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Politics

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

Categories under Politics

The latest poll

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 pm, March 10th, 2022 - 124 comments

National/Act (47%) would beat Labour/Greens (46%) if there were an election held tomorrow, according to the latest One News Kantar poll.

National stuffs up its financial analysis – again

Written By: - Date published: 1:42 pm, March 9th, 2022 - 79 comments

For so called economic geniuses National sure struggles to understand how to properly cost fiscal policy.  Its latest response to news that it proposed tax cuts would wipe out all discretionary spending in its first budget is to fudge the dates on which the cuts would be made.

Women who challenged the male domination of sport

Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, March 8th, 2022 - 91 comments

History PhD student @LottieHistory wrote a twitter thread recently on the work women have done to participate in sport.

National’s tax policy

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, March 7th, 2022 - 107 comments

National has proposed to reverse all tax changes implemented by Labour and claims that the cuts can be managed without damage to the state.  But the figure it uses, $1.7 billion a year, includes income tax adjustments only and not the cost of the removal of other taxes.

This is awkward

Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, March 6th, 2022 - 85 comments

Chris Luxon’s public commitment not to negotiate with the Wellington protestors has been called into question by a Facebook from Maureen Pugh claiming that members of the National Party were talking to the protesters on an almost daily basis.

Real protestors do not burn kids playgrounds

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, March 4th, 2022 - 239 comments

Wellington protestors recent activities in torching a 100 year old Pohutukawa, burning a kid’s playground and threatening to occupy Wainuiomata Marae suggests they are being given PR advice by Vladimir Putin.

Russian atrocity time

Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, March 2nd, 2022 - 230 comments

The Russian armed forces obviously didn’t expect much resistance. I get the distinct impression that they had believed their own ridiculous propaganda (always a characteristic of dumb-arse dictatorships) and expected the Ukrainians to fall weeping in gratitude at their liberation. That clearly didn’t happen. What next…

Remarkably Hopeful

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, March 1st, 2022 - 18 comments

We will probably never get over the feeling that somehow, if enough people just banded together, it would all get better again, like we did when the United Nations charter was struck.

Free public transport for Auckland is a very good idea

Written By: - Date published: 1:35 pm, February 23rd, 2022 - 66 comments

Efeso Collins has announced his first Mayoral campaign policy and it is a biggie, free public transport for Auckland.

Everyone is over Covid

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, February 22nd, 2022 - 134 comments

Jacinda Ardern said yesterday that everyone is over Covid.  She is right.  We all want this to end.

Why negotiating with the Wellington protesters is a waste of time

Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, February 21st, 2022 - 277 comments

There is something of a manufactured chorus of calls for the Government to sit down and negotiate with the protesters.  Here are four reasons why negotiations would be a complete waste of time.

Why the Wellington protestors are wrong

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, February 20th, 2022 - 72 comments

The Wellington protest has exceeded any moral mandate to protest.

They Are Us

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, February 20th, 2022 - 129 comments

The people camping outside Parliament are also us.

We are better than this

Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, February 20th, 2022 - 40 comments

Trying to remember the numbers of protestors in Wellington are small in number compared to the rest of us

Why haven’t the police acted?

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, February 18th, 2022 - 474 comments

It is day 10 of the Anti vax protest on Parliament’s grounds.  More cars are being parked illegally and despite considerable disruption to Wellington’s roading network so far not one car has been towed by the police.

What does the right to protest actually mean?

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, February 16th, 2022 - 62 comments

A primer on the “right to protest”.  Contrary to the views of some there is no right to protest.  Instead there are rights of assembly, movement and a right to freedom of speech.  And there is no absolute right to do these things at Parliament.

100 Things We’ve Lost

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, February 16th, 2022 - 25 comments

Over the past two years we have lost so many things that are not coming back.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff to Retire

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, February 15th, 2022 - 6 comments

Some thoughts on the contribution of Phil Goff to Auckland during his term as Mayor.

Goff retiring as super city mayor

Written By: - Date published: 11:04 am, February 14th, 2022 - 52 comments

Phil Goff has announced that he will not seek re-election as Auckland’s Mayor.

Can this government get re-elected?

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, February 13th, 2022 - 34 comments

Where will the votes come from to get Labour a third term? 

The right to protest

Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, February 13th, 2022 - 131 comments

Complaints that the police are unnecessarily interfering with the Wellington Convoy’s right to protest appear to be vastly overstated.

Freakin useless

Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, February 10th, 2022 - 114 comments

Maureen Pugh has posted a post on facebook supporting the Wellington protestors, deleted it when it was pointed out to her the protestors were anti vaccination, and then claimed she did not realise many of the protesters were against Covid-19 vaccination.

Chloe Swarbrick Needs A Reset

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, February 10th, 2022 - 42 comments

Chloe Swarbrick has requested that the government help Auckland central’s restaurants.  But in a post Covid pre climate change world this is not going to help.

Chris Bishop – manipulated, lying, or just plain stupid?

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, February 9th, 2022 - 24 comments

Roche, a major manufacturer of RATs, issued a statement to media on Tuesday night saying none of its stocks had been diverted or seized by the Government.
“RAT kits have been, and will continue to be, supplied to all New Zealand customers, including the Ministry of Health, in the sequence that purchase orders were placed,”. Chris Bishop MP is still claiming mythical evidence from local suppliers.

Prime Minister Ardern on Climate Change and the economy

Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, February 9th, 2022 - 33 comments

The full text is worth perusing across multiple areas, but Prime Minister Ardern’s speech in Parliament yesterday gave useful hints about how the economy and climate change are being integrated into a single economic strategy.

Luxon under pressure after latest Newshub Poll

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 pm, February 7th, 2022 - 93 comments

I am going to channel my Matthew Hooton left wing alter ego in the writing of this post.  The latest Newshub poll shows a resounding level of support for the Labour Party and there are murmurs of discontent about Chris Luxon after support for the right plummets.

Big developments in Beijing

Written By: - Date published: 4:44 pm, February 7th, 2022 - 31 comments

The meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping is likely to set the geopolitical direction for the 21st century. If ‘divide and rule’ was the mantra for the US’s hegemonic rule in the 20th century, ‘unite and share’ looks like setting the tone for the 21st. Co-operation rather than competition is the mantra, and “friendship between the two states has no limits.” A truly remarkable turnaround.

NZME is on a mission to change the Government

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, February 7th, 2022 - 133 comments

NZME owned entities including the Herald and Newstalk ZB appear to be on a mission to change the Government.

What Do We Keep?

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, February 7th, 2022 - 37 comments

The things we don’t regret keeping are a strong measure of what we don’t value. COVID’s 2 year anniversary asks us this simply through what events we commemorate.

Prime Minister Ardern’s Waitangi Day speech

Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, February 6th, 2022 - 34 comments

The text of Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern’s Waitangi Day speech

David Seymour should stick to twerking

Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, February 4th, 2022 - 306 comments

David Seymour has responded to slumping poll results by claiming that the Treaty of Waitangi should be trashed.