Who is the white dude of the year?
Ben Torkington has proposed on twitter that there should be a white dude of the year competition. Who should be the inaugural winner of this esteemed competition and why?
steven joyce
Liar Joyce’s shifting goal posts and zero budgets
Hopelessly compromised Steven Joyce is trying to shift the goalposts from his thoroughly exposed $11.7bn lie to Labour’s “zero budgets”. He’s clutching at straws…
Joyce and English now laughing stock
Post John Key all National ever had going for it was an undeserved reputation for financial competence. Now that is gone too. It doesn’t get any worse than this 3 weeks out from an election.
A test for NZ media and democracy
The Nats are not backing down from their $11.7bn lie. The media need to call it loudly for the big lie that it is. This is now a test for NZ’s democracy.
Steven Joyce – liar or fool?
The economists have spoken, and Steven Joyce’s claim that there is a $11.7bn “hole” in Labours’ fiscal plan shows him to be either a liar or a fool. Shame on Bill English for repeating it in the debate.
National promise to “monitor the rental market” – so where do tenants send reports of rent gouging?
In the wake of the accommodation supplement fiasco Joyce has promised that the government will monitor the rental market.
Questions that the media may wish to ask Mr J – Where do tenants send reports of rent gouging? – Exactly what action will the government take when they receive these reports?
Billions of lies
The Nats are settling in to election mode – smoke and mirrors. Steven Joyce feeds us billions of dollars worth of lies.
The difference between decent folk and complete idiots
For a change I’m not going to have a rip at our local idiotic politicians. The most extreme case recently being the now infamous Dildo Baggins. Lets have a look offshore where they are often even worse…
RIP NZ satire
Key’s Xmas Reshuffle; UPDATE + bonus Winston Peters zinger!
John Key has announced that there will be a minor cabinet re-shuffle. Could this mark the return of Judith Collins? If so, what does this tell us about how the post-Key National Party will look?
Nats positioning for 2017
Nothing Matthew Hooton says can be taken at face value, but perhaps there are rumblings within National about 2017.
Wallowing in extravagance
“Wallowing in extravagance” is how Labour described the latest news of extreme spending from Steven Joyce’s MBIE.
Parnell Ponzi; When are National going to Act on Housing?
National need to act now to end the housing crisis. The market has failed and doing nothing is going to blight the future of Kiwis. The answer is easy. End speculation, build houses. But do National have the guts to do the right thing?
Save Campbell Live!
It looks like NZ’s last outlet for daily TV investigative journalism is going to be axed. TV3’s owners, Mediaworks, are going to focus all their resources into propping up the odious Paul Henry’s breakfast show. The bad taste jokes don’t end there, though. Campbell Live is going to be replaced with a comedy show. No, really. Updated with links to petitions.
Northland: 3News Poll Nails Nats.
Well, it’s pretty much a done deal now. Winston’s going to win Northland. But who’s the biggest loser?
Useless and venal
Following David Cunliffe’s announcement of Best Start New Zealand’s right wing took it upon themselves to show how useless and venal they are. […]
Post Key leadership struggle goes mainstream
The simmering leadership struggle in the National party doesn’t get a lot of attention in the mainstream media, but here’s an exception. Judith Collins will not be pleased.
National’s war on Auckland
Phil Twyford is the Labour MP for Te Atatu, and Labour’s spokesperson on Housing and Auckland Issues. He is also asking the same questions that many Aucklanders keep asking as they watch a succession of government ministers trying to valiantly advance backwards into Auckland’s past with no obvious purpose.
Both sides of Joyce’s dirty deal bad for NZ
We know that giving SkyCity more pokie machines will mean more problem gamblers, more crime. The Right says it’s worth it for the convention centre. But the official numbers show that’s a dog and we would pay for it in the long-run. It’s not one side of this equation that is bad for New Zealand, it’s both.
Key’s reshuffle bad news for working Kiwis
The reshuffle announced yesterday effectively made Steven Joyce the new Minister of Labour.
Call me paranoid but I’m thinking that putting the Government’s bully-boy in charge of the rights of working Kiwis may not bode well for employment relations over the next few years.
A reply to Steven Joyce
Steven Joyce’s piece on Tuesday was a transparent and hypocritical attempt to frame political opponents negatively, and soften us up for more asset sales, mining, deep sea drilling and the like. Thing is, it’s the Nats with their misguided austerity cuts who are the real nay-sayers holding the country back.
Life imitates art…
Sometimes the similarities between life and art are uncanny.
A reader sent us in a Steven Joyce lookalike pic (over the jump).
No renewables for National
The right sure won’t be able to criticise Labour about a lack of renewal in their list after National’s release of their party list. If you want an actual example of what a non-renewing list really looks like, I think we now have the definitive one. It looks a lot like their energy policy this week – lots of pious talk about renewables but really just mining the same old things that have been doing for generations.
Jobs destroyed by indifferent Nats
Joyce was told that building the new train cars at the Kiwirail workshop in Dunedin would bring half a billion into the economy. Joyce insisted Kiwirail go with the ‘cheapest’ option. China. Now, another 40 jobs have been axed. Not to mention other economic losses. Joyce is unrepentant. Blind to the cost of ‘cheap’. Aussie’s do it smarter than Joyce.
John Key: Evidence please!
John Key prefers his gut to real evidence, and it means that the policies he is implementing aren’t the ones that are best for our country.
Also: Steven Joyce & the Rail Loop.
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?
Aucklanders think Joyce is crazy.
Even considering putting in a new harbor crossing without heavy rail that hooks into our existing public transport rail system is simply ideological stupidity by National. Well it is good to see that Aucklanders recognize the critical requirement for a new harbor crossing – “Rail crossing wins big backing in poll”. The sample is small but quite clear…
Caption Contest
Steven Joyce: still living in the 20th century
Steven Joyce and the NZ Transport Authority seem to be living in the 20th century. You know the time, when there was a strong causation and correlation between rising numbers of people and increased use of roads. But neither appear to have caught up with the 21st century where that isn’t happening. Yearning for the 1960’s in planning transport infrastructure doesn’t help Auckland or the rest of NZ
Votes before lives for Key
OIA papers show Key blocked lowering the drink-drive level fearing an anti-‘PC’ backlash. Officials warned “Drivers with a blood-alcohol content of [80mg], who are legally entitled to drive, are significantly impaired”. But Key’s office was worried about votes. So Joyce kicked for touch – commissioned 2 years of research. While we wait, more lives are lost.
More Government Christmas Crackers
The government’s hoping-to-be-ignored Christmas announcements continue. They’re shockingly cancelling payouts to care-giving relatives of disabled adults, diverting the dodgy PEDA funding and investigating the Auckland central rail tunnel. Look over there – there’s Santa!
Broadband deal illegal?
Are Joyce’s plans for a regulatory holiday on the proposed ultra-fast fibre broadband network a violation of international legal commitments? InternetNZ says yes. Joyce says no. Labour’s Clare Curren accuses the Nats of “disregard for NZ law, legal trade obligations and public scrutiny”.
Armstrong slams National’s “disgraceful†arrogance
Herald political editor John Armstrong has slammed National’s “arrogant” behaviour in Parliament saying it verges on “being a disgrace to itself and the institution”. This is incredibly strong language from a senior journalist. It is the result of a government which is undermining democratic accountability in Parliament by lying and obfuscating in answer to opposition questions.
Gutless backdown will cost money and lives
So, National has failed to act on drink driving. The Director of the National Addiction Centre calls it “scandalous”. While recidivist and youth […]
What’s a university to do?
Some people still think of universities as fusty old ivory towers disconnected from the real world. That hasn’t been true for decades. Our current universities and tertiary institutions are business, they are structured and run to maximise their income in whatever funding framing the government of the day has in place. Predictably, the Nats latest proposed sausage machine funding model is a disaster.
Urgent safety upgrades needed, not a holiday highway
Auckland Transport Blog saying the bleeding obvious about the aggrandizement project that appears to be Steven Joyce’s grand vision for the future of transport in Auckland. If he was concentrating on reducing the road toll on this stretch of road, there are simpler and cheaper ways than wasting taxpayers money.