national/act government

Categories under national/act government

honeymoon (4)

Big business demands to pillage state

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 5:49 pm, October 24th, 2009 - 18 comments

Fran O’Sullivan runs up some more big business proposals today unsubtly reminding Key that big business, which put up the cash to get him into power, expects pay back by being allowed to pillage the State: Behind the scenes the two task-forces investigating capital markets and tax reforms are taking a look at whether a […]

Labour stands up for ACC

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:02 am, October 24th, 2009 - 14 comments

So – Labour have stood up for ACC. Bravo! History repeats. In the last year of the last National government (1999) they flogged off the profitable parts of ACC cover to their mates in the insurance industry (“opened ACC to competition”). The incoming Labour government reversed those changes and re-instated ACC as the sole provider […]

Colonial mentality alive and well

Written By: Michael Foxglove - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 23rd, 2009 - 8 comments

Radio NZ reports: The head of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the New Zealand Parliament wants to end self government in the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau. National MP John Hayes says self government in the islands is ‘nonsense stuff‘ and it should be sorted out. I bet a lot of Cook Islanders will […]

National announces ACC privatisation

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 5:26 pm, October 22nd, 2009 - 59 comments

National is going to privatise ACC. As part of the deal for support on its ACC cuts and levy hikes from the Maori Party and ACT, it will be privatising ACC’s Work Account (the part paid by employers for workplace accidents). First, there will be a perfunctory report provided by the ACC Stocktake Group, a […]

Reflections on the ERA

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 2:30 pm, October 22nd, 2009 - 4 comments

There’s been a fair bit of coverage of John Key’s use of the CTU conference to divide and rule over wages and announce he’ll be making it even easier for employers to sack people without going through the proper process, but it was this statement that really caught my attention: … the National Party’s election […]

Chopper chops science education

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:30 pm, October 22nd, 2009 - 24 comments

National’s Anne Tolley, our education minister who thought that taking a ‘helicopter view’ of something meant taking a ride in a chopper, is cutting education resources so we can have an additional measure of how well kids are learning. $10 million is being taken out of extra support for Science, PE, and art teaching in […]

Hide falls foul of Cabinet Manual

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:30 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 52 comments

The Cabinet Manual details the basic expectations of ministerial conduct. It is not law but it would be highly irregular for a minister to breach the Manual and keep their job. And, unlike the law, just because something is not expressly banned does not mean it’s OK. Here’s some provisions of relevance to Hide’s speeches for donations: […]

Key’s divide and rule to cut wages

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:28 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 20 comments

John Key says that if school support staff want pay-rises then teachers should sacrifice the ones they bargained for. Tell him to get stuffed. I don’t see him and his rich mates handing back the hundreds of dollars a week each in tax-cuts that National gave. I don’t see Key or his buddies Mark Weldon and Rob Fyfe […]

Hide flounders in effort to cover corruption

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:18 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 5 comments

Rodney Hide was always going to go one of two ways to try to excuse his corrupt abuse of office. Remember the facts: Hide is Local Government Minister. He will be speaking at a breakfast on Local Government issues. The breakfast is called ‘The Future of Local Government’ and the invitation promises attendees that “Minister […]

Hide’s corrupt abuse of office

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:31 am, October 21st, 2009 - 67 comments

Another government minister has been caught in corrupt behaviour, and this is arguably the worst of the lot. Rodney Hide is speaking at a breakfast in Christchurch next month. He will be speaking as minister and on his portfolio – Local Government. Local government officials have been invited to hear him. Hide is charging $45 […]

EMA busts another privatisation myth

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:00 pm, October 20th, 2009 - 32 comments

When asked to explain why they want to start privatising a world-leading institution like ACC, National and ACT tend to fall back on the excuse that it will somehow lead to lower ACC premiums. Of course, the international experience and every independent report that’s been done shows the exact opposite, but they can always point […]

Farrar says: carpe diem National

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 20th, 2009 - 13 comments

An interesting post from David Farrar calling for National to implement radical rightwing policies while it still has the support to get away with it: The long-term goal is lifting our economic growth. No. As we know, lifting GDP growth is not an end itself, even the creators of GDP said as much. The long-term […]

ACC protests send clear message to NACT

Written By: rocky - Date published: 9:13 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 8 comments

Today hundreds of people around the country marched against the cuts to sexual abuse counselling due to be implemented by ACC next week. The protests were widely covered by the media, with excellent coverage by both TVNZ and 3News. I was at the Auckland march where a couple of hundred people turned up to rally […]

Told you so: Right pushes ACC privatisation

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 57 comments

Last Thursday, Colin Espiner was mocking all of us who said that National and other rightwing groups were trying to create a sense of crisis around ACC to soften us up for privatisation: “That somehow this is all just a VRWC* to derail the ACC, lower public confidence in it, and then sell it to […]

Smith still lying with numbers

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:03 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 7 comments

Last week, David Parker asked Nick Smith what the “whole-of-life cost to ACC of all new claims” for the last year were. Smith’s answer surprised everyone because it made no sense. He told us that claims made last year alone would cost $7 billion over their lifes. If that were really so, ACC’s liablities would […]

Sharples a scapegoat for Nats’ bumbling schemers

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:19 pm, October 17th, 2009 - 10 comments

If we’re to believe National’s version of events, Pita Sharples kept secret from his colleagues that he was going to take $3 million from a contestable Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) fund meant for job initiatives and give it to Maori TV (MTS) to subsidise their World Cup bid. When it became a big story Sharples apologised […]

O’Sullivan: Key a poor manager, Smith needs to go

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:08 pm, October 17th, 2009 - 36 comments

Fran O’Sullivan’s piece today tries to resurrect the ‘Key=Obama’ line for some reason. She even refers to Obama as Key’s ‘alter ego’. I’m not quite sure she understands what the term means. Alter egos are like ying and yang, contrasting parts of the same whole. Does she think they’re one person with different personas at […]

Nick Smith plays dumb

Written By: rocky - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 15th, 2009 - 14 comments

Answering the question you wish you were asked rather than the one you were is a common PR tactic (to a point) when speaking to the media. Watching a cabinet minister try the same trick in parliament really starts to unveil this government’s contempt for democracy (though this example is perhaps not quite as bad […]

One law for all?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:44 am, October 15th, 2009 - 10 comments

Over on g.blog, toad has noticed something: If you or I steal money, it is theft. We get taken to court, and get fined or go to prison. When MPs do it, it is an ‘accounting error‘. When Cabinet Ministers do it, it is ‘not a good look‘. And when banks do it, it is […]

What a balls-up

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:38 am, October 15th, 2009 - 22 comments

Competent government’s a bit like oil in your car’s engine. It’s easy to take it for granted – until it’s not there. Look at the mess this bunch have made of a simple broadcasting rights deal. We’re going to have the six major games live on four channels, three of them free-to-air. Isn’t that just […]

March against ACC cuts

Written By: rocky - Date published: 2:30 pm, October 14th, 2009 - 5 comments

From October 27th, survivors of sexual violence will only be eligible for ACC funded counselling if they are first diagnosed with a mental illness. Firstly, you don’t need to have a mental illness to need a few counselling sessions after going through a traumatic and disempowering experience. Why should a survivor miss out on services […]

National’s subsidies for polluters to cost $73 billion

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:36 am, October 14th, 2009 - 6 comments

A newly released government paper shows that by 2050 government debt will be $54-$73 billion higher than it otherwise would be due to National’s subsidies for carbon polluters. According to the paper: Treasury has modelled these costs [the free allocations to polluters] and, while the model has limitations, they estimate that, if a 1.3% phase […]

Fool me once…

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:05 am, October 14th, 2009 - 50 comments

They say pattern recognition is a vital part of healthy cognitive function. I wonder it Sharples sees this one: Every time an issue the Maori Party cares deeply about comes up, Key makes soothing noises. Promises they’ll get what they want. Then when crunch time comes, he screws them. Fire at Will Bill – Maori […]

Beyond parody

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:05 pm, October 13th, 2009 - 13 comments

I was joking when I said all we need now is for Sharples to up the ante in the government vs government bidding war, but this government is truly beyond parody. “Just before heading into the House today Mr Sharples talked to reporters, and was clearly furious and openly critical of National. He called what […]

Beyond belief

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:39 pm, October 13th, 2009 - 23 comments

So, let me get this straight. Pita Sharples, treating his ministry’s budget like a personal slush fund, decided that TPK would give Maori TV $3 million to add to its bid for free-to-air TV rights for the Rugby World Cup. That extra $3 mil made Maori TV the front-runner to get the rights. Now, the […]

We still pay, ACC or no ACC

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:01 am, October 13th, 2009 - 25 comments

Labour’s David Parker has been a bit slow reacting to National’s latest attack on ACC but now he’s in play he has a killer point to make: if ACC cover is cut, the costs of what was paid for by ACC will still have to be paid for by society somehow. The treatments and lost […]

Lee’s fingers in the till covered up by Coleman

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:07 pm, October 12th, 2009 - 4 comments

A leak has revealed that Melissa Lee is under investigation for pilfering taxpayers’ money. Before the Mt Albert by-election she was cleared of a different rip-off, but it turns out that NZ on Air was still investigating her for keeping $100,000 of contingency funds that should have been returned to NZ on Air. Lee denies any […]

Nick pulls a Bill

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:39 pm, October 12th, 2009 - 19 comments

Nick Smith has taken a leaf out of the Double Dipton school of politics, calling journalists and swearing at them when the coverage isn’t to his liking. Now, to be fair to Smith, he’s got a point about the story the Dom published on Saturday. The story said Smith and six other MPs (all but […]

Put away the champagne, Paula

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 3:42 pm, October 5th, 2009 - 40 comments

Paula Bennett: “The number of people needing an Unemployment Benefit has slowed significantly over the last month, says the Minister for Social Development and Employment.” Here, let me correct that for you: “The growth in the number of people needing an Unemployment Benefit has slowed over the last month but still increased by 1,500 or […]

The walking dead

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 2:45 pm, October 3rd, 2009 - 23 comments

Fran O’Sullivan has laid out the business elite’s preferred successors to Bill English: At this stage English is not mortally wounded. But his reputation as one of the Mr Cleans of New Zealand politics has been damaged. And – more importantly for the Deputy Prime Minister’s political future – some of the more ambitious among […]

Corruption must never be tolerated

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 3:20 pm, October 1st, 2009 - 95 comments

I have to disagree with my comrade Zetetic’s post arguing that it’s best if Bill English stays in office. Yes, this scandal has permanently destroyed English’s credibility and I can see how having a lame duck Deputy PM and Finance Minister plays into the Left’s hands. But I do think our touchstone should always be […]