Is National Just Inconsistent or Incompetent?
National’s new job-creation scheme appears to be inconsistent with their desire to fully re-instate the 90-day trial period.
corporate welfare
Rio Tinto brinkmanship
Rio Tinto has delayed the signing of an electricity supply agreement with Meridian Energy by a month giving rise to the possibility that more corporate welfare will be demanded from the Government.
Political donations and conflicts of interest
Whether it’s about election donations or portfolios, some people do seem to think MPs should always get the benefit of the doubt.
NRT: Rewarding failure
What seems to be the defining feature of this government is in providing corporate welfare to incompetents who underbid their competition for government […]
Axe the Copper Tax
A coalition of organisations as diverse as InternetNZ, TUANZ, a number of corporates, Unite Union and even Kiwiblog are starting a campaign to oppose Government plans to stop the cost of copper broadband connections to retail users being reduced to the fair price determined by the Commerce Commission so that Chorus can recover unbudgeted costs on the fibre rollout.
Fair trade
Farrar and Mallard want us to give the NZRU a statue to trade back one of Holyoake that the government accidentally sold them along with the old State Services building. How about saying to the NZRU, ‘We accidentally sold you a statue but, hey, you remember all that money we gave you to under-write your loss-making tournament? Maybe you could give us our fucken statue back without being dicks about it?
Re-run: SkyCity’s convention centre would need $10m+ subsidies – MED
A year ago, I wrote that SkyCity was pursuing the dirty practice of ‘subvention’ – where owners of white elephant infrastructure extort governments for subsidies – for the convention centre. The msm has caught up and is reporting on it now. MED denies there will be any subvention; but Joyce says it’s all on the table. And what about the $10m+ in operating subsidies the centre would need?
Joyce’s dirty deals: international convention centre
Steven ‘White Elephant’ Joyce isn’t content with building highways to nowhere with costs that exceed the benefits. Now he wants an international convention centre in Auckland that’s just as pointless. But he doesn’t want the government to pay. So, he’s cutting a dirty deal with more law for sale and more pokie machines blighting our communities.
A sharp contrast
When people say ‘there’s no difference between the two big parties’ or ‘where are the policies’, it’s shorthand for ‘I haven’t been paying attention’. We had a great example of the contrast yesterday. National would subsidise expansion of dairy by selling our assets; Labour would get modern equipment to poor schoolkids by cutting sports subsidies to rich schools.
Corporate welfare
I’ve got no problem with the government helping out those who are genuinely in need but forcing the taxpayer fork out $400 million […]
Nats give ticket-clipper to private hospitals
The government has changed the rules so that DHBs can make standing contracts for private hospitals to perform public elective surgeries. If DHBs […]