Politics
national/act government
Key committed to [insert your priority here]
Last week: “Prime Minister John Key said the Government’s major theme in 2010 would be improving New Zealand’s economy” Today: “He said his […]
Cowardly
This is how Health Minister Tony Ryall announced the Government would be appealing the court decision to try to get out of paying people for […]
Tax reform: tax cuts for rich, paid for by poor
The Tax Working Group has given its recommendations for tax reform to the Government. It predictably recommends: Dropping the tax income tax rates to […]
Another benefit beat-up
The Key Government’s anti-beneficiary campaign continues. The latest is a beat-up on long-term beneficiaries. Apparently, 9 people have been on the dole for […]
Minimum wage increase, what will it be?
John Key has ruled out a $2.50 an hour pay increase for New Zealand’s lowest paid workers but won’t give any indication of […]
Say what?
Statements made in Parliament last year, in chronological order: Hon BILL ENGLISH: They have been telling us that we should copy the Australian […]
NZ closes the gap with Aussie
Well, I didn’t think it could done but it has been. National has been promising to close the gap with Australia, and damned […]
Bye bye independent foreign policy
Crime rises, Nats’ get tough policies have no effect
You might recall that a bit over a year ago a salesman in a nice suit with a nice smile came and sold […]
Bully Brownlee forces SOE CEO to withdraw critical blog
Powershop is a subsidiary of Meridian Energy, an SOE. It is the most highly rated power retailer by its customers, with 92% satisfaction. On […]
$400 mln xmas gift for banks
The banks, who tried to rip us off to the tune of $2.6 billion, have agreed to pay us $2.2 billion. I don’t […]
Climate Direct Action
Text from John Darroch a couple of minutes ago: hey just hanging ten stories up the mfat building in welly protesting against fonterror […]
More jobs for the old “boys”
Back at the start of the month Marty G pointed out that Brash’s useless 2025 Taskforce looked like nothing so much as a […]
Government barely survives first year
Audrey Young finally gets around to mentioning how close the government came to imploding last month: Rodney Hide survived moves to oust him […]
All skite, no substance
A text from a mate: Bill English says “I never thought running a government in a recession would be so easy” Mate, it’s […]
The stamp of democracy
Another disgraceful Herald editorial recently: Teachers must learn to obey Govt’s orders Three years ago, when the National Party announced its plan to […]
Nats offer Maori flags & baubles, not representation & jobs
NZPA: The Maori Party has withdrawn its support for a government bill after its bid to have Maori members on polytechnic councils failed. […]
Nats’ ‘stimulus’: $200K per job
National claims it created 2,300 jobs with its stimulus spending. Of course, most of this supposed stimulus was smoke and mirrors – re-announcing […]
Dual obligations
The more I ponder the scrapping of the TVNZ charter the dafter it seems. There are obvious downsides. What is the upside? What […]
$100,000 for 10 hours work
No, this post isn’t about the 2025 Taskforce, it’s about Rodney Hide’s round the world holiday with his girlfriend on your dime. Heavily […]
Kill your television
So the Nats have decided to kill public service television broadcasting: TVNZ’s charter is to be repealed in a move commentators say will […]
What is Whanau Ora?
Family Commissioner Jan Pryor says she can’t give a definition of Whanau Ora, Tariana Turia’s pet programme that Pryor’s Commission will be helping […]
No spark in Nats’ power reforms
A friend just texted: “Brownlee’s power reforms look relatively benign, what’s the catch?” It’s true, Brownlee’s reforms are just minor tinkering. The only […]
Driven to corruption
It turns out I understated the latest National ministers’ rort. Not only were the rules changed to allow ministers to have their taxpayer-funded self-drive […]
Excellent question
An excellent question from Labour yesterday, using some familiar numbers: Hon Annette King: When he was reusing ‘unreliable, highly volatile, and potentially misleading’ […]
Key aids English’s latest rort
Ministers are given self-drive taxpayer-funded cars for official business in their electorates (in Wellington they have crown limos at their disposal for official […]
So, where’s the plan?
The Brash Report was supposed to tell us how to catch up to Aussie, as per Key’s promise. It was just the same […]
Govt tries to silence dissent
The Government, stung by criticism of its inept education policies, is trying to silence teachers. Their plan is to make teachers, principals, and […]
Key is going. Now who pays?
So John Key has finally dropped his veils* and is going to Copenhagen. Well, Rob Emmerson correctly predicted how the ineffectual Emissions Trading […]
Need an exemption from the law? Just ask a corrupt Nat
Doug Schmuck owns and runs a boatyard in Opua in the Bay of Islands. The boatyard borders a public reserve. Schmuck wants to […]
Undoing the trouser button
Recall that last week Speaker Lockwood Smith tried to heavy the press, demanding that they stop doing stories on MP’s expenses or he […]
No more jobs for Nats’ old mates
Apart from keeping Don Brash well stocked with corned beef in his dotage, what exactly are we getting out of the Government’s half […]
Public rage at govt policies and lies
On Nightline just now there was coverage of a meeting held by Nick Smith in St Heliers. Two interesting things: 1) there was […]
Digging for nuggets
As we predicted, the main recommendations of the Brash report have been rejected out of hand by John Key. They are, as intended, […]
Shifting the centre
Well the productivity task force is reporting back today and some of their ideas have been forward released. As we expected they are […]