political parties

NRT: “Too hard”

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:05 pm, March 20th, 2017 - 54 comments

No Right Turn: “The real barrier to National … acting on this is because that “no-one owns water, first come, first served” policy disproportionately benefits one group and allows them to profiteer from a public resource while destroying its value to others. That group is farmers – and they donate to the National Party.”

“All show and no substance”

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:03 am, March 16th, 2017 - 147 comments

The attack on Ardern as “all show and no substance” is a curious one for a party that was led for so many years by John Key.

National’s flawed RMA ripoff still failing

Written By: lprent - Date published: 7:22 am, March 15th, 2017 - 13 comments

Maori Party Co-Leader, Marama Fox, is playing hardball over Nick Smith latest attempts to weasel out of commitments on the deeply flawed RMA changes that National has spent the last few years trying to find any support for in Parliament. The bill is crap. The Maori party should just drop it regardless how many baubles they think they will get from it.

Anthony Rimell – why I am standing for Parliament

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:00 am, March 14th, 2017 - 30 comments

Anthony Rimell is Labour’s candidate for the Ilam seat.  In this post he sets out the reasons why he is standing for Parliament.

Andrew Little on The Nation

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:16 pm, March 11th, 2017 - 84 comments

A good interview with Andrew Little on The Nation. Among the many topics covered, Little stated that all pledges can be funded without raising taxes.

Community groups abandon Smith’s water forum

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:37 am, March 11th, 2017 - 14 comments

Will Nick Smith get the message and set in place a realistic consultation process and safe standards, or will he persist with a plan so bad that no one wants to be associated with it?

TOP climate change policy

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:32 am, March 10th, 2017 - 21 comments

Morgan’s TOP climate change policy is out, and it commits to “net zero carbon emissions by 2050”. There’s lots to like…

Congratulations Jacinda Ardern!

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:47 am, March 7th, 2017 - 21 comments

National accuses John Key of shying away from the hard issues

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:35 am, March 6th, 2017 - 61 comments

Shambolic scenes as Bill English’s twitter account tweets criticism of John Key not taking the hard decisions regarding superannuation eligibility, then the tweet gets deleted. And Bill did not know the tweet had been sent out.

A social media primer for progressive candidates

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:36 am, March 4th, 2017 - 15 comments

Labour Party General Secretary Andrew Kirton recently sent out a message to Labour Candidates which of itself was a lesson on all things social media …

Thanks Annette

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 11:38 am, March 3rd, 2017 - 9 comments

I well remember going to see new Minister of Employment Annette King in 1989 to ask for support for group apprenticeship in the motor industry. “Seems like a good idea, we’ll put up $50,000.” she said. I nearly fell off my chair. It was not the usual response from Ministers in those days, but is Annette King to a T – positive, decisive, and supportive.

Labour: Greens are the first cab off the rank

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:38 am, March 3rd, 2017 - 19 comments

Andrew Little has confirmed that the Green Party will be first party Labour looks to for a coalition deal after the election.

Great reaction to Jacinda move

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:02 am, March 2nd, 2017 - 72 comments

The (presumed) move to Jacinda Ardern as deputy leader has been very well received.

National bolster their moribund blue-greens

Written By: lprent - Date published: 8:28 am, February 28th, 2017 - 74 comments

I read this morning in Politik that Vernon Tava has left the Greens and appears to be leaning towards National. It doesn’t seem to me to much of a problem to lose a conservationist to National. It just means that the Greens can concentrate more effectively on the work of getting everyone trying to build a cleaner sustainable future.

Two more Labour candidate selections

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:43 pm, February 27th, 2017 - 11 comments

Angela Warren-Clark (Tauranga Women’s Refuge manager) for Bay of Plenty and Jan Tinetti (Principal) for Tauranga. These are the kinds of grounded, real-world perspectives that we need in Parliament.