chris hipkins

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Where’s The Opposition?

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, October 13th, 2024 - 61 comments

Labour, Green Party and Te Pati Māori have been relatively quiet as the Coalition government move at breakneck speed to roll back laws and transfer wealth. Is it a matter of resources, media coverage, or will?

Latest poll result – National is being cleaned out by NZ First and Act

Written By: - Date published: 6:41 pm, October 11th, 2024 - 109 comments

The latest Curia poll result suggests that National is tanking and NZ First and Act are eating into its support. And Luxon selling off his rental properties and saying that he does not care suggests he may be planning for an exit.

The New Zealand left are in the worst place in a century

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, September 23rd, 2024 - 68 comments

New Zealand has the most right wing government it’s had since Governor George Grey determined to eradicate all Maori power by systematic war and then systematic legislative theft in 1863. But the left shows no sign of unifying.

C Listers and tag alongs

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, June 19th, 2024 - 28 comments

luxon sheep

Christopher Luxon has accused senior business leaders who travelled with a trade delegation with Chris Hipkins of being “C listers and tag alongs”.

Speech time

Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, May 21st, 2024 - 6 comments

In the past week Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins have both delivered future vision themed speeches. With some dramatic contrasts.

MPs pay increases

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, May 1st, 2024 - 94 comments

The Remuneration Authority has announced that MPs will be getting a 10% increase in their salaries during the course of this Parliament.

Chris Hipkins – Values Matter

Written By: - Date published: 3:59 pm, March 24th, 2024 - 94 comments

Text of the speech delivered by Chris Hipkins delivered in Auckland today.

What does the Government have against Maori health?

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, February 29th, 2024 - 12 comments

National spent much of yesterday ramming through under urgency and without a select committee process two measures which will have detrimental effects on Māori health.

What’s Left?

Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, February 25th, 2024 - 51 comments

From Election 2023’s result through to February 2024 there has been massive loss and damage to the Parliamentary capacity of Labour and Greens. Who still has the capacity to lead? What’s left?

About the One News Poll

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 pm, February 19th, 2024 - 43 comments

The latest One News Verian poll suggests that there has been absolutely no honeymoon for the Government.

Christopher Luxon is no John Key

Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, February 1st, 2024 - 48 comments

Yesterday in Parliament Christopher Luxon showed that he is struggling on the job.

NZ policy is consistent about Russian invasion

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 pm, December 23rd, 2023 - 118 comments

Unlike Mike Smith and other noisy members of the imperialist cohort, I applaud that NZ foreign policy has remained consistent in upholding UN and ICC policies against invasions and forced annexations. Ardern, Hipkins and now Luxon have all said the same thing.Supporting the UN charter has massively reduced war casualties over the last 70 years. Clearly the Russian Federation finds this constraining.

Political comeback – Getting the sequencing right

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 pm, December 14th, 2023 - 40 comments

A notably different approach to sequencing political comeback was on show at the VUW post-election seminar last week. Luxon put rebuilding the party first, Hipkins put it last. On policy Luxon was bottom-up and early, Hipkins was top-down and late.

The politics of Palestine

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, November 21st, 2023 - 34 comments

Earlier this week the New Zealand Labour Party made a statement on Palestine and it was a good one.

Certainly much better than the positions adopted by its sister Labour parties overseas.

War crimes in Palestine

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, November 12th, 2023 - 88 comments

There is a growing recognition that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip constitute war crimes.

Hipkins endorsed

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 pm, November 7th, 2023 - 53 comments

It was never going to be anything else, but two positive emerged. All policy options are back on the table, including tax, and there is a realisation that the main task ahead is to rebuild a strong and progressive party.

Has Labour become a cadre Party? Pt 1 Leadership

Written By: - Date published: 4:43 pm, November 2nd, 2023 - 18 comments

In 2021, I voted against Labour’s conference proposal for midstream leadership change to be determined by Caucus alone, saying that it risked Labour becoming a cadre party for elites. A series of posts will start with why the Caucus should not rush to a leadership vote.

About last night’s debate

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, October 13th, 2023 - 42 comments

It is very clear now why National did not agree to a further debate between the leaders. Last night’s debate between Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luzon was totally one sided.

Tax or quality public services – which is more important to NZ voters?

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 pm, September 27th, 2023 - 16 comments

Earlier this year Andrew Marr wrote in the New Statesmen, that Britain’s problem was that it wanted Scandinavian levels of Public Services and North American levels of taxation. His view was that Britain was overdue for an honest debate about tax and public spending. In New Zealand, there is a similar challenge.

TVNZ concludes that Luxon’s pants may have been on fire

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, September 21st, 2023 - 39 comments

Fact checking by TVNZ has determined that much of what Christopher Luxon said in the recent leader’s debate was not true.

Understanding the New Zealand General Election 2023: Historical trends and perspectives.

Written By: - Date published: 6:01 am, September 20th, 2023 - 15 comments

From the outside, the New Zealand 2023 General Election seems both lacklustre and slightly strange. The Labour Government, having won a huge majority in 2020 is now fighting for its political life. Yet National, the main centre-right opposition party is still on average polling significantly worse now than they were when it lost power in 2017.

Unease Over New Zealand Overtures to US in Pacific

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 pm, September 6th, 2023 - 9 comments

New security-state documents show Wellington aligning its military with the “rules-based international order” while preparing Kiwis for war with key trading partner China, writes Mick Hall.

National does a big sook

Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, September 5th, 2023 - 51 comments

National, which perfected the art of dirty politics, and which has spent the past couple of years being relentlessly negative and which has had its sock puppets attack individual Labour MPs mercilessly is deeply, deeply, deeply upset that the CTU has pointed out to the public what a Christopher Luxon led Government would actually mean.

Labour should not cut spending on climate change

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, August 30th, 2023 - 22 comments

At a time when the effects of Climate Change are becoming pronounced now is not the time to cut spending on carbon reduction projects.

Hipkins rules out coalition with Peters

Written By: - Date published: 8:18 am, August 28th, 2023 - 27 comments

Yesterday was a good day for Labour.  Leader Chris Hipkins started talking about what the party stood for and what its values are while also ruling out a coalition with NZ First.

Education policy and the compulsory teaching of subjects

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, August 22nd, 2023 - 26 comments

The brains trust of Labour’s leadership have recently released a policy providing for the compulsory teaching of financial literacy in schools. Tacking to the centre and seeking votes from the pro business part of the electorate is an interesting approach to campaigning.  Time will tell if it is the correct approach.

Labour’s GST and WFF policy announcement

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, August 13th, 2023 - 168 comments

As predicted Labour has announced a policy of taking GST off fresh fruit and vegetables and a significant adjustment to Working for Families In House Tax Credit levels and the Thresholds.

The difference between Blackrock and China

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, August 9th, 2023 - 4 comments

Some big news yesterday as the Government announced a deal with US Investment Firm Blackrock for a $2 billion fund for renewable electricity projects.

Helen Clark thinks the Government should review commitment to AUKUS

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, August 7th, 2023 - 44 comments

Last week the Government released a document titled the Defence Policy Strategy Statement. Helen Clark has expressed the concern that the strategy suggests that as a country New Zealand is abandoning its capacity to think for itself.

A letter to Chris Hipkins

Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, July 30th, 2023 - 31 comments

My 2c on what I think Chris Hipkins needs to do to win this year’s election.

Should Labour take GST off fresh food?

Written By: - Date published: 10:53 am, July 28th, 2023 - 87 comments

National’s Nicola Willis has claimed that Labour will soon announce policy to take GST off fresh fruit and vegetables.

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