national
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- same old national (1,617)
The bigots beneath
Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, September 17th, 2009 - 39 comments
Last night, Sandra Goudie, the big-mouth of the National Party caucus, said the words out loud that the Nats usually keep in their heads. During the debate on the Supercity, one of the Labour MPs was talking about the success of Maori seats in the Bay of Plenty and how other councillors didn’t object. Goudie […]
Short term thinkers
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, September 16th, 2009 - 27 comments
It never ceases to amaze me what short term thinkers National are. The plan (with the Maori Party) to gut the ETS highlights this issue very starkly. For the sake of short term appeasement of their backers in the polluting industries National are prepared to abandon the much more important long term considerations. Considerations like […]
Taxpayer shafted again
Written By: - Date published: 3:53 pm, September 15th, 2009 - 52 comments
National seems to be making a bit of a habit of shafting the taxpayer. Before the election we were promised significant tax cuts, “North of $50” per week. We had John Key’s personal guarantee. Key said “New Zealanders will be able to believe our tax cuts, they will be able to trust our tax cuts…”. […]
No deal
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, September 15th, 2009 - 22 comments
Hot Topic has obtained a copy of a draft memorandum of understanding for a meeting on the ETS that was meant to take place today. It shows that Labour was prepared to do more to help compensate polluters for the costs they would have faced while still paying a price for polluting, thereby still incentivising reductions […]
Maori Party to help Nats kill carbon emissions cap
Written By: - Date published: 5:15 pm, September 14th, 2009 - 78 comments
Nick Smith has just announced a deal with the Maori Party to replace the existing Emissions Trading Scheme with a do-nothing joke. The new ETS will allocate polluting rights (carbon credits) free to polluters for the first years and then at a low capped price thereafter. Agriculture, source of 50% of our greenhouse pollution, will not be […]
Be bold on smoking
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, September 14th, 2009 - 21 comments
Very good piece by Anthony Hubbard in the Sunday Star Times: The Maori Party is pressuring the government to take tough new anti-smoking measures including a hefty price rise and a ban on retail displays and is calling for a select committee inquiry to “bring these bastards from the tobacco companies out in the open”. […]
A rort is a rort is a rort
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, September 8th, 2009 - 48 comments
And by any other name it smells as bad. John Key has annouced a reform of the rules for ministerial accommodation allowance. A fixed, automatic allowance will now be paid to all out of Wellington ministers of $37,500 a year for their Wellington accomodation (or $30,000 if they own the house), slightly less than the highest spending ministers […]
Snake oil
Written By: - Date published: 1:16 pm, August 25th, 2009 - 18 comments
I’m surprised that the Maori Party have rolled over so easily on the issue of Maori seats on the Auckland council. I will be even more surprised if the Maori people follow suit. Because they have every right to be angry. Remember what Key said of the Hikoi? The hikoi was sparked over the dumping […]
More National sleeze
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, August 19th, 2009 - 62 comments
There’s been an attempt to force Peter Goodfellow, the brand new President of the National Party, to step down. The move came from the party’s board, worried that negative news around Goodfellow would damage the party if he hangs around. However, it looks like John Key has decided to back Goodfellow and that’s put the […]
Which one’s true, Bill?
Written By: - Date published: 2:32 pm, August 6th, 2009 - 13 comments
According to the Speaker, Bill English MP’s “primary place of residence” is in Dipton because Bill has told him it is. But according to the Registrar of companies, Bill the shareholder of Resolution Farms‘ “full residential address” is in Wellington because Bill has told them it is. The Companies Act requires shareholders to provide a […]
English lives where Lockwood says
Written By: - Date published: 1:31 pm, August 6th, 2009 - 7 comments
Allowances for MPs accommodation are made according to the Speaker’s determinations. An MP’s “primary place of residence” is where the Speaker says it is. Page 18 of the determination gives the definition: primary place of residence,— (a) in relation to a member, means the place of residence that the Speaker determines, by written notice to […]
Uncowed
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, August 6th, 2009 - 9 comments
Shh. Hear that sound? It’s National’s mud throwing machine gearing up again. Inevitably, they’ve released Labour’s ministers’ spending. No evidence of any rort but the big numbers work into the media narrative. It’s all about taking the focus off ministers ripping us off by taking allowances they shouldn’t and making it ‘gosh, everyone spends lots huh?’. […]
The house built on sand
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, August 6th, 2009 - 26 comments
English, now known by the moniker Double Dipton, has decided to give back half the amount to has rorted so far from the taxpayer. Rather than claim the full ministers’ allowance, he’ll pocket ‘only’ $24,000 a year for living in his own family home, thank you very much. His claim that he didn’t know he could charge […]
One law for all?
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 5th, 2009 - 46 comments
Are you? a disgraced former minister who resigned from Parliament in shame? a National MP who rents from a National minister (Judith Collins or Anne Tolley for example), claiming that expense back from the taxpayer while the minister simultaneously rents another place, again on the taxpayer’s tab? a private citizen who dares to publicly oppose […]
Worth the Bill
Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, August 5th, 2009 - 35 comments
What would you call it when you collect $900 a week by false pretenses? What would you call it when you tell the Electoral Commission and Ministerial Services that you live somewhere other than where you, your partner and your children actually live and work? And if you did those things while holding an office presumably subject […]
3News on National Ministers double-dipping
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 pm, August 4th, 2009 - 54 comments
3News covers the story of National Ministers double-dipping at the taxpayers’ expense. UPDATE: ‘BLiP’ has bestowed a new title on Bill English: “Sir Double Dipton”. Gold.
Accountability then and now…
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 4th, 2009 - 47 comments
Then: Labour Minister David Parker accused of financial wrongdoing (filing incorrect returns). He resigns Ministerial portfolios and as Attorney General while the Companies Office investigates. Cleared of all wrongdoing (the returns were correct) and later reinstated as a Minister. Now: National Minister Richard Worth accused of financial wrongdoing (using Ministerial position to seek personal gain). […]
More snouts in the trough
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, August 4th, 2009 - 78 comments
More Nats have been exposed rorting the out of town allowance for ministers. Bludger Bill is claiming the allowance for living in his own house. The others are claiming because they felt like fancier digs. McCully, Groser, Heatley, and David Carter all own homes in Wellington but have moved out of them into more expensive […]
One of these things is not like the other VI
Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, August 4th, 2009 - 48 comments
One of these things is not like the other One of these things is not quite the same. Can you guess which one is not like the other Can you tell me before I finish the game?
Use of weapons
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, July 31st, 2009 - 89 comments
I’ve been thinking about the different ways ministers from the Left and the Right approach governing. I think it goes back to where they come from, where their ideological roots are. Ministers from Labour and other leftwing parties tend to have backgrounds in serving a wider community. Teachers, professors, union officials, public servants. Those roles […]
Straight answers? Short supply.
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, July 29th, 2009 - 12 comments
Here’s Bennett’s answer to Chauvel’s question in the House yesterday: Charles Chauvel: Was the Minister advised that the individuals concerned had given implied consent to the release of their personal information; if so, on the basis of what precedent; if not, why did the Minister not take advice on that point? Hon PAULA BENNETT: I […]
This is the secret agenda
Written By: - Date published: 10:13 pm, July 23rd, 2009 - 28 comments
Remember the mantra about John Key being a centrist? Doesn’t get much play nowadays does it? And it shouldn’t. Not with the government cutting spending while unemployment rises, dragging Brash and Rankin back from the grave, spending large on private schools, contracting out public services, tax cuts for the rich and the snouts-in-troughs sham that […]
Talking shite
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, July 22nd, 2009 - 28 comments
Right wing rhetoric can be absurdly stupid at times. IrishBill recently reminded us how crazy things were getting near the last election: One of my favourites was Hooton arguing that a fourth term Labour government would abolish the free press! Then there’s the pet attack bloggers, “dragging the discourse to new lows, with vicious, juvenile, […]
It’s Brash
Written By: - Date published: 1:44 pm, July 21st, 2009 - 38 comments
The government has just confirmed Don Brash will head the “productivity” group. Expect a lot of talk about “labour market flexibility” and the like. We’ve been here once and it was shit. Now we’re going back for more.
Credit where credit’s due
Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, July 13th, 2009 - 16 comments
You may have noticed that we’ve taken to offering Labour a little unsolicited comms advice of late. Irish recently told them to get some decent key lines. I asked them (as have many others) to start talking about their vision, and when they do, to keep it simple. Phil Goff’s latest video (below) looks like a step […]
Toast
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, July 12th, 2009 - 34 comments
What a horrifying sight today’s Q+A interview with Minister of Food Safety Kate Wilkinson made. It was a shameful performance from a media point of view, with Wilkinson looking ineffectual, implausible and well out of her depth. But from a political point of view it was gobsmacking. Wilkinson enthusiastically admitted that she didn’t agree with new […]
Symbol or substance?
Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, July 7th, 2009 - 28 comments
It seems to me that National has fundamentally misunderstood what the foreshore and seabed debate is about. Key’s statements yesterday suggest it is about a mere symbolical recognition of an iwi’s traditional ties to sections of foreshore and seabed. It’s not. He seems to think it’s about beaches. It’s not. He seems to equate mana […]
A “Charter for Blackmail and rent-seeking by Maori interests”
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, July 3rd, 2009 - 16 comments
Further to my post yesterday, a reader sent in this quote from 2004: Mr English’s view was not [National’s] official line. As expressed by strategist Murray McCully, it is that the bill is a “charter for blackmail and rent-seeking by Maori interests”. Let’s be clear. National opposed the Foreshore & Seabed Act because they thought […]
Cowardice, bigotry and saying whatever it takes
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 2nd, 2009 - 77 comments
I’ll be glad to see the back of the Foreshore & Seabed Act. For many on the Left, including myself, its been a monument to Labour’s failure of nerve in the face of a campaign by National to exploit the underlying racism of Pakeha New Zealand for electoral gain. Yes, there was a certain electoral […]
Tories fearing Goff
Written By: - Date published: 3:54 pm, June 30th, 2009 - 38 comments
The last few Question Times, the Tories have been whipping out old Goff quotes. Patsies are set to bring them out. Key goes off on wild side-tracks as an excuse to use them. Labour asks serious questions like ‘what are you doing about jobs’ and get back: ‘In 1986, Goff said we have to get the […]
Bugger the polls
Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, June 29th, 2009 - 34 comments
With every new cock-up or dereliction of duty from this Key government, righties point to the Roy Morgan polls and say ‘seems the voters don’t care’. It’s true that National is still polling around 50% in the Roy Morgan and parties’ internal polls. Yet the old hands in the Left aren’t too worried. Short of […]
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