What they’re hiding
Interesting to see that the new ACC board chairman, John Judge, is an alumnus/affiliate member of the Business Roundtable. That’s the same Business […]
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Sick
ACT MP David Garrett is quickly becoming a sick joke. Asked today about the fact more prisoners will be assaulted or raped by […]
Steve shuffles off his mortal coil
Protecting workers’ rights, protecting ACC, safeguarding jobs, public services, and SOEs, opposing privatisation. These are all important fights. But it’s a crime we’re […]
Doubleplusungood
Sources tell us that National/ACT government (Nactgov) has ordered more words to be removed from official documents. We already knew they had banned […]
Environment Ministry cut
The National/ACT Government’s axe has fallen on the Environment Ministry today, with staff being flown to Wellington to discover a raft of environmental […]
Melting point
The Ecologist Film Unit’s second release documents how espionage, news manipulation, legal threats and even violence have become the knee-jerk response of Government […]
Private prisons and the ‘tough on crime’ lobby
One of the features of a privatised prison system is the potential for corruption of the political process by the commercial interests of […]
Fail
So, ‘Crusher’ Collins has failed in her high profile campaign to have Barry Matthews sacked. How embarrassing, what with her staking her entire […]
S92A: Campbell Smith is finally removing his head from his…
Sometimes the myopia of RIANZ is breath taking. Campbell Smith, its chief executive, has written an dialogue piece in the NZ Herald. “Anti-piracy […]
The Wall Street Journal gets it
Despite all the claims of “centrist” and “centre-right” none other than the the Wall Street Journal has pointed out that John Key’s government […]
Centrist? Bullshit.
The Herald has the scoop that National is looking to privatise New Zealand’s prison system. Add David Garrett’s savage three strikes law and […]
Stop McCully’s cull of NZAID
The Standard hasn’t commented on what’s happening with NZAID yet, and people can be forgiven for not knowing what’s going on. But chances […]
No free trade deal
The Obama administration has halted free trade talks with New Zealand. On one hand free trade is simply increased freedom of capital and […]
PM eyes fetching tiara
The world may be going to hell in a hand-basket and National may have been pretty derelict so far in coming up with […]
HerStory – what’s happened to the quality chic-flick?
A couple of weeks ago I listened to a very interesting interview with Dr Diane Purkiss (audio here) on Nine to Noon. I […]
Gordon Campbell states the obvious
Gordon Campbell has been having fun pointing the finger at Treasury in “How Treasury put us on the hook to finance companies“. Essentially […]
Drinking Liberally – Auckland
Drinking Liberally Auckland back for another round in 2009. Join all your favourite lefty liberal drinkers at Drinking Liberally Auckland. When: 7pm, Wednesday […]
Reminder: Pay Equity Faxathon
Quick reminder – today’s Pay Equity Faxathon Day, your chance to have a go at State Services Minister Tony Ryall for his decision […]
Meat and Wool NZ: “Job Summit Disappointing”
It’s been said by some of the Government’s supporters that criticism of the Job Summit is nothing more than rantings of the embittered […]
665 jobs lost since Jobs Summit
If you believe the Government’s spin, protecting jobs in this recession is their number one priority. They even held a big fancy Jobs […]
ACT’s dodgy backroom deals?
This is interesting. From the Greens’ Metiria Turei: Last night on TVNZ7’s political show Backbenches, Rodney Hide commented that ACT had supported the […]
Some cold day in hell
Observant msm spectators may have noticed this gem from TV1 news last night: ‘A radical shake-up of the controversial Seabed and Foreshore Act […]
National’s newspeak
When he’s not hard at work protecting the profits of tobacco giants by helping them peddle smokes to your kids, Ryall’s having a […]
An empty shell
Question Time yesterday was extraordinary. There’s too much to quote it all: ministers attacking ACC, refusing to back the minimum wage for all […]
The Jobs Summit as propaganda
So, the ideas suck but the jobs summit was never meant to produce recession-busting ideas. The fact is this was a propaganda stunt. […]
National’s ambition for your kids: a pie and a fag
Last month Anne Tolley ditched the requirement that schools sell healthy food to kids. Not to be outdone, minister for tobacco Tony Ryall […]
Worrying about the big stuff
In the age of the media politician, where catch-phrases are given more attention than laws and good politics is awarded more points by […]
Democracy and the BOFH, Jonkey, and S92A preparations
Reply is a feature that accidentally got turned on last week when I had a adware/malware outbreak through a security hole (those buggers […]
NRT on National’s ACC antics
I’ve been meaning to write something about National’s attempts to beat up ACC’s costs in order to soften the ground for privatisation (see […]
Fire at will causing discrimination already
The Herald reports the fire at will law is already claiming victims, after Sue Bradford revealed a beneficiary has been denied help for […]
Govt set to deny low-paid workers basic rights
The National government couldn’t hold off democracy forever, so today we are graced with the first members’ day of the new term. And […]
Played like a fiddle
Yesterday, when the inquiry came back on whether the shortfall in ACC funding should have been disclosed in the PREFU, Bill English quickly […]
What is to be done?
Kudos to the Maori Party’s Rahui Katene for using her position to highlight the situation at Sealord in Parliament today. But it’s Paula […]
Buyer’s remorse
It’s well known that David Garrett is only in Parliament as ACT’s payoff for their support from the Sensible Sentencing Trust. I’m guessing […]
Welcome to the real ACT party
This their slogan: “ACT – the liberal party” This is the reality: “We’ve got too hung up on people’s rights.”
Key writes off Sealord jobs
Despite making sound profits Sealord are laying off 180 workers in Nelson. They claim the move is part of restructuring and that there […]