Creative pitch
With John Ansell now flat out with ACT and the Free Speech Coalition it suddenly stuck me that there might be an opening […]
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Blackball centenary
The weekend marked the centenary of the Blackball miners’ strike. TV3 reported that: “Politicians flocked to Labour’s spiritual home on the West Coast […]
Pressure building for Nats on R&D
Lest you think we are totally urban focused one of our readers sent us this recent editorial in the Rural News. In it […]
Lies, damned lies, and statistics
David Farrar appears to be throwing his weight in behind National Party’s “New Zealand Sucks” campaign with another misleading post on migration to […]
Policy Summary: Labour v National
The Sunday-Star Times has an interesting list of the policies the election will be fought on and where the two major parties stand on them. Here’s […]
It’s your fault I keep saying contradictory things
Regular readers will remember that one of John Key’s excuses for he ‘we would love to see wages drop‘ quote was that the […]
John’s quick act sets up another flip
Two days ago we ran a piece called ‘If I were ACT’s campaign strategist‘ which suggested ‘ACT needs to lay claim to the […]
Whatever, Roger
NZers’ wallets will bulge under Act, says Roger Douglas. Sure they will Roger – with the bills from our kids’ user-pays schools, our […]
Key, the Kiwi Ken
For harmonious holiday gatherings of family and friends it’s sometimes said that the topics of religion and politics are best avoided. At least […]
‘Try the dead rat, it’s delicious’
Hat tip: Chris S in the comments.
Obama vs Key
With Barack Obama doing so well in the Democrat primaries and being seen as the candidate of change, National wants to paint John […]
Rodney’s weightloss secret revealed! (maybe)
We’d assumed it was all the dancing but perhaps there’s another explanation. Stuff reports that: ACT on Campus – the youth branch of […]
If I were ACT’s campaign strategist
What strategy should the parties pursue ahead of the election? This series of posts will attempt to answer that question, party by party, starting with […]
National still evasive over KiwiSaver plans
You do have to wonder sometimes what it takes to get a straight answer out of a National party MP. Having recently given […]
More on mental health
After reading Steve’s piece about suicide prevention and the subsequent comments I’ve decided a short history lesson on this issue is needed. In […]
They know their man
This week’s NBR editorial, titled “Smarten up, John Key”, frets that Key keeps showing himself to be a slippery, policy lightweight (can’t have […]
New Ansell billboard
Nationalise Air New Zealand
The recent scandal over Air New Zealand underpaying its Chinese workers to the tune of four times less than their New Zealand counterparts […]
Colmar Brunton
TVNZ had another Colmar Brunton poll last night. The gap between National and Labour remains substantial, but has closed by four points since […]
John Ansell’s reverse Midas touch
Oh dear. It started with Roger Douglas and now political ad-man John Ansell has got on board the ACT train to electoral oblivion […]
The Key Problem
The somewhat irregular and frequently misguided Chris Trotter occasionally hits it on-the-head. Today’s Sunday Star Times has Trotter running over John Key’s inability […]
Birds of a feather…
Frogblog covers Muriel Newman’s column in the Dom yesterday: “Climate change, we didn’t do it” [whew! back to my environmentally pollutive and destructive […]
National’s bad fortnight
A bad week last week from John Key got worse this week as other National MPs joined Key in a game of drop […]
Journalists react to attack on media freedom
Yesterday in Parliament, Winston Peters tabled a letter of protest from the Herald journalists’ chapel to APN chief executive Martin Simons. The letter […]
PSA on core public service
Richard Wagstaff from the PSA was interviewed by Sunrise on John Key’s plan to undermine the public service this morning. He notes Key’s […]
Connell evasive over trip
Brian Connell won’t say whether he’s planning on taking his wife on the taxpayer-funded Speaker’s tour. In the clip below Faafoi asks Connell […]
Key to scrap research fund
From Radio NZ: National says it will scrap a major new research and development fund for the pastoral and food industries if it […]
National confirms Landcorp would be sold (?)
We have an interesting mixed message (once again) from National on asset sales. David Carter is quoted in the NZ Farmers Weekly as […]
Slippery John in search of a hot-button
To follow on from Steve’s post earlier today, it looks like National’s focus groups have thrown them up another hot-button issue – Key […]
Canadian Pension Fund’s asset-strip plan
The Canadian Pension Fund is planning to asset-strip Auckland Airport. Once they have control they would demand ‘hyper-dividends’ three times the size of […]
Which jobs would Key cut?
It’s hard to get a straight answer out of John Key, so this is probably an exercise in futility, but Key’s announcement that National […]
Reactions to New Zealand Fast Forward
Groups that issued press releases welcoming the Government announcement of the $700 million research and development fund for argiculture (press releases on Scoop): […]
Dolla Dolla Bill, Y’all
Days after saying ‘we’ve always said, we aren’t that worried about, um, whether the Crown needs to borrow a bit of money [for […]
Yawn
Well National’s finally got their line straight on the research fund and, despite me old mate Dancer’s prediction, they are not supporting it. […]
$700m for R&D
The Dom reports that “Prime Minister Helen Clark unveiled the $700 million funding boost for research, development and innovation projects today and said […]
Stepping in
No Right Turn makes a good point about the government’s $700 million innovation fund for the agricultural and food sector: I’m a little […]