Following gsays (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04-02-2025/) appeal for ideas the left might campaign on in the 2025 (!!) election (when Winnie pulls the plug), how about electoral reform?
Such as:
*. limiting party donations to a once only per calendar year, low maximum per person/organisation
*. state funding of all political parties, based on their paid membership (not donations) and kicking in during the election campaign period.
* an Iwi upper house, with the task of assessing/approving or rejecting all lower house legislation (giving true meaning to the idea of ‘partnership.’).
*. a lower threshold for representation in parliament.
The aim should be to take Big money out of our election equation – make it a contest of ideas, not wallets!
State funding means taxpayer funding and most people won't want to pay for such a bunnch of hopeless losers. I suspect they will be dead keen to pay to have them eliminated though.
Iwi upper house would mean preserving Maori hierarchy, which is as antiquated and irrelevant as the western patriarchy. We need intelligent decision-making instead. That's why I sent in a submission almost a decade ago to parliament, when they asked for advice on how to operate better: revive the upper house to do consensus decision-making. It eliminates tribalism by design.
"Karma Police" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 25 August 1997, as the second single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997).
Karmapolice was an English moderator on an American MSN blog Free Speech America (no astrology/numerology was his rule).
Offhand I can't think of when Dennis Frank last got moderated. I had to look it up for bans and notes. I know that it happens… These instances were noted
I did like this moderator plea about Dennis's propensity to try to hog the first few comments in OpenMike
If I had the skill (and WP rights), I’d write a script to add a few hours to all his comments submitted before 10 am and let them appear in the front end at those later times.
Ummm… I have other things to code. But I do have a suitable graphic for early morning hoggers, and I have had to do that manually in the past for that pattern of behaviour. It’d be easy to do. Just look at the frequency of recent comments in OM of the first few comments, then hold the release for a calculated number of minutes that increases as the frequency increase.
But moderators are pretty clear that they rule on behaviour, not principles. All of the reasons in last years moderation were behaviour.
moderators are pretty clear that they rule on behaviour, not principles
Which makes moderation arbitrary, seemingly unprincipled. However users must accept the norms of any group they participate in.
I've explained my common interests with leftists often enough over the past decade here but my motivation is basically a duty of care.
I believe left-wing politics succeeds on a basis of altruism, commons ethos, inclusion, progressive activities, and a clever timely response to what happens in our changing world. I try to help with that.
You’ve been around here for a long time and you’re a stubbornly slow learner. So, here’s my response.
Which makes moderation arbitrary, seemingly unprincipled.
The main purpose of moderation on TS is to facilitate, guide, and assist with genuine robust conversation. This is based on the site’s About and Policy plus the informative and educational body of history of formal and informal moderation here since its inception.
All commenters are encouraged to self-moderate and ask when things are not clear in this regard. The TS commentariat self-moderates and self-corrects, as in any peer group.
However users must accept the norms of any group they participate in.
What does this mean? You clearly don’t accept them because you ignore formal Mod notes and informal replies to you with clear-enough hints (e.g. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05-02-2025/#comment-2023786) and you continue commenting in your set ways.
Moderation is not binary but a scale of educating & informing to warning to banning. For commenters who don’t take heed their commenting privileges are taken away temporarily for educational purposes. When they come back, they can choose to change their behaviour or not, as it were.
Mods are aware of intrinsic bias and subjectivity, which means they avoid active moderation as much as is feasible through a watch & wait hands-off approach – they’re volunteers who donate their time and don’t like the extra workload and mental burden of moderating.
I've explained my common interests with leftists often enough over the past decade here but my motivation is basically a duty of care.
It’s good when commenters explain where they’re coming from but this doesn’t excuse poor behaviour here. All commenters have a duty of care here, which is to contribute and add value to genuine robust debate. Of course, not all contributions are of the highest quality all the time but as long as this doesn’t interfere with the flow of the conversations then all is okay.
It is clear that you don’t regard yourself as a leftist, which is not a problem here, as we welcome diversity of opinions, especially those that are well-argued and supported with evidence; the better the arguments and the better the evidence, the more valuable the opinions for robust debate here.
Your duty of care includes listening to other commenters and engaging with them clearly and honestly. However, you often fail in this. For example, when asked to explain you resort to ranting about “aesthetic choices” in your framing and language and other gibberish with counter-intuitive reasoning that it “[d]oesn't mean anyone else necessarily gets my intended meaning” (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04-02-2025/#comment-2023699).
This is a political blog site, not a site for sound poetry or abstract surreal art-forms where the reader has to guess what the creator may wish to convey if anything.
You also fail in your duty of care with your recidivist behaviour of sniping with snide & snarky comments aimed at leftist politicians & parties and leftist academic intellectuals without any other substance in your comment (e.g. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02-02-2025/#comment-2023205). It is lazy arrogant behaviour that adds nothing, sets a bad tone, and creates a negative vibe.
I believe left-wing politics succeeds on a basis of altruism, commons ethos, inclusion, progressive activities, and a clever timely response to what happens in our changing world. I try to help with that.
This begs the question why you set yourself apart from leftists, but we all have our ways to reconcile our inner incongruences and plaster over conflicts & contradictions – you give off strong libertarian vibes.
If you genuinely want to help then you may want to change your behaviour here and lift your game. As it stands, you tend to rub quite a few commenters the wrong way and regularly irritate Mods. One would assume that this extends to the TS readership more general. Start with yourself before helping others.
It wasn’t a moderating note, and I was expressing an opinion on DF’s style & content and hinting at the over-use of Sudoku on LSD for discourse and analysis on a political blog.
Tony I don't like the idea of your third point- an Iwi Upper House that could reject Lower House legislation.
Do you propose that the Iwi members be elected or appointed?
The Maori Party have announced a new non negotiable policy of appointing a Parliamentary Commissioner for Te Tiriti O Waitangi.
The Commissioner in this new role could over rule any legislation passed by the elected members of government.
We seem to be moving away from democracy. I wonder whether Labour and the Greens will get behind it. Will the Kingitanga and the more conservative Iwi Chairs support it?
Your concern for democracy slipping appears to be limited to when Maori are involved.
If it were a genuine concern for democracy I would have thought yr conscience would have been pricked by the inappropriate appointment of Prebble to the Waitangi Tribunal.
Or ECAN in recent history
"… after the release of the "Creech Report" the government chose to appoint a panel of commissioners to replace the elected Councillors, as described above…"
My concern has got nothing to do with whether Maori are involved or not.
It is that any unelected person with the legal authority to over rule the decisions of the elected members of government would be the most powerful person in NZ politics.
I guess it comes down to how you interpret the word "democracy."
You could, as you are attempting to do, interpret it narrowly as simple majoritarianism: "the will of the people," and all that.
But history has shown, particularly in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, that this simplicity comes at a cost: an enormous risk to the rights, aspirations, and even the ongoing existence of minorities. When that happens, democracy becomes little more than fascism with extra steps.
A healthy, modern democracy needs to balance its majoritarian impulses with protections for minorities against popular (but harmful) oppression. It also needs to maintain a fair and level political playing field by upholding constitutional principles.
In New Zealand’s context, those protections must include some form of co-governance with Māori, the upholding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and a check on the traditionally unfettered power of the executive.
Unless we want to bring back an elected upper house (which would introduce similar issues, just with another chamber) the realistic options come down to some kind of independent commissioner as suggested by TPM, the Supreme Court, or a redefinition of the Governor-General’s powers.
Given the status quo of absolute power being in the hands of a group of clueless ideologues stumbling from one constitutional blunder to the next, it’s hard to see how you could do worse.
Weka it is not reasonable to simply say Maori can decide what is best for Maori.
My wife and I were in the Toitu te Tiriti march at Waitangi last year and there were a lot of different ideas amongst Maori about to bring that about.
There was a group from Rotorua that had been influenced by a recent conference they had attended that believed that Maori did not cede sovereignty to the British crown. Therefore they concluded that all land was stolen and redress due.
Others said that this was crazy and would incite a race war.
There is no consensus between Maori on the meaning of Te Tiriti but most accept that theTreaty provided for the government to have final authority. With all NZ citizens- no matter their ancestry- to have equal rights.
Seems to me your view is essential. I would add that it is so on the basis of holism, but some folks here would become hysterical.
The question of rights parity can be separated from the Treaty (Seymour's advocacy conflating them is an exercise in confusion), the guts being that civil rights contain both personal and shared elements.
More bottom-up than top down is needed. Instead of an upper house, have citizens assemblies. And a Youth Parliament, like Scotland, which makes recommendations and contributes to legislation. And possibly an equivalent Māori Parliament.
Citizen assemblies are NOT select committees. The power relationships in a select are politico : boss; you: supplicant. There is no dialogue to consensus between conflicting points of view for those who present.
Citizen assemblies aim to develop a consensus national position. Completely different power dynamics and process.
A citizens' assembly is a collection of individuals selected to be representative of the wider population. It meets over a set period of time to discuss an issue and make recommendations based on deliberation. Once these recommendations are made, the assembly is dissolved.
Sure local councils could do it, they just usually do a request for individual feedback.
Ireland has used it for 5 issues.
My point to tWig being that the citizens assembly is used rarely, as in Ireland and sends its report to the parliament, or it does so more often – as per to an issue before a SC.
Sure local councils could do it, they just usually do a request for individual feedback.
This is fundamentally a different process than CAs. For one, it relies on people to select themselves in, and most people don't engage. Feedbacks sits alongside lobbying as being for people with special interests and agenda. It's a disempowering process that the hardy engage in, but again most people don't. So the feedback is biased. This bias isn't necessarily bad, but it's not what CAs do. CAs are representative and participatory democracy. They're also an antidote to social and political polarisation.
Precisely. As a design tool, it works similar to the swiss army knife. I've advocated the thing here, but it will only get political traction if a party becomes progressive enough to adopt it. No sign of that yet, eh?
1.*limiting party donations would result in even greater resort to PACS (The Taxpayers Union etc) and even less disclosure.
Limit funds to New Zealand citizens only with all donations not membership fees disclosed (they will still use fund-raising events to hide donations).
2.*The USA has matching funds – a doubling of party revenues from membership fees is something to support.
Parties do get some money from government now (based on their electoral record).
3.*I would prefer a Crown Council, with the GG as head. This having the right to be informed and to give advice to government on a regular basis (monthly). That is no more limiting to democracy than the UK PM meeting King Charles.
I would like a greater independence of the Crown from being the agent of majority government will – to defend the institutions (as per POTUS 47) and prevent tyranny – as per Crown Law and the state crime of the cover-up of abuse in care. For mine the GG should have demanded that the government operate lawfully or resign and we should ensure that the Crown in Council can do that.
4.*I have no problem with a change to the threshold. But would restrict full proportionality to parties over 4% (the original recommendation). Otherwise 1 seat for parties obtaining over 1.5% of the vote and 2 seats to parties getting over 2.5% of the vote. The latter to make some representation within parliament easier.
"Limit funds to New Zealand citizens only with all donations not membership fees disclosed (they will still use fund-raising events to hide donations)."
I'd support requiring that fundraising events (over about $20 pp – so excluding sausage sizzles) – have required disclosure of donations.
Hiding donations through things like art auctions (some scribble that may or may not have been done by the PM, being auctioned at a ridiculous value) – is simply evasion of the requirements.
If you, truly, value that work by Clark, Key, Luxon or Hipkins at $20K – then you'd be proud to put your name to the price.
After Ad's comment yesty about framing korero in the people not the state I would observe that democracy is to serve the people. Not companies or corporations let alone foreign multi nationals eg Compass.
Our pollies have slipped so far from their moorings it's become normal to accept 10s of thousands of dollars from industry eg real estate, trucking and fishing.
I would suggest only individuals can donate to parties. Not from companies.
Addressing democratic decline though mechanistic tinkering is pointless unless it is explicitly linked to a program of creating a robust social democratic response to the crisis of wealth inequality and growth of plutocratic power. After all, form follows function and the problem isn't necessarily the way we elect governments.
The crisis of western social democracy lies in the fact that the centre right, centre and centre left have not only run out of ideas (witness Labour's often insipid neoliberal managerialism, the liberal obsession with hyper-individualised identity politics and National's current brain dead recycling of all the worst failures of the last fourteen years of UK Toryism) but they are also no longer able to articulate a liberatory vision for the country and have lost touch with majoritarian positions. This vacuum is currently filled with zombie neoliberalism, plutocratic opportunism and far right hijacking and framing of majoritarian populism.
Against that, let's look at your proposals (and some others) and see if they could be part of creating the necessary pre-conditions for a decisive rupture with decadent zombie neoliberalism.
*. limiting party donations to a once only per calendar year, low maximum per person/organisation
A great idea. I'd extend this to a social media ban on political adverisments in the six months prior to an election and a ban on polling in the three months leading up to a general election.
*. state funding of all political parties, based on their paid membership (not donations) and kicking in during the election campaign period.
Another great idea. I am not opposed to careerist professional machine politicians per se, but MMP has created a elite cadre party system where a central committee of apparachiks wields far to much power. Basing funding on a formula that includes membership as a major criteria would counterbalance this by creating an incentive to broaden membership. I'd also up the number of voters required to register a party to at least 1500. While we are on this riff, I'd also do the following:
A term limit of nine years on list MPs who are not cabinet ministers or party leaders of parties that achieved the threshold in the last election, or shadow ministers of two or three key areas in the official opposition. If you can't rise above back bench mediocrity after nine years, you likely never will so bye bye, make way for better talent.
* an Iwi upper house, with the task of assessing/approving or rejecting all lower house legislation (giving true meaning to the idea of ‘partnership.’).
Why not just make it an upper house limited to landowners with more than 500 hectares of land? This is a very bad idea. Creating a race based aristocracy with an undeomcratic veto? No thanks. It would (justifiably) condemn anyone proposing it to opposition forever, and is an undemocratic idea completely at odds with the idea of democratic renewal.
*. a lower threshold for representation in parliament.
Don't agree with this either. If you can't get your shit together enough to organise 150,000 or so people to vote for you then you don't deserve to be in parliament, simple as that.
One other idea – make election day a Wednesday and a public holiday. But only make it a PAID holiday if you voted or at the discretion of your employer. That means if you don't vote and then your employer won't pay you for the day off, then on the minimum wage you be down a couple of hundy at least – effectively a fine for not voting.
That child's foot is in just the wrong place…..on the other hand seeing the busy child at the desk 'voting' I remember going to the polls with my father and having a great time as they had what I thought were chunky 'Black Beauty' pencils that were ideal for scribbling on things……..
Regarding election-fund capping, The Guardian discusses the state of play in Australia, where Labor are finalising donation and election budget caps for the next federal election. Some twiddling going on with exemption of union funds.
Some states, but not the federal electorate also have a 'truth' rider, where parties are not allowed to lie in their campaign material.
Education must be eliminated due to everyone being taught a bunch of crap all the time. This shit has been happening since the 19th century. It's how to recycle neo-colonialism constantly: just make sure kids learn the 19th century view of life. So I get where Trump's coming from, but doubt being that radical will work well.
The Trump administration has begun drafting an executive order that would kick off the process of eliminating the Department of Education, the latest move by President Donald Trump to swiftly carry out his campaign promises, two sources familiar with the plans told CNN.
The move would come in two parts, the sources said. The order would direct the secretary of Education to create a plan to diminish the department through executive action.
Trump would also push for Congress to pass legislation to end the department, as those working on the order acknowledge that shuttering the department would require Congress’ involvement.
Don't discount the immense entertainment value likely to result from western civilisation having to do what it takes to survive. They've been on autopilot so long the floundering will be all over the place. Antics of deranged authority figures will appear in the media.
Beijing's promised tariff retaliation – including new levies on imports from the US of oil, agricultural machinery and some cars – is far less sweeping. Yet the retaliation moves us into the arena of tit-for-tat action, where the country experiencing the tariffs feels it has no choice but to hit back to show its own citizens it can't be pushed around by a foreign power.
This is the dictionary definition of a trade war – and economic historians warn they tend to generate their own momentum and can rapidly spiral out of control.
The trade war has been produced by the triad depicted in the BBC's colour graph. It shows China/Mexico/Canada in parity trade relations with the USA. All 3 nations hover around 15% of US imports. It's a classic example of how triads drive natural processes.
Looking at the ONE News front page this morning, it's obvious she got that right! Stuff front page, just as useless. The RNZ politics page leads with a paranoid view of T getting down so far in his list of priorities that he chooses NZ as next target, then presents a bunch of domestic tedium alongside. Such a pathetic performance all round that one sympathises with those who support shredding the media. Except we need it.
Hannity recites the list of countries that have already yielded to T: Canada, Mexico, Panama, Denmark, Colombia, Venezuela. The news media have featured stories validating his claim, but journalists haven't noticed the metapattern (a hexad). Other countries may join this group bandwagon effect. When a conductor gets a bunch of musos to play in tune together, folks appreciate the coordination. To get a bunch of nations to dance together to the US tune is similar group psychodynamics.
"No One is Prepared For What's About To Happen…" Benjamin Netanyahu Feb 1,
2025 February 1st, 2025, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech calling on Hamas to return Ariel, Shiri, and Kfir.
The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing his argument for not going to Stage 2 and 3 of the ceasefire agreement. In this speech Netanayhu will tell the people of Israel and the world that the only way for Israel to get back their remaining hostages is by force.
The names Shiri, Ariel and Kfir’ that Netanyahu mentioned in his speech on the 1st of February are the names of the mother and children of the Bibas family who were kidnapped on October 7 and killed in the indiscriminate carpet bombing of Gaza City begun on October 8. Their father and husband had been captured and held separately from the rest of his family and survived the bombing and was released in the recent prisoner exchange.
In the previous ceasefire there were reports that Hamas had offered to return the remains of the dead Bibas family members to the Israelis, but the Israelis refused to accept their remains, on the grounds that the Bibas family were still alive and that Hamas still holding them captive.
It suits Netanyahu to maintain the fiction that the Bibas family are still alive, as cover for the fact that they were killed by Israel.
On the grounds that Hamas are refusing to release the Bibas family members, and that the Bibas family are still alive and held by Hamas is a handy pretext for breaking the ceasefire and restarting genocide.
In the same speech in which he named the members of the Bibi family Netanyahu also said this. "No One is Prepared For What's About To Happen…"
BN earlier quoted the bible to infer nations should appease Israel, now the language of end time religion "No One is Prepared For What's About To Happen".
Of course the latter is also associated with ambition to realise their tyranny on earth, the strong man others should fear.
Meanwhile Jews in America, part of a right wing Jewish movement, accuse a fellow American of treason, because of an article on Israel in the New York Times (and a related book). The threats of violence distracting them from their campaign to dob in foreign students seen as pro Palestinian.
Voltaire was a deist who believed God created the world but did not intervene in it.
I read this recently and it resonates strongly with me
And fascinatingly, few know that at the time Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire and Leibniz turned to Confucianism for inspiration. They saw in it a secular antidote to Europe’s theological bloodshed—morality rooted in social harmony, not scripture. Voltaire in particular was so in love with China that he had only one portrait in his study: that of Confucius, whom he described as “speaking only of the purest morality” and writing that, “since his time”, no “finer rule of conduct has ever been given throughout the earth”.
Yet the West chose liberalism—a system emphasizing individual rights over Confucian harmony. Three centuries later, we face the consequences: a society so obsessed with the individual it has forgotten how to sustain a common good. We've reached a wall just as our Enlightenment predecessors faced the limitations of Christian statecraft.
Yes, your point about the common good is one I often make in different political contexts, ever since I resonated with Jeanette Fitzsimons telling the Greens to prioritise it. Obviously those in parliament have failed to get that message – otherwise they'd be telling the people to focus on it.
Every empire throughout history has always employed some mystical or religious moral veneer to justify and hide their real motivations for imperial expansion.
For the Holy Roman empire it was the Church of Rome.
For the British Empire it was the Church of England.
For the Czarist imperialists it was the Russian Orthodox Church, (and for Putin it still is)
Every empire needs to have God on its side, specifically their very own God.
The US Christian evangelicals serves that purpose for American imperialism and their hyper-imperialist President, Donald Trump.
I preferred Manfred Mann's version, but listening again to Bob copy Woody Guthrie's style of singing reminded me that "you don't count the dead when God's on your side." So presumably neither side in the Gaza conflict are counting them. We could call it semite accounting policy, eh?
On the subject of the blood-soaked Israeli regime, Jenny, the American journalist Max Blumenthal points out that the American politicians and bureaucrats who enabled the genocide will pay a price, even though they will not go to prison for their crimes. A retired teaching colleague of Max congratulated him for confronting Blinken at the State Department recently, and predicted the future tortured existence of Blinken as he gets older and has to bear the psychic burden of his crimes: "One day Tony Blinken will be like Robert McNamara as I saw him in 1992: alone, a shrunken man, his head hung down, walking across New York Avenue alone. And, God willing, Tony Blinken will not be able to cross a street again without being hounded."
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
5 Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
6 And you will be called priests of the Lord,
you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast.
At the beginning of his ministry when Jesus went back to his home town of Nazareth in the synagogue he read verses 1 and 2 from the above passage, but stopped before verse 3. ie the following verses were not what God intended. He then reminded his listeners that God didn't just favour Jewish people – he was concerned for all people, no matter who they were. This was enough for the townsfolk to grab him and take him off to a nearby cliff with the intention of stoning him.
What a broken health service delivers: the deaths of neonates in the hospital where Lucy Lethby was sentenced for multiple infanticides was so poorly run that an independent review, including international paediatricians concludes the alleged killings can all be attributed to medical negligence within the unit.
‘there were numerous problems in the care of the babies, including a failure to properly carry out “basic medical procedures, delays in their treatment and the misdiagnosis of diseases”.’.
Haaretz has one article claiming BN's election campaign is being launched at the White House
Netanyahu is preparing his re-election campaign – capitalizing on American support for a Gazan population transfer as a potential campaign platform. No clear rival has emerged to challenge the message
and another article from a former Labour leader, one who removed BN from politics for a decade, with an election win in 1999.
The resumption of all-out war in Gaza will not be allowed, and later on, an inter-Arab force will enter the picture, with the consent and inclusion of the Palestinian Authority and the backing of the Arab League, the U.S. and the UN Security Council, so that an alternative to Hamas will gradually be installed.
The issue of transferring Palestinians from Gaza will evaporate rapidly. No consent will be given to annexation in the Gaza Strip or in Judea and Samaria. Israel will be given military equipment and threats will be made against Iran, but Trump will later strive for an improved nuclear accord.
2019: Labour Party President resigns for mishandling sexual assault claims. 2025: media can name the former ACT Party president found guilty of sexual abuse in the 90s. Both cases are newsworthy, but so far only one has got the "opinion" avalanche of keeping it in the news.
Last week The Economist magazine commented that “around the world, an anti-red-tape revolution is taking hold. Done right, deregulation could kick-start economic growth”.
No mention of tariffs or anti-immigration sentiment at the Economist?
Labour has swallowed its own propaganda that the remedy to the country’s ills is a tax on wealth.
It is a remedy for a government unable to finance its public services.
Tax incentives can also move finance away from speculation on property values towards economic investment.
The coalition has identified the issue, the need for growth, and has outlined a solution.
Hipkins should acknowledge that the planning laws are not fit for purpose, that there are too many regulations and Luxon is correct. Instead, there is a culture of saying no.
If Labour were to pledge a bipartisan, successive Government commitment, to lift productivity and growth, then Labour would take a significant step towards being electable.
A better plan would be preferable. Less spent on roads, more invested in our future economy.
PS There was once a bi-partisan plan on urban development, but National withdrew.
Classic Keynesian circumstance, government cuts spending and makes recession worse.
Labour's finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said spiking unemployment "is what happens when the Government chooses to slash funding for frontline services, cut public sector jobs, and undermine economic stability
But Nicola excuses Willis
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the figures were the "human cost of lingering effects of economic mismanagement by the previous government".
Most outside certain political circles would cite Orr's 2021 policy.
With inflation now under control …
Inflation was coming down before the election in 2023, and is now only where it was forecast to be in 2022.
1984 to 90 was Rogernomics. When Labour was hijacked by ACTIODS.
The Richardson/Bolger recession was 1991.
Just like this lot. One year to crash the economy. Though, to be fair, that time the foundations of that recession was started by the Rogernomes. BTW with the countries highest ever debt to GDP, to boot.
It took over 20 years after those Governments for the economy to recover to it’s previous level.
We may never recover from the Coalition of Cockups. Even Prebble is being re cycled, instead of being left where he belongs, as failed past history.
But surely we can't blame Nicola Willis for not knowing that following policies to suppress the economy and increase unemployment would suppress the economy and increase unemployment, I mean how could she possibly have foreseen those outcomes?
Willis designed and engineered rising unemployment because this was her way of getting inflation under control. She tried to stimulate the dairy and entertainment industry by giving us a tax cut for ice creams and movies believing that this was enough for a honey puff. This hasn’t lifted all ferries of the economy, but we all know it’s because of the cold weather.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday during a press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and well do a good job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out and create economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”
Trump, asked if U.S. troops will be sent to Gaza, replied: “If it’s necessary, we’ll do that. We’re gonna take over that piece and develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs. It will be something the entire middle east can be very proud of.”
Trump Declines to Back Away From ‘You Don’t Have to Vote Again’ Line
The former president, in an interview on Fox News, declined to back away from his comments and repeated his argument that if he’s elected, “the country will be fixed” and their votes won’t be needed.
If anyone voted Trump because they felt he'd be more hostile to Israel than Biden was, they deserve everything that they get. There's only so much human stupidity that can be forgiven.
The four non-US territories Donald Trump says he wants to "Take Over"
You might ask yourself, 'What's wrong with this Guy?'
'What is he thinking?'
"Is he mad?"
No, Trump's not mad, or even "eccentric". Trump is saying out loud, that other supporters of US imperialism have been saying sotto voce for a long time..
Victor Davis Hanson a prominent conservative commentator, both understands what Trump is saying, and sympathetic to what Trump is doing:
Trump's 21st Century brand of Hyper-Imperialism explained:
“No One Is Prepared for What’s About to Happen… | Victor Davis Hanson”
@0:12
He has certain things he thinks need to be addressed. And he knows it's not eccentric, that other people have mentioned it….
@2:18
China's taking it over. We might have to go in there, and I won't rule out force…..
@4:02
He says, 'Well you [Panama] think we're an imperial power. You're against imperialism and Yankees?'
'You brought in the Chinese, they're worse imperialists than we are.'
Then he says to the Danish, 'You're lecturing us, me? That I'm getting in your Internal Affairs? You're a little tiny country, and you [Denmark] are a colonial power. You've got this big continent and you're acting like you're a 19th century colonialist.
@5:06
I guess we're a mercantile colonial power, where the British learned that colonialism didn't work. So either be part of us, or just stop it, just go your own way….
……you better pay up if you want to be a partner. But if you want to be a colonial subject, then keep doing what you want, and we'll treat you that way.
He's trolling at this point. It's up there with building a wall and getting Mexico to pay for it, or ending the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. Blowhards gonna blowhard, it's in their nature.
I would not be surprised if there is a coup by the US military soon. Musk and his minions have their hands on loads of sensitive information, Trump has and intends doing a lot of dumb things and is leaving various vacuums throughout the world for Putin and China to fill.
Hi Poldark, I would be very surprised indeed, if the US military staged a coup against Trump. The US imperial war machine and MIC don't think Trump is doing "dumb things" at all, as far as they are concerned Trump is not leaving a vacuum for Russia and China to fill, far from it.
The Prime Minister says he's really comfortable with us not knowing the reoffending rate for his boot camp programme.They asked him for it at yesterday’s press conference, and he said, nah, not telling, have to respect people's privacy.Okay I'll bite. Let's say they release this information to us:The rate of ...
Warning 1: There is a Nazi theme at the end of this article related to the disabled community. Warning 2: This article could be boring!One day, last year, I excitedly opened up a Substack post that was about how to fight back, and the answer at the end was disappointing ...
This may be rhetorical but here goes: did any of you invest in the $Libra memecoin endorsed and backed by Argentine president and darling of the global Right Javier Milei (who admitted to being paid a fee for his promotion of the token)? You know, the one that soared above ...
Last week various of the great and good of New Zealand economics and public policy trooped off to Hamilton (of all places) for the annual Waikato Economics Forum, one of the successful marketing drives of university’s Vice-Chancellor. My interest was in the speeches delivered by the Minister of Finance and ...
The Prime Minister says the Government would be open to sending peacekeepers to Ukraine if a ceasefire was reached. The government has announced a $30 million spend on tourism infrastructure and biodiversity projects, including $11m spent to improve popular visitor sites and further $19m towards biodiversity efforts. A New Zealand-born ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler “But what about when the sun doesn't shine?!” Ah yes, the energy debate’s equivalent of “The Earth is flat!” Every time someone mentions solar or wind power, some self-proclaimed energy expert emerges from the woodwork to drop this supposedly devastating truth bomb: ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission.In this article I look into data on how well the rail network serve New Zealanders, and how many people might be able to travel by train… if we ran more than a ...
Hi,Before we get into Hayden Donnell’s new column about how yes, Donald Trump is definitely the Antichrist, I wanted to touch on something feral that happened in New Zealand last week.Members of Destiny Church pushed and punched their way into an Auckland library, apparently angry it was part of Pride ...
Despite delays, logjams and overcrowding in our emergency departments, funding constraints are limiting the numbers of nurses and doctors being trained. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 18 are:A NZ Herald investigation ...
Now that the US has ripped up the Atlantic alliance, Europe is more vulnerable now than at any time since the mid-1930s. Apparently, Europe and Ukraine itself will not have a seat at the table in the talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin that will ...
Olivia and Noah and Hana are going to the library!It is fun to go to the library. It has books and songs and mat time and people who smile at you and say, Hello Olivia, what have you been doing this morning?The library is more fun than the mall. At ...
New World Orders: The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly.IT IS, SURELY, the ultimate Millennial revenge fantasy. Calling senior Baby-Boomer and Gen-X ...
“This might surprise you, Laurie, but I reckon Trump’s putting on a bloody impressive performance.”“GOODNESS ME, HANNAH, just look at all those Valentine’s Day cards!”“Occupational hazard, Laurie, the more beer I serve, the more my customers declare their undying love!”“Crikey! I had no idea business was so good.” Laurie squinted ...
In 2005, Labour repealed the long-standing principle of birthright citizenship in Aotearoa. Why? As with everything else Labour does, it all came down to austerity: "foreign mothers" were supposedly "coming to this country to give birth", and this was "put[ting] pressure on hospitals". Then-Immigration Minister George Hawkins explicitly gave this ...
And I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanation, nationThen everything must goSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Today, I’d like to talk about a couple of things that happened over the weekend:Brian Tamaki’s Library Invasion and ...
New reporting highlights how Brooke van Velden refuses to meet with the CTU but is happy to meet with fringe Australian-based unions. Van Velden is pursuing reckless changes to undermine the personal grievance system against the advice of her own officials. Engineering New Zealand are saying that hundreds of engineers ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill. This Bill represents a positive step towards addressing serious issues around unlawful disparities in pay by protecting workers’ rights to discuss their pay and conditions. This Bill also provides welcome support for helping tackle the prevalent gender and ...
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
Engineers are pleading for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of ...
It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Stone, Principal Research Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Having dense breasts is a clear risk factor for breast cancer. It can also make cancers hard to spot on mammograms. Yet you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The National Anti-Corruption Commission will finally investigate whether six people referred to it by the royal commission into Robodebt engaged in corrupt conduct. This follows an independent reconsideration by former High Court judge Geoffrey ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Last week in Europe, the United States sent some very strong messages it is prepared to upend the established global order. US Vice President JD Vance warned a stunned Munich ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank cut official interest rates on Tuesday, the first decrease in four years, saying inflationary pressures are easing “a little more quickly than expected”. However, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan Fels, Professor Allan Fels, Professor of Law, Economics and Business at the University of Melbourne and Monash University., The University of Melbourne Australia is creeping towards adding a divestiture power to its Competition and Consumer Act. Under such a law, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arjen Vaartjes, PhD Student, Quantum Physics, UNSW Sydney Dmitriy Rybin / Shutterstock What makes something quantum? This question has kept a small but dedicated fraction of the world’s population – most of them quantum physicists – up at night for decades. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University Australia’s minister for home affairs announced on Sunday that the federal government has struck a deal with Nauru to “resettle” three non-citizens from what’s come to be known as the “NZYQ cohort”. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University (From left to right): Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the Sudetenland to Germany.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Ukraine ...
The purpose was to establish the facts and provide an independent assessment of government agency activity in relation to allegations that personal data may have been misused during the 2023 General Election. ...
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster said he is carefully reviewing the referrals raised in the two reports. That work will be done in the context the Privacy Act and the need to ensure individuals’ rights to privacy is protected and respected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bhavna Middha, ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University The average Australian household size has decreased from 4.5 people per household in 1911 to 2.5 people in 2024. At the same time, the average house size has increased, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Page Jeffery, Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of Sydney suriyachan/Shutterstock When the Australian government passed legislation in November last year banning young people under 16 from social media, it included exemptions for platforms “that are primarily for the purposes ...
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Following gsays (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04-02-2025/) appeal for ideas the left might campaign on in the 2025 (!!) election (when Winnie pulls the plug), how about electoral reform?
Such as:
*. limiting party donations to a once only per calendar year, low maximum per person/organisation
*. state funding of all political parties, based on their paid membership (not donations) and kicking in during the election campaign period.
* an Iwi upper house, with the task of assessing/approving or rejecting all lower house legislation (giving true meaning to the idea of ‘partnership.’).
*. a lower threshold for representation in parliament.
The aim should be to take Big money out of our election equation – make it a contest of ideas, not wallets!
Seems sensible so I'll quibble…
State funding means taxpayer funding and most people won't want to pay for such a bunnch of hopeless losers. I suspect they will be dead keen to pay to have them eliminated though.
Iwi upper house would mean preserving Maori hierarchy, which is as antiquated and irrelevant as the western patriarchy. We need intelligent decision-making instead. That's why I sent in a submission almost a decade ago to parliament, when they asked for advice on how to operate better: revive the upper house to do consensus decision-making. It eliminates tribalism by design.
Most readers won’t want to read a bunnch [sic] of comments by a hopeless shitposter. I suspect they will be dead keen to have them eliminated though.
Take your morning dumps somewhere else and stop shitting on ideas from and for the Left.
I see Dennis's name and scroll down as fast as possible.
I do the same with your comments
You win because BG’s comments are a lot pointier than DF’s drowning pools of metaphysical drool and astrology/numerology mambo-jambo.
Have you and karmapolice shared moderating notes?
Karmapolice was an English moderator on an American MSN blog Free Speech America (no astrology/numerology was his rule).
Offhand I can't think of when Dennis Frank last got moderated. I had to look it up for bans and notes. I know that it happens… These instances were noted
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-08-12-2024/#comment-2019120
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15-11-2024/#comment-2017239
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04-02-2024/#comment-1988027
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-01-02-2024/#comment-1987690
I did like this moderator plea about Dennis's propensity to try to hog the first few comments in OpenMike
Ummm… I have other things to code. But I do have a suitable graphic for early morning hoggers, and I have had to do that manually in the past for that pattern of behaviour. It’d be easy to do. Just look at the frequency of recent comments in OM of the first few comments, then hold the release for a calculated number of minutes that increases as the frequency increase.
But moderators are pretty clear that they rule on behaviour, not principles. All of the reasons in last years moderation were behaviour.
moderators are pretty clear that they rule on behaviour, not principles
Which makes moderation arbitrary, seemingly unprincipled. However users must accept the norms of any group they participate in.
I've explained my common interests with leftists often enough over the past decade here but my motivation is basically a duty of care.
I believe left-wing politics succeeds on a basis of altruism, commons ethos, inclusion, progressive activities, and a clever timely response to what happens in our changing world. I try to help with that.
You’ve been around here for a long time and you’re a stubbornly slow learner. So, here’s my response.
The main purpose of moderation on TS is to facilitate, guide, and assist with genuine robust conversation. This is based on the site’s About and Policy plus the informative and educational body of history of formal and informal moderation here since its inception.
All commenters are encouraged to self-moderate and ask when things are not clear in this regard. The TS commentariat self-moderates and self-corrects, as in any peer group.
What does this mean? You clearly don’t accept them because you ignore formal Mod notes and informal replies to you with clear-enough hints (e.g. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05-02-2025/#comment-2023786) and you continue commenting in your set ways.
Moderation is not binary but a scale of educating & informing to warning to banning. For commenters who don’t take heed their commenting privileges are taken away temporarily for educational purposes. When they come back, they can choose to change their behaviour or not, as it were.
Mods are aware of intrinsic bias and subjectivity, which means they avoid active moderation as much as is feasible through a watch & wait hands-off approach – they’re volunteers who donate their time and don’t like the extra workload and mental burden of moderating.
It’s good when commenters explain where they’re coming from but this doesn’t excuse poor behaviour here. All commenters have a duty of care here, which is to contribute and add value to genuine robust debate. Of course, not all contributions are of the highest quality all the time but as long as this doesn’t interfere with the flow of the conversations then all is okay.
It is clear that you don’t regard yourself as a leftist, which is not a problem here, as we welcome diversity of opinions, especially those that are well-argued and supported with evidence; the better the arguments and the better the evidence, the more valuable the opinions for robust debate here.
Your duty of care includes listening to other commenters and engaging with them clearly and honestly. However, you often fail in this. For example, when asked to explain you resort to ranting about “aesthetic choices” in your framing and language and other gibberish with counter-intuitive reasoning that it “[d]oesn't mean anyone else necessarily gets my intended meaning” (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04-02-2025/#comment-2023699).
This is a political blog site, not a site for sound poetry or abstract surreal art-forms where the reader has to guess what the creator may wish to convey if anything.
You also fail in your duty of care with your recidivist behaviour of sniping with snide & snarky comments aimed at leftist politicians & parties and leftist academic intellectuals without any other substance in your comment (e.g. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02-02-2025/#comment-2023205). It is lazy arrogant behaviour that adds nothing, sets a bad tone, and creates a negative vibe.
This begs the question why you set yourself apart from leftists, but we all have our ways to reconcile our inner incongruences and plaster over conflicts & contradictions – you give off strong libertarian vibes.
If you genuinely want to help then you may want to change your behaviour here and lift your game. As it stands, you tend to rub quite a few commenters the wrong way and regularly irritate Mods. One would assume that this extends to the TS readership more general. Start with yourself before helping others.
It wasn’t a moderating note, and I was expressing an opinion on DF’s style & content and hinting at the over-use of Sudoku on LSD for discourse and analysis on a political blog.
I’m at a loss why this has been misconstrued.
No need to be, I was simply "triggered" by the channeling of phrases once used by a moderator two decades ago.
I have to admit that it was a funny association that made me smile.
My reply was light-humoured therefore.
Tony I don't like the idea of your third point- an Iwi Upper House that could reject Lower House legislation.
Do you propose that the Iwi members be elected or appointed?
The Maori Party have announced a new non negotiable policy of appointing a Parliamentary Commissioner for Te Tiriti O Waitangi.
The Commissioner in this new role could over rule any legislation passed by the elected members of government.
We seem to be moving away from democracy. I wonder whether Labour and the Greens will get behind it. Will the Kingitanga and the more conservative Iwi Chairs support it?
Your concern for democracy slipping appears to be limited to when Maori are involved.
If it were a genuine concern for democracy I would have thought yr conscience would have been pricked by the inappropriate appointment of Prebble to the Waitangi Tribunal.
Or ECAN in recent history
"… after the release of the "Creech Report" the government chose to appoint a panel of commissioners to replace the elected Councillors, as described above…"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_Canterbury#:~:text=On%203%20May%202024%2C%20Cr,council%2Dprovided%20car%20since%20January.
My concern has got nothing to do with whether Maori are involved or not.
It is that any unelected person with the legal authority to over rule the decisions of the elected members of government would be the most powerful person in NZ politics.
Does that not concern you?
I guess it comes down to how you interpret the word "democracy."
You could, as you are attempting to do, interpret it narrowly as simple majoritarianism: "the will of the people," and all that.
But history has shown, particularly in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, that this simplicity comes at a cost: an enormous risk to the rights, aspirations, and even the ongoing existence of minorities. When that happens, democracy becomes little more than fascism with extra steps.
A healthy, modern democracy needs to balance its majoritarian impulses with protections for minorities against popular (but harmful) oppression. It also needs to maintain a fair and level political playing field by upholding constitutional principles.
In New Zealand’s context, those protections must include some form of co-governance with Māori, the upholding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and a check on the traditionally unfettered power of the executive.
Unless we want to bring back an elected upper house (which would introduce similar issues, just with another chamber) the realistic options come down to some kind of independent commissioner as suggested by TPM, the Supreme Court, or a redefinition of the Governor-General’s powers.
It doesn't concern me in the slightest provided that I am the Commissioner.
Is that acceptable?
Given the status quo of absolute power being in the hands of a group of clueless ideologues stumbling from one constitutional blunder to the next, it’s hard to see how you could do worse.
In regards my concern I would say 'Whats good for Maori is good for all'.
But who decides what's good for Maori?
Māori
I know we've been told before … How do you put the macron in?
I'm on an Oppo fone.
Edit, ahh re-reading that I see you were answering Michael.
I’m still keen to know about using macrons.
don't know sorry. On an iphone you just long press on the letter on the keyboard and get an option for a range of accents including macrons.
Weka it is not reasonable to simply say Maori can decide what is best for Maori.
My wife and I were in the Toitu te Tiriti march at Waitangi last year and there were a lot of different ideas amongst Maori about to bring that about.
There was a group from Rotorua that had been influenced by a recent conference they had attended that believed that Maori did not cede sovereignty to the British crown. Therefore they concluded that all land was stolen and redress due.
Others said that this was crazy and would incite a race war.
There is no consensus between Maori on the meaning of Te Tiriti but most accept that theTreaty provided for the government to have final authority. With all NZ citizens- no matter their ancestry- to have equal rights.
Seems to me your view is essential. I would add that it is so on the basis of holism, but some folks here would become hysterical.
The question of rights parity can be separated from the Treaty (Seymour's advocacy conflating them is an exercise in confusion), the guts being that civil rights contain both personal and shared elements.
Please stop trolling. At some point a mod is going to get sick of all the little jibes and give you some time out.
I call it trolling because I've not seen any evidence that TS commentariat generally would lose their wombs over a conversation about holism.
Maybe consider that it's you and the way you communicate (including the continual sniping) that people react to, rather than concepts.
sorry, why can't Māori decide what's best for Māori?
I know you don't like the idea of shared governance, but that's a different thing.
"But who decides what's good for Maori?"
So, if you think "… it is not reasonable to simply say Maori can decide what is best for Maori."
It's a tad condescending to say that because Maori aren't universally aligned on all matters, they can't work out what's best.
After all, we have the Westminster system imposed on us, and that is based on differences of opinion.
I maintain, what is good for Maori is good for all of us.
Multi generational view to decision making, acknowledging and elevating the whenua above merely something to be acquired, accumulated or traded.
It concerns me , might as well call the unelected trump card.
what do you think about the ECAN situation?
Not upto date with that , last I recall was national along time ago tipping out the elected officials and appointing a commissioner?
As a short term act if something is dysfunctional I guess it's necessary, but definitely should go back to elected ASAP.
ECAN didn't make the decisions Key and Co wanted, in regard to unlimited water pollution by dairy farming etc.
So. He sacked them.
An abuse of power and contempt for Democratically elected councillors.
The old upper house, abolished by the Natz in 1951, parroted the House of Lords in the UK – by appointment.
So I would have no problem accepting Iwi members of an upper house, either elected by iwi members or appointed by the iwi.
The tangata whenua of this country could then enjoy a true partnership as envisioned in Ti Triti .
More bottom-up than top down is needed. Instead of an upper house, have citizens assemblies. And a Youth Parliament, like Scotland, which makes recommendations and contributes to legislation. And possibly an equivalent Māori Parliament.
Maori can form their own, they would have to make the case – it was a way to restore chieftainship (article 2) to get public money.
Advocacy to the nations parliament as per SC’s etc and the Crown Ministry’s.
We use the Select Committee process to involve the general public, issue by issue.
Citizen assemblies are NOT select committees. The power relationships in a select are politico : boss; you: supplicant. There is no dialogue to consensus between conflicting points of view for those who present.
Citizen assemblies aim to develop a consensus national position. Completely different power dynamics and process.
To whom do they make recommendations on a policy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%27_Assembly_(Ireland)
Could be any number of places and people. CAs could be run at local level for instance, and make recommendations to councils or community boards.
Sure local councils could do it, they just usually do a request for individual feedback.
Ireland has used it for 5 issues.
My point to tWig being that the citizens assembly is used rarely, as in Ireland and sends its report to the parliament, or it does so more often – as per to an issue before a SC.
This is fundamentally a different process than CAs. For one, it relies on people to select themselves in, and most people don't engage. Feedbacks sits alongside lobbying as being for people with special interests and agenda. It's a disempowering process that the hardy engage in, but again most people don't. So the feedback is biased. This bias isn't necessarily bad, but it's not what CAs do. CAs are representative and participatory democracy. They're also an antidote to social and political polarisation.
Here's XR's work on CAs,
https://extinctionrebellion.uk/decide-together/citizens-assembly/
Precisely. As a design tool, it works similar to the swiss army knife. I've advocated the thing here, but it will only get political traction if a party becomes progressive enough to adopt it. No sign of that yet, eh?
The Parliament.
1.*limiting party donations would result in even greater resort to PACS (The Taxpayers Union etc) and even less disclosure.
Limit funds to New Zealand citizens only with all donations not membership fees disclosed (they will still use fund-raising events to hide donations).
2.*The USA has matching funds – a doubling of party revenues from membership fees is something to support.
Parties do get some money from government now (based on their electoral record).
3.*I would prefer a Crown Council, with the GG as head. This having the right to be informed and to give advice to government on a regular basis (monthly). That is no more limiting to democracy than the UK PM meeting King Charles.
I would like a greater independence of the Crown from being the agent of majority government will – to defend the institutions (as per POTUS 47) and prevent tyranny – as per Crown Law and the state crime of the cover-up of abuse in care. For mine the GG should have demanded that the government operate lawfully or resign and we should ensure that the Crown in Council can do that.
4.*I have no problem with a change to the threshold. But would restrict full proportionality to parties over 4% (the original recommendation). Otherwise 1 seat for parties obtaining over 1.5% of the vote and 2 seats to parties getting over 2.5% of the vote. The latter to make some representation within parliament easier.
"Limit funds to New Zealand citizens only with all donations not membership fees disclosed (they will still use fund-raising events to hide donations)."
I'd support requiring that fundraising events (over about $20 pp – so excluding sausage sizzles) – have required disclosure of donations.
Hiding donations through things like art auctions (some scribble that may or may not have been done by the PM, being auctioned at a ridiculous value) – is simply evasion of the requirements.
If you, truly, value that work by Clark, Key, Luxon or Hipkins at $20K – then you'd be proud to put your name to the price.
Tony, I would vote for that.
After Ad's comment yesty about framing korero in the people not the state I would observe that democracy is to serve the people. Not companies or corporations let alone foreign multi nationals eg Compass.
Our pollies have slipped so far from their moorings it's become normal to accept 10s of thousands of dollars from industry eg real estate, trucking and fishing.
I would suggest only individuals can donate to parties. Not from companies.
Could unions donate?
Not by my logic, no.
The problem is that wealthy individuals and wealthy organisations can fund and influence campaigns without contributing to political parties.
That is not a reason to not to start implementing reforms.
How about the Labour election slogan: "Turn's out we weren't that bad after all!"?
I'm not sure reminding voters that they're easily fooled is a winning strategy!
I’d argue that us voters realising our own guillibility is the ONLY way that democracy will retain relevance and social validity.
😂
No good – it's backward-looking.
Addressing democratic decline though mechanistic tinkering is pointless unless it is explicitly linked to a program of creating a robust social democratic response to the crisis of wealth inequality and growth of plutocratic power. After all, form follows function and the problem isn't necessarily the way we elect governments.
The crisis of western social democracy lies in the fact that the centre right, centre and centre left have not only run out of ideas (witness Labour's often insipid neoliberal managerialism, the liberal obsession with hyper-individualised identity politics and National's current brain dead recycling of all the worst failures of the last fourteen years of UK Toryism) but they are also no longer able to articulate a liberatory vision for the country and have lost touch with majoritarian positions. This vacuum is currently filled with zombie neoliberalism, plutocratic opportunism and far right hijacking and framing of majoritarian populism.
Against that, let's look at your proposals (and some others) and see if they could be part of creating the necessary pre-conditions for a decisive rupture with decadent zombie neoliberalism.
*. limiting party donations to a once only per calendar year, low maximum per person/organisation
A great idea. I'd extend this to a social media ban on political adverisments in the six months prior to an election and a ban on polling in the three months leading up to a general election.
*. state funding of all political parties, based on their paid membership (not donations) and kicking in during the election campaign period.
Another great idea. I am not opposed to careerist professional machine politicians per se, but MMP has created a elite cadre party system where a central committee of apparachiks wields far to much power. Basing funding on a formula that includes membership as a major criteria would counterbalance this by creating an incentive to broaden membership. I'd also up the number of voters required to register a party to at least 1500. While we are on this riff, I'd also do the following:
A term limit of nine years on list MPs who are not cabinet ministers or party leaders of parties that achieved the threshold in the last election, or shadow ministers of two or three key areas in the official opposition. If you can't rise above back bench mediocrity after nine years, you likely never will so bye bye, make way for better talent.
* an Iwi upper house, with the task of assessing/approving or rejecting all lower house legislation (giving true meaning to the idea of ‘partnership.’).
Why not just make it an upper house limited to landowners with more than 500 hectares of land? This is a very bad idea. Creating a race based aristocracy with an undeomcratic veto? No thanks. It would (justifiably) condemn anyone proposing it to opposition forever, and is an undemocratic idea completely at odds with the idea of democratic renewal.
*. a lower threshold for representation in parliament.
Don't agree with this either. If you can't get your shit together enough to organise 150,000 or so people to vote for you then you don't deserve to be in parliament, simple as that.
One other idea – make election day a Wednesday and a public holiday. But only make it a PAID holiday if you voted or at the discretion of your employer. That means if you don't vote and then your employer won't pay you for the day off, then on the minimum wage you be down a couple of hundy at least – effectively a fine for not voting.
re your last point – make registration AND voting compulsory!
I like Sanctuary's idea, carrot rather than the stick of fines for not voting (does any country actually do that?)
No guarantee of a good electoral outcome for the left: look at Oz, where voting is compulsory.
But it is heartening to see their citizens seeing voting as a usual part of life.
See next comment for Bondi voter at Z2022 federal election.
That child's foot is in just the wrong place…..on the other hand seeing the busy child at the desk 'voting' I remember going to the polls with my father and having a great time as they had what I thought were chunky 'Black Beauty' pencils that were ideal for scribbling on things……..
Regarding election-fund capping, The Guardian discusses the state of play in Australia, where Labor are finalising donation and election budget caps for the next federal election. Some twiddling going on with exemption of union funds.
Some states, but not the federal electorate also have a 'truth' rider, where parties are not allowed to lie in their campaign material.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/04/politics/education-department-trump-executive-order/index.html
Education must be eliminated due to everyone being taught a bunch of crap all the time. This shit has been happening since the 19th century. It's how to recycle neo-colonialism constantly: just make sure kids learn the 19th century view of life. So I get where Trump's coming from, but doubt being that radical will work well.
Don't discount the immense entertainment value likely to result from western civilisation having to do what it takes to survive. They've been on autopilot so long the floundering will be all over the place. Antics of deranged authority figures will appear in the media.
The trade war is now declared a happening thing by the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7vdjpj7pe3o
The trade war has been produced by the triad depicted in the BBC's colour graph. It shows China/Mexico/Canada in parity trade relations with the USA. All 3 nations hover around 15% of US imports. It's a classic example of how triads drive natural processes.
There's so much good news coming out of the White House right now that the msm can't keep up, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tells Hannity in this Fox clip: https://www.foxnews.com/media/media-cant-keep-up-good-news-flowing-from-trump-white-house-karoline-leavitt-says
Looking at the ONE News front page this morning, it's obvious she got that right! Stuff front page, just as useless. The RNZ politics page leads with a paranoid view of T getting down so far in his list of priorities that he chooses NZ as next target, then presents a bunch of domestic tedium alongside. Such a pathetic performance all round that one sympathises with those who support shredding the media. Except we need it.
Hannity recites the list of countries that have already yielded to T: Canada, Mexico, Panama, Denmark, Colombia, Venezuela. The news media have featured stories validating his claim, but journalists haven't noticed the metapattern (a hexad). Other countries may join this group bandwagon effect. When a conductor gets a bunch of musos to play in tune together, folks appreciate the coordination. To get a bunch of nations to dance together to the US tune is similar group psychodynamics.
"No One is Prepared For What's About To Happen…" Benjamin Netanyahu Feb 1,
2025 February 1st, 2025, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech calling on Hamas to return Ariel, Shiri, and Kfir.
The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing his argument for not going to Stage 2 and 3 of the ceasefire agreement. In this speech Netanayhu will tell the people of Israel and the world that the only way for Israel to get back their remaining hostages is by force.
The names Shiri, Ariel and Kfir’ that Netanyahu mentioned in his speech on the 1st of February are the names of the mother and children of the Bibas family who were kidnapped on October 7 and killed in the indiscriminate carpet bombing of Gaza City begun on October 8. Their father and husband had been captured and held separately from the rest of his family and survived the bombing and was released in the recent prisoner exchange.
In the previous ceasefire there were reports that Hamas had offered to return the remains of the dead Bibas family members to the Israelis, but the Israelis refused to accept their remains, on the grounds that the Bibas family were still alive and that Hamas still holding them captive.
It suits Netanyahu to maintain the fiction that the Bibas family are still alive, as cover for the fact that they were killed by Israel.
On the grounds that Hamas are refusing to release the Bibas family members, and that the Bibas family are still alive and held by Hamas is a handy pretext for breaking the ceasefire and restarting genocide.
In the same speech in which he named the members of the Bibi family Netanyahu also said this. "No One is Prepared For What's About To Happen…"
Peace through strength
God is on our side
BN earlier quoted the bible to infer nations should appease Israel, now the language of end time religion "No One is Prepared For What's About To Happen".
Of course the latter is also associated with ambition to realise their tyranny on earth, the strong man others should fear.
Meanwhile Jews in America, part of a right wing Jewish movement, accuse a fellow American of treason, because of an article on Israel in the New York Times (and a related book). The threats of violence distracting them from their campaign to dob in foreign students seen as pro Palestinian.
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2025-02-04/ty-article/.premium/hes-a-traitor-right-wing-group-targets-jewish-american-author-over-israel-criticism/00000194-d1ef-df91-ab95-ffefc1f60000
BN supplicant to DJT.
https://bsky.app/profile/nytimes.com/post/3lheyfaxvnc2c
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/19/jared-kushner-gaza-waterfront-property-israel-negev?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Your point?
I would guess to note the wisdom of Voltaire, to the effect that those who march to the trumpets of their God are the most lawless of all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire
I read this recently and it resonates strongly with me
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1885601993429049574.html
Every empire throughout history has always employed some mystical or religious moral veneer to justify and hide their real motivations for imperial expansion.
For the Holy Roman empire it was the Church of Rome.
For the British Empire it was the Church of England.
For the Czarist imperialists it was the Russian Orthodox Church, (and for Putin it still is)
Every empire needs to have God on its side, specifically their very own God.
The US Christian evangelicals serves that purpose for American imperialism and their hyper-imperialist President, Donald Trump.
.
Thank you for the History lesson.
But what about Bob?
I preferred Manfred Mann's version, but listening again to Bob copy Woody Guthrie's style of singing reminded me that "you don't count the dead when God's on your side." So presumably neither side in the Gaza conflict are counting them. We could call it semite accounting policy, eh?
On the subject of the blood-soaked Israeli regime, Jenny, the American journalist Max Blumenthal points out that the American politicians and bureaucrats who enabled the genocide will pay a price, even though they will not go to prison for their crimes. A retired teaching colleague of Max congratulated him for confronting Blinken at the State Department recently, and predicted the future tortured existence of Blinken as he gets older and has to bear the psychic burden of his crimes: "One day Tony Blinken will be like Robert McNamara as I saw him in 1992: alone, a shrunken man, his head hung down, walking across New York Avenue alone. And, God willing, Tony Blinken will not be able to cross a street again without being hounded."
His mea culpa in 1995.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McNamara
Thanks for that. He was actually a very impressive person, in spite of everything.
Well said Morrissey….we can only hope he is hounded remorselessly.
But Blinken is so arrogant, self-important and thick-skinned that unfortunately he will not notice.
More like a righteous holy war, a jihad. That’s the language in the Israeli press.
Exactly – and the religious right believe they have the backing of prophecy behind them – for example:
Isaiah 61: 1-9
At the beginning of his ministry when Jesus went back to his home town of Nazareth in the synagogue he read verses 1 and 2 from the above passage, but stopped before verse 3. ie the following verses were not what God intended. He then reminded his listeners that God didn't just favour Jewish people – he was concerned for all people, no matter who they were. This was enough for the townsfolk to grab him and take him off to a nearby cliff with the intention of stoning him.
Luke 4: 16-30
What a broken health service delivers: the deaths of neonates in the hospital where Lucy Lethby was sentenced for multiple infanticides was so poorly run that an independent review, including international paediatricians concludes the alleged killings can all be attributed to medical negligence within the unit.
‘there were numerous problems in the care of the babies, including a failure to properly carry out “basic medical procedures, delays in their treatment and the misdiagnosis of diseases”.’.
There is a legal appeal against her conviction.
Haaretz has one article claiming BN's election campaign is being launched at the White House
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-02-03/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-will-launch-his-election-campaign-from-trumps-white-house/00000194-ccfc-d7d0-a7fd-cefee4260000
and another article from a former Labour leader, one who removed BN from politics for a decade, with an election win in 1999.
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-02-04/ty-article-opinion/.premium/trump-will-twist-netanyahus-arm-in-the-white-house-israelis-can-use-that-to-topple-him/00000194-cd66-d78d-affc-edef32630000
Fucking hypocrites.
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Daily Indignation
@DailyIndgnation
2019: Labour Party President resigns for mishandling sexual assault claims. 2025: media can name the former ACT Party president found guilty of sexual abuse in the 90s. Both cases are newsworthy, but so far only one has got the "opinion" avalanche of keeping it in the news.
https://xcancel.com/DailyIndgnation/status/1886195756043821485
Is it really hypocrisy if the people above are mouthpieces for the right wing nats and act and are most likely just doing their job.
Worse. They're giving a free ride to this sleazy prick.
Prebble
No mention of tariffs or anti-immigration sentiment at the Economist?
It is a remedy for a government unable to finance its public services.
Tax incentives can also move finance away from speculation on property values towards economic investment.
A better plan would be preferable. Less spent on roads, more invested in our future economy.
PS There was once a bi-partisan plan on urban development, but National withdrew.
https://archive.li/YYWIy#selection-4499.0-4505.172
Unemployment up again to 5.1%.
Classic Keynesian circumstance, government cuts spending and makes recession worse.
But Nicola excuses Willis
Most outside certain political circles would cite Orr's 2021 policy.
Inflation was coming down before the election in 2023, and is now only where it was forecast to be in 2022.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/02/05/unemployment-rate-rises-to-51-highest-since-2020/
As per the early 80's depression under Nats austerity, that percentage is lower for middle-age groups, and at 20-30% for those under 25.
1984 to 90 was Rogernomics. When Labour was hijacked by ACTIODS.
The Richardson/Bolger recession was 1991.
Just like this lot. One year to crash the economy. Though, to be fair, that time the foundations of that recession was started by the Rogernomes. BTW with the countries highest ever debt to GDP, to boot.
It took over 20 years after those Governments for the economy to recover to it’s previous level.
We may never recover from the Coalition of Cockups. Even Prebble is being re cycled, instead of being left where he belongs, as failed past history.
But surely we can't blame Nicola Willis for not knowing that following policies to suppress the economy and increase unemployment would suppress the economy and increase unemployment, I mean how could she possibly have foreseen those outcomes?
Willis designed and engineered rising unemployment because this was her way of getting inflation under control. She tried to stimulate the dairy and entertainment industry by giving us a tax cut for ice creams and movies believing that this was enough for a honey puff. This hasn’t lifted all ferries of the economy, but we all know it’s because of the cold weather.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/540988/new-zealand-experienced-the-coldest-january-since-2017-according-to-niwa
But genocide Joe..
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday during a press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and well do a good job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out and create economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”
Trump, asked if U.S. troops will be sent to Gaza, replied: “If it’s necessary, we’ll do that. We’re gonna take over that piece and develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs. It will be something the entire middle east can be very proud of.”
https://archive.li/xtOa (haaretz)
Who gets the royalties on the "Gaza" share of the gas field, or does another claimant get all of it?
Nah – Trump just wants to build another Mar-a-Lago and staff it with "refugee" Palestinians.
How about those muslim voters who switched to Trump over Biden's Israel support. Each day Trump betrays a new part of his voting base.
Trump doesn't require a "voting base" anymore:
If anyone voted Trump because they felt he'd be more hostile to Israel than Biden was, they deserve everything that they get. There's only so much human stupidity that can be forgiven.
Clasp your arms to that tarbaby Mr Trump,
you're on a winner that Rome and the Ottomans needed tens of thousands of boots on the ground to suppress, for several centuries.
Regrettably removing Trump from office – even as he continues to display total insanity – is near impossible.
Just in:
Well that’s a no.
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Greenland, Panama, Canada and now Gaza?
The four non-US territories Donald Trump says he wants to "Take Over"
You might ask yourself, 'What's wrong with this Guy?'
'What is he thinking?'
"Is he mad?"
No, Trump's not mad, or even "eccentric". Trump is saying out loud, that other supporters of US imperialism have been saying sotto voce for a long time..
Victor Davis Hanson a prominent conservative commentator, both understands what Trump is saying, and sympathetic to what Trump is doing:
Trump's 21st Century brand of Hyper-Imperialism explained:
He's trolling at this point. It's up there with building a wall and getting Mexico to pay for it, or ending the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. Blowhards gonna blowhard, it's in their nature.
I would not be surprised if there is a coup by the US military soon. Musk and his minions have their hands on loads of sensitive information, Trump has and intends doing a lot of dumb things and is leaving various vacuums throughout the world for Putin and China to fill.
Hi Poldark, I would be very surprised indeed, if the US military staged a coup against Trump. The US imperial war machine and MIC don't think Trump is doing "dumb things" at all, as far as they are concerned Trump is not leaving a vacuum for Russia and China to fill, far from it.
Likely or not, it's the only way I can see for America to extricate itself from this dire situation.
"The appalling thing about fascism is that you've got to use fascist methods to get rid of it." – Kevin Brownlow / Andrew Mollo
https://ground.news/article/google-drops-pledge-not-to-use-ai-for-weapons-or-surveillance_60c090
Jesus God!

Trotters credibility plummets.
It's a badge of honour not to be invited/go.