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Farewell

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:40 pm, November 19th, 2008 - 96 comments

A crowd several hundred strong turned out this morning to farewell Helen Clark as she left Parliament as Prime Minister for the last time to present her Government’s official resignation to the Governor-General. Even though I’m a Greenie, I always find Labour events amazingly heart-warming – such a huge variety of people young and old […]

What should Clark do?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:10 am, November 18th, 2008 - 28 comments

There’s a lot of talk about Helen Clark leaving Parliament in a year or so to head for an international role. While Clark would obviously be more than capable of performing well at that level, I would prefer to see her do something completely different. Labour needs to build its membership and its connections with […]

Undefeated

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 3:14 pm, November 17th, 2008 - 41 comments

Paul Holmes wrote yesterday: “While Labour moves to the Opposition benches, it does so weirdly unmolested by the election defeat, weirdly undefeated” Damn right, the Left seems undefeated, and so it should. The Right has only won power by masquerading as the Left; Key’s mandate is only to maintain the legacy of the Fifth Labour […]

Gordon Campbell: new Labour leadership

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 7:34 pm, November 12th, 2008 - 42 comments

As we’ve come to expect, a thought provoking piece from Gordon Campbell, who says …the public may one day come to rue the change they sought on Saturday. But if and when they do, there is no guarantee that a paternalistic Labour would be the only, or best source of relief. The Greens, now that […]

Goff and King to lead Labour

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 3:03 pm, November 11th, 2008 - 96 comments

As has been widely reported, Phil Goff is set to take the leadership of Labour with Annette King as deputy leader. We’ll hear all kinds of nonsense about how this is a shift to the Right. Rubbish. We are not going to see Labour try to be National-lite. First, while the leader of National essentially […]

Fare thee well

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 10:54 pm, November 9th, 2008 - 37 comments

Firstly I must say congratulations to the winners on the night, and sympathies to those who did not succeed. We may not hold politicians in high regard but they put themselves on the line. The voting public have had their say and that, if nothing else, we must celebrate and respect. But for Labour the […]

Making the decision

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 3:00 pm, November 7th, 2008 - 56 comments

Have you still not decided who you’ll vote for? The final poll shows the race between a National/ACT/United Future or a Labour/Green/Progressive/Maori government is neck and neck, so your choice matters. Here is some advice and tools that may help: When choosing who to vote for there are three things you should consider: policy – […]

Wages still growing strongly

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 1:48 pm, November 3rd, 2008 - 31 comments

Despite the recession, wages have continued to grow at a record rate and, crucially, faster than inflation. The average hourly rate was up 5.5% over the past year. The percentage of the economy that goes to workers (rather than to the capital owners) continues to increase. This is the outcome of running a low unemployment […]

Advertising, getting it right and getting it wrong

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:56 am, November 3rd, 2008 - 62 comments

Labour’s new ad is one of the best political ads I’ve seen. It’s just a really well written script: acknowledging the success of the Right’s ‘time for a change’ meme and undercutting it, getting in some positive points on Labour that are forward-looking, and getting in the sting on Key. ‘Mary’ is what National calls […]

Side-show

Written By: Tane - Date published: 6:12 pm, October 31st, 2008 - 32 comments

I see the media are now comparing the ‘redundancy’ packages on offer with all of the horse race vigour they applied to the tax cuts. That’s understandable as the media like quantifiable measures so they can make simple graphs and X is greater or less than Y soundbite statements. But what they have forgotten is […]

Tories’ crack at socialism a poor substitute

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 1:39 pm, October 31st, 2008 - 5 comments

National’s redundancy package would effectively continue Working for Families payments for some people who would otherwise lose them after redunancy. Only people who have been in the same job for six months would get it, cutting out labourers, temps, and contract workers. For about the same cost, it would deliver more money to fewer people […]

Whose record is better?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:19 am, October 31st, 2008 - 6 comments

I found it weird that National’s attack ad is a series of newspaper headlines. Everyone knows newspaper headlines are sensationalist and everyone knows that things were much worse under National in the 1990s, as this new youtube vid illustrates: Meanwhile, the upbeat jokers at 08wire have a positive reponse to the Nat attack ad:

More redundancy protection

Written By: Tane - Date published: 4:01 pm, October 30th, 2008 - 78 comments

It’s good to see Labour turning its focus back onto policy (and particularly the economy) today with its announcement of a “job search allowance” for people made redundant in the coming economic downturn. Basically, the allowance means if you lose your job you’ll be eligible for the dole without means-testing for up to 13 weeks. […]

The Standard line: Tax cuts

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:21 pm, October 30th, 2008 - 23 comments

[update: download this (tax-and-kiwisaver-calculator) simple excel table that will calculate tax cut and Kiwisaver losses under Labour and National, and the difference, for you and your family. No other calculator has included Kiwisaver losses] So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t […]

No smoking gun

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:09 am, October 30th, 2008 - 152 comments

It turns out the Herald’s story about John Key’s H-fee involvement is a bust. Aside from Key not being straight with the dates he worked at Elders there isn’t anything firm to tie him to the actual fraud. That’s not the story I expected given the Herald had decided to lead with this story on […]

A clear choice on ACC

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 9:59 am, October 29th, 2008 - 48 comments

If you vote National, United Future, or ACT, you will be voting for the ACC system to be privatised. Consequences of this include: – $200 million in profits flowing offshore, according to John Key’s former employers Merril Lynch – higher levies on most workers, as private insurers cherry-pick the most profitable for themselves, leaving the […]

Labour’s labour policy good for labourers

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 7:50 pm, October 27th, 2008 - 19 comments

Labour has unveiled its work rights policy, and it’s a good one: – minimum wage increases at least at the rate of inflation or the average wage increase, whichever is higher. That would bring it to nearly $15 a year by 2011. Why they didn’t just commit to $15 like the rest of the Left, […]

On moral mandates

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 7:01 am, October 26th, 2008 - 69 comments

So, let me get this straight. The Right says that the minor parties have to support a National-led government if National gets more votes than Labour. Even if a National government would go against everything a party stands for, even if it is a complete betrayal of the people who voted for them, minor parties […]

Here be dragons

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:02 pm, October 25th, 2008 - 20 comments

So, we can all make up dumb pictures and say ‘beware of many-headed monsters’. Let’s, instead, ask if National’s attack makes sense. First, any new government is going to need support from a number of parties. A Labour-led government is likely to be dependent on Labour, the Progressives, Greens, and the Maori Party (four parties). […]

The Standard line: Photoshop

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:03 am, October 24th, 2008 - 132 comments

So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t have the arguments and facts at your fingertips to make a decisive point. That’s where our election series, The Standard line, comes in. The info you need in bite-size form. Today: photoshop Points: […]

John vs John

Written By: Tane - Date published: 11:20 am, October 21st, 2008 - 53 comments

Labour’s new television ad is up on Youtube and I’m pleased to see it’s actually pretty bloody good. They’ve managed to draw attention to one of John’s many flipflops, this one on Kiwisaver, in a way that uses humour and sticks to the facts and thereby avoids the nastiness often associated with negative campaigning. It’s […]

It’s your choice

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 1:35 pm, October 20th, 2008 - 109 comments

Now that both Labour and National have all their major spending promises out, we can compare the options. Remember, whatever happens one of these two parties will lead the next government, so these are the basic choices we face: Labour: -Keep existing policies including important polices growing next term: -retaining Kiwibank -retaining Kiwisaver -tax cuts […]

Labour chickens out on $15 minimum wage

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 2:54 pm, October 14th, 2008 - 23 comments

Labour, why do you do this to me? One day you’re announcing neo-Keynesian policies to help us through the coming recession, then you stand up for the principle that access to education shouldn’t be dependent on the wealth of ones parents, and, then, just when I’m starting to believe that you really are a true […]

‘Give me warning next time’, Key whimpers

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 4:08 pm, October 13th, 2008 - 44 comments

While Key was blathering on about who-cares-what yesterday, Clark announced a radical and forward-looking economic stimulus package. Now, Key is having a cry over Clark not notifying him beforehand of the deposit insurance scheme. As if the Prime Minister needs to seek the approval of an opposition party before setting government policy. Key whines that monetary […]

Universal allowance – Labour joins rest of Left

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 3:25 pm, October 13th, 2008 - 59 comments

Good to see Labour joining the Greens and Progressives with a universal student allowance policy. It has been a crying shame that many people who are trying to get an education and whose parents can’t support them have had to borrow to get a fraction of the money that one gets on a benefit or […]

Working our way forward

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:50 am, October 13th, 2008 - 16 comments

It was inevitable that the focus of media coverage of Labour’s announements yesterday would be the deposit insurance, it’s a good self-centred middle-class story. But the important stuff, as Irish pointed out last night, is the re-training money, the speed-up of infrastructure construction, the money for sewerage, housing, and anti-erosion projects. The deposit insurance simply acts to […]

Labour takes bull by the horns, Nats left standing

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:14 am, October 13th, 2008 - 25 comments

One of the first rules of politics is don’t set yourself up to be snookered; don’t position yourself in a way that your opposition can and will undercut, don’t run attack lines that your opposition can and will invalidate. National has repeatedly done this. They ran on tax cuts as their sole platform when it […]

Labour – too popular

Written By: lprent - Date published: 2:46 pm, October 12th, 2008 - 70 comments

Labour is too damn popular! I’m at the campaign launch and the place is full. There are a couple of hundred of us hanging around in the lounges looking at the televisions – metres away from the hall. The Auckland town hall is overflowing with activists. I’ve been at a large number of these launches […]

Live: Helen Clark launches Labour campaign

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 2:06 pm, October 12th, 2008 - 9 comments

What happens if Nats gut Kiwisaver?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:53 pm, October 10th, 2008 - 23 comments

I was going to write about the economic effects of taking money out of Kiwisaver and spending it on tax cuts but this youtube video with South Park characters does the job and is much more fun: (hattip: Labour’s ‘Campaign Trail‘ blog)

Greens set their standards for coalition partners

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:34 am, October 9th, 2008 - 43 comments

The Greens have announced that they will choose their preferred coalition partner based on their commitment to 12 criteria. I’ll just look at 5 (not that the others are less important, just space): reduce New Zealand’s oil dependence and climate change emissions; – senior Nats don’t even think climate change is happening and the Party […]