Author Archive

Remember, John, you promised no asset sales

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:06 am, April 20th, 2010 - 29 comments

In 2008 John Key made this crystal clear promise: “That in the first term of the National government there will be no state assets that will be sold either partially or fully.” Now, Land Information New Zealand is proposing the sale of seven high country stations as part of the tenure review process. Key must keep his promise not to sell state assets and turn down this proposal immediately.

Journos on the declining state of journalism

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:00 am, April 15th, 2010 - 17 comments

“Gov-Gen to attend PM’s funeral”. To me, it says a hell of a lot about the state of the media in this country that a sub-editor, or whoever they have writing headlines these days, does not know the difference between a president and a prime minister, and that no-one else at Stuff spotted the mistake before it went up.

Don’t undermine New Zealand

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:42 pm, April 14th, 2010 - 35 comments

The Federated Mountain Clubs of NZ, Greenpeace, Forest and Bird, Coromandel Watchdog, and the Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand have come together to organise the ‘Don’t Undermine New Zealand’ march on May 1st in Auckland. It should be a great event. Get out there and tell this government that some parts of our country are too precious to mine.

NZ should be a proud world leader on nukes

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:54 pm, April 13th, 2010 - 49 comments

How wonderful it is to have a US President that rejects the evil of nuclear weapons. Finally the world is catching up with us. While the powers were locked in the stand-off of Mutually Assured Destruction, New Zealand rejected the madness of that logic and we declared ourselves nuclear-free. Our Prime Minister should be celebrating that fact and pointing to our achievement as a model for the whole world.

Meanwhile, in the provinces

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:11 pm, April 13th, 2010 - 46 comments

The biggest story of the day according to Stuff comes from the Taranaki Daily News: “Cruel taggers deface old goat”
I love that headline: it paints a picture of an almost elemental conflict between the forces of evil as represented by taggers and the forces of decency as represented by an old goat.

Whanau Ora minister, Foreshore sell-out

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:25 am, April 9th, 2010 - 13 comments

Maori activists who want a better deal on the foreshore and seabed can rest assured that the Maori Party is about to sell them out. Tariana Turia just got herself a shiny new portfolio as Minister for Whanau Ora, whatever it is. Do you really think she’s going to give up a control over a policy that National has agreed to just for her? Do you really think she’ll stand strong on her principles over the foreshore and seabed if it means losing the Crown limo?

Allied with murderers

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:25 am, April 7th, 2010 - 41 comments

Wikileaks has revealed footage shot from a US Apache helicopter in Iraq in 2007 as they callously murder a dozen Iraqi civilians. Every time you read of some wedding convey being shot up or a houseful of ‘insurgents’ being bombed remember this video and remember that our soldiers are now part of the combat force that is committing these same barbaric acts in Afghanistan.

Kiwis report future less bright under National

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:01 pm, April 6th, 2010 - 58 comments

In 2008, John Key was promising us a brighter future. 18 months on, we’re in that future he was talking about and Kiwis are reporting their lives are worse than they were before he came to power. 83% of Kiwis surveyed by ShapeNZ rated their quality of life as ‘good’ or better, down from 89% in 2008 and 92% in 2007. Key has a responsibility to live up to his promises

Espiner on the right-wing smear machine

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:30 am, March 31st, 2010 - 16 comments

The Nats run orchestrated smear campaigns coordinated with ministers’ offices, bloggers, and tame journos. National doesn’t want to and can’t engage in real political debate on the issues. So it is reduced to mud throwing. Some brave journo needs to shine a light on what is going on here. It is not good enough for the government to get away with using its proxies to wage secret smear campaigns.

Time to allow death with dignity

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:06 pm, March 25th, 2010 - 41 comments

Why do we force someone to live who wants to die? Why is Margaret Page being forced to starve herself to death? It is time to change the law so that people are permitted the right to choose to end their lives when they choose by a humane method and with dignity.

Key’s mining plan a pay-back for Crosby/Textor?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:02 am, March 24th, 2010 - 43 comments

John Key is pushing ahead with his mining plan despite the backlash and the poor economics for NZ. Why?
Is it simply pay-back time for Key’s spin doctors in Crosby/Textor whose clients have significant mining interests? Either way Key must unveil the shroud of secrecy that surrounds his relationship with the company.

Government loses control of House

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:29 pm, March 23rd, 2010 - 51 comments

At the end of question time today, Trevor Mallard asked for leave to have a debate without notice congratulating Joyce on getting his degree conferred 21 years after leaving uni. To everyone’s surprise, Gerry Brownlee failed to object. Brownlee is so mad [Update: video added].

Mining our national parks for the US war-machine

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:01 pm, March 23rd, 2010 - 23 comments

Most of the world’s supply of the key rare earth metals comes from China. That’s a strategic problem for the US, which needs rare earths for high-tech military equipment. They don’t want to be dependent on the world’s other superpower, and potential adversary, for their military hardware. Is it a coincidence that the Nats are so keen to let foreigners mine for rare earths in our national parks?

One for the road

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:49 pm, March 22nd, 2010 - 12 comments

Colin Espiner is hanging up his umm, journalist tools?, and leaving the press gallery to be an assistant editor for The Press down in Christchurch.
I wish him the best of luck but I can’t help but leave him with one more correction of a basic mistake for the road.

Sex & the Supercity

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:56 am, March 21st, 2010 - 52 comments

What a cynical and politically-driven process this whole Supercity process has been. It is undemocratic to its core. It is not about ‘growth’ or creating a better city. It is about securing power (and, thereby, wealth) for the city’s right-wing elite. Now their plans are falling apart around them. A female candidate to replace Banks is their last gasp attempt to stop Len Brown winning.

Nats all at sea on whaling

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:18 pm, March 18th, 2010 - 14 comments

In Kaikoura, John Key said commercial whaling “might be acceptable if it was acceptable to others”. You gotta love the leadership there. But you’ve also got to question what kind of two-faced game the Nats are playing because in the House, Murray McCully said precisely the opposite – that the Government opposes commercial whaling.

Rumblings in Nats’ base

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:30 am, March 18th, 2010 - 20 comments

There’s a danger in being a government that does nothing except pay of its rich mates, and that’s losing faith with the conservative base. Garth George is the slightly mad, always irritable voice of this demographic, so it’s worth watching as his initial love for John Key wears off to be replaced by despair (and rising anger) at Key’s failure to deliver the brighter future he promised.

A love that will not die

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:14 pm, March 17th, 2010 - 19 comments

I tried to write a satire of John Armstrong’s column today along the lines of the ‘Beloved Key‘ one I did the other day. But I’ve had to give it away. It’s beyond parody.

So, I guess I’ll do some serious analysis instead.

Herald cans fact-checking, opts for dogwhistles

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:35 am, March 17th, 2010 - 57 comments

The New Zealand Herald has never been shy of attacking blogs for their lack of journalistic standards and editorial rigour, but given some of their recent work you’ve got to wonder who they think they’re kidding.

Take today’s woeful piece by Dita De Boni pontificating about Charles Chauvel and those screaming kids on his plane.

Money for photo ops, cuts to health

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:38 am, March 17th, 2010 - 24 comments

Just a quick question: Why is John Key giving $300,000 to the All Whites’ World Cup campaign when they’re already making a $6 million profit from the $10 million they get for qualifying? Why is there money for that while elder care and other value for money programmes are getting cuts? Looks like we’re paying for some more John Key photo ops.

On the Chauvel beatup

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:53 pm, March 16th, 2010 - 132 comments

Stuff.co.nz’s decision to turn an anonymous, politically motivated smear from an ACT Party activist into a front page tabloid screamer is gutter journalism for sure, but it’s only the latest example of a worrying trend.

It’s what happens when the right-wing smear machine meets an increasingly tabloid news media.

Glenn Beck’s theatre of the absurd

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:53 pm, March 12th, 2010 - 35 comments

Check out this video of Fox News talk host Glenn Beck. It’s a compilation of his week-long series on how “America is burning to the ground”.

I think he’s trying to argue that Barack Obama is plotting some sort of communist-inspired coup, but it’s hard to know what he’s on about between his confused rants about “THE MACHINE” and the paranoid blackboard scrawlings.

Dying newspaper’s last gasp

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:22 pm, March 12th, 2010 - 33 comments

You’ll have seen the government’s furious response to the Sunday Star Times “commission[ing] people masquerading as terrorists to attend Super 14 Games”.

It’s irresponsible as hell, but more than that it’s desperate and sad. It’s the last gasp of a dying newspaper.

Education cuts good for kids in bizarro Tolley world

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:30 pm, March 11th, 2010 - 20 comments

Have a listen to Education Minister Anne Tolley on Morning Report today trying to explain the $25 million cut to the education budget.

It really was a shocker, even for her.

ACT gerrymanders Auckland for the rich

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:05 pm, March 11th, 2010 - 23 comments

The Local Government Commission released its final ward boundaries for Auckland today and the result is a city gerrymandered by ACT to favour the interests of the rich.

That’s the verdict from No Right Turn, who’s crunched the numbers and discovered a systematic bias for the Right.

Carter leads on whaling

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:04 pm, March 10th, 2010 - 26 comments

Good on Chris Carter. He’s the only politician on Left taking some leadership in opposing the National Government’s abandonment of New Zealand’s anti-whaling stance. Today he launched an online petition against the government’s position. Carter writes: “John Key’s great plan to save the whales is apparently allowing the Japanese to hunt them commercially. This appalling […]

Whaling proposal not realism, it’s a sell-out

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:00 am, March 10th, 2010 - 65 comments

John Armstrong has chucked John Key’s promise to end whaling down the memory hole and, instead, comes out swinging against those who don’t want to give up the commercial whaling ban: “the plan [will] allow commercial whaling for a 10-year period, but with big cuts in the numbers killed each year. This plan would buy […]

Labour and Greens “stealthy” on whaling

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:05 pm, March 8th, 2010 - 43 comments

You’ve really got to hand it to the Greens and Labour. They have completely defied expectations on the whaling issue. See the simple option that most political parties would go for would be to be seen to stand by their principles – loud and proud. But the Greens and Labour are too clever for that. Instead, they’ve cunningly said next to nothing!

Outrage at Key’s pro-whaling plan

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:42 am, March 8th, 2010 - 55 comments

The Key Government has, without public consultation or mandate, thrown decades of political consensus in the trash. They are proposing the reintroduction commercial whaling. The Nats say this will reduce the number of whales killed but no-one is buying that. When did the commercialisation of a resource ever lead to a reduction in its use?

Hartevelt on bashing the yoof

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:02 am, March 7th, 2010 - 26 comments

A contact at the Ministry of Transport tells me that 15 year old drivers have been involved in only a handful of fatal crashes, 1 to 1.5% of the total, in recent years and they’re not all the 15 year old’s fault. But no, National’s solution is to prevent all 15 year olds from driving. Dumb. It’s a carpet-bombing approach to policy

Key supports return to commercial whaling

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:23 pm, March 6th, 2010 - 46 comments

In January, we were told that John Key had some secret plan to end whaling. Now, we learn that Key wants to let commercial whaling resume. Since 1986, commercial whaling has been banned by international law. Japan carries out its whaling under the guise of scientific research. Key promised that he was working on ending […]