Search Results
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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.
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Banks’ secret donation from the ‘wide boys’
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:19 am, April 27th, 2012 - 101 comments
Categories: business, capitalism, corruption, crime
Tags:John Banks has had a miraculous change of heart on pokies. He used to say gambling bosses were “wide boys” who “sucked” the people of this country dry. Now, he’s rubbed up against John Key and become ‘relaxed’ about more pokies. Maybe the $15,000 undeclared donation from SkyCity helped. A donor Banks was legally required to disclose but didn’t. Labour’s laid a complaint. Update: donation has been referred to police.
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Collins’ in pokies for convention centre deal – in 2001
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:55 am, April 26th, 2012 - 11 comments
Categories: Judith Collins, same old national
Tags: gambling, law for sale, pokies, SkyCityThe Herald’s revealed that, in 2001, Judith Collins, as chair of the Casino Control Authority, rubber-stamped a ‘pokies for convention centre’ deal with SkyCity. This triggered the then Labour Government limit the number of pokies by statute. Now, the Nats are doing another dirty deal with the cancer in Auckland’s heart but, thanks to Labour, they can’t do it on the quiet.
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Sack or be sacked
Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 11:39 am, April 16th, 2012 - 15 comments
Categories: capitalism, class war
Tags: maritime union, ports of auckland, tony gibsonPorts of Auckland management admit they gave Slater/Lusk the confidential employment details of a worker who criticised the bosses’ disastrous bargaining strategy. At least 2 other workers were victims of the same misdeed. CEO Tony Gibson needs to sack the senior staff responsible. If he can’t or won’t, he’s incompetent or complicit and ought to go himself.
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The political year ahead
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:02 am, January 9th, 2012 - 173 comments
Categories: Politics
Tags:Here’s a few guesses about what’ll happen in the year ahead in politics. Shearer will cement his leadership by turning his back on the old guard who put him there. The Greens will hold on to their gains. National will go hell for leather. Mana will build as the Maori Party dies. Asset sales and the economy will be the big issues – can the Left win the framing?
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ImperatorFish: Spill the Beans, Now!
Written By: notices and features - Date published: 4:07 pm, January 5th, 2012 - 15 comments
Categories: humour, Politics
Tags:Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here
Scott suffers from being a political blogger with sudden time on his hands, and a lack of politics.
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Victim tales of the right
Written By: lprent - Date published: 3:40 pm, November 29th, 2011 - 26 comments
Categories: dpf, us politics
Tags: poodles, whaleoilNationals yapping poodles here were doing it during the election by calling Labour “nasty” in violation of any level of common sense. John Key and teabags. In the US similar supporters are calling Obama nasty for pointing out a lying political ad by Mitt Romney.
Don’t ya know the right are always the poor victims… I just tend to find them to be whining dickheads. But I am actually trying to be nasty.
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The year of the Greens?
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:26 am, September 23rd, 2011 - 56 comments
Categories: election 2011, greens
Tags: greensSeveral commentators have suggested recently that the Greens have crossed some kind of “credibility threshold” and are poised for a strong performance in November. Is this the year of the Greens?
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Mission: whatevered
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:25 pm, July 24th, 2011 - 27 comments
Categories: Minister for Overseas Holidays
Tags:Classic Key on his
holidayvery important series of very important meetings that were very important and achieved all kinds of important things: “I’ve got to be the luckiest Prime Minister of New Zealand in the last 25 years. I’ve come to Washington and every single person who we’ve met with from the Administration has wanted to see us” Yay! Meetings! -
Salt in the wound
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:25 pm, June 30th, 2011 - 81 comments
Categories: Conservation, jobs, Mining, public services
Tags: department of conservation, ministry of economic developmentTwo years ago, this government sparked the biggest protests in a generation when it tried to open up the most precious parts of our conservation estate to mining. The policy got canned but the agenda has continued below the surface. Now, 100 DoC staff have been sacked while the MED unit for oil drilling and mining will nearly double its staff.
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SkyCity shows need to clamp down on lobbyists
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:11 am, June 14th, 2011 - 22 comments
Categories: business, capitalism
Tags: big business, lobbyists“Substitute the words “convention centre” for “suitcase of cash” and the transaction looks very clear.”*
National wants to change the rules for another foreign corporate. Wouldn’t move an inch for Kiwirail jobs. Maybe that’s because Kiwirail didn’t donate 100K to National (and Labour) in the past decade like SkyCity did.
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Curiouser and curiouser
Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 7:38 am, June 13th, 2011 - 209 comments
Categories: same old national
Tags: dirty tricksIt looks like the Labour party site was breached from National HQ.
Does this mean National are still laundering their dirty tricks though their pet bloggers?
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Genuine progress
Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:13 am, May 27th, 2011 - 14 comments
Categories: economy, Ethics, sustainability
Tags: GDP, GPI, john whiteheadThis story didn’t get any big headlines. This story slipped by almost completely under the radar. But it’s a very important story. Much more important for New Zealand’s development than the smoke and mirrors of the do-nothing budget.
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Jon Stephenson replies to critics
Written By: r0b - Date published: 11:49 am, May 12th, 2011 - 12 comments
Categories: afghanistan, john key, us politics, war
Tags: afghanistan, jon stephenson, sasPM John Key attacked journalist Jon Stephenson, calling him not credible over his claims on SAS links to the torture of prisoners in Afghanistan. Now Stephenson has replied to his critics, in detail.
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The “big issues”
Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 6:30 am, May 12th, 2011 - 77 comments
Categories: economy
Tags: john keyJohn Key is whinging about how labour isn’t focusing on the “big issues”
But he and his government have been avoiding the big issues for years.
That’s not surprising given how badly they do on these big issues. But it’s still pitiful to see them whinging about it.
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Anatomy of a lie
Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 8:51 pm, May 5th, 2011 - 158 comments
Categories: Politics
Tags: hone harawira, matthew hooton, trevor mallardHone Harawira left himself open to attack with his comments on Te Karere.
But that doesn’t excuse the disgraceful beat-up executed so well by the right’s smear machine.
If this is how the election is gonna play out it’ll be no good for anyone.
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Spending cuts I’d like to see – No 3
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:30 am, April 27th, 2011 - 4 comments
Categories: election 2011, transport
Tags: roadsFollowing two years of unsustainable tax cuts and economic mismanagement, National appears certain to rebalance the books with spending cuts. But what will they choose to cut? George.com asks: ‘how about the $4.2 billion in roading projects that will return, at best, just $3 billion of benefits?’
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Is Joyce too big to fail?
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:00 am, April 11th, 2011 - 18 comments
Categories: corruption
Tags: mediaworks, steven joyceIn 2009, Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English survived a corruption scandal that would have sunk a less important minister. Key couldn’t afford to lose him. Now, evidence continues to emerge of how Steven Joyce gave his old company a sweetheart loan against the official advise. Do you think John Key will act or is Joyce too big to fail?
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Labour’s greatest challenge for 2011?
Written By: Campbell - Date published: 12:04 pm, January 9th, 2011 - 59 comments
Categories: election 2011, john key, labour, national, phil goff
Tags: phil goffThe Sunday Star-Times has produced an interesting article on the role of emotion in people’s voter choices leading into this year’s General Election. While the results are not great news for Labour supporters, it’s the first poll of its kind to be made public in NZ. There’s a lot of controversy over whether we ought […]
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Doing nothing in the face of climate change crisis
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:50 pm, November 22nd, 2010 - 23 comments
Categories: climate change, sustainability
Tags: peak oilThe Commissioner for the Environment says New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions will be 26% above 1990 levels in 2020, compared to the Nats’ promise to cut them by 10-20% – leaving us with a $1b bill. Worse, the IEA shows that even if we and other countries meet our promised cuts its only half of what’s needed to avert disaster.
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The Smiths: Getting it Right
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 9:56 am, September 24th, 2010 - 11 comments
Categories: Environment, farming, Parliament
Tags: lockwood smith, nick smith, waterLockwood and Nick did good work yesterday. So praise where praise is due: Keep it up boys.
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The next ACT
Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 1:04 pm, September 22nd, 2010 - 52 comments
Categories: act
Tags: john boscawen, john key, richard long, Rodney HideKey is strongly backing Hide.
That might be because he doesn’t want to deal with the ideologues who would replace him. Or it might be because Hide knows where the skeletons are buried.
Either way Key’s going to find it harder and harder to distance himself from the mess.
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Key’s dilemma
Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 9:57 am, July 17th, 2010 - 23 comments
Categories: class war, employment
Tags: john keyThis weekend Key will start (literally) cashing in his political capital by trading off Kiwi workers’ rights for business backing.
But by pushing for these changes his backers risk the second-term National majority they need to get their hands on our assets.
It seems their bad habit of putting short-term profit ahead of long-term sustainable gains has carried over into the political sphere.
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Who’d be an MP?
Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:14 am, July 13th, 2010 - 12 comments
Categories: Deep stuff, leadership, Parliament, politicans
Tags: mps, ParliamentWho’d be an MP? In many ways it’s a dog of a job, and the prospect of really “making a difference” seems remote. Politics seems to bring out the worst in people, and too many politicians have earned the low esteem in which they are held by the public. But despite all this, some people are drawn to politics for all the right reasons. Good on you all. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
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Finlayson’s undeclared company
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 22nd, 2010 - 51 comments
Categories: accountability
Tags: chris finlayson, interestIt appears Attorney-General Chris Finlayson has been failing to declare his interest in a company for years. David Parker stood down as Attorney-General when he thought he had signed a false declaration. Will Finlayson? Will John Key match Phil Goff’s standards? [Update: Finlayson says he has no pecuniary interest. Irrelevant. All directorships must be declared. The A-G should be able to read the rules]
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Schedule 4 back-down won’t solve the problem
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:30 pm, May 10th, 2010 - 11 comments
Categories: climate change, Conservation, Mining
Tags: coal, conservation land, gerry brownlee, john key, Mining, schedule 4If, as seems increasingly likely, the Government drops its plans to desecrate the best of schedule 4 land, will it be cause for celebration? In a word, no. Kathy at Greenpeace weblog examines Brownlee and his wet dreams
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Finlayson covering for corrupt judge?
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:34 am, April 12th, 2010 - 23 comments
Categories: corruption, law
Tags: chris finlayson, colin king, justice bill wilsonA senior judge is under investigation for sitting on a case in which his business partner, whom he owed $240,000, was a lawyer. The investigation could result in a recommendation to the Attorney-General that the judge be sacked. But Attorney-General Chris Finlayson has trampled over the process and has said he will not act against Justice Wilson, who is a mate of his from their days at Bell Gully.
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The numbers on mining don’t stack up
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:22 am, March 24th, 2010 - 38 comments
Categories: Economy, jobs, Mining
Tags:There’s a hell of a lot of mis-information and confusing numbers about the economic potential of mining around, and that suits Gerry Brownlee and National because it lets them exaggerate the case for opening up the National Parks. Remember, more mining is the government’s one big plan for the economy but they can’t even give a ballpark figure on how much they expect the country to gain.
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Herald cans fact-checking, opts for dogwhistles
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:35 am, March 17th, 2010 - 57 comments
Categories: articles
Tags: charles chauvel, clint heine, dita de boni, fred phillips, homophobia, nz herald, stephanie phillipsThe New Zealand Herald has never been shy of attacking blogs for their lack of journalistic standards and editorial rigour, but given some of their recent work you’ve got to wonder who they think they’re kidding.
Take today’s woeful piece by Dita De Boni pontificating about Charles Chauvel and those screaming kids on his plane.
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Who were the Nat leakers?
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 2:09 pm, March 9th, 2010 - 40 comments
Categories: bill english, john key, national
Tags: david farrar, don brash, hollow men, katherine rich, mary english, nicky hagerMichael is dead right. The most important thing about the Hollow Men is not how Nicky Hager got the information but what the information is. It reveals National’s modern politics in all its unprincipled ugliness. Nonetheless, which Nats gave Hager the information is a subject of legitimate interest. I have some theories.
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