Written By: - Date published: 2:26 pm, March 15th, 2012 - 46 comments
The judge is just dismissing the jury for the day – they will resume deliberations tomorrow morning.
Written By: - Date published: 7:19 pm, December 14th, 2011 - 44 comments
One of David Shearer’s campaign volunteers organised this video as a surprise for David on the night of the Mt Albert By-Election in 2009. We played it to David and the Labour Party activists during the election night celebrations and I’ve had it sitting on my computer ever since. After re-watching it with my partner …
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 15 comments
Last night walking into the film screening in Auckland I was a bit apprehensive about how it would all be put together. Fortunately my fears were unfounded and the film did justice to the complex issues involved.
Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, February 22nd, 2011 - 88 comments
Aucklanders – the fight back against the worst recommendations in the Rebstock report starts now. Join us – Auckland Against Poverty – in a picket, 2pm today outside Work & Income, Sel Peacock Dr, Henderson.
Written By: - Date published: 6:01 am, October 5th, 2010 - 78 comments
Join the protests this evening outside TVNZ in both Auckland and Wellington calling for Paul Henry to be sacked.
AUCKLAND: 5pm, TVNZ HQ, 100 Victoria Street West
WELLINGTON: 5pm, TVNZ, 86 Lambton Quay
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 am, April 16th, 2010 - 16 comments
Today is the last day to send in your submission on NAWAC’s draft Code of Welfare for Pigs. New Zealand Open Rescue have put out a new video containing footage from many different farms around the country, to remind you why it is important to have your say. You can send a submission using SAFE’s template at www.lovepigs.org.nz.
Written By: - Date published: 10:16 pm, January 12th, 2010 - 96 comments
UPDATE 14/01 – my Summary of Facts My only charge is still obstructs police – seemingly because I refused to comply with an unlawful request. Note the fact that they haven’t charged me with disorderly behaviour must mean they realise my use of a megaphone was not unlawful. I have no doubt at all that …
Written By: - Date published: 10:20 pm, January 8th, 2010 - 98 comments
As lprent has already posted: I was arrested today for chanting on a megaphone. This is the third time I have been arrested for the same thing. As I mentioned yesterday, there was the broiler conference protests in 2005 which led to a precedent being set in the High Court that it is valid to …
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 pm, January 7th, 2010 - 121 comments
John Darroch called today to inform me that the police were starting to round up and arrest protesters, and that they had three paddywagons ready. I turned up at the protest 10 minutes later and it was pretty much all over. John D, John Minto, and three others had been arrested, and everyone else seemed …
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 pm, January 3rd, 2010 - 25 comments
My assumption whenever I read Cameron John Slater’s trash over at Whale Oil is to assume it’s just that trash. That’s why I don’t bother reading Cameron John Slater’s daily tirade of garbage anymore unless specifically alerted to something (I do have to admit there was a period where I used to read it regularly …
Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, December 21st, 2009 - 87 comments
Text from John Darroch a couple of minutes ago: hey just hanging ten stories up the mfat building in welly protesting against fonterror regarding climate change Nice one John – according to NZPA you’re only four stories up. Hope you get your point across and make it down safely! Great to see some action following …
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, December 14th, 2009 - 46 comments
In a year when New Zealand factory farming practices for pigs (and earlier for chickens) have been widely exposed and shocked the country, our dairy industry is looking at adopting similar practices for dairy cows. In a year when climate change has been on the world agenda as never before, our dairy industry is attempting …
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 pm, December 12th, 2009 - 156 comments
This is a guest post by Jasmine because I couldn’t be bothered writing it myself Today Rochelle and I were hanging out in Levin, as you do on a Saturday afternoon, and decided to go check out the local layer hen slaughterhouse. There was no one around so we decided to climb the fence and …
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, November 20th, 2009 - 15 comments
Lance Corporal Joe Glenton is facing prison after speaking out at an anti-war rally. A British soldier was arrested on Monday for speaking out at an anti-war rally and refusing to return to fight in Afghanistan. Lance Corporal Joe Glenton has been charged not just with desertion, but with new charges under the Armed Forces …
Written By: - Date published: 10:47 pm, November 17th, 2009 - 17 comments
Gagged The Law Commission yesterday released a report on ‘Suppressing Names and Evidence’. It’s timely given that Vince Siemer was arrested just last week for stating on his website that the judge in the Oct 15 ‘terror case’ has ruled that [lprent: gagged - see my comments at bottom] used by police were unlawfully obtained. …
Written By: - Date published: 6:59 am, November 13th, 2009 - 54 comments
There’s no question that Hone Harawira’s comments were stupid, but I don’t believe they were racist. For a start, the white mofos reference began in Buddy Mikaere’s email to Harawira, so it’s not entirely inappropriate that those words were used in return. I quite often, when replying to emails or blog comments, use the words …
Written By: - Date published: 7:47 pm, November 10th, 2009 - 92 comments
There has been much furore today over Hone Harawira’s latest comment that: If I should be suspended for my language, he [Phil Goff] and his mates should be lined up against the wall and shot. I thought the comment was appropriate in the circumstances, as a response to Phil Goff calling for him to be …
Written By: - Date published: 5:15 am, November 9th, 2009 - 48 comments
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is not well understood by most New Zealanders, including most of the politicians that make up our main political parties. It is due to this lack of understanding, as well as populist politicking by some notable politicians, that there is an underlying resentment in our population regarding any policy which adequately …
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, November 4th, 2009 - 12 comments
From Phil Twyford over at Red Alert on pig farming. This is Red Alert’s first video blog. Twyford manages to impress me on two of my favourite topics all in one post – technology and animal welfare. Hopefully on both topics this signals Labour moving forward. As the title of his post says: Time for …
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, November 4th, 2009 - 27 comments
The New Zealand Herald have disabled all online polls on their website until further notice, after a hacker (or hackers) severely skewed the results of three polls. I say well done, and I’m sure I’m not the only one sick of online polls being carried out by the media and reported as news. Firstly there’s …
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 pm, November 2nd, 2009 - 15 comments
Tonight Campbell Live showed new footage recently shot by animal rights activists on four farms in Ashburton, Greytown, Blenheim and Kumeu. Six months on from the Mike King and Sunday exposé and it’s clear nothing has changed in the appalling treatment of pigs in this country. Not surprisingly, spokesperson for the Pork Board Sam McIvor …
Written By: - Date published: 9:13 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 8 comments
Today hundreds of people around the country marched against the cuts to sexual abuse counselling due to be implemented by ACC next week. The protests were widely covered by the media, with excellent coverage by both TVNZ and 3News. I was at the Auckland march where a couple of hundred people turned up to rally …
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 15th, 2009 - 13 comments
Answering the question you wish you were asked rather than the one you were is a common PR tactic (to a point) when speaking to the media. Watching a cabinet minister try the same trick in parliament really starts to unveil this government’s contempt for democracy (though this example is perhaps not quite as bad …
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, October 14th, 2009 - 5 comments
From October 27th, survivors of sexual violence will only be eligible for ACC funded counselling if they are first diagnosed with a mental illness. Firstly, you don’t need to have a mental illness to need a few counselling sessions after going through a traumatic and disempowering experience. Why should a survivor miss out on services …
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, October 6th, 2009 - 15 comments
SAFE is campaigning against a new and very odd form of “entertainment” in pubs. Catcha Cray machines are just like arcade grab machines, with the key difference being that rather than the prize being a non-sentient soft toy, the prize is instead a living and feeling crayfish. SAFE’s campaign officer Mandy Carter says: Like the …
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, October 2nd, 2009 - 14 comments
A couple of young nats and young labourites have created an online NZ Politics simulation game. It officially starts on the 3rd of October, but you can sign up now at www.politicsnz.com. It looks like it could be fun, but while I’ll play initially, my addictive personality means I might not want to get too …
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 2nd, 2009 - 24 comments
Following on from yesterdays guest post on World Vegetarian Day, today is World Farm Animal Day. At the end of last year, I was a little bit involved in a documentary created by Animal Liberation Aotearoa called “Who are you having for dinner? The reality of meat production in New Zealand“. On a trip up …
Written By: - Date published: 6:06 pm, September 30th, 2009 - 22 comments
The recent news that NZ’s largest dairy farmer allowed calves to dehydrate and starve to death is appalling, but there are much larger issues here than this just being one rogue farm. The fact is, MAF animal welfare is a joke. They have only five animal welfare inspectors covering the entire country, so it’s really …
Written By: - Date published: 12:54 pm, September 13th, 2009 - 25 comments
On Thursday Animal Rights Activists did a protest outside the Norwegian Embassy against the fur trade there. This was to support the campaign in Norway, where activists have just released an investigation into 50 fur farms. During the protest a man was observed sitting in a car across the road taking photographs of the protest …
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 pm, August 27th, 2009 - 19 comments
I was shocked but not surprised to hear that National are considering opening our National Parks up for mining. At the same time, I can’t help but feel an unfortunate sense of deja vu. Labour’s Conservation spokesperson David Parker is quoted by 3News today as saying: We were certainly not told this before the election …
Written By: - Date published: 5:00 am, August 18th, 2009 - 36 comments
I hadn’t been to a protest in months. After everything I’ve been through, activist stuff tends to make me more than a little angry, which is part of the reason I’ve kept away from the front line for a while. Of course, being as assertive as I am, whenever there is trouble, it seems to …
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