Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, March 24th, 2009 - 27 comments
We’ve been outed! By none other than Thelma (or was it Louise?) A promotional video for climate action, voiced by Susan Sarandon for Greenpeace in the US, holds New Zealand up as a beacon of hope on a sickly earth praising the former Labour Government’s plan to ban energy inefficient bulbs by 2009. Unfortunately for […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, March 22nd, 2009 - 19 comments
John Armstrong March 21 2009 – “So the National Government is variously inching, shifting, drifting, veering or lurching to the right, depending on where you stand on the political spectrum. Surprise, surprise… John Key may have portrayed himself as a moderate pragmatist in Opposition – indeed he is still doing exactly that as Prime Minister […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 pm, March 18th, 2009 - 93 comments
Key’s speech to the CTU today showed an interesting inight into how he thinks you lift wages. NZPA reports: He said it was not good enough for New Zealand to be in the bottom third of the OECD for per-capita incomes, but was cautious about tackling the issue by lifting minimum wage rates. “In reality, […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, March 18th, 2009 - 21 comments
John Key in the NBR*: There is more chance in this decade than the last one of New Zealand moving up the OECD league table because other countries are moving backwards. So, it’s OK if we’re getting poorer because other countries are getting poorer even faster. Not so ambitious for New Zealand after all I […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, March 13th, 2009 - 65 comments
If there’s one thing that strikes you about John Key’s post-cabinet press conference this week, it isn’t the scintillating prose or erudite diction. It isn’t even the brilliant plans brimming with enthusiasm, intelligence and vision. What’s remarkable is that the guy looks exhausted. He’s been in the job all of 3 months, extended holidays in Hawaii not withstanding, […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, March 9th, 2009 - 55 comments
Despite all the claims of “centrist” and “centre-right” none other than the the Wall Street Journal has pointed out that John Key’s government is very much a hard-right neo-liberal outfit: Mr. Key is returning the country to a formula for prosperity that’s worked in the past. As in Britain, the U.S. and Australia in the […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:14 pm, March 8th, 2009 - 61 comments
The world may be going to hell in a hand-basket and National may have been pretty derelict so far in coming up with any real plan to combat the recession, but clearly they’ve been busy focusing on the really important business of dragging us back into the past. The British titles of Knights and Dames […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, March 8th, 2009 - 26 comments
Gordon Campbell has been having fun pointing the finger at Treasury in “How Treasury put us on the hook to finance companies“. Essentially the treasury and therefore Bill English appear to have been somewhat idiotic. If a firm stopped taking deposits last September, and was heavily exposed in the current economic climate to a major […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, March 5th, 2009 - 28 comments
Question Time yesterday was extraordinary. There’s too much to quote it all: ministers attacking ACC, refusing to back the minimum wage for all workers, ministers calling their quotes in the Herald lies. But this topped it off. Hon Phil Goff: What is the current status of the New Zealand Skills Strategy developed by Business New […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, March 3rd, 2009 - 50 comments
Despite making sound profits Sealord are laying off 180 workers in Nelson. They claim the move is part of restructuring and that there will be fifty new jobs aboard factory ships that will fully process fish. Remaining workers are also being asked to take a pay cut. I’m not sure I buy that. Even with […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:21 pm, February 27th, 2009 - 60 comments
A reader just sent us this one minute montage of photos from John Key’s jobs summit. Enjoy.
Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, February 26th, 2009 - 9 comments
Bailing out a company like Air New Zealand is one thing. It has a multiplier effect on the local economy in tourism marketing, air freight, and just having a airline that is interested in having routes in and out of NZ. Giving money to your mates because they are your mates… Well this is the […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, February 26th, 2009 - 10 comments
Yesterday, Finance Minister Bill English made a big deal over the loss the New Zealand Superannuation Fund incurred last year. When you don’t need the money for twenty years, the current value of your asset is irrelevant. When there’s a boom on the paper value of what you have will skyrocket, when there’s a bust […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:16 pm, February 23rd, 2009 - 23 comments
Anyone else read Audrey Young’s interview of Bill English in the New Zealand Herald and get a massive feeling of deja vu? Here’s a typical outtake: Rather than the Treasury working out where to cut spending, he wants the departments to change the way they think. “We will get them doing it. They are going […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, February 21st, 2009 - 24 comments
Can you spot the question that wasn’t asked of Key by Armstrong and Young in their six page interview with him in today’s Herald? Is there too much “doom and gloom” talk at the moment, especially by and in the media? There’s a lot of debate among commentators as to whether your stimulus package will […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, February 19th, 2009 - 148 comments
When John Key and Pita Sharples were jostled by two Maori men opposed to the National-Maori Party alliance, the thing that stuck in my mind was Key’s smile. Like Donald Trump’s hair, it was back in place immediately, covering whatever lies underneath. That smile, and the intensive, expensive, extensive image management it represents, are the […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, February 18th, 2009 - 12 comments
David Cunliffe has been doing something that Bill English really hates – asking questions about actual accounting and fiscal practices. The reason that Bill hates this is because he keeps getting caught in his mythologies of opposition. These were designed more for the dogwhistle brigade who prefer a good incorrect story to what is required […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, February 13th, 2009 - 32 comments
Bill English is living in a dream, and he may create a nightmare for the rest of us. Last week, he said the recession would be over in 6-12 months. He hasn’t bothered to announce any significant new spending in response to the recession – all the supposedly new spending he has announced so far […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:16 pm, February 12th, 2009 - 25 comments
The hilarity continues. According to a person who was there, Douglas didn’t use his speech because it had been accidently leaked, and subsequently delivered on Youtube by a sockpuppet. The Herald, however, quoted from the speech as if he had given it. Turns out they didn’t bother sending a reporter. If a tree doesn’t fall […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:54 pm, February 11th, 2009 - 11 comments
After Roger Douglas’ big comeback speech was accidentally released two days early on the Internet due to inept media handling, then parodied on youtube by a sockpuppet before it had even been delivered I didn’t see much point in bothering with the actual content. Funnily enough, not many others have either. But one person who […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, February 10th, 2009 - 13 comments
After yesterday’s early release of Roger Douglas’ Orewa speech set for 6pm this evening one of our (bafflingly tenacious) readers has sent us this: It seems this sockpuppet beat that sockpuppet to the punch.
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, February 10th, 2009 - 20 comments
Great, through concerted pressure the Left managed to force a 9-cent an hour real increase in the minimum wage from National/ACT. A 9 cent an hour real increase is not much but it’s a hell of a lot better than freezing the minimum wage at $12 an hour and letting inflation eat it as National/ACT had planned. The decision […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, February 8th, 2009 - 44 comments
Key’s old arm cast has sold for $18,500 on Trademe. The money will go to the Fred Hollows Foundation to help blind people in the Solomon Islands. Great, a fair old dollop of money raised for a worthy cause. But let’s not stop there. A large number of people bid large amounts for two things of […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:38 pm, February 7th, 2009 - 32 comments
There is no doubt that the Granny crew were hurt when their own ‘poll’ showed that people considered Helen Clark was the greatest living kiwi. It says a lot about the mean-spirited attitudes at the Herald that they didn’t consider that politicians were possibilities for the greatest living Kiwi. You get the impression that they’d […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, February 7th, 2009 - 7 comments
Gosh what a difference a few years can make when it comes to symbols of national identity. Not so long ago National had a leader happy to springboard off dog-whistling race-divisive carping about the Treaty Grievance Industry in speeches and billboards. More recently National campaigned on abolition of the Maori seats, at least until it became […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:36 pm, February 5th, 2009 - 10 comments
Across the Tasman Kevin Rudd has announced a huge recovery package. Here at home, National is merely tinkering around the edges. Key’s standard response to this criticism is that ‘his’ package puts us amongst the top few countries in the world in terms of spend to GDP. Someone needs to ask him how much of […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, February 4th, 2009 - Comments Off on Fonterra set to simmer
Lawyer Stephen Price has rubbished Fonterra’s claim that the Chinese sub judice status of the Sanlu case prevents Fonterra releasing documentation of their communications. Price also doubts any discussion of the issues here would influence the outcome of Sanlu Chairwoman Tian Wenhau’s appeal. The criticism comes after Fonterra claimed it advised Sanlu only 0% melamine was acceptable […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, February 2nd, 2009 - 41 comments
Well it may not have been particularly self-evident just what National have been doing since the election, but clearly John has some kind of plan. The TradeMe auction of Key’s arm cast, acquired after an inauspicious Chinese New Year trip, has begun. Worried perhaps that the auction might also fall flat on its face, John has […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, January 31st, 2009 - 10 comments
In 2007 Te Ata Tino Toa applied to Tranzit New Zealand to have the Maori Sovereignty flag flown on the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day. Tranzit declined permission on the grounds that it wasn’t a UN recognized national flag, despite having previously flown the Team New Zealand flag, which would have failed the same […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, January 29th, 2009 - 3 comments
Danyl at The Dim-Post has been indulging in his favored pastime again – satire. In this case Cabinet expresses concern over missing PM is about John Key going missing all of the time. Danyl compares him to a pooch avoiding something… Finance Minister Bill English has accepted responsibility for his leader’s absence. ‘I usually let […]
Recent Comments