Into the void: examining National’s ‘policies’
National’s so-called policies are laughable. National says it has released ’14 policies’ (14! wow! anyone would think they were planning to run a scout […]
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Many liberals, many drinks at Drinking Liberally
Drinking Liberally last night was another raging success. The crowd was about 80, lots of new faces and good fun had by all. […]
Drinking Liberally tonight
Just a reminder that Drinking Liberally is on again this evening. See youse there. WHAT Drinking Liberally WHEN From 5.30pm, Wednesday June 4th. […]
Ward sees sense
Good on Mike Ward for finally seeing sense and stepping aside, allowing Greens co-leader Russel Norman to enter Parliament replacing Nandor Tanczos. Norman […]
How much did Key pay for his seat?
It’s funny the stories you hear when you’re out in the provinces. I was up in Auckland over the long weekend and came […]
Labour re-opens Botany
Brenden Sheehan, the high profile spokesperson for the Muliaga family has withdrawn as Labour’s candidate in Botany. A press release put out by […]
Polling companies confirm reputations
Another pair of TV polls, another embarrassment for Colmar Brunton as their poll goes widely out of line with the others even as […]
Regrets? I’ve had a few
Is Don Brash trying to help or hinder John Key? A revealing couple of articles (a news story and a feature) in the […]
What’s National’s real assets policy?
Isn’t this the one issue where we truly know what National will do? Didn’t John Key say ‘there will be no asset sales […]
Greens challenge Fonterra
Good to see the Greens coming out with a relevant, populist message at the weekend’s conference by tackling the issue of food affordability. […]
PC scourge claims another victim
A recent newsletter from anti-PC campaigner Murray McCully led with this comment supporting the right of the Burmese people to decide for themselves […]
Cullen to speak at Drinking Liberally
Drinking Liberally’s Facebook group has just sent out the invitation to their second event. I don’t know how they’ve swung it, but they’ve […]
Ryall: disgraceful
National’s Tony Ryall has made a disgrace of himself, yet again. This time, by labelling a Government initiative to hasten improvements in the […]
On the perils of polls
We’re used to hearing that a poll has a margin of error but what does it mean? A margin of error of 3% […]
Herald Digipoll
Another Herald Digipoll is out today, with a sample taken both before and directly after the Budget. The poll pretty much confirms what […]
Notional Policy: Kiwisaver
Tracy Watkins reported yesterday that National’s weakening of the employer contribution to Kiwisaver may take a different path to the one we envisaged. […]
Gosche to retire
Mark Gosche has announced he will retire from politics at the election. Gosche has represented the people of Maungakiekie for 12 years and, […]
Farrar’s company, Curia, polls for Family First
I’d thought at the time that it seemed a little odd for David Farrar to pass up a free hit regarding the Family […]
Why didn’t Kate know Nats’ Kiwisaver policy?
The most surprising thing to come of the National’s Kiwisaver fiasco is not that they want to undermine the scheme and get employers […]
Key: Vietnam War was “right thing to do”
Yesterday, the leaders of the parliamentary parties apologised to the veterans of the Vietnam War for the treatment they received both while fighting […]
“pretty similar”
I noticed an interesting comment from Ferdinand in our Kiwisaver thread yesterday: I signed up to Kiwisaver based on the 4% employer contribution […]
Greens must not let ETS fail
The Dompost reports that the Greens will not vote for the Emissions Trading Scheme if the introduction of transport fuels into the scheme […]
Nats to journos: say what we want or shut up
Here’s Barry Soper on ZB on the ‘Kate-gate‘ Kiwisaver debacle: What I found interesting was the way it was handled. I was the only person […]
Kremlinology: National and Kiwisaver
National’s refusal to say what it stands for is becoming so ridiculous we have resorted to the Cold War art of Kremlinology. Today, […]
Clydesdale report rubbished
Greg Clydesdale’s report that labelled Pacific Islanders a ‘drain on the economy’ has been rubbished as a lazy, intellectually dishonest piece of work […]
Interview the Leaders IX – Questions for Peters
We’ve chosen the questions for Winston Peters in the final installment of our ‘Interview the Leaders’ series. The first question remains the same, […]
The status of KiwiSaver
Tracy Watkins reports: “National has been forced into an embarrassing u-turn on KiwiSaver after its industrial relations spokeswoman Kate Wilkinson appeared to put the […]
Getting blood from a stone
A reader has just written in as a followup to IrishBill’s post earlier today on National’s plans to line the pockets of oil […]
ToryAid: The Standard resurrects Wastewatch
Remember wastewatch.co.nz? It’s National’s site listing all the ‘government waste’. From six years of Labour government it managed to find a grand total […]
Grueling
Nats announce launch release consider rural doctors bonding scheme. Here’s the link, but honestly, don’t bother.
Ambitious for big oil
We’ve all heard John Key bang on about his ambitions for New Zealand’s infrastructure and now one of my sources within the National […]
Vote National, get ACT
A source present at the University of Victoria debating society event last night tells us that Heather Roy referred to herself frequently (but we’re told […]
Predictions on Parliament
We’ve seen many of the commentators suggest that National is coming up short on policy proposals after the Budget last week. What I’ll […]
Down the club
National party activist and spokesperson David Farrar has surpassed himself this time with a post attacking Helen Clark for not having children that […]
Show us ya policy
Steve posted this morning that even Granny Herald’s patience appears to be wearing thin waiting for National and Key to announce some policy […]
Kremlinology: Nats’ tax plans
National is still refusing to give us any detail on its tax cut plan, indicating it doesn’t have one. But let’s do a […]