Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
I got to thinking that, while the government is doing a lot of things, I have yet to hear any sign of a ‘buy New Zealand’ strategy emanating from Government. Aren’t we over neo-liberalism enough yet to know that it is good business to make and buy our own stuff?
Since the beginning of this year, the Israeli Navy has opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats in more than 180…
EVERY TIME the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance address the “Business Community” I wince. It’s painful to watch these two abase themselves in the way they do. As if their endless protestations of good will and their oft-repeated promise to “listen” will make the slightest difference. The Business Community is acutely aware that there is nothing with more potential to cause them harm than a left-wing government. If it cannot be tamed, then it must be broken.
Unionists the world over have been victims of the lack of free speech in societies run by and for the wealthy 1%.
What if these “anti-Nazi” measures are, in point of fact, at least occasionally “how you get Nazis”?
In July 2017, Willie Jackson gave a speech at the very same Rotary Club Don Brash did his Orewa Speech, to respond directly to Brash’s speech 13 years earlier. Using the leaked emails in Nicky Hager’s ‘Hollow Men’, it remains one of the best take downs of the true Brash agenda.
The 1980s were such unenlightened times. The appalling events of that era could never happen in the Aotearoa-New Zealand of 2018. Our health and safety laws simply wouldn’t permit it!
It has taken almost a year for the not-so-new Labour-led government to act on its promise of an inclusive and progressive new trade strategy. Only, ‘act’ a far too generous description. It’s too little, too late. The terms of reference signed off by the Cabinet are not going to explore the real reasons why Kiwis, among many others around the world, have turned their backs on these agreements.
The debate stirred up by the repeated denial of both public and private stages to the pair on account of threats and intimidation has placed the issue of free speech squarely on New Zealand’s political agenda. The Left will find it much harder, now, to sell its arguments in favour of limiting New Zealanders right to free expression that would have been the case if Southern and Molyneux had simply been allowed to come and go without incident.
It was with some personal disappointment that despite several letters from my friends and colleagues, there appeared to be no action by the New Zealand government to protest the hijacking of the boat I was travelling on, Al Awda, and from which I was kidnapped and detained by the Israeli military from international waters on Sunday, July 29.