liberation

NZ Politics Daily - 31 July 2013

The main topics in NZ politics today are the state surveillence of the media, the GCSB bill, and Labour's housing policy. [Read more below]

 

NZ Politics Daily - 29 July 2013: Democracy under attack, again

Multiple spying scandals and sagas show that New Zealand is suffering from a democratic deficit. And it’s not just due to the Government’s contentious GCSB spying reforms – the latest major challenge to civil liberties involves state surveillance of journalists. The must-read account of this is Nicky Hager’s Sunday Star Times exposé, US spy agencies eavesdrop on Kiwi. Hager’s explosive revelations and allegations suggest that the Defence Force is now monitoring New Zealand journalists, and regards some of them as enemies and ‘subversives’ – such as the investigative journalist Jon Stephenson. The response has been widely condemning. Prof Andrew Geddis of the Otago Law School says he’s outraged - see his blogpost, Morale was deteriorating and it was all Yossarian's fault. [Read more below]

 

Top tweets about NZ Defence Force surveillance of media

Below are some of the more interesting tweets I’ve noticed about the Nicky Hager allegations about the NZ Defence Force spying on investigative journalist Jon Stephenson. Please let me know if I’ve missed any good ones - I'm sure I have. [Read more below]

 

NZ Politics Daily - 26 July 2013: The Rich get richer (and more powerful)

The political power and wealth of New Zealand’s business elite is on display in two important media publications this week – the NBR’s 2013 Rich List and the New Zealand Herald’s ‘Mood of the Boardroom’ survey of CEOs. Both publications illustrate the immense power and wealth that is concentrated amongst a miniscule group of businesspeople. According to the NBR, ‘The rich continue to get richer’. Editor Nevil Gibson says ‘This year’s Rich List is bigger and richer than ever before, with the total minimum net worth of members now at $47.8 billion, an increase of $3.5 billion on last year’s list.  Add the small group of New Zealand-based international billionaires and the figure climbs to $60.4 billion, an all-time record’ – see: How to be a millionaire – NBR Rich List . This enrichment is because, Gibson says, ‘The past year has been a good one financially’, with record profitability: ‘The surge in wealth is mainly due to the substantial gains of most investment classes; the New Zealand equity market returned 25.9% last year’. [Read more below]

 

A View of who runs New Zealand - the NBR Rich List

When it comes to the massive private wealth in New Zealand, the ‘tall poppy syndrome’ is nearly dead. While New Zealanders once regarded an individual’s accumulation of enormous riches as somewhat unseemly or at least to be viewed with suspicion, with the rise of neoliberalism in the 1980s and 1990s, and the decline of our egalitarian ethos, unfortunately we are now more inclined to worship the rich. This adulation of the affluent is one of the key political agendas of the National Business Review in publishing the Rich List each year. The newspaper wants us to know about the ‘wealth creators’ and turn them into role models – despite the fact that their vast profits come from other people’s toil. Nonetheless the NBR’s celebratory exercise is a useful project that allows us to gauge some important aspects of the ruling elite in New Zealand, and it unintentionally shines a bright light on the vast iniquitous grab of wealth and income in New Zealand society. [Read more below]

 

NZ Politics Daily - 25 July 2013

The major issues in NZ Politics today are: the NZ Herald's 'Mood of the Boardroom' reports, the Labour Party, National Party, GCSB, Hone Harawira, royal baby, and Maori politics. [Read more below]

NZ Politics Daily - 24 July 2013: Dunne's GCSB flip-flops under scrutiny

First Peter Dunne flipped and this week he flopped. Dunne appears to have changed his mind twice now on the controversial GCSB reforms. And there’s a fair amount of condemnation over these U-turns, and speculation about what motivations lie behind it all. Fascinatingly, it’s political journalist Andrea Vance who has penned the most hard-hitting analysis of Dunne’s latest change of heart– see: Dunne GCSB u-turn no surprise. Not only does Vance point out just how little Dunne has won in his negotiations over the GCSB legislation, but she calls into question Dunne’s principles and motives, saying that Dunne’s original flip-flop – when he withdrew support for the GCSB changes – might in retrospect be seen as merely a cynical attempt to ‘rehabilitate his public image’. The latest U-turn, will, according to Vance, ‘cement the view that he is prepared to trade principles for pragmatics to secure his political future. With that in mind, pundits will watch keenly for any signals of electoral accommodations by National in Dunne's Ohariu electorate next year’. [Read more below]

 

The Latest GCSB cartoons [updated]

Here's a collection of the most recent GCSB-related cartoons. [Read more below]

 

Dominion Post 24 July

 

NZ Politics Daily - 23 July 2013

The main issues in NZ politics today are Peter Dunne's capitulation on the GCSB changes, the Labour Party, and the Wellington earthquake. [Read more below]

 

NZ Politics Daily - 22 July 2013: Labour's doldrums

The ‘Shearer project has failed’. That’s the message on the Labour-aligned blog, The Standard. In a must-read blogpost, On the Labour leadership, one Labour-insider writes in detail about the mood inside the Labour caucus and the wider party. It’s a severe description of desperation and demoralisation. The account paints a picture in which there is ‘a level of disquiet in the party not seen since the Moore-Clark battle of the early 1990s’. The writer says there’s been an ‘emergence of leaks from unusual sources, a fragmentation of the already loose factions in caucus and a spike in feverish late night phone calls as people try to position themselves for a post-Shearer Labour Party’. Furthermore, ‘It is now almost impossible to find anyone in Labour who, when speaking on condition of trust, will admit to supporting David Shearer staying in the job’. Of course, there’s always a need to read such blogposts with cynicism. As is usual on The Standard, the identity of the writer is unknown, although the pen name used (‘Eddie’) is one with a long history on the site, and usually has some spot-on analysis. But ‘Eddie’ could simply be part of the internal plot to destabilise David Shearer. Either way, it shows that all is not well inside the party. [Read more below]

The Press 18 July 2013

NZ Politics Daily - 19 July 2013: Debates about ethnicity, economics and inequality

It’s been a week of debates about economics, ethnicity and inequality. The most interesting story of the week combines all three issues – the controversial decision announced by the Minister of Whanau Ora to shift provision of the funding outside the walls of the state. This has alarmed Chris Trotter who has condemned the whole programme, saying: Nothing Progressive About It: Thoughts on Tariana Turia’s “Whanau Ora” Programme. Similarly, on the right, Muriel Newman says that essentially Whanau Ora is a ‘Maori-only welfare programme’ and the latest change hands the power and funds over to Iwi leaders – see: Institutional racism. Newman also critiques historic and contemporary attempts to introduce Treaty clauses into government legislation. [Read more below]

 

NZ Politics Daily - 16 July 2013

The main issues in NZ politics today are the GCSB, the police decision not to investigate the GCSB leak, Robert Wade and inequality, the Pakeha Party, welfare reform, and transport in Auckland. [Read more below]

NZ Politics Daily - 11 July 2013: Coups, man bans, and pakeha parties

Is there a coup underway in Labour or not? The strange story of an alleged Labour leadership challenge is best summed up in TVNZ’s Labour MPs rubbish leadership coup rumours. What is particularly interesting about the coup rumours is that the main discussion took place on Twitter over a few brief hours on Wednesday night – Toby Manhire has documented this well in his blogpost, The night of the long tweets. The protagonist was RadioLive’s Duncan Garner who sparked the whole conversation and his explanation of what happened is worth listening to here: David Shearer will be gone as Labour leader soon. For a transcript of some of Garner’s ongoing RadioLive discussion of the coup rumours, see Pete George’s Cosgrove proves Garner’s coup claim. [Read more below]

 

Corruption in New Zealand survey [updated]

A crisis of confidence in New Zealand political institutions and politicians is revealed in the latest Transparency International global corruption survey. The results for this country show that political parties in particular are perceived as being corrupt, along with institutions such as Parliament and the media. Transparency International surveyed 1000 people (using Colmar Brunton) about their perceptions of corruption. [Read more below]

NZ Politics Daily - 5 July 2013: Labour's 'man ban' problem

Historically, Labour has been the party of workers. More recently, it’s become focused on ‘identity politics’ – i.e. the ethnicity, gender, sexuality and other individual qualities of people. ‘The personal is political’ is the slogan. This focus is indicative of the ‘social liberal’ orientation of Labour’s now more middle-income MPs and members. The problem for Labour, however, is that in jettisoning a primary focus on working people and class politics, in favour of what are seen as ‘political correct’ issues, there is less focus on the 60-80% of the New Zealand public that can be categorised as working class (depending on the sociological definitions chosen). That’s a lot of potential voters. And most of these voters will be less than enamored with Labour’s latest proposal to implement affirmative action to ensure that more women are elected as Labour MPs – see Claire Trevett’s Pro-women plan rattles Labour. The most significant of the proposals has been dubbed the ‘man ban’ because, in some electorates, Labour may choose to exclude men from being candidates. [Read more below]

 

Top tweets about Labour’s ‘man ban’ [updated]

This is a collection of some of more interesting, insightful or amusing tweets in the debate about Labour's gender rules for candidate selection, (the so-called 'man ban'). The list will be updated - please leave a comment if I've missed any gems. [Read more below]

Southland Times 5 July 2013

NZ Politics Daily - 3 July 2013: The Disintegration of Maori politics

The resignation of Pita Sharples from the leadership of the Maori Party may be a landmark in the demise of pan-Maori politics. It’s certainly hard to escape the feeling that the Maori Party is now terminal. As John Armstrong wrote yesterday, Sharples' resignation may be too little, too late. And Armstrong has updated that view today, with his short piece, Confusion reigns for Maori Party, pointing out that the party faces an uphill battle to rejuvenate, but the leadership transition is a very murky one with strategic problems. Today’s Dominion Post is also calling the party ‘a spent force’, saying that it ‘has been overtaken by events… the tide has turned against the Maori Party’. What’s more, ‘With Labour on one side and former Maori Party firebrand Hone Harawira's Mana Party on the other, it is hard to see how the party can possibly re-establish its credentials’ – see: Tiny waka caught in National stream. [Read more below]

Images of Pita Sharples and the state of the Maori Party

This is an aggregation of images of Pita Sharples and the Maori Party, relating to the issues of leadership and Sharples' resignation. [Read more below]

Jim Hubbard

 

John Moore: Peter Dunne and the demise of New Zealand politics

Peter Dunne must be one of the must boring politicians to have ever entered parliament. His do-gooder, sensible, and middle-of-the-road political persona has made him a non-entity for most of the public. This  despite the fact he has been a minister during the time of both Labour-led and National-led governments. And now sadly, the one decent act he has carried out during his long and tedious career, seems to have been motivated by personal gratification rather than out of any principle of standing up for civil liberties and exposing illegal state spying. [Continue reading John Moore’s guest blog post below]

 

NZ Politics Daily - 2 July 2013

The main issues in New Zealand politics today are Pita Sharples resignation, the Maori Party, Ikaroa-Rawhiti, Maori politics, GCSB, and Auckland and Christchurch issues. [Read more below]

NZ Politics Daily - 1 July 2013: Shakeup looms in Maori politics

Saturday’s Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election result has surely focused the minds of those involved in the bitter divide between the Mana and Maori parties. The most significant outcome of the by-election is that a new ‘Mana Maori Party’ is a much more distinct possibility than ever before. As John Armstrong writes today, it is apparent that ‘the Maori Party and Mana are locked together in what amounts to a suicide pact’ and this can only be averted by some kind of merger or alliance – see: Little joy for Labour, worse news for Maori parties. Armstrong says that ‘the survival of some kind of political force representing Maori in Parliament is ultimately at stake’. [Read more below]