Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, February 11th, 2015 - 86 comments
The Labour Party is organising a petition against the $140 million bailout SkyCity is demanding – and John Key is insisting we have to pay to prevent getting an “eyesore” of a convention centr
Written By: - Date published: 8:14 pm, February 10th, 2015 - 87 comments
Sky City crying too poor to build a bigger casino – give us a break, please! Casino expert Sudhir Kale estimated the extra pokies gained by Sky to be worth $35million over figures used by government. That’s for year upon year to 2048. It could cover any casino upgrade in four years. Either Joyce and Key are being played for suckers, or they are playing the rest of us for suckers. The deal stinks.
Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, February 10th, 2015 - 76 comments
Eighteen months ago Stephen Joyce said about the Sky City Convention Centre deal that anything not written down was not happening. It appears that he was wrong as John Key softens us up for more public money being spent on a private convention centre.
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, February 10th, 2015 - 35 comments
The excellent Gordon Campbell on Key’s divisive and opportunistic lines on “Maori separatism”.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, February 10th, 2015 - 61 comments
The Salvation Army has all but ruled out being involved in the Government’s Social Housing unless it is provided with capital. And if divestment occurs it considers that tenants should have a role in governance of the houses they live in.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, February 10th, 2015 - 19 comments
Feinstein Doak has a post up with the Top Political Facebook Posts of 2014, and the results are interesting.
Written By: - Date published: 7:32 pm, February 9th, 2015 - 53 comments
Leaving Mike Sabin in charge of the Law and Order Select Committee was certainly a captain’s call by John Key. Just like Tony Abbott’s award of a knighthood to the Duke (as if he needed more fruit salad), this was a judgment call. And it does call Key’s judgment into question. It’s not about when he knew what he knew, it’s about what he did when he knew.
Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, February 9th, 2015 - 56 comments
The latest bout of National’s cult of “personality” was on show at yesterday’s Big Gay Out
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 pm, February 8th, 2015 - 73 comments
There’s a fascinating article in the latest New Statesman titled “An Empire that speaks English: the right’s dream of a new world order.” Suddenly UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond’s recent visit here makes sense. So does John Key’s references to sending troops to Iraq on behalf of the “club” or the “family” – he’s at the heart of the Empire.
Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, February 8th, 2015 - 309 comments
It has been claimed that Andrew Little has advocated for Maori to have law making powers. What he has done is reflect on a recent Waitangi Tribunal decision which concluded that Maori never ceded sovereignty to the Crown and properly concluded that this is an issue that needs to be considered.
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, February 7th, 2015 - 218 comments
Police Commissioner Mike Bush has essentially confirmed that under the no surprises policy the Police told either Anne Tolley or Michael Woodhouse or both about the Police investigation into Mike Sabin. The issue will be when they were told. If this occurred before the time that Labour told the Prime Minister’s office about Sabin’s difficulties the veracity of what John Key has told us will have to be questioned.
Written By: - Date published: 5:36 pm, February 5th, 2015 - 112 comments
Perhaps John Key should consider a Churchillian thought before he rushes to send our young to die in Iraq.
Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, February 5th, 2015 - 76 comments
The social democracy of my youth has radically collapsed into our current culture of individualism, privatisation and personal greed.
Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, February 4th, 2015 - 302 comments
Issues surrounding Mike Sabin highlight the handling of the matter by Andrew Little. With commendable restraint he chose to privately notify the Prime Minister’s office that one of his MPs faced problems. And his recollection of matters is clearly better than Key’s recollection.
Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, February 3rd, 2015 - 277 comments
An analysis of the timeline and a reading of Cameron Slater’s comments concerning Mike Sabin raises real questions about the veracity of what Key has been saying to the media. Update: It appears that David Garrett and Rodney Hide have expressed views wondering if Key’s statement about when he was told is actually correct. Update: And Matthew Hooton suggests that the Police may have advised the Government of the invesigation.
Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, February 2nd, 2015 - 116 comments
Now that Mike Sabin has resigned attention is on what John Key knew and when.
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, January 30th, 2015 - 71 comments
Key’s state house asset sale policy doesn’t make sense at any level, and the questions are piling up…
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, January 29th, 2015 - 119 comments
John Key’s housing announcement contained very little new information. Work has been put in for the past couple of years in developing the policy. The net effect will be that the Government will have more money for other capital projects not related to emergency housing. It will keep its fingers crossed that charities can pick up the slack. And the risk is that not one new house will be constructed at a time of intense need.
Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, January 28th, 2015 - 28 comments
Rob Salmond at Polity on Key – “Is he deluded, or is he being deliberately misleading?”…
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, January 24th, 2015 - 88 comments
Metiria Turei’s speech prepared for delivery at Ratana has attracted some attention for her strong criticism of John Key’s revisionism of Aotearoa’s history in suggesting that Aotearoa was settled peaceably.
Written By: - Date published: 3:41 pm, January 21st, 2015 - 7 comments
I think when justifying sending troops to Iraq the club John Key is really talking about is the group of right-wing political parties known as the International Democratic Union. Today Key chairs its Executive in Sarajevo, his first meeting as President. This move by Key to the IDU is calculated; he sees himself as leader of the world right-wing club and this is the first step to his international political career post New Zealand politics.
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, January 21st, 2015 - 179 comments
Yesterday Key justified our likely military intervention in Iraq as “the price” of being in “the club” with other Five Eyes countries.
Written By: - Date published: 6:59 pm, January 20th, 2015 - 150 comments
Sometimes a simple graph is much more eloquent and powerful than a whole lot of words …
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, January 18th, 2015 - 39 comments
James Griffin has written a tongue in cheek article on what John Key should be doing this year. But the article is full of political fluff and has no real proposals for action. What should John Key be doing this year?
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, January 16th, 2015 - 87 comments
The latest excuse for John Key deleting his texts wholesale is wafer-thin.
Written By: - Date published: 1:24 pm, January 15th, 2015 - 30 comments
The United Kingdom is debating entry into the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which like the TPPA will allow investor-state disputes to be resolved by unappealable unaccountable private arbitration. George Monbiot in the Guardian describes the issue well and has suggestions on how the proposal can be challenged.
Written By: - Date published: 1:49 pm, January 13th, 2015 - 78 comments
For family reasons he is stepping down… Nothing to see here says Chris Finlayson, great guy who did a great job. For national’s supporters of course there is far more importance in receiving speeding fines Woodhouse is moving quickly to say the enforcement is ambiguous. It appears that he sees a universal right to speed and kill people…
Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, January 13th, 2015 - 81 comments
Political Scientists Bronwyn Hayward and Mark Boyd were interviewed on Radio New Zealand yesterday on New Zealand politics in 2014 and what happened during the election. They talked extensively on dirty politics, on the role of the media and how things can be improved in 2015.
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, January 12th, 2015 - 76 comments
Far from fading away into the Christmas haze, SkyCity looks likely to be one of the defining political issues for 2015.
Written By: - Date published: 4:07 pm, January 11th, 2015 - 223 comments
You’d think that with all the WW1 commemorations going on at the moment it would make us more vigilant about our freedom and security, not sleep-walking towards another Holy Crusade (in the name of the God of Money and Father of Fossil Fuels), seduced by slick liars and the gods of commercialism and greed.
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