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Roger Douglas in a press release today: National's goal of a top personal, company and trustee tax rate of 30 cents in the dollar is laudable - but it must remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch, ACT New Zealand Finance…
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From The Herald: Former Prime Minister Helen Clark will be named today as head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a report says. Political newsletter Trans-Tasman reported the appointment today, though a spokesman for Miss Clark, prime minister from 1999 until 2008, would not…
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No, wait, they didn't. Idiot/Savant from No Right Turn explains: Back in 2006, the (then-Labour) government passed the Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill, which retrospectively validated Parliamentary Services expenditure in the wake of a nonsensical, retrospective reinterpretation by the Auditor-General. The rabids in the sewer…
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No Right Turn puts the farce of the governments spin into perspective in Public relations replaces policy II. I'm just going to quote it... Earlier in the month the government announced that they were spending $1 billion on state highways. It was apparent from the…
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Growing up I always knew the rich had it better than us. It's only now that I'm one of the wealthy that I realise how much we've got it in our favour. Next week the government is giving me, for no reason I can work…
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Prime Minister John Key has promised a national cycleway to solve the country's economic woes. I intend to keep you informed of exactly how the cycleway is progressing. Yes, never fear, Eddie will dig out all the dirty details: how far the cycleway's progressed, how…
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A Standard reader emails: Today at the beginning of question time a minute silence was observed for Mary Bachelor former MP for Avon who died recently. John Key spent part of the minute running through his notes. Disgraceful.
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We've been outed! By none other than Thelma (or was it Louise?) A promotional video for climate action, voiced by Susan Sarandon for Greenpeace in the US, holds New Zealand up as a beacon of hope on a sickly earth praising the former Labour Government's…
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Looks like National has more than workers' rights on the chopping block. Animal rights activists are up in arms at Agriculture Minister David Carter's plan to scrap the six-year moratorium on live sheep exports. Live sheep exports were stopped in 2004 after 5000 sheep died on…
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A cyclist and Standard reader writes: Pinch me. Maybe I'll wake up in a world where a cycleway isn't the government's flagship idea for getting us out of the recession. You've got three more years of this mate.
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This is just stunning: Mr Key was yesterday questioned about an employment situation where a person was offered a job paying $40,000 a year and told that the fourth week of leave would have to be included in this or the job would go to…
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That's John Key speaking about Labour's new fourth week of leave legislation back when the Nats thought they were going to win in 2005. His plan was to take your fourth week off you before it started happening in 2007 because that way you wouldn't…
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Not many people know more about the National Party than Barry Gustafson, so I found it interesting to read his take on the Nats' 'softening up' strategy in the Sunday Star Times [offline*]: A new govenment tries to "discredit things that you know you are…
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The Toad's 'interview' with ACT's David Garrett is so good we had to steal it. Like all good parody, it's easy to believe it could be real. An interview with ACT Party Law and Order spokesperson David Garrotte Toad: David, for many people, you first…
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Bill Ralston: Key used a great example at a Combined Trade Union conference on productivity when he pointed out only 10 luxury 7 series BMWs were sold in the whole of the USA last month. Ah, so that's what CTU stands for. Why would anyone…
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Something is rotten in the state of Denmark when senior journalists like Fran O'Sullivan feel that they have to provide public relations advice to National's errant Ministers. It isn't as though there aren't enough PR people already in the Beehive to reinforce whatever John Key…
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So the pressure is building for National to get specific about it's plans for fighting the recession. Therese Arseneau complained on Q+A today that Key has "no action plan". Even Phil O'Reilly from Business New Zealand seemed to agree there wasn't a clear plan. After…
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Barnsley Bill* has discovered (updated to here**) that Alexa reckons 11% of our visits come from India. Apparently BB thinks this means we are paying someone in India to fake our stats. This has ignited another round of hysteria among the rightwing nutters (commonly known…
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Q+A was quite good. Guyon Espiner was well researched and focused on the contrast between what Key says and what he does. Maybe Guyon has finally started caring now it's him and his workmates who are in the firing line. Getting rid of that amateur…
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Queenslanders yesterday elected Labor under Anna Bligh to a fifth term in government. Anna Bligh now becomes the first woman to be elected as Premier in Australia - Joan Kirner and Carmen Lawrence were both appointed after the resignations of Peter Dowding and John Cain respectively,…
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John Armstrong March 21 2009 - "So the National Government is variously inching, shifting, drifting, veering or lurching to the right, depending on where you stand on the political spectrum. Surprise, surprise... John Key may have portrayed himself as a moderate pragmatist in Opposition -…
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On Thursday I linked to a piece in the NBR that suggested Simon Power's appointment of Dr Mark Berry to replace Paula Rebstock at the Commerce Commission hinted at a radical shakeup of the consumer watchdog. Today John Drinnan has an in-depth piece in the…
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Earlier this week the Prime Minister announced $2.5 million for tourism advertising in Australia. New Zealand is not alone in trying to increase tourism as a solution to the recession. Australia is trying to get tourists from here and other countries with wall-to-wall TV advertising…
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Imagine two incidents when a person is at home and they hear someone outside their house. In the first incident, they grab a knife and head outside. In the second incident, they grab an air rifle and go outside. In the first incident, they see…
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In a speech to the International Fiscal Association Conference today, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said the Government's goal over the next 18 months is to start moving towards a top personal tax rate of 30%. This would be a whopping 9% cut from the current…
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The preliminary results of a drill by the ANDRILL (Antarctic Geological Drilling) were published in the print edition of Nature this week. It has shown a history of the previous retreat and collapses of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The WAIS melt with its…
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I'd always thought Westies were the type to do things their own way, so this seems more appropriate in light of today's RNZ interview discussed in the following story from Tane...
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Paula Bennett's performance on Morning Report today didn't just bring home how completely out of her depth she is as a Minister, it also exposed the limits of National's strategy of government-by-PR. If you haven't heard the interview yet, download it now. You won't be…
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The Government is taking nearly half a billion dollars out of public transport, cycling, walking, road maintance, and traffic policing to pay for more state highways. Transport Minister Steven Joyce's reasoning for this - '86% of people go to work by car'. Doesn't he get…
climate change economy Environment honeymoon Media national/act government spin transport
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The National Business Review has an interesting article online that suggests Simon Power's recommendation of Dr Mark Berry to take over from Paula Rebstock as chair of the Commerce Commission is a sign the government is planning a radical deregulation of the competition landscape. The…