The day there was no news
Key lacks leadership on climate change
National has pulled its support for the emissions trading scheme which is intended to set limits on the emission of greenhouse gases and […]
National: we’ll borrow for tax cuts for the rich
Discovering National’s policy is a bit like the old art of Kremlinology, when Western intelligence agencies would attempt to discover the inner workings […]
Getting the facts straight
When asked on Morning Report (MP3 link) today why National was bringing up the issue of MMP now, Key remarked: “[the public] were […]
Key’s green mask slips
Last year John Key announced National’s ‘Blue-Green’ Strategy. It contained the first shadow of acknowledgment from National that climate change is a serious […]
Winner takes all (of us to the cleaners?)
The Sunday Star Times reports National is keen to have a referendum on MMP. As you would expect Peter Shirtcliffe has been involved […]
Media policy
As The Standard has grown, we’ve started to receive inquires from the media and requests for a comment or interview. We’ve been a […]
A change to what?
As we all know the latest Fairfax poll has shown a huge lead for the National Party. Now I’m of the opinion it’s […]
Fairfax poll
This morning’s Fairfax poll is bad news for Labour, with National easily having the numbers to govern alone. Following the hugely popular rail […]
California lifts gay marriage ban
California’s top court has ruled that a state law banning marriage between same-sex couples is unconstitutional, accrording to a BBC report. The state’s […]
Bill Ralston: independent commentator?
If you’ve been reading Bill Ralston’s columns in the Herald on Sunday over the last few months you’ll have noticed how they’ve started […]
Time to let interest rates fall
The economy is clearly slowing. Fundamentally, it remains strong with high employment, good wages rises, and strong prices for our exports but employment […]
Get your questions in for Peters
We’ll be selecting the questions for Winston as the final interview in the ‘Interview the Leaders’ series on Sunday. So, get them in […]
If I were UnitedFuture’s Campaign Strategist
Last in our ‘campaign strategist’ series is UnitedFuture, perhaps the least inspiring party in Parliament. UnitedFuture (ie. Peter Dunne) should play the same […]
Junk pay
The last couple of episodes of Fair Go have rightly taken aim at a distribution company – Reachmedia – that rips off young kids by paying […]
Launch of Drinking Liberally NZ
If you’re down in Wellington and of the Left, you’ve probably heard people talking about Drinking Liberally New Zealand. Drinking Liberally is an […]
Two stories on crime in Christchurch
Christchurch hosted a public meeting on crime within the city last week. But the thing that caught my eye, despite the very laudable […]
Bring back the bash?
A man has been convicted of assault for hitting his daughter because she was dating a Muslim. You can’t assault someone, the law […]
Batman Politics
Who would have thought? Murray McCully as The Penguin. Hat tip: onegoodmove
Rio Tinto threats backfire
Rio Tinto’s threat of capital strike appears to have backfired on them, with a political consensus emerging that the multinational has overplayed its […]
Happy Birthday National
Today is the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the National Party. So, it’s an opportune moment to reflect on the founding principles […]
Nats’ attack on union hits High Court
Today National will be explaining to the High Court why it wants the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union’s 50,000 members to be denied […]
A brief musical interlude
If only I’d been around in 1969, and hanging out in upstate New York. Hard to believe that the best we can do […]
TVNZ and the Nats
As Paul Henry continues his party political broadcasts for the National Party on Breakfast TV, a curious coincidence of timing occured on Sunday. John […]
ACT: tax cuts for the rich, please
Rodney Hide is calling for the Budget’s tax cuts to take the form of raising the thresholds to account for inflation since 1999, […]
Key’s performance in the House embarrassing
I’ve just watched the first Question Time in 3 weeks. After 3 weeks’ recess and lots of potentially juicy material to use, here […]
Rio Tinto threatens NZ with capital strike
Multi-national minerals company Rio Tinto is threatening to close its Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Bluff and move its production offshore if the […]
Interview the Leaders VIII: NZ First
We’ve chosen the questions for John Key in the seventh installment of our “Interview the Leaders” series. The first question remains the same, […]
“Obama in 30 seconds” winner
After over 1100 submissions and more than 5.5 million total votes cast, MoveOn.org have announced the winner of their “Obama in 30 seconds” homemade […]
New Zealand, a great place to be a mum
We hear an awful lot from the Right about how much New Zealand sucks: ‘crime is up’ they cry (when it’s down), ‘taxes […]
More on benefit levels
It was disappointing to hear National Radio this morning summarise the recent debate over benefit levels as ‘benefits are not keeping up with […]
Roy Morgan
There was a new Roy Morgan poll out on Friday. No major changes – Labour continues to hover around the mid-30s and National […]
Mythbusting: ‘Book value’ & ‘over the odds’
In an attempt to find a non-ideological ground to justify opposing the Government’s buyback of the rail system, John Key and others have […]
Peter Dunne answers your questions
We’re very pleased to have UnitedFuture Leader Peter Dunne respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to […]
Mythbusting: Winning a fourth term is impossible
It has become a media mantra that winning a fourth term of government is nigh on impossible, but is that claim actually based […]