Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
I’ve been looking for feedback on Simon Power’s electoral finance reform package but I can’t find anything from Labour. After the hell that rained down on them over the EFA (much of it richly deserved) I can only assume that Labour thinks National’s got it about right.
The Dompost has repeated English’s false claims on GDP growth. They trusted the Minister of Finance to get his maths right. But English’s numbers are completely wrong. He can’t do simple maths, no wonder there’s no government leadership on the economy.
The business elite wants to drag us back to the days of unfair elections and weak democracy, when business interests held even more sway than now. We don’t want to return to those days. We want to keep the best electoral system in the world – MMP.
Tongue in cheek, George notes: When asked in Parliament why he hadn’t paid closer attention to his share portfolio, Key replied: “small technical issue, I’ve been busy running the countryâ€. That statement must come close to misleading Parliament.
John Key has tried to excuse himself from owning shares in a uranium company by saying he was “sloppy”. I’m afraid that’s not good enough for a Prime Minister worth millions, who likely pays top dollar for a lawyer to advise him on just these kind of problems.
Bill English claimed in the House today that the economy only grew by 0.9% a year in Labour’s last three years in power. Unfortunately for him the problem was his maths, not Labour’s economic policy. English can’t get simple percentages right, can we trust him with the nation’s finances?
John Key says sickness and invalid’s benefit numbers are increasing because “the previous government encouraged a move off the unemployment benefit into those categories, which aren’t work testedâ€. You’ve been caught out on this lie by The Standard authors before, John. Did you think it would slip by us now?
You know how the world has been through the worst financial crisis in decades? You know how countries like Ireland and Iceland who had made themselves into financial hubs via tax breaks for banks are now deep in the crap with burgeoning debt and unemployment? Why don’t we do what they did?
There’s a demo at Parliament today to protest against the Government’s ACC bill, which raises levies, cuts Kiwis’ entitlements and paves the way for privatisation. If you’re in the CBD make sure you head down in your lunch break.
MARCH AND RALLY FOR ACC
TODAY 16TH February
12.30pm – Parliament
Tabloid trash mag Woman’s Day has being paying someone to follow Alison Mau and her family to take pictures to fuel their prurient interest […]
John Key says Jackson Mining was just a gold mining company when he bought them and that they didn’t get involved in uranium until later. In fact, Jackson mining was already involved in uranium when Key listed his interest in the company last year
Julie Fairey at The Hand Mirror has posted a follow-up on the curious tale of how National’s Dr Jackie Blue “had told the […]
Whanau Ora is a terrible idea. It is the beginning of the privatisation of social services, wrapped in a cloak of Maori-centred solutions […]
Key has explicitly promised that no-one will be left worse off by these changes but he doesn’t have the money, can’t have to money, to do that if he persists in handing over buckets of money to the rich.
The Standard has been sent copies of documents (1,2,3,4) released under the Official Information Act which show that one of National’s first acts in government was to trim a Conservation Park at the request of a mining company, ignoring local concerns and official advice, to let the company dig up the land for coal.
Matt McCarten asks “are we still in love?” with John Key after a year of do-nothing government and a promised ‘step change’ that is really just favours for National’s rich mates. If the views of people on McGehan Close, Key’s famous ‘underclass’ street are anything to go by, the answer is increasingly ‘no’.
Tracy Watkins awards the first week of Parliamentary politics this year to Phil Goff, and points out that it’s as much due to his and Labour’s much improved performance as it is to Key and National’s shambolic, over-promise, under-deliver governance.
Protests are taking place around the country today against the National Government’s miserable 25 cent increase to the minimum wage.
This is pretty classic. Found it on one of The Standard’s old posts. I think we’ll be seeing a bit more of this […]
The other day I wrote: I reckon we probably will see a passing reference to the ‘underclass’ for appearance’s sake [in John Key’s […]
It turns out that the silly ‘no-one owns it’ option for the foreshore and seabed is John Key’s ‘elegant solution’. Here he is defending […]
In chronological order: John Key: “[I never promised I wouldn’t raise GST]. I said I would not raise GST to cover deficits, and […]
Paying a person doing the same work as another person less money because of their sex or religion or ethnicity or any other grounds […]
Over the last month or so National’s pollster David Farrar has been running a series of posts desperately trying to pin the spike […]
My my, things are turning quickly for John Key. We now have the first sighting of the red flag term “the beleaguered PM” […]
“Last GST hike had little impact, say tax experts” – Herald The article is about inflation but it is also true of growth. […]
The Government and the secretive Iwi Leadership Group are looking at an option where no-one owns the foreshore and seabed. It’s often forgotten […]
As I have mentioned before, Jeanette Fitzsimons is one of the very few members of parliament for whom I have the utmost respect. […]
Yesterday, Rahui Katene said the Maori Party could walk away from National if they didn’t adequately compensate low and middle income people for increasing […]
“An unscientific poll yesterday of 846 readers asking whether they would be happy to pay more GST if it meant they paid less […]
Number of jobless Kiwis = 276,000 Number of jobs plans from Key Government = 0 Key can make all the vague references to […]
Apparently promises made before the election don’t count. GST was different then anyway.
John Key is hell bent on carving up our most pristine National Parks for mining. No matter what. The areas most at risk […]
Any questions?
Someone’s noticed that during her recent Tea Party speech Palin had “Energy”, “Tax,” and “Lift Americans Spirits” written on her hand – she used […]
