political parties

Tony Astle does not want progressive customers

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:00 am, May 24th, 2014 - 100 comments

Tony Astle apparently wants to ban some left wing politicians from his restaurant Antoines. He should get a life. Because the idea is stupid and reinforces the impression that National is a party insisting on the retention of privilege for the few.

Death by remote drone

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 1:32 pm, May 22nd, 2014 - 202 comments

John Key has not received any advice about the legality of drone killing and is totally comfortable with the extra judicial killing of civilians by remote drone.

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: The young ones

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:27 am, May 21st, 2014 - 7 comments

Rob Salmond at Polity looks at what our young have to look forward to in 2019  with National’s hands-off housing screwup. How an average family would fare under National’s do-nothing approach to the housing crisis then?

National don’t know and don’t want to know about foreign ownership of housing

Written By: geoff - Date published: 1:09 pm, May 20th, 2014 - 43 comments

National’s pandering to foreign money is disturbing their supporters

Penny Hulse and the decriminalisation of cannabis

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:21 am, May 18th, 2014 - 52 comments

Auckland Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse this week called for there to be a rational debate on whether organic cannabis should be decriminalised.  Her reasoning is sound.  The natural kind is better than the synthetic kind and prohibition is not working.

The Budget and the Christchurch rebuild

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:39 am, May 17th, 2014 - 44 comments

In the pursuit of a balanced budget it appears that the Government has cut funding from a number of areas of Government activity, the Christchurch rebuild included. And Gerry Brownlee is refusing to accept that flooding has been exacerbated by the earthquakes and trying to undermine the suggestion that costs estimates are overly optimistic.

All Down to Dunne

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 7:31 pm, May 15th, 2014 - 37 comments

In the next few hours Peter Dunne could stand by his word and help Kiwi Families.

The question is, will he do it?

Update: No he didn’t. So much for his principles.

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.

National’s proposed public spending to GDP ratio – the election’s clear blue line

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:22 am, May 15th, 2014 - 72 comments

The real story of the coming election is what was revealed in Bill English’s reported pre-budget speech to the National Party’s Southern Region conference at the weekend. He signalled an intention to reduce the proportion of government spending to 26% of GDP over the next 6 to 7 years. The current level at 30% already places NZ in the lowest quartile of OECD countries, having fallen from 35% of GDP in 2008. Most developed nations spend a significantly higher proportion of GDP on government goods and services.

John Key’s bullshit about rising inequality

Written By: karol - Date published: 2:41 pm, May 14th, 2014 - 86 comments

In Question Time today.  John Key has rejected evidence such census statistics, as reported on RNZ, that the inequality gap in Auckland is growing. He crowed about his government’s record & launched diversionary attacks on the opposition. Update: Question One video; Transcript links – Transcripts & other links updated. #realbudgetnumbers

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.

Green Party pre-budget policy launch

Written By: karol - Date published: 9:14 am, May 13th, 2014 - 10 comments

The Green Party will do a pre-budget economic policy launch: livestream here 11am 11.30am-12.30pm.They are pretty adept at interacting with Kiwis via social media, and on TV. They are grounded in grassroots activities, that link to their policies aimed at making life better for low-to-middle income Kiwis. [Updated#1: got start time wrong: #2 policy here – Green Investment Bank; news reports]

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%