Dirty oil
I knew that disasters in rich white countries get much more media than disasters anywhere else. I knew that oil was a dirty business. None the less, this article on the real costs of cheap oil surprised me.
Open mike 30/05/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Bill wants to shift Kiwibank risk to “Kiwi mums and dads”
When floating the idea of Kiwibank’s possible sale to a post-budget audience last week, Bill English said that the government did not want […]
Bennett in yet another privacy breach
Audrey Young reports that Paula Bennett has once again abused the trust and power that is given to her as a minister in her campaign to paint all beneficiaries as bludgers. I don’t know anything about this family. But if this family is not entitled to their benefit then Bennett should do her damn job and get them off it. If they are entitled then she shouldn’t be accusing them of being bludgers.
Key needs to answer questions in Highwater-gate
The only question that matters in Highwater-gate is this: “is John Key’s trust really blind”? The answer seems to be “no”. I’m sorry, but the lawyer’s letter that John Key released yesterday just raises more questions about his not so blind trust. We’re still waiting for an explanation of how the trust is blind given that everyone can see into it.
Hey! Mr Tally Man…
Comments by former All Black and Rugby World Cup “Ambassador” Andy Haden that alledge the Canterbury Crusaders have a limit on the number of “darkies” […]
Nats not trustworthy
Key’s assets are supposed to be blind to him. Before the 3 News report he claimed that they were blind. Now he is claiming something much much narrower (no “beneficial interest”). Why? We’ve been here before. Bill English claimed no “pecuniary interest” in his accommodation rort trust. The Auditor General found otherwise. Key’s case should go to the Auditor General too.
Barrier residents deserve real representation
The Dominion Post has revealed that only hours after criticising National’s plans to mine on Great Barrier, Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye was […]
Open mike 29/05/2010
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Key attempts misdirection, blind trust questions remain unanswered
John Key has just issued a press release answering questions no one asked. Mr Key says he doesn’t have a beneficial interest in Whitechapel, the ‘key hole’ to seeing his blind trust. But Key doesn’t answer the central question – why does Whitechapel seem to clearly depict the interests of his so-called ‘blind’ trust?
Key’s deceit sees Tuhoe walk away
Tuhoe are about to walk away from their Treaty talks. More power to them. Key has screwed them over. They’ve been waiting generations. They can afford to wait a little longer until we have a decent PM. Or they can go to the UN, see what that DRIP really means. This is where ‘take it or leave it’ Key gets us. He’s trying to get the cheapest deal. Should be focused on justice.
World’s largest ship line refuses unsustainable fish
Maersk, the world’s largest shipping line, has announced it will no longer transport unsustainably harvested fish. New Zealand orange roughy is on the ban list. Good on Maersk. It’s not often you see a major corporate using its market power for good, putting the long-term future ahead of short-term profits. A wake up call for the government and the fishing industry.
Conflict of interest raised over Key’s wine holdings
Labour has complained to Parliament’s powerful privileges committee over Key’s shareholdings in an Otago vineyard. It turns out that Key co-owns the vineyard (in his not-so-blind trust) with some of NZ’s largest supermarket owners. This, while the government has ruled out liquor tax increases.
The Revenge of The McCully
Murray McCully is still smarting from the Aid community so strongly (and correctly) objecting to his destruction of our world leading NZAID program, that he continues to kick them. Not content with last year’s 75% cut to the funding of the NGOs umbrella group The Council for Development, he has now suspended $26 million paid to NGOs like World Vision, Oxfam and Save the Children.
Open mike 28/05/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
The records show Key-Whitechapel link
John Key’s been lying long enough to know not to tell a porky that’s instantly falsifiable. So, I was gobsmacked to see him on TV1 saying he had never heard of Whitechapel, the company that owns his shares as a holding vehicle for his ‘blind’ trust, Aldgate. Because at that moment I was looking at the online records of him giving those shares to Whitechapel.
Maintenance during the weekend
During the weekend, amongst the other chores, the system will get an operating system upgrade. I’ll also be doing a general check for filesystem errors and look for stray files accumulating after its first 30 odd days of operation.
In theory, this should only result in a few minutes of outage. However…
World Cup could bypass Welly overnights?
Seems that negotiations are underway to allow Wellington Airport stay open all night (last flights now are about 9pm) during the World Cup so that fans can travel direct to the next game thus avoiding the need for an overnight in Welly.
Privatisation: The facts
There is no economic logic to selling SOEs. This ‘mum and dad’ stuff is just fluff to disguise the real agenda – taking quality companies that have been built up by taxpayers over the generations and selling them off cheap to the capitalist class so they can make a quick buck.
Privacy Commissioner tells Bennett to pay up
For her own petty political purposes, Paula Bennett has put Natasha Fuller through hell. Now (finally) the Privacy Commissioner has asked Bennett to apologise to Fuller for the damage she caused and pay her $15,000. Predictably, this awful person has refused. Paula Bennett, you are a disgrace to your office and a disgrace to New Zealand.
National’s ETS chickens home to roost
National is under extraordinary pressure on its ETS, and it seems to be starting to panic. While I can commend them for sticking to their guns (better a gutted ETS than none at all), I don’t have any sympathy over the backlash they are facing. They bought it on themselves.
Open mike 27/05/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Key’s wine excuse hard to swallow
TV3 has reported tonight that John Key admitted on video to owning an Otago vineyard, and providing free wine to “people that help me”. This, despite Key telling the public all his assets were in a blind trust. Key, painted with his Tranz Rail eyes, has responded by still insisting he doesn’t know about his assets – but that’s a hard excuse to swallow in wake of solid contradictory evidence. [UPDATE: video added]
There’s such a thing as ‘too relaxed’
Tracy Watkins recently observed of Key’s reluctance to front the media post-budget that:
“Mr Key has refused all but three requests to be interviewed by National Radio’s Morning Report so far this year. That must be unheard of among modern-day prime ministers…”
She puts his avoidance of the tough questions down to a desire to protect his brand.
Leaky homes
While it rains, thousands of homes are rotting, a legacy of the stupid deregulation of the building industry by National in the 1990s. The current government is proposing that huge costs be passed on to ratepayers, and tonight Wellington City Council votes on the plan. There are no good solutions to this mess.
Privatisation: The Myths
So Blinglish’s new and improved less-bitter poison is part-privatisation. In much the same way as marketing a filling as more fun than a full root-canal, he thinks that if he sells each of his mates one piece of the family silver (and keeps the spoons) instead of flogging off the whole set to one of his mates, we’ll be much happier.
Who pays for climate change, polluters or taxpayers?
We pay for the need to reduce greenhouse emissions one way or the other. There’s no point complaining about the cost of the ETS on power and fuel. What we should be more pissed off about is that we are being expected to bear half the cost as taxpayers. We have to pay, the question is whether we put the cost on pollution to discourage pollution or we just lump it on taxpayers.
Open mike 26/05/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
The tax swindle, visualised
Here’s a graph of tax week’s tax swindle. I can’t do the property tax/rent increase part but here’s the net weekly effect of the income tax changes and the GST hike. These numbers match up with those provided by Treasury. The first 1.2 million taxpayers get less than a dollar a week. The first 3 million (of 3.4 million) get an average of $4.24 a week. The top 100,000 average $105 a week.
Sweeping the ETS under the carpet
According to Newsroom [currently offline]: No money has been budgeted to pay for New Zealand’s contribution to a $44 billion component of the Copenhagen Accord on climate change or to withstand losses from the emissions trading scheme beyond Kyoto’s lifetime.
Second thoughts on three strikes
“Three strikes” is likely to become law today. This video shows that three strikes legislation hasn’t worked overseas. It’s unlikely to work here. It’s a crime bill that is not expected to deter or reduce crime and may increase murders.
Nat resignation coming?
Trevor Mallard reports being asked by a press gallery member if he knows which nat is about to resign. Trev doesn’t know, but there’s a few choice candidates
Daily Show on lucky duckies
Seeing as the theme of the day has been inequality and class war, this video from the Daily Show is very appropriate. Interesting […]
Softening the public up for privatisation
One thing National does very well is spend a lot of time softening the public up for unpopular moves so that the public attention has moved on by the time anything actually happens. Look at GST. The ‘rabbit from a hat’ trick of borrowing for larger income tax cuts served to divert attention from the well-signaled GST hike. They’re running the same strategy on privatisation.
Caught out
Last month Colin King revealed that his National Party colleague Chris Finlayson had said he would block an investigation into the behaviour of his old mate Supreme Court Judge Bill Wilson. Finlayson should have recognised his conflict of interest and stood aside months ago but only did so once the media got the story. It says something about National’s standards.