Author Archive
The privatisation push
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 pm, April 14th, 2010 - 99 comments
National has announced the location for its first private prison on the same day we find out that they want their working group to look at privatising welfare. Private prisons were signaled by National. Privatising welfare was not. In both cases the victims will be a segment of society that this government and its supporters have actively vilified and the ones with the most to gain will be overseas corporations.
McVicar interview misses mark
Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, April 12th, 2010 - 54 comments
Sensible Sentencing Trust’s Garth McVicar made a rare appearance on Russell Brown’s Media 7 the other night, demonstrating yet again what a charlatan he is. Brown had a chance to ask some good questions but let the opportunity slip away.
Scott on crime stats
Written By: - Date published: 5:23 pm, April 6th, 2010 - 14 comments
I think they know full well what causes violent crime.
They just don’t care.
Audrey’s journalism fail
Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, March 24th, 2010 - 26 comments
Like most on the left I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the Herald’s current bias toward National but today’s effort by Audrey Young is a new low altogether.
You see it’s not just that she writes up all of John and Paula’s lines it’s that she provides no balancing comment.
Mission accomplished
Written By: - Date published: 3:10 pm, March 23rd, 2010 - 5 comments
According to the NZIER Kiwi’s wages are set to drop.
But given the government’s return to a old-fashioned, old-boys club brand of tory we shouldn’t be surprised.
Bennett slaps solo parents
Written By: - Date published: 1:53 pm, March 23rd, 2010 - 157 comments
Paula Bennett and John Key have announced they’re getting tough on beneficiaries.
What a pity they couldn’t put the same energy into saving a few jobs in the first place.
Wee gripes: the Steven Joyce cult
Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, March 17th, 2010 - 33 comments
People like to talk about how great Steven Joyce is. But he’s not got a single run on the board.
Am I missing something or is just talking about how good you are all that’s needed nowadays?
Prenderghastly
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, March 15th, 2010 - 32 comments
First it was the Wellywood sign, now it’s a statue of a guy standing in a giant pile of manure while holding aloft a golden testicle.
And you thought the only Mayor who delighted it making their constituency look stupid was Tim Shadbolt.
Some friendly advice for Labour
Written By: - Date published: 5:46 pm, March 10th, 2010 - 115 comments
The latest Roy Morgan poll is out and Labour isn’t moving. And while only a political noob would expect them to be making major gains this early in the first term of a new government they’re still not laying the groundwork they should be. So what should they be doing?
Wellywood? Welly-hick, more like
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, March 9th, 2010 - 53 comments
Wellingtonians like to think of themselves as more sophisticated than their rural brethren.
But sometimes they come out with something that shows just what a bunch of hicks they are.
Garrett: Sterilise the poor
Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, March 3rd, 2010 - 98 comments
ACT MP David Garret has called for a programme to sterilise the “likes” of Chris Kahui and Maxine King. By which we can only assume he means poor, brown, people. Sack him.
Stupid greedy voters – Brash
Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, March 1st, 2010 - 50 comments
With true tory arrogance at the ACT conference this weekend, Don Brash has described New Zealand voters as venal and stupid.
Apparently New Zealand’s reluctance to destroy what is left of their society by implementing Brash’s discredited crazy old man economic voodoo is a sign of their stupidity.
Apparently nobody in ACT disagreed with him. Go figure.
I’ll book the billboards, you ring Roger Kerr for a donation
Written By: - Date published: 3:53 pm, February 26th, 2010 - 26 comments
The Human Rights Commission has come out swinging at the anti-democratic nature of the Super City consultation.
Will the Free Speech Coalition leap into action as it did last time? Probably not.
I don’t buy it for one second
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, February 25th, 2010 - 111 comments
Has Phil Heatley really resigned his ministerial portfolios over a bottle of wine?
Or is there more to this story than meets the eye?
Heatley resigns both portfolios
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, February 25th, 2010 - 75 comments
According to Stuff Housing Minister Phil Heatley has resigned and the PM has rushed back to Wellington to hold a press conference. Apparently MP spending records for the last three months of last year were released this morning. Coincidence? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Updated.
Key laughs off minimum wage earners
Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, February 19th, 2010 - 15 comments
John Key’s recent stint at the Big Gay Out wasn’t all target marketing and niche political branding. He also had a run in with living-wage campaigners who took him to task for his government’s poor response to minimum wage earners and asked if he could live on the minimum wage.
National moves to trash RNZ
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, February 18th, 2010 - 111 comments
Jonathan Coleman has described public broadcasting as being like North Korean propaganda. Turns out the wee fella isn’t afraid to force operational changes on our most independent broadcaster and threaten to sack the board if he doesn’t get his way.
David Farrar’s conflict of interest
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, February 17th, 2010 - 171 comments
David Farrar is well know as National’s main pollster. But should he also be polling on political issues for internal affairs? And what other non-tender contracts has his company, Curia, been doing for the public sector?
Campaign for a living wage
Written By: - Date published: 7:37 pm, February 11th, 2010 - 13 comments
Campaign for a living wage is protesting the offices of National MPs this Saturday to protest increases in GST and the miserly increase in the minimum wage. The protest is part of Unite union’s campaign to force a referendum on raising the minimum wage to $15. At the moment they have 100,000 signatures but need […]
Cowardly
Written By: - Date published: 7:43 am, February 8th, 2010 - 51 comments
A foreign politician celebrates an act of terrorism on our shores and our Prime Minister refuses to comment on the matter? WTF?
Shorter Lhaws
Written By: - Date published: 4:36 pm, February 7th, 2010 - 71 comments
All teachers are feminist pinkos. And they’re badly dressed. And too nice to the kids. It wasn’t like that in my day. And didn’t I turn out just fine? That’s why we need national standards. Perhaps the most compelling argument against national standards I have read so far.
And again nothing happened
Written By: - Date published: 12:56 pm, February 6th, 2010 - 2 comments
The usual suspects are bleating on about John Key’s big speech on Tuesday. As I’ve pointed out again and again this sort of thing is treated by Key as a PR event in which the talk is big and the action minimal. Just like John’s plan to save the whales. What we’ll see on Tuesday […]
Anonymous Dom editor has a cry
Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, February 1st, 2010 - 86 comments
I see the DomPost is running a sniveling editorial claiming Labour’s commitment to raising the minimum wage can’t be done. It then breaks out the dodgy unadjusted maths to claim Labour would never have lifted the minimum wage to $15 if it was in power because it “only” lifted it by $5 last time and […]
The joy of tory trolls
Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, January 29th, 2010 - 32 comments
One of the great pleasures I get from writing for The Standard is making the trolls scream. There’s no better sign that you’re on the right track than when you sit down and think through a post, do the research and try to put forward your argument in a clear and concise manner and the […]
Year of the wolf?
Written By: - Date published: 3:55 pm, January 27th, 2010 - 115 comments
I really thought the rumour that the minimum wage would only rise by 25c had been put out by the government to make their eventual 50c or 75c decision look generous. But for a change they’ve surprised me. This is the first time in a decade the minimum wage has been cut in real terms. […]
Questions of trust
Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, January 22nd, 2010 - 27 comments
Over at Red Alert Stuart Nash asks whether the details of property developers being investigated by the IRD will be released in the same way Basher Bennett released the benefit details of two solo mums. Bloody good point. I’d also like to know if the details of the fifty percent of the richest 100 people […]
Wee gripes: work stoppage stats
Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, January 22nd, 2010 - 6 comments
NZPA is reporting that there were only four work stoppages in the last September quarter, making eighteen for the 2009 year to September. They then repeat the Stats NZ line that this figure is down on 2008. So good news eh? Fewer strikes means a more contented workforce surely. Except for the fact that the […]
The rise and fall of TV journalism
Written By: - Date published: 6:59 pm, January 19th, 2010 - 11 comments
Not sure I agree with it all but the rise and fall of the TV journalist is an interesting micro-documentary:
Key on holiday
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, January 16th, 2010 - 8 comments
After all of the kerfuffle about Key’s long holidays I figure there’s not much for me to say about it but it’s worth remembering what his plans for the fourth week of annual leave were just before it came into effect: It’s not the man’s unusually long time off the job that irks me so […]
A humbug
Written By: - Date published: 4:50 pm, January 13th, 2010 - 27 comments
Back in July of 2009 I wrote a post about John Key’s promises of a plan to stop job losses. At the time I pointed out his trail of empty and unfulfilled promises and predicted that the big plan to stop job losses would be one of them. Unfortunately I was right. There was no […]
Re-run: Benefits, wages and anger
Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, December 29th, 2009 - 46 comments
The recent furore about benefit levels has brought a lot of comments along the lines of “I don’t get it why should they?” out of the woodwork along with a lot of hardluck stories from low wage earners such as this one from Phoenix on Colin Espiner’s blog: I am 6 months pregnant with my […]
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