Archive for August, 2008

New Facebook groups

Written By: - Date published: 6:36 pm, August 31st, 2008 - 42 comments

After I was part of the ‘Great NZ Sell-off’ skit protest outside the National Party conference at the start of the month, I did a wee interview with a journo from NewstalkZB and he, knowing I’ve got something to do with this interweb thing, asked ‘what do you think of the fact that John Key’s […]

Throw-away

Written By: - Date published: 4:24 pm, August 31st, 2008 - 18 comments

Sometimes, the throw-away comments a person makes are the most revealing – for example, Bill English’s attitude towards the “punters” and towards John Key, both made as side comments in the secret agenda tapes, are in some ways more revealing than his substantive comments on Working for Families and Kiwibank. And it was a throw-away […]

Labour’s 2008 list

Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, August 31st, 2008 - 40 comments

Comment soon but for now here’s their full list (PDF link). Scoop’s got their presser up. [lprent: Handmirror: A Woman’s Place: The Labour Party List. No Right Turn: Labour’s list: looks like New Zealand. Granny Herald: Surprise picks in Labour party list. Salient: The Labour list has been announced. Grant Robertson: Wellington central candidate ]

Aussie Invasion – a video with an agenda

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, August 31st, 2008 - 4 comments

We’re used to hearing opposition parties talk about people rushing to Australia. But let’s remember we’re attractive to Australia too – where could that lead? Here’s an alternative view! In case you are wondering there’s a series of these on different topics from the Gruen Transfer….

Causes and effects

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, August 30th, 2008 - 47 comments

A series of graphs from the Social Report. First off, the unemployment rate When the unemployment goes up or down, the practical effect is a decrease or increase in household incomes as the country got poorer under National, unemployment rose, incomes fell, and and the poverty rate rose, compounded by National’s cut benefits and its choice […]

Peters stands down

Written By: - Date published: 5:49 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 145 comments

Peters has stood down. Clark has taken over his portfolios. It’s good that Peters appears to have accepted that this is a necessity and hasn’t turned on the Government. Clever of Clark to take the portfolios herself too. [we nearly had the scoop on this too but it took too long for me to get […]

Guest Post: Herald like a blow-hard blogger on Tan

Written By: - Date published: 4:12 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 32 comments

After a fair summary of the facts as they stand, the Herald enters the realm of the right-wing blogger, always ready to paint its opponent with the worst possible spin, and then build on that as if on fact: ‘That version of events avoids, as it must, any hint of the suspension being politically motivated. […]

Right to strike

Written By: - Date published: 3:43 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 10 comments

Hundreds of Australian journalists walked off the job yesterday in protest at Fairfax’s 550 planned job cuts. Here in NZ journos employed by Fairfax and facing 160 job losses joined their Aussie counterparts in a wild cat strike. Nah. They didn’t. However, they did issue a press release via their union the EPMU. That must […]

Franks: “grumpy Christians and whining gays”

Written By: - Date published: 3:16 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 58 comments

Here’s National’s Wellington Central candidate Stephen Franks giving his view on Civil Unions. I’m not even really sure what to say about it. It might just be best to let Stephen Franks speak for himself…

The Standard Week: August 22-29

Written By: - Date published: 1:06 pm, August 29th, 2008 - Comments Off on The Standard Week: August 22-29

It’s all been on this week. Maurice Williamson promising $50 tolls and more before being forced to retract, a poll showing more Kiwis believe National has a secret agenda than don’t, a report showing incomes continue to rise and living conditions are improving, especially for the poor, the ETS upgraded by the Greens set to […]

Connell departs and praises PM

Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 3 comments

Who would have expected to read this from Brian Connell upon his departure from Parliament? In a backhander against his own party, he praised Prime Minister Helen Clark, her deputy Michael Cullen, and front-bench Labour MPs Phil Goff and Annette King. Cullen was “a pretty good treasurer” and Clark had been “a very fine prime […]

Nats, Farrar fail again in attempt to muzzle Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, August 29th, 2008 - 26 comments

For the third time, National’s attempt to get a legal decision to block the EPMU and its sister unions from participating in the election campaign as registered third parties as failed. So pathetic were National’s arguments that they lost their last case even though the EMPU submitted no arguments of its own to the Court. […]

But why?

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, August 29th, 2008 - 62 comments

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on Peters because its not the kind of issue that affects Kiwis lives (its messy but its not like secretly planning to sell public assets). I’d rather use my post-writing time taking a deeper look at the findings of the Social Report. But… It seems likely, one […]

Clark cuts the thread

Written By: - Date published: 1:43 pm, August 28th, 2008 - 192 comments

Winston Peters’ stories around the Owen Glenn donation to his legal fund are dangerously convoluted and have stretched everyone’s credulity but without real evidence either way it has been impossible to fairly condemn him. Glenn’s letter yesterday provided strong evidence and left Peters ‘hanging by a thread’, as every hack in the country wrote. Now, Helen Clark […]

Social Report shows Kiwis better off

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 28th, 2008 - 31 comments

MSD released its Social Report today, an annual publication that collates a wide variety of standard of living measures, and produces this awesome graph. The circle represents the status quo in 1995-97 each spoke represents a different measure (income, crimes per capita etc). If the spoke is longer than the circle than the measure has improved between 1995-97 […]

Herald poll shows Nats’ lead collapsing

Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, August 28th, 2008 - 36 comments

Today’s Herald-Digi poll is the first to be released that was taken after the secret agenda tape scandal had fully emerged and had some time to sit in voters’ minds. Which makes it worrying reading for National. They have lost 5.4% support (54.4% to 50%) and Labour has benefited from that loss picking up 5.5% (30.8% […]

Workers demand decent work rights policies

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, August 28th, 2008 - 24 comments

6000 workers turned out in Manukau yesterday for the EPMU’s Wages Drive rally. With 25 events nation-wide over this month, which have attracted crowds from several hundred in little old Blenhiem to thousands in each of the cities, this is the largest series of political rallies in New Zealand this parliamentary term. The EPMU reports […]

Interviewing 101

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, August 28th, 2008 - 23 comments

Exam question 65 If you were a highly-paid media interviewer and John Key said to you that he was absolutely certain that Helen Clark knew of Owen Glenn’s claims, would you: a) accept it without any challenge or questioning? b) ask for proof, some sort of proof, some remote shred of evidence, even the slightest […]

The more things change…

Written By: - Date published: 6:18 am, August 28th, 2008 - 18 comments

70 years ago (more or less) and The Standard was correctly predicting a Labour victory as the ‘Nationalists’ ramped up a hollow election campaign. In true Standard-style, there’s even some stats. Click on the image for the full article.

Cullen on Nat apologies

Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, August 27th, 2008 - 41 comments

Say what you will about his politics, you can’t beat Cullen for wit. Here he is on the similarities between Labour and National following Williamson’s enthusiastic statements of National policy:  The full clip is here. Listen to Key plead to his caucus, and listen what he’s pleading for them to do – “If National wants to win an […]

What will National do on student allowances?

Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, August 27th, 2008 - 32 comments

Spotted in the Waikato Times: Cambridge High School students did their best to get a policy out of him, but National leader John Key stayed tight-lipped on his party’s student allowance stance yesterday: Of National’s policy, Mr Key said: “We haven’t announced it yet, but we’re looking at it very closely … I think we […]

Whom to believe? (2)

Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, August 27th, 2008 - 63 comments

Owen Glenn’s letter to the Privileges Committee contradicts Winston Peters’ previous statements to the media, the Privileges Committee, and, presumably, the PM. Glenn says that Peters did personally approach him for a donation, contrary to what Peters has said. It’s important to remember that there’s nothing illegal or even unusual about what Glenn claims Peters did. […]

Drinking Liberally Auckland: Reminder.

Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, August 27th, 2008 - 5 comments

A reminder – Drinking Liberally is on in Auckland tonight with Laila Harre as the speaker. These are always fun to listen to the speaker and you get to do some networking. WHAT: Drinking Liberally Auckland City WHO: You and any of your left-leaning companeros WHEN: 7.30pm, Wednesday 27th August WHERE: London Bar, cnr Wellesley […]

Greens win better ETS

Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, August 27th, 2008 - 21 comments

The Greens have won some very good improvements to the ETS in exchange for their support. The most important is $1 billion over 15 years to insulate low-income homes and subsidise upgrades to insulation of higher income homes. That’s a really positive development; all New Zealand homes will finally have decent insulation (Labour has done well […]

Cartoon: Paying the toll

Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, August 27th, 2008 - 8 comments

What else did Williamson say?

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

I notice that, while the Nats have attempted to play down Maurice Williamson’s promise of $50 a week in tolls, they haven’t retracted Williamson’s over statements from the same interview, specifically: RAWDON Okay let’s look beyond roading, where else do you see PPPs being the answer? MAUCRICE …I mean I would have thought we could […]

Metaphor

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, August 27th, 2008 - 59 comments

So, I was walking along in Kelburn yesterday, and I saw Stephen Franks’ faded yellow mini. He was driving along in the centre of the lane when, without warning, he made a sharp right turn. And I was all like ‘metaphor’.

Greens back emissions trading scheme

Written By: - Date published: 5:08 pm, August 26th, 2008 - 48 comments

The Greens have decided to back the government’s emissions trading scheme saying in a press release that it’s a start but there’s more to do: We reported on Thursday that we had achieved virtually nothing in two areas – agriculture, and protection of important biodiversity from pine plantings. We have now made some progress on […]

Nearly half of voters think Nats have secret agenda

Written By: - Date published: 4:53 pm, August 26th, 2008 - 21 comments

Here’s TV3’s coverage from last night. They’ve just completed a poll in which 45.7% of those surveyed think National has a secret agenda.

Kiwis waking up to Nats’ secret agenda

Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, August 26th, 2008 - 96 comments

According to the TV3 poll last night, 46% of voters believe National has a secret agenda. And why wouldn’t they? We’ve had Bill English talking about a secret agenda to ‘sort out’ Working for Families and sell Kiwibank while being recorded, on the same recordings, we’ve had Lockwood Smith talking about the need to adopt popular […]

Sales pitch

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, August 26th, 2008 - 59 comments

He just doesn’t give up does he? Maurice Williamson was spotted this morning still trying to sell his toll booth idea to Auckland motorists. Spy photos below.