Hosking’s party political broadcasts
Hosking’s pro-Nat rants have been compared to “state TV in China” and “Fox News-style comment”.
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Spinning Key’s India fail
Key’s India trip started off going nowhere fast, and ended up the same way. Gotta love the spin though.
ISIS Crisis
Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee says our training mission to Iraq is undergoing a transformation. We were warned when the troops first went that the mission was always intended to be looser than Brownlee publicly claimed at the time. And so it has turned out to be.
Bennett is PM. We are doomed …
Paula Bennett is currently acting Prime Minister.
Police launch moral crusade against old people
Police subjected a group of elderly people attending a meeting on assisted dying to random breath tests so that they could collect the identities of each person who attended.
Blogs and Activism
What contribution can a blog make to activism?
Ex MP travel expenses – it’s a fair question
Time for another round of fear mongering
Latest fear mongering sounds like a rerun of the jihadi brides lie, which as an editorial summary put it – “raises serious questions about the accuracy of claims made by John Key, SIS boss Rebecca Kitteridge and Security Intelligence Minister Chris Finlayson.”
New Green MP Barry Coates on his first weeks in Parliament
Barry Coates is the new incoming Green Party MP following the resignation of Kevin Hague. Here is his report on his first weeks in parliament, along with his maiden speech.
Workers, unions and the Labour party
Convincing workers not to organise in their own best interests is one of the great successes of right-wing politics.
“The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free”
Some inspiration for the activists in the audience.
Guest post: Swipe right for sexism
Originally posted at Tangerina. This is in response to an earlier column Society, not rugby, needs to change its culture by Peter Jackson, Editor of […]
Darren Watson 2 John Key 0
The Court of Appeal has ruled that Darren Watson’s Planet Key song should not have been banned during the 2014 election campaign.
Clinton vs Trump: Debate 3
We’re almost there, folks! The third and final presidential debate kicks off this arvo. Will Trump turn it around? Will Hillary bother turning up? Will Fox News beome a legitimate news outlet now that they’re allowed to run a debate? All will be revealed at 2 PM this arvo.
Vincent O’Malley: wars we choose to remember and forget
Vincent O’Malley writes at The Guardian about how we should, or don’t, remember the New Zealand wars.
Bernie Sanders on…
Excerpts from a lengthy Bernie Sanders interview published in the ‘New Republic’.
Protecting the seabed and foreshore
With the sudden departure of deep sea drilling company Statoil from Northland here’s a timely look the role of community action in that, the state of play in NZ and what is next.
Key could still win and here’s why
Deep into its third term and despite its many transgressions National still remains relatively popular. What gives?
One Billion Dollars
Treasury papers just released show National’s Housing Infrastructure Fund to be everything you expected it to be: a quickly cobbled together headline.
There goes the surplus
The media last week reported extensively an operating surplus of $1.8 billion dollars. But they missed the not so good news that the value of ACC’s assets took a $5.1 billion hit, the Super Fund lost $2 billion, the Crown’s liability under the ETS increased by $1.5 billion and net Crown debt increased by $1.3 billion.
The Age of the Bitch.
– time for misogynists to feel our anger.
unCOOL
In August Hekia Parata announced her new COOL solution, that distinctly isn’t what it says on the tin.
Now’s your chance to submit your feedback on her proposal.
‘Too busy’
National ministers have a habit of not wanting to turn up to the ‘hard’ questions, but Paula Bennett has been severely caught out by RNZ
Poverty is too difficult in Key’s New Zealand
Key is out of touch. But not so out of touch that he doesn’t know about the poverty crisis in NZ. The denial and evasions are deliberate.
Jill Stein: a Clinton Presidency could mean nuclear war with Russia
Hillary Clinton’s no-fly zone policy for Syria as declared in the second presidential election means air war with Russia.
Working with Helen
I worked with Helen at the CTU for about seven years from 2008.
“This is my act of love” – the shut down of the trans Canadian/US pipelines
The words of the climate justice activists and why they are stepping up.
There is no surplus
In Year Eight of this National government, the idea of a budget surplus is a joke. They’ve promised it for nearly a decade. They’ve fiddled the books. The truth is, there is no surplus.
Helen Kelly: Just plain good
I’m going to miss you, mate.
Housing Corp is running out of money
Housing Corporation is forecast to run out of money by next February if urgent action is not taken.
I see a poverty of ideas and a poverty of Government responsibility
Judith Collins yesterday said that child poverty is the fault of parents and not the fault of her Government.
Government announces watered down version of Labour’s Kiwibuild policy
National is borrowing another Labour-Green policy and has announced a lite version of Labour’s Kiwibuild policy.
The crime spike
Who would have thought that a surge in homelessness would result in a spike in crime, and that a dramatic increase in the number of people with no or compromised housing situations would cause an increase in burglaries, robberies and assaults.
Racist Nats Attack Chinese Grannies Shock!
National have slammed the door shut on the parents of already settled migrants who wish to move to NZ to complete the family unit. Minister Michael Woodhouse accuses elderly Asians of bludging off the NZ taxpayer. You won’t believe the howls of outrage from the right!
Nothing’s Going to Happen.
A wee reflection on our psychological fuck-edness.
The best you can hope for, after the Local Government elections
Now that the local government elections have been completed what is the best that local communities can expect of their elected representatives?