Archive for February, 2011

Useless ministers wasting our money

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, February 3rd, 2011 - 5 comments

Crushless Collins’ double-bunking money saver costing $2.6m.

Shock! Paying someone else to build and operate our schools won’t save money.

Nat-appointed public service chiefs paid to air-commute. Pay cuts for frontline.

Key smiles at launch of new science ministry, waves in $3m of science funding cuts.

Save us from Nat working groups

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, February 3rd, 2011 - 27 comments

The same old formula has played out again: National appoints an expensive, hand-picked working group (the Savings Working Group). The working group comes up with predictable recommendations. The Nats extreme recommendations out of hand, to appear moderate, and do what they were planning to do. Here are the real savings solutions.

Extreme weather: Yasi

Written By: - Date published: 6:02 am, February 3rd, 2011 - 23 comments

By the time this is posted Yasi will have hit Australia.  There will be massive damage, and probably loss of life.  Most New Zealanders will have friends or family in Australia, perhaps in the areas affected.  I’m sure our thoughts are with our cousins over the ditch.  Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent as a result of climate change.  We should all make whatever preparations we can.

Open mike 03/02/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, February 3rd, 2011 - 55 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…

Dealing with the DIA website-harvest parasite

Written By: - Date published: 2:27 am, February 3rd, 2011 - 13 comments

Periodically I run a scan to identify network parasites that are sucking up our bandwidth and processing resources in excess. Of course I leave the benign parasites that provide search facilities alone. But I stomp on the nasties.

Tonight the biggest parasite appears to have been a New Zealand government department – the Department of Internal Affairs.

Key’s mistake

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 pm, February 2nd, 2011 - 122 comments

So I reckoned the election would be in July. That’s because July would have been a good call. And I thought Key and his wee crew were good.

Turns out they’re locking in November 26.  That’s a big mistake – he would have had the opposition on the ropes if he’d called July or earlier.

Principles

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 pm, February 2nd, 2011 - 45 comments

So John Key has flip flopped and decided to rule out working with Winston Peters again.  He’s trying to portray that as a principled decision, about running an “aspirational” government.  So why did he need to spend so many months working out what his principles are?  No, it’s a political decision.  Key thinks he can squeeze a little more milage out of flogging the dead horse that is Winston Peters.

Past 7000 posts.

Written By: - Date published: 1:34 pm, February 2nd, 2011 - 12 comments

Darn, we sneaked past the 7000th post without my noticing at the end of last month. We passed 6000 posts on August 25th last year, so we did that last thousand posts in 160 days. The comment growth is pretty strong as well.

The site is also now iPad friendly. Have a peek at the screenshots.

Key press conference: November 26 election

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, February 2nd, 2011 - 182 comments

The PM has called a surprise press conference for 12:45 today, and is tipped to announce a November 26th election date.  A further “major announcement” is also expected.

Update:  Election date November 26 confirmed.

Press Gallery exam

Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, February 2nd, 2011 - 11 comments

Our Deep Throat in the press gallery (Rob Hosking) leaked us a copy of the admittance test.
Q4) Which of these stories is newsworthy?
a) Greying MP dyes hair
b) Fat MP a little less fat
c) PM supports dictator against popular uprising
d) PM jokes about affairs with domestic abuser
e) Wages drop, as Key secretly promised business
Yeah. I didn’t pass either.

Well, at least he kept one promise

Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, February 2nd, 2011 - 36 comments

December 2007, John Key, speaking to Carolyne Brooks-Quan said: “We would love to see wages drop“. Key tried several conflicting excuses, including that he was talking about Australian wages (which became a mini-meme). But actions speak louder than words. Yesterday, we had more confirmation that wages have dropped under Key, except for union members.

Bunch of bankers

Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, February 2nd, 2011 - 13 comments

In America a federal enquiry has now confirmed what we already knew. The 2008 financial crisis was an “avoidable” disaster caused by multiple failures of regulation and good old fashioned greed.  If we don’t make some fundamental changes it is all going to happen again…

Open mike 02/02/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, February 2nd, 2011 - 64 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…

ECE – cuts bite today

Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, February 1st, 2011 - 25 comments

Today is the day that Anne Tolley’s $400 million dollar cut to early childhood education bites.  A sector which delivers $13 value for every $1 invested is really going to hurt. Centres themselves are having different responses: 90% of centres are definitely raising fees – between $2 – $80 per week, with an average of […]

Economic recovery despite the Nats

Written By: - Date published: 1:34 pm, February 1st, 2011 - 44 comments

Pundits looking to talk up the economy are hopeful that things will improve in 2011.  National have done more harm than good, but there some encouraging signs too, arising from external factors such as high food prices, and returns on old investments such as NZ Super.  The NZ economy will eventually recover.  Not because of the Nats, but in spite of them.

Needed like a hole in the head

Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, February 1st, 2011 - 63 comments

Judith Collins is an utter failure. She calls herself ‘Crusher’ but hasn’t crushed a single car two years after promising to. Crime has gone up under her watch and police deaths have increased despite her claim that the Taser would make them safer. So, there’s plenty of good ways to criticise her without dumb shit like this.

What will Key cut?

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, February 1st, 2011 - 27 comments

The early childhood education cuts have hit – families will face an average $20-$45 a week increase in the cost of sending a kid to kindy. And Anne Tolley is signaling more to come. But it’s not just the education of the next generation that’s for the chop as National seeks to balance the books after its tax cuts for the rich binge.

NZ takes one more step toward complete biodiversity loss

Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, February 1st, 2011 - 13 comments

In a poor attempt to make it look like NACT are actually doing something about New Zealand’s incredibly high rate of bio-diversity loss , and warnings that our forests will soon be silent Nick Smith has introduced a National Policy Statement on Biodiversity whilst NACT also announces further cuts in conservation funding .

Guest post: Why the left needs feminism II

Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, February 1st, 2011 - 181 comments

Why the left needs feminism part II: why the centre vote is a lie and what Labour needs to do to reclaim its soul.

Open mike 01/02/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, February 1st, 2011 - 49 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…