Written By: - Date published: 7:26 am, September 23rd, 2011 - 56 comments
Several commentators have suggested recently that the Greens have crossed some kind of “credibility threshold” and are poised for a strong performance in November. Is this the year of the Greens?
Written By: - Date published: 8:43 pm, September 21st, 2011 - 10 comments
Professor Robert Wade of the London School of Economics and author of the acclaimed Governing the Market will speak on this topic in association with Victoria University School of Government at Lecture Theatre 2, Rutherford House, Wellington at 6pm on Thursday 22nd September. Read more for abstract. Register at www.fabians.org.nz.
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, September 21st, 2011 - 70 comments
The Greens launched their economic policy today – I attended on behalf of the Fabian Society. Titled “100,000 green jobs for New Zealanders, it follows their plan to bring 100,000 children out of poverty by 2014. The focus was on leveraging green priorities, using direct government investment, changing the way state-owned companies work, and shifting the drivers for green jobs in the private sector.
Written By: - Date published: 4:15 pm, September 19th, 2011 - 15 comments
118 years to the day when NZ became the first country in the world to give women the vote. You can imagine how incredibly proud Kate and the sisterhood must have been. You can imagine them lifting their eyes to the future and seeing women standing shoulder to shoulder with their brothers, equal in political rights (and determined to […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, September 19th, 2011 - 109 comments
Today Labour released another substantial policy, a plan for recovery in Christchurch. It’s a policy that works for ordinary people, and a much needed helping hand for displaced red-zone residents.
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, September 19th, 2011 - 32 comments
The Campaign for MMP has a series of vids that we’ll be running. This one looks at how MMP has lifted the representation of women in Parliament. Makes you wonder about the people who want to send us backwards. By the by, due the paucity of women on National and ACT’s lists, the next Parliament is likely be to be first since 1978 to see the number of women decrease.
Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, September 18th, 2011 - 27 comments
The horse bolted last weekend. Murray McCully has been hard at work on the stable door. But the rail passengers voted with their feet…
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, September 18th, 2011 - 114 comments
Why are the young so disengaged from the political process? 2011 is shaping up to be even worse than last election.
Written By: - Date published: 6:03 pm, September 17th, 2011 - 115 comments
From the miscellaneous bits of news department – a particularly grim Roy Morgan poll, and the announcement that Sue Bradford is standing for Mana against Paula Bennett in Waitakere.
Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, September 13th, 2011 - 70 comments
The Child Poverty Action Group has released yet another shaming report on child poverty in NZ. The Nats’ cuts to Working for Families are making matters worse. If the election doesn’t return a Labour government, then we’re going to have three more years of inaction punctuated by brief ritual hand-wringing over each new report.
Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, September 10th, 2011 - 67 comments
John Armstrong wants Labour to come out radically different after the Cup. Having refused to cover Labour’s skills package or its mining policy, he’s suddenly interested in policy. He wants Labour to suddenly adopt league tables and forget the 39% tax rate. Armstrong genuinely doesn’t seem to get it. Parties of the Left don’t pick and swap policies on a whim.
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, September 7th, 2011 - 25 comments
“Just keep to your promises. I was at some of the family meetings where you promised off camera to parents who were in tears that you would do your utmost to try to get the men out. Money was not a problem. Those same parents have gone home and cradled their kids that are crying. Do what you say and just pull your finger out and do it.”
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, September 7th, 2011 - 17 comments
If electricity assets were part privatised, future governments couldn’t make the kind of reforms that National made earlier this year because of the need to consider private investors’ rights. Pretty simple, eh? Tell that to Hekia Parata. Bill English has his head in the sand on the effect of falling markets and can’t guarantee Kiwi ownership.
Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, September 5th, 2011 - 19 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, September 5th, 2011 - 38 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 9:16 pm, September 3rd, 2011 - 9 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, September 2nd, 2011 - 11 comments
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, August 31st, 2011 - 49 comments
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!
Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, August 30th, 2011 - 23 comments
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?
Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, August 24th, 2011 - 75 comments
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?
Written By: - Date published: 5:10 pm, August 23rd, 2011 - 6 comments
“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.
Written By: - Date published: 12:44 pm, August 23rd, 2011 - 33 comments
Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, August 23rd, 2011 - 3 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, August 23rd, 2011 - 55 comments
According to one poll 56 percent of Labour voters say Labour won’t win. Good on them I say.
Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, August 22nd, 2011 - 95 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 pm, August 20th, 2011 - 48 comments
So we can safely predict this National govt will score it’s usual epic fail around youth unemployment. And we all know the reasons why this is such a critical issue, so I’m not going to re-hash them either. It’s just that both sides in this debate keep missing the crux of the matter… what is […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:55 pm, August 20th, 2011 - 15 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, August 19th, 2011 - 22 comments
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
Written By: - Date published: 5:24 pm, August 18th, 2011 - 28 comments
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.
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 pm, August 15th, 2011 - 23 comments
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.
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