JB: So you'd have preferred to have run the election in 2008 with those incredulous holes in the 1993 act that showed up in 2005? A trade union should need to go to court in a democracy to fight for its right to be involved in the electoral preocess, but ...
Harry: another one of those interesting myths. Figure out the timeline and figure when they could have done it. The act was designed to correct the problems that had shown up so strongly in the 2005 election. The AG's final report was released in October ...
It was interesting today talking to my rather centre-right workmates and one of my more right-wing friends on the phone. Despite whatever they think about Labour, they have what can only be described as contempt for the newsmakers spin on that interview. ...
hs: Think we'll have to agree to disagree on this while I an sure each of your points was raised during the select committee briefings They were as far as I'm aware. That is why there was sufficient support to pass the legislation. Sceptic: Do you believe ...
SD: The EB's campaign was bad news alright. They did not do the correct attribution, yes. But worse was that they had no requirement to account for the money they spent campaigning during the campaign period, whereas all political parties did. Worse again,...
There are a number of other things I would have liked to have in there. For instance a requirement for parties to report their spending commitments on a month by month basis to the EC, including copies of the paperwork. The EC to provide these online for ...
hs: As far as I'm concerned the act was designed to fix the following flaws in the 1993 act (in my order of relevance with examples of each problem):- 1. recognize that the MMP campaign period was longer than 90 days (nationals billboards) 2. ensure that ...
NC: We are talking about a law here that was passed for one reason: To hurt national. Bullshit. If you don't understand the issues that caused a majority in parliament to vote for the bill, then perhaps you should find out.
hs: There never is in electoral law. There have always been challenges to it in the courts whenever it is changed. The only thing that is different this time is the 3rd party provisions being done before an election. Usually it is done after the election. ...
Craig: Phil was asked a set of direct questions about what happens when helen decides to step down. It wasn't dopey or indiscrete. If he hadn't answered, then he'd have had the same stories from the same useless journo's - but the spin would have been ...
gmf: So Key has flip-flopped again. How unexpected. I wondered how long that would take him to do that. There simply isn't the money to do it unless he guts the spending or goes into debt. Based on past experience with the Nat's, they'd probably do both. ...
>> too slow loses the election. Now I really know that you are ignorant as well as being illiterate. Tell me - when was the last time that a party in NZ won an election after rolling their leader in election year? If you manage to answer that then I'll ...
SD: why hasn't helen gotten rolled the last 10 or so times this topic has been raised by the media? Because it doesn't reflect what the labour party members think. Phil was simply saying exactly what everyone in the party thinks. When Helen decides to step...
red: He is an obvious illiterate - they can't even spell 'vowels'.
SD: I realize that you're probably young and can't remember last week. But on average this kind of speculation arises at least once per year. I remember this happening for national every other week. The only real problem is that the national party has kind...
With apologies to DPF. The only thing that is stopping National from selecting woman is the type of opinions you see everyday in the comments section of Kiwiblog. You'd think that a lot of the people in there are straight out of the 19th century. National ...
I agree with the title of this post. It is a simple beatup. Do the media think we are idiots? Of course when Helen decides to step down, then Phil will throw his hat into the ring. But it will be when she decides to step down. Whats the bet that when the ...
e: That is because Labour announce costed policy. The Nat's a) don't announce policy b) where they do announce it, don't bother to detail it c) don't cost it on anything except round figures because they haven't detailed it. d_ even when they announce it. ...
I see Brett is running his usual line. Funny cartoon. Reminds me of one of the late Fredrick Pohl novels In the "Space Merchant" series about the effects of over-marketing. There was a sequence where some up and comers in the corporate world were ...
Fred: One thing that is usually forgotten in the debate about people moving to aussie is that there is effectively a common labour market. I've seen the movement of people both to and from aussie several times over the decades. They move to where the work ...
oopps - the quoting is fouled in the above comment. red: In Auckland where I live, most property owners with rentals don't recover their mortgage costs (let alone any others) from the rents. Typically they top it up themselves. Thats because most of those ...
I'm aware of the rather toothless cgt that we do have - it was a populist pallative the Muldoon put in. They finally got around to enforcing some of it about 25 years later. Expect to see it go through a court near you soon. Yeah I was reading Keith Ng's ...
Fred: It kind of got lost in the mix during the weekend. But somewhere there higherstandard raised the idea of a Capital Gains Tax. I meant to get back to it - but I had others things to do. Now the bubble in the housing market has burst. This is the right...
If people (as opposed to a party) want a referendum, then all they have to do is to raise the required signatures. The people wanting to kill MMP can just get off their lazy arses and do the leg-work. Personally I don't think that they could even raise the...
Phil: Actually, I've just had a disturbing thought; is it possible the persecution of opposers to climate change could become our generations McCarthy trials Personally I wish that they'd just learn enough science to be worth the effort of arguing with ...
Peter Nelson: 40 years ago we were heading for an ice age was the ‘consensus'. Bullshit. What you are talking about was a couple of people in the northern hemisphere looking at their local temperature records from the late 60's and early 70's. The media ...
What a long weekend this has been, at least judging from the comments
rl: Good analogy. That is exactly the way I understand the criminal law. It doesn't matter what is the scale. What matters is if the prosecuting authority and the courts consider it to be significant. The problem comes when you try to put a bar on it. That...
bb: I thought that the number of electorate seats is already greater than the number of list seats. As I understand the system, the number of people in the electorate seats is fixed, and the number of seats in parliament is fixed with a limited overhang. ...
If they are wanting to go to the massive expense of running a referendum, I'd like propose another question gets added. Should the electoral period by increased to 4 years? The current electoral period is ridiculously short. Most of the countries that we ...
BD: Most marriages aren't performed by a church. In the marriages I've been to recently, most have been performed by people other than those ordained in a church. It'd be interesting to see some stats on that if anyone knows of any. A marriage is defined ...
Recent Comments