Posts Tagged ‘national’

National Breaches Crown Copyright

Written By: - Date published: 1:52 pm, January 17th, 2014 - 43 comments

Rob Salmond at Polity on the National Party’s use of public service videos for political ends.

PSA launches myth busting campaign

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, August 2nd, 2011 - 57 comments

The PSA is launching its election campaign this evening.   Our big challenge is to break through the government’s narrative (now reaching  mythic proportions)  that NZ is sinking under debt the likes of Greece  tooand the only solution is to cut public spending and sell assets. As the well informed readers of The Standard know, NZ’s […]

Will National cave to threats from Hide?

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 pm, August 19th, 2009 - 85 comments

An email leaked to 3News suggests that Rodney Hide is holding the government to ransom over denying guaranteed Supercity representation for Maori. The email – reportedly from a senior National Party MP and sent to the whole caucus – reads, in part: Clearly we are at a crossroads. The ACT party has threatened to end […]

Abolishing equity

Written By: - Date published: 11:04 am, May 26th, 2009 - 12 comments

National has belatedly woken up to the fact that not all Kiwis are middle aged white males, and has been trying to make much of its new found diversity. It showcased supposed star Melissa Lee in the high profile Mt Albert by-election, and has trumpeted that “The Party has 17 women in the top 60”. […]

I can see South Auckland from my house! An interview with Melissa Lee

Written By: - Date published: 5:44 pm, May 14th, 2009 - 16 comments

Did your company use NZ On Air money to produce a National Party promotional video? Look, I didn’t keep records of who was working on what when and it doesn’t work like that the only people who have a problem are disgruntled employees but they were volunteers and we were having fun so it doesn’t […]

Govt’s refusal to listen sparks protests

Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, April 23rd, 2009 - 9 comments

The government’s refusal to listen on its fast-tracked Supercity plans is already resulting in protests. The unrest that’s building should hardly come as a surprise. I can certainly understand Aucklanders not wanting to be dictated to by Wellington – especially when the outcome is ACT running their city. I’m still at a loss as to […]

Who’s zooming who?

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, April 5th, 2009 - 27 comments

The Herald reports: Last week John Key used poor United States sales of the new BMW 7-series – 10 were sold in February, compared with more than 1500 in the same 2008 month – as an example of how much other countries were hurting in the economic crisis. But New Zealand…  sales of the top-of-the-line […]

Third party returns

Written By: - Date published: 1:06 pm, March 19th, 2009 - 10 comments

The Electoral Commission has released the third party spending returns for the 2008 election campaign and it looks like for all National and ACT’s fears that the $120,000 third party cap would stop groups from being able to express themselves, only the Council of Trade Unions came close with a spend of around $100k. Other […]

90 axed at TVNZ

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, March 16th, 2009 - 56 comments

In what’s turning out to be the gift that just keeps on giving for National, the Recession Bogeyman is now being blamed for a need to axe 90 staff from TVNZ. The Minister for Broadcasting reckons the cuts are necessary to make sure TVNZ keeps returing a fat dividend, even in these extraordinary times, even […]

PM eyes fetching tiara

Written By: - Date published: 6:14 pm, March 8th, 2009 - 61 comments

The world may be going to hell in a hand-basket and National may have been pretty derelict so far in coming up with any real plan to combat the recession, but clearly they’ve been busy focusing on the really important business of dragging us back into the past. The British titles of Knights and Dames […]

Meat and Wool NZ: “Job Summit Disappointing”

Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, March 6th, 2009 - 18 comments

It’s been said by some of the Government’s supporters that criticism of the Job Summit is nothing more than rantings of the embittered Left. Well, I may be doing Chairman of Meat and Wool NZ Mike Petersen a great disservice, but I’m willing to gamble that he’s not a hardcore lefty. Here’s what Petersen had […]

Some cold day in hell

Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, March 5th, 2009 - 30 comments

Observant msm spectators may have noticed this gem from TV1 news last night: ‘A radical shake-up of the controversial Seabed and Foreshore Act is on the cards it could result in new powers for Maori to test their rights in court, but John Key is vowing no New Zealander will lose their access to the […]

It’s raining men

Written By: - Date published: 5:21 pm, February 27th, 2009 - 60 comments

A reader just sent us this one minute montage of photos from John Key’s jobs summit. Enjoy.

Conservatism and Progressivism

Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, January 27th, 2009 - 99 comments

Conservatism is all about maintaining the status quo. It assumes that the status quo is essentially ok, while change is best avoided. The idea comes from philosophers like Edmund Burke who figured the reason conventions and structures get to endure in the first place is because they work. Of course if you’re in the middle […]

Guest Post: QoT – Mmm, delicious linear time

Written By: - Date published: 10:12 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 28 comments

I loved this post for QoT so much that I asked to reproduce it in full here. It resonated with me after reading the comment stream today. So, from Ideologically Impure, an observation on the patently ridiculous… Lynn This comment over at The Standard cites one of my favourite (or, really, least-favourite) bits of political […]

No policy?

Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, September 14th, 2008 - 20 comments

A reader just sent us the screenshot below with the attached explanation: Thought I should start to read up on some of the content from parties involved – from their own websites of course.  Mainly to educate myself as a voter. National party site – loaded up, but then Firefox tells me the flash script […]

Franks: “grumpy Christians and whining gays”

Written By: - Date published: 3:16 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 58 comments

Here’s National’s Wellington Central candidate Stephen Franks giving his view on Civil Unions. I’m not even really sure what to say about it. It might just be best to let Stephen Franks speak for himself…

TV3 on the leaks from National’s conference

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, August 6th, 2008 - 4 comments

Here’s the recent coverage from TV3 and political reporter Duncan Garner. On Bill English’s comments regarding the sale of Kiwibank (aired August 4, 2008): On Lockwood Smith’s hints at a secret agenda (aired August 5, 2008): [Apologies for errors in the previous videos, have re-uploaded fresh copies, AYB]

TV3 promoting a National/NZF government?

Written By: - Date published: 2:23 pm, August 1st, 2008 - 12 comments

It seems TV3 has decided to promote a marriage between John Key and Winston Peters this week.   They appear to be paying for ads on Google that come up when you search for “John Key” or for “Winston Peters“, but not for other leaders like Helen Clark or Jeanette Fitzsimons. What’s more, when you […]

Geek’s view

Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, June 28th, 2008 - 24 comments

On the odd occasion I have time to read outside of the confines of The Standard and its ever increasing brawl of entertaining comments. I noticed we don’t have a external reading list, and it is within the range of my writing skills, so here are my oddities for the slow weekends…. From quote of […]

Grueling

Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, May 27th, 2008 - 6 comments

Nats announce launch release consider rural doctors bonding scheme. Here’s the link, but honestly, don’t bother.

Telling porkies

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, May 22nd, 2008 - 44 comments

The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’: $750 million of new health spending ($160 million for elective services) -Pork $700 million for Fast Forward Fund, food and pastoral sector research -Pork $665 million to buy the national rail operations […]

National’s campaign to muzzle union continues

Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, May 21st, 2008 - 139 comments

It seems National has succeeded in the first step of its campaign to muzzle the EPMU and the fifty thousand workers it represents. Over at the bog our mate Davey is crowing about the high court win that recognises the union as a legal person for the purposes of the act. This still means that […]

National – more women-friendly?

Written By: - Date published: 4:52 pm, May 20th, 2008 - 52 comments

Colin Espiner pointed it out the other week, National “needs more women. Never over-represented in National at the best of times, the party is looking increasingly estrogen-lite.” So there would have been a sigh of relief in National circles that they can now distance themselves from comments such as these from declared departee Bob Clarkson: […]

Winner takes all (of us to the cleaners?)

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, May 18th, 2008 - 120 comments

The Sunday Star Times reports National is keen to have a referendum on MMP. As you would expect Peter Shirtcliffe has been involved in lobbying the Nats for this policy. It’s just as AYB predicted. I’m sure the advertising agencies will be rubbing their hands together in glee. I would imagine we’ll hear a lot […]

A change to what?

Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, May 17th, 2008 - 192 comments

As we all know the latest Fairfax poll has shown a huge lead for the National Party. Now I’m of the opinion it’s probably a rogue poll and we could argue that point (and methodology, and trends, etc) until the cows come home but I’m interested in something else. If this poll was hypothetically the […]

Workers be careful, says Aussie Unionist

Written By: - Date published: 10:13 pm, May 7th, 2008 - 158 comments

Sharan Burrow (President of Australian Council of Trade Unions) talked to Morning Report about the union experiences in Australia under a conservative government, and their hope for the future with Kevin Rudd. She also had some words of warning for NZ workers: “We say to your workers here, be very careful, you don’t want to […]

Kurariki on home detention

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, May 6th, 2008 - 75 comments

No doubt, there will be hollow cries of outrage from Simon Power and Sensible Sentencing over Bailey Kurariki being transferred from jail to home detention for the last months of his sentence. Kurariki has been in jail for five years, since he was 12. His sentence expires in six months. By moving Kurariki to a […]

Would Key scrap GST on food?

Written By: - Date published: 3:12 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 5 comments

With hints that regional fuel tax could be put on the “go slow” list, along with parts of the emissions trading scheme, it seems like we shouldn’t take any policy on taxes for granted. For example, there’s a belief that National and Labour have consensus on not removing GST on food. A couple of comments […]

Talking down the economy

Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, May 2nd, 2008 - 57 comments

National is a party weak on policy. It has had to drop nearly every one of its principled but unpopular policies to get itself in a position to win an election. This raises the question of why someone would vote for National, rather than keep the current lot. One of National’s answers is to claim […]

Electoral donations reported

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, May 1st, 2008 - 52 comments

The Electoral Commission has published the parties’ donation returns for 2007. It is worth noting from the outset that under the electoral law then in force only donations over $10,000 had to be declared and anonymous donations, including the use of anonymising trusts, were legal. Labour has the largest return, at $1,030,446.39. But $700,000 was […]

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