Last Queen’s Birthday Weekend 10 people died on the roads and 32 were seriously injured. Last Easter another 12 dead, the highest toll in 18 years. This Queen’s Birthday police announced a massive crackdown on speeding. Idiots such as DPF denounced it as a “revenue gathering exercise”. But events have proved them very wrong, with the lowest toll in 54 years.
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One of the most popular uses of trusts is to hide income for tax avoidance or evasion. So, I was happy to read about the IRD’s success in a recent court case against two surgeons. The court found these two very rich men had used trusts to avoid tax to the tune of $168,000. The case will have big ramifications, potentially shutting down one of the biggest tax rorts in the country.
Wayne Eagleson isn’t doing anything wrong by going on holiday with rightwing lobbyists but there are parallels with John Key’s Highwater-gate. Eagleson doesn’t have the apparent conflicts of interest that Key has (more on that later) but both incidents give us an insight into the company that National keeps and the interests they really represent.
At a recent meeting about 100 Iwi leaders rejected the Government’s proposed reform for the Foreshore and Seabed Act. That means the issue remains a ticking time bomb for Key. He is going to have to enrage either the Maori Party or his core Iwi/Kiwi constituency. Either way there’s trouble ahead.
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The story goes that David Lange he was informed of the Rainbow Warrior bombing while lining up for the Tuckshop at Waiwera Hot Pools. As a young fella I guess I had a view of a PM as kind of distant, so I thought it was fantastic that Lange actually just stood in line like everyone else. Has ‘Brand Key’ paradoxically forced Key into a distance where he can’t act like previous PMs?
With Len Brown beating Banks in the polls the right have come out swinging.
Let’s take a quick look at the anatomy of this dirt digging beast.
Long serving MP for Dunedin North, Pete Hodgson, will step down at the next election. Nominations for the next candidate will open on July 1, and Labour’s Council has said that it is leaving the selection up to the local electorate.
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.
