Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
Since the Government’s budget announcement of a large spending increase in the mental health area, it has followed up with specific initiatives, including the recent establishment of the new Suicide Prevention Office, and increased spending on Maori & Pacific suicide prevention and school counselling and mental health support.
I think it’s safe to say that after Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s announcement of the Government’s proposed infrastructure spend-up, the New Zealand Establishment will be plotting nothing more dangerous that inviting the Minister to celebratory end-of-year drinks.
Backbench Opposition MPs are occasionally curious creatures, as are social media advert-targeting algorithms. Due, no doubt, to an ongoing quirk of the latter, I found myself presented with a sponsored post from National’s List MP based on Mt Roskill, Parmjeet Parmar, calling for the enshrinement of a Gandhi statue here in Auckland to coincide with the latter figure’s 150th birthday and asking me to sign a petition in support of same.
WHAT IF EVERYTHING we currently think about politics in New Zealand is wrong?
In any discussion of the morality of Israel’s conduct, it is immaterial when you “start your clock” on the history of the Zionist state.
I am pretty appalled at the outcome of the recent defamation suit launched against Elon Musk in retaliation to his statements that the plaintiff, Vernon Unsworth, was a “pedo”.
I’M BEGINNING to suspect that Reserve Bank Governor, Adrian Orr, is, at heart, a revolutionary. The decision of the Reserve…
Around 20 years ago a British scientist named Wakefield led a study of twelve people that seemed to suggest a relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism. The study was soon shown to be flawed, and by itself was a mere blip in the ocean. It is, after all, well-established that systems of vaccination have had remarkable health effects on the human population over the past seventy years.
IN ANY DISCUSSION about the morality of Israel’s conduct, the most important question is: “When did you start your clock?” Meaning? In assessing the ethics of the Israeli state, exactly when, historically-speaking, do you begin?
Cannabis Referendum Bill deserves your Yes vote. Here’s what it does and how we can make it even better. Yesterday…