political parties

Humour of the week

Written By: lprent - Date published: 9:01 pm, April 6th, 2010 - 10 comments

David Slack says..

“Qantas passenger threatened to bring down flight with the power of his mind. Ten bucks says he’s wearing an ACT T-shirt”

But it made me laugh after a hard weekend. as it perfectly reflects that way I feel about the breed.

State enforced amnesia

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 10:24 am, April 6th, 2010 - 7 comments

John Key’s National government has, in its infinite wisdom, decided to subsume Archives New Zealand and the National Library within the Department of Internal Affairs. With typical ideological one-eyedness that necessitates a blithe disregard for constitutional values, the merger is likely to have some fairly dire consequences for anyone who considers it important that a […]

Will Maori Party stand firm on foreshore & seabed?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:12 am, April 6th, 2010 - 12 comments

The Maori Party was established to win the right for iwi to have what they believe are their rights to use the economic potential of the foreshore and seabed. National’s offer does not deliver on that. Will the Maori Party fold? Early indications are mixed. Hone Harawira will stand strong but a patsy question from rahui Katene last Thursday suggests the leadership might be willing to roll over.

Key’s promises on crime

Written By: r0b - Date published: 6:53 am, April 5th, 2010 - 58 comments

John Key makes big promises and he doesn’t deliver. Tax cuts North of $50? Jobs summit? Close the gap with Australia? His rhetoric on crime is another example. Key promised to tackle violent crime. Key promised a war on P. Well, the first report card is in, and it isn’t good.

Nats fail on crime

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 2:07 am, April 4th, 2010 - 45 comments

Regular readers of The Standard will know that a primary driver of crime is joblessness. It’s no surprise, therefore, to see that crime went up in the last year. Fewer jobs to go around = more crime. Crime is a symptom of socio-economic distress. It is not, primarily, ‘bad’ people behaving badly because they are […]

What the foreshore and seabed is really about

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:25 am, April 4th, 2010 - 41 comments

Iwi do not want legal recognition of some kind of fuzzy spirital connection with the foreshore and seabed. They want legal recognition of property rights, rights to use the economic potential of what they regard as their property. For Maori rights activists, National’s offer cannot be seen as anything other than a continued denial of the rights that the Maori Party was created to win back

Over-promise, under-deliver

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:48 am, March 31st, 2010 - 7 comments

The Key Government is constantly promising us great results and actually do nothing that improves things for New Zealanders. English, Bennett, Brownlee, and Tolley are prime examples of this MO. While they promise great things and fail to deliver unemployment is rising, wages are falling, crime is up, and the government has no plan to move us forward.

Maori Party ambushed

Written By: r0b - Date published: 2:02 pm, March 30th, 2010 - 29 comments

The Maori Party says it was ambushed on National’s welfare reform policy, which Tariana Turia opposes. The Minister and the Associate Minister are at odds on the issue. Does this mean that the Maori Party will be making a stand? Don’t hold your breath…

Beneficiary bashing – an inglorious National sport

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:45 am, March 30th, 2010 - 30 comments

Lifted from comments for wider reading by commentator acclaim.. Beneficiary bashing in this country is definitely becoming uglier by the day. It seems that Paula Bennett’s attacks on beneficiaries seemingly condoned by the Prime Minister has given prejudice free reign in the country. It is now permissible to demonize a vulnerable group in society based […]

Mining secret agenda emerging

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:51 pm, March 29th, 2010 - 12 comments

It’s becoming clear that National had their policy to mine on protected land all planned before the election and hid the truth from the public because they feared it would make them unelectable. National needs to front up with the records of their pre-election discussions with the mining industry. Labour should challenge them to come clean in the House today.

Nats fail to keep biggest promise (and the rest)

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:20 am, March 29th, 2010 - 51 comments

The economy finally managed to grow faster than the population in the December quarter but it was still slower than Australia. With weak growth, wages falling in inflation-adjusted terms, and unemployment now 2% higher than in Australia and rising the question has to be asked: when is John Key going to keep his promise to close the gap with Australia?

The knives are out (again)

Written By: lprent - Date published: 8:01 pm, March 27th, 2010 - 3 comments

This image has been sitting around since October 2007 in a unposted post from all_your_base awaiting someone who deserves it.

I read Marty G’s post today about the infighting in Act.

I’m awarding it to Rodney Hide. He seems to deserve it….

More Act infighting

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 3:03 pm, March 27th, 2010 - 78 comments

It’s getting nasty in the ACT party. Rodney Hide can’t last as leader. Heather Roy, Roger Douglas, and John Boscawen each have factions backing them to replace him. Disintegration is a real possibility. The consequence of ACT’s straying from it’s economically and socially liberal roots under Douglas and Prebble to reactionism under the nihilist Hide. If a collapse does take place, Key may have to call an early election.

Three strikes?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:30 am, March 25th, 2010 - 19 comments

Among the reports released by the Attorney General, three in particular make for interesting reading. They relate to three of National’s core policies — three strikes, automatic DNA testing, and “getting tough” on beneficiaries. The Attorney General finds that each of these policies is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act.

‘Dig & hope’ – Nats’ great plan

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:30 am, March 25th, 2010 - 43 comments

National’s mining policy is ‘dig and hope’. That’s the only conclusion one can draw after Gerry Brownlee and Nick Smith admitted National has no idea of the value of the minerals supposedly under the protected lands they want to dig up. Remember, this is National’s lynch-pin economic policy. They are we have dig up these protected lands for the sake of the economy but have no idea of what’s there.

Stand up against ACT attack on students’ associations

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:43 pm, March 24th, 2010 - 66 comments

Andrew Campbell reports that Roger Douglas and the ACT party want to change the law so that student associations will be unable to provide the important services and representation that they currently offer by making their membership voluntary. This will put the clubs and services that many universities offer at risk.

One person one vote

Written By: r0b - Date published: 8:59 am, March 24th, 2010 - 14 comments

Pita Sharples’ speech on race relations day, and his comments that followed, certainly set the cat amongst the pigeons. Did Sharples really mean to suggest that we should do away with “one person one vote”? I don’t think so…

Another big empty promise

Written By: r0b - Date published: 6:15 am, March 20th, 2010 - 41 comments

Education Minister Anne Tolley has made an extraordinary promise: “New Zealand elected a Government that promised to introduce national standards so that every single child could read, write, and do maths when they left school. That is what the country voted for.” We would all love to see National deliver, but they can’t, and they know that they can’t. It’s an empty promise.

Nats favour Turia, screw Sharples

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:42 am, March 19th, 2010 - 25 comments

Seats on the supercity, 3 strikes, tertiary cuts, national standards, RWC TV, ETS, foreshore and seabed (soon enough). The list of issues that the Maori Party has been shafted by National on keeps growing. Yet Tariana Turia’s ill-defined ‘Whanua Ora’ policy, which looks like nothing so much as privisation by stealth, gets carte blanche. What’s going on here?

Why English lies

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:40 am, March 18th, 2010 - 9 comments

As you’ll be aware, I’ve been pretty flabbergasted by the way day after day Bill English is getting up in the House and telling out and out lies about Labour’s record on the economy only for Labour to sit there and take it. Well, I’ve been thinking about this a little more and I think I get it now. He can’t talk up his own performance – there’s nothing to skite about and it’s against his political strategy even if there were some successes to point to

Andrew Little eyes New Plymouth

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:42 pm, March 15th, 2010 - 19 comments

I didn’t actually realise that the fact that Andrew Little is considering standing for Labour in New Plymouth in 2011 was news to anyone. I would think that New Plymouth is a natural seat for him.

Farrar’s analysis makes the old mistake of looking at the party votes instead of the candidate votes.

What’s a decade between friends?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:09 am, March 14th, 2010 - 29 comments

Deborah Coddington writes:
“In 1994, not long after Rodney Hide became leader of Act,…”
Umm, Hide became leader in 2004. To be fair, the rest of Coddington’s piece offers a pretty good examination of Act’s fundamental problems.

Make that man a minister

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:50 am, March 12th, 2010 - 42 comments

British American Tabacco’s Graeme Amey has the brazen lie down pat. The guy quit smoking himself but wants Kiwis to keep smoking and dying to make his company profits. When asked why he quit he said “it was just a personal choice”. But why? “It was just a personal choice”. Yeah. Was that personal choice […]

The cruelest cuts

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:29 am, March 12th, 2010 - 8 comments

Cuts to prisoner rehabilitation, night classes, and the Super Gold Card aren’t about saving money. The government is only too happy to sign blank cheques for stupid projects like Transmission Gully and the Holiday Highway on the vaguest cost estimates. No, these successful policies are having the financial life bled out of them because they contradict National’s ideology.

Education cuts good for kids in bizarro Tolley world

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:30 pm, March 11th, 2010 - 20 comments

Have a listen to Education Minister Anne Tolley on Morning Report today trying to explain the $25 million cut to the education budget.

It really was a shocker, even for her.

ACT gerrymanders Auckland for the rich

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:05 pm, March 11th, 2010 - 23 comments

The Local Government Commission released its final ward boundaries for Auckland today and the result is a city gerrymandered by ACT to favour the interests of the rich.

That’s the verdict from No Right Turn, who’s crunched the numbers and discovered a systematic bias for the Right.

High unemployment helps Nats keep wages down

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:12 am, March 11th, 2010 - 21 comments

While other countries have used their strong public sectors to steady the private sector and keep unemployment down during the economic downturn, our government is compounding unemployment by cutting the public sector, throwing people out of jobs and feeding worker insecurity.

Some friendly advice for Labour

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 5:46 pm, March 10th, 2010 - 115 comments

The latest Roy Morgan poll is out and Labour isn’t moving. And while only a political noob would expect them to be making major gains this early in the first term of a new government they’re still not laying the groundwork they should be. So what should they be doing?

But how much did the bus cost?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:49 am, March 10th, 2010 - 24 comments

“Tolley finds ally in school mum” screams the headline of Audrey Young’s piece today.

When National runs a bus tour the Herald is desperate in its attempts to drum up support, when it’s Labour all they want to talk about is how much the bus is costing the taxpayer.

Who were the Nat leakers?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 2:09 pm, March 9th, 2010 - 40 comments

Michael is dead right. The most important thing about the Hollow Men is not how Nicky Hager got the information but what the information is. It reveals National’s modern politics in all its unprincipled ugliness. Nonetheless, which Nats gave Hager the information is a subject of legitimate interest. I have some theories.

Meanwhile, at nationalmps.co.nz…

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:16 am, March 9th, 2010 - 19 comments

Remember how a couple of months back National set up NationalMPs? It was meant to be their answer to Red Alert, Labour’s frequently raucous, unstagemanaged blog where Labour’s MPs write what they want. But the Nats’ attempt is deadly dull. Either the leadership is gagging them or the Nat MPs are dreadful bores.