Author Archive
Nats: some of us look like youse
Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, August 18th, 2008 - 142 comments
National is desperate for you to know its party list is a diverse one. It’s a diverse list alright. I mean you’ve got a woman at 7, another at 10, yet more at 17 and 20 – you’re talking up to four women in a National Cabinet! And two of them aren’t even Pakeha! OK, all […]
Reviewing the weekend polls
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, August 18th, 2008 - 37 comments
As I said last week, the polls that came out this weekend can not reflect any impact of the secret agenda tapes. The Roy Morgan poll was 50% over before the first tape even came out, and remember it was not until mid-week that the story was really big. Similarly, the Fairfax poll was mostly […]
Jumping the shark
Written By: - Date published: 5:08 pm, August 16th, 2008 - 78 comments
Remember the photos of McDonald’s wrappers strewn on a grass verge that John Key expected us to believe was evidence people had been rifling through his electorate office’s rubbish? Was there ever a more transparent attempt to deflect attention from a bad story with an obviously faked picture? No-one believed that Key’s rubbish really had […]
An election strategy, not a governing strategy
Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, August 15th, 2008 - 20 comments
When you look at the policy National has released, it’s clear that the focus is on winning the election, not on developing policy that would work. There is a most appalling lack of detail – most of the policy one-page wonders from National have left me with more questions than answers because of lack of […]
The Standard Week August 8-15
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, August 15th, 2008 - 30 comments
Quite a quiet week after the excitement of the secret agenda tapes last week. The Tories are keeping up their hunt for the person who exposed their secret agenda (God knows what they expect to do if they catch them). National’s welfare policy was in a predictable vein – punitive and targeted at some of […]
Drinking Liberally – Palmerston North
Written By: - Date published: 4:35 pm, August 14th, 2008 - 24 comments
A third Drinking Liberally chapter is underway. The first meeting of Drinking Liberally – Palmerston North will be next Friday at the Kingsgate bar. The guest speaker will be Hamish MacDouall, Labour candidate for Whanganui, David Bowie expert, brain box, and all-round nice guy. Now, Palmy isn’t known as a hotbed of political activism but […]
Energy policy fails to energise
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, August 14th, 2008 - 31 comments
A positive and ambitious energy policy that reflects the personality of National leader John Key, was announced today. Old people wiped tears from their eyes and youths vowed never to tag another fence as they heard the ambitious vision National has developed for New Zealand’s energy future under heroic leader, John Key. Actually, there’s 10 […]
Renewable energy policy
Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, August 14th, 2008 - 23 comments
A policy paper has been released on how the Government’s goal of 90% renewable electricity generation by 2025 can be achieved. Micro-hydro projects and small-scale wind turbines will deliver power to rural areas. Reversibility of new generation will be built into new schemes as part of a more intense focus on sustainability. Solar power will be […]
National and the media
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, August 14th, 2008 - 17 comments
A few mini-posts on National’s relationship with the media in light of the secret agenda tapes. _______________________________________________ A signature Crosby/Textor move, seen here and abroad, is for their politicians to be matey with media as long as they run the lines, but, if they start to get critical, shut them out. So, a few months […]
Before the polls
Written By: - Date published: 6:29 am, August 14th, 2008 - 54 comments
There’s a Roy Morgan poll out today or tomorrow, then polls from Fairfax, TV1, and TV3 on the weekend. Naturally, people will be watching these closely to see if National has been damaged by the secret agenda tapes. Do not expect the polls to show National taking a big hit and don’t take the lack of a […]
Into hiding
Written By: - Date published: 3:45 pm, August 13th, 2008 - 22 comments
The secret agenda scandal has reminded many people that, behind John Key’s smile, National’s leaders are still the same bunch who were cutting benefits and flogging off assets in the 1990s, or people who came into Parliament hoping to continue those policies. That’s not good for National’s election hopes. So, what have they done? Remove […]
Activist Workshop
Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, August 13th, 2008 - 6 comments
I’ve been awfully remiss in not posting on this earlier. Transition Towns, a group dedicated to developing the skills needed for communities to become more self-sufficient in the coming post-peak oil world, is holding an activist training session in Wellington this coming weekend. There’s a programme of activities running from Friday evening through to Sunday designed […]
Petition: sign the Enforced Disappearance Convention
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, August 13th, 2008 - 12 comments
In December 2006, the United Nations adopted a major new human rights treaty, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance aimed at preventing and punishing ‘enforced disappearance’ – the kidnap and murder of political opponents by governments. 73 countries have signed the convention, 4 have ratified it. 20 ratifications are […]
Wait, what’s working?
Written By: - Date published: 6:26 am, August 13th, 2008 - 18 comments
ENGLISH: So we’re sitting here saying the punters are keen to keep it. They’re facing a recession. The last thing we want is to spend the whole election campaign with families of four on TV saying ‘Mr Key’s taking money off us’. You can’t do that. So later on we’re gonna have to have a […]
Bill’s big wink
Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, August 12th, 2008 - 44 comments
‘No ifs, no buts, no maybes’ – that’s the phrase Bill English chose to use when denying he had any intentions of launching a coup against John Key after the election. It’s a phrase that is burned indelibly into many New Zealander’s memories, not least of all English’s; a phrase heavy with connotations of deceit. […]
I do a lot of work for charity, but I don’t like to talk about it
Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, August 12th, 2008 - 57 comments
Many New Zealand politicians give away a large portion of their salaries to needy causes but they don’t make a song and dance about it because a) lots of MPs do it b) boasting about charity donations is a rich man’s game, and the reason we have decent salaries for MPs is to prevent politics […]
Sensitive about security
Written By: - Date published: 6:01 am, August 12th, 2008 - 20 comments
National activist/advisor Matthew Hooton on Nine to Noon: ‘the National Party leadership group is very sensitive about security. They look at the last election campaign that was lost on basically matters of security: the leak of the ‘gone by lunchtime’ notes and the Brethren link.’ No. National lost because it had a secret agenda; not […]
Nats bashing on solo mums
Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, August 11th, 2008 - 110 comments
Wonder of wonders, the Nats’ benefits policy has an 11 page document attached to it. Oh, wait, it’s mostly just stats ripped from the MSD website and long-winded rewordings of the bullet-points, not actual detail of the Nats’ policy. So, what have we got from the party that proclaims it wants more disciplined spending, less […]
3 more points on the secret agenda tapes
Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, August 11th, 2008 - 61 comments
1) A secret agenda is not something that people talk about in public or when they know the information will get to the public. Therefore, the only way to expose a secret agenda with definite proof is by recording that evidence when the target does not know they are being recorded. The Police can’t just […]
Ambitious for beneficiary-bashing
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, August 11th, 2008 - 40 comments
That nice man, Mr Key, the one who says the old Left/Right divide is over, that he’s a new man with a new (ambitious) vision for New Zealand has rolled out an unprecedented and exciting policy today: beneficiary bashing. At present, we have a world-leading benefit system. By investing in staff, WINZ has become more […]
Once too often
Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, August 9th, 2008 - 17 comments
Last week Colin James wrote that behind National’s one-page wonder policies there was actually a substantive body of work. The publicly-released work rights policy (“workplace policy”, as the Tories call it) was only half a dozen bullet points long but James assured us there was a 34 page document backing it. OK, he hadn’t been […]
Point of debate
Written By: - Date published: 5:50 am, August 9th, 2008 - 52 comments
If most people knew as much as politics, economics, and how this country is run as they do about sport, the result would be a better country to live in. A better-informed citizenry would lead to, would demand, better government. Your thoughts?
Desperate Nats reduced to bounties and bribery
Written By: - Date published: 3:48 pm, August 8th, 2008 - 123 comments
When there’s a strike on, it’s common practice for bosses to offer individual workers a bonus payment to scab on their comrades and return to work. Most workers spit on such offers, they know the best outcome in the long-term comes when they stand strong; they refuse to scab because it’s in their best interests […]
The Standard Week: August 1-8
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, August 8th, 2008 - 23 comments
What a week. National has been in meltdown over the secret recordings. Bill English’s incredible initial reaction seemed like the launch of a coup – he repeatedly refused to voice confidence in Key and his basic understanding of working for families. But something obviously happened on Tuesday morning, perhaps the numbers were run and English […]
Key-nesian economics
Written By: - Date published: 10:46 am, August 8th, 2008 - 23 comments
I’m really starting to wonder why it’s the worst academics who seem to get the most media, Maybe it’s because the good ones don’t make extreme statements. Today, we have Keith Rankin from Unitec arguing that, as we are in recession, we should be increasing borrowing to inject cash and growth into the economy, as […]
It’s about principle
Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, August 8th, 2008 - 54 comments
The clamour for ‘policy’ from National is actually a slight misnomer. What Kiwis want to know is the principles that National stands for as much as specific policies. We know what the Greens stand for, we know what the Maori Party stands for, we know what Labour, NZF, UnitedFuture, and ACT stand for. But we […]
Cui bono?
Written By: - Date published: 6:22 am, August 8th, 2008 - 63 comments
So, who stands to gain from National borrowing $5 billion if it becomes the Government? Ultimately, the people who lend the money are ones who walk away with the profit and in a time of international uncertainty in the financial markets and collapsing finance companies at home, speculators are looking for a safe, profitable harbour […]
Academic, youse are paid too much
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, August 7th, 2008 - 42 comments
Professor John Gibson from Waikato University says public servants should be paid less because they get paid more than their private sector equivalents and they enjoy their work. First, I would be highly suspicious the methodology of any study that claims to compare like with like between the public and private sector. How many police […]
Unemployment to 3.9%
Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, August 7th, 2008 - 15 comments
Unemployment rose again last quarter but remains under 4%. It has now been under 4% for 16 of the last 17 quarters. Interestingly, the number of employed people also increased last quarter but more people came into the workforce who were previously not looking for work. So, workforce participation grew faster than employment grew, meaning […]
Nats, have some pride in what you believe
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, August 7th, 2008 - 25 comments
So, now we know that three National frontbenchers were recorded talking about a secret agenda at the cocktail do last Friday. Think about what this means: it is inconceivable that all three were somehow ‘tricked’ into talking about a secret agenda, inconceivable that all three used such “loose language” that they accidentally contradicted their party’s […]
Hide on Nats’ woes
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, August 6th, 2008 - 45 comments
“the best solution is to say in private what you say in public” * Simple, really.
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