The Crown is seeking to overturn the Court of Appeal decision obtained by Forest and Bird which is preventing Conservation land in the Hawkes Bay from being used for the controversial Ruataniwha dam.
We should probably just schedule this as a monthly post.
John Key’s support as preferred Prime Minister has plunged in the latest Colmar Brunton poll. And he has been seen playing sponsored golf for a Japanese businessman with unusual characteristics.
As Finance Minister Bill English effectively ruled out tax cuts, but it’s election year, and so of course the Nats can’t help but trot out their one-trick election pony again.
Gerry Brownlee is a walking disaster. Such is the depth of National’s talent pool that he is ranked number 4 in their lineup.
It seems almost inevitable that the recent fires in Canterbury and the Hawkes Bay are the result of climate change and the harbingers of things to come.
Marama Fox and Bill English have painted themselves into a bit of a corner, and Fox is threatening to “walk away from the Government”. Key would have handled this better.
In the middle of a housing crisis “Housing New Zealand documents obtained under the Official Information Act show that there are nearly 2,500 empty state houses, more than 500 of which have been empty for over a year.”
The Government is refusing to support Jan Logie’s bill aimed at helping the victims of domestic violence despite the bill receiving support from the ANZ and Business New Zealand supporting the bill going at least to select committee.
There’s a wonderful fiction still propelling the world that the 21st century will bring an ever-expanding arc of freedom and prosperity to the vast majority of humanity but the reality seems to be anything but.
English is a less convincing liar than Key.
Bloomberg magazine has highlighted how foreign trusts are damaging New Zealand’s reputation and are being used for criminal activity.
The Herald informs us that Key is going on the speaking circuit and will go back into finance (not that he ever left). Like John Howard before him, he also intends to carry on chairing the International Democratic Union of right-wing parties. Not a surprise.
The Government is finally moving to adopt Labour policy and loosen requirements for the use of medicinal cannabis.
Some time in the next 12 months it is likely that the forgone dividend payments and loss in share value from the Power Company shares and Air NZ share sale will be greater than the amount received, only three years after the sale.
How does the left discuss the immigration debate so that it can counter the anti immigration sentiments fostered by the likes of Donald Trump, Theresa May and Malcolm Turnbull?
The Government signed a deal with Peter Thiel that socialised the losses and allowed him to privatise the gains of the joint venture fund that the parties entered into.
Fair to say that Bill English’s “big” policy announcement today was a total flop.
The Peter Thiel paper dump raise more questions than they answer and hints at ongoing communication with National ministers and that John Key approached Thiel to make the donation subsequently made to Key’s earthquake fund.
National needs to do something to address spiraling education costs in both the secondary and tertiary sectors.
Peter Thiel’s fast tracking of his citizenship application needs some explaining by the Government.
The problems we have identified many times, with privatisation of essential services, continue.
Any increase in the minimum wage is better than nothing, but National’s increases have not kept pace with the real cost increases (notably housing) faced by low income earners. That is why we are seeing the rise of the working poor, and increases in homelessness and poverty.
It has been 6 months since the announcement that New Zealand would be predator free by 2050. But is sounds like nothing concrete has happened yet.
Bill English says that he was probably for the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand although has hinted that he has since changed his mind.
A rich old white idiot, who would only be amused at our anger, has vented about the homeless, in a piece that shouldn’t be rewarded with our clicks.
And a return to the politics of division by Blinglish…
Bill English has used a proposal for timing of his Waitangi speech to wrongly claim that he is being silenced. And most of the media bought it.
I don’t think it does a PM any harm to shut up and listen for a change instead of talking, but this does not seem to be possible for the Nats.
St Johns is one of the first organisations to use new Industrial powers brought in by the Government and is attempting to refuse to negotiate with First Union and is docking workers pay for wearing a campaign t-shirt.
Murray McCully has had New Zealand co sponsor a successful Security Council resolution condemning Israel for violating International Law through its resettlement policy.
Rudman: “The Prime Minister, in his role in charge of Housing New Zealand, and Smith have spectacularly failed to solve Auckland’s housing crisis over several years.”
Steven Joyce believes that doing something is the same as not doing something.
What next for Collins? Burning ambition, a significant personal following, no future in National. Time jump to ACT? She must fancy her chances of taking over that pretend party and building it up to a “kingmaker” role.
Apparently it’s “getting homeless people into homes”. Given the ongoing explosion of homelessness, just think how much scope she has to make herself proud next year…
A scapegoat for the failure of the Nats’ first “social bonds” programme has been found. Turns out it was the fault of government officials! Shocker!
