Archive for August, 2010
Roy calls Rodney’s bluff
Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, August 26th, 2010 - 9 comments
From John Armstrong: He [Hide] stared at the ornate ceiling. He stared at the wood-panelled walls. And when he wasn’t staring at those things, he just stared into the void in front of him. The only direction Rodney Hide was not looking was two seats to his left….
Lost respect and trust
Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, August 26th, 2010 - 20 comments
I was wondering whether to write a post on the very odd things that outrage the tight little circle of right wing bloggers we have in this country. But MikeG in a comment at Dim Post made the point far far better than I could have.
Key slippery on crime
Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, August 26th, 2010 - 22 comments
Yesterday, Key was boasting that his goverment had brought down robberies and burglaries in Manukau. But it’s just more numbers games. In reality, the crime rate in Counties Manukau rose 6.9% in 2009. That’s twice the already awful 3.5% nationwide increase. I’m not against the government saying it has brought down crime. I just wish that it was true.
Lies, damn lies and desperation
Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, August 26th, 2010 - 43 comments
It is time we got away from Mr Key’s focus on individual greed and got back to a focus on better hospital, schools and care for those who are struggling. David Clark argues that Key’s tax cuts are going to actually drive away our high-achievers while Mr Key is telling us it’s going to bring them home.
Welfare Working Group Survey
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, August 26th, 2010 - 67 comments
National know the first rule of government: never have an enquiry unless you know what it will say. The latest “Working Group” is the one on Welfare. Paula Rebstock’s team include a couple of medical professionals who specialise in brain injuries, a couple of private sector providers of welfare-to-work programs with a vested interest in […]
Open mike 26/08/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 26th, 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…
Some good reasons for New Zealand to stay in Afghanistan
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 pm, August 25th, 2010 - 67 comments
The recent death in Afghanistan of Lieutenant Timothy O’Donnell was a tragedy for his family and a blow to his army colleagues. It was also a missed opportunity, a chance to debate why our Government continues to send troops to a violent and intractable war, and what national strategic interests this deployment serves. In On […]
ACT infighting continues
Written By: - Date published: 2:40 pm, August 25th, 2010 - 15 comments
The ACT Party’s in-fighting continues, with ACT member Peter Tashkoff announcing he will contest Rodney Hide for the party’s selection in Epsom. Someone pass the popcorn.
Sacked 90 day worker wins justice
Written By: - Date published: 1:50 pm, August 25th, 2010 - 17 comments
Heather Smith, the pharmacy worker who was sacked unfairly under the 90 day fire at will law and featured in a recent advert for the campaign has won a CTU-backed case against her employer in the Employment Court.
Ready for more of English’s dodgy numbers?
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, August 25th, 2010 - 16 comments
Bill English is going to play more number games today to claim wages are rising. Actually they’re falling, they’re going to keep falling, and there are 100,000 extra jobless. We deserve a Finance Minister who does his job, not one occupying himself with statistical chicanery.
Income splitting – all bad?
Written By: - Date published: 11:41 am, August 25th, 2010 - 26 comments
Can income splitting be made to work? Funding people to stay at home with children isn’t such a bad idea…
Faafoi to challenge Mana selection
Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, August 25th, 2010 - 15 comments
I see Kris Faafoi’s been given the nod from the Goffice to have a crack at Mana. He’s always struck me as a decent and hardworking bloke, so I wouldn’t want anyone to take this as an attack on him personally, but isn’t it a little worrying how many of Labour’s new recruits are being parachuted in from the leader’s office?
Pretty fly for a white guy
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, August 25th, 2010 - 57 comments
This morning we’ve been treated to the sight of the media celebrating one rich white guy (double murderer John Barlow) getting out of jail and another rich white guy (former National Minister Roger McClay) escape a prison sentence for stealing tens of thousands of dollars. You’ve got to love it.
Key govt halves price of bananas
Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, August 25th, 2010 - 7 comments
Prime Minister John Key has credited his government’s economic policies for the price of fruit and vegetables falling by 6.5%. It’s clearly because of all those fruit and vegetable price reduction policies the government has introduced. In fact, the fruit price index is really only down 3.9% since November 2008 and vegetables are actually up 14.4%. But who are you going to believe?
Treasury papers reveal SOE sale list
Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, August 25th, 2010 - 25 comments
In the Treasury asset sale papers we released earlier this week, a key word is blanked out again and again. It is the name given for a group of SOEs in a series of slides on reforming the SOE sector. One can only presume that this list is the group of SOEs that the Government will be seeking to sell, if it can find a way to dupe the public first.
Open mike 25/08/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 25th, 2010 - 38 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…
Roy enounters changeable Mr Hyde
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 pm, August 24th, 2010 - 24 comments
Is Heather Roy to depart the ACT caucus? According to TVNZ, Act Party leader Rodney Hide is signalling his dumped deputy Heather Roy will find it extremely difficult to stay on as an MP, despite saying last week that she would be welcomed back into the caucus.
Job queues longer
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, August 24th, 2010 - 17 comments
Contrary to the sunny prognostications of Nice Mr Key, job queues are getting longer. How much more great economic management from John and Bill can the country stand?
Failure by the numbers
Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, August 24th, 2010 - 2 comments
Average number of people on the dole in the 21 months before Paula Bennett came to office – 22600
Average number of people on the dole in the 21 months since Paula Bennett came to office – 52200
Fiscal cost of extra people on the dole (welfare payments and lost tax) – approximately $1 billion
Money in this year’s budget for jobs initiatives – $31 million
Govt opts for show over substance on alcohol
Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, August 24th, 2010 - 49 comments
The government’s alcohol reforms are so typical of this government: criminalise someone to be seen to be doing something, while ignoring the root causes of the problem. This is a government that would rather make a criminal of a good parent who lets their son’s mate have a beer at a BBQ than make it harder for booze barons to hook kids into drinking.
Got your doctor’s note?
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, August 24th, 2010 - 21 comments
It was only at the protest on the weekend that I learned about the Nats’ plan to make us get sick notes if we take a day off work for ourselves or to look after a sick family member. This would be an insult to workers and a huge waste of medical resources from a government that has no understanding of efficient use of scarce resources and thinks that workers are all scumbags who need a good kicking.
McCully does have vision..
Written By: - Date published: 7:52 am, August 24th, 2010 - 17 comments
There have been a lot of complaints that Murray McCully is useless as our offshore representative and shows a complete lack of vision. Stop complaining.
John Black shows you what the alternatives could be…
SOE bonds: raiding the piggybank to pay for tax cuts for the rich
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, August 24th, 2010 - 8 comments
John Key and Bill English said they have neither requested nor seen official advice on privatisation. That is a lie. Even just the papers we’ve seen, let alone the eight Treasury says are still under consideration, show that privatisation is very much on the government’s agenda. They’re just trying to work out how to sneak it past us without a public backlash.
Open mike 24/08/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 24th, 2010 - 57 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…
Principals’ principled stand for quality education
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, August 23rd, 2010 - 29 comments
National Standards have been slated by all of the education and assessment experts in New Zealand as being fundamentally flawed. Anne Tolley’s recent admission that she has failed to find a way to ensure that League Tables (the most educationally damaging aspect of the National Standards policy) will be avoided is the final straw for principals around the country.
Crime and punishment
Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, August 23rd, 2010 - 25 comments
White collar crime is on the increase in NZ. The government talks tough and postures about crime in its other forms, how will it respond to white collar crime?
Work on privatisation under way
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, August 23rd, 2010 - 38 comments
For the last few months, the Standard has been politely asking Treasury for their papers on the sale of Crown assets. To say they weren’t keen to share would be an understatement. We’ve managed to get a few papers of the papers, more are being withheld. These papers show what we’ve long suspected: the Government plans to force SOEs to issue bonds as a method of privatisation by stealth.
Open mike 23/08/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 23rd, 2010 - 25 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…
NACT attack on Roy gets personal
Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, August 22nd, 2010 - 60 comments
We’ve heard stories about the, to quote the Herald, “depth” of Heather Roy’s relationship with her former senior advisor Dr Simon Ewing-Jarvie for some time. But this isn’t Whaleoil and adults’ personal lives are their own. What’s surprising is that the Right have decided to use it against her.
The threat in today’s Herald is clear: If she doesn’t toe the line, her family life is not out of bounds.
When the science doesn’t suit, Right tries to shout it down
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, August 22nd, 2010 - 87 comments
The other day, National Party pollster David Farrar had a rant against alcohol experts that boiled down to ‘who cares what the science says! We’re in charge now and booze barons are on our side. Go back to your books, dorks!’.
Big Dog responds:
The secret of my success….
Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, August 22nd, 2010 - 11 comments
John Black cartoons John Keys success from childhood to Prime Minister. It has been good for him. It is not so good for anyone else.
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