Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, May 15th, 2010 - 99 comments
Make no mistake, John Key’s comment about Tuhoe cannibalism was no accident, it was no joke, and it certainly was not ‘self-deprecating’. Key didn’t just happen to accidentally make a comment that appeals to a deep-seated prejudice that is still current among redneck Pakeha and wedges our society in two. It was a message to Tuhoe
Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, May 14th, 2010 - 64 comments
Hey thanks John, you’ve really helped put New Zealand in the international spotlight yet again. First it was your clown act on Letterman, more recently your cringe-worthy fawning over Biden and attempts to be seen as another Obama, your valiant pro-whaling pandering while leaving a New Zealand hero to languish in a Japanese jail, then your eagerness to mine […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, May 13th, 2010 - 158 comments
There appears to have been a recent and sudden shift in the attitude of John Key and the National party towards Maori. Marty Mars has drawn my attention with a ballistic comment to the latest insulting and distasteful ‘joke’ by John Key about the Tuhoe.
Update: His ‘joke’ has now gone international. Our clueless Tourism Minister has just ‘lifted’ our profile abroad. Thanks John…
Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, May 13th, 2010 - 18 comments
These online polls are always silly, but it’s interesting to track the spread of the “smile and wave” meme.
Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, May 13th, 2010 - 15 comments
Phil Goff has put some good solid (if rather moderate) left-wing substance on the table in his pre-budget speech yesterday. Duncan Garner says that was the right move, but wonders if Labour now needs to focus on the questions surrounding John Key. Garner says in the wake of several questionable moves Key’s integrity is now on the line and Labour should exploit it.
Written By: - Date published: 1:47 pm, May 12th, 2010 - 72 comments
Phil Goff has delivered his speech on Labour’s economic vision ahead of the Budget. It’s a good one, filled with core Labour values and ideas that will get New Zealand moving ahead. Goff talks about fairer tax rather than tax cuts for the rich, better monetary policy, and investing in New Zealand’s future.
Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, May 10th, 2010 - 46 comments
Congratulations John on your latest speech. We especially like the line “Let me be clear: there is no room for separatism in New Zealand.” Very masterly, clear and unequivocal. I know you meant what you said and weren’t just dog-whistling to the racist red-necks in the audience who’re feeling spooked by us signing up to […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, May 9th, 2010 - 12 comments
Prime Minister John Key has released a multimedia demonstration prepared by his Technical Advisory Panel to explain why, despite election ‘promises’, New Zealand will not be getting ultra-fast broadband any time soon under National. Yes folks, like John Key’s Magical Cycleway To Salvation, there are a myriad of previously unconsidered reasons why we just can’t […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:17 pm, May 8th, 2010 - 23 comments
Bill English is trying to assuage National Party member who are concerned that the Party is betraying its principles (ha!) and giving too much to the Maori Party saying “all those decisions are being made in the context of the longer-term view, reaching our objectives over the next four or five years” – winning a second term trumps principle. It’s about power for its own sake.
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, May 6th, 2010 - 61 comments
I’m glad to see Labour is stealing a march on the lazy Nats and building an alternative economic vision ahead of the Budget. It looks to be just the vision New Zealand needs, built on the twin planks of economic sovereignty and a fairer distribution of wealth.
Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, May 5th, 2010 - 88 comments
Today’s Herald has a front page piece criticizing Key’s abandonment of his Middle East trade mission to return home for the funerals of the three airmen who crashed on their way to an ANZAC Day parade. Trade delegate Dr John Langley said the decision was not in New Zealand’s long-term interests and that Mr Key was […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, May 4th, 2010 - 11 comments
While John’s off playing soldiers, things are getting worse and worse for Kiwi workers. Wages are falling for the first time in a decade. The average hourly wage was $25.80 when National came to power. Now, it’s $25.30. I had hoped unemployment would start falling about now but the signs are discouraging. Only unionised workers able to protect themselves from the storm.
Written By: - Date published: 1:34 pm, May 3rd, 2010 - 26 comments
This is not a time for mixed messages. Phil Goff is quoted today as saying: “They [the Government] have got to back down from both Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel”. No! Labour’s position, and the position of the biggest single protest march since 1938, is no mining in any Schedule 4 land! Don’t dilute the message…
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 pm, May 2nd, 2010 - 48 comments
50,000 New Zealanders march against the mining plans of this government. For many, the mining agenda is yet another black mark against this government that has done nothing positive about the issues that matter – jobs, wages, health, education, the environment. But the capitalist elite who so desperately wanted their party in power are getting pretty pissed off too.
Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, April 27th, 2010 - 70 comments
Fresh from promising to restore the top tax rate that National is set to abolish and give the revenue to the poor, Phil Goff has outlined his vision for fixing National’s undemocratic Supercity. National and Act have ridden roughshod over Auckland democracy in the interests of their corporate allies. Phil Goff has made it clear that Labour will restore local democracy.
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, April 27th, 2010 - 47 comments
John Key is a two faced politician. He frequently says different things to different audiences. In the case of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Key may have taken this duplicitous tactic too far, setting two large bodies of public opinion on a collision course…
Written By: - Date published: 9:52 pm, April 26th, 2010 - 12 comments
To paraphrase Muldoon – send a JAFA to Wellington, and we can only increase the average intelligence of both parts of the country. Needless to say, TV news chose to focus on a minor story in Goffs speech. If a future mayor of Auckland, Brown, can sit at the cabinet table on decisions related to […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, April 24th, 2010 - 58 comments
The Nats are looking to cut $1.8 billion in spending over four years. Where from? What and who will be deemed to be “low quality” in need of “weeding out”? The answers are going to tell us a lot about the National Party’s values…
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, April 21st, 2010 - 15 comments
Bill English continues to tell outright lies about the economic performance of this country under Labour. This time it’s even more blatant. You don’t have to do any maths to check if he’s lying or not, you just have to go to the latest GDP stats. This has reached the point of purposely misleading the House and the public.
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, April 20th, 2010 - 29 comments
In 2008 John Key made this crystal clear promise: “That in the first term of the National government there will be no state assets that will be sold either partially or fully.” Now, Land Information New Zealand is proposing the sale of seven high country stations as part of the tenure review process. Key must keep his promise not to sell state assets and turn down this proposal immediately.
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 am, April 20th, 2010 - 159 comments
The Government has received advice from the Ministry of Justice on its ‘three strikes’ legislation. It reveals such a horrendous risk of passing the law that any government should have abandoned it immediately. Instead, Simon Power was shuffled out of the way, Justice was muzzled, & the advice was suppressed. Until now.
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, April 18th, 2010 - 100 comments
Pete Bethune is one of New Zealand’s heroes. He’s been a successful entrepreneur and gone on to use his wealth to fight the big guys on the grounds of principle. As skipper of the New Zealand flagged hi-tech boat Earthrace, his circumnavigation attempts showcased kiwi ingenuity to the world and demonstrated the value of bio-fuels to […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, April 17th, 2010 - 94 comments
From time to time you hear mention of John Key’s personal fortune of $50M. If you say fiftymilliondollars quickly enough it doesn’t sound that much, especially in the context of politics where most budgets come in factors of millions anyway. But as a personal fortune, that amount of money needs some context to really appreciate […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, April 15th, 2010 - 71 comments
Phil Goff is being attacked by John Key’s apologists because he won’t pledge to reverse National’s GST hike given he can’t yet know the state of the government’s books when he becomes PM. How ironic to see the Right, who supposedly want accountable government, pillory a politician for being straight up with the public, rather than telling them what they want to hear.
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, April 15th, 2010 - 8 comments
This is a government that has failed to do anything apart from favours for its rich mates. But it’s still startling to see it all laid out. In his speech to the Grey Power AGM, Goff went through the failures of Key and co after less than a year and a half – an amazingly long list for such a short time. Goff is on the money when he points to the cause: National governs for the few, not the many.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 14th, 2010 - 19 comments
Following this masterpiece from Rabid Fire on Key’s F#ck Everybody policy, here’s a lovely summary of Mr Key’s exciting Washington adventure.
… the PM soon brightened, opening the Prime Ministerial lunchbox to show the press gallery his special lunch. “Look! Look! Bronagh’s made me special aeroplane shaped sandwiches for when I go on the aeroplane!”
Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, April 13th, 2010 - 27 comments
Well, I’m pleasantly surprised. For once, Paula Bennett has played it straight on the benefit numbers. She hasn’t slapped herself on the back, even though last month’s benefit numbers are the best we’ve seen on her watch (in line with normal seasonal variation). If only Bill English could follow suit, rather than claiming credit for illusionary movements in the government’s books.
Written By: - Date published: 12:42 am, April 12th, 2010 - 20 comments
Smile and wave is easy enough in the first year, people are willing to give you a chance. But at some point, the public expects a government to get to work tackling the big problems. National displays no will or ability to do so. In just two months, 1 in 8 Kiwis has switched from thinking the country is heading in the right direction under Key to thinking things are getting worse.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, April 7th, 2010 - 39 comments
Remember “the underclass”? They were briefly fashionable in National circles in 2007. Now that they are the government National’s policies for the underclass seem to involve a good deal of beneficiary bashing. Invalids are being thrown off their benefit before the new legislation is even in effect. Election promises are being broken to remove the carrot and wield the stick. How will this help the underclass?
Written By: - Date published: 9:01 pm, April 6th, 2010 - 10 comments
David Slack says..
“Qantas passenger threatened to bring down flight with the power of his mind. Ten bucks says he’s wearing an ACT T-shirt”
But it made me laugh after a hard weekend. as it perfectly reflects that way I feel about the breed.
Written By: - Date published: 6:53 am, April 5th, 2010 - 58 comments
John Key makes big promises and he doesn’t deliver. Tax cuts North of $50? Jobs summit? Close the gap with Australia? His rhetoric on crime is another example. Key promised to tackle violent crime. Key promised a war on P. Well, the first report card is in, and it isn’t good.
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