political parties

Still stuck in the slow lane

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 5:42 pm, April 6th, 2009 - 44 comments

In the Dom Post today Tom Pullar-Strecker calls Steven Joyce’s recently announced broadband fibre plans: old wine in new bottles – a backdown on the ambitions sketched out by National before the election, which were arguably always too grandiose. Managing the expectations they raised during the campaign was always going to be a problem for […]

Messy play at Playcentre

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 3:52 pm, April 6th, 2009 - 20 comments

Playcentre was founded during the second world war as a way for families (mainly mothers) to support each other while providing quality child-centred pre-school education for their children. This the was era of the innovative educational ideas of Fraser and Beeby and the Playcentre concept was developed by Beatrice Beeby and her friends while Dr […]

Who’s zooming who?

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 11:32 am, April 5th, 2009 - 27 comments

The Herald reports: Last week John Key used poor United States sales of the new BMW 7-series – 10 were sold in February, compared with more than 1500 in the same 2008 month – as an example of how much other countries were hurting in the economic crisis. But New Zealand… sales of the top-of-the-line […]

Mana enhancement – fail

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:45 am, April 2nd, 2009 - 28 comments

To further enhance their mana Te Ururoa Flavell and Rahui Katene spent their questions in parliament yesterday asking patsies to National. ‘How will the government’s tax cuts benefit people on low incomes?’ they asked allowing Key and English to talk about the wonderful new $10 a week Independent Earners’ Rebate and claim Labour never cut […]

Regurgitating rubbish

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:04 am, April 2nd, 2009 - 10 comments

On his blog Colin Espiner rejects the argument that National’s tax cuts are “unfair because they give more to those who earn more” saying “I’m afraid that’s the nature of progressive taxation”. That’s what National politicians say too. It’s wrong. There are infinite tax cuts one could devise that don’t give more to the well off. Cut the […]

Happy tax cut day?

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:07 am, April 1st, 2009 - 58 comments

The tax cuts that National are implementing today are more generous to high income earners, and less generous to low income earners, than the tax cuts that they cancelled (Labour’s already legislated for package, see for example here, here, here and here). That’s business as usual for National, stiffing those with genuine need to take […]

Mayday Mayday, Worth’s bought it and I’m losing altitude – Groser out

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 6:00 am, April 1st, 2009 - 36 comments

Richard Worth, OBE, is now in very serious trouble having been snared in what looks like untruths about using his Ministerial portfolio to further the interests of a company he had a private commercial interest in. It’s pretty blatant and really Key won’t be able to get away with keeping him on for much longer. […]

Cold.

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:32 pm, March 31st, 2009 - 18 comments

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Sean Plunket, “interviewer”

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 11:44 am, March 31st, 2009 - 19 comments

I’ve just listened to Sean Plunket interview Goff this morning. It was actually less of an interview and more an exercise in running cover for Richard Worth. And of course it’s not the first time Plunket has gone feral when National has been in trouble. A couple of weeks ago, he was demanding Labour produce […]

SSTimes Editorial: Clark’s UN job great for NZ but…

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 2:59 pm, March 29th, 2009 - 35 comments

I haven’t spotted an on-line version of this yet (SStimes Editorial, 29 Mar 2009) but wanted to pull a couple of quotes out that made sense to me: Helen Clark’s new post is an achievement, both for her and New Zealand. She is the outstanding politician of her generation and this appointment recognises and rewards […]

Stink line

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 7:55 am, March 26th, 2009 - 10 comments

Now “PC gone mad” has been used to the point where even people who think mimicking Tui’s “yeah right” slogan is cutting edge irony wouldn’t be seen dead using the phrase, National has needed to come up with something else to do the job. Because let’s face it, you need to keep creating the impression […]

Lord Ashcroft woz here

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 4:33 pm, March 25th, 2009 - 17 comments

Boing Boing reports that: The London police have bested their own impressive record for insane and stupid anti-terrorism posters with a new range of signs advising Londoners to go through each others’ trash-bins looking for “suspicious” chemical bottles, and to report on one another for “studying CCTV cameras.” It’s hard to imagine a worse, more […]

Douglas gets it

Written By: Tane - Date published: 2:16 pm, March 25th, 2009 - 15 comments

Roger Douglas in a press release today: National’s goal of a top personal, company and trustee tax rate of 30 cents in the dollar is laudable – but it must remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch, ACT New Zealand Finance Spokesman Sir Roger Douglas said today. “It is pointless setting […]

National gives animal rights the chop

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 12:43 pm, March 24th, 2009 - 34 comments

Looks like National has more than workers’ rights on the chopping block. Animal rights activists are up in arms at Agriculture Minister David Carter’s plan to scrap the six-year moratorium on live sheep exports. Live sheep exports were stopped in 2004 after 5000 sheep died on an Australian ship bound for Saudi Arabia. Any one else […]

Clawback

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 6:44 pm, March 23rd, 2009 - 39 comments

That’s John Key speaking about Labour’s new fourth week of leave legislation back when the Nats thought they were going to win in 2005. His plan was to take your fourth week off you before it started happening in 2007 because that way you wouldn’t miss it. Now they’re trying plan “b” – put your […]

Three strikes and you’re garrotted

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:10 pm, March 23rd, 2009 - 16 comments

The Toad’s ‘interview’ with ACT’s David Garrett is so good we had to steal it. Like all good parody, it’s easy to believe it could be real. An interview with ACT Party Law and Order spokesperson David Garrotte Toad: David, for many people, you first came to public attention when you appeared drunk on Eye […]

The tiniest rolling maul in the world

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 10:08 pm, March 22nd, 2009 - 18 comments

So the pressure is building for National to get specific about it’s plans for fighting the recession. Therese Arseneau complained on Q+A today that Key has “no action plan”. Even Phil O’Reilly from Business New Zealand seemed to agree there wasn’t a clear plan. After all the money spent on National’s ‘Jobs Summit’ the extent […]

Redistributing the wealth

Written By: Tane - Date published: 3:27 pm, March 20th, 2009 - 104 comments

In a speech to the International Fiscal Association Conference today, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said the Government’s goal over the next 18 months is to start moving towards a top personal tax rate of 30%. This would be a whopping 9% cut from the current top tax rate, almost exclusively going to the rich, and […]

Healthy Homes, Healthy Kiwis

Written By: Tane - Date published: 4:37 pm, March 17th, 2009 - 42 comments

Well I’ll be, it seems Labour is finally starting to act like an opposition. They’ve set up a campaign website on home insulation – Healthy Homes, Healthy Kiwis – and have started a petition calling on the Government to commit to a home-insulation retrofitting programme. It’s not a bad looking website, and they’ve even managed […]

90 axed at TVNZ

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 6:00 pm, March 16th, 2009 - 56 comments

In what’s turning out to be the gift that just keeps on giving for National, the Recession Bogeyman is now being blamed for a need to axe 90 staff from TVNZ. The Minister for Broadcasting reckons the cuts are necessary to make sure TVNZ keeps returing a fat dividend, even in these extraordinary times, even […]

A bunch of clowns

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 3:29 pm, March 15th, 2009 - 17 comments

Poor old Nick Smith. Not only is he stuck peddling long-disproved lies about ACC but now it seems he can’t even get a simple procedure like sacking Ross Wilson right. According to the Sunday Star Times Smith hadn’t managed to properly sack Wilson by midday Friday and may not even have managed it so far: […]

National to increase foreign ownership

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:55 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 39 comments

Newstalk ZB reports: The Prime Minister is keen to open the door to foreign investors. In a speech to the Act Party conference today, John Key said a review of the Overseas Investment Act will be announced by Finance Minister Bill English next week. The review aims to create an overseas investment screening regime that […]

See no evil

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 12:33 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 2 comments

I’ve been meaning to write something about the private prisons bill for a couple of days as it’s a recipe for barbarity. But I’ve decided there’s no way I could do a better job of it than I/S has at No Right Turn, so I’m just going to repeat his whole post here. (hopefully he […]

The guy’s tired already

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 1:55 pm, March 13th, 2009 - 65 comments

If there’s one thing that strikes you about John Key’s post-cabinet press conference this week, it isn’t the scintillating prose or erudite diction. It isn’t even the brilliant plans brimming with enthusiasm, intelligence and vision. What’s remarkable is that the guy looks exhausted. He’s been in the job all of 3 months, extended holidays in Hawaii not withstanding, […]

Espiner nails it

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 11:49 am, March 11th, 2009 - 15 comments

In his blog today Colin Espiner points out how National has quickly moved a lot further to the right than they portrayed themselves as pre-election: After following the script for the First 100 Days to the letter, National is now branching out into things that, um, weren’t in the script. Labour Lite? Not any more. […]

Ye olde royal titles

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 9:57 am, March 11th, 2009 - 28 comments

Brian Rudman has a good piece this morning on the Earl of Auckland’s backwards-looking decision to reinstate a “ridiculous regime of titles dating back to feudal times”. The best quote’s from Sister Pauline (herself a Distinguished Companion of the NZ Order of Merit): I can’t believe the Government is tinkering around with this kind of thing […]

Crusher Collins

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 9:28 am, March 11th, 2009 - 1 comment

Sick

Written By: Tane - Date published: 9:54 pm, March 10th, 2009 - 48 comments

ACT MP David Garrett is quickly becoming a sick joke. Asked today about the fact more prisoners will be assaulted or raped by their cellmates if the Government brings in double-bunking, he replied: “The fact is if you don’t want to be assaulted – or worse – by a cellmate, avoid prison by not committing […]

Private prisons and the ‘tough on crime’ lobby

Written By: Tane - Date published: 10:25 am, March 10th, 2009 - 31 comments

One of the features of a privatised prison system is the potential for corruption of the political process by the commercial interests of private prison operators. Thanks to Tom in the comments it’s come to light that GEO Group, the company formerly known as Wackenhut and main contendor for National’s privatised prisons, has funded ‘tough […]

The Wall Street Journal gets it

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 11:36 am, March 9th, 2009 - 55 comments

Despite all the claims of “centrist” and “centre-right” none other than the the Wall Street Journal has pointed out that John Key’s government is very much a hard-right neo-liberal outfit: Mr. Key is returning the country to a formula for prosperity that’s worked in the past. As in Britain, the U.S. and Australia in the […]

No free trade deal

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 10:39 pm, March 8th, 2009 - 33 comments

The Obama administration has halted free trade talks with New Zealand. On one hand free trade is simply increased freedom of capital and without equivalent freedom of labour lends itself toward increased disparity between rich and poor. On the other hand Douglas and his neo-liberal thugs left us with no protections at all in the […]