Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, May 7th, 2018 - 23 comments
Isn’t it time we at least synchronized the New Zealand budget with the Australian budget?
Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, May 6th, 2018 - 40 comments
The election year donation returns have been released and show a surge of donations for Labour but National still well ahead.
Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, May 5th, 2018 - 133 comments
Labour’s announcement of $100 million spending on homelessness has attracted praise from everyone, except National.
Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, May 4th, 2018 - 14 comments
Thoughts on a resurgent left and a collapsing centre.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, May 3rd, 2018 - 55 comments
Rhys Darby has discovered the real conspiracy facing New Zealand by judicious use of the Internet. And Clarke Gayford does not feature.
Written By: - Date published: 4:11 pm, May 2nd, 2018 - 16 comments
National has promised to overturn Auckland’s Regional Fuel Tax. But has no proposal for how the funding will be replaced.
Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, April 30th, 2018 - 76 comments
I’m sure all revealed at Budget 2018, but the financial management of this government is not surefooted.
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, April 30th, 2018 - 34 comments
National’s Blue Green conference on the weekend suggests that the party has moved on from outright denial that cliamte change exists to grudging acceptance that it is a phenomenon but “balance” requires that it is tolerated.
Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, April 29th, 2018 - 32 comments
National has responded to Labour’s ATAP proposal by refusing to accept there is a problem, drumming up anti Auckland resentment in the rest of the country and claiming they would have done the same thing.
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, April 26th, 2018 - 39 comments
Minister Phil Twyford and Mayor Phil Goff announced the ATAP, the transport programme for Auckland for the next ten years. At $28 billion it is the largest civil infrastructure programme since World War II.
Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, April 26th, 2018 - 38 comments
A Guest Post from Luke C where he analyses National’s creation of working groups in the last Goverment and comes up with a surprising conclusion.
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, April 22nd, 2018 - 77 comments
In a gross example of click bait journalism a senior political commentator at a major media outlet has claimed that Jacinda Ardern and Donald Trump are similar.
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, April 18th, 2018 - 78 comments
In this third edition of Pollwatch, we note Simon Bridges’ leap out of the gate to a hiss and fizzle, and with Roy Morgan still on an unexplained hiatus, our second poll of the year has arrived from Colmar Brunton, with the government’s support down very slightly, but its support partners both in a much more stable position.
Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, April 18th, 2018 - 43 comments
Media pundits are claiming on the evidence offered by one poll that the Government’s political honeymoon is over. But the same claim was made four months ago.
Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, April 17th, 2018 - 86 comments
Labour and National have both selected their candidates for the Northcote by election. Labour’s candidate is Shanan Halbert who cut significantly into Jonathan Coleman’s majority at the last election.
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, April 16th, 2018 - 203 comments
Jacinda Ardern has accepted the US, UK and French response to the Syrian crisis. Should she have instead condemned it?
Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, April 12th, 2018 - 158 comments
The Government has announced that there will be no new offshore oil and gas exploration permits issued under the block offer process.
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, April 11th, 2018 - 173 comments
Marama Davidson’s question to Jacinda Ardern in Parliament yesterday allowed Jacinda to outline the enormous mess the last National Government has left the country in.
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, April 8th, 2018 - 5 comments
Partial transcript of a speech as reported in “The Independent”
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 6th, 2018 - 47 comments
Between the crisis facing Middlemore Hospital’s buildings and the farce surrounding the cost of repairs of repairs of the Canterbury rebuild, National’s claim that it is a party of strong economic management looks at least misguided.
Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, April 4th, 2018 - 89 comments
The Government has released a draft Government Policy Statement on Transport for consultation. A radical shake up of the Transport system is being proposed.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 3rd, 2018 - 13 comments
It is predicted that today Parliament will pass a law allowing for the expunging of convictions of adults for engaging in homosexual behaviour.
Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, March 31st, 2018 - 606 comments
The past week has seen the Herald focus on issues concerning Clare Curran to the almost exclusion of anything else, including the perilous state of our Health system and Kim Dotcom’s successful appeal against the last Government’s breach of his rights of privacy.
Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, March 29th, 2018 - 18 comments
The text of Energy Minister Megan Woods’ speech to the recent petroleum conference where she outlined the Government’s approach to the oil industry and the Government’s intention to achieve sustainable change.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, March 28th, 2018 - 100 comments
Steven Joyce’s prediction of a $11.7 billion deficit in the Government’s finances may be true. But this is because the last Government has underfunded health and hidden problems.
Written By: - Date published: 6:26 am, March 28th, 2018 - 69 comments
A few weeks ago Sarah Wilson at Writehanded looked at the promise in Labour’s welfare policy and whether we are going to be disappointed.
Written By: - Date published: 6:25 am, March 27th, 2018 - 29 comments
Dave Kennedy at Local Bodies looks at the tough task ahead for Labour, and where retired MPs are landing.
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, March 26th, 2018 - 218 comments
The first big Kiwibuild announcement, 3 to 4,000 houses in Mt Albert has been made. And National has responded that it was all their idea and they did not want to announce it because it would be seen as pork barrelling.
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, March 21st, 2018 - 68 comments
Two posts from No Right Turn.
“Fundamentally, climate change means it is us or the oil industry. We know whose side the Greens are on. But people are doubting Labour, and they only have themselves to blame for it.”
Also a post on banning fossil-fueled cars.
Written By: - Date published: 8:39 am, March 20th, 2018 - 83 comments
The Government is reconsidering the future of New Zealand’s block offer process which releases exploration permits to the oil industry for exploratory drilling.
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, March 18th, 2018 - 87 comments
Heather Du Plessis-Allan has suggested that there is a power struggle happening in the Labour Party. Without the benefit of things normally considered to be important elements of an argument, those things being facts.
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