national party Archive

  • Catherine Delahunty

    Privatisation in education legislation



    The word opposition doesn’t always describe Labour’s voting patterns. In fact, Labour have voted with National almost exactly as often as the Maori Party, even though Labour is the official opposition, and the Maori Party is actually part of the Government! [For the political junkies, Labour have voted with National 12 times at first readings, and [...] read more
    March 19, 2010 2:46 pm - 11 Comments
  • frog

    Global concern at Nats’ plan to mine national parks



    Scrutiny of Government plans to mine our conservation lands is deepening internationally. And it’s got people hot on Facebook too. The Sunday Star Times ran a powerful feature on the weekend called “Picture imperfect”. It looks at international concern at New Zealand’s environmental performance, including National’s plan to mine conservation land: IT’S JUST a stock-take of mineral [...] read more
    December 7, 2009 8:30 pm - 10 Comments
  • frog

    What Would Rod Say?



    This first anniversary of the National-led government is also the fourth anniversary of the death of former Green Party Co-Leader, Rod Donald. With the many retrospectives being written about the “new” government, my thoughts turn today to what Rod might have thought about the developments of the last year. There’s been commentary claiming the government hasn’t [...] read more
    November 6, 2009 5:33 pm - 68 Comments
  • frog

    Mokihinui – Brownlee’s burp



    So this week our Minister of Mining and Damming (aka Energy and Resources) let slip that the Mokihinui hydro-dam “would not go ahead”. Does he know something or was it just his ‘opinion’? Whatever the brain-burp was, he was ill-advised to say it but it’d be nice to think that there may be Moki fans in Government – perhaps they are closet readers of the 1400-fan facebook page! read more
    November 5, 2009 10:16 pm - 28 Comments
  • frog

    Burning the Mona Lisa to cook dinner



    Well known conservative commentator Thomas Friedman contends that destroying our biodiversity to fuel unregulated economic growth is like burning the Mona Lisa to cook dinner. The issue of how we should treat natural capital in our economy resurfaced today in a new economic think-tank report. read more
    November 3, 2009 3:49 pm - 11 Comments
  • frog

    Think our native forests were safe? Think again.



    “Agricultural intensification over the past 10 years has led to the highest rate of native vegetation loss since European colonisation.” Landcare Research Annual Report read more
    November 2, 2009 11:29 am - 18 Comments
  • frog

    Green Oral Question for today



    In Parliament today, the Green Party’s Questions for Oral Answer (number 3) is from Russel Norman to the Minister of Finance, Bill English: Does he stand by his statement that “water assets will not be privatised as a result of the restructuring” of local government; and if so, how does he reconcile it with Cabinet’s decision [...] read more
    October 29, 2009 11:42 am - 30 Comments
  • frog

    Chalking Nick in Nelson



    Chalking the opinion of many on the streets of Nelson this morning and challenging Nick Smith, who welcomed Schedule 4 thus: “This Bill at long last puts some pegs in the sand in some very significant areas of New Zealand and says to the mining industries of New Zealand: “These are no-go areas.”…” read more
    October 27, 2009 2:31 pm - 6 Comments
  • frog

    Gutting ACC – Sewer-side Smith



    It won’t matter if a suicide victim was incapable of forming a rational intent. It won’t matter if the suicide was caused by an abject failure of mental health services to provide appropriate treatment. The victim’s family will get no help from ACC. It’s just not fair. read more
    October 20, 2009 9:04 am - 1 Comment
  • frog

    Gutting ACC – it’s just not fair: Hearing loss



    The ACC scheme is a social contract. Before ACC came into being, New Zealanders were able to sue each other for personal injury. We gave up that right, in return for the no-fault, comprehensive cover scheme that is ACC. National wants to erode the comprehensive cover aspect of the scheme in an ominous way. read more
    October 16, 2009 1:41 pm - 10 Comments
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