Unquestionably the biggest political news of this week was the joint announcement by Labour and the Greens of a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ to take them through to the next Election.
China’s current role as the world’s leading industrial nation is the result of its unique history as an former empire, a British colony, a ‘socialist’ republic and today, a new imperialist power.
This announcement has been surprisingly clumsy. Why the hell didn’t they agree on a basic policy platform and which electorates they would and wouldn’t stand in against each other? Those two things could now be the focus of media attention rather than the fact that their Memorandum of Understanding – the most colourless and visionless name ever – is as hollow as National’s Housing Policy.
The Greens and Labour need to look like a confident functioning Government in waiting, that’s the point of this, but it all seems a bit clumsy and rushed.
The Family First report, Child Poverty: Don’t Mention Family Structure by Lindsay Mitchell extols the value of the institution of marriage. According to her, family structure is the elephant in the room when child poverty solutions are discussed.
Once the social media campaign begins to link the TPPA to the warship visit, a showdown will be set and the Government’s only hope is that the legislation is voted in early and the sense of fury amongst the protest movement dissipates.
NZ doesn’t have a functional civil society. Unlike Europe where power is devolved through European law to the states and within many of its states to these “mediating institutions” of civil society, New Zealand devolved power and responsibility directly to individuals, bypassing civil society altogether.
You can’t have a situation where the commercial players are immune from scrutiny while recreational fisher folk are getting punished and allowing the industry to police itself in this manner is a joke.
This is how Bill English generates surpluses to justify John Key’s election year bribes of tax cuts to the rich.
A delegation of New Zealand business leaders is leaving this week on an “innovation expedition” to Israel to build business links with the Middle East’s apartheid state.