warmed over then things are looking up.
So what’s changed?
In 2008 John Key attacked the Labour government on high prices and low wages.
In 2011 he’s telling us the government can’t help.
So what’s changed?