Taxpayer support for Bill English’s home and happiness
In recent days, there has been an odd symmetry between Graham Henry’s response to the All Blacks defeat in Durban and John Key’s rationale for […]
General Politics
Gordon Campbell on the travel expenses of MPs
The issue of MPs’ travel expenses – and its disreputable cousin, government spending – have thrown up a pretty interesting moral distinction. Government spending, which provides services to the general public, is seen to be an intrinsically bad thing that must be rationed. MPs’ travel spending on the other hand, is seen as an intrinsically good thing that does not even need to be justified. It just is – here’s the amount we spent, don’t ask to know the purpose. The worth is assumed, and is beyond challenge.
Putting the SAS back into Afghanistan
Who has stolen John Key’s brain? The Prime Minister who only a couple of months ago was demanding to see a viable exit strategy before […]
Foreign ownership rules, and California’s support for Chief Justice Sian Elias
To its critics, the government’s response to the recession has looked like an Eighties Revival. Psychologically speaking, that’s not so surprising, When in trouble, politicians […]
Treasury and the Don Brash revival
People are just so suspicious. When you have Treasury touting the virtues of contracting out public services and Don Brash – clearly, our best and […]
Gordon Campbell: The Sian Elias speech about crime
The recent speech by Chief Justice Sian Elias may have been greeted with some – sensational headlines – “Top Judge Suggests Prison Amnesty” – and […]
The Winston Peters Comeback
Only Winston Peters could say the hardest word in the political lexicon – “Sorry” – by implying that his mistakes were really due to his […]
The bogus benefits of PPPs
Occasionally, someone in business lets the cat out of the bag in a way that is impossible to satirise. Thus in the NZ Herald this […]
Paula Bennett’s welfare abuse
To date, the government’s response to the recession has been faulted on the demand side – for not giving sufficient stimulus to the economy, as […]
The Government’s failure to cope with unemployment
There was a quite telling difference of emphasis on Radio Waatea this morning. While Greens MP Sue Bradford was calling on the government to make […]
David Garrett’s lewdness, and the incredible Christine Rankin
Rodney Hide’s excuses for the lewd comment by his Act party colleague David Garrett – that he is new to Parliament, that he may be […]
John Key’s Zen press conference, and Iran’s stolen election
Faced with the dying embers of the Richard Worth scandal at his press conference yesterday (audio & report, video), John Key reached for gasoline, not […]
Rodney Hide’s latest plan for gutting local democracy
Rodney Hide’s agenda for local government involves – as Scoop reported six months ago – the importation of an American model that has resulted in […]
The Tiananmen Massacre, and Richard Worth
Today is the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square. In the early morning hours of June 4th 1989, thousands of unarmed students and […]
Gordon Campbell On The Greens Leadership Change
Talk about the bleedingly obvious. In the aftermath of the last election, the Green Party moved a few floors upwards into more spacious digs in […]
The Budget’s tightening noose
Judging by the Budget, the good news is that Finance Minister Bill English is not the beady eyed ‘lets take this theory and see if […]
Budget to push the “P” button?
The tone of the Budget is almost as important as its content, and while everyone – for good reason – is expecting a grim Budget […]
On the power company rip-offs
Spot the difference. A Rotorua couple get $10 million overpaid by Westpac into their bank account and hive off with it, with Interpol and the […]
Campbell on the Christine Rankin appointment
For all his considerable media skills, Prime Minister John Key has a tendency to wing it on the details in ways that must be terrifying […]
The Melissa Lee Factor
Click to enlarge Melissa Lee’s emergence as the poster child of the Key government is so apt, it makes the process of politics seem karmically […]
McCully’s oversell of changes to our foreign aid programme
The belated release yesterday of the April 23 Cabinet papers on the changes to New Zealand’s aid programme suggest that Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully […]
The Labour re-shuffle (And Mt Albert)
The Labour re-shuffle of its front bench and shadow portfolio areas is an understandable move. Six months into a new leadership, senior figures such as […]
The risks of cutting wages during this recession
Obviously, the jobs situation in New Zealand is deteriorating. On current trends, unemployment is now expected to reach 8 per cent before this recession is […]
Russel Norman, and our SAS in Afghanistan
So David Shearer is to be the Labour candidate in Mt Albert. The claims by Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman on Morning Report that this leaves […]
Gordon Campbell on the swine flu epidemic
Interesting that John Key began his press conference on Monday by covering off the politics of the swine flu epidemic first. No false modesty from […]
The Greens’ deal with National
Click to enlarge The decision by Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman to stand in the Mt Albert by-election on June 13 is the latest example of […]
The Greens' deal with National
Click to enlarge The decision by Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman to stand in the Mt Albert by-election on June 13 is the latest example of […]
Selling our defence bases to property speculators
The proposal to sell our defence bases and lease them back to the armed forces from their new, private sector landlords is a pretty good […]
Events in Fiji
Chris Trotter is well able to look after himself, but the recent criticism on him by No Right Turn over the Fiji situation is worth […]
WINZ and food banks, and Fiji
[For Fiji click here] A few months ago, Scoop asked Paula Bennett at John Key’s post-Cabinet press conference whether she saw a pressing need – […]