political parties

National’s electoral returns and the Donghua Liu donation

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:22 am, February 25th, 2015 - 41 comments

The Electoral Commission has now released individual returns of donations and electoral expenses. And the Donghua Liu donation appears in Jamie-Lee Ross’s return. But the vast majority of electorate campaigns recorded head office donations and the overwhelming impression is that cabinet club donations are collected centrally and then distributed. So what happened with the Liu donation?

The price of the club?

Written By: Stephanie Rodgers - Date published: 4:15 pm, February 24th, 2015 - 105 comments

Back in 2003, John Key had an interesting take on whether it was appropriate to send troops to Iraq.

National’s fruit flies

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:13 am, February 24th, 2015 - 73 comments

Brook Sabin pulls no punches laying the blame for the fruit fly outbreak at National’s feet. Key’s attempted denial is some of his worst work ever.

National hypocrisy about the gay pride parade

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:00 pm, February 23rd, 2015 - 86 comments

National engages in Auckland’s Gay Pride parade by sending two MPs who voted against marriage equality and an Auckland Councillor who on Facebook calls a young man who pointed this out as a “little c*ck”. Way to blow relations with the gay and lesbian community. Update: And Linda Cooper has apologised, sort of …

The Save Invermay Campaign

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:24 am, February 23rd, 2015 - 8 comments

National is letting the regions wither. None more so than (Labour voting) Dunedin, with the closure of the Hillside Workshop, the underfunding of Dunedin Hospital, and the planned closure of the agricultural research center at near-by Invermay. Check out Dunedin North MP David Clark’s video update on Invermay.

The more complete Donghua Liu timeline

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:34 pm, February 22nd, 2015 - 90 comments

Yesterday’s Herald revealed that Donghua Liu made a second donation to National in 2013 which was repaid to him after last year’s election. A brief timeline was provided but in the interests of greater understanding I thought a fuller timeline would be helpful.

Charter schools mess – what a surprise

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:35 am, February 21st, 2015 - 193 comments

One of National’s first five charter schools is a failure, and applications for new charter schools have been cancelled. Who could have predicted such a mess? Just about everybody…

Local Bodies: The Greens and Labour

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:51 pm, February 20th, 2015 - 136 comments

Politics involves competition, opposition and robust debate as parties jostle to capture media time and to promote their policies and points of difference. But Andrew Little has recently mismanaged his relationship with the Green Party. There is an acceptable line between promoting the interests of ones own party and maintaining a working relationship with future coalition partners.

Bain’s compensation claim

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:00 am, February 20th, 2015 - 293 comments

Amy Adams announced yesterday that $600,000 worth of legal reports about the Bain claim for compensation were going to be junked. Judith Collins has some explaining to do.

Nats bungle Bain process

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 6:30 pm, February 19th, 2015 - 52 comments

A new review of compensation for David Bain. Another fine mess courtesy of Collins/Slater and National.

Stand by Your Man

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 8:48 am, February 19th, 2015 - 107 comments

Sometime in the next few days, Winston Peters will announce whether or not he will stand in the Northland by-election. He should run unchallenged by the left and Labour and the Greens should endorse him for the greater good.

Novopay cost us $45 million

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:56 am, February 19th, 2015 - 102 comments

It was announced yesterday that Novopay has cost the country $45 million more than intended. The Ministry of Education has accepted some responsibility but in terms of ultimate responsibility the Ministers involved, English, Parata and Foss should be held to blame.

SkyCity Insider trading?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:36 pm, February 18th, 2015 - 24 comments

SkyCity’s share price went up just before the recent Government announcement of the deal with SkyCity. Winston Peters wonders if some insider trading was involved.

SkySore broken by design

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:00 am, February 18th, 2015 - 14 comments

So the Nats spent $250,000 working out that an Auckland convention center needed 3500 seats to break even, and are now about to be delivered a center wtih 3000 seats.

Labour’s Betrayal Continues

Written By: BLiP - Date published: 6:35 am, February 18th, 2015 - 440 comments

It might well be in Labour’s best interests to cut the crap now and go into coalition with the National Ltd™ Cult of John Key. It would be the honest thing to do. Kiwis will then know where the boundaries lie and who actually is working to oppose the implementation of the wider neo-liberal ideology.

The right to strike

Written By: Stephanie Rodgers - Date published: 12:00 pm, February 17th, 2015 - 54 comments

Celebrate International Right to Strike Day on 18 February by sending a message to Kiwi employers: stop undermining our right to strike!

Free houses?

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:22 am, February 17th, 2015 - 188 comments

That may be what it takes to interest charities in becoming “social housing” providers.

Principled stands from Little

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:06 am, February 17th, 2015 - 153 comments

It’s looking more and more like Labour has found the right leader at last.

The house always wins

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:01 am, February 16th, 2015 - 23 comments

The flaws in the process whereby SkyCity promised a free convention centre in consideration of legislative changes are now clear to see. Through an act of brinkmanship SkyCity has embarassed the Government and caused it political damage. And it has achieved a return for investors, the legislative changes will be the same despite there now being a smaller cheaper convention centre.

Third termitis

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:44 am, February 15th, 2015 - 69 comments

The John Key led National Government is showing signs of third termitis. Symptoms are a confusion of the national interest with National Party political interests, a willingness to sell state houses and pay the proceeds to large corporates when even your best friends are saying don’t, a staleness and inability to handle issues properly and being completely bereft of new ideas to improve the country. The condition is almost inevitably terminal.

Paula Bennett and beneficiaries should be given the benefit of the doubt

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:00 am, February 13th, 2015 - 33 comments

A staffer in Paula Bennett’s ministerial office has apparently mistakenly withdrawn cash from the Ministerial credit card. The money has been paid back and no harm caused and no further action should be necessary. If only Bennett extended to beneficiaries the same tolerance of predictable mistakes.

Key is in reverse gear about Sky City

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 5:30 pm, February 12th, 2015 - 103 comments

The focus group results are in and John Key is backing off from the Government injecting further money into the SkyCity convention centre.

Labour takes a stand against zero-hour contracts

Written By: Stephanie Rodgers - Date published: 5:00 pm, February 12th, 2015 - 92 comments

Zero-hour contracts are the perfect illustration of when “flexibility” in employment relations goes all one way.

If only Key was as passionate about climate change

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:18 am, February 12th, 2015 - 43 comments

John Key gave a somewhat rousing speech about how New Zealand would not stand back when dealing with the ISIS tyranny. It made me wonder why he is not passionate about dealing with a problem that has the potential of wrecking much of the world’s environment and making much of it it uninhabitable.

Say NO to the $140m SkyCity bailout

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 12:32 pm, February 11th, 2015 - 86 comments

The Labour Party is organising a petition against the $140 million bailout SkyCity is demanding – and John Key is insisting we have to pay to prevent getting an “eyesore” of a convention centr

Sky City’s playing us for suckers

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 8:14 pm, February 10th, 2015 - 87 comments

Sky City crying too poor to build a bigger casino – give us a break, please! Casino expert Sudhir Kale estimated the extra pokies gained by Sky to be worth $35million over figures used by government. That’s for year upon year to 2048. It could cover any casino upgrade in four years. Either Joyce and Key are being played for suckers, or they are playing the rest of us for suckers. The deal stinks.

The SkyCity Deal

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 1:11 pm, February 10th, 2015 - 76 comments

Eighteen months ago Stephen Joyce said about the Sky City Convention Centre deal that anything not written down was not happening. It appears that he was wrong as John Key softens us up for more public money being spent on a private convention centre.

The Sallies do not like Government’s housing policy

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:30 am, February 10th, 2015 - 61 comments

The Salvation Army has all but ruled out being involved in the Government’s Social Housing unless it is provided with capital. And if divestment occurs it considers that tenants should have a role in governance of the houses they live in.

The War Club Family

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 7:35 pm, February 8th, 2015 - 73 comments

There’s a fascinating article in the latest New Statesman titled “An Empire that speaks English: the right’s dream of a new world order.” Suddenly UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond’s recent visit here makes sense. So does John Key’s references to sending troops to Iraq on behalf of the “club” or the “family” – he’s at the heart of the Empire.

Tino Rangatiratanga

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:51 am, February 8th, 2015 - 309 comments

It has been claimed that Andrew Little has advocated for Maori to have law making powers. What he has done is reflect on a recent Waitangi Tribunal decision which concluded that Maori never ceded sovereignty to the Crown and properly concluded that this is an issue that needs to be considered.

Police told the Government about Sabin’s problems

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:30 am, February 7th, 2015 - 218 comments

Police Commissioner Mike Bush has essentially confirmed that under the no surprises policy the Police told either Anne Tolley or Michael Woodhouse or both about the Police investigation into Mike Sabin. The issue will be when they were told. If this occurred before the time that Labour told the Prime Minister’s office about Sabin’s difficulties the veracity of what John Key has told us will have to be questioned.