Shane Jones: Government isn’t Nostradamus
Shane Jones appeals for understanding for the Coalition, but did he extend any to others?
health
covid-19
We owe a great debt to Grant Robertson
Today I learned, we owe a great debt to Grant Roberston and just wanted to say thanks
What Should Be In the Plan for New Zealand’s Upcoming Oil Crisis?
In the short and medium term, what should this government do as a plan?
Green Shoots, Anyone?
There is no evidence of immediate improvement in our economy, or of this government improving it.
Voices for Freedom’s local government campaign
Anti vax organisation Voices for Freedom has published a glossy well presented booklet suggesting how local body campaigns should be run. And it looks like a number of right wing campaigns are borrowing heavily from the information in the booklet.
Should Labour attend a set-up?
The Government is accusing Labour of all sorts of bad things for not attending the second week of the Covid-19 inquiry.
Reality Check Radio needs a reality check
Reality Check Radio has on the eve of the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s hearings into the Government’s Covid response released a petition suggesting that Jacinda Ardern and others have been put on trial.
Nicola Willis’s Debt Higher Than All 6 Years of Ardern Government
Current & planned debt will surpass Labour’s full term debt in less years. Willis also admitted Budget 2024 had a higher deficit than all of Grant Robertson’s bar Covid.
Remember that time we had a global pandemic?
how’s it going five years on?
Celebrating the ending of a policy that no longer exists
As part of its coalition agreement NZ First is wanting to end a policy that has already ended. And the Government is struggling to work out what to do.
Hoatu he tumanako ki a rātou
Grant Robertson has given his valedictory speech in Parliament.
The weird and wacky 2023 election campaign
In a week of weird events National’s decision not to debate Labour in the Press’s leader’s debate has been a massive own goal because the country will be able to see how toxic David Seymour’s and Winston Peters’ relationship is.
Cookers of the world unite
Ryan Hamilton, National’s Hamilton East candidate, has had social media released suggesting that he is against flouridation of water, opposed covid mandates and thinks that covid death numbers were inflated, is vehemently opposed to cycleways and thinks that poor people only drink Raro.
NZ First and Winston seek anti vax vote
Winston Peters clearly hopes that enough of us have short memories. He was an integral part of the 2017 Government whose Covid policies saw our death rate from the disease amongst the lowest in the developed world. But now his party is clearly courting the anti vaccination community.
A letter to Chris Hipkins
My 2c on what I think Chris Hipkins needs to do to win this year’s election.
Luxon Aeterna
Ad reports on Christopher Luxon’s meeting in Wanaka.
Natural disasters test new leaders in New Zealand – some did better than others.
After the Auckland flood, Wayne Brown’s election will now be viewed as a cautionary tale. What can happen when someone who is inexperienced and unsuited to political office is elected to important political leadership roles. The blowback of this on the New Zealand right should not be understated, it is bad news for them.
What repeat covid infections do to the human body
There’s bad news, but there is also hope and opportunity.
New Zealand is in a terrible state *
* or is it?
Labour’s big reset
New Zealand politics is at an interesting stage. With announcements about Ministerial futures pending and with a review of all current projects to occur over Christmas Jadinda Ardern is planning to repurpose Labour to have its best chance in the election next year.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Pause With Map In Hand and Scratch Their Heads
If 2020 was the worst year in my lifetime how does 2022 compare?
The right is weirdly gleeful about the end of the mask mandate
National MPs and their supporters have been celebrating the removal of the mandate with weird levels of glee.
Covid review due today
The Government is to make an announcement today on the future of covid mandates and the traffic light system. With infection numbers and hospitalisation and death rates plummeting it appears likely that these measures will not be renewed.
Labour’s Ardern and Democrats’ Biden: Learnings
For those fishing around for a progressive playbook in this fractious world, Biden and Ardern are pretty similar. But Biden appears to be turning the fortunes of the Democrats around but Ardern is currently unrewarded. Is there anything to learn?
Was This The Change We Needed?
Crises that profoundly test a small developed state like New Zealand have required huge growth in state strength and policy power. But was it the change we needed?
Chris Bishop supports AND opposes vaccine mandates
Remember when National’s Chris Bishop thought that Labour was not being staunch enough of mandates? He now thinks that Labour is being too staunch.
Wear your #$%^& mask properly
Although we still compare favourably to the vast majority of Western nations in terms of our Covid response our performance has been eclipsed by Japan and Singapore, two nations which strong mask mandates and cultural norms supporting the wearing of masks.
Luxon is still struggling to understand Mask rules
During January of this year Christopher Luxon described the traffic light system as confusing. This week he described it as “very, very confusing”. It is of concern that he appears not to have learned about what the rules require in the meantime.
Complaint about RNZ use of Bryce Edwards article upheld
The Media Council has upheld a complaint against a Bryce Edwards article published on RNZ’s website that incorrectly stated that Labour went into the 2020 election promising to break up the supermarket duopoly and bring down the cost of food and that the policy was essentially dead when the policy only promised to conduct a market study using the Commerce Commission.
Covid – time for red?
With a second wave of Covid infections starting and with new potentially more serious variants emerging it may be time for the Government to consider a return to the Covid red setting.
RNZ’s weird take on MIQ
RNZ’s recent shock horror reporting on a memo from November 2021 proposing a wind back of MIQ is severely deficient. The framing is one sided and ignores the subsequent emergence of Omicron as a variant of concern.
The battle lines for the next election
Despite Labour seeing the country through the biggest public health threat seen in the last century and despite improving numbers of houses and a reduction in child poverty some on the left are buying into National’s despair lines. And the issues on which the next election will be fought are becoming clearer.
Why trust in the media is declining
A recent study into New Zealand’s media suggests that trust in what the media says is declining and that views of what is good and bad media is more and more dependent on the participant’s world view.
Why in the middle of a pandemic an immediate change to Orange is magical thinking
National’s friends are in unison complaining that the Government should be announcing now when we will be back into Orange. But our exemplary performance compared to other nations suggests strongly that the Government should continue to respect the medical advice it is receiving.
Covid and political capital
Jacinda Ardern has burned significant political capital on dealing with Covid. But it is something that a responsible Political leader, of which there are few, would do.
Can This Government Be Saved?
Can Labour win a third term? Here are some pathways up, and some pathways down.