Author Archive
Mallard to speak at Drinking Liberally, Wellington
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, August 6th, 2008 - 2 comments
After a mysterious three week absence, Drinking Liberally Wellington is back tomorrow evening. Here’s the email: We’re only half way through a week overflowing with political news so there should be plenty to discuss over a beer tomorrow at the Southern Cross đŸ˜‰ Come join us to hear Trevor Mallard speak and stick around for […]
Fallout
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 6th, 2008 - 47 comments
National’s attempt to contain the meltdown from Bill English’s secret agenda comments at the National conference and on TV1 collapsed when it emerged Lockwood Smith was also talking about a secret agenda at the conference. Now, the fallout is raining down on them. So, National has moved to stage four of the Crosby/Textor technique for […]
08wire on Nats’ Kiwibank secret agenda
Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, August 6th, 2008 - Comments Off on 08wire on Nats’ Kiwibank secret agenda
08wire.org, your videos make me smile.
Nats’ policy top 10, what’s missing?
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, August 6th, 2008 - 24 comments
Here’s the top 10 policy priorities that John Key bullet-pointed at the conference on Sunday. See if you can spot what’s missing: 1. Tax cuts. (for the rich) 2. Disciplined Government spending. (while borrowing huge amounts for unspecified government spending) 3. Stop growth of public service. (except Nats’ promises already require about 1000 more public […]
Did Lockwood mis-speak too?
Written By: - Date published: 8:14 pm, August 5th, 2008 - 94 comments
It has been revealed that Bill English isn’t the only senior Nat who has been discussing a secret agenda behind closed doors. On TV3 tonight, a recording was played of Lockwood Smith saying: “There’s some bloody dead fish you have to swallow… to get into Government to do the kinds of things you want to […]
Kiwisaver cuts to fund Nats’ tax cuts?
Written By: - Date published: 4:54 pm, August 5th, 2008 - 16 comments
So, the rumour is that Kiwisaver will be slashed to fund National’s tax cut policy. Currently, the Government spends up to the following on each Kiwisaver member: – $1000 on sign-up – Up to $1040 a year in matching contributions – Up to $1040 a year in tax credit to employers – 30% tax deduction […]
Key’s shell-game wears thin
Written By: - Date published: 12:40 pm, August 5th, 2008 - 20 comments
On National Radio’s Morning Report and Nine to Noon yesterday, Key ran the ‘not telling’ line once again and it was once too often. Asked a simple question: ‘What projects are you going to spend the extra money you plan to borrow on?’ Key refused to answer. You could hear the self-satisfaction in his voice […]
Sarcophagus
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, August 5th, 2008 - 9 comments
After a stunning attack on John Key last night, Bill English is now reverting to more standard National techniques for handling ‘accidental frankness’. Initially, deny. When played a recording, claim not to remember it. When that doesn’t kill the story, claim to have ‘mis-spoken’. Finally, attack the source. It’s the same pattern we saw with […]
Meltdown
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 pm, August 4th, 2008 - 90 comments
The English tape has exploded into a massive scandal. You’ll be familiar with the content of the recording: – English mocks voters as greedy simpletons taken in by a flashy con-man “they’re saying that nice Mr Key, he’s pretty smart, he will get me some more” – He claims Key doesn’t understand basic trade-offs in […]
Employment, wages up
Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, August 4th, 2008 - 43 comments
Despite the economic slowdown, the labour market is holding up well and wages are up at the record rate. The average hourly wage is now $24, up from $21.90 an hour 2 years ago. That’s a 9.6% increase. Take away 6.1% inflation and the average Kiwi worker is still 3.5% better off than two years […]
Spin-busting: ‘A growth problem, not a debt problem’
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, August 4th, 2008 - 28 comments
To justify borrowing for tax cuts, National’s new line is that New Zealand has ‘a growth problem, not a debt problem’. Untrue. (source) New Zealand’s growth has been faster in recent years than trend, faster than it was under National, and faster than growth in our major trade partners. We are in a shallow recession […]
Behind closed doors
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, August 4th, 2008 - 69 comments
The scandal over Bill English’s comments at the National Party conference has not only overshadowed Key’s purposely vague conference announcements, it has derailed National’s entire election strategy. The audio is damning. Clearly and unequivocally, we have National’s Deputy Leader saying National will ‘eventually’ (possibly within a first term) sell Kiwibank. English not only says National […]
Pathetic
Written By: - Date published: 8:39 pm, August 3rd, 2008 - 37 comments
Rather than discussing the quote from Bill English that he would sell Kiwibank, David Farrar is whining that the protest outside the National Party conference today breached the EFA because it did not contain authorisation. Once again, Farrar would rather try to attack on technicalities than deal in substantive issues, and once again he is […]
Key’s vision: tax cuts for rich, more debt for youse
Written By: - Date published: 3:39 pm, August 3rd, 2008 - 71 comments
In a speech described by attendees as ‘more bullet points’, John Key announced to the National Party conference today that National would borrow $5 billion more over 6 years to finance infrastructure – specifically roads and the broadband ‘plan’. The money-man has dressed it up cleverly, of course. A fancy new class of ‘investment vehicle’ will be […]
Spinbusting: Nats’ borrowing not for tax cuts
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, August 2nd, 2008 - 75 comments
Today, Bill English is outlining National’s plan to undo the work of the past fifteen years and take this country further into debt. He will argue that National would not be borrowing for its programme of tax cuts for the wealthy, rather it would borrow for investment. That is a lie. We already borrow for […]
Workers stand up for their rights, Nats still evasive
Written By: - Date published: 4:04 pm, August 1st, 2008 - 48 comments
The EPMU launched its ‘Work Rights Wage Drive’ today with a rally in Christchurch. Despite the rain, over 1500 Kiwi workers turned out to stand up for their work rights and wages. This is just the first of 25 rallies the EPMU will be undertaking this month, in what will easily be the biggest series […]
The Standard Week: 25 July-1 August
Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, August 1st, 2008 - 19 comments
Another week of gonzo journalism and you can understand why people get turned off politics. While the press gallery concentrated on which of them was most offended by Winston Peters, we had a look behind some of the policies on offer and ran a series of posts on the impact of the work rights policies of National and the […]
Old boys’ club
Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, August 1st, 2008 - 46 comments
John Key: “We don’t have enough women in our caucus, so we’ve had to start cross-dressing” (Press, June 9, 2007) He’s not wrong there:
Trust me
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, August 1st, 2008 - 16 comments
David Farrar says of a scene in Dark Knight ‘I would have voted ‘yes”. Without giving away any of the plot, that means Farrar would choose to hurt many others as long as he would not be hurt himself. But in making that decision he would be relying on the word of a liar known […]
Lucky Aussies, they kept their work rights
Written By: - Date published: 2:12 pm, July 31st, 2008 - 62 comments
Some of our friends on the Right have been putting themselves through strange mental contortions over the recent series of posts we’ve had on the impact of National and the Left on wages. To recap: we’ve shown that National let the minimum wage stagnate while inflation ate its buying power, the Labour-led Governments have increased it, […]
Sickening
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, July 31st, 2008 - 118 comments
Speaking in Rotorua earlier this week, John Key offered the following reason why you should vote for him to be Prime Minister: “The only time we’ve won the rugby World Cup we had a male Prime Minister.” You make my stomach turn, Mr Key. You’re just another sexist old bigot.
Flip-flops, it’s a matter of trust
Written By: - Date published: 6:12 am, July 31st, 2008 - 56 comments
I believe there are three core criteria on which a politician or party needs to be judged: (in no particular order) – policy, competency, trustworthiness – Do they have a good plan, are they capable of implementing such a plan, can we trust them to carry out the plan if we vote for them. National’s […]
EPMU cleared to campaign
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, July 30th, 2008 - 39 comments
The Electoral Commission has decided the EPMU can register as a third party under the Electoral Finance Act despite the National Party spending big bucks to try to stop them in the courts. Given the EPMU is a democratic organisation representing 50,000 Kiwi workers and the other unions (dairy workers, meat workers, maritime workers and […]
Ambitious leadership
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, July 30th, 2008 - 16 comments
(hattip: Kiwipundit)
Larger slice of the cake for workers under Labour
Written By: - Date published: 6:46 am, July 30th, 2008 - 46 comments
The essential debate in New Zealand politics (and all capitalist economies) is between Right and Left over how big a share of the economy’s production should go to the workers who produce it (ie wages, salaries) and how much should go to the capitalists who invested in the means of production (ie dividends, interest). The […]
Fact: The Left has risen wages during its time in power
Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, July 29th, 2008 - 27 comments
Inevitably, reaction from some to the post showing incomes fell 6.1% under National between 1990 and 1997 has not been horror at the fact the incomes of Kiwis went down but ‘so, I bet the Labour-led Governments haven’t done better’. Bet again. The median income in 2007 was 32% higher than the median income was […]
Fact: Nats cut wages last time they were in power
Written By: - Date published: 6:12 am, July 29th, 2008 - 34 comments
For anyone who still doesn’t want to believe that National cut incomes for most Kiwis last time they were in power (and would do so again). Here’s something I came across in an incomes report from 1998: The median income earner was 6% poorer in after-inflation after 7 years of National government. That didn’t happen by […]
Will the real National policy please stand up?
Written By: - Date published: 3:25 pm, July 28th, 2008 - 18 comments
A reader noticed a difference between National’s workplace policy as quoted by us and as quoted elsewhere. We and some others have: “Continue to allow union access to workplaces with the employer’s consent.” taken from the PDF of the workplace policy. While others have: “Continue to allow union access to workplaces with an employer’s consent, […]
Nats painted into a corner
Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, July 28th, 2008 - 30 comments
John Key has announced Working for Families would be kept unchanged by a National-led government. That’s the same Working for Families that National attacked endlessly. Key himself said “Working for Families is a real ‘Maharey special”. It started as a mess, it was completed as a mess, and it will remain a mess the whole […]
For the people
Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, July 28th, 2008 - 28 comments
A sage comment from our reader, Bill, got me thinking. He said “If political news was even given the same modest in-depth coverage as (say) sports news we wouldn’t be living in the NZ that we inhabit today.” I might put it like this: “If you knew as much about politics and how your country […]
Hunt for the real John Key proves fruitless
Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, July 28th, 2008 - 83 comments
So, what have we learnt from the 18,000 words on John Key the Herald published with so much fanfare over the last two weekends? We’ve learnt that, even if you devote a good portion of three senior journalists’ time to study the matter for six months, it’s still bloody hard to get any clear idea […]
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