Author Archive

The stolen emails defence

Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, August 6th, 2008 - 31 comments

So National has finally reverted to the ‘stolen emails’ defence to combat the damaging recordings from the weekend’s party conference. I’m only surprised it’s taken them this long – the misdirection tactic is classic Crosby Textor and it’s served the Nats well in the past. My guess is that National was hoping Bill’s humiliating charade […]

Multiple orgasms

Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, August 1st, 2008 - 28 comments

If John Key’s feeling a little nervous about repeating his “under a Labour Government I lead” gaffe at this weekend’s National Party conference, perhaps he should spare a thought for Aussie Liberal MP Jason Wood…

Freedom Week

Written By: - Date published: 6:28 pm, July 30th, 2008 - 9 comments

Amnesty International does some great campaigning and human rights work around the globe and this week is Freedom Week, their annual fundraising and awareness drive. Most people will be familiar with Amnesty’s work, especially with the spotlight they’ve helped to shine on China’s appalling human rights record in the leadup to the Olympics. What’s often […]

CTU critiques National’s employment policy

Written By: - Date published: 2:48 pm, July 29th, 2008 - 9 comments

Last week the Council of Trade Unions issued a devastating point-by-point critique of National’s ACC policy. Now they’ve followed up with an excellent and surprisingly balanced critique of National’s employment policy. When you compare the amount of detail the CTU has put into its critique with National’s policy bullet-points that barely even fill a page […]

Previewing National’s employment policy

Written By: - Date published: 2:33 pm, July 23rd, 2008 - 33 comments

Word around the traps is that National is going to be releasing its industrial relations policy this afternoon. My prediction is the policy will be sold as relatively moderate, but in reality will differ only slightly from their rather extreme 2005 plan. We can be sure that every single change will have the effect of […]

Personality cult

Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, July 22nd, 2008 - 41 comments

Some of our friends on the National Party end of the blogosphere have developed a rather odd habit over the years of referring to Helen Clark as ‘Dear Leader’. Well fellas, I hate to break it to you, but if it’s a personality cult you’re after then look no further than the National Party’s new website. […]

Culture of secrecy

Written By: - Date published: 6:31 pm, July 18th, 2008 - 59 comments

It’s 4.45 on a Friday afternoon and National has just released its Outdoor Recreation policy. It’s another one page wonder, only this time they haven’t even managed to fill the page. But that’s not what interests me. What interests me is the manner in which National has chosen to release it. See, if you’re trying […]

PSA rips Bagrie report

Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, July 18th, 2008 - 7 comments

Good piece in the Herald yesterday (and the Dom Post the day before) from PSA national sec Richard Wagstaff critiquing ANZ National chief economist Cameron Bagrie’s woeful report on public sector ‘waste’. Wagstaff takes aim at the underlying assumptions of the report about ‘productive’ versus ‘non-productive’ public sector spending, then proceeds to rip through some […]

ACC and the rhetoric of ‘choice’

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, July 17th, 2008 - 23 comments

National says its ACC policy will provide ‘choice’ on accident compensation, but choice for who? Employers will be able to choose between a variety of competing (mostly private) insurers, but for the likes of you and me we’ll have to take what we’re given and pay the consequences of our employers’ bad choices. We won’t […]

National adopts Labour’s arts policy

Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, July 16th, 2008 - 30 comments

So National has adopted Labour’s arts, culture and heritage policy essentially unchanged. Good. The flourishing of New Zealand’s arts and culture we’ve seen over the last eight and a half years hasn’t come about by chance, it’s been fostered by generous and targeted funding to give talented people the opportunity to get their work out […]

NZIER poll

Written By: - Date published: 4:04 pm, July 14th, 2008 - 37 comments

Buried away in the NZIER’s recent TNS survey on the Emissions Trading Scheme was this political poll showing a surprisingly high number of people still undecided on who they’d vote for. You should be aware it’s based on some pretty shonky methodology (basically it’s a weighted online survey), but it’s interesting to see what happens […]

National’s Bank

Written By: - Date published: 4:54 pm, July 10th, 2008 - 21 comments

After reading Steve’s post this morning mocking ANZ National for putting out confused National Party talking points dressed up as research, a reader was inspired to send us this:

Turnoff

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, July 8th, 2008 - 8 comments

UPDATE: Thanks to commenter T-Rex for reversing the cartoon to show workers taking a disastrous right turn. Far too much time on your hands brother…

Sacked

Written By: - Date published: 4:13 pm, July 7th, 2008 - 103 comments

In perhaps the most unsurprising announcement of the year, National has let slip it’s going to maintain its 90 day no rights policy, which basically means your boss can sack you for whatever reason he likes within the first 90 days of your employment. Don’t be fooled by the spin there’s already a provision for […]

Question

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, July 3rd, 2008 - 72 comments

Howcome when capital goes on strike over political issues it’s seen as a legitimate part of democracy, but if workers tried the same thing it would be illegal under the Employment Relations Act? [UPDATE: Seems frog had similar thoughts over here.]

Merrill Lynch: Nats will privatise ACC

Written By: - Date published: 12:18 pm, July 2nd, 2008 - 93 comments

It’s refreshing to see some proper investigative journalism in this morning’s Dominion Post, with a revelation from Vernon Small that while National continues to try and downplay ACC and talk about “no privatisation in the first term,” a report from John Key’s old firm Merrill Lynch suggests National’s privatisation plans are an open secret among […]

Key’s principled stand

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, June 27th, 2008 - 46 comments

A good cartoon by Mike Moreu this morning about Key’s confusing stance on the smacking referendum. Though of course, as a_y_b pointed out yesterday, this approach isn’t at all confusing if all you’re trying to do is to win an election by accentuating and exploiting negative perceptions of your opponent.

PSA broadens tax debate

Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, June 24th, 2008 - 21 comments

It’s good to see the PSA broadening the public debate on tax cuts with a UMR poll showing the majority of Kiwis don’t want bigger tax cuts if they come at the expense of public services. To summarise: 71% of New Zealanders would prefer to keep taxes at current levels than have higher user charges […]

Daily Show on Baracknophobia

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, June 21st, 2008 - 14 comments

Hat tip: onegoodmove.org

Hollow Men film to premiere next month

Written By: - Date published: 4:57 pm, June 20th, 2008 - 108 comments

The Unionist reports Nicky Hager’s book The Hollow Men has been made into a film and will be screening as part of this year’s New Zealand International Film Festivals. The 98 minute documentary is directed by Alister Barry, whose previous work includes the excellent In a Land of Plenty and Someone Else’s Country, and is […]

Old man’s law

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, June 20th, 2008 - 62 comments

Frogblog has footage of Nandor Tanczos blasting the Government’s anti-tagging legislation and noting that “Judith Collins would be screaming about the nanny state if we tried to tell her that she had to keep her Chardonnay under lock and key.” Sounds like Hone Harawira was in fine form too: “Tagging is ugly and offensive and […]

Oops

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, June 19th, 2008 - 17 comments

For everyone who says apostrophes don’t matter, try telling that to the Bioethics Council.

Creeping socialism in Australia

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, June 18th, 2008 - 83 comments

Kevin Rudd’s Labor government has begun the roll-back of John Howard’s unpopular WorkChoices legislation with ten new National Employment Standards aimed at providing a safety net for all Australian workers. The new standards include a 38-hour maximum working week, 12 months unpaid parental leave (24 months between a couple), flexible working hours, redundancy rights and […]

Roger Awards open

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, June 17th, 2008 - 16 comments

Nominations have opened for this year’s Roger Awards, naming and shaming the worst transnational corporation operating in New Zealand in 2008. Previous winners have included Telecom, Progressive Enterprises and TranzRail, but I reckon Rio Tinto and Spotless Services would have to be odds-on favourites for this year. For more information and a nomination form click […]

Monte Ohia

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, June 13th, 2008 - Comments Off on Monte Ohia

It’s sad to learn of the sudden death of Monte Ohia, the Maori Party candidate for Te Tai Tonga. Ohia was a prominent educationalist and would have been an enourmous asset as an MP. He had been tipped to pose a major challenge this election to Labour’s Mahara Okeroa, to whom he polled a respectable […]

Behind the secrecy

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, June 12th, 2008 - 8 comments

Reading a_y_b’s piece on National’s policy talks with the Real Estate Institute I’ve got to say it struck me as having shades not so much of the Brethren fiasco as the leaked Insurance Council memo from the last election. According to a letter given to Labour’s Clayton Cosgrove by a member of REINZ, the real […]

Happy families

Written By: - Date published: 6:11 pm, June 11th, 2008 - 48 comments

The New Zealand Herald’s latest anti-Labour beatup took an unfortunate twist this afternoon. Having spent the best part of a day making hay over Labour being caught, er, using stock photography in a flyer, the Herald was over the moon to discover the offending image had also been used by Kevin Rudd’s Australian Labor Party […]

Obama clinches nomination

Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, June 4th, 2008 - 44 comments

Thank God that’s over.

Scott McClellan on the Daily Show

Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, June 4th, 2008 - 4 comments

Last night on the Daily Show Jon Stewart interviewed Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary who has come out and accused the Bush administration of a “culture of deception” and of maintaining a “permanent campaign approach” to governing rather than making the best choices. It’s a good interview that provides an interesting insight […]

Bo Diddley RIP

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, June 3rd, 2008 - 2 comments

Rock’n’roll pioneer Bo Diddley has died of heart failure, aged 79. Here’s a little something to remember him by (ignore the crazy Dutch guys):

Greens challenge Fonterra

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, June 3rd, 2008 - 10 comments

Good to see the Greens coming out with a relevant, populist message at the weekend’s conference by tackling the issue of food affordability. The Greens have great policies but far too often they’ve got themselves bogged down in the detail and been seen by voters as irrelevant on hip-pocket issues. But while the challenge to […]