“I understand what the people’s priorities are,” the new ALP premier of West Australia, Mark McGowan, told reporters after winning government on Saturday with a 15 per cent swing, the largest swing to Labor in state election history
Read MoreOpponents of the TPP have been vague about their alternative
It’s time for opponents of the TPP to stop the gesture politics and answer some questions - like what is the alternative you propose? Do you really believe we can stay out of the TPP on our own? And do you want to pull out of the agreement after it is signed?
Read MoreNo Victoria, the machines aren’t taking our jobs
Four things we can do after Paris
The ISIS attacks on Friday the 13th in Paris, in Beirut, and when the Russia plane was attacked, were an attack on all modern civilisation and society from Lebanon to France. The target on Friday was the values first articulated on Paris streets in the 18th century that led to a modern liberal revolution and eventually liberty in speech and assembly, fraternity expressed in tolerance and plurality, and equality between genders.
Read MoreWe need to talk about the one per cent
One per cent of the world's population now control half its wealth.
The concentration of more and more resources in fewer and fewer hands has actually accelerated since the global financial crisis. This is no accident. It is the outcome of policy decisions made – or avoided – by political leaders either unable to learn the lessons of the crisis or unwilling to act on them.
Read MoreSuccess - everyone equally unhappy
TPP can help lift incomes in New Zealand but to make a difference for people, there’s a lot more work still to do.
It was a catastrophically wrong decision not to intervene to stop Assad
Today’s refugee crisis is one result of doing nothing to stop Bashar al-Assad after he used chemical weapons against Syrian civilians.
Everyone talks about the human consequences of intervention. But we also need to look at the human consequences of doing nothing.
Read MoreWe can do something right now - refugee crisis
There are ninety towns in New Zealand with a population between 5,000 and 20,000. If each of those towns took ten refugees, and our larger cities took 100 each, we’d triple our quota to nearly 3000 without any going to Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington.
New Zealand would be a proud example of practical, no-nonsense compassion.
Shamubeel is right - Get @X!@ real about immigration!
Blaming the Auckland housing bubble on immigrants is like saying 'cars are too expensive in New Zealand because the Chinese are buying all our cars.’
Read MoreHow to avoid a ‘Sexit’
Solid Energy has a basically sound business that is being crushed by debt. If Greece’s debt sent it hurtling towards a ‘Grexit', Solid Energy can avoid a Sexit.
Here’s how.
What Labour has to learn from the budget
The Left must learn from the political techniques deployed so successfully in this budget. Unless we ask ourselves the hard questions the right ask themselves, and are prepared to prioritise and make some tough decisions, we will maintain poll ratings bleakly far behind the Government's.
Read MoreNational needs a Capital Gains Tax - it's still borrowing to pay for tax cuts
The deficit-funded tax cuts that National gave the high income earners is still being paid for by borrowing.
When National won office at the end of 2008, they had a mandate to give median income earners a tax cut 'north of $50 a week'. At the time John Key made that promise he explicitly pledged not to increase GST to pay for it.
Read MoreStrong New Zealand dollar doesn't mean strong New Zealand economy; it just means our interest rates are higher
What we are witnessing is an old fashioned ideological debate, dressed up as economics.
The high dollar and its causes suit people who have a lot of New Zealand-denominated wealth; a lower dollar is better for producers - people who use capital to earn money.
Read MoreFortune cookies for all parties in Northland
The loudest message went to National. The loudest clap was for Winston (not NZ First). But each party can take fortune cookies from the result in Northland this weekend.
First National. The secret of John Key's Teflon popularity; 'don’t be what we know you really are - Tories.' When National inhabits the centre ground, and behaves like a Labour-lite government, they're hard to beat.
Process, not pork the problem for National
Matthew Hooton’s jihad against Imam Steven Joyce and his pork-barrel Muldonism is legendary.
But in his desperation to find National party flag-bearers to fight the pork-pushers, he’s picked the wrong martyr.
Read MoreThe opposite of intervention isn’t peace
John Key hasn’t made the case for military intervention, which doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
Making the case means understanding what drives people to join ISIS and resisting the temptation to retro-fit our own causes onto theirs.
It means staring at the consequences of intervening - and not intervening.
It requires communicating clearly to New Zealanders, the legal premise for intervention, and telling us what peace looks like.
There are a few myths to debunk first.
Read MoreNous sommes Charlie aussi
There is no transferring blame away from the perpetrators of this crime.
Moderate muslims are not to blame.
It is not the disastrous invasion of Iraq, even if this gave jihadists a foothold. France, like New Zealand, didn’t support that war.
How Andrew Little needs to begin
How many times have we seen shots of Labour party leaders declaring unity while standing in front of caucus members, smiling the kind of smile you produce by sucking air through your teeth?
Labour doesn't need more protests of unity. It needs more open debate.
Read MoreFighting modern day fascism, New Zealand’s fight too
The Left rejects it’s historic commitment to international solidarity and protecting the innocent when it embraces a growing neo-isolationism. It’s all very well to say ‘not our fight’ in the face of ISIS terror, but the opposite on intervention isn’t peace.
Stare at that for a moment.
The problem with our economy is too many tea breaks?
The labour reforms this week reveal a government that has given up on any hope for a competitive economy and is willing to engage in class warfare on behalf of its 'Judith Collins wing'
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