Featured Archive

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  PM averse to public service radio - by Sue Kedgley

  
  
  
  The Prime Minister is becoming increasingly picky about who he will speak to in the media. While happily fronting a weekly slot on TVNZ’s Breakfast programme, and on Radio Sports, and a one hour special on Radio Live, he has refused virtually all requests for interviews on Radio New Zealand. He has declined 174 requests [...] read more
  October 5, 2011 2:14 pm - 22 Comments
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  Paddy Gower: The Mash Up - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Yesterday we had TV3’s Patrick Gower come into our caucus meeting and sing us the star spangled banner. No offense to Paddy, but he’s not the best singer. So I thought I’d put it out to you creative geniuses out there to remix and mash up Patrick. You could animate the scene, cut in Taylor [...] read more
  October 5, 2011 9:54 am - 2 Comments
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  Motorways: the best thing to happen for biodiversity since…the time before motorways? - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  I had to check it wasn’t April 1st, when I saw this press release from the New Zealand Transport Agency: ‘NZTA’s Auckland motorway network a haven for NZ’s rare plants.’ read more
  October 4, 2011 1:53 pm - 3 Comments
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  Frack No! Sign the Petition - by David Clendon

  
  
  
  A lot of New Zealanders  have not yet heard about hydraulic fracturing (fracking), but many of those who do know something about it are worried, and rightly so! The technique is used to extract ‘unconventional’ oil and gas – that’s industry speak for sources of hydrocarbons that until recently were deemed too expensive or difficult to [...] read more
  September 29, 2011 11:01 am - 16 Comments
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  Blueprint for safer queer youth - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  Last week I had the chance to participate in several of the events in the Hamilton Pride Festival for queer and transgendered people in the Waikato. I spent my secondary school years at Hamilton Boys High School, so I really valued the opportunity to launch there a landmark new report by Murray Riches entitled “How [...] read more
  September 29, 2011 8:13 am - 1 Comment
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  Youth! Y U NO ENROL? - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  It is important young Kiwis are involved in the political process. They are the future and have a stake in our democracy. However, at the moment almost a third of 18–24-year-olds and a fifth of 25–29-year-olds are not enrolled to vote in the upcoming election! If you aren’t enrolled you can’t vote and have a [...] read more
  September 16, 2011 9:42 am - 59 Comments
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  “The Year of the Forests” Forum - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  It is the “International Year of Forest” and today I dedicated a forum at Parliament to Kelly Kwalik a forest defender who was murdered in West Papua in December 2009 and to Jose Ribeiro da Silva and Maria de Espirito Santa da Silva forest environmental activists murdered in Brazil May 2011. This is an international [...] read more
  September 13, 2011 6:10 pm - 2 Comments
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  Food Bill update from Sue Kedgley - by Sue Kedgley

  
  
  
  So many people have contacted us with their concerns about the Food Bill that I requested a further meeting with officials to discuss these concerns read more
  September 13, 2011 1:13 pm - 56 Comments
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  Where are you now, Mr. Key? - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  I have spent a bit of time in  Courthouses. They are typically depressing places, cold, hard, unwelcoming; the people angry, fearful, resigned. The Greymouth Courthouse is a new one. The waiting room is well lit. There are paintings on the walls, carpet on the floor. Yet those same feelings are almost palpable, along with a [...] read more
  September 9, 2011 12:37 pm - 19 Comments
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  Calls to Free West Papua at the Pacific Forum - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Genocide is not a word to be used lightly but for the last forty years West Papua has been the dirty secret of the Melanesian Pacific. read more
  September 8, 2011 11:21 am - 6 Comments
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  How many jobs will oil and gas bring NZ? - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  On Tuesday the Government released the final version of its backwards-looking energy strategy. Of passing note is the removal of any overt reference to lignite coal.  Of course bioenergy could be code for it, or ‘alternative transport fuels’ (the Energy Outlook 2010 specifically cites lignite diesel as an alternative transport fuel with potential.) But basically [...] read more
  September 1, 2011 12:30 pm - 24 Comments
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  NZ’ers want proper food labelling - by Sue Kedgley

  
  
  
  Survey results released today showing that nearly two thirds of New Zealanders can’t understand food labels and want better food labelling come as no surprise. Our food labels are pathetic and extremely poor by international standards. They are full of information we don’t need, but don’t contain information we do need –such as where food [...] read more
  September 1, 2011 10:42 am - 6 Comments
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  Right Wing Resistance salutes Skynet law - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  The racist/fascist group Right Wing Resistance have thrown their support behind the copyright infringement act that fully comes into force as of tomorrow. In an email sent out to their membership list the RWR people point out that, “A new law passed by government which has been nicknamed the skynet law. Can work in our [...] read more
  August 29, 2011 3:08 pm - 36 Comments
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  Organic Dairy or GE nightmare? - by frog

  
  
  
  Soil and Health pose an interesting argument about why Fonterra is trying to cripple the organic dairy industry. Fonterra’s Gutting Of Organic Dairying Is The Next Step To GE Farms. Fonterra has taken its next step towards genetically engineered pastures, with its announced scaling back of organic production by half, according to the Soil & [...] read more
  August 23, 2011 10:48 am - 28 Comments
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  Long overdue progress made on mine safety - by frog

  
  
  
  For the last month New Zealand has been reduced to just one inspector of mines person after Kevin Poynter left for Australia. After questioning from Kevin Hague yesterday it turns out there a replacement has been found. read more
  August 19, 2011 2:25 pm - 2 Comments
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  Justice Reinvestment – the high cost of prison - by David Clendon

  
  
  
  I took an opportunity yesterday to speak in the Appropriations debate on the ‘moral and fiscal failure’ that is our prison system.  Vote Corrections for 2011/2012 is set at a little over $1.1 billion, about two and a half times what it was a decade ago. That is an enormous amount of money to spend [...] read more
  August 10, 2011 9:18 am - 29 Comments
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  MPs turn up the heat on cold homes - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Like most Kiwis I’ve rented many cold damp homes over the years. Come to think of it I’ve never actually lived in a warm house. Cold uninsulated homes are as Kiwi as pavlova. Many of the poorest and most vulnerable Kiwis are getting sick from their home and paying massive electricity bills to heat their [...] read more
  August 8, 2011 2:57 pm - 24 Comments
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  Battling battery blunders - by frog

  
  
  
  More revelations about the Exide battery recycling plant in Petone have come out in today’s Dominon Post. Greenpeace has also come out in favour of keeping the ability to recycle this hazardous waste here in New Zealand. This echoed Dave Clendon’s call last week in the house and his post about the need to uphold [...] read more
  August 8, 2011 1:53 pm - 7 Comments
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  Breakdown of Burmese ceasefire - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  On Wednesday, Wellington’s Kachin community arrived in Parliament grounds to protest the increasing violence happening in their home province. Kachin state is the Northern most state in Burma, neighbouring China. The Kachin community told me about the breakdown, last month, of a 17 year ceasefire between the Burmese government and Kachin people. 20,000 people have fled [...] read more
  July 29, 2011 2:02 pm - 6 Comments
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  Ohariu: deal or no deal? - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  There’s been a lot of talk lately on electorate deals and I’d like to put myself on the record as the Green Party candidate standing in Ōhariu. read more
  July 24, 2011 7:51 pm - 15 Comments