I think John Banks will be more of a liability for the government than a gain. He was never that effective as an MP in the past, and look how he fluffed his lines when critically questioned by John Campbell.
The Maori Party are on the way down. They’ve let down many of their flax-roots supporters, and lost an MP to Labour…. along with the MP already lost to Mana.
I hope the Greens keep their distance from National. National are the kiss of death for smaller parties that align with them.
The opposition parties have some strong talent and I expect some spirited opposition to National this term. There’s a lot to build on there.
I have also been a bit circumspect all along about the election outcome, because I have wondered if winning this election will be a poisoned chalice. It’s going to be a very bumpy ride globally.
The left have grown in many ways in the clarity of their way forward. More work is needed on this. But I think the time is right for continually building on a left platform, with the ideas, energy and platform of the Occupy movement, and the collapsing of the neoliberal vision.
If Goff, King, Cunliffe, Parker etc stay in there, Labour are going to go nowhere over the next four years.
The Occupy movement is just a bunch of people who don’t want to work hard like everyone else – theres nothing to build on there if you want a good economy – they don’t want to contribute to one.
The Occupy Movement see what many ordinary people see. Large corporate owners and bankers make all the real money, transferring it from communities to small groups of shareholders, and paying workers as little as they can possibly get away with.
Why bother working if its uneconomic to. Minimum wage needs to be $15/hr or $16/hr to allow full time workers to lead decent, basic lives.
With the productivity that we’ve managed to build over the last couple of centuries everyone working hard just shows the failure of the socio-economic system we work under.
If the working class and the under class don’t come out and vote, this is the natural result. Parties pandering more and more to the liberal upper middle classes.
Off to Australia in a few hours to watch the cricket.
Not surprised that the Nats didn’t get to 50%, but disappointed that so much of the political detritus is back in parliament (Winston, Banks, Dunne). My biggest disappointment is in those who gave Winston their vote rather than going Labour or Green which has meant some excellent list MPs have missed out to the likes of Andrew Williams.
Greens ran the best campaign and I got the impression that Phil was badly let down by his campaign advisors and disloyalty and factional fighting behind the scenes. his speech last night was excellent.
Anyway back to normality everyone it’s only an election not the end of the world and the best news is we don’t have to see the politicians and the more importantly the political reporters as much as we have over the last few weeks.
People voted for Winston because they wanted an effective opposition. Labour over the last term has not really delivered, so Labourites voting NZFirst is justified on that basis.
That’s how I see it – Labour failed to be a proper opposition, and failed to inspire people to vote for them.
Their media strategy for their first two and a half years as the opposition sucked, and I’m convinced their election campaign could have been better. The whole “party vote [insert party name here]” worked for National this time, like it did for Labour previously.
I sincerely hope Phil Goff does not resign as leader. He’s just started getting traction and Labour need someone that people recognise, at least for the next year. As an opposition, they need to really oppose National, this time.
Another reason to have someone recognisable leading the party is that National will have a hell of a time governing, due to their razor-thin majority. They have quite a number of new MPs, and John Key’s laissez faire management style will not cope with the baggage these MPs bring. National’s policies are not that well accepted, which is why they are not keen to disccus them, or they are aspirational.
National will come under heavy pressure from NZ First and Winston Peters; without Labour having someone recognisable matching Winston’s rhetoric Labour risk not being seen as the major opposition party.
The main message I get from the election is not that National won a huge victory, but that they won by devouring the other right wing parties, and their support parties. ACT are dead (does anyone else think Brash and Banks look and sound like zombies, repeating the same tired crap over and over?), the MP are dying (especially with their two leaders intending to not stand in 2014), so a shift in the sentiment of the country towards the left leaves National lonely and out of government at the next election.
Finally, I would not be surprised to see an election before 2014.
Though I’m divided on whether Goff should stay as leader. He may be just a little too pleasant. Labour could benefit from someone with a bit of a sharper line in taking the attacks and Labour agenda to the public (inevitably via the media).
I’m hoping that as a result of the tea tape saga the media will stop being so sycophantic towards Key this term. He has feet of very clay for those who care to look, and he doesn’t react well to anything less than adulation. More searching questions from the media would see more snippiness and even hissy fits from Key, which would hopefully change some peoples’ views of him.
John Key has not been questioned hard by journalists here in NZ. I refer readers to the BBC Hardtalk interview some time back. Search YouTube under John Key and Hardtalk to see what I mean.
Unbelievable – 3065 votes for Parker in Epsom appear to be the difference between ecstasy for Phil Goff and Labour and now near oblivion (unless those votes came from National Party voters who didn’t want to listen to headquarters …) and ensure a John Key led government.
What? On the night Banks was less than 3000 up.
The people who voted Labour had no idea what Goldsmith or Banks would get.
What they did know, as they went into the booth, was that a vote for Parker was a waste. A vote for Goldsmith was the only way they could stop Banks. And they BLEW the opportunity (assuming they were Labour Party List voters and you cannot imagine anyone else voting Parker).
Yeah you have to wonder at why Labour voters gave Parker their vote when he was never going to win the seat. But then it’s only one seat, and Labour would not be in government with only 27% of the vote.
The left lost this battle, but not the war. There’s a significant new left narrative building.
A good thing is that there’s no neo-liberal Act MPs in parliament this term. Banks is a Nat in Act clothing. Key/National no longer has an Act arty running cover for the more extreme policies they want to bring in.
Brash will no doubt resign. Can Act continue with a leader (Isaacs?) outside parliament ?
I am interested in the left wing line-up:
Labour – 12 list MPS:
Labour List:
1. Phil Goff – Electorate
2. Annette King – Electorate
3. David Cunliffe- Electorate
4. David Parker
5. Ruth Dyson- Electorate
6. Parekura Horomia- Electorate
7. Maryan Street
8. Clayton Cosgrove
9. Trevor Mallard- Electorate
10. Sue Moroney
11. Charles Chauvel
12. Nanaia Mahuta- Electorate
13. Jacinda Ardern
14. Grant Robertson
15. Andrew Little
16. Shane Jones
17. Su’a William Sio- Electorate
18. Darien Fenton
19. Moana Mackey
20. Rajen Prasad -12th wo/man
_______
21. Raymond Huo
22. Carol Beaumont
23. Kelvin Davis
24. Carmel Sepuloni
Green Party List (13 MPs)
1 Metiria Turei
2 Russel Norman
3 Kevin Hague
4 Catherine Delahunty
5 Kennedy Graham
6 Eugenie Sage
7 Gareth Hughes
8 David Clendon
9 Jan Logie
10 Steffan Browning
11 Denise Roche
12 Holly Walker
Late last night, before I hit the hay I was thinking ‘where could I get hold of the NZI list?’.
The sight of the Labour list infuriates me. It highlights one of the main reasons for Labour’s thrashing, and at the same time, makes it so damn hard to significantly change the situation.
But strangely, today feels to me like new year’s morning. In the long run this may be an opportunity and not a curse. National will not be returned in ’14 and neither would a left wing coalition. The government doesn’t have the unbridled power it might have had.
The left has a lot of work to do. We’ve barely found our voices yet.
Carol, there is a serious error with your so called list of “left-wing line up”, firstly as Grant Robertson has won his electorate, so he doesn’t need a list, thereby Rajen Prasad is the 11th person on the list not 12th and Raymond Huo then “jumps up” a place to no. 12th
I don’t think there were any of those. However, those who thought National would win comfortably – and there were many of those – are surely now suffering from bouts of facial egginess.
It became quite evident in this last week of polling when Labour’s vote stayed stubbornly under 30% that they only way they’d win is if both UF and ACT lost their electorates. That’s two big “ifs” that simply failed.
I think the worst outcome here is that ACT got back in with 1 seat. It seems that after specials we’re likely to have 59 National and 14 Green, with a majority requiring 61. If ACT hadn’t got back in, that would be UF + Maori Party required for National to govern, and they could’ve extracted large concessions. But now it’s UF + ACT to get to 61, or ACT + MP or MP + UF so UF and MP will both have less in the way of bargaining power.
An interesting situation. National have either two or three majority options depending on whether they stay with 60 seats or drop back to 59 after specials are counted. Election summary.
National should be able to get a majority with the the Maori Party regardless.
If they stay on 60 seats they could also get a majority with either Act or United Future.
If the drop to 59 they would only have a majority with Banks and Dunne combined.
Well we know Turia would like to go with National again, but the MP are still saying that they have yet to decide whether to support National. Newstalk ZB says that the South Island Maori electorate that went to Labour may be sending the MP a message of dissatisfaction over the relstionship with National.
But curiously Sharples blames Harawira, as if Harawira’s behaviour was not the result of his dissatifaction at cosying up to National. Sharples says the party has been damaged by Hone Harawira and the Mana Party.
There is the basis for some instability in National’s coalition.
As I drove home from my work christmas party last night, they were interviewing Sharples on the radio.
He said two interesting things:
1. They had had a caucus meeting and had decided they would talk to “the party with the most votes first” and “other after that”. He was told at that point that TTTonga was leaning Labour and said it was unfortunate; so his thinking may have changed based on that fact now.
2. He blamed Hone and Mana for having a fight in public, which just seems incredible to me. Mana, on two occasions, tried to get an alliance with the MP and it was the MP in their pride who refused.
He was confusing percentage of vote with actual votes – not sure if it was accidental or deliberate.
Turnout was appalling at about 68%.
Anyone have any thoughts on whether Carmel Sepuloni can overturn Bennett’s lead of 349 on specials?
Just did a 2008, 2011 comparison on party vote. allocation special according to party vote
The vote also, with specials was only 85% of the 2008
Change in % term
National Party 1.38%
Labour Party -31.96%
Green Party 33.32%
NZ1 37.07%
Māori Party -86.65%
ACT New Zealand -257.62%
Mana
United Future -51.14%
Conservative Party
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party 10.40%
Democrats for Social Credit 24.17%
Libertarianz 24.90%
Alliance -1694.00%
Notable,
the Nats didnt do much better at 1.38%
Did best
greens, 33% NZ1 37%
Badly
Labour, -32%, Maori -86%, Act -257% UF -51%
It would make a big difference to Sepuloni, she’s out of parliament if she doesn’t win the seat. Also toppling a Cabinet Minister is always provides a boost for The Opposition even under MMP.
No, not in any way, shape, or form. The nature of our democracy gives voters the right to vote how ever they choose, irrespective of the benefits or costs, and in no way should tribalistic bullshit like “loathsome” ever come into play.
Then again, you do like colonising uteruses that don’t belong to you…
Then again, you do like colonising uteruses that don’t belong to you…
WTF? I see that your brain-fart is meant for me, and so I can’t understand what your ‘colonising uteruses’ remark means! In case you haven’t noticed, I am a woman. I have an uterus, and you don’t. So what on earth do you mean?
The Greens are going with National. Russell just said so on TV1. Hence the loathsome remark.
I knew what you meant, you sad little man, and was pretending not to. All I can say to you is, “you no playa da game, you no make-a the rules”. (You are homosexual, aren’t you?) You certainly have a very male gay line of spite and abuse against women.
I have never colonised any other woman’s uterus and obviously never will. I am entitled to express my opinion about feeling betrayed by the Greens without your bringing in your sexual issues – can you just not help yourself? Is absolutely everything about bumping genitals together for you? The stunning irrelevance of your vicious pro-abortion attack on me, should be plain to everyone.
Some interesting commentary from a feminist and GLBT point of view…. though showing that we now have a pretty reactionary government on social issues as well as on socio-economic/income-wealth (in)equality issues.
Saying that there is not a majority for abortion law reform in parliament now, partly due to the rise in NZ First.
The good news for the furture though, is that national gained the vote of only 35% of the electorate – the non-voters seem to have hurt the left. And I see Don Brash has resigned, with some tipping Banks to be the new Act leader….such a far cry from RogerD!
But Maia does point to the fact that democracy is not just about parliamentary elections but about the galvanising of widespread grass-roots movements are important. I agree and am optimistic about the future for a rising new direction and movement from an inclusive left.
Meanwhile, Grant Robertson says, with the new government, future is bleak for GLBT issues, while there are also some reasons to be cheerful about the new intake of MPs:
On a brighter note Robertson welcomes the Greens’ new lesbian MP Jan Logie into Parliament. “She’s terriffic,” Robertson says. “She’ll be a great addition to Parliament.”
I’m not a Labour voter, nor I am tied forever to any party. I’m more interested in how the left parties’ numbers stack up between them. That is the way it is with MMP.
Hmm I’m already reading that if the voters were rational labour would have won by a landslide etc etc etc. No they wouldn’t. Even in 2002 it is quite amazing how little the left or right blocs actually move. Doesn’t take much for one or the other to tip over the line. Also I find most voters incredibly rational.
Labour ran a very good campaign, Goff exceeded expectations. Their policies were sane, bold and for the very large part well-liked. By contrast Key looked worse and worse as the campaign wore on… can you imagine the media furore if Helen Clark had done anything like the tea-pot tape stupidity? Key only survived that because he was protected, sure he got a bit of stick… but just enough to look realistic without doing any real damage. Compare and contrast with Corngate.
Yet despite that the centre-left block and the centre-right block are actually very close. National, Conservative and ACT who are the only real right wing parties really only total just a little more than 50% or so of all votes cast, while the balance is with left wing parties all of whom could … with just a few more MP’s… quite satisfactorily form a stable govt. While Labour has been treated very badly by the electorate, the left as a whole is still within close striking distance of forming a government.
It would for instance only take a couple of by-elections to go against the govt to change things considerably. Nor can anyone take any comfort in the very low turnout.
The simple fact is that the coporate media have for much of the last decade sedulously laid the emotional narrative for a corporate-friendly National govt, and at this stage of the electoral cycle it was always going to be a huge ask for the left to get up to a win. Absent those two factors and plausibly Labour should have done far better… but media propaganda is all about emotion and there is no rule in democracy that says people will vote for what is good or decent; or even in their own rational best interests.
Are you seriously saying the media didn’t make a meal out of the tapes?
Yep, they made a meal out of the existence of the tapes. Didn’t release them though did they? That would, according to the MSM themselves, have changed peoples voting patterns.
The moment of the night for me was Amanda Gillies outside Key’s house giggling and holding up a giant strawberry that Key had sent out to the media.
The media so enamoured of Key that they can get all excited over the gift of a large strawberry – symbolic of the way the MSM have been dazzled by Brand Key.
That the Keys and the Joyces were inside their multi-million dollar house congratulating themselves at being predestined to riches, while drinking wine and strawberries.
That people in the same country are living several families to a house, no hope of a job any time soon, rising prices and lowering wages, expensive health care for third world diseases, generational capital about to be sold to overseas bandits, their sovereignty about to be negotiated away under the guise of free trade.
They certainly wouldn’t have been eating giant strawberries last night!
The new parliament will consist mostly of dead wood that has consistently failed to deliver sustainability over many years (in some cases decades), plus a few new uninformed and deluded fools who think present economic-political (and environmental) arrangements have a future.
Needless to say, the vast majority of MPs are scientifically and financially illiterate and haven’t got a clue about any of the fundamentals, while political parties continue to pay lip service to sustainability issues.
we will witness a continuing reduction the standard of living and the quality of life over the next three years. The only consolation for NZers will be that it will be worse in other places around the world.
Just how long the bankers’ international Ponzi scheme will hold together now that the resources necessary for economic growth are no longer available is still open to debate. Most informed analysts say less than a year.
Until it all crashes in a ‘smoldering heap’ we will have to endure the best government corporations and money-lenders could buy.
The governments will continue to try and prop it up at the expense of the poor for awhile so it’ll stagger along for another couple of years yet IMO. At some point robbing the poor to pay the rich will stop working though and the system will collapse – possibly violently (it’ll certainly be violent in places around the world).
Until then we will see massive resource* and demand** induced inflation, rising unemployment and the lower wages that come with it and the rich getting richer and more extravagant with that wealth.
* Limited resources leads to increased prices
** Lower wages leading to less demand so as to push fixed costs onto less sales and thus increasing the price of each sale
This government, unfortunately, will be stable. It will be National, Act and United Future so everything will pass without any real debate. I doubt if National will bring in the Maori Party this time even if the MP want to join (which they probably do).
Should we be asking who is the Marilyn Waring of the Nats?
The Nats have something of a track record of treating the more independent females and small “c” conservatives badly. Think Rich, Te Heuheu? Some of the Nats from the country areas probably arn’t that hot on foreign corporates as all they will see is them buying farms – reducing the Nat voting base in their area. Time for some of them to band together against the corporate agenda?
Is Katrina Shanks back in? She has nothing to lose as she is on the Nat outer already. The centrist Nats should be holding out for some real concessions here particularly if they hold an electorate seat and want to be returned in 2014.
Should we be asking who is the Marilyn Waring of the Nats?
Red Baron
Excellent question Red.
Marilyn Waring and Mike Minogue were the two National MPs who were prepared to vote against the government over nuclear ship visits.
This robbed Robert Muldoon’s National Government of their majority.
Of course Minogue and Waring’s actions didn’t occur in a vacuum, but against a background of mass protests and even a general strike in Wellington.
(The strikes were so encompassing, it was said that on the last ever nuclear ship visit that the American Ambassador couldn’t even get his own staff to make him a cup of tea)
These huge mass actions were organised by a wide coalition of grass roots activists on the left including notably the Labour Party, the Values Party, the Anti Nuclear Peace Movement, (at that time nominally led by Nicky Hager) Various trade unions and splinter left groups.
The wider expression of your question Red, – is could such a broad coalition against National’s policies rise again?
In my opinion, Yes.
Could such a Movement shift the voting direction of even just a couple of the more liberal MPs inside John Key’s National Government?
Maybe.
What could be the issues that such a coalition would form around?
The most obvious one is National’s declared intention to wage war on the poor.
The first front in this war is breaking out already.
The National Government intend to evict state tenants in Glen Innes to sell their properties to developers is meeting increased resistance from the tenants and their immediate support groups.
Will the left step up to the plate?
The first public meeting to organise against the evictions is being held in Glen Innes Catholic Church Hall (behind Pack and Save) this Wednesday at 6pm.
The state of the country’s politics tells me a great deal about this nation’s entrenchment in it’s colonial roots of arrogance, racism and smug, self-satisfaction which still pervade the pakeha electorate. For a nation that was first to give women the vote and takes a vehement anti-nuclear stance (unless of course Key’s abhorrent kowtowing to the US puts even this at risk), the stench of self-absorbed smugness leaves me cold.
Whats with all those communication satellites on it?
We’ve never had a chinese warship in our waters before, much less berthed at Auckland. At least the election was a nice little distraction to stop the questions being asked.
I thought there would be a little bit more swing to the left than there was but Labour’s poor showing is an issue mainly for Labour supporters rather than all the left – though a strong Labour party would be useful.
The problem I still see with Labour is that despite a campaign of being back to their roots they still aren’t.
To attract the swing voters they need to offer them something other than rhetoric and a focus purely on the poor.
Lower taxes appeal to people because they don’t have to do anything to get them – on the other hand WFF means you have to apply, you effectively have compounding marginal tax rates as people earn more and and do overtime, you can end up with a debt, you have to provide personal financial information to the state – and who wants to do that? – and if you dislike beneficiaries you have to in effect become one.
A higher tax rate with Universal Family Benefit which everyone with children gets was a much simpler and inclusive policy in Labour’s history. It’s one older voters also understand. It appeals to an innate sense of fairness – the population is not being divided into those who can get it and those who can’t. It’s simple.
Also the sense of fairness extends to ensuring that people who are dishonest in relation to the benefit system are caught and found. National take a clearly more punitive approach to dealing with this aspect while Labour seems quite accepting of the position and loath to criticise those who do rip it off. In many respects their silence on this issue becomes in the heads of many people I know assent or laziness.
Somehow they need to resonate with the public that those who need it get it and do so in an empathic and caring way – but it’s not OK to get it if you do not need it and that you too will be caught.
Simply saying that under Labour benefit numbers went down simply doesn’t cut it.
I suspect Labour’s predecessors knew much more about how people perceive things than the current lot, hence overall a sense of fairness and equality in such policies – but this lot is still hungover from the neo-lib experiments that the Labour party carried out.
I do think Goff did run a good campaign – ultimately it’s still the policies that people don’t quite get – KISS principle is often useful.
Yes, as their defining issue, I think they should have focused more on income inequality and the less well-off struggling to survive. People understand logically that asset sales are not a good iea. But economic struggles reach them much more where they live.
But economic struggles reach them much more where they live.
Well, as power prices go up and the CEOs of those power companies also goes up they’re going to be quite well aware of just how badly selling assets makes struggling to survive even harder.
Power price rises are a hard one to argue when prices have risen so much in recent years. Many people have taken the attitude that their power has gone up so much anyway, including under Labour, that it can’t be any worse.
What’s the bet we see some lower prices or prices remaining the same through to the the next election – propped up by the power companies getting into debt, not investing in infrastructure, and selling off assets.
This will be hailed as how private enterprise is better – all the while we will be waiting for collapse further down the line.
I’m picking remote rural will be hit first with delays in getting lines back up after storms.
It’s time for frogblog to able their site now the election is over. Someone switching the site over will keep up the onto-it sharp and bright approach that is the perception which has built its votes.
When are we going to have RadioNZ National hosts who are going to be impartial?
Take Ryan and Mora.
“What about the spectre of Peters?”
“How can we deal with the problem of Peters?”
“One of the problems with MMP is it throws up Peters.”
What is it with these self-appointed-smug-I’m-alright-comfortably-well-off-guardians-of-public-opinion-and-balanced-information?
Love him or hate him, one hell of a lot more people believe Peters should be in Wellington rather than ACT yet you can bet that they will get more than their fair share of airtime on.
Its not only Radio Logi .The two TV channels are completly biased as is the press. In fact in over 60 years of political activity I have never know such bias from the media . . National has completly dominated the popular press and TV . Its really quite scary, what is the answer? The money spent by National on the campaign must have been huge.Where and from where did this ton off money come from. Come on you young boffin types out there get on your computers ect, and delve into the Nats treasure chest.
Campbell said late last night that something like 80% of NZers are against asset sales. Is it time now to take that issue to the streets? If there really are that many people against them, should we be marching as well as lobbying and politicing? I’d like to see what National would do re-privatisation if there were lots of very visible public protests against them.
Someone made the point on TS yesterday that there is a lot of land alongside rivers that will be privatised when the electricity gets sold off. That information needs to be put out there, quite specifically about which land and which rivers. The government about to sell off our river access is likely to get more people to protest.
Summary: Details emerge suggesting that the career of Strauss-Kahn (head of the IMF, candidate for the Presidency of France) was destroyed by a “honey pot” operation. It’s how conflicts are conducted in our century, as gaining the moral high ground becomes more useful than firepower and attrition.
It would be premature and to the detriment of the Maori Party (Mp) were they to even consider a confidence and a supply agreement with National until all the results of the election are final.
Seeing Key sweat for a month will allow more generous concessions for the Mp.
“Late last night, Greens co-leader Metiria Turei said an extended memorandum of understanding with National remained ”the most likely” form of a deal.”
Sorry guys, but if the Greens go with this I will not (in good conscience) ever feel like I will be able to recommend supporting them to those in my circles.
Just saying.
Don’t you think it is about time we dropped the FPP mentality? Perhaps the pundits in the media will then have to spend some time examining issues instead of interviewing their keyboards and cameras.
If the Greens can manage to get some of their manifesto implemented, it will mean that the Nats and Greens are in agreement, and probably a good number of other MPs. The Greens will have been true to their constituency and gone someway to achieving their manifesto.
That is what MMP has delivered. One day we will grow up as a nation and eventually have a consensus on most social issues.
Doesn’t the memorandum of understanding mean they WILL abstain on voting against the government on confidence and supply? The government doesn’t have a big majority. The Greens should reserve the right to vote against them on C&S.
It probably didn’t mean much last term when the Act, UF & MP had significant numbers voting for the government on C&S.
By being prepared to provide support to National in order to get some of their own agenda through they will end up validating National’s party line even if they don’t support particular odious policies.
It isn’t about the “FPP mentality” – it is about the fact that this term National is pushing some nasty shit and if the Greens hop in to bed with them, who will there be to rally around? Hone? Goff?
Indeed. I did consider voting Labour this time, but felt they still are too far to the right & have stuff to work out. I considered Mana, but needed to see how they operate this term. Anyway my vote for Mana wouldn’t have helped, and Greens held the possibility of forming a Labour-led coalition if the numebrs stacked up.
We are, fundamentally, philosophically, the opposition in Parliament. We are the radicals and the revolutionaries, and this is true whatever we wear. Radical and revolutionary is what the world needs and what a good proportion of the voting public want.
[…]
But for all the strengths and wins of the 2011 campaign, it also failed, irrespective of the size of the resulting vote. Because it did not give real profile to the difference in Green values, or confront the need for a change in values.
But I’m uncertain about what she means with these bits:
However, whilst reaching out to these people, it is just as important to explain why the Green Party has not shifted from its base, and must not, in its eagerness to be popular and polite.
The Green Party is Values’ child. But it was the missing narrative that bound together Values’ people as well as its policy: its radicalism, including a dabble in anarchy, a strong drive towards socialism that threatened to split the party, environmentalism, ecological economics.
Is she saying the socialism was a wrong move for Values, or something that the greens should also maintain?
Im feeling a bit twitchy at the way the Greens are cuddling up to National . If they move in it would be one of the most traitorous act in NZ political history They surely must have learnt from the Maori Parties demise what will happen if they support National. Trouble is power does strange things to people .I hope I
Im getting a bit twitchy with the Greens, Surely they are not going to do a deal with the Nats.? It would be the most traitorous political act in NZ political history. They should note whar has happened to the Maori Party because of their love affair with National.
It has been pretty obvious in the last few weeks that the Greens wanted to cosy up to National, up to and including Russel Norman kowtowing to Key over the hoardings sticker incident.
Sorry guys, but if the Greens go with this I will not (in good conscience) ever feel like I will be able to recommend supporting them to those in my circles.
Despite that I have some good friends amongst the Greens, good decent people, I cannot contain my loathing for the Green party. It’s not unconnected to my loathing of Greenpeace – wealthy media-whores to a man (and the occasional woman.) My son was frontlined into supporting Greenpeace with his hard-earned and then thought again, as he kept being phoned about parting with more and more money for this and that new ‘campaign’ especially as many of their arguments seemed pretty thin!
Over the past number of years our ancesters fought ,died , and suffered so as to enable every one to vote in a democratic way. The vote turn out
vote was 65% . Thats why the Nats won. Where were the lazy bastards where were the low wage workers ,the unemployed and the disadvantaged.
Im disgusted and they deserve everything they get.I hope those lazy sloppy useless slobs sufffer ,The trouble is the good decent worker who troubled to vote also suffers. They remind me of those other bludgers who take union advantages but do not want to join. Lets hope they all go to Aussie .
An informative piece on USAs Electoral College system and how it badly skews the voting pattern though originally brought in with good intentions for fairness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k
The tyranny of the simple majority operates very much in the USA – whoever wins it in a state gets all the electoral college advantage, not each candidate proportional to their vote.
Also on Chris Laidlaw this a.m. an illuminating interview on Sarah Palin, the whys answered. One should be so wise before taking on such a flawed personality.
10:06 Geoffrey Dunn – Sarah Palin’s Push for Power
Geoffrey Dunn discusses what he calls the lies of Sarah Palin – revealing the queen of the Tea Party movement as vengeful and manipulative. He charts her dysfunctional childhood, her failed governorship of Alaska and the betrayal of her presidential running mate, John McCain. Geoffrey tells Chris there’s only a tiny chance that Palin will run for president next year, but says never rule her out.
Geoffrey Dunn’s book, The Lies of Sarah Palin: The untold story behind her relentless quest for power, is published by Scribe.
mainstreamed into a serious party more likely…a mature long term pagmatic approach.
They have the greenie identifier locked in now they are expanding to capture disenfranchised voters in the centre, left or centre right that have a green leaning. Shoot they have evolved into a mature stable party that has meaningful economic policy.
My instinct was that the Greens couldnt be trusted and I was right. Am very glad I didnt vote for them as I would be furious right now. It will be their undoing.
Shabbily, giving cabinet posts to Peters and Dunne was an insult and maybe now the chickens are coming home to roost (well probably not but at least now labour know in future they’ll have to woo the greens)
Oh you mean in 2005? When the Greens didn’t have enough seats to form a govt with Labour? And the two parties who did have seats to offer specifically ruled out working with the Greens?
So you reckon Labour should’ve gone into opposition and given the Greens some pretend cabinet posts, eh?
The Greens have been hawking that canard for years, that Labour had some sort of choice and deliberately kept them out. Anyone who can add can see the lie there.
Intersting how many Green electorate votes there were in Epsom!
Accounting for non voter’s, only 35.4% of eligible voters went for National. Many of these gave the Natz their votes even though they don’t agree with asset sales.
However Joyce thinks this is a mandate to sell disregarding the fact that most government’s are not single term. National does not have a mandate to privatize… it’s as simple as that.
National will lose the 2014 election on their plans to privatize with as much as 85% of the population against it.
Who was that guy Pete George who appeared to be using this blog as a platform for his own ends.?
Now that the ballot has closed and the dust virtually settled, perhaps he will disappear and allow reasonable discourse to resume in these columns. I guess we won’t know till we open up “OpenMike” in the morning to see whether he is still trying to be first poster. Obviously not many of his beloved UF followers read these pages (or maybe they followed him here and saw each and every one of his arguments put in their place …) Dunne holds on just. What a joke.
The worms will live in every hostIt's hard to pick which one they eat the mostThe horrible people, the horrible peopleIt's as anatomic as the size of your steepleCapitalism has made it this wayOld-fashioned fascism will take it awaySongwriter: Twiggy Ramirez Read more ...
Hi,It’s almost Christmas Day which means it is almost my birthday, where you will find me whimpering in the corner clutching a warm bottle of Baileys.If you’re out of ideas for presents (and truly desperate) then it is possible to gift a full Webworm subscription to a friend (or enemy) ...
This morning’s six standouts for me at 6.30am include:Rachel Helyer Donaldson’s scoop via RNZ last night of cuts to maternity jobs in the health system;Maddy Croad’s scoop via The Press-$ this morning on funding cuts for Christchurch’s biggest food rescue charity;Benedict Collins’ scoop last night via 1News on a last-minute ...
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Kiwis planning a swim or heading out on a boat this summer should remember to stop and think about water safety, Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop and ACC and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “New Zealand’s beaches, lakes and rivers are some of the most beautiful in the ...
The Government is urging Kiwis to drive safely this summer and reminding motorists that Police will be out in force to enforce the road rules, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“This time of year can be stressful and result in poor decision-making on our roads. Whether you are travelling to see ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
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I think John Banks will be more of a liability for the government than a gain. He was never that effective as an MP in the past, and look how he fluffed his lines when critically questioned by John Campbell.
The Maori Party are on the way down. They’ve let down many of their flax-roots supporters, and lost an MP to Labour…. along with the MP already lost to Mana.
I hope the Greens keep their distance from National. National are the kiss of death for smaller parties that align with them.
The opposition parties have some strong talent and I expect some spirited opposition to National this term. There’s a lot to build on there.
I have also been a bit circumspect all along about the election outcome, because I have wondered if winning this election will be a poisoned chalice. It’s going to be a very bumpy ride globally.
The left have grown in many ways in the clarity of their way forward. More work is needed on this. But I think the time is right for continually building on a left platform, with the ideas, energy and platform of the Occupy movement, and the collapsing of the neoliberal vision.
If Goff, King, Cunliffe, Parker etc stay in there, Labour are going to go nowhere over the next four years.
The Occupy movement is just a bunch of people who don’t want to work hard like everyone else – theres nothing to build on there if you want a good economy – they don’t want to contribute to one.
The Occupy Movement see what many ordinary people see. Large corporate owners and bankers make all the real money, transferring it from communities to small groups of shareholders, and paying workers as little as they can possibly get away with.
Why bother working if its uneconomic to. Minimum wage needs to be $15/hr or $16/hr to allow full time workers to lead decent, basic lives.
So your philosophy in life Sean, one that appears to be shared by the ignorant half of the populace, boils down to:
I work hard, I’m doing OK.
If only everyone would work hard we would all be OK,
because then we would have a good economy.
Even if working hard is a necessary condition, and that’s debatable, it is hardly sufficient.
With the productivity that we’ve managed to build over the last couple of centuries everyone working hard just shows the failure of the socio-economic system we work under.
Agreed Draco.
“Working hard” is a euphemism for “working long hours for low pay”.
They have aready said they won’t… http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6043958/Greens-consider-new-deal-with-National
That’s just what I was afraid of…
Well, they are not doing it yet, though it doesn’t look good. But they need to take such considerations back to their membership.
National is only arranging to talk to Act, UF & the MP so far:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6042265/Key-to-hold-confidence-and-supply-talks
The MP are set to sell out big time on asset sales.
If the working class and the under class don’t come out and vote, this is the natural result. Parties pandering more and more to the liberal upper middle classes.
Off to Australia in a few hours to watch the cricket.
Not surprised that the Nats didn’t get to 50%, but disappointed that so much of the political detritus is back in parliament (Winston, Banks, Dunne). My biggest disappointment is in those who gave Winston their vote rather than going Labour or Green which has meant some excellent list MPs have missed out to the likes of Andrew Williams.
Greens ran the best campaign and I got the impression that Phil was badly let down by his campaign advisors and disloyalty and factional fighting behind the scenes. his speech last night was excellent.
Anyway back to normality everyone it’s only an election not the end of the world and the best news is we don’t have to see the politicians and the more importantly the political reporters as much as we have over the last few weeks.
Did u win your cricket yesterday?
Hope our top order perform for u snd it’s not a 3 day test
People voted for Winston because they wanted an effective opposition. Labour over the last term has not really delivered, so Labourites voting NZFirst is justified on that basis.
That’s how I see it – Labour failed to be a proper opposition, and failed to inspire people to vote for them.
Their media strategy for their first two and a half years as the opposition sucked, and I’m convinced their election campaign could have been better. The whole “party vote [insert party name here]” worked for National this time, like it did for Labour previously.
I sincerely hope Phil Goff does not resign as leader. He’s just started getting traction and Labour need someone that people recognise, at least for the next year. As an opposition, they need to really oppose National, this time.
Another reason to have someone recognisable leading the party is that National will have a hell of a time governing, due to their razor-thin majority. They have quite a number of new MPs, and John Key’s laissez faire management style will not cope with the baggage these MPs bring. National’s policies are not that well accepted, which is why they are not keen to disccus them, or they are aspirational.
National will come under heavy pressure from NZ First and Winston Peters; without Labour having someone recognisable matching Winston’s rhetoric Labour risk not being seen as the major opposition party.
The main message I get from the election is not that National won a huge victory, but that they won by devouring the other right wing parties, and their support parties. ACT are dead (does anyone else think Brash and Banks look and sound like zombies, repeating the same tired crap over and over?), the MP are dying (especially with their two leaders intending to not stand in 2014), so a shift in the sentiment of the country towards the left leaves National lonely and out of government at the next election.
Finally, I would not be surprised to see an election before 2014.
+1
Though I’m divided on whether Goff should stay as leader. He may be just a little too pleasant. Labour could benefit from someone with a bit of a sharper line in taking the attacks and Labour agenda to the public (inevitably via the media).
I’m hoping that as a result of the tea tape saga the media will stop being so sycophantic towards Key this term. He has feet of very clay for those who care to look, and he doesn’t react well to anything less than adulation. More searching questions from the media would see more snippiness and even hissy fits from Key, which would hopefully change some peoples’ views of him.
I hope the tea tapes are released. Disappointed at the cowardice of the msm.
It wasn’t cowardice that prevented them releasing the tapes but the simple fact that they did as they were told.
John Key has not been questioned hard by journalists here in NZ. I refer readers to the BBC Hardtalk interview some time back. Search YouTube under John Key and Hardtalk to see what I mean.
Commiserations.
Unbelievable – 3065 votes for Parker in Epsom appear to be the difference between ecstasy for Phil Goff and Labour and now near oblivion (unless those votes came from National Party voters who didn’t want to listen to headquarters …) and ensure a John Key led government.
No doubt there were National supporters who voted for Goldsmith, so I guess it all balances out in the end.
What? On the night Banks was less than 3000 up.
The people who voted Labour had no idea what Goldsmith or Banks would get.
What they did know, as they went into the booth, was that a vote for Parker was a waste. A vote for Goldsmith was the only way they could stop Banks. And they BLEW the opportunity (assuming they were Labour Party List voters and you cannot imagine anyone else voting Parker).
Yeah you have to wonder at why Labour voters gave Parker their vote when he was never going to win the seat. But then it’s only one seat, and Labour would not be in government with only 27% of the vote.
With Banks not there, it meant they would be dependent entirely on Dunne and that would have been a considerably different scenario.
The left lost this battle, but not the war. There’s a significant new left narrative building.
A good thing is that there’s no neo-liberal Act MPs in parliament this term. Banks is a Nat in Act clothing. Key/National no longer has an Act arty running cover for the more extreme policies they want to bring in.
Brash will no doubt resign. Can Act continue with a leader (Isaacs?) outside parliament ?
I am interested in the left wing line-up:
Labour – 12 list MPS:
Labour List:
1. Phil Goff – Electorate
2. Annette King – Electorate
3. David Cunliffe- Electorate
4. David Parker
5. Ruth Dyson- Electorate
6. Parekura Horomia- Electorate
7. Maryan Street
8. Clayton Cosgrove
9. Trevor Mallard- Electorate
10. Sue Moroney
11. Charles Chauvel
12. Nanaia Mahuta- Electorate
13. Jacinda Ardern
14. Grant Robertson
15. Andrew Little
16. Shane Jones
17. Su’a William Sio- Electorate
18. Darien Fenton
19. Moana Mackey
20. Rajen Prasad -12th wo/man
_______
21. Raymond Huo
22. Carol Beaumont
23. Kelvin Davis
24. Carmel Sepuloni
Green Party List (13 MPs)
1 Metiria Turei
2 Russel Norman
3 Kevin Hague
4 Catherine Delahunty
5 Kennedy Graham
6 Eugenie Sage
7 Gareth Hughes
8 David Clendon
9 Jan Logie
10 Steffan Browning
11 Denise Roche
12 Holly Walker
13 Julie Anne Genter
Ta for the lists Carol.
Late last night, before I hit the hay I was thinking ‘where could I get hold of the NZI list?’.
The sight of the Labour list infuriates me. It highlights one of the main reasons for Labour’s thrashing, and at the same time, makes it so damn hard to significantly change the situation.
But strangely, today feels to me like new year’s morning. In the long run this may be an opportunity and not a curse. National will not be returned in ’14 and neither would a left wing coalition. The government doesn’t have the unbridled power it might have had.
The left has a lot of work to do. We’ve barely found our voices yet.
Most likely that Banks will become the “leader”* of Act.
* He’ll do whatever the National Party tells him to but, then, so would Brash.
Carol, there is a serious error with your so called list of “left-wing line up”, firstly as Grant Robertson has won his electorate, so he doesn’t need a list, thereby Rajen Prasad is the 11th person on the list not 12th and Raymond Huo then “jumps up” a place to no. 12th
Waiting to see comments from all of the deniers who thought Labour would win comfortably
I don’t think there were any of those. However, those who thought National would win comfortably – and there were many of those – are surely now suffering from bouts of facial egginess.
“……thought Labour would win comfortably”.
Link?!
There’s a kick-arse search engine up there. Knock yourself out.
It became quite evident in this last week of polling when Labour’s vote stayed stubbornly under 30% that they only way they’d win is if both UF and ACT lost their electorates. That’s two big “ifs” that simply failed.
I think the worst outcome here is that ACT got back in with 1 seat. It seems that after specials we’re likely to have 59 National and 14 Green, with a majority requiring 61. If ACT hadn’t got back in, that would be UF + Maori Party required for National to govern, and they could’ve extracted large concessions. But now it’s UF + ACT to get to 61, or ACT + MP or MP + UF so UF and MP will both have less in the way of bargaining power.
Oh, and the NZ First List (Who?)
1PETERS, Winston
2 MARTIN, Tracey
3 WILLIAMS, Andrew
4 PROSSER, Richard
5 STEWART, Barbara
6 HORAN, Brendan
7 O’ROURKE, Denis
8 TAYLOR, Asenati
Good ol’ climate change denying Prosser.
An interesting situation. National have either two or three majority options depending on whether they stay with 60 seats or drop back to 59 after specials are counted. Election summary.
National should be able to get a majority with the the Maori Party regardless.
If they stay on 60 seats they could also get a majority with either Act or United Future.
If the drop to 59 they would only have a majority with Banks and Dunne combined.
Well we know Turia would like to go with National again, but the MP are still saying that they have yet to decide whether to support National. Newstalk ZB says that the South Island Maori electorate that went to Labour may be sending the MP a message of dissatisfaction over the relstionship with National.
http://tvnz.co.nz/election-2011/maori-party-not-ruling-national-coalition-4573756
But curiously Sharples blames Harawira, as if Harawira’s behaviour was not the result of his dissatifaction at cosying up to National.
Sharples says the party has been damaged by Hone Harawira and the Mana Party.
There is the basis for some instability in National’s coalition.
Carol,
There’d be even greater instability in any coalition that involved Winston First.
I see you’ve bought into Key’s scaremongering.
More likely, he is commenting on Winston’s track record in MMP coalitions…..
Winston should never have gone with National in 1996 to begin with. He resigned because National was promoting asset sales.
He never broke any other coalition government after that.
As I drove home from my work christmas party last night, they were interviewing Sharples on the radio.
He said two interesting things:
1. They had had a caucus meeting and had decided they would talk to “the party with the most votes first” and “other after that”. He was told at that point that TTTonga was leaning Labour and said it was unfortunate; so his thinking may have changed based on that fact now.
2. He blamed Hone and Mana for having a fight in public, which just seems incredible to me. Mana, on two occasions, tried to get an alliance with the MP and it was the MP in their pride who refused.
Just heard Key say they got more votes than in 2008 (or similar)
2008 – 1,053,398
2011 – 957,769
That is 100,000 less!!!!
That is before specials though.
He was confusing percentage of vote with actual votes – not sure if it was accidental or deliberate.
Turnout was appalling at about 68%.
Anyone have any thoughts on whether Carmel Sepuloni can overturn Bennett’s lead of 349 on specials?
Very possible in my opinion.
Yes, with specials – 230,000 and the 48% will give them a similar no of votes to 2008
Just did a 2008, 2011 comparison on party vote. allocation special according to party vote
The vote also, with specials was only 85% of the 2008
Change in % term
National Party 1.38%
Labour Party -31.96%
Green Party 33.32%
NZ1 37.07%
Māori Party -86.65%
ACT New Zealand -257.62%
Mana
United Future -51.14%
Conservative Party
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party 10.40%
Democrats for Social Credit 24.17%
Libertarianz 24.90%
Alliance -1694.00%
Notable,
the Nats didnt do much better at 1.38%
Did best
greens, 33% NZ1 37%
Badly
Labour, -32%, Maori -86%, Act -257% UF -51%
I don’t know but it won’t make any difference to the numbers. And Bennett is on the list so she will be in regardless.
It’ll make a difference to Sepuloni. Art the moment she doesn’t make it into parliament on the list.
It would make a big difference to Sepuloni, she’s out of parliament if she doesn’t win the seat. Also toppling a Cabinet Minister is always provides a boost for The Opposition even under MMP.
Which makes the Green voters in Waitakere not very clever 🙁
I think that loathsome is the word you’re looking for!
…
No, not in any way, shape, or form. The nature of our democracy gives voters the right to vote how ever they choose, irrespective of the benefits or costs, and in no way should tribalistic bullshit like “loathsome” ever come into play.
Then again, you do like colonising uteruses that don’t belong to you…
WTF? I see that your brain-fart is meant for me, and so I can’t understand what your ‘colonising uteruses’ remark means! In case you haven’t noticed, I am a woman. I have an uterus, and you don’t. So what on earth do you mean?
The Greens are going with National. Russell just said so on TV1. Hence the loathsome remark.
Sometimes you are utterly braindead…
It’s a reference to your attitude towards abortion, and it’s rather straightforward.
I knew what you meant, you sad little man, and was pretending not to. All I can say to you is, “you no playa da game, you no make-a the rules”. (You are homosexual, aren’t you?) You certainly have a very male gay line of spite and abuse against women.
I have never colonised any other woman’s uterus and obviously never will. I am entitled to express my opinion about feeling betrayed by the Greens without your bringing in your sexual issues – can you just not help yourself? Is absolutely everything about bumping genitals together for you? The stunning irrelevance of your vicious pro-abortion attack on me, should be plain to everyone.
Which is why I like STV, it means less wasted electorate votes and the ability to vote far more strategically.
Some interesting commentary from a feminist and GLBT point of view…. though showing that we now have a pretty reactionary government on social issues as well as on socio-economic/income-wealth (in)equality issues.
Maia on the handmirror has a bit of a round-up:
http://thehandmirror.blogspot.com/2011/11/reasons-to-be-cheerful.html
Saying that there is not a majority for abortion law reform in parliament now, partly due to the rise in NZ First.
The good news for the furture though, is that national gained the vote of only 35% of the electorate – the non-voters seem to have hurt the left. And I see Don Brash has resigned, with some tipping Banks to be the new Act leader….such a far cry from RogerD!
But Maia does point to the fact that democracy is not just about parliamentary elections but about the galvanising of widespread grass-roots movements are important. I agree and am optimistic about the future for a rising new direction and movement from an inclusive left.
Meanwhile, Grant Robertson says, with the new government, future is bleak for GLBT issues, while there are also some reasons to be cheerful about the new intake of MPs:
http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/2/article_11114.php
But it’s not the electorate vote that counts, it’s the party vote. Labour had one of its worst ever election results.
I’m not a Labour voter, nor I am tied forever to any party. I’m more interested in how the left parties’ numbers stack up between them. That is the way it is with MMP.
Hmm I’m already reading that if the voters were rational labour would have won by a landslide etc etc etc. No they wouldn’t. Even in 2002 it is quite amazing how little the left or right blocs actually move. Doesn’t take much for one or the other to tip over the line. Also I find most voters incredibly rational.
Labour ran a very good campaign, Goff exceeded expectations. Their policies were sane, bold and for the very large part well-liked. By contrast Key looked worse and worse as the campaign wore on… can you imagine the media furore if Helen Clark had done anything like the tea-pot tape stupidity? Key only survived that because he was protected, sure he got a bit of stick… but just enough to look realistic without doing any real damage. Compare and contrast with Corngate.
Yet despite that the centre-left block and the centre-right block are actually very close. National, Conservative and ACT who are the only real right wing parties really only total just a little more than 50% or so of all votes cast, while the balance is with left wing parties all of whom could … with just a few more MP’s… quite satisfactorily form a stable govt. While Labour has been treated very badly by the electorate, the left as a whole is still within close striking distance of forming a government.
It would for instance only take a couple of by-elections to go against the govt to change things considerably. Nor can anyone take any comfort in the very low turnout.
The simple fact is that the coporate media have for much of the last decade sedulously laid the emotional narrative for a corporate-friendly National govt, and at this stage of the electoral cycle it was always going to be a huge ask for the left to get up to a win. Absent those two factors and plausibly Labour should have done far better… but media propaganda is all about emotion and there is no rule in democracy that says people will vote for what is good or decent; or even in their own rational best interests.
Are you seriously saying the media didn’t make a meal out of the tapes? it led the herald, three news and RNz for days on end
I’d call nz first traditional nz conservative rather than left.
Are you seriously saying the media didn’t make a meal out of the tapes?
Releasing them would have been dinner….
Yep, they made a meal out of the existence of the tapes. Didn’t release them though did they? That would, according to the MSM themselves, have changed peoples voting patterns.
The moment of the night for me was Amanda Gillies outside Key’s house giggling and holding up a giant strawberry that Key had sent out to the media.
The media so enamoured of Key that they can get all excited over the gift of a large strawberry – symbolic of the way the MSM have been dazzled by Brand Key.
That the Keys and the Joyces were inside their multi-million dollar house congratulating themselves at being predestined to riches, while drinking wine and strawberries.
That people in the same country are living several families to a house, no hope of a job any time soon, rising prices and lowering wages, expensive health care for third world diseases, generational capital about to be sold to overseas bandits, their sovereignty about to be negotiated away under the guise of free trade.
They certainly wouldn’t have been eating giant strawberries last night!
And all Amanda Gillies could do was giggle!
Maybe that was not a strawberry but a giant raspberry at the media?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
The new parliament will consist mostly of dead wood that has consistently failed to deliver sustainability over many years (in some cases decades), plus a few new uninformed and deluded fools who think present economic-political (and environmental) arrangements have a future.
Needless to say, the vast majority of MPs are scientifically and financially illiterate and haven’t got a clue about any of the fundamentals, while political parties continue to pay lip service to sustainability issues.
All the fundamental laws of mathematics
http://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_population_energy.html
physics
http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Climate/Climate_Science/EarthsEnergyBalance.html
and chemistry
http://ioc3.unesco.org/oanet/FAQacidity.html
will ‘grind away’ at ‘the system’ at an accelerating rate.
In combination with unravelling of fiat currencies and bond markets
http://whatisthatwhistlingsound.blogspot.com/2011/02/three-steps.html
we will witness a continuing reduction the standard of living and the quality of life over the next three years. The only consolation for NZers will be that it will be worse in other places around the world.
Just how long the bankers’ international Ponzi scheme will hold together now that the resources necessary for economic growth are no longer available is still open to debate. Most informed analysts say less than a year.
Until it all crashes in a ‘smoldering heap’ we will have to endure the best government corporations and money-lenders could buy.
The governments will continue to try and prop it up at the expense of the poor for awhile so it’ll stagger along for another couple of years yet IMO. At some point robbing the poor to pay the rich will stop working though and the system will collapse – possibly violently (it’ll certainly be violent in places around the world).
Until then we will see massive resource* and demand** induced inflation, rising unemployment and the lower wages that come with it and the rich getting richer and more extravagant with that wealth.
* Limited resources leads to increased prices
** Lower wages leading to less demand so as to push fixed costs onto less sales and thus increasing the price of each sale
I am wondering just how stable and how long this new government can survive. If they scrabble about for support, at what price and for what effect?
This government, unfortunately, will be stable. It will be National, Act and United Future so everything will pass without any real debate. I doubt if National will bring in the Maori Party this time even if the MP want to join (which they probably do).
Should we be asking who is the Marilyn Waring of the Nats?
The Nats have something of a track record of treating the more independent females and small “c” conservatives badly. Think Rich, Te Heuheu? Some of the Nats from the country areas probably arn’t that hot on foreign corporates as all they will see is them buying farms – reducing the Nat voting base in their area. Time for some of them to band together against the corporate agenda?
Is Katrina Shanks back in? She has nothing to lose as she is on the Nat outer already. The centrist Nats should be holding out for some real concessions here particularly if they hold an electorate seat and want to be returned in 2014.
Excellent question Red.
Marilyn Waring and Mike Minogue were the two National MPs who were prepared to vote against the government over nuclear ship visits.
This robbed Robert Muldoon’s National Government of their majority.
Of course Minogue and Waring’s actions didn’t occur in a vacuum, but against a background of mass protests and even a general strike in Wellington.
(The strikes were so encompassing, it was said that on the last ever nuclear ship visit that the American Ambassador couldn’t even get his own staff to make him a cup of tea)
These huge mass actions were organised by a wide coalition of grass roots activists on the left including notably the Labour Party, the Values Party, the Anti Nuclear Peace Movement, (at that time nominally led by Nicky Hager) Various trade unions and splinter left groups.
The wider expression of your question Red, – is could such a broad coalition against National’s policies rise again?
In my opinion, Yes.
Could such a Movement shift the voting direction of even just a couple of the more liberal MPs inside John Key’s National Government?
Maybe.
What could be the issues that such a coalition would form around?
The most obvious one is National’s declared intention to wage war on the poor.
The first front in this war is breaking out already.
The National Government intend to evict state tenants in Glen Innes to sell their properties to developers is meeting increased resistance from the tenants and their immediate support groups.
Will the left step up to the plate?
The first public meeting to organise against the evictions is being held in Glen Innes Catholic Church Hall (behind Pack and Save) this Wednesday at 6pm.
The state of the country’s politics tells me a great deal about this nation’s entrenchment in it’s colonial roots of arrogance, racism and smug, self-satisfaction which still pervade the pakeha electorate. For a nation that was first to give women the vote and takes a vehement anti-nuclear stance (unless of course Key’s abhorrent kowtowing to the US puts even this at risk), the stench of self-absorbed smugness leaves me cold.
+1
Is the chinese spacecraft tracker visiting Auckland nuclear powered?
Whats with all those communication satellites on it?
We’ve never had a chinese warship in our waters before, much less berthed at Auckland. At least the election was a nice little distraction to stop the questions being asked.
I thought there would be a little bit more swing to the left than there was but Labour’s poor showing is an issue mainly for Labour supporters rather than all the left – though a strong Labour party would be useful.
The problem I still see with Labour is that despite a campaign of being back to their roots they still aren’t.
To attract the swing voters they need to offer them something other than rhetoric and a focus purely on the poor.
Lower taxes appeal to people because they don’t have to do anything to get them – on the other hand WFF means you have to apply, you effectively have compounding marginal tax rates as people earn more and and do overtime, you can end up with a debt, you have to provide personal financial information to the state – and who wants to do that? – and if you dislike beneficiaries you have to in effect become one.
A higher tax rate with Universal Family Benefit which everyone with children gets was a much simpler and inclusive policy in Labour’s history. It’s one older voters also understand. It appeals to an innate sense of fairness – the population is not being divided into those who can get it and those who can’t. It’s simple.
Also the sense of fairness extends to ensuring that people who are dishonest in relation to the benefit system are caught and found. National take a clearly more punitive approach to dealing with this aspect while Labour seems quite accepting of the position and loath to criticise those who do rip it off. In many respects their silence on this issue becomes in the heads of many people I know assent or laziness.
Somehow they need to resonate with the public that those who need it get it and do so in an empathic and caring way – but it’s not OK to get it if you do not need it and that you too will be caught.
Simply saying that under Labour benefit numbers went down simply doesn’t cut it.
I suspect Labour’s predecessors knew much more about how people perceive things than the current lot, hence overall a sense of fairness and equality in such policies – but this lot is still hungover from the neo-lib experiments that the Labour party carried out.
I do think Goff did run a good campaign – ultimately it’s still the policies that people don’t quite get – KISS principle is often useful.
Yes, as their defining issue, I think they should have focused more on income inequality and the less well-off struggling to survive. People understand logically that asset sales are not a good iea. But economic struggles reach them much more where they live.
PS: http://warisacrime.org/content/phase-two-occupy-will-not-be-electoral
Well, as power prices go up and the CEOs of those power companies also goes up they’re going to be quite well aware of just how badly selling assets makes struggling to survive even harder.
Power price rises are a hard one to argue when prices have risen so much in recent years. Many people have taken the attitude that their power has gone up so much anyway, including under Labour, that it can’t be any worse.
What’s the bet we see some lower prices or prices remaining the same through to the the next election – propped up by the power companies getting into debt, not investing in infrastructure, and selling off assets.
This will be hailed as how private enterprise is better – all the while we will be waiting for collapse further down the line.
I’m picking remote rural will be hit first with delays in getting lines back up after storms.
Naomi Wolf draws a long bow.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy
RWNJ rebuttal.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/11/25/ows-the-shocking-truth-of-naomi-wolfs-journalistic-hackery/
This too.(missed the edit window)
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/25/nations-most-at-risk-from-climate-change-may-occupy-durban-talks/?
I reckon 60% of Kiwi voters suffer from Stockholm sydrome
It’s time for frogblog to able their site now the election is over. Someone switching the site over will keep up the onto-it sharp and bright approach that is the perception which has built its votes.
When are we going to have RadioNZ National hosts who are going to be impartial?
Take Ryan and Mora.
“What about the spectre of Peters?”
“How can we deal with the problem of Peters?”
“One of the problems with MMP is it throws up Peters.”
What is it with these self-appointed-smug-I’m-alright-comfortably-well-off-guardians-of-public-opinion-and-balanced-information?
Love him or hate him, one hell of a lot more people believe Peters should be in Wellington rather than ACT yet you can bet that they will get more than their fair share of airtime on.
Its not only Radio Logi .The two TV channels are completly biased as is the press. In fact in over 60 years of political activity I have never know such bias from the media . . National has completly dominated the popular press and TV . Its really quite scary, what is the answer? The money spent by National on the campaign must have been huge.Where and from where did this ton off money come from. Come on you young boffin types out there get on your computers ect, and delve into the Nats treasure chest.
Time to start rolling protests outside media venues.
Time to start a left wing MSM.
Well, there are things that can be done fairly cheaply online. e.g. Blogtalk radio:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/whatis.aspx
And this could be done in conjunction with youtube videos and blog posts. Stratos also does some good, low budget local stuff eg bomber’s shows.
Campbell said late last night that something like 80% of NZers are against asset sales. Is it time now to take that issue to the streets? If there really are that many people against them, should we be marching as well as lobbying and politicing? I’d like to see what National would do re-privatisation if there were lots of very visible public protests against them.
Someone made the point on TS yesterday that there is a lot of land alongside rivers that will be privatised when the electricity gets sold off. That information needs to be put out there, quite specifically about which land and which rivers. The government about to sell off our river access is likely to get more people to protest.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8917077/Prepare-for-riots-in-euro-collapse-Foreign-Office-warns.html
This is good.
http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/31360/
Summary: Details emerge suggesting that the career of Strauss-Kahn (head of the IMF, candidate for the Presidency of France) was destroyed by a “honey pot” operation. It’s how conflicts are conducted in our century, as gaining the moral high ground becomes more useful than firepower and attrition.
It would be premature and to the detriment of the Maori Party (Mp) were they to even consider a confidence and a supply agreement with National until all the results of the election are final.
Seeing Key sweat for a month will allow more generous concessions for the Mp.
+1
😈
“Late last night, Greens co-leader Metiria Turei said an extended memorandum of understanding with National remained ”the most likely” form of a deal.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6043958/Greens-consider-new-deal-with-National
Sorry guys, but if the Greens go with this I will not (in good conscience) ever feel like I will be able to recommend supporting them to those in my circles.
Just saying.
Don’t you think it is about time we dropped the FPP mentality? Perhaps the pundits in the media will then have to spend some time examining issues instead of interviewing their keyboards and cameras.
If the Greens can manage to get some of their manifesto implemented, it will mean that the Nats and Greens are in agreement, and probably a good number of other MPs. The Greens will have been true to their constituency and gone someway to achieving their manifesto.
That is what MMP has delivered. One day we will grow up as a nation and eventually have a consensus on most social issues.
Doesn’t the memorandum of understanding mean they WILL abstain on voting against the government on confidence and supply? The government doesn’t have a big majority. The Greens should reserve the right to vote against them on C&S.
It probably didn’t mean much last term when the Act, UF & MP had significant numbers voting for the government on C&S.
By being prepared to provide support to National in order to get some of their own agenda through they will end up validating National’s party line even if they don’t support particular odious policies.
It isn’t about the “FPP mentality” – it is about the fact that this term National is pushing some nasty shit and if the Greens hop in to bed with them, who will there be to rally around? Hone? Goff?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6042265/Key-to-hold-confidence-and-supply-talks
Indeed. I did consider voting Labour this time, but felt they still are too far to the right & have stuff to work out. I considered Mana, but needed to see how they operate this term. Anyway my vote for Mana wouldn’t have helped, and Greens held the possibility of forming a Labour-led coalition if the numebrs stacked up.
I think I agree with Claire Browning here:
http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/towards-a-new-theory-of-the-greens-the-election-campaign
I certainly agree with this bit:
But I’m uncertain about what she means with these bits:
Is she saying the socialism was a wrong move for Values, or something that the greens should also maintain?
Agreed. I wouldn’t vote for them again. They should stand oon their principles and be independent.
Im feeling a bit twitchy at the way the Greens are cuddling up to National . If they move in it would be one of the most traitorous act in NZ political history They surely must have learnt from the Maori Parties demise what will happen if they support National. Trouble is power does strange things to people .I hope I
Im getting a bit twitchy with the Greens, Surely they are not going to do a deal with the Nats.? It would be the most traitorous political act in NZ political history. They should note whar has happened to the Maori Party because of their love affair with National.
It has been pretty obvious in the last few weeks that the Greens wanted to cosy up to National, up to and including Russel Norman kowtowing to Key over the hoardings sticker incident.
Despite that I have some good friends amongst the Greens, good decent people, I cannot contain my loathing for the Green party. It’s not unconnected to my loathing of Greenpeace – wealthy media-whores to a man (and the occasional woman.) My son was frontlined into supporting Greenpeace with his hard-earned and then thought again, as he kept being phoned about parting with more and more money for this and that new ‘campaign’ especially as many of their arguments seemed pretty thin!
Over the past number of years our ancesters fought ,died , and suffered so as to enable every one to vote in a democratic way. The vote turn out
vote was 65% . Thats why the Nats won. Where were the lazy bastards where were the low wage workers ,the unemployed and the disadvantaged.
Im disgusted and they deserve everything they get.I hope those lazy sloppy useless slobs sufffer ,The trouble is the good decent worker who troubled to vote also suffers. They remind me of those other bludgers who take union advantages but do not want to join. Lets hope they all go to Aussie .
An informative piece on USAs Electoral College system and how it badly skews the voting pattern though originally brought in with good intentions for fairness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k
The tyranny of the simple majority operates very much in the USA – whoever wins it in a state gets all the electoral college advantage, not each candidate proportional to their vote.
Also on Chris Laidlaw this a.m. an illuminating interview on Sarah Palin, the whys answered. One should be so wise before taking on such a flawed personality.
10:06 Geoffrey Dunn – Sarah Palin’s Push for Power
Geoffrey Dunn discusses what he calls the lies of Sarah Palin – revealing the queen of the Tea Party movement as vengeful and manipulative. He charts her dysfunctional childhood, her failed governorship of Alaska and the betrayal of her presidential running mate, John McCain. Geoffrey tells Chris there’s only a tiny chance that Palin will run for president next year, but says never rule her out.
Geoffrey Dunn’s book, The Lies of Sarah Palin: The untold story behind her relentless quest for power, is published by Scribe.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6043958/Greens-consider-new-deal-with-National
That’s all that needs to be said really. That’s why I broke a streak of party vote Green, because I suspected that’s what they would do. I hope all on the Left who voted Green are proud of yourselves! I am so angry that I haven’t got the words..
The Greens have fallen into the corporate pattern. They used to be radical, now they’re “mainstream”. Don Brash’s mainstream.
mainstreamed into a serious party more likely…a mature long term pagmatic approach.
They have the greenie identifier locked in now they are expanding to capture disenfranchised voters in the centre, left or centre right that have a green leaning. Shoot they have evolved into a mature stable party that has meaningful economic policy.
My instinct was that the Greens couldnt be trusted and I was right. Am very glad I didnt vote for them as I would be furious right now. It will be their undoing.
+1
its that norman i dont trust.. this could be the undoing of them
Nothing to do with how Labour treated them in previous govts?
How’s that?
Shabbily, giving cabinet posts to Peters and Dunne was an insult and maybe now the chickens are coming home to roost (well probably not but at least now labour know in future they’ll have to woo the greens)
Oh you mean in 2005? When the Greens didn’t have enough seats to form a govt with Labour? And the two parties who did have seats to offer specifically ruled out working with the Greens?
So you reckon Labour should’ve gone into opposition and given the Greens some pretend cabinet posts, eh?
The bastards.
The Greens have been hawking that canard for years, that Labour had some sort of choice and deliberately kept them out. Anyone who can add can see the lie there.
Intersting how many Green electorate votes there were in Epsom!
The amount of Green electorate votes in places like Epsom and Ohariu has been pissing me off for years.
FFS learn how MMP works you stinky hippies.
MMP-related question:
Say, for example, that ACT had won a large enough share of the party vote that they had Banks in Epsom + a single list seat.
What would happen if Banks quit, there was a by-election and ACT lost the seat? Would the list seat person have to leave parliament?
(I may ask this again tomorrow in Open Mike as I don’t think I’m likely to get an answer tonight, and no one will be reading this version tomorrow!)
Ben, I’m fairly sure I saw an expert say recently that once an MP the list candidate keeps their seat in that situation.
Just got in, how’d it go? We win?
In a sense yes, NZ did win 😉
NZFirst you mean.
Touche
Accounting for non voter’s, only 35.4% of eligible voters went for National. Many of these gave the Natz their votes even though they don’t agree with asset sales.
However Joyce thinks this is a mandate to sell disregarding the fact that most government’s are not single term. National does not have a mandate to privatize… it’s as simple as that.
National will lose the 2014 election on their plans to privatize with as much as 85% of the population against it.
They do not care. Key is only there to steal what he can and run away.
There will be nothing left worth pinching in 3 years.
Who was that guy Pete George who appeared to be using this blog as a platform for his own ends.?
Now that the ballot has closed and the dust virtually settled, perhaps he will disappear and allow reasonable discourse to resume in these columns. I guess we won’t know till we open up “OpenMike” in the morning to see whether he is still trying to be first poster. Obviously not many of his beloved UF followers read these pages (or maybe they followed him here and saw each and every one of his arguments put in their place …) Dunne holds on just. What a joke.