The Standard

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Collins keeps Housing Corp P debacle in news cycle

Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, June 7th, 2018 - 122 comments

Judith Collins has managed to keep the Housing Corp methamphetamine story alive for another news cycle by attacking poor people who take drugs.

Dud advice

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, June 6th, 2018 - 84 comments

The methamphetamine debacle continues with questions raised about if the Auckland District Health Board provided confidential information to Housing New Zealand about its tenants.  And Simon Bridges directly contradicts Bill English by claiming that the last Government had no idea the guidelines were not fit for purpose.

Forward to the 70s

Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, June 6th, 2018 - 112 comments

National thinks that getting back to full employment, having wages and conditions sufficient to allow a working family to live in decency on one full time wage, and home ownership rates of about 70% are a bad thing.

Boilover in Northcote?

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, June 5th, 2018 - 57 comments

With five days to go the Northcote by election result is far from settled.  And a surprise may be on the cards.

Doofus of the week – June 3, 2018

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, June 3rd, 2018 - 44 comments

Finalists this week are David Farrar for recklessly misrepresenting Labour’s view on the three strikes repeal proposal, Judith Collins for thinking a two year old photo used on the Standard was a current photo and evidence of the police being politicised and Paula Bennett for at the same time not knowing and knowing but being unable to do anything about the terrorising of state house tenants. And the winner is …

Simon Bridges, the three strikes law and the Bill of Rights

Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, June 2nd, 2018 - 17 comments

National obviously desperately want to divert attention away from the Housing Corp methamphetamine fiasco. After five days of continuous bad news who can blame them.

Labour does not want to let them all out

Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, June 1st, 2018 - 170 comments

Andrew Little has proposed the repeal of the irrational three strikes law.  But signs are that National will not engage in a reasoned debate about what the law should be.

National’s strategy on the Housing Corp P fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, May 31st, 2018 - 83 comments

National is all over the place in its response to Peter Gluckman’s Housing Corp methamphetamine report with three different justifications being provided by three different senior MPs.

Gluckman: Methamphetamine policy was a crock

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, May 30th, 2018 - 80 comments

The Prime Minister’s chief science adviser Peter Gluckman has described the previous Government’s policy on methamphetamine in Housing Corp houses as hysterical and concluded that there has never been a documented case of someone getting sick from third-hand exposure to methamphetamine.

Draining the swamp

Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, May 29th, 2018 - 32 comments

One Nation has made an appearance in Aotearoa New Zealand, complete with all the nuttiness of its Australian counterpart, some Donald Trump insanity and some support for the hard right in the United Kingdom.

Comrade Simon supports Nurses Strike

Written By: - Date published: 3:52 pm, May 28th, 2018 - 21 comments

For the first time possibly ever a National leader has supported the right of the rank and file to engage in industrial action to improve their living conditions.

Bridges copies Bill Clinton on abortion

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, May 28th, 2018 - 51 comments

Simon Bridges has appropriated phrasing used by Bill Clinton in describing his position on abortion but made his personal view even more restrictive.

Doofus of the week – May 27, 2018

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, May 27th, 2018 - 28 comments

Lots of competition this week with Katie Hopkins preferring to be called a racist to being described as being on drugs, Judith Collins for fronting the most naff scandals in the last decade, and Simon Bridges for going on tour to strange places.  But the real contest was between Paula Bennett and Gerry Brownlee …

#twyfordaccusations

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, May 26th, 2018 - 52 comments

The Twitter hashtag #twyfordaccusations has been set up to allow people to speculate on what other nefarious allegations will be made against Phil Twyford by Judith Collins.

National loses the plot in Parliament

Written By: - Date published: 4:40 pm, May 24th, 2018 - 91 comments

National’s show down with Trevor Mallard today did not go as well as they hoped.

Paula’s petulant parliamentary outburst

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, May 24th, 2018 - 247 comments

Paula Bennett stormed out of Parliament yesterday after Trevor Mallard correctly applied the standing orders and ruled out a question containing an unparliamentary term.  And National has responded by questioning if Jacinda Ardern was actually described as a “silly little girl” but has refused to question its MPs.

David Seymour blows the dog whistle, hard

Written By: - Date published: 8:56 am, May 22nd, 2018 - 34 comments

David Seymour has hit a new low by drumming up public opposition to a small social housing development planned by Housiung Corporation in Epsom by claiming some of the potential tenants may have mental health problems.

The law and order debate and the grade one tosser

Written By: - Date published: 7:43 am, May 22nd, 2018 - 36 comments

The Government has announced it will not proceed with the Waikeria mega prison as part of its policy to decrease the prison muster by 30%.  And the called for public debate starts off with one of the major players using a study the author of which subsequently retracted because the data he relied on was wrong.

National is all over the place on the budget

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, May 21st, 2018 - 131 comments

National has made a meal of its first critique of Labour’s budget with a poor performance by Simon Bridges and with four claims about the budget that are clearly wrong but which National keep repeating.

Doofus of the week – May 20, 2018

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, May 20th, 2018 - 20 comments

Aaron Schlossberg, American Attorney and Trump Supporter, and someone who thinks people speaking Spanish to each other in a New York restaurant poses some sort of existential threat to the Union is this week’s doofus of the week.

Shouty Simon’s strange budget claim

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, May 19th, 2018 - 64 comments

National’s claims about Labour’s health spend suffer from the not insignificant problem that they do not make any sense when analysed.

Sound news judgment?

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, May 15th, 2018 - 48 comments

The BBC thinks that depicting Jeremy Corbyn as a Russian stooge is sound news judgment.

Bridges believes in trickle down

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, May 14th, 2018 - 199 comments

Simon Bridges has committed the twin political sins of not only believing in trickle down but in publicly confirming his belief.

Young man there’s no need to feel down

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, May 14th, 2018 - 248 comments

The person in control of Christchurch Stadium’s PA system has performed the most outstanding burn on Israel Folau’s homophobic beliefs.

Doofus of the week May 12, 2018

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, May 12th, 2018 - 62 comments

There was intense competition this week.  Paula Bennett with her attack on Jacinda’s Spotify playlist almost won but Northcote candidate Dan Bidois succeeded for managing to talk out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and only confusing his tongue.

Most kiwis support more tax

Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, May 11th, 2018 - 199 comments

The CTU have commissioned UMR to poll kiwis on their attitude to tax.  The vast majority believe that more money is needed to fix infrastructure.  And a remarkable number support the imposition of a Tobin Tax.

Carmel Sepuloni respect

Written By: - Date published: 4:09 pm, May 9th, 2018 - 17 comments

It is great that we have a Minister of Social Development who actually has empathy for poor New Zealanders, as shown by her treatment of dog whistle questions in Parliament today.

Trump trashes Iranian Nuclear deal because he can

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, May 9th, 2018 - 108 comments

Donald Trump has torn up a deal between the US and Iran that provided for limitation of its nuclear programme and prevented it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Should MPs also be subject to sanctions when they don’t do their job?

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, May 8th, 2018 - 59 comments

National MPs have without notice refused to turn up to the House Committee of Parliament.  Should they have their pay docked?

The strange and unusual National Campaign Launch for the Northcote by election

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, May 7th, 2018 - 52 comments

Dan Bidois has formally launched his campaign by blaming Auckland Council for the last Government’s shortcomings, and opposing the regional fuel tax while at the same time insisting that if there is intensification then it needs to be paid for.

The election year party donations returns

Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, May 6th, 2018 - 40 comments

The election year donation returns have been released and show a surge of donations for Labour but National still well ahead.