Kiwi in America over at Kiwiblog has offered some no doubt heart felt advice to Labour on what it should be doing. But the advice appears to be based on a misunderstanding of the Party’s history and a wish that the Party becomes more like ACT. Why do right wingers think they can tell Labour what to do and is their advice sound?
Rob Salmond’s take on the boundary changes announced last week. In a MMP election system the actual electoral boundaries usually only really matter to a few MPs. It isn’t likely to make much of a difference unless National manages to have a cup of tea with a party with enough electoral muscle to get more than a single MP into the house and an electorate’s voters think this matters. After the John Banks/Act debacle who’d be moronic enough to think that electorate seats in a list do matter? Apart from our silly first-past-the-post stand-in-man for David Farrar of course…
The highs and lows and the good and bad of what was a fascinating week in Politics.
This is very good stuff. Having a tax break for R&D work has always been a no-brainer, and it is great to see it reconfirmed. Adding an accelerated depreciation scheme for new plant is a helpful addition. And partnering with more local firms for more locally-sourced government procurement makes perfect sense, too. Another no brainer for parties – like Labour – that actually care about local employment.
The new electorate boundaries are out.
Some noticeable changes around Port Hills, but mainly only tinkering from the previous proposals.
The text of a speech delivered this morning by David Cunliffe outlining Labour’s manufacturing policy. Update – includes a short video.
We now have a Ministry of Education that is under the beck and call of the Minister, and where political ideology determines policy, and shortly we will have a new Teachers Council that will be governed only by political appointees. Under a National led Government, teachers will lose any professional independence and become classroom technicians that have to support politically prescribed programmes and data collection. Anyone want a career in teaching?
Yesterday John Key challenged David Cunliffe to a debate about housing which Cunliffe gratefully accepted. Today it is a different matter …
The NBR is reporting (behind the paywall) and now at TV3 news that Matt Blomfield, the person currently suing Cameron Slater in defamation, was attacked on the weekend by a male. A gunshot was fired and although it is not specified it is understood that Blomfield suffered an injury from the gunshot. The police are investigating and seeking the assailant who left the scene after the gun was fired.
Another great day at the Goose, watching Liverpool come back to beat Manchester City in one of the crucial derby matches that will decide the Premier League winner. The thing I like most at the minute about Liverpool is their purpose-driven directness – no pusillanimous reliance on permutation for the Reds.
David Cunliffe today announced that Labour would fund research into Kauri Dieback disease to the tune of $20 million dollars over ten years if elected, in stark contrast to the current Government’s position which is to discontinue funding.
There’s a lot of media attention on the negotiations between Mana & The Internet Party (TIP). Mana aims to link with some other parties. Some high profile people are scheduled to speak to Mana. Is Dotcom’s focus on his poor childhood genuine or a PR strategy? [Update#2: Sunday, NZ Herald – green light for negotiations]
All inequality measures are not equal. The GINI Coefficient is widely used but it doesn’t show the impact of vast increases in inequality between the richest and poorest Kiwis; it doesn’t show increasing experiences of hardship: it can mask vast inequalities in wealth & asset ownership.
Local bodies points out a couple more of the National government’s sad-sacks. For some strange (but obvious) reason a warmish market for milk powder doesn’t do much for NZ apart from destroying our environment. English’s taxcuts for his wealthy mates have destroyed the fiscal base of the government and done nothing to cause any investment in the productive and employable parts of our economy. Tim Groser has also made an artform of making NZ worse off.
The 18th of September 2014 is a big day.
On that day, people living in Scotland will decide if they want to become citizens in a nation that will have reclaimed its sovereignty.
Today’s NZ Herald editorial joins Paula Bennett’s beneficiary-bashing stunt, asking for flying privileges to be cut, & denying there is a lot of poverty in NZ- a view from the privileged part of NZ’s inequality gap.
Tracy Whatshite, Cadet Reporter, attended the “Bellies” (held at Bellamy’s) and found out who the winners were in this year’s competition for the Best Political Song of 2014. She spoke with the judge Frankie Stevens.
“Competition was particularly intense this year and the top entries included some old favourites, but also some surprizing new comers,” he said.
David Farrar has let slip that he has been privy to information which is only intended for select committee members. Tim Watkins […]
Images from today’s mainstream media news: tales of class, crime, drugs, disasters…… and jet-setting beneficiaries.
Auckland Against Poverty protest the Young Nats Ball and Paula Bennett’s war on the poor. Steven Joyce is cynical about the polls. A Stuff poll shows everything that is wrong with the media’s poll beat ups.
The introduction of new electric trains to Auckland’s train system is going to put increased pressure on the Government to bring forward funding of Auckland’s inner city loop. Will it stick to its anti train beliefs or will it succumb to pressure to change in election year?
A guest post from Shane Henderson, Labour elected representative to the Henderson Massey Local Board about synthetic cannabis, one of those issues that is becoming more and more important. What do we do?
There are protests occurring today for folk who are interested.
Your, not entirely consistent or reliable weekend thread for non-political chat/info sharing ;-).
A guest post concerning apparent confusion on the part of the National Party about when this year’s election is. Stand by for breathless denunciation of the party by Farrar, Slater and the Young Nats for its inability to organise a piss up in a brewery.
Mana Party candidate Annette Sykes has been developing an effective organisation in her electorate. Her speech at the TPPA rally laid out its threats to livelihoods in the Bay of Plenty. Her views on the Internet Party will be listened to when discussed by the Mana Party.
According to some in the MSM National has already won the election.
But given they’ve come to that conclusion they seem oddly unconcerned about what it would actually mean…
Last month, we learned that Judith Collins had taken time off a taxpayer-funded trip to China to endorse her husband’s company – a company which had also donated significant sums of money to the National Party. The endorsement appeared to violate the Cabinet Manual, but John Key stepped up and claimed that the Cabinet Office said it was all OK. Then, just a few days later, he admitted that he’d lied about that. In the process, he implicitly raised serious questions about the quality of the Cabinet Office’s advice.
All of us, in our diversity, can make a big impact this election year. Time to end the “neoliberal” tyranny! Crime stats are celebrated masking the continuing impact of income & social inequalities. Rogernomics fractured gender politics & rape crisis intiatives.
When so-called iwi leaders condemn teachers for daring to highlight the massive failings of the New Zealand education system for Maori children in case the minister of Education might be embarrassed, then they show themselves up as a sad and pathetic group for whom the warm embrace of government has become more important than the needs of their own children and grandchildren. Just who the hell do they think they are, trying to hide the truth of New Zealand’s failed policies just because the international community is in town?
No Right Turn notes the typical response from politicians to the Fifth IPCC Assessment report. Perhaps that promoting legislation with a penalty of long prison terms for political negligence would help? It sounds like a good way for lazy politicians to retire. After all the law recognises negligence as being a criminal action in other spheres – why not for our political servants?
There was an Audrey Young piece in the Herald yesterday, in which John Key talks about Labour’s plan to increase eligibility for free Early Childhood Education. So Key thinks this policy will cost at least ten times as much as Labour does. That’s a very big claim. But Andrey did not appear to ask for his sums, she just printed Key’s figures without comment. That was a pity because John Key’s figures are a bare-faced lie and are quite impossible.
We can now put a dollar figure – a conservative, probably-underestimated figure – on the cost of domestic violence to New Zealand business. […]
Just spent a couple of hours in “The Goose” in Walthamstow watching Liverpool outclass Spurs 4-0 to go top of the Premier League table. Nobody gave them a chance at season’s start, but what a difference good strategy and management can make – belief, commitment, determination and the willingness to work for each other.
Maybe this is one of those open political secrets – if you’re in the know, you already know, and it seems obvious. If […]
Standardista, andy (the other one) nails it: “Two days, two articles, two different media outlets admitting that they know National use Slater/Farrar to smear and dissemble.” Trotter raises questions about sources.
No Right Turn nails the political value of the Internet Party in this post. In itself it probably isn’t that politically useful. However it’s mere existence means that the net becomes a political issue. It forces the typically technophobic and illiterate pack of antiques called Members of Parliament to start dealing with issues arising from it. It moves them outside their comfort zone
