NRT: Judith Collins’ brazen cronyism
Seems Judith Collins has been cutting corners in the appointment of Wayne Mapp to the Law Commission. NRT has the story.
political parties
national
Postcards from the “brighter” future
Hey John – where’s our “Brighter Future”? Hey National voters – was this what you voted for?
Excuses excuses
Tax revenue is down, blowing a big hole in all the government’s financial projections. The Nats are in trouble and instead of looking for solutions, they’re looking for excuses.
False economy
Nationals bungling on the economy continues to damage NZ. Even their misguided state sector job cuts have failed to make significant savings…
Nat revolt over Crafars sale
Remember the hagiographies after the first hundred days of National’s first term? In the second term, things couldn’t be more different. The Sunday-Star Times has printed dozens of emails it obtained (a leak?) that were sent to Key opposing the sale of Crafar farms. Many of them are brutal comments from former National supporters. Key didn’t even provide comment for the article.
FIFY
Bill English: “A government can’t have a lot of impact on the job market. It is what it is.” He’s only half right.
Celebrating success: National’s jobs record
Life in the front lines
Hey remember how the Nats weren’t going to cut frontline staff? How’s that working out?
Fry puts heat on broadband
Steven Fry’s outburst on broadband in NZ, however confused, did at least succeed in putting the state of our broadband access back in the headlines for a bit. It’s an issue that the Nats would rather we forgot.
The long slide
According to the latest 3 News poll. National’s long slide has begun. Key’s popularity has also fallen to its lowest level yet as PM…
Don’t celebrate too soon
National’s in retreat on every front. Its had to break its economic promises, again. Asset sales are a disaster. Ministers are exposed over the Crafar Farms, NZ on Air, and DJ Key affairs. The media’s gone off Key ever since he declared war on them. The bad stories that were getting nowhere a year ago now keep rolling. Even Mallard’s boorishness can’t halt National’s slide. But don’t celebrate too soon.
Brand Key, a do nothing Government & the hidden agenda
A number of terms are bandied about to describe both John Key and the John Key Government. Using such terms and trying to reconcile their seeming contradictions can prove confusing. Indeed, from time to time we have seen such confusion manifest itself on this blog amongst the right wing who argue how Key can indeed have a ‘hidden agenda’ whilst simultaneously being ‘smile and wave’ or ‘clueless’ and ‘doing nothing’.
Selling asset sales to [insert region here]
Not everyone in the Beehive is thrilled that National is throwing away its chance at a third term for the sake of asset sales which make no sense, economically or politically. The Standard has obtained a copy of the generic column that National MPs are meant to add some ‘local flavour’ to and have published in their regional papers. It shows how cynical and shallow their position really is.
National standards fail in America
New Zealand schools achieve excellent results and are very cost effective. The Nats are determined to break this great system via the introduction of national standards. They’re ignoring the advice of their own experts, and all the international evidence. But will they be able to ignore the now self-evident failure of standards based testing in America, as Obama pulls the plug on No Child Left Behind?
NRT: Nats censoring the media
I/S at NoRightTurn writes – Fresh from his attempt to censor programmes likely to embarrass the government during the election, National’s hack on the NZ on Air board, Stephen McElrea, is now actually selecting the topics of political documentaries to receive NZ on Air funding. Its amazing how the topics chosen all just happen to align with the government’s political agenda.
A reply to Steven Joyce
Steven Joyce’s piece on Tuesday was a transparent and hypocritical attempt to frame political opponents negatively, and soften us up for more asset sales, mining, deep sea drilling and the like. Thing is, it’s the Nats with their misguided austerity cuts who are the real nay-sayers holding the country back.
Super sized problem
The superannuation problem isn’t going away. The Nats will be fuming that Treasury have just dropped in their laps again.
Key gets what he wants at Waitangi
While Key was away on his 4-week holiday in Hawaii, the world economy deteriorated, reports on the dire state of poverty in our country came out, and access to strategic resources became a pressing issue – both with our farmland being bought and Iran threatening to close off the globe’s oil supply. But Key was working on a plan – to stoke up racial dissent at home.
Don’t dream it’s over
The Maori Party is threatening to leave the government over the asset sales legislation removing the companies’ Treaty obligations. Key knows their threat is hollow. He just got away for 3 years of insulting Maori and worsening Maori statistics. Why would Sharples and Turia take a pay cut and lose their limos for their last few months working before retirement?
Teapot tattle
The Teapot Tapes have leaked on to the internet.
You can torrent it and listen past all of the noise.
A brighter future for Maori?
Headline – PM to Ratana: National has made a difference
- Maori unemployment under National: +15,300
- Median Maori income under National: -$78 per week
Are Maori looking forward to another three years of Key’s ‘difference’?
1951 it ain’t, for now
Some have compared the Port of Auckland dispute to the 1890 waterfront dispute, 1913 general strike, and 1951 lockout. They want Labour and the Greens to get involved. Actually, this is no 1951 redux. The POA fight is just about one company trying to undercut another. The net effect on New Zealand is zero. The last thing the workers need is Labour creating an excuse for National to attack them.
Concerns Mount Over Absence Of Social Media Gaffes
Scott at ImperatorFish is worried. A National Party MP’s colleagues have become increasingly concerned about his wellbeing, after he failed for two consecutive days to make a fool of himself on Twitter. Concerns were raised when colleagues of Tau Henare realised that they had not noticed a single social media brainfart from the list MP for over 48 hours.
Petty
Under cover of Christmas, the Nats are following in their long tradition of intimidating journalists, by going after the teapot tape reporter for “costs”.
Still no plan
“Once in office, you’ve got to do something. That is why having a plan matters.” – Simon Power, 2011, valedictory speech to parliament
Too many ministers
Brian Fellow wrote a piece in the Herald yesterday on how NZ has too many ministers. Hard not to agree. 28 ministers. Nearly half of the governing parties’ MPs. 90+ portfolios. Ministerial warrants are clearly being used to keep backbenchers and minor parties in line. Too many do nothing ministers on big salaries while the rest of us have to cut back.
ImperatorFish: Analysing The Reshuffle
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here
The King of the Gods, Zeus, yesterday announced a reshuffle of his pantheon, in an effort to freshen up his front bench. Getting the pantheon lineup right was always going to be one of the trickier tasks facing the Father of Gods and Men, and he will have had to manage some bruised egos during the process…
Tolley Drops
The new cabinet is out, and the Biggest Loser is Anne Tolley.
Caption contest
Disgraced again on climate change
To add insult to the injury of another wasted year on climate change, the government has taken the opportunity of the Durban conference not to make progress, but to disgrace us yet again.
ImperatorFish: Not Irony #1
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here
David Farrar applies some wonky logic in order to blame everything bad the Nats do on the left. If any group of voters is to blame for the National/ACT deal, it’s those voters who gave National their party vote and/or John Banks their electorate vote.
100% Stupid
Is the John Key Party actively trying to trash New Zealand’s fragile “100% Pure” brand?
Charter schools
Once again, under National, we get to repeat an experiment that failed 20 years ago. All cooked up on the back of an envelope in a coalition deal. Education deserves much better.
What gains for Nat support “parties”?
Coalition agreements are expected to be signed today, with Ministerial roles expected for both Dunne and Banks. But it is the details of the policy gains that will tell us the mettle of these two. Did they achieve anything significant with their negotiating power?
“Conservation” Minister
Quite apart from the broken promise, isn’t it the job of a “Conservation” Minister to, you know, conserve? Instead of leading the mining charge?
The John Key Party
Ubiquitous Tory blonde #5 (Jo Goodhew?) was on Backbenches last night. At the factory where Nat backbenchers are stamped out, they’re programmed to say ‘John Key’ whenever possible. It went wrong, though, when Goodhew said she was proud to be a reelected member of the John Key Party. It was a slip that told the truth: National, and the Right, is now completely dependent on one man.