political parties
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Lightening the load
Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, July 18th, 2008 - 12 comments
A universal student allowance of $350 isn’t going to happen. It’s too expensive and would bar major new spending in any other area. But more relief from debt would be welcome. There’s an increasing recognition that student loans are locking young people out of the housing market, making them perpetual cash-cows for the property speculators […]
Nats’ ACC policy all about ideology
Written By: - Date published: 6:23 am, July 18th, 2008 - 13 comments
National’s ACC privatisation policy is another of its one page wonders (this time with three page backgrounder skimming the history of ACC and restating the policy in longer sentences with no more detail). In the policy documents and in the interviews by National and its allies, no evidence has been provided that privatised ACC will […]
CTU rips Nats’ ACC policy
Written By: - Date published: 2:07 pm, July 17th, 2008 - 50 comments
The Council of Trade Unions has put out a detailed, devastating critique of each of National’s arguments for privatising ACC. I’ve copied it in full below: National Party: ‘National will: • Investigate opening the Work Account to competition. • Conduct a full stock-take of the various components of the ACC scheme, evaluate progress to full […]
On the fourth estate
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, July 17th, 2008 - 39 comments
Francesca Mold on National’s ACC announcment: ‘What’s interesting is the way they’ve put this out under the radar, perhaps showing how sensitive they are to how voters might react. And they’ve done that with a number of policies recently. Although, I have to say, it’s not hurting them in the polls’ a) It won’t hurt […]
ACC and the rhetoric of ‘choice’
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, July 17th, 2008 - 23 comments
National says its ACC policy will provide ‘choice’ on accident compensation, but choice for who? Employers will be able to choose between a variety of competing (mostly private) insurers, but for the likes of you and me we’ll have to take what we’re given and pay the consequences of our employers’ bad choices. We won’t […]
Spinbusting: NZF’s donations are Labour’s business
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, July 17th, 2008 - 52 comments
National is calling on Helen Clark to investigate alleged donations by Owen Glenn to New Zealand First (which, if they happened, were perfectly legal). Consider what that means: National is advocating for the leader of a political party to be able to delve into the internal finances of another political party. That would be a […]
Previewing the Nats’ work rights policy
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, July 17th, 2008 - 25 comments
The biggest protests during this term of Parliament were against National’s 90 Day Bill when it came up as a private members’ bill. In protests all over the country, over ten thousand workers turned out to oppose having their rights stripped. The Bill was defeated but National has not given up. National has signalled that the […]
Nats’ ACC plan only good for insurance companies and lawyers
Written By: - Date published: 5:22 pm, July 16th, 2008 - 51 comments
National has confirmed it intends to privatise the ACC scheme starting with opening the work account to private competition. This would see private insurers cream off large and low-risk employers with special deals, leaving the taxpayer to shoulder the burden of the rest (which would, in turn, be the basis for privatising of the remainder). […]
National adopts Labour’s arts policy
Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, July 16th, 2008 - 30 comments
So National has adopted Labour’s arts, culture and heritage policy essentially unchanged. Good. The flourishing of New Zealand’s arts and culture we’ve seen over the last eight and a half years hasn’t come about by chance, it’s been fostered by generous and targeted funding to give talented people the opportunity to get their work out […]
The same dream
Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, July 16th, 2008 - 5 comments
Some people don’t seem to understand that being of the Left does not mean being soley allied to Labour or the Greens or the Progressives. It means fundamentally holding beliefs that are fundamentally also held by Labour, the Greens, and the Progressives, a common thread of principles that binds the Left. 08wire.org explains with the […]
90 Day No Rights policy, why?
Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, July 15th, 2008 - 139 comments
Why does National want to remove the right of workers to appeal against unjustifiable dismissal in the first 90 days of employment? The reason National gives us is that workers having the right to sue for unjustified dismissal has a chilling effect on small businesses. Supposedly, they are afraid to hire workers because if they […]
So much for ambition
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, July 14th, 2008 - 40 comments
Yesterday on Agenda, SOE Minister Trevor Mallard said that the Government was undertaking an exploratory study to see whether the factory that currently repairs trains could also be used to assemble trains. If its economical, specialised parts would still be imported but a major manufacturing job would take place in New Zealand, building up New […]
Bullies
Written By: - Date published: 4:36 pm, July 13th, 2008 - 48 comments
Why is it that the right are so much more litigious than the left? The recent example of Crosby Textor threatening legal action over JafaPete’s minor inaccuracy on his blog is just the latest bit of overkill. For those of you who don’t know the background to it, JafaPete put up a post stating Crosby […]
Contrary to Key, Govt does target waste
Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, July 13th, 2008 - 54 comments
The idea that a government would purposely spend money in a wasteful manner is patently absurd. Voters want more government services and lower tax, any dollar of wasteful spending not only takes away from a government’s ability to meet those desires but also gives voters an active reason to vote against the Government. That’s a […]
Winnie and Glenn
Written By: - Date published: 3:05 pm, July 12th, 2008 - 75 comments
It appears, as everyone suspected, that Owen Glenn did give a donation to New Zealand First. There is nothing illegal or immoral in that. Under the law at the time anonymous donations of any sum were legal and National was the biggest exploiter of that fact, receiving over $2 million in secret donations in 2005 […]
Remarkably unambitious ECE policy
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, July 11th, 2008 - 21 comments
Another one-page excuse for a policy from National, this one on early childhood education. After vehemently opposing 20Free, National would now keep it but not because it wants to, only because ‘thousands of parents are now using 20 Hours and we do not want to cause them uncertainty’. Gee, thanks, National. The headline change is […]
“It’s not okay” today either
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 pm, July 10th, 2008 - 37 comments
The other day Dancer made some good points about the campaign “It’s Not Okay” and the role that organisations like the Families Commission play, as we strive for a caring and compassionate society. And Russell Brown who participated in the ads shared his view through the comments, that it had “helped focus minds” and dedicated his […]
National’s Bank
Written By: - Date published: 4:54 pm, July 10th, 2008 - 21 comments
After reading Steve’s post this morning mocking ANZ National for putting out confused National Party talking points dressed up as research, a reader was inspired to send us this:
Nats vs journos
Written By: - Date published: 3:53 pm, July 9th, 2008 - 40 comments
Shane Ardern is now saying he was misquoted by the Te Awamutu Courier when he said ‘[Kiwisaver] needs adjusting from the employers’ contribution angle, from one size fits all approach, to allow for pressure on smaller business employers.’ Attacking the media for reporting your words. Now, where have I seen that before? That’s, right, when […]
Positive moves on housing
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, July 9th, 2008 - 88 comments
Housing has always been an important issue for Labour. The First Labour Government instituted a massive State house building project, freeing working class New Zealanders from slum landlords, creating healthier living conditions, and stimulating the economy during the Great Depression. Now, New Zealand faces some of the same conditions as existed at the start of […]
The clean man
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 pm, July 8th, 2008 - 76 comments
Has anyone else noticed John Key’s absence from the media in the last few days? I finally clicked to it while listening to RNZ this morning when we heard yet another “a spokesperson for John Key’s office says” comment. This is a pretty standard technique from the Crosby Textor hand book. I like to call […]
Silence those media lambs
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 pm, July 8th, 2008 - 32 comments
Media bleating about Labour’s ‘personal attacks’ is getting tiresome. Some journalists seem to forget from one election to the next that an important element of the triennial exercise is to find out whether contenders for political office are fit to hold elected office. That means they will be probed, scrutinised and, yes, criticised, for failings […]
More anti-worker policy from the Nats
Written By: - Date published: 2:14 pm, July 8th, 2008 - 55 comments
On Sunday, Bill English let slip that National still intends to take away the work rights of employees of small businesses for the first 90 days of employment. Now, National’s Shane Ardern has spilled the beans on the Nats’ policy to cut the contributions to hundreds of thousands of Kiwis’ Kiwisaver plans. In the Te […]
Hit and miss
Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, July 8th, 2008 - 24 comments
Let’s look at some of the issues National has hit and run on. They were all you heard from the Nats for a while and then they were dropped when their marketing usefulness wore off. “Power crisis” – dropped in June when it started to rain “After-tax incomes” – Dropped in May, after the Budget, […]
Blueprint for a Crosby/Textor campaign
Written By: - Date published: 6:13 am, July 8th, 2008 - 41 comments
While trying desperately to paint Crosby/Textor as ‘just ordinary consultants’ and argue that C/T does nothing that polling and research companies do, National allies like the Herald have also puzzled over why National won’t just admit to being C/T clients. The answer is simple: C/T are not ordinary consultants giving media training or policy advise […]
Nats spending your money to build “Brand Key”?
Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, July 7th, 2008 - 72 comments
Looks like John Key might be a little less “self-made” and a little more “taxpayer-made” than he’d have us believe… click the image for a larger version.
Broadcasting policy broadly outlined
Written By: - Date published: 4:58 pm, July 7th, 2008 - 12 comments
National’s Jonathan Coleman has announced a bullet-point excuse for a broadcasting policy. Essentially, it adopts the status quo but moves TVNZ charter funding to NZ on Air’s control (there goes any hope of TV1 ever becoming a proper public broadcaster) and preps the ground for privatisation in a second term. Amongst the bullet points is […]
Sacked
Written By: - Date published: 4:13 pm, July 7th, 2008 - 103 comments
In perhaps the most unsurprising announcement of the year, National has let slip it’s going to maintain its 90 day no rights policy, which basically means your boss can sack you for whatever reason he likes within the first 90 days of your employment. Don’t be fooled by the spin there’s already a provision for […]
Who are National’s moles?
Written By: - Date published: 5:53 am, July 7th, 2008 - 60 comments
The information being leaked to Nicky Hager is obviously coming from well-placed sources inside National The idea of hacking is farcical (Lyndon Hood mocks it beautifully). In the Hollow Men, Hager refers to his sources as ‘six senior National figures’, in the SST article he talks of ‘staffers’ being concerned about the actions of Crosby/Textor. […]
Democracy under attack
Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, July 6th, 2008 - 27 comments
Ruth Laugesen’s got a piece in the SST today entitled “How National’s spin doctors operate“. She points out that Crosby/Textor’s methods, contrary to the opinion of many other journalists here, do differ from what are considered standard focus group and polling methodologies. Auckland University political studies senior lecturer Jennifer Lees-Marshment suggests that C/T are different […]
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