national Archive

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  National’s Leaky Building Syndrome - by frog

  
  
  
  No, it’s not quite the 90′s again, where National’s slapdash deregulation caused the real leaky building syndrome, for which kiwi households, councils and businesses are still paying dearly. No, it’s not 2005 again, where National Leader Don Brash has is email archives leaked all across the political spectrum, humiliating him and revealing the not so [...] read more
  September 9, 2008 11:29 am - 11 Comments
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  The Duck hammers on the Nat’s wedge - by frog

  
  
  
  Trevor ‘The Duck’ Mallard (Honourable mind you), who is apparently awash in leaked National Party policy, has just revealed that he is also in possession of the National Party’s Conservation policy. National’s claim that their Environement policy was ‘accidentally’ left behind by an MP at Copperfields is proving difficult to believe. From Mallard’s release (not [...] read more
  September 5, 2008 3:08 pm - 7 Comments
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  Nat’s environment policy abdicates responsibility - by frog

  
  
  
  It is becoming a bit of a mantra around here, calling the National Party to task for releasing empty rhetoric and having the audacity to call it ‘policy’. When are we going to find out what the Nats really think? Probably never. The leaked draft of National’s Environment Policy, which Mallard is already beating up [...] read more
  September 5, 2008 2:39 pm - 103 Comments
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  National’s Empty Promise - by frog

  
  
  
  Yesterday’s announcement by Dr Nick Smith on how they would ‘fix’ the emissions trading scheme was just an exercise in empty rhetoric. Smith outlined a five point amendment bill that he promised National would pass within nine months of taking office. It’s just too bad that most of the items he wants have already been [...] read more
  September 5, 2008 10:36 am - 72 Comments
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  Nats keep Maori in the backshed – as usual - by Metiria Turei

  
  
  
  National’s list is being lauded by them as fabulously diverse, but on a closer look you can certainly see what they they think of Maori and their own Maori MP’s in particular. Georgina Te Heuheu is Nationals most experienced senior Maori MP and hold enormous mana among Maori. Many Maori in the legal profession still [...] read more
  August 18, 2008 12:36 pm - 45 Comments
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  National’s energy policy throws consumers to the wolves - by frog

  
  
  
  The more I read it, the angrier it makes me. The National Party Energy Policy makes it crystal clear that consumers will be left entirely to the whims of the pseudo-market. With the likely destruction of the Electricity Commission and the gutting of the RMA, anyone will be able to build pretty much anything they [...] read more
  August 14, 2008 5:03 pm - 45 Comments
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  Sir Roger Re-emerges - by Sue Bradford

  
  
  
  Last Friday 8 August I had the interesting experience of sharing  a political platform with Sir Roger Douglas, nearly 20 years after our last encounter when I was part of an unemployed workers’ demonstration challenging what he and his Labour colleagues had done to the country. Like a ghost from Christmas past, Sir Roger re-emerged in the somewhat [...] read more
  August 11, 2008 2:45 pm - 54 Comments
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  Disguised - by frog

  
  
  
  Did anyone hear Nick Smith on Morning Report talking about the spy who taped him?  Apparently Smith worked it out quite quickly the young person was a spy: Morning Report: Why did you think it was a spy? Nick Smith: Well, it was a young person, a person in their early 20s.  I’ve been around [...] read more
  August 7, 2008 9:44 am - 26 Comments
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  Hooton is half right - by frog

  
  
  
  Matthew Hooton lashes out a Chris Trotter today in the Sunday Star Times. He gets so personal that after I write this, I’ll dig up Trotter’s article from last week and have a read. I don’t know how I missed Trotter being vitriolic!. In the middle of his article, Hooton makes an interesting assertion: The [...] read more
  July 27, 2008 12:32 pm - 24 Comments
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  Key questions SPARC expenditure. Frog questions Crosby/Textor expenditure. - by frog

  
  
  
  I was trolling the blogosphere, as one does on a rainy Friday afternoon, and had a read of David Slack’s post over at Public Address. He was questioning John Key’s questioning of SPARC’s budget for websites. After running through a very pertinent list of the hard work it would take to create websites that got [...] read more
  July 4, 2008 4:45 pm - 15 Comments
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  ‘It’s an ego thing’ - by frog

  
  
  
  One of the nice things about getting you candidate list out first is that you can sit back and watch everyone else’s list unfold, or in some cases rupture its way into the public.  The Greens, with a list that was decided on entirely by party member votes, didn’t face the type of tension that [...] read more
  May 14, 2008 1:09 pm - 7 Comments
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  Voting with your head or with your heart - by frog

  
  
  
  Gordon Campbell’s interview of Russel on Scoop’s Election 08 yesterday is a fascinatingly read.  Campbell, with his background in the Green Party’s parliamentary team, knew the tough questions to ask and seemed determined that his interview could not be perceived as a patsy, or lacking journalistic credibility.  The first half of the interview deals with [...] read more
  May 14, 2008 12:34 pm - 9 Comments
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  John Key on foreign aid - by frog

  
  
  
  John Key gave a speech yesterday on international affairs.  I thought it was worth pulling out this one quote from that speech, where he discusses aid to the Pacific: It is also important that this aid is properly focused. New Zealand’s aid in recent years has been targeted at “poverty elimination” – the focus should [...] read more
  April 9, 2008 12:56 pm - 10 Comments
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  It’s a matter of doing, not of believing - by frog

  
  
  
  Labour’s attacks on John Key and various National MPs for not believing in climate change are interesting, but ultimately a bit of a sideshow. It doesn’t matter whether Cullen and his team believe in climate change or not if their actions are not doing anything to address the problem. Believing is a relatively easy step [...] read more
  April 2, 2008 2:48 pm - 79 Comments
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  Public struggle to choose coalition partner for Greens on climate change - by frog

  
  
  
  The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development’s latest ShapeNZ Survey on emissions trading and climate change shows that 82% think climate change is an urgent problem or a problem for now, rather than a problem to deal with later or not a problem at all.  56% think that New Zealand’s response should be to [...] read more
  March 6, 2008 8:57 am - 12 Comments
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  Pre Christmas polls - by frog

  
  
  
  The splash of voter intention polls over the weekend indicate that we might have one of two elections next year.  We could have a 2005 election, where the two largest parties battle out for supremacy to the exclusion of any nuance or debate in the campaign.  Or we could have a 2002 election where one [...] read more
  December 17, 2007 8:39 am - 34 Comments
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  Labour and National’s climate change record - by frog

  
  
  
  Kiwiblog has some interesting stats on New Zealand’s appalling carbon emissions record. DPF is right that there would be howls of protest from the Greens if this happened under a National government. Just like there have been under the Labour led government. As the Greens are constantly pointing out, when it comes to climate change [...] read more
  December 11, 2007 4:55 pm - 9 Comments