Author Archive

Ginny Andersen a rising star

Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, May 11th, 2014 - 38 comments

The very impressive Ginny Andersen topped a strong group of candidates at yesterday’s Wellington list conference. She’s worked for the police for the past eight years in policy and community work, is married with four children, one very new. She is also Labour’s candidate for Ohariu, and her  awareness of the pressures families are facing allied to her energy and experience will offer the voters of that electorate a very fresh alternative to the tired and lack-lustre Peter Dunne.

Most Valuable Person

Written By: - Date published: 12:44 pm, May 9th, 2014 - 4 comments

Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder was voted NBA MVP by 119 votes to 6 for LeBron James. If you want a lift, his acceptance speech is well worth a watch – what a man! With his hugely generous spirit, it also shows how much a team means to the man carrying the main load. He gives New Zealand’s Steven Adams a very good rap among many others.

 

Perfect time for a positive programme

Written By: - Date published: 3:56 pm, May 8th, 2014 - 35 comments

With the government increasingly on the back foot , and one good Morgan poll out, now is the perfect time for Labour to come out with a positive programme for its approach to alternative government in the interests of all New Zealanders. Labour has a lot of great policy, and four months out from an election people want to hear it – all in one place, all the dots connected up, and clearly presented as relevant to regular Kiwis’ interest.

The Fields of Anfield Road

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, April 14th, 2014 - 38 comments

Another great day at the Goose, watching Liverpool come back to beat Manchester City in one of the crucial derby matches that will decide the Premier League winner.  The thing I like most at the minute about Liverpool is their purpose-driven directness – no pusillanimous reliance on permutation for the Reds.

You’ll never walk alone

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, March 31st, 2014 - 32 comments

Just spent a couple of hours in “The Goose” in Walthamstow watching Liverpool outclass Spurs 4-0 to go top of the Premier League table. Nobody gave them a chance at season’s start, but what a difference good strategy and management can make – belief, commitment, determination and the willingness to work for each other.

Officials’ dinners off in China

Written By: - Date published: 4:50 am, March 16th, 2014 - 36 comments

Fran O’Sullivan thinks that the only reason why Collins is still a Minister was Key’s need to save face in his impending visit to China. I think Key may have got a better reception from Xi Jinping if he had followed the Chinese leader’s example of taking a hard line on  dinner-table corruption and sacked Collins.

UK Labour goes OMOV

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 pm, March 2nd, 2014 - 9 comments

UK Labour’s special conference  yesterday changed the Party’s rules for leadership selection, and the basis for affiliate involvement. One-person-one-vote is the general rule, and block voting for leadership and selection by affiliates including unions is replaced by individual and intentional involvement.

Home thoughts from abroad

Written By: - Date published: 7:19 pm, February 20th, 2014 - 55 comments

Porirua mayor Nick Leggett has put up a couple  interesting posts about Labour’s prospects in the upcoming election in progressonline.  I think his political message is timely and true: Labour’s approach to this election cannot be “just a list of things that you’re against,” rather it should focus on what it’s for, and what it will do for New Zealanders. That could be very popular with voters.

Easy Vote or Voter Intimidation?

Written By: - Date published: 9:19 pm, February 17th, 2014 - 123 comments

Good to see Labour has stood up against National’s “harder-to-vote” revisions to the Electoral Amendment Bill, especially making voters now have to state their name to get a voting paper. The reason for this is to allow scrutineers to more easily challenge a voter’s credentials, and is similar to voter intimidation practices in conservative States in the US. Expect  National Party scrutineers questioning more voter credentials in the 2014 election.

Mindless questions

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, February 13th, 2014 - 304 comments

The question I’d like the media to ask is “Where did John Key get his information that Winston visited DotCom three times?” Most likely source it seems to me is the GCSB. I think Winston  may have a point about his right to privacy.

Economy-wide benefits of Living Wage?

Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, February 11th, 2014 - 11 comments

An interesting article by Colin James in today’s ODT on the living wage proposals and how lifting may have wider economic benefits. Whether one agrees with him or not, he is widely read, independent, well-connected and what I like most always thoughtful and forward-looking. I miss him from the  DomPost.

Key’s transparent gerrymander

Written By: - Date published: 8:12 pm, February 9th, 2014 - 101 comments

For John Key, MMP stands for “Manipulate Members of Parliament”. Senior journalists are beginning to call him on the games he’s playing, and good on them; gerrymander entered the New Zealand political lexicon at Key’s press conference this week. Key wants to push the issues away till closer to the election, when he’ll know what his polling is telling him – I hope the gallery don’t let him.

Geoff Bertram on single-buyer for electricity

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, February 6th, 2014 - 30 comments

Economist Dr Geoff Bertram will analyse prospects for the single-buyer model for electricity on Tuesday 11 February in Wellington. Bertram has come under personal attack from  the Electricity Authority for his analysis of price rises for power consumers. Fairfax analyst Chalkie calls the Authority’s report a “clever fallacious and deceptive.. politically led effort  to discredit the Labour/Green single buyer policy.” Extraordinary. All welcome – register with the Fabians.

National’s policy working – under-employment at record high

Written By: - Date published: 6:06 pm, February 4th, 2014 - 37 comments

Roy Morgan survey reports New Zealand under-employment – those working part-time but looking for more work – has jumped to a record high 11.3% (up 2.7%). Simon Bridges’ policies to create precarious employment seem to be working.

National’s “harder-to-vote” Electoral Bill

Written By: - Date published: 5:27 pm, January 26th, 2014 - 77 comments

There’s another sign National is getting a bit desperate at the beginning of election year 2014, as they reach in to the Tory trick-bag of voter suppression in the revised Electoral Amendment Bill reported back to the House on 18 December 2013.

National’s first strategic mistake

Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, January 22nd, 2014 - 109 comments

John Key  has made a major strategic mistake with his early announcement of the parties National could go into government with.  In framing the 2014 campaign as a contest between two blocs he has given away National’s trump card for gaining Winston’s support – support the largest party. Opportunity time for a positive alternative from Labour/Greens.

How big were the TPPA gimmes, John?

Written By: - Date published: 7:14 pm, January 16th, 2014 - 82 comments

News of today’s leak in the TPPA reminded me how John Key conceded Barack Obama’s third putt in their Hawaii golf photo-op.  Golfers call it a “gimme.” I have absolutely no doubt the leaders will have discussed TPPA bottom lines on the golf course. Key will have made some concessions, but with his record of accommodating American corporate interest one can only hope he will not turn out to have given too much of our Pharmac away.

Reef piranha

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 pm, December 22nd, 2013 - 42 comments

Today’s Herald editorial gets one thing right – a media pack has turned on Len Brown. But it’s not gutsy journalism – it comes straight out of the Rupert Murdoch playbook. Len’s latest sin is his upgrades – EY says  they total  $32,000 for 64 occasions. That’s $500 an upgrade, which seems  a lot on top of what Len paid. The report does not detail how this total was arrived at, and I cannot find any example of any journalist asking questions about it.

A Tale of Two Cities

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 pm, December 19th, 2013 - 91 comments

It was the best of times in Wellington today. Council workers will get a living wage, and parking wardens will become council employees so they will get decent pay also. It was the worst of times in Auckland as the right-wing Scrooges having failed to remove Mayor Len Brown took it out on their workers by overturning his call for a living wage for Council staff.

Thanks Wikileaks

Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, November 14th, 2013 - 38 comments

Wikileaks have released the TPP advanced draft chapter on intellectual property. It includes the government positions on the main issues, including all those where the New Zealand negotiators are opposed to the US. As citizens we should all support our New Zealand negotiators and insist that  the Key government does not cave in to US interests. The stakes are too high.

Collins ducks the questions again

Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, November 12th, 2013 - 23 comments

In today’s Herald Judith Collins again sidesteps the questions on trial processes on sexual abuse cases posed last week by Jan Logie and Andrew Little. The Minister for No is now dead keen to be seen to be doing something. I think  she should take up Metiria Turei’s suggestion to set up an all-party  group to consider the issues. One thing is absolutely clear; all wisdom does not reside in the mind of this Minister.

Bring back Simon Power

Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, November 8th, 2013 - 27 comments

This week in Parliament Judith Collins was in full-on “no” mode – no to alternative trial process for sexual abuse cases, and no to changes to the law of evidence in sexual abuse cases rising from Law Commission work commissioned by Simon Power. This morning on National Radio Jan Jordan of Victoria University called for that extensive work to be revisited. I think she is absolutely right; if carried through it can only lead to a better outcome than what we have at the moment.

The Prime Nanny

Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, November 7th, 2013 - 23 comments

Parliament’s  Chief Nanny has been in full flight this week, trying to slap down questions from Jan Logie and Andrew Little about trial processes for sexual abuse cases. Nanny was very strict. Everyone else had got it wrong, and needed to be corrected. When Nanny got it wrong herself, as she did when answering Andrew Little, she backed off  quickly. When he challenged “so you don’t want to change anything”, she found the mild heckling “abusive”, which certainly does raise the bar, at least for herself.

Populists v Plutocrats

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 pm, November 4th, 2013 - 12 comments

Democrat Bill de Blasio is almost 40 points clear of his Republican rival in the race for Mayor of New York City. His parents were investigated for communist sympathies. An anti-apartheid poster hangs on his kitchen wall. He loves Europe’s social democrats, admires Latin American liberation theology and is poised to confound the conservative trend in US politics by sweeping to an improbable triumph as the next Mayor of New York in this week’s elections. There are some lessons from our local elections too.

Good news me, bad news you

Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, October 31st, 2013 - 14 comments

Clare Trevett details in today’s Herald how Key has taken to bringing Ministers with good news to his Monday news conferences “to lambast the media with good news about the progress being made in a certain area.” Sources tell me that the good news goes well beyond the Monday presser. Ministerial staff run a filter across all portfolio announcements: if it’s  good news, the Minister gets to make the announcement. If its not such good news, the job goes to the Departmental head.

Press freedom and politics

Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, October 30th, 2013 - 27 comments

Rebekah Brooks, once Rupert Murdoch’s favourite editor, is in the dock in London charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Rupert then turned his attention to his former home, Australia, again focussing the weight of his tabloids on Labor, first Gillard then Rudd.  With a few exceptions, when it comes to politics it is the proprietors or the boardrooms that make the decisions, not the editors.

What’s in a glance?

Written By: - Date published: 3:37 pm, October 26th, 2013 - 50 comments

David Jones QC argues Banks could not have signed a false declaration of election donations because he did not read it. But  Banks’ campaign manager’s evidence was that Banks  “glanced at it before signing it.” The Oxford dictionary defines “glance” as “take a quick or hurried look;” “read quickly or cursorily.” So Banks did read the donations return. It would have been hard to miss the $15,690 recorded as both a radio expense and an anonymous donation which he had personally solicited.

The “cabbage boat” defence.

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, October 18th, 2013 - 33 comments

It’s starting to look pretty shredded. Increasingly, it seems that John Banks has “got nothing to hide” – behind. The key question is what Banks knew when he signed a declaration recording known donations as anonymous. Paul Holmes did put the question directly to Banks on Q+A last year. He didn’t get a straight answer; Banks tried the cabbage boat defence.

Bridges over troubled waters

Written By: - Date published: 11:17 pm, October 17th, 2013 - 43 comments

Simon Bridges rose to John Banks’ defence in today’s snap debate in Parliament. For one of National’s supposed bright hopes, a leader of the future we are told, I thought he was pretty pathetic. Watch and contrast it with Grant Robertson’s superb speech. I think the tide is running out for National.

Roy Morgan – easy win for Labour/Greens?

Written By: - Date published: 6:54 pm, October 17th, 2013 - 104 comments

The latest Roy Morgan poll has Labour 37%, Green 12.5%, and National down to 41.5%. As Roy Morgan says, this is the closest Labour has been since 2008.  Morgan’s comment: “If a National Election were held now the latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows that a Labour/ Greens alliance would win easily.” The Conservatives have dropped from 2% to 0.5% – no help there.

The fish rots from the head

Written By: - Date published: 8:12 pm, October 16th, 2013 - 91 comments

Today’s decision that John Banks will stand trial for signing a false donations return signals the beginning of the end of the Key government. Increasingly it resembles the last days of the Shipley government only worse, as corruption replaces shambles. The decision also puts the famous tea party conversation between Key and Banks, where they stitched up the deal to provide the present Government’s majority, into new perspective.

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