Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, March 12th, 2008 - 23 comments
From Radio NZ: National says it will scrap a major new research and development fund for the pastoral and food industries if it becomes the Government at this year’s election. Party leader John Key has criticised the fund as a “gimmick” and insists only the interest earned on the fund will be spent on research. […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:46 pm, March 12th, 2008 - 22 comments
We have an interesting mixed message (once again) from National on asset sales. David Carter is quoted in the NZ Farmers Weekly as saying: David Carter: “As Minister of Agriculture I would sell Landcorp. I don’t see taxpayer money best invested in farms” (10 March, 2008). However after the example was raised in Parliament today […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, March 12th, 2008 - 15 comments
It’s hard to get a straight answer out of John Key, so this is probably an exercise in futility, but Key’s announcement that National would not increase the size of the core public service raises some questions that need asking. So, Mr Key: Saying you would ‘get more value’ from the core public service isn’t a policy, […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, March 12th, 2008 - 1 comment
Groups that issued press releases welcoming the Government announcement of the $700 million research and development fund for argiculture (press releases on Scoop): NZ Veterinary Association – Science funding just in the nick of time Science New Zealand – Science New Zealand welcomes science fund announcement Export New Zealand – Export NZ welcomes innovative funding […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, March 11th, 2008 - 14 comments
Days after saying ‘we’ve always said, we aren’t that worried about, um, whether the Crown needs to borrow a bit of money [for a] programme of tax cuts’ Bill English has accused Michael Cullen of ‘um, ah, borrowing for tax cuts’. What English’s researchers have discovered is that the amount of Government Bonds on issue […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:47 pm, March 11th, 2008 - 11 comments
Well National’s finally got their line straight on the research fund and, despite me old mate Dancer’s prediction, they are not supporting it. It seems this one goes to AYB who picked their line perfectly. He said they’d claim the idea’s good but the model is flawed and then have cry about how it should […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, March 11th, 2008 - 18 comments
At lunchtime today it is expected that the government will announce a major funding boost to promote innovation in food science, agricultural research and production. So can we expect National to support the plan? At least Mr Key has been given the heads up to get an answer sorted out (unlike last week’s shakey non-answers […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, March 10th, 2008 - 21 comments
Polling consistently around 1% ACT have decided that the only way forward is rejuvenation and fresh ideas.
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, March 6th, 2008 - 2 comments
Poor old Gordon Copeland. Yesterday he had one of his few questions in the House. And he had a big issue to talk about: goats, the culling of. But all the other parties wanted to talk about was some airport. A reader supplied this.
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, March 6th, 2008 - 31 comments
Bill English must just be sitting there in his office cringing as he listens to interviews like these. Sean Plunket spoke to Slippery John this morning about his latest policy flip-flops. It was a trainwreck. Have a listen – the text below is just a short excerpt. powered by ODEO Presenter: Is your policy today […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, March 6th, 2008 - 5 comments
John Key is clearly missing Kevin Taylor, his chief spin doctor. When Taylor is around, Key is ‘Mr Teflon’ but, with Taylor on holiday at the moment, we have seen the real Key: uninformed, incoherent, inconsistent, ‘Slippery John’. John Key, it must be remembered, is a media creation, a creature of pure spin, whose job […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:53 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 22 comments
In this afternoon’s debate Gerry Brownlee tried to have the word “slippery” ruled unparliamentary in relation to John Key. Proof, if any were needed, that Cullen had hit a nerve perhaps? Also interesting to see John Key leading off General Debate in the House – the Nats have done this before when Key’s been in […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:57 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 26 comments
Further to Dancer’s post below, this morning on Breakfast John Key claimed that National never had a deadline for settling Treaty claims and instead only had a deadline for lodging them. This was possum-in-the-headlights stuff, continuing an extraordinary run of gaffes from slippery Mr Key. Politely put, Key’s done a total rewrite of history. The […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, February 28th, 2008 - 13 comments
One consquence of the expectations around tax cuts is an examination of some of the policies already have in place – Working for Families for example. This was the topic of a recent article from Ruth Laugesen in the Sunday Star Times. “Coopers chairman John Shewan said that under Working for Families, many households effectively […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, February 27th, 2008 - 39 comments
Again from a Parliamentary address, the following passage was deleted from Bill English’s Wikipedia entry in June last year: He married a Catholic GP, Mary, and they now have six children – five boys: Luke, Thomas, Rory, Bartholemew and Xavier; and one daughter, Maria. He is a devout Catholic himself, and upholds his churches opposition […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, January 31st, 2008 - 84 comments
National have just backed down on their opposition to interest free student loans. Back in 2005 Key called this ‘a policy that tells young New Zealanders to go and borrow to the hilt What a cost to the country! What an unaffordable and irresponsible cost to the country! It is a sad day National members […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:10 pm, October 17th, 2007 - 25 comments
Radio Live reports that Richard Lewis and his Destiny Party have decided to form a new Christian party, this time without Gordon Copeland. They’re calling it the ‘Family Party’ and are trying to pose as a broad-based Christian movement. They have obvious reasons for doing so, but in politics it’s the money and the troops […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, October 12th, 2007 - 16 comments
More parseltongue from Key, this time on the Farming Show yesterday. It’s just getting tiring to listen to. Put Bill on, at least he can sometimes give a straight answer – even if by doing so he can only attract 20% of the vote. PRESENTER: If you get the Treasury benches, have you crunched the […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:36 pm, October 4th, 2007 - Comments Off on A black heart at the Real Estate Institute
I thought I’d dive in with a little post on another subject.just to give John Key a small respite from single-handedly ending the war in Iraq. It seems that the Real Estate Institute, that great business body charged by its members with protecting the interests of.well its members, has taken The Joneses real estate company […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:40 am, September 27th, 2007 - 2 comments
First it was forgeting his view on the Springbok Tour (turned out he was “quietly pro”), then it was his place of residence for electoral purposes (the jury’s still out on that one), and now it’s the details of his health policy. The National Party and John Key today released a 45 page health policy […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, September 26th, 2007 - Comments Off on Free movie tickets (still)
ZKM tells me that due to some people’s inability to correctly follow instructions there are still some free movie tickets available. Here’s the original post where you can answer a quick question and get your mitts on some.
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, September 19th, 2007 - Comments Off on Confirmed: Copeland’s pants on fire
Ten Commandments? Nope. Never heard of them. Mr Copeland had insisted on Monday that he did not know what was going to be announced at yesterday’s press conference called by Destiny Church head Brian Tamaki to confirm the new political party. He also insisted in an interview with The Dominion Post that his Future NZ […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, September 19th, 2007 - 1 comment
Brian Tamaki’s announcement yesterday that he would be deregistering the Destiny Party raised a number of questions, but there’s one that just keeps bugging me – Why Was Their Press Release Written Entirely In Title Case?
Written By: - Date published: 3:52 pm, September 13th, 2007 - 4 comments
Ok. To celebrate The Standard’s one month anniversary, and to thank you for visiting dear reader, we’re going to run a competition. Forget Deal or No Deal. That’s for chumps. Today we’re launching New Zealand’s hottest online “gameshow” (we use the term liberally) – “Lockwood: feeling it or faking it?” It’s going to work like […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, September 13th, 2007 - 6 comments
He’s been thieving her policies and now he’s thieving her words. When will John Key say something original? Colin Espiner notes that while for days, Key has been baying for O’Connor’s blood, yesterday on Breakfast Key did an abrupt about-face. As if to signal what a massive change of direction it was, he even stole […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:54 pm, September 10th, 2007 - 4 comments
Twenty years ago this year, the fourth Labour government passed legislation that made New Zealand nuclear free. At the time, the legislation was controversial and was opposed by National. Jim Bolger ever called it “an exercise in futility”. In the intervening years, parties opposed to the legislation have tried to change it. Only two years […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, August 29th, 2007 - Comments Off on National: policy free zone
From Morning Report (full audio) earlier today: Sean Plunket: Final question when do we get to see your party’s ah local government policy? John Key: Well we’ve, we’ve already ah, you know, made quite a lot of things clear. We’re going to release um a local government discussion document at some point but in the, […]
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