Author Archive

Hone: Maori Party has lost its way

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:30 am, January 18th, 2011 - 61 comments

Wow. The first edition of Hone Harawira’s new opinion column in the Sunday Star Times is a jaw-dropping read. He frankly states the party has sold out it values for cabinet seats – put coalition before kaupapa. It’s a brazen attack on Tariana Turia, and confirmation he intends to stay with the Maori Party and, some day, lead it back to its roots.

A failure of leadership over Pike River

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:15 am, January 15th, 2011 - 115 comments

Like smiling and waving, frowning and looking sombre, is easy. But satisfying the expectations you create can be hard. This is where Key consistently fails. He has failed again over Pike River. The sudden and inadequately explained end to the recovery operation is bad enough. Lying about the promises he made is gravely insulting.

Brethren taking subsidies for illegal discrimination

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:16 pm, January 13th, 2011 - 65 comments

Another great piece of work from I/S at No Right Turn: “the Exclusive Brethren have set up their own KiwiSaver scheme… The scheme will only be offered to members of the cult. This is, of course, illegal.” They’re trying to take taxpayer money for a business that illegally discriminates on the grounds of religion. It must be stopped.

Militant reactionarism coming to NZ

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:47 pm, January 12th, 2011 - 149 comments

The Great Depression saw the rise of rightwing reactionarism. Out of reactionary movements came fascist governments from Brazil to Romania. We had the 100,000-strong New Zealand Legion. The Great Recession is spawning a new wave of militant reactionarism, now reaching our shores.

Back from the brink?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:48 am, January 11th, 2011 - 269 comments

For years, the American Right has been ramping up its violent rhetoric. Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement have encouraged their followers to think that their guns are all that stands in the way of a socialist coup. Now, the violence has become real and the Right has, largely, baulked. Will the Tea Party’s rhetoric be scuttled?

Tea Party turns violent

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:10 am, January 9th, 2011 - 225 comments

Only one US Congressperson has ever been assassinated – Leo Ryan during the Jonestown Massacre. Gabrielle Giffords may become the second after a gunman shot her and others, killing at least one, in Arizona. This appears to be part of a rising tide of violence from America’s far-right Tea Party movement, driven on by Glenn Beck and others.

English’s days numbered

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:26 am, January 6th, 2011 - 54 comments

What’s to stop a government minister taking taxpayer money and giving it to, say, a family friend or a political slush fund? In theory, lots. There’s a formal budget-formation process through the ministeries and Cabinet, the Budget then has to be approved by Parliament, and the PM would sack any minister who tried such blatant corruption. Wouldn’t he?

Key to spit dummy if voters reject him

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:51 am, January 3rd, 2011 - 162 comments

We’ve always said that John Key was only in politics for his personal reward. He just wants to have ‘PM of NZ’ on his CV. He just wants to go around smiling and waving at people who know who he is because of the office he holds. Now, he’s admitted as much by telling the Herald he’ll quit politics if we don’t re-elect him.

Locking in the narrative

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:51 am, January 2nd, 2011 - 61 comments

Having a read of Fairfax’s 2011 political predictions, and their self-grading of their 2010 predictions, two things jumped out. The first is that Fairfax’s political staff have now wedded their reputations as political analysts to a National victory. The second is that they ignore the impact of the economy, and petrol prices in particular, on politics.

Killing in the name of

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:57 am, December 30th, 2010 - 79 comments

On Christmas Eve, our SAS soldiers in Afghanistan killed two security guards, wounded two others, and arrested 15. None of these people was involved in any terrorist activity. Did the SAS act negligently or was it an unfortunate accident? The Kabul Police want to investigate but, in Afghanistan, our troops are above the law.

Inquiry needed into English-Peda scandal

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:54 am, December 24th, 2010 - 32 comments

The day before Christmas, in what will surely be a forlorn attempt to bury the story, Bill English’s office has finally relented after months of resistance and released under the OIA papers on how the unknown Pacific Economic Development Agency was awarded a $4.8 million blank cheque in the Budget. This looks serious.

Farrar joins call for SOE reform

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:00 am, December 24th, 2010 - 95 comments

Say you run a large company. Say the manager of a division in your company chose do a deal that improves the division’s own profitability instead of one that would have made the division less profitable but the company as a whole more profitable. You would be angry. So why are the people who run our SOEs required to act like that?

Jackson statement worsens Hobbit fiasco

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:23 am, December 23rd, 2010 - 80 comments

Peter Jackson yesterday did what the government has refused to do and commented on the revelation that he told Gerry Brownlee the Actors’ Equity blacklist was no threat to the Hobbit movies being filmed here. Unfortunately, Jackson has just further sullied his reputation by revealing the true motives for the Hobbit Enabling Act.

Key, Brownlee & McCully have questions to answer

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:10 am, December 22nd, 2010 - 45 comments

It seems we don’t have a government at the moment. John Key is incommunicado in Hawaii. The Acting PM, Bill English, and Key’s press people refuse to speak for him. Someone needs to front up because serious questions are emerging about the honesty of statements Gerry Brownlee and Murray McCully made in Parliament and to the New Zealand people.

Nats & Jackson played us for fools

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:09 am, December 21st, 2010 - 130 comments

The Herald has used the OIA to get hold of emails Peter Jackson sent Gerry Brownlee during the Hobbit shakedown. They show that the Actors’ Equity blacklisting was not a threat to the film staying here – yet Jackson and Brownlee told us it was to justify handing Warners $34 million and rushing through an anti-worker law.

The real target of DB Export campaign

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:30 am, December 20th, 2010 - 61 comments

There’s an ad campaign at the moment about how DB Export was supposedly created in reaction to the Black Budget. It’s full of lies and a lot of people see it as a slur on Arnold Nordmeyer and Labour in general. In fact, this odd campaign under the slogan ‘how to lose an election’ isn’t about Labour. It’s a warning to National.

Herald into smear mode for election year

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:19 pm, December 18th, 2010 - 72 comments

It must be coming up to election year, because whenever I load Granny Herald there’s some ludicrous attack on Labour or love-piece on Key. The Herald on Sunday has some Wikileaks cables and the ones they’ve chosen to pre-release supposedly shows Labour was willing to give up the anti-nuke law but didn’t to win votes. They show no such thing. [Updated]

Sloppy but nothing more

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:07 pm, December 16th, 2010 - 152 comments

Jason Ede, Whaleoil’s main source for smut in the National Research Unit, has done a clever little play on Phil Goff. Like 40-odd other MPs, Goff owns an investment property. That it’s in Wellington doesn’t matter. This isn’t a Double Dipton rort. But Goff pledged to sell it and he hasn’t. No rort but sloppy. A fair cop.

Early thoughts on the Botany by-election

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:30 am, December 16th, 2010 - 28 comments

Pansy Wong’s resignation in disgrace makes four ministers and three MPs lost by John Key’s government in two years (and more who have escaped scot-free). Now, we face another by-election – on March 5th, Botany will choose Wong’s successor. Here’s my take on the probable candidates and the party positioning.

Rortbuster not finished with Wong

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:21 am, December 15th, 2010 - 35 comments

Rortbuster Pete Hodgson unveiled yet more information about Pansy and Sammy Wong’s business activities in China on the taxpayer dime in Parliament yesterday. It’s damning material. The Auditor-General had decided not to investigate but there’s every chance she will now or that the Police will.

Starve the beast

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:39 pm, December 14th, 2010 - 50 comments

Let’s face it. A government doesn’t accidentally spend $15 billion more than its revenue while cutting billions in taxes. The unsustainably high deficit is intentional policy, not happenstance. In good times and bad, National’s answer is always to cut taxes. The objective is to make huge deficits that then need to be ‘fixed’ with spending cuts.

You really can’t square the circle

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:37 pm, December 12th, 2010 - 18 comments

One of the central tenets of Brand Key is that he can do what ‘normal’ politicians can’t. With his boundless optimism and those mysterious trader skills, he can solve problems no-one else can. For a while, some believed he can satisfied both Maori and the Rednecks on the foreshore. Of course, really, he had just done a cheap rebrand of the existing law.

A-G sure to launch Wong probe

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:30 am, December 10th, 2010 - 12 comments

The Auditor-General seems certain to launch an investigation into the Wongs’ taxpayer-funded travel as even more evidence shows the Parliamentary report isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. A majority of Kiwis want her to resign. Why John Key hasn’t already called on the A-G to investigate, as he did with Phil Heatley, is beyond me.

Abomination becomes law

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:30 am, December 9th, 2010 - 45 comments

Paul Quinn’s appalling Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Act passed last night with the support of just two parties – ACT and National. We’ve talked about why this law is so bad in the past. The Attorney-General agreed it is an unjustified breach of our human rights. Why did ACT, the supposed ‘Liberal Party’ vote for it?

Auditor-General must investigate Wongs

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:57 pm, December 8th, 2010 - 59 comments

Fresh evidence was presented in the House yesterday by rortbuster Pete Hodgson that makes a lie of testimony Sammy Wong gave to the investigation into his and his wife’s travel on taxpayer money. A proper inquiry by the Auditor-General must now be undertaken. There are also questions over John Key’s involvement.

In search of Pansy’s legacy

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:30 pm, December 8th, 2010 - 29 comments

In the Herald yesterday, there was a half-page ad thanking Pansy Wong for her “significant contribution” to National’s coffers the country. John Campbell went in hunt of that contribution. Worth watching all the way through for Duncan Garner’s assessment. As a bonus, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi gets his first media mention that isn’t about corruption.

Tales from front-lines of the class war

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:24 am, December 6th, 2010 - 17 comments

This collection of articles from recent days illustrate the class war going on within this country. In a time of economic, environmental, and social crisis, either the established elite can be reined in or it will use its power to cement its position and take a greater share of the wealth. Because we’re letting them, the elite are winning the class war.

The spirit of Peterloo

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:57 am, December 5th, 2010 - 30 comments

David Cameron made the commendable decision to create a national happiness index to compliment GDP but there’s a lot of unhappiness in Merry Old England under his rule. To avert fiscal disaster, while allowing bankers and the elite to keep their wealth, Cameron is making savage cuts to public services. And the Police are going old school on the resulting protests.

Your chance to ask the PM some real questions

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:41 am, December 1st, 2010 - 134 comments

To say that Key’s digital smile and wave was disappointing would be an under-statement. Key spent just 45 minutes (not the promised 2 hours) answering questions and most of them were moronic – “ford or holden”, “favourite colour” – honestly. We’re getting emails from people pissed off their serious questions weren’t sent through. I have a solution.

Trans-Tasman: Key the smile & wave PM

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:17 am, November 30th, 2010 - 65 comments

The annual roll-call’ from the extremely pro-Nat Trans-Tasman says: “Key needs an agenda, not just the consensus he is building around personal trust.” In other words: ‘smile and wave is all very nice and good, John, but don’t you think you should do some actual work? Meanwhile, Key is spending two hours today digitally smiling and waving on Stuff.

New Left Party coming, or is it?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:29 pm, November 29th, 2010 - 100 comments

Matt McCarten is doing the dance of the seven veils on the issue of a new Left Party. He and the other players have been denying they have anything planned but, at the same time, have spoken of the need for such a party, as Labour paddles around in circles, and said they might join were such a party to eventuate. I say go for it.