political parties

Where’s Hone?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:08 pm, October 23rd, 2009 - 57 comments

Heard an interesting piece of gossip last night. Word has it Hone Harawira’s gone awol from the Maori Party. Apparently he’s somewhere in Australia, buzz around the traps is he’s pissed off about the increasingly right-wing direction Tariana Turia is taking the Maori Party in and is thinking about quitting. The last straw was said […]

One of these things is not like the other VIII

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 2:35 pm, October 23rd, 2009 - 30 comments

One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same… Can you guess which one is not like the other, Can you tell me before I finish the game?

Roy makes hash of Breakfast-gate cover-up

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 23rd, 2009 - 29 comments

In an interview on Morning Report today, ACT’s Heather Roy tries to defend her involvement in the Breakfast-gate scams. She says it’s all the organisers’ fault. A typical blame the staff play. The fact is that Roy would have been asked what she wanted to speak about and she chose to do it on her […]

The urgency of love

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:00 am, October 23rd, 2009 - 7 comments

One thing about love is that what you abhor or hate in others you tolerate, even admire, in the object of your affection. Take the media’s handling of Parliament going into Urgency. When Labour filibustered over the second Auckland Supercity Bill, there were articles in the newspapers and snide remarks from news commentators about the […]

Roy joins in Hide’s Breakfast-gate scam

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:15 pm, October 22nd, 2009 - 19 comments

Question Time and media reports have revealed more on Hide’s ministerial-speeches-for-party-donations scam (as you know, every political scandal needs a ‘-gate’. I like Breakfast-gate). Hon Annette King: Does he expect all his Ministers to comply with paragraph 2.54 of the Cabinet Manual, which states: ‘accepting additional payment for doing anything that could be regarded as a ministerial function […]

Hide falls foul of Cabinet Manual

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:30 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 52 comments

The Cabinet Manual details the basic expectations of ministerial conduct. It is not law but it would be highly irregular for a minister to breach the Manual and keep their job. And, unlike the law, just because something is not expressly banned does not mean it’s OK. Here’s some provisions of relevance to Hide’s speeches for donations: […]

More dodgy fundraising by ACT

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:54 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 13 comments

The ever industrious No Right Turn has turned up more dodgy fundraising practices by ACT. Last month, three ACT MPs held what was billed as “a forum” on “the hard questions – and some answers” at the plush Mecure Leisure Lodge in Dunedin. Three strikes, VSM, local government, and smacking were discussed. People were invited […]

Key’s divide and rule to cut wages

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:28 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 20 comments

John Key says that if school support staff want pay-rises then teachers should sacrifice the ones they bargained for. Tell him to get stuffed. I don’t see him and his rich mates handing back the hundreds of dollars a week each in tax-cuts that National gave. I don’t see Key or his buddies Mark Weldon and Rob Fyfe […]

Hide flounders in effort to cover corruption

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:18 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 5 comments

Rodney Hide was always going to go one of two ways to try to excuse his corrupt abuse of office. Remember the facts: Hide is Local Government Minister. He will be speaking at a breakfast on Local Government issues. The breakfast is called ‘The Future of Local Government’ and the invitation promises attendees that “Minister […]

Clueless on ACE

Written By: r0b - Date published: 4:21 pm, October 21st, 2009 - 35 comments

Night classes Adult and Community Education (ACE). An incredibly cost effective and valuable part of the NZ education sector for decades. The ACE budget has been eviscerated by National, cut from $16m to $3m. Effectively a death blow, most of the infrastructure and expertise will go. These are stupid hypocritical cuts, and there is huge […]

Turia on ACC

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 3:50 pm, October 21st, 2009 - 8 comments

Here’s Tariana Turia on Q&A last Sunday, responding to a question from Guyon Espiner about National’s plans for ACC: I’m very concerned and one of the reasons why I’m really concerned is that there’s been a lot of talk about privatising the work account. Now the face of it is that’s the only account that […]

Maori Party supports foreign business over working Maori

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:55 am, October 21st, 2009 - 26 comments

It is a reflection of the schizophrenic nature of the Maori Party that one day they’re professing to care about poor Maori who are apparently missing out on their ACC entitlements and the next day they’re backing privatisation of ACC, which would lead to even worse outcomes for those Maori, because it might be a […]

Hide’s invitation to corrupt fundraiser

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, October 21st, 2009 - 74 comments

Click here for a PDF of Local Government Minister Rodney Hide’s invitation to local government stakeholders to a breakfast speech titled “The Future of Local Government”. This speech by the Minister to stakeholders is doubling as an ACT fundraiser. If you want to hear your Minister for Local Government speak, you will have to make a […]

Hide’s corrupt abuse of office

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:31 am, October 21st, 2009 - 67 comments

Another government minister has been caught in corrupt behaviour, and this is arguably the worst of the lot. Rodney Hide is speaking at a breakfast in Christchurch next month. He will be speaking as minister and on his portfolio – Local Government. Local government officials have been invited to hear him. Hide is charging $45 […]

Another day, another sell-out

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 3:40 pm, October 20th, 2009 - 19 comments

The Maori Party has decided it will support National’s changes to ACC despite Tariana Turia just two days ago saying she was “very concerned” about those changes. Here’s their explanation for their latest flip-flop: “We know that Maori have consistently had less access to ACC entitlements than other groups, under existing legislation. While this Bill […]

Labour where art thou?

Written By: Tammy Gordon - Date published: 11:59 am, October 20th, 2009 - 45 comments

I’m not going to repeat the list of all the things that are starting to make people angry and scared or catalogue the broken promises (privatising ACC fast approaching in National’s first term) or go over in fine detail the fact that National are anything but Labour lite. I just to know where the hell […]

Aroha is love, you can give it away…

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 4:40 am, October 20th, 2009 - 5 comments

“You can get away with anything, as long as you’re respectful about it” – former Maori Party strategist Matt McCarten on National’s dealing with the Maori Party. So, another day, another little humilitation for the Maori Party. All that matters to the leaders is that the coalition with National doesn’t fail. They turn a blind […]

Talk about politics

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 11:21 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 8 comments

On RNZ’s Nine to Noon today Andrew Campbell rips the shit out of National‘s grotesque mismanagement of the Rugby World Cup fiasco and laments the lack of talent in the PM’s staff, all the while Matthew Hooton gently weeps. There’s also talk about how despite the ongoing cock-ups of this Government the polls are still […]

National’s repeated abuse of democratic process

Written By: r0b - Date published: 6:53 am, October 19th, 2009 - 15 comments

The current National led government clearly regards the processes of democracy is an inconvenience to which it must pay lip service, but nothing more. The first signs appeared very early, with repeated abuse of the mechanism of urgency. This got to the point that even their fans at The Herald were moved to rebuke them: […]

Sharples a scapegoat for Nats’ bumbling schemers

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:19 pm, October 17th, 2009 - 10 comments

If we’re to believe National’s version of events, Pita Sharples kept secret from his colleagues that he was going to take $3 million from a contestable Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) fund meant for job initiatives and give it to Maori TV (MTS) to subsidise their World Cup bid. When it became a big story Sharples apologised […]

Something fishy in Bakshi case

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 16th, 2009 - 8 comments

Police have ended their investigation in National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi’s immigration scam after the principal accuser left the country in mysterious circumstances. In Parliament, Pete Hodgson read a sworn statement by Darshan Singh Saran which says that Bakshi and his associates were involved first in an immigration scam, and then in trying to silence […]

Surveillance state

Written By: r0b - Date published: 9:26 am, October 16th, 2009 - 22 comments

One of the most dishonest, yet most successful tactics of National in opposition was to rant on and on about the “Nanny state”. Here’s John Key fairly foaming at the mouth: I’ve had nine years of being told what lightbulb I can screw into the house, what shower I can take, what food I can […]

What a balls-up

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:38 am, October 15th, 2009 - 22 comments

Competent government’s a bit like oil in your car’s engine. It’s easy to take it for granted – until it’s not there. Look at the mess this bunch have made of a simple broadcasting rights deal. We’re going to have the six major games live on four channels, three of them free-to-air. Isn’t that just […]

Derek Fox on Rugby World Cup

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:01 pm, October 14th, 2009 - 28 comments

Up until a few hours ago Derek Fox was the Chief Press Sec for the Co-leaders of the Maori Party. He resigned from that position this morning, evidently deeply dissatisfied. Shortly after resigning he gave an interview on 9 to noon – scathing of the World Cup bid (embedded below).

Fool me once…

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:05 am, October 14th, 2009 - 50 comments

They say pattern recognition is a vital part of healthy cognitive function. I wonder it Sharples sees this one: Every time an issue the Maori Party cares deeply about comes up, Key makes soothing noises. Promises they’ll get what they want. Then when crunch time comes, he screws them. Fire at Will Bill – Maori […]

Beyond parody

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:05 pm, October 13th, 2009 - 13 comments

I was joking when I said all we need now is for Sharples to up the ante in the government vs government bidding war, but this government is truly beyond parody. “Just before heading into the House today Mr Sharples talked to reporters, and was clearly furious and openly critical of National. He called what […]

Labour drops the ball

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:28 pm, October 13th, 2009 - 79 comments

Labour’s pathetic response to Treasury’s flat tax proposal has come in for some well deserved criticism over at No Right Turn, and I have to agree it’s a pretty basic failure on Labour’s part. Faced with a reactionary and regressive proposal that amounts to a full-frontal attack on their founding values and the people they […]

Beyond belief

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:39 pm, October 13th, 2009 - 23 comments

So, let me get this straight. Pita Sharples, treating his ministry’s budget like a personal slush fund, decided that TPK would give Maori TV $3 million to add to its bid for free-to-air TV rights for the Rugby World Cup. That extra $3 mil made Maori TV the front-runner to get the rights. Now, the […]

Some advice for the Greens

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 1:25 pm, October 11th, 2009 - 66 comments

The Greens are continuing their idiotic policy of “neither left nor right” today with a calculated smear of Sue Bradford in the Sunday Star Times. As far as I can see the story has been fed out by someone high in the party as a way of distancing the Greens from Bradford and her Left […]

Blast from the past

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:56 pm, October 9th, 2009 - 37 comments

I see Winston Peters is trying to resurrect his political career with another racist rant about immigration. I don’t think there’s much point in giving the man any more attention. My views are pretty much the same as No Right Turn. All I’d add is that it’s actually kind of tragic to see Winston carry […]

Labour needs to get beside the workers

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:00 am, October 8th, 2009 - 37 comments

You know, if you look back to all the elections since 1957, there’s only three you would say the Left lost outright – 1975, 1990, and 2008. In the Holyoake years, too much of the vote was being wasted on Left-leaning Social Credit, Muldoon lost 1978 and 1981 but got more seats, the country voted […]