Explore the archive
Find articles and conversations by date, subject or search expression.
Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 121–150 of 173
Post
Has anyone else noticed John Key's absence from the media in the last few days? I finally clicked to it while listening to RNZ this morning when we heard yet another "a spokesperson for John Key's office says" comment. This is a pretty standard technique…
Post
Media bleating about Labour's 'personal attacks' is getting tiresome. Some journalists seem to forget from one election to the next that an important element of the triennial exercise is to find out whether contenders for political office are fit to hold elected office. That means…
Post
On Sunday, Bill English let slip that National still intends to take away the work rights of employees of small businesses for the first 90 days of employment. Now, National's Shane Ardern has spilled the beans on the Nats' policy to cut the contributions to…
Post
UPDATE: Thanks to commenter T-Rex for reversing the cartoon to show workers taking a disastrous right turn. Far too much time on your hands brother...
Post
Let's look at some of the issues National has hit and run on. They were all you heard from the Nats for a while and then they were dropped when their marketing usefulness wore off. "Power crisis" - dropped in June when it started to…
Post
While trying desperately to paint Crosby/Textor as ‘just ordinary consultants' and argue that C/T does nothing that polling and research companies do, National allies like the Herald have also puzzled over why National won't just admit to being C/T clients. The answer is simple: C/T…
Post
Hager confirms that his info comes from a leak from within the National Party, not as the Nats would have you believe, a devious external computer hacker intent on exposing them.
Post
Looks like John Key might be a little less "self-made" and a little more "taxpayer-made" than he'd have us believe... click the image for a larger version.
Post
National's Jonathan Coleman has announced a bullet-point excuse for a broadcasting policy. Essentially, it adopts the status quo but moves TVNZ charter funding to NZ on Air's control (there goes any hope of TV1 ever becoming a proper public broadcaster) and preps the ground for…
Post
In perhaps the most unsurprising announcement of the year, National has let slip it's going to maintain its 90 day no rights policy, which basically means your boss can sack you for whatever reason he likes within the first 90 days of your employment. Don't…
Post
Learn more at thegirleffect.org
Post
Well, as promised 08wire launched today - "The Smartest Political Fun in the Galaxy.' After you've joined their Facebook group check out their first video - John the Chameleon...
Post
Here's some great audio of Key running Crosby/Textor lines to avoid answering Havoc's questions. Around the half way point my personal favourite C/T line even makes an appearance: "I intend to run a positive upbeat ambitious campaign; I think it reflects my personality". As Havoc…
Post
Charities are voicing fears that under a National Government public funding for NGOs would be administered by an Australian NGO called Mission Australia with dire consequences for small charities here. The NGOs say Key thinks there are too many NGOs here and wants to starve them of…
Post
National tells us that, if we put the right incentives in place, people will work harder and their incomes will go up. National opposes the 39 cent tax bracket because they argue people would be incentivised to work more and earn more if incomes over…
Post
Ok. Now that the political theatre is done maybe National and its allies would like to engage in proper debate on the freight trucking industry. Here's some issues for debate: Road user charges are less than 10% of costs and the increase, half what was…
Post
The information being leaked to Nicky Hager is obviously coming from well-placed sources inside National The idea of hacking is farcical (Lyndon Hood mocks it beautifully). In the Hollow Men, Hager refers to his sources as ‘six senior National figures', in the SST article he…
Post
Ruth Laugesen's got a piece in the SST today entitled "How National's spin doctors operate". She points out that Crosby/Textor's methods, contrary to the opinion of many other journalists here, do differ from what are considered standard focus group and polling methodologies. Auckland University political…
Post
National Party's New Plymouth candidate Clem Coxhead has reportedly wanted to be in politics since he was nine years old. Earlier this year he won a hard fought and sometimes bitter internal selection process. Puzzling then that he's now abandoning the candidacy citing "work commitments".…
Post
Hager's Crosby/Textor revelations and the ensuing debate reminded me of this four party BBC documentary by Adam Curtis: The Century of the Self. Embedded below is part four entitled "Eight people sipping wine in Kettering": To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the…
Post
As usual we've been running the hot political stories this week but I, for one, need a breather. And what better way to relax than to watch people create an amazing scene of fluffy white stuff floating around? It's not the snow and wintry weather…
Post
A big week in politics. The rail system is back in public ownership as KiwiRail, Nicky Hager exposed Brand Key as a Crosby Textor production, National was forced to reveal that it was secretly planning to privatise the ACC scheme, the Incomes Report showed poverty…
Post
One of the links to The Standard this week was from Reading the Maps on the topic of Playing the history card. The very long post is a interesting commentary of the differences between the various wars of the 19th century that made up New…
Post
It is time for the Left to take back the language of freedom. At its heart freedom, power for the ordinary person, is what the Left is about. - Freedom from unemployment, - Freedom from crappy wages that mean you have to work 60 hours a…
Post
The MSD's Incomes Report provides a wealth of information. For instance, here's how the mean and median household incomes have moved since 1982. Households suffered a massive erosion of income during the rightwing revolution from 1984 to the late 1990s. The leftwing governments since 1999…
Post
The buy back of rail has been put in a British context in this article from the Guardian. Here are some excerpts: "New Zealand has long had a record of being ahead of the political game. It was the first country in the world to…
Post
As a piece of political theatre it's good and people who walk to work, including myself, enjoyed the unusual sight and gave them a wave (some people stuck in traffic didn't find it so fun, though). But just remember, this was a set-up - truck companies did…
Post
13% of people are living in poverty in New Zealand (defined as less than 60% of the median income, less than $40K a year for a household, $16K for an individual) compared with 17% in 2004 and 23% in 1994. Child poverty dropped 7% between…
Post
The Government's new core benefit will see all beneficiaries given the same treatment and the same assistance to get into work if they are able. The changes will reduce monthly costs for both beneficiaries and MSD. The more efficient system will save $40 to $70…
Post
In four separate interviews this week, John Key used more or less exactly the same line to divert from questions on his use of Crosby/Textor: 'I'm the Leader of the party and I'll set the tone of the campaign. And it will be a positive, ambitious, outlooking…