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DL Wellington next week
Metiria Turei is at Drinking Liberally next week. Thursday, April 9, 5:30 at Southern Cross. Nice new logo too. Meanwhile, here's Andrew Little from last week.
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Search · 2009-01-01 to 2009-12-31 · Page 62
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Trillion Dollar Campaign
Read more about it here.
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G20 outcomes
Well the G20 process - which many said would "redesign capitalism" - has now finished. Various agreements were reached, which are predictably being touted as "historic". Some of the main points from summaries here: Bankers' pay and bonuses will be subject to stricter controls A…
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G20 updates
The Guardian has excellent video of the G20 protests. Gives you a real feeling of what things are like in the ground. So much better than our coverage. No twit talking all the time and trying to dramatise things. Most of the people there are…
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The server has moved (finally).
The Standard has moved the server to an off-shore site. There are many reasons for this. I can get equivalent or better service offshore for about a tenth of the local price. To be precise, I paid for a year of hosting on a better…
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How much is a lie worth?
Labour revealed in parliament today that Richard Worth has another secret shareholding that created conflict of interest when he carried out ministerial duties on his trip to India. After Key gave him the famous ‘bollocking' on Monday, Worth can have been under no illusion that there wasn't…
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Submit!
From No Right Turn. The Law and Order Committee has called for submissions on the Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill. Two copies, by Friday, 22 May 2009, to: Law and Order Committee Secretariat Parliament Buildings Wellington The bill would allow prisons to be…
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G20 protests
Tens of thousands of people protested yesterday April 1st in London at the G20 summit. The protest is made up of a multitude of different groups and has no clear overall spokesperson or agenda, other than to draw attention to the obvious failures of unregulated…
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Criticising car corporation charity
Here's why Fickle Cycle is rapidly becoming the best New Zealand blog focussed on international issues: I wasn't impressed with December's car industry bail-outs in the US and I'm not any happier with the latest round. I have a fundamental issue with giving money to…
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Mana enhancement – fail
To further enhance their mana Te Ururoa Flavell and Rahui Katene spent their questions in parliament yesterday asking patsies to National. 'How will the government's tax cuts benefit people on low incomes?' they asked allowing Key and English to talk about the wonderful new $10…
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Centre for Inaccurate Studies
The CIS released a report [PDF link] today entitled Ending No. 8 Wire Welfare: Why New Zealand is Lagging Behind. Its author is Luke Malpass. Predictably, from the right-wing think tank, the paper is an ideologically driven argument for a more punitive welfare system. As…
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Regurgitating rubbish
On his blog Colin Espiner rejects the argument that National's tax cuts are "unfair because they give more to those who earn more" saying "I'm afraid that's the nature of progressive taxation". That's what National politicians say too. It's wrong. There are infinite tax cuts one could devise…
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US warns: don’t cling to carbon
Take heed, for the Superpower has spoken. At Round One of this year's international climate change negotiations (in Bonn, Germany) the US has stolen the spotlight with a rousing opening address. President Barack Obama's envoy Todd Stern stressed the need for action and warned countries…
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Key plays the April fool
Someone's set up a swag of fake Twitter accounts under the names of Labour MPs. Apparently Labour came across these on Monday at the latest and wrote to Twitter telling them the accounts were fake. But no-one, including his staff, told John Key the tweets…
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“Monitoring”
No Right Turn exposes ineffectual government spin on the fire at will act. The select committee procedure would have improved the bill. Perhaps to the point that it at least lived up to the spin. Earlier in the month, Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson warned…
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It’s the men in black
The SIS has made its yearly attempt to scare the crap out of MPs and get more funding. Apparently, New Zealand is under constant threat and only the SIS can save us. Lucky they were there to hunt down those hippies in Aro Valley and…
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Happy tax cut day?
The tax cuts that National are implementing today are more generous to high income earners, and less generous to low income earners, than the tax cuts that they cancelled (Labour's already legislated for package, see for example here, here, here and here). That's business as…
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Anyone else get the feeling…?
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Herald: You’re too poor to exist
What's missing here? Oh yeah. Half the population. Everyone on less than $25,000. According to The Herald if you're not rich you don't even exist.
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Mayday Mayday, Worth’s bought it and I’m losing altitude – Groser out
Richard Worth, OBE, is now in very serious trouble having been snared in what looks like untruths about using his Ministerial portfolio to further the interests of a company he had a private commercial interest in. It's pretty blatant and really Key won't be able…
corruption economy International john key national/act government same old national
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What’s Labour got up its sleeve?
When you were perusing yesterday's Hansard (don't lie, you were) did you notice this question from Pete Hodgson to Richard Worth amongst the questions about his India shenanigans? Hon Pete Hodgson: Does the Minister still receive any form of income from Simpson Grierson; if not,…
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National dumps worker reps from ACC board
Nick Smith announced National's changes to the ACC board this afternoon. As expected they've kicked Wayne Butson and Ross Wilson off the board, meaning ACC no longer has any worker representation. In their place are a mixed bag of company directors and consultants headed by…
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Have your say
Professor Paul Callaghan from Victoria University introduces the 'Think Tech' site via video. Panelists will look at what sorts of new technologies, in ICTs, nano-technologies, or bio-technologies, are likely to emerge in the future, and the effects these could have on our society and on…
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Econopocalypse
My pick for word of the day.
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Cold.
[click on image for full size]
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Sean Plunket, “interviewer”
I've just listened to Sean Plunket interview Goff this morning. It was actually less of an interview and more an exercise in running cover for Richard Worth. And of course it's not the first time Plunket has gone feral when National has been in trouble.…
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Repeat offender
Breakfast host Paul Henry is in trouble again after making fun of a guest's appearance. "Shall I read these out? They're a bit iffy," he said, holding viewers' comments. "Everyone in my ear is saying 'don't read it out'." Co-host Alison Mau tried unsuccessfully to…
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Worth’s story unravels
Despite getting a "bollocking" from John Key, Richard Worth last night denied that he had been acting as a minister when he went around India promoting flight training provided by a company he had shares in. Unfortunately for Worth, they have the internet in India…
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Time for Fyfe to go
It's time for Bill English, as shareholding minister in Air New Zealand, to tell the AirNZ board that either they fire CEO Robert Fyfe or he will fire them. Yesterday, Fyfe directly attacked two government policies. First, he threatened to cancel flights if air traffic…
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“Corrupt!”
National rode to power off the back of years of rhetoric accusing the last Labour government of corruption. Who can forget the screams from the Nats? - "Corrupt! Corrupt! Corrupt!" they cried. The boys in blue were going to deliver us a new era of…