Rare misstep
Simeon Brown in his attack on the Government for allegedly funding the Mongrel Mob has shown a disturbing ability to understand how Government works and an even more disturbing inability to perform basic maths.
Politics
political parties
Demand the debate
In two separate leaks it has emerged that Judith Collins privately briefed Don Brash on National’s demand the debate campaign and that Brash wrote to wealthy donors seeking $300,000 for an Iwi Kiwi style billboard response.
About the Hate Speech law changes
The debate about the Government’s consultation on proposed changes to hate speech laws continues, with the level of heat increasing, but the level of actual understanding of what is being proposed in critical shortage.
Oppose this new hate speech bill
Hate speech is about to get a lot more criminalised with much stronger penalties. It’s worth going back to what the Royal Commission […]
Stick a fork in them, they’re done
The details of a particularly brutal National Party caucus meeting that resulted in Todd Muller announced his pending retirement from Parliament have been leaked in detail to the Herald’s Claire Trevett.
Todd’s going … who is next?
Yesterday National suffered further damage to its ranks when Harete Hipango was outed as the MP with Parliamentary Services resources issues and Todd Muller announced that he will stand down as an MP at the end of this term nominally so that he can eventually spend more time with his family.
Will the last remaining National MP please turn all the lights off
Oh dear. There is yet another story about yet another National MP in trouble because of their born to rule impulses. Update: the Herald has reported that the MP is Harete Hipango. These blue on blue attacks are getting out of hand.
He’s baaack
For the first time since the election Winston Peters has reemerged. But instead of talking about the country’s problems such as climate change, child poverty and recovering from the global pandemic he chose to concentrate on the “over” use of Te Reo, cycleways and gangs.
The Government’s Feebate scheme
Labour and the Greens have announced the establishment of a Feebate scheme to incentivise the purchase of electric vehicles and disincentivise the purchase of gas guzzlers.
The Climate Commission Report
As they said they would, the Government has today released the full advice from the Climate Commission, taking into account all the submissions and all the big fat evidence.
Openness and transparency
On the weekend Andrea Vance gave the Government a bit of a serve about its record on openness and transparency. But a deeper dig into the issue suggests that the cause may have nothing to do with the Government’s preferences and everything to do with the volume of information requests made by the opposition.
National’s culture problem
National’s week from hell is further evidence of a culture problem that will not be easily solved.
Nick Smith rejoices as Jake Bezzant takes public spotlight off him
Jake Bezzant was meant to be one of National’s bright new things, having last year been selected in then safe Upper Harbour. If things were normal he would be in Parliament right now. Instead an internal leaking campaign destroyed his chances and it now transpires that he has engaged in behaviour that is certainly immoral and should be illegal.
The National Party Caucus knew nuffink about Nick Smith’s problems
Last night the story about Nick Smith’s issues that caused his resignation finally broke, or did it?
Why did ACT reject Lisa Lewis’s membership application?
Two political blogs have asked why ACT turned down Sex worker Lisa Lewis’s application for membership of the party. Here at the Standard we have what we believe is the best answer.
Later Nick
Nick Smith is leaving Parliament not only to spend more time with his family but also because details of an employment dispute started after he yelled at a junior staffer were leaked.
Latest Colmar Brunton poll – people disapprove of Judith
In the latest Colmar Brunton poll although National’s result and Judith Collins’ result as preferred Prime Minister went up slightly her approval rating for her job performance has plunged deep into negative figures.
Chris Bishop is tilting at Covid windmills
Right now, in terms of our Covid response, New Zealand is in a unique position. It has no community spread of Covid and its level of restrictions is the most permissive in the world. But this does not stop Chris Bishop from trying to double guess the handling of the pandemic.
The right bring out the big guns
This is day five of the post Ruthenasia era and the response from the right is really underwhelming. The most notable response is a comment by Peter Dunne questioning whether 11 year olds are ever interested in politics.
The end of Ruthenasia
National presented a particularly glum picture in Parliament yesterday. And it was not only the realisation that Judith Collins is out of her depth. It was because this budget spells the end of Ruthenasia.
Will the real leader of the Opposition please stand up
Today’s budget debate suggests that the effective leader of the opposition may not be the leader of the National Party.
Reality has a left wing bias
Fresh from a claim that the Ministry of Education is trying to persuade kids not to eat home made lunches, David Seymour has taken aim at a new target, a radical education policy that intends to teach our kids about racism and inequality and what has happened in the country’s past.
C’mon National!
Forlorn for now though they may be, this is the advice National MPs need right now.
Latest poll – Collins dog whistling is not working
The latest TV 3 Reid Research Poll has Judith Collins’ preferred leadership rating cut by two thirds. Judith’s racist dog whistling is clearly not working.
The Māori Party and the National Party
There were dramatic scenes in Parliament yesterday. Judith Collins chose to again attack Jacinda Ardern about the He Puapua report. And Māori Party Co leader Rawiri Waititi expressed his disgust at her race baiting in a uniquely New Zealand way.
National’s use of the dog whistle and its hatred of UN conventions
Judith Collins has applied the dog whistle to the He Puapua report and suggested that it is evidence of the Government wanting to radically change New Zealand society. But a check through history shows that the report is based on an International Treaty that National signed up to.
Onya Michael
Yesterday Minister of Labour Michael Wood led the announcement of a policy that conceivably could do more to address the decline in workers wages and conditions over the past 40 years than anything else tried recently.
Branko Marcetic: Labour’s public sector pay freeze isn’t just a betrayal of frontline workers – it’s a rejection of mainstream economic thinking
Consistent with how they’ve governed so far, Ardern and Robertson are happy to demand workers sacrifice for the greater good — but asking the rich to do the same is a red line they simply won’t cross.
Collins’ really bad take on te Tiriti
Last weekend Judith Collins spoke to the Northern Regional Conference of the National Party and gave as crude an analysis of te Tiriti as you can imagine.
Sepuloni: Labour to increase Jobseeker benefit
Some good news from over the weekend. Labour is planning to significantly increase the level of Jobseeker benefit.
Can we trust David Seymour?
David Seymour has got himself into a little bit of trouble. He filed a Parliamentary Pecuniary interests return that was not, ahem, correct.
National’s election review leaked
It was only a matter of time. Tova O’Brien at Newshub has been leaked a copy of the abridged version of the National Party election review.
Too much too far?
As we lead up to Budget 2021, there’s much more shape to the whole direction of this government.
National’s very bad day
Yesterday was a day where National focussed on dog whistle racism, supported religious extremists and moaned about workers receiving a modest increase in the minimum wage.
DHBs to go
Television New Zealand has reported that Andrew Little is to announce that district health boards are to go
Its official – Transmission Gully is a fiasco
A damning report into National’s PPP contract for construction of Transmission Gully has concluded that the maximum price the government would pay was set too low, project bidders soon worked this out and that proposals were “value managed down” or made cheaper on designs and timelines that created risks that would eventually manifest themselves after procurement once construction commenced.