Nats slash education
Did anyone else notice that for all this supposed government waste that National was going to get rid of it made only $500 […]
Marty G
Productive debate
There was nothing in the Budget for productivity. Education, the foundation of producitivty, was actually cut when you take into account inflation and […]
More opposition than ever to supercity
While the mishandling of the Worth scandal grabs all the headlines, the mishandling of the supercity process is still grinding on. And Aucklanders […]
Crying wolf?
From The Independent: No lasting harm from airport credit downgrade. Analysts and management of Auckland International Airport are unconcerned at Standard & Poor’s […]
Air New Zealand, shame on you
In Brisbane yesterday, members of Australian transport unions took over an intersection outside AirNZ’s HQ to show their solidarity with the Zeal workers. […]
Super projections
I’ve had a crack at working out how much we lose by cancelling the Cullen Fund contributions according to the Treasury’s figures in […]
DPF agrees, cancelling Cullen Fund rips off NZ
DPF writes on the cost of cancelling contributions to the Cullen Fund: First of all, it is true that under the 11 year […]
Future shock
Yesterday, my comrade Zetetic wrote that despite all the bad stuff in the Budget there was still a “meta-victory” for the Left because […]
No super contributions = worse net debt
I’ve had a dig into Treasury’s numbers and worked out that they expect the Superannuation Fund will make a 13% return next year, […]
Mission accomplished
John Key famously said “we would love to see wages drop“. It sure didn’t take him long in government to see his ambition achieved. […]
Bleak and bleaker
Treasury’s main forecasts for the economy have worsened significantly since December: Nothing for jobs in the Budget. Tens of thousands more on the […]
Minima
One of the oldest tricks in the book for a government that’s cutting public services is to say ‘we’re not cutting, we’re spending […]
The credit rating bogeyman
It’s pretty clear how Key and English plan to spin their budget. They will use the bogeyman of a credit rating downgrade to […]
What’s the point again?
Remember – March against National’s undemocratic supercity today 25th, noon, Queen St [More info] Accepted truths are funny things. For example, everyone has […]
The Standard now largest NZ political blog?
No, not because we’ve overtaken Kiwiblog in readership just yet (although ours is growing at a healthy 10% a month) but because I […]
“Confusing and might be taken the wrong way by some”
Duncan Garner had to do a balance piece against David Shearer because he has been at the forefront of covering the implosion of […]
Bye bye democracy
So what is this Transition Board thing that National and Act created by ramming through legislation in a huge rush last week last […]
Power on Q+A
On Q+A this morning, Justice Minister Simon Power flew a kite on some possible changes to the justice system. The first was raising […]
Class warfare, with bulldozers
Using Labour’s Google Map of National’s Waterview route and Google Street View, I had a look at the type of houses that National wants […]
Boring into the numbers 2
National has released its Waterview plan. Basically a trench rather than a tunnel, and a few hundred more homes knocked down. They reckon […]
Boring into the numbers
Here’s a trick you can all play at home. You’ll need several different plans for a major motorway project produced by NZTA and […]