frogblog

I wonder if the Prime Minister is looking back at the quiet issue-focused way the Greens have gone about getting their policy implemented over the last 3 years and is now ruing the choices she made putting together her governing arrangements back in 2005 with Winston Peters’ NZ First Party and Peter Dunne’s Untied Future […]

The debate in Parliament yesterday around the use of tasers seemed entirely to be game playing by a government that, up until now had been unwilling to politically debate the issues around tasers – claiming it was an operation matter for police, not a political one for MPs.
Nonetheless, it is an important issue, and worrying […]

You know, Parliament’s question time was interesting yesterday.  Well, not so much all the Winston Peters stuff.  The funniest bit of that exchange was Dail Jones trying to claim that Owen Glenn’s damning letter might be a forgery.
The stuff I found interesting though was the discussion on the Waterview Connection. Russel began by asking whether […]

The cliché goes that a lot can change in 24 hours, particularly in politics. Needless to say I haven’t read them myself, but some poor souls are wading through over 700 email responses that Jeanette has received in just the first 24 hours.
Ask, and you shall receive. It seems that Kiwis do have something to […]

Here are the two clips that comprise Jeanette’s press conference this afternoon. Have a listen, then send your opinion to ets@greens.org.nz

Then there is:

It’s time to have your say on the ETS.

Chris Trotter has a pleasingly simple view on the world sometimes.  If something is supported by Labour and opposed by National it is good.  This is his view of the ETS despite the fact that it risks very real inequities that could hurt ordinary New Zealanders at the expense of big business.  Hence his plea […]

The more I read it, the angrier it makes me. The National Party Energy Policy makes it crystal clear that consumers will be left entirely to the whims of the pseudo-market.
With the likely destruction of the Electricity Commission and the gutting of the RMA, anyone will be able to build pretty much anything they want, […]

I visited Parliament a couple of times on school trips as a child, but nothing as cool as this Hanmer Primary School story ever happened to me:
Hanmer School teacher Katie Wenborn said the Year 7 and 8 students were eating lunch on [Parliament] lawn when a woman began talking about the [human rights in China] […]

There was quite a scene in Parliament today when I dared to use the ‘f’ word not once but twice, when challenging the Government over the way some beneficiaries are treated by Work & Income staff.
The Speaker and MPs from other parties took instant umbrage when in the course of general debate I quoted a Rotorua […]

Occasionally you actually learn something at question time. Not often, but occasionally.  Today it was mostly farce (particularly this exchange between Rodney Hide and Winston Peters.) But we did learn today that While US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not have time to discuss with our Foreign Minister his views on Islam, New Zealanders’ […]