political parties
Categories under political parties
- act (546)
- Coalition NZ (3)
- conservative party (74)
- greens (1,019)
- internet party (17)
- labour (2,589)
- mana (86)
- mana-party (56)
- maori party (363)
- national (4,498)
- same old national (1,617)
- new conservatives (8)
- nz first (434)
- progressives (20)
- TOPS (10)
- united future (64)
- women's rights party (2)
A correction
Written By: - Date published: 8:29 pm, April 21st, 2011 - 54 comments
I’ve long held to the principle of owning your mistakes and as such I’ve gotta say I was wrong about one aspect of the “stop asset sales” campaign – the signs are authorised.
First Amongst Equals
Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, April 21st, 2011 - 47 comments
I heard David Cunliffe on Morning Report on Tuesday, and he was superb. But as soon as he finished I knew the Right would try to deflect from the substance by writing it off as leadership ambitions. And sure enough we have Audrey Young, making exactly that connection. Labour can turn that on its head.
ECE costs increasing
Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, April 21st, 2011 - 19 comments
The Nats’ attack on early childhood education (ECE) is starting to bite. As surely as night follows day, the cuts in funding for childcare centres are showing up as increased costs for parents.
Expansionary austerity – fail
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 21st, 2011 - 32 comments
Expansionary austerity is the idea that cutbacks in government spending can stimulate economic growth. Empirical evidence shows that it doesn’t work. Current experience shows that it’s not working in Britain, and it isn’t working here. Like “trickle down economics” this favourite of the political Right is not so much a theory as a deluded fantasy.
Amateur hour – or how to take a good idea and turn it into a bad campaign
Written By: - Date published: 12:20 am, April 21st, 2011 - 110 comments
Labour’s stop asset sales campaign should have been good but it wasn’t.
Not because of its legal cock-ups (okay not just because of its legal cock-ups) but because it was rolled out in a vacuum.
Climate change: Our $1.2 billion a year credibility gap
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, April 20th, 2011 - 14 comments
The United Nations joins those voices pointing out that Nationals”policy” on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a complete sham. Reposted from No Right Turn.
The emperor’s new clothes
Written By: - Date published: 7:38 am, April 20th, 2011 - 106 comments
Fancy suits for John.
User pays family court for us.
Epsom a done deal
Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 43 comments
Recently Irish Bill wrote on the Nats’ dilemma in Epsom. Looks the deal is now done, and predictably Key has decided that he needs ACT’s numbers (however small).
Key SCF excuses fall flat
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 10 comments
Michael Bott takes John Key to task for his claims over the South Canterbury Finance debacle. Key and English have tried to blame Labour for the deposit guarantee that covered SCF. But the truth is that National extended SCF’s coverage under the scheme again and again, despite knowing that SCF was in breach of the rules.
Pagani dead wrong
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 19th, 2011 - 67 comments
Former senior Labour party strategist John Pagani has written an extraordinary blog post where he says Labour ought to cuddle up to National because its policies are so popular and then, somehow, convince people to vote Labour for some reason. If this has been Labour’s strategy for the past few years, it explains a lot.
Candidate Conference
Written By: - Date published: 6:16 pm, April 18th, 2011 - 59 comments
This weekend just gone there was a conference in Wellington for Labour candidates to get us all up to speed with the campaign. We’re ready to go out there and make it happen.
Inflation credit and blame
Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, April 18th, 2011 - 11 comments
Back in October last year the Nats, in a sea of bad news on the economy, latched on to the low inflation rate as something that they could claim “credit” for. No doubt they will now be just as ready to accept blame for the worst inflation rate in 20 years. Almost half of this figure is driven by the Nats’ GST increase…
Winnie’s big chance
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 18th, 2011 - 58 comments
The TV3 poll has the NACT vs Lab/Green/NZF gap at 22% vs 9% in the latest Roy Morgan. I’ll tend to pay attention to the company that polls every fortnight to the one that polls once in a blue moon. Nevertheless, the story of both polls is the same: Labour struggling to make headway + Nats potentially with a majority = opportunity for Winston Peters
A broad church
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, April 17th, 2011 - 36 comments
Ratana elders are unhappy with Labour over its list rankings, and have called on supporters to abandon the Party. Phil Goff needs to work on the relationship with the Church immediately. For Labour the only silver lining in this cloud, and the focus on its list in general, is the fact that it illustrates what a large and diverse group of people the Party has to represent.
I’m sorry, I’m out
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, April 16th, 2011 - 68 comments
Every country that has ever sleepwalked from democracy to dictatorship has done it in the belief that it was taking extraordinary, temporary measures in response to an emergency. Seeing Labour denounce every aspect of CERA and then vote for it has shaken me to the core.
Armstrong on Nats’ elitist agenda
Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, April 16th, 2011 - 7 comments
National has pillaged the poor to benefit the rich. That can be seen in the tax cuts, the GST hike, the subsidies for climate polluters, even the cuts to public transport to fund holiday highways. But sometimes it’s the smaller stories that best expose the underlying theme of a government, as John Armstrong shows in his piece today.
Rodney (still) wrecking the wacky party
Written By: - Date published: 3:41 pm, April 14th, 2011 - 13 comments
You almost have to admire Rodney Hide for his total contempt for political reality. He has managed to annoy aged GoldCard users with his comments on their off-peak free use of public transport. There’s also a horrible irony in Hide opposing publicly funded transport for people who aren’t him or his girlfriend.
You’re an internet pirate
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, April 14th, 2011 - 37 comments
Last night the Nats were ramming their new copyright bill through under urgency. Like the much reviled Labour bill that preceded it, it contains the assumption of guilt by accusation. There are already calls for repeats of the 2009 blackout protest…
Reasons to vote against CERA
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 14th, 2011 - 77 comments
Update: bollocks. Clayton Cosgrove has announced Labour will vote for CERA “even though we have grave concerns”. He then spent 10 minutes whining how Brownlee had lied to Labour repeatedly during this process and wasn’t to be trusted. He warned Brownlee he would be accountable if CERA stuffs up. Brownlee responded “so will you”. Labour wonders why it is stuck in National’s shadow unable to get traction – It’s decisions like this one.
Better off with National?
Written By: - Date published: 2:26 pm, April 13th, 2011 - 27 comments
National is making most New Zealand households worse off – 5.3% worse off after 2 years, and it’ll be even worse once the 3rd year’s data is out. As the wage gap with Australia grows, this government is failing its “fundamental purpose”.
Footnote: legal aid.
Pragmatism and the limits of patience
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, April 13th, 2011 - 20 comments
Bill English managed to cause quite a fuss this week with his claim that New Zealand had a “competitive advantage” due to factors like our low wage economy. Another of the factors that English cited was how “pragmatic” the public are as the Nats ram through their economic changes…
Bill English: man of the people
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, April 11th, 2011 - 19 comments
The Crown BMWs are back in the news. One will have a $1000 underseat heater to keep a worthy’s arse toasty. Based in Dunedin. For “long-distance and long-duration movements”. Hmm. Who flies to Dunedin for a 3 hour drive to Dipton occasionally? Guess you need that heater against the Southern cold when you’re used to balmy Karori.
Key caught in MediaWorks lie
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, April 9th, 2011 - 85 comments
Following the release of OIA documentation and questioning in the House, John Key has recanted his earlier statement that he hadn’t met with MediaWork’s Brent Impey to discuss a $43 million Government loan. The PM has now admitted that he did indeed meet with the head of Steven Joyce’s former company MediaWorks, which owns TV3, TV4, […]
Harawira / MP truce breaking?
Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, April 9th, 2011 - Comments Off on Harawira / MP truce breaking?
The first cracks are appearing in the agreement between Hone Harawira and the Maori Party not to stand against each other in electorates.
Little impact from Hughes affair, NZF on the rise
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 pm, April 8th, 2011 - 50 comments
The latest Roy Morgan poll shows little impact from the Darren Hughes affair to date. We still don’t know how the investigation will play out but the poll suggests dithering leadership matters less than economic fundamentals. The big news, though, is that New Zealand First would be back under these numbers.
John Key: let me eat cake
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, April 8th, 2011 - 68 comments
Labour’s candidate for Wairarapa, Michael Bott, on this out of touch government: “John Key smiles and waves for the cameras in Christchurch then jumps on a plane to Cape Kidnappers to spend the equivalent of a pensioner’s yearly income on one-off novelty dining with his wife – you can’t get more different than that.”
Brownlee, you’re doing a heck of a job
Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, April 8th, 2011 - 56 comments
The Nats are taking far too long to act on accommodation after the Christchurch quake. Japan accomplished more in 2 weeks than we have so far managed in 6 weeks and counting. While they build, we dither…
Armstrong on “Austerity”
Written By: - Date published: 5:24 pm, April 7th, 2011 - 12 comments
John Armstrong is losing patience with the Nats: “National is certainly consistent when it comes to cutting spending. It consistently fails to practise what it preaches…”
Nice to have
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, April 7th, 2011 - 25 comments
The PSA is the frontline in our fight against National’s plans to savagely cut our public services. Much in the same vein as the sticker campaign that Eddie posted on yesterday, the PSA has used humour to get across an incisive message: what the rich elitists in National consider ‘nice to have’ is very different from what we value.
Recent Comments