Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, February 2nd, 2024 - 46 comments
Recent disclosure of the actions of associate Minister of Health Casey Costello raises the extraordinary possibility that British American Tobacco may be having an undue influence on the setting of the Government’s smoking policies.
Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, February 1st, 2024 - 48 comments
Yesterday in Parliament Christopher Luxon showed that he is struggling on the job.
Written By: - Date published: 3:43 pm, January 30th, 2024 - 17 comments
Western Nations including New Zealand have suspended urgently needed aid for Palestine after revelations that a tiny minority of UNRHA workers may have been involved in Hamas raids and despite the UNHRA taking immediate action to address issues arising.
Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, January 29th, 2024 - 30 comments
The last week has shown how Christopher Luxon has no understanding of New Zealand’s history and no appreciation about how dangerous Act’s proposed Treaty Principles Bill is.
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, January 27th, 2024 - 26 comments
This week there were two pieces of economic news showing a dramatic improvement credit for which should be given to the last Labour Government.
Written By: - Date published: 9:36 am, January 25th, 2024 - 78 comments
Hot on the heels of the Government’s walk back from the previous Government’s smoke free policies is the disclosure that the Government is considering halting increases to excise duties on tobacco. And the Government tried to hide this.
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, January 21st, 2024 - 191 comments
The Act Party is seeking to undermine te Tiriti o Waitangi and ferment racial hatred and division while nominally seeking unity. And National clearly has no idea what to do about the situation.
Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, January 19th, 2024 - 22 comments
The Independent Electoral Review Panel has recommended changes to the electoral system including the banning of any donations unless made by enrolled voters, a cap on the size of those donations and a requirement that third parties disclose all large donations that they receive.
Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, January 18th, 2024 - 53 comments
The Council of Trade Unions has completed its annual survey of workers and the mood is grim.
Written By: - Date published: 2:17 pm, January 17th, 2024 - 71 comments
At a time when we need cool heads and leaders who understand the enormity of the problem that is climate change and the consequences of getting our response right we are getting this retrograde culture war from people who should know better.
Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, January 16th, 2024 - 13 comments
The day after Christopher Luxon made the pilgrimage to meet with Kiingi Tuuheitia and try and calm feelings ahead of the Weekend’s hui at Ngaruwahia to discuss the Government’s attacks on Te Tiriti and Te Reo Shane Jones went onto Morning Report and applied the blowtorch to Luxon’s attempt to keep matters calm.
Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, January 16th, 2024 - 77 comments
Green MP Golriz Ghahrahman has resigned from Parliament.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, January 7th, 2024 - 115 comments
A George Monbiot article in the Guardian made me wonder what effect the Atlas Network is having on New Zealand politics through the Taxpayer’s Union. Publicly available information suggests considerable funding is being made available and that the current Government’s priorities are precisely those that the Atlas Network would approve of.
Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, January 3rd, 2024 - 106 comments
In the United Kingdom Keir Starmer’s refusal to call for a cease fire in Gaza and his claim that holding back food and water for Gaza was justified has put him increasingly at odds with Labour members and MPs. Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn’s expulsion as a Labour MP is puzzling, particularly given that his stance on Palestine is increasingly justified.
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, December 29th, 2023 - 29 comments
National’s 100 days of action is frankly performative nonsense. But it did not include the repeal of the Tax Principles Reporting Act which National smashed through under urgency in the last sitting day of Parliament. What was it trying to hide?
Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, December 25th, 2023 - 4 comments
It is Christmas time and the eternal debate about who wrote the best Christmas song ever is being debated yet again. For me there is only one possible contender.
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, December 24th, 2023 - 20 comments
Someone should tell the Taxpayer’s Union. Some Local Councils are planning to put rates up by double digit figures. And the Government is planning on exempting them from discussing this with ratepayers.
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, December 20th, 2023 - 19 comments
So National’s shock and awe campaign is under way. And the first target is Kainga Ora.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 pm, December 18th, 2023 - 18 comments
This is the only possible explanation. As well as celebrating all things car National has a pathological hatred of cycleways and walkways and public transport.
Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, December 17th, 2023 - 35 comments
Judith Collins has been appointed a Kings Counsel even before she has had time to show her performance as Attorney General and even though previous highly respected lawyers such as David Lange, Geoffrey Palmer and Margaret Wilson were not appointed while serving as Attorneys General.
Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, December 15th, 2023 - 30 comments
National has this week chosen to smash through under urgency legislation that will increase unemployment and interest rates, reduce workers wages and increase the country’s emissions of greenhouse gasses.
Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, December 13th, 2023 - 24 comments
In one speech Shane Jones has talked about the “hysteria surrounding climate change”, promised to disregard targets agreed to under the Paris Agreement, ordered the halting of work at the Ministry for the Environment, promised the lifting the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration at pace, and said that Mining on Department of Conservation (DoC) and Stewardship land is also in the pipeline.
Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, December 12th, 2023 - 183 comments
Yesterday’s protest at Te Papa is but a teaser of what can be expected when Act’s Treaty Principles Bill is introduced.
Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, December 12th, 2023 - 38 comments
So Christopher Luxon thinks there is too much immigration. It was not what he was saying last year.
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, December 9th, 2023 - 15 comments
Another day and another leak. And this time it calls into question the Government’s commitment to informed decision making.
Written By: - Date published: 12:39 pm, December 7th, 2023 - 33 comments
My initial impression was that the person who leaked the Fair Pay Cabinet Paper to the media was probably a disgruntled Public Servant but was it?
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, December 6th, 2023 - 177 comments
It may have been coincidental but the day after there were mass protests against the new Government’s actions in undermining te Tiriti o Waitangi it was announced that National would seek to remove bonus payments for Public Servants learning Te Reo. Not only is this petty and vindictive, it may also be a breach of te Tiriti.
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, December 5th, 2023 - 75 comments
Recent claims by Nicola Willis that the Governments Finances are full of fiscal cliffs is evidence either that National will cynically make baseless claims to attack Labour or that Nicola Willis has no idea about what she is talking about and has not been doing her most basic job of reading and comprehending previous budget documents.
Written By: - Date published: 9:49 pm, December 4th, 2023 - 15 comments
The Cabinet Paper dealing with the Government’s proposal to do away with fair pay agreements has hit the media. And the advice suggests that Cabinet is completely disinterested in the on the ground reality of what their shitty policy will do to ordinary Kiwis.
Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, December 3rd, 2023 - 48 comments
This morning on Q&A and despite being pulled up on it Chris Bishop repeated National’s claim that under the Smokefree reforms there would only be allowed one tobacco retail shop in Northland when there would actually be at least 34.
Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, December 2nd, 2023 - 18 comments
For a Government that hates gangs you would think that they would be more circumspect with policies that may enrich gangs and increase illicit drug use. But this is exactly what the current Government is planning.
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