The PREFU is much better than National wanted
The Prefu is out! And it is not as scary as National would have wanted.
What just happened with Israel?
Just two months before election day, Donald Trump appears to have won a diplomatic coup in the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have normalised relations with the state of Israel.
Open mike 16/09/2020
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Daily review 15/09/2020
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Taxpayer’s Union is wasting taxpayers’ money
The Taxpayer’s Union, which claims to be opposed to Government waste, is wasting taxpayer’s resources by lodging a spurious complaint with the Broadcasting Standards Authority against Labour’s free apprenticeship policy.
Greenpeace on the Green Party’s Farm for the Future policy
“Wildfires are burning across the world and our rivers and lakes have been pushed to the brink. This is no time for half measures. Phasing out the use of PKE is exactly the kind of bold and transformational policy that is needed to deal with the climate and freshwater crises.”
Open mike 15/09/2020
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Daily review 14/09/2020
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 …
National’s Upper Harbour problem
This has been quite a year for National. It is onto its third leader, has lost a slew of experienced MPs, and has had other MPs resign in curious circumstances. And now it appears that it has a crisis involving its Upper Harbour candidate, Jake Bezzant.
Qanon is here
While a few in the media leapt at the opportunity to vilify a small evangelical community at the latest COVID 19 spread, the really big COVID 19-conspiracy story landed by the thousand this weekend. It’s overdue we woke up to QAnon here.
Open mike 14/09/2020
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Labour’s social welfare policy
Labour has announced that if elected they will significantly increase abatement levels for beneficiaries and reinstitute the Training Incentive Allowance Scheme, the policy that Paula Bennett famously had the benefit of but then cancelled once she was Minister.
What is this regenerative agriculture thing anyway?
Given the state of New Zealand land and water, changing how we do farming should be a strong political topic for the left this year. The Greens and Greenpeace are campaigning for a shift to regenerative agriculture, so it’s timely to look at what that is.
Open mike 13/09/2020
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Open mike 12/09/2020
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Daily review 11/09/2020
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The Greens sticking to their guns (and their values)
The Greens just boldly stepped up their election campaign.
National’s infrastructure bank
National’s proposed Infrastructure Bank is an accounting trick, with very high risks that the entire power of our political order for anyone affected by these monster projects will weaken citizens’ rights.
Open mike 11/09/2020
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Checkpoint shroud-waving over Queensland politics?
Today’s Checkpoint descended into shroud-waving in the case of a New South Wales family not able to visit their dying father in Queensland because of the strict border closure. As our health officials note, “bereavement issues” are where most care is needed to prevent the virus spread.
Daily review 10/09/2020
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Labour voters, if you could vote to keep the Greens in parliament would you?
Choices, choices.
Covid, the US President and the Evangelical churches
There has been disturbing local news that some members of a local evangelical church, influenced by American equivalents, refused to accept the threat posed by the virus. And in America a new book from Bob Woodward suggests strongly that Donald Trump knew how big a threat Covid would be but chose for political reasons to downplay the risk.
How has Conservation Fared Under This Government?
I’m going to give this government just 5 out of 10 on the conservation front.
Open mike 10/09/2020
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Daily review 09/09/2020
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Labour announces tax policies
Labour and the Greens have both recently announced taxation policies. Meanwhile there is no sign of any fiscal policy or alternative budget from National.
Open mike 09/09/2020
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Daily review 08/09/2020
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What did Brownlee know about Southern Response’s misleading and deceptive conduct?
The Court of Appeal has ruled that Southern Response has engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and has potentially short changed thousands of Cantabrians hundreds of millions of dollars.
Will NZ First make it back into Parliament?
One of the most interesting questions about the current election campaign is will New Zealand First make it back into Parliament after the election, with polling and a slew of not dissimilar parties on the right suggesting that Winston’s time may be up.
Open mike 08/09/2020
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Daily review 07/09/2020
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Landlord lobby group hopes National Government will ditch warm flat requirement
The NZ Property Investors Federation has proposed to its members they should hold off on making flats warmer and drier just in case there is a change of government.
Open mike 07/09/2020
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Assange’s torture and the death of journalism
On the eve of Assange’s extradition hearing in London, award-winning freelancer Jonathan Cook has written a scathing indictment of corporate journalism’s collusion in ignoring his official torture. I posted an example of that here last year, where Richard Harman denied Assange was a journalist at a panel convened at Parliament by the British High Commissioner.