Author Archive

Simon Bridges – pants on fire

Written By: - Date published: 6:06 pm, July 16th, 2013 - 119 comments

It looks like it’s not just workers’ rights and health and safety that Simon Bridges has truth issues with…

Lusk/Slater to run negative Auckland campaign

Written By: - Date published: 3:49 pm, July 15th, 2013 - 58 comments

According to the tip line the farcical duo of Lusk and Slater will soon be kicking off a large negative campaign against Len Brown.

How the Right makes people believe lies

Written By: - Date published: 6:48 am, July 15th, 2013 - 96 comments

A UK study has found that public perceptions of key issues that the Right tries to win votes on are vast exaggerations of reality. What this shows is that Rightwing politicians are succeeding in whipping up false perceptions as a way of wedging working people against each other and against their class interests, and the Left is ceding the ground.

Why the Pakeha Party is great news for the Left

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, July 9th, 2013 - 207 comments

The ‘Pakeha Party’ has the most Facebook followers of any New Zealand political movement (excepting John Key’s page) That’s in one day of publicity.  They’re seriously talking about forming an actual political party. Should we be worried about this apparent reactionary force? Nah. The creation of a ‘Pakeha Party’ would be good news.

Collins sanitising wikipedia

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, July 8th, 2013 - 174 comments

Wellington alcohol and drug counsellor Roger Brooking has revealed a campaign by Judith Collins’ staff to sanitise her Wikipedia page and the pages on various issues related to New Zealand justice issues. References to facts that National doesn’t want to acknowledge – such as its links to the Sensible Sentencing Trust – have been purged by Collins’ team.

On having a more representative Parliament

Written By: - Date published: 6:33 pm, July 4th, 2013 - 323 comments

Labour should be congratulated for facing up to the lack of women’s representation in our Parliament.

They could sit around waiting for society to eliminate all structural barriers and usher in full gender equality, but frankly I’d rather they did something about it now. It’s a messy debate, but that’s democracy.

Simon Bridges’ ongoing struggle with the truth

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 pm, July 1st, 2013 - 29 comments

Simon Bridges has been caught in a lie again.

This time it’s about the vital matter of forestry health and safety.

Putting this guy in charge of the employment portfolio shows just how little National think of Kiwi workers.

Mana Maori?

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, July 1st, 2013 - 39 comments

There’s a lot of talk about a reunification of the Mana and Maori Parties after the Ikaroa-Rawhiti result. So – what are the chances?

Christchurch East maneuvering

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, June 24th, 2013 - 33 comments

So it looks like Labour’s Christchurch East candidate when Lianne Dalziel steps down will be either Clayton Cosgrove or James Caygill. The first question you ask is ‘why wouldn’t Clayton just stand in Waimakiriri again?’. He’s won it 4 of 5 attempts and Wilkinson only has a 600 majority. A slight swing will win it for him again, why give that up? The answer is troubling.

Foreign land buyers: its non-residents, not immigrants

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, June 24th, 2013 - 38 comments

Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse was on Q+A yesterday, talking about immigrant labour exploitation and about foreigners pushing up prices for houses and land. Woodhouse, purposely, conflated immigrants buying houses when they are coming here with non-residents buying houses that are purely rental investments/speculations on the NZ housing market.

The nub of the issue

Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, June 19th, 2013 - 112 comments

John Key can’t admit there’s a crisis in manufacturing. His response is to huff and puff and call people bozos. Not good enough. Here are some basic questions that Key should be able to answer…

Bridges caught out by own bullshit

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 pm, June 18th, 2013 - 30 comments

Simon Bridges’ loose relationship with the truth has got him in trouble just a few weeks into his first big test as Minister of Labour. It started last week when he got caught off guard by an innocuous question from Darien Fenton…

Requiem for a doofus

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, June 18th, 2013 - 34 comments

Well, Slater’s reverse midas touch has struck again. It’s remarkable that Slater should be able to take a 125-year old publication and kill it in 6 months, especially when Judith Collins says he’s better than the mainstream media. Or, perhaps, he had been so successful in turning Truth into the new media dreadnought that its jobs was done. Ah well, lets remember how it began.

Inconvenient indeed

Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, June 15th, 2013 - 62 comments

Your favourite smug, self-aggrandising Tory and mine, David Farrar, wrote a post yesterday about something called the “Performance of Manufacturing Index”, which is a wee survey that the BNZ does. Apparently, it shows manufacturing on the grow. ‘How inconvenient’ for people worried about the crisis in manufacturing, Farrar chortled. Then, Blenheim’s largest manufacturer laid off 84 workers.

A fighting liberal

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 pm, June 14th, 2013 - 42 comments

Lieutenant General David Morrison schools the misogynists and shows how you can be tough and liberal.

Best quote:

“You may find another employer where your attitude and behaviour is acceptable but I doubt it. The same goes for those that think toughness is build on humiliating others.”

Why can’t the Right face the manufacturing crisis?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 12th, 2013 - 117 comments

The NBR (motto: ‘our circulation’s falling at 12% per year’) and the Right blogs are all aflutter after supposedly proving that Russel Norman is wrong and there haven’t been 40,000 manufacturing jobs lost since 2008. NBR’s Rob Hosking claims the number is only 10,000-20,000. Because, you know, that would be OK. But the truth is, Norman’s right – 40,000 manufacturing job losses since June 2008.

Positioning and reality

Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, June 10th, 2013 - 72 comments

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about whether Labour is too close to the Greens. Lately, we’ve seen spin coming out that Labour might be able to govern without the Greens, favouring NZF instead. Meanwhile, the Greens seem happy to talk about a future Greens-Labour government. National’s leaking to Peters and Peters is playing the race card. What’s going on?

Key’s credibility hit

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, June 4th, 2013 - 110 comments

At the same time as Russel Norman was laying out the Key Government’s flagrant disregard for democracy in powerful terms (and weren’t the Right’s pundits quick to circle the wagons around Key after that?), a poll was out showing the public is agreeing with Norman’s view of Key. 43.5% of Kiwis trust Key less than a year ago. 49% think its time for a change of government.

Lusk papers 2 – selling out to America

Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, June 2nd, 2013 - 248 comments

Here’s the second of the Lusk papers that we were leaked, as was to be covered in today’s Sunday Star Times.

This paper confirms that a faction within National sees New Zealand as a vassal of America, and wants to see American influence (and American money) gain control over our politics.

The Lusk paper

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, June 1st, 2013 - 130 comments

This is the first of the Lusk papers, as leaked to us a couple of days ago, and as currently being discussed on The Nation.

Out of the shadows

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 pm, May 31st, 2013 - 38 comments

Well, its not taken long for the counter-strike. After Judith Collins’ main brain, Simon Lusk (better known as the cogent Whaleoil) went public last weekend threatening backbenchers that their careers would be short if they didn’t back Collins’ leadership bid when Key goes. Now, documents by Lusk talking about a ‘party within a party’ have been leaked.

That Lusk article

Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, May 31st, 2013 - 71 comments

I’ve been meaning to write something on Andrea Vance’s very good piece on Simon Lusk. It tells us a lot that we already know: Lusk is the brains behind Slater; Lusk was involved in the demolition of Gilmore; and he’s very tight with the Collins camp. What’s interesting is why he has come out in the public light now. And the messages he is sending to National MPs. The leadership battle is heating up.

‘Cleared’

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, May 22nd, 2013 - 61 comments

So, Neazor’s written his report into the 88 New Zealanders that the GCSB spied on. In the spirit of open government, National’s suppressing it. But we’re told it find that the GCSB ‘arguably’ didn’t break the law. That’s coming from the guy who excused them in the Dotcom case, too, remember. And, it’s hardly ‘clearing’ the GCSB as the Nats claims.

Political science

Written By: - Date published: 7:21 am, May 20th, 2013 - 31 comments

As I/S pointed out yesterday, the Government’s “innovation” agenda is nothing more than a cuts to R&D and hidden subsidies.

Today in the Herald that’s confirmed

The gift that keeps on giving

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, May 17th, 2013 - 36 comments

First Collins fails the replicant test. Now Scott catches her openly plotting against her leader…

Budget summary

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, May 17th, 2013 - 120 comments

Nothing on poverty. Nothing on affordable housing. House prices forecast to keep rising. Attacks on local democracy. More fear into the lives of the poor (reviewable tenancies). Stealth privatisation of state housing, sorry, ‘social housing’. A ‘surplus’ of 0.03% of GDP. Weak growth outlook. $200b national debt. And a promise of 171,000 more jobs that’s just as credible as the last one.

City Rail Link in the Budget?

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 pm, May 15th, 2013 - 45 comments

A reader sent us a comment from another blog by someone who was polled a couple of weeks back. The questions are very interesting, especially once you realise that it’s clearly being done for National and the Right in Auckland (one of the questions gives it away). Have a read, then I’ll tell you why I reckon the Nats are going to fund the City Rail Link in the Budget.

Stealth privatisation of state housing in budget

Written By: - Date published: 7:43 am, May 15th, 2013 - 35 comments

There’s more than one way to fleece the public of our assets. While attention is the energy companies, there’s also privatisation in the form of public organisations selling of their operations (eg Orcon), and opening public funding to for-profit companies (eg. charter schools). More seems on the cards for our state housing as National offers to give over control to private organisations.

The meaning of utu

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, May 14th, 2013 - 115 comments

Aaron Gilmore has promised ‘utu’, or reciprocation, against a select band of National insiders. What’s going on behind the scenes?

Claudette Hauiti

Written By: - Date published: 12:18 pm, May 13th, 2013 - 60 comments

After a brutal smear-campaign from Key, Gilmore is gone. Nothing he did made him unfit to be an MP ,* but lying to Key meant Key had to get him out of the caucus or look weak. And the only safe way to do that was have him resign. That done, we get Claudette Hauiti. Who’s she? Well, here’s a measure of her calibre. In a 2010 Auckland local board competition, she came 10th out of 12.

What’s done can be undone

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, May 13th, 2013 - 220 comments

SkyCity will get more pokies and cashless gambling in return for building the convention centre that it always wanted to build.  (…excuse me, I’m just trying not to puke watching Len Brown on Breakfast as he shrugs off the problem gambling increase from this deal…) The convention centre will be a white elephant. SkyCity should know that what’s done can be undone.

Update: Anyone buying in to the Nats’ “Labour did it too” line should read Russell Brown’s demolition of that lie.

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