A number of people have already mentioned this today, but it bears repeating as it is just so silly. Working for Families is being exposed as disincentive that it really is. The Dominion Post has the example today of a...
Continue reading "Reduce your work hours and earn more" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 9:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
And about bloody time. However, he is not to be expelled due to his unethical and (allegedly) corrupt behaviour, but because he implied that he might stand as an independent in the next election if not selected as Labour's Mangere...
Continue reading "Labour to Expel Taito Phillip Field" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 9:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Jim Anderton has made some crazy remarks about Bush's decision to temporarily increase the number of troops in Iraq. Mr Bush announced the extra troops yesterday as an attempt to restore order to the blood-stained streets of Baghdad. Asked for...
Continue reading "Anderton goes crazy" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
So the Justice and Electoral Select Committee has reported back on Sue Bradford's bill to outlaw smacking and has recommended that it proceed and repeal section 59 of the crimes act. I have not yet read the report itself, but...
Continue reading "Banning Smacking" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
So Don Brash has managed to get a High Court injunction against publication of the e-mails stolen from his computer. And Winston Peters has destroyed the evidence of the theft, apparently as soon as the police began their investigation. Peters...
Continue reading "The Stolen E-mails" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
So, how do you get out of debt, Labour style? Well, first you rack up a $1.4 million debt by overspending during the previous election, and by stealing taxpayers money to do so. Then you introduce "democracy funding" - meaning...
Continue reading "How to get out of debt" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The latest Colmar-Brunton poll is out, showing a 13 per cent lead to National over Labour. It looks like the public wasn't too keen on that validating legislation after all... So much for an issue that wasn't resonating outside the...
Continue reading "Ask not for whom the poll tolls..." »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 5:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
I'm sure most of you are aware by now of Blair Mulholland's online petition, calling for the Governor-General to refuse Royal Assent to the recently passed bill validating illegal spending of parliamentary funds on electioneering. At the time of writing...
Continue reading "The Online Petition" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 9:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Halfdone has posted some analysis of all Labour press releases since February this year, and has found that about 80% of their press releases this year have been either attacking National or Brash, or defending themselves, leaving very few actually...
Continue reading "Labour's Press Releases" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
An article in the Herald today takes a look at the Parliamentary Service Commission, noting that it is exempt from the Official Information Act, despite a 1999 report recommending that this be changed. The Commission is run by a committee...
Continue reading "Parliamentary Service Commission" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Fran O'Sullivan is scathing of Clark in the Herald this morning, suggesting that Labour MPs may be pressuring her to ensure an orderly leadership transition. It remains a national scandal that H2 - as Simpson is commonly known - was...
Continue reading "Clark is "damanged goods"" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Helen Clark has announced that the Labour party will repay the money it stole for electioneering last year. However, they still refuse to admit any wrongdoing, and claim that their spending was within the rules. So why this sudden change...
Continue reading "Labour to repay money" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The Auditor General's report is finally out, with his final figures on the amount overspent by each party: ACT - $17,889 Green - $80,939 Labour - $767,963 Maori - $48 National - $11,305 New Zealand First - $150,446 Progressive -...
Continue reading "The Auditor General's report" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 12:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
There was a bit of a slip of the tongue by Winston Peters on NewstalkZB this morning. He was talking about the recent North Korean nuclear test, and was noting that other countries in the region would be seriously concerned...
Continue reading "Peters on Taiwan" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 5:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Currently New Zealand electoral finance law has a 90-day window where there are restrictions on how much money can be sepnt by candidates and parties. Money spent outside this window does not count, unless the benefit of it carries over...
Continue reading "The Ninety Day Election Campaign" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 9:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The Auckland mayors have come up in favour of a plan to significantly rejig the local government structure in Auckland. The changes would involve: A Greater Auckland Council Chaired by a Lord Mayor elected at large. Council to include elected...
Continue reading "The Super City" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 7:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Apparently losing the same defamation case twice has not taught Winston Peters anything. Despite the case being thrown out for the second time yesterday, he is considering appealing. I just really can't see how there is any sort of case...
Continue reading "Peters doesn't know when to quit" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 1:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
So at last a further inquiry into the Taito Phillip Field saga is getting underway, with the police investigation issues raised by the Ingram report and the subsequent allegations. We'll be generous to them and ignore the fact that they...
Continue reading "The Police Investigation" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 1:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
So yet more allegations against Phillip Taito Field have arisen. Firstly, it appears that he told the inquiry that he never had any intention to employ the Thai worker at the centre of the allegations, at his house in Samoa....
Continue reading "Phillip Taito Field" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Michael Cullen has announced that the Government plans to offer a tax break on employer contributions to the KiwiSaver fund, limited to 4% of the employees salary. While I still do not like KiwiSaver as it stands, this is a...
Continue reading "Tax credits on KiwiSaver" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 7:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
So the government has proposed a rethink on how sentencing and parole is done, mainly due to the growing prison population. They have proposed changing parole so that it doesn't kick in until two-thirds of the sentence (rather than one-third...
Continue reading "The sentencing review" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 4:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Dick Hubbard has now said that ratepayers who can't afford their rate rises can simply borrow it against the increased value of their property. Riiight. Has he just lost all his sense? The problem is not just rising property valuations,...
Continue reading "Hubbard on rates" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 5:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
The NZ Herald has an article today outlining various examples of wasted ratepayers money, sourced from Aaron Bhatnagar's rates watch website, including: $2500 to help a seance group get NZQA approval for their courses $2000 to fund tarot card reading...
Continue reading "More wastage by the council" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 12:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
No Right Turn has sent a Official Information Act request to the police, asking them how much it cost to investigate and prosecute Tim Selywn for seidition. Their response: There is no cost to the Crown as Police is funded...
Continue reading "The Police and the OIA" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 3:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Former Green MP, Ian Ewen-Street, has just joined the National party, and will help them with their environmental policy paper, to be published later this year. This is good news - the Green Party in New Zealand are really more...
Continue reading "Ian Ewen-Street Joins National" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 10:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Apparently the Auckland City Council doesn't believe they are getting enough money with their 10% per year rate rise, and so are increasing water rates by 9.6% as well. Metrowater, the city-owned company that supplies water, has managed to keep...
Continue reading "Water Rates" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 11:22 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
So, the Taito Phillip Field report is finally out. It took 10 months instead of the 9 working days originally allocated. And it has not really answered any of the questions it needed to. It was unable to show that...
Continue reading "Taito Phillip Field" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 7:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
What on earth was Winston Peters thinking... He interrupted John McCain, possibly the next US President, while he was in the middle of praising New Zealand and calling for greater co-operation, claiming that the New Zealand press had breached an...
Continue reading "Winston Peters..." »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 6:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
The NZ Herald has savaged Auckland's mayors over an article that the got published yesterday: It tells us their projected rate increases, many times the likely annual inflation rate, are not needed primarily to finance new infrastructure, as we thought...
Continue reading "Auckland Mayors savaged" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 7:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
While one of the problems the public have with the police is the thought that they are just out for revenue gathering, the NZ Herald touches this morning on the more serious problem. That is, that the police are spending...
Continue reading "Police and burglary" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
From the House yesterday: RODNEY HIDE (ACT – Epsom) to the Minister of Police: Do the Police work with the officials from the Ministry of Fisheries; and if so, how have the Police benefited from such experiences? Hon ANNETTE KING...
Posted by Dave Bryant at 6:16 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
The NZ Herald reports that a Maori turst, Northland based Te Kati, is threatening to take the UK Government to the International Court of Justice to attempt to get Maori the same rights as British citizens under the Treaty of...
Continue reading "Maori trust claiming 'right' to British passport" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 5:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The NZ Herald has a good editorial this morning about the level of bureaucracy in New Zealand's health (and probably other) systems, that led to the resignation of Auckland DHB CEO Dwayne Crombie. He was frustrated with the level of...
Continue reading "Health Bureaucracy" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 7:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
From Generation XY, but I just had to post it... Finance Minister Michael Cullen today received what he called 'a pleasant surprise' after a bad week of forecasts showing a downturn in government revenue. Police Commissioner Howard Broad and his...
Continue reading "Police deliver on target" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 7:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
For years the police have claimed that there is no quota for issuing speeding and other highway patrol related tickets. The police claim that the focus is on reducing speeding and saving lives, and increased revenue is just not relevant....
Continue reading "Quota? What Quota?" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 12:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The leader of the Liberterians party is suing the Labour party over their spending of taxpayers money on the pledge cards during the last election. Specifically they are claiming that the money was allocating by an appropriation bill for the...
Continue reading "Liberterians sue Labour" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 6:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The regular ballot of members' bills was drawn today, and the winning bill was New Zealand First's Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill, sponsored by Doug Woolerton. This bill would simply delete the words "principles of the treaty...
Continue reading "Hypocrisy" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 2:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Matthew Hooton has written about The Tragedy of Winston Peters in the Sunday Star-Times today. He talks about all of Winston's talent - a potential Prime Minister - being wasted in his joke of a role as foreign minister. It...
Continue reading "Winston Peters" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Rates are set to rise by 13.2% in Auckland City this year, after a 9.7% rise last year. As I have stated previously, this is getting ridiculous. You cannot just keep raising rate levels at faster than the rate of...
Continue reading "Rate rises" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 12:14 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)
Four Green MPs rebelled against their leadership last night and voted for David Carter's ammendment to exempt working dogs from the new microchipping laws. It is a bit of an embarassment for Labour who thought the ammendment didn't have the...
Continue reading "Farm dogs exempt from micro-chipping" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 7:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
Nick Smith's bill to change the resource management act has been drawn from the private members ballot and will be up for debate potentially in two weeks time. It changes the RMA so that the Conservation Minister no longer holds...
Continue reading "Overriding the Whangamata Marina Decision" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 9:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Nick Smith has written to the Speaker alleging a breach of privilege by Chris Carter, in that he mislead Parliament over his decision on the Whangamata marina. Carter claimed in Parliament that he did not solicit support for his decision,...
Continue reading "Chris Carter" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
As threatened previously, the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EMPU) is going to picket Wayne Mapp's electorate office tomorrow morning from 7:30 to 9:30am. Andrew Little, the national secretary, is promising further industrial action if Wayne Mapp's probationary employment bill...
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Apparently criticising the government is no longer treason, but simply unpatriotic. As Rodney points out, politicians from all parties in New Zealand are patriotic. They may have wildly different views, but all passionatly believe that their views will benefit New...
Continue reading "Patriotism" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 9:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
As is well known, National accidentally overspent during the last election campaign where they spent $900,000 exclusing GST on broadcasting, instead of $900,000 including GST. Under the current law, National is legally prohibited from paying back the money, as it...
Continue reading "National trying to repay for overspending on advertising" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The Sunday Star Times has a go at Parekura Horomia today, saying that he is "possibly the most incompetent person ever to have held a ministerial warrant in New Zealand". They point out the lack of talent in the current...
Continue reading "Parekura Horomia" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 12:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
There is a NZ Herald article today about a report by Gail Pacheco from AUT on the minimum wage. She found while doing an empirical study on the effect of changing the minimum wage in New Zealand, that a number...
Continue reading "The Minimum Wage" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 12:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The NZ Herald reports that David Cunliffe has breached Cabinet Office guidelines which strongly urge Ministers not to make public comments about the prospects of listed companies as they may appear to have inside information, even if they in fact...
Continue reading "A breach of cabinet guidelines" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
It appears as though the contraversial anti party-hopping bill lacks sufficient support to become law. The previous law had a sunset clause that expired at the last election, but New Zealand First made renewing it part of their confidence and...
Continue reading "Party hopping bill may not have the numbers" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 12:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
The NZ Herald reports that David Cunliffe won't be reprimanded by Clark for his comments to financial news service Bloomberg, which caused a $200m drop in Telecom's sharemarked vallue. While I'm not convinced that he should be stood down pending...
Continue reading "Cunliffe won't be reprimanded" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 12:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The family tax credit has existed in one form or another for some time - it is a tax credit given to working families for each child that they have. It has been considerably extended by the present Labour government...
Continue reading "Challenging the family tax credit" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 5:36 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
The Dominion Post has written an editorial about the serious problem of tax creep, where the tax thresholds in New Zealand have not changed in the last 10 years, part from the introduction of the top rate at $60,000.A recent...
Continue reading "Dominion Post on tax" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
David Farrar is putting together a good examination of all the police and electoral office documents that have been released under the OIA, regarding Labour's pledge cards during the last election, and the subsequent non-prosecution by the police.One of the...
Continue reading "Labour's pledge cards" »
Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)