Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, June 30th, 2008 - 33 comments
There’s a standard formula that Crosby/Textor has its clients use when damaging information comes out. a) refuse to engage. The most senior public response to the revelation that Brand Key has been created by exactly the same people who ran Brash’s divisive, racist campaign in 2005 has come from Key’s chief of staff. No politician […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, June 30th, 2008 - 58 comments
So Crosby/Textor has been designing Brand Key from Day 1, isn’t this just what every party does? No, it isn’t – Crosby/Textor uses a particularly undemocratic, nasty form of political marketing (more on that in later posts) and the extent to which National uses Crosby/Textor is simply beyond the financial means of any other party. […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, June 29th, 2008 - 122 comments
Nicky Hager’s piece in today’s Sunday Star Times has confirmed what we all suspected: Crosby Textor are the creators of Brand Key. For those of you unfamiliar with CT, they’re known as the dirtiest and most driven political PR firm in the game. CT specialises in dog-whistle racism, attack politics and pretty much every aspect […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:47 pm, June 28th, 2008 - 79 comments
It strikes me there is a disconnect between what prospective National voters expect it to do in government and what it has actually promised it would do. Some examples: Tax Cuts How much larger do you expect the tax cut National will offer you will be compared to the ones Labour has announced? $5 a week? $10? […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, June 26th, 2008 - 44 comments
In line with Ministry of Justice advice, the Government has decided not to hold the child discipline referendum at the same time as the election. You can read the entire advice document here: Holding a referendum at the same time as the general election is not recommended because “From 1999, we know that voters would […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:11 pm, June 25th, 2008 - 12 comments
Whenever John Key is asked to explain how he will fund some new spending or his still secret tax cuts, he says ‘we’ll cut waste/rein in spending’ and the only example he ever gives is ‘we’ll cap the core public service at 36,000′. This, he claims, will save ‘$500 million over 3 years’ or $166 […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, June 25th, 2008 - 10 comments
I’ve noticed a new trend in the right’s spin lately (apart from their wholesale theft of campaign scripts) – the ‘have your cake and eat it’ trick. This tactic is basically a response to legislation or policy they don’t like but they know they can’t be seen to be against. So what they do is […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, June 25th, 2008 - 69 comments
In Parliament yesterday: Anderton: “Has the Minister received any reports on how many National Party members it takes to change a light bulb?” Cullen: “None. Because they like to keep us in the dark.”
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, June 24th, 2008 - 68 comments
In response to the UMR poll that shows 60% of voters would not want tax cuts at the expense of public services, Bill English says “under any tax plans we might have government spending will continue to increase* but [we need] more effective public services in tougher times” Notice, they are already preparing the ground […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, June 23rd, 2008 - 90 comments
National has released a brochure, laying out all its policies. They take up two A4 pages of double-spaced bullet points. That’s incredibly lightweight. Contrast that with the policy files of another party outside government, the Greens. National has 14 vague policies. The Greens have 51 policy area pages, each containing dozens of actionable policies. There […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, June 23rd, 2008 - 24 comments
As you know, National promised to cap core public servant numbers at 36,000. That was going to deliver each of us a whopping 50 cents a week tax cut. Well, that one single solid policy promise from National is already in serious jeopardy. Corrections staff make up 6600 plus of the supposed ‘bureaucrats’ of the core […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:01 pm, June 20th, 2008 - 49 comments
Every month, Stats releases migration figures. Each month, they show little change in the pattern from last month. And each month, National comes out all in a fury over the figures as if they herald Armageddon while offering no substance, just a lot of bluster. Nothing has changed from April. In the month of April, […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:40 pm, June 19th, 2008 - 40 comments
Here’s the waste National has identified so far: 1) Embassy in Sweden – approx $3 million capital, $3 million operating 2) Badges about Te Teo for school kids – $56,000 Why it’s waste: badges for Maori language! Next they’ll be wanting their land back. Why it’s not a waste: Meh, maybe it is waste but […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, June 19th, 2008 - 55 comments
Times are going to get harder for workers in the next few years. Unemployment is set to rise to 4.5-6% (still well under 1990s levels). The wages of those who keep their jobs won’t rise as fast. At the same time, prices are rising faster, particularly petrol. What […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, June 19th, 2008 - 65 comments
National has announced that John Key donated $30,000 to the party this month. That’s all well and good; Helen Clark donates a similar amount to Labour most years. What’s new is that the donations Key and every large donor to National or any other party are now public. Previously, National received up to $2 million a […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:50 am, June 19th, 2008 - 47 comments
Key reckons he could bring down inflation by targeting ‘low quality’ government spending. How? To counter inflation, you need to increase productivity. Inflation is projected to run at 4.7% this year. The Government makes up a third of the economy. If Key was to bring that down to 2% by increasing Government productivity how much […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, June 18th, 2008 - 33 comments
You’ll have noticed that Key only ever talks about increasing ‘after-tax incomes’. Even when he’s asked about wages for government employees, like doctors, he responds that National would increase their after-tax incomes with tax cuts, not by increasing their wages. But anybody can see that cutting taxes is only a short-term way to slightly increase […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:23 pm, June 16th, 2008 - 15 comments
Worth a read: Remember when George Bush’s administration promised the world that the invasion of Iraq would be over in a few weeks? We were assured that the Iraqis would throw flowers at their liberators, the war would make a tidy profit and petrol prices would plummet. Next time you fill up your car think […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, June 14th, 2008 - 50 comments
National has staked it all on delivering bigger tax cuts than Labour. To remain credible, they need to deliver $20 a week on average more than Labour. That’s $3 billion a year. The operating surplus is gone, so where will the money come from? John Key has been repeatedly referencing the fact that the government […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, June 13th, 2008 - 30 comments
Keith Holyoake used to say “tell the people, trust the people”; be honest about the benefits, trade-offs, and costs of policies and trust the people to judge you in an adult manner. Central to Brand Key, however, is playing to voters’ baser desires, especially greed, and fomenting juvenile beliefs, including that it is possible to have ones cake and eat it. For […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:01 pm, June 12th, 2008 - 32 comments
Remember when National was all about the wage gap, whinging about it every day? Heard them talk about it lately? The last mention we can find is three weeks ago. Has the issue suddenly gone away? No, there is still a wage gap and solutions to it require serious debate. But National wasn’t talking about […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, June 11th, 2008 - 29 comments
Remember National’s broadband ‘plan’ that reads like it was drawn up on the back of a napkin? Notice how the only gains they can point to from this plan to borrow $1.5 billion are better video conferencing (when was the last time the average worker used video conferencing?) and being able to download pirated movies […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, June 10th, 2008 - 95 comments
No sensible analysis could conclude that the Labour-led governments of the last 8 years have been anything but excellent for New Zealand. As you know, we’ve seen unemployment plummet to record lows, wages rise at record rates, more spending on public services, interest-free student loans, 20Free childcare, the buyback of the rail network, the end […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, June 10th, 2008 - 38 comments
A National line that is doing the rounds goes that if National wins more votes than Labour but can’t govern alone it would be undemocratic for a Labour-led coalition to form the next government. After all, in this scenario, National has won more votes than anyone else, so it should be the government, right? Wrong. […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, June 8th, 2008 - 38 comments
Ever since Labour’s budget was released, John Key has been talking cheese. I’ve been wondering why all his talk of blocks of cheese has been making him smile with such a big big grin. Well, a check of MPs’ financial interests sheds some light. Slippery John is making a bundle from Kiwis buying cheese. He is the third largest shareholder […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, June 7th, 2008 - 63 comments
John Key’s policy vacuum is such a joke that even the ad-men are using it for comic material. Have a listen. powered by ODEO lprent: There seems to be a problem At ODEO. Stored local in link below. John Key – Bubbles
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, June 6th, 2008 - 6 comments
Time has a special report on how Obama “become the first Democratic insurgent in a generation… to knock off the party’s establishment front-runner”. Obama’s Chicago headquarters made technology its running mate from the start. That wasn’t just for fund-raising: in state after state, the campaign turned over its voter lists — normally a closely guarded crown […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, June 5th, 2008 - 107 comments
National’s so-called policies are laughable. National says it has released ’14 policies’ (14! wow! anyone would think they were planning to run a scout troop not a country) but six are just to adopt the existing policy. And the others, well – * Setting national standards in reading, writing and numeracy – shown to have no positive effect […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, June 4th, 2008 - 35 comments
Good on Mike Ward for finally seeing sense and stepping aside, allowing Greens co-leader Russel Norman to enter Parliament replacing Nandor Tanczos. Norman is rapidly establsihing himself as a very good media frontperson for the Greens; being in Parliament will enhance his role. Only the righties were praising Ward for not stepping aside (just as […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, June 4th, 2008 - 85 comments
It’s funny the stories you hear when you’re out in the provinces. I was up in Auckland over the long weekend and came across someone who told me the story of how Key became involved in National. See, Key was never political growing up and certainly not strongly National. He can’t remember where he stood […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, June 4th, 2008 - 4 comments
Brenden Sheehan, the high profile spokesperson for the Muliaga family has withdrawn as Labour’s candidate in Botany. A press release put out by the party says Brenden’s chosen to pull out in order to give his time and energy to a seriously ill family member. Nominations close on June 20. The same presser also contains […]
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