national
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- same old national (1,617)
KiwiSaver – what if…
Written By: - Date published: 4:56 pm, February 7th, 2008 - 25 comments
Kiwis are showing their canny side in the way we’ve been flocking to sign up to KiwiSaver – now over 400,000 strong and still growing. It’s another dead rat that John Key has swallowed to make National an electable brand but let’s not forget that in 1975 National abolished Labour’s universal superannuation scheme. Bryan Gaynor […]
Spot the difference
Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, February 5th, 2008 - 30 comments
I’ve just had a chance to read Key’s speech properly. Call me a nit-picker but I don’t reckon it was a “state of the nation” speech at all. Of 4788 words, 3185 were on youth issues – and of these, 2012 words were about youth crime and focussed almost exclusively on a subset of “1000 […]
Mobile democracy
Written By: - Date published: 1:44 pm, February 5th, 2008 - 5 comments
Another release on the state-owned telecommunications company Kordia from Murry McCully this morning which starts: Helen Clark’s claim that Kordia’s cellphone tower work for the repressive Government of Myanmar (Burma) somehow contributes to democracy in that country is fanciful, says National’s Foreign Affairs spokesman, Murray McCully. An astute reader just sent us a great link […]
Dead rats
Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, February 4th, 2008 - 45 comments
This cartoon from Moreu got me thinking… If interest free student loans, Kiwisaver and Kiwibank are dead rats for the Nats, what the f— are the live ones? The fact that they see these as ‘unpleasantries to be endured’ surely speaks volumes. UPDATE: Someone’s just suggested “Murry McCully” as a live rat. Evidently this is […]
Key speech: strategic blunder?
Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, January 29th, 2008 - 113 comments
So this is John Key’s ambition: throwing troubled teens in boot camp, beating up on beneficiaries and criminalising our children. I’ve only had a quick read through the speech in my lunch break so it’s possible I’ve got this wrong, but I get the distinct impression that Key has made a major strategic error here. […]
Apologies for Burqa Bob
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 pm, January 25th, 2008 - 109 comments
It would appear David Farrar is deeply concerned about the amount of traffic his mate Bill has been drumming up for The Standard this week, judging by his strange attack on our site this evening over a trifling error in our earlier post on Bob Clarkson. The article in question was a repost of an […]
Burqa Bob to stand in Tauranga
Written By: - Date published: 2:33 pm, January 25th, 2008 - 49 comments
After much speculation, National MP Bob Clarkson has finally announced he will be standing again in Tauranga, apparently to work on housing affordability issues. What a gift. For those who missed it last time, here’s Bob’s entire contribution to Parliament since August last year: (17 Oct 2007) Interjection : “Bureaucratic!” (10 Oct 2007) Interjection : […]
An emerging threat to MMP?
Written By: - Date published: 5:36 pm, January 24th, 2008 - 100 comments
After Brash and the extreme right were exposed in The Hollow Men the Nats changed their leader hoping for a fresh start. What’s becoming apparent is that National’s shady backers haven’t changed. The policy and the cash are coming from the same people they always have – people like Peter Shirtcliffe who’s evidently now helping […]
Same old faces, same old tactics
Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, January 23rd, 2008 - 251 comments
Well it looks like Free Speech Coalition founder Cameron Slater has taken a break from stalking John Minto and photoshopping underage bloggers’ faces onto porn and decided to finally publish the Coalition’s updated donors list (and only a month after he said he would). Interestingly, a “P Shirtcliffe” is listed as having donated $5000. Now […]
They just don’t learn
Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, January 22nd, 2008 - 109 comments
I see the Free Speech Coalition hasn’t learned anything from the ramshackle PR fiasco that was their launch and have posted up another billboard in Invercargill today, this time featuring Robert Mugabe and criticising the government’s ‘silencing’ of Mayor Shadbolt, who is ironically one of the least silent people in the country at the moment. […]
What’s National cooking up for 2008?
Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, January 13th, 2008 - 195 comments
Well, I saw my first Farrar billboard in the real two days ago and I gotta tell you I laughed. I was with a companion who is politically aware and has a pretty good idea about the EFB and when I pointed it out to her she was baffled. When I told her the story […]
Granny Herald (finally) outs Julian Robertson as National donor
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 pm, January 1st, 2008 - 78 comments
In a front-page article about New Year’s honours focussing on expatriate Kiwi Owen Glenn’s contribution to the Labour Party, Auckland University, and numerous other New Zealand charities, the Herald stated that wealthy American billionaire Julian Robertson, “who contributed to National last election”, is now banned from giving money to political parties here. Until this admission, […]
A photo finish
Written By: - Date published: 4:50 pm, December 21st, 2007 - 45 comments
I have glimpsed the future. I know how Election 08 will play out. It will be a thriller, going down to the wire. The election home straight, like that at Flemington in Melbourne, is a test of champions. In the end it is about class and staying ability. Helen Clark starts the year well off […]
National disses minimum wage
Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, December 20th, 2007 - 128 comments
National’s comments on the minimum wage show a party that has no answers on how to close the wage gap with Australia. Just a day after the Government announced plans to increase the minimum wage to $12 next year – an increase of more than 70% since 1999 – John Key’s industrial relations spokesperson Kate […]
National has worst behaved MPs
Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, December 20th, 2007 - 18 comments
Trevor Mallard’s had all the press but it’s the National Party MPs who have been battling it out all year for top spot on the “worst behaved MP list”. NZPA reports on Peter Dunne’s annual list: Mr Henare was thrown out of the house five times for his behaviour and had to withdraw and apologise […]
Billboard shambles
Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, December 20th, 2007 - 51 comments
Here’s some coverage from TV1 last night on what’s looking more and more like a PR disaster for National, Farrar and their wealthy backers. The PM, in good humour, commented: “You’ve got to laugh haven’t you. We have a country with the most amazing liberty and I will defend that to my last breathing moment… […]
DPF’s bloody good deal
Written By: - Date published: 4:34 pm, December 19th, 2007 - 94 comments
There’s plenty of comment about Davey’s/National’s Billboards here and at Blogblog so I’ll not bore you with my analysis of these dreadful things. ‘Cos as you know I’m a man who likes to know what things cost. And guess what? I’ve done quite a few billboards and if Dave’s getting them for $7000, then he’s […]
Same old National
Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, December 19th, 2007 - 62 comments
The National Party have reverted to type. They’re back to stoking the politics of fear and division. Anyone who thought that things might be different under Key were today proved wrong when David Farrar, Kiwiblog author and National Party HQ staffer, launched a billboard campaign attacking Helen Clark, Winston Peters and Peter Dunne – likening […]
Two drunk backbenchers
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, December 14th, 2007 - 48 comments
A mate of mine had a rather interesting run-in last night with a couple of drunken Tory backbenchers. Here’s what happened: Last night I was at the Malthouse in Courtenay Place having a few beers with some mates when who should walk into the bar but a couple of National Party backbenchers. We struck up […]
National reopens Selwyn race
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, December 14th, 2007 - 2 comments
Local Nats don’t want David Carter as their candidate for Selwyn. Looks like the threats, intimidation and bullying tactics used to get him the candidacy have backfired for him. Carter (himself a three time loser to Labour’s Ruth Dyson in Banks Peninsula) has a history of bagging other candidates within his party. He said of […]
No democracy for the Selwyn National Party?
Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, December 13th, 2007 - 15 comments
Colin Espiner has a story in yesterday’s Press saying that the heads of three National Party branches in the Canterbury district supported by 35 other party members have made a formal complaint to National President Judy Kirk alleging breaches of rules by the selection committee for the Selwyn candidate for National. List MP David Carter’s […]
National and the wage gap
Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, December 13th, 2007 - 74 comments
I see National’s complaining about the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia again. As usual they have no answers on what to do about it other than to blindly hope that tax cuts for the rich will lead to economic growth and somehow it’ll all trickle down into the ordinary worker’s pay packet. Ever […]
Style over substance: no real answers
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, December 13th, 2007 - 58 comments
In a continuation of Key’s “style over substance” policy approach, his consultants have found him a new buzzword – “infrastructure”. “Australia’s been more productive because they’ve invested in infrastructure… they’ve made sure they’ve got private sector capital going in there as well as the public sector investing… we need to deliver that infrastructure“ he said […]
Petty politicking and the Xinyao tragedy
Written By: - Date published: 5:21 pm, December 10th, 2007 - 81 comments
Reuters reports that the death toll from China’s Xinyao mine tragedy has now surpassed the 100 mark after 50 rescue workers were sent in without training and never resurfaced. According to Chinese media the cause of the tragedy was the mine management’s failure to install a gas detection system and its storage of explosives in […]
A decade since Shipley
Written By: - Date published: 4:26 pm, December 10th, 2007 - 34 comments
How remiss of us! Our pals over at Kiwiblogblog have just pointed out that we’ve just missed the 10 year anniversary since Jenny Shipley first took the reins on 8 December 1997. Some of my personal favorites from her time in the sun: The Code of Social and Family Responsibility. At the time the Wesley […]
2007 Trans-Tasman MP rankings
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, December 10th, 2007 - 76 comments
So DPF’s given his predictable take on this year’s Trans-Tasman MP rankings (PDF – 150K). Now averages are one thing but more interesting is a trend that DPF conveniently ignores – While many of National’s high profile MPs are static or slipping in the rankings, Labour’s heavy-hitters seem to be lifting their game. LABOUR Clark […]
National filibustering EFB
Written By: - Date published: 12:54 pm, December 6th, 2007 - 42 comments
So it’s official: National is filibustering the Electoral Finance Bill. This really is childish, and it’s directly at odds with what Bill English was telling the public on Morning Report on Tuesday. These were his exact words: “How long the debate takes will be largely up to the government. We don’t intend to filibuster…” It’s […]
National’s spin doesn’t stack up
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, December 4th, 2007 - 103 comments
National’s attempt to spin its way out of John Key’s DVD debacle doesn’t stack up. Here’s the official line: National’s campaign manager Jo de Joux blamed the production company. “Obviously, National relied on the expertise of the production company that put together the video and its soundtrack,” Ms de Joux said. “We’ll take all available […]
Lord Keith of Kinloch
Written By: - Date published: 5:24 pm, December 3rd, 2007 - 17 comments
Am halfway through “Kiwi Keith”, Barry Gustafson’s portrait of our third-longest serving Prime Minister. He obviously had something, as he was picked out as a young man by Reform’s Coates and others as having leadership potential from his early days crop-farming in Motueka. As a young MP, after surviving the Reform-United Coalition defeat in 1935, […]
The accidental MPs
Written By: - Date published: 2:17 pm, December 3rd, 2007 - 24 comments
A short while back Bob Clarkson effectively admitted to having no idea what he was doing in Parliament. Now he’s thinking of standing again – for no other reason than to continue his personal feud with Winston Peters. MPs like Clarkson and fellow no-hopers like Mark Blumsky and Brian Connell demean the parliamentary process. One […]
Same song? You decide.
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, December 2nd, 2007 - 119 comments
powered by ODEO National needs to come clean and stop misleading the public. The Herald reported yesterday that “National Party campaign manager Jo de Joux said the music was composed by “an Auckland artist” and paid for by the production company which produced the DVD [Production Shed.TV]”. I don’t think he’s telling the truth. National […]
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