political parties

A Right Jackup

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:02 pm, May 30th, 2011 - 18 comments

So it appears that John Banks will get to face his mayoral campaign manager, Aaron Bhatnagar, as National candidate for Epsom. National will continue to ensure Act’s survival, as latest polls keep Act at about 2%.

Labour’s new online game

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 12:09 pm, May 26th, 2011 - 53 comments

Labour’s new online game is hilarious. Choose whether or not to take the options presented and see the results. Politics is all about choices

Who has the ideas?

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:07 am, May 26th, 2011 - 62 comments

Last week we had National’s budget and Labour’s conference. A chance for both parties to set out their ideas for the future. National’s do-nothing budget went down like a lead balloon, while Labour started setting out promising new policy. Looks like the 2011 election campaign will be a contest between ideas and schoolboy mockery.

R&D: Our future

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 6:27 am, May 25th, 2011 - 86 comments

National are bleating about Labour’s Research & Development tax credit – largely because as they have no economic plan of their own, so they can only talk about other parties’. But Labour’s R&D tax credit is in fact part of what’s desperately needed to get our economy moving in the right direction.

Lunatic prophecies

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:32 pm, May 23rd, 2011 - 10 comments

Cartoonist Guy Body in The Herald, with one of those pictures that is worth a thousand words…

The lazy unemployed

Written By: r0b - Date published: 9:30 am, May 23rd, 2011 - 22 comments

John Key reckons the unemployed need “a kick in the pants”. Paula Bennett reckons the Nats’ harsh reforms mean that “the dream is over” for beneficiaries. Meanwhile, back in the real world…

Right still attacking the minimum wage

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 7:00 am, May 23rd, 2011 - 194 comments

Labour’s pledge of a $15 hour minimum wage is worth more than any tax cut – $66 a week net to a full-time minimum wage worker. The right is crying it’ll hurt the economy and destroys jobs. That’s rubbish. In particular, the history of changes to the youth minimum wage shows no relation to youth unemployment. The Right are just making excuses for ripping-off workers.

National vs Auckland

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 1:42 am, May 23rd, 2011 - 23 comments

National are not acting in accordance with Auckland’s wishes. Aucklanders want public transport, and its Council wants a quality compact sustainable eco-city – National seem to be aiming to frustrate that. Aucklanders should submit their views to strengthen our voice against the government.

Goff unveils Labour’s vision

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:21 pm, May 22nd, 2011 - 90 comments

Phil Goff has announced that Labour will bring agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme earlier and use the extra revenue to fund R&D, much of which will be into clean tech and low-carbon farming. There’s a swath of announcements showing Goff’s Labour has the vision Key’s National lacks. Labour is making positive choices while being fiscally responsible.

Focus on children

Written By: r0b - Date published: 5:35 pm, May 21st, 2011 - 84 comments

Despite some progress under the last Labour government, too many children have been allowed to slip through the gaps in this country. And now of course, under a National government, it’s getting worse. In her conference speech this evening Annette King renewed her promise that the next Labour government will put children at the centre of policy.

Stop me if you’ve already heard this one

Written By: r0b - Date published: 8:26 am, May 21st, 2011 - 12 comments

As I think you can tell from the budget speech, that Bill English is quite a funny guy…

Labour billboard campaign

Written By: r0b - Date published: 1:08 pm, May 18th, 2011 - 89 comments

Labour have been running a competition to crowd source their billboard design. Here is the winner, which (see Red Alert) will be going up around Wellington shortly. It’s going to provoke some controversy.

Green budget ideas

Written By: r0b - Date published: 6:21 am, May 18th, 2011 - 15 comments

It has been great to see Labour’s statements on how they would approach Budget 2011. But, as is often the case at this stage of the electoral cycle, it is the Greens who are laying out their alternative budget ideas in the most detail.

What will Labour do?

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 2:26 pm, May 17th, 2011 - 40 comments

Good speech here from David Cunliffe to the Manufacturers and Exporters Association last night. He and David Parker both spoke and I understand their message was very well received by the audience. He outlines the principles for a good budget, and then answers the question about what would Labour do. There is another one to Business New Zealand today.

Maori Party’s prognosis ‘grim’

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:52 am, May 17th, 2011 - 14 comments

Morgan Godfrey’s blog Maui Street is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand Maori politics. His latest post provides a fascinating insight into the decline of the Maori Party.

His prognosis? “Grim”.

Will ACT vote against the Budget?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:46 am, May 16th, 2011 - 42 comments

Reading Don Brash’s letter to John Key and watching Roger Douglas on Q+A, I wonder if the Nats behind the takeover of ACT realised what they were unleashing. I’ve heard some talk that ACT won’t vote for Key’s Budget. Where would that leave Rodney Hide? Where would that leave the Maori Party? Could we see a snap election?

Beemer watch

Written By: r0b - Date published: 8:05 am, May 14th, 2011 - 61 comments

What is going to happen to the “old” BMW limos when the government gets rid of them? The franchise that just donated $50,000 to the Nats has said it wants its share of the “honey pot”. I wonder if the Nats will oblige?

Choices choices

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 8:30 pm, May 12th, 2011 - 40 comments

Watch Jacinda Ardern clean up Jamie-Lee Ross on Breakfast this morning. Nearly half of the National Government’s much-quoted borrowing of $300 million a week is to pay for their tax cuts. That was this government’s choice. Now their choice is that everyone else has to pay for it.

Te Tai Tokerau by election 25th June

Written By: r0b - Date published: 2:49 pm, May 12th, 2011 - 68 comments

We have a date for what promises to be a fascinating by election. The pressure is on Hone Harawira…

Maggie Barry

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 11:55 pm, May 11th, 2011 - 17 comments

National have tonight chosen Mt Albert resident Maggie Barry as their North Shore candidate.

Cash for cars?

Written By: r0b - Date published: 5:26 pm, May 11th, 2011 - 117 comments

A $50,000 donation from a BMW franchise to National?

This latest twist to the BMW saga has a real stench about it.

Harawira vs Davis vs ?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:36 am, May 11th, 2011 - 38 comments

Labour has decided to stand Kelvin Davis in the Te Tai Tokerau by-election. I wish they hadn’t. First, Davis strikes me as quality and you don’t tarnish quality by making it lose in front of a national audience. Look what happened to Melissa Lee, former National rising star. And Davis will lose, let’s be honest.

Spat on the altar

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 7:52 pm, May 10th, 2011 - 19 comments

It was good to hear Mike Williams as the voice of the left on Nine to Noon yesterday. It is high time that someone from the broad left had the mike, to coin a phrase. Mike “spat on the altar” and had a friendly go at his mate Matt McCarten’s strategy for a by-election in Te Tai Tokerau, a kind of joust of the gurus. He thinks Matt made a mistake there, and I agree.

Brownlee flexing his CERA muscle

Written By: r0b - Date published: 3:29 pm, May 10th, 2011 - 10 comments

Is the power of CERA going to Brownlee’s head a bit? Seems he’s using it to intimidate Christchurch building owners.

But you’ll distort the price signal!

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:50 am, May 10th, 2011 - 31 comments

ACT on Campus is giving away KFC Double Downs today. I love that ACToids are always complaining that interest-free student loans are a bad idea because they encourage wasteful, inefficient spending but think that giving out free heart-attack makers is perfectly sensible.By the way, isn’t this treating?

How rude

Written By: r0b - Date published: 8:15 am, May 10th, 2011 - 106 comments

What a lot of fuss about Titewhai Harawira and daughter heckling Tariana Turia. Perhaps those expressing outrage at yesterday’s events would do well to reflect for a while on the source of the Harawiras’ anger.

Caption Competition

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 12:50 pm, May 9th, 2011 - 63 comments

Maori Party to stand against Hone

Written By: r0b - Date published: 10:03 am, May 9th, 2011 - 83 comments

News this morning that (as predicted) the Maori Party will be standing a candidate against Hone Harawira if he forces a by election in Te Tai Tokerau.

Beyond the welfare stereotypes

Written By: r0b - Date published: 6:58 am, May 9th, 2011 - 124 comments

An Australian report sets out some common myths about beneficiaries, and the facts that disprove them. I have no doubt that a similar pattern of unjustified myths would be found here. Starting with our PM.

Dog eat dog on the extreme Right

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:57 pm, May 8th, 2011 - 46 comments

There’s a strange story in the Sunday Star-Times today. The premise is rumours that Don Brash has a love child but that seems to be baseless. The real point of the story is the Brash-ists trying to kill off Rodney Hide now, rather than wait until the election. I wouldn’t be surprised they’re behind the love-child story.

Some are more equal than others

Written By: r0b - Date published: 11:32 am, May 7th, 2011 - 11 comments

Gordon Campbell demolishes the Nats’ hasty excuse that the blowout in Key’s diplomatic protection costs is due to a particular threat. He also takes Judith Collins to task for her argument that the police should have an unlimited and unaccountable protection budget , or lives could be put at risk…