Posts Tagged ‘steven joyce’

Broadband deal illegal?

Written By: - Date published: 7:08 pm, November 1st, 2010 - 10 comments

Are Joyce’s plans for a regulatory holiday on the proposed ultra-fast fibre broadband network a violation of international legal commitments?  InternetNZ says yes.  Joyce says no.  Labour’s Clare Curren accuses the Nats of “disregard for NZ law, legal trade obligations and public scrutiny”.

Armstrong slams National’s “disgraceful” arrogance

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, August 7th, 2010 - 41 comments

Herald political editor John Armstrong has slammed National’s “arrogant” behaviour in Parliament saying it verges on “being a disgrace to itself and the institution”. This is incredibly strong language from a senior journalist. It is the result of a government which is undermining democratic accountability in Parliament by lying and obfuscating in answer to opposition questions.

Gutless backdown will cost money and lives

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, July 27th, 2010 - 63 comments

So, National has failed to act on drink driving. The Director of the National Addiction Centre calls it “scandalous”. While recidivist and youth drink drivers will, from early next year, be permitted to drive only if they have consumed no alcohol, the rest of the population will be able to continue to drive as intoxicated, […]

What’s a university to do?

Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, July 16th, 2010 - 38 comments

Some people still think of universities as fusty old ivory towers disconnected from the real world. That hasn’t been true for decades. Our current universities and tertiary institutions are business, they are structured and run to maximise their income in whatever funding framing the government of the day has in place. Predictably, the Nats latest proposed sausage machine funding model is a disaster.

Urgent safety upgrades needed, not a holiday highway

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 8th, 2010 - 4 comments

Auckland Transport Blog saying the bleeding obvious about the aggrandizement project that appears to be Steven Joyce’s grand vision for the future of transport in Auckland. If he was concentrating on reducing the road toll on this stretch of road, there are simpler and cheaper ways than wasting taxpayers money.

Nats don’t believe in Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, May 14th, 2010 - 43 comments

Shame on National and Kiwirail CEO Jim Quinn for not letting the Kiwirail workers even bid to build the new Auckland railcars. This isn’t just about national spirit and a belief in New Zealand. It’s about acting smarter and making the right choices for the economy. Steven Joyce and National have proven that they neither believe in New Zealand nor have the brains to recognise the smart moves for the country.

So much for ‘ambitious for New Zealand’

Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, May 3rd, 2010 - 161 comments

A new report says that building the half a billion worth of new rail rolling stock for Auckland in New Zealand would boost GDP by $250 million, improve our current account deficit by over $100 million, add $70 million to government revenue, and create 1200 skilled jobs. But the Government just want the cheapest price for the rail cars, and that means going overseas.

Under-invest now, reap what you sow later

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, April 19th, 2010 - 22 comments

The most over-rated man in politics, Steven Joyce, has come up with a bright idea: let’s increase the fees for getting high skill degrees in areas where there are big skill shortages. This is typical short-term National thinking: save pennies now, and pay the big bucks later when heavily indebted and highly skilled graduates are forced to go overseas to pay off their debt in a reasonable time frame.

Government loses control of House

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, March 23rd, 2010 - 51 comments

At the end of question time today, Trevor Mallard asked for leave to have a debate without notice congratulating Joyce on getting his degree conferred 21 years after leaving uni. To everyone’s surprise, Gerry Brownlee failed to object. Brownlee is so mad [Update: video added].

Lee, Joyce and Hide’s Super City “pig’s arse”

Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, March 17th, 2010 - 9 comments

In a letter to the Herald today, responding to Mike Lee’s op-ed of yesterday, Steven Joyce says:

“Contrary to what Mike Lee says, the Auckland Council will be able to appoint or dismiss any member of the Auckland Transport Board at any time.”

Problem is, Mike Lee didn’t actually say what Joyce says he did.

Wee gripes: the Steven Joyce cult

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, March 17th, 2010 - 33 comments

People like to talk about how great Steven Joyce is. But he’s not got a single run on the board.

Am I missing something or is just talking about how good you are all that’s needed nowadays?

The cruelest cuts

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, March 12th, 2010 - 8 comments

Cuts to prisoner rehabilitation, night classes, and the Super Gold Card aren’t about saving money. The government is only too happy to sign blank cheques for stupid projects like Transmission Gully and the Holiday Highway on the vaguest cost estimates. No, these successful policies are having the financial life bled out of them because they contradict National’s ideology.

Joyce dumbing down education

Written By: - Date published: 11:10 pm, March 9th, 2010 - 28 comments

So Steven Joyce’s big bright idea for tertiary education (which he recently inherited from the hopeless Anne Tolley) is to punish institutions with low pass rates by cutting their funding. It’s basically the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.It reflects the typical short-term thinking of the capitalist class and its political party.

Brash emails hit headlines again…for the wrong reason

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 pm, March 8th, 2010 - 62 comments

The leaked emails which helped bring about the downfall of former Nat leader Don Brash hit the headlines again today, for all the wrong reasons. The story of who “stole” the emails was nothing more than a successful Tory decoy. Journalists have already forgotten the insidious tricks used by the top echelons of the National Party.

Rosemary McLeod on Barbarians

Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, February 28th, 2010 - 23 comments

One of the best pieces I’ve seen about the idiotic minister of broadcasting Jonathon Coleman wanting to starve or bend National Radio into the level of stupidity that the NACT’s prefer. Rosemary McLeod writing “Quality radio easy target for the barbarians” in the Sunday Star Times this morning.

‘Atlases’ don’t deserve a tax cut

Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, February 24th, 2010 - 67 comments

This man is Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom. He has overseen the largest corporate disaster in recent New Zealand history. The Nats are planning to give him over $6,600 a week in tax cuts. Apparently this screw up on a $7 million salary is the kind of guy New Zealand needs.

Dimming down night classes

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, February 23rd, 2010 - 4 comments

The Post Primary Teachers’ Association have just launched a YouTube video protesting National’s hugely unpopular cuts to night classes.

Click through to check it out.

Steven Joyce and the new Think Big

Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, January 29th, 2010 - 18 comments

The first half of an excellent piece by Kent Dunston of Save the Basin (which is opposing the construction of flyovers around the Basin Reserve by National): Back in the halcyon days of the Muldoon administration circa 1979 the then-National government embarked on a series of large-scale interventionist construction schemes called ‘Think Big’ that were […]

Govt to waste $400 million on white elephant highway

Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, January 7th, 2010 - 132 comments

Steven Joyce has finally revealed the benefit/cost ratio for the billion dollar Transmission Gully project. A few weeks ago he was mocking Sue Kedgley for saying that the costs would outweigh the benefits and claiming that the BCR would be about 1.5 ($1.50 benefit for each $1 spent). It turns out Joyce was lying. There is just […]

Give the people what they want

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, March 26th, 2009 - 39 comments

Stephen Joyce keeps saying the reason he has slashed investment in public transport to build more roads is that he is giving the people what they want. He says most people get to work in a car, so people must want cars. What wonderful logic. Imagine if we hadn’t introduced public health-care or public education because, […]

Dulce et Decorum est

Written By: - Date published: 2:19 pm, December 12th, 2008 - 35 comments

Imagine: you are a new MP. Tens of thousands of your fellow New Zealanders have shown a great faith in you; they have shown that they want you to be one of their select representatives in the most powerful body in the land – our sovereign Parliament. You now have great power, privilege and responsibility, […]

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