The Standard

Author Archive

The battle of the five political midgets

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, February 20th, 2018 - 102 comments

Steven Joyce and Mark Mitchell have both thrown their hats into the ring for National’s leadership.

The strange case of the Judith Collins support website

Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, February 19th, 2018 - 51 comments

A Back Judith Collins website has been established.  And Collins is denying involvement.

Mueller v Russia

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, February 19th, 2018 - 324 comments

Robert Mueller has laid an indictment alleging that thirteen Russians and three Russian entities illegally interfered with the 2016 American Election campaign.

Strong and decisive

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, February 18th, 2018 - 154 comments

Judith Collins has picked on the campaign term strong and decisive for behaviour better described as brutal and obdurate.

Seymour is dancing with the stars

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, February 17th, 2018 - 33 comments

David Seymour has indicated his commitment to improving ACT’s plight by enrolling for Dancing with the Stars.

Beetrooted

Written By: - Date published: 1:58 pm, February 16th, 2018 - 20 comments

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s future in politics is on the line as he responds to allegations of infidelity, hypocrisy and misuse of Government resources.

Hey Stuart Nash Maui’s Dolphins are approaching extinction

Written By: - Date published: 2:16 pm, February 15th, 2018 - 74 comments

Stuart Nash is considering cancelling the roll out of monitoring cameras on fishing boats. For the sake of Maui’s Dolphin I hope he changes his mind.

Then there were three

Written By: - Date published: 3:54 pm, February 14th, 2018 - 39 comments

Amy Adams has announced that she will also be seeking the leader’s position of the National Party.

No Bridges Bridges announces he will seek National leadership

Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, February 14th, 2018 - 20 comments

Simon Bridges has announced that he too will be seeking the National Party leadership.

Crusher wants to crush

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, February 14th, 2018 - 90 comments

Judith Collins has announced that she is running for National’s Parliamentary leadership.

Was the political hit on Chris Bishop an inside job?

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, February 12th, 2018 - 158 comments

The disclosure of Chris Bishop’s snapchat engagement with young teenage females raises the question of who leaked the information to the media and why.

The problem with Charter Schools

Written By: - Date published: 12:38 pm, February 11th, 2018 - 296 comments

The Government is moving to stop the creation of new charter schools and require existing charter schools to integrate with the public system.

Doofus of the week

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, February 10th, 2018 - 100 comments

Doofus of the week is Bob Jones for spouting racist nonsense that would have been embarrassing in the 1960s let alone now.

National is united

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, February 9th, 2018 - 76 comments

National is united. There are no murmurings about leadership and Bill English’s and Paula Bennett’s positions are secure.

Trickledown …

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, February 8th, 2018 - 17 comments

Over in America Republican intellectual genius Paul Ryan tweeted how a School teacher who will receive $1.50 extra per week because of Republican tax cuts was grateful for the increase. But it did not go down well …

National claims credit for Waitangi Day

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, February 7th, 2018 - 58 comments

National is claiming some credit for the success of Waitangi day. But the things they claim credit for are because of decisions of others, not the National Government.

Waitangi day

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, February 6th, 2018 - 84 comments

By engaging with and showing respect for Ngapuhi Jacinda Ardern has transformed Waitangi Day from a day of dissent to a day of celebration.

The 2017 General Election electorate expense returns

Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, February 4th, 2018 - 27 comments

Last year’s electorate expense returns have now been made public.

Middle east Teenagers

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, February 2nd, 2018 - 60 comments

In the middle east a Palestinian teenager is detained for a minor assault and for protesting the occupation of her country.  And three Israeli teenagers are apparently trying to sue two New Zealand residents for exercising their rights of free speech.

Poor Paula’s position’s in peril

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, February 1st, 2018 - 25 comments

Speculation is rife that Paula Bennett’s reign as Deputy Leader of the National Party may be under threat.

Bye Bill?

Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, January 31st, 2018 - 82 comments

Barry Soper is claiming that the numbers are being done on sorting out a replacement for Bill English and Paula Bennett may be gone as deputy leader as early as next week.

National’s drug conscience

Written By: - Date published: 7:06 am, January 31st, 2018 - 35 comments

Helen Kelly championed the liberalisation of drug law to allow those suffering from significant ill health to have access to cannabis for medicinal purposes. National is still struggling with the concept despite it having overwhelming public support.

Bill your pants may be on fire

Written By: - Date published: 1:48 pm, January 30th, 2018 - 118 comments

Bill English has criticised the Government for only offering an officer briefing on the day that legislation is due to be introduced into Parliament.  But appears to have forgotten an offer made by Jacinda Ardern 48 days ago.

Doofus of the week Anniversary Weekend edition – Damien Grant

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, January 29th, 2018 - 43 comments

Damien Grant wins the latest award for penning a column where he claims that University education is a great folly of modern life, contributes surprisingly little to our economic well-being and does not prepare graduates for work.

Manaakitanga

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, January 27th, 2018 - 74 comments

Jacinda Ardern this week expressed the hope that this Government will bring back Manaakitanga, in other words to show respect, generosity and care for others.

Employment Relations changes announced

Written By: - Date published: 1:28 pm, January 25th, 2018 - 20 comments

The Government has announced changes to the Employment Relations law which on the whole are positive and beneficial for workers.  But following New Zealand First lobbying the 90 day fire at will provision will be retained for small firms.

Revised TPPA to be signed?

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, January 24th, 2018 - 218 comments

Radio New Zealand is reporting that Canadian concerns about the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement have been addressed and the agreement is scheduled to be signed in March.

Jacinda to attend Waitangi day ceremony at Waitangi

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, January 23rd, 2018 - 29 comments

Jacinda Ardern has announced that she will spend five days at Waitangi leading up to Waitangi day to make full use of the time when people are gathered there to meet together as a government that wants to form open transparent relationships.

Auckland Council by election hypocrisy alert

Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, January 22nd, 2018 - 13 comments

The National candidate for the Maungakiekie Tamaki Auckland Council by election is complaining that if the Labour candidate wins it will trigger a costly by election. But he is ignoring the fact that the three current by elections have all been caused by National endorsed local government representatives resigning.

Obstructionist losers

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, January 21st, 2018 - 50 comments

Despite controlling all three branches of the Government the Republicans have failed to get a funding bill passed and the US Government is facing shut down.

Shock horror right wing think tank thinks NZ not very democratic

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, January 18th, 2018 - 74 comments

National’s cheerleaders are pushing an international report which suggests that New Zealand’s democratic system is only slightly better than average in world terms.  But the organisation behind the report and the methodology used need some checking.