prime minister Archive

• 

  Helen Clark on Checkpoint - by frog

  
  
  
  I’ve just been listening to the Prime Minister’s interview with Mary Wilson this evening and have got three comments I’d like to make.  First she said in relation to her not disclosing her knowledge about the conflicting evidence in relation to Mr Peters’ story relating to Mr Glenn’s $100,000 donation: It wasn’t my job to [...] read more
  September 12, 2008 7:47 pm - 38 Comments
• 

  It’s the 8th! - by frog

  
  
  
  The Prime Minister has finally announced what we mostly knew already. Time to set your timers… read more
  September 12, 2008 1:00 pm - 7 Comments
• 

  What if? - by frog

  
  
  
  I wonder if the Prime Minister is looking back at the quiet issue-focused way the Greens have gone about getting their policy implemented over the last 3 years and is now ruing the choices she made putting together her governing arrangements back in 2005 with Winston Peters’ NZ First Party and Peter Dunne’s Untied Future [...] read more
  August 29, 2008 7:59 am - 34 Comments
• 

  Honour - by frog

  
  
  
  Here’s the Prime Minister discussing Winston Peters’ donation from Owen Glenn on Morning Report this morning. “If we take Mr Peters at his word, and I must as an honourable member, and I take his lawyer at his word, then Mr Peters would not have been in the loop on the source of the funding.” [...] read more
  July 22, 2008 9:11 am - 4 Comments
• 

  The PM’s Carbon emissions speech - by frog

  
  
  
  Right, I’m back from the Green Party conference.  (Oh, talking of which you should listen to Kiwi FM’s Wallace Chapman talking to Scoop’s Selwyn Manning on the Greens’ Conference over the weekend). Seems the one of the big news stories for the week will be World Environment Day.  The Prime Minister, gearing up for World [...] read more
  June 4, 2008 4:13 pm - 6 Comments
• 

  Two questions in Parliament from Jeanette today - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s not often the Greens get allotted two questions in one day at Parliamentary question time. (I think today’s double dose might have come about due to some horse trading with the Maori Party?)  Anyway, they’re both good ones: Question 1 – Jeanette Fitzsimons to the Prime Minister Does she still aspire for New Zealand [...] read more
  May 29, 2008 11:27 am - 24 Comments
• 

  It’s not my fault - by frog

  
  
  
  The Prime Minister is in this morning’s Press telling Colin Espiner that the government’s woes are not its own doing: “It’s made a particularly tough challenge because you have an international economic slowdown, the fallout from the subprime crisis in the United States which has impacted on mortgage rates here without the Reserve Bank lifting [...] read more
  May 20, 2008 8:35 am - 6 Comments
• 

  The real cost of climate change - by frog

  
  
  
  Phew, it seems like everyone money to lose is joining the Prime Minister in her fleet-footed race from facing up to the costs of implementing the Emissions Trading Scheme. (I wonder where Rio Tinto got the impression it could bully the Prime Minister into backtracking on climate change legislation?) So what is the biggest cost associated [...] read more
  May 14, 2008 8:42 am - 7 Comments
• 

  The guessing game - by frog

  
  
  
  Dene Mackensie has a go this morning at speculating on the election date in the Otago Daily Times [off line].  He suggests that there will be a 1 October introduction of tax cuts from the government.  This means it will want an election at least four weeks after that to ensure everybody has had a [...] read more
  May 12, 2008 10:34 am - 10 Comments
• 

  Press freedom in China - by frog

  
  
  
  Here is the first question to be asked in Parliament this afternoon. Keith Locke to the Prime Minister: ‘Will she ensure journalists travelling with her, as part of the delegation she is leading to China next week, will enjoy normal press freedoms as outlined in international human rights treaties; if not why not?’ read more
  April 1, 2008 12:42 pm - 5 Comments
• 

  Time for an election date - by frog

  
  
  
  Colin James raises an important issue in this morning’s Herald (not on-line yet) when he challenges the Prime Minister to “name the election date then propose future election dates be fixed and regular”: If Clark, who pulled an early election on a pretext in 2002, set this year’s election date now, that would strike a [...] read more
  February 12, 2008 12:40 pm - 20 Comments
• 

  Russel’s response to Helen Clark - by frog

  
  
  
  Here’s Russel again, this time responding to the Prime Minister’s speech this morning. And Frog’s got a few questions for the Prime Minister: If the problem is the poverty caused by the 1991 Mother of All Budget cuts, why is the solution keeping young people in schools (or other forms of education) and a $9 [...] read more
  January 30, 2008 2:53 pm - 17 Comments
• 

  Miss Sustainability - by frog

  
  
  
  Here’s a few extracts from the Prime Minister’s speech to the German Council for Sustainable Development yesterday: …New Zealand enjoys a priceless reputation as a nation with a pristine environment, which is clean and green, nuclear free, and, as our tourism promotions proclaim, one hundred per cent pure. …These considerations, along with great concern about the [...] read more
  November 29, 2007 9:56 am - 12 Comments