Indeed, and gone full retard by stating that the poll is fake and rigged by TV3. The Green vote would be split and allow National + Act to govern. Oh the irony.
Joyce needs to go - Either a liar or someone who can't read a fiscal plan. Either way, unfit to be a finance minister.
Pointless talking to the Greens first if Nat + NZF can form a govt.
Labour + NZF can form a govt without the Greens. NZF will like that idea, particularly given that they have said they will talk to the party with the most votes first.
And yet... the evidence suggests otherwise. It's been tried & failed, and researchers have done the science. But you just keep on believing the party line James. (somehow someone putting themselves in the army to "sort themselves out" seems different from ...
I wonder if any other Green MPs have the guts to make the same stand.
Latest Roy Morgan: The overall support for the governing National-led coalition was up 4% to 49% with National support up 3.5% to 46.5%, support for the Maori Party unchanged on 1.5%, Act NZ up 0.5% to 1% and support for United Future unchanged at 0%. • ...
I wonder if this poll will get its own thread.... Wonder Girl Ardern sounds like she is ready to throw in the towel. This poll certainly won't help.
'Continuity and Change' from Veep & the Aussie Liberals...
Newsroom reports that Goff is unhappy about the Ports leaking - as media reported the supposed results of a meeting before he'd actually held the meeting... Wonder who's pushing this...
Just as a quick check on that - Auckland Rail is now 19 million trips, not 10 - and currently increasing by 3 million trips/year. Bus must be higher as well to total 87 million PT trips (not sure what number ferry makes up). Auckland's going to need a ...
we're a collective - we'll each post about the issues we want to, separately, and with our own take (and when we get the chance - so many missed issues...). Sometimes there'll be some crossover between posts. You'll live.
snap. +1
An election doesn't answer every question, just "who would you like to govern?" cf 2011 & asset sales. The sales were clearly unpopular with a large majority of the public, but that didn't stop them voting National in. Polls can overturn prevailing "wisdom...
Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 8:35 am, March 24th, 2017 - 46 comments
Categories: tax
Tags: Apple, multinational corporations
Apple pay no tax in NZ, on $4.2 billion of sales over the last decade. $0. They have several dozen employees here, to go with their lots of sales, but what little tax they do pay ($34 million over the decade – less than 1% of turnover), they pay to …
Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 4:02 pm, March 21st, 2017 - 4 comments
Categories: climate change, energy, Environment, farming, global warming, science
Tags:
The OECD published their 10-year environmental report on NZ today, showing many concerns; from rising greenhouse gas emissions, to having among the highest extinction rates in the world, to irrigation and freshwater pollution. Steven Joyce blustered about …
Standing in the seat gets you invited to all the local debates, which you might be discluded from otherwise. So it does make sense for Greens to stand, even if they then say at every debate/opportunity: Party Vote Green, Candidate Vote Labour. It's also ...
Climate change will affect the robots less - they'll be able to work underwater :twisted: but seriously, more floods / famine / storms / higher seas... I'm not sure it'll result in more paid employment like Antoine suggests. but then more jobs being ...
Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 8:59 am, March 8th, 2017 - 53 comments
Categories: superannuation, unemployment
Tags: ubi
Bill English's new super plan falls between 2 stools. The super cost crisis that he's trying to summon up, is before 2040 if it exists. The solution was most probably continuing to pay into the Cullen Fund, which English suspended paying into in 2009 to …
Didn't matter in 2011 - campaigning on it for Labour, pensioners / those in their 50s who would be personally unaffected still saw it as something to vote against as affecting "their" pension.
Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 4:21 pm, February 23rd, 2017 - 125 comments
Categories: Environment, quality of life, water
Tags: nick smith, swimmable rivers
So National's great plan for swimmable rivers by 2040 is to allow more than twice as much shit in them1 and still call them "swimmable." Move the goalposts and still take more than 20 years to cover the much smaller distance. Ambitious for New Zealand as …
X 100 Red.
Not from me Robert. I didn't say it was wrong, but that it is a deal.
Oh please. Whichever way you slice or dice it, it's a deal. Green hypocrisy shines through again, and writing screeds of eloquent prose won't make the obvious go away.
Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 1:22 pm, February 16th, 2017 - 6 comments
Categories: child abuse, child welfare
Tags: state care
RNZ has been doing some great work on abuse in State Care, since Aaron Smale's great initial report in November last year. The story has actually been bubbling along for quite some time below the surface – in 2009 the UN Committee Against Torture raised …
"I will be backing" is different from "I will be giving". There is no way for anyone in Labour, leader down, to circumvent the Labour constitution. The leader is a member of the list committee, and probably the most powerful one (certainly Helen generally ...
It's been fabulous when I've been up there - hoping to go again next year. Such a happy place, a great festival all weekend. So beautiful... And a fantastic celebration that doesn't deny that there are still real issues. Lloyd Burr gave festival side a bit...
I thought they always had enough resources for 2 general elections in a row if a stable result couldn't be met? And now they can't afford a by-election...
Yes, standing is a "relative" thing apparently. And things are not legal/illegal, but "pretty legal" (does he think those laws he passes only kind of need to be met?). Next thing he'll be a "little bit" pregnant...
Close enough to the election that McCully won't cause a by-election.
Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 12:06 pm, December 15th, 2016 - 97 comments
Categories: housing, national, tenants' rights
Tags: state housing
3 stories from Checkpoint yesterday, that add up to a picture of National's response to housing. Firstly an Auckland caravan park getting probably more than $1 million/year from low income New Zealanders and beneficiaries with nowhere else to live. …
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