This has not had the media attention that it deserves but Act has raised, to use the technical term, a shit load of money recently. And it is using this money to engage in some good old fashioned racist dog whistling.
Can Labour win a third term? Here are some pathways up, and some pathways down.
The Government has announced changes to Covid policies relating to traffic light settings and mandates.
A slightly deeper review of National’s response to the Covid epidemic over the past two years. The overwhelming impression is that they have always complained about supposed Government incompetence in handling the pandemic and have always argued for the loosening of restrictions no matter how justifiable.
New Zealand’s sanctions on Russia have not stopped the war in Ukraine. They may have made our parliamentarians feel better, and Tony Blinken was quick to congratulate us on falling into line with the US “high-impact sanctions.” The language is combative, but the evidence shows sanctions do not work. They can have significant blow-back effects, particularly if not combined with effective diplomacy.
There has been the occasional criticism of Labour for not achieving enough progressive change by people who then propose supporting National. What are they thinking?
By elections are at the best of times dramatic events. Given current circumstances and a well funded although deeply unpopular anti vaccine movement and the likely candidacy of Winston Peters the Tauranga by election is likely to be a circus.
Simon Bridges has just announced that he is retiring from politics.
Labour’s announcement of a temporary reduction in fuel excise duties and a halving of public transport fares ups the ante on the debate on how to alleviate hardship caused by overseas induced inflation.
To help the poorest amongst us during the current times of International hyper inflation National has come up with a list of tips to help them. But no money.
Chloe Swarbrick, the cost of living crisis, and what the economy is for.
National/Act (47%) would beat Labour/Greens (46%) if there were an election held tomorrow, according to the latest One News Kantar poll.
For so called economic geniuses National sure struggles to understand how to properly cost fiscal policy. Its latest response to news that it proposed tax cuts would wipe out all discretionary spending in its first budget is to fudge the dates on which the cuts would be made.
National has proposed to reverse all tax changes implemented by Labour and claims that the cuts can be managed without damage to the state. But the figure it uses, $1.7 billion a year, includes income tax adjustments only and not the cost of the removal of other taxes.
Chris Luxon’s public commitment not to negotiate with the Wellington protestors has been called into question by a Facebook from Maureen Pugh claiming that members of the National Party were talking to the protesters on an almost daily basis.
Jacinda Ardern said yesterday that everyone is over Covid. She is right. We all want this to end.
It is day 10 of the Anti vax protest on Parliament’s grounds. More cars are being parked illegally and despite considerable disruption to Wellington’s roading network so far not one car has been towed by the police.
Where will the votes come from to get Labour a third term?
Maureen Pugh has posted a post on facebook supporting the Wellington protestors, deleted it when it was pointed out to her the protestors were anti vaccination, and then claimed she did not realise many of the protesters were against Covid-19 vaccination.
Chloe Swarbrick has requested that the government help Auckland central’s restaurants. But in a post Covid pre climate change world this is not going to help.
Roche, a major manufacturer of RATs, issued a statement to media on Tuesday night saying none of its stocks had been diverted or seized by the Government.
“RAT kits have been, and will continue to be, supplied to all New Zealand customers, including the Ministry of Health, in the sequence that purchase orders were placed,”. Chris Bishop MP is still claiming mythical evidence from local suppliers.
The full text is worth perusing across multiple areas, but Prime Minister Ardern’s speech in Parliament yesterday gave useful hints about how the economy and climate change are being integrated into a single economic strategy.
I am going to channel my Matthew Hooton left wing alter ego in the writing of this post. The latest Newshub poll shows a resounding level of support for the Labour Party and there are murmurs of discontent about Chris Luxon after support for the right plummets.
The text of Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern’s Waitangi Day speech
David Seymour has responded to slumping poll results by claiming that the Treaty of Waitangi should be trashed.
With Prime Minister announcing effectively the beginning of the end of state control of COVID, the question that has to be asked is how will the end of COVID change us all?
With Ardern getting a good-old media beat-down, remember here’s how to change a country for good like no one else but Labour can.
The latest Colmar Brunton (now Kantar) poll has now been released and some of the commentary and analysis is pretty ordinary.
With an Omicron surge appearing to be inevitable the importance of proper mask wearing has never been more important.
So far the country has fought back and eliminated the original Covid infection, won a couple of skirmishes and then and fought and quelled the Delta incursion. But it looks like Omicron is coming …
Climate, ecology, welfare, housing – we are now at the point for the Greens to go ‘fuck it, time to go back to our radical roots’.
Harete Hipango is in the news again, this time for posing with a group of anti vaxxers and posting a photo and making some pretty way out there comments on social media.
A few random predictions for 2022.
But Omicron may be loose.
It is that time of year where nostalgia kicks in and the desire to review current events dims. So much has happened this year. It has truly been twelve months of the praiseworthy and the absolutely pitiful. And it is time to reflect on the personalities who made us smile, made us frown and made us raise our eyebrows to breaking point.
Ministers Wood, Shaw and Parker (Energy, Climate Change, and RMA reform respectively), must pull their eyes downward from the misty clouds of climate change and stuff multiple decades away and down into the jagged, shadowy deal-by-deal path of the transition to clean energy.
