political parties

iPredict needs “Next National Minister Resignation”

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 7:13 pm, April 10th, 2014 - 35 comments

Who will it be? Judith? Simon? Hekia? Amy? Or a surprise?

Random impertinent questions for Judith Collins

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 5:55 pm, April 10th, 2014 - 56 comments

National must be hoping that Judith Collins can answer questions in Parliament better than she did today when questioned about Oravida. Because today she had a shocker.

NRT: Unsurprising

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:52 pm, April 10th, 2014 - 17 comments

But on any realistic numbers, its unthinkable for a future Labour government not to include the Greens, and as Gordon Campbell points out, by refusing to define their relationship themselves, Labour has given National a free hand to do it for them – and in undoubtedly negative terms. That won’t do the Greens any harm. But its unlikely to be good for Labour.

Polity: The Greens’ proposed pre-election deal

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:45 pm, April 10th, 2014 - 58 comments

Last night, via One News, the public became aware that the Greens had proposed a pre-election coalition with Labour, but Labour had rejected it. While the Greens’ offer is nothing unusual internationally, New Zealand’s comparatively fair electoral system doesn’t provide Labour much incentive to accept it. Which, I think, makes Labour’s rejection of the proposal much less noteworthy.

Hollow Men redux

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:35 pm, April 10th, 2014 - 43 comments

Don Brash has published an autobiography and his comments about and presentation of John Key is less than complimentary.

Bridges is rattled, and confused

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:36 pm, April 9th, 2014 - 97 comments

Simon Bridges has not had a good week. His knowledge of the whereabouts of pristine natural areas is as reliable as his knowledge of Russel Norman’s ministerial career.

NRT: Is the Minister of Energy a muppet?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:55 pm, April 9th, 2014 - 11 comments

When looking at Simon Bridges – a purported government minister. You have to remember that he is damn sloppy even for a politician. But oh so typical of his usual muppet behaviour is that he wasn’t aware that he was opening up our biggest forest park for oil and gas exploration. Of course it could just be National’s bulldoze anything for a little immediate profit….

National thinks the best approach to climate change is adaption

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:10 am, April 9th, 2014 - 90 comments

National is starting to talk about adaption to climate change rather than addressing greenhouse gas output. And greenhouse gas output is projected to increase in New Zealand by 50% over the next decade.

Poverty denial – NZ Herald editorial

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:44 am, April 8th, 2014 - 210 comments

Today’s NZ Herald editorial joins Paula Bennett’s beneficiary-bashing stunt, asking for flying privileges to be cut, & denying there is a lot of poverty in NZ- a view from the privileged part of NZ’s inequality gap.

The politics of the Royal Tour

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:04 am, April 8th, 2014 - 85 comments

Is it just me or is John Key politicising the Royal Tour in a way that has not occurred before? And is he a Royalist or a Republican or both at the same time but for different parts of the electorate?

Polity: Armstrong on National on Labour

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:20 pm, April 7th, 2014 - 13 comments

It isn’t a new ploy from National or its supporters. “Mortgage rate rises under National: Good. Mortgage rate rises under Labour: Dreadful!”. I’ve seen David Farrar argue both that a recession is the perfect time to cut taxes because it stimulates the economy, and a recovery is also the perfect time to cut taxes to provide a dividend. It reminds me of that old chestnut, most recently applied to Don Brash: “The answer is tax cuts. What is the question again?”

Local Bodies: The Great Oil Gamble and Wasted Opportunities

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:37 am, April 7th, 2014 - 24 comments

Gamble Big’ rather than ‘Think Big’ should be this National Government’s mantra.Opening up huge areas of our land and territorial waters for open slather oil and gas exploration is a gamble on so many levels. When many countries like Denmark are actively chasing a sustainable, clean energy future, this government is throwing all its hopes on a big strike of fossil fuel.

National preparing for November election?

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:01 am, April 4th, 2014 - 36 comments

A guest post concerning apparent confusion on the part of the National Party about when this year’s election is. Stand by for breathless denunciation of the party by Farrar, Slater and the Young Nats for its inability to organise a piss up in a brewery.

Go Annette!

Written By: karol - Date published: 9:35 am, April 4th, 2014 - 53 comments

Mana Party candidate Annette Sykes has been developing an effective organisation in her electorate. Her speech at the TPPA rally laid out its threats to livelihoods in the Bay of Plenty. Her views on the Internet Party will be listened to when discussed by the Mana Party.

Fact checking John Key’s budget speech

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:25 pm, April 3rd, 2014 - 144 comments

David Parker has been performing some fact checking on John Key’s recent budget speech and the results are somewhat startling …

Rogernomics, income inequality & gender politics

Written By: karol - Date published: 12:22 pm, April 3rd, 2014 - 22 comments

All of us, in our diversity, can make a big impact this election year. Time to end the “neoliberal” tyranny! Crime stats are celebrated masking the continuing impact of income & social inequalities. Rogernomics fractured gender politics & rape crisis intiatives.

Drill baby drill

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:12 am, April 3rd, 2014 - 40 comments

Two days after the IPCC has warned us of the threat posed by climate change and Simon Bridges has announced a huge block offer of parts of New Zealand and much of its territorial water. This will include the pristine waters off Auckland’s west coast, home of Maui’s dolphin. In a world that has to address its consumption of petroleum you have to question if it is worth the risk.

NRT: Privatization is theft

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:56 am, April 3rd, 2014 - 33 comments

A government is carrying out a crash-program of privatization without a mandate. It is desperate to sell, so it sets the price of the shares artificially low, and loses $1.5 billion in a single day. No, this isn’t New Zealand (yet) – its the UK:

Hone Harawira: No prestige in iwi leaders trying to hide poverty

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:24 am, April 3rd, 2014 - 52 comments

When so-called iwi leaders condemn teachers for daring to highlight the massive failings of the New Zealand education system for Maori children in case the minister of Education might be embarrassed, then they show themselves up as a sad and pathetic group for whom the warm embrace of government has become more important than the needs of their own children and grandchildren. Just who the hell do they think they are, trying to hide the truth of New Zealand’s failed policies just because the international community is in town?

Act thinks the IPCC is scaremongering

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:38 am, April 1st, 2014 - 65 comments

The latest IPCC report has been released and not only are scientific views on the existence of climate change hardening, but the effects are becoming more pronounced. Meanwhile ACT has described action to try and save the planet as “moral exhibitionism” and has said that not improving the ETS is a bottom line for any future coalition with National. If you need any reason to work to get rid of this Government this has to be it.

Patricia Grace takes on RONS

Written By: karol - Date published: 9:29 am, April 1st, 2014 - 48 comments

The Kapiti Expressway is one of the National government’s RONS projects: it makes no sense economically. It is destructive to the environment and the local communities. The NZTA is attempting to run roughshod over ancestral lands, including that of writer, Patricia Grace. She is taking a stand.

The extinction of Kauri

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:00 am, March 29th, 2014 - 36 comments

National has refused to continue funding research into Kauri Dieback disease. But the discovery of the disease in the Coromandel has sparked a new sense of urgency. And Nick Smith is busily trying to rewrite history.

NRT: Cash for honours

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:44 am, March 28th, 2014 - 17 comments

Yesterday No Right Turn did a post on how Graeme Douglas became Sir Graeme Douglas by looking at his donations donating heavily to the National party after being gonged. But this other post on the same overall subject was more interesting. It is no wonder that National wanted the more lucrative royal honours reinstated.

The Mein Kampf distraction

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:38 pm, March 26th, 2014 - 511 comments

Slater and TV3 have double teamed an attack on Kim Dotcom suggesting that he has Nazi tendencies the day before the launch of the Internet Party. Is the main stream media being manipulated?

NRT: I don’t see it either

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:49 pm, March 25th, 2014 - 49 comments

The “big” political news today (this being a non-sitting week when the politicians are on holiday, some of them literally) is that the Internet Party is in talks with Mana to form an electoral alliance (which presumably means a joint party list). Like pretty much everyone else, I’m boggled by this.

The struggle over gambling corruption

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:04 am, March 25th, 2014 - 48 comments

There has been a long struggle by the Problem Gambling Foundation & others against SkyCity & the powerful and secretive Pokie Trusts. The government has tended to support the trusts, while maintaining their distance from them. The defunding of the PGF is the latest chapter in the struggle.

Power disconnections increase as hardship grants are cut

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:47 am, March 25th, 2014 - 38 comments

Radio New Zealand has reported that power disconnections have soared at the same time that WINZ hardship grants have plummeted. Simon Bridges has suggested that it is the power companies fault. The Government should be blaming increasing poverty and inadequate WINZ hardship grants instead.

Polity: Buy low, sell high. Except National.

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:06 pm, March 24th, 2014 - 27 comments

Rob at Polity points out National’s intensely unstrategic view about investments and asset sales. In a down market where all the indications said “buy,” National sold our assets for a pittance, and refused to invest in the Super Fund. The Super Fund has been making returns of 21%, far exceeding the Crown’s cost of borrowing. And National will only start investing in the Super Fund when equities are expensive again. It is almost as if they wanted to waste taxpayers funds eh?

LocalBodies: National Slumps in Polls As Ministers Struggle

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:19 am, March 24th, 2014 - 22 comments

There is danger of reading too much into polls months out from an election. Commentators were claiming that National was too strong to lose the next election based on a rogue poll. Few looked at multiple polls, accounted for the margin of error nor the trends over past months. The last fortnight has seen a National with the latest Roy Morgan Poll plummeting from the Colmar Brunton result of 51% to 45.5%. And it is based on a lack of ministerial performance…

When John Key leaves Parliament he wants to …

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:00 am, March 24th, 2014 - 52 comments

Guess what John Key wants to do when he leaves politics?

his precious $

Written By: geoff - Date published: 8:20 am, March 22nd, 2014 - 41 comments

As reported on TV3 news a few nights ago, John Key said that “I have a very strong sense of how precious children are…” The children, that is, of Chinese consumers who are buying milk powder… As for kiwi kids, well…how precious are they, John? National cares so much for kiwi kids they were prepared […]