Slow follower
When it comes to making any kind of effort to saving the planet from catastrophic climate change I guess being even a “fast follower” was just a little too ambitious for the Key government.
Trotie – the dubstep remix
Remember
When the Nats say they must cut early childhood education funding – remember their new $500m subsidy to polluters.
When the Nats say they have to cut women’s refuge money – remember their new $500m subsidy to polluters.
When the Nats say they have to sell our assets to pay their debt – remember their new $500m subsidy to polluters.
Goff dissects Key on RWC
A video clip from Parliament yesterday. Goff calmly and systematically rips Key and the government apart on Friday’s RWC fiasco. Armstrong calls it Goff’s “best speech in a long time”.
Open mike 16/09/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Price of milk your fault
It turns out that the high price of milk is your fault. No – really.
Garner rips useless Nats
Duncan Garner has demolished the government’s disgraceful excuse-making over its woeful lack of preparation for the World Cup. “I was there. It was scary. It was a disgrace. There were few police. There were no barriers. It was NOT family friendly. It was a tragedy waiting to happen.And that’s just Party Central. That’s the bit the Government was responsible for. Don’t forget that.”
NRT – A permanent dictatorship in Canterbury?
NRT continues to provide excellent coverage on the governance of Canterbury.
Truth to power?
Does “a meticulous compiler and ferreter out of information that some people would wish to keep secret” sound like a good definition for ‘journalist’ to you? Not according to the Dom. Apparently, that’s what Nicky Hager is. And he’s not a ‘real journalist’? So, what is a journo’s job if not compile sensitive information and speak truth to power?
Incompetent and insulting
The government’s handling of the RWC opening and the resulting chaos has been both incompetent and insulting to Auckland. “Seizing control” is simply adding insult to injury.
Open mike 15/09/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Education Standards and National Standards
The guys at RSA Animate provide their illustative talents to a quite brilliant and wide ranging lecture by Sir Ken Robinson on the topic of education. In the space of just over 10 minutes, he ranges from it’s industrial beginnings to its doped out, standardised present and argues finally, that educationally we’re heading in exactly the wrong direction and suggests alternatives.
Join the dots on universities
The government has been cutting funding to universities, and the effects are beginning to show.
The Jackal: Time for a Tax Revamp
The other day, Irish covered the odious comments from liquidator/columnist Damien Grant calling unskilled people ‘commodities’. That was in the context of a pretty flimsy attack on Gareth Morgan and Susan Guthrie’s ‘Big Kahuna’ tax plan. Yesterday, Morgan and Guthrie responded to Grant’s attacks. The Jackal says Morgan and Guthrie have it right.
NRT: Making the trains run on time
Eighteen months ago, in what can only be described as a coup, the government disestablished the democratically-elected Environment Canterbury and replaced it with a clique of hand-picked dictators. Nick Smith says that the percentage of resource consents being processed on time has skyrocketed but is that thanks to the dictatorship?
Couldn’t organise a party at Party Central
Keen to shift the blame for the RWC opening fracas Murray McCully has used reserve powers under his very own CERA-like powers to seize control of the whole Auckland waterfront. John Key wants it run like Party Central, which he says “worked absolutely perfectly”. Yeah, tell that to the waka paddlers who were assaulted by a drunken mob there.
Open mike 14/09/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Whaddarya?
There once was a time tory leaders would wield the power of the state like the powerful tyrants they were.
Nowadays that might is lent to important things like… throwing a wee party.
Those tough old bastards must be rolling in their graves.
Are PPPs the best we can do?
A good piece in the Herald by Max Rashbrook on the high costs of PPPs (public private partnerships) with the new Wiri prison […]
Werewolf: Ten Myths about Asset Sales
Gordon Campbell at Werewolf has an excellent piece pointing out the flaws in Asset Sales. Here’s a quick summary, but it’s worth the read in its entirety.
Excuses, excuses
According to his interview in the SST, John Key seems to think the job of Prime Minister is essentially taking emotional decisions in relation to high-level questions and leaving the rest to the underlings. But what happens when ministers are getting it wrong and Key isn’t monitoring them? The evidence is mounting that the government got it badly wrong on RWC transport.
Another shaming report on child poverty
The Child Poverty Action Group has released yet another shaming report on child poverty in NZ. The Nats’ cuts to Working for Families are making matters worse. If the election doesn’t return a Labour government, then we’re going to have three more years of inaction punctuated by brief ritual hand-wringing over each new report.
Minister for bad behaviour
The SMH reports: a New Zealand government minister “was yelling out, ‘f—ing cheats’ and other offensive remarks” at the Wallabies during the Australia v Italy game. Hmm. The game was at North Harbour. Who is a local MP, a minister, and has a record of bad behaviour in corporate boxes?
Open mike 13/09/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
“A commodity”
Big time businessman Damien Grant thinks we’re either rich or irrelevant commodities. And Granny Herald thinks it’s reasonable to give him a platform to preach this vile social darwinism. Suddenly the careless deaths of Kiwi workers and the systemic poverty of so many of our children becomes less surprising.
Resignation watch
Which minister(s) will John Key fire this week? Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English, is embroiled in yet another personal corruption scandal involving a job for his brother. Gerry ‘The VIIIth’ Brownlee’s Christchurch fiefdom is seeing a peasants’ revolt among redzoners. Murray ‘drowned rat’ McCully delivered Key a huge embarrassment on Friday at the RWC opening.
National Brain Drain
National promised to close the wage gap with Australia, and stop the flow of people across the ditch. Instead they’ve not just massively increased the wage gap and the number of people fleeing the country, they’re now forcing our best and brightest out.
Nice Mr Key
The Stuff interview of John Key in the weekend was better than your average puff piece. Interesting that Key doesn’t even try to defend his record on its merits.
Ten years later
Ten years after the September 11th 2001 attacks, the world is sitting in a fragile state. The ‘War on Terror’ may have finally got its man but at what cost? The Middle East is more unstable than ever. Democratic revolts are succeeding in some places but brutal regimes are more powerful than ever elsewhere. And the US’s power has been broken.
Open mike 12/09/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
A school board member writes
The other night I resigned from the bot of my local school. My experience in the field of education is fairly varied, with time on both sides of the chalkface as it were. … the bot has been forced by the government, through the moe to include national standards, and I can’t in good conscience be a party to such foolishness.
McCully needs to front up
McCully is Minister for the RWC. He claimed the government had done “their best” and assured Auckland that the transport systems were ready to go. He was wrong in every respect. In the aftermath of the fiasco McCully now needs to front up and get three things right…
Open mike 11/09/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Counterpoint
I’ve just read Vernon Small’s piece today and I actually learned things from it, other than opinions plucked out of thin air by the author. Small explains the fiscal and economic challenges now existing that the next government will have to cope with and, with a nod and wink, tells us National is going to push out its date for getting back to surplus.
More Armstrong bullshit
John Armstrong wants Labour to come out radically different after the Cup. Having refused to cover Labour’s skills package or its mining policy, he’s suddenly interested in policy. He wants Labour to suddenly adopt league tables and forget the 39% tax rate. Armstrong genuinely doesn’t seem to get it. Parties of the Left don’t pick and swap policies on a whim.
Auckland transport shambles
The RWC public transport fiasco was not a good look for our biggest city, and not a great advertisement to the world.