political parties

Nick Smith rejoices as Jake Bezzant takes public spotlight off him

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:41 pm, June 2nd, 2021 - 15 comments

Jake Bezzant was meant to be one of National’s bright new things, having last year been selected in then safe Upper Harbour. If things were normal he would be in Parliament right now. Instead an internal leaking campaign destroyed his chances and it now transpires that he has engaged in behaviour that is certainly immoral and should be illegal.

The National Party Caucus knew nuffink about Nick Smith’s problems

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:39 am, June 2nd, 2021 - 40 comments

Last night the story about Nick Smith’s issues that caused his resignation finally broke, or did it?

Why did ACT reject Lisa Lewis’s membership application?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:29 pm, June 1st, 2021 - 7 comments

Two political blogs have asked why ACT turned down Sex worker Lisa Lewis’s application for membership of the party. Here at the Standard we have what we believe is the best answer.

Later Nick

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:58 am, June 1st, 2021 - 48 comments

Nick Smith is leaving Parliament not only to spend more time with his family but also because details of an employment dispute started after he yelled at a junior staffer were leaked.

Latest Colmar Brunton poll – people disapprove of Judith

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:35 am, May 28th, 2021 - 44 comments

In the latest Colmar Brunton poll although National’s result and Judith Collins’ result as preferred Prime Minister went up slightly her approval rating for her job performance has plunged deep into negative figures.

Chris Bishop is tilting at Covid windmills

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:35 pm, May 26th, 2021 - 32 comments

Right now, in terms of our Covid response, New Zealand is in a unique position. It has no community spread of Covid and its level of restrictions is the most permissive in the world. But this does not stop Chris Bishop from trying to double guess the handling of the pandemic.

The right bring out the big guns

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:23 am, May 25th, 2021 - 39 comments

This is day five of the post Ruthenasia era and the response from the right is really underwhelming. The most notable response is a comment by Peter Dunne questioning whether 11 year olds are ever interested in politics.

The end of Ruthenasia

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:03 am, May 21st, 2021 - 61 comments

National presented a particularly glum picture in Parliament yesterday. And it was not only the realisation that Judith Collins is out of her depth. It was because this budget spells the end of Ruthenasia.

Will the real leader of the Opposition please stand up

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:41 pm, May 20th, 2021 - 5 comments

Today’s budget debate suggests that the effective leader of the opposition may not be the leader of the National Party.

Reality has a left wing bias

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:22 am, May 20th, 2021 - 54 comments

Fresh from a claim that the Ministry of Education is trying to persuade kids not to eat home made lunches, David Seymour has taken aim at a new target, a radical education policy that intends to teach our kids about racism and inequality and what has happened in the country’s past.

C’mon National!

Written By: advantage - Date published: 1:27 pm, May 17th, 2021 - 20 comments

Forlorn for now though they may be, this is the advice National MPs need right now.

Latest poll – Collins dog whistling is not working

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:04 pm, May 16th, 2021 - 55 comments

The latest TV 3 Reid Research Poll has Judith Collins’ preferred leadership rating cut by two thirds. Judith’s racist dog whistling is clearly not working.

The Māori Party and the National Party

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:43 am, May 13th, 2021 - 113 comments

There were dramatic scenes in Parliament yesterday. Judith Collins chose to again attack Jacinda Ardern about the He Puapua report. And Māori Party Co leader Rawiri Waititi expressed his disgust at her race baiting in a uniquely New Zealand way.

National’s use of the dog whistle and its hatred of UN conventions

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:22 am, May 10th, 2021 - 52 comments

Judith Collins has applied the dog whistle to the He Puapua report and suggested that it is evidence of the Government wanting to radically change New Zealand society. But a check through history shows that the report is based on an International Treaty that National signed up to.

Onya Michael

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:47 am, May 8th, 2021 - 34 comments

Yesterday Minister of Labour Michael Wood led the announcement of a policy that conceivably could do more to address the decline in workers wages and conditions over the past 40 years than anything else tried recently.

Branko Marcetic: Labour’s public sector pay freeze isn’t just a betrayal of frontline workers – it’s a rejection of mainstream economic thinking

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:04 am, May 8th, 2021 - 24 comments

Consistent with how they’ve governed so far, Ardern and Robertson are happy to demand workers sacrifice for the greater good — but asking the rich to do the same is a red line they simply won’t cross.

Collins’ really bad take on te Tiriti

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:21 am, May 4th, 2021 - 67 comments

Last weekend Judith Collins spoke to the Northern Regional Conference of the National Party and gave as crude an analysis of te Tiriti as you can imagine.

Sepuloni: Labour to increase Jobseeker benefit

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:44 am, May 3rd, 2021 - 58 comments

Some good news from over the weekend. Labour is planning to significantly increase the level of Jobseeker benefit.

Can we trust David Seymour?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:04 am, May 1st, 2021 - 48 comments

David Seymour has got himself into a little bit of trouble. He filed a Parliamentary Pecuniary interests return that was not, ahem, correct.

National’s election review leaked

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:33 am, April 29th, 2021 - 20 comments

It was only a matter of time. Tova O’Brien at Newshub has been leaked a copy of the abridged version of the National Party election review.

Too much too far?

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, April 23rd, 2021 - 97 comments

As we lead up to Budget 2021, there’s much more shape to the whole direction of this government.

National’s very bad day

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:44 am, April 22nd, 2021 - 86 comments

Yesterday was a day where National focussed on dog whistle racism, supported religious extremists and moaned about workers receiving a modest increase in the minimum wage.

DHBs to go

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:20 am, April 21st, 2021 - 101 comments

Television New Zealand has reported that Andrew Little is to announce that district health boards are to go

Its official – Transmission Gully is a fiasco

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:10 am, April 20th, 2021 - 19 comments

A damning report into National’s PPP contract for construction of Transmission Gully has concluded that the maximum price the government would pay was set too low, project bidders soon worked this out and that proposals were “value managed down” or made cheaper on designs and timelines that created risks that would eventually manifest themselves after procurement once construction commenced.

National’s housing policy

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:06 pm, April 16th, 2021 - 30 comments

National has released its housing policy and the proposals are predictable. Free up more land, loosen up the RMA, and require Councils in high growth areas to urgently review their district plans.

Bridges supports Judith at this time

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:28 am, April 14th, 2021 - 10 comments

Simon Bridges had added to rumours of a leadership challenge by pledging support for Judith Collins as leader “at this time”.

Donations trouble for Māori Party and National

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:08 am, April 13th, 2021 - 14 comments

The Electoral laws about donations are pretty clear. Receive a donation over $30,000 and you should tell the Electoral Commission about the report within the next ten working days. But the Maori Party and the National Party have both managed to recently breach this simple requirement.

The politics of the Covid vaccination roll out

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:15 am, April 12th, 2021 - 91 comments

Poor National. Faced with a Government response to Covid that has been superb it is reduced to criticising the Government for not rolling out the Covid vaccine quickly enough.

The Covid India issue

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:13 am, April 9th, 2021 - 29 comments

This is a desperately difficult issue. India is currently experiencing a surge in Covid cases. And faced with the prospect of quarantine beds being overrun if current trends continue the Government has taken the step of banning people entering the country if they have been in India during the two weeks prior to travel.

Bridges is back?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:42 am, April 9th, 2021 - 16 comments

Judith Collins has more reasons to be worried. There is a rumour of a SImon Bridges-Chris Luxon leadership ticket potentially having a run for the leadership of the National Party.