Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
The only problem was, the Government didn’t like even the idea of a target they could actually be held to. Accountability is a concept for others, not them, so they had that removed, and other offending words sanitised, so it read like a pile of “PC waffle”, according to Panel member Mike King, who promptly up and resigned in protest.
Dr Max Lane, pictured here with Faiza Mardzoeki, talks about his project to establish a community and activist library for…
New Zealand farmers are out of step. As a developed agricultural nation selling our produce and our brand to the world, our companies should be among those showing social responsibility in refusing to buy rock phosphate fertiliser from Moroccan occupied Western Sahara.
Electoral reform is not easy. It’s 24 years since New Zealand voted for MMP yet the four other “anglosphere” countries (UK, US, Australia and Canada) remain mired in First-Past-the-Post voting for their lower houses.
Dear Minister – you will be aware of the recent death of a young Palmerston North woman who was given leave from that Hospital’s Mental Health Unit to ‘go outside for a smoke’, due to the policy of all DHB’s to ban smoking on their precincts, no matter what the circumstances.
I disagree with many people on the left who blame crime on poverty. I believe it is a product of the breakdown in human solidarity. Sometimes that is associated with periods of social crisis, unemployment and poverty – but not always. And it is not a simple matter of cause and effect.
Another term of office of this government would see exploitation of our remaining natural resources and environmental damage on a larger scale, all in the name of short term profits for a few. There are better alternatives. We need a change of direction towards a fairer and more sustainable economy. We need a new government, with the Greens at its heart.
PEOPLE ON THE LEFT bang on and on about “community”. It’s a nice safe word that allows Labour centrists to express ideas that are vaguely collective in nature, but without resorting to that awful, unspeakable word – class. That said, it is difficult to drive into an ageing state-house suburb like Otara, in Auckland, without the word “community” popping into your head.
Well, the dust has already started to clear; and the inevitable, inordinate triumphalism appears to have begun in earnest. No sooner had news of Macron’s 65-35 victory over ‘the dreaded’ Le Pen become public, than the caterwauling chorus of ‘usual suspects’ had come out of the woodwork to proclaim this some combination of the Midway and the D-Day in the ongoing fight of once-dominant neoliberal globalism back against the newly resurgent ‘spectre’ of more economically left nationalism.
But was it really?
Trump’s First 100 Days can boast of several “achievements”. But not the variety that progressive-minded people – especially those concerned with global environmental problems and threats to peace – would welcome with a cheer.