Archive for August, 2014

Careering to the right

Written By: - Date published: 2:23 pm, August 27th, 2014 - 65 comments

“Dirty Politics” and “The Hollow Men” have revealed the extent of the National party’s nasty internal war over the past decade. Cameron Slater is merely one of the noisier but dumber sock puppet weapons in use against National’s centre and moderates. Looking at the actions of Simon Lusk using his sock puppet is more revealing…

Supporting all the colours of the rainbow

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, August 27th, 2014 - 69 comments

Labour’s Rainbow Policy got some attention for its promise to offer a third gender option on passports and drivers’ licences. Why is this a big deal?

Polity: Herald on Labour

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, August 27th, 2014 - 69 comments

The NZ Herald has been notable for the blind stupidity of their editorials since its formation in the 1860s and its enthusiastic fostering of the New Zealand civil war for short-term profit. Today’s editorial continues that long tradition of blind stupid ignorance by being surprised (yet again) at Labour’s long tradition of fiscal responsibility.

Judith Collins raises doubt about which dimension she occupies

Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, August 27th, 2014 - 39 comments

Judith Collins claims to have been exonerated of claims that she breached the rights of privacy of a public servant by giving his details to Cameron Slater. There is one problem with her claim. She is totally wrong. Update: RNZ is now reporting she is backing away from her claim.

All Antennae – No Compass

Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, August 27th, 2014 - 51 comments

Duncan Garner lets it all out of the bag.  Part of the problem is that under any normal circumstances Cabinet Minister Judith Collins would have been sacked for trading dirty secrets with Cameron Slater, the low-life blogger WhaleOil. But none of this is normal. Because the prime minister, and others in his office, have been […]

Open mike 27/08/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:20 am, August 27th, 2014 - 251 comments

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

Condemning the obvious

Written By: - Date published: 12:46 am, August 27th, 2014 - 143 comments

Of course I (and other Standard authors) condemn lyrics that incite violence, and any and all threats to the children of politicians (who are completely out of bounds). Does this even need saying? But – Farrar, his little fan club, and the moral high ground? – it is beyond hypocrisy. There is no equivalence between the actions of a disenfranchised, angry few and the systematic abuse of democracy and decency undertaken by National’s dirty politics.

They eat their own

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 pm, August 26th, 2014 - 14 comments

Brent Robinson is rightly peeved. He was at the end of an internal smear campaign orchestrated by Slater and Lusk, and had the media (following Whaleoil’s every word) hounding him at his door. Now I may not agree with Robinson’s politics, but he deserved a fair race, and his was a skewed selection. Slater may […]

Caption competition

Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, August 26th, 2014 - 82 comments

key-throwing-sausage

Anne Salmond on our tarnished democracy

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, August 26th, 2014 - 37 comments

New Zealander of the Year, Dame Anne Salmond, on how dirty politics tarnished our democracy.

Polity: Hooton on Key on SIS: Bullshit!

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, August 26th, 2014 - 118 comments

Rob says: Key was either complicit in the SIS document release to Whaleoil, or he has a gross dereliction of duty. Let’s hear what his answers are to that.

60 tweeps to follow this election

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, August 26th, 2014 - 4 comments

Bryce Edwards had his go at a list of the top 100 tweeters to follow this election, but with only 24 women making the cut he faced terrible accusations of “a perceived lack” of gender balance. The silver lining is that his follow-up post was chock-full of the women who complained! Pesky, pesky women, as […]

Dirty pictures

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, August 26th, 2014 - 28 comments

Cartoons and other images of Dirty Politics.

Look over there! Tax cuts!

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, August 26th, 2014 - 7 comments

So National are both so out of ideas and so desperate to take the spotlight off their Dirty Politics that they’re now promising tax cuts. Tax cuts straight after we have a panel of our most prominent economists warning that the ‘rock star’ economy is going to hit the rocks.

Interview with “Key”…

Written By: - Date published: 6:42 am, August 26th, 2014 - 16 comments

Billed as “Decision 2014 Part 1”, Here’s Michael Hurst staring as John Key’s office…

Open mike 26/08/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:25 am, August 26th, 2014 - 221 comments

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

Tapping the media: subverting democracy

Written By: - Date published: 11:16 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 32 comments

Dirty Politics shows why we urgently need a revitalised public service broadcasting & online media. The domination by corporate media is poisoning democracy, providing openings for ruthless manipulators like Cameron Slater.  An article by David Fisher provides some insights.

Nicky Hager public lecture Wednesday

Written By: - Date published: 9:18 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 20 comments

A public meeting meeting with Jesson Prize winner Nicky Hager will be held Wednesday 27th August, 7.30pm, at the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall (Cnr Dominion Rd & Balmoral Rd). If you can’t make it, we will be streaming the lecture.

Tax cut cynicism

Written By: - Date published: 6:20 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 52 comments

According to the PM, Bill English saying there won’t be tax cuts was both true and untrue at the same time, like a fiscal Schroedinger’s Cat.

The future of the public service – public meeting in Ōhāriu

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 12 comments

Something to go to in Wellington this Wednesday

Parker nails English on economic policy

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 32 comments

Labour has the bold set of policies to take New Zealand forward into the 21st century – National’s “same old same old” tinkering will see the Kiwi skiff swamped. That was the clear conclusion from the debate between David Parker and Bill English on National Radio this morning.

Polity: Smoke and mirrors on housing

Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 14 comments

National’s own fine print takes us from “you can get up to $20,000!” to, at best, “11% of qualifying couples get up to $20,000.” Ouch…. Typical National. Long on glitz. Long on smoke. Long on mirrors. Short on actually helping people.

Labour policy

Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, August 25th, 2014 - 24 comments

Because of the technical illiteracy of the political committee that appears to have run the development of the Labour website, their extensive list of policies tends to be unreachable. I eventually found the useful page and I’m giving their website a hand using The Standard’s search engine optimization.

Just answer the questions John

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, August 25th, 2014 - 41 comments

John Key has taken to answering relevant questions about Dirty Politics by refusing to answer them.  But these questions go to the heart of the issue of whether he is fit to be New Zealand’s Prime Minister and deserve to be answered.

Timeline: Key responsible for SIS release

Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, August 25th, 2014 - 30 comments

[Reposted] Key is responsible for the release of SIS briefing notes to Cameron Slater – one of the main issues summarised in Dirty Politics. Here’s the timeline in detail.

Update: Hooton and Williams on Nine to Noon – Key not credible

Slater’s privacy conundrum

Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, August 25th, 2014 - 31 comments

For me the funniest thing that happened last week was Cameron Slater proudly announcing that he’d put in a privacy complaint about the someone hacking his data. Three days later he finds out that he was the target of a privacy act prosecution for similar acts.

Open mike 25/08/2014

Written By: - Date published: 7:46 am, August 25th, 2014 - 178 comments

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

Labour’s housing plan is much better

Written By: - Date published: 4:03 pm, August 24th, 2014 - 65 comments

National has announced its housing policy using Labour’s Kiwisaver scheme to provide extra money to first home buyers.  But the policy will only add to housing inflation instead of addressing it.

Questions

Written By: - Date published: 12:16 pm, August 24th, 2014 - 38 comments

A few simple questions on democracy.

Q&A – independent media?

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, August 24th, 2014 - 42 comments

farrar-qa

The opening addresses of Election 2014

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, August 24th, 2014 - 32 comments

Last night the opening party political addresses were broadcast on TV One, simultaneous with an All Blacks match and a live-tweeted crowd viewing of Labyrinth. So if you missed out (and don’t follow my every thought on Twitter), here’s my reaction! [Update: more links to videos!]