National claims credit for Waitangi Day
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.
political parties
nz first
The 2017 General Election electorate expense returns
Last year’s electorate expense returns have now been made public.
Poll Watch: Reid Research Poll 2018-1-31
Newshub recently released the latest poll they commissioned from Reid Research. Let’s dive into some analysis of what this means.
National’s drug conscience
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.
Employment Relations changes announced
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.
Jacinda to attend Waitangi day ceremony at Waitangi
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.
Can This Government Regain Power on Its Policies?
The sixth Labour led Government has made a good start to its term. But what policy results will New Zealand have to vote for and campaign on in 2020?
What will 2018 bring for National?
What are National’s prospects this year? Will Bill English survive as leader? Will there be resignations and a clean out of the front bench? Stay tuned …
The Medicinal Marijuana Bill
Will the Medical Marijuana Bill just introduced into Parliament be as effective as proponents wish?
The Herald is obsessed with the latest Colmar Brunton poll
The Herald’s weekend political comment includes detailed analysis of the Colmar Brunton poll, now a week old, but ignored the details of the mini budget.
National needs a friend
National is pondering one of the realities of MMP. Without friends its chances of becoming Government are very limited.
Latest Comar Brunton poll result
The latest Colmar Brunton results just released suggests that support for the Government parties is stable and support for Jacinda Ardern is surging.
Shane Jones and work for the dole
Shane Jones has muddied a perfectly good job creation policy by talking about work for the dole.
Once again: National lost the election
A rebuttal of Nick Smith’s claim to have “won the 2017 election, but lost the coalition negotiations.”
Latest Roy Morgan Poll – Labour and Greens surge as National flounders
The first post election Roy Morgan poll result has been released. Labour and the Greens have surged and National has gone backwards.
Can Ben Mack please make his mind up
Herald lifestyle columnist has published two recent opinion pieces, the first wondering if Jacinda Ardern will be able to address the many and varied problems the country faces and the second suggesting that the Government is under the control of the extreme right. Can he please make up his mind.
This TPP…
Some aspects of the TPP no-one’s mentioning.
Suck it up political sleazers.
Winston Peters has launched a legal fishing expedition to identify who exactly breached privacy on his superannuation over payments. A problem that he shares with about 50 thousand other pensioners. Unlike them, his problem wasn’t trying to find money to repay it. It was that the breach was deliberately timed to be a classic dirty politics ploy, almost certainly by National, in the leadup to the recent election. I wish him good fishing.
Let’s do this
With a change of Government it is a time for a change in the public entities that run New Zealand.
The new cabinet
Details of the new cabinet have been announced.
Say goodbye to roads of national significance
National’s roads of national significance programme looks to be no more with an early casualty being the East West Link in Auckland, which per kilometre was destined to be the most expensive transport project the world has ever seen.
Labour – NZFirst deal details announced
Details of the Labour – NZ First coalition agreement have just been announced.
The new cabinet
Details about how the next Cabinet may be made up are emerging. Winston Peters may regain the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as being Deputy Prime Minister.
NZ First: We could and should be doing better
NZ First chose to be inside Cabinet in a full coalition. I’d rather expected that they would choose to be in a confidence and supply agreement as they did with Labour back in 2005. That they decided to take the risk despite their previous experience with National is a stunning level of trust. But they work well with Labour.
Jacinda Ardern’s speech
If you missed it last night – Jacinda Ardern’s first speech as PM elect is everything that we could want and expect. But the take-home line of the drama belongs to Winston Peters.
We have a Government
NZ First have chosen to support Labour to form the next government of NZ and have secured a coalition deal. The Greens are in the process of making a decision about a Confidence and Supply deal before they make an announcement. Matthew Whitehead writes about what the options are and how Confidence and Supply agreements can work.
Today is a win-win with Winston
It appears that Winston is about to announce the decision of the NZ First party about their coalition partner today. For those who seem to think that coalitions should be formed with rapidity, they simply shouldn’t. That is the path to making stupid decisions, and I am yet to hear a single good reason to do it.
Another day
Just watched the “waiting for Winston Peters” live feed from Stuff. It sounds like the NZ First board know what they want and now there will be a bit more negotiation with both major parties to get closer to what the NZF board were after. They are heading back home leaving the politicians to finish up.
Updated: Winston in one-on-one talks with Bill and Jacinda last night. Looks like it is getting serious.
This is the day *
* but delays are possible.
Every body wants to rule the world
D day approaches. What will happen? Will we have a decaying toothless National Government moderated by coalition with New Zealand First or will we have something more exciting?
Last day of talks
It’s the last day of coalition talks (probably). Peters has certainly created big expectations of “change”, but what they will mean in practice is still anyone’s guess.
Green options
If the Greens prioritise change over power, then the whole ‘they have no leverage’ rhetoric becomes less important than the fact that the Greens are necessary to form government but still have choices in how they participate in that.
Politics or Policy?
Policy is everything, Winston Peters said today. This should not be a surprise. Before every election, he has refused to give any hint of Party support preference until after the vote. But he will have thought a lot about what he might want, as it has long been clear that his Party would decide the outcome. So what are his policies?
Why Labour may form the next Government
The prospects of a Labour led Government have improved dramatically following the release of the final election results.
And the final result is …
The final election results have been announced with Labour and the Greens each picking up an extra seat.
Coalition of liars
The right wing clobbering machine is already calling a possible Labour Green NZF a “coalition of losers”. Well under MMP a coalition of losers can be the winners. But however you cut it a coalition of liars will always be liars.