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National's Policy Machine is a thing to behold

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, May 16th, 2023 - 99 comments

National’s latest policy brainstorm is to print out and mail to every taxpayer information they could obtain by using Google and MyIRD.

Late Game Bench

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, May 6th, 2023 - 8 comments

Last minutes of this parliamentary term and all teams are subbing out.

National’s weird tenancy policy announcement

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, April 30th, 2023 - 73 comments

This week Chris Bishop announced National’s landlord policy and made the extraordinary claim that making evictions of tenants easier was a progressive pro tenant policy.

The great policy bonfire

Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, March 14th, 2023 - 45 comments

Chris Hipkins continues with his shock and awe campaign and has torched a number of policies that National and Act were using to foment unrest.

Luxon slumps in latest Colmar Brunton poll

Written By: - Date published: 6:18 pm, March 13th, 2023 - 57 comments

The latest One News Kantar Poll result has been released and it is a doozie.

How Activism Dies

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, March 4th, 2023 - 40 comments

If anything progressive is to come out of this current government other than disaster recovery, really focused protest must prevail. It isn’t.

Where is the Free Speech Union when you need it?

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, February 28th, 2023 - 97 comments

Rob Campbell is under some pressure from National and Act for calling out publicly the right’s dog whistle attacks on co governance.  But so far self appointed protector of the right to freedom of speech, the Free Speech Union, has been very quiet.  Why is this?

Climate change – do we mitigate or do we adapt?

Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, February 25th, 2023 - 21 comments

The political debate about climate change is coming to an end as the North Island is battered by the third huge climate change induced storm in a month.  The focus will not be on what to do?  Do we still mitigate the effects by reducing greenhouse gas emissions?  Or do we dig in and adapt?

Prime Ministerial

Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, February 17th, 2023 - 31 comments

Chris Hipkins has so far not put a foot wrong.  Since he became PM he has quickly and competently reformed the Cabinet and jettisoned policies that were for one reason or another causing problems. And he has quickly asserted control over two massive storms, the first which pummeled the country’s major city and the second which has caused massive floods to much of the East Coast of the North Island.

Two new polls …

Written By: - Date published: 6:24 pm, January 30th, 2023 - 78 comments

This evening two new political polls have been released both putting Labour ahead of National.

The rich want their country back

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, January 18th, 2023 - 61 comments

The Electoral Commission has published that National raised $2.3 million dollars in large donations alone over the past 12 months.

The Standard’s political awards for 2022

Written By: - 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.

Be afraid, be very afraid …

Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, December 22nd, 2022 - 165 comments

David Seymour is feeling his oats and has claimed that past National Governments never changes anything.  A brief review of history would suggest otherwise.

The rise and rise of David Seymour’s ACT

Written By: - Date published: 7:28 am, December 20th, 2022 - 96 comments

I thought David Seymour was the  most interesting speaker at the Victoria University post-election conference at Parliament last year. Two things stood out for me in  his presentation following ACT’s election gains. He opened by offering lengthy and effusive praise to his researcher, then clearly stated his objective to supplant National as the leading party on the right. He’s on track for that, as current media attention shows.

Much ado about nothing

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, December 16th, 2022 - 54 comments

The big news this week was Jacinda Ardern describing David Seymour in an unparliamentary phrase on an open mike in Parliament.  But the matter was resolved in a way that can only happen in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The politics of the voting age change

Written By: - Date published: 8:12 pm, November 21st, 2022 - 90 comments

The Supreme Court has just lobbed a grenade into New Zealand politics by ruling that denying 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote was not only discrimination on the basis of age but also had not been justified and was therefore a breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

Male privilege is a fragile thing

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, October 28th, 2022 - 22 comments

Golriz Ghahraman wanted Parliament to condemn the Iranian Government’s oppression of women’s rights.  David Seymour moved to block the motion because Golriz had raised points of order against him during a previous speech.  Fancy putting your hurt feelings in front of making a statement of support and principle.

Who pays the cost of an extra day off?

Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, September 13th, 2022 - 50 comments

The Government has announced that we will all have a day off to commemorate the life of Queen Elisabeth.  Act has come out against it on the basis that we are in a cost of living crisis, even though the adverse effect on workers and the poor is essentially nil and even though there is analysis that suggests that holidays are good for the economy.

The Three Strikes abomination is no more

Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, August 11th, 2022 - 44 comments

The three strikes legislation, the brainchild of dead baby identity stealing former ACT MP David Garrett, is no more.

The time that Roger Douglas was right

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, May 21st, 2022 - 39 comments

Roger Douglas may have caused New Zealand a lot of harm through his policies and actions but there was one occasion where if a policy he had helped to introduce had been retained New Zealand would be a much better place.

Act’s scorched earth proposal

Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, May 11th, 2022 - 41 comments

Act has publicly released its proposal to decimate the state should it have a say in the next Government.  Its Real Change Alternative Budget may be wet dream inducing for Ayn Rand acolytes but for the rest of us the proposals should instill a deep sense of dread.

Is Act buying social media followers?

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, April 8th, 2022 - 14 comments

Hot on the heels of news that Act has recently received a number of significant donations comes news that it may have spent some of these funds on buying social media followers following news that Seymour’s Instagram followers jumped from 23,800 to 72,600 in one day.

National announces receiving $1.8 million in recent donations

Written By: - Date published: 2:43 pm, April 1st, 2022 - 43 comments

National has gazumped Act’s recently announced significant donations drive and has just announced that it will shortly be filing declarations confirming that it has recently received $1.8 million in donations.

Act’s generous donors and its anti Treaty campaign

Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, March 26th, 2022 - 65 comments

This has not had the media attention that it deserves but Act has raised, to use the technical term, a shit load of money recently.  And it is using this money to engage in some good old fashioned racist dog whistling.

Can This Government Be Saved?

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 pm, March 25th, 2022 - 118 comments

Can Labour win a third term? Here are some pathways up, and some pathways down.

The latest poll

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 pm, March 10th, 2022 - 124 comments

National/Act (47%) would beat Labour/Greens (46%) if there were an election held tomorrow, according to the latest One News Kantar poll.

Everyone is over Covid

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, February 22nd, 2022 - 134 comments

Jacinda Ardern said yesterday that everyone is over Covid.  She is right.  We all want this to end.

Luxon under pressure after latest Newshub Poll

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 pm, February 7th, 2022 - 93 comments

I am going to channel my Matthew Hooton left wing alter ego in the writing of this post.  The latest Newshub poll shows a resounding level of support for the Labour Party and there are murmurs of discontent about Chris Luxon after support for the right plummets.

David Seymour should stick to twerking

Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, February 4th, 2022 - 306 comments

David Seymour has responded to slumping poll results by claiming that the Treaty of Waitangi should be trashed.

About the latest Colmar Brunton poll

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, January 28th, 2022 - 52 comments

The latest Colmar Brunton (now Kantar) poll has now been released and some of the commentary and analysis is pretty ordinary.

The Standard’s 2021 political awards

Written By: - Date published: 7:34 am, December 28th, 2021 - 68 comments

It is that time of year where nostalgia kicks in and the desire to review current events dims.  So much has happened this year.  It has truly been twelve months of the praiseworthy and the absolutely pitiful. And it is time to reflect on the personalities who made us smile, made us frown and made us raise our eyebrows to breaking point.

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  • SPEECH: To the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue 2023 by the Honourable Andrew Little MP, New Zealand Ministe...
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  • Tourism transformation starts with people
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  • Te ao Māori health services cheaper and more accessible for whānau
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  • Te ao Māori health services more accessible for whānau
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