liberation

Corporate spies bad; state spies good?

It's been great that's there's been a widespread outcry about corporations spying on political activists. But it'd be ever better if there was a similar outcry about the state doing exactly the same thing - after all the Security Intelligence Service has a long history of spying on leftwing activist groups and individuals. And in recent years the power of the SIS has been extended, with the help of MPs from Labour, National, the Maori Party etc. Anyway, Reading the Maps has an excellent post about The spies nobody's talking about. This asks, if it's wrong to use public money to spy, then where does this leave the SIS?

No Right Turn links

There's heaps of issues that I'm having trouble finding time to blog about at the moment. Fortunately, No Right Turn has done a great job of these anyhow. Check out his posts on:
Making Parliament secular
Labour considering introducing ASBOs
The real nature of Australian foreign aid
Mercury Energy's murder of the poor
Labour's hosting of human rights abuse - plus John Minto's excellent opinion piece.

[ePolitics] Is ePolitics the future of political communications?

Is YouTube the hustings of the 21st century? Will blogs turn citizens into full participants in democratic debate? Is internet activism a fad? Does ePolitics favour the Establishment or the political outsider? These are some questions that I hope to look at in a series of blog postings on ePolitics. This first ePolitics post jumps into the issue with some introductory and optimistic thoughts.

Chris Trotter loses his monopoly

Chris Trotter has played an incredibly valuable job New Zealand politics, keeping alive some sort of critical left analysis within the mainstream media for the last 20 years. He’s a free-thinking guy with a fascinating mind and I always look forward to reading his opinion pieces. More so than most, however, Trotter’s work is incredibly uneven, and some of his columns have exasperated me. Others on the left see him even more unkindly than myself (especially in the old Alliance party), but often that’s because of the mistaken notion that ‘the left shouldn't criticise the left’. And as Trotter would correctly reply, ‘where would we be if we didn’t learn from our mistakes - nothing should be beyond critique’. But as I've said before (here and here), I think that Trotter’s output has suffered during the last year or so from a strange softness for the Labour Party. Wellington insiders say that Prime Minister’s office had a deliberate strategy of trying to neutralise Trotter by coopting him into their discussions and social activities. But as Trotter points out in his most recent, dire column, Check the Left's score, Matt, he now has the solidarity (or competition?) of three other astute media commentators: Matt McCarten, John Minto, and Laila Harre. Yet in the same column he strongly criticises McCarten’s excellent critique of the new KiwiSaver. Trotter’s illogical allegiance towards KiwiSaver is a bit of a mystery. My best bet is that like many on the left, Trotter pines for the good old days when Labour (or any party) had some ‘big ideas’, and this is him clutching at straws and believing that some such thing has finally arrived – and to hell with pesky arguments that the new ‘big idea’ is actually going to be bad for the poor.

Clean or Die Fighting

The NZ Herald has published a few good articles recently detailing the plight of Auckland's low-paid workers. Simon Collins talks to a cleaner who works from 5am to 10am cleaning Qantas House and then 6pm to 11pm cleaning a Newmarket office. His wages of $570 a week ($400 in the hand) also support his wife and four kids. Greg Ansley gives further examples of hard work for low pay: Sue Lafaele cleans from 11pm to 7am six nights a week at the Auckland Airport for $427. Part of the problem, of course, is the failure to unionise these industries. As the article points out, while 'In Australia unions represented about 30 to 40% of cleaners' in NZ the SFWU has an average union coverage amongst cleaners of only 12%. So it's good to see the Unite union now on the scene making much more of an effort. For a more stark but inspiring article, check out the New Statesman's New dawn for the workers, which looks at the desperate state of cleaners in places like London's Canary Wharf office area and compares the state of the class struggle to previous times such as the 1889 strike. The article is by Paul Mason, who has published an interesting sounding book entitled Working or Die Fighting: how the working class went global.

Irish elections: No politics of substance? Create a panic, instead

In response to my earlier blog post on the Ideological collapse in Irish politics, Philip Ferguson has supplied the following guest blog post elaborating on my previous point about how the campaigns of the various parties in the southern Irish elections lack issues of substance.
----
In the final week of the Irish election campaign, one thing has united most of the players: create a panic about the dangers of Sinn Féin getting into government and scare people into voting for your party. While the Labour Party (historically the third party in the south of Ireland) has an actual electoral alliance with Fine Gael (historically, the second main party), Labour leader Pat Rabbitte is now intimating that his party could go into coalition with Fianna Fail in order to save Fianna Fail from coalition with Sinn Féin. [Read more below]

Labour Party regeneration (or, lack of)

Labour is very much a tired party that has failed to renew itself – that’s what most commentators are correctly saying (see for example, Only a purge will work and New blood, renewal Labour's urgent task). And amongst the Labour caucus there is very little depth, which means little chance for leadership regeneration. Therefore Labour is casting around for new entrants, but not finding much quality out there in the wider empty party. And those potential candidates that are viewed as credible – such as union leader Andrew Little and lobbyist Phil Lewin - have clearly seen which way the wind is blowing and recently announced they don’t want to join the sinking ship. Nonetheless, Audrey Young has looked into her crystal ball to see a future rather uninspiring Labour lineup in her article It's Government, but not as we know it. She envisages an incoming Labour Government of 2011 involving Prime Minister Shane Jones, deputy PM Maryan Street, Conservation Minister Phil Twyford, Foreign Minister Grant Robertson, Commerce Minister Stuart Nash, Labour Minister James Caygill (if they can trust him, unlike his father David), Health Minister Darren Hughes, and David Cunliffe or even Clayton Cosgrove as Finance Minister! It’s a bit of a nightmare scenario. Meanwhile, in the dodgy but related world of the union bureaucracy, Helen Kelly has apparently done a backroom deal to become the next CTU president, with Carol Beaumont continuing as secretary, and the PSA’s Richard Wagstaff becoming Vice Pres. Kelly is a lot sharper than Beaumont, but aside from that there’s not much difference between them. Both are Labour-sycophants; both have no strategy for building a fighting union movement – but I guess that’s not what either of them want.

Wealth in NZ: some of us have never had it so good

Increasingly inequality in New Zealand is obviously not just about poverty – it’s also about incredible wealth and luxury for a small and lucky group. Over 64,000 now own more $1m, and there are at least 430 who actually earn over $1m a year. But because so many of the wealthy are now becoming millionaires, a higher criteria seems to be needed to denote those amongst the truly ‘super wealthy’. Rather than being spectators to this rocketing wealth, maybe it's time to let our unease about it turn to anger and change this situation. [Read more below]

Ideological collapse in Irish politics

Ireland – a country with many similarities to New Zealand - is about to go to the polls. And as with NZ politics, there’s been an ideological collapse in Irish politics. Despite having proportional representation in both countries - which is supposed to encourage ideological diversity – in both countries it seems to have had a very homogenizing effect. This is certainly Jason Walsh’s view of Irish politics, which you can read in his Guardian article A poor advertisement for politics. He says ‘the ideological collapse in Irish politics is breathtaking’, and ‘No matter who wins the 2007 general election, the voters will lose’. It certainly sounds like NZ. According to Walsh, Irish voters have a choice ‘between two populist conservative parties slugging it out for control of government supported by their Labour-conservative and radical-conservative partners’, and ‘Instead of issues and ideas we have scandals’, which he says are ‘a poor substitute for politics’. He quotes from a John O'Farrell novel to say, ‘What's the difference between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael? The same as the difference between shit and shite.’ While all this is surely true, there are some interesting things about this week’s Irish election. First, as Owen Bowcott points out in A boom too far, ‘After centuries of poverty, mass emigration and underinvestment, there is a new political agenda emerging in Ireland: how to cope with the consequences of affluence’ – essentially mainstream parties have failed to manage the economic boom, especially in distributing any of the proceeds fairly. Second, Sinn Féin are doing very well (8-10%), and could possibly take part in the next government of the South, meaning that the party would for the first time be in power in both the south and north of Ireland.

By the People, For the People

When the National Government made their notorious benefit cuts in 1991, the non-profit Wellington People's Centre sprung up in response. For a low membership fee the centre has provided all sorts of services for the poor, as well as lobbying for change. The fact that Labour has refused to reverse the benefit cuts, and that poverty and inequality have increased under Labour, means that agencies and cooperatives like the People's Centre are needed more than ever. Following on from Labour's neoliberal Budget, it's timely that Radio NZ-National are broadcasting a Spectrum documentary about the Centre, called By the People, For the People, which you can hear on Sunday 27 May at 12:15pm.

SiCKO - arguing for a society based on need not profit

Michael Moore is having another go at the US Government and ruling class with his new film SiCKO. This time he’s shinning the light on the profit-driven health system in the US. From the sound of reviews, Moore has built a clear, powerful and disturbing critique of privatised health. Ultimately Moore says he’s arguing for a health system where care ‘doesn't depend on your premiums, it depends on your needs’, which is nicely reminiscent of Marx’s ideal of a society which is structured along the lines of ‘From each according to their means, to each according to their needs’. Hopefully Moore has this sort of thing in mind too. As he says himself to Reuters, the film ‘was more about the US government and society at large than it was about health’, and 'I only use healthcare as the vehicle through which to explore a much larger issue.' He also points out that 'It is not a Democrat film…. They have been bought too.' From reading early reviews it sounds like the film has Moore’s usual sarcasm, humour and witty commentary. But where is NZ’s Michael Moore? Will NZers see this film and realise that our own health system has shifted year-by-year under Labour and National towards this sickening model.
You can view the promo posters for the film: This might hurt a little and What seems to be the problem?
See the Guardian first review of the film: Moore's Sicko stunt is brilliant and Oh yes, he's got an agenda. Also see: Moore defies US ban threat and Moore film attacks US health care

The KiwiSaver con

Apart from a lot of discussion about the nuts and bolts of the new KiwiSaver, there has been little analysis of what the new scheme really means for society, and who will really benefit. Labour’s new grand plan actually represents a tax on workers, backdoor privatization of social security, lower wages, and much greater economic inequality in the future. [Read the full post below for details]

Responses to Budget: from left to right

Responses to the Labour Government’s 2007 Budget mostly fall into a left-right continuum – with critics voicing leftwing or pro-poor concerns, while its supporters use rightwing or pro-business arguments in its favour. Essentially, the left critics are Laila Harre, Matt McCarten, Susan St John, and Chris Trotter. The Budget supporters aren’t necessary all rightwing, but Jim Anderton, the CTU, EPMU, Jordan Carter, the NZ Institute, and Colin James have used rightwing, pro-business or economically-orthodox arguments in its support . [Read more detail below]

Iraq update

A retired British army general has recently argued that the US and its allies should ‘admit defeat’ and leave Iraq. He also says that Iraq's insurgents are justified in opposing the occupation. Save the Children’s annual State of the World’s Mothers Report [PDF] says Iraq was once ‘the envy of the Arab world’ for its health statistics and low child mortality, but thanks to sanctions and invasion is now on a par with sub-Saharan Africa, with very high child mortality. As NoRightTurn sarcastically replies, But hey, at least those babies died free, right? Meanwhile, Alternet has pointed out that a Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation. It was hardly reported in the west, but recently 144 Iraqi MPs (out of 275) signed a legislative petition calling on the United States to leave their country.

A pro-business budget

No one has any interest in admitting it, but Michael Cullen’s 2007 Budget has been very much a pro-business one. Here are its main features:

• A drop in business tax from 33% to 30% (symbolically, this is the first corporate tax cut since Roger Douglas was finance minister) at the cost of $2.1b
• Tax credits for business research and development of $630m
• A new tax exemption for NZ-controlled foreign companies to globalise at a lower tax and compliance cost (costing taxpayers $112.5m)
• An additional subsidy to business of $87.8m for the Market Development Assistance Scheme to encourage firms to take new products to new markets
• $53m to boost participation in industry training
• A reduction in the tax rate from 33% to 30% for savings portfolio investment entities, (costing taxpayers $180m)
• A tax-free gifting to charity policy to promote private philanthropy (which is a wholesale steal of National Party policy)
• Legislation to allow local authorities to make consumers pay higher petrol prices to fund new transport projects (which is a very regressive taxation policy that will hit the poor hardest)
• A cancellation of the previous announcement to move the tax thresholds for inflation (which particularly hits low income earners - as Susan St John points out: ‘Inflation has been cruel in producing rising average tax rates for low-income workers. The first tax bracket has not been adjusted for inflation since it was set in the late 1980s’)
• A new KiwiSaver scheme which will most benefit employers and the rich – as argued in my posts on Labour’s left-sounding policies and KiwiSaver: actually quite nice for business.

As NoRightTurn correctly argues, ‘Labour's departure from its roots and its capture by the rich couldn't be any clearer.’

KiwiSaver: actually quite nice for business

As I argued in the post on Labour’s left-sounding policies, KiwiSaver is not nearly as progressive as the Labour Party makes out. Low-income earners will not be able to afford to take part in the scheme, and the government’s subsidies will therefore go towards more wealthy New Zealanders. Also, KiwiSaver will operate as a subsidy to employers. Michael Cullen and Treasury have also confirmed this - Cullen says that the scheme will mean that employers can argue that their contribution to it is in effect a pay rise and thus KiwiSaver will reduce wage rise demand. He says that KiwiSaver will therefore inevitably place downward pressure on pay. It is also worth pointing out that:

• Employers will receive a government subsidy to offset the cost – up up to $20 per week per employee
• Employer contributions are tax free (up to 4 per cent), which means for every $1 they contribute to employees only costs them 67c.
• The change would be phased in at only 1% a year over four years
• The benefits to employees will fall mostly to the wealthy (the Government point out that someone on a salary of $100,000 will be better off by about $100 a week)
• Cullen estimated the change would impose about a 1% rise in the cost of employers' payrolls by 2011-2012, which he points out is significantly less than the 9% that employers pay in Australia for the scheme
• Employers will benefit most through the fact that the scheme will futureproof the economy against an increasingly untenable current account deficit.

See: Cullen's gamble for the future

Cullen’s fiscally-conservative budget

Many commentators focus on the increased spending by this Labour-led Government, suggesting that it’s a big spending administration – because the budget includes expenditure of about $54b. On this basis, Labour's supporters therefore suggest that it’s a generous and progressive Government, and similarly its critics suggest it’s a profligate and old-fashioned one. But the reality is that it’s neither. The all important indicator of government spending levels is the ratio-of-spending-to-GDP – and in this Government’s case, it’s still a very low ratio, and possibly still lower than the ratio that under the financial governance of Ruth Richardson. So in reality Labour is still running a very fiscally conservative/rightwing government.

Christian craziness (Part 9)

With United Future MP Gordon Copeland announcing that he's jumping ship to set up yet another new Christian political party, the public must be thinking that the Christian politicians are the most flaky around. And they’d be right. Copeland is simply following a long line of controversial Christian politicians that include: Graham Capill (leader of Christian Hertitage Party, now in jail for sex crimes), Graeme Lee (National MP who left to set up the Christian Democrats), Frank Grover (Alliance MP who left to join the Christian Heritage Party), Merepeka Raukawa-Tait (Christian Heritage candidate well known for her anti-smacking, pro-gay views, and notorious for attending strip clubs), and Philip Field (Labour MP also currently setting up a Christian Party), and then there’s the Destiny Church party. All of these Christian parties are a recent phenomenon... [Read more below for a recent history of Christianity in NZ Politics]

[political finance] Freakonomics: money does not buy elections

The bestselling economics book, Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner has a section on the quickly diminishing marginal returns of election campaign spending. In this, they disprove the widely-held truism that 'money buys elections'. First they admit that there is a correlation between money and politics: those candidates or parties that spend the most often win. But they dispute the commonly held assumption that the spending causes the win. Instead they point out that anticipated win - or possible win - will often attract the campaign money. When candidates obtain large amounts of money it is usually because they are seen to be the best candidate or the one mostly likely to win. Based on Levitt's study of campaign spending by the same candidates against the same competitors over decades of US congressional elections, it was found that 'the amount of money spent by the candidates hardly matters at all. A winning candidate can cut his spending in half and lose only 1% of the vote. Meanwhile, a losing candidate who doubles his spending can expect to shift the vote in his favor by only that same 1%'. The Freakonomics authors conclude that campaign spending has a very small impact on election outcomes, regardless of who does the spending.

Labour’s left-sounding policies

Are the KiwiSaver and Working for Families policies as progressive as the Labour Party makes out? The Government heralds such schemes as benefiting the poor, but on closer investigation these policies actually put more resources into the middle-class or even employers, and the desperately poor are once again trodden on by the Labour Party. [Read more below]

Maori Party to favour privatization?

The Maori Party might be in favour of the partial privatisation of public assets – if it involves a shift of ownership to iwi corporations, according to co-leader Pita Sharples – see SOE shares part of Maori Party 'budget'. Sharples suggests that Treaty settlements could include the provision of shares in State-Owned Enterprises. In particular he suggests that Tainui should be given partial ownership of the generator Mighty River Power. Such policies are indicative that the party might be able to do deals with National over Labour (which rules out such privatisations). In general, it is difficult to discover the economic policies of the Maori Party, but today they intend to release an Alternative Budget to rival Cullen’s. It’d be interesting, as Sharples, so far appear to be rather economically rightwing – having pushed for private prisons, advocating for Maori business interests, and the work-for-the-dole scheme.

Italy’s Catholic and ex-communist parties merge

Italy’s former Communist Party has shifted further to the right, in an attempt to create a ‘broad church’ centre-left party similar to the US Democratic Party. The Italian CP was once the biggest CP in the West, with 1.8m members. In the early 1990s it ditched its (Stalinist) communism, renaming itself the Democratic Left Party. Now it is ditching the ‘left’ part altogether and merging with the Catholic Democracy and Freedom party (or ‘Margherita’), to be just the Democratic Party. The new party will be the biggest in Italy – in the last election ex-communist party gained 17.5% of the vote, and Margherita (led by Francesco Rutelli) won 10.7% - and will have a majority of ministers in the Romano Prodi Government. In fact, Prodi is the driving force behind the project, and is also advancing the merger of centre and left parties at the European level – essentially wanting the European left to take the form of the American democrats. However it’s interesting that even The Economist points out the de-radicalised nature of the new formation: ‘Mr Prodi wants the Democratic Party to be like its American namesake, but it will not be. Its leftmost tip may match the Democrats; but on the right it takes in members of Mr Rutelli's party who look more Republican.’ See also: Financial Times: Italian centre-left parties merge; and WSWS: Italy’s former Communist Party has shifted further to the right

SiCKO? NZ's public healthcare comedy

Has the public health system really improved under Labour? Obviously the Health Minister Pete Hodgson thinks so, declaring that 'despite recent bad publicity, most people remain confident in the health system because of their own positive personal experiences'. See - Health system working despite errors - Hodgson. However, building on previous blog postings about the inadequacy of the health system, the post below covers some recent news stories, which add up to indicate that Labour has failed to deliver. It seems that the political topic of health is no longer an electoral area of advantage for the Government, and perhaps it'll be one of the reasons for Labour being turfed out at the 2008 election. Maybe someone will make a 'comedy' documentary about this to rival Michael Moore's new SiCKO. [Read more below]

Step to the right with Labour, National, NZ First, Maori Party, and Chris Trotter

There is a consensus building in favour of a clampdown on gangs in New Zealand, and most of the methods advocated involve the significant erosions of our civil liberties. This conservative consensus involves both parliamentary and non-parliamentary forces, as well as, sadly, 'the left's' Chris Trotter. [Read more below]

The rich, the poor, and the shameful

The Red Cross regards the poverty situation in New Zealand so seriously that it is about to 'start serving up breakfast to the country's growing underclass' according to news reports. The charity says that it is 'interesting' - which is perhaps an euphemism for 'shameful' - that an 'agency, which was well known for its work in grief and poverty-stricken regions such as Darfur, had identified a need within our own country'. It says a programme is urgently needed in the 270 decile 1 schools because 10% of children are arriving to school hungry. Meanwhile the Labour Government has announced that 'it is prepared to work with South Island high country leaseholders who find new rents too high', because these (rather wealthy?) farmers are suddenly finding that their leases are being subjected to market rates after 11 years without adjustment. Labour has indicated their willingness to step in provide subsidies in the form of lower rents. Yet Labour's traditional and (taken for granted?) constituency of low-income earners are struggling to keep up with quickly rising prices - according to the article Families stretched as bills keep coming, which says 'Massive price jumps in household essentials, with some basics up 34 per cent, are forcing middle-income Kiwi families on to the breadline - and have swallowed up the extra funds from the Government's Working for Families scheme.' As a consequence, one agency says they have seen a 210% increase in struggling families needing help.

'Red April' and 'Red May' in Latin America

During the last week Venezuela has quit the IMF and World Bank. President Hugo Chávez paid off his country's debts with the IMF a few years ago, and now says it wants nothing more to do with 'institutions dominated by US imperialism'. Instead he plans to set up The Bank of the South (or Banco del Sur) which will lend to Latin American countries. Chávez is also threatening to nationalise all the other private banks as well as Venezuela's biggest steel firm unless they operate on with more social objectives. Earlier in the week he took control of the last privately run oil operations - effectively forcing the multi-national oil giants to accept a minority stake in joint ventures. Meanwhile, in nearby Brazil, 'Red April' has just taken place. According to the Economist article on Agrarian reform in Brazil, the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (or MST), 'sponsor a nationwide bout of land invasions, takeovers of buildings and other protests' every April. Apparently, 'In the past the main targets were local land barons. More and more they are big companies, be they Brazilian or foreign'. This 'championship of the downtrodden has something like 1,500 full-time organisers who focus on expropriating resources that are not fulfilling their 'social function'. The Economist says that in Brazil '1% of owners controlled 45% of farmland'.

Labour's modernisation of the military

Labour has launched a '10-year, $8 billion plan to re-equip and man' the Defence Forces. This and other facts about the NZ military have just come to light, with the release of an independent report on the health of the defence forces. Most significantly, these facts shed some light on what the Labour Government's expenditure priorities have been since coming to power, as well as its orientation towards militarism and the armed forces. It seems that after significant cuts to defence spending by the National Government, Labour has been keen to modernise the military by way of massive spending increases on equipment. [See more below]

The politics of football

A recent Guardian article entitled Anyone want to play on the left?, asked whether footballing socialists are becoming an almost extinct breed in the UK and beyond? Sport and politics don't always have to go together of course, as the article admits: 'This is only football, after all. It doesn't have to mean anything. But it's usually much more fun when it tries.' In particular, it argues that 'Historically, football's politics, such as they are, have tended to loiter on the left wing', but the modern marketised model has meant that 'the working man's ballet' may be turning into 'the middle-class man's ballet'. [See more below]

The lessons of the French non-revolution: plus ça change…

What is there to learn from the recent presidential campaign in France? There have been no shortage of commentators that have celebrated the supposed return to an ‘exhilarating’ and clear left versus right battle. But rather than being a return to traditional politics, the election actually represented more of the same: a continued decline of class politics, an increased erosion of political difference, an increased personality-obsession, and further increase in the decrepit state of the established left forces in France. [Read more below for an analysis of modern French politics]

A bouquet for Neil Finn

The arts and culture industry has become rather sycophantic towards Helen Clark and the Labour Party, and it's an unhealthy relationship based on very little. So it's good to see musician Neil Finn showing some dissent. He's been reported as speaking out in a 'blistering attack' on the PM who is also the Arts and Culture Minister. He says 'It sort of sickens me to see Helen Clark getting up at the music awards and taking bows', and that a false idea exists that 'It's like New Zealand music is taking over the world and it's all because of Helen'. No doubt Finn's anger towards her is based partly on Clark's effective sinking of the project that Finn was pushing to create a non-commercial youth radio network. Private radio feared the competition, so Clark dumped it. Finn should be happy to receiving the Chorus of disapproval from the conservative music industry 'spokespeople' like Howard Morrison ('I'm so bloody mad') and Ray Columbus ('God help Kiwi music when she retires... in my book she can take as much credit as she likes'). I'll write a future post on the topic - but essentially Clark has been attempting to leave a legacy or an association with cultural and national identity, in lieu of doing much else for the country.

The dismal state of modern accident compensation

The Labour Party claims to have 'saved' the Accident Compensation Compensation scheme after the previous National Government had slowly eroded its value to employees, and opened parts of its operations to competition. But in practice Labour has actually done little to improve ACC. The original idea of the scheme was a social contract between workers, employers and the government, whereby workers gave up the right to sue for injuries on the premise that the state would give adequate compensation on a no-faults basis. But cost of worker-paid premiums have risen and the payouts have become meagre. For instance, it was reported today that a 29-year-old has just received an ACC payout of only $6000 for the loss of her right leg following a botched routine knee operation. Chris Townrow had to wait five years for the botched surgery. She says in today's media report, 'It has stuffed my whole life up. If this [$6000] amount is what I am worth, it's not much, is it?' I doubt she'll be voting Labour at the next election. Nor National.

The eco-business Green Party

The Green Party is fast shifting to the right, advocating market-based environment policies, and signalling its desire to consider going into a National-led coalition government. In this article republished from the Spark newspaper, I investigate this change. [Read more below]