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Use of weapons

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:00 pm, July 31st, 2009 - 89 comments

I’ve been thinking about the different ways ministers from the Left and the Right approach governing. I think it goes back to where they come from, where their ideological roots are. Ministers from Labour and other leftwing parties tend to have backgrounds in serving a wider community. Teachers, professors, union officials, public servants. Those roles […]

Goff: yes, stuff-ups: no

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:35 am, July 26th, 2009 - 84 comments

Bill Ralston quotes me and some other Left bloggers on the Burgess debacle suggesting it means Goff’s neck is on the line and a leadership challenge might be coming. Well, sorry, but that’s just an old Tory’s daydream. Goff’s leadership is secure. There is no prospect of him being overthrown. His support in Labour is […]

Provoking change

Written By: Dancr - Date published: 2:45 pm, July 23rd, 2009 - 13 comments

Good interview with Labour’s Justice spokesperson, Lianne Dalziel this morning on her private members Bill in the ballot that would remove the defence of provocation (audio on the rnz site, including an mp3 version). It looks like there is a real momentum for change with ‘the Crimes (Abolition of Defence of Provocation) Amendment Bill’ going into the member’s […]

Phil, get your shit together

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:00 am, July 23rd, 2009 - 41 comments

Phil Goff. Please get your shit together. This latest fiasco of running up a guy who owns several properties as a case of a Kiwi hurt by the recession is just inexcusable. I don’t doubt the dude’s having cashflow problems. But using him as your poster boy was only ever going to backfire. There are […]

Recession’s ‘rough edges’ hit families – no help from govt

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:20 pm, July 20th, 2009 - 48 comments

Labour leader Phil Goff has called for a temporary relaxation of the rules for getting the dole. Too many Kiwis on low and middle incomes are losing their jobs but are not able to get any assistance from the Government (despite having paid taxes for years) because their partner has a modest income. John Key […]

Mike Smith steps down

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:48 am, July 20th, 2009 - 16 comments

Labour General Secretary Mike Smith has announced he will retire at the party’s national conference in September. He’s the last of the four – Helen and the three Mikes – who led the parliamentary and party wings during the fifth Labour Government to step down. While Mike Williams ran fundraising, Smith concentrated more on organisation […]

Meme to Labour: Enough of the Should be, more of the Would be.

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:17 am, July 19th, 2009 - 87 comments

After 9 months of watching the rich get richer, with their triple dip cuts, first in taxes, then in private school fees, and now in getting subsidies to upgrade insulation in rental homes, and the poor getting poorer with no wage rises and tax cuts cancelled for the next two years, where are Labour? Phil’s […]

Defending the indefensible

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 12:00 pm, July 16th, 2009 - 44 comments

It was disappointing to hear Phil Goff defending the Fourth Labour Government on National Radio the other morning. This was a government whose policies put hundreds of thousands of Kiwis out of work, introduced regressive taxation through GST, began the firesale of our national assets and drove record numbers of our young people to suicide. […]

Folic acid fiasco

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:00 pm, July 14th, 2009 - 30 comments

I just don’t see why medicating an entire population to prevent a handful of spina bifida cases, which will only work if women eat far more bread than they do, is a good idea. It’s such a grossly untargeted and unsophisticated approach. Saying ‘well many women don’t get enough folic acid and many pregnancies are […]

Credit where credit’s due

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 2:57 pm, July 13th, 2009 - 16 comments

You may have noticed that we’ve taken to offering Labour a little unsolicited comms advice of late. Irish recently told them to get some decent key lines. I asked them (as have many others) to start talking about their vision, and when they do, to keep it simple. Phil Goff’s latest video (below) looks like a step […]

Get your house in order

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 11:30 am, July 9th, 2009 - 72 comments

Here’s some advice I’d give Labour if I was Crosby Textor: You need three negative values you want associated with National (for example: arrogant, “out of touch”, corrupt ;)) You need three positive values you want associated with Labour (for example: democracy, justice, vision). Pick them using focus groups (for god’s sake don’t use UMR […]

Observation from the sideline

Written By: Dancr - Date published: 9:42 am, July 9th, 2009 - 12 comments

Some worthwhile questions raised by Vernon Small in today’s Dom Post: Eight months ago to the day Labour awoke to find itself out of power for the first time this century….Now, the cliched wisdom is that an electoral trouncing prescribes that an opposition take its medicine, learn its lessons, stay focused and constructive, avoid being […]

Time for Labour to listen

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:50 am, July 4th, 2009 - 19 comments

I have to disagree with my comrade ayb on his post calling for Labour to come up with a more detailed program. Though I understand the desire to see Labour come up some new and inspiring left-wing agenda, now is not the time. Sure, maybe Phil Goff should come out with his own version of […]

Labour lolz

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:48 pm, July 3rd, 2009 - 36 comments

I reckon Red Alert, the Labour MPs’ blog, has been a huge success. It’s great to see MPs unscripted and it’s good for them to get the instant public reaction in the comments. It’s also a bit of a political risk. When you’re allowing instant, uncensored public reaction you can’t hide from criticism and you […]

A “Charter for Blackmail and rent-seeking by Maori interests”

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:21 pm, July 3rd, 2009 - 16 comments

Further to my post yesterday, a reader sent in this quote from 2004: Mr English’s view was not [National’s] official line. As expressed by strategist Murray McCully, it is that the bill is a “charter for blackmail and rent-seeking by Maori interests”. Let’s be clear. National opposed the Foreshore & Seabed Act because they thought […]

Lost in translation

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 11:00 am, July 2nd, 2009 - 8 comments

Dear Labour I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes my attention span isn’t the greatest. Between Twitter and Facebook and texting it’s frankly a wonder I have time for much of anything else. I’m mostly in a hurry and I think that’s probably part of the reason I often don’t know what you’re trying […]

Cowardice, bigotry and saying whatever it takes

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, July 2nd, 2009 - 77 comments

I’ll be glad to see the back of the Foreshore & Seabed Act. For many on the Left, including myself, its been a monument to Labour’s failure of nerve in the face of a campaign by National to exploit the underlying racism of Pakeha New Zealand for electoral gain. Yes, there was a certain electoral […]

Bugger the polls

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:13 am, June 29th, 2009 - 34 comments

With every new cock-up or dereliction of duty from this Key government, righties point to the Roy Morgan polls and say ‘seems the voters don’t care’. It’s true that National is still polling around 50% in the Roy Morgan and parties’ internal polls. Yet the old hands in the Left aren’t too worried. Short of […]

Labour’s labours lost

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:26 am, June 26th, 2009 - 69 comments

I remember just over a year ago, Helen Clark announcing that the number of people on the unemployment benefit had fallen below 18,000 for the first time in 30 years. The roomful of Labour supporters erupted into applause. Contrary to the crap you hear from righties, Labour top priority is making sure everyone who wants one […]

So, what are you going to do?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:22 pm, June 25th, 2009 - 8 comments

Over at the Labour MPs’ blog, Red Alert, Brendon Burns has written a piece criticising Agriculture Minister David Carter on the welfare of pigs in sow crates. But while it’s good to see Labour, or at least a Labour MP, finally take a stand on the sow crate issue (God knows the Tories won’t), I […]

Chauvel on loan sharks

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:00 pm, June 17th, 2009 - 15 comments

No Right Turn has published an excellent guest post from Labour MP Charles Chauvel about his private member’s bill to stamp out loan sharks. Ever since I became an MP, an issue that I have supported is the regulation of so called “loan sharks”. Loan sharks prey on the vulnerable with unscrupulous rates of interest […]

Nice touch

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 8:25 am, June 16th, 2009 - 4 comments

Stolen from the Grassroots Labour site.

The Dishonest Budget

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:00 am, May 29th, 2009 - 9 comments

Thanks to a reader, here’s Phil Goff’s speech in reply to the Budget. Looks like they’ve ripped the Herald’s version, so for the sake of credit here’s the link to the original. If anyone has the Greens’ response send it in and we’ll put it up.

Pigs

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, May 27th, 2009 - 15 comments

It’s good to see Green MP Sue Kedgley calling on John Key to personally fix the abuse of pigs in sow crates. The chair of Nawac appears incapable of seeing that there’s even a problem, and the Minister of Agriculture has already been caught misleading the public on national television to defend the industry. It’s […]

The Maori Party’s commitment to democracy

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:46 pm, May 16th, 2009 - 60 comments

In an epic last-ditch defence of Aucklanders’ right to be consulted on the removal of their democracy, Labour and the Greens are currently filibustering the government’s enabling legislation in Parliament by forcing a vote on thousands of new amendments. Their objective is simple, they want to get the bill off to a select committee and […]

Has anyone asked them what they think now?

Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:46 pm, May 15th, 2009 - 7 comments

Moana Mackey has been looking at old Hansards in a post on Red Alert. The topic was the Local Government Act changes in 2002. It is a revealing look at the change of attitude by National MP’s on the process of consultation for local government changes. A couple of examples: Phil Heatley: I was disturbed […]

“An indecent assault on numeracy”

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 3:05 pm, May 14th, 2009 - Comments Off on “An indecent assault on numeracy”

Over at Public Address Keith Ng has a great post up on Labour and National’s tax regimes. Pretty graphs, accessible analysis and a DPF slap-down – what more could you ask for?

Will your house get bulldozed?

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 10:49 am, May 14th, 2009 - 15 comments

Labour’s just launched an interactive Google map showing National’s plans for the Waterview connection. Click the map below to check it out.

New Left blog

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:30 am, May 8th, 2009 - 19 comments

Red Alert, a blog by Labour MPs. A good idea – the blog format allows for a lot more freedom than the press release, and will hopefully them a chance to express their own personal views rather than just the official line of the party. It’ll be interesting to see how it works out. So […]

Mt Albert candidate selected

Written By: lprent - Date published: 3:48 pm, May 3rd, 2009 - 93 comments

David Shearer has been selected as the candidate for Labour. Congratulations to all of the candidates [updated: The vodem was a bit slow. So I’ve now updated the post with links to the byelection campaign site after I got home.]

Entrenchment back on the agenda

Written By: Tane - Date published: 5:18 pm, April 30th, 2009 - 44 comments

Good to see Labour pursuing a private member’s bill to entrench the Maori seats. Mita Ririnui, who’s lodging the bill, says it “will ensure that the Maori seats in Parliament will not be able to be abolished unless 75 per cent of MPs in any Parliament vote in favour of such a move. ‘The only […]