At yesterday’s post Cabinet Press Conference Barry Soper overtalked a number of reporters, demanded answers to his questions, and then stormed out of the press conference. And then immediately wrote a piece accusing Jacinda Ardern of overtalking reporters …
Most of us have been diminished by COVID in 2020-21 so it’s time for everyone to prepare 2022 as an honest accounting of damage to our whole society.
The results of two polls were leaked recently both showing a drop in support for Labour. Clearly the Delta outbreak has rattled confidence. But National has not surged up in support and the Greens have picked up some of the former Labour vote.
Barry Soper has accused the Prime Minister of, wait for this, not taking her mask off when she was inside visiting a vaccination centre in South Auckland.
Human rights are a pain in the ass. Yesterday’s protesters were rude, unfit to invite home to dinner, shouty, and so incoherent that you could’t make any sensible point with them. They were and are a pain in the ass. But they are OUR pain in the ass.
The text of Jacinda Ardern’s speech delivered today to the Labour Conference.
Labour is this year holding its Conference on line. There will be some attention on a proposal to allow a supermajority of Caucus to avoid members and affiliates from having a say in a future Parliamentary leader.
Matt Nippert’s in depth article in the Herald this morning provides a well researched deep insight into the Government’s vaccine roll out. And as it progresses the New Zealand response places us mid table and improving in the OECD vaccination comparison and gives us some hope that the Delta outbreak may be controlled.
COVID has reminded us how good New Zealand is, and we should remember how we were reminded.
The Government has announced vaccine mandates for some publicly facing businesses designed to help minimise the spread of a virus that has killed millions of people world wide.
While we may have been lifted out of martial lockdowns and some rights have been reinstated in limited form, we have surrendered to another more pervasive power. The power of big data.
The Herald’s publication of an attack on Ardern by a wedding venue owner appears to have been sourced from Cameron Slater and brings into stark relief the Herald’s twin business model of funding serious journalism by both subscriptions and the use of click bait.
In the coming months Fortress New Zealand will be dismantled. What will take its place?
Some big decisions are due to happen today. What happens to Auckland’s Covid status? Should the lockdown level be reduced or should the Government think about putting it back up?
The latest Colmar Brunton poll confirms that National’s polling is in the doldrums and David Seymour’s preferred PM rating is twice that of Judith Collins.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern claimed yesterday that a very high vaccination rate in New Zealand would represent a “golden ticket” and make level 4 lockdowns redundant. What could that mean that’s positive for New Zealand?
In a piece of incredible timing, on the same day as Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom announced their defence technology procurement pact and pissed off ally and competitor alike, China formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Porgressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The Prime Minister has sparked another national debate. What should we call the new mobile vaccination vehicles that will be rolled out over the next week or so.
We’ve never seen a nationwide disease illustrate class and deprivation like the future of the country depended on it. Not like this. This should change us.
As Tamaki Makaurau enters week four of lockdown things are at an interesting stage.
While Prime Minister Ardern is an empathic Prime Minister, good for the country in a crisis, and is genuinely caring, there’s also a time for citizens to say that the state must pay to right wrongs.
As the damage caused by Judith Collins’ leadership of the National Party intensifies it is inevitable that there will be internal discussions about who should replace her, and soon. And I think the best candidate is clear.
Judith Collins has insisted on travelling from Auckland to Wellington so she can stand and shout in an empty Parliament Chamber.
This week there has been some argy bargy between the Twitterati including the Waitakerati and the media on coverage of Covid in Aotearoa with elements of the media complaining that the criticisms are unjustified. A brief review of some of the offerings this week would suggest otherwise.
Last night it was revealed that National and Act had refused to agree to a proposed virtual Parliament sitting where questions could be asked, and instead wanted face to face meetings, even though this would mean a third of the country’s MPs travelling regularly to Wellington from a Covid delta hotspot.
For a country that has sought to form advantage for itself with strong and hard COVID-19 lockdowns, we’re not gaining any more advantage than yet another binge-purge cycle of supply tension and shortages, rapid economic downturn softened by tens of billions of subsidy, followed by unsustainable booms, over and over again.
Jacinda Ardern has resumed the 1 pm briefings where she communicates effectively the country’s current situation and what the plan is. But National and some elements of the media are complaining, presumably that she is doing too good a job.
Political leadership in the time of Covid is important. As the Government urgently swung into action and imposed a level 4 lockdown after news of a community case of Delta Covid who lived in Auckland and had spent time in Coromandel while infectious, Thames-Coromandel District Mayor and former National MP Sandra Goudie admitted to not scanning regularly.
“What will the role of New Zealand be should China invade Taiwan?” was by far the most popular question for Jacinda Ardern after […]
National has responded to the impending return to New Zealand of Suhayra Aden by hinting that they may follow Australia and breach human rights by bringing in laws allowing countries to arbitrarily remove rights of citizenship.
A review of Des Gorman’s comments about Covid over the last 15 months, pretty well all of which have been negative, makes you wonder how it is possible that we have been able to maintain an effective Covid free status in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The appearance of community spread Delta variant Covid in Australia has caused New Zealand to suspend the trans Tasman travel bubble.
So far there have been no discovered cases of community spread of the Covid delta variant in Wellington following the recent visit by an Australian tourist who was infected with the variant. Meanwhile in Australia the authorities are trying to stamp out community flareups that are appearing in different parts of the country.
The Government has announced it will publicly apologise for the treatment of Pacific people in the 1970s when they were harassed and discriminated against by the Police because of the place of their birth and the colour of their skin.
This week has seen the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to suggest that Australia is adopting a principled stand and New Zealand has sold its soul to China for trade. But the comments by Morrison and Ardern made after their Queenstown meeting suggests the opposite.
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.
