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...

Jacinda Ardern Becomes Labour’s Sixth Leader in Nine Years

Posted 11:00am Sunday 6th August 2017 by Joe Higham

The leadership of the Labour Party has changed just six weeks out from September 23rd’s General Election, following their worst poll result in 24 years. Former Deputy Leader and MP for Mt Albert Jacinda Ardern was nominated unopposed to replace Andrew Little, who said that “while 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...

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...

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...

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...

How Healthy Is Our Democracy? Otago Academics Make Their Arguments

Posted 10:48am Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Joel MacManus

We are entering an age of radical politics, where extremism on the left and right will become mainstream and authenticity of personality will trump good policies in the hearts of voters, according to a panel of political experts which spoke at the University of Otago public lecture “How Read more...

Jacinda Ardern Speaks to Crowd of 120 on Otago Campus Visit

Posted 11:09am Sunday 16th July 2017 by Joe Higham

According to a Colmar Brunton poll on the country’s preferred leader, Labour Party Leader Andrew Little is languishing back in fourth place, at just 5 percent, the lowest result for a leader of the opposition since 2009. Deputy Leader Jacinda Ardern placed third with 6 percent of those 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...

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...