Author Archive
Goff on Breakfast
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, June 1st, 2011 - 41 comments
We give Phil Goff a lot of hassles, so I thought I should show an example of him getting it right. Goff takes control of the interview away from the Petra’s attack lines and nicely turns it to Labour’s lines. It’s about connecting voters with Labour’s positions. For example, people don’t want asset sales, so Goff saying voting Labour is the way to save them is vital.
Try hard John caption contest
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, May 31st, 2011 - 82 comments
My contribution: Key does the vertical plank. Not pictured, National’s economic plan .
A Right Jackup
Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, May 30th, 2011 - 18 comments
So it appears that John Banks will get to face his mayoral campaign manager, Aaron Bhatnagar, as National candidate for Epsom. National will continue to ensure Act’s survival, as latest polls keep Act at about 2%.
Support for raising retirement age
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, May 30th, 2011 - 37 comments
A Herald poll asked people their views on raising the retirement age. Surprisingly, support was strong – 52.3% think the issue needs addressing. National whines the country is broke so they have to cut public services and sell assets, but super for 65 year olds alone costs $625 million a year. Will any party have the courage to take on super?
Anti-MMP cabal rumbled
Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, May 29th, 2011 - 64 comments
National Party pollster David Farrar is to be campaign strategist for an anti-MMP campaign. He’s joined by Nat ‘campaign manager for hire’ Simon Lusk who did the work on the Brash coup, and Jordan Williams a former Young Nat also involved in the Brash coup. I assume the campaign material will have National Party logos on it.
Flattering to deceive
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, May 28th, 2011 - 23 comments
Ever noticed the big political journos will do a scathing attack on one major party then, the next day, one on the other major party? It’s about maintaining access. If you only run attacks on one party, you’ll stop getting stories from them (nearly all political stories come from the opposing party). After this, it was Labour’s turn in Armstrong’s sights today, or was it?
Vote Key, get asset sales
Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, May 27th, 2011 - 58 comments
Based on the Herald’s latest poll, that is a message the Left will be well advised to push hard. The poll shows 62% opposition vs 29% support for asset sales, while NACT polls at 56%. So, at least 18% are prospective NACT voters AND oppose Key’s main policy. The Left can win over many of these people on this vital issue.
Key: making shit up
Written By: - Date published: 4:23 pm, May 26th, 2011 - 41 comments
John Key just rumbles on from one lame excuse to the next on the ETS. First bringing farmers in was going to raise dairy prices, now he’s making other claims that don’t stack up.
So much for seeking a mandate
Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, May 26th, 2011 - 15 comments
Remember when John Key was promising that he would seek a mandate from the people at the election before starting to sell public assets and cutting Kiwisaver. It was only a week ago. And he’s breaking his promises already: the Kiwisaver cuts actually kick in on July 1, and the privatisation process is underway.
Parents Inc: it’s PEDA redux
Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, May 26th, 2011 - 85 comments
In last year’s budget, the Nats awarded a $4.8m contract to an unknown organisation called PEDA without tender and against official advice. The people behind PEDA were apparently tied to Bill English via his wife. The full truth still hasn’t come out. Now, the Nats are up to the same trick with Parents Inc.
$15 per hour unaffordable?
Written By: - Date published: 7:06 am, May 24th, 2011 - 296 comments
I just love seeing fat, rich men who have received massive tax cuts paid for with borrowed money like John Key and Phil O’Reilly saying that a $15 an hour minimum wage is unaffordable (Key also says governments can’t raise wages, yet he claims to have done just that). Lets check out one large minimum wage employer’s ability to pay.
Key clueless on Chch rebuild
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, May 23rd, 2011 - 11 comments
John Key thinks he can smile and wave his way through the worst natural disaster this country has faced. He acts like all he has to do is cheer-lead and the city will rebuild itself. It’s a stunning dereliction of duty. The contrast with the vision and leadership the Left is showing is marked.
Goff unveils Labour’s vision
Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, May 22nd, 2011 - 90 comments
Phil Goff has announced that Labour will bring agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme earlier and use the extra revenue to fund R&D, much of which will be into clean tech and low-carbon farming. There’s a swath of announcements showing Goff’s Labour has the vision Key’s National lacks. Labour is making positive choices while being fiscally responsible.
So where’s the plan?
Written By: - Date published: 6:54 am, May 20th, 2011 - 108 comments
Not in John Key and Bill English’s third budget. The ‘good times’ they are promising would have looked pitiful under Labour. 4% wage growth will be below inflation once the Kiwisaver clawbacks get you. National have pinned their hopes on Christchurch rebuilding itself, and claiming the credit for themselves. Oh, and their projections assume asset sales.
Parata’s conflict of interest
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, May 18th, 2011 - 7 comments
Hekia Parata is our Minister of Energy. She is also a shareholder in Contact Energy. Whether the shareholding is large or small, it’s a conflict of interest. Her decisions can affect the value of her shareholding. The slackness displayed by Key’s ministers towards these shareholding conflicts, starting with his own Tranzrail shares, is not good enough.
The treading water budget
Written By: - Date published: 7:46 am, May 18th, 2011 - 24 comments
Bryan Gould writes: “The fact that this week’s Budget will do no more than mark time should come as no surprise. We now have getting on for three years’ experience of a government whose idea of managing the economy is simply to wait and see what turns up.” True that.
Maori Party’s prognosis ‘grim’
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, May 17th, 2011 - 14 comments
Morgan Godfrey’s blog Maui Street is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand Maori politics. His latest post provides a fascinating insight into the decline of the Maori Party.
His prognosis? “Grim”.
The Sword of Damocles Budget
Written By: - Date published: 11:22 pm, May 16th, 2011 - 40 comments
John Key is fond of saying “there is a constituency for every dollar you spend”. So, having borrowed to the hilt for tax cuts for the rich, which he refuses to reverse, how can Key cut enough to satisfy the credit ratings agencies without pissing off too many voters? He can’t, but he’s gonna say he can and leave the hard choices to his successor.
Will ACT vote against the Budget?
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, May 16th, 2011 - 42 comments
Reading Don Brash’s letter to John Key and watching Roger Douglas on Q+A, I wonder if the Nats behind the takeover of ACT realised what they were unleashing. I’ve heard some talk that ACT won’t vote for Key’s Budget. Where would that leave Rodney Hide? Where would that leave the Maori Party? Could we see a snap election?
If only smiles were dollars
Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, May 15th, 2011 - 38 comments
The minor party debate on Q+A was very interesting. Rahui Katene was self-contradictory and vague, like the Maori Party always is. Peter Dunne was pathetic. Roger Douglas slammed the government’s borrowing as did Russel Norman, who pointed out the other three had all voted for National’s debt-increasing tax cuts for the rich.
Key’s panda plan falls through
Written By: - Date published: 6:21 am, May 13th, 2011 - 24 comments
The second plank of John Key’s economic plan for New Zealand has fallen through. First, the ‘national cycleway’ became a scattered assortment of cycle paths that were already under construction. Now, the pandas Key was going to rent so we could get rich buying tickets to see them won’t be coming and we have revealing emails to share.
Harawira vs Davis vs ?
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, May 11th, 2011 - 38 comments
Labour has decided to stand Kelvin Davis in the Te Tai Tokerau by-election. I wish they hadn’t. First, Davis strikes me as quality and you don’t tarnish quality by making it lose in front of a national audience. Look what happened to Melissa Lee, former National rising star. And Davis will lose, let’s be honest.
They cut, we pay
Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, May 11th, 2011 - 49 comments
The Nats have run this country into the ground and say there’s no option but to slash Kiwisaver. The actual cuts they announce will be less than foreshadowed, and we will then be expected to be grateful. It’s the Nats’ old trick. But the reality is there’s no need for Kiwisaver cuts at all. Not while the rich keep the tax cuts National gave them.
A forest is made of trees
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, May 10th, 2011 - 36 comments
It took National some weeks to get together a line on their multitudinous spending scandals. When they did, it was rather predictable: ‘Labour’s focused on the small things’. Pretty rich coming from corgi-boy Key. No defence of the actual excesses either. But, naturally, the Herald editorial has swallowed and regurgitated the line.
Gower on Chopper Key
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, May 9th, 2011 - 27 comments
Patrick Gower has more on the helicopter flight that John Key took in 2009 after opening a walkway that Key says was necessary because of mystery meetings that were supposedly arranged that afternoon. The flight cost us $2,000 when Key learned the helicopter was owned by the Velas.
Dog eat dog on the extreme Right
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, May 8th, 2011 - 46 comments
There’s a strange story in the Sunday Star-Times today. The premise is rumours that Don Brash has a love child but that seems to be baseless. The real point of the story is the Brash-ists trying to kill off Rodney Hide now, rather than wait until the election. I wouldn’t be surprised they’re behind the love-child story.
An excellent question
Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, May 7th, 2011 - 28 comments
“We see you on TV a lot. What else do you do?” – schoolkid to John Key at yet another photo-op.
In other news, Key was lying when he said he doesn’t have any choice over his DPS entourage. Helen Clark dismissed her DPS cover for at least 73 days when on private holidays. Key spent $30K of our money taking the DPS to Hawaii.
Saying a lot while saying very little
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, May 6th, 2011 - 13 comments
The out of touchness, she burns! In a few short replies, the Nats said so much this week. The stories of perk abuse have been rolling out almost too fast, in fact. Each needs following up, each minister needs to be hounded, but there are so many targets. The galling thing is in a fortnight the Nats will tell us ‘everyone has to tighten their belts’.
Elitist Nats’ heads in the clouds
Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, May 5th, 2011 - 18 comments
Wayne Mapp revealed that Murray McCully’s air force flights to Vanuatu cost $65,000 in fuel alone and that he tried to stop McCully. Meanwhile, Key got a free helicopter ride from a photo-op but decided it was a bad look so he paid $2,000 for a 1 hour flight. Well, you and I paid $2,000. It’s always us lesser mortals who pay as Key and co bounce from cloud to cloud.
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