David Shearer

After David Shearer’s lacklustre speech, filled with flubs, false starts and bombed lines it was the turn of John Key..and he let rip.

But the best sledge in his speech was this one:

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Labour and Greens have been leaking their 2013 budget over the last 12 months.

Owl’s Observation

Affordable homes $3.5 billion
Andrew Little raid on ACC Fund to pay for Christchurch $3 billion
Greens printing money $3.5 billion
NZ power company raid on super profits $4 billion
Total: $14 billion.  Read more »

Politicians love using weasel words…these are the words that  they drop out all the time that can’t and won’t get them in trouble.

“No plans” is a classic weasel words statement by politicians.

“No plans” is nothing but a convenient way to avoid being straight with the public and heading off potential political attacks. It might serve the politicians well, but it insults the public and needs to be eradicated.

Which brings us to last week’s report by Infrastructure Australia into asset sales to funding public works.

The federal government’s infrastructure body published a $220 billion wish list of asset sales in the states and territories.

For NSW, the stand outs were the publicly-owned utility, Sydney Water, and the Snowy Hydro, which is jointly owned by the NSW and other governments.  Read more »

8 Labour MPs accepted corporate box tickets to the RWC from Sky City.

If they’re so evil, why did they accept?

Perhaps they could explain:

Grant Robertson?

David Shearer?

Clayton Cosgrove?  Read more »

And the Greens are out in front of David Shearer already promising to renege on the Convention Centre deal.  Labour will follow.

This would leave ratepayers and taxpayers paying for the centre, and the compensation.  The Greens/Labour are opposed to all investment, except if it involves them spending taxpayer money.

Unbelievable.

Party Co-leader Metiria Turei says extending SkyCity’s operating license to 2018 is unconstitutional and a breach of Parliamentary sovereignty

“As a result we are calling John Key and SkyCity on their bluff. We can and we will legislate to repeal this dirty deal and we won’t be threatened by John Key or SkyCity with this contract.”  Read more »

SkyCity has built in a compensation clause into the contract.

It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that Sky City would want compensation if a future Green/Labour Government renegs on the Convention Centre deal.

After seeing how cavalier the Greens and Labour were in destroying savings and value with their recent economic sabotage, any investor would want to be sure the rug’s not going to be pulled out from under them by that bunch of vandals.

The Green/Labour proxies are even issuing legislative threats via their blogs.  Read more »

I thought Shearer’s comments were a bit rich.

Labour leader David Shearer said John Key failed to show leadership by not calling Gilmore to get an explanation.

“The prime minister has just left it alone. He’ll pick up the phone to talk to somebody to get him a job in GCSB but he won’t pick up the phone to actually talk to his own MP. I find that extraordinary,” Shearer said, referring to Key’s call to old family friend Ian Fletcher over the top job at the Government Communications Security Bureau.  Read more »

Fran O’Sullivan outlines her thoughts on the Green/Labour power sabotage:

It’s blatantly obvious that Labour and the Greens have been attempting to short the returns the National-led Government expects to receive through next week’s Mighty River Power float.

Yup, and the gloating of the likes of Gareth Hughes in his now infamous Hey Clint moment was brutally apparent.

[T]ilting at the style of the political intervention and asking the two parties to withdraw their interventionist plan is a waste of space. Not because of their own rationale in doing so (this was soundly based). But because Labour leader David Shearer and Greens leader Russel Norman don’t give a damn about such requests at the midway point of the electoral cycle.

The 10 leading business lobbyists – including major leaders such as BusinessNZ’s Phil O’Reilly and the Chamber of Commerce’s Michael Barnett – who sent a public letter to Labour and the Greens this week – know this in their bones.

They know that the two parties are “not for turning” (at least in the short term). It makes political sense for the politicians to damn the power companies as rapacious commercial beasts, led by overpaid directors and chief executives who will suck all the spare cash out at consumers’ expense.

This tactic works well for Labour and the Greens with their own political power base. Their supporters hate fat cats. Demonising the power company bosses could rile them enough to ensure more of Labour’s and the Greens’ voting base actually turn up to cast a vote in 2014. Or so the hope goes.  Read more »

The ALP is struggling to recruit members. It seems there is simply no reason at all to join the party. it is probably why so many ratbags are rising to the surface.

Labor party membership is plummeting and people don’t see a reason to join the party, Labor elder John Faulkner says.

“Party membership is not only declining in number but it is ageing,” Mr Faulkner, who was part of a Whitlam Institute panel in the western Sydney suburb of Parramatta, said.  Read more »

Patrick Gower asks if Kim Dotcom should be extradited. I prefer rendition. Nevertheless this is not a matter for public opinion it is a simple matter of international law but 3News are trying to run the public opinion angle hard:

3 News can reveal the United States’ most powerful lawyer, Attorney-General Eric Holder, will visit New Zealand next week.

He’s responsible for trying to extradite Kim Dotcom to face copyright charges, and will attack that issue head on while here.

Mr Holder is in charge of the Department of Justice. The buck stops with him when it comes to Dotcom’s extradition to the United States.

He’ll be here next week, speaking at the University of Auckland on a highly relevant topic: cyber crime and international cooperation.

Obviously, Mr Holder wants Dotcom back in the US to face copyright charges.

But 3 News asked 1000 Kiwi voters what they thought, and, while 48 percent said Dotcom should stay, almost as many – 42 percent – said he should go, extradite him. The rest didn’t know.  Read more »