Journos have been looking at how Peter Thiel gained citizenship. Not because he shouldn’t have been made a citizen. But it was done without any public notice using a special section of the immigration act. That reeks of a corruption route by a minister or officials. Reasons need to be made public for this and other decisions done this way.
Peter Thiel’s fast tracking of his citizenship application needs some explaining by the Government.
I want justice for the families of the worst workplace tragedy in decades. If New Zealanders choose to change the Government this year, Pike will be a priority in my first hundred days as Prime Minister.
Bill English says that he was probably for the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand although has hinted that he has since changed his mind.
Matt Nippert continued his excellent work on foreign trusts yesterday in The Herald. Will Bill English clean up the mess that John Key was determined to ignore?
The Herald’s John Roughan is not impressed with Bill English so far. And today English put his foot in it again.
In this glorious ‘go ahead’, ‘get ahead’ land of opportunity…
The usual media suspects are digging pretty deep to try and find anything supportive to say about English’s UK visit. English himself sounds like he has been put in his place.
Bill English has co-opted the old term “social investment” to replace another old term “targeted welfare”. Simon Wilson (writing at The Spinoff) has bought into the spin and written a deeply confused piece about it.
English – “One of New Zealand’s benefits is because we’re a long way away and fairly small we don’t attract too much attention.” Nice contrast to the usual Nat hysterical style. I guess there’s no need for all that domestic spying apparatus then?
I/S at No Right turn writes on Revenue Minister Collins’ denial of obvious tax avoidance.
And a return to the politics of division by Blinglish…
Bill English has used a proposal for timing of his Waitangi speech to wrongly claim that he is being silenced. And most of the media bought it.
I don’t think it does a PM any harm to shut up and listen for a change instead of talking, but this does not seem to be possible for the Nats.
Rudman: “The Prime Minister, in his role in charge of Housing New Zealand, and Smith have spectacularly failed to solve Auckland’s housing crisis over several years.”
Steven Joyce believes that doing something is the same as not doing something.
What next for Collins? Burning ambition, a significant personal following, no future in National. Time jump to ACT? She must fancy her chances of taking over that pretend party and building it up to a “kingmaker” role.
Bill English has announced his cabinet reshuffle.
There’s a lot of it around. The Democrats and their media and spook allies are in a complete lather over Putin’s supposed personal influence in the US election. Confident of victory and its spoils up till midday on election day, the Clinton team are incapable of assessing just what a debacle of a campaign they ran, still less what they need to do now. Lessons abound.
Apparently it’s “getting homeless people into homes”. Given the ongoing explosion of homelessness, just think how much scope she has to make herself proud next year…
The English honeymoon came to an abrupt end yesterday as the new PM copped an earful in Kaikoura. And bad goes to worse as Brownlee loses his rag (again). Key would have handled it better.
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga has announced that he will stand down from Parliament at the end of the current term. He will be a loss to National.
Andrew Little talks about what a Bill English leadership may look like. John Key promised to lift up the underclass, to fix the housing crisis, and to close the wage gap with Australia but failed. Will English be the same?
The 2016 Child Poverty Monitor Technical Report is out today. As usual it paints a bleak picture. What will Bill English’s government do about poverty – evasions, words, or actions? Update: Bill fails.
Bye John, out with the old. And in with the old. Shortly the Nats will anoint the chosen one, Bill English. A pre-failed leader. Mr 21%. The greedy double dipper. The boring, conservative choice for a boring conservative party.
Tax cuts – the Nats are continuing to rule them both in and out for the election. Incoherence or deliberate strategy? Either way – Key got away with this kind of bullshit for 8 long years – are we going to let it continue?
Puddleglum has perhaps the most accurate description of the Key years and equates it as the equivalent of a Big Mac, perfectly engineered but ultimately deeply dissatisfying.
Video of left wingers responding to the news that Bill English will be National’s next leader.
Judith Collins has withdrawn from the leadership race and pledged support for Bill English.
In the spirit of bi partisanship the Standard wishes to offer the candidates for leadership of the National caucus guest post slots and the ability to answer readers’ questions.
The policy wonk, the ambitious change-maker, or the no-bullshit bullshitter – the contenders for National Party Prime Minister set out their stalls yesterday with John Campbell. Just like the Kaikoura quake, their pitches exposed some complex fault-lines. It’ll be a long week in politics.
Now that we are entering the post Key era the Barbecue season presents the perfect time for all good progressives to talk to everyone about the importance of politics.
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What is John Key’s legacy? Rampant Crown debt, child poverty, homelessness, climate change, dirty politics …
