“Dirty politics” is the name of a book by investigative journalist Nicky Hager. In it he claims that New Zealand government ministers, including Judith Collins, passed on intelligence and other private communications about certain individuals to the controversial right-wing blogger Cameron Slater, known by his blog name Whaleoil. The book has highlighted a lot of the dirty and underhanded techniques used by this National-led government to undermine their critics.

September 20, 2014 was a bad day for the working class of New Zealand. For the workers the re-election of a National government – and for the first time under MMP with an absolute majority – does not bode well for the future of workers’ living standards and conditions of employment, as well as the poor.