The Standard

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The Trump White House descends into chaos

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, May 12th, 2017 - 80 comments

Recent events suggest that Donald Trump has lost control of his administration.

Mental health problems are a figment of our imagination and the work of anti government protesters

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, May 10th, 2017 - 17 comments

according to Health Minister Jonathan Coleman

A young person’s view on why we have to change the Government

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, May 4th, 2017 - 78 comments

At Labour’s North Shore candidate Romy Udanga’s recent campaign launch a fourteen year old young man spoke about why he wants to work to change the Government.

Government misled families about Pike River

Written By: - Date published: 6:33 pm, April 30th, 2017 - 49 comments

TV3 has released video confirming that the atmosphere in the Pike River Mine was inert and raising major doubts about the claim that the mine was too unsafe to extract the bodies or to investigate the causes.

When a wannabe politician’s social media goes wrong

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, April 27th, 2017 - 10 comments

Over in Australia a One Nation candidate has withdrawn his candidacy after a merciless twitter attack and a photo of him in front of a swasticker mowed into a lawn and giving a nazi salute appeared.

National’s short lived status as a supporter of pay equity

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, April 21st, 2017 - 25 comments

The day after Kristine Bartlett’s and the SFWU’s well deserved pay equity victory the Government has released for consultation draft legislation the effect of which would be to stop similar victories occurring in the future.

Why National had to settle the Pay Equity case

Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, April 19th, 2017 - 45 comments

National is trying to give the impression that it settled the pay equity case out of the goodness of its heart.  The reality is that the Unions forced it to settle through gritted teeth.

National has some strange candidates – Pakuranga

Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, April 18th, 2017 - 86 comments

National is selecting some unusual candidates. One of them is Simeon Brown a devout chrisitian with very conservative views who is replacing liberal National MP Maurice Williamson.

Kia kaha Sonny Bill Williams

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, April 17th, 2017 - 108 comments

Tony Veitch and Mike Hosking are in a lather because Sonny Bill Williams refuses to be a corporate billboard.

Duck and Cover

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 16th, 2017 - 89 comments

Donald Trump is engaged in some over the top brinkmanship with North Korea which is increasing the prospects of at least a limited exchange of nuclear weapons.

Won’t the Government think about the kiwis?

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, April 13th, 2017 - 55 comments

The Government has granted Alpine Pure the right to construct a pipeline through a breeding area for a critically endangered Kiwi so that it can extract water from a Unesco World Heritage site for free.

Craig wins rehearing in Williams defamation case

Written By: - Date published: 5:09 pm, April 12th, 2017 - 18 comments

Colin Craig has had a major success in court with Justice Katz ordering a retrial on the basis that the award of damages by the Jury was excessive.

The United Airlines fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, April 12th, 2017 - 29 comments

United Airlines in America has in the past few days provided a text book example of how a large corporation should not behave.

David Cunliffe’s valedictory speech party

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, April 11th, 2017 - 33 comments

David Cunliffe delivers his veledictory speech today at 5:30 pm. Eanna Doyle, one of David’s most loyal of supporters (there are many tales to tell) will be hosting a veledictory speech party for Aucklanders at his bar at Toucan Bistro in Albany starting 5 pm. The speech will be shown live. Update: Video of the speech added.

A basic primer on the law of defamation

Written By: - Date published: 5:58 pm, April 10th, 2017 - 133 comments

There has been some very confused reporting on the fate of Andrew Little in the Hagaman defamation trial.

National’s Filipino campaign

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, April 9th, 2017 - 29 comments

National’s New Lynn candidate Paulo Garcia appears to be receiving campaigning assistance from the Philippine Ambassador for New Zealand.  Is this appropriate?

National’s response to the Syria attack

Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, April 8th, 2017 - 56 comments

Unlike the Australian and United Kingdom Governments’ response to the American attack has been muted and confused.  Is this just the nature of anything that Bill English says or is it an attempt to assess public opinion before responding?

The sure fire way that a young person can own a house in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, April 3rd, 2017 - 36 comments

The Standard has on your behalf read the Herald’s latest article on how young people in Auckland can own their home and worked out the most important thing a young person can do to buy a home in Auckland.

Conflict of interest what conflict of interest?

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 3rd, 2017 - 22 comments

The lobbying body for fishing industry and Nathan Guy who is the responsible minister think there is no conflict of interest in the lobbying body inheriting huge powers previously held by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

The Auckland Labour list conference of 2017

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, April 2nd, 2017 - 23 comments

Some impressions from the Auckland Labour list conference.

National’s policing problem

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, March 30th, 2017 - 48 comments

National is facing increasing public concern about the ability of the police to do its job properly.

Another reason for water pricing

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, March 28th, 2017 - 19 comments

The Government will be embarassed by another example of a corporation planning to extract ten billion litres of fresh water a year essentially at no cost which has arisen.

What does National do about English?

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, March 27th, 2017 - 51 comments

John Key has claimed that the transfer of power from himself to Bill English was flawless and designed to ensure continuation of National’s rule.  Based on the last couple of opinion poll results he should reconsider his optimism.

This Government’s citizenship priorities

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, March 24th, 2017 - 52 comments

Environmental activist Michael Tavares request for an exceptional circumstances grant of citizenship has been refused by this Government whereas right wing libertarian Peter Thiel’s request for an exceptional circumstances grant of citizenship was granted. Why the difference?

Hit and Run – time for an inquiry

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, March 22nd, 2017 - 21 comments

Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson’s book Hit and Run makes a compelling case for the Government to conduct a full inquiry to see if New Zealand forces were complicit in the killing of innocent men and women and if there was a cover up.

Nothing to fear, nothing to hide

Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, March 21st, 2017 - 14 comments

Todd Barclay has chosen to co-operate fully with the police investigation into his actions by getting a lawyer and refusing to say anything to them.

National’s water problem

Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, March 21st, 2017 - 48 comments

The Government’s timid backdown on water charging is placing it in a very uncomfortable position.

Nicky Hager announces new book release

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, March 20th, 2017 - 160 comments

Nicky Hager’s latest book is to be launched this Tuesday at Unity Books in Wellington.

The media prepares for Key’s final hurrah

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, March 19th, 2017 - 65 comments

With John Key’s imminent departure from Parliament attempts are being made by the media to sum up his reign as Prime Minister.

#Trumpcare

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, March 16th, 2017 - 22 comments

The proposed Republican replacement of Obamacare will, surprise surprise, result in lower benefits, reduced coverage and a tax cut for the wealthy.

Nick Smith is a disgrace

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, March 14th, 2017 - 32 comments

In a functioning democracy Nick Smith’s handling of the Resource Management Bill should result in him losing his ministerial warrant.