Written By: - Date published: 3:04 pm, August 22nd, 2013 - 158 comments
We all knew David Shearer was a good guy and he’s just proved how good – and noble – a man he is by resigning rather than forcing a messy and protracted leadership coup. Let’s hope that caucus, Labour members and the affiliates will be as clear headed. Now is not the time for another […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, August 22nd, 2013 - 336 comments
It is confirmed that David Shearer has announced that he will stand down as Labour’s leader after a new leader is selected. The leadership will now be decided under the Party’s constitution.
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, August 21st, 2013 - 29 comments
Grant Robertson & David Cunliffe explain how the GCSB Bill is bad law (especially section 8 & related sections). It doesn’t provide adequate oversight or safeguards against the wholesale spying on New Zealanders. A clarifying statement from the PM is not good law. Andrea Vance demystifies the Bill.
Written By: - Date published: 6:12 am, August 20th, 2013 - 76 comments
National 44 (down 7), Labour 34 (up 5), Greens 14 (up 4).
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, August 13th, 2013 - 31 comments
Labour and The Greens are clearly setting the agenda with a strong focus on housing affordability. National are struggling to catch up. But their new policy has been met with a chorus of criticism. They are going to have to do a lot better than this.
Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, August 10th, 2013 - 128 comments
The stupidity of Phil Goff’s misogynist taunting of Chris Finlayson has been compounded by his refusal to apologise.
Written By: - Date published: 12:47 pm, August 8th, 2013 - 61 comments
Another good policy announcement from David Shearer.
Written By: - Date published: 7:08 am, August 8th, 2013 - 84 comments
In an otherwise typically dull piece in The Herald recently, Bob Jones finished up with a typically blunt assessment of the impact of Labour and National governments on the economy. It seems that Jones can acknowledge the truth that most right-wingers try and deny.
Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, August 7th, 2013 - 51 comments

Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, August 7th, 2013 - 46 comments
The debates during last night’s filibuster if the GCSB amendment Bill exposed the hypocrisy of John Key, and hangers on Peter Dunne and John Banks: as seen in the videos of the speeches by Goff, Cunliffe and Peters.
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, August 5th, 2013 - 16 comments
Campbell Live last Wednesday focused on transport: funding & Auckland versus the regions; public transport & roads; the revolutionary Congestion Free Network plan. City Vision (supported by Labour & the Green Party – with a major focus on transport) & 2 Future West candidates launch their Auckland council campaigns.
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, July 31st, 2013 - 134 comments
Labour will be pleased at the reaction to its Latest housing policy, from Vernon Small, John Armstrong and (knock me down with a feather) Colin Espiner. Opinion polling is also in favour.
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, July 28th, 2013 - 702 comments
David Shearer on Q+A just set out new policy on housing, proposing restrictions on overseas buyers. It’s another big policy move from Labour…
Written By: - Date published: 7:33 pm, July 27th, 2013 - 49 comments
Some photos from today’s Auckland protest. It was a great occasion. The question needs to be though, where to from here? This momentum needs to be built on.
Written By: - Date published: 11:09 am, July 27th, 2013 - 113 comments
Well known Labour supporters John Armstrong and Fran O’Sullivan are bursting with advice for David Shearer. I’m sure they have the Left’s best interests at heart. O’Sullivan says Shearer must be more pro-capitalist. Armstrong says he needs to pick fights with the Greens. This is based on a premise that flies against the polling evidence that Labour is seen as too Left or too close to the Greens
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, July 26th, 2013 - 123 comments
The stop the GCSB Bill meeting in Auckland last night was well attended and had a series of high quality presentations made. A series of protests are planned for this weekend. Momentum is building …
Written By: - Date published: 8:12 am, July 25th, 2013 - 97 comments
The Employment Relations Act Part 6A ensures that jobs are transferred to a new contractor, on the same terms, if a firm is restructured. Naturally the Nats plan to abolish it.
Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, July 21st, 2013 - 207 comments
Over the last few weeks Labour has been in a state of agitation as the party, the affiliates and even the caucus have come to the realisation that the Shearer project has failed.
Written By: - Date published: 6:26 pm, July 18th, 2013 - 28 comments
I/S at No Right Turn on Street’s End of Life Choice Bill.
Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, July 17th, 2013 - 48 comments
Houses are seriously unaffordable, especially for first-time buyers. Labour’s policy settings will help first-time buyers, the Reserve Bank under the current government is proposing tougher requirements that will make matters worse for them. Parties of the Left need to take this issue and run hard!
Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, July 15th, 2013 - 17 comments
There have been strong and compelling criticisms of the Nats’ spying Bill, similar to the situation that occurred under the previous government with electoral finance. But the responses of the two governments are very different – and very revealing. Where Labour revised its errant Bill to address the criticisms, John Key has threatened the HRC with funding cuts. Predictably, the response of The Herald to the two cases has been very different too…
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, July 14th, 2013 - 168 comments
A significant proportion of the media is now heavily invested in the narrative that David Shearer is about to be rolled as Labour leader. As Matt McCarten puts it today “Truth no longer matters” and “civil society is poorer for it”.
Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, July 10th, 2013 - 32 comments
A full, independent inquiry of the GCSB is needed , as argued by the Green & Labour Parties, and politics lecturer Damien Rogers. NZ First & Dunne – don’t support Key’s dodgy law changes! Key is masking political motives with spin and secrecy. [update] Campbell Live tonight – must see viewing.
Written By: - Date published: 7:23 am, July 10th, 2013 - 238 comments
Apparently there was a coup in Labour last night. Missed it? So did Labour. Looks like what really happened was that someone played Garner / Gower. Perhaps the problem lies with relying on well-known Labour insider Cameron Slater as your source.
Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, July 9th, 2013 - 111 comments
Can democratic parties be successful major parties in modern politics? The media’s drooling obsession with the “man ban” really makes me wonder, particularly with the level of ignorance displayed by Patrick Gower and others.
Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, July 7th, 2013 - 121 comments
The MSM coverage of the Labour Party remit, led by right wing propagandists, is riddled with sexism and the same traditional masculinist values that marginalise the poor and those with least power. I repeat my post that critiques a speech on gender & politics at the 2012 Labour Party Conference.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 6th, 2013 - 221 comments
Would it kill our journalists to add just the tiniest bit of fact into their Labour-scandal-obsessed feeding frenzy?
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, July 5th, 2013 - 17 comments
I’ve been having a look at the Roy Morgan trend. Oddly, I don’t see this Labour ‘flat patch’ that people are claiming is happening. What is happening is that the Greens are trending slightly down (as it usually does mid-term) and Labour isn’t rising fast enough to offset that. We’re still some way off the safe-zone for Labour+Greens, and the question is whether we’ll get there.
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, July 5th, 2013 - 38 comments
The dynamic duo of right-wing blogging are the modern day incarnation of the likes of Henry Wright and his 1902 “Notice to Epicene Women”…
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, July 5th, 2013 - 126 comments
National’s using Labour proposed gender balance proposals to take the media’s eye of the GCSB. It’s all in the game. But what about the seeming inability of Key to appoint women ministers? You know, something that’s actually happening, rather than a party’s proposed rule change? John Key has appointed just 8 women out of 28 ministers.
Written By: - Date published: 6:33 pm, July 4th, 2013 - 323 comments
Labour should be congratulated for facing up to the lack of women’s representation in our Parliament.
They could sit around waiting for society to eliminate all structural barriers and usher in full gender equality, but frankly I’d rather they did something about it now. It’s a messy debate, but that’s democracy.
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