frogblog

Ok, so as speeches go the atmosphere is not quite Barack Obama in front of faux Greek pillars, but it’s a pretty clear annunciation of why Russel voted to censure Winston Peters.

True to form, the National Party has released a forestry policy that leaves Labour’s policies completely unchanged, but whinges mightily about the RMA. What a yawn. The now familiar recipe goes like this;
Ingredients:
1 Labour policy (ripe)
1 cup of meaningless statistics
1 National Party spokesperson
1 cup of self-righteous bile
standard seasonings
Implements:
A dark, damp closet
1 re-usable RMA reduction casserole […]

Here’s some more from Question Time in the house yesterday.  The government has a longstanding position that Country of Origin Labelling on food is not a food safety issue and so it refuses to protect consumers’ right to know where their food comes from. That assertion that the safety of food has nothing to do […]

Following on from No Right Turn’s analysis of what we stand to lose from a trade deal with the USA, Russel asked a couple of questions of the Acting Minister of Trade in Parliament today:

Dr Russel Norman: Will the Minister publicly guarantee that he will […]

Well I’m pleased and grateful to admit that I was wrong and the Privileges Committee did find against Winston Peters.  I only saw a portion of the evidence and being a frog rather than lawyer obviously did not weight it properly.
It was disappointing to see that the committee voted along party lines.  It would be […]

Winston the Blogster has had enough of the media. He suggests you
Leave your TV or radio switched off, save that money you’d otherwise spend on a newspaper.
Vote uninformed? No if you must know what’s going on he gives further advice:
Or, if you’re interested in politics and want to make an informed decision this election, […]

I cannot believe that I am typing this, but I have the feeling that Winston Peters, via his lawyer’s testimony to the Privileges Committee today, has just wriggled off the hook. Even Rodney Hide was squirming in his seat as Mr Henry detailed a plausible version of events where Owen Glenn rings Peters, who rings […]

Wallace Chapman of TVNZ7’s Back Benches programme gave a not too subtle hint to the Nats that they really might want to front up to the programme again, despite the disastrous policy gaffes and leaks of the last few weeks. On this week’s show, he opened with:
National have declined to be on the show for […]

The Minister for the Environment, Trevor Mallard, was not in a very talkative mood this afternoon.   Russel asked him during question time if he was concerned that dirty dairying in New Zealand is now “gaining international notorietyâ€?, as stated in Rural News on 29 August; if so, does he agree with comments in […]

There has been a whirlwind of interest and speculation as to why the National party pulled support at the last moment for a Maori Party amendment to the Emissions Trading legislation.
The amendment would have inserted a clause giving effect to the Treaty of Waitangi as well as a targeted review of the effect of the […]