Archive for October, 2014

Labour leadership events this weekend

Written By: - Date published: 5:54 pm, October 31st, 2014 - 19 comments

Meet the candidates.

NRT: Long past time

Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, October 31st, 2014 - 4 comments

How long has it been since homosexuality as a crime was removed from the the law books? It passed into law on the 8th of August 1986. The government is finally considering wiping past convictions under the strange previous laws. It is an action that is more than 18 years overdue.

Weekend social 31/10/2014

Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, October 31st, 2014 - 9 comments

Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can’t we all just get along?

No wonder Key wouldn’t say who Rawshark was!

Written By: - Date published: 1:43 pm, October 31st, 2014 - 50 comments

Another contender for John Key to confirm or deny the identity of…

“As authorities close in, I think it’s time to admit I’ve been harbouring Rawshark for 5 months now.”

Leadership carnage! Crisis! Farce! Civil war!

Written By: - Date published: 7:29 am, October 31st, 2014 - 112 comments

Last night I attended the Dunedin meeting of the Labour leadership traveling roadshow. Carnage! Crisis! Farce! Civil war!

Open mike 31/10/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:50 am, October 31st, 2014 - 170 comments

Open mike is your post. The Standard is not a conspiracy – just a welcome outlet for the expression of views. Leaders that command respect will not be undermined by this. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Time for a real Police Tribunal?

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 am, October 31st, 2014 - 21 comments

Yesterday the “Independent” Police Conduct Authority released its report into the conduct of Police during the 2012 mass arrest of students at the “Blockade the Budget” protest. In the “About the Authority” section near the bottom the document claims that the IPCA is similar to a court

Lowly science

Written By: - Date published: 5:42 pm, October 30th, 2014 - 15 comments

I’m sure it’s true, but…

Meet the Candidates.

Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, October 30th, 2014 - 3 comments

For those interested, a pre-hustings catch up with Labour Party leader contenders in Dunedin today.

Key’s “high ethical standards”

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, October 30th, 2014 - 55 comments

Key’s “high ethical standards” were on display in Parliament again yesterday. So many questions. (And a bonus note – apparently Key knows the identity of Rawshark.)

Nanaia Mahuta – live Q&A

Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, October 30th, 2014 - 44 comments

A statement from Nanaia Mahuta concerning the Labour Leadership contest.  She should be available to answer questions this afternoon between 2 pm and 3 pm.

Leadership Election: Candidates Start Painting Themselves Into Corners

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, October 30th, 2014 - 74 comments

InsideOut has a look at the current state of the labour leadership campaigns. Predictably they plump down on the side of a particular candidate. But they do point to various issues with all of the campaigns.

Open mike 30/10/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, October 30th, 2014 - 225 comments

Open mike is your post. The Standard is not a conspiracy – just a welcome outlet for the expression of views. Leaders that command respect will not be undermined by this. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Meet Nanaia and Andrew in West Auckland this weekend

Written By: - Date published: 11:44 pm, October 29th, 2014 - 40 comments

Labour West are hosting an event this weekend where you can meet two of the Labour leadership candidates.

Roast busters – not prosecuted?

Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, October 29th, 2014 - 182 comments

“A lack of evidence”. Seriously?

Update: Confirmed.

Dairy Workers back Andrew Little

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 29th, 2014 - 35 comments

The Dairy Workers Union has officially endorsed Andrew Little’s bid for the Labour leadership.

ImperatorFish: There appears to be an off button

Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, October 29th, 2014 - 16 comments

Scott wonders how we can get around the wonder of whether John Key is currently Prime Minister

There is no child poverty in New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, October 29th, 2014 - 64 comments

A recently published UNICEF report on levels of child poverty amongst developed economies suggests that despite our rockstar economy and our brighter future child poverty levels in New Zealand have stagnated since 2008 while in Australia meaningful changes have been made.

Bat Bean Beam: Dirty journalism

Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, October 29th, 2014 - 32 comments

Giovanni Tiso on Bat Bean Beam is pulling at the threads of the connections between National’s dirty politics and journalism.

Distractify

Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, October 29th, 2014 - 28 comments

While shepherding through horrendous housing changes and removing workers’ rights – and hiding from Dirty Politics – John Key needs a big “look over there!”

Open mike 29/10/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:52 am, October 29th, 2014 - 156 comments

Open mike is your post. The Standard is not a conspiracy – just a welcome outlet for the expression of views. Leaders that command respect will not be undermined by this. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Slater sued

Written By: - Date published: 8:49 pm, October 28th, 2014 - 53 comments

Radio NZ has a post up “Tribunal hears blogger privacy case”. A prosecution of Cameron Slater under the Privacy Act for breaching Matthew Blomfields privacy. I suspect that over the next 3-4 days Slater will ponce around acting out courtroom fantasies that have little to do with the law. And will probably get hammered. Good. (Updated)

NRT: Cronyism in Christchurch II

Written By: - Date published: 6:39 pm, October 28th, 2014 - 18 comments

Back in August, National announced they were handing a $284 million contract to build a new convention centre in Christchurch to a consortium which included the Speaker’s brother. From the outside, it looks like cronyism, if not outright corruption…

Emmerson – The bloodsucker’s treat

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, October 28th, 2014 - 6 comments

emmerson-employment

Questions for the candidates

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, October 28th, 2014 - 120 comments

The live Q&A sessions have been great, but we would like to put some written questions to each of the Labour leadership candidates, so that more detailed answers can be compared. Suggestions please…

National losing the middle?

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, October 28th, 2014 - 133 comments

In its first term, National was very careful to be incremental – Key hung to the middle, chipping away carefully at workers’ rights without doing anything dramatic. Having gained the public’s trust by continuing (outside the House) to be a clown they’d like to have a drink with, they went with one big hit with […]

Open mike 28/10/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:48 am, October 28th, 2014 - 167 comments

Open mike is your post. The Standard is not a conspiracy – just a welcome outlet for the expression of views. Leaders that command respect will not be undermined by this. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

All Things Being Equal…

Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, October 27th, 2014 - 173 comments

Assuming that all four contenders for leadership of Labour are equally worthy, there is a defining factor that ought to be considered…vulnerability to attack.

Save our tea breaks

Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, October 27th, 2014 - 60 comments

Labour hopes to collect signatures for this petition over Labour Weekend…

Labour day – thank a unionist

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 27th, 2014 - 72 comments

Today is a day to celebrate the rights hard won by workers and unions, past and present. There’s a reason it’s called “Labour Day” not “Free Market Day”…

Open mike 27/10/2014

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 27th, 2014 - 137 comments

Open mike is your post. The Standard is not a conspiracy – just a welcome outlet for the expression of views. Leaders that command respect will not be undermined by this. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

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