Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, September 5th, 2012 - 18 comments
David Clark’s opinion piece in The Herald – “The PM’s cleaner deserves more pay” – makes for welcome reading…
Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, September 3rd, 2012 - 101 comments
A couple of weeks back I wrote a post offering Shearer, Robertson or Pagani an opportunity to justify their (more or less) blanket attack on beneficiaries. At the time, I didn’t realise Pagani had been banned from ‘the standard’ for (from memory) being an idiot . So, okay – he’s not able to respond via […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, August 31st, 2012 - 57 comments
David Shearer’s weekly e-newsletter, this week on inequality, poverty and more.
We’re happy to post similar newsletters from other opposition leaders – our email is on our contact page.
Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, August 25th, 2012 - 25 comments
David Parker got stuck in to the Nats last week, with a 30 page report that laid bare National’s appalling economic record, and presented an outline of Labour’s alternatives. Good work from Parker – everyone should read it.
Written By: - Date published: 7:51 pm, August 24th, 2012 - 30 comments
David Shearer talks poverty, education, and Afghanistan.
We’re happy to post similar newsletters from other opposition leaders – our email is on our contact page
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, August 18th, 2012 - 47 comments
Last week David Shearer announced he would be writing a weekly newsletter to members and supporters.
It’s a good idea and a step toward letting people get to know where Labour is coming from. Here’s the second edition.
We’re also happy to publish any similar e-letters from other opposition leaders. Just send them to our email address (see our contact page)
Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, August 18th, 2012 - 69 comments
Hey Labour – here’s three words for you. Fair, inclusive, positive. You’ll win the next election, and the two after that.
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, August 17th, 2012 - 33 comments
Labour’s hands on approach to economic management focused on boosting manufacturing stands in stark contrast to National’s failed record of big promises and no delivery. Manufacturing is our largest employer. It has lost 25,500 jobs under National. National has been pushing mining for four years. It employs 6,000 people, up just 600 under National.
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, August 17th, 2012 - 141 comments
Pagani wrote it. Robertson cleared it. And Shearer uttered it. To summarise; those living by sickness entitlements are probably dodgy b’stards. Nice. Before I go on, I should be clear that this post isn’t some insightful fiction. This is the reality of getting by with a sickness benefit.
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 pm, August 16th, 2012 - 179 comments
It seems the Standard is off the Paganis’ Christmas list. John Pagani tells the Listener that he much prefers Kiwiblog because it “has a more reasonable tone than, say, the left blog the Standard, whose idea of political is embittered and angry and it’s therefore hard to read.” Now that’s tragic and moronic, but hardly surprising. […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 pm, August 15th, 2012 - 150 comments
Thanks to Rob Salmond and Josie Pagani it is now clear that Labour’s pitch to the centre is an intentional strategy. That is helpful as now perhaps we can have a reasonable discussion about how well it’s working, and what else might work better.
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, August 15th, 2012 - 78 comments
There has been a lot of discussion on the direction Labour is heading and the direction it should go. There have been some very valuable contributions by Mike Smith, Rob Salmond, Jordan Carter and Josie Pagani. I don’t have much to add to this other than, I think, they are having the wrong conversation. There […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 pm, August 13th, 2012 - 83 comments
I have spent the better part of 17 years – eight of those as a paid organiser for the Labour Party – practicing the ancient art of alchemy; turning supporters into volunteers, volunteers into members and members into activists. I have recruited hundreds of union and Labour Party members. I have mentored and trained, supported […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:12 pm, August 13th, 2012 - 79 comments
Jordan Carter and Josie Pagani agree – there is a legitimate debate that needs to be had about whether Labour aims for the left or the centre vote. That may be where agreement stops, judging from Josie Pagani’s contribution to the debate on Nine to Noon this morning. The political strategy she expounds is however worth unpicking.
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, August 11th, 2012 - 97 comments
David Shearer has decided to start emailing members every week.
Given the recent hubbub it might be worth reading.
Here’s the first issue, sent out yesterday.
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 pm, August 10th, 2012 - 144 comments
I suspect that the knives that were out for a couple days this week will be quietly slipped back into their sheaths now. Labour’s up in the latest Roy Morgan. So are the Greens. The Left’s at 46% vs the Banks Key Government’s 44.5%. We won’t see more hamfisted attempts to undermine Shearer and attack Cunliffe clearing the path for someone else. Well, not until the next bad poll.
Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, August 10th, 2012 - 143 comments
A somewhat meandering and personal response to the disillusioned, prompted by Scott Yorke’s recent “Why I’m Out”.
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, August 9th, 2012 - 101 comments
We’ve received a set of guest posts arising from the Stab In the Back comments that Duncan Garner reported on Tuesday and Su’a William Sio. We’ll compile the best here. As always, we exercise judgement in not publishing truly nutty stuff but there’s no editorial line, no endorsement of guest posts we publish – they just have to pass the test of being informative, lucid, and left.
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 pm, August 7th, 2012 - 394 comments
It looks like someone from within Labour’s top team* has decided to have a real nasty go at David Cunliffe via Duncan Garner.
Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, August 6th, 2012 - 163 comments
Meh. National has race-baited over water rights to win back some of its wavering lower-middle class Pakeha support. It’s won some of that support back. For now. The thing about turning tides is that not every wave, or even every set of waves for some time, reaches less far up the beach than the one lowest before. Within each cycle there are dips and spikes due to events. Doesn’t change the cycle.
Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, July 27th, 2012 - 52 comments
3 opposition private members’ Bills passed – extended paid parental leave, Mondayisation, and lobbying disclosure – on Wednesday (moving a ban on land sales to foreigners up the list). Then, all 5 drawn from the ballot on Thursday opposition bills too: marriage equality, $15hr minimum wage, super-majority/referendum protection for asset sales, charging government agencies that pay access to info, and controlling water pollution.
Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, July 25th, 2012 - 28 comments
Labour and the Greens are producing great infographics that succiently explain what the government’s doing wrong on issues of the day and bust National’s myths. They chuck them up on Facebook and Twitter and they spread like wildfire. They’re a really effective use of social media. You can help by liking the parties’ Facebook pages and sharing the infographics.
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, July 25th, 2012 - 19 comments
2 great Member’s Bills are before the House today. National oppose both the Mondayising of Holidays and Paid Parental Leave, but they should have the numbers to get through their first readings.
Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, July 24th, 2012 - 19 comments
Looks like we should conclude that opposition to National in 2012 is much stronger and more vociferous than opposition to Labour in 2008.
Written By: - Date published: 3:35 pm, July 23rd, 2012 - 17 comments
Imagine a place with a stagnant economy; led by a government that is anti-growth, doesn’t have any plan, and is not prepared to make the tough decisions needed to ensure the future prosperity of its people; where most people struggle to get ahead; and where those who aspire for better things are probably thinking of leaving.
Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, July 22nd, 2012 - 57 comments
National have decided to lower the tone and just attack attack attack Labour and the Greens. They know they’re going down, and they’re trying to take the left down with them. It’s nasty, it’s negative and it will do our whole political system no good.
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, July 20th, 2012 - 75 comments
Here’s a guest post from an Auckland Labour Party member with a different take on the constitutional changes. It’s interesting and challenging. Good food for thought. – Let us consider Labour’s proposed constitutional reforms in its moment. New Zealand’s progressives continue to splinter, just as conservative variation contracts. As the progressives splinter, they are also […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:29 pm, July 13th, 2012 - 37 comments
This weekend the NSW ALP Conference and the New Zealand Labour Party Council will both debate and decide proposals for reform. Prospects look decidedly better on this side of the Tasman for internal reform as well as for relations with the Greens.
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, July 12th, 2012 - 13 comments
Seeing coverage of the apparently unhurried steps towards Labour party members having a say in future leadership bids made me want to stop and ask some questions about whether they are telling the full story.
Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, June 20th, 2012 - 67 comments
National put out a couple of bizarre press releases saying “remember when…” and recounting the asset sales under the 4th Labour Government. Apparently, the fact that they fucked up is reason for National to fuck up now. Well, remember when asset sales earned Labour a landslide defeat and nearly destroyed it in 1990, resulting in nine years in the wilderness?
Written By: - Date published: 5:33 pm, June 5th, 2012 - 80 comments
The news out of Europe, China and Australia is looking worse by the day. What’s coming at us doesn’t look pretty. I was about to do a post saying I hoped someone in Labour was doing some scenario planning and was very pleased to see today that Parker’s eyes are open.
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