Archive for July, 2005

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  Follow the leader

  
  
  
  When Britain declared war on Germany, New Zealand’s Prime Minister said, “Where she goes, we go.�? Well, National is about to say the same thing with respect to Helen Clark. National has been stunned by Labour’s student loan policy, and is now reacting in kind. National’s much talked-about tax policy is reportedly being re-written so [...] read more
  July 31, 2005 9:51 am - 8 Comments
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  Some compassion, please

  
  
  
  Ahmed Zaoui’s family are applying for the right to come to New Zealand and be reunited after two and a half years of separation. I’m confident that the majority of Kiwis will support their applications. The way Zaoui has been treated, with two years of detention without being shown the evidence under which he was [...] read more
  July 31, 2005 9:49 am - 14 Comments
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  Cynicism

  
  
  
  On occasion, Parliament is a completely cynical place. People who work there think and say to each other things that ordinary Kiwis wouldn’t dream of thinking or saying. One such case was when David Lange went into hospital last week. I’m sure that both Labour and National strategists thought, “How is this going to play [...] read more
  July 31, 2005 9:48 am - 2 Comments
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  A momentum shift

  
  
  
  John Armstrong’s column in the Herald this morning brings home that the political landscape has changed markedly in the last few days. He writes of Labour’s student loan p0licy: Labour has made a king hit. It has clinically killed off National’s far less generous offer of a tax rebate on interest payments, and it is bound [...] read more
  July 30, 2005 6:10 pm - 6 Comments
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  Adam drops a catch

  
  
  
  Great sportsmen rarely make great sports writers. Adam Parore offers a prime example of this in today’s Herald, with a column about the Zimbabwe cricket tour. He writes: The other part of the issue that took me by surprise was the degree of confusion surrounding our country’s politicians, who seemed to have a very tenuous understanding [...] read more
  July 30, 2005 11:52 am - 3 Comments
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  An overhang hangover

  
  
  
  The prospects of an overhang in the new Parliament have probably been grossly exaggerated. Pundits have long supposed that the Maori Party will win almost all of the seven Maori electorate seats but not win enough party votes to justify these seats, on a strictly proportional basis. However, my gut instinct at the moment is [...] read more
  July 30, 2005 11:38 am - 4 Comments
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  More debates

  
  
  
  As I predicted it would on Tuesday, TV3’s method for choosing which leaders to have in its debate is proving completely arbitrary. Act and United polled within 0.2% of each other in last night’s TV3 poll, yet it seems that one of these parties will be culled from the debate, because the network has decided [...] read more
  July 29, 2005 7:36 pm - 14 Comments
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  Winston’s motives

  
  
  
  It is no coincidence that Winston’s extraordinary attack on Kiwi Muslims came amid a string of poll results showing his party bleeding support and losing its kingmaker position. If NZ First gains roughly the same amount of support as the Greens (as most of the last few polls have shown) and Labour maintains its support [...] read more
  July 29, 2005 7:25 pm - 1 Comment
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  The fork in the road

  
  
  
  The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Morgan Williams, yesterday released Future currents: Electricity scenarios for New Zealand 2005-2050, a new report that looks at the future of energy generation in New Zealand. In the accompanying media release he describes the two scenarios his report lays out… One paints a ‘business as usual’ picture [...] read more
  July 29, 2005 7:17 pm - 7 Comments
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  When you’re worried, go ballistic

  
  
  
  National must certainly be worried about the two polls out this morning – it’s six points behind Labour, and still the effect of the student loan policy to be felt… If the hysterical reaction from the Right to the student loan announcement is anything to go by, National is seriously spooked by what the polls [...] read more
  July 29, 2005 7:12 pm - 6 Comments