election 2011
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Nats’ election strategy – all about Key
Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, June 16th, 2011 - 28 comments
National’s election platform is pretty much out. It shows that National is very much dependent on Brand Key. They released the Budget and then the rest of their major policies in rapid-fire succession. This shows National doesn’t believe its policies are vote-winners. They want policy to take a backseat and all the focus on Key’s smile.
Nats plan lower wages for workers
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 13th, 2011 - 18 comments
So you support Maori being paid less than Pakeha for the same work? What about men being paid less than women? No, that would be discrimination, eh? Same work, same pay. So, what about paying a 17 year old less than a 18 year old for the same work? That’s what National is planning if we are stupid enough to give them a second term.
Nats plummet, Lab soars post-budget
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 pm, June 9th, 2011 - 93 comments
The latest Roy Morgan is the first poll taken after the Budget has had time to sink in. Nat+ACT+UF fell from 55.5% to 51% while Lab+Green went from 38% to 42.5%. Labour rose a massive 8%. New Zealanders do not want asset sales, fewer work rights, and National’s nasty agenda and are realising they have to vote against that ‘Nice Man Mr Key’.
Broadcasting allocations
Written By: - Date published: 3:20 pm, June 1st, 2011 - 21 comments
No Right Turn asks an interesting set of questions about the state allocation of broadcast media time.
“..if we think TV and radio broadcasting is so influential that it must be restricted to produce a level playing field between parties – which I agree with – why do we allocate it so it produces the opposite?”
Polls everywhere
Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, May 30th, 2011 - 87 comments
Plenty of polls lately. Do we really need so many? Two released yesterday show some closing of the gap between National and Labour – but not nearly enough yet…
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.
Vote Key, get asset sales
Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, May 27th, 2011 - 58 comments
Based on the Herald’s latest poll, that is a message the Left will be well advised to push hard. The poll shows 62% opposition vs 29% support for asset sales, while NACT polls at 56%. So, at least 18% are prospective NACT voters AND oppose Key’s main policy. The Left can win over many of these people on this vital issue.
Peak oil enters mainstream: Labour listening, Nats not
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, May 27th, 2011 - 81 comments
The Greens and environmentalists have been talking about peak oil forever. Now, the IEA and IMF have joined them in warning that governments need to act immediately. Labour has pledged to cancel one of National’s white elephant motorways but that must only be the beginning. Meanwhile, the Nats are planning more ‘Roads of National Significance’.
So much for seeking a mandate
Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, May 26th, 2011 - 15 comments
Remember when John Key was promising that he would seek a mandate from the people at the election before starting to sell public assets and cutting Kiwisaver. It was only a week ago. And he’s breaking his promises already: the Kiwisaver cuts actually kick in on July 1, and the privatisation process is underway.
Who has the ideas?
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, May 26th, 2011 - 62 comments
Last week we had National’s budget and Labour’s conference. A chance for both parties to set out their ideas for the future. National’s do-nothing budget went down like a lead balloon, while Labour started setting out promising new policy. Looks like the 2011 election campaign will be a contest between ideas and schoolboy mockery.
A big gap to close
Written By: - Date published: 9:12 pm, May 23rd, 2011 - 29 comments
The latest Roy Morgan poll is not good reading for the political left. But it’s not quite time to despair yet!
Postcard from the future
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, May 19th, 2011 - 25 comments
An anonymous Sunday Star Times editorial last weekend (not on line) reads like a postcard from the future…
Labour billboard campaign
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, May 18th, 2011 - 89 comments
Labour have been running a competition to crowd source their billboard design. Here is the winner, which (see Red Alert) will be going up around Wellington shortly. It’s going to provoke some controversy.
But you’ll distort the price signal!
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, May 10th, 2011 - 31 comments
ACT on Campus is giving away KFC Double Downs today. I love that ACToids are always complaining that interest-free student loans are a bad idea because they encourage wasteful, inefficient spending but think that giving out free heart-attack makers is perfectly sensible.By the way, isn’t this treating?
Maori Party to stand against Hone
Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, May 9th, 2011 - 83 comments
News this morning that (as predicted) the Maori Party will be standing a candidate against Hone Harawira if he forces a by election in Te Tai Tokerau.
Two term John?
Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, May 8th, 2011 - 77 comments
Selwyn Manning’s sources in the National party have confirmed John Key is considering leaving parliament next term even if National wins.
That’s not surprising: Key clearly wants to leave a popular legacy and the hard right agenda National has planned if it wins will make such a legacy unlikely.
Key calls snap Election for June 4
Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, May 3rd, 2011 - 29 comments
Now if the sight of that headline made you feel a bit sick for a moment, you might want to ask yourself ‘How well prepared would my party be if Key called a snap election?’ The reason it might pay to ask is that it’s not outside the realms of possibility that Key could manufacture […]
Armstrong on Brash+Key
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, April 30th, 2011 - 37 comments
John Armstrong doesn’t get much wrong in the assessment of the Brash take over. Brash, with his Hollow Men legacy, anti-Maori posturing, and loony economic policies, is very much Key’s problem now.
Sage advice on the polls
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, April 29th, 2011 - 35 comments
The latest Roy Morgan is out, with good news for the Left compared to the rogue TV3 poll. As a bonus extra we have some sage advice, from an unexpected source, on polls in general…
Brash new world
Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, April 28th, 2011 - 49 comments
So, just as Irish predicted, Calvert was the swinging voter, and Brash has now achieved his hostile takeover of ACT. Goodbye Rodney, and good riddance. What does this do to the political landscape? Here are some preliminary thoughts.
Spending cuts I’d like to see – No 3
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, April 27th, 2011 - 4 comments
Following two years of unsustainable tax cuts and economic mismanagement, National appears certain to rebalance the books with spending cuts. But what will they choose to cut? George.com asks: ‘how about the $4.2 billion in roading projects that will return, at best, just $3 billion of benefits?’
Interesting election May 2
Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, April 26th, 2011 - 9 comments
Canada will go to the polls on May 2. That election has just got a whole lot more interesting. The latest poll has the New Democrat Party at 28% and rising, while the Conservatives, Liberal and Greens are falling. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has led a minority government since 2008. The election was brought […]
A challenge to Gerry Brownlee
Written By: - Date published: 7:54 pm, April 25th, 2011 - 24 comments
Lianne Dalziel has left her political future to the people of Christchurch that she represents.
If it’s good enough for her to seek such a mandate, then why shouldn’t King Gerry do the same?
Nats try to warn off Brash
Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, April 24th, 2011 - 79 comments
Tweedledum and Tweedledee were a bit slow off the mark responding to the news that Don Brash is looking to take over ACT. Took the Nats a while to get their lines together but have decided, on balance, they want ACT dead. And that will be a lot easier to achieve if Brash isn’t in charge.
What is important to voters?
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, April 23rd, 2011 - 52 comments
DPF reckons “that issues of policy are less important to voters than issues of competence”. What an impoverished view of democracy! Perhaps he should look a little deeper than last week’s poll…
Epsom a done deal
Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 43 comments
Recently Irish Bill wrote on the Nats’ dilemma in Epsom. Looks the deal is now done, and predictably Key has decided that he needs ACT’s numbers (however small).
Pagani dead wrong
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 19th, 2011 - 67 comments
Former senior Labour party strategist John Pagani has written an extraordinary blog post where he says Labour ought to cuddle up to National because its policies are so popular and then, somehow, convince people to vote Labour for some reason. If this has been Labour’s strategy for the past few years, it explains a lot.
Candidate Conference
Written By: - Date published: 6:16 pm, April 18th, 2011 - 59 comments
This weekend just gone there was a conference in Wellington for Labour candidates to get us all up to speed with the campaign. We’re ready to go out there and make it happen.
Winnie’s big chance
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 18th, 2011 - 58 comments
The TV3 poll has the NACT vs Lab/Green/NZF gap at 22% vs 9% in the latest Roy Morgan. I’ll tend to pay attention to the company that polls every fortnight to the one that polls once in a blue moon. Nevertheless, the story of both polls is the same: Labour struggling to make headway + Nats potentially with a majority = opportunity for Winston Peters
Dim-Post: Electoral Commission to offer suicide voting booths
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 17th, 2011 - 4 comments
The Electoral Commission will give New Zealanders voting in the November General Election the option to take their own lives rather than live in a country run by any of the possible governing coalitions, the chair of the Commission Sir Hugh Williams announced today.
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