Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
THE APPALLING CONDUCT of the Waikato DHB raises broader questions about the robustness of New Zealand’s liberal democracy. Most particularly, it challenges the whole notion that the administrators of New Zealand society remain accountable to the people they administrate
After trying for two months to get a copy of Waikato DHB’s complaint to the Solicitor General about the Coroners findings regarding our son Nicky’s death, our family has finally got its hands on a copy – and no wonder the DHB was refusing to give us a copy!
No-one wishes a stroke on anyone, and I was sorry to hear that he-who-had-a-right-wing-website-that-shall-not-be-named had two last year and has now declared bankruptcy. I wish him a speedy recovery. A friend of mine wondered how the big fish website was going now it was no longer owned by ‘he-who-had’.
From Tom Scott’s collection of cartoons, “Life in New Zealand”‘ – his take on the Aramoana massacre on 13 November 1990 where a crazed gunman shot and killed thirteen people.
After the Christchurch massacre, there’s a rightful focus on the prevalence and public access to ‘semi-automatic military-style’ guns. It takes a crisis to create change but with the loopholes in our gun laws, and in light of previous governments’ missed opportunities and the current government’s previous plans to centralise gun registration inspections, in fact, reform is overdue. Shame it took a massacre to force this change.
When we in Australia and New Zealand cry, Lest We Forget our fallen soldiers, we should also never forget President Atatürk’s comforting words.
On a tour of New Zealand, Leima Martinez Freire, Asia Pacific director of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) says Cuba is in a position to offer support to Pacific nations, reports Michael Andrew.
Acts of love and solidarity terrify the racist, power-hungry leaders of Israel and its allies. The great unity that expressed itself in New Zealand, following the massacres at the Christchurch mosques, sent a strong signal of rejection to all who support race-hate and population control.Challenge their inhumanities.
Reveal and shame the silence that serves to cover for them!
The suspicion arises that in 2014-2015, in some unspecified, possibly unlawful, and highly secretive way, the country’s national security apparatus was working hand-in-glove with senior elements within the police to silence and punish a couple of outspoken critics of the National-led 2008-2017 Coalition Government.
While they continue to ride forth, pausing in their wild career, to salute with uplifted arms, and uplifted swords, “The Crusaders” cheering fans, deep racial memories, born of the bloody excesses of Pakeha New Zealanders’ ancestors, will stir and rise to the surface. The past has a dangerous way of intruding upon the present.
