Herald Digipoll
Today’s Herald Digipoll has National up 2 points and Labour down 2, a result the Herald describes as the “Nats pulling away”. As […]
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Aloha means hello and goodbye
Strangely, given the fact the National Party is doing so well in the polls and looks to be the favorite heading into the […]
National on personal attacks
Greenwoman just flicked us this:
Put it on the kids’ tab
Some may have noted an odd series of questions in Parliament and press releases from Bill English around government borrowing over the last […]
On child poverty
The Child Poverty Action Group has released a report [PDF, 400k] showing there were 185,000 children living in poverty in New Zealand in […]
Repeating the mistakes of others
Remember National’s policy of charging a $50 levy on everyone convicted of or, maybe, charged with (Key keeps on mixing up the terms) […]
Interview the leaders VI: United Future
Thanks to ACT leader Rodney Hide for participating in our ‘Interview the leaders’ series this morning. Our next leader is the Maori Party’s […]
Clem Simich stepping down
Clem Simich has just announced he will be stepping down at the election. As regular readers may have noticed I’m not generally a […]
Buy it back
I see that the Wellington lines network has been sold. Given the network has been in in the hands of foreign investors before […]
Rodney Hide answers your questions
We’re very pleased to have ACT leader Rodney Hide respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of […]
Mistakes, I’ve made a few
David Farrar’s three more prominent weaknesses came together in a speculator PR disaster yesterday. The weaknesses are his ego, his trick of using […]
Helen Clark answers your questions
We’re very pleased to have Prime Minister Helen Clark respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of […]
If I were National’s campaign strategist
National will not win by running on its rightwing principles and policy. For 20 years, New Zealanders have consistently said they do not […]
Roy Morgan
No real surprises in the latest Roy Morgan poll, but Gary Morgan’s hilariously bad political analysis continues. You’ll remember in the last Morgan […]
Clark’s answers delayed
We had hoped to have the answers for our ‘interview the leaders‘ series from Helen Clark today. I talked with the PM’s office […]
A broadband world
So John Key has announced that a National-led government would spend “up to” $1.5 billion on fibre optic cable to the home. Well that’s […]
The cart before the horse
The internet is awesome; you can use email, learn heaps, and read sites like The Standard. Faster internet is awesomer; you can watch […]
I’ve got a solution, what’s the problem?
The junior doctors’ strike is a difficult issue. On the one hand, these are highly valuable workers whom we can’t afford to lose […]
Owen Glenn’s secret shame
As Robinsod notes below in his insightful review of Wishart’s Absolute Power it’s abundantly clear that the author specialises in a particular brand […]
What would National do?: Emigration
Simon Power has hit on the fact that Stats New Zealand produces migration figures every month, and that means every month he gets […]
Clearly confused but no conspiracy
If there’s one thing the confused saga of Mike Williams and the Labour Party’s secret plot to use KiwiSaver and Working for Families […]
Interview the leaders V: Maori Party
Even amateur, part-time bloggers sometimes make mistakes, and last week we didn’t send Clark her questions until Wednesday, rather than Monday, due to […]
National makes work rights the defining issue
National’s strategy, the strategy of a weak party, is to present a ‘small target’ by promising to change virtually nothing if they were […]
Reading the tealeaves
One News reports on their Colmar Brunton poll showing a 19 point lead to National and Key ahead in the preferred PM stakes: […]
Conflicting polls
The two political polls on TV last night say far more about the limitations of political polling than they do about the likely […]
Note to John: get a new lawyer
John Key: ‘ my lawyer actually does those things clearly [he] had the wrong information.’ That’s how Slippery John explained why legal documents […]
Ralston sez: leave poor Johnny alone
In the Herald today, Bill Ralston sticks up for poor John Key who has been the subject of personal political attacks recently. Like […]
ACT: shamelessly campaigning with your money
Earlier in the week we heard that Heather Roy may have broken the Electoral Finance Act by including party advertising messages in her […]
Hutchison chases the Green Fairy
Earlier this week, John Key had a whinge about ‘personal’ political attacks on him. Particularly, he thought it was a waste of taxpayers’ […]
Business to Key: ‘You’re ruining everything’
Business is starting to get worried. This was meant to, finally, be the year that they got the Left out of government and […]
Herald’s anti-EFA campaign in tatters
As predicted by The Standard earlier this week, the Press Council has upheld the Coalition for Open Government’s complaint against the NZ Herald’s […]
Last chance to grill Rodney
Remember, our party leader in the ‘interview the leaders’ series this week is ACT’s Rodney Hide. Questions are picked on Sunday, so take […]
A ring of truth in the Hollow Men
Congratulations to Dr Brash for fronting up and going to see the play The Hollow Men at the Maidment Theatre in Auckland (that’s […]
Flip-flopping at warp speed
On Monday, I wrote ‘Stay tuned for National’s next assets policy, due out sometime next week.’ It seems I miscalculated. Here’s what Key […]
Cost of benefit system plummeting
Continuing our benefits theme, here’s a look at how much the benefit system costs you. The figures are the combined expenditure by the […]
If I were the Maori Party’s campaign strategist
The Maori Party is in an enviable position going into this year’s election. It is likely Kingmaker, and the more seats it gets […]