Author Archive

The Heron Report

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:38 am, July 31st, 2020 - 35 comments

The Heron Report has been released and reinforces the public perception that this was a cynical misuse of confidential information by National for political purposes and a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

Kia kaha Sarah Dowie

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:23 am, July 30th, 2020 - 17 comments

Sarah Dowie’s valedictory speech yesterday was extremely good and offered a fascinating insight into Parliamentary life and some notable recent events.

Strategic voting is a bad thing unless you live in Epsom

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:42 am, July 30th, 2020 - 49 comments

Nick Smith has publicly opposed a change to the electoral system that would allow strategic manipulation of the electoral system. But only by Māori.

Will Jami Lee spill the beans on National’s donations?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:36 am, July 29th, 2020 - 45 comments

Jami-Lee Ross is threatening today to attempt to table details of National’s 2017 donations in Parliament.

How do you tell when Judith is saying something that is not true?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:59 pm, July 28th, 2020 - 56 comments

Judith Collins has backed away from telling a mistruth about escape statistics during her time as Minister of Corrections by claiming that her eyebrow was raised and this is evidence that what she was saying was a joke.

New Zealand believes Labour are better economic managers than National

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:51 am, July 28th, 2020 - 51 comments

There used to be a mantra in New Zealand politics that National were always perceived to be better managers of the economy than Labour. Until now.

Latest Newshub Reid Research poll – yet another rogue poll

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 6:12 pm, July 26th, 2020 - 144 comments

Tova O’Brien said that it would be a bombshell result and it was.

The Greens are thinking ahead

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:30 am, July 26th, 2020 - 126 comments

The Greens have released a detailed policy document that sets out what they want to achieve if they are part of the next Government and their Labour Relations policies could be considered to be more pro union than Labour’s policies.

Association of Conspiracy Theorists

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:44 am, July 25th, 2020 - 81 comments

Act is proposing to introduce measures that will limit the amount of money people on benefits can spend on alcohol and tobacco. But not guns.

Never argue immorality with a Tory *

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:01 am, July 24th, 2020 - 53 comments

*they will drag you down to their level and beat you through experience.

What is the best way for a political party to handle a sex scandal?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:16 am, July 22nd, 2020 - 61 comments

Judith Collins appears to be living by her motto, giving back double, and has made public allegations that a Labour Minister has engaged in inappropriate behaviour. But is this the best way to handle a sex scandal?

Strong team?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:32 am, July 21st, 2020 - 267 comments

Earlier this year National boasted that it had a strong team. But this was before two coups and the loss of seven MPs in the past few weeks, the latest for sending indecent material to a teenager which the leader initially described as a case involving mental health concerns.

National’s next Auckland Central candidate?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:58 am, July 17th, 2020 - 38 comments

With Nikki Kaye’s shock retirement announcement National urgently needs a new candidate. One name springs to mind.

Will the last remaining National MP please not forget to turn off the caucus room lights

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:44 am, July 16th, 2020 - 149 comments

The Herald is reporting that Nikki Kaye will announce her retirement from politics today.

If Judith and Gerry are the answer it must have been a desperate question

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:55 am, July 15th, 2020 - 189 comments

In a great leap backwards Judith Collins and Gerry Brownlee are now leaders of the National Party.

Collins crushes caucus vote

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:06 pm, July 14th, 2020 - 155 comments

Twitter confirms that Judith Collins is now National leader. She is the perfect candidate if your goal is to stem the bleeding of support. She is not the candidate if you want to win the election …

Muller goes, bring back Simon?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:15 am, July 14th, 2020 - 181 comments

In breaking news Todd Muller has resigned for “health reasons”, effective immediately.

Time to bring back Simon?

Updated with some breaking links.

Of course it’s dirty politics

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:01 am, July 13th, 2020 - 39 comments

National’s latest attempted spin is to try and suggest that last week’s clusterfuck of rolling events did not involve in any way the slightest trace of dirty politics. How wrong they are.

The Christian Right and the 2020 election

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:29 am, July 12th, 2020 - 90 comments

A variety of Christian parties have attempted to gain a place in Parliament. What are the chances in 2020 of a conservative Christian Party succeeding in gaining seats?

Jian Yang announces retirement so he can spend more time with his family

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:06 am, July 10th, 2020 - 54 comments

Jian Yang, he with impeccable Chinese Communist Party links and of formidable fundraising ability, has announced that he is is retiring from politics.

Did any National MP not receive confidential information from Michelle Boag?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:07 am, July 10th, 2020 - 128 comments

Michael Woodhouse has admitted that he received confidential information from Michelle Boag a couple of weeks before he said that it was “unconscionable and unacceptable” that the leaks were happening.

Everybody gets a road

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:57 am, July 10th, 2020 - 13 comments

National has made two major roading project announcements in the past week. Both announcements recycled announcements that were also made before the last election.

Some Random impertinent questions about Michelle Boag’s access to confidential medical information

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:24 am, July 9th, 2020 - 81 comments

Westpac Helicopter Trust’s claim that it had not breached privacy rights of Covid sufferers raises some serious questions about why Michelle Boag was provided with sensitive information. And who she has provided it to.

Trashing the country’s Covid response for political advantage

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:39 am, July 8th, 2020 - 126 comments

As details emerge about Hamish Walker’s leaking of confidential information of Covid sufferers for political advantage, questions are being asked about Todd Muller’s leadership and if National is actually committed to assisting the country’s response to Covid 19.

Clusterfuck

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 6:31 pm, July 7th, 2020 - 210 comments

Hamish Walker and Michelle Boag have admitted leaking private information about covid sufferers for political gain.

Does National actually have any policy?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:00 am, July 6th, 2020 - 66 comments

National has recently been upping the campaign rhetoric but there is a disturbing lack of policy detail.

National’s “intelligence unit” kicks into gear

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:01 am, July 5th, 2020 - 120 comments

A month ago a leak from National’s caucus said that they had set up an intelligence unit designed to dig up dirt on opponents. Yesterday Newshub ran a story based on a candidate’s seven year old tweets. It looks like the intelligence unit has been busy.

National wants to open up our borders, unless you are Indian, Pakistani or Korean

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:08 am, July 3rd, 2020 - 55 comments

National Backbench MP Hamish Walker has claimed that Queenstown is to be invaded by people from India, Pakistan and Korea when the reality is the Government is considering using empty Hotels for quarantining returning kiwis.

Muller is floundering

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:39 pm, June 30th, 2020 - 47 comments

Todd Muller had a bad day yesterday with adverse confidential National polling leaked to the media and with Grant Robertson and Winston Peters showing in the house that Muller’s denial that he had proposed opening up the border with China was simply not correct.

The many and varied Covid reckons of Mike Hosking

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:56 am, June 30th, 2020 - 49 comments

A review of recent opinion pieces by Mike Hosking shows that he has adopted a series of contradictory positions with the one common feature that they are critical of the Government’s actions.