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NRT: Time to see if the Ombudsman will keep their word
Last month, we learned that Judith Collins had taken time off a taxpayer-funded trip to China to endorse her husband’s company – a company which had also donated significant sums of money to the National Party. The endorsement appeared to violate the Cabinet Manual, but John Key stepped up and claimed that the Cabinet Office said it was all OK. Then, just a few days later, he admitted that he’d lied about that. In the process, he implicitly raised serious questions about the quality of the Cabinet Office’s advice.
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Rogernomics, income inequality & gender politics
activism, capitalism, class war, community democracy, election 2014, feminism, Left, same old national, sustainability, workers' rightsAll of us, in our diversity, can make a big impact this election year. Time to end the “neoliberal” tyranny! Crime stats are celebrated masking the continuing impact of income & social inequalities. Rogernomics fractured gender politics & rape crisis intiatives.
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Op Ed: Press want to control political blogs?
John Drinnan has written on the upcoming opening of Press Council membership to bloggers. He offers some positives. But I don’t see anything much in it for political bloggers. It would mean being dominated by a flawed Mainstream Media – the very thing many blogs aim to critique independently.
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Closing the Gaps – Education & work
benefits, education, employment, equality, Maori Issues, pasifika, poverty, Public Private PartnershipsSimon Collins article on reducing inequalities for Māori & Pacific people. Māori and Pacific youth have become significantly disadvantaged in employment. However, the article supports charter schools, without examining how such neoliberal intitatives are ultimately damaging for Māori & Pacific people.
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Polity: Endangered! Polls without cell phones
Here’s a pretty astounding graphic from the US about cellphone vs landline use. The US is a few years ahead of New Zealand on mobile adoption and decoupling from landlines, but Rob Salmond thinks that within 5 years we will see these kinds of proportions in New Zealand. This will make current pollsters’ policies of refusing to call cell phones hugely problematic…
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Guest post – Who is David Cunliffe?
A guest post on the enigma that is David Cunliffe by David Craig.
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Filibustering
On the odd occasion when the media has picked up on the magnitude of a big issue, eg GCSB, Key was under the spotlight and he was sweating…
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Silver linings
When I first heard a Labour staffer had accidentally sent Amy Adams’ office a document on ICT my first thought was “here we go again.”
But then I heard Adams’ weird and defensive interview on Checkpoint. So I took a look at the actual paper and realised just why she was so awkward and nervous on what should have been an easy political hit.
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Polity: X more thoughts on poll bias
Whenever the media report on polls, they get accused of all manner of biases by the blinkered commentariat. Most of it is nonsense, of course. But some criticism of the polling methods themselves may have more merit that Rob Salmond first thought. While he is not yelling “fire” at this stage, he does think there may be smoke. Something that he did not think that three years ago.
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LB: Rich Schools, Poor Schools
Local bodies makes points about the changes in the school system over the years. The nett effect over decades has been to force the inter-generational inequality that a good school system is meant to prevent. The type of school system that this government favours appears to be designed to remove the opportunities for those whose parents aren’t lucky. Is it time to start again?
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Is John Key a shape shifting reptilian?
Recent allegations have surfaced suggesting that John Key is a shape shifting reptilian and the Labour Party is doing a deal with Ymir, King of the Frost Giants regarding the electorate of Ginnungagap in an attempt to win the 2014 election. Is it just me or is politics getting really weird?
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Dotcom’s extradition and the 2014 general election
In further news about Dotcom he has said that if the Internet Party has not reached 5% in the polls before the printing of the ballot papers he will endorse another party. An endorsement could be the difference between the left winning and losing the next election. And the Greens have raised the prospect of a Ministerial Veto of any extradition order.
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Polity: Kim Dotcom’s 5% gambit
Rob Salmond looks at the implications of the Internet party failing to poll 5% and DotCom throws his support behind another party. A bidding war from competing parties? For the left this would be being both hypocritical and a bit icky. One of the reasons they worked hard to make election funding fairer in the late 2000s was to limit the ability of individuals seeking to buy government policy for cash. The right disagreed but is now caught by their own logic that it couldn’t happen.
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Role of Government
capitalism, climate change, community democracy, democratic participation, economy, Environment, global warming, political alternatives, sustainabilityGovernments are holding on to their traditional roles and functions, but the world has changed. We need something else.
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Send gummy bears to your representatives
Last night Lyn was regaling me with an advertisement on amazon for a 5 pound bag of “Haribo Classic Sugar Free Gummy Bears” with its 643 product evaluations. In this fine example of online consumerism, all appeared to agree that these really were some of the tastiest snacks around. In fact they were so good that many were suggesting that they got sent to all members of congress. Should we do the same for MPs? Then they might get the concept behind food labelling
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Gower plays a shocker
Paddy Gower yesterday accused David Cunliffe of walking out of a press conference and refusing to answer questions on Best Start. The reality seems to be somewhat different …
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Useless and venal
Following David Cunliffe’s announcement of Best Start New Zealand’s right wing took it upon themselves to show how useless and venal they are. […]
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Deep sea oil drilling
Deep sea oil drilling is in the news. Labour’s position is to require increased environmental standards and drillers would have to display an effective ability to clean up any disasters. The Greens would prefer to leave the oil in the ground. If there is a change of Government this year resolving this issue will pose a fascinating test of the parties.
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The Internet Party
Kim Dotcom’s Internet Party appears to be ready to take off. And if the rumours are true he has some heavyweight advisers and a strategy that may threaten National more than any other party.
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Snowden performed a public service
The New York Times has an editorial stating that Edward Snowden should be regarded as a whistleblower who has done the public there and elsewhere a service by revealing the illegal extent of the NSA’s surveillance. What is most interesting in the extremely well linked editorial is that there is this curious hole in the US whistle blower laws that many including Barack Obama have said he could have used. They don’t cover contractors….
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Forty Christmases
Exactly 40 years ago to the day I was having a white Christmas – on the summit of Mr Fyfe overlooking Kaikoura. Today […]
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A more equitable society
Welfare benefits and how you provide for the disadvantaged is one of the primary distinguishing features of the difference between the left and right of the political spectrum. Here is a proposal on how to make sure that the wealth of society is better distributed. It would require consensus from most people to implement as it would fundamentally change the fabric of society.
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Cameron Slater and the protection of journalistic sources
Cameron Slater has been ordered in the District Court to advise on who an otherwise confidential source for a story is. While at one level many would agree entirely with this decision there may be general considerations for the blogosphere which make this less than ideal.
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Greenpeace v Simon Bridges
The Greenpeace Yacht Vega has set up camp in the area that Andarko wants to drill for deep sea oil. The recent law changes designed by Simon Bridges was meant to cover all possible loopholes. But has he left one open?
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Shhh! It’s the ‘P’ word.
You don’t have to be white and male and financially wealthy to assume a prominent position within systems of patriarchy, but it helps. And you don’t have to be financially strapped and black and female to feel the full weight of patriarchy always pressing down on you, but it helps.
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Coleman’s disgracefully cowardly display
National’s, weird, favourite line at the moment is to say ‘we’re going to ignore the asset sales referendum and the opposition are hypocrites because they ignored the smacking referendum’. Russel Norman finally had had enough yesterday, and asked Jonathan Coleman just who had been PM when the referendum happened. Coleman’s answer was textbook cowardliness.
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Thanks Wikileaks
Wikileaks have released the TPP advanced draft chapter on intellectual property. It includes the government positions on the main issues, including all those where the New Zealand negotiators are opposed to the US. As citizens we should all support our New Zealand negotiators and insist that the Key government does not cave in to US interests. The stakes are too high.
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Why insurance should be a state monopoly
The seeming purpose of having competition is to prevent monopoly pricing and excessive profits but, as Steve Keen shows, all businesses use the same pricing model with about the same level of profits. If they did use the pricing model that economists say that they should use they’d actually go broke. Having a state insurance system has a whole different economic basis.
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Everything you wanted to know about the Chorus deal …
The Chorus fibre roll out deal with the Government is one of those issues that promises to embarrass the Government deeply, more deeply than us lefties may think. Because amongst the ranks of this Government’s supporters are those who hold close to principles. They not be our principles but nevertheless from the view of the right are just as if not more important than ours. One of the most important is the sanctity of the market. This is why some on the right are distraught at the generosity being shown to one of our largest corporates.
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Take us this day our daily statins
Reflecting on the generational changes of the Labour party membership, it isn’t hard to see why the more elderly have problems with such large changes. But after all not all of the population are dependent on their daily statins like me. Some of them are interested in if their kids will grow up to have jobs and will stay in this country.
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David Cunliffe Speech to 2013 Labour Party Conference – Building a future for all
David Cunliffe’s speech notes for his speech to today’s Labour Party Conference
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Press freedom and politics
Rebekah Brooks, once Rupert Murdoch’s favourite editor, is in the dock in London charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Rupert then turned his attention to his former home, Australia, again focussing the weight of his tabloids on Labor, first Gillard then Rudd. With a few exceptions, when it comes to politics it is the proprietors or the boardrooms that make the decisions, not the editors.
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The “cabbage boat” defence.
It’s starting to look pretty shredded. Increasingly, it seems that John Banks has “got nothing to hide” – behind. The key question is what Banks knew when he signed a declaration recording known donations as anonymous. Paul Holmes did put the question directly to Banks on Q+A last year. He didn’t get a straight answer; Banks tried the cabbage boat defence.
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The Land of the Free
The Republican majority in the US House of Representatives changed their standing orders to remove the right of any Representative to move that a Senate resolution be adopted. Watch Rep Chris van Hollen explain it. If his motion was allowed to come to the floor, there would be enough moderate Republicans in the House who would support the Democrats, and the gridlock that threatens the world economy would be removed. No wonder the Republicans are tanking in the polls.
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Useless
So John Key goes out into the world to represent our interests and what does he get? His good mate David Cameron tells […]
