Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, December 18th, 2009 - 18 comments
Words: Prime Minister John Key has urged the world’s major economies to listen to the voices of vulnerable nations facing climate change. .. The current system of limited participation under the Kyoto Protocol had to be moved to one of “comprehensive global coverage”, he said. “For this to be achieved we need international commitments from […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, December 17th, 2009 - 76 comments
Well, that could have been embarrassing. John Key on the world stage, along with leaders of other countries in what has been billed the ‘greatest debate on Earth’ had the potential to be very painful. It goes without saying that he would have treated the whole thing as a PR event. National was already preparing […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, December 16th, 2009 - 26 comments
An extraordinary moment in Question Time as John Boscawen skewered National’s hollow promise to close the wage gap with Australia by 2025. Watch the video and listen to Bill English’s voice. He was simply left high and dry when Boscawen asked him for some actual evidence that the gap is going to close: Boscawen: By how much […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, December 14th, 2009 - 46 comments
In a year when New Zealand factory farming practices for pigs (and earlier for chickens) have been widely exposed and shocked the country, our dairy industry is looking at adopting similar practices for dairy cows. In a year when climate change has been on the world agenda as never before, our dairy industry is attempting […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, December 11th, 2009 - 41 comments
Thanks to our dear Prime Minister John Key, New Zealand is being branded an international ‘fossil’ on climate change. Stuff.co.nz reports Prime Minister John Key’s comments on climate change have come to the world’s attention, earning New Zealand a “fossil of the day” award at the Copenhagen climate change negotiations. The awards are a hall […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, December 10th, 2009 - 45 comments
I’m kind of embarrassed. I should know by now never to trust a word out of Bill English’s mouth. I should have checked his repeated claims that government spending rocketed under Labour. English likes to say that because of Labour government spending increased by 45% over the five years from 2004 to 2009. As David […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, December 10th, 2009 - 39 comments
Check out Phil Goff’s general debate speech yesterday on In The House, a handy new site paid for by the Office of the Clerk (can’t work out how to embed from it yet). The speech is excellent and it focuses where Labour should be focusing: National’s complete unwillingness and inability to do anything for hardworking […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, December 9th, 2009 - 42 comments
By Andrew Campbell Shame on the Labour caucus. If it’s true that they back Phil Goff’s Nationhood speech without reservations and therefore his strategy to use dog whistling racist tactics to win back the white male vote then they deserve the long period in opposition such an approach will bring. The closing of the ranks […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, December 9th, 2009 - 23 comments
RNZ, Nov 6: Sean Plunket “Most commentators say you’re leadership style has been one that has sought to avoid personal attacks and name calling” John Key “Well, I don’t think that [personal attacks and name calling] get you anywhere” Parliament yesterday (just examples from one day) Key “I guess the difference between me and the […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, December 9th, 2009 - 9 comments
An excellent question from Labour yesterday, using some familiar numbers: Hon Annette King: When he was reusing ‘unreliable, highly volatile, and potentially misleading’ [Paula Bennett’s words] figures yesterday, was he aware that unemployment drops around this time every year and that this year we are experiencing a smaller than usual seasonal drop of just 2.6 percent, […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, December 8th, 2009 - 7 comments
Key wouldn’t say why he fired Worth, claiming he feared contaminating a police investigation. But he will trample all over a police investigation by saying they shouldn’t prosecute Harawira*. Credibility – fail. *They shouldn’t. OK for me to say that. I’m not PM.
Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, December 8th, 2009 - 44 comments
Helmetless Hone: Keen to continue the Hone Harawira saga, One News reported that complaints had been laid over Harawira not wearing a helmet when he rode the motorcycle of a visiting anti-violence campaigner on Parliament’s forecourt. I hope the Police have better things to do than investigate an MP for taking a 50m spin on […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:27 pm, December 6th, 2009 - 53 comments
Newly uncovered correspondence between Melissa Lee and NZ on Air shows that she and her leader, John Key, seriously misled the media, the house and the public over the issue of her company’s misappropriation of $80,000 of NZ on Air funds. Documents obtained by The Standard show Lee’s claim to media that she had no […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, December 4th, 2009 - 19 comments
So John Key has finally dropped his veils* and is going to Copenhagen. Well, Rob Emmerson correctly predicted how the ineffectual Emissions Trading Scheme amendments by NACT did wind up. Taxpayers pay almost all of the cost, our kids pay even more, and polluters have no incentive to reduce emissions. Now imagine what happens when […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:26 pm, December 3rd, 2009 - 25 comments
We all know the 2025 Taskforce is a farce and a waste of taxpayers’ money. The Government has disowned it, the critics have panned it. Even Garth George has come out calling for its first report to be recycled into toilet paper. It genuinely appears to serve no function but to subsidise the wacky right-wing […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, December 3rd, 2009 - 59 comments
Here’s a wee gripe in the morning. John Key. Did you ever see such a prima donna? Headline on Newsroom this morning: “Key And Copenhagen – Prime Minister John Key is preparing to relent on his refusal to attend the world climate change conference in Copenhagen”. In The Herald: “Key books flight to Copenhagen – […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, December 1st, 2009 - 9 comments
Recall that last week Speaker Lockwood Smith tried to heavy the press, demanding that they stop doing stories on MP’s expenses or he would do away with the Press Gallery. I suspected at the time that this was a tactical blunder, any hack worth their salt should take that as fighting talk! And it may […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, November 30th, 2009 - 17 comments
Brash’s taskforce releases its report today. Where’s Key? CHOGM ended yesterday but he’s not back until Wednesday. Catching Aussie by 2025 is meant to be his big vision. He can’t get them to wait a couple of days or get back quicker? We know this serious stuff isn’t really Key’s thing. But the fact that […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:58 pm, November 28th, 2009 - 39 comments
Below Omar of Socialist Aotearoa gives his impressions of Phil Goff at Drinking Liberally in Auckland earlier this week. On an unrelated note, isn’t it funny (in a non-‘ha, ha’ way) how 4,000 pro-smackers gets lots of coverage but a blind eye is turned when the Left is out in bigger numbers? The protests yesterday by low-paid public servants […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, November 28th, 2009 - 44 comments
Reading Fran O’Sullivan is always interesting because she provides an insight into the thinking of the business elite who fund National, and who expect it to govern for them. A lot of her article today is devoted to calling for radical reforms that obviously aren’t politically viable for Key to do, but one paragraph in particular stood […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, November 28th, 2009 - 16 comments
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon have called on world leaders to attend the Copenhagen talks on the new climate change treaty. President Obama will be attending as will the leaders of most major countries. Yet John Key still says he almost certainly won’t go, even after New Zealanders raised the money […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:33 pm, November 27th, 2009 - 37 comments
The Police have announced they will not be laying any charges against Richard Worth over the incident involving him and a Korean woman in a hotel room. That’s not an exoneration from wrongdoing, of course, but it puts to rest the criminal case. Now, it’s time for John Key to tell us why he […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, November 27th, 2009 - 110 comments
Phil Goff’s speech on ‘nationhood’ was always going to be seen as an attempt to pull a Brash, regardless of what it actually said. The narrative was set from the start, and it’s fair to suspect that Goff’s people knew that and thought they’d take the risk anyway. You don’t make a speech on the […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, November 23rd, 2009 - 27 comments
Anyone with a brain has always known Key’s cycleway is a joke. The sick thing is he’s now using it as a punchline himself: Barack Obama’s planned White House Job Summit struck a note with our own PM when he heard about it during the Singapore Apec meeting. “Maybe he’ll do a national cycleway,” John […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, November 23rd, 2009 - 39 comments
John Key sure is a class act. Not. Latest example*: Stadium funds: We’re not Indian-givers, says Key Prime Minister John Key yesterday said the Government was unlikely to ask for its $15 million back if the Forsyth Barr Stadium is not finished in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. … The issue of whether […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, November 22nd, 2009 - 24 comments
Phil Goff has managed to defy the critics and make himself relevant. His speech on ACC and his criticisms of National’s backroom deals with the Maori Party got praise and draw a contrast between Labour and Key’s government, with Labour on the right side of popular opinion. It’s a nice piece of timing too. The […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, November 22nd, 2009 - 45 comments
Unbelievable. John Key has opened the environmentally destructive Whangamata Marina. This was a battle between rich property developers, against the serious concerns of local Maori, surfers, and environmentalists. Key has come down firmly on the side of his rich mates. But not only that, he’s promised more marinas! The building of marinas along popular coastal areas […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 pm, November 21st, 2009 - 15 comments
What a strange little editorial in the Herald today. It’s a typical spin piece that tries to frame John Key’s shoddy behaviour in not meeting the Dalai Lama, despite his promise that he would, as a good thing. The title shows just how willing, desperate even, some are to interpret everything Key does positively – “At […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 20th, 2009 - 14 comments
In a speech to National Party members yesterday John Key read out a list of everything the government has done in the last year. Talk about weak, when the public disgruntlement with this do-nothing govenment has reached a level where they’re resorting to ‘not even, we’ve done heaps’. Audrey Young reports the list ran to […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 20th, 2009 - 41 comments
Reproduced with permission from No Right Turn for a viewpoint on the process of policy formation. This morning, Labour leader Phil Goff announced that he was abandoning the NeoLiberal consensus on monetary policy, with the aim of getting a monetary policy that works for the many rather than the rich few. But specifics were few […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, November 20th, 2009 - 24 comments
It looked like a duck. It walked like a duck. It quacked like a duck. Turns out it was a duck. The “Plain English” advertisements were effectively party political broadcasts on behalf of the National Party. (Hardly surprising, as they were coauthored by English and his people). Even TVNZ now admits they should never have […]
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