Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, February 2nd, 2026 - 9 comments
National has allowed Shane Jones to effectively veto the country signing up to a road map away from the use of fossil fuels supported by much of the world that was consistent with current policy settings.
Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, February 1st, 2026 - 61 comments
Current polling suggests that we may witness something that has not happened before, a one term National Government. But this may mean Labour making a deal with Winston Peters. What should Labour do?
Written By: - Date published: 7:57 am, January 30th, 2026 - 14 comments
2026 school lunches are just as bad, but they are also emblematic of Seymour’s spin and facade
Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, January 29th, 2026 - 9 comments
A year after the Government slashed a third of Health IT jobs the Auckland hospital system has suffered a massive IT outage.
Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, January 28th, 2026 - 43 comments
Australia’s media covers the nefarious rise and links of Atlas Network in Australia and NZ.
Written By: - Date published: 6:55 am, January 26th, 2026 - 268 comments
How misinformation and lies created the environment for battle in the US and elsewhere
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, January 25th, 2026 - 47 comments
Ten months to go and there is no political party currently countering the sustained rise of New Zealand First.
Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, January 23rd, 2026 - 59 comments
Carney’s observations of the rupture in the world order and great power rivalry are mirrored in NZ politics.
Written By: - Date published: 3:55 pm, January 21st, 2026 - Comments Off on Atlas NZ Inc: we are (the) good guys
When holding out an olive branch to the Left in your Right hand, you should also show the other hand.
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, January 21st, 2026 - 16 comments
Donald Trump invited Christopher Luxon to join a new organisation to oversee the redevelopment of Gaza and eventually the replacement of the United Nations. How should Luxon respond?
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, January 20th, 2026 - 17 comments
Christopher Luxon’s latest State of the Nation speech suggests that over summer he has been spending more on his Spotify summer list than he should have.
Written By: - Date published: 3:24 pm, January 18th, 2026 - 16 comments
When intensely watching the orange orangutan in the White House we miss the invisible gorilla in the oval room.
Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, January 17th, 2026 - 10 comments
Christopher Luxon is extracting utu on Chris Bishop for his pre Christmas attempted coup by making Bishop eat humble pie on his plans to allow intensification in Auckland’s inner suburbs.
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 pm, January 16th, 2026 - 26 comments
To understand what’s going on in Iran, abandon what the Persians invented centuries ago: Manichaeism, black-and-white, political framing.
Written By: - Date published: 12:18 pm, January 16th, 2026 - 17 comments
The attack on the NZ Reserve Bank is lock step with Trump.
Written By: - Date published: 3:01 pm, January 15th, 2026 - 4 comments
The merger of many functions of the central public sector concerned with cities, the environment, housing and urban development, and transport, was announced in the week before Christmas and is now underway. There’s plenty of good on the face of it.
Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, January 15th, 2026 - 27 comments
Winston Peters has attacked the REserve Bank Governor Anna Bremen for publicly expressing concern about politically inspired Department of Justice attacks on US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.
Written By: - Date published: 9:36 am, January 12th, 2026 - 6 comments
Mountain Tūī Opinion and Analysis on New Zealand’s “C” word
Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, January 10th, 2026 - 17 comments
Brooke Van Velden, responsible for refusing a firefighters’ levy increase in 2024, piled on to firefighters who have been struggling for over a year to be heard – leading to catastrophic losses & risk
Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, January 10th, 2026 - 100 comments
The competing social media takes based on video that clearly shows that the shooting of Minnesota woman Renee Good was totally unjustified shows how dominant social discord is now considered to be more important than truth.
Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, January 10th, 2026 - 7 comments
Tim Shadbolt’s passing shows what it’s like when a bona fide radical activist gets into power for long enough to make a permanent difference.
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, January 7th, 2026 - 25 comments
Among a significant number of leaders claiming they are actively monitoring the situation in Venezuela after the US invasion and the kidnapping of President Maduro are some pointed and very relevant comments from some unusual sources.
Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, January 6th, 2026 - 12 comments
The company has been accused of using outdated encryption protocols, and has been slow to respond to community concerns. And importantly, has National put our other public health data at risk too?
Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, January 3rd, 2026 - 5 comments
David Seymour has spent some of his holidays meeting Argentine leader Javier Milei and praising Milei’s far right inspired destruction of local Government institutions.
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, January 2nd, 2026 - 8 comments
What will election year 2026 bring to Aotearoa?
Written By: - Date published: 11:44 am, January 1st, 2026 - 67 comments
Israel bans 37 NGOs from Gaza including the world renowned medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontière)
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, January 1st, 2026 - 7 comments
Happy New Year to all the readers, commenters, and fellow authors/mods at The Standard
Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, December 31st, 2025 - 3 comments
Chris Bishop is thought by some to be the politician of the year, mainly for drafting a couple of bills plaigarised from the work of David Parker and untested promises to build hugely expensive roads of National significance. But they are ignoring the most extraordinary performance by an opposition leader in recent decades.
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, December 28th, 2025 - 13 comments
“It was a year of people power, hard-fought wins, and standing up against political and corporate harm.”
Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, December 24th, 2025 - 22 comments
“National preferred doing a quick, low-quality deal over doing the hard work necessary to get a fair deal that delivers for both New Zealanders and Indians.”
Written By: - Date published: 12:03 pm, December 23rd, 2025 - 11 comments
Advantage gets out the crystal ball and postilated what may happen next year.
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