Posts Tagged ‘Rodney Hide’

I call bullshit

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, June 22nd, 2009 - 17 comments

I’d prefer not to wade into the David Garrett sexual harrassment fiasco, but having seen his pathetic blame-shifting in the media I’ve got to call bullshit on him. Both Garrett and his boss Rodney Hide have been downplaying the sexual harassment with the excuse that Garrett was an oil rig worker for ten years, so […]

Caption Competition

Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, June 19th, 2009 - 58 comments

The ‘Rankin Effect’

Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, May 19th, 2009 - 11 comments

Why is the National government delaying its announcement of the Supercity transitional agency? The Rankin Effect. That’s the flinch you get when your rampant arrogance becomes a bit too obvious. But despite the Rankin Effect, it looks like most of Rodney Hide’s picks for the new board will pass Key’s test. Who wants to take […]

No credible argument against referendum

Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, May 18th, 2009 - 32 comments

This morning Radio NZ ran a report on the increasing grassroots opposition to the Government’s supercity plans. In the interview that followed it Rodney Hide was asked why the Government won’t let Aucklanders have the final say on the proposal through a referendum. His answer? The tired, discredited old line that it’s “not just a […]

Ratepayers to fork out lots for super-city

Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, May 15th, 2009 - 2 comments

In the absence of any numbers about transition costs from Rodney or NACT on the super-city, Phil Twyford over at Red Alert has gotten  Dr Rhema Vaithianathan to crunch the available numbers. Ratepayers are going to get whacked with a bill for  up to $750 just for the transition costs, and that’s 30% higher than […]

Hide on his way to Privileges Committee?

Written By: - Date published: 5:32 am, May 8th, 2009 - 44 comments

Has Rodney Hide breached privilege by seriously misleading the House? This is one for you legal types out there but from a layperson’s perspective it looks like it. Here’s what happened (the full transcripts are below): On Wednesday, Phil Twyford (or Twif-ford as Hide insists on calling him) asked Hide whether “he has costed the super-city proposal outlined […]

Oh dear – Hyde the costs

Written By: - Date published: 9:40 pm, May 7th, 2009 - 71 comments

How embarrassing. Rodney Hide has been forced to admit that he has no idea of the costs of his super-city proposal. Phil Twyford with the aid of the speaker cornered him into an admission that he’d been bullshitting. The Minister has been caught out trying to mislead Aucklanders about whether the Government has done those […]

How Hyde is wasting my taxes on an uncosted project

Written By: - Date published: 5:09 pm, May 6th, 2009 - 20 comments

It appears that the propaganda campaign from Rodney Hide to push his proposal of the super-city has cost $533,000 in PR costs in the last 4 weeks. Phil Twyford (Labour’s Auckland issues spokesperson) comment is that:- It’s outrageous that the Government is prepared to spend an average of $133,000 a week on a publicity blitz, […]

Backlash building on supercity

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, May 5th, 2009 - 25 comments

The unseemly haste with which the National/Act Government is pursuing its undemocratic supercity is causing more and more people to wake up to the con job they are pulling. A Reid poll (ignored by the Herald but run by the community newspapers) shows where just weeks ago the public was split evenly on the proposed […]

The Backlash Begins

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 28th, 2009 - 43 comments

We’ve been warning that John Key faces a backlash in Auckland if he doesn’t rein in Rodney Hide and present a democratic supercity structure instead of the rort that is on the table now. We’re starting to see it. A poll out yesterday shows only 12% of people in Key’s own electorate support his government’s […]

Hide says no to referendum

Written By: - Date published: 5:59 am, April 25th, 2009 - 18 comments

Rodney Hide says Aucklanders  shouldn’t have a vote on whether or not they want his supercity. He uses one of the weaker arguments the righties have been running in our comment threads “it’s not just a `yes’ or `no’ question” Yes it is. The question of how a super-city should be structured is not a ‘yes’ […]

When is the required referendum?

Written By: - Date published: 3:21 pm, April 20th, 2009 - 19 comments

I agree with the title of the Herald’s editoral today: “Let citizens have say on Super City“. Unfortunately, the editoral itself is wishy-washy. Aucklanders do deserve to have a say on the super city proposal. They should get to vote yes or no on the supercity in referenda before anything is set in stone. In […]

The sensible bits

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, April 18th, 2009 - 1 comment

Brian Rudman has a piece in the NZ Herald looking at the good side of the Auckland reorganisation. The potential for pooling resources. This was one of the reasons that there is widespread support for some kind of reorganization of Auckland into a single political structure. Just not with the proposal from Rodney Hide which […]

The fightback begins

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, April 18th, 2009 - 22 comments

This morning I picked up the local newspaper out of the mailbox – Harbour News. On the front page was this extraordinary editorial – “Who stole our Voice“.  The editor of the Harbour News tears Rodney Hide and the NACT government a new excretory orifice. This is what is coming from the ground up all […]

Creating venal politics

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 11th, 2009 - 13 comments

It appears that John Key and Rodney Hide are participating in an old political action in Auckland – the gerrymander. From a general desire from politically aware Aucklanders to get a more coherent local government for the city, they have constructed a political system for business to completely dominate the city. Democratic and public spirited […]

Ominous Trickles before the Flood

Written By: - Date published: 5:35 pm, April 5th, 2009 - 13 comments

The attack on democratic local government is taking shape in the public domain. 1. Hide was not made the Minister of Local Govt for nothing. Radical changes are planned and National chose an ACT Party frontman to deflect public reaction. The Bill about to be introduced, and likely passed, to ‘cap rates at the rate […]

Blindly cutting away

Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, March 26th, 2009 - 23 comments

One of the most cavalier and foolish actions of the National led government during its first 100 day blitz of legislation (in itself described by many as an assault on democracy) was the cancellation of the R&D tax credit. The business community warned well in advance that cutting the credit was a very bad idea, […]

Clean water worth paying for

Written By: - Date published: 5:28 am, March 26th, 2009 - 14 comments

Rodney Hide, who thinks nothing of spending billions on tax cuts for the well-off, is baulking at spending “some tens of millions” to improve water supply quality in rural New Zealand. A quick google of ‘water borne disease new zealand’ reveals the cost of doing nothing. There are 800,000 people drinking water that the Ministry of Health […]

S92A: Opportunists jumping on bandwagons

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, March 16th, 2009 - 78 comments

It is always interesting watching people and organizations jumping on bandwagons of popular movements. In the case of the section 92A of the new Copyright Act, there was a genuine movement by the denizens of the local net and artist communities that we participated in. Over the weekend Disk Smith Electronics did exactly that by […]

ACT’s dodgy backroom deals?

Written By: - Date published: 3:43 pm, March 5th, 2009 - 63 comments

This is interesting. From the Greens’ Metiria Turei: Last night on TVNZ7’s political show Backbenches, Rodney Hide commented that ACT had supported the Whanganui [Gang Insignia] Bill to “get Three Strikes through”. In 2006 Mr Hide was positively sneering at Chester Borrows attempt to ban gang patches. Now it seems ACT has done a backroom […]

The praiseworthy and the pitiful

Written By: - Date published: 1:04 pm, February 20th, 2009 - 23 comments

The praiseworthy and the pitiful is our weekly post on the little things that caught our eye but didn’t lead to a full post. This week: Tracy Watkins’ new blog A best of the political journos’ blogs I reckon. Watkins has been responding to comments, showing a bit of a sassy side, and her pieces […]

Oh dear

Written By: - Date published: 5:14 pm, December 9th, 2008 - 55 comments

Rodney Hide on National and ACT’s select committee into the ETS: “I am especially pleased to see that the issue of the scientific and trade implications will be considered alongside the impacts on the economy. “There is definitely not a monolithic view on the fact of human induced climate change and I welcome this government’s […]

Nowhere to Hide

Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, December 3rd, 2008 - 37 comments

“Far too much irksome regulation is putting unnecessary burdens on households and businesses,” says Rodney Hide. Problem is, for all his rhetoric, Rodney can’t actually name any ‘irksome’ or unnecessary regulations. Now, he is “appealling” to us to stop him looking like a puffed up idiot. He wants us to do his job for him […]

ACT snaps up Hollow Men star

Written By: - Date published: 1:50 pm, December 1st, 2008 - 5 comments

The Sunday Star Times reported yesterday that ACT had “snapped up” former Brash advisor Peter Keenan, one of the lead stars of Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men. The Hollow Men revealed, among other things, that Mr Keenan counselled Dr Brash to campaign on populist issues such as law and order and the Treaty of Waitangi […]

Attention turns to local government

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 pm, November 26th, 2008 - 24 comments

Seems the commentators are definately picking local government as one of the issues to watch in terms of how the new Nationaladministration handles MMP politics (and how the opposition parties handle it as well I guess). Gordon Campbell notes: Giving the local government portfolio to Rodney Hide creates some management challenges for John Key. Can […]

In the driver’s seat

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 24th, 2008 - 43 comments

Local Govt minister wants to privatise water

Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, November 17th, 2008 - 91 comments

As you’ll have read, John Key has made ACT leader Rodney Hide his Minister of Local Government. So, what’s ACT’s local government policy? Commercial activities are best performed by the private sector because they have more incentive to innovate and deliver better services. Local government should progressively shed ownership of its commercial activities. Local government […]

ACT’s fifth Candidate?

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, September 18th, 2008 - 54 comments

The word around the traps is that ACT will be announcing the name of its mystery 5th list candidate at its Law and Order policy launch this weekend and it’s rumoured that the candidate will be David Garrett. Garrett is a Barrister and is also a legal advisor to the Sensible Sentencing Trust who drafted […]

Hide on Nats’ woes

Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, August 6th, 2008 - 45 comments

“the best solution is to say in private what you say in public” * Simple, really.

ACT: tax cuts for the rich, please

Written By: - Date published: 3:34 pm, May 13th, 2008 - 139 comments

Rodney Hide is calling for the Budget’s tax cuts to take the form of raising the thresholds to account for inflation since 1999, removing of the 39 cent bracket, and a $10,000 tax-free bracket. What would ACT’s tax cuts entail for New Zealanders? Hide says the average cut would be $50 a week, so we […]

Interview the leaders VI: United Future

Written By: - Date published: 4:47 pm, April 28th, 2008 - 19 comments

Thanks to ACT leader Rodney Hide for participating in our ‘Interview the leaders’ series this morning. Our next leader is the Maori Party’s Tariana Turia. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the two other questions we’ve gone with Higherstandard’s question: Can you envisage a NZ […]

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