Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, February 28th, 2013 - 34 comments
Another excellent Cunlife speech last night, speaking to the Child Support Amendment Bill (Committee Stage Schedule 2). An “almost” Bill showing the government’s callous disregard of child poverty and single/separated (usually women) parents.
Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, February 27th, 2013 - 25 comments
Good news, as Louisa Wall’s Marriage Equality Bill progresses through select committee.
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, February 26th, 2013 - 49 comments
I think the Labour reshuffle is quite clever in how it signals the portfolios that its willing to give to the Greens and encourages them to set about being lead opposition spokespeople on those topics. Sure, the reshuffle has some weird stuff in it – ChCh Earthquake spokesperson a backbencher!, 6 ex-staffers in the top 10, Mallard’s ‘demotion’ that isn’t. But there’s some smarts there too.
Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, February 25th, 2013 - 82 comments
A few quick thoughts on the Labour reshuffle.
Written By: - Date published: 1:49 pm, February 25th, 2013 - 211 comments
Shearer announced his reshuffle at 1pm today
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, February 25th, 2013 - 82 comments
Claire Trevett is picking Annette King to take health in a Labour party reshuffle
Written By: - Date published: 7:21 pm, February 24th, 2013 - 71 comments
Word is Labour’s reshuffle will be announced tomorrow.
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, February 20th, 2013 - 98 comments
The focus in recent months has been on the democratisation of the leadership process. But actually, a far more important change is coming. Over the next few months, the party is going to roll out the draft policies and the proposed policy structure to a series of membership meetings. The new regional hub structure will also be explained.
Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, February 19th, 2013 - 229 comments
As you all know I haven’t been the biggest cheerleader for Labour in recent times. And let’s not beat around the bush. I still have my concerns. But there’s a real opportunity on the near horizon. There’s hope for Labour yet. While the plan for the reshuffle before the vote was clearly punitive things may have changed. Indeed they should have. Update: Oh dear.
Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, February 17th, 2013 - 49 comments
I wasn’t initially impressed with Ed Miliband, but I am impressed with his success, and with his latest policies he’s re-establishing British Labour’s credentials on the left. What are the lessons for us in NZ?
Written By: - Date published: 6:49 pm, February 5th, 2013 - 282 comments
Yesterday Annette King started talking with Standard commenters on a couple of threads. As I understand it this is part of a move to engage with the Standard…
Written By: - Date published: 6:49 am, February 5th, 2013 - 279 comments
At the moment the Left and Right political blocs are poised more or less evenly in the polls. So how do we grow the Left vote to win in 2014?
Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, February 4th, 2013 - 52 comments
Garner has revealed that 63% of Maori Labour voters don’t know who the leader is. King responds by asking if they know who the PM is. Now, I’m no MP with 25 years’ experience but I reckon it’s pretty obvious that trying to deflect from a poll showing lack of profile of your leader in a key demographic by implying that Maori are just ignorant isn’t smart.
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, February 4th, 2013 - 511 comments
According to, Patrick Gower David Shearer has been confirmed in the leadership vote this morning.
Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, February 3rd, 2013 - 128 comments
There’s a thought in some parts of Labour that they need to ‘put the Greens in their place’, then they will get back the votes that the Greens have taken from them, and that will lead to victory. It’s an Underpants Gnome strategy, missing the crucial link of how doing what they want to do emotionally results in the supposed objective. Better to build together.
Written By: - Date published: 3:37 pm, February 1st, 2013 - 57 comments
David Shearer’s weekly e-newsletter, this week – on the big year ahead.
We’re happy to post similar newsletters from other opposition leaders – our email is on our contact page.
Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, January 31st, 2013 - 108 comments
As I indicated would happen in my post this morning on the Labour reshuffle, Mallard made a run for speaker today.* He and the Labour leadership tried to keep the fact he was running secret right to the last moment. Why not run an honest, open campaign? Because a vote on speaker can only be made by MPs physically present in the chamber. No proxies. Let me explain.
Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, January 31st, 2013 - 96 comments
Word is that Shearer’s team has taken a cue from the media response from Key’s reshuffle and is looking to bolster his new tough image by dropping some of the old hands in his own reshuffle. Almost without doubt the losers will be Street, Sio, and Mahuta. Hipkins and Jones look set for promotion. Goff, King, and Mallard will continue to hold top tier jobs.
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, January 30th, 2013 - 91 comments
The macho posturing we’ve seen from David Shearer since conference never quite gelled with the Shearer I knew. I’d always thought of him as a nice guy out of his depth, so the public defaming of David Cunliffe and the ‘I’m in charge’ theatrics always jarred. Brian Edwards argues the confusion in the Shearer brand […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, January 30th, 2013 - 15 comments
Now I don’t know if there will be a leadership vote in the next couple of weeks or not, but if there is, and you’re a Labour supporter, then you really want to be a Labour Party member beforehand so you can have your say.
Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, January 28th, 2013 - 339 comments
It was a slightly risky speech for Shearer, but the media reception has been decent. Labour will be pleased with the coverage, and especially so when compared (source by source) with John Key’s hapless effort last week.
Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, January 27th, 2013 - 93 comments
Metiria Turei and David Shearer have today given their State of the Planet and State of the Nation speeches respectively. There’s a lot of commonality, which is good. A critique of the government is solidifying and it’s centred on jobs, housing, and the environment. The Greens’ policy agenda looks heftier than Labour’s but both are heading the right way.
Written By: - Date published: 1:58 pm, January 27th, 2013 - 78 comments
David Shearer has just made his opening speech of the year at the Labour Party Summer School.
Written By: - Date published: 10:26 pm, January 25th, 2013 - 254 comments
Zetetic’s telling porkies. His talk of a rift in the Labour Party is crap. He hasn’t got a clue about what went on the Party conference – the idea that there should be a membership-wide vote on the leadership was voted down in November by a large majority of the 600-700 delegates present.
Written By: - Date published: 9:47 pm, January 25th, 2013 - 59 comments
How many times to we have to listen to Labour MP’s claim that they can’t stand up for labour values because they won’t be seen as “reasonable”.
Yeah, because your “reasonable” has really fired up the electorate thus far.
Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, January 25th, 2013 - 154 comments
No one in Labour can deny there’s a real issue with internal disunity. Not only is the caucus divided (and more than ever since the Shearer camp’s handling of the conference fallout), but there’s a major breach between the membership and the caucus. Unless this is fixed and we can get the party united we’re looking at another term in opposition after 2014.
Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, January 25th, 2013 - 81 comments
Tucked away on the One News site last night was a report that David Cunliffe has ruled out challenging for the Labour leadership.
Written By: - Date published: 6:52 am, January 25th, 2013 - 94 comments
It’s great to see the Greens’ new housing policy nicely complementing Labour’s affordable housing policy.
Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, January 22nd, 2013 - 52 comments
MSM “impartiality” focuses on two sides of a very narrow and shifting “centre”. Parliamentary Labour parties have got locked into appealing to this centre, over time shifting the caucus rightwards. Only momentum from the flax roots can break the resulting steady rightwards shift.
Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, January 19th, 2013 - 71 comments
Word around the traps is that David Shearer is going to use his state of the nation speech next weekend to announce that he will put his leadership to full membership vote in February. If it’s true, and it’s a big if, it’s a ballsy but smart move politically and a welcome sign that Labour’s leadership is embracing democracy.
Written By: - Date published: 11:47 pm, January 18th, 2013 - 173 comments
Key’s government is falling apart, yet one fact remains stubbornly true: walk down the street and nearly 1 in every 2 people you see supports National, while less than 1 in 3 supports Labour (and the 1 in 8 who support the Greens don’t quite make up the difference). When tonight’s Roy Morgan came out I put down my whisky and pulled by my Roy Morgan excel doc. It’s some grim reading.
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