Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 4:34 pm, October 23rd, 2017 - 67 comments
Categories: blogs, The Standard
Tags: blogging, player piano, the standard, vanity posts
… 1890 after coming out as Anthony R0bins. Several hundred more as many…
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:01 am, October 23rd, 2017 - 19 comments
Categories: human rights, labour, Unions, workers' rights
Tags: labour day
We’ve written a bit about Labour Day over the years – see the archives for the origins, history, and importance of the day. Enjoying your weekend? Thank a unionist! Labour Day is extra sweet this year. Check out Labour's workplace relations policy page: …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 11:16 am, October 22nd, 2017 - 21 comments
Categories: election 2017, journalism, Propaganda, spin
Tags: election 2017, humble pie, jonathan milne, MMP, moral mandate
Milne on Stuff the day after the election: https://twitter.com/NZStuff/status/911641351992754176 Due a notable absence of riots in the streets I think it is safe to say that Milne was wrong, and in fact voters were pretty chill about it. Bryce Edwards did …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:32 am, October 21st, 2017 - 25 comments
Categories: election 2017
Tags: baubles, election 2017, myths, policy, vernon small
Vernon Small has the best account of the events of "D-Day": The longest day of a very long campaign – 17 hours that decided the new government … Labour knew they were still in the game because the to-ing and fro-ing, and the requests for clarifications, …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:56 am, October 17th, 2017 - 12 comments
Categories: election 2017, humour
Tags: coalition talks, election 2017, waiting for winston
Beckett’s classic Waiting for Godot by the city’s oldest company, the Wellington Political Theatre, is a triumph. WPT stalwart Bill English delivers a solid, if unimaginative performance as Estragon. His brooding presence is the very embodiment of a sense …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:32 am, October 16th, 2017 - 30 comments
Categories: election 2017, labour, leadership
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, daydreams, election 2017, let's do this
As I have said before, I think Peters is going to '96 us. If we get a Nat led government we know what the first 100 days look like – a series of lies and excuses. But maybe Peters learned from history and is not doomed to repeat it. If he keeps faith with …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:57 am, October 15th, 2017 - 102 comments
Categories: accountability, election 2017, labour, national, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, winston peters
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, change, election 2017, opposition, rant, winston peters
National have been a lousy government. They have enriched the rich and impoverished the poor. They have inflated a housing bubble and done nothing for the homeless. They have let the environment degrade and made a mockery of our global warming commitments….
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:01 am, October 13th, 2017 - 64 comments
Categories: accountability, democracy under attack, election 2017
Tags: david fisher, democracy under attack, felix marwick, oia, Press Freedom, public service, sian elias
Another term of the Nats would be bad news for the institutions of democracy. Quite apart from rewarding the tactics of blatant lies and dirty politics, the damage to specific institutions would continue. Consider this recent warning on the justice system:…
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:40 am, October 12th, 2017 - 26 comments
Categories: election 2017, greens, labour, MMP, national, nz first, winston peters
Tags: 1996, anticipation, change, coalition talks, election 2017, nzf
It's the last day of coalition talks (probably). RNZ: Coalition talks to be done by tonight It's crunch time for Winston Peters as he pushes into the final day of talks over forming a new government, and he says today will be the most substantive yet. … …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:36 am, October 11th, 2017 - 23 comments
Categories: election 2017
Tags: choices, coalition talks, election 2017, poisoned chalice, policy, priorities
Fran O'Sullivan has a good piece this morning on the policy priorities that appear to be emerging from the coalition talks: Fran O'Sullivan: Winston Peters wish list has sensitive topics … Peters has put overseas investment, the NZ currency and …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:32 am, October 9th, 2017 - 20 comments
Categories: national, schools, tertiary education, useless
Tags: cuts, education, student numbers, teachers, tertiary education
The complete mess that National has made of our health system got plenty of airtime during the election campaign. While it received less coverage, the education system is a mess too. RNZ this morning: Tertiary enrolments fall as cost of living rises …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:03 am, October 9th, 2017 - 40 comments
Categories: election 2017, winston peters
Tags: coalition talks, election 2017, nzf, poisoned chalice
For the next four (presumably) days the media is going to go nuts trying to cover the coalition talks. Quite apart from the genuine and significant public interest, they have column inches to fill, and nothing much to fill them with. Expect to see agendas …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:57 am, October 7th, 2017 - 21 comments
Categories: Dirty Politics, election 2017, labour, national, winston peters
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, audrey young, choices, dirty politics, lies, nine long years, winston peters
A long and interesting read: Audrey Young: Labour has the edge if the Left's seat count rises Politics, like life, would be a lot simpler without choices. Ask Winston Peters. This week he seemed burdened by having to make coalition choices when he pointed …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:57 am, October 6th, 2017 - 35 comments
Categories: election 2017, electoral commission
Tags: coalition deals, election 2017, MMP, special votes
According to the Electoral Commission "The target to release the Official Results of the 2017 General Election is 2pm on Saturday 7 October 2017." A blogger at Cut Your Hair has crunched the numbers and sees only two plausible outcomes: Realistic …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:46 am, October 3rd, 2017 - 86 comments
Categories: election 2017, greens, jacinda ardern, labour, nz first
Tags: coalition deals, election 2017
I have very mixed feelings about a Labour Green NZF government. I certainly don't think that Labour should "pay any price". So I'm pleased to see Jacinda Ardern acknowledging the Greens (even though dumping on them would smooth the path with Winston): …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, October 3rd, 2017 - 57 comments
Categories: economy, election 2017, labour
Tags: economic growth, economy, growth, history, the market, uncertainty
There is an awful lot of drivel written about "business confidence" and "the market", most of it no better than reading tea leaves. Take the current situation. There is no "strong and stable" government to "lead" us. Maximum uncertainty! No end in sight! …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:21 am, October 2nd, 2017 - 17 comments
Categories: election 2017, national, useless
Tags: choices, cling to power, election 2017, hypocrisy, lies
The Nats are desperate to make big concessions for a coalition with the Greens. The establishment is lining up in The Herald to beg for this to happen. So – Nats will strengthen environmental and social policies in order to cling to power – but not for the…
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:56 am, September 30th, 2017 - 88 comments
Categories: election 2017, labour, national
Tags: election 2017, FPP, MMP, the last war, waiting for winston
You know that old saying about how generals always prepare to fight the last war? That's National and their FPP election campaign. You can see it in their tactics. How they treated their coalition partners. How they attacked Peters and NZF at every …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:22 am, September 29th, 2017 - 49 comments
Categories: class war, tax, wages
Tags: lies, tax, wages
National's one and only strategy this election was lying about Labour, specifically Labour's budget and their tax policy. The $11.7bn hole lie just made the Nats look stupid, but the evidence suggests that the tax lie did real damage. Why are we so angry …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:03 am, September 28th, 2017 - 24 comments
Categories: election 2017, labour, Maori seats, winston peters
Tags: election 2017, Maori seats, negotiations
A significant and positive development late yesterday: Winston Peters hints at backing down over Māori seats The biggest block to a Labour-NZ First coalition could be removed, with Winston Peters hinting at a backdown on a Māori seat referendum. … The …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, September 27th, 2017 - 170 comments
Categories: democratic participation, election 2017, national, same old national, winston peters
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, choices, election 2017, nzf
It's interesting to read Peters' speech to the NZF Convention earlier this year: Convention Speech: The Battle For New Zealand 17 July 2017 Speech Rt Hon Winston Peters New Zealanders are asking themselves the obvious question – will we have a stable …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:03 am, September 26th, 2017 - 27 comments
Categories: act, conservative party, election 2017, maori party, national, united future
Tags: election 2017, karma, nine long years, nzf
Some pundits are waxing lyrical about how the Nats have maintained their vote over 4 elections, but that masks the underlying trend of the tide going out on the political right. https://twitter.com/gregjrobins/status/911821470686253056 https://twitter.com/…
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 2:43 pm, September 25th, 2017 - 40 comments
Categories: election 2017, MMP
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, election 2017, MMP, moral mandate
The papers are full of the expected establishment hysteria today, trying to paint the election as a done deal for the Nats. Given Peters' well known love for the media, I wonder what he will make of that? Anyway, the best pundit on the topic so far is …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, September 25th, 2017 - 172 comments
Categories: election 2017, nz first, winston peters
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, change, election 2017, nzf
This election was a vote for change. After specials are counted the Labour Green block will be nearly or actually tied with the Nats. And then there is NZF. Peters never picks sides during an election campaign because he wants to scoop up votes from the …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:17 am, September 24th, 2017 - 44 comments
Categories: election 2017, jacinda ardern, labour
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, election 2017, MMP, the morning after
While the election didn't get us the result we hoped for, the fact that we could even hope for a Labour Green win is remarkable – was inconceivable just 2 months ago. The mood for change was there, it just needed a spark, and the spark was Jacinda Ardern. …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 4:39 pm, September 22nd, 2017 - 9 comments
Categories: election 2017, jacinda ardern, labour, newspapers
Tags: election 2017, let's do this
Labour has done very well with its advertisements in the major papers over the last couple of days. https://twitter.com/bryce_edwards/status/910955704915070976 A closer look at page 2: National's effort, like their whole campaign, was odd. Bill English in …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:05 am, September 22nd, 2017 - 34 comments
Categories: class war, Deep stuff, democracy under attack, democratic participation, election 2017, human rights
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, election 2017, enroll, surrender, use your voice, vote, wmbad, youth vote
Today is the last day you can enroll to vote in the election. You can enroll if you are 18 years old or over and are a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident (and you have lived in New Zealand for one year or more continuously at some point). (See also …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:20 am, September 22nd, 2017 - 101 comments
Categories: election 2017, labour, leadership, MMP
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, election 2017, let's do this, lies, MMP
On current polling the next government could be Labour + Green + NZF. That would annoy a lot of Nats if they have more votes than Labour alone, but that's how MMP works. English lied about this in the last debate, but apparently has since walked it back. …
Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, September 21st, 2017 - 72 comments
Categories: accountability, bill english, class war, jacinda ardern, national, poverty
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, election 2017, election debate, let's do this, poverty
It was the line of the debate: Bill English 'discovered poverty last week' – Jacinda Ardern Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has heavily criticised National's Bill English's response to poverty, accusing him of only recently putting it on his agenda. In the …
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