‘Punch in the face’ dad guilty
What’s wrong with The Herald? Their articles Jimmy Mason on the father who punched his child in the face – and pulled him […]
Berating the Herald
from Beck Vass: “With an average jury trial taking at least 12 months, and judge-alone trials taking just six months [that’s actually from […]
Why Lee is banned from interviews
Rumour has it Melissa has been banned from giving formal interviews by National’s leadership but what’s the harm in answering a few questions […]
On the back foot
When a Government are having to defend their actions they are not setting the agenda, Given it is a week before National’s first budget […]
Carter’s attack on SAFE a diversion
So, Agriculture Minister David Carter finally creaks into action on the brutal and inhumane treatment of factory farmed pigs, then spends most of […]
Bye bye democracy
So what is this Transition Board thing that National and Act created by ramming through legislation in a huge rush last week last […]
Cyclewatch
Time: 54 days Jobs created: 0 Built (km): 0 out of 1500 Cost thus far: $50m (Budget 2009) Govt estimated cost (English): ‘Not […]
Government for the people?
The Herald recently ran an excellent piece by Dr Emma Davies and Elizabeth Rowe (from the Institute of Public Policy at AUT) – […]
Simon Power needs to do some research
Simon Power talking on Q+A on Sunday showed a abysmal ignorance about how matters operate in his own portfolio. He blamed lawyers and […]
The ‘Rankin Effect’
Why is the National government delaying its announcement of the Supercity transitional agency? The Rankin Effect. That’s the flinch you get when your […]
Government and Industry response to factory farming pathetic
When Mike King, comedian, celebrity, and front-man for the pork industry’s advertisements for the past few years found out the truth about the […]
All the misinformation fit to print
The Herald are currently running a poll asking ‘[s]hould people facing charges punishable by less than three years imprisonment be able to be […]
Drinking Liberally Auckland
Join all your favourite lefty liberal drinkers at Drinking Liberally Auckland When: 7pm, Wednesday 20 May Where: Galatos, 17 Galatos Street, Newton (just […]
Teflon off: Key gets a mauling at Press Conference
John Key’s performance at this afternoon’s 4pm Press Conference was impressive. I’ve never heard so many, ‘don’t knows’, denials, ‘I can’t tell yous’, […]
Transition Agency knocked back
Stuff is reporting that cabinet has failed to approve the make up of the Auckland Supercity transition agency. In case you’re out of […]
Rodneytactics, Rogernomics and dog-whistle DonKey
The tactics used by Rodney Hide to ram through the Auckland SuperCity legislation without reference to a select committee or referendum should not […]
Priceless
Spotted on Labour’s “Grassroots” supporters’ site.
No credible argument against referendum
This morning Radio NZ ran a report on the increasing grassroots opposition to the Government’s supercity plans. In the interview that followed it […]
Direct action against SH20 motorway begins
Protesters calling for the Government to abandon its plans to drive an above-ground motorway through the middle of Mt Albert disrupted the opening […]
1600 Dead Again
Each year and every year, around 1600 New Zealanders die prematurely because we live in cold damp houses. This “excess winter death rate” […]
Bake a cake for the LWR workers
A great initiative from the National Distribution Union: With the bank (Westpac) leaving Lane Walker Rudkin workers out in the cold without their […]
McCarten hits the mark
Matt McCarten makes some very valid points about the lack of democracy within political parties in his Herald column today. Using the Lee […]
Power on Q+A
On Q+A this morning, Justice Minister Simon Power flew a kite on some possible changes to the justice system. The first was raising […]
Changing gears: Cars of tomorrow coming soon?
Whenever I spot one of the dual electric/petrol cars I always find myself a little fascinated and a little envious. But I have […]
NACT prefer to have a filibuster
The ongoing filibuster is highlighting the intransigent nature of the NACT government. NACT ministers are getting annoyed by having to remain at the […]
Outage
There was an annoying outage in the site earlier for a few hours. The hosting site was investigating a performance issue on the […]
The Maori Party’s commitment to democracy
In an epic last-ditch defence of Aucklanders’ right to be consulted on the removal of their democracy, Labour and the Greens are currently […]
One of these things is not like the other V
One of these things is not like the other One of these things is not quite the same. Can you guess which one […]
Ratepayers to fork out lots for super-city
In the absence of any numbers about transition costs from Rodney or NACT on the super-city, Phil Twyford over at Red Alert has […]
The Defence Act is a dead letter
No Right Turn wrote a post on an important point of governance that needs more discussion. Reproduced with Idiot/Savant’s permission. Last week, we […]
The Green New Deal
The Greens have released their Green New Deal (PDF), which they hope the Government will pick up in part or in whole. It looks […]
Has anyone asked them what they think now?
Moana Mackey has been looking at old Hansards in a post on Red Alert. The topic was the Local Government Act changes in […]
The real apology
The PM’s office Melissa Lee has released an apology for her ‘crims on the motorway’ comments. Well, not a genuine apology – ‘it was […]
On filibustering and public political meetings
Labour is filibustering in the house on the Auckland super-city enabling legislation. The would-be dictator of Auckland’s future for the next year and […]
Class warfare, with bulldozers
Using Labour’s Google Map of National’s Waterview route and Google Street View, I had a look at the type of houses that National wants […]
Observations in passing
I’m a little re-created – some mysteriousness with my profile means I am re-defined “similar but different” for the time being. But I […]