Electoral reform is not easy. It’s 24 years since New Zealand voted for MMP yet the four other “anglosphere” countries (UK, US, Australia and Canada) remain mired in First-Past-the-Post voting for their lower houses.
“Indonesian hospitality was given a rave notice this week for hosting World Press Freedom Day 2017, but it was also given a huge black mark for its ‘gagging’ of free discussion over West Papua violations.” The author was one of just two New Zealanders among 1300 media people at WPFD2017.
Bravo Rachel Stewart for taking on the ‘sour Old Men’. It is true that a few ‘grown-up boys’ chose to lecture her in public. That is their problem. Not that I mind being a sour old man. What I am sour about is not the end of ‘democracy’ but the general ignorance about ‘democracy’. That is not confined to any particular gender or generations, but to all those in thrall of what passes for democracy in capitalist society.
This week New Zealand Commerce Commission released its final decision to refuse the proposed merger of two of the countries biggest newspaper networks: NZME and Fairfax. This is a decision worth celebrating, as the proposed merger would have seriously weakened an already diluted quality of news and diversity of voices in New Zealand media.
Interviews that don’t promote heat or light simply champion shadows and that’s what this series has disappointingly given us. Leaders white washing their past using the shadows of time isn’t holding them to any account.
In the wake of the collapsed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), the New Zealand government has desperately chased new trade liberalisation deals, despite calls for a re-think of trade policy and the development of fair and sustainable agreements.
Scientists have been missing in action when it comes to public debate on the big issues confronting us, partly because they are so busy with expanding the total pool of human knowledge and partly because Scientists haven’t seen the need to champion science because it’s self explanatory as to why we need to listen to science.
POOR OLD JEREMY CORBYN. He must know that the worse he does on 8 June the better most Labour MPs will like it. Indeed, an absolutely disastrous performance by Labour in the forthcoming UK general election is about the only outcome likely to convince the rank-and-file “Corbynistas” that their brave experiment has to end. They tried, and then tried again, to impose a left-wing leader on a right-wing caucus. Couldn’t be done.
Whenever simple solutions are proposed to address complex questions, alarm bells should start ringing. In the last year, the likes of Trump in the U.S. and Nigel Farage in the UK have successfully wooed electorates with populist messages that are big on rhetoric, but scant on detail.
New Zealanders will wake up this morning to news that the UK Prime Minister Theresa May has called for a snap election.