...the average price New Zealanders paid for a hotel or motel room booked through its website jumped $7 to $146 last year.

The 5 per cent rise means prices rose at more than six times the rate of inflation, which stood at 0.8 per…

No, it doesn't. I've said it before, and really wish I didn't have to repeat it, but there's still way too much FPP arrogance in both Labour and National. Here's a reality check: We've had seven elections under MMP, and the "minor" parties…

The PM has always maintained that he met Donghua Liu at a National Party fundraiser but would never say where. Today, the Weekend Herald can reveal that the fundraiser was actually a private dinner at Mr Liu's $4.75…

Fran O'Sullivan approves. Only the two largest parties are "grown-ups" and questioning authority is just not OK on Planet Key.

Direct quotes from Clare Curran about 'white-anting' for example. Not going to trot out a list for you.

We have to work with each other, not against.

Quite. You'll recall one of the two parties in question suggested that before the election. It's the other one…

[citation needed] I reckon. This is the sort of attitude does no-one any good. If the sniping continues we have little hope of ridding the country of the most corrupt Government we have seen in the history of NZ.…

Could it also be a symptom of Labour attempting to pander to "Waitakere…

And that includes the rest of us, right? Kin g k e y !

Actually, I think it will help National activist's morale. National is run like a business, with a hierarchical structure and a central cabal directing what happens. Signing up to National means doing what you are told by the hierarchy. They set the policy, the members…

Its spelt Lotto.
;-)

ha ha ha! Not

John Key never went to school or Uni then I take it.

The way the law’s written does seem in some ways to be much more of an FPP-style, though. I get why Andrew Little…

It's not hard at all. That's exactly the narrative that National has been selling in the media and through it's puppets for the last 6 years. The only way around it would be…

Because the law says it's five members, being the PM, the Leader of the Opposition, two nominated by the PM, and one nominated by the LotO. It's not just a matter of casually re-drafting…

And there in itself is the problem. That rubs both ways if the media push the buttons.No matter the direction, it isn't helpful if it causes bickering. And people here buy into it. They…

A line the Nats pushed ruthlessly for several years, yes. Helpfully relayed by our feeble media.

The response I got when asking the question was they were deeply worried about what The Greens would do to “business” and in particular farming. It wasn’t a response that came from lack of thought but…

So it boils down to a couple of common…

I dunno if that makes it any better though – Little should have had a campaign manager…

I never really pursued it too much. I can recall comments like, flakey, tree-huggers, all about the trees and not about business and people, going to put huge costs on people, unrealistic, no economic expertise, wanting…

Is it an informal convention?

As I read [[http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1996/0046/latest/whole.html?search=ts_act%40bill%40regulation%40deemedreg_intelligence_resel_25_a&p=1#DLM392268|section 7 of the Intelligence…

What did these voters think the Greens would do, confiscate their houses and…

In my experience it tends to…

Depends on how much money ends up getting involved. Other than…

No it isn't — and I certainly can't disagree with anyone that Gower would benefit enormously from switching to decaf and cutting sugar out of his diet. But I'm getting just a wee bit impatient with folks elsewhere saying it…

From what I can make of it, for most of that time the block lay with the unpaid volunteer who had what was a pretty dumb idea in the first place., Chris Matthews.

Cohen wrote to…

Where one is going to plead in the court of equity one needs to have clean hands.

The passage…

No, they don't. But they don't pretend to either, whereas Labour still thinks it's the big dog it once was, instead of the lost puppy it has become. Does Labour seriously think they could get control…

Spot on.

Sorry.

I was thinking "A barrel of laughs".

Bigger committees don't necessarily get more done. Also it is a security committee so it requires a certain level of adulthood (something rarer than you might hope in parliament).

She must have some unpaid parking fines or something? no doubt National will tell us at some point.

He has more to gain politically by criticising from outside the committee, unbound by its strict confidentiality.

I believe they had Metiria Turei in mind. $2000 jacket vs $50,000 forgotten bank account.

The lack of support for Labour from the Greens has been growing since before the last election and the snide attacks from their supporters do nothing to heal that rift.
I wouldn't consider a snub from Labour as being…

I'm not saying I believe the first part to be true just that I suspect a goodly portion of the Labour party are looking for anyone to blame for their failures other than themselves ... the relationship with The Greens is…

Mr Little said Dr Norman's decision to step down as leader and scale back his political involvement was a factor in his decision. Potential future coalition arrangements also had a part: "The risk is, of course, as we're trying to build the coalition, if I…

I'd have thought Kennedy Graham would have been a…

I suspect it's two fold. First they don't feel that the close relationship with The Greens has helped them win votes for themselves and it certainly hasn't been the magic bullet to kill NACT. Second with the loss of Russel Norman it's more difficult to find…

That’s it, sho’ nuff. They hear the crystal raindrops fall on the window down the hall.
Just the two of us
Building castles in the sky.

Key also appeals to the ‘temporarily embarrassed millionaire’ in a lot of us. It's a pattern also seen…

Sure, but that's quite a different thing. Flying millions of people around the world safely has quite different economics to sending a couple of crazy buggers on one mission.

(BTW, USD6 billion will not get anyone to Mars. The Boeing 787 cost $30 billion to develop, and it gets you to California. Subsonically).

Hopefully the power of positive doing would have something to do with it. I doubt positive thinking is much more effective than negative thinking. :)

Yes, a shame because up until that point he was an atheist and a damned good investigative journalist, if a little prone to subjecivism. He seemed to change when he met his current wife while researching…

Hopefully the "Power of Positive Thinking" will win in the end. ;-)

yes. which is not helped by tired antics like this.

The knockout blow came when Wishart drank…

I hate to sound cynical, but I've seen (and made) any number of similar optimistic statements over the past few years about how…

Indeed, there seem to be connections to Ian Wishart and the main editor is, apparently, one Dermot Nottingham who exposed the Odometer fraud way back. Howling at the Moon, Wishart's publishing company, published a book…

I’m fairly convinced that we’ll only get rid of the Nats when either we have a fairly massive economic crash that hits the average mortgage payer, or Key gives up and gets replaced by someone…

He has never been right-leaning enough for some of the rabid Actoids. Atilla might please em.

Yeah, sorry, I deleted the the links to LF (which potentially put me in breach of a…

Sure is. But Lauda Finem have gone to some trouble to be as anonymous as they can – it almost invites this sort of rejoinder. LF doesn't appear to keen on Slater most of…

Now that is a real low down hate attack site if ever I saw one, nasty.
I cannot vouch for Lauda Finem but the site you linked to seems like an attack on any credibility they may have. It would seem, however that Lauda Finem have links…

point me to one.

why? other threads for that topic.

The latter might happen if Key gets niggled enough -…

Oooh, I found [redacted]

Who is Lauda Finem ? Does anyone know?

His story about a shorter tunnel is nonsense, it starts after…

How good was SkyCity's winnings from that deal? An Australian casino consultant believes the Government significantly undervalued the gambling concessions it finally granted to SkyCity.

The Government's own officials consistently raised concerns as far back as 2010 that the…

It really…

How perfect for the Suppurating City
if you 'sup' with the devil
you get back 'pus'!

In other words, the more BS he promulgates, the harder it is to…

Fair enough and I hope it is all going well for you.

I've been busy!

All…

First, create the perception that you deserve better and Nactional will deliver.
Then create the perception that not everyone is equal.
Then create laws to make money the most valued commodity
Then make sure to protect those who are not struggling…