liberation

NZ Politics Daily - 27 March 2013: Are DOC job cuts really the end of the world?

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]

 

Dominion Post 27 March 2013

 

 

Tweets about the DOC cuts

Below are some of the most insightful, amusing and important tweets about the Department of Conservation (DoC) restructuring and job cuts. [Read more below]

NZ Politics Daily - 25 March 2013: Explaining the puzzles of political success and failure

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]

NZ Politics Daily - 22 March 2013: Susan Devoy and race relations

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]

Tweets on Susan Devoy and race relations

Below are some of the most insightful, amusing and important tweets about the appointment of Susan Devoy as Race Relations Commissioner. [Read more below]

 

Images of Solid Energy

This blogpost contains various cartoons and photos relating to Solid Energy and Don Elder. [Read more below]

NZ Politics Daily - 11 March 2013: The SOE political battlefield

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]

Dominion Post 9 March 2013

NZ Politics Daily: 8 March 2013 - Political and corporate governance under scrutiny

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]

 

Press 7 March 2013

NZ Politics Daily – 7 March 2013: John Key in Latin America

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]

Images and coverage of John Key in Latin America

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]

David Clark: The political rise of ‘a nice guy’

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]

NZ Politics Daily: 5 March 2013: The Shifting debate about asset sales

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]

 

Southland Times 5 March 2013

 

NZ Politics Daily - 1 March 2013: Labour's bitter divisions

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]

NZ Herald 26 February 2013