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Key's selling our gambling law to SkyCity in return for a convention centre with no government capital contribution. But, according to the MED, we taxpayers would be subsidising that convention centre with $10m for starters. Plus marketing costs. And, then, ongoing subsidies both if convention…
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If anything has marked John Key's tenure as PM it's his use of his personal brand to run his cabinet. While other PMs have used their popularity in this way, few have relied on it so heavily. And it's offered him significant freedom from the…
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A sad story in the Herald today of a man who got hooked on pokies. He spent all his money on them at pubs and SkyCity. Started borrowing from family and partners. Destroyed those relationships. Now lives in a car despite his large income. Started…
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There was a time when you expected higher standards from the senior ranks of the public service. Now, more and more, they are just like private sector CEOs. Elitists. The standards are slipping. This slap on the wrist for the Building and Housing CEO who…
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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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Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here. A guest post by John Key. If you've been following the news you'll know that the Government has agreed to allow Sky City to install…
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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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There's a great piece in The Guardian from George Monbiot. It's in the form of a letter to his 3 week old second daughter, saying about the things he hopes she does not miss out on when she grows up. Things like a National Health…
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In his speech yesterday, David Shearer talked about how wages have lagged productivity gains since the neoliberal revolution. Here's what he was talking about: It's kind of misleading to start at 1989 - it suggests that wages were at the 'right' level compared to productivity…
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As expected, the Nats kept on pushing until they got the answer that they wanted. A bit more of NZ is sold out: Crafar China sale gets green light Chinese firm Shanghai Pengxin's controversial bid to buy 16 central North Island dairy farms has been…
capitalism farming International national overseas investment
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Welcome to the twistedhive. A new political blog in the NZ 'sphere. Some interesting posts including some insightful commentary on the choices for Labour's chief of staff and one about getting around the government's plan to veto paid parental leave.
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Key's reasoning for not calling a halt to the business case study for an international convention centre was that he had already decided it was a good idea. Therefore, there was no need for a business case to determine whether it was a good idea.…
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Key has repeatedly claimed that there was no alternative to SkyCity for funding his coveted convention centre: "It went through the normal tendering process, Sky City was the only bidder prepared to look at a deal that didn't involve any Government resources," Mr Key told…
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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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Looks like Stuart Nash's replacement is is almost certain to be Alistair Cameron. As I understand it he's a nice enough bloke and he's very much Grant Robertson's man. As are most of the staff in the leader's office now. It's been no secret around…
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David Shearer's delivered his second "Vision" speech. As a vision speech it is of course light on concrete ideas, but it certainly paints a different picture to a National New Zealand. It's largely "Mom and Apple Pie" to us here on The Standard - but…
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When it comes to doing dirty deals with a casino, selling our law so that it gets a convention centre and more profits from gambling addicts, National's willing to die in a ditch. But when there was an opportunity to save and expand our high-tech,…
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Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here. So it turns out that John Key was the one who came up with the idea of giving a bunch more pokie machines to Sky…
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There is to be a Hikoi of Protests against the Government's Asset Sales agenda. Starting from Waiora Marae on 24 April, the full itinerary is here, and a full list of the protest marches in towns along the way is here. Every day has at…
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The counter on the Wordpress stats clicked over to more than 400,000 comments yesterday. I'd noted late last week that we were about to hit it and that I should really stop working for long enough to celebrate the event with some stats and explanations.…
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You don't get fat off the crumbs from someone else's table and you don't get rich by being someone else's butler. No country ever got rich taking a few menial jobs from its wealthy neighbour. Countries get rich by having a strategy to out-compete others…
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As part of the Nats' pre-Budget framing, English's mate Farrar is running graphs meant to show a blow-out in spending under Labour. Problem is, he hasn't adjusted for GDP growth, or even inflation. How dumb does he think we are? (source: PREFU 2011) It wasn't…
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Long time Labour Party stalwart Murdo MacMillan died this week - his funeral will be at St Peter's Church on Friday 20th at 10am. Son of a seaman and ex-wharfie, rock-solid in his values, Murdo made a huge contribution behind the scenes to Labour's successes…
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Back before John Key's political nous deserted him (circa mid-November 2011), he would have run a mile from the dirty pokies deal with SkyCity. Instead, he's claiming the dirty deal as his own and SkyCity's chairman bragging about his access to Nat ministers. All to…
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Anyone else see the irony in the 'bureaucracy-slashing National Government'TM reacting to delays in the Christchurch rebuilding - partly caused by lack of coordination between the local bureaucracy, the existing central government bureaucracy, and the bureaucracy National created especially to deal with the rebuild -…
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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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City's rental crisis 'at breaking point' Virtually no rental homes free in city Rental crisis hampers Christchurch rebuild Rental shortage: 'State must step in' Christchurch rental crisis accelerating Intervention needed for Chch rental crises 'Pontius' Brownlee sees no rental housing crisis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXut2nDaFKg
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David Shearer's created an easy way to send John Key a message about selling the law to SkyCity. If you think changing the law to suit a particular commercial enterprise is all, well, a bit Banana Republic, click the link and have your say. Sky's…
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Don't know if you saw Ruth Richardson's wee rant in the Herald yesterday. Never realised she was such a bad writer. That was awful. Just a bunch of catchphrases and insensitive mention of Christchurch so she could use earthquake metaphors. Her thrust seems to be…
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Despite 22 member states confirming the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement, the EU's parliament is looking like it might reject the treaty, on the grounds of it curtailing civil liberties. The EU's first rapporteur MP on the treaty resigned in protest at the plans and member states'…