national
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- same old national (1,617)
Why didn’t NZF use Nats’ donations playbook?
Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, September 4th, 2008 - 56 comments
This business with donations from the Spencer Trust going to New Zealand First but not being declared. I find it hard to credit that this was an accident. It seems beyond belief that no-one in the party would have seen the donation declaration at some point and said ‘hey, what about that $50K from the […]
Video: Nats wave goodbye to blue sky
Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, September 4th, 2008 - 14 comments
Newly up from 08wire There’s something very powerful about that music and image combination….
Why the rush?
Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, September 4th, 2008 - 51 comments
We are, at a legal maximum, 72 days away from the election. The tradition is that the date is announced at least six weeks before election date (that’s the timeframe the Electoral Office needs). So, we would expect to have the election date announced by the start of October, no more than four weeks from now. […]
Beyond parody
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, September 3rd, 2008 - 57 comments
National’s new billboard. It’s like when your Dad tries to rap.
It just gets worse
Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, September 3rd, 2008 - 35 comments
Just when you thought National’s billboard campaign couldn’t possibly get any weaker, reports emerge that their next one will say: “Get youth into training, not into trouble” Honestly guys, just cut your losses and start again. [UPDATE: Apparently the first of this run is going up in Vivian Street today.]
Telco hits out at National’s fibre plan
Written By: - Date published: 3:47 pm, September 2nd, 2008 - 34 comments
John Drinnan in the NZ Herald: “One of the biggest challengers in the telecommunications business, TelstraClear, has attacked National Party plans for a fibre-optic network, saying the party should be focused on business. “The telco says the main result of faster broadband links to the home may be more downloads of pornography and movies rather […]
Dissection
Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, September 2nd, 2008 - 19 comments
OK, so there are limitless ways to mock the Nat’s ‘WW2 bombers flying to Chile’ billboard (send us yours to add to these ones) but I want to quickly examine it seriously as a piece of political argument. First, the premises: a) our taxes are high: No, they’re not. Tax as a percentage of GDP […]
Ashcroft’s jet spotted in Wellington too
Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, September 2nd, 2008 - 109 comments
An astute reader just sent us this – they spotted Ashcroft’s jet parked at Lyall Bay on Saturday August 30 and managed to snap a quick pic. The photo below is from TV3’s coverage. Looks like the same plane.
Break open the trusts
Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, September 2nd, 2008 - 25 comments
As we’ve discussed earlier, it would be highly surprising if the investigations into NZF’s finances find any serious illegality. At worst, a failure to declare donations might be found, an offence for which charges cannot be laid more than 6 months after an alleged offence. Now, TV3 was shown accounts by the Spencer Trust which show that […]
Weak
Written By: - Date published: 3:35 pm, September 1st, 2008 - 101 comments
Perhaps I’ve overestimated the National Party’s PR machine. I mean I’ve seen them run their C/T strategy pretty well and, as much as I hate to admit it, Ansell’s billboards were pretty bloody good last time. But then I opened the PDF with their latest billboard on it. It’s busy, the message is confusing, and […]
ToryAid: Wastewatch (4)
Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, September 1st, 2008 - 20 comments
Because National has abandoned its wastewatch website, we keep track of the ‘waste’ National has promised to cut to pay for those magical, mysterious, cure-all tax cuts. Here’s what they’ve said they will cut: 1) Embassy in Sweden – approx $3 million capital, $3 million operating (why it’s not waste) 2) Badges about Te Reo […]
Whom to believe? (3)
Written By: - Date published: 6:09 am, September 1st, 2008 - 26 comments
John Key tells us that National hasn’t decided yet what it would spend its extra borrowing on, what projects would be PPPs, what roads would be tolled under National. How, then, to explain this from last week’s Agenda? RAWDON Give me an example of a toll here, give me an example of what it will […]
Franks: “grumpy Christians and whining gays”
Written By: - Date published: 3:16 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 58 comments
Here’s National’s Wellington Central candidate Stephen Franks giving his view on Civil Unions. I’m not even really sure what to say about it. It might just be best to let Stephen Franks speak for himself…
Connell departs and praises PM
Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 3 comments
Who would have expected to read this from Brian Connell upon his departure from Parliament? In a backhander against his own party, he praised Prime Minister Helen Clark, her deputy Michael Cullen, and front-bench Labour MPs Phil Goff and Annette King. Cullen was “a pretty good treasurer” and Clark had been “a very fine prime […]
Herald poll shows Nats’ lead collapsing
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, August 28th, 2008 - 36 comments
Today’s Herald-Digi poll is the first to be released that was taken after the secret agenda tape scandal had fully emerged and had some time to sit in voters’ minds. Which makes it worrying reading for National. They have lost 5.4% support (54.4% to 50%) and Labour has benefited from that loss picking up 5.5% (30.8% […]
Cullen on Nat apologies
Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, August 27th, 2008 - 41 comments
Say what you will about his politics, you can’t beat Cullen for wit. Here he is on the similarities between Labour and National following Williamson’s enthusiastic statements of National policy: The full clip is here. Listen to Key plead to his caucus, and listen what he’s pleading for them to do – “If National wants to win an […]
What else did Williamson say?
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, August 27th, 2008 - 13 comments
I notice that, while the Nats have attempted to play down Maurice Williamson’s promise of $50 a week in tolls, they haven’t retracted Williamson’s over statements from the same interview, specifically: RAWDON Okay let’s look beyond roading, where else do you see PPPs being the answer? MAUCRICE …I mean I would have thought we could […]
Kiwis waking up to Nats’ secret agenda
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, August 26th, 2008 - 96 comments
According to the TV3 poll last night, 46% of voters believe National has a secret agenda. And why wouldn’t they? We’ve had Bill English talking about a secret agenda to ‘sort out’ Working for Families and sell Kiwibank while being recorded, on the same recordings, we’ve had Lockwood Smith talking about the need to adopt popular […]
Sales pitch
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, August 26th, 2008 - 59 comments
He just doesn’t give up does he? Maurice Williamson was spotted this morning still trying to sell his toll booth idea to Auckland motorists. Spy photos below.
Whom to believe?
Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, August 25th, 2008 - 17 comments
On Agenda on Sunday, National’s Transport spokesperson, Maurice Williamson, said National would impose tolls on major new road projects – Transmission Gully, Waterview etc – and on the Harbour Bridge if a tolled second crossing of the harbour is built. Williamson said a typical person using those toll roads for commuting would spend about $50 a week […]
Nat: our ‘diversity’ is just a gimmick
Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, August 25th, 2008 - 35 comments
Unless a party has a systematic bias towards one sector of the population, it would be normal to expect that their candidates would represent a cross-section of the community – after all, talented, qualified people can be found in all groups; political aptitude is not just a Pakeha male trait. So, it was kind of […]
Adapting to the end of cheap oil
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 pm, August 24th, 2008 - 30 comments
On August 1, Transit NZ and Land Transport NZ were merged into the NZ Transport Authority. The new organisation’s first major publication shows a welcome shift in thinking and an acknowledgment that the age of cheap oil is over. Managing Transport Challenges When Oil Prices Rise contains a model built on the consensus of a number of international […]
Mythbusting: Half of new generation is thermal
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, August 22nd, 2008 - 16 comments
Reading National’s energy policy last week I was surprised to learn that of 1942MW of new generation that has come online since 2000 1073MW of that has been thermal*. Sure enough, John Key is going around using that as a ground for National’s policy of building more gas power plants and giving up on the […]
Key demands we publish full quote
Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, August 20th, 2008 - 53 comments
John Key called us to task in his interview with Wammo today: “every leftwing blogger out there has a field-day going on and on about the fact that Labour say I said climate change is a hoax…they should just get their facts right down at The Standard because the facts are I said ‘Kyoto is […]
National’s “major policy shift it talks about behind closed doors”
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, August 20th, 2008 - 30 comments
This revealing quote is buried in the middle of today’s Herald story by Fran O’Sullivan headed “All change on the gravy train”. It does make one wonder where the real journalists are in that paper. If the Herald knows there is a major policy shift being talked about by National behind closed doors, why isn’t […]
Kiwis don’t trust Nats
Written By: - Date published: 6:13 am, August 20th, 2008 - 38 comments
According to the Colmar/Brunton poll, 50% of Kiwis don’t believe National is being open about its plans vs 37% who believe the Nats are being upfront (presumably, the other 13% offered no opinion). That’s got to be worrying for National. As I’ve said time and again, the three grounds that politicians are ultimately judged on […]
Nats: some of us look like youse
Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, August 18th, 2008 - 142 comments
National is desperate for you to know its party list is a diverse one. It’s a diverse list alright. I mean you’ve got a woman at 7, another at 10, yet more at 17 and 20 – you’re talking up to four women in a National Cabinet! And two of them aren’t even Pakeha! OK, all […]
An election strategy, not a governing strategy
Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, August 15th, 2008 - 20 comments
When you look at the policy National has released, it’s clear that the focus is on winning the election, not on developing policy that would work. There is a most appalling lack of detail – most of the policy one-page wonders from National have left me with more questions than answers because of lack of […]
Energy policy fails to energise
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, August 14th, 2008 - 31 comments
A positive and ambitious energy policy that reflects the personality of National leader John Key, was announced today. Old people wiped tears from their eyes and youths vowed never to tag another fence as they heard the ambitious vision National has developed for New Zealand’s energy future under heroic leader, John Key. Actually, there’s 10 […]
National and the media
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, August 14th, 2008 - 17 comments
A few mini-posts on National’s relationship with the media in light of the secret agenda tapes. _______________________________________________ A signature Crosby/Textor move, seen here and abroad, is for their politicians to be matey with media as long as they run the lines, but, if they start to get critical, shut them out. So, a few months […]
Into hiding
Written By: - Date published: 3:45 pm, August 13th, 2008 - 22 comments
The secret agenda scandal has reminded many people that, behind John Key’s smile, National’s leaders are still the same bunch who were cutting benefits and flogging off assets in the 1990s, or people who came into Parliament hoping to continue those policies. That’s not good for National’s election hopes. So, what have they done? Remove […]
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