Written By: - Date published: 1:07 pm, November 11th, 2008 - 77 comments
One Aussie view of our election.
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 pm, November 9th, 2008 - 25 comments
There are about 240,000 special votes still be be counted. That’s about 11% of the vote in total. Special voters include large numbers of students and late-enrollees, which tends to favour the Left. Last election, Labour and the Greens together took 45.8% of the first count and 51.4% of the specials, ending up with 46.4% […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, November 9th, 2008 - 12 comments
I’m a money lender I have fortunes upon fortunes Take my hand for tender I am tortured, ever tortured And if you don’t love me Let me go
Written By: - Date published: 2:02 am, November 9th, 2008 - 141 comments
That was incredibly close. National plus Act plus probably Peter Dunne have scraped a small majority. How close is shown in the election results table. 59 (nat) + 5 (act) + 1 (dunne) = 65. Less one for the speaker is 64 in a parliament of 122. That would mean that they have extra seats […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 pm, November 8th, 2008 - 195 comments
If the existence or nature of this post confuses you hopefully you will find the answer over here. 7.01pm Ok here we go! I expect there won’t be too much to live blog for the first hour or so… 7.15pm Party vote currently: Nat 48%, Lab 32%, Greens 6%, NZF 4.4%, Act 3.3%, Maori 1.5%, […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 pm, November 8th, 2008 - 32 comments
Thanks to the Standardistas for giving me a method of distraction for the evening. I’m usually to be found at The Hand Mirror, with a group of feminist left-of-centre women blogging about various things. Tonight though I’ll be live-blogging here at the heart of the leftwing portion of the blogosphere, and I hope I can […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, November 8th, 2008 - 6 comments
I’m happy to say that when I crawled out of my sickbed and voted this morning, it was nothing like the photos on the top and left. I gather that we had queues at some of the major booths later in the day – Edendale primary (my old school) in Mt Albert for instance. However […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, November 7th, 2008 - 56 comments
Have you still not decided who you’ll vote for? The final poll shows the race between a National/ACT/United Future or a Labour/Green/Progressive/Maori government is neck and neck, so your choice matters. Here is some advice and tools that may help: When choosing who to vote for there are three things you should consider: policy – […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 7th, 2008 - 44 comments
National/ACT would would implement several major policies: – it would weaken work rights. You could be fired without justification in the first 90 days of a new job if your employer employs fewer than 20 people. – wages for low wage workers would fall. National would not increase the minimum wage and it would weaken […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, November 7th, 2008 - 45 comments
The fundamental question of politics is how the wealth of society should be divided among the members of society. We live in a capitalist society. That means it is the people who own the capital (businesses, factories, farms) who own the things that are made and get to choose how to divide the wealth between […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, November 7th, 2008 - 43 comments
The final Roy Morgan poll is out and the Left (LPG+M) has it by a nose with 62 seats out of a 122 seat Parliament. The Greens will be happy with 10% – that puts them in a strong negotiating position after the election and gives a 17 seat voting bloc in conjunction with the […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, November 7th, 2008 - 23 comments
Supports a Woman’s Right to Choose This is abortion rights. John Key was asked about abortion rights in the debate and he lied as usual. From I/S’s post: Last year in Parliament two failed amendments were attempted trying to replace the government’s status quo nominees with anti-abortion ones. One attempted replacement was a doctor who […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, November 7th, 2008 - 47 comments
After weeks of griping about dirty tactics, it has been revealed in the NBR that Key ordered the tax-payer funded National Party research unit to rake over the records of Prime Minister Clark’s husband Peter Davis’s academic grants looking for a smear. Clark revealed the attempted smear in an interview on AltTV. ‘In June this […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, November 7th, 2008 - 41 comments
Steve Pierson: Greens – I want a more left-wing Labour-led government. The Greens’ work rights and environment policies are better than Labour’s and these are the two issues that matter most to me. The Greens will keep Labour moving in the right direction. Tane: Greens – because we need a strong Green influence in the […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, November 7th, 2008 - 44 comments
We’ve been emailed a copy of the itinerary for John Key’s last day of campaigning. It looks like he’s doing a last minute dash around heartland Labour seats which fits with their strategy of going into their opponent’s base. If you are in Auckland later today you should pop along and have a chat with […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, November 7th, 2008 - 26 comments
On election day, we won’t doing any posting until the polls close. We will lock off comments, as well, until then. As the results come in, we will have live blogging from guest poster Julie Fairey and any other Standardista who feels like it. On election day, not only vote yourself but go down to […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, November 7th, 2008 - 30 comments
The last polls are out, except for Roy Morgan, which will presumably be out later today. Here are how the blocs sit (assuming 7 seats for the Maori Party. If they get just 4, the majority to govern will drop by 2 and the Left bloc will drop 3, giving bigger leads to the Right): […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, November 6th, 2008 - 97 comments
You know, you can fly around acting all presidential if you like in a cheap attempt to wow the press gallery but that doesn’t make you the Kiwi Obama. Obama, for one, is a big proponent of work rights and raising the minimum wage. Key is not. His party’s vague work rights policy looks like […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, November 6th, 2008 - 12 comments
Want a say in who will run the country – let’s get the vote out. Just as long as they know it’s Saturday 8th November!
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, November 6th, 2008 - 14 comments
Unemployment has risen to 4.2%, the first time in four years it has topped 4%. That’s lower than the experts expected, they thought the rate would blow out to 4.5% or more. But that’s the power of a full employment policy. Because we’ve had such low unemployment for so long, employers are reluctant to lay […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:23 pm, November 6th, 2008 - 4 comments
Via frogblog, the Greens’ closing campaign broadcast. I’d put Labour’s up too, but I can’t find it.
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, November 6th, 2008 - 137 comments
Yesterday, John Key was telling journalists that he knew the secret agenda taper, Kees Keizer, was a Labour Party activist. In fact, he knew that wasn’t true, which is why he refused to name him. The Herald has. And what it’s also reveled is a close relationship between Cameron Slater and the National Party research […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, November 6th, 2008 - 99 comments
The secret taper has revealed himself as Kees Keizer, a leftie from Wellington. I spent quite a bit of time yesterday encouraging Keizer to tell his story, preferably to The Standard or the Herald (more credible), and he steadfastly refused. So imagine my surprise when I see a three page article of him talking to […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, November 6th, 2008 - 10 comments
Yesterday morning on Sunrise, John Key was moaning that there is no context to the latest secret agenda tape, where Bill English praises the war in Iraq and criticises Bill English’s ‘moralistic’ approach to international relations. Key is right, context helps us undestand information better. Luckily, Scoop’s library keeps every media release, so we can […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, November 5th, 2008 - 79 comments
The debate was Clark’s. The format and tone suited her. Her softer approach, which showed us the person behind the role was very good. In fact, I would say that was the best I have ever seen her. At times, Key seemed tacked on to a Clark interview (be interesting to she if she actually […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:18 pm, November 5th, 2008 - 87 comments
Good debate so far, addressing the issues and the policies, rather than the politics, which the other two debates have been focused on. From looking at Key so far it seems he might drop the lies. oops. spoke too soon. Key: People are leaving for Australia in absolutely record numbers Lie. For the third time […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:44 pm, November 5th, 2008 - 67 comments
From Both Eyes Open: National Party candidate Stephen Franks’ campaign team has been systematically tearing down political posters put up by his opponents despite Franks recently describing people defacing his election hoardings as ‘political thugs who don’t like free speech or opinions different from their own’. The group Both Eyes Open which has been distributing posters, […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, November 5th, 2008 - 36 comments
I know, they’re inaccurate and out of date. And it’s only three days until the only poll that counts. But I’m curious! It’s now been ten days since the last public poll, which strikes me as a bizarre gap at the high of the electoral campaign. I guess they’re all saving up their final poll […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, November 5th, 2008 - 26 comments
One of the virtues of New Zealand government has long been that we avoid US-style pork barrel politics. The Government sets the direction of policy and priorities but doesn’t interfere with specific projects. The principle is that the experts, not the elected officials, should decide the details of specific projects. For instance, the Government might […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, November 5th, 2008 - 34 comments
Ahead of the final leaders’ debate tonight, 08wire has produced a video on John Key’s lies in the second debate. What strikes me about these lies is how they are, for the most part, of the ‘New Zealand sucks’ ilk and that they are quite petty. I guess telling lots of smaller lies lessens the […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:10 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 97 comments
More from 3News tonight on the secret recordings taken at the Naitonal Party conference in August. This time it’s Bill English expressing concern over Barack Obama’s “moralistic” stance to international relations: I’m a bit worried about this whole Obama and Europe thing, just because there’s a limited effectiveness in being moralistic about international relations… and the […]
Recent Comments