Posts Tagged ‘national’
National’s nanny state
Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, March 27th, 2008 - 73 comments
Seems to me we need some consensus on what a “Nanny State” actually is. Today the Nats have come out in opposition of some scholarships awarded for doctoral research by the Tertiary Education Commission – stuff like “children’s colour use and emotional wellbeing when drawing” being researched by Emily Crawford at Otago University. What could […]
Democracy in action
Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, March 26th, 2008 - 6 comments
The Press reports that: National’s hunt for a candidate in the new Selwyn electorate continues to cause problems, with one unsuccessful applicant taking the party to court to protest against his rejection… Payne said yesterday he was paying the price for being “the whistleblower” over the selection concerns in Selwyn last year. “It’s unfair and […]
Creative pitch
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, March 26th, 2008 - 15 comments
With John Ansell now flat out with ACT and the Free Speech Coalition it suddenly stuck me that there might be an opening on the creative front with National. Putting my prejudices to one side, I’ve decided to pitch for their billboard contract.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics
Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, March 25th, 2008 - 32 comments
David Farrar appears to be throwing his weight in behind National Party’s “New Zealand Sucks” campaign with another misleading post on migration to Australia. Titled “The exodus grows”, DPF’s take on the most recent stats is that the rate at which people are “fleeing New Zealand” is accelerating. It’s perhaps disguised as one of David’s […]
Policy Summary: Labour v National
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, March 25th, 2008 - 24 comments
The Sunday-Star Times has an interesting list of the policies the election will be fought on and where the two major parties stand on them. Here’s the article in summary, see if you can spot the pattern: KiwiSaver Labour: Set up KiwiSaver, added government and employer contributions. Half a million Kiwis have now joined. National: No final policy yet. […]
National still evasive over KiwiSaver plans
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, March 19th, 2008 - 17 comments
You do have to wonder sometimes what it takes to get a straight answer out of a National party MP. Having recently given Brian Connell a bollocking for being evasive on camera, Bill English has now pulled out a performance of his own. He was far more polite of course, and at no stage made […]
They know their man
Written By: - Date published: 11:04 am, March 18th, 2008 - 6 comments
This week’s NBR editorial, titled “Smarten up, John Key”, frets that Key keeps showing himself to be a slippery, policy lightweight (can’t have people seeing that side of him until the election is safely won). They have three recommendations for how Key can smarten up: ‘First, is to keep his mouth shut when asked questions […]
National’s bad fortnight
Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, March 14th, 2008 - 33 comments
A bad week last week from John Key got worse this week as other National MPs joined Key in a game of drop the ball. Last week, Key didn’t know his party’s Waitangi and Maori seats policies, and was slippery on the Auckland Airport issue before finally coming down on the unpopular side of the […]
Journalists react to attack on media freedom
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, March 13th, 2008 - 58 comments
Yesterday in Parliament, Winston Peters tabled a letter of protest from the Herald journalists’ chapel to APN chief executive Martin Simons. The letter related to Simons’ meeting with John Key to draft a ‘clarification’ for the Bay Report’s quote of Key saying he “would love to see wages drop.” The Bay Report was then forced […]
PSA on core public service
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, March 13th, 2008 - 19 comments
Richard Wagstaff from the PSA was interviewed by Sunrise on John Key’s plan to undermine the public service this morning. He notes Key’s tactical use of emotive language, questions his distinction between “front-line” and “bureaucratic” staff, suggests that the numbers used by National are possibly a little misleading and points out that our public service […]
Connell evasive over trip
Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, March 13th, 2008 - 24 comments
Brian Connell won’t say whether he’s planning on taking his wife on the taxpayer-funded Speaker’s tour. In the clip below Faafoi asks Connell 18 times and still can’t get a straight answer as Connell gets increasingly abusive. — Leftie Infighting Alert!!— Steve Pierson: I back Connell on this, eccentric old bigot though he is. There […]
Key to scrap research fund
Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, March 12th, 2008 - 23 comments
From Radio NZ: National says it will scrap a major new research and development fund for the pastoral and food industries if it becomes the Government at this year’s election. Party leader John Key has criticised the fund as a “gimmick” and insists only the interest earned on the fund will be spent on research. […]
Dolla Dolla Bill, Y’all
Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, March 11th, 2008 - 14 comments
Days after saying ‘we’ve always said, we aren’t that worried about, um, whether the Crown needs to borrow a bit of money [for a] programme of tax cuts’ Bill English has accused Michael Cullen of ‘um, ah, borrowing for tax cuts’. What English’s researchers have discovered is that the amount of Government Bonds on issue […]
Yawn
Written By: - Date published: 4:47 pm, March 11th, 2008 - 11 comments
Well National’s finally got their line straight on the research fund and, despite me old mate Dancer’s prediction, they are not supporting it. It seems this one goes to AYB who picked their line perfectly. He said they’d claim the idea’s good but the model is flawed and then have cry about how it should […]
Expect National to back research funding boost
Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, March 11th, 2008 - 18 comments
At lunchtime today it is expected that the government will announce a major funding boost to promote innovation in food science, agricultural research and production. So can we expect National to support the plan? At least Mr Key has been given the heads up to get an answer sorted out (unlike last week’s shakey non-answers […]
New Zealand, a great place to do business
Written By: - Date published: 12:36 pm, March 10th, 2008 - 42 comments
At 30%, the corporate tax is lower than or equal to most developed countries’. Our GST is only 12.5%, in most developed countries it is 15-25%. The economy has grown every year for a decade Inflation has averaged below 3% for over 20 years Workforce participation is 68%, very high by international standards. ACC provides […]
No, he meant “infrastructure”, he really, really did
Written By: - Date published: 3:47 pm, March 7th, 2008 - 27 comments
AYB’s confidence in English as a frontman for National may already have taken a knock as the second half of the dynamic duo has successfully managed his own John Key moment within hours of taking over the reins. When asked on NewstalkZB today whether National would borrow money to pay for tax cuts English managed […]
What we can’t tell you
Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, March 7th, 2008 - 61 comments
There is more to the John Key “we would love to see wages drop” story than you have been able to read in the blogs or the mainstream media. We’ve been in contact with a large number of people who have been connected at various levels of this story as it has developed. Unfortunately, none […]
Hone Te NÄkahi
Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, March 6th, 2008 - 14 comments
The Maori Party has reacted angrily to Key’s unilateral decision that National would abolish the Maori seats some time around 2014. Newsroom reports (not online): ‘The Maori Party is threatening protest and strike action on a scale never seen before in New Zealand if any political party moves to abolish the Maori seats without consultation […]
Those were the days (all 20 of them)
Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 17 comments
When I wrote to the MPs asking them for their thoughts on John Key’s “we would love to see wages drop” quote (results here), Nick Smith’s bio page reminded me of this little gem: Ah, the Brash-Smith dreamteam. Pity it couldn’t quite last the whole three weeks.
Key caught out
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, March 5th, 2008 - 22 comments
The government’s move to strengthen the Overseas Investment Act on Monday was met with predictable criticism from the ‘markets first, people second’ brigade. National Deputy Leader Bill ‘Privatise ‘em all’ English came out quickly on the side of big foreign money against New Zealand control of vital assets. But Bill’s supposed leader, John Key, didn’t […]
National: is there anything they won’t privatise?
Written By: - Date published: 4:03 pm, March 4th, 2008 - 17 comments
Burqa Bob wants to buy heartland rugby. In other news, Bill English plans to sell our sunshine hours to a Finnish consortium and Key has mooted flogging off our children’s laughter to the highest bidder. [Update: Kiwiblogblog doesn’t think it’s so funny]
Foreigners think NZ is great, why doesn’t National?
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, March 4th, 2008 - 38 comments
One of National’s strategies is to constantly talk down New Zealand, arguing that other countries have it better, that to catch up we have to sell off our assets, cut our social services, cut wages, and work harder. The line is repeated in the media, most often in comparison with Australia. The thing is if […]
The Maori party and a deal with National
Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, March 4th, 2008 - 7 comments
We’ve all seen the polls with National leaping out in front – and over that magical 50% mark. Helen Clark may be saying the poll gap will close once National’s policies are known but there’s another more mundane reason to expect those heady highs to fall. Kiwis don’t like to see a party head toward […]
Key backs the underdog
Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, March 4th, 2008 - 25 comments
The latest Newsroom story [subscription only] about the Government’s move to protect Auckland International Airport from sale to the Canadian Pension Fund reports Labour is taking National to task on the issue of their support. Prime Minister Helen Clark is challenging National to state its position on strategic assets sales after the Government stepped in […]
They’ve got 18 better than him?
Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, February 29th, 2008 - 67 comments
National MP for Northland, John Carter, is ‘up in arms about a decision allowing inmates from Ngawha Prison to play in the Whangarei and Districts Rugby League competition.’ This kind of activity is an important part of rehabilitation. In case you are wondering, yes, this is the same John Carter who, in 1995, rang fellow […]
Behind National’s emigration wailing
Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, February 29th, 2008 - 28 comments
National likes to talk down New Zealand, to portray this great country as underperforming, to exaggerate our problems, and to cast our unique traits and values as barriers to ‘success’ (success is becoming a more homogenised off-shoot of American capitalism). A great way to further the message is wailing about people leaving for Australia – […]
How would Key make wages drop?
Written By: - Date published: 10:01 pm, February 28th, 2008 - 51 comments
Having read our coverage of John Key’s ‘we would love to see wages drop‘ line my brother asked ‘but how can a government make wages drop?’ The answer is obvious to those of us who know about this kind of stuff but my brother’s question, along with Colin Espiner’s naïve statement that ‘[a PM] has […]
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’s history of rewriting history
Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, February 26th, 2008 - 16 comments
You think they’d learn. Wikiscanner reports that someone in Parliament has been busy – busy expunging potentially embarassing facts about a variety of MPs. This one’s about Allan Peachey. You might remember Allan from such debacles as the Peachey/Rich bulk funding controversy and also the little number above that he’d evidently rather history forgot – […]
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