phil goff

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Polls and policies

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, July 28th, 2011 - 160 comments

Much ado in the commentariat about the latest Farifax poll, another poor result for Labour.  But some of these commentators could do to brush up on their history…

Bad poll but not for CGT

Written By: - Date published: 6:29 am, July 18th, 2011 - 138 comments

The latest ONE News / Colmar Brunton poll is bad for Labour, and not great for the Left.  But it isn’t a verdict on Labour’s CGT proposal – the polling period finished before the policy was announced.

Apparently the undecided in this poll was 14%. I wonder why that was missed out of the reporting?

Bring the SAS home

Written By: - Date published: 12:16 pm, July 5th, 2011 - 49 comments

First, Key denies the SAS were in the Kabul hotel gunfight. Then, media reveals they were there and were injured. Key admits that but denies it was friendly fire. Now, media says SAS got an apology. Key ‘can’t rule out’ friendly fire and is launching an investigation. Goff says its time for the SAS to leave Afghanistan. He’s right.

Blame Goff?

Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, June 10th, 2011 - 61 comments

There are far more similarities than differences in the Hughes / Goff and Worth / Key affairs, but that doesn’t stop the Right trying to rewrite history and blame Goff!

Goff on Breakfast

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, June 1st, 2011 - 41 comments

We give Phil Goff a lot of hassles, so I thought I should show an example of him getting it right. Goff takes control of the interview away from the Petra’s attack lines and nicely turns it to Labour’s lines. It’s about connecting voters with Labour’s positions. For example, people don’t want asset sales, so Goff saying voting Labour is the way to save them is vital.

No brighter future for McGehan Close

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, May 29th, 2011 - 66 comments

Seen the coverage of Goff’s visit to McGehan Close? So negative. Portrays it as cynical politics. Yet when Key visited in 2008, the coverage was fawning over the ‘kompassionate konservative’. What’s wrong with Goff going along to the place, it’s in his own electorate, and showing Key’s broken his promises? Nothing. Governments should be held to account.

Goff unveils Labour’s vision

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, May 22nd, 2011 - 90 comments

Phil Goff has announced that Labour will bring agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme earlier and use the extra revenue to fund R&D, much of which will be into clean tech and low-carbon farming. There’s a swath of announcements showing Goff’s Labour has the vision Key’s National lacks. Labour is making positive choices while being fiscally responsible.

Another blunder

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, May 2nd, 2011 - 156 comments

Phil Goff has gone one step further today and ruled out working with anyone that signs up to The Mana Party, not just the already ruled-out Hone Harawira. A Labour Party spokeswoman is reported by the Herald as saying “He doesn’t prescribe to the values of Hone Harawira.”

Would Phil Goff care to explain which of Harawira’s values he doesn’t ‘prescribe’ [sic] to?

Goff’s leadership safe for now

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, March 29th, 2011 - 171 comments

The Labour Party front bench meeting in Dunedin has just concluded.  Goff’s leadership has been confirmed, with unanimous support.

Leadership rumours

Written By: - Date published: 6:45 am, March 26th, 2011 - 257 comments

It’s been a dreadful week for Labour.  So out come the oft repeated rumours of a coup against leader Phil Goff.  Usually this is just the ever predictable right wing blogs stirring.  This time the excellent Scoop news site is making the claim.  Scoop has it wrong.

Labour exposes planless Key

Written By: - Date published: 12:04 am, March 16th, 2011 - 128 comments

There’s been increasing concern over the past week or two that not only has the government failed to communicate its plan for the Christchurch recovery, it doesn’t actually have one, and isn’t particularly worried about getting one. Yesterday in the House, Labour took Key to task on this important issue. And he was found terribly wanting.

Ruling out Hone

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, March 15th, 2011 - 77 comments

Labour leader Phil Goff has ruled out working with Hone Harawira even if Mr Harawira heads a party of several MPs.  I think it’s a foolish decision and I think the reasons don’t stack up.  Instead of ruling out Hariwria, Labour should rise to the challenge.

Uncivil behaviour at Big Gay Out

Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, February 14th, 2011 - 24 comments

The contrast between Phil Goff and John Key at the Big Gay Out could not have been greater. Key swanned in late, told the crowd the best they could hope for from National was no regressive moves and refused to endorse civil unions. Goff and his posse re-affirmed Labour’s stance against discrimination and committed to progressive leadership.

The opening exchanges

Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, February 9th, 2011 - 50 comments

In this post, I’ve embedded the speeches from John Key, Phil Goff, and Metiria Turei during yesterday’s first day of Parliament. Key presents no new vision, just an agenda of cuts and false statistics couple with sheer delusion about his government’s record. Goff tears him apart. And Turei’s speech is simply breath-taking – incredibly moving.

Hickey on the tax bludgers

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, February 6th, 2011 - 62 comments

Bernard Hickey looks at the tax bludgers. Labour’s plans to introduce a higher new top tax rate would raise needed tax from those who can most afford it. But it would also foster more tax bludging by the rich. Rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater by abolishing the top rate, we need to eliminate the avenues for bludging.

Time for the Goffice to step up to the plate

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, January 29th, 2011 - 137 comments

We face a stark choice this year: a Labour-led government, which will create fairer tax and invest in jobs and innovation, or National-led government, which will govern for the kleptocracy, giving them tax cuts, then selling our assets and slashing our public services to pay for them. So why is the Goffice doing such a bad job making the case?

States of the nation

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, January 26th, 2011 - 29 comments

It’s not radical, it’s not revolutionary but Phil Goff has laid out a positive, progressive, and affordable vision that contrasts with John Key’s directionless, lazy leadership. It seems to be popular. The PM’s state of the nation is expected to contain an interesting savings policy but always the question is: cue bono?

Phil Goff’s State of the Nation

Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, January 25th, 2011 - 203 comments

Phil Goff has just delivered an excellent speech to start a year of laying out Labour Policy. $100/week tax free, stopping tax-dodging bludgers, support for R&D and exporters, correcting housing market anomalies and encouraging investment in the productive sector. There was a lot to like.

Labour’s Greatest Challenge for 2011 – consistency

Written By: - Date published: 7:45 pm, January 16th, 2011 - 23 comments

Recently, I did a post on how Labour should be focused on creating an over-arching narrative that embodies its broad set of policies. This should make Labour’s vision loud and clear in election year. While Labour continues to rebuild policy, I have a number of ideas on how Labour could best deliver a new narrative […]

Fight for Anzac and Waitangi

Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, January 12th, 2011 - 45 comments

This year, as last year, we miss out on both Anzac and Waitangi days as holidays.  And the Government refuses to do anything about it.  Phil Goff and the EPMU back all workers getting their rightful public holidays like any other year – but John Key apparently doesn’t think it’s do-able, that it needs “research”.

Labour’s greatest challenge for 2011?

Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, January 9th, 2011 - 59 comments

The Sunday Star-Times has produced an interesting article on the role of emotion in people’s voter choices leading into this year’s General Election. While the results are not great news for Labour supporters, it’s the first poll of its kind to be made public in NZ. There’s a lot of controversy over whether we ought […]

Goff on the year ahead

Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, January 4th, 2011 - 38 comments

Following Key’s ‘I’ll have a hissy fit and quit if you don’t re-elect me’ interview yesterday, the Herald has an interview with Phil Goff. The contrast is stark between smile and wave’s self-centred answers and Goff’s focus on delivering real results for NZ.

Sloppy but nothing more

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 pm, December 16th, 2010 - 152 comments

Jason Ede, Whaleoil’s main source for smut in the National Research Unit, has done a clever little play on Phil Goff. Like 40-odd other MPs, Goff owns an investment property. That it’s in Wellington doesn’t matter. This isn’t a Double Dipton rort. But Goff pledged to sell it and he hasn’t. No rort but sloppy. A fair cop.

Goff’s end of year speech

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, December 16th, 2010 - 41 comments

A very good close of year speech from Phil Goff in the House yesterday. I think this is the kind of thing we want to see more of next year. Phil’s job is to crystalise the vague sense of dissatisfaction that most people feel with the Key Government with himself as the spokesperson for those Key has betrayed and let down.

A smart speech from Goff

Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, December 7th, 2010 - 87 comments

Goff has given several excellent policy speeches this year, and the last one was no exception.  Squarely targeted at a middle New Zealand that saw little of National’s tax cuts and far more of their job losses and rising prices.  Pointing out the obvious, that National has failed to deliver on the economy, and has no viable plan to do so.  In short, a great platform for election year.

Labour and Greens lead on transparency

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, November 3rd, 2010 - 12 comments

Last week Speaker Lockwood Smith rolled back transparency on MPs expenses, by making travel spending secret again.  John Key came out “against” the move.  Yesterday Labour and the Greens called his bluff by releasing their details.  Over to you John, once again you’re too late to lead, but you can still follow…

Gillard gives Key the finger

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 27th, 2010 - 13 comments

It’s highly unusual for a new PM to meet a foreign leader of the opposition before she meets her fellow leader. But Julia Gillard’s direct snub of John Key is a fair payback for the leaks by the Key Government to try to help his mate Tony Abbott win the Australian election. Key didn’t set up the Gillard-Goff meeting. But his actions certainly cleared the way.

Phil Goff: The Leader Emerges

Written By: - Date published: 1:22 pm, October 18th, 2010 - 43 comments

Phil Goff made an excellent speech yesterday.  One that showed far more direction, and a lot of promise for going forward.  Hopefully Labour can capitalise on this much better than they did on the excellent “The Many, Not The Few” speech.  They should be able to – yesterday’s “Kiwi Dream” speech contained much more meat […]

Why the Right is worried 1: Economy

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, October 18th, 2010 - 35 comments

Yesterday, former National media trainer Paul Holmes and former National Party President Michelle Boag attempted an extraordinary hatchet job on Phil Goff on Q+A. No analysis of the real policy divide that Goff and Labour with National carved out at the national conference, just attack – why? The economy, policy, Key’s fading brand, and the polls.

Conference roundup

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, October 18th, 2010 - 32 comments

Labour’s conference in the weekend seems to have gone well, and been well received by the media.  Here’s a roundup of headlines and comment.

Lessons for Labour?

Written By: - Date published: 8:39 am, October 16th, 2010 - 53 comments

As the dust settles on the local body elections, what are the lessons for Labour?  Especially, of course, “the big one” in Auckland.  Len Brown, a “Labour Mayor from South Auckland”, beat Key’s anointed candidate for the right.  What lessons can Labour take away? How does this shape the 2011 election campaign?

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