While Covid is the big C this election, you can also put character, campaign strategy and culture on the list of things to consider. And then there’s the return of Caucus
Read MoreThis election is brought to you by the letter C
Labour
New welfare taskforce is a slow train... but on which track?
Will the Welfare Expert Advisory Group be simply an excuse for inaction, or an exercise in transformation? Sadly, we will have to wait a while to see
Read More"Do it for all of us". Can Labour save social democracy?
Social democracy is in trouble. Social democratic parties have been annihilated in Greece, reduced to a shadow in France and struggle in Scandinavia. Corbyn in Britian and Sanders in the United States have support but can't get elected. Can New Zealand Labour show that it is not only possible to form a government but also to save social democracy?
Read MoreWho controls the past now, controls the future
Should NZ reintroduce legislation requiring MPs that leave their parties to also quit Parliament? The debate over that question involves a battle over what happened in the past.
Read MoreWell you picked your tree, now bark it up
The Labour-NZ First coalition deal proposes taking our electoral laws back to 2001-2005. I don't think thats a good place to revisit.
Read MoreThe numbers are in, let the politics begin
The official election results finally have been announced. They tell us what we thought they would - so now what will they mean?
Read MoreTime for true transparency (& I don't just mean tax)
The lack of transparency in this campaign is galling, but it's not just around tax and water. Under MMP we're voting for a coalition government and it's time politicians started acting like it
Read MoreHave we had enough of austerity politics?
British voters have "had quite enough of austerity politics", says Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn. He should know. He came from nowhere to within a whisker of defeating the Conservatives preaching anti-austerity. Are voters thinking the same way in New Zealand? If so which party will benefit in the September election?
Read MoreIs National Stealing Labour’s Social Policy Clothing?
Or has Labour lost its clothes or forgotten how to put them on.
Read MoreHow Much Should the Government Be Spending?
Is the fiscal pact between Labour and the Greens a defeat for the left?
Read MoreLet me count the ways; three potential governments in 2017
Come September 24, there are really only three likely scenarios as to who could form a government, and odds-on Winston Peters will face two difficult choices
Read MoreIn which universe will Winston Peters become PM?
In a classic piece of misdirection, we're being urged to look away from the recent Labour-Greens MOU and towards a future with Winston Peters as PM. I did, and there really isn't much there.
Read MoreMy sole contribution to the great flag debate
Apparently, we have to vote twice to decide whether we prefer the current flag to something else. So why was one vote enough when we were voting on our electoral system?
Read MoreThe extraordinary likeness of Trump and Corbyn
While Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn are blindingly different politicians, their current and probably short-lived attraction to their respective bases is eerily similar in the world of anger politics.
Read MoreIt's punitive welfare that's pointless, not protest
Protest outside Nats' summer party a necessary act of defiance in face of welfare and housing reforms
Read MoreState of the Nation I - Andrew Little
Andrew Little kicked off the political year proper with his state of the nation address this morning, and it emphasised that Labour is under new management
Read MoreLabour Needs A Civil Union With The Greens
Labour's best chance for returning to government is to form a coalition and campaign jointly with the Greens
Read MoreParty renewal: National's success, Labour's failing
If National can adapt to change, why can't Labour?
Read MoreHow David Cunliffe is like Scarlett Johansson
Labour has to take the blame for creating a bizarre mystique around David Cunliffe's motivations, and his supposedly aloof nature. The problem is not really Cunliffe, it's PR
Read MoreNot another column about the Labour leadership
Time to stop talking about the Opposition and focus on what will really effect us over the next three years: what will the National government do to protect Kiwis from another looming recession?
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