Category: Democracy
Winston Peters, the 2017 General Election ‘Kingmaker’, is yet to choose New Zealand’s new government. The widespread speculation that the coalition negotiating window set by New Zealand First was too tight, has turned out to be correct.
The Trump administration released a thumbnail sketch last week of its much anticipated tax plan, which has generated opposition and support from all the usual suspects.
The 446,000 Special Votes cast during last month’s election have now been counted. According to the Electoral Commission, the final election tally gives National 56 seats, Labour 46 seats, New Zealand First 9 seats, the Greens 8 seats, and ACT one seat.
The only thing that can be said with any certainty about the next New Zealand government is that it will look very different from the last one. National party prime minister Bill English won an emphatic 13-seat majority over the opposition Labour party in an election result that defied the pattern of history.
The election is over and voters have had their say. Now the MMP horse-trading begins. Elected MPs are the ones who will chose our new Prime Minister and deliver an administration that can command the 61 vote majority in the House that’s necessary to govern New Zealand.
The votes are in but the nation waits. NZ First was the big winner on election night, even though it lost party votes and Mr Peters lost his Northland electorate. The winner and loser tag applies also to National and Labour...
This week’s newsletter is being sent out as the polling booths for the 2017 General Election are closing. Since we may not know the final shape of our new Government for a while, let’s look at what needs to happen before the 52nd Parliament can begin operating
Without a doubt, the election is on a knife-edge. Thursday’s Colmar Brunton poll foreshadowed that the country’s new government is likely to be a coalition between Labour, the Greens, and the Maori Party - a ‘progressive’ combination that would deliver the most radical government in New Zealand’s history.
A variation on the conventional socialist mantra of tax and spend has surfaced in the run up to the forthcoming election it is: cheat and tax. What it involves is to deny that a Labour/Greens/ Maori Party government if elected has any plan to raise taxes but will devolve the whole question to a panel of experts. They will then make the decisions on behalf of the government.
Last week we looked at the economic policies of the Parliamentary parties. This week we dig deeper into the party manifestos. While Labour has changed its cheer leader, its policies and loyalties remain the same.
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