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Helena Catt, head of the Electoral Commission, says the EFA has had a 'chilling effect' on democratic participation. I'm convinced that that is a foolish position based on a belief that 'democratic participation' is rich lobby groups paying for ads and billboards, trying to market…
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With an almost Winston-esqe turn of phrase Owen Glenn has labelled Labour Party president Mike Williams an "unmitigated falsifier of veracity". Yet Glen himself has claimed that he was offered a cabinet post (cough), that he donated money to Labour because of the Exclusive Brethren's involvement…
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One of the great things about the EFA is that donations over $20,000 must be declared within 10 working days. Because of that, we have today learned National received $30,000 from something called the Road Transport Trust on August 27. The Trust is clearly a…
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Like John Key, I'm utterly bored with Peters. So, just a short, tangentially-related note. Tracy Watkins, like every other press gallery journo, thinks the latest micro-development around Peters is more important than the release of a major party's health policy (in contrast, my flatmates are…
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Is this our first real Youtube election? 08wire is doing its bit with another new video:
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We can do good news here on the Standard! According to a World Bank survey shows New Zealand is still ranked second in the world when it comes to ease of doing business. Singapore ranked first with the United States third. According to Clayton Cosgrove:…
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Having just read the National health policy and background paper released by Labour, a few things stand out to me. 1) There is no commitment to primary health-care. In fact, in 25 pages all it says is 'we'll do what's already happening but we'll re-name…
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An interesting interview between John Key and Wammo today. He starts out saying Labour is spending all its time talking about Owen Glenn and Peters whereas he wants to concerntrate on what matters. Funny, because he then spends the rest of the interview turning the…
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Jim Anderton is releasing elements of National's health policy at Question Time: - Pharmac's independent decisions could be overruled by politicians. - Private health insurance would be subsidised by the taxpayer. - No more money for public health National's Jonathan Coleman also reportedly said that…
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For the last several weeks the EPMU has had to weather an extraordinary series of attacks from ACT, ACT candidate and EPMU employee Shawn Tan, and right-wing activist/Herald journalist Lincoln Tan. The union has been accused of breaching Tan's human rights and racism but it…
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Winston Peters will be wondering why he has let his political legacy be destroyed by not simply declaring donations that came from legal sources and being open in his role in soliciting them. All those MPs and other hangers-on who have ridden on the coat-tails…
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Multiple spies, whom National has been unable to catch, and a series of 'gaffes' and accidents involving sensitive papers? Or a bitter faction led by the man who was deposed by Key's vote?
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Boosting their green credentials is not proving as straightforward as National would like, as this video that's doing the rounds shows.
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Can't put it any better than Jafapete has: Seems that John Key has done it again. Announced policy off-the-cuff and back tracked later. TV3 reports that, speaking to an Auckland families forum yesterday, Key 'veered away from a written speech appearing to announce in off…
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This is really getting pretty serious now - a fourth National party policy has been leaked to Labour, who have made it public. In the last week we've seen National's environment, conservation, biofuels, and, now, research, science, and technology policies leaked from within National. This…
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Apologies if you've seen this before - but I had a reader request a replay.
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God, another leak from National, this time their research, science and technology policy. From Mallard's press release: "Mr Key should not only be embarrassed, he should be very worried about the shambolic show he is running. Contrary to his desperate claims last week, I did…
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John Key is running a line that first emerged in the rightwing blogs a few months ago: 'Labour doesn't have any policy, either'. It was a moron's line when it was on the blogs and Key has only taken it up in a desperate attempt to…
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With the election fast approaching, here's a non-exhaustive list of policies I would like to see from a 4th term Labour-led Government. Hopefully, other Standardistas will have time to make their own wish-lists too: - Serious investment in low-oil/low-carbon infrastructure. If we're not to let…
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Updating a post from a few months ago, here's how Labour's Roy Morgan poll numbers are going compared to the price of petrol since the last election (the price of petrol axis is inverted, lower line = higher price). The trend continues, when petrol prices go up…
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In 1993, the then National government reluctantly implemented the MMP system by putting in the Electoral Act 1993. This was an act that had some serious flaws, some of which were fixed in the Electoral Finance Act of 2008. One of the Electoral Act's innovations…
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I'm impressed with the Green's new billboard campaign and I'm pretty certain it'll work as it is clean and effective marketing and reminds me of the best work that was coming out of Saatchi when they were at the peak of their powers. One thing…
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If you've caught yourself asking why the Nat's billboards are so bad, then Jafa Pete has the answer. Their adman, Glenn Jameson, is an objectivist. For those of you not familiar with objectivism it's kind of like a cross between neo-liberalism and Nietzschen fascism (as…
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As always at The Standard, we're interested in the issues that affect people's lives. So, rather than endless posts on who said what over donations made three years ago, we looked at some interesting stories on wages, living standards, and protections against loan sharks. National's awful billboards…
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The Greens billboards have shown how it's done - striking and simple without being dishonest or simplistic. Maybe National could imitate them: Maybe not.
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Lord Ashcroft is a worry. Not just to John Key, who had to admit that he didn't know why Ascroft had met him at Key's home: it just happened to be in his diary. According to an article in the Daily Telegraph, he is also…
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A puzzled reader sent me this question - what is National up to? Their environment policy is leaked, and John Key says that one of his staff must have left it lying around in a café (and now their Conservation policy too?) Their transport spokesperson…
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A friend has just rung to excitedly inform me that National's conservation policy has now also been released by Trevor Mallard. That means there is officially a leak in the National Party caucus. I expect in the next hour or so the Nats are going…