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One interesting sidelight in the John Banks donations affair is his alleged request to split Kim Dotcom's $50,000 donation into two lots of $25,000 "so it could be declared anonymously." Banks apparently was not aware that the limit above which donations in local body elections…
accountability act election funding john banks john key national Privatisation privatisation
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Well all tend to see what we want to see, to confirm our biases, to select our facts to suit our purposes. Political right wingers seem to be particularly prone to constructing their own reality in this way. Take John Armstrong on the subject of…
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Key should go because of his dirty deal with SkyCity. Joyce too. Collins should go over the ACC leaks. Brownlee for sheer incompetence* in every portfolio he has. English for shit-eating grin every time he fails to meet his own growth forecasts and announces more…
bill english Gerry Brownlee john banks john key Judith Collins Steven Joyce
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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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Lots of people... get down to Britomart.. Mind you Britomart is filling up rapidly. They need a few more megaphones by the look of the crowd. Penny Bright sucks at chants. :twisted: Slowly moving off. This is mining protest levels... A lot of people... Seriously…
activism democratic participation petition privatisation referendum uncategorized
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It's understandable that the right wingers, feeling a bit punch drunk from the factional succession squabble going on in National, would try and distract attention by spreading some mischievous rumours. Hence we've had a week or so of speculation about chaos in David Shearer's office.…
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I think sometimes people forget that John Banks made his political bones under Muldoon, but lessons of the old tusker are on full display at the moment as he meets new allegations of dodgy campaign funding with the kind of aggressive black is white response…
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The wording for the citizens-initiated referendum has been approved. Now, we just need to get 300,000-odd signatures. The petition form is here but the Keep Our Assets Coalition needs more than your signature, you need to help get signatures too. The Greens and Labour are…
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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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Stayed up last night to watch Robert Jay QC question Rupert Murdoch at the Leveson enquiry. It was riveting - you can see why top lawyers like Jay are called silks. Murdoch denied, deferred, demeaned, derided and defended but couldn't help himself - questioned about…
corruption leadership Media newspapers spin the praiseworthy and the pitiful tv uk politics you couldn't make this shit up
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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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30 more had their say. 30 more said they didn't want it. 1400 submissions, almost all against it for many, many good reasons. "The new mixed ownership company will, over time, change from service, continuity, social responsibility and growth of generation capacity to one of…
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Didn't take much clairvoyance to see that National would fail to meet its promise of a Budget surplus by 2014/15. Once again, the forecasts have been downgraded. Once again, English could barely contain his grin as he said 'welp, we'll just have to cut some…
bill english budget2012 debt / deficit Economy john key tertiary education
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Remember when we elected that guy with all the financial experience because he would be able to guide us through the tough time better and close the gap with Australia? Oops. The cumulative difference in GDP growth in Labour's 36 quarters was 2.4%. The cumulative…
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Remember way back when the government were changing the law to take rights off film workers and increase tax breaks for Warners? It was all about keeping Kiwi jobs they said. Well it turns out that at the same time they were doing this they…
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John Banks has had a miraculous change of heart on pokies. He used to say gambling bosses were "wide boys" who "sucked" the people of this country dry. Now, he's rubbed up against John Key and become 'relaxed' about more pokies. Maybe the $15,000 undeclared…
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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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John Key and Bill English couldn't find $150million over four years for increased parental leave that would hugely benefit future children. Horrors - we would have to borrow! They could find $100million or more straight away to pay international investment bankers including Australian branch of…
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I have and still do deal with quite a lot with systems in my day-job. But this.... I'm aghast at the self-evident stupidity. A power outage has shut down almost all train services across the Auckland region. The fault at KiwiRail's National Train Control in…
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John Key is a very arrogant politician. His first term honeymoon obscured the fact from most, but it's starting to get more and more obvious. Case in point, Key thinks that the public backlash against many unpopular policies (asset sales, fuelling problem gambling etc) is…
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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. The United Kingdom is in recession again. This was entirely predictable. The right convinced themselves that severe austerity measures would somehow magic up growth. It…
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Gareth Morgan and Peter Harris will speak at a Community Forum on the sale of State-owned assets on Sunday 29th at 3:30pm at the Island Bay Bowling Club, 260 The Parade, Island Bay, Wellington. The forum is being organised by the Wellington South Branch of…
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While climate change deniers try to claim that there is still a scientific debate going on, the serious, practical people of the world are making plans for a warming planet. Serious, practical people like the military organisations of the world: As ice cap melts, militaries…
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The Herald today reveals that, in 2001, Judith Collins, when she chaired the Casino Control Authority before entering Parliament, rubber-stamped a 'pokies for convention centre' deal with SkyCity. This despite her conceding casino pokies cause outsize harm. This neglect of duty by the now Nat…
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Tax increases on working people: GST hike, replaced Labour's cuts with cuts for the rich, put tax on your employer Kiwisaver contributions, cut WfF tax credits. Record emigration to Australia: 53,237 last year, 1000+ per week.
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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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James Murdoch has confirmed to the Leveson enquiry that he did discuss News International's bid to take over BSkyB with Cameron at a dinner at the home of Rebekah Brooks. Last year I wrote a post about Cameron's denial that he had an inappropriate conversation…
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So Steven Joyce's personal fiefdom is confirmed; his Super-Ministry will come into being on July 1. Many will not see how Economic Development, Science and Innovation, Building and Housing, and Labour are an obvious combination. Or any combination. As David Cunliffe puts it: [It's] a…
business health housing public services science Steven Joyce tenants' rights workers' rights
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Zetetic's recent post on the Gisborne rail line generated a lot of comment. Almost a week later a final comment was added clean.air (a new contributor). Clean.air has an insider's knowledge of the issues, and the comment deserves a wider audience, so here it is…
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Molly Melhuish was one of dozens of oral submitters on the Privatising Your Assets Mixed Ownership Model Bill yesterday - all of them opposed. She presented research showing that the average price of power from a private provider is 3.31 c/kWh higher than from an…