In news this week a Putaruru woman walked 25 kilometers to attend a compulsory WINZ meeting despite there being no jobs available and the Government signalled that it was going to help Chorus with costs overruns despite Chorus having a contractual obligation to roll out the fibre optic network. On Planet Key beneficiaries are obviously expected to comply with their requirements no matter what but rich corporations will be given a helping hand when times get tough.
Mighty River, Meridian, and Air New Zealand are all now trading well below their listing prices costing ‘mum and dad investors’ who were taken in by National’s ad campaign tens of millions of dollars of their savings. Bill English’s angry response is ‘you would be complaining if they had made windfall gains too’. He’s right. And there’s the rub.
I don’t support knighthoods. I especially don’t support knighthoods being handed out to people who have just done their jobs at the end of their careers. You know, the gongs for ministers and CEOs. But if you are going to have honours, they should go to ordinary people who have truly gone above and beyond and acted where others failed. Arise, Sir Graham McCready.
The Government are lowering their lowest estimate for how much they’ll raise from asset sales. They’ve done a terrible job implementing a stupid policy – if you’re going to put your ideological blinkers on and do it, at least do it right. Now it must stop.
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The All Blacks do not give out honorary test caps to the chief financial officer of insurance sponsor AIG. Politicians no longer give […]
National’s carefully constructed Educational Policies, designed to give the impression of action but based on the transfer of riches to the children of the wealthy and the bashing of Teachers Unions, are in tatters following the release of the Pisa Report. Cuts made to Teachers Professional Standards in 2009 made against advice are obviously having an effect. And increasing child poverty must be having an effect, despite the Government’s refusal to even measure it.
John Banks will not seek re-election at the 2014 general election.
NZ Census 2013 shows a widening income gap: rises for the haves; more struggle for the have nots. Gains for women in education and some in the highest income brackets; more struggle for those on low incomes, especially beneficiaries impacted by Bennett’s punitive welfare reforms. Welcome to Key’s “Brighter Future”.
The proponents of Public-Private Partnerships offer two justifications for the extra cost compared to normal government financing: 1) a mystical claim that the private sector will find efficiencies in a PPP that they wouldn’t find if they were just contracted to build a project normally and 2) risk is shared between the taxpayer and the private investors. Except it’s not.
I welcomed Amy Adams independent review of Chorus’s financial claims in response to Chorus’s sad song. Not something I should say in a […]
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John Banks will stand trial over an alleged fraudulent electoral return. Meanwhile Key, running out of untainted friends, is looking to re-instate the, now vindicated, Peter Dunne. Bit John Key’s role in the inquiry into information leaked to Andrea Vance is looking dodgy. [Breaking: Banks press conference 11am]
The latest OECD report on educational performance for 15 year olds shows a significant drop in New Zealand’s relative standing. What the Hekia is going on?
As Greenpeace make a bid in the High Court to challenge the EPA’s decision to grant Anadarko permission to deep sea drill, we can reveal the content of secret documents detailing the contingency plan in the event of a major oil spill. The documents outline how the stricken inter island ferry Aratere will be deployed in the cleanup effort, should a catastrophic event occur.
The 2013 census data is being revealed. The initial information is presented in Stats NZ’s package, with some curious slants/biases: e.g. on income, occupations and housing. What else do the stats reveal? [Update: Stats NZ on income]
Cameron Slater simply isn’t a journalists arsewipe. For him to claim the legal privileges, protections and authority that the journalistic profession is just stupid. In the Blackie decision I think that the judge got it right, because one thing that the blogging community should not support is undeclared paid-for advertorial prosecution of individuals by blog operators. I suspect that is what the judge saw.
John Key set us a challenge on the referendum: get more an a million ‘no’ votes. That would mean more votes against asset sales than National won in 2011. So far, so good. The Electoral Commission has processed 805,204 votes. Doubling that would be an outstanding result that would almost certainly mean a million ‘no’ votes. Get your vote in now.
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Cameron Slater has been ordered in the District Court to advise on who an otherwise confidential source for a story is. While at one level many would agree entirely with this decision there may be general considerations for the blogosphere which make this less than ideal.
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On Thursday Vernon Small wrote on the Chch East by-election: “Anything above 53 per cent will look like a fine result for Labour, anything under 50 per cent a relative failure. If Doocey can attract 40 per cent of the vote National can be well-pleased. Less than 33 per cent and the warning bells will be ringing for 2014.” And we know what happened next.
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Updates to follow. Williams leads by 1978 3,124 votes, on 30% 83% of the votes counted. Poto looking good! 96% of the vote. I’m calling it! Williams by 4000+ votes! Congratulations Poto! 100% votes counted now: Williams by 4,613 votes.
Some things don’t require much in the way of brains. Shame then that we tend to let no brain people determine shit so often.
NZ Herald editor/s selectively reports, omitting the full facts, in favour of the National government. It misrepresents the referendum on asset sales, ignoring significant facts – thereby also seeming to discredit the Green Party, the referendum, & democracy.
John Key is increasingly displaying that Rob Muldoon characteristic of denigrating anyone who has the temerity to oppose him. Key’s latest claim that people who opposed off shore drilling are just “rent a crowd” sorts is a classic Muldoonism.
Today is the day for the Christchurch East by election. No discussion or comments on the subject will be allowed until after voting closes at 7:00 PM. Then knock yourselves out …
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The Electoral Commission has reported receiving and processing nearly quarter of a million referendum votes per day on Wednesday and Thursday this week. All up, 530,000 votes are in so far – an impressive 17.50% turn out already. That’s far better than you would expect from a council postal ballot at this stage. Now, let’s get the rest in.
In the Budget, the Government said asset sales would increase the net worth of the Crown by half a billion dollars because eager mums and dads were going to snap the shares up for more than they were worth on the government books. As we know, it didn’t quite work out that way. The Greens have updated the Budget and found the impact is $1.5 billion worse than expected.
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Every other political party has said an emphatic no to National’s proposal to override the Commerce Commission’s reduction in broadband charges. I suspect that Cabinet and Chorus’s board are not having a very good day …
The National government is destroying NZ’s state housing system. Right of tenure removed, a shift towards private provision of “social housing”, housing campaigners marginalised, & Tracy Watkins crowing about the shift from the “welfare state”. Greens & Mana are for more state houses. And Labour? [Update] Picket of (Nat) Party for the Rich Dec 8 Akl. NZH article.
The Christchurch East by election is getting really weird. We have a National candidate who does not turn up to possibly the most important public meeting of the campaign, a spot of petty vandalism committed using a National MP’s van, a conservative party candidate who implies that legs on a billboard are his when they are not, a conservative party leader who does not rule out the possibility of chemtrails existing despite there being no supporting evidence while denying anthropogenic climate change when there is an abundance of evidence in support and Labour and the Greens contesting kindred votes when strategic voting could produce a positive result.
Confused?
