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Remember the photos of McDonald's wrappers strewn on a grass verge that John Key expected us to believe was evidence people had been rifling through his electorate office's rubbish? Was there ever a more transparent attempt to deflect attention from a bad story with an…
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The death at just 59 of alpine legend Gottlieb Braun-Elwert will be greatly mourned around the Tekapo community, and much further afield too. Braun-Elwert was one of those Europeans who came here and found our great outdoors intoxicating. He arrived in his 20s on a…
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When you look at the policy National has released, it's clear that the focus is on winning the election, not on developing policy that would work. There is a most appalling lack of detail - most of the policy one-page wonders from National have left…
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Colin Espiner on the Nats' energy policy: ...National's energy policy is conservative and lacking in new ideas... What it has delivered is a short-term, pragmatic policy lacking in vision. But unlike Labour, it is probably a policy in step with current public opinion. Maybe these…
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Quite a quiet week after the excitement of the secret agenda tapes last week. The Tories are keeping up their hunt for the person who exposed their secret agenda (God knows what they expect to do if they catch them). National's welfare policy was in…
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Today's our first birthday. A year ago I had the privilege of the first post. It was on John Key's contradictory statements about whether or not he wanted New Zealand troops sent to Iraq. The video's below. Since then there have been another 1440 posts.…
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A third Drinking Liberally chapter is underway. The first meeting of Drinking Liberally - Palmerston North will be next Friday at the Kingsgate bar. The guest speaker will be Hamish MacDouall, Labour candidate for Whanganui, David Bowie expert, brain box, and all-round nice guy. Now,…
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A positive and ambitious energy policy that reflects the personality of National leader John Key, was announced today. Old people wiped tears from their eyes and youths vowed never to tag another fence as they heard the ambitious vision National has developed for New Zealand's…
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A policy paper has been released on how the Government's goal of 90% renewable electricity generation by 2025 can be achieved. Micro-hydro projects and small-scale wind turbines will deliver power to rural areas. Reversibility of new generation will be built into new schemes as part of…
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A few mini-posts on National's relationship with the media in light of the secret agenda tapes. _______________________________________________ A signature Crosby/Textor move, seen here and abroad, is for their politicians to be matey with media as long as they run the lines, but, if they start…
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There's a Roy Morgan poll out today or tomorrow, then polls from Fairfax, TV1, and TV3 on the weekend. Naturally, people will be watching these closely to see if National has been damaged by the secret agenda tapes. Do not expect the polls to show National taking…
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Insight into Mr Key costing his tax policy (lots of clever bits, best viewed in fullscreen) - hosted by 08wire
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The secret agenda scandal has reminded many people that, behind John Key's smile, National's leaders are still the same bunch who were cutting benefits and flogging off assets in the 1990s, or people who came into Parliament hoping to continue those policies. That's not good…
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A lot of you won't remember it but there was a time in this country when being on a benefit wasn't seen as the fault of the person receiving it and the idea of a social welfare system was about just that: the welfare of…
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I've been awfully remiss in not posting on this earlier. Transition Towns, a group dedicated to developing the skills needed for communities to become more self-sufficient in the coming post-peak oil world, is holding an activist training session in Wellington this coming weekend. There's a…
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In December 2006, the United Nations adopted a major new human rights treaty, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance aimed at preventing and punishing 'enforced disappearance' - the kidnap and murder of political opponents by governments. 73 countries have…
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When the DPB was first proposed it had a very simple purpose, to allow mothers to leave abusive relationships, to allow them to protect their children from beatings, alcoholism and psychological abuse. It was intended to ensure that those children would have a real chance…
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ENGLISH: So we're sitting here saying the punters are keen to keep it. They're facing a recession. The last thing we want is to spend the whole election campaign with families of four on TV saying 'Mr Key's taking money off us'. You can't do…
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'No ifs, no buts, no maybes' - that's the phrase Bill English chose to use when denying he had any intentions of launching a coup against John Key after the election. It's a phrase that is burned indelibly into many New Zealander's memories, not least…
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The Child Poverty Action Group thinks that National's welfare policy is likely to hurt vulnerable children.
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Dog whistle politics to some, beneficiary bashing to others. But is there logic to National's policy on benefits? Gordon Campbell asks: Will John Key's policy announcement on welfare this afternoon do much to resolve the problems it claims to address? Hardly... It is as if National felt…
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Many New Zealand politicians give away a large portion of their salaries to needy causes but they don't make a song and dance about it because a) lots of MPs do it b) boasting about charity donations is a rich man's game, and the reason…
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National activist/advisor Matthew Hooton on Nine to Noon: ‘the National Party leadership group is very sensitive about security. They look at the last election campaign that was lost on basically matters of security: the leak of the ‘gone by lunchtime' notes and the Brethren link.'…
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Wonder of wonders, the Nats' benefits policy has an 11 page document attached to it. Oh, wait, it's mostly just stats ripped from the MSD website and long-winded rewordings of the bullet-points, not actual detail of the Nats' policy. So, what have we got from…
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1) A secret agenda is not something that people talk about in public or when they know the information will get to the public. Therefore, the only way to expose a secret agenda with definite proof is by recording that evidence when the target does…
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That nice man, Mr Key, the one who says the old Left/Right divide is over, that he's a new man with a new (ambitious) vision for New Zealand has rolled out an unprecedented and exciting policy today: beneficiary bashing. At present, we have a world-leading…