Crusher Collins to launch McPrisons
Crusher Collins to launch McPrisons(TM) Clearly envious of the regular stream of complimentary Happy Meals arriving at Paula Bennett’s Parliamentary office (Paula tells […]
Social issues
Incentive to leave school?
I disagreed with Helen Clark in 2007 when she first suggested raising the school leaving age, as I don’t believe the mainstream school […]
Right headings, wrong policies
John Key’s speech on the economy, billed as the way to close the 30% wage gap with Australia, had six policy headings – […]
A National disgrace
Judith “Crusher” Collins, postergirl for uncompassionate conservatives, proudly announces in her latest press release: “Prison numbers set to be highest ever”. Odd thing to […]
Folic acid fiasco
I just don’t see why medicating an entire population to prevent a handful of spina bifida cases, which will only work if women […]
Nats can NOHSAC
One of the most fundamental rights at work is the right to come home at the end of the day healthy and safe. […]
Big Mac nation
New Zealanders are now the third fattest nation in the world according to a report covered in today’s Christchurch Press. New Zealand faces […]
Toast
What a horrifying sight today’s Q+A interview with Minister of Food Safety Kate Wilkinson made. It was a shameful performance from a media point […]
The Daily Refrain on swine flu
Sometimes writing is hard. Especially when one is hungover for the third morning in a row. Thank God for Youtube. This one goes […]
Political violence
A Nelson man attempted to buy a gun to shoot Nick Smith. Details are scant. What could have been a nasty situation looks […]
Should a…
www.should-a.com, a website “created for the express purpose of openly mocking the citizen’s initiated referendum aimed at The Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment […]
2020 target talks draw numbers
Seems the Government’s public consultation over an emission reduction target for 2020 is having quite an impact. Hundreds of people have turned up […]
Drinking Liberally Wgtn
Just received this from Drinking Liberally Wellington: We hope you’ve enjoyed our unannounced winter break. We’re back this Thursday, at 5:30 at the […]
What goes up
There’s a lot of empty, over-optimistic talk around at the moment about ‘green-shoots’ in the economy. Supposedly, these are little early signs of […]
OIA confirms: No reason to cut Cullen Fund contributions
Well, we told you so. The Nats lied for weeks that a credit rating downgrade would be imposed on us if we didn’t […]
The price of fear
It’s hardly controversial to comment that our media peddle fear. Nor uncontroversial to comment that a cowed individual is a controllable individual. Many […]
Double strength spin from Armstrong
Former journalist John Armstrong runs National’s line on health today: The Cabinet’s loosening of rules on district health boards farming out non-urgent surgical […]
Elucidate
The woman has dropped her criminal complaint over Worth. Says she is satisfied now the scumbag has lost his career. Police are expected […]
Bill sez: ‘pay cuts for youse’
Yesterday in Question Time, Bill English sent a message loud and clear to teachers, police, doctors, nurses, and all other public servants (‘frontline’ […]
MAF investigation report released
MAF has released the final report of their investigation into the pig farm owned by former Pork Board Director Colin Kay, exposed on […]
Foreshore review dead-on
The Foreshore and Seabed review panel have reported back with the recommendation that the law be scrapped and people be allowed to attempt […]
National Government’s “drum roll” for privatisation
Fran O’Sullivan had some interesting things to say in today’s Herald on Mark Weldon’s recent address to SOE board members, telling them to […]
Justifying the unjustifiable
Spending time with DC neo-cons must be going to Farrar’s head. I thought better of him than supporting the Honduran military’s overthrow of President Manuel […]
Nats give ticket-clipper to private hospitals
The government has changed the rules so that DHBs can make standing contracts for private hospitals to perform public elective surgeries. If DHBs […]
Two birds with one stone
In 2007, in election mode, John Key was talking up National’s commitment to the environment and the Enviroschools programme: Without a trace of […]
Banks and tax avoidance
The appeal by the BNZ against the IRD assessment of $466 million for avoiding income tax has wound up in the High Court […]
Nats ignored Treasury’s warnings on cancelling Cullen Fund payments
In the newly released Budget papers Treasury acknowledges that cancelling the Cullen Fund contributions would only reduce debt by 5% (more than offset […]
Tax cuts, one-off payment, or something better?
Budget papers just released reveal that Treasury recommended a package of measures to reduce debt including an 8-year suspension of the Cullen fund […]
So, what are you going to do?
Over at the Labour MPs’ blog, Red Alert, Brendon Burns has written a piece criticising Agriculture Minister David Carter on the welfare of […]
Cash (for the rich) in Auckland’s attic?
The soften up for the next big fire-sale of Kiwi assets is well under way in Auckland, as Rogernomics morphs into Rodneynomics. On […]
Crossing the line
Tuesday’s post, A Rankin headache started: There must be an automatic recoil on the Government benches when Christine Rankin’s name is mentioned. In […]
A Rankin headache
There must be an automatic recoil on the Government benches when Christine Rankin’s name is mentioned. Even Bill Ralston has noticed the difficulty […]
Hiding to nothing
Did anyone else detect a whiff of desperation in Family Fist’s PR offensive today championing the case of a man who lost control […]
Rhetoric & Reality 4: Tertiary Education
National sure does talk a good game before an election. This time we’re looking at their rhetoric on education, especially tertiary education: Key: […]
The mask slips
The child beating lobby launched its “Vote No” campaign site today. They’ve worked hard in this campaign to present themselves as regular Kiwis […]
Treasury on swine flu
Here’s the key part of Treasury’s report on the impact of swine flu, released on Friday: Typically Treasury, it’s more interested in GDP […]