Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, July 26th, 2010 - 14 comments
For the business pages, it’s Reserve Bank week and once again the banks want the Governor to push up the price of money, while those in the real economy where the jobs are want interest rates kept steady. As they say, there are no signs of rampant inflation and growth forecasts are uncertain. But the […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, July 23rd, 2010 - 66 comments
The words of this old song date back to the 1800’s when dominant and rapacious employers in small company towns would require their employees to purchase essentials from a ‘company store’. And because the employee was so badly paid, inevitably they would run up steep tab simply to keep their family fed and clothed. In […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, July 22nd, 2010 - 29 comments
National’s promises aren’t worth the paper that they’re printed on. They’ve broken plenty and downgraded most of the rest to “aspirational goals”. Now John Key’s current anti-worker employment policies add a whole new chapter to the list of broken election promises.
Written By: - Date published: 5:54 pm, July 20th, 2010 - 14 comments
Beware of a Finance Minister who is selective in the use of statistics. This was Bill English’s answer to a patsy question in Parliament about National and the economy…
Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, July 20th, 2010 - 7 comments
There is a great review of “There Once Was An Island: Te Henua E Noho†at Reading the Maps. It is well worth reading and so are the comments. However ‘maps’ also opined on the weekend about where the film was shown. It expressed my feeling of being caught in some dreary surreal cyberpunk novel with the protests, police, fat cat capitalists, the desperate on their slot machines, and a documentary about losing your culture to the climate and change.
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, July 18th, 2010 - 10 comments
Today has been a busy day. Lyn and Briar have the NZ premiere of their documentary shortly, which limited what I could do today. But I stopped off at the protest outside of the National party conference and met The Rat. The speakers were right – it does have a strong visual resemblance to John […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:23 am, July 17th, 2010 - 10 comments
Pundit writer and legal academic Andrew Geddis has been doing some important work on electoral law, including contributions to the select committee that is looking at the 2011 referendum on MMP and the reform of campaign funding practices. You should head on over to Pundit and have a look.
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 17th, 2010 - 10 comments
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, July 13th, 2010 - 45 comments
“Major festival events linked to the 2011 Rugby World Cup could be shifted to Wellington because of Auckland’s party central fiasco, Government sources say.” – Tracy Watkins
Wait, “Auckland’s party central fiasco”? It was John Key who came up with the term, and forced the councils into the Queens Wharf site. But the media are happy to let him wriggle out of responsbility again.
Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, July 11th, 2010 - 21 comments
“Why, if you are an international rugby fan, would you leave Eden Park and hop on a train, eschewing the delights of Kingsland’s cafes, going directly past the thriving night life of Ponsonby and taking a right on to a bleak windswept wharf instead of a left to the maelstrom that is the Viaduct?”
Indeed!
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, July 8th, 2010 - 20 comments
Is $175 an hour to hire a clown a good deal? Because you and I might think we are paying $350,000 a year plus expenses for a Prime Minister but it seems not. Yesterday, he spnt his time opening a pizza place. Next week: Key attends opening of letter.
Written By: - Date published: 6:54 am, July 8th, 2010 - 24 comments
First term governments don’t usually go early but this isn’t your average first term government.
Will the tories go early to lock in a second term?
And if they do will we get a blitzkrieg policy run if they win?
Written By: - Date published: 1:43 pm, July 6th, 2010 - 50 comments
Labour’s lineup for the next election is emerging, the usual balance between continuity and new talent. There will be some interesting electorate selections coming up. Such personality politics is always very popular of course, but more important than the people is the policy…
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, July 1st, 2010 - 36 comments
Desperate to gain some traction in his failing campaign, John Banks has floated the idea of Auckland hosting the Olympic Games in 2020. Current minimum estimates for the cost are $18 billion, that’s 10% of our GDP. It’s just too expensive. The Olympics is a black-hole for money that this country cannot afford. That Banks would suggest this nonsense shows how all at sea his campaign is.
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, June 29th, 2010 - 41 comments
I have very mixed feelings about all this scrutiny of the spending of public figures. However, for the record, Supercity mayoral hopeful John Banks now joins the spending club.
Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, June 28th, 2010 - 23 comments
National are still cruising in the polls, and no doubt feeling pretty confident about the next election. But ticking the blue box is easy – how firm is that support? We’re seeing big protests against this government. Is there any significant National policy that isn’t attracting popular protest, criticism from the experts, or both?
Written By: - Date published: 12:07 am, June 22nd, 2010 - 15 comments
The post-Budget bump for National in the Roy Morgan polls was there but was small and it’s already evaporating. Fundamentally, National’s policies just aren’t popular,as the poll showing 80% opposition to asset sales proves. National is still pursuing privatisation by stealth (whanua ora, PEDA, water etc), giving the Left an opportunity make public assets the big issue of 2011.
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 am, June 21st, 2010 - 31 comments
Georgina Te Heuheu and Bill English have been saying the money allocated in the Budget to PEDA might go to some other organisation. That would be a huge abuse of the Budget process, whereby the Government asks Parliament for permission to spend money on specific activities. Of course, really the Nats are just trying to muddy the water as questions on PEDA continue.
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, June 16th, 2010 - 78 comments
Of the political parties in Parliament, only the Greens are likely to oppose the ‘new’ foreshore and seabed law. So, the Greens will be the only place for disaffected Maori Party voters to turn to. And why not? Their values are very similar. I expect that the Greens will make a strong play for the party votes in the Maori seats, winning over a lot of people who feel betrayed by the Maori Party.
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 am, June 16th, 2010 - 45 comments
Details on PEDA are still very thin but it is increasingly looking like public money has been hijacked to help the political prospects of National’s Pacific Islanders. The service delivery aspect of the Pacific Island Affairs Ministry seems set to be turned over to this private organisation. The lack of honest answers from the minister only deepens the suspicion that something very dodgy is afoot.
Written By: - Date published: 5:31 pm, June 10th, 2010 - 17 comments
For me the main scandal about taxpayer funding this week is the fact that we have all contributed $209,000 towards helping Nick Smith get out of a $15 million lawsuit. For saying something for which he has given an apology in court and paid up more than that out of his own pocket. None of […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, June 10th, 2010 - 21 comments
National’s budget broke a number of economic promises. One that’s not been emphasised enough is their commitment to be fiscally neutral. Labour got New Zealand to $0 net government debt. Now we are headed back into the red again and National is making it worse, not to create jobs to help ordinary Kiwis through the recession, but to fund tax cuts for their rich mates.
Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, June 9th, 2010 - 18 comments
So John Key is going to get to fly over and see the All Whites at the World Cup. Maybe he could do a match report for Radio New Zealand whilst he’s there. The World’s biggest sporting event by far, the Football World Cup, features New Zealand for the first time in 28 years. Can Radio New Zealand afford to send someone to cover this major story for our country? No.
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 pm, June 6th, 2010 - 51 comments
With Len Brown beating Banks in the polls the right have come out swinging.
Let’s take a quick look at the anatomy of this dirt digging beast.
Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, June 5th, 2010 - 59 comments
National really, really wants to sell assets – it’ll be worth a fortune to their rich mates who can’t seem to generate any success on their own without a government hand out. But the public is firmly against asset sales. It would be an election losing campaign issue. So, National will play a game of ambiguous promises and confusing financial moves to sell without appearing to sell.
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, June 5th, 2010 - 5 comments
Two Electoral Reform bills are currently accepting submissions, and each contain one particularly large flaw. Firstly, as I commented on the Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Bill: getting rid of the 3 month election period is a very dangerous move. National have now decided that the election period only starts on the day […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 pm, June 4th, 2010 - 36 comments
National Party Trade Minister Tim Groser is facing allegations he was behaving drunk and rowdy on a flight back from a trade meeting in Dubai. Though a humourous image, if true, this is unacceptable behaviour from a Minister. Groser needs to chill – maybe he should’ve smoked that spliff he denied taking instead?
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, June 3rd, 2010 - Comments Off on Fabian Seminar in Christchurch
The next Fabian seminar on the Resilient Economy will be held in Christchurch on next Tuesday, 8th June. Speakers are Rick Boven from the New Zealand Insitutue and John Walley from the Manufacturers and Exporters Association. The title for the seminar is “Reshaping the New Zealand economy.” The New Zealand Institute has a project on […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, June 2nd, 2010 - 20 comments
Recent posts and comments on the Standard have suggested that National may call an early election in 2011 because the Rugby World Cup’s halo effect will be more valuable to them before the tournament than after it’s over. David Farrar on Kiwiblog has downplayed the idea, and suggested November 26 as the likely date, but […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 2nd, 2010 - 18 comments
The Budget is turning into something of an embarrassment for the media. Even before it had been released, the journos in their lock-up had written pieces proclaiming it a hugely popular success. The evidence says they got it wrong. The people think they’ll be worse off. Journos need to stop deciding public opinion before it has had a chance to form, let alone be sampled.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, June 2nd, 2010 - 5 comments
Bill English in the House yesterday: “In the Budget the projected wage increases exceed projected inflation.”
From the Budget: change in real wages over March 2011 year, -1.4%. change in real years in year to March 2012, -0.6%
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