Bill English has just admitted to Breakfast (good questioning by Nadine Chalmers-Ross) that the looters’ bonus on Mighty River Power will cost around $40m. You and I can think of many valuable things this government could be doing with $40m, rather than giving it to people who already have thousands in the bank. But that number also tells us something.
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The Nats’ youth rate wages (“for when the ‘minimum’ wage just isn’t low enough”) come in to effect next month. Some of the big youth employers are making their intentions known. You may wish to vote with your wallet.
Today a Nicky Hager article puts Kiwis are at the centre of the global money maze exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. He traces developments after Wine Box, the involvement of lawyers (including one ACT-aligned blogger), and some BNZ & ANZ staff… and more.
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Councillor Bruce Wilson thinks it’s a “joke” to say we should sterilise Maaori women who smoke. If you don’t think he should resign for his racism, let’s consider if he should resign for being too ignorant to function.
Congratulations to Duncan Campbell, Nicky Hager, et al involved in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for doing such a great job on the Gobal Offshore Money Maze. The maze includes NZ & Aussie. The investigation used sophisticated digital technologies.
I wonder how far the knucklehead rebellion will spread…
Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week we continue with the 2012 report from the Office of the Children’s Comissioner, and in current news a World Bank report on eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.
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In an interview this afternoon Key said that: “There will be no more answering of questions straight away, if I need to get details”. Defensive and petulant, Key is backing away from accountability.
Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no […]
Key & a government source responded to Ferguson’s criticisms by attacking Labour & Ferguson. They claimed Fletcher was the best person to “change manage” the GCSB. Yet, in Queensland Fletcher was publicly criticised for the management of his department. [Updated]
Why else would he say “that he is particularly concerned by the trend for the complex nature of science to be ignored or misunderstood in societal debates, leading to the argument that you can find a scientist to support any given position. This, he says, totally misinterprets the way that scientific consensus is achieved and can engender serious mistrust in the scientific enterprise.”
Yesterday Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown cast her vote for the first stage of out-sourcing to continue with the result that the street cleaning and gardening work has been outsourced.
That’s 27 jobs gone.
So, the trend in the Roy Morgans continues, ever so painfully slowly to move in the Left’s favour. Since Labour recovered from its election disaster level to 30+, the Left’s support has risen at a bit under 0.2% per month, the Right vice versa. Lab+Green now outpolls National as often as not. But ‘if these trends continue’ is the most dangerous phrase in politics.
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Iain Banks has cancer and is expected to only have a few months. Damn this is bad news. He is one of only three authors whose books managed to survive my move into ePubs last year and the donation of large quantities of my science fiction paperbacks.
Rennie now says it was ultimately Key’s decision to scrap the original shortlist for head of the GCSB. Has Key misled the House and the country, or has he successfully employed the science of obfuscation?
John Key needs some cover for his being caught out lying / incompetent / omitting stuff (/ insert your interpretation), so today the government is making sure it is Doing Something. More importantly Doing Something about Bad People.
Ryall has announced that Might River Power top brass will be receiving massive pay rises, in relation to the sale of the powercos. The directors have multiple positions, and questions have been raise about the past of one or two of them. They benefit; we pay.
I/S at No Right Turn on the undermining of the Resource Management Act…
Key’s adopted what Andrea Vance labels his “so what demeanour” as he tries to shrug off his highly irregular and inappropriate role in the selection of Ian Fletcher to head the GCSB. But whether or not Key was too involved in getting his mate a job is only the first round of this – the next calls into question the reliability of both Key and Fletcher’s account of the Dotcom saga.
Hard to believe, but despite having a Green Party mayor the Wellington City Council is about to outsource work currently done by council […]
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Key & Rennie say Ian Fletcher was the most suitable candidate to head the GCSB? His CV includes working on intellectual property, globalisation and free trade, & was private secretary to the Blair minister who fudged the legal advice on attacking Iraq.
News today that American military drones have passed through our airspace. Along with our own military and police drone projects, looks like our skies are going to be getting crowded.
Falling crime is good news – but the reasons are probably not the ones that occupy most of the politicians and the commentary.
Analysts are apparently ‘not worried’ about the impact of the increasingly likely-looking closure of Tiwai Point on the price of electricity and, hence, on the value of the assets National is trying to hock. A 12% reduction is all one analyst sees in Mighty River’s price is Meridian floods the market with some of the cheapest power going. The analysts have missed the politics.
You know, when it came out that Key was good mates with his new GCSB spy boss, Ian Fletcher, (a man who was appointed despite lack of experience in spying or the NZ public service), I kind of thought ‘so what’? People know each other. But then I gave Robertson enough credit not to be raising this if he didn’t have a killer punch waiting. Today, he landed it.
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Our “let’s make a deal” PM is outclassed on this one. I actually have some sympathy this time, the government is between a rock and a hard place. But while most of us worry about Southland, I suspect the Nats’ concerns will be a little closer to home…
The Nats have sold favours to Hollywood, to Sky City, to Rio Tinto (work in progress), and now with the “Petrobras law” it looks very much like they’re selling us out on our right to protest too.
Sometimes, I wonder where Granny Herald gets her crack from. It’s clearly strong stuff. Like when she runs an editorial soundly condemning an opposition MP for doing something that the same editorial admits is justified. Today, Cunliffe gets an earful for daring to suggest that IT multi-nationals are ripping us off.
As you know, the Right says more money incentivises harder work. John Key felt he wasn’t working very hard when he first became PM on a net $250,000 a year, so he gave himself tax cuts and pay rises worth $100 a day. Just look at the results! But I’m confused: why’s he cutting our pay with youth wages, higher Kiwisaver, and higher student loan repayments?
