Key’s reasoning for not calling a halt to the business case study for an international convention centre was that he had already decided it was a good idea. Therefore, there was no need for a business case to determine whether it was a good idea. What is this? Faith-based government? The truth is Key’ intervention was all about doing favours for mates.
The Nats are determined to ignore the evidence on the harm caused by charter schools, just as they are ignoring evidence on the damage done by national standards. This willingness to harm kids, as incidental pawns in their ideological games, really pisses me off.
Yesterday we were treated to a bizarrely incoherent media blurt from SkyCity. I guess trying to defend the indefensible is taking its toll.
Oh great. Now we’re losing Kiwis overseas straight out of high school…
The Nats promised to sell no more than 49% of any given state owned assert. Now they’re trying to get cute with semantics and effectively remove all limits.
Unfortunately for them their previous promises are on record and very clear. Hey Peter Dunne – are you going to vote for this latest lie?
It was a bad day yesterday for the ‘heavy hitters’ of the Collins faction, Slater and Lusk. First, Ports of Auckland admitted supplying them with a workers’ private details. Then, the smear on the Meatworkers that they had orchestrated with Talley’s was shot down by the SFO in record time. Finally, Michelle Boag gave them a public serve on RNZ, fueling civil war talk.
Last week, David Farrar demanded to know where the government is getting $62m for youth mental health services… Actually he didn’t (they’re stealing it from other health funding) but he is demanding Labour explains where it would get $125m a year for extending paid parental leave. I guess he just really wants to make sure it’s feasible. Lets help him out with some options
In opposition the Nats were critical of Labour’s spending on consultants. Thanks to Keith Ng we now have some figures on sending under the Nat government. Guess what…
Parliament is supposed to be the sovereign body in our government. So, how come the Executive has an unchallengeable power to veto any legislation it chooses? As I/S explains, the roots of the financial veto go back to when Parliament was a servant of the Crown, but its legislative justification has been repealed. Time to drop the archaic, undemocratic financial veto.
The Rightwhingers are saying extending parental leave is too expensive. We’re talking about a tiny sliver of government spending – 0.2% to be precise. And a tiny fraction of what the government is borrowing. If money is really so tight, there’s plenty of poor quality decisions that National could reverse first.
Cronyism. The politicisation of the public service. Internal power struggles. It’s all just grubby Nat politics as usual. Why do we put up with it?
Despite losing nearly 1 in 4 of its supporters, 300,000 voters, in a little over 6 months according to the Roy Morgans, National’s 44% still looks superficially impressive. Until you realise they need to be able to form a majority more or less alone. The Right’s monolithism doesn’t just place extraordinary demands on National’s leader, it’s the root of the current civil war.
We know that giving SkyCity more pokie machines will mean more problem gamblers, more crime. The Right says it’s worth it for the convention centre. But the official numbers show that’s a dog and we would pay for it in the long-run. It’s not one side of this equation that is bad for New Zealand, it’s both.
Two recent pieces in The Herald draw opposite conclusions from recent polls (one of them, alas, is drivel). Matt McCarten asks if National’s free fall, and the rise of the Greens, foreshadows a Green led government in 2014…
There’s series of posts from Simon Lusk on Whaleoil showing the Collins faction taking a distinctly anti-Key line for the first time. Key’s signaled he won’t go easily and he screwed Collins on the defamation suits.. And the polls show he won’t win a third term.
No Right Turn on another sad chapter for democracy in NZ.
Another “Zero budget” has been signaled. Some commentators think it’s a bold move. I beg to differ.
The “fiscally neutral” tax cuts never were neutral at all, and a lower than expected tax take is hitting the government’s books. But Key is still out there repeating the lie.
It looks like Collin’s has got herself into a bind with her defamation case and Key’s not gonna get her out.
And why would he? Her flailing offers an excellent distraction from the real PR damage of this dispute – the fact his government is only interested in looking after its mates.
A TV1 poll yesterday had Key falling as preferred PM, but no significant change for the major parties.
Bernard Hickey has a great piece in the Herald on Sunday that you shouldn’t miss.
The ever-growing list of letters, emails, and leaks in the National Party Civil War, that started off as an apparently apolitical privacy breach by ACC, is getting hard to follow. Here’s a summary of the various documents and their ramifications – so far.
Within minutes of Simon Lusk’s name being linked to the leaking of the Boag email, a message came through on the tip line – Slater is going feral over Lusk’s name being mentioned. And well he might, Lusk is Cameron Slater’s meal ticket. After a stunned silence on Whaleoil for a few hours – Slater/Lusk were back with all the dirt they could sling.
Judith Collins’ behaviour might strike some as strangely aggressive. Some might even suppose she wouldn’t behave like this unless she was in the right. But let’s put ourselves in her shoes. She wants to be leader. She is now embroiled in a scandal that could end her career. If she could put an end to it without resigning, she would nip it in the bud. Clearly, she can’t.
The people named as Bronwyn Pullar’s support team seem to be the same people that helped John Key into the National Party and then into the leadership.
Like they say – it’s not what you know…
Close Up tonight led with the allegation, based on a leaked document, that John Key (and other prominent Nats) were listed as supporting a $14 million dollar insurance claim by Bronwyn Pullar.
ACC denies leaking Bronwyn Pullar’s name. It’s not credible that they would act so high risk and so politically. Boag and Pullar clearly didn’t leak it. So, that leaves Collins and her office. Collins denied leaking the email to the media … but leaves a fair bit of wiggle room, doesn’t it? The tipline is, as they say, running hot – and the name on everyone’s lips is Lusk. More soon.
Ipredict reckons there’s 60% odds Key won’t be National leader in 3 years. Whether you think that’s too low or high, it brings an important fact into resolution – the next National leader is in Parliament, probably a minister right now. People talk about Parata but she’s a lightweight. Collins and Joyce are the options. Mike’s just had a look at Collins’ style, let’s examine Joyce’s.
“Crusher Collins up close” headlines a two-page article by Andrea Vance in the Saturday March 10 DomPost. It’s not on the Stuff website but deserves a wider audience. John Key might have been unwise to have stayed away on holiday this week – he should remember what happened to Jim Bolger.
“Ms Collins strenuously denies hints by opposition parties that her office was involved in leaking Bronwyn Pullar’s information to the media. She says only herself, one staff member, chairman John Judge and ACC’s chief executive had the information”. Hmm. 4 people, at least 1 head to roll. Not hard to see where this going. Playing Russian roulette with Collins is where she pulls the trigger but aims the gun at you.
NRT with yet another example of the Nats’ intimidation tactics.
Plenty of high-profile bad news headlines for the Nats. At least it takes the focus of the boring old economy.
National has backed down from privatising ACC’s work account. To make it work, they were going to have to pump up ACC levies and make it pay a dividend to the Crown to make prices high enough for the private sector to compete. A sign of how weak the government is that they couldn’t push this through. Problem is, the same logic applies to asset sales.
The predicted problems created by a “national standards” system are coming home to roost already.
The trailers for John Key’s Thursday speech are calling it for a ” new super-Ministry” under the command of Steven Joyce. Merger isn’t the issue – the policy direction is. If Joyce just stays focussed on roads of national significance, mines and oil wells of national significance, and casinos of national significance it will be another waste of time reshuffle. If it becomes genuinely high quality export focussed, then it may prove worthwhile. Fingers crossed.
