Archive for September, 2009

Pulling together

Written By: - Date published: 10:41 pm, September 30th, 2009 - 1 comment

I think I can safely speak on behalf of all of the Standard when I offer my condolences to those who have lost family and friends in today’s tsunami. We forget sometimes that we are a pacific island nation but the grief that is being felt throughout New Zealand tonight reminds us exactly how much […]

MAF “animal welfare” is a joke

Written By: - Date published: 6:06 pm, September 30th, 2009 - 24 comments

The recent news that NZ’s largest dairy farmer allowed calves to dehydrate and starve to death is appalling, but there are much larger issues here than this just being one rogue farm. The fact is, MAF animal welfare is a joke. They have only five animal welfare inspectors covering the entire country, so it’s really […]

When you wake up to the fact your paper is Tory

Written By: - Date published: 2:43 pm, September 30th, 2009 - 29 comments

Hilarious reading through the Herald’s Your Views on election funding. Seems the Herald’s meek acceptance of the Government’s electoral funding plans has alerted a few of their readers to the fact they were duped by the paper’s blatant political advocacy for National last year. Here’s what Jay of Swanson had to say: I am gobsmacked […]

Carter, do your job

Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, September 30th, 2009 - 46 comments

One area where I agree with Fran O’Sullivan is the dairy industry. Today she covers the Crafars: CraFarms’ bankers should do the decent thing and put the so-called dairy farming “giant” into receivership before its practices further decrease the value of its assets and bring New Zealand’s prime agriculture export industry into international disrepute. The […]

Open Country shows contempt for the law

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, September 30th, 2009 - 8 comments

The Talleys and National Party linked Open Country Cheese continues to show its contempt for the law as it attempts to break the Dairy Workers Union. You’ll be aware that Open Country laid down a six week lockout notice to try and force workers to leave the union. So far it hasn’t worked and on […]

Johnnie’s Boys

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, September 30th, 2009 - 6 comments

subversifpoet sent us this song about our corrupt government:

Support Open Country/Telecom workers

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, September 30th, 2009 - 6 comments

If you’re in Wellington this Friday you might want to pop along to a quiz night fundraiser that Finsec and the NDU are running for the (illegally) locked out Open Country Cheese workers and the (now redundant) Telecom lines engineers. Details are: Time: 6pm Venue: Loaves and Fishes Hall (just across the road from Parliament) […]

Poor Bill

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, September 30th, 2009 - 33 comments

Bill English is teetering on the edge. National spinners are claiming that he has done what is needed to “close the issue down”. Labour are going to keep pushing. National’s next step will be to run a “poor Bill” defence. “Poor Bill has paid it back, what more can he do?”, “Poor Bill was just […]

McGovernment

Written By: - Date published: 5:06 am, September 30th, 2009 - 12 comments

This increasingly ramshackle government continues to astound. They’ve basically done nothing in a year when the country has been dealing with the worst economic crisis in decades. When they have tried to tackle big issues, the result has been incompetent policy produced entirely for political reasons – framed as moderate while paying off big business. Take Treasury’s view of […]

Talk about politics

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 pm, September 29th, 2009 - 28 comments

RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan talks to Matthew Hooton and Andrew Campbell about the failures of Key’s trip to NYC, English’s terminal status and contenders to replace him, and Green leadership. Hooton’s dispirited ‘defences’ of Key and English speak volumes. From yesterday but still relevant for a while yet.

Electoral finance: the proposal document that didn’t

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, September 29th, 2009 - 7 comments

Rob Salmond Yesterday Simon Power released the Government’s Proposal Document about how to reform electoral finance. On the easy issues, he got it vaguely right. That is a start, at least. So we’ll have one electoral agency instead of three (good), we’ll keep the rules about political donations first proposed in the Electoral Finance Act […]

Crocodile tears from Crafars

Written By: - Date published: 3:20 pm, September 29th, 2009 - 36 comments

I saw one of the Crafar brothers on the TV last night. Crying fake tears over calves that a whistle-blower had revealed were being left to starve on one of their farms. The Crafars are prime examples of what’s wrong with the capitalist class and, because capitalism is essentially a system that rewards sociopathy and […]

The miracle of the fishes

Written By: - Date published: 2:07 pm, September 29th, 2009 - 11 comments

First they increase the number of endangered Hooker Sea Lions that can be killed as bycatch, then they voted down legislation to protect Hector’s and Maui Dolphins by extending the ban on set nets and now National are increasing the Hoki quota despite the minister for fisheries himself stating he is: still unsure about the […]

Bomber’s War on News

Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, September 29th, 2009 - 5 comments

If you haven’t been able to see it yet or can’t get Triangle/Stratos, here’s a link to recent episodes of Bomber Bradbury’s War on News. It’s entertaining, accurate and educational all at once. Kind of like PBS only a bit more ‘informal’. It’s also pretty funny in parts and Bomber comes across as genuine and […]

Who would replace Bill?

Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, September 29th, 2009 - 35 comments

There’s a grim irony to Bill English’s career. Despite being regarded as competent and having a Cullen-like role as the heavy-lifter in this government, he has also been at the centre of the worst National screw-ups of the last decade. As Minister of Revenue, he was heavily involved in the sale of Wellington Airport, which […]

Next, I’m going to Disneyland

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, September 29th, 2009 - 47 comments

I was surprised to see this at the bottom of John Key’s press release on the English housing allowance scandal: “The PM is overseas and is not available for interview.” The Acting Prime Minister is going down in flames and the Prime Minister won’t be interviewed? What’s he up to? Turns out, Key’s doing something […]

Flexible Farrar

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, September 29th, 2009 - 30 comments

If DPF doesn’t practice Yoga already I think he should take it up. He’d be a natural. He’s so damn flexible! I’ve had occasion to comment on this once before. But for the EFA we see DPF lowering the bar of consistency to unbelievable depths, and limboing right on down. The Electoral Finance Act (EFA). […]

No remorse from English

Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, September 29th, 2009 - 14 comments

Last night I posted on Bill English’s attempt to shift blame by claiming the system had failed him, and argued that he wasn’t at all sorry for rorting us, only that he got caught. Dude keeps digging in today’s Herald. Talking about the Colmar Brunton poll showing 2 to 1 public disapproval, English made it […]

More questions for Double Dipton

Written By: - Date published: 5:54 am, September 29th, 2009 - 18 comments

A Colmar Brunton survey out yesterday showed that by a two to one margin Kiwis believe Bill English has acted wrongly and his credibility has been damaged by the housing scandal. English is becoming a drag on the government. That’s not going to change while there’s still no admission of wrongdoing, no enforcement of ministerial standards by […]

Image-ination: postcards to the planet

Written By: - Date published: 5:59 pm, September 28th, 2009 - Comments Off on Image-ination: postcards to the planet

Have you heard of the 10:10 campaign in the UK? It aims to inspire individuals, businesses and organisations to commit to cutting their own emissions by 10% in 2010. A range of artists are donating work to be auctioned in support of the campaign, with some really great images. View climate change from a different […]

English: ‘the system failed me’

Written By: - Date published: 5:23 pm, September 28th, 2009 - 20 comments

Just noticed this comment from Bill English on the topic of his housing allowance scam: “At all times my decisions have been driven by my desire to keep my family together and provide them with as much stability as possible. It’s now clear that the system has struggled to deal with my circumstances.” The arrogance […]

English admits he’s been rorting us

Written By: - Date published: 3:58 pm, September 28th, 2009 - 27 comments

Bill English has now paid back all the money he rorted from the taxpayer via the ministerial housing allowance during this term of Parliament. Of course, he continues to plead innocence but his actions amount to an admission of culpability and all the other facts tell us he purposely set out to rip us off. […]

Power’s electoral finance reform proposals out

Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, September 28th, 2009 - 32 comments

Justice Minister Simon Power has released the Government’s proposals for reform of electoral finance law. Remember, Labour’s reforms of electoral finance law were branded an assault on democracy and free speech by National and its affiliates like the Herald. There were protests in the streets (oddly, at the Wellington one, most of the several dozen […]

Dispatches from the parallel universe, John Key 1940

Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, September 28th, 2009 - 21 comments

The Standard, 12 June 1940 WELLINGTON Prime Ministerial candidate for the Nationalists, Mr John Key, today laid out his party’s policy regarding New Zealand’s participation in the current War. “Let me state clearly and unequivocally that, despite our past position, my Party now believes wholeheartedly that the War must be fought. It is undeniably a […]

Four day week, way of the future?

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, September 28th, 2009 - 18 comments

How would you like to work  a four-day, ten-hour per day week, rather than a five-day week? A number of organisations in the US have adopted the 4-day week to save energy costs during the recession, and it’s working so well for employers and workers that it may become permanent. A survey I saw mentioned […]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, September 28th, 2009 - 49 comments

Legal vs. Moral

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, September 28th, 2009 - 66 comments

There’s an old lawyer joke: “When the facts are on your side, bang the facts. When the law’s on your side, bang the law. When you’ve got neither, bang the table”. National have a similar tactic, of banging on legal vs. moral tests as it suits them. When sacking Richard Worth, Key was at great […]

Pay freeze would cause long-term damage

Written By: - Date published: 5:38 am, September 28th, 2009 - 27 comments

While filling his own pockets with our money, Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English is threatening public sevants with a five-year pay freeze – with inflation, that’s a 10% pay cut. The government can afford to give its workers small cost of living adjustments – the cost is relatively trivial. Parliament workers recently rejected an offer that […]

‘If it happened in Zimbabwe, we would call it corruption’

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, September 27th, 2009 - 19 comments

Trev on the money laundering bill. Has a go at a certain Bill who has been laundering a lot of our money. Very good:

Productivity Czar’s latest initiative

Written By: - Date published: 5:23 pm, September 27th, 2009 - 9 comments

Leaked emails from the National Government’s Productivity Task Force have confirmed rumours circulating in senior journalist circles that the Tooth Fairy is to be sacked. The emails include statistical data and market research supplied by the Business Round Table which indicate that the Tooth Fairy costs New Zealand tax payers more than a quarter of […]

Clown-in-chief

Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, September 27th, 2009 - 2 comments

A hilarious send up of Key that pretty much everyone would have missed because it aired on Nightline on Friday.