Archive for July, 2010

A Minister and some National Standards

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, July 3rd, 2010 - 61 comments

The Minister of Education Anne Tolley, and the Government, is facing a fair amount of (growing) opposition to the implementation of her National Standards. Her message was essentially that schools need to get on with the job of putting the Standards in place and not to publicly criticize the policy. Unfortunately, the Minister herself is responsible for a fair degree of the criticism.

The continuing education of Anne Tolley

Written By: - Date published: 7:29 am, July 3rd, 2010 - 15 comments

Tolley told principals they should stop talking to the media about national standards. Their criticisms are valid. She would rather silence the critics than fix the problems. A wise authority figure power talks softly and carries a big stick. An idiot with an ego problem yells loudly while carrying no stick. Threatening 500 pillars of local communities when you’ve got no power over them. That’s just dumb.

Open mike 03/07/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 3rd, 2010 - 17 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Enigma: Gravity of Love

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 pm, July 2nd, 2010 - 4 comments

Enigma have for a long time one of my favorite sounds to listen to while programming from the early 90’s onwards. There have been bug-hunting exercises where Enigma has literally been on my playlist all day. You can just queue all of their albums, knuckle down, and kill those tiresome and frustrating bugs. Since it is going to be a programming weekend, including some site tweaking….

KiwiBank boss wants leadership from National party

Written By: - Date published: 7:34 pm, July 2nd, 2010 - 7 comments

KiwiBank boss, Sam Knowles wants the Government to step up to the plate and improve NZs saving rate, through making KiwiSaver compulsory.

A question for John Key on drilling

Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, July 2nd, 2010 - 9 comments

With respect to his intention to allow Brazillian oil giant Petrobras to drill offshore in the Raukumara Basin, John Key says that “strong environmental standards” will be in place. I have a question.

The education of Anne Tolley

Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, July 2nd, 2010 - 18 comments

Tolley’s snookered herself. Either: Parliamentary Library republishes the paper with the few phrases that annoy her gone = Looks like Library has caved to her attacks. Tolley’s a bully. Has attacked the Library’s neutrality. Or they decide the phrases are substantively OK. Republish = Tolley looks like an idiot. Her National Standards further undermined.

Magical Budget causes imaginary closure of wage gap – Wong

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, July 2nd, 2010 - 25 comments

Pansy Wong on the gender wage gap: “It was the case that the gap was between men and women was at 12% since 2001. After 18 months of the National Government the pay gap is now 11%.” Um. No, it’s 12.3%. When are these Nats going to learn that in the age of the internet and publicly accessible statistics you can’t just lie and expect to get away with it?

English’s faith-based economics

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, July 2nd, 2010 - 90 comments

Bill English claims that our low national savings rate is due to the ‘government paying for everything’. According to English, people don’t need to save because the government pays for early childhood education, superannuation, Working for Families, and interest-free student loans. Does he have any evidence that is the case? Of course not. The evidence points the other way.

Open mike 02/07/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 2nd, 2010 - 108 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Great Leftie Debate

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 pm, July 1st, 2010 - 15 comments

If you’re at a loose end in or near Palmerston North tomorrow. This looks interesting and will help raise campaigning money for next years election. See some of Labours finest go head to head in a war of words. Featuring Palmerston North’s own MP Iain Lees-Galloway, Jacinda Ardern (Future MP for Auckland Central), Lianne Dalziel […]

Little to stand in New Plymouth?

Written By: - Date published: 6:45 pm, July 1st, 2010 - 14 comments

Paddy Gower has the scoop that EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little is planning to stand in New Plymouth.

Raise the drinking age

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, July 1st, 2010 - 103 comments

I was neutral in the debate on lowering the drinking age back in 1999. There were arguments on both sides. But ten years later it is clear that the experiment has failed. There have been several recent calls to raise the drinking age and take other effective action to restrict the damage that alcohol causes in NZ. Come on Key – show some leadership.

Key proud to have imaginary Kiwis’ support

Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, July 1st, 2010 - 30 comments

John Key wilted yesterday as he attempted to cover for the fact that most Kiwis will be worse off thanks to his GST hike and cuts to public services like early childhood education, which don’t eliminate costs, just pushes them on to families. He went wrong pretty quickly, claiming a couple called ‘Bill and Mary Smith’ had called to thank him, then admitting he had made them up.

Banks’ olympic-sized madness

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, July 1st, 2010 - 36 comments

Desperate to gain some traction in his failing campaign, John Banks has floated the idea of Auckland hosting the Olympic Games in 2020. Current minimum estimates for the cost are $18 billion, that’s 10% of our GDP. It’s just too expensive. The Olympics is a black-hole for money that this country cannot afford. That Banks would suggest this nonsense shows how all at sea his campaign is.

More Power to the man

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, July 1st, 2010 - 23 comments

So often, Parliamentary debates are pointless and pro forma. What a revelation, then, when Simon Power was so swayed by the Left’s MPs’ arguments that he hand-wrote an amendment to his Courts (Remote Participation) Bill guaranteeing defendants the right to choose to appear in person. A good day for rights. A good day for Parliament. Power for PM?

Open mike 01/07/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 1st, 2010 - 18 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Nats push-polling on your dime?

Written By: - Date published: 1:19 am, July 1st, 2010 - 61 comments

A reader sent us these images of an addressed ‘survey’ he received in the mail from Melissa Lee. It makes interesting reading because it’s not actually an attempt to gather our opinions to inform National’s policies. It’s a cynical attempt to influence our views while pretending to care what we think. And the Nats are using our money to fund it.