New ‘no darkies’ party to form

Paul ‘dickshit’ Henry, Maurice ‘no shi’ite’ Williamson, John ‘I wish South Aucklanders hadn’t voted’ Banks, Melissa ‘South Aucklanders are all crims’ Lee, Paul ‘cheekie darkie’ Holmes, and Michael ‘brown slug’ Laws have joined forces to create a new political party for ‘real New Zealanders’ standing up to ‘the Brown-skinned elite’.

Michael Lhaws: pathetic little attention-seeker

Michael Lhaws has been a insecure little attention-seeker his whole life and, a lot like Paul Henry, he gets the attention he craves by voicing his prejudices. So, the revelation of his insults against the Governor-General are hardly surprising. They’re more of the brand of gratuitous racism we’ve come to expect from the pathetic little creep.

Auckland Moves Left

Len’s in in Auckland, but it’s not just the man at the top the left can be happy with. Auckland may have provided a few new seats to National at the last general election, and Hide may have done his best to set up the SuperCity for his mates to win – but the Council doesn’t look so bad either. Add in the Local Boards, and it wasn’t a big day of celebration for the right.

“John Key’s smile only goes so far”

National Party pollster David Farrar must have seen bad numbers on the Mana by-election, he’s already making excuses. Apparently, Hekia Parata is a top candidate but it’s the voters’ fault – they’ll be confused by having two elections close together. It’s Farrar’s comment about Key, though, that is most revealing.

Growth and Money: Means, not Ends

This government seems to have confused the means and the ends.  Growth and money have become the ends, when they only ever should have been the means.  Surely what should matter now is that we have a happy, fulfilled society, where people have the opportunity to do what they want.

Finding the rotten apple

Labour candidate for the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board Daljit Singh has been named as one of two people charged over false voter registrations. This seems a pretty crude attempt at perverting an election and a stupid one that no sophisticated political player would ever think they could get away with.

People Aren’t Beans

This government doesn’t seem to have the human touch.  It fails to see the personal, just the numbers.  So it’s sending 3 New Zealand children to live as ‘untouchables’ in an Indian slum, without the limited access to schools or hospitals that even the locals have – as they won’t (and can’t) be Indian citizens.

Gilmore’s fake CV

Aaron Gilmore became an MP in 2008 by a hair’s breadth. Something like 40 more votes to Labour and his list seat would have gone to them. His Parliamentary career has been as undistinguished as the manner in which he got in. Now, it appears his CV isn’t as impressive as he would like us to believe either.

Little Mr Key, the spider & the sunny day

Had a crack at writing my kid a story. What do you reckon?

Once upon a time there was a little man called John Key. He told everyone that if they trusted him he would lead them to a brighter future. Some of the people said he was lying to get power. More people said that they liked that nice man, Mr Key, and wanted the brighter future he promised…

Key loves to see wages drop

The just released Income Survey is more evidence of the Key Government’s failure to deliver for working Kiwis. After inflation, this is the third successive year in which the median income of New Zealanders has fallen. It’s now nearly 5% lower than when National came to power. This year alone, the median income fell 3.5%.

Team Anderton should remain confident

Bob Parker has milked the earthquake for maximum political gain. As a result, Jim Anderton is understandably the underdog in the mayoral race. No-one could blame him for losing in this situation but don’t rule him out just yet. People haven’t suddenly forgotten why they wanted rid of Parker or Anderton’s record of service.

A Case of IHG?

Seems these days that when people get in to financial strife, the Government is all too happy to offer a helping hand loaded down with wadges of cash.  Sometimes…

And then sometimes something altogether more short and sharp is offered. Depending…

Auckland electoral fraud case

The alleged electoral roll fraud in Auckland has plenty of angles and dimensions for political junkies.  But the underlying issue is simple.  Electoral fraud of any kind is not OK, perpetrators should be found and prosecuted.  We have one of the most robust and respected democracies in the world.  Let’s keep it that way.

Banks desperate

As it goes down to the wire in Auckland, John Banks’ desperation is on full display.  It’s not a pretty sight.  Banks seem to have nothing to offer but negative campaigning, personal attacks, and South Auckland dogwhistles.  He deserves to lose.

Business wants permanent rightwing dictatorship

The capitalist elite is anti-democratic to its core. The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act (CERRA) is being held up as business’s ideal form of government. Ex-National staffer Richard Long says that Gerry Brownlee should use his CERRA powers to ‘sort out’ a slew of other ‘problems’. We should never have trusted them with this power.

Why are the National ministers so afraid of each other?

Ministerial staffers who have worked under the National and Labour governments of recent years have begun commenting on some of the differences between each.

Apparently, one key difference has been that National ministers refuse to hire staff from other ministerial offices to avoid being labelled by their ministerial colleagues as staff-poachers.

The leadership vacuum

Paul Henry has a racist rant to the Prime Minister and what does John Key do? He laughs along and tries to make a joke. A PM that is afraid to be a leader. A Leader of the Opposition who is afraid of ticking off racists. A Green Party that is afraid of making a claim for the Left vote when Labour fails. Come back, Helen, all is forgiven.

John Key’s blue-eyed baby misdirection

John Key really does say some extraordinary things when he’s trying to placate the media, and often it works because journos are bamboozled into accepting what he says as fact. Yesterday, he defended the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act saying the Governor-General tests the appropriateness of each CERRA law. Dead wrong.

Wade-Brown with a chance to beat Prendergast

Everyone had pretty much assumed that Kerry Prendergast was a sure thing to win another term as Wellington’s mayor. But a Dompost poll shows Celia Wade-Brown is in the hunt. With a small gap and low turn-out every vote matters – so cast yours for Wade-Brown today.

Dompost says CERRA needs to go

The Dompost has joined the chorus of outrage over CERRA (The Gerry Brownlee Enabling Act). Parliament got it badly, badly wrong in signing away its powers but it’s not too late to make things right. The Greens are calling for a review. Labour should join them.

No rest for team Brown

The weekend headlines make it seem like Brown has the Auckland Mayoral election all but won.  That’s an invitation to self-defeating complacency.  Team Brown needs to keep up the hard work — it ain’t over ’till it’s over.

EPA: Enabling poor accountability

When National announced it would create an ‘Environmental Protection Agency’ and a short-cut resource consent process for projects of ‘national significance’, the implications were clear. The new agency and process would be used to override local opposition. Sure enough, that’s what’s happening with Waterview.

Carter’s piss-poor blackmail & careerism

So, Chris Carter is threatening a ‘tell-all’ book on the Fifth Labour Government published at the next election. But he says he won’t publish it if he gets to stay in Labour. It’s blackmail, a further act of treachery for which he deserves to be evicted from the party. Carter’s rot is the corruption of all MPs who forget who they were elected to serve.

Be rad: vote Yani and James

OK, so it’s quite up with the best campaign ad ever, but Yani Johanson and James Dann’s anti-Bob Parker rap brought a smile to my face. Yani is running for councillor in the Hagley-Ferrymead ward and James is going for the Hagley-Ferrymead Community Board, both on the People’s Choice ticket.

Banks and the South Auckland bashers

John Banks has made bashing South Auckland part of his campaign “strategy”.  That didn’t work out so well for Melissa Lee, and it won’t work out so well for others that are now trying the same tactic…

What will future generations condemn us for?

This question is something that has been on my mind for some time. In this article, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosophy professor at Princeton, sets out four examples of current policy that he believes those in the future will look back and say “What were people thinking?”