Meka Whaitiri’s switch from Labour to Te Pāti Māori raises questions about whose mana is being enhanced - not by the decision itself but how it’s being done. What thought has she given to her public duties as an MP?
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Two years into the pandemic, 2022 has become our true ‘Year of Covid’ and as we crawl towards Christmas, the disease isn’t letting go of us… or the government
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Andrea Vance’s ‘Blue Blood: The Inside Story of the National Party in Crisis’ provides broader insights about how Parliament works than just National’s troubles.
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Michael Cullen’s memoir Labour Saving provides one of the most coherent defences of social democracy written by a New Zealand politician.
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Labour’s historic victory was a surprisingly large endorsement for Jacinda Ardern’s first term, but it has now built an unlikely coalition of supporters who will be demanding very different things of the government over the next three years
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It’s been a clean campaign so far, but in the final week could parties go more negative? Where are the potential attack lines for those looking to take votes of their opponents?
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Mike Moore was laid to rest yesterday at his beloved Dilworth College. And so were some of the demons that surrounded him and the Labour Party and quite where he fits in New Zealand politics
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Mike Moore, who died today, was arguably New Zealand’s greatest political success story, despite a career littered with frustrations. He could infuriate and intrigue. He could go off on tangents. But his magpie mind made him one of the sharpest operators around and his heart for the working classes speaks to his remarkable character
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Happy new election year! Each of the parties in parliament will be faced with an array of politics they can’t predict or control. But some things are clear, even on new year’s day. So these are the things they will be looking to control in 2020
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The past year has been one of pretty positive progress by all the parliamentary parties. Let’s take a look at what they’ve achieved in 2019
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Labour came to the only logical conclusion, with a little help from its friends. A Capital Gains Tax was little more than scratching an itch of its voting base, but would have done little for the country and the government
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A review of some critical decisions in Jim Anderton’s life reminds us of just how contingent politics can be.
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Jim Anderton has died at a time when the party he fought for, then walked out on, looks more like him than it does his erstwhile opponents.
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Winston Peters' announcement that he will enter a coalition with Labour gives the 2017 election its final meaning. But it sounds like it was a very, very close run thing.
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Amidst a pletohora of speculation around the government coalition talks, this weekend's final results made one thing very clear and Winston Peters knows it
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While we wait for the specials to be counted and negotiations to begin, we can review what happened in Election 2017. A determinedly glass half-empty view of the results shows the big two parties have plenty to fret about
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What looked like a campaign set to be dominated by third parties now has suddenly been tilted back towards the big two. Jacinda Ardern's election to the Labour leadership makes many new things possible, but one key thing even more likely
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There are still reasons for caution about Jacinda Ardern's rise to the Labour leadership. The fact she may one day have children is not one of them - and Mark Richardson doesn't understand how anti-discrimination law works.
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It's late in the day, but the Colmar Brunton poll finally put the question of Labour's leadership front and centre. Under MMP the answers are complex, but it recalls the twists and turns of 1990
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Former Prime Minister John Key thought a Basic Income was "barking". It seems many countries disagree and are piloting the idea. As new technology threatens the jobs of many, might a Basic Income become an essential polcy?
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