Remember this?
Pascal’s Bookie dug up this classic in the comments: Congratulations…. You always knew that politics would be exciting, but I guess that neither […]
Politics
democratic participation
Equality Trust
Fancy a link to a well laid-out repository of comparative social statistics with sound credentials, all arranged to demonstrate why inequality is bad […]
The Good Oil: Blast the Right
God knows you’ll never hear this sort of stuff from the transnational corporate duopolies that are our erstwhile msm, so many thanks to […]
$15 minimum wage, it’s only fair
The campaign for a $15 an hour minimum wage is gathering pace. Initially, Unite kind of set out on their own on this […]
Right by accident?
We’ve been pretty hard, although justifiably so, on Colin Espiner recently and I’m loath to do it again. He does put himself out […]
Battle to keep MMP set to heat up
It’s a pretty special situation where you get praise just for not cheating but John Armstrong heaps it on Simon Power today. Power […]
Do you want a republic?
Republicanism is a funny issue. Politicians tend to agree that it is inevitable that “at some point” NZ will become a republic, but […]
Condoms and democracy
Have to disagree with Zet’s call for Labour to ‘just put it away‘ on the remit to conference calling for subsidised condoms in […]
Let’s have a proper debate
Larry Baldock (organiser of the “smacking” referendum) has decided to launch a petition for another referendum on whether such referenda should be binding. […]
Politically illiterate authoritarian git
There are an interesting couple of posts over at Red Alert about an editorial in the Dominion Post yesterday. Grant Robertson describes it […]
Beating lobby loses the plot
Beating lobby spokesman Larry Baldock appears to be losing the plot now that it’s dawned on him that his gaming of the smacking […]
Snake oil
I’m surprised that the Maori Party have rolled over so easily on the issue of Maori seats on the Auckland council. I will […]
Referendum results
I can’t say I’m all that surprised about the results of the ‘smacking’ referendum. As any good pollster will tell you, if you […]
Wellington fundraisers
Two cool fundraisers coming up for the Greens and Labour. The Greens are holding a screening of Kiwi ‘s The Age of Stupid, […]
Stand up for free speech, stand against Bully State
As you know, when Natasha Fuller and Jennifer Johnston spoke up against the Key government’s cancelling of the Training Incentive Allowance, Paula Bennett […]
Uncowed
Shh. Hear that sound? It’s National’s mud throwing machine gearing up again. Inevitably, they’ve released Labour’s ministers’ spending. No evidence of any rort but […]
DL Dannevirke (I kid you not)
The Drinking Liberally empire keeps on growing. Tomorrow there’s an event in Wellington, and Dannevirke, the newest chapter, has its first event on […]
Linton Kwesi Johnson: FITE DEM BACK
Chilling effect
I’m frankly a little surprised at the way the media and The Herald especially has jumped on the attack the victim bandwagon in […]
Coverage round-up: Bully Bennett
Sean Plunkett: Being vocal in a democracy shouldn’t mean you lose your rights and protections under the law. Tracey Watkins: “The Privacy Commissioner […]
Left needs to unite in Supercity race
A UMR poll out yesterday suggests that Len Brown, currently mayor of Manukau, would be the Left candidate with the best chance of winning […]
Fighting the dittoheads
One of the great strengths of the Right is that the rank and file supporters are such slavish followers of their leaders. It […]
Should a…
www.should-a.com, a website “created for the express purpose of openly mocking the citizen’s initiated referendum aimed at The Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment […]
Nats attack workers’ right to protest
I am outraged to learn that the Department of Labour told its employees they were not allowed attend the pay equity rally at […]
Hiding to nothing
Did anyone else detect a whiff of desperation in Family Fist’s PR offensive today championing the case of a man who lost control […]
What is campaigning?
As widely predicted, Christine Rankin is continuing to cause embarrassment for the government. She is now succeeding in making the Prime Minister look […]
The mask slips
The child beating lobby launched its “Vote No” campaign site today. They’ve worked hard in this campaign to present themselves as regular Kiwis […]
‘Supercity’ Select Committee Submissions Workshop
The University of Auckland’s Political Studies Department is hosting a free public workshop presented by Rob Thomas to assist people interested in making submissions to […]
On referenda and democracy
I have to disagree with the guest post below, which argues that because citizens’ initiated referenda tend to be brought by groups peddling […]
Do citizens-initiated referenda hamper democracy?
It’s hard to argue with the idea of referenda. What could be more democratic than citizens deciding precisely what issues the New Zealand […]
After the shake-up
Ever growing numbers of workers aren’t playing the old game any more. Shawn Hattingh has a good piece over at znet documenting some […]
Can’t you play off to one side?
Last year a small number of truck companies held the ‘truck strike’, they got 4000 trucks to jam the CBDs of every major […]
McCarten hits the mark
Matt McCarten makes some very valid points about the lack of democracy within political parties in his Herald column today. Using the Lee […]
NACT prefer to have a filibuster
The ongoing filibuster is highlighting the intransigent nature of the NACT government. NACT ministers are getting annoyed by having to remain at the […]
Has anyone asked them what they think now?
Moana Mackey has been looking at old Hansards in a post on Red Alert. The topic was the Local Government Act changes in […]
Have your say, make them listen
The government has announced its legislative plan for the supercity in a press release from John Carter, rather than Rodney Hide whose arrogant mishandling […]