national
Categories under national
- same old national (1,617)
Still stuck in the slow lane
Written By: - Date published: 5:42 pm, April 6th, 2009 - 44 comments
In the Dom Post today Tom Pullar-Strecker calls Steven Joyce’s recently announced broadband fibre plans: old wine in new bottles – a backdown on the ambitions sketched out by National before the election, which were arguably always too grandiose. Managing the expectations they raised during the campaign was always going to be a problem for […]
Messy play at Playcentre
Written By: - Date published: 3:52 pm, April 6th, 2009 - 20 comments
Playcentre was founded during the second world war as a way for families (mainly mothers) to support each other while providing quality child-centred pre-school education for their children. This the was era of the innovative educational ideas of Fraser and Beeby and the Playcentre concept was developed by Beatrice Beeby and her friends while Dr […]
Who’s zooming who?
Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, April 5th, 2009 - 27 comments
The Herald reports: Last week John Key used poor United States sales of the new BMW 7-series – 10 were sold in February, compared with more than 1500 in the same 2008 month – as an example of how much other countries were hurting in the economic crisis. But New Zealand… sales of the top-of-the-line […]
Regurgitating rubbish
Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, April 2nd, 2009 - 10 comments
On his blog Colin Espiner rejects the argument that National’s tax cuts are “unfair because they give more to those who earn more” saying “I’m afraid that’s the nature of progressive taxation”. That’s what National politicians say too. It’s wrong. There are infinite tax cuts one could devise that don’t give more to the well off. Cut the […]
Happy tax cut day?
Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, April 1st, 2009 - 58 comments
The tax cuts that National are implementing today are more generous to high income earners, and less generous to low income earners, than the tax cuts that they cancelled (Labour’s already legislated for package, see for example here, here, here and here). That’s business as usual for National, stiffing those with genuine need to take […]
Mayday Mayday, Worth’s bought it and I’m losing altitude – Groser out
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 1st, 2009 - 36 comments
Richard Worth, OBE, is now in very serious trouble having been snared in what looks like untruths about using his Ministerial portfolio to further the interests of a company he had a private commercial interest in. It’s pretty blatant and really Key won’t be able to get away with keeping him on for much longer. […]
Sean Plunket, “interviewer”
Written By: - Date published: 11:44 am, March 31st, 2009 - 19 comments
I’ve just listened to Sean Plunket interview Goff this morning. It was actually less of an interview and more an exercise in running cover for Richard Worth. And of course it’s not the first time Plunket has gone feral when National has been in trouble. A couple of weeks ago, he was demanding Labour produce […]
Stink line
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, March 26th, 2009 - 10 comments
Now “PC gone mad” has been used to the point where even people who think mimicking Tui’s “yeah right” slogan is cutting edge irony wouldn’t be seen dead using the phrase, National has needed to come up with something else to do the job. Because let’s face it, you need to keep creating the impression […]
Lord Ashcroft woz here
Written By: - Date published: 4:33 pm, March 25th, 2009 - 17 comments
Boing Boing reports that: The London police have bested their own impressive record for insane and stupid anti-terrorism posters with a new range of signs advising Londoners to go through each others’ trash-bins looking for “suspicious” chemical bottles, and to report on one another for “studying CCTV cameras.” It’s hard to imagine a worse, more […]
National gives animal rights the chop
Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, March 24th, 2009 - 34 comments
Looks like National has more than workers’ rights on the chopping block. Animal rights activists are up in arms at Agriculture Minister David Carter’s plan to scrap the six-year moratorium on live sheep exports. Live sheep exports were stopped in 2004 after 5000 sheep died on an Australian ship bound for Saudi Arabia. Any one else […]
Clawback
Written By: - Date published: 6:44 pm, March 23rd, 2009 - 39 comments
That’s John Key speaking about Labour’s new fourth week of leave legislation back when the Nats thought they were going to win in 2005. His plan was to take your fourth week off you before it started happening in 2007 because that way you wouldn’t miss it. Now they’re trying plan “b” – put your […]
The tiniest rolling maul in the world
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 pm, March 22nd, 2009 - 18 comments
So the pressure is building for National to get specific about it’s plans for fighting the recession. Therese Arseneau complained on Q+A today that Key has “no action plan”. Even Phil O’Reilly from Business New Zealand seemed to agree there wasn’t a clear plan. After all the money spent on National’s ‘Jobs Summit’ the extent […]
Redistributing the wealth
Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, March 20th, 2009 - 104 comments
In a speech to the International Fiscal Association Conference today, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said the Government’s goal over the next 18 months is to start moving towards a top personal tax rate of 30%. This would be a whopping 9% cut from the current top tax rate, almost exclusively going to the rich, and […]
90 axed at TVNZ
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, March 16th, 2009 - 56 comments
In what’s turning out to be the gift that just keeps on giving for National, the Recession Bogeyman is now being blamed for a need to axe 90 staff from TVNZ. The Minister for Broadcasting reckons the cuts are necessary to make sure TVNZ keeps returing a fat dividend, even in these extraordinary times, even […]
A bunch of clowns
Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, March 15th, 2009 - 17 comments
Poor old Nick Smith. Not only is he stuck peddling long-disproved lies about ACC but now it seems he can’t even get a simple procedure like sacking Ross Wilson right. According to the Sunday Star Times Smith hadn’t managed to properly sack Wilson by midday Friday and may not even have managed it so far: […]
National to increase foreign ownership
Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 39 comments
Newstalk ZB reports: The Prime Minister is keen to open the door to foreign investors. In a speech to the Act Party conference today, John Key said a review of the Overseas Investment Act will be announced by Finance Minister Bill English next week. The review aims to create an overseas investment screening regime that […]
See no evil
Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 2 comments
I’ve been meaning to write something about the private prisons bill for a couple of days as it’s a recipe for barbarity. But I’ve decided there’s no way I could do a better job of it than I/S has at No Right Turn, so I’m just going to repeat his whole post here. (hopefully he […]
The guy’s tired already
Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, March 13th, 2009 - 65 comments
If there’s one thing that strikes you about John Key’s post-cabinet press conference this week, it isn’t the scintillating prose or erudite diction. It isn’t even the brilliant plans brimming with enthusiasm, intelligence and vision. What’s remarkable is that the guy looks exhausted. He’s been in the job all of 3 months, extended holidays in Hawaii not withstanding, […]
Espiner nails it
Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, March 11th, 2009 - 15 comments
In his blog today Colin Espiner points out how National has quickly moved a lot further to the right than they portrayed themselves as pre-election: After following the script for the First 100 Days to the letter, National is now branching out into things that, um, weren’t in the script. Labour Lite? Not any more. […]
Ye olde royal titles
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, March 11th, 2009 - 28 comments
Brian Rudman has a good piece this morning on the Earl of Auckland’s backwards-looking decision to reinstate a “ridiculous regime of titles dating back to feudal times”. The best quote’s from Sister Pauline (herself a Distinguished Companion of the NZ Order of Merit): I can’t believe the Government is tinkering around with this kind of thing […]
Private prisons and the ‘tough on crime’ lobby
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, March 10th, 2009 - 31 comments
One of the features of a privatised prison system is the potential for corruption of the political process by the commercial interests of private prison operators. Thanks to Tom in the comments it’s come to light that GEO Group, the company formerly known as Wackenhut and main contendor for National’s privatised prisons, has funded ‘tough […]
The Wall Street Journal gets it
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, March 9th, 2009 - 55 comments
Despite all the claims of “centrist” and “centre-right” none other than the the Wall Street Journal has pointed out that John Key’s government is very much a hard-right neo-liberal outfit: Mr. Key is returning the country to a formula for prosperity that’s worked in the past. As in Britain, the U.S. and Australia in the […]
No free trade deal
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 pm, March 8th, 2009 - 33 comments
The Obama administration has halted free trade talks with New Zealand. On one hand free trade is simply increased freedom of capital and without equivalent freedom of labour lends itself toward increased disparity between rich and poor. On the other hand Douglas and his neo-liberal thugs left us with no protections at all in the […]
PM eyes fetching tiara
Written By: - Date published: 6:14 pm, March 8th, 2009 - 61 comments
The world may be going to hell in a hand-basket and National may have been pretty derelict so far in coming up with any real plan to combat the recession, but clearly they’ve been busy focusing on the really important business of dragging us back into the past. The British titles of Knights and Dames […]
Meat and Wool NZ: “Job Summit Disappointing”
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, March 6th, 2009 - 18 comments
It’s been said by some of the Government’s supporters that criticism of the Job Summit is nothing more than rantings of the embittered Left. Well, I may be doing Chairman of Meat and Wool NZ Mike Petersen a great disservice, but I’m willing to gamble that he’s not a hardcore lefty. Here’s what Petersen had […]
Some cold day in hell
Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, March 5th, 2009 - 30 comments
Observant msm spectators may have noticed this gem from TV1 news last night: ‘A radical shake-up of the controversial Seabed and Foreshore Act is on the cards it could result in new powers for Maori to test their rights in court, but John Key is vowing no New Zealander will lose their access to the […]
National’s newspeak
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, March 5th, 2009 - 15 comments
When he’s not hard at work protecting the profits of tobacco giants by helping them peddle smokes to your kids, Ryall’s having a go at his own version of Newspeak. Stuff reports that there’s a list of banned words currently circulating in the Health Ministry. The list includes “public health, social change, inequalities and advocacy”. […]
National’s ambition for your kids: a pie and a fag
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 pm, March 4th, 2009 - 44 comments
Last month Anne Tolley ditched the requirement that schools sell healthy food to kids. Not to be outdone, minister for tobacco Tony Ryall now wants to make cigarettes more accessible to them too. Ryall has rejected the health select committee recommendation that cigarettes and tobacco be kept out of sight in shops, choosing to favour […]
Running the lines
Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, March 2nd, 2009 - 2 comments
No surprise to see The Herald editorial still running National’s lines. Now that Key’s equivocating on National’s planned tax cuts Granny’s right in behind him – despite their previous convictions. From October last year, an editorial from The Herald titled Overdue, but tax cuts timely: If [the tax cuts are] viewed widely as overdue and […]
Now comes the hard part
Written By: - Date published: 12:14 pm, February 26th, 2009 - 25 comments
I get why the government is riding so high in the polls. John Key looks confident amd relaxed albeit a little goofy sometimes but lord knows that can be a nice change after the grim sternness of Helen. His Ministers seem pragmatic and sensible. You can almost hear the swish swish of 350 percale cotton […]
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