Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, April 29th, 2022 - 157 comments
The tide of this government is running out. There’s 18 months left in the term. What would you save?
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 21st, 2022 - 72 comments
In the space of one day Chris Luxon called repeatedly for the scrapping of Labour Day as a holiday then confirmed that a future National Government would not do this and said that his earlier comment was facetious.
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, April 18th, 2022 - 79 comments
Despite Labour seeing the country through the biggest public health threat seen in the last century and despite improving numbers of houses and a reduction in child poverty some on the left are buying into National’s despair lines. And the issues on which the next election will be fought are becoming clearer.
Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, April 13th, 2022 - 66 comments
Yesterday Chris Luxon showed the sensitivity and sophistication of someone who owns seven properties and at one stage had 6.1 million Air New Zealand shares by stating that he believed that at least some public transport services should not be supported and that public transport needs to stand on its own feet.
Written By: - 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: - Date published: 8:04 am, April 6th, 2022 - 15 comments
You get to a point – and Ardern must be close – where the most you can do is hang on.
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, April 5th, 2022 - 77 comments
National’s friends are in unison complaining that the Government should be announcing now when we will be back into Orange. But our exemplary performance compared to other nations suggests strongly that the Government should continue to respect the medical advice it is receiving.
Written By: - Date published: 8:25 pm, March 31st, 2022 - 10 comments
Earlier this week Louisa Wall announced that she is retiring as a Member of Parliament. History will confirm that she was one of our best Parliamentarians.
Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, March 28th, 2022 - 141 comments
Jacinda Ardern has burned significant political capital on dealing with Covid. But it is something that a responsible Political leader, of which there are few, would do.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, March 23rd, 2022 - 218 comments
The Government has announced changes to Covid policies relating to traffic light settings and mandates.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, March 17th, 2022 - 141 comments
There has been the occasional criticism of Labour for not achieving enough progressive change by people who then propose supporting National. What are they thinking?
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, March 16th, 2022 - 67 comments
By elections are at the best of times dramatic events. Given current circumstances and a well funded although deeply unpopular anti vaccine movement and the likely candidacy of Winston Peters the Tauranga by election is likely to be a circus.
Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, March 15th, 2022 - 146 comments
Labour’s announcement of a temporary reduction in fuel excise duties and a halving of public transport fares ups the ante on the debate on how to alleviate hardship caused by overseas induced inflation.
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, March 11th, 2022 - 98 comments
Chloe Swarbrick, the cost of living crisis, and what the economy is for.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, February 18th, 2022 - 474 comments
It is day 10 of the Anti vax protest on Parliament’s grounds. More cars are being parked illegally and despite considerable disruption to Wellington’s roading network so far not one car has been towed by the police.
Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, February 13th, 2022 - 34 comments
Where will the votes come from to get Labour a third term?
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, February 9th, 2022 - 33 comments
The full text is worth perusing across multiple areas, but Prime Minister Ardern’s speech in Parliament yesterday gave useful hints about how the economy and climate change are being integrated into a single economic strategy.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, February 6th, 2022 - 34 comments
The text of Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern’s Waitangi Day speech
Written By: - Date published: 3:42 pm, February 3rd, 2022 - 45 comments
With Prime Minister announcing effectively the beginning of the end of state control of COVID, the question that has to be asked is how will the end of COVID change us all?
Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, February 2nd, 2022 - 107 comments
With Ardern getting a good-old media beat-down, remember here’s how to change a country for good like no one else but Labour can.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, January 27th, 2022 - 55 comments
With an Omicron surge appearing to be inevitable the importance of proper mask wearing has never been more important.
Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, January 21st, 2022 - 113 comments
So far the country has fought back and eliminated the original Covid infection, won a couple of skirmishes and then and fought and quelled the Delta incursion. But it looks like Omicron is coming …
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, January 1st, 2022 - 117 comments
A few random predictions for 2022.
Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, December 30th, 2021 - 280 comments
But Omicron may be loose.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, December 23rd, 2021 - 79 comments
Ministers Wood, Shaw and Parker (Energy, Climate Change, and RMA reform respectively), must pull their eyes downward from the misty clouds of climate change and stuff multiple decades away and down into the jagged, shadowy deal-by-deal path of the transition to clean energy.
Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, December 17th, 2021 - 319 comments
Yesterday was Aotearoa’s V day, the day that we reached the goal of having 90% of the target population vaccinated against Covid.
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