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Politics

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

Categories under Politics

Well that is a bit shit. Auckland level 3. Rest of NZ level 2

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 pm, August 11th, 2020 - 48 comments

Four cases of community transmission from the same family – presumably without an obvious cause. Lock down for 3 days in the Auckland super city area at level 3 starting noon Wednesday. Level 2 for everywhere else outside of Auckland. Allows time for contact tracing and a later decision once facts are known. Good response.

Should the government replace sex data with gender (identity) data?

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, August 11th, 2020 - 110 comments

Stats NZ want to use gender rather than sex as the default for data collection. But they’ve neglected to ask women about that.

The strange tale of the Auckland Central selection and Merv from Manurewa

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, August 11th, 2020 - 57 comments

News has emerged that a senior National Party figure rang talkback radio and made derogatory comments about National’s only Sri Lankan candidate in an apparent attempt to reduce her chance of being selected as National’s Auckland Central candidate.

Why you should vote Labour this election

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, August 11th, 2020 - 146 comments

Four very good reasons why you should vote Labour in this election.

Vote No to Cannabis Reform

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, August 10th, 2020 - 118 comments

Ten reasons to vote against cannabis law reform this election.

Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Government: Style over substance or a guiding light for progressive politics?

Written By: - Date published: 8:42 am, August 10th, 2020 - 33 comments

Critics have dismissed the Jacinda Ardern government as being one of style over substance. This is unfair given the challenges this government has faced and the policy achievements it has had. However, it is a government that has much work to do if it wins a second term. And its over-reliance on Jacinda as party leader is a huge strategic risk, especially when the governments front bench is perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be lightweight.

IT doESN’t aDD up

Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, August 10th, 2020 - 57 comments

For a few days now Gerry Brownlee has been peddling this dog whistle conspiracy campaign that the Government is hiding bad news about Covid and we should all be really concerned.

Covid recovery and bouncing forward

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, August 10th, 2020 - 21 comments

Central to the Transition movement from the outset has been the idea of resilience. Usually framed as the ability to ‘bounce back’, it is seen in the Transition movement as being better imagined as the capacity to ‘bounce forward’, i.e. to use it as the opportunity to move forward to something better. How then to ‘bounce forward’ from COVID-19 in such a way that we also move to a way of doing things consistent with the scale of the climate crisis?

National’s list

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, August 9th, 2020 - 23 comments

National’s list has now been released and highlights selection problems that it has had this year.

NZ First is in trouble in Northland

Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, August 9th, 2020 - 70 comments

More bad news for NZ First.  It looks like their hope that Northland could provide a get out of jail free card is misplaced.

July 2020 Roy Morgan Poll

Written By: - Date published: 7:11 pm, August 8th, 2020 - 45 comments

The latest Roy Morgan poll is out.

Crusher?

Crushed!

Jacinda’s speech to the Labour campaign launch

Written By: - Date published: 5:09 pm, August 8th, 2020 - 94 comments

Jacinda Ardern’s speech to the Labour 2020 campaign launch.

The return of John Key

Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, August 7th, 2020 - 110 comments

In a sign of desperation National has trotted out John Key to campaign that the country’s success in containing Covid should be put to risk because of a misguided perception that it would be good for the economy.

James Shaw, comedian

Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, August 7th, 2020 - 21 comments

A bit of shade, some Dad jokes, and the serious business of what the Greens have done.

The Covid election

Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, August 6th, 2020 - 73 comments

I normally do not do this, tempting fate and all that.  But the forces behind this election are so strong that it would take a really dramatic event to change current momentum.

The test of MMP

Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, August 5th, 2020 - 123 comments

With the left’s political fortunes having changed greatly in the past three years, and with more change on the way, does the left still want MMP?

Who are you going to trust with your job, Jacinda or Judith?

Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, August 5th, 2020 - 16 comments

Defying expectations official labour force data from Stats NZ released today shows that the unemployment rate dropped to 4 per cent from 4.2 per cent in the June quarter.

National’s policy platform

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, August 5th, 2020 - 45 comments

For a party that promised to be a policy factory National’s policy offerings are severely deficient.

Go Well Ruth Dyson

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, August 5th, 2020 - 10 comments

Ruth Dyson has given a very funny very incisive valedictory speech in Parliament and will bow out of politics at this election.  She deserves our thanks.

Falling into a coma

Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, August 4th, 2020 - 92 comments

Why have we fallen into the most boring and predictable election we’ve had since Bolger’s second term?

Taxpayers’ Union promoting Green Party policy

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, August 4th, 2020 - 26 comments

Learning to love the tax.

National’s Auckland Central problem

Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, August 3rd, 2020 - 45 comments

National is facing another PR disaster with reports of an increasingly hostile Auckland Central candidate selection process and with allegations that National’s head office has misapplied the party’s constitution.

National’s week from hell

Written By: - Date published: 6:01 pm, August 2nd, 2020 - 34 comments

A review of National’s week which is as bad as any week I can remember.

Tick Tock Tik-Tok

Written By: - Date published: 5:37 pm, August 2nd, 2020 - 5 comments

Trump has announced he will ban Tik-Tok from the United States. It’s Chinese-owned so there. Or maybe he will force it to be sold to Americans.Don’t think security is the issue; kids used it to stuff up his Tulsa rally. And it is good for mockery, as clips about Trump and Pompeo show. Don’t think that will stop if Americans own it.

Mea culpa

Written By: - Date published: 12:48 pm, August 2nd, 2020 - 33 comments

Back in 2017 I was upset, we had a leadership vote only in caucus – just before the election. I didn’t realise at the time that Andrew Little was actually stepping down in favour of Jacinda Ardern. She’d had the potential, but I hadn’t realised that Little thought she was up for the task. I’m delighted with the result. Thank you Andrew.

Aotearoa’s free-market waste experiment dumped

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, August 1st, 2020 - 13 comments

Environment Minister Eugenie Sage this week announced the beginning of the end of Aotearoa’s unfortunate experiment with free-market waste management that has trashed our environment. It may be just a baby step, but moving away from a failed free-market approach seems a good first step.

The Heron Report

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, July 31st, 2020 - 35 comments

The Heron Report has been released and reinforces the public perception that this was a cynical misuse of  confidential information by National for political purposes and a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

Pollwatch: Colmar Brunton poll released 2020-07-30

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, July 31st, 2020 - 54 comments

Poll analysis and modelling results: Is Colmar Brunton “the real rogue?” Who’s likely in and out for National, Labour, and the Greens on this poll result?

One News CB Poll July 2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:22 pm, July 30th, 2020 - 132 comments

The July One News Colmar Brunton poll is out at 6PM. Has Judith Collins worked the oracle? Or is it another of Gerry Brownlee’s rogue polls?

Stay tuned …

UPDATE: Labour in the 50’s, National 32

Payne snubs Pompeo on China regime change

Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, July 30th, 2020 - 15 comments

Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds traveled to the US this week to meet face-to-face with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Minister Mark Esper. In what was clearly meant as a follow-up to recent speeches on China by the Americans, Payne firmly declined to join Pompeo in in his call for regime change in China.

Kia kaha Sarah Dowie

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, July 30th, 2020 - 17 comments

Sarah Dowie’s valedictory speech yesterday was extremely good and offered a fascinating insight into Parliamentary life and some notable recent events.