Archive for May, 2008

Tariana Turia answers your questions

Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, May 7th, 2008 - 41 comments

We’re very pleased to have Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia 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? I am most proud of having played a part in the creation of a movement which has given […]

Updates – gravatar/identicon

Written By: - Date published: 12:12 am, May 7th, 2008 - 33 comments

The latest tweak on the system are Gravatar/Identicons. Read about it on this site in the Gravatar menu item. Apart from the graphics, it does have a serious purpose. That is to provide some level of personal trust/authentication for those who wish to take advantage of it. This post is to provide a thread to […]

Torchure

Written By: - Date published: 4:34 pm, May 6th, 2008 - 9 comments

Amnesty UK has just released the first of four animations intended to highlight human rights abuses in China during the lead-up to the Olympic Games.

Petrol prices score political points

Written By: - Date published: 4:15 pm, May 6th, 2008 - 1 comment

It seems that NZers are not the only ones interested in petrol prices. From The Guardian: Barack Obama, facing increasingly close primary contests today in Indiana and North Carolina, fought off a populist push by Hillary Clinton to capitalise on American unease at rising petrol prices. The BBC has this on the unrelenting politics: To […]

Prebble out of step with Mainfreight board

Written By: - Date published: 3:39 pm, May 6th, 2008 - 23 comments

This morning on Breakfast Prebble called the government buy-back of trains and ferries “loony”. What’s alarming is that Prebble is on Mainfreight’s board of directors. His comments appear to put him seriously out of step with Mainfreight’s chief executive Don Braid, who commented: Provided the Government manages it [the rail operations] in a commercial way […]

The 40 cent tax cut

Written By: - Date published: 1:37 pm, May 6th, 2008 - 17 comments

National and some of the more wacky commentators are complaining that the $655 million used by the Government to buy back the rail stock should have been used, instead, to fund tax cuts. Now, there’s a crucial difference between a tax cut and a one-off capital purchase. And it’s that you only pay once for […]

Kurariki on home detention

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, May 6th, 2008 - 75 comments

No doubt, there will be hollow cries of outrage from Simon Power and Sensible Sentencing over Bailey Kurariki being transferred from jail to home detention for the last months of his sentence. Kurariki has been in jail for five years, since he was 12. His sentence expires in six months. By moving Kurariki to a […]

Transport’s inclusion in ETS delayed

Written By: - Date published: 11:04 am, May 6th, 2008 - 19 comments

The Government has delayed the inclusion of transport in the Emissions Trading Scheme from 2009 to 2011. On the surface, that seems to be a back down or a reduction in the Government’s commitment to tackling climate change but then you have to ask yourself what is the point of the Emissions Trading Scheme? As […]

Paul Henry must go

Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, May 6th, 2008 - 54 comments

This morning’s performace on breakfast TV by Paul Henry was a disgrace. His complete lack of objectivity on the rail and ferry buy-back was even more biased and partisan than we have come to expect from him. Despite Guyon Espiner’s best efforts to provide some objective analysis of the government’s decision, Henry simply shouted about […]

Fran O’Shillivan strikes again

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, May 6th, 2008 - 84 comments

Here’s the first par of National’s release on the rail deal: National Party Leader John Key says at a time when householders are struggling to pay the weekly bills, Helen Clark’s decision to spend the thick end of a billion dollars to buy back the rail rolling stock does not make any sense. Here’s Fran […]

How Boris won London by not being Boris

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, May 6th, 2008 - 13 comments

Tory candidate Boris Johnson has triumphed in the mayoral race for London in a campaign masterminded by the Australian political tactician Lynton Crosby. The Sydney Morning Herald has the story: Brought in at the end of last year, the mysterious Crosby – “you know I don’t do interviews”, he responded to an email from the […]

Interview the Leaders VII: National

Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 123 comments

The Maori Party has asked for an extension on the replies for Tariana Turia and we’re happy to oblige. In the meantime, here are the questions to United Future’s Peter Dunne that we chose from your suggestions. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the two […]

Would Key scrap GST on food?

Written By: - Date published: 3:12 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 5 comments

With hints that regional fuel tax could be put on the “go slow” list, along with parts of the emissions trading scheme, it seems like we shouldn’t take any policy on taxes for granted. For example, there’s a belief that National and Labour have consensus on not removing GST on food. A couple of comments […]

Key: National’s great white hype

Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 21 comments

Tom Frewen’s latest column seems to have somehow slipped through the usually rigourous editorial process at the NBR. The sidebar reads: “John Key’s lyrics sound like the gobbledygook of Bushisms”. “Yeah, I mean look, the truth is, with the greatest respect to Rodney, he doesn’t understand the telecommunications sector very well if he can’t sort […]

Wages up at record rate

Written By: - Date published: 12:58 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 17 comments

The Labour Cost Index rose a record 3.4% for the March year. That means wages and salaries for doing the same job rose an average of 3.4% over the year. Public sector wages were up 3.3% and private sector wages up 3.5%. Retail and other low-paid workers did especially well, with their pay up 5.1%, […]

Agenda

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 7 comments

Wat Tyler at KBB has an interesting comment on Agenda’s dreadful panel discussion yesterday: Agenda on Sunday was awful. The panelists didn’t want to listen to the people they were interviewing (both Russell Norman and David Parker did very well) and had their own agendas to pursue. Jenni McManus was a disgrace. Argumentative and rude, […]

For whom the Toll bells

Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, May 5th, 2008 - 62 comments

The Government has bought back the rail stock and ferries from Toll for $655 million. The privatisation of these vital assets, which are also natural monopolies, by National was a disaster from Day 1. National flogged the railways and the ferries off dirt cheap to their mates who asset-stripped them by slashing maintenance and taking […]

CTU Secretary selected for Maungakiekie

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, May 3rd, 2008 - 49 comments

CTU Secretary Carol Beaumont is set for a change of career later this year. She’s been selected as the Labour candidate for the safe Auckland seat of Maungakiekie currently held by Mark Gosche. As we know, Mark is standing for the list only this year, in order to spend more time with his family and […]

Our bank beats the rest

Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, May 2nd, 2008 - 29 comments

Today, ANZ and National Bank announced they are lifting their variable mortgage rates another quarter of a percent to 10.95%. That comes a week after the two banks, which are jointly owned, announced a net profit of $520 million in six months, up 7% on the previous period. Yesterday, Westpac announced a $244 million profit, […]

Talking down the economy

Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, May 2nd, 2008 - 57 comments

National is a party weak on policy. It has had to drop nearly every one of its principled but unpopular policies to get itself in a position to win an election. This raises the question of why someone would vote for National, rather than keep the current lot. One of National’s answers is to claim […]

will.i.am vs john.he.is

Written By: - Date published: 11:04 am, May 2nd, 2008 - 9 comments

So you’ve seen Obama’s Yes We Can music video; here’s the McCain response:

Simon’s semantics

Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, May 2nd, 2008 - 16 comments

Never one to miss an opportunity to stir up fear over crime, Simon Power now wants us to believe that we’re less safe because of the rise of “violent offenders” being granted home detention. As is increasingly common inside his caucus, he’s hoping that we’ll overlook the detail. The background is that in the last […]

Government to fully fund virus vaccine

Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, May 2nd, 2008 - 61 comments

Vernon Small reports that the PM is due to announce an immunisation programme for teenage girls targeting human papilloma virus. The programme is expected to start with girls aged 13 who will be offered free anti-cervical cancer immunisation as part of the $150 million government programme. The cost per person is expected to be around […]

Get your questions in for Dunne

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, May 2nd, 2008 - Comments Off on Get your questions in for Dunne

Do you have a burning question to ask Peter Dunne? Does it not involve his hair? If so, submit your question here by Sunday and it could be selected for our questions to Dunne as part of our ‘Interview the Leaders’ series.

Corporate responsibility

Written By: - Date published: 4:07 pm, May 1st, 2008 - 5 comments

Anyone remember the Pinto? Arguably not Ford’s finest hour. When in 1968 it became apparent that the Pinto’s defective fuel tank could result in the car catching fire when hit from behind, Ford executives reached for their calculators. Some quick sums (from a leaked memo) showed that the costs of fixing the Pinto were around […]

Mission Accomplished

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, May 1st, 2008 - 33 comments

Today is the fifth anniversary of Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech in which he stated that “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended”. To mark the date Moveon.org have released the following ad, intended to remind the public that as McCain himself said, “no one has supported President Bush on Iraq more” than he has. […]

Mythbusting: Crime is down, not up

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, May 1st, 2008 - 67 comments

It’s hard to know why people keep interviewing Garth McVicar from Sensible Sentencing. The organisation has no credibility, no research every statement on policy is really just ‘Garth guesses X’. And of course, they made those disgusting comments around the death of Pihema Cameron. Nevertheless, he was on National Radio this morning regarding new stats […]

Electoral donations reported

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, May 1st, 2008 - 52 comments

The Electoral Commission has published the parties’ donation returns for 2007. It is worth noting from the outset that under the electoral law then in force only donations over $10,000 had to be declared and anonymous donations, including the use of anonymising trusts, were legal. Labour has the largest return, at $1,030,446.39. But $700,000 was […]