A few things I will be heading to over the coming 5 days in Auckland. A documentary on climate change on pacific islands. Phil Goff on foreign affairs. And the Inaugural Keith Locke Memorial Debate. Moot is “China is a threat to regional peace”. I kind of got caught up in each of these for one reason or another…
The first big debate in the Auckland mayoralty race starts at 8am today. Links in the post.
Voting closes on October 8. Phil Goff wins the mayoralty shortly afterwards.
Last week, Andrew Little gave Phil Goff permission to vote with National for the TPP. Bryan Bruce asks if it is time for all MPs to be given a conscience vote on the TPP.
Goff and Shearer’s disloyal and self serving support for the TPPA has backfired. They’ve shown that the ABC faction are now a spent force and that Andrew Little has the overwhelming support of caucus. The sun has set on the splitters and there is a new day rising.
There’s still a few MPs “on duty”. Their function is to maintain the semblance of active government and to roll out a bunch of announcements they hope will escape full scrutiny.
The NBR reckons the Nats are tacitly endorsing Phil Goff for mayor of Auckland.
Goff: “Judith’s column this week is the opening shot in her campaign to succeed John Key as National’s leader.”
The stupidity of Phil Goff’s misogynist taunting of Chris Finlayson has been compounded by his refusal to apologise.
So Trevor Mallard thinks it’s smart to stick the boot in to Russell Norman for linking to an article about using the printing […]
Now that Labour’s new leaders are settling in, I think we should all take a moment to thank the outgoing leaders, Phil Goff and Annette King.
Phil Goff broke news of the Nat’s plan to freeze police recruitment but keep it quiet until after the election.
That policy’s at odds with some fundamental Nat claims.
Update: A freeze on replacement cops would see hundreds fewer on the job after just one year.
Today Part 2 of The Herald’s profile of Phil Goff is out, and once again it’s a very interesting read. It debunks some of the spin surrounding Goff’s ideology and the Lange / Douglas government.
The Labour Party front bench meeting in Dunedin has just concluded. Goff’s leadership has been confirmed, with unanimous support.
Whether Goff goes or not, the decision needs to be made based on what’s best for the party, for its members and for its constituency. Because in politics sometimes the “clever” thing to do and the right thing to do are not the same.
Darren Hughes has been suspended from his shadow portfolios due to the continuing police investigation. Goff probably should have done this earlier, despite the understandable wariness of a leader can’t punish an MP on the strength of a complaint alone. As Key did with Wong and Worth, Goff has waited until the media issue became too big.
Last week, Key says Kiwis “have to tighten their belts, we have to do the same”. More job cuts for public servants. This week, buying 34 $200,000 limos for him and his mates to replace 3 year old ones. How many teachers would that employ?Not the cars that need replacing after 3 years. It’s this government. Good on Goff for giving up the limos.
The Sunday Star-Times has produced an interesting article on the role of emotion in people’s voter choices leading into this year’s General Election. […]
What’s to stop a government minister taking taxpayer money and giving it to, say, a family friend or a political slush fund? In theory, lots. There’s a formal budget-formation process through the ministeries and Cabinet, the Budget then has to be approved by Parliament, and the PM would sack any minister who tried such blatant corruption. Wouldn’t he?
Goff has given several excellent policy speeches this year, and the last one was no exception. Squarely targeted at a middle New Zealand that saw little of National’s tax cuts and far more of their job losses and rising prices. Pointing out the obvious, that National has failed to deliver on the economy, and has no viable plan to do so. In short, a great platform for election year.
John Armstrong provides an insightful analysis of the politics around the aftermath of Christchurch’s earthquake, saying “The chaos and destruction wreaked on Christchurch by Saturday’s earthquake leaves no room for playing party politics….The politicians are already playing politics, however, though not too flagrantly. Saying you are not going to play politics – as Goff effectively did – is itself a political statement. As was John Key’s decision to cancel his trip to Britain and France.”
Labour co-hosted the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s parliamentary conference.
That’s disgraceful pandering to disgraceful people.
It’s time Labour showed some spine and offered an alternative to the SST’s cowardly “lock ’em up” posturing.
The Herald is carrying this piece by Phil Goff – I’m sure Phil won’t mind if we reproduce it here. If you have any constructive suggestions or comments for Phil, make them below. I’ll collate them and email them to him on our behalf.
Unique in the world, we task our Reserve Bank with only one goal – keeping inflation in the target range – and give it one blunt tool to achieve it. Adding other objectives would bring us into line with other countries and giving the Bank better tools is long overdue. We need a smarter, more sophisticated approach to monetary policy. It is great to see the Left pushing for it.
Shane Jones and Chris Carter are for the chop. Labour will lay down the gauntlet to John Key to apply those same standards to Murry McCully and Tim Groser. Key is desperate to avoid that, we know how lax his standards are. Maybe its hard on Jones but Labour needs to clean up its act and heads have to roll. Expect Key to squirm as he refuses to hold his ministers to account, once again.
McCully and Groser put their drinking habits on the taxpayer bill. Jones charged his own, um, habit. Carter played far too loose. All broke the rules. Carter and Jones paid the money back eventually. Groser and McCully better soon.
I say we deserve better. And if one’s gotta go, they’ve all got to go. Goff, Key, which one of you is going to set the standard? Sack ’em all.
Let’s get this straight. Borrowing a billon dollars for tax cuts while cutting services is not centrist.
Even if tax cuts go to middle and low earners too.
Meanwhile the opposition is MIA.
Labour leader Phil Goff has come out swinging against National’s proposal to cut the top tax rate. It’s great to see Phil living up to his promise to stand up for the many, not the few. National’s plan to cut the top rate will only benefit the very wealthy, like John Key. Now we can stand assured, the 6th Labour Government will fix that injustice.
What the hell is going on in Labour? Phil is busy heaping praise on John Key. Calling him a “good politician”. Saying he deserves “credit where credit’s due”. One News asks if Goff is losing his marbles. 3 News wonders if he’s voting National in 2011. Me, I wonder if he’s angling for a job with the Herald. Where’s Malcolm Tucker when you need him?
How dumb was John Carter to use his speech at the Grey Power National Conference to have a cry because Grey Power’s participating in an inquiry into aged care by Labour, the Greens, and the Progressives? You don’t try to bully Grey Power with its 100,000 members. The grey voters will be leaving National in droves.
Good on Chris Carter. He’s the only politician on Left taking some leadership in opposing the National Government’s abandonment of New Zealand’s anti-whaling […]
Tracy Watkins awards the first week of Parliamentary politics this year to Phil Goff, and points out that it’s as much due to his and Labour’s much improved performance as it is to Key and National’s shambolic, over-promise, under-deliver governance.
Colin Espiner: After making inroads in the latest TV3 poll, Goff has clearly taken fright after the reaction to his nationhood speech. How […]
Just a reminder the next Auckland Drinking Liberally features Labour Party leader Phil Goff discussing his political values and the challenges facing the […]
The Fed Farmers have used Goff’s speech on monetary policy to have another whinge about beneficiaries, who they reckon are somehow to blame […]
We all use language sometimes that’s too stong and we regret. Hone Harawira apologised today over his choice of words in the “white […]
Labour’s pathetic response to Treasury’s flat tax proposal has come in for some well deserved criticism over at No Right Turn, and I […]
