Open Mike 19/02/2017
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Greg O’Connor responds
In a guest post, Labour’s Ōhāriu candidate Greg O’Connor responds to some of the topics of comments in the post “Greg O’Connor selected for Ōhāriu” and elsewhere on the blogs.
The new world order
With former adversaries USA and Russia now the best of friends and with China now emerging again as the preeminent economy in the world the question is will the transition of power be handled smoothly?
Bungling Brownlee under fire
Gerry Brownlee is a walking disaster. Such is the depth of National’s talent pool that he is ranked number 4 in their lineup.
Helen White for Auckland Central
Looks like a strong candidate – all the best in Auckland Central!
Open Mike 18/02/2017
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Daily Review 17/02/2017
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 …
Good ideas in Gisborne
Andrew Little’s announcement yesterday in Gisborne of Labour’s pledge of up to $20million to build a prefabricated timber plant there is a much-needed boost to the area and a sign that Labour’s 100,000 new house pledge first made by David Shearer in 2012 has legs.
English wants Pike River out of the headlines in election year
Any sign of progress is welcome, but let’s hope English is not deliberately stringing along the Pike River families with false hope.
What’s the deal? There isn’t one.
What are the Greens up to then?
Fires are the new normal
Hey Bill English, it’s not the case that “no one could have anticipated the large-scale fire on the Port Hills”. Just about every relevant organisation could and did predict it. Most of the other predictions relating to climate change will come true too.
Open Mike 17/02/2017
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Daily Review 16/02/2017
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 …
State care inquiry
We need one – and an apology. Bill may wonder aloud whether we’ll learn much, but I wonder if he’s more concerned we’ll learn too much…
Treat her right
The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1972. It’s now 2017 and it’s never been enforced. It’s time to ‘Treat Her Right’.
Cadburys Dunedin to close with hundreds of jobs lost
Another blow to Dunedin.
Kia Kaha Canterbury
It seems almost inevitable that the recent fires in Canterbury and the Hawkes Bay are the result of climate change and the harbingers of things to come.
Christchurch fire coverage
Kia kaha Christchurch.
(photo credit: Michael Hodgson).
Watching the journalists
“The obligation of a journalist is to serve the public”
Marama Fox vs Bill English – who will blink?
Marama Fox and Bill English have painted themselves into a bit of a corner, and Fox is threatening to “walk away from the Government”. Key would have handled this better.
Open Mike 16/02/2017
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Daily Review 15/02/2017
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 …
John Oliver returns – calls Trump ‘a pathological liar’
Our long Oliver-less nightmare is over.
Your government MPs in the news
Who can even keep up with it all?
Hypocrisy watch – Michael Flynn
Over in the United States of Trumpsville National Security Advisor to the Trump White House Mike Flynn, who famously said that Hillary Clinton should be locked up for threatening national security by having a private email server, has been sacked for threatening national security and for lying to the vice president.
Auckland: Stop Niki’s Eviction!
Time to take action against the destruction of communities and privatisation of social housing.
Human Rights Commission calls for an inquiry – English says no
Open Mike 15/02/2017
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Daily Review 14/02/2017
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 …
English “will be taken down by housing”
In the middle of a housing crisis “Housing New Zealand documents obtained under the Official Information Act show that there are nearly 2,500 empty state houses, more than 500 of which have been empty for over a year.”
Government will not support victims of domestic violence
The Government is refusing to support Jan Logie’s bill aimed at helping the victims of domestic violence despite the bill receiving support from the ANZ and Business New Zealand supporting the bill going at least to select committee.
Auckland NIMBYs refused
If Auckland as a city wish to retain representative samples of our past, then we should concentrate on how to preserve those rather than trying to deny the migration that increases its population by something like 50 thousand people per year. This is a working city – not a museum.
Greens stand aside in Ōhāriu
Putting aside misgivings for the sake of the greater good is a mark of political maturity which many politicians and commentators could learn from.
Is this the impossibility turning point?
There’s a wonderful fiction still propelling the world that the 21st century will bring an ever-expanding arc of freedom and prosperity to the vast majority of humanity but the reality seems to be anything but.
Open Mike 14/02/2017
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We Are All ‘Identarian’ Now
There has been an unfortunate trend developing in recent weeks, of negatively labelling people who dare to have a different opinion on equality to the labeller, as identarian. This description is something to be appreciated in these times when dark forces appear to be on the rise again.