Author Archive

King Brownlee dips his oar into Chch elections

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, March 15th, 2013 - 40 comments

King Brownlee can do pretty much what he likes in Christchurch. And what he wants to do is fuck all. When I was in Christchurch recently, I was deeply disturbed by the lack of rebuild, and the vibe. People feel it. People get angry. When people get angry, Brownlee looks for someone else to blame. Now, he’s doubling down by interfering in the coming local elections.

Fair trade

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, March 8th, 2013 - 24 comments

Farrar and Mallard want us to give the NZRU a statue to trade back one of Holyoake that the government accidentally sold them along with the old State Services building. How about saying to the NZRU, ‘We accidentally sold you a statue but, hey, you remember all that money we gave you to under-write your loss-making tournament? Maybe you could give us our fucken statue back without being dicks about it?

Mustn’t complain

Written By: - Date published: 11:08 am, March 6th, 2013 - 88 comments

I know we’re meant to make do with what we have. Sometimes wonder what we would have if a couple more MPs had thought beyond themselves, given the party membership the choice. Here’s two guys. One talking Labour values, recognising injustice arises from an unjust system. The other looking at a half mil house will touting affordable housing.

Transmission Gully: $60m before a sod even turned

Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, March 1st, 2013 - 33 comments

So far, the government has spent $33 million on Transmission Gully. They’re planning on spending another $30m just to sign the contract on the Public-Private Partnership. That’s over $60m down the drain on a project with only $360-$500m of benefits before a single metre of road is built. All up, the cost will be $3.4 billion – trebled by using the PPP model.

Latest Roy Morgan… a bit shit

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 pm, February 28th, 2013 - 147 comments

I guess the title says it all. The latest Roy Morgan has National at 47.5% (up 3.5%), Labour 30.5% (down 4%), Greens 12.5%, and NZ First at 3%. I’m not really in the mood to piss around with analysis tonight. You’ve heard me moan about the state of Labour enough lately. But it’s not the […]

Towards a more inequal New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, February 27th, 2013 - 30 comments

The average CEO got a 10% pay rise last year. The average worker got 2.6%. Minimum wage workers will get 1.9% – a 25 cent an hour token gesture. And 30,000 fewer of us have jobs than a year ago and are not earning at all any more. And now we learn the finance sector sucked $440m more out of us last year – a total of $4 billion. No wonder the planes to Aussie are full.

The elite’s excuse for opposing a living wage

Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, February 15th, 2013 - 66 comments

Don’t you love hearing the rich say the working poor can’t have more pay? The faux concern that higher wages cost jobs from the same people who support huge executive pay packets and tax cuts? If you really believed higher wages meant fewer jobs, you would cut the CEO’s pay in half, not dick around over a few dollars an hour for real workers.

Just get the f*ck out

Written By: - Date published: 7:50 pm, February 12th, 2013 - 126 comments

Prosser, just f*cken resign. There’s no place for the likes of you. You’ve been elected purely to make up numbers for Peters. And you couldn’t even do that without being a disgusting bigot. You’re not the only rightwinger playing up race fears. Hooton claims Indonesia will invade due to climate change. Key tells scary stories of made-up boat people. But you’re the worst. Just go.

John Key discovers the usefulness of Yellow Peril

Written By: - Date published: 7:26 am, February 12th, 2013 - 146 comments

Bad jobs numbers and a succession of collapses of major businesses weighing your government down? You need: distraction! How about an old classic from the New Zealand politician’s playbook – the Yellow Peril! Passed on by Seddon and Peters, Yellow Peril’s now being wielded by John Key as he talks of vague, unsubstantiated threats that boatloads of Indonesians are heading for our shores.

Hatin’ on the left

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 pm, February 10th, 2013 - 432 comments

So Trevor Mallard thinks it’s smart to stick the boot in to Russell Norman for linking to an article about using the printing of money as a tool of monetary policy. Well it says a lot more about the state of the Labour Party than anything else. It just goes to show what happens when […]

King, wtf?

Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, February 4th, 2013 - 52 comments

Garner has revealed that 63% of Maori Labour voters don’t know who the leader is. King responds by asking if they know who the PM is. Now, I’m no MP with 25 years’ experience but I reckon  it’s pretty obvious that trying to deflect from a poll showing lack of profile of your leader in a key demographic by implying that Maori are just ignorant isn’t smart.

Another flatlining Roy Morgan

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 pm, January 31st, 2013 - 282 comments

The latest Roy Morgan poll has National on 46%, Labour 31.5%, the Greens on 13.5%, and NZ First on 5.5%. It just amazes me the government can still poll close to 50% after stuff up, after stuff up. Were this reflected in an election then you can bank on a National-NZ First Government. I’m sick […]

Brian Edwards on Shearer

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, January 30th, 2013 - 91 comments

david shearer

The macho posturing we’ve seen from David Shearer since conference never quite gelled with the Shearer I knew. I’d always thought of him as a nice guy out of his depth, so the public defaming of David Cunliffe and the ‘I’m in charge’ theatrics always jarred. Brian Edwards argues the confusion in the Shearer brand […]

As on we go, drowning

Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, January 30th, 2013 - 164 comments

Despair. That’s what I felt, watching Key’s speech yesterday. Others said he was boring. Some complained of his screeching. I just felt despair. This guy is running the country. Our country. And he has nothing. Nothing for us. Nothing for you. Nothing for me. Nothing for the people we care about. Some spoils of conquest for his mates. But nothing for New Zealand.

The heart of darkness

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, January 27th, 2013 - 181 comments

I wondered why the Herald had given a column to a barely literate liquidator, until now. They say sunlight is the best disinfectant, and running Damien Grant’s hateful, self-centred pieces exposes the ugliness at the heart of the neoliberal capitalist class. The titles alone are enough: ‘I’d rather a better phone than feed a hungry child’, ‘Life as the top capitalist in capitalism the only life worth having’.

Remembering John Key

Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, January 26th, 2013 - 56 comments

As New Zealand collectively rolls its eyes at the paucity of ideas and vision, and surfeit of excuse-making and responsibility denying in Key’s state of the nation speech (it was so bad John Armstrong wrote a third piece on how great the reshuffle was, instead of praising the speech), Whaleoil – of all people – asks a good question: What will Key’s legacy be?

For a February leadership vote

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, January 25th, 2013 - 154 comments

No one in Labour can deny there’s a real issue with internal disunity. Not only is the caucus divided (and more than ever since the Shearer camp’s handling of the conference fallout), but there’s a major breach between the membership and the caucus. Unless this is fixed and we can get the party united we’re looking at another term in opposition after 2014.

Greens offer pathway to home ownership, better renters’ rights

Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, January 24th, 2013 - 276 comments

The Greens have launched a big new housing policy that fixes KiwiBuild and gives renters more rights. The problem with Kiwibuild is a lot of the target families can’t afford the mortgage. The Greens have got around that with Progressive Ownership. A shared equity programme that basically means you’re paying the government’s low interest rate, rather than the higher rate from a bank.

Being there

Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, January 19th, 2013 - 35 comments

Johnny’s million dollar treat for his wife at your expense has turned into a bit of a farce. The delayed flight, the weird fainting (not jet lag, not overwork), and now they won’t get to the pole because of snow. The justification for the Keys’ South Pole trip was to learn about its science projects. Next time, may I suggest this?

Affordable housing

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, January 18th, 2013 - 24 comments

The housing bubble’s clearly back. More wealth concentrated in the hands of the few. More of the rest of us stuck with renting for life. The politicians are talking about affordable housing. But Labour’s plan’s not affordable unless your income’s $60,000 a year or more. And who could afford the petrol you would burn living in National’s planned exurbs?

If you can’t beat ’em, scaremonger about ’em

Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, January 15th, 2013 - 99 comments

The Herald’s running a pretty intense series about how awful it is to emigrate to Australia. A cynic might think the editor’s daughter is talking about crossing the ditch, such is the passion in the anti-Aussie message. But all the stories follow the same pattern: ‘Aussie is bad because of X, yet Kiwis are flocking there in record numbers’. There’s one number that matters: here it’s 7.3%, in Aussie 5.3%.

What’s the Right’s plan for Auckland 2013?

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, January 10th, 2013 - 55 comments

It’s 9 months until polls close in the 2013 local body elections. Len Brown has just been rated the 7th best mayor in the world. So, who’s going to stand up from the Right? 9 months is no time to get the brand recognition needed to take the most powerful political job in the country outside Cabinet’s top 5. Does no rightie want to run because they’re sure to lose?

Nats in secret state house sell-down

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, January 10th, 2013 - 60 comments

It turns out National’s sold off a net 251 houses since it was re-elected. The spin is that isn’t a sell-down but moving resources to where they’re needed… uh, huh…. fewer resources. Meanwhile, looks like KiwiBuild’s hugely popular. The State building affordable housing always has been. Now, if only me and my partner could afford to service a $300,000 mortgage….

Where the bloody hell are you?

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, January 9th, 2013 - 70 comments

Like here, Queensland’s tourism industry is hurting. Like ours, Queensland’s Tourism Minister thought it would be a good idea to holiday in a foreign tropical resort instead of supporting her local industry. But, there, the main newspaper responded with a devastating “where the bloody hell are you” attack that could sink her career. Here, not so much.

Minister for Oversea Holidays

Written By: - Date published: 1:49 pm, December 23rd, 2012 - 53 comments

Getting away this summer? Or having a ‘staycation’ and selling your leave to make ends meet? Are you “jealous” that Key’s off to Maui for 3 weeks, again? Or are you just a bit pissed off to learn that our Minister of Tourism has so far spent over 100 days overseas on holiday since becoming PM, while the average Kiwi’s had just 27 days abroad and tourism here is in crisis?

Parata won’t quit, Key won’t sack her

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 pm, December 19th, 2012 - 59 comments

Parata isn’t the most corrupt minister Key has but she’s definitely the most incompetent. Now, the Secretary of Education has been paid out to take the fall for Hekia’s incompetence and that of her sister, Apryll, Deputy Secretary Performance and Change. Parata has maintained her reputation for nepotism being an appalling people manager. But she won’t go, and Key won’t make her.

Another Parata f*ck-up

Written By: - Date published: 7:38 am, December 12th, 2012 - 53 comments

What I like about Hekia Parata is that’s she’s proof that image doesn’t always triumph over substance. The Nats thought that as a good-looking Maori woman she ticked all their PR boxes. But, she’s been a PR disaster because she’s arrogant and ignorant. She keeps on making bad, poorly worked-through calls. And the whole government gets dragged through the muck with her.

I, Vipertacus

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 pm, December 8th, 2012 - 192 comments

Just wanted to say, seeing so many of the regulars change their name in honour of Colonial Viper is awesome. That tells me this is a real community. We discuss, argue, fight, and we respect. We’re not like the disgrace of an MP who has hounded CV into silence because she can’t handle honest criticism. Proud of you lot for standing beside our own.

Horan has no moral grounds to stay

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, December 5th, 2012 - 56 comments

Brendan Horan has been booted out of New Zealand First’s caucus over the scandal involving his late mother’s estate. Legally, he can now remain on in Parliament as an independent MP, or join another party. But he ought not. He has no claim to represent anyone but those who party voted NZF, and if he can’t represent them, he must let the next person on the list do so.

Why I’m still worried

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, November 30th, 2012 - 90 comments

Labour may still be well below its 2008 election result, when it was chucked out after 3 terms, but, thanks to the doubling of Greens support, Labour+Green is level pegging with National in the latest Roy Morgan. Add New Zealand First, and the opposition is well clear. Except, that’s not an election winning scenario for the Left.

Doing Shearer’s job for him

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, November 27th, 2012 - 54 comments

I’m tired of watching Labour flounder over how it will build $300K homes in Auckland. The answer’s simple: they’ll mostly be apartments, units, and townhouses. Not much land cost. Reduced build cost per dwelling. Check out Trade Me, houses for sale in Auckland, 2 bedrooms+, priced $250-$300K. There’s hundreds (but not enough). Clearly, it can be done.

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