Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, December 12th, 2008 - 5 comments
National/ACT won the election, fair enough. They won the right to govern and attempt to pass their laws. What they did not win is the right to behave like an elected dictatorship – keeping their laws secret until the last minute then passing them in the dead of night without any chance for the public […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:59 pm, December 5th, 2008 - 2 comments
At the election, National won a mandate for its platform to review the Work Account of ACC, to see whether privatisation might make it better. Of course, we know that they’re not interested in the findings of any fair review, which would show ACC is a worldleading, cheap, efficient system that would be wrecked by […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, November 28th, 2008 - 2 comments
The Standard Week has been on hiatus due to a combination of elections, forgetfulness, and binge drinking but it’s back. This week saw our brand-spanking new PM out on his own for the first time, going to APEC and the UK. He blushed and gushed at meeting George Bush and bagged his money-trader mates, then […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, October 31st, 2008 - 10 comments
Two more examples of senior Nats hiding their conflicts of interest, in violation of Parliament’s rules, were revealed on The Standard this week. This time, however, the Nats were smart enough to have the issue fronted by chief spin-doctor Kevin Taylor and Gerry Brownlee, who knew that a robust response was the way to satisfy […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, October 24th, 2008 - 13 comments
National’s MPs might be considering spending the next two weeks in bed, dreaming of victory. Because it seems every day they go out, one of them accidentally speaks their mind, which is costing votes. They’ve managed to alienate an impressive range of demographics in the last month: 830,000 Kiwisavers, a half a million low income […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, October 17th, 2008 - 7 comments
The polls are closing, National dropped 7% and 4% in the Roy Morgan and TV3 polls, respectively, as the full impact of Key’s lies on Tranzrail was felt. Word is that National’s internal numbers are turning a few more hairs grey, while Labour’s are renewing optimism in their camp. Colmar Brunton hasn’t followed the trend but the […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:58 pm, October 10th, 2008 - 16 comments
National finally released their tax cut policy this week. If you earn less than $14,000 a year, it’s the same as Labour’s cuts. If you earn $14,000 to $24,000 and aren’t getting Super, if you are a beneficiary, or if you get Working for Families and earn less than $44,000, or if you are in […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:07 pm, October 3rd, 2008 - 31 comments
So, there’s no articles on Key in this edition of the Standard Week. I know! Hardly believable. But there’s a reason for that. After his dodgy Tranzrail dealings came to light last week, Key has been trying to keep himself out of the media except for the most soft-news photo ops (item: ‘Key feels sorry for sick child’, item: […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, September 27th, 2008 - 20 comments
Slippery John does it again. Asked a clear question by a reporter, he lied to her face. It was only when Fran Mold revealed to Key that she knew he had owned another packet of Tranz Rail shares (purchased and sold while he was asking questions about Tranz Rail in his position as MP) that he […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, September 19th, 2008 - Comments Off on The Standard Week: 12-19 September
Work rights and judgement look to be central issues in the campaign. The Greens set the standard by putting forward a fantastic work rights policy in counter to National’s continued attacks on our rights. Key’s judgement in fiercely advocating Kiwi involvement in the invasion of Iraq raises serious questions over whether we can trust him […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:53 pm, September 12th, 2008 - 31 comments
The election date was announced as November the 8th. Everyone had worked that out based on the available dates. But that didn’t stop Colin Espiner asking the PM if she had tipped off The Standard about the date seeing as we have called the 8th correctly on a number of occasions. No tip off Colin, […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:06 pm, August 29th, 2008 - Comments Off on The Standard Week: August 22-29
It’s all been on this week. Maurice Williamson promising $50 tolls and more before being forced to retract, a poll showing more Kiwis believe National has a secret agenda than don’t, a report showing incomes continue to rise and living conditions are improving, especially for the poor, the ETS upgraded by the Greens set to […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:39 pm, August 22nd, 2008 - 56 comments
As expected, the polls out last weekend did not show National being hit by the secret agenda tapes scandal because they were conducted before the story had fully emerged. We will have to wait for the next round of polls to see what effect there has been – although sources say both National and Labour’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, August 15th, 2008 - 30 comments
Quite a quiet week after the excitement of the secret agenda tapes last week. The Tories are keeping up their hunt for the person who exposed their secret agenda (God knows what they expect to do if they catch them). National’s welfare policy was in a predictable vein – punitive and targeted at some of […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, August 8th, 2008 - 23 comments
What a week. National has been in meltdown over the secret recordings. Bill English’s incredible initial reaction seemed like the launch of a coup – he repeatedly refused to voice confidence in Key and his basic understanding of working for families. But something obviously happened on Tuesday morning, perhaps the numbers were run and English […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, August 1st, 2008 - 19 comments
Another week of gonzo journalism and you can understand why people get turned off politics. While the press gallery concentrated on which of them was most offended by Winston Peters, we had a look behind some of the policies on offer and ran a series of posts on the impact of the work rights policies of National and the […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:48 pm, July 25th, 2008 - 56 comments
The big story of the week is National’s work rights policy that does nothing to further workers’ rights and actually undermines them in a number of subtle ways. There is no policy for increasing wages, none at all. In fact, the policies are likely to cut wages by taking bargaining power away from workers. Turns […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, July 18th, 2008 - 38 comments
Finally, policy. National has two policies which, by all rights, ought to be election losers: the 90 day no rights policy and the privatisation of ACC policy. If any proof were needed that Key’s self-definition as a moderate is just a facade for the same old National, these policies are it. Over 200,000 Kiwis start […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, July 11th, 2008 - 2 comments
Every time Bill English goes on Agenda, he lets a bit of National policy slip (anyone who thinks it’s an accident probably also thinks Nicky Hager’s some kind of super-hacker). On Sunday, English told us National will be running on a platform of removing your rights at work in the first 90 days of employment […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 27th, 2008 - Comments Off on Standard Week: 20-27 June 2008
Three events this week epitomised the benefits of nine years of centre-left government: the continuing fall in benefit numbers, the Government’s moves to protect workers from being ripped off by labour-hire companies, and the ‘Treelord’ Treaty settlements. If the anti-Maori, anti-worker National party had won power in 2005, we would not have seen these achievements […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, June 20th, 2008 - 6 comments
Both major parties show-boated over getting tough on crime this week. The only difference being Labour actually had policy; National, just slogans. We generally steer away from covering ‘I’m tougher than you’ politics on The Standard. Instead, we focused on the fundamentals that matter to ordinary Kiwis, wages and rising costs. We also had a deeper look […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:23 am, June 14th, 2008 - 4 comments
Another week of shadow boxing, as National tried to keep its policy secret and hints leaked out. But it gave us the chance to debate some of the big issues. And the threads that developed showed that, contrary to what Key says, people can understand and are interested in complex ideas. Here’s our favourite posts […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, June 6th, 2008 - 12 comments
We know that if you miss a couple of days of The Standard you can have 15 posts to read. Even though we try to keep posts pithy, it can be too much to catch up on. So, we’re happy to introduce the Standard Week. On Fridays, we’ll do a Standard Week post linking to the […]
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