Written By: - Date published: 3:06 pm, June 23rd, 2009 - 25 comments
Did anyone else detect a whiff of desperation in Family Fist’s PR offensive today championing the case of a man who lost control and repeatedly shoved his son to the ground because he refused to play in a rugby game? I mean, is this really the best they’ve got? A grown man who’s lost his …
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, June 23rd, 2009 - 45 comments
As widely predicted, Christine Rankin is continuing to cause embarrassment for the government. She is now succeeding in making the Prime Minister look weak, as despite blatantly ignoring his warnings, he seems unwilling to sack her. From John Key’s post-cabinet press conference just last week (15th June): Question: The families commission’s come out in support …
Written By: - Date published: 8:44 pm, June 22nd, 2009 - 102 comments
The child beating lobby launched its “Vote No” campaign site today. They’ve worked hard in this campaign to present themselves as regular Kiwis standing up for common sense values, so I find it interesting they’ve chosen to decorate the front page of their campaign with this racist, sexist cartoon: The cartoon is clearly designed to …
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, June 18th, 2009 - 64 comments
I have to disagree with the guest post below, which argues that because citizens’ initiated referenda tend to be brought by groups peddling an interest (so what?) and often deal with complex issues we should just put them in the too hard basket and leave it to the politicians to sort it out. Somehow, that’s …
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, May 5th, 2009 - 24 comments
The unseemly haste with which the National/Act Government is pursuing its undemocratic supercity is causing more and more people to wake up to the con job they are pulling. A Reid poll (ignored by the Herald but run by the community newspapers) shows where just weeks ago the public was split evenly on the proposed …
Written By: - Date published: 5:07 am, April 22nd, 2009 - 25 comments
In 1999, Napier and Hastings had a referendum over whether their councils should merge. They voted against it. In 2005, there was a referendum on Banks Peninsula and Christchurch City merging. The people voted for it. The Royal Commission report says that the normal process for council mergers set by the Local Government Act (schedule …
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