Search Results

  1. Tariana’s final days?

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 6:49 am, June 29th, 2012 -  40 comments
    Categories: corruption
    Tags: ,

    Tariana Turia’s privatisation by stealth of welfare for Maori, known as Whanau Ora, was an open invitation to fraud. Money was signed over to groups with no track record and no plan. It’s finally caught up with her as New Zealand First, Women’s Refuge, and the Greens team up to reveal Turia’s lies and willful blindness over reported fraud in Palmerston North.

  2. Asset sales – windfall capital gain for some, higher prices for the rest of us

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 5:04 pm, June 14th, 2012 -  33 comments
    Categories: Economy, privatisation, Steven Joyce
    Tags:

    National rushed its Asset Sales Bill back into the House today. Stephen  Joyce argued that it was to reduce debt, deepen capital markets, and invest in schools etc. One-off asset sales asset increase debt and if schools depend on flogging off more assets, we won’t get many more before the assets run out. The real reason for the sale is the middle one.  Asset sales produce huge windfall capital gains for the buyers. They should be taxed.

    Update: Bill went through 61-59 – 2 opposed from Maori Party. Cushion?

  3. Cunliffe attacks Nats’ crony capitalism

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 12:25 pm, June 14th, 2012 -  79 comments
    Categories: capitalism, david cunliffe, national
    Tags:

    David Cunliffe went to the lion’s den yesterday with a speech telling a meeting of Kensington Swan’s receivership and liquidation lawyers that there would be a lot less work for them under Labour but saying “the Labour Party is not your enemy. Your enemy is inefficiency, corruption, and the wastage of both public and private wealth. Your enemy is a cosy corruption that helps a few friends of the government get very rich at the expense of the community.”

  4. The Nats’ succession problem

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 7:00 am, June 14th, 2012 -  58 comments
    Categories: bill english, Hekia parata, john key, Judith Collins, national, Steven Joyce
    Tags:

    John Key’s days are numbered. His personal popularity is falling. His brand is tied to unpopular asset sales and a pokies for convention centre deal that is now subject to an Auditor-General investigation. He’s not winning the next election. So a change of leader is coming: pre-election or post. But who can succeed him? Parata? Collins? Joyce? They’re all shot.

  5. One law for some

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 7:48 pm, June 4th, 2012 -  18 comments
    Categories: budget2012, education, same old national, schools
    Tags:

    Financially troubled private school Wanganui Collegiate received a $3million grant in Budget 2012, 3 times the annual operating grant of the larger Wanganui City College. Since then it has been advertising its low class sizes and ability to  reduce fees significantly. Private schools will no doubt be using the current outrage over increased class sizes for recruiting purposes, but they should not be doing it with taxpayers’ money.

  6. See no evil

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:38 am, May 30th, 2012 -  27 comments
    Categories: john key, leadership
    Tags:

    There was a time when John Key used to promise solutions to any problem you could name. Or he would act sympathetic and concerned by the consequences of his government’s own policies. But the broken promises and falseness wore thin. Key’s new tactic is simply to pretend that problems don’t exist. Apparently, that’s called leadership in National Party circles.

  7. Half way there

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 8:20 am, May 23rd, 2012 -  22 comments
    Categories: jobs, Maori Issues
    Tags:

    It’s great that foreign fishing vessels in New Zealand waters will now be required to be flagged here and, in theory, will be subject to New Zealand law. But I reckon that abuses of those crews is only half the problem. The other problem is that we have Kiwi quota owners, in particular iwi, employing foreign fishers while quarter of a million of our people are jobless.

  8. Meatworkers win

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 7:21 am, May 22nd, 2012 -  38 comments
    Categories: capitalism, class war, Unions, workers' rights
    Tags: , ,

    News in that Talley’s/AFFCO and the Meatworkers reached an agreement at 5am this morning. The workers will keep their wage and job security provisions and still be covered by a collective. The workers have displayed incredible strength with support from up and down the country. Next time, bosses will think twice before attacking their workers.

  9. Polls and elections

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:14 am, May 19th, 2012 -  21 comments
    Categories: election 2014, polls, wages, winston peters
    Tags: ,

    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.

  10. Key has a whinge

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 6:58 am, May 10th, 2012 -  111 comments
    Categories: john key
    Tags:

    Key’s playing the pity angle, telling schoolkids who want to be PM: “Frankly, the way it’s going at the moment you can have the job” and sighing that “it’s going to be a long two and a half years”. Comments that suggest the Banks.com affair is more concerning to him than he pretends. Then, he whinged about the “grief” he is getting for preparing to sell our gambling law to SkyCity.

  11. Resignationwatch: constraints

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:38 am, May 6th, 2012 -  61 comments
    Categories: act, john banks, john key
    Tags:

    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.

  12. Resignationwatch: why unethical, probably illegal, behaviour is OK in Key’s govt

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 7:07 am, May 2nd, 2012 -  129 comments
    Categories: john banks, john key, scoundrels
    Tags:

    For the first time in 3.5 years, Lockwood Smith didn’t preside over question time yesterday. The hapless National backbencher Eric Roy took his place resulting an awfully convenient farce. Key refused to answer questions, going so far as to say he wasn’t responsible for who is a minister. But, like the sudden slew of ministerial announcements, Key’s evasiveness will not distract the media, which smells blood.

  13. A society that works for the few doesn’t work

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 11:25 am, April 23rd, 2012 -  76 comments
    Categories: capitalism, class war, Unions
    Tags:

    This country produces $200 billion of wealth a year. Yet half of adults have incomes less than $29,000 a year. 200,000 kids live in poverty, may in working families. A tiny few – the 1% – pocket the lion’s share. There is no justification. It is bad for society and the economy. Helen Kelly confronts the greed irrational of one rich family, the Talley’s, and how it’s hurting 1,300 poor working families.

  14. Govt case for Crafar sale seriously flawed

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 6:32 am, April 23rd, 2012 -  203 comments
    Categories: farming, overseas investment
    Tags:

    Fran ‘sell it all’ O’Sullivan says the government’s case for selling Crafar farms “appears robust”. Well, she would say that. But, if you read it, you’ll see they’ve just done a half-arsed, perfunctory attempt to appear to abide by the law as defined by the Court while coming to the same decision on the same offer. It’ll be shot to pieces in Court.

  15. Paid Parental

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 11:46 am, April 10th, 2012 -  133 comments
    Categories: babies
    Tags:

    Sue Moroney’s 6 months of Paid Parental Bill looks like being a second Labour private member’s bill that will proceed against National’s wishes.

  16. Nat Civil War: The perils of monolithism

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 7:15 am, April 10th, 2012 -  63 comments
    Categories: bill english, john key, Judith Collins, national, Steven Joyce
    Tags:

    Despite losing nearly 1 in 4 of its supporters, 300,000 voters, in a little over 6 months according to the Roy Morgans, National’s 44% still looks superficially impressive. Until you realise they need to be able to form a  majority more or less alone. The Right’s monolithism doesn’t just place extraordinary demands on National’s leader, it’s the root of the current civil war.

  17. Will the Greens lead the next government?

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:20 am, April 8th, 2012 -  195 comments
    Categories: election 2014, greens, labour, national, polls
    Tags: , ,

    Two recent pieces in The Herald draw opposite conclusions from recent polls (one of them, alas, is drivel). Matt McCarten asks if National’s free fall, and the rise of the Greens, foreshadows a Green led government in 2014…

  18. NRT: Voting against democracy

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 9:30 am, April 7th, 2012 -  14 comments
    Categories: accountability, act, democracy under attack, maori party, national
    Tags: , , ,

    No Right Turn on another sad chapter for democracy in NZ.

  19. Updates, upgrades, and polls

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 9:28 pm, April 5th, 2012 -  111 comments
    Categories: admin, notices, polls, The Standard
    Tags:

    A bit of maintenance work coming up over Easter, and a Morgan poll that covered last week. National show the effects of their mutual collective suicide attempts, and the Greens pick up the benefits. Labour are doing sweet bugger all. Starting to wonder if Labour MP’s are catching the dogpack socializing disease from National. I have an impress ion of mutual arse sniffing and bugger all work. I’m unimpressed with the dog imitations from either party.

  20. Advice on pokies

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 7:20 am, April 5th, 2012 -  83 comments
    Categories: crime, Ethics, john key, Social issues
    Tags: , ,

    “Prime Minister John Key says hundreds of extra pokies at Sky City Casino will not increase gambling addiction”. Key is lying and he knows it. That’s why the Nats won’t release the official advice they have received on this topic…

  21. Participate: Stop Asset Sales and Welfare Reform

    Written By:  Ben Clark -  Date published: 11:02 am, March 30th, 2012 -  54 comments
    Categories: democratic participation, privatisation, welfare
    Tags:

    Friday 13th (April) – a scary day as submissions close on 2 major government bills. Make sure you get your submissions in on the Mixed Ownership Model Bill and the Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill.

  22. Wastewatch: measuring graduate incomes

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 8:33 am, March 14th, 2012 -  22 comments
    Categories: Steven Joyce, tertiary education
    Tags:

    The Nats abandoned their wastewatch.co.nz site a few years back after being unable to identify significant waste. They should have just waited a few years. Now, the examples are neverending.
    Today’s case: Steven Joyce’s plan to publish the average incomes of graduates of different courses. A huge administrative task to tell us nothing.

  23. Overseas investment must show real gains

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 7:25 am, March 12th, 2012 -  36 comments
    Categories: david shearer, farming, overseas investment
    Tags:

    David Shearer’s private member’s Bill on foreign investment is pure common sense: unless foreign ownership actually adds something substantial to the economy that cannot be supplied by local owners then all foreign investment brings is higher land prices, locking out Kiwis from ownership. Overseas buyers must bring something real to the table. A good first policy.

  24. The biggest party are non-voters.

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 4:06 pm, February 24th, 2012 -  25 comments
    Categories: election 2011, elections
    Tags:

    The option that most eligible voters in NZ supported in 2011 was “don’t vote”.  Nearly 7% didn’t enroll, and if enrolled then more than 25% didn’t vote.  Of the eligible voters from the 2006 census, over 30% didn’t vote at all. And since 2006 the voting population has almost certainly increased. It means that National’s large vote is probably less than the biggest “party”. Not a particularly good mandate unless you’re as deluded as John Key.

  25. Joyce’s dirty deals: international convention centre

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 8:35 am, February 23rd, 2012 -  57 comments
    Categories: capitalism, corruption, Steven Joyce
    Tags: , , ,

    Steven ‘White Elephant’ Joyce isn’t content with building highways to nowhere with costs that exceed the benefits. Now he wants an international convention centre in Auckland that’s just as pointless. But he doesn’t want the government to pay. So, he’s cutting a dirty deal with more law for sale and more pokie machines blighting our communities.

  26. Don’t celebrate too soon

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 7:34 am, February 17th, 2012 -  63 comments
    Categories: brand key, election 2014, greens, labour, national
    Tags:

    National’s in retreat on every front. Its had to break its economic promises, again. Asset sales are a disaster. Ministers are exposed over the Crafar Farms, NZ on Air, and DJ Key affairs. The media’s gone off Key ever since he declared war on them. The bad stories that were getting nowhere a year ago now keep rolling. Even Mallard’s boorishness can’t halt National’s slide. But don’t celebrate too soon.

  27. VUW Post-election Conference

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 9:37 pm, February 16th, 2012 -  9 comments
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags:

    The best contribution by far IMHO at today’s VUW post-election conference in Legislative Chamber, held under Chatham House rules, came from Colin James.  True to Colin, his paper is public, with much food for thought. My comments here too.

  28. Key’s legacy

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 10:20 am, February 12th, 2012 -  120 comments
    Categories: john key
    Tags:

    Authors here have been saying for a while that Key may well quit during this second term. Even John Armstrong can see the writing on the wall. So what will Key’s legacy be?

  29. Opposition parties hammer Key on asset sales

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 12:11 pm, February 9th, 2012 -  32 comments
    Categories: david shearer, Parliament, privatisation, russel norman, winston peters
    Tags:

    Yesterday, the opposition parties worked together to hammer John Key on asset sales. He faced questions from four parties during one question; the breadth of opposition showed, and Key was stumbling. Some say Shearer should be taking a more leading role but, for mine, this was far more effective than Goff uselessly slogging out a primary and half a dozen sups without landing a blow. How’s that anti-asset sales coalition coming?

  30. Epsom government – unstable and unequal

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 10:17 pm, February 6th, 2012 -  21 comments
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags:

    I’ve just watched John Key say on Sky Australia “We don’t need the Maori Party – we have the votes for stable government.” But without the Maori Party, all we’ve got is an Epsom government. It hangs by a thread on  the teacup meeting  between Parnell resident Key and Epsom candidate Banks. Key’s dogwhistle to Epsom voters is all that guarantees National’s  “mandate” for asset sales.

  31. Key gets what he wants at Waitangi

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 6:24 am, February 6th, 2012 -  171 comments
    Categories: election 2014, Maori Issues, maori party, national
    Tags:

    While Key was away on his 4-week holiday in Hawaii, the world economy deteriorated, reports on the dire state of poverty in our country came out, and access to strategic resources became a pressing issue – both with our farmland being bought and Iran threatening to close off the globe’s oil supply. But Key was working on a plan – to stoke up racial dissent at home.

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