Key: Vietnam War was “right thing to do”
Yesterday, the leaders of the parliamentary parties apologised to the veterans of the Vietnam War for the treatment they received both while fighting […]
Steve Pierson
Greens must not let ETS fail
The Dompost reports that the Greens will not vote for the Emissions Trading Scheme if the introduction of transport fuels into the scheme […]
Nats to journos: say what we want or shut up
Here’s Barry Soper on ZB on the ‘Kate-gate‘ Kiwisaver debacle: What I found interesting was the way it was handled. I was the only person […]
Clydesdale report rubbished
Greg Clydesdale’s report that labelled Pacific Islanders a ‘drain on the economy’ has been rubbished as a lazy, intellectually dishonest piece of work […]
Interview the Leaders IX – Questions for Peters
We’ve chosen the questions for Winston Peters in the final installment of our ‘Interview the Leaders’ series. The first question remains the same, […]
ToryAid: The Standard resurrects Wastewatch
Remember wastewatch.co.nz? It’s National’s site listing all the ‘government waste’. From six years of Labour government it managed to find a grand total […]
Back in the real world
Let’s have another look at our friend, the distribution of income graph. The red circle is what most people earn. The blue circle […]
Kremlinology: Nats’ tax plans
National is still refusing to give us any detail on its tax cut plan, indicating it doesn’t have one. But let’s do a […]
Even Granny’s patience can wear thin
With a loving smack that would have brought a smile to Bob McCoskrie’s face, the Herald‘s editorial today rebukes John Key in the […]
The pragmatist
Asking the second question
Key’s best trick is to answer questions with impressive or technical sounding assertions that stop the line of questioning but don’t actually tell […]
Cumulative Effect
The Press (Budget Doesn’t Impress Family) looks at the effect of the tax cuts on an average family with a combined income of […]
Tax cut graphs and full calculator
Here are graphs of the portion of income going on tax and the portion of reduction in tax for Kiwis under the Budget’s […]
Drinking Liberally liberally attended
The launch of Drinking Liberally at the Southern Cross last night was a blast. The organisers had been hoping for 20 plus people […]
Budget 2008: Analysis
The tax cuts are smaller up front than Labour had been hoping to deliver but the economic position at present means there is […]
Budget 2008: Spending
The tax cuts are the cornerstone of this budget but there is also important new spending. New Spending in the Budget: $172.3 million […]
Budget 2008: Tax cuts
Labour has announced a three year tax cut package worth $10.6 billion. Here’s a table showing the changes: Current 15.00% 21.00% 33.00% 39.00% […]
Telling porkies
The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’: […]
Water, water everywhere, why not stop to think?
From the MP who tried to ban water comes ‘don’t use crash statistics to work out which roads are dangerous’. Writing in the […]
Lazy academic calls Pacific Island workers lazy
Economist Greg Clydesdale has released a report in which he says Pacific Islanders are a drain on the New Zealand economy (exhibiting “significant […]
Let political animals run free
Good on Breakfast for following our lead by playing the full clip of Goff’s AltTv interview this morning and saying ‘make up your […]
Kremlinology: National on work rights
National’s refusal to say what it stands for is becoming so ridiculous we have resorted to the Cold War art of Kremlinology. Today, […]
On the distribution of income
See that line that says minimum wage? Nearly half of kiwis earn less than that. Seven months ago, that was me. I was […]
National: we’ll borrow for tax cuts for the rich
Discovering National’s policy is a bit like the old art of Kremlinology, when Western intelligence agencies would attempt to discover the inner workings […]
Key’s green mask slips
Last year John Key announced National’s ‘Blue-Green’ Strategy. It contained the first shadow of acknowledgment from National that climate change is a serious […]
Media policy
As The Standard has grown, we’ve started to receive inquires from the media and requests for a comment or interview. We’ve been a […]
Time to let interest rates fall
The economy is clearly slowing. Fundamentally, it remains strong with high employment, good wages rises, and strong prices for our exports but employment […]
Get your questions in for Peters
We’ll be selecting the questions for Winston as the final interview in the ‘Interview the Leaders’ series on Sunday. So, get them in […]
If I were UnitedFuture’s Campaign Strategist
Last in our ‘campaign strategist’ series is UnitedFuture, perhaps the least inspiring party in Parliament. UnitedFuture (ie. Peter Dunne) should play the same […]
Launch of Drinking Liberally NZ
If you’re down in Wellington and of the Left, you’ve probably heard people talking about Drinking Liberally New Zealand. Drinking Liberally is an […]
Bring back the bash?
A man has been convicted of assault for hitting his daughter because she was dating a Muslim. You can’t assault someone, the law […]
Happy Birthday National
Today is the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the National Party. So, it’s an opportune moment to reflect on the founding principles […]
A brief musical interlude
If only I’d been around in 1969, and hanging out in upstate New York. Hard to believe that the best we can do […]
ACT: tax cuts for the rich, please
Rodney Hide is calling for the Budget’s tax cuts to take the form of raising the thresholds to account for inflation since 1999, […]
Rio Tinto threatens NZ with capital strike
Multi-national minerals company Rio Tinto is threatening to close its Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Bluff and move its production offshore if the […]
New Zealand, a great place to be a mum
We hear an awful lot from the Right about how much New Zealand sucks: ‘crime is up’ they cry (when it’s down), ‘taxes […]