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Politics

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

Categories under Politics

Latest opinion poll – Labour overtakes National

Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, January 17th, 2025 - 62 comments

luxon sheep

That grinding noise you can hear from the Parliamentary precinct is the sound of National backbenchers sharpening their knives getting ready for a change of leadership. Because the latest Curia poll shows National has fallen behind Labour in the preferred party stakes.

Reviewing the Cook Strait Ferry fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 1:07 pm, January 16th, 2025 - 35 comments

A review of the history of the Ferries issue suggests that this could be coalition ending and career ending.

The Left Went That Way

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, January 14th, 2025 - 37 comments

In the past two decades, election results in western Europe, Australasia, and North America have been framed as a crisis of the left. But in reality are things that bad?

Labour’s Long-Sightedness and the Opposition’s Opprobrious Omniabsence

Written By: - Date published: 4:05 pm, January 11th, 2025 - 52 comments

New Zealand is sleepwalking to an unmitigated constitutional, societal, and environmental disaster under the smokescreen of culture wars.

The Los Angeles fires – could they happen here?

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, January 11th, 2025 - 20 comments

With large parts of Los Angeles burning and the right still trying to divert attention and blame the question arises, could the same thing happen here?

President Biden’s Accomplishments

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, January 11th, 2025 - 33 comments

It’s common these days to see the rapid 2024 exit of multiple global social democrat leaders as just a post-COVID symptom of democratic impatience. But Biden achieved far more than his age-related decline obscures.

Winston’s Next Job

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, January 10th, 2025 - 18 comments

While he scoops up behind Minister Willis’s Cook Strait ferry disaster, he’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and our primary lead on the rise of President Trump and boy does he have a job ahead of him.

Who funds the Taxpayer’s Union?

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, January 8th, 2025 - 31 comments

Six months late and in the middle of the Holiday Period the Tax Payers Union has filed its election year accounts suggesting that it received $2,628,721 in donations that year. And there is no indication of who from.

President Trump makes a new Middle East Possible

Written By: - Date published: 6:04 pm, January 5th, 2025 - 23 comments

U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump makes more things possible in the Middle East than the Biden administration.

Costello hands out free vapes

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 pm, January 5th, 2025 - 11 comments

The Government has announced that it will be supplying vaping starter kits to stop smoking services. It is not known who will be the suppliers of these kits or on what terms.

2024 in review

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, December 31st, 2024 - 25 comments

It is that time of year when during the brief hiatus of civilisation known as the holidays we get the time to reflect on what has happened over the past 12 months.

Wage theft – now that is a real crime

Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, December 30th, 2024 - 17 comments

In Australia, the Fair Work Act is enhanced to provide for jail time and large fines for individuals and companies who deliberately indulged in wage theft. It is a Federal act with investigative powers. Our members ‘Theft by Employers’ bill looks pathetic by comparison. But worth passing in its 3rd reading. It would be a “real tough on crime” act – not weak like Mark Mitchell’s tee-shirt snatch.

The absurdity of National’s Gang Patch ban

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, December 29th, 2024 - 61 comments

It did not take long for the first example of the absurdity of the Government’s gang patch ban to appear.

The Pogues wrote the best Christmas song ever

Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, December 25th, 2024 - 16 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.

Government sabotages its Emissions Reduction Plan

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, December 23rd, 2024 - 7 comments

Under its latest Emissions Reduction Plan the Government is placing major reliance on processing of orgnic waste and landfill gas capture. But it has quietly recently cut funding for the Waste Minimisation Fund by $177 million over 4 years.

Much ado about nothing

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, December 21st, 2024 - 18 comments

There has been recent controversy because a District Court Judge and a renowned surgeon in a private setting chose to criticise NZ First policies.

This govt. legislation will change our country like never before – learn about it like your country depends on it – because it does

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, December 21st, 2024 - 12 comments

Just after Christmas, submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill will close. But a far more sinister Bill underlles it all… and Seymour is hoping you might not notice

Is Luxon on a roll?

Written By: - Date published: 10:12 pm, December 18th, 2024 - 24 comments

Or about to be rolled? Word has it that Chris Bishop is waiting in the wings, as Luxon’s favourability rating drops below Hipkins.

Who would have thought that austerity would stuff up the economy

Written By: - Date published: 1:48 pm, December 18th, 2024 - 47 comments

The HYEFU has been released and the results are pretty ugly suggesting that National’s austerity measures are having a negative effect on the economy.

When publicity stunts go bad

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, December 17th, 2024 - 16 comments

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon recently posted a picture of him helping with a gift box initiative for the poor. But at the same time he is overseeing the cessation of funding for food banks.

The real purpose of the Ministry for Regulation

Written By: - Date published: 5:54 pm, December 14th, 2024 - 31 comments

ACT is finishing what Roger Douglas started 40 years ago.

Labour loses confidence in the Speaker

Written By: - Date published: 11:14 am, December 14th, 2024 - 14 comments

Gerry Brownlee has performed linguistic summersaults to conclude that private entities having their pet projects listed for preferential treatment in the Fast Track Approvals Bill do not constitute a private benefit.

Luxon & Willis Double Down on Ferries Debacle

Written By: - Date published: 6:46 am, December 13th, 2024 - 15 comments

Government sneakily shifts the numbers on the cancelled Kiwirail i-Rex project from $3b to $4b as Luxon and Willis defend their plan for a plan.

Clusterfreak

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, December 12th, 2024 - 46 comments

Yesterday’s replacement ferry announcement by Nicola Willis suggests that very little progress has been made in securing replacement Cook Island ferries.

The unusual feature of Taxpayers Union’s latest Curia poll

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, December 11th, 2024 - 14 comments

Unlike two other recent polls the latest Taxpayer’s Union poll reports a surge to Act happening during the time the Treaty Principles Bill was introduced.

Atlas Network in New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, December 11th, 2024 - 11 comments

The similarities between the Atlas Network modus operandi and our government’s policies appear strident and unsettling.

Are Lester Levy and Shane Reti “cooking the books?”

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, December 7th, 2024 - 12 comments

See for yourself.

Unacceptable

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, December 7th, 2024 - 29 comments

It appears that the Government’s intent to politicise youth offending by making an elite few dress up in army uniforms and march around in an effort to solve a lifetime of neglect is not working out so well.

Tax and the Splintering World

Written By: - Date published: 3:38 pm, December 5th, 2024 - 30 comments

The resurgence of the tax debate reflects impacts of neo-liberal economic policy and developments in the global economy over the last half century. As Labour considers further its approach to tax policy, this wider context should be considered

AT is to be gutted

Written By: - Date published: 6:35 pm, December 4th, 2024 - 3 comments

The Government announced reform of AT, effectively conceding that the behemouth National created in 2010 was the wrong structure.

Luxon Takes A Beating

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, December 4th, 2024 - 20 comments

Five recent polls show that Kiwis are tired of the Coalition government, but will the trendline hold?