Unaffordable housing & the culture of greed
Rental housing remains unaffordable for many. The problem is the greed of investors & speculators, supported by a culture in which housing investment is seen as a way to individual prosperity.
Politics
democratic participation
The Monkeywrench
Some thoughts from a different angle on ‘what went wrong’, or maybe just saying stuff along the lines of what plenty of other people are thinking
The Election That Left One Third of Us Behind
No one should begrudge John Key and the National party the right to celebrate an impressive election victory. It is little consolation to […]
My morning thoughts on the night before
It will take a flax roots, bottom-up, community-based movement to rebuild democracy and a fair, caring and sustainable society.
Greens buoyant
John Key & National’s empty facade – its lack of vision for NZ – has been exposed. Opposition parties have continued to campaign positively, focusing on people, fairness, & the environment. [Update] NZ Herald video
Get clean politics into the Herald
Action Station want to run a full-page ad in the Herald calling on politicians to clean up NZ politics. (Update: only $580 needed! Let’s do it!)
The extent of public interest hacking?
Last year, there was a major hack, in which data from some GCSB staff, parliamentary staff, police, & others were copied & stored in various places globally. Surveillance technologies can be used by both state agencies and its critics. Update: Some 2013 history & Anonymous
“Democracy Under Attack”.
How long before “they” use control of the internet and media to bury adverse information, subvert democracy and vilify and silence those who disagree. “They” are doing it, NOW! A Government no longer has legitimacy, when they regard their own citizens as the enemy.
Child Poverty March
There was a great protest up Queen St today, as 1000-odd people (including me!) marched against child poverty, and government and societal inaction over it.
‘Dirty Politics’ symposium, streaming today
The University of Otago had a symposium on Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics book now. The event has ended but video on youtube: Interviews with Hager, speakers, panel.
Labour’s broadcasting policy: public service TV-RNZ
Labour’s broadcasting policy includes setting up a new public service TV channel, to be located with RNZ, incorporating RNZ values. The Greens are open to the idea. NZ First has a similar policy. Laila Harre makes some good points about public broadcasting and industrial relations. [Update: RNZ report; video clip added]
For a better way…
The NACT way is Not Our Way. We need a better way of governance and democracy. One that is for all the people. I joined the hardy souls who went to the Not Our Way rally and march in Auckland.
Greens, Labour, NZH Hot Seat: coalitions
In the NZ Herald panel interviews, Green & Labour Party leaders come across extremely well. The leaders are confident, considered and ready to govern.
The Left on policies and values
In spite of what John Key & some of the media claim, Labour & the Greens have continued to campaign positively on policies and values throughout the week. The Greens officially launch their campaign tomorrow.
Hi Guyon!
In which I glow in the fame of being mentioned on Morning Report (and answer most of Guyon’s questions) and also encourage turnout in the wake of Dirty Politics.
But the door was open…
The intention of this post is to examine the similarities and differences between the hacking of Cameron Slater’s communications on the one hand, and the hacking of the Labour Party donor database on the other. There are two important issues to determine in both cases and I will cover them separately. The first is the legality of the hacking and the second is the ethics of using the resulting information regardless of whether the obtaining of the information in the first instance was unlawful.
Dirty Politics: The Brestapo
I have foolishly never taken Cameron Slater very seriously except when his attacks have been obviously for the benefit of the National Party. I actually believed that the misinformed and bigoted viewpoints that prevail in his posts were his genuine opinions. It fits his character to drone on about “The Breastapo” “Sucking on the Taxpayers’ Tit”. To discover that such posts were actually written and paid for on behalf of Fonterra actually shocked me.
Roads ‘n’ rules
The Kumeu candidates debate last night covered topics ranging from the very local, to the global: local roads and round-a-bouts, through the internet, poverty, health, jobs and education, to climate change, the TPPA, and the GCSB. Roads and rules were a recurring theme. [updated: stuff video; links to Green Party speeches]
Get out the vote!
11,000+ voters enrolled in the last week – great work, more to be done. For democracy & NZ’s sake, now and in the future, enroll, vote, vote left!
Voters Dunne over in Ohariu
Peter Dunne has been thrown the lifeline he has been begging for – National voters have been given the nod by Key to keep him on. One has to ask why would they bother – I can’t see him going back as a Minister after so many stuff ups and a resignation that leaves too many questions unanswered. Ohariu has a much better option in Labour’s Ginny Andersen – if she’d been there a truly independent Parliament would have delivered mothers 26 weeks parental leave for example. Dunne supported it initially but backed down when it came to the crunch.
State of the left in Aotearoa/NZ
Sue Bradford’s PhD thesis on the Left & Think Tanks, went online this week. It outlines the state of the Left in NZ. Bradford concludes that the Left is strong but fragmented, and identifies some ways forward.
Conservative idiots
The Conservatives have made a complete cockup of their “bottom line” for making a deal with National about going into government. They want to make referendums legally binding on the government. It is something that no rational government in NZ would agree with because it is impossible from several different criteria. Andrew Geddis points out that it is pretty well impossible without changing the legal basis of our government. I just think that the questions for our referendums have been complete crap.
Collective renewal
With Labour, there has been a particular topic on my mind for some time. How to get renewal inside the caucus. Over the last 6 years at The Standard we have had this horrible task of dealing with stupid “leaks” from unnamed sources in the party. As far as I can tell these unnamed leaks are invariably from safe electorate caucus members. I think it is time that party members start to make them feel less safe.
NRT: GCHQ’s bag of dirty tricks
The UK intelligence agency GCHQ has developed sophisticated tools to manipulate online polls, spam targets with SMS messages, track people by impersonating spammers and monitor social media postings, according to newly-published documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The Worm turns: serves the media not democracy
I am really sorry to see the return of the Worm this election. It’s bad enough we have way more polling than we need, interfering with democratic process. Now we have even more of the same, with the way the Worm is to be implemented. [Updated]
Is Bill English’s ‘big data’, Big Brother & privatisation of govt?
Bill English has stated that a third term Key government would majorly reform the government’s budgeting & spending. It’s a major move towards privatisation of public services, & full spectrum digitally-enhanced monitoring of individuals’ lives: especially those of the already demonised and harassed single mothers on benefits.
Tales from the underbelly of John Key’s NZ
The underbelly of John Key’s “rockstar economy” is mostly kept in the shadows, but every so often more tales emerge from the growing numbers of homeless. Vote left & vote the bastards out, this election!
John Key: a tale of two ‘truths’
John Key claimed he didn’t know about the big shift in the US-NZ surveillance relationship in 2009. Now he claims he always likes to be fully briefed on intelligence matters. Robert David Steele points the way from such anti-democratic governance & misinformation, to an open source everything revolution.
Stand up – for an inclusive, caring & sharing NZ
Stand up: fight back: We know what we are up against. We’ve seen the depth of the negative, right wing campaigning. NZ wants and needs better politics, and a more inclusive society.
Internet Party candidate shortlist
The names of 20 short listed Internet Party candidates have been published. The list has a very fresh, diverse, youthful, talented and energetic feel to it. I would need more informaton in order to judge who will be the most effective politicians.
David Farrar badly needs night school
In Kiwiblog this morning, David Farrar appeared to be running a 9th floor pre-pump for John Banks to resign. But I was rather incredulous when I read this “I don’t think the Judge has actually helped the Government by delaying the decision on entering a conviction. Now that it is the Judge’s role to care about the impact on the Government.”. Huh? DPF badly needs to go back to do some adult education. Perhaps to night school?
Polity: Dotcom’s $3 million donation
Kim Dotcom has shaken up the election with a claim his new Internet Party will have a $3 million war chest. The big questions are: is this kind of donation good for democracy, and are left-leaning campaigners hypocrites for accepting it? The answers are respectively yes and no. A politician’s job is to campaign within the rules as they currently stand. They owe no duty to provide their opponents with advantage by pre-emptively limiting their own campaigns.
The coat-tail rule and democracy
Allow me to fly in the face of an accepted truth in NZ politics by saying this: there is absolutely nothing undemocratic about the MMP “coat-tail” rules.
The political beliefs of political reporters
Television New Zealand is requiring political reporters to divulge political affiliation, membership and other political party activity. And John Key attacks TV3’s Linda Clark for allegedly helping the Labour Party. Yet Mike Hosking and Paul Henry are free to trumpet right wing spin lines. See the problem?
Compulsory voting and an explicit “none of the above”
I was listening to Wallace Chapman interviewing Professor David Farrell, from University College, Dublin this morning on Radio New Zealand on compulsory voting which he was strongly in favour of. At one point the discussion veered on to the issue of “none of the above”. I think that this is the key to compulsory voting. Add “none of the above” and “I don’t know”
Save the Poisons Helpline!
National are planning to merge a bunch of health helplines to save money. The 0800 POISON number could be scrapped leaving additional seconds or minutes until help is received in those most urgent of moments.