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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…
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The Service and Food Workers Union is organising a rally and march in Nelson on Saturday (21 March) in support of Sealord workers and other workers in the community who are losing their jobs through restructuring. Sealord recently announced it planned to axe 180 jobs…
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The Electoral Commission has released the third party spending returns for the 2008 election campaign and it looks like for all National and ACT's fears that the $120,000 third party cap would stop groups from being able to express themselves, only the Council of Trade…
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Another reason to watch Campbell Live: cycleway updates. John Campbell announced last night he'd be doing regular (nightly?) updates on the number of jobs created by the cycleway and how many kilometers of it have been built. The top to bottom national cycleway is one…
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According to the Herald John Key has declared people should spend their tax-cuts on charities and wants an American "culture of giving" to the needy. I'm just stunned. His plan is to take money out of the pockets of low income New Zealanders to create…
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Key's speech to the CTU today showed an interesting inight into how he thinks you lift wages. NZPA reports: He said it was not good enough for New Zealand to be in the bottom third of the OECD for per-capita incomes, but was cautious about…
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This morning I spotted a poignant example of the inequalities inherent in tackling climate change. The Maldives have announced they'll go carbon neutral by 2020. Newly elected President Mohamed Nasheed says his small archipelago nation will hereby spurn fossil fuels - opting instead for wind…
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Over the weekend I pointed out that National's plans to review the Overseas Investment Act would lead to even more foreign control of New Zealand and, ultimately, even more of our national wealth sucked offshore to pay the dividends of overseas shareholders. Murray Horton from…
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John Key in the NBR*: There is more chance in this decade than the last one of New Zealand moving up the OECD league table because other countries are moving backwards. So, it's OK if we're getting poorer because other countries are getting poorer even…
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Patrick's sure got DL Wellington humming along. Next Wednesday at the Southern Cross they've got Andrew Little, national sec of the EPMU and the new Labour Party president along to talk about mobilising the labour movement. Should be plenty to discuss and debate. Here's the…
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Well I'll be, it seems Labour is finally starting to act like an opposition. They've set up a campaign website on home insulation - Healthy Homes, Healthy Kiwis - and have started a petition calling on the Government to commit to a home-insulation retrofitting programme.…
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Jonathan Coleman on TVNZ. Parliament, 10 May 2007. Dr Jonathan Coleman When the Minister says that the Government is committed to the core objective of building national identity and will do so through television, does he not realise that New Zealanders do not want to…
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From Tapu Misa's latest column: National thinks that... [t]hrough the magic of "competition" we'll get a first rate penal system, and private providers will make a profit without our having to spend any more money. Given the lack of strong evidence for this proposition, this…
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Before the election National promised that the public service would be capped, not cut. That promise was betrayed a long time ago, but what hasn't been known up til now is the extent to which they are cutting it. You'll recall a month back Consumer…
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Fancy a restful island holiday? If the Cateret Island was your chosen destination you might want to travel sooner rather than later according to CNN: There is one holiday destination that should shake the faith of even the most vehement climate change skeptic: the Carteret…
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Sadly, I couldn't find Colin Espiner's excellent piece in The Press today online. It's good. Colin's thoughtful observations derail the government's PR spin about That Nice Man Mr Key and his commonsense centrist approach. He wonders whether the National government is taking advantage of the…