Archive for May, 2008

Happy Birthday National

Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, May 14th, 2008 - 54 comments

Today is the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the National Party. So, it’s an opportune moment to reflect on the founding principles of the National Party and ask that age old question ‘why are they called National anyway?’ The political background to the founding of the National party is the conflict between the three […]

Nats’ attack on union hits High Court

Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, May 14th, 2008 - 47 comments

Today National will be explaining to the High Court why it wants the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union’s 50,000 members to be denied the chance to campaign for their work rights this election. I’m expecting that they will continue to claim they are only “testing the law” but given the EPMU’s record of showing National […]

A brief musical interlude

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, May 14th, 2008 - 7 comments

If only I’d been around in 1969, and hanging out in upstate New York. Hard to believe that the best we can do today is Westlife. Well, that’s not fair. I like these lyrics from ‘Think Twice’ the song put together by a group of New Zealand musicans following recent violence in South Auckland: Creeping […]

TVNZ and the Nats

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, May 13th, 2008 - 36 comments

As Paul Henry continues his party political broadcasts for the National Party on Breakfast TV, a curious coincidence of timing occured on Sunday. John Key devoted part of his speech to a National regional conference to the Nats plans on how to deal with “P”. The rest of the speech was pretty much a repeat of the one he […]

ACT: tax cuts for the rich, please

Written By: - Date published: 3:34 pm, May 13th, 2008 - 139 comments

Rodney Hide is calling for the Budget’s tax cuts to take the form of raising the thresholds to account for inflation since 1999, removing of the 39 cent bracket, and a $10,000 tax-free bracket. What would ACT’s tax cuts entail for New Zealanders? Hide says the average cut would be $50 a week, so we […]

Key’s performance in the House embarrassing

Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, May 13th, 2008 - 70 comments

I’ve just watched the first Question Time in 3 weeks. After 3 weeks’ recess and lots of potentially juicy material to use, here I was expecting the Leader of Nats to come down to the House and stick the knife into Labour. But instead… what we got was a extraordinarily limp performance by John Key. […]

Rio Tinto threatens NZ with capital strike

Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, May 13th, 2008 - 87 comments

Multi-national minerals company Rio Tinto is threatening to close its Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Bluff and move its production offshore if the Emissions Trading Scheme is enacted because they say it will increase power prices. This is not the first time Rio Tinto has held New Zealand to ransom using the threat of closing […]

Interview the Leaders VIII: NZ First

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, May 13th, 2008 - 9 comments

We’ve chosen the questions for John Key in the seventh installment of our “Interview the Leaders” series. The first question remains the same, as for all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the others we’ve gone with Darryl’s question: Under the last National government most people’s wages fell […]

“Obama in 30 seconds” winner

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, May 13th, 2008 - Comments Off on “Obama in 30 seconds” winner

After over 1100 submissions and more than 5.5 million total votes cast, MoveOn.org have announced the winner of their “Obama in 30 seconds” homemade ad competition – Obamacan by David Gaw & Lance Mungia. They’re now running a fundraiser to get it aired commercially.  

New Zealand, a great place to be a mum

Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, May 12th, 2008 - 48 comments

We hear an awful lot from the Right about how much New Zealand sucks: ‘crime is up’ they cry (when it’s down), ‘taxes are too high’ (when they’re down), ‘too many dole bludgers’ (when benefit numbers are way, way down), ‘everyone’s leaving for Australia’ (when fewer than 0.7% of people went last year), ‘labour costs […]

More on benefit levels

Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, May 12th, 2008 - 61 comments

It was disappointing to hear National Radio this morning summarise the recent debate over benefit levels as ‘benefits are not keeping up with the cost of living’. Benefits are keeping up with the cost of living they are adjusted every year to keep them in line with the cost of living (that’s what the Consumer […]

Roy Morgan

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, May 12th, 2008 - 36 comments

There was a new Roy Morgan poll out on Friday. No major changes – Labour continues to hover around the mid-30s and National around 50. The minor parties are still all over the place and New Zealand First remains a wildcard. Interestingly Roy Morgan also reported results for Auckland vs the rest of the country […]

Mythbusting: ‘Book value’ & ‘over the odds’

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, May 12th, 2008 - 32 comments

In an attempt to find a non-ideological ground to justify opposing the Government’s buyback of the rail system, John Key and others have been claiming that the $665 million price-tag is ‘over the odds’ and $200 million in excess of Toll’s ‘book value’ for the assets bought. What do these two terms mean and what […]

Peter Dunne answers your questions

Written By: - Date published: 6:32 am, May 12th, 2008 - 23 comments

We’re very pleased to have UnitedFuture Leader Peter Dunne respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? At a national level, I am most proud of the tax changes for which I have been responsible in […]

Mythbusting: Winning a fourth term is impossible

Written By: - Date published: 4:24 pm, May 11th, 2008 - 50 comments

It has become a media mantra that winning a fourth term of government is nigh on impossible, but is that claim actually based on the record of past governments or just a political myth?  The first government formed along party lines in New Zealand was the First Liberal Government, which took office in 1891. Since […]

Undo the cuts

Written By: - Date published: 3:05 pm, May 11th, 2008 - 56 comments

Good to see Ruth Dyson finally admitting we have left beneficiaries behind. I would hope now that there would be a lot more done than simply indexing benefits to wages though. Increasing the benefit to real pre-1991 levels would be a good start. A lot of people know about the benefit cuts but not many […]

Daily show interview: Blog Wars

Written By: - Date published: 2:04 pm, May 10th, 2008 - 15 comments

A great interview by Jon Stewart on political blogging. Well worth watching. The part about evolution of blogging in the US is particularly interesting. New Zealand obviously lags behind in some ways but, as is often the case in this small polity, things also have a tendency to move faster once they get going. I […]

Upgrades: Hardware

Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, May 9th, 2008 - 13 comments

 Upgrade is complete There will be a hardware upgrade on monday during working hours (still trying to get the time). The site will be offline for up to an hour while the system gets transferred. The upgrade should eliminate the capacity issues that have been showing every few days. I’ve limited the problem by reducing […]

Tax cut speculation

Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, May 9th, 2008 - 55 comments

Now that Michael Cullen has ruled out a tax-free bracket but promised that everyone will benefit from Labour’s tax-cut package, what cuts will he give? The simplest option would be to cut the bottom tax rate, which would deliver a tax cut for everyone. As a percentage of income the tax cut would be largest […]

Clarkson not standing in Tauranga

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, May 9th, 2008 - 59 comments

Clarkson has jumped before he was pushed – he won’t be standing in Tauranga. Peter’s hasn’t confirmed yet whether he will stand or not. It’s always slightly irritated me that the media seem intent on refering to Clarkson as “colourful”. It kind of sounds like it might be a complement until you realise that the […]

Norman coming into his prime

Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, May 9th, 2008 - 73 comments

The Greens have started to use Russell Norman as their primary spokesperson, instead of Jeanette Fitzsimons. Fitzsimons has never been great with the media, particularly in confrontational interviews and on TV. So far, Norman, while he still has much to work on, is a vast improvement. Take a look at how he handled an aggressive […]

Stop ANZ National’s race to the bottom

Written By: - Date published: 6:06 pm, May 8th, 2008 - 37 comments

A few weeks back ANZ National announced that over the next 12-18 months they plan to export 400-500 New Zealand jobs to Bangalore. In response, the bank workers’ union Finsec has started a campaign to stop them in their tracks. If it goes ahead this will be the largest offshoring of jobs ever in the […]

Get your questions in for Key

Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, May 8th, 2008 - Comments Off on Get your questions in for Key

Our ‘Interview the Leaders‘ series is going well and this week it’s your chance to submit questions to the man who wants you to want him to be your next Prime Minister. It’s been an interesting week for Key as, once again, a tentative venture into the land of substantive policy saw him come out […]

Unemployment figures

Written By: - Date published: 12:03 pm, May 8th, 2008 - 52 comments

Unemployment rose from 3.4% to 3.6% between the December and March quarters. The number of people employed fell 15,000 from 2,162,000 in the December quarter to 2,147,000 in the March quarter. That sickening sound you hear is the Right celebrating because people have lost their jobs. An increase in unemployment was, unfortunately, always coming given the global […]

Cullen rules out tax-free bracket, GST cut

Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, May 8th, 2008 - 20 comments

It’s disappointing that Michael Cullen has ruled out both a tax-free bracket and a GST cut in his tax cut package to be announced at the Budget (not least of all because it means he clearly isn’t taking policy advice from The Standard). His reasoning is odd on both points. The tax-free bracket is rejected […]

A hand-up, not a hand-out

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, May 8th, 2008 - 37 comments

Last night, while walking the tiles, I came across a group of young people. These were ambitious young people, and their ambition was this: find a supermarket trolley, take said trolley, put one of their party in the trolley, then drive the trolley to the nearest Star Mart and into that Star Mart, wherein to […]

Workers be careful, says Aussie Unionist

Written By: - Date published: 10:13 pm, May 7th, 2008 - 158 comments

Sharan Burrow (President of Australian Council of Trade Unions) talked to Morning Report about the union experiences in Australia under a conservative government, and their hope for the future with Kevin Rudd. She also had some words of warning for NZ workers: “We say to your workers here, be very careful, you don’t want to […]

It’s alright when he does it

Written By: - Date published: 2:12 pm, May 7th, 2008 - 64 comments

A reader sent us this letter to the Herald’s editor, which the Herald has refused to print. When the government moved to block the sale of Auckland Airport to the Canadian Pension Fund, the Herald’s editorial proclaimed that anyone who didn’t want foreign ownership of our strategic assets was xenophobic. Yesterday, John Key played the […]

If I were New Zealand First’s campaign strategist

Written By: - Date published: 12:39 pm, May 7th, 2008 - 42 comments

In some ways, there’s little to tell New Zealand First, other than let Winston Peters be himself. Peters has been (along with Helen Clark), New Zealand’s most successful MMP politician he has survived and run good campaigns every time except in 2005. He needs to remember to play the charming rogue a little more often, […]

Daily Show on the Pollies

Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, May 7th, 2008 - 3 comments

The Daily Show’s John Oliver goes behind the scenes at the Pollies, the US awards ceremony for political ad consultants. Hilarious. Watch the nominees tell Oliver how to destroy hope, make voters fear black people and hang your fragile ego on a yard sign. I’m sure our mate John Ansell would feel right at home. […]

Brownlee, not the brightest spark

Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, May 7th, 2008 - 48 comments

Here’s Gerry Brownlee in the Herald today: Brownlee said the [Whirinaki] power plant, near Napier, was intended as an emergency backup to be used seldomly in dry years. But he said the figures – from use over 32 days in the three-month period – suggested otherwise. “Its increased use is more evidence that Labour has […]

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