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What will he do next?

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, February 1st, 2025 - 29 comments

I did not think it possible but it seems that every week Donald Trump does something that makes me think even worse of him.

Later Stuart

Written By: - Date published: 5:06 pm, January 29th, 2025 - 14 comments

Stuart Nash has suggested that Labour is losing support for not sticking to its values. But his suggested policy solution would have Labour resemble National lite, not deepest red Labour.

If that’s Luxon’s Plan, What About Labour? 

Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, January 26th, 2025 - 56 comments

It’s time to highlight what a Labour plan for the New Zealand economy under a 2026 government would look like. And ask questions. 

NZ: The Final Atlas Network Puzzle Piece Has Arrived

Written By: - Date published: 6:41 pm, January 16th, 2025 - 28 comments

The final Atlas Network playbook puzzle piece is here, and it slipped in to Aotearoa New Zealand with little fan fare or attention from media or opposition. The implications are stark.

Reviewing the Cook Strait Ferry fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 1:07 pm, January 16th, 2025 - 35 comments

A review of the history of the Ferries issue suggests that this could be coalition ending and career ending.

The Los Angeles fires – could they happen here?

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, January 11th, 2025 - 20 comments

With large parts of Los Angeles burning and the right still trying to divert attention and blame the question arises, could the same thing happen here?

Interesting Yanis Varoufakis.

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, January 7th, 2025 - 27 comments

That Star Trek depicts a communist society, without of course calling it that, is crystal clear.

President Trump makes a new Middle East Possible

Written By: - Date published: 6:04 pm, January 5th, 2025 - 23 comments

U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump makes more things possible in the Middle East than the Biden administration.

Costello hands out free vapes

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 pm, January 5th, 2025 - 11 comments

The Government has announced that it will be supplying vaping starter kits to stop smoking services. It is not known who will be the suppliers of these kits or on what terms.

2024 in review

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, December 31st, 2024 - 25 comments

It is that time of year when during the brief hiatus of civilisation known as the holidays we get the time to reflect on what has happened over the past 12 months.

On the tenth day of Christmas Chris Luxon took from me …

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, December 24th, 2024 - 24 comments

A lot actually.

Much ado about nothing

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, December 21st, 2024 - 18 comments

There has been recent controversy because a District Court Judge and a renowned surgeon in a private setting chose to criticise NZ First policies.

Festive Cheer, Hear Hear !

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, December 21st, 2024 - 7 comments

Some end of year politics videos – 2024. Happy Christmas, folks.

Police private trip to China – who to believe?

Written By: - Date published: 11:07 pm, December 16th, 2024 - 15 comments

The Police say it was a private trip to learn about Chinese culture, presumably because it would help their work here. Andrew Little and Anne-Marie Brady without any evidence gave it a sinister cast.

Unacceptable

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, December 7th, 2024 - 29 comments

It appears that the Government’s intent to politicise youth offending by making an elite few dress up in army uniforms and march around in an effort to solve a lifetime of neglect is not working out so well.

Creative accounting

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, December 5th, 2024 - 26 comments

It has emerged that Health NZ attempted to include hundreds of millions of dollars in redundancies and holiday pay remediation chargeable this year in last year’s Health accounts and this would have made the current deficit smaller but last year’s deficit larger.

Reti secretly wants to privatise Health

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, November 30th, 2024 - 23 comments

Shane Reti has said publicly that privatising health is not his overt policy. Which suggests strongly that it is his covert policy, especially given that he wants to increase the relationship with and outsourcing to private operators.

National’s dodgy health announcements

Written By: - Date published: 4:09 pm, November 27th, 2024 - 18 comments

National yesterday made great fanfare about an extra $30 million being spent on doctors and nurses. But news today of 1,500 health job cuts in the pipeline clearly shows how the extra funds are to be sourced.

The Left Trumped?

Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, November 21st, 2024 - 36 comments

We woke up last week to the post-mortem on the US election. How and why Trump won, and their implications for political alignments everywhere, are front and centre. A fundamental issue, explicitly identified when Trump won in 2016, is the presence of large sections of the working class vote into the Trump camp. So why has that happened – again?

The Treaty of Waitangi Principles Bill gets slammed

Written By: - Date published: 12:42 pm, November 8th, 2024 - 14 comments

The Treaty of Waitangi Principles Bill has now been released and it appears that the provisions take away more rights from Māori than originally proposed.

The Government’s cynical manipulation of the Treaty Principles Bill

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, November 6th, 2024 - 20 comments

In a cynical manipulation of Parliamentary Processes the Government is changing the date of introduction of the Treaty Principles Bill. And the Waitangi Tribunal has said that the bill is a deliberate attempt to destroy the treaty relationship.

Who is undermining the Government’s approach to reducing smoking rates?

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, November 6th, 2024 - 11 comments

The Government’s offensive on public servants who express privately held strong views continues with Casey Costello attacking a public servant who alleged that her private research had come up with some papers that were “crap”.

The strange case of the I am Hope funding

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, November 3rd, 2024 - 11 comments

National is scrambling to justify designated funding to the I am Hope charity after Mike King claimed alcohol was good for mental health and preventing suicide.

When a right becomes a wrong

Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, October 31st, 2024 - 66 comments

The Free Speech Union is wanting an extremist right wing shock jock who the Christchurch Killer described as the person who most influenced him the privilege of visiting New Zealand to host a fundraising event.

Labour day

Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, October 28th, 2024 - 21 comments

Enjoying your weekend? Thank a unionist!

Will This Be a One-Term Government?

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, October 20th, 2024 - 24 comments

Elliot Crossan at System Change Aotearoa reviews the past year. Despite the tepid public support for this government’s problematic actions, he warns that ‘The Right Is United By Power — Don’t Underestimate Them’

Where’s The Opposition?

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, October 13th, 2024 - 61 comments

Labour, Green Party and Te Pati Māori have been relatively quiet as the Coalition government move at breakneck speed to roll back laws and transfer wealth. Is it a matter of resources, media coverage, or will?

The best Government that money can buy

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, October 11th, 2024 - 35 comments

Radio New Zealand has reported that $500,000 in donations to National, Act and NZ First were made by entities associated to those who had their projects included in the recently released schedule to the Fast Track Projects Bill.

Submit as if your grandkids’ lives depend on it

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, September 30th, 2024 - 19 comments

The Government plans to smash through the reintroduction of off shore oil and gas drilling under some urgency and has given the people of New Zealand only five days to submit.

New Zealand treats the wealthy better than comparable nations

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, September 19th, 2024 - 26 comments

A recently Tax Justice Aotearoa study suggests that the country could impse a capital gains tax or wealth tax and the wealthy would still be better off than they would be in similar countries.

Free School lunches have a profound beneficial effect on learning

Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, September 13th, 2024 - 23 comments

This is what David Seymour was told. But he and the Government still chose to push through significant cuts to the scheme.