Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, August 3rd, 2022 - 25 comments
A new Ipsos poll has some good news.
Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, August 3rd, 2022 - 45 comments
Remember when National’s Chris Bishop thought that Labour was not being staunch enough of mandates? He now thinks that Labour is being too staunch.
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 13 comments
The latest attempt to construct a sensible political donations regime will likely again prove to be full of holes. Going back to basics would be much better. The good news is that the basics were comprehensively assessed 36 years ago by the 1986 Royal Commission on Electoral Reform. It recommended state funding.
Written By: - Date published: 2:44 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 6 comments
Judge Jagose’s decision to acquit two persons linked to New Zealand First charged with obtaining control over $750,000 has opened up rather large holes in the obligations of political parties to report donations.
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 48 comments
Labour announced earlier in the year that it would give a $350 cash transfer to all New Zealanders earning less than $70,000.
Except beneficiaries.
Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, July 29th, 2022 - 62 comments
The NHS is shutting down its gender identity clinic for children after a damning review found that it failed vulnerable under-18s.
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, July 29th, 2022 - 12 comments
Academic activism and speaking truth to power.
Written By: - Date published: 1:31 pm, July 28th, 2022 - 44 comments
The kicker in Andrea Vance’s Blue Blood, her insider’s view of the splatter-movie that has been the National Party since John Key stepped down, is that the best yet is in production. She chronicles treachery that has become the modus operandi of the vacuous vipers inhabiting the caucus. Details of the dirty work induce you to turn the page for more. It doesn’t look like Luxon is the redeemer.
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, July 28th, 2022 - 9 comments
New Zealand has been overdue to show strong results in the Pacific Islands. Not a moment too soon, this is what Prime Minister Ardern delivered.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 27th, 2022 - 58 comments
The question of what has happened to Christopher Luxon was answered yesterday in a shambolic messy way that must have National operatives in despair.
Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, July 26th, 2022 - 60 comments
There have been some spectacularly bad takes on Green Party leadership issues by voices on the right and academia which were all shown to be spectacularly wrong after Chloe Swarbrick announced that she was not seeking the Green Party leadership.
Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, July 25th, 2022 - 16 comments
Andrea Vance’s book Blood Bath provides an insider’s view of the carnage that erupted in the National Party from 2017 to 2021. And while things have calmed down under Christopher Luxon’s his weaknesses, including his glossing over the importance of policy detail and his tendency to bag businesses has been noted.
Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, July 24th, 2022 - 189 comments
The tension in the Green Party is between pragmatism and the need for urgent system change.
For the public, there’s no need to panic. Dissent is valuable and healthy in politics. It sits alongside trusting that the Greens know how to manage their internal processes even if the public at large doesn’t understand them well.
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, July 24th, 2022 - 53 comments
Brian Tamaki and Vision New Zealand supporters sought to improve levels of support by causing significant congestion in Auckland city yesterday.
Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, July 21st, 2022 - 57 comments
Europe is leading the global fight against climate change by rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels. This now includes fully renationalising energy companies and forced decreases in gas use. What could New Zealand learn?
Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, July 19th, 2022 - 26 comments
It would be tidy for New Zealand and Australian leaders to blame China’s debt within Sri Lanka for its collapse, so that they could scare Pacific Island nations back into the fold. It would be wrong.
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, July 18th, 2022 - 37 comments
I watched the Rugby test on Saturday night. One side played with passion and vigour. Their forward pack dominated and the defensive effort from the backs was superb. The other side was the All Blacks who displayed all the passion and vigour of a National Party conference.
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, July 16th, 2022 - 90 comments
Although we still compare favourably to the vast majority of Western nations in terms of our Covid response our performance has been eclipsed by Japan and Singapore, two nations which strong mask mandates and cultural norms supporting the wearing of masks.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, July 14th, 2022 - 28 comments
During January of this year Christopher Luxon described the traffic light system as confusing. This week he described it as “very, very confusing”. It is of concern that he appears not to have learned about what the rules require in the meantime.
Written By: - Date published: 1:58 pm, July 11th, 2022 - 33 comments
The Media Council has upheld a complaint against a Bryce Edwards article published on RNZ’s website that incorrectly stated that Labour went into the 2020 election promising to break up the supermarket duopoly and bring down the cost of food and that the policy was essentially dead when the policy only promised to conduct a market study using the Commerce Commission.
Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, July 8th, 2022 - 19 comments
At the very time that the United Kingdom Conservative Government is imploding National leader Chris Luxon is visiting to get new ideas on how to run a country.
Written By: - Date published: 6:03 am, July 8th, 2022 - 41 comments
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Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, July 7th, 2022 - 213 comments
Right now Labour is preparing the ground for its run at 2023’s election with new policy. New policy must be wildly popular. What could make Labour popular enough to them back leading a third term in government?
Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, July 7th, 2022 - 22 comments
Remember Steven Joyce who claimed there was a $11.7 billion dollar hole in Labour’s alternative budget? Another example of his negotiation prowess has recently received media attention and the only conclusion that can be drawn is that his ability to analyse crown accounts is matched by his ability to negotiate.
Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, July 6th, 2022 - 41 comments
In the United Kingdom Boris Johnson’s government has been brought to its knees because of a sex scandal, surprisingly not one involving himself.
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, July 5th, 2022 - 68 comments
With a second wave of Covid infections starting and with new potentially more serious variants emerging it may be time for the Government to consider a return to the Covid red setting.
Written By: - Date published: 12:34 pm, July 4th, 2022 - 69 comments
Jacinda Ardern has just completed three overseas trips. The cumulative benefits for the country are extraordinary and I have never witnessed anything similar from another New Zealand leader. But local responses from sectors of the media have been muted. Why is this?
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, July 2nd, 2022 - 26 comments
Before her involvement in the European Union Free Trade Agreement negotiations Jacinda Ardern was accused of “scattering stardust” in a vain attempt to get an agreement over the line. If this is an example of Jacinda scattering stardust then long may she continue to do so.
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, July 1st, 2022 - 38 comments
Yesterday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave a speech/comments to NATO outlining our position on NATO, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, multilateral diplomacy, our region, and nuclear proliferation. Plus of course she helped to finally get the EU trade treaty over the line. Her ‘comments’ are worth reading and commenting on because I suspect that they align pretty well to our societies general position.
Written By: - Date published: 12:34 pm, June 30th, 2022 - 19 comments
Sometimes the egregious spin gets too much. And when developers who want a compact urban form are telling Auckland Council that its plans are not working you know Auckland Council has a problem.
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, June 30th, 2022 - 14 comments
Fresh from his attempt to alienate the female vote by being equivocal on if a National Government would move to restrict access to abortions yesterday Christopher Luxon compounded things by purporting to speak for all women.
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