Author Archive

The lies keep coming

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:15 am, August 5th, 2009 - 15 comments

Read this: Hon Phil Goff: What analysis did Treasury do on the cost-effectiveness of the national cycleway scheme in producing jobs, and is he prepared to provide the Treasury analysis, oral and written, to members of this Parliament; if not, why not? Hon JOHN KEY: Rigorous analysis was done. Having read that, do you believe […]

Sshhh! You’ll make the economy cry

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:00 am, August 5th, 2009 - 29 comments

John Key says we shouldn’t be talking about the number of people going on to the dole. He reckons that mentioning the fact that thousands of people are losing there jobs will cause people to lose confidence and hurt the economy. Isn’t the real problem for the economy that thousands of people are losing their jobs, […]

Taxing debate

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 3:50 pm, August 3rd, 2009 - 78 comments

Treasury’s man on the tax reform working group, Professor Norman Gemmell, has laid out some changes that Treasury would like to see: GST up to 15%, the top tax rate down to 30%, and a capital gains tax. In my first draft, at this point I droned on about right and left-wing economics taxation theory […]

Something dodgy in Dipton

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:21 am, August 3rd, 2009 - 102 comments

Bill English is unrepentant over his $47,000 a year rort of the ministers’ Wellington accommodation allowance. He is claiming the allowance, which is intended to compensate non-Wellington-based ministers for the cost of accommodation in the city due to their ministerial duties, for living in his family home in Karori. This exploitation of the system for […]

Double standards

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:52 pm, August 2nd, 2009 - 45 comments

Paula Bennett has claimed nearly $22,000 in six months for her Wellington accommodation. That’s more, just for a second home Bennett uses maybe half the time, than Natahsa Fuller whose personal details she illegally released in a effort to embarrass her into silence gets in total to raise her three daughters – two of whom have chronic medical conditions. […]

I don’t think so

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:52 pm, August 2nd, 2009 - 8 comments

National and Act getting ready to sell our assets. Don McGlashan, joining Phil Twyfords ‘Not Yours To Sell’ campaign, says ‘I don’t think so’. Incidentally, Phil’s campaign is hosted on issues.co.nz, a new website for groups of all political websites to run campaigns on. SAFE, the SPCA, and the Pork Industry Board all have campaigns […]

Get ready for more over-promise, under-deliver

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:39 pm, August 1st, 2009 - 15 comments

Tomorrow John Key will be announcing policies on youth unemployment. Looks like rehashing of the already announced Youth Guarantee and probably something more. Whatever Key comes up with it will be tinkering around the edges. The Nats aren’t willing to spend any money and they don’t have any big ideas. If the cycleway, the tax-cuts, […]

Use of weapons

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:00 pm, July 31st, 2009 - 89 comments

I’ve been thinking about the different ways ministers from the Left and the Right approach governing. I think it goes back to where they come from, where their ideological roots are. Ministers from Labour and other leftwing parties tend to have backgrounds in serving a wider community. Teachers, professors, union officials, public servants. Those roles […]

Chilling effect

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:41 am, July 31st, 2009 - 8 comments

I’m frankly a little surprised at the way the media and The Herald especially has jumped on the attack the victim bandwagon in the Bennett scandal. If there’s one golden rule of journalism it’s don’t be seen to be fucking over your sources, and that’s what the Herald is doing. I guess they feel some […]

In bed with bigotry

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:00 am, July 30th, 2009 - 34 comments

Maori Party MP Rahui Katene’s Matariki Public Holiday Bill was before the House last night (I understand National is planning to vote it down when it comes to the vote in three weeks). Anyway, as a precursor, Katene asked a question on the Government’s attitude to Maori holidays during Question Time. Chris Finlayson answered with nice platitudes. […]

Coverage round-up: Bully Bennett

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:22 am, July 29th, 2009 - 71 comments

Sean Plunkett: Being vocal in a democracy shouldn’t mean you lose your rights and protections under the law. Tracey Watkins: “The Privacy Commissioner advises that ministers can release information about an individual who has criticised a department but only that which is “relevant to the issues raised by the individual”. I would take that to […]

Recovery nightmare

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:25 am, July 29th, 2009 - 27 comments

‘A nightmare’ scenario. That’s how ANZ chief economist Cameron Bagrie speaking on Morning Report described the outlook for the economy as the recession comes to an end. Wait isn’t growth good? Well, not all growth is created equal. The problem is where our growth prospects are coming from. It’s the housing market once again. Interest […]

Beware of unbridled government

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 6:53 am, July 29th, 2009 - 33 comments

‘Beware’ that was Mary Wilson’s conclusion to her interview with Paula Bennett yesterday. The audio is here: Beware of Bully Bennett – Beware that if you voice any opposition to a government policy and the minister decides it has been going on too long or it’s too damaging, they will release confidental information on you. – […]

Spin cycle

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:00 am, July 28th, 2009 - 16 comments

Normally, $9 million in government spending is such a puny amount it’s not worth covering but as Key has nailed his crediblity to the success of his cycleways, let’s crunch some numbers. These seven tracks will supposedly cost $9 million to build and create 280 jobs (only 140 in the near future). Other details, including […]

Nice try, Roger

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:00 am, July 28th, 2009 - 14 comments

Sir Roger Douglas has a go at my post that looks at the GDP per person gap between Australia and New Zealand and concludes that, since it doubled during the neoliberal revolution of the late 80s/early 90s, implementing more neoliberal policies is unlikely to close that gap. His first complaint is that my numbers and his […]

‘Green-shoots’ wither in UK

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:19 am, July 27th, 2009 - 11 comments

Like New Zealand, the UK has had a deluge of ‘green-shoots’ news from the corporate media and the financiers desperate to jawbone the economy into recovery. The spin became so pervasive that the consensus among economists was the UK economy would have shrunk only -0.3% last quarter and would be growing by now. It shrunk […]

Govt opts for weak climate change target

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 6:21 am, July 27th, 2009 - 44 comments

As expected, the Key Government has decided not to listen to the scientists on climate change. Rather than the 40% reduction in emissions by 2020 that the scientists are saying the the minimum developed nations need to achieve to start greenhouse gas levels heading back to safe levels, they’ll be setting a weaker target instead, […]

Sunday reading: Life in sub-prime America

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:29 pm, July 26th, 2009 - 7 comments

Exiled Online, a US site, has excellent coverage of the recession and the sub-prime crisis from a ground-level view. Yasha Levine moved to Victorville an ‘exurb’ of LA (100 miles from LA centre) to experience the crisis first-hand. His reports are a must read – well written, well researched, hard hitting (hope you’re not too […]

Coated in privatisation pixie dust

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 5:13 pm, July 25th, 2009 - 29 comments

I like Colin Espiner’s writing. He’s got he best of the journo blogs. He’s focussed on issues rather than politicking. But does he ever drop some clangers – saying the Chief Justice could be fired, confusing numbers on the dole with the number who are unemployed, saying the Prime Minister can’t affect wages, and this: […]

Back to the future: electricity privatisation

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 2:12 pm, July 25th, 2009 - 89 comments

Bill English says he doesn’t much care whether monopolies or businesses with monopolistic power are owned by private companies or the Government does. He doesn’t care whether power companies are publicly or privately owned because he thinks he can make the electricity sector competitive. He’s dreaming like he was in the 1990s. Monopolies are a fact of life […]

More facts on the table

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:00 pm, July 24th, 2009 - 42 comments

Now, yesterday a couple of righties didn’t want to believe the evidence in front of their eyes that the GDP per person gap between Australia and New Zealand doubled during the neoliberal economic revolution. They got upset at my conclusion that repeating those same policies (which is what Don Brash’s 2025 Taskforce will inevitably recommend) […]

Left needs to unite in Supercity race

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:16 am, July 24th, 2009 - 56 comments

A UMR poll out yesterday suggests that Len Brown, currently mayor of Manukau, would be the Left candidate with the best chance of winning the mayoralty of the Auckland Supercity next year. The poll has Brown on 35% ahead of John Banks on 34% – but with margin of error, all that can be said is […]

The reform that wasn’t there

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:05 am, July 24th, 2009 - 36 comments

Justice Minister Simon Power: I believe we need to have an open debate about the way in which sexual violence cases are conducted. In this regard, I am currently considering potentially far-reaching reforms, including:…Making evidence about previous sexual relationships between the complainant and any person inadmissible without prior agreement of the judge. umm… Evidence Act […]

Justice, provocation, and the media

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:30 am, July 23rd, 2009 - 38 comments

Provocation is a partial defence to a charge of murder. It reduces murder to manslaughter if the jury accepts that actions of the victim would have caused a ‘reasonable person’ to lose self-control. The problem is that it is clearly being abused in some circumstances, like the Weatherston trial, to drag the victim’s name through the […]

Those who don’t learn from history…

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:19 am, July 23rd, 2009 - 67 comments

Supposedly, we need Don Brash and a gang of his right-wing cohorts to tell us how to close the wealth gap with Australia. Brash and his merry gang are the same old faces from the neoliberal revolution of the late 80s and early 90s. Back then, they ruthlessly applied neoliberal economic theory to our economy […]

Same old failed ideas

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 2:50 pm, July 22nd, 2009 - 27 comments

The Government’s 2025 ‘productivity’ taskforce led by Don Brash will almost certainly come up with all the same old failed ideas that got us here in the first place. Expect a variation on the following themes: Scrap the minimum wage Privatise public assets Cut taxes for the rich Slash the public sector Deregulate, deregulate, deregulate […]

No more excuses, time to act

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 5:39 am, July 22nd, 2009 - 48 comments

Greenpeace and others are campaigning for the Government to agree to a target of 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2020. Where did they get that number from? From the science. The scientific consensus is that if we let carbon dioxide rise stay above 350 parts per million in the atmosphere we will […]

Flag it, more important things to do

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 2:00 pm, July 21st, 2009 - 15 comments

I’m just trying to understand this Maori flag thing. The Crown (in the guise of Minister Pita Sharples) has decided that Maori will only get to choose from four designs – the United Tribes (or Busby) flag, the Tino Ringatiratanga flag, the New Zealand Ensign, and the New Zealand flag. The last two are just […]

Recession’s ‘rough edges’ hit families – no help from govt

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:20 pm, July 20th, 2009 - 48 comments

Labour leader Phil Goff has called for a temporary relaxation of the rules for getting the dole. Too many Kiwis on low and middle incomes are losing their jobs but are not able to get any assistance from the Government (despite having paid taxes for years) because their partner has a modest income. John Key […]

The Salesman

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 2:20 pm, July 20th, 2009 - 12 comments

One of the stories from John Key’s days as a currency trader is that he was always more of a salesman than an analyst. He wasn’t good at picking markets and investments; he was good at getting people to trust him with their money. He got New Zealanders to put their trust in him too […]

Farewell, Walter

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:48 pm, July 19th, 2009 - 6 comments

Friday saw the death of Walter Cronkite, greatest of the great generation of TV news-people. He is perhaps remembered most for the broadcast in which he condemned continued US involvement in the Vietnam War (can’t embed that vid but here’s his report on the assassination of JFK). Cronkite and contemporaries like Dan Rather set the standard. They […]