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I wish Finlay MacDonald wrote more about politics and less about cats and kids and stuff because he's well worth reading when he's on a serious topic.. and a weekly column in the Sunday Star-Times is a hell of a thing to waste. His piece…
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Labour General Secretary Mike Smith has announced he will retire at the party's national conference in September. He's the last of the four - Helen and the three Mikes - who led the parliamentary and party wings during the fifth Labour Government to step down.…
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Friday saw the death of Walter Cronkite, greatest of the great generation of TV news-people. He is perhaps remembered most for the broadcast in which he condemned continued US involvement in the Vietnam War (can't embed that vid but here's his report on the assassination of…
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There's an interesting discussion that's broken out on brianedwardsmedia between Brian Edwards, who writes a fairly excoriating piece on Nigel Latta's Politically Incorrect Parenting Show), and Latta who responds at length in the comments. The show's title, which frames a recurrent theme, always did strike me…
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After 9 months of watching the rich get richer, with their triple dip cuts, first in taxes, then in private school fees, and now in getting subsidies to upgrade insulation in rental homes, and the poor getting poorer with no wage rises and tax cuts…
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John Key, sunny grin in place, says the recession's all but over. Admits that unemployment will continue to climb (barring a miricle like, say, his government getting off its arse) until mid-2010. But he's 'relaxed' about that. Says unemployment is just a "lagging indicator". Easy…
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The rednecks have predictably got themselves into a tizzy over Chief Justice Sian Elias's comments on the need for judicial reform. I think you should read the speech for yourselves. It is an expert in the field discussing how the justice system is failing. Failing…
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This endless crime-porn. Night after night of fetishistic coverage of the latest unusual crime or trial. Call yourselves journalists? Bollocks. You run this because it's titallating and it's cheap. There's no news value. And there's certainly no respect for the people whose lives are at…
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Business New Zealand and other assorted tossers. Stop calling our country 'New Zealand Inc'. This is our home. This is where we live our lives and raise our families. It's not some profit-maximising engine for your shareholders.
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I read Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard's speech on Tuesday with great interest. It's an informative, if very mainstream review of the recession thus far and the outlook. He points out "The international financial crisis actually played little role in the early part of New…
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Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias has kicked off a debate on whether our justice policy is working [PDF link]. Her view is that the frequent failure of punitive sanctions demands a rethink. Her analysis is supported by over 40 years experience in the criminal justice…
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So, Fitch, the third of the big three sovereign credit ratings agencies, has moved the Government's rating from a stable outlook to a negative outlook. Does this mean that John Key will be admitting that he has delivered a credit downgrade, like he was boasting of an…
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Courtsey of Chairman Meow. Obey the Kitteh!
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Maori unemployment is ballooning day by day but the most important thing that Maori Affairs Minister Sharples can spend his time on is debating which flag will fly on the Harbour Bridge next Waitangi Day. "Having a flag under which Maori can rally under is…
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Drinking Liberally Palmy's having their first event of the year at the Brewers Apprentice bar on July 23. Head over, have a pint or two, talk some politics with likeminded people and hear Green co-leader Metiria Turei talk about the upcoming referendum. As usual with…
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It takes two days from folate blowing up as a political issue for Key to get Crown Law onto finding a way for us to get out of it. It's been nine months and there's still no action on the economy and jobs. Priorities? By…
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It was disappointing to hear Phil Goff defending the Fourth Labour Government on National Radio the other morning. This was a government whose policies put hundreds of thousands of Kiwis out of work, introduced regressive taxation through GST, began the firesale of our national assets…
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60 Minutes on "Video piracy" - 1979 - part 1 of 2 60 Minutes on "Video piracy" - 1979 - part 2 of 2 (Via Gizmodo)
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Does it seem odd to you that on March 20th 2009 the Minister for IT & Comms, Mr Steven Joyce, said the following: "We have been following the internet filtering debate in Australia but have no plans to introduce something similar here. ... The technology for internet filtering…
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Crusher Collins to launch McPrisons(TM) Clearly envious of the regular stream of complimentary Happy Meals arriving at Paula Bennett's Parliamentary office (Paula tells us she has already managed to collect seven out of the eight of the new Ice Age figurines), Crusher Collins has attempted…
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I disagreed with Helen Clark in 2007 when she first suggested raising the school leaving age, as I don't believe the mainstream school system is suitable for all young people. However I did largely support Labour's 2008 policy to ensure all school leavers under the…
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Claire Trevett wrote me a very cordial email in response to my criticism of her reports from Key's trip around the Islands. I want to say from the start this reply is meant in the same constructive tone. Trevett points out that there were in…
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Gordon Campbell has a great piece up at Scoop on the pitfalls of Public Private Partnerships, something we're going to be hearing a lot more about in the near future if National and its business mates get their way. Go have a read.
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John Key's speech on the economy, billed as the way to close the 30% wage gap with Australia, had six policy headings - regulatory reform, infrastructure investment, better public services, education and skills, innovation and business assistance, and a world-class tax system. On regulatory reform,…
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Looking at the centre photo above of John Key gave me pause for thought; I realised that much as I dislike his politics, he is a brave man. Brave because he really does appear to be consistently out of his depth, yet despite being half-dead…
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I was going to do a fisking of Key's 'major speech' today. But there's nothing to fisk, no substance, no ideas, no vision. There's just endless recycling of the same old Crosby-Textor lines and waffle. In fact, there's one section that is just a bunch…
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Judith "Crusher" Collins, postergirl for uncompassionate conservatives, proudly announces in her latest press release: "Prison numbers set to be highest ever". Odd thing to be proud of when what it really shows is a justice system that's failing. Our rate of incarceration - the second highest…
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The Key Government decided not to monitor the implementation of its Fire at Will law. It probably feared embarrassment. Fortunately, the EMA and CTU have done something to fill the gap (from RNZ report, not yet online). The EMA conducted a survey of members and the CTU…
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Today Key is giving a major speech on the economy. He told Oliver Driver on Sunrise yesterday that it would be "pretty high level", and he wasn't joking. The Sir Peter Blake Awesome Stratosphere Rollercoaster will rise from Queen's Wharf, circle the Sky tower, rise…
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Not to be outshone by their leader's latest efforts, looks like Young Labour have been busy with a little video project of their own. Nice. (Hat-tip: Red Alert)