Labour’s crass playing of the race card over property sales in Auckland will have shocked many decent, middle of the road voters. Sadly, it will have also emboldened many of our closet racists to believe their latent prejudice has been given new credibility. At one level, it will have inflamed a little further public debate…
The right to be a citizen is one of the most fundamental rights we possess. Be it something we acquired because of our birth in this country, or because it was subsequently awarded to us, or whether it be the citizenship of another country, it is an inalienable characteristic of who we are. Throughout history…
The 2015 Budget has been presented, and while Parliament settles down for the next day or so to debate some of the consequential legislation, the public will begin to pick over the entrails to determine their assessment of it. Essentially, it will boil down to one thing – do they feel personally better or worse…
One of the most enjoyable election campaigns I have ever fought was in 1990. I was a Minister in an unpopular Labour Government headed for massive defeat. Yet the voters were unfailingly courteous and polite at every stage of the campaign. Why? Quite simple really – they had already decided they were going to change…
A quiet revolution is underway in the provision of public services. Under the guise of its “Better Public Services” programme the Government is stealthily but deliberately changing the way in which public services are delivered, and also, and perhaps more importantly, the way the public service identifies and designs the services it provides. The more…
After a slightly shaky start, Dame Susan Devoy is starting to impress in her role as Race Relations Commissioner. Her pronouncements have a strong flavour of common sense and understanding of the real issues and concerns facing New Zealand’s ethnic communities. And her recent call for an increase in the number of quota refugees accepted…
Here is my final speech for Election 2014. I truly believe we have missed an opportunity in this cycle of elections by the very fact that we may have been totally distracted from what is most important: recovering and slowly moving forward towards a future in 2035. QUOTE: I have three questions that are related…
This week I had the privilege of representing UnitedFuture at the Financial Services Council (FSC) election debate on savings and retirement. We covered a range of issues, but I spoke at length about our FlexiSuper policy. FlexiSuper allows people to take a reduced rate of New Zealand superannuation from the age of 60, or an…
The dynamics of foreign policy is not as hard to imagine. They are quite simple really. I have personally discovered there are four dynamics (they could be easily refer to domestic policy making as well) First one must understand that foreign policy is about behaviour. It gets regulated into strategic decisions about a certain way…