![John Armstrong: New leader out to dismantle economic handicap](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=791)
John Armstrong: New leader out to dismantle economic handicap
Andrew Little is not setting up his Future of Work Commission to be just another dull talkfest. Its real purpose is to chip away at National's economic policy, writes John Armstrong.
Andrew Little is not setting up his Future of Work Commission to be just another dull talkfest. Its real purpose is to chip away at National's economic policy, writes John Armstrong.
This past week has surely been the most difficult and ultimately demeaning one in the otherwise stellar political career of one John Phillip Key.
The Key administration has plumbed new depths of arrogance and contempt for the notion of politicians being accountable for their actions, writes John Armstrong.
The Labour Party caucus has rarely witnessed a reshuffle as extensive as the one conducted by the party’s new leader, writes John Armstrong.
Political columnist John Armstrong looks at whether Andrew Little can pull Labour out of the mire in which it is stuck so deeply.
The State Services Commission moves in mysterious ways, but none so perplexing as this week's weirdness surrounding the resignation of Roger Sutton as chief executive of the Canterbury Earthquake....
The words "future leader" have been the kiss of death for many a politician. Not so in Andrew Little's case, writes John Armstrong.
Andrew Little's biggest challenge as the voice of Labour is to drown out other Opposition leaders, namely Russel Norman and Winston Peters.
The next time the Prime Minister delivers a speech on something as fundamental as national security and the potential for Islamic State-inspired terrorism in New Zealand.
The Prime Minister's landmark speech on national security has two messages for New Zealanders, but they are somewhat discordant.
The possibility of NZ soldiers taken prisoner and appearing in beheading videos does not bear thinking about, let alone electorally, writes John Armstrong.
Bill English's masterplan to radically "reform" the Labour-initiated, octogenarian state housing scheme has all the hallmarks of being ideological for ideology's sake.
The rotten smell of the contents of Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics will linger around the Government this term, writes John Armstrong.
John Key's speech today outlining the National Government’s legislative and policy programme was unusually non-contentious, but offer hints of his real agenda.
It was not so much the strange case of the man of the cloth as the odd cut of the man's cloth.
Rust never sleeps. And neither, it seems, does John Key.
Andrew Little's not the "compromise" candidate, writes John Armstrong, rather, he's astutely pitched himself as the "unity" ticket in this campaign.
Is brand "Labour" depreciating so rapidly in electoral value that the party's long-term future is now in serious jeopardy?
David Cunliffe may still be Labour's leader by name. But for all intents and purposes his tenure at the party's helm is as good as over, writes John Armstrong.
An extraordinary morning in the Labour Party's wing of Parliament Buildings and John Armstrong says there are only two words to describe it - absolute mayhem.
For the changes in the Labour's rules which David Cunliffe was party to and which he promoted in order to undermine Shearer could end up destroying his own leadership.
What the public wanted to hear from him was a large measure of mea culpa. What it got was Cunliffe blaming everyone but himself.
As National began to slide in the polls last week, one senior Beehive staffer was puzzled as to why.
An indisputable triumph for one man; a total and unmitigated disaster for his many enemies.
Such has been the extraordinary nature of this election campaign that the script surely demands an extraordinary ending.
Hell hath no fury like a voter who feels he or she has been treated like a fool.
In its final few days, the 2014 election campaign has turned from weird to surreal. And that is not even taking the Kim Dotcom circus into account, writes John Armstrong.
It's delivery time for Kim Dotcom, writes John Armstrong. He must deliver irrefutable evidence that he's repeatedly promised to show the PM has not told the truth.