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A reader sent us this very good video of John Key's repeated memory lapses over where he stood on the Springbok tour: The tour was the defining event of a generation, and it's simply not plausible that a politically aware university student would not have…
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National's current attempt to stop the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union from registering as a third party pretty much proves what we all knew. They have no interest in democracy. Rather than accept the decision of the Electoral Commission and move on they've decided to…
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At the Labour Party congress today, Helen Clark predicted that asset sales would be a key election issue and says the Government was right to veto the Auckland Airport share bid. "The National Party and ACT have made it plain where they stand - 'sell…
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Crime, whether static or out of control, is going to be part of our election year "top ten". I suspect National's $50 fine policy didn't quite get the glowing endorsments they were hoping for (see why here). So when I spotted this story at the…
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There was a reboot on the server last night for some reason about 20 hours ago, and the database process failed to start. The cron job that was meant to restart the process didn't work. It would happen on a day when I was rushing…
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This recent article in the NYTimes illustrates how the way we inform ourselves is changing, and that it's increasing access to some serious topics. 'Bush's War,' was produced for the fifth anniversary of the United States' invasion of Iraq, and is avaiable to watch, online, for free. It…
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Today, outstanding student loan debt reaches $10 billion. That's a fair old swag of money but what has been ignored in the coverage so far is that this debt is interest-free. Now, an economist will tell you that the price of money is the interest…
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Last Tuesday Bill English stood up in Parliament and accused the CTU and the PSA of breaking the Electoral Finance Act. Problem for Bill was he'd got it completely wrong, and as we noted at the time the appropriate course of action was to make…
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National has found itself politically unable to oppose the amendment to the Employment Relations Act that will ensure workers are entitled to meal breaks and to breastfeed at work. But they will be offering only 'cautious' support to a Bill that protects such basic rights,…
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The Reserve Bank produces a series of helpful tables of economic data. One table compares our growth to that of Australia, the US, Japan, and the UK. Here's a graph comparing growth across the countries between National and Labour's periods in government. National has a…
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I'm not usually big on the Bush-bashing, but this is classic: Say what you like about Reagan, at least the dude could read from an autocue. Hat tip: onegoodmove
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Polly Toynbee of The Guardian writes: "Beware the lesson of the Tory wolf in liberal clothing: Sweden's great social democracy has been transformed for the worse - and Britain risks importing the nightmare". At the previous election [the moderates] had crashed at just 15%, so…
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From Key's speech to the NZ Institute of Foreign Affairs on emulating the ‘Celtic Tiger': "Thirty years ago, Ireland was a total basket case. Today, it has all of the trappings of a considerable economic success story, including the capacity to attract and retain smart,…
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New Zealand First's opposition to the China FTA is no surprise but it is interesting to reflect on the grounds for it that Winston Peters has laid out: a) the deal is not good enough. A pretty weak argument when the other option is no…
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Annette King has hit back at National in the House today, producing two items of electoral advertising from them, neither of which is authorised. The first of these is a promotional pamphlet for John Key, the second is their 2005 Broadcasting policy - still available…
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The Sensible Sentencing Trust is a backward, reactionary organisation at the best of times but this is a new low. Responding to comments Children's Commissioner Dr Cindy Kiro made about tagging, Sensible Sentencing's Garth McVicar said 'Her comments are hugely provocative at a time when…
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The Herald could barely contain its self-satisfaction when National's David Farrar complained to the Electoral Commission that the country's largest private sector union, the EPMU, which comprises 50,000 working New Zealanders, should not be allowed to register as a third party under the Electoral Finance…
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A reader wrote to us to say that they'd recently seen Finlay MacDonald speak at Otago University as part of the Distinguished Communicator Lecture Series for the Centre of Science Communication. The talk is now online: The Audacity of Hype: John Key and the new…
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A big thanks to Progressives' leader Jim Anderton for being the first participant in our 'Interview the leaders' series. The quality of his answers has set a standard for the others to emulate. Our next leader is Jeanette Fitzsimmons of the Green Party. The general…
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John Key's failure to ask a parliamentary question last week exposes a crisis of confidence in National's ranks. It is unprecedented for an Opposition leader to be in attendance in the House for a full sitting week, and to not once challenge the Government. This…
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Today we're posting the first of our "Interview the leaders" segments - where you get to ask the leaders the questions you want to hear the answers to. We asked that answers be kept to 300 words and undertook to post them verbatim. We also…