A bill designed by Mike Sabin has resurfaced this week. The intention is to take away the right to silence by allowing a Court to draw an adverse inference if someone choses to say nothing when facing certain charges. This proposal needs debate.
Changes being considered at Google have far reaching implications. Who gets to decide what is true?
The Sunday Star Times has reported on the set up and reach of the Waihopai Spy Base. Key’s statement that the GCSB does not have the physical capability to conduct mass surveillance appears to be not true.
Nicky Hager and the Herald have reported that the GCSB has been collecting data en masse from New Zealand’s pacific neighbours and handed it over to the Americans for inclusion in xkeystore.
There’s a fascinating article in the latest New Statesman titled “An Empire that speaks English: the right’s dream of a new world order.” Suddenly UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond’s recent visit here makes sense. So does John Key’s references to sending troops to Iraq on behalf of the “club” or the “family” – he’s at the heart of the Empire.
It has been claimed that Andrew Little has advocated for Maori to have law making powers. What he has done is reflect on a recent Waitangi Tribunal decision which concluded that Maori never ceded sovereignty to the Crown and properly concluded that this is an issue that needs to be considered.
Political Scientists Bronwyn Hayward and Mark Boyd were interviewed on Radio New Zealand yesterday on New Zealand politics in 2014 and what happened during the election. They talked extensively on dirty politics, on the role of the media and how things can be improved in 2015.
I think it is a pity that the currently dominant country / culture in the world, America, has had such a short history.
The recent handling of Charlie Hebdo by the Standard and by Kiwiblog provides a startling contrast. And neatly underlies the reality that the left wing blogs are in no way just the same as the right wing blogs despite what John Key may say.
On the eve of Christmas in a cynical attempt to avoid political damage the Government has apologised to Andrea Vance for breaching her rights of privacy in 2013 after requiring Parliamentary Services to hand over her metadata and attempting to cover up the exercise.
I’m sure it’s true, but…
No one should begrudge John Key and the National party the right to celebrate an impressive election victory. It is little consolation to […]
John Key and National let the GCSB spend 12 months on plans to conduct our mass surveillance. Without telling us. And he intends to release the details now only for political considerations. Without Glenn Greenwald’s presence we probably would never have learned about this.
They’re at it again. David Farrar has a guest post from fellow VRWC member Charles Finny about FiveEyes, arguing that it’s kept us safe in foreign wars and Labour did it too. Which of course is not the point of the current debate about massive government surveillance of innocent citizens. Farrar then gets himself tangled in knots – if Dotcom is right Labour did it too – but he’s not of course says Farrar.
In a series of tweets Giovanni Tiso has highlighted important issues concerning the relationship between the media and National as disclosed by Dirty Politics.
There is a self-appointed “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” in New Zealand. Odgers and Slater are key members. Search VRWC on Slater’s website and you’ll find their activities. After Pansy Wong’s forced resignation from Cabinet for misuse of her travel perk the VRWC thought the National Cabinet needed “some serious steel going forward.” You can read the minutes of their virtual white-board session on post-it cards – the rifts at the top are deep and nasty.
Tim Watkins has written a piece on Labour’s Best Start policy.
Down in the comments were the most incredible remarks I have read in support of the policies.
The speaker; Rt Hon Sir Edmund Thomas, a Distinguished Fellow at the Law School at The University of Auckland, argues that the gross inequality in income and wealth which besets New Zealand is the outcome of the neo-liberal economic measures of the mid-1980s and early 1990s and the culture of liberal individualism and unfettered free market ideology which it spawned.
The stop the GCSB Bill meeting in Auckland last night was well attended and had a series of high quality presentations made. A series of protests are planned for this weekend. Momentum is building …
If the left had to pick one word to describe the essence of its political philosophy, that word might be “fairness”. If the right had to do the same that word might be “freedom”. Labour MP David Clark considers the balance.
So, some Republican Senator has become the first of his ilk to, um, come out in favour of marriage equality after he learned his son is gay. Apparently, this is just lovely. The man wrestled with his prejudices and his Christian love and tolerance won. Yay! Bullshit. This just shows that the black hole where the heart of the Right should be is their inability to empathise.
There have been various Kiwi taxonomies – attempts to label and describe social types in NZ. In comments Ad proposed this interesting one, highlighting the tensions created by inequality. Thanks for permission to post it…
In the slow summer break, here’s a slow, thoughtful speech to ponder. David Lange’s last public appearance, “Old Faiths New World”, delivered at the University of Otago on 5th August 2004.
We tend to rework reality, included political knowledge and understanding, into a basic (fictionalised) story structure, with villains, heroes, and values absorbed from pleasurable forms of fiction, including TV. This is a look at the political values embedded in some popular TV dramas.
The estimated population of New Zealand reached 4,444,444 on the 1st of November 2012. Nothing special other than a rare moment of symmetry in an otherwise random and chaotic world. It is an opportunity to ask a pretty basic question: what is the ideal population for New Zealand? We can’t keep growing our population forever, nor would it make us richer if we did so. When is enough enough?
Draco gives his long awaited second part on his views on a social democratic economy.
..the present socio-economic system that we use, namely Free Market Capitalism, is a failure. When thinking about the economy and how it works I realised I had to go back to basics as almost everything that’s taught about economics in the mainstream theories is bollocks – most of its assumptions aren’t even close to being realistic.
Deborah Russell’s piece in the Dominion Post sets out some constructive thoughts on welfare.
Hey Labour – here’s three words for you. Fair, inclusive, positive. You’ll win the next election, and the two after that.
A somewhat meandering and personal response to the disillusioned, prompted by Scott Yorke’s recent “Why I’m Out”.
Many of those who participate in the comments here at The Standard also run their own excellent blogs. We regularly feature No Right Turn and Imperator Fish Today we’re reposting (with permission) pieces from two other blogs that attracted some attention in Open mike recently. Here’s the second one, from The Political Scientist…
Five to fifteen years of economic turmoil. Peak oil. Climate change. For “Western” / OECD countries it’s time to start creating a world based on a different kind of growth.
Austerity: another great idea brought to you by the same people who got us into this mess. But some economists are able to think outside the orthodoxy: There Are Real Alternatives. See you at The Voyage.
The Greens have singled out Key and Bennett for scathing personal criticism. Another sign that The Greens are becoming a mainstream political party? Can’t argue with the results, but I must admit that I find it all faintly depressing.
