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It’s all in the “game”

Written By: karol - Date published: 9:00 am, May 4th, 2013 - 192 comments

Supporters of the sale of the powercos, portray the Labour-Green NZ Power policy in terms of political strategy and game-play. They focus on the “market”, risk, profits & “fat cat hatred”. They avoid dealing with the guts of the issue: fuel poverty, income inequality & damaged lives.

Key goes negative

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:15 am, May 2nd, 2013 - 156 comments

John Key has gone hard negative, with his rants about North Korea and communism, and now an attack on the Greens. Negative is where you go when you don’t have a positive story to tell the electorate. I wonder if the Nats’ internal polling has got Key spooked…

Communicating policy

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:42 pm, April 24th, 2013 - 87 comments

Power profits and the consumer

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 7:30 pm, April 22nd, 2013 - 16 comments

New Zealand’s energy pricing over the last twenty years was thoroughly canvassed by Dr Geoff Bertram last year in a paper presented to the Fabian Society as part of its “Light-handed Regulation” series. In the light of the Labour/Greens’ announcement last week about NZ Power his paper is well worth a read.

The “socialist” vs capitalist PR war: NZ Power

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:19 am, April 21st, 2013 - 123 comments

The Key government and its allies are playing the “red scare” gambit, the Greens get to the heart of the reason for NZ Power, Parker goes Third Way, while Bernard Hickey and Matt McCarten weigh in to support the (alleged) “socialist” NZ Power policy. Bomber Bradbury adds some words of caution. [updated title]

Do the lights ever go out on Planet Key?

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:19 pm, April 19th, 2013 - 33 comments

John Key says that the Labour-Green Power policy is “barking mad” and will take people back to the power cuts of the 1970s. Another John Key brainfade, or just being “clueless”? I look at power cuts and fuel poverty since the 1990s.

ImperatorFish: Yes, Steven, this is just like North Korea

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:25 pm, April 19th, 2013 - 7 comments

Scott earnestly compares Labour & the Greens’ NZ Power to the North Korean model.

The disconnected: the future of the left?

Written By: karol - Date published: 12:30 pm, April 18th, 2013 - 42 comments

The current direction of Key’s government, and the challenging circumstances of the 21st century create a need for urgent attention to the form of a new left politics; one that embraces the working class, trade union solidarity, gender, diversity & the emerging “precariat”.

NZ Power

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:02 pm, April 18th, 2013 - 223 comments

At noon today Labour and the Greens jointly announced new energy policies. “NZ Power” is big and it’s bold. It will completely restructure the way the electricity sector is run, and result in lower power prices for both domestic and business consumers.

The Greens, electricity & sustainability

Written By: karol - Date published: 2:15 pm, April 16th, 2013 - 48 comments

The Greens and Labour are planning a joint announcement on their policies on power prices. Both parties want to bring down costs of electricity. The policies of the two parties will also have some differences. How will it mesh with Green Party policies on sustainability?

Labour’s electricity reforms will be bold

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:21 pm, April 16th, 2013 - 59 comments

A joint Labour / Green announcement on plans for the electricity sector will be made on Thursday. My prediction is that the plan will be bold.

Getting there

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 7:58 am, April 5th, 2013 - 32 comments

So, the trend in the Roy Morgans continues, ever so painfully slowly to move in the Left’s favour. Since Labour recovered from its election disaster level to 30+, the Left’s support has risen at a bit under 0.2% per month, the Right vice versa. Lab+Green now outpolls National as often as not. But ‘if these trends continue’ is the most dangerous phrase in politics.

Pokies and corruption?

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:15 am, March 31st, 2013 - 61 comments

Significant International Affairs files, relating to dodgy Pokies’ trusts, going missing, SkyCity convention centre deals made through flawed government processes. No corruption in NZ, just governance through sloppy processes? Cui bono?

Mining & the sly dismantling of conservation protections

Written By: karol - Date published: 11:00 am, March 28th, 2013 - 32 comments

Cuts to DOC, the Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill [3rd reading today], permits allowing the exploration for minerals on Schedule 4 land: here is the stealthy NAct MO in action, to undermine the strong public protests against Schedule 4 mining. [Update: the Bill is #6 on today’s Final Order Paper]

Real social security; real jobs – not bennie bashing

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:41 am, March 27th, 2013 - 55 comments

Opposition MPs (e.g. Ardern & Mathers) and Sue Bradford highlight that the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill destroys lives, furthers NAct’s elitist agenda, & is more propaganda than social security or job creation.

Changing minds; changing lives

Written By: karol - Date published: 11:10 am, March 26th, 2013 - 14 comments

The Green Party held a public meeting in West Auckland, on their Home for Life, Affordable Housing policy – it prioritises children in poverty. It was informative, questions were raised. Mindsets need to change to achieve a good quality of life & strong communities for all.

Punitive, anti-beneficiary Bill- opposition needed!

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:28 am, March 20th, 2013 - 48 comments

The Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill second reading is first up on the provisional order paper for today. It is a further step in Paula Bennett & NAct’s vicious, punitive, bennie-bashing campaign. MPs are urged to vote against it!

Greens announce non-racist policy; 3News decides to make it racist

Written By: QoT - Date published: 11:00 am, March 1st, 2013 - 49 comments

Yet again, Patrick Gower digs deep to find a story where there really isn’t one.

Child Support (Almost) Amendment Bill: Cunliffe speech

Written By: karol - Date published: 7:51 am, February 28th, 2013 - 34 comments

Another excellent Cunlife speech last night, speaking to the Child Support Amendment Bill (Committee Stage Schedule 2). An “almost” Bill showing the government’s callous disregard of child poverty and single/separated (usually women) parents.

Room left for Greens in Labour reshuffle

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 8:35 am, February 26th, 2013 - 49 comments

I think the Labour reshuffle is quite clever in how it signals the portfolios that its willing to give to the Greens and encourages them to set about being lead opposition spokespeople on those topics. Sure, the reshuffle has some weird stuff in it – ChCh Earthquake spokesperson a backbencher!, 6 ex-staffers in the top 10, Mallard’s ‘demotion’ that isn’t. But there’s some smarts there too.

Growing the Left vote

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 6:49 am, February 5th, 2013 - 279 comments

At the moment the Left and Right political blocs are poised more or less evenly in the polls. So how do we grow the Left vote to win in 2014?

Living together

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:32 am, February 3rd, 2013 - 128 comments

There’s a thought in some parts of Labour that they need to ‘put the Greens in their place’, then they will get back the votes that the Greens have taken from them, and that will lead to victory. It’s an Underpants Gnome strategy, missing the crucial link of how doing what they want to do emotionally results in the supposed objective. Better to build together.

Opposition speeches & ‘Roads of Madness’

Written By: karol - Date published: 12:05 pm, January 30th, 2013 - 54 comments

Debates on the PM’s statement to the House show that this do-nothing government needs to go. Plenty of good ideas from opposition MPs. An excellent speech by Genter against Joyce’s ‘Roads of Madness’ & for public transport.

Building a movement: acting local, talking global

Written By: karol - Date published: 12:41 pm, January 29th, 2013 - 42 comments

The Greens, I’m in for the Future, is a promising initiative. The Greens’ focus on Auckland transport will be a great start. To end the “neoliberal” dominance, it is necessary to apply pressure from below. What can we learn from Canadian anti-“neoliberal” groups like Common Causes & Idle No More? [Updated]

States of it – Turei and Shearer

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:35 pm, January 27th, 2013 - 93 comments

Metiria Turei and David Shearer have today given their State of the Planet and State of the Nation speeches respectively. There’s a lot of commonality, which is good. A critique of the government is solidifying and it’s centred on jobs, housing, and the environment. The Greens’ policy agenda looks heftier than Labour’s but both are heading the right way.

Green Party “I’m in – for the future”

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:21 am, January 27th, 2013 - 109 comments

For once lately, I agree with Matt McCarten on the Green Party being Centre Stage this week: a housing policy for renters and buyers on low incomes, including state housing. Memorable speech at Ratana by Turei. Today: Picnic for the Planet, State of the Planet speech & the launch of a new “I’m in – for the future” initiative.

Complementary Housing

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 6:52 am, January 25th, 2013 - 94 comments

It’s great to see the Greens’ new housing policy nicely complementing Labour’s affordable housing policy.

If these trends continue

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 11:47 pm, January 18th, 2013 - 173 comments

Key’s government is falling apart, yet one fact remains stubbornly true: walk down the street and nearly 1 in every 2 people you see supports National, while less than 1 in 3 supports Labour (and the 1 in 8 who support the Greens don’t quite make up the difference). When tonight’s Roy Morgan came out I put down my whisky and pulled by my Roy Morgan excel doc. It’s some grim reading.

Doing the numbers: benefits & (un)employment

Written By: karol - Date published: 9:14 am, January 18th, 2013 - 92 comments

Paula Bennett stated that the numbers of people on benefits had dropped over the last quarter. The figures mask the reality of Bennett’s punitive welfare reforms, and the struggles of those living on low incomes. Meanwhile unemployment is still rising. [Update: RNZ]

Charter Schools: A failed idea

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:00 am, January 17th, 2013 - 36 comments

Submissions for the Education Amendment Bill 2012 (includes Charter Schools) close on 24 January. The PPTA reminds us that Charter Schools are a failed idea. Even Treasury documents show they are a bad idea.