The Standard

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The Green Party on the Mosque murders

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 29th, 2019 - 194 comments

Recent criticism of Marama Davidson and Golriz Ghahraman over their drawing links between racism and the Mosque murders is misplaced.

Did Hanson’s One Nation Party seek funding from the NRA and the Koch Brothers?

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, March 27th, 2019 - 23 comments

Pauline Hanson’s One Australia party is trying to defend claims that it should funding to oppose gun restrictions from the NRA and the Koch Brothers by stating that its chief of staff was drunk.

WTF Free Speech coalition?

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, March 26th, 2019 - 564 comments

The Free Speech coalition has attacked the Chief Censor’s decision to rule the Christchurch Mosque killer’s manifesto as objectionable as an attack on free speech.  But the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties has characterised the Censor’s decision as being entirely conventional.

Reform of the SIS

Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, March 25th, 2019 - 60 comments

Following the Christchurch Mosque murders there are strong calls for an inquiry into the SIS. But should it be given more power or should it be reformed to remove a pretty clear blind spot.

The trouble with Facebook

Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, March 24th, 2019 - 79 comments

The Government and some major corporations have called for changes to Facebook in the way it operates.

The power of compassionate politics

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, March 20th, 2019 - 205 comments

Jacinda Ardern has shown over the past week that she is one of the country’s best leaders.

National’s unfortunate misstatement about its migrant petition

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, March 19th, 2019 - 76 comments

National has been caught out in what is euphemistically called a misspeak about when it took its odious anti UN Migration pact petition down from its website. It said it was weeks before the Christchurch murders but it appears the petition was still live after the event.

Mike Hosking’s unusual take on the Christchurch massacre

Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, March 19th, 2019 - 137 comments

Mike Hosking has delivered an analysis of the Mosque murders that omits saying the massacre occurred in a mosque or that all the victims were of the Muslim faith or that the terrorist was a right wing extremist.

DPF does the right thing

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, March 18th, 2019 - 101 comments

Kiwiblog comments have been turned off as David Farrar grapples with how to handle a crisis concerning hate speech.

Lets ban assault weapons – now

Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, March 18th, 2019 - 284 comments

The Government needs to urgently change the law to ban the sale of military style semi automatic weapons.

The trouble with hate speech

Written By: - Date published: 1:02 pm, March 16th, 2019 - 319 comments

Yesterday’s terrorist attack which has resulted in 49 kiwis losing their lives highlights issues brought up by the tour of New Zealand by Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux and the debate about if hate speech should ever be tolerated.

Ardern backs students striking for climate change

Written By: - Date published: 7:43 am, March 15th, 2019 - 70 comments

Jacinda Ardern has publicly supported the School students strike about climate change and urged them not to underestimate the power of their voices.

Simon Bridges is distancing himself from Simon Bridges

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, March 13th, 2019 - 44 comments

Simon Bridges did the remarkable thing yesterday of distancing himself from his own party over events he had major involvement in.

Landlord advocates threatening rent increases if Labour wins next election

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, March 11th, 2019 - 288 comments

A landlord has advocated that all landlords should threaten to increase tenant’s rentals if Labour wins the next election.

The tax debate – Dogwhistle time

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, March 7th, 2019 - 111 comments

National has resorted to race baiting in its attempt to denigrate the Tax Working Group’s proposed capital gains tax.

Young people and climate change

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, March 6th, 2019 - 50 comments

School students are planning national protests against climate change on March 15, 2019. The response of some politicians to this news is less than optimal.

National’s Tax review strategy

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, March 5th, 2019 - 107 comments

The Government is not due to announce its response to the Tax Working Group’s recommendations for a few more weeks. It appears that National using outrageous assumptions will take the opportunity to raise horror stories in the media on how bad the tax could be.

The Green’s electoral law reform petition

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, March 4th, 2019 - 389 comments

The Green Party’s launching of a petition to seek changes to the electoral system has met with some Trumpian style rhetoric from the right.

Kim Hill eviscerates Chris Christie on National radio

Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, March 3rd, 2019 - 54 comments

Chris Christie agreed to be interviewed by Kim Hill about his recently released book. It seems like he did not know what he was letting himself in for.

National’s Maggie Barry problem

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, March 3rd, 2019 - 25 comments

The Herald has reported that there has been concerns at Maggie Barry’s behaviour towards staff has been raised on three separate occasions. And Parliamentary Services is at the suggestion of the Auditor General investigating claims of misuse of Parliamentary Services resources.

Lies damn lies and tax analysis

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, March 2nd, 2019 - 67 comments

National’s claim that a capital gains tax would reduce the value of an average worker’s Kiwisaver account by $64,000 over a 45 year working life seems to be as valid as Steven Joyce’s claim there was an $11.5 billion dollar hole in Labour’s draft budget.

Brownlee forced to withdraw ad with fake data

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, February 28th, 2019 - 32 comments

Gerry Brownlee has been obliged to withdraw a Facebook ad about tax bracket creep after it was discovered he had used grossly overinflated figures.

From dirty politics to compassionate politics

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, February 28th, 2019 - 43 comments

Newshub has revealed that Jacinda Ardern instructed her ministers not tp publicly discuss National’s problems with Jami-Lee Ross.

Why New Zealand needs a capital gains tax

Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, February 27th, 2019 - 249 comments

Expert comment suggests that a capital gains tax will redress inequality, improve the economy and make housing more affordable.

Tamihere has some strange friends

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, February 26th, 2019 - 20 comments

John Tamihere has been endorsed by Jordan Williams for Auckland’s mayoralty. And his campaign has commissioned the Taxpayers Union to do a cost cutting exercise.

Daily Review 25/02/2019

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, February 25th, 2019 - 25 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Spare a thought for our poor impoverished landlords

Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, February 25th, 2019 - 225 comments

Spare a thought for poor landlords who are aghast at the thought that they should have to share capital gains on properties they have purchased with no intent of making a capital gain.

All hail our computer overlords

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, February 24th, 2019 - 34 comments

IBM has staged a debate between an IBM computer and the world debating champion. The human won but the debate suggests that it may be just a matter of time … and the computer had remarkable things to say about poverty.

It’s the kiwi way

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, February 22nd, 2019 - 74 comments

National is engaging in hysterical levels of hyperbole in its response to the Tax Working Group’s reform package.

The handling of Pike River evidence was diabolical

Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, February 21st, 2019 - 30 comments

The Pike River families have released an internal police document describing the handling of evidence from the crime scene as diabolical.

23 dinosaur councils refuse to sign Climate Change commitment

Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, February 20th, 2019 - 78 comments

Thames-Coromandel mayor and former National Party MP Sandra Goudie has called a request to sign up to LGNZ’s Climate Change declaration irresponsible at the same time as the Council has entered a coastal inundation notation on the titles for a Retirement Village development it issued consent for.