Lolz, i think the best descriptive would now be- an ‘un-developing country’, not quite 3rd World but having a successive series of Governments making a valiant effort to get us there…
I haven’t been living beyond my means ‘for years and years’. But as a disabled person who is unable to work full-time I’m going to pay for others selfish greed, and be demonised as a bludger.
The whole industry is fucked up. Trust me. I work in it.
Almost everything is contracted and subcontracted out. Different companies do different tasks in different areas for different companies. The power meter you have at home is not actually owned by your network company, so that leaves a whole lot of ticket clipping going on.
It would have been better to bring in private involvement in the electricity industry by simply allowing private companies to build power stations to connect to the national grid, and allowing small generators to sell their surplus power back to the network.
Yeah, that’s what happens when you put in place a fictitious competitive market pushing up costs, over pay the top management and then demand huge profits so that direct taxes can be kept low.
“Of the top 100 Swiss companies, 49 give shareholders a consulting vote on the pay of executives. A few other countries, including the United States and Germany, have introduced advisory ‘say on pay’ votes in response to the anger over inequality and corporate excess that drove the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Britain is also planning to implement rules in late 2013 that will give shareholders a binding vote on pay and ‘exit payments’ at least every three years.”
In Switzerland there is a public referendum in March which is predicted to successfully:
“force all listed companies to have binding votes on compensation for company managers and directors, and ban golden handshakes and parachutes. It would also ban bonus payments to managers if their companies are taken over, and impose severe penalties – including possible jail sentences and fines – for breaches of these new rules”
Random question and I’m not sure anyone will be able to answer it but…is there any particular reason Titewhai Harawira escorts the pm onto grounds at Waitangi? Is it a tribal thing or is it up for vote or how does it work essentially… (sorry the question sounds a bit vague)
Ok so shes an attention-seeker but but why is she allowed to by the rest of the tribe? I’m assuming its do with the tribe? I mean there must be any number of respected kuia so why her in particular?
Marae trustees were appointing their own “kuia of esteem” to escort Key on to the marae. He said Harawira went “ape shit” when told about the plan and her resistance had made appointing a successor difficult.
Harawira has no doubt over who would fulfil the job: “There is no confusion. It lowers my mana to even respond to something that isn’t true.” In other words, it’ll be her.
Harawira’s role as the self-appointed prime ministerial escort at Waitangi has rankled marae elders in the past – in 2009, they attempted to replace her with Nellie Rata, the widow of the late Matiu Rata.
Taurua said Harawira physically elbowed Rata out of the way as Key arrived.
“We thought we would give [Nellie] the opportunity of doing that, out of respect for Matiu. But when it came to the day Titewhai objected. When the prime minister came on, Nellie went to greet him and Titewhai kicked her off.”
Yep no attention seeking there BUT still doesn’t answer my question as to why she does it/allowed to do it etc etc
It does answer your question but you can’t see/get it. Think about this – how did she get the gig in the first place – could you walk on to a marae and do anything like that – no. Why is that c73.
Anne below – bully? obviously you know little other than what you have been spoon-fed by the media about this mana wahine – that’s your loss.
JK – scared is not correct – once again it is about mana, which is derived from a number of areas including Gods, ancestors, personal acts and the community a person lives and works in – with mana it is impossible to shut someone up because they are speaking on behalf and with the support of others.
Because she’s a bully and they’re scared of her… scared of the trouble she can cause. Don’t blame them. Bullies have that effect on people. However it looks like some of them plan to stand up to her. Could be interesting.
Tomorrow your Labour MP will have the duty to cast a vote on the Confidence Motion at Caucus. It is not a Challenge.
They can withhold their vote and that will lead to all the Caucus, Members and Unions engaging in a series of debates around the country with Shearer and any other candidates.
Then we collectively select/endorse the Leader under the 40/40/20 rule.
There are a number of reasons MPs should withhold their Vote in the Confidence Motion.
These reasons have been well documented over the past 9 months or so in The Standard.
They all come down to a few recurring themes, IMO.
1. Senior MPs being driven by ego rather than members input. Trevor’s stupid failed ruse to get the Speaker role is a recent example.
2. Form over Substance. The continual efforts to select a “Persona” for Shearer to appeal to various demographics rather than letting real values, passion and personality show through. The recent Brian Edwards story documents this. Shearer may work with Ian Fraser on his delivery style: it is a pity he has not worked with the members and unions on the CONTENT. We will win with intelligent ideas and focused energy.
3. Separate Planets. The recent Roy Morgan poll showing that we have achieved zilch, zero, SFA, in the polls since the ABCs took over, despite the recent best efforts of Keys band of twits. This shows that the public, represented by our members and unionists, do not relate to the Labour messages.
4. We need to Be THE Challenger: those 16+ who will vote first time in 2014, what are we doing to make Labour their Party of Choice rather than the Greens or National? The emigrants, the unemployed, the alienated: what are we doing to make Labour their Party of Choice?
These are my reasons, communicated to my MP, as to why Confidence should be withheld from Shearer on Monday. I want a country wide debate on what Labour should be doing, followed by a 40/40/20 vote.
Caucus needs to make a choice. A choice to give the members and the affiliates their party back. A choice to re-ignite a fire under the ass of the Labour Party so that it deserves its historic name. A Labour Party dedicated to improving the situation of those most ignored and powerless in our society, and by standing fast against the neo-liberal structures set up by the most powerful and wealthy in our society.
Received wisdom is that Labour has to pander to the solid income earning, home owning middle class to win, and without a win Labour cannot do all those good things.
Well consider this: your strategy is failing. Not suddenly, not abruptly, but gradually. Perhaps in ways beneath your immediate notice. But it is failing. A persistent erosion in not just the electoral results that Labour can achieve, but also in its ethos and purpose and drive.
Any strategy to continue to deliberately drive away the Left Wing of your own party and of your own membership will lead to this ever increasing electoral failure. Electoral “wins” which are nothing more than tepid, compromised pyrrhic victories.
It’s time to change the game, caucus. Display your judgement for the entire country to see on Monday.
The party has had four years of decline and despite this current government being the biggest load of tosspots in the history of tosspots they are 15% ahead in the polls.
It is time to try something different. A four week speaking tour of the country would settle for once and for all if Shearer is up to the job.
+1 Colonial Viper. It is one thing to win members of the middle class over to your way of thinking, as the Greens have done, and quite another trade off or dilute Labour’s core values in the hope that the middle class will approve.
With “appeal to the middle class” generally being code for BAU, this move gives reason to fear that Labour foresees itself implementing a period of austerity, and wants to reassure the middle class that they will be safe. Which of course gives rise to mistrust among people who would normally vote Labour. I do not say that the above is true, but so long as Labour fails to establish trust such fears will persist. A vote on the leadership would go along way toward reversing this mistrust, since it would oblige contenders to show and defend their stance.
I have 2 teens that are or will be able to vote in 2014 And I have been trying to get them interested and get out and vote. All I got was why bother, as the OLD guys don’t listen. I am still trying I have pointed out the Greens as being a younger party, but in the end it’s their decision and I don’t hold out much hope. So there’s 2 votes lost there. Nice one Trev.
and the rate of increase is about ten times the rate that preceded the Paleocene–Eocene (about 55 million years ago) when bottom-dwelling organisms in the deep ocean experienced a major extinction.
Whatever the original source for that – if true, the wee detail is the land based extinctions of that time due to a lack of atmospheric oxygen due to the acidified oceans producing (can’t remember the gas) in the place of the broken O2/CO2 cycle.
A look at the way multi-million dollar executives are driving a once-great company into the ground despite the best endeavours of what remains of its workforce:
Here is an interesting read for those of you wanting to know more about ow the hell John Key sprung into political existence not so long ago.
From internationally renowned US journalist Wayne Madsen:
The United States has successfully installed two America-compliant leaders as the heads of government of Australia and New Zealand, Washington’s two most important Asia-Pacific regional allies. Both leaders, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, rose rapidly within their respective parties, a sure sign that they had outside support, likely from the Central Intelligence Agency, which has historically meddled in the domestic affairs of Australia and New Zealand…
Madsen seems to have made something of a career pandering to the paranoid by picking up and running a little way with some plausible conspiracy theories while wisely avoiding the more lunatic ones – and with a rather blunderbus approach may even sometimes have hit something:
Whether he’s hit something here I’ve no idea but correlation doesn’t always, or even often, mean conspiracy. Personally I can’t see why getting John Key into the Leadership of the National Party was worth any effort given the fact that any of National’s Front Bench would volunteer their services if Obma ran out of loo paper. It would be more intelligent of the CIA to try to make sure Labour became unelectable by, for example, getting Phil Goff or David Shearer into the leadership.
That was an interesting read, but the author is a bit liberal with some of the facts. Take David Lange for example. He wasn’t ousted, he stepped down of his own accord. We didn’t know it at the time, but his health was already starting to fail.
What’s wrong with conspiracy theories? They force lateral thinking and make people look at things from different perspectives. Life is full of conspiracies and subterfuge.
Yeah, I read the article knowing full well how the CIA have intervened in South/Central American elections. But – I still couldn’t see it, and in the end agree with the Australian commenters on the article, especially this bit:
And while I agree that the rise of these neo-liberal power clubs are a major danger, eleborate recruitment schemes are not necessary – any of these characters would be happy to screw over the others if it gets them ahead – any of them will happily grab onto whatever scheme being sold which looks like giving them the greatest advantage.
Nothing wrong with them as long as you treat them as entertainment, the problem begins when people start to add 2 + 2 and come up with 5 (this is a problem that crosses political boundaries)
Notice how any of the established systems required to support the well being of NZ, and its people are almost exclusively broken, try naming one that’s not, or thats currently being dismantled because its not!
These is the conspiracies people claim don’t exist!
The *nutbars* are those who accept *theories* which the corporate controlled, military/intelligence backed propganda media outlets, and their political/financial etc, talking head puppets have been rolling out, for so long, people can’t decifer even the most blatant of lies!
A flippant comment which masks the underlying reality of how corporate boards (although not usually the CIA haha) set editorial lines for media all over the world.
The hilarious thing about this discussion is that the guy Eve cites spent waaaay more years working with and in US intel services than he has as a journalist.
Now, maybe after all those years he just decided, out of the blue, that he was going to start exposing the REAL TRUTH. But decided to do so after he no longer had access to anything that could verify what he was saying.
Or maybe he got the bums rush and is using his former job as credibility for rubes who don’t think too straight. say shit, get paid.
Or maybe he pushes shit to distract ya’ll. Say shit, h=get ya talking about rubbish to discredit ya’ll.
Can’t be known; he’s got fuck all docs, (which he could have had if he was legit about exposing what goes on).
Now, maybe after all those years he just decided, out of the blue, that he was going to start exposing the REAL TRUTH. But decided to do so after he no longer had access to anything that could verify what he was saying.
Think about the real world for a second, a world of consequences. And then you’ll be less flippant in how you might choose to act during the reign of a US administration who has prosecuted more whistleblowers than every other President in history put together.
Also, human beings rarely do anything “out of the blue”, as you well know.
Think about the real world for a second, a world of consequences. And then you’ll be less flippant in how you might choose to act during the reign of a US administration who has prosecuted more whistleblowers than every other President in history put together.
Fair enough.
But that of course does mean that his word is still worthless. Or is his lack of evidence somehow evidence of his truth?
But corporate interference in NZ editorial policies doesn’t actually go so far as “military/intelligence backed”. That was the line that was drawn by M.
what’s wrong is that the “lateral thinking” mutates into “all possibilities are equally likely”. So you have decorators unknowingly spraying the inside of the Twin Towers with nano-thermite (while demo teams secretly work nights to install undetectable charges) for months before aircraft drones fly into the buildings and four planeloads of passengers all disappear into secret military airfields, and the entire event is orchestrated by a shadow government that will will frame Afghanistan-based Saudis for the job so it has an excuse to invade Iraq.
And that’s regarded as being equally as plausible as 19 guys with boxcutters going all post-modern with the terrorism gameplan.
And that’s regarded as being equally as plausible as 19 guys with boxcutters going all post-modern with the terrorism gameplan.
btw a few of those 19 guys you refer to were found to be fine in their home countries, and complained that they had been made media scapegoats in something that they had nothing to do with.
Or to be more specific, news reports in the immediate aftermath of major events take a while to gel out. Taking them as gospel truth indications of a coverup is unwise.
true, especially with rolling news and the desire to be ‘first to call it’.
My problem with 9/11 is that I don’t believe the MSM at the best of times.
The MSM’s reporting of 9/11 gave contrasting evidence and way too much questionable information…but my real problem with believing the MSM’s version of 9/11 is that the event has been used as justification for 2 wars, so that oil can be secured.
I don’t flatly believe what we have been told and I’m amused when people say they are. Don’t ask me what happened in the months leading up to 9/11…but I can give you a run down of what happened after 9/11 – that’s why I’ll never believe CNN’s story, its just too convenient.
As to conflicting reports, I’d be suspicious is after a major event like that the media all delivered from the same song sheet.
And the MSM (except fox) questioned the connection between Iraq and 911. But then the US cooked the books on WMD for that.
Do I believe I know everything about 911? Nope.
Is the hijacking explanation by far the most likely in my opinion? Yep.
Do I think that, because the MSM are shite, everything they say is necessarily false? Nope.
Do I believe I know everything about 911? Nope.
Is the hijacking explanation by far the most likely in my opinion? Yep.
Do I think that, because the MSM are shite, everything they say is necessarily false? Nope.
I agree with all that.
I’m just too jaded from misinformation to believe in much these days
I didn’t say anything about a coverup McFlock. Just that a number of the so-called hijackers were found alive after the fact, far away and having had nothing to do with the hijackings.
Every time this comes up it goes quiet after a short back and forth.
1) Are you talking about the 19 final names, or are you talking about initial reports from the first 1-2 days that had some spelling errors and such like?
2) Are any of the ‘still alive’ one of the 15 Saudi citizens who the Saudi government finally acknowledged were their citizens? They initially denied Saudis would be involved, but after checking had to admit that the names the FBI had were Saudis, were missing, and presumed dead.
3) Are any of the ‘still alive’ the same guys on the ’19 matyrs’ propaganda videos AQ released?
+ 1 Pb. This one pisses me off too. Yes I saw the graphic showing all the hijackers were in Cairo or whatever but I’ve never seen any of them show their face in public – why is that?
If evidence of deliberate misinformation is needed this is a smoking gun imo
Too big for people to comprehend, understandably, with the the consequence of what it would mean to their belief system (not to mention their world view), should they accept that it was the biggest false flag in history. The false flag continues even now, having spread into North Africa, and it will continue, we are living with the outcomes from 911, and will continue to do so, quite likely as long as we all live!
Arguing over the details, of which there is much confusion, changes nothing. The guys in the caves, DID NOT do it!
By their actions, you shall know them!
[OTH below is correct – muzza is currently on a ban – moderators please take note. But someone cleared this comment, so I’ll leave it up. r0b]
To be honest, which is why you should take the advice proffered and stick to the Blubber-boy sewer where you can all sit in the magic circle sexually self-fulfilling, you wont have to read em then see…
Possibly the same one i have been experiencing, when i post a comment the site is kicking off my computer and i get a ‘server error 500 contact LPrent at such and such email’,
I have to shut down and re-boot to come back onto the Standard, the posted comment still appears on the page tho,
So, nothing but a bit of an annoyance and hardly meriting the above toy toss…
So, if your blocked from commenting can i ask how you managed to put up this comment, sounds a bit bovine defecation to me and calling those who built the platform upon which you comment names is in my opinion an open invitation to be given a spanking…
Today many poor souls are facing the dire need to apply for a benefit for various reasons
mainly for job losses and illness.
National and Labour over the years have stripped away the foundations of what was
once a decent,respectable system for the citizens of NZ.
Benefit levels are now below poverty levels approx $10.000 – $14,000 per year, the
bluster by politicians that the ‘benes’ are just lazy bludgers’ who don’t want to work
is continuing to look pathetic, when jobs are lost left,right and centre,their own
incompetence has created the problem,they have failed and that is a derelict of duty to
all NZ’ers.
Governments on both sides have given scant regard for the future in creating steady,
long term,well paid jobs, instead they have wrapped their arms around overseas countries
and encouraged their communites to come and work in NZ.
National and Labour have also been successful in creating a division between NZ’s
citizens by their petty rhetoric against those recieving benefits.
All this while politicians happily take the above dollar amounts and more for a taxpayer
paid ‘accommodation allowance’ while beneficiaries have that amount to live on
365days a year, where is the justice ?
There needs to be a Universal Benefit, (that has been touted by some), the UB needs to be
set in stone to stop politicians from using their favourite kicking ball to score political points.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10863086
Finally after what should have been done by labour policy strategist regarding the price to construct a “300k” house we are getting to what the cost will be. Why was this not done I house befor ethe policy was announced ? Then we could have concertrated the discussion on the merits of the policy, and how it could be improved. IMO building HNZ stock and then maintaining an equalibium on our state balance sheet, ie increase borrowing for an offsetting asset, but common sense and KISS has escaped from the labour caucus and strategists.
Yes and at 4 bedrooms Habitat are talking 200 square meters when Labour are talking about building mostly 2 bedroom 100 square meter homes,
Given that Habitat build them one at a time and i assume their estimated labour costs are for certified builders doing all the work there’s a mile of savings to be gained from mass production where the building crew could be as large as 3 certified builders supervising 3 apprentices and 7 labourers working on 10 townhouse type constructions at a time,
Given that Fletcher Building have already said that this is possible a major contractor could be expected to have 50 odd crews on the ground building in a year the land issue is a nonsense as the Government already has hundreds of hectares of land locked up in the HousingNZ estate which can be re-designed and rebuilt upon without the likes of the recent fuss occurring around the eviction of tenants in Auckland’s west…
Be careful of large organisations willyness !!
With some experience on tenders etc that the base cost may comply but with variations to specific site conditions, delays from councils, engineers etccost esculations and I imagine that there will be CPI adjustments based on the busing sector ( which have been greater than inflation) that what was once &300k will creep upwards.
And as response to an earlier post on the subject re FBP ability to do this and still make a good profit, then why is in not already being done as there is a customer base there to be satisfied.
Also H for H do it as a social service CPUs will expect a return from their perspective they are not on it for charity
100,000 houses??? Fletcher Building don’t have access to any land in Auckland that i know of where more than a few properties can be built at a time,
Housing is a tiny part of Fletcher Building the bloke from Fletcher Building i seen on the TV1 news the other night was saying that they are currently building about 300,
Most of the house building in Auckland at the moment is at the behest of ‘Developers’ who make the maximum amount of profit possible from the parcels of land they have got by building 200 square meter edifices,
That’s a situation that has been going on for quite some time, as the middle class family has shrunk over the years from Ma, Pa and 4 kids down to an average 1.2 kids the size of the build of housing, especially in Auckland, has risen from 100 to 200 square meters, simply a waste of resources,
I only have to look across the valley from where i live to understand how costs can be designed out of housing, there’s a row of 10 townhouses across there 3 stories with lined garages as the ground floor, lose the garage out of the build and that’s probably 20% of the cost gone already…
“Our education model is a top-down, Wellington-knows-best system. There is no school autonomy and parents have no say over the schooling of their own children. It’s run by Wellington dictate”
I am sure that, as associate education minister, Hide would have come across the Picot report at some point in time, as well as had a good grounding in the Education Act 1989.
“We work two days out of three for ourselves. And one day for the government.”
It is about time people like Hide realized that we ARE the government, inasmuch as MP’s are our representatives. In “working for the government” we are working for ourselves.
He’s a bit of a sad case nowadays. It’s been over a decade since he was last relevant in NZ footy and he burnt all his bridges with NZ Football at the time. His inability to compromise and his failure to listen damned him to crank status. So perfect for running a charter school then!
Yes, very much so. Those traits are great for sport, but shit when examining the pro’s and con’s of having the State or corporations regulate a human right.
Rufer’s backing of corporate schooling should be seen as another reason to forget about letting businesses control the minds of school children. Not that I think Rufer is nasty…actually the opposite. I was lucky enough to meet Rufer when I was young. He is a very nice person from what I remember. Sent family members football memorabilia after chatting with us for 5 mins, because that family member was involved in community work.
Rufer has a heart of gold from what I’ve seen…he burnt his bridges in the NZFA…but if I was him I would have blown up that bridge and walked away years before. The NZFA makes the Labour Party look competent.
It would be a shame if we just wrote this off as an idiot wanting to promote christian education. Instead, the left should examine why some like Rufer (who has unique skills and contacts and wants to work with kids) would see corporate schooling as a better vehicle for his community work, compared to State schooling.
As I walked down Willis Street today, there was a NEW face. Sat near ‘New World’ – as in the NEW WORLD, he had a sign that read – “No Income, No Money, Can you Help?”.
… yet another! I’m a bad judge of age – but the guy was probably a 20-something. I’m picking he didn’t comply with a Pulla Bent way of the world.
I was secretly hoping he was a con-artist, fleecing the gorgeous people and tourists trotting that neck of the woods but a fear not.
I’ll chuck him a blanket next time I pass and chastise him with a “we don’t know how lucky we are”
Oh yea, and when I do (chasitise him), I’ll tell him the Uncle Trev from Wainui, and Aunty Fag Hag from Hoitoittoi ‘know hoe ya feel brutha’ (Like Fuck!)
Christ this Labour Party has become SERIOUSLY fucked hasn’t it? SERIOUSLY!
Lolz a 50/50 that your beggar was out at the ‘7’s Party’ last night and spent the rent, although on the other side of that 50/50 is the horror story of the Minister from removing people from their entitlements,
A more clever means of cutting the cost to Government of benefits than the Neanderthalic clubs used in 1991 by Richardson and Shitly tho the ‘reasoning’ and the intent are the same,
Having blown a hole in the Governments revenue of a billion dollars with it’s tax switch and being unable to fill it by imposing additional taxes on various products the Slippery lead National Government has come full circle and come up with a plan to spend less upon benefits in an effort (vain) to gather this lost billion dollars,
National have a figure in mind of 40,000 less beneficiaries so as to balance the Governments books by 2014 and they don’t much care how those beneficiaries are removed from the roll or where they then end up,
How this tho figures in your attack on Labour i am at a loss to see, from where i sit the Labour Opposition looks just like the same one that Helen Clark lead and the one prior to that lead by David Lange…
it was actually fairly obvious it wasn’t a night after the 7’s – much more likely that he was a former beneficiary (probably sickness) – definately ill in some way. Which is partly why the disillusionment with current Labour. I don’t recall Helen’s ‘team’ ever being so base as to see beneficiaries as fair game, as Shearer has been. The worst I’d accuse Helen of is deciding to have a lay down in her third term and not getting rid of some of the dead wood. Other than that, I’d have to class her as one of NZ’s better PMs
Comprehension fail there my friend, ”as you walked down Willis street today” unquote, so like i said your beggar on a 50/50 chance might have been out celebrating at the 7’s party and spent the rent,
Then you do a Dave Shearer and without having ‘found out’ you attach to the bloke a couple of labels, former beneficiary and definitely ill in some way,
Helen Clark champion of the beneficiary you reckon???, that’s pretty naive of you is what i think,
Suppose you don’t see Helen saying that Working for Families was for people who had jobs and beneficiaries not being included would encourage them to get a job as an attack on those beneficiaries and their children???,
Depends a lot i suppose where you sit on the political and income spectrum, i expected great things from Clark and the only thing She actually delivered through interest free student loans and working for families was welfare served up to the middle class who until Labour run out of gimmies for that middle class and Slippery upped the ante with tax cuts to be followed by asset sales to spend the loot on can be said at best to have given Labour 3 election wins and if there was any socialism involved in those 3 terms it was the socialism of,for,and by the middle class,
It’s why i am slightly amused and even a little bemused by the current ructions over the Labour leadership, to me Labour is a Party full of middle class people with a Parliamentary team of middle class MPs and although i might be wrong of all those MP’s i cannot personally identify one that has either really had to struggle one iota in life nor one that has ever raised a sweat to raise the monies needed to put a roof over their head or food on the table…
I don’t think I suggested Helen was a ‘champion of the beneficiary’ – simply that I don’t recall her ever as overtly pandering to the anti-beneficiary brigade as Shearer has with his roof painter episode.
And secondly my impressions of the guy came from speaking to him. As it transpires since the initial comment, he is someone a relative has been involved with in the past.
We’re probably more in agreement than not. My point is that its shameful to be seeing more and more people on the street with bugger all options other than to beg, or even go on the game out of necessity.
There is a story on Yahoo about Monday’s vote for leadership,it also mentions Cunliffe’s
‘failed’ coup and the 100% expected endorsement of Shearer, both i find rather annoying,
unless Shearer has demanded total obediance of his caucus and they wimper in agreement,
‘yes master’ can be heard somewhere behind the cone of silence, then this nonsense has
to stop,each and every mp now has the Labour Party’s future in their hands, they
either join in the wide opinon that Shearer doesn’t cut it and vote accordingly/ abstain, or they
may face a harsh backlash in the 2014 election and the Greens pick up the slack.
Nothing Shearer say’s now can be taken seriously because he is doing serious damage
to the Labour Party brand.
Blaming commenters and posters shows a weakness to accept the undeniable truth that
is so obvious to so many.
Sorry can’t link to Yahoo.
I would be disappointed if there is a 100% endorsement of Shearer (though I expect to be disappointed.) That every single member of the Labour caucus really thinks like Shearer and believes Shearer to be the best of them to lead the party beggars belief, and a 100% endorsement would in fact indicate to me that some of the caucus are being devious and dishonest.
What I really want is an ‘honest’ open vote with the understanding – which lies at the very core of the democratic process – that the winner of the vote by a majority gains the right to represent all SUBJECT TO a responsibility to listen to and give serious consideration to the views of the minority.
Too much to ask from the professional politicians though – except maybe the Greens, who I still regard as reluctant politicians rather than professional ones.
A vote tomorrow for the membership and affiliates to have a say is the only way to energise and unite Labour going into 2014. It’s a referendum on how inclusive caucus is going to be with regards to the rest of the party. Will us ordinary Joes be listened to? Who knows?
…a 100% endorsement would in fact indicate to me that some of the caucus are being devious and dishonest.
.
Not devious and dishonest Tiresias. There will be quite a few Labour MPs who are not happy with things as they stand, but they are unlikely to stick their heads above the parapet at this stage. All that will happen is their heads will be lopped off with relish by the ABC club, and that’s no help to any of us. They are wiser to wait until the climate within Caucus has changed and who knows when that will happen. I hate to say it, but it may not be until after the next election.
Edit: it would be wonderful to discover that Shearer and co. have already had a change of view, but I’m not holding my breath.
“Not devious and dishonest Tiresias. There will be quite a few Labour MPs who are not happy with things as they stand, but they are unlikely to stick their heads above the parapet at this stage.” – Anne
And that makes them not devious and dishonest how?
Oh, I know dissention in the ranks will be leapt on by the media and National. Those of whom we speak will console themselves and hide behind the excuse that they are sacrificing their integrity for the greater good – telling themselves that fooling the public is necessary to preserve a fiction of party unity.
The problem is that we, some of us, know they are ‘sacrificing’ their integrity, and in my book integrity is like virginity – very hard to get back once it’s gone. It will be obvious to those who follow these things that an attempt was made to fool them and as the saying goes, ‘fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Like virginity, trust is very hard to get back.
The implication of a unanimous vote no-one believes in says volumes to me about the state of the Labour Party, and it ain’t pretty.
A vote of confidence isn’t a vote to say Shearer’s the best person possible. The question is: shall we have a leadership spill now? And it’s perfectly possible to think Shearer’s a bit rubbish but not want a spill right now.
Also of course Shearer has the numbers (because duh the idea of having a leadership spill now is cray-cray) and there’s no point burning yourself when there’s no realistic prospect of winning. So Shearer’s going to be leader until the next election, and if we win then for a fair bit after.
If we lose he’ll resign and we’ll have a rather grim contest as all the contenders run around pandering to the activist left of the party while carefully planning how to swing as far right-ward as possible once in Leader’s office in order to take an idealised middle-NZ’s votes. So yeah. Let’s not do that guys.
[Also yay for weird slut-shaming metaphors about integrity. WTF guys wtf.]
Well actually my side kinda has already won this argument. That’s why y’all are wandering around in the wilderness along with various people who think it’s hilarious to insult Annette King for talking to gay men, that the Truthers have a point, and, most bizarrely, that Julia Gillard’s a CIA operative. That’s why Shearer’s going to be unanimously endorsed tomorrow, and lead Labour into the next election. (We won, you lost, let’s do lunch, as Cullen so nicely put it.)
I suspect that if Shearer loses in ’14, we’ll be back here again (by the way will y’all promise not to try and roll Shearer in ’15 if he wins? You really should, just to even it up) and we’ll win that fight too, ’cause y’all appear to organisationally incompetent. Depressingly, you’re also sucking up all the oxygen on the left of the party but that doesn’t bother you because as a collection of ultra-leftist infantilists you don’t actually see beyond this week’s current outrage.
There seems to be some thought that you are an mp, but as speculation about users ids is not permitted here, I’m lucky in always taking as I find, so you could quite easily be a genuine no direction caucus fan club devotee, or just a sharp one taking the piss. Makes no odds to me.
Firstly, it’s a bit unfair to link my comment to homophobic comments and conspiracy theorists. I understand politics and linking the thing you attack with known toxicity is a often used ploy, but being so see through, predictable and in this case quite poorly executed, I’m going to have to question your authority to call infantile.
While were at “infantilists” what’s this about sucking all the oxygen. I don’t need you to be quiet to make my points of view known, how odd you feel you can’t be heard if others are talking. If you have something you want to share in the way of policy, ideals comradeship, then you sing your heart out, like I do. You’ll find that rather from being a rag tag outfit of self interested, self absorbed extremists and wannabe radicals, most here at the standard are genuinely inclusive and great exponents of core Labour/Left wing principles.
It’s not our fault, whoever’s fan you really are, that the 2008-2013 caucus is an ineffective pile of shit.
But go on, come again. Tell me why I should shut up and let them suck unopposed?
Polsci student, young labour, looking for the main chance post graduation; don’t rock the boat; infatuated with teh game; but doesn’t get, yet, that the game is a means to an end, and that ‘how’ you win determines what you can do when you win.
If we have to wait until 2014 then the NACTS will have sold off everything that was not tied down, hidden under ground, or under the sea. ALL with detrimental effects for now, and the next 50 years. And our children, and grand children, will be paying for it in Spades.
The same rationale was used during Phils time. And we all regret following a leader who we knew was going to loose .
Déjà Vu?
Now is the correct time to make a fundemental change in the leadership coterie of the party.
We can not, should not, will not repeat the same mistakes. Loosing in 2014 is not an option.
The Fan Club: loosing is imprinted in everything you write.
State burial will be face down in ditch at a crossroads with a steak through the heart.
People will line up in their thousands, tap, jazz and ballet shoes at the ready to dance on her grave.
Mental old hag.
Never forget when Pinochet got caught in London by a distinguished human rights barrister, forget his name, read his excellent book, who got a High Court order confining the murderous bastard to some estate in Surrey or somewhere.
There it was on the tele’, all the modern day fascists gathered in support. The Mental Old Hag, craned over, fat arse out, handbag over arm trying to be The Queen, tottering around this huge country estate sitting room, directing which fabulously upholstered couches each of the fascist bastards should sit on. And in their dribbling dotage each of the mongrels was taking her orders.
Why didn’t we call some of our MPs to account for their Electoral Performance, especially in the Wellington Region?
Annette King in Rongotai got a Labour Party vote in 2005 of 50%, 2008 was 42% and 2011 was 34%. Methinks she is doing as poor a job, just like Hipkins in the nearby Rimutaka: 48%, 41% and 33%.
The performance of our Party Election Strategist, Lord Trevor of Wainouimata in Hutt South is equally worrying: Party vote in 2005 48%, 2008 43% and in 201- 36%.
That is why we did not call out poor performance. The Leaders do not feel accountable to the Members, or the Unions.
They would not get my Confidence Vote at Caucus. If I had one.
The same pattern in Wellington Central sadly. Heir apparent, Grant Robertson, led Labour to third place there. In 2005 we had 43%, 35% in 2008 and only 26% in 2011. Sh*t.
And these are the people from Wellington from whom the hapless member for Mt Albert is getting Election Strategy.
Get out of the way. You are way past your sell-by date.
Consider the impenetrable Labour “stronghold” of Dunedin South.
In 2005 Benson Pope achieved a party vote of 57.1%.
In 2008 Clare Curran achieved a party vote of 46.7% (-10.4%)
In 2011 Clare Curran achieved a party vote of 35.0% (-22.1%)
That’s an eye watering two-fifths drop in party vote.
The Fan Club is quite right to ask us to pause and consider what the nation-wide swing over that time was, however.
I believe that his point is simple: that Labour is being led to irrelevancy on a nation-wide basis, not just electorate by electorate, and that the performance of Labour has been in decline for several years and it still doesn’t know how to change what it is doing.
Hang on. What’s the national swing? What’s the electorate vote? How did other seats perform? How did other prominent MPs supporting Shearer do? Because as far as I can tell you’re cherry picking data in a pretty transparent and at this late date desperate attempt to smear MPs you don’t like for other reasons.
[If you want accountability for electorate MPs, that’s a role for the LEC & the region. That’s the point of our federated party, where head office doesn’t run everything.
So Trevor’s Strategy role was unnecessary? Wellington was not responsible for their own massive failures?
Go to bed The Fan Club. You are clutching at straws.
Hey if I was running the ’11 campaign I’d have put Mallard on cycling leave. But I wasn’t. And that has nothing to do with the fucking obvious point, you complete idiot, that Labour got shellacked all over the country, and that individual MPs are quite at the mercy of national swings. The party vote especially follows the national trend.
Wellington Central was the one seat that the Greens ran a serious electorate campaign in. And it worked, basically.
And with comments like that TFC, you do absolutely nothing to confirm to worried Labour membership that Labour strategists are in touch with what they say, take it seriously and that the Labour hierarchy has a modicum of respect for anyone outside the parliamentary bubble.
TV3 has an article up this evening about the confidence vote. It too suggests a 100% endorsement is likely. In my view the article misses the point that the internal friction within Labour is not a Shearer vs Cunliffe thing. Rather, it is about the wish of the Labour grass roots to have more say in how the Party is run, the widening gap between the Party members and the Caucus old guard, and genuine concern that Shearer will have trouble matching Key in a campaign. Those issues don’t go away just because Cunliffe has made clear he is not challenging. Those issues remain and need to be resolved.
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Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
NZ power prices have increased at twice the rate of every other developed country the last 30 years:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10863135
“…Energy Minister Simon Bridges ducked the issue yesterday while spokesmen for Mighty River Power and Genesis Energy declined to comment…”
On the side, why are we pretending we are still a developed country?
Lolz, i think the best descriptive would now be- an ‘un-developing country’, not quite 3rd World but having a successive series of Governments making a valiant effort to get us there…
We’ve been living beyond our means for years and years, as evidenced by the current account deficit.
I haven’t been living beyond my means ‘for years and years’. But as a disabled person who is unable to work full-time I’m going to pay for others selfish greed, and be demonised as a bludger.
Thanks, Max Bradford, you utter, utter prick.
The whole industry is fucked up. Trust me. I work in it.
Almost everything is contracted and subcontracted out. Different companies do different tasks in different areas for different companies. The power meter you have at home is not actually owned by your network company, so that leaves a whole lot of ticket clipping going on.
It would have been better to bring in private involvement in the electricity industry by simply allowing private companies to build power stations to connect to the national grid, and allowing small generators to sell their surplus power back to the network.
Do you think it needed privatising at all?
Yeah, that’s what happens when you put in place a fictitious competitive market pushing up costs, over pay the top management and then demand huge profits so that direct taxes can be kept low.
Meanwhile in Switzerland, US, Germany and UK……
In Switzerland there is a public referendum in March which is predicted to successfully:
Volunteer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/in-russia-volunteers-step-up/2013/02/02/62ecffac-6a38-11e2-af53-7b2b2a7510a8_story.html
Rock The Casbah
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ahmadinejad-unveils-irans-newest-fighter-jet-18383949
hear The Call Up
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9843859/Iran-is-smuggling-manpad-anti-aircraft-missiles-for-lone-militants-warns-US.html
of those Washington Bullets again
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korea-threatens-us-for-what-it-calls-double-standards-over-rocket-launches-by-2-koreas/2013/02/02/5f40d0f2-6cf6-11e2-8f4f-2abd96162ba8_story.html
Time for concern?
http://world.time.com/2013/02/01/the-fallout-from-the-air-raid-on-syria-why-israel-is-concerned/
about a neo-Dawn
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greeces-neofascists-are-on-the-rise-and-now-theyre-going-into-schools-how-golden-dawn-is-nurturing-the-next-generation-8477997.html
Sharia don’t like it
About that Iranian aircraft.
http://theaviationist.com/2013/02/02/iran-new-stealth-fighter/
Random question and I’m not sure anyone will be able to answer it but…is there any particular reason Titewhai Harawira escorts the pm onto grounds at Waitangi? Is it a tribal thing or is it up for vote or how does it work essentially… (sorry the question sounds a bit vague)
This explains a wee bit for you
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8256595/Key-walks-into-war-at-Waitangi
It’s about mana c73
Ok so shes an attention-seeker but but why is she allowed to by the rest of the tribe? I’m assuming its do with the tribe? I mean there must be any number of respected kuia so why her in particular?
marty: “It’s about mana”
c73: “Ok so she’s an attention-seeker”
‘Nuff said.
Just from that article:
Marae trustees were appointing their own “kuia of esteem” to escort Key on to the marae. He said Harawira went “ape shit” when told about the plan and her resistance had made appointing a successor difficult.
Harawira has no doubt over who would fulfil the job: “There is no confusion. It lowers my mana to even respond to something that isn’t true.” In other words, it’ll be her.
Harawira’s role as the self-appointed prime ministerial escort at Waitangi has rankled marae elders in the past – in 2009, they attempted to replace her with Nellie Rata, the widow of the late Matiu Rata.
Taurua said Harawira physically elbowed Rata out of the way as Key arrived.
“We thought we would give [Nellie] the opportunity of doing that, out of respect for Matiu. But when it came to the day Titewhai objected. When the prime minister came on, Nellie went to greet him and Titewhai kicked her off.”
Yep no attention seeking there BUT still doesn’t answer my question as to why she does it/allowed to do it etc etc
Chris 73 – because they’re all too scared to shut her up – and find it impossible to do so , if they try.
It does answer your question but you can’t see/get it. Think about this – how did she get the gig in the first place – could you walk on to a marae and do anything like that – no. Why is that c73.
Anne below – bully? obviously you know little other than what you have been spoon-fed by the media about this mana wahine – that’s your loss.
JK – scared is not correct – once again it is about mana, which is derived from a number of areas including Gods, ancestors, personal acts and the community a person lives and works in – with mana it is impossible to shut someone up because they are speaking on behalf and with the support of others.
Because she’s a bully and they’re scared of her… scared of the trouble she can cause. Don’t blame them. Bullies have that effect on people. However it looks like some of them plan to stand up to her. Could be interesting.
Tomorrow your Labour MP will have the duty to cast a vote on the Confidence Motion at Caucus. It is not a Challenge.
They can withhold their vote and that will lead to all the Caucus, Members and Unions engaging in a series of debates around the country with Shearer and any other candidates.
Then we collectively select/endorse the Leader under the 40/40/20 rule.
There are a number of reasons MPs should withhold their Vote in the Confidence Motion.
These reasons have been well documented over the past 9 months or so in The Standard.
They all come down to a few recurring themes, IMO.
1. Senior MPs being driven by ego rather than members input. Trevor’s stupid failed ruse to get the Speaker role is a recent example.
2. Form over Substance. The continual efforts to select a “Persona” for Shearer to appeal to various demographics rather than letting real values, passion and personality show through. The recent Brian Edwards story documents this. Shearer may work with Ian Fraser on his delivery style: it is a pity he has not worked with the members and unions on the CONTENT. We will win with intelligent ideas and focused energy.
3. Separate Planets. The recent Roy Morgan poll showing that we have achieved zilch, zero, SFA, in the polls since the ABCs took over, despite the recent best efforts of Keys band of twits. This shows that the public, represented by our members and unionists, do not relate to the Labour messages.
4. We need to Be THE Challenger: those 16+ who will vote first time in 2014, what are we doing to make Labour their Party of Choice rather than the Greens or National? The emigrants, the unemployed, the alienated: what are we doing to make Labour their Party of Choice?
These are my reasons, communicated to my MP, as to why Confidence should be withheld from Shearer on Monday. I want a country wide debate on what Labour should be doing, followed by a 40/40/20 vote.
Caucus needs to make a choice. A choice to give the members and the affiliates their party back. A choice to re-ignite a fire under the ass of the Labour Party so that it deserves its historic name. A Labour Party dedicated to improving the situation of those most ignored and powerless in our society, and by standing fast against the neo-liberal structures set up by the most powerful and wealthy in our society.
Received wisdom is that Labour has to pander to the solid income earning, home owning middle class to win, and without a win Labour cannot do all those good things.
Well consider this: your strategy is failing. Not suddenly, not abruptly, but gradually. Perhaps in ways beneath your immediate notice. But it is failing. A persistent erosion in not just the electoral results that Labour can achieve, but also in its ethos and purpose and drive.
Any strategy to continue to deliberately drive away the Left Wing of your own party and of your own membership will lead to this ever increasing electoral failure. Electoral “wins” which are nothing more than tepid, compromised pyrrhic victories.
It’s time to change the game, caucus. Display your judgement for the entire country to see on Monday.
Aye
The party has had four years of decline and despite this current government being the biggest load of tosspots in the history of tosspots they are 15% ahead in the polls.
It is time to try something different. A four week speaking tour of the country would settle for once and for all if Shearer is up to the job.
Bring it on.
+1 Colonial Viper. It is one thing to win members of the middle class over to your way of thinking, as the Greens have done, and quite another trade off or dilute Labour’s core values in the hope that the middle class will approve.
With “appeal to the middle class” generally being code for BAU, this move gives reason to fear that Labour foresees itself implementing a period of austerity, and wants to reassure the middle class that they will be safe. Which of course gives rise to mistrust among people who would normally vote Labour. I do not say that the above is true, but so long as Labour fails to establish trust such fears will persist. A vote on the leadership would go along way toward reversing this mistrust, since it would oblige contenders to show and defend their stance.
Ole! will be elected into a head wind
I have 2 teens that are or will be able to vote in 2014 And I have been trying to get them interested and get out and vote. All I got was why bother, as the OLD guys don’t listen. I am still trying I have pointed out the Greens as being a younger party, but in the end it’s their decision and I don’t hold out much hope. So there’s 2 votes lost there. Nice one Trev.
The ocean’s canary?. If so there’s an awful lot more at stake than a paua industry.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8256622/Acidic-oceans-threaten-shellfish-industry
The current rate of ocean acidification is on a path to reach levels higher than any seen in the last 65 million years
Whatever the original source for that – if true, the wee detail is the land based extinctions of that time due to a lack of atmospheric oxygen due to the acidified oceans producing (can’t remember the gas) in the place of the broken O2/CO2 cycle.
My previous posts on the acidification of our oceans, an issue that worries me greatly.
A look at the way multi-million dollar executives are driving a once-great company into the ground despite the best endeavours of what remains of its workforce:
http://firedoglake.com/2013/01/31/late-night-unfriendly-skies/
non nighs
Here is an interesting read for those of you wanting to know more about ow the hell John Key sprung into political existence not so long ago.
From internationally renowned US journalist Wayne Madsen:
The United States has successfully installed two America-compliant leaders as the heads of government of Australia and New Zealand, Washington’s two most important Asia-Pacific regional allies. Both leaders, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, rose rapidly within their respective parties, a sure sign that they had outside support, likely from the Central Intelligence Agency, which has historically meddled in the domestic affairs of Australia and New Zealand…
Read more
Madsen seems to have made something of a career pandering to the paranoid by picking up and running a little way with some plausible conspiracy theories while wisely avoiding the more lunatic ones – and with a rather blunderbus approach may even sometimes have hit something:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Madsen
Whether he’s hit something here I’ve no idea but correlation doesn’t always, or even often, mean conspiracy. Personally I can’t see why getting John Key into the Leadership of the National Party was worth any effort given the fact that any of National’s Front Bench would volunteer their services if Obma ran out of loo paper. It would be more intelligent of the CIA to try to make sure Labour became unelectable by, for example, getting Phil Goff or David Shearer into the leadership.
Oh.
That was an interesting read, but the author is a bit liberal with some of the facts. Take David Lange for example. He wasn’t ousted, he stepped down of his own accord. We didn’t know it at the time, but his health was already starting to fail.
Edit: “oh” says Tiresias. Quite.
Yes but conspiracy theories are almost always interesting, like the nut bars who think 9/11 was an inside job
What’s wrong with conspiracy theories? They force lateral thinking and make people look at things from different perspectives. Life is full of conspiracies and subterfuge.
Yeah, I read the article knowing full well how the CIA have intervened in South/Central American elections. But – I still couldn’t see it, and in the end agree with the Australian commenters on the article, especially this bit:
Tiresias: +1
Nothing wrong with them as long as you treat them as entertainment, the problem begins when people start to add 2 + 2 and come up with 5 (this is a problem that crosses political boundaries)
Notice how any of the established systems required to support the well being of NZ, and its people are almost exclusively broken, try naming one that’s not, or thats currently being dismantled because its not!
These is the conspiracies people claim don’t exist!
The *nutbars* are those who accept *theories* which the corporate controlled, military/intelligence backed propganda media outlets, and their political/financial etc, talking head puppets have been rolling out, for so long, people can’t decifer even the most blatant of lies!
Yes.
TV3 gets daily instructions from the CIA on how to report about child poverty. /sarc
A flippant comment which masks the underlying reality of how corporate boards (although not usually the CIA haha) set editorial lines for media all over the world.
Lol.
The hilarious thing about this discussion is that the guy Eve cites spent waaaay more years working with and in US intel services than he has as a journalist.
Now, maybe after all those years he just decided, out of the blue, that he was going to start exposing the REAL TRUTH. But decided to do so after he no longer had access to anything that could verify what he was saying.
Or maybe he got the bums rush and is using his former job as credibility for rubes who don’t think too straight. say shit, get paid.
Or maybe he pushes shit to distract ya’ll. Say shit, h=get ya talking about rubbish to discredit ya’ll.
Can’t be known; he’s got fuck all docs, (which he could have had if he was legit about exposing what goes on).
So ignore the prick. Discount to zero.
Think about the real world for a second, a world of consequences. And then you’ll be less flippant in how you might choose to act during the reign of a US administration who has prosecuted more whistleblowers than every other President in history put together.
Also, human beings rarely do anything “out of the blue”, as you well know.
Fair enough.
But that of course does mean that his word is still worthless. Or is his lack of evidence somehow evidence of his truth?
But corporate interference in NZ editorial policies doesn’t actually go so far as “military/intelligence backed”. That was the line that was drawn by M.
what’s wrong is that the “lateral thinking” mutates into “all possibilities are equally likely”. So you have decorators unknowingly spraying the inside of the Twin Towers with nano-thermite (while demo teams secretly work nights to install undetectable charges) for months before aircraft drones fly into the buildings and four planeloads of passengers all disappear into secret military airfields, and the entire event is orchestrated by a shadow government that will will frame Afghanistan-based Saudis for the job so it has an excuse to invade Iraq.
And that’s regarded as being equally as plausible as 19 guys with boxcutters going all post-modern with the terrorism gameplan.
btw a few of those 19 guys you refer to were found to be fine in their home countries, and complained that they had been made media scapegoats in something that they had nothing to do with.
Nope.
Or to be more specific, news reports in the immediate aftermath of major events take a while to gel out. Taking them as gospel truth indications of a coverup is unwise.
true, especially with rolling news and the desire to be ‘first to call it’.
My problem with 9/11 is that I don’t believe the MSM at the best of times.
The MSM’s reporting of 9/11 gave contrasting evidence and way too much questionable information…but my real problem with believing the MSM’s version of 9/11 is that the event has been used as justification for 2 wars, so that oil can be secured.
I don’t flatly believe what we have been told and I’m amused when people say they are. Don’t ask me what happened in the months leading up to 9/11…but I can give you a run down of what happened after 9/11 – that’s why I’ll never believe CNN’s story, its just too convenient.
As to conflicting reports, I’d be suspicious is after a major event like that the media all delivered from the same song sheet.
And the MSM (except fox) questioned the connection between Iraq and 911. But then the US cooked the books on WMD for that.
Do I believe I know everything about 911? Nope.
Is the hijacking explanation by far the most likely in my opinion? Yep.
Do I think that, because the MSM are shite, everything they say is necessarily false? Nope.
Do I believe I know everything about 911? Nope.
Is the hijacking explanation by far the most likely in my opinion? Yep.
Do I think that, because the MSM are shite, everything they say is necessarily false? Nope.
I agree with all that.
I’m just too jaded from misinformation to believe in much these days
I didn’t say anything about a coverup McFlock. Just that a number of the so-called hijackers were found alive after the fact, far away and having had nothing to do with the hijackings.
Do go on.
Every time this comes up it goes quiet after a short back and forth.
1) Are you talking about the 19 final names, or are you talking about initial reports from the first 1-2 days that had some spelling errors and such like?
2) Are any of the ‘still alive’ one of the 15 Saudi citizens who the Saudi government finally acknowledged were their citizens? They initially denied Saudis would be involved, but after checking had to admit that the names the FBI had were Saudis, were missing, and presumed dead.
3) Are any of the ‘still alive’ the same guys on the ’19 matyrs’ propaganda videos AQ released?
Nah.
+ 1 Pb. This one pisses me off too. Yes I saw the graphic showing all the hijackers were in Cairo or whatever but I’ve never seen any of them show their face in public – why is that?
If evidence of deliberate misinformation is needed this is a smoking gun imo
“it goes quiet “
Too big for people to comprehend, understandably, with the the consequence of what it would mean to their belief system (not to mention their world view), should they accept that it was the biggest false flag in history. The false flag continues even now, having spread into North Africa, and it will continue, we are living with the outcomes from 911, and will continue to do so, quite likely as long as we all live!
Arguing over the details, of which there is much confusion, changes nothing. The guys in the caves, DID NOT do it!
By their actions, you shall know them!
[OTH below is correct – muzza is currently on a ban – moderators please take note. But someone cleared this comment, so I’ll leave it up. r0b]
🙄
I thought we were going to be spared this clown’s drivel for a couple of weeks
To be honest, I’ve always considered it obvious that John Key was a US plant. He’s not there for NZ but for the ruling clique in the US.
A modern-day colonial governor perhaps.
To be honest I’ve always found your comments to be fucking drivel.
To be honest no one round here really cares what ‘Wing-nuts’ like you think and you should F off back to the ‘Sewer; from whence you crawled out of…
To be honest I’ve always found your comments to be fucking drivel also.
To be honest, which is why you should take the advice proffered and stick to the Blubber-boy sewer where you can all sit in the magic circle sexually self-fulfilling, you wont have to read em then see…
To be honest I like reading drivel which is why this is my preferred sewer.
To be honest, your latest comment really really merits the following comment…
Things that make you go hmmm….
http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/penny-bright-goes-to-parliament/
Definitely a hmm moment. Penny should get Frank to write all her releases 😉 It’s worth reading the submission that he’s referenced as well.
Legs, and she knows how to use ’em
So this is my last Comment on the Standard, it’s been fun.
To Carol, James, Rob and Irish and all the rest, I say GoodBye.
LPRent in his / her / Jan’s wisdome have blocked the Mac address of my machine without comment or warning.
Spineless.
And as I always say to the spineless, Your Loss M8!
CYA’S 👿
Er, are you sure it isn’t just a glitch?
I can’t see lPrent blocking an address without first telling you and the reason why. He’s a ‘he’ btw.
I think you will find it’s a glitch….
Which one Lyn or Lynn ? , I Know I Know no more comments …..
Or maybe the Fwits that asked me what name they should use for this bloggggg 8years ago ?
Ya should just have called it Bel-Tarc again M8!
😈
Possibly the same one i have been experiencing, when i post a comment the site is kicking off my computer and i get a ‘server error 500 contact LPrent at such and such email’,
I have to shut down and re-boot to come back onto the Standard, the posted comment still appears on the page tho,
So, nothing but a bit of an annoyance and hardly meriting the above toy toss…
The 500 error means someones trying to stack smash ya machine
One of Jans (My Maggot Foster Brother) favourites from what others have been saying ….. how do I know ?
Coz I told him how 8 years ago M8!
Yup, Mac address blocked , How did I leave this comment ? … different MAC address.
So, if your blocked from commenting can i ask how you managed to put up this comment, sounds a bit bovine defecation to me and calling those who built the platform upon which you comment names is in my opinion an open invitation to be given a spanking…
Spank away M8 😀
Surely you mean IP address, not MAC address?
Today many poor souls are facing the dire need to apply for a benefit for various reasons
mainly for job losses and illness.
National and Labour over the years have stripped away the foundations of what was
once a decent,respectable system for the citizens of NZ.
Benefit levels are now below poverty levels approx $10.000 – $14,000 per year, the
bluster by politicians that the ‘benes’ are just lazy bludgers’ who don’t want to work
is continuing to look pathetic, when jobs are lost left,right and centre,their own
incompetence has created the problem,they have failed and that is a derelict of duty to
all NZ’ers.
Governments on both sides have given scant regard for the future in creating steady,
long term,well paid jobs, instead they have wrapped their arms around overseas countries
and encouraged their communites to come and work in NZ.
National and Labour have also been successful in creating a division between NZ’s
citizens by their petty rhetoric against those recieving benefits.
All this while politicians happily take the above dollar amounts and more for a taxpayer
paid ‘accommodation allowance’ while beneficiaries have that amount to live on
365days a year, where is the justice ?
There needs to be a Universal Benefit, (that has been touted by some), the UB needs to be
set in stone to stop politicians from using their favourite kicking ball to score political points.
” instead they have wrapped their arms around overseas countries
and encouraged their communites to come and work in NZ.”
Whenever I point out the crazy open flood gates immigration policy for 3rd worlders, I get accused of racism by the pro multiculturalism crowd.
Close the immigration floodgates, youth unemployment will drop overnight.
Whenever I point out the crazy open flood gates immigration policy for 3rd worlders, I get accused of racism
Can you explain this so called open flood gates immigration policy for 3rd worlders…perhaps some stats…cheers
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10863086
Finally after what should have been done by labour policy strategist regarding the price to construct a “300k” house we are getting to what the cost will be. Why was this not done I house befor ethe policy was announced ? Then we could have concertrated the discussion on the merits of the policy, and how it could be improved. IMO building HNZ stock and then maintaining an equalibium on our state balance sheet, ie increase borrowing for an offsetting asset, but common sense and KISS has escaped from the labour caucus and strategists.
Yes and at 4 bedrooms Habitat are talking 200 square meters when Labour are talking about building mostly 2 bedroom 100 square meter homes,
Given that Habitat build them one at a time and i assume their estimated labour costs are for certified builders doing all the work there’s a mile of savings to be gained from mass production where the building crew could be as large as 3 certified builders supervising 3 apprentices and 7 labourers working on 10 townhouse type constructions at a time,
Given that Fletcher Building have already said that this is possible a major contractor could be expected to have 50 odd crews on the ground building in a year the land issue is a nonsense as the Government already has hundreds of hectares of land locked up in the HousingNZ estate which can be re-designed and rebuilt upon without the likes of the recent fuss occurring around the eviction of tenants in Auckland’s west…
Be careful of large organisations willyness !!
With some experience on tenders etc that the base cost may comply but with variations to specific site conditions, delays from councils, engineers etccost esculations and I imagine that there will be CPI adjustments based on the busing sector ( which have been greater than inflation) that what was once &300k will creep upwards.
And as response to an earlier post on the subject re FBP ability to do this and still make a good profit, then why is in not already being done as there is a customer base there to be satisfied.
Also H for H do it as a social service CPUs will expect a return from their perspective they are not on it for charity
100,000 houses??? Fletcher Building don’t have access to any land in Auckland that i know of where more than a few properties can be built at a time,
Housing is a tiny part of Fletcher Building the bloke from Fletcher Building i seen on the TV1 news the other night was saying that they are currently building about 300,
Most of the house building in Auckland at the moment is at the behest of ‘Developers’ who make the maximum amount of profit possible from the parcels of land they have got by building 200 square meter edifices,
That’s a situation that has been going on for quite some time, as the middle class family has shrunk over the years from Ma, Pa and 4 kids down to an average 1.2 kids the size of the build of housing, especially in Auckland, has risen from 100 to 200 square meters, simply a waste of resources,
I only have to look across the valley from where i live to understand how costs can be designed out of housing, there’s a row of 10 townhouses across there 3 stories with lined garages as the ground floor, lose the garage out of the build and that’s probably 20% of the cost gone already…
Rodney Hide still stuck in 1988
“Our education model is a top-down, Wellington-knows-best system. There is no school autonomy and parents have no say over the schooling of their own children. It’s run by Wellington dictate”
I am sure that, as associate education minister, Hide would have come across the Picot report at some point in time, as well as had a good grounding in the Education Act 1989.
1788:
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/southern-slave-owner-vs-modern-democratic-state-lf-135202
Horrible little man.
“We work two days out of three for ourselves. And one day for the government.”
It is about time people like Hide realized that we ARE the government, inasmuch as MP’s are our representatives. In “working for the government” we are working for ourselves.
+1
But you won’t get Hide admitting that because if he did then he wouldn’t be able to class taxes as theft.
Kuntae
So Wynton Rufer wants a charter school now.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/8256624/Rufer-pushes-for-football-playing-charter-school
And just for good measure indulges in a spot of misguided union bashing.
He’s a bit of a sad case nowadays. It’s been over a decade since he was last relevant in NZ footy and he burnt all his bridges with NZ Football at the time. His inability to compromise and his failure to listen damned him to crank status. So perfect for running a charter school then!
His inability to compromise and his failure to listen is also probably what took him to the top
Yes, very much so. Those traits are great for sport, but shit when examining the pro’s and con’s of having the State or corporations regulate a human right.
Rufer’s backing of corporate schooling should be seen as another reason to forget about letting businesses control the minds of school children. Not that I think Rufer is nasty…actually the opposite. I was lucky enough to meet Rufer when I was young. He is a very nice person from what I remember. Sent family members football memorabilia after chatting with us for 5 mins, because that family member was involved in community work.
Rufer has a heart of gold from what I’ve seen…he burnt his bridges in the NZFA…but if I was him I would have blown up that bridge and walked away years before. The NZFA makes the Labour Party look competent.
It would be a shame if we just wrote this off as an idiot wanting to promote christian education. Instead, the left should examine why some like Rufer (who has unique skills and contacts and wants to work with kids) would see corporate schooling as a better vehicle for his community work, compared to State schooling.
Mr Dawkins, take it away….
science is our new God
And as a faith, it will fail.
True…not bad as a form of social control though!
Nothing to stop him from starting his own ‘soccer school’ under the Education Act 1989.
I am sure he would have a few contacts in the Bundesliga in Germany who would stump up with the funding.
Christian !
As I walked down Willis Street today, there was a NEW face. Sat near ‘New World’ – as in the NEW WORLD, he had a sign that read – “No Income, No Money, Can you Help?”.
… yet another! I’m a bad judge of age – but the guy was probably a 20-something. I’m picking he didn’t comply with a Pulla Bent way of the world.
I was secretly hoping he was a con-artist, fleecing the gorgeous people and tourists trotting that neck of the woods but a fear not.
I’ll chuck him a blanket next time I pass and chastise him with a “we don’t know how lucky we are”
Oh yea, and when I do (chasitise him), I’ll tell him the Uncle Trev from Wainui, and Aunty Fag Hag from Hoitoittoi ‘know hoe ya feel brutha’ (Like Fuck!)
Christ this Labour Party has become SERIOUSLY fucked hasn’t it? SERIOUSLY!
Lolz a 50/50 that your beggar was out at the ‘7’s Party’ last night and spent the rent, although on the other side of that 50/50 is the horror story of the Minister from removing people from their entitlements,
A more clever means of cutting the cost to Government of benefits than the Neanderthalic clubs used in 1991 by Richardson and Shitly tho the ‘reasoning’ and the intent are the same,
Having blown a hole in the Governments revenue of a billion dollars with it’s tax switch and being unable to fill it by imposing additional taxes on various products the Slippery lead National Government has come full circle and come up with a plan to spend less upon benefits in an effort (vain) to gather this lost billion dollars,
National have a figure in mind of 40,000 less beneficiaries so as to balance the Governments books by 2014 and they don’t much care how those beneficiaries are removed from the roll or where they then end up,
How this tho figures in your attack on Labour i am at a loss to see, from where i sit the Labour Opposition looks just like the same one that Helen Clark lead and the one prior to that lead by David Lange…
it was actually fairly obvious it wasn’t a night after the 7’s – much more likely that he was a former beneficiary (probably sickness) – definately ill in some way. Which is partly why the disillusionment with current Labour. I don’t recall Helen’s ‘team’ ever being so base as to see beneficiaries as fair game, as Shearer has been. The worst I’d accuse Helen of is deciding to have a lay down in her third term and not getting rid of some of the dead wood. Other than that, I’d have to class her as one of NZ’s better PMs
Comprehension fail there my friend, ”as you walked down Willis street today” unquote, so like i said your beggar on a 50/50 chance might have been out celebrating at the 7’s party and spent the rent,
Then you do a Dave Shearer and without having ‘found out’ you attach to the bloke a couple of labels, former beneficiary and definitely ill in some way,
Helen Clark champion of the beneficiary you reckon???, that’s pretty naive of you is what i think,
Suppose you don’t see Helen saying that Working for Families was for people who had jobs and beneficiaries not being included would encourage them to get a job as an attack on those beneficiaries and their children???,
Depends a lot i suppose where you sit on the political and income spectrum, i expected great things from Clark and the only thing She actually delivered through interest free student loans and working for families was welfare served up to the middle class who until Labour run out of gimmies for that middle class and Slippery upped the ante with tax cuts to be followed by asset sales to spend the loot on can be said at best to have given Labour 3 election wins and if there was any socialism involved in those 3 terms it was the socialism of,for,and by the middle class,
It’s why i am slightly amused and even a little bemused by the current ructions over the Labour leadership, to me Labour is a Party full of middle class people with a Parliamentary team of middle class MPs and although i might be wrong of all those MP’s i cannot personally identify one that has either really had to struggle one iota in life nor one that has ever raised a sweat to raise the monies needed to put a roof over their head or food on the table…
I don’t think I suggested Helen was a ‘champion of the beneficiary’ – simply that I don’t recall her ever as overtly pandering to the anti-beneficiary brigade as Shearer has with his roof painter episode.
And secondly my impressions of the guy came from speaking to him. As it transpires since the initial comment, he is someone a relative has been involved with in the past.
We’re probably more in agreement than not. My point is that its shameful to be seeing more and more people on the street with bugger all options other than to beg, or even go on the game out of necessity.
Yo is anyone going to pick up on the blatant homophobia here? Cause it’s super not cool.
Fair cop – now I think about it, there’s no reason why LGBT people can’t be homophobic. The spectrum is certainly capable of mysogeny.
There is a story on Yahoo about Monday’s vote for leadership,it also mentions Cunliffe’s
‘failed’ coup and the 100% expected endorsement of Shearer, both i find rather annoying,
unless Shearer has demanded total obediance of his caucus and they wimper in agreement,
‘yes master’ can be heard somewhere behind the cone of silence, then this nonsense has
to stop,each and every mp now has the Labour Party’s future in their hands, they
either join in the wide opinon that Shearer doesn’t cut it and vote accordingly/ abstain, or they
may face a harsh backlash in the 2014 election and the Greens pick up the slack.
Nothing Shearer say’s now can be taken seriously because he is doing serious damage
to the Labour Party brand.
Blaming commenters and posters shows a weakness to accept the undeniable truth that
is so obvious to so many.
Sorry can’t link to Yahoo.
I would be disappointed if there is a 100% endorsement of Shearer (though I expect to be disappointed.) That every single member of the Labour caucus really thinks like Shearer and believes Shearer to be the best of them to lead the party beggars belief, and a 100% endorsement would in fact indicate to me that some of the caucus are being devious and dishonest.
What I really want is an ‘honest’ open vote with the understanding – which lies at the very core of the democratic process – that the winner of the vote by a majority gains the right to represent all SUBJECT TO a responsibility to listen to and give serious consideration to the views of the minority.
Too much to ask from the professional politicians though – except maybe the Greens, who I still regard as reluctant politicians rather than professional ones.
A vote tomorrow for the membership and affiliates to have a say is the only way to energise and unite Labour going into 2014. It’s a referendum on how inclusive caucus is going to be with regards to the rest of the party. Will us ordinary Joes be listened to? Who knows?
.
Not devious and dishonest Tiresias. There will be quite a few Labour MPs who are not happy with things as they stand, but they are unlikely to stick their heads above the parapet at this stage. All that will happen is their heads will be lopped off with relish by the ABC club, and that’s no help to any of us. They are wiser to wait until the climate within Caucus has changed and who knows when that will happen. I hate to say it, but it may not be until after the next election.
Edit: it would be wonderful to discover that Shearer and co. have already had a change of view, but I’m not holding my breath.
“Not devious and dishonest Tiresias. There will be quite a few Labour MPs who are not happy with things as they stand, but they are unlikely to stick their heads above the parapet at this stage.” – Anne
And that makes them not devious and dishonest how?
Oh, I know dissention in the ranks will be leapt on by the media and National. Those of whom we speak will console themselves and hide behind the excuse that they are sacrificing their integrity for the greater good – telling themselves that fooling the public is necessary to preserve a fiction of party unity.
The problem is that we, some of us, know they are ‘sacrificing’ their integrity, and in my book integrity is like virginity – very hard to get back once it’s gone. It will be obvious to those who follow these things that an attempt was made to fool them and as the saying goes, ‘fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Like virginity, trust is very hard to get back.
The implication of a unanimous vote no-one believes in says volumes to me about the state of the Labour Party, and it ain’t pretty.
A vote of confidence isn’t a vote to say Shearer’s the best person possible. The question is: shall we have a leadership spill now? And it’s perfectly possible to think Shearer’s a bit rubbish but not want a spill right now.
Also of course Shearer has the numbers (because duh the idea of having a leadership spill now is cray-cray) and there’s no point burning yourself when there’s no realistic prospect of winning. So Shearer’s going to be leader until the next election, and if we win then for a fair bit after.
If we lose he’ll resign and we’ll have a rather grim contest as all the contenders run around pandering to the activist left of the party while carefully planning how to swing as far right-ward as possible once in Leader’s office in order to take an idealised middle-NZ’s votes. So yeah. Let’s not do that guys.
[Also yay for weird slut-shaming metaphors about integrity. WTF guys wtf.]
“because duh the idea of having a leadership spill now is cray-cray”
Prove it now, or wait ’til mumble f*ck loses in 2014 and do it then.
Your call.
Well actually my side kinda has already won this argument. That’s why y’all are wandering around in the wilderness along with various people who think it’s hilarious to insult Annette King for talking to gay men, that the Truthers have a point, and, most bizarrely, that Julia Gillard’s a CIA operative. That’s why Shearer’s going to be unanimously endorsed tomorrow, and lead Labour into the next election. (We won, you lost, let’s do lunch, as Cullen so nicely put it.)
I suspect that if Shearer loses in ’14, we’ll be back here again (by the way will y’all promise not to try and roll Shearer in ’15 if he wins? You really should, just to even it up) and we’ll win that fight too, ’cause y’all appear to organisationally incompetent. Depressingly, you’re also sucking up all the oxygen on the left of the party but that doesn’t bother you because as a collection of ultra-leftist infantilists you don’t actually see beyond this week’s current outrage.
To be fair, you don’t win when you’re still stuck in second place, loser.
There seems to be some thought that you are an mp, but as speculation about users ids is not permitted here, I’m lucky in always taking as I find, so you could quite easily be a genuine no direction caucus fan club devotee, or just a sharp one taking the piss. Makes no odds to me.
Firstly, it’s a bit unfair to link my comment to homophobic comments and conspiracy theorists. I understand politics and linking the thing you attack with known toxicity is a often used ploy, but being so see through, predictable and in this case quite poorly executed, I’m going to have to question your authority to call infantile.
While were at “infantilists” what’s this about sucking all the oxygen. I don’t need you to be quiet to make my points of view known, how odd you feel you can’t be heard if others are talking. If you have something you want to share in the way of policy, ideals comradeship, then you sing your heart out, like I do. You’ll find that rather from being a rag tag outfit of self interested, self absorbed extremists and wannabe radicals, most here at the standard are genuinely inclusive and great exponents of core Labour/Left wing principles.
It’s not our fault, whoever’s fan you really are, that the 2008-2013 caucus is an ineffective pile of shit.
But go on, come again. Tell me why I should shut up and let them suck unopposed?
Loser.
No chance it’s an mp.
I’d say, without giving a shit about identity:
Polsci student, young labour, looking for the main chance post graduation; don’t rock the boat; infatuated with teh game; but doesn’t get, yet, that the game is a means to an end, and that ‘how’ you win determines what you can do when you win.
If we have to wait until 2014 then the NACTS will have sold off everything that was not tied down, hidden under ground, or under the sea. ALL with detrimental effects for now, and the next 50 years. And our children, and grand children, will be paying for it in Spades.
The same rationale was used during Phils time. And we all regret following a leader who we knew was going to loose .
Déjà Vu?
Now is the correct time to make a fundemental change in the leadership coterie of the party.
We can not, should not, will not repeat the same mistakes. Loosing in 2014 is not an option.
The Fan Club: loosing is imprinted in everything you write.
Can you (the individual authors of The Standard who contribute to a collective, who are not a borg or machine) sort out your email issues?
George
Please 🙂
It’s beyond my capability/access level. Sorry.
PS: the people who can do it may be elsewhere right now.
Just watching the thing on Holmes.
Say what we like about him (and I have many times), what a fuck’n’ old bitch is/was that Thatcher !
State burial will be face down in ditch at a crossroads with a steak through the heart.
People will line up in their thousands, tap, jazz and ballet shoes at the ready to dance on her grave.
Mental old hag.
Mental Old Hag. Love it !
Never forget when Pinochet got caught in London by a distinguished human rights barrister, forget his name, read his excellent book, who got a High Court order confining the murderous bastard to some estate in Surrey or somewhere.
There it was on the tele’, all the modern day fascists gathered in support. The Mental Old Hag, craned over, fat arse out, handbag over arm trying to be The Queen, tottering around this huge country estate sitting room, directing which fabulously upholstered couches each of the fascist bastards should sit on. And in their dribbling dotage each of the mongrels was taking her orders.
Modern day Britain for Christ’s Sake…….
If I may, The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies!
http://www.isthatcherdeadyet.co.uk/
Why didn’t we call some of our MPs to account for their Electoral Performance, especially in the Wellington Region?
Annette King in Rongotai got a Labour Party vote in 2005 of 50%, 2008 was 42% and 2011 was 34%. Methinks she is doing as poor a job, just like Hipkins in the nearby Rimutaka: 48%, 41% and 33%.
The performance of our Party Election Strategist, Lord Trevor of Wainouimata in Hutt South is equally worrying: Party vote in 2005 48%, 2008 43% and in 201- 36%.
That is why we did not call out poor performance. The Leaders do not feel accountable to the Members, or the Unions.
They would not get my Confidence Vote at Caucus. If I had one.
The same pattern in Wellington Central sadly. Heir apparent, Grant Robertson, led Labour to third place there. In 2005 we had 43%, 35% in 2008 and only 26% in 2011. Sh*t.
And these are the people from Wellington from whom the hapless member for Mt Albert is getting Election Strategy.
Get out of the way. You are way past your sell-by date.
Seems very obvious.
Consider the impenetrable Labour “stronghold” of Dunedin South.
In 2005 Benson Pope achieved a party vote of 57.1%.
In 2008 Clare Curran achieved a party vote of 46.7% (-10.4%)
In 2011 Clare Curran achieved a party vote of 35.0% (-22.1%)
That’s an eye watering two-fifths drop in party vote.
The Fan Club is quite right to ask us to pause and consider what the nation-wide swing over that time was, however.
I believe that his point is simple: that Labour is being led to irrelevancy on a nation-wide basis, not just electorate by electorate, and that the performance of Labour has been in decline for several years and it still doesn’t know how to change what it is doing.
Yes its does. Let the Greens take over.
Hang on. What’s the national swing? What’s the electorate vote? How did other seats perform? How did other prominent MPs supporting Shearer do? Because as far as I can tell you’re cherry picking data in a pretty transparent and at this late date desperate attempt to smear MPs you don’t like for other reasons.
[If you want accountability for electorate MPs, that’s a role for the LEC & the region. That’s the point of our federated party, where head office doesn’t run everything.
So Trevor’s Strategy role was unnecessary? Wellington was not responsible for their own massive failures?
Go to bed The Fan Club. You are clutching at straws.
Hey if I was running the ’11 campaign I’d have put Mallard on cycling leave. But I wasn’t. And that has nothing to do with the fucking obvious point, you complete idiot, that Labour got shellacked all over the country, and that individual MPs are quite at the mercy of national swings. The party vote especially follows the national trend.
Wellington Central was the one seat that the Greens ran a serious electorate campaign in. And it worked, basically.
fingers crossed they don’t start doing that in too many places then.
And with comments like that TFC, you do absolutely nothing to confirm to worried Labour membership that Labour strategists are in touch with what they say, take it seriously and that the Labour hierarchy has a modicum of respect for anyone outside the parliamentary bubble.
Cheers.
TV3 has an article up this evening about the confidence vote. It too suggests a 100% endorsement is likely. In my view the article misses the point that the internal friction within Labour is not a Shearer vs Cunliffe thing. Rather, it is about the wish of the Labour grass roots to have more say in how the Party is run, the widening gap between the Party members and the Caucus old guard, and genuine concern that Shearer will have trouble matching Key in a campaign. Those issues don’t go away just because Cunliffe has made clear he is not challenging. Those issues remain and need to be resolved.