The Standard

Author Archive

Seymour’s bad faith Treaty policy

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 20th, 2023 - 67 comments

ACT’s proposal to put the potential meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi up for popular vote in a referendum is absurd dog whistling of the worst sort.

Cookers of the world unite

Written By: - Date published: 3:35 pm, September 18th, 2023 - 26 comments

Ryan Hamilton, National’s Hamilton East candidate, has had social media released suggesting that he is against flouridation of water, opposed covid mandates and thinks that covid death numbers were inflated, is vehemently opposed to cycleways and thinks that poor people only drink Raro.

Where are National’s costings?

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, September 16th, 2023 - 19 comments

Despite repeated analysis that its policies do not add up National is refusing to release the costings behind its policies.

National’s enormous tax hole problem

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, September 14th, 2023 - 115 comments

Independent economists have calculated that there is a half a billion dollar hole in National’s foreigner land purchase tax policy.

National is devastated as PREFU is better than expected

Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, September 13th, 2023 - 26 comments

National has reached new levels of excessive hyperbole in response to the PREFU release which was better than expected.

The silver lining of last night’s poll

Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, September 12th, 2023 - 31 comments

The silver lining to last night’s Reid Research poll is that Act’s support is slumping and if there is a change in Government it may not be as extreme as it could have been.

Another Act candidate bites the dust

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, September 11th, 2023 - 24 comments

At this rate Act may not have enough candidates to fill its list of MPs in Parliament.

Why does National not trust teachers to teach?

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, September 10th, 2023 - 34 comments

National has proposed to direct teachers how and what they should teach to improve literacy standards.

Where is NZ First’s list?

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 pm, September 7th, 2023 - 13 comments

With the nomination period closing within a week or so I wonder why NZ First has not published its list yet?

Can’t we have more charging stations AND the clean car discount?

Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, September 7th, 2023 - 18 comments

National’s proposal to increase the number of electric car charging stations is something that should be considered but not at the expense of the extraordinarily successful clean car discount.

National does a big sook

Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, September 5th, 2023 - 51 comments

National, which perfected the art of dirty politics, and which has spent the past couple of years being relentlessly negative and which has had its sock puppets attack individual Labour MPs mercilessly is deeply, deeply, deeply upset that the CTU has pointed out to the public what a Christopher Luxon led Government would actually mean.

National’s credibility is on the line

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, September 2nd, 2023 - 40 comments

When the history of the 2023 New Zealand Aotearoa general election is written and if Labour gets up to win historians will point to the events of this week as the turning point in what has already been a dramatic year in politics. Because I cannot believe how bad National’s tax cut policy release has been researched and structured and how bad its release is going.

Four new taxes and a climate funeral

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, September 1st, 2023 - 30 comments

National’s announcement of four new taxes to fund tax cuts rely on herculean assumptions that will never be met. And their proposal for climate change will undermine the slow but steady progress the country has been making to meeting its emission reduction goals.

Labour should not cut spending on climate change

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, August 30th, 2023 - 22 comments

At a time when the effects of Climate Change are becoming pronounced now is not the time to cut spending on carbon reduction projects.

Hipkins rules out coalition with Peters

Written By: - Date published: 8:18 am, August 28th, 2023 - 27 comments

Yesterday was a good day for Labour.  Leader Chris Hipkins started talking about what the party stood for and what its values are while also ruling out a coalition with NZ First.

Be afraid be very afraid – the next Government could be really strange

Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, August 27th, 2023 - 55 comments

If there was a change of Government the next Government could potentially be full of fundamentalist Christians, anti vaxers and all sorts of people whose view of Aotearoa is not conventional or reality based.

Semour is more like Rimmer than Mandela

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 pm, August 26th, 2023 - 17 comments

David Seymour reached more absurd levels of idiocy this week with a suggestion that if he was alive Nelson Mandela would be an Act supporter.

National’s very bad week

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, August 26th, 2023 - 13 comments

National MP Tim Van Der Molen has been found to have been in contempt of Parliament for aggressive, hostile and threatening behaviour towards Labour MP Shannan Halbert during a select committee hearing.

Education policy and the compulsory teaching of subjects

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, August 22nd, 2023 - 26 comments

The brains trust of Labour’s leadership have recently released a policy providing for the compulsory teaching of financial literacy in schools. Tacking to the centre and seeking votes from the pro business part of the electorate is an interesting approach to campaigning.  Time will tell if it is the correct approach.

This press release was brought to you on behalf of National’s sponsors

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, August 22nd, 2023 - 25 comments

It has been revealed that National issued a press release in support of litigation taken against the Government by a company without disclosing that the manager of the company had previously made significant donations to National.

Later Stuart

Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, August 20th, 2023 - 12 comments

Stuart Nash has given a valedictory speech which could have been delivered by a retiring National MP.

David Seymour should be ashamed

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, August 18th, 2023 - 103 comments

David Seymour yesterday hit a new low in race baiting when he said that “in my fantasy we’d send a guy called Guy Fawkes in [to the ministry of Pacific Peoples] and it’d be all over”.

What is at stake this election – housing

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, August 16th, 2023 - 87 comments

Since 2017 this Government has constructed 12,000 new Kainga Ora houses, overseen record numbers of new housing consents, moved to resolving the housing crisis and stabilised and reduced house prices. All this is at stake if there is a change of Government.

NZ First gets some hefty donations from National donors

Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, August 15th, 2023 - 30 comments

Some donors normally associated with the National Party have recently made significant donations to the NZ First Party.

NZ First and Winston seek anti vax vote

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, August 14th, 2023 - 53 comments

Winston Peters clearly hopes that enough of us have short memories. He was an integral part of the 2017 Government whose Covid policies saw our death rate from the disease amongst the lowest in the developed world.  But now his party is clearly courting the anti vaccination community.

Labour’s GST and WFF policy announcement

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, August 13th, 2023 - 168 comments

As predicted Labour has announced a policy of taking GST off fresh fruit and vegetables and a significant adjustment to Working for Families In House Tax Credit levels and the Thresholds.

Is Simon Court a victim of dirty politics?

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 pm, August 10th, 2023 - 18 comments

When the news about an Act MP being shot in the foot when he was 17 during a drug deal was released I did not think too much about it.  But on reflection maybe there is a story here …

Nanny state National wants to ban cell phones at schools

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, August 10th, 2023 - 62 comments

luxon sheep

National has this propensity of announcing policies that scratch conservative itches, cost nothing and hog media attention. Yesterday we had a classic example of this as they announced that cell phones would be banned at schools.

The difference between Blackrock and China

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, August 9th, 2023 - 4 comments

Some big news yesterday as the Government announced a deal with US Investment Firm Blackrock for a $2 billion fund for renewable electricity projects.

Helen Clark thinks the Government should review commitment to AUKUS

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, August 7th, 2023 - 44 comments

Last week the Government released a document titled the Defence Policy Strategy Statement. Helen Clark has expressed the concern that the strategy suggests that as a country New Zealand is abandoning its capacity to think for itself.

Tree protection for urban trees to be restored

Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, August 6th, 2023 - 12 comments

The Government is set to overturn the previous National Government’s laws that prevented proper protection of urban trees and which has seen a stampede of urban tree removal.