More years ago than I now care to remember I was the editor of CANTA, the Canterbury University Student Newspaper. One edition caused a problem because I and a couple of my reporters had done an investigation into aged care in Christchurch and found a couple of residential homes where the standards of hygiene and over -crowded conditions were frankly appalling.
The public broadcasting square of NZ is critical for our democracy especially as online simply leads us to echo cambers and people who think vaccinations lead to autism.
Okay, we are 12 months out from the next election, how are the Parties faring, what are their internal dynamics and what possible strategies will they adopt?
What issues will shape the debate and what curveballs might trip them up?
Here is the political landscape going into Election 2020.
If Faafoi was bold, he would buy TV3, gut it and relaunch it as a 24 hour news channel run by TVNZ under the editorial auspices of RNZ.
Last week the Government announced, with much fanfare, the rebuild of Waikato DHB’s notorious Henry Bennett Centre, a place that was quite literally the death of our son Nicky, and of several other acutely ill patients.
Here’s a few unfortunate patterns. Mediaworks is once again in dire financial straits; and once again, some are attempting to assert that this is because private enterprise just can’t compete with a Government owned … company that also works like private enterprise [i.e. TVNZ].
It is over a year since the August 2018 hui told the government that imprisonment was not working to solve the problem of crime in Aotearoa. The model of high security prisons, guards running around in stab-proof vests, top-down security, very limited access to programmes to solve the mental health and addictions that are rife in our prisons and so on, known as the American model, just makes things worse, is extremely expensive and a blight on our society.
If you’re not interested in politics or rugby then you probably got more sleep than I did last night.
…let’s not forget that also in 2011, Key’s Office colluded with the SIS to falsely smear Phil Goff months before the election. Key went on to reward the SIS and GCSB with unlimited power through mass surveillance and a huge increase in budgets.
…Bridges has had to be a dick to get media oxygen and that’s helped National but has burnt him. Over 51% disapprove of the job he’s doing, and remember this poll was taken as false accusations that Jacinda Ardern not only knew about a sexual assault but that she covered it up as well.