Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, November 1st, 2022 - 26 comments
US conservative figures are downplaying the right’s involvement in a hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband by spreading completely unfounded rumours. And in Aotearoa rumours continue to be spread about Jacinda Ardern’s pending resignation despite her repeatedly ruling this out. Clearly some see the use of rumours as a valid political weapon even if they are based on complete falsehoods.
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, October 19th, 2022 - 74 comments
Gaurav Sharma has announced his immediate resignation from Parliament and that he will contest the by election as leader of a new centrist party. He also claims that the Government was going to waka jump him six months from the next election but unless National agrees this is impossible.
Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, October 11th, 2022 - 81 comments
The left and the Ardern government need to start appreciating the new Auckland mayor.
Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, September 20th, 2022 - 41 comments
She’s in the ground and it’s time.
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, September 6th, 2022 - 55 comments
Yesterday the Government announced a slate of new powers designed to address gang violence. Newshub chose that day to imply that Labour was soft on gangs because a gang member said on social media not to vote for National.
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 pm, September 4th, 2022 - 99 comments
We’re sending 120 troops to Britain to ‘train’ raw recruits for the Ukraine killing grounds. For the Defence Generals, it’s an overseas trip to aid retention. For the Ukrainian conscripts, it’s a prelude to early death. It is cynical and criminal: we should be arguing for the war to stop, not keep it going ”to the death of the last Ukrainian.”
Written By: - Date published: 8:51 pm, August 31st, 2022 - 63 comments
National’s attack on requiring banks to charge GST on the provision of Kiwisaver services the same as smaller services is deeply cynical when its attacks on Kiwisaver in the past are considered.
Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, August 28th, 2022 - 47 comments
For those fishing around for a progressive playbook in this fractious world, Biden and Ardern are pretty similar. But Biden appears to be turning the fortunes of the Democrats around but Ardern is currently unrewarded. Is there anything to learn?
Written By: - Date published: 5:34 pm, August 21st, 2022 - 64 comments
But the past week has been a week of sideshows. One international as elements of the right try to smear Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin for dancing. And one local where rogue Labour MP Gaurav Sharma is running out of excuses for not backing up the extraordinary claims he has made about the Labour Party.
Written By: - Date published: 1:24 pm, August 19th, 2022 - 24 comments
The polls are out and the internal revolt last month to remove James Shaw as Greens co leader hasn’t made a ripple.
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, August 18th, 2022 - 28 comments
You can be the most moral nation on earth and have no reward for it.
Written By: - Date published: 10:53 am, August 12th, 2022 - 47 comments
This post was written before Gaurav Sharma’s Herald article and should not be taken as validation of his comments. There are necessary bastards in political life, and in developed democracies compared to everywhere else ours are gentle as lambs
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, July 28th, 2022 - 9 comments
New Zealand has been overdue to show strong results in the Pacific Islands. Not a moment too soon, this is what Prime Minister Ardern delivered.
Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, July 26th, 2022 - 60 comments
There have been some spectacularly bad takes on Green Party leadership issues by voices on the right and academia which were all shown to be spectacularly wrong after Chloe Swarbrick announced that she was not seeking the Green Party leadership.
Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, July 25th, 2022 - 16 comments
Andrea Vance’s book Blood Bath provides an insider’s view of the carnage that erupted in the National Party from 2017 to 2021. And while things have calmed down under Christopher Luxon’s his weaknesses, including his glossing over the importance of policy detail and his tendency to bag businesses has been noted.
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, July 7th, 2022 - 213 comments
Right now Labour is preparing the ground for its run at 2023’s election with new policy. New policy must be wildly popular. What could make Labour popular enough to them back leading a third term in government?
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, July 5th, 2022 - 68 comments
With a second wave of Covid infections starting and with new potentially more serious variants emerging it may be time for the Government to consider a return to the Covid red setting.
Written By: - Date published: 12:34 pm, July 4th, 2022 - 69 comments
Jacinda Ardern has just completed three overseas trips. The cumulative benefits for the country are extraordinary and I have never witnessed anything similar from another New Zealand leader. But local responses from sectors of the media have been muted. Why is this?
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, July 2nd, 2022 - 26 comments
Before her involvement in the European Union Free Trade Agreement negotiations Jacinda Ardern was accused of “scattering stardust” in a vain attempt to get an agreement over the line. If this is an example of Jacinda scattering stardust then long may she continue to do so.
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, July 1st, 2022 - 38 comments
Yesterday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave a speech/comments to NATO outlining our position on NATO, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, multilateral diplomacy, our region, and nuclear proliferation. Plus of course she helped to finally get the EU trade treaty over the line. Her ‘comments’ are worth reading and commenting on because I suspect that they align pretty well to our societies general position.
Written By: - Date published: 8:42 am, June 27th, 2022 - 103 comments
National leader Christopher Luxon who has been previously reported as believing that abortion is murder, issued three public statements over the weekend trying to distance himself from the controversy caused by the US Supreme Court overturning of Rowe v Wade.
Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, June 24th, 2022 - 73 comments
Plenty of experts will tell you about what Matariki ‘means to us’. Here’s what it means to Ardern.
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, June 21st, 2022 - 31 comments
It’s pretty commonplace now to observe that Prime Minister Ardern is doing well overseas but tanking at home.
Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, June 14th, 2022 - 64 comments
There was some drama yesterday in the Beehive where Kris Faafoi and Trevor Mallard announced that they will be resigning from Parliament and Jacinda Ardern took the opportunity to reshuffle the Cabinet.
Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, June 2nd, 2022 - 273 comments
Yesterday on Morning Report Chris Luxon pivoted from a question about National supporters expressing distaste for Te Ao Maori to blaming Jacinda Ardern for not burning up political capital on co governance.
Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, May 29th, 2022 - 178 comments
Internationally Jacinda Ardern’s speech to the Harvard graduating class has been very well received. But locally not so much.
Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, May 27th, 2022 - 51 comments
Video and transcript of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s speech at Harvard.
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, April 29th, 2022 - 157 comments
The tide of this government is running out. There’s 18 months left in the term. What would you save?
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, April 18th, 2022 - 79 comments
Despite Labour seeing the country through the biggest public health threat seen in the last century and despite improving numbers of houses and a reduction in child poverty some on the left are buying into National’s despair lines. And the issues on which the next election will be fought are becoming clearer.
Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, April 10th, 2022 - 31 comments
With a sense of regret for many of us this week Ashley Bloomfield announced his pending resignation as Director General of Health.
Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, April 6th, 2022 - 15 comments
You get to a point – and Ardern must be close – where the most you can do is hang on.
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