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So it turns out that last Friday the government changed the law to make it impossible for film industry groups to stop overseas workers from being brought in to do Kiwi film jobs if those jobs last two weeks or less. That means that any…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Out of the blue, ACT Deputy Leader and Parliamentary Leader John Boscawen has announced he is withdrawing from the party's list. He'll still run for ACT in Tamaki but he has no chance of winning. This means that, incredibly, none of ACT's sitting MPs will…
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One of the criticisms levelled at MMP is that it means the tail wags the dog. But if it wasn't for the Alliance, the Greens and New Zealand first, we wouldn't have Kiwibank, home insulation, or the Gold Card. We wouldn't have a competitive New…
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A little light weekend entertainment. And blatant page-view grabbing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z3r9X8OahA&feature=channel_video_title
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No Right Turn on the blank cheque that National wants to give to the police to cover their past mistakes. Thanks to the Labour Party, the government's draft Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) (AKA Rule of Law Repeal) Bill is now available [PDF]. The bill is very short,…
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John Key talking at the Champion Canterbury awards in Christchurch on Thursday night: ''We're a $200 billion economy with 2.2 million fulltime jobs. In the end the thing that makes a difference is the business community - they're the ones when confidence is high employs people…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Weekend social is for non political chat. What's on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can't we all just get along?
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An alert reader pointed out the new tourism forecasts. I take a few points from this: Tourism has been in decline since 2004 but it really started plummeting after 2009. Tourism income has fallen over 10% in the last three years. Who's Minister of Tourism,…
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Moving Planet is a worldwide rally to demand solutions to the climate crisis. It is being held on 24th September 2011 – a day to move beyond fossil fuels. Check out the Moving Planet web site, the New Zealand page, or this summary of events in…
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Three time election loser Don Brash has announced he will stand in North Shore. Having lost the safe National seat of East Coast Bays twice to Social Credit(!) and the unloseable election as leader in 2005, his odds of defeating even Maggie Barry, a novice best…
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As most of the headlines this morning focus on the crumbling world economy, it was interesting to hear Bill English on RNZ (audio link). The world economy is slowing down a bit ... Quite a talent for understatement. We haven't been able to dig the big…
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Several commentators have suggested recently that the Greens have crossed some kind of "credibility threshold" and are poised for a strong performance in November. Here's John Armstrong: 'Green Wave' shows party is serious ... Now comes - for want of a better term - the…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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So here we are then, "roaring out of recession": Economy stagnates, dollar dives New Zealand's economic growth slowed more than expected in the second quarter and the dollar dropped straight after the low number came out. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.1% in the three…
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The peculiar tribe of climate change deniers have two major characteristics as far as I'm concerned. They prefer to avoid understanding science to the point that they don't read the actual science papers that they refer to. So when they refer to a paper you…
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From the Herald: "Labour looks almost certain to oppose the bill after justice spokesman Charles Chauvel had his first look at the draft. "There's no undertaking about avoiding urgency or going to a select committee, and the bill itself goes much further than anything we've…
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It's a bit of a worry that the PM seems to be clueless about the complexity and interdependence of the world economy. Only from a state of blissful ignorance could Key be claiming that she'll be right: PM not too worried by IMF's alarm bells…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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The global economy to 2015 and 2030 ABSTRACT: The western world economy is currently in an even more dangerous condition than in late 2008 after the Lehman collapse. Then policy makers were in a cognitive fog, but at least they stumbled on the right recipe:…
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The Greens launched their economic policy today - I attended on behalf of the Fabian Society. Titled "100,000 green jobs for New Zealanders, it follows their plan to bring 100,000 children out of poverty by 2014. The focus was on leveraging green priorities, by using…
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http://youtu.be/WazeyJtY7UQ Very, very funny. Where the fuck is Webb Ellis? hat tip: Trevor Mallard at Red Alert
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The Police have known for years that the kind of surveillance they carried out in the Ureweras was illegal. They went ahead and did it anyway. They were betting that the Courts would permit illegally gained evidence to be used in prosecuting serious offences (no…
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I want to start this article with an apology. A couple of weeks ago, I attacked Labour for its criticism of National's performance on the Christchurch rebuild while not having released its own recovery policy. I now realise that my line was illogical for two…
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Economist Paul Krugman argues that governments the world over need to wake up to the fact that they've been trying to solve the wrong problem: A Constant Flow of Bad News for Europe and the US In the United States, we have zero job growth,…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Pissing on the rule of law - NoRightTurn Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled that covert video surveillance evidence against the Urewera 18 was inadmissible, because it had been obtained unlawfully. This was no surprise to the police; they had known that the use…
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This graph is from the review of the Emissions Trading Scheme. A few points to note: Net emissions rise when the pine forests planted in the 1990s are felled and then fall as the next generation of trees mature are replanted, before starting to rise…
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John Pagani has an excellent piece on the lack of National substance in the lead-up to this election. Like last election we're seeing Labour say what they would do, presenting one alternative, as National fail to present theirs; relying on that nice man John Key's…