Asking the second question
Key’s best trick is to answer questions with impressive or technical sounding assertions that stop the line of questioning but don’t actually tell […]
The Ministry of National Affairs
Here’s a good ten minutes from the middle of Winston’s post budget address yesterday. The highlight is around four minutes in, on National’s burgeoning bureaucracy: Did […]
Cumulative Effect
The Press (Budget Doesn’t Impress Family) looks at the effect of the tax cuts on an average family with a combined income of […]
Where’s the beef John?
Key kicks off this Close Up interview by trying to dampen down rising expectations of National’s tax package and make himself some wiggle […]
National’s cruel hoax
Well the budget is out and across the country the public are looking at their tax cuts and asking “is that it?” and […]
Roy Morgan
There was a Roy Morgan poll out yesterday showing a gap of 14 between National and Labour. Party support varied only slightly from […]
“As slippery as a snake in wet grass”
John Campbell interviews John Key on the budget, refusing to let him get away with merely repeating his focus-grouped lines. At about the […]
Tax cut graphs and full calculator
Here are graphs of the portion of income going on tax and the portion of reduction in tax for Kiwis under the Budget’s […]
Happy 1000th.
Well that happened fast. This is the 1001st public post on The Standard. That is assuming I get it in before the next […]
Drinking Liberally liberally attended
The launch of Drinking Liberally at the Southern Cross last night was a blast. The organisers had been hoping for 20 plus people […]
Tax cut calculator
As much as I despair to see our political discourse descend into a bidding war on taxes, it’s worth looking at Infometrics’ online […]
Commentators on the Budget
From John Armstrong in The Herald: Is it enough? Michael Cullen has given it his best shot. He has been about as generous […]
Budget 2008: Analysis
The tax cuts are smaller up front than Labour had been hoping to deliver but the economic position at present means there is […]
Budget 2008: Spending
The tax cuts are the cornerstone of this budget but there is also important new spending. New Spending in the Budget: $172.3 million […]
Budget 2008: Tax cuts
Labour has announced a three year tax cut package worth $10.6 billion. Here’s a table showing the changes: Current 15.00% 21.00% 33.00% 39.00% […]
Telling porkies
The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’: […]
Water, water everywhere, why not stop to think?
From the MP who tried to ban water comes ‘don’t use crash statistics to work out which roads are dangerous’. Writing in the […]
Feeling mean? Which Disney villain are you?
Get “scientific” with this poll and determine “which Disney villain are you”?
National’s campaign to muzzle union continues
It seems National has succeeded in the first step of its campaign to muzzle the EPMU and the fifty thousand workers it represents. […]
Lazy academic calls Pacific Island workers lazy
Economist Greg Clydesdale has released a report in which he says Pacific Islanders are a drain on the New Zealand economy (exhibiting “significant […]
National still won’t say what they’d do
Seemingly content to coast along on the “time for a change” sentiment, the National Party are still refusing to offer any substantive details […]
Nandor to stay in Parliament until election
Nandor Tanczos has just announced he will not be standing down from Parliament early to let Russel Norman in because former MP Mike […]
Let political animals run free
Good on Breakfast for following our lead by playing the full clip of Goff’s AltTv interview this morning and saying ‘make up your […]
Spin Bingo: Budget Edition
Well it’s Budget day tomorrow and we’ve got our man Steve Pierson going to the lock-up so we can get you a good […]
Beat-up
Well, I’ve seen the video of Goff on Alt TV and I really can’t see what all the fuss is about. Phil Goff’s […]
National – more women-friendly?
Colin Espiner pointed it out the other week, National “needs more women. Never over-represented in National at the best of times, the party […]
Kremlinology: National on work rights
National’s refusal to say what it stands for is becoming so ridiculous we have resorted to the Cold War art of Kremlinology. Today, […]
On the distribution of income
See that line that says minimum wage? Nearly half of kiwis earn less than that. Seven months ago, that was me. I was […]
An unfair advantage?
Oscar Pistorius now the chance to become the first amputee to compete on the track at the Olympics. The 21-year-old who runs on artificial carbon fibre legs […]
Herald gets it right
Good to see the New Zealand Herald is starting a campaign to let us know the policy cost of National’s likely massive tax […]
Sockpuppet
The day there was no news
Key lacks leadership on climate change
National has pulled its support for the emissions trading scheme which is intended to set limits on the emission of greenhouse gases and […]
National: we’ll borrow for tax cuts for the rich
Discovering National’s policy is a bit like the old art of Kremlinology, when Western intelligence agencies would attempt to discover the inner workings […]
Getting the facts straight
When asked on Morning Report (MP3 link) today why National was bringing up the issue of MMP now, Key remarked: “[the public] were […]