The latest Newshub/Reid Research poll is a bloodbath for National- but who are the likely victims? Pollwatch is back, this time with a model for electorate winners and losers to add onto the party vote stats.
Anne Tolley has attracted adverse attention to the Youth Parliament by telling a young participant that she should not read from speech notes.
Winston Peters has commenced legal proceedings against Anne Tolley and Paula Bennett because of the leaking during last year’s election campaign of private information about a superannuation overpayment he received.
The latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study results suggests that National Standards has been a failure.
How is Trevor Mallard doing as speaker? Early signs are good.
The hit job that has just been performed on Winston Peters is a sign of how desperate National is to divert attention from Jacindamania. But I suspect the attempt will backfire.
Kim Hill had an astounding and outstanding interview with Anne Tolley this morning on RNZ. The 7.30 news was delayed 12 minutes as […]
Once again this country under National is rightly shamed in the international media.
Anne Tolley has conceeded that the Nats will not meet their objective of getting 65,000 people off the benefit in the next two years. Good. It is the wrong goal.
News broke this morning about a major mistake discovered in September 2014 during the height of an election campaign. But it was hidden from view until now. It makes you wonder how the news could have been hidden for so long.
A petition: “As Minister of Social Development we call upon Minister Anne Tolley to urgently forgive all debts incurred by people who have been forced to stay in Motels as emergency accommodation….”
The Official Information Act is now moribund and access to information beyond its scope is granted only to a chosen few and under strict conditions.
We need a welfare system that acknowledges the realities of cancer and other major medical conditions. That isn’t “special treatment”, it is basic human decency.
There’s a hard-hitting piece in the Herald today – from Jarrod Gilbert on how National has lied to the country’s face and got […]
The Rebstock Panel inquiry could be read to confirm that Child Youth and Family is unable to perform its job properly because of it is not properly resourced to provide the job. But it is clear that National is loathe to provide it with any more resources. And the elephant in the room is that the Government fails to understand that escalating child poverty is the cause the crisis.
In recent news it has been stated that the Government has let Serco off fines totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars while at the same time it is sneaking through retrospective changes to the law to deny thousands of beneficiaries money they are otherwise entitled to.
As The Standard said at the time, the Government’s decision to destroy Relationships Aotearoa could be a colossal stuff up. And this morning we learn that a Canterbury landlord has allowed access to the sensitive files left behind when RA closed. Anne Tolley must act or Anne Tolley must go.
Winston Peters was thrown out of Parliament yesterday and New Zealand First MPs walked out in sympathy for raising points of order following a personal explanation from Anne Tolley where she corrected an answer to a parliamentary question that was clearly wrong.
Relationships Aotearoa is closing its doors today, as a result of ineptitude and indifference on the part of the Government. Claimed safeguards are looking incredibly shaky. Only three of the five organisations touted to take up the work are prepared to do so. And MSD has caused upset to the Privacy Commissioner by misrepresenting his views.
Currently, child protection law means a young person leaves CYFS care at 17, but other state support, like housing and student allowances, doesn’t start until age 18.
Government incompetence, drastic cuts in funding and a refusal to provide a helping hand is likely to cause the closure of Relationships Aotearoa, a charitable entity that has existed in one form or another since 1949.
We haven’t cut their funding, there’s just been a change in their contract = We’ve cut their funding $4.8 million
The Auditor General found that no one in National Ltd™, the Māori Party, Te Puni Korkiri, or any other of its apologists can detail exactly what Whānau Ora is supposed to be doing, provide evidence of its outcomes, or explain why up to 33% of the money is being paid in “administration”. In other words, Whānau Ora is a shambles. And dodgy.
The Government has appointed Paula Restock to head an expert panel tasked to review Child Youth and Family. Even now the intent appears clear, outsource functions and cut costs. But if they were determined to improve matters they should reduce child poverty.
The Government is planning to make charities pay for police background checks. You can’t make this stuff up!
For the first time in ten years, reported cases of child abuse have declined. Minister Tolley and I are in agreement, that the […]
A recently published UNICEF report on levels of child poverty amongst developed economies suggests that despite our rockstar economy and our brighter future child poverty levels in New Zealand have stagnated since 2008 while in Australia meaningful changes have been made.
The stench of National’s dirty politics is reeking like decayed blubber. Today it appears that Anne Tolley appears to have used Cameron Slater to attack critics of their flawed education policies. The question is how much taxpayers funds did the ministers use on their vindictive support for the countries most despicable ‘blogger’?
NetworkOnNet posts about the Ministry of Education under Tolley bullying good principals though WhaleOil. And also in Education news: this week all 4-7 year olds will be eligible for a free hot school lunch… in the UK.
The extent that the National minister have been pork-barreling the roading budget for their electorates is crazy. The OIA’s show that most of the $212 million announced by John Key at the National party conference is pure pork for ministers. They are assessed as costing more money to build than they will ever produce in benefits, even using NZTA’s infamously overoptimistic assessments. National MPs and Ministers want to be seen as delivering something for their electorates before the election. So much for assessing needs based on merits. They must be really worried about this election to misuse so much pork.
The Herald on Sunday is reporting that South Auckland police have doctored crime statistics for the area by reclassifying burglary offences as less serious offences.
There is danger of reading too much into polls months out from an election. Commentators were claiming that National was too strong to lose the next election based on a rogue poll. Few looked at multiple polls, accounted for the margin of error nor the trends over past months. The last fortnight has seen a National with the latest Roy Morgan Poll plummeting from the Colmar Brunton result of 51% to 45.5%. And it is based on a lack of ministerial performance…
Police have called on Bob’s expertise to establish if the crime actually happened. We now all know thanks to Bob’s expertise, that women don’t get raped unless they are attractive, dress sexy and go out beyond their front gate at night. Besides women can’t drive like a guy or have fun like a guy. Bob knows just how women think – at least better than the police?
On 101 East on Al Jazeera. Too many people in NZ prisons, especially Maori: too many in poverty; too much money spent on prisons; not enough for low income communities; some very good community initiatives. Is this a fair representation?
The police yet again apologise for the continuing support for rape culture within their ranks. As a result, young (alleged) rape victims have been re-traumatised. The Bazley Report recommendations should have prevented this from happening. From Key, Collins & Tolley we have been hearing the low-key sound of feet dragging.
So the first car has been crushed. While ministerial grandstanding abounds, a criminologist describes it as “vindictive, malicious, petty and an undignified way of dealing with the problem”.
