Author Archive

McCarten hits the mark

Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, May 17th, 2009 - 23 comments

Matt McCarten makes some very valid points about the lack of democracy within political parties in his Herald column today. Using the Lee fiasco as a stepping off point he talks about the dangers of candidate selection, and indeed all major party decisions, being made by a small group of party faithful. Lee’s meltdown shows […]

For the kids

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, May 13th, 2009 - 8 comments

A mate put me onto the “story of stuff” the other day. It’s an excellent Green-Left critique of our economic system pitched toward kids. After all, they’re the ones who are going to have to deal with the mess. The youtube version is below or you can view the high res version here (recommended). The […]

“We have got a problem with Maori”

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, May 12th, 2009 - 86 comments

Now before you start thinking the Standard has started spruiking for the National Front I should make it clear that the title quote of this post comes from Christine Rankin in 2007. She was talking about child abuse and claiming that Maori are the problem. Now, in a move akin to putting Garth McVicar in […]

Greens go grey

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, May 4th, 2009 - 62 comments

I see Russel Norman is now describing Labour’s Mt Albert Candidate, David Shearer, as the “grey” man. Now I haven’t been around as long as I have without being able to spot a “line” and that is certainly a line, and one of the attack variety. Thing is, the Greens don’t do lines. And they […]

A message from the base

Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, April 8th, 2009 - 166 comments

As regular readers will know I’ve been an active Green supporter since the Alliance left parliament. I’ve not agreed with all of their policies and over the years I’ve had serious issues with the more amateur aspects of their campaigns but they have been the party in parliament that most accurately reflects what I’d like […]

Stink line

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, March 26th, 2009 - 10 comments

Now “PC gone mad” has been used to the point where even people who think mimicking Tui’s “yeah right” slogan is cutting edge irony wouldn’t be seen dead using the phrase, National has needed to come up with something else to do the job. Because let’s face it, you need to keep creating the impression […]

Clawback

Written By: - Date published: 6:44 pm, March 23rd, 2009 - 39 comments

That’s John Key speaking about Labour’s new fourth week of leave legislation back when the Nats thought they were going to win in 2005. His plan was to take your fourth week off you before it started happening in 2007 because that way you wouldn’t miss it. Now they’re trying plan “b” – put your […]

Tory charity

Written By: - Date published: 7:18 am, March 19th, 2009 - 138 comments

According to the Herald John Key has declared people should spend their tax-cuts on charities and wants an American “culture of giving” to the needy. I’m just stunned. His plan is to take money out of the pockets of low income New Zealanders to create tax cuts for the rich and then encourage those low-income […]

A bunch of clowns

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, March 15th, 2009 - 17 comments

Poor old Nick Smith. Not only is he stuck peddling long-disproved lies about ACC but now it seems he can’t even get a simple procedure like sacking Ross Wilson right. According to the Sunday Star Times Smith hadn’t managed to properly sack Wilson by midday Friday and may not even have managed it so far: […]

ACC killed Kennedy says Smith

Written By: - Date published: 6:39 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 18 comments

Fresh on the heels of allegations ACC has blown-out and is likely to decimate New Zealand’s credit rating, Accident Compensation Minister Nick Smith has revealed he has evidence of the public insurance scheme’s involvement in the assassination of loved American President John F. Kennedy. The revelations were announced by Smith in select committee late this […]

See no evil

Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 2 comments

I’ve been meaning to write something about the private prisons bill for a couple of days as it’s a recipe for barbarity. But I’ve decided there’s no way I could do a better job of it than I/S has at No Right Turn, so I’m just going to repeat his whole post here. (hopefully he […]

Bennett’s lame excuse

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, March 12th, 2009 - 15 comments

Morning Report asked Paula Bennett why the public sector had been cut out of the 9 day fortnight scheme this morning and her answer was that it was for businesses that have been hit by the effects of the recession and the public service doesn’t fall into that category. That’s not true. Crown owned company […]

Brief thoughts on the 9 day fortnight

Written By: - Date published: 6:04 pm, March 11th, 2009 - 53 comments

The 9 day fortnight scheme has finally been announced but I’ve got a few questions: Why do the taxpayer and the worker have to pay but the employer not? What about free training? Surely that would fit with the productivity argument National’s been making? Does anyone realise that those on the average wage would take […]

Espiner nails it

Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, March 11th, 2009 - 15 comments

In his blog today Colin Espiner points out how National has quickly moved a lot further to the right than they portrayed themselves as pre-election: After following the script for the First 100 Days to the letter, National is now branching out into things that, um, weren’t in the script. Labour Lite? Not any more. […]

The Wall Street Journal gets it

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, March 9th, 2009 - 55 comments

Despite all the claims of “centrist” and “centre-right” none other than the the Wall Street Journal has pointed out that John Key’s government is very much a hard-right neo-liberal outfit: Mr. Key is returning the country to a formula for prosperity that’s worked in the past. As in Britain, the U.S. and Australia in the […]

Centrist? Bullshit.

Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, March 9th, 2009 - 90 comments

The Herald has the scoop that National is looking to privatise New Zealand’s prison system. Add David Garrett’s savage three strikes law and you’ve got a real money spinner. But what lucky firm will get to cash in on it? Turns out it’s Geo Group. You might not be familiar with the name but that’s […]

No free trade deal

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 pm, March 8th, 2009 - 33 comments

The Obama administration has halted free trade talks with New Zealand. On one hand free trade is simply increased freedom of capital and without equivalent freedom of labour lends itself toward increased disparity between rich and poor. On the other hand Douglas and his neo-liberal thugs left us with no protections at all in the […]

“Not a good look”

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 pm, March 3rd, 2009 - 12 comments

I have to agree with Idiot/Savant on the Graham Thomas issue. The idea that there is no written information on the matter is right up there with “he must have walked into a door”. Collins’ response however, is disgraceful. “It’s not a good look” she says but other than that it’s an employment matter. Here’s […]

Key writes off Sealord jobs

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, March 3rd, 2009 - 50 comments

Despite making sound profits Sealord are laying off 180 workers in Nelson. They claim the move is part of restructuring and that there will be fifty new jobs aboard factory ships that will fully process fish. Remaining workers are also being asked to take a pay cut. I’m not sure I buy that. Even with […]

Documenting Act

Written By: - Date published: 8:39 pm, March 2nd, 2009 - 15 comments

One of the things I’ve been following in the last few weeks and keep meaning to post about is Bryce Edwards’ series on the history of the Act party. I don’t know how he’s managed to do it (let alone why) but in a brave and foolish act Edwards has waded into the strange and […]

The idiocy of “glorious defeat”

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, March 2nd, 2009 - 16 comments

Chris Trotter has decided to take umbrage at my post about the 1951 lockout. I wouldn’t usually reply to such criticism but this one provides me with the opportunity to discuss one of my pet grudges: the pointless obsession of some on the left with glorious defeat. I say pointless because defeat is defeat. It’s […]

Stupid and mean

Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, March 1st, 2009 - 46 comments

Today marks the first time in over a decade that workers’ rights have got weaker. From today new workers in small businesses will face having all of their work rights taken off them. As we’ve said before this will mean less security for vulnerable workers which will mean less bargaining power which will mean lower […]

Just saying

Written By: - Date published: 1:36 pm, February 28th, 2009 - 30 comments

Let me just say I’m not against public spending on things like conferences. But I feel obliged to point out the job summit had a budget of $65,000. For 200 people for one day with no travel, accommodation or dinner. That’s the same amount Housing NZ spent on a two day conference with travel, accommodation […]

Granny’s little fit

Written By: - Date published: 1:14 pm, February 28th, 2009 - 44 comments

The crazy right-wing antics of today’s Herald would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact it’s the main paper in New Zealand’s largest city. First we’ve got Fran O’Sullivan talking about the need for the government cutting costs (I suspect she wrote the absurd editorial I commented on earlier this week). Essentially it’s more […]

Nineteen fifty one

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 pm, February 27th, 2009 - 18 comments

Today marks the anniversary of Holland’s deployment of the army to break the waterfront union in 1951. The documentary produced for the dispute’s 50th anniversary is available here. Unlike some other commentators on the left I don’t celebrate this. Nor do I celebrate the strike of 1913, despite it’s IWW origins. In both cases a […]

Herald: “we’ll dig our way out of this hole”

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, February 26th, 2009 - 4 comments

The Herald is again demonstrating its economic ignorance with its call for spending cuts in today’s editorial: Something has to give. If National will not postpone tax cuts due in April, it must trim some of the programmes it has inherited. The most costly of them, interest-free student loans, free childcare, KiwiSaver subsidies and the […]

Act MP caught out

Written By: - Date published: 12:56 pm, February 25th, 2009 - 44 comments

Rethinking Crime and Punishment Director, Kim Workman, has caught Act MP David Garrett being less than honest about how many extra prisoners his draconian three strike law world create (the answer is about 14,000). In a particularly aggressive media release yesterday Garrett claimed Workman’s figures were false. Unfortunately for Garrett, Workman’s OIA request on the […]

Flashback from way back

Written By: - Date published: 3:16 pm, February 23rd, 2009 - 23 comments

Anyone else read Audrey Young’s interview of Bill English in the New Zealand Herald and get a massive feeling of deja vu? Here’s a typical outtake: Rather than the Treasury working out where to cut spending, he wants the departments to change the way they think. “We will get them doing it. They are going […]

Web/community

Written By: - Date published: 8:26 pm, February 19th, 2009 - 3 comments

I spent a very fruitful day at webstock in Wellington today listening to some heavy hitters from the US and UK talk about what makes good social media. For those of you who don’t know it, webstock is a movement/event based on the idea that the web is a tool of democratisation and community. Sort […]

Sold out

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, February 16th, 2009 - 26 comments

According to the Dom Post Judith Collins is preparing legislation to reintroduce private prisons into New Zealand’s corrections system. The arguments against privatisation are manifold and many of them have been covered at The Standard before. Bottom line for me is that the right to take an individual citzen’s liberty comes from a compact between […]

Faking it

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, February 15th, 2009 - 24 comments

It’s a bit late but I thought I’d draw people’s attention to the work Pundit’s Tim Watkin has been doing on the government’s stimulus package. Or more rather the work he’s been doing on the government’s re-releasing of already approved spending under the guise of a stimulus package. Because the interesting truth is they’re faking […]

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