Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, November 27th, 2012 - 54 comments
I’m tired of watching Labour flounder over how it will build $300K homes in Auckland. The answer’s simple: they’ll mostly be apartments, units, and townhouses. Not much land cost. Reduced build cost per dwelling. Check out Trade Me, houses for sale in Auckland, 2 bedrooms+, priced $250-$300K. There’s hundreds (but not enough). Clearly, it can be done.
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 pm, November 23rd, 2012 - 83 comments
As the Government Administration Committee hears submissions on the Marriage Equality Bill, one committee member is doing his best to make the whole thing a clear illustration of how pathetic homophobes are.
Written By: - Date published: 2:51 am, November 17th, 2012 - 53 comments
I finally got around to listening to Gavin Ellis making a complete dork of himself on Radio NZ talking about authors on this site being “manipulated”. Hah! Anyone trying to manipulate them is likely to wind up being made into a pretzel. I wouldn’t care to try it myself. So does Gavin Ellis = a bit of an idiot. Or more charitably, has he actually bothered to think about this issue?
Written By: - Date published: 5:41 pm, November 14th, 2012 - 18 comments
And so Collins’ “defamation” case against Mallard and Little ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.
Oops – doubled up posting with Eddie – read both posts!
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, November 13th, 2012 - 70 comments
NZ Herald: ‘David Shearer is brushing off a crescendo of calls for him to step down by left-leaning bloggers and commentators, saying it is “nonsense” and should be ignored.’
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, November 8th, 2012 - 44 comments
NActUF use a lot of finely-honed, diversionary and distorting spin. However, when debating 2 Private Members’ Bills yesterday, government MPs couldn’t even be bothered trying too hard; the hypocrisy was glaring and the spin clumsy – showing clearly the differences between left & right wing principles.
Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, November 3rd, 2012 - 89 comments
Some prominent “journalists” are working to undermine Labour and a possible Labour-Green government: one that could turn against the neoliberal scam that such “journalists” feed off. The left should take heart – the time has come to support the “public interest”, as outlined by Nicky Hager.
Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, November 2nd, 2012 - 133 comments
On the back of Duncan Garner’s scathing piece on David Shearer, David Farrar endorses Grant Robertson for leader. Yeah, because his last recommendation’s worked out so well. Call me cynical, but I just don’t think National’s pollster has the Left’s interests at heart. No, I don’t think people will be looking to the Right for advice on who should lead Labour again.
Written By: - Date published: 5:57 pm, November 1st, 2012 - 54 comments
NBR is reporting that prominent Labour party booster Josie Pagani will be the new leftwing commentator for the truth
The newpaper edited by prominent National Party booster Cameron Slater.
Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, October 31st, 2012 - 205 comments
The New Zealand Truth has been going down the toilet for a long time. But they may have found their perfect editor. Cameron Slater aka “Whaleoil” has apparently been made editor of it. A bombastic bullyboy with fetish for inaccuracy is exactly the right fit for the role. And it gets a real deadbeat away from the taxpayers purse.
Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, October 17th, 2012 - 131 comments
Well, Fran Mold has done it now. She’s got Shearer to go large (it is alleged) based on her man’s claim that there is a tape of Key talking to the GCSB in February about Dotcom. But no proof’s emerged. All Fran’s foul-up has done is give Key a breather and put Shearer on the ropes.You don’t get a bigger fuck-up than that as a spin doctor. I can’t imagine she’ll be around much longer.
Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, October 16th, 2012 - 2 comments
Treasury is trying to tell us that private power companies don’t charge more than SOEs to justify privatisation. Of course, a moment’s thought tells you that private owners, with higher costs of capital, need larger profits than public ones. And private owners always complain the SOEs don’t charge enough. Moreover, Treasury’s spin is a complete fail.
Written By: - Date published: 7:43 am, October 15th, 2012 - 230 comments
Keith Ng has uncovered a truly massive breach in MSD’s computer security.
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, October 12th, 2012 - 10 comments
This week I’ve been to see the surrealists at the Tate Modern in London, and read about the surrealists at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham. God knows what Cameron was talking about, with his line about spreading privilege – Knighthoods for all? Everybody off to Eton and Oxbridge?
Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, September 23rd, 2012 - 43 comments
I reckon my theory that the tobacco industry’s stupid ‘agree/disagree’ ad campaign is actually just a way of chucking millions at cash-strapped media outlets to buy their silence (and even backing from Granny) has been confirmed. By one simple fact. The new TV ad, which appeals to crass nationalism to argue that we shouldn’t adopt the Aussie plain-packaging law, is voiced by an Aussie.
Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, September 14th, 2012 - 21 comments
“When you take a long-term model, there’s no place to hide”. Interesting, don’t you think, the issue – the only issue – that the Nats have chosen to take a long-term model of?
Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, September 11th, 2012 - 15 comments
Talk fast, shoot the messenger, and spin like a top. That’s Joyce’s style, trying to defend the indefensible; National’s neglect of New Zealand’s manufacturing industry.
Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, August 24th, 2012 - 16 comments
The Cancer-mongers’ ad campaign is complete crap. Ineffectual ads that won’t get anyone on side. Doesn’t matter though. They’re not aiming to convince you with the ads themselves. The actual aim’s to put a few hundred thousand dollars in media outlets’ pockets with the promise of more for favourable coverage. The Herald made it a bit blatant though – running a fawning editorial the day after the first full-page ad.
Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, August 22nd, 2012 - 39 comments
You have to remember sometimes that Steven Joyce’s introduction to politics was as a campaign strategist. That explains why he is still obsessed with style over substance. He’s released the second of six glossy publications from his new Mobie super-ministry. Like the previous one – like the decision to form the super-ministry – there’s no meat behind it: the point is merely to appear busy.
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 pm, August 16th, 2012 - 179 comments
It seems the Standard is off the Paganis’ Christmas list. John Pagani tells the Listener that he much prefers Kiwiblog because it “has a more reasonable tone than, say, the left blog the Standard, whose idea of political is embittered and angry and it’s therefore hard to read.” Now that’s tragic and moronic, but hardly surprising. […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, July 2nd, 2012 - 57 comments
We know that the Police overstepped their authority following their Hollywood wannabe raid on Dotcom’s home. They used invalid warrants to take property of Dotcom’s that they weren’t entitled to, and gave that data to the FBI. Now, we learn that Key’s office was involved in advising the Department of Labour on shutting down a leaked email.
Written By: - Date published: 7:46 am, June 28th, 2012 - 41 comments
John Key has this weird defence when challenged over the number of Kiwis who will buy and retain shares in his asset sales, given that shareholders in Contact have plummeted from 225,000 at point of listing to 78,000 now. He cites a single article by a single journalist that says Contact is widely-held. Yesterday, Key quoted at length from the year-old article. And walked straight into David Shearer’s trap.
Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, June 27th, 2012 - 41 comments
3 years ago, a National minister dancing on a flattened boyracer car would have been a PR coup. And certainly that’s how National’s spin doctors expected it to play out last week. But times have changed. Now, it’s being criticised as an unseemly act and a waste of money through-out the media. These tipping points creep up on governments. Strengths suddenly become weaknesses.
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, June 26th, 2012 - 2 comments
That’s the Guardian headline. Supposedly designed to give the Tories “political momentum”, it is late and over budget. The Treasury is resigned to the programme costing money rather than providing savings. The LibDems won’t have a bar of it. Critics describe it as “pitch-rolling”, preparing the ground for further “reforms”. More like spin-bowling here.
Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, June 8th, 2012 - 38 comments
The hysterical right are pretty pissed that the Nats have backed down on class sizes. Let them rant all they like – the Nats can’t afford to listen.
Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, May 24th, 2012 - 18 comments
Poor political choices, lazy spin management, a succession of statistics highlighting National’s poor management of the economy, a much more active Opposition, and, let’s not forget, a much less friendly media ever since the teapot tapes have combined to make this the first budget that has hurt National, rather than bolstered it.
Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, May 11th, 2012 - 35 comments
According to John Key voters rejecting austerity is good news for the government, high unemployment is a sign of confidence in the economy, ignorance is strength, black is white, and he has a bridge to sell you.
Written By: - Date published: 9:02 pm, May 2nd, 2012 - 4 comments
There’s the facts, the questions and the legal opinions. Today in Parliament John Key stuck to his lack of interest in detailed questions, and adherence to Banks’ reliance on legal opinions. He even alleged that the Labour Opposition agreed with these opinions. Not likely. The Police need to ask all the relevant questions that have so far not been answered by Banks or asked by Key, then their veracity and reliability should be established by a judge.
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