In Kiwiblog this morning, David Farrar appeared to be running a 9th floor pre-pump for John Banks to resign. But I was rather incredulous when I read the following paragraph... I don’t think the Judge has actually helped the Government by delaying the decision on entering a…
The main NZ news outlets are reporting on the new digital speed cameras about to be progressively installed around the country. They report it as an improvement that will enable more accurate and efficient recording of people who drive above the speed limit. They fail…
Meet Australia's President of the United States, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the instigator of a wink-related scandal. He sometimes puts his foot in his mouth and other times chooses to say nothing at all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3IaKVmkXuk 665,777 page views. Reminds me of a time meeting Richard…
Reposted from here, No Right Turn looks at the Greens policy on abortion. http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-greens-support-abortion.html The Green Party has ratified a formal policy on abortion, making it the only party in Parliament to have one. It would legislate to decriminalise abortion and protect the right to…
I see that Labour announced the restoration and increase of the Adult and Community Education (ACE) funding that National slashed back in 2009 and largely killed the programme throughout much of the country. Damn good idea. This used to be a vital step up for people and…
Justice Wyllie's decision has been released and if you have ever worried about the independence of our Judiciary this decision should remover all concerns. He has drafted a simple yet comprehensive review of the evidence and his conclusion is IMHO logically faultless and damning of…
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It says a lot about the morals of this government that they're willing to continue to rely on the vote of a man who has been found guilty of electoral fraud. But Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee's happy with the outcome, with Banks not…
It was standing room only at a packed Grand Hotel this evening for Hamish McDouall's campaign launch - "the biggest crowd they'd ever had at the Grand." One local told me of very good canvassing reports as well. Hamish gave a great speech - as…
The decision is out and John Banks has been found guilty of electoral fraud. I will post a link to the judgment and some analysis later. Basically the Judge must have thought that Banks knew about the donations and engineered things so that the campaign treasurer…
This afternoon Justice Wyllie in the High Court at Auckland is expected to announce his decision on the guilt or otherwise of John Banks of the charge of falsely declaring that donations from Kim Dotcom and Sky City were anonymous. This is a criminal trial…
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Earlier today David Farrar breathlessly announced that Labour had decided to remove the electoral coat tail rule. He declared this as being unconstitutional and said this: This is absolutely appalling. A Government that will ram through major electoral law changes under urgency, probably with no select committee hearings,…
Rather predictably the media is starting to imply that the difference in policy between Labour and the Greens concerning which system is best to address climate change is a sign that they cannot work together. A recent Fairfax article titled "Labour opposes Green's Carbon Tax plan" contains…
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The original of this post is here. Now that's she's done putting prisoners in containers and crushing boy-racer's cars, Judith Collins is trying to rob us of our free speech on the internet through the Harmful Digital Communications Bill. The bill would make hurting someone's feeling…
Scott Yorke at Imperator Fish opines on electorate seats and inter-party relations. He generously allows us to repost. It’s all about the party vote. Electorate contests can be distracting, because in most cases they will be irrelevant to the result. A few electorate results will be…
Rob Salmond nails it. Bomber is going a bit nuts and demonstrating his grasp of reality in politics. Last week's developments around Internet MANA have caused much conversation on the left in New Zealand. Some of that conversation has been constructive, strategic, and forward-thinking. And then…
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Far away from the media circus that surrounds the Internet Mana Party coalition the Greens have made a useful contribution to the debate on what should be New Zealand's response to climate change. The proposals are: A goal of net carbon neutrality by 2050. The establishment of…
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An article in the Herald on Sunday reports on some newly released files have been declassified, and made available for public viewing at Archives NZ in Wellington. I haven't seen this reported elsewhere, but the article includes some bits of information that I didn't know…
This morning on Q&A, the right’s anointed spokesperson of the left, Josie Pagani, came out swinging at David Cunliffe over the Internet Mana Party’s use of the MMP coat-tail rule. “If [David Cunliffe] really means he’s going to stand behind Labour values and a candidate…
Reposted from Polity. via Stuff: Kim Dotcom has shaken up the election with a claim his new Internet Party will have a $3 million war chest. That pledge was revealed yesterday as the party confirmed its new leader was former Alliance leader Laila Harre. Electoral…
The Herald is predicting that Russel Norman will today at the Green Party conference announce a new climate change policy, one that possibly involves the proposed scrapping of the Emissions Trading Scheme. According to Isaac Davidson: The Green Party are losing hope in the Emissions…
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