I’ve written many times about the sense of déjà vu I frequently get when observing New Zealand politics. It might be some comfort to readers to consider the parallels between Jacinda Ardern and Kevin Rudd (remember that guy?), but there is another depressingly familiar narrative emerging. Despite the fact
Jacinda Ardern is certainly racking up the achievements on her trip to Australia. She has triumphed where few brave souls have ever succeeded: uniting Australia’s two major parties… Against her. In these days of hyper-partisanship especially, there are usually not many issues that bring Labor and the Liberals within
You almost have to feel sorry for new Labor leader Anthony Albanese. Taking the Opposition leadership after an election defeat is a poisoned chalice at the best of times. To be immediately thrown into a death-struggle with Labor’s union power-brokers is almost more than any new leader should be
If opinion polls are to believed, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is near-unassailable. But that’s what polls said about Bill Shorten and Hillary Clinton too. But for the closest parallel to Ardern, New Zealanders should look across the ditch of sea and time, to former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.
In contrast to certain other governments which seem hell-bent on shutting down the resources sector, the Morrison government is pressuring energy companies to put their foot on the gas. Paradoxically, despite an abundance of known gas reserves, Australia is experiencing a local shortage. Partly that is because of the legacy
It’s unsurprising that Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White keeps yapping at Jacinda Ardern’s heels. As I wrote some time back, both women are “young, inexperienced socialists”, both banking on moribund incumbents and an arcane electoral system to grease the skids of office. Like Ardern, White is fixated on
When the Democrats lost an election that their media camp-followers had assured them they had in the bag, they turned their fury outward. Reeling from a similarly unexpected (to them) loss, the Australian Labor Party is turning its rage inward. The party and the labour movement, in general, are setting
New leader Anthony Albanese is driving Labor’s clown car over its first mine after detonating a bunfight with the militant CFMEU and its controversial leader, John Setka. Not since the days of Norm Gallagher has a ratbag union leader posed such a headache for the Labor leadership. “Big Norm”
Patriot Realm by John W Yes, against all predictions, Scott Morrison pulled off the impossible. He won the election. People who had a hunch he might win, and placed bets, cleaned up. The odds were good … bookmakers were certain he could not win. One bookmaker paid out before the election,
For more than a year, right up until election night in May, it was widely assumed that Australia was destined for a Labor government. The UK is in much the same unenviable position: the conservatives are wracked by division, cursed with a weak leader and seemingly determined to be at
As Clive Hamilton’s Silent Invasion details, the infiltration into Australia by the Chinese communist regime proceeds apace at every level. Chinese nationals studying on Australian campuses are spied on and threatened. Academics are pressured to make their content conform to Beijing’s views. Politicians at the highest levels of
Well, well, well, there’s a whole lotta backflippin’ goin’ on over boats. Whaleoil has already reported on Labour’s “significant change in policy”, suddenly flipping from touting for asylum seekers detained on Manus and Nauru to be sent to New Zealand, to allocating tens of millions of dollars to
Leftist women are utterly devoted to gender quotas mostly, it seems because so many of them would struggle on merit. Australian Labor’s Kristina Kenneally is the perfect example of the Quota Queen elevated far beyond her abilities. Kristina Keneally’s political career has been a running saga of gender
One of the Coalition’s big policy platforms in the recent election was energy reliability and price. “Electricity Bill” was a slogan that struck at the heart of Labor’s Big Green plans regarding renewable energy and electric cars. On the contrary, the Coalition – led by a prime minister who
Chris Bowen played no small part in Labor’s devastating election loss, but he is also one of the few Labor politicians who seem capable of taking a long, hard look that the party’s lurch to the far-left. Labor’s policy platform was Corbynism-lite, tax’n’spend, gender ideology
