All Down to Dunne
In the next few hours Peter Dunne could stand by his word and help Kiwi Families.
The question is, will he do it?
Update: No he didn’t. So much for his principles.
Politics
politicans
Polity: Budget 2014: Over-promise. Under-deliver.
Earlier this week I predicted the Budget would be Labour-lite. I was right, but only in part. By far the biggest disappointment is in housing. The government signalled help for home buyers would be a highlight in the Budget. A few pathetic morsels isn’t a highlight. This will make next to no difference to the housing affordability crisis. First home buyers aren’t $3,500 short of a house. They are hundreds of thousands short, because there aren’t nearly enough homes.
National’s proposed public spending to GDP ratio – the election’s clear blue line
The real story of the coming election is what was revealed in Bill English’s reported pre-budget speech to the National Party’s Southern Region conference at the weekend. He signalled an intention to reduce the proportion of government spending to 26% of GDP over the next 6 to 7 years. The current level at 30% already places NZ in the lowest quartile of OECD countries, having fallen from 35% of GDP in 2008. Most developed nations spend a significantly higher proportion of GDP on government goods and services.
Tax cuts for all!
Despite having never presided over a budget surplus and despite the nearly tripling of core crown gross debt John Key is talking about the possibility of future tax cuts.
The desperation of the National’s sockpuppets
National Party pollster David Farrar must be seeing some numbers he really doesn’t like because he is claiming that David Cunliffe photoshopped himself into a rally that he was really at! Yeah right – a doyen of the local net governing body failed to use google before making a complete dick of himself on the net. I expect we will see a lot more of National’s paid for bloggers acting like fools heading into this election because National only being good at putting us heavily into debt (again!) rather limits the good news they can write.
John Key’s bullshit about rising inequality
In Question Time today. John Key has rejected evidence such census statistics, as reported on RNZ, that the inequality gap in Auckland is growing. He crowed about his government’s record & launched diversionary attacks on the opposition. Update: Question One video; Transcript links – Transcripts & other links updated. #realbudgetnumbers
Polity: Key – “Meh. Maybe I lied to Parliament.”
Misleading parliament is serious. If it happens, MPs are supposed to make a stand-alone statement to the House about what they said, why it was wrong, and what they should have said instead. Key didn’t do that at all. He just inserted a pathetic “meh” concession into an answer to a question. And the speaker diminished parliament by letting him get away with it.
John Key challenged!
Nah, just kidding, here’s a few more examples of journalists just printing what he says…
Green Party pre-budget policy launch
The Green Party will do a pre-budget economic policy launch: livestream here 11am 11.30am-12.30pm.They are pretty adept at interacting with Kiwis via social media, and on TV. They are grounded in grassroots activities, that link to their policies aimed at making life better for low-to-middle income Kiwis. [Updated#1: got start time wrong: #2 policy here – Green Investment Bank; news reports]
Polity: Economic plans compared
Labour looks at increasing jobs, wage growth, and having the government run surpluses. National looks at a 1% wage growth after inflation after years of falling real wages and no drop in real unemployment as being a sign of a healthy economy? Yeah right. Most of the growth in the economy is simply passing wage-earners by. It is going elsewhere. That is National’s legacy: strong growth for the fortunate few, lagging and insipid growth for everyone else
NRT: “A wish, a target, and a dream”
No Right Turn shows that John Key has no real understanding of the economic and political history of this country. Probably because the last time another economic illiterate from National said that the prospect of reducing unemployment in NZ to below 6% was “a hoax”, John Key wasn’t here. He probably heard it from that illiterate, who once again is our minister of finance. Unemployment under Labour was as low as 3.3%
Sausagegate
It just goes to show how National’s luck is running. John Key has arguably committed the offence of treating by handing out free sausages and has sabotaged the fundraising attempts of a couple of Queenstown kids. Now imagine if Cameron Slater had his hands on this story …
The Herald is turning against the Government
The Herald, normally a bastion of support for National, has this weekend printed a number of stories openly critical of the National Government. As John Armstrong asks, have the wheels fallen off the Government’s reelection campaign?
The politics of private dinners
Whether it’s Judith Collins, Michael Woodhouse or the Cabinet Club/s, National Party fundraisers, target the wealthy base they represent. In the process, boundaries are blurred between mainstream politics, exclusive private spaces & personal relationships.
Moving Collins on
As Judith Collins enters her second day of lying low it’s instructive to look at how the establishment Nats are slowly and strategically removing Collins’ influence so they can ditch her.
Polity: Key lies to Parliament: The proof
Yesterday, John Key lied to Parliament. He made a very specific claim about a set of official documents, and those same documents show clearly that the claim was false. If Key is anywhere near Wellington today, he simply has to come to the House to correct his answer. Deeply embarrassing that may be, but he cannot allow such blatant untruths to stand uncorrected.
Latest Roy Morgan
The latest Roy Morgan poll result is out and although it bounces around and trends rather than individual results are more important National’s support has slumped signficicantly and Labour’s and the Green’s support has risen.
Judith Collins the walking dead
Yesterday in Parliament the Government was completely on the back foot. Judith Collins cannot be more compromised. National strategists must be afraid at the damage that its one strength, John Key, is sustaining.
Handouts to make them go away
The announcement from National that they’d bribe unemployed beneficiaries to go to Christchurch was “An empty grab for headlines”. Perhaps they should have used their strategy for party renewal? Pay more from party funds awash from selling the time of Ministers time seems to work well.
Culture of Impunity
It now appears that Judith Collins would have to commit murder to be relieved of her ministerial warrants – or perhaps not.
Collins resigns: Twitter becomes safer
Yesterday Judith Collins announced that she was quitting Twitter. Some mischief makers may mourn the passing of this well-known troll from Twitter, including an awful lot of journalists and their bottom feeder golem wannabes. But there will be many in NZ who currently tend to avoid Twitter may begin to cautiously test the platform again now that at least one blowhard has retired from it.
Final final final warning
How many more things does Collins need to do or have come out after her final warning to get the sack?
Crushed Collins
Judith Collins spectacular fall from grace continues. The latest news is that shortly after THAT dinner where business was NOT discussed Oravida received a quarantine clearance certificate from the Chinese Authorities and then coincidentally made a donation to the National Party.
Polity: Even more new, damning evidence on Collins.
Looks like an interesting week of drawn out misery for someone. Rob Salmond at Polity again: “I do not want to talk about Judith Collins’ “private” dinner. There are plenty of people making astute points about her impropriety there already. Instead, I want to draw attention to another damning part of last week’s Friday afternoon OIA-dump.”
ImperatorFish: A statement from John Key
I want to make it absolutely clear that the National Party are not in any way under the influence of Big Tobacco…
Polity: Why Joyce is full of it on monetary policy
Rob Salmond at Polity just saved me from having to write something like this post explaining economic basics to Steven Joyce. Joyce demonstrated again why his tenure at MoBIE has been a failure for the overall economy. He fixates on one thing like the business selling milk powder to the exclusion of the overall picture. In part that is why we have neither expanding innovation or employment in our economy at present. He is a good tactical politician. But he is a fool on strategy.
Collins is out of control
Judith Collins’s startling attack on Katie Bradford on the weekend has created all sorts of problems for John Key. Relations with the Press Gallery must be at an all time low. Sacking her will cause all sorts of problems within National’s caucus, retaining her in Cabinet will risk further bad publicity. There is no upside.
Spin Slater Spin
Cameron Slater is spinning that an informal question of a police minister about staff leave entitlements by an opposition MP is the same as a Minister effectively requiring the review of a police prosecution of a National Party donor. There is a sense of desperation emanating from the right over the Oravida issue … Update – and John Key appears to be displeased that Collins has brought a TVOne reporter into the debate …
Collins is in even more trouble?
It has been disclosed that Judith Collins asked for and then cancelled an MFAT briefing five days before the infamous private dinner that she had with Oravida directors and an unnamed Chines Border official where she claimed that no official business was discussed.
Media response to Labour’s Monetary Policy Upgrade
The response to Labour’s Monetary Policy upgrade has been overall very good and it has dominated the policy debate at the same time as a series of scandals start to circle around the National Party.
Corrosive, anti-democratic power of big money
Too many MPs in the NAct government, & some journalists, fail to understand that the negative impacts of the infiltration into politics of the worst ethos of big business & big money: croynism, networks of power & influence, self-serving, buddy-supporting actions, & deceptive manipulations of public relations.
NRT: “No intention to interfere”
When the Prime Minister found out that Maurice Williamson had contacted police over their investigation of a National Party donor on domestic violence charges, Williamson “assured [him] that he did not in any way intend to influence the Police investigation”. That is bullshit. But it gets worse. The police gave the Minister exactly what he asked for.
Williamson’s head isn’t the only one that should be on a spike.
NRT: Two obvious questions
Maurice Williamson was sacked within the space of 2 hours this morning after the Herald revealed he had attempted to interfere in a police investigation on behalf of a party donor. Its exactly what should happen when a Minister behaves corruptly and pisses on our constitutional norms like this. At the same time, it raises an obvious question: why hasn’t Judith Collins suffered the same fate? Or is corrupt behaviour only punished when it involves older Ministers the PM would like to dispose of?
Williamson now. How corrupt is the National cabinet?
It never seems to end does it? A National Party Minister contacted a top ranking police officer after a wealthy businessman with close ties to him was arrested on domestic violence charges. The Prime Minister’s office is understood to be considering Maurice Williamson’s future as a Minister, following Herald inquiries into the phone call that he made and over his involvement with Donghua Liu’s criminal case.
Bunji: And he’s gone – resigned as a Minister
Key Announces National’s Job’s Policy.
‘Allo, Allo, Allo, Allo – Based on the 1980’s Comedy Series, “Allo, allo” – Starring Cameron Slater as Rene and Judith Collins as […]
Paul Henry and Christchurch’s floods
Paul Henry’s rant last night on TV3 and his attack on Lianne Dalziel was appalling. And it makes you wonder if the intent was to take the attention away from John Key who has shown that he will move heaven and earth to increase irrigation for Canterbury Plain farmers but thinks that the Council should deal with a water problem that is significantly affecting a number of ordinary people.