Rachel Stewart: Gunning for McKee

What's really behind the incessant Nicole McKee hatred?

Political scientist Bryce Edwards is someone I respect for his level-headedness but his recent article on Nicole McKee needs to be fact-checked, and fact-checked hard. If you haven’t seen it here it is: https://substack.com/@democracyproject/p-149335230

I mean, I get if you’ve only got access to journalism that is overwhelming negative - and clearly that’s the case here when you read who his key sources are - then this is the result. But it’s lazy. And far too trusting.

Bryce Edwards: Will politicians let democracy die in the darkness?

Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the actions and inactions of governments, which means that citizens have less information about public life. Therefore, to draw on the famous Washington Post tagline, New Zealand politicians are guilty of allowing democracy to die in the darkness.

Bryce Edwards: Should politicians get a big rise? Or a 7.5% pay cut?

Pay cuts, wage restraint, and redundancies are currently being forced on everyone in the government sector. Except in Parliament. It seems that politicians have decided that their salaries and budgets are the one place that is off limits to austerity and restraint. MPs are being insulated from the cost-of-living crisis endured by everyone else.

Bryce Edwards: Steven Joyce’s revolving door entry into a $4000/day govt appointment

Former National Government Finance Minister Steven Joyce is being paid $4000 a day to chair the new Government’s “expert advisory panel” on infrastructure. That’s over twice what Prime Minister Christopher Luxon gets, and makes Joyce New Zealand’s highest-paid public servant. At the same time, the former “Mr Fixit” sits on several property development boards as well as running a lobbying consultancy firm.

Joyce’s political appointment is the latest that could have the Government charged with “cronyism” or creating “jobs for the boys”. Other highly paid political appointees include Simon Bridges, Bill English, Murray McCully, and Roger Sowry.

Bryce Edwards: Rising toxicity in NZ politics

A top university academic, selected by former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to head a big project aimed at reducing division and extremism in New Zealand, is currently in trouble for lashing out at the new Government, accusing it of racism, child-hatred, and being a “death-cult”.

Prof Joanna Kidman was appointed as the director of the He Whenua Taurikura, the Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism, funded by the Department of Cabinet and Prime Minister (DPMC). But in posting colourful critiques of politicians this week, she has brought on questions about her suitability for the role of reducing extremism in society. This minor scandal also provides a useful case study about the rising political temperatures in New Zealand politics at the moment.

Bryce Edwards: Anger at excessive politician pay and entitlements

When the First Labour Government came into office in 1935, the new Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage was determined not to live a bourgeois, extravagant lifestyle. Being a representative of workers meant to him that he shouldn’t just take on the material comforts of the ruling class once he was elected to represent those workers. Hence, he refused to live in Premier House on Tinakori Road, near Parliament.

Bryce Edwards: Luxon needs to raise standards in the Beehive

New Zealand has fallen slightly in the latest Corruption Perception Index – which measures the least corrupt countries in the world. New Zealand has gone from number two in the world, to number three. The annual index is produced each year by the global anti-corruption NGO, Transparency International. The country’s score out-of-100 has also dropped, from 87 to 85 (in which, zero is considered highly corrupt and 100 is very clean).

Bryce Edwards: NZ Politics Daily – 31 January 2024

Top “NZ Politics Daily” stories today

Below are some of the more interesting and insightful New Zealand politics items from the last 24 hours.

Bryce Edwards: NZ Politics Daily – 30 January 2024

Top “NZ Politics Daily” stories today

Below are some of the more interesting and insightful New Zealand politics items from the last 24 hours.

Bryce Edwards: NZ Politics Daily - 24 January 2024

Top 10 “NZ Politics Daily” stories today

Below are some of the more interesting and insightful New Zealand politics items from the weekend and this morning.

Bryce Edwards: NZ Politics Daily - 19 January 2024

Top 10 “NZ Politics Daily” stories today

Below are some of the more interesting and insightful New Zealand politics items from the last 24 hours.

Bryce Edwards: NZ Politics Daily - 18 January 2024

Top 10 “NZ Politics Daily” stories today

Below are some of the more interesting and insightful New Zealand politics items from the last 24 hours.

Bryce Edwards: NZ Politics Daily - 17 January 2024

Top 12 “NZ Politics Daily” stories today

Below are some of the more interesting and insightful New Zealand politics items from the last 24 hours.

Bryce Edwards: The Liberal Vs Conservative anguish over the direction of NZ politics

With the new conservative government well into its first 100 days, there’s been rising anguish from liberals about what all this means. As they come to terms with the various repeals and reforms, political commentator Liam Hehir suggests that liberal New Zealand is currently going through the “classic five stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance”.

Bryce Edwards: NZ’s “most powerful” lawyers

To understand who it is that runs a country, it’s always useful to focus on the top legal figures. Usefully, the annual list of New Zealand’s most powerful law figures has just been released – compiled by the Lawfuel website. See: The Power List 2023.

The annual law Power List always provides an insight into the changing nature of the legal eagles in both government agencies and corporate boardrooms. The annual list is especially useful in identifying the up-and-coming people behind the scenes, as well as giving a sense of how New Zealand’s elite is changing.

Bryce Edwards: Dark political clouds before Christmas

Commentators are still evaluating Nicola Willis’ mini-budget and the opening of the Treasury books. Most provocatively, Herald columnist Matthew Hooton, is calling today for the Treasury Secretary Caroline McLiesh to resign over how woeful the state of the New Zealand economy is. He points out that the Treasury boss says that any growth this year and next will be driven “almost entirely by population growth”, and that New Zealanders are going to continue in 2024 and 2025 to become progressively worse off.

Bryce Edwards: Political donations, Lobbying, Labour Party recovery, the media’s performance, and National’s questionable reforms

Have political donations and lobbying from the natural health sector led to the incoming government’s decision to repeal the Therapeutic Products Act? That’s the question asked today by RNZ’s Farah Hancock, who looks at the long-running relationship between the NZ First party and industry group, the Natural Health Alliance – see: What is it about Winston Peters and the natural health products industry?

The lobby group ran election advertisements, together with the mysterious S.B. Group, calling for a vote for NZ First. Hancock points out that the party then shot up in the polls, got into power, and included a promise to repeal the Therapeutic Products Act in the new Government’s 100-day plan.

Bryce Edwards: Poll results, micro-budget, foreign affairs

The Labour Party’s decline continues, according to the latest opinion poll released by Roy Morgan, which shows its support has slipped to just 21% support – down from 5.9 percentage points since the election. This result is the lowest the party has ever received in a Roy Morgan poll. Act, by contrast, are up nearly 4%.

Here are the full results, with the changes noted since the election:

Bryce Edwards: Ferries, infrastructure, and the year in politics

Political commentators and journalists are dismayed by what has happened to the Kiwirail Interislander ferry upgrade project. Ever since the bombshell dropped on Wednesday that the new Government was essentially cancelling the funding of the “mega ferries”, there has been some hard-hitting analysis and blame published.

Bryce Edwards: Court ruling shows big political donations can be given secretly

New Zealand’s rules to regulate money in politics can now officially be declared broken. Although, in theory, political parties are required to publicly declare any large donations, we now know that in practice they sometimes don’t, and the enforcement and legal consequences can be extremely weak.

We know this because this month the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions of the political donors who were on trial last year for channelling large undisclosed donations to the National and Labour parties.