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Pot and Kettle

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, May 10th, 2013 - 60 comments

Key on Gilmore on front page of today’s DomPost: “In the end, to make a contribution, you have to have integrity, and to have integrity there has to be a directness and fullness in your answers.” That’s why Key has no integrity about GCSB – there was no directness and fulness in his answers about it, either in Parliament or to the “knucklehead” media.

John Key’s disaster capitalism

Written By: - Date published: 1:07 pm, May 9th, 2013 - 31 comments

The latest Household Labour Force Employment statistics are out, and on the surface, look good for John and Bill.  But this is driven by improved employment in Canterbury over the last quarter.  Grant Robertson says, “Disaster recovery is not a plan for jobs”.

MRP sale fail numbers

Written By: - Date published: 6:03 am, May 9th, 2013 - 194 comments

Here are the numbers that sum up the MRP sale fail – foremost among them the $1,000 that the government has spent per Kiwi investor attracted.

What if Gilmore quits?

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, May 8th, 2013 - 105 comments

Stuff is reporting that John Key is signalling for Aaron Gilmore to stand down.  What are the possible implications? [update: information about Claudette Hauiti, next National’s list]

GCSB Bill: & Dotcom versus FBI, “NZ Intelligence Community” et al

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, May 8th, 2013 - 47 comments

John Key is using “urgency” to push through his anti-democratic Big brother GCSB surveillance Bill.  Dotcom’s lawyers have released a 39 page white paper making a range of allegations against the FBI, Obama & NZ authorities. Peters is keeping his cards close to his chest. Update: Peters’ calls government “bully boy” & will vote against the Bill.

Gilmore’s position now untenable

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, May 8th, 2013 - 72 comments

From a text exchange leaked to Newstalk ZB it seems that Aaron Gilmore has lied to the PM. The ball is in Key’s court now…

The cost of a US Harvard education: global land exploitation

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, May 7th, 2013 - 51 comments

US universities’ budgets partly rely on endowment funds.  Harvard University investment activities in poor countries exploit people and lax regulations, damaging communities, the environment & economies. They are one of the biggest foreign owners of NZ land.

The oxymoronic “responsible Minister”

Written By: - Date published: 6:43 pm, May 6th, 2013 - 19 comments

Spying on Kiwis is ok if “the responsible Minister” says so – this was how the Herald described today’s announcement from John Key regarding the GCSB clean-up Bill. Responsible Minister? Yeah right -that’s an oxymoron when applied to John Key.

John Key’s NZ: the nasty side of the “brighter future”

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, May 5th, 2013 - 45 comments

John Key promised a “brighter future” – “wave good-bye to higher taxes not your loved ones”; a higher standard of his MPs, and honesty for the PM. John Key’s NZ is actually one of callous entitlement of the elite, and dis-entitlement and Struggle Street for battling Kiwis.

Networks of influence: Key & Anadarko Petroleum

Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, May 2nd, 2013 - 18 comments

John Key’s networks of influence include the bosses and directors of Anadarko Petroleum, which is doing some oil exploration in NZ. Gordon Campbell’s excellent piece of investigative journalism shows Anadarko and it’s bosses are not to be trusted.

Key goes negative

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, May 2nd, 2013 - 156 comments

John Key has gone hard negative, with his rants about North Korea and communism, and now an attack on the Greens. Negative is where you go when you don’t have a positive story to tell the electorate. I wonder if the Nats’ internal polling has got Key spooked…

Networks of influence: (dis)Advantage NZ

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, April 30th, 2013 - 21 comments

An Advantage New Zealand conference at SkyCity is the centre of major PR for John Key-backed, big oil exploration in NZ. While promoting and backing each others’ destructive profiteering, and endangering NZ’s environment, they are nurturing their networks of influence over expensive dinners and on the golf course.

It’s not us: it’s the big banks

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, April 29th, 2013 - 31 comments

MSM articles show the big Aussie banks are making record profits, Kiwis can save, and Adam Smith worshiping think tanks are not to be trusted. Cunliffe & Norman said it a while back – NAct policies and government spending cuts are not the answer.

We would love to see wages drop

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, April 27th, 2013 - 5 comments

Key said “we would love to see wages drop”. Sure enough National’s anti-worker employment Bill is designed to have that effect, as stated in a Cabinet briefing paper.

Meanwhile: US, intellectual property, GCSB

Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, April 26th, 2013 - 18 comments

In his meetings with Ian Fletcher, Key’s main aims and activities are hidden in plain sight. They connect with US-led initiatives around digital copyright, intellectual property and commerce.  Recently there have been some worrying developments in the bigger picture: GCSB, ACTA, TPPA, SOPA, CISPA.

‘That politician got amnesia again’

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, April 26th, 2013 - 21 comments

Today’s anonymous Dominion Post editorial points to the beginning of John Key’s fall from grace.  It centres on Key’s personal qualities, continues to support the MSM’s support of personality politics, glosses over the serious issues masked by Key’s (alleged) amnesia, and uses a false equivalence with Helen Clark.

Fletcher-Key meetings: networks of influence

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, April 24th, 2013 - 90 comments

There were a number of meetings between Key and Ian Fletcher prior to Fletcher’s appointment as GCSB boss.  Key tried to cover up his cronyism, and preoccupation with undemocratic shifts in the government’s control of the GCSB, and its focus on intellectual property & commerce.

Axe-grinders of the world unite…

Written By: - Date published: 9:02 pm, April 23rd, 2013 - 26 comments

Brokers and analysts, you’ve nothing to lose but your fees. (although there’s already been $200million from the taxpayer). Now Steven Joyce has turned to the axe-grinders for support. There couldn’t be a clearer indication that Joyce and National are on the side of investors with money to burn, while Labour and the Greens with are on the side of the consumers who worry about turning on the heater.

Power profits and the consumer

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 pm, April 22nd, 2013 - 16 comments

New Zealand’s energy pricing over the last twenty years was thoroughly canvassed by Dr Geoff Bertram last year in a paper presented to the Fabian Society as part of its “Light-handed Regulation” series.  In the light of the Labour/Greens’ announcement last week about NZ Power his paper is well worth a read.

When they’re laughing at you…

Written By: - Date published: 4:15 pm, April 22nd, 2013 - 160 comments

You know it’s getting near time to go.

In Saturday’s DomPost, Chelsie Preston Crayford shows what she thinks of John Key and asset sales.

ImperatorFish: Joyce catches Labour leader buying coffee

Written By: - Date published: 2:04 pm, April 22nd, 2013 - 11 comments

Energy Minister Steven Joyce has condemned the “socialist lunacy” of both Labour and the Greens, after Labour Party leader David Shearer was spotted buying coffee for two fellow MPs.

An honest man?

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, April 22nd, 2013 - 65 comments

John Key has promised live on television to never lie and to always do his best. Now, four-and-a-half years later we know that was his first lie, and it certainly wasn’t going to be his last. And these are only the ones we know about. In fact, as the litany of lies still spills from John Key, it must be asked: is the litany orchestrated? – BLiP’s extraordinary list of Key’s lies.

The “socialist” vs capitalist PR war: NZ Power

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, April 21st, 2013 - 123 comments

The Key government and its allies are playing the “red scare” gambit, the Greens get to the heart of the reason for NZ Power, Parker goes Third Way, while Bernard Hickey and Matt McCarten weigh in to support the (alleged) “socialist” NZ Power policy. Bomber Bradbury adds some words of caution. [updated title]

Do the lights ever go out on Planet Key?

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 pm, April 19th, 2013 - 33 comments

John Key says that the Labour-Green Power policy is “barking mad” and will take people back to the power cuts of the 1970s.  Another John Key brainfade, or just being “clueless”? I look at power cuts and fuel poverty since the 1990s.

ImperatorFish: Yes, Steven, this is just like North Korea

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, April 19th, 2013 - 7 comments

Scott earnestly compares Labour & the Greens’ NZ Power to the North Korean model.

The buck stops with the directors: Pike River

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, April 19th, 2013 - 9 comments

Pike River found guilty of breaches of health and safety, leading to the death of of 29 miners. The CTU is calling for law changes to make company directors responsible for their company’s negligence. And the NZ MSM coverage of the catastrophe immediately after it happened?

NZ Power

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, April 18th, 2013 - 223 comments

At noon today Labour and the Greens jointly announced new energy policies. “NZ Power” is big and it’s bold. It will completely restructure the way the electricity sector is run, and result in lower power prices for both domestic and business consumers.

Mini “W”

Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, April 17th, 2013 - 11 comments

George “W” Bush’s history (a fake WMD scare and legislation to intrusively monitor his own citizens) was arguably repeated as tragedy (in Tony Blair’s Britain) and is now, as predicted, being repeated as farce. John Key is morphing into Mini “W” before our eyes.

The view from Australia

Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, April 17th, 2013 - 67 comments

Sometimes a certain distance gives the clearest view. A piece on PM John Key from Australian newspaper The Telegraph.

The Greens, electricity & sustainability

Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, April 16th, 2013 - 48 comments

The Greens and Labour are planning a joint announcement on their policies on power prices. Both parties want to bring down costs of electricity.  The policies of the two parties will also have some differences.   How will it mesh with Green Party policies on sustainability?

Pull the other one, it’s full of sarin

Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, April 16th, 2013 - 90 comments

New Zealand is, famously, a nuclear-free country. We’re also signatories to the Chemical Weapons and Biological Weapons Conventions, which outlaw them. So, if you’re looking to learn about weapons of mass destruction, New Zealand’s the wrong place to go. It’s laughable that Key’s inventing WMD-seeking terrorists to justify legalising spying on Kiwis.