Rodney Hide caught in a lie
Interesting comment from ‘gobsmacked’ on Rodney Hide’s statement that John Key “doesn’t do anything” and how he as a minister can ram pretty […]
Politics
national/act government
16,000 more jobs lost
The number of employed people fell from 2,170,000 to 2,154,000 in the three months to September*. There are 54,000 fewer people in jobs […]
Key & English lose us $21mil in 3 months
Back in February, former currency speculator John Key and former Treasury adviser Bill English started talking about suspending contributions to the Cullen Fund, […]
Where’s Paula?
The Herald’s creepy lovefest with the National Party continues today with Simon Collins’ profile of Paula Bennett, who is apparently “one of us”* […]
It’s wrong but I’ll do it anyway
Just saw this in the SST. Hide on the spousal travel allowance: This perk is wrong, I’ve never agreed with it So why […]
The slippery standards of Mr Key
Yesterday, John Key cleverly tried to reframe his ministers’ failure to obey his standards on use of perks: “You don’t want 120 Members […]
New road user laws
Remember John Key’s Nanny State rant?: I’ve had nine years of being told what lightbulb I can screw into the house, what shower […]
Exchange rates, Kiwisaver, breaking promises, & the art of doing nothing
A range of interesting political/economic comment today in the Herald: Fran O’Sullivan joins the left-wing and groups like Federated Farmers in calling on […]
Voters see Nats’ feet of clay
Amongst all the puffery from the right-wing commentators in the Herald today, a very interesting piece – interviews with ordinary people from New […]
Key’s piggies at the trough
A few months ago, John Key said of ministers taking their partners travelling on the taxpayer dollar: “I’ve told them if they want […]
Hey Righty
One of our commenters prism asked a good question on Open Mike the other day: The honeymoon for the Nats stretches on and […]
Key OK with ministers’ backdoor perk
I’m sure you noticed Hide’s latest shenanigans – getting his partner taxpayer subsidised international flights despite Key’s directive not to. Key (surprise, surprise) is ‘comfortable’ with […]
Treasury provides cover for Nats’ rightwing agenda
National’s favourite public servant (who got himself a nice pay rise), John Whitehead, has been offering dire warnings of the future. $2 trillion […]
Examples of rest break exploitation
Over at Kiwiblog, David Farrar is doing his usual apologetics for National by trying to spin its removal of guaranteed rest and meal […]
What’s so urgent?
As we endure the 6th consecutive week of National putting Parliament into urgency, new stats show that this government is abusing urgency to […]
Get back to work!
The reprieve from the rain may have been the only thing worth celebrating this Labour Day. Probably pissed that there isn’t a holiday […]
National wants to take a break – yours
You’ll have seen in the paper that National is going to legislate, most likely under urgency, to let employers deny workers the right […]
Big business demands to pillage state
Fran O’Sullivan runs up some more big business proposals today unsubtly reminding Key that big business, which put up the cash to get […]
Labour stands up for ACC
So – Labour have stood up for ACC. Bravo! History repeats. In the last year of the last National government (1999) they flogged […]
Colonial mentality alive and well
Radio NZ reports: The head of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the New Zealand Parliament wants to end self government in the […]
National announces ACC privatisation
National is going to privatise ACC. As part of the deal for support on its ACC cuts and levy hikes from the Maori […]
Reflections on the ERA
There’s been a fair bit of coverage of John Key’s use of the CTU conference to divide and rule over wages and announce […]
Chopper chops science education
National’s Anne Tolley, our education minister who thought that taking a ‘helicopter view’ of something meant taking a ride in a chopper, is […]
Hide falls foul of Cabinet Manual
The Cabinet Manual details the basic expectations of ministerial conduct. It is not law but it would be highly irregular for a minister to breach […]
Key’s divide and rule to cut wages
John Key says that if school support staff want pay-rises then teachers should sacrifice the ones they bargained for. Tell him to get […]
Hide flounders in effort to cover corruption
Rodney Hide was always going to go one of two ways to try to excuse his corrupt abuse of office. Remember the facts: […]
Hide’s corrupt abuse of office
Another government minister has been caught in corrupt behaviour, and this is arguably the worst of the lot. Rodney Hide is speaking at […]
EMA busts another privatisation myth
When asked to explain why they want to start privatising a world-leading institution like ACC, National and ACT tend to fall back on […]
Farrar says: carpe diem National
An interesting post from David Farrar calling for National to implement radical rightwing policies while it still has the support to get away […]
ACC protests send clear message to NACT
Today hundreds of people around the country marched against the cuts to sexual abuse counselling due to be implemented by ACC next week. […]
Told you so: Right pushes ACC privatisation
Last Thursday, Colin Espiner was mocking all of us who said that National and other rightwing groups were trying to create a sense […]
Smith still lying with numbers
Last week, David Parker asked Nick Smith what the “whole-of-life cost to ACC of all new claims” for the last year were. Smith’s […]
Sharples a scapegoat for Nats’ bumbling schemers
If we’re to believe National’s version of events, Pita Sharples kept secret from his colleagues that he was going to take $3 million from […]
O’Sullivan: Key a poor manager, Smith needs to go
Fran O’Sullivan’s piece today tries to resurrect the ‘Key=Obama’ line for some reason. She even refers to Obama as Key’s ‘alter ego’. I’m […]
Nick Smith plays dumb
Answering the question you wish you were asked rather than the one you were is a common PR tactic (to a point) when […]
One law for all?
Over on g.blog, toad has noticed something: If you or I steal money, it is theft. We get taken to court, and get […]