Posts Tagged ‘no right turn’

NRT: Cronyism in Christchurch II

Written By: - Date published: 6:39 pm, October 28th, 2014 - 18 comments

Back in August, National announced they were handing a $284 million contract to build a new convention centre in Christchurch to a consortium which included the Speaker’s brother. From the outside, it looks like cronyism, if not outright corruption…

NRT: Political interference at Maori Television

Written By: - Date published: 5:04 pm, October 24th, 2014 - 11 comments

A government-owned television channel arranges an interview with a former opposition MP, but the government-appointed CEO spikes it. Something from Russia or Cuba maybe? No – according to Hone Harawira its happening right here in New Zealand. National’s specially appointed CEO Paora Maxwell apparently personally doing the gagging of a previously independent Native Affairs show.

NRT: National’s failure on housing

Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, October 21st, 2014 - 25 comments

A year ago National rammed through special housing areas promising 9000 homes consented in the first year under it. Over the last year they have managed to build 5 and consented 294. Nick Smith fails maths yet again. This year 13,000 – yeah right!

NRT: TPPA would criminalise journalism

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, October 18th, 2014 - 15 comments

I/S at No Right Turn on how “the TPPA would criminalise investigative journalism”.

NRT: We don’t need new laws to fight terrorism

Written By: - Date published: 2:14 pm, October 8th, 2014 - 10 comments

John Key has been busy lying about the need for yet more ‘anti-terrorism’ laws. How many do the police and security forces need? As NRT points out, are they just too lazy to use the ones they already have? Or is this just because John Key wants to get his own plastic sword? Surely we pay him enough to buy his own?

NRT: A model for unaccountability

Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, September 30th, 2014 - 14 comments

The Act party, well known for rorts, dodgy deals, general corruption, and the poor calibre of their candidates, is doing it again. National gave their single novice MP an “under-secretary” position to allow Act to rort extra money from taxpayers. It also provides him with a position that is wholly unaccountable to parliament or the public via OIA.

NRT: MMP, electorates, and misaligned incentives

Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, September 22nd, 2014 - 165 comments

No Right Turn points out the underlying truth of voting in an MMP environment. For the party electorate seats don’t matter much. Running electorate only campaigns are not productive. He is wrong in ascribing them no value. They provide a base for campaigning.

NRT: Key admits the GCSB has broken the law

Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, September 17th, 2014 - 17 comments

If the GCSB has access to XKEYSCORE, and XKEYSCORE has information on New Zealanders, then arguably they’ve intercepted it even if that information has been collected by another agency, as they have “acquired” it. And if they actually look at it, there’s no “arguable” about it.

NRT: “National security” or “National’s security”?

Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, September 14th, 2014 - 35 comments

John Key - spy vs lie

information is supposed to be classified only for valid reasons of national security. The information Key wants to release is likely classified SECRET or TOP SECRET. Its worth remembering that Key and his office are already under investigation by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security for politically-motivated declassification decisions.

NRT: The left should not support prison slave labour

Written By: - Date published: 2:37 pm, September 11th, 2014 - 63 comments

With Labour supporting the plan, I/S at No Right Turn makes the case against “working prisons”.

NRT: Fundamental incomprehension

Written By: - Date published: 2:54 pm, September 10th, 2014 - 37 comments

Idiot Savant nails the basic issue that commentators like John Armstrong and many others simply don’t understand about the Greens. They aren’t particularly interested in the political game. They are interested in effecting change. But that’s the problem with the galley: they don’t think policy matters. The idea that some victories aren’t worth winning is something they just don’t understand.

NRT: That empty void again

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, September 9th, 2014 - 8 comments

A bit over a week ago, I complained about the empty void at the heart of the election: Nationals refusal to release policy. And it has struck again today, in the form of Nationals fiscal “plan”. We actually have a government seeking re-election while offering no specifics about what it intends to do in office. But don’t they have a lovely picture of John Key?

NRT: Sensationalising the status quo

Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, September 4th, 2014 - 55 comments

Pity the political reporter. Committed to horse-race style reporting and desperate for an ‘angle’. Patrick Gower on 3 News last night was desperately talking up how “complicated’ National’s… current arrangements are?? Use your brain Paddy…

NRT: The caretaker convention and elections

Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, September 2nd, 2014 - 5 comments

There was an interesting discussion between Dean Knight and Graeme Edgeler about the caretaker convention and elections. Dean highlighted the fact that Key had a perfect right to call for whatever sort of inquiry prior to an election. Edgeler disputed this, on the basis that the Prime Minister could not be said to enjoy the confidence of the House, because there wasn’t one.

NRT: More OIA skullduggery from National

Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, September 1st, 2014 - 8 comments

Another day, and more evidence the National government is manipulating the OIA process. Judith Collins’ office processed an Official Information Act request in just two days. The problem here isn’t that someone got their response within two days – its that other people didn’t…

NRT: Kiwis care about inequality

Written By: - Date published: 3:46 pm, August 29th, 2014 - 8 comments

Roy Morgan has a poll out today looking at the issues affecting New Zealanders and therefore this election. Social inequality is rising as an issue as the world economy has stopped getting worse.

NRT: Why foreigners are buying up New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, August 22nd, 2014 - 5 comments

“Why would an overseas buyer pay more for an asset than a New Zealander? … But Chalkie reckons one reason stands out – tax. There are huge tax advantages available to overseas investors that simply cannot be accessed by locals.”

NRT: Politics does not have to be dirty

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, August 20th, 2014 - 30 comments

Writing in The Press yesterday morning, Chris Trotter argues that politics is essentially dirty. No Right Turn rejects that. So do the authors on this site. None of us do this kind of crap. Nor do most people in the political arena. Why taint us with the brush of John Key’s blackops team.

NRT: Cronyism in Christchurch

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 pm, August 8th, 2014 - 26 comments

Yes, National just gave an enormous government contract to an MP’s brother. Now, he may have been the best bidder, but up-front it looks like cronyism, if not outright corruption. Shouldn’t the media be asking some very pointy questions about this?

NRT: The Greens on transport

Written By: - Date published: 4:24 pm, August 7th, 2014 - 41 comments

There’s a strong element of planning for the future here: peak oil and climate change mean the days of cheap cars (and therefore of massive motorways) are numbered. But it also reflects the changes we’re seeing now. Road usage is already dropping, while Aucklanders are crying out for a better rail system so they can escape gridlock.

NRT: 32,000 out of work under National

Written By: - Date published: 3:21 pm, August 6th, 2014 - 54 comments

The latest Household Labour Force Survey was released today, showing a drop in unemployment. But while its an improvement, there is far less employment than when National came into office 5 years ago. That is a monumental fail.

NRT: Breach of contract

Written By: - Date published: 6:50 pm, August 1st, 2014 - 9 comments

When National set up charter schools, they promised that they would be more accountable, and that contracts were a better means of enforcing standards than the usual school system. That works only if they’re enforced. NZ First has shown that at least one school is completely in violation of at least one part of their contract. So is the National government enforcing a contract? Yeah right….

NRT: The last day

Written By: - Date published: 2:26 pm, July 31st, 2014 - 9 comments

Today is the last day of Parliament for the term. After spending the morning on non-controversial legislation, the House will have its last Question Time and then an adjournment debate. And then they’ll be off to campaign for the election. The big triumph here? No last-minute urgency. No “wash-up”. Hopefully it’ll be a permanent change.

NRT: National’s roads are pure pork

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 pm, July 29th, 2014 - 13 comments

The extent that the National minister have been pork-barreling the roading budget for their electorates is crazy. The OIA’s show that most of the $212 million announced by John Key at the National party conference is pure pork for ministers. They are assessed as costing more money to build than they will ever produce in benefits, even using NZTA’s infamously overoptimistic assessments. National MPs and Ministers want to be seen as delivering something for their electorates before the election. So much for assessing needs based on merits. They must be really worried about this election to misuse so much pork.

NRT: A circus of self-mutilation

Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, July 22nd, 2014 - 104 comments

No Right Turn gets rightfully acerbic about the witless fool “senior” MP in Labour who was trying to sabotage Labour in the Sunday Star Times this weekend, and about the general self-mutilation of Labour by its caucus at present.

NRT: Docs or its bullshit

Written By: - Date published: 9:48 pm, July 18th, 2014 - 5 comments

Over the weekend we learned that police had been juking the stats, recoding burglaries as “incidents” to make themselves and their Minister look good. But its all fine now, supposedly – the police claim they’ve instituted a series of spot audits to ensure it can never happen again. Except when they’re asked for information about these supposed safeguards and whether they’ve uncovered any problems, they suddenly can’t find anything… Sounds like bullshit and spin.

NRT: GCHQ’s bag of dirty tricks

Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, July 16th, 2014 - 11 comments

John Key - spy vs lie

The UK intelligence agency GCHQ has developed sophisticated tools to manipulate online polls, spam targets with SMS messages, track people by impersonating spammers and monitor social media postings, according to newly-published documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

NRT: Election 2014: A clear choice on clean rivers

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, July 15th, 2014 - 6 comments

The National government’s policy for economic growth has been simple: pump up dairy production, export more low-value milk powder, and keep low-value farmers as the “backbone of the economy”. To achieve this, they have dismantled the protections for and then defiled our fresh water on an industrial scale. The Greens want to reverse that and thereby ensure a long-term future for both our farming and peoples. Updated.

NRT: So much for the surplus

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, July 8th, 2014 - 40 comments

As was generally expected by anyone who’d been watching the actual economy rather than just the dairy exports, business profits are lower than expected. And there aren’t the jobs and pay increases in our “rockstar” economy. So consumer spending measured by GST is low as well. Meanwhile the price inflation keeps increasing government costs. So we are already on track for a large deficit next year rather than the government’s much-touted imaginary surplus. You have to ask why we deserve a government that appears to live more in a universe of wishful thinking than reality.

NRT: John Key pisses on public service independence

Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, July 4th, 2014 - 30 comments

One of the core principles of our public service is that Ministers have no role in staffing decisions. This is not the era of Seddon, where a Minister could stack “their” department with cronies and time-servers. For over a century, public sector heads have been statutorily independent in such matters. John Key appears to not understand that independence or just likes stupidly shooting from the hip. In the process he is opening taxpayers up to paying for his mistakes.

NRT: National standards for pollution

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, July 3rd, 2014 - 15 comments

Today the government announced the final version of its national standards for freshwater. They’re trying desperately to pretend that these will improve water quality, but nothing could be further from the truth. This is not a “balance” between the economy and the environment. It is destroying the environment for the profit of a few. And I’d like to see political parties making clear statements that these “bottom lines” will be improved, to outlaw pollution and make our rivers safe to swim in.