Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
Rallies for Democracy that will be held around this country on Saturday 10th September, which link the TPPA to climate action, te Tiriti o Waitangi, social justice and workers’ rights, are the latest manifestation of that disquiet.
THE DEEP ANXIETY of the “Free Trade” lobby was on full display in this morning’s NZ Herald (7/9/16). Fran O’Sullivan, that most indefatigable of the Herald’s free trade advocates, was so moved by the uncertainty currently surrounding the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that she devoted a good chunk of her business column to the global fight against protectionism.
in a speech made in 1997, when Peters was Treasurer in the National-NZ First Coalition Government, he told the NBR Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Government to Business Forum that he would be pursuing conservative fiscal management; supporting an “open, internationally competitive economy”; lower taxes; and a de-regulated market.
The latest on housing unaffordability made worse by speculation. It seems our Canadian cuzzies are on the right track;
I got quite annoyed on Tracey’s behalf with some of the media framing around her proposal. Airing comments by Steven Joyce suggesting that the extra cost of our scheme would run into the “billions of dollars” without pointing out that the true increased cost of the scheme is a mere few hundred million dollars over the extant (and wasteful) status quo, as Jo Moir has done over at Stuff, is just plain irresponsible journalism.
Something in me hopes that the boys and girls of the Parliamentary Press Gallery never make the journey to Avondale, or its equivalents in the towns and cities of New Zealand. I don’t want them to send camera crews to Geraldine and Dannevirke to record the packed-out halls for Winston Peters, or the numbers signing-up to NZ First after every meeting. Why?
Who would have thought that after eight years in Opposition, Labour still wields such powerful influence? Who thought it possible to govern from the Opposition benches?
Last week Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Gerry Brownlee sent me a letter in response to a blog I wrote about four of his wealthy constituents getting $595,000 each for land remediation after the September 2010 earthquake when they would have been entitled to only $20,000 each from EQC.
For Israel, the payment of small amounts in reparation is not out of the question if it helps to serve Zionism’s geo-political objectives. Israel is to pay Ankara US$20m in reparations in return for Turkey dropping legal action over the war crime committed by Israel when its marines stormed a Turkish ship on the high seas in May 2010.
As I covered in yesterday’s part one of my NZ First Convention writeup, ours is a party often bedeviled by…