Nats to journos: say what we want or shut up
Here’s Barry Soper on ZB on the ‘Kate-gate‘ Kiwisaver debacle: What I found interesting was the way it was handled. I was the only person […]
Politics
political parties
Kremlinology: National and Kiwisaver
National’s refusal to say what it stands for is becoming so ridiculous we have resorted to the Cold War art of Kremlinology. Today, […]
Interview the Leaders IX – Questions for Peters
We’ve chosen the questions for Winston Peters in the final installment of our ‘Interview the Leaders’ series. The first question remains the same, […]
The status of KiwiSaver
Tracy Watkins reports: “National has been forced into an embarrassing u-turn on KiwiSaver after its industrial relations spokeswoman Kate Wilkinson appeared to put the […]
Getting blood from a stone
A reader has just written in as a followup to IrishBill’s post earlier today on National’s plans to line the pockets of oil […]
ToryAid: The Standard resurrects Wastewatch
Remember wastewatch.co.nz? It’s National’s site listing all the ‘government waste’. From six years of Labour government it managed to find a grand total […]
Grueling
Nats announce launch release consider rural doctors bonding scheme. Here’s the link, but honestly, don’t bother.
Ambitious for big oil
We’ve all heard John Key bang on about his ambitions for New Zealand’s infrastructure and now one of my sources within the National […]
Vote National, get ACT
A source present at the University of Victoria debating society event last night tells us that Heather Roy referred to herself frequently (but we’re told […]
Predictions on Parliament
We’ve seen many of the commentators suggest that National is coming up short on policy proposals after the Budget last week. What I’ll […]
Show us ya policy
Steve posted this morning that even Granny Herald’s patience appears to be wearing thin waiting for National and Key to announce some policy […]
Kremlinology: Nats’ tax plans
National is still refusing to give us any detail on its tax cut plan, indicating it doesn’t have one. But let’s do a […]
Even Granny’s patience can wear thin
With a loving smack that would have brought a smile to Bob McCoskrie’s face, the Herald‘s editorial today rebukes John Key in the […]
The Ministry of National Affairs
Here’s a good ten minutes from the middle of Winston’s post budget address yesterday. The highlight is around four minutes in, on National’s burgeoning bureaucracy: Did […]
National’s cruel hoax
Well the budget is out and across the country the public are looking at their tax cuts and asking “is that it?” and […]
Telling porkies
The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’: […]
Water, water everywhere, why not stop to think?
From the MP who tried to ban water comes ‘don’t use crash statistics to work out which roads are dangerous’. Writing in the […]
National’s campaign to muzzle union continues
It seems National has succeeded in the first step of its campaign to muzzle the EPMU and the fifty thousand workers it represents. […]
National still won’t say what they’d do
Seemingly content to coast along on the “time for a change” sentiment, the National Party are still refusing to offer any substantive details […]
Nandor to stay in Parliament until election
Nandor Tanczos has just announced he will not be standing down from Parliament early to let Russel Norman in because former MP Mike […]
Spin Bingo: Budget Edition
Well it’s Budget day tomorrow and we’ve got our man Steve Pierson going to the lock-up so we can get you a good […]
Beat-up
Well, I’ve seen the video of Goff on Alt TV and I really can’t see what all the fuss is about. Phil Goff’s […]
National – more women-friendly?
Colin Espiner pointed it out the other week, National “needs more women. Never over-represented in National at the best of times, the party […]
Kremlinology: National on work rights
National’s refusal to say what it stands for is becoming so ridiculous we have resorted to the Cold War art of Kremlinology. Today, […]
National: we’ll borrow for tax cuts for the rich
Discovering National’s policy is a bit like the old art of Kremlinology, when Western intelligence agencies would attempt to discover the inner workings […]
Getting the facts straight
When asked on Morning Report (MP3 link) today why National was bringing up the issue of MMP now, Key remarked: “[the public] were […]
Key’s green mask slips
Last year John Key announced National’s ‘Blue-Green’ Strategy. It contained the first shadow of acknowledgment from National that climate change is a serious […]
Winner takes all (of us to the cleaners?)
The Sunday Star Times reports National is keen to have a referendum on MMP. As you would expect Peter Shirtcliffe has been involved […]
Get your questions in for Peters
We’ll be selecting the questions for Winston as the final interview in the ‘Interview the Leaders’ series on Sunday. So, get them in […]
If I were UnitedFuture’s Campaign Strategist
Last in our ‘campaign strategist’ series is UnitedFuture, perhaps the least inspiring party in Parliament. UnitedFuture (ie. Peter Dunne) should play the same […]
Two stories on crime in Christchurch
Christchurch hosted a public meeting on crime within the city last week. But the thing that caught my eye, despite the very laudable […]
Happy Birthday National
Today is the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the National Party. So, it’s an opportune moment to reflect on the founding principles […]
Nats’ attack on union hits High Court
Today National will be explaining to the High Court why it wants the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union’s 50,000 members to be denied […]
TVNZ and the Nats
As Paul Henry continues his party political broadcasts for the National Party on Breakfast TV, a curious coincidence of timing occured on Sunday. John […]
ACT: tax cuts for the rich, please
Rodney Hide is calling for the Budget’s tax cuts to take the form of raising the thresholds to account for inflation since 1999, […]
Interview the Leaders VIII: NZ First
We’ve chosen the questions for John Key in the seventh installment of our “Interview the Leaders” series. The first question remains the same, […]