Some aspects of the TPP no-one’s mentioning.
Maybe it’s time to broach the elephant in the living room.
Australia has refused New Zealand’s very generous offer to take 150 Manus Island refugees.
Just before the election news broke that National MP Jian Yang had previously taught in a Chinese University training spies. A recent OIA release of his immigration application raises further issues.
A look at Labour’s PR around the TPPA-11, and a campaign by Action Station to stop the signing.
For a brief moment, the internets rejoiced.
In terms of style and approach Jacinda Ardern is radically different to Donald Trump.
Jacinda Ardern faces a test of her claim she can handle Australia better than the last two Prime Ministers. How will she react?
Labour has announced plans to prevent foreign residents from buying residential homes in New Zealand.
The indictments have been laid and the recriminations are starting. Looks like the Trump Whitehouse is starting to self destruct.
More trouble for Donald Trump as it is expected someone in his camp will shortly be charged with offences by the special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
The predictable reactions of regional and world leaders.
Kiwi of the year nominee and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has been ruled ineligible to hold his seat and the Liberal National Government has lost its majority.
The Australian Government just released this ad about the Great Australian Bight and it’s surprisingly honest and informative. 
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…the past 70 years of economic theory and practice. (h/t Adam)
Is it time for New Zealand to align itself with China rather than the United States?
Europe is showing a worrying trend to the right as anti immigration parties are voted into office. Austria provides the latest example.
A long and interesting read in The Atlantic. “The very roots of the electoral system had been destabilized.”
Last week, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). This is a […]
The massive artillery barrage at Passchendaele was supposed to cut the German wire and make advance easy. All it did was churn up the mud though which so many doomed New Zealanders slogged and died. A monument to military incompetence and political disaster. These days they prefer bombs, which are equally deadly and equally futile. Its time we said no more.
MMP is challenging the traditional role of the Governor General in determining who should lead the Government after an election.
Gross political incompetence, not immigration, is what lies behind and beneath New Zealand’s infra-structure problems. Only a excited donkey’s dick waving in a stiff breeze might point accusingly towards immigrants and immigration as the problem.
I suspect that ETS has become a political football in the next parliament, but probably not part of a coalition agreement with either National or Labour. My guess is that both NZ First and the Greens will want it off the table unless it is agreed that it will go. That leaves them able to vote against further stupid patches being added to it.
One of our key political challenges now is to broaden the understanding of what matters.
Another gun massacre has occurred in the United States. And the well worn excuses and justifications by the right and the gun lobby are again being used.
On the other side of the world another western democracy with an MMP system has recently had an election which has thrown up a complex result.
Tax is emerging as the big issue of this campaign. How valid are National’s claims that Labour will introduce a variety of new taxes and what has National’s record been like? Update: in a smart tactical move Labour has promised no new taxes will be introduced until after the next election.
Newsroom and the Financial Times have reported that National MP Dr Jian Yang was educated at a Chinese University specialising on training spies and was investigated by the SIS for possible links to the Chinese Government.
Reviewed on Stuff: “Who owns New Zealand now? The NZ On Air-funded documentary that screened on Three on Tuesday, September 12 confronts the housing crisis head on and it’s an eye-opener.”
The first contender has declared, albeit so far in a humorous manner. Less humorous has been the hurricanes that have been hitting southern states this season. You can understand why the oil industries anti-scientist Scott Pruitt that Trump put in charge of the EPA doesn’t want to talk about it.
Should the Greens form part of the next Government there will be huge expectations on them to perform.
One of the dafter myths about the current burgeoning immigration industry is that we need skilled immigrants for the construction industry. As usual the talkback idiots are wrong. We don’t get many. We need more. We need to get rid of the migrant dross to get them. A Kiwibuild quota is a good idea.
If there is a change of Government what should Labour do about requests for military assistance in the Middle East?
The Indian Supreme Court has ruled that privacy is a fundamental right to life and liberty under India’s constitution. Other countries recognise the right to privacy against the state. But commercial interest through social media have access to huge amounts of private information. Why should there be a right of privacy against the state but not corporate interests?
