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Employers back Paid Parental
Written By: - Date published: 12:36 pm, April 13th, 2012 - 43 comments
When even your friends are telling you you’ve got it wrong, it’s time to reconsider. So Bill: the Employers Union (EMA) and Family First want Paid Parental leave. It’s not too expensive, it’s back by all childcare experts, and the cost is even delayed. Just do it.
ImperatorFish: This Week’s Political Gallery
Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, April 12th, 2012 - 26 comments
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here.
Nat Civil War: Nothing to see here
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, April 12th, 2012 - 21 comments
Every time Simon Lusk’s name gets mentioned, Whaleoil (which is only Cameron Slater and has nothing to do with Lusk </sarcasm>) responds with a vitriolic and revealing tirade. In the latest, Whaleoil insists there are no National factions, before insulting and demeaning each of the factions except Collins’, and accidentally confirming the leadership tussle is on.
Nat Civil War: The perils of monolithism
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, April 10th, 2012 - 63 comments
Despite losing nearly 1 in 4 of its supporters, 300,000 voters, in a little over 6 months according to the Roy Morgans, National’s 44% still looks superficially impressive. Until you realise they need to be able to form a majority more or less alone. The Right’s monolithism doesn’t just place extraordinary demands on National’s leader, it’s the root of the current civil war.
Blinglish’s Treasury not so hot
Written By: - Date published: 4:16 pm, March 29th, 2012 - 12 comments
Bill English and Treasury adopted a “see no evil, hear no evil” approach to the Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme. And it’s cost us $2 billion. The Deputy Auditor General has delivered a damning report on a ministry used to judging others, not suffering any oversight itself…
Good for the goose…?
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, March 21st, 2012 - 7 comments
Treasury has repeatedly proven itself incapable of forecasting its way out of a paper bag but, for some reason, that doesn’t stop it trying to tell everyone else how to do their jobs. Currently, they’re pushing for larger class sizes in the reduced education budget. Someone should ask why the education budget is under pressure but Treasury’s isn’t. Wait, someone did.
ImperatorFish: English Says Asteroid Strike Good For Country
Written By: - Date published: 4:29 pm, March 9th, 2012 - 3 comments
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here.
Scientists yesterday announced that a giant asteroid is on a collision course with the Earth. They predict that the huge rock will hit the southern part of the North Island tomorrow, destroying most of Wellington and leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead.
However, Finance Minister Bill English said there was no need for panic over the news.
FIFY
Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, March 2nd, 2012 - 25 comments
Bill English: “A government can’t have a lot of impact on the job market. It is what it is.” He’s only half right.
Even English’s made-up asset sales numbers don’t add up
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, February 17th, 2012 - 20 comments
Bill English admitted yesterday that his new estimate that asset sales will net $6b in revenue, $800m above book value, is just a guess – the midpoint of the previous guess of $5-7b. And that’s not all that’s made up. The forecast foregone profits are way under-estimated. Even with these fiscal frauds, English still can’t get asset sales to make economic sense.
And so it begins
Written By: - Date published: 10:47 pm, December 15th, 2011 - 218 comments
Mighty River Power is first on the block, to be sold in the third quarter of next year (weather conditions permitting).
Will Key sign pledge not to sell Kiwibank?
Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, November 23rd, 2011 - 97 comments
Phil Goff has signed a pledge that Labour will not sell Kiwibank if it becomes government. Other party leaders have been invited as well. I expect the Greens, New Zealand First, Mana, and the Conservatives will (who knows about the Maori Party). But will Key sign? National is secretly itching to sell Kiwibank, Bill English got caught out admitting as much.
InvisiNats: Bill English
Written By: - Date published: 1:02 pm, November 14th, 2011 - 17 comments
Key is avoiding the hard questions, but his photo-op face is everywhere. The rest of the Nats are working hard at being invisible. Let’s bring a little sunlight into that darkness!
Today’s InvisiNat is Bill English.
Creating opportunities
Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, November 13th, 2011 - 16 comments
The Nats admit that they’ve failed to close the gap between rich and poor. In fact, of course, it’s getting worse. Bill English says they’ve “created opportunities”, which is Tory speak for doing nothing at all.
The Recovery is here, it’s coming, it’s…
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, November 9th, 2011 - 48 comments
National want it both ways. They’ve brought us economic recovery through their brilliance (we’ve just not felt it yet), but also the lack of a recovery is not their fault and is in fact why all the stats are so bad. Here’s a reminder of what they’ve said…
Will Bill English heed his own warning?
Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, October 5th, 2011 - 18 comments
Will double dipping double downgrade Bill English have the guts to heed his own warning?
English: poll downgrade coming
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, October 4th, 2011 - 12 comments
Bill ‘Double Dipton’ (or should that be ‘Double Downgrade’?) English says people aren’t focused on politics, which is why National is so high in the polls. When they focus on the main election issue of economic management, DD says the gap will close. Not exactly a strong defence of his and Key’s performance as economic leaders.
Nats’ muddling earns credit downgrade
Written By: - Date published: 7:19 am, September 30th, 2011 - 107 comments
National has borrowed $37 billion in less than three years and delivered no growth for it. In fact, it has repeatedly failed to meet its growth projections and GDP per capita has fallen. That failure has now resulted in the credit rating agency Fitch downgrading our credit rating. Makes a lie of the Nats’ line that we’re in better shape than in 2008. Will Bill English resign?
Update: S&P downgrades us too. English’s resignation letter being drafted on 9th floor to stem political fall-out for Key.
English on the economic turmoil
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, September 23rd, 2011 - 53 comments
As most of the headlines this morning focus on the crumbling world economy, it was interesting to hear Bill English on RNZ. Among various inane comments there was one interesting gem, when English called for higher taxes…
Key missing the big picture
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, September 22nd, 2011 - 58 comments
It’s a bit of a worry that the PM seems to be clueless about the complexity and interdependence of the world economy. Bill English needs to take him aside and paint him a picture.
Resignation watch
Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, September 12th, 2011 - 39 comments
Which minister(s) will John Key fire this week? Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English, is embroiled in yet another personal corruption scandal involving a job for his brother. Gerry ‘The VIIIth’ Brownlee’s Christchurch fiefdom is seeing a peasants’ revolt among redzoners. Murray ‘drowned rat’ McCully delivered Key a huge embarrassment on Friday at the RWC opening.
Nats clueless on privatisation consequences
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, September 7th, 2011 - 17 comments
If electricity assets were part privatised, future governments couldn’t make the kind of reforms that National made earlier this year because of the need to consider private investors’ rights. Pretty simple, eh? Tell that to Hekia Parata. Bill English has his head in the sand on the effect of falling markets and can’t guarantee Kiwi ownership.
Cuts and consequences
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, August 25th, 2011 - 23 comments
The government reckons it can cut the number of public sector workers without cutting services. That wasn’t the experience of the 80s and 90s when vital institutional knowledge and expertise were lost in a frenzy of asset sales, privatisation and brutal job cuts– when public service numbers dropped from around 85,000 public servants to under 30,000 […]
Nats rebel on privatisation
Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, August 13th, 2011 - 27 comments
English is under attack at the Nat conference over asset sales. The neolibs vultures treat the state as a carcass to pick clean. But old school conservatives believe in investing the nation. And business types know you don’t get rich by selling profitable assets. English has no good excuses. All he can offer is expensive measures that make selling even more unprofitable.
English’s record under fire
Written By: - Date published: 6:58 am, August 11th, 2011 - 56 comments
Stuart Nash put Bill English’s feet to the fire yesterday on his economic record. English has been claiming that the economy is in better shape to withstand another economic crisis than it was in 2008. Does anyone seriously believe that? We’re poorer, we’re more indebted, we’re less employed, and costs are higher.
Yet more dodgy Nat numbers
Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, July 18th, 2011 - 61 comments
If you’re a blogosphere regular, you’ll have noticed that recently every monkey with a copy of the Fountainhead and a crush on John Key has been spouting the line that the top 10% of taxpayers pay 71% of net tax. Sounds incredible, eh? That’s because it’s not credible. It’s more cheap tricks from the Nats.
English to go over asset sales lie?
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, July 11th, 2011 - 61 comments
Labour has been chipping away at National’s case for asset sales for months. The hole in the budget has been exposed, the ‘mum and dad investors’ myth has been quashed, the efficiency argument has been broken. Now, Bill English has been caught out lying to Parliament over advice that shares would go to foreign buyers. He’ll be forced to resign.
Maths not a strong point
Written By: - Date published: 5:14 pm, July 9th, 2011 - 16 comments
English’s Budget that counted asset sale revenue but not costs appears to be part of a wider maths problem for our Finance Minister. Perhaps this explains the Double Dipton affair.
In other news
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, June 25th, 2011 - 14 comments
The spotlight was on Christchurch last week, and will be on Te Tai Tokerau over the weekend. Lots of stories are slipping by under the radar. But here are a couple of pieces that deserve further comment.
Back to High School for English
Written By: - Date published: 6:20 am, June 15th, 2011 - 86 comments
My jaw dropped when I heard this listening to Question Time yesterday. Mallard: “Does he understand that real average wages go up when high-income earners get massive tax cuts-$1,000 a week, in his case-and low-income workers lose their jobs?” English: “No, I do not understand that, because it is not true.” Can’t English do simple maths?
Bill’s Magic Numbers
Written By: - Date published: 8:12 am, June 12th, 2011 - 16 comments
Bill (and John and the entire National caucus) have been telling us that we are required to borrow $380 million each and every week. Apparently we aren’t.
English: dodgy asset sales figures
Written By: - Date published: 4:19 pm, June 9th, 2011 - 15 comments
Question Time: David Cunliffe wipes the floor with Bill English in the House today, as he shows up his missing costs of asset sales.
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