Written By: - Date published: 9:22 pm, June 9th, 2009 - 12 comments
Richard Long, Fairfax’s in-house media adviser to the National Party, recycles an old line in today’s DomPost. Today it’s “honest John”. Two years ago, just before he was rolled, we posted how it was “honest Don looking like Mr Magoo”. “Honest” John’s starting to look like “honest” Don.
Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, June 9th, 2009 - 19 comments
The Herald asked this morning whose word was more credible on the Worth issue, John Key or Phil Goff. Their political editor Audrey Young has just answered the question for them. “One politician was bound to be deeply embarrassed today, Phil Goff or John Key. One would be right and one would be wrong. And […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:01 pm, June 5th, 2009 - 89 comments
That’s the right-wing bloggers’ spin. It’s weak. By far the most interesting thing that emerged from this morning’s exchanges on the wireless was Goff”s revelation from his file notes of his private advice to Key, that Key said “that he had heard previously rumours of inappropriate behaviour by Dr Worth”. It would be interesting to […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, June 5th, 2009 - 12 comments
From The Independent: No lasting harm from airport credit downgrade. Analysts and management of Auckland International Airport are unconcerned at Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the airport’s corporate credit and debt rating from A to A-minus. The downgrade will add less than $1 million to the airport’s overall interest bill of around $80 million. If […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, June 3rd, 2009 - 8 comments
Six months in and John Key has broken three of his eleven “personal guarantees”. Impressive. Click on the image for full size.
Written By: - Date published: 10:55 pm, June 2nd, 2009 - 31 comments
The principle of liberalism is that there should be no restriction on the freedoms of the individual except to realise a greater benefit for others (and, sometimes, the individual themselves). Society (or its tool the State) should do no harm to individuals unless to create a net benefit for the members of society (it shouldn’t […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:19 pm, May 30th, 2009 - 18 comments
Yesterday, my comrade Zetetic wrote that despite all the bad stuff in the Budget there was still a “meta-victory” for the Left because the ‘social wage’ hadn’t been attacked. That is, health, education, and social welfare aren’t cut in this year’s Budget. Well, I’ve been doing something Zetetic has probably been wise enough to avoid. […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, May 29th, 2009 - 19 comments
So, in the light of yesterday’s budget, I propose a quote competition. Post your favourite Nat quotes! We could start with two categories. First, foolish tax cut promises. Here’s some starters: Key, quoted here: “Under National, personal tax cuts are a priority. New Zealanders will be able to believe in our tax cuts, they will […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, May 29th, 2009 - 28 comments
It’s a bleak budget alright. No jobs package. That’s scandalous dereliction of duty. The 70,000-100,000 people who will loss their jobs this year and their families will remember that the Tories sat on its hands when it mattered. Boy, they know how to manage the journos though. People whose major mathematical skill is having the right change […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, May 29th, 2009 - 9 comments
Thanks to a reader, here’s Phil Goff’s speech in reply to the Budget. Looks like they’ve ripped the Herald’s version, so for the sake of credit here’s the link to the original. If anyone has the Greens’ response send it in and we’ll put it up.
Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, May 29th, 2009 - 5 comments
Listening to Bill English’s budget speech, I was reminded of Dickens’ description of Scrooge: “The cold within him froze his features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and he spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice …” There was nothing shrewd about this bit though: “The current projections show debt […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, May 29th, 2009 - 16 comments
Journalists around the country seem to think (even the learned ones) that the budget has brought about a credit ratings upgrade. Not true. There has merely been a stabilisation of our current credit rating. An upgrade of Standard and Poor’s rating would be shifting from AA+ to AAA. That hasn’t happened. The government’s spin has […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:08 pm, May 28th, 2009 - 114 comments
I’ve had a dig into Treasury’s numbers and worked out that they expect the Superannuation Fund will make a 13% return next year, falling to 11% a year by 2012. Those figures seem pretty good, not too optimistic. It’s what the Fund made in ordinary years before the crunch and bear in mind the Fund […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:03 pm, May 28th, 2009 - 20 comments
John Key famously said “we would love to see wages drop“. It sure didn’t take him long in government to see his ambition achieved. Here are the wage hourly wages rates, adjusted for inflation, over the last decade and Treasury’s projections from today’s budget. After peaking this year (wages lag unemployment), wages will drop then stall. […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:47 pm, May 28th, 2009 - 12 comments
Treasury’s main forecasts for the economy have worsened significantly since December: Nothing for jobs in the Budget. Tens of thousands more on the dole. We need better than this. – Marty G
Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, May 28th, 2009 - 48 comments
This post will be updated by the Standardistas as the details of the Budget come out. If you have special knowledge of a field and spot something that we (and the mainstream media) are likely to miss, drop us a line at thestandardnz@gmail.com and we’ll put it up. — [2:17] Contributions to the Superannuation Fund […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, May 28th, 2009 - 4 comments
Apologies for the late notice – Drinking Liberally Wellington is on tonight with guest Rob Salmond. Usual time, usual place. From the Facebook page: Rob Salmond is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan. He has published research on a range of topics including electoral reform, female legislaive […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, May 28th, 2009 - 32 comments
Seems this op-ed was off-message for one of our larger media outlets, we’re happy to run it: _______________________________________ Alan Blinder, Professor of Public Affairs at Princeton recently warned Americans: ‘ Prematurely changing fiscal and monetary policies – from stepping hard on the accelerator to slamming on the brake – can be hazardous to the economy’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, May 28th, 2009 - 27 comments
National have already broken lots of pre-election promises and policies. Their policy to consult on local government and Auckland has been contemptuously ignored. Their pre-election welfare policy promise on benefit abatement thresholds, broken. They broke their promise to include Playcentre in ECE 20 Hours Free. They broke their promise to protect jobs, and particularly to […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:32 am, May 28th, 2009 - 23 comments
Good politics is meeting or exceeding expectations. Good spin is setting expectations. Key and English have put a lot of effort into setting expectations for the budget. (2000 Kiwis a week a probably wishing they would put effort into protecting jobs). The fruits of which will be this, if everything goes well for them: English […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:46 pm, May 27th, 2009 - 35 comments
If there was ever a phrase that this Government keeps reminding me of, it’s “couldn’t organize a piss-up in a brewery”. Today, on the eve of what will be a particularly important Budget for our country, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance aren’t entirely sure just what it is they’re trying to achieve. […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:47 pm, May 27th, 2009 - 27 comments
As well as the usual pre-Budget announcements there have been a number of leaks. A quick review: Good Home insulation package: this is the Greens’ baby and could well be a highlight of the Budget in a sea of negatives. It would have been better if they had put in something about forcing landlords to […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, May 27th, 2009 - 81 comments
We need to keep paying into the Superannuation Fund. Never heard anything so dumb as the idea of stopping making payments right now. Invest now and make a tidy sum to pay for super in the future. If we don’t we’ll have to put up taxes in the future or cut super. I’m looking forward […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, May 27th, 2009 - 24 comments
One of the oldest tricks in the book for a government that’s cutting public services is to say ‘we’re not cutting, we’re spending more in our budget than ever before’ while not mentioning that their spending ‘increase’ doesn’t match inflation and population growth. We need to know what constitutes minimum increases to preserve current services: […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, May 26th, 2009 - 25 comments
It’s pretty clear how Key and English plan to spin their budget. They will use the bogeyman of a credit rating downgrade to justify doing what they want to do cutting contributions to the Superannuation fund and spending on core services like health and education. They’ll attempt to overshadow the cuts by making some spending […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, May 23rd, 2009 - 8 comments
National may be talking down the budget, but there have been hints coming out of Wellington that suggest the government will announce a significant initiative on budget day to help save jobs. If true, it shouldn’t be unexpected. – The cycleway has been a miserable failure, with no jobs having been created midway into the […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, May 23rd, 2009 - 3 comments
It’s like a boomer epiphany. About 25 years too late.
Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, May 22nd, 2009 - 8 comments
The Herald reports today that TVNZ fired 90 employees following a letter from Broadcasting Minister Johnathan Coleman demanding that it raise its profitability. This follows similar cuts at the Ministry of Social development, Ministry for the Environment, Tertiary Education Commission. There look likely to be hundreds or thousands of job losses as a result of […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, May 20th, 2009 - 16 comments
History repeats they say. Isn’t it starting to feel like the 1990s all over again? We’ve got a National government facing a grim budget. Paul Holmes on the telly. Media obsessed with the David Bain trial. Christine Rankin making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Roger Douglas issuing press releases from bizzaro world. National itching […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:49 pm, May 18th, 2009 - Comments Off on Drinking Liberally Auckland
Join all your favourite lefty liberal drinkers at Drinking Liberally Auckland When: 7pm, Wednesday 20 May Where: Galatos, 17 Galatos Street, Newton (just off K road) Who: you and like-minded left-wingers. All welcome. NOTE: THE CHANGE OF VENUE WE’VE MOVED TO GALATOS – more room, more time, more parking, free entry, food nearby, etcetera. Click […]
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