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It has been an interesting week for the leaders of the two main parties. Key had a horrid week. His problems were self-inflicted. Following the deaths of two of our soldiers in Afghanistan, Key (with his usual ham-fisted international diplomacy) managed to insult Hungary, drawing…
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Research from the Green Party shows that the $12 billion 'Roads of National Significance', the bulk of the next decade's transport budget, would be on routes that carry just 4% of the country's traffic. So, the other 96% of us are paying nearly $3,000 a…
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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 first of my weekly E-newsletters to members and supporters, from the desk of the Labour Leader These e-newsletters are a chance for me to keep in touch, and to let you know what your team of Labour MPs and I have been working on…
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The apparent incoherence of National's position on national standards has been bugging me. They claim that the standards will improve outcomes and are so crucial that schools must be forced to use them whether they want to or not. Yet strangely they aren't crucial 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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I suspect that the knives that were out for a couple days this week will be quietly slipped back into their sheaths now. Labour's up in the latest Roy Morgan. So are the Greens. The Left's at 46% vs the Banks Key Government's 44.5%. We…
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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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3 News had a standard political poll out this week, which has been covered elsewhere. It's always worth waiting for the second day story with a 3 News poll - the day after the main event they have a piece on some of the secondary…
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Key's making excuses for his government's pathetic record on jobs. Unemployment is going the wrong way but Key calls another 2,000 people without jobs to 162,000 - the highest number since 1994 - a "very small, technical rise". 65,000 more unemployed under National. And we're…
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There's a fair bit of disillusionment out there at the moment re the divisive goings on within Labour. Choosing a representative voice at random, the post by Scott Yorke of Imperator Fish fame attracted a bit of attention, so I'll use it as a prompt…
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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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How's John Key's aggressive recovery going? Not so good: New Zealand's unemployment rate unexpectedly rose in the second quarter as the pool of jobs shrank for the time since December 2010. The unemployment rate increased 0.1 percentage points to 6.8 percent, the highest since June…
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We've received a set of guest posts arising from the Stab In the Back comments that Duncan Garner reported on Tuesday and Su'a William Sio. We'll compile the best here. As always, we exercise judgement in not publishing truly nutty stuff but there's no editorial…
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Buying back Kiwirail was a chance for building a cost-, oil-, and carbon-efficient transport network. Instead, its been a tale of false economies: cheap trains from China, cheap sleepers from Peru, cheap labour from contracting out. In the end, it all costs more for worse…
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Yesterday, National was patting itself on the back for getting, wait for it, 25 people into work and off benefits as part of rebuilding Christchurch. This in a $770,000 programme called Working InZone that was meant to get 100 people into work. This programme didn't…
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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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Back in June I wrote a quick sarcastic piece about what I thought (at the time) was an unfolding banking scandal in England. Since then Libor has grown like a cancer, into a full fledged international crisis. Here's a sample of coverage. The Dark Heart…
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I plan to start a business. I will be a job creator. 50 people will have jobs thanks to me. The whole community will benefit. My business will make poisoned puppy toys. Don't get me wrong. They won't kill every puppy who chews on them…
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How does it cost $75m to dig a 220m long tunnel? The Government is planning to tear up the 5-year old bypass road and put it underground to give space for the National War Memorial for $75m. You're never going to win opposing a war…
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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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It looks like someone from within Labour's top team* has decided to have a real nasty go at David Cunliffe via Duncan Garner. Regardless of what you think of Cunliffe, this kind of pointless and destructive politicing is exactly why people have no faith in…
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Square this circle for me if you can. Hekia Parata: Focus on quality will raise achievement Education Minister Hekia Parata today said the National-led Government’s focus on teaching quality will raise achievement and ensure our young people get the skills they need to reach their…
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David Farrar notes that 4 of the 10 worst congestion points in New Zealand are in Wellington. He concludes "Transmission Gully will help with some of that, but not all". Quite the opposite, old boy. Transmission Gully will not create any new capacity at any…
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Last month, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne told us "I don't support a minimum pricing regime ... a lot of the material that I've seen from other jurisdictions raises more doubts than support for the issue of minimum alcohol pricing". Now, an OIA reveals the…
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"Unusual and inappropriate" - that's how the Waitangi Tribunal has described National's 'report by August 24th or we'll ignore you' ultimatum. Imagine if you or I were party to a court case and tried that! Now, the Tribunal is going to deliver a truncated report…
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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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At around 5:30pm this evening Curiosity will either touch down safely on Mars, or make (another) expensive smudge on the surface. Various links below - tune in. Good luck Curiosity... http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/08/120805-nasa-tv-mars-landing-rover-curiosity-science-how-watch-see/ http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/370520/20120805/nasa-mars-landing-curiosity-live-stream-watch.htm
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From I/S at No Right Turn... Not worth it Over the weekend, we were told that another two kiwi soldiers had died in Afghanistan. The total New Zealand body-count is now seven, five of them in combat. The politicians are all spouting the usual crap: bravery,…
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The design of the red-zone buy-out puts CERA first, the insurers seconds, and the earthquake victims last. Homeowners could take the 2007 valuation for their property, ignoring subsequent improvements, or the 2007 valuation for their land plus whatever their insurance company would give for the…