Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Russ Jones has described the five tribes of the UK Conservative Party as including One Nation Conservatives, xenophobic English nationalists, wild-eyed libertarians, scatty populist bullshitters and machine politicians.
Over in the UK Liz Truss has bowed to the inevitable and has announced her resignation as leader of the Conservative Party.
Wayne Brown (or is that Matthew Hooton) has over the past few days released a series of letters that are astonishing in their audacity. His latest on transport proposes business as usual at a time when dramatic change is required.
Gaurav Sharma has announced his immediate resignation from Parliament and that he will contest the by election as leader of a new centrist party. He also claims that the Government was going to waka jump him six months from the next election but unless National agrees this is impossible.
Wayne Brown has by Mayoral decree ordered Watercare to stop working on the Three Waters reform. But he should take legal advice because his decree has absolutely no legal force.
National’s attacks on Nanaia Mahuta for conflicts of interest have suffered a major blow after National MP Barbara Kuriger was forced to resign her portfolios for using official letterhead to harass MPI officials.
Van Gogh and Picasso as climate action targets. Destroying beauty is an act of self harm. On one level it’s wrong, but when we are desperate, it’s also an act of power.
The political question is whether Kiwis currently losing money on paper can remember this: all investment involves risk and it’s entirely fair for our government to only manage so much of that risk and for the rest to fall on us the investor. Will irrational anxiety beat rational risk in our upcoming politics?
Can you be too old to represent your people? New Zealand’s oldest person to first get elected was William Cargill at 71. Australia’ […]
This week the Government announced plans to bring in a scheme for pricing farming emissions in 2025. National’s response suggests the prospects of political consensus are non existent.
The left and the Ardern government need to start appreciating the new Auckland mayor.
Yesterday on Radio New Zealand’s Political Commentator’s show Bridget Morten said that three waters is a toxic thing for the Government but then declared that her law firm represents a group currently taking the Government to Court over three waters. Should such clearly partisan views be given expression by RNZ?
The people have spoken and with appallingly low turnout levels grumpy campaigns have succeeded and Auckland and other areas have moved to the right.
Live updates and discussion post
This year’s Local Government election is reaching a critical stage. And it is vital to get the right people elected. Please make sure that your families and friends vote for progressive candidates. Your kids and your grandkids futures depend on it.
A list of improvements in workers’ rights that Labour has been able to achieve since gaining power in 2017.
Wayne Brown’s mayoral campaign hit a really big pothole on the weekend when he was caught bad mouthing Herald reporter Simon Wilson. His comments received a lot of support from the right on social media who made comments about Wilson similar to the comments the left make about Mike Hosking. Are these examples of the same phenomenon, political bias against critical commentators?
Urs Signer is standing for the Taranaki Regional Council, and is speaking a lot of sense about working with farmers, iwi and greenies for a Just Transition.
There has been this carefully crafted illusion that conservative politicians are somehow better with the finances than progressive politicians. Recent events in the United Kingdom suggest that this illusion is terribly misplaced.
Something unusual has happened. Chris Bishop, or as we should now call him Comrade Chris, has come out fully in favour of a vast expansion of the provision of social housing for kiwis.
Interesting to see how the Russian protest plays out over conscription. Odd things happen in gatherings with tyrants. Jan 6 was one. But Romania 1989 was one Putin will know well.
Some concerning reports have emerged about Paul Eagle’s mayoral campaign. This week there have been reports that he snubbed a Labour Council candidate while endorsing a right wing candidate. And that he has been working behind the scenes supporting a team of independents.
Tāme Iti’s pitch perfect, political performance art sets activist hearts aflutter.
The only word that I can think of is clusterfuck. I cannot understand how badly Christopher Luxon has handled the Maria Dew report into what Sam Uffindell may have done when he was a younger person.
She’s in the ground and it’s time.
It appears that the Dew report may clear Sam Uffindell and he may be returned to National’s caucus.
Even though her name is on the ballot paper and people can vote for her National aligned Mayoral candidate Viv Beck has purported to withdraw from the Auckland Mayoral race.
When Queen Elizabeth is buried it will be the last time we say goodbye to her. More than her.
National MPs and their supporters have been celebrating the removal of the mandate with weird levels of glee.
The Government has announced that we will all have a day off to commemorate the life of Queen Elisabeth. Act has come out against it on the basis that we are in a cost of living crisis, even though the adverse effect on workers and the poor is essentially nil and even though there is analysis that suggests that holidays are good for the economy.
This COVID era is the decade in which the state is back, bigger and faster than ever before. But the one area this government won’t let the state expand again is the one area in which New Zealand is the most vulnerable: electricity generation. It needs to change.
Many European governments now face a perfect storm of threatened energy security, rising inflation, war-propelled refugee crisis, and climate objectives. New Zealand be warned.
Yesterday the Government announced a slate of new powers designed to address gang violence. Newshub chose that day to imply that Labour was soft on gangs because a gang member said on social media not to vote for National.
We’re sending 120 troops to Britain to ‘train’ raw recruits for the Ukraine killing grounds. For the Defence Generals, it’s an overseas trip to aid retention. For the Ukrainian conscripts, it’s a prelude to early death. It is cynical and criminal: we should be arguing for the war to stop, not keep it going ”to the death of the last Ukrainian.”
Yesterday National’s PR machine also known as Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB sprang into action to get the message out that National will not negotiate with Destiny Church over support. Even though eight days previously Chris Luxon pointedly did not rule this out.
