election 2008

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Video: TV3 on Key’s campaign day 2

Written By: - Date published: 4:52 pm, October 14th, 2008 - Comments Off on Video: TV3 on Key’s campaign day 2

Media coverage of the campaign is coming thick and fast – a helpful reader pointed out this excerpt from TV3 on Key’s day yesterday.

Labour chickens out on $15 minimum wage

Written By: - Date published: 2:54 pm, October 14th, 2008 - 23 comments

Labour, why do you do this to me? One day you’re announcing neo-Keynesian policies to help us through the coming recession, then you stand up for the principle that access to education shouldn’t be dependent on the wealth of ones parents, and, then, just when I’m starting to believe that you really are a true […]

Every reason for Key to blitz debate tonight

Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, October 14th, 2008 - 20 comments

It is still possible to follow the news without encountering politics at every turn – but it’s getting harder. And the journalists are sitting alongside the leaders watching every step along the way. So far we see Otago Uni students giving Helen Clark a “rock star welcome“, with the ODT saying: The Prime Minister was […]

Wrong time for short-term thinking

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, October 14th, 2008 - 90 comments

National’s Nick Smith has announced that they would cancel the $1 billion fund to insulate New Zealand houses, which the Greens won as part of the Emissions Trading Scheme. This massive programme would improve energy efficiency, create warmer, healthier homes and would provide useful employment during the downturn. A study, ironically carried out under National and mentioned to me […]

Down with literacy

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, October 14th, 2008 - 45 comments

A crusade on illiteracy, surely. Um, I’m not sure we want to entrust these guys with improving language skills. [Update: true to form, the people in the sector don’t know what the hell National is talking about. Teachers say National seems to be taking about some vague reporting system, not more resources to actually improve […]

Confident or foolish?

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, October 14th, 2008 - 20 comments

So, you’re one of the 900,000 Kiwis who have so far signed up to Kiwisaver. You know that you get $1000 on signing up, you put in 4% of your gross income, the Government matches that up to $20 a week, and your employer matches with at least 1% rising to 4% by 2011. It’s […]

The problem for National in fewer than 100 words

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 14th, 2008 - 14 comments

OK – they are not my words. I could do it – but then again I really liked what Gordon Campbell wrote: The financial meltdown poses a basic identity problem for National, the instinctive champion of de-regulation and market solutions. That’s a bit of a problem right now, given that Europe and the US are […]

‘Give me warning next time’, Key whimpers

Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, October 13th, 2008 - 44 comments

While Key was blathering on about who-cares-what yesterday, Clark announced a radical and forward-looking economic stimulus package. Now, Key is having a cry over Clark not notifying him beforehand of the deposit insurance scheme. As if the Prime Minister needs to seek the approval of an opposition party before setting government policy. Key whines that monetary […]

Universal allowance – Labour joins rest of Left

Written By: - Date published: 3:25 pm, October 13th, 2008 - 59 comments

Good to see Labour joining the Greens and Progressives with a universal student allowance policy. It has been a crying shame that many people who are trying to get an education and whose parents can’t support them have had to borrow to get a fraction of the money that one gets on a benefit or […]

Working our way forward

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, October 13th, 2008 - 16 comments

It was inevitable that the focus of media coverage of Labour’s announements yesterday would be the deposit insurance, it’s a good self-centred middle-class story. But the important stuff, as Irish pointed out last night, is the re-training money, the speed-up of infrastructure construction, the money for sewerage, housing, and anti-erosion projects. The deposit insurance simply acts to […]

Labour takes bull by the horns, Nats left standing

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, October 13th, 2008 - 25 comments

One of the first rules of politics is don’t set yourself up to be snookered; don’t position yourself in a way that your opposition can and will undercut, don’t run attack lines that your opposition can and will invalidate. National has repeatedly done this. They ran on tax cuts as their sole platform when it […]

Tories still bigots at heart

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 pm, October 12th, 2008 - 47 comments

When I saw this guy using the guise of a Youtube debate question to attack Clark on her appearance, I felt sorry for the little jerk – what a pathetic life he must lead. When I saw Bill ‘do what it takes to win’ English do the same thing (at 1.30), while an audience of […]

Trickle-down

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, October 12th, 2008 - 11 comments

A few thoughts from today’s Agenda: Questioned about why National would introduce another tax rebate, having endlessly criticised Working for Families because of its complexity, English says ‘we do, in the long term, want a simpler tax system’. So, be on notice, Working for Families is under threat from National – they would ‘eventualy, but […]

Getting it right matters

Written By: - Date published: 9:49 pm, October 11th, 2008 - 11 comments

I don’t want this post to be taken as overly critical; it’s just meant to offer some constructive advice. John Armstrong’s piece in the Herald today is good. It’s great to see a senior political commentator acknowledging that politics is a competition of ideologies, rather than merely a game or competition of personalities, but it’s […]

Words to watch

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 pm, October 11th, 2008 - 2 comments

Two headings in today’s Herald caught my eye. One from John Armstrong (who I don’t always agree with but who is most often an obersver of skill) who says “Tax plan turns divide into ideological chasm”: After months of deliberately lying low on policy details, National has finally been obliged to put its head above […]

From the jaws of victory

Written By: - Date published: 12:16 pm, October 11th, 2008 - 19 comments

My sources tell me Key has a big surprise planned for National’s campaign launch tomorrow. In a break with tradition, Key will not be telling supporters about his plans for “a Labour government I lead”. Instead, he will not be telling them about his plans for a National government. Seriously though, National needs the next […]

TV3 poll shows movement

Written By: - Date published: 8:31 pm, October 10th, 2008 - 28 comments

From TV3 A full 3 News political poll shows Helen Clark is back up off the canvas, while John key has taken a significant blow, in the very week he tried to land one using tax cuts…. Labour has been 12 points behind in the 3 News Poll since March 2007. Now that gap has […]

Roy Morgan poll

Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, October 10th, 2008 - 69 comments

The new Roy Morgan poll is out today. It was taken between Sep 22 and October 5, and has National’s vote collapsing by 7 points to 40.5%, Labour up one to 37.5 and the Greens shooting up to 9. So very good news for the Left. I’d be careful about reading too much into this […]

Nats letting the facade drop

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, October 10th, 2008 - 4 comments

We’ve been receiving reports of some appalling statements by National MPs on the campaign trail. They mesh with the arrogance and heartlessness that shines through in the secret agenda tapes. A writer reports on David Bennet’s performance at a forum on mental health policy in Hamilton: Mr Bennett came absolutely unprepared. he had no knowledge […]

What happens if Nats gut Kiwisaver?

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, October 10th, 2008 - 23 comments

I was going to write about the economic effects of taking money out of Kiwisaver and spending it on tax cuts but this youtube video with South Park characters does the job and is much more fun: (hattip: Labour’s ‘Campaign Trail‘ blog)

Even your Granny doesn’t believe you anymore

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, October 10th, 2008 - 32 comments

The Herald editorial this morning lambastes National’s crime policy as “simply a more extreme version of a policy that has failed this country and others” but Granny Herald consoles herself: In all likelihood, this is not something that Mr Key will pursue if National wins the election. It is a policy calculated to strike a […]

Green TV ads

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, October 10th, 2008 - 22 comments

The Greens’ new TV ads are up on Youtube. Pretty sparse, but they get the message across clearly. [Hat tip: frogblog]

In case you missed it

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, October 10th, 2008 - 14 comments

Here’s the footage from 3News last night on the fresh National Party cocktail revelations. Bill English’s comments again serve to reinforce the message of The Hollow Men: this is a group of people who are about winning at all costs, principles be damned.  

On ‘doing what it takes to win’

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 pm, October 9th, 2008 - 33 comments

As you know, the latest secret agenda tape has Bill English saying National will do what it needs to do to win, even if that goes against their stated principles. The obvious line from National, which their spin doctors will have been running to the press gallery, is ‘this is nothing, winning trumps principles, all […]

Standard Scoop: Key gives poor another booting

Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, October 9th, 2008 - 24 comments

No, I’m not talking about National’s tax cuts, which would hit the poorest Kiwis in the pocket – John Key doesn’t seem to be content at just that. We have received an exclusive audio recording of Mr Key’s performance at the Helensville debate on Monday. When housing was an all-important issue earlier this year Mr […]

Greens set their standards for coalition partners

Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, October 9th, 2008 - 43 comments

The Greens have announced that they will choose their preferred coalition partner based on their commitment to 12 criteria. I’ll just look at 5 (not that the others are less important, just space): reduce New Zealand’s oil dependence and climate change emissions; – senior Nats don’t even think climate change is happening and the Party […]

Small change

Written By: - Date published: 1:32 am, October 9th, 2008 - 56 comments

That was going to be the title of my first post on National’s tax-cut plan but then it turned out National’s plan would actually make about 1 million taxpayers worse off compared to Labour’s cuts (all figures derived from the Budget and National’s tax policy). That 1 million comprises approx 650,000, including nearly all super-annuitants, […]

Reviews of Nats’ tax cut/Kiwisaver cut/R&D cut policy

Written By: - Date published: 7:27 pm, October 8th, 2008 - 37 comments

Just a quick note at the start for our press gallery friends who live in central Wellington on high incomes. 50% of New Zealanders have an income below $27,000 and 50% of workers earn less than $37,000 a year (all of which is heaps higher than it was under National). The point is this: National’s […]

Nats break into your piggy-bank

Written By: - Date published: 3:42 pm, October 8th, 2008 - 61 comments

John Key has announced that Kiwisaver would be slashed along with National’s tax cuts for the rich (and they are tax cuts for the rich, while most people would get less than under Labour’s plan, under National’s plan by 2011 around half a billion a year more than under Labour’s plan would be going to […]

Tax cuts for the rich

Written By: - Date published: 1:12 pm, October 8th, 2008 - 29 comments

National has released its tax policy. At first glance it appears the top rate will be reduced to 37% by 2011, giving the rich thousands of dollars in tax cuts. People earning $24-50k who aren’t getting Working for Families will get $15 a week rebate by 2011. Working families will basically get nothing, except for […]

The test

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, October 8th, 2008 - 84 comments

After building a political career that has consisted of little more than calling for tax cuts and attacking those that were delivered, John Key will finally present his party’s tax cut package today. Already, they have had to reduce its size but they will still make it the central part of their mystical economic platform […]