NZ Politics
What Lessons Will Be Learnt?
Tani Newton Some time before the 2023 election, I noticed a cartoon that showed Winston Peters on a surfboard, riding a wave marked “Freedom Movement”. Surely not, thought I. The freedom movement had stalled at two per cent of the population. It was not a demographic significant enough to be
Labour Is a Spent Force?
My previous article was headlined Is Labour a Spent Force? The headline for this article asks a similar question with a different emphasis, implying it most probably is, based on its performance in opposition to date. Bryce Edwards, in a recent article on the Democracy Project, gives numerous examples of
And They Chortle No More
Paul Holmes once said the main quality for being a journalist was ‘to have lived’. By this he meant that you should have been around the block a couple of times, experienced highs and lows in life and struggled at something and come through the other side in one piece:
No One Cuddles a Corpse Quite like the Media
The media are pretty much all cuddling up to the corpse of Newshub. It is unedifying and and as predictable as it is pathetic. There are some exceptions to that, however, and one is Heather du Plessis-Allan. She says it’s dead: let it go. We need to let
Delivering the Changes Asked For
As we head into the final week of our Coalition Government’s first 100 days, I’d like to update you on an issue raised repeatedly with me in last year’s election campaign: law and order. The previous Government’s soft-on-crime approach left many Kiwis feeling unsafe
An Open Letter to David Seymour
I’ve noticed two things recently. The first is you want to get pseudoephedrine back on the shelves and, secondly, your opposition to the previous government’s plans to ban tobacco. This to me demonstrates one thing – that you get that prohibition and the war on drugs has been an
Trust Needs to be Rebuilt
Bryce Edwards I am Political Analyst in Residence at Victoria University of Wellington, where I run the Democracy Project and am a full-time researcher in the School of Government. democracyproject.substack.com Democracy is the loser whenever a major media company disappears. We’ve seen a total consensus about
Peters Speaks at NZDSOS Rally
Mark Freeman Deputy prime minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has reiterated his commitment to replace the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid. On Thursday, around 100 people turned out for a rally on the steps of parliament organised by NZDSOS to commemorate the start of the Covid
The Health System That Failed Us
Dr. Guy David Hatchard hatchardreport.com Guy is an international advocate of food safety and natural medicine. He received his undergraduate degree in Logic and Theoretical Physics from the University of Sussex and his Ph.D. in Psychology from Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield Iowa. He was formerly a senior
The Real New Zealand…
Forty years ago, almost to the day, we moved to Southland where we spent several pleasant years I remember very fondly. In those days the local newspaper The Southland Times, along with the two radio stations, took an editorial stance that reflected the general viewpoint of their audience. This was
Are Non-Google AI Models Any Less Woke?
The Ponderer The Brave web browser has recently introduced an AI assistant called “Leo”, to help with various types of queries. Given the widely reported problems with AI tools from major internet companies like Google being programmed to give biased answers and push a particular political agenda (i.e. be
How State Care Fails NZ’s Young People
Jennifer Montgomery Faculty of Health Research Associate Clive Aspin Associate Professor of Health Victoria University of Wellington Recent reports by the Chief Ombudsman, the Independent Children’s Monitor and the Auditor General have detailed the grim state of affairs for children and whanau in Oranga Tamariki (Ministry for Children) care.
Replay Radio: The Crunch
Here is the replay of The Crunch from this week. My guests this week were Ani O’Brien and Shane Jones, and of course, we have the Buddies… Enjoy! SHANE JONES: Ministers And The Media, The War On Wokeism And Gangs NZ First MP Shane Jones drops in for his
Narrowing It Down
Gordon Lightfoot whakatakitimes.nz Local thief and former Green MP Golriz Ghahraman has allegedly been asked by police to cooperate in a time saving exercise, as an attempt to clear up this whole mess she’s gotten herself into. ‘The Ponsonby Pincher’, who now has a fourth charge of shoplifting