Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, May 19th, 2008 - 33 comments
Last year John Key announced National’s ‘Blue-Green’ Strategy. It contained the first shadow of acknowledgment from National that climate change is a serious issue: a target to reduce greenhouse gas emission to 50% of 1990 levels by 2050. Of course, setting a target for a time when most of your MPs will be dead is […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, May 17th, 2008 - 47 comments
As The Standard has grown, we’ve started to receive inquires from the media and requests for a comment or interview. We’ve been a bit hesitant about what to do in this regard. On the one hand, like most bloggers, we blog under pseudonyms and we believe what’s important is the writing and the arguments, not […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, May 17th, 2008 - 41 comments
California’s top court has ruled that a state law banning marriage between same-sex couples is unconstitutional, accrording to a BBC report. The state’s Supreme Court said the “right to form a family relationship” applied to all Californians regardless of sexuality. I wonder if this ruling will re-ignite debate on the status of relationships here in […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, May 16th, 2008 - 43 comments
If you’ve been reading Bill Ralston’s columns in the Herald on Sunday over the last few months you’ll have noticed how they’ve started to read more and more like long-form National Party press releases. To date I’d put it down to pure laziness – after all, why would you bother coming up with an original […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:37 pm, May 16th, 2008 - 10 comments
We’ll be selecting the questions for Winston as the final interview in the ‘Interview the Leaders’ series on Sunday. So, get them in while you can here. It’s been enjoyable having this series and great to give readers the chance to question leaders in a public forum. If you’ve got any ideas for future series […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, May 13th, 2008 - 36 comments
As Paul Henry continues his party political broadcasts for the National Party on Breakfast TV, a curious coincidence of timing occured on Sunday. John Key devoted part of his speech to a National regional conference to the Nats plans on how to deal with “P”. The rest of the speech was pretty much a repeat of the one he […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, May 13th, 2008 - 70 comments
I’ve just watched the first Question Time in 3 weeks. After 3 weeks’ recess and lots of potentially juicy material to use, here I was expecting the Leader of Nats to come down to the House and stick the knife into Labour. But instead… what we got was a extraordinarily limp performance by John Key. […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, May 13th, 2008 - 9 comments
We’ve chosen the questions for John Key in the seventh installment of our “Interview the Leaders” series. The first question remains the same, as for all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the others we’ve gone with Darryl’s question: Under the last National government most people’s wages fell […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, May 12th, 2008 - 32 comments
In an attempt to find a non-ideological ground to justify opposing the Government’s buyback of the rail system, John Key and others have been claiming that the $665 million price-tag is ‘over the odds’ and $200 million in excess of Toll’s ‘book value’ for the assets bought. What do these two terms mean and what […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:32 am, May 12th, 2008 - 23 comments
We’re very pleased to have UnitedFuture Leader Peter Dunne respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? At a national level, I am most proud of the tax changes for which I have been responsible in […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, May 8th, 2008 - Comments Off on Get your questions in for Key
Our ‘Interview the Leaders‘ series is going well and this week it’s your chance to submit questions to the man who wants you to want him to be your next Prime Minister. It’s been an interesting week for Key as, once again, a tentative venture into the land of substantive policy saw him come out […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:12 pm, May 7th, 2008 - 64 comments
A reader sent us this letter to the Herald’s editor, which the Herald has refused to print. When the government moved to block the sale of Auckland Airport to the Canadian Pension Fund, the Herald’s editorial proclaimed that anyone who didn’t want foreign ownership of our strategic assets was xenophobic. Yesterday, John Key played the […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, May 7th, 2008 - 41 comments
We’re very pleased to have Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? I am most proud of having played a part in the creation of a movement which has given […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, May 6th, 2008 - 13 comments
Tory candidate Boris Johnson has triumphed in the mayoral race for London in a campaign masterminded by the Australian political tactician Lynton Crosby. The Sydney Morning Herald has the story: Brought in at the end of last year, the mysterious Crosby – “you know I don’t do interviews”, he responded to an email from the […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 123 comments
The Maori Party has asked for an extension on the replies for Tariana Turia and we’re happy to oblige. In the meantime, here are the questions to United Future’s Peter Dunne that we chose from your suggestions. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the two […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 21 comments
Tom Frewen’s latest column seems to have somehow slipped through the usually rigourous editorial process at the NBR. The sidebar reads: “John Key’s lyrics sound like the gobbledygook of Bushisms”. “Yeah, I mean look, the truth is, with the greatest respect to Rodney, he doesn’t understand the telecommunications sector very well if he can’t sort […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, May 2nd, 2008 - Comments Off on Get your questions in for Dunne
Do you have a burning question to ask Peter Dunne? Does it not involve his hair? If so, submit your question here by Sunday and it could be selected for our questions to Dunne as part of our ‘Interview the Leaders’ series.
Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, May 1st, 2008 - 33 comments
Today is the fifth anniversary of Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech in which he stated that “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended”. To mark the date Moveon.org have released the following ad, intended to remind the public that as McCain himself said, “no one has supported President Bush on Iraq more” than he has. […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, April 29th, 2008 - 13 comments
Greenwoman just flicked us this:
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, April 29th, 2008 - 13 comments
Remember National’s policy of charging a $50 levy on everyone convicted of or, maybe, charged with (Key keeps on mixing up the terms) an offence? Remember all the obvious problems with it enforcement, administration cost, natural justice issues, the pitiful size of the sum that would be collected? Well, it turns out we missed one. […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:47 pm, April 28th, 2008 - 19 comments
Thanks to ACT leader Rodney Hide for participating in our ‘Interview the leaders’ series this morning. Our next leader is the Maori Party’s Tariana Turia. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the two other questions we’ve gone with Higherstandard’s question: Can you envisage a NZ […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, April 28th, 2008 - 27 comments
We’re very pleased to have ACT leader Rodney Hide respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? Making the IRD legally and culturally more accountable and responsive and getting my Regulatory Responsibility Bill to the Commerce Committee and, I […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, April 25th, 2008 - 62 comments
We’re very pleased to have Prime Minister Helen Clark respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? I am proud to lead a government which has worked so hard to restore fairness, opportunity, security, and hope to many New […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:33 pm, April 23rd, 2008 - 25 comments
We had hoped to have the answers for our ‘interview the leaders‘ series from Helen Clark today. I talked with the PM’s office and they explained the questions are with Clark, she’s been busy travelling, and we’ll have them as soon as they come back. So, they’ve asked for an extension and I said ‘fair […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, April 23rd, 2008 - 6 comments
So John Key has announced that a National-led government would spend “up to” $1.5 billion on fibre optic cable to the home. Well that’s a good thing right? Even I can appreciate the importance of Kiwi homes and businesses getting access to high speed broadband (even if it is solely for the use of my children’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, April 23rd, 2008 - 38 comments
The junior doctors’ strike is a difficult issue. On the one hand, these are highly valuable workers whom we can’t afford to lose overseas and they do work long hours in difficult conditions. On the other hand, the pay rise they want would cost $50 million and is well above what other medical professionals have […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, April 21st, 2008 - 41 comments
Even amateur, part-time bloggers sometimes make mistakes, and last week we didn’t send Clark her questions until Wednesday, rather than Monday, due to a miscommunication between ourselves. So, we extended her deadline to this Wednesday. We’ll post her replies when we get them. In the meantime, here are the questions to ACT’s Rodney Hide that […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, April 21st, 2008 - 18 comments
John Key: ‘ my lawyer actually does those things clearly [he] had the wrong information.’ That’s how Slippery John explained why legal documents showed him living at different addresses at the same time. For election purposes he had claimed to be living at his $1.1 million home in Waimauku in his electorate, but on documents […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:45 pm, April 20th, 2008 - 61 comments
In the Herald today, Bill Ralston sticks up for poor John Key who has been the subject of personal political attacks recently. Like Key, Ralston wonders what is “the cost of the Government using countless bureaucrats to endlessly scour records in an attempt to discover inconsistencies in any utterance [Key has] made”. Ralston needs to […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, April 18th, 2008 - 18 comments
Earlier this week, John Key had a whinge about ‘personal’ political attacks on him. Particularly, he thought it was a waste of taxpayers’ money that some Labour MPs wrote and performed a version of The Gambler mocking him. The song was written in a pub on a Saturday night (Key thinks they should been reading […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, April 18th, 2008 - 54 comments
Business is starting to get worried. This was meant to, finally, be the year that they got the Left out of government and started making New Zealand work for the business elite again. But there’s a problem: the man they chose for the job. Sure, Key’s got a cheeky grin but on real ‘prime minister […]
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