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Some may have noted an odd series of questions in Parliament and press releases from Bill English around government borrowing over the last month. The questions purposely conflated the idea of maintaining current debt levels with increasing debt. We noted this at the time and…
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The Child Poverty Action Group has released a report [PDF, 400k] showing there were 185,000 children living in poverty in New Zealand in 2004. That's a big number but it is out of date and already well down from the dark days of the 1990s.…
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Scrapping GST is a classic, populist issue that sounds delicious in times of high food prices but at closer inspection - it doesn't taste good at all and isn't the best way to help those struggling to buy food. The cost of food and fuel…
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Remember National's policy of charging a $50 levy on everyone convicted of or, maybe, charged with (Key keeps on mixing up the terms) an offence? Remember all the obvious problems with it enforcement, administration cost, natural justice issues, the pitiful size of the sum that…
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Thanks to ACT leader Rodney Hide for participating in our 'Interview the leaders' series this morning. Our next leader is the Maori Party's Tariana Turia. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the two other questions…
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Clem Simich has just announced he will be stepping down at the election. As regular readers may have noticed I'm not generally a fan of National MPs, but Simich's liberal voting record made him one of the better ones. To see Simich leaving to make…
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I see that the Wellington lines network has been sold. Given the network has been in in the hands of foreign investors before I can't see a sustainable argument for blocking the sale as the Auckland Airport bid was blocked. I do think the government…
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Peter Dunne is once again touting his plans to introduce income splitting. It's a policy aimed at helping out the wealthy. New Zealand Institute of Economic Research senior economist Patrick Nolan tells us that "80% of the tax gains of income-splitting would go to the…
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Last week, Campbell Live ran an article about the framing of Key as slippery. It could have been an excellent piece on the merits of such attacks, the wisdom of them, and their effectiveness. In parts it was, but then Campbell did this: The shallow…
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Interesting to see people gradually waking up to what Fidel Castro, last year, called "The sinister idea of converting food into combustibles". Even crazy ol' Mike Moore writes about it today, although he is dead wrong when he calls biofuels "a populist Green response to…
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We're very pleased to have ACT leader Rodney Hide respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? Making the IRD legally and culturally more accountable and responsive and getting…
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I upgraded the site tonight. There have been a lot of security fixes since we pushed a test site together in August 2007. It was only meant to be a trial (as I keep saying plaintively to the posters), and it sort of got away…
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David Farrar's three more prominent weaknesses came together in a speculator PR disaster yesterday. The weaknesses are his ego, his trick of using pictures of naked women to boost hits on his site, and his reverse midas touch, whereby every he touches turns to, well,…
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This morning's Dom Post buys into National's "Aussie exodus" spin with a lead story claiming "A staggering one in 10 voters are considering a move to Australia" in the next twelve months. The facts, of course, are somewhat different. As we've shown before, as few…
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We're very pleased to have Prime Minister Helen Clark respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? I am proud to lead a government which has worked so hard…
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National will not win by running on its rightwing principles and policy. For 20 years, New Zealanders have consistently said they do not want to sell public assets, they do not want weaker employment law, they do not want tax cuts at the cost of…
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No real surprises in the latest Roy Morgan poll, but Gary Morgan's hilariously bad political analysis continues. You'll remember in the last Morgan poll our man Gary put the thirty percent increase in the Greens' support down to Earth Hour, and this week he's at…
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So, one internet comic writer challenged another internet comic writer to draw 200 bad comics and this was the result. Awesome on so many levels. I especially like number 10. I wonder if that will be New Zealand come November.
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We had hoped to have the answers for our ‘interview the leaders' series from Helen Clark today. I talked with the PM's office and they explained the questions are with Clark, she's been busy travelling, and we'll have them as soon as they come back.…
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In 1974, economist Richard Easterlin, published a study in which he argued that economic growth didn't necessarily lead to more satisfaction. In poor countries, gaining the necesseties of life raised happiness but beyond those gains there was no increase. This became known as the Easterlin…
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The Climate Science Coalition is the last of a dying breed; a rabid, climate change denying lobby group. Of late, they have been performing a desperate, last-ditch attempt to slow the introduction of a carbon trading scheme. And, now, it looks like they've received some heavy-weight support in the form…
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Check out 50 ways to help the planet. My favourites? Shower with your partner Invest in your own reusable coffee cup Picnic with a marker pen
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So John Key has announced that a National-led government would spend "up to" $1.5 billion on fibre optic cable to the home. Well that's a good thing right? Even I can appreciate the importance of Kiwi homes and businesses getting access to high speed broadband (even…
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The internet is awesome; you can use email, learn heaps, and read sites like The Standard. Faster internet is awesomer; you can watch the Porirua market video without having to wait for it to buffer. Personally, I can't wait until I'm getting the internet through…
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The junior doctors' strike is a difficult issue. On the one hand, these are highly valuable workers whom we can't afford to lose overseas and they do work long hours in difficult conditions. On the other hand, the pay rise they want would cost $50…
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The NY Times reports on the symbiotic relationship between media "military analysts" and the Bush administration. Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan…
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A reader pointed out a set of hidden spam links that had attached themselves to the footer of the site. I'd noticed them previously and thought that I'd corrected them (see comment). But they turned up again. Turns out it was from an interesting flaw…
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We have all heard of the peak oil crisis that is already manifesting itself in fuel prices. Now, consider peak food, the point where our ability to produce food peaks even as demand grows. Wheat was the first plant to be domesticated, around 10,000 years…
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As Robinsod notes below in his insightful review of Wishart's Absolute Power it's abundantly clear that the author specialises in a particular brand of "idiocy, madness and paranoia". I was particularly intrigued by the sensationalist chapter accusing Owen Glenn of Mafia connections. The basis for…
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Simon Power has hit on the fact that Stats New Zealand produces migration figures every month, and that means every month he gets to report the number of New Zealanders heading for Australia as if a) the number is unprecedented, which it is not b)…