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The last piece of the Hobbit story

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, March 1st, 2013 - 76 comments
Categories: workers' rights
Tags: , ,

Emails released on the Standard today show that, during the Hobbit “dispute” the Government and others lied to the people of New Zealand to maintain a perception of a crisis.

It was a shameful moment in New Zealand’s political history.

eye of sauron

Open mike 02/03/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 2nd, 2013 - 2 comments

omt

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Weekend social 01/03/2013

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, March 1st, 2013 - 18 comments

wksc

Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can’t we all just get along?

Caption contest

Written By: - Date published: 1:37 pm, March 1st, 2013 - 32 comments

david shearer backbencher puppet thumb

Transmission Gully: $60m before a sod even turned

Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, March 1st, 2013 - 25 comments

joker-debt-burning-fire

So far, the government has spent $33 million on Transmission Gully. They’re planning on spending another $30m just to sign the contract on the Public-Private Partnership. That’s over $60m down the drain on a project with only $360-$500m of benefits before a single metre of road is built. All up, the cost will be $3.4 billion – trebled by using the PPP model.

Greens announce non-racist policy; 3News decides to make it racist

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, March 1st, 2013 - 43 comments

anti racism

Yet again, Patrick Gower digs deep to find a story where there really isn’t one.

“Minister for Small Things”

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, March 1st, 2013 - 44 comments

Peter Dunne

Yesterday, David Cunliffe,on Peter Dunne’s Student Loan Amendment Bill, & the related inter-generational swindle, labelled Dunne as “Minister for Small Changes” & ”for Small Things”. Dunne further showed his support of the “neoliberal” swindle, with a couple of tweets on non-residents buying NZ property, smearing the Greens as racist.

The Government must be crazy

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, March 1st, 2013 - 19 comments

asset sales pot hole

Come one, came all to National’s fire sale! See how fast we can flog off your assets! Low prices, great returns to foreign investors!

The Daily Blog

Written By: - Date published: 6:04 am, March 1st, 2013 - 53 comments

Today marks the launch of a new leftwing political blog in NZ, The Daily Blog. Go check them out…
 
the-daily-blog

Open mike 01/03/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 1st, 2013 - 58 comments

omt

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Latest Roy Morgan… a bit shit

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 pm, February 28th, 2013 - 127 comments

roy morgan poll

I guess the title says it all. The latest Roy Morgan has National at 47.5% (up 3.5%), Labour 30.5% (down 4%), Greens 12.5%, and NZ First at 3%. I’m not really in the mood to piss around with analysis tonight. You’ve heard me moan about the state of Labour enough lately. But it’s not the …

Project complete (at least for the moment)

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, February 28th, 2013 - 33 comments

Dolphin Over World 2010

Project code is complete and getting stamped on the hardware.

I have some time for maintenance and writing at last…. So put in your wish lists.

Oh and this is a warning to trolls. I have time to measure you and comment on your obvious lacks and deficiencies again :twisted:

Caption contest

Written By: - Date published: 1:35 pm, February 28th, 2013 - 40 comments

john key backbencher puppet

John Key: High dollar works for me

Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, February 28th, 2013 - 19 comments

dollar-sign.jpg

As a Canadian currency dealer dubs the NZ$ the “new gold”, John Key sings the praises of a high dollar

Regulate this!

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, February 28th, 2013 - 168 comments

hydroelectric power generation dam asset sales

If we can’t afford to buy the assets back, we should at least make clear we will regulate them severely and take the profit out of electricity companies…

Child Support (Almost) Amendment Bill: Cunliffe speech

Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, February 28th, 2013 - 33 comments

david cunliffe beard

Another excellent Cunlife speech last night, speaking to the Child Support Amendment Bill (Committee Stage Schedule 2).  An “almost” Bill showing the government’s callous disregard of child poverty and single/separated (usually women) parents.

Open mike 28/02/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, February 28th, 2013 - 94 comments

omt

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Charles’ valedictory

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 pm, February 27th, 2013 - 104 comments

Charles

Labour has lost a fine legal mind. Good luck Charles, and hopefully David Shearer will heed your advice.

Breaking: Supreme Court dismisses Maori Council appeal

Written By: - Date published: 3:20 pm, February 27th, 2013 - 127 comments

not for sale dam

Unanimous decision by the 5 judges to dismiss the Maori Council’s appeal.

Caption Contest

Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, February 27th, 2013 - 40 comments

Peter Jackson ring

Marriage equality bill progresses

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, February 27th, 2013 - 25 comments

*Jan 07 - 00:05*23_NE Consortium

Good news, as Louisa Wall’s Marriage Equality Bill progresses through select committee.

Derisory minimum wage

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, February 27th, 2013 - 89 comments

key finger 3

The minimum wage should be at least $15 per hour. A living wage is estimated at $18.40 per hour. So what have the Nats done? Raised the minimum wage by $0.25 per hour to $13.75. It’s a derisory increase. Even their own supporters think so.

Lies and sanctions

Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, February 27th, 2013 - 219 comments

Key-can-you-trust-him-thumb

The Nats lied over the hobbit movie. What are we as citizens to do when a government deliberately and shamelessly lies to us? How can we stop this kind of barefaced lying from happening again?

Towards a more inequal New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, February 27th, 2013 - 30 comments

peanut pay packet wages

The average CEO got a 10% pay rise last year. The average worker got 2.6%. Minimum wage workers will get 1.9% – a 25 cent an hour token gesture. And 30,000 fewer of us have jobs than a year ago and are not earning at all any more. And now we learn the finance sector sucked $440m more out of us last year – a total of $4 billion. No wonder the planes to Aussie are full.

Open mike 27/02/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, February 27th, 2013 - 93 comments

omt

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

JK wants to inject life into zombie

Written By: - Date published: 6:12 pm, February 26th, 2013 - 30 comments

walking-dead_regenerating_zombie

John Key is keen that the ACT party is “regenerating” and National will be there for them. That’s if a party that registered 0%, 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.5% in the latest round of polls can be called “regenerating”: I’ve seen (other) zombies more full of life…

Hobbit emails show Jackson’s dodgy dealings

Written By: - Date published: 4:01 pm, February 26th, 2013 - 314 comments

peter-jackson-ego

The government has released the Hobbit documents. The Ombudsman ordered them to. The full release is available at stuff and what stands out (apart from the insistent and narcissistic tone of every film industry correspondent) is the fact that Peter Jackson himself noted the “do not sign” advice from the union was being called off. TWO DAYS before he went public with his “evil union” story.

Low priority: pedestrians & wheelchairs

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, February 26th, 2013 - 41 comments

wheelchair hazards

A wheelchair got caught in the rail tracks, resulting in critical injuries.  Pedestrians are low priority, and people with disabilities even lower, making them/us vulnerable: poor pavements, hazardous road crossings, some inaccessible public transport… and more.

Pariah Parata

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, February 26th, 2013 - 20 comments

parata

I’m starting to feel sorry for Hekia Parata. In his column yesterday Armstrong referred to her as “something of a pariah figure” in the education portfolio.

Bad taste of Sky City lingers

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, February 26th, 2013 - 8 comments

bad-taste

The reaction to the Auditor General’s report on Key’s Sky City deal is lingering in the headlines much longer than Key would like. “Corrupted process”. “Stench”. “No way to run a country”. Key badly misjudged this one.

Key shoots back(wards)

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, February 26th, 2013 - 82 comments

backgun

John Key is under real pressure over the Solid Energy debacle. He got out the six-shooter – aiming at a 2007 speech by Trevor Mallard to try to blame Labour. Trouble is he’s shot himself. In 2011 he said  he “supported Solid Energy’s plan to dig up lignite and turn it into briquettes, saying the Government wanted companies such as Solid Energy, which is Government-owned, to expand.” Expect more shots from the lip.

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