Rob Campbell is under some pressure from National and Act for calling out publicly the right’s dog whistle attacks on co governance. But so far self appointed protector of the right to freedom of speech, the Free Speech Union, has been very quiet. Why is this?
Nicola Sturgeon’s shock resignation as Scotland’s First Minister was something of a replay of Jacinda Ardern’s resignation. While subject to widespread abuse, both were reluctant to cite this as their main reason for quitting. But the abuse undoubtedly played a major role. But the misogynist trend is endemic and needs to be quelled.
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.
I thought that I would get Chat GPT to write 500 words on the Standard and this is what it came up with.
Join our call on the government to take real action to cut climate pollution from NZ’s biggest polluter: industrial dairying.
Two unprecedented summertime storms in Auckland suggest that the threats posed by climate change are not in our future but are here now.
Chris Hipkins has announced the great policy reset and there are no surprises.
“It’s a road we are travelling together” – Sharon Murdoch
A selection of essays on the importance of feminism in gender critical debate has been published by UK-based, feminist collective The Radical Notion.
As property investors indicate an intention to raise rents, Renters United and 20+ community groups call for a rent freeze in Auckland.
Chris Luxon has provided another example of his ineptness by suggesting in an MMP environment that a vote in a Maori Seat is worth more than a vote in an European seat.
Another piece on the internet by a Western scientist calling indigenous knowledge superstitious woo that should be separated from the Mighty Western Science way of knowing. Take that as a content warning either way if you are reading on.
* sung to the famous tune from Blam Blam Blam.
Chris Hipkins is now set to become prime minister. I rather expected that would be the likely outcome. Helps the election campaign as it will mute the revolting misogynist arsehole conservatives of the right and some on the left. I’m really tired of listening to them, and I suspect that way more than half of the countries population are as well.
Jacinda Ardern has realised that she was not in a position to commit to four more years as Prime Minister and has called it quits. Recent levels of abuse and misogyny shown to her have clearly played their part.
Mega property owning entrepreneur Graeme Fowler thinks we can all be rich if we just changed our attitude.
Overall, the 2022 midterms were the best for any sitting Democrat President since 1978. Whilst losing control of the House is disappointing, the Republican majority is slim. Should hardliners try to block the Biden agenda as they did with Obama, they risk moderate Republicans breaking ranks. Further, hardline Republicans overplaying their hand in Congress may scare moderate voters away from the party and at the same time motivate the Democrat base to win back the House in 2024. Add to that the prospect of Trump returning in 2024, it could be about to get very messy in the Republican Party.
There’s bad news, but there is also hope and opportunity.
* or is it?
Even on the one day of the year that is meant to be a day of peace and calm and family some people get triggered by the use of Te Reo.
Keep it seemly.
Australia is showing New Zealand how to resist the authoritarian Xi Jinping’s pressure and stay prosperous at the same time.
The big news this week was Jacinda Ardern describing David Seymour in an unparliamentary phrase on an open mike in Parliament. But the matter was resolved in a way that can only happen in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Kim Hill vs Tobacco Company PR Guy.
Chris Luxon has doubled down on a dog whistle attack on South Auckland garages by apologising if anyone was offended, thereby ignoring most of South Auckland who were definitely offended.
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.
Brian Easton at Pundit provides a clear overview on what is happening in out large generator / retailer market at present. Their implicit collusion on excessive pricing is profiteering and even using future capital to pay off investors rather than improve the cost of and efficiency usage of power.
Minister Mahuta’s water reforms are by some measure the most consequential industry intervention of this Labour government, and likely to be the most successful in over a decade.
National is proposing a return of the Three Strikes legislation, despite the Supreme Court ruling that the law went well beyond excessive punishment and would shock the conscience of properly informed New Zealanders, and was so disproportionately severe as to breach the Bill of Rights. And despite there being no evidence that it would actually work.
This week has seen some extreme rhetoric from various quarters about who to blame for a recent senseless killing. But news that the person arrested had recently been extradited from Australia has shown the rhetoric to be entirely misplaced.
Laura López decided to explore and analyse the available evidence on medical transition in New Zealand.
New Zealand has the most adroit and high profile international leader in a generation with Prime Minister Ardern, but she has weakened New Zealand against China.
The Great Twit at Twitter has been cauterising off staff in excess. I suspect that the platform is going to go down the toilet for that (amongst other reasons). My concern here has been to preserve the embedded tweets in posts and comments on this site if the idiot engineer manages to destroy the platform through simple stupidity.
The Supreme Court has just lobbed a grenade into New Zealand politics by ruling that denying 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote was not only discrimination on the basis of age but also had not been justified and was therefore a breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.
Trudeau got a 10-minute stand-up with Xi followed by a public shirt-fronting, Albanese a 32-minute sit-down, and Jacinda Ardern a 50-minute formal bilateral. In the carefully calibrated world of the diplomatic dance-card, that says something. New Zealand would be foolish not to take advantage of what is on offer from China.
There should be a law against the cynical recycling of dog whistle policies that everyone knows will not work. Last week’s announcement by National of a boot camp policy is as good an example as you can imagine.
