Ashcroft’s jet spotted in Wellington too
An astute reader just sent us this – they spotted Ashcroft’s jet parked at Lyall Bay on Saturday August 30 and managed to […]
Politics
political parties
Russel Norman at Drinking Liberally Wgtn – tomorrow
The Drinking Liberally – Wellington email: By popular demand this Wednesday Drinking Liberally Wellington presents: Russel Norman – Co-leader of the Green Party. […]
Break open the trusts
As we’ve discussed earlier, it would be highly surprising if the investigations into NZF’s finances find any serious illegality. At worst, a failure to […]
Weak
Perhaps I’ve overestimated the National Party’s PR machine. I mean I’ve seen them run their C/T strategy pretty well and, as much as […]
ToryAid: Wastewatch (4)
Because National has abandoned its wastewatch website, we keep track of the ‘waste’ National has promised to cut to pay for those magical, […]
Whom to believe? (3)
John Key tells us that National hasn’t decided yet what it would spend its extra borrowing on, what projects would be PPPs, what […]
Labour’s 2008 list
Comment soon but for now here’s their full list (PDF link). Scoop’s got their presser up. [lprent: Handmirror: A Woman’s Place: The Labour […]
Peters stands down
Peters has stood down. Clark has taken over his portfolios. It’s good that Peters appears to have accepted that this is a necessity […]
Guest Post: Herald like a blow-hard blogger on Tan
After a fair summary of the facts as they stand, the Herald enters the realm of the right-wing blogger, always ready to paint […]
Right to strike
Hundreds of Australian journalists walked off the job yesterday in protest at Fairfax’s 550 planned job cuts. Here in NZ journos employed by […]
Franks: “grumpy Christians and whining gays”
Here’s National’s Wellington Central candidate Stephen Franks giving his view on Civil Unions. I’m not even really sure what to say about it. […]
Connell departs and praises PM
Who would have expected to read this from Brian Connell upon his departure from Parliament? In a backhander against his own party, he […]
But why?
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on Peters because its not the kind of issue that affects Kiwis lives (its […]
Clark cuts the thread
Winston Peters’ stories around the Owen Glenn donation to his legal fund are dangerously convoluted and have stretched everyone’s credulity but without real […]
Herald poll shows Nats’ lead collapsing
Today’s Herald-Digi poll is the first to be released that was taken after the secret agenda tape scandal had fully emerged and had some […]
Cullen on Nat apologies
Say what you will about his politics, you can’t beat Cullen for wit. Here he is on the similarities between Labour and National following Williamson’s enthusiastic […]
Whom to believe? (2)
Owen Glenn’s letter to the Privileges Committee contradicts Winston Peters’ previous statements to the media, the Privileges Committee, and, presumably, the PM. Glenn says […]
Greens win better ETS
The Greens have won some very good improvements to the ETS in exchange for their support. The most important is $1 billion over […]
What else did Williamson say?
I notice that, while the Nats have attempted to play down Maurice Williamson’s promise of $50 a week in tolls, they haven’t retracted […]
Greens back emissions trading scheme
The Greens have decided to back the government’s emissions trading scheme saying in a press release that it’s a start but there’s more […]
Kiwis waking up to Nats’ secret agenda
According to the TV3 poll last night, 46% of voters believe National has a secret agenda. And why wouldn’t they? We’ve had Bill English […]
Sales pitch
He just doesn’t give up does he? Maurice Williamson was spotted this morning still trying to sell his toll booth idea to Auckland […]
Whom to believe?
On Agenda on Sunday, National’s Transport spokesperson, Maurice Williamson, said National would impose tolls on major new road projects – Transmission Gully, Waterview […]
Nat: our ‘diversity’ is just a gimmick
Unless a party has a systematic bias towards one sector of the population, it would be normal to expect that their candidates would […]
Adapting to the end of cheap oil
On August 1, Transit NZ and Land Transport NZ were merged into the NZ Transport Authority. The new organisation’s first major publication shows […]
Reflections on Shawn Tan
There’s a lot of heat but not much light in the debate about the EPMU’s suspension of Shawn Tan. What we know from […]
Greens call for public input on ETS
One thing you can always say for the Greens, they’re democratic to their core. Currently, they find themselves facing a tough choice – […]
Mythbusting: Half of new generation is thermal
Reading National’s energy policy last week I was surprised to learn that of 1942MW of new generation that has come online since 2000 […]
Key demands we publish full quote
John Key called us to task in his interview with Wammo today: “every leftwing blogger out there has a field-day going on and […]
National’s “major policy shift it talks about behind closed doors”
This revealing quote is buried in the middle of today’s Herald story by Fran O’Sullivan headed “All change on the gravy train”. It […]
Kiwis don’t trust Nats
According to the Colmar/Brunton poll, 50% of Kiwis don’t believe National is being open about its plans vs 37% who believe the Nats […]
Nats: some of us look like youse
National is desperate for you to know its party list is a diverse one. It’s a diverse list alright. I mean you’ve got […]
PM loses a mate
The death at just 59 of alpine legend Gottlieb Braun-Elwert will be greatly mourned around the Tekapo community, and much further afield too. […]
An election strategy, not a governing strategy
When you look at the policy National has released, it’s clear that the focus is on winning the election, not on developing policy […]
Energy policy fails to energise
A positive and ambitious energy policy that reflects the personality of National leader John Key, was announced today. Old people wiped tears from […]
National and the media
A few mini-posts on National’s relationship with the media in light of the secret agenda tapes. _______________________________________________ A signature Crosby/Textor move, seen here […]