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Remember this? John Key: Today I want assure you that I will lead a government for all New Zealanders... and this? About 1200 supporters cheered rapturously to a triumphant speech from Mr Key in which he promised to lead a government that united the country.…
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National's economic thought is apparently that the economy wants to be a three-legged stool. The first (obvious) leg is farming, which can't really be expanded much more. The second leg is tourism, which is why John Key has the Tourism portfolio, while David Shearer has…
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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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This afternoon a couple of 'hidden treasures' have come out of the budget. Not announced previously they have just been stumbled upon by either careful poring over the Budget papers, or because it came up in the bill in parliament today. 1122 teachers could be…
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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. Mathematics While Budget understands the basics of arithmetic, Budget displays a concerning lack of imagination and application in this area. Mathematics involves more than simple subtraction. More…
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The Government have been pushing a line that Christchurch is holding us back as an economy. The poor people of Christchurch are to blame for all our woes apparently, with their earthquake. We shouldn't blame National, just Cantabrians. But it's not true. Since the earthquake…
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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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The 3 most expensive items in the Budget: 1. $10.24 billion (more than 1/8th of whole budget): Superannuation (problem growing 6.8% this year alone, and unaddressed) - and we could add another $673 million for the unfunded liability hidden in the accounts. 2. $3.69 billion:…
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A total of 68,000 children who do paid work will lose their tax refunds...:
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Can't be a good sign for Key that the media are starting to ask if there is a plan: John Key: We do have a plan Prime Minister John Key has denied his Government does not have a plan for growing New Zealand's economy following…
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With enough conditioning, our psyches will adapt to believe almost anything. Like that pain is good. What chills me the most about this is not just that 1 in 3 people believe that they should be made to suffer for some 'greater good' that they…
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In his Budget speech, David Shearer labelled John Key 'Mr Australia'. Because that's where he's pushing us. The zero hope budget offers a thousand and one nasty little cuts for students, for kids, for low-income workers, for schools, for community groups, for your public services.…
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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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As expected Bill English has served up a budget with no greater focus than reducing a government deficit that really doesn't matter much at all. Of course he's doing this at the expense of a whole lot of things that do matter - our kids'…
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Zero = Fail. Four years of economic stagnation. Four years of failed promises, we've heard them all before. While waiting for budget details, try this background reading: A series of excellent posts on GDP by Rob Salmond at Pundit: Lies, damned lies, and National party…
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David Shearer, with Shane Jones' support, has stood Jones down and asked the Auditor-General to investigate his handling of Bill Yan's citizenship affair. It sets a new, high standard. Whether Jones was right or wrong, he at least has a coherent story and there's no…
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The latest piece from Bryan Gould should be compulsory pre-budget reading for pundits. Here's the first few paragraphs: Bryan Gould: Austere Budget adopts blind 'Greek-lite' outlook The Budget, Bill English tells us, will provide a further step towards a strong long-term economy. That step is…
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This year's budget has been quite unlike any others. Coming off a nightmare few months for the government of Nick Smith, asset sales hikois, SkyCity scandals, rising unemployment, John Banks etc etc their pre-budget announcements were greeted with anger at what they're cutting, not approval…
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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 Key is 'surprised' that David Shearer, the local member for Eden Park, accepted tickets to a local game, and doesn't feel beholden to corporate interests? He can accept hospitality and still criticise a company is somehow shocking? I think this tells us more about John,…
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Oh - John Key and his crocodile tears: Mr Key says Mr Jones now has to answer, why did he ignore his officials? "I just can't answer the question of why he said yes, when the officials told him to say no. He must have…
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Bill English has introduced a number of stealth taxes over his time in office, to partly balance the loss his tax cuts for the rich has generated. The latest in this budget will be prescription costs and raising the price of Early Childhood Education (again). …
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The Service and Food Workers Union is launching a campaign for a living wage at 12 o'clock today. The launch is at St Stephen's Church in Ponsonby, and will be a colourful, musical event with speakers from clergy, budgeting services as well as unions. They'll…
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Perhaps a little bored with the multiple National / ACT self-inflicted fiascos, the media (and the braying right-wing blogs of course) have been bleeding plenty of ink over Shane Jones' actions in granting citizenship to a decidedly dodgy Chinese immigrant. Jones hasn't really put his…
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It's great that foreign fishing vessels in New Zealand waters will now be required to be flagged here and, in theory, will be subject to New Zealand law. But I reckon that abuses of those crews is only half the problem. The other problem is…
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National has undershot every one of its growth promises. I bet that doesn't stop them promising big tomorrow. ($33,918m was the quarterly GDP in Q3 2008, immediately before National came to power) Apparently, it's going to be more 'jam tomorrow' with strong growth promised for…
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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. You've probably heard a lot about the National government's austerity measures, and I know you're probably worrying whether this belt-tightening is really worth it. It's going…
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Don't blame Greece. I was fortunate enough to go to David Parker's pre-budget speech to business people this morning. He coined it his "Greece-proof paper" as he talked through how New Zealand's problems are for our government to solve - rather than just blaming Greece.…
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The government has correctly bowed to pressure and banned foreign-flagged fishing boats from operating in our waters. We don't have too many posts praising this government, and to have 2 today may surprise some. But credit where it's due. The labour, safety and fisheries concerns…