Yesterday the Nats confirmed the closing of a failed Northland charter school. Turns out we’ll be paying an extra $400,000 for the first quarter of this year, even though the school will not open. Brilliant.
Record debt, a higher than expected deficit and a credit rating downgrade on our economic outlook. All thanks to National’s genius economic management!
New Zealand used to be rated as the least corrupt country in the world. Over the past couple of years we have dropped to second and now to fourth. The cynical way that the Government handles OIA requests is the main reason for this occurring.
“Yesterday, the New Zealand Police informed Nicky Hager through their counsel that they are electing not to appeal the decision of the High Court given in December last year.”
How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.
The Government has released a TPPA ‘National Interest Analysis’. It should be read along with TPP Legal’s extensive analysis of the costs and risks.
Trump has stated that he could shoot someone in public and still not lose any voters. He might not even be be wrong. We seem to be moving beyond an old fashioned “reality-based” politics of consequences and accountability.
Key’s “strident” defence of the TPP was booed at Ratana yesterday. With good reason, because his glib assurance that “Not a single part of TPP cuts across the Treaty of Waitangi” is yet another Key lie.
An article that appeared on December 26th in the Dom Post is much too important to be left languishing in the Christmas news vacuum. “We [NZ] have been the biggest abuser of fraudulent carbon credits. Someone should be answerable as an accessory to the fraud.”
A piece yesterday foreshadows a report on poverty from right-wing lobby group “The New Zealand Initiative”. It’s (surprise!) another attempt to minimise the significance of poverty in NZ – and it’s another big distraction…
A recent “research” report on alcohol, funded by brewing company Lion, has been in the news lately. Sadly, not everything that purports to be research is honest research.
There’s still a few MPs “on duty”. Their function is to maintain the semblance of active government and to roll out a bunch of announcements they hope will escape full scrutiny.
Standardista authors are on summer break! There will be an Open Mike each day, but little or no other posting (unless an author feels particularly inspired). Here’s some summer reading suggestions – by all means add your own…
I/S at No Right Turn did some excellent work yesterday on the scams that underly New Zealand’s claims to be meeting its emissions targets.
“Wellington High Court judge Justice Clifford issued his judgement today on the legality of the police search of Nicky Hager’s home on 2 October 2014.
The judge found that the search was illegal.”…
At the heart of the project is the tension between national interests and individual rights. Questions about how to balance these interests are not new, but they have been brought into sharp focus by recent international events.
The Nats want to wallow in the feel-good rhetoric of COP21 action to address climate change. But it’s clear that they don’t intend to take the “ambitious action” they are heralding.
They say that reality has a left-wing bias. Turns out that truth does too.
Over the past decade we have seen sophisticated attacks against academics and NGOs who challenge government or industry. These attacks often appear organic in nature, but many times are in fact concerted efforts by the powerful.
Details of a mess in tertiary education published yesterday. On top of the mess in charter schools. National aren’t very good at this.
Xero used to fund hate for hire blog Whaleoil via advertising, because “we like to support the sunlight of good challenging discussions”. But when they became the targets of attack they didn’t like being on the receiving end.
No, Judith Collins was never investigated, let alone “cleared”, of the serious issues raised by Dirty Politics. After a token year off Key is happy to have her back because he has precisely as many principles as she does.
How fitting that Audrey Young is Speaker David Carter’s very last fan in the world.
Idiot turn of phrase or deliberately inflammatory? You be the judge.
It was suggested in Parliament that SERCO’s first place position on the Prison Performance Table had been the result of Lotu-Iiga and his department having had the wool pulled over their eyes.
Yesterday the police raided the home of a 3 News journalist. This seems to be quite a trend in the Brighter Future.
About time the Police got around to becoming a “very evidence based” service. Building great relationships with academia is a sensible way to start.
The Official Information Act is now moribund and access to information beyond its scope is granted only to a chosen few and under strict conditions.
Campaigning with public money. Politicising the public service. Cabinet club is cash for access. This is a corrupt government.
Police censorship of research is causing widespread outrage today. Well done to Dr Gilbert and The Herald for bringing it all to light.
Was Key’s bizarre rant in Parliament – accusing Labour of supporting rapists and murderers – a deliberate “dead cat” strategy? If so then it has backfired badly. Still in the headlines 2 weeks later, and probably costing him in the polls.
As the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment warns of the risks of sea level rises and recommends action, National are clear that they will take none. They are determined to leave all the risks and costs of climate change to future governments.
The Paris climate change talks will force leaders to confront climate change and the threat of terrorism at the same time. Can they show the same determination to deal with the gradual but inevitable threat of climate change as they purport to show to deal with the immediate threat of terrorism.
