David Cunliffe's performance in tonight's head-to-head with John Key was exactly what I wanted to see from the next Labour Prime Minister of NZ. The Herald has already called it for him, along with a few of the political journos I follow on Twitter. I…
Tonight at 8:40 pm there will be the third televised debate between David Cunliffe and John Key. The moderator will be John Campbell who I am sure will be scrupulously fair. If anything he may be harder on Cunliffe to show that he is so…
On Firstline this morning, John Key tried to compare National’s and Labour’s policies by saying “You can’t grow the economy when you restrict labour laws.” His meaning is clear: Labour’s policies on work and wages won’t grow the economy, National’s will. It’s not just a nonsense, it’s…
Reposted from No Right Turn Its a slow news day, so naturally we have the Herald's John Armstrong trotting out one of the old media standards: that the Greens need to be able to work with National to gain power: The Greens face an old…
Digitally-enabled surveillance technologies can be used by both state agencies, and those who wish to hold them to account. The state agencies tend to hold the most power is using those capabilities, but they are not the only ways capable of using sophisticated digital technologies.…
In breaking news Cameron Slater's application for an injunction against various media outlets preventing publication of further Dirty Politics stories has been withdrawn. The terms of the settlement as outlined in the NBR are as follows: In consideration for Mr Slater dropping the injunction, the…
Yesterday the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) launched a major publication and a call for action: No New Zealand child should grow up in poverty, says CPAG No New Zealand child should grow up in poverty. As a society we could choose to make this…
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 ...
Nothing so clearly demonstrates John Key’s contempt for the New Zealand voter as his confidence that we will believe whatever he tells us. He has had ample experience to back up that confidence. The course taken by the dirty politics saga is perhaps the most…
Companies in which National sold off shares have all recently reported their financial performance for the past 12 months and the amount of the final dividend they are paying. I thought that I would have a back of the envelope stab at the amount of money that…
Reposted from No Right Turn A bit over a week ago, I complained about the empty void at the heart of the election: Nationals refusal to release policy. And it has struck again today, in the form of Nationals fiscal "plan". After weeks of teasing…
Reposted from Polity. Nationals hypothetical tax cut package has not gone down well. People do not appear to like the fact that it is small, hypothetical, and irresponsible, all at once. For example, here's Hamish Rutherford this morning: Taxpayers asked to blindly wait National is…
The Nats are useless on the economy, and their major election policies are getting hammered by editorial comment. By way of context, the Nats have run up record debt. "Growth" is a consequence of temporary factors (Christchurch rebuild) which is why projected "growth" is in…
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 ...
Nicky Hager's talk at the University of Waikato was very well attended. There was spill over into a second room where some people watched the talk on video. The talk was organised for journalism students. The video livestreamed. Unfortunately I only caught some of the…
The choice for NZ voters is becoming clearer in the last days of the 2014 election. The irony is that after John Key's persistent scaremongering about the "five-headed monster" of the centre-left, the two most likely options we have are a three-headed coalition of natural allies…
Cameron Slater has an attack post out on Martyn Bradbury because the electoral commission has him down as both Martyn and and also as the normal spelling of Martin. Now that is just the usual clerical error. But the more important stories in the wake of…
A significant element in the fallout from Dirty Politics, is the apparent disappearance of Jason Ede, a staffer at the PM's office in the past. We are told they he now works for the National Party. The fact the he hasn't fronted up to answer…
I blogged on this before. Previously it appeared to be possible that National would try and gift East Coast Bays to the Conservatives to make sure that Conservative party votes were not wasted. But then Colin Craig's unusual position on matters such as whether or…
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 ...