political parties

Chauvel on loan sharks

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:00 pm, June 17th, 2009 - 15 comments

No Right Turn has published an excellent guest post from Labour MP Charles Chauvel about his private member’s bill to stamp out loan sharks. Ever since I became an MP, an issue that I have supported is the regulation of so called “loan sharks”. Loan sharks prey on the vulnerable with unscrupulous rates of interest […]

Key’s female trouble

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:03 pm, June 16th, 2009 - 51 comments

Key is obviously lying about having an unavoidable commitment in Taupo keeping him from Melissa Lee’s election night do. He would tell us what it was if it were true. He would have told journos at the start that he wouldn’t be there if there really had been some long-standing commitment. Truth is he abandoned […]

F*ck tha police…

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 9:31 am, June 16th, 2009 - 18 comments

…that seems to be National’s plan as it moves to cut 10% of the police vehicle fleet (why are so many of National’s cuts 10%?). Given the politicking National and its front-groups did on law and order last year you’d think that the last thing they’d do would be make it even harder for them […]

Nice touch

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 8:25 am, June 16th, 2009 - 4 comments

Stolen from the Grassroots Labour site.

Hooton’s bizarro world strikes again

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:16 pm, June 15th, 2009 - 52 comments

I think it’s fair to say that David Shearer’s thumping victory in Mt Albert has been widely viewed as securing Phil Goff’s leadership over the Labour Party. Any sane observer will recognise that Goff’s position has been strengthened by the victory, that the party has gained a huge boost in confidence and that Shearer will […]

A bribe is not a plan

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:55 am, June 15th, 2009 - 39 comments

As recently posted here, there is a vast gulf between National’s rhetoric and the reality on tax cuts. Before the election National sold its tax cut programme as the answer to every question. Tax cuts were the centrepiece of National’s economic plan and its response to the economic crisis: Key: Tax cuts are a top […]

A disgrace

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 8:55 pm, June 13th, 2009 - 23 comments

I’m stunned by National. Their leader didn’t support his Mt Albert candidate by turning up tonight and now nobody will talk to the media. There’s being a poor loser and then there is this kind of behaviour. At the very least front up, concede and thank your supporters and the electorate. Lee is a disgrace. […]

Back to basics

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:07 pm, June 11th, 2009 - 50 comments

Radio NZ is playing John Key saying that, following the letter from the woman in the sexual harassment saga, he has “washed his hands” of Richard Worth. It seems likely he will move to have Worth expelled from caucus. Good to see he chose a sensible path rather than the ‘attack the woman’ strategy the […]

National: targeting the victim

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 8:45 pm, June 10th, 2009 - 129 comments

So National’s latest tactic in the Richard Worth affair appears to have been to leak the identity of the first complainant against Richard Worth (the one with all the “textes”). Why do I say this? Simple. The story that broke on the TV news tonight first appeared earlier today on the website of National Party […]

Crosby – Posturing with little substance

Written By: lprent - Date published: 3:20 pm, June 9th, 2009 - 11 comments

Lynton Crosby of the political spinners Crosby/Textor, who ‘advised’ both John Key and Don Brash, has finally given up on trying to pursue a unwinnable defamation case against Nicky Hager and Radio NZ.The case appears to me to have been started largely as intimidation by the Crosby (and maybe the National party) to find out […]

Kneecapped

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 9th, 2009 - 11 comments

Until now, Melissa Lee’s only remaining selling point in this train wreck of a campaign has been that the party she’s standing for is currently in Government. As she said in her press release yesterday: ‘I am the only candidate that Mt Albert voters can vote for that will be inside John Key’s Government.’ Unfortunate […]

It’s called sovereignty, stupid!

Written By: rocky - Date published: 6:00 am, June 9th, 2009 - 9 comments

The Minister of Agriculture David Carter really outdid himself in the house last week. First he completely dodged and didn’t address the question put to him by Sue Kedgley on the use of sow crates. Next, clearly feeling the pressure he had a National backbencher ask him a nice easy question with which he took […]

Key endorses Banks

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 2:20 pm, June 8th, 2009 - 59 comments

As if denying Aucklanders the chance to have their say on the super city wasn’t enough National now seems determined to tell them who their mayor’s going to be too. It’s absolutely unacceptable for the PM to be endorsing John Banks as the mayor of the super city.

Rhetoric & Reality 3: Crime

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:57 am, June 8th, 2009 - 19 comments

One of the most tedious and predictable right wing electoral tactics is to try and whip up a frenzy of fear about crime, especially violent crime. Mix in some “fear of youth” dog whistling for extra impact. Last election National were guilty as usual. The rhetoric: Key: I am extremely worried about the youth crime […]

Brains Trust

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:07 am, June 8th, 2009 - 36 comments

Whaleoil, John Key, and Melissa Lee. National’s policy wonks discuss transport modalities in an oil- and carbon-constrained future.

Wait, didn’t he say ‘women’?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:51 am, June 6th, 2009 - 50 comments

There’s still a lot of confusion on the Right, in particular, about the sequence of events in the Worth saga, so I’ve tried to reconstruct it below (btw, thanks to John Armstrong for using his time machine and advising us “The [Dover] Samuels case had negligible impact on the new [Labour-led] government’s subsequent fortunes. The same […]

Iz satisfard

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 7:18 am, June 4th, 2009 - 2 comments

hattip: Maia, Anthony Karinski

Nat discovers the virtues of listening

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 2:40 pm, June 3rd, 2009 - 3 comments

Here’s an exert from Nick Smith’s speech to the 2009 New Zealand Planning Institute Conference: I acknowledge, that while the bulk of submissions have been supportive of the Bill, there is considerable debate over the provisions that remove the non-complying activity class, that restrict blanket urban tree protection, that limit plan appeal rights and which […]

If you’re gonna cut, make it clean

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:28 am, June 3rd, 2009 - 97 comments

How titillating. Worth has resigned and he won’t say why. ‘Personal reasons’ eh? Heard that one before. Key’s not talking either. He describes it as a ‘private reason’. Got to wonder what’s in the Tories’ heads on this one. Don’t keep a secret unless you really need to. Bad look. The public has a right […]

Transparency

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 10:16 am, June 3rd, 2009 - 1 comment

Strange isn’t it that Key can support transparency yesterday but not today. Political expediency at its worst.

Worth’s gone

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 9:48 am, June 3rd, 2009 - 20 comments

Link on Stuff. UPDATE: The “personal reasons” we know about so far: He personally profited from his trip to India to discuss aviation training. He personally visited the victim of an attack involving the son of a mate of his. He’s been personally summonsed to give evidence in a defamation suit involving a gossip columnist.

Tip of the spear

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:32 pm, June 2nd, 2009 - 16 comments

You’ve done your job as a spin doctor when journalists start repeating your spin sub-consciously. The credit downgrade ‘issue’ is a great example. There was never any threat of a downgrade, as long as the tax cuts were dropped. The journalists all acted like there was a huge threat. They parroted the government’s line that […]

Sweet rides

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 10:22 am, June 1st, 2009 - 41 comments

A few weeks back, in the best traditions of tabloid TV, Q+A took time to mention Lockwood’s ride, the macho muscle car Ford Falcon Cobra – a car that screams red-blooded heterosexuality. It got me wondering. I heard Helen Clark used to drive a Mitsi when she was PM. Boring. But what sort of cars would […]

Turei new greens leader

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:15 pm, May 30th, 2009 - 40 comments

Metiria Turei has been elected at the Green Party National conference to replace Jeanette Fitzsimons are female co-leader. Her election is no real surprise. Turei brings youth and a lack of baggage. Youth is important for a party whose MPs’ average age is 55, apparently the oldest average (apart from Jim Anderton). Sue Bradford, who […]

Government waste

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:11 pm, May 29th, 2009 - 16 comments

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the right when Labour and the Greens filibustered the other week to draw the public’s attention to the supercity bill being rammed through Parliament. ‘Think of the cost”, they cried, which makes me wonder why they don’t propose getting rid of Parliament altogether to save a […]

The Dishonest Budget

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:00 am, May 29th, 2009 - 9 comments

Thanks to a reader, here’s Phil Goff’s speech in reply to the Budget. Looks like they’ve ripped the Herald’s version, so for the sake of credit here’s the link to the original. If anyone has the Greens’ response send it in and we’ll put it up.

Here we go again

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 4:18 pm, May 28th, 2009 - 18 comments

In the 1990’s the National government of the day dealt with recession by cutting spending. The tragic result was to suck cash out of an already stalling economy and lengthen the recession. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of New Zealanders suffered unnecessarily. Today the National government met the current recession by cutting spending. So […]

Broken promises

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 8:00 am, May 28th, 2009 - 27 comments

National have already broken lots of pre-election promises and policies. Their policy to consult on local government and Auckland has been contemptuously ignored. Their pre-election welfare policy promise on benefit abatement thresholds, broken. They broke their promise to include Playcentre in ECE 20 Hours Free. They broke their promise to protect jobs, and particularly to […]

English and Key uncertain of Budget’s focus

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 7:46 pm, May 27th, 2009 - 35 comments

If there was ever a phrase that this Government keeps reminding me of, it’s “couldn’t organize a piss-up in a brewery”. Today, on the eve of what will be a particularly important Budget for our country, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance aren’t entirely sure just what it is they’re trying to achieve. […]

History repeats for Mark Thomas

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:40 pm, May 27th, 2009 - 19 comments

The irony is that Melissa Lee’s campaign manager, Mark Thomas, is no stranger to campaigns that start off with a hiss and a roar only to collapse when abandoned by National’s leadership. Thomas was National’s candidate for Wellington Central in 1996, the first MMP election, in a three way contest with Act’s Richard Prebble and […]

Pigs

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, May 27th, 2009 - 15 comments

It’s good to see Green MP Sue Kedgley calling on John Key to personally fix the abuse of pigs in sow crates. The chair of Nawac appears incapable of seeing that there’s even a problem, and the Minister of Agriculture has already been caught misleading the public on national television to defend the industry. It’s […]