Politics

Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation

Categories under Politics

Mountain Tui: Luxon’s $1000 A Week Is His “Entitlement”. Just Not Yours.

Written By: - Date published: 1:06 pm, August 14th, 2024 - 32 comments

When Luxon claimed $1000 a week of tax-free, taxpayers money for accommodation, because he didn’t want the 2 free properties he was offered, he said he was entitled to it. But according to the government, all beneficiaries now require harsher rules or risk having their entitlements stripped. Yet only ~5% aren’t compliant and last quarter, 1500 were cut off. What do the numbers say?

Mountain Tui: Beneficiary sanctions & targets don’t add up

Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, August 13th, 2024 - 9 comments

The jobseeker beneficiary sanctions and targets are not adding up. It also inflicts a lack of dignity and shame on recipients at a time when austerity is actively increasing unemployment.

NZ not attending Nagasaki event, insists decision unrelated to Israel invite snub

Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, August 12th, 2024 - 27 comments

New Zealand’s decision to stay away from the event in Nagasaki paying tribute to victims of the city’s 1945 nuclear bombing called outrageous.

What does this Government have against Te Ao Māori?

Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, August 11th, 2024 - 28 comments

Te Ao Māori forms an increasingly important part of our cultural identity. And most of us realise this and celebrate it. This Government’s stance is at odds with this increasingly strong consensus.

Gender Essentialists Hate the Olympics

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, August 10th, 2024 - 157 comments

The Olympics are a real persistent problem for gender essentialists.

We should have kept the power company shares

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, August 9th, 2024 - 29 comments

Shane Jones, went onto radio yesterday and pledged a solution to high power prices. What are his chances and why are we in this mess?

Maritime Union v Willis

Written By: - Date published: 12:16 pm, August 7th, 2024 - 49 comments

National’s decision to cancel the replacement Cook Strait ferry project is developing into a full blown political crisis for the Government with estimates that it could cost the Crown up to a billion dollars and with further costs to come.

Don’t give me culture, I’m not hearing you Chris

Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, August 7th, 2024 - 18 comments

“Don’t give me culture, I’m not hearing you Rob. I can buzz around like a Beehive boy, but I’d like to see you do my job”

Luxon is numerically illiterate

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, August 7th, 2024 - 5 comments

National has been caught out yet again using dubious analysis of data to justify policy.

David Seymour and his relationship to Atlas Network – Could this affect the fate of 7AA?

Written By: - Date published: 1:35 pm, August 6th, 2024 - 6 comments

Seymour was once called the “most dangerous man in Aotearoa right now.” But is he just misunderstood? Let’s revisit Section 7AA and Karen Chhour’s tears too.

Another Minister lauds their own incompetence

Written By: - Date published: 4:36 pm, August 5th, 2024 - 32 comments

Another minister is lauding themselves falsely. David Seymour bragged about school attendance at the start of term three, and claiming the credit for that happening. The problem is that it was worse than the attendance for the start of term two. It was a worse school attendance after he tried to improve attendance. Is he competent as a minister?

Mountain Tui: New Zealanders are now dying from an underfunded health system

Written By: - Date published: 12:41 pm, August 5th, 2024 - 5 comments

After months of warnings from doctors, nurses and hospitals, a Northland patient is dead after no doctors were present at the hospital. The budget cuts and chosen austerity measures are hurting us all. Here’s more.

The Promises of Lange, Moore, Bolger, and the WTO

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, August 4th, 2024 - 26 comments

In 2024 we ought to ask if the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s has delivered on what was promised. 

About Karen Chhour’s future

Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, August 3rd, 2024 - 27 comments

Act minister Karen Chhour has recently adopted the mantle of victimhood and claimed that she has been under attack and feels unsafe in Parliament. But the attacks are not personal and are motivated by the damage her party is causing to Oranga Tamariki as well as to the country’s race relations.

ALP knows how to redress wrongs. NZ dithers

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, August 2nd, 2024 - 5 comments

God Bless the ALP, Bill Shorten and all the Labour MP’s across the ditch for tackling the real issues facing people with disabilities in Australia. It takes courage, fortitude, a good heart to seek redress to wrongs done to the weakest amongst us. They are taking those steps.

NZ government are just good at dithering.

Luxon is accused of spreading “disinformation”

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, August 1st, 2024 - 21 comments

The PM of NZ is accused of spreading intentional disinformation on Health NZ as the evidence piles up against the Coalition government. Here’s how it went down.

Act plays the race card and the victim card

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, August 1st, 2024 - 27 comments

Yesterday in Parliament was pretty weird. Act MPs staged a show down event and expressed increasing dissatisfaction with their Government’s speaker Gerry Brownlee.

Woefully misinformed or intentionally mangling the truth?

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, July 30th, 2024 - 26 comments

Senior medical figures have questioned the accuracy of what the Government is saying about the health crisis in Northland. And in an example of unbelievably bad timing it has been revealed that the Goverment put aside $216 million to fund a exise duty reduction for Phillip Morris.

Mountain Tui: Who will hold Chris Luxon and Shane Reti accountable for the Health NZ deception?

Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, July 29th, 2024 - 21 comments

Since Shane Reti and Christopher Luxon announced the Health NZ cost “blowout” and an unexpected deficit, the truth has emerged, and it’s all becomes stranger than fiction. Which claims were accurate? And which seemed to be a case of misrepresentation?

They are going to privatise health, aren’t they

Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, July 28th, 2024 - 50 comments

This Government continues its trend to resembling something akin to Liz Truss’s rule of England. And Health is clearly among its targets.

A short history of National’s fascination with boot camps

Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, July 27th, 2024 - 24 comments

Just as with the Three Strikes Policy National has never seen an irrational itch it will not scratch for political advantage. Despite the reality.

National sneakily reduces child poverty targets

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, July 26th, 2024 - 19 comments

It has emerged that National has sneakily reduced child poverty targets.

The Abuse in Care report and the Government’s boot camp proposal

Written By: - Date published: 10:53 am, July 25th, 2024 - 24 comments

The Royal Commission’s recently released report into abuse in care has highlighted how unsuccessful and how damaging boot camps can be at the time the Government is celebrating the opening of its latest attempted version of a boot camp.

Mountain Tui: Can we talk about New Zealand’s health system?

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, July 23rd, 2024 - 96 comments

Christopher Luxon and Shane Reti took the extraordinary step of removing the Health NZ Board and replacing it with a Health Commissioner. Why did they do that and will it help the real issues facing our health system?

Biden goes, Kamala Harris for US president

Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, July 22nd, 2024 - 80 comments

“My intention is to earn and win this nomination’

Will he stay or will he go

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, July 21st, 2024 - 70 comments

I can’t remember American politics ever being this weird. Donald Trump is riding a wave of support and risks being returned to the White House as President. And Joe Biden is considering his options.

National’s carbon budget is a crock

Written By: - Date published: 7:26 pm, July 18th, 2024 - 16 comments

It is now clear why Simon Watts rushed out a three page brochure setting out what this Government’s response to climate change will be. It knew that the latest Climate Change Emissions Reduction Plan was coming out for consultation. And that it could not come up with a credible plan.

PSA wins an important case about collective agreements

Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, July 18th, 2024 - 3 comments

The PSA just won an important case in the Employment Relations Authority against the Ministry of Education about collective agreements. There are significiant downstream implications to planned layoffs, legal fights, and Nicola Willis’s already tax cut strained budget.

Mountain Tui: ‘Corruption First’ Strikes Again – Is the National, ACT, and New Zealand Government in tobacco’s pocket?

Written By: - Date published: 3:53 pm, July 18th, 2024 - 10 comments

A track record of deception and pro tobacco industry policies is becoming evident in the Coalition. Casey Costello is at it again, this time quietly halving excise tax for some tobacco products. This is the first time in NZ’s history to have reduced excise on tobacco. We should all ask ‘Why now?’

Minister Bishop’s Misguided Legislation

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, July 18th, 2024 - 32 comments

Chris Bishop’s plan to “flood the market” with housing development described as being “unaffordable, unworkable and unfair” is also “unsustainable” and even “unhinged”.

Tui: National Party’s Local Water Done Well – A more expensive 3 Waters with potential for privatisation

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, July 18th, 2024 - 4 comments

Simeon Brown is working on National’s New 3 Waters called “Local Water Done Well.” But is it just a more expensive version with a privatisation catch?