political parties

Labour Conference 2012 policy remits

Written By: lprent - Date published: 10:38 am, November 18th, 2012 - 27 comments

The policy remits this morning. There isn’t a lot of time. However they are prioritized

Members send a message to caucus

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:43 am, November 18th, 2012 - 19 comments

Looking at the MSM reaction this morning, one thing is clear.

They’ve missed that the significance of the vote yesterday was not about whether there will be leadership contest.

It’s about the accountability of the caucus to the party.

Changing Labour: significant issues

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:38 am, November 18th, 2012 - 4 comments

These are exciting days as the Labour Party becomes more democratic. In their reports on the Conference, the MSM are failing to focus on the important issues: ones requiring a new direction from the Left, such as damaging white collar fraud and the urgent need for affordable housing.

A reason to belong

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 7:48 am, November 18th, 2012 - 29 comments

For the first time in the history of New Zealand, being a member of a major party really means something. If you a member of Labour, you will have a choice in who your leader is. Can any but a handful of National apparatchiks say the same? It’s time for National’s members to ask whether they’re really members of just money pots. And it’s time for the Labour Ulterior to re-join.

Labour Conference day 2

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 11:53 pm, November 17th, 2012 - 9 comments

So the remit session was a bit of an endurance event as they always are (and we’ve still got policy remits tomorrow…). The vast majority was fairly easily agreed, including the big changes. The real contention was over the leadership vote trigger for the 3-yearly caucus endorsement.

Pushing at an open door

Written By: lprent - Date published: 10:17 pm, November 17th, 2012 - 61 comments

Back in the early 90’s the first party conference I went to was very nearly my last. Intransigent foes who used the mic to assault each other was my introduction to the Labour party ‘working’ with each other. Eventually I gave up viewing the remit floor as meaningless. But it now looks like this has all changed. It looks like the Labour party has an open door through which it is capable of doing something again.

Labour chooses democracy

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:55 pm, November 17th, 2012 - 152 comments

Labour has established its new leadership voting rules. The attempt to effectively neuter the membership’s new power by setting a high bar for a leadership vote to be triggered failed. It will take 50% of caucus to trigger a vote in ordinary times, but a 60% caucus endorsement of the leader to avoid a leadership vote in the compulsory mid-term motion.

Labour Conference 2012 remits

Written By: lprent - Date published: 10:24 am, November 17th, 2012 - 81 comments

Especially for delegates (and me) to write comments on remits. Very fast so far. Robert Gallagher who is chairing the movement appears to be enjoying himself. A welcome sight.

Poverty Watch 12

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:36 am, November 17th, 2012 - 12 comments

Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, children bear the brunt of the Nats beneficiary bashing, and Peter Dunne challenged to make good on his promises and big words…

A note to a media commentator

Written By: lprent - Date published: 2:51 am, November 17th, 2012 - 53 comments

I finally got around to listening to Gavin Ellis making a complete dork of himself on Radio NZ talking about authors on this site being “manipulated”. Hah! Anyone trying to manipulate them is likely to wind up being made into a pretzel. I wouldn’t care to try it myself. So does Gavin Ellis = a bit of an idiot. Or more charitably, has he actually bothered to think about this issue?

Labour Conference day 1

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 12:25 am, November 17th, 2012 - 8 comments

So Lynn is giving you the media perspective, I thought I might get some delegate perspective. Housing, jobs, policy, speeches… a bit of the flavour.

#Labour2012 Voting for democracy

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 8:06 pm, November 16th, 2012 - 32 comments

There’s a few remits on the floor at conference today that are going to be make or break for the future of the Labour party. They’re all about democratising the party which is something I think needs to happen if it’s going to survive and thrive.

Conference 2012 – Labour

Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:54 pm, November 16th, 2012 - 149 comments

Well, I’m at the Labour conference – as media. Feels somewhat weird after many delegate years. I figure that The Standard needs to start sending someone along to the conferences. So I will ground-break at each of the major ones over the next year. The remit book looks like the main focus for this year. […]

Towards an inclusive, democratic left

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:53 am, November 16th, 2012 - 46 comments

The left needs to develop a new direction, not merely react to the ruling neoliberal discourses and policies. Under NAct there has been a resurgent masculinisation of politics, and the undermining of democratic processes. How do we work towards a more inclusive, diverse participatory democracy?

Kiwis lose jobs, Nats make jokes

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:22 am, November 15th, 2012 - 21 comments

Didn’t it make you sick to your stomach when smug Tories getting fat on quarter of a million dollar taxpayer-funded salaries get up in the House and make jokes to deflect from the dire jobs situation?* Well, I know 410,000 Kiwis who are looking for work and aren’t laughing when Key and co make jokes about it.

The enemy isn’t on your side

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 7:35 am, November 15th, 2012 - 186 comments

Politics 101 for Labour leaders: when a right-wing columnist tells you to piss off your party and your base to ‘win the centre’ she probably doesn’t have your best interests at heart. The truth of it is, Labour didn’t lose the last two elections by losing the centre and it won’t win by trying to win back votes from National. It’s the Labour non-vote that matters.

Break For The Future

Written By: Bill - Date published: 9:18 am, November 14th, 2012 - 102 comments

When Margaret Thatcher was asked about her greatest achievement, she promptly answered: “New Labour.” And she was right: her triumph was that even her political enemies adopted her basic economic policies. True victory over your enemy occurs when they start to use your language, so that your ideas form the foundation of the entire field. Today, when neoliberal hegemony is clearly falling apart, the only solution is to repeat Thatcher’s gesture in the opposite direction.

Looking for a new left direction: more than just one housing policy

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:10 am, November 14th, 2012 - 218 comments

A policy focusing on increasing state housing and affordable rents would be a good start. However, my current criticism of Labour leadership focuses on the policy direction of the leadership team. This requires more than just one policy. A bold new left wing plan is needed to deal with the difficult challenges ahead. Updated

Labour Conference 2012: how is social media formed?

Written By: QoT - Date published: 7:00 pm, November 13th, 2012 - 81 comments

So, in an effort to make a post not calling for the head of David Shearer, I decided to take a look at the Labour Party’s conference webpages. And oh boy are they a treat. I’ve blogged before about Labour’s (or at least, Shearer’s office’s) poor grasp of social media, but whole new levels of “what r […]

Shearer Says – on leadership

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 4:12 pm, November 13th, 2012 - 93 comments

Nonsense

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 12:31 pm, November 13th, 2012 - 70 comments

NZ Herald: ‘David Shearer is brushing off a crescendo of calls for him to step down by left-leaning bloggers and commentators, saying it is “nonsense” and should be ignored.’

We have a lemming instead of a leader

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:04 am, November 13th, 2012 - 80 comments

John Key doesn’t want NZ to be a leader in the fight against climate change. Much better to be a lemming (sorry – a “fast follower”) and follow all the other lemmings off the cliff.

At conference, vote for a members’ democracy

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 7:00 am, November 13th, 2012 - 53 comments

The Labour Party conference this weekend is crucial for the democratic future of the party. A party member outlines his view on how to vote. His main point? In U.K. Labour you only need 20% of caucus to allow a vote on the leadership. That’s about right.

NRT: This week’s distraction

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:25 pm, November 12th, 2012 - 5 comments

No Right Turn on this week’s offering from the Nat roulette wheel of political distractions…

Shuffle the caucus deck

Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:06 pm, November 12th, 2012 - 95 comments

By all means, get rid of the unfortunate experiment that is the David Shearer leadership. But the problem is really with the NZLP’s parliamentary caucus who appear to have lost sight of what we want them to achieve. Until that problem is fixed the party will continue to shed people willing to exert effort supporting them.

Remember Waihi 1912: who now has the courage?

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:28 am, November 12th, 2012 - 21 comments

Tomorrow is the centenary of the death of Fred Evans on 13 November 1912, during the Waihi gold miners strike. Out of this struggle of ordinary, but courageous NZ workers, grew the NZ Labour Party. Who now has such courage to lead NZ politics in a new direction? Update: Allison McCulloch’s article on the Waihi strike.

Who could replace Shearer?

Written By: QoT - Date published: 5:00 pm, November 11th, 2012 - 90 comments

Some people are Anyone But Cunliffe. Some people think Cunliffe is the One True Leader. Some people want more options. So let’s make a case for it.

It’s time to go

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 7:03 am, November 11th, 2012 - 175 comments

Eddie is right.

David Shearer needs to step down.

On David Shearer’s Leadership

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:17 pm, November 10th, 2012 - 284 comments

For the Left to win in 2014, David Shearer has to resign as Labour Leader. This is a big call to make and one that I have agonised over, but the reality has become increasingly clear: under Shearer, Labour is all too likely to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2014.

Poverty Watch 11

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:38 am, November 10th, 2012 - 5 comments

Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, another doctor warns us about poverty and disease in NZ, Peter Dunne betrays his pledge to back measures that reduce poverty, and inequality in New York exposed by hurricane Sandy.

Opposition Party statements; what the MSM doesn’t report

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:10 am, November 10th, 2012 - 39 comments

The MSM quickly picked up a press release on the failure of the Southern Cross Cable. Others that are ignored: Bennett has either lied or is incompetent; Nat-linked appointment to TVNZ board; Hone’s ‘feed the kids’ Bill; Joyce’s education agenda; John Key as a “bumbling Marxist”.