Author Archive

State of the Nation – dire

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, February 12th, 2025 - 18 comments

Remember National’s promise to get us back on track? Salvation Army’s latest state of the nation report suggests that for ordinary people things are getting much worse.

The latest polls suggest a change in Government

Written By: - Date published: 8:39 pm, February 11th, 2025 - 14 comments

Two recent polls both predict a one term National Government.

Bring us your wealthy and your privileged …

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, February 11th, 2025 - 11 comments

National wants more wealthy people to come to New Zealand to increase investment fund levels. But what if we created the situation so that locals could increase investment through Kiwisaver contributions?

Why get upset with solar power?

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, February 9th, 2025 - 56 comments

You have to hand it to the right. They have succeeded in making ordinary people oppose the most beneficial projects imaginable. Like a group of residents in North Canterbury that is opposing construction of a solar farm.

What does Trump have against Canada?

Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, February 4th, 2025 - 50 comments

And why isn’t New Zealand backing Canada against Trump’s self declared trade war?

Cancun Cruz’s crazy tweet

Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, February 2nd, 2025 - 16 comments

Ted Cruz has criticised New Zealand for requiring all Israelis to detail their military experience before coming to New Zealand. But there is a problem with this. He is wrong.

What will he do next?

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, February 1st, 2025 - 29 comments

I did not think it possible but it seems that every week Donald Trump does something that makes me think even worse of him.

Most kiwis blame Willis for Ferry Fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, January 30th, 2025 - 9 comments

Recent polling suggests that two thirds of kiwis disagree with Nicola Willis’s decision to cancel the replacement Inter Island ferries contract.

Later Stuart

Written By: - Date published: 5:06 pm, January 29th, 2025 - 14 comments

Stuart Nash has suggested that Labour is losing support for not sticking to its values. But his suggested policy solution would have Labour resemble National lite, not deepest red Labour.

The difference between Christopher Luxon and Donald Trump *

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, January 22nd, 2025 - 23 comments

* is not as great as you think.

The future dystopia

Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, January 21st, 2025 - 55 comments

He’s baack. The man least suited to running the world’s most powerful country is now President again.

Luxon’s panicked reshuffle

Written By: - Date published: 1:12 pm, January 20th, 2025 - 61 comments

Christopher Luxon has conducted a major Cabinet Reshuffle with the stand out feature the demotion of Shane Reti and the transfer of Health from Reti to Simeon Brown.

The World has too many Oligarchs

Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, January 19th, 2025 - 14 comments

In his final speech Joe Biden has warned the world about the dangers posed by Oligarchs supporting the right into democratic power. He is right.

Latest opinion poll – Labour overtakes National

Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, January 17th, 2025 - 62 comments

luxon sheep

That grinding noise you can hear from the Parliamentary precinct is the sound of National backbenchers sharpening their knives getting ready for a change of leadership. Because the latest Curia poll shows National has fallen behind Labour in the preferred party stakes.

Reviewing the Cook Strait Ferry fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 1:07 pm, January 16th, 2025 - 35 comments

A review of the history of the Ferries issue suggests that this could be coalition ending and career ending.

The Los Angeles fires – could they happen here?

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, January 11th, 2025 - 20 comments

With large parts of Los Angeles burning and the right still trying to divert attention and blame the question arises, could the same thing happen here?

Who funds the Taxpayer’s Union?

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, January 8th, 2025 - 31 comments

Six months late and in the middle of the Holiday Period the Tax Payers Union has filed its election year accounts suggesting that it received $2,628,721 in donations that year. And there is no indication of who from.

Costello hands out free vapes

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 pm, January 5th, 2025 - 11 comments

The Government has announced that it will be supplying vaping starter kits to stop smoking services. It is not known who will be the suppliers of these kits or on what terms.

2024 in review

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, December 31st, 2024 - 25 comments

It is that time of year when during the brief hiatus of civilisation known as the holidays we get the time to reflect on what has happened over the past 12 months.

The absurdity of National’s Gang Patch ban

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, December 29th, 2024 - 61 comments

It did not take long for the first example of the absurdity of the Government’s gang patch ban to appear.

The Pogues wrote the best Christmas song ever

Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, December 25th, 2024 - 16 comments

It is Christmas time and the eternal debate about who wrote the best Christmas song ever is being debated yet again. For me there is only one possible contender.

Government sabotages its Emissions Reduction Plan

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, December 23rd, 2024 - 7 comments

Under its latest Emissions Reduction Plan the Government is placing major reliance on processing of orgnic waste and landfill gas capture. But it has quietly recently cut funding for the Waste Minimisation Fund by $177 million over 4 years.

Much ado about nothing

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, December 21st, 2024 - 18 comments

There has been recent controversy because a District Court Judge and a renowned surgeon in a private setting chose to criticise NZ First policies.

Who would have thought that austerity would stuff up the economy

Written By: - Date published: 1:48 pm, December 18th, 2024 - 47 comments

The HYEFU has been released and the results are pretty ugly suggesting that National’s austerity measures are having a negative effect on the economy.

When publicity stunts go bad

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, December 17th, 2024 - 16 comments

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon recently posted a picture of him helping with a gift box initiative for the poor. But at the same time he is overseeing the cessation of funding for food banks.

Labour loses confidence in the Speaker

Written By: - Date published: 11:14 am, December 14th, 2024 - 14 comments

Gerry Brownlee has performed linguistic summersaults to conclude that private entities having their pet projects listed for preferential treatment in the Fast Track Approvals Bill do not constitute a private benefit.

Clusterfreak

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, December 12th, 2024 - 46 comments

Yesterday’s replacement ferry announcement by Nicola Willis suggests that very little progress has been made in securing replacement Cook Island ferries.

The unusual feature of Taxpayers Union’s latest Curia poll

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, December 11th, 2024 - 14 comments

Unlike two other recent polls the latest Taxpayer’s Union poll reports a surge to Act happening during the time the Treaty Principles Bill was introduced.

Unacceptable

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, December 7th, 2024 - 29 comments

It appears that the Government’s intent to politicise youth offending by making an elite few dress up in army uniforms and march around in an effort to solve a lifetime of neglect is not working out so well.

Creative accounting

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, December 5th, 2024 - 26 comments

It has emerged that Health NZ attempted to include hundreds of millions of dollars in redundancies and holiday pay remediation chargeable this year in last year’s Health accounts and this would have made the current deficit smaller but last year’s deficit larger.

AT is to be gutted

Written By: - Date published: 6:35 pm, December 4th, 2024 - 3 comments

The Government announced reform of AT, effectively conceding that the behemouth National created in 2010 was the wrong structure.