Written By: - Date published: 6:12 pm, April 22nd, 2014 - 508 comments
Breaking. Just on One News – Shane Jones will not be standing in the elections for Labour or any other party. More as it comes to hand. NZ Herald – Jones to leave politics at the end of next month. Stuff – Kelvin Davis next on list. Davis – a very good replacement.
Written By: - Date published: 12:38 pm, April 22nd, 2014 - 110 comments
I think the pundits misjudge Peters. I think he wants a major, polity-based legacy in the 2014-2017 term, as well as baubles. Only the left can offer this. With the left, Peters can be The Man who Saved the Power Companies. National cannot compete with that. Which gives everyone on the left, including the Greens, some leverage. So count me out of the consensus that Winston in Cabinet means no Greens in Cabinet. I see a feasible three-way deal on the horizon.
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, April 21st, 2014 - 95 comments
You know the rules
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, April 21st, 2014 - 14 comments
Greed used to be regarded as a major sin. Now it is often seen as either trivial, or, in Gordon Gekko’s words, “Greed is good”. Greed has become a religion, focused on the sacred “economy” and its “market” of (allegedly) “invisible hands”. Greed fuels inequality and undermines democracy. Democracy needs a more critical public sphere and media.
Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, April 21st, 2014 - 282 comments
The Government is completely indifferent to the killing of innocent children and New Zealand citizens because it is part of the war against terrorism. But the extra judicial killing of innocent adults and children is by definition a terrorist act.
Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, April 20th, 2014 - 41 comments
On Al Jazeera NewsHour this morning, there were two reports on environmental issues in different parts of the planet: stories of the tension between pursuit of economic “growth” and the destruction of the environment. In both countries, there are attempts to develop renewables, without changing the whole system.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, April 19th, 2014 - 230 comments
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?
Written By: - Date published: 5:16 pm, April 18th, 2014 - 20 comments
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…
Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, April 18th, 2014 - 37 comments
The highs and lows and the good and bad of what was a fascinating week in Politics.
Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, April 18th, 2014 - 10 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 pm, April 17th, 2014 - 18 comments
The new electorate boundaries are out.
Some noticeable changes around Port Hills, but mainly only tinkering from the previous proposals.
Written By: - Date published: 12:40 pm, April 17th, 2014 - 76 comments
The text of a speech delivered this morning by David Cunliffe outlining Labour’s manufacturing policy. Update – includes a short video.
Written By: - Date published: 3:42 pm, April 15th, 2014 - 133 comments
Yesterday John Key challenged David Cunliffe to a debate about housing which Cunliffe gratefully accepted. Today it is a different matter …
Written By: - Date published: 3:44 pm, April 14th, 2014 - 111 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, April 14th, 2014 - 38 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, April 13th, 2014 - 47 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, April 12th, 2014 - 405 comments
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]
Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, April 12th, 2014 - 28 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, April 9th, 2014 - 13 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, April 7th, 2014 - 7 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, April 7th, 2014 - 134 comments
David Farrar has let slip that he has been privy to information which is only intended for select committee members. Tim Watkins covers this over on pundit: The most interesting part is in relation to a letter that Countdown sent to the commerce select committee…. “Third, I’m curious how you know about the contents […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:56 am, April 6th, 2014 - 83 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 7:18 am, April 6th, 2014 - 32 comments
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?
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, April 5th, 2014 - 254 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, April 4th, 2014 - 15 comments
Your, not entirely consistent or reliable weekend thread for non-political chat/info sharing ;-).
Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, April 4th, 2014 - 36 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, April 4th, 2014 - 53 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 9:55 pm, April 3rd, 2014 - 150 comments
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…
Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, April 3rd, 2014 - 22 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, April 2nd, 2014 - 52 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, March 31st, 2014 - 32 comments
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.
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