Labour’s Charles Chauvel is campaigning hard in Ohariu, and would certainly bring a fresh approach and much more energy to representing the electorate. The polls are close, so close that John Key has had to come out to Ohariu’s small party launch to support Dunne. This may backfire – word is that many people in the electorate don’t like being told how to vote.
There’s plenty of good posts around already on National’s election list, how its dominated by white men and there’s very little room for new blood. But just how bad is their list? I thought I would do a comparison of the ethnic and gender balance of the National, Labour, Green, and ACT lists. Judge for yourself.
NZX is the big winner among listed companies this year according to Bloomberg – its share price is 56% up on the year. Why? Asset sales. No wonder Weldon is smiling – He owns more than 6 million NZX shares. At least one happy Dad, already. And just on his mate John Key’s promise.
Tracy Watkins admits today’s Fairfax poll is pretty out of whack but there’s no denying the trend has turned against Labour in the past few months. People back the policy. That’s not the problem. Labour will still be hoping to close up 5% or so in the campaign. On the positive side: what a result for the Greens!
Rijab looks at how social media can be a useful tool for political parties but how it also needs to be used carefully, lest it come back to hurt you. Red Alert and Frogblog are very free, with MPs writing what they want and relatively loose moderation, whereas NationalMPs is insipid and tightly controlled – who has taken the smarter course?
A couple of polls have now confirmed that on key issues voters prefer Labour policy over National. When push comes to shove in November, will Kiwis vote for the style that they like, or the substance that they want?
“Courage my friends, tis never too late to build a better world” was Jack Layton’s motto. He led Canada’s NDP from 37 seats to 103 in this May’s election. They called him “le bon Jack”. He died of cancer yesterday. His last letter to Canadians ends: “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic.” He was an inspiring leader and will be missed.
Sandra Grey from the Campaign for MMP and Kevin Hackwell from Forest and Bird will speak at a Fabian Society event this Thursday at 5:30. Sandra will outline the issues for the referendum and Kevin will give an account of the recent UK referendum on Alternative Vote. Venue is Connolly Hall behind the Cathedral in Hill Street, all are welcome.
According to one poll 56 percent of Labour voters say Labour won’t win. Good on them I say.
At the start of the year, John Key said that he wanted to have a mature debate on asset sales. Now, his Finance Minister and SOE Minister are refusing to front up to debate David Cunliffe on the issue. Instead, that was left to old man Brash on Q+A yesterday. Cunliffe made mincemeat of him. The Right still has no justification for flogging off profitable assets.
So we can safely predict this National govt will score it’s usual epic fail around youth unemployment. And we all know the reasons […]
Today Part 2 of The Herald’s profile of Phil Goff is out, and once again it’s a very interesting read. It debunks some of the spin surrounding Goff’s ideology and the Lange / Douglas government.
An interesting opinion piece by Tim Watkins can be found on TVNZ; he offers a stark reminder to the public that National are toying with our democratic ideals, and suggests that voters would be wise to remember the consequences of a returned National Government. He discusses the impact of the World Cup on our democratic process
Naomi Klein writes how the world’s leaders didn’t take action against those responsible for the financial market crash but would “all go home and force sacrifices on the most vulnerable… by firing public sector workers, scapegoating teachers, closing libraries, upping tuition fees, rolling back union contracts, creating rush privatisations of public assets and decreasing pensions – mix the cocktail for where you live.” Sounds familiar.
At National’s conference John Key accused Labour of the “politics of envy”. Peter Goodfellow told delegates they had more money for this campaign than ever before. National’s coffers will be bulging because of their assets sales policy. Labour wanting to keep assets publicly owned for everyone’s benefit is not at all about envy.
A few weeks back, I wrote that Labour’s policies are popular but it hasn’t secured the trust it needs to sway swing voters, partly people don’t feel they really know Phil Goff. Today’s Herald piece, reminiscent of one on Key in 2008 (except we get a lot more of the substance of Goff, not just carefully targeted anecdotes), should go a long way to fixing that.
I’ve just been playing Ben Clark’s asset sale game on his campaign website. (Ben is a fellow author here and Labour’s candidate for North Shore). In the game, you have to try to suck up the shares that John Key throws out before the big foreign buyers suck them up – it’s great fun and a little frustrating when they get the shares before you!
Like the American debt limit deal, I always thought that Mana and Maori would find some kind of bloody compromise at the eleventh hour. But they’ve passed the point of no return now.
January 2009. Jobs are being lost at 4,000 per week. Key and his government have just come back from a month long holiday. First thing he does: makes an audition tape for Letterman. Notice how all the jokes are taking the mickey out of our country. Makes you real proud.
BBC Radio 4 in the UK has a very interesting debate pitting followers of Keynes vs those of Hayek
National pollster David Farrar wants scientists to debate a fake Lord climate change denier saying “Why should anyone listen to people unwilling to debate?”. Well, David, next time you’re giving your polling report to the Kitchen Cabinet, tell them that. Because National is refusing to participate in coming debate on their asset sales policy.
It’s gotcha season in Parliament. First Labour was pulled up for a couple of election ads not having authorisation statements or not having big enough ones. Then Labour responded with unauthorised ads from National. Now, The Jackel has been told an unauthorised letter sent by Key to every pensioner is an electoral ad.
It looks like the race for Epsom is about to get a whole lot more exciting. Former ACT funder Colin Craig seems set to throw his hat into the ring against ACT’s John Banks, National’s Paul Goldsmith, and Labour’s David Parker. It only needs Winnie to join in to make a real party of it. Can Parker slip through the middle and win?
What does Colin Craig’s new Conservative Party expect to accomplish, other than to siphon off and waste a tiny percentage of right wing vote?
Key has refused to include the leaders of minor parties in TV3 debates, and Goff has agreed to debate one on one. Another step towards “presidential” style politics that does not serve our country well.
The PSA is launching its election campaign this evening. Our big challenge is to break through the government’s narrative (now reaching mythic proportions) […]
There’s been a lot of coverage of Winston Peters lately. Most of his announcements have been perfectly predictable, but for me there have been two real surprises.
Remember John Key’s awful Letterman appearance? Supposedly worth a fortune in tourism. We know that was complete crap. It was a stunt meant to impress us saps. Now we learn that we paid for it. PM’s office pleaded for months to get on Letterman. Try-hard even sent a demo tape. When that didn’t work, they paid a US PR agency $10K to seal the deal.
The polls show that New Zealanders, quite rightly, prefer the policies of the Left, such as capital gains tax, over National/ACT’s ‘plan’ to hock off our assets. But the majority still seem to favour returning a Key-led (and Key’s the, um, key) government, even if they won’t like what it does. What the Left needs is Goff to build personal trust with the people.
Geoff Simmons will speak on the importanceof Pharmac at a Fabian seminar today at St John’s Church at 5:30pm. Pharmac is also “on the table” in negotiations with the US in the Trans-Pacific Trade agreement. It is no secret that the US pharmaceutical industry would like to clip Pharmac’s wings; but our government’s approach is secret as they have refused to release draft negotiating texts. Geoff and Gareth Morgan have written to government arguing that a US free-trade deal isn’t worth it if Pharmac is sacrificed.
All are welcome to the free seminar.
So Breivik has given us an eyes wide open gaze into the abyss. Chilling isn’t it? Much has been written in the last […]
On paper Labour is doing everything right, but they are not yet getting traction in the polls. Labour needs to get voters’ attention again, and then their trust. So how to “reconnect with the public”? What should Labour be doing differently?
