Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, February 16th, 2016 - 76 comments
The desire of many New Zealanders to put a beach in the South Island under public control presents the opposition parties with a great opportunity to identify and defend common ground.
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, February 15th, 2016 - 85 comments
Claire Robinson has analysed press use of photos during the 2014 general election campaign and has concluded that the major newspapers exhibited substantial bias in favour of Prime Minister John Key.
Written By: - Date published: 6:22 am, February 8th, 2016 - 28 comments
Thanks to David Clark, to Grant Robertson, to Labour, and to those who supported the bill…
Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, February 3rd, 2016 - 78 comments
Key’s badly dented “political antennae” took another solid beating yesterday, with his second high-profile bungle involving a waitress.
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, February 2nd, 2016 - 6 comments
The State of the Nation speeches provide an interesting start to the political year. John Key’s speech borrowed Labour Green policy that until now the Government has consistently derided and tried to present it as a “kickstart” while Andrew Little’s tertiary education policy announcement has received almost universal support and National is struggling to work out what attack lines to use.
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, February 2nd, 2016 - 31 comments
Although there have been predictable howls of outrage from the usual suspects, the media reaction to Labour’s bold tertiary education policy has been generally great.
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, February 1st, 2016 - 284 comments
Labour has rolled out another big bold policy that will shape the national discussion for years. Critics, most of whom received a free tertiary education themselves back in the day, want to deny a younger generation the same right (and pocket a tax cut instead). Enter Steven Joyce…
Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, January 31st, 2016 - 283 comments
The text of Andrew Little’s state of the nation speech delivered this afternoon.
Written By: - Date published: 12:38 pm, January 31st, 2016 - 80 comments
Goff and Shearer’s disloyal and self serving support for the TPPA has backfired. They’ve shown that the ABC faction are now a spent force and that Andrew Little has the overwhelming support of caucus. The sun has set on the splitters and there is a new day rising.
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, January 30th, 2016 - 241 comments
All good progressives are invited tomorrow afternoon to Albert Park in Auckland to hear Andrew Little’s state of the nation speech. Update: because of possible bad weather the speech will start at 1 pm. Bring an umbrella!
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, January 29th, 2016 - 278 comments
The text of an email Andrew Little has sent to members.
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, January 28th, 2016 - 352 comments
The news that the TPP is likely to cost 5 to 6,000 jobs in NZ seems to have been the last straw.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, January 27th, 2016 - 79 comments
How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.
Written By: - Date published: 3:05 pm, January 24th, 2016 - 46 comments
Te Reo Putake is live blogging the visits of politicians to Rātana pā during the weekend celebration of the life of church founder Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana. The shadow of the TPPA hangs over the weekend; how will our political leaders address this latest attack on Te Tiriti o Waitangi?
Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, January 22nd, 2016 - 139 comments
Education is a public good, but tertiary education in NZ has been undermined by high student fees and debt. So it’s very encouraging to see a proposal from Labour for reducing fees (and not ruling out free education!).
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, January 8th, 2016 - 717 comments
Labour Leader Andrew Little has announced that the next Labour led Government will defy the TPPA’s attack on our sovereignty. Good on Labour – that’s the leadership we need.
Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, January 6th, 2016 - 113 comments
David Shearer has disagreed with the Greens that New Zealand should suspend negotiations on the free trade agreement with Saudi Arabia until it improves its human rights record.
Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, December 23rd, 2015 - 61 comments
There’s still a few MPs “on duty”. Their function is to maintain the semblance of active government and to roll out a bunch of announcements they hope will escape full scrutiny.
Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, December 7th, 2015 - 113 comments
To date, TeachFirst(NZ) has received more than $6.4 million dollars of public money and, as a result, has infested 18 schools with dozens of so-called “teachers”.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, December 3rd, 2015 - 47 comments
Deputy Mayor Justin Lester has announced his candidacy for the top job in the nation’s capital.
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, December 3rd, 2015 - 17 comments
McClay said he could not answer the specific question because he had “been advised” no such data exists.
How convenient.
Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, December 2nd, 2015 - 80 comments
A couple of good reviews for Little’s reshuffle of the Labour lineup.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, November 30th, 2015 - 250 comments
Who will be the big winners from Andrew Little’s caucus reshuffle – and who will be the big players taking Labour into the 2017 election?
UPDATED: With new rankings/portfolios and media release.
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, November 25th, 2015 - 47 comments
“Why would Goff stand for the Auckland mayoralty as an independent candidate considering his life-long commitment to the Labour Party?”
Why indeed?
Is it time for Labour to stand candidates in local elections under the party banner? And can the party lift its profile and its general election prospects by being bolder in the provinces?
Written By: - Date published: 7:39 pm, November 22nd, 2015 - 427 comments
Dunedin’s most active and most innovative Labour Party branch is going into recess.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, November 19th, 2015 - 43 comments
National has passed legislation with retrospective effect under urgency to change previous legislation also passed under urgency so that the law says what it thinks the law should have said, despite the existing law being abundantly clear.
Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, November 17th, 2015 - 63 comments
The Herald has a piece today on Labour’s finances. You can donate to Labour here, or better yet join and set up a regular donation here.
Written By: - Date published: 6:39 pm, November 15th, 2015 - 91 comments
I’m pleased about the Roy Morgan result. The last RWC was worth 2-3% in the polls to National. This RWC … nothing. And in the days since that poll, John Key has overseen an astonishing attack on the women of Parliament. I think we’ve reached Peak Key.
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 am, November 13th, 2015 - 18 comments
It takes fortitude to admit you are wrong. That’s right, not weakness but, strength, courage, resilience, grit, determination, endurance, guts, and staying power. When you won’t admit you are wrong you end up having to justify wrong decisions. That takes time and energy (and money) away from what actually needs to be done for the greater good. John Key won’t admit he is wrong. Because of this he has to keep going down several paths of “wrongness”, and because he is Prime MInister, he is taking us all with him. Some people think he does admit he made mistakes. But when you examine the few instances closer (if you can find them), it looks like something else.
Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, November 10th, 2015 - 65 comments
Inequality is a choice. It isn’t a choice made by individuals, it is a choice made by governments. Check out Joseph Stiglitz’s new book Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity.
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, November 9th, 2015 - 54 comments
The question of identity politics and Labour’s direction just never go away. But maybe we’re just thinking about it all wrong.
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