Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, June 26th, 2011 - 177 comments
A victory for Mana or a victory for Labour? Actually, it was a win for both, and a win for the Left. The losers in Te Tai Tokerau were the true enemies of the Left – the kupapa Maori Party and National. Turia put up a weak candidate hoping to concentrate the anti-Hone vote behind Davis. Now, the Maori Party faces a three-way fight it can’t win.
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 pm, June 25th, 2011 - 165 comments
Hone Harawira has won the by-election for Te Tai Tokerau, despite the best efforts of the msm, John Key’s endorsement of Kelvin Davis, dirty tricks from the Maori Party, and despite Labour’s typically ill-considered, hamfisted attempts to wipe out Mana at its first election.
The best man won.
Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, June 25th, 2011 - 61 comments
The weaknesses in govt’s Christchurch buyout plan were pretty obvious. Option 1: GV for land & property, would not be enough to buy replacement for most. Option 2: GV for land – activate replacement clause in insurance contract for house, would only work if insurer agreed house was a complete write-off. Option 2 failing already.
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, June 25th, 2011 - 14 comments
The spotlight was on Christchurch last week, and will be on Te Tai Tokerau over the weekend. Lots of stories are slipping by under the radar. But here are a couple of pieces that deserve further comment.
Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, June 24th, 2011 - 5 comments
No Right Turn on John Key’s confusion over Pike River. The flip flopping PM at his finest.
Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 24th, 2011 - 10 comments
Amazing what political pressure can do. Christchurch package was clearly put together in the space of a couple of days. Buy-out at GV the obvious basic solution but will see many out of pocket. Option 2 is an admission of that but only open to some. None of the fish-hooks have been worked out. What’s Gerry been doing all this time?
Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, June 21st, 2011 - 9 comments
Every day more stories of the poor management of the Christchurch recovery are coming out. Delays in physical rebuilding are understandable. Delays in EQC payouts are another. They undermine the city’s economy and stop rebuilding. A reader has sent in their story. It’s one of many. Brownlee should have sorted this months ago.
Written By: - Date published: 6:57 am, June 21st, 2011 - 53 comments
Gerry Brownlee says an announcement on Christchurch’s land will be made “very, very soon” but testily refuses to give a date, or even a real timeframe. I have a sinking feeling this is all a PR exercise. Just as Brownlee has got everyone really agitated, that Nice Man Mr Key will unveil the information. When it fits into his diary, of course.
Written By: - Date published: 5:29 pm, June 20th, 2011 - 50 comments
The Te Tai Tokerau by-election has the potential to be a game-changer. If it comes off for Kelvin on Saturday the result may shake up a few other predictions for the general election – another example of the wisdom of Harold Wilson’s famous remark that a week is a long time in politics. Now it’s down to who goes out on the day. After the battle of the hustings will come the battle of the explanations – they will be fascinating.
Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, June 19th, 2011 - 46 comments
I haven’t seen the full interview of Brownlee on the Nation. If the clips on the news were anything to go by, it was more of the same. No info for Christchurch residents. No empathy for them either. More haughty bullshit. More vague excuses for delays. More focused on himself than the people who need help. He needs to go.
Written By: - Date published: 8:22 am, June 17th, 2011 - 119 comments
In the damaged suburbs of Christchurch, people’s lives, their emotions, in many cases their finances, are all stuck in limbo. Residents need to know which areas are going to be written off. What they don’t need is Gerry Brownlee telling them they are “simplistic”…
Written By: - Date published: 6:20 am, June 15th, 2011 - 86 comments
My jaw dropped when I heard this listening to Question Time yesterday. Mallard: “Does he understand that real average wages go up when high-income earners get massive tax cuts-$1,000 a week, in his case-and low-income workers lose their jobs?” English: “No, I do not understand that, because it is not true.” Can’t English do simple maths?
Written By: - Date published: 8:12 pm, June 12th, 2011 - 19 comments
Watch Kelvin Davis on Q+A with Hone Harawira. He was superb. He says the message he is giving about being part of the future for Maori is resonating around the Tai Tokerau. I’ll bet it is. The by-election result could be very interesting indeed. I liked his take on leadership too – it’s about being focussed on the objective and doing what is necessary to achieve it. Couldn’t agree more.
Written By: - Date published: 8:12 am, June 12th, 2011 - 16 comments
Bill (and John and the entire National caucus) have been telling us that we are required to borrow $380 million each and every week. Apparently we aren’t.
Written By: - Date published: 5:08 pm, June 11th, 2011 - 17 comments
John Armstrong reckons Key has the “Midas touch”. Ahh, no. Or at least, not in the sense that John meant…
Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, June 11th, 2011 - 52 comments
A little over a year ago the biggest single protest march in this country since 1938 put the final nail in the coffin of the Nats’ amateur hour plans to mine our most precious conservation land. Or so we thought…
Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, June 10th, 2011 - 61 comments
There are far more similarities than differences in the Hughes / Goff and Worth / Key affairs, but that doesn’t stop the Right trying to rewrite history and blame Goff!
Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, June 10th, 2011 - 80 comments
The Budget is unravelling at a startling rate of knots. Bill English is floundering to explain his dodgy asset sales numbers that count the benefits but not the costs. Now, a senior minister has admitted that John Key’s claim that “there are 170,000 new jobs being created as a result of this Budget” is a lie. We actually really do deserve better than this.
Written By: - Date published: 4:19 pm, June 9th, 2011 - 15 comments
Question Time: David Cunliffe wipes the floor with Bill English in the House today, as he shows up his missing costs of asset sales.
Written By: - Date published: 6:37 am, June 9th, 2011 - 54 comments
So, that’s National’s great big plan: get rid of our electricity assets and use the cash to build more prisons. Not much of a brighter future there. National still hasn’t come up with a convincing reason why we would sell highly profitable monopolistic companies. Instead, we’ve seen a series of weak excuses. Now, English has revealed the truth.
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, June 8th, 2011 - 29 comments
Do you remember back in the day when Bill English didn’t want to put any money into the Cullen Fund? Remember how we were smugly told that borrowing to save was foolish? Well, since then the Cullen Fund has made a fortune and, we know learn, the government has been borrowing to build up savings for the Christchurch rebuild.
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, June 7th, 2011 - 14 comments
Don Brash has attacked Bill English’s budget which he says fails to lay out a plan for New Zealand. The reality, I think, is that both have plan however there is little or no future in either plan. Neither Brash nor English have laid out a plan which deals with the present and quite near problems we will face.
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, June 7th, 2011 - 217 comments
John Key “thinks” that parents on the DPB are “breeding for a business”. Now his government is testing the waters for a eugenics program, to single out these undesirables and forcibly control their fertility.
Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, June 6th, 2011 - 68 comments
All of a sudden National and ACT are sounding vaguely sensible on crime and prisons. There seems to be a golden opportunity to reach a cross party consensus, and get some evidence driven policy and practice in this area. Who is going to make the first move?
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, June 5th, 2011 - 11 comments
Following the news that “Celebrities who make false statements while endorsing finance companies could now face jail or fines up to $1 million”, we at The Standard have received the following important document, leaked by an internal National Party source…
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, June 4th, 2011 - 83 comments
Christchurch business owners, unable to even get to their premises in the red-zone, have asked for some help to stop going under. Gerry Brownlee’s arrogant response: “If they are such clever, gifted, and forward-looking entrepreneurs it’s pretty sad that their first port of call has to be to Government looking for a bailout”. What an arsehole.
Written By: - Date published: 8:42 am, June 3rd, 2011 - 13 comments
After intense criticism for using government-owned helicopters for personal trips, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has reimbursed the state for the cost of the flights. I look forward to John Key following Christie’s lead and repaying us for his flights to watch the V8s in Hamilton.
Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, June 2nd, 2011 - 35 comments
Like the ACC, Pharmac is a Kiwi institution that delivers benefits to everyone at a lower cost than other countries. National has got ACC on the butcher’s block. We must make sure that Pharmac doesn’t follow.
Written By: - Date published: 6:17 am, June 2nd, 2011 - 55 comments
John Key prefers his gut to real evidence, and it means that the policies he is implementing aren’t the ones that are best for our country.
Also: Steven Joyce & the Rail Loop.
Written By: - Date published: 4:26 pm, June 1st, 2011 - 33 comments
Bob Clarkson is back into public politics. This time generously helping the Act Party. Long may this continue!
Recent Comments