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Peter Dunne - Latest News [Page 9]
Dunne Speaks: Seek Out The Evidence, Don't Blame It
Thursday, 8 April 2021, 8:28 am | Peter Dunne
At last! After 10 months working on the issue, New Zealand’s Director-General of Health has graciously decided that Australia is now a sufficiently low-risk Covid19 country that “quarantine free travel is safe to commence” between the two countries ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Health Changes: Meaningful Reforms Or Rearranging Deckchairs?
Thursday, 1 April 2021, 10:33 am | Peter Dunne
Since the early 1980s successive National- and Labour-led governments have struggled to find the best way of funding and delivering effective public health services. In 1983 the then 29 hospital boards administering the country’s health system were ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: PM Gets Her Capital Gains Tax After All
Thursday, 25 March 2021, 8:43 am | Peter Dunne
George Orwell once observed that “political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible… Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness…”. The current argument ... More >>
"Putting Out The Trash" Makes For Callous Politics
Thursday, 18 March 2021, 8:31 am | Peter Dunne
The issue of deporting people who have completed sentences in prison for criminal offences is a vexed one. It has been brought sharply into focus by the application of Australia’s so-called s501 policy which since 2014 has seen the deportation ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: The Last Governor-General?
Thursday, 11 March 2021, 9:09 am | Peter Dunne
Around August this year a new Governor-General will take office to replace Dame Patsy Reddy upon the conclusion of her five-year term. A few months before then the Prime Minister will announce whom she has chosen to be the next Governor-General. ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: It's Time To Refresh Our Covid19 Approach
Thursday, 4 March 2021, 8:36 am | Peter Dunne
Last year the Prime Minister laid out an astonishingly simple but extremely effective plan for dealing with the threat Covid19 posed to New Zealand. It was basically to take advantage of our isolated location and seal our borders to keep the virus out ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: An Unpopular View?
Thursday, 25 February 2021, 9:18 am | Peter Dunne
This is likely to be an unpopular column. But there are some things that need to be said, and some debates that need to take place. Over a year into the Covid19 crisis there is an unnatural air abroad where it is still not at all acceptable to question ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: It's The Scott And Jacoinda Show - Again
Friday, 19 February 2021, 8:39 am | Peter Dunne
Citizenship is the gift that seems to keep on giving as far as Australia and New Zealand are concerned. The Prime Ministers of both countries are adept at using citizenship issues to their mutual advantage, to score political points with their domestic audiences. ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Waititi The Winner
Thursday, 11 February 2021, 8:48 am | Peter Dunne
Maori Party Co-leader Rawiri Waititi is emerging as one of the stars of the 53rd Parliament. This is not yet because of the profundity of his comments – that may be still to come – but because of the style he has brought to his role. Already, ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Spinning, Spinning, Spinning
Friday, 5 February 2021, 9:03 am | Peter Dunne
The question of whether Medsafe would approve the Pfizer Covid19 vaccine was finally resolved this week. Up until then, the constant and near fever-pitch “will they, won’t they” speculation had been one of the biggest “beat-ups” of recent ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Why Do We Panic About Covid19, But Not Use The Scanning App?
Thursday, 28 January 2021, 8:53 am | Peter Dunne
Why is it that New Zealanders go into a state of near panic every time a case of Covid19 is reported in the community, yet for the rest of the time largely ignore the value of contact tracing by scanning QR codes? As someone who almost religiously ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: President Biden Takes Office
Thursday, 21 January 2021, 10:20 am | Peter Dunne
Joe Biden is now the President of the United States and many people across America and throughout the world will consequently be breathing more easily. But while the erratic, unpredictable and irresponsible years of the Trump Presidency may be over, ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: National's Reshuffle
Thursday, 12 November 2020, 9:17 am | Peter Dunne
Judith Collins' reshuffle of the remnant of National's MPs makes it clear there will no fairy-tale comeback for Simon Bridges. There had been speculation that he could be given the finance role to try to restore National's lost credibility in ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Trump's Excesses Know No Bounds
Friday, 6 November 2020, 9:17 am | Peter Dunne
Any complaints about the twists and turns of New Zealand’s MMP electoral system pale into insignificance alongside the Byzantine intricacies of an American Presidential election. For many of us, the 2000 Presidential election where the eventual outcome ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Where Have The Liberals Gone?
Thursday, 29 October 2020, 9:50 am | Peter Dunne
The 53rd New Zealand Parliament elected recently is without doubt the most representative in our history. It contains more women than ever before – well over half the expanded Labour Caucus are women; there are more Maori and Pasifika represented; and MPs from ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Just Being The Anti-Labour Party Will Not Work For National
Thursday, 22 October 2020, 8:52 am | Peter Dunne
By any measure the National Party has been the most successful New Zealand political party of recent times. After all, it has won 16 of the last 25 elections, governing for 47 years since first winning office in 1949, almost twice as long as the Labour ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Spare A Thought For The Candidates And Party Workers
Thursday, 15 October 2020, 8:57 am | Peter Dunne
It is probably just as well that the All Blacks are playing the Wallabies in the second Bledisloe Cup test of the year in Auckland on Sunday. For many, that will be a welcome shift from the election campaign that is now rapidly drawing to its ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Early Voting Is OK, If You Know Who To Vote For
Thursday, 8 October 2020, 8:55 am | Peter Dunne
Early voting is now open which is great for the 80% or so of the population whose vote does not change from one election to the next. They can go out and vote at their convenience without having to wait for election day. But for those who are yet even ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: It's An Election, Not A Coronation
Thursday, 1 October 2020, 9:59 am | Peter Dunne
As this year's election campaign got underway the Prime Minister described it as the "Covid19" election. Her subliminal hope was obviously that voters would take the opportunity to reward the government – and the Labour Party in particular ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: The Election Campaign Just Grinds Slowly On And On
Thursday, 24 September 2020, 8:44 am | Peter Dunne
With just over three weeks until the General Election, the release of the first major pre-election opinion poll this week confirmed what was already being reported about this year’s campaign. Although the gap between Labour and National has narrowed ... More >>
