Archive for April, 2011

Open mike 22/04/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 22nd, 2011 - 25 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

A correction

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 pm, April 21st, 2011 - 54 comments

I’ve long held to the principle of owning your mistakes and as such I’ve gotta say I was wrong about one aspect of the “stop asset sales” campaign – the signs are authorised.

Weekend social Easter 2011

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, April 21st, 2011 - 29 comments

Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can’t we all just get along?

First Amongst Equals

Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, April 21st, 2011 - 47 comments

I heard David Cunliffe on Morning Report on Tuesday, and he was superb.  But as soon as he finished I knew the Right would try to deflect from the substance by writing it off as leadership ambitions.  And sure enough we have Audrey Young, making exactly that connection.  Labour can turn that on its head.

ECE costs increasing

Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, April 21st, 2011 - 19 comments

The Nats’ attack on early childhood education (ECE) is starting to bite.  As surely as night follows day, the cuts in funding for childcare centres are showing up as increased costs for parents.

The photo-op PM, a ‘nice to have?’

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, April 21st, 2011 - 76 comments

Key’s helicopter rides. Huge waste of money for what? A V8 photo-op then a golf club dinner. Why are we paying this guy $7750 a week to do nothing but photo ops? Where’s the recovery package for the West Coast? Where’s the Chch plan? Where’ the brighter future? Sorry, PM’s been too busy playing race cars and eating fancy dinners.

Expansionary austerity – fail

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 21st, 2011 - 32 comments

Expansionary austerity is the idea that cutbacks in government spending can stimulate economic growth.  Empirical evidence shows that it doesn’t work.  Current experience shows that  it’s not working in Britain, and it isn’t working here.  Like “trickle down economics” this favourite of the political Right is not so much a theory as a deluded fantasy.

Open mike 21/04/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 21st, 2011 - 55 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Amateur hour – or how to take a good idea and turn it into a bad campaign

Written By: - Date published: 12:20 am, April 21st, 2011 - 110 comments

Labour’s stop asset sales campaign should have been good but it wasn’t.

Not because of its legal cock-ups (okay not just because of its legal cock-ups) but because it was rolled out in a vacuum.

“Politics of envy”

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 pm, April 20th, 2011 - 77 comments

National Party blogger David Farrar is whining about the “politics of envy”.

He seems to think we shouldn’t be mean to Key because he’s rich and making us poor.

Cry me a river.

Fabians lecture

Written By: - Date published: 3:09 pm, April 20th, 2011 - 2 comments

Bernard Hickey speaks about “The Plan for the Productive Economy” Venue: Ellen Melville Hall, High Street, Auckland. Time: 6:30pm, Thursday 21 April.

Leave The Family Court Alone

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, April 20th, 2011 - 39 comments

The Family Court as far as I’m concerned is the only court that tries to act as the gate before the cliff, rather than the grave digger at the bottom. The costs to society both directly and in loss of potential can be astronomical when taken over a persons entire lifetime of not handling the family issues clearly and decisively. So why does Simon Power want to fiddle with it? Apparently to forestall urban myths which does seem to be his sole political ability.

Climate change: Our $1.2 billion a year credibility gap

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, April 20th, 2011 - 14 comments

The United Nations joins those voices pointing out that Nationals”policy” on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a complete sham.  Reposted from No Right Turn.

Tilting at drugmules

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, April 20th, 2011 - 33 comments

Rex Widerstrom has been a commentator and occassional guest poster here for a while. He has a unique point of view on the political process and its place in society. In this guest post he looks at the never ending “War on Drugs”.

Spending cuts I’d like to see – No 2

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, April 20th, 2011 - 4 comments

The government’s books are tight. We shouldn’t borrow more, so there need to be reversals of the tax cuts and spending cuts. What matters is what is cut – all cuts are not the same. I’d like to see the $110 billion dollars of subsidies for greenhouse polluters under National’s Emissions Trading Scheme cut.

The emperor’s new clothes

Written By: - Date published: 7:38 am, April 20th, 2011 - 106 comments

Fancy suits for John.

User pays family court for us.

Can’t help won’t help

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, April 20th, 2011 - 108 comments

John Key says that the government can’t help Kiwis who are struggling with rapidly rising costs.  Rubbish.  There’s plenty that they could be doing.  If they wanted to…

Open mike 20/04/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 20th, 2011 - 101 comments

Hot topics:

• Trotter on the left

• the PM on a chopper

• and more!

Operation 8: Deep in the Forest

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 15 comments

Last night walking into the film screening in Auckland I was a bit apprehensive about how it would all be put together. Fortunately my fears were unfounded and the film did justice to the complex issues involved.

Appealing

Written By: - Date published: 4:47 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 3 comments

No Right Turn put up a post on the latest in the police foulup that is Operation 8.

According to Stuff, the Urewera 18 are seeking leave to appeal the decision to deny them a jury trial to the Supreme Court. Good. Trial by jury is a fundamental right

Epsom a done deal

Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 43 comments

Recently Irish Bill wrote on the Nats’ dilemma in Epsom.  Looks the deal is now done, and predictably Key has decided that he needs ACT’s numbers (however small).

Key SCF excuses fall flat

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 10 comments

Michael Bott takes John Key to task for his claims over the South Canterbury Finance debacle. Key and English have tried to blame Labour for the deposit guarantee that covered SCF. But the truth is that National extended SCF’s coverage under the scheme again and again, despite knowing that SCF was in breach of the rules.

Caption contest

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, April 19th, 2011 - 50 comments

Pagani dead wrong

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 19th, 2011 - 67 comments

Former senior Labour party strategist John Pagani has written an extraordinary blog post where he says Labour ought to cuddle up to National because its policies are so popular and then, somehow, convince people to vote Labour for some reason. If this has been Labour’s strategy for the past few years, it explains a lot.

Reaching out to expat Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, April 19th, 2011 - 61 comments

The Kea “Census” of expat Kiwis is under way.  Unfortunately it coincides with government plans for a Crackdown on student loan repayments. Instead of chasing our expats for an entirely hypothetical return, we should be reaching out to them, embracing them, making them welcome back home.

Open mike 19/04/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 19th, 2011 - 67 comments

Hot topics:

• earthquakes and oil drills

• what is “success”?

• and more!

Candidate Conference

Written By: - Date published: 6:16 pm, April 18th, 2011 - 59 comments

This weekend just gone there was a conference in Wellington for Labour candidates to get us all up to speed with the campaign.  We’re ready to go out there and make it happen.

Caption contest

Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, April 18th, 2011 - 29 comments

Inflation credit and blame

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, April 18th, 2011 - 11 comments

Back in October last year the Nats, in a sea of bad news on the economy, latched on to the low inflation rate as something that they could claim “credit” for.  No doubt they will now be just as ready to accept blame for the worst inflation rate in 20 years.  Almost half of this figure is driven by the Nats’ GST increase…

The class politics of Lotto

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, April 18th, 2011 - 129 comments

Bright Red asks why people buy Lotto when, for the vast majority, gambling means losing money in the long-run. Because gambling gives a taste, a tiny chance of a life-changing win. It’s no coincidence that Lotto and casinos were legalised during the neoliberal revolution, which took away the route to decent wealth through work for most.

Winnie’s big chance

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 18th, 2011 - 58 comments

The TV3 poll has the NACT vs Lab/Green/NZF gap at 22% vs 9% in the latest Roy Morgan. I’ll tend to pay attention to the company that polls every fortnight to the one that polls once in a blue moon. Nevertheless, the story of both polls is the same: Labour struggling to make headway + Nats potentially with a majority = opportunity for Winston Peters

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  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
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  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
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  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
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