Author Archive

Firestarter

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:01 am, September 10th, 2009 - 51 comments

r0b’s post on John Key’s ‘uprising’ comment (which was written last night) seems grimly ironic in light of this morning’s news. Someone has thrown some kind of incendiary device, like a molotov cocktail, through a window of Key’s electorate office. Obviously, such actions are to be condemned and it’s good to hear the damage is limited. […]

Fran lets the plan slip

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:40 pm, September 9th, 2009 - 22 comments

Fran O’Sullivan has rather given the game away on the MMP referendum. Frog has explained it so well, I can’t do better than repost it: Holding a referendum on MMP was discussed at cabinet on Monday 31 August 2009. Yesterday Ms O’Sullivan informed Newstalk ZB drive time host Larry Williams of how this information was conveyed to […]

Backdown from Infratil?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:00 pm, September 8th, 2009 - 3 comments

Infratil-run NZ Bus has called off its planned capital strike for tomorrow. The company had been going to prevent bus drivers and other staff who wanted to work from working. It has withdrawn that lock-out notice and presented a better offer to the workers. The workers have also withdrawn their notice of intention to work […]

Soak the rich

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:30 am, September 8th, 2009 - 8 comments

Coming soon to a workplace near you, if Kate Wilkinson gets her way: According to this report by Roll on Friday, a receptionist formerly employed by a major US law firm is suing the firm, saying she had no choice but to wet herself. Rebecca Landrith was employed by Littler Mendelson, a leading employment law […]

Heavy-handed tactics from NZ Bus

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:00 pm, September 7th, 2009 - 27 comments

Auckland bus drivers have been in negotiations with NZ Bus (which is owned by Infratil) for a 70 cent an hour pay rise. Currently, they’re on between $14.05 and $16.75 an hour for 13-hour shifts. Many workers are on split shifts, which means up to four hours a day of unpaid time between shifts. Negotiations […]

Kate’s pretext falls over

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:30 am, September 4th, 2009 - 8 comments

Yesterday, National’s Kate Wilkinson tried to use a dispute over how to apply the new rest breaks law for air traffic controllers as a pretext for taking away our right to rest and meal breaks. She tried to paint the dispute over breaks as being about union intransigence, with the “Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) unwilling […]

Rest-breaks under attack

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:47 pm, September 3rd, 2009 - 18 comments

In 1908, the miners at Blackball took a famous strike over the right to take rest breaks at work. For most of the rest of the century this was enshrined in law and in our culture as a basic right of all working New Zealanders. That is, of course, until the National Government of the […]

Protect our natural heritage

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:00 pm, September 3rd, 2009 - 14 comments

The Greens are leading a petition campaign, asking Parliament to: reject any move to mine our national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, marine reserves, protected islands, the Coromandel’s beautiful land and waters, and all other treasured places protected by Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act 1991; furthermore, we ask that the House of Representative put in […]

Wee gripes

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:30 am, September 1st, 2009 - 16 comments

Seeing as Zet’s taken to writing serious posts these days, I thought I’d try my hand at a few wee gripes: – I see Larry Baldock’s still crying about the stupid, leading question on the smacking referendum being ignored, while Family First continues to run full page ads in the newspaper whining that the Government […]

Victory for Zeal320 workers

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, September 1st, 2009 - 7 comments

A good outcome from the Zeal320 dispute. The deal doesn’t quite close the gap between Zeal320 workers and other AirNZ flight attendants but gets a long way there. It’s scary going out on strike, not knowing when you’ll be back to normal work and pay. AirNZ played very dirty. Zeal320 workers’ rosters were purposely organised […]

Why no referendum for Auckland

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:30 am, August 31st, 2009 - 15 comments

How come the Government says that the people of Auckland should decide whether they want Maori seats in a referendum after the supercity is formed, but they don’t get to have a referendum on whether they want a supercity at all? It’s clear there is widespread opposition to the plan to merge the existing councils […]

Who do you think you’re fooling, Kate?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:46 am, August 28th, 2009 - 12 comments

“I’m not going to resign” – Kate Wilkinson It’s one of the truisms of politics that when you’re a minister and you say you’re not resigning, it’s only a matter of time until you are. Kate Wilkinson’s behaviour has been almost universally disgraceful- the Kiwisaver debacle, her vitriol during the Shawn Tan affair, refusing the let […]

100% Pure Opencast

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:26 pm, August 27th, 2009 - 55 comments

This must be Minister of Tourism John Key’s idea of a sick joke. Letting Gerry Brownlee run rampant and declare NZ National Parks are now open for mining will not only destroy our natural heritage, but seriously harm our tourist industry. What a legacy to leave for the first PM to take on Tourism portfolio. […]

Collins’ smear backfires

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:30 am, August 27th, 2009 - 10 comments

Excellent piece by Patrick Gower in the Herald today on Judith Collins’ attempt to smear Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon. Collins has leaked part of an OIA (which she’s so far refused to release to Labour) which she says shows “union bosses” are “living a jet-set lifestyle” on the taxpayer after they received $127,000 in […]

Contract and converge

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:13 am, August 27th, 2009 - 15 comments

There’s a limited amount of carbon emissions we can make as a world in the coming decades if we are to avoid runaway climate change. So, how to fairly share the remaining ‘safe’ emissions that can be made over the next 50 years? The solution is called contract and converge. Click on the image below […]

Hoist with his own petard

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:38 am, August 26th, 2009 - 10 comments

Last week, Tony Ryall used his time in the big chair for, surprise, surprise, a little preening. He decided to take credit for the 12,000 more elective surgeries conducted fiscal year, a year in which Labour set the budget and Ryall was only minister for the second half (of which he took one month off) Well, […]

Beating lobby loses the plot

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:10 am, August 26th, 2009 - 51 comments

Beating lobby spokesman Larry Baldock appears to be losing the plot now that it’s dawned on him that his gaming of the smacking referendum question has left him with no mandate for a law change. In a press release titled “Democracy in danger?” Baldock rants that because the Government changed the law after the MMP […]

It’s not OK, resign

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:23 am, August 26th, 2009 - 75 comments

The judgment in the case of ‘high-profile political figure’ involved in a domestic violence dispute has come back. Cameron Slater has published parts of the judgment, which declines to issue a protection order because the couple are no longer together but does hold that his actions did “amount to domestic violence in the form of […]

The smiling snake bites

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:36 pm, August 25th, 2009 - 18 comments

The Herald editorial is pretty scathing of Key’s Government for rejecting Maori seats on the super-council but I have to take issue with this par: The Cabinet’s decision to reject Maori seats on the Super City Auckland Council is a retrograde step that undoes much that has been accomplished over the past nine months. What […]

Want local democracy? Too bad

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:55 pm, August 24th, 2009 - 45 comments

Remember when John Key and Rodney Hide were saying that nothing was decided on the super-city, that the select committee would listen to the people and report back the changes they wanted? Well, not only did the people let the Government know time and again that they didn’t want any supercity, a majority of […]

Fisking Farrar

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 24th, 2009 - 24 comments

I don’t know what it is about the word “Labour” that the right finds so hard to understand. David Farrar has a piece up today attacking the Labour Party for backing the Telecom lines engineers, who are members of the EPMU. The crux of his argument is that Labour should keep politics out of industrial […]

Herald calls win for Hide

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:16 am, August 24th, 2009 - 43 comments

The Herald has an exclusive claiming that National will go with ACT and reject the Maori Party over the issue of Maori seats on the Auckland supercity council. The Herald doesn’t present any rock solid evidence to back up this claim but it’s pretty obvious that’s the way National will go. Creating Maori seats in […]

Referendum results

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:52 am, August 22nd, 2009 - 224 comments

I can’t say I’m all that surprised about the results of the ‘smacking’ referendum. As any good pollster will tell you, if you ask a leading question you’ll get the result you want. And that’s exactly what we got. Contrary to what the beating lobby is claiming today, all this referendum tells us is that […]

When preening goes wrong

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:21 am, August 21st, 2009 - 14 comments

Tony Ryall had his chance in the big chair yesterday, sitting in for the Prime Minister in Question Time. A chance for self-promotion, naturally. So the first question was from Jackie Blue to Ryall on elective surgery numbers: Dr Jackie Blue: What reports has the Minister seen of the results for the 2008-09 year just […]

Hide would go for principles, Sharples would stay for baubles

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:05 am, August 21st, 2009 - 24 comments

Rodney Hide has said that having Maori seats on the Auckland Supercity council would go completely against his party’s principles. So, he would refuse to be the Minister of Local Government taking a Bill through the House that includes Maori seats on the Supercity. He would resign from his portfolios and vote against the legislation. […]

Keep it up, Chippie and co

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:40 am, August 20th, 2009 - 27 comments

Good on Chris Hipkins. The other day, he wrote: “National won the last election quite comfortably. Kiwis are fair minded people and will be willing to give them a fair go at the job before they pass judgment. I expect that will be reflected in the opinion polls for most of the current parliamentary term. […]

More National sleeze

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:58 am, August 19th, 2009 - 62 comments

There’s been an attempt to force Peter Goodfellow, the brand new President of the National Party, to step down. The move came from the party’s board, worried that negative news around Goodfellow would damage the party if he hangs around. However, it looks like John Key has decided to back Goodfellow and that’s put the […]

DPB: it’s for the kids

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:30 am, August 18th, 2009 - 40 comments

A lot of right-wing beliefs can be traced back to a few core values. Two apply to the DPB debate: a penny-pinching self-centredness a moral viewpoint that good people prosper thanks to hard work and, therefore, anyone who isn’t prosperous is the author of their own demise, which makes them undeserving of help. They object […]

Heart you too, John

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:00 pm, August 15th, 2009 - 38 comments

In former journalist John Armstrong’s piece today, he also writes: “a frustration and impatience towards National still displayed by some of the shriller Labour-aligned blogs, which find fault with anything and everything the Key Government does while expecting their breathless critiques to somehow bring forward its demise” Aww, you noticed 😀 Seriously though, John. Any […]

Eventually but not yet

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:43 am, August 15th, 2009 - 40 comments

John Armstrong quotes a man who ran into Phil Goff during Labour’s reconnection tour last week: “Listen, mate. You know we voted these guys in seven months ago. You don’t expect us to come up and say we did the wrong thing yet, do you?” Now, Armstrong takes that as dooming Labour but look at […]

It’s not OK

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:30 pm, August 13th, 2009 - 54 comments

You may have noticed the article on Stuff about a ‘senior political figure’ in court today. A woman is seeking a protection order against him. [Deleted] Whichever party they belong to, if it is established in the court proceedings that he has behaving violently or threateningly towards this woman, he will have to go. Domestic […]