Written By: - Date published: 11:23 pm, May 16th, 2012 - 32 comments
The Jackal raised the issue of corruption in relation to John Banks in a comment here and has written more about it on his blog. It appears on the evidence of DotCom’s lieutenant that when he was a Member of Parliament Banks was offering to accept a financial consideration in respect of any act to be done by him in his capacity as a member of Parliament. This makes Philip Field look like a Good Samaritan. Banks has to go.
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, May 2nd, 2012 - 128 comments
For the first time in 3.5 years, Lockwood Smith didn’t preside over question time yesterday. The hapless National backbencher Eric Roy took his place resulting an awfully convenient farce. Key refused to answer questions, going so far as to say he wasn’t responsible for who is a minister. But, like the sudden slew of ministerial announcements, Key’s evasiveness will not distract the media, which smells blood.
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, April 30th, 2012 - 6 comments
The indefatigable Idiot/Savant at NRT has been looking at the appointment of Isacc to head the Charter School Working Group. It seems to have been conducted with all the professionalism and integrity that we have come to expect of ACT.
Written By: - Date published: 6:48 am, April 24th, 2012 - 51 comments
The FYI project and I/S at No Right Turn have uncovered what appears to be massive abuse of expenses by Genesis CEO Albert Brantley, whom we pay $1.2m a year. It puts me in mind of Marie Antoinette. And we know what happened to her. Almost as shocking is the small stuff. Lucky Genesis is subject to the OIA, for now, so this guy could be found out.
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, April 13th, 2012 - 42 comments
Last week, David Farrar demanded to know where the government is getting $62m for youth mental health services… Actually he didn’t (they’re stealing it from other health funding) but he is demanding Labour explains where it would get $125m a year for extending paid parental leave. I guess he just really wants to make sure it’s feasible. Lets help him out with some options
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, April 10th, 2012 - 8 comments
Cronyism. The politicisation of the public service. Internal power struggles. It’s all just grubby Nat politics as usual. Why do we put up with it?
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, March 29th, 2012 - 20 comments
ACT-crony Catherine Isaac will head the implementation of the government’s unmandated charter schools programme. Isaac has no relevant expertise to justify this appointment. She has been given the position (and a generous public salary) solely on the basis of ideology and party affiliation. That is not how our public service is supposed to work.
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, March 20th, 2012 - 88 comments
Nick Smith, while Minister for ACC wrote a letter in support of the claims of, um, close personal contact Bronwyn Pullar last year after Pullar threatened to embarrass him and ACC. He says, this was in his personal capacity, even though it was on parliamentary ministerial letterhead. And what kind of coincidence is it that the largest accidental leak by ACC in history went to Pullar?
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, March 8th, 2012 - 43 comments
The $340K contractors hired to show our diplomats the door have told them that, to cope with stress, they could pray, take a bath, or get a cat. What else do you think was on the list?:
Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, February 26th, 2012 - 91 comments
A couple of months after Hekia Parata was promoted to Education Minister, her sister has been promoted to a very senior position in the Ministry of Education. It seems a lot of the Parata clan are experiencing good fortune lately – her husband got a sweet gig ‘explaining’ asset sales to iwi, and several relatives got jobs in her ministerial office.
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, February 25th, 2012 - 74 comments
Directorships are the golden ticket in the world of the business elite. You attend maybe 10 meetings a year, sign whatever’s put in front of you, typically get paid $3-4K a pop, and do it over again half a dozen times or more for various companies. It’s a gravy train for managers past their use by date. But customers and shareholders have to trust what directors sign off on.
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, January 25th, 2012 - 93 comments
National is letting children go to school hungry to try to teach their parents a lesson. Every fool knows the basic requirement for learning is food in the tummy. No decent person would turn their back on a hungry child. But Mike Sabin wants 20 children in his electorate to starve pour encourager les autres. And Paula Bennett has just cut the money that was feeding them.
Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, November 19th, 2011 - 135 comments
Some say the tea tapes haven’t hurt Brand Key. In fact, National is down 2% last week and those polls were largely taken before the tea tapes hit overdrive. It also takes time for impressions and media narratives to bed in. The 26th will be the first poll to really tell us how much the tea tapes have hurt. But the internals could give us a clue.
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, November 16th, 2011 - 65 comments
The teapot tapes story (seems that’s the name that’s been settled on, despite the story involving neither teapots nor tapes) has evolved two distinct strands: the contents of the Key-Banks conversation, which is gradually coming out through the media, and the very aggressive, poorly conceived response of National which is making it worse for them.
Update: According to Fairfax reporter Danya Levy on Twitter, Key has just “stormed out” of a press conference after further questioning on the tapes. He’s losing it. Now The Herald has the story.
Written By: - Date published: 8:22 pm, September 29th, 2011 - 22 comments
Key says we have to leave men in Afghanistan, killing and dying, to “honour” the ones we’ve lost. Typical chickenhawk bullshit. This isn’t about ‘tearism’ or ‘Afghanistanians’ or ‘honour’. It’s all about PR. All about politics. Before Smith’s even in the ground, this arsehole Key is spinning his death for PR. Just like Pike River. Just like the earthquake dead.
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, September 13th, 2011 - 50 comments
The SMH reports: a New Zealand government minister “was yelling out, ‘f—ing cheats’ and other offensive remarks” at the Wallabies during the Australia v Italy game. Hmm. The game was at North Harbour. Who is a local MP, a minister, and has a record of bad behaviour in corporate boxes?
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, September 9th, 2011 - 72 comments
I/S at NoRightTurn on the Gisborne mother and baby who were turned away by three government agencies when she sought help: “People who go to WINZ needing help should get it. Instead, this woman was told to fuck off, thanks to service cuts and a deliberate policy of limiting costs by imposing bureaucratic barriers to access.”
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, September 2nd, 2011 - 17 comments
National promised to get tough ‘undeserving’ state house tenants. (always someone to get tough on when maintaining the privileges of the elite) The first targets were 3 women and their kids, judged guilty by association with their partners who were charged with burglary (the charges were dropped). 2 years and $1m wasted and the government has given up.
Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, August 10th, 2011 - 27 comments
I/S at NoRightTurn has John Key and Gerry Brownlee floundering to explain why Brownlee hired National Party crony Jenny Shipley and other members of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Review Panel at double the normal rate. Brownlee’s excuses are weak and nonsensical. It’s not good enough.
Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, July 23rd, 2011 - 261 comments
The bombing and shootings in Norway overshadowed Key’s meeting with Obama. But he was quick to exploit Norway’s tragedy for political gain saying: “I think what it shows is no country large or small is immune from risk [of 'global' terrorism] and that’s why New Zealand plays its part in Afghanistan.” Truth is, the attacker was a rightwing Norwegian.
[Update: more than 80 dead at the camp]
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, July 20th, 2011 - 7 comments
Rupert Murdoch got a pie in the face today. But it was only shaving foam. To really do the job, you need special ingredients.
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, July 7th, 2011 - 10 comments
The right’s leadership resembles a merry go round of disgraced old white failures. Brash, English, Shirtcliffe, Douglas had their time at the front, were disgraced. Now they’re back. Thompson was fired for his appalling behaviour but got a payout. He’ll be back in due course. While Brash says he’d welcome baby ID stealer Garrett back to Parliament.
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, July 6th, 2011 - 60 comments
Retiring National MP John Carter has revealed that he has consumed $77K of public assets for no reason. But it’s all such a funny lark! Carter permanently housed two cars at Parliament for 16 years. Hardly drove them. When he got in trouble for using parking spaces at the expense of others, he just switched them into colleagues’ names.
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, May 22nd, 2011 - 17 comments
No. Really, they’re wasting it on corporate tagging of no value to anyone whatsoever. You can make your own parody sign, like the one below here and join the 7K strong Facebook group.
Written By: - Date published: 1:14 pm, May 21st, 2011 - 43 comments
Wellington airport has decided to go ahead with its fucken ugly, stupid, unimaginative, probably illegal, laughable, hick-imitating-city-sophisticate ‘Wellywood’ sign. It’s “bullshit” says a Wellington director. “Try-hard” says a branding expert. Does the airport know they’re spending hundreds of thousands on what will immediately be bonfire fuel?
Written By: - Date published: 6:09 am, May 4th, 2011 - 24 comments
Cameron Slater has the inside word on Murray McCully’s $75,000 trip to Vanuatu on a New Zealand Air Force plane that involved flying the 126-seater there and back to drop him and seven staff off, then there and back again the next day to pick them up. This story gets worse the more details come out.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, April 15th, 2011 - 49 comments
National pollster David Farrar reckons that its sweet for the elite to spend $100 a head on meals at the taxpayer’s expense. Same time as he’s sneering at a woman struggling to get by feeding four people on $200 a week. This is National’s New Zealand. The best for the elite. Cat food for the rest.
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, April 6th, 2011 - 55 comments
Shivering in your earthquake-damaged home, wondering how you’ll come up with $190 a week for a campervan after your emergency benefit ends? Living on cat food because GST and price hikes put real food out of reach? Don’t worry, Pita Sharples to the rescue: he’s gifting 1.9 million taxpayer dollars to a hapu in his electorate to build an inflatable, plastic waka.
Written By: - Date published: 3:46 pm, February 18th, 2011 - 19 comments
Our PM in the company of his peers?
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, February 17th, 2011 - 123 comments
John Key says if you’re having trouble getting by on your income it’s due to your ‘lifestyle choices‘. Key has given himself at least $23,000 in tax cuts and had a $7,500 rise with our borrowed money. He has the worst economic record of any PM in 80 years: 86,000 more jobless Kiwis, falling incomes. And this bastard blames Kiwi families for their poverty.
Written By: - Date published: 11:22 pm, February 15th, 2011 - 135 comments
Last week, Key says Kiwis “have to tighten their belts, we have to do the same”. More job cuts for public servants. This week, buying 34 $200,000 limos for him and his mates to replace 3 year old ones. How many teachers would that employ?Not the cars that need replacing after 3 years. It’s this government. Good on Goff for giving up the limos.
Comments