Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
There’s a hand on my arm. Gripping my arm, pulling me back. I sway slightly in my heels. Both adrenal glands, perched above my kidneys, deep in my viscera, squirt their load of adrenaline into my bloodstream. My pupils dilate, my heart rate and breathing increase sharply. All of a sudden I’m not sleepy, I’m not thinking about my day. I’m right here, right now. Deadly calm.
There’s nothing wrong with operating to the economic left of Labour. But it seems fairly patently obvious that that’s not what National are doing. If there’s any dyed-in-the-wool Cold Warriors out there in the audience, they may perhaps choose to disagree – but running a fairly broadly social-democrat economic policy is not supposed to substantially increase inequality by benefiting economic elites at the expense of just about everyone else.
I remember meeting Helen Clark for the first time when I was an undergraduate student at Otago. She was just six years older than me, but I could tell, even back then, in the early 1980s, that this junior political studies lecturer from Auckland was going to play a major role in New Zealand’s political history. I defy anyone to watch Swarbrick’s performance on last Sunday’s Q+A and not reach exactly the same conclusion.
Christchurch whanau are still reeling from all that has happened to them. First they survived the actual natural disasters and then they have gad to survive National’s disasters in cleaning it up.
It’s been textbook disaster capitalism – a vote for John Minto reverses that.
Calculating the harm done by the American sugar industry is difficult. But the number of people who, since the 1960s, have had their lives cut short by heart attacks, strokes, and the deadly consequences of undiagnosed and untreated Type 2 Diabetes, must run into the tens-of-millions.
Election papers have been issued to decide representatives for local government, health boards, and liquor licensing trusts. Among the candidates some eccentricities shine through making the candidates’ book quite entertaining reading. There are some good people and policies too.
Thanks to digital technology, the manner in which the Israeli Army goes about its population control activities is now often captured on video devices and widely distributed. Netanyahu Uncensored is not alone in providing evidence of assaults upon Palestinian children by heavily-armed Israeli soldiers.
The real beneficiaries of this system of indentured labour are often the biggest companies in New Zealand. We know that all the hotel chains rely on temporary labour. SkyCity uses them extensively as do all the big fast food chains.
JOHN KEY’S DECISION to suspend the passage of the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary legislation marks an important turning point in the life of his government.
Key’s posture is that human rights don’t really matter, or at least are secondary to maintaining warm relations with repressive governments.