OK so I am feeling a bit bruised. Cunliffe is not leader and that is the democratic choice of the Caucus. But if Shearer has done no deals, wishes to build an inclusive Caucus, and wants to reunite the party then he has to give Cunliffe the finance position. And he has to give Mahuta a significant role and a front bench seat.
If he does not then he will be confirming the existence of two factions, one of which is essentially the old faction that led Labour into its worst election result in many decades.
Whatever the case he’s got to overcome a MSM that’s already primed with the 2 CT themes.
That deep factions exist, they often refer to a divided party, and secondly that Cunliffe will challenge anytime. Poor poll numbers will fuel the second and they’ll persist as it fills up space whilst the wrecking crew go about their backers business.
Shearer has the wrest control of the agenda within 12 months or he’s screwed and labour will be worse off then under phildo and kong.
I think you got that second theme wrong. Cunliffe isn’t the issue, he’s already lost and supposedly by a sizeable margin; whereas Nat Radio yesterday afternoon talked about an eventual Robertson and Adern leadership team.
To put Parker or Jones ahead of Cunliffe would secure the death of Labour’s economic credibility that is already at stake by having a Leader and Deputy who do not have a good enough knowledge of economics to win the debate between now an 2014.
dancer, by saying “the death of Labours economic credibility”, you are implying that Labour had economic credibility. It wouldn’t be a long bow to draw to say that 27% at the polls belies that.
None of the parties have economic credibility as they all listen to mainstream economists who wouldn’t know what an economy was if they tripped over one. National and Act are actually the worst as they actually go further into the delusion than the economists.
if labour does improve its position by next xmas shearer should stand down,and make way for cunliffe.NZ can’t have 6 more years of band aids and borrow and hope!
Joyce and Parata will tussle for it. Very likely that the corporate minders of National will pick Parata for PM. It would be classic – first Maori woman PM ever, and on the young side too, matched up against a white middle aged white guy from the Opposition. You can see the jaws of the C.T. trap already.
Parata is immensely qualified being that none can match her prevarications… considering her colleges, that’s high praise indeed. Sanctuary might be on the money… but the dynasty queen might have to tone it down a bit and turn into a man first.
And the one time you need ‘Name ’em All whaleslime, he seems to be having a brain fart, what with not outing people, and shock horror, he apologised for some things he got wrong. Or the docs upped his meds
My impressions of that Armstrong article was that it was probably written before the results were known – release time was 1.17pm, about two hours after the decision was released.
Armstrong has another article on Shearer this morning which I have only skimmed so far and will re-read properly but which appears to take a more cynical view
Armstrong can’t help himself… everything he writes queers the pitch against Labour. What annoys me about this headline is that it completely overlooks the reality that this was actually quite a close election.
A mere 3% swing to the left, or less, would have seen Phil Goff forming the government. Some ‘wilderness’.
A mere 3% swing to the left, or less, would have seen Phil Goff forming the government. Some ‘wilderness’.
No. Nobody could hold Richard Prosser and Catherine Delahunty, Hone Harawira and Winston Peters together. On the bare numbers it looks like a majority, but in reality it would have been a ticket to a second election and a Key majority early in the new year.
Bollocks. Nobody imagined ACT and the MP could stand being in the same room… but NZ has moved on from the early days of MMP. Politicians are a lot smarter and more sophisticated about how to make it work these days.
Everyone understands that if you want to achieve anything in that kind of environment, you have to negotiate. The alternative is nothing.
This is more of the same old “oh, we didn’t do so badly” fantasy. It’s complacent.
The numbers make a lie of that. The centre-right vote was a mere 50.4%. That’s hardly an overwhelming landslide however you want to label it.
Yes the centre left-wing vote is fragmented at least four ways… but the reality is that as a block it’s still very close to the 50% mark. Focussing on just the National/Labour divide is obsolete FPP thinking and only serves the purposes of the right.
Whether or not that centre-left block could form a stable govt is a valid question, but a rather separate issue from the numbers it got in the election. Nor a cause for complacency either… I simply object to the sack-cloth and ash merchants telling us we’re lost in a wilderness from which we stand little hope of ever getting out of. That’s not true either.
The numbers make a lie of that. The centre-right vote was a mere 50.4%. That’s hardly an overwhelming landslide however you want to label it.
That’s only true if you count a party including Richard “ban the burqa, arm everyone, boot camps” Prosser, and Peter Dunne and the “Hori Tories” māori party you lot have been ranting about for three years as allies of the left.
I can agree about the latter and it’s nice to see you’ve come around to my way of thinking. But the former? Come off it.
Right, but I am. Coalitions work fine where there’s a common thread to bind them — ideology, policy preference, naked self-interest or whatever. No such thread binds these disparate parties. It might have worked if some were able to opt-out, as one or other of Key’s partners has frequently done through the past term. But when all are needed to pass even the most trivial legislation there will emerge — I think the term Marxists use is “irreconcilable contradictions”.
If hone had not left the Maori party, we could have had 122 parlliament and so a 61-61 split of the seats leaving the Maori-Green alliance extremely powerful.
Now its just waiting for a National constituent MP to fall out.
Focussing on extremists like Richard Prosser doesn’t help your argument.
The fact is that NZ1, discounting the ACT -led media putsch run against him, served as a pretty stable and effective coalition partner in the last Labor govt. So did Peter Dunne.
The MP has been a stable partner to National, despite some obvious and deep policy divisions.
Yes Phil Goff would have had his work cut out for him if National had fallen by one or two seats, or Epsom hadn’t voted in John Banks. Questioning the stability of such a left-wing block in that particular configuration is valid.
But that isn’t the same thing as saying that the electorate has swung whole-heartedly to the right either. The voters… who by and large care less about the machinations of MMP negotiations… are still pretty solidly plunking their ticks next to identifiably center-left parties… even if those parties do represent a pretty wide range of views.
Focusing on extremists like Richard Prosser is perfectly reasonable — the weakest link in a chain determines the overall strength. NZF saw fit to rank him high up their list, which speaks to a sanity deficit on their part; and extremists who don’t get their way tend to go rogue. In the situation we’re talking about that could be all it would take to bring a government down.
I don’t think the electorate has swung wholeheartedly to the right — although if you count NZF as “right”, as I do, then it’s something like 57-43. But they have swung away from Labour, and most of all they have swung away from voting at all. That’s a problem that Labour needs to address, because the Greens and NZF got out their vote.
Lew you keep deliberately misinterpreting what I’m saying. So in words of very few syllables:
1. Yes I agree such a left-wing coalition would be very hard work. Quite probably not make it through to next election. No need to keep repeating that point.
2. But that is not the same thing as saying the left is ‘lost in the wilderness’… because there are still plenty of voters ..NOT voting National/ACT.
I think you’re forgetting the strongest “common thread” of all, Lew: “being in Govt”. Strong enough even to pull the MP to its own certain demise. Not to mention its alternative; “being the nutter who brought down the Govt”.
Because if you looked down National’s list and applied the same criteria to their weakest members, they would fall apart immediately.
No, because as weak as they might be they broadly agree with the direction and are well-served by remaining part of it. Not so in an ideological and institutional grab-bag like NZF.
Red, as always, making an argument to suit the outcome you want. Claiming Peters as centre left is palpably ridiculous, the man has never been centre left, and never will be. You say the “centre left” would be close to 50%. Another nonsense. The best Labour could have hoped for as centre left was:
Labour 27.48
Greens 11.06
Maori 1.43
That would be a grand total of 39.97%. Not quite the “very close to 50%” you claim.
If you are including Mana, then think again. No-one could seriously consider them to be anything other than extreme left.
Even if Labour had been invited to form a government. Amongst this disparate lot, imagine the cost?
Since National has back stabbed peters 3 times basically Peters has been stealing votes of the right just like the Maori party steals votes of the left.
Peters will never go into any form of govt with National because of how they have treated him.
small policy issues too. Like Peters will never vote for asset sales in a hundred years, and NZ First has a very friendly policy of $15/hr minimum wage.
If Armstrong is correct in the following quotation (and this leadership race has all been about the ‘blokes’ battling the ‘minorities’ and the ‘politically correct’), then won’t the election of Shearer shift Labour more towards the right wing, social conservatism that you appear not to like about NZF?
“Shearer will bring change by making the party less hostage to the political correctness that still plagues its image. He is interested in things that work, rather than whether they fit the party’s doctrine. ”
I may misunderstand where your ‘loyalties’ or preferences lie, but it does seem odd if you are supporting a shift in Labour’s focus towards something that would be much more compatible with NZF (including Prosser and Peters, neither of whom strike me as staunch upholders of ‘political correctness’), given how little regard you appear to have for NZF.
(As an aside, I’m not sure why Armstrong is so sure he knows Shearer’s mind – he’s obviously heard Shearer say more than he’s been reported as saying – but I guess he is a political journalist … It would have been good to hear Shearer say these things to the public if, indeed, Armstrong has it from the horse’s mouth, as his tone strongly implies – “Shearer will …”, etc..).
I’m not convinced by this argument that Shearer represents the forthcoming defenestration of Māori, women, gays, the disabled, and so forth as a matter of doctrine, although folk who hope it does have been eager to say so — Armstrong, Audrey Young, Trotter amongst them. Shearer’s MSc was on the tension between Māori cultural values and environmental resource management, and he has worked on behalf of Māori in that field, preparing Tainui’s land claim to the Waitangi Tribunal and looking at sultural issues around wastewater treatment in Auckland. I have as yet seen no evidence that Shearer represents the social “right” of the party either. His pairing with Robertson as deputy certainly seems to counterindicate that argument. He says he’s “right in the middle” of Labour, though I suppose he would say that. I am open to persuasion on both these points, however, and if such defenestration does occur I may yet come to regret my support for Team Shearer.
But I think there’s also a misreading of my “loyalties”. The much-loved canard around here and at Trotter’s placer is that I want Labour to be an “identity politics” party, whereas, in actuality, I want an end to the infighting that pits “the workers” against other marginalised groups or seeks to subsume everyone’s needs to those of straight white blue-collar blokes. All must have a presence within any progressive movement. I think there’s a false dichotomy that to appeal to “middle New Zealand” a party must be just a wee bit racist, homophobic and sexist, because that’s what “middle New Zealand” is. I don’t agree; although I can see how that is one route to popularity, I don’t think it’s one that’s very suitable for Labour.
Notwithstanding all of that I do think that being able to break the factionalisation and patronage — crudely expressed by Damien O’Connor — that has resulted in a weak list and a dysfunctional party apparatus is the most crucial task facing Shearer, and I can see how this could be spun against him. But on balance, getting the overall institutional and overall health of the party back on track is the priority. As long as it’s not simply replacing one lot of factions with another.
It really depends if he plays zero-sum loss/gain, instead of fixing problems that when addressed help everyone. But even though I preferred Cunliffe I don’t think Shearer is a evil bastard who will throw women, gays and Maori under the bus.
It’s just convincing insecure pricks like Armstrong that they’re not missing out (and normal people who are perfectly fine), while they lift everyone up.
Been one of the problems with the left for a while – not taking middle NZ with them in their thinking and just expecting them to “get it” after it’s done and dusted.
You can see how the Nats do it better with their policy formation and with the task forces they set up, they admit there is a problem that needs to be solved in some way, get a team of “experts” in place, get feedback from all quarters then create policy based on it (even if they were planning that policy all along). It’s a great way to create a narrative that the electorate can follow to understand policy or at least get some understanding that a problem that needs to be solved exists in the first place.
If it looks in the slightest way controversial or a potential wedge issue they will use this method.
I think previously you’ve noted the importance of symbolism (e.g., in the early days of the MP coalescing with National).
There is a danger that the symbolic projection being attempted (‘we are ordinary New Zealanders too’ – whatever that means) can box Labour in when it comes to ‘judgment calls’ on those social issues.
Trying to benefit electorally from symbols you don’t really believe in (in its crudest form, ‘dogwhistling’) can bite you back.
I think, for example, that Shearer may well be keen not to “get in front” of middle New Zealand on any of these issues (wasn’t that one of the concerns about Clark’s government, for ‘middle New Zealand’?).
That’s fine and pragmatic, and doesn’t mean necessarily being a little bit racist, homophobic, or whatever. But it might mean muting your commentary and positioning on those issues a tad.
And that could make some, at least, leap from the windows rather than waiting to be ‘defenestrated’.
I think that’s the challenge with the more ‘centrist’ positioning.
Are “centrism” and “middle New Zealand” the same things.
“Middle New Zealand” usually comes across to me as a dog whistle for the majority, and/or the socially dominant groups. This then relegates “others” to “minorities”, often seen as “extreme” and in some way, socially a bit suspect. It can also have overtones of “the silent” but also law abiding, well-behaved (etc) majority.
In contrast, I understand “centrism” as straddling the centre-ground of the left-right political spectrum – but this also has overtones of distancing oneself from nasty “extremes”.
Incidentally, Anthony and Puddleglum, so as to prevent this pretty good discussion from ending up down the memory hole (& thus my having to repeat myself, since I’m sure I will have to answer this question again) I’ve reproduced it at KP. Continue there or here, whatever suits.
I think there’s a false dichotomy that to appeal to “middle New Zealand” a party must be just a wee bit racist, homophobic and sexist, because that’s what “middle New Zealand” is. I don’t agree;
PG, I think that is the challenge with a more “centrist” positioning, but ultimately the long game is what matters. It’s mostly futile to try to campaign outright on unpopular topics — or those that are “in front” of popular thought, as you aptly put it — when you don’t control the agenda. Clark found out in 2004/5 when Brash hijacked the agenda at Orewa after a very progressive first term, and again in 2008 when the s59 repeal became a de facto government bill about the childless lesbians Helen Clark and Sue Bradford* wanting to personally bring up Waitakere Man’s kids.
I daresay there will be a lot of ideological austerity shared about over the coming term, not limited to the usual whipping children of progressive movements, but likely encompassing the unions and hard-left factions as well (and much of this may be pinned on Shearer to frame him as a “right” leader, when his hand may have been forced by political circumstance.) The project is to rebuild Labour as a political force, because if Labour continues to decline nobody — not Māori, not women, not the unions — is going to benefit.
Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour. My major stipulation is that whatever gets nudged out onto the ledge, as it were, is done with due engagement and consideration of those it impacts, not simply decreed by the leadership as being “not a priority” (and if you disagree you’re a hater and a wrecker.)
L
* Notwithstanding the fact that neither are lesbians, and Sue Bradford isn’t childless.
As I have said in earlier post, fear of centrism from the left arises because the party tends to shift focus rather than extend its ground. Where National holds its right wing position and moves toward the centre by making concessions, Labour tends move to the centre and make concessions from there to its natural constituents – that is how the centre gets winched slowly rightwards. It is natural because of the way power works, but it needs to be resisted. It is why I favoured Cunliffe – I thought him more likely to re-establish left wing ground and reach from there toward the centre. But you can’t really abandon class politics so the neo-libs accept you, and then abandon identity politics so the Waitakere Man accepts you, & then abandon the Waitakere man so that the firm putting him on contract accepts you, without waking up one day with a pompadour and a name like Dunne.
But Shearer’s easy-going nature disguises what will be a tough-minded approach to rectifying Labour’s deep-seated problems.
At his first press conference as leader, he made nonsense of the notion that he lacks polished communication skills by giving an authoritative, unambivalent dissertation on Labour’s need to not only reconnect with middle New Zealand, but make Labour relevant to those people’s lives.
He said more about that in 12 minutes than Labour has said in the past 12 months. Suddenly the fog around Labour is lifting.
As long as the fog isn’t replaced by steaming disgruntlement then Labour have a grand opportunity to be different and to be in a much better position to make a difference.
And there you have it, according to Armstrong, it’s “middle NZ that Labour needs to re-connect with (by implication not the struggling poor, working or otherwise, and:
He will make the party’s various groups – union affiliates, Labour women, Labour youth, Maori, Pasifika, gays and so on – start working for the party rather than feeding off it.
It seems men, older people, pakeha etc are not a “group”, but presumably the ordinary middle NZ kiwis who have been ignored and/or haven’t been the ones “feeding off” Labour in recent years.
So I guess any gains for Maori, Pasifika, gays, women etc over recent years, weren’t real gains, just a self-indulgent feeding frenzy. *sigh*
And there you have it, according to Armstrong, it’s “middle NZ that Labour needs to re-connect with (by implication not the struggling poor, working or otherwise, and:
Yeah, noticed that and it’s probably what Labour are going to go off and do – ignoring the 26% of people who didn’t vote.
256 demolished + 471 more vacant + 548 sold = 1275. Total new build since 2008 (including those arranged under Labour) = 1096. That’s a grand total of 179 less houses being provided since National gained power…
This on the Stuff website re the US Federal Reserve… “The US central bank …….. and has bought US$2.3 trillion ($3.0 trillion) in government and mortgage-related bonds in a further attempt to stimulate a robust recovery. ”
Why is it that the by far larger story here is ignored by the media? Namely, in order to pay that US$2.3 trillion invoice the privately owned business called the Federal Reserve simply prints the dollar notes. Nothing more. Then it gets repaid in ‘real’ dollar notes when it falls due for repayment by the taxpayers. US$2.3 trillion. Good business if you can get it.
Money for nothing in the most gobsmackingly simple way. It defies belief.
Then it gets repaid in ‘real’ dollar notes when it falls due for repayment by the taxpayers. US$2.3 trillion. Good business if you can get it.
And accumulates interest as well. Don’t forget that bit especially considering that they’ll probably be printing the money to pay the interest and charging interest on that as well.
Because interest charges always increase the amount of debt owed beyond the money released into circulation by the original creation of that debt, there is literally enough money in the world to repay what is outstanding.
At that stage you can actually ignore (hide) the inconvenient fact that you are insolvent for a while longer, as long as there is money available to service the month to month payments on that debt.
When even the most complex schemes fail to deliver on that, well, kicking the can down the road no longer works because you run out of road.
A little bird tells me that the Henderson / Massey Local Board is meeting with the Henderson Business Association tonight to discuss the privatisation of Henderson Square.
This meeting – originally a public one – but now apparently so secret that all the details have been suppressed to any member of the public wanting to attend will take place at 6pm at the old Waitakere City Council Chamber.
The issue is that the Local Board want to hand over the public land of Henderson Square (Catherine Street) to the business community so that they can have private security patrolling it to ensure no “undesirable elements” hang about there. Obviously anyone wanting to collect signatures on a petition, stand on a soap box or wear a hoodie will have to take their chances in future if that takes place.
Personally I don’t think the Local Board should be handing over public land to anyone without full public consultation and I would question whether their delegations currently permit them to make that decision. I certainly don’t think they should be excluding the public from any meeting on the subject.
So, if you’d like to join me and others in picketing this meeting in the hope that we will be allowed to enter the meeting please be there by 5.45pm tonight.
Yep shame on them. There is a proposal to close Catherine Mall so the local businessmen can then trespass “undesirables” such as young people, buskers, and anyone who wants to be slightly unusual.
The right wing Henderson Massey Board have bought into this.
It is another example of creeping corportisation of our public areas that must be opposed at all costs.
This is pretty much what the Greek Government is doing with Greek public assets. Handing them over to private business interests.
The true meaning of ‘inside job
Last Saturday, Rural Delivery reported that Taranaki farmers were already fencing around waterways before the Clean Streams Accord was introduced in 2003 and according to the Taranaki Regional Councils Director of Operations, Rob Phillips, the water quality in the area was “pretty good.” Apparently there was a rigorous testing regime that ensured clean waterways. Yeah right!
Beautifully done. Do you think the Minister of Tourism might be interested in how this news might impact on brand NZ™ . . . or do you think there’s no need to worry because the media are busy with Dan’s honeymoon and pulling apart the Labour Party leadership change-over . . . plus, these days, no one seems to give a fuck any more. Open slather.
They’re relying on their propaganda to keep enough people in the dark about the pollution… that means no signage even when waterways are too polluted to swim in.
It’s not just dirty dairying though… today, NZ apparently launched a post-oil spill tourism drive for the Bay of Plenty, just a week after yet more oil spilled from the Rena and the first lot of oil is still not cleaned up from Motiti Island and other sites not required for toursim.
New reports of oil coming ashore on Motuhoa Island in the Western Bay of Plenty have been completely ignored by the MSM… because they have been ordered not to damage tourism. Instead they’re willing to put peoples live in danger, which completely sux!
Asked about Shearer’s call to open a new ministerial poverty committee to other parties, Key said: “I’m more than happy for David Shearer to be a part of the ministerial committee if he’s happy to give the Government confidence and supply.”
the thing is that when Labour goes to the polls it is 3 to 1 when you factor in the teevy and the radio.
Labour only gets a go when the right has swung too far and needs to be brought back into line.
time to even things up with micropulse radio stations and a “proper’ discourse instead of the swingeing hectoring from geeks like mary wilson on rnz who thinks she can dictate the parties policy.
and she is not the only one.
this country has gone on the wonk and it is time to right the ship.
Truly fascinating. And, of course poverty riots have already begun again in the UK (and other countries under ‘austerity measures’).
The Guardian’s reading the riots detail very clearly the relationship between poverty, police, race/class and riots. Of particular interest to me are the poverty maps and the data about the causes of the riots, from the rioters’ perspectives and how these conflict with the official narratives of causation.
Last month the Guardian was told by British defence ministry officials that if the US brought forward plans to attack Iran (as they believed it might), it would “seek, and receive, UK military help”, including sea and air support and permission to use the ethnically cleansed British island colony of Diego Garcia.
Apparently the attack is a done deal, just waiting for it to actually happen. This bits interesting though and it’s probably got the West terrified:-
A US or Israeli attack on Iran would turn that regional maelstrom into a global firestorm. Iran would certainly retaliate directly and through allies against Israel, the US and US Gulf client states, and block the 20% of global oil supplies shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. Quite apart from death and destruction, the global economic impact would be incalculable.
This is actually worse than just the 20% of oil shipped through the Straight of Hormuz because all of Iran’s oil will probably be shipped to China to pay for the weapons it needs to defend itself. So that will be even more oil taken from the global economy.
Russia and China are also allies of Iran so if the US,UK and Israel attack it’s got the potential to expand from a local conflict (which would be bad enough) into a global conflict.
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Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
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OK so I am feeling a bit bruised. Cunliffe is not leader and that is the democratic choice of the Caucus. But if Shearer has done no deals, wishes to build an inclusive Caucus, and wants to reunite the party then he has to give Cunliffe the finance position. And he has to give Mahuta a significant role and a front bench seat.
If he does not then he will be confirming the existence of two factions, one of which is essentially the old faction that led Labour into its worst election result in many decades.
Whatever the case he’s got to overcome a MSM that’s already primed with the 2 CT themes.
That deep factions exist, they often refer to a divided party, and secondly that Cunliffe will challenge anytime. Poor poll numbers will fuel the second and they’ll persist as it fills up space whilst the wrecking crew go about their backers business.
Shearer has the wrest control of the agenda within 12 months or he’s screwed and labour will be worse off then under phildo and kong.
I think you got that second theme wrong. Cunliffe isn’t the issue, he’s already lost and supposedly by a sizeable margin; whereas Nat Radio yesterday afternoon talked about an eventual Robertson and Adern leadership team.
Hi CV
Don’t believe every media report that relies on a leak 😉
Is it 5pm yet? For some reason I feel like hitting the G&T’s already.
Somewhere in the world it’s 5 pm Cheers.
+1 hope you’ve had the pleasure already!
🙂 thanks all! *hic*
Tis the season for over-imbibing and we’ve got more reason than most. 😈
He has to control the agenda immediately, once the Nats control the narrative he’s lost.
Exactly mickysavage.
To put Parker or Jones ahead of Cunliffe would secure the death of Labour’s economic credibility that is already at stake by having a Leader and Deputy who do not have a good enough knowledge of economics to win the debate between now an 2014.
dancer, by saying “the death of Labours economic credibility”, you are implying that Labour had economic credibility. It wouldn’t be a long bow to draw to say that 27% at the polls belies that.
ACT with Don Brash and John Banks had less than 1/20 the economic credibility of Labour then, according to your measure.
That would be correct CV. Difference is, National didn’t ask Labour to be a coalition partner.
National never did choose its coalition partners for the purposes of credibility.
comic relief, on the other hand, seems to be a motivating factor…
None of the parties have economic credibility as they all listen to mainstream economists who wouldn’t know what an economy was if they tripped over one. National and Act are actually the worst as they actually go further into the delusion than the economists.
if labour does improve its position by next xmas shearer should stand down,and make way for cunliffe.NZ can’t have 6 more years of band aids and borrow and hope!
does should read doesn’t
Hekia Parata will replace John Key as his annointed successor in 2-4 years.
Heard it here first.
Be afraid kids……very afraid. Lord that’s a scary thought.
Joyce and Parata will tussle for it. Very likely that the corporate minders of National will pick Parata for PM. It would be classic – first Maori woman PM ever, and on the young side too, matched up against a white middle aged white guy from the Opposition. You can see the jaws of the C.T. trap already.
Parata is immensely qualified being that none can match her prevarications… considering her colleges, that’s high praise indeed. Sanctuary might be on the money… but the dynasty queen might have to tone it down a bit and turn into a man first.
Not Collins? (An even scarier thought.)
L
Revealed – why All Black belted his son
Will the “sewer” be “naming” him or is this one too political …?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10773089
And the one time you need ‘Name ’em All whaleslime, he seems to be having a brain fart, what with not outing people, and shock horror, he apologised for some things he got wrong. Or the docs upped his meds
You know Labour’s in the shit when it gets praise from John Armstrong: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10772967
My impressions of that Armstrong article was that it was probably written before the results were known – release time was 1.17pm, about two hours after the decision was released.
Armstrong has another article on Shearer this morning which I have only skimmed so far and will re-read properly but which appears to take a more cynical view
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10773088
Armstrong can’t help himself… everything he writes queers the pitch against Labour. What annoys me about this headline is that it completely overlooks the reality that this was actually quite a close election.
A mere 3% swing to the left, or less, would have seen Phil Goff forming the government. Some ‘wilderness’.
A mere 3% swing to the left, or less, would have seen Phil Goff forming the government. Some ‘wilderness’.
No. Nobody could hold Richard Prosser and Catherine Delahunty, Hone Harawira and Winston Peters together. On the bare numbers it looks like a majority, but in reality it would have been a ticket to a second election and a Key majority early in the new year.
L
Bollocks. Nobody imagined ACT and the MP could stand being in the same room… but NZ has moved on from the early days of MMP. Politicians are a lot smarter and more sophisticated about how to make it work these days.
Everyone understands that if you want to achieve anything in that kind of environment, you have to negotiate. The alternative is nothing.
The difference was that Key didn’t need ACT and the māori party to vote together in lockstep on everything. And for the most part, they didn’t.
This is more of the same old “oh, we didn’t do so badly” fantasy. It’s complacent.
L
This is more of the same old “oh, we didn’t do so badly” fantasy. It’s complacent.
The numbers make a lie of that. The centre-right vote was a mere 50.4%. That’s hardly an overwhelming landslide however you want to label it.
Yes the centre left-wing vote is fragmented at least four ways… but the reality is that as a block it’s still very close to the 50% mark. Focussing on just the National/Labour divide is obsolete FPP thinking and only serves the purposes of the right.
Whether or not that centre-left block could form a stable govt is a valid question, but a rather separate issue from the numbers it got in the election. Nor a cause for complacency either… I simply object to the sack-cloth and ash merchants telling us we’re lost in a wilderness from which we stand little hope of ever getting out of. That’s not true either.
The numbers make a lie of that. The centre-right vote was a mere 50.4%. That’s hardly an overwhelming landslide however you want to label it.
That’s only true if you count a party including Richard “ban the burqa, arm everyone, boot camps” Prosser, and Peter Dunne and the “Hori Tories” māori party you lot have been ranting about for three years as allies of the left.
I can agree about the latter and it’s nice to see you’ve come around to my way of thinking. But the former? Come off it.
L
Time to start thinking in MMP and coalition partner terms mate. We’ve had two decades to figure it out now.
Right, but I am. Coalitions work fine where there’s a common thread to bind them — ideology, policy preference, naked self-interest or whatever. No such thread binds these disparate parties. It might have worked if some were able to opt-out, as one or other of Key’s partners has frequently done through the past term. But when all are needed to pass even the most trivial legislation there will emerge — I think the term Marxists use is “irreconcilable contradictions”.
L
If hone had not left the Maori party, we could have had 122 parlliament and so a 61-61 split of the seats leaving the Maori-Green alliance extremely powerful.
Now its just waiting for a National constituent MP to fall out.
Focussing on extremists like Richard Prosser doesn’t help your argument.
The fact is that NZ1, discounting the ACT -led media putsch run against him, served as a pretty stable and effective coalition partner in the last Labor govt. So did Peter Dunne.
The MP has been a stable partner to National, despite some obvious and deep policy divisions.
Yes Phil Goff would have had his work cut out for him if National had fallen by one or two seats, or Epsom hadn’t voted in John Banks. Questioning the stability of such a left-wing block in that particular configuration is valid.
But that isn’t the same thing as saying that the electorate has swung whole-heartedly to the right either. The voters… who by and large care less about the machinations of MMP negotiations… are still pretty solidly plunking their ticks next to identifiably center-left parties… even if those parties do represent a pretty wide range of views.
Focusing on extremists like Richard Prosser is perfectly reasonable — the weakest link in a chain determines the overall strength. NZF saw fit to rank him high up their list, which speaks to a sanity deficit on their part; and extremists who don’t get their way tend to go rogue. In the situation we’re talking about that could be all it would take to bring a government down.
I don’t think the electorate has swung wholeheartedly to the right — although if you count NZF as “right”, as I do, then it’s something like 57-43. But they have swung away from Labour, and most of all they have swung away from voting at all. That’s a problem that Labour needs to address, because the Greens and NZF got out their vote.
L
No, this does not apply in a team sport like politics, which is quite different from a sytem with only linear relationships (like a chain).
Because if you looked down National’s list and applied the same criteria to their weakest members, they would fall apart immediately.
Lew you keep deliberately misinterpreting what I’m saying. So in words of very few syllables:
1. Yes I agree such a left-wing coalition would be very hard work. Quite probably not make it through to next election. No need to keep repeating that point.
2. But that is not the same thing as saying the left is ‘lost in the wilderness’… because there are still plenty of voters ..NOT voting National/ACT.
I think you’re forgetting the strongest “common thread” of all, Lew: “being in Govt”. Strong enough even to pull the MP to its own certain demise. Not to mention its alternative; “being the nutter who brought down the Govt”.
Because if you looked down National’s list and applied the same criteria to their weakest members, they would fall apart immediately.
No, because as weak as they might be they broadly agree with the direction and are well-served by remaining part of it. Not so in an ideological and institutional grab-bag like NZF.
L
Ad you keep misinterpreting mine, RL. So also in simple words:
that is not the same thing as saying the left is ‘lost in the wilderness’… because there are still plenty of voters ..NOT voting National/ACT.
I’m not saying the left is lost in the wilderness. I’m saying Labour is. Or was. Seems to be un-losing itself. About time.
L
Red, as always, making an argument to suit the outcome you want. Claiming Peters as centre left is palpably ridiculous, the man has never been centre left, and never will be. You say the “centre left” would be close to 50%. Another nonsense. The best Labour could have hoped for as centre left was:
Labour 27.48
Greens 11.06
Maori 1.43
That would be a grand total of 39.97%. Not quite the “very close to 50%” you claim.
If you are including Mana, then think again. No-one could seriously consider them to be anything other than extreme left.
Even if Labour had been invited to form a government. Amongst this disparate lot, imagine the cost?
Since National has back stabbed peters 3 times basically Peters has been stealing votes of the right just like the Maori party steals votes of the left.
Peters will never go into any form of govt with National because of how they have treated him.
small policy issues too. Like Peters will never vote for asset sales in a hundred years, and NZ First has a very friendly policy of $15/hr minimum wage.
Ah, negotiate, that means co-operating and working together positively doesn’t it.
Divide doesn’t conquer.
Hi Lew,
If Armstrong is correct in the following quotation (and this leadership race has all been about the ‘blokes’ battling the ‘minorities’ and the ‘politically correct’), then won’t the election of Shearer shift Labour more towards the right wing, social conservatism that you appear not to like about NZF?
“Shearer will bring change by making the party less hostage to the political correctness that still plagues its image. He is interested in things that work, rather than whether they fit the party’s doctrine. ”
I may misunderstand where your ‘loyalties’ or preferences lie, but it does seem odd if you are supporting a shift in Labour’s focus towards something that would be much more compatible with NZF (including Prosser and Peters, neither of whom strike me as staunch upholders of ‘political correctness’), given how little regard you appear to have for NZF.
(As an aside, I’m not sure why Armstrong is so sure he knows Shearer’s mind – he’s obviously heard Shearer say more than he’s been reported as saying – but I guess he is a political journalist … It would have been good to hear Shearer say these things to the public if, indeed, Armstrong has it from the horse’s mouth, as his tone strongly implies – “Shearer will …”, etc..).
Hey PG,
I’m not convinced by this argument that Shearer represents the forthcoming defenestration of Māori, women, gays, the disabled, and so forth as a matter of doctrine, although folk who hope it does have been eager to say so — Armstrong, Audrey Young, Trotter amongst them. Shearer’s MSc was on the tension between Māori cultural values and environmental resource management, and he has worked on behalf of Māori in that field, preparing Tainui’s land claim to the Waitangi Tribunal and looking at sultural issues around wastewater treatment in Auckland. I have as yet seen no evidence that Shearer represents the social “right” of the party either. His pairing with Robertson as deputy certainly seems to counterindicate that argument. He says he’s “right in the middle” of Labour, though I suppose he would say that. I am open to persuasion on both these points, however, and if such defenestration does occur I may yet come to regret my support for Team Shearer.
But I think there’s also a misreading of my “loyalties”. The much-loved canard around here and at Trotter’s placer is that I want Labour to be an “identity politics” party, whereas, in actuality, I want an end to the infighting that pits “the workers” against other marginalised groups or seeks to subsume everyone’s needs to those of straight white blue-collar blokes. All must have a presence within any progressive movement. I think there’s a false dichotomy that to appeal to “middle New Zealand” a party must be just a wee bit racist, homophobic and sexist, because that’s what “middle New Zealand” is. I don’t agree; although I can see how that is one route to popularity, I don’t think it’s one that’s very suitable for Labour.
Notwithstanding all of that I do think that being able to break the factionalisation and patronage — crudely expressed by Damien O’Connor — that has resulted in a weak list and a dysfunctional party apparatus is the most crucial task facing Shearer, and I can see how this could be spun against him. But on balance, getting the overall institutional and overall health of the party back on track is the priority. As long as it’s not simply replacing one lot of factions with another.
L
It really depends if he plays zero-sum loss/gain, instead of fixing problems that when addressed help everyone. But even though I preferred Cunliffe I don’t think Shearer is a evil bastard who will throw women, gays and Maori under the bus.
It’s just convincing insecure pricks like Armstrong that they’re not missing out (and normal people who are perfectly fine), while they lift everyone up.
Been one of the problems with the left for a while – not taking middle NZ with them in their thinking and just expecting them to “get it” after it’s done and dusted.
You can see how the Nats do it better with their policy formation and with the task forces they set up, they admit there is a problem that needs to be solved in some way, get a team of “experts” in place, get feedback from all quarters then create policy based on it (even if they were planning that policy all along). It’s a great way to create a narrative that the electorate can follow to understand policy or at least get some understanding that a problem that needs to be solved exists in the first place.
If it looks in the slightest way controversial or a potential wedge issue they will use this method.
As I said, “If Armstrong is correct …”
I think previously you’ve noted the importance of symbolism (e.g., in the early days of the MP coalescing with National).
There is a danger that the symbolic projection being attempted (‘we are ordinary New Zealanders too’ – whatever that means) can box Labour in when it comes to ‘judgment calls’ on those social issues.
Trying to benefit electorally from symbols you don’t really believe in (in its crudest form, ‘dogwhistling’) can bite you back.
I think, for example, that Shearer may well be keen not to “get in front” of middle New Zealand on any of these issues (wasn’t that one of the concerns about Clark’s government, for ‘middle New Zealand’?).
That’s fine and pragmatic, and doesn’t mean necessarily being a little bit racist, homophobic, or whatever. But it might mean muting your commentary and positioning on those issues a tad.
And that could make some, at least, leap from the windows rather than waiting to be ‘defenestrated’.
I think that’s the challenge with the more ‘centrist’ positioning.
Are “centrism” and “middle New Zealand” the same things.
“Middle New Zealand” usually comes across to me as a dog whistle for the majority, and/or the socially dominant groups. This then relegates “others” to “minorities”, often seen as “extreme” and in some way, socially a bit suspect. It can also have overtones of “the silent” but also law abiding, well-behaved (etc) majority.
In contrast, I understand “centrism” as straddling the centre-ground of the left-right political spectrum – but this also has overtones of distancing oneself from nasty “extremes”.
Incidentally, Anthony and Puddleglum, so as to prevent this pretty good discussion from ending up down the memory hole (& thus my having to repeat myself, since I’m sure I will have to answer this question again) I’ve reproduced it at KP. Continue there or here, whatever suits.
Cheers,
L
I am with you there, Lew!
Anthony, I agree with all of that.
PG, I think that is the challenge with a more “centrist” positioning, but ultimately the long game is what matters. It’s mostly futile to try to campaign outright on unpopular topics — or those that are “in front” of popular thought, as you aptly put it — when you don’t control the agenda. Clark found out in 2004/5 when Brash hijacked the agenda at Orewa after a very progressive first term, and again in 2008 when the s59 repeal became a de facto government bill about the childless lesbians Helen Clark and Sue Bradford* wanting to personally bring up Waitakere Man’s kids.
I daresay there will be a lot of ideological austerity shared about over the coming term, not limited to the usual whipping children of progressive movements, but likely encompassing the unions and hard-left factions as well (and much of this may be pinned on Shearer to frame him as a “right” leader, when his hand may have been forced by political circumstance.) The project is to rebuild Labour as a political force, because if Labour continues to decline nobody — not Māori, not women, not the unions — is going to benefit.
Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour. My major stipulation is that whatever gets nudged out onto the ledge, as it were, is done with due engagement and consideration of those it impacts, not simply decreed by the leadership as being “not a priority” (and if you disagree you’re a hater and a wrecker.)
L
* Notwithstanding the fact that neither are lesbians, and Sue Bradford isn’t childless.
As I have said in earlier post, fear of centrism from the left arises because the party tends to shift focus rather than extend its ground. Where National holds its right wing position and moves toward the centre by making concessions, Labour tends move to the centre and make concessions from there to its natural constituents – that is how the centre gets winched slowly rightwards. It is natural because of the way power works, but it needs to be resisted. It is why I favoured Cunliffe – I thought him more likely to re-establish left wing ground and reach from there toward the centre. But you can’t really abandon class politics so the neo-libs accept you, and then abandon identity politics so the Waitakere Man accepts you, & then abandon the Waitakere man so that the firm putting him on contract accepts you, without waking up one day with a pompadour and a name like Dunne.
Great comment.
Thanks CV
Outstanding.
I think this is an astute view:
As long as the fog isn’t replaced by steaming disgruntlement then Labour have a grand opportunity to be different and to be in a much better position to make a difference.
And there you have it, according to Armstrong, it’s “middle NZ that Labour needs to re-connect with (by implication not the struggling poor, working or otherwise, and:
It seems men, older people, pakeha etc are not a “group”, but presumably the ordinary middle NZ kiwis who have been ignored and/or haven’t been the ones “feeding off” Labour in recent years.
So I guess any gains for Maori, Pasifika, gays, women etc over recent years, weren’t real gains, just a self-indulgent feeding frenzy. *sigh*
Yeah, noticed that and it’s probably what Labour are going to go off and do – ignoring the 26% of people who didn’t vote.
Heatley lies again
256 demolished + 471 more vacant + 548 sold = 1275. Total new build since 2008 (including those arranged under Labour) = 1096. That’s a grand total of 179 less houses being provided since National gained power…
This on the Stuff website re the US Federal Reserve… “The US central bank …….. and has bought US$2.3 trillion ($3.0 trillion) in government and mortgage-related bonds in a further attempt to stimulate a robust recovery. ”
Why is it that the by far larger story here is ignored by the media? Namely, in order to pay that US$2.3 trillion invoice the privately owned business called the Federal Reserve simply prints the dollar notes. Nothing more. Then it gets repaid in ‘real’ dollar notes when it falls due for repayment by the taxpayers. US$2.3 trillion. Good business if you can get it.
Money for nothing in the most gobsmackingly simple way. It defies belief.
and nothing is even printed these days…they just electronically credit their own accounts.
Yep, so not even the paper manufacturers get any benefit from it. Just the keyboard maunfacturers.
Why is the money system privately owned and not publicly owned?
Why is this not discussed by our political leaders?
Why is the entire money system not part of the education system?
serious questions
One answer: Because then people would realise that they’re being ripped off.
Another answer: no one would believe it.
And accumulates interest as well. Don’t forget that bit especially considering that they’ll probably be printing the money to pay the interest and charging interest on that as well.
Because interest charges always increase the amount of debt owed beyond the money released into circulation by the original creation of that debt, there is literally enough money in the world to repay what is outstanding.
At that stage you can actually ignore (hide) the inconvenient fact that you are insolvent for a while longer, as long as there is money available to service the month to month payments on that debt.
When even the most complex schemes fail to deliver on that, well, kicking the can down the road no longer works because you run out of road.
. . . and so it begins.
Yep shame on them. There is a proposal to close Catherine Mall so the local businessmen can then trespass “undesirables” such as young people, buskers, and anyone who wants to be slightly unusual.
The right wing Henderson Massey Board have bought into this.
It is another example of creeping corportisation of our public areas that must be opposed at all costs.
This is pretty much what the Greek Government is doing with Greek public assets. Handing them over to private business interests.
The true meaning of ‘inside job’.
Pretty much as predicted, but disgusting …
Rural effluent delivery
Last Saturday, Rural Delivery reported that Taranaki farmers were already fencing around waterways before the Clean Streams Accord was introduced in 2003 and according to the Taranaki Regional Councils Director of Operations, Rob Phillips, the water quality in the area was “pretty good.” Apparently there was a rigorous testing regime that ensured clean waterways. Yeah right!
Today, Idiot/Savant blew their bullshit out of the water:
Beautifully done. Do you think the Minister of Tourism might be interested in how this news might impact on brand NZ™ . . . or do you think there’s no need to worry because the media are busy with Dan’s honeymoon and pulling apart the Labour Party leadership change-over . . . plus, these days, no one seems to give a fuck any more. Open slather.
They’re relying on their propaganda to keep enough people in the dark about the pollution… that means no signage even when waterways are too polluted to swim in.
It’s not just dirty dairying though… today, NZ apparently launched a post-oil spill tourism drive for the Bay of Plenty, just a week after yet more oil spilled from the Rena and the first lot of oil is still not cleaned up from Motiti Island and other sites not required for toursim.
New reports of oil coming ashore on Motuhoa Island in the Western Bay of Plenty have been completely ignored by the MSM… because they have been ordered not to damage tourism. Instead they’re willing to put peoples live in danger, which completely sux!
What a smarmy git (as usual):
(from http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6136995/New-Government-sworn-in (why can’t I make this open in a _blank?))
I’m glad that you can be so flippant about things like this, John.
Pretty easy bypass of that one by Key.
Its the media giving Key the bypass, instead of nailing his ass to the flag pole.
Has anyone got a screen-grab of this trade-me auction?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6137905/PMs-house-for-sale-in-bogus-ad
+1 That made me smile. Thanks
the thing is that when Labour goes to the polls it is 3 to 1 when you factor in the teevy and the radio.
Labour only gets a go when the right has swung too far and needs to be brought back into line.
time to even things up with micropulse radio stations and a “proper’ discourse instead of the swingeing hectoring from geeks like mary wilson on rnz who thinks she can dictate the parties policy.
and she is not the only one.
this country has gone on the wonk and it is time to right the ship.
Vile hunting of whales meet wet bus ticket… http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1112/S00097/joint-statement-on-whaling-and-safety-at-sea.htm
All that’s missing is McCully wagging his finger and sighing.
Riots against US police and National Guard – Great Depression
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5PcJx46gpw&feature=related
This is truly fascinating. Only takes 3 generations for the rich pricks to forget hard learned lessons it seems.
Truly fascinating. And, of course poverty riots have already begun again in the UK (and other countries under ‘austerity measures’).
The Guardian’s reading the riots detail very clearly the relationship between poverty, police, race/class and riots. Of particular interest to me are the poverty maps and the data about the causes of the riots, from the rioters’ perspectives and how these conflict with the official narratives of causation.
I hope DS doesn’t give Foreign Affairs to David Cunliff. Give him finance, it’ll appeal to his ego and his abilities…
War on Iran has already begun. Act before it threatens all of us
Apparently the attack is a done deal, just waiting for it to actually happen. This bits interesting though and it’s probably got the West terrified:-
This is actually worse than just the 20% of oil shipped through the Straight of Hormuz because all of Iran’s oil will probably be shipped to China to pay for the weapons it needs to defend itself. So that will be even more oil taken from the global economy.
Russia and China are also allies of Iran so if the US,UK and Israel attack it’s got the potential to expand from a local conflict (which would be bad enough) into a global conflict.
Didn’t Obama get a Nobel Peace Prize???
Aspirational, that was. /sarc
so has kweewee resigned yet.
has the country woken up to the fact that a cruel joke has been played on them.
never mind Obama.
cut to the chase.