What happened to Hisco?
Stuff has published details of a sweetheart deal where David Hisco bought the ANZ owned property they were living in for a greatly reduced price. But was this good investigative work or a leak from within ANZ?
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
How To Get There 23/6/19
Welcome to TS’s Sunday think piece. It’s a blank sheet, a tabula rasa, waiting for your thoughts on the future and How To Get There.
National is pinning 2020 success on someone who is not in Parliament
An expensive advertising campaign suggesting that Christopher Luxon could be the next Prime Minister after the 2020 election has appeared.
National is really worried that people may vote
Nick Smith has complained that making it easier for people to vote by allowing them to enrol on election day will disadvantage the National Party.
National’s next leader?
Retiring Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon has indicated that he is interested in a political career and is being talked about as National’s next leader.
Bankers gonna bank
The former head of ANZ and the current owner of John Key’s Omaha property, David Hisco, has left the employment of the Bank in somewhat newsworthy circumstances.
Flact Tax
Act has proposed a tax increase for the bottom 64% of all tax payers.
How To Get There 16/6/19
Welcome to TS’s Sunday think piece. It’s a blank sheet, a tabula rasa, waiting for your thoughts on the future and How To Get There.
The freedom to insult
David Seymour is proposing a law change that would protect neo nazis from the effects of their hate speech unless the speech also incited or threatened violence.
Mark Richardson wants to be a Nat MP
Mark Richardson thinks he may have a future career and will be able to transform from overpaid TV personality to overpaid public representative.
An October election in the UK?
Boris Johnson declared his candidacy today. The Guardian’s Tom Kibasi speculates on his strategy – pick a fight with the EU, make Brexit the issue and call an election. Do a deal with Farage and save Britain from Corbyn. Will it work?
National keeps digging itself into a hole on budget leaks
National continues to attack the Government on its handling of the Treasury budget leak. But it still has not properly explained why its behaviour should be considered ethical.
FiveEyes on our elections
Andrew Little’s letter to the Select Committee on election interference puzzled me – it seemed to be out of the blue and not particularly relevant to our system. Then I read about a meeting on the Gold Coast last year and it became clear as to why – FiveEyes pressure.
National refuses to rule out coalition with Destiny
On the day that Brian Tamaki engaged in some rabid right wing dog whistling and talked about a clash of cultures Simon Bridges has refused to rule out working with Destiny Church’s Coalition New Zealand party.
Pollwatch: 9th June 2019
We had both major polls out yesterday, as noted in previous stories, and boy were the results a doozy! In addition to twice […]
Three disturbingly different views on climate change
In the same week that Donald Trump said that the American climate was the cleanest climate, Ian Dunlop, former chairman of the Australian Coal Association, has warned of massive social consequences ranging from increased religious fervour to outright chaos. And UK Chancellor Philip Hammond is questioning if remedial action is affordable.
Deranged Jacinda syndrome
Mike Hosking has chosen to criticise Jacinda Ardern for touring the country and speaking to communities about the Wellbeing budget rather than flying across the world to take part in a photo opportunity.
Two polls out tonight
The latest Colmar Brunton and Reid Research polls are out tonight and clearly they will be trying to measure what effect the Budget has had on public opinion. What will they show?
Politics is like a Traffic Jam
Traffic jams are frustrating, waste time and money, have no cause or purpose, and they are all the same.
How To Get There 9/6/19
Welcome to TS’s Sunday think piece. It’s a blank sheet, a tabula rasa, waiting for your thoughts on the future and How To Get There.
Government under FiveEyes
Australian Federal Police chief Neil Gaughan told media after raiding the ABC that “if police did not investigate the leaking of classified information, Australia would no longer be entrusted by FiveEyes partners with intelligence that saves lives.” FiveEyes didn’t save Muslim lives in Christchurch.
A Confession.
I confess that I wear underpants and that my body is exactly like Dan Carter’s – except maybe for some details around shape and size.
The Teachers’ strike
Teaching is approaching a crisis point. Sure it has taken 9 years of the last Government’s rule to wreck the system. But this Government is expected to repair quickly the damage that the last Government caused.
Despatches from Surrealistan
London feels surreal. Joined the demo against Trump, in town to see the Queen, see off the Prime Minister, and plunder the NHS in the name of ‘free trade.’ Saw the play “The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson,” which might be prescient.
Beltway news
Simon Bridges has accused Labour of engaging in dirty politics and considered that he was acting appropriately in releasing budget information early, contrary to standards that his Government implemented in 2014.
Tiananmen Square’s Failed Revolution
Right now we could be dealing with a China with a similar mixed model to Vietnam, or a re-unified country like Germany. What happened to change this?
The Attack of the Snowflakes
National is playing the innocent victim of Budgetgate whilst being the aggressive attacker all along.
The Coming Global Economic Slowdown and New Zealand
With the United States – China trade war well underway, the sick chaos of Brexit is shrinking the U.K. economy and slowing much of Europe’s economy, and smaller economies such as that of Mexico in the crosshairs through further politically manufactured trade disputes, the second half of this year looks for New Zealand nowhere near as rosy as the first half.
Politicians Don’t Know Jack
Politicians rely on information provided to them, not on an encyclopaedic memory and an IQ of a genius.
How To Get There 2/6/19
Welcome to TS’s Sunday think piece. It’s a blank sheet, a tabula rasa, waiting for your thoughts on the future and How To Get There.
Bene bashing
National has engaged in the most crass form of beneficiary bashing in opposing Government changes to the benefit system announced in the budget and passed under urgency.
Budget commentary
Has New Zealand’s social media spent too much time on gocha politics and not enough on the substance of the wellbeing budget?
The Wellbeing budget
So what is in the Wellbeing budget and what do you think about it?
The Treasury website hack that wasn’t
The police has confirmed that a poorly secured website partially searchable through Treasury’s website’s search function was the cause of the release of sensitive budget information.
Same old dirty National
National is still embedded in Dirty Politics.
Who did the Treasury Hack?
New Zealand Treasury head Gabriel Makhlouf has said that Treasury’s website was attacked 2000 times in 48 hours.