Author Archive

Tilting at drugmules

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:00 pm, April 20th, 2011 - 33 comments

Rex Widerstrom has been a commentator and occassional guest poster here for a while. He has a unique point of view on the political process and its place in society. In this guest post he looks at the never ending “War on Drugs”.

Key SCF excuses fall flat

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 10 comments

Michael Bott takes John Key to task for his claims over the South Canterbury Finance debacle. Key and English have tried to blame Labour for the deposit guarantee that covered SCF. But the truth is that National extended SCF’s coverage under the scheme again and again, despite knowing that SCF was in breach of the rules.

The class politics of Lotto

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:00 am, April 18th, 2011 - 129 comments

Bright Red asks why people buy Lotto when, for the vast majority, gambling means losing money in the long-run. Because gambling gives a taste, a tiny chance of a life-changing win. It’s no coincidence that Lotto and casinos were legalised during the neoliberal revolution, which took away the route to decent wealth through work for most.

Whambulance needed for P North Nats

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:30 pm, April 16th, 2011 - 23 comments

National’s Palmerston North candidate, Leonie Hapeta, is having a cry because the Labour MP, Iain Lees-Galloway, and supporters had an anti-asset sales demonstration that happened to be outside her hotel. It’s one thing for a n00b like Hapeta to cry about politics but surprising that Farwhaa and Wail-oil joined her.

Worth a crack Nigel?

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 8:46 am, April 15th, 2011 - 22 comments

Even the supporters of Deep Sea Oil Drilling admit it is risky. Like the two rats in the old advertisement discussing the odds of going for a cheezel set in a trap, Petrobras and the Herald editor discuss the advantages of Deep Sea Oil, in the columns of the Herald.

Skinheads in Suits

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 2:03 pm, April 14th, 2011 - 53 comments

ChrisH has been goaded to write this post by a couple of Jim Mora panels last week, which created a stronger than usual temptation to throw the radio out the window. Here he writes a scholarly polemic castigating the implied or explicit assumptions of the people involved in these panels.

English: gap with Aussie good

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:41 am, April 9th, 2011 - 56 comments

Bill English has given up any pretense of closing the gap with Australia by 2025. Now, he is claiming the wage gap is a good thing and admitting higher productivity isn’t the cause of the wage gap. Meanwhile, Fran O’Sullivan slams Key and English’s ‘fingers crossed’ approach to handling financial crises.

In need of a good laugh

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:45 pm, April 8th, 2011 - 13 comments

As it is the end of the working week many people are likely in need of a good laugh. With the budget due out next month it’s worth reviewing the words of well known comedian and magician (able to make economic growth disappear before your eyes) Bill English. Minister English cracked this opening joke during his 2010 delivery.

John Key: let me eat cake

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:00 pm, April 8th, 2011 - 68 comments

Labour’s candidate for Wairarapa, Michael Bott, on this out of touch government: “John Key smiles and waves for the cameras in Christchurch then jumps on a plane to Cape Kidnappers to spend the equivalent of a pensioner’s yearly income on one-off novelty dining with his wife – you can’t get more different than that.”

Dying in a ditch over roads

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:46 am, April 5th, 2011 - 9 comments

MartyG raises some very important points in his latest post here. Transport is Auckland’s biggest issue right now. By dying in a ditch over roads with only 18 per cent support for not having rail to the Shore and 79 per cent for, NACT would hand Auckland to a re-energised opposition on a plate.

From the pen of Fran O’Sullivan

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:25 pm, April 3rd, 2011 - 21 comments

Jenny reacts to Fran O’Sullivan’s latest article: “It seems the stench of the decision to remove the right to a jury trial from those arrested in the ‘Terror Raids’ has even risen into the nostrils of usually conservative members of the intelligentsia.” [conservative intelligentsia – there’s a shallow pool. Ed]

A dirty deal requires dirty lies

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:00 am, March 31st, 2011 - 10 comments

You know your opponent’s stand is dishonourable when they resort to spreading lies and promoting falsehoods about your position. The government’s Acting Energy and Resources Minister, Hekia Parata, has been caught out lying and spreading slurs that misrepresented her opponents’ position on deep sea oil drilling.

The Politics of the Three R’s: Roads, Reconstruction, Resentment

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:58 am, March 29th, 2011 - 11 comments

In Sunday’s Baden-Württemburg state election, the Green party was the highest polling party. Their leader will become the first Green ‘Minister President’ in Germany. Regular guest poster ChrisH takes inspiration from this victory for New Zealand, and sees a formula for a Left victory this year.

Stop deep sea oil in NZ

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:00 am, March 26th, 2011 - 42 comments

Jenny argues that with the ink barely dry the new Foreshore and Seabed legislation is beginning to have effects. Oil drilling companies are rushing to take advantage. She argues that the Maori Party’s support gives the mining and oil companies the confidence they need to proceed with their plans to exploit the Seabed and Foreshore.

Some Accuracy on the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:00 am, March 25th, 2011 - 27 comments

Our guest poster takes on the fear-mongering and race-baiting coming from ACT and the Coastal Coalition over the new foreshore and seabed deal. It’s a blight on New Zealand that we can’t have a debate over this issue without some rightwing extremists trying to exploit people’s fears and prejudices.

Shrieking harpies to abort Labour’s election chances

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:31 pm, March 20th, 2011 - 604 comments

Queen of Thorns says..

Believe it or not, audience-made-up-of-a-shitload-of-privileged-dudes, New Zealand’s abortion laws are shite, they are outdated, they do fuck up women’s lives, and it is time for a fucking change.

The Wrong Stuff

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:03 pm, March 16th, 2011 - 17 comments

This week’s Sunday Star-Times was full of stories about unaffordable food, housing and fuel affecting the country’s urban dwellers, nowhere more so than in Auckland. Meanwhile the shortage of housing after the earthquake promises huge rent and house price hikes for Christchurch, assuming the locals don’t flee and push up house prices elsewhere.

Everything is waffle

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:40 pm, March 8th, 2011 - 158 comments

There isn’t just one hard truth to NZ politics at the moment. The second is equally unpopular with people, but if it doesn’t offer a clear way forward it at least suggests a fixable problem. At the same time, it’s not the kind of thing Labour/the Left want to have bandied about too publicly in an election year.

Cometh the Hour

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:19 pm, March 7th, 2011 - 53 comments

ChrisH submitted this incredibly knowledgeable and well-researched post on the rebuilding of Christchurch a few days ago. The announcement that large parts now lower-lying eastern suburbs will be abandoned lends more strength to his call for a visionary urban plan for the new, more resilient Christchurch. And Phil Goff has the history to present it.

Powerless

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:56 pm, March 2nd, 2011 - 61 comments

The man tipped to be National’s next leader, Simon Power, has announced he will not be standing at the next election. The reasons are obvious. As a decent man and an old fashioned caring Tory, Power has no heart for the direction National want to take New Zealand. His resignation is a sign that within the party, the dry right have finally taken total control the idealogical reigns and there is no longer a place for liberal wets like Power.

A Reassuring Rebuild: The Freiburg Parallel

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:00 am, March 1st, 2011 - 37 comments

Christchurch has been called “Victorian planning at its most remarkable”. It needs to be rebuilt in a style that retains or even amplifies as much of its formerly cosy, reassuring character as possible, for the sake of the tourism industry, the locals, and its cultural legacy. Germany’s Freiburg is a useful example of restoring a city to former glory.

Seismic events in Christchurch, food & fuel

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:37 am, February 28th, 2011 - 20 comments

Concurrently Christchurch’s second big quake, the effects of two other shocks are beginning to ripple through our country. Food prices are putting basics out of reach and this week will see another big petrol price hike. All three of these shocks will require us to pool our resources and redirect them to rebuilding resiliently.

Everything is a lie

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 7:16 am, February 24th, 2011 - 158 comments

There’s a hard truth to NZ politics at the moment. It’s not one people like to think about.

But it helps to be reminded every now and then: everything is a lie.

Actors’ Inequity

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:43 am, February 14th, 2011 - 31 comments

Another piece of union-bashing has been quietly implemented. Before, when bringing in foreign actors, the burden of proof lay on the production company to prove the talent they were importing was truly required. Now, no proof is required. This undermines Kiwi actors and their unions. It’s all about punishing Actors’ Equity for the Hobbit fiasco.

The next million

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:35 pm, February 12th, 2011 - 20 comments

Once upon a time New Zealand was the most prosperous country in the world, living on the sheep’s back. But that was when its population was only two million. The fruits of a raw commodity export sector now have to be spread over more than four million. We could provide decent jobs and income for all by processing these commodities in New Zealand.

Why protestors need Mubarak out now

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:45 pm, February 11th, 2011 - 47 comments

Unprecedented protests have forced Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak to say he won’t stand at the next election and extracted concessions from the regime. So why don’t the protesters go home and wait until the elections in September? Because they know nothing will change if Mubarak is allowed to hang on, and the regime’s revenge will be brutal.

Fight the TPP, protect our sovereignty

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 7:24 am, February 11th, 2011 - 16 comments

The Government, desperate for some kind of tangible achievement on the trade front, is pushing us into the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We cannot allow the TPP to go ahead. It would sacrifice our sovereignty to the wishes of multi-nationals, allowing them to sue New Zealand if we put restrictions on foreign investment.

Auckland march for democracy in Egypt

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:37 pm, February 6th, 2011 - 8 comments

An estimated 500 people gathered in Queen Street Auckland, to show solidarity with the Egyptian people in revolt against the Egyptian dictatorship.

Yesterday’s march was part of international solidarity actions.

Big Gay Nowt

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:26 am, February 4th, 2011 - 75 comments

It’s almost Big Gay Out time again which also means it’s time for some new images of John Key dancing with drag queens and cuddling up to lines of shirtless hunks. I know I’m supposed to admire the fact that a National party PM would take time out of his busy schedule to be seen with us homos but it’s all PR. Key’s record is true blue anti-gay.

Our election

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:19 pm, February 3rd, 2011 - 68 comments

John Key has been less cunning than some thought he would be. Going for a November election, he thinks, will let him leverage off the World Cup mini-boom, and enhance running Michael Jones and Inga Tuigamala as candidates. But it means 5 months for the Budget cuts to hurt and gives us 5 more months to work. So, what are we going to do?