john key
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Nats raise tax cut expectations
Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, March 1st, 2010 - 33 comments
John Key has promised to make tax changes that are revenue neutral, give huge payouts to the wealthy elite, and somehow mean the “vast bulk of taxpayers will be substantially better off”. But it’s a money-go-round. How you can make everyone better off with the same amount of money you’ve taken off them?
Another Nat lie on GST
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, February 28th, 2010 - 51 comments
You have to double-check every ‘fact’ the Nats tell you. Bill English, for example, has been caught out lying on Labour’s growth record.
For the last couple of weeks, John Key has been claiming that when Labour increased GST from 10% to 12.5% in 1989 there was no compensation for taxpayers. That too is a lie.
High ministerial standards
Written By: - Date published: 6:54 pm, February 27th, 2010 - 13 comments
No, it’s not one of the Nats or their hangers-on. It’s Shane Jones. Following revelations that National ministers have been essentially stealing taxpayer money by using their ministerial credit cards for prohibited purchases, Jones has recounted an incident from his time as a minister. When Jones was Building Minister in 2008 he hosted a dinner […]
Trev nails Tolley, other Lab MPs fail
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, February 24th, 2010 - 27 comments
Success for Opposition frontbenchers largely consists of embarrassing their opposite number by forcing them to answer questions they would rather not. Labour showed both how to do that and how not to do it in the House yesterday.
John Key discovers new word. Country celebrates.
Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, February 23rd, 2010 - 17 comments
This morning the DomPost ran an article by Tracy Watkins about several ministers misusing their ministerial credit cards for personal entertainment. They obtained the information by doing OIAs (Official Information Act requests). Now I’ve come to expect that NACT ministers will do (in John Keys words) “stupid” things in office. But what I found significant was that John Key appears to have discovered the use of a new word “disappointment”. This is a major advance for the NACT political vocabulary.
Garner: poor GST compo will cause backlash
Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, February 23rd, 2010 - 13 comments
Duncan Garner: “Key must get the compensation [for GST] right or there will be a backlash from voters” Problem is, you can’t get everyone to put some money in a bucket, give a large chunk of it to the rich and then compensate everyone else for what they put in with what is left. It can’t add up.
BLiP View: Crusher missing in action
Written By: - Date published: 8:18 am, February 23rd, 2010 - 29 comments
BLiP puts his distinctive view on why the police have been losing “the respect of the community” with one of his locally famous lists. He attributes it to ‘Crusher’ Collins and wonders why John Key is cluessly fronting PR wanting stronger sentences for disrespecting police.
John Key – Conservation Enemy No.1
Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, February 21st, 2010 - 28 comments
Prime Minister John Key is the worst enemy New Zealand’s conservation estate has had in decades. Not content with the destruction caused by mining our most precious conservation areas, Key is pushing to sell off access to the conservation estate to the highest bidders.
Key’s party central fail
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, February 20th, 2010 - 42 comments
So Key’s “party central” plan for Queen’s Wharf seems to be dead in the water, after Auckland Mayors labeled it a “monstrosity” and refused to fund it.
Are these the prudent decisions of leaders who don’t want the city saddled with expensive white elephants, or the timid decisions of leaders who are without vision and averse to risk?
Stifling dissent
Written By: - Date published: 3:01 pm, February 19th, 2010 - 41 comments
The letter warning school boards not to speak out over national standards is an outrage, but John Key and his National Party have a long and dishonourable record of trying to shut down those who speak out to oppose them.
Key laughs off minimum wage earners
Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, February 19th, 2010 - 15 comments
John Key’s recent stint at the Big Gay Out wasn’t all target marketing and niche political branding. He also had a run in with living-wage campaigners who took him to task for his government’s poor response to minimum wage earners and asked if he could live on the minimum wage.
Phil Goff trips up Sloppy Key
Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, February 19th, 2010 - 8 comments
Click through to see Phil Goff take John Key down a peg. Sloppy home insulation. Sloppy, broken cycleway promises. Sloppy, unfilfulled Youth Guarantee. Sloppy & uncaring on unemployment. Sloppy abuse of the people of McGehan Close. A sloppy, do nothing PM.
Key too busy doing nothing
Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, February 17th, 2010 - 5 comments
Tongue in cheek, George notes: When asked in Parliament why he hadn’t paid closer attention to his share portfolio, Key replied: “small technical issue, I’ve been busy running the countryâ€. That statement must come close to misleading Parliament.
Key’s “sloppy” excuse on uranium shares
Written By: - Date published: 6:22 pm, February 16th, 2010 - 19 comments
John Key has tried to excuse himself from owning shares in a uranium company by saying he was “sloppy”. I’m afraid that’s not good enough for a Prime Minister worth millions, who likely pays top dollar for a lawyer to advise him on just these kind of problems.
Copying Iceland & Ireland bad idea for NZ
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, February 16th, 2010 - 53 comments
You know how the world has been through the worst financial crisis in decades? You know how countries like Ireland and Iceland who had made themselves into financial hubs via tax breaks for banks are now deep in the crap with burgeoning debt and unemployment? Why don’t we do what they did?
Key’s uranium mining interests
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, February 16th, 2010 - 57 comments
John Key says Jackson Mining was just a gold mining company when he bought them and that they didn’t get involved in uranium until later. In fact, Jackson mining was already involved in uranium when Key listed his interest in the company last year
Key confirms: tax up for middle NZ, down for rich
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, February 15th, 2010 - 54 comments
Key has explicitly promised that no-one will be left worse off by these changes but he doesn’t have the money, can’t have to money, to do that if he persists in handing over buckets of money to the rich.
Love for Key dying in middle NZ
Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, February 14th, 2010 - 50 comments
Matt McCarten asks “are we still in love?” with John Key after a year of do-nothing government and a promised ‘step change’ that is really just favours for National’s rich mates. If the views of people on McGehan Close, Key’s famous ‘underclass’ street are anything to go by, the answer is increasingly ‘no’.
Columnists slam Key’s lack of plan
Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, February 13th, 2010 - 110 comments
Tracy Watkins awards the first week of Parliamentary politics this year to Phil Goff, and points out that it’s as much due to his and Labour’s much improved performance as it is to Key and National’s shambolic, over-promise, under-deliver governance. (more…)
I won’t raise GST
Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, February 12th, 2010 - 5 comments
This is pretty classic. Found it on one of The Standard’s old posts. I think we’ll be seeing a bit more of this image around.
John remembers his underclass, briefly
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, February 12th, 2010 - 15 comments
The other day I wrote: I reckon we probably will see a passing reference to the ‘underclass’ for appearance’s sake [in John Key’s statement to Parliament] but I’m just as sure that his government will continue to fail the most vulnerable members of our society. Well whatdaya know? There it is: I have said it […]
Learning from example
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, February 12th, 2010 - 12 comments
In chronological order: John Key: “[I never promised I wouldn’t raise GST]. I said I would not raise GST to cover deficits, and we are not doing so.” Guyon Espiner: “he would have been better of just saying ‘look, times have changed and GST is now back on the agenda’” Duncan Garner: “The Prime Minister […]
The beleaguered PM
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, February 11th, 2010 - 60 comments
My my, things are turning quickly for John Key. We now have the first sighting of the red flag term “the beleaguered PM” in the mainstream media. Recall that in 2008 Key promised not to increase GST, and now he is proposing to do exactly that. 3 News (Duncan Garner) summed up: So Mr Key […]
Trouble brewing for govt on GST
Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, February 11th, 2010 - 3 comments
“An unscientific poll yesterday of 846 readers asking whether they would be happy to pay more GST if it meant they paid less income tax found 46.9 per cent in favour, 43.9 per cent opposed and about 8 per cent undecided.” – Stuff “Unscientific poll” I take to mean one of their online polls, and […]
Liar, liar, pants on fire
Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, February 10th, 2010 - 75 comments
Apparently promises made before the election don’t count. GST was different then anyway.
Destroying our heritage
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, February 10th, 2010 - 84 comments
John Key is hell bent on carving up our most pristine National Parks for mining. No matter what. The areas most at risk are Kahurangi and Coromandel (rumour has it that Aspiring is a decoy to soften the blow). Well, these are amazing areas that do not derserve to be destroyed at the whims of […]
John Key’s “step change”
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, February 10th, 2010 - 15 comments
Any questions?
(Sort of a) caption contest
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, February 10th, 2010 - 54 comments
Someone’s noticed that during her recent Tea Party speech Palin had “Energy”, “Tax,” and “Lift Americans Spirits” written on her hand – she used it to crib from when questioned about Republican priorities. A spy pic from the House yesterday suggests that Key’s taken a leaf out of Palin’s book. Any ideas what it says?
Commentators damning of Key’s visionless speech
Written By: - Date published: 5:46 pm, February 9th, 2010 - 97 comments
Bernard Hickey: He had a chance to follow up all the talk of real reform to create a ‘step change’. He had all the experts under the sun from inside and outside of government telling him he needed to do something. He commissioned reports. He talked a good game. Today he did nothing. He did […]
Key: we’re a less than half-decent govt
Written By: - Date published: 4:19 pm, February 9th, 2010 - 28 comments
Good spotting by Jake Quinn: during the 2008 election, John Key ruled out raising GST, as the Herald reported back in October of that year: ‘National leader John Key said told (sic) a press conference this morning that if National is elected and does a ‘half decent job’ at growing the economy, then increasing GST […]
Key’s statement to Parliament
Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, February 9th, 2010 - 59 comments
Very little specific so far. According to Stuff, National will increase GST to ‘up to’ 15% – which I take to mean 15%. He has ruled out a land tax, capital gains tax, or tax on risk-free rate of return. That leaves just closing the loopholes that allow landlords to offset losses on investment properties against […]
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