Which jobs would Key cut?
It’s hard to get a straight answer out of John Key, so this is probably an exercise in futility, but Key’s announcement that National […]
Steve Pierson
Reactions to New Zealand Fast Forward
Groups that issued press releases welcoming the Government announcement of the $700 million research and development fund for argiculture (press releases on Scoop): […]
Dolla Dolla Bill, Y’all
Days after saying ‘we’ve always said, we aren’t that worried about, um, whether the Crown needs to borrow a bit of money [for […]
Flying the Standard in Spain
Congratulations to the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party for winning their second four-year term under Prime Minister José Zapatero. Zapatero’s surprise victory in 2004 […]
Some free publicity for the NBR
Speaking of humour, that joke of a newspaper the NBR has had a crack at us again. According to them The Standard is […]
Herald Editorial – ‘Why assets sales were worthwhile’
Tomorrow – ‘Slavery: it wasn’t so bad when you think about it’
Ralston’s hyprocrisy hyperbole
In an article on the economy that would have had my high-school economics teacher in fits, Bill Ralston says that it is hypocritical […]
New Zealand, a great place to do business
At 30%, the corporate tax is lower than or equal to most developed countries’. Our GST is only 12.5%, in most developed countries […]
Key’s Australian excuse
On the 20th of December, John Key was reported in the Bay Report as saying “we would love to see wages drop” while talking […]
What we can’t tell you
There is more to the John Key “we would love to see wages drop” story than you have been able to read in […]
Stripped
The two major dailies have been running bizarre editorial lines against the government’s intervention to block the sale of Auckland Airport, even as […]
First planes, now trains
It is looking more likely that the Government will buy back New Zealand’s rolling rail stock from Australian-based Toll. Toll has been a […]
Goat-on Copeland
Poor old Gordon Copeland. Yesterday he had one of his few questions in the House. And he had a big issue to talk […]
Hone Te NÄkahi
The Maori Party has reacted angrily to Key’s unilateral decision that National would abolish the Maori seats some time around 2014. Newsroom reports […]
Key unspun
John Key is clearly missing Kevin Taylor, his chief spin doctor. When Taylor is around, Key is ‘Mr Teflon’ but, with Taylor on […]
Those were the days (all 20 of them)
When I wrote to the MPs asking them for their thoughts on John Key’s “we would love to see wages drop” quote (results […]
Key caught out
The government’s move to strengthen the Overseas Investment Act on Monday was met with predictable criticism from the ‘markets first, people second’ brigade. […]
National: is there anything they won’t privatise?
Burqa Bob wants to buy heartland rugby. In other news, Bill English plans to sell our sunshine hours to a Finnish consortium and […]
Foreigners think NZ is great, why doesn’t National?
One of National’s strategies is to constantly talk down New Zealand, arguing that other countries have it better, that to catch up we […]
Protecting New Zealand’s assets
The government has made a series of moves to prevent strategic New Zealand assets being exploited by foreign companies. Last week tax law […]
A plea to the Greens
The Greens vex me. Here is a party of grand vision and good science; a party that understands how our current mode of […]
Maori play it smart
The Marae-Digipoll has the political commentators all excited over what has been accepted fact in the blogosphere for some time: the Maori party […]
They’ve got 18 better than him?
National MP for Northland, John Carter, is ‘up in arms about a decision allowing inmates from Ngawha Prison to play in the Whangarei […]
Behind National’s emigration wailing
National likes to talk down New Zealand, to portray this great country as underperforming, to exaggerate our problems, and to cast our unique […]
How would Key make wages drop?
Having read our coverage of John Key’s ‘we would love to see wages drop‘ line my brother asked ‘but how can a government […]
Lucky last
When we published the results of our MP survey on John Key’s “we would love to see wages drop” quote last week, we […]
Key’s shameful attack on journalist
One of the more unsavoury aspects of Key’s “we would love wages to drop” saga is the unwarranted attacks by Key and his […]
Jones to Key: say it to our faces
Far North Labour MP Shane Jones laid down the gauntlet to Key over the ‘we would love to see wages drop‘ scandal. Jones […]
The deafening silence
At a meeting in Kerikeri last year with a business leader, in the presence of journalist Greg Robertson, National Leader John Key said […]
Tail-spin
While National is trying to pretend John Key’s quote that “we would love to see wages drop” is a non-issue, behind the scenes […]
Key incoherent on pay cut plans
Following the revelation that John Key told a business audience “we would love to see wages drop“, bFM asked him to elaborate [MP3, […]
MPs respond to Key’s wage drop wish
Following revelations that John Key told a business audience “we would love to see wages drop“, I sent an email to all 91 […]
Key: pay cuts for you, backhanders for my mates
Even as he flounders from one excuse to the next over his ‘we would love to see wages drop’ statement, it has emerged […]
Bursting the bauble
While the David Farrars and Fran O’Sullivans of this world have been trying to create a storm over Owen Glenn’s recent comments, real […]
Labour with its claws out
The Press has a good article on the political blogs. The Standard and our mates Kiwiblogblog are referred to as “Labour with its […]
The baby bounce
When a society goes through trauma, one of the first results is a drop in the birth-rate. People choose not to have children […]