We are 87 days away from The Budget. RNZ’s funding has been frozen for the past 9 years. I have a petition running if anyone cares to put their name to saving a bastion of good journalism in this country. https://www.tinyurl.com/jg9e42t .
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster 2
Like many on the left, I suppose, I felt a general sense of dismay on the news of Labour losing the Copeland by-election – a seat they had held for 80 years.
But there are ‘alternative facts’ and Jonathan Pie gives a few:
But if Corbyn is the Messiah and his policies are clearly the path to Nirvana, why didn’t the long term slide in Labour’s vote-share turn around?
Maybe, just maybe, the Corbynites are putting just as much effort into backstabbing the more moderate Labour as they accuse the Blairites of doing to Corbyn?
We’re not far from the home stretch of our own election. Candidate selections and policies are close to being finalised. The Greens and Labour will almost certainly include policies and candidates that are dead rats to many, especially those fond of slogans such as back-stabbing Blairites.
So what to do? Choke down those dead rats with a forced smile and go hard supporting Labour or Greens as the best route to changing the government? Ignore Labour and Greens and go hard supporting a smaller party like Mana or Socialist Aotearoa and risk wasting votes which allows the Nats to sneak in for a fourth term? Go hard bagging Labour and Greens for their lack of purity and principle which amounts to supporting Nats into their fourth term?
I’m going with the choke down the dead rats option.
The first option for me too, Andre. The only way we get rid of the Nacts is to party vote Labour and the Greens. They are the only parties emphatically saying they will not go into a coalition with National.
Not sure where Mana sits in that all that. I’m guessing the first one, but I think it’s reasonable all things considered to expect all parties to either be explicit or be in the second one.
Any links on positions? I can put it up as a post.
hi weka,
the hone with national seems absolutely unthinkable, however…
the idea of a maori voice/party in parliament may not naturally fall into a tory/socialist framework.
listening to interviews late last week and weekend this notion became apparent.
perhaps it is better for them to be at the table, regardless of where on the political spectrum the main party comes from.
That’s pretty much how I see it gsays. Hard to have that conversation in this Pākehā space though, because anyone who works with National is evil and should be pilloried.
I too can’t imagine Harawira supporting a National govt, but if the left wing parties reject him utterly where else is there to go?
The Mp seem conservative to me, not necessarily neoliberal but just not radical like HH is. It makes sense to me that they would want to be at the table of whichever side had power.
These liberal media outlets have to be seen as Trojan horses, infiltrating the progressive movements of the western Left, poisoning and disrupting any shift to the Left at every opportunity.
Ask your self this…
When was the last time a western Left wing party has been so popular?
700,000 paid up members
Conservative Party had 149,800 members as of 2013, probably to embarrassed to release any more current numbers.
You would think any thinking progressive would be proud and happy at Labour UK’s numbers, but no, it seems so many people are willing to swallow the bullshit pumped into them by their so called liberal media…it really is a slow moving tragedy for the Left….
Well, Corbyn’s Labour may be popular with activist members, but apparently not with the wider swath of voters.
Act used to have large numbers of enthusiastic activists, but it never translated to votes beyond about 6 or 7 %. I suspect the same applys to the Greens – lots of activist but not looking like it can break out of the 10% zone.
Membership is only one factor in electoral success.
Wayne, your attempt to compare ACT with the British Labour Party is beyond parody. It’s the funniest—even funnier because of its apparent sincerity—thing you’ve written on this site since you made the claim that New Zealand in the 1970s was “too equal.”
…in actual fact he is being attacked relentlessly by all nearly establishment liberal media like The Guardian…
Well, yes, but that’s a given, which is why Labour parties are ill-advised to make their most left-wing people the leader. If it’s a choice between getting into government or comforting yourself with the thought that your guy would have won if only the media weren’t so unfair, I’ll take “getting into government” every time.
The bit you’re missing is that a political party can have all of the media (TV and newspaper) railing against them and yet go on to form a government. The trick is in effortlessly representing the wishes and will of people.
Professional politicians (unsurprisingly) struggle to do that and so opt for getting on-side with media in the belief that all hopes and aspirations are shaped by them (the media) resulting in a kind of election by third party interference – get the media to endorse your programme and to hell with the people who might vote.
They’ll mostly vote anyway and if they’ve nothing of substance to go for, then they’ll likely go for the medias ‘flavour of the month’.
It’s lazy and in some respect much worse than corrupt insofar as corruption might be said to be up front and ‘honest’.
edit – should maybe just note that the party in question sent a decidedly centrist Labour Party to the political scrapheap in the process (currently 15% in the polls)
I wouldn’t describe the leader of the main opposition party being attacked by liberal media a as given.
Normalizing the neoliberal establishments unethical distortion of the news though our own traditional news vehicles is not normal practice, and certainly not a given.
Man you guys seriously fold at the first sign of a fight don’t you, haven’t you heard of sticking to your principles, or are they all negotiable for a taste of power?
Sticking to your principles at all costs is a luxury for people with little at stake. I share more of Corbyn’s principles than I have any other Labour leader of the last few decades, UK or NZ, and I’d love to see a government running on those principles. Problem is though, those principles aren’t mainstream ones. We’re a minority, and a small one at that. A party on 40% of the vote that adopts those principles can only be assumed to have an ambition of being a party on 10 or 15% of the vote.
When I was a kid I loved the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, the Stranglers and the Clash – they were all way better than any of the other music being made at the time, but funnily enough the overwhelming majority of the population kept buying the shite music that they always do and the mainstream press agitated to have the good music banned. Corbyn’s a political equivalent of the Sex Pistols – we might think he’s great, but the mainstream is not going to buy the product.
Yes well you may be half right, but what music from the mid to late seventies shaped the future and direction of all music in a way none had since the original British invasion sound of the early sixties?…Punk, why, because of it’s unquestioned authenticity and power.
And what happened to a majority of the shit music that was being brought back then…nothing, crumbled and fallen from the annuals of history…why?..because that music , much like the economics of neoliberalism lacks human authenticity.
Our principles is ALL we have got, and especially while we are the underdogs fighting this destructive power base hiding in full view at the so called centre politics…this is time when we show, by our own example, to the people around us, family, friends, work mates etc,that our principles are worth fighting for. even in the face of defeat…if not us then who?
There’s a time for sticking to your principles and agitating – before policies and candidates are chosen, long before the next general election. UK Labour members have done that with Corbyn, and good on them for that. But it really doesn’t look like it is going to bring them to electoral success, unlike SNP in Scotland.
Meanwhile in New Zealand, our next general election is soon. Do you want to change the government and get a little bit of movement towards policies that matter to you, or are you OK with the current lot returning to power and further trashing things that matter because sticking to principles is more important?
Corbyn supports traditional Labour policy, which most people in the United Kingdom also support. You know: decent public education, the best health system in the world with the possible exception of Cuba’s, decent wages, and no nuclear weapons.
That’s “left wing” is it?
I guess you think this patricidal fool is a hero rather than a chickenhawk?….
Corbyn supports traditional Labour policy, which most people in the United Kingdom also support.
Oh, well, that’s game over for the Tories then, innit? Corbyn can just stroll along to victory, bolstered by the polls showing massive popular support for his traditional Labour policy. What are you all complaining about?
Because they’re a lot closer to the big fat hump in the middle of the bell curve of the range of voter opinions, where they’ve got a chance of attracting votes from people that might vote Labour in some circumstances or Conservative in others.
Actually they are not. They are precisely on the big fat hump of the middle of the bell curve of the right wing press. The population of the United Kingdom does not want the destruction or downgrading or dismantling of its schools, its health system and its public transport systems. It is Jeremy Corbyn that voices those popular values.
The real conservatives in this country now are the traditional Labour Socialists.
A fair and equal society that protects and encourages all citizens.
People.
Family.
Community.
Environment.
Country.
Socialism.
The fact is, Left wing Socialists are the new progressive conservatives.
I presume you mean my name – I had it long before that f/w made it taste sour. Anyway, there are far worse crosses to bear – I have a house and a comfortable income, and food on the table. Many in this country are not so fortunate!
The Greens seem to have hit a support ceiling, failing to increase their vote from the 2011 to the 2014 election. Polls suggest not much has changed since – a leadership change from Russel Norman to James Shaw doesn’t seem to have helped.
Labour won 77 per cent of the vote; the Greens trailed with 11 per cent. Why did Labour do so well? They had many more people on the ground; the seat was theirs anyway; National and Act stayed away; the Greens don’t do well in by-elections because they’re a list party; and despite recent controversies centre-left voters wanted to signal confidence in Labour. And most of all, everyone likes Jacinda. Sure. But what it all boils down to is this:
Labour sucked up all the oxygen and the Greens were left gasping for breath.
Greens chose to give Labour oxygen. Genter said she campaigned to show their policies were mostly the same and she was mostly the same as Ardern.
Greens need Labour to increase their party vote, but if they do too much to help they risk losing votes for themselves.
The Mt Albert by-election was used to show how well Labour and Greens (actually Ardern and Genter, which is quite different) could work together.
But if Greens want to hold ground or increase their vote they will need to give people a reason to vote for them over Labour. Promoting votes for Labour candidates and saying they have similar policies is unlikely to do that.
I’m not concerned. I think it’s interesting to see how this is playing out.
Will Labour and Greens stick with this togetherness strategy right through to the election? Or if it continues to look like it isn’t working will either or both party switch to a more selfish approach?
don’t worry about the Greens and the Labour party.
They are doing fine. Winning by elections and such. National on the other hand?
blowing up budgets, can’t see the homeless cause it would infringe on their world view, like shit in rivers and in lakes – of course not where you live :), bleeding MP’s like someone gutted a pig.
I would suggest you go and raise your concerns with the National Party about their issue re credibility, accountability and acceptable cowshit levels.
It’s interesting how Mt Albert is being spun. Had Ardern lost to Genter, it would have been “Labour in Crisis after shock defeat”.
Had she won in a squeaker, it would have been “[Labour] will immediately be in trouble. This poll is not just a measure of the value of Jacinda Ardern – it’s a checkpoint for the leadership of Andrew Little.” – Simon Wilson 24 Feb.
But Ardern romps home handily and now it’s (to paraphrase) “Labour is ignoring Ardern’s wider appeal and they’re eating the Greens’ lunch”.
What it really shows is that uncontested by elections tend not get as many votes. Although 12k is respectable. There have been a number of contested byelections lower than that in nz in recent decades.
Uncontested byelections will favour the incumbent party. It might have something to do with having the organisation on the ground and the contacts.
I suspect that the lowish green electorate vote isn’the out of line with their previous electorate vote.
The real loser other of this is that National failed to contest the election. That will be fun to exploit in the general election.
The previous green electorate vote was around 8000 (Labour 12,000, National 14,000), but they only got 1300 votes for Genter vs. ~3000 for the previous election’s candidate.
So Genter didn’t do so well.
National really lost because they failed to do the most destructive thing they could have: give a wink wink nudge nudge to their voters to vote for the TOP candidate.
“The previous green electorate vote was around 8000 (Labour 12,000, National 14,000), but they only got 1300 votes for Genter vs. ~3000 for the previous election’s candidate.”
Which election are you referring to?
8,000 was the Green party vote in Mt Albert in the 2014 GE (Labour 11,000, Nat 14,300*). The Green candidate vote was 3,152. But that doesn’t take into account turnout. Better to look at %.
Genter got 11.5% of the candidate vote in Mt Albert this time. In the 2014 GE, the Green candidate got 8.5% of the candidate vote.
But again, the comparisons aren’t that straight forward. National was standing then for instance. TOP wasn’t (they got 4.5% of the vote this time).
The Green party vote in Mt Albert in 2014 was 21%. Let’s see what they get this time I think.
*weird mix that when you look at the party vote across parties compared to the electorate vote. But I seem to remember this happened a bit, high Labour candidate votes but lower party votes.
I was fairly close for off the top of my head! The errors are regretted, I still have full confidence in all my ministers, etc.
High Labour vote in electorates in the GE is from two reasons I think:
1) Green and NZF voters voting for the Labour candidate because their party’s candidate is unlikely to get there and could let a Nat candidate through if they split their vote
2) Incumbency/name recognition. In Hutt South, for instance, Trevor Mallard got 6,000 votes more than Labour got party votes, which can’t be all from the other left parties. He basically got some right wing voters voting for him (at least 2,000) because he’s been in parliament for four thousand years.
Of course there’s no party vote in a by-election, but this campaign was all about positioning for the general election for the Greens, where party vote is crucial for them.
If Genter and the Greens had got a much better electorate vote in the by-election it is likely to have helped their campaign for party votes.
Many voters will have seen their Mt Albert capaign as ‘vote for Labour’.
wow, you need a snickers. You come across as mean. And so early in the morning already.
btw, do you think that with the current rate of National Party MPs resigning they will have enough to actually run next years? Seriously, i am very concerned about their ability to actually find living bodies wanting to stand for the good of the country.
Yep the gnats are in disarray – I even felt a bit sorry for dim bill having to pull smirky key back into the media to help him – what a failure. I don’t think Bill will get to the election – notice how quiet bennett and collins have been – plans are afoot imo.
Of course there’s no party vote in a by-election, but this campaign was all about positioning for the general election for the Greens…
What does that even mean? Nobody outside Mt Albert was paying any attention to the campaign. The “positioning for the general election” consisted of getting some news coverage, which they did. Julie-Ann Genter didn’t go round the electorate telling people “Vote for me because we want to use my vote share as an indicator of the Green Party’s likely party vote share in the general election.”
That’s the second time I’ve read that ACT not running in Mt Albert had an effect on the result.
Act is a sub 1% party, heavily brain damaged, and reliant on life support from the long standing National Party dirty electorate deal. An ACT candidate would have trailed Penny Bright and struggled to crack triple figures.
Talking about clever monkeys and what they eat, if anyone has some spare money to give a donation or set up a permanent payment, help the orang-utans. A guy who has worked with them says they are as sensitive and intelligent as us and don’t have the aggression, and cruelty that seem to arise in us. Leif Cocks suggests they should be classified as persons under threat of genocide.
Australian primatologist and zoologist Leif Cocks about his life-long work with orangutans. Leif is the founder and president of the international charity The Orangutan Project. He’s spent three decades campaigning on behalf of orangutans, and is working in particular to save the Sumatran orangutan.
I just wish that people would realise that money doesn’t pay for anything and that when it comes to retirement the nation needs to have enough productivity to support those who retire as well as the people working.
Another example of how real private wealth is usually made by ruthlessly exploiting your fellow humans, rather than the myth of riches rewarding hard work and creativity etc.
We got there, Ad! Or rather, generous people from all over got us there with their pledges and donations; we’ve bought the building and couldn’t be happier with the support we received from so many people, many of whom we’ve not yet met. Our pledge Me campaign reached its target a couple of days before it closed, though people continued to contribute, and behind the scene-donations, many of them of a size that made my eyes water, got us up to the amount we needed for the purchase ($73, 000). There were contributions too from overseas: Japan, Canada, Scotland, France, from people who had visited the Centre as they traveled in NZ. All in all it was a heart-warming experience, though one that wasn’t without some anxiousness and lying awake at night, “considering” (not me, Robyn – I sleep embarrassingly well)
Long answer, I know, Ad, but we’re buoyant just now and feel surrounded with support – thanks to the TS people who gave to our campaign; I recognised several from here.
I am sure, given that you are all journalists there at RNZ, you must aware that Brent Budowsky was outed in no uncertain terms by Wikileaks, as being an insider for the DNC and Hillary Clinton during the 2016 US primaries and presidential elections.
My question to you is why, in light of his obvious personal and political bias, you would choose to have him of all people on RNZ to comment on Trump and the press?
Could you please clarify for your listeners, your reasoning behind this decision.
If he is to be used in future, please insert a disclaimer in your introduction of him as a simple courtesy to your listeners.
Well done Adrian. I have thought exactly the same thing every time I’ve heard Budowsky wittering on. I also feel the same irritation every time Simon Marks comes on.
By the way, I happened to hear the “BBC World News” at 8 o’clock this morning; first item was a report of a protest march in Moscow to mark the second anniversary of the Boris Nemtsov assassination. There was a crowd estimated variously between 5,000 and 15,000.
Wellington Central-based National MP Paul Foster-Bell has been pushed out. He has been subject to a nasty internal Nat campaign for a couple of years and now they’ve won. Where is the examination of the detail of these nasty internal Nat politics? Was it because he dared to come out as gay? Media and blogs obsess about Labour and Greens instead.
Uh maybe because there is no story, he’s leaving and unlike labour Nat MPs have careers outside of parliament, where for most labour MPs the salary and job is the gig of thier life, I mean Annette king can’t go back to been a dental nurse assistant, hence they will have to carry her out
Of course previous cults of personality have been raging successes.
To spend three days at this year’s CPAC, the annual right-wing carnival of politics and culture, was to witness an ideology conforming to an individual rather than the other way around.
That’s some mighty interesting stat keeping – probably because before this government, any numbers being put up in motels by WINZ were statistically tiny.
“But first, to the leaks about stopping leaks from the Trump White House.
Fearless in the face of what some have described as expletive-laden attacks on them by press secretary Sean Spicer, White House staffers dutifully lined up to give Politico magazine unattributed accounts of Spicer’s latest crackdown.
Having consulted White House Counsel Don McGahn and accompanied by another lawyer, Spicer reportedly summoned a dozen of his communications staff to an “emergency” meeting late last week, at which they were ordered to surrender mobile phones and other devices, private and government-issued, for a “phone check” that might reveal who was leaking.
After warning them that the use of encrypted apps, some of which delete a text after it has been sent, was a violation of the Presidential Records Act, Spicer sent the staffers packing – with a final warning that accounts of the meeting were not to be leaked.”
I shouldn’t laugh though. It still all reads like the bit in a dystopian novel just before people start getting hauled off to jail. You know the bit where the people in charge can’t handle the disobedience or being laughed at.
If the ventures of these young entrepreneurs go on to be successful, should Labour be seeking a percentage of the return (and a percentage of the sale if the venture is later sold)? Which could be recycled back into the scheme.
Should Labour also stipulate a living wage be paid to employees of the recipients of the grant?
Negligible changes in the February Roy Morgan poll.
– National 48% (up from 46)
– Labour 26% (down from 27)
– Greens 13% (up from 12.5)
– NZ First 8% (down from 9)
– Maori Party 2% (no change)
– ACT Party 1% (up from o.5)
– United Future 0% (down from 0.5)
– Conservative Party 0% (down from 0.5)
– Internet Party 0% (no change)
– Independent/Other 2% (no change)
Labour + Greens are 39% compared to National’s 48%.
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TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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”. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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). ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
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A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
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We are 87 days away from The Budget. RNZ’s funding has been frozen for the past 9 years. I have a petition running if anyone cares to put their name to saving a bastion of good journalism in this country. https://www.tinyurl.com/jg9e42t .
Like many on the left, I suppose, I felt a general sense of dismay on the news of Labour losing the Copeland by-election – a seat they had held for 80 years.
But there are ‘alternative facts’ and Jonathan Pie gives a few:
But if Corbyn is the Messiah and his policies are clearly the path to Nirvana, why didn’t the long term slide in Labour’s vote-share turn around?
Maybe, just maybe, the Corbynites are putting just as much effort into backstabbing the more moderate Labour as they accuse the Blairites of doing to Corbyn?
Give me Jonathon Pie over your Blairite ramblings anyday Andre.
We’re not far from the home stretch of our own election. Candidate selections and policies are close to being finalised. The Greens and Labour will almost certainly include policies and candidates that are dead rats to many, especially those fond of slogans such as back-stabbing Blairites.
So what to do? Choke down those dead rats with a forced smile and go hard supporting Labour or Greens as the best route to changing the government? Ignore Labour and Greens and go hard supporting a smaller party like Mana or Socialist Aotearoa and risk wasting votes which allows the Nats to sneak in for a fourth term? Go hard bagging Labour and Greens for their lack of purity and principle which amounts to supporting Nats into their fourth term?
I’m going with the choke down the dead rats option.
Glasseye Sauce is a winner.
The first option for me too, Andre. The only way we get rid of the Nacts is to party vote Labour and the Greens. They are the only parties emphatically saying they will not go into a coalition with National.
No National government
Labour
Greens
Maybe a National government
NZF
TOP
Mp
Def a National government
ACT
(UF?)
Not sure where Mana sits in that all that. I’m guessing the first one, but I think it’s reasonable all things considered to expect all parties to either be explicit or be in the second one.
Any links on positions? I can put it up as a post.
hi weka,
the hone with national seems absolutely unthinkable, however…
the idea of a maori voice/party in parliament may not naturally fall into a tory/socialist framework.
listening to interviews late last week and weekend this notion became apparent.
perhaps it is better for them to be at the table, regardless of where on the political spectrum the main party comes from.
That’s pretty much how I see it gsays. Hard to have that conversation in this Pākehā space though, because anyone who works with National is evil and should be pilloried.
I too can’t imagine Harawira supporting a National govt, but if the left wing parties reject him utterly where else is there to go?
The Mp seem conservative to me, not necessarily neoliberal but just not radical like HH is. It makes sense to me that they would want to be at the table of whichever side had power.
Maybe just maybe Corbyn is putting to fear of god into the centrists, both in the party and in the liberal media, and that is why…just maybe, no not maybe, in actual fact he is being attacked relentlessly by all nearly establishment liberal media like The Guardian… (Guardians of the establishment)
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-media-bias-labour-mainstream-press-lse-study-misrepresentation-we-cant-ignore-bias-a7144381.html
These liberal media outlets have to be seen as Trojan horses, infiltrating the progressive movements of the western Left, poisoning and disrupting any shift to the Left at every opportunity.
Ask your self this…
When was the last time a western Left wing party has been so popular?
700,000 paid up members
Conservative Party had 149,800 members as of 2013, probably to embarrassed to release any more current numbers.
You would think any thinking progressive would be proud and happy at Labour UK’s numbers, but no, it seems so many people are willing to swallow the bullshit pumped into them by their so called liberal media…it really is a slow moving tragedy for the Left….
Corbyn may very well be putting fear into centrists. And when centrist voters are fearful, they tend to swing conservative.
Well, Corbyn’s Labour may be popular with activist members, but apparently not with the wider swath of voters.
Act used to have large numbers of enthusiastic activists, but it never translated to votes beyond about 6 or 7 %. I suspect the same applys to the Greens – lots of activist but not looking like it can break out of the 10% zone.
Membership is only one factor in electoral success.
Wayne, your attempt to compare ACT with the British Labour Party is beyond parody. It’s the funniest—even funnier because of its apparent sincerity—thing you’ve written on this site since you made the claim that New Zealand in the 1970s was “too equal.”
Morrissey,
I guess you missed the point that enthusiasm and size of the membership is not a guarantee of electoral success.
He just saw “Corbyn” and “ACT” in the same comment and became enveloped in a toxic cloud of smug…
Could you define what you mean by the word “smug”? There’s a good angry and bitter fellow.
Look it up in the dictionary. Your gravatar is the illustration.
I’d say that ACT is content with being a party of influence.
…in actual fact he is being attacked relentlessly by all nearly establishment liberal media like The Guardian…
Well, yes, but that’s a given, which is why Labour parties are ill-advised to make their most left-wing people the leader. If it’s a choice between getting into government or comforting yourself with the thought that your guy would have won if only the media weren’t so unfair, I’ll take “getting into government” every time.
The bit you’re missing is that a political party can have all of the media (TV and newspaper) railing against them and yet go on to form a government. The trick is in effortlessly representing the wishes and will of people.
Professional politicians (unsurprisingly) struggle to do that and so opt for getting on-side with media in the belief that all hopes and aspirations are shaped by them (the media) resulting in a kind of election by third party interference – get the media to endorse your programme and to hell with the people who might vote.
They’ll mostly vote anyway and if they’ve nothing of substance to go for, then they’ll likely go for the medias ‘flavour of the month’.
It’s lazy and in some respect much worse than corrupt insofar as corruption might be said to be up front and ‘honest’.
edit – should maybe just note that the party in question sent a decidedly centrist Labour Party to the political scrapheap in the process (currently 15% in the polls)
I wouldn’t describe the leader of the main opposition party being attacked by liberal media a as given.
Normalizing the neoliberal establishments unethical distortion of the news though our own traditional news vehicles is not normal practice, and certainly not a given.
Man you guys seriously fold at the first sign of a fight don’t you, haven’t you heard of sticking to your principles, or are they all negotiable for a taste of power?
Sticking to your principles at all costs is a luxury for people with little at stake. I share more of Corbyn’s principles than I have any other Labour leader of the last few decades, UK or NZ, and I’d love to see a government running on those principles. Problem is though, those principles aren’t mainstream ones. We’re a minority, and a small one at that. A party on 40% of the vote that adopts those principles can only be assumed to have an ambition of being a party on 10 or 15% of the vote.
When I was a kid I loved the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, the Stranglers and the Clash – they were all way better than any of the other music being made at the time, but funnily enough the overwhelming majority of the population kept buying the shite music that they always do and the mainstream press agitated to have the good music banned. Corbyn’s a political equivalent of the Sex Pistols – we might think he’s great, but the mainstream is not going to buy the product.
Yes well you may be half right, but what music from the mid to late seventies shaped the future and direction of all music in a way none had since the original British invasion sound of the early sixties?…Punk, why, because of it’s unquestioned authenticity and power.
And what happened to a majority of the shit music that was being brought back then…nothing, crumbled and fallen from the annuals of history…why?..because that music , much like the economics of neoliberalism lacks human authenticity.
Our principles is ALL we have got, and especially while we are the underdogs fighting this destructive power base hiding in full view at the so called centre politics…this is time when we show, by our own example, to the people around us, family, friends, work mates etc,that our principles are worth fighting for. even in the face of defeat…if not us then who?
There’s a time for sticking to your principles and agitating – before policies and candidates are chosen, long before the next general election. UK Labour members have done that with Corbyn, and good on them for that. But it really doesn’t look like it is going to bring them to electoral success, unlike SNP in Scotland.
Meanwhile in New Zealand, our next general election is soon. Do you want to change the government and get a little bit of movement towards policies that matter to you, or are you OK with the current lot returning to power and further trashing things that matter because sticking to principles is more important?
Corbyn supports traditional Labour policy, which most people in the United Kingdom also support. You know: decent public education, the best health system in the world with the possible exception of Cuba’s, decent wages, and no nuclear weapons.
That’s “left wing” is it?
I guess you think this patricidal fool is a hero rather than a chickenhawk?….
Corbyn supports traditional Labour policy, which most people in the United Kingdom also support.
Oh, well, that’s game over for the Tories then, innit? Corbyn can just stroll along to victory, bolstered by the polls showing massive popular support for his traditional Labour policy. What are you all complaining about?
You keep calling the right wing, pro-nuclear, pro-Israel, pro-war, anti-worker, Blairite rump “the more moderate Labour”. Why?
Because they’re a lot closer to the big fat hump in the middle of the bell curve of the range of voter opinions, where they’ve got a chance of attracting votes from people that might vote Labour in some circumstances or Conservative in others.
Actually they are not. They are precisely on the big fat hump of the middle of the bell curve of the right wing press. The population of the United Kingdom does not want the destruction or downgrading or dismantling of its schools, its health system and its public transport systems. It is Jeremy Corbyn that voices those popular values.
The real conservatives in this country now are the traditional Labour Socialists.
A fair and equal society that protects and encourages all citizens.
People.
Family.
Community.
Environment.
Country.
Socialism.
The fact is, Left wing Socialists are the new progressive conservatives.
My sympathy that your name is now associated with that kind of thing.
I presume you mean my name – I had it long before that f/w made it taste sour. Anyway, there are far worse crosses to bear – I have a house and a comfortable income, and food on the table. Many in this country are not so fortunate!
Change the government!
And change the personnel at Radio Sport! Not just your namesake, but the whole damn lot of them, with the possible exception of Darcy Waldegrave.
Epic
The Greens seem to have hit a support ceiling, failing to increase their vote from the 2011 to the 2014 election. Polls suggest not much has changed since – a leadership change from Russel Norman to James Shaw doesn’t seem to have helped.
Simon Wilson at The Spinoff: https://www.change.org/p/hon-amy-adams-minister-of-broadcasting-increase-funding-for-radio-new-zealand-in-this-year-s-budget
Greens chose to give Labour oxygen. Genter said she campaigned to show their policies were mostly the same and she was mostly the same as Ardern.
Greens need Labour to increase their party vote, but if they do too much to help they risk losing votes for themselves.
The Mt Albert by-election was used to show how well Labour and Greens (actually Ardern and Genter, which is quite different) could work together.
But if Greens want to hold ground or increase their vote they will need to give people a reason to vote for them over Labour. Promoting votes for Labour candidates and saying they have similar policies is unlikely to do that.
your concern is noted.
I’m not concerned. I think it’s interesting to see how this is playing out.
Will Labour and Greens stick with this togetherness strategy right through to the election? Or if it continues to look like it isn’t working will either or both party switch to a more selfish approach?
hahahahahah
don’t worry about the Greens and the Labour party.
They are doing fine. Winning by elections and such. National on the other hand?
blowing up budgets, can’t see the homeless cause it would infringe on their world view, like shit in rivers and in lakes – of course not where you live :), bleeding MP’s like someone gutted a pig.
I would suggest you go and raise your concerns with the National Party about their issue re credibility, accountability and acceptable cowshit levels.
It’s interesting how Mt Albert is being spun. Had Ardern lost to Genter, it would have been “Labour in Crisis after shock defeat”.
Had she won in a squeaker, it would have been “[Labour] will immediately be in trouble. This poll is not just a measure of the value of Jacinda Ardern – it’s a checkpoint for the leadership of Andrew Little.” – Simon Wilson 24 Feb.
But Ardern romps home handily and now it’s (to paraphrase) “Labour is ignoring Ardern’s wider appeal and they’re eating the Greens’ lunch”.
It’s never pleasing you righties, is it?
What it really shows is that uncontested by elections tend not get as many votes. Although 12k is respectable. There have been a number of contested byelections lower than that in nz in recent decades.
Uncontested byelections will favour the incumbent party. It might have something to do with having the organisation on the ground and the contacts.
I suspect that the lowish green electorate vote isn’the out of line with their previous electorate vote.
The real loser other of this is that National failed to contest the election. That will be fun to exploit in the general election.
The previous green electorate vote was around 8000 (Labour 12,000, National 14,000), but they only got 1300 votes for Genter vs. ~3000 for the previous election’s candidate.
So Genter didn’t do so well.
National really lost because they failed to do the most destructive thing they could have: give a wink wink nudge nudge to their voters to vote for the TOP candidate.
“The previous green electorate vote was around 8000 (Labour 12,000, National 14,000), but they only got 1300 votes for Genter vs. ~3000 for the previous election’s candidate.”
Which election are you referring to?
8,000 was the Green party vote in Mt Albert in the 2014 GE (Labour 11,000, Nat 14,300*). The Green candidate vote was 3,152. But that doesn’t take into account turnout. Better to look at %.
Genter got 11.5% of the candidate vote in Mt Albert this time. In the 2014 GE, the Green candidate got 8.5% of the candidate vote.
But again, the comparisons aren’t that straight forward. National was standing then for instance. TOP wasn’t (they got 4.5% of the vote this time).
The Green party vote in Mt Albert in 2014 was 21%. Let’s see what they get this time I think.
http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2014/electorate-27.html
*weird mix that when you look at the party vote across parties compared to the electorate vote. But I seem to remember this happened a bit, high Labour candidate votes but lower party votes.
I was fairly close for off the top of my head! The errors are regretted, I still have full confidence in all my ministers, etc.
High Labour vote in electorates in the GE is from two reasons I think:
1) Green and NZF voters voting for the Labour candidate because their party’s candidate is unlikely to get there and could let a Nat candidate through if they split their vote
2) Incumbency/name recognition. In Hutt South, for instance, Trevor Mallard got 6,000 votes more than Labour got party votes, which can’t be all from the other left parties. He basically got some right wing voters voting for him (at least 2,000) because he’s been in parliament for four thousand years.
I think the criticism last time was around Labour MPs not being that good on getting the party vote, and being more focussed on the seat.
You may be confused, Pete. There isn’t any party vote in a by-election.
No-one can stop you or Simon Wilson trying to use an electorate vote as a proxy for party vote, but we can recognise how stupid it is.
You’re showing your stupidity.
Of course there’s no party vote in a by-election, but this campaign was all about positioning for the general election for the Greens, where party vote is crucial for them.
If Genter and the Greens had got a much better electorate vote in the by-election it is likely to have helped their campaign for party votes.
Many voters will have seen their Mt Albert capaign as ‘vote for Labour’.
wow, you need a snickers. You come across as mean. And so early in the morning already.
btw, do you think that with the current rate of National Party MPs resigning they will have enough to actually run next years? Seriously, i am very concerned about their ability to actually find living bodies wanting to stand for the good of the country.
The Mount Albert by-election was about positioning for the general election?
National are screwed then.
as i said, by the rate National MP’s are resigning they will be forced to not stand anyone cause they run out of warm bodies.
🙂
Yep the gnats are in disarray – I even felt a bit sorry for dim bill having to pull smirky key back into the media to help him – what a failure. I don’t think Bill will get to the election – notice how quiet bennett and collins have been – plans are afoot imo.
My guess is that the Nats new Dirty Rivers policy has added 2 per cent to the Green’s vote at a stroke.
Of course there’s no party vote in a by-election, but this campaign was all about positioning for the general election for the Greens…
What does that even mean? Nobody outside Mt Albert was paying any attention to the campaign. The “positioning for the general election” consisted of getting some news coverage, which they did. Julie-Ann Genter didn’t go round the electorate telling people “Vote for me because we want to use my vote share as an indicator of the Green Party’s likely party vote share in the general election.”
That’s the second time I’ve read that ACT not running in Mt Albert had an effect on the result.
Act is a sub 1% party, heavily brain damaged, and reliant on life support from the long standing National Party dirty electorate deal. An ACT candidate would have trailed Penny Bright and struggled to crack triple figures.
Should we be paying large fees (and salaries) to so called professional fund managers.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-25/buffett-says-100-billion-has-been-wasted-on-investment-fees
Or should we be paying them bananas.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rickferri/2012/12/20/any-monkey-can-beat-the-market/#1663f8a6630a
Nope. They should be on minimum wage as the research has shown that flipping a coin is a more effective way of managing your money.
That will let them know just how worthless their job is as well as teach them what it’s like at the bottom.
Talking about clever monkeys and what they eat, if anyone has some spare money to give a donation or set up a permanent payment, help the orang-utans. A guy who has worked with them says they are as sensitive and intelligent as us and don’t have the aggression, and cruelty that seem to arise in us. Leif Cocks suggests they should be classified as persons under threat of genocide.
Great on Radionz
Leif Cocks: Saving Orangutans
From Nine To Noon, 10:14 am today 27/2
Listen duration 30′ :02″ Add to playlist
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201834717
Australian primatologist and zoologist Leif Cocks about his life-long work with orangutans. Leif is the founder and president of the international charity The Orangutan Project. He’s spent three decades campaigning on behalf of orangutans, and is working in particular to save the Sumatran orangutan.
KiwiSaver fees are ‘The largest household expense you’ve never heard of’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/82559050/kiwisaver-fees-are-the-largest-household-expense-youve-never-heard-of
Which reminds me, does anybody know if Labour have taken compulsory KiwiSaver off the table?
I just wish that people would realise that money doesn’t pay for anything and that when it comes to retirement the nation needs to have enough productivity to support those who retire as well as the people working.
“I just wish that people would realise that money doesn’t pay for anything…”
Yet, we are discussing how much money (fees) should we be paying fund managers and whether or not their service is overvalued.
KiwiSaver creator Michael Cullen says it’s time KiwiSaver fees fell
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/89636109/kiwisaver-creator-michael-cullen-says-its-time-kiwisaver-fees-fell
Another example of how real private wealth is usually made by ruthlessly exploiting your fellow humans, rather than the myth of riches rewarding hard work and creativity etc.
Could someone please give an update on how the Riverton Environmental Centre fundraising is doing?
We got there, Ad! Or rather, generous people from all over got us there with their pledges and donations; we’ve bought the building and couldn’t be happier with the support we received from so many people, many of whom we’ve not yet met. Our pledge Me campaign reached its target a couple of days before it closed, though people continued to contribute, and behind the scene-donations, many of them of a size that made my eyes water, got us up to the amount we needed for the purchase ($73, 000). There were contributions too from overseas: Japan, Canada, Scotland, France, from people who had visited the Centre as they traveled in NZ. All in all it was a heart-warming experience, though one that wasn’t without some anxiousness and lying awake at night, “considering” (not me, Robyn – I sleep embarrassingly well)
Long answer, I know, Ad, but we’re buoyant just now and feel surrounded with support – thanks to the TS people who gave to our campaign; I recognised several from here.
Awesome Robert and great to hear.
Excellent!! Well done you lot down there.
Letter to RNZ this morning….
Good morning.
I am sure, given that you are all journalists there at RNZ, you must aware that Brent Budowsky was outed in no uncertain terms by Wikileaks, as being an insider for the DNC and Hillary Clinton during the 2016 US primaries and presidential elections.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/columnist-emailed-podesta-about-whether-his-column-would-give-you-a-problem/
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/786798072722358273?lang=en
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/25651
My question to you is why, in light of his obvious personal and political bias, you would choose to have him of all people on RNZ to comment on Trump and the press?
Could you please clarify for your listeners, your reasoning behind this decision.
If he is to be used in future, please insert a disclaimer in your introduction of him as a simple courtesy to your listeners.
Looking forward to your reply.
Best
Adrian Thornton
Well done Adrian. I have thought exactly the same thing every time I’ve heard Budowsky wittering on. I also feel the same irritation every time Simon Marks comes on.
By the way, I happened to hear the “BBC World News” at 8 o’clock this morning; first item was a report of a protest march in Moscow to mark the second anniversary of the Boris Nemtsov assassination. There was a crowd estimated variously between 5,000 and 15,000.
Interestingly, when Britons march—in far bigger numbers than gathered in Moscow yesteday—against THEIR government, the BBC often ignores them….
https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/28sbun/why_arent_the_bbc_reporting_a_massive_protest_in/
Good on you Adrian. Should have asked them to dump Mora’s dopey panel too. It’s way past its use by date!
Wellington Central-based National MP Paul Foster-Bell has been pushed out. He has been subject to a nasty internal Nat campaign for a couple of years and now they’ve won. Where is the examination of the detail of these nasty internal Nat politics? Was it because he dared to come out as gay? Media and blogs obsess about Labour and Greens instead.
Money talks in national he will be well looked after with a sinecure or 3 to keep his mouth shut.
@Ethica (7) and it’s interesting to note Paul Foster Bell will be replaced by a former John Key adviser (?) Willis, who also has his support.
So it seems the murky shyster currency trader is still doing the dirty deeds in the dark background as usual! Keeping Natziratzi on track obviously!
KDS is strong in this one
why isn’t the media onto this issue its because they are too busy bagging the left
when the gnats are at it themselves
Uh maybe because there is no story, he’s leaving and unlike labour Nat MPs have careers outside of parliament, where for most labour MPs the salary and job is the gig of thier life, I mean Annette king can’t go back to been a dental nurse assistant, hence they will have to carry her out
can’t see big jerry teaching woodwork again and i pity the fullas that have to carry him out
Trump’s first run for the presidency, in 1980
Well done this family for making this public.
An appalling coverup by CYF after a toddler was murdered and CYF had failed dreadfully:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/325390/cyf-admits-failures-over-toddler's-death-to-family
So there is a problem with migrants and crime in Germany, but it isn’t the problem we hear about.
.
Nearly 10 attacks were made on migrants in Germany every day in 2016, the interior ministry says.
A total of 560 people were injured in the violence, including 43 children.
Three-quarters of the attacks targeted migrants outside of their accommodation, while nearly 1,000 attacks were on housing.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39096833
One thing we can be sure of about today’s Academy Awards ceremony
Nobody will make a speech as spineless as this….
http://www.vox.com/2015/2/23/8092543/edward-snowden-neil-patrick-harris
or as ignorant as this…
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kevin-spacey-defends-venezuela-protests-694743
or as naïve and stupid as this one…
Of course previous cults of personality have been raging successes.
To spend three days at this year’s CPAC, the annual right-wing carnival of politics and culture, was to witness an ideology conforming to an individual rather than the other way around.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/the-conservative-movement-is-donald-trump-214828
Wow. So apparently the good side of state housing mismanagement is that the people you put up in motels get counted as “domestic tourists” rather than “homeless”.
That’s some mighty interesting stat keeping – probably because before this government, any numbers being put up in motels by WINZ were statistically tiny.
edit: lol argh shit missed half a post on just that, sigh.
Zeynep Tufekci Retweeted Teen Vogue
Teen Vogue does the Oscars, heh.
Teen VogueVerified account@TeenVogue
an #Oscars red carpet break to remind you that President Trump is still telling lies: http://tnvge.co/tm7hLGU
http://www.teenvogue.com/story/we-fact-checked-all-lies-donald-trumps-administration-told-week?mbid=social_twitter
“But first, to the leaks about stopping leaks from the Trump White House.
Fearless in the face of what some have described as expletive-laden attacks on them by press secretary Sean Spicer, White House staffers dutifully lined up to give Politico magazine unattributed accounts of Spicer’s latest crackdown.
Having consulted White House Counsel Don McGahn and accompanied by another lawyer, Spicer reportedly summoned a dozen of his communications staff to an “emergency” meeting late last week, at which they were ordered to surrender mobile phones and other devices, private and government-issued, for a “phone check” that might reveal who was leaking.
After warning them that the use of encrypted apps, some of which delete a text after it has been sent, was a violation of the Presidential Records Act, Spicer sent the staffers packing – with a final warning that accounts of the meeting were not to be leaked.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/89848281/paranoia-at-the-white-house-as-crackdown-on-leaks-begins
LOL that’ll stop the leaks spicer you dingbat
lol. Burner phones.
I shouldn’t laugh though. It still all reads like the bit in a dystopian novel just before people start getting hauled off to jail. You know the bit where the people in charge can’t handle the disobedience or being laughed at.
Labour are offering a $20,000 one-off start-up grant backing young entrepreneurs.
http://www.labour.org.nz/yep
If the ventures of these young entrepreneurs go on to be successful, should Labour be seeking a percentage of the return (and a percentage of the sale if the venture is later sold)? Which could be recycled back into the scheme.
Should Labour also stipulate a living wage be paid to employees of the recipients of the grant?
yes to the last one. No to the payback if they end up paying a living wage.
yes to living wage.
The return for society on a grant is a going concern that employs people. I’m not too bothered either way if Labour wants to stipulate more than that.
Negligible changes in the February Roy Morgan poll.
– National 48% (up from 46)
– Labour 26% (down from 27)
– Greens 13% (up from 12.5)
– NZ First 8% (down from 9)
– Maori Party 2% (no change)
– ACT Party 1% (up from o.5)
– United Future 0% (down from 0.5)
– Conservative Party 0% (down from 0.5)
– Internet Party 0% (no change)
– Independent/Other 2% (no change)
Labour + Greens are 39% compared to National’s 48%.
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7149-roy-morgan-new-zealand-voting-intention-february-2017-201702271519
Not much change from a year ago.
Nats pretty much unchanged.
Lab + Green down a bit.
Winston First up a bit.