political parties
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Act now to protect workers’ wages
Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, June 19th, 2008 - 55 comments
Times are going to get harder for workers in the next few years. Unemployment is set to rise to 4.5-6% (still well under 1990s levels). The wages of those who keep their jobs won’t rise as fast. At the same time, prices are rising faster, particularly petrol. What […]
Key promises productivity magic
Written By: - Date published: 6:50 am, June 19th, 2008 - 47 comments
Key reckons he could bring down inflation by targeting ‘low quality’ government spending. How? To counter inflation, you need to increase productivity. Inflation is projected to run at 4.7% this year. The Government makes up a third of the economy. If Key was to bring that down to 2% by increasing Government productivity how much […]
Slippery John’s “after-tax incomes” line
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, June 18th, 2008 - 33 comments
You’ll have noticed that Key only ever talks about increasing ‘after-tax incomes’. Even when he’s asked about wages for government employees, like doctors, he responds that National would increase their after-tax incomes with tax cuts, not by increasing their wages. But anybody can see that cutting taxes is only a short-term way to slightly increase […]
Hit and Run
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, June 18th, 2008 - 40 comments
I put a comment on one of Steve’s posts a few days ago and he suggested I put it up as a post so here goes: National have been playing a hit and run public relations game for a few years now. It’s not a bad strategy for an opposition as the news-cycle moves so […]
What went on at the ‘horn?
Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, June 17th, 2008 - 55 comments
Reports have been circulating around Wellington for several weeks about a night on the town for John Key with a couple of senior (though not old) Press Gallery members. Apparently John called them up and said he was in town and did they want to go out for a drink. One drink turned to a […]
Petrol price hits parties in the polls
Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, June 17th, 2008 - 120 comments
A reader sent us this graph. It plots President Bush’s approval rating and the price of petrol. (the price of petrol is upside-down, a fall in the price is a rise on the graph) As you can see, spikes in the price have been followed by a fall in Bush’s support and the reverse is […]
Keeping it in the family
Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, June 16th, 2008 - 10 comments
The ODT reports that Bill English’s brother, Conor English, has been picked as the new CEO of Federated Farmers. Once the press secretary to National Government Lands Minister John Luxton, Conor replaces ex-National MP Annabel Young as CEO.
National ‘bereft of compassion’
Written By: - Date published: 4:44 pm, June 16th, 2008 - 36 comments
That is the reported view of the secretary of the Sikh Council of New Zealand in response to some attention grabbing behaviour from National Manakau East candidate in the wake of the tragic shooting of Natjev Singh. Specifically the article says: Mr Verpal Singh said they were “utterly disappointed at a singular lack of understanding […]
Facing up to peak oil
Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, June 16th, 2008 - 38 comments
The Government’s independent report on petrol prices is bit of a sop to be the public, really. The world oil price is driving petrol prices; any efficiencies that could be gained in New Zealand would be small and would not change the upward trend. Nor is a Fuel Watch website like Australia’s going to do […]
He would say that wouldn’t he
Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, June 16th, 2008 - 21 comments
Stuff reports that National Party energy spokesman Gerry Brownlee has labelled the government’s inquiry into petrol pricing a cynical move that would not make a difference to prices. A similar inquiry in Australia resulted in a decision to provide increased transparency for consumers by stipulating that the petrol was to be set and notified by petrol companies […]
Kremlinology: National on ACC
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, June 16th, 2008 - 41 comments
In most countries, accident insurance is big business. Insurers and lawyers make billions off premiums, claims, and court cases but many people don’t actually get any cover if they are injured. The Third Labour Government set up ACC to ensure everyone would have cover if they were injured. It also freed up the court system […]
Key’s slippery promises on waste
Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, June 14th, 2008 - 50 comments
National has staked it all on delivering bigger tax cuts than Labour. To remain credible, they need to deliver $20 a week on average more than Labour. That’s $3 billion a year. The operating surplus is gone, so where will the money come from? John Key has been repeatedly referencing the fact that the government […]
The dark side of the Right
Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, June 13th, 2008 - 118 comments
Trotter is on the money today: …[A]ll of you young, confident women of the 21st century urgently need to pause and reflect upon what is happening especially all you young, confident women thinking of voting for the National Party. Why? Because behind National, hidden by all those glossy placards depicting the handsome John Key, marches […]
Monte Ohia
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, June 13th, 2008 - Comments Off on Monte Ohia
It’s sad to learn of the sudden death of Monte Ohia, the Maori Party candidate for Te Tai Tonga. Ohia was a prominent educationalist and would have been an enourmous asset as an MP. He had been tipped to pose a major challenge this election to Labour’s Mahara Okeroa, to whom he polled a respectable […]
Treating the voters like children
Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, June 13th, 2008 - 30 comments
Keith Holyoake used to say “tell the people, trust the people”; be honest about the benefits, trade-offs, and costs of policies and trust the people to judge you in an adult manner. Central to Brand Key, however, is playing to voters’ baser desires, especially greed, and fomenting juvenile beliefs, including that it is possible to have ones cake and eat it. For […]
The wage gap and the Nats’ crediblity gap
Written By: - Date published: 5:01 pm, June 12th, 2008 - 32 comments
Remember when National was all about the wage gap, whinging about it every day? Heard them talk about it lately? The last mention we can find is three weeks ago. Has the issue suddenly gone away? No, there is still a wage gap and solutions to it require serious debate. But National wasn’t talking about […]
Behind the secrecy
Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, June 12th, 2008 - 8 comments
Reading a_y_b’s piece on National’s policy talks with the Real Estate Institute I’ve got to say it struck me as having shades not so much of the Brethren fiasco as the leaked Insurance Council memo from the last election. According to a letter given to Labour’s Clayton Cosgrove by a member of REINZ, the real […]
Benson-Pope rejects Legalise Cannabis Party offer
Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, June 12th, 2008 - 19 comments
Reported today in the ODT: Dunedin South MP David Benson-Pope will not be accepting an invitation to stand as the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party’s (ALCP) electorate candidate at the next election. “Their judgement has obviously been impaired by their recreational habits,” he said when contacted.
I did not have policy relations with REINZ
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, June 12th, 2008 - 23 comments
With tones of the Brethren debacle we’re getting conflicting reports from the National Party as to whether or not they have haven’t have met with the Real Estate Institute of NZ. Simon Power says unequivocally that National hasn’t met with REINZ since the Real Estate Agents Act Bill [cheers lemsip, typo] went for public submissions. Yet […]
With friends like these
Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, June 12th, 2008 - 85 comments
One thing that puzzles me about righties is that half the people on their side of the fence are racists, bigots, misogynists, homophobes or religious zealots and, yet, this doesn’t seem to make the rest of them re-evaluate own their beliefs. If, for example, I were a National MP and in the same caucus as […]
Happy families
Written By: - Date published: 6:11 pm, June 11th, 2008 - 48 comments
The New Zealand Herald’s latest anti-Labour beatup took an unfortunate twist this afternoon. Having spent the best part of a day making hay over Labour being caught, er, using stock photography in a flyer, the Herald was over the moon to discover the offending image had also been used by Kevin Rudd’s Australian Labor Party […]
Centre party? Yeah, right
Written By: - Date published: 3:14 pm, June 11th, 2008 - 31 comments
Why is it that UnitedFuture is branded a centre party? We all know they’re socially right wing, in bed with the Christian fundamentalists, and the tax plan Dunne announced on the weekend proves they’re far-right economically too. They would blow the Budget with $4.6 billion cuts (no mention of where the money would come from and no-one […]
The vision thing
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, June 10th, 2008 - 95 comments
No sensible analysis could conclude that the Labour-led governments of the last 8 years have been anything but excellent for New Zealand. As you know, we’ve seen unemployment plummet to record lows, wages rise at record rates, more spending on public services, interest-free student loans, 20Free childcare, the buyback of the rail network, the end […]
National’s policy vacuum
Written By: - Date published: 5:13 pm, June 9th, 2008 - 52 comments
From the editorial in the ODT today we learn that Bill English is keen to dampen down concern within the party at the lack of policy, telling delegates at their southern conference: “We pick the timing [for policy release] – not Labour, not the media, not the public.” He signaled it may be released very late and […]
Spin-busting: ‘Hardworking kiwis’
Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, June 9th, 2008 - 180 comments
‘Hardworking kiwis’ is National’s new ‘mainstream New Zealanders’. Referenced by Key ad nauseam, it is the population at which National purports to target it’s policies. As with ‘mainstream New Zealanders’, ‘hardworking kiwis’ has a inherently divisive implicit message: ‘not everyone is a hardworking kiwi’. The term creates an ‘other’; a type of person in this […]
Anyone for more pork pies?
Written By: - Date published: 5:47 am, June 9th, 2008 - 39 comments
On TV3 last night John Key was continuing to tell outright porkies about how advanced National is with its “policy” development compared with Labour in 1999. Key’s figure of 14 policies is derisory – as John Armstrong wrote in the Herald on Saturday, some of the 14 are assurances of what National would not do, […]
Bubbles and empty spaces
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, June 7th, 2008 - 63 comments
John Key’s policy vacuum is such a joke that even the ad-men are using it for comic material. Have a listen. powered by ODEO lprent: There seems to be a problem At ODEO. Stored local in link below. John Key – Bubbles
Video: Dr Cullen at Drinking Liberally
Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, June 7th, 2008 - 70 comments
We just received a video of Michael Cullen’s speech to Drinking Liberally on Wednesday from one of the attendees. It’s well worth a look. Everyone who was there that I have spoken to since was hugely impressed because Cullen spoke from his roots, from his political soul. He would do well to speak like this […]
Peters refuses to answer your questions
Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, June 6th, 2008 - 37 comments
In the final of our ‘Interview the Leaders’ series, we asked Winston Peters three questions submitted by readers. Damian Edwards from his office promptly replied that Peters would be answering no questions from political blogs. So instead we’ve provided answers to your questions in the form of some great political songs. Q. Of which of […]
National policy vacuum becoming a joke
Written By: - Date published: 11:14 am, June 6th, 2008 - 24 comments
A reader just alerted us to this. When John Key went missing in action on Sunrise what did the “Allstars” suggest he was up to? Watch to find out…
Into the void: examining National’s ‘policies’
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, June 5th, 2008 - 107 comments
National’s so-called policies are laughable. National says it has released ’14 policies’ (14! wow! anyone would think they were planning to run a scout troop not a country) but six are just to adopt the existing policy. And the others, well – * Setting national standards in reading, writing and numeracy – shown to have no positive effect […]
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