john key Archive

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  Welfare Working Group: Submit, submit, submit - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  It’s great to see the lively discussion continuing on my post last week about the future directions of welfare policy. There is a view being circulated by some that the Government’s Welfare Working Group’s Options Paper doesn’t deserve much attention; that it follows the Brash 2025 Taskforce formula of misrepresenting the issue as some massive [...] read more
  December 1, 2010 4:28 pm - 122 Comments
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  Could it finally be bedtime for Bonzo Brash? - by frog

  
  
  
  I am thoroughly sick of hearing failed National Party Leader Don Brash’s world view.  It is lamentably and consistently the “3 R’s”: Ronald (Reagan), Roger (Douglas) and Racism. Brash covered all fields in his latest Return to Orewa effort, setting out the same divisive economic and racial agenda that back in 2005 lost him the [...] read more
  November 30, 2010 6:44 pm - 18 Comments
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  What are our MPs listening to? Latest podcast - by frog

  
  
  
  This podcast is inspired by a close encounter with John Key in the Parliamentary gym by one of our staffers, who observed the PM listening to headphones while pounding the treadmill. It got us thinking: what do our MPs listen to? What’s on their iPods? Do they even have iPods? And if not, where does [...] read more
  November 15, 2010 4:37 pm - No Comments
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  Inflation under Key: Disgruntled yoghurt eaters should relax and buy a telly - by frog

  
  
  
  Here’s a breakdown of the big individual price movements in New Zealand since John Key took office, including what went up in price and what went down. The data reveals a story typically hidden by aggregation under our main measure of inflation—the Consumer Price Index or CPI. Biggest price falls: Audio-visual equipment -33% Other vehicle [...] read more
  November 8, 2010 10:05 am - 2 Comments
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  Neo-Muldoonism with a smile - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  I’ve posted before about the way this government is turning increasingly Muldoonist. The ECAN Act, the billion dollar infrastructure projects without any cost benefit analysis (Holiday Highway), the unlawful failure to answer OIA requests in time, the extensive use of urgency and so on. But now we have a new level of Muldoonism with this story. The [...] read more
  November 4, 2010 5:57 pm - 88 Comments
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  Key in denial about inevitable impact of carbon charges and oil shocks - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  John Key’s reaction to the distance-based UK departure tax shows just how out of touch he is about our economic future. This Government is deeply in denial. There is no question that climate change and rising fossil fuel prices will change travel patterns, and we should be taking this future into account in our tourism [...] read more
  November 3, 2010 2:45 pm - 16 Comments
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  A couple of troubling questions on the Hobbit Bill - by frog

  
  
  
  Who was telling the truth, John Key or Gerry Brownlee? Their stories differ. And how does this legislation clarify the law as to who are contractors and who are employees in the film industry, when it just seems to confuse an issue the Supreme Court had already made clear? read more
  October 30, 2010 8:05 pm - 9 Comments
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  Play it one more time: “National’s not going to be raising GST…” - by frog

  
  
  
  “If we do a half decent job at growing our economy, I’m confident that won’t be happening and that’s not on our agenda.” – John Key read more
  October 1, 2010 9:29 am - 32 Comments
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  More jobseekers + no more jobs = lower wages - by frog

  
  
  
  New Zealand’s labour force grew by around 43,000 yesterday. That is the approximate number of single parents receiving domestic purposes benefit whose youngest child is aged six or over.  As of yesterday, they all became part of the labour force; not necessarily because they all want to obtain paid employment but because Work and Income [...] read more
  September 28, 2010 1:31 pm - 76 Comments
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  Who lives in the real world? - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  I must admit, I did a double-take this morning when I read John Key’s comment that Secondary teachers’ plans to strike next month shows “how disconnected they are from the real world”. Who would you say is more connected to the “real world”? The thousands of teachers at the coalface of our secondary schools? Or [...] read more
  August 31, 2010 4:00 pm - 42 Comments
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  Key Government hides from the truth about oil - by frog

  
  
  
  Make your submission on the draft Energy Strategy by 5pm on 2 September read more
  August 29, 2010 6:47 am - 78 Comments
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  National’s Plan B: Strip-mine the poor - by frog

  
  
  
  A printed copy of an email from Paula Bennett turned up at my lilypad very early this morning. Or was it just a nightmare? National’s Plan B – having failed in their objective to strip-mine the land: Strip-mine the poor. Bad for forcing down wage rates; bad for low-income employment churn, especially given the Fire at Will extension; bad for productivity; so ultimately bad for business too. Just plain dumb! read more
  August 10, 2010 7:42 pm - 32 Comments
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  But most foreign investment is from nice white people like me - by frog

  
  
  
  John Key should be telling his Finance Minister to focus his Overseas Investment Act review on the real economic and ecological implications of increased land ownership by foreigners, rather than pandering to the xenophobic underbelly of New Zealand society whose only concern about foreign investment is that it is from “nice white people like me”. read more
  August 6, 2010 11:23 am - 52 Comments
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  Key should challenge mental health stereotypes, not perpetuate them - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  When I was a schoolboy, one of the common schoolyard taunts was to refer to someone as “mental” or “loony”.  Through most of last century, mental illness was a highly stigmatised issue, and people with mental health problems were hidden away from the rest of society, often untreated and/or mistreated, in what were once known [...] read more
  August 4, 2010 11:45 am - 44 Comments
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  Attacks on unions are attacks on wages - by frog

  
  
  
  It pays to join the union, but John Key and his Government are doing their utmost to undermine that. The Government’s industrial relations reforms announced last week contain two very disturbing attacks of the ability of unions to organise and negotiate. read more
  July 25, 2010 10:02 am - 6 Comments
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  John Key gives me a dose of the bum-squirts - by frog

  
  
  
  Tummy bugs that cause diarrhoea and vomiting are particularly unpleasant illnesses. So is flu. Their only redeeming feature – unless you have an underlying chronic disease, or have contracted a serious but rare acute illness like salmonella or meningitis that can masquerade as a minor illness for a short while – is that your body’s [...] read more
  July 20, 2010 9:27 pm - 94 Comments
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  PM tells more porkies on fire at will law - by frog

  
  
  
  Fresh from drawing false conclusions from some already shonky Department of Labour research, John Key has again been economical with the truth on the Government’s fire at will legislation.  Here he is telling NZPA:  Mr Key said the unions were hyping up the ability of employers to sack workers, and they had got it wrong. Employers [...] read more
  July 19, 2010 9:00 pm - 47 Comments
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  Shonky research doesn’t justify fire at will extension - by frog

  
  
  
  The Government has released the research upon which it has supposedly based its decision to extend its fire at will legislation to all employees in the first 90 days in a new job. It appears the research was first circulated around the National Party Conference and only later was made public, which in itself is [...] read more
  July 18, 2010 2:41 pm - 86 Comments
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  Refugees won’t be booking cruise liners to NZ - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  John Key made millions by trading currencies, but he doesn’t seem to have a good grasp of business principles when it comes to the economics of boat people coming to New Zealand. read more
  July 16, 2010 11:49 am - 19 Comments
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  National reveals its anti-worker colours - by frog

  
  
  
  John Key’s Government has won a lot of plaudits for being “Labour-lite”, and that has probably helped sustain its consistently high opinion poll ratings. But today the Government revealed its true colours. No more “Labour-lite” – this National-led government has now revealed itself as hard right wing and anti-worker. read more
  July 15, 2010 7:41 pm - 61 Comments