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  1. Waitangi up close

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 1:07 am, February 7th, 2011 -  37 comments
    Categories: john key, Maori Issues
    Tags: ,

    A personal perspective on the Waitangi celebrations. Where John Key went wrong, how Hone was out and proud, and the left’s reception. Also: an enjoyment of Maori burgers over kai moana this year.

  2. Waitangi Day

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 9:39 am, February 6th, 2011 -  24 comments
    Categories: Maori Issues, maori party, national
    Tags:

    Is there any other country in the world with such a complex and contentious national holiday?  As an annual barometer of Maori political opinion, this year is already looking much more turbulent than the last.  Events surrounding Key’s welcome yesterday show a high level of tension and dissatisfaction with the Maori Party’s support for the government.

  3. Nats drop 6% on privatisation announcement

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 12:56 pm, February 5th, 2011 -  65 comments
    Categories: election 2011, greens, labour, national, nz first
    Tags:

    OK, that title is pure spin. National has dropped from 55% to 49% in the latest Roy Morgan, and Labour’s up from 29% to 34.5%. But that just shows the last poll was a rogue. Now, normal transmission, and National’s decline, has resumed. When you look at the Nat/ACT and Lab/Green/New Zealand First potential coalitions – the race is tight and closing fast.

  4. Guest post: Why the left needs feminism II

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 7:17 am, February 1st, 2011 -  181 comments
    Categories: equality, feminism
    Tags:

    Why the left needs feminism part II: why the centre vote is a lie and what Labour needs to do to reclaim its soul.

  5. Guest post: Why the left needs feminism

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 7:36 am, January 31st, 2011 -  134 comments
    Categories: equality, feminism
    Tags:

    In the first part of a two part guest post, Queen of Thorns takes a look at feminism, the left, the labour party and funny old Chris Trotter.

  6. Why are Turia & Sharples cuddling up to Key?

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:53 am, January 25th, 2011 -  22 comments
    Categories: maori party, national
    Tags: , ,

    At this stage in the electoral cycle, government support parties are usually looking to try to differentiate themselves from the main governing party. They need to do this to show they still hold true to their own values and have a separate identity that is worth voting for. The Maori Party is doing to opposite.

  7. Good day at Ratana

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 6:21 pm, January 24th, 2011 -  40 comments
    Categories: labour, Maori Issues
    Tags:

    A good day at Ratana today with the Labour party delegation led by Phil Goff and Annette King. For me personally, it was good to see and chat with many old friends. I and others also received a very warm welcome from Tariana Turia on the paepae. Labour and Ratana go back a very long […]

  8. New Zealand’s Electoral Wild Card

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 10:34 am, January 18th, 2011 -  26 comments
    Categories: election 2011, nz first
    Tags:

    Will New Zealand First get back into Parliament after the election? If they do, it changes everything. A range of new governing coalitions become possible – both National and Labour-led. Can the Left trust Winston Peters to side with Labour over National? Could a Left+NZF government work? Jenny looks at the issues.

  9. Militant reactionarism coming to NZ

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 11:47 pm, January 12th, 2011 -  149 comments
    Categories: Economy, racism, uk politics, us politics
    Tags: , ,

    The Great Depression saw the rise of rightwing reactionarism. Out of reactionary movements came fascist governments from Brazil to Romania. We had the 100,000-strong New Zealand Legion. The Great Recession is spawning a new wave of militant reactionarism, now reaching our shores.

  10. Race for 2011 wide open

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 6:48 am, January 10th, 2011 -  68 comments
    Categories: election 2011, polls
    Tags:

    Campbell has a good post on the problem of voters’ emotional reactions to Key and Goff as exemplified by the Sunday-Star Times Horizon poll (the striking thing is how little emotional response they elicit). I’ll look at the party numbers. Horizon tries to include which way the undecideds will fall – the results have National worried.

  11. The politics of hysteria

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 11:44 am, December 27th, 2010 -  39 comments
    Categories: democratic participation, making shit up, Politics, spin
    Tags:

    Reading the Maps recently posted this analysis that takes swings at the extremes in the political debate.

    In the twenty-first century we are continually being urged to register and express our emotions. The days of the stiff upper lip and suffering in silence have well and truly gone, as unctuous TV talk show hosts and ‘self-help’ books scream at us to ‘grow emotionally’ by blubbering our deepest secrets and confessing our most recalcitrant feelings to our partners, to our friends, and to perfect strangers.

  12. Holiday clipshow

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 6:55 pm, December 26th, 2010 -  19 comments
    Categories: clipshow
    Tags:

    Much like the scriptwriters of American sitcoms, the writers at The Standard can get a little lazy at this time of the year and like those scriptwriters the cheap and easy answer is the clipshow episode.

    Let’s get the ball rolling with a robinsod guest post from June 2008 which brought the phrase “brand key” into the political lexicon…

  13. Last Roy Morgan of the year

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 1:00 pm, December 22nd, 2010 -  37 comments
    Categories: greens, labour, national
    Tags:

    It’s First Past the Post thinking to look at the polling gap between National and Labour and conclude National will romp home. MMP is here and set to stay – it means the coalition with the support of a majority of MPs governs, not necessarily the largest party. The final Roy Morgan of the year lets us look at the trends in support for Left and Right.

  14. Early thoughts on the Botany by-election

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:30 am, December 16th, 2010 -  28 comments
    Categories: by-election
    Tags: , , , ,

    Pansy Wong’s resignation in disgrace makes four ministers and three MPs lost by John Key’s government in two years (and more who have escaped scot-free). Now, we face another by-election – on March 5th, Botany will choose Wong’s successor. Here’s my take on the probable candidates and the party positioning.

  15. Sykes on neoliberalism & the iwi elite

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 12:10 pm, December 15th, 2010 -  18 comments
    Categories: capitalism, Maori Issues, maori party
    Tags:

    Annette Sykes recently delivered the annual Bruce Jesson Lecture concerning ‘The Politics of the Brown Table’. Much of her address is a harsh critique of the so called ‘iwi elite’ and their neo liberal agenda. In my opinion her assessments are true and justified. Without doubt neo liberalism undermines Maori efforts for self determination

  16. Time for Turia to go

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 7:30 am, December 11th, 2010 -  65 comments
    Categories: foreshore and seabed, Maori Issues, maori party
    Tags: ,

    Labour has opened the door on cross party negotiations to achieve a true consensus on the foreshore.  But Tariana Turia is too locked in to ancient personal hatreds to do anything but reject the offer.  In doing so she has become a huge obstacle to progress on the very goals that she claims to support.  It’s time for Turia to step down.

  17. Armstrong on the constitutional review

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 7:13 am, December 10th, 2010 -  41 comments
    Categories: democracy under attack, national
    Tags: , ,

    John Armstrong pulls no punches on the constitutional review, the second time in recent history that he has called the government a disgrace.  Add it to the ever growing list of outrageous behaviour from the Nats.  Is this the worst government for democracy in the history of NZ?

  18. What would a National win mean in 2011?

    Written By:  Michael Foxglove -  Date published: 9:28 pm, December 6th, 2010 -  49 comments
    Categories: act, greens, maori party, national, nz first, Politics, united future
    Tags:

    In my final post I look at the possible influence coalition partners could have on a future National government. Even if Labour loses in 2011, an outright win for right-wing economic doctrine is not necessarily on the cards.

  19. NZF poll is wrong

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 7:34 am, December 6th, 2010 -  77 comments
    Categories: election 2011, nz first, polls
    Tags: ,

    Great excitement in the Sunday papers over Winston Peters / NZF.  “Poll puts NZ First back in contention”!  “Peters the kingmaker again”!  Don’t believe a word of it.

  20. ECE costs to skyrocket

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 1:59 pm, December 1st, 2010 -  54 comments
    Categories: education, families, national
    Tags: ,

    The Nats’ stupid slash and burn approach to early childhood education (ECE) is about to hammer families.  And once again Anne Tolley is in complete denial about it.

  21. Sickening attempts at political-point scoring

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 11:15 am, November 29th, 2010 -  64 comments
    Categories: Mining, scoundrels
    Tags:

    It’s dismaying to see a few rightwing commentators using the Pike River disaster to attack restrictions on mining in national parks. The claims are baseless and crassly opportunistic. One expects the like of Matthew Hooton, Whaleoil, and Paul Holmes to try to score political points off tragedy but I thought better of Fran O’Sullivan.

  22. Unravelling at both ends

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 11:57 am, November 26th, 2010 -  42 comments
    Categories: act, foreshore and seabed, Maori Issues, maori party, national, national/act government, racism
    Tags: , , ,

    The new foreshore and seabed deal is going sour for the government at both ends. The Maori Party is in a state of virtual civil war with the fundi faction led by Hone Harawira gaining support against Tariana Turia’s sell-out faction. Meanwhile, National is feeling the heat as ACT targets its redneck vote.

  23. Assessing Labour’s Mana result

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:44 am, November 21st, 2010 -  93 comments
    Categories: by-election, democratic participation
    Tags: , ,

    Labour can be reasonably pleased with the Mana result. The majority is small but that does not mean anything for the wider party. To win Labour had to overcome 1) a weak candidate 2) a ferocious Key-centred National campaign  3) a threat to its left 4) a media narrative that damned it thrice over, and 5) a very low turn-out.

  24. English: excuses but no solutions on plummeting incomes

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 8:52 am, November 19th, 2010 -  33 comments
    Categories: bill english, class war, jobs, wages
    Tags: , ,

    Labour picked up on the statistics I revealed yesterday that show the median income of Maori has fallen 11.5% under National and the Pacific Island median income is down an astounding 19%. Kris Fa’afoi and Annette King put out press releases. Then King took the battle to Bill English in the House, who it seems is also a reader.

  25. NZ media asleep at the wheel

    Written By:  Tammy Gordon -  Date published: 1:37 pm, November 18th, 2010 -  31 comments
    Categories: john key, Media, workers' rights
    Tags:

    Democracy is quietly dying in NZ but you’d never know it by the media’s response.  The government is rushing through a slew* of legislation under urgency and it doesn’t even rate a mention in either the Herald or the DomPost (the DP devotes half a page to Harry and Kate’s engagement for god’s sake). National Radio […]

  26. $1mil Whanau Ora funding for Parata supporters

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:04 am, November 17th, 2010 -  33 comments
    Categories: corruption
    Tags: , ,

    What little we know of Whanau Ora is that it is essentially the privatisation of government delivery of social services to private groups. Rather than deliver services themselves, government departments entrust taxpayer funds to small groups that often have little or no track record to do the job instead. It’s an invitation for corruption.

  27. Poppy day in Beijing

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 9:36 pm, November 10th, 2010 -  6 comments
    Categories: colonialism, drugs, history, uk politics
    Tags:

    It’s diplomacy time in the Asia-Pacific region. While Secretary Clinton came to New Zealand and Australia and President Obama to India and Indonesia, Prime Minister Cameron has gone to  Beijing with a large delegation hoping to drum up business for Britain. Cameron’s pre-visit publicity was all about how he was going to  lecture the Chinese […]

  28. New Left Party?

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 11:20 am, November 7th, 2010 -  209 comments
    Categories: election 2011, Left, political parties, rumour
    Tags: , ,

    The rumour mill has been buzzing since a couple of commenters here let slip about Matt McCarten’s run in the Mana by-election. Word around the traps is the campaign will be used to launch a new Left Party with McCarten, Hone Harawira, Sue Bradford and others. It’s an exciting possibility.

  29. Media Matters

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 3:30 pm, November 3rd, 2010 -  9 comments
    Categories: broadcasting, john key, Media
    Tags: , ,

    A pot-pourri of a few things that have come up in the media of late, and thoughts on other media matters…

  30. A smoke-free NZ by 2025

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 12:52 pm, November 3rd, 2010 -  130 comments
    Categories: drugs, health, Maori Issues
    Tags:

    The Maori Affairs select committee has released its report on smoking. It’s great to see politicians setting a really ambitious goal coupled with policies to achieve it. Labour and the Greens are on board, what about National? Well our Do Nothing PM, John ‘ambitious for New Zealand’ Key says it’s too hard. Guess we need a government with some balls.

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