Bill vs Greens
I love that, after studiously ignoring Bill English’s housing rort, Farrar’s now got unending questions for the Greens. Pretty desperate stuff too – ‘sure, […]
Politics
political parties
English could learn from the Greens
The Greens have a superannuation fund. That’s fine. It has investments in a couple of houses. That’s fine. The Green MPs have to […]
Caption Competition
Talk about politics
RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan talks to Matthew Hooton and Andrew Campbell about the failures of Key’s trip to NYC, English’s terminal status and contenders […]
Legal vs. Moral
There’s an old lawyer joke: “When the facts are on your side, bang the facts. When the law’s on your side, bang the […]
Billalice in Wonderwelly
Things must be getting decidedly trippy for Deputy PM Bill English about now, and not in a good way. While his glorious leader […]
David Clendon
Following Sue Bradford’s resignation, next into Parliament on the Greens’ list is David Clendon, an Auckland business advisor and lecturer in resource management […]
Stupid hypocritical ACE cuts
Night classes – Adult and Community Education (ACE). An incredibly cost effective and valuable part of the NZ education sector for decades. The […]
Secret ballots for strikes
Tau Henare has put a private members’ bill in the ballot that would require ballots by union members on strike action to be […]
Chauvel on the ETS
In his speech as Labour climate change spokesperson, Charles Chauvel confirmed the new information on the ETS that Jeanette Fitzsimons revealed today. It was […]
Building constituencies
On Tuesday, both Sue Kedgley and Sue Moroney tabled petitions in Parliament with over 15,000 signatures, on food standards in schools and pay […]
Banning smoking
I have a lot of respect for Hone Harawira. The voting for a Tory government thing has lessened it but his hatred for the […]
Get it in writing
Watching the Maori Party get done over by National is getting painful. The MP thought they had a good faith dialogue on the […]
Understanding political behaviour
It seems political scientists could learn a thing or two from anthropologists after all. “Neanderthals were not the gentle, almost-human creatures portrayed in […]
Bullying the media
National are up to their old tricks again – bullying the media to try and shut down critical comment. This time the culprit […]
Nats’ ETS a polluters’ charter
Rod Oram, as usual, has set the standard in commentary with his piece on the National-Maori Party ETS. The full article is here […]
A long time between drinks
The latest Roy Morgan poll puts National down 5% and Labour up 4%. Still a big gap, but it seems at last New […]
Lyndon on ACT
Found this gem at Fighting Talk. Lyndon Hood examines the act of leaking. Lyndon Hood: Act Doesn’t Feel Climate Heat Click to enlarge […]
Nick Smith’s dirty dealing
Labour’s Charles Chauvel has released the paper records of Labour’s attempts to agree a bi-partisan ETS with National. In total, Labour presented three […]
“What else can I do?”, asks Blinky Bill.
We told him here months ago – acknowledge what everybody knows: that he lives in Wellington with his family, and he should claim […]
The bigots beneath
Last night, Sandra Goudie, the big-mouth of the National Party caucus, said the words out loud that the Nats usually keep in their […]
I don’t know if it hurts my eyes or my heart more
WTF is this? I mean look at it. It’s got to be the worst website I have ever seen and I’ve been around […]
Short term thinkers
It never ceases to amaze me what short term thinkers National are. The plan (with the Maori Party) to gut the ETS highlights […]
Taxpayer shafted again
National seems to be making a bit of a habit of shafting the taxpayer. Before the election we were promised significant tax cuts, […]
Labour Grasps Nettle: Nettles Usually Sting
By Rob Salmond It sounds like Phil G did a great job at Labour’s conference setting out where the party should go from […]
No deal
Hot Topic has obtained a copy of a draft memorandum of understanding for a meeting on the ETS that was meant to take place […]
Kaupapa for sale
A few important passages from the special select committee report on the Emissions Trading Scheme: In the long term, price caps stand in […]
Maori Party to help Nats kill carbon emissions cap
Nick Smith has just announced a deal with the Maori Party to replace the existing Emissions Trading Scheme with a do-nothing joke. The […]
Condoms and democracy
Have to disagree with Zet’s call for Labour to ‘just put it away‘ on the remit to conference calling for subsidised condoms in […]
Close the loopholes
I am heartened that Phil Goff is trying to work with the Government to address over-investment in residential property. However, I think a […]
Be bold on smoking
Very good piece by Anthony Hubbard in the Sunday Star Times: The Maori Party is pressuring the government to take tough new anti-smoking […]
No good faith from Nats
Finance Minister Bill English has told doctors, teachers, and other public servants that they will not be getting pay-raises when their collective contracts […]
Just put it away
I know this free condoms idea is just a remit, not Labour Party policy, but it’s exactly the kind of thing that the […]
Those pesky boundaries for Auckland
There are a couple of things that I hadn’t realised about the rather strange changes to the Auckland super-city boundaries. They are just […]
Labour needs to get back to its roots
Goff is using Labour’s national conference to swallow some dead rats, distancing himself and the party from the social reform agenda of the […]
Jim Anderton on organisation
The most interesting feature of the Labour conference so far has been from Jim Anderton. It looks like the Progressives are now able […]