Open mike 18/04/2020
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The Green Party list
The Green’s initial party list has three new candidates in the top ten.
Open mike 17/04/2020
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A little relief.
Level 3 restrictions
Open mike 16/04/2020
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Matthew’s Magic Numbers
Matthew Hooton has tweeted a series of numbers. They add up to good news for the Government.
UPDATE: Curia Polling reckons it’s even better for Labour!
A response from the Rosa Luxemburg wing of the Labour Party
According to Stephen Mills on Nine to Noon yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation as Labour leader will only be mourned by “the microscopic Rosa Luxemburg-worshipping far left sect in New Zealand.” His outburst was deliberate, gratuitous and way over the top.
Lockdown 4 – do we stay or do we go?
Over the next few days there will be an intense public debate about whether the lockdown should be continued or loosened.
No Right Turn: Climate Change – the need for a green recovery
The Climate Change Commission – the expert panel tasked with getting New Zealand carbon neutral – has written to the government asking it to apply a “climate change lens” to the post-Covid-19 spend-up.
How Not to Engage in Public Debate
The best way to engage in public debate on the lockdown is to be open, clear, and transparent and show the facts. A press release full of beliefs and reckons is unhelpful and irresponsible.
What we were doing wasn’t working.
After the lockdown, it is tempting to try and go back to what we had before. To the familiar and comfortable, especially for us that were comfortable. Forgetting that for so many, things were anything but, comfortable. That won’t be happening. “Before” no longer exists.
Open mike 15/04/2020
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What Is This Moment Teaching Us?
What is Covid-19 telling us about our response as a nation?
Better footpaths and cycleways are a socialist inspired plot?
National MP Simon O’Connor thinks that making under used streets safer for walkers and cyclers is a Socialist inspired plan for world domination.
Are the Vultures Already Circling Above?
We cannot go back to business as usual after the lockdown but can we shape the way things will be for the greater good?
Open mike 14/04/2020
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Open mike 13/04/2020
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Please sort this out MoH
Frontline home care workers and their clients still don’t have adequate protection from covid.
Greenpeace’s Green Covid Response
Oil giant OMV finally leave New Zealand, and Greenpeace releases its Green Covid Response plan to the government.
Open mike 12/04/2020
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New Zealand’s poor in this new crisis
Covid 19 is not some great leveller. To succeed the state has to completely redirect the economy to so that ordinary workers and working families are supported.
Open mike 11/04/2020
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We are all socialists now II
The Taxpayer’s Union has applied for government support to pay wages during the lockdown.
Open mike 10/04/2020
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Has the EU failed during COVID-19?
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog
For global governance organisations, this is an important moment. This is the chance for them to demonstrate their worth and coordinate the response. In many ways how these structures respond becomes more important than the response of nation-states. This also is where the deficiencies and shortcomings of such organisations become very apparent. The noise coming from the EU in the last 48 hours is far from reassuring.
National’s Petition is Cynical Populism
National is trying to steal show political leadership and relevance by launching a petition.
Addendum added
National seeks delay to election
Hot on the news that National’s polling has plunged to 35% Paula Bennett has publicly suggested that the election should be delayed. I wonder if they are related?
Tourism is the elephant in the living room
Rather than saving an industry that has multiple sustainability and resiliency failures, how about we regenerate local economies and set them to serve our communities?
Open mike 09/04/2020
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Pandemics are no a time for inward-looking nationalism
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s Blog
Trump is focused on the November US Presidential Election. His anti-Chinese, nationalist, America First rhetoric is his go-to response to keep his political base onside. He is placing his political ambition ahead of millions of lives both in the US and globally. Trump has placed electoral politics ahead of leadership that could save millions of lives.
From the inside out
I feel that many kiwis are quite unaware exactly how exceptional our plague performance has been so far. It is interesting reading the perspective published in the Washington Post by a recently returned kiwi. Less interesting was the mathematical illiteracy on the MP David Seymour who managed to ignore all medical facts while advising on how to bulk kill our citizens.
The end of partisan politics?
Throughout the world there is an increasing consensus emerging that the free market approach is failing and principled intelligent leadership from governments provide the optimum result.
Open mike 08/04/2020
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Depression looms as rapidly as Covid spreads
New Zealand, like many other nations, is hurtling towards economic depression faster than Covid-19 spreads. “We are going to have a depression”. “This is like an asteroid hit the global economy”. “We can print our way of this”. Reflections on what lies ahead by Simon Louisson, Bernard Hickey and others.
Clark’s calamity
Health Minister David Clark has been demoted but has kept his Health portfolio after he revealed that he had driven 20 kilometers with his family to visit a beach during the lock down.
Open mike 07/04/2020
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