With Pansy Wong in hiding on John Key’s orders, rort-buster Pete Hodgson laid the blame her corruption and all the other rorts squarely on Key yesterday. In question after question, Key couldn’t make a serious defence of his record. Then, he made an extraordinary admission: his ministers will keep on rorting – it’s up to Labour to catch them.
What little we know of Whanau Ora is that it is essentially the privatisation of government delivery of social services to private groups. Rather than deliver services themselves, government departments entrust taxpayer funds to small groups that often have little or no track record to do the job instead. It’s an invitation for corruption.
The latest revelation in the Pansy Wong saga is a Chinese newspaper article where she, as Minister, endorses her husband’s company’s product. John Key says that it would be a sacking offence were she a minister but its up to her if she resigns from Parliament. Here’s a question then: is he going to let this corrupt MP remain in his party’s caucus?
Is the interminable tangled mess of the foreshore and seabed issue getting to Chris Finlayson? Something certainly is, because he’s clearly losing it. For the Treaty Negotiations Minister to tell a group of Maori protesters to “go to hell” is about as idiotic as it gets.
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Judged by his own terms, what has John Key actually achieved on trade? He talked big about Japan’s trade barriers – no-one paid him any attention. Russian FTA talks were announced – it’ll be worth just $27 million. Key’s meeting with ‘good mate’ Obama – actually sitting “pretty much next to” him during a play. And still no White House invite.
So people get sick and become less productive. I would have thought that that was pretty much stating the obvious.
Spending tax payers money trying to quantify how much imaginary wealth these sick people could have created for their employers if they had been perfectly well, seems to me to be bordering on lunacy.
National’s handling of the Auckland SuperCity process was profoundly undemocratic in a multitude of ways. Thank goodness, and the common sense of Aucklanders, that a “Labour Mayor from South Auckland” was elected to sort out at least some of the resulting mess. Len Brown has pledged to hold talks on dedicated Maori seats on the Council. It’s great to see that Brown is open to correcting National’s injustice on this matter.
In the last year, 17 people have been killed in police chases. Many more injured. They might be criminals but they don’t deserve to die. Yet the Police policy – chase anything that flees – is killing them. The carnage needs to end. The human and financial cost is unbearable. But the Police are determined to continue. The government needs to step in.
The International Energy Agency’s annual World Energy Outlook forecasts that by 2035 oil will cost $200 a barrel in today’s dollars. That’s not $200 during a price spike, that’s $200 as the new normal. The world entered recession when the price went over $100 in a spike during 2008. A permanent price of $200 a barrel is simply unaffordable.
Simon Power yesterday introduced the new “Criminal Procedure (Reform and Modernisation) Bill” to Parliament, touting it as “the biggest change to the criminal justice system in 50 years”. It certainly is that. It proposes doing away with trial by jury for a significant range of offences. It proposes allowing a trial to go ahead without the defendant present. In other words, it looks like yet another attack on fundamental rights…
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We learn from rort-buster Pete Hodgson that Pansy Wong and her husband have been running private companies out of her taxpayer-funded electorate office. I don’t see how she can remain in Parliament now. Who set and enforced the standards that have seen so many ministers involved in rorts? There’s only one person to point the finger at: Key
The dark side of the current much-heralded free trade talks is that New Zealand could end up letting foreign firms dictate how the country is run, from quarantine rules to local content laws, unless it learns the lessons of previous trade deals. A new book edited by Auckland academic Jane Kelsey, No Ordinary Deal, points out that free trade deals are now about far more than just tariffs.
We should treat the economy as a tool to serve our collective needs within the environment’s limits. Instead, we elevated it to the status of a god. Now, environmental degradation and resource exhaustion will leave us with no choice but to live within those limits. To do that, we need to build a system with two goals: fairness and sustainability.
What’s so great about free trade negotiations with Russia? We export only $180 million a year to them, most of it butter. That’s 2% of our exports to the US and Japan and Key’s made no progress on their trade barriers. Rising oil costs will soon make our butter uncompetitive vs Russian dairy farmers. Key got his photo op – but not with Obama.
The Key government doesn’t want to act on advice that would reduce deaths due to drunk drivers. The latest tactic is an attempt to divert attention to the worst “hard core” offenders. This is “ambulance at the bottom of the cliff” foolishness. Why wait until we have problem drunk drivers and then try and pick up the pieces? Wouldn’t it be better to try and prevent people from becoming problem drivers in the first place?
Will Pansy Wong face criminal charges for fraudulently abusing her MP’s travel perk? Will she be forced to leave Parliament triggering a(nother) by-election and possibly even an extra early election? What will Lockwood Smith’s investigation turn up? Whatever comes, at least she isn’t a minister anymore but who will replace her?
The next series of Fabian Seminars will feature financial journalist Bernard Hickey of interest.co.nz and Selwyn Pellett of the Productive Economy Council discussing […]
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TVNZ approached National media trainer and broadcast bigot Paul Holmes to replace failed National candidate and broadcast bigot on Breakfast. Holmes has apparently turned down the offer. Thank goodness. He’s unprofessional, open bias and panels with John Tamihere representing the Left have made Q+A unwatchable. Breakfast should aim higher.
Economist Jeff Rubin explains that the peak oil crisis is the underlying cause of the global economic crisis and why the economy isn’t shaking itself out of recession as in the past. In the age of peak oil, trade advantages will be overwhelmed by transport costs. The winners will be self-sufficient countries with their own agricultural and manufacturing bases.
According to Radio NZ “Mr Dunne criticised the Labour Party’s approach to MMP politics and its relationship with the Green Party.”
I’m sure Labour are shaking in their boots from Mr Dunne’s criticism.
Perhaps “Mr 0.87%” should draw some focus here. He was marginally ahead of a joke last election. Literally. The Bill and Ben Party was polled just behind Mr Dunne. Let’s hope someone steps on that Tory squeek next election.
It’s disconcerting to see National and its blogging lackies running smear campaigns against anyone who has what they deem to be “political connections”. […]
Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese opposition politician. In 1990 her National League for Democracy won the general election, electing her Prime Minister. The results were “nullified”, and the military refused to hand over power. Despite being under house arrest for most of the subsequent years, Aung San Suu Kyi has remained a symbol and a leader for her people. She has just been released…
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Climate change and a shoals of dirty little red herrings would seem to go together like salt and pepper or cheese and pickle.
John Key has been on holiday in Japan for the last few days ahead of APEC while the real international leaders are in Korea for the G20. Key is keen to have a ‘pull-aside’ with Obama but, now, disaster: the US has limited the number of Kiwi media that can cover the smiling and waving. Key has leaped into action.
The NBR reported yesterday morning that Murray McCully had awarded the $8 million RWC Opening Ceremony contract to Aussie firm David Atkins Creative. […]
So our kiwifruit industry is in peril. PSA may be here to stay, vines may start being burnt today, and a $1.36 billion […]
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Dr David Suzuki has given the keynote speech at the Green Party Conference on Sustainable Economics. Here is a fantastic presentation of his, about why our obsession with economic growth is suicidal. Watch it – it’s pretty powerful stuff.
John Key got to Japan for his Apec meeting a couple of days ago, and he’s been telling the Japanese they need to drop their tariffs, and the US he’d like to have a chat with Obama on the sidelines of a meeting, any meeting, please… But nobody else is there. They’re all still at the G20, across the ditch in Korea. What’s John Key doing?
Pansy Wong has been stood down resigned over her abuse of her ministerial status and perks for her husband’s private business dealings. I expected that Key act ‘relaxed’ and hope for this blow over. That he hasn’t indicates they’ve uncovered something more. Will we find out what it is, or will Key pull another Richard Worth on us? Updates coming.
House prices are a good indication of how the economy is going. They rose rapidly in the 2000s, stalled in 2007, plummeted in 2008, and made a slight recovery in 2009. Now they’re heading down again. The median house price is over 16% below the peak in late 2007 and I reckon they’ve got a long down way to go yet.
