political parties

Will John Key stand for National in Tauranga

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:44 am, April 1st, 2022 - 32 comments

The Standard has learned from a normally reliable source that John Key is considering seeking the National Party nomination for the Tauranga seat.

Kia kaha Louisa Wall

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:25 pm, March 31st, 2022 - 10 comments

Earlier this week Louisa Wall announced that she is retiring as a Member of Parliament. History will confirm that she was one of our best Parliamentarians.

Who will be National’s Tauranga candidate

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:18 am, March 29th, 2022 - 66 comments

National is opening up nominations for the Tauranga by election today. The Standard reviews some potential candidates for the seat.

Covid and political capital

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:28 am, March 28th, 2022 - 141 comments

Jacinda Ardern has burned significant political capital on dealing with Covid. But it is something that a responsible Political leader, of which there are few, would do.

Act’s generous donors and its anti Treaty campaign

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:18 am, March 26th, 2022 - 65 comments

This has not had the media attention that it deserves but Act has raised, to use the technical term, a shit load of money recently. And it is using this money to engage in some good old fashioned racist dog whistling.

Can This Government Be Saved?

Written By: advantage - Date published: 5:43 pm, March 25th, 2022 - 118 comments

Can Labour win a third term? Here are some pathways up, and some pathways down.

Government announces significant changes to traffic light settings and mandates

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:52 am, March 23rd, 2022 - 218 comments

The Government has announced changes to Covid policies relating to traffic light settings and mandates.

National’s politicisation of Covid over the past two years

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:07 am, March 21st, 2022 - 34 comments

A slightly deeper review of National’s response to the Covid epidemic over the past two years. The overwhelming impression is that they have always complained about supposed Government incompetence in handling the pandemic and have always argued for the loosening of restrictions no matter how justifiable.

Who Pays the Price of Sanctions

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 4:32 pm, March 20th, 2022 - 194 comments

New Zealand’s sanctions on Russia have not stopped the war in Ukraine. They may have made our parliamentarians feel better, and Tony Blinken was quick to congratulate us on falling into line with the US “high-impact sanctions.” The language is combative, but the evidence shows sanctions do not work. They can have significant blow-back effects, particularly if not combined with effective diplomacy.

The difference between Labour and National

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:05 am, March 17th, 2022 - 141 comments

There has been the occasional criticism of Labour for not achieving enough progressive change by people who then propose supporting National. What are they thinking?

The Tauranga by election

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:55 am, March 16th, 2022 - 67 comments

By elections are at the best of times dramatic events. Given current circumstances and a well funded although deeply unpopular anti vaccine movement and the likely candidacy of Winston Peters the Tauranga by election is likely to be a circus.

See you later Simon

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:13 pm, March 15th, 2022 - 40 comments

Simon Bridges has just announced that he is retiring from politics.

The empire strikes back

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:53 am, March 15th, 2022 - 146 comments

Labour’s announcement of a temporary reduction in fuel excise duties and a halving of public transport fares ups the ante on the debate on how to alleviate hardship caused by overseas induced inflation.

National’s advice to the poor – you are on your own

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:11 am, March 13th, 2022 - 125 comments

To help the poorest amongst us during the current times of International hyper inflation National has come up with a list of tips to help them. But no money.

“Labour… stop playing by this tired, neoliberal playbook”

Written By: weka - Date published: 6:05 am, March 11th, 2022 - 98 comments

Chloe Swarbrick, the cost of living crisis, and what the economy is for.

The latest poll

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:54 pm, March 10th, 2022 - 124 comments

National/Act (47%) would beat Labour/Greens (46%) if there were an election held tomorrow, according to the latest One News Kantar poll.

National stuffs up its financial analysis – again

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 1:42 pm, March 9th, 2022 - 79 comments

For so called economic geniuses National sure struggles to understand how to properly cost fiscal policy. Its latest response to news that it proposed tax cuts would wipe out all discretionary spending in its first budget is to fudge the dates on which the cuts would be made.

National’s tax policy

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:14 am, March 7th, 2022 - 107 comments

National has proposed to reverse all tax changes implemented by Labour and claims that the cuts can be managed without damage to the state. But the figure it uses, $1.7 billion a year, includes income tax adjustments only and not the cost of the removal of other taxes.

This is awkward

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:51 am, March 6th, 2022 - 85 comments

Chris Luxon’s public commitment not to negotiate with the Wellington protestors has been called into question by a Facebook from Maureen Pugh claiming that members of the National Party were talking to the protesters on an almost daily basis.

Everyone is over Covid

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:46 am, February 22nd, 2022 - 134 comments

Jacinda Ardern said yesterday that everyone is over Covid. She is right. We all want this to end.

Why haven’t the police acted?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:30 am, February 18th, 2022 - 474 comments

It is day 10 of the Anti vax protest on Parliament’s grounds. More cars are being parked illegally and despite considerable disruption to Wellington’s roading network so far not one car has been towed by the police.

Can this government get re-elected?

Written By: advantage - Date published: 10:56 am, February 13th, 2022 - 34 comments

Where will the votes come from to get Labour a third term?

Freakin useless

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:58 pm, February 10th, 2022 - 114 comments

Maureen Pugh has posted a post on facebook supporting the Wellington protestors, deleted it when it was pointed out to her the protestors were anti vaccination, and then claimed she did not realise many of the protesters were against Covid-19 vaccination.

Chloe Swarbrick Needs A Reset

Written By: advantage - Date published: 11:01 am, February 10th, 2022 - 42 comments

Chloe Swarbrick has requested that the government help Auckland central’s restaurants. But in a post Covid pre climate change world this is not going to help.

Chris Bishop – manipulated, lying, or just plain stupid?

Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:55 pm, February 9th, 2022 - 24 comments

Roche, a major manufacturer of RATs, issued a statement to media on Tuesday night saying none of its stocks had been diverted or seized by the Government.
“RAT kits have been, and will continue to be, supplied to all New Zealand customers, including the Ministry of Health, in the sequence that purchase orders were placed,”. Chris Bishop MP is still claiming mythical evidence from local suppliers.

Prime Minister Ardern on Climate Change and the economy

Written By: advantage - Date published: 12:27 pm, February 9th, 2022 - 33 comments

The full text is worth perusing across multiple areas, but Prime Minister Ardern’s speech in Parliament yesterday gave useful hints about how the economy and climate change are being integrated into a single economic strategy.

Luxon under pressure after latest Newshub Poll

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:08 pm, February 7th, 2022 - 93 comments

I am going to channel my Matthew Hooton left wing alter ego in the writing of this post. The latest Newshub poll shows a resounding level of support for the Labour Party and there are murmurs of discontent about Chris Luxon after support for the right plummets.