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What a complete failure Paula Bennett is. If you could bear to sit through her interview on Q+A yesterday, you would have heard nothing but vacuous crap completely divorced from reality and her actual policies. We learn now that not only do her policies unjustifiably…
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As always Rod Oram offers a considered approach to issues of the day. In today's Sunday Star Times he offers his analytical skills to mining, saying: New Zealand has three responses: We could tell the world we won't mine. Dig up your own country, sell…
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Andrew Williams, mayor of North Shore, is clearly a bit of an odd-ball. Getting drunk and having a wee on his council building is the kind of behaviour that voters on the North Shore may well view dimly. But it is totally beyond his power…
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Anyone who has ever seriously debated opinions with other people, especially via online forums like newsgroups and blogs, has probably developed a pretty firm suspicion that facts don't matter. I've been watching online forums since the early 1980s, reading usenet with rn when there were…
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According to a poll in the the Sunday Star Times, John Key's mining plan has turned off one in six National voters: The proposal to allow limited mining in protected conservation areas has turned a significant number of National Party voters against the government, a poll of…
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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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This image has been sitting around since October 2007 in a un-posted post from all_your_base awaiting someone who deserves it. I read Marty G's post today about the infighting in Act. I'm awarding it to Rodney Hide. He seems to deserve it....
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A wee typo in Fran O'Sullivan's column today: "Till now, Key has operated a rather laissez-faire approach to Cabinet management." I think O'Sullivan meant "fairly lazy". She points out that Gerry Brownlee and Paula Bennett have been allowed to go out and essentially lie to…
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It's getting nasty in the ACT party. According to the NBR [not online], Rodney Hide was left stranded the other day when speaking to an ACT audience on electoral reform. He spoke in support of FPP only to find his views overwhelming rejected by his…
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Can't argue with Tom Scott on a good day....
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Tonight, 8:30 - 9:30pm is Earth Hour 2010. New Zealand is among the first in the world, kicking off the event. Turn off, tune out, drop in. Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off…
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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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Beyond this opening gambit on mining, National clearly has a larger plan. It is going to back down over Great Barrier, whether or not that was never part of the plan all along. But it is lining up more areas for later on. The Minister…
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The smile is wearing off. John Key visited Levin today to open a new district court. The visit didn't go to plan as he was heckled by 150 locals over health cuts - which will see the region lose 24 beds. According to stuff: Prime…
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Paula Bennett is saying that her benefit bashing policies are about "supporting people into work". What is that support? I see punishment. I see threats. Where's the support? Cutting DPB mums' benefits if they don't get work. That's not supporting them. Making unemployed people reapply…
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The Nats are flailing about desperately looking for an angle to convince Kiwis to trash their country and their heritage for 30 pieces of silver. Actually, only 1% of 30 pieces. Maybe it's only 10 pieces - Gerry isn't really sure. Anyway, one of the…
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We've now done 5000 posts. Number 4000 was at the end of October, so it took a bit less than 5 months (even with the dropoff during the summer break). The comments are sitting just less than 155k which is less than our long-term average.…
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Decide that you are going to get rich out of selling dates. No! Better! Get rich by having your mates sell your dates and clipping the ticket. Take a dozen or so date scones. Ignore all the dates sitting around that are not in scones.…
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There has been considerable discussion about the message and targeting of Labours policy on mining around the conservation estate in OpenMike and some of the other blogs. This is obviously going to be a reasonable large policy platform in the upcoming election in about 18…
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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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I thought that National's counter-attack would be to paint Labour as anti-mining - 'they're abandoning their roots' 'they're anti progress' etc etc. But, oddly, they've opted (first in the House, duly repeated on the party blogs) for a hypocrisy angle - 'Labour used to say…
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Why should we force someone to live who wants to die? Why can't a person have the right to choose euthanasia? Why is Margaret Page, a woman who has been effectively paralysed since 1991, being forced to starve herself to death over weeks? Why can't…
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Reposted with permission from No Right Turn. When National ran for power in 2008, it promised three core policies: it would get tough on crime, with a three strikes policy and automatic DNA testing of those arrested. And it would get tough on beneficiaries, particularly…
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National's mining policy seems to be 'dig and hope'. That's the only conclusion one can draw after Gerry Brownlee admitted he had no idea of the value of the gold and silver that are supposed to be on Great Barrier and Nick Smith admitted the…
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It's that time of the cycle again. Get ready for another John Key photo op. It's always the same. Unpopular new policy. Crappy week in the House (notice Key is only bothering to show up once a week to Question Time now? Loving that accountability).…
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Remember when the Supercity was introduced? John Key and Rodney Hide were running around promising big savings on local government and, through the magic of having one super-council, faster economic growth. All this at a set-up price that Hide, when pressed very very hard, described…
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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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Denis Tegg is spokesperson for Coromandel Watchdog, the group that lead the fight against mining the last time it was the Right's big new idea in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was Coromandel Watchdog's efforts that principally led to the creation of Schedule 4…
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Interesting times - on both sides of the political divide currently. Over at the Pundit, Tim Watkin says: ...Labour hardly looks focused in Auckland, or refreshed with new talent. Phil Twyford the man who everyone likes but no-one wants has been allowed to stand (or…
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With higher unemployment and a minimal minimum wage movement, wages are stagnating. The consensus forecast is that they will rise by less than inflation over the next year. A couple of years back, Steve wrote a piece on how National could reduce pay packs accordance…
minimum wage national/act government public services unemployment wages