National’s recent donations returns suggest that a large total of their donations are made in the under $15,000 category, the benefit of which is that the donor’s identity does not have to be disclosed. Update: The four accused have been named.
It’s clear that Parliament is incapable of meaningful reforms to itself, as some political parties have a vested interest in the status quo, a citizens’ assembly would remove bias around these important decisions.
– NZ Green Party
BREAKING NEWS: Simon Bridges calls on the leader of the opposition to stand down while the SFO case is before the courts.
The SFO charges laid in the District Court reveal that it investigated not one but two dodgy $100,000 donations to National.
Simon Bridges has claimed that the average wage earner in the country pays almost 33c in the dollar in taxes. Spoiler alert, they do not.
National will announce today that tax cuts will be a major policy plank for the next election.
It has been revealed that NZ First acquired photographs of its former President and two reporters emerged on the Whaleoil mark 2 site, raising the concerning possibility that Simon Lusk may be involved in helping NZ First.
This week the Reid Research Poll predicted a Labour Green government and the Colmar Brunton poll predicted a National ACT government. Which one will be proved correct?
Simon Bridges has claimed that a GDP growth Jacinda Ardern used was wrong even though it was the figure released by Statistics NZ.
In the past 10 days Simon Bridges has said that National will not go into coalition with NZ First after the next election, to it could consider coalition in the future, to there is no way it will ever go into coalition with NZ First.
Three more National MPs have joined the ranks of those leaving Parliament this year.
David Farrar has called for the suspension of Winston Peters from Cabinet for reasons which would also justify the suspension of Simon Bridges from the National Party.
Looks like there’s a ways to go before New Zealand gets an integrated state-backed broadcaster. But the Government’s recent proposal is a big step in the right direction.
The repercussions from Simon Bridges’ disastrous Waitangi performance continue to reverberate. His suggestions that Māori seats and the Waitangi Tribunal should be done away with have resulted in the Māori Party indicating it is more likely to support Labour after the election.
Yesterday the political parties were welcomed onto the upper Marae at Waitangi. Jacinda Ardern took the occasion to give a stock take of what the Government was doing to address Iwi concerns, Andrew Little gave his speech totally in te reo, and Simon Bridges chose to use the opportunity to politic.
It’s not often you find New Zealanders who give every single breath they have to the left and do it with resounding and even global success. Such a person was Mike Moore.
Simon Bridges has mimicked John Key and ruled out National working with NZ First after the election. The difference is however that back then Key ruled out working with NZ First because NZ First was involved in a SFO investigation about the hiding of a $100,000 donation. This time it is National.
Simon Bridges has stated that National wants to pay the undeclared $100,000 donation back but even though nearly two years have passed since it was made it still remains unrepaid.
Following the announcement by the Serious Fraud Office of charges relating to the donation of $100,000 to the National Party Simon Bridges claim of being exonerated appear to be optimistic.
The SFO has confirmed that it has charged four persons with offences relating to the receipt of donations by the National Party.
The details of the Government’s $12 billion infrastructure announcement have been released.
Simon Bridges has wondered out loud if anti semitism stopped the Government from sending a senior representative to a Holocaust memorial in Israel.
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog
Ahead of the 2020 General Election in New Zealand, Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced that her party is committed to run a factual election and has signed up to a social media tool to help prove it. The 2020 NZ election will be an interesting case study of whether in the social media age there can be honest political debate free of misinformation and manipulation of facts.
Jacinda Ardern has announced that Labour will abide by Facebook Ad Library Report rules which allow voters to see where campaigning money is being spent on Facebook ads. And that it will have its major policies independently costed.
The right appears to be splintering on climate change, with former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull describing Donald Trump as the world’s leading climate change denier. And locally National MP Andrew Bayley has talked the profound effects of climate change on Antarctica’s ecosystems at the same time as Paula Bennett is attacking educational material designed to make children think about climate change.
National has hinted darkly that the theft of laptops from its headquarters was possibly motivated by political considerations even though it had been told of a similar burglary of a neighbouring office had also occurred recently.
Simon Bridges is visiting the Philippines. And unlike his recent trip to China this time he has decided to talk tough to the local leaders about human rights.
Federated Farmers has started a petition against an educational resource that teaches about climate change and activism because it does not present their industry in a sufficiently positive way.
The Herald has reported that National in its first two years of Government created *more* working groups than Labour.
Originally post on Nick Kelly’s blog
The broader context of this defeat is that over the last century, UK Labour has won 8 out of the last 28 general elections. Overall the Labour Party is not a successful electoral force in the UK. What makes the 2019 loss harder, is that the party lost sections of its historical base in the North of England and the Midlands.
Freedom House has criticised National MP Todd McClay for reinforcing Chinese descriptions of the mass imprisonment of Muslim minorities as vocational training centres.
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog
The UK Labour Party in the 2019 election assumed that like in 2017, the release of their policy manifesto would see their support increase significantly. Assuming that 2019 would be a re-run of 2017 was a foolish mistake.
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog
Momentum and its supporters need to find a way of selling genuine social democratic politics to a conservative English public.
Statistics New Zealand has confirmed that in the last year the number of new housing consents was the highest since 1974.
Simon Bridges has alleged the police of being politicised after a person who holds rather right wing views and libertarian views on gun ownership had a search warrant for illegal firearms executed on his property.
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog
