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Jarring

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:03 pm, April 29th, 2009 - 49 comments

Today Phil Goff’s question to Key is: “Does he agree with the statements in the House by his Minister of Finance on 16 December 2008 that ‘Yes, I can confirm that National will not be going back on any of those promises, as we fully costed and funded them’?” His angle is obviously going to […]

Budget 2009: Why not tax the rich?

Written By: Tane - Date published: 2:00 pm, April 27th, 2009 - 56 comments

With the Government openly preparing the public for spending cuts in the upcoming Budget, No Right Turn reminds us that there are alternatives – rather than cutting services and harming the poor, we could always raise taxes on those who can most afford it. The state of New York is doing this, hiking state income […]

Mount Albert Labour goes active

Written By: lprent - Date published: 3:34 pm, April 26th, 2009 - 68 comments

On the way to the Question & Answer session for the Mount Albert Labour selection candidates, it was clear that the campaign has kicked off. The hall is slowly filling up, and it looks like the seats are all full. You’ll see a photo (from the iphone) of candidates on the front table just as […]

Goff calls for supercity referendum

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:56 pm, April 24th, 2009 - 23 comments

Phil Goff has put out a press release calling for a referendum so that the people of Auckland can decide whether the Government’s Auckland supercity plan should go ahead. Excellent. A referendum is the only fair and democratic way to proceed. Especially when polling shows the people of Auckland are evenly split on whether or […]

Look Mum they stole my city …

Written By: lprent - Date published: 3:15 pm, April 23rd, 2009 - 28 comments

After the success of the meetings about the super-city in Waitakere and Manakau yesterday, here are a few more of interest in date order. We will issue reminders when they are due. From the notice on the Grassroots Labour site about a public meeting in Waitakere. Time April 27, 2009 from 8pm (now correct time) […]

David Shearer

Written By: Tane - Date published: 5:49 pm, April 22nd, 2009 - 34 comments

So, Labour’s flying in some bloke called David Shearer to have a tilt at the Mt Albert selection. Apparently he’s been working for the UN Development Programme in Iraq and has quite a bit of foreign policy background. People like him, wife and kids, ticks all the boxes. He also seems to be pretty close […]

About time

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:26 am, April 22nd, 2009 - 14 comments

It’s good that Labour has rejoined good leftwing principles over the foreshore and seabed. Labour was spooked by the popularity of National’s race baiting into emulating them. They should never have denied iwi the right to go to court to try to establish their customary rights to sections of the foreshore and seabed. There are […]

Phil Twyford not seeking Mt Albert nomination

Written By: lprent - Date published: 4:27 pm, April 21st, 2009 - 57 comments

Breaking news… Labour MP Phil Twyford announced today he will not be seeking the nomination for the Mt Albert by-election. Twyford said he believed the by-election was an ideal opportunity to bring more fresh talent into Parliament, building on Labour’s 2008 intake. “I am already a Member of Parliament. If someone from outside stands and […]

One of these things is not like the other III

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 7:03 am, April 18th, 2009 - 20 comments

One of these things is not like the other… One of these things is not quite the same. Can you guess which one is not like the other… Can you tell me before I finish the game?

Questions

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:24 pm, April 16th, 2009 - 27 comments

We should expect National as the political arm of business to surround itself with dirty money and conflicts of interest. As a self-proclaimed social democratic party Labour has no such excuse. So: – What is Labour’s education spokesperson Chris Carter doing accepting election donations from a private college? – Why is Shane Jones accepting money […]

Public service numbers

Written By: Tane - Date published: 5:17 pm, April 14th, 2009 - 44 comments

I’ve just stumbled across this killer graph from the PSA on public service numbers under Labour and National. It helpfully puts in graphical form what we’ve known all along – that for all the bleating we’ve heard from National and its sycophants about how Labour’s bloated public service was sucking the nation dry, the reality […]

Cullen leaving Parliament

Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:58 pm, April 7th, 2009 - 67 comments

The press statement from Michael Cullen on his departure from Parliament is here. He will be missed, and probably not just by members of the Labour Party. He has been an outstanding Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister. His attention to looking forward to circumstances such as the current world economic chaos has left […]

Cullen to chair NZ Post and Kiwibank

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:59 pm, April 7th, 2009 - 10 comments

Trans-Tasman reports: the Government will offer former Deputy PM and Finance Minister Michael Cullen the post of Chairman of the Board of NZ Post and its subsidiary Kiwibank, succeeding Jim Bolger who is due to retire this month. Cullen is announcing his retirement from Parliament today. Good on him. UPDATE: Stuff reports Cullen will be […]

Mt Albert nominations open for Labour

Written By: lprent - Date published: 6:48 am, April 7th, 2009 - 19 comments

Normally I don’t put up press releases but this one is special to me. It is about my home electorate and where I moved to in 1964 to start primary school. Labour Party President Andrew Little is calling for nominations for the Mt Albert by-election, following the appointment of Rt Hon Helen Clark as Head […]

Cold.

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:32 pm, March 31st, 2009 - 18 comments

[click on image for full size]

SSTimes Editorial: Clark’s UN job great for NZ but…

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 2:59 pm, March 29th, 2009 - 35 comments

I haven’t spotted an on-line version of this yet (SStimes Editorial, 29 Mar 2009) but wanted to pull a couple of quotes out that made sense to me: Helen Clark’s new post is an achievement, both for her and New Zealand. She is the outstanding politician of her generation and this appointment recognises and rewards […]

Healthy Homes, Healthy Kiwis

Written By: Tane - Date published: 4:37 pm, March 17th, 2009 - 42 comments

Well I’ll be, it seems Labour is finally starting to act like an opposition. They’ve set up a campaign website on home insulation – Healthy Homes, Healthy Kiwis – and have started a petition calling on the Government to commit to a home-insulation retrofitting programme. It’s not a bad looking website, and they’ve even managed […]

What is to be done?

Written By: Tane - Date published: 5:29 pm, March 3rd, 2009 - 40 comments

Kudos to the Maori Party’s Rahui Katene for using her position to highlight the situation at Sealord in Parliament today. But it’s Paula Bennett’s response that got me thinking: Rahui Katene: Is the Minister aware that the MÄori shareholders of Sealord attended the Prime Minister’s Job Summit last Friday, and what plans does the Government […]

Love’s Labour’s lost

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 4:24 pm, February 14th, 2009 - 14 comments

There were few Valentine’s Day sentiments for Labour in John Armstrong’s column today: It is difficult to put a finger on it, but something does not feel quite right about Labour’s approach to being in Opposition…Labour is exhibiting a self-righteousness which grates when placed against the backdrop of its rejection by voters…. We have yet […]

More than words

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:20 am, February 10th, 2009 - 33 comments

I see the Maori Party has come out saying the increase in the minimum wage to $12.50 an hour isn’t enough, and that they still support both a $15 an hour minimum wage and a tax-free bracket up to $25,000 (about the full-time minimum wage income). Pity they didn’t do something about it when they […]

Labour calls for $13 minimum wage

Written By: Tane - Date published: 1:51 pm, February 9th, 2009 - 34 comments

Phil Goff has come out strongly in anticipation of today’s minimum wage announcement from the Government with a call for an immediate increase to $13 an hour, rising to $15 over three years. As he points out, if National only increases the minimum wage from $12 to $12.50 an hour as the DoL suggests, that […]

Conservatism and Progressivism

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 3:30 pm, January 27th, 2009 - 99 comments

Conservatism is all about maintaining the status quo. It assumes that the status quo is essentially ok, while change is best avoided. The idea comes from philosophers like Edmund Burke who figured the reason conventions and structures get to endure in the first place is because they work. Of course if you’re in the middle […]

Worrying, or what I did with my holidays

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:47 pm, January 26th, 2009 - 59 comments

I’ve meaning to write a wee post thanking Young Labour for inviting me along to speak at their Summer School the other weekend. I’m told it’s a bit of a tradition at these summer schools to have some speakers from outside the party to give a different perspective, which is a bloody good idea. Falling […]

Imperfect but far better than the alternative

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 3:55 pm, January 14th, 2009 - 11 comments

It’s good to see Kiwipolitico taking a critical view of the Left from the Left – it’s certainly better than any critiques we see from the Right. And, naturally, within the Left we disagree at times, which is all good and healthy. In that spirit, I thought I would respond to two posts on Kiwipolitico […]

A real alternative

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 5:15 pm, December 24th, 2008 - 21 comments

One of Bruce Jesson’s constant bugbears during the New Right revolution of the 80’s and 90’s was that the Left allowed itself to be positioned as conservative. That we were simply fighting for the status quo rather than providing a proper progressive alternative to the imported market ideology that was being foist upon us. He […]

Labour’s maiden speeches

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 10:35 am, December 23rd, 2008 - 8 comments

Rather than decorating their tree, some committed Labour Party staffer seems still to be hard at work posting maiden speeches to YouTube. The Greens have theirs up too [link].

Treasury – Labour left us in good shape

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:23 pm, December 5th, 2008 - 17 comments

Treasury’s briefing to Bill English as the new Minister of Finance must’ve pissed him off big time. Aside from the expected ideological burp (already covered in depth by No Right Turn) it reads like a long list of Labour achievements and calls on National is reign in its irresponsible promises. Here’s a taste of some […]

Why is there a media honeymoon?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 2:53 pm, November 25th, 2008 - 41 comments

Why do new leaders get honeymoons? When you think about it, there’s no objective reason why a leader should get an easy run at first, not be asked the hard questions, be served lavish praise. So why does it happen? Well, I asked around a few people who’d been there and done that, and the […]

Labour’s lessons

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 6:27 pm, November 23rd, 2008 - 55 comments

54,982 votes, 2.3% of the total. That was difference in the election. If Labour had lost 55,000 fewer votes to National (it lost 142.966 in total, while voter numbers grew 69,000) then a Labour (47), Green (9), Progressive (1), Maori (5) government would have been possible, a more natural and stable government than one that […]

Goff announces shadow cabinet

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:22 pm, November 20th, 2008 - 44 comments

Labour leader Phil Goff has announced his shadow cabinet. As announced already Cunliffe takes finance, Clark takes foreign affairs, Hughes and Chadwick are whips. Annette King takes on social development in addition to the deputy leadership – a smart move, she’ll make mincemeat out of Paula Bennett. Ruth Dyson takes health, Chris Carter holds education […]

NZ Labour supporters site launched

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:15 am, November 20th, 2008 - 32 comments

NZ Labour Supporters has been launched as an unofficial online hub for Labour supporters. It looks like a good wee site. Along the lines of g.blog for Greens supporters, any registered user can write blog posts. Looks like there are forums and the ability to contribute to a multi-media library too. They’ve started off with […]