Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, January 31st, 2011 - 78 comments
Russel Norman followed Phil Goff and John Key’s state of the nation speeches with the annual Greens state of the planet address. The capital gains tax initiative grabbed headlines but there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface. As we face myriad economic and environmental problems, the Greens have the real answers.
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, January 29th, 2011 - 137 comments
We face a stark choice this year: a Labour-led government, which will create fairer tax and invest in jobs and innovation, or National-led government, which will govern for the kleptocracy, giving them tax cuts, then selling our assets and slashing our public services to pay for them. So why is the Goffice doing such a bad job making the case?
Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, January 28th, 2011 - 28 comments
John Key was interviewed on Morning Report less than a handful of times each of the 2 years between winning power in 2008 and Sean Plunket leaving. He’s appeared on Radio NZ before 9.30 for lengthy interviews 3 times this week.
Election year accountability, you gotta love it.
Written By: - Date published: 6:06 pm, January 27th, 2011 - 22 comments
John Key 2008: Follow me and we’ll be like Ireland.
John Key 2011: Follow me or we’ll be like Ireland.
Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, January 27th, 2011 - 6 comments
Ironically, the best response to Key’s ‘slash and sell’ agenda came from Obama, whose spotlight Key is always trying to share: “Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you’ll feel the impact.”
Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, January 27th, 2011 - 38 comments
John Key is busy raising the canard of our economy being as indebted as the PIIGS countries that are in trouble in Europe. He’s talking about net foreign debt, and he’s suggesting lowering government debt is the solution. But New Zealand’s debt problem is not a government debt problem, and with asset sales he has the wrong solution to the wrong problem.
Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, January 26th, 2011 - 160 comments
So John Key’s great bit of policy for the election is to sell off the family jewels. Generations of New Zealanders have built up these assets, and now, like in the 90s, National intend to flick them off to foreign investors, and drain the country’s wealth.
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, January 26th, 2011 - 29 comments
It’s not radical, it’s not revolutionary but Phil Goff has laid out a positive, progressive, and affordable vision that contrasts with John Key’s directionless, lazy leadership. It seems to be popular. The PM’s state of the nation is expected to contain an interesting savings policy but always the question is: cue bono?
Written By: - Date published: 11:37 pm, January 25th, 2011 - 56 comments
John Key says that he can’t increase the minimum wage by a decent amount. The excuse this time round is that a decent increase will destroy jobs. Well, let’s check that out a little bit. Is it really true that lifting the minimum wages destroys jobs? If it is, do the benefits outweigh the gains? And what about the cost of letting wages fall?
Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, January 25th, 2011 - 203 comments
Phil Goff has just delivered an excellent speech to start a year of laying out Labour Policy. $100/week tax free, stopping tax-dodging bludgers, support for R&D and exporters, correcting housing market anomalies and encouraging investment in the productive sector. There was a lot to like.
Written By: - Date published: 6:22 am, January 25th, 2011 - 101 comments
John Key on Radiolive yesterday: “There are a lot of factors at play sometimes socio-economic, so there are a lot of negative statistics for the want of a better description that that Maori dominate and we need to make changes there whether it’s prison, incarceration or whatever”. Key thinks all Maori are crims. Welcome to your brighter future: it’s behind bars.
Written By: - Date published: 7:45 pm, January 16th, 2011 - 23 comments
Recently, I did a post on how Labour should be focused on creating an over-arching narrative that embodies its broad set of policies. This should make Labour’s vision loud and clear in election year. While Labour continues to rebuild policy, I have a number of ideas on how Labour could best deliver a new narrative […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, January 14th, 2011 - 75 comments
Sad news for Coasters. Recovery of bodies at Pike River abandoned. Key promised ‘whatever it takes’ to get them out. He’s breaking his word. He should front up and justify it. Instead, he’s hiding from the media.
Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, January 12th, 2011 - 45 comments
This year, as last year, we miss out on both Anzac and Waitangi days as holidays. And the Government refuses to do anything about it. Phil Goff and the EPMU back all workers getting their rightful public holidays like any other year – but John Key apparently doesn’t think it’s do-able, that it needs “research”.
Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, January 11th, 2011 - 37 comments
As has been amply demonstrated by comments on The Standard in recent days, there are many who believe that the answer to an ineffective deterrent is more deterrent; that leaving in place the likelihood that fleeing from a police car will result in your death is somehow discouraging an unknown number of drivers from fleeing. Increasingly, though, people who respond with their critical faculties as opposed to their knees are realising that the present model of law enforcement and incarceration is a failure.
Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, January 10th, 2011 - 34 comments
Blinglish is confident that voters understand the economy and back the government’s (lack of) direction. In fact he better hope that voters don’t understand the economy, or notice National’s lack of help to an economy shedding jobs and headed into double-dip recession, or he won’t get voted back in.
Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, January 9th, 2011 - 59 comments
The Sunday Star-Times has produced an interesting article on the role of emotion in people’s voter choices leading into this year’s General Election. While the results are not great news for Labour supporters, it’s the first poll of its kind to be made public in NZ. There’s a lot of controversy over whether we ought […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, January 6th, 2011 - 54 comments
What’s to stop a government minister taking taxpayer money and giving it to, say, a family friend or a political slush fund? In theory, lots. There’s a formal budget-formation process through the ministeries and Cabinet, the Budget then has to be approved by Parliament, and the PM would sack any minister who tried such blatant corruption. Wouldn’t he?
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, January 4th, 2011 - 38 comments
Following Key’s ‘I’ll have a hissy fit and quit if you don’t re-elect me’ interview yesterday, the Herald has an interview with Phil Goff. The contrast is stark between smile and wave’s self-centred answers and Goff’s focus on delivering real results for NZ.
Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, January 3rd, 2011 - 162 comments
We’ve always said that John Key was only in politics for his personal reward. He just wants to have ‘PM of NZ’ on his CV. He just wants to go around smiling and waving at people who know who he is because of the office he holds. Now, he’s admitted as much by telling the Herald he’ll quit politics if we don’t re-elect him.
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, December 24th, 2010 - 32 comments
The day before Christmas, in what will surely be a forlorn attempt to bury the story, Bill English’s office has finally relented after months of resistance and released under the OIA papers on how the unknown Pacific Economic Development Agency was awarded a $4.8 million blank cheque in the Budget. This looks serious.
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, December 23rd, 2010 - 2 comments
Couldn’t resist this excellent BODY cartoon…
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, December 22nd, 2010 - 45 comments
It seems we don’t have a government at the moment. John Key is incommunicado in Hawaii. The Acting PM, Bill English, and Key’s press people refuse to speak for him. Someone needs to front up because serious questions are emerging about the honesty of statements Gerry Brownlee and Murray McCully made in Parliament and to the New Zealand people.
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, December 20th, 2010 - 46 comments
“PM plays power games with President Obama” reads the headline! Sounds exciting doesn’t it? Alas. The actual events described are somewhat pathetic. Key went personally begging for a photo op but the President of the US was too busy doing stuff that mattered. I think I could have written a much more accurate headline. I’m sure you can too…
Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, December 19th, 2010 - 53 comments
Odd timing as everyone powers down for Christmas, but The Herald has published the NZ Wikileaks cables. A rather far fetched attack on Clark (covered by Eddie yesterday), the Nats breaking promises and misleading Parliament. But if that’s the worst in the cables then I’m guessing that politicians on both sides, past and present, will be vastly relieved.
Written By: - Date published: 9:07 pm, December 16th, 2010 - 152 comments
Jason Ede, Whaleoil’s main source for smut in the National Research Unit, has done a clever little play on Phil Goff. Like 40-odd other MPs, Goff owns an investment property. That it’s in Wellington doesn’t matter. This isn’t a Double Dipton rort. But Goff pledged to sell it and he hasn’t. No rort but sloppy. A fair cop.
Written By: - Date published: 3:59 pm, December 16th, 2010 - 27 comments
Isn’t it great we’ve got that nice man John Key running the country?
He can’t sing, but he does entertain his fans so. Last year he sang Snoopy’s Christmas for his fans, this year Santa Claus is Coming to Town. He sure does know what it takes to be popular. And he always does his best.
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, December 16th, 2010 - 41 comments
A very good close of year speech from Phil Goff in the House yesterday. I think this is the kind of thing we want to see more of next year. Phil’s job is to crystalise the vague sense of dissatisfaction that most people feel with the Key Government with himself as the spokesperson for those Key has betrayed and let down.
Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, December 16th, 2010 - 67 comments
Tax cuts don’t cause growth, and even some of the right wing commentators are starting to admit it. The Nats’ tax cuts aren’t “broadly neutral” either, and that is why the deficit is blowing out. National’s one and only economic policy is busted. Now what?
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, December 14th, 2010 - 16 comments
Key has been very busy defending sacked Minister Pansy Wong. He has been desperately ignoring the calls for an Auditor General’s investigation as the cracks in the whitewash report on her illegal spending continue to grow. But Key is very quick to call for the Auditor General to investigate a single solitary billboard.
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