Oram’s Ides of March
Rod Oram can nearly always be relied upon for insightful analysis that takes debate a step further. In the SSTimes today he asks: […]
Social issues
Lightening the load
A universal student allowance of $350 isn’t going to happen. It’s too expensive and would bar major new spending in any other area. […]
Key moves to shut down hard questions
Part of the Crosby/Textor MO is to avoid any hard questioning or real investigative journalism from the media. Step one in this process […]
Follow through
Over at Kiwiblog David Farrar has found an amusing error made by the Herald online in its politics section which has listed several […]
Nats’ ACC policy all about ideology
National’s ACC privatisation policy is another of its one page wonders (this time with three page backgrounder skimming the history of ACC and […]
Not ready for prime time
John Key tries to reassure us that National’s policy to privatise ACC would keep the scheme’s principles intact. Here’s how he defined those […]
On the fourth estate
Francesca Mold on National’s ACC announcment: ‘What’s interesting is the way they’ve put this out under the radar, perhaps showing how sensitive they […]
Spinbusting: NZF’s donations are Labour’s business
National is calling on Helen Clark to investigate alleged donations by Owen Glenn to New Zealand First (which, if they happened, were perfectly […]
National adopts Labour’s arts policy
So National has adopted Labour’s arts, culture and heritage policy essentially unchanged. Good. The flourishing of New Zealand’s arts and culture we’ve seen […]
Anti-abuse law in action
A front page story on Stuff at the moment is about a woman who systematically beat her child and has been successfully prosecuted […]
Crosby/Textor line de jour
Every Wednesday, John Key does his round of interviews. Breakfast TV makes a nice soft start with interviews on Breakfast then Sunrise. Then […]
Tearaway on election ’08
A reader just alerted us to the fact that Tearaway’s latest issue features a piece on election ’08. Gotta love the question about […]
Contrary to Key, Govt does target waste
The idea that a government would purposely spend money in a wasteful manner is patently absurd. Voters want more government services and lower […]
Failure to front up
When was the last time John Key did an in-depth interview? Why would a potential Prime Minister be afraid to be exposed through […]
Remarkably unambitious ECE policy
Another one-page excuse for a policy from National, this one on early childhood education. After vehemently opposing 20Free, National would now keep it […]
“It’s not okay” today either
The other day Dancer made some good points about the campaign “It’s Not Okay” and the role that organisations like the Families Commission play, […]
Lots of ideology, not argument
I was going to write a piece on the much anticipated paper from ANZ’s chief economist on government spending. But now I’ve tracked […]
David Slack at Drinking Liberally Auckland
(Via: greylynnsinglesclub)
Positive moves on housing
Housing has always been an important issue for Labour. The First Labour Government instituted a massive State house building project, freeing working class […]
Silence those media lambs
Media bleating about Labour’s ‘personal attacks’ is getting tiresome. Some journalists seem to forget from one election to the next that an important […]
Blueprint for a Crosby/Textor campaign
While trying desperately to paint Crosby/Textor as ‘just ordinary consultants’ and argue that C/T does nothing that polling and research companies do, National […]
Havoc interviews Hager
Hager confirms that his info comes from a leak from within the National Party, not as the Nats would have you believe, a […]
Havoc interviews Key on Crosby/Textor
Here’s some great audio of Key running Crosby/Textor lines to avoid answering Havoc’s questions. Around the half way point my personal favourite C/T […]
Nats’ NGO policy, give the money to Aussies
Charities are voicing fears that under a National Government public funding for NGOs would be administered by an Australian NGO called Mission Australia with dire […]
Beyond the political showboating
Ok. Now that the political theatre is done maybe National and its allies would like to engage in proper debate on the freight […]
Who are National’s moles?
The information being leaked to Nicky Hager is obviously coming from well-placed sources inside National The idea of hacking is farcical (Lyndon Hood […]
Democracy under attack
Ruth Laugesen’s got a piece in the SST today entitled “How National’s spin doctors operate“. She points out that Crosby/Textor’s methods, contrary to […]
National’s New Plymouth candidate quits
National Party’s New Plymouth candidate Clem Coxhead has reportedly wanted to be in politics since he was nine years old. Earlier this year […]
Geek’s View – Papers Plus
One of the links to The Standard this week was from Reading the Maps on the topic of Playing the history card. The […]
On Freedom
It is time for the Left to take back the language of freedom. At its heart freedom, power for the ordinary person, is what […]
Report shows incomes up, inequality down
The MSD’s Incomes Report provides a wealth of information. For instance, here’s how the mean and median household incomes have moved since 1982. […]
Reviewing the ‘truck strike’
As a piece of political theatre it’s good and people who walk to work, including myself, enjoyed the unusual sight and gave them […]
Poverty falls, more to be done
13% of people are living in poverty in New Zealand (defined as less than 60% of the median income, less than $40K a […]
Mr Key, where is your ‘positive, ambitious campaign’?
In four separate interviews this week, John Key used more or less exactly the same line to divert from questions on his use of Crosby/Textor: […]
Who’s driving the ‘truck strike’?
So, let’s get this straight the Government has increased road user charges for diesel vehicles by half the amount recommended by the Ministry […]
Time to front up on ACC
Some excellent journalism by Vernon Small has revealed that Australian insurers expect National to privatise the ACC scheme and they see $200 million […]