Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, November 1st, 2015 - 54 comments
There is a catastrophic event happening in one of the world’s more populous nations which is receiving very little attention from the media. Indonesia is burning and no one is paying attention
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, October 30th, 2015 - 34 comments
Amnesty International has published a report “By Hook or by Crook: Australia’s Abuse of Asylum-Seekers at Sea” which has rightfully been described as a damning indictment of Australia’s handling of the refugee crisis. But New Zealand benefitted from payments of money to people smugglers. What did the Government know?
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, October 27th, 2015 - 87 comments
The right used to state that politics should be kept out of sport. With John Key politicising the All Blacks to an obscene it may be time for them to reinforce what now appears to be a very reasonable principle.
Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, October 25th, 2015 - 44 comments
Kelvin Davis’s recent visit to Christmas Island has revealed that New Zealand citizens are living in shocking conditions. And meanwhile John Key’s talk of giving the Australians a “blunt message” appears to have had negligible effect.
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, October 24th, 2015 - 14 comments
The Auckland Energy Community Trust triennial election is currently under way and complaints have been made about C&R advertising of the payout to beneficiaries which they are entitled to as a matter of course. And some ill discipline amongst the right gives the City Vision candidates a real prospect of success.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 23rd, 2015 - 64 comments
Paula Bennett has uncovered the most significant risk that New Zealand faces. Or has she?
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, October 21st, 2015 - 124 comments
Tony Veitch has caused a major social media response by posting a comment which suggests that he is a victim of a bad relationship and not guilty of inflicting domestic violence.
Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, October 20th, 2015 - 90 comments
The latest Colmar Brunton poll shows that the opposition block is solidly ahead of National. Yet One News chose to concentrate only on the preferred Prime Minister result and attack Andrew Little because of marginal change.
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, October 19th, 2015 - 22 comments
There are rumours that National is looking to organise a new regional ticket, Future Auckland, to contest next year’s local body elections in Auckland.
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, October 18th, 2015 - 186 comments
The last fortnight has not been a great time for Labour when it comes to the TPPA. But a couple of imprecisely worded comments may have had far too much read into them. And the left and the media may have fallen into a trap set by the right.
Written By: - Date published: 2:48 pm, October 15th, 2015 - 17 comments
Christine Fletcher has penned an open letter to Phil Goff where she criticises in trenchant terms super city’s current performance and offers some thoughts on where improvement can be made.
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, October 14th, 2015 - 91 comments
The Government books have hit surplus. But it looks like treatment of the financials for the Canterbury Earthquake may account for pretty well all of it. Update: Underspending on special education accounts for much of the “surplus”.
Written By: - Date published: 12:39 pm, October 13th, 2015 - 61 comments
The High Court has upheld Jane Kelsey’s application for a declaration that the Government and Tim Groser improperly considered her application for information concerning the TPPA negotiations.
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, October 13th, 2015 - 40 comments
Radio New Zealand has reported that Paul Rebstock, chair of the Government appointed committee engaged in the review of Child Youth and Family, is being paid $2,000 a day to perform her job. This is the equivalent to the daily pay of thirteen social workers.
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, October 12th, 2015 - 35 comments
Terrible news from Turkey where over a hundred protesters have been killed by explosions at a peaceful protest organised to seek an end to the violence between the Kurdish separatist PKK militants and the Turkish government.
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, October 11th, 2015 - 69 comments
Communications Anat Shenker-Osorio has some simple messages for Labour in its quest for Government. The left’s strongest advantage is its care for people rather than the economy and the message that will resonate is a positive one emphasising the care of people and the environment.
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, October 10th, 2015 - 22 comments
In March of this year National recycled a private member’s bill that Mike Sabin originally championed. The bill if enacted would have permitted a Judge to draw an adverse inference from a defendant facing child sex abuse charges exercising the right to silence. The bill was in the list of private members bills released on […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:34 pm, October 9th, 2015 - 26 comments
Auckland Council yesterday passed some seemingly non contentious resolutions requesting for the text of the TPPA to be released and seeking a response from the Government about resolutions that had been passed a couple of years earlier. But the resolutions were opposed vigorously by right wing councillors who then complained about the time and expense the debate consumed.
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, October 8th, 2015 - 25 comments
A young Auckland Green, Renée Rose Annan is fundraising to travel to the Paris Conference on climate change.
Written By: - Date published: 7:28 am, October 6th, 2015 - 163 comments
The TPPA has been agreed to. Dairy access improvement is minimal, there will be a cost hit on Pharmac and every industry but Tobacco will be able to access the investor state dispute resolution procedure.
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, October 5th, 2015 - 41 comments
Hekia Parata has announced that student achievement and not need caused by poverty will be a central part of any future funding system.
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, October 5th, 2015 - 288 comments
The TPPA is said to be close to being concluded with resistance to change in Pharmaceutical rules being provided by Australia, not New Zealand. And John Key says that the deal isn’t a very good deal for Dairy.
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, October 3rd, 2015 - 13 comments
This week we have had the release of the Priestley Report into the escape of Phillip Smith which details a litany of problems within Corrections and overnight there have been reports of rape and assault on a person moved from segregation in Serco managed South Auckland Correctional Facility. But no sign of Corrections Minister Sam Lotu Iiga. Where is he?
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 30th, 2015 - 88 comments
National’s announced intention to create a marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands looks remarkably like Labour’s policy from the last election. And why did John Key not tell his caucus beforehand?
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, September 29th, 2015 - 27 comments
There is hope that the cumulative effect of all the international pledges for the Paris climate change conference may buy the world some time to prevent runaway global warming. Some countries are pledging to becoming carbon neutral. New Zealand’s pledge is pathetically weak in comparison.
Written By: - Date published: 1:49 pm, September 28th, 2015 - 34 comments
The Rebstock Panel inquiry could be read to confirm that Child Youth and Family is unable to perform its job properly because of it is not properly resourced to provide the job. But it is clear that National is loathe to provide it with any more resources. And the elephant in the room is that the Government fails to understand that escalating child poverty is the cause the crisis.
Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, September 27th, 2015 - 103 comments
Mass redundancies at the Herald have been described as a blood bath and are clearly having an effect on its quality. Such is its quality there is a question whether the political column this morning was written by a part time travel writer or by Heather du Plessis-Allan.
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 27th, 2015 - 66 comments
The Government this week proposed at considerable expense the purchase of a couple of panda. But at the same time the Government is again proposing to allow the drilling for oil in the habitat of Maui’s Dolphin which is facing extinction.
Written By: - Date published: 7:23 am, September 25th, 2015 - 276 comments
The Green’s agreement with National to allow for Red Peak to be a referendum candidate potentially helps John Key out of a major difficulty and raises issues about the state of the Labour-Green relationship.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, September 23rd, 2015 - 26 comments
The Government has admitted that at least some of the loopy rules mentioned by Paula Bennett in support of the Loopy Rules review do not actually exist.
Written By: - Date published: 12:18 pm, September 22nd, 2015 - 35 comments
Ioane Teitiota lives with his family in New Zealand, he works in New Zealand and his children were born in New Zealand but he does not have residence in New Zealand. The Government wants him to return to Kiribati even though that Island is suffering from climate change. Updated with comment from John Key.
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