zzero use

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Ball’s in your court, John

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, May 24th, 2012 - 65 comments

David Shearer, with Shane Jones’ support, has stood Jones down and asked the Auditor-General to investigate his handling of Bill Yan’s citizenship affair. It sets a new, high standard. Whether Jones was right or wrong, he at least has a coherent story and there’s no suggestion of a crime. Compare that John Key allowing John Banks to stay on as a minister while under criminal investigation and having repeatedly lied as he tries to get out of it. Update: The court has found Yong Ming Yan not guilty of all five immigration fraud charges.

Pre-budget reading

Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, May 24th, 2012 - 3 comments

An excellent column from Bryan Gould, and a picture of working families in financial distress. Something to ponder, as we await the zero budget.

Where National lost control of the budget spin

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, May 24th, 2012 - 18 comments

Poor political choices, lazy spin management, a succession of statistics highlighting National’s poor management of the economy, a much more active Opposition, and, let’s not forget, a much less friendly media ever since the teapot tapes have combined to make this the first budget that has hurt National, rather than bolstered it.

RWC Tickets

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 pm, May 23rd, 2012 - 32 comments

So Key is ‘surprised’ that David Shearer, the local member for Eden Park, accepted tickets to a local game, and doesn’t feel beholden to corporate interests?  He can accept hospitality and still criticise a company is somehow shocking?  I think this tells us more about John, than it surprises the rest of us about David…

Failure to deliver

Written By: - Date published: 7:11 am, May 23rd, 2012 - 15 comments

National has undershot every one of its growth promises. I bet that doesn’t stop them promising big tomorrow.

David Parker’s Greece-proof paper

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, May 22nd, 2012 - 30 comments

Don’t blame Greece: if you change nothing, nothing changes. National’s problems are their own to solve, but they don’t have the guts to look at the big problems in New Zealand’s economy. 0.6% growth in total over the last 3 years – less than population. But National only tinkers and distracts, as our brightest and best head to Aussie.

Four years of failed promises

Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, May 22nd, 2012 - 22 comments

Labour has published its budget website and a video ripping John Key’s record of broken promises. It’s pretty damning. Yet Key and English want to claim that there’s nothing wrong and growth has been in line with projections. It’s like they’re operating in a parallel universe.

Greens Budget Alternative

Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, May 21st, 2012 - 68 comments

The Greens launched their Budget alternative this morning. Titled “Smart Green Economics” it lived up to the billing.  Extra heft was provided by BERL economist Dr Ganesh Nana  paper arguing that the Government’s asset sales programme leaves the government accounts permanently worse off. It was also good to hear about opportunities and their alternatives. We’ve had enough of TINA.

The thinner blue line

Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, May 21st, 2012 - 19 comments

National is going to cut 125 police staff. They’re not sworn officers but who’s going to pick up the work they were doing? Sworn cops, of course. Course, tying up cops with paperwork will help the crime stats drop. And with the navy so underfunded half its inshore patrol vessels are being mothballed I bet illegal fishing instances drop too. Funny that.

One more promise I couldn’t keep

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, May 21st, 2012 - 14 comments

Last Budget, National promised 36,000 jobs in the year to March 2012. We got 20,000. They promised 1.8% growth. We got 1.1%. They promised a $9.8 billion deficit. Now, it’s heading for over $12  billion. Ready for a repeat on Thursday?. English will say last year’s failures were all someone else’s fault. Key will grin and make some weak jokes, the beakbenches will hoot and holler. But will anyone outside National be smiling this time round?

Mr Key’s remarkable lack of ambition

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, May 21st, 2012 - 59 comments

Remember ‘ambitious for New Zealand’? Remember ‘brighter future’? National used to at least say they wanted to do something significant. At what point did all that get replaced with ‘surplus by 2014/15’? Key and National have $70 billion a year to play with to better this country, and the best thing they can come up with is making sure government operating revenue exceeds operating spending by about half a percent in three years time.

Polls and elections

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, May 19th, 2012 - 21 comments

Another poll to add to current mix. Not a big shift, but in the right direction, and getting the right kinds of headline.  And here’s another headline that isn’t going to help the Nats – the wage gap with Australia is growing at the rate of $1 a month.

ImperatorFish: New Wiggles Line-up Announced

Written By: - Date published: 3:46 pm, May 18th, 2012 - 8 comments

Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here.

Friday afternoon fun: Trevor Mallard becomes a Wiggle.

NRT: Highways and fiscal responsibility

Written By: - Date published: 12:03 pm, May 18th, 2012 - 12 comments

The government is, softening us up for higher prescription charges, fewer teachers, and a further assault on beneficiaries. Meanwhile, they’re spending billions on “Roads of National Significance” that do not meet basic cost-benefit tests, to service a declining demand for road transport. The Greens are right: this is not “fiscally responsible”.

Emmerson: Is Key mum enough?

Written By: - Date published: 12:58 pm, May 17th, 2012 - 9 comments

Talley’s Group: Arsehole managers – bad faith and bullshit

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, May 17th, 2012 - 41 comments

Today there was the characteristic signature of a Talley’s Group company spin that I’ve observed over the last five years on this site with their worker relationships. They lie, prevaricate, and fracture the truth. They appear to be completely untrustworthy and incapable of good faith bargaining.  In my view they are the absolute arseholes of NZ managers and companies.

Nats to cut 500 teachers

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, May 17th, 2012 - 156 comments

If there was any doubt that National has an anti-teacher, anti-education agenda, it’s gone. Increasing class sizes will ‘save’ $43m a year by reducing the number of teachers that would otherwise be required by 500. National standards will be used for performance pay. It’s a cut to the frontline, a cut to our kids’ learning. And Parata’s comments suggest more to come.

The smell of corruption

Written By: - Date published: 11:23 pm, May 16th, 2012 - 32 comments

The Jackal raised the issue of corruption in relation to John Banks in a comment here and has written more about it on his blog. It appears on the evidence of DotCom’s lieutenant that  when he was a Member of Parliament Banks was offering to accept a financial consideration in respect of any act to be done by him in his capacity as a member of Parliament. This makes Philip Field look like a Good Samaritan. Banks has to go.

Brooks charged with perverting justice

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 pm, May 15th, 2012 - 19 comments

Rebekah and Charlie Brooks have been charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to the News International phone-hacking affair.  Now it’s in the courts, this albatross will hang around Cameron’s neck through to the next election.

$2 billion borrowed for tax cuts, so far

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, May 14th, 2012 - 11 comments

Remember National’s ‘fiscally neutral’ tax cuts? Turns out they’ve cost $2 billion in their first 18 months. Now, the Right’s story changes, of course. Without those reckless tax cuts, we wouldn’t be facing zero budgets.  They were never meant to be fiscally neutral, they were stimulus spending – right, cause this economy is so stimulated.

Warming to Shearer

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, May 13th, 2012 - 88 comments

Labour has gambled on Shearer’s broad real-world experience and appeal to the electorate. Over time the contrast with Key, who is now well and truly just “another bloody politician”, will be more and more pronounced.

Another broken promise from our con-man PM

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 pm, May 11th, 2012 - 68 comments

Key looked the Pike River families in the eye and promised to get their mens bodies out. It was a promise he never should have made. But he did to make people like him. He wouldn’t even talk about it today. Coward. And what of his promise to make things right for Christchurch? Or his promise of an aggressive recovery? Or his promise to help the underclass? Or that brighter future?

Stop press!

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, May 11th, 2012 - 3 comments

Bet there’s some last minute changes to the Budget happening. A few mil to reverse the bio-security cuts now the fruit fly’s in. A few mil for monitoring MSD contracts – Bennett’s ‘high trust’ (ie too lazy/cheap) model clearly isn’t working. They could find savings by not giving money to fronts for gangs and other corrupt groups, predictably, sucking on the Whanau Ora teat.

ImperatorFish: Wellington Health Officials Struggle To Cope With Contagion

Written By: - Date published: 3:52 pm, May 10th, 2012 - 3 comments

Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of these posts here and here.

JK is suffering memory loss and having a whinge…

Kim Dotcom – John Banks Song

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, May 7th, 2012 - 48 comments

Amnesia is a song about the John Banks donation saga in New Zealand – from “MrKimDotcom” on YouTube. Help it go viral…

The fateful tea party – a footnote

Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, May 7th, 2012 - 61 comments

So much of what shapes the current political landscape traces its roots back to the fateful tea party. But at the personal level, there was some welcome news for cameraman Bradley Ambrose recently.

Resignationwatch: constraints

Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, May 6th, 2012 - 61 comments

Banks is deadmeat. It’s just a matter of time before Key gives him the boot. Politically, he must. He has grounds, even on the limited ‘ethics while a minister’ test he has created. We’re now just waiting for something sufficiently new that Key can use it as justification for an about face. Then comes the question of a by-election. And that’s where it gets tricky for Key.

Resignationwatch: questions for Key

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, May 5th, 2012 - 42 comments

Does he believe Banks’ on the Dotcom donation? What corroborating evidence has he sought to confirm Banks statement? Why is he applying a legal test to behaviour before Banks was a minister but ethical standards only after? Why did he apply ethical standards to Pansy Wong’s behaviour before she was a minister but not to Banks? Was it unethical for Banks to lie to the media and fake memory lose while a minister?

Another MMP rort?

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, May 4th, 2012 - 44 comments

The media are doing a good job investigating John Banks’ donation history.  The Police are presumably also doing theirs, and it seems clear that the matter must end up in Court and the issue of who is telling the truth will be decided by a judge. Some in the media have dismissed the question of any threat to National’s majority. Short-term maybe, long-term I’m not so sure.

Nice work

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, May 4th, 2012 - 15 comments

Number of additional jobs per year needed to match population growth: 25,000 * Jobs promised by National last Budget to be added in March 2012 year: 36,000 * Actual number of jobs added: 20,000 * Additional unemployed: 5,000 * Change in number of fulltime jobs: -6,000 * Change in number of parttime jobs: 25,000 * Growth in underemployment: 4,000 * Broken promises: 1 really big one

Resignationwatch: too many questions

Written By: - Date published: 6:38 am, May 4th, 2012 - 156 comments

Why did Banks lie about a discount hotel room where Dotcom was staying, then say he bargained it himself? Who made $15K of radio ad donations to his campaign? What did Nats on Banks’ ‘mentor group’ and ACT leaders know about the anonymised donations? How much info did Banks get from Williamson on Dotcom’s OIO application? Why has Key still not spoken to Banks to ask any of these question?