The Podcast

On Thursday night, the Politics in Full Sentences podcast covered this week’s End of Life Choice events. Max Whitehead interviews David Seymour on the Bill’s passage. They cover off how we got it there and what happens next. You can watch here or listen on all the usual channels thanks to Podcasts NZ here.

A Star is Born

Seldom is a political staffer publicly credited for their work. Outside the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, political staffers remain publicly invisible unless they do something very bad. Brooke van Velden has worked on the End of Life Choice Bill for the past two years. Her effectiveness has become so well known that we understand weekend newspapers are writing about her contribution to the Bill. Expect to hear a lot more from Brooke.

A Worthy Cause

Next year there will be a referendum to ratify the Bill. We need at least 1.3 million people to vote for the End of Life Choice Act 2019 (it is now a law) to come into force. That is more votes than any political party has ever achieved in a New Zealand election. The public overwhelmingly want the law, but the minority of opponents will campaign viciously and dishonestly against it. Thus, the campaign for the End of Life Choice Act is now a campaign for freedom and compassion, but also for honest debate and reason. Please sign up to the End of Life Choice campaign here.

Rural Matters

ACT Deputy Leader Beth Houlbrooke addressed 400 people in Dargaville on Thursday. Think about that for one moment. An ACT politician, who is not David Seymour, addressing a large crowd (no other politicians were invited), in a region that is not Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch. Events such as this make us think reports of UMR having ACT at 2.8 per cent (and four MPs) are real. Yesterday, Beth wrote about the rural sector being under attack from Labour.

Freedom to Speak

David Seymour hosted the Feminism 2020 event at Parliament last night. Is there anything he can’t do? What happened to the other 119 MPs? Well, Speak Up For Women were scheduled to host the event at Massey University. Because Massey are almost totally committed to stopping anything interesting being said on their campuses, SUFW had their event cancelled.

Why?

The event was cancelled because trans-activists told Massey it was hurtful to host these feminist speakers. The speakers say biological women (and not trans women) deserve certain rights. SUFW (who appeared on our podcast several weeks ago) approached David. He agreed to host the event at Parliament because it is wrong that people’s speech is shut down, and Parliament is a much harder place for bullies to intimidate.

Losing the Plot

Several weeks ago, we speculated that Winston Peters must have a smoking gun. We figured it would be hard to prove who leaked details that he over claimed on superannuation for seven years. He was always going to republicise his own incompetence and possibly dishonesty by going to court. He would be stupid to take that risk unless he had a smoking gun. Winston is many things but he’s not stupid, is he?

He’s Lazy

In reality Winston is just lazy. He didn’t fill out his forms properly. He went to court out of his hatred for National. He didn’t do the groundwork to prove his case. Now it appears he will get no damages from any politicians, and at best there will be a declaration that someone in the bureaucracy leaked his details. Politics in Full Sentences predicted as much a month ago.

Losing the Plot II

Meanwhile Shane Jones is also losing the plot. In a cynical way, attacking Indian families was good politics. Racism has worked for New Zealand First before. However, viciously attacking farmers, a group who have supported his party, shows there is no method, just madness. We predict New Zealand First have lost the plot. They are driven by everything but the good of New Zealand, or even their own party’s survival.

Meanwhile

ACT is going from strength to strength. If you are not a member of the party, please consider joining or donating.