Posts Tagged ‘inoculation’

Put it on the kids’ tab

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, April 29th, 2008 - 6 comments

Some may have noted an odd series of questions in Parliament and press releases from Bill English around government borrowing over the last month. The questions purposely conflated the idea of maintaining current debt levels with increasing debt. We noted this at the time and Tane correctly picked the strategy: First, sow confusion about debt […]

A broadband world

Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, April 23rd, 2008 - 6 comments

So John Key has announced that a National-led government would spend “up to” $1.5 billion on fibre optic cable to the home. Well that’s a good thing right? Even I can appreciate the importance of Kiwi homes and businesses getting access to high speed broadband (even if it is solely for the use of my children’s […]

What’s the future of Working for Families?

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, February 28th, 2008 - 13 comments

One consquence of the expectations around tax cuts is an examination of some of the policies already have in place – Working for Families for example. This was the topic of a recent article from Ruth Laugesen in the Sunday Star Times. “Coopers chairman John Shewan said that under Working for Families, many households effectively […]

Bill’s Wikipedia edits

Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, February 27th, 2008 - 39 comments

Again from a Parliamentary address, the following passage was deleted from Bill English’s Wikipedia entry in June last year: He married a Catholic GP, Mary, and they now have six children – five boys: Luke, Thomas, Rory, Bartholemew and Xavier; and one daughter, Maria. He is a devout Catholic himself, and upholds his churches opposition […]

National Party U-turn on student loans

Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, January 31st, 2008 - 84 comments

National have just backed down on their opposition to interest free student loans. Back in 2005 Key called this ‘a policy that tells young New Zealanders to go and borrow to the hilt What a cost to the country! What an unaffordable and irresponsible cost to the country! It is a sad day National members […]

Inoculation, part one

Written By: - Date published: 12:54 pm, September 10th, 2007 - 4 comments

Twenty years ago this year, the fourth Labour government passed legislation that made New Zealand nuclear free. At the time, the legislation was controversial and was opposed by National. Jim Bolger ever called it “an exercise in futility”. In the intervening years, parties opposed to the legislation have tried to change it. Only two years […]

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