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No time for experiments

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 […]

Big announcement at 1:30 … Shearer stands down as leader

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, August 22nd, 2013 - 336 comments

david shearer

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.

Bad law making – GCSB Bill

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.

Roy Morgan bounces left

Written By: - Date published: 6:12 am, August 20th, 2013 - 76 comments

National 44 (down 7), Labour 34 (up 5), Greens 14 (up 4).

Nat housing policy panned

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.

What a dick

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.

Labour supports Plunket

Written By: - Date published: 12:47 pm, August 8th, 2013 - 61 comments

Another good policy announcement from David Shearer.

Bob Jones – National vs Labour on the economy

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.

Support for off shore speculator ban

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, August 7th, 2013 - 51 comments

support-housing-policy

Hypocrisy in the House: GCSB Bill

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.

“The Big Issue”: councils & transport

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.

Reaction to housing policy

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.

Labour’s new housing policy – Shearer on Q+A

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…

The Auckland Protest

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 pm, July 27th, 2013 - 49 comments

GCSB protest-15Some 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.

The worst advice in the world

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

GCSB Bill opposition heats up

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, July 26th, 2013 - 123 comments

GCSB KeyThe 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 …

Labour stands by 6A

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.

On the Labour leadership

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.

NRT: A surfeit of caution

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.

A tale of two housing policies

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!

Defending democracy – then and now

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…

Truth no longer matters

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”.

GCSB – independent inquiry needed

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.

Much a coup about nothing

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.

Can democratic parties succeed?

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.

A problem of “masculine” values

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.

ManBan!

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?

The flat patch

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.

Notice to epicene women

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”…

So, we’re talking about this now

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.

On having a more representative Parliament

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.