Search Results » what was dirty politics about
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Salt in the wound
Two years ago, this government sparked the biggest protests in a generation when it tried to open up the most precious parts of our conservation estate to mining. The policy got canned but the agenda has continued below the surface. Now, 100 DoC staff have been sacked while the MED unit for oil drilling and mining will nearly double its staff.
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SkyCity shows need to clamp down on lobbyists
“Substitute the words “convention centre” for “suitcase of cash” and the transaction looks very clear.”*
National wants to change the rules for another foreign corporate. Wouldn’t move an inch for Kiwirail jobs. Maybe that’s because Kiwirail didn’t donate 100K to National (and Labour) in the past decade like SkyCity did.
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Curiouser and curiouser
It looks like the Labour party site was breached from National HQ.
Does this mean National are still laundering their dirty tricks though their pet bloggers?
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Genuine progress
This story didn’t get any big headlines. This story slipped by almost completely under the radar. But it’s a very important story. Much more important for New Zealand’s development than the smoke and mirrors of the do-nothing budget.
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Jon Stephenson replies to critics
PM John Key attacked journalist Jon Stephenson, calling him not credible over his claims on SAS links to the torture of prisoners in Afghanistan. Now Stephenson has replied to his critics, in detail.
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The “big issues”
John Key is whinging about how labour isn’t focusing on the “big issues”
But he and his government have been avoiding the big issues for years.
That’s not surprising given how badly they do on these big issues. But it’s still pitiful to see them whinging about it.
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Anatomy of a lie
Hone Harawira left himself open to attack with his comments on Te Karere.
But that doesn’t excuse the disgraceful beat-up executed so well by the right’s smear machine.
If this is how the election is gonna play out it’ll be no good for anyone.
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Spending cuts I’d like to see – No 3
Following two years of unsustainable tax cuts and economic mismanagement, National appears certain to rebalance the books with spending cuts. But what will they choose to cut? George.com asks: ‘how about the $4.2 billion in roading projects that will return, at best, just $3 billion of benefits?’
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Is Joyce too big to fail?
In 2009, Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English survived a corruption scandal that would have sunk a less important minister. Key couldn’t afford to lose him. Now, evidence continues to emerge of how Steven Joyce gave his old company a sweetheart loan against the official advise. Do you think John Key will act or is Joyce too big to fail?
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Labour’s greatest challenge for 2011?
The Sunday Star-Times has produced an interesting article on the role of emotion in people’s voter choices leading into this year’s General Election. […]
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Doing nothing in the face of climate change crisis
The Commissioner for the Environment says New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions will be 26% above 1990 levels in 2020, compared to the Nats’ promise to cut them by 10-20% – leaving us with a $1b bill. Worse, the IEA shows that even if we and other countries meet our promised cuts its only half of what’s needed to avert disaster.
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The Smiths: Getting it Right
Lockwood and Nick did good work yesterday. So praise where praise is due: Keep it up boys.
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The next ACT
Key is strongly backing Hide.
That might be because he doesn’t want to deal with the ideologues who would replace him. Or it might be because Hide knows where the skeletons are buried.
Either way Key’s going to find it harder and harder to distance himself from the mess.
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Key’s dilemma
This weekend Key will start (literally) cashing in his political capital by trading off Kiwi workers’ rights for business backing.
But by pushing for these changes his backers risk the second-term National majority they need to get their hands on our assets.
It seems their bad habit of putting short-term profit ahead of long-term sustainable gains has carried over into the political sphere.
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Who’d be an MP?
Who’d be an MP? In many ways it’s a dog of a job, and the prospect of really “making a difference” seems remote. Politics seems to bring out the worst in people, and too many politicians have earned the low esteem in which they are held by the public. But despite all this, some people are drawn to politics for all the right reasons. Good on you all. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
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Finlayson’s undeclared company
It appears Attorney-General Chris Finlayson has been failing to declare his interest in a company for years. David Parker stood down as Attorney-General when he thought he had signed a false declaration. Will Finlayson? Will John Key match Phil Goff’s standards? [Update: Finlayson says he has no pecuniary interest. Irrelevant. All directorships must be declared. The A-G should be able to read the rules]
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Schedule 4 back-down won’t solve the problem
If, as seems increasingly likely, the Government drops its plans to desecrate the best of schedule 4 land, will it be cause for celebration? In a word, no. Kathy at Greenpeace weblog examines Brownlee and his wet dreams
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Finlayson covering for corrupt judge?
A senior judge is under investigation for sitting on a case in which his business partner, whom he owed $240,000, was a lawyer. The investigation could result in a recommendation to the Attorney-General that the judge be sacked. But Attorney-General Chris Finlayson has trampled over the process and has said he will not act against Justice Wilson, who is a mate of his from their days at Bell Gully.
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The numbers on mining don’t stack up
There’s a hell of a lot of mis-information and confusing numbers about the economic potential of mining around, and that suits Gerry Brownlee and National because it lets them exaggerate the case for opening up the National Parks. Remember, more mining is the government’s one big plan for the economy but they can’t even give a ballpark figure on how much they expect the country to gain.
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Herald cans fact-checking, opts for dogwhistles
The New Zealand Herald has never been shy of attacking blogs for their lack of journalistic standards and editorial rigour, but given some of their recent work you’ve got to wonder who they think they’re kidding.
Take today’s woeful piece by Dita De Boni pontificating about Charles Chauvel and those screaming kids on his plane.
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Who were the Nat leakers?
Michael is dead right. The most important thing about the Hollow Men is not how Nicky Hager got the information but what the information is. It reveals National’s modern politics in all its unprincipled ugliness. Nonetheless, which Nats gave Hager the information is a subject of legitimate interest. I have some theories.
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Brownlee: Not an ardent follower of fashion. Merely obsolete.
One of the things that has surprised me about the government and Brownlee’s energy policy is that it is so mundane and 20th […]
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Politicisation of ACC continues
Frogblog has another example of the continuing politicisation of the public service under National. I meant to post on this a while back, […]
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Now for the spin
It’s interesting to see how National’s spin doctors are trying to frame the Government’s pathetic and shameful emissions reduction target of 10-20% by […]
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Crosby – Posturing with little substance
Lynton Crosby of the political spinners Crosby/Textor, who ‘advised’ both John Key and Don Brash, has finally given up on trying to pursue […]
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Questions
We should expect National as the political arm of business to surround itself with dirty money and conflicts of interest. As a self-proclaimed […]
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Four wheels good, two wheels bad
The Government is taking nearly half a billion dollars out of public transport, cycling, walking, road maintance, and traffic policing to pay for […]
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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 […]
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No, Bill.
I felt a pang of pity for Bill English tonight as I watched TV3 roll out another secret tape. After all, “winning is […]
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Kiwis waking up to Nats’ secret agenda
According to the TV3 poll last night, 46% of voters believe National has a secret agenda. And why wouldn’t they? We’ve had Bill English […]
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3 more points on the secret agenda tapes
1) A secret agenda is not something that people talk about in public or when they know the information will get to the […]
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Break-in
This just in from Radio NZ: Police are investigating a break-in at the electorate office of a senior Labour MP, David Cunliffe, in […]
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The stolen emails defence
So National has finally reverted to the ‘stolen emails’ defence to combat the damaging recordings from the weekend’s party conference. I’m only surprised […]
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Busted
Nicky Hager’s piece in today’s Sunday Star Times has confirmed what we all suspected: Crosby Textor are the creators of Brand Key. For […]
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Scum
Cameron Slater’s co-blogger Steady Eddy is back to his creepy brownshirt tricks again and this time his target is Labour Party candidate Kate […]
