July 2005

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And here it is- Nationals new sign

by Whaleoil on July 27, 2005

[Imported from Whale Oil Beef Hooked on Blogger]

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Herald Editors find their balls

by Whaleoil on July 27, 2005

[Imported from Whale Oil Beef Hooked on Blogger]

The Herald editorial this morning shows that the MSM may have woken up to Labours BS express train.

I am gob-smacked by their brutality.


Cynicism and desperation abound in equal measure in the Labour Party’s $300 million-a-year pledge to abolish interest on student loans. This is political bribery at its most base. It bodes ill for what is to come during this election campaign.

Only two months ago, New Zealanders were told that, despite a higher-than-expected surplus of $7.4 billion, economic circumstance did not permit the lavishness of across-the-board tax cuts and the like. “The message of Budget 2005,” said Michael Cullen, “is that such large one-off packages [as Working for Families] will be rare over the foreseeable future unless accompanied by expenditure cuts or efficiency gains elsewhere within the state sector.”

Bribes are, of course, part of the landscape of every election campaign. Few, however, are so obviously calculated to buy votes, or delivered so early in the piece. Democracy will be poorly served if this is a harbinger of policies to come.

One wonders if Labour has broken the Fiscal Responsibility Act and cooked the books, just like they did in 1990.

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Is Student Loans the next Kyoto?

by Whaleoil on July 27, 2005

[Imported from Whale Oil Beef Hooked on Blogger]

Labour clearly has not thought through the total impact of their student loans BRIBE.

In their desperate bid to retain the keys to the Treasury benches they have simply implemented policy on the hoof with little thought or research, if any, into the impact.

Stuff who have an article questioning the numbers.

Labour claims the policy will cost $100m in its first year and will rise to $300m a year from 2008-2009.

National yesterday said the true cost of the scheme was between $500m and $600m a year, while ACT put it at $1.1b.

Labour’s costings appear to be largely based on lost income from the interest that graduates will no longer pay to Inland Revenue each year. The interest rate is 7 percent, and last year this earned the Crown $245m.

However, Labour does not appear to have factored in the potential for a rapid uptake in loans once they become interest-free.

National finance spokesman John Key said the forgone revenue from moving to a zero interest rate on student loans would start at about $350m.

“After four years, the taxpayer will have had to find another $3b to $4b to act as the banker offering zero-interest loans to students. After 10 years, that will be around $6b to $7b higher,” he said.

And what does the Duckman have to say about this all?

“All our costings are based on forecasts and assumptions of behaviour”

I hope and pray that the same people who based our Kyoto liabilities on Assumptions and Forecasts are not the same as the ones doing the forecasting on Student Loans.

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The books are cooked!!!!

by Whaleoil on July 26, 2005

[Imported from Whale Oil Beef Hooked on Blogger]

A spokeswoman for Cullen said that Labour, if re-elected, would initially take the money from a $1.9b contingency fund Cullen had allowed for new spending promises.

What!!!

Where was that in the budget?
Where is this coming from if there is no room for tax cuts?
Is this the BNZ all over again?

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Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!!!

by Whaleoil on July 26, 2005

[Imported from Whale Oil Beef Hooked on Blogger]

Fran O’Sullivan lashes Labour in this mornings Herald calling their funding attack a “big lie” and predicting that more victims will be lined up before the campaign is finished.

In reality, Clark controls Labour’s game and it is clear she will trade off any short-term damage to this country’s relationship with the US to stay in power.


However, the big lie has helped Clark reinvent herself as the poster-girl against US bullying.


Clark needs to show she can put New Zealand’s wider interests above her own.

I predict we will see more lies, more bribes and more dirt before this campaign is out.

Labour has more cheek than a fat ladies bum to pretend the election is all about integrity and honesty.

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There's nowt so daft as politicians

by Whaleoil on July 26, 2005

[Imported from Whale Oil Beef Hooked on Blogger]

Lynley Hood has a very interesting article in the Herald this morning. A must read for all.

I have provided an excerpt;


Over the next six pages the means by which these objectives were to be achieved were outlined. These included one page of negative comments about National “to be repeated constantly” (“negative – no policy alternatives, whingers”; “a divided party – couldn’t govern”; “Promises – where’s the money coming from?” “no team to govern”) and two pages of negative comments about National MPs (“key lines to be repeated”).


The recommended lines for National’s “top tier” MPs were: “[Jim] Bolger – not up to being PM – a lame duck leader – weak, boring, timid, gutless – trying to ‘sleepwalk to victory’, repeat other Winston lines”; “ignore McKinnon – ‘Don Who?’ “; “discredit Richardson – inconsistent, expedient (for business comments) – naive, impractical (electorate); [Bill] Birch as ‘shadow treasurer’ “; “destroy Peters – no policies, lacking in substance – arrogant – flashy, superficial – a third party appeal, now fading fast, shrill”.


Advice regarding “second tier” National MPs included, for Doug Graham, “ignore”. There was also a category headed: “Nobble the ‘wild cards’ with some potential” “[Maurice] Williamson ‘arrogant”‘; “[Murray] McCully, ‘selfish’ “).

The paper also advised Labour MPs to: “Take full advantage of right-wing nuts – [Ross] Meurant – [John] Carter – [Graeme] Lee”).


But the proposal that would have made Tricky Dick proud was this: “Create a series of ‘incidents’ to exacerbate National’s problems” (1. Aim at four by Christmas. 2. Develop an action plan, assigning Ministers to follow through specific aims in media strategies”).


Call me naive, but I would have thought that the obvious lesson to learn from all this is that the strategy did not work. So why are they doing it again?

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Labours bribe seen as plug for Brain Drain

by Whaleoil on July 26, 2005

[Imported from Whale Oil Beef Hooked on Blogger]

Labour has moved to plug the brain drain with its pledge to wipe interest from the student loans of those who choose to live in New Zealand, says Stuff.

Mrs Peter Davis said “This will help to retain the highly skilled and well-educated pool of young Kiwis which our country needs to continue to grow and prosper,”

But wait, Is this the same Mrs Peter Davis that mounted a vitriolic attack on Richard Poole, the organiser of a campaign to highlight the brain drain several years ago?

Is this the same Mrs Peter Davis that said there was no evidence of a brain drain?

Well, What is it Mrs Peter Davis? Brain Drain? or Not a Brain Drain?

If it is a brain drain can Richard Poole expect an apology?

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Labour's Tertiary Lolly scramble released

by Whaleoil on July 26, 2005

[Imported from Whale Oil Beef Hooked on Blogger]

Labour released it’s Tertiary policy today announcing that all working New Zealanders are to subsidise the cost of student loans.

By not reducing taxes Labour has said that they have decided that people studying for tertiary education are more deserving than the ones paying the tax to fund this little debacle.

Using this logic the government should subsidise my mortgage interest as the house is an “investment” in my future and why shouldn’t Ma and Pa in Dannevirke help me pay it off.

But wait let’s do some math – if you earn $50k and National drop the 3% off the 33% rate and 2% off the 20% rate bottom tax brackets with their tax rebate on student interest then with a $20k loan (larger than average) students would be $1560 better off. Compare this to the $1400 labour is offering to write off. Thanks to “cap” for his comments on kiwiblog.

The difference is that I along with every other hard grafting, tax paying worker would also get a slice of the pie. With Labours policy only student get the benefit, every other Kiwi gets the bill.

Coming home in the car this was the overwhelming feedback on Talkback Radio. I don’t think that in the hour I was listening there was even one person calling in support of this policy. Callers ranged from parents of students, electricians, plumbers and small business owners.

I think Labour may have won the students but lost heartland New Zealand.

Update: Sir Humphrey’s take on all this. Enlightening reading.
Update 2: Cathy Odgers as per usual has a brutally frank dissertation on this policy, highlights below;

Lets list the groups of NZ voters this proposed policy will marginalise:
1. People who did not go to University and borrowed money for their small businesses. Where is their free money?
2. People who went to University and have paid off their loan in full including interest at approximately 7% for the entire duration of their loan. Where is their tax cut? They will be livid.
3. People who are funding student fees (other taxpayers) and do not get interest free loans for their small businesses.
4. Every expat New Zealander still living overseas. They will all be subject to the interest regime as a punishment for not living in NZ. It is an insult to all of us regardless of whether we had a loan or not.
5. Beneficiaries and low income earners who want to go overseas for a holiday and cannot afford to, yet students will use their interest free money no doubt to do very much the same.
6. First year graduates who will see their friends at University effectively have more disposable cash than they do as the first year graduate is subject to tax on their earnings.

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A case for a defamation action

by Whaleoil on July 25, 2005

[Imported from Whale Oil Beef Hooked on Blogger]

Having just driven past a Labour “Gone by Lunchtime” sign I had a thought….Don Brash could probably sue for defamation as not person party to the meeting that this line was supposed to have come from has said that he said it….in fact they all said the words were never used.

This is clearly more evidence of the lengths, lies and false-hoods Labour is prepared to espouse in their desperate bid to retain power.

Having missed out on being the first woman Prime Minister, Mrs Peter Davis is now trying to be the first Labour Prime Minister to get three terms. The public it seems are enamoured with the “get out of jail early” policies of Labour and are giving them parole at two thirds of our sentence to Hard Labour.

Another interesting juxtaposition is Mrs Peter Davis’ title of her biography Portrait of a Leader. I wonder if she actually “painted” that portrait?

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Top Ten Election Slogans rejected by Labour

by Whaleoil on July 25, 2005

[Imported from Whale Oil Beef Hooked on Blogger]

Thanks to St Molesworth
Mike Williams comments in brackets
Top 10 election slogans rejected by Labour

1. Just tax it. [Too Honest]

2. I liked the flight so much I nationalised the company. [I prefer Qantas, because they still have business class]

3. Tax! Cackle! Pop![Mrs Peter Davis doesn't really cackle, it is more of a shrill, shreik, so not accurate]

4. You’ve never had it so Smarmy. [Mrs Peter Davis is the focus of the campaign and Maharey doesn't airbrush that well]

5. Do the crime, do a little time, get back into cabinet. [again the honesty issue]

6. Tough on success and the causes of success. [hard to define, voter don't identify with it after 6 years of labour]

7. Not everyday people. [liars, cheats, drunks, speeders, forgers, fraudsters and thieves...mmm perhaps not]

8. Have a break, go on the dole. [stay there a while get sick then move to the sickness benefit thereby reducing unemployment]

9. Absolutely, positively, desperate to stay in Wellington. [theres that honesty thing again]

10. Taxpayer funded advertising: millions; extra spending in the budget:
billions; state funded media: priceless. [Do you think we got away with it?]

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