political parties

Faafoi to challenge Mana selection

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:37 am, August 25th, 2010 - 15 comments

I see Kris Faafoi’s been given the nod from the Goffice to have a crack at Mana. He’s always struck me as a decent and hardworking bloke, so I wouldn’t want anyone to take this as an attack on him personally, but isn’t it a little worrying how many of Labour’s new recruits are being parachuted in from the leader’s office?

Roy enounters changeable Mr Hyde

Written By: Dancr - Date published: 8:00 pm, August 24th, 2010 - 24 comments

Is Heather Roy to depart the ACT caucus? According to TVNZ, Act Party leader Rodney Hide is signalling his dumped deputy Heather Roy will find it extremely difficult to stay on as an MP, despite saying last week that she would be welcomed back into the caucus.

Kudos to “The Veteran”

Written By: lprent - Date published: 11:45 am, August 21st, 2010 - 21 comments

Reading about Act ritualistically disemboweling themselves this week has been interesting, and has quite a few implications for the political landscape at the next election. The factor that has been attracting my attention was highlighted by Fran O’Sullivan this morning – where did those defense papers wind up. Apparently with The Veteran at No Minister, who wins kudos from me by acting responsibly to the leak.

ACT’s demise bad news for neo-liberals

Written By: Michael Foxglove - Date published: 6:33 am, August 20th, 2010 - 37 comments

No wonder Winston Peters is smiling. His personal vendetta with Hide must be at on the forefront of his mind as he watches his nemesis sink.

But what does ACT’s impending demise actually mean for other parties? It’s not good news for National.

Key backs the bully, loses a good minister

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, August 19th, 2010 - 24 comments

John Key allowed one of the ministers he appointed to be bullied out of her job and replaced by a man chosen by Rodney Hide, and he didn’t even ask Hide why. As more details emerge, it looks like Hide is the one in the wrong. Will Key now discipline Hide and invite Roy, who has been acclaimed as a good minister in a bad bunch, back on board? Not likely. The guy’s barely awake these days.

Peters vs Key

Written By: Michael Foxglove - Date published: 8:27 pm, August 18th, 2010 - 53 comments

TV3 is reporting Winston Peters will standing at the next election… against John Key in Helensville. Those are candidate meetings I for one wouldn’t want to miss!

One of these things is not like the other XI

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 4:25 pm, August 18th, 2010 - 18 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?

An Authoritarian Act

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 2:52 pm, August 18th, 2010 - 14 comments

So Rodney can’t keep 4 other people on side. The liberal and authoritarian split in Act has had its blood-letting and the authoritarians have won. Where will the neo-liberal idealogues go? And how will Epsom react to this change in philosophy in a year’s time?

Karma on the beach

Written By: r0b - Date published: 1:52 pm, August 18th, 2010 - 28 comments

A new lobby group, the “Costal Coalition”, crawled out from under a rock today. Above is their first billboard, one of several planned for Wellington and Auckland. It’s a distasteful, damaging campaign, but National and their associated hacks have no grounds for complaint.

Key voters waking up, pity about the hangover they’ve given us

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:32 am, August 18th, 2010 - 81 comments

National is governing like National governs. Anyone could have foreseen this, there were plenty of clues, but its only now are people who switched to Key waking up to the fact that he’s just the grinning face on the same old beast. I wonder: if someone is smart enough to see that Key’s government is a failure now, how were they dumb enough to ever believe things would be different?

How to be a lazy politician

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 3:00 pm, August 17th, 2010 - 9 comments

When John Steinbeck said â€œNo one wants advice – only corroborationâ€ he could well have been describing the numerous working groups the Government has established in many areas of significant economic and social policy. Too lazy to spend its nine years in opposition developing a detailed policy prescription, National now picks groups to tell it what it wants to hear.

Boscawen new ACT deputy

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 1:55 pm, August 17th, 2010 - 38 comments

Clad in traditional climate change denier headwear, John Boscawen today assumed the role of ACT Deputy Leader, vowing to use his new powers to launch a crusade against NIWA. Standing beside him, Rodney Hide told reporters “Don’t give me that look. At least he’s not David Garrett”

Child murder or protecting gangs?

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:15 pm, August 17th, 2010 - 46 comments

The legacy of the Maori Party should not be waving the seabed and foreshore legislation in the air like Neville Chamberlain and rejoicing at the sop given by the Machiavellian elite – not while another child lies dying of a brain injury. The Minister for Maori Affairs should not be working to save illegal buildings on a gang HQ when Maori children are being abused at a sickening rate.

Final ACT for Roy?

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:19 am, August 17th, 2010 - 35 comments

Infighting within ACT seems to have come to a head, and pundits are predicting that Heather Roy will be sacked today, with John Boscawen to replace her as deputy. Will Roy split off and form a new party of the right? Fight ACT for that 1.5% of the vote?

Attacking NIWA

Written By: r0b - Date published: 11:57 am, August 16th, 2010 - 98 comments

What do you do when you find science inconvenient to your ideology? Why, you strike it down! Burn the heretics! Or in the modern equivalent, you set the lawyers on them, and try and have the facts declared illegal.

Up for the challenge

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:05 am, August 15th, 2010 - 57 comments

The Herald is carrying this piece by Phil Goff – I’m sure Phil won’t mind if we reproduce it here. If you have any constructive suggestions or comments for Phil, make them below. I’ll collate them and email them to him on our behalf.

Commentators waking up

Written By: r0b - Date published: 2:23 pm, August 14th, 2010 - 38 comments

Some within Labour believe that the tide of popularity is beginning to go out on the National government. Commentators seem to be waking up too. John Armstrong takes the Nats to task for their scare-mongering on benefits. And Fran O’Sullivan, cuts to the chase – it’s the economy stupid.

The dire probabilities of unusual weather

Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:45 pm, August 13th, 2010 - 32 comments

In Morning Report yesterday there was a clear question and statement on the difference between weather events and climate. This is a question that always seems to confuse our CCD’s (climate change deniers and skeptics). So it is worth examining it a bit in the view of some of the unusual weather that has been happening recently. A increased frequency of such events is going to be the main effect of climate change over time, leading eventually to famines.

Nats fear flood of justice

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 2:31 pm, August 11th, 2010 - 14 comments

Finlayson says that paying compo to women abused by cops would “open the floodgates”. In other words, he reckons all the other claims that would come out of the woodwork would cost too much. What’s right is right. No matter the cost. ‘Floodgates’ is just an admission that the hundreds have been harmed. This government doesn’t have the guts to do right by them.

Holmes truths on useless Nats

Written By: r0b - Date published: 11:54 am, August 11th, 2010 - 38 comments

In his own surreal and ultra-privileged way Paul Holmes has discovered the recession. And it seems to have shaken him up a bit. Paul cuts loose with some Holmes truths about the useless Nat government. But in claiming that there is no alternative Holmes reveals nothing but his own lack of vision…

Key govt turn backs on police sex victims

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:38 am, August 11th, 2010 - 44 comments

It just gets worse: “The Government has rejected a secret forum’s recommendation that 10 women who alleged sexual misconduct by police officers get reparation.” Sadly, I think this is just the Nats being cheap and unwilling to face their responsibilities. They don’t care about the victims of police abuse, they care about saving a few dollars to pay for tax cuts.

National’s Economic Plan Found

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 2:38 pm, August 7th, 2010 - 10 comments

After half a government term of insisting that NACT had an economic plan, it has been ‘misplaced’. The full plan, said by informed sources to have been found in a brief case (along with a pie and a men’s magazine) and written on the back of an old rental expenses claim form, reveals that the government expects significant economic development will be lead by the construction of a single national transport infrastructure, namely a National Cycleway.

First they came….

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 2:45 pm, August 6th, 2010 - 78 comments

This guest post quotes the statement attributed to Pastor Martin NiemÃ¶ller in Germany after World War II about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power. The comparison to NACT policies towards the education sector is striking.

National admits 90 day period not a choice

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:17 am, August 6th, 2010 - 280 comments

When National rammed through the first version of the 90 day fire at will law it claimed the period would be a ‘choice’ negotiated fairly between employees and employers.

Now employers are advertising it as a precondition in job ads, with the Minister backing them all the way.

Maori flag over prisons

Written By: r0b - Date published: 1:13 pm, August 5th, 2010 - 36 comments

Pita Sharples wants Maori flag to fly over prisons to raise prisoners’ morale. What a bizarre and useless suggestion. Instead, how about alleviating the poverty that is the main driver of crime?

Spin and bullshit

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:39 am, August 5th, 2010 - 13 comments

Labour has rightly challenged National on its failure to make any progress on its core promise to “close the gap” with Australia. And rather than responding with action, National has responded with spin and bullshit. And that is very telling indeed.

NACTs leave ethical investment to ‘the market’

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:36 am, August 5th, 2010 - 38 comments

Last night National and ACT voted down Grant Robertson’s ethical investment bill on the basis that “the market” would somehow solve the problem.

You can imagine what these people would have said about slavery at the time of the Civil War.

C&R: A risky misuse of rates

Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:00 pm, August 4th, 2010 - 73 comments

Citizens and Ratepayers - as rotten as ever

Why in hell are John Banks and the irresponsible Citizens and Ratepayers dominated Auckland City Council giving me (as a ratepayer) the risks of rebuilding Eden Park. They (and I) already have more than enough risks to handle in the massive costs of the leaky building liabilities.

Key and Peters best buddies?

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:00 am, August 4th, 2010 - 58 comments

Key hasn’t ruled out working with Winston after 2011. This seems like a huge miscalculation. Not only has he added legitimacy to the re-animation of this political zombie, but he has also cut the legs out from under the right’s “Winston is the devil” campaign. That giant sucking sound you hear? That’s DPF’s head imploding.

For the economic record

Written By: r0b - Date published: 6:03 am, August 3rd, 2010 - 130 comments

John Key trotted out a huge lie in Parliament last week: “It took 9 years for Labour to make a complete and utter mess of the economy; it might take a bit longer than that for us to sort it out”. Let’s compare National and Labour’s economic records shall we.

Can Labour win in 2011?

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:00 am, August 1st, 2010 - 82 comments

Chris Carter’s bumbling attempt at a coup has pushed the question onto the tip of everyone’s tongue – can Labour win the 2011 election? And can Phil Goff be the one to lead them to victory? But 24 hours can be a long time in politics, and a year is a very long time indeed. The biggest mistake Labour could make now would be to get into leadership battles.