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- same old national (1,617)
To intervene or not to intervene, that is the question…
Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, February 9th, 2013 - 27 comments
Frank Macskasy at Frankly Speaking looks at who does get generous government assistance – and who doesn’t. “This isn’t governance. This is economic decline by a thousand cuts.”
Poverty Watch 18
Written By: - Date published: 6:59 am, February 9th, 2013 - 3 comments
Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, further in to the Children’s Social Health Monitor 2012 Update Report.
Nats’ low wage economy hollowing us out
Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, February 8th, 2013 - 42 comments
The Nats were elected on a promise of a high wage economy. When it became clear that they were achieving the opposite, they tried to spin a disaster into a “competitive advantage”. And so in the real world the exodus to Australia continues. Now it’s affecting even our naval capability.
Another one bites the dust
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, February 7th, 2013 - 109 comments
Another day, another company that couldn’t make it in National’s stagnant economy. But this company, Mainzeal, is a particularly significant case, our third largest construction company. There will be significant flow on effects to other parts of the sector.
Beneficiary bashing – mission accomplished
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, February 6th, 2013 - 172 comments
National’s constant beneficiary bashing has borne predictable fruit – beneficiaries are now perceived as the most discriminated against group in the country.
Key failure
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, February 5th, 2013 - 42 comments
I wonder how the polls would look if the sampling included Kiwis who have fled the country?
One of the biggest failures of the Key government is the continuing massive exodus to Australia. This was an issue that Key made a core focus of the 2008 election. Remember the Westpac Stadium clip?…
Conflicted decisions
Written By: - Date published: 5:28 pm, February 2nd, 2013 - 48 comments
Another day, another example of some unseemly looking stuff from the Nats. This time it’s Judith Collins choosing Robert Kee – a friend of her husband – for a $200,000 a year taxpayer funded job.
Poverty Watch 17
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, February 2nd, 2013 - 7 comments
Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, the Children’s Social Health Monitor 2012 Update Report, and will the Maori Party act on their words?
Where were you Granny?
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, February 1st, 2013 - 23 comments
Granny Herald: “Some policies aimed at quenching what politicians perceive to be a public appetite for fairness are recycled regularly even when they have been shown to be deeply flawed.” Discuss…
The fiscal hole
Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, January 31st, 2013 - 47 comments
David Parker has drawn attention to a steadily growing $1 Billion hole in projected tax income. That gap, and the stalled economy which underlies the problem, are not going to be fixed by John Key acting like an angry chimp in parliament, flinging insults out of his cage.
Opposition speeches & ‘Roads of Madness’
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, January 30th, 2013 - 54 comments
Debates on the PM’s statement to the House show that this do-nothing government needs to go. Plenty of good ideas from opposition MPs. An excellent speech by Genter against Joyce’s ‘Roads of Madness’ & for public transport.
ImperatorFish: Is National Really Hands-Off Then?
Written By: - Date published: 4:03 pm, January 29th, 2013 - 16 comments
Scott examines National’s line that they aren’t “hands-off”, and finds them, if not entirely neo-liberal, still pretty dedicated to their worship of the invisible hand of the (private) market.
ImperatorFish: John Key’s Reshuffle Analysed
Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, January 23rd, 2013 - 7 comments
The biggest winner is Dr Nick Smith. He returns to Cabinet after his fall from grace last year, and is appointed as Minister for Creating a Perception of Crisis in Order to Justify Savage Cutbacks in Entitlements.
The biggest losers are Kate Wilkinson and Phil Heatley, who have been dropped from Cabinet altogether. Both have failed to perform, and their inability to communicate with the smoothness of someone like Hekia Parata will have counted against them.
Jobs(.govt.nz) to Australia
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, January 23rd, 2013 - 27 comments
Danyl at Dimpost has discovered that National is so serious about (enhancing) the drain of jobs and Kiwis to Australia that they’ve actually outsourced the Government Jobs website (http://jobs.govt.nz/) to… Australia. While I love irony, surely this says everything about National’s actually commitment to the people of our country.
NZ economic forecast “deteriorating”
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, January 23rd, 2013 - 51 comments
According to an international credit reporting agency our economic “risk profile” is “deteriorating”, due in part to rising unemployment. Good work National.
Hello everybody! Hi Dr Nick!
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, January 22nd, 2013 - 39 comments
So Nick Smith is to be returned to cabinet after spending nearly a year on the bench for his ethical flaws. Presumably 10 months on the back benches heals all those desires to abuse your powers to try to help your friends get money.
Bugger the environment
Written By: - Date published: 6:42 am, January 22nd, 2013 - 41 comments
The Greens have learned (via OIA) that National ignored its own official advice in canceling the standard five-yearly State of the Environment Report.
NRT: Not even pretending anymore
Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, January 21st, 2013 - 66 comments
I/S at No Right Turn on the Nats’ contempt for democracy in Canterbury. Elections remain on hold so that the commissioners’ agenda can be completed without unwelcome input from urban representation.
If these trends continue
Written By: - Date published: 11:47 pm, January 18th, 2013 - 173 comments
Key’s government is falling apart, yet one fact remains stubbornly true: walk down the street and nearly 1 in every 2 people you see supports National, while less than 1 in 3 supports Labour (and the 1 in 8 who support the Greens don’t quite make up the difference). When tonight’s Roy Morgan came out I put down my whisky and pulled by my Roy Morgan excel doc. It’s some grim reading.
Doubling down on Parata disaster
Written By: - Date published: 7:14 am, January 18th, 2013 - 42 comments
Protecting the incompetent Parata is a further sign that Key’s government is well in to sclerotic middle age.
Charter Schools: A failed idea
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, January 17th, 2013 - 36 comments
Submissions for the Education Amendment Bill 2012 (includes Charter Schools) close on 24 January. The PPTA reminds us that Charter Schools are a failed idea. Even Treasury documents show they are a bad idea.
Where is National on house prices?
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, January 16th, 2013 - 41 comments
With a 10% increase in the median house price last year, we’re firmly back on a damaging house price binge. Labour has policies that address the issue. Where is National?
Ear treatment cuts another attack on the poor
Written By: - Date published: 3:58 pm, January 15th, 2013 - 27 comments
The Nats want to cut the budget for surgery to install grommets, a technique for treating persistent ear infection (especially in children). Naturally those most effected by this ill-considered move will be children from poor families.
Deja vu all over again: Labour in 2014 edition
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, January 13th, 2013 - 104 comments
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here: a Labour victory in 2014 isn’t necessarily better than a National victory in 2014.
2012 cabinet report card
Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, January 2nd, 2013 - 18 comments
After Eddie dissed the usual beltway year in review style of column/post I was a little chary about doing this one. And then I realised the good thing about The Standard is we do real world and beltway issues. So here goes my once-over assessment of the 2012 cabinet performance and what it’s likely to mean for the future.
John Key’s Summer
Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, December 22nd, 2012 - 131 comments
While John Key spends the summer in Hawaii, he will need to make some decisions about the future of his cabinet. Parata’s future is poised in the balance, and he is looking to move Tim Groser on later next year.
How to mess up “good” news
Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, December 18th, 2012 - 57 comments
Trying to distract attention from the increased taxes required to maybe balance the budget one day, Key was pushing supposedly good news on health. Instead he scored a social media own goal. Ooops.
The spinmeister of Planet Key: Retrospective
Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, December 18th, 2012 - 37 comments
On TV3 this morning, John Key was soothing and slick. All is well on Planet Key, and critics are delusional. He reeled of numbers and facts, but material realities of daily lives, and the suffering of people on low incomes aren’t mentioned. And asset sales?
Don’t blame MMP for Nat stupidity
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, December 18th, 2012 - 18 comments
Recent pieces by Bernard Hickey and John Armstrong both highlighted the problem of our aging population and the unsustainability of super – in Hickey’s memorable words we are “consuming our future”. Armstrong tries to balme MMP, but that won’t wash, it’s just the usual short-sighted Nat stupidity…
The dark side
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, December 16th, 2012 - 75 comments
Fran O’Sullivan & Audrey Young are awestruck by Judith Collins as ruthless Force. FO’S does a fan-girl rave, slipping into fanfic mode.Was the Binnie episode a daring bid to become the next Nat leader? Will English & Joyce respond with callous, socially-destructive manoeuvres?
Poverty Watch 16
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, December 15th, 2012 - 14 comments
Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, two damning reports on child poverty, and the Nats refuse to act.
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