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 […]
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Clean Start rally – Thursday
If you’re in Auckland on Thursday pop along to this in your lunch hour and help support low-paid cleaners: Hat tip: The Hand […]
Hopeless
Anyone remember Helen Clark’s announcement during Labour’s election campaign that there would be no new significant spending promises: “We have judged it not prudent […]
What would Key the Investor do?
Here’s a question for Mr Key but you can play along too. What if you could buy into an asset that performs well […]
Disconnect
As Labour learned to its cost last year you can’t keep on insisting that something is true if the public’s opinion has hardened […]
Thinking about a referendum on MMP
There is an interesting paper by Mai Chen in NZ Lawyer Online about the pros and cons of the referendum on MMP that […]
Garrote them for shagging sheep
The strange Sensible Sentencing Trust three-strikes bill put up by ACT’s David Garrett aka ‘Garrote‘ has some strange implications. Scott at Imperator Fish […]
NACT policy – like pistons in a Vespa
Jeanette Fitzsimmons has written a very good post from the Emissions Trading Scheme special select committee* about her views on the impact of […]
Whatever it takes, except anything
A reader has spotted that Hide wasn’t the only minister telling porkies in Parliament yesterday. Fortunately for Bill English, he’s too smart to […]
New Left blog
Red Alert, a blog by Labour MPs. A good idea – the blog format allows for a lot more freedom than the press […]
Hide on his way to Privileges Committee?
Has Rodney Hide breached privilege by seriously misleading the House? This is one for you legal types out there but from a layperson’s perspective it looks […]
Oh dear – Hyde the costs
How embarrassing. Rodney Hide has been forced to admit that he has no idea of the costs of his super-city proposal. Phil Twyford […]
Dogwhistlin’
Interesting article in the Herald today. It concentrates on a conversation between Melissa Lee and an old racist pharmacist from Mt Albert who […]
Act creates Wanganui fashion police
Last night, Chester Burrows’ bill allowing the council of Wanganui to ban people from wearing the insignia or symbols of any organisation they decide […]
School support staff fighting for a fair deal
Cut public spending then we can have tax cuts! It’s such a nice, appealing slogan when you say it fast without engaging the […]
Fringe candidates: The spammer from the city of hot-air.
Ok I give up, the craziest Mt Albert candidate isn’t John Boscawen urging National to declare support for an above-ground motorway in Waterview. […]
How Hyde is wasting my taxes on an uncosted project
It appears that the propaganda campaign from Rodney Hide to push his proposal of the super-city has cost $533,000 in PR costs in […]
The challenges for the Mt Albert candidates
Bit of a group effort this one. John Boscawen MP – Boscawen is mad as a hatter and pretty damn ignorant. So he […]
Not my Leaders
Hide and Banks do not strike me as the kind of men you feel safe about having too much power. They never have […]
Lobby group wants motorways to drive over locals
Owen McShane’s lobby group the Centre for Resource Management Studies has a set of questions up about the Waterview Tunnel option of SH20. […]
Key decked over supercity
A much better performance from Goff today in the House today. Finally, after weeks of fluffing, he managed to score a direct hit […]
Courage under fire
Last week Russel Norman, Wellington resident and Green candidate for Mt Albert, publicly labelled Aucklander David Shearer, Labour’s candidate, as “a grey machine […]
TVNZ upholds Paul Henry complaint
I see TVNZ has upheld the complaint against Paul Henry over his disgraceful abuse of a guest on his show. TVNZ spokeswoman Megan […]
Backlash building on supercity
The unseemly haste with which the National/Act Government is pursuing its undemocratic supercity is causing more and more people to wake up to […]
Suspending the Cullen Fund
Bill English seems set to suspend the government’s contributions to the Cullen Fund. Here’s a little-known fact, one that Bill English probably doesn’t […]
Oh dear.
A while back we heard a rumour that National had already printed its billboards for the Mt Albert campaign – with Melissa Lee […]
Greens go grey
I see Russel Norman is now describing Labour’s Mt Albert Candidate, David Shearer, as the “grey” man. Now I haven’t been around as […]
Quarterly Employment Survey
The Quarterly Employment Survey out today shows that 46,700 jobs disappeared between December and March. That’s 2.6% of jobs gone in a single […]
Progressive?
It was deeply depressing to wake up this morning to the sound of Russel Norman running National Party attack lines on Radio NZ. […]
The super-con
Rodney Hide would have us believe that a supercity is the way of the future. He says “Auckland cannot become a world-class city […]
Mt Albert candidate selected
David Shearer has been selected as the candidate for Labour. Congratulations to all of the candidates [updated: The vodem was a bit slow. […]
The interesting selection
The National selection in Mount Albert will be going down to the wire with the inevitable split between the locals and the regional/national […]
The republic can wait
No Right Turn highlights Thursday’s Herald editorial calling for our political leaders to step up and take some leadership in the republic debate. […]
Say goodbye to Nanny State
Stepfather State’s taken over. Our new parent likes to keep his distance…he usually comes home after work at the office…but only for a […]
One of these things is not like the other IV
One of these things is not like the other… One of these things is not quite the same. Can you guess which one […]
Politicising the public service
During the last Labour government the Kiwiblog Right used to call Wellington ‘Helengrad’, a play on Leningrad. Ironic then that, after the election […]