PSA tackles the stats
The PSA have put together some interesting numbers on the size of the public service. They appear to tell a different story to […]
Social issues
Closing arguments
Six days to go. Here are the five big issues that I am finding can turn swing voters to the Left. There are […]
Public politics
In today’s Herald six prominant NZer’s nail their political colours to the mast: Sir Paul Reeves: electorate vote Maori party, party vote Labour; […]
Vote smart: The Maori seats
Each of the Maori seats presents an opportunity for tactical voting for a left-wing voter. If you favour the Maori Party candidate in […]
SSTimes finds more $ in the pocket
From this mornings SSTimes: New research has revealed a dramatic reversal in financial fortunes for the average Kiwi family, which is now $60 better […]
Vote smart: The micro parties
Last election, 7,000 people gave their votes to very small left-wing parties that never had any chance of winning a seat in Parliament. […]
What a rag
A week out from the election, Granny Herald has still yet to do any proper coverage of the effects on individuals and the […]
Side-show
I see the media are now comparing the ‘redundancy’ packages on offer with all of the horse race vigour they applied to the […]
Granny Herald yearns for good old days but democracy alive and well
The Herald is once again trying to convince us that everyone is so scared of the EFA that there is no poltiical participation […]
Tories’ crack at socialism a poor substitute
National’s redundancy package would effectively continue Working for Families payments for some people who would otherwise lose them after redunancy. Only people who […]
Arseneau: Election too close to call
In her blog column Teresa Arseneau discusses the polls overall, and what happens if the largest party doesn’t form the government: Several of […]
Whose record is better?
I found it weird that National’s attack ad is a series of newspaper headlines. Everyone knows newspaper headlines are sensationalist and everyone knows […]
The Standard line: Nanny State
So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t […]
The Standard line: Tax cuts
[update: download this (tax-and-kiwisaver-calculator) simple excel table that will calculate tax cut and Kiwisaver losses under Labour and National, and the difference, for you and […]
The DL Debates – Rangitikei
The good fellas and fellaresses of Drinking Liberally Palmerston North have organised three debates for the Rangatikei electorate. These will be the only […]
Brian Fallow: words of warning on bailout
Feeling attracted to the idea of getting your mortgage covered should the sky fall in? Brian Fallow comments on the perils of Key’s […]
The H-fee explained
A little more detail to flesh out Tane’s post. The core of the H-fee story is this: In 1987, head of Equiticorp Allan Hawkins […]
Vote Smart: Wellington
In Wellington Central and Ohariu-Belmont, left-wing voters have the opportunity to use their candidate votes wisely to help good left-wing candidates to victory, […]
Gone Flippin’
Slippery John’s flip-flops keep on coming. Here he is just three weeks ago in the Listener: “you either have a conflict of interest […]
A clear choice on ACC
If you vote National, United Future, or ACT, you will be voting for the ACC system to be privatised. Consequences of this include: […]
Chain gang
The Nats’ private prison scheme just gets worse. As No Right Turn points out prisons would be used to do contract work and […]
Prisons for profit
National’s announcement that it plans to privatise the prison system says a lot about the party’s underlying values. Say what you like about […]
Update on Brownlee
There are substantive policy issues such as National’s privatisation plans for the prisons that need to be covered but, first, an update on […]
A pattern of (mis)behaviour
Over this year, we’ve seen John Key caught out lying on a number of occasions – the excuses for his “we would love […]
Standard scoop: Another senior Nat failed to disclose conflicts
Last month, Key lied when he was asked whether he had more Tranzrail shares, over which he had failed to declare his conflict […]
Horse racing
Here are the results of the last four polls, released over the past four days. I’ve presented them in number of seats won […]
Labour’s labour policy good for labourers
Labour has unveiled its work rights policy, and it’s a good one: – minimum wage increases at least at the rate of inflation […]
Key – Undisclosed conflict of interest
National’s response to my revelation on The Standard that John Key owned shares had undisclosed conflicts of interest with Fletcher Challenge Forests is […]
Election dreams
We received this by email and it’s so kafkaesque we just had to post it: I had a dream last night. I had, […]
Standard Scoop: Key exposed again on secret shares and Tranzrail
When the Tranzrail shares came to light, Key was asked whether he had any other undisclosed shares entailing a conflict of interest. He […]
On moral mandates
So, let me get this straight. The Right says that the minor parties have to support a National-led government if National gets more […]
Here be dragons
So, we can all make up dumb pictures and say ‘beware of many-headed monsters’. Let’s, instead, ask if National’s attack makes sense. First, […]
It’s official – Key wants Rogernomics!
The Earl of Auckland wants New Zealanders to choose National with a “small number of other parties going in the same direction”. That […]
Fact checkin’ – five-headed monsters
The New Zealand Herald is, as usual, uncritically repeating John Key’s latest lines on the front page of its website. This time Key’s […]
The Standard line: Kiwisaver
So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t […]
The Standard line: Photoshop
So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t […]