Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, November 6th, 2021 - 76 comments
The text of Jacinda Ardern’s speech delivered today to the Labour Conference.
Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, November 6th, 2021 - 50 comments
Labour is this year holding its Conference on line. There will be some attention on a proposal to allow a supermajority of Caucus to avoid members and affiliates from having a say in a future Parliamentary leader.
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, October 29th, 2021 - 23 comments
Construction of light rail in Auckland, proposed 50 years ago by former Mayor Dove Myer Robinson, is now a step close with the release of working group recommendations for options of a light rail line running between the city centre and the Airport.
Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, October 28th, 2021 - 23 comments
COVID has reminded us how good New Zealand is, and we should remember how we were reminded.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, October 25th, 2021 - 15 comments
A year ago we were preparing for the America’s Cup and threading our way through the latest crisis quite well. What will we be planning next year?
Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, October 24th, 2021 - 174 comments
This week Judith Collins was reported to be close to tears. But not about the possibility of a significant number of deaths but by the prospect of business closures.
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, October 18th, 2021 - 104 comments
The Herald’s publication of an attack on Ardern by a wedding venue owner appears to have been sourced from Cameron Slater and brings into stark relief the Herald’s twin business model of funding serious journalism by both subscriptions and the use of click bait.
Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, October 17th, 2021 - 109 comments
In the coming months Fortress New Zealand will be dismantled. What will take its place?
Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, October 16th, 2021 - 35 comments
The Government’s dramatic action taken over the past 18 months to respond to Covid and the population’s overwhelming support suggests that it should be taking similar drastic action to address poverty and climate change.
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, October 6th, 2021 - 48 comments
and keeping the faith.
That our covid response is not working out perfectly doesn’t mean we or the government are failing. What we need more of at this point are stories about ‘what if things work out’. Not in a Pollyanna or return to BAU sense, but that we can still be ok. We need strong narratives of what that might be like, us being ok despite the pandemic.
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, October 6th, 2021 - 53 comments
With all the unfortunate rhetoric around “giving up on the elimination strategy”.
Small businesspeople around me, who have quietly carried on with the program, and have been supportive of the Government strategy of elimination, even though, in many cases, it has been personally costly, are telling me,, “why did we bother”!
It doesn’t matter if it is the actual Government intention, or the media interpretation, the damage has now been done.
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, September 29th, 2021 - 19 comments
Barry Soper and the Property Council are up in arms about proposals to ensure that all commercial tenants should only pay a fair proportion of their rental if their use of the premises has been affected by responses to the Covid pandemic.
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, September 28th, 2021 - 152 comments
The latest Colmar Brunton poll confirms that National’s polling is in the doldrums and David Seymour’s preferred PM rating is twice that of Judith Collins.
Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, September 5th, 2021 - 57 comments
While Prime Minister Ardern is an empathic Prime Minister, good for the country in a crisis, and is genuinely caring, there’s also a time for citizens to say that the state must pay to right wrongs.
Written By: - Date published: 8:12 am, September 2nd, 2021 - 50 comments
Judith Collins’ insistence that Parliament be reconvened even at a time that the country was in lockdown level 4 has backfired spectacularly.
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, August 29th, 2021 - 54 comments
This week there has been some argy bargy between the Twitterati including the Waitakerati and the media on coverage of Covid in Aotearoa with elements of the media complaining that the criticisms are unjustified. A brief review of some of the offerings this week would suggest otherwise.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, August 28th, 2021 - 53 comments
Last night it was revealed that National and Act had refused to agree to a proposed virtual Parliament sitting where questions could be asked, and instead wanted face to face meetings, even though this would mean a third of the country’s MPs travelling regularly to Wellington from a Covid delta hotspot.
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, August 22nd, 2021 - 130 comments
Jacinda Ardern has resumed the 1 pm briefings where she communicates effectively the country’s current situation and what the plan is. But National and some elements of the media are complaining, presumably that she is doing too good a job.
Written By: - Date published: 1:52 pm, August 20th, 2021 - 21 comments
Dr Michael Cullen has died, and with him goes a real standard-bearer for Labour for three decades.
Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, August 20th, 2021 - 15 comments
Former Labour Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen has died.
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, August 17th, 2021 - 52 comments
The Politik website’s inadvertant publishing of fake news of a drop in Labour’s support shows how fragile the system of relying on two sources for a story is.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, August 2nd, 2021 - 134 comments
Last night’s Reid Research poll result suggests that the electorate is reverting back to a more conventional dynamic after the stratospheric heights that Labour enjoyed immediately post Covid elimination.
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, July 27th, 2021 - 68 comments
Bernard Hickey calls Labour’s inaction a scandal, and it’s hard to disagree.
Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, July 15th, 2021 - 20 comments
Minister Roberston’s recent speech to the Trans Tasman Business Circle sets out both how this government is using the pandemic to reset whole sectors of the economy, and also how it is getting its head around economic and social challenges. The points made were unsurprising, but his intended direction was unclear.
Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, July 13th, 2021 - 52 comments
In two separate leaks it has emerged that Judith Collins privately briefed Don Brash on National’s demand the debate campaign and that Brash wrote to wealthy donors seeking $300,000 for an Iwi Kiwi style billboard response.
Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, July 6th, 2021 - 94 comments
The debate about the Government’s consultation on proposed changes to hate speech laws continues, with the level of heat increasing, but the level of actual understanding of what is being proposed in critical shortage.
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, June 26th, 2021 - 206 comments
Hate speech is about to get a lot more criminalised with much stronger penalties. It’s worth going back to what the Royal Commission actually considered, since that’s the basis of proposing this law. The Royal Commission in fact found that trying to protect religion from very strong opinions is simply not a good idea: … we acknowledge that there […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 14th, 2021 - 70 comments
Labour and the Greens have announced the establishment of a Feebate scheme to incentivise the purchase of electric vehicles and disincentivise the purchase of gas guzzlers.
Written By: - Date published: 5:19 pm, June 9th, 2021 - 54 comments
As they said they would, the Government has today released the full advice from the Climate Commission, taking into account all the submissions and all the big fat evidence.
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, May 28th, 2021 - 44 comments
In the latest Colmar Brunton poll although National’s result and Judith Collins’ result as preferred Prime Minister went up slightly her approval rating for her job performance has plunged deep into negative figures.
Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, May 25th, 2021 - 39 comments
This is day five of the post Ruthenasia era and the response from the right is really underwhelming. The most notable response is a comment by Peter Dunne questioning whether 11 year olds are ever interested in politics.
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