Reserve army of labour
Bill English came pretty close to admitting that the Nats are “relaxed” about our current high unemployment. Phil Goff came out swinging…
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Key slams teachers, medics. Puppies next in his sights
Key says that teachers are “disconnected from the real world” for wanting a pay rise that will barely beat inflation. This from the same guy who promised higher wages. The same guy chucked half a billion dollars this year alone on the taxpayer credit card for tax cuts for the rich. The only people disconnected from the real world are those who think skimping on education and health will take this country forward.
Another broken Supercity promise
Yet another broken promise on the Auckland Supercity, as ministers fail to consult on the directors of council-controlled organisations. Will The Herald stand by its earlier thundering editorial?
Sensible Sentencing Trust: a bunch of liars
The Sensible Sentencing Trust has lied about having Labour’s support.
Labour must come down on the trust like a ton of bricks for this bullsh*t.
Anything else is a betrayal of Labour’s members and their values.
No Medal of Honour for Wayne Mapp
Defence Minister Wayne Mapp must be desperate for publicity. He’s attacked the latest version of the Medal of Honour game set in Afghanistan. According to Mr Mapp, Medal of Honour “undermines the values of our nation, and the dedicated service of our men and women in uniformâ€. Okaaay…….
Standards fiasco and more National lies
At what point, I wonder, will National figure out that they’re in a hole over “national standards” and finally stop digging? At what point, I wonder, will National stop lying to us that the parents of insert region here are supportive of national standards?
Note to Labour: show some spine
Labour co-hosted the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s parliamentary conference.
That’s disgraceful pandering to disgraceful people.
It’s time Labour showed some spine and offered an alternative to the SST’s cowardly “lock ’em up” posturing.
Roy calls Rodney’s bluff
From John Armstrong: He [Hide] stared at the ornate ceiling. He stared at the wood-panelled walls. And when he wasn’t staring at those things, he just stared into the void in front of him. The only direction Rodney Hide was not looking was two seats to his left….
Lost respect and trust
I was wondering whether to write a post on the very odd things that outrage the tight little circle of right wing bloggers we have in this country. But MikeG in a comment at Dim Post made the point far far better than I could have.
Key slippery on crime
Yesterday, Key was boasting that his goverment had brought down robberies and burglaries in Manukau. But it’s just more numbers games. In reality, the crime rate in Counties Manukau rose 6.9% in 2009. That’s twice the already awful 3.5% nationwide increase. I’m not against the government saying it has brought down crime. I just wish that it was true.
Lies, damn lies and desperation
It is time we got away from Mr Key’s focus on individual greed and got back to a focus on better hospital, schools and care for those who are struggling. David Clark argues that Key’s tax cuts are going to actually drive away our high-achievers while Mr Key is telling us it’s going to bring them home.
Ready for more of English’s dodgy numbers?
Bill English is going to play more number games today to claim wages are rising. Actually they’re falling, they’re going to keep falling, and there are 100,000 extra jobless. We deserve a Finance Minister who does his job, not one occupying himself with statistical chicanery.
Faafoi to challenge Mana selection
I see Kris Faafoi’s been given the nod from the Goffice to have a crack at Mana. He’s always struck me as a decent and hardworking bloke, so I wouldn’t want anyone to take this as an attack on him personally, but isn’t it a little worrying how many of Labour’s new recruits are being parachuted in from the leader’s office?
Pretty fly for a white guy
This morning we’ve been treated to the sight of the media celebrating one rich white guy (double murderer John Barlow) getting out of jail and another rich white guy (former National Minister Roger McClay) escape a prison sentence for stealing tens of thousands of dollars. You’ve got to love it.
Key govt halves price of bananas
Prime Minister John Key has credited his government’s economic policies for the price of fruit and vegetables falling by 6.5%. It’s clearly because of all those fruit and vegetable price reduction policies the government has introduced. In fact, the fruit price index is really only down 3.9% since November 2008 and vegetables are actually up 14.4%. But who are you going to believe?
Treasury papers reveal SOE sale list
In the Treasury asset sale papers we released earlier this week, a key word is blanked out again and again. It is the name given for a group of SOEs in a series of slides on reforming the SOE sector. One can only presume that this list is the group of SOEs that the Government will be seeking to sell, if it can find a way to dupe the public first.
Roy enounters changeable Mr Hyde
Is Heather Roy to depart the ACT caucus? According to TVNZ, Act Party leader Rodney Hide is signalling his dumped deputy Heather Roy will find it extremely difficult to stay on as an MP, despite saying last week that she would be welcomed back into the caucus.
Job queues longer
Contrary to the sunny prognostications of Nice Mr Key, job queues are getting longer. How much more great economic management from John and Bill can the country stand?
McCully does have vision..
There have been a lot of complaints that Murray McCully is useless as our offshore representative and shows a complete lack of vision. Stop complaining.
John Black shows you what the alternatives could be…
SOE bonds: raiding the piggybank to pay for tax cuts for the rich
John Key and Bill English said they have neither requested nor seen official advice on privatisation. That is a lie. Even just the papers we’ve seen, let alone the eight Treasury says are still under consideration, show that privatisation is very much on the government’s agenda. They’re just trying to work out how to sneak it past us without a public backlash.
Work on privatisation under way
For the last few months, the Standard has been politely asking Treasury for their papers on the sale of Crown assets. To say they weren’t keen to share would be an understatement. We’ve managed to get a few papers of the papers, more are being withheld. These papers show what we’ve long suspected: the Government plans to force SOEs to issue bonds as a method of privatisation by stealth.
The secret of my success….
John Black cartoons John Keys success from childhood to Prime Minister. It has been good for him. It is not so good for anyone else.
Thousands protest Nats’ attack on our work rights
Thousands of Kiwis turned out to protest National’s new labour legislation, a unjustified, spiteful attack on our work rights, which is simply designed to lower labour costs. The CTU has announced a campaign leading to national day of action on Oct 20th. Kiwi workers won’t take this lying down. We are fighting back.
Pressured plonkers pull the plug on PEDA pingers
Quite suddenly, the government has pulled the plug on the contraversial $4.8 million in uncontested funding it awarded to the previously unknown Pacific Economic Development Agency in this year’s Budget.
It all stinks to high heaven.
Quick bites
There are a bunch of interesting little stories floating around this week that we didn’t get round to writing full posts on or that we wrote drafts for but never finished. So here’s a new, possibly weekly feature – Quick Bites:
NZ Institute: ‘Nats have no plan’
Suicide funding cut
Nats’ interesting donors
Workers’ rights under attack
One foot out of Iraq
Vultures
Party on Garth
Can we trust MPs while they have secret trusts?
Registrar of Pecuniary Interests Margaret Bazley, the country’s busiest pensioner, has presented recommendations for improving the transparency of MPs’ financial interests. It seems like good stuff, but it ignores the elephant in the room – the ability of MPs to use trusts to hide their shareholdings, and their conflicts of interest, from the public.
ACT’s demise bad news for neo-liberals
No wonder Winston Peters is smiling. His personal vendetta with Hide must be at on the forefront of his mind as he watches his nemesis sink.
But what does ACT’s impending demise actually mean for other parties? It’s not good news for National.
Douglas adds to Key’s ACT headache
ACT’s meltdown continues, with comments from ACT founder and current MP Sir Roger Douglas illustrating that all is not well in the caucus. […]
Massive series of blasts to close gap with Australia
Prime Minister John Key today outlined a plan to close the gap with Australia using his skills as a money trader and a stockpile of ex-Soviet nukes.
Take him up on the offer, Phil
John Key said yesterday: “the gap with Australia is definitely closing … If [Phil Goff] wants to pop up for a coffee I will take him through the numbers, and I can take him through a few others.” I say go for it, Phil. I’m dying to see what numbers Key is talking about. Because the reality is that we are falling behind Australia on every measure, while Key just smiles and waves.
Peters vs Key
TV3 is reporting Winston Peters will standing at the next election… against John Key in Helensville. Those are candidate meetings I for one wouldn’t want to miss!
One of these things is not like the other XI
One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same Can you guess which one […]