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Politics

Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation

Categories under Politics

Which side are you on?

Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, January 21st, 2024 - 191 comments

The Act Party is seeking to undermine te Tiriti o Waitangi and ferment racial hatred and division while nominally seeking unity. And National clearly has no idea what to do about the situation.

Labour and the Democrats

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, January 20th, 2024 - 64 comments

Both the US Democrats and NZ Labour need to take hard looks at themselves. Failure is not inevitable. But there is now only one English-speaking centre-left democracy left in the world: that is the state of where we are now. 

The best Electoral System that money can buy

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, January 19th, 2024 - 22 comments

The Independent Electoral Review Panel has recommended changes to the electoral system including the banning of any donations unless made by enrolled voters, a cap on the size of those donations and a requirement that third parties disclose all large donations that they receive.

Why does National hate EVs?

Written By: - Date published: 2:17 pm, January 17th, 2024 - 71 comments

At a time when we need cool heads and leaders who understand the enormity of the problem that is climate change and the consequences of getting our response right we are getting this retrograde culture war from people who should know better.

NZ First does not want National to have good relations with Kiingi Tuuheitia

Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, January 16th, 2024 - 13 comments

The day after Christopher Luxon made the pilgrimage to meet with Kiingi Tuuheitia and try and calm feelings ahead of the Weekend’s hui at Ngaruwahia to discuss the Government’s attacks on Te Tiriti and Te Reo Shane Jones went onto Morning Report and applied the blowtorch to Luxon’s attempt to keep matters calm.

Ghahraman goes

Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, January 16th, 2024 - 77 comments

Green MP Golriz Ghahrahman has resigned from Parliament. 

What If Trump Wins Again?

Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, January 14th, 2024 - 65 comments

New Zealand has gained prosperity over 40 years within a free flow of trade under peacetime supported by minor attacks to shipping and planes, low international trade costs such as tariffs, and confidence that international trade disputes will be settled by law rather than by might is at risk: all of that required a United States President prepared to support that.

Not all Americans are Neocons

Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, January 13th, 2024 - 14 comments

But the ones that run US foreign policy are. Matthew Hooton in a typical smear wants to label Helen Clark as anti-American because she warned that involving us in attacking Houthis was a ”slippery slope.” She’s not and he’s wrong.

The Coming Oil Crisis

Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, January 13th, 2024 - 21 comments

An expanding Middle East war that puts the Red Sea and Suez tanker route at risk is a major risk to us because it could hit the global price of oil.

Dirty Politics 2024?

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, January 11th, 2024 - 89 comments

Some of the usual suspects… how would we know what is really going on?

Our Resistance

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, January 11th, 2024 - 7 comments

There are still groups of people in New Zealand who can and do organise to resist the damage of the right.

Genocide in Gaza

Written By: - Date published: 8:49 pm, January 7th, 2024 - 57 comments

South Africa has taken a case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza to the International Court of Justice. A group of prominent New Zealand lawyers have asked the New Zealand Government to join South Africa in support of their application. I think we should.

Atlas smirked

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, January 7th, 2024 - 115 comments

A George Monbiot article in the Guardian made me wonder what effect the Atlas Network is having on New Zealand politics through the Taxpayer’s Union. Publicly available information suggests considerable funding is being made available and that the current Government’s priorities are precisely those that the Atlas Network would approve of.

Darkness Towards Peace

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, January 5th, 2024 - 39 comments

Can Israel lose a moral battle in Gaza and yet still win?

Corbyn was right about Palestine

Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, January 3rd, 2024 - 106 comments

In the United Kingdom Keir Starmer’s refusal to call for a cease fire in Gaza and his claim that holding back food and water for Gaza was justified has put him increasingly at odds with Labour members and MPs. Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn’s expulsion as a Labour MP is puzzling, particularly given that his stance on Palestine is increasingly justified.

New Year’s Resolution

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, January 1st, 2024 - 8 comments

With the left out of power, one of the most useful things we can do in 2024 is simply let people know where they can join in and do good.

The Useful Rich

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, December 31st, 2023 - 64 comments

New Zealand’s rich are endlessly fascinating, but as wealth concentrates ever tighter we are poorer.

Wanaka Has No Crime

Written By: - Date published: 5:06 pm, December 28th, 2023 - 47 comments

The purpose of everyone in New Zealand is to keep Wanaka pure.

The Pogues wrote the best Christmas song ever

Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, December 25th, 2023 - 4 comments

It is Christmas time and the eternal debate about who wrote the best Christmas song ever is being debated yet again. For me there is only one possible contender.

National wants to hide huge potential rates rises caused by canning of Three Waters

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, December 24th, 2023 - 20 comments

Someone should tell the Taxpayer’s Union. Some Local Councils are planning to put rates up by double digit figures.  And the Government is planning on exempting them from discussing this with ratepayers.

NZ policy is consistent about Russian invasion

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 pm, December 23rd, 2023 - 118 comments

Unlike Mike Smith and other noisy members of the imperialist cohort, I applaud that NZ foreign policy has remained consistent in upholding UN and ICC policies against invasions and forced annexations. Ardern, Hipkins and now Luxon have all said the same thing.Supporting the UN charter has massively reduced war casualties over the last 70 years. Clearly the Russian Federation finds this constraining.

Peak NZ Liberal

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, December 23rd, 2023 - 69 comments

As National dismantles with speed some of the institutional reforms made by the last Labour Government the concern is that we may have witnessed the peak in progressive influence.

Luxon’s values on show re Zelensky

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 pm, December 22nd, 2023 - 32 comments

Three NZ prime ministers talking to Zelensky

It is not clear exactly who persuaded Luxon to put Zelensky on his Xmas calling list. It might have been Albo or MFAT, no doubt on orders from the US, who are desperate to keep the illusion of victory alive until after the US Presidential election.

Is the Coalition Government Back Jabbing Māori?

Written By: - Date published: 4:10 pm, December 22nd, 2023 - 19 comments

The coalition government robs Pita to pay Paora to appease its voter base.

The New Zealand’s New Neo-Authoritarian Coalition Government

Written By: - Date published: 2:36 pm, December 21st, 2023 - 20 comments

The coalition government has hijacked the democratic process for its own partisan and nefarious agenda.

The Mini Budget Today

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, December 20th, 2023 - 70 comments

Don’t let anyone be fooled this Christmas dinner by what National is setting out today. 

Be very afraid for Kainga Ora

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, December 20th, 2023 - 19 comments

So National’s shock and awe campaign is under way. And the first target is Kainga Ora.

Why Labour must change course

Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, December 19th, 2023 - 49 comments

“A Left government with any claim to progressive credentials will focus on three policy areas – first, high-quality, high value production; second, taxation measures to reduce significantly wealth differences; third, strengthened democracy, including industrial democracy beyond collective bargaining. These three are indispensable. A Left politics, which does not build on these three, will founder.”

National’s complete indifference to climate change

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 pm, December 18th, 2023 - 18 comments

This is the only possible explanation.  As well as celebrating all things car National has a pathological hatred of cycleways and walkways and public transport.

90 day trials – Don’t come Monday

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, December 18th, 2023 - 65 comments

This coming week, under urgency and leading into Xmas, the Coalition government will expand 90-day trials to all workers, in yet another payback to National/ACT/NZ First’s (NAF) business backers.

Wanted: Dead or Alive? The Treaty of Waitangi

Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, December 17th, 2023 - 28 comments

Is the Treaty a contemporary guide or an archaic historical document?