Meltdown
The English tape has exploded into a massive scandal. You’ll be familiar with the content of the recording: – English mocks voters as […]
Steve Pierson
Employment, wages up
Despite the economic slowdown, the labour market is holding up well and wages are up at the record rate. The average hourly wage […]
Spin-busting: ‘A growth problem, not a debt problem’
To justify borrowing for tax cuts, National’s new line is that New Zealand has ‘a growth problem, not a debt problem’. Untrue. (source) […]
Behind closed doors
The scandal over Bill English’s comments at the National Party conference has not only overshadowed Key’s purposely vague conference announcements, it has derailed […]
Pathetic
Rather than discussing the quote from Bill English that he would sell Kiwibank, David Farrar is whining that the protest outside the National […]
Key’s vision: tax cuts for rich, more debt for youse
In a speech described by attendees as ‘more bullet points’, John Key announced to the National Party conference today that National would borrow $5 […]
Spinbusting: Nats’ borrowing not for tax cuts
Today, Bill English is outlining National’s plan to undo the work of the past fifteen years and take this country further into debt. […]
Workers stand up for their rights, Nats still evasive
The EPMU launched its ‘Work Rights Wage Drive’ today with a rally in Christchurch. Despite the rain, over 1500 Kiwi workers turned out […]
The Standard Week: 25 July-1 August
Another week of gonzo journalism and you can understand why people get turned off politics. While the press gallery concentrated on which of them was most […]
Old boys’ club
John Key: “We don’t have enough women in our caucus, so we’ve had to start cross-dressing” (Press, June 9, 2007) He’s not wrong […]
Trust me
David Farrar says of a scene in Dark Knight ‘I would have voted ‘yes”. Without giving away any of the plot, that means […]
Lucky Aussies, they kept their work rights
Some of our friends on the Right have been putting themselves through strange mental contortions over the recent series of posts we’ve had […]
Sickening
Speaking in Rotorua earlier this week, John Key offered the following reason why you should vote for him to be Prime Minister: “The only […]
Flip-flops, it’s a matter of trust
I believe there are three core criteria on which a politician or party needs to be judged: (in no particular order) – policy, […]
EPMU cleared to campaign
The Electoral Commission has decided the EPMU can register as a third party under the Electoral Finance Act despite the National Party spending […]
Ambitious leadership
(hattip: Kiwipundit)
Larger slice of the cake for workers under Labour
The essential debate in New Zealand politics (and all capitalist economies) is between Right and Left over how big a share of the […]
Fact: The Left has risen wages during its time in power
Inevitably, reaction from some to the post showing incomes fell 6.1% under National between 1990 and 1997 has not been horror at the […]
Fact: Nats cut wages last time they were in power
For anyone who still doesn’t want to believe that National cut incomes for most Kiwis last time they were in power (and would […]
Will the real National policy please stand up?
A reader noticed a difference between National’s workplace policy as quoted by us and as quoted elsewhere. We and some others have: “Continue […]
Nats painted into a corner
John Key has announced Working for Families would be kept unchanged by a National-led government. That’s the same Working for Families that National […]
For the people
A sage comment from our reader, Bill, got me thinking. He said “If political news was even given the same modest in-depth coverage […]
Hunt for the real John Key proves fruitless
So, what have we learnt from the 18,000 words on John Key the Herald published with so much fanfare over the last two […]
I despair
Our national political debate is in a sad sad state. Agenda is meant to be our premier political interview and analysis TV show. […]
The Standard Week: 18-25 July
The big story of the week is National’s work rights policy that does nothing to further workers’ rights and actually undermines them in […]
Seeking better work rights
Seek has released analysis of the pay-rates offered by employers advertising on its site. It’s not a perfect measure and the figures are […]
Reaction roundup: Nats’ work rights policy
Democratic, voluntary organisations of workers: Finsec: “Within the current framework, many workers have been able to achieve real wage increases like the 5% […]
Pride in your work
Some of our rightwing commentators are rejecting the argument that National’s ‘workplace policy’ strips workers of their rights. Problem is, every workers’ rights […]
Finance companies – a graphic explanation
With the collapse of Hanover Finance, the 25th finance company to go under, Hanover co-owner Mark Hotchin has declared ‘the finance companies’ model […]
Between the lines: Nats’ work rights policy
You know you’re in for a treat when a political party’s ‘policy’ (I still refuse to consider half a dozen bullet points a […]
Bollard cuts the OCR
The Reserve Bank has dropped the Official Cash Rate from 8.25% to 8%. Inflation is well outside the Bank’s 1-3% target range but […]
Open up the trusts
Bob Jones confirmed on Morning Report that he gave $25,000 in 2005 to New Zealand First. The money was to be funnelled to […]
EMA Kiwisaver campaign in breach of EFA?
The Employers and Manufacturers Association’s advertising campaign to defend the ability of employers to make workers pay their own Kiwisaver employer contribution while […]
Between the lines: Nats’ outdoor rec policy
The ‘policies’ National is releasing are nothing more than bullet points but we know from a number of slips that these vague one-pagers […]
Landlords: youse are better off renting
The graphic to the left was produced by the Property Investors’ Federation and was printed unquestioned in the Herald yesterday. The PIF uses the figures […]
The Peters saga, a summary
1 – In 2005, Owen Glenn paid $100,000 towards a legal defence fund for a case in Peters’ name. 2 – Peters was […]