Adapting to the oil endgame
Today oil broke US$111 a barrel. Two weeks ago the record price was $101. Just six months ago the price broke $80 for […]
Journalists react to attack on media freedom
Yesterday in Parliament, Winston Peters tabled a letter of protest from the Herald journalists’ chapel to APN chief executive Martin Simons. The letter […]
Tax cuts = no rise in the minimum wage?
From the ABC site: “A peak business group says the Federal Government’s promised tax cuts should be taken into account when deciding on […]
Viva Obama
Following a_y_b’s post about the deliciously punny Yes, Pecan! ice cream, we’ve found some more Obama-flavoured silliness which is also, incidentally, the best […]
Yes, Pecan!
Ben and Jerry’s icecream endorsed Obama when Edwards pulled out. To celebrate Obama’s win in Vermont, Slate recently ran a competition to name […]
PSA on core public service
Richard Wagstaff from the PSA was interviewed by Sunrise on John Key’s plan to undermine the public service this morning. He notes Key’s […]
Connell evasive over trip
Brian Connell won’t say whether he’s planning on taking his wife on the taxpayer-funded Speaker’s tour. In the clip below Faafoi asks Connell […]
Key to scrap research fund
From Radio NZ: National says it will scrap a major new research and development fund for the pastoral and food industries if it […]
National confirms Landcorp would be sold (?)
We have an interesting mixed message (once again) from National on asset sales. David Carter is quoted in the NZ Farmers Weekly as […]
Slippery John in search of a hot-button
To follow on from Steve’s post earlier today, it looks like National’s focus groups have thrown them up another hot-button issue – Key […]
Canadian Pension Fund’s asset-strip plan
The Canadian Pension Fund is planning to asset-strip Auckland Airport. Once they have control they would demand ‘hyper-dividends’ three times the size of […]
Supply Side Jesus
Now to be perfectly honest I’ve never really thought that seven sins was enough. I was delighted to see that the Vatican has […]
Which jobs would Key cut?
It’s hard to get a straight answer out of John Key, so this is probably an exercise in futility, but Key’s announcement that National […]
Reactions to New Zealand Fast Forward
Groups that issued press releases welcoming the Government announcement of the $700 million research and development fund for argiculture (press releases on Scoop): […]
Clinton’s 3am ad
Hillary Clinton’s ad warning of a national emergency at 3am and featuring sleeping children has been considered highly politically effective. It’s spawned hundred […]
Dolla Dolla Bill, Y’all
Days after saying ‘we’ve always said, we aren’t that worried about, um, whether the Crown needs to borrow a bit of money [for […]
Yawn
Well National’s finally got their line straight on the research fund and, despite me old mate Dancer’s prediction, they are not supporting it. […]
Flying the Standard in Spain
Congratulations to the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party for winning their second four-year term under Prime Minister José Zapatero. Zapatero’s surprise victory in 2004 […]
$700m for R&D
The Dom reports that “Prime Minister Helen Clark unveiled the $700 million funding boost for research, development and innovation projects today and said […]
Stepping in
No Right Turn makes a good point about the government’s $700 million innovation fund for the agricultural and food sector: I’m a little […]
Most Aussies support Kyoto protocol
The ABC reports: “Today Australia becomes an official member of the Kyoto club after the initial ratification documents were lodged with the United […]
Some free publicity for the NBR
Speaking of humour, that joke of a newspaper the NBR has had a crack at us again. According to them The Standard is […]
Expect National to back research funding boost
At lunchtime today it is expected that the government will announce a major funding boost to promote innovation in food science, agricultural research […]
Herald Editorial – ‘Why assets sales were worthwhile’
Tomorrow – ‘Slavery: it wasn’t so bad when you think about it’
Ralston’s hyprocrisy hyperbole
In an article on the economy that would have had my high-school economics teacher in fits, Bill Ralston says that it is hypocritical […]
Roy Morgan
The latest Roy Morgan poll is out, covering the period February 18 – March 2. The poll shows National still able to govern […]
New Zealand, a great place to do business
At 30%, the corporate tax is lower than or equal to most developed countries’. Our GST is only 12.5%, in most developed countries […]
A blast to the past
Polling consistently around 1% ACT have decided that the only way forward is rejuvenation and fresh ideas.
Free Speech Coalition TV spot
A trusted source tells us that following their most recent failed EFA protest, Cameron Slater (Whaleoil) and National Party blogger David Farrar might […]
Flight of the bumble-key
Pythonesque
According to the Herald some people marched down Queen Street against the Electoral Finance Act on Saturday. Apparently they were protesting the removal […]
Key’s Australian excuse
On the 20th of December, John Key was reported in the Bay Report as saying “we would love to see wages drop” while talking […]
No, he meant “infrastructure”, he really, really did
AYB’s confidence in English as a frontman for National may already have taken a knock as the second half of the dynamic duo […]
Once bitten
No surprise to see English fronting the Toll debate given Slippery John’s abysmal performance this week. Check out Bill in the background of […]
What we can’t tell you
There is more to the John Key “we would love to see wages drop” story than you have been able to read in […]
Stripped
The two major dailies have been running bizarre editorial lines against the government’s intervention to block the sale of Auckland Airport, even as […]