Down to the wire

Written By:
Date published: 8:06 am, October 12th, 2023 - 52 comments

Two new polls were released last night and they both confirm a tightening of the race with the right slumping and the left improving.

Open mike 12/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, October 12th, 2023 - 58 comments

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Daily review 11/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 5:30 pm, October 11th, 2023 - 53 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Multimillionaire landlords are the real squeezed middle according to National

Written By:
Date published: 8:20 am, October 11th, 2023 - 24 comments

Craig Rennie of the CTU has continued his excellent work analysing National’s proposed tax cuts and has come up with a doozie.  Landlords who own multiple properties will get huge tax cuts if National’s policy is put in place.

Labour surges in latest poll

Written By:
Date published: 7:55 am, October 11th, 2023 - 82 comments

A new poll has Labour surging into the 30s, Act continuing its decline and National going backward. This election is not over.

Open mike 11/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, October 11th, 2023 - 49 comments

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Daily review 10/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 5:30 pm, October 10th, 2023 - 16 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Israel and Saudi Arabia

Written By:
Date published: 8:40 am, October 10th, 2023 - 28 comments

I don’t want to talk about Saudi Arabia but it’s time.

The lost art of the heckle

Written By:
Date published: 8:33 am, October 10th, 2023 - 12 comments

What has happened to the fine art of intelligent heckling?

Managing Expectations: Community transmission of coronavirus in NZ was inevitable

Written By:
Date published: 6:05 am, October 10th, 2023 - 5 comments

The sad thing about the NZ COVID response is that overall it did deliver in that it protected the public health system and saved lives. But expectations about stopping all community transmission were set too high, and walking back from that politically has been challenging for Labour.

Open mike 10/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, October 10th, 2023 - 85 comments

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Daily review 09/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 5:30 pm, October 9th, 2023 - 23 comments

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Winston Peters? I barely know him

Written By:
Date published: 10:50 am, October 9th, 2023 - 46 comments

National has over the past couple of weeks indicated that it will ring Winston if it needs his votes, then saying that if he negotiates too hard it will seek a further election. This is real coalition of chaos stuff.

Open mike 09/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, October 9th, 2023 - 67 comments

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The Big Mo

Written By:
Date published: 11:49 am, October 8th, 2023 - 48 comments

Recent polls suggest that National and Act is going backward while Labour has stabilised. A win for the left is possible but this last week will be all important.

Open mike 08/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, October 8th, 2023 - 47 comments

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New Zealand’s climate obligations and National’s climate policy

Written By:
Date published: 6:05 am, October 7th, 2023 - 18 comments

National plans to renege on our Paris Agreement pledge

Open mike 07/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, October 7th, 2023 - 81 comments

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Daily review 06/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 5:30 pm, October 6th, 2023 - 11 comments

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Like two cats in a sack

Written By:
Date published: 1:38 pm, October 6th, 2023 - 15 comments

The minor leader’s debate last night confirmed the fact that David Seymour and Winston Peters hate each other.

National’s credibility problem

Written By:
Date published: 9:34 am, October 6th, 2023 - 31 comments

National has suffered further damage to its credibility with its promise of a $250 tax cut per fortnight for an average family only being realised if that family spent at least $300 per week on childcare and was a two income family with each adult earning between $53,500 and $66,000.

Managing Expectations – the NZ Housing crisis and Labour’s response.

Written By:
Date published: 6:15 am, October 6th, 2023 - 42 comments

Watching the 2023 election campaign in New Zealand, one of Labour’s challenges appears to be that it has failed to manage voters’ expectations over the last six years. Recalling the election campaign in 2017, Jacinda Ardern gave people hope that politics could be different. However government is about handling problems – like building at scale and pandemics.

Open mike 06/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, October 6th, 2023 - 38 comments

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Daily review 05/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 5:30 pm, October 5th, 2023 - 38 comments

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Why can’t National answer straight forward questions about the Council of Trade Union’s critique of their tax policy?

Written By:
Date published: 10:38 am, October 5th, 2023 - 40 comments

National’s tax policy doesn’t add up, and they’re trashing election and media conventions to avoid accountability. UPDATED.

National set to renege on Paris Agreement

Written By:
Date published: 10:10 am, October 5th, 2023 - 16 comments

National says it is not interested in meeting its financial obligations under the international Paris Agreement on climate change, signed by the previous National government. Reneging on the accord will have huge trade, diplomatic and reputational damage implications.

Wither Foreign Policy?

Written By:
Date published: 8:31 am, October 5th, 2023 - 7 comments

Alexander Gillespie complains that kiwis are not being given answers on foreign policy in the election. Given the state of flux in the world, and the questions he poses, it is probably just as well. The answers might all be dangerous.

Even Capitalists think that too much Capitalism is a bad thing

Written By:
Date published: 8:15 am, October 5th, 2023 - 9 comments

In recent times Goldman Sax has warned National that its policies will hurt the economy. And S&P has praised Labour’s handling of the economy and expressed a high assessment of various factors relating to the country.

Open mike 05/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, October 5th, 2023 - 90 comments

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Daily review 04/10/2023

Written By:
Date published: 5:30 pm, October 4th, 2023 - 57 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

The weird and wacky 2023 election campaign

Written By:
Date published: 11:22 am, October 4th, 2023 - 30 comments

In a week of weird events National’s decision not to debate Labour in the Press’s leader’s debate has been a massive own goal because the country will be able to see how toxic David Seymour’s and Winston Peters’ relationship is.

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