Written By: - Date published: 3:17 pm, July 19th, 2016 - 50 comments
Yesterday this was the story: Speaking shortly after his arrival in Indonesia for a three-day trade trip, Key sought to pour cold water on the idea of any Chinese retaliation. While he could not confirm whether MBIE had received a complaint about steel dumping, due to the confidentiality of the complaints regime, the Government had […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, July 18th, 2016 - 137 comments
We can’t afford to be using sub-standard steel. We shouldn’t have to buckle to pressure to do so, but we have no leverage at all.
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 pm, April 19th, 2016 - 85 comments
Our Glorious Leader John Key Il is considering a formal extradition treaty with China. No doubt some genuinely bad people will be sent back, but China’s definition of ‘criminal’ is very, very broad. Why are we sucking up to a country lacking both democracy and a legitimate judicial system? Could it be the money? Could it be the pandas?
We used to be better than this. And not so long ago. Where did we go wrong?
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, January 16th, 2016 - 186 comments
The world is currently facing a problem that even a few years ago was unthinkable. Oil is cheap and demand has dropped out of the market. What are the geopolitical implications of this?
Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, August 31st, 2015 - 37 comments
Black Monday on the casino Chinese stock markets wasn’t a particular problem for NZ. John Key’s short-term thinking government will be. Both us and our next biggest trading partner Australia are now heavily exposed to falling Chinese imports and falling commodity prices. That is going to hurt over the coming years.
Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, August 25th, 2015 - 156 comments
China’s sharemarket plunge has affected the rest of the world as stock exchange after stock exchange has posted losses. It appears clear that predictions of a Chinese sharemarket bubble market are correct and now that the Chinese Government is no longer propping up share prices they are crashing.
Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, July 28th, 2015 - 70 comments
The Chinese Stock market sell off has started again a couple of weeks after rather desperate measure were put in place. The question has to be what will the Government do now?
Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, July 15th, 2015 - 301 comments
Although the issue, the unfettered flow of overseas money into Auckland’s housing market, is important Labour’s current handling of this issue is not optimal and needs to be reconsidered.
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, July 15th, 2015 - 176 comments
National need to act now to end the housing crisis. The market has failed and doing nothing is going to blight the future of Kiwis. The answer is easy. End speculation, build houses. But do National have the guts to do the right thing?
Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, July 14th, 2015 - 390 comments
Phil Quin: “I cannot, however, belong to an organisation that considers racial profiling fair sport. It really is that simple. I will rejoin once this or any future leader publicly repudiates such tactics.”
Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, July 12th, 2015 - 199 comments
Good on Labour for saying what needed to be said. Can they, the Greens and NZ First save the next generation of Kiwis from being tenants in our own land?
Includes Bonus Seinfeld reference!
Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, July 5th, 2015 - 46 comments
In the hope of some informed comment…
Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, July 3rd, 2015 - 25 comments
National’s Nick Smith appears to have misled Parliament over the illegal export of Kauri logs. Thankfully for Smith, it’s nothing to do with the rumours swirling around who is responsible for the loss of our irreplaceable heritage timber, but more to do with the Minister’s inability to understand a clear and explicit piece of legislation.
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, June 24th, 2015 - 81 comments
… then prepare for it to get a lot worse.
Written By: - Date published: 2:53 pm, April 19th, 2015 - 23 comments
With revelations that New Zealand has potentially been involved in the interception of Chinese diplomatic communications the questions arise did John Key know about it and did he authorise the activity.
Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, April 19th, 2015 - 100 comments
So great, now we’re trying to spy on China. What could possibly go wrong?
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 pm, February 8th, 2015 - 73 comments
There’s a fascinating article in the latest New Statesman titled “An Empire that speaks English: the right’s dream of a new world order.” Suddenly UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond’s recent visit here makes sense. So does John Key’s references to sending troops to Iraq on behalf of the “club” or the “family” – he’s at the heart of the Empire.
Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, January 6th, 2015 - 146 comments
Charlie Mitchell of the Dominion Post has analysed John Key’s formal speeches since 2007 to see what has from time to time been uppermost in Key’s mind. The results are interesting to say the least.
Written By: - Date published: 7:11 pm, August 6th, 2014 - 39 comments
This press release from the Greens pretty well sums up the situation that National have left the economy in. Once you remove the rebuild effects from the Christchurch earthquakes, our increasingly undiversified economy is looking in pretty poor shape for the decade ahead.
Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, July 2nd, 2014 - 9 comments
It isn’t that often that we put up speeches by politicians. They’re usually aimed at the general public and don’t really get into the guts of the issues in the way that our activist commenters like to argue at – they tend to be political and in this site preaching to the converted. However this speech by Phil Goff is exceptional. It was made at a centre looking at China, and looks at the benefits and risks of our current and future relationships with that country. Worth reading
Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, April 20th, 2014 - 41 comments
On Al Jazeera NewsHour this morning, there were two reports on environmental issues in different parts of the planet: stories of the tension between pursuit of economic “growth” and the destruction of the environment. In both countries, there are attempts to develop renewables, without changing the whole system.
Written By: - Date published: 4:50 am, March 16th, 2014 - 36 comments
Fran O’Sullivan thinks that the only reason why Collins is still a Minister was Key’s need to save face in his impending visit to China. I think Key may have got a better reception from Xi Jinping if he had followed the Chinese leader’s example of taking a hard line on dinner-table corruption and sacked Collins.
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, March 9th, 2014 - 33 comments
Our export-led economy is a rock-star according to those on the right. Australia kept us going, and now, despite the EU still spluttering, we can fly because China will buy all our milk powder. But there’s a potential flaw in putting all your eggs in one China basket, as a number of BBC stories have been revealing.
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