Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
I’ve just had a couple of days camping. Time to escape the jingles; the advertising invoking us to spend, spend, spend; the overconsumption and the manic traffic. Time to reflect on the end of the year, the end of the decade, and according to the Doomsday Clock, the end of the world.
Back in early 2016 I wrote a blog called “The problem with Jacinda…” at the time she was the Labour candidate for Mt Albert in the byelection created by the resignation of David Shearer.
The government’s undermining of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) report: Whakamana Tangata has been masterful. WEAG was set up in May 2018 and reported finally in February 2019. After sitting on the report for months, the government manoeuvred the burying of it in the launch in May, with a fanfare of three miniscule crumbs to be implemented in 2020.
As I look ahead to the future, visibility is poor. The haze of Australian bush fires and the blather of…
What a way to end the extraordinary year of 2019, with the report that Sir Ron Brierley, the corporate raider, greed is good, mate of Roger Douglas, who shot to fame as a role model at the very beginning of the neo-liberal capture of Aotearoa in the 1980s, has been arrested with a laptop full of child abuse images on his way to Fiji, and has freely admitted liking young Thai girls.
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa is delighted at yesterday’s decision by the International Criminal Court to begin the process of opening an investigation into Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza strip.
HOW DID 2019 END on such a jarring note of neoliberal bi-partisanship? With the Coalition and the Opposition united in their backing for a lavish spend-up on roads, roads, and more roads?
The Government has announced a new approach to roadside drug testing. It seems like a good compromise, and evidence based.
Earlier this week I requested Marie Shroff, the Chair of the Electoral Commission Board, to investigate the election expenses return of Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel.
Christchurch risks having a “lame duck” mayor for the next three years after the big hit to Lianne Dalziel’s credibility from her election expenses fiasco.
