Author Archive

Sweeping the board

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:38 am, July 10th, 2011 - 56 comments

The genius of Labour’s (not yet official) capital gains tax is not just the policy itself but the way it has picked the public mood. Support has been near-universal. The Left loves the fairness aspect – workers won’t be subsidising landlords anymore. The Right loves the implications for capital allocation, interest rates, and the exchange rate. The Nats look isolated and hysterical.

Key walks into Labour’s CGT trap

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:33 am, July 8th, 2011 - 66 comments

It has been a rare and sincere pleasure to see National walk straight into a trap carefully laid by Labour. Goff and his team haven’t even publicly confirmed their capital gains tax policy but proponents to the Left and Right are winning the pre-launch media framing for them, while Key’s contradictory ranting is undermining his credibility.

Vote for change ad competition

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:33 am, July 8th, 2011 - 19 comments

Vote for Change, ~~Peter Shirtcliffe’s anti-MMP vehicle~~ a grassroots movement discussing the need for change in the electoral system, has launched an ad competition for their movement. There’s $10,000 in prizes. I guess they raised the money from cake stalls. We encourage to submit your entries to VfC, and send them to us too!

Drunk in charge of the country?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:00 am, July 7th, 2011 - 74 comments

An alert reader sent us this video of Wayne Mapp swaying, slurring and rambling his way through Question Time.

No Right Turn now has a post with some information saying that Mapp is not in the state what he appears to be in. Instead he is just being inept. We don’t know. Check it out yourself and make up your own mind.

Another right whinger

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:50 am, July 6th, 2011 - 18 comments

There’s an odd contradiction in right-wing ‘thought’. On the one hand, they’re Randian heroes, the wealth creators, modern day Atlases who support the world while ‘parasites’ try to take their wealth and bring them down. On the other hand, they’re victims who need subsidies and special treatment. Fed Farmers CEO Conor English embodies the contradiction.

Labour capital gains tax rumours

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:06 am, July 6th, 2011 - 330 comments

The buzz around the traps is that Labour will be announcing a capital gains tax next week. The journos are already calling it a bold move and John Key is ranting hysterically. That Labour’s winning the media battle is great but, more importantly, this is a much needed policy: it is fair, it is good for the economy, and it will pay for good policies.

Vote for Change stumbles at the startline

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:00 am, July 5th, 2011 - 10 comments

Peter Shirtcliffe’s Vote for Change is reeling. On Sunday, they had to boot out Alex Fogerty after the Young Nat’s neo-Nazi affiliations were made public. Yesterday, they lost their token Leftie, Bob Harvey, when he realised that being used by a collection of capitalist elitists and white supremacists wasn’t the legacy he wanted.

Vote for Change’s heart of darkness

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:06 pm, July 4th, 2011 - 52 comments

Peter Shirtcliffe’s Anti-MMP Vote For Change group has just 16 members and one of them has turned out to be a neo-Nazi. Is it a case of being so short of mates they’ll accept anyone who turns up, or does this give us a truer picture of who really wants to get rid of MMP? The latter, I think.

Herald shows gap narrowing

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:05 pm, July 1st, 2011 - 58 comments

The latest Herald poll shows Labour + Greens at 42.7%, with National + ACT at 53.1% – the gap is down to 10.4% from 16.9% in May. That confirms the trend we’re seeing in the Roy Morgans as well. Interesting to note that the gap is 17% this point before the last election. Continued progress and focus on the big issues will see victory for the Left.

Treasury: assets would end up in foreign hands

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:59 am, July 1st, 2011 - 71 comments

Treasury has confirmed that National’s plan to sell public assets would need foreigners to buy a lot of the shares because domestic demand would be too small for the government to make as much money as it is counting on. Forget ‘mum and dad investors’, the big buyers would be foreign sovereign wealth funds.

MMP rules, FPP/SM drools

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:32 pm, June 29th, 2011 - 49 comments

Times that the Government had the support of the majority of voters under FPP from formation of Reform (beginning on multi-party system) in 1911: 7 out of 27 (26%)

Times that the Government has had the support of the majority of voters under MMP: 4 out of 5 (80%)

Shirtcliffe’s anti-MMP campaign launches

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:30 am, June 28th, 2011 - 112 comments

Peter Shirtcliffe’s latest attempt to destroy MMP has finally launched. The man who spent a million dollars in 1993 is a shadow of his former self. Now, he and his cronies are so despised he can’t front the organisation himself, he’s got some kid doing it. And FPP/SM is so despised they won’t actually campaign for it overtly.

Mana a victory for the Left

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:44 am, June 26th, 2011 - 177 comments

A victory for Mana or a victory for Labour? Actually, it was a win for both, and a win for the Left. The losers in Te Tai Tokerau were the true enemies of the Left – the kupapa Maori Party and National. Turia put up a weak candidate hoping to concentrate the anti-Hone vote behind Davis. Now, the Maori Party faces a three-way fight it can’t win.

Pay $4K or they sell our assets overseas

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:29 am, June 22nd, 2011 - 134 comments

David Cunliffe has done the maths. National wants to sell $6.8 billion worth of assets and it says they would be bought up by ‘mums and dads’. How much would each household have to invest to keep hold of the assets we already own? Over $4,000. Have you got that kind of money lying around to buy what you already own? Me neither.

Whenever you’re ready, John

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:57 am, June 21st, 2011 - 53 comments

Gerry Brownlee says an announcement on Christchurch’s land will be made “very, very soon” but testily refuses to give a date, or even a real timeframe. I have a sinking feeling this is all a PR exercise. Just as Brownlee has got everyone really agitated, that Nice Man Mr Key will unveil the information. When it fits into his diary, of course.

Labour to entrench SOEs

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:00 pm, June 20th, 2011 - 92 comments

Phil Goff has just announced that Labour is putting up a private members’ bill to entrench SOEs. This would mean they could only be sold either with 75% support of Parliament, or with majority support in a referendum. Great Stuff. These are our assets. They should not be sold without our permission.

Nats’ election strategy – all about Key

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:21 am, June 16th, 2011 - 28 comments

National’s election platform is pretty much out. It shows that National is very much dependent on Brand Key. They released the Budget and then the rest of their major policies in rapid-fire succession. This shows National doesn’t believe its policies are vote-winners. They want policy to take a backseat and all the focus on Key’s smile.

What future for Christchurch?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:34 am, June 15th, 2011 - 35 comments

Lack of certainty is killing the spirit and economy of Christchurch. Before the latest quakes there were already threats of protests because Brownlee has failed to announce which areas can’t be rebuilt on. That information is even more needed now. Brownlee says it’s ‘blindingly obvious’ which areas must go. He needs to drop the arrogance and inform people.

Contact: a model of lost Kiwi ownership

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:30 am, June 14th, 2011 - 43 comments

An attempt to promote asset sales in yesterday’s Dom ended up falling on its face. The author takes the government line, that Contact provides the template for ‘mum and dad’ investors buying SOEs. But the article admits the truth: only a tiny fraction of Kiwis ever invested in Contact, less own it now, and even they may soon be forced out.

Nats steal Labour donor data

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:57 pm, June 12th, 2011 - 433 comments

National knows that the public oppose its agenda of asset sales, lower wages, and service cuts. So they’re going to campaign dirty. They’re running this week’s muck-throwing via sickness beneficiary* Cameron Slater. The Nats breached the Labour Party website and stole a list of online donors. Hardly the stuff of scandal, just an attempt to intimidate.

Nats plummet, Lab soars post-budget

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:27 pm, June 9th, 2011 - 93 comments

The latest Roy Morgan is the first poll taken after the Budget has had time to sink in. Nat+ACT+UF fell from 55.5% to 51% while Lab+Green went from 38% to 42.5%. Labour rose a massive 8%. New Zealanders do not want asset sales, fewer work rights, and National’s nasty agenda and are realising they have to vote against that ‘Nice Man Mr Key’.

Nats planning to drive down our wages further

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:25 am, June 9th, 2011 - 32 comments

National’s election plan is becoming clear. They are going to put a lot of nasty stuff on the table and trust that people love Key’s smiling face so much they will still vote National. If they win, they will take it as a mandate to do everything they’ve said, and more. The latest election policy is more attacks on our work rights.

English – sell dams to buy prisons

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:37 am, June 9th, 2011 - 54 comments

So, that’s National’s great big plan: get rid of our electricity assets and use the cash to build more prisons. Not much of a brighter future there. National still hasn’t come up with a convincing reason why we would sell highly profitable monopolistic companies. Instead, we’ve seen a series of weak excuses. Now, English has revealed the truth.

Key’s destiny

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:02 am, June 8th, 2011 - 39 comments

I don’t have a problem with MPs going to a Destiny Church conference to chase some votes. Attending a group’s function isn’t an endorsement of its views, although there’s obviously a line (eg. neo-Nazi groups). John Key, however, is endorsing of Destiny’s politics saying: “National’s policies align much more closely with their beliefs than Labour.”

Saleh gone?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:55 pm, June 7th, 2011 - 2 comments

The Arab Spring has become an increasingly bloody Arab Summer as dictators unleash their security forces to try to stop the wave of protests and revolutions sweeping the Arab world. Yemen’s dictator, wounded in the fighting, left for treatment in Saudi Arabia and seems unlikely to return.

Drug reform: makes a hell of a lot of cents

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:21 am, June 7th, 2011 - 48 comments

I’ve been thinking about the budget. Its economic vacuousness: borrowing and crossing fingers for strong growth, while keeping tax cuts for the rich. The bare-faced cheek of counting the asset sales in its projections and passing Kiwisaver cuts without getting a mandate. But also, the cuts to vital public services without a more imaginative and sensible solution: drug reform.

Two great columns

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:31 pm, June 4th, 2011 - 15 comments

John Armstrong says NZers are like frogs in ever hotter water, not realising the incrementally more radical agenda of National.
Tracy Watkins looks at the rise of lobbyists and their lack of accountability.

Brownlee’s savage attack on Chch business owners

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:05 pm, June 4th, 2011 - 83 comments

Christchurch business owners, unable to even get to their premises in the red-zone, have asked for some help to stop going under. Gerry Brownlee’s arrogant response: “If they are such clever, gifted, and forward-looking entrepreneurs it’s pretty sad that their first port of call has to be to Government looking for a bailout”. What an arsehole.

Better economic info

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:15 pm, June 3rd, 2011 - 7 comments

The CTU’s Economic Bulletin: The 2011 Budget was a victory of story-line over needs… The Budget has no plan to put right New Zealand’s social and economic imbalances, and does little to start cutting back the overseas private debt… The Budget of a thousand cuts put debt and deficits ahead of people’s needs and a plan for the future.

Govt bans perks, but not for themselves

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:59 pm, June 3rd, 2011 - 28 comments

Just after we discover that National ministers and staffers have been accepting gifts from a bank wanting the government’s business and John Key says ministers shouldn’t take ‘too many’ Rugby World Cup freebies, we learn that civil servants are sternly banned from accepting any gifts. Do as I say, not as I do, eh?

ACC privatisation plans announced

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, June 2nd, 2011 - 41 comments

National has announced plans to privatise ACC’s work account. Currently, they don’t have the numbers to get it through the House. ACT won’t vote for it because its not completely rabid and the Maori Party won’t vote for privatisation. So, this becomes another election issue: another bloody good reason to vote National out.