Mission accomplished
According to the NZIER Kiwi’s wages are set to drop.
But given the government’s return to a old-fashioned, old-boys club brand of tory we shouldn’t be surprised.
IrishBill
Bennett slaps solo parents
Paula Bennett and John Key have announced they’re getting tough on beneficiaries.
What a pity they couldn’t put the same energy into saving a few jobs in the first place.
Wee gripes: the Steven Joyce cult
People like to talk about how great Steven Joyce is. But he’s not got a single run on the board.
Am I missing something or is just talking about how good you are all that’s needed nowadays?
Prenderghastly
First it was the Wellywood sign, now it’s a statue of a guy standing in a giant pile of manure while holding aloft a golden testicle.
And you thought the only Mayor who delighted it making their constituency look stupid was Tim Shadbolt.
Some friendly advice for Labour
The latest Roy Morgan poll is out and Labour isn’t moving. And while only a political noob would expect them to be making major gains this early in the first term of a new government they’re still not laying the groundwork they should be. So what should they be doing?
Wellywood? Welly-hick, more like
Wellingtonians like to think of themselves as more sophisticated than their rural brethren.
But sometimes they come out with something that shows just what a bunch of hicks they are.
Garrett: Sterilise the poor
ACT MP David Garret has called for a programme to sterilise the “likes” of Chris Kahui and Maxine King. By which we can only assume he means poor, brown, people. Sack him.
Stupid greedy voters – Brash
With true tory arrogance at the ACT conference this weekend, Don Brash has described New Zealand voters as venal and stupid.
Apparently New Zealand’s reluctance to destroy what is left of their society by implementing Brash’s discredited crazy old man economic voodoo is a sign of their stupidity.
Apparently nobody in ACT disagreed with him. Go figure.
I’ll book the billboards, you ring Roger Kerr for a donation
The Human Rights Commission has come out swinging at the anti-democratic nature of the Super City consultation.
Will the Free Speech Coalition leap into action as it did last time? Probably not.
I don’t buy it for one second
Has Phil Heatley really resigned his ministerial portfolios over a bottle of wine?
Or is there more to this story than meets the eye?
Heatley resigns both portfolios
According to Stuff Housing Minister Phil Heatley has resigned and the PM has rushed back to Wellington to hold a press conference. Apparently MP spending records for the last three months of last year were released this morning. Coincidence? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Updated.
Key laughs off minimum wage earners
John Key’s recent stint at the Big Gay Out wasn’t all target marketing and niche political branding. He also had a run in with living-wage campaigners who took him to task for his government’s poor response to minimum wage earners and asked if he could live on the minimum wage.
National moves to trash RNZ
Jonathan Coleman has described public broadcasting as being like North Korean propaganda. Turns out the wee fella isn’t afraid to force operational changes on our most independent broadcaster and threaten to sack the board if he doesn’t get his way.
David Farrar’s conflict of interest
David Farrar is well know as National’s main pollster. But should he also be polling on political issues for internal affairs? And what other non-tender contracts has his company, Curia, been doing for the public sector?
Campaign for a living wage
Campaign for a living wage is protesting the offices of National MPs this Saturday to protest increases in GST and the miserly increase […]
Cowardly
A foreign politician celebrates an act of terrorism on our shores and our Prime Minister refuses to comment on the matter? WTF?
Shorter Lhaws
All teachers are feminist pinkos. And they’re badly dressed. And too nice to the kids. It wasn’t like that in my day. And […]
And again nothing happened
The usual suspects are bleating on about John Key’s big speech on Tuesday. As I’ve pointed out again and again this sort of […]
Anonymous Dom editor has a cry
I see the DomPost is running a sniveling editorial claiming Labour’s commitment to raising the minimum wage can’t be done. It then breaks […]
The joy of tory trolls
One of the great pleasures I get from writing for The Standard is making the trolls scream. There’s no better sign that you’re […]
Year of the wolf?
I really thought the rumour that the minimum wage would only rise by 25c had been put out by the government to make […]
Questions of trust
Over at Red Alert Stuart Nash asks whether the details of property developers being investigated by the IRD will be released in the […]
Wee gripes: work stoppage stats
NZPA is reporting that there were only four work stoppages in the last September quarter, making eighteen for the 2009 year to September. […]
The rise and fall of TV journalism
Not sure I agree with it all but the rise and fall of the TV journalist is an interesting micro-documentary:
Key on holiday
After all of the kerfuffle about Key’s long holidays I figure there’s not much for me to say about it but it’s worth […]
A humbug
Back in July of 2009 I wrote a post about John Key’s promises of a plan to stop job losses. At the time […]
Re-run: Benefits, wages and anger
The recent furore about benefit levels has brought a lot of comments along the lines of “I don’t get it why should they?” […]
Fun stuff
I must say I love the Christmas season. You spend a lot of time catching up with all sorts of interesting people, having […]
Dear advertisers, ditch Paul Henry
Rather than start facebook groups and make complaints to TVNZ or the BSA about Paul Henry, someone has decided to hit them where […]
A world gone crazy
It started with me agreeing wholeheartedly with Fran about youth unemployment. Now I can add Garth George and Bruce Sheppard to this strange […]
Shifting the centre
Well the productivity task force is reporting back today and some of their ideas have been forward released. As we expected they are […]
970 words of hollow platitudes. How ambitious.
Classic, I was just saying yesterday that Key is probably concerned about focus testing turning up ‘do-nothing’, ‘weak’ and ‘visionless’ memes and today […]
Fran’s got it right
For the first time ever I wholeheartedly agree with Fran O’Sullivan’s column. In today’s Herald she writes about the government’s inaction over youth […]
ACC misdirection
It looks like the government’s sleight of hand on ACC is about to pay off. Having put up a clearly outrageous proposal to […]
What stimulus spending?
According to Stuff Bill English is planning to pull back the stimulus spending. The problem is there hasn’t been any significant stimulus spending. […]
We are New Zealand
Hattip: tumeke