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Oh dear, what a complete stuff up by Gerry Brownlee in the House just now. In Question Time, Steven Joyce's academic record was raised in relation to the restrictions he know wants to put on students who fail papers at Minister of Tertairy Education. At…
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Remember back before the election when Key said he'd "love to see wages drop"? Well it looks like that wish is about to come true with the NZIER reporting: Real wages are likely to decline to March 2011 and remain flat through March 2012, which…
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Remember John Key's talk about "surgical mining?" It's like "surgical bombing" - there is a lot of collateral damage. A lot of people get hurt. It's no good saying afterwards that he didn't mean for that to happen.
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According to Basher Bennett "the dream is over" for solo parents on a benefit. What dream is that Paula? The "dream" of struggling to pay your rent and feed your kids? The "dream" of being a target for every bigot on talkback? The "dream" of…
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Even though there are no rare earth metals in the first wave of protected conservation areas that Brownlee wants to open for mining, he can't help but go on about them. Take the first conclusion from the minerals stocktake: 'A key conclusion from this stocktake…
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It has taken nearly a year and cost President Obama a lot of his popularity, thanks to the spineless behaviour of many House Democrats, but the final barrier has been passed to the US getting universal health-care. Obama's health reform bill passed the House yesterday…
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As most of you will know, on Facebook, you can set up wee ads. You put in a pic, a few lines of text and a link to your product. The cost varies, it works on a bidding system and you can choose to pay…
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National Party MP Nikki Kaye is hitting out at her own leader John Key's plan to mine Great Barrier Island. She joins the growing list of conservative opponents against the plan, with Auckland Mayor John Banks also voicing his opposition. According to stuff.co.nz: Auckland Central…
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John Key's mining plan released yesterday is true madness. It sacrifices New Zealand's natural heritage to make a buck for a few multi-national mining companies. The full list of changes make it clear: Key is mounting an attack on our conservation areas on a scale that…
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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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No Right Turn writes on the changes in John Keys intelligence system. Reproduced with permission. While the public has been focusing on the acquittal of the Waihopai Three, there's been a quiet revolution in our intelligence community. The Prime Minister has got himself a private…
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A really interesting three-quarter page article by Ben Heather in today's DomPost is titled "Looking for new tools to help exporters." Lord knows we need them. But Stuff.co doesn't seem to think so - you can't find the article on-line, and when I enquired about…
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John Key's discussion document is out and is proposing slice more than 7000ha out of our most precious conservation lands. Forest and Bird's information was right. It includes: Coromandel, Paparoa National Park, Great Barrier Island. With Northland and Stewart Island on the wish-list too! According…
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I regret to inform the world that John Keys domain has run out of money and is in the process of expiring (much like this government will eventually do). This is a pity as http://johnkey.co.nz has probably has the highest hit rate of any of…
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The Standard's authors have had what can only be described as a love-hate relationship with Colin Espiner over the years. On the one hand, his blog showed he had the courage to put his thoughts out their unpolished and honest to an extent no other…
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Simon Power, could you sit John Key down for ten minutes and explain our legal system to him? Last week a jury of 12 New Zealanders found that the 'Waihopai 3' were not guilty on charges of burglary and willful damage. Now, John Key is…
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How much is the Huljich Kiwisaver figure-fudging scandal hurting John 'the dodgy-director' Banks' mayoral chances? Answer: a lot. Lord Mayor Banks Of Remuera trades on the fact he is a successful businessman. He constantly talks up his strong business credentials as standing him in good…
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A tragic prose poem in far too many verses. New Zealand elected a Government that promised to introduce national standards so that every single child could read, write, and do maths when they left school. That is what the country voted for. No matter what…
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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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Last week, I ran the numbers from the leak of the Government's tax reforms (the Government isn't investigating the source of the leak, confirming its truth). I found that people on low incomes and middle incomes were slightly better off (anything between zero and $3…
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Is it just me or does this building have a strange beauty? Wind turbines have a hypnotic effect - but there are also a couple of other facts that appealed to me about this project. From the Guardian: As well as generating a predicted 50MWh…
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In OpenMike yesterday, Pascals bookie said this Check this out; fuckn hilarious. I've been predicting it for ages, but if the health care bill passes, it may well trigger peak wingnut. The post "Alert the patriots: Tyrants are ruining our country!" at a US political…
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For several months, my fellow author on The Standard, Sam Cash, has been covering the opening moves in the Supercity mayoralty race, particularly the problems faced by John Banks. Sam has gone so far as to say that the Right (the Citizens and Ratepayers group,…
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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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Two list MPs and a popular local favourit son. It was always going to be a hard one to pick and it took the selection panel most of the afternoon to decide who would go head to head with Paula Bennet next year. Phil Twyford,…
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Last year a new TV show HungryBeast ran a check on how gullible the news media were. They generated a bogus institute, website, and a rather dodgy press release about a survey on how gullible different cities in aussie are. Here is the video describing…
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The Fabians have a new set of seminars looking at choices that the government should face in the upcoming 2010 budget. Choices and Consequences: The 2010 Budget is the first lecture in Fabian Society's Resilient Economy Series. Peter Harris, well-known economist, will outline an progressive…
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With one eye firmly on the polls and an awareness that cutting wages by stealth is one thing but actually lowering wages is another, National has decided to oppose Roger Douglas's youth minimum wage reduction bill. That hasn't stopped the right activists from promoting it…
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The Herald had an excellent editorial on the governments recent claims of hysteria in the media today, "Double-talk betrays where the real mining 'hysteria' lies". Unusually I find myself in full agreement with the anonymous editor. The Prime Minister, John Key, labelled as "hysterical" the…
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Education Minister Anne Tolley made quite an extraordinary statement on Wednesday. You can watch it at Red Alert, or see the transcript here. Tolley said: New Zealand elected a Government that promised to introduce national standards so that every single child could read, write, and…