political parties

Is National the party of law and order?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:26 am, January 30th, 2020 - 38 comments

Following the announcement by the Serious Fraud Office of charges relating to the donation of $100,000 to the National Party Simon Bridges claim of being exonerated appear to be optimistic.

SFO files charges in relation to National Party donations

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 3:37 pm, January 29th, 2020 - 55 comments

The SFO has confirmed that it has charged four persons with offences relating to the receipt of donations by the National Party.

The Government’s $12 billion infrastructure package

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:33 am, January 29th, 2020 - 96 comments

The details of the Government’s $12 billion infrastructure announcement have been released.

How low will Bridges go?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:55 am, January 28th, 2020 - 23 comments

Simon Bridges has wondered out loud if anti semitism stopped the Government from sending a senior representative to a Holocaust memorial in Israel.

The Fourth Estate struggling in the social media world

Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 11:51 pm, January 27th, 2020 - 30 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog

Ahead of the 2020 General Election in New Zealand, Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced that her party is committed to run a factual election and has signed up to a social media tool to help prove it. The 2020 NZ election will be an interesting case study of whether in the social media age there can be honest political debate free of misinformation and manipulation of facts.

Labour is signing up to Facebook transparency tool

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:58 pm, January 23rd, 2020 - 68 comments

Jacinda Ardern has announced that Labour will abide by Facebook Ad Library Report rules which allow voters to see where campaigning money is being spent on Facebook ads. And that it will have its major policies independently costed.

The right is splintering on climate change

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:30 am, January 23rd, 2020 - 70 comments

The right appears to be splintering on climate change, with former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull describing Donald Trump as the world’s leading climate change denier. And locally National MP Andrew Bayley has talked the profound effects of climate change on Antarctica’s ecosystems at the same time as Paula Bennett is attacking educational material designed to make children think about climate change.

The great political heist that wasn’t

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:47 am, January 21st, 2020 - 40 comments

National has hinted darkly that the theft of laptops from its headquarters was possibly motivated by political considerations even though it had been told of a similar burglary of a neighbouring office had also occurred recently.

Bridges will talk tough to the Philippines but not China

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:36 am, January 20th, 2020 - 18 comments

Simon Bridges is visiting the Philippines. And unlike his recent trip to China this time he has decided to talk tough to the local leaders about human rights.

Federated Farmers launches petition against its business model

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:20 am, January 19th, 2020 - 157 comments

Federated Farmers has started a petition against an educational resource that teaches about climate change and activism because it does not present their industry in a sufficiently positive way.

National created more working groups than Labour

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:00 am, January 18th, 2020 - 31 comments

The Herald has reported that National in its first two years of Government created *more* working groups than Labour.

Why UK Labour lost? Part 9: What the party needs to do now.

Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 10:37 am, January 17th, 2020 - 12 comments

Originally post on Nick Kelly’s blog

The broader context of this defeat is that over the last century, UK Labour has won 8 out of the last 28 general elections. Overall the Labour Party is not a successful electoral force in the UK. What makes the 2019 loss harder, is that the party lost sections of its historical base in the North of England and the Midlands.

McClay accused of supporting China’s mass detention of muslims

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:26 am, January 17th, 2020 - 51 comments

Freedom House has criticised National MP Todd McClay for reinforcing Chinese descriptions of the mass imprisonment of Muslim minorities as vocational training centres.

Why UK Labour lost? Part 8: What it takes to win

Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 7:18 am, January 16th, 2020 - 6 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog

The UK Labour Party in the 2019 election assumed that like in 2017, the release of their policy manifesto would see their support increase significantly. Assuming that 2019 would be a re-run of 2017 was a foolish mistake.

Why UK Labour lost? Part 7: Momentum and the Corbynistas

Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 10:23 pm, January 15th, 2020 - 10 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog

Momentum and its supporters need to find a way of selling genuine social democratic politics to a conservative English public.

Housing consents at highest level since 1974

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:03 am, January 15th, 2020 - 20 comments

Statistics New Zealand has confirmed that in the last year the number of new housing consents was the highest since 1974.

National politicises police by claiming Government is politicising police

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:41 am, January 14th, 2020 - 19 comments

Simon Bridges has alleged the police of being politicised after a person who holds rather right wing views and libertarian views on gun ownership had a search warrant for illegal firearms executed on his property.

Why UK Labour lost? Part 4: Ooooh Jeremy Corbyn

Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 3:13 am, January 14th, 2020 - 12 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog

Why UK Labour lost? Part 3: Its Brexit innit

Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 6:14 am, January 13th, 2020 - 28 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog

Why UK Labour lost? Part 2: UK Labour’s Strange loyalty to First Past the Post.

Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 2:56 am, January 13th, 2020 - 13 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s Blog

Why UK Labour lost? Part 1: historical context

Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 10:34 am, January 12th, 2020 - 2 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog

Simon Bridges went to China

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:21 am, January 8th, 2020 - 44 comments

It has been revealed that Simon Bridges’trip to China last year was organised by National MP and former teacher of English to Chinese spies Jian Yang and that an offer of assistance from MFAT was declined.

The power of positive campaigning

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:42 pm, December 31st, 2019 - 123 comments

With the 2020 election just round the corner and recent complaints about the left’s treatment of the #TurnArdern campaign it is a perfect time to think about the importance of language and positive uplifting campaign themes.

Bridges and the Robertson trial

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:53 am, December 30th, 2019 - 22 comments

National has released a video of Simon Bridges talking about the trial he conducted against Tony Robertson and suggesting he is in politics to change the law. But the particular law he appears to be targeting was unchanged during the term of the last National Government.

T’was the day of Christmas

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:37 am, December 26th, 2019 - 13 comments

National’s social media team spent Christmas day deleting tweets suggesting there was any link between its MPs and members of the #turnardern campaign.

MMP Mark II*

Written By: Incognito - Date published: 11:57 pm, December 25th, 2019 - 24 comments

What beats MMP? Open-list proportional representation with a low threshold would be a good option.

Rush to Judgment redux

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:12 am, December 20th, 2019 - 151 comments

Barrister Maria Dew has delivered a strong conclusion in the report concerning allegations of sexual assault by one Labour Party member against another member. And Paula Bennett has not as yet apologised for her totally unfounded allegations against third parties.

Labour raise the minimum wage

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:05 am, December 19th, 2019 - 32 comments

“Around a quarter of million workers will be better off next year”

Thawing after the BRR

Written By: weka - Date published: 7:10 am, December 12th, 2019 - 27 comments

“The purpose of fiscal policy should be to ensure ongoing wellbeing for all and the health of our environment.”

Green Budget win backs public sector leadership on climate change

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:34 pm, December 11th, 2019 - 9 comments

“We want to make sure hospitals, schools and other public institutions can use energy in a more climate-friendly way, cut emissions, and lower their energy bills.”

The freedom to lie during an election campaign

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 6:55 am, December 11th, 2019 - 75 comments

Two recent National advertisements involving drastically inaccurate graphics have attracted attention. And at the same time National is opposing changes to the Electoral Law that would extend the time that it is an offence to publish a false and misleading advertisement during an election period.