bill english

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English: excuses but no solutions on plummeting incomes

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:52 am, November 19th, 2010 - 33 comments

Labour picked up on the statistics I revealed yesterday that show the median income of Maori has fallen 11.5% under National and the Pacific Island median income is down an astounding 19%. Kris Fa’afoi and Annette King put out press releases. Then King took the battle to Bill English in the House, who it seems is also a reader.

Savings based recovery nonsense

Written By: r0b - Date published: 3:38 pm, November 18th, 2010 - 47 comments

Bill English is always busy trying to put lipstick on the pig of our moribund economy. His latest attempt is to argue that we are experiencing a “savings based recovery”. There’s no such thing. He’s just making excuses for the fact that people have no money to spend, or are desperately trying to pay down debt in these uncertain times. Enough with the lipstick. Enough with the empty promises of jam tomorrow — National are never going to deliver.

National’s Privatisation Agenda Continues

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 9:17 am, November 4th, 2010 - 25 comments

National are continuing their privatisation by stealth. Hospitals services and a new prison are the current targets. Tony Ryall, Judith Collins and Bill English are the ministers currently pushing their ideology in their respective areas.

Tax Cuts or High Wages?

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 9:00 am, October 27th, 2010 - 17 comments

At the last election we chose tax cuts and unemployment instead of stimulus and stability – which was the more ambitious, high wage way to go?

National are not fulfilling their government’s core reason for existence: closing the wage gap with Australia. No, we’re fast going backwards on that score, and it’s predictable: high unemployment causes low wages.

Key’s economic bravado now reduced to whining

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:04 am, October 21st, 2010 - 25 comments

In three short years John Key and National have gone from economic bravado, to failure, to lies, excuses and whining. As the economy languishes they will have nothing to offer except more lies and excuses.

This is a time for fresh thinking, both globally and locally. But we won’t get it from National.

I’m confused

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:00 am, October 20th, 2010 - 32 comments

Trying to get my head around the economic arguments going on. Hearing contradictory things. Who’s telling the truth? ls Labour’s new overseas investment policy Stalinism that will ruin the economy, as Key claimed on Monday and Tuesday? Or is the same as the existing law, as Key claimed on Monday and Tuesday?

Nats’ ideology costing us millions

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:24 pm, October 19th, 2010 - 40 comments

This post isn’t about National cutting education at every level, which will damage our country for decades to come. Nor is it about how they’re cutting cost-efficient preventative medicine to fund ‘sexy’ elective surgery. It’s not even about how they’re pouring billions into holiday highways in the era of peak oil. This is about the Cullen Fund.

National’s anti-Public Transport message

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 11:00 am, October 19th, 2010 - 16 comments

Different voice, same message: instead of Stephen Joyce or John Key, we now have Bill English saying that they don’t have any money for Public Transport. Just money for roads. They’ve been forced to commit to $1.5 billion of ongoing Auckland rail projects, and that’s all it’s going to get, thank-you.

Nats turn blind eye to peak oil

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 15th, 2010 - 103 comments

Russel Norman asked Bill English about the economic impacts of coming oil shocks and how transport infrastructure planning takes them into account. I’m not sure which was more surprising: English’s matter-of-fact acknowledgment that peak oil is coming, or his attitude that the government doesn’t need to act because the market will sort things out.

GST is going up today

Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:23 pm, October 1st, 2010 - 62 comments

Remember how John Key used to talk about GST? Here is a video reminding everyone of the past before he did his usual flip-flop to favour the rich while increasing costs on most people. The GST increase and the consequent inflation will make almost everyone worse off unless they are wealthy enough to bribe the NACT’s.

English spins on GST with no traction

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:49 am, September 28th, 2010 - 40 comments

It’s worth having a look at Bill English’s performance on Q+A the other day. What’s telling, to my mind, is that English can’t present a real vision or even any spin-free information. Why not? Because his tax swindle is about taking from us and giving to the elite, and he can’t just come and say that.

Spinning while the economy burns

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:12 pm, September 23rd, 2010 - 54 comments

The latest GDP figures are awful. the Reserve Bank had predicted 0.9% growth in the June Quarter. It came in at 0.2% – far worse than anyone expected and slower than population growth. The Key Government’s reaction? Deny there’s a problem and spin, spin, spin.

Reserve army of labour

Written By: r0b - Date published: 11:47 am, September 1st, 2010 - 34 comments

Bill English came pretty close to admitting that the Nats are “relaxed” about our current high unemployment. Phil Goff came out swinging…

Ready for more of English’s dodgy numbers?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:08 pm, August 25th, 2010 - 16 comments

Bill English is going to play more number games today to claim wages are rising. Actually they’re falling, they’re going to keep falling, and there are 100,000 extra jobless. We deserve a Finance Minister who does his job, not one occupying himself with statistical chicanery.

Job queues longer

Written By: r0b - Date published: 2:28 pm, August 24th, 2010 - 17 comments

Contrary to the sunny prognostications of Nice Mr Key, job queues are getting longer. How much more great economic management from John and Bill can the country stand?

Bill English: making it up as he goes along

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:20 am, August 18th, 2010 - 28 comments

Parliament erupted in laughter yesterday as Bill English made up more ‘facts’ to attack Labour’s economic performance. Even if his accusations against Labour’s record were true, he doesn’t have any solutions himself. Indeed, the reason he is spending so much time trying to smear Labour’s record is he is desperate to make is own record look less appalling by comparison.

How to be a lazy politician

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 3:00 pm, August 17th, 2010 - 9 comments

When John Steinbeck said â€œNo one wants advice – only corroborationâ€ he could well have been describing the numerous working groups the Government has established in many areas of significant economic and social policy. Too lazy to spend its nine years in opposition developing a detailed policy prescription, National now picks groups to tell it what it wants to hear.

National’s Economic Plan Found

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 2:38 pm, August 7th, 2010 - 10 comments

After half a government term of insisting that NACT had an economic plan, it has been ‘misplaced’. The full plan, said by informed sources to have been found in a brief case (along with a pie and a men’s magazine) and written on the back of an old rental expenses claim form, reveals that the government expects significant economic development will be lead by the construction of a single national transport infrastructure, namely a National Cycleway.

English’s faith-based economics

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:40 am, July 2nd, 2010 - 90 comments

Bill English claims that our low national savings rate is due to the ‘government paying for everything’. According to English, people don’t need to save because the government pays for early childhood education, superannuation, Working for Families, and interest-free student loans. Does he have any evidence that is the case? Of course not. The evidence points the other way.

English misleads on PEDA money

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:00 am, June 21st, 2010 - 31 comments

Georgina Te Heuheu and Bill English have been saying the money allocated in the Budget to PEDA might go to some other organisation. That would be a huge abuse of the Budget process, whereby the Government asks Parliament for permission to spend money on specific activities. Of course, really the Nats are just trying to muddy the water as questions on PEDA continue.

PEDA divisions in government

Written By: r0b - Date published: 12:51 pm, June 18th, 2010 - 15 comments

Someone has been trying to shut down investigations into the PEDA slush fund. But the damage is already done, Nats are abandoning the sinking ship. Bill English is first overboard, leaving Gerogina te Heuheu stranded.

The misleading Mr English

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, June 2nd, 2010 - 5 comments

Bill English in the House yesterday: “In the Budget the projected wage increases exceed projected inflation.”

From the Budget: change in real wages over March 2011 year, -1.4%. change in real years in year to March 2012, -0.6%

Nats not trustworthy

Written By: r0b - Date published: 9:30 am, May 29th, 2010 - 47 comments

Key’s assets are supposed to be blind to him. Before the 3 News report he claimed that they were blind. Now he is claiming something much much narrower (no “beneficial interest”). Why? We’ve been here before. Bill English claimed no “pecuniary interest” in his accommodation rort trust. The Auditor General found otherwise. Key’s case should go to the Auditor General too.

Nats floundering on inequality

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:16 am, May 25th, 2010 - 35 comments

Pointing out that a “rich get richer” budget is going to increase inequality in NZ seems to be making the Nats uncomfortable. Bill English tries to simply deny the facts. DPF tries to divert attention to “social mobility”. Lame efforts in both cases. The truth is that inequality isn’t on the Nats radar. They simply don’t care.

Guyon vs English

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:02 pm, May 23rd, 2010 - 52 comments

The frustration was palpable today as Guyon Espiner struggled in vain to get a single straight answer from Bill English, who was only prepared to twist, evade, and repeat lines: “GUYON Do you accept that for very high income earners, people on the sort of salary like your own of $276,000 a year,you gave those people money they simply did not need?

English: do what we need to do to win

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 3:17 pm, May 8th, 2010 - 23 comments

Bill English is trying to assuage National Party member who are concerned that the Party is betraying its principles (ha!) and giving too much to the Maori Party saying “all those decisions are being made in the context of the longer-term view, reaching our objectives over the next four or five years” – winning a second term trumps principle. It’s about power for its own sake.

Weeding out low quality

Written By: r0b - Date published: 8:02 am, April 24th, 2010 - 58 comments

The Nats are looking to cut $1.8 billion in spending over four years. Where from? What and who will be deemed to be “low quality” in need of “weeding out”? The answers are going to tell us a lot about the National Party’s values…

English misleads the House, again

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:50 am, April 21st, 2010 - 15 comments

Bill English continues to tell outright lies about the economic performance of this country under Labour. This time it’s even more blatant. You don’t have to do any maths to check if he’s lying or not, you just have to go to the latest GDP stats. This has reached the point of purposely misleading the House and the public.

English should follow Bennett’s lead

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:02 am, April 13th, 2010 - 27 comments

Well, I’m pleasantly surprised. For once, Paula Bennett has played it straight on the benefit numbers. She hasn’t slapped herself on the back, even though last month’s benefit numbers are the best we’ve seen on her watch (in line with normal seasonal variation). If only Bill English could follow suit, rather than claiming credit for illusionary movements in the government’s books.

Why English lies

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:40 am, March 18th, 2010 - 9 comments

As you’ll be aware, I’ve been pretty flabbergasted by the way day after day Bill English is getting up in the House and telling out and out lies about Labour’s record on the economy only for Labour to sit there and take it. Well, I’ve been thinking about this a little more and I think I get it now. He can’t talk up his own performance – there’s nothing to skite about and it’s against his political strategy even if there were some successes to point to

More lies from English, Key in lala-land

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:31 am, March 17th, 2010 - 15 comments

Bill English can’t defend his economic record, 2.2% fall in GDP, still rising unemployment, falling wages, GDP per capita still falling and not expected to return to pre-recession levels until 2012, so he’s telling more lies about Labour’s record instead. Meanwhile, the Do Nothing Prime Minister is still daydreaming about his cycleway, which he now says will create “a lot more” than 4,000 jobs.