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National’s polling hypocrisy

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:29 pm, October 27th, 2009 - 45 comments

Having previously led the charge on the Labour polling story, John Key has gone very quiet on the issue now that a former National supporter has blown the whistle on National doing the exact same thing. Thanks to this former supporter we know that under Bill English’s leadership National told volunteers to say they were from […]

The urgency of love

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:00 am, October 23rd, 2009 - 7 comments

One thing about love is that what you abhor or hate in others you tolerate, even admire, in the object of your affection. Take the media’s handling of Parliament going into Urgency. When Labour filibustered over the second Auckland Supercity Bill, there were articles in the newspapers and snide remarks from news commentators about the […]

Labour where art thou?

Written By: Tammy Gordon - Date published: 11:59 am, October 20th, 2009 - 45 comments

I’m not going to repeat the list of all the things that are starting to make people angry and scared or catalogue the broken promises (privatising ACC fast approaching in National’s first term) or go over in fine detail the fact that National are anything but Labour lite. I just to know where the hell […]

Talk about politics

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 11:21 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 8 comments

On RNZ’s Nine to Noon today Andrew Campbell rips the shit out of National‘s grotesque mismanagement of the Rugby World Cup fiasco and laments the lack of talent in the PM’s staff, all the while Matthew Hooton gently weeps. There’s also talk about how despite the ongoing cock-ups of this Government the polls are still […]

Labour drops the ball

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:28 pm, October 13th, 2009 - 79 comments

Labour’s pathetic response to Treasury’s flat tax proposal has come in for some well deserved criticism over at No Right Turn, and I have to agree it’s a pretty basic failure on Labour’s part. Faced with a reactionary and regressive proposal that amounts to a full-frontal attack on their founding values and the people they […]

Labour needs to get beside the workers

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:00 am, October 8th, 2009 - 37 comments

You know, if you look back to all the elections since 1957, there’s only three you would say the Left lost outright – 1975, 1990, and 2008. In the Holyoake years, too much of the vote was being wasted on Left-leaning Social Credit, Muldoon lost 1978 and 1981 but got more seats, the country voted […]

Twyford and the idiocy of pacifism

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:30 am, October 5th, 2009 - 17 comments

I have to agree with Tim Selwyn in his criticism of Phil Twyford’s peace about Moriori pacifism. Twyford writes on Red Alert: Moriori elders told us the story of chief Nunuku who made the covenant of peace, renouncing warfare and cannibalism. Hand to hand fighting with a wooden staff was allowed but only until first […]

Secret ballots for strikes

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:47 am, September 25th, 2009 - 60 comments

Tau Henare has put a private members’ bill in the ballot that would require ballots by union members on strike action to be held in secret. Henare draws on his memories from the 1980s as a union organiser and reckons that open ballots are used to intimidate workers into toeing the line. Well, maybe it […]

Chauvel on the ETS

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:54 pm, September 24th, 2009 - 35 comments

In his speech as Labour climate change spokesperson, Charles Chauvel confirmed the new information on the ETS that Jeanette Fitzsimons revealed today. It was a pretty good speech, especially the conclusion: “Labour will have no option but to repeal these changes when next in power. We could have had a broad-based, bipartisan, sustainable ETS but National […]

Building constituencies

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:31 pm, September 24th, 2009 - 5 comments

On Tuesday, both Sue Kedgley and Sue Moroney tabled petitions in Parliament with over 15,000 signatures, on food standards in schools and pay equity respectively. That’s an incredible achievement. Most petitions get a few hundred, maybe a thousand signatures. Generally, not a lot of organising energy goes into getting signatures for them because, frankly, they […]

A long time between drinks

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 8:20 am, September 21st, 2009 - 22 comments

The latest Roy Morgan poll puts National down 5% and Labour up 4%. Still a big gap, but it seems at last New Zealanders’ patience is waning over this Government’s competence and honesty issues.

Nick Smith’s dirty dealing

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:33 am, September 18th, 2009 - 8 comments

Labour’s Charles Chauvel has released the paper records of Labour’s attempts to agree a bi-partisan ETS with National. In total, Labour presented three draft MOUs detailing possible agreements, each moving towards what they believed to be National’s position. Additionally, there was a letter from Phil Goff to John Key a month ago that clearly laid […]

I don’t know if it hurts my eyes or my heart more

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 5:06 pm, September 16th, 2009 - 55 comments

WTF is this? I mean look at it. It’s got to be the worst website I have ever seen and I’ve been around since well before the web existed. More to the point, how did this get up? What kind of process could possibly have let this through? Who signed off on it? I wouldn’t […]

Labour Grasps Nettle: Nettles Usually Sting

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:30 pm, September 15th, 2009 - 29 comments

By Rob Salmond It sounds like Phil G did a great job at Labour’s conference setting out where the party should go from here. Unfortunately, his KISS message didn’t get to all attendees. Labour apparently now wants to propose modifications to MMP, including more electorate MPs, fewer list MPs, a lower threshold, and getting rid […]

No deal

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:16 am, September 15th, 2009 - 22 comments

Hot Topic has obtained a copy of a draft memorandum of understanding for a meeting on the ETS that was meant to take place today. It shows that Labour was prepared to do more to help compensate polluters for the costs they would have faced while still paying a price for polluting, thereby still incentivising reductions […]

Condoms and democracy

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:30 pm, September 14th, 2009 - 36 comments

Have to disagree with Zet’s call for Labour to ‘just put it away‘ on the remit to conference calling for subsidised condoms in shops to help reduce unplanned pregnancies and our high rate of sexually transmitted diseases. Sure, if Labour were putting it up as a policy priority there might be an argument. I’m completely […]

Close the loopholes

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:30 am, September 14th, 2009 - 30 comments

I am heartened that Phil Goff is trying to work with the Government to address over-investment in residential property. However, I think a capital gains tax is the wrong way to go about it. In my view, the rush to get on the rental property bandwagon is the single biggest problem facing the New Zealand […]

No good faith from Nats

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:30 pm, September 13th, 2009 - 25 comments

Finance Minister Bill English has told doctors, teachers, and other public servants that they will not be getting pay-raises when their collective contracts come up for renewal. That is constitutionally outrageous and a big political mistake. Ministers are not allowed to direct public sector pay negotiations. It is clearly against the rules of the State Sector […]

Just put it away

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 2:24 pm, September 13th, 2009 - 32 comments

I know this free condoms idea is just a remit, not Labour Party policy, but it’s exactly the kind of thing that the right has used to drive a wedge between Labour and it’s working-class base. It is a liberal idea that conservatives on the left and right will be repelled by and it creates […]

Labour needs to get back to its roots

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:00 am, September 12th, 2009 - 107 comments

Goff is using Labour’s national conference to swallow some dead rats, distancing himself and the party from the social reform agenda of the previous Labour government. Good. People like the socialist element of Labour’s agenda – retention of public assets, nationalisation of important infrastructure (Kiwirail), intervention in failing markets (eg Kiwibank), redistribution of wealth, stronger […]

Jim Anderton on organisation

Written By: lprent - Date published: 8:24 pm, September 11th, 2009 - 20 comments

The most interesting feature of the Labour conference so far has been from Jim Anderton. It looks like the Progressives are now able to have dual membership with Labour. However he also talking about better organisation of the party towards campaign planning. Some of his ideas are a bit dated (well at least to me). […]

Ninny state

Written By: r0b - Date published: 3:27 pm, September 11th, 2009 - 44 comments

Phil Goff is quoted today as saying “we made mistakes” with policies that were perceived as “nanny state”: Asked if he would apologise to the conference for the nanny state policies, Mr Goff replied: “I think we want to draw a line under the past and say, yes, we made mistakes, we didn’t listen.” Mr […]

Labour and the RMA

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:55 pm, September 10th, 2009 - 40 comments

No Right Turn and Frogblog both have pieces up on Labour’s decision to vote in support of the Government’s moves to gut the RMA last night. It’s disappointing to say the least. I’d be interested to hear from some Labour MPs why they voted this way, either in the comments section of this post or […]

Labour conference bits and pieces

Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:15 pm, September 10th, 2009 - 24 comments

The Labour party conference is on in Rotorua this weekend, so I’ll be heading there Friday morning. If the writers and readers want to catch up then I’ll generally be around the Mt Albert delegation – they can direct you towards my grey hairs. I’m particularly interested in people who think that they can write […]

Always an excuse to do nothing

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:20 am, September 2nd, 2009 - 64 comments

Remember FART (Farmers Against Ridiculous Taxes)? Shane Arden driving Myrtle the Tractor up the steps of Parliament? Bill English with his poster carrying the sexist attack on Helen Clark: “the mad cow shouldn’t have signed”? (actually, it was Jenny Shipley who signed us on to Kyoto) All that wailing and gnashing of teeth, all […]

Labour finally on board?

Written By: rocky - Date published: 10:36 pm, August 27th, 2009 - 20 comments

I was shocked but not surprised to hear that National are considering opening our National Parks up for mining. At the same time, I can’t help but feel an unfortunate sense of deja vu. Labour’s Conservation spokesperson David Parker is quoted by 3News today as saying: We were certainly not told this before the election […]

Fisking Farrar

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 24th, 2009 - 24 comments

I don’t know what it is about the word “Labour” that the right finds so hard to understand. David Farrar has a piece up today attacking the Labour Party for backing the Telecom lines engineers, who are members of the EPMU. The crux of his argument is that Labour should keep politics out of industrial […]

Keep it up, Chippie and co

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:40 am, August 20th, 2009 - 27 comments

Good on Chris Hipkins. The other day, he wrote: “National won the last election quite comfortably. Kiwis are fair minded people and will be willing to give them a fair go at the job before they pass judgment. I expect that will be reflected in the opinion polls for most of the current parliamentary term. […]

Eventually but not yet

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:43 am, August 15th, 2009 - 40 comments

John Armstrong quotes a man who ran into Phil Goff during Labour’s reconnection tour last week: “Listen, mate. You know we voted these guys in seven months ago. You don’t expect us to come up and say we did the wrong thing yet, do you?” Now, Armstrong takes that as dooming Labour but look at […]

Wellington fundraisers

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:59 am, August 12th, 2009 - 5 comments

Two cool fundraisers coming up for the Greens and Labour. The Greens are holding a screening of Kiwi ‘s The Age of Stupid, a movie set in 2055 looking back at today and asking the painful, obvious question – ‘if we could see all these problems of resource exhaustion, pollution, cliamte change, and over-population coming, […]

Accountability then and now…

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 4th, 2009 - 47 comments

Then: Labour Minister David Parker accused of financial wrongdoing (filing incorrect returns). He resigns Ministerial portfolios and as Attorney General while the Companies Office investigates. Cleared of all wrongdoing (the returns were correct) and later reinstated as a Minister. Now: National Minister Richard Worth accused of financial wrongdoing (using Ministerial position to seek personal gain). […]