The Safety of the People Shall Be the Highest Law.
SIMON BRIDGES and his supporters (witting and unwitting) aren’t quite chanting “Lock her up!” Not yet anyway. But they’re headed in that general direction.
Setting the Agenda
Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
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Our Hometown
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND: that’s the number of jobs likely to be lost as New Zealand’s tourist industry collapses.
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Are We In A “New Security Environment”, Or Just The Same Old Anti-Chinese One?
HOW SHOULD NEW ZEALAND make its way out of the Covid-19 crisis? More and more powerful and influential players are lining-up to answer that question. At stake is considerably more than the nation’s physical and economic health.
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Dave Macpherson: Is Covid-19 a threat to mental health?
Some of the more disingenuous right-wing social media commentators have started using the line that the Covid-19 lockdown has led to increased suicides and mental health crisis callouts.
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How crazy are these warmongers? Cancel RIMPAC 2020
We must join hands with people from around the Pacific and around the world to tell our governments to stop this dangerous behaviour.
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Cannabis referendum Bill’s recipe for success
The world-leading full version of the cannabis referendum Bill is a recipe for success that gives voters a stark choice, writes Chris Fowlie.
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Dr Liz Gordon: A peculiarly political pandemic
At the heart of this blog is the triangular relationship between the law, trust in government and human freedom. All three elements are important. The corpus of the law represents the current status of justice in Aotearoa (for good or bad), including challenges, Judge-made law, common law and the intentions of Parliament.
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Jailing of Jakarta Six fuels virus fears over Papuan political prisoners
Human rights advocates and civil society groups are voicing their condemnation of Papuans being held in crowded and risky Indonesian jails for taking part in peaceful demonstrations and a “Free West Papuan political prisoners” campaign has gone viral on social media.
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SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Matthew Blomfield – The police want to take every dollar Ron Salter has ever made
A South Auckland businessman is under siege by police who are using laws designed to target gangs and drug dealers to come after his family business, his home, and even his children’s assets. At a time when we’ve handed police extraordinary powers to deal with a health pandemic, Matt Blomfield argues that trust is being betrayed.
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How can we prise corporate hands from the throat of our democracy?
Prising corporate hands from the throat of our democracy is more important than ever. The public mood does not favour going back to “business as usual” after the pandemic where we all work hard to increase the wealth of the one percent. But any break from “business as usual” will be extremely difficult because our main political parties are heavily reliant on corporate donations to fund their election campaigns.