Helen Clark Archive

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  UKUSA spying agreement continues to baffle - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  I’ve long been trying to find out what New Zealand has signed up to under the UKUSA electronic spying agreement. It has been a somewhat Kafkaesque exercise because the government wouldn’t directly admit the existence of the agreement, or whether New Zealand had signed up. read more
  July 2, 2010 11:34 am - 25 Comments
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  Think our native forests were safe? Think again. - by frog

  
  
  
  “Agricultural intensification over the past 10 years has led to the highest rate of native vegetation loss since European colonisation.” Landcare Research Annual Report read more
  November 2, 2009 11:29 am - 18 Comments
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  Russel checking out the new digs - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
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  May 16, 2009 6:57 pm - 12 Comments
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  Getting Personal: The Passing of the Cullen Clark Era - by frog

  
  
  
  Helen Clark and Michael Cullen have given their valedictory speeches and—after nine long years of running the show—have left the Parliamentary stage of power. Cullen’s parting words on sustainability all seemed to this frog a lesson learned too late to be of any consequence. I asked our Green MPs for their thoughts on the passing [...] read more
  May 12, 2009 8:03 am - 1 Comment
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  No Refuge for Labour’s Record On Jailing Refugees - by frog

  
  
  
  It is great news to me that an Iranian Christian convert -  after much suffering in New Zealand has finally been given refuge.  Ali Panah, a man so concerned at being sent back to Iran after he converted from Islam to Christianity, starved for seven weeks in 2007 to bring attention to his and other Iranians’ [...] read more
  February 18, 2009 2:16 pm - 57 Comments
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  A ship leaving a sinking rat? - by frog

  
  
  
  Russel’s reiteration of the Greens long-standing position on the Winston Peters scandals – that the Greens would probably not be able to sit at a cabinet table with Peters unless everything was cleared up – seems to have got a lot more media coverage this time around than previously. And Helen Clark seems to have [...] read more
  November 4, 2008 10:11 am - 7 Comments
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  Clark’s poor advice - by frog

  
  
  
  Even if voters’ choice were simply a Labour-led government or a National-led government Helen Clark’s ‘advice‘ yesterday would be patently false given the Greens’ preference announcement last week: When she was asked at a meeting with Foodstuffs workers if they should vote strategically to ensure a Labour coalition, she said the best way was to [...] read more
  October 25, 2008 8:17 am - 13 Comments
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  Compare and contrast - by frog

  
  
  
  Helen Clark’s choice of transport, as covered in virtually every newspaper today, to get her to the Invercargill Working Men’s club yesterday was a Beechcraft Super King Air commandeered from the Air Force’s Ohakea base. Meanwhile, covered by just the one newspaper, the Gulf News (circulation 2,806), is Russel and the Greens’ Auckland Central Candidate [...] read more
  October 8, 2008 1:02 pm - 7 Comments
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  Wherefore art thou? - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s amusing to see Helen Clark crooning under our Green Party balcony after a weekend of Green successes, including an improved poll result and a well received campaign launch. Russel’s response in the Herald was tidy: “Labour taught us the value of independence and we’ve learnt our lesson. [Helen Clark] gave us a good lesson [...] read more
  October 7, 2008 10:20 am - 27 Comments
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  2 dimensional politics - by frog

  
  
  
  I read a book once about a two dimensional world – as though the entire world were drawn out as lines on a flat piece of paper (from memory the book might have been this one).  The characters had to climb under or over each other to get past rather, than being able to walk [...] read more
  October 1, 2008 2:01 pm - 2 Comments
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  Debating the wrong issue - by frog

  
  
  
  One of the many pieces of false logic in Clark’s assumption that we only need Helen Clark and John Key at the televised leaders debates is the assumption that all undecided voters are simply choosing between a Labour-led government and a National-led government. In fact there are also large numbers of voters who are deciding [...] read more
  September 30, 2008 8:38 pm - 8 Comments
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  The farcical debate - by frog

  
  
  
  Political scientist Jon Johansson is calling Helen Clark and John Key’s debate arrangement arrogant.  Interestingly, we had a debate about the televised debates last election too, with Peter Dunne and Jim Anderton taking Canwest Media to court to win their right to appear on the leaders debate.  At the time the conflicting issues were essentially [...] read more
  September 28, 2008 1:58 pm - 31 Comments
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  Clark, Key scared to face the MMP parties - by frog

  
  
  
  So we learn today that: Prime Minister Helen Clark and National Party leader John Key have refused to share the stage with other party leaders in an election campaign TV debate. And the TV stations are going to roll over and let this happen.  Well that will make for an interesting debate: Pepsi – My [...] read more
  September 27, 2008 8:10 pm - 19 Comments
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  The one that got away? - by frog

  
  
  
  I cannot believe that I am typing this, but I have the feeling that Winston Peters, via his lawyer’s testimony to the Privileges Committee today, has just wriggled off the hook. Even Rodney Hide was squirming in his seat as Mr Henry detailed a plausible version of events where Owen Glenn rings Peters, who rings [...] read more
  September 16, 2008 11:45 am - 17 Comments
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  Helen Clark on Checkpoint - by frog

  
  
  
  I’ve just been listening to the Prime Minister’s interview with Mary Wilson this evening and have got three comments I’d like to make.  First she said in relation to her not disclosing her knowledge about the conflicting evidence in relation to Mr Peters’ story relating to Mr Glenn’s $100,000 donation: It wasn’t my job to [...] read more
  September 12, 2008 7:47 pm - 38 Comments
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  What if? - by frog

  
  
  
  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 [...] read more
  August 29, 2008 7:59 am - 34 Comments
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  Labour takes 40 years to act on the 100 month challenge - by frog

  
  
  
  Yesterday No Right Turn pointed to the New Economics Foundation’s challenge that we only have 100 months left to avert potentially irreversible climate change: We calculate that 100 months from 1 August 2008, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will begin to exceed a point whereby it is no longer likely we will be able to [...] read more
  August 6, 2008 2:13 pm - 3 Comments
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  Roads, roads, roads - by frog

  
  
  
  I love Slane’s cartoon in this week’s Listener.  I like to imagine he had roading initiatives in mind when he penned it. Labour’s transport plan as climate change and peak oil both collide onto the political agenda = spend a record breaking amount of taxes on building new roads for more cars to drive on. [...] read more
  August 5, 2008 2:12 pm - 15 Comments
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  Parliamentary questions about Peters - by frog

  
  
  
  I thought it was funny, after all the outrage that circulated around the various Winston Peters donation scandals over the weekend, that in the end it was the Greens asking the toughest questions in Parliament today. Tim Selwyn at Tumeke! Described the half hour of questions this afternoon thus: Winston’s crew were up and down [...] read more
  July 23, 2008 8:16 pm - 11 Comments
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  A wire from Washington - by frog

  
  
  
  08wire is back at it’s condescending best, now not only presuming to tell the Green Party why we should go into coalition with Labour (because Helen Clark likes to say the word’s ‘sustainability’ and ‘carbon neutral’ on a regular basis) but also presuming to tell us what portfolios we can have after the election (synopsis [...] read more
  July 21, 2008 10:25 am - 18 Comments