Author Archive

Naming the game

Written By: - Date published: 6:34 pm, August 12th, 2014 - 78 comments

It’s been interesting to watch the nats and their busy little helpers working away at branding the election campaign as a nasty one.

It’s been disappointing to watch the media falling for it so hard.

Focusing on the issues that matter?

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 pm, July 30th, 2014 - 120 comments

Everyone’s favourite National Party blogger Cam Slater has posted a sneaky candid shot of Metiria Turei in which he mocks her for *gasp* wearing a hat.

Vernon Small jumps the shark

Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, July 18th, 2014 - 217 comments

There’s lies, damn lies, and statistics. And then there’s writing a beat-up story and providing none of the numbers needed to back it up at all.

Updated: Other bloggers commenting on the ‘maths’

Take action against the Herald’s lies

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 pm, June 25th, 2014 - 89 comments

The Herald needs to explain why they think they can print anti-democratic lies and get away with it.

Make them answer. Make a complaint.

Hamstrung

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, June 21st, 2014 - 46 comments

David Cunliffe forgets an eleven year old pro-forma letter. John Armstrong calls for him to resign. Then it turns out this was a National Party smear campaign. John Armstrong says he should still have resigned but y’know only to prove the confidence of his caucus. Two National party ministers, one of them the Deputy Leader, […]

Key on Iraq

Written By: - Date published: 6:54 am, June 18th, 2014 - 52 comments

John Key on Iraq in the Herald today:

“We are not a country out there looking for a fight.”

John Key in Iraq in 2003…

The over-sold Budget

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, May 16th, 2014 - 82 comments

You could tell it was coming.

When, about two days out from the Budget. English started trying to downplay expectations, you knew there wasn’t enough in it.

All Down to Dunne

Written By: - Date published: 7:31 pm, May 15th, 2014 - 37 comments

In the next few hours Peter Dunne could stand by his word and help Kiwi Families.

The question is, will he do it?

Update: No he didn’t. So much for his principles.

Cabinet Club

Written By: - Date published: 11:34 pm, May 6th, 2014 - 223 comments

It’s called “Cabinet Club” but National claims Ministers aren’t actually acting as Ministers when they use it to raise money.

Which is why they called it “Cabinet Club” and not something with Ministerial connotations like… um… “Cabinet Club”

 

Dinner money

Written By: - Date published: 3:38 pm, March 9th, 2014 - 60 comments

The reason we know about John Key’s Antoine’s dinner donations was that they were grouped into a single donation that had to be declared.

But what about all the other dinners where each seat is considered a separate donation?

Give us the names or pay the money back, John

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, March 8th, 2014 - 157 comments

John Key has taken at least $165,000 in anonymous donations through secret dinner donations.

Will he follow David Cunliffe’s example and either name names or pay the money back? Or is Key too tricky for that?

Key hides advice, Collins goes to ground

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 pm, March 6th, 2014 - 76 comments

Radio New Zealand has reported that John Key is refusing to release the advice he claims clears Judith Collins over her conflict of interest. And is now claiming that the Cabinet rules are ” just a guideline anyway”

Lying Key

Written By: - Date published: 7:21 am, March 6th, 2014 - 126 comments

Martyn’s got a post up over at the daily blog documenting some of the blatant lies Key has told that have been repeated without criticism by the media: 1: Key claimed on Firstline that Cunliffe had been to TVNZ for a Labour Party meeting at the height of the Shane Taurima affair when no such […]

Collins and Oravida

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, March 5th, 2014 - 114 comments

Judith Collin’s endorses a company, Orivida, that her husband is a (presumably paid) director of. That same company has previously made political donations to the National Party.

That’s a conflict of interest.

Rotten

Written By: - Date published: 4:24 pm, February 14th, 2014 - 270 comments

Stuff has an astounding interview with John Key where he reveals he has regular catch-ups with Cameron Slater.

We’ve always known that there were close ties between National and the abomination that is Whaleoil but now we know that the ties go right to the top.

Note to Media – check your facts.

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, January 29th, 2014 - 202 comments

Sometimes I despair for our media. I mean, the latest parroting of Key’s line on Best Start is the stuff of black comedy. Apparently Key’s claiming David Cunliffe misled people about eligibility because they don’t get the payment while they also get paid parental leave. And the media are trumpeting it all over the place. […]

Useless and venal

Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, January 28th, 2014 - 197 comments

Following David Cunliffe’s announcement of Best Start New Zealand’s right wing took it upon themselves to show how useless and venal they are. It started with Jordon “the new Cameron Slater” Williams and the National front group Taxpayers’ Union’s eviscerating attack on “Middleclass Welfare” (honestly guys that line’s so 2007) only to blame it on” “Labour […]

Rent freezes in disaster zones

Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, December 10th, 2013 - 80 comments

You need little more evidence of how Gerry Brownlee’s lazy-faire approach to the Christchurch rebuild has failed than the story of the (working) single mother forced to live in a tent with her 3 kids because there’s no affordable rentals. One of the automatic moves in a large scale disaster should be to freeze rents in the disaster zone. The Human Rights Commission agrees.

Hypocrisy-watch

Written By: - Date published: 6:24 pm, December 6th, 2013 - 85 comments

After today’s platitudes, it’s worth remembering where Key stood on apartheid when it mattered.

A knighthood I would back

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, December 5th, 2013 - 46 comments

I don’t support knighthoods. I especially don’t support knighthoods being handed out to people who have just done their jobs at the end of their careers. You know, the gongs for ministers and CEOs. But if you are going to have honours, they should go to ordinary people who have truly gone above and beyond and acted where others failed. Arise, Sir Graham McCready.

Everything you need to know about National, in two paragraphs

Written By: - Date published: 3:12 pm, November 16th, 2013 - 60 comments

Andrea Vance reports: “Foreign minister Murray McCully returned from the Tamil-led north of Sri Lanka last night and indicated he believes New Zealand should not support an independent investigation into war crimes.

Shortly after his return to Colombo, McCully signed a dairy co-operation agreement with his counterpart Professor GL Peiris, worth about $2 million.”

Insurance Council goes Galt

Written By: - Date published: 1:34 pm, November 3rd, 2013 - 62 comments

Well that didn’t take long. The Insurance Council has come out attacking Labour for KiwiAssure. Which is odd really, given the claim that there’s already a competitive market. You’d have thought they would welcome a new member to the industry. Wouldn’t you? Or alternatively, they’ve been making big money at the expense of all of […]

None so blind as those who invent their own reality

Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, October 23rd, 2013 - 93 comments

my little pony friendship is magic haters gonna hate

Is the Prime Minister John Key who claims to know what Labour has supposedly said in secret talks with SkyCity (talks that Cunliffe denies have happened) because it’s ‘all over town’ the same Prime Minister John Key who couldn’t be bothered to read a police report on one of his ministers who is now going to be tried for the offences investigated in said report? Asking for a friend.

The sick state of the right

Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, October 17th, 2013 - 77 comments

The Herald reports today that John Palino’s campaign team were up to their eyeballs in the Len Brown dirty digging (or should that be “pantie sniffing”) with Bevan Chung releasing evidence that it was a calculated political move.

Useless

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 pm, October 2nd, 2013 - 81 comments

So John Key goes out into the world to represent our interests and what does he get? His good mate David Cameron tells him to get stuffed when he asks for better access to the UK for Kiwis. A meeting with the Queen that made us look like a bunch of hicks. A “hard hitting” […]

The cleaner & the ugly face of National

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, September 27th, 2013 - 164 comments

Imagine that your job was to clean 130 toilets every day. Imagine the grinding unpleasantness of it. Imagine the horrors some disgusting person would regularly leave for you to deal with. Imagine you do that for just above the minimum wage, barely enough to support your family, far from enough to live a real life. And imagine seeing one of the people whose shit you clean sneer at you.

Spendthrift Key objects to cost of democracy

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, September 3rd, 2013 - 282 comments

Key’s big whine today is that the referendum on asset sales, which over 10% of Kiwis have requested as required by law, will be ‘extremely costly’ at $9m. This guy’s joking, right? Mr ‘2-billion-of-tax-cuts-in-the-middle-of-a-recession’ is whining about $9m on democracy? All up, Key’s squandered well over a hundred million on asset sales so far.

Liar

Written By: - Date published: 6:11 am, August 26th, 2013 - 90 comments

Nearly 60% of New Zealanders think John Key is a liar according to the latest Fairfax-Ipsos poll. That shouldn’t be surprising given the number of times he’s been caught out being less than honest

Choose wisely

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, August 23rd, 2013 - 136 comments

I’m sure we’ll be doing comparisons between the candidates for the Labour leadership in the coming days. Any of the really contenders would at least be credible and a credible PM is the thing Labour has been lacking. What I would caution against is listening to Espiner/Garner/Gower fantasy candidate – Jones. Those same guys said ‘choose Shearer’ and Labour listened.

David Bennett’s successor?

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, August 22nd, 2013 - 17 comments

Rumour has it that David Bennett has decided to retire at the next election. It’s been made clear to him that he’ll never be allowed anywhere near a ministerial portfolio. Who will take on his role? Well, how about this guy – Mark Sabin – who yesterday told Parliament that, thanks to St Key, New Zealand has the highest growth rate on Earth, when it’s actually 117th?

Key rules out Peters?

Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, August 8th, 2013 - 77 comments

“He is completely and utterly wrong as per normal,” Mr Key said. – The PM responds to Winston Peters’ allegations that the Police considered seizing his phone records in Key’s teapot tape witch-hunt with his usual sophistication and class. Key’s comments raise an important question: ‘would Key have in his government a man who is normally “completely and utterly wrong?’