Politics

Big shout out to student voters!

Posted 11:07am Sunday 20th August 2017 by Professor Janine Hayward

The election campaign just got a whole lot more exciting. The promotion of Jacinda Ardern to leader of the Labour Party has breathed life into an otherwise very lifeless campaign. More importantly, it’s got students on campus talking about politics. Ardern is being described as ‘the Read more...

The ‘Jacinda Effect’ Causes Spike in Campaign Volunteers – and Not Just for Labour

Posted 10:30am Sunday 20th August 2017 by Joel MacManus

The Dunedin North Labour Party say they have signed up an extra 52 campaign volunteers since Jacinda Ardern was made leader, as both major parties report an increased interest in this election campaign. Labour Party Campaign Manager for Dunedin North Jarred Griffiths says that during the 2017 Read more...

Metiria Turei Resigns: From the Media’s Hard Questions to Labour’s Nakedly Evil Disownment

Posted 11:13am Sunday 13th August 2017 by George Elliott

It’s an utter shame that Metiria Turei has gone. It reflects something dark (i.e. politics as usual) in both the left and the news media in this country. The media going hard on Turei is part of the package deal. These past couple of weeks, what struck me has not been RNZ’s Susie Read more...

Labour’s Leadership Change a Magnificently Risky Move, But One That Could Pay Off

Posted 11:08am Sunday 6th August 2017 by George Elliott

I was preparing to write a piece about how Andrew Little should not resign as leader of the Labour Party until after the election, an election that they would surely lose. It was too late to change things up, I thought. Things were looking dire for Labour. The polls showed them in the low Read more...

Authentic Fakery: Who is the new US ambassador to New Zealand?

Posted 11:22am Sunday 30th July 2017 by George Elliott

It’s more obvious when an American is not being genuine. They can’t hide it from us. Chiefly, it’s the accent. We’re so conditioned to hearing it try and sell us things. If the transatlantic Beeb accent broadcasts the truth with authority, the piercing North American accent Read more...

Poland Pulls Back from the Authoritarian Brink after Protests and EU Condemnation

Posted 11:16am Sunday 30th July 2017 by George Elliott

Poland, once the poster child of the post-1989 democratic wave against communism in Europe, has been going through rough political times. Thousands of Poles have flooded city streets to protest the government’s continued effort to limit the independence of the country’s judiciary. Read more...

Opinion: Don’t be a Sucker – Vote or Get Voted on

Posted 11:21am Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Isaac Yu

It’s that happy time that only comes around once every three years. ‘It was the best of times, the most shitposty of times,’ the famous proclamation tells us. A time of soap box Facebook statuses on WHY. YOU. SHOULD. VOTE. Yet, despite all the internet slacktivism about how Read more...

Government Searches For Way Around Regulations On Coal Mining

Posted 11:45am Sunday 16th July 2017 by George Elliott

Forest and Bird, says newly released documents show the government is working on “secret” plans to get around environmental protections to enable contentious coal mining. The documents, released to the environmental NGO through the Official Information Act (OIA), reveal that current Read more...

A Game-Changing Revelation in Trump Administration’s Russia scandal? Or More Noise?

Posted 11:39am Sunday 16th July 2017 by George Elliott

The Trump-Russia drama escalated last week after the US President’s son released an email chain from June 2016 in which he eagerly discussed plans to receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton. In the emails, publicist Rob Goldstone tells Donald Trump Jr. that there is dirt on the Read more...

Winnie's man in Whangarei: Shane Jones joins NZ First

Posted 11:49am Sunday 9th July 2017 by George Elliott

Former Labour MP Shane Jones has joined NZ First and will run in the Whangarei electorate in the coming election. The former cabinet member under Helen Clark, who retired in May 2014 and is usually known solely for his scandals, will become a conspicuous lieutenant for Winston Peters. Since Read more...