Some random thoughts on the Northland result

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, March 29th, 2015 - 62 comments
Categories: Andrew Little, by-election, labour, national, national/act government, nz first, same old national, winston peters - Tags:

Stephanie Rodgers has covered the implications of the Northland election result well but I thought I would add a few comments.

Firstly I am not aware of such a significant swing ever occurring in a New Zealand election.  To go from a 9,300 majority to lose the seat by 4,000 votes is unheard of.

Secondly the turnout was huge.  Usually by election turnout figures are well down on general election turnout figures for the seat.  I have compared previous by election total vote figures since 2008 and calculated as a percentage the by election total vote compared to the previous general election vote in the seat.  The calculations are set out in this table:

Prev election By election %
Mount Albert 35,219 20,943 59.5%
Mana 34,759 23,314 67.1%
Botany 31,733 15,421 48.6%
Te Tai Tokerau 20,455 12,339 60.3%
Ikaroa Rawhiti 18,732 11,268 60.2%
Christchurch East 28,977 13,726 47.4%
Northland 35,707 28,468 79.7%

There are still 1,528 special votes to be counted but as you can see already the turnout as a proportion of the previous general election’s votes is significantly higher than any other recent by election.  Locals were clearly motivated to vote.

National looked messy despite all of the resources poured into the seat.  Use of multiple Ministers in taxpayer funded limousines may have been a big turnoff.

As for Labour Bomber Bradbury is trying to paint this result as some sort of negative for Andrew Little.  He needs to rethink his views.  On the back of polling that has improved from 25% last election to the low 30s and with Labour looking more and more united Little has had a dream start to his leadership.  His handling of the by election messaging was adept.  While at the same time respecting local candidate Willow-Jean Prime he managed to get a significant number of Labour supporters to hold their noses and vote Winston.  And he did this in such a way that did not stampede straying National voters back into supporting their usual party.

On the right the blame game and finger pointing is heating up.  Cameron Slater reported yesterday that he had been asked by the Electoral Commission to take down some historical posts.  I suspect elements associated with National may have been behind the complaints.

As for the future I suspect that New Zealand First will struggle to hold the seat.  By elections provide a perfect opportunity for people to express their concern or dissent and clearly this is what happened here.  I would expect next time if not the time after for the seat to revert back to National even if the rumours are true and Shane Jones runs next election for New Zealand First.

62 comments on “Some random thoughts on the Northland result ”

  1. The Fairy Godmother 1

    Yes the result is a wonderful result for the left. As for Bomber’s nonsense I have just unliked TDB on Facebook.

    • tc 1.1

      Bradbury is rapidly losing what little credibility he has and becoming the slater of the left.

    • Upnorth 1.2

      how can you say that 94% went to the centre right and right parties NZF and National

      Labour became irrelevant

  2. Skinny 2

    “As for the future I suspect that New Zealand First will struggle to hold the seat. By elections provide a perfect opportunity for people to express their concern or dissent and clearly this is what happened here. I would expect next time if not the time after for the seat to revert back to National even if the rumours are true and Shane Jones runs next election for New Zealand First.”

    I disagree and am going too pull you up there Mickey. Very simple clean out deadwood
    within Labour place Prime in a high enough position on the party list so Peters retains Labour supporters candidate vote. While we are at it, oh what may have been right now if Davis got one of the deadbeat males list placing instead of a backdoor placing.

    As for Jones I pinned him down on that last night, he is keeping his options open, obviously he wants the leadership, but would have to line up internal party support outside Peters. But yeah slotting in as 2ic is highly likely.

    • Pasupial 2.1

      Jones would certainly be a better fit with NZF than he ever was in Labour. The way he accepted money from Nat MPs to run his leadership campaign and then fled to a created-just-for-him governmental job when that was revealed!

      I do have to feel for Tracey Martin if the turncoat Jones does get the #2 slot as heir apparent to the NZF throne. She has put in a lot of hard work and is extremely competent. To have risen so high in such a blokish party is testament enough to her political skills.

      • Skinny 2.1.1

        I was actually surprised Jones was so cordial to me considered the lambasting I’ve previously given him for being so f..ing useless, and sellout grief he copped.

        Yes i really rate Tracey Martin it was really nice finally meeting her, knew she was the most left of their tory lot. I had a wider grin then Peters when Pita introduced me to her and the other MPs, she said oh wow your ???? Geez really nice to meet ya and out come their cards lol. My partner didn’t miss a trick, see your not just a legend in your own mind LOL.

        The one prick i ‘d watch is Peters chief of staff, I took an instant dislike last time we met, so this time I devoted a bit of time seeing how he ticks. I don’t like the beat one bit, very suspect on Labour, just like the last prick Peters had, Tory through and through. Anyway I will target Martin got her back over Jones.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 2.2

      With MMP they can easily vote National on party vote and Winston on electorate next time round.

      Now, if only Labour can really do a deal with the greens, so they stop playing musical chairs game they cant win and drop completely the electoral vote and stick to party vote only.
      That means the white urban liberals have only one choice for the green vote when they tell their stories round dinner tables. getting up to 14-15% should be achievable them

      • Pasupial 2.2.1

        gwwnz

        It is difficult to secure Party vote when you are unwilling to contest electorates. There is little chance of the GP refraining from running in as many electorate seats as their party organisation can support. Selected areas may choose to not run electorate campaigns (eg Northland byelection, Te Tai Tokerau & Waiariki last election) but there would have to be a significant potential advantages to the party for that to happen. Labour are unwilling to be seen as doing a deal, and; given previous events, the GP is unlikely to trust them to reciprocate fairly for any un-negotiated action (or inaction).

        What might boost the left vote is if; Labour concentrated on Electorate Vote, while letting the GP increase their Party Vote. This is supremely unlikely, however; so why should the GP aid another party who has never lifted a finger to help them? (oops – forgot about Fitzsimons in Coromandel, but that was a long time ago and only the once)

        Skinny

        I get that it would be advantageous if; Davis and Prime, could be higher on the LP list. But who of; Parker, Ardern, Cosgrove, Morony, or Little, do you think is going to accept demotion to enable this?

        • Tracey 2.2.1.1

          Mt Roskill will be available for a new Labour MP.

        • Karen 2.2.1.2

          I don’t think Cosgrove will be anywhere as high as he was last time on the Party list, and certainly not ahead of Davis.

        • Skinny 2.2.1.3

          Cosgrove, out gone history. Parker reprogrammed, brain chipped, he is real solid had a very enlightening chat with during the leadership bid. I would get him back near the top quickly before he crosses to NZF. Moroney gets a life line if she goes on list only and out of Hamilton West. She is very solid union wise and that lec is a brick outhouse on left thinking.however Sue should never have stood there, it is a Labour seat and we want it back big time. It is a mans seat, I was always told this and after 3 failed bids by Sue I agree, so did Tracey Martin who is Hamilton based, no offense sisters and I not prepared to debate it. DC out, Shearer too join Goff and leave. And keep cutting the deadwood, I dislike Clark for today’s woes in Labour.

  3. Grantoc 3

    Its too early to say whether or not Peters/NZ First will hold the seat in 2017.

    Some factors that may influence this include:

    i. The extent to which he can deliver good outcomes for Northland. To a large extent he’ll have to rely on National to be able to do this (they hold the purse strings). If so this may mean a stronger relationship with National.

    ii. The quality of National’s candidate in 2017. They won’t make the same mistake as they did this time. Along with this the quality of their local campaign will also be better.

    iii. The fact that this was a by election whereas in 2017 it will be a general election; therefore quite different psychological dynamics will come into play.

    iv. Peter’s motivation. This by election was a kind of utu for him on National. That may not be so strongly felt by him in 2017. He’ll be older. He may even want to move on from politics. If this happens, any other NZ First candidate will struggle, simply because they are not Winston Peters.

    As I say there are too many variables to make confident predictions for 2107.

    • Pasupial 3.1

      v. Years of drinking alcohol and late nights may finally catch up on Peters. He still has the charisma to beguile his target demographic. Even the MSM couldn’t catch him on more than the occasional slip-up (eg the hastily retracted musing on a cannabis referendum). But; “The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long…”.

    • Tracey 3.2

      If he cant deliver outcomes for Northland it will be because National renegs. This might push a repeat at election time to try and uproot National from Government entirely. Nats need to deliver on their promises even more now, cos they will need the seat in 2017.

      • alwyn 3.2.1

        “cos they will need the seat in 2017”
        Why will they need the seat? It will be a General Election then and all that will happen if they don’t happen to win the electorate is that they will get another List MP. They will end up with exactly the same number of MPs either way. So will New Zealand First, regardless of the result in the electorate. (Assuming they get over 5%)
        The only reason that a party “needs a seat” is if they aren’t going to get 5% of the party vote. Can you really claim that will be the case for National?
        In other ways it is often better for a Party not to hold any electorates. That way they cannot lose one of their quota of MPs if there is a by-election.

        “If he cant deliver outcomes for Northland it will be because National renegs”.
        You can only say this about things that National promised. Then it will be National that will deliver, and not Winston. There is also no way he can deliver the things that only he promised, of which there was an expensive little list. National don’t have to help him there.
        National may be able to apply a little coercion to Winston. Say they nominate that they will need his vote to amend the RMA, and that without amendment it will be impossible to build something that Winston wants. They don’t have to do anything. They can put a proposal forward and then, when someone opposes it, simply lose the case. Then he will cop the flak, won’t he?

        • tracey 3.2.1.1

          if their party vote drops significantly, they will need the seat… to lose a very safe seat such as this may well be a harbinger of things to come. Remember English and 20.something per cent. In that case they may well find their electorate seats are their best bet.

          “In other ways it is often better for a Party not to hold any electorates. ”

          Are you really saying national won’t stand any electorate candidates or are you just surmising about possible permetations in he future?
          National don’t need Winston but that wont make Winston cop flak cos the electorate knows he is not in government.

          Anyone who voted for Winston thinking he could bring the government down would be foolish and probably voted ACT in northland.

          • alwyn 3.2.1.1.1

            “if their party vote drops significantly, they will need the seat”.
            Rubbish. That would be to assume that they were going to get some overhang seats, and that has only ever happened with the Maori Party getting 3 electorates when their party vote would have only got them 2 MPs or Peter Dunne in the current Parliament.
            Labour might have got close to an overhang situation under Cunliffe but they still got list seats.

            “Are you really saying national won’t stand any electorate candidates”.
            Of course I am not saying that. What I am saying is if you are going to lose an MP, for any reason, it is better that it be a list MP rather than and electorate one.
            Remember when young Master Hughes, a Labour list MP, blotted his copybook in 2011? Don’t you think that when he had to resign that Labour were much happier that he had been a list MP rather than an electorate MP for Otaki? Imagine having to have had to have run a by-election and to try and hold the seat when your party member had had to resign after what, although it was never prosecuted, looked dreadfully like a nasty case of sexual assault. Far better that he just vanish and someone else comes straight in off the list.

    • Murray Simmonds 3.3

      Absolutely agree with your analysis, Grantoc.

      Peters is variable in his performance – sometimes good for the country or the region, other times, useless.

      He may well have got elected on the basis of his “loveable old rogue” image this time around (laugh if you like, but thats how I perceive him), but that persona is unlikely to work on any future occasion.

      Certainly not if he fails to deliver for Northland.

  4. Penny Bright 4

    Very karmic for Winston Peters and NZ First – remembering the 2008 General Election, and the unprecedented mud-slinging campaign to help ensure NZ First didn’t make the 5% MMP threshold.

    Why?

    Because our system of ‘democracy’, in my considered opinion, works according to the ‘Golden Rule’ -ie: those who have the gold make the rules, and we get the government that the majority of BIG business want us to have.

    In 2008, the majority of BIG business CEOs did not want Winston Peters / NZ First to be part of ANY coalition government.

    In 2008, when I filed in the Auckland District Court, a private prosecution against John Key over his shareholding in TranzRail (after the Police and SFO refused to act on my complaint ) there was not ONE sentence in the NZ Herald.

    Yet when Rodney Hide made a complaint about NZ First to the SFO, there were MAN ON THE MOON headlines in the NZ Herald.

    This complaint was not upheld by the SFO – but the mud stuck.

    Penny Bright

  5. In my view, Andrew Little and Willow-Jean Prime, showed the political nous required in this Northland buy-election, and helped achieve this significant political result, without and ‘deal’ with NZ First.

    In my view, Martyn Bradbury, on this matter, doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

    I’d say this directly to him on his Daily Blog – but like Cameron Slater – he has banned my from commenting.

    Like Cameron Slater – Martyn Bradbury ‘can’t handle the TRUTH’?

    Penny Bright

    • Karen 5.1

      Martyn Bradbury is an idiot. No idea who he is working for these days but it doesn’t appear to be the left.

      • tc 5.1.1

        he works for that awesome brilliant and never wrong chap who looks at him from the mirror.

  6. RedBaronCV 7

    And what about the Nacts. I guess there will be some factional infighting over this.
    But dragging all those cabinet ministers up there gave the locals an eyeful of what they had actually been voting for compared to what they though they had been voting for.
    Out in the provinces I’m guessing they rarely see more than their local MP. A lot of the blues ( and for that matter other colours) see some one who sorta looks like them so they vote accordingly. But in their mind they are also voting for local farmers/ business owners circa 1980. (when toyota corollas used to be 1200cc).

    Maybe this showed them that the NAct party “owners” are very different from them and what they think they are voting for but instead are multi national wide boys – a very different brand from what they envisage. ( 2L Corollas).

    Nact now has to contend with NZF which resembles where Nact used to be 20+ years ago parked up with 12 odd seats on the left of them. Do they have to move left to start taking them out? If NZF gets in some name politico’s ( Shane Jones?) into the party Nact may have to contend with some real voting splitting in the provinces next election?

    • Scintilla 7.1

      Out in the provinces I’m guessing they rarely see more than their local MP.

      We had a Presidential style visit from JK a year or two ago, at the local high school. He was very friendly, chatty and intent on coming across as “a real nice bloke”. He did a major walkabout lasting a couple of hours and connected with many students who were all outside showcasing their talents in various ways. The response to him was astonishing. Lots of cheering and waving and wanting to touch the Overlord’s hand. His office followed up cards and letters from students with personally signed cards, photos and little badges. You know, like those old-style, signed photos of film stars.

      As far as I know, this style of visit is common throughout the country – he does put in the groundwork to carry off that good bloke image. If he’s been doing this for the last 7 years, I daresay that has paid off in terms of drumming up new supporters who are conditioned to associate National with that Good Bloke.

      • Draco T Bastard 7.1.1

        His office followed up cards and letters from students with personally signed cards, photos and little badges. You know, like those old-style, signed photos of film stars.

        So he followed, to the letter, the How To Manual on how to become a successful used car/insurance salesman.

        Where he’s failing, of course, is in how to run a country.

        • Scintilla 7.1.1.1

          Indeed he did. It was very interesting to see this Cult of Celebrity in action and how smoothly it went down – an insight into how The Face of the party operates with the citizenry. I personally found it very creepy indeed.

          • repateet 7.1.1.1.1

            I’d comment about the creep doing creepy stuff on Thursdays but we aren’t allowed to refer to the absence of members from the House. Creepy Thursdays!

  7. ghostwhowalksnz 8

    The national partys return of election expenses will be interesting exercise in fantasy.

    Will be able to see the difference between what Sabin claimed for a benign campaign where he won, and what was spent by Joyce on Osbournes behalf in a desperate campaign to haul backs Winstons lead

  8. Treetop 9

    Not vote splitting is an individual choice. Winston is a true centre/middle politician who likes to beat the odds. A cheeky win from a charismatic believer.

  9. greywarshark 10

    While at the same time respecting local candidate Willow-Jean Prime he managed to get a significant number of Labour supporters to hold their noses and vote Winston. Holding their noses…. Lol.
    The business with the large cars and pork-barrel promises probably gave visual images and a reality to the strong background murmuring that complaints about UNACTS though heard vaguely, had been dismissed or ignored by many conservatives.

    If things can be achieved by Winston that NZF can point to, and Shane Jones steps up with realistic scenarios, and promises continuing commitment to fight for infrastructure and planned improvements for Northland’s capacity to handle and grow business which have jobs in NZ attached to them, then I think NZF would have a fighting chance at the next election. I think that Labour would be helped by this. It would have to prove itself as a Party with grunt and commitment also, to be able to measure up to a NZF candidate like Shane if he has real mental muscle and determination to be of value.

    People in Northland have combined in anger at the continuing neglect of the electorate. And many have noticed the extractive nature of the businesses which leave little advantage and permanent ongoing enterprise behind. At preent they have logs being cut, trucked out and sent overseas in large numbers. ‘Teeth being pulled out from the gum without care to the patient’s woes.’ The people living alongside the poor quality roads where the forest is being sawn have industrial noise of trucks passing at all hours, are covered in dust continually, their houses, gardens and health affected, feel unsafe on the roads when they venture to use what they thought was their own amenity, and are just terrorised by the whole machinery of the enterprise. Plus they had problems with their roads and properties after very heavy floods a while back, which they still had not recovered from.

    The name Tammany Hall came to me while thinking about the Northland situation and how the unsatisfactory state of things there is reflected in all areas of the country, to some extent or other. Reasonable needs and actions are left undone, while the politicians happily go on their way with policies that are prioritised on which brings the most benefit to the individual MP and the UNACT Party.

    Tammany Hall was an organisation that grew up in New York City mainly of like-minded Irish Catholics who helped their people and their immigrants. It became a monster. And I think its story is an apt a description of NZ National Party.and its present lack of commitment to the general citizens and the country’s good policies for now and the future. Read and learn the lesson from New York and perhaps its progress and demise will give us an example of how to change our falling comet trajectory before we hit rock bottom.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall

    Well into its regime it was a very efficient machine for graft and power.
    Tammany’s control over the politics of New York City tightened considerably under Tweed. In 1858, Tweed utilized the efforts of Republican reformers to rein in the Democratic city government to obtain a position on the County Board of Supervisors (which he then used as a springboard to other appointments) and to have his friends placed in various offices.
    From this position of strength, he was elected “Grand Sachem” of Tammany, which he then used to take functional control of the city government. With his proteges elected governor of the state and mayor of the city, Tweed was able to expand the corruption and kickbacks of his “Ring” into practically every aspect of city and state governance.

    Although Tweed was elected to the State Senate, his true sources of power were his appointed positions to various branches of the city government. These positions gave him access to city funds and contractors, thereby controlling public works programs. This benefitted his pocketbook and those of his friends, but also provided jobs for the immigrants, especially Irish laborers, who were the electoral base of Tammany’s power.[30]

  10. Seems that Derryn Hinch made a few random comments about the Northland by-election …..

    Penny Bright

    • Potato 11.1

      I see he has a post called ‘A Kiwi Conspiracy’ which has a warning that it is illegal to access in NZ. Not sure about that ? But it would be illegal to repeat anything he said. Anyhow, I’m sure he doesn’t say anything we don’t already know.

  11. hoom 12

    So we get to go back to hating on Winston now right?

  12. Brendon Ross 13

    Was really surprised at tdb/Bomber totally not understanding how well Little played the bye-election. I feel for Ms Jean-Price, but as she is a very smart lawyer I’m sure she totally got what Little was doing. I thought she ran a great campaign, esp. As she could have been forgiven for kicking back into cruise mode.
    A number of people have argued with me about Labour standing a candidate rather than just ceding the electorate to Peters… that is the sort of stuff NZer’s seem to hate about MMP. Voters must have the choice… the Party and activists can then suggest, as Little et al. did, that they not need feel beholden to their traditional Party.
    Brilliant first election under Little… 2017 stars now!

    • Tracey 13.1

      Didnt Labour announce WJ Prime before Winston announced he was standing?

    • Draco T Bastard 13.2

      that is the sort of stuff NZer’s seem to hate about MMP.

      This is the type of comment that proves that the people making them don’t understand our electoral system.

      An electoral vote is not an MMP vote. It’s not even preferential. It is FPP and that means that there’s two possibilities for winners. That’s it, two. Increasing the number of people to vote for decreases the possibilities of winning for one of them. It’s this nature of FPP that had us changing to a proportional system after being stuck with the duopoly of National/Labour for so long.

      Now, what people hate about our present system is the coat-tailing where one party can give up a seat to another party and have that other party bring in more MPs despite other parties with higher voter support being locked out because of our unrealistically high threshold.

      • Brendon Ross 13.2.1

        I think you may have misunderstood my point, which reflects badly on my writing, so I will try to clarify.
        I understand that yesterday was FPP, not an MMP election; that said, for Labour to have not run a candidate would have been seen as an MMP style move, forcing Labour voters into a decision. I believe that NZers have, in Elections past, not reacted well to these sortt of back-room deals.
        The coat tailing is also so etching that angers people… why would you assume people cannot be angered by two or more things at a time?
        I hope this 2nd post clears up our minor misunderstanding.
        Faithfully, Brendon Ross.

        • Sacha 13.2.1.1

          “these sortt of back-room deals”

          What did Labour get in return? Go on.

          • Brendon Ross 13.2.1.1.1

            What did Labour get in return? What????
            I don’t believe I indicated that I thought they (actually, we, as I am a member) did.
            I will once again try to clarify,
            I think it would have been foolish for Labour to either have not run a candidate, or to have stood the candidate down… actually one more, to have blatantly shafted their candidate (I recall a brutal scene in a doco on Wellington Central covering the first MMP race… and YES I understand bye-elections are FPP… where Nat candidate heard Bolger tell Nat voters to back Pebble for their electorate vote over the radio. A crappy thing to do!)
            This is the sort of behaviour I think annoys voters, when they precieve back-room deals have been done, forcing them to vote a certain way.
            So ONCe AGAIN my point was aimed at the deft way Andrew Little played his politics. There was NO deal.
            I will endeavour in the future to construct my arguments with far more clarity to save us all valuable time.
            Yours faithfully, Brendon Ross Coromandel, member#1064824

            • Sacha 13.2.1.1.1.1

              “when they precieve back-room deals have been done … There was NO deal.”

              Glad we cleared that up then.

              • Brendon Ross

                Cool… I went and looked at my originl post and it wasn’t well expressed.
                Regards, Brendon.

  13. Draco T Bastard 14

    Former hairdresser in line to become MP
    My bold.

    And the MSM attacks begin. IMO, if it had been a National candidate stepping into the position vacated by Winston the headline would’ve been Former business woman.

    • hoom 14.1

      Can we call Key ‘former financial whizz’

    • tracey 14.2

      Winston says they may not take on an extra MP

      • Draco T Bastard 14.2.1

        That’d be silly of him and would indicate that he’s kowtowing to National.

    • jenny kirk 14.3

      Meanwhile the MSM called Osborne a “businessman” when all it was was doing his wife’s hairdressing (beauty salon?) business’ accounts !! Definitely double standards!

  14. SMILIN 15

    of course the fault to watch out for now in this first attack on the established order of things in the electorates is Key and his master weapons the ability to sell bullshit to farmers when buying milk aka their vote and also all his discretely donated revenue for the the party, Keys money go round, if the authorities ever get it figured out as I believe Dirty Politics alluded to, it will be a red letter day for national which they deserve for misleading the voters of this nation

  15. weka 16

    Interesting discussion on NZF, whether Peters will step aside from his list position, and who might be next in line. (There was also a tweet from a journo earlier that Peters might choose to not step aside).

    https://twitter.com/publicaddress/status/581725092989665280

    • tracey 16.1

      herald or stuff online carried an article earlier today

      • Skinny 16.1.1

        Yeah the NZH article was written by crafty Clare T, unlike MSM TV news, my little pony’s. Her skills last night was to float around the party with her ear to the ground eavesdropping on conversations. The penny dropped when I zoomed in on the face in her article, very tricky jurno reading that negative head line grabbing spin, certainly fools a few mugs.

  16. Olwyn 17

    I think the most interesting question, following on the Northland result is whether it tells us anything about where the most telling battle line now lies. If it does, then the significant battle line lies with representation and sovereignty. That is, the willingness to act on behalf of the people who vote for you, and having the power to do so.

    Look at it this way. In the seventies/early eighties the battle line was drawn between conservatism and liberalism. The liberals’ delight at winning inadvertently helped to allow neo-liberal economics to slip in below the radar. In 2008 it was the GST, when people were convinced by National that they shouldn’t risk what they had gained during the 2000’s being spent on people who they thought should be looking after themselves.

    At the moment a lot of people who thought they were among National’s “good guys” are finding themselves being asked to use up what remains of their families’ wealth in maintaining family members who are locked out of proper jobs and/or housing. Moreover the TPPA and the GCSB give the impression that this state of affairs is soon to be locked in.

    If the battle line does lie where I think it does, then the centre-left is posed with some very hard questions. Most New Zealanders would fear being cast out of the western club, but in order to benefit from it, we have to develop alternatives if we are to have much leverage within it.

    • Olwyn 17.1

      That was meant to be the GFC not GST – I wrote it last night while keeping an eye on cooking pots at the same time.

  17. millsy 18

    Moral of the story:

    1) Any election is winnable, with the right candidate and the right conditions.
    2) Labour needs to (i) not stand a candidate in Epsom and tell everyone to vote for Goldsmith and (ii) start getting their shit together and embracing tactical voting.

    National/Key are not invincible.

    And given I called this before anyone else, even those who knew better, I am going to call Shane Jones and possibly John Tamihere to stand for NZ First in 2017. The reason why I pick JT, is because if Jones signs up then our favourite homophobe may be tempted to join him.

  18. sirpat 20

    hmmmm so this result does what for the average joe who used to vote labour last election to bring them back on side??……how does one communicate THAT to the average folks who will read all the intellectual discussions I read here?…..

  19. Scintilla 21

    the significant battle line lies with representation and sovereignty. That is, the willingness to act on behalf of the people who vote for you, and having the power to do so.

    Agreed. I think there is a huge number of eligible voters who either don’t vote or “float” because they never feel well-represented. As if it does not matter which party they vote for, because it will just be more of the same no matter what campaign promises have been made. As you say, Olwyn, reality has bitten hard for many families as it becomes so much harder to get by – and “getting by” is all we do. If the TPP goes through, we will be slaves in our own country. In my Orwellian vision there will be an influx of rich refugees from the rest of the disintegrating planet who will buy up as much of NZ as they can and impose their own rules.

    • Olwyn 21.1

      Peters’ biggest victory up north was in his making representation look possible again. This is no mean feat, and he was able to get away with it because he went unmarked until it was too late to stop him. Let’s just hope the idea now starts to gain broader momentum.

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    Sometimes you despair. You really do. Fresh off leading Labour to its ugliest election result since 1990,* Chris Hipkins has decided to misdiagnose matters, because the Government he led cannot possibly have been wrong about anything. *In 2011 and 2014, people were willing to save Labour’s electorate ...
    17 hours ago
  • Clued Up: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    “But, that’s the thing, mate, isn’t it? We showed ourselves to be nothing more useful than a bunch of angry old men, shaking our fists at the sky. Were we really that angry at Labour and the Greens? Or was it just the inescapable fact of our own growing irrelevancy ...
    22 hours ago
  • JERRY COYNE: A powerful University dean in New Zealand touts merging higher education with indigeno...
    Jerry Coyne writes –  This article from New Zealand’s Newsroom site was written by Julie Rowland,  the deputy dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland as well as a geologist and the Director of the Ngā Ara Whetū | Centre for Climate, Biodiversity & Society. In other ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Ain't nobody gonna steal this heart away.
    Ain't nobody gonna steal this heart away.For the last couple of weeks its felt as though all the good things in our beautiful land are under attack.These isles in the southern Pacific. The home of the Māori people. A land of easy going friendliness, openness, and she’ll be right. A ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Speaking for the future
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.MondayYou cannot be seriousOne might think, god, people who are seeing all this must be regretting their vote.But one might be mistaken.There are people whose chief priority is not wanting to be ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 day ago
  • How Should We Organise a Modern Economy?
    Alan Bollard, formerly Treasury Secretary, Reserve Bank Governor and Chairman of APEC, has written an insightful book exploring command vs demand approaches to the economy. The Cold War included a conflict about ideas; many were economic. Alan Bollard’s latest book Economists in the Cold War focuses on the contribution of ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    2 days ago
  • Willis fails a taxing app-titude test but govt supporters will cheer moves on Te Pukenga and the Hum...
    Buzz from the Beehive The Minister of Defence has returned from Noumea to announce New Zealand will host next year’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting and (wearing another ministerial hat) to condemn malicious cyber activity conducted by the Russian Government. A bigger cheer from people who voted for the Luxon ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago
  • ELIZABETH RATA: In defence of the liberal university and against indigenisation
    The suppression of individual thought in our universities spills over into society, threatening free speech everywhere. Elizabeth Rata writes –  Indigenising New Zealand’s universities is well underway, presumably with the agreement of University Councils and despite the absence of public discussion. Indigenising, under the broader umbrella of decolonisation, ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the skewed media coverage of Gaza
    Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website. If he did, Peters would find MFAT celebrating the 25th anniversary of how New Zealand alerted the rest of the world to the genocide developing in Rwanda. Quote: New Zealand played an important role ...
    2 days ago
  • “Your Circus, Your Clowns.”
    It must have been a hard first couple of weeks for National voters, since the coalition was announced. Seeing their party make so many concessions to New Zealand First and ACT that there seems little remains of their own policies, other than the dwindling dream of tax cuts and the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 8-December-2023
    It’s Friday again and Christmas is fast approaching. Here’s some of the stories that caught our attention. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt covered some of the recent talk around the costs, benefits and challenges with the City Rail Link. On Thursday Matt looked at how ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    2 days ago
  • End-of-week escapism
    Amsterdam to Hong Kong William McCartney16,000 kilometres41 days18 trains13 countries11 currencies6 long-distance taxis4 taxi apps4 buses3 sim cards2 ferries1 tram0 medical events (surprisingly)Episode 4Whether the Sofia-Istanbul Express really qualifies to be called an express is debatable, but it’s another one of those likeably old and slow trains tha… ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to Dec 8
    Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro arrives for the State Opening of Parliament (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:New Finance Minister Nicola Willis set herself a ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • New Zealand’s Witchcraft Laws: 1840/1858-1961/1962
    Sometimes one gets morbidly curious about the oddities of one’s own legal system. Sometimes one writes entire essays on New Zealand’s experience with Blasphemous Libel: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/blasphemous-libel-new-zealand-politics/ And sometimes one follows up the exact historical status of witchcraft law in New Zealand. As one does, of course. ...
    2 days ago
  • No surprises
    Don’t expect any fiscal shocks or surprises when the books are opened on December 20 with the unveiling of the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU). That was the message yesterday from Westpac in an economic commentary. But the bank’s analysis did not include any changes to capital ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #49 2023
    113 articles in 48 journals by 674 contributing authors Physical science of climate change, effects Diversity of Lagged Relationships in Global Means of Surface Temperatures and Radiative Budgets for CMIP6 piControl Simulations, Tsuchida et al., Journal of Climate 10.1175/jcli-d-23-0045.1 Do abrupt cryosphere events in High Mountain Asia indicate earlier tipping ...
    3 days ago
  • Phone calls at Kia Kaha primary
    It is quiet reading time in Room 13! It is so quiet you can hear the Tui outside. It is so quiet you can hear the Fulton Hogan crew.It is so quiet you can hear old Mr Grant and old Mr Bradbury standing by the roadworks and counting the conesand going on ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • A question of confidence is raised by the Minister of Police, but he had to be questioned by RNZ to ...
    It looks like the new ministerial press secretaries have quickly learned the art of camouflaging exactly what their ministers are saying – or, at least, of keeping the hard news  out of the headlines and/or the opening sentences of the statements they post on the home page of the governments ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Xmas  good  cheer  for the dairy industry  as Fonterra lifts its forecast
    The big dairy co-op Fonterra  had  some Christmas  cheer to offer  its farmers this week, increasing its forecast farmgate milk price and earnings guidance for  the year after what it calls a strong start to the year. The forecast  midpoint for the 2023/24 season is up 25cs to $7.50 per ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • MICHAEL BASSETT: Modern Maori myths
    Michael Bassett writes – Many of the comments about the Coalition’s determination to wind back the dramatic Maorification of New Zealand of the last three years would have you believe the new government is engaged in a full-scale attack on Maori. In reality, all that is happening ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Dreams of eternal sunshine at a spotless COP28
    Mary Robinson asked Al Jaber a series of very simple, direct and highly pertinent questions and he responded with a high-octane public meltdown. Photos: Getty Images / montage: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR The hygiene effects of direct sunshine are making some inroads, perhaps for the very first time, on the normalised ‘deficit ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • LINDSAY MITCHELL: Oh, the irony
    Lindsay Mitchell writes – Appointed by new Labour PM Jacinda Ardern in 2018, Cindy Kiro headed the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) tasked with reviewing and recommending reforms to the welfare system. Kiro had been Children’s Commissioner during Helen Clark’s Labour government but returned to academia subsequently. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Transport Agencies don’t want Harbour Tunnels
    It seems even our transport agencies don’t want Labour’s harbour crossing plans. In August the previous government and Waka Kotahi announced their absurd preferred option the new harbour crossing that at the time was estimated to cost $35-45 billion. It included both road tunnels and a wiggly light rail tunnel ...
    3 days ago
  • Webworm Presents: Jurassic Park on 35mm
    Hi,Paying Webworm members such as yourself keep this thing running, so as 2023 draws to close, I wanted to do two things to say a giant, loud “THANKS”. Firstly — I’m giving away 10 Mister Organ blu-rays in New Zealand, and another 10 in America. More details down below.Secondly — ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    3 days ago
  • The Prime Minister's Dream.
    Yesterday saw the State Opening of Parliament, the Speech from the Throne, and then Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s dream for Aotearoa in his first address. But first the pomp and ceremony, the arrival of the Governor General.Dame Cindy Kiro arrived on the forecourt outside of parliament to a Māori welcome. ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • National’s new MP; the proud part-Maori boy raised in a state house
    Probably not since 1975 have we seen a government take office up against such a wall of protest and complaint. That was highlighted yesterday, the day that the new Parliament was sworn in, with news that King Tuheitia has called a national hui for late January to develop a ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago
  • Climate Adam: Battlefield Earth – How War Fuels Climate Catastrophe
    This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). War, conflict and climate change are tearing apart lives across the world. But these aren't separate harms - they're intricately connected. ...
    4 days ago
  • They do not speak for us, and they do not speak for the future
    These dire woeful and intolerant people have been so determinedly going about their small and petulant business, it’s hard to keep up. At the end of the new government’s first woeful week, Audrey Young took the time to count off its various acts of denigration of Te Ao Māori:Review the ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago
  • Another attack on te reo
    The new white supremacist government made attacking te reo a key part of its platform, promising to rename government agencies and force them to "communicate primarily in English" (which they already do). But today they've gone further, by trying to cut the pay of public servants who speak te reo: ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • For the record, the Beehive buzz can now be regarded as “official”
    Buzz from the Beehive The biggest buzz we bring you from the Beehive today is that the government’s official website is up and going after being out of action for more than a week. The latest press statement came  from  Education Minister  Eric Stanford, who seized on the 2022 PISA ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • Climate Change: Failed again
    There was another ETS auction this morning. and like all the other ones this year, it failed to clear - meaning that 23 million tons of carbon (15 million ordinary units plus 8 million in the cost containment reserve) went up in smoke. Or rather, they didn't. Being unsold at ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell On The Government’s Assault On Maori
    This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Even so, Christopher Luxon has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. In the NZ Herald, Audrey Young has compiled a useful list of the many, many ways that ...
    4 days ago
  • Rising costs hit farmers hard, but  there’s more  positive news  for  them this  week 
    New Zealand’s dairy industry, the mainstay of the country’s export trade, has  been under  pressure  from rising  costs. Down on the  farm, this  has  been  hitting  hard. But there  was more positive news this week,  first   from the latest Fonterra GDT auction where  prices  rose,  and  then from  a  report ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    4 days ago
  • ROB MacCULLOCH:  Newshub and NZ Herald report misleading garbage about ACT’s van Veldon not follo...
    Rob MacCulloch writes –  In their rush to discredit the new government (which our MainStream Media regard as illegitimate and having no right to enact the democratic will of voters) the NZ Herald and Newshub are arguing ACT’s Deputy Leader Brooke van Veldon is not following Treasury advice ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Top 10 for Wednesday, December 6
    Even many young people who smoke support smokefree policies, fitting in with previous research showing the large majority of people who smoke regret starting and most want to quit. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Wednesday, December ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Eleven years of work.
    Well it didn’t take six months, but the leaks have begun. Yes the good ship Coalition has inadvertently released a confidential cabinet paper into the public domain, discussing their axing of Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs).Oops.Just when you were admiring how smoothly things were going for the new government, they’ve had ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • Why we're missing out on sharply lower inflation
    A wave of new and higher fees, rates and charges will ripple out over the economy in the next 18 months as mayors, councillors, heads of department and price-setters for utilities such as gas, electricity, water and parking ramp up charges. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Just when most ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did We Get Here?
    Hi,Kiwis — keep the evening of December 22nd free. I have a meetup planned, and will send out an invite over the next day or so. This sounds sort of crazy to write, but today will be Tony Stamp’s final Totally Normal column of 2023. Somehow we’ve made it to ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    4 days ago
  • At a glance – Has the greenhouse effect been falsified?
    On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
    5 days ago
  • New Zealaders  have  high expectations of  new  government:  now let’s see if it can deliver?
    The electorate has high expectations of the  new  government.  The question is: can  it  deliver?    Some  might  say  the  signs are not  promising. Protestors   are  already marching in the streets. The  new  Prime Minister has had  little experience of managing  very diverse politicians  in coalition. The economy he  ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    5 days ago
  • You won't believe some of the numbers you have to pull when you're a Finance Minister
    Nicola of Marsden:Yo, normies! We will fix your cost of living worries by giving you a tax cut of 150 dollars. 150! Cash money! Vote National.Various people who can read and count:Actually that's 150 over a fortnight. Not a week, which is how you usually express these things.And actually, it looks ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago
  • Pushback
    When this government came to power, it did so on an explicitly white supremacist platform. Undermining the Waitangi Tribunal, removing Māori representation in local government, over-riding the courts which had tried to make their foreshore and seabed legislation work, eradicating te reo from public life, and ultimately trying to repudiate ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Defence ministerial meeting meant Collins missed the Maori Party’s mischief-making capers in Parli...
    Buzz from the Beehive Maybe this is not the best time for our Minister of Defence to have gone overseas. Not when the Maori Party is inviting (or should that be inciting?) its followers to join a revolution in a post which promoted its protest plans with a picture of ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • Threats of war have been followed by an invitation to join the revolution – now let’s see how th...
     A Maori Party post on Instagram invited party followers to ….  Tangata Whenua, Tangata Tiriti, Join the REVOLUTION! & make a stand!  Nationwide Action Day, All details in tiles swipe to see locations.  • This is our 1st hit out and tomorrow Tuesday the 5th is the opening ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Top 10 for Tuesday, December 4
    The RBNZ governor is citing high net migration and profit-led inflation as factors in the bank’s hawkish stance. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Tuesday, December 5, including:Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr says high net migration and ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Nicola Willis' 'show me the money' moment
    Willis has accused labour of “economic vandalism’, while Robertson described her comments as a “desperate diversion from somebody who can't make their tax package add up”. There will now be an intense focus on December 20 to see whether her hyperbole is backed up by true surprises. Photo montage: Lynn ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • CRL costs money but also provides huge benefits
    The City Rail Link has been in the headlines a bit recently so I thought I’d look at some of them. First up, yesterday the NZ Herald ran this piece about the ongoing costs of the CRL. Auckland ratepayers will be saddled with an estimated bill of $220 million each ...
    5 days ago
  • And I don't want the world to see us.
    Is this the most shambolic government in the history of New Zealand? Given that parliament hasn’t even opened they’ve managed quite a list of achievements to date.The Smokefree debacle trading lives for tax cuts, the Trumpian claims of bribery in the Media, an International award for indifference, and today the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Cooking the books
    Finance Minister Nicola Willis late yesterday stopped only slightly short of accusing her predecessor Grant Robertson of cooking the books. She complained that the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU), due to be made public on December 20, would show “fiscal cliffs” that would amount to “billions of ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Most people don’t realize how much progress we’ve made on climate change
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The year was 2015. ‘Uptown Funk’ with Bruno Mars was at the top of the music charts. Jurassic World was the most popular new movie in theaters. And decades of futility in international climate negotiations was about to come to an end in ...
    6 days ago
  • Of Parliamentary Oaths and Clive Boonham
    As a heads-up, I am not one of those people who stay awake at night thinking about weird Culture War nonsense. At least so far as the current Maori/Constitutional arrangements go. In fact, I actually consider it the least important issue facing the day to day lives of New ...
    6 days ago
  • Bearing True Allegiance?
    Strong Words: “We do not consent, we do not surrender, we do not cede, we do not submit; we, the indigenous, are rising. We do not buy into the colonial fictions this House is built upon. Te Pāti Māori pledges allegiance to our mokopuna, our whenua, and Te Tiriti o ...
    6 days ago
  • You cannot be serious
    Some days it feels like the only thing to say is: Seriously? No, really. Seriously?OneSomeone has used their health department access to share data about vaccinations and patients, and inform the world that New Zealanders have been dying in their hundreds of thousands from the evil vaccine. This of course is pure ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • A promise kept: govt pulls the plug on Lake Onslow scheme – but this saving of $16bn is denounced...
    Buzz from the Beehive After $21.8 million was spent on investigations, the plug has been pulled on the Lake Onslow pumped-hydro electricity scheme, The scheme –  that technically could have solved New Zealand’s looming energy shortage, according to its champions – was a key part of the defeated Labour government’s ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • CHRIS TROTTER: The Maori Party and Oath of Allegiance
    If those elected to the Māori Seats refuse to take them, then what possible reason could the country have for retaining them?   Chris Trotter writes – Christmas is fast approaching, which, as it does every year, means gearing up for an abstruse general knowledge question. “Who was ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • BRIAN EASTON:  Forward to 2017
    The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies. Brian Easton writes The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Climate Change: Fossils
    When the new government promised to allow new offshore oil and gas exploration, they were warned that there would be international criticism and reputational damage. Naturally, they arrogantly denied any possibility that that would happen. And then they finally turned up at COP, to criticism from Palau, and a "fossil ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • GEOFFREY MILLER:  NZ’s foreign policy resets on AUKUS, Gaza and Ukraine
    Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the government’s smokefree laws debacle
    The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out – for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable ...
    6 days ago
  • Top 10 links at 10 am for Monday, December 4
    As Deb Te Kawa writes in an op-ed, the new Government seems to have immediately bought itself fights with just about everyone. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Monday December 4, including:Palau’s President ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • Be Honest.
    Let’s begin today by thinking about job interviews.During my career in Software Development I must have interviewed hundreds of people, hired at least a hundred, but few stick in the memory.I remember one guy who was so laid back he was practically horizontal, leaning back in his chair until his ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: New Zealand’s foreign policy resets on AUKUS, Gaza and Ukraine
    New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he left off. Peters sought to align ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    6 days ago
  • Auckland rail tunnel the world’s most expensive
    Auckland’s city rail link is the most expensive rail project in the world per km, and the CRL boss has described the cost of infrastructure construction in Aotearoa as a crisis. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The 3.5 km City Rail Link (CRL) tunnel under Auckland’s CBD has cost ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • First big test coming
    The first big test of the new Government’s approach to Treaty matters is likely to be seen in the return of the Resource Management Act. RMA Minister Chris Bishop has confirmed that he intends to introduce legislation to repeal Labour’s recently passed Natural and Built Environments Act and its ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago
  • The Song of Saqua: Volume III
    Time to revisit something I haven’t covered in a while: the D&D campaign, with Saqua the aquatic half-vampire. Last seen in July: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2023/07/27/the-song-of-saqua-volume-ii/ The delay is understandable, once one realises that the interim saw our DM come down with a life-threatening medical situation. They have since survived to make ...
    6 days ago
  • Chris Bishop: Smokin’
    Yes. Correct. It was an election result. And now we are the elected government. ...
    My ThinksBy boonman
    1 week ago
  • 2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #48
    A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science  Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 26, 2023 thru Dec 2, 2023. Story of the Week CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate change Daily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more ...
    1 week ago
  • Affirmative Action.
    Affirmative Action was a key theme at this election, although I don’t recall anyone using those particular words during the campaign.They’re positive words, and the way the topic was talked about was anything but. It certainly wasn’t a campaign of saying that Affirmative Action was a good thing, but that, ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • 100 days of something
    It was at the end of the Foxton straights, at the end of 1978, at 100km/h, that someone tried to grab me from behind on my Yamaha.They seemed to be yanking my backpack. My first thought was outrage. My second was: but how? Where have they come from? And my ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago
  • Look who’s stepped up to champion Winston
    There’s no news to be gleaned from the government’s official website today  – it contains nothing more than the message about the site being under maintenance. The time this maintenance job is taking and the costs being incurred have us musing on the government’s commitment to an assault on inflation. ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago
  • What's The Story?
    Don’t you sometimes wish they’d just tell the truth? No matter how abhorrent or ugly, just straight up tell us the truth?C’mon guys, what you’re doing is bad enough anyway, pretending you’re not is only adding insult to injury.Instead of all this bollocks about the Smokefree changes being to do ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • The longest of weeks
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Friday Under New Management Week in review, quiz style1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago
  • Suggested sessions of EGU24 to submit abstracts to
    Like earlier this year, members from our team will be involved with next year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The conference will take place on premise in Vienna as well as online from April 14 to 19, 2024. The session catalog has been available since November 1 ...
    1 week ago
  • Under New Management
    1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. Under New Management 2. Which of these best describes the 100 days of action announced this week by the new government?a. Petulantb. Simplistic and wrongheaded c. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago

  • Ministers visit Hawke’s Bay to grasp recovery needs
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon joined Cyclone Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell and Transport and Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, to meet leaders of cyclone and flood-affected regions in the Hawke’s Bay. The visit reinforced the coalition Government’s commitment to support the region and better understand its ongoing requirements, Mr Mitchell says.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • New Zealand condemns malicious cyber activity
    New Zealand has joined the UK and other partners in condemning malicious cyber activity conducted by the Russian Government, Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau Judith Collins says. The statement follows the UK’s attribution today of malicious cyber activity impacting its domestic democratic institutions and processes, as well ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Disestablishment of Te Pūkenga begins
    The Government has begun the process of disestablishing Te Pūkenga as part of its 100-day plan, Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills Penny Simmonds says.  “I have started putting that plan into action and have met with the chair and chief Executive of Te Pūkenga to advise them of my ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Climate Change Minister to attend COP28 in Dubai
    Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will be leaving for Dubai today to attend COP28, the 28th annual UN climate summit, this week. Simon Watts says he will push for accelerated action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, deliver New Zealand’s national statement and connect with partner countries, private sector leaders ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • New Zealand to host 2024 Pacific defence meeting
    Defence Minister Judith Collins yesterday announced New Zealand will host next year’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM). “Having just returned from this year’s meeting in Nouméa, I witnessed first-hand the value of meeting with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security and defence matters. I welcome the opportunity to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Study shows need to remove distractions in class
    The Government is committed to lifting school achievement in the basics and that starts with removing distractions so young people can focus on their learning, Education Minister Erica Stanford says.   The 2022 PISA results released this week found that Kiwi kids ranked 5th in the world for being distracted ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Minister sets expectations of Commissioner
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