Author Archive
So what’s going on in the National party?
Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, January 22nd, 2012 - 124 comments
Labour’s internal politics is public property while National get a free pass on theirs.
This imbalance of transparency and accountability seems weird given National are the ones wielding the real power.
More to the point, what does it mean for our democracy?
POAL, DPF, and the politics of envy
Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, January 12th, 2012 - 142 comments
DPF has joined the chorus of overpaid righties calling for working people to have their pay cut.
That’s despite him being on a pretty good wicket himself.
What is it with the right and the politics of envy?
Rich attacks unions
Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, December 27th, 2011 - 98 comments
Katherine Rich attacks the waterside union in an opinion piece today.
But that’s not surprising given she’s being paid to speak on behalf of some of the biggest corporations in the world.
Anyone would think there’s some kind of connection between how strong unions are and how big a slice of the pie the rich can take for themselves…
The face of asset sales
Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, December 12th, 2011 - 152 comments
Peter Dunne could stop the sale of our assets but he won’t.
Even though he didn’t campaign on selling them.
If he had it’s unlikely he’d have won his seat – let’s hope his constituents hold him accountable.
The puppet Act
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 pm, December 5th, 2011 - 163 comments
Funny how John Banks has got so much more out of his coalition deal with National than Peter Dunne did despite Dunne having more leverage than Banksie.
It’s almost like National wanted to pack all of their hard right policy into Act’s deal so they could employ it without dirtying themselves.
A few thoughts on election 2011
Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, November 27th, 2011 - 321 comments
It’s been a funny kind of election and there’s a lot to ruminate on over the next few days.
Here’s a handful of random thoughts on the matter…
Keeping the help in line
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 pm, November 24th, 2011 - 37 comments
Keeping up brand Key means keeping the help in line.
Just pity the poor buggers that have to help hold that facade up.
A police recruitment freeze?
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 pm, November 23rd, 2011 - 43 comments
Phil Goff broke news of the Nat’s plan to freeze police recruitment but keep it quiet until after the election.
That policy’s at odds with some fundamental Nat claims.
Update: A freeze on replacement cops would see hundreds fewer on the job after just one year.
Teapot fiasco becomes an international embarrassment
Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, November 18th, 2011 - 58 comments
The teapot fiasco has become an international story.
And it’s making us look like a banana republic.
Is this what John Key means when he says he’s “ambitious for New Zealand”?
Dirty politics ironic lolz
Written By: - Date published: 8:22 pm, November 15th, 2011 - 111 comments
Well it’s been quite the day of ironic Key hypocrisy lolz.
It’s also been a day that’s shown Russel Norman’s not much better.
DPF putting his readers in harm’s way
Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, November 12th, 2011 - 72 comments
David Farrar is encouraging his readers to put themselves in harm’s way by authorising and distributing a misleading election advertisement he’s created.
Of course he won’t take the risk himself – instead he’s hiding behind “personal opinion”.
Pike River charges laid
Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, November 10th, 2011 - 20 comments
Charges have been laid over the Pike River tragedy.
National’s plan to screw workers some more
Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, October 28th, 2011 - 89 comments
John Key has announced National’s IR policy and it’s all about cutting back workers negotiating power.
The message from Key is clear – big business might have made this recession but you’re the ones who are gonna pay for it.
National’s Little smears and the big issue of market greed
Written By: - Date published: 6:40 pm, October 21st, 2011 - 42 comments
A good interview from Andrew Little on the Nat’s failed attempt to smear him over facebook comments. Nice comments about David Farrar and strong support for the occupy movement. Good to see.
By the way, is it just me or is National’s obsession with opposition social media starting to look less like straight research and more like creepy stalking?
A plan to fix the pay problem?
Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, October 16th, 2011 - 90 comments
Word around the traps is Labour is working on a significant new wage policy. Good – like nearly every other deregulated market the labour market has been failing Kiwis for more than twenty years. It’s time to bring some balance back into the system. Let’s just hope Labour has the guts to make a proper job of it.
Key misleads the house
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, October 10th, 2011 - 51 comments
Looks like John Key has been caught in yet another lie.
The right’s weird obsession with Darien Fenton
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 pm, October 3rd, 2011 - 261 comments
Darien Fenton makes a mean comment about a celebrity butcher on facebook and then apologises for it and offers to shout him a drink to make up for it.
No big deal? Well according to some hysterical righties that makes Fenton worse than Hitler.
You couldn’t make this sh*t up
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 pm, September 30th, 2011 - 16 comments
I missed it at the time but apparently John Key’s big plan for Christchurch was to have a yarn to Oprah.
What kind of weird fantasy world does this guy live in?
Be careful what you wish for
Written By: - Date published: 3:25 pm, September 25th, 2011 - 43 comments
On Friday the government announced a law change that opens the door to a whole world of cheap contract labour now available to anyone producing short projects like advertisements, tv episodes or parts of movies in New Zealand.
Many of the industry locals who will be most hurt by this are the same ones who were banging the drum against actors and for international producers during the Hobbit dispute. Ironic, huh?
Whaddarya?
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 pm, September 13th, 2011 - 39 comments
There once was a time tory leaders would wield the power of the state like the powerful tyrants they were.
Nowadays that might is lent to important things like… throwing a wee party.
Those tough old bastards must be rolling in their graves.
“A commodity”
Written By: - Date published: 9:55 pm, September 12th, 2011 - 94 comments
Big time businessman Damien Grant thinks we’re either rich or irrelevant commodities. And Granny Herald thinks it’s reasonable to give him a platform to preach this vile social darwinism. Suddenly the careless deaths of Kiwi workers and the systemic poverty of so many of our children becomes less surprising.
Third world NZ
Written By: - Date published: 10:05 pm, September 5th, 2011 - 123 comments
The stories coming out of the Pike inquiry paint a picture of a company with a basic disregard for workers’s safety.
But we shouldn’t expect anything else after thirty years of putting the interests of business ahead of everyone else.
FFS
Written By: - Date published: 9:40 pm, August 8th, 2011 - 107 comments
It’s bad to have a senior frontbencher attack the media.
It’s really really bad when that frontbencher is in charge of your election campaign.
Indeed
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 pm, July 27th, 2011 - 74 comments
A classic from stuff:
Prime Minister John Key said the Government had had very little room to move on the economy.
”The public recognises that the rest of the world isn’t in great shape and so New Zealand is having to contend with that global environment,” he said.
The violent right
Written By: - Date published: 8:26 pm, July 25th, 2011 - 316 comments
The kind of racist right wing opinions held by the Norway shooter are shared by quite a few New Zealand bloggers and commenters. Many of the same bloggers are now claiming the massacre is somehow the Left’s fault. We should be concerned that there are people with such hatred and self-delusion among us.
Exit, stage right
Written By: - Date published: 4:16 pm, July 9th, 2011 - 136 comments
It’s a big call, I know, but I’m pretty sure we’re seeing the end of the ACT party happening right before our eyes.
Friday lolz
Written By: - Date published: 5:09 pm, July 8th, 2011 - 60 comments
Even Bill’s readers like the CGT…
Aussies on Pike River
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 pm, June 28th, 2011 - 22 comments
Why is it the Australians are getting better coverage of Pike River than we are?
The Australian, for example, ran a story yesterday asking some hard-hitting questions about safety at the mine including the lack of remote gas measurement and a second escape route.
(Another) Tory astroturf fail
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 pm, June 28th, 2011 - 42 comments
The latest anti-MMP outfit is already unraveling with Pundit’s Rob Salmond uncovering the fact it’s basically the Peter Shirtcliffe club.
It’s a surprisingly clumsy effort. Especially given David Farrar provided strategic advice.
I guess he’s not learned any lessons from his previous PR fiascos…
A gutless strategy
Written By: - Date published: 9:07 pm, June 22nd, 2011 - 41 comments
Key is due to fly in to help announce the bad news in Christchurch tomorrow only to fly straight out to India the next day.
It’s seems the timing is all about keeping Key’s brand away from the bad news – he’ll do the sombre announcement and then leave others to deal with the fall out.
Gutless.
Curiouser and curiouser
Written By: - Date published: 7:38 am, June 13th, 2011 - 209 comments
It looks like the Labour party site was breached from National HQ.
Does this mean National are still laundering their dirty tricks though their pet bloggers?
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