US Style Cow Stalls – what aspiration!
In a year when New Zealand factory farming practices for pigs (and earlier for chickens) have been widely exposed and shocked the country, […]
Social issues
Levin Arrest and Police Escort
This is a guest post by Jasmine because I couldn’t be bothered writing it myself 😉 Today Rochelle and I were hanging out […]
Dual obligations
The more I ponder the scrapping of the TVNZ charter the dafter it seems. There are obvious downsides. What is the upside? What […]
Drinking Liberally – Auckland
The final Auckland Drinking Liberally takes place NEXT TUESDAY upstairs at THE KINGSLANDER and features political commentator/national campaigns director for Finsec/all round nice […]
Against the atheist bus campaign
I’m sorry, but I just can’t see the point of this atheist bus campaign. New Zealand is one of the most secular countries […]
Kill your television
So the Nats have decided to kill public service television broadcasting: TVNZ’s charter is to be repealed in a move commentators say will […]
Dear advertisers, ditch Paul Henry
Rather than start facebook groups and make complaints to TVNZ or the BSA about Paul Henry, someone has decided to hit them where […]
Give a goat for Christmas
Got too much stuff? Know people with too much stuff? Do something different for your friends and family this Christmas. Instead of giving […]
Shipley to knife Banks?
There is a very revealing article in this month’s Metro magazine (not online) that takes a look at the strengths of the campaigns […]
Wee gripes: Another Tolley lie
Minister of Education Anne Tolley is obviously feeling the heat of the reaction to her inexplicably daft decision to read a moralising children’s […]
Goff at DL – a socialist review
Below Omar of Socialist Aotearoa gives his impressions of Phil Goff at Drinking Liberally in Auckland earlier this week. On an unrelated note, isn’t […]
Education flaws: Just plain scary
Primary school education has been the focus of debate here in NZ with the introduction of ‘national standards’. Today we hear on RNZ […]
Reminder – Drinking Liberally Auckland
Just a reminder the next Auckland Drinking Liberally features Labour Party leader Phil Goff discussing his political values and the challenges facing the […]
Thickest. Minister. Ever.
So, imagine you’re the Minister for Education. You’re meeting with the PPTA executive, and sometime soon you’re expecting to announce big teacher layoffs. […]
With friends like these…
John ‘Mayor for Remuera’ Banks would’ve been gagging on his morning gruel after reading this headline on page two of Monday’s Herald: Jeers […]
Poll closes up in Britain
The latest poll in Britain has Labour within 6 points of the Conservatives. A hung Parliament is in prospect. One poll is not […]
Big brother is yarning to your boss
The Sunday Star Times reports that police have been passing private information about staff members onto Air New Zealand via the official information […]
The stench of corruption
No, I haven’t abandoned my resolution to be less political on Sundays quite so soon. This post is about smells. Specifically, the effect […]
Oh dear, what a fizzer
The pro-child assault lobby spent $500,000 trying to manufacture the biggest march in New Zealand history up Queen St today. The reports say fewer than […]
How much astroturf can you buy for $500,000?
Tomorrow the Christian Right are holding a self-styled ‘March for Democracy’ that’s been bankrolled to the tune of $500,000 by Auckland property developer […]
F**k, an end to profanity?
A reader alerted us to this petition that was presented by National’s Paul Hutchison to Parliament on Tuesday: Petition of Nathan James Ngatai […]
What matters
Did you see Brain Rudman’s article in the Herald yesterday? The quote says it all: It just reminds you what an absurd debate […]
Government of Fantasyland
This is Nick Smith in Parliament yesterday, replying to a question on Treasury’s re-calibrated $50 billion costs of Nationals ETS Bill: Hon Dr […]
PHARMAC on the altar of free trade
Yesterday John Key indicated that he might be willing to dismantle PHARMAC if it gets us a better free trade deal with the […]
Drinking Liberally: Phil Goff on the Sixth Labour Govt
The next Auckland Drinking Liberally features Labour Party leader Phil Goff discussing his political values and the challenges facing the Sixth Labour Government […]
Is there anybody out there…
OK, this has nothing to do with NZ politics, but I’m trying to stick to my resolution not to rant as usual on […]
Political Jurisprudence
There’s no question that Hone Harawira’s comments were stupid, but I don’t believe they were racist. For a start, the white mofos reference […]
Remuera mayor discovers there are other parts of Auckland
Lord Mayor of Remuera John ‘barking mad’ Banks has (mis)fired the first shots of his campaign by producing some strip advertisements outlining the […]
Laws needs an education
I told myself I’d never do a post on pathetic publicity groupie Michael Laws, so here I am failing to live up to […]
Tolley: national standards could be disaster
The man National credits with coming up with the idea of national standards has warned the incompetence of Education Minister Anne Tolley could […]
We are New Zealand
Hattip: tumeke
Guilty until proven innocent
We are continuing our chilling progress towards a surveillance state. The Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 is another brick in the wall. Apparently […]
Unbridled power
The government and the Police are spinning all the new security measures as a national security matter and a crack-down ONLY on the […]
Banks’ leadership takes battering
Fresh from pulling the pin (then blaming others) on a Queen’s Wharf redesign competition he himself conceived, led and championed, Remuera mayor John […]
Chilling
The Search and Surveillance Bill is making its way though the bowels of the government law making process. This is a terrible law, […]
New Generation Labour
From Phil Twyford over at Red Alert on pig farming. This is Red Alert’s first video blog. Twyford manages to impress me on […]