political parties

The hypocrisy of the Right

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 2:50 pm, September 5th, 2008 - 3 comments

Today, we have National’s Judith Collins attacking the Government because the number of Kiwis on the unemployment benefit rose from 17,710 to 20,465 between June and July. Never mind the fact that 17,710 was a 30 year record-low and even 20,000 is 120,000 fewer Kiwis on the unemployment benefit than the best National could manage. […]

National bleats about wages, still has no solutions

Written By: Tane - Date published: 1:35 pm, September 5th, 2008 - 18 comments

The National Party are once again trying to make political capital over the Trans-Tasman wage gap, even though they created it in the first place and have no policy to fix it. Like I’ve pointed out a dozen times before: 1. Yes, we have a wage gap with Australia and it needs to close. 2. […]

ACT unauthorised

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 12:48 pm, September 5th, 2008 - 43 comments

ACT: the guts to do what’s right1 2 1. except when it comes to properly authorising our election advertisements 2. oh, and global warming

Shambles

Written By: Tane - Date published: 10:08 am, September 5th, 2008 - 29 comments

The leaks from within the National camp just keep on coming. Last night Trevor Mallard had the privilege of releasing National’s environment policy on 3 News thanks to a leak from the inside, destroying National’s planned policy launch on Saturday and exposing serious divisions within the party. From this leak we can tell there’s either […]

Why didn’t NZF use Nats’ donations playbook?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 2:22 pm, September 4th, 2008 - 56 comments

This business with donations from the Spencer Trust going to New Zealand First but not being declared. I find it hard to credit that this was an accident. It seems beyond belief that no-one in the party would have seen the donation declaration at some point and said ‘hey, what about that $50K from the […]

Video: Nats wave goodbye to blue sky

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 2:01 pm, September 4th, 2008 - 14 comments

Newly up from 08wire There’s something very powerful about that music and image combination….

Why the rush?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:54 am, September 4th, 2008 - 51 comments

We are, at a legal maximum, 72 days away from the election. The tradition is that the date is announced at least six weeks before election date (that’s the timeframe the Electoral Office needs). So, we would expect to have the election date announced by the start of October, no more than four weeks from now. […]

Not good enough

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 2:26 pm, September 3rd, 2008 - 117 comments

For any of you who thought the sharp end of capitalism was a nice place to be, the front page story in today’s Dom Post should change your mind. It’s about the lending practices of the loan sharks that have flourished in the twenty years since New Zealand had neo-liberalism foisted on it. And it’s […]

Beyond parody

Written By: Tane - Date published: 1:15 pm, September 3rd, 2008 - 57 comments

National’s new billboard. It’s like when your Dad tries to rap.

It just gets worse

Written By: Tane - Date published: 11:06 am, September 3rd, 2008 - 35 comments

Just when you thought National’s billboard campaign couldn’t possibly get any weaker, reports emerge that their next one will say: “Get youth into training, not into trouble” Honestly guys, just cut your losses and start again. [UPDATE: Apparently the first of this run is going up in Vivian Street today.]

Telco hits out at National’s fibre plan

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 3:47 pm, September 2nd, 2008 - 34 comments

John Drinnan in the NZ Herald: “One of the biggest challengers in the telecommunications business, TelstraClear, has attacked National Party plans for a fibre-optic network, saying the party should be focused on business. “The telco says the main result of faster broadband links to the home may be more downloads of pornography and movies rather […]

Dissection

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 1:13 pm, September 2nd, 2008 - 19 comments

OK, so there are limitless ways to mock the Nat’s ‘WW2 bombers flying to Chile’ billboard (send us yours to add to these ones) but I want to quickly examine it seriously as a piece of political argument. First, the premises: a) our taxes are high: No, they’re not. Tax as a percentage of GDP […]

Ashcroft’s jet spotted in Wellington too

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 11:42 am, September 2nd, 2008 - 109 comments

An astute reader just sent us this – they spotted Ashcroft’s jet parked at Lyall Bay on Saturday August 30 and managed to snap a quick pic. The photo below is from TV3’s coverage. Looks like the same plane.

Russel Norman at Drinking Liberally Wgtn – tomorrow

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:40 am, September 2nd, 2008 - 6 comments

The Drinking Liberally – Wellington email: By popular demand this Wednesday Drinking Liberally Wellington presents: Russel Norman – Co-leader of the Green Party. Russel is a relatively recent addition to parliament and many of you expressed an interest in hearing more about him and his views. This is your chance! Come share a drink with […]

Break open the trusts

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 7:05 am, September 2nd, 2008 - 25 comments

As we’ve discussed earlier, it would be highly surprising if the investigations into NZF’s finances find any serious illegality. At worst, a failure to declare donations might be found, an offence for which charges cannot be laid more than 6 months after an alleged offence. Now, TV3 was shown accounts by the Spencer Trust which show that […]

Weak

Written By: Tane - Date published: 3:35 pm, September 1st, 2008 - 101 comments

Perhaps I’ve overestimated the National Party’s PR machine. I mean I’ve seen them run their C/T strategy pretty well and, as much as I hate to admit it, Ansell’s billboards were pretty bloody good last time. But then I opened the PDF with their latest billboard on it. It’s busy, the message is confusing, and […]

ToryAid: Wastewatch (4)

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:54 am, September 1st, 2008 - 20 comments

Because National has abandoned its wastewatch website, we keep track of the ‘waste’ National has promised to cut to pay for those magical, mysterious, cure-all tax cuts. Here’s what they’ve said they will cut: 1) Embassy in Sweden – approx $3 million capital, $3 million operating (why it’s not waste) 2) Badges about Te Reo […]

Whom to believe? (3)

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 6:09 am, September 1st, 2008 - 26 comments

John Key tells us that National hasn’t decided yet what it would spend its extra borrowing on, what projects would be PPPs, what roads would be tolled under National. How, then, to explain this from last week’s Agenda? RAWDON Give me an example of a toll here, give me an example of what it will […]

Labour’s 2008 list

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 2:39 pm, August 31st, 2008 - 40 comments

Comment soon but for now here’s their full list (PDF link). Scoop’s got their presser up. [lprent: Handmirror: A Woman’s Place: The Labour Party List. No Right Turn: Labour’s list: looks like New Zealand. Granny Herald: Surprise picks in Labour party list. Salient: The Labour list has been announced. Grant Robertson: Wellington central candidate ]

Peters stands down

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 5:49 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 145 comments

Peters has stood down. Clark has taken over his portfolios. It’s good that Peters appears to have accepted that this is a necessity and hasn’t turned on the Government. Clever of Clark to take the portfolios herself too. [we nearly had the scoop on this too but it took too long for me to get […]

Guest Post: Herald like a blow-hard blogger on Tan

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 4:12 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 32 comments

After a fair summary of the facts as they stand, the Herald enters the realm of the right-wing blogger, always ready to paint its opponent with the worst possible spin, and then build on that as if on fact: ‘That version of events avoids, as it must, any hint of the suspension being politically motivated. […]

Right to strike

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:43 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 10 comments

Hundreds of Australian journalists walked off the job yesterday in protest at Fairfax’s 550 planned job cuts. Here in NZ journos employed by Fairfax and facing 160 job losses joined their Aussie counterparts in a wild cat strike. Nah. They didn’t. However, they did issue a press release via their union the EPMU. That must […]

Franks: “grumpy Christians and whining gays”

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 3:16 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 58 comments

Here’s National’s Wellington Central candidate Stephen Franks giving his view on Civil Unions. I’m not even really sure what to say about it. It might just be best to let Stephen Franks speak for himself…

Connell departs and praises PM

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 1:05 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 3 comments

Who would have expected to read this from Brian Connell upon his departure from Parliament? In a backhander against his own party, he praised Prime Minister Helen Clark, her deputy Michael Cullen, and front-bench Labour MPs Phil Goff and Annette King. Cullen was “a pretty good treasurer” and Clark had been “a very fine prime […]

But why?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:42 am, August 29th, 2008 - 62 comments

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on Peters because its not the kind of issue that affects Kiwis lives (its messy but its not like secretly planning to sell public assets). I’d rather use my post-writing time taking a deeper look at the findings of the Social Report. But… It seems likely, one […]

Clark cuts the thread

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 1:43 pm, August 28th, 2008 - 192 comments

Winston Peters’ stories around the Owen Glenn donation to his legal fund are dangerously convoluted and have stretched everyone’s credulity but without real evidence either way it has been impossible to fairly condemn him. Glenn’s letter yesterday provided strong evidence and left Peters ‘hanging by a thread’, as every hack in the country wrote. Now, Helen Clark […]

Herald poll shows Nats’ lead collapsing

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:50 am, August 28th, 2008 - 36 comments

Today’s Herald-Digi poll is the first to be released that was taken after the secret agenda tape scandal had fully emerged and had some time to sit in voters’ minds. Which makes it worrying reading for National. They have lost 5.4% support (54.4% to 50%) and Labour has benefited from that loss picking up 5.5% (30.8% […]

Cullen on Nat apologies

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 1:51 pm, August 27th, 2008 - 41 comments

Say what you will about his politics, you can’t beat Cullen for wit. Here he is on the similarities between Labour and National following Williamson’s enthusiastic statements of National policy: The full clip is here. Listen to Key plead to his caucus, and listen what he’s pleading for them to do – “If National wants to win an […]

Whom to believe? (2)

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:26 pm, August 27th, 2008 - 63 comments

Owen Glenn’s letter to the Privileges Committee contradicts Winston Peters’ previous statements to the media, the Privileges Committee, and, presumably, the PM. Glenn says that Peters did personally approach him for a donation, contrary to what Peters has said. It’s important to remember that there’s nothing illegal or even unusual about what Glenn claims Peters did. […]

Greens win better ETS

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:23 am, August 27th, 2008 - 21 comments

The Greens have won some very good improvements to the ETS in exchange for their support. The most important is $1 billion over 15 years to insulate low-income homes and subsidise upgrades to insulation of higher income homes. That’s a really positive development; all New Zealand homes will finally have decent insulation (Labour has done well […]

What else did Williamson say?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:10 am, August 27th, 2008 - 13 comments

I notice that, while the Nats have attempted to play down Maurice Williamson’s promise of $50 a week in tolls, they haven’t retracted Williamson’s over statements from the same interview, specifically: RAWDON Okay let’s look beyond roading, where else do you see PPPs being the answer? MAUCRICE …I mean I would have thought we could […]