Disestablish the establishment.

Written By: - Date published: 6:04 pm, November 9th, 2018 - 29 comments
Categories: activism, elections, International, Left, liberalism, political alternatives, Politics, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, us politics, vision - Tags: ,

Some good stuff came out of those midterm elections in the US. There was positive electoral reform across a number of states and the re-enfranchisement for ex prisoners in Florida. Some states made moves on the minimum wage front. Some good people got voted into Congress, while some arsewipes got booted out.

Some people have sought to latch onto the fact that women (black women, Muslim women, Latino women, indigenous women) were elected for the first time or in greater numbers than ever before. To my mind, the fact that it’s a “really existing” thing serves an indictment of representative democracy and is no cause for celebration.

People with solidly progressive politics got elected, and progressive policy platforms were fairly widespread in spite of the DNC having earlier opposed candidates with progressive policies in the Democratic Party primaries.

And finally, the Democratic Party is now in a position to block the passage of legislation in the House of Representatives. Whether it will or not is another question. We’ll see.

But imagine what would have transpired if the DNC, instead of encouraging the msm to wank on about Russia for the past two years, had used that time to focus on policies and even (God forbid!) to suggest and promulgate new ones that weren’t merely repackaged versions of all the stale stuff that has been roundly rejected by electorates. What then?

Well, of course, we’ll never know.

And as November rolls around into December and on to Christmas, we can expect the Mueller investigative findings. The problem for the DNC and their fellow travelers is that there’s nothing there. Yes, there are corrupt politicians and their dodgy business dealings. And yes, there are politicians who were dishonest. But there is nothing by the way of collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russia. So all that stuff will be dumped during the “festive season” when no-one’s paying too much attention. And the usual suspects will likely insist that whatever the investigation happens to withhold from the public sphere is the “really big proof” that Russia and Trump and blah.

And so the interminable nonsense of an establishment with rapidly diminishing levels of credibility will grind on that bit longer. God help us if they don’t go for some measure of damage control during the holiday season and try to keep this stuff rolling up to the 2020 Presidential elections.

If they do that, then every news segment and every piece of commentary given over to it, will be taking directly from news and commentary that ought to be focused on US politics and the budding promise evident in those midterms. Things are changing. But some individuals, and certainly the institutions they are tied to, don’t want that change to be manifest.

For those that want to talk of influence, then consider the number of think tanks in Washington funded by Saudi Arabia and stack them against those funded by Russia. Or look at the number of Zionist lobby groups and their direct political influence and stack them against the number of Russian lobby groups and their political influence. Or look at the corporate dollars swilling around the lobbies of Washington and stack them against the Russian rubles swilling around those same lobbies.

And when you come back from doing that, and it should be done, then there’s the likes of this awaiting your attention. The future…

Here’s as best as I can capture the text of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “out of the ballpark” speech.

I almost cannot believe that it is the honour and the privilege of my life to be able to say and to thank you and to thank all of our supporters and organisers and the people and the residents of the Bronx and Queens for electing me as your next Congresswoman.

We have made history tonight. We have made history on multiple levels. We have elected the first campaign and the first member of Congress from this district to not accept any lobbyist corporate funds in a generation.

In addition at over 70% of people of colour, half immigrant and overwhelmingly working class, we have elected the first person of colour to ever represent the people of New Yorks fourteenth congressional district. And lastly, it’s a privilege and an honour to say that we have also elected the youngest woman in American history to serve in Congress.

This is what is possible when every day people come together in the collective realisation that all our actions, no matter how small or how large, are powerful, worthwhile and capable of lasting change.

Words cannot express my gratitude to every organiser, every small dollar donor, every working parent and dreamer who helped make this movement happen. And that’s exactly what this is – not a campaign or an election day, but a movement; a larger movement for social and economic and racial justice in the United States of America.

When I started this campaign a year ago, I was working in a restaurant in downtown Manhattan. And it wasn’t because—and we didn’t launch this campaign because I thought I was special or unique or better than anyone else. We launched this campaign because in the absence of anyone giving a clear voice on the moral issues of our time, then it is up to us to voice them. We launched this campaign because no one was clearly and authentically talking about issues like the corrupting role of money in politics, like the disturbing human rights violations being committed by ICE, by the fact that no one was giving voice to the idea and the notion that an entire generation is graduating with crippling loads of student loan debt, a ticking time bomb for our economy. No one was talking about these issues. And when no one talks about them, we have the duty to stand up for what is right.

I think about oftentimes that incredible day on June 26th, when, despite no attention, despite no media fanfare, despite the fact that no one wanted for us to get the word out on what was going on, we were able to organize everyday people, knocking on our neighbors’ door. And despite being outspent $4 million, 18 or 13 to one. Despite the fact that we were running against a 10-term incumbent. Despite the fact that it was our first time running for office. Despite the fact that we didn’t have the money. Despite the fact that I’m working-class; despite all those things, we won.

And I think about the excitement that was unleashed on that day, not just in our community; not just the sense of hope; not just the sense of realisation that we can organise to change; not that it just got unleashed here – but that it got unleashed across the nation and to our down ballot candidates this September.

I think about that excitement because what was so interesting to me was that was not a partisan fight that led to that. It was not a partisan victory that led to the unleashing of that excitement, because I think we all know deep down, here and across the country, that our deepest challenges are not left and right; they are not red and blue – they are top and bottom; they are right and wrong.

And if we’re going to turn this ship around as a country, it is not good enough to throw a rock at our neighbour’s yard, we need to clean up our own house. That’s what we have to do.

There is nothing inherently noble about protecting a status quo that does not serve the needs of working class Americans.

And when we talk about the restless pursuit of a more perfect union, that in and of itself is a big day commandment to evolve as a nation, to grow better and to be better. And right now we are, as a nation, have a crooked path and it’s time to make that crooked path straight.

Right now it is not good enough and we cannot tolerate the fact that we’re a nation that grows our jails faster than we grow our schools; that we are a nation that builds more empty homes than the people it houses; that we are a nation that fears others more than we welcome them; that we destruct more in conflict than we construct in peace; that we neglect more then we heal – we can do better, and we can be better because a better world is possible.

If we continue to believe that we are a threatened, scarce and limited nation, then is exactly what we will become. Right now in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, our greatest scarcity is not the lack of resources. [booing, disruption “because Texas”]

Oh. Sorry guys, I was like whoa, the room turned fast. I’m sorry. And I think this is what, you know what? But what we need to do as well is realise that these short term losses do not mean that we have lost the long run. Does not. It’s 2018. In 2018 we turned the state of Texas purple. That’s what we did this year. That’s what we did this year. And that is what Beto O’Rourke accomplished this year and that is a great position to be in going into 2020. We are going to flip that state in our generation. I’ll tell you that much right now. We will flip Texas. It’s just a matter of time. We should never be scared. There is never a fight that is too big for us to pick. We proved that this year. We proved that this year.When we advocate and champion the causes of our neighbours and our economic dignity and come with innovative and ambitious plans for our future, there is no …beyond our grasp and no community beyond our victory. We just need to keep at it.

Because the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, the greatest scarcity is not a lack of resources, but the absence of political courage and moral imagination. It is a hollow goal to simply be a rich country that seeks to concentrate wealth. We must also be a good nation too. We must be a good nation that seeks to invest in, and expand the potential of all human beings that live in our border. We can be that. We can be that country.

And in order for us to do that, what we need to do – it is not enough to reject the notions of this administration. It is not enough to reject that which we disagree with. We must advance our values and create the world that we seek to live in. That is why we say healthcare is a right to all people. That is why we seek and chart our north star to tuition free public colleges and universities for all Americans. That is we say in our lifetime we will dismantle a system of mass incarceration that targets the black and brown. And that is we will say, unequivocally, that an agency that systematically and repeatedly violates human rights cannot be reformed, it must be abolished.

We believe, have confidence that what we are standing up for is what is right. And we never be ashamed for fighting for what is right. We will never be ashamed for losing in the short term, or having a short term loss, in order to have a life long gain. We will never be ashamed of that.

These struggles that we are taking on are generational. These struggles that we are taking on are long. These struggles will not be solved in two years or four years – it will take our whole lives. But this is the fight for our lives. This is the fight of our lives. And we need to put everything on the line. We need to make sure we get to 100% renewable energy within 15 – within 10 to 15 years. There is no question about that. And we don’t ever, ever want to have to look our grandchildren in the eye and say we did not fulfill our potential as a nation and our obligation to future generations because we were too scared. We cannot do that. Or because we couldn’t figure out how to pay for it on day one. We will get there. When we chart our course, we will figure it out. That’s how we got to the moon. That’s how we electrified this nation. That’s how we established social security. That’s how we [..] medicare.

We have done these things.

They will always call the ambitious naive. They will always call the ambitious uninformed and radical, and marginalise, because we are engaging in a change of the balance of power in this country. And there are no if, and or buts about it. We are fighting to put more power in the hands of everyday working Americans where it belongs. And I am so proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with you all in that fight, because today is a milestone, but it is really a beginning – it is truly a beginning.

And in order for us to get there, and I believe we can always get there faster than we think, we have to keep organising. We cannot stop. Electoral politics is just a tool in a larger tool box. When we’ll have something beautiful and great tonight, but we have to keep engaged in our activism, in our organising, in our educating, because that is what it is going to take. But I believe we will come out of this a better nation, because I know, when we look our grandchildren in the eye, we will say we established a single payer health care system, we created tuition free public colleges, and we did save this planet in order for them to live.

29 comments on “Disestablish the establishment. ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Adrian Thornton 1
    9 November 2018 at 7:10 pm

    Thanks for that post Bill, spot on.

    There is little doubt that Cortez is going to be real force into the future….a super solid platform, a good back story, one of best orators in US politics today and none to shabby in a one on one debate, she must be scaring the shit out of the establishment Democrats…great stuff.

    Nice little uppercut from Cortez here…

    “They will always call the ambitious naive. They will always call the ambitious uninformed and radical, and marginalise, because we are engaging in a change of the balance of power in this country.”

    We are in for a very very interesting run up to 2020.

  2. RedLogix 2
    9 November 2018 at 7:12 pm

    Interesting. America is more divided and polarised than ever before; you could ask the question did the Democrats improve their position and control of the House just because Trump is such a god-awful lout, or does no-one really want to vote for either of two deeply uninspiring establishment parties and the Democrats have yet again fallen well short of their potential?

    Bernie Sanders makes the case that progressives can win:

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/07/bernie-sanders-midterms-progressive-2020-president

    Whatever interpretation you want to put on these mid-terms; it seems that both parties have a very short window of opportunity to re-define themselves in order to avoid meltdown in a post-Trumpian wasteland.

    • Adrian Thornton 2.1
      9 November 2018 at 8:07 pm

      That is funny coming from those liberal guard dogs at the Guardian, they were outright hostile to the Sanders campaign right through out the 2016 election cycle…until he conceded, then all of a sudden when he wasn’t a threat, they became his best friend.

      Have to say though, that the comment section on The Guardian was quite something through the time of the 2016 election, fierce debate from all sides, some times 2000+ comments, it was great stuff.
      Unfortunately The Guardian have pretty much shut that platform down now, and on the very few stories that you can comment on, if you critique any thing that they say, they take you comment straight down, most especially on Israel.

      Funnily enough, a couple of months ago, I was having a lively but polite discussion on this very subject on one of the The Guardian’s comment sections, with a couple of staunch Guardian supporters, who where telling that I was completely wrong about The Guardian taking comments down from people who critique it , this went back and forth for about two hours, and about 8-10 comments between us all, then…BANG! The Guardian took down all my comments..I thought that was fucking hilarious.

      I have always wondered what those two Guardian supporters made of that?, hopefully it gave them pause for thought.

      • RedLogix 2.1.1
        9 November 2018 at 8:23 pm

        Good story; I’m no great fan of the Gran either, but not all sources are wrong all the time.

        (I’d go one step further; it’s a bad mistake to only listen to sources you agree with. Go instead to the places you’d normally avoid, confront their arguments, their lines and see what holds and what folds. Over time this will force you to refine and consolidate how you think.)

        • Adrian Thornton 2.1.1.1
          9 November 2018 at 9:03 pm

          @RedLogix
          Can’t argue with you there, I read The Guardian pretty regularly, but with my bullshit detector turned on high.

    • Bill 2.2
      9 November 2018 at 8:47 pm

      I think the Democratic Party have two years to get their shit together (they won’t) or there’s another four years of Trump. The caveat to that is if Nikki Haley takes a tilt at being the Republican nominee.

      • Adrian Thornton 2.2.1
        9 November 2018 at 9:14 pm

        Yeh, I have been following Nikki Haley’s apparent political maneuverings pretty closely lately, she is one very scary and horrible human that is for sure, I can’t believe I am about to say this, but I think I might even prefer Trump to Haley, and she (at this early stage anyway) looks like she could be a very real contender to go all the way.

        From The Real News…

        ‘Inside Nikki Haley’s Shocking Speech to Secretive Far-Right Group’

  3. Pat 3
    9 November 2018 at 7:45 pm

    not a bad speech at all.

    Great to see that there appears to be a genuine attempt by the plebs to seize back democracy from the elites….lets hope others around the world are inspired as this is the form of populism thats needed…and quick.

  4. mickysavage 4
    9 November 2018 at 7:59 pm

    Thanks Bill. I will (respectfully) disagree with you about Russia. I think this is a huge issue for the US although it may involve payback rather than one way interference.

    But I will agree with everything else.

    • Bill 4.1
      9 November 2018 at 8:42 pm

      So, I don’t see any merit in getting into a big back and forth on this. But when you say Russia’s a “huge issue”, you’re talking in terms of electoral interference and collusion, yes?

      But I’m guessing you agree that Russia has nothing compared to corporations, Saudi Arabia or Israel on the fronts mentioned in the post, yes?

      Which, collusion aside, leaves us with one Russian company promulgating facebook memes just like many Greek individuals did .

      And at a stretch, you might argue that Podesta’s emails (one politicians emails!) were stolen by a Russian hacking operation , though on evidence around internet capabilities at the time, the emails seem likely to have been obtained by way of direct downloading onto a disc/drive.

      So, then we’re on to collusion. And arrests made by Mueller havn’t even hinted at anything on that front. All arrests have been for other stuff. (Lying and fraud – the normal fayre of politicians)

      I wonder if/when the report comes out during the holiday period, if you’re going to be of a persuasion to argue that the proof is there, but just couldn’t be put into the public domain “because national security”. We’ll see.

        • Andre 4.1.1.1
          9 November 2018 at 9:21 pm

          Aww, c’mon Joe, that’s just more Dems shouting Russia! … uhh, wait, the author was Dubya’s ethics lawyer …

          For me, the big join-the-dots picture they’re creating kinda gets a bit hard to take too seriously when they just skip over the simplest and most obvious reason for the Repugs’ craven capitulation: the dayglo swamp-king’s proven ability to trash the political career of any Repug that isn’t sufficiently supine towards him.

          • Bill 4.1.1.1.1
            9 November 2018 at 11:03 pm

            Two things.

            One. You think having been “Dubya’s ethics lawyer” lends the guy any kind of credibility of authority on anything?

            Two. This “proven” ability to trash the political career of any Republican…can you cite a couple of examples, or provide a couple of names of elected representatives that that “proof” might be based on?

            • Andre 4.1.1.1.1.1
              10 November 2018 at 6:45 am

              1: not particularly. It’s just worth noting that a Republican (not a Dem) sufficiently sleazy to stick around in Dubya’s cess-pit thinks current behaviours are sufficiently worse to make that kind of comment.

              2: Bob Corker. Jeff Flake. Jeff Sessions. And I fully expect Ben Sasse to cop it as he comes up for re-election in 2020.

              • Bill …
                10 November 2018 at 10:15 am

                Well, apart from Jeff Sessions who had to resign to take up his position, the others are or were elected representatives – there’s that. But nothing outside the normal rough and tumble of politics seems to have afflicted them.

                Or is there some scandal I’m missing?

  5. NZJester 5
    9 November 2018 at 9:18 pm

    Even when Republicans lose they try and keep power in any way they can. The current Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker failed to win re-election after narrowly losing to the Democratic candidate Tony Evers. So now apparently in his last few days in office, he is conspiring with other Republicans to strip the new Governor of his powers before he can officially be sworn into office.
    They are trying to make sure they keep the power even though they lost. This is not the first time Republican have done such a thing either.

  6. Adrian Thornton 6
    9 November 2018 at 9:27 pm

    @joe90
    Here is Richard Painter who wrote that piece…it’s pretty epic..

  7. Jackel 7
    9 November 2018 at 9:30 pm

    It’s a rousing speech indeed from a one Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She’s headed in the right direction. Still it’s soft food for the delicate stomachs of the masses. Let those few with the weapons to do so fight the real fight when the time comes.

  8. Adrian Thornton 8
    9 November 2018 at 9:39 pm

    If you want to torture yourself here is the opposite of the Cortez speech from Nancy Pelosi, but you have been warned it is painful to watch…she also happens to say pretty much nothing in those wasted seven minutes either.

    The establishment Democratic party is like all Western Liberal parties, completely out of ideas…as you will see.

    • Bill 8.1
      9 November 2018 at 10:52 pm

      Aw c’mon Adrian, watching someone feebly punch’the air (at 2:49) to the rallying call of “Let’s hear it more for pre-existing medical conditions” is fucking comedy gold, no? 🙂

      • Adrian Thornton 8.1.1
        10 November 2018 at 8:26 am

        Yeh that is pretty funny, except I keep on sort of visualizing her as some sort of crazed half mummified zombie who can’t be stopped in her rampage of destructive terror….can nothing or nobody stop her seemingly unending and total destruction of the Democratic party from within?…

        • Bill 8.1.1.1
          10 November 2018 at 10:42 am

          I actually watched it again. And I’m not sure she didn’t know exactly what she was saying…(that glance over to the side suggestive of an “in joke” being shared)…which puts an entirely different and not so humorous angle on it.

  9. WILD KATIPO 9
    9 November 2018 at 10:03 pm

    Ha!- whats the attraction with Jackson, though?

    Johnny Cash and June Carter – YouTube

  10. Carolyn_Nth 10
    10 November 2018 at 9:55 am

    Thanks for this post, Bill. It s an important outcome of the mid terms that diverse women stood as candidates, and any of them were elected.

    Politics of gender, sexuality and ethnicity and their intersection, conflicts and contradictions can be pretty complex.

    I have come to thoroughly dislike the term “identity politics” and the way it is used by many on the left and right as a smear. It does not differentiate the complexities of oppression and power inequalities that politics of gender, ‘race’/ethnicity and sexuality address.

    The smear of “identity politics” sweeps up all these differences in power into one unified mass. For instance, I would differentiate “liberal/bourgeois feminism” from socialist feminism, or the politics of women of colour. Nevertheless on some issues, as with the #metoo movement, people across the feminist spectrum support it, and it can’t be dismissed as “middle class feminism”

    2 articles I’ve read this morning point to these complexities.

    An opinion piece by Moira Donegan in The Guardian states that 50% of white women voted Republican in the midterms. However, that percentage is in a gradual decline from it’s high points in the Bush-Regan years. And in the Trump election of 2016 53% of white women voted for Trump.

    But the decline is way to slow, and this is also an issue that white feminists everywhere need to consider and address.

    I also read this interview with Sarah Smarsh (white woman from a working class mid-west US background), on the mid terms in Kansas.

    She talks about the inaccuracy and damage done by labelling all people in the mid west states as reactionary, Republican rednecks.

    The reductive way that we talk about politics in this country renders all sorts of people invisible. It often amounts to a whitewashing of entire regions that are actually quite diverse in racial makeup. It also leads to the stereotyping of millions of people as politically homogeneous. There are progressives in so called “red states” like Kansas who are often even more radical than those in liberal enclaves like New York.
    …
    Sharice Davids’s win in the 3rd District, where I lived for a long time, and, of course, Laura Kelly’s win in the gubernatorial race, were so heartening.
    …
    For people who have not seen themselves in their own governments, through race or gender or orientation, Davids represents a special validation and hope.
    …
    We are called a deep red state but as of this past week, we are the only state to have elected three democratic female governors. This election tells me that ultimately, the country is yearning to get back to a sense of stability—and they’re electing Democratic women to do that.

    • Bill 10.1
      10 November 2018 at 10:33 am

      It s an important outcome of the mid terms that diverse women stood as candidates, and any of them were elected.

      I don’t disagree with you, and am obviously just viewing it from a different angle.

      And beyond their ethnicity, there’s their politics.

      If I had a daughter, would I be thinking that (throwaway example) Nancy Pelosi, with all her $100 odd million of wealth and immense power made for a good a role model? No. Likewise if an ethnic version of her or Thatcher, or a female version of Obama had won a Congressional seat.

      But whether I had a son or a daughter, I’d say the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Rashida Tlaib make for fantastic role models.

      edit – I should maybe say, that when writing the post I had Amy Goodman’s election night reaction in mind, when she was celebrating what she termed the first “scarf wearing” Muslim or woman to be elected. She talked about it and sought opinion on it, but made no mention of her politics. I haven’t yet quite managed to articulate the sense of unease that gave me.

      • Carolyn_Nth 10.1.1
        10 November 2018 at 10:42 am

        I agree. And, I don’t see the mid terms as showing a major shift to the left for the Democrat establishment, which has long been centre right in practice.

        However, there are those like Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Davids who did get elected, and many more quite radical candidates who didn’t get elected. So, it indicates an upsurge in politically active people with confidence in taking on the right-leaning political establishment (Republicans and Democrats).

        That is hopeful for the next election, but there’s still a lot of work to be done by the true left in the US. And the right wing establishment will not go down without throwing everything at it, no matter how undemocratic.

      • Adrian Thornton 10.1.2
        10 November 2018 at 11:03 am

        “I had Amy Goodman’s election night reaction in mind…”, although I have been a long time DN! listener, and (small time) financial supporter, I have noticed a few disturbing shifts I their positions over the past couple of years, her position around
        the Russia conspirisory is another that comes to mind, I assume this is why Aaron Mate’ is now at Real News?

  11. UncookedSelachimorpha 11
    10 November 2018 at 10:33 am

    Cortez is sounding bloody good! Might have what it takes to lead real progressive change, which the USA desperately needs before a much ghastlier alternative takes over.

    I really like Bernie Sanders – but whatever you think of him, he does not have a long career in politics left. Good to see there are some young and competent real progressives in the pipeline.

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    Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 day ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Paula Bennett’s political appointment will challenge public confidence
    The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    1 day ago

  • NZDF is still hostile to oversight
    Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 day ago

  • Winding Back The Hands Of History’s Clock.
    Holding On To The Present: The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 day ago

  • Sweet Moderation? What Christopher Luxon Could Learn From The Germans.
    Stuck In The Middle With You: As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 day ago

  • A clear warning
    The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 day ago

  • Poll results and Waitangi Tribunal report go unmentioned on the Beehive website – where racing tru...
    Buzz  from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example.  This shows National down ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago

  • Listening To The Traffic.
    It Takes A Train To Cry: Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 day ago

  • Comity Be Damned! The State’s Legislative Arm Is Flexing Its Constitutional Muscles.
    Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 day ago

  • Ending The Quest.
    Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 day ago

  • Will political polarisation intensify to the point where ‘normal’ government becomes impossible,...
    Chris Trotter writes –  New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago

  • Bernard’s pick 'n' mix for Tuesday, April 30
    TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:30am on Tuesday, May 30:Scoop: NZ 'close to the tipping point' of measles epidemic, health experts warn NZ Herald Benjamin PlummerHealth: 'Absurd and totally unacceptable': Man has to wait a year for ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago

  • Why Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating in the country
    Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago

  • Worst poll result for a new Government in MMP history
    Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago

  • Pinning down climate change's role in extreme weather
    This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 days ago

  • Serving at Seymour's pleasure.
    Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago

  • Webworm LA Pop-Up
    Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    2 days ago

  • “Feel good” school is out
    Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago

  • 6 Months in, surely our Report Card is “Ignored all warnings: recommend dismissal ASAP”?
    Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy. Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    2 days ago

  • Bread, and how it gets buttered
    Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Why Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating in the country
    Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    2 days ago

  • Justice for Gaza?
    The New York Times reports that the International Criminal Court is about to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over their genocide in Gaza: Israeli officials increasingly believe that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue arrest warrants for senior government officials on ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago

  • If there has been any fiddling with Pharmac’s funding, we can count on Paula to figure out the fis...
    Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago

  • FastTrackWatch – The case for the Government’s Fast Track Bill
    Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • Bernard’s pick 'n' mix for Monday, April 29
    TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on Iran killing its rappers, and searching for the invisible Dr. Reti
    span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    3 days ago

  • Auckland Rail Electrification 10 years old
    Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    3 days ago

  • Coalition's dirge of austerity and uncertainty is driving the economy into a deeper recession
    Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • Disability Funding or Tax Cuts.
    You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago

  • Of the Goodness of Tolkien’s Eru
    April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    3 days ago

  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #17
    A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago

  • Pastor Who Abused People, Blames People
    Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    3 days ago

  • Vic Uni shows how under threat free speech is
    The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Winston remembers Gettysburg.
    Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago

  • 25
    She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8.  The universe was ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago

  • Fact Brief – Is Antarctica gaining land ice?
    Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago

  • Policing protests.
    Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    5 days ago

  • Open letter to Hon Paul Goldsmith
    Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: FastTrackWatch – The Case for the Government’s Fast Track Bill
    Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    5 days ago

  • Luxon gets out his butcher’s knife – briefly
    Peter Dunne writes –  The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • More tax for less
    Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • Real News vs Fake News.
    We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago

  • Another way to roll
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Share ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • Simon Clark: The climate lies you'll hear this year
    This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
    Skeptical Science
    5 days ago

  • Cutting the Public Service
    It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    5 days ago

  • Luxon’s demoted ministers might take comfort from the British politician who bounced back after th...
    Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious:  we live in a troubled ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago

  • This is how I roll over
    1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • The Waitangi Tribunal is not “a roving Commission”…
    …it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisition   NOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes –  The High Court ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Is Oranga Tamariki guilty of neglect?
    Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same? Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Three Strikes saw lower reoffending
    David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Luxon’s ruthless show of strength is perfect for our angry era
    Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • 'Lacks attention to detail and is creating double-standards.'
    TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • One Night Only!
    Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago

  • What did Melissa Lee do?
    It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #17 2024
    Open access notables Ice acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment: In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • Maori Party (with “disgust”) draws attention to Chhour’s race after the High Court rules on Wa...
    Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Who’s Going Up The Media Mountain?
    Mr Bombastic: Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
    Bowalley Road
    7 days ago

  • “That's how I roll”
    It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    7 days ago

  • “Comity” versus the rule of law
    In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Aotearoa: a live lab for failed Right-wing socio-economic zombie experiments once more…
    Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder. In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    1 week ago

  • Water is at the heart of farmers’ struggle to survive in Benin
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére Sosou Market gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • At a time of media turmoil, Melissa had nothing to proclaim as Minister – and now she has been dem...
    Buzz from the Beehive   Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago

  • Minister acknowledges passing of Sir Robert Martin (KNZM)
    New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    8 hours ago

  • Speech to New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Parliament – Annual Lecture: Challenges ...
    Good evening –   Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    8 hours ago

  • Accelerating airport security lines
    From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago

  • Community hui to talk about kina barrens
    People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    16 hours ago

  • Kiwi exporters win as NZ-EU FTA enters into force
    Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    16 hours ago

  • Mining resurgence a welcome sign
    There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    18 hours ago

  • Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill passes first reading
    The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Government to boost public EV charging network
    Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure.  The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Residential Property Managers Bill to not progress
    The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Independent review into disability support services
    The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Justice Minister updates UN on law & order plan
    Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Ending emergency housing motels in Rotorua
    The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Trade Minister travels to Riyadh, OECD, and Dubai
    Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Education priorities focused on lifting achievement
    Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • NZTA App first step towards digital driver licence
    The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say.  “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Supporting whānau out of emergency housing
    Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Tribute to Dave O'Sullivan
    Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Speech – Eid al-Fitr
    Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Government saves access to medicines
    Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff.    “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Pharmac Chair appointed
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