Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
As we move closer and closer to the climactic events of the 2017 General Election, an ever-increasing (if not outright bewildering) array of political journalists, talkback radio hosts, and errant blubbery bloggers will mysteriously transmogrify themselves into ungainly combinations of soothsayer-entrail-readers spliced with Buzzfeed-grade clickbait provisioners.
The Papua New Guinea police opened fire yesterday on a group of students at the University of Papua New Guinea who were peacefully protesting against the alleged corruption of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill. Several eye-witnesses have come forward to say they saw students beaten and shot at, including one case where a student was shot in the head. Why the muted attention from much of our media?
From day one the Democratic Party establishment has been trying to count Bernie Sanders out of the presidential nomination race, using every trick in the book. The party leaders have been readily assisted in this by a tame mainstream media.
English’s own words reveal that he wilfully misled Lisa Owen on 28 May, on ‘The Nation’. Unfortunately, fact-checking politicians who spin untruths is not easy, and requires quick-thinking and an encyclopedic memory.
The systematic corporate theft of workers holiday pay which was first publicly identified on The Daily Blog in February this year, could result in up to $2 billion in back pay for hundreds of thousands of workers in New Zealand.
Upper Hutt, NZ, 4 June – Residents in a State housing community in Upper Hutt are continuing to mobilise to strengthen opposition to planned sell-off of Housing NZ vacant land, and planned further demolition of so-called “un-safe, earthquake-prone” State houses.
Way back towards the start of the year, when questions about what role NZ First might potentially play in and…
When the Red Party courted the Green
There was little romance to be seen.
I have just returned from an overseas trip that took me to Ireland, the UK, and US.
There is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that the 2016 Budget is geared 100% toward building up a surplus for tax cuts to be announced next year. Just in time for the 2017 Election. John Key and Bill English have strongly indicated as much with their “kite-flying” with hints of cuts-to-come.