Archive for July, 2009

  • Catherine Delahunty

    Bad News from Bunnythorpe



    The ACT Party recently held a conference in Bunnythorpe, a small hamlet in the Manawatu, where Heather Roy outlined some of their key policies around education. These ideas are an expansion of the ACT and National Party Coalition Agreement and are very logical if you like the idea of privatisation of the education system. For [...] read more
    July 31, 2009 9:30 am - 61 Comments
  • Kevin Hague

    Don’t shoot the messenger



    National’s tactics in the House this week, first from Health Minister Tony Ryall, and then from his Associate-Minister Jonathan Coleman (acting in Ryall’s absence) were to attempt to divert attention away from my questions about their privatisation agenda in Health by attacking the questioner (me). ‘Shooting the messenger’ is a classic case of the kind of [...] read more
    July 30, 2009 2:34 pm - 15 Comments
  • frog

    General Debate, July 30, 2009



    As requested. read more
    July 30, 2009 6:36 am - 76 Comments
  • Russel Norman

    Pro-Maori Blues RIP



    And now National, and presumably Act shortly, are voting against Rahui Katene’s bill for a Matariki Day holiday. So they are against protecting dolphins, don’t support measures to stamp out slavery, and don’t support having a national day that reflects Aotearoa. read more
    July 29, 2009 9:43 pm - 99 Comments
  • Russel Norman

    Blues who are anti slavery RIP



    And now National and Act have voted down Maryan Streets bill to ban the import of products made from slave labour. Do these people have any bottom line? read more
    July 29, 2009 9:39 pm - 16 Comments
  • Russel Norman

    Blue greens RIP



    National and Act just voted against Metiria’s Marine Animals Protection Law Reform Protection Bill. 111 Maui dolphins left and National tells us current protections are adequate. The end of the blue greens. read more
    July 29, 2009 8:21 pm - 21 Comments
  • Sue Bradford

    Bradford’s Truth – Whose country is it? NZ for sale – again



    My regular New Zealand Truth column this week focuses on changes to overseas investment rules, and their threat to our national sovereignty: Finance Minister Bill English is dead set on making it easier for overseas investors to buy our land and assets, and last week announced a series of changes to rules around foreign [...] read more
    July 29, 2009 5:42 pm - 53 Comments
  • Kevin Hague

    Cycleway shifts up a gear



    A journalist remarked to me on Monday that they found it strange to see John Key and I sitting together (one green tie, one blue) to answer media questions about the New Zealand Cycleway Project. My position is that when the Memorandum of Understanding with National was signed he (correctly) indicated that there were some [...] read more
    July 29, 2009 1:30 pm - 21 Comments
  • frog

    The strange, mysterious and odd case of the Overseas Investment Technical Reference Group



    If I were an overseas frog looking to buy up some prime Kiwi land I know who I’d be using as a law firm to lodge my application.  I’d be calling Russel McVeagh or Simpson Grierson or Chapman Tripp or Bell Gully or Minter Ellison Rudd Watts.  The reason for my hypothetical hiring of these firms [...] read more
    July 29, 2009 10:34 am - 4 Comments
  • frog

    Marine Animals Bill an opportunity for Govt



    This Wednesday is Members’ day. One of the bills up for first reading is Metiria Turei’s Marine Animals Protection Law Reform Bill. The Environmental Defence Society’s chair, Gary Taylor, writes today about how the high-profile decline of marine animals and the threat this poses for our economy. He says that the bill is a great opportunity [...] read more
    July 27, 2009 1:45 pm - 12 Comments
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