Polity: I am still holding out for a three-way

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 110 comments

I think the pundits misjudge Peters. I think he wants a major, polity-based legacy in the 2014-2017 term, as well as baubles. Only the left can offer this. With the left, Peters can be The Man who Saved the Power Companies. National cannot compete with that. Which gives everyone on the left, including the Greens, some leverage. So count me out of the consensus that Winston in Cabinet means no Greens in Cabinet. I see a feasible three-way deal on the horizon.

It’s the little things …

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 36 comments

Another day and another hole in Judith Collins’ description of events surrounding the dinner that she had with senior Oravida figures and a Chinese Official who may or may not have been able to sort out importation problems for Oravida, a company who her husband is a Director of and who has made large donations to the National Party.

Wealth and the wealthy

Written By: Bunji
Date published: - 28 comments

A NZer in Britain and a Briton in NZ – 2 CEOs complaining they get paid too much. And science shows the US is ruled by a bunch of oligs.

An Easter message: greed is not good

Written By: karol
Date published: - 14 comments

Greed used to be regarded as a major sin.  Now it is often seen as either trivial, or, in Gordon Gekko’s words, “Greed is good”.  Greed has become a religion, focused on the sacred “economy” and its “market” of (allegedly) “invisible hands”. Greed fuels inequality and undermines democracy. Democracy needs a more critical public sphere and media.

The drone strike killing of a Kiwi

Written By: redfed
Date published: - 282 comments

The Government is completely indifferent to the killing of innocent children and New Zealand citizens because it is part of the war against terrorism. But the extra judicial killing of innocent adults and children is by definition a terrorist act.

Environment on the edge

Written By: karol
Date published: - 41 comments

On Al Jazeera NewsHour this morning, there were two reports on environmental issues in different parts of the planet: stories of the tension between pursuit of economic “growth” and the destruction of the environment. In both countries, there are attempts to develop renewables, without changing the whole system.

The housing bubble

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 176 comments

Another week and another report suggesting that New Zealand’s housing market is heading towards a potential crisis.  The Government’s primary response is to blame Labour.  The Greens and Labour have a collection of policies which would improve matters significantly.  But the politics are difficult because who would want to threaten the value of the family home?

The right wing only want to help us

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 230 comments

Kiwi in America over at Kiwiblog has offered some no doubt heart felt advice to Labour on what it should be doing. But the advice appears to be based on a misunderstanding of the Party’s history and a wish that the Party becomes more like ACT. Why do right wingers think they can tell Labour what to do and is their advice sound?

Polity: Boundary changes

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 20 comments

Rob Salmond’s take on the boundary changes announced last week. In a MMP election system the actual electoral boundaries usually only really matter to a few MPs. It isn’t likely to make much of a difference unless National manages to have a cup of tea with a party with enough electoral muscle to get more than a single MP into the house and an electorate’s voters think this matters. After the John Banks/Act debacle who’d be moronic enough to think that electorate seats in a list do matter? Apart from our silly first-past-the-post stand-in-man for David Farrar of course…

How this site’s webservers now work

Written By: lprent
Date published: - 8 comments

This site gets rather a lot of comments. Every time a comment is made the page it is on has to be regenerated, which limits the amount of static caching that can be done. So on a dynamic site like this one we require rather a lot of raw processing power to generate dynamically pages that keep changing all of the day. These days we do it in the cloud, buying hours on servers as we require then. It saves us money and allows us to handle the story breaking peaks. Looks like we’re ready for election year.

Polity: Labour’s manufacturing plan

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 10 comments

This is very good stuff. Having a tax break for R&D work has always been a no-brainer, and it is great to see it reconfirmed. Adding an accelerated depreciation scheme for new plant is a helpful addition. And partnering with more local firms for more locally-sourced government procurement makes perfect sense, too. Another no brainer for parties – like Labour – that actually care about local employment.

Upper Harbour exists.

Written By: Ben Clark
Date published: - 18 comments

The new electorate boundaries are out.

Some noticeable changes around Port Hills, but mainly only tinkering from the previous proposals.

NRT: Needlessly shitty

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 12 comments

No Right Turn points out here about a select committee filtering out submissions because they were not in an official NZ language. This seems needlessly shitty – not to mention undemocratic. Parliament is supposed to represent all New Zealanders, not just those who write their submissions in one of our official languages.

LB: EDUCANZ, Professionalism and Politics

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 8 comments

We now have a Ministry of Education that is under the beck and call of the Minister, and where political ideology determines policy, and shortly we will have a new Teachers Council that will be governed only by political appointees. Under a National led Government, teachers will lose any professional independence and become classroom technicians that have to support politically prescribed programmes and data collection. Anyone want a career in teaching?

NRT: The PCE on the Environmental Reporting Bill

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 2 comments

No Right Turn on the Environmental Reporting Bill that has the watchdogs up in arms. Listening to Amy Adams last night going on about how transparent and open to public scrutiny regulations are made me wonder what bloody universe she lived in – bizarro world perhaps?. Submissions on the Environmental Reporting Bill are due on Thursday.

 

Collins under fire

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 115 comments

Judith Collins, once one of National’s most assured performers, is facing increasing pressure.  Her handling of the ACC privacy release form scandal is under scrutiny.  And the release of a letter from Oravida to the Government asking for help in handling reputational risk focusses even more attention on the “private dinner” and the identity of the mysterious Chinese Government Official.

Father & son: Dunne deals?

Written By: karol
Date published: - 162 comments

TV One’s Seven Sharp has raised questions about whether there has been a conflict of interest for Peter Dunne.  This is with respect to his son James Dunne’s legal representation of advocates for the recreational synthetic drug industry. What is the evidence for and against? [Update: Live chat with Peter Dunne, Stuff midday]

Chicken

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 133 comments

Yesterday John Key challenged David Cunliffe to a debate about housing which Cunliffe gratefully accepted.  Today it is a different matter …

NRT: Climate change: Action is affordable

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 34 comments

Catastrophic climate change can be averted without sacrificing living standards according to a UN report, which concludes that the transformation required to a world of clean energy is eminently affordable. “It doesn’t cost the world to save the planet,”. The average cost of adapting to climate change next year is less than $30. Remember that next time Bill English stands up in Parliament threatening economic Armageddon if we try and do anything about it.

Kia kaha Native Affairs

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 37 comments

Maori Television’s Native Affairs reporters have been breaking some important stories recently. It was at the forefront of coverage of the Kohanga Reo expense story and last night it covered the Prime Minister’s fundraiser dinner for the Maori Party.

Polity: Maori Party / Key fundraiser

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 35 comments

The Political Anorak News is full of the $5,000-a-plate fundraiser for the Maori Party hosted by John Key at the Northern Club in Auckland… Nothing illegal about this at all, or really anything immoral either. Key wants to help the Maori Party help Key, so he’s putting in an appearance. No problem. These kinds of events make it crystal clear that a vote for the Maori Party is a vote for a National government.