Author Archive

Own goal by National flunky

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:09 am, May 4th, 2011 - 24 comments

Cameron Slater has the inside word on Murray McCully’s $75,000 trip to Vanuatu on a New Zealand Air Force plane that involved flying the 126-seater there and back to drop him and seven staff off, then there and back again the next day to pick them up. This story gets worse the more details come out.

War Nerd on Al Qaeda

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:10 am, May 3rd, 2011 - 13 comments

The best US blog is eXiledonline. They’ve done huge work to expose the Tea Party and its shady backers. Their insight into the class issues underlying economic crisis both raw and diamond-sharp. And one of their writers, Gary Brecher aka the War Nerd, covers conflicts with eyes wide open. Here’s his take on Al Qaeda, coincidentally written last week:

John Key’s shakey government

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:01 am, May 3rd, 2011 - 35 comments

The Nats have ‘soft-launched’ via Kiwiblog and Whaleoil that Rodney Hide and John Boscawen will both lose their portfolios and ACT will have no ministers. Farrar points out this will benefit ACT’s taxpayer funding to the tune of $130,000, which is somehow sweet while spending $500,000 on a by-election to get a mandate is a serious crime.

Collins fudging crime stats?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:00 am, May 2nd, 2011 - 10 comments

Police Minister Judith Collins’ announcement that crime dropped last year left more than a few people scratching their heads. The economic conditions, especially high unemployment, should mean more crime, not less. Now, we’re starting to learn the answer: procedural changes that havem wiped thousands of crimes off the stats.

Harawira right to call by-election

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:03 am, May 2nd, 2011 - 21 comments

As I foreshadowed a week ago, Hone Harawira is to trigger a by-election in Te Tai Tokerau. It’s the right thing to do: Harawira should test his mandate to lead a new party, as Winston Peters and Tariana Turia did. It’s also good politics – keeping the Mana Party in the news – just as the other parties’ reactions are good politics on their part.

Heck of a job Brownlee

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:22 am, April 30th, 2011 - 63 comments

The government has spent $1 million so far on 350 campervans for Christchurch. One person stayed in them. For that money, better to put them up at Premier House and commute them by Iroquois. There is a massive housing need in Christchurch but the campervans were so shitty and expensive people preferred overcrowded or damaged houses.

ACT: bought by the Nats for a song

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:12 am, April 29th, 2011 - 123 comments

The Left are rubbing our hands with glee at the prospect of taking on BrashKey, but make no mistake, Key wanted this coup too. Think about it: former Nat Leader Don Brash, former Nat Minister John Banks, Nat money man Alan Gibbs, former Nat President Michelle Boag – and it goes down while John Key is far away playing smile and wave in Europe.

National lines ruined…

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:22 pm, April 28th, 2011 - 64 comments

Some National memes that they’ve been running against the opposition parties are somewhat ruined by A Brash Act…

Key: out of touch, using RNZAF as personal taxi service

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:00 am, April 28th, 2011 - 19 comments

In the past year and a half John Key has clocked up nearly a full week of flights on RNZAF aircraft. The bill for the more than 125 hours of flights extends into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Apart from a few flights to Christchurch, it appears the main reason Key has been using our air force as his private taxi service is to get to photo-ops.

On the glorious dead

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:00 am, April 26th, 2011 - 12 comments

It seems to me that as the years roll on and there are fewer and fewer veterans of the World Wars left, our involvement in those wars is becoming glorified into the basis of a national myth: ‘our heroes’ noble sacrifice for us’, which is some distance from the reality . So I was pleasantly surprised by the documentary on TV1 on Friday night.

The Mana Party & the Money Party

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:13 pm, April 25th, 2011 - 48 comments

Hone Harawira is set to launch his Mana Party next weekend, possibly triggering a by-election in Te Tai Tokerau at the same time. At the other end of the spectrum, Don Brash’s haphazard to take over ACT may actually just be casus belli for him to establish a New Right Party.

Nats try to warn off Brash

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:27 am, April 24th, 2011 - 79 comments

Tweedledum and Tweedledee were a bit slow off the mark responding to the news that Don Brash is looking to take over ACT. Took the Nats a while to get their lines together but have decided, on balance, they want ACT dead. And that will be a lot easier to achieve if Brash isn’t in charge.

SAS: torturers’ henchmen?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:30 pm, April 22nd, 2011 - 113 comments

The Herald has summarised a report in the new Metro on the New Zealand SAS’s role in arresting Afghanis and handing them over for torture. Delivering prisoners for torture is as culpable an act as torture itself. It is a war crime. Everyone who wants our defence forces to be respected must demand it is purged of people who have committed these acts.

Spending cuts I’d like to see – No 2

Written By: Eddie - 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.

Pagani dead wrong

Written By: Eddie - 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.

Winnie’s big chance

Written By: Eddie - 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

Hartevelt hearts Brownlee

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:48 am, April 17th, 2011 - 21 comments

Young John Hartevelt has obviously decided it’s a good idea to cozy up to our new dictator. How else to explain the fawning piece in today’s Sunday Star-Times? Hartevelt heaps plaudits on Gerry Brownlee for deigning to have a one day select committee and swipes at Labour’s Lianne Dalziel for daring to demand better for her constituents.

Armstrong on Nats’ elitist agenda

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:47 am, April 16th, 2011 - 7 comments

National has pillaged the poor to benefit the rich. That can be seen in the tax cuts, the GST hike, the subsidies for climate polluters, even the cuts to public transport to fund holiday highways. But sometimes it’s the smaller stories that best expose the underlying theme of a government, as John Armstrong shows in his piece today.

Good-bye rule of law

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:05 am, April 15th, 2011 - 10 comments

I was going to write about how ludicrous it is that National is abandoning the idea of a warranty or bond system for builders in the new Building Act designed to stop a repeat of the leaky homes debacle, given that we’re about to embark on the largest rebuilding programme in the country’s history. But then I realised it no longer matters what laws say.

Wong corruption to be investigated

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:45 am, April 14th, 2011 - 12 comments

We might be about to find out why Pansy Wong suddenly announced she would resign from Parliament late last year, after John Key had previously expressed full confidence in her. The Auditor-General will investigate those mysterious flights that she and husband Sammy took to China while she was a minister and he was working for Kiwirail.

Even DPF attacking government’s urgency

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:32 am, April 14th, 2011 - 6 comments

The Herald reports that National party blogger David Farrar and Grant Robertson have spoken out against the government’s misuse of urgency and its bypassing of the select committee process.

Ironically the call comes as the government jams more bad legislation through under the cover of urgency.

Reasons to vote against CERA

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:00 am, April 14th, 2011 - 77 comments

Update: bollocks. Clayton Cosgrove has announced Labour will vote for CERA “even though we have grave concerns”. He then spent 10 minutes whining how Brownlee had lied to Labour repeatedly during this process and wasn’t to be trusted. He warned Brownlee he would be accountable if CERA stuffs up. Brownlee responded “so will you”. Labour wonders why it is stuck in National’s shadow unable to get traction – It’s decisions like this one.

Voting away our democracy

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:00 am, April 13th, 2011 - 52 comments

Just before the second Christchurch earthquake, Gerry Brownlee was being criticised for the lack of progress in recovery. People suggested what was needed was an independent commissioner to lead the rebuilding – an ‘earthquake Tsar’. Brownlee responded “the last Tsar got shot“. Now, the new CERA law makes Brownlee our Tsar in a very literal sense.

No ambition for New Zealand

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:30 am, April 11th, 2011 - 105 comments

National came to power promising to close the wage gap with Australia. Not only have they failed to fulfill that promise but Bill English now portrays it as a good thing. His appearance on Q+A yesterday only confirms how out of touch National is: determined to sell our assets for no good reason, against our will, and happy with our low wages.

Is Joyce too big to fail?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:00 am, April 11th, 2011 - 18 comments

In 2009, Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English survived a corruption scandal that would have sunk a less important minister. Key couldn’t afford to lose him. Now, evidence continues to emerge of how Steven Joyce gave his old company a sweetheart loan against the official advise. Do you think John Key will act or is Joyce too big to fail?

Poverty Trap!

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:35 pm, April 10th, 2011 - 178 comments

It’s the game played by hundreds of thousands of kiwi families each week, with more new players all the time. In Poverty Trap!, you start with an income less than 60% of the median and have to support yourself and your family within those limits. Click through to see your budget, and watch out for unexpected costs!

Little impact from Hughes affair, NZF on the rise

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:32 pm, April 8th, 2011 - 50 comments

The latest Roy Morgan poll shows little impact from the Darren Hughes affair to date. We still don’t know how the investigation will play out but the poll suggests dithering leadership matters less than economic fundamentals. The big news, though, is that New Zealand First would be back under these numbers.

This brighter future

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:49 pm, April 6th, 2011 - 26 comments

High quality government spending

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:25 am, April 6th, 2011 - 55 comments

Shivering in your earthquake-damaged home, wondering how you’ll come up with $190 a week for a campervan after your emergency benefit ends? Living on cat food because GST and price hikes put real food out of reach? Don’t worry, Pita Sharples to the rescue: he’s gifting 1.9 million taxpayer dollars to a hapu in his electorate to build an inflatable, plastic waka.

Elitism and disaster

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:33 am, April 4th, 2011 - 26 comments

Watching Simon Barnett mouthing some cliched pap in front of photogenic rubble in an ad the other night, I got to thinking about how the earthquake has been hijacked for celebrity. At every turn, the government has used the earthquake as a stage, while the people are pushed into the background and their needs ignored.

Tizard not coming back

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:14 am, April 3rd, 2011 - 66 comments

Judith Tizard won’t take Labour’s vacant seat in Parliament. It’s the right thing to do. It’s only a quirk that we should be looking back to a list written in 2008 to fill a seat for 6 months now. Tizard and the next four on the 2008 list aren’t on the 2011 list. Their lives have moved on. Better for the seat to go to someone with a Parliamentary future – Louisa Wall.