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Budget day

Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, May 18th, 2023 - 49 comments

Today is Budget Day with the proceedings kicking off at 2 pm.

National's Policy Machine is a thing to behold

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, May 16th, 2023 - 99 comments

National’s latest policy brainstorm is to print out and mail to every taxpayer information they could obtain by using Google and MyIRD.

Luxon’s days are numbered

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 pm, May 14th, 2023 - 70 comments

The latest TV3 Newshub poll results are out. The major parties are neck and neck.  No surprise there. But what is stark is the public response to Christopher Luxon. Basically he is tanking.

Iwi Kiwi 2.0

Written By: - Date published: 1:53 pm, May 10th, 2023 - 54 comments

In 2005 the National Party went full on racist with attacks on supposed Maori privilege which almost won the party power. Looks like they are going to try this tactic again.

Kerekere quits Greens

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, May 6th, 2023 - 65 comments

Elizabeth Kerekere has announced that she is quitting the Green Party, will stay on as an independent and not stand again at the next election.

Meka Whaitiri is moving to the Maori Party

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, May 3rd, 2023 - 138 comments

Meka Whaitiri has quit Labour and confirmed that she will stand for the Maori Party in this year’s election.  She intends to stay on as an MP and sit with the Maori Party.

Fuel efficient cars and National’s tacky little culture war

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, May 3rd, 2023 - 36 comments

Recent days have provided a further example of why Aotearoa’s response to climate change has been compromised by politics.

National keeps making shit up

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, May 1st, 2023 - 33 comments

National has been caught out misrepresenting official data by claiming that 19,000 nurses had left public health when they knew that the figure includes transfers between health boards and the number of employed nurses actually increased by 4,108.

National’s weird tenancy policy announcement

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, April 30th, 2023 - 73 comments

This week Chris Bishop announced National’s landlord policy and made the extraordinary claim that making evictions of tenants easier was a progressive pro tenant policy.

Why a Capital Gains tax is necessary

Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, April 27th, 2023 - 186 comments

With the release by David Parker of a report showing that  the wealthiest New Zealanders pay tax at much less than half the rate of other Kiwis is it time to again debate the virtue of a comprehensive Capital Gains Tax.

The Murdoch’s very bad week

Written By: - Date published: 12:58 pm, April 23rd, 2023 - 16 comments

The Murdoch family’s decision to pay record damages to Dominion Voting Systems and to capitulate in its defamation case against Cricky Media suggest that they have had a very bad and a very expensive week.

Much ado about nothing

Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, April 22nd, 2023 - 44 comments

Right wing twitter thought it was onto something big yesterday after there were revelations that Human Rights Commissioner Meng Foon had donated funds and cheap premises to Kiri Allan’s election campaign in 2020.  But there was one rather significant problem with this expose, he had also donated to the National candidate in the same election.

National despairs as inflation rate drops

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, April 21st, 2023 - 36 comments

Yesterday Statistics New Zealand dealt a rather large blow to National’s election chances when it announced that the latest rate of inflation was 6.7%, a significant drop below the previous rate.

Stephen Jack is cancelled by the National Party

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 pm, April 20th, 2023 - 28 comments

So National has yet another candidate problem. His name is Stephen Jack and he clearly has difficulties in negotiating reality.

National’s problem with its candidates

Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, April 16th, 2023 - 58 comments

Another day, and yet another report a National candidate has done something really stupid.

Three Waters becomes Affordable Water

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, April 14th, 2023 - 72 comments

Three Waters mark two has been announced.  And Kieran McAnulty has given a text book example of clarity in political speak when making the announcement.

What does Luxon think about minimum wage increases and holidays?

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, April 13th, 2023 - 47 comments

It is hard to reconcile Christopher Luxon’s deep christian beliefs with his desire to trash Easter Sunday as a holiday or to refuse to support increases in the minimum wage.

What is UK Labour doing?

Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, April 8th, 2023 - 28 comments

In the United Kingdom Keir Starmer’s faction are exerting their control by moving to the centre and adopting policy positions very similar to the Conservatives.  And by refusing to allow Jeremy Corbyn to stand as a Labour candidate in the next election.

Go well Jacinda

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, April 5th, 2023 - 91 comments

Today is Jacinda’s official last day on the job as a member of Parliament.

RMA reform will not solve the climate crisis

Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, April 4th, 2023 - 25 comments

National has proposed RMA reform as the basis for accelerating the roll out of renewable energy generation.  It appears that it has never met a problem for which the solution is either a tax cut or RMA reform.

We should have a chat about Artificial Intelligence

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, April 2nd, 2023 - 36 comments

As we adjust to the advent of civilisation threatening climate change there is a new threat that is emerging, the unregulated development of artificial intelligence.

Nash is goneburger

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, March 29th, 2023 - 42 comments

Stuart Nash has been summarily sacked from Cabinet after an email to donors emerged indicating he had told them about sensitive Cabinet discussions on issues concerning them.

The real reason New Zealand’s literacy standards are tanking *

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 27th, 2023 - 42 comments

* the answer is National Standards, the effects of which are still being felt.

Debating with nazis

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 pm, March 24th, 2023 - 278 comments

So Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull aka Posie Parker is coming to Aotearoa New Zealand and intends to spread her message. Wikipedia describes her as someone who “has used posters, billboards, stickers, and social media to promote anti-trans messages, and she has organized events in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia that have been protested by […]

Climate change – the final final warning

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, March 22nd, 2023 - 78 comments

The latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change has synthesised reports on the climate crisis from hundreds of scientists over the past eight years and has boiled it down to one message: act now, or it will be too late.

Submit!

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, March 19th, 2023 - 10 comments

What sort of city do you want to live in? If you do not wish to live in a city that is going backwards environmentally, artistically and socially then please submit on Auckland Council’s Draft Annual Budget.

Wailing and Nashing of teeth

Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, March 16th, 2023 - 66 comments

It is pretty clear to me that leaders acting tough and beating up on members of their team leads to political advantage. I realised this back in 2010 when my mate Chris Carter succumbed to intense personal pressure and did a couple of silly things. Then leader Phil Goff went to town on Carter who […]

Making s%*t up

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, March 15th, 2023 - 41 comments

Is it just me or is Mike Hosking becoming more unbalanced?  The recent misrepresentation of a speech from Deborah Russell would suggest that he is getting worse.

The great policy bonfire

Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, March 14th, 2023 - 45 comments

Chris Hipkins continues with his shock and awe campaign and has torched a number of policies that National and Act were using to foment unrest.

Luxon slumps in latest Colmar Brunton poll

Written By: - Date published: 6:18 pm, March 13th, 2023 - 57 comments

The latest One News Kantar Poll result has been released and it is a doozie.

Triangulating climate change

Written By: - Date published: 8:12 am, March 7th, 2023 - 78 comments

Yesterday morning there were suggestions that the Government would properly address climate change by placing greater emphasis on public transport and walking and cycling.  But by the afternoon the proposition had been watered down.