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Signs of a more confident Labour

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:28 am, February 22nd, 2010 - 61 comments

Labour is a pretty risk-adverse organisation. Making those two unorthodox attacks on those two ministers, and pulling it off both times, shows that Labour has got the measure of Key’s drop-kick ministers and is feeling more confident in itself.

Labour, don’t stand by while English lies

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:30 pm, February 19th, 2010 - 29 comments

I am flabbergasted that Labour has remained silent on Bill English’s repeated lie that the economy grew just 0.9% a year in Labour’s last term in government. This is your reputation and your legacy the little creep is lying about, guys. Stand up for yourselves.

Labour pins clueless Nat ministers

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:23 pm, February 17th, 2010 - 13 comments

It’s hard to decide which is worst: Do Nothing John Key flouncing around the country while thousands of Kiwis lose their jobs, the Joyce cabal pushing their hard-right economic agenda, or the rest of them who don’t have two brain cells to rub together.

No ideas? Bash some beneficiaries

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:00 pm, February 16th, 2010 - 30 comments

John Key says sickness and invalid’s benefit numbers are increasing because â€œthe previous government encouraged a move off the unemployment benefit into those categories, which aren’t work testedâ€. You’ve been caught out on this lie by The Standard authors before, John. Did you think it would slip by us now?

Nats need to follow Labour’s lead on GST

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:43 pm, February 11th, 2010 - 9 comments

“Last GST hike had little impact, say tax experts” – Herald The article is about inflation but it is also true of growth. There is no evidence that increasing GST from 10% to 12.5% and cutting income taxes boosted growth. In fact, the country entered a long period of stagnation and recession. And why would […]

Quick thoughts

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:06 am, February 8th, 2010 - 36 comments

It’s obvious to anyone with a brain that a government that spends half its time on holiday and the rest on PR stunts is never going to get New Zealand to catch Australia by 2025 but having the Reserve Bank Governor say its impossible, that’s hugely embarrassing. Of course, Key is refusing to acknowledge the […]

Colin James on Labour’s election record

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:05 am, February 1st, 2010 - 3 comments

Dancr linked to Colin James’ piece in the Press the other day, in which he writes: Here’s Labour’s record for the five decades years since the end of 1959: in government 19 years, out of government 31 years. Its best five decades were 1929-79, when it had 20 years in government, its worst just 12 […]

Colin James on Labour 2010

Written By: Dancr - Date published: 8:46 pm, January 31st, 2010 - 2 comments

I know Standard readers follow politics closely almost by definition, but for those who don’t here’s Colin James’ observations on the year ahead for Labour, and for Phil Goff (Press, 30 Jan ’10). He asks: Phil Goff cooks sausages to a turn on the barbecue. But can he cook up a strategic future for Labour? […]

Turei pushing me back to RAM

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:23 am, January 29th, 2010 - 62 comments

Check out this exchange between Trevor Mallard and Metiria Turei on his Facebook page (great how the new media allows these spur of the moment debates): Trevor Mallard: 25c/hour. $10 week for 40 hours then minus tax, extra acc, ets charges. Not fair John Key. It should be $15 Metiria Turei: Trevor, with genuine respect, […]

The many. Not the few

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:16 pm, January 28th, 2010 - 104 comments

Phil Goff has just delivered his first major speech of the year to state what Labour stands for and where it is going. I have to say, I’m impressed. You really should read it. It sets out a clear agenda for Labour and that agenda is firmly rooted in Labour’s deepest principles – decent pay […]

The danger of pre-writing your narrative

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:53 pm, January 25th, 2010 - 27 comments

It was clear that the Herald had decided how Ratana would play this year: eveyone loves Key, Goff gets the cold shoulder. It didn’t matter what actually happened, that was going to be the Herald’s narrative: Ratana pats Key on the back Labour gets icy reception at Ratana You would think those headlines had been […]

Say what?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:40 am, January 18th, 2010 - 12 comments

Statements made in Parliament last year, in chronological order: Hon BILL ENGLISH: They have been telling us that we should copy the Australian fiscal stimulus, when Australia’s unemployment rate is close to 6%â€”whereas our fiscal stimulus has kept our unemployment rate down to 5%. So which one is it: copy Australia’s plan and force the […]

Nats offer Maori flags & baubles, not representation & jobs

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:13 pm, December 15th, 2009 - 12 comments

NZPA: The Maori Party has withdrawn its support for a government bill after its bid to have Maori members on polytechnic councils failed. The Maori Party put up an amendment which would have ensured that councils had at least three Maori members. The Government didn’t accept the amendment and it was defeated. The Maori Party […]

Labour’s flag strategy

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 2:48 pm, December 15th, 2009 - 44 comments

Colin Espiner: After making inroads in the latest TV3 poll, Goff has clearly taken fright after the reaction to his nationhood speech. How else to explain his perplexing decision not to comment on the announcement by Prime Minister John Key that the Maori tino rangatiratanga flag will fly on Waitangi Day? This decision by Key […]

Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs

Written By: r0b - Date published: 9:45 am, December 14th, 2009 - 8 comments

“Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs” reads the headline! It’s a bit misleading though. A more accurate headline would have been – “Labour Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs”. How’s that, I hear you cry? Follow the money: The Government estimates its economic stimulus package has created about 2300 jobs through increased infrastructure spending of more than […]

Govt spending – the big lie

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 3:30 pm, December 10th, 2009 - 45 comments

I’m kind of embarrassed. I should know by now never to trust a word out of Bill English’s mouth. I should have checked his repeated claims that government spending rocketed under Labour. English likes to say that because of Labour government spending increased by 45% over the five years from 2004 to 2009. As David […]

Shame on Labour for backing Goff

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:30 am, December 9th, 2009 - 42 comments

By Andrew Campbell Shame on the Labour caucus. If it’s true that they back Phil Goff’s Nationhood speech without reservations and therefore his strategy to use dog whistling racist tactics to win back the white male vote then they deserve the long period in opposition such an approach will bring. The closing of the ranks […]

Silly stories

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:12 am, December 8th, 2009 - 44 comments

Helmetless Hone: Keen to continue the Hone Harawira saga, One News reported that complaints had been laid over Harawira not wearing a helmet when he rode the motorcycle of a visiting anti-violence campaigner on Parliament’s forecourt. I hope the Police have better things to do than investigate an MP for taking a 50m spin on […]

Enough considering already!

Written By: Dancr - Date published: 3:15 pm, December 7th, 2009 - 14 comments

When first writing about my thoughts on Phil Goff’s speech little did I realise that it was turning into an ongoing issue! Perhaps some closer consideration should have been given to the ‘internal communication’ – the speech now appears as a stand-alone issue (although maybe that counts as ‘got headlines – tick?), distracting from the […]

More people considering…

Written By: Dancr - Date published: 10:00 am, December 4th, 2009 - 36 comments

According to Vernon Small: Labour leader Phil Goff will be asked to explain his controversial “nationhood” speech at next week’s party caucus meeting. Discontent, especially on the Left of the party, has centred around Mr Goff’s comments on the foreshore and seabed policy. Insiders say the speech was discussed during a “robust” national council meeting […]

Goff: Scrap the 2025 Taskforce

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:26 pm, December 3rd, 2009 - 25 comments

We all know the 2025 Taskforce is a farce and a waste of taxpayers’ money. The Government has disowned it, the critics have panned it. Even Garth George has come out calling for its first report to be recycled into toilet paper. It genuinely appears to serve no function but to subsidise the wacky right-wing […]

With some time to consider….

Written By: Dancr - Date published: 2:30 pm, December 1st, 2009 - 82 comments

I’ve been thinking about the reaction Phil Goff has had to his Nationhood speech, and whether Team Labour would be happy with the way it’s rolled out. Got headlines, tick, got commentators to notice, tick, appealed to demographic ‘non-Labour voting male’, tick, made some positioning statements on policy, tick. But what about the down side? […]

Goff’s speech

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:12 pm, November 27th, 2009 - 110 comments

Phil Goff’s speech on ‘nationhood’ was always going to be seen as an attempt to pull a Brash, regardless of what it actually said. The narrative was set from the start, and it’s fair to suspect that Goff’s people knew that and thought they’d take the risk anyway. You don’t make a speech on the […]

Shane Jones on National’s ETS

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:20 pm, November 24th, 2009 - 12 comments

Not all ETSs are created equal

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:32 pm, November 24th, 2009 - 34 comments

On his blog, Colin Espiner writes: “it’s also extremely ironic to hear Labour wringing its hands about the impact of the ETS when…HELLO…Labour passed the Emissions Trading Scheme!!!” Oh dear. That’s like saying ‘Labour is opposed to National’s ACC policy but Labour had an ACC policy of its own, hello!!!’ Labour isn’t (and I really […]

Nats could lose, but can Labour win?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:59 am, November 18th, 2009 - 29 comments

If you had told me a year ago that, just a third of a way through its term, this government would have lost a minister in secret circumstances, had a minister openly acknowledge that the Prime Minister “doesn’t do anything”, muddled its way through legislative debacle after debacle of policies that over-promise and under-deliver, and […]

Urgent action needed on job creation

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:29 am, November 17th, 2009 - 9 comments

We’ve talked a lot about the negative effects of unemployment on the unemployed and their communities (depression, crime, family breakup, poor health, poor educational outcomes for children etc) but there’s another group that benefits from fewer people being on benefits – people with jobs. Check out the graph. At the end of the 1990s, there […]

Vote red, get fed

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:26 pm, November 14th, 2009 - 27 comments

Labour needs to stand up for its electorate, the worker. While National is gutting the infrastructure Labour set up in the last nine years it had in power, like KiwiSaver and the Cullen fund, Labour’s protests are little more than the weak cries of a lamb as it goes to slaughter. Labour needs vision, a way […]

Why National really hates proportional electoral systems

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 2:22 pm, November 5th, 2009 - 25 comments

These data, taken from the Elections NZ site, show election results since National’s inception up until the last First Past the Post (FPP) election in 1993. I think they show fairly clearly why National is so keen to dump our proportional electoral system in favour of FPP or its drag cousin Supplementary Member (SM), which […]

Voters see Nats’ feet of clay

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:20 pm, October 31st, 2009 - 25 comments

Amongst all the puffery from the right-wing commentators in the Herald today, a very interesting piece – interviews with ordinary people from New Zealand’s most marginal electorate, New Plymouth. she voted National because it was “time for a change”. “I’m quite impressed with John Key. He’s coped with a lot of situations. Compared to the […]

Question

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 2:23 pm, October 28th, 2009 - 20 comments

Why on earth is Labour supporting this police state bullshit? The article says Labour MPs were concerned about the extent of powers being given to the police, and Charles Chauvel tried to amend the bill so a judicial warrant would be needed. Amendment was voted down, but Labour went and voted for it anyway. Some […]