Tall poppy syndrome. It’s one of those useful, mindless terms that comes up again and again in our political discourse. Like its cousin ‘PC’ it is used to delegitimise any criticism the behaviour of those with privilege and power towards others. It survives because it is useful to an elite, not because it makes any sense.
Fancy wasting a little time on a slow Sunday? Some viral video, courtesy of Guardian blogger, Jemima Kiss.
“Lord” Christopher Monckton is a high profile climate change denier. Professor John Abraham examines his claims in detail, and shows Monckton to be a serial liar, misrepresenting the science at every turn. What makes a person tell lies that are going to cost us the earth?
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National really, really wants to sell assets – it’ll be worth a fortune to their rich mates who can’t seem to generate any success on their own without a government hand out. But the public is firmly against asset sales. It would be an election losing campaign issue. So, National will play a game of ambiguous promises and confusing financial moves to sell without appearing to sell.
Two Electoral Reform bills are currently accepting submissions, and each contain one particularly large flaw. Firstly, as I commented on the Electoral (Finance […]
Read this story to understand why the real economy in New Zealand struggles to get ahead of a volatile currency driven by overseas […]
Latest Roy Morgan poll shows support for John Key’s National-led Government has strengthen considerably to 57.5% (up 3.5%)
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National Party Trade Minister Tim Groser is facing allegations he was behaving drunk and rowdy on a flight back from a trade meeting in Dubai. Though a humourous image, if true, this is unacceptable behaviour from a Minister. Groser needs to chill – maybe he should’ve smoked that spliff he denied taking instead?
A short video from Red Alert. All that you need to know about John Key in less than one minute…
Today, Google launched a new set of tools to help political candidates and activist organisastions engage with constituents and citizens.
From the Google Public Sector Blog:
We want to do our part to make sure candidates and campaigns have the tools to stay close to voters, who now expect to hear and see much more from their elected officials than ever before.
Stuff is reporting that Michael Lhaws won’t stand again as Mayor of Whanganui. Maybe the town can now move forward without being burdened by Laws’ race politics. Whanganui will be a better place without the former National Party researcher.
After the first shocking news, Israel took control of information about their act of high seas piracy. From jamming the airwaves to stop the media reporting from the boats shortly after they boarded them, to keeping the protesters detained, they ensured that their side was the only one that had the facts.
Another Nat MP is in the gun for failing to declare financial interests in line with Parliament’s rules. The Taranaki Daily News is reporting that local National MP Jonathan Young (Herald journalist Audrey Young’s brother) did not declare his directorship in a company that holds his trust’s properties. It looks like the standard set by John “blind trust” Key has infected his own MPs.
John Key is responsible for enforcing the Cabinet Manual on members of his Cabinet, including himself. And that manual includes very specific provisions about pecuniary interests and conflicts. The idea that he is not responsible for this is as unbelievable as it is unacceptable.
The Internet is a modern wonder. However if you have to run servers on it, often the biggest wonder is that it works at all. There are so many things that can go wrong with the transport of data from one place to another.
One of those glitches happened to us yesterday.
Back last year when National was being stung over Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English and other ministers rorting the accommodation allowance and misuse of ministerial credit cards, National thought they would get a bite back at Labour by releasing the credit card records for Labour’s terms in office too. Word around the traps is they’re going to drop it later today.
Key is avoiding Morning Report, and word is beginning to get around. Is it just lazyness caused by (until recently) stratospheric poll ratings? Or is he scared to front up? Either way it’s not a good look, and it’s an abdication of his responsibility as PM.
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The next Fabian seminar on the Resilient Economy will be held in Christchurch on next Tuesday, 8th June. Speakers are Rick Boven from […]
There’s increasing rumbles in the country side about a Country Party breaking away from National, on the back of the anti-ETS backlash, which National brought upon itself with its behaviour in opposition. A Country Party would be electorally viable. The Left has already splintered into natural fragments now that MMP makes it possible. The Right might be about to do the same.
Fresh from a stinging rebuke from the public over mining, Gerry must have hoped he was on to a winner with the announcement of offshore oil exploration. But of course the timing could hardly be worse, with an environmental catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. The Greens are right to call for a moratorium until the industry proves that it has the ability to rapidly and effectively deal with leaks.
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I am ruling out selling Kiwibank at any point in the future/Asset sales are on the table for a second term
We won’t be raising GST/We’re raising GST
My trust is so blind I have no idea what’s in it/Owning a vineyard is great fun
Anyone else seeing a pattern?
Audio from an interview by Kim Hill with Gillian Turner, Senior Lecturer in Physics and Geophysics at Victoria University, and author of North Pole, South Pole: the Epic Quest to Solve the Great Mystery of Earth’s Magnetism.
In the May budget Key broke his pre-election promise not to raise GST.
Today, in the House, Jim Anderton foreshadowed what looks like the next unequivocal promise that’s set for the chop.
Anderton pointed out that during the 2008 TV3 Leaders’ Debate Key promised not to sell Kiwibank “ever”.
The video is embedded below.
Recent posts and comments on the Standard have suggested that National may call an early election in 2011 because the Rugby World Cup’s […]
It’s an innocous looking bill but Rodney Hide’s Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill packs a wallop when you unpick it. Not only does it open the door for the privatisation of our water services, it positively ushers it in, takes off its coat and says ‘stay a spell, why don’t you?’, 35 years in fact.
The Budget is turning into something of an embarrassment for the media. Even before it had been released, the journos in their lock-up had written pieces proclaiming it a hugely popular success. The evidence says they got it wrong. The people think they’ll be worse off. Journos need to stop deciding public opinion before it has had a chance to form, let alone be sampled.
John Carter was willing to help out a local business man late last year, however dodgy his desire to run his private business on public land against local wishes might have been. But when the people of Rodney are desperately calling out for a local MP to support their bill to be excluded from the SuperShitty, John has gone deaf. As have his fellow Rodney MPs John Key and Lockwood Smith.
Bill English in the House yesterday: “In the Budget the projected wage increases exceed projected inflation.”
From the Budget: change in real wages over March 2011 year, -1.4%. change in real years in year to March 2012, -0.6%
Feeling the heat in Highwater-gate, John Key resorted to a ridiculous ‘may or may not’ defence in the House under questioning from Pete Hodgson. No-one’s buying it. Colin Espiner writes “Everyone in the press gallery knows that Key has an interest in a vineyard… we all got very nice bottles of pinot noir from Central Otago last Christmas, with “JK” emblazoned on the label.”
Worldwide it is the hottest Jan-Feb-March-April on record. Heat waves have already killed tens of thousands in the last few years. In India 2010 is believed to be the hottest summer in the country since records began in the late 1800s, and hundreds are dead. While ACT and Federated Farmers bitch and moan about the costs of the ETS, the deaths will keep coming.
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Congratulations Aucklanders, you are about to become the owners of a supercity. It was forced on you with no referendum and the your concerns have been ignored. This is being done to suit business, not the needs of Aucklanders. Democracy just gets in the way. Rodney Hide said the set up cost would be “minuscule”. And it’s cost you just $200 million… so far.
