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The Sunday Star Times reports National is keen to have a referendum on MMP. As you would expect Peter Shirtcliffe has been involved in lobbying the Nats for this policy. It's just as AYB predicted. I'm sure the advertising agencies will be rubbing their hands…
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As The Standard has grown, we've started to receive inquires from the media and requests for a comment or interview. We've been a bit hesitant about what to do in this regard. On the one hand, like most bloggers, we blog under pseudonyms and we…
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As we all know the latest Fairfax poll has shown a huge lead for the National Party. Now I'm of the opinion it's probably a rogue poll and we could argue that point (and methodology, and trends, etc) until the cows come home but I'm…
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This morning's Fairfax poll is bad news for Labour, with National easily having the numbers to govern alone. Following the hugely popular rail buyback it's hard to see what could have caused a swing of this size, so it'll be interesting to see if the…
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California's top court has ruled that a state law banning marriage between same-sex couples is unconstitutional, accrording to a BBC report. The state's Supreme Court said the "right to form a family relationship" applied to all Californians regardless of sexuality. I wonder if this ruling…
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If you've been reading Bill Ralston's columns in the Herald on Sunday over the last few months you'll have noticed how they've started to read more and more like long-form National Party press releases. To date I'd put it down to pure laziness - after…
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The economy is clearly slowing. Fundamentally, it remains strong with high employment, good wages rises, and strong prices for our exports but employment and retail spending both declined in the first quarter of this year, the housing market is flat, and there is a danger…
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We'll be selecting the questions for Winston as the final interview in the ‘Interview the Leaders' series on Sunday. So, get them in while you can here. It's been enjoyable having this series and great to give readers the chance to question leaders in a…
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Last in our ‘campaign strategist' series is UnitedFuture, perhaps the least inspiring party in Parliament. UnitedFuture (ie. Peter Dunne) should play the same strategy as was used in 2002. Keep your head down, shore up support in Dunne's safe seat of Ohariu/Belmont and wait for…
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The last couple of episodes of Fair Go have rightly taken aim at a distribution company - Reachmedia - that rips off young kids by paying them peanuts. Reachmedia (half owned by NZ Post) has been paying young kids sweatshop wages to distribute pamphlets for the likes of…
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If you're down in Wellington and of the Left, you've probably heard people talking about Drinking Liberally New Zealand. Drinking Liberally is an international network that grew out of the US, where people from throughout the Left, greenies, union-types, feminists, anarchists, Labourites, and everyone else,…
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Christchurch hosted a public meeting on crime within the city last week. But the thing that caught my eye, despite the very laudable aim, was how National MP, Nicky Wagner, managed to present two contrasting opinions on the state of crime in the Garden City,…
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A man has been convicted of assault for hitting his daughter because she was dating a Muslim. You can't assault someone, the law worked. Good, right? OK. Now, let's imagine that this had taken a place a year ago and the daughter, who is 20…
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Who would have thought? Murray McCully as The Penguin. Hat tip: onegoodmove
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Rio Tinto's threat of capital strike appears to have backfired on them, with a political consensus emerging that the multinational has overplayed its hand on this one and some even starting to question whether we might be better to just shut the smelter down and…
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Today is the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the National Party. So, it's an opportune moment to reflect on the founding principles of the National Party and ask that age old question ‘why are they called National anyway?' The political background to the founding…
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Today National will be explaining to the High Court why it wants the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union's 50,000 members to be denied the chance to campaign for their work rights this election. I'm expecting that they will continue to claim they are only "testing…
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If only I'd been around in 1969, and hanging out in upstate New York. Hard to believe that the best we can do today is Westlife. Well, that's not fair. I like these lyrics from 'Think Twice' the song put together by a group of…
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As Paul Henry continues his party political broadcasts for the National Party on Breakfast TV, a curious coincidence of timing occured on Sunday. John Key devoted part of his speech to a National regional conference to the Nats plans on how to deal with "P". The rest of the…
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Rodney Hide is calling for the Budget's tax cuts to take the form of raising the thresholds to account for inflation since 1999, removing of the 39 cent bracket, and a $10,000 tax-free bracket. What would ACT's tax cuts entail for New Zealanders? Hide says…
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I've just watched the first Question Time in 3 weeks. After 3 weeks' recess and lots of potentially juicy material to use, here I was expecting the Leader of Nats to come down to the House and stick the knife into Labour. But instead... what…
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Multi-national minerals company Rio Tinto is threatening to close its Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Bluff and move its production offshore if the Emissions Trading Scheme is enacted because they say it will increase power prices. This is not the first time Rio Tinto has…
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We've chosen the questions for John Key in the seventh installment of our "Interview the Leaders" series. The first question remains the same, as for all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the others we've gone with Darryl's…
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After over 1100 submissions and more than 5.5 million total votes cast, MoveOn.org have announced the winner of their "Obama in 30 seconds" homemade ad competition - Obamacan by David Gaw & Lance Mungia. They're now running a fundraiser to get it aired commercially.
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We hear an awful lot from the Right about how much New Zealand sucks: 'crime is up' they cry (when it's down), 'taxes are too high' (when they're down), 'too many dole bludgers' (when benefit numbers are way, way down), 'everyone's leaving for Australia' (when…
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It was disappointing to hear National Radio this morning summarise the recent debate over benefit levels as ‘benefits are not keeping up with the cost of living'. Benefits are keeping up with the cost of living they are adjusted every year to keep them in…
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There was a new Roy Morgan poll out on Friday. No major changes - Labour continues to hover around the mid-30s and National around 50. The minor parties are still all over the place and New Zealand First remains a wildcard. Interestingly Roy Morgan also…
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In an attempt to find a non-ideological ground to justify opposing the Government's buyback of the rail system, John Key and others have been claiming that the $665 million price-tag is ‘over the odds' and $200 million in excess of Toll's ‘book value' for the…
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We're very pleased to have UnitedFuture Leader Peter Dunne 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? At a national level, I am most proud of…