Details on PEDA are still very thin but it is increasingly looking like public money has been hijacked to help the political prospects of National’s Pacific Islanders. The service delivery aspect of the Pacific Island Affairs Ministry seems set to be turned over to this private organisation. The lack of honest answers from the minister only deepens the suspicion that something very dodgy is afoot.
So – anyone else sitting up watching the game? (This thread a politics free zone!)
The media had a field day with Chris Carter today. Journalists stalked Carter throughout the Parliamentary complex, ambushed him with questions on the fly, and used the footage to make ‘good’ news. I want to know why that behaviour is good enough for Carter to receive when he’s demoted, but not good enough for John Key or Richard Worth
I really like my children’s school – I think they work hard to keep those young minds engaged and bodies active. I know it’s a job that is pretty demanding, and hugely important. So when I hear that three-quarters of teachers are feeling unprepared and rushed as they work to implement National’s new national standards (according to a NZEI survey) I start to feel apprehensive.
I was quite surprised by Jim Anderton’s decision to stand for mayor of Christchurch. And I had thought that his decision not to step down from Parliament until the next election was a mistake that would haunt him in the mayoral campaign. But it looks like I got it wrong. A UMR poll shows that Anderton is preferred over Tory incumbent Bob Parker by a two to one margin.
News just in that Sean Plunket has resigned from Morning Report. It’s well known that he has had conflicts with his bosses over […]
If that is the foreshore and seabed debate effectively resolved we should all take a moment to celebrate. It will be good to have the issue behind us as a country and move on. Given the agreement between National and the Maori Party it looks like the whole debate was mostly about semantics. Meanwhile in practical terms iwi say they want the kind of rights that Ngati Porou secured – under the current Act.
Fabians Lecture tonight: Economics for Everyone in Auckland Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn 5:30-7:30 Jim Stanford on why the Economy […]
At the moment the UK is debating a rise in Capital Gains Tax, from 18% to 40 or 50%. The debate is largely going on within the ruling Tory party, as their coalition partners the Liberal Democrats won several tax concessions so that they could create a GBP10,000 income tax free band. The proposed tax rise is to treat earned and unearned income the same.
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
A foreshore and seabed DEAL that amounts to little more than a symbolic rearranging of the deck chairs is not what the Maori Party was elected to achieve. The deal the Maori Party makes now is the one Maori are stuck with. That’s why the Iwi Leadership Forum is so unexcited about it. The winner here is Key, he played the Maori Party into a corner. The hagiographies will be going to print as I write.
The signals are that the Maori Party is going to cave on the foreshore and seabed. National has offered a symbolic repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act while leaving the actual law essentially unchanged. If they cave in, they will have abandoned their primary policy for the sake of power. Let’s hope they don’t. [Updated – it seems an agreement of some kind has been reached]
Labour holds it’s MPs to higher standards than National. This post from the archives looks at some examples. If Key doesn’t act on his profligate MPs it will be time to add another chapter.
The Deep Horizon oil spill drags on and on and the estimates of the daily leak keep growing. The oil industry has proven itself incapable of plugging an oil well leak in deep water. Yet the government is pushing ahead with deep sea drilling a disturbingly dismissive attitude towards what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico and could happen here.
National is trying again to pass a law specifically to allow Opua businessman Doug Schmuck to annex public land. Thousands protest the Supercity, ACC cuts, ACE cuts, the abolition of Ecan, the gutting of the ETS, water privatisation, and wage freezes – the Nats just ignore them. Then one businessman can get two ministers to try to pass a law just for him. What is going on here?
Sunday saw another big protest against the government. An estimated 3000 people turned out in Christchurch for the “Our Water Our Vote” rally to protest National’s attacks on Canterbury’s democracy and environment.
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Phil Goff is back in the country and, as predicted, his first move is going to be to take their portfolios off Shane Jones, Chris Carter, and, probably, Mita Ririnui for their misuse of their credit cards. The attention will now turn to the abuses of those who haven’t been punished for their wasteful and greedy use of public money – Tim Groser, Murray McCully, Nathan Guy, Nick Smith, and Bill English. Updated
Greenpeace are running a competition to rebrand BPs logo – have a look at the latest ideas…
The National Party smear machine is stepping up its attack on soon-to-be Auckland mayor Len Brown. Worried that Key’s handpicked candidate John Banks is falling behind, the right is resorting to smearing his left-wing rival. The National Party’s David Farrar is even suggesting a “cover-up” and “fraud” at the Manukau Council. Is panic setting in at the thought of losing Auckland?
In a short statement outside the Beehive today Labour leader Phil Goff conceded the 2011 election to National.
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If you have any interest in robotics or AI, or just want to be creeped-out by just how life-like the latest robots really […]
Shane Jones and Chris Carter are for the chop. Labour will lay down the gauntlet to John Key to apply those same standards to Murry McCully and Tim Groser. Key is desperate to avoid that, we know how lax his standards are. Maybe its hard on Jones but Labour needs to clean up its act and heads have to roll. Expect Key to squirm as he refuses to hold his ministers to account, once again.
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‘We don’t know if we can support this’.
It’s a very delicate title for the Maori Party’s press release on National’s foreshore and seabed offer but it reveals much. On the one hand, they know they can’t accept a deal that doesn’t give title to iwi. On the other hand, the co-leaders really don’t want to leave government.
Being a red blooded adult didn’t damage John Key when he confessed to visiting a strip club in 2007. After this incident, Key continued to build upon his brand as an ordinary Kiwi bloke, which continues to be his strongest asset.
Mita Ririnui has gone on the record on RNZ’s Checkpoint tonight insisting Ministerial Services advised him personal spending on ministerial credit card was ok […]
Press release by Te Matarahurahu Hapu. A Ngapuhi tribal leader will be insisting at the Waitangi Tribunal hearings next week that a special tribal tax be imposed on all residents living within Ngapuhi boundaries. David Rankin, the Chairman of the Matarahurahu hapu…is proposing a flat tax rate of 9 % be applied to every person living within Ngapuhi’s tribal territory.
John Key continues to let his attack dog do his business, and take the heat. So on Saturday there’s some more heat with a big Day Of Action to fight Rodney’s latest nasty bill. The Greens, Labour and the Maori Party are all fighting this odorous piece of legislation that aims to allow privatisation of water, amongst other attacks on local democracy.
Did you know Editing the Herald is back? It is and James is as incisive and witty as ever.
This isn’t about one of his posts though, sampling them doesn’t do them justice. Instead, it’s a hilarious clip from The Onion that his blog put me on to.
According to Treasury, Kiwi workers’ combined incomes will be $1.5 billion lower when Key leaves office than when he entered. But the Nats aren’t done. The next stage is to attack holidays. The method of calculating sick and holiday is going to be changed to shaft shift workers. While the ‘choice’ to sell one week’s annual leave to the boss will see your work hours go up more than your pay.
The sun is emerging from its deep sleep of the Solar Minimum. The increased sensitivity of human networks from satellites to power grids […]
On Wednesday night John key was in Christchurch. He was met by protesters, angry at the abolition of democracy in Canterbury, and the plans of the newly installed dictatorship to allow over-farming to poison the water and kill the rivers. How did TV news handle the coverage? I think it’s fair to say that it was up to their usual standards…
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McCully and Groser put their drinking habits on the taxpayer bill. Jones charged his own, um, habit. Carter played far too loose. All broke the rules. Carter and Jones paid the money back eventually. Groser and McCully better soon.
I say we deserve better. And if one’s gotta go, they’ve all got to go. Goff, Key, which one of you is going to set the standard? Sack ’em all.
