Slash and pray
The Reserve Bank has cut 1.5% off the official cash rate, bringing it down to 5%. The rate has now been cut 2.5% […]
Laying the foundations
Let’s not fool ourselves that what we’ve seen from National over the last 24 hours on to the shortfall in the ACC non-earners […]
Merriam Webster word of the year: Bailout
It often provides an interesting take on what’s on people’s minds. The top ten was filled out by: Vet Socialism Maverick Bipartisan Trepidation […]
Nowhere to Hide
“Far too much irksome regulation is putting unnecessary burdens on households and businesses,” says Rodney Hide. Problem is, for all his rhetoric, Rodney […]
Drinking Liberally – Christchurch
Matthew Hooton calls Drinking Liberally ‘a trendy leftie clique’. Well, I’m not sure I would agree with mad Matt on the ‘clique’ bit, […]
It’s 3am again
Armstrong’s a little more charitable in relation to National’s dithering on the evacuation of Kiwis from Bangkok than I would have been. Yes, […]
A smoke-screen for the privatisation brigade
Now that didn’t take long. Well rehearsed from the 1990s, National has already started using the privileged position of government to conjure up […]
Godwinin’
More gold from Lyndon Hood: Blogger Still Maintains Clark Just Like Mugabe The power-sharing arrangement Helen Clark has permitted after the opposition National […]
Fiasco
John Key’s first test as Prime Minister in a crisis is turning into a bloody fiasco, with the leader of the opposition having […]
Garth McVicar
Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar’s analysis of prisons today: “Under our present prison policy the inmates are basically running the prison” Why […]
First days on the job disappoint
The journos don’t seem to have been very impressed by Key now that he has returned to take up the reins of government. […]
Mythbusting: we can’t cut emissions from agriculture
This classic myth is used by National/ACT as an excuse to not do anything about climate change and, now, to attempt to undermine […]
More to worry about
John Key said yesterday that he expects growth in “the next financial year to be pretty close to zero”. That means he’s anticipating […]
ACT snaps up Hollow Men star
The Sunday Star Times reported yesterday that ACT had “snapped up” former Brash advisor Peter Keenan, one of the lead stars of Nicky […]
CTU calls for fairer tax cuts
The Council of Trade Unions is calling on National to re-jig its tax package to give it more balance. And fair enough too […]
The housing question
Good housing is a foundation of a healthy society, and it is something that New Zealand has long lacked. Despite leading the world […]
Anatomy of a honeymoon piece
Most of our political journalists are more than capable of producing informative, insightful pieces. For instance, Claire Trevett wrote an excellent series of […]
Act lied and gets away with it
At the Media Law Journal, Wellington based media lawyer Steven Price has been looking at the recent decisions of the Advertising Standards Complaint […]
The Mt Victoria Supplement
We were emailed the Mount Victoria Supplement a while back but I forgot to post it. It’s, um, it’s extraordinary. A good Sunday […]
More upgrades
I’ve added two front-end features to the site. Automatic comment closing and a WSIWYG comment editor. Comments get automatically closed on posts older […]
Wailin’
Foreign Minister and Whaling Spokesperson Murray McCully has announced that New Zealand will be breaching international law by not undertaking search and rescue […]
Just wondering
“National’s honeymoon has to run its course. The public – not Labour or the media – will decide when that honeymoon is over” […]
Nats scrap citizens’ jury on electoral reform
Frogblog reports: The Green Party initiative to have electoral reform reviewed and managed by a citizens’ jury has been scrapped by the National […]
The Standard Week – 21-28 November
The Standard Week has been on hiatus due to a combination of elections, forgetfulness, and binge drinking but it’s back. This week saw […]
Basin Reserve flyover
Over the last few weeks I’ve heard the odd grumble in Wellington leftie circles about the proposed Basin Reserve flyover but until now […]
The slow pols-news day quiz #1
Seems there’s so little news today, apart from the Mumbai attacks and the plane crash, that the Herald hasn’t even bothered to update […]
Brownlee’s blow-out
National/ACT has only been in power a week, but the flip-flops keep coming. Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee will not confirm that that National/ACT will […]
‘Become a nation of savers’
That’s Finance Minister Bill English’s message to Kiwis. So, that would be why he is cutting our Kiwisaver nesteggs in half to pay […]
A plea to National
Don’t let Key go abroad representing us again until he has had some diplomacy training. I can’t believe, I literally can’t believe, the […]
Small-target governing
Yesterday it was a $7bn rescue package. Today it’s preparing a contingency plan to bail out big business. But do we get details? […]
Another upgrade
Another upgrade complete. As per usual let me know if any problems (that I didn’t find in testing) show up. Please let me […]
Attention turns to local government
Seems the commentators are definately picking local government as one of the issues to watch in terms of how the new Nationaladministration handles […]
Kids set back children’s franchise 100 years
The results are in from the NZ Post-sponsored Kids Voting project, and while it’s a worthy project it nonetheless shows why we don’t […]
PPPs? No, please
I’ve never seen the sense in Public-Private Partnerships. How is it ever going to be cheaper to get a private profit-making company to […]
The departed
The UK has announced plans to increase departure tax from its airports for flights outside Europe to pay for offsetting their carbon emissions. […]
‘Cos I say so
Following Tony “cos I say so” Ryall’s media success with his plan to cut down waiting lists using the King Canute model of […]