Author Archive

Key’s special announcement

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, November 27th, 2007 - 37 comments

John Key has now been leader of the National Party for a year. But while his salesman’s smile and general novelty factor have pulled him through to date, talk around the gallery is that he’s gone off the boil a bit lately. His profile has dropped, his sensible nice guy image has taken a hit […]

Counter-protester slaps down right-wing nutjobs

Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, November 26th, 2007 - 92 comments

Just came across this video on YouTube from last week’s rally in Wellington against the Electoral Finance Bill. This clip has one of the counter-protesters giving an impressive off-the-cuff speech on why the Bill is needed. Given the anti-EFB crowd’s only line of attack was “you’re from Young Labour” and “reveal your identity” they were […]

Ramshackle PR fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 6:02 pm, November 22nd, 2007 - 175 comments

It’s a bit late, but a reader who was at yesterday’s anti-EFB march has mailed us through some pics from the rally. As David Farrar has noted, the protest march was joined by a small group of activists in John Key and Mr Burns masks chanting things like “What is it that we support? John […]

Roy Morgan poll

Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, November 21st, 2007 - 22 comments

There’s a new new Roy Morgan poll out and it’s not good news for Labour. Gary Morgan says: “The recent plunge in support for the Labour Party follows the mishandling of the domestic terrorism case with the October 15 arrests of Maori activists in Ruatoki. “Solicitor-General David Collins’ ruling on November 8 that the Government’s […]

Electoral Finance Bill back from committee

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, November 19th, 2007 - 47 comments

The Electoral Finance Bill is back from Select Committee and can be downloaded here [PDF, 500k]. It’s huge and will take a bit of time to digest, but it doesn’t look like there are any major surprises. The overly broad definition of election advertising has been fixed and the amount of anonymous donations a party […]

More hypocrisy from National

Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, November 19th, 2007 - 53 comments

It’s interesting to see National is attacking Peter Davis, the PM’s husband, over a letter he wrote to the NZ Herald about the Electoral Finance Bill. Apparently Peter Davis – a respected university professor – is not entitled to views of his own and is merely parroting the lines of the ‘Clark household’. From Bill […]

Party like it’s 1999

Written By: - Date published: 3:19 pm, November 16th, 2007 - 64 comments

If we needed any more reason not to let National take us back to the 90s, I think this might be it. Via nznationalparty on flickr.

Headline of the Day

Written By: - Date published: 4:35 pm, November 15th, 2007 - 9 comments

Paris Hilton doesn’t help drunk elephants I haven’t read the article yet, and I don’t think I will. With a headline like that who needs to?

Roundtable shirks science, embraces aristocrat

Written By: - Date published: 4:26 pm, November 15th, 2007 - 21 comments

The Business Roundtable has invited Nigel Lawson, British Chancellor of the Exchequer under Thatcher, to speak to them on climate change. Inevitably, Lawson is a climate change denier. His message is that climate change is a replacement for communism and mainstream religion. He says people who are concerned about climate change are ‘eco-fundamentalists’ and ‘climate […]

Students as stakeholders

Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, November 14th, 2007 - 40 comments

Interesting to see Onslow College is giving its students a say over the hiring of their teachers. Recognising students as stakeholders in their schools is a fundamentally progressive and democratic move, and it’d be good to see it happening in other schools too. From this morning’s Dom Post: Pupils at Wellington’s Onslow College now have […]

Burqa Bob speaks out

Written By: - Date published: 1:01 pm, November 14th, 2007 - 19 comments

Bob Clarkson’s never been one of the sharper tacks on the National party backbench, his only contributions to the debate being his infamous ‘left testicle’ remark and his call for Muslims who wear the burqa to ‘go back to Islam’. According to Frogblog he’s now given up trying altogether: According to the wonderful TheyWorkForYou website […]

Speech: Labour is the Party of Ideas

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, November 14th, 2007 - 10 comments

The other day we published an extract from Evan Thornley’s speech to the Labour Party conference. We’ve finally managed to get hold of a digital copy, so here it is in full. It’s quite long, but well worth a read: LABOUR IS THE PARTY OF IDEAS NZLP National Conference Keynote Speech – Auckland 4 Nov., […]

Latest Cosmopolitician on shelves now

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 pm, November 13th, 2007 - 91 comments

Thanks to the reader who sent us the latest edition of Cosmopolitican, a nifty little publication that did the rounds just before the last election. This month’s edition has John Key as its coverboy, which sure makes a change from 2005 when old man Brash used to don the cover every other month. Strangely though, […]

Time for an upgrade

Written By: - Date published: 6:17 pm, November 13th, 2007 - 21 comments

So the Herald links to us from the front page of their website this afternoon, and the resulting traffic knocks out our server. Bugger. We’re back online now, but I guess the moral of the story is we’re going to have to start paying for it like the big boys do. Did I say bugger […]

NZ Herald to investigate Nats’ funding

Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, November 13th, 2007 - 19 comments

Matt Robson’s newsletter has a real scoop on the Herald’s next propaganda campaign: NZ Herald investigation into large, secret party funding I have it from good sources that any day now the NZ Herald is going to launch a full, in-depth investigative report into the National Party’s use of backdoor, closed-door and behind-the-scenes sources of […]

What’s National got to hide?

Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, November 13th, 2007 - 54 comments

During the debate over the Electoral Finance Bill John Key’s made a lot of noise about National’s willingness to clamp down on anonymous donations and the need to regulate third party expenditure. This makes a lot of sense from his perspective – inoculate the real issues (which National is weak on) and beat up the […]

History repeats

Written By: - Date published: 7:39 pm, November 12th, 2007 - 32 comments

The Dominion, election day 1938: If the socialist government is returned to power your vote today may be the last free individual vote you will ever be given the opportunity to exercise in New Zealand. NZ Herald, 12 November 2007: When is the Government going to get this message: democracy is not a device to […]

NZ Herald openly campaigning against Govt

Written By: - Date published: 5:46 pm, November 12th, 2007 - 36 comments

So the NZ Herald has finally admitted it’s running a campaign against the government. Check out this ridiculous, chest-thumping, self-congratulatory piece from their website: Public opinion has swung behind the Herald’s call for the Electoral Finance Bill to be scrapped. Hundreds of people have joined the debate on nzherald.co.nz’s Your Views forum, with the vast […]

Laila on unions

Written By: - Date published: 4:49 pm, November 12th, 2007 - Comments Off on Laila on unions

Laila Harre’s Bruce Jesson Memorial Lecture is now available in full over at Scoop. It’s titled Union Relevance in Aotearoa in the 21st Century, and while it’s nothing new to those of us in the movement it provides a good overview of the challenges unions face in rebuilding from the devastation wrought in the 1990s […]

National’s hoax on unemployed workers

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, November 12th, 2007 - 41 comments

Last week Stats NZ announced unemployment had dropped to a record low of just 3.5%, after reaching double-digit figures under National in the 90s. That reminded me of an old press release from Bill English just before the 1999 election where he called unemployment in the range of 3% “a hoax” and suggested 6% might […]

‘Political commentator David Farrar’

Written By: - Date published: 12:39 am, November 12th, 2007 - 60 comments

You do have to wonder sometimes who’s making the judgment calls in our newsrooms. Last night One News decided to use a National Party staffer, David Farrar, to comment on a poll that showed the Maori Party leading Labour in the Maori seats. As you’ll see in the picture, Farrar was introduced as an independent […]

Jon Stewart on torture

Written By: - Date published: 5:35 pm, November 10th, 2007 - 5 comments

Via onegoodmove

Roy Morgan poll

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, November 9th, 2007 - 37 comments

There’s a new Roy Morgan poll today, and it’s good news for the left. Gary Morgan says: “The vote for the Labour Government has surpassed the 40% mark for the first time since January. Conversely, the vote for John Key’s Nationals (45%) is at its lowest level since March. “Since early August, the Labour vote […]

Terrorism charges blocked

Written By: - Date published: 4:12 pm, November 8th, 2007 - 17 comments

The Solicitor general has decided against allowing prosecutions under the Terrorism Suppression Act for all 12 people referred to him by the police and is making an announcement in Wellington now to that effect. According to Newsroom: He says the key reason he is not prepared to authorise prosecutions is that there is insufficient evidence […]

More confusion from National over bulk funding

Written By: - Date published: 5:02 pm, November 7th, 2007 - 39 comments

Some people just never learn. After National’s conflicting statements on bulk funding the other day you’d have thought they’d get their messages in order, if not their policies. But take a look at these comments from Alan Peachey in Parliament yesterday: Hon Marian Hobbs: Has the Minister seen any reports on alternative approaches to supporting […]

National hollow on election funding

Written By: - Date published: 6:27 pm, November 6th, 2007 - 23 comments

It’s not often we’re wrong, but we’re right again. Gerry Brownlee dropped a clanger in Parliament today when he admitted that National’s opposition to electoral finance reform isn’t to do with the drafting problems, nor is it to do with anonymous donations. It’s about being able to buy their way onto the Treasury benches in […]

New blog

Written By: - Date published: 4:46 pm, November 6th, 2007 - Comments Off on New blog

University of Otago political studies student Geoffrey Miller has set up a blog about the ACT Party, called Douglas to Dancing. It seems to take a rather academic, non-partisan approach and looks like it’s got some interesting stuff. Turns out former ACT MP Gerry Eckhoff wants to start a new Country Party. Wasn’t he the […]

Kiwiblog loses the plot

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 pm, November 5th, 2007 - 79 comments

Regular readers of David Farrar’s National Party blog will be aware that it’s been in a bit of trouble lately. Aside from the setting up of robust left-wing opposition in the form of The Standard, Kiwiblogblog and others, DPF’s had to contend with an increase in left opponents in his comments section who are willing […]

Twins?

Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, November 5th, 2007 - 2 comments

A mate just sent through this pic from the Labour Party conference. That’s EPMU president Don Pryde on the left and fellow Dunedinite Chris Trotter on the right, apparently caught as they were heading for the bar. The resemblance is uncanny.

But what about wages?

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, November 2nd, 2007 - 8 comments

NZCTU economist Peter Conway makes a good point about National’s spin in his latest Economic Bulletin. After highlighting the shonky statistics behind the party’s attempts to inoculate the 1990s with its “Joanna Average” story, he goes on to point out how disingenuous the party is being in its pitch: The disturbing part of all this […]

Another challenger for Dunedin South

Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, November 1st, 2007 - 14 comments

Newstalk ZB reports that failed Dunedin Mayoral candidate Olivier Lequeux has put his name forward to challenge the Labour selection in Dunedin South. According to ZB: Mr Lequeux says Labour approached him to put his name forward. He is now in Auckland meeting with party officials. This strikes me as highly unlikely. My sources tell […]