Posts by Neil
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Hard News: Where are all the polls at?, in reply to linger,
I agree the Greens have a special character. But that does mean they lack leverage.
It seems to me there's an element of the electorate punishing small parties for trying to do the achievable and not hang out for the unlikely.
The Maori Party had a number of impressive achievements one of which, Whanau Ora, has been adopted by Labour and would not be there if not for the MP.
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The Greens didn't need to align with National in order to recently bring them to the point of extinction.
That was with an MOU with Labour.
With MMP it's just that smaller parties have been at the mercy of the larger ones.
Although Peters has been with both National and Labour and he's still around and look at how much power he currently has. It's unlikely the Greens will wield such influence.
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Peters will have plenty of considerations but perhaps an important one will be setting up heir apparent Shane Jones.
Thinking that through I'm not sure which major party is favoured.
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If National do indeed get a 4th term then Key's resignation will turn out to be one of the more brilliant manoeuvres in NZ politics.
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…but all the same he doesn’t realise he’s playing into the hands of the Brexiteers and Trumpniks
It seems to me English is more a continuation of the Clark govt – the TPP, working with Obama.
It’s not an isolationist stance. More Merkel. Like Ardern seems more Miliband than Corbyn.
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I think Labour were being less than honest over tax.
They have a very experienced front bench who have spent considerable time working on taxation.
The idea that they somehow don't know what tax changes they would make is a bit absurd.
Labour also continue to blame our problems on foreigners which is also dishonest and dishonest in the most obnoxious way.
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I’m not sure why neither National or Labour aren’t looking at an enquiry into the building industry.
It’s all very well to make promises about building more houses and blame foreign students and speculators – the easily targeted faceless enemy – but the reality is of a building industry that has serious problems.
Only 15% of problem buildings have so far been identified – there’s a lot more wealth and security yet to be destroyed.
And the reasons for this have not been addressed which means this will be with us for quite sometime and will cause havoc in any plans for affordable housing.
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Hard News: Campaign 2017: Buy a…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
If once having been a member of a communist party is enough to be excluded from parliament then Keith Locke would have been.
Quite incredible that this is actually being seriously advocated.
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Hard News: Campaign 2017: Buy a…, in reply to mark taslov,
Sadly this is getting traction.
Can’t wait for the speculation about who the spy was in the Clark govt that manipulated them into the China FTA.
It's all a bit too reminiscent of demanding Muslim immigrants condemn terrorism.
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Hard News: Campaign 2017: Buy a…, in reply to mark taslov,
The guy even begins his concluding paragraph with:
I’m no New Zealand First fan, but…
It’s quite a remarkable smear job. Yang is apparently guilty of not condemning the Chinese regime.
I was curious so read Yang’s speech which includes this passsge:
When the Communist Party came to power in China in 1949, my grandfather lost all his property, was imprisoned, and lived in poverty for the rest of his life. In the first 30 years of the People’s Republic of China the Chinese Government launched one political movement after another, climaxing with the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, beginning in 1966. The revolution left behind millions of political victims, including my parents, who were sent to the countryside to be re-educated by peasants.
Reddell is intent on painting Yang as an unrepentant apologist for the regime but has to twist Yang’s actual words to do so.
And this is in the context of the Chinese community already having been singled out and someone keen to get this supposed scandal into the news a few days before the election.