Search Results

  1. Selective memory

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 8:59 am, June 1st, 2012 -  37 comments
    Categories: john key, making shit up
    Tags:

    Things Key can’t remember: Position on Springbok tour: subject of mass protests under his idol, Muldoon. Position on the anti-nuclear issue: cornerstone policy of 4th Labour government, also triggered the schnapps election that brought down his hero. Things Key can remember: Never claiming the child tax rebate for his paper-run. Which is true because the rebate wasn’t introduced until Key was 17.

  2. Bliar on Leveson tonight

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 1:33 pm, May 28th, 2012 -  9 comments
    Categories: accountability, corruption, Media, uk politics
    Tags:

    Riveting television for politicos on-line at the Leveson enquiry tonight at 9pm as Tony Blair is questioned by the silken Robert Jay QC. More details on the mating of porcupines will no doubt come up. Revelations of the hidden relationship based on mutual interest between Murdoch-owned media and British politicians are very disturbing. While prosecutions  and resignations may follow there, the lessons apply here as well.

  3. Christchurch – economic hindrance?

    Written By:  Ben Clark -  Date published: 2:15 pm, May 25th, 2012 -  16 comments
    Categories: jobs, john key
    Tags: , , ,

    The Government have been pushing a line that Christchurch is holding us back as an economy.  The poor people of Christchurch are to blame for all our woes apparently, with their earthquake.  We shouldn’t blame National, just Cantabrians.

    But it’s not true.

  4. Mr Australia waves goodbye

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 6:46 am, May 25th, 2012 -  170 comments
    Categories: budget2012
    Tags:

    In his Budget speech, David Shearer labelled John Key ‘Mr Australia’. Because that’s where he’s pushing us. The zero hope budget offers a thousand and one nasty little cuts for students, for kids, for low-income workers, for schools, for community groups, for your public services. All to barely – if rosy growth forecasts come true – achieve a micro-surplus in 2014/15 for purely political reasons.

  5. ImperatorFish: Take Your Medicine

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 6:54 pm, May 22nd, 2012 -  Comments Off on ImperatorFish: Take Your Medicine
    Categories: Satire
    Tags:

    Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here.
    You’ve probably heard a lot about the National government’s austerity measures, and I know you’re probably worrying whether this belt-tightening is really worth it.

  6. An Open Email to Hekia Parata

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 1:21 pm, May 22nd, 2012 -  41 comments
    Categories: education
    Tags:

    An email from a concerned Principal about what Hekia Parata’s changes – principly class size – will do to our children’s futures. And the address Emeritus Professor Ivan Snook gave to graduating teachers last week.

  7. ImperatorFish: New Wiggles Line-up Announced

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 3:46 pm, May 18th, 2012 -  8 comments
    Categories: rodney hide, Satire
    Tags: ,

    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.

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

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 10:56 am, May 17th, 2012 -  41 comments
    Categories: david shearer
    Tags: , , ,

    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.

  9. Warming to Shearer

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 10:40 am, May 13th, 2012 -  88 comments
    Categories: david shearer, leadership
    Tags:

    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.

  10. Birth Control

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 8:38 pm, May 8th, 2012 -  83 comments
    Categories: babies, benefits
    Tags: ,

    At first glance it seems strange to have Sue Bradford, a former Green MP, against what is a very ‘green’ policy – free contraception. But she has a point when she talks about beneficiaries feeling forced into sterility they don’t want. Meanwhile, what’s with the right’s obsession with targeting women having babies while on a benefit?

  11. Slippery does a flip-flop

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:19 am, May 3rd, 2012 -  28 comments
    Categories: by-election, corruption, john banks, john key, local government, slippery
    Tags:

    Slippery old Key said on Monday and Tuesday that he had to apply a legal test to whether John Banks should stay on as a minister. The Cabinet manual demands the highest ethical standards. Now, Key’s flip-flopped: ethics are required – but only after one becomes a minister. Which would be worrying if true. Pansy Wong won’t be the only one to note Key’s standards a slipping.

  12. ImperatorFish: A Statement By John Banks

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 3:33 pm, April 30th, 2012 -  50 comments
    Categories: john banks, Satire
    Tags:

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

    On Sunday morning I made it clear to Paul Holmes on TVNZ’s Q&A current affairs show that I didn’t come up the river on a cabbage boat. I am aware that a number of my enemies are trying to catch me out, so in order to “front-foot” this matter I am making the following statement…

  13. NRT: Catherine Isaac’s crony appointment

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 9:58 am, April 30th, 2012 -  6 comments
    Categories: act, scoundrels
    Tags: , ,

    The indefatigable Idiot/Savant at NRT has been looking at the appointment of Isacc to head the Charter School Working Group. It seems to have been conducted with all the professionalism and integrity that we have come to expect of ACT.

  14. Key’s Waterloo

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 7:50 am, April 20th, 2012 -  62 comments
    Categories: business, corruption, john key
    Tags: , ,

    It’s a bit rich for Key to claim that there were no credible alternatives to the back-room deal with SkyCity when he shut down one alternative proposal and ignored four others. But now the facts are coming out. Key has “advised himself” into his worst public relations fiasco yet.

  15. Brain drain getting younger

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 10:24 am, April 15th, 2012 -  82 comments
    Categories: education, national
    Tags: ,

    Oh great. Now we’re losing Kiwis overseas straight out of high school…

  16. Another classic Slater/Lusk own goal

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 7:08 am, April 12th, 2012 -  170 comments
    Categories: Unions
    Tags: , , , , ,

    Slater/Lusk have been running a series of posts on the finances of the unions. Pretty weak stuff. All Slater/Lusk have proven is that they don’t understand the corporate structure of unions, they can’t read accounts, and they can’t do research. Still, you knew they were seeding something. And then came the Talleys’ complaint to the SFO about the Meatworkers’ Union.

  17. Both sides of Joyce’s dirty deal bad for NZ

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 4:50 pm, April 8th, 2012 -  89 comments
    Categories: economy, national, uncategorized
    Tags: , , ,

    We know that giving SkyCity more pokie machines will mean more problem gamblers, more crime. The Right says it’s worth it for the convention centre. But the official numbers show that’s a dog and we would pay for it in the long-run. It’s not one side of this equation that is bad for New Zealand, it’s both.

  18. Nat Civil War: Collins faction turns on Key

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 1:04 pm, April 7th, 2012 -  119 comments
    Categories: john key, national
    Tags: , ,

    There’s series of posts from Simon Lusk on Whaleoil showing the Collins faction taking a distinctly anti-Key line for the first time. Key’s signaled he won’t go easily and he screwed Collins on the defamation suits.. And the polls show he won’t win a third term.

  19. Mfat’s cuts cost $9.2m

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 7:50 am, March 29th, 2012 -  20 comments
    Categories: International
    Tags: , ,

    Mfat is spending $9.2m a year on 30 strong razor gang cut diplomat jobs. It’s a ludicrous waste of money. As Goff notes – McCully’s splurging on ‘back office’ contractors in the razor gang to cut the ‘frontline’. 49 of 53 heads of mission have written to McCully say this process is destructive and dangerous. All McCully can do is blame the ‘star’ private sector head of Mfat he appointed.

  20. Will Brownlee apologise to Finland or resign?

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 9:13 am, March 27th, 2012 -  113 comments
    Categories: Gerry Brownlee, International
    Tags: ,

    The lead story on Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest newspaper is about the “violent comments” of Gerry Brownlee. How would we react if a foreign politician told those kind of lies about NZ? We’d go off our self-righteous rockers. In some countries, like Finland, a minister would resign without hesitation if they brought their country into disrepute.

  21. The Only Vision….Left.

    Written By:  Bill -  Date published: 7:09 pm, March 24th, 2012 -  53 comments
    Categories: Left, political alternatives, vision
    Tags: ,

    Is it not strange and a bit disquieting that the parliamentary left, or more precisely, the Labour Party, is all at sea with regards vision? The vision of the left…the only vision there is for the left… is the same now as it always was. So why is the Labour Party struggling to articulate a vision? We know that the labour Party has lost touch. And we know that people are more or less disengaged from parliamentary politics. Why this should be isn’t very difficult to figure out. How to rectify the situation isn’t very difficult either.

  22. Labour Organisational Review continues…

    Written By:  Ben Clark -  Date published: 5:52 pm, March 22nd, 2012 -  31 comments
    Categories: labour
    Tags:

    Last night was the North Shore meeting of Labour’s Organisational Review, going around the country this month.

  23. Farrar discovers peak oil, nearly

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 12:28 pm, March 20th, 2012 -  101 comments
    Categories: economy, energy, transport
    Tags:

    Barack Obama will be breathing a sigh of relief after David Farrar endorsed his call to end oil subsidies. It seems the 3rd oil price spike in 5 years is getting the attention of even the Right. Something, they’ve got an inkling, is wrong and rising petrol prices are here to stay. Pity that, on the cusp of revelation, Farrar opts for the security blanket of neoclassical economics.

  24. King salmon, stealing our future

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 11:01 am, March 19th, 2012 -  26 comments
    Categories: farming, food, sustainability
    Tags: ,

    Imagine taking your children down to the park to find an overseas had set up a dairy farm in one corner. The shit builds up and flows onto the playground. You complain, but are told the farm is under no obligation to treat or retain their waste and the council has no powers to do anything about it. That’s what’s happening with aquaculture thanks to the EPA.

  25. Labour moving to the right?

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 11:09 am, March 18th, 2012 -  153 comments
    Categories: david shearer, labour, MMP
    Tags: , ,

    Many commentators have interpreted David Shearer’s recent speech as signaling a “move to the right”. I think it’s too early to tell. But if it’s true, I think it’s good news for lefties…

  26. Mythbustin’: Waitakere Man

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:57 am, March 15th, 2012 -  54 comments
    Categories: jobs, workers' rights
    Tags: , , , ,

    Chris Trotter invented the myth of the so-called ‘Waitakere Man’. It assumes Labour has lost voters because we’re all contractors now or in roles where we could be contractors, and don’t need their union-based labour policies and benefit system but want simpler rules for small business. No factory or retail workers in this model. Problem is, it’s not true.

  27. ImperatorFish: Won’t Someone Think Of The Lamingtons?

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 3:37 pm, March 12th, 2012 -  6 comments
    Categories: humour, len brown
    Tags: ,

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

    Scott has a Guest Post from Neemish von Tartt, the CEO of For the Sake of Our Cakes Trust

  28. Women kept out of the boardroom

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 7:12 pm, March 8th, 2012 -  19 comments
    Categories: business, capitalism, sexism
    Tags:

    Stuff has a report telling us what we already know: an old boys’ network keeps women out of the boardroom in Australia and New Zealand. This clubbiness is just one of the reasons we’re such an unequal country. A small network of white middle-class males appoint each other to the boards of their companies, then set each other’s pay

  29. We don’t know how lucky we are

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 7:10 am, March 5th, 2012 -  16 comments
    Categories: International
    Tags: , , ,

    Wikileaks have given us another glimpse at the reality behind the curtain of international diplomacy, and a “full and frank” assessment of New Zealand’s geopolitical insignificance…

  30. Trial? Why would you bother with that?

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 9:40 am, March 1st, 2012 -  16 comments
    Categories: law and "order"
    Tags:

    No-one wants to see people who are likely to hurt people released on bail. That’s why successive governments have tightened bail rules. Now Sensible [sic] Sentencing wants every charged with a crime bearing 2 or more years locked up without bail. Not the first organisation with those initials to favour guilt upon accusation and punishment without trial. Michael Bott takes up the story.

  31. The real crims wear white collars

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 9:57 am, February 25th, 2012 -  74 comments
    Categories: business, capitalism, class, crime, scoundrels
    Tags:

    Directorships are the golden ticket in the world of the business elite. You attend maybe 10 meetings a year, sign whatever’s put in front of you, typically get paid $3-4K a pop, and do it over again half a dozen times or more for various companies. It’s a gravy train for managers past their use by date. But customers and shareholders have to trust what directors sign off on.

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