Author Archive

Key “doesn’t do anything” – Hide

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:57 am, November 5th, 2009 - 45 comments

It took a few cocktails to loosen Bill English’s tongue when he thought he was among friends. Rodney Hide just needed his coco pops. At his highly dubious ministerial function/ACT fundraiser breakfast*, Hide told his table that John Key “doesn’t do anything”. The only ‘achievement’ by Key that Hide could identify was the cycleway, which, […]

The myth of objective journalism

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:00 am, November 4th, 2009 - 68 comments

IrishBill: It’s never an easy decision to pull another poster’s work but after some reflection I’ve decided this post constitutes an unwarranted personal attack and is out of line with the Standard’s policies and direction and have therefore removed it.

The slippery standards of Mr Key

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:23 am, November 3rd, 2009 - 21 comments

Yesterday, John Key cleverly tried to reframe his ministers’ failure to obey his standards on use of perks: “You don’t want 120 Members of Parliament who have the financial independence to be able to make the financial decisions that I make. “It wouldn’t be the House of Representatives, we need people from all walks of […]

Brash’s mea culpa

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 2nd, 2009 - 17 comments

Strange mea culpa from Don Brash on the foreshore and seabed in today’s Dom. He doesn’t go as far as to apologise for National’s cynical and deliberate attempt to ignite racial conflict in the leadup to the 2005 election, but he does admit that National “got it wrong” on the foreshore and seabed. Wonder what […]

Voters see Nats’ feet of clay

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:20 pm, October 31st, 2009 - 25 comments

Amongst all the puffery from the right-wing commentators in the Herald today, a very interesting piece – interviews with ordinary people from New Zealand’s most marginal electorate, New Plymouth. she voted National because it was “time for a change”. “I’m quite impressed with John Key. He’s coped with a lot of situations. Compared to the […]

Key’s piggies at the trough

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:47 am, October 31st, 2009 - 14 comments

A few months ago, John Key said of ministers taking their partners travelling on the taxpayer dollar: “I’ve told them if they want to take their partner, they can do it, but they pay for it’. So he must be furious that Rodney Hide, David Carter, Peter Dunne, and Phil Heatly have all had the […]

Breakfast is on us

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:34 am, October 30th, 2009 - 21 comments

Check out the invite we got to ‘Plain English’. Incredible. I didn’t even know until watching the Campbell Live story that David Cunliffe and Roger Douglas will be in the debate too. They’re not even mentioned in the invite. But English is and there’s a picture of him. In fact, he’s portrayed alongside Guyon in the same […]

On Cameron Slater and mental illness

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 29th, 2009 - 53 comments

A few months ago, a couple of us worked out that Cameron Slater, following his little spin in the media where he gloated about receiving income insurance for depression, had been kicked off his payments by the insurance company. The angry post asking for a lawyer who hates insurance companies, and the switch to gotcha.co.nz […]

$15 minimum wage, it’s only fair

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 29th, 2009 - 4 comments

The campaign for a $15 an hour minimum wage is gathering pace. Initially, Unite kind of set out on their own on this one but I understand they’ve got other unions on boards now. They need a bit over 300,000 signatures to force the government to hold a referendum. They’ve got until May 7, just […]

Political marketing expert fooled by English ads

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 29th, 2009 - 9 comments

If you thought TVNZ’s promo ad for its Plain English series looked like an ad for the National Party you’re not alone. Seems the ad is so faithful to the political advertising genre that it even had a political marketing expert fooled. Here’s Dr Clare Robinson on her reaction to seeing the ad: “When I […]

Bill’s latest rort

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:30 am, October 29th, 2009 - 77 comments

I hadn’t seen the Bill English ad until now. I guess I had kind of assumed it couldn’t be that bad – surely it would be a promo for the show with a few stock clips of English because he’ll be appearing. Nope: It’s just an ad for English. In fact, I’ve got no idea what […]

Examples of rest break exploitation

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 28th, 2009 - 19 comments

Over at Kiwiblog, David Farrar is doing his usual apologetics for National by trying to spin its removal of guaranteed rest and meal breaks. It’s the usual mix of falsehoods and recycled spin, but one comment stuck out in particular: And you know, despite no statutory requirement, I don’t know of any great plethora of […]

National wants to take a break – yours

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:39 am, October 28th, 2009 - 3 comments

You’ll have seen in the paper that National is going to legislate, most likely under urgency, to let employers deny workers the right to take smoko and lunch breaks. It’s a pretty basic work right, and a Kiwi tradition going right back to Blackball. To remove it just strikes me as petty and mean. There’s […]

National’s polling hypocrisy

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:29 pm, October 27th, 2009 - 45 comments

Having previously led the charge on the Labour polling story, John Key has gone very quiet on the issue now that a former National supporter has blown the whistle on National doing the exact same thing. Thanks to this former supporter we know that under Bill English’s leadership National told volunteers to say they were from […]

MMP strengthening our democracy

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:39 pm, October 27th, 2009 - 25 comments

As the assorted rich, white old men behind Peter Shirtcliffe start their campaign to dump MMP, it’s worth remembering that the diversity we see in Parliament today hasn’t always been the case. The graph above, which comes via No Right Turn, was released today in the Social Report 2009. It shows a major increase in […]

Where’s Hone?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:08 pm, October 23rd, 2009 - 57 comments

Heard an interesting piece of gossip last night. Word has it Hone Harawira’s gone awol from the Maori Party. Apparently he’s somewhere in Australia, buzz around the traps is he’s pissed off about the increasingly right-wing direction Tariana Turia is taking the Maori Party in and is thinking about quitting. The last straw was said […]

Roy makes hash of Breakfast-gate cover-up

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 23rd, 2009 - 29 comments

In an interview on Morning Report today, ACT’s Heather Roy tries to defend her involvement in the Breakfast-gate scams. She says it’s all the organisers’ fault. A typical blame the staff play. The fact is that Roy would have been asked what she wanted to speak about and she chose to do it on her […]

Roy joins in Hide’s Breakfast-gate scam

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:15 pm, October 22nd, 2009 - 19 comments

Question Time and media reports have revealed more on Hide’s ministerial-speeches-for-party-donations scam (as you know, every political scandal needs a ‘-gate’. I like Breakfast-gate). Hon Annette King: Does he expect all his Ministers to comply with paragraph 2.54 of the Cabinet Manual, which states: ‘accepting additional payment for doing anything that could be regarded as a ministerial function […]

Hide falls foul of Cabinet Manual

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:30 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 52 comments

The Cabinet Manual details the basic expectations of ministerial conduct. It is not law but it would be highly irregular for a minister to breach the Manual and keep their job. And, unlike the law, just because something is not expressly banned does not mean it’s OK. Here’s some provisions of relevance to Hide’s speeches for donations: […]

More dodgy fundraising by ACT

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:54 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 13 comments

The ever industrious No Right Turn has turned up more dodgy fundraising practices by ACT. Last month, three ACT MPs held what was billed as “a forum” on “the hard questions – and some answers” at the plush Mecure Leisure Lodge in Dunedin. Three strikes, VSM, local government, and smacking were discussed. People were invited […]

Hide flounders in effort to cover corruption

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:18 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 5 comments

Rodney Hide was always going to go one of two ways to try to excuse his corrupt abuse of office. Remember the facts: Hide is Local Government Minister. He will be speaking at a breakfast on Local Government issues. The breakfast is called ‘The Future of Local Government’ and the invitation promises attendees that “Minister […]

Hide’s invitation to corrupt fundraiser

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, October 21st, 2009 - 74 comments

Click here for a PDF of Local Government Minister Rodney Hide’s invitation to local government stakeholders to a breakfast speech titled “The Future of Local Government”. This speech by the Minister to stakeholders is doubling as an ACT fundraiser. If you want to hear your Minister for Local Government speak, you will have to make a […]

Hide’s corrupt abuse of office

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:31 am, October 21st, 2009 - 67 comments

Another government minister has been caught in corrupt behaviour, and this is arguably the worst of the lot. Rodney Hide is speaking at a breakfast in Christchurch next month. He will be speaking as minister and on his portfolio – Local Government. Local government officials have been invited to hear him. Hide is charging $45 […]

EMA busts another privatisation myth

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:00 pm, October 20th, 2009 - 32 comments

When asked to explain why they want to start privatising a world-leading institution like ACC, National and ACT tend to fall back on the excuse that it will somehow lead to lower ACC premiums. Of course, the international experience and every independent report that’s been done shows the exact opposite, but they can always point […]

ACC fracas ‘truly dumb’

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:51 pm, October 20th, 2009 - 5 comments

Tim Hazledine, a professor of economics at the University of Auckland, has a nice piece in the Herald today that lays out just how absurd National’s spin about the ACC “blowout” really is. Suppose you and your spouse are in charge of a family of, say, three young children. That means you are legally responsible […]

Campbell on political ‘management’

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:30 am, October 20th, 2009 - 2 comments

With the absolute dearth of informed political commentary in this country it’s a breath of fresh air to have Gordon Campbell back from the US. In his latest column at Scoop he makes a good point about the state of our political media: Management. There was a lot of talk about it at this particular […]

Sharples a scapegoat for Nats’ bumbling schemers

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:19 pm, October 17th, 2009 - 10 comments

If we’re to believe National’s version of events, Pita Sharples kept secret from his colleagues that he was going to take $3 million from a contestable Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) fund meant for job initiatives and give it to Maori TV (MTS) to subsidise their World Cup bid. When it became a big story Sharples apologised […]

O’Sullivan: Key a poor manager, Smith needs to go

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:08 pm, October 17th, 2009 - 36 comments

Fran O’Sullivan’s piece today tries to resurrect the ‘Key=Obama’ line for some reason. She even refers to Obama as Key’s ‘alter ego’. I’m not quite sure she understands what the term means. Alter egos are like ying and yang, contrasting parts of the same whole. Does she think they’re one person with different personas at […]

Smith out-does Tolley as most incompetent minister

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:22 pm, October 16th, 2009 - 16 comments

While we’re all aghast over Nick Smith’s shambolic handling of ACC and his ‘people are killing themselves for cash’ comments, let’s not forget he’s also making a total botch up of climate change policy too. As Marty discovered, National’s ETS will cost us $73 billion in added debt by 2050 and it’s being rushed through […]

Something fishy in Bakshi case

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 16th, 2009 - 8 comments

Police have ended their investigation in National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi’s immigration scam after the principal accuser left the country in mysterious circumstances. In Parliament, Pete Hodgson read a sworn statement by Darshan Singh Saran which says that Bakshi and his associates were involved first in an immigration scam, and then in trying to silence […]

The Independent on National’s ACC agenda

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:26 am, October 15th, 2009 - 5 comments

Very good editorial on ACC in The Independent today. The article’s offline, but it’s quite clear about why the Government is trying to manufacture a crisis over the financial position of ACC: ACC currently collects sufficient levies to meet each year’s claims – it has levy revenue of $4.1b in the 2009 June year, compared […]