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3 strikes law could increase murders – Nats’ secret official advice
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 am, April 20th, 2010 - 159 comments
The Government has received advice from the Ministry of Justice on its ‘three strikes’ legislation. It reveals such a horrendous risk of passing the law that any government should have abandoned it immediately. Instead, Simon Power was shuffled out of the way, Justice was muzzled, & the advice was suppressed. Until now.
NZ hero still prisoner of the Japanese State
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, April 18th, 2010 - 100 comments
Pete Bethune is one of New Zealand’s heroes. He’s been a successful entrepreneur and gone on to use his wealth to fight the big guys on the grounds of principle. As skipper of the New Zealand flagged hi-tech boat Earthrace, his circumnavigation attempts showcased kiwi ingenuity to the world and demonstrated the value of bio-fuels to […]
Nat-onomics: $30 million up in flames
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, April 17th, 2010 - 11 comments
Vernon Small calculates that if the Cullen Fund had continued getting its monthly contributions, rather than just the one-off $250 million the government gave in July, we would be $30 million better off by now. Predictably, the financially illiterate Key apologists are having a cry about being shown to have stuffed this one up so badly.
Restart Cullen Fund payments
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, April 16th, 2010 - 24 comments
It’s time for the Nats to reverse what Vernon Small (with 20/20 hindsight) has labeled the “dumb, short-sighted decision” to can contributions to the Cullen Fund. We’ve already lost $25 million and Treasury says we’ll lose billions more. If we don’t make this investment now, superannuation will become unsustainable sometime after 2030. Perhaps that’s the Nats’ aim.
Goff slams Nats’ record
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, April 15th, 2010 - 8 comments
This is a government that has failed to do anything apart from favours for its rich mates. But it’s still startling to see it all laid out. In his speech to the Grey Power AGM, Goff went through the failures of Key and co after less than a year and a half – an amazingly long list for such a short time. Goff is on the money when he points to the cause: National governs for the few, not the many.
John Carter: sleeper-agent for the Left?
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 pm, April 12th, 2010 - 20 comments
How dumb was John Carter to use his speech at the Grey Power National Conference to have a cry because Grey Power’s participating in an inquiry into aged care by Labour, the Greens, and the Progressives? You don’t try to bully Grey Power with its 100,000 members. The grey voters will be leaving National in droves.
National’s rock and hard place
Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, April 12th, 2010 - 23 comments
National’s proposed reform of the foreshore and seabed legislation is no ‘elegant solution’. Instead, it is being criticised in the business press as an undemocratic favouring of Maori business interests over Pakeha ones, while iwi are saying that it doesn’t give them what they want.
Confidence in Key govt falls off a cliff
Written By: - Date published: 12:42 am, April 12th, 2010 - 20 comments
Smile and wave is easy enough in the first year, people are willing to give you a chance. But at some point, the public expects a government to get to work tackling the big problems. National displays no will or ability to do so. In just two months, 1 in 8 Kiwis has switched from thinking the country is heading in the right direction under Key to thinking things are getting worse.
Foreshore and seabed a new ball game
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, April 11th, 2010 - 19 comments
National is offering significant new concessions on the foreshore and seabed. It’s a whole new ball game. Coming on top of Whanau Ora its second big win in a row for the Maori Party. Is this it? Will there be an agreed solution? Can the country put this issue behind it?
National’s Magnificent Seven
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, April 8th, 2010 - 49 comments
A while ago at a barbeque a couple of friends were discussing the “Seven Good Pairs of Hands Theory”, namely, that a good government only needs seven very good people at its core to run effectively. Indeed, more than seven can often be problematic because of competition issues, but that isn’t usually a problem in New […]
State enforced amnesia
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, April 6th, 2010 - 7 comments
John Key’s National government has, in its infinite wisdom, decided to subsume Archives New Zealand and the National Library within the Department of Internal Affairs. With typical ideological one-eyedness that necessitates a blithe disregard for constitutional values, the merger is likely to have some fairly dire consequences for anyone who considers it important that a […]
Key’s promises on crime
Written By: - Date published: 6:53 am, April 5th, 2010 - 58 comments
John Key makes big promises and he doesn’t deliver. Tax cuts North of $50? Jobs summit? Close the gap with Australia? His rhetoric on crime is another example. Key promised to tackle violent crime. Key promised a war on P. Well, the first report card is in, and it isn’t good.
Nats fail on crime
Written By: - Date published: 2:07 am, April 4th, 2010 - 45 comments
Regular readers of The Standard will know that a primary driver of crime is joblessness. It’s no surprise, therefore, to see that crime went up in the last year. Fewer jobs to go around = more crime. Crime is a symptom of socio-economic distress. It is not, primarily, ‘bad’ people behaving badly because they are […]
What the foreshore and seabed is really about
Written By: - Date published: 1:25 am, April 4th, 2010 - 41 comments
Iwi do not want legal recognition of some kind of fuzzy spirital connection with the foreshore and seabed. They want legal recognition of property rights, rights to use the economic potential of what they regard as their property. For Maori rights activists, National’s offer cannot be seen as anything other than a continued denial of the rights that the Maori Party was created to win back
Over-promise, under-deliver
Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, March 31st, 2010 - 7 comments
The Key Government is constantly promising us great results and actually do nothing that improves things for New Zealanders. English, Bennett, Brownlee, and Tolley are prime examples of this MO. While they promise great things and fail to deliver unemployment is rising, wages are falling, crime is up, and the government has no plan to move us forward.
Maori Party ambushed
Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, March 30th, 2010 - 29 comments
The Maori Party says it was ambushed on National’s welfare reform policy, which Tariana Turia opposes. The Minister and the Associate Minister are at odds on the issue. Does this mean that the Maori Party will be making a stand? Don’t hold your breath…
Beneficiary bashing – an inglorious National sport
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, March 30th, 2010 - 30 comments
Lifted from comments for wider reading by commentator acclaim.. Beneficiary bashing in this country is definitely becoming uglier by the day. It seems that Paula Bennett’s attacks on beneficiaries seemingly condoned by the Prime Minister has given prejudice free reign in the country. It is now permissible to demonize a vulnerable group in society based […]
Mining secret agenda emerging
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 pm, March 29th, 2010 - 12 comments
It’s becoming clear that National had their policy to mine on protected land all planned before the election and hid the truth from the public because they feared it would make them unelectable. National needs to front up with the records of their pre-election discussions with the mining industry. Labour should challenge them to come clean in the House today.
Nats fail to keep biggest promise (and the rest)
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, March 29th, 2010 - 51 comments
The economy finally managed to grow faster than the population in the December quarter but it was still slower than Australia. With weak growth, wages falling in inflation-adjusted terms, and unemployment now 2% higher than in Australia and rising the question has to be asked: when is John Key going to keep his promise to close the gap with Australia?
Three strikes?
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, March 25th, 2010 - 19 comments
Among the reports released by the Attorney General, three in particular make for interesting reading. They relate to three of National’s core policies — three strikes, automatic DNA testing, and “getting tough” on beneficiaries. The Attorney General finds that each of these policies is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act.
‘Dig & hope’ – Nats’ great plan
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, March 25th, 2010 - 43 comments
National’s mining policy is ‘dig and hope’. That’s the only conclusion one can draw after Gerry Brownlee and Nick Smith admitted National has no idea of the value of the minerals supposedly under the protected lands they want to dig up. Remember, this is National’s lynch-pin economic policy. They are we have dig up these protected lands for the sake of the economy but have no idea of what’s there.
Another big empty promise
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, March 20th, 2010 - 41 comments
Education Minister Anne Tolley has made an extraordinary promise: “New Zealand elected a Government that promised to introduce national standards so that every single child could read, write, and do maths when they left school. That is what the country voted for.” We would all love to see National deliver, but they can’t, and they know that they can’t. It’s an empty promise.
Make that man a minister
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, March 12th, 2010 - 42 comments
British American Tabacco’s Graeme Amey has the brazen lie down pat. The guy quit smoking himself but wants Kiwis to keep smoking and dying to make his company profits. When asked why he quit he said “it was just a personal choice”. But why? “It was just a personal choice”. Yeah. Was that personal choice […]
The cruelest cuts
Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, March 12th, 2010 - 8 comments
Cuts to prisoner rehabilitation, night classes, and the Super Gold Card aren’t about saving money. The government is only too happy to sign blank cheques for stupid projects like Transmission Gully and the Holiday Highway on the vaguest cost estimates. No, these successful policies are having the financial life bled out of them because they contradict National’s ideology.
Education cuts good for kids in bizarro Tolley world
Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, March 11th, 2010 - 20 comments
Have a listen to Education Minister Anne Tolley on Morning Report today trying to explain the $25 million cut to the education budget.
It really was a shocker, even for her.
High unemployment helps Nats keep wages down
Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, March 11th, 2010 - 21 comments
While other countries have used their strong public sectors to steady the private sector and keep unemployment down during the economic downturn, our government is compounding unemployment by cutting the public sector, throwing people out of jobs and feeding worker insecurity.
But how much did the bus cost?
Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, March 10th, 2010 - 24 comments
“Tolley finds ally in school mum” screams the headline of Audrey Young’s piece today.
When National runs a bus tour the Herald is desperate in its attempts to drum up support, when it’s Labour all they want to talk about is how much the bus is costing the taxpayer.
Who were the Nat leakers?
Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, March 9th, 2010 - 40 comments
Michael is dead right. The most important thing about the Hollow Men is not how Nicky Hager got the information but what the information is. It reveals National’s modern politics in all its unprincipled ugliness. Nonetheless, which Nats gave Hager the information is a subject of legitimate interest. I have some theories.
Meanwhile, at nationalmps.co.nz…
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, March 9th, 2010 - 19 comments
Remember how a couple of months back National set up NationalMPs? It was meant to be their answer to Red Alert, Labour’s frequently raucous, unstagemanaged blog where Labour’s MPs write what they want. But the Nats’ attempt is deadly dull. Either the leadership is gagging them or the Nat MPs are dreadful bores.
Where are Hide & Key on Garrett comments?
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, March 4th, 2010 - 99 comments
Colin Espiner reports that Rodney Hide has gone into his shell as outrage over David Garrett’s appalling sterilisation comments builds. Since Irish broke the story of Garrett’s comments yesterday, it has spread like wildfire through the blogosphere and the msm. And nowhere will you find a reaction from anyone in ACT or from their coalition partners.
National’s vision: employment without dignity
Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, March 3rd, 2010 - 52 comments
National’s latest proposals to strip away workers’ protections against unfair dismissal must surely put to bed any idea that this is a moderate, centrist government.
The proposals are a breach of National’s election promises and go further than even the ECA. They are a charter for employment without dignity.
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