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Written By: Michael Foxglove - Date published: 9:42 am, August 27th, 2010 - 61 comments
According to OIA papers released to the NZ Herald, Key’s plan to extend the 90 day “fire at will” law to all businesses is an ACT party takeover of government policy.
Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson recommended against the extent of the plan. She was overruled by Cabinet in response to ACT threats. As Trevor Mallard said, if Key had any balls he would’ve stuck to his Minister’s advice.
Written By: Dancr - Date published: 8:00 pm, August 24th, 2010 - 23 comments
Is Heather Roy to depart the ACT caucus? According to TVNZ, Act Party leader Rodney Hide is signalling his dumped deputy Heather Roy will find it extremely difficult to stay on as an MP, despite saying last week that she would be welcomed back into the caucus.
Written By: Michael Foxglove - Date published: 6:33 am, August 20th, 2010 - 35 comments
No wonder Winston Peters is smiling. His personal vendetta with Hide must be at on the forefront of his mind as he watches his nemesis sink.
But what does ACT’s impending demise actually mean for other parties? It’s not good news for National.
Written By: Dancr - Date published: 4:07 pm, August 19th, 2010 - 33 comments
ACT’s meltdown continues, with comments from ACT founder and current MP Sir Roger Douglas illustrating that all is not well in the caucus. According to Stuff, Sir Roger Douglas is saying he is not sure he will stand at the next election. He also said the party had to show it was stable. “I don’t …
Written By: the sprout - Date published: 6:53 pm, June 11th, 2010 - 25 comments
Mita Ririnui has gone on the record on RNZ’s Checkpoint tonight insisting Ministerial Services advised him personal spending on ministerial credit card was ok as long as it was reimbursed. Of course that doesn’t let people like Hide, English and Heatley off the hook, because they only paid back their personal misuses of ministerial allowances after they …
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 11th, 2010 - 22 comments
John Key continues to let his attack dog do his business, and take the heat. So on Saturday there’s some more heat with a big Day Of Action to fight Rodney’s latest nasty bill. The Greens, Labour and the Maori Party are all fighting this odorous piece of legislation that aims to allow privatisation of water, amongst other attacks on local democracy.
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:02 am, June 2nd, 2010 - 13 comments
Congratulations Aucklanders, you are about to become the owners of a supercity. It was forced on you with no referendum and the your concerns have been ignored. This is being done to suit business, not the needs of Aucklanders. Democracy just gets in the way. Rodney Hide said the set up cost would be “minuscule”. And it’s cost you just $200 million… so far.
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:23 pm, May 17th, 2010 - 8 comments
A passage from Matt McCarten’s article in the Sunday Herald summed up for me not only the approach of Rodney Hide in setting up his Super City but also the neo-liberal project that has been in vogue for the past quarter century. Democracy under the neo-liberal model is, as far as possible, to be a financial transaction.
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:37 pm, April 21st, 2010 - 124 comments
Rodney Hide was furious at John Key for signing the Declaration of Indigenous Rights behind his back but he’ll get over it. ACT is getting tonnes of real policy wins. What’s disturbing is seeing the Maori Party celebrating a ‘win’ then meekly rolling over when Key tells them it’s meaningless. Why does this keep happening? Because the Maori Party is stuck. And, sadly, each loss just mires them further.
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:56 am, March 21st, 2010 - 52 comments
What a cynical and politically-driven process this whole Supercity process has been. It is undemocratic to its core. It is not about ‘growth’ or creating a better city. It is about securing power (and, thereby, wealth) for the city’s right-wing elite. Now their plans are falling apart around them. A female candidate to replace Banks is their last gasp attempt to stop Len Brown winning.
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:23 am, March 18th, 2010 - 27 comments
Which minister will be next to go? Rodney Hide or Anne Tolley? If competence was a condition of keeping their job, both would be long gone. But doing a good minister has never been a job requirement in John Key’s government. It comes down to which of them makes a spectacular mistake so serious that …
Written By: John A - Date published: 3:23 pm, March 17th, 2010 - 9 comments
In a letter to the Herald today, responding to Mike Lee’s op-ed of yesterday, Steven Joyce says:
“Contrary to what Mike Lee says, the Auckland Council will be able to appoint or dismiss any member of the Auckland Transport Board at any time.”
Problem is, Mike Lee didn’t actually say what Joyce says he did.
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:05 pm, March 11th, 2010 - 23 comments
The Local Government Commission released its final ward boundaries for Auckland today and the result is a city gerrymandered by ACT to favour the interests of the rich.
That’s the verdict from No Right Turn, who’s crunched the numbers and discovered a systematic bias for the Right.
Written By: r0b - Date published: 1:38 am, March 4th, 2010 - 25 comments
ACT policies are electoral poison, and the inevitability of that growing realisation seems to be creating strains that are tearing the party apart. Heather Roy’s speech to ACT’s conference suggests that last year’s failed leadership coup is far from over…
Written By: Sam Cash - Date published: 12:01 pm, January 23rd, 2010 - 14 comments
Eddie has already covered the story of Hide giving the middle finger to the people of Franklin regarding the Supercity. Franklin is Tory heartland. However the current local National MP for Hunua, the underwhelming Dr Paul Hutchinson, has consistently been taken to pieces over his government’s decision to destroy the district. Locals are furious with …
Written By: r0b - Date published: 10:22 am, December 19th, 2009 - 38 comments
Audrey Young finally gets around to mentioning how close the government came to imploding last month: Rodney Hide survived moves to oust him as Act Party leader last month after Prime Minister John Key privately indicated National’s deal with Act would be off if the minister were dumped. And it is believed that at the …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 6:28 pm, December 10th, 2009 - 40 comments
No, this post isn’t about the 2025 Taskforce, it’s about Rodney Hide’s round the world holiday with his girlfriend on your dime. Heavily censored official papers reveal that on this 12-day, $100,000 trip (not including the salaries of Hide and the two officials who went with him), Hide spent just 10 hours in meetings on …
Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 24th, 2009 - 11 comments
Due to recovering from a cold over the weekend, I haven’t had time to blog about the super-shitty electoral boundaries released on friday in traditional style. However jarbury has done a great analysis over at the Auckland Transport blog. If you look at the all-important councillors, the striking thing is the inequities of the voting …
Written By: lprent - Date published: 2:15 pm, November 14th, 2009 - 74 comments
Whatever argument there is between the hierarchy of the Maori Party and Hone really doesn’t concern me. While I’m sure Kelvin Davis is watching with considerable interest, Hone was elected by the voters up north for being exactly who he is. This isn’t a political row with the over-powering stench of political hypocrisy like recent …
Written By: The Standard - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 11th, 2009 - 17 comments
There were only really two ministers in the race for the first Grabby. Rodney Hide betrayed his own supposed principles by using his MP’s travel allowance to fly his girlfriend overseas. He also, with John Key’s consent, used that allowance to bypass Key’s ban on ministers taking their partners flying overseas with taxpayer money. Of …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:30 am, November 11th, 2009 - 38 comments
Another day, another minister breaking the rules. On the Dental Artistry website, Rodney Hide has written: ‘Thanks for the fantastic job! I was so sick of having my teeth break and wear away, and with the job I’m in it’s important to look presentable. I didn’t do this lightly, but it’s the best thing I’ve …
Written By: the sprout - Date published: 12:04 am, November 9th, 2009 - 28 comments
You just have to listen to this. After “solid reflection” Rodney has realized that despite being adamant for several days that he’d done no wrong, he now understands that no, he has done wrong and has already returned the cash to the government coffers. Did it last week apparently, which is a bid odd in …
Written By: the sprout - Date published: 7:30 am, November 8th, 2009 - 35 comments
One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same… Can you guess which one is not like the other, Can you tell me before I finish the game?
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:52 pm, November 7th, 2009 - 32 comments
Some pretty damning pieces on on Hide today from John Armstrong, Tracy Watkins, and Fran O’Sullivan. They compare him to Winston Peters and say he ought to apologise to various groups for his troughing and his comments that John Key “doesn’t do anything”. What I find fascinating, though, is that a senior and powerful minister gave his …
Written By: the sprout - Date published: 7:24 am, November 7th, 2009 - 8 comments
Hypocrisy is such a difficult tag to shake in NZ politics. After blowing $50,000 of tax payer money on a trip with his girlfriend to visit her brother and wander around Disneyland, it seems like Rodney Hide has been caught yet again pilfering public funds to help with his romantic chances, this time another $10,000 …
Written By: the sprout - Date published: 2:43 pm, November 6th, 2009 - 31 comments
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:45 pm, November 6th, 2009 - 64 comments
Not content with living in a fantasy world, Rodney Hide had to spend taxpayer money to visit Disney World as well. OK, actually it was Universal Studios but it looks increasingly like Hide’s $50,000 trip kindly paid for by you and me was actually nothing more than a world tour with his girlfriend. Sure, they …
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:00 am, November 6th, 2009 - 17 comments
Hide says his comment that Key “doesn’t do anything” was “taken out of context” by the reporter. It’s a direct attack on van Beyan’s professionalism. Reminiscent of Key’s smears after his “we would love to see wages drop” quoted was reported. Van Beyan should stand up for himself and his profession by releasing his full notes …
Written By: The Standard - Date published: 5:28 pm, November 5th, 2009 - 40 comments
Interesting comment from ‘gobsmacked’ on Rodney Hide’s statement that John Key “doesn’t do anything” and how he as a minister can ram pretty much anything he likes through cabinet: There’s a bigger story here, incidentally. Rodney Hide has been caught out in a lie. The whole ‘fundraiser’ row was all about whether Hide was acting …
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 3rd, 2009 - 24 comments
Just saw this in the SST. Hide on the spousal travel allowance: This perk is wrong, I’ve never agreed with it So why claim it? If you don’t think it’s right, it’s not ethical to do it. ‘Meat is murder, but as you’ve killed the animals anyway…’ I had the opportunity for this trip and …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:23 am, November 3rd, 2009 - 21 comments
Yesterday, John Key cleverly tried to reframe his ministers’ failure to obey his standards on use of perks: “You don’t want 120 Members of Parliament who have the financial independence to be able to make the financial decisions that I make. “It wouldn’t be the House of Representatives, we need people from all walks of …
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