national
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- same old national (1,617)
ACT: bought by the Nats for a song
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, April 29th, 2011 - 123 comments
The Left are rubbing our hands with glee at the prospect of taking on BrashKey, but make no mistake, Key wanted this coup too. Think about it: former Nat Leader Don Brash, former Nat Minister John Banks, Nat money man Alan Gibbs, former Nat President Michelle Boag – and it goes down while John Key is far away playing smile and wave in Europe.
National cuts safety nets
Written By: - Date published: 6:24 am, April 29th, 2011 - 34 comments
National continue to target the vulnerable with their cuts. Their latest moves in cutting the budgets of Womens’ Refuges and a national Self-Defence course for girls are merely the latest example.
National lines ruined…
Written By: - Date published: 4:22 pm, April 28th, 2011 - 64 comments
Some National memes that they’ve been running against the opposition parties are somewhat ruined by A Brash Act…
Emergency housing
Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, April 22nd, 2011 - 46 comments
Here’s some images of emergency housing from Japan and from Christchurch. I wonder if you can spot the difference.
ECE costs increasing
Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, April 21st, 2011 - 19 comments
The Nats’ attack on early childhood education (ECE) is starting to bite. As surely as night follows day, the cuts in funding for childcare centres are showing up as increased costs for parents.
Expansionary austerity – fail
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 21st, 2011 - 32 comments
Expansionary austerity is the idea that cutbacks in government spending can stimulate economic growth. Empirical evidence shows that it doesn’t work. Current experience shows that it’s not working in Britain, and it isn’t working here. Like “trickle down economics” this favourite of the political Right is not so much a theory as a deluded fantasy.
Climate change: Our $1.2 billion a year credibility gap
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, April 20th, 2011 - 14 comments
The United Nations joins those voices pointing out that Nationals”policy” on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a complete sham. Reposted from No Right Turn.
The emperor’s new clothes
Written By: - Date published: 7:38 am, April 20th, 2011 - 106 comments
Fancy suits for John.
User pays family court for us.
Epsom a done deal
Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 43 comments
Recently Irish Bill wrote on the Nats’ dilemma in Epsom. Looks the deal is now done, and predictably Key has decided that he needs ACT’s numbers (however small).
Key SCF excuses fall flat
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 10 comments
Michael Bott takes John Key to task for his claims over the South Canterbury Finance debacle. Key and English have tried to blame Labour for the deposit guarantee that covered SCF. But the truth is that National extended SCF’s coverage under the scheme again and again, despite knowing that SCF was in breach of the rules.
Inflation credit and blame
Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, April 18th, 2011 - 11 comments
Back in October last year the Nats, in a sea of bad news on the economy, latched on to the low inflation rate as something that they could claim “credit” for. No doubt they will now be just as ready to accept blame for the worst inflation rate in 20 years. Almost half of this figure is driven by the Nats’ GST increase…
Winnie’s big chance
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 18th, 2011 - 58 comments
The TV3 poll has the NACT vs Lab/Green/NZF gap at 22% vs 9% in the latest Roy Morgan. I’ll tend to pay attention to the company that polls every fortnight to the one that polls once in a blue moon. Nevertheless, the story of both polls is the same: Labour struggling to make headway + Nats potentially with a majority = opportunity for Winston Peters
Armstrong on Nats’ elitist agenda
Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, April 16th, 2011 - 7 comments
National has pillaged the poor to benefit the rich. That can be seen in the tax cuts, the GST hike, the subsidies for climate polluters, even the cuts to public transport to fund holiday highways. But sometimes it’s the smaller stories that best expose the underlying theme of a government, as John Armstrong shows in his piece today.
You’re an internet pirate
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, April 14th, 2011 - 37 comments
Last night the Nats were ramming their new copyright bill through under urgency. Like the much reviled Labour bill that preceded it, it contains the assumption of guilt by accusation. There are already calls for repeats of the 2009 blackout protest…
Reasons to vote against CERA
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 14th, 2011 - 77 comments
Update: bollocks. Clayton Cosgrove has announced Labour will vote for CERA “even though we have grave concerns”. He then spent 10 minutes whining how Brownlee had lied to Labour repeatedly during this process and wasn’t to be trusted. He warned Brownlee he would be accountable if CERA stuffs up. Brownlee responded “so will you”. Labour wonders why it is stuck in National’s shadow unable to get traction – It’s decisions like this one.
Better off with National?
Written By: - Date published: 2:26 pm, April 13th, 2011 - 27 comments
National is making most New Zealand households worse off – 5.3% worse off after 2 years, and it’ll be even worse once the 3rd year’s data is out. As the wage gap with Australia grows, this government is failing its “fundamental purpose”.
Footnote: legal aid.
Pragmatism and the limits of patience
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, April 13th, 2011 - 20 comments
Bill English managed to cause quite a fuss this week with his claim that New Zealand had a “competitive advantage” due to factors like our low wage economy. Another of the factors that English cited was how “pragmatic” the public are as the Nats ram through their economic changes…
Bill English: man of the people
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, April 11th, 2011 - 19 comments
The Crown BMWs are back in the news. One will have a $1000 underseat heater to keep a worthy’s arse toasty. Based in Dunedin. For “long-distance and long-duration movements”. Hmm. Who flies to Dunedin for a 3 hour drive to Dipton occasionally? Guess you need that heater against the Southern cold when you’re used to balmy Karori.
Key caught in MediaWorks lie
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, April 9th, 2011 - 85 comments
Following the release of OIA documentation and questioning in the House, John Key has recanted his earlier statement that he hadn’t met with MediaWork’s Brent Impey to discuss a $43 million Government loan. The PM has now admitted that he did indeed meet with the head of Steven Joyce’s former company MediaWorks, which owns TV3, TV4, […]
Little impact from Hughes affair, NZF on the rise
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 pm, April 8th, 2011 - 50 comments
The latest Roy Morgan poll shows little impact from the Darren Hughes affair to date. We still don’t know how the investigation will play out but the poll suggests dithering leadership matters less than economic fundamentals. The big news, though, is that New Zealand First would be back under these numbers.
John Key: let me eat cake
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, April 8th, 2011 - 68 comments
Labour’s candidate for Wairarapa, Michael Bott, on this out of touch government: “John Key smiles and waves for the cameras in Christchurch then jumps on a plane to Cape Kidnappers to spend the equivalent of a pensioner’s yearly income on one-off novelty dining with his wife – you can’t get more different than that.”
Brownlee, you’re doing a heck of a job
Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, April 8th, 2011 - 56 comments
The Nats are taking far too long to act on accommodation after the Christchurch quake. Japan accomplished more in 2 weeks than we have so far managed in 6 weeks and counting. While they build, we dither…
Armstrong on “Austerity”
Written By: - Date published: 5:24 pm, April 7th, 2011 - 12 comments
John Armstrong is losing patience with the Nats: “National is certainly consistent when it comes to cutting spending. It consistently fails to practise what it preaches…”
Nice to have
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, April 7th, 2011 - 25 comments
The PSA is the frontline in our fight against National’s plans to savagely cut our public services. Much in the same vein as the sticker campaign that Eddie posted on yesterday, the PSA has used humour to get across an incisive message: what the rich elitists in National consider ‘nice to have’ is very different from what we value.
Please advise
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?
Economy
Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, April 3rd, 2011 - 84 comments
The economy, shall we say politely, is facing some difficulties. With a National government there was no plan as to how to weather the economic storm, we just got tax cuts for the rich and an economy that just can’t get growing.
Brownlee wrong for Christchuch
Written By: - Date published: 4:46 pm, March 28th, 2011 - 19 comments
Gerry Brownlee is making a mess of the rebuilding of Christchurch. In the latest fiasco, the person Brownlee tapped to head the new earthquake recovery authority apparently can’t face the prospect of working with him.
Flat as a pancake
Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, March 24th, 2011 - 59 comments
The economy grew just 0.2% in the December quarter, enough to avoid the technical definition of recession but did it feel like that for you? No. It felt like recession because the economic pie grew slower than the population. National’s economic record is GDP per capita 5% below its peak and down another 0.6% between […]
Informed consent
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, March 23rd, 2011 - 47 comments
Owners of businesses in the red zone CBD want brief access to their premises to retrieve items and data that are vital to whatever remaining chance they have of keeping their enterprises alive. The government is refusing access on the grounds of safety. There’s right on both sides of the issue, but whatever happened to informed consent?
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