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Polity: ROPS – Roads of Political Significance
Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, June 30th, 2014 - 131 comments
National’s announcement yesterday of $212 million for 14 roading projects around regional New Zealand hits a lot of bad notes. I think it is a strategic mistake. New Zealanders are not used to pork-barreling as naked as this. All but two of the projects are in National-held areas, and those other two are on National’s target list in September. And some are complete clunkers. For instance Nick Smith rerouting SH6 from the rich houses on to the kids going to schools
It’s the season of books & posters: write your own
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, June 29th, 2014 - 7 comments
It seems to be the season of books and faux movie posters. Mary-Ellen O’Connor has published a Nats’ cook book. Proceeds of the sales will apparently be donated to the “centre left”.
The people respond to the Herald Editorial on Donghua Liu
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, June 27th, 2014 - 66 comments
Further to lprent’s post this morning there is an avalanche of responses on the Herald website to its Donghua Liu editorial. People are obviously furious and the anger is palpable. And there is a trade me sale of John Key’s book with a very funny series of questions and answers
Key and Herald embarrassed as Liu statement changes
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, June 25th, 2014 - 113 comments
The Herald has now published details of a further statement from Donghua Liu which directly contradicts previous claims. So what did it do to ensure the accuracy of the original claims and why did it print those allegations without verification? And who is the mysterious person who prepared a statement that with the benefit of hindsight was clearly inaccurate?
Smith plans sale of trees to fund DOC
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, June 25th, 2014 - 135 comments
Nick Smith is proposing to introduce under urgency legislation which will allow the removal of felled trees from conservation areas on the West Coast. The sense of cynical politics involved in this measure is strong …
Reverse ferret bites PM on arse.
Written By: - Date published: 2:46 pm, June 24th, 2014 - 83 comments
PM John Key has performed a backflip by now suggesting Donghua Liu should front up with evidence to support the NZ Herald’s unsubstantiated claim that he donated substantial sums to Labour. This is a world away from his previous position that it was up to Labour to show that no donation was made. It’s increasingly looking like it simply not true and the Herald has been played like a fiddle. And two, the fiddle planter is Cameron Slater, the PM’s bestie from way back.
Colin Craig to run in East Coast Bays – McCully sacrificed
Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 47 comments
In a speech today Colin Craig has confirmed that he will be standing in Murray McCully’s seat of East Coast Bays.
NZ Herald – again that curious lack of detail
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 112 comments
I’ve been around the Labour party campaigners for a long time. I’d have expected to hear of auction sales of near to $100,000 by rumour if nothing else. It is possible that I didn’t. But then so is time travel. Quite simply the NZ Heralds reporting of Liu’s letter without any corroboration or details about where and when isn’t what I expect from journalists. It is what I expect from Whaleoil – a simple smear. I hadn’t realised that the Herald was that desperate.
Turn out and vote National out
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, June 21st, 2014 - 110 comments
Is the $15,000 even true?
Written By: - Date published: 1:28 pm, June 20th, 2014 - 214 comments
John Key’s alleging that hundreds of thousands flowed to Labour from Donghua Liu, but as the Nat’s smear campaign unravels, even the $15,000 can’t be found. Who do we trust – an unnamed ‘party source’ in the Herald, or Party records? $15,000 is a sizeable donation that is likely to be noted or remembered. And where’s Donghua himself in all this – surely he could clear this up very quickly…
Local Bodies: National’s Campaign Strategy Stinks
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, June 20th, 2014 - 25 comments
We all know from reading Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men (or watching the documentary) that the National Party actually advocates for a small section of society. Their policies rarely support most New Zealanders and after each period of a National led Government we have costly messes like leaky buildings and dead miners as the aftermath. This isn’t to say that Labour shouldn’t take responsibility for not repealing dodgy legislation, but National has always stood for less regulation, fewer protections for workers and the environment and an upward flow of money to the already rich.
Polity: The game is the game
Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, June 20th, 2014 - 24 comments
Rob Salmond offers some advice to the National smear team. When you screw up and start contradicting each other’s stories, you look like a pack of low-rent numpties. And it reveals your tactics for all to see, which is what you were trying to avoid in the first place. Bill English and John Key should really communicate so they don’t trample over each others stories. And the spectacle of Michael Woodhouse changing his mind within hours about when he first saw the letter, and what he did with it? Pure comedy
Arses and Elbows
Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, June 19th, 2014 - 123 comments
So, the Deputy Prime Minister insists that no-one from the ruling National Party knew of an eleven year old letter from Labour’s David Cunliffe asking Immigration about time frames for decision making. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister states he knew of the letter for some weeks. Scandalously, some ministers from the ruling National Party have sought […]
Good news, National are afraid of David Cunliffe
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 222 comments
The weak and transparent smear attempt from National says more about them than David Cunliffe.
Polity: Internet Party: “Ban coat-tailing.”
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, June 16th, 2014 - 26 comments
New Zealand’s democracy would better if we had a lower threshold and no coat-tailing shenanigans. Even without coat-tailing there remains the potential for blocs to make tiny gains by way of electorate deals, but it would ensure the end of manifest unfairnesses like the relative ACT / NZ First results in 2008. The reality is that National had the opportunity to do the right thing, and chose not to for venal self-interested reasons, and are now crying like spoiled brats because their opponents are using it too.
OU Vote Chat programme goes sour
Written By: - Date published: 6:33 pm, June 13th, 2014 - 17 comments
So it appears the intended non-partisan deeper engagement with politicians that is the Otago University Vote Chat has been taken over by the National Party.
Polity: News from National Comms!
Written By: - 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.
The National party are in bed with the insurance industry but it’s Christchurch residents that are getting shafted
Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, June 12th, 2014 - 117 comments
The Insurance Council and National are desperately trying to pour cold water on Labour’s popular earthquake court policy.
NRT: Climate change: A carbon tax in action
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, June 12th, 2014 - 5 comments
The Greens promised to scrap the gutted and ineffective ETS and replace it with a carbon tax. National immediately claimed that the sky would fall if we stopped subsidising polluters and allowing them to rort us. But where it is used it has done exactly what it was designed to do: reduce emissions while lowering taxes on ordinary people. National just likes polluters?
Local Bodies: Teaching Profession Rejects Parata’s Plans
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, June 11th, 2014 - 78 comments
Classroom teachers, the New Zealand Educational Institute, the New Zealand Principal’s Federation and education academics have all strongly rejected the Government’s proposed $359 million Investment into Education Success (IES). All believe that this substantial amount of money will not produce the results that the Education Minister claims and would be better spent elsewhere.
NRT: Good riddance to John Banks
Written By: - Date published: 12:56 pm, June 9th, 2014 - 62 comments
The government has been stripped of its legislative majority and its policy programme, especially employment relations “reform”, is now in tatters. Now that Banks has going, we are seeing an extensive rewriting of history by the National government. Kind of pathetic really.
Dotcom 2 Banks 0
Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, June 6th, 2014 - 88 comments
Justice Wyllie’s written decision in the John Banks case makes compelling and damning reading. Banks has been found guilty because he engineered a situation where a false return was produced and he signed it knowing of this defect. His continued presence in Parliament must be untenable.
Farrar, TV3, coat tails and MMP
Written By: - Date published: 8:53 pm, June 4th, 2014 - 196 comments
David Farrar and then TV3 today get their analysis of Labour’s position on electoral law reform horribly wrong. Are we going to have to put up with this during election year?
Tony Astle does not want progressive customers
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, May 24th, 2014 - 100 comments
Tony Astle apparently wants to ban some left wing politicians from his restaurant Antoines. He should get a life. Because the idea is stupid and reinforces the impression that National is a party insisting on the retention of privilege for the few.
Save the Poisons Helpline!
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, May 23rd, 2014 - 29 comments
National are planning to merge a bunch of health helplines to save money. The 0800 POISON number could be scrapped leaving additional seconds or minutes until help is received in those most urgent of moments.
The smoke & mirrors of the surveillance-military-economic-complex
Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, May 21st, 2014 - 29 comments
There are a range of issues, which are part of a GCSB-intelligence-surveillance-military-complex. Some significant elements seem to be posing as diversions from other parts of the complex, and the way all parts hang together. What will he offer Obama to advance NZ’s position in the TPPA?
Polity: The young ones
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, May 21st, 2014 - 7 comments
Rob Salmond at Polity looks at what our young have to look forward to in 2019 with National’s hands-off housing screwup. How an average family would fare under National’s do-nothing approach to the housing crisis then?
Polity: Budget 2014: Over-promise. Under-deliver.
Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, May 15th, 2014 - 40 comments
Earlier this week I predicted the Budget would be Labour-lite. I was right, but only in part. By far the biggest disappointment is in housing. The government signalled help for home buyers would be a highlight in the Budget. A few pathetic morsels isn’t a highlight. This will make next to no difference to the housing affordability crisis. First home buyers aren’t $3,500 short of a house. They are hundreds of thousands short, because there aren’t nearly enough homes.
How stupid can you get?
Written By: - Date published: 12:48 pm, May 15th, 2014 - 24 comments
Despite recent controversy about MPs employing their partners as staff Claudette Hauiti has employed her partner as an issues assistant and says that she did not know about the rule. How likely is that?
Tax cuts for all!
Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, May 15th, 2014 - 227 comments
Despite having never presided over a budget surplus and despite the nearly tripling of core crown gross debt John Key is talking about the possibility of future tax cuts.
John Key’s bullshit about rising inequality
Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, May 14th, 2014 - 86 comments
In Question Time today. John Key has rejected evidence such census statistics, as reported on RNZ, that the inequality gap in Auckland is growing. He crowed about his government’s record & launched diversionary attacks on the opposition. Update: Question One video; Transcript links – Transcripts & other links updated. #realbudgetnumbers
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