Archive for February, 2008

They’ve got 18 better than him?

Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, February 29th, 2008 - 67 comments

National MP for Northland, John Carter, is ‘up in arms about a decision allowing inmates from Ngawha Prison to play in the Whangarei and Districts Rugby League competition.’ This kind of activity is an important part of rehabilitation. In case you are wondering, yes, this is the same John Carter who, in 1995, rang fellow […]

Behind National’s emigration wailing

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, February 29th, 2008 - 28 comments

National likes to talk down New Zealand, to portray this great country as underperforming, to exaggerate our problems, and to cast our unique traits and values as barriers to ‘success’ (success is becoming a more homogenised off-shoot of American capitalism). A great way to further the message is wailing about people leaving for Australia – […]

Winston tears Paul Henry a new one

Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, February 29th, 2008 - 30 comments

I’m as sick of the Owen Glenn saga as the next guy, but Winston Peters’ tussle with failed National Party candidate and Close Up presenter Paul Henry last night was highly entertaining. There’s been a bit of comment about the interview around the blogs, so here it is for those who missed it:

Talleys in trouble again

Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, February 29th, 2008 - 47 comments

NZPA reports that Hollow Men the Talley brothers have been fined $110,000 after eleven workers at their Blenheim plant were subjected to carbon monoxide poisoning from forklift fumes. The company was found guilty of eleven charges of failing to take all practical steps to ensure employee safety by exposing them to the hazard of carbon […]

How would Key make wages drop?

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 pm, February 28th, 2008 - 51 comments

Having read our coverage of John Key’s ‘we would love to see wages drop‘ line my brother asked ‘but how can a government make wages drop?’ The answer is obvious to those of us who know about this kind of stuff but my brother’s question, along with Colin Espiner’s naïve statement that ‘[a PM] has […]

For the record

Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, February 28th, 2008 - 103 comments

Like most of his policy positions John Key’s story on his comment “we would love to see wages drop” just keeps on changing. First he was “misrepresented”, then his comment was “lighthearted”, and now he’s claiming he never said it. Which is it John? In an interview today with Mickey Havoc, Key now denies ever […]

Cutting out the middle man

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, February 28th, 2008 - 39 comments

The Herald reports that after questioning by the media, ‘Prime Minister Helen Clark says her criticisms of the New Zealand Herald bear no similarity to the ejection a newspaper publisher from Fiji by that country’s military regime.’ That the Herald believes this is in need of clarification, or is even worthy of publication in a […]

What’s the future of Working for Families?

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, February 28th, 2008 - 13 comments

One consquence of the expectations around tax cuts is an examination of some of the policies already have in place – Working for Families for example. This was the topic of a recent article from Ruth Laugesen in the Sunday Star Times. “Coopers chairman John Shewan said that under Working for Families, many households effectively […]

Joining the (blue) dots

Written By: - Date published: 5:48 pm, February 27th, 2008 - 42 comments

Perhaps you’ve heard about the Blue Chip blues? The company is in the news again today, and not just for allegedly breaking a sting of laws. The couple featured in the article have lost their home and hundreds of further ‘mum and dad’ investors may still lose their savings. The photo at left (no, it’s […]

someoneorotherisyournewbicycle.com

Written By: - Date published: 3:36 pm, February 27th, 2008 - Comments Off on someoneorotherisyournewbicycle.com

I bookmarked barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com last week but forgot to post on it in amongst the (not over yet) story of John Key’s admission that: “we would love to see wages drop“. When you hit reload the web site displays a new complimentary message about Mr Obama. The Chicago Tribune has the full story on the site, […]

Bill’s Wikipedia edits

Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, February 27th, 2008 - 39 comments

Again from a Parliamentary address, the following passage was deleted from Bill English’s Wikipedia entry in June last year: He married a Catholic GP, Mary, and they now have six children – five boys: Luke, Thomas, Rory, Bartholemew and Xavier; and one daughter, Maria. He is a devout Catholic himself, and upholds his churches opposition […]

Lucky last

Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, February 27th, 2008 - 15 comments

When we published the results of our MP survey on John Key’s “we would love to see wages drop” quote last week, we knew that we would not be getting any more responses. The MPs, especially the National ones, would to told in no uncertain terms not to reply by their media people. But there’s […]

Turnout suppression

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, February 27th, 2008 - 6 comments

Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservative US think tank The Heritage Foundation (which has links to our very own Maxim Institute) once famously remarked: “I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. […]

Peas in a pod: Family Fist, National, DPF

Written By: - Date published: 4:10 pm, February 26th, 2008 - 55 comments

National Party blogger David Farrar points to a criticism of the repeal of s59 by Sacha Coburn (“a Christchurch businesswoman, lawyer and mother”): The Government should read this column and be afraid… The whole column is worth a read. And Sacha Coburn will not be an exception – there will be many more like her […]

National’s history of rewriting history

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, February 26th, 2008 - 16 comments

You think they’d learn. Wikiscanner reports that someone in Parliament has been busy – busy expunging potentially embarassing facts about a variety of MPs. This one’s about Allan Peachey. You might remember Allan from such debacles as the Peachey/Rich bulk funding controversy and also the little number above that he’d evidently rather history forgot – […]

Rod Oram: Insight into 2008

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, February 26th, 2008 - 6 comments

For those who are looking to the Beehive to bring some single minded focus to the current situation Labour finds themselves in, this article from Rod Oram at the begining of the month reads like a good starting point (SSTimes, 3 Feb 2008). He raises what the challenges for Labour are: If it wants to […]

Nader standing

Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, February 26th, 2008 - 12 comments

Last night Ralph Nader announced his candidacy for President of the United States on NBC’s Meet the Press. Many Democrats see Nader as a ‘spoiler’ candidate and blame him for losing them the 2000 election, but in his announcement he came out swinging, attacking the two-party system and pointing out that “If the Democrats can’t […]

Key’s shameful attack on journalist

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, February 26th, 2008 - 81 comments

One of the more unsavoury aspects of Key’s “we would love wages to drop” saga is the unwarranted attacks by Key and his allies on the journalist who quoted him, Greg Robertson. Key referred to Robertson as some “young guy who was taking notes“. Key said Robertson’s quote was wrong, or that he was joking, […]

Espiner on National’s hypocrisy

Written By: - Date published: 6:14 pm, February 25th, 2008 - 37 comments

From Colin’s blog: It’s time for National to put its mouth where its money is. After a week of climbing into Labour boots and all over the Owen Glenn saga, one thing has become abundantly clear: the Nats have lost any defence of their right to keep their own campaign donations secret. It is the […]

NSW Liberals want an Electoral Finance Act

Written By: - Date published: 3:43 pm, February 25th, 2008 - 33 comments

In an ironic twist, the Sydney Morning Herald reports today that the New South Wales Liberal Party has called for reform of campaign financing in Australia’s largest state, citing New Zealand’s Electoral Finance Act as an example of what they would like to see – limits on donations, limits on expenditure, and restrictions on third […]

Jones to Key: say it to our faces

Written By: - Date published: 3:25 pm, February 25th, 2008 - 23 comments

Far North Labour MP Shane Jones laid down the gauntlet to Key over the ‘we would love to see wages drop‘ scandal. Jones reminds Key that: “all it takes to ruin a Teflon pan is one scratch” and in a second press release lays out his challenge: ‘there’s only one way for Mr Key to […]

Transcript proves Key is lying

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, February 25th, 2008 - 76 comments

When it was revealed that John Key had told a business leader he ‘would love to see wages drop‘ it undermined everything he’d told national media about wanting to lift wages. It also had the potential to do irreparable damage to his rhetoric on tax cuts and to show him as being less than honest […]

The deafening silence

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, February 25th, 2008 - 30 comments

At a meeting in Kerikeri last year with a business leader, in the presence of journalist Greg Robertson, National Leader John Key said ‘we would love to see wages drop‘. When this story broke last week, the political commentators were naturally cautious. It is an extraordinary quote. Not because a National leader would think wages […]

Tail-spin

Written By: - Date published: 11:12 am, February 23rd, 2008 - 73 comments

While National is trying to pretend John Key’s quote that “we would love to see wages drop” is a non-issue, behind the scenes they’re floundering. We’ve all heard the multiple and conflicting denials (“I can’t recall”, “I never said it”, “I was misquoted”, “I was talking about Australian wages”), and now thanks to a lazy […]

Filth

Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, February 22nd, 2008 - 82 comments

It looks like the nasty little insecure creeps who inhabit the Kiwiblog Right are creeping into the mainstream. I mean, take a look at this from today’s Herald: This follows Cameron Slater’s description of a female columnist who pointed out how weird his obsession with Clark is as “a fat, lazy, pommy, leftist slag”, Clint […]

Key incoherent on pay cut plans

Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, February 22nd, 2008 - 13 comments

Following the revelation that John Key told a business audience “we would love to see wages drop“, bFM asked him to elaborate [MP3, 3.5MB]: Key: The, look I’ll tell you what the situation was there. We were in a, I know I don’t overtly remember it as part of the DVD tour but it was […]

Margaret Wilson to stand down

Written By: - Date published: 1:14 pm, February 22nd, 2008 - 8 comments

Speaker of the House Margaret Wilson has announced she will not be seeking a position on Labour’s list next election. This won’t come as a huge surprise, and after what she’s had to put up with in the house over the last couple of years I’m sure she’ll be pleased to be moving on.

MPs respond to Key’s wage drop wish

Written By: - Date published: 12:41 pm, February 22nd, 2008 - 30 comments

Following revelations that John Key told a business audience “we would love to see wages drop“, I sent an email to all 91 MPs whose emails addresses are listed on their bio page on the Parliament website. The email read: “John Key is quoted in the Bay Report, 20/12/07, saying “we would love to see […]

The lucky country

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 pm, February 21st, 2008 - 35 comments

I see the wage-gap is getting another airing on Stuff today, here’s the first few pars: While the gulf between New Zealand and Australian pay packets is narrowing slightly, it’s still a no-contest. Australian full-time workers earned an average of $A1162 ($NZ1350) per week in the year to November, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics […]

On the record

Written By: - Date published: 3:37 pm, February 21st, 2008 - 43 comments

There are some out there claiming Key’s statement that he “would love to see wages drop” is out of character. Now I’m always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt and we know actions speak louder than words so I thought I’d have a look at Key’s actions. And what actions would speak […]

Bunnings workers strike to close wage gap

Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, February 21st, 2008 - 41 comments

While media, politicians and the Kiwi blogosphere are arguing about the wage gap with Australia, around four hundred NDU members at Bunnings Warehouse are taking matters into their own hands with a two-hour nationwide strike action today. Bunnings workers in New Zealand start on just $12 an hour compared to $19 for their counterparts in […]