Wee gripes: private=efficient
Can Treasury Secretary John Whitehead explain how paying profit-making companies to do what is already being done by non-profit-making departments will save money? […]
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Good jab, now land some punches
It was excellent to see Phil Goff laying down the gauntlet to Key yesterday. He announced Labour’s policy to temporarily relax partner means […]
Fighting the dittoheads
One of the great strengths of the Right is that the rank and file supporters are such slavish followers of their leaders. It […]
Recession’s ‘rough edges’ hit families – no help from govt
Labour leader Phil Goff has called for a temporary relaxation of the rules for getting the dole. Too many Kiwis on low and […]
The Salesman
One of the stories from John Key’s days as a currency trader is that he was always more of a salesman than an […]
Keith Locke on tasers
Green MP Keith Locke investigates the claims of safety for tasers, and finds that other countries are concerned that the devices are not […]
Mike Smith steps down
Labour General Secretary Mike Smith has announced he will retire at the party’s national conference in September. He’s the last of the four […]
Meme to Labour: Enough of the Should be, more of the Would be.
After 9 months of watching the rich get richer, with their triple dip cuts, first in taxes, then in private school fees, and […]
Wee gripe: crime-porn
This endless crime-porn. Night after night of fetishistic coverage of the latest unusual crime or trial. Call yourselves journalists? Bollocks. You run this […]
Wee gripes: 3 of 3
Business New Zealand and other assorted tossers. Stop calling our country ‘New Zealand Inc’. This is our home. This is where we live […]
Wee gripes: 2 of 3
Maori unemployment is ballooning day by day but the most important thing that Maori Affairs Minister Sharples can spend his time on is […]
Wee gripes: 1 of 3
It takes two days from folate blowing up as a political issue for Key to get Crown Law onto finding a way for […]
Defending the indefensible
It was disappointing to hear Phil Goff defending the Fourth Labour Government on National Radio the other morning. This was a government whose […]
Gordon Campbell on PPPs
Gordon Campbell has a great piece up at Scoop on the pitfalls of Public Private Partnerships, something we’re going to be hearing a […]
A brave man
Looking at the centre photo above of John Key gave me pause for thought; I realised that much as I dislike his politics, […]
Key grins blankly, shrugs shoulders
I was going to do a fisking of Key’s ‘major speech‘ today. But there’s nothing to fisk, no substance, no ideas, no vision. […]
Leak: Key’s next big plan revealed
Today Key is giving a major speech on the economy. He told Oliver Driver on Sunrise yesterday that it would be “pretty high […]
YL video: Join the opposition
Not to be outshone by their leader’s latest efforts, looks like Young Labour have been busy with a little video project of their […]
We can haz vision?
According to NZPA John Key is going to deliver a big speech tomorrow in which he will “detail the problems and solutions for […]
Folic acid fiasco
I just don’t see why medicating an entire population to prevent a handful of spina bifida cases, which will only work if women […]
Nats can NOHSAC
One of the most fundamental rights at work is the right to come home at the end of the day healthy and safe. […]
Credit where credit’s due
You may have noticed that we’ve taken to offering Labour a little unsolicited comms advice of late. Irish recently told them to get some […]
Big Mac nation
New Zealanders are now the third fattest nation in the world according to a report covered in today’s Christchurch Press. New Zealand faces […]
Standard scoop: Why Key fired Worth
Last Monday, John Key said you, the people of New Zealand, don’t have the right to know why a minister in your government […]
Big dreams, no delivery
Tv1 has revealed that our daydreamer PM had much much bigger plans for the cycleway. Like excited schoolkids, he and good mate Mark […]
Toast
What a horrifying sight today’s Q+A interview with Minister of Food Safety Kate Wilkinson made. It was a shameful performance from a media point […]
Not Yours To Sell
Labour MP Phil Twyford is launching a campaign around his bill to protect Auckland’s community assets. www.notyourstosell.co.nz Phil Twyford’s private members bill, the […]
Another new left blog
Elsewoman. We’ve been remiss in not getting this on the blogroll earlier. Anne’s been giving us hassles. And rightly so, her blog is […]
New left blog
Mars 2 Earth is one of the vanishingly few blogs written from a Maori perspective (with quite a bit of environmentalism thrown in). Muscular […]
F*ck you, the NZ collaboration
Kick arse: Hat tip: Russell Brown
Political violence
A Nelson man attempted to buy a gun to shoot Nick Smith. Details are scant. What could have been a nasty situation looks […]
Good news for care workers
It’s good news that carers for people with intellectual disabilities are getting more recognition. A court decision has found that sleep-over shifts are […]
Labour always hated the Nazis
I have to confess some confusion about this study that supposedly shows the First Labour Government was tight with Hitler. They were real, […]
Fisking Farrar’s fisking
Yesterday David Farrar presented us with his analysis of Labour’s electoral finance submission. There is a lot of ‘Nya Nya I Told You […]
Get your house in order
Here’s some advice I’d give Labour if I was Crosby Textor: You need three negative values you want associated with National (for example: […]
Observation from the sideline
Some worthwhile questions raised by Vernon Small in today’s Dom Post: Eight months ago to the day Labour awoke to find itself out […]