This blog post contains various cartoons, photos and other visual representations of the political debate and parliamentary vote over introducing marriage equality in New Zealand. [Read more below]
This blog post contains various cartoons, photos and other visual representations of the political debate and parliamentary vote over introducing marriage equality in New Zealand. [Read more below]
Posted at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: gay marriage, marriage equality, New Zealand politics
Has the GCSB scandal run out of steam, or was it a media and partisan beatup from the start? That seems to be the view of veteran media and political commentator Brian Edwards in his contrarian blogpost, Of knuckleheads, long-running stories, media beat-ups and Judith Collins parting the waters. The crucial part is this: ‘Will the GCSB affair do any permanent damage to John Key? I very much doubt it. This has been a saga of huge interest to the media but, so far as I can see, of precious little interest to anyone else…. On The Nation yesterday my colleague Bill Ralston described the GCSB saga as “one of the longest running stories I’ve ever seen.” I suspect we may look back on it as one of the greatest media beat-ups’. Edwards, a staunch leftwinger, is very sympathetic towards the Prime Minister over the issue and sides with him about the need to be less up front with the media. [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily – 17 April 2013: Has the GCSB scandal run out of steam?" »
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Having finally landed some direct blows on John Key’s credibility (after so many frustrated attempts) Labour now faces a dilemma. It doesn’t want to give National an easy bipartisan solution to the GCSB spying scandal but the emerging reality is that this is indeed a bipartisan mess and there is scope for some embarrassment to Labour’s old guard in Parliament. The Greens have shown that they are very capable of politically exploiting National-Labour cosiness. That the GCSB may have been spying domestically for many years before the current legislation was passed in 2003 actually calls into question Labour’s integrity at the time says Tracy Watkins: ‘It was a necessary appeasement to Labour's left wing coalition partner, the Alliance Party, at the time submissions were heard on the legislation in 2001. And it was a highly effective snow job. Author Nicky Hager – who has done more digging into the GCSB than any one – said in a blog he was embarrassed to admit that even he believed the assurances the GCSB wasn't spying on New Zealanders’ – see: Sunlight best disinfectant over GCSB concerns. [Read more below]
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A busy week in politics has produced more questions than answers. Many of these relate to the continuing GCSB scandal – but there are also some big questions about government privacy leaks, the Maori Party leadership, and the Pike River disaster. Some of the questions of the week are listed and discussed below. [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily - 12 April 2013: 20 Questions" »
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The GCSB is officially a mess. The only question now is who is going to wear the blame? There are plenty of likely candidates pointing their fingers at each other, but the ‘prime’ target is the minister directly and ultimately responsible for the agency. That is a big problem for National. [Read more below]
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The following blogpost contains various cartoons and photos relating to the GCSB spying scandal and John Key and Kim Dotcom. [Read more below]
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Below are some of the top tweets about the latest GCSB revelations. They’re a mixture of the insightful, interesting and humourous. [Read more below]
Continue reading "Top tweets about the latest GCSB scandal" »
New Zealand and its political system have an international reputation for integrity. But this could come under threat with continuing questions about aspects of the way the country is governed and our financial affairs are managed. New Zealand’s role in allowing tax havens to operate could be a significant area of concern, with new ‘Winebox’ style tax havens being identified in a major international investigative story, involving New Zealand’s own Nicky Hager. This is detailed by Hager in his Sunday Star Times feature story, Money trail leads home to New Zealand. As Beith Atkinson (a senior public servant at the Department of Corrections) argues, ‘New Zealand may be tarnished as the attitudes of tax haven governments become better known. The Cook Islands is substantial player in the tax haven market, and though self governing, of course is part of New Zealand’ – see his blogpost, Wikileaks-like focus on elites’ use of tax havens. [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily - 8 April 2013: NZ's integrity under threat" »
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John Key’s strong public credibility is suddenly vulnerable due to the latest revelations about his role in appointing spy boss Ian Fletcher. There now appears to be ‘blood in the water’, and Key is being strongly pursued not only by the Opposition but also by the media and political blogosphere. A good example is Andrea Vance’s latest in-depth reporting on the matter – see: Key forgets tip to friend over spy job. In Vance’s report criticisms are laid bare of Key ‘lying by omission’ and ‘misleading the public’ over the appointment of Fletcher. [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily - 4 April 2013: John Key's precarious credibility" »
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Below is a selection of some of the most interesting, informative or humourous tweets about the current power struggle between the Government and Rio Tinto about the supply of electricity from Meridian to the Bluff Aluminium smelter. [Read more below]
Continue reading "Tweets about the power struggle between the Govt and Rio Tinto" »
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Technorati Tags: Bluff aluminium smelter, Rio Tinto, Twitter
Below are various images (cartoons, etc) representing the (power) struggle between the National Government and Rio Tinto over the future of the Bluff Aluminium smelter. This post will be updated as more images become available. [Read more below]
Continue reading "Images of the power struggle between Rio Tinto and the Government" »
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The Department of Conservation cuts are not quite the end of the world as we know it but, according to critics, it’s not far off. Opponents of the restructure and job cuts are pulling out all the stops to try and block the announced changes. Labour’s Ruth Dyson claims: ‘This signals the end of the department as many New Zealanders know it’; New Zealand First has labelled it ‘environmental sabotage’, Greenpeace says it’s an ‘assault on Kiwi values’, Forest and Bird says ‘Dozens of hard working men and women will lose their jobs, and they're the people out there every day protecting our wildlife’, and the Greens claim that ‘precious plants, wildlife and landscapes’ are now at risk with National turning ‘DoC into a corporate entity focused on stakeholders and corporate sponsorship’. These are all part of the ‘torrent of criticism’ listed in Peter Wilson and Dave Williams’ Government criticised over DOC cuts. [Read more below]
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Below are some of the most insightful, amusing and important tweets about the Department of Conservation (DoC) restructuring and job cuts. [Read more below]
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The puzzle remains: how can a second-term government – routinely distracted by its own blunders – continue to poll around the record levels it was elected on over four years ago? Herald political columnists are the latest to attempt some answers in Opinions on PM's poll showing. Business editor Liam Dann makes the point that, while many may be struggling, National is actually delivering on many economic issues: ‘No one wants to say it out loud, but for a big chunk of middle New Zealand – homeowners with some job security – these are relatively benign times’. John Armstrong elaborates in a separate analysis giving ten reasons for National’s continued popularity – most of which depend on John Key’s personal popularity and political instincts – see his thoughtful column: How brand National survives the follies. Although there is ‘no mood for change’ Armstrong notes that the Government still has a major election problem: ‘National may still lose next year's election, but only because of an absence of coalition partners. Its real enemy is MMP mathematics. It can't do much about that’. [Read more below]
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Race relations in New Zealand are, once again, mired in controversy. At the political level – rather than the social level, where ethnic relations continue to be relatively harmonious – issues around race, ethnicity and Maori politics continue to be a source of conflict. The reaction to the Government’s appointment of Susan Devoy as the new Race Relations Commissioner demonstrates this sensitivity. The best argued opposition to her appointment comes from Lew Stoddart – see his blogpost, Selections matter. Certainly the appointment of a seemingly unqualified Devoy is rather bizarre, and could be seen as undermining the importance of the Office of Race Relations. And as No Right Turn argues, Devoy’s lack of qualifications for the job possibly calls into question the legality of the appointment – see: Was Devoy's appointment unlawful?. [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily - 22 March 2013: Susan Devoy and race relations" »
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Technorati Tags: Race relations, Race Relations Commissioner, Susan Devoy
Below are some of the most insightful, amusing and important tweets about the appointment of Susan Devoy as Race Relations Commissioner. [Read more below]
Continue reading "Tweets on Susan Devoy and race relations" »
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This blogpost contains various cartoons and photos relating to Solid Energy and Don Elder. [Read more below]
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The State Owned Enterprises are clearly still the battlefield at the moment for parliamentary politics – especially the almost-bankrupt Solid Energy, and the almost partially-privatised Mighty River Power. So which parties are winning? Who’s scoring the points, and how are the battles setting up the parties for election year? And what about the public – how well is it being served by current SOE debates? [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily - 11 March 2013: The SOE political battlefield" »
Posted at 06:05 PM in NZ Politics Daily | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: asset sales, Mighty River Power, NZ Politics Daily, SOEs, Solid Energy
When it comes to taxpayer handouts, this government is up there with the best. $1.6 billion for South Canterbury Finance investors tops the list. But also, elite private schools get bailed out when there are empty public school classrooms nearby, and Warner Brothers pocketed a cool $67 million to solve a problem that, it now appears, had already been solved. The latest taxpayer handout involves drought relief for farmers, not normally politically controversial, but in the context of repeated crackdowns on welfare some are questioning if suddenly different standards are being applied. CTU President Helen Kelly is in favour of the farmers getting support in their time of need, but she questions the double standard compared to beneficiaries in her blogpost, We’re all beneficiaries now. More humourously, Scott Yorke anticipates a government push to break farmer dependency in Bennett announces drought relief get-tough measures. A slightly surprised Cathy Odgers finds herself agreeing with Kelly about the double standard but from a very different perspective: ‘it makes it pretty hard to argue for those of us on the right about the reduction of the welfare state when this sort of nonsense is supported’ – see: Oh Dear – Helen Kelly Makes Sense. [Read more below]
Posted at 04:47 PM in NZ Politics Daily | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: corporate welfare, Don Elder, NZ Politics, NZ Politics Daily, Solid Energy, welfare
Is it ‘a mind boggling blunder’ for John Key not to go to the funeral of Hugo Chavez? That’s the allegation being made by ex-MP Keith Locke – Andrea Vance's Key's Chavez funeral snub 'mind-boggling'. Although the Green might be ideologically sympathetic to Venezuela’s dead president, he has a point. After all, here is a chance for New Zealand’s Prime Minister to join with all the leaders of Latin America in farewelling a figure of major significance to them. If for nothing more than pragmatic diplomacy, the event offers a rare opportunity for the PM while on his ten-day trip in the Latin American neighbourhood. As Toby Manhire (@toby_etc) playfully tweeted on hearing of Chavez's funeral arrangements: 'If only NZ had some senior statesman in the area'. [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily – 7 March 2013: John Key in Latin America" »
Posted at 05:11 PM in NZ Politics Daily | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Chavez, John Key, Latin America, NZ Politics, Venezuela
John Key is currently on a ten-day visit to four countries in Latin America. This blog post reproduces from the media coverage some of the more interesting images as well as the foreign media reports. [Read more below]
Continue reading "Images and coverage of John Key in Latin America" »
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Few politicians have risen as quickly up the slippery ladder of politics as Dunedin North’s David Clark. He’s barely been in Parliament a year, but in last week’s caucus reshuffle, he jumped from being 49 on the Labour Party list, to now being ranked 12 in the party. [Read more of my DScene newspaper column below]
Continue reading "David Clark: The political rise of ‘a nice guy’" »
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Today marks a qualitative shift in the highly contentious asset sales programme with the launch of the Mighty River Power shares offer. As John Armstrong says today, ‘Opposition MPs can keep arguing the wrongs of state asset sales’ but ‘Those MPs will now only be talking to themselves’ because the debate has moved on – see: Ad campaign waste of taxpayer money. [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily: 5 March 2013: The Shifting debate about asset sales" »
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Technorati Tags: asset sales, Might River Power, NZ Politics Daily
Chris Trotter continues to be a thorn in the side of the Labour Party leadership. MPs will hate his column today, which calls into question the integrity of this week’s caucus reshuffle and paints a picture of a bitterly divided party – see: Dishing out rewards to hungry enforcers. Trotter says the reshuffle has been used to reward the David Shearer and Grant Robertson factions of the party and to punish those aligned to David Cunliffe. And even more interestingly, Trotter recounts how some Labour MPs operated during November’s annual conference, by ‘hunting as a pack’ to suppress party dissidents who wanted greater democratisation. [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily - 1 March 2013: Labour's bitter divisions" »
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Technorati Tags: Chris Trotter, Labour Party, NZ Politics Daily
Much ink is being spilt and airtime apparently wasted on the annual conference of a political party that is currently polling at 0.1%. But that’s always been the way of the Act Party – political journalists and commentators love to cover Act because it’s such an interesting party, even during its apparent dying days. To get a sense of this, it’s well worth watching the 3 News coverage of the party’s conference – watch the 2.5 minute clip: Act Party struggles to avoid political oblivion. As well as shouting ‘bastards!’ at TV3 journalists, the colourful Rodney Hide is also shown speaking of Act’s alleged hatred of the poor, Maori and unions – and ambiguously confirming that at least some of that hate is real. On Twitter, the Act Party (@actparty) later tweets to say ‘Those are not ACT’s views’. [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily - 25 February 2013: Act Party entertainment" »
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Ever since Jenny Shipley became the first New Zealand Prime Minister to attend the Hero Parade, in 1999, mainstream politicians have been frequent participants in the public celebrations of the LGBT community. This has made for some fantastic and interesting photo opportunities - some of which are reproduced in this blog post. [See more images bel0w]
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MPs from all political parties – except for New Zealand First – are loving the Richard Prosser scandal. It’s an opportunity for them all to put forward their anti-racist credentials. In fact there is now almost a bidding war going on to see who can be the most outraged and condemning of the reactionary MP and his woeful ‘Wogistan’ statements. Yet isn’t something a bit contradictory about this, when in the same week, the Government announce – to muted disagreement – that New Zealand’s refugee policy will become even more reactionary? [Read more below]
Continue reading "Richard Prosser’s role in making mainstream politicians look progressive" »
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Technorati Tags: anti-racism, NZ First, NZ Politics, Richard Prosser, xenophobia
New Zealand’s relationship with Australia is examined in depth in Bruce Munro’s Otago Daily Times feature, Ditching the big brother thing. In this Munro uses the analogy of big and little brothers, suggesting that ‘We are the aggrieved little brother - discriminating and belittling at every opportunity, constantly comparing to see if we measure up, secretly envious and resentful of the other's perceived strengths and achievements’. I’m quoted in the article trying to explain this unusual relationship. In this blog post, I expand on my arguments about NZ’s ‘little brother’ relationship with Australia. [Read more below]
Continue reading "New Zealand's petty ‘little brother’ relationship with Australia" »
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Proposals to have fewer and less frequent general elections should be seen for what they are – arguments in favour of less democracy for the publicly and less accountability for politicians. If we extend the parliamentary term from the current three years to four years, then quite simply the public has less say over how the country is run. [Read more below]
Continue reading "We need more democracy not less - arguments against a 4-year term" »
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Technorati Tags: 4-year term, elections, NZ Politics, parliament
This post draws together an eclectic groups of cartoons and photos of Titewhai Harawira and her family (especially Hone Harawira). The images relate to Waitangi and New Zealand politics. The images are very roughly in historical order. [See more below]
Continue reading "Images of Titewhai Harawira (and The Harawiras)" »
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Technorati Tags: Hone Harawira, Maori politics, NZ politics, The Harawiras, Titewhai Harawira
Here's a small collection of recent cartoons and images relating to John Key's January 2013 Cabinet reshuffle. The first one is from the Dominion Post, 30 January 2013. See more below.
Continue reading "Images of John Key's 2013 Cabinet reshuffle" »
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Technorati Tags: Cabinet reshuffle, John Key, National Government, National Party
Michael Woodhouse has become Dunedin’s first ever National Party Government minister (albeit currently outside of Cabinet). He’s also a right-wing success story in Dunedin for another reason – at the 2011 election, National beat Labour to win the party vote throughout the city. Woodhouse can take some credit for this historic accomplishment, as he’s worked since 2008 as National’s only Dunedin (list) MP. [Keep reading my monthly column for Dunedin's DScene newspaper below]
Continue reading "Michael Woodhouse – How far will he go?" »
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Should academia and politics mix? Two recent books published about very different topics in New Zealand politics provide some light on the relationship between academic intellectuals and parliamentary politics. Both books offer examples of academic intellectuals jumping into the political sphere, with varying results. Typically, New Zealand has a rather flimsy relationship between the realms of central government and academia. Unfortunately, intellectuals tend not only to stay out of the ‘issues of the day’ but also parliamentary politics full stop. There seem to be push and pull factors going on, with New Zealand society not being particularly receptive to intellectuals – hence academics don’t often make it far in politics – but also the universities are relatively disengaged from current affairs and governance. Academics often appear to be somewhat scared of intervening in the grubby world of politics, in terms of standing for election, being politically active, or just taking sides in public political debate. There’s a dearth of public intellectuals in New Zealand as a result. [This book review has just been published in the latest edition of The Journal of New Zealand Studies - read more below]
Continue reading "Should academia and politics mix? A review of two NZ politics books" »
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Technorati Tags: Geoffrey Palmer, Maori politics, Maria Bargh, NZ Politics, Raymond Richards, The Journal of New Zealand Studies
Warwick Stanton is a Green Party activist and partner of MP Metiria Turei. On Facebook he goes under the name 'Worik Stantonq'. In a discussion today about New Zealand's tallest tree, he advocated that it be cut down! And that the tree be milled for firewood - see the screenshot below. This might seem like a strange demand from an environmentalist - to call for a special tree to be chopped down - but it can be explained by some of the other ideological currents that are dominant within the Greens: Maori nationalism, indigenism, and xenophobia. Because New Zealand's tallest tree is not actually a native tree - it's an Australian eucalyptus. So those that are in the thrall of all things indigenous - native trees and animals, for example - are inclined towards a hostility to anything introduced into the environment from another country. Similarly, of course, Maori Nationalist activist Mike Smith famously took to a tree with a chainsaw on 'One Tree Hill" back in 1994. Part of his beef was that the tree was a 'foreign tree'. Such sentiments obviously still run strongly in the Greens.
For more on NZ's tallest tree, see:
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Is Labour MP Clare Curran a political cyber-bully? That’s what some Labour and leftwing activists appear to think. Although the issue hasn’t yet hit the mainstream media, surely it will soon be reported on to some extent. (Watch out for Chris Trotter’s Tuesday Press newspaper column to see what he has to say. He won’t be kind.) The gist of the issue is that bloggers at The Standard website are making various allegations about the Labour Party leadership – or at least ‘senior’ MPs – clamping down on the internet communications of party members. The original allegations can be read about in this blog post and the subsequent comments: Just how wrong can you get it?.
Continue reading "Clare Curran, The Standard, and the state of the Labour Party" »
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This is a collection of recent cartoons relating to the departure of MP Brendan Horan from the caucus of New Zealand First. This blog post will be updated as images become available. [Read more below]
Continue reading "Brendan Horan's departure from NZ First - images" »
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This is a selection of cartoons and photos from the days following the Labour Party's 2012 annual conference. The images convey the nature of the conflict occurring in the party [See more images below]
Continue reading "Images of Labour's post-conference conflict" »
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Technorati Tags: David Cunliffe, David Shearer, Labour Party
This is a selection of cartoons and photos from the days leading up to and including the Labour Party's 2012 annual conference. The images convey something about the nature of the challenges that Labour currently faces. [See more images below]
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This is a selection of recent images relating to the Labour Party - and David Shearer in particular. They all evoke some important perceptions and realities about the current state of the party [See more images below]
Continue reading "The State of the Labour Party - some recent images" »
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Below is a series of various images relating to the Pike River mining disaster and the Royal Commission's report - all in reverse chronological order.
[See more below]
Continue reading "The Politics of the Pike River tragedy - in images and cartoons" »
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The Electoral Commission’s two major recommendation for improving MMP are discussed in this guest blog post by Alistair Young. He argues in favour of retaining the much-disliked ‘coat-tailing’ provision, and says that MMP would also benefit from a lower MMP threshold than 4 or 5%. [Read more below]
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When it was announced yesterday that
the rightwing blogger Cameron Slater had become the new editor of the Truth
newspaper, both his fans and detractors were probably mouthing the full name of
his blogsite (in an Irish accent): ‘Whale Oil Beef Hooked’. After all, Slater
is a larger-than-life blogger with a reputation amongst his fans for being a
fearless and straight-talking battler against ‘socialism’, and a reputation
amongst his detractors for meanness, irresponsibility and buffoonish
muckraking. Whatever Slater does online always has more than a touch of
controversy about it, and both his critics and fans can probably agree that his
editorship of the Truth newspaper will be fascinating. The full announcement by
Slater can be read on his Whaleoil blog – see: Announcement: Whaleoil appointed editor of
Truth. Interestingly,
Slater says he will turn Truth from a newspaper to a ‘views-paper’. [Read more below]
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Technorati Tags: Cameron Slater, The Truth newspaper, Whale Oil Beef Hooked, Whaleoil
NZ Politics Daily will no longer be published on the liberation blog. The main reason for this is that it unnecessarily duplicates its publication elsewhere online. Currently NZ Politics Daily can be viewed first on the NZ Herald website in the Politics section, or later as an extended version in the National Business Review website on the Politics section. The liberation blog will now focus more on other alternative analyses of New Zealand politics. It will also feature regular posts that highlight recent images and cartoons relating to New Zealand politics. Below is the first installment of selected political images and satire. [Read more below]
Continue reading "NZ Politics Daily no longer on liberation" »
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This morning saw the third inquiry into the Dotcom spying saga, with the Police announcing their own investigation in response to Green co-leader Russel Norman’s complaint last week – see: Police launch probe into spying on Dotcom: ‘Independent QC Kristy McDonald will review the inquiry and advise whether charges should be laid. It's likely the investigation will see Finance Minister Bill English interviewed, because of his role in signing an order to keep the involvement of the GCSB secret.’ This raises some interesting parallels with last year’s Police investigation of the so-called teapot tapes. By coincidence, both issues concern matters of privacy (and communications) and the recording or violation of that privacy. For the authoritative account of these parallels involved and on whether the Police will or should investigate – see Graeme Edgeler’s very good expert blogpost, Kim Dotcom vs. The Teapot Tapes. [Read more below]
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National Standards data has finally been published online today by the Ministry of Education. You can see the information at the Education Counts website. However, this official release has been overshadowed by the decision of Fairfax Media to go for the big scoop by publishing some initial data from over 1,000 schools a week ago – which you can see here: School Report website. [Read more below]
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How much do you trust New Zealand authorities? The current farce over Kim Dotcom is likely to erode the public’s confidence in government, politicians, the police, officials – and in fact the whole Establishment. New Zealand’s faith in institutions of authority has been on the wane for many years now, as evidenced by numerous surveys. For example, one credible survey a few years ago showed that over two-thirds of the public had either ‘not very much confidence’ or ‘none at all’ in Parliament, and three-quarters had little or no confidence in political parties. Similar levels of distrust and disquiet are often found in the public about other agencies of the state and authorities, and even business. [Read more below]
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Does the closer relationship with the US Government mean that New Zealand is forever going to be bending over backwards to please its new friend – even illegally spying on its own residents? The latest twist in the Kim Dotcom saga will illustrate for some the dangers of New Zealand cosying up too closely to the Americans. The illegal spying by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) is the sort of revelation that suggests New Zealand has taken too zealously its audition to become the Americans’ deputy sheriff in the Pacific. Tracy Watkins sums up today what’s been going on with the Megaupload case: ‘The overriding impression is of New Zealand authorities being steamrolled by US officials into a cowboy operation which overrode all normal checks and balances’. Furthermore, she writes that the Megaupload saga resembles Keystone Cops, and that ‘Bungling by New Zealand authorities in the Megaupload case has now reached such epic proportions that the inquiry announced by Mr Key yesterday should be only the start. From day one, when officers carrying guns stormed the Dotcom mansion in a very un-Kiwi way, to a succession of legal blunders, there are now serious questions to answer over who has been calling the shots’. [Read more below]
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Leading political journalist John Armstrong has penned a strongly worded critique of two other political commentators (Gordon Campbell and myself) in his Weekend Herald column, Blogging parasites don't let the facts get in the way. Armstrong takes issue with my Tuesday Political round-up: Shearer hits right note and Campbell’s column, On APEC, and its significance for the TPP talks. Armstrong’s critique is worth reading in full – but it boils down to 1) a strong response to suggestions by Campbell – and amplified by myself – that the reporting from last week’s APEC summit was less than useful, and 2) a vigorous critique of online political commentary (or at least that of my own and Campbell’s). [Read more below]
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Technorati Tags: John Armstrong, NZ Politics Daily, NZPD, Political roundup
John Banks may not get the sack as a minister but even the Prime Minister isn’t going to go out of his way to defend him any more than he has to. When Banks’ chief tormentor Kim Dotcom turned up at Parliament this week, his ex-friend the ex-mayor was nowhere to be seen. Asked if he believed Mr Banks should have shown up, John Key said that was Banks' choice ‘but I know what I do' – see Rebecca Quilliam, Claire Trevett and Kate Shuttleworth’s Dotcom case: PM 'never runs'. And according to Jane Clifton, the debate in Parliament is reaching such levels of absurdity that at one stage ‘Key leapt up, flung his arms in the air crying 'Rhubarb!' and sat down’ – see: Banks of loud rhubarb on Planet Key. [Read more below]
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