Caption Contest
“The Cabinet Manual clearly states that Ministers are responsible to me for their ethical behaviour, not for their judgment.” “Mr Hide has carried […]
Social issues
Tax Swindle Graph
Danyl over at DimPost has produced an excellent graph of the gains from National’s Tax Swindle. It uses the Government’s figures, it is generous in showing average rather than median incomes…
And it doesn’t look good for average kiwis.
Tax cuts for the rich no use if you’ve lost your job
Despite Bill English’s firm statement that “unemployment has peaked”, jobs are still being lost in large numbers. 1500 council workers in Auckland. 150 mushroom workers in Morrinsville. 500 workers whose quake hit employers are closing down in Christchurch. From John Key’s Hawaiian beach chair these worries must seem very far away.
Anne Tolley is a fool
Anne Tolley, Minister for wrecking primary education, doesn’t have the first or faintest idea of what “national standards” are actually going to mean in practice. She is “appalled” at the idea of labelling children as failures. But that is exactly what the standards are designed to do.
Nats’ shortsighted penny-pinching will cost us big in the end
While the cat’s away the mice will play. And while the clown’s sunning himself in Hawaii the ideologues in his Cabinet will launch vitriolic attacks on public service workers. As teachers are forced to endure another day of the country’s most powerful figures attack them, lets consider the consequences of undermining vital public services.
A suggestion for students
The voluntary student union membership bill is based on a false premise, and a reflexive tory hatred for the word “union”. I have a suggestion for students…
Time for a new approach
On Thursday, the 2010 Organised Crime Assessment for New Zealand was released to the public.
Essentially it told us what we already know; we have a problem, we know what the problem is, and we’re failing to solve it. It is time we approached the problem rationally and responsibly.
Asbestos City
In the aftermath of the twin towers, the dust that accompanied their collapse gave rise to a health crisis in the medium/long term that continues to play out to this day. And given the prevalence of asbestos in Christchurch buildings, it just might be that the earthquake will result in a number of preventable deaths after all…
Re: Chauvel on CERRA
A few days ago Charles Chauvel wrote a piece on Red Alert on why Labour voted for CERRA. I have two big problems with it. 1) Labour may have won concessions that improved CERRA but they didn’t get the key one. 2) There’s a dangerous mindset in the position that Labour had to vote for dictatorship or get pilloried in the media and lose votes.
Pause For Thought # 1
The suspension of normal democratic processes in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake should be an occasion to pause for thought in the light of likely future events.
Cosgrove slams McVicar’s role in Garrett affair
Great video of Clayton Cosgrove getting right stuck into the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s Garth McVicar over his hypocrisy on David Garrett. Cosgrove’s certainly no bleeding heart liberal so I’d say McVicar’s credibility on law in order is now pretty much shot.
John Banks: Signs I’d like to see
John Banks has gone big on billboards in his campaign for mayor. So I thought I’d show some that I’d like to see…
Key’s clumsy opportunism
John Key has tried to use the ACT fiasco to take a clumsy swing at MMP.
I guess he reckons it’s just too hard to rip voters off when you have to chase a party vote.
Govt ignored advice to save lives with lower drink-drive limit
The government was told that lowering the drink-drive limit would save 33 lives and $238 million a year. They ignored it. Why? I reckon the only money they were worried about was donations from the booze barons. These idiots don’t bother with basic cost vs benefit analyses. It’s all about pay-offs for their mates. And donation kickbacks.
Garrett and McVicar partners in crime
Garth McVicar is head of ‘tough on crime’ lobby group the Sensible Sentencing Trust. David Garrett is a serial offender who now faces further criminal charges for perjury.
So naturally McVicar is backing Garrett to head up a new hard-line law and order party.
The first diktats
On Thursday, our new dictator Gerry Brownlee decreed by Order in Council that the following Acts of Parliament were amended: the Building Act, the Local Government Act, the Resource Management Act, various pieces of transport legislation, and the Civil Defence Act. Most of the changes deal with minutiae of government. Some are less innocuous.
The Tolley Challenge
On Tuesday Anne Tolley, Minister for wrecking primary education, dropped another pearl. Has there ever been a comment made by any other minister, ever, in the history of New Zealand, that is as stupid, as arrogant, as offensive, as out of touch, as brain-fartingly idiotic a statement of the bleeding obvious as this clanger from Tolley? Anything even close?
Garrett case another example of special treatment for elite
David Garrett’s theft of a dead child’s identity is a revolting offence that violated our passport system and distressed the family. He lied to the Police when arrested and lied to the Court about having no prior convictions. Why did he escape conviction when others were being jailed for the same offence? Because he’s a lawyer. The elite looks after its own.
More thoughts on the Gerry Brownlee Enabling Act
The Gerry Brownlee Enabling Act is a Dictator’s Charter, and all we can do is hope Brownlee doesn’t abuse it. Even the Herald is against the unwarranted and excessive powers that have been conferred on one man with no meaningful checks or balances. This isn’t about Left or Right but too many on the Right seem happy with unfettered State power.
Does National care about animal welfare?
National will vote against a Sue Kedgley’s member’s bill, which could see factory farms phased out within 5 years. Despite support from the Greens, Labour, United Future and the Maori Party, without National or ACT’s support this bill won’t pass it’s first reading. There’s no good excuse. The government needs to be shamed on this.
Brown to beat Banks, don’t tell Granny
Two more Supercity polls. Brown ahead 29% v 17% in a Horizon poll. Herald’s Digipoll has it closer – 29.8% v 27.8%. Brown still ahead. Naturally, the Herald calls it too close to call. Looks like the Right’s plan for an Auckland coup is coming unstuck. Guess they’re lucky Labour and the Greens supported their nation-wide coup instead.
Day of the Jackoff
So ACT’s nutcase extraordinaire, the man whose only talent is to make John Boscawen look stable, has done it yet again. Forever getting attention […]
Government To Screw Health Next
Not content with destroying education to get at teachers, now National are after your health to get at doctors and nurses.
Absolute power? Absolutely
The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act gives the Government the power to pass Orders in Council overriding nearly every law. That makes ministers, not Parliament, the sovereign power in this country. Scary stuff, which I haven’t seen justified by the facts of the quake recovery.
Nats’ new health head: ‘Fewer doctors OK’
The state sector is in turmoil. Secondary teachers and medical technicians are striking for fair pay and against claw-backs in their work conditions. Junior doctors look set to join them. What’s the Nats’ reaction? They’ve appointed the Scottish ‘smiling assassin’, Dr Kevin Woods, who fired 1,500 nurses from the Scottish NHS and will apply the same formula here.
Caption Competition
Cameron Slater, aka Whaleoil, found guilty today in the Auckland District Court on eight breaches of suppression orders and one of identifying a […]