Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:54 am, January 15th, 2023 - 36 comments
Wayne Brown’s campaign techniques used in the Auckland Mayoral election are likely to be used by National in the election campaign this year.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:01 pm, December 30th, 2022 - 39 comments
It is that time of year again where the events of the year are reviewed and what was notable, noteworthy and notorious.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:19 am, December 26th, 2022 - 116 comments
Even on the one day of the year that is meant to be a day of peace and calm and family some people get triggered by the use of Te Reo.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 9:03 am, December 18th, 2022 - 134 comments
Mawkish sentiment running up to Christmas perhaps, but imagine Luxon or Willis speaking hours after the Christchurch massacre. Only Ardern of the entire Parliament has the ability to govern for calm in the name of the calm we all need.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:57 am, November 28th, 2022 - 35 comments
It is time to set out succinctly and without recourse to abstract nouns exactly what this Labour government has intended, is doing, and how it seeks to alter the country.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:48 am, November 20th, 2022 - 69 comments
2023 is going to hit New Zealanders hard. Since the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes New Zealand has been beset by a new major crisis about once every two years. 2022 was our year off and get ready we are in for a strange and hard recession.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, November 13th, 2022 - 19 comments
If 2020 was the worst year in my lifetime how does 2022 compare?
Written By: advantage - Date published: 9:44 am, October 15th, 2022 - 19 comments
The political question is whether Kiwis currently losing money on paper can remember this: all investment involves risk and it’s entirely fair for our government to only manage so much of that risk and for the rest to fall on us the investor. Will irrational anxiety beat rational risk in our upcoming politics?
Written By: advantage - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 13th, 2022 - 37 comments
Can you be too old to represent your people? New Zealand’s oldest person to first get elected was William Cargill at 71. Australia’ s John Howard was 68 when he retired, and Robert Menzies was 72 when he retired as Prime Minister. The previous US president is now 76 and will likely run again in […]
Written By: weka - Date published: 6:05 am, October 2nd, 2022 - 7 comments
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:04 pm, September 27th, 2022 - 16 comments
Interesting to see how the Russian protest plays out over conscription. Odd things happen in gatherings with tyrants. Jan 6 was one. But Romania 1989 was one Putin will know well.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:26 am, September 20th, 2022 - 41 comments
She’s in the ground and it’s time.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 6:58 am, September 15th, 2022 - 52 comments
When Queen Elizabeth is buried it will be the last time we say goodbye to her. More than her.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, September 7th, 2022 - 39 comments
Many European governments now face a perfect storm of threatened energy security, rising inflation, war-propelled refugee crisis, and climate objectives. New Zealand be warned.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:17 am, August 24th, 2022 - 5 comments
Australian news site Crikey has taken on Murdoch’s News Corp by reposting an article accusing the Murdoch family of being “Donald Trump’s unindicted co-conspirator” and then taking out advertisements in the New York Times inviting Lachlan Murdoch to sue them.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:15 am, August 18th, 2022 - 28 comments
You can be the most moral nation on earth and have no reward for it.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 1:07 pm, August 9th, 2022 - 11 comments
Crises that profoundly test a small developed state like New Zealand have required huge growth in state strength and policy power. But was it the change we needed?
Written By: advantage - Date published: 12:31 pm, June 14th, 2022 - 69 comments
The past couple of years has seen a significant increase in far right activity and rapidly increasing racism.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 6:08 pm, June 12th, 2022 - 16 comments
We are about to have a proper gang control policy contest. It’s about time.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 9:05 am, June 12th, 2022 - 20 comments
The Russian war of aggression against the Ukraine is now three months old. Prepare for a very long grind.
Written By: Incognito - Date published: 10:09 am, June 10th, 2022 - 53 comments
The world is too complex and hostile, so why bother trying to learn and understand.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 6:28 pm, April 26th, 2022 - 9 comments
With RNZ and TVNZ now in full merger mode, we have yet another untested state megalith upon us. But where is the power that will hold it to account?
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:30 am, April 20th, 2022 - 93 comments
RNZ’s recent shock horror reporting on a memo from November 2021 proposing a wind back of MIQ is severely deficient. The framing is one sided and ignores the subsequent emergence of Omicron as a variant of concern.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:09 pm, April 10th, 2022 - 47 comments
A recent study into New Zealand’s media suggests that trust in what the media says is declining and that views of what is good and bad media is more and more dependent on the participant’s world view.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:26 am, April 7th, 2022 - 20 comments
If the 3 Waters reforms can survive its attacks and be implemented, a consequence will be that we are going to have a most enormous nationwide economic argument about the price of water and who pays for it all.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, March 29th, 2022 - 60 comments
New Zealand does not have to settle for being small, quiet, and weak.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:00 am, March 22nd, 2022 - 31 comments
Christchurch Council has billed Destiny Church for traffic management fees relating to recent protests. For once I am firmly if reluctantly on the side of Destiny Church. Exercising the right to protest should not attract Council bills.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, March 17th, 2022 - 351 comments
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelinsky has made a direct appeal broadcast to the United States Congress. That will sort out the Putin supporters from the rest. And with climate change beckoning it is time to pick a side.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:59 am, March 15th, 2022 - 117 comments
In six months time the world could be in a very precarious position.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:30 am, March 1st, 2022 - 18 comments
We will probably never get over the feeling that somehow, if enough people just banded together, it would all get better again, like we did when the United Nations charter was struck.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:52 am, February 20th, 2022 - 72 comments
The Wellington protest has exceeded any moral mandate to protest.
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