Archive for 2020

The Auckland Central Poll

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, September 20th, 2020 - 33 comments

A Reid Research poll has suggested that Helen White is well ahead of Emma Mellow and Chloe Swarbrick and that Labour’s support is still sky high.

Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death Matters Here

Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, September 20th, 2020 - 27 comments

RBG’s death was an important event for women here because it happened on the anniversary of Women’s Suffrage Day 126 years ago.  On this day in New Zealand we celebrate women being able to vote, the women who won further victories of political liberation, and many got together to recount our female heroes enabled by that right and all those rights that followed.

Open mike 20/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 20th, 2020 - 166 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

National’s lolly scramble tax cuts

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, September 19th, 2020 - 55 comments

Despite claiming that the PREFU figures were catastrophic and despite stating a month ago that it would not do this National has come out with a policy of temporary tax cuts favouring the rich.  They must be desperate.

Open mike 19/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 19th, 2020 - 104 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Daily review 18/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, September 18th, 2020 - 22 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Reti’s running

Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, September 18th, 2020 - 62 comments

Yesterday Shane Reti ignited leadership rumours after he was asked if he wanted to be National leader and did not pledge support for existing leader Judith Collins.

Choosing ‘enough’ rather than ‘more’

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, September 18th, 2020 - 104 comments

A brief look at steady state economics and the values of enough rather than more.

Open mike 18/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 18th, 2020 - 62 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Daily review 17/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, September 17th, 2020 - 65 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Greens: expanding living wage beyond public service with Fair Pay Agreements

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, September 17th, 2020 - 16 comments

The Green Party welcome Labour’s commitment to extend the living wage to Government contractors, but will push for Fair Pay Agreements across industries in the next Government so more New Zealanders can earn a dignified income.

Open mike 17/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 17th, 2020 - 149 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Daily review 16/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, September 16th, 2020 - 3 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Grant Robertson’s crisis leadership

Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, September 16th, 2020 - 22 comments

Much has rightly been made of the leadership quality of Prime Minister Ardern this year. But the PREFU results announced today shows that Minister of FInance Grant Robertson is by a long way the most effective Minister of Finance we have had since Dr Michael Cullen.

The PREFU is much better than National wanted

Written By: - Date published: 4:33 pm, September 16th, 2020 - 51 comments

The Prefu is out! And it is not as scary as National would have wanted.

What just happened with Israel?

Written By: - Date published: 7:21 am, September 16th, 2020 - 40 comments

Just two months before election day, Donald Trump appears to have won a diplomatic coup in the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have normalised relations with the state of Israel.

Open mike 16/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 16th, 2020 - 70 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Daily review 15/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, September 15th, 2020 - 13 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Taxpayer’s Union is wasting taxpayers’ money

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, September 15th, 2020 - 35 comments

The Taxpayer’s Union, which claims to be opposed to Government waste, is wasting taxpayer’s resources by lodging a spurious complaint with the Broadcasting Standards Authority against Labour’s free apprenticeship policy.

Greenpeace on the Green Party’s Farm for the Future policy

Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, September 15th, 2020 - 58 comments

“Wildfires are burning across the world and our rivers and lakes have been pushed to the brink. This is no time for half measures. Phasing out the use of PKE is exactly the kind of bold and transformational policy that is needed to deal with the climate and freshwater crises.”

Open mike 15/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 15th, 2020 - 141 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Daily review 14/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, September 14th, 2020 - 27 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

National’s Upper Harbour problem

Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, September 14th, 2020 - 41 comments

This has been quite a year for National. It is onto its third leader, has lost a slew of experienced MPs, and has had other MPs resign in curious circumstances.  And now it appears that it has a crisis involving its Upper Harbour candidate, Jake Bezzant.

Qanon is here

Written By: - Date published: 7:37 am, September 14th, 2020 - 132 comments

While a few in the media leapt at the opportunity to vilify a small evangelical community at the latest COVID 19 spread, the really big COVID 19-conspiracy story landed by the thousand this weekend. It’s overdue we woke up to QAnon here.

Open mike 14/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 14th, 2020 - 43 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Labour’s social welfare policy

Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, September 13th, 2020 - 62 comments

Labour has announced that if elected they will significantly increase abatement levels for beneficiaries and reinstitute the Training Incentive Allowance Scheme, the policy that Paula Bennett famously had the benefit of but then cancelled once she was Minister.

What is this regenerative agriculture thing anyway?

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, September 13th, 2020 - 32 comments

Given the state of New Zealand land and water, changing how we do farming should be a strong political topic for the left this year. The Greens and Greenpeace are campaigning for a shift to regenerative agriculture, so it’s timely to look at what that is.

Open mike 13/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 13th, 2020 - 138 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Open mike 12/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 12th, 2020 - 143 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Daily review 11/09/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, September 11th, 2020 - 13 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

The Greens sticking to their guns (and their values)

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, September 11th, 2020 - 157 comments

The Greens just boldly stepped up their election campaign.

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