Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, September 12th, 2017 - 84 comments
National up, NZ Labour down, Greens dead? Really!?
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, September 4th, 2017 - 14 comments
A dose of reality on National and taxes, and wise words on the media circus surrounding tax.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 16th, 2017 - 11 comments
Meet Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and original negotiator behind the Paris Agreement. She’s co-signed an article, published in Nature and signed by over 60 scientists as well as business leaders and other ‘pillars of the global community’ that headlines – “Three years to safeguard our climate”
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, July 2nd, 2017 - 31 comments
Bill English has an active social media strategy, likely well funded and professional. While most commentators are cringing at it, plenty of people are probably buying the counterfeit Bill.
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, June 30th, 2017 - 43 comments
In shocking news, it turns out that employers don’t like Labour’s new employment relations package. They (and the usual suspects) are running lines about a return to the 1970s. A time when workers’ share of the wealth was higher, poverty was lower, inequality was lower, and workers had more rights. Sounds awful.
Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, May 25th, 2017 - 23 comments
A useful piece from Keith Ng on myths about tax. It’s an extract from The PSA’s “Progressive Thinking: Ten Perspectives on Tax” booklet.
Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, May 13th, 2017 - 13 comments
Covering up inconvenient truths is an old pattern for this government. What percentage of their effort goes in to obfuscating and hiding the facts?
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, May 7th, 2017 - 36 comments
Directing welfare spending where it will do most good makes sense. But let’s make sure that that is what it is, not an excuse to simply cut funding, stigmatise, and target “undesireables”. National’s record does not inspire confidence, to say the very least. Then there’s the hypocrisy…
Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, August 30th, 2016 - 46 comments
We have had years of systematic under funding of the police and front-line numbers are falling. None the less police are now expected to attend every burglary. For the sake of this exercise in public perception other areas of police wrok will suffer.
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, March 16th, 2016 - 185 comments
Yesterday Andrew Little criticised the banks’ failure to pass on the cut in Official Cash Rate (OCR) to we the people via mortgage / interest rate cuts. Naturally the political right went ballistic.
Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, March 1st, 2016 - 232 comments
A term made up by the usual suspects to mock and belittle any criticism of their primary asset.
Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, January 26th, 2016 - 86 comments
The Government has released a TPPA ‘National Interest Analysis’. It should be read along with TPP Legal’s extensive analysis of the costs and risks.
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, January 24th, 2016 - 100 comments
A self explanatory post by McFlock.
Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, December 10th, 2015 - 19 comments
Like a stopped watch, Peter Dunne sometimes gets it right.
Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, October 5th, 2015 - 22 comments
I guess it’s not exactly news that WINZ is dysfunctional, but its interesting to have some actual data on one of the symptoms. Bonus feature – one of the Nats’ worst excuses ever.
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, October 1st, 2015 - 37 comments
Last Friday I wrote a post on Volkwagen gaming NOx emissions. This is a follow up.
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, October 1st, 2015 - 41 comments
Pandas – one lightweight piece of fluff too far?
Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, September 25th, 2015 - 109 comments
Been trying to get my head around the implications of Volkswagen’s rigged diesel performance tests. Predictably, and unlike most stories covering this, I couldn’t give a rat’s arse for the financial woes the company might be facing.
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, September 11th, 2015 - 81 comments
A very interesting post in The Herald yesterday by Grant McLachlan (former Parliamentary researcher and a Nat campaign director) detailing National’s well resourced and well organised spin machine.
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, September 1st, 2015 - 40 comments
The ANZ survey shows business confidence at the lowest levels since the financial crisis. Yesterday John Key insisted that it was “reasonably positive”. He was either completely wrong or lying through his teeth. Either way it’s unacceptable.
Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, July 8th, 2015 - 56 comments
The on again off again surplus is on again. Key will be kicking himself for telling us all that we’re not interested in this artificial target.
Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, June 22nd, 2015 - 29 comments
Rob Salmond at Polity: DPF and Chris Bishop have conspired to come up with a new canard-of-distraction de jour. Today’s trope: “Labour are the conversatives, National the progressives, and Labour is the party of No.”
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, April 5th, 2015 - 66 comments
An excellent piece by Rod Oram on the RMA and the government’s attempts at spin.
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, September 24th, 2014 - 88 comments
It’s great to see John Key taking a sudden interest in addressing child poverty in New Zealand. But why the change of heart?
Written By: - Date published: 6:10 pm, September 9th, 2014 - 72 comments
A new series on happy mischief and paying back double.
Written By: - Date published: 6:34 pm, August 12th, 2014 - 78 comments
It’s been interesting to watch the nats and their busy little helpers working away at branding the election campaign as a nasty one.
It’s been disappointing to watch the media falling for it so hard.
Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, June 12th, 2013 - 34 comments
If there was a national standard in scientific method than the right wing spinsters talking up yesterday’s national standards results would all fail it.
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, June 11th, 2013 - 179 comments
Matthew Hooton is spinning like mad to talk up the economy. Unfortunately his spin sometimes bends the truth beyond breaking point, and there were three examples of that yesterday.
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, April 29th, 2013 - 15 comments
National and their proxies have claimed that Labour / Green NZ Power announcement has crashed the stock market and wiped out savings. Lies lies lies. Here’s the data.
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, April 5th, 2013 - 87 comments
Key & a government source responded to Ferguson’s criticisms by attacking Labour & Ferguson. They claimed Fletcher was the best person to “change manage” the GCSB. Yet, in Queensland Fletcher was publicly criticised for the management of his department. [Updated]
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, March 27th, 2013 - 11 comments
Audrey Young and Simon Collins should get danger money for spinning this hard on jobs. But at least they’re trying, the best that Key can manage is some waffle about a “fluid market”…
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