National’s Filipino campaign
National’s New Lynn candidate Paulo Garcia appears to be receiving campaigning assistance from the Philippine Ambassador for New Zealand. Is this appropriate?
political parties
national
National’s response to the Syria attack
Unlike the Australian and United Kingdom Governments’ response to the American attack has been muted and confused. Is this just the nature of anything that Bill English says or is it an attempt to assess public opinion before responding?
MSD and our privacy
National’s plans for our privacy and access to social services are a perfect cocktail of over-reach and incompetence.
Resource Management Act Third Reading
Nick Smith’s RMA reforms are close to being completed. Will his high homes for the reforms be met?
Pity the RWNJ (for they are going to be spinning in pain)
If you are one of the right wing nut jobs that read this site, then Horizon puts out some truly scary polls. But if you aren’t an idiot and actually take the time to read material before criticizing it (unlike Hooton on ‘Hit and Run’) then this points to a tight election as is usual under MMP. But with all of the swing in the direction of a Labour led coalition. But I am sure the simpleton spinners will have another explanation.
Conflict of interest what conflict of interest?
The lobbying body for fishing industry and Nathan Guy who is the responsible minister think there is no conflict of interest in the lobbying body inheriting huge powers previously held by the Ministry for Primary Industries.
National’s policing problem
National is facing increasing public concern about the ability of the police to do its job properly.
Motels are not state houses
It’s almost as if deliberately running down state housing stock doesn’t make the need for homes magically go away – who could possibly have predicted that?
Another reason for water pricing
The Government will be embarassed by another example of a corporation planning to extract ten billion litres of fresh water a year essentially at no cost which has arisen.
What does National do about English?
John Key has claimed that the transfer of power from himself to Bill English was flawless and designed to ensure continuation of National’s rule. Based on the last couple of opinion poll results he should reconsider his optimism.
Clifton: Nat MPs getting nervous
English is down 6% in the latest Colmar Brunton. Jane Clifton sees Nat MPs getting nervous. “For the Nats, having so long taken a fourth term as read, the possibility that their own leader may soon be less secure in his job than Labour’s will be a toughie.”
Jam tomorrow
It’s too hard! We’ll do it later! Auckland airport rail is just the latest example.
A tale of two valedictory speeches
Compare and contrast Helen Clark’s and John Key’s valedictory speeches.
Hit and Run – time for an inquiry
Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson’s book Hit and Run makes a compelling case for the Government to conduct a full inquiry to see if New Zealand forces were complicit in the killing of innocent men and women and if there was a cover up.
Nothing to fear, nothing to hide
Todd Barclay has chosen to co-operate fully with the police investigation into his actions by getting a lawyer and refusing to say anything to them.
National’s water problem
The Government’s timid backdown on water charging is placing it in a very uncomfortable position.
“Dumbing down a generation”
An excellent piece by Simon Collins in the weekend Herald. NZ’s educational scores in international comparisons are locked in a downward spiral. National’s ideology has failed, while we ignore successful models.
NRT: “Too hard”
No Right Turn: “The real barrier to National … acting on this is because that “no-one owns water, first come, first served” policy disproportionately benefits one group and allows them to profiteer from a public resource while destroying its value to others. That group is farmers – and they donate to the National Party.”
Nats’ attack on Ardern backfires
National’s nasty, obvious, hamfisted attack on Jacinda Ardern has backfired on them big time.
Murdoch on the tax-cut striptease (NSFW)
National’s flawed RMA ripoff still failing
Maori Party Co-Leader, Marama Fox, is playing hardball over Nick Smith latest attempts to weasel out of commitments on the deeply flawed RMA changes that National has spent the last few years trying to find any support for in Parliament. The bill is crap. The Maori party should just drop it regardless how many baubles they think they will get from it.
Nick Smith is a disgrace
In a functioning democracy Nick Smith’s handling of the Resource Management Bill should result in him losing his ministerial warrant.
What should Labour and the Greens do in Ilam?
Christchurch Councillor Raf Manji has announced that he will be standing as an independent against Gerry Brownlee for the Ilam seat in Christchurch.
Community groups abandon Smith’s water forum
Will Nick Smith get the message and set in place a realistic consultation process and safe standards, or will he persist with a plan so bad that no one wants to be associated with it?
Nick legged it
Remember how the move of Nick Leggett to National was supposed to be some big disaster for Labour?
Roads not health
A new coalition protests health under-funding, while the cost of the holiday highway blows out. Our government has its priorities all screwed up.
Will Collins make a move?
The crisis around English’s amateur-hour handling of the super announcement is an opportunity for Judith Collins.
National accuses John Key of shying away from the hard issues
Shambolic scenes as Bill English’s twitter account tweets criticism of John Key not taking the hard decisions regarding superannuation eligibility, then the tweet gets deleted. And Bill did not know the tweet had been sent out.
Swimmable standards that aren’t for all of our rivers except most of them
Swimmable standards that aren’t, for all of our rivers except most of them, sometime maybe not now. Nat policy at its finest.
Who would have thunk that Government’s approach to housing is inadequate
Radio New Zealand has reported on a review of the Government’s housing policy which described it as fragmented and lacking a robust plan but it took intervention by the Ombudsman to have the review released.
National bolster their moribund blue-greens
I read this morning in Politik that Vernon Tava has left the Greens and appears to be leaning towards National. It doesn’t seem to me to much of a problem to lose a conservationist to National. It just means that the Greens can concentrate more effectively on the work of getting everyone trying to build a cleaner sustainable future.
Homeless crisis hidden in plain sight
Bill blames the blowout in emergency housing grants on the “hidden homeless”. Hidden only from those who will not see. Hidden only from a government that deliberately chooses for political reasons not to collect the relevant data.
Housing crisis what housing crisis
The Government’s estimate of the extent of the housing crisis has recently been shown to be totally out of touch and to add further pathos it is counting kiwi families urgently housed in motels in tourism statistics.
Two big policy fails
This is what you get with a hasty, reactive, “top down” policy process.
Nick Smith becomes Minister of Government Information
The Government intends to change the definitions of various indicators in an effort to solve some of the country’s most serious problems.