Open Policy debate a progressive step

The Labour Party should be congratulated for its move towards promoting open policy development via its blog Red Alert.  Open and transparent policies are the lifeblood of any democracy and help reinvigorate a political party.  The greater the level of public participation and debate the more likely a policy will emerge with greater rigour at the end of the process.

Labour struggling to get candidates this early

Brian Rudman in the NZ herald has published a report highlighting some of the challenges Labour faces in attracting new candidates to its banner. 

Clear Election Win for National

The November 8th election gave National a strong win and, with United Future and ACT pre-election support, an outright majority.

The outgoing Prime Minister Helen Clark departed the Labour leadership without rancour. Her commitment to New Zealand cannot be doubted - even if we might debate the way she tried to implement it. Michael Cullen can take pride in a solid track record of debt repayment and a series of surpluses in the government accounts.

The new Labour leadership the Goff-King ticket will ensure a strong parliamentary opposition. It also helps Labour to rebuild support among those traditional supporters who opted to stay at home on election day.

For the incoming government the work is ahead of them. John Key has made a great start with assembling a new Ministry in eight days. He has wisely recruited the support of the Maori Party - as well as ACT. With smart strategic decisions we could be seeing a fundamental re-alignment of political loyalties in NZ politics. The challenge for National is to follow through with their policy programme and to build a strong platform for sustained economic growth, social cohesion and responsible stewardship of the environment.

Prime Minister visits Vodafone Call centre

The Prime Minister, Helen Clark, visited the Vodafone Call centre at Manukau this month. She was there to have morning tea with three competition winners who won a "Morning Tea with the Prime Minister" as a charitable fundraising prize.

The event was covered by a range of media including Prime TV and Radio NZ. The Prime Minister was welcomed to the Call centre by Vodafone CEO- Russell Stanners and the Vodafone Maori Cultural Group by way of a powhiri.

Ms Clark spoke to staff and answered questions from the competition winners on a range of topics.