Over 2,000 people a day are joining the Facebook group to save Radio New Zealand from National’s cuts, which would turn it into another crap commercial outlet. There are a lot of outraged people who voted for a ‘brighter future’ among those 10,000. The backlash is growing.
Labour is a pretty risk-adverse organisation. Making those two unorthodox attacks on those two ministers, and pulling it off both times, shows that Labour has got the measure of Key’s drop-kick ministers and is feeling more confident in itself.
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An excellent piece by Rod Oram in the SST. More sophisticated governments are focusing on smart and sustainable growth but National thinks wealth comes from more milk and selling off our irreplaceable natural resources as quickly as possible.
The new Aussie Liberal leader, Tony Abbott, has been widely derided for saying Australia should ape National’s economic policies. “Abbott’s remark came the day that Australia’s unemployment rate fell from 5.5 to 5.3 per cent. The NZ rate? It’s 7.3 per cent.” We should copy their stimulus policy, not the other way round.
Briar March and Lyn Collie have gained another award yesterday for their documentary There Once Was an Island:Te Henua e Noho at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Montana USA.
I’m personally rapt at the recognition it has been getting and I can’t wait to see it on the big-screen in New Zealand myself. Should be better than showing on our TV.
At TED2010, Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world’s energy future, describing the need for “miracles†to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he’s backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050.
Prime Minister John Key is the worst enemy New Zealand’s conservation estate has had in decades. Not content with the destruction caused by mining our most precious conservation areas, Key is pushing to sell off access to the conservation estate to the highest bidders.
Climate change deniers spend a lot of time picking at motes – occasional errors in climate change science. Why is there so little attention to the beams – incorrect and dishonest denier claims and tactics?
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There will be some maintenance going on this evening starting about 7pm and hopefully not lasting long.
The new site seems to be stable, so I’ll be removing the old site at www2. That will allow the new site to start using widgets and to move from the temporary ads to the final advertisement systems.
Tracey Watkins writes that National is pissing off important constituencies and Labour’s messages are resonating. Key promised the world to everyone, he has failed to do anything for anyone except the wealthy elite. And public opinion is turning.
So Key’s “party central” plan for Queen’s Wharf seems to be dead in the water, after Auckland Mayors labeled it a “monstrosity” and refused to fund it.
Are these the prudent decisions of leaders who don’t want the city saddled with expensive white elephants, or the timid decisions of leaders who are without vision and averse to risk?
If you’re not familiar with the manifold reasons why the news you get from corporate media is crap, here’s Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe. It’s funny, incisive and merciless.
It’s also a very damning indictment of the modern Fourth Estate that explodes the myths around corporations acting as watchdogs on behalf of citizens against powerful anti-democratic interests.
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It is not often that I compliment the authors that write for No Minister. However I have to compliment SageNZ for his prescient […]
In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century go […]
The letter warning school boards not to speak out over national standards is an outrage, but John Key and his National Party have a long and dishonourable record of trying to shut down those who speak out to oppose them.
There’s no better illustration of why we need a properly funded Radio NZ than the way the debate over National’s funding cuts have played out on Radio NZ compared to its commercial counterparts.
Guess what? Editing the Herald is back for the new year and it’s as sharp as ever.
The Herald is still full of casual idiocy, incredible stuff ups (like the headline that went to print on page 3 as “HeadXXX”), and the bizarreness of Garth George.
EtH skewers it all brilliantly.
When you’ve got a Finance Minister who can’t get stats right, a Social Welfare Minister who can’t define her flagship policy, and an Education Minister who can’t explain her flagship policy, it’s easy for an incompetent Women’s Affairs Minister to slip through.
John Key’s recent stint at the Big Gay Out wasn’t all target marketing and niche political branding. He also had a run in with living-wage campaigners who took him to task for his government’s poor response to minimum wage earners and asked if he could live on the minimum wage.
The Northern Action Group has, with the support of 80% of Northern Rodney District, been petitioning the Government to leave Northern Rodney out […]
Click through to see Phil Goff take John Key down a peg. Sloppy home insulation. Sloppy, broken cycleway promises. Sloppy, unfilfulled Youth Guarantee. Sloppy & uncaring on unemployment. Sloppy abuse of the people of McGehan Close. A sloppy, do nothing PM.
While measures to fix problems in investments are good, the best approach is increase financial literacy. However Anne Tolly has already shown she does not understand education. Her idiotic decisions to destroy adult community education has removed the best channel for promoting knowledge amongst current investors. This suggests that the government isn’t serious and we are seeing more PR than substantive measures.
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An interesting piece from One News. Bill English gave another underwhelming speech on National’s economic plan, which basically boiled down to ‘tax cuts!’. A young businesswoman in the audience told English she wanted a real plan. His response: ‘tax cuts’. But he could give no proof his tax cuts would improve the economy.
The backlash to National’s attack on Radio NZ is beginning, and it looks like Jonathan Coleman may have bitten off more than he can chew.
Take the Save Radio New Zealand group on Facebook. In less than 24 hours it has 1700 2800 3500 supporters, with 10 more joining every minute.
John Armstrong: “Anne Tolley’s reluctance to explain [national standards] left the distinct impression she was less than 100 per cent sure.†It was a bit more than an impression, and it was a bit less than 100%. Tolley clearly had no clue what she was talking about.
Have a listen to today’s interview of Helen Clark by RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan on the UNDP and aid strategies during times of international […]
Jonathan Coleman has described public broadcasting as being like North Korean propaganda. Turns out the wee fella isn’t afraid to force operational changes on our most independent broadcaster and threaten to sack the board if he doesn’t get his way.
BLiP gives the best definition of the Key Government’s billion dollar Whanau Ora plan to date: “Whanau Ora = privatisation of social services.â€
Yeah, it does. But I’m still struggling to understand what social services. Will Whanau Ora providers be running hospitals and clinics? Will they be running schools? Will they be making dole and super payments?
Is it just me or does this ‘financial hub’ idea of John Key’s sound a bit too much like a get rich quick scheme? Apparently all we have to do is exempt foreign owners of foreign assets stored in NZ-based trusts from tax and the money will roll in.
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