NZ POLITICS DAILY: 'Occupy' protests still rather vague

The ‘Occupy Wall St’ protests have also arrived in New Zealand, fuelling all sorts of political activism. The aim and political nature of the occupations are still rather vague.

As TVNZ has reported, ‘Critics have slammed the occupiers for being incoherent and disorganised’ – see: Anti-greed protests sweep through NZ.

But the main focus uniting the activists seems to be focus on corporate greed and increasing economic inequality – issues that are now resonating strongly around the world. In this regard, the Herald points out that a Statistic New Zealand study showed that ‘the top 1 per cent of New Zealanders owned 16 per cent of our wealth, higher than every country in the study except the United States and Sweden’ – see: 'Occupy' movement reaches New Zealand. Other useful opinion pieces on the local occupy movement include Chris Trotter’s They're Only 0.1 Percent - But It's A Good Start!, The Standard’s Over or Into The Wall?, and Jordan Carter’s Will the #occupation movements fly in New Zealand?.

After compiling and then printing out today’s NZ Politics Daily, I realised just how much political activity and analysis is taking place at the moment – the draft printout of all the material in the NZPD was well over 200 pages. Of course this mostly due to the Rena oil spill, which continues to occupy a huge amount of attention, concern, and politicking. There’s plenty of important articles that deal with the ‘politics of Rena’ – the most significant probably being John Armstrong’s Rena may blow National off its campaign course, Gordon Campbell’s On who should pay for the Rena clean-up, Reading the maps’ The Real meaning of Rena, and Derek Cheng’s two items, Rena disaster has made Govt vulnerable: Banks and Rena oil spill: Missing $12m cover 'Govt error'.

Back in more orthodox mainstream politics, the election is also really heating up, with some interesting analysis arising. Political scientist Claire Robinson displays her usual strong grasp and alternative view on issues of political finance and electoral law in disagreeing with the recent BSA decision on the John Key RadioLive show – see: Of course it was electioneering, but so what?. Kate Chapman let’s us know what ‘Members of the political, business and farming elite’ think about politics in her Survey: Too many 'loonies' in Govt. Anthony Hubbard provides an interesting profile of Green Party co-leader Russel Norman in his feature, 'Being poor didn't mean we were bad'. It’s a fairly soft profile/interview, and so for a more analytical look at where the Greens are going, check out Niki Lomax’s series of guest blog posts on my liberation blog, starting today with Vote for Me (Part 1): The Green Party’s quest for success. John Moore has also written a very guest blog post examining the ongoing ideological and power shifts going on within the fledging Mana Party – see: The Sidelining of Mana’s left-wing. The very astute blogger Morgan Godfery has replied with Mana: a discussion.

Bryce Edwards

NZPD Editor (bryce.edwards@otago.ac.nz)

Today’s content

Rena oil spill

John Armstrong (NZH): Rena may blow National off its campaign course

Gordon Campbell (Scoop): On who should pay for the Rena clean-up

John Hartevelt (SST): Oil on troubled waters adds to Key's woes

Derek Cheng (NZH): Rena disaster has made Govt vulnerable: Banks

Derek Cheng (NZH): Rena oil spill: Missing $12m cover 'Govt error'

John Tamihere (Sunday News): Rena is PM's tipping point

Steve Matthewman (NZH): Use technology but plan for worst

Dave Armstrong (Dom Post): Oil slick ruffles our leader's silky-smooth feathers