same old national

The smoke & mirrors of the surveillance-military-economic-complex

Written By: karol - Date published: 2:22 pm, May 21st, 2014 - 29 comments

There are a range of issues, which are part of a GCSB-intelligence-surveillance-military-complex. Some significant elements seem to be posing as diversions from other parts of the complex, and the way all parts hang together. What will he offer Obama to advance NZ’s position in the TPPA?

Polity: Budget 2014: Over-promise. Under-deliver.

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:18 pm, May 15th, 2014 - 40 comments

Earlier this week I predicted the Budget would be Labour-lite. I was right, but only in part. By far the biggest disappointment is in housing. The government signalled help for home buyers would be a highlight in the Budget. A few pathetic morsels isn’t a highlight. This will make next to no difference to the housing affordability crisis. First home buyers aren’t $3,500 short of a house. They are hundreds of thousands short, because there aren’t nearly enough homes.

Tax cuts for all!

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:01 am, May 15th, 2014 - 227 comments

Despite having never presided over a budget surplus and despite the nearly tripling of core crown gross debt John Key is talking about the possibility of future tax cuts.

Polity: Key – “Meh. Maybe I lied to Parliament.”

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:38 am, May 14th, 2014 - 39 comments

Misleading parliament is serious. If it happens, MPs are supposed to make a stand-alone statement to the House about what they said, why it was wrong, and what they should have said instead. Key didn’t do that at all. He just inserted a pathetic “meh” concession into an answer to a question. And the speaker diminished parliament by letting him get away with it.

NRT: “A wish, a target, and a dream”

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:47 pm, May 12th, 2014 - 58 comments

No Right Turn shows that John Key has no real understanding of the economic and political history of this country. Probably because the last time another economic illiterate from National said that the prospect of reducing unemployment in NZ to below 6% was “a hoax”, John Key wasn’t here. He probably heard it from that illiterate, who once again is our minister of finance. Unemployment under Labour was as low as 3.3%

The selective empathy of Key’s callous government

Written By: karol - Date published: 9:54 am, May 12th, 2014 - 21 comments

John Key’s government is cutting back on state housing, uprooting families from their homes. Large numbers of state houses are empty, while many are left to move from caravan park to sleeping in cars or outdoors. Weasel words from Paula Bennett and Nick Smith.

The politics of private dinners

Written By: karol - Date published: 12:10 pm, May 9th, 2014 - 225 comments

Whether it’s Judith Collins, Michael Woodhouse or the Cabinet Club/s, National Party fundraisers, target the wealthy base they represent.  In the process, boundaries are blurred between mainstream politics, exclusive private spaces & personal relationships.

Handouts to make them go away

Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:25 pm, May 7th, 2014 - 9 comments

The announcement from National that they’d bribe unemployed beneficiaries to go to Christchurch was “An empty grab for headlines”. Perhaps they should have used their strategy for party renewal? Pay more from party funds awash from selling the time of Ministers time seems to work well.

Cabinet Club

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:34 pm, May 6th, 2014 - 223 comments

It’s called “Cabinet Club” but National claims Ministers aren’t actually acting as Ministers when they use it to raise money.

Which is why they called it “Cabinet Club” and not something with Ministerial connotations like… um… “Cabinet Club”

Polity: Why Joyce is full of it on monetary policy

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:11 am, May 5th, 2014 - 33 comments

Rob Salmond at Polity just saved me from having to write something like this post explaining economic basics to Steven Joyce. Joyce demonstrated again why his tenure at MoBIE has been a failure for the overall economy. He fixates on one thing like the business selling milk powder to the exclusion of the overall picture. In part that is why we have neither expanding innovation or employment in our economy at present. He is a good tactical politician. But he is a fool on strategy.

Spin Slater Spin

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:21 pm, May 4th, 2014 - 94 comments

Cameron Slater is spinning that an informal question of a police minister about staff leave entitlements by an opposition MP is the same as a Minister effectively requiring the review of a police prosecution of a National Party donor.  There is a sense of desperation emanating from the right over the Oravida issue … Update – and John Key appears to be displeased that Collins has brought a TVOne reporter into the debate …

Williamson now. How corrupt is the National cabinet?

Written By: lprent - Date published: 10:30 am, May 1st, 2014 - 199 comments

It never seems to end does it? A National Party Minister contacted a top ranking police officer after a wealthy businessman with close ties to him was arrested on domestic violence charges. The Prime Minister’s office is understood to be considering Maurice Williamson’s future as a Minister, following Herald inquiries into the phone call that he made and over his involvement with Donghua Liu’s criminal case.

Bunji: And he’s gone – resigned as a Minister

National’s exports – how to lose value and jobs

Written By: lprent - Date published: 10:54 am, April 30th, 2014 - 77 comments

Manufacturing exports dropped by 3.3% over the last year. Manufacturing businesses and their jobs disappeared with them. Meanwhile the National MP’s with dairy farms and interests will today be proclaiming a buoyant economy based on them selling barely processed milk-powder to China. It is good for them but as they gut the manufacturing jobs few other kiwis will reap any benefits.

Judith Collins: fudging evidence

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:25 am, April 26th, 2014 - 32 comments

Judith Colllins & the PM are probably toasting Shane Jones (and Murray McCully) right now: the heat around the Oravida controversy has been pushed off the front pages.  Information and marginalised news don’t easily disappear off the web – or Wikipedia.  Collins quietly slipped out a press release on the delay of her decision on alcohol pricing – media shy suddenly?