It’s not been surprising to see National’s dirty tricks machine groan back to life over the last week to attack Cunliffe.
And you’ll not be surprised to know more is due over the next few days.
What is surprising is just how hamfistedly they’re doing it.
You’ve seen the candidates. You know where they stand. So grab your ballots and vote!
There’s been some recent speculation on the affiliate vote. Some of it’s trolling some of it’s just plain misinformed.
That said, it’s an interesting issue, and one that I’ve a few thoughts on myself.
The contest for the leadership of the Labour party heralds a new era of democracy for the Labour party, and for New Zealand, and people are quite rightly excited about it.
As I’ve said before, this is a great opportunity to bring unity to the party and to get a head-start on the election campaign.
With a new leadership race there’s now a real chance to bring the Labour party together to fight the good fight against the right.
Stuff’s polls aren’t usually known for their left-wing bias. Indeed there’s a tendency for them to pitch the other way. Which is why I clicked on the results button for their latest (self-selected) poll with some trepidation. after all the question was “Should doctors be encouraged to question unemployed patients on their career goals?”
In its submission on the Pike River bill, New Zealand’s second largest mining company has told Select Committee that workers can’t be trusted to look after their own health and safety, and everything’s just fine the way it is.
But at the same time one of their mines has been partially closed due to a safety hazard.
The Herald is reporting that more that 51% of Kiwis are in favour of giving beneficiaries with kid the Working for Families tax credit.
That’s right, just over half of New Zealanders polled wanted to give beneficiaries more money despite twenty years of active demonisation of beneficiaries by the right.
The Herald is reporting that the SkyCity deal to increase human misery pokie machines in exchange for a white elephant convention center was done at 8pm this evening.
Just in case you don’t know, Danyl’s book, Unspeakable Secrets of the Aro Valley, is now available for pre-order.
Personally I’m in awe of anyone that can manage to write a whole goddamn novel, especially a good one. And I reckon this will be a good one. I’ve got mine ordered – you should too.
New Zealand voters like strong politicians. And today Russel Norman showed he’s a strong politician – a fighting liberal.
For perhaps the first time since John Key took power, someone has had the guts to stand up and blame him directly for the corrupt government he’s been running.
As of this afternoon United Future is no more.
That’s because the party can’t reach the 500 member threshold required to maintain its status as a political party.
When even the notoriously right-wing NZ Herald Editorial is pleading for Meridian not to be sold (just now), you know that the government’s asset sell-down is in trouble.
But the Herald assumes that getting the best dollar possible is the plan here.
It’s not.
A recent survey of two thousand Kiwis show that a third cannot afford to heat their homes properly.
That’s a third of the population who are vulnerable to illness, whose children are at risk, and who are being left behind as the electricity companies continue their price gouging.
This is why we need NZ Power.
That’s what Mighty River stocks closed at today. Down on their issue price within ten days.
I had heard that National’s internal polling was showing they were becoming vulnerable on social equity issues. For some reason New Zealanders are coming to think of them as a government that looks after its rich mates at the expense of everyone else
Over at Kiwiblog David Farrar’s having a big cry about the Greens indicating they’d legislate against the dodgy contract this government has struck with Sky city. To David, the property rights conveyed by contract law are paramount above all other rights. Including the rights of the people of a sovereign nation to direct a government to exercise their will.
Rob Stock at the Sunday Star Times reports that National plans to dump state housing on NGOs and flog land to developers.
National are governing for their rich mates again.
Well Key’s cornerstone policy, the one that many commentators claimed was him showing his mettle, has come to fruition. And it’s such a poison chalice he didn’t even have the guts to show up for the big reveal in person (spoiler: less than half the number of people who signed up to oppose asset sales signed up to buy).
The EPMU has won back millions of dollars of back-pay for workers at Tiwai point after taking a case at the employment authority.
Aaron Gilmore, eh? He’s clearly finished in the National Party. Not for the view he expressed when he threatened to get a young waiter sacked, but because by doing so he’s lifted the veil on the carefully covered elitism that drives the national party’s agenda.
A year ago the nats announced massive changes to employment law. And then they went quiet.
Now with a new Minister of Labour they’ve decided it’s time to move.
I’m not surprised that the finance crew are so upset about the gently social democratic policy that is NZ Power (the latest stupid claim is that it’ll mean higher mortgages). But what is surprising is the way in which they’ve made it very clear that they believe the economy should be geared toward the wealthy elite
Sean Plunket’s piece on NZ Power wasn’t quite what I expected. After invoking the usual grim vision of the 1970s (although I swear I detected a slight wistful nostalgia) he breaks out the following conclusion…
The NZ Power policy is the most significant break from the neoliberal political consensus we’ve seen for a long time.
Which is why it’s likely to draw a lot of fire from the elite. Let make sure there’s a lot of push back.
I knew John Key was getting desperate, but really?
Weapons of Mass Destruction?
How stupid does he think we are?
First they got down on their knees for a massive American movie studio and negotiated away oodles of taxpayer dollars and our employment law for movies that were always going to be made in New Zealand…
Rather than add my two cents to the debate about whether she’s up to the job or not (she’s clearly not), I’d like to point out that this is essentially Judith Collins telling liberal New Zealand it can go f**k itself.
Given this fact, the question to ask isn’t so much why put such an unqualified person in such a sensitive position so much as why does Collins feel the need to yell “look at me” so loudly right now?
I’ve just been alerted to the fact that Danyl from the dimpost has a novel out called Unspeakable Secrets of the Aro Valley.
Four hundred thousand people don’t want asset sales. In fact they don’t just not want asset sales they want every voter in New Zealand to have the chance to cast a vote for or against asset sales. And National wants to discredit them.
The government has released the Hobbit documents. The Ombudsman ordered them to. The full release is available at stuff and what stands out (apart from the insistent and narcissistic tone of every film industry correspondent) is the fact that Peter Jackson himself noted the “do not sign” advice from the union was being called off. TWO DAYS before he went public with his “evil union” story.
A few quick thoughts on the Labour reshuffle.
Claire Trevett is picking Annette King to take health in a Labour party reshuffle
Despite boasting so frequently of how tough he is and how weak liberals are, Richard Prosser chickened out of face a few nabie-pambie liberal’s at the Aro community hall.
If only he’d extend that no-show to parliament. For good.
For those of you who’ve missed it Colin Espiner is back on the NZ interwebz with a new Stuff blog, the (rather earthily titled) Bull-Dust. Colin was a bit of a pioneer of journalist blogging in New Zealand. He was, I believe, the first Gallery journalist to run a proper blog and certainly the first to get in amongst it in the comments sections.
It’s not often I agree with Judith Collins but when she describes Richard Prosser’s racist filth as an “international embarrassment” I couldn’t agree more.
