John Banks set to quit at next election
John Banks will not seek re-election at the 2014 general election.
Census 2013: increase in inequality
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”.
Transmission Gully: they profit, you pay
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.
Chorus sings a Dirge
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 […]
Open mike 04/12/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike …
Banks to go to trial: confirmed
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]
What the Hekia happened to our education standards?
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?
Breaking News: Aratere to be used in the event of a major oil spill
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.
Census 2013: glossing over the divides
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]
I think Judge Blackie got it right.
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.
800,000 referendum votes in already
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.
Open mike 03/12/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike …
Don’t forget to vote no
Cameron Slater and the protection of journalistic sources
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.
Open mike 02/12/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike …
Warning bells ringing for Nats
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.
Open mike 01/12/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike …
Christchurch East by election
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.
Get me inta here!
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 editorial smears the Referendum
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 Rob Muldoon’s doppelganger
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.
The Christchurch East by election
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 …
Open mike 30/11/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike …
Over half a million votes received already, have you posted yours?
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.
Assets sales make Crown a billion poorer
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.
Open mike 29/11/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike …
Axe the Copper Tax wins
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 …
Battle weary & marginalised: state housing
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 gets weird
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?
Just what do the Conservatives & National agree on?
Everybody is talking up the Conservatives as a partner for National after 2014 to save Key from being the least successful National PM ever. But there’s one problem: they don’t agree on anything. The Conservatives are reactionaries, the Nats are neo-libs. Here’s a list of things that Colin ‘Crazy’ Craig believes in and his policies compared to the Nats’.
Open mike 28/11/2013
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step […]
Too close to call
The latest Roy Morgan poll is out and things are neck and neck.
The Right Conservatives
The Conservatives have a significant constituency and pose an interesting dynamic for the future of NZ politics. Their constituency will possibly letting the left in or sharing power on the right. The Conservatives are fond of saying how close they got in the previous election given how little time they had worked on it. Colin comes out on top against Paula then be prepared for a real change in the political landscape. They are already having an impact without being in parliament.
Chorus – Governments version of decent work.
From the Chorus report: “Chorus now employs 763 permanent and fixed term employees directly, along with a further 4,434 people who are either employed directly by our service company partners or are sub-contracted by the service companies”. Insecure work is a BIG problem, even in our tech industries.
1979: the year that the climate changed for me
On the site we now have a a simple little graphic that shows how much heat has accumulated on our planet. It is expressed as multiples of of the heat energy of Hiroshima sized A-bombs. I’ve picked 1979 as being the start year because that was the year that I became aware of the effects of changing climate. I was a 19 year old student in my second year of a BSc in Earth Sciences, and the topic under discussion was the WMO’s recent World Climate Conference.
Democracy under attack in Hawke’s Bay, Nats’ vote at risk
I heard Duncan Garner on the radio the other day mocking Napierites’ opposition to being forced into a Hawke’s Bay-wide super-council. ‘Why should there be 2 mayors within 21km of each other?’ he asked. Nah. The question is: ‘why not?’ If they want to keep own having their own council, that they pay for, why should someone else get to take it away? It didn’t used to be possible. National made it possible.