Politics
Everything about politics
News Briefing: 14 May 2025
Republished with Permission Author: Bryce Edwards PAY EQUITY, BUDGET Laura Walters and Fox Meyer (Newsroom): Ministers set to take big pay rises, right after wiping 33 pay equity claims Jo Moir (RNZ): FamilyBoost policy: $14m of $62m spent on administration costs Dan Satherley (RNZ): Pay equity claims: What they are
Luxon’s Pay Equity Debacle: A Political Trainwreck of His Own Making
The pay equity debacle is a wake-up call. Luxon can either heed it or keep bumbling along until the voters decide they’ve had enough.
Face of the Day
The prime minister responded to an avalanche of questions on his way to caucus, where he attacked Labour for “resorting to lies and misinformation”.
Urgency and the Vested Interests
A continued campaign of handwringing complaints from academics and constitution reformers about the misuse of parliamentary procedure will not simply shame the politicians into better behaviour.
News Briefing: 13 May 2025
Republished with Permission Author: Bryce Edwards PAY EQUITY Chris Trotter (Interest): Low pay isn’t a fixable bug in our free market system, it’s one of its indispensable features Edward Miller: Detonating pay equity leaves workers footing the bill RNZ: 'Nothing further from the truth' - pay equity
Andrea Vance’s Hypocritical Tirade: Smearing Women to Score Points
Vance’s article isn’t about defending women – it’s about settling scores. She’s not advocating for pay equity: she’s weaponising it to bash a government she loathes. Her c-word tirade isn’t feminist empowerment: it’s a tantrum from a journo who’s long forgotten what objectivity looks like.
Free Speech Is Essential to Our Human Dignity
Censorship is often less about making the world a safer place for minorities and more about indulging our own capacity for cruelty.
Liberty Can’t Win if It’s Not on the Ballot
Libertarians must act before it’s too late. Because the bigger the government, the smaller the individual.
Red Pill, Blue Pills and the Matrix That Is Capitalism
So many right-wingers continue to make the same, fundamental, category error. They truly believe that the people winning all the battles are communists. Even when they’re capitalists.
News Briefing: 12 May 2025
Republished with Permission Author: Bryce Edwards PAY EQUITY, GOVERNMENT USE OF URGENCY Andrea Vance (Sunday Star Times): The girl-math budget that will cut deep, especially for women (paywalled) Thomas Coughlan (Herald): An ugly week for National MPs (paywalled) Vernon Small (Sunday Star Times): National will pay a steep price
The Waitangi Tribunal’s Day of Reckoning: Time to Clip Its Wings
The Waitangi Tribunal’s had a good run but it’s time to pull the plug. It’s not a court, it’s not elected and it’s not above the law. The review must be bold – recommend winding it down and redirecting its resources to something useful, like infrastructure or healthcare.
Why Erica Stanford’s Gmail Use Matters
It’s time to close the accountability holes, strengthen our integrity rules, and reaffirm that in New Zealand, open government is the only way government operates.