Explore the archive
Find articles and conversations by date, subject or search expression.
Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 1–30 of 35
Post
This video from Phil Twyford, Labour's spokesperson on the campaign to make sure that Rodney Hide is prevented from buggering Auckland by selling critical assets to his mates in the business community so they can raise prices, diminish maintenance, stop capacity building, and make more…
Post
It's a pretty rare thing for a conviction for manslaughter not to lead to some jail time. In the past 28 years, only 69 of 814 convictions haven't resulted in a custodial sentence*. I would have thought that not getting jail time would be especially…
Post
Reading the Herald on Sunday piece about this senior political figure in the domestic violence dispute, I'm surprised his party hasn't made him step down yet. I know that he has a right to fair process in the legal issue but from the facts that are public,…
Post
Call me old fashioned if you will, but I like the idea that reforms of government activity should be concieved and implemented by experts in the particular field in question. Which makes me wonder, why the hell has Tony Ryall appointed a financial guy, Murray…
Post
Something about the title of this press release from Peter Dunne yesterday just made me laugh: Call for leadership, vision from pharmacy workshop And, inevitably, it led to this:
Post
In former journalist John Armstrong's piece today, he also writes: "a frustration and impatience towards National still displayed by some of the shriller Labour-aligned blogs, which find fault with anything and everything the Key Government does while expecting their breathless critiques to somehow bring forward…
Post
John Armstrong quotes a man who ran into Phil Goff during Labour's reconnection tour last week: "Listen, mate. You know we voted these guys in seven months ago. You don't expect us to come up and say we did the wrong thing yet, do you?"…
Post
John Key's policy to get kids into sport turns out to be a transfer of dollars from low decile schools to high decile ones. When I say "policy" what I should say is "photo opportunity" as Key launched the scheme at a South Auckland school…
Post
For just a moment today, perhaps set aside a little time for reflection on, or to lift a glass and toast those New Zealanders who are 'one of us' and not 'one of them'. Ivor Lloyd Richardson, Silvia Rose Cartwright, Leonard Ramsay Castle, Witi Ihimaera-Smiler,…
Post
One of Bill English's favourite lines is that New Zealand entered recession ahead of the rest of the world 'due to Labour's mismanagement of the economy' and that's why his government is unable to get off its arse now. Pity that Agriculture Minister David Carter…
Post
In the wake of a rather nasty piece of 'satire' on another blog earlier this week, I've been thinking about over-population. It's a pretty sensitive topic, and one that is easily derailed by the kind of 'forced abortion' scaremongering that Farrar practices so well. I'm…
Post
What is the difference between a newspaper editorial and a post on a popular political blog? I was pondering this question because I was struck recently by the difference in quality in a couple of recent Herald editorials. This one was an utter disgrace, cheering…
Post
You may have noticed the article on Stuff about a 'senior political figure' in court today. A woman is seeking a protection order against him. [Deleted] Whichever party they belong to, if it is established in the court proceedings that he has behaving violently or…
Post
Well, there goes our clean, green image. After Key announced the pathetic 10-20% emissions reduction target, we were declared 'fossil of the day' by environmental groups attending the Copenhagen climate change conference. Here's Eco, talking about the failure of New Zealand and other developed countries:"The…
Post
Breaking up the old Electricity Corporation into a bunch of artificially competing companies has been a 15-year failure. They've poured heaps of money into competing with each other (despite mostly being owned by the same people, us), they've under invested, and prices have gone up…
Post
It's a rare day that I agree with Bill English but he's right about the danger of another housing boom. The last bubble has not deflated yet we are already seeing prices start to grow again. There are now projections of 24% growth housing prices…
Post
Remember the petition to state your opposition to Paula Bennett's attack on our privacy rights. The idea is it will be tabled in Parliament next week. It's a chance to take a symbolic stand against this bullying Key Government. You can download the pdf here or…
Post
Unemployment has shot up to 133,500, nearly doubling in 18 months. But that's not the whole story. The official 'unemployed' are only the people without work who looking for work and able to start now. Add to that the 'jobless', people who want work but…
Post
Service & Food Workers Union national secretary John Ryall has a new blog. His first post takes aim at the claim by Ngai Tahu Runanga Chair Mark Solomon that the National Government should be considering Iwi for public-private partnerships because they have a greater commitment…
Post
The Minister of Labour, Kate Wilkinson, is holding a meeting today with 25 top CEOs on the number of New Zealanders who are killed every year at work. The fact it's being billed as an example of 'partnership' shows a lot about this Government's worldview,…
Post
Farrar has come back with a defence of his icky and outragous 'satire' post that proports to be a Green press statement announcing a policy of complusory mass abortions to fight climate change. If people are seriously going to propose policies such as reducing the…
Post
Two cool fundraisers coming up for the Greens and Labour. The Greens are holding a screening of Kiwi 's The Age of Stupid, a movie set in 2055 looking back at today and asking the painful, obvious question - 'if we could see all these…
Post
It was a bit strange listening to Key's interview on RNZ yesterday morning about deploying the SAS to Afghanistan. He kept on awkwardly saying 'the people of Afghanistan' rather than just 'the Afghans' or 'the Afghanis'*. The reason soon became clear: "[if they take any…
Post
It's great to see all the lines engineers standing up to Telecom's attempt to strip away their employment rights and turn them into dependent contractors. I was lucky enough to catch the protest above yesterday (not my photo though), and there was a lot of…
Post
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. National has learned nothing from the failure of the neoliberal policies of the late 80s / early 90s (when gaps in growth and income opened up with Australia). So they are gearing up…
Post
NZPA reports: Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has confirmed she will investigate Social Development Minister Paula Bennett after the release of details of two mothers' income. Good. John Key has made it clear he won't hold his ministers to account for abusing their power, now it's…
Post
Just a month into the Government's housing insulation programme and John Key has had to launch an inquiry into rorting by contractors who are taking the subsidy but also increasing their prices, and so pocketing a good part of the subsidy themselves rather than passing…
Post
As a recent article in the Guardian newspaper asked: "Can art succeed where science is proving insufficient to generate the will to act effectively on climate change? Scientists sound increasingly desperate as the evidence they are carefully accumulating stacks up but fails to prompt the…
Post
No, not another post about Bludger Bill, this one's about that thing that he and Key are meant to be taking care of. What's it called again? No, not the cycle-way. No, not solving disputes over wills. Um, bear with me, it'll come back to…
Post
It's interesting to see how National's spin doctors are trying to frame the Government's pathetic and shameful emissions reduction target of 10-20% by 2020. Stuff has 'Ambitious' emissions target announced The NZ Herald has New emissions target 'big ask for NZ' - Key And 3…