liberation

NZ Politics Daily - 25 February 2013: Act Party entertainment

Much ink is being spilt and airtime apparently wasted on the annual conference of a political party that is currently polling at 0.1%. But that’s always been the way of the Act Party – political journalists and commentators love to cover Act because it’s such an interesting party, even during its apparent dying days. To get a sense of this, it’s well worth watching the 3 News coverage of the party’s conference – watch the 2.5 minute clip: Act Party struggles to avoid political oblivion. As well as shouting ‘bastards!’ at TV3 journalists, the colourful Rodney Hide is also shown speaking of Act’s alleged hatred of the poor, Maori and unions – and ambiguously confirming that at least some of that hate is real. On Twitter, the Act Party (@actparty) later tweets to say ‘Those are not ACT’s views’. [Read more below]

Nelson Mail 26 February

NZ politicians at gay events - images

Ever since Jenny Shipley became the first New Zealand Prime Minister to attend the Hero Parade, in 1999, mainstream politicians have been frequent participants in the public celebrations of the LGBT community. This has made for some fantastic and interesting photo opportunities - some of which are reproduced in this blog post. [See more images bel0w]

Richard Prosser’s role in making mainstream politicians look progressive

MPs from all political parties – except for New Zealand First – are loving the Richard Prosser scandal. It’s an opportunity for them all to put forward their anti-racist credentials. In fact there is now almost a bidding war going on to see who can be the most outraged and condemning of the reactionary MP and his woeful ‘Wogistan’ statements. Yet isn’t something a bit contradictory about this, when in the same week, the Government announce – to muted disagreement – that New Zealand’s refugee policy will become even more reactionary? [Read more below]

 

New Zealand's petty ‘little brother’ relationship with Australia

New Zealand’s relationship with Australia is examined in depth in Bruce Munro’s Otago Daily Times feature, Ditching the big brother thing. In this Munro uses the analogy of big and little brothers, suggesting that ‘We are the aggrieved little brother - discriminating and belittling at every opportunity, constantly comparing to see if we measure up, secretly envious and resentful of the other's perceived strengths and achievements’. I’m quoted in the article trying to explain this unusual relationship. In this blog post, I expand on my arguments about NZ’s ‘little brother’ relationship with Australia. [Read more below]

 

We need more democracy not less - arguments against a 4-year term

Proposals to have fewer and less frequent general elections should be seen for what they are – arguments in favour of less democracy for the publicly and less accountability for politicians. If we extend the parliamentary term from the current three years to four years, then quite simply the public has less say over how the country is run. [Read more below]

 

Images of Titewhai Harawira (and The Harawiras)

This post draws together an eclectic groups of cartoons and photos of Titewhai Harawira and her family (especially Hone Harawira). The images relate to Waitangi and New Zealand politics. The images are very roughly in historical order. [See more below]

Dominion Post 6 February 2013

Images of John Key's 2013 Cabinet reshuffle

Here's a small collection of recent cartoons and images relating to John Key's January 2013 Cabinet reshuffle. The first one is from the Dominion Post, 30 January 2013. See more below.

Michael Woodhouse – How far will he go?

Michael Woodhouse has become Dunedin’s first ever National Party Government minister (albeit currently outside of Cabinet). He’s also a right-wing success story in Dunedin for another reason – at the 2011 election, National beat Labour to win the party vote throughout the city. Woodhouse can take some credit for this historic accomplishment, as he’s worked since 2008 as National’s only Dunedin (list) MP. [Keep reading my monthly column for Dunedin's DScene newspaper below]

 

 

Should academia and politics mix? A review of two NZ politics books

 

Should academia and politics mix? Two recent books published about very different topics in New Zealand politics provide some light on the relationship between academic intellectuals and parliamentary politics. Both books offer examples of academic intellectuals jumping into the political sphere, with varying results. Typically, New Zealand has a rather flimsy relationship between the realms of central government and academia. Unfortunately, intellectuals tend not only to stay out of the ‘issues of the day’ but also parliamentary politics full stop. There seem to be push and pull factors going on, with New Zealand society not being particularly receptive to intellectuals – hence academics don’t often make it far in politics – but also the universities are relatively disengaged from current affairs and governance. Academics often appear to be somewhat scared of intervening in the grubby world of politics, in terms of standing for election, being politically active, or just taking sides in public political debate. There’s a dearth of public intellectuals in New Zealand as a result. [This book review has just been published in the latest edition of The Journal of New Zealand Studies - read more below] 

 

Green advocates cutting down NZ's tallest tree

Warwick Stanton is a Green Party activist and partner of MP Metiria Turei. On Facebook he goes under the name 'Worik Stantonq'. In a discussion today about New Zealand's tallest tree, he advocated that it be cut down! And that the tree be milled for firewood - see the screenshot below. This might seem like a strange demand from an environmentalist - to call for a special tree to be chopped down - but it can be explained by some of the other ideological currents that are dominant within the Greens: Maori nationalism, indigenism, and xenophobia. Because New Zealand's tallest tree is not actually a native tree - it's an Australian eucalyptus. So those that are in the thrall of all things indigenous - native trees and animals, for example - are inclined towards a hostility to anything introduced into the environment from another country. Similarly, of course, Maori Nationalist activist Mike Smith famously took to a tree with a chainsaw on 'One Tree Hill" back in 1994. Part of his beef was that the tree was a 'foreign tree'. Such sentiments obviously still run strongly in the Greens.

For more on NZ's tallest tree, see: 

New tallest tree titleholder

 

Clare Curran, The Standard, and the state of the Labour Party

Is Labour MP Clare Curran a political cyber-bully? That’s what some Labour and leftwing activists appear to think. Although the issue hasn’t yet hit the mainstream media, surely it will soon be reported on to some extent. (Watch out for Chris Trotter’s Tuesday Press newspaper column to see what he has to say. He won’t be kind.) The gist of the issue is that bloggers at The Standard website are making various allegations about the Labour Party leadership – or at least ‘senior’ MPs – clamping down on the internet communications of party members. The original allegations can be read about in this blog post and the subsequent comments: Just how wrong can you get it?. 

 

Brendan Horan's departure from NZ First - images

 

This is a collection of recent cartoons relating to the departure of MP Brendan Horan from the caucus of New Zealand First. This blog post will be updated as images become available. [Read more below]

The Politics of The Hobbit - images

This is a selection of cartoons and photographs relating to Peter Jackson's The Hobbit - relating to the whole drama of the production, from the very first industrial relations issues through to the premier of the film in Wellington. [Read more below]

Images of Labour's post-conference conflict

This is a selection of cartoons and photos from the days following the Labour Party's 2012 annual conference. The images convey the nature of the conflict occurring in the party [See more images below]

Images of Labour’s current challenges

This is a selection of cartoons and photos from the days leading up to and including the Labour Party's 2012 annual conference. The images convey something about the nature of the challenges that Labour currently faces. [See more images below]

The State of the Labour Party - some recent images

This is a selection of recent images relating to the Labour Party - and David Shearer in particular. They all evoke some important perceptions and realities about the current state of the party [See more images below]