liberation

Ruddslide; but Australian politics remain the same

The election of the Australian Labor Party to government has been presented by some as marking a dramatic change of direction for the country. In fact the Australia election showed that, as in New Zealand, modern parliamentary politics increasingly involves a non-choice between similar parties. Such analysis is to be expected from this blog, but what is interesting is that there are now a large number of other commentators pointing this out. [Read more below]

[political finance] Jane Clifton: Money does not ‘buy elections’ in NZ

Jane Clifton’s political column in this week's Listener is a must-read for anyone interested in determining whether the so-called undue influence of money in politics makes the Electoral Finance Bill necessary. Clifton puts forward a very similar case to my blog post on Political finance and inequality in NZ, which challenges the simplistic assumption that economic inequality in New Zealand translates directly to political inequality. [Read more below]

[political finance] Listener: ‘One law for MPs Bill’ is ‘blatantly unfair’

This week’s Listener editorial brands Labour’s Appropriation (Continuation of Interim Meaning of Funding for Parliamentary Purposes) Bill as the ‘One law for MPs Bill’, and strongly criticizes the proposed legislation for being ‘blatantly unfair’. The editorial says that despite the bill’s tedious title, and combined with the ‘anti-democratic’ Electoral Finance Bill, it will have a profound impact on elections by allowing incumbent political parties and MPs to have a huge advantage over any challengers. Essentially the ruling parties will face different spending rules to any challengers and will effectively have a ‘legalised advantage’. The Government is criticized for trying to rush through the legislation, and concludes that ‘the public deserve better’.

“It’s a Bitter Way with Labour” by Chris Knox

Chris Knox must be having a laugh. He’s just been commissioned and paid to write and perform a lightweight party political jingle for the Labour Party entitled “It’s a Better Way with Labour”. Knowing that Chris has some sort of decent political background, I’m hoping that he’s pulled the wool over the Government's eyes, and is about to publicly release the real version: “It’s a Bitter Way with Labour”. [Read more below]

[political finance] NZ’s biggest election funding problem gets worse

The misuse of parliamentary funds by political parties is the biggest political finance problem in New Zealand. Yet the Government has just increased this funding by $1.7m and has decided to relax the rules on how the parties can misuse the money. It’s a shame therefore that most of the current debate on political finance focuses simply on the (draconian) Electoral Finance Bill, while this more serious issue of 'backdoor state funding of parties' is totally marginalized from the debate. [Read more below]

Douglas to Dancing: a new blog about the Act party

The growing ePolitics phenomenon in NZ is hopefully going to involve a number of academically-rigorous specialist blogs. Possibly the first of this kind has been set up by University of Otago Political Studies student Geoffrey Miller, who has just launched a blog that focuses on the Act party entitled Douglas to Dancing. No doubt this will be an intelligent and dispassionate ‘Act-watch’ website that will add considerably to the local political blogosphere. The site draws and expands on Miller’s Otago honours dissertation From Douglas to Dancing: explaining the lack of success of ACT New Zealand and evaluating its future prospects (PDF) which is usefully downloadable. I’ve read the dissertation, and think it makes an important intellectual contribution to the academic study of party politics in New Zealand – I’ll do another blog post about it in the future.