What a mess. Katene wants Turia’s job but will she be the one given the tap or will it be a member of the Turia clan? Flavell has made a play for Sharples’ job, but there’s no mechanism for deciding leadership battles. Harawira has offered a re-merger. Sharples is open to it, Turia isn’t but she wants Sharples gone.
Pita Sharples should step down as a leader of the Maori Party and let someone else have a go. A merger with Mana seems to offer the most viable way forward, but the possibility has prompted a hysterical reaction from the outgoing Turia.
The biggest winner is Dr Nick Smith. He returns to Cabinet after his fall from grace last year, and is appointed as Minister for Creating a Perception of Crisis in Order to Justify Savage Cutbacks in Entitlements.
The biggest losers are Kate Wilkinson and Phil Heatley, who have been dropped from Cabinet altogether. Both have failed to perform, and their inability to communicate with the smoothness of someone like Hekia Parata will have counted against them.
Danyl at Dimpost has discovered that National is so serious about (enhancing) the drain of jobs and Kiwis to Australia that they’ve actually […]
According to an international credit reporting agency our economic “risk profile” is “deteriorating”, due in part to rising unemployment. Good work National.
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.
So Nick Smith is to be returned to cabinet after spending nearly a year on the bench for his ethical flaws. Presumably 10 months on the back benches heals all those desires to abuse your powers to try to help your friends get money.
The Greens have learned (via OIA) that National ignored its own official advice in canceling the standard five-yearly State of the Environment Report.
I/S at No Right Turn on the Nats’ contempt for democracy in Canterbury. Elections remain on hold so that the commissioners’ agenda can be completed without unwelcome input from urban representation.
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.
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.
Paula Bennett stated that the numbers of people on benefits had dropped over the last quarter. The figures mask the reality of Bennett’s punitive welfare reforms, and the struggles of those living on low incomes. Meanwhile unemployment is still rising. [Update: RNZ]
Protecting the incompetent Parata is a further sign that Key’s government is well in to sclerotic middle age.
Submissions for the Education Amendment Bill 2012 (includes Charter Schools) close on 24 January. The PPTA reminds us that Charter Schools are a failed idea. Even Treasury documents show they are a bad idea.
With a 10% increase in the median house price last year, we’re firmly back on a damaging house price binge. Labour has policies that address the issue. Where is National?
The Nats want to cut the budget for surgery to install grommets, a technique for treating persistent ear infection (especially in children). Naturally those most effected by this ill-considered move will be children from poor families.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here: a Labour victory in 2014 isn’t necessarily better than a National victory in 2014.
Labour’s 2012 Kiwibuild policy has focused on building homes for first time buyers. Now we are told Labour’s 2011 policy pledging to increase the state housing stock still stands. This raises many questions: including do-ability and the Labour leadership’s continuing (neoliberal) focus.
I’m delighted to see that over 70% of respondents to a recent Herald poll, published today, think Labour’s 100,000 houses plan is “a winner for Labour”. The plan was announced by David Shearer at Labour’s November conference. I’d also like to thank Olwyn for asking some questions about Labour’s policy on housing in response to Zetetic’s post – they deserve an answer.
I know I criticise David Shearer a lot, but if I sound bitter it’s just because I totally thought he would turn out to be Jesus.
Going on previous form, Camp Shearer seem to think a successful caucus vote in February will silence all criticism of his parliamentary leadership of the Labour Party. Boy, are you all wrong.
As our own Labour grandee Mike Smith has pointed out, 2013 is the year Labour develops its policies.
That means Labour members (and the broader left) need to start talking about what they want before conference. And what better place to have that discussion than the Standard…
After Eddie dissed the usual beltway year in review style of column/post I was a little chary about doing this one. And then I realised the good thing about The Standard is we do real world and beltway issues. So here goes my once-over assessment of the 2012 cabinet performance and what it’s likely to mean for the future.
Most of the years in review I’ve seen in the couple of weeks have concentrated on gossip and rating individual MPs. Most of what matters not a jot outside the beltway. What matters is how the parties are doing in terms of progressing or thwarting the government’s policy agenda – how’s the government doing at governing? – and how polling is shaping up for 2014.
Individualism & “celebrity” PM, John Key were still strong in 2012. But, there was opposition from some (often local) groups working collaboratively: Occupy, Glen Innes protesters, MUNZ, Asset Sales referendum, AAAP advocacy activism, manufacturing inquiry, NZLP democratisation, TS nest of vipers. And 2013?
While John Key spends the summer in Hawaii, he will need to make some decisions about the future of his cabinet. Parata’s future is poised in the balance, and he is looking to move Tim Groser on later next year.
… then maybe more attention would be given to increasing numbers of people struggling to get the necessities of life. Record queues outside Auckland’s City Mission. The Brighter Future never comes. Revisit The Spirit Level.
Democracy needs independent news media, acting in the public interest, to speak truth to power. The commercial imperatives and neoliberal capture of corporate news organisations skew their political coverage, and contribute to voter disengagement. A perfect context for Key’s government to dismantle democracy: ECAN, CERA, Auckland Council, asset sales.
David Shearer’s weekly e-newsletter, this week – Merry Christmas!
We’re happy to post similar newsletters from other opposition leaders – our email is on our contact page.
Green Party co-leader, Metiria Turei, was confident and clear on TV3, talking about their consistent, disciplined & successful year &: the RONS tax, MP pay rise, government’s poor record, the economy, printing money, jobs, equality issues and child poverty. Little on green issues. Zero on the climate. [Update] Turei RNZ interviews.
Trying to distract attention from the increased taxes required to maybe balance the budget one day, Key was pushing supposedly good news on health. Instead he scored a social media own goal. Ooops.
On TV3 this morning, John Key was soothing and slick. All is well on Planet Key, and critics are delusional. He reeled of numbers and facts, but material realities of daily lives, and the suffering of people on low incomes aren’t mentioned. And asset sales?
Recent pieces by Bernard Hickey and John Armstrong both highlighted the problem of our aging population and the unsustainability of super – in Hickey’s memorable words we are “consuming our future”. Armstrong tries to balme MMP, but that won’t wash, it’s just the usual short-sighted Nat stupidity…
David Shearer was on TV 3 this morning, reflecting on his last year. He claimed that he and Labour are doing well under new and settled leadership, taking a new direction. How accurate are his claims?
Fran O’Sullivan & Audrey Young are awestruck by Judith Collins as ruthless Force. FO’S does a fan-girl rave, slipping into fanfic mode.Was the Binnie episode a daring bid to become the next Nat leader? Will English & Joyce respond with callous, socially-destructive manoeuvres?
Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, two damning reports on child poverty, and the Nats refuse to act.
