Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
Earlier this year Nuk Korako was one of six National MPs who attended a dinner hosted by the Israeli ambassador with the aim of establishing a New Zealand Parliamentary Friends of Israel group. (For the record the other MPs were Alfred Ngaro, Tim McIndoe, Todd Muller, Jian Yang and Paul Goldsmith)
Labour’s most tragic failing to date has largely flown under the media radar: to reinstate the right of prisoners to vote. Labour’s inaction is made worse in the knowledge that it would have taken little effort and very little cost to undertake.
SHOULD WE BE SURPRISED that the rainbow community turned out to be so conservative? That the effort of the Pride Parade board to address the fear so easily triggered by police uniforms has provoked such a swift and devastating backlash? That so many people have forgotten what it feels like to be labelled, singled-out, trashed and excluded? That so many New Zealanders seem unaware that it is precisely those who dwell furthest away from the blessings of societal acceptance that have the strongest claim to our care and protection?
WHEN JACINDA ANNOUNCED she was having a baby, I was thrilled. What better guarantee could we have of serious government action on the big issues than a prime minister with a tiny and vulnerable child’s future to protect? Well, Neve arrived safely, but the urgent action required to secure her future seems as far away as ever.
What surprises me is that Pakistan with a track record as crooked as a seismograph in an earthquake has received no questioning from the New Zealanders. None. The Pakistani collapse was because we were so great and the integrity of that game is beyond question. I scrolled through the stuff.co.nz story – a hundred or so comments and not a single one sceptical of the “miracle”. The New Zealanders, to a man, delusioned.
Organised by the Cannabis Referendum Coalition (CRC), a campaign group made up of aligned reformist organisations and individuals, the #MakeItLegalconference brought together over 120 people from all walks of life in the rather salubrious surrounds of the James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor.
CHRISTINE ROSE’s poignant post of 17 November, “Feeling Like A Stranger In A Familiar Land” requires a response more substantial than fatalistic resignation. Tempting though it is to bury oneself in the small delights of everyday life for as long as that avenue of escape remains open, it must be rejected. Something as big as the end of the world as we know it surely merits Dylan Thomas’s unforgettable commandment:
The big red truck with “Home Direct” on the side comes down my street quite frequently, and indeed I think the owner lives somewhere nearby. It represents one facet of the predatory high-cost lending market for those with few assets.
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, leader of the ruling FijiFirst party, finished off on a strong footing after an early scare in a challenge from the original 1987 Fiji coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka’s SODELPA, raking in 167,732 votes in the results by candidate tally to have the highest personal vote.
Whether it’s the Greens in Government, or Jacinda’s pragmatic idealism, our politicians are manifest oxymorons. Despite our hope and best wishes for a Labour-Green coalition, this political landscape is not the world we thought we knew. We’re strangers in a familiar land, or maybe we’re familiar, but the world is a strange one. The grief and disappointment despite the nicey nice hopeful and kindness stuff, (and some genuine wins), is real.