One of the great conundrums of Kiwi politics is the Peters problem. Unless there is a massive drop in votes for National, Labour will need NZ First’s assistance to form the next government. And that support will almost certainly come at the expense of the Greens, who are likely to be sidelined as part of any coalition arrangement.
As Prime Minister Bill English heads off to Japan with trade minister Todd McClay in their quest to revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) minus the USA, ‘the silence from Labour is deafening’, Auckland University law professor Jane Kelsey observes. ‘In an election year, they had hoped the TPPA was dead and buried. Now there is nowhere for them to hide.’
A nation that kills itself with the passion ours does is a damaged culture demanding immediate recognition and action now. The denial is beneath us and those who tragically take their own lives. Imagine if we took that $1.7billion ‘surplus’ that National supposedly have and reinvested it into Suicide prevention?
Long term low rent accommodation is the solution, allowing the corporate greed monsters of Barfoot and Thompson to just graze on the fields of inequality while those with little get pushed to the fringes is not a solution.
The Opposition need to act on this immediately before Bill English does it off his own bat, because if he does it before they demand action, it makes English look principled and the Opposition look feckless.
Andrew looked confident, the Party membership sense the change in the wider community, Jacinda looked genuine, Grant looked ready, the Greens looked muzzled, the Staff are gloating and the media gave them great coverage.
What it said to me back then is that even though there are many Green MPs and policies that I love as a Maori, they’re still not ready to step into the space of being our champions yet. So I cancelled my membership.
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.
5 immediate questions that need to be asked here are:
…there is a very clear rational as to why the Government are labelling this report as pushed by “Left-Wing, ant-Government protestors”, and that is because National discovered through the Epsom Tea Pot Tapes and Nicky Hager that their rump voters hate the messenger far more than they are prepared to hate the message.