Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, April 27th, 2010 - 47 comments
John Key is a two faced politician. He frequently says different things to different audiences. In the case of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Key may have taken this duplicitous tactic too far, setting two large bodies of public opinion on a collision course…
Written By: - Date published: 9:52 pm, April 26th, 2010 - 12 comments
To paraphrase Muldoon – send a JAFA to Wellington, and we can only increase the average intelligence of both parts of the country. Needless to say, TV news chose to focus on a minor story in Goffs speech. If a future mayor of Auckland, Brown, can sit at the cabinet table on decisions related to […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:01 pm, April 6th, 2010 - 10 comments
David Slack says..
“Qantas passenger threatened to bring down flight with the power of his mind. Ten bucks says he’s wearing an ACT T-shirt”
But it made me laugh after a hard weekend. as it perfectly reflects that way I feel about the breed.
Written By: - Date published: 8:01 pm, March 27th, 2010 - 3 comments
This image has been sitting around since October 2007 in a unposted post from all_your_base awaiting someone who deserves it.
I read Marty G’s post today about the infighting in Act.
I’m awarding it to Rodney Hide. He seems to deserve it….
Written By: - Date published: 3:03 pm, March 27th, 2010 - 78 comments
It’s getting nasty in the ACT party. Rodney Hide can’t last as leader. Heather Roy, Roger Douglas, and John Boscawen each have factions backing them to replace him. Disintegration is a real possibility. The consequence of ACT’s straying from it’s economically and socially liberal roots under Douglas and Prebble to reactionism under the nihilist Hide. If a collapse does take place, Key may have to call an early election.
Written By: - Date published: 1:43 pm, March 24th, 2010 - 66 comments
Andrew Campbell reports that Roger Douglas and the ACT party want to change the law so that student associations will be unable to provide the important services and representation that they currently offer by making their membership voluntary. This will put the clubs and services that many universities offer at risk.
Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, March 14th, 2010 - 29 comments
Deborah Coddington writes:
“In 1994, not long after Rodney Hide became leader of Act,…”
Umm, Hide became leader in 2004. To be fair, the rest of Coddington’s piece offers a pretty good examination of Act’s fundamental problems.
Written By: - Date published: 3:05 pm, March 11th, 2010 - 23 comments
The Local Government Commission released its final ward boundaries for Auckland today and the result is a city gerrymandered by ACT to favour the interests of the rich.
That’s the verdict from No Right Turn, who’s crunched the numbers and discovered a systematic bias for the Right.
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, March 4th, 2010 - 99 comments
Colin Espiner reports that Rodney Hide has gone into his shell as outrage over David Garrett’s appalling sterilisation comments builds. Since Irish broke the story of Garrett’s comments yesterday, it has spread like wildfire through the blogosphere and the msm. And nowhere will you find a reaction from anyone in ACT or from their coalition partners.
Written By: - Date published: 1:38 am, March 4th, 2010 - 26 comments
ACT policies are electoral poison, and the inevitability of that growing realisation seems to be creating strains that are tearing the party apart. Heather Roy’s speech to ACT’s conference suggests that last year’s failed leadership coup is far from over…
Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, March 3rd, 2010 - 98 comments
ACT MP David Garret has called for a programme to sterilise the “likes” of Chris Kahui and Maxine King. By which we can only assume he means poor, brown, people. Sack him.
Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, March 1st, 2010 - 7 comments
The select committee on Rodney Hides vision of the Auckland Super-City sits in Parnell tommorrow. The National MPs complicit in foisting this idiotic vision of Auckland on us will be there along with the architect – the head of the lunatic Act party.
Spend your lunchtime demonstrating what a crock this version of the super-city is. Do it in Rodney Hide’s Epsom electorate.
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 pm, February 28th, 2010 - 57 comments
Former ACT Deputy Leader Muriel Newman has launched into a racist tirade that amounts to ‘bloody bludging Maoris’. Incredibly, Rodney Hide agrees, saying that Maori have a culture of dependency. To ACT, poverty isn’t the result of an unequal and unfair economic system, it’s a lifestyle choice. They say Maori are morally deficient and to blame for their poverty.
Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, February 24th, 2010 - 58 comments
The faulty logic behind Roger Douglas’ bill to cut the wages of young workers could just as easily be applied to any number of groups hit hard by the recession – Maori, students, men, dropouts, singles, people in Northland. What if we were to change a couple of key words in his bill?
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, February 23rd, 2010 - 31 comments
The National / ACT “three strikes” policy on violent crime sentencing is the worst kind of law.
It has been thoroughly condemned by the Justice Ministry, who were blocked from giving advice to select committee.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, February 12th, 2010 - 21 comments
This is a fast way to get my blood boiling. Rodney Hide as minister of local government has removed protection from the Waitakere ranges. It is time to make the Act party extinct rather than merely being on the endangered species list. The Waitakere ranges are the only readily accessible tramping around Auckland. Virtually every […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, January 7th, 2010 - 39 comments
Spotted on Facebook:
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, December 19th, 2009 - 39 comments
Audrey Young finally gets around to mentioning how close the government came to imploding last month: Rodney Hide survived moves to oust him as Act Party leader last month after Prime Minister John Key privately indicated National’s deal with Act would be off if the minister were dumped. And it is believed that at the […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 pm, December 7th, 2009 - 29 comments
Following on from our report earlier this year about ideal places for libertarians to go, it appears that we are now seeing capitalism in its wonderful Ayn Rand style libertarian idealized form. Somali ‘maritime companies” have setup a stock exchange to help incubate free enterprise in its natural form. From Reuters we have this report. […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, December 3rd, 2009 - 5 comments
One of the most amusing things in the granny today is Garth George, our iconoclast from Rotorua ripping another hole into the credibility of the Brash Taskforce 2025. Absurdities abound, the first of which was the appointment of people like Dr Brash and Mr Caygill who, along with their soulmate, Act Party seat-warmer Roger Douglas, […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:04 am, November 9th, 2009 - 28 comments
You just have to listen to this. After “solid reflection” Rodney has realized that despite being adamant for several days that he’d done no wrong, he now understands that no, he has done wrong and has already returned the cash to the government coffers. Did it last week apparently, which is a bid odd in […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, November 8th, 2009 - 35 comments
One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same… Can you guess which one is not like the other, Can you tell me before I finish the game?
Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, November 7th, 2009 - 8 comments
Hypocrisy is such a difficult tag to shake in NZ politics. After blowing $50,000 of tax payer money on a trip with his girlfriend to visit her brother and wander around Disneyland, it seems like Rodney Hide has been caught yet again pilfering public funds to help with his romantic chances, this time another $10,000 […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, November 6th, 2009 - 18 comments
Hide says his comment that Key “doesn’t do anything” was “taken out of context” by the reporter. It’s a direct attack on van Beyan’s professionalism. Reminiscent of Key’s smears after his “we would love to see wages drop” quoted was reported. Van Beyan should stand up for himself and his profession by releasing his full notes […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, November 5th, 2009 - 45 comments
It took a few cocktails to loosen Bill English’s tongue when he thought he was among friends. Rodney Hide just needed his coco pops. At his highly dubious ministerial function/ACT fundraiser breakfast*, Hide told his table that John Key “doesn’t do anything”. The only ‘achievement’ by Key that Hide could identify was the cycleway, which, […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 3rd, 2009 - 24 comments
Just saw this in the SST. Hide on the spousal travel allowance: This perk is wrong, I’ve never agreed with it So why claim it? If you don’t think it’s right, it’s not ethical to do it. ‘Meat is murder, but as you’ve killed the animals anyway…’ I had the opportunity for this trip and […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, October 27th, 2009 - 12 comments
Norightturn reports that taxpayers are footing the bill for Rodney Hide’s fundraising trip to Christchurch: Thanks to some clever scheduling, we’re effectively footing the bill for Hide’s attendance at his little fundraiser. And we simply shouldn’t be. The Ministerial travel budget is to pay for travel as part of Ministerial duties – not for Ministers […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 23rd, 2009 - 29 comments
In an interview on Morning Report today, ACT’s Heather Roy tries to defend her involvement in the Breakfast-gate scams. She says it’s all the organisers’ fault. A typical blame the staff play. The fact is that Roy would have been asked what she wanted to speak about and she chose to do it on her […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 pm, October 22nd, 2009 - 19 comments
Question Time and media reports have revealed more on Hide’s ministerial-speeches-for-party-donations scam (as you know, every political scandal needs a ‘-gate’. I like Breakfast-gate). Hon Annette King: Does he expect all his Ministers to comply with paragraph 2.54 of the Cabinet Manual, which states: ‘accepting additional payment for doing anything that could be regarded as a ministerial function […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 52 comments
The Cabinet Manual details the basic expectations of ministerial conduct. It is not law but it would be highly irregular for a minister to breach the Manual and keep their job. And, unlike the law, just because something is not expressly banned does not mean it’s OK. Here’s some provisions of relevance to Hide’s speeches for donations: […]
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