by Cimino | 7 Nov 2011 | MMP
Aotearoa sports the Rolls-Royce of proportional voting systems. Mixed member proportional is the only system that guarantees, potentially, that minor parties receive their fair proportion of parliamentary representation. But that is not to say that the system is...
by Cimino | 5 Nov 2011 | Regatta 2007
And the gulls circle near where Fairburn walked Achingly beautiful. Caitlin Smith’s recording is so striking, it is incomprehensible that Where Fairburn Walked didn’t become a New Zealand standard. Be that as it may, the tribute to poet Rex...
by Cimino | 2 Nov 2011 | Regatta 2012
A good old-fashioned leave-your-wallet-at-home picnic regatta. That was the adamant view of the Friends of the Mahurangi when it revived the Mahurangi Regatta, in 1977. Many of the committee members had experienced the Great Depression, and believed parents of young...
by Cimino | 31 Oct 2011 | Regional governance
Submission as lodged at 3.42 pm today: Q1 There will need to be five transformational shifts to make Auckland the world’s most liveable city. Do you agree or disagree with the five transformational shifts identified in the Draft Auckland Plan and why?...
by Cimino | 28 Oct 2011 | Global democracy
Only 26 sovereign states are judged full democracies. Most of the world’s 196 countries use democracy somewhat sparingly, if at all. And although Aotearoa is ranked fifth amongst the fully democratic, it directly elects neither its head of government—the prime...
by Cimino | 21 Oct 2011 | Regional governance
The wonder is that it took quite so long, to be occupied. Had it happened as he was being elected, President Barack Obama would have been presented with a mandate to save the planet rather than Wall Street. Instead, the grassroots revolt is happening on the eve of the...
by Cimino | 14 Oct 2011 | Transport and climate action
New Zealanders have been told to put up or shut up: Show me how you’d go faster? Show me how you’d do anything different? Told by their Prime Minister, John Key, no less—in response to widespread incredulity that a ship with 1700 tonnes of bunker fuel aboard could sit...
by Cimino | 9 Oct 2011 | Climate action economics
In Australia, the party is simply called Australian Greens, or The Greens for short. In Aotearoa it is ‘The Greens, The Green Party of Aotearoa/New Zealand’, which at 51 characters including spaces and punctuation is just one short of the 52-character maximum....
by Cimino | 23 Sep 2011 | About the Regatta
A little about the Mahurangi Regatta It’s a good old-fashioned leave-your-wallet-at-home picnic regatta. Held on the Saturday of Auckland Anniversary weekend, the Mahurangi Regatta nicely bookends the region’s weekend of festivities that culminate in the world’s...
