Accusations of “greed” and warnings against “vote buying” flew thick and fast among Christchurch’s councillors during a fiery debate on whether fees for directorships should be kept or donated to charity. Councillors on boards of companies owned or run by the city council currently have their pay donated to
It’s hardly surprising that the New Zealand media remain firmly besotted with Jacinda Ardern – for reasons of both ideology and survival. The latter, increasingly so as Ardern dangles a juicy financial carrot in front of dying legacy media outlets. It’s also not particularly surprising to see the endless
The Waikato River Authority wants Auckland to pay for more water from the Waikato River and suggested up to 10 cents a litre, or $20 million a day. Authority chief executive Bob Penter said the 10c per litre figure is a starting point aimed at trying to understand what Watercare
For as long as I can remember since the introduction of MMP, National has insisted on promoting “Party Vote National”. Discuss this strategy with any National Party MP or member and you get the same answer: “To change the government, people need to vote National.” If they’re in power,
Sir Bob Jones nopunchespulled.com In their typical pack-running imitative practise, our media have had a field-day slamming the Health Minister David Clark for allegedly, “throwing the Director of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, under the bus”. This is rubbish. The failure of the checking system fell squarely on Bloomfield’
After Anne Tolley saw the writing on the wall, it was only a matter of time before the second half of the dastardly duo, Paula Bennett, was shown the exit. Sure she has been allowed the dignity of announcing it herself, but make no mistake, she was told in no
Audrey Young’s article in the Weekend Herald was pretty much spot on. Under the heading “National has credible path to taking power” Audrey pointed out that, with MMP, a small change in party support numbers can result in big consequences. The point needs to be made because there are
The Greens have come out with their financial and taxation policy for the election, and there are few surprises. While I sympathise with their desire to eliminate poverty, this proposal will cost New Zealanders dearly but will, in fact, make only a small difference to those at the bottom of
National Party MP Paula Bennett will bow out of politics at the election and venture into the “business world”. Her decision follows last month’s leadership change in the National Party after Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye rolled Simon Bridges and Bennett. Bennett was also removed as the party’s
In an engaging article last week, Bob Jones commented about human rights: more specifically, fictitious human rights. Quoting a Dominion Post article declaring that incarcerated crims have a “basic human right to hug their children”, he dissected the nonsensical premise and attracted a flurry of activity from readers. It would
At the end of each month, The BFD puts up a new poll with the same question so that we can track changes in voters’ preferences in the lead up to the election on September 19th. Each month we will analyse the previous month’s results so that we can
Gerhard Sundborn covidplanb.co.nz The Cook Islands is almost as much a part of New Zealand as the North or South Island. Like Niue and Tokelau, all Cook Islanders hold New Zealand citizenship. The Cooks is home to 17,500 people of whom about 2,500 (15%) are either
Chris Penk The BFD is serialising National MP Chris Penk’s book Flattening the Country by publishing an extract every day. A lack of contact While the government was attempting to mask its issues providing PPE (yes, pun intended) it soon found that it had another shortfall to cover: contact
I am becoming more convinced than ever that, in David Seymour’s words, something big is happening with the Act Party. There are several reasons for this. First the party’s gradual rise in the polls. I believe the peak prior to this election has not yet been reached. Second,
