Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, May 19th, 2011 - 16 comments
Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, May 7th, 2011 - 11 comments
Gordon Campbell demolishes the Nats’ hasty excuse that the blowout in Key’s diplomatic protection costs is due to a particular threat. He also takes Judith Collins to task for her argument that the police should have an unlimited and unaccountable protection budget , or lives could be put at risk…
Written By: - Date published: 8:34 pm, May 5th, 2011 - 103 comments
John Key’s vanity has cost us another $800k
And the nats have the gall to tell us to tighten our belts?
What a joke.
Written By: - Date published: 6:34 am, May 3rd, 2011 - 22 comments
Wikileaks cables show that America has been “helping” draft out copyright law. They also lobbying to undermine Pharmac. How many other New Zealand laws are they writing?
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, May 2nd, 2011 - 156 comments
Phil Goff has gone one step further today and ruled out working with anyone that signs up to The Mana Party, not just the already ruled-out Hone Harawira. A Labour Party spokeswoman is reported by the Herald as saying “He doesn’t prescribe to the values of Hone Harawira.”
Would Phil Goff care to explain which of Harawira’s values he doesn’t ‘prescribe’ [sic] to?
Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, April 28th, 2011 - 49 comments
So, just as Irish predicted, Calvert was the swinging voter, and Brash has now achieved his hostile takeover of ACT. Goodbye Rodney, and good riddance. What does this do to the political landscape? Here are some preliminary thoughts.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, April 28th, 2011 - 174 comments
Rodney Hide has resigned as Leader of the ACT Party.
While not actually a member of the Party, Don Brash will now lead ACT.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, April 28th, 2011 - 77 comments
ACT’s newest MP Hilary Calvert is reported to have changed her support from Hide to Brash. That means the leadership of New Zealand’s most rightwing party will transfer to someone who isn’t currently even a member of the ACT Party.
UPDATE: Hide expected to announce resignation at midday
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, April 27th, 2011 - 26 comments
ACT Leader Rodney Hide will soon be out of a job. I doubt he’ll be in the running for any prime SOE chairs like Jim Bolger, and all the best jobs at the UN are taken by competent people. Jenny Shipley went in to the HR business and Mike Moore became a WTO lapdog.
So what next for Rodney?
Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, April 21st, 2011 - 47 comments
I heard David Cunliffe on Morning Report on Tuesday, and he was superb. But as soon as he finished I knew the Right would try to deflect from the substance by writing it off as leadership ambitions. And sure enough we have Audrey Young, making exactly that connection. Labour can turn that on its head.
Written By: - Date published: 3:41 pm, April 14th, 2011 - 13 comments
You almost have to admire Rodney Hide for his total contempt for political reality. He has managed to annoy aged GoldCard users with his comments on their off-peak free use of public transport. There’s also a horrible irony in Hide opposing publicly funded transport for people who aren’t him or his girlfriend.
Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, April 12th, 2011 - 16 comments
One of the Nats’ few constructive policies at the last election was Steven Joyce’s ultra-fast broadband project. The Nats promised $1.5 Billion investment to deliver UFB to 75% of New Zealand homes within 10 years. Almost 3 years in, their proposals have just been met with almost universal rejection from industry and consumer groups.
Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, April 10th, 2011 - 40 comments
Peak oil. We’ve long had warnings from scientists and greens. Right wing governments never listen to those. But recently we’ve also had warnings from organisations that you might think that any government would pay attention to. The IMF is the latest to sound the alarm.
Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, April 9th, 2011 - Comments Off on Harawira / MP truce breaking?
The first cracks are appearing in the agreement between Hone Harawira and the Maori Party not to stand against each other in electorates.
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, April 7th, 2011 - 21 comments
Government ministers seem blind to the most obvious of issues because they have “received no advice”. Remember back in the dark ages when Ministers had some initiative? Remember when we elected leaders to lead?
Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, March 29th, 2011 - 171 comments
The Labour Party front bench meeting in Dunedin has just concluded. Goff’s leadership has been confirmed, with unanimous support.
Written By: - Date published: 6:45 am, March 26th, 2011 - 257 comments
It’s been a dreadful week for Labour. So out come the oft repeated rumours of a coup against leader Phil Goff. Usually this is just the ever predictable right wing blogs stirring. This time the excellent Scoop news site is making the claim. Scoop has it wrong.
Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, March 24th, 2011 - 49 comments
The PM and the Minister of Finance are at odds on how the cost of rebuilding Christchurch will be met. Bill English thinks that the costs are too high to be met by cuts, and significant borrowing will be required. John Key wants to avoid borrowing and cover the costs with budget cuts. This disagreement is indicative of the Nats shambolic preparation for the road ahead.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 21st, 2011 - 7 comments
We’ve had the memorial service. Now we need action. Now we need the plan. Christchurch needs rebuilding. How is it going to happen? Does the current government have the will? I went looking for clues in John Key’s three big speeches to date. What I found was not encouraging…
Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, March 9th, 2011 - 60 comments
John Key and Gerry Brownlee are the two most powerful men in the country right now. In their actions and in their words they hold the hopes of tens of thousands of people whose lives have been turned upside down and the future of a major city. We really need these men to do a good job. So, this Laurel and Hardy impersonation has to stop.
Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, February 26th, 2011 - 140 comments
Apart from Radio New Zealand, which is doing an excellent job as our public broadcaster, and The Press, the media’s coverage of the quake has disappointed. Supplying needed information has been a secondary priority behind the morbid running death count and Facebook-derived stories of the dead. Also: a response to Armstrong’s quake-article.
Written By: - Date published: 7:23 pm, January 23rd, 2011 - 9 comments
It’s a bit late, but this post is in response partly to John Armstrong’s bouquet piece at the end of 2010 headlined “Forget the economy, watch the lemmings”, and partly to Fran O’Sullivan’s latest piece in yesterday’s Herald about Hone Harawira. Fran O’Sullivan was my political journalist of 2010, for one simple reason. She’s a […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, December 15th, 2010 - 37 comments
As a government and as a country we honoured the Pike River dead, as was right and proper. But now the hard part starts. What are we going to do for the Pike River survivors? The families who lost loved ones. The fellow workers who have now lost their livelihood.
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, December 15th, 2010 - 207 comments
Child poverty is on the rise again. My question to the National government is simple. What are you going to do to reverse this trend and lift children out of poverty? It’s your watch. What are you going to do?
Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, December 11th, 2010 - 55 comments
After parading his prejudices about for a bit, John Armstrong lauds Key as “politician of the year”. Key is popular yes, but is he actually effective? Is he a good leader? It won’t surprise you to learn that my answer is a resounding no. Care to convince me that I’m wrong? Go ahead — make your case…
Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, December 9th, 2010 - 70 comments
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