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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…
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It has become a media mantra that winning a fourth term of government is nigh on impossible, but is that claim actually based on the record of past governments or just a political myth? The first government formed along party lines in New Zealand was…
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Good to see Ruth Dyson finally admitting we have left beneficiaries behind. I would hope now that there would be a lot more done than simply indexing benefits to wages though. Increasing the benefit to real pre-1991 levels would be a good start. A lot…
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A great interview by Jon Stewart on political blogging. Well worth watching. The part about evolution of blogging in the US is particularly interesting. New Zealand obviously lags behind in some ways but, as is often the case in this small polity, things also have…
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Upgrade is complete There will be a hardware upgrade on monday during working hours (still trying to get the time). The site will be offline for up to an hour while the system gets transferred. The upgrade should eliminate the capacity issues that have been…
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Now that Michael Cullen has ruled out a tax-free bracket but promised that everyone will benefit from Labour's tax-cut package, what cuts will he give? The simplest option would be to cut the bottom tax rate, which would deliver a tax cut for everyone. As…
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Clarkson has jumped before he was pushed - he won't be standing in Tauranga. Peter's hasn't confirmed yet whether he will stand or not. It's always slightly irritated me that the media seem intent on refering to Clarkson as "colourful". It kind of sounds like…
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The Greens have started to use Russell Norman as their primary spokesperson, instead of Jeanette Fitzsimons. Fitzsimons has never been great with the media, particularly in confrontational interviews and on TV. So far, Norman, while he still has much to work on, is a vast…
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A few weeks back ANZ National announced that over the next 12-18 months they plan to export 400-500 New Zealand jobs to Bangalore. In response, the bank workers' union Finsec has started a campaign to stop them in their tracks. If it goes ahead this…
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Our 'Interview the Leaders' series is going well and this week it's your chance to submit questions to the man who wants you to want him to be your next Prime Minister. It's been an interesting week for Key as, once again, a tentative venture…
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Unemployment rose from 3.4% to 3.6% between the December and March quarters. The number of people employed fell 15,000 from 2,162,000 in the December quarter to 2,147,000 in the March quarter. That sickening sound you hear is the Right celebrating because people have lost their…
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It's disappointing that Michael Cullen has ruled out both a tax-free bracket and a GST cut in his tax cut package to be announced at the Budget (not least of all because it means he clearly isn't taking policy advice from The Standard). His reasoning…
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Last night, while walking the tiles, I came across a group of young people. These were ambitious young people, and their ambition was this: find a supermarket trolley, take said trolley, put one of their party in the trolley, then drive the trolley to the…
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Sharan Burrow (President of Australian Council of Trade Unions) talked to Morning Report about the union experiences in Australia under a conservative government, and their hope for the future with Kevin Rudd. She also had some words of warning for NZ workers: "We say to…