Archive for February, 2008

Getting emotional about economics

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, February 14th, 2008 - 65 comments

Michael Shermer of the LA Times asks: “Would you rather earn $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000, or would you rather earn $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000?” Somewhat surprisingly you might think, it turns out that most people chose the first option. They’d rather earn twice as much as others […]

Affordable housing

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, February 14th, 2008 - 5 comments

Not in my back yard. Alright, maybe in my back yard but only if the state isn’t involved. UPDATE: No Right Turn has an interesting post on Key’s privatisation plans.

Key hopping on Hobsonville

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 pm, February 13th, 2008 - 40 comments

Just spotted this statement from Maryan Street up on Scoop which suggests at least one reason why Mr Key would like the issue of housing afforability to go away. Hobsonville is turning into an embarassment for him: In June 2006 he said on National Radio: “So you’re talking about very expensive land. I mean, I […]

Own home dream

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 pm, February 13th, 2008 - 27 comments

Is tax really the answer to housing affordability? The editorial in the NZ Herald today motivated a reader to send us these observations: ‘It has long been a dream for New Zealanders to own their own home and it is not a dream that we should dampen. Helping families own their own home may increase […]

For use tomorrow

Written By: - Date published: 5:28 pm, February 13th, 2008 - 3 comments

Via Bureau of Communication.

Australia says sorry

Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, February 13th, 2008 - 24 comments

Howard couldn’t bring himself to do it, instead expressing “regret”. Today, Labor’s Kevin Rudd said sorry in a formal statement to the stolen generations of Aboriginal people of Australia. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the […]

Is inequality closing down our concern for others?

Written By: - Date published: 4:31 pm, February 13th, 2008 - 1 comment

Jenny Russel of the Guardian writes, “As the middle classes feel the pain of comparison with the super-rich, we lose all enthusiasm for the common good”. The rise of the super-rich, and their capacity to outbid others in the competition for houses, schools, space and possessions, has produced a new definition of success. It is […]

Positions on tax cuts: a summary

Written By: - Date published: 3:53 pm, February 13th, 2008 - 33 comments

Both the Labour-led government and National have promised income tax cuts to follow the government’s family and business tax cuts. Neither has given any details except there will be multi-year programmes of cuts. The point of difference is that Labour has four conditions that their cuts will satisfy while National rejects those conditions. So in summary, their positons are […]

National’s last moderate falls on her sword

Written By: - Date published: 12:56 pm, February 13th, 2008 - 36 comments

Katherine Rich was one of only 2 women on National’s front bench and its last moderate MP. The only surprise in her resignation is that she resisted the National hierarchy’s pressure to leave for so long. National’s all-male inner circle never had any time for this young, independent-minded woman with a social conscience who wouldn’t […]

Rich resignation a huge blow for the Nats

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, February 13th, 2008 - 39 comments

The Press reports that “Senior National front-bencher Katherine Rich has resigned her education portfolio and will quit politics altogether at the election…” Rich ran the “compassionate conservative” line hard during her time in parliament. She was the more acceptable face of the the Nats on social issues and the only Nat MP to support the […]

Every cloud

Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, February 13th, 2008 - 14 comments

The latest in a long line of failed protests on the Electoral Finance Act has ended badly with Steven Franks taking legal action against 3M, the maker of Packfast packing tape. The Dominion Post reports today that: “Aspiring Wellington Central MP Stephen Franks was one of six demonstrators protesting against the Electoral Finance Act who […]

Curia-ser and Curia-ser

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 pm, February 12th, 2008 - 61 comments

You’ll probably know about the rumour around the traps that blogger David Farrar is running his polling company Curia out of National Party HQ. This information first came up when Newzblog blogger James Sleep posted on a conversation he had with a young Nat in which the lad in question told him that he worked […]

Key disappoints

Written By: - Date published: 4:42 pm, February 12th, 2008 - 42 comments

I’ve just listened to Key’s reply to the PM’s speech. I’m underwhelmed. Instead of using it to promote any sort of policy platform it was a rehash of tired old phrases from the National Party linebook. You’d think that having had the PM’s copy for over four hours that they’d be able to produce something […]

Clark targets housing affordability

Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, February 12th, 2008 - 24 comments

In her speech today, the Prime Minister announced a slate of government plans on housing affordability. New land will be freed up for housing but it will not a National-style free-for-all where land would be gobbled up by wealthy individuals and private developers for over-priced, up-scale housing that will exclude most people. Rather, areas will […]

Swan to build surplus as economic stabiliser

Written By: - Date published: 3:44 pm, February 12th, 2008 - 2 comments

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan has announced that he intends to lift the target for the budget surplus, so that fiscal policy can help ease upward pressure on interest rates. He will proceed with tax cuts announced in the election campaign, but according to The Australian newspaper his comments signal that there is unlikely to be […]

Key conjures up cuts

Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, February 12th, 2008 - 10 comments

John Key tells us that he would cut ‘wasteful government spending’ to pay for upper-bracket tax cuts bigger than Labour’s cuts. But do the facts match the rhetoric? Remember National’s wastewatch website? It listed $900 million in ‘waste’ since 1999 only 0.2% of government spending, which won’t pay for many tax cuts. And most of […]

Roy Morgan

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, February 12th, 2008 - 7 comments

Roy Morgan’s latest poll is out. It shows a big drop of 6.5 for National and a corresponding swing to Labour and the Greens, up 3 and 2.5 respectively. Here’s a small version of their graph of the trends:

Getting ALL the facts right

Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, February 12th, 2008 - 26 comments

This contribution was sent through by a reader who did some digging after reading that Helen Clark’s research is letting her down in terms of the National party’s voting record on settlement of historical claims (NZ Herald, Political Diary, 9 Feb 2008, offline). It looks like National weren’t that thorough either. The suggestion that National […]

Salvation Army report finds poverty in Godzone

Written By: - Date published: 4:23 pm, February 11th, 2008 - 53 comments

A report out today from the Salvation Army acts as a reminder that despite a suite of policies designed to improve the lives of those most in need there’s still work to be done. Major Campbell Roberts says: “As a country we have invested hugely in core social spending, from $23b 10 years ago to […]

Congrats to the Conchords

Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, February 11th, 2008 - 3 comments

Stuff reports that Wellingtonians of the year, “Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, who play marginally talented folk singers struggling to make it in New York, picked up the best comedy album Grammy for The Distant Future.” While we wait for the second season we’ll have to tide ourselves over with Conchordian highlights from YouTube like […]

Peters ought to stop playing the race card

Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, February 11th, 2008 - 35 comments

Winston Peters vexes me. He has a long list of worthy achievements, including free doctor visits for under sixes and crippling the last National government when it tried to sell Wellington Airport. He has also fought for ordinary kiwis against corporate might and those who would flog our assets to foreign owners. Unfortunately, mixed with […]

Rich call for tax cuts for rich

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, February 11th, 2008 - 94 comments

Four associations representing wealthy New Zealanders are saying tax cuts should be in the form of making the top tax rate 30 cents in the dollar. Wouldn’t that mean that their wealthy members get huge tax cuts while the 85% of us earning less than $60,000 will get none or very little? Why, what a […]

Simpsons evolution

Written By: - Date published: 11:44 pm, February 10th, 2008 - 9 comments

This evening’s Simpsons – Best. Intro. Ever.

Media and our National Day

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 pm, February 10th, 2008 - 17 comments

The decision of TVNZ’s CloseUp to pay to assist Tame Iti to travel to Waitangi this year was the focus of Media Watch this morning. Ever ready to offer an opinion the PM stepped in with her view that: “I think it is a waste of public money.” (Dom Post, 7 Feb 2008) And the […]

Say chee$e

Written By: - Date published: 5:46 pm, February 10th, 2008 - 35 comments

At the supermarket earlier this week I was browsing the aisles and noticed the price of cheese. It seems now that for a kilo of this yellow gold (hold on isn’t gold kinda yellow anyway?) you’ll be paying $16. Now that’s a lot of money for what is pretty much a Kiwi staple but it’s […]

When politics and music video collide

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 pm, February 9th, 2008 - 2 comments

From CNN earlier in the week – Jeanne Moos presents her very own Super Tuesday Political Video Awards. A good summary of some of the hottest and some of the most cringe inducing items on the download circuit. What will be our NZ equivalent? Meantime fresh controversy is set to rage with the news that […]

Push polling

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, February 8th, 2008 - 8 comments

Tony Milne responds to National Party blogger, David Farrar’s recent post on push polling. Tony points out that any push polling undertaken during the last election was most likely a three way affair between the National Party, the Exclusive Brethren and conservative political consultants Crosby and Texter. National have repeatedly tried to distance themselves from […]

Solution to wage-gap in hands of business

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, February 8th, 2008 - 61 comments

Larger (but still small) numbers of kiwis are leaving for Australia and higher incomes are part of the attraction.  At the same time unemployment here is at a record low, which is good but employers are complaining about a lack of workers.  To keep skilled workers in New Zealand higher wages are needed. The government […]

KiwiSaver – what if…

Written By: - Date published: 4:56 pm, February 7th, 2008 - 25 comments

Kiwis are showing their canny side in the way we’ve been flocking to sign up to KiwiSaver – now over 400,000 strong and still growing. It’s another dead rat that John Key has swallowed to make National an electable brand but let’s not forget that in 1975 National abolished Labour’s universal superannuation scheme. Bryan Gaynor […]

Greens/Maori Party cooperation good for the Left

Written By: - Date published: 4:05 pm, February 7th, 2008 - 31 comments

The Maori Party and the Greens are discussing an informal alliance ahead of the election. This makes a lot of sense. The two parties vote together on most issues (more than they vote with any other parties) and have fundamental principles in common. Either major party will probably need the support of one or both […]

Cullen puts tax cuts in context

Written By: - Date published: 2:38 pm, February 7th, 2008 - 53 comments

In a speech today to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce Cullen has further differentiated the role of tax cuts under National and Labour. What was interesting about Cullen’s speech is that it wasn’t really a speech about tax cuts. It was a speech about (much broader) economic sustainability. Essentially it pitted National’s vaporware ‘tax cuts’ […]