political parties

National’s meh leadership contest

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 4:27 pm, February 22nd, 2018 - 76 comments

National’s leadership contest is one week old. The latest is a central edict that all candidates have to be nice to each other and a claim that candidates are not offering senior positions to MPs in exchange for their support.

It’s Our Future: Complete U-Turn by Labour and NZ First on TPP

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:37 am, February 21st, 2018 - 131 comments

The TPP might have been re-branded as the CPTPP but it’s still the same bad deal says Professor Jane Kelsey, New Zealand’s expert on international economic regulation.

“Calling it “Comprehensive and Progressive” doesn’t make it any better.

Hager posts Dirty Politics chapter on Mark Mitchell on web

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:17 am, February 21st, 2018 - 25 comments

Nicky Hager and the publishers of Dirty Politics have released into the public arena the chapter dealing with Mark Mitchell’s campaign to be selected as National’s Rodney candidate.

Poll Watch: Colmar Brunton Poll 2018-2-19

Written By: Matthew Whitehead - Date published: 8:30 am, February 20th, 2018 - 47 comments

In this second edition of Pollwatch, we note the impact of Jacinda Ardern at the height of her powers, track the likelyhood of current government support partners of clearing our high Party Vote threshold, and note the small likelyhood that English’s eventual successor will have of sneaking into the Beehive even if we held a snap election right now.

The battle of the five political midgets

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:01 am, February 20th, 2018 - 102 comments

Steven Joyce and Mark Mitchell have both thrown their hats into the ring for National’s leadership.

Us and them – what will Labour do about WINZ?

Written By: weka - Date published: 6:30 am, February 20th, 2018 - 106 comments

What we need is a government that shares power with beneficiaries.

Strong and decisive

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:54 am, February 18th, 2018 - 154 comments

Judith Collins has picked on the campaign term strong and decisive for behaviour better described as brutal and obdurate.

Seymour is dancing with the stars

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:00 am, February 17th, 2018 - 33 comments

David Seymour has indicated his commitment to improving ACT’s plight by enrolling for Dancing with the Stars.

TPPA-11 update and actions

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:23 am, February 16th, 2018 - 70 comments

The TPPA-11 is set to be signed on March 8. There are still huge problems with the agreement for NZ. Jane Kelsey provides an update.

An in Vogue Prime Minister

Written By: weka - Date published: 2:32 pm, February 15th, 2018 - 52 comments

Our PM doing girly stuff is quite ok. It’s what else they’re doing that needs looking at.

Then there were three

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 3:54 pm, February 14th, 2018 - 39 comments

Amy Adams has announced that she will also be seeking the leader’s position of the National Party.

No Bridges Bridges announces he will seek National leadership

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 1:26 pm, February 14th, 2018 - 20 comments

Simon Bridges has announced that he too will be seeking the National Party leadership.

Crusher wants to crush

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:59 am, February 14th, 2018 - 90 comments

Judith Collins has announced that she is running for National’s Parliamentary leadership.

Who will be National’s next leader?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:57 am, February 14th, 2018 - 77 comments

Following Bill English’s resignation the question is who will be National’s next leaders. The Standard authors have put their heads together and come up with some suggestions.

Nationwide public meetings: TPPA-11 update, and what we can do

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:30 am, February 14th, 2018 - 29 comments

Auckland 12 Feb – Wellington 14 Feb – Nelson 20 Feb – Christchurch 21 Feb – Dunedin 22 Feb

Bill is gone. Free for all spectator time

Written By: lprent - Date published: 11:53 am, February 13th, 2018 - 353 comments

Bill English has resigned. Apparently his confidence of last week had a limited lifespan. RNZ has the live feed. Now we can really speculate on which one of the no-hopers will assume the position to fail at the next election.

Was the political hit on Chris Bishop an inside job?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:29 am, February 12th, 2018 - 158 comments

The disclosure of Chris Bishop’s snapchat engagement with young teenage females raises the question of who leaked the information to the media and why.

Chris Bishop’s use of snapchat causes problems

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 2:51 pm, February 11th, 2018 - 153 comments

The Sunday Star Times has reported that complaints were made before the last election about Chris Bishop’s Snapchat messaging to teenagers.

The problem with Charter Schools

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:38 pm, February 11th, 2018 - 296 comments

The Government is moving to stop the creation of new charter schools and require existing charter schools to integrate with the public system.

Sticking with Bill is the right move for National

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 1:37 pm, February 9th, 2018 - 15 comments

National knows what to expect with Bill.

National is united

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:50 am, February 9th, 2018 - 76 comments

National is united. There are no murmurings about leadership and Bill English’s and Paula Bennett’s positions are secure.

And we’re off to the races!

Written By: Matthew Whitehead - Date published: 5:12 pm, February 8th, 2018 - 123 comments

With Julie Anne Genter, Minister for Women, entering the co-leadership race, there’s now a real contest on our hands as to who joins James Shaw as co-leader of the Green Party. What does that mean for the Greens, and for New Zealand politics in general?

National claims credit for Waitangi Day

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:21 am, February 7th, 2018 - 58 comments

National is claiming some credit for the success of Waitangi day. But the things they claim credit for are because of decisions of others, not the National Government.

Prime Minister Ardern at Waitangi

Written By: advantage - Date published: 2:34 pm, February 5th, 2018 - 182 comments

This is a new day for politics in New Zealand. A female Prime Minister has broken over a century of practise and is doing a main speech at Waitangi. Even more: no drama occurred. Anywhere.

Waihopai and North Korea

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:44 am, February 5th, 2018 - 14 comments

It’s worth asking ourselves what Goriz Gharaman was doing protesting at Waihopai. It’s the right place to protest.

Marama Davidson’s campaign launch – Boots Theory

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:21 am, February 5th, 2018 - 111 comments

Stephanie Rodgers’ progressive communications analysis of how Marama Davidson is hitting all the right notes.

The 2017 General Election electorate expense returns

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:49 pm, February 4th, 2018 - 27 comments

Last year’s electorate expense returns have now been made public.

Ideological issues more than leadership are Nat’s problem

Written By: Simon Louisson - Date published: 8:19 am, February 4th, 2018 - 108 comments

Changing National’s leadership will not help the conservatives regain power if they fail to address questions of why they lost the 2017 election. National may be the biggest single party but it is unlikely to stay that. And they have no remaining parliamentary partners.You can’t form a MMP government from that…