democratic participation

Categories under democratic participation

TPP submissions closing soon

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, March 3rd, 2016 - 7 comments

The current closing date for public submissions on the TPP is Friday March 11th. Labour’s David Clark is calling for an extension.

The Butcher’s Apron or the Tea Towel

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, February 28th, 2016 - 159 comments

Next week the voting on part two of the Key Legacy Project © begins. We’re being given a choice between the outdated and the bland. The Butcher’s Apron or the Tea Towel. Do you care?

JMG: The Decline and Fall of Hillary Clinton

Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, February 27th, 2016 - 74 comments

As with Corbyn, and as with Syriza, the US oligarchy is now finding out that ordinary people are refusing to buy into the status quo regardless of how much big money spin is being spun.

Homosexual law reform happened 30 years ago

Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, February 21st, 2016 - 95 comments

Some thoughts on yesterday’s gay pride parade and why National has in the space of 30 years changed from being deeply anti gay rights to being superficially in support.

Corporate Saviours

Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, February 12th, 2016 - 66 comments

oh, hallelujah…

The end of conventional wisdom?

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 pm, February 6th, 2016 - 69 comments

After Bernie Sanders’ dead-heat with Hillary Clinton in Iowa, the race to the Democrat nomination at the upcoming convention just got much more interesting. A Quinnipiac poll now has him trail her nationally by two points. Just as with Corbyn in Britain, the pundits are tying themselves in knots trying to make sense of it.

Building a mass movement

Written By: - Date published: 3:13 pm, January 19th, 2016 - 61 comments

Republished by request, and permission from Stephanie Rodgers at Boots Theory

[Content note: mentions of transphobia, sexual violence and violence against people of colour]

Local Democracy

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, December 19th, 2015 - 35 comments

Ad discusses a phenomenon where Local Government is having a greater and greater effect on New Zealand’s development.  But local politicians are having less and less effect.

Protection of National Security Information

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, December 15th, 2015 - 10 comments

At the heart of the project is the tension between national interests and individual rights. Questions about how to balance these interests are not new, but they have been brought into sharp focus by recent international events.

Flagpole Sitta

Written By: - Date published: 5:56 pm, December 11th, 2015 - 138 comments

John Key’s $26 million dollar flag flop bores it’s way to the halfway line tonight. The first referendum closes at 7 PM, first results at around 8.30. $26 million … that’s a lot of cancer drugs, child care centres and elder care we won’t be getting because the PM wants a signature legacy his dreary leadership doesn’t actually deserve.

National Ltd™’s Sam Lotu-Iiga tries to pull the wool over our eyes

Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, December 4th, 2015 - 12 comments

It was suggested in Parliament that SERCO’s first place position on the Prison Performance Table had been the result of  Lotu-Iiga and his department having had the wool pulled over their eyes.

Jarrod Gilbert is tilting at windmills

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, November 27th, 2015 - 38 comments

The Official Information Act is now moribund and access to information beyond its scope is granted only to a chosen few and under strict conditions.

Standing in the Shadow of the Red Flag

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, November 25th, 2015 - 47 comments

“Why would Goff stand for the Auckland mayoralty as an independent candidate considering his life-long commitment to the Labour Party?”

Why indeed?

Is it time for Labour to stand candidates in local elections under the party banner? And can the party lift its profile and its general election prospects by being bolder in the provinces?

Boots Theory: Flag referendum 1

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 24th, 2015 - 35 comments

What to do with these ballot papers that just arrived in the mail?

The Tide is High

Written By: - Date published: 6:39 pm, November 15th, 2015 - 91 comments

I’m pleased about the Roy Morgan result. The last RWC was worth 2-3% in the polls to National.  This RWC … nothing.  And in the days since that poll, John Key has overseen an astonishing attack on the women of Parliament. I think we’ve reached Peak Key.

Petition: It’s Not OK Prime Minister

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, November 13th, 2015 - 46 comments

This petition at ActionStation is closing in on 5,000 signatures.

Groser flips the bird to the Judiciary and NZ Laws

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, November 13th, 2015 - 13 comments

The Law? That’s not for Cabinet Members, the Law is for the lazy malcontents who don’t want to work hard.

TPPA national day of action

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, November 13th, 2015 - 26 comments

Saturday November 14 is a national day of action against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.  Details of all protests are set out in the post.

There is Hope.

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, November 10th, 2015 - 65 comments

Anarchism, past and present.

4 days Left to answer Ombudsmen Survey

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, November 3rd, 2015 - 5 comments

People have just four days left to tell the Chief Ombudsman about their experiences of making requests to government agencies under the Official Information Act if they are to inform her enquiry into government agencies’ OIA practices.

Portugal

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, October 27th, 2015 - 38 comments

This is going to end well…

Sobriety

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, October 26th, 2015 - 10 comments

The video excerpt comes from the Yann Arthus-Bertrand film ‘Human’. It’s available to view on youtube.

I LOVE these kinds of stories

Written By: - Date published: 4:37 pm, October 20th, 2015 - 3 comments

““We had an 83-year-old man walking in here to vote for the first time in his life,” she said from near a polling station in Tsuut’ina Nation, near Calgary.”

Bugger the Truth – Getting elected means fooling the poeple

Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, September 19th, 2015 - 34 comments

So, its is not that the voters are idiots, as some suggest the Left are claiming, it is that the Right deliberately lie and mislead to get a vote, on false pretenses. It is the Right who constantly treats voters as gullible idiots, And a media, strangled by shrinking budgets and reduced personnel with less and less time to research rather than regurgitate. Couple that with an increase in non-journalists hogging the space set aside for reporting and elucidating news events… what chance the voter?

Does the left win by tacking to the centre or by being principled?

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, September 13th, 2015 - 162 comments

Jeremy Corbyn’s election provides a further opportunity to discuss if elections should be won by  tacking to the centre or adopting a principled approach to politics.

Syria and Internationalism

Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, September 6th, 2015 - 90 comments

I wonder if the current public outpouring of sympathy for Syrian refugees is nought but a ‘fashion’, or whether it’s the beginnings of a renaissance for internationalism.

NRT: Meh

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, September 1st, 2015 - 92 comments

Today the government announced the four candidates for John Key’s vanity flag referendum: three ferns (one of them the logo of Immigration NZ and the Companies Office) and a koru. And really, all I can say is “meh”. So how about defining a good way of doing a informal or invalid vote on this stupid first referendum on selecting John Key’s underwear..

Finlayson criticises Law Society but gets it wrong

Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, August 28th, 2015 - 38 comments

Chris Finlayson has criticised the New Zealand Law Society for not being aware that a change to the Health and Safety Reform Bill affecting human rights introduced after submissions had been heard was itself being changed.  But all this does is reinforce the Law Society’s criticisms that such provisions should have been part of the original bill.

left wing leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn well ahead

Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, July 29th, 2015 - 25 comments

Hard lefty Jeremy Corbyn has a 22 pt lead in the UK Labour leadership race. The Labour Party Blairites are definitely not happy.

Fuck you Auckland!

Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, July 11th, 2015 - 57 comments

That’s the Nats’ message to Auckland, who are getting a taste of some Canterbury style “democracy”.

The Canterbury rebuild

Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, July 9th, 2015 - 20 comments

The Canterbury Rebuild grinds on with news that CERA is to be replaced by a new entity dubbed Regenerate Canterbury.  But is a name change all that is required?