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And again nothing happened

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 12:56 pm, February 6th, 2010 - 2 comments

The usual suspects are bleating on about John Key’s big speech on Tuesday. As I’ve pointed out again and again this sort of thing is treated by Key as a PR event in which the talk is big and the action minimal. Just like John’s plan to save the whales. What we’ll see on Tuesday […]

Paula, John, seriously, put away the champagne

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:53 pm, February 6th, 2010 - 2 comments

Paula Bennett and John Key have been, once again, prematurely popping the bottle of champagne to celebrate the end of rising unemployment. In the face of the shocking 7.3% unemployment rate announced on Thursday, the pair responded by saying ‘ah, but that was December quarter things are better now.’ They pointed to the number […]

Another benefit beat-up

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:00 am, January 20th, 2010 - 24 comments

The Key Government’s anti-beneficiary campaign continues. The latest is a beat-up on long-term beneficiaries. Apparently, 9 people have been on the dole for longer than 20 years, 14 for 15-20 years, and 181 for 10-15 years. ‘Bludgers!’ we’re meant to cry ‘Bludgers!’ But let’s actually think with our brains rather than our jerking knees. This […]

Coddington: exposing secret agendas = bad, attacking sex victims = meh

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:17 pm, January 17th, 2010 - 29 comments

Deborah Coddington, former ACT MP and author of the filthy racist article “Asian Angst: Is it time to send some back?” that killed North & South’s reputation, waffles on about ‘snitches’ in her Herald on Sunday article. Coddington says snitching – informing the public or the authorities when someone is doing something bad or illegal in secret […]

Farrar tries to cover for do nothing govt, and fails

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 5:38 pm, January 16th, 2010 - 70 comments

Phil Goff has picked up on the point I made yesterday: while unemployment is falling in Australia due to the $42 billion stimulus package implemented by the Rudd Government, in New Zealand unemployment is still rising while this do nothing government sits on its arse, and unemployment here is now higher than in Aussie for […]

The ‘whaling plan’

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:01 am, January 14th, 2010 - 47 comments

Govt drafts deal to end whaling in Antarctica – Herald Key plan to end Southern Ocean whaling – Stuff That sounds like a real break-through, I thought. What could this deal/plan be? I watched the full press conference here: “New Zealand has been working very hard to try and find [please, people, the phrase is […]

A humbug

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 4:50 pm, January 13th, 2010 - 27 comments

Back in July of 2009 I wrote a post about John Key’s promises of a plan to stop job losses. At the time I pointed out his trail of empty and unfulfilled promises and predicted that the big plan to stop job losses would be one of them. Unfortunately I was right. There was no […]

How it works

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:48 am, December 24th, 2009 - 13 comments

a) Paula Bennett gives a story to Colin Espiner about beneficiary and, apparently, scoundrel Darryl Harris. The release of the information is a clear breach of the Privacy Act. Espiner is clearly being used as a tool for softening the public for beneficiary bashing. Espiner runs the story, without challenging or even remarking upon the leak or the […]

MSM: you supply the spin, we publish it

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 3:59 pm, December 22nd, 2009 - 80 comments

There’s a Youtube clip on Stuff of Key talking on The Edge. Presumably filmed by one of Key’s people. It’s run as headline news. Yup. You got that right. It’s now news when Key appears for a soft interview on other media. Not the first time. A month or so ago Stuff ran his video […]

It’s not spin, the govt told me

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:18 am, November 24th, 2009 - Comments Off on It’s not spin, the govt told me

The Dompost reports: “The number of places available on a programme to get young people off the dole will be increased after the Government credited it with a drop in unemployment”. Sigh, it’s the seasons, stupid. There has been no drop in unemployment, that went up to 6.5% in the last stats. The number of […]

Trade trumps human rights for Key

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:33 pm, November 21st, 2009 - 15 comments

What a strange little editorial in the Herald today. It’s a typical spin piece that tries to frame John Key’s shoddy behaviour in not meeting the Dalai Lama, despite his promise that he would, as a good thing. The title shows just how willing, desperate even, some are to interpret everything Key does positively – “At […]

The resistance

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:41 am, November 12th, 2009 - 5 comments

A very well-produced youtube vid on National’s distortions over ACC The clever thing National has done is set up ACC as the agent of its own demise. With Business Roundtable member John Judge in charge ACC has become a propaganda wing for National’s anti-ACC rubbish. Judge and Nick Smith have created a false air of […]

Politicisation of ACC continues

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:15 pm, November 11th, 2009 - 4 comments

Frogblog has another example of the continuing politicisation of the public service under National. I meant to post on this a while back, but you may have seen these ads in your local paper recently: Not only is the ACC’s message in this ad contrary to the Woodhouse principles it was founded on, but there’s […]

To [insert region here] or not [insert region here]

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:33 pm, November 10th, 2009 - 12 comments

Looks like Nicky Wagner’s having the same trouble* as Jackie Blue: …the National-led Government is committed to helping more children take part in organised sport at school, after school, and during the holidays. We want all Kiwi kids to have the opportunity to play sport. We know too many schools in [insert region here] struggle to […]

Jackie Blue: Committed to [insert region here]

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:50 am, November 10th, 2009 - 28 comments

An alert reader who, for reasons one can only wonder about, was on Jackie Blue’s website spotted this: Tuesday, November 3. 2009 Launch of National Standards Reading, writing and maths are the basic building blocks all children need to learn to get the best start in life. Currently one in five students leave school without […]

OIA docs confirm English wrote propaganda ad script

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 3:22 pm, November 6th, 2009 - 38 comments

Documents that the government was forced to release under the Official Information Act reveal that Bill English exercised extensive control and sign-off over each stage of his million dollar political propaganda ad, funded by publicly-owned broadcaster TVNZ. The documents (which, unfortunately, the media organisations have not seen fit to release to the public in full) […]

Closed for tax evasion

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:17 am, November 4th, 2009 - 7 comments

I see the BNZ’s got itself a new PR campaign: On 4 November, most BNZ people will be working on projects around New Zealand to help our communities be better off – we’re calling it Closed for Good. Um, thanks all the same, but why don’t you just pay your f*cking tax bill instead? Update: […]

Where’s Paula?

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 12:39 pm, November 3rd, 2009 - 23 comments

The Herald’s creepy lovefest with the National Party continues today with Simon Collins’ profile of Paula Bennett, who is apparently “one of us”* Unlike Danyl over at the Dim Post who seems to have finally realised that *gasp* the Herald might be a little pro-National, I’ve not really been troubled by this “first year of […]

Treasury provides cover for Nats’ rightwing agenda

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:07 am, October 30th, 2009 - 19 comments

National’s favourite public servant (who got himself a nice pay rise), John Whitehead, has been offering dire warnings of the future. $2 trillion in debt by 2050! Something must be done! Naturally, the Treasury has an extreme right-wing solution – cut everything: cut health – yeah, a less healthy workforce that’ll be great for the […]

Does John Key believe a word he says?

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:32 am, September 3rd, 2009 - 22 comments

This 2007 quote from John Key is doing the rounds among angry “No” voters: Labour shows contempt for New Zealanders The Labour Government has shown utter contempt for New Zealanders and the democratic process with its plan to railroad the anti-smacking bill through Parliament, says National Party Leader John Key. “The Labour-led Government knows the […]

Trippin’

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:01 pm, August 28th, 2009 - 2 comments

How’s this for some positive spin? Australia is coming off worse in the battle for trans-Tasman tourism, with New Zealand reporting a record surge in the number of visitors in July. The number of Australians who crossed the Tasman for a holiday last month was 47,748, a rise of 37 per cent on the same […]

Who do you think you’re fooling, Kate?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:46 am, August 28th, 2009 - 12 comments

“I’m not going to resign” – Kate Wilkinson It’s one of the truisms of politics that when you’re a minister and you say you’re not resigning, it’s only a matter of time until you are. Kate Wilkinson’s behaviour has been almost universally disgraceful- the Kiwisaver debacle, her vitriol during the Shawn Tan affair, refusing the let […]

Get ready for more over-promise, under-deliver

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:39 pm, August 1st, 2009 - 15 comments

Tomorrow John Key will be announcing policies on youth unemployment. Looks like rehashing of the already announced Youth Guarantee and probably something more. Whatever Key comes up with it will be tinkering around the edges. The Nats aren’t willing to spend any money and they don’t have any big ideas. If the cycleway, the tax-cuts, […]

More cycleway spin

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:35 am, July 27th, 2009 - 19 comments

[At the outset of this, let me restate, once again, I’m all for cycleways. Indeed, I wish the Key government hadn’t cut millions from urban cycling in the Budget. What I object to is the overhyping of a few possible cycleways as if they constitute some kind of economic recovery plan] Key has identified seven […]

John Key, centrist

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 3:49 pm, July 24th, 2009 - 23 comments

IrishBill commented last night that “John Key the centrist” is a narrative we’re not hearing much from the commentariat any more. I thought this was strange given that was the brand they were all so dutifully selling us in the leadup to the election campaign. John Armstrong couldn’t get enough of it. I wondered what […]

Talking shite

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:10 am, July 22nd, 2009 - 28 comments

Right wing rhetoric can be absurdly stupid at times. IrishBill recently reminded us how crazy things were getting near the last election: One of my favourites was Hooton arguing that a fourth term Labour government would abolish the free press! Then there’s the pet attack bloggers, “dragging the discourse to new lows, with vicious, juvenile, […]

No more Mr Nice Guy

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 3:04 pm, June 30th, 2009 - 23 comments

John Key has a carefully constructed image as a “nice guy”, with a self professed “sunny nature” no less. There is ample reason to believe that the image is far from the reality. In his previous work Key appeared proud of his ability to fire, without emotion, hundreds of people (earning himself the nickname of […]

Rhetoric & Reality 4: Tertiary Education

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:30 am, June 23rd, 2009 - 5 comments

National sure does talk a good game before an election. This time we’re looking at their rhetoric on education, especially tertiary education: Key: I’m passionate about ensuring today’s young people get the education they need to succeed. Education is a liberator.. It’s what makes it possible for a kid from even the most challenging background […]

Pulling up the ladder behind her

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:00 pm, June 19th, 2009 - 115 comments

Paula Bennett’s image as a Westie solo mum who’s been on the DPB has been an important part of National’s centrist branding. By putting her in charge of the Ministry of Social Development, despite any relevant experience or discernable talent, National gave a clear signal that in their government image would trump substance. Fair enough […]

Hooton’s bizarro world strikes again

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:16 pm, June 15th, 2009 - 52 comments

I think it’s fair to say that David Shearer’s thumping victory in Mt Albert has been widely viewed as securing Phil Goff’s leadership over the Labour Party. Any sane observer will recognise that Goff’s position has been strengthened by the victory, that the party has gained a huge boost in confidence and that Shearer will […]

Ralston vs Ralston

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:16 pm, June 14th, 2009 - 16 comments

Two of New Zealand’s top political commentators (it pains me to write that) have gone head to head over the Mt Albert result: April Bill Ralston: Some who voted Labour might now feel that National has not turned out to be as bad as they expected and either withhold their vote or actively support the […]