Posts Tagged ‘gerry brownlee’
Not even miners will dig Gerry out
Written By: - Date published: 2:42 pm, May 4th, 2010 - 25 comments
When you’re that far on the backfoot, it’s not hard to teeter further. The CTU has today come out against the Government’s mining plans; a position even Brownlee admits is “a bit of a surprise” given the union’s membership includes miners. What’s the score now? I say time for a quick tally. We’ve got the […]
Nats tie themselves in knots over mining
Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, April 29th, 2010 - 10 comments
Mr Brownlee, I have to confess, you’ve got me scratching my head. You’re saying that anyone can already prospect and even, to use your words, “dig to their heart’s content” on Schedule 4 land while your leader is saying we can’t mine or even know what is under the land until it is removed from Schedule 4. Which is it? Do.. do any of you clowns actually know?
Brownlee digs the Nats a deeper hole
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, April 27th, 2010 - 20 comments
On March 22, Gerry Brownlee took Mt Aspiring off his mad mining wish list saying “the government has decided, for reasons of its own, not to pursue mining potential in that areaâ€. But Brownlee was lying. The very same day, he signed an order temporarily blocking mining companies from prospecting in areas that would be subject to a $4 million government minerals survey. Mt Aspiring was included.
Xena and Sheryl do the dirty on Brownlee
Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, April 26th, 2010 - 22 comments
Remember back in 2007 when Gerry Brownlee took some really bad PR advice and unfathomably released a video entitled “Sexy Coal”? It was bound to come back and bite him; it’s the 21st century after all. What’s particularly salacious is that Lucy Lawless is doing the biting….
Paying MPs’ court costs
Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, April 7th, 2010 - 22 comments
I don’t have a problem with MPs being able to get public funding for court cases arising from their professional activities. You wouldn’t expect private sector employees who are taken to court over their actions in their job to be forced to pay their own way. But what a sense of entitlement Gerry Brownlee has.
Over-promise, under-deliver
Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, March 31st, 2010 - 7 comments
The Key Government is constantly promising us great results and actually do nothing that improves things for New Zealanders. English, Bennett, Brownlee, and Tolley are prime examples of this MO. While they promise great things and fail to deliver unemployment is rising, wages are falling, crime is up, and the government has no plan to move us forward.
Insight on mining
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 31st, 2010 - 2 comments
NatRad’s Insight has the best overview of the Brownlees mining proposal that I’ve seen (or rather heard) from the media to date.
Environmental issues reporter, Ian Telfer investigates the Government’s proposal in “Mining in National Parksâ€.
Mining secret agenda emerging
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 pm, March 29th, 2010 - 12 comments
It’s becoming clear that National had their policy to mine on protected land all planned before the election and hid the truth from the public because they feared it would make them unelectable. National needs to front up with the records of their pre-election discussions with the mining industry. Labour should challenge them to come clean in the House today.
Nats losing support over mining plan
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, March 28th, 2010 - 24 comments
According to a poll in the the Sunday Star Times, John Key’s mining plan has turned off one in six National voters. The government claims not to be worried by the negative public relation. John Key is starting to sound very out of touch on the mining issue, and that could be his biggest mistake yet.
Laissez-faire or fairly lazy?
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, March 27th, 2010 - 5 comments
Fran O’Sullivan’s write: “Till now, Key has operated a rather laissez-faire approach to Cabinet management.” I think she meant “fairly lazy”. She points out that Gerry Brownlee and Paula Bennett have been allowed to go out and essentially lie to the public about their policies only to be embarrassingly exposed by an increasingly awake media (helped by the blogosphere) because Key isn’t paying attention.
The long game on mining
Written By: - Date published: 12:25 am, March 27th, 2010 - 20 comments
Beyond this opening gambit on mining, National clearly has a larger plan. It is going to back down over Great Barrier, whether or not that was never part of the plan all along. But it is lining up more areas for later on. Areas like Dun Mountain near Nelson. Supposedly there’s gold in that there hill. But it also happens to be the site of one section of the John Key Memorial Cycleway…
Oxymorons
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, March 26th, 2010 - 29 comments
The Nats are flailing about desperately looking for an angle to convince Kiwis to trash their country and their heritage for 30 pieces of silver. Brownlee’s latest line is that mining is a green industry. Only ignorance could breed this government of oxymorons…
Gerry Brownlee’s date scone recipe
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, March 26th, 2010 - 15 comments
1. Decide that you are going to get rich out of selling dates.
2. No! Better! Get rich by having your mates sell your dates and clipping the ticket.
3. Take a dozen or so date scones.
4. Ignore all the dates sitting around that are not in scones…
Labour on mining. Brownlee on bullshit.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, March 26th, 2010 - 33 comments
There has been considerable discussion about the message and targeting of Labours policy on mining around the conservation estate in OpenMike and some of the other blogs. This is obviously going to be a reasonable large policy platform in the upcoming election in about 18 months (how time flies). So Labour having a clear policy on it over the last decade pleases me greatly. It agrees broadly with my views of balancing the economics between exploitation of extraction and sustainable tourism.
I’m pretty much in agreement with Lew at Kiwipolitico who said “Labour’s campaign against mining Schedule 4 land looks strong, especially at the iconographic level.”
‘Dig & hope’ – Nats’ great plan
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, March 25th, 2010 - 43 comments
National’s mining policy is ‘dig and hope’. That’s the only conclusion one can draw after Gerry Brownlee and Nick Smith admitted National has no idea of the value of the minerals supposedly under the protected lands they want to dig up. Remember, this is National’s lynch-pin economic policy. They are we have dig up these protected lands for the sake of the economy but have no idea of what’s there.
Government loses control of House
Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, March 23rd, 2010 - 51 comments
At the end of question time today, Trevor Mallard asked for leave to have a debate without notice congratulating Joyce on getting his degree conferred 21 years after leaving uni. To everyone’s surprise, Gerry Brownlee failed to object. Brownlee is so mad [Update: video added].
Mining our national parks for the US war-machine
Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, March 23rd, 2010 - 23 comments
Most of the world’s supply of the key rare earth metals comes from China. That’s a strategic problem for the US, which needs rare earths for high-tech military equipment. They don’t want to be dependent on the world’s other superpower, and potential adversary, for their military hardware. Is it a coincidence that the Nats are so keen to let foreigners mine for rare earths in our national parks?
Key’s mining plan worse than Bush’s
Written By: - Date published: 6:14 am, March 23rd, 2010 - 51 comments
John Key’s mining plan released yesterday is true madness. It sacrifices New Zealand’s natural heritage to make a buck for a few multi-national mining companies. The full list of changes make it clear: Key is mounting an attack on our conservation areas on a scale that even George W Bush couldn’t stomach.
Hysteria in the government over mining
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, March 20th, 2010 - 3 comments
The Herald has a editorial lambasting John Key about claiming this week that they were ‘hysterical’ writing about the plans to mine the conservation lands, and that there were no such plans. Later in the week, the government launched a probe to find out who leaked cabinet documents about mining the conservation lands. The irony of the two actions appears to have escaped John Key who appears more clueless than ever.
National Parks, not National’s parks
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, March 15th, 2010 - 82 comments
Forest and Bird has obtained information that Prime Minister John Key is looking to mine Paparoa National Park [pictured right], Great Barrier Island, and areas surrounding the Thames township. The final details of the discussion doc will be decided at Cabinet today. Mr Key, you’re in for a fight on this one.
World Cup TV fiasco
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, March 4th, 2010 - 18 comments
How’s this for insanity: the finals in the World Cup will be broadcast live on four free to air channels as well as Sky. That’s pretty much the definition of overkill and it has got to have cost a bomb, thanks to the Government’s disastrous handling of the issue.
Heatley’s redherring cover for Brownlee
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, February 27th, 2010 - 20 comments
Fran O’Sullivan agrees with my theory on the real reason for Phil Heatley’s resignation and the reason why an excuse was invented. The real reason was what amounts to Heatley’s theft of taxpayer money by using his ministerial credit card, and the receipt excuse was invented to protect Gerry Brownlee who had also misused his credit card
I don’t buy it for one second
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, February 25th, 2010 - 111 comments
Has Phil Heatley really resigned his ministerial portfolios over a bottle of wine?
Or is there more to this story than meets the eye?
Nats’ sense of entitlement behind credit card abuse
Written By: - Date published: 6:42 am, February 24th, 2010 - 40 comments
Yesterday the Dominion Post caught out National Party Ministers using their taxpayer funded credit cards for personal use. This was a gross betrayal of public trust. Housing Minister Phil Heatley knew what he was doing, but did it anyway. John Key should sack Heatley for turning his nose up at the Kiwi taxpayer.
Don’t take stock tips from Murray
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 pm, February 23rd, 2010 - 18 comments
Turns out McCully’s shares in Widespread Portfolios are worth 20 cents a pop. $31 total. He paid a grand for them at $5-odd each. Ouch. Are these guys really so good at business? Is mining really such a good bet for the country? And what is hidden away in the trusts?
John Key discovers new word. Country celebrates.
Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, February 23rd, 2010 - 17 comments
This morning the DomPost ran an article by Tracy Watkins about several ministers misusing their ministerial credit cards for personal entertainment. They obtained the information by doing OIAs (Official Information Act requests). Now I’ve come to expect that NACT ministers will do (in John Keys words) “stupid” things in office. But what I found significant was that John Key appears to have discovered the use of a new word “disappointment”. This is a major advance for the NACT political vocabulary.
Oram on the ‘step change’
Written By: - Date published: 10:55 pm, February 21st, 2010 - 25 comments
An excellent piece by Rod Oram in the SST. More sophisticated governments are focusing on smart and sustainable growth but National thinks wealth comes from more milk and selling off our irreplaceable natural resources as quickly as possible.
Conservation park ‘trimmed’ to suit mining interests
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, February 15th, 2010 - 40 comments
The Standard has been sent copies of documents (1,2,3,4) released under the Official Information Act which show that one of National’s first acts in government was to trim a Conservation Park at the request of a mining company, ignoring local concerns and official advice, to let the company dig up the land for coal.
Gerry’s gift to future generations
Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, February 11th, 2010 - 38 comments
Bully Brownlee forces SOE CEO to withdraw critical blog
Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, January 12th, 2010 - 55 comments
Powershop is a subsidiary of Meridian Energy, an SOE. It is the most highly rated power retailer by its customers, with 92% satisfaction. On the Powershop website, there’s a blog. On this blog, the CEO of Powershop, Ari Sargent, wrote a post on the Government’s proposed electricity sector reforms. It’s insightful, adroit, politically neutral, and scathing […]
Experts: Power reforms wasteful, expensive
Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, December 11th, 2009 - 18 comments
Associate Professor Earl Bardsley, Waikato University: taking Tekapo A and B power stations from Meridian and giving them to Genesis means Meridian must now rely on a rival company, through some kind of protocol, to provide a significant amount of the water inflow to Lake Pukaki, which supplies Meridian’s line of Waitaki River power stations. […]
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The Government announced the end of the programme that allowed Māori and Pacific people to acess bowel cancer screening at 50-years-old. ...7 days ago
- Parliament fits an extra morning into final sitting day
The House - On Parliament's last day of the year, there was the rare occurrence of a personal (conscience) vote on selling booze over the Easter weekend. While it didn't have the numbers to pass, it was a chance to get a rare glimpse of the fact ...7 days ago
- The Friday Poem: ‘Bejeweled log’ by Holly Fletcher
A new poem by Holly Fletcher. bejeweled log i was dreaming about wasps / wee darlings that followed me / ducking under objects / that i was fated to pickup / my fingers seeking / and meeting with tiny proboscis’s / but instead / i wake up / roll sideways ...7 days ago
- Sunglasses don’t just look good – they’re good for you too. Here’s how to choose the right p...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flora Hui, Research Fellow, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Honorary Fellow, Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne Versta/Shutterstock Australians are exposed to some of the highest levels of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the world. While we ...7 days ago
- How does franchising work?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Terry, Professor of Business Regulation, University of Sydney Michael von Aichberger/Shutterstock Even if you’ve no idea how the business model underpinning franchises works, there’s a good chance you’ve spent money at one. Franchising is essentially a strategy for cloning ...7 days ago
- The one episode of Shortland Street you need to watch this year
If something big is going to happen in Ferndale, it’s going to happen at Christmas. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If there’s one episode of Shortland Street you should watch each year, it’s the annual Christmas cliffhanger. The final episode of ...7 days ago
- As China expands its cyber espionage and sabotage operations, how will the Trump administration resp...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William A. Stoltz, Lecturer and expert Associate, National Security College, Australian National University US President-elect Donald Trump has named most of the members of his proposed cabinet. However, he’s yet to reveal key appointees to America’s powerful cyber warfare and intelligence institutions. ...7 days ago
- The Unity Books bestseller chart for 2024
Announcing the top 10 books of the the year at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $37) The phenomenal Irish writer is the unsurprising chart topper for 2024 with her fourth novel that, much like her first ...7 days ago
- Government confirms plan to dismantle Te Pūkenga, re-establish polytechs
The government has confirmed its plan to break up Te Pūkenga / New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and re-establish independent polytechnics. ...7 days ago
- AI can’t do your Christmas shopping just yet – but next year might be different
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Whittle, Director, Data61 Ganjalex / Shutterstock I’m a computer scientist and a bad Christmas shopper. Over the weekend, I wondered whether AI systems might be able to help me out. Could I just prompt ChatGPT to pick a personalised ...7 days ago
- Heading on an overseas holiday? The Australian dollar tumbled this week – but that’s not bad new...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Crosby, Professor of Economics, Monash University Michael Leslie/Shutterstock This week, the value of the Australian dollar fell to 62 US cents, its lowest level since October 2022. The acute cause? A revelation by the United States Federal Reserve that ...7 days ago
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