Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, April 18th, 2008 - Comments Off on Last chance to grill Rodney
Remember, our party leader in the ‘interview the leaders’ series this week is ACT’s Rodney Hide. Questions are picked on Sunday, so take the opportunity while you can. Ask them here. Helen Clark’s respones are due to be posted on Monday.
Written By: - Date published: 3:13 pm, April 17th, 2008 - 31 comments
On Monday, I wrote ‘Stay tuned for National’s next assets policy, due out sometime next week.’ It seems I miscalculated. Here’s what Key had to say on asset sales today on newstalkzb: ‘I’m going to go into an election with a group of policies and those policies we will implement or not implement as the […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, April 17th, 2008 - 26 comments
Continuing our benefits theme, here’s a look at how much the benefit system costs you. The figures are the combined expenditure by the Government on the Unemployment, Sickness, Invalids’, and Domestic Purposes benefits per day per working age New Zealander, in 2007 dollars. Sources: MSD (1,2,3), StatsNZ (4,5) The portion of the working age population […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, April 16th, 2008 - 19 comments
Police have closed their investigation into the theft of e-mails from former National Party leader Dr Don Brash and have announced that they have been unsuccessful in identifying those responsible for the thefts. Despite Brash’s ongoing insistence to the contrary, the police have said that they’ve been able to rule out the possibility than an […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, April 16th, 2008 - 74 comments
John Key’s latest line is to whine that Labour and others (including this blog) are launching personal attacks on him, and would we please stop. Our attacks are not personal, they are political. National wants to be in control of the Government, control an operation with a budget of near $60 billion and quarter of […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, April 15th, 2008 - 33 comments
Stuff reports that “Principals and teachers have savaged a National Party plan to increase funding for private schools, calling it a thinly disguised tax break for the rich.” New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Council chairman Arthur Graves called Key’s proposal to increase funding to private schools at the expense of the public system “a deliberate attempt […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, April 15th, 2008 - 7 comments
The Herald is really doing its best to help out National. Today it proclaims ‘Key’s wananga visit undoes Brash legacy‘. That nice Mr Key has undone all the harm caused by that nasty old Dr Brash, we’re meant to believe. But check the record. It wasn’t Brash who led the attack on Te WÄnanga o […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 15th, 2008 - 22 comments
National’s latest line is that interest rates have doubled under Labour, with the implication that National would magically lower inflation (while simultaneously pouring more money into the economy through lower surpluses) so rates would fall. But, as with so much National says, a quick look at the record reveals the lie. Average Mortgage Rate- Nat: 9.7%, […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:06 pm, April 14th, 2008 - 34 comments
A big thanks to Greens’ co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimmons for participating in our ‘Interview the leaders’ series. Her answers provided an insight into how the Greens view themselves as influencing political culture as much as promoting specific policies. Our next leader is Prime Minister Helen Clark of Labour. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are you […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, April 14th, 2008 - 14 comments
We’re really pleased to have Jeanette Fitzsimons 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? Well, there are so many! But probably the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2000 and the work I have done leading […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:54 pm, April 13th, 2008 - 18 comments
A reader sent us this very good video of John Key’s repeated memory lapses over where he stood on the Springbok tour: The tour was the defining event of a generation, and it’s simply not plausible that a politically aware university student would not have had a position one way or the other. While I […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 pm, April 12th, 2008 - 11 comments
At the Labour Party congress today, Helen Clark predicted that asset sales would be a key election issue and says the Government was right to veto the Auckland Airport share bid. “The National Party and ACT have made it plain where they stand – ‘sell it off’, they cry. This is a defining issue. In […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:42 pm, April 10th, 2008 - 19 comments
Last Tuesday Bill English stood up in Parliament and accused the CTU and the PSA of breaking the Electoral Finance Act. Problem for Bill was he’d got it completely wrong, and as we noted at the time the appropriate course of action was to make a formal apology in Parliament. Well to Bill’s credit he’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:50 pm, April 9th, 2008 - 42 comments
From Key’s speech to the NZ Institute of Foreign Affairs on emulating the ‘Celtic Tiger’: “Thirty years ago, Ireland was a total basket case. Today, it has all of the trappings of a considerable economic success story, including the capacity to attract and retain smart, educated, enterprising people. three key policy initiatives which were critical […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, April 8th, 2008 - 14 comments
A reader wrote to us to say that they’d recently seen Finlay MacDonald speak at Otago University as part of the Distinguished Communicator Lecture Series for the Centre of Science Communication. The talk is now online: The Audacity of Hype: John Key and the new National Socialism. In case you hadn’t picked up on this […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:14 pm, April 7th, 2008 - 64 comments
A big thanks to Progressives’ leader Jim Anderton for being the first participant in our ‘Interview the leaders’ series. The quality of his answers has set a standard for the others to emulate. Our next leader is Jeanette Fitzsimmons of the Green Party. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:20 pm, April 7th, 2008 - 39 comments
John Key’s failure to ask a parliamentary question last week exposes a crisis of confidence in National’s ranks. It is unprecedented for an Opposition leader to be in attendance in the House for a full sitting week, and to not once challenge the Government. This never happened when Helen Clark led Labour in Opposition from […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, April 7th, 2008 - 27 comments
Today we’re posting the first of our “Interview the leaders” segments – where you get to ask the leaders the questions you want to hear the answers to. We asked that answers be kept to 300 words and undertook to post them verbatim. We also warned the leaders that they were writing for a politically […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:39 pm, April 6th, 2008 - 15 comments
From the Sunday Star Times: A new poll suggests that National Leader John Key may be up against a bigger obstacle than he thought in knocking Prime Minister Helen Clark off she is the person New Zealanders most admire after Sir Edmund Hillary. The much-loved mountaineer topped the Roy Morgan Poll with 17.4 per cent support, followed by […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:43 pm, April 5th, 2008 - 17 comments
Sarah Montague from BBC’s Hardtalk interviews Helen Clark – starting with a question about whether the time might be right for a New Zealand referendum on republicanism. I’ve got to admit that I found it thoroughly refreshing to watch an interview where the interviewer doesn’t pull punches but also isn’t competing to be the centre […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 pm, April 4th, 2008 - 23 comments
Slippery John and his mates seemed pretty down in the dumps in the House this week. I know that no one, but a few political junkies, watch the House but a political party’s performance there is a good indicator for their mood. And, frankly, the Nats and their leader were not in a good one. […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, April 4th, 2008 - 20 comments
Our sources tell us National is set to follow-up to last year’s DVD ‘John Key: Vacuous for New Zealand’ with its sequel ‘John Key: I won’t bite, promise’. ‘Vacuous’ was withdrawn after The Standard and Kiwiblogblog revealed that Key had illegally used Coldplay’s ‘Clocks‘ as the theme tune. National and Coldplay’s record label are reported […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, April 4th, 2008 - 7 comments
A reader just sent us this – REM meets John Key. (Hat-tip: PJ)
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, April 3rd, 2008 - 9 comments
That’s what Key said when asked about his plan to increase GP fees. A reader reckons Key’s planning to apply the same market logic to crime: Great cartoon. No wonder National’s Law and order Spokesperson, Simon Power, is distancing himself from Key’s policy.
Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, April 3rd, 2008 - Comments Off on Interview the Leaders – reminder
Just a reminder, there’s still time to get your questions in for the Greens in our upcoming Interview the Leaders series. You can place your questions in the comments section of this post. Remember, keep them above the belt but make them tough. Jim Anderton will lead off the series on Monday answering your questions […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 pm, April 2nd, 2008 - 43 comments
Tracy Watkins tells us in today’s Dom-Post that John Key may have taken a beating in the stock market lately. He wouldn’t say how much he lost, but did admit, ‘I’m worth less than I was.’ And, I’ll bet some in his Caucus would agree. Anyway, Tracy tells us that Poor John came to New […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, April 2nd, 2008 - 17 comments
Duncan Garner kept Copperfield diners entertained yesterday by teasing Simon Power about the implications of National’s $50 conviction levy. We’re told that in response Power threw his hands into the air and exclaimed loudly that the policy wasn’t “his”. What an odd thing for the National Party spokesperson on law and order to say. It […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, April 2nd, 2008 - 17 comments
The Council of Trade Unions has given Bill English a good slapping over his false allegations in Parliament yesterday that the peak union body had broken the Electoral Finance Act. English accused the CTU of failing to include the home address of its financial agent in its application to become a third party, a lapse […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:52 pm, April 1st, 2008 - 23 comments
Perhaps he’s still getting into the swing of things after his Aussie holiday or perhaps he just doesn’t want to take on Cullen – either way, it’s a little odd that John Key doesn’t have any oral questions in the House today. On a day when Labour’s openly celebrating a number of policy rollouts it’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, March 31st, 2008 - 51 comments
Well, we’ve made our decision on the two questions you wanted asked of Jim Anderton and one of the decisions we made was that we needed three questions. So we’ve picked the following: For the question that will be asked of all leaders we’ve chosen Wat Tyler’s question as tidied up by Billy: Of which […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:12 am, March 28th, 2008 - 51 comments
We’re going to interview the leader of each party but we’d like to give you the chance to ask the questions. Starting next week we’ll submit two questions to a leader each Monday, one of which will be the same for each of them to allow you to compare those answers; the second question will […]
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