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Last night on TV3's 7 Days panelist Jeremy Elwood described John Key as "New Zealand's very own Ned Flanders without a moustache." Ned's a pretty complex character, with quite a lot of suppressed rage and a dark side that makes his hyper-cheerful niceness actually more…
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Key looks like a PM under pressure. He's started lashing out at random - never a good sign. It happened while discussing Melissa Lee's repayment of $80,000 of taxpayer's money that she had somehow managed to forget that she had. (Yes I know - that…
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We're trying a daily "Open mike". This is a place for anyone to post comments on topics that might be of interest, and for any discussion following up on the comments. Over to you...
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I've been meaning to post on the emergence of Crimestoppers in New Zealand for a few days now. While some might say it's a nasty and divisive idea funded by a dodgy Tory and likely to encourage a fascistic culture of mistrust if anyone ever…
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Hundreds of hospitals workers from all over the country took protest action against National's wage freeze today. Here's a photo from the picket line: The workers passed a resolution calling for a 24 hour mass protest stoppage in November involving as many public sector workers…
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While we're all aghast over Nick Smith's shambolic handling of ACC and his 'people are killing themselves for cash' comments, let's not forget he's also making a total botch up of climate change policy too. As Marty discovered, National's ETS will cost us $73 billion…
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Police have ended their investigation in National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi's immigration scam after the principal accuser left the country in mysterious circumstances. In Parliament, Pete Hodgson read a sworn statement by Darshan Singh Saran which says that Bakshi and his associates were involved first…
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The other day on Red Alert, Chris Hipkins related an interesting story about how National's last round of State House sales went awry: Recently I went to visit a state house tenant in their home to talk about some problems they had been having with…
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The Herald posts this clip from Parliament entitled "Nick Smith under fire for ACC bungling". Nice catch from Darren Hughes at the end. What a shambolic lot.
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The other day, John Key said "ACC's investment portfolio had not been working well". Now, if there's one golden rule regarding people with power it's never take what they say for granted. And that's never been more true than with this Prime Minister. So, I…
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One of the most dishonest, yet most successful tactics of National in opposition was to rant on and on about the "Nanny state". Here's John Key fairly foaming at the mouth: I've had nine years of being told what lightbulb I can screw into the…
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We're trying a daily "Open mike". This is a place for anyone to post comments on topics that might be of interest, and for any discussion following up on the comments. Over to you...
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Colin, I think we need to discuss your work: the conspiracy theory peddled by Labour and the EPMU (i.e. Labour) that somehow this is all just a VRWC to derail the ACC, lower public confidence in it, and then sell it to the highest (or…
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Far from being a careful steward of ratepayers' money and someone who takes pride in his city, Auckland mayor John Banks is allowing parts of the CBD to slide. Less than two years ago Banks' council spent $1.5 million upgrading the central Auckland lane Swanson…
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The debate will feature an outstanding lineup of: Darren Hughes MP, Cr Cathy Casey, Bevan Woodward, Jonathan Hunt, Jacinda Ardern MP and Cr Grant Gillon. It's being held at the Northcote Birkenhead Rugby Club on friday night. Doors open at 7pm, debate starts at 7.30pm.…
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It seems National has a problem with numbers. First they fudge the numbers for ACC so they can claim a "blow out" and now they can't even get the numbers to pass their legislation. You heard correctly. After all of that hoopla about how ACC…
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Funny thing, I woke up this morning and thought to myself "what happened to the cycleway?" I was even going to put a "quick question" post up later today to see if anyone out there knew. Then just a few minutes ago a media release…
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The Herald's editorial today largely reads like it was written by Nick Smith and John Judge, so let's use it as the basis for some spin-busting (my source is the ACC annual report unless otherwise mentioned): opponents say any change would be a prelude to…
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Drinking Liberally is returning to the London Bar for a session with Greenpeace Executive Director Bunny McDiarmid. When: 7pm WEDNESDAY 21 October Where: The London Bar, upstairs cnr Queen and Wellesley Streets, Auckland CBD Who: You and like-minded left-wingers. All welcome. What: The climate change…
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Answering the question you wish you were asked rather than the one you were is a common PR tactic (to a point) when speaking to the media. Watching a cabinet minister try the same trick in parliament really starts to unveil this government's contempt for…
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Very good editorial on ACC in The Independent today. The article's offline, but it's quite clear about why the Government is trying to manufacture a crisis over the financial position of ACC: ACC currently collects sufficient levies to meet each year's claims - it has…
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Over on g.blog, toad has noticed something: If you or I steal money, it is theft. We get taken to court, and get fined or go to prison. When MPs do it, it is an 'accounting error'. When Cabinet Ministers do it, it is 'not…
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Non-political staff Parliamentary Service are in industrial action. They want to keep their redundancy provisions that were bargained for years ago and get pay into the collective. Right now HR decides their wages. They're meant use this performance pay system but now they're saying there's…
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Republicanism is a funny issue. Politicians tend to agree that it is inevitable that "at some point" NZ will become a republic, but no one is prepared to take the job on. Well, fate has tilted the table. Yesterday Keith Locke's bill was drawn from…
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We're trying a daily "Open mike". This is a place for anyone to post comments on topics that might be of interest, and for any discussion following up on the comments. Over to you...
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Competent government's a bit like oil in your car's engine. It's easy to take it for granted - until it's not there. Look at the mess this bunch have made of a simple broadcasting rights deal. We're going to have the six major games live…
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Down in the comments long time contributor gobsmacked wrote: I have never seen a post on here saying 'The left parties want the voters who switched to National last time. They aren't idiots. But we lost them. Let's find out why.' That's step one. I…
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Up until a few hours ago Derek Fox was the Chief Press Sec for the Co-leaders of the Maori Party. He resigned from that position this morning, evidently deeply dissatisfied. Shortly after resigning he gave an interview on 9 to noon - scathing of the World…
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From October 27th, survivors of sexual violence will only be eligible for ACC funded counselling if they are first diagnosed with a mental illness. Firstly, you don't need to have a mental illness to need a few counselling sessions after going through a traumatic and…
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What a sad state the management workforce of this country is in. Just think about these recent stories: Open Country, locking out their workers, employing scab labour, creating an environmental mess and blaming it on the workers they locked out - all because the workers joined…