As we reach the business end of one of the most fascinating and most unpredictable election campaigns on record it is becoming increasingly clear what the last couple of weeks will be all about. National and its proxies will be pressing every button possible to…
https://twitter.com/NZGreens/status/907759741832536064 https://twitter.com/jamespeshaw/status/907762539248807937 https://twitter.com/NZGreens/status/907774510383874048 https://twitter.com/democracymum/status/907779507293061120 The Students Fair Deal package will, Make all post-graduate students eligible for student allowances, as a step towards a truly universal student allowance. Increase all student allowances by 20 percent. Make buses and trains free off-peak for all tertiary students and…
https://www.facebook.com/cissy.rock/posts/10155849755629172 An Auckland event this Sunday: What would it be like if those that used WINZ actually got to design how WINZ should work? • office lay out, • services offered, • systems, • customer service values . . . On Sunday night 17th Sept…
One major fact largely absent (for obvious reasons) from the scaremongering about tax, is that under Labour’s Families Package 70% of families with kids do better than they do under National’s tax plan. Calculator shows Labour’s Families Package delivers Labour has launched a new online…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
As if this campaign was not weird enough. Newsroom and the Financial Times have broken a story confirming that National MP Jian Yang was educated in a Chinese University that concentrated on training Chinese spies and he was investigated by the SIS for his Chinese…
Good to see Jacinda Ardern confronting this head on: Labour leader Jacinda Ardern takes a swing at National's campaign of 'fear and lying' Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has come out swinging at what she called National's campaign of "fear and lying." ... National launched another…
Perhaps a bit lost in all the poll froth last night was the screening of Bryan Bruce's new documentary (reviewed by Colleen Hawkes on Stuff): Housing crisis documentary pulls no punches on eve of election Who owns New Zealand now? The NZ On Air-funded documentary…
This election has the attention of farmers. It was instructive to attend a meeting on Tuesday night in Wanaka with David Parker on water quality and commercial water charging. Easy 100 people. Standing at back. Parker's slide show illustrated the multiple damaging intensive farming…
In the insanity that is this current election campaign the media has missed a rather large story, Bill English breaching the Cabinet Manual's requirement that the resources of the State not be used for political purposes. Yesterday there was a grand opening of Christchurch's Justice…
https://twitter.com/BMarchetich/status/907532114786115584 Thrown by that poll last night? How about we ignore the Gowerising of the election for a moment and take a look around. https://twitter.com/JVMcSweeny/status/907497165412458496 From RNZ last night, Poll of Polls mini-update RNZ's updated poll - taking into account tonight's Newshub-Reid Research poll and…
Early voting started with a bang! Jacindamania? https://twitter.com/henrycooke/status/907426184006311936 https://twitter.com/richardhills777/status/907424780743196672 https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/907418514612473856 https://twitter.com/HelenClarkNZ/status/907395929744879617
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
There seems to be a fair amount of gnashing teeth over that Newshub poll. Now, pause for a second. The numbers being reported tally 100%. In other words, in an environment that obviously has a lot of undecided flux on the "not National" side of…
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
The first contender challenger has declared, albeit so far in a humorous manner. https://youtu.be/-ukv9v7IGZw Former Mexican president Vicente Fox nails this faux US presidential campaign ad doing what he does best – poking fun at Trump. However there appear to be several campaigns on the…
It was certainly interesting to see Winston Peters, the master of pre-election, 'hold your cards close to your chest' secrecy, coming out yesterday demanding that Labour tell the world everything they think about tax, before the election, despite Labour's long held position of having a…
The Herald's "mood of the boardroom" makes encouraging reading for Labour (Fran O'Sullivan): A strong mood for change among business leaders There is a strong mood for change among the 118 respondents to the Herald's Mood of the Boardroom Election Survey. Some 88 per cent…
First published on Friday 8 September at firstwetakemanhattan.org, this post by Graham Cameron is cross-posted here with permission. When Metiria Turei talked about lying to secure her benefit, it divided New Zealanders including Greens voters. As it unfolded, the attacks were unending, Metiria stepped away and their…
National are running about promising this that and the other. No costing on how they are going to pay for it all of course, that level of transparency is only expected of Labour. For anyone who actually believes that the Nats will deliver on all…
Yesterday - https://twitter.com/NewshubPolitics/status/906990383594438657 https://twitter.com/NewshubPolitics/status/907044142793895936 https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/907053582888980480 English did eventually rein in O'Connor, but he waited too long - https://twitter.com/NZStuffPolitics/status/907070954831962113 Satire or not, you be the judge - https://twitter.com/DavidSlack/status/907002521071214592 Nats on the ground - https://twitter.com/danylmc/status/906990496983031808
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
(Image courtesy of @FoxyLustyGrover) Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Voting has opened for advance votes and the expectation is that it will be pretty heavy prior to polling day over the next couple of weeks. Advance voting begins today, and the chief electoral officer Alicia Wright said there would be more places to cast…
National has this cosy arrangement whereby it essentially gifts the seat of Epsom to its puppet party ACT. This then gives the right an extra vote in Parliament. Basically Epsom gets two MPs for the price of one. The worse ACT polls the greater the…
Reposted with permission from Julia Schiller's blog Enough is Enough. Is New Zealand's party of alleged personal agency and responsibility in danger of being overrun by religious zealots who want to control our most intimate choices? One thing I've appreciated about New Zealand since arriving…
An interesting piece (Francis Cook in The Herald): Fear of a Labour/Green Gov 'gone' says business leader Fear of a Labour/Green Government in the business community is well gone, says SkyCity chairman-elect Rob Campbell. A refreshingly honest comment, especially given the amount of time and…
https://twitter.com/AmandaWasteFree/status/906716231855521794 The Greens released their 2017 climate change action plan yesterday. It's bold, and serious as, and makes no bones about the crisis we are in and that we have to act now. It's visionary as well as being a fully fledged strategy that NZ…