Archive for March, 2008

Scum

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 pm, March 31st, 2008 - 95 comments

Cameron Slater’s co-blogger Steady Eddy is back to his creepy brownshirt tricks again and this time his target is Labour Party candidate Kate Sutton. I’ll say right now that I’m concerned about giving this filth any oxygen but considering Eddy’s previous attacks on Sutton have been approvingly linked to by National Party blogger David Farrar […]

Cheap thrills

Written By: - Date published: 5:15 pm, March 31st, 2008 - 7 comments

If you’re in the market for some cheap BZP but don’t want to sell your soul to the ACT Party to get your hands on it, apparently you’re in luck.

The parties’ climate change policies

Written By: - Date published: 4:44 pm, March 31st, 2008 - 11 comments

‘Tis the season for surveys of the parties. Greenpeace sent a questionnaire to each of the parliamentary parties asking for their polices on 20 climate change issues. They’ve published the answers and rated the policies for effectiveness tackling climate change. The results are summarised below. Parties could score up to two ticks per answer if […]

Interview the leaders II: The Greens

Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, March 31st, 2008 - 51 comments

Well, we’ve made our decision on the two questions you wanted asked of Jim Anderton and one of the decisions we made was that we needed three questions. So we’ve picked the following: For the question that will be asked of all leaders we’ve chosen Wat Tyler’s question as tidied up by Billy: Of which […]

National’s victims policy

Written By: - Date published: 12:38 pm, March 31st, 2008 - 5 comments

National has proposed several initiatives around victims’ rights, most of which are based on policy already under development by the Ministry of Justice. Sure to gain media attention is the ‘Victims’ Compensation Scheme’ to be funded from a levy of $50 on every convicted offender. This is meant to fund victims’ costs ‘such as travel […]

What’s up, Doc?

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, March 31st, 2008 - 19 comments

There have been a number of stories recently about the number of doctors heading overseas but they are usually sensationalist and lack context. The most important questions are how many doctors do we have working in New Zealand, and how does that relate to the size of the population? Fortunately, the Medical Council produces an […]

The Kingmaker Debate

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, March 31st, 2008 - 150 comments

TV7’s Kingmaker debate was an opportunity for the leaders of the smaller parties to promote themselves without being overshadowed by Clark and Key. It’s shallow to give out points for a debate like this or announce winners but the debate did highlight the leaders’ strengths and weaknesses. Anderton did bloody well. He pointed to where his […]

Herald Digipoll

Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, March 29th, 2008 - 56 comments

The New Zealand Herald reports that Labour has almost halved National’s lead in its latest DigiPoll survey, following a month “memorable for slip-ups and lacklustre performances by leader John Key.” Labour’s managed to claw its way up towards the 40% mark and that’s good news for the Left, which is now back within striking distance of […]

When good ads go bad

Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, March 28th, 2008 - 6 comments

From Stuff: Details of a massive home loan scam targeting buyers in South Auckland have emerged involving former Westpac mortgate manager Amar Singh. (Hat-tip: Simon)

Interview the leaders

Written By: - Date published: 11:12 am, March 28th, 2008 - 51 comments

We’re going to interview the leader of each party but we’d like to give you the chance to ask the questions. Starting next week we’ll submit two questions to a leader each Monday, one of which will be the same for each of them to allow you to compare those answers; the second question will […]

National’s tax cut dilemma

Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, March 28th, 2008 - 14 comments

If National are so keen to cut taxes and so critical of the Government for not doing so earlier, why are they being so tight-lipped about how they would cut taxes and even the size of their cuts? Because the Budget has them trapped. Labour plans to announce its tax cuts in the Budget, probably […]

Belated big-ups

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, March 28th, 2008 - 6 comments

It’s been a bit remiss of us to have failed to welcome The Hand Mirror into the left blogosphere. I’ve only just had a proper look at it and I’ve got to say it is gold. Sort of like one of those action movies where half a dozen superheros get together to save the world. […]

An embarrassing effort

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 pm, March 27th, 2008 - 36 comments

Ever since the Herald lost its rag over the EFA I’ve come to expect little more than half-truths and inaccuracies from its editorials, but today’s effort was particularly disappointing. Business NZ press release in one hand and a keyboard in the other, the Herald had itself all wound up over suggestions that proposed minimum entitlements to meal […]

National’s nanny state

Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, March 27th, 2008 - 73 comments

Seems to me we need some consensus on what a “Nanny State” actually is. Today the Nats have come out in opposition of some scholarships awarded for doctoral research by the Tertiary Education Commission – stuff like “children’s colour use and emotional wellbeing when drawing” being researched by Emily Crawford at Otago University. What could […]

If I were the Greens’ campaign strategist

Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, March 27th, 2008 - 28 comments

This should be the Greens’ time in the sun. For decades, the Green movement has been concerned about the future impacts of climate change, peak oil, and resource depletion. The future is now. These once far-off concerns are having impacts today and people are finally becoming aware of the importance of sustainability and demanding government […]

Canada’s shame

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, March 27th, 2008 - 23 comments

For those of you who saw the title and thought this post was about Celine Dion, sorry, it’s about the seal cull.  Every year Canada kills and skins hundreds of thousands of baby harp seals, leaving their bodies to rot. The seal cullers’ favoured tool is the vicious hakapik a long pole with a sharp […]

What would Jesus drive?

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, March 26th, 2008 - 10 comments

The Vatican’s update of sins to include issues of social justice and environment reminded me of a conversation I had recently with a friend from the US. She was telling me that one of the “surprise” groups to come out in support of tougher environmental regulation over there were a number of the large evangelical […]

Boohoo

Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, March 26th, 2008 - 8 comments

Legislated breaks for workers are unnecessary according to Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O’Reilly. His bitter protest against proposed changes to employment legislation that would guarantee rights to breaks that workers should have anyway, was joined by Hospitality Association chief exec Bruce Robertson despairing that no one is allowed to do anything anymore. Phil […]

Meal breaks

Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, March 26th, 2008 - 13 comments

I had planned to write something about the business lobby’s moaning over Labour’s plans to restore workers’ rights to meal and rest breaks, but as usual No Right Turn nails it perfectly: The government’s plan to restore a minimum entitlement for breaks in the workplace has produced the usual reaction: squealing from employer’s groups, with the Hospitality […]

“The Panel” on John Key

Written By: - Date published: 12:40 pm, March 26th, 2008 - 14 comments

Looks like people are starting to notice that the emperor has no clothes. powered by ODEO (Hat-tip: BB)

Calling coal to account

Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, March 26th, 2008 - 18 comments

New Zealand’s coal industry is a mess of contradictions. We worry about carbon emissions and Kyoto while State-owned Solid Energy exports coal to dirty Chinese factories. Rather than being energy-efficiently shipped out of Greymouth, coal from the West Coast is taken by rail over the Southern Alps because taxpayer-subsidised Toll gives SOE Solid Energy and Pike River a cut-price deal to haul […]

Democracy in action

Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, March 26th, 2008 - 6 comments

The Press reports that: National’s hunt for a candidate in the new Selwyn electorate continues to cause problems, with one unsuccessful applicant taking the party to court to protest against his rejection… Payne said yesterday he was paying the price for being “the whistleblower” over the selection concerns in Selwyn last year. “It’s unfair and […]

The 50 cent tax cut

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, March 26th, 2008 - 16 comments

This morning on Breakfast, John Key repeated his line that capping the size of the core public service (that includes planning staff for health, prison guards, and the human rights commission) at current levels would ‘save $500 million over three years that could be used for more ‘frontline’ staff and tax-cuts’. Leaving aside that it’s not […]

Creative pitch

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, March 26th, 2008 - 15 comments

With John Ansell now flat out with ACT and the Free Speech Coalition it suddenly stuck me that there might be an opening on the creative front with National. Putting my prejudices to one side, I’ve decided to pitch for their billboard contract.

Kiwisaver breaks half a million

Written By: - Date published: 4:37 pm, March 25th, 2008 - 17 comments

Congratulations to Kiwisaver’s 500,000th member, baby Remy Van Cruysen, whose parents, Jules and Megan, signed him up today. By the time Remy is an adult he will have a nest-egg worth $49,000 in today’s money. Kiwisaver has been enormously popular. People have signed up at twice the expected rate 500,000 have joined in less than eight months, […]

Blackball centenary

Written By: - Date published: 4:32 pm, March 25th, 2008 - 10 comments

The weekend marked the centenary of the Blackball miners’ strike. TV3 reported that: “Politicians flocked to Labour’s spiritual home on the West Coast to celebrate the centenary of a miners’ strike which helped build the country’s Labour movement into a political force.”

Pressure building for Nats on R&D

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, March 25th, 2008 - 2 comments

Lest you think we are totally urban focused one of our readers sent us this recent editorial in the Rural News. In it they offer some positive comments around the recent R&D announcement from the government and ponder on National’s inability to offer up any policy: Rural News: “There has been a recurring theme resonating […]

The Redolution is now!

Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, March 25th, 2008 - 1 comment

Vote for your favourite M&M candydate here (warning, extensive Flash content).

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, March 25th, 2008 - 32 comments

David Farrar appears to be throwing his weight in behind National Party’s “New Zealand Sucks” campaign with another misleading post on migration to Australia. Titled “The exodus grows”, DPF’s take on the most recent stats is that the rate at which people are “fleeing New Zealand” is accelerating. It’s perhaps disguised as one of David’s […]

Policy Summary: Labour v National

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, March 25th, 2008 - 24 comments

The Sunday-Star Times has an interesting list of the policies the election will be fought on and where the two major parties stand on them. Here’s the article in summary, see if you can spot the pattern:  KiwiSaver Labour: Set up KiwiSaver, added government and employer contributions. Half a million Kiwis have now joined. National: No final policy yet. […]

It’s your fault I keep saying contradictory things

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

Regular readers will remember that one of John Key’s excuses for he ‘we would love to see wages drop‘ quote was that the reporter had misquoted him. Now, Key has once again shown a disturbing trait of attributing his own mistakes to others. When asked about the possibility of moving National’s tax cut programme forward […]