Pundit

Top of the Agenda: U.S. Passes Stalled Free Trade Deals

Since the Rena ran aground and began spilling oil and other nastiness into the Bay of Plenty, there has been a lot of finger pointing at the government. Was it prepared? Was the response too slow to get going? Was the response good enough?

The other week, Justice Minister Simon Power gave a fantastic valedictory speech to the House. It capped off a lot of good things that he has done - in particular, I admire how he has handled the issue of changes to electoral finance rules and setting up the referendum on MMP.

Pundit friends,

You will have notice that recently we've become the the focus of a deluge of spam. We are working on this, and I'm really sorry to you all that you're having to suffer this. Sorry again.

Still, could be worse... At least you haven't spent half the evening deleting hundreds of fake member accounts from the past two months, as I have!

A couple of "free speech" issues have arisen in the last week - one a bit ho-hum, the other somewhat more serious.

But is it enough to change the campaign trajectory? That's the question around what's turned into a dire week for the National Party.

Labour, you've got to say, has had terrible luck this term. Every time there seemed to be some poll movement or National wobbled (BMWs, for example), a natural disaster, mine explosion or own-goal by one of its own MPs came to the government's rescue.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer man at a better time.

Is this, finally, the hairline crack in the impregnable hull? - will the Rena oil spill be the thing that exposes what lies beneath Mr Key, and swamps whatever public appetite there was for his government's offshore oil policy, little enough at the best of times?

Top of Wayne Mapp’s things-to-do list before he turns in his Ministerial ticket and leaves Parliament should be the release of the findings of inquiries he instigated in August last year into the possibility that prisoners arreste

The minor parties are going to provide much of the best action in this election, and none more so than the Mana Party as Hone Harawira fights to hold Te Tai Tokerau. And while he's starting in pole position, I suspect he's got a struggle on his hands.

Does New Zealand need to build a new 1,000 bed prison at Wiri?

The “Occupy Wall St” protests are about to enter their third week, and suddenly America is paying attention.

Here in Britain, the wartime poster with stark white lettering on a red background which says 'Keep Calm and Carry On' has become ubiquitous. It's found its way onto mugs, t-shirts and screensavers.

So the Justice and Electoral Committee has reported back on the Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill.

Three new polls came out over the weekend. Collectively, they show National gaining further ground, increasing its support to level last seen in late 2009. All the smaller parties are slowly losing ground.

While today the men of New Zealand have joined the women in their fascination with Daniel Carter's groin, the New Zealand economy is looking like it's pulled a muscle as well, after the double downgrades on Friday. Neither are good news for a government hopeful of an easy run-in to November's election.

But neither are as bad as you may think.

I've met Don Brash twice.

The first time was during the 2005 election campaign when I was in a shopping mall in Henderson. I don't think he recognised me because he thrust some sort of electronic device under my nose and invited me to calculate my tax cut.

National retains a very large lead in our latest Poll of Polls, and that lead is growing wider still as we move closer to the election.

When Governor William Hobson famously declared "He iwi tahi tatou" (We are all one people) to the rangatira who signed the Treaty of Waitangi, he left an awkward legacy. I imagine he meant well and all, perhaps as he saw it merely offering some noble words of colonial unity.

Please forgive yet another post on the topic of the Government's "fix" for the problem of hidden video camera surveillance, but I have been invited to give evidence t

Politicians, regardless of where they come from, are supposed to be professional. We pay them heaps of money to think carefully about the problems facing their country, to propose workable solutions, to debate the merits of various proposals, and to implement their ideas if we let them.

I got a letter emailed to me today from Attorney-General Chris Finlayson.

With all the attention on this rugby tournament, it's easy to forget that the 2011 general election is just around the corner. The countdown's begun, with the first hoardings going up in Auckland over the weekend.

Rodney Hide must be laughing in his grave, to use one of the great old gags. ACT's political fortunes have gone from bad to worse with the announcement that No. 2 John Boscawen is stepping down from parliament to spend more time with his family.

 In American politics the phone call warning of foreign policy disaster is always tipped to come at 3 in the morning.  Presidents, as presidential hopefuls are quickly made aware, are

Given that there's now real debate about the best way to deal with the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision in Hamed v R - the case that calls into question the Police's power to use covert video surveillance to gather evidence - here's some more thoughts on that issue.

What's perhaps most amazing about Europe's growth story -- or non-growth story--- is that markets and the folk who watch them continue to react to new data as if it still contains some element of surprise.

Yesterday's IMF growth forecasts are a case in point.

A little something
I never go hungry
But I'm not wildly enthusiastic about cooking
I tend to eat very, very simple food
I cook myself steak
Plus either potato
Or frozen peas
Or frozen corn
Or tomato
Or something

My Catholicism
If I'm in a hurry, it's Burger King
Or McDonald's
Occasionally KFC

Last week the West Coast Environment Network, Forest & Bird, and others filed appeals against the resource consent granted three weeks earlier, to coal miner Bathurst Resources.

Last week, the Dominion Post reported the sad case of Mr Craig Andrew Blair who robbed a bank in Rotorua – not for financial gain but so that he would be sent back to prison.

My last post set out the Supreme Court's decision on the use of secretly filmed evidence against those accused of participating in the Urewera "training camps"/"terror group"/"consciousness raising sessions" (or whatever you wish to term them).

I'm one of the council appointed directors of Auckland Transport and so out of solidarity with its beleaguered officials I attended the Auckland Council Committee meeting which reviewed the disorder surrounding the opening Rugby World Cup game the preceding Friday.

Back in 2006, some information found its way to the ears of the NZ Police. Apparently a bunch of Maori activists, environmentalists, social justice campaigners and the like were gathering in the Urewera back-blocks and talking revolution. What is more, they were doing so while playing with guns and other nasty stuff.

This time three years ago, a two-word phrase seemed to be gaining unprecedented coverage in New Zealand: Nanny State.

Erin Leigh's ongoing journey through the New Zealand legal process has taken another step towards some sort of resolution.

Erin who? Her what? My my, how soon our memories fade!

The Palestinians have announced they are going to the United Nations next week to seek full membership.

If only the government's event management was as good as its political management. Its performance in the days following the weekend's crowd chaos on the Auckland waterfront has been deft, comfortably outmanoeuvring the Auckland Council.

Yesterday, a Marlborough teenager was sentenced to two years in prison, for battering 23 seals and pups to death with a steel pole.

Immigration has long been dry tinder throughout the western world, easily ignited by fiery words. We've seen it in New Zealand, from the poll tax and Chinese:cargo ratio imposed by government in 1881, through the dawn raids of the 1970s, to Winston Peter's anti-Asian rhetoric of the 1990s. Enter, Professor Margaret Mutu.

A common claim in favour of asset sales is that the sale price is usually the “net present value of future profits”, which means that the sale price plus the interest you save on your lower debt is about the same, over the long term, as the dividends you would have made from keeping the asset. Where does this claim come from?

The launch of Paul Holmes' book Daughters of Erebus in Parnell last Monday night was, like all of Paul's social events, a great night. I don't know about the wisdom of opening old wounds, but it was a rare opportunity to mix with the maestro's wide and eclectic circle of friends.

As America looks for meaning today, a decade on from the terror attacks of 9/11, one question keeps nagging at me – who exactly is winning the wars that have followed that awful day?

Every now and then it must be quite within the bounds of being a grown up to scream from the roof-tops, “OMG”. Wednesday night in North America was one such occasion.

Auckland, you've got to say, is looking fine. The new art gallery, the souped-up zoo, the new shared-space roads with people walking amongst the cars, the busy Britomart precinct, and the North Wharf, with its funky, Amsterdam-style bridge and people-friendly open spaces.

On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist and member of the Black Hand, shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. The purpose was to throw off the yoke of Austro-Hungarian rule and form an independent Yugoslavia. Within 37 days, all of Europe was engulfed in a tripartite war.

Federated Farmers is one of the most powerful lobbying organisations in New Zealand; certainly the dominant voice amongst the many farming and rural groups.

Compared with other Western democracies, New Zealand seems to be keen on sending its citizens to prison. Our prison population has been rising for the last 50 years and in October 2010, reached a total of 8,892 inmates. New Zealand now locks up 199 people per 100,000 of its population.

Just a note about the Poll of Polls, which Rob has kindly updated. It includes the two television polls from the weekend, but not yet the newspaper efforts from the past two days.

The Swiss are rich, and yet, they like to ride on buses. They need not be rich to fund the buses; they spend less than New Zealand on transport.

As I write, the United Nations is reported to be moving to release its freeze on $100 billion worth of Libyan assets and recognize the country’s National Transitional Council as the new government of Libya.

I am not good at self-promotion, but I am going to give it a shot anyway, because if you can't write about your new book with the pretty pink cover on your very own blog, there probably isn't anywhere you can safely do so.

Past elections, with their moods, trends, characters and issues can offer a window on what's happening now. A oft-repeated line at the moment is that this election is looking an awful lot like 2002.

But what about further back?

Here’s a thought...do you think Dominique Strauss-Khan has ever told a lie?

Perhaps to his wives, his conquests, his daughters? No?

Labour's descent to barely 30 percent in recent polls has prompted repeated comparisons to National's steep slide in 2002, when Bill English led National to its worst ever defeat. In this scenario, Phil Goff is this year's English and Labour is set for further pain as its support evaporates to 21 percent.

In 2009, in an attempt to improve its woeful performance, former chief executive Barry Mathews announced that the Corrections Department’s rehabilitation and reintegration services would be combined into one team. As part of this new strategy, Corrections Minister Judith Collins recently announced the Department is to employ 227 ca

Finally the international community has ramped up the pressure on Syria’s dictator to step aside.  “Time to get out of the way” Hilary Clinton scolded.

As the war in Afghanistan closes in on its 10th anniversary, the questions it provokes aren't getting any easier, and as we've felt this weekend with the loss of another New Zealand solider, the cost isn't getting any less, either.

The question bubbling to the surface now is that of withdrawal and how much more will be asked of New Zealand troops.

So, that's one of life's little mysteries solved, then.

It's less than a month until the greatest political distraction the country's seen since, well, who knows when.

That's right, the Rugby World Cup kicks off on September 9 and it's going to suck huge amounts of oxygen out of the political debate in the three months prior to polling day.

Sometimes fragments of news from all round the world fit together into a single story.

When Chris Kahui was acquitted of murdering his twin sons in 2008, law commissioner Sir Geoffrey Palmer mused that perhaps it was about time we did away with the right to silence for those accused of criminal offences.

He was quoted in the New Zealand Herald: "It is not a change that would happen quickly, but talking about it is not [typo edited] wrong."

Radio New Zealand does what it does do well. National Radio sets the standard in radio news, current affairs and talk.

Christchurch City's draft Central City Plan is a laudable document, containing exciting goals of, amongst others, urban sustainability, a sustainable city and sustainable buildings. The document essentially outlines a city which is a healthy community in which to live.

The Denniston plateau, which is near Mount Augustus, has its own population of threatened giant snails.

Denniston is not a national park. It is not in Schedule 4. It is conservation land, that should have been part of a national park, the Kahurangi National Park. That status was withheld, because of the coal beneath.

Is David Parker's confirmation that he will stand in Epsom a sign of ambition or humility?

Britain has some very deep soul-searching ahead of it as the last few violent nights have shown there is a deeply angry parallel society that has probably developed over the last two generations, but now has tasted power.

And so the government has come around, and announced a select committee inquiry into the price of milk. It's a U-turn (or should that be moo-turn?) for National given its confidence at the start of the year that no such inquiry was needed.

This morning David Farrar tries to resurrect an old chestnut: “If you want the rich to pay more tax, you should tax them less.” Apparently, not content with bringing New Zealand the lowest overall top tax rate in the high income OECD, now some in National intend to complain that it is still too high.

It's fair to say that "Lord"/"Viscount"/"Grand Wazoo" Monckton is a somewhat polarising figure. Google "Monckton lies" and you'll get some flavour of why that might be. At the moment, he's over here in New Zealand seeking a platform for his "skeptical" (read, "denialist") views on human-induced climate change.

Legislation will be brought before the House next week to prohibit all snow-related sports, Minister for Acceptable Fun Peter Dunne announced today.

Since the horrific attacks by Anders Breivik, rather than calls for vengeance, European newspapers have been full of reflection about the tenor of their national debates on multiculturalism and immigration.

What price are we willing to pay to make children safer in this country? For all that the timing of the government's green paper conveniently saves National from having to come up with any hard policy until after the election, it does raise the unpopular question of sacrifice and asks what you - and me - are prepared to give up for the sake of tackling our hideous statistics.

Earlier this week some international newspapers carried a photo of a woman standing outside the Capitol building inWashington with a placard telling those inside playing chicken with the US economy that  “we are not Greece”.

Good on 'em, eh. Yeah, those Rich Listers who again are being draped before the nation like so much fine ermine deserve a pat on the back, if for nothing else than the fact that, in most cases, they've shown how to stay in this country and succeed financially.

Paula Bennett held a party in Aotea Square today. With bright balloons and live music from Mike Chunn she launched her Green Paper for Vulnerable Children to the admiring crowd.

On Friday, Chris Trotter opined in the Dominion Post about recent poll results. He was not happy about the estimate in the latest Colmar Brunton poll of 27% support for Labour, and asked this question:

It was an impressive meeting list that Prime Minister John Key took to Washington DC... Panetta, Kerry, Geithner, Bernanke, McConnell, Reid, Kirk, Napolitano, and of course, Obama. Absolutely top drawer, even if a few fell over because of the debt ceiling debate. If last year's Wellington Declaration was the wedding, this trip was the consummation.

Television New Zealand told the last Labour government that two advertising-free channels it was launching to lure viewers onto the Freeview digital transmission platforms would be self-funding by 2012.