So Bill English thinks that welfare is like crack cocaine and the successful National Government has announced its intention to cut the welfare bill significantly. He revealed in June that if re-elected National will bring about the biggest changes to public services that NZ has seen in 50 years. How will it do this? Here is […]
On the cusp of something very special?
Is the National Party keeping some things out of sight in case they frighten the electorate? Here is some worrying evidence that this may be the case. On 20 June this year there was a Wikileaks release on the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) and the media coverage internationally was mainly related to its potential […]
Speech to the clean politics rally Parliament 10 September
Several people at the rally asked me to publish this speech. Here it is Tena koutou e hoa ma Ko Jan Rivers toku ingoa We held a conference at St Andrews on the Terrace on Aug 1 and 2. The topic was democracy, ethics and the public good. But the Public Good is really much […]
Clean politics rally Wednesday September 10 12.00 Parliament Steps
A ‘washing-line’ of placards with three key ideas for cleaning up politics in the wake of the Dirty Politics saga will be displayed by attenders of a Kiwis for Clean Politics gathering on Wednesday at 12pm. Melinda Gamlen, organiser of the event was so shocked and dismayed at the corrupt activities going on in the […]
Lowered enrolment levels – the practical impact of dirty politics?
Media release 15 August 2014 A healthy democracy should be about more than the government being able to enrol voters effectively and run the mechanics of an election. With the historically low levels of voter enrolment this year, including a 5% fall in 18-25 year-olds signing up, it appears that even this minimal requirement of […]
Poor quality democracy?
Back in March a number of people from more than about a dozen organisations got together to discuss the quality of New Zealand’s democracy at an informal hui in Wellington. I was there. We discussed the good, the bad and what needs to happen for people to feel more included and less marginal to the […]
Party Policies and get out the vote campaigns
The purpose of this page is to help ensure: that people get out and vote that they can find the party policies and manifestos easily It contains information for voters and links to party manifesto and policy information Our mini-conference Democracy, Ethics and the Public Good is taking place in the leadup to the election. […]
Latest Comments