Search Results

  1. A reason to belong

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 7:48 am, November 18th, 2012 -  29 comments
    Categories: democratic participation, labour
    Tags:

    For the first time in the history of New Zealand, being a member of a major party really means something. If you a member of Labour, you will have a choice in who your leader is. Can any but a handful of National apparatchiks say the same? It’s time for National’s members to ask whether they’re really members of just money pots. And it’s time for the Labour Ulterior to re-join.

  2. Break For The Future

    Written By:  Bill -  Date published: 9:18 am, November 14th, 2012 -  102 comments
    Categories: david shearer, labour
    Tags: , ,

    When Margaret Thatcher was asked about her greatest achievement, she promptly answered: “New Labour.” And she was right: her triumph was that even her political enemies adopted her basic economic policies. True victory over your enemy occurs when they start to use your language, so that your ideas form the foundation of the entire field. Today, when neoliberal hegemony is clearly falling apart, the only solution is to repeat Thatcher’s gesture in the opposite direction.

  3. Don’t panic

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 10:30 pm, November 11th, 2012 -  77 comments
    Categories: australian politics, david shearer, uk politics
    Tags:

    Twice this year we have seen Labour leaders  turn around perceptions of them and their party with one speech; Ed Miliband at the UK Party conference in November and Julia Gillard  in the Australian parliament in October. I think that calling for David Shearer’s head in the week before the Labour party conference is a sign of panic.

  4. Who could replace Shearer?

    Written By:  QoT -  Date published: 5:00 pm, November 11th, 2012 -  90 comments
    Categories: david cunliffe, david shearer, grant robertson, labour, uncategorized
    Tags:

    Some people are Anyone But Cunliffe.  Some people think Cunliffe is the One True Leader.  Some people want more options.  So let’s make a case for it.

  5. John Key Selling (out) New Zealand

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 8:21 am, November 11th, 2012 -  56 comments
    Categories: business, culture, democracy under attack, Environment, Minister for Overseas Holidays, tourism, workers' rights
    Tags:

    John Key’s selling out of NZ workers’ rights, tourism industry and identity to Hollywood, the TPP and US corporates, has reached a new low.  OIA papers reveal the extent to which Warners is dictating the NZ government’s promotion of 100% Middle-earth.

  6. Opposition Party statements; what the MSM doesn’t report

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 8:10 am, November 10th, 2012 -  39 comments
    Categories: hone harawira, labour, Minister for International Embarrassment, news, nz first, paula bennett, poverty, telecommunications, tertiary education
    Tags:

    The MSM quickly picked up a press release on the failure of the Southern Cross Cable. Others that are ignored:  Bennett has either lied or is incompetent;  Nat-linked appointment to TVNZ board; Hone’s ‘feed the kids’ Bill; Joyce’s education agenda; John Key as a “bumbling Marxist”.

  7. Gordon Campbell on Labour

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 8:57 am, November 1st, 2012 -  152 comments
    Categories: david shearer, labour
    Tags:

    It looks like Gordon Campbell has picked up on Irish’s piece on what Labour needs to do and added a few thoughts of his own. I think Campbell has a point here and it troubles me deeply. The last thing we need is for Labour’s vote to collapse in election year the same way Bill English’s did in 2002, or for the campaign to be derailed by faux pas like Brash in 2005.

  8. Sexist NZ

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 2:29 pm, October 25th, 2012 -  10 comments
    Categories: business, feminism, sexism
    Tags: , ,

    Two recent posts from NRT on aspects of sexism in NZ, and a scathing reply to Business NZ from Sue Moroney.

  9. Shifting ground: PPL

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 11:55 am, October 24th, 2012 -  27 comments
    Categories: babies, child welfare, employment, equality, families, feminism, national, workers' rights
    Tags: , ,

    The government is vulnerable around Sue Moroney’s Paid Parental Leave Bill.  The Nats don’t want it to pass, but they risk losing support from women.  A government veto of an entire Bill is on experimental ground, and Bill English has shifted his reasons for not supporting the Bill. Updates: BusinessNZ submission

  10. Jones to jump to NZ First?

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 8:26 am, October 19th, 2012 -  45 comments
    Categories: david shearer, dpf, labour, nz first, Shane Jones
    Tags:

    I see David Farrar’s retailing the rumour that’s been doing the rounds over the last week that Shane Jones is in talks with Winston to make the jump from Labour to become Deputy Leader of NZ First. This makes a lot of sense for Jones – he’s to the right of Labour, has a reputation for being a bit un-PC and has the gift of the gab that a leading NZ First politician needs.

  11. In a dinnamic environment it’s hard to be precise

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 8:03 am, October 19th, 2012 -  32 comments
    Categories: alcohol, john key, slippery
    Tags:

    So apparently John Key failed to be “precise enough” when he said he voted for the drinking age to be 20, and actually voted for it to be 18. But then this is all the fault of opposition MPs being ‘pedantic’ with the fact that true doesn’t equal false.

  12. National split on super?

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 7:09 am, October 19th, 2012 -  26 comments
    Categories: john key, national, superannuation
    Tags: , ,

    Foss has effectively challenged the PM’s stance on ruling out changes to the age of eligibility for NZ Super. A minor rebellion? A faint flickering of independent and rational thought form within the National caucus?

  13. Shooting the moon

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 6:47 am, October 12th, 2012 -  74 comments
    Categories: david shearer, john key, Spying
    Tags:

    If I were in Labour, I would be looking at the polls and thinking that a small target strategy is best: preserve your credibility at all costs, keep your head down, pick up the votes as National self-destructs – it worked for Key in 2008. Instead, Shearer seems to be trying to shoot the moon with a knock out blow to Key (interesting parallel to Norman’s export policy there).

  14. The incredibly incurious and forgetful Mr Key

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:21 pm, October 11th, 2012 -  144 comments
    Categories: john key, Spying
    Tags: , ,

    “So what?” says Key as allegations emerge from within GCSB that Key cracked jokes about the spooks’ (illegal) involvement in the Dotcom raid when he was briefed by them on February 29th. It either means you realised their spying and are incompetent for not questioning its legality or that you knew all about the illegal spying and didn’t care – that’s what.

  15. Collins’ faction tries to magic up an ally

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:32 am, October 2nd, 2012 -  35 comments
    Categories: election 2014, Judith Collins
    Tags:

    It’s been interesting to watch the Collins Faction of National talk down the Conservative Party all year. It’s not hard to see why – they occupy space/take votes that a Collins-led National would want for itself. What the Collins Faction would like is a decent liberal-right party. That would allow National to swing conservative and give up liberal votes to an ally, rather than to the Left.

  16. On the trailing edge: Brownlee on Rena

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 1:41 pm, September 28th, 2012 -  11 comments
    Categories: Gerry Brownlee, transport
    Tags: , ,

    I was reading an article looking at the aftermath of the Rena shipwreck in the Herald. In it I read some ridiculous statements by Gerry Brownlee that seemed (like so much from him) to come from the early part of the last century. It appears that he (and his minons in the M0T) haven’t quite caught up on rapid progress of the digital age in nautical circles. Hasn’t he heard about AIS? Or computers?

  17. What does Key have to gain by lying?

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 8:52 am, September 27th, 2012 -  138 comments
    Categories: john banks, john key, Spying
    Tags:

    John Key put on a display of incompetence in the House yesterday over the Dotcom spying affair. He claimed not to know a laundry list of basic facts that, if he didn’t know them before, he bloody well ought to have been briefed on by now. In some instances, his memory failed him over Dotcom. Yet he then showed he could recall exchange rates from 20 years ago. I think he’s lying. The alternative is too scary.

  18. Implausible deniability

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 10:11 pm, September 26th, 2012 -  16 comments
    Categories: brand key, john banks, john key, same old national, slippery, uk politics
    Tags:

    There’s a lot of it about in right-wing parties at the moment. For John Key, John Banks and David Cameron it appears to be becoming the strategy of choice. It’s not working very well for any of them.

  19. The Press on Standards

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 11:30 am, September 26th, 2012 -  34 comments
    Categories: newspapers, schools
    Tags: ,

    The Christchurch Press as part of Fairfax released National Standards data, but had a number of articles with a curiously sensible line on it: “…the standards’ main effects will be to impose on schools a crude, misleading and unhelpful form of accountability and to focus attention on learning targets that are inappropriate for many children.”

  20. Many questions left unanswered in Banks affair

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:54 am, September 26th, 2012 -  43 comments
    Categories: corruption, john banks, john key
    Tags:

    “Ignorance gets us nowhere”, it’s National’s new slogan and it certainly applied with Key’s feigned ignorance in answer to questions on Banks’ corruption last week. Key’s behaviour is jeopardising our reputation as a democracy that doesn’t tolerate corruption. And he’s got a lot of questions still to answer. Two particularly interesting angles are what exactly […]

  21. A fish rots from the head down

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 1:50 pm, September 25th, 2012 -  51 comments
    Categories: accountability, Ethics, john key
    Tags: , , , ,

    Key has failed to uphold high ethical standards for himself, his Ministers, or his government. The GCSB illegal spying fiasco is just the latest example.

  22. Key plays the “don’t read, don’t care” card again

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 11:40 am, September 25th, 2012 -  19 comments
    Categories: john key, Spying
    Tags:

    A couple of days before it was surely all going to come out – very messily and very publicly – in the Dotcom court case, Key has revealed that his spies illegally spied on Kim Dotcom. But, beyond that, Key won’t tell us anything apart from that he signed no warrant for spying on Dotcom (such a warrant would have been illegal anyway). Key has chosen not to find out more so that he wouldn’t have to answer questions.

  23. The losses keep coming

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 12:08 pm, September 24th, 2012 -  54 comments
    Categories: jobs, same old national, unemployment
    Tags: , ,

    Welcome to National’s economy: Kiwirail has just announced 158 infrastructure and engineering job losses, and this afternoon Solid Energy will probably announce the loss of 300 jobs at Spring Creek, and 200-250 elsewhere.  This on top of the swathe of job losses in Huntly and Christchurch Solid Energy announced a month ago.

  24. Welfare ‘reform’

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 6:27 pm, September 18th, 2012 -  101 comments
    Categories: welfare
    Tags:

    Paula Bennett’s second welfare changes bill is out – with a nasty added sting in the tail: anyone who refuses a ‘suitable’ job will be blocked from getting a benefit for 13 weeks. Work testing for sole parents with 5 year olds, compulsory ECE for beneficiaries and the widows benefit cut are all in there.

  25. Sam Lotu-Iiga for mayor?

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:39 am, September 18th, 2012 -  7 comments
    Categories: national
    Tags:

    Slater/Lusk are spending a hell of a lot of time talking about how the Key Government’s one-seat majority is at stake if a dissatisfied, bored backbencher decides to quit. One name that keeps popping up is Sam Lotu-Iiga. I understand the next stage will be a ‘Draft Sam’ faux mayoral campaign to pressure Key and Joyce into making him a minister.

  26. Messenger shoot-out

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 3:14 pm, September 15th, 2012 -  53 comments
    Categories: blogs, newspapers, The Standard
    Tags:

    It must be the Herald’s new tabloid format. Or perhaps Steven Joyce talking about the death of print news. On Friday John Drinnan highlighted APN-internal media spats speaking of “Frenemies”; today John Armstrong launches forth at so-called bloggers Gordan Campbell and Bryce Edwards. Citizen journalism and the web are undoubtedly offering a challenge to the old hands. Some are coping better than others.

  27. Banks’ story coming apart; Key too weak to act

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 7:49 am, September 14th, 2012 -  61 comments
    Categories: john banks, john key
    Tags:

    John Banks is trying to blame the Police for the fact that the transcript of his 3-hour interview with detectives over his campaign donations was held back from the OIA release of the Police file. Another lie. It was Banks’ choice for the transcript to be withheld. So much for “nothing to fear, nothing to hide”. And, now, his press sec’s dropped him further in it.

  28. Money Week: avoid getting ripped off

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 2:35 pm, September 11th, 2012 -  23 comments
    Categories: business, Economy
    Tags:

    Since 2006, 66 New Zealand finance companies, funds and mortgage trusts have failed (closed, liquidation, receivership, moratorium, suspended). An estimated $3.5 billion has already been lost with another $8.6 billion still at risk.

    Guest poster Adele shows the need  for a week of events and activities to raise awareness about how people can better manage their money (if they have any) and get help to do so – Money Week.

  29. Joyce floundering on manufacturing

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 11:27 am, September 11th, 2012 -  15 comments
    Categories: australian politics, Economy, employment, exports, spin
    Tags:

    Talk fast, shoot the messenger, and spin like a top. That’s Joyce’s style, trying to defend the indefensible; National’s neglect of New Zealand’s manufacturing industry.

  30. Sunday Reading

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 9:30 am, September 9th, 2012 -  11 comments
    Categories: interweb, uk politics, us politics
    Tags: , ,

    My regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. This week: cars, the UK’s ‘Big Willy’ politics and Fear of a Black President. Oh, and laughter.

  31. Romney joins the birthers

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 2:41 pm, August 27th, 2012 -  55 comments
    Categories: us politics
    Tags: , ,

    Mitt Romney has hit a new low by adding fuel to the loony “birther” flames.

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