Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, November 18th, 2012 - 216 comments
100,000 new entry level homes. The biggest public building programme in over fifty years. Hope for young families and households. A massive boost to jobs and the economy.
This is a historic policy.
Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, November 18th, 2012 - 149 comments
Vernon Small is reporting David Shearer is planning to bring the leadership vote forward to as soon as next week and it looks like their plan is to get it out of the way under the old rules.
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 18th, 2012 - 15 comments
The truth is out. Under Patrick Gower’s incredibly cunning questioning, I have confessed that I will challenge Shearer in February.
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, November 18th, 2012 - 27 comments
The policy remits this morning. There isn’t a lot of time. However they are prioritized
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, November 18th, 2012 - 19 comments
Looking at the MSM reaction this morning, one thing is clear.
They’ve missed that the significance of the vote yesterday was not about whether there will be leadership contest.
It’s about the accountability of the caucus to the party.
Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, November 18th, 2012 - 4 comments
These are exciting days as the Labour Party becomes more democratic. In their reports on the Conference, the MSM are failing to focus on the important issues: ones requiring a new direction from the Left, such as damaging white collar fraud and the urgent need for affordable housing.
Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, November 18th, 2012 - 29 comments
For the first time in the history of New Zealand, being a member of a major party really means something. If you a member of Labour, you will have a choice in who your leader is. Can any but a handful of National apparatchiks say the same? It’s time for National’s members to ask whether they’re really members of just money pots. And it’s time for the Labour Ulterior to re-join.
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 pm, November 17th, 2012 - 9 comments
So the remit session was a bit of an endurance event as they always are (and we’ve still got policy remits tomorrow…). The vast majority was fairly easily agreed, including the big changes. The real contention was over the leadership vote trigger for the 3-yearly caucus endorsement.
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 pm, November 17th, 2012 - 61 comments
Back in the early 90’s the first party conference I went to was very nearly my last. Intransigent foes who used the mic to assault each other was my introduction to the Labour party ‘working’ with each other. Eventually I gave up viewing the remit floor as meaningless. But it now looks like this has all changed. It looks like the Labour party has an open door through which it is capable of doing something again.
Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, November 17th, 2012 - 152 comments
Labour has established its new leadership voting rules. The attempt to effectively neuter the membership’s new power by setting a high bar for a leadership vote to be triggered failed. It will take 50% of caucus to trigger a vote in ordinary times, but a 60% caucus endorsement of the leader to avoid a leadership vote in the compulsory mid-term motion.
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, November 17th, 2012 - 81 comments
Especially for delegates (and me) to write comments on remits. Very fast so far. Robert Gallagher who is chairing the movement appears to be enjoying himself. A welcome sight.
Written By: - Date published: 2:51 am, November 17th, 2012 - 53 comments
I finally got around to listening to Gavin Ellis making a complete dork of himself on Radio NZ talking about authors on this site being “manipulated”. Hah! Anyone trying to manipulate them is likely to wind up being made into a pretzel. I wouldn’t care to try it myself. So does Gavin Ellis = a bit of an idiot. Or more charitably, has he actually bothered to think about this issue?
Written By: - Date published: 12:25 am, November 17th, 2012 - 8 comments
So Lynn is giving you the media perspective, I thought I might get some delegate perspective. Housing, jobs, policy, speeches… a bit of the flavour.
Written By: - Date published: 8:06 pm, November 16th, 2012 - 32 comments
There’s a few remits on the floor at conference today that are going to be make or break for the future of the Labour party. They’re all about democratising the party which is something I think needs to happen if it’s going to survive and thrive.
Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, November 16th, 2012 - 149 comments
Well, I’m at the Labour conference – as media. Feels somewhat weird after many delegate years. I figure that The Standard needs to start sending someone along to the conferences. So I will ground-break at each of the major ones over the next year. The remit book looks like the main focus for this year. […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:53 am, November 16th, 2012 - 46 comments
The left needs to develop a new direction, not merely react to the ruling neoliberal discourses and policies. Under NAct there has been a resurgent masculinisation of politics, and the undermining of democratic processes. How do we work towards a more inclusive, diverse participatory democracy?
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, November 15th, 2012 - 186 comments
Politics 101 for Labour leaders: when a right-wing columnist tells you to piss off your party and your base to ‘win the centre’ she probably doesn’t have your best interests at heart. The truth of it is, Labour didn’t lose the last two elections by losing the centre and it won’t win by trying to win back votes from National. It’s the Labour non-vote that matters.
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, November 14th, 2012 - 102 comments
When Margaret Thatcher was asked about her greatest achievement, she promptly answered: “New Labour.” And she was right: her triumph was that even her political enemies adopted her basic economic policies. True victory over your enemy occurs when they start to use your language, so that your ideas form the foundation of the entire field. Today, when neoliberal hegemony is clearly falling apart, the only solution is to repeat Thatcher’s gesture in the opposite direction.
Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, November 14th, 2012 - 218 comments
A policy focusing on increasing state housing and affordable rents would be a good start. However, my current criticism of Labour leadership focuses on the policy direction of the leadership team. This requires more than just one policy. A bold new left wing plan is needed to deal with the difficult challenges ahead. Updated
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 pm, November 13th, 2012 - 81 comments
So, in an effort to make a post not calling for the head of David Shearer, I decided to take a look at the Labour Party’s conference webpages. And oh boy are they a treat. I’ve blogged before about Labour’s (or at least, Shearer’s office’s) poor grasp of social media, but whole new levels of “what r […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:12 pm, November 13th, 2012 - 93 comments
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, November 13th, 2012 - 70 comments
NZ Herald: ‘David Shearer is brushing off a crescendo of calls for him to step down by left-leaning bloggers and commentators, saying it is “nonsense” and should be ignored.’
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, November 13th, 2012 - 53 comments
The Labour Party conference this weekend is crucial for the democratic future of the party. A party member outlines his view on how to vote. His main point? In U.K. Labour you only need 20% of caucus to allow a vote on the leadership. That’s about right.
Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, November 12th, 2012 - 95 comments
By all means, get rid of the unfortunate experiment that is the David Shearer leadership. But the problem is really with the NZLP’s parliamentary caucus who appear to have lost sight of what we want them to achieve. Until that problem is fixed the party will continue to shed people willing to exert effort supporting them.
Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, November 12th, 2012 - 21 comments
Tomorrow is the centenary of the death of Fred Evans on 13 November 1912, during the Waihi gold miners strike. Out of this struggle of ordinary, but courageous NZ workers, grew the NZ Labour Party. Who now has such courage to lead NZ politics in a new direction? Update: Allison McCulloch’s article on the Waihi strike.
Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, November 11th, 2012 - 90 comments
Some people are Anyone But Cunliffe. Some people think Cunliffe is the One True Leader. Some people want more options. So let’s make a case for it.
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, November 11th, 2012 - 175 comments
Eddie is right.
David Shearer needs to step down.
Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, November 10th, 2012 - 284 comments
For the Left to win in 2014, David Shearer has to resign as Labour Leader. This is a big call to make and one that I have agonised over, but the reality has become increasingly clear: under Shearer, Labour is all too likely to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2014.
Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, November 10th, 2012 - 39 comments
The MSM quickly picked up a press release on the failure of the Southern Cross Cable. Others that are ignored: Bennett has either lied or is incompetent; Nat-linked appointment to TVNZ board; Hone’s ‘feed the kids’ Bill; Joyce’s education agenda; John Key as a “bumbling Marxist”.
Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, November 9th, 2012 - 65 comments
David Shearer’s weekly e-newsletter, this week on jobs and the Pike River report.
We’re happy to post similar newsletters from other opposition leaders – our email is on our contact page.
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, November 4th, 2012 - 166 comments
The failure of Labour to fire isn’t limited to the leadership team. A big part of Labour’s front bench simply aren’t doing their job. Comparing them to the winning Labour team in 1999 really hammers home how awful our guys today are.
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