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parliamentary spending (58)

The great big list of John Key’s big fat lies (UPDATED)

Written By: BLiP - Date published: 7:00 am, January 27th, 2016 - 79 comments

How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.

Treachery and silly season political snippets

Written By: BLiP - Date published: 7:41 am, December 23rd, 2015 - 61 comments

There’s still a few MPs “on duty”. Their function is to maintain the semblance of active government and to roll out a bunch of announcements they hope will escape full scrutiny.

Carter’s last fan

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 11:26 am, December 7th, 2015 - 15 comments

How fitting that Audrey Young is Speaker David Carter’s very last fan in the world.

Human Rights, Psychos and Opposition

Written By: Bill - Date published: 11:08 am, November 11th, 2015 - 92 comments

New Zealand’s bloody awful parliamentary debacle.

Welcome Marama Davidson

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:00 pm, November 3rd, 2015 - 21 comments

Welcome to new Green MP Marama Davidson.

Wallowing in extravagance

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:22 am, October 23rd, 2015 - 16 comments

“Wallowing in extravagance” is how Labour described the latest news of extreme spending from Steven Joyce’s MBIE.

Lucky Labour – disgraceful Speaker

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:01 am, October 16th, 2015 - 37 comments

Three of the four member’s bills drawn yesterday were sponsored by Labour leaders. What followed was one of the most disgusting maneuvers ever pulled by this government, justifying the headline – Nats play politics while Kiwi kids die in homes.

Embarrassment turns to spite

Written By: BLiP - Date published: 8:15 am, October 4th, 2015 - 40 comments

Parliamentary Services have marred what might otherwise have been a showcase example of how public protest is treated in New Zealand.

Warner Bros – corporate welfare beneficiary

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:30 am, September 9th, 2015 - 63 comments

Figures have been released showing that Warner Bros were paid NZ $191 million in tax rebates to create the Hobbit Trilogy. The films were very profitable. Why is corporate welfare for profitable activity tolerated?

National Ltd™’s Shane Reti Caught Out In Another Lie

Written By: BLiP - Date published: 7:12 am, August 26th, 2015 - 32 comments

Shane Reti lied about the process of ratifying the TPP. In a Press Release to the Northern Advocate, Reti states “. . . the agreement comes before parliament and opposition parties and select committees for debate and modifications . . .”

A silly act: it begins

Written By: lprent - Date published: 2:36 pm, August 20th, 2015 - 7 comments

When Parliament passed the Harmful Digital Communications Act, many people warned that it would be abused to stifle political speech. And it has, with NZ First MP Tracey Martin incorrectly accusing a political blogger (who supported a rival NZ First MP) of violating the Act. A bad first start. But it figures, the act is silly, slow and unworkable.

Kia kaha New Zealand First

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:28 am, July 29th, 2015 - 88 comments

Winston Peters was thrown out of Parliament yesterday and New Zealand First MPs walked out in sympathy for raising points of order following a personal explanation from Anne Tolley where she corrected an answer to a parliamentary question that was clearly wrong.

An open letter to Andrew Little

Written By: mhager - Date published: 6:08 pm, June 26th, 2015 - 433 comments

A respectful open letter to Andrew Little with suggestions for how to win the next election!

Fixed Term Parliaments

Written By: Bill - Date published: 4:50 pm, May 26th, 2015 - 25 comments

An argument in favour of New Zealand adopting Fixed Term Parliaments Act legislation.

Ten Bridges Too Far

Written By: BLiP - Date published: 7:15 am, April 17th, 2015 - 18 comments

With Crosby Textor by his side, John Key has since learned to employ all manner of specialist PR techniques including ad homs, blame-shifting, distraction, use of Dirty Politics proxies to defuse the situation, and false equivalence, all woven together in an intricately performed semantic shuffle designed to provide wiggle room for when he does get caught.

NRT: Legislate in haste, repent before you’ve even started

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:10 pm, March 12th, 2015 - 8 comments

I/S at No Right Turn on the latest Nat omnishambles – these financial “geniuses” can’t even calculate their own pay rates correctly.

Key folds on pay rises

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 4:41 pm, March 2nd, 2015 - 82 comments

Key has folded on MPs’ pay rises. Vernon Small and others are covering events on Twitter.

Three speeches on going to war

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:42 am, February 25th, 2015 - 109 comments

The first three speeches from yesterdays session in Parliament on sending troops to Iraq – John Key, Andrew Little, Russel Norman. Little’s speech is cogent, Norman’s is brilliant.

Labour’s Betrayal Continues

Written By: BLiP - Date published: 6:35 am, February 18th, 2015 - 440 comments

It might well be in Labour’s best interests to cut the crap now and go into coalition with the National Ltd™ Cult of John Key. It would be the honest thing to do. Kiwis will then know where the boundaries lie and who actually is working to oppose the implementation of the wider neo-liberal ideology.

Sky City’s playing us for suckers

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 8:14 pm, February 10th, 2015 - 87 comments

Sky City crying too poor to build a bigger casino – give us a break, please! Casino expert Sudhir Kale estimated the extra pokies gained by Sky to be worth $35million over figures used by government. That’s for year upon year to 2048. It could cover any casino upgrade in four years. Either Joyce and Key are being played for suckers, or they are playing the rest of us for suckers. The deal stinks.

NRT: Parliamentary Privilege vs Suppression Orders

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 4:08 pm, February 10th, 2015 - 27 comments

I/S at No Right Turn on the most interesting event at the first session of Parliament for 2015. The Speaker’s actions open up an interesting can of legal worms…

Captain’s Call

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 7:32 pm, February 9th, 2015 - 53 comments

Leaving Mike Sabin in charge of the Law and Order Select Committee was certainly a captain’s call by John Key. Just like Tony Abbott’s award of a knighthood to the Duke (as if he needed more fruit salad), this was a judgment call. And it does call Key’s judgment into question. It’s not about when he knew what he knew, it’s about what he did when he knew.

A Government in Waiting?

Written By: Bryan Gould - Date published: 12:12 pm, December 11th, 2014 - 272 comments

Andrew Little has wasted no time in making his mark, not just on the Labour Party but on New Zealand politics. What is already clear is that here is a Labour leader who is thinking seriously about what it means to be in government. A striking instance of this hard-headed approach to his job as […]

A good speech

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:25 am, December 11th, 2014 - 17 comments

A good speech from Green MP James Shaw in Parliament’s closing session yesterday.

In defence of John Key

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 9:09 am, November 18th, 2014 - 158 comments

Click-bait, moi?

The wisdom of David Seymour

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:15 pm, October 22nd, 2014 - 45 comments

David Seymour’s maiden speech must be a front runner for most unusual Parliamentary speech this term and it has only just started.

Polity: Shifting ground?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:31 am, August 7th, 2014 - 19 comments

Rob Salmond looks at the recent shifts in media opinion pieces. Perhaps the National strategy of getting the house to rise too early has backfired. It appears to be giving opposition parties more room to showcase their policy, more room for National to showcase its arrogance, and more time for the polls to close.

NRT: The last day

Written By: notices and features - 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.

Blame the Officials

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:59 am, July 5th, 2014 - 7 comments

Murray McCully doesn’t accept his responsibilities. He appears to see no need to do more than to blame his officials. Yet his job, under our system of parliamentary government, is to be accountable to parliament for the performance – and failures – of his department. The McCully doctrine appears to be to suppress public discussion on difficult issues and to limit any adverse fallout for their party. Public officials are convenient sacrificial lambs if things go wrong. This is a bad idea.

Polity: News from National Comms!

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:50 pm, June 13th, 2014 - 40 comments

Rob Salmond at Polity on what has landed in his mail box paid for by your GST and also close to the wrong side the permissible limits of Parliamentary Services funds. Or perhaps this is something for “NZ Taxpayers Union” to moan about wasting taxpayers money with. They won’t of course because they seem to be good little front organisation for Act and Jordan Williams appears to have about as much independence as their beloved slaves. But if you received one, then a complaint seems in order.