National gets a smacking on the housing crisis
Fair to say that Simon Bridges’ claim that there is no housing crisis has – not gone down well. National – you have a problem.
simon bridges
Bridges to Nowhere
Lying, incompetent or duped. One of these descriptions applies to Transport Minister Simon Bridges. He’s been sprung allowing Kiwirail to mothball a rail line he has repeatedly said was not under threat. What did he know and when? If he didn’t know, why the hell didn’t he know?
Caption Contest
Keep it seemly.
More Nat infighting
Williamson lashes out at Bridges. The Nats would usually prefer to handle this sort of conflict behind behind closed doors.
Bridges scandal
Another Nat scandal to add to the list. Rob Salmond demolishes Bridges.
Robbie would be turning in his grave
Simon Bridges wants to ease Auckland’s congestion by investing more into local roads and less in rail. And by the looks of things he wants to politicise transport funding in a way that has not occurred for decades.
National’s innumeracy and Auckland’s Housing crisis
Radio New Zealand’s Todd Niall has investigated figures recently advanced by Simon Bridges and Nick Smith used to attack Auckland Council and has discovered that the figures are somewhat rubbery.
Burn the Cabinet Manual
Key won’t take any action over Simon Bridges’ clear breach (excellent work by Rob Salmond at Polity) of the Cabinet Manual. So, might as well burn the thing, at least for the remainder of this government’s term. Key has no intention of being held to account, or holding his ministers to account, by or for anything at all.
Trying to get the truth out of a Nat
Russel Norman tries to get the truth out of Simon Bridges. Bridges really really doesn’t want to admit that NZ’s emissions have increased by 20% from 2008 to 2012. 5 minutes and 10 seconds of painful nonsense to get an answer…
Oh dear – National’s “white elephant” is still growing?
Public transport traffic in Auckland keeps growing by large 7.7% per year. Car traffic despite all of the motorway and roading improvements grew by just 2.3% in the whole period of 2006 and 2013 amongst commuters. But our current idiotic National transport minister wants more roads? And won’t let Aucklanders decide what they should do despite them voting with their AT Hop cards.
Hello National, bye bye breaks …
Our guest poster has a look at the Employment relations Amendment Bill that National will attempt to sneak through during Labour’s leadership primary. This bill is clearly targeted at those employees who are most vulnerable. It reinforces the Nat’s slow and steady but effective chipping away of employee’s rights and will really resonate with its core constituency
NRT: MBIE doesn’t care about conservation
No Right Turn turns his attention back to the hapless ministerial fool , Simon Bridges. It turns out that when he approved oil exploration in our biggest forest park without realising that he had, it was also what his advice had been. MoBIE simply didn’t consider if the oil exploration and presumably the eventual exploitation would conflict with something as economically vital as tourism. In fact, they appear to have ignored all other claims and uses of the land.
Remembering forestry workers
The deaths of forestry workers are outrageous & sad. Helen Kelly has campaigned extremely well for change. An international day of remembrance yesterday, a procession on parliament today – a belated govt Bill that is an improvement, but does not go far enough.
iPredict needs “Next National Minister Resignation”
Who will it be? Judith? Simon? Hekia? Amy? Or a surprise?
ImperatorFish: A day in the life of Simon Bridges
ImperatorFish generously allows us to repost some of his posts. It was impossible to resist this satire.
“Just asked Hekia what I should do. I told her I feel like I’m the weakest link in the entire Cabinet. I could swear I saw relief on her face as I said it. “Don’t you dare leave,” she told me.“
Bridges is rattled, and confused
Simon Bridges has not had a good week. His knowledge of the whereabouts of pristine natural areas is as reliable as his knowledge of Russel Norman’s ministerial career.
NRT: Is the Minister of Energy a muppet?
When looking at Simon Bridges – a purported government minister. You have to remember that he is damn sloppy even for a politician. But oh so typical of his usual muppet behaviour is that he wasn’t aware that he was opening up our biggest forest park for oil and gas exploration. Of course it could just be National’s bulldoze anything for a little immediate profit….
Drill baby drill
Two days after the IPCC has warned us of the threat posed by climate change and Simon Bridges has announced a huge block offer of parts of New Zealand and much of its territorial water. This will include the pristine waters off Auckland’s west coast, home of Maui’s dolphin. In a world that has to address its consumption of petroleum you have to question if it is worth the risk.
Power disconnections increase as hardship grants are cut
Radio New Zealand has reported that power disconnections have soared at the same time that WINZ hardship grants have plummeted. Simon Bridges has suggested that it is the power companies fault. The Government should be blaming increasing poverty and inadequate WINZ hardship grants instead.
LocalBodies: National Slumps in Polls As Ministers Struggle
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…
LB: Greens’ Solar Sense and National’s Nonsense
Local Bodies looks at some (very cool) solar installations and the Greens solar policy. We are now seeing a stark contrast between a Government desperate to support the status quo of increasing charges and large company profits, while the future focussed Greens are truly progressive in their thinking.
Is it always better late than never?
Minister of Labour Simon Bridges today said he welcomed the Review of Forestry Safety and that he has asked Worksafe NZ to review […]
NRT: Climate change: More windfall profits
The Emissions Trading Scheme was never a particularly good way of curbing greenhouse emissions and the way that National gutted it made it distinctly worse. Now we are in a position where National has found a way to use it to providing even more polluter welfare.
Greenpeace v Simon Bridges
The Greenpeace Yacht Vega has set up camp in the area that Andarko wants to drill for deep sea oil. The recent law changes designed by Simon Bridges was meant to cover all possible loopholes. But has he left one open?
Angry Simon implodes on Campbell Live
This must be one of the worst “interviews” given by an NZ cabinet minster tonight on Campbell Live. Simon Bridges all bluster, anger, spin and diversions, and fails to answer the real questions about the dangers of the deep sea drilling off NZ’s coast. The ugly face of John Key’s government. [Update: Youtube video of the interview]
Armstrong on Nat’s attack on wages
John Armstrong has a good column on National’s attack on Kiwi workers today. Covering off David Cunliffe’s speech to the CTU, Armstrong talks […]
Simon Bridges caught fibbing again
Simon Bridges has been keeping a low profile lately but he’s in the news again today, and onceagain he’s been caught being somewhat less than honest.
It turns out he’s been caught trying to bury a report showing a huge quarterly jump in electricity prices.
How National plans to smash collective agreements
Over the coming weeks I’m going to go through each of National’s changes to employment law to show how they will make our workplaces less fair and reduce Kiwis’ pay.
The first is the change allowing the boss to refuse to negotiate a collective agreement.
Bridges can’t even lie straight in bed
They say you can tell a pathological liar by the fact they’re no longer just lying about the big stuff, but start telling petty, irrelevant lies that hardly even seem worth it.
Simon Bridges – pants on fire
It looks like it’s not just workers’ rights and health and safety that Simon Bridges has truth issues with…
Simon Bridges’ ongoing struggle with the truth
Simon Bridges has been caught in a lie again.
This time it’s about the vital matter of forestry health and safety.
Putting this guy in charge of the employment portfolio shows just how little National think of Kiwi workers.
Bridges caught out by own bullshit
Simon Bridges’ loose relationship with the truth has got him in trouble just a few weeks into his first big test as Minister of Labour. It started last week when he got caught off guard by an innocuous question from Darien Fenton…
NZ dis-empower
A year ago the nats announced massive changes to employment law. And then they went quiet.
Now with a new Minister of Labour they’ve decided it’s time to move.
ImperatorFish: Arrest of The Environment ends campaign of terror against businesses
ImperatorFish: John Key’s Reshuffle Analysed
The biggest winner is Dr Nick Smith. He returns to Cabinet after his fall from grace last year, and is appointed as Minister for Creating a Perception of Crisis in Order to Justify Savage Cutbacks in Entitlements.
The biggest losers are Kate Wilkinson and Phil Heatley, who have been dropped from Cabinet altogether. Both have failed to perform, and their inability to communicate with the smoothness of someone like Hekia Parata will have counted against them.
Drive-by posting
A few passing comments on Bridges, Shearer, and Williams.