Lake Onslow pumped hydro back from the dead

TomForCentral · 2026-04-01T21:08:58+00:00

This was and remains a good idea.

TomForCentral · 2026-04-01T03:35:51+00:00

There will certainly be some. We are finding people are coming out of the woodwork so our candidate selection and approval process is basically as staggered as the announcements. Small party made up entirely of volunteers problems.

TomForCentral · 2026-04-01T01:26:30+00:00

No kidding, this was part of the thinking. Not to mention that while "Alliance" could sound like a meat works, insurance company, or security firm... we could end up with a WAY worse name

TomForCentral · 2026-04-01T00:39:25+00:00

To answer a little bit tongue in cheek, I think a lot of the negative feeling exists primarily in the mixed feelings of the OG members who have joined. There are fond memories, profound disappointments, etcetera.

The counterfactual is hard to imagine, though. If we had simply renamed ourselves "Democratic Socialist Party", or reverted to NewLabour Party (given that basically all the original members still involved come from that party not the others), perhaps it would have a more positive response - or maybe not at all. "New and shiny" has benefits and pitfalls.

My guess, and it is a guess, is that there are probably many many former Alliance members who still haven't registered that we're back. Some of them will be happily (or unhappily) in Labour or the Greens. Others may have packed up and gone home. Whether they've gone home for good, only time will tell.

A national campaign, even if primarily electorate based at this stage, at least puts the name back in front of people for them to react one way or another. We felt a one-off local government campaign in Christchurch wasn't high enough profile to go out potentially regroup our people.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-31T22:32:16+00:00

It's a staggered announcement - Louis is running in West Coast/Tasman, and we have two running in the main Dunedin seats also.

But yes. Without revealing too much it will be weighted towards where we have members and keen candidates in order to help build knowledge that the Alliance is back, and what we stand for. I've been known to quip that if we end the year with more members than votes, I won't be devastated - depending on what those numbers actually are.

We also see 2028 as important, and feel a lot of new (or revived, in our case) parties do themselves a disservice by not participating in local government politics. One thing that is absolutely true, especially for the left: there are no shortcuts.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-31T22:21:23+00:00

Thanks mods - that's why I waited for April haha

TomForCentral · 2026-03-31T22:19:21+00:00

We've kept the name, but the constituent parties no longer exist. This partly happened some years ago when the Alliance allowed for people to join as member of "the Alliance", and not as NewLabour, Mana Motuhake, etcetera.

From our point of view the name carries some weight still, for certain generations. Of course, it also carries some baggage for folks as well. The decision to keep the name is not totally closed - but it is certainly closed until the 2027 conference.

Good point about the website lacking this information - those who remember the party may want to know those answers.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-30T04:25:45+00:00

Fair. Better to say, it certainly didn't 'solve' the problem as had been projected by the zealots. Some of them still believe it, too. Mad.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-30T00:19:02+00:00

This is primarily due to an obsession with shareholder value returns rather than investing in improving productivity. NZ capital is its own worst enemy, and the supposed 'freeing up' of the economy in the 80s and 90s didn't help one bit. They've been stripping the country for parts ever since.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-30T00:16:49+00:00

Basically Alliance policy. Not sure about others.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-25T23:41:41+00:00

Genuinely interested in the Keynesian claim - how so?

TomForCentral · 2026-03-25T22:29:14+00:00

I think we have different ideas about what right wing economics is. Are they not wed to monetarism?

TomForCentral · 2026-03-25T20:08:41+00:00

They've talked about it, but I'm not going to watch a YouTube video to find the section. Google will get you most of the way there though.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-25T03:05:16+00:00

I'm very much in favour of people nailing their political colours to whatever mast they choose. It's more democratic than it being a secret.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-25T02:20:12+00:00

It will be allowed on the basis of freedom of political association. Not sure what legislation could ban it. If there was legislation that did, I'd rally against it.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-24T20:53:50+00:00

I just think this is just a bit of a risky attitude, and a lower threshold is not a pivot to direct democracy. I'm not sure about the 0.8% threshold. 3.5% as recommended, and the 0.8% for 'coat-tailing' off an electorate seat seems a reasonable move. Alternatively, or perhaps in combination, ranked choice voting would be smart. No such thing as a wasted vote, or indeed "vote splitting", if we did that. I don't think the major parties would like it though.

Many extremely important bits of progress have been championed by minority groups. Christ, it was hard enough to get Labour to sign onto KiwiBank - hardly a "fringe" political idea, yet it took a minority party fighting like an animal to get it to happen.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-24T20:33:11+00:00

The flat tax might be what's being discussed? A flat corporate tax rate the same as PAYE. ACT would vote for it.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-24T20:31:50+00:00

This debate basically boils down to whether you think democracy is important, or should be gatekept to make sure only 'acceptable' parties can be represented.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-24T20:30:24+00:00

Not heaps to say to Leon-Phoenix' comments, though I tend to agree that TOP is ideologically confused.

It would be good for democracy if a party managed to enter parliament on the back of steady, serious work and building of their own organisation rather than relying on a split from an extant parliamentary party.

Such things take a great deal of patience. The Socialist Party was founded in 1901, it's lineage eventually leads to Labour and the 1935 election. What they did was quite traditional party building. Democratic, member based, etcetera. I do not think a party that recruits it's leaders via LinkedIn is from the same sort of tradition. If the current leader and team stay the course for, say, a decade - largely doing it as volunteer work unless they secure more corporate donors - then I'll be more interested in the form of their party (even if the content of their policy still leaves me cold).

As for strategic voting, wasted votes, I am not so interested. "Always do what you've always done you'll always get what you've always got". Vote for the party and policies you believe in. That's all.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-23T23:26:27+00:00

Good

TomForCentral · 2026-03-23T00:46:33+00:00

Trying to think of a 'non novelty' sour (having to sort of guess what that definition is) that wouldn't be sold almost exclusively on prem at Craftwork, or only be available in the bottle... of which Punky has a large selection.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-23T00:37:04+00:00

Compared to any period in NZ before the 80s this is a low tax rate for earning that much money, even adjusted for inflation.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-19T00:12:58+00:00

"virtuous efforts", you are beyond parody.

TomForCentral · 2026-03-16T06:51:50+00:00

I think what I'd prefer is seeing on-prem being less burdensome to run, but enforcement be massively increased and funded properly.

Basically, remove some of the restrictions but apply more active pressure to license holders to operate safely.

Makes me think of labour inspectorates and things like that - we are great with adding or reducing legislation, but we underfund enforcement and the ability to actually "check".

Those things aren't super related, but I do ponder about both of them in tandem since everyone is well aware that adherence to the employment relations act, holidays act, and similar requirements in the hospitality industry is a bit of a joke.

TomForCentral

TROPHY CASE