Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, December 21st, 2024 - 18 comments
There has been recent controversy because a District Court Judge and a renowned surgeon in a private setting chose to criticise NZ First policies.
Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, December 11th, 2024 - 14 comments
Unlike two other recent polls the latest Taxpayer’s Union poll reports a surge to Act happening during the time the Treaty Principles Bill was introduced.
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, December 11th, 2024 - 11 comments
The similarities between the Atlas Network modus operandi and our government’s policies appear strident and unsettling.
Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, November 19th, 2024 - 44 comments
In the gaslight to end gaslights David Seymour is suggesting that anyone opposed to his Treaty Principles Bill is also opposed to fundamental human rights.
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 10th, 2024 - 12 comments
The media landscape in Aotearoa NZ continues to weaken. In the same week TVNZ announced massive job cuts and further firings to come, Paul Goldsmith rewarded TVNZ Directors.
But can the left learn to avoid the trap of rapid fire – we need the journalists and newsrooms we have left.
Written By: - Date published: 12:42 pm, November 8th, 2024 - 14 comments
The Treaty of Waitangi Principles Bill has now been released and it appears that the provisions take away more rights from Māori than originally proposed.
Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, October 24th, 2024 - 17 comments
Welcome news from yesterday was the request to the Auditor General under the Public Audit Act on the arbitrary and unsupported by evidence decisions on tobacco products by the Customs Minister Casey Costello. As the request stated, Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall had reached the limits of the information that she could seek using the Official Information Act.
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, October 2nd, 2024 - 57 comments
“You just fake it until you make it. I have spent a whole career doing that” – Christopher Luxon.
Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, September 28th, 2024 - 69 comments
The question has to be asked, can we trust National to do anything that it has promised?
Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, September 20th, 2024 - 47 comments
On the same day that National had Parliament pass onerous anti gang laws to address allegedly dramatically increasing numbers of gang members Christopher Luxon lost his cool when it was pointed out to him that the Government is purging the list to reduce the numbers.
Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, September 17th, 2024 - 35 comments
Christopher Luxon yesterday celebrated a 22% reduction in crime in Downtown Auckland even though crime in the Auckland region went up by 7% during the same time. And later that day had to explain how the number of victims of violent crime had increased by 30,000.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, September 6th, 2024 - 31 comments
The Government has mistakenly released confidential legal advice confirming that the Charter School legislation breaches ILO conventions, free trade agreements and potentially the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, August 26th, 2024 - 27 comments
Casey Costello and the Coalition government have already halved tobacco excise at a cost of up to $216mn. Today RNZ reports there remain more questions on who wrote her Ministerial papers begging for tobacco industry benefits.
Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, August 25th, 2024 - 3 comments
There is increasing concern that recently introduced policy changes by National have made housing for the most needy amongst us more tenuous.
Written By: - Date published: 1:43 pm, August 16th, 2024 - 43 comments
It appears that Curia Research has resigned from the professional standards group Research Association of NZ (RANZ).
Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, August 7th, 2024 - 5 comments
National has been caught out yet again using dubious analysis of data to justify policy.
Written By: - Date published: 3:53 pm, July 18th, 2024 - 10 comments
A track record of deception and pro tobacco industry policies is becoming evident in the Coalition. Casey Costello is at it again, this time quietly halving excise tax for some tobacco products. This is the first time in NZ’s history to have reduced excise on tobacco. We should all ask ‘Why now?’
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 15th, 2024 - 73 comments
Trump’s shooting has left the world shocked and bewildered. But what, if anything, does it mean for us here in New Zealand?
Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, July 10th, 2024 - 18 comments
The Government is hoping that Carbon Capture and Sequestration will reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emission levels. But it is refusing to protect forests and trees, which are the best Carbon Capture and Sequestration devices going.
Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, July 9th, 2024 - 12 comments
With all of the issues about Green party MPs, who have been having issues recently, I was intrigued to run across the article in the Guardian “Reform UK under pressure to prove all its candidates were real people” after the recent election in the UK.
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, June 19th, 2024 - 28 comments
Christopher Luxon has accused senior business leaders who travelled with a trade delegation with Chris Hipkins of being “C listers and tag alongs”.
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, May 15th, 2024 - 31 comments
As part of its coalition agreement NZ First is wanting to end a policy that has already ended. And the Government is struggling to work out what to do.
Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, May 15th, 2024 - 16 comments
The Court of Appeal has ruled that the summons issued to Children’s Minister Karen Chhour was valid but decline to enforce it as the date has passed. And the Government has hastily introduced the bill to stop any further action being taken by the Tribunal.
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, March 15th, 2024 - 4 comments
The IRD has estimated that National’s proposed Overseas Gambling Levy Policy will bring in $500 million less than it promised during the election campaign.
Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, March 13th, 2024 - 45 comments
The right has this belief that they are economic geniuses. Occasionally this belief is shown to be faulty. Like this week when National’s costings for tax cuts to Landlords was $800 million more than previously estimated.
Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, February 25th, 2024 - 8 comments
The Electoral Commission has released the major promoters’ electoral returns. These show significant amounts of money being spent on getting Labour unelected but give no detail about how the campaigns were funded.
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 pm, February 13th, 2024 - 103 comments
Attacking leftists attempts to expose the Atlas Network of right-wing think tanks, Chris Trotter offers this gem “Morally speaking, is taking money from oil companies really all that distinguishable from giving money to oil companies every time we fill up our petrol tank?”
Written By: - Date published: 12:23 pm, February 12th, 2024 - 23 comments
National has trashed its comment last terms that lobbyists should not have special access rights by handing out four swipe cards to lobbyists and refusing to say who they are.
Written By: - Date published: 2:40 pm, February 11th, 2024 - 60 comments
In a guest post Seddonville Miner explores links between the Atlas Network and the Taxpayer’s Union.
Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, February 2nd, 2024 - 46 comments
Recent disclosure of the actions of associate Minister of Health Casey Costello raises the extraordinary possibility that British American Tobacco may be having an undue influence on the setting of the Government’s smoking policies.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, January 7th, 2024 - 115 comments
A George Monbiot article in the Guardian made me wonder what effect the Atlas Network is having on New Zealand politics through the Taxpayer’s Union. Publicly available information suggests considerable funding is being made available and that the current Government’s priorities are precisely those that the Atlas Network would approve of.
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