Largely lost in the discussion of Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics is a key figure – Simon Lusk. Simon Lusk has his own chapter in the book– Chapter 5, “Simon Lusk’s Plan”. He also features heavily in Chapter 6 – “El Rushbo of Aotearoa”. In this chapter, the role of Lusk...
On Monday, Martyn Bradbury posted “3 guesses about Nicky Hager’s new book” on The Daily Blog. The post is so short that it’s worth quoting in full: 3 guesses about Nicky Hager’s new book Nicky is about to inject some critical analysis into politics with the launch this Wednesday of...
#81959809 / gettyimages.com In New Zealand, this week has seen some discussion about Mike Hosking hosting leaders’ debates on state-owned, but independent and commercially-driven broadcaster TVNZ. It has been reported that Labour leader David Cunliffe is considering boycotting them because of Mike Hosking’s alleged leanings towards National, the main centre-right...
This post was originally published at Liberation. The majority view seems to be that David Cunliffe’s apology on Friday for ‘being a man’ was a mistake. But a contrary view could be that the apology was a very deliberate and calculated risk. Here are three reasons why Cunliffe’s apology might have been a...
UPDATED 28 August 2017: I’ve updated both the Twitter list and this post in time for the 2017 New Zealand General Election In 2012, I began to curate a Twitter list related to New Zealand politics. I would have used someone else’s, but couldn’t find a truly comprehensive list for what...
This post was originally published at Liberation. In my first post, I looked at why the Internet Party might be successful. Here, I look at why it might not be. 1. Ideology In the last post, I concluded by looking at the Internet Party’s chances of taking the mantle of a populist party....
This post was originally published at Liberation. The Internet Party has a funder, a leader and now a shortlist of 22 enthusiastic prospective candidates who are seeking a place on the party’s inaugural list. But how likely is the party to succeed? In the following two posts, I look at three reasons...
This post was originally published at Liberation. In this post I provide some comparative insights into the lessons of the recent German election for New Zealand politics. The lessons are the following: 1. The electoral system is the same, 2. The German election shows the danger of a 5% threshold, 3. Angela Merkel is...
This post was originally published at Liberation. MPs past and present in the blogosphere A number of past and present MPs are engaging in social media – blogs, and Twitter in particular. In this blog post,I outline what politicians are communicating online and where. I evaluate their efforts, and report on...
#56052984 / gettyimages.com This post was originally published at Liberation. In the last post, I looked at the background to the Act Party’s 2004 leadership primary, which saw Rodney Hide win election over three other contenders. In this post, I consider some new information passed from a former Act insider, who wishes...