Archive for July, 2005

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  Follow the leader - by frog

  
  
  
  When Britain declared war on Germany, New Zealand’s Prime Minister said, “Where she goes, we go.� Well, National is about to say the same thing with respect to Helen Clark. National has been stunned by Labour’s student loan policy, and is now reacting in kind. National’s much talked-about tax policy is reportedly being re-written so [...] read more
  July 31, 2005 9:51 am - 8 Comments
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  Some compassion, please - by frog

  
  
  
  Ahmed Zaoui’s family are applying for the right to come to New Zealand and be reunited after two and a half years of separation. I’m confident that the majority of Kiwis will support their applications. The way Zaoui has been treated, with two years of detention without being shown the evidence under which he was [...] read more
  July 31, 2005 9:49 am - 14 Comments
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  Cynicism - by frog

  
  
  
  On occasion, Parliament is a completely cynical place. People who work there think and say to each other things that ordinary Kiwis wouldn’t dream of thinking or saying. One such case was when David Lange went into hospital last week. I’m sure that both Labour and National strategists thought, “How is this going to play [...] read more
  July 31, 2005 9:48 am - 2 Comments
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  A momentum shift - by frog

  
  
  
  John Armstrong’s column in the Herald this morning brings home that the political landscape has changed markedly in the last few days. He writes of Labour’s student loan p0licy: Labour has made a king hit. It has clinically killed off National’s far less generous offer of a tax rebate on interest payments, and it is [...] read more
  July 30, 2005 6:10 pm - 6 Comments
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  Adam drops a catch - by frog

  
  
  
  Great sportsmen rarely make great sports writers. Adam Parore offers a prime example of this in today’s Herald, with a column about the Zimbabwe cricket tour. He writes: The other part of the issue that took me by surprise was the degree of confusion surrounding our country’s politicians, who seemed to have a very tenuous [...] read more
  July 30, 2005 11:52 am - 3 Comments
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  An overhang hangover - by frog

  
  
  
  The prospects of an overhang in the new Parliament have probably been grossly exaggerated. Pundits have long supposed that the Maori Party will win almost all of the seven Maori electorate seats but not win enough party votes to justify these seats, on a strictly proportional basis. However, my gut instinct at the moment is [...] read more
  July 30, 2005 11:38 am - 4 Comments
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  More debates - by frog

  
  
  
  As I predicted it would on Tuesday, TV3′s method for choosing which leaders to have in its debate is proving completely arbitrary. Act and United polled within 0.2% of each other in last night’s TV3 poll, yet it seems that one of these parties will be culled from the debate, because the network has decided [...] read more
  July 29, 2005 7:36 pm - 14 Comments
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  Winston’s motives - by frog

  
  
  
  It is no coincidence that Winston’s extraordinary attack on Kiwi Muslims came amid a string of poll results showing his party bleeding support and losing its kingmaker position. If NZ First gains roughly the same amount of support as the Greens (as most of the last few polls have shown) and Labour maintains its support [...] read more
  July 29, 2005 7:25 pm - 1 Comment
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  The fork in the road - by frog

  
  
  
  The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Morgan Williams, yesterday released Future currents: Electricity scenarios for New Zealand 2005-2050, a new report that looks at the future of energy generation in New Zealand. In the accompanying media release he describes the two scenarios his report lays out… One paints a ‘business as usual’ picture dominated [...] read more
  July 29, 2005 7:17 pm - 7 Comments
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  When you’re worried, go ballistic - by frog

  
  
  
  National must certainly be worried about the two polls out this morning – it’s six points behind Labour, and still the effect of the student loan policy to be felt… If the hysterical reaction from the Right to the student loan announcement is anything to go by, National is seriously spooked by what the polls [...] read more
  July 29, 2005 7:12 pm - 6 Comments
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  A tripod of voting intentions - by frog

  
  
  
  The three polls published in the last 18 or so hours are a real mixed bag for the Greens. The NBR poll (not online) has the Greens drop from 9 percent in their last outing to 7 this time. This is no great surprise, as Rod said in the Dom Post at the time of [...] read more
  July 29, 2005 12:23 pm - 8 Comments
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  Winston strikes again (and not in a good way) - by frog

  
  
  
  Winston Peters has again gone completely over the top. His latest target? New Zealand’s Muslim community. He said in a speech today: In New Zealand the Muslim community have been quick to show us their more moderate face, but as some media reports have shown, there is a militant underbelly here as well. These two [...] read more
  July 28, 2005 5:54 pm - 6 Comments
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  The tide is turning - by frog

  
  
  
  Boy, how the tables have turned. The parties of the right are getting so desperate about the positive publicity surrounding Labour’s interest-free student loan policy that they’re ratcheting up how much the policy will cost, suggesting as much as $1 billion, or three times what Labour has claimed. Jordan Carter has good rebuttal of the [...] read more
  July 28, 2005 1:29 pm - 13 Comments
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  A community - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s not often that I have the opportunity to quote arch-conservative Herald columnist Garth George approvingly, so I relish the chance today. His column today draws largely from a statement made by a group of Christian leaders which sets out the challenges before voters in the election campaign: “Underpinning each person’s vision for society will [...] read more
  July 28, 2005 1:28 pm - 15 Comments
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  A flag-flying shame - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s a shame that the campaign to have a referendum to change our flag has failed to collect the required signatures. It would have been nice to have a debate about such an important aspect of nationhood. However, the lack of signatures does seem to prove a certain apathy towards the issue. This, coupled with [...] read more
  July 28, 2005 1:26 pm - 6 Comments
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  The anti-Corngate - by frog

  
  
  
  As soon as I heard about the possible GE contamination of corn, I knew some journalists would pose the “is this a re-run of Corngate?” question. Thankfully, they have all faithfully reported approvingly the Government’s clear “no” response to that question. Corngate was actually a much wider issue than GE. The allegations made against the [...] read more
  July 28, 2005 1:22 pm - No Comments
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  tadpole ‘toon - by frog

  
  
  
  read more
  July 28, 2005 11:46 am - 4 Comments
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  An election bribe - by frog

  
  
  
  I have to say that I found it hard not to hop around on the floor laughing last night when I saw National describing Labour’s student loan policy as “an election bribe”. In fact, Don Brash said of the policy: It is the most extraordinary bribe I’ve ever seen offered by a New Zealand government [...] read more
  July 27, 2005 10:04 am - 16 Comments
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  A good bet? - by frog

  
  
  
  There have been stories floating around about National being favourite to win the election because Australia’s betting agency Centrebet says so. Election odds are usually a better predictor of election results than polls, these stories sometimes mention. The theory is as follows. When a pollster calls you up and asks you who you’re going to [...] read more
  July 27, 2005 9:01 am - 5 Comments
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  Springing a leak - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s the nightmare of anyone who works for a political party at Parliament. You write an email for party consumption, you idly choose the wrong recipient from the Parliamentary Complex address book and, fatefully, you push send. E-mail makes inadvertent leaking a million times more likely. It’s unclear how the NZ Herald got hold of [...] read more
  July 27, 2005 8:42 am - 6 Comments