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Matt McCarten asks "are we still in love?" with John Key after a year of do-nothing government and a promised 'step change' that is really just favours for National's rich mates. If the views of people on McGehan Close, Key's famous 'underclass' street are anything to go…
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Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Tracy Watkins awards the first week of Parliamentary politics this year to Phil Goff, and points out that it's as much due to his and Labour's much improved performance as it is to Key and National's shambolic, over-promise, under-deliver governance. "It is rare for an…
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There will be up to 15 minutes of maintenance around 5pm. I have to shove some directories around to better structure the server filesystem. The site will have to be off while that is happening. Unless I'm mistaken, everything is back to normal after my…
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National love to tell us what we want to hear. Among their many pre-election policy lies they waxed lyrical about the value of education, before effectively cutting funding in the budget. On Adult and Community Education (ACE), Bill English was particularly supportive: Community learning has…
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Protests are taking place around the country today against the National Government's miserable 25 cent increase to the minimum wage. From Unite: The National Government have shown their contempt for low paid workers in New Zealand, by throwing 25 cents to those on the minimum…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Update: Link's dead but I found this trailer on youtube
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This is pretty classic. Found it on one of The Standard's old posts. I think we'll be seeing a bit more of this image around.
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Relating to what I wrote yesterday about the Right and much of the media being largely blind to the existence of those of us on low and middle incomes, here's an interesting piece from the New York Times: The folks in the upper-income group are…
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The other day I wrote: I reckon we probably will see a passing reference to the ‘underclass' for appearance's sake [in John Key's statement to Parliament] but I'm just as sure that his government will continue to fail the most vulnerable members of our society.…
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Minister of Justice Simon Power has unfortunately decided to completely ignore recommendations made by the Law Commission on drug reform. This is an unfortunate missed opportunity. I absolutely agree with David Farrar who says: Simon Power must have a very sore kneecap after what was…
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The best political commentary these days doesn't come from the political journalists. As Zetetic shows, they have turned themselves into government minders. But there are others who tell it like it is. Such as Karlo Mila in today's DomPost. The article was headed up "If…
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It turns out that the silly 'no-one owns it' option for the foreshore and seabed is John Key's 'elegant solution'. Here he is defending the proposal: "It is a concept where you don't get into the emotional debate of ownership. Now it sounds a bit foreign…
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This is a fast way to get my blood boiling. Rodney Hide as minister of local government has removed protection from the Waitakere ranges. It is time to make the Act party extinct rather than merely being on the endangered species list. The Waitakere ranges…
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In chronological order: John Key: "[I never promised I wouldn't raise GST]. I said I would not raise GST to cover deficits, and we are not doing so." Guyon Espiner: "he would have been better of just saying 'look, times have changed and GST is…
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Paying a person doing the same work as another person less money because of their sex or religion or ethnicity or any other grounds prohibited under the Human Rights Act is illegal and abhorrent. Yet, the Right wants to do just that with a private member's bill…
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Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Campaign for a living wage is protesting the offices of National MPs this Saturday to protest increases in GST and the miserly increase in the minimum wage. The protest is part of Unite union's campaign to force a referendum on raising the minimum wage to…
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Enough of all of this politics. Lets look at something that is more mysterious than the hole that John Key is digging for his political future. Why in the hell is "milk bottle" one of the most frequent search terms for this site? Looking at…
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Over the last month or so National's pollster David Farrar has been running a series of posts desperately trying to pin the spike in youth unemployment under National to Labour's decision to abolish youth rates. I'd been wondering why the obsession with youth rates until…
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Twenty years ago, on 11 February 1990, after 27 years of incarceration, Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster prison on a hot Sunday afternoon. And history changed. Justice Malala provides some of his memories and observations of that day in a column in the…
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My my, things are turning quickly for John Key. We now have the first sighting of the red flag term "the beleaguered PM" in the mainstream media. Recall that in 2008 Key promised not to increase GST, and now he is proposing to do exactly…
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"Last GST hike had little impact, say tax experts" - Herald The article is about inflation but it is also true of growth. There is no evidence that increasing GST from 10% to 12.5% and cutting income taxes boosted growth. In fact, the country entered…
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The Government and the secretive Iwi Leadership Group are looking at an option where no-one owns the foreshore and seabed. It's often forgotten that the Ngati Apa case, which sparked the foreshore and seabed, contraversy was about big business. Ngati Apa wanted to have title…
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As I have mentioned before, Jeanette Fitzsimons is one of the very few members of parliament for whom I have the utmost respect. Yesterday she gave her valedictory speech, and showed us yet again what sanity, vision and compassion looks like. The core of the…
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Yesterday, Rahui Katene said the Maori Party could walk away from National if they didn't adequately compensate low and middle income people for increasing GST. Do you think it will happen? No way. Do you Tariana Turia is going to give up her Crown car and the…
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"An unscientific poll yesterday of 846 readers asking whether they would be happy to pay more GST if it meant they paid less income tax found 46.9 per cent in favour, 43.9 per cent opposed and about 8 per cent undecided." - Stuff "Unscientific poll"…