A little quote from Dr Jim McAloon from Vic in June 2015:
“Labour’s interest will not be served by simply waiting for the wheels to fall off the Key government (which may or may not happen in 2017—Labour underestimates John Key at its peril). To fulfil its purpose, Labour has to lift its share of the vote well above 35 per cent.
Non-voters are one target. Parts of National’s ‘soft’ vote are another.
Rather than the sometimes facile suggestions that Labour’s current troubles are the consequence of being either excessively or insufficiently Left-wing, increasing the vote means convincing enough people that the party’s fundamental values are meaningful to them today and in the future.”
Halfcrown
If only we could harness the winding up provided by all these trolls and RW afficionados we could power a wind farm which in turn would power our slightly brighter future, that we must achieve of back to the future of a new Dark Age.
Hilarious – National are full of unrealistic promises e.g. their predator free by 2050 policy. It means they can suck eggs now and let someone else deal with and pay for it later, if they can. In 30 or so years they’ll be dead or too senile to care that they stuffed around so much that a ton of species died because they would rather give tax cuts then fund the Conservation Department properly.
And I can even write Bill English and. Trustworthy in the same sentence. And if you disagree go and relive last week again.
Can Labour make 35% this time? – of course they can. Look at Corbyn massive turn around in weeks.
But it is ultimately votes who decide. So if voters want the change of government the voters need to make it happen with unconditional support. Yep, Labour and Greens are not perfect, BUT National is a very scary party and getting worse with their unbridled level of power.
Now we have Thiel a Trump supporter (yep pro wall, anti women and muslims) and anti democracy billionaire being wooed by the National party and given citizenship here, even though he doesn’t want to live here!
We have migrants that have worked hard to get citizenship here, people who live here 365 days of the year paying taxes, people in poverty, people being poisoned by Meth that has become a thriving industry since The National Party took over and residents who can not afford to rent or buy here anymore with the increasing prices foreign ownership and National party policy it is driving. Now our state houses are even been sold off cheap to Banks and finance people who set up charities as ‘fronts’. It’s obscene. National don’t even care what people think anymore.
Every vote against National counts. Because even if Labour does not win, then voters against them dilute their power to do the massive damage to our country.
Although as an outspoken ‘anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner / investigative activist /whistle- blower’ I usually face significant mainstream NZ media ‘censorship’ – internationally it seems that my work has not gone unnoticed.
(For the last three years I have participated in the World Justice Project ‘Rule of Law Index’ as an NZ ‘expert’, and I have attended 6 International Anti-Corruption Conferences.)
This is a HUGE chance to tell fellow ‘Rule of Law experts’ from potentially 130 countries – the TRUTH about how undeserved is NZ’s ‘perceived’ status as ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ according to the 2016 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’.
This World Justice Forum
(10 – 13 July 2017) is NOT funded.
It is my intention to fly out 6 July and return 16 July.
The approximate costs are:
Registration $200(donated)
Accommodation at Student ‘hostel’
NZ $63 per night.
(X 8 $504
Air travel (return)
Auckland – Amsterdam
Amsterdam – Rotterdam
Rotterdam – The Hague
Ball park $4000
(The sooner I can book my air fares – the cheaper it will be).
How much do I need?
$5000 should do it.
That’s 500 X $10
250 X $20
100 X $50
50 X $100
I have over 3,300 Facebook friends.
This is NOT a big ask?
For those of you who have helped me in the past – THANK YOU! (Again 🙂
As you know I choose to work full time on a self-funded basis (flat mate income), no benefit or funding from any source apart from occasional donations when I’m stuck and need a hand and I have done this since 2000 (17 years).
So!
To get to The Hague I do need a hand.
If you choose to help and are able – please send me a personal message on Facebook / Messenger and I will send you my bank account details.
You are looking at English BM. He lied by omission, covered up for Barclay, cut him loose when it got difficult, didn’t support a person who had worked for him for years.
NOT P.M. material at all.
One of the many successes of the shonky/dirty politics era is to lower the bar for every govt minister.
Its to the point that blinglish’s behaviour is predictably of a low standard and most reasonable people arent surprised by this level of leadership from national.
Looking at Wikipedia on the Grenfell fire, seems a good overview.
Residents expressed significant safety concerns prior to the fire, with criticism levelled against the council for fire safety and building maintenance failures.[32] They had also said repeatedly that in the event of a fire, their escape path was limited to a single staircase.[16]
Exposed gas pipes were another concern raised by the Grenfell Tower Leaseholders’ Association in the months before the fire; while a fire safety expert had ordered them to be covered by fire-retardant boxing, two-thirds remained exposed at the time of the fire.[33]
There is concern that cuts to Legal aid prevented tenants and tenants’ groups taking legal action over their safety concerns. Robert Bourns of The Law Society said, “There have been reports that tenants of Grenfell Tower were unable to access legal aid to challenge safety concerns because of the cuts. If that is the case then we may have a very stark example of what limiting legal aid can mean.”[34]…
ITV business editor Joel Hills stated that he had been told that the installation of sprinklers had not even been discussed.[20] In a 2012 report, the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association said that sprinklers could be retrofitted in Grenfell Tower for an average cost of £1,150 per flat, which would have added up to a total cost of £138,000 for the whole block….[38]
Plans for the renovation were publicised in 2012.[18] Overseen by Studio E Architects,[19] the £8.7 million refurbishment,[20] undertaken by Rydon Ltd…
…new aluminium composite rainscreen cladding, in part to improve the appearance of the building.[24] Two types were used: Arconic’s Reynobond, which consists of two, coil-coated, aluminium sheets that are fusion bonded to both sides of a polyethylene core; and Reynolux aluminium sheets. Beneath these, and fixed to the outside of the walls of the flats, was Celotex RS5000 PIR thermal insulation.[25][26][27][28] The work was carried out by Harley Facades of Crowborough, East Sussex, at a cost of £2.6 million. (The project cost included new windows and:
The renovation included a water-based heating system for individual flats.)
My question – If water was being piped to heaters, it would seem to have been cost-effective and efficient if extended to sprinkler systems?
The UK government is accused of having ignored warnings about fire safety in tower blocks.[39] A former chief fire officer and secretary of the all-party parliamentary group on fire safety, Ronnie King, said ministers stonewalled requests for meetings and efforts to tighten rules….
[After] the 2009 Lakanal House fire, the coroner made a series of safety recommendations for the government to consider, and the Department for Communities and Local Government agreed to hold a review in 2013. In March 2014, the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety & Rescue Group sent a letter to then–Minister for Communities Stephen Williams, which said in part:
“Surely … when you already have credible evidence to justify updating … the guidance … which will lead to saving of lives, you don’t need to wait another three years in addition to the two already spent since the research findings were updated, in order to take action?
“As there are estimated to be another 4,000 older tower blocks in the UK, without automatic sprinkler protection, can we really afford to wait for another tragedy to occur before we amend this weakness?”[41]…
A residents’ organisation, Grenfell Action Group (GAG), published a blog in which it highlighted major safety problems. In 2013, the group published a 2012 fire risk assessment done by a TMO Health and Safety Officer which recorded safety concerns. Firefighting equipment at the tower had not been checked for up to four years; on-site fire extinguishers had expired, and some had the word “condemned” written on them because they were so old. GAG documented its attempts to contact KCTMO management; they also alerted the council Cabinet Member for Housing and Property but said they never received a reply from him or his deputy.[43][44]
The casualty statistics:
On 28 June, the authorities stated that there were known survivors from 106 of the tower’s 129 flats; eighteen people among the occupants of these flats were reported as dead or missing presumed dead, whereas most of those killed were said to have been in the remaining 23 flats between the 11th and 23rd floors….
A total of 151 homes were destroyed in the tower and surrounding area. The incident ranks as the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the start of the 20th century, when detailed records began
Note: Other buildings and deaths were involved in the “surrounding area” which I hadn’t heard much about.
It’s the “deadliest structural fire” etc. illustrates how over the years responsible safety laws and measures get watered down, ignored, fudged and those supposedly responsible get complacent because nothing has ever happened, and the preventative idea becomes a nice-to-have. Keeping vigilant over all of our sensible thoughtful laws and systems is obviously a grassroots basic bit of life education we need to absorb through our pores, and connect to the brain.
The tragedy is a wake-up call to everyone who thought that creeping cuts didn’t really affect people. The fact is, as this shows, cuts to random areas multiply hazards. Everything from cladding change, to fire suppression, to fire service, even to legal aid, all of it worked together to create this tragedy, each cut being viewed individually.
+1 McFlock – all the ‘small’ changes add up. That is why piecemeal policy is not effective and even the current ‘process’ way of making decisions. Yep, it might work in a box factory having everybody doing a little task without knowing what the result might be as a sum, but it’s the big picture that counts and results in real life.
With tragic results.
We have had our Grenfell with Pike river and the CTV building, and it is people who must hold the government to account for the Pike river deaths AND their lack of interest in them or any justice to them and question our justice system over CTV building deaths.
Just got back from London drove on westway past grenfell. Just horrible if ever there was a monument to Tory governments and there attitudes to poor People . There it is. We need to fight really hard where ever we are to make our society fair and safe for all. Look at that tower, and get motivated for this September’s fight.
Yes this proves that the free market model is a failure and money corrupts politics. A fully funded state housing agency independent of political interference would not let this happen
Scroll to replies below Sinyangwe’s initial thread.
First day in Barbados and we drove past this monument three times. I've never seen anything like it. (1/x) pic.twitter.com/ZwJ3GKAprz— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) July 2, 2017
Actually I neither heard nor saw any mention of the residents of Barbados during the Americas Cup. They invested $100million in the Infrastructure but what about the locals? Good fun for them was it?
Eddication, edification, elucidation – something….
The government thinks that we have a suficiently satisfactory education system to keep us in our place, which is competing with the rest of the world for the job placements going which are at present good payers. And lining up with the hundreds for advertised jobs at supermarket: literacy and numeracy a must!
Actually the status of turmoil that the world and the use of competitive technology
puts us in, requires better understanding and wider education than ever before not simplified spam handed out letter by letter and screen by screen by a machine responding to the requests for information that it itself produces so limiting thinking, self-enquiry and self-discovery.
So help the educators hold onto what we have now otherwise they will be swamped and end up on a little promontory with their main skills being needed to keep themselves alive and to jump nimbly from one precarious situation to another.
http://www.together.org.nz/keep_it_public
Keep it Public!
Public tertiary education gives all New Zealanders the opportunity to develop skills, learn trades, and create knowledge which helps our families, communities and economy.
But Paul Goldsmith, the Minister for Tertiary Education, is trying to change the law to take public funds away from our universities, polytechs and wānanga and hand them to private companies who are more concerned with profit than providing quality education.
Together, let’s make sure tertiary education stays public, local and focused on learning.
They want a minimum of 4,000 signatures. Please support. See link above.
This would be the single biggest change to tertiary education funding in a generation. If enough of us speak out, then together we can stop it happening.
By pledging to support public tertiary education you will be adding your voice to the many others that want to keep tertiary education public, local, and focused on learning, not profit.
Tertiary education belongs to all of us. Now is the time to tell Paul Goldsmith you want it to stay that way.
Keep it Public!
Don’t leave our educators all alone, stranded, and our good education being decimated by private business. Need you
Well I would encourage him to put his energies into more positive like things like the above tweet and possibly making a similar video for Slate.com for publishing stupid stuff like Trump is now inciting violence against reporters by doing this.
True too form, it seems the pumpkin pinochet has climbed into bed with the very worst so he can fuck over ordinary folk.
.
Now a Four Corners investigation will reveal how Donald Trump, as he was closing in on his political rivals, was negotiating luxury resort deals in Bali and Java, raising serious questions about presidential conflicts of interest.
“The project is going to be a huge one, a mega project.” Landowner
In Bali, plans are under way to Trumpify one of the most iconic and sacred sites in Bali – Tanah Lot. But curiously, for a tourist destination usually keen to talk up what the island paradise has to offer, government officials are not keen to talk about the proposed Trump Tower development.
“I can’t talk about this. I cannot talk about this.” Balinese government official.
In a second development on Java, the deal to build a massive gaudy theme park and resort development has been inked, leaving local farmers frightened of what the future holds.
“When the financial power of Trump comes here, we the original people who live here are powerless. Their enormous wealth buys enormous influence.”
Four Corners investigates how these deals were done through an unholy alliance formed between Donald Trump and controversial business and political figures in Indonesia.
Trump’s business partners have a troubling history with ties to the corrupt Suharto regime.
While at home in the United States, President Trump rails against Islamic extremism. In Indonesia, he has formed political alliances with politicians aligned with Islamist forces.
“He is dealing with the worst of Indonesia’s past, and he is going to deal with the worst of Indonesia’s future, the Islamists. I think Donald Trump is going to get his businesses messier and also Indonesia messier.” Human rights investigator.
If you and yours aren’t vaccinated and have no medical reason why you can’t be vaccinated and haven’t had mumps before can you please pop down to your GP and have a shot.
Yes can we have some bravery about this – the odds that anything bad will happen because of the mumps vaccination is small. Only if you are already sick, ask your GPs opinion.
I really hope that Pora is awarded the adjusted inflation compensation approx $500,000. It is way overdue that the huge injustice done to him is settled as much as it can be.
I do not want to see anymore of his life wasted on holding those to account for what he has been put through. Those who hold the power to give closure MUST not misuse their power.
To often the forgotten are expected to forgive their persecutor and somehow get over it. E.g. those who were abused in statecare or sexually assaulted in childhood.
An inquiry is necesssary because an inquiry is what maybe the only thing which gives as much healing that can be given.
I have thought about Alison (story seen on the Nation last Saturday) who was committed into psychiatric care from 1950 – 1990 when aged 11, she was sexually assaulted, shock treated, put into isolation…. Alison had a brain injury from contracting chicken pocks when she was a toddler, she was never mentally disordered. I am troubled by how she was treated by the standards of the years 1950 – 1990; not much has changed.
I would like to see a comprehensive inquiry into how her life was turned inside out and upside down. Alison is now 75 and she is in the last part of her life. She is a courageous woman. I really hope that she gets all her questions answered. Even though she has had some compensation in 1990, this would have been minimal compared to what she deserves.
40 years is a life time for some, life is priceless. Least I tell my kids I wouldn’t swap them for all the riches on the planet, with that in mind, both Teina and Alison deserve the world.
That story disturbed me as well Treetop, the most vulnerable exploited, it’s a disgusting abuse of justice.
Haley Holt, you are an incredibly brave woman. Your story will resonate with many women, THANK YOU, you are enormously courageous by making it so public
When I watched Sunday last night, your story is near on identical to a dear friend of mine, a dear friend but I just can’t stand to be around when she is drinking, in fact her behaviour has turned me off booze. Will share with her, it may just change her life.
Hayley you are even more amazing for your honesty. MASSIVE RESPECT.
I’m sure it will be investigated by someone to prove it were true or not. After all the allegations are serious and although historic a crime is a crime.
Although they may have limited the sharing I bet there are lots of screen shots still in existence.
In any case what happens if this guy Farrell swears an affidavit? Does the fact that he is making the claims against a minister mean it is just ignored without trial?
He’d need to lay a complaint with the police in order for it to be investigated. Unless the media pick it up and it becomes a public interest issue that the govt can’t make go away. Which I would guess is why he’s approaching it this way. I expect Bennett will go hard out with the lawyers though.
[Firefox gives me a security warning on that site, so I’m not going to look at it. But please don’t post to sites that are publishing the allegations. Putting you into moderation until I see an acknowledgement of this. – weka]
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Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Photo by Jari Hytönen on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
“Show us the bird,” I found myself muttering at times while reading Hard by the Cloud House by Peter Walker, a deeply thoughtful, often hilarious, at times rambling – but somehow delightfully so – search for the story of a big bird. But not just any bird: the bird. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition DPVUE .images/Shutterstock Your home was probably designed for a climate that no longer exists. As long as humanity continues to burn fossil fuel, padding the heat-trapping blanket of gases in Earth’s atmosphere, the ...
A senior lawyer has filed a complaint about tikanga becoming a required law school module. Law lecturer Carwyn Jones explains what he’s getting wrong. “…the first law of Aotearoa, a law that served the needs of tangata whenua for a thousand years before the arrival of tauiwi.”– Ani Mikaere ...
In 2019, an Auckland woman woke up from surgery to find that she had undergone a treatment she didn’t consent to. She tells Alex Casey about her experience. From her very first period at the age of 14, Laura experienced “debilitating” levels of pain that forced her to withdraw from ...
Comment: Concerns about the state of the economy are creeping up to the top of firms’ list of challenges. That’s evident in both surveys and the tone of our recent client discussions. Skimming the past few weeks of eco-news, it’s not hard to see why. – Retail card spending fell ...
Opinion: Could former co-leader James Shaw still make a difference to working with National? The post How the Greens could be contenders appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: What if we got rid of our existing drug laws and replaced them with a new law that legalised and carefully regulated all psychoactive substances, from cannabis to MDMA, methamphetamine and LSD to magic mushrooms? And which also included legal drugs such as alcohol and nicotine. “Wow,” you might ...
In the gloom following director-general Al Morrison’s job cuts in 2013, the Department of Conservation restructured its operations arm. Eleven conservancy districts were whittled into six new “conservation delivery” regions, under which the Rēkohu/Wharekauri/Chatham Islands area, comprising 40 scattered islands more than 800km east of Christchurch, was tethered to the ...
One of th e country’s top litigation lawyers says New Zealand is seeing a lift in court action between companies. Chapman Tripp partner Justin Graham, who oversees a team of around 80 litigation specialists, says the courts are now so log-jammed that it’s taking over two years to get cases ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel “through to 2050 and beyond”. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuel’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto A shift to hybrid and remote work continues to affect worker presence in Toronto’s downtown.(Shutterstock) Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
Opinion: Nicholas Khoo looks at two key points in the high-stakes foreign policy pact debate – and asks if NZ can engage with as little drama as possible. The post Where to next for the Aukus ruckus? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 8 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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What do a sombrero in Argentina and cognitive driving tests have in common? Don’t worry, we’re not setting up a bad joke. Hinengaro Clinic dementia clinician Gregory Winkelman has the answer on today’s episode of The Detail. “We ask a patient’s spouse or son or daughter: If you went to ...
A little quote from Dr Jim McAloon from Vic in June 2015:
“Labour’s interest will not be served by simply waiting for the wheels to fall off the Key government (which may or may not happen in 2017—Labour underestimates John Key at its peril). To fulfil its purpose, Labour has to lift its share of the vote well above 35 per cent.
Non-voters are one target. Parts of National’s ‘soft’ vote are another.
Rather than the sometimes facile suggestions that Labour’s current troubles are the consequence of being either excessively or insufficiently Left-wing, increasing the vote means convincing enough people that the party’s fundamental values are meaningful to them today and in the future.”
Can Labour make 35% this time?
No.
Andrew Little
Untrustworthy
No policy detail
Unrealistic “promises”
Contradictory statements/announcements/actions
MOU with the Greens
Yes.
Andrew Little
trustworthy
policy detail
realistic “promises”
Not Contradictory statements/announcements/actions
MOU with the Greens
Don’t bite Nick BM is only fishing or winding up.
Halfcrown
If only we could harness the winding up provided by all these trolls and RW afficionados we could power a wind farm which in turn would power our slightly brighter future, that we must achieve of back to the future of a new Dark Age.
I go along with that.
Hilarious – National are full of unrealistic promises e.g. their predator free by 2050 policy. It means they can suck eggs now and let someone else deal with and pay for it later, if they can. In 30 or so years they’ll be dead or too senile to care that they stuffed around so much that a ton of species died because they would rather give tax cuts then fund the Conservation Department properly.
And I can even write Bill English and. Trustworthy in the same sentence. And if you disagree go and relive last week again.
BM pictures himself as a spanner in the works where he’s really no more than an engineer’s used tissue, chewed to shreds by the cogs’ teeth.
Can Labour make 35% this time? – of course they can. Look at Corbyn massive turn around in weeks.
But it is ultimately votes who decide. So if voters want the change of government the voters need to make it happen with unconditional support. Yep, Labour and Greens are not perfect, BUT National is a very scary party and getting worse with their unbridled level of power.
Now we have Thiel a Trump supporter (yep pro wall, anti women and muslims) and anti democracy billionaire being wooed by the National party and given citizenship here, even though he doesn’t want to live here!
We have migrants that have worked hard to get citizenship here, people who live here 365 days of the year paying taxes, people in poverty, people being poisoned by Meth that has become a thriving industry since The National Party took over and residents who can not afford to rent or buy here anymore with the increasing prices foreign ownership and National party policy it is driving. Now our state houses are even been sold off cheap to Banks and finance people who set up charities as ‘fronts’. It’s obscene. National don’t even care what people think anymore.
Every vote against National counts. Because even if Labour does not win, then voters against them dilute their power to do the massive damage to our country.
(Turbo-charge in the broomstick over-heated and now it’s buggered 🙁
I need a hand.
HELP SEND ‘HER WARSHIP’
TO THE HAGUE!
I’ve been given the great honour of being invited to attend the 2017 World Justice Project ‘Rule of Law’ Forum at The Hague, 10 – 13 July 2017.
https://worldjusticeproject.org/our-work/engagement/events/world-justice-forum
Although as an outspoken ‘anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner / investigative activist /whistle- blower’ I usually face significant mainstream NZ media ‘censorship’ – internationally it seems that my work has not gone unnoticed.
(For the last three years I have participated in the World Justice Project ‘Rule of Law Index’ as an NZ ‘expert’, and I have attended 6 International Anti-Corruption Conferences.)
This is a HUGE chance to tell fellow ‘Rule of Law experts’ from potentially 130 countries – the TRUTH about how undeserved is NZ’s ‘perceived’ status as ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ according to the 2016 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’.
https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016#table
I’m not scared to speak out.
Need to ‘seize the moment!’
This World Justice Forum
(10 – 13 July 2017) is NOT funded.
It is my intention to fly out 6 July and return 16 July.
The approximate costs are:
Registration $200(donated)
Accommodation at Student ‘hostel’
NZ $63 per night.
(X 8 $504
Air travel (return)
Auckland – Amsterdam
Amsterdam – Rotterdam
Rotterdam – The Hague
Ball park $4000
(The sooner I can book my air fares – the cheaper it will be).
How much do I need?
$5000 should do it.
That’s 500 X $10
250 X $20
100 X $50
50 X $100
I have over 3,300 Facebook friends.
This is NOT a big ask?
For those of you who have helped me in the past – THANK YOU! (Again 🙂
As you know I choose to work full time on a self-funded basis (flat mate income), no benefit or funding from any source apart from occasional donations when I’m stuck and need a hand and I have done this since 2000 (17 years).
So!
To get to The Hague I do need a hand.
If you choose to help and are able – please send me a personal message on Facebook / Messenger and I will send you my bank account details.
Let’s DO IT!
Help send ‘Her Warship’ to The Hague!
Kind regards
Penny Bright
How do sponsors/donors get money to you Penny?
Comedy gold
You are looking at English BM. He lied by omission, covered up for Barclay, cut him loose when it got difficult, didn’t support a person who had worked for him for years.
NOT P.M. material at all.
One of the many successes of the shonky/dirty politics era is to lower the bar for every govt minister.
Its to the point that blinglish’s behaviour is predictably of a low standard and most reasonable people arent surprised by this level of leadership from national.
Looking at Wikipedia on the Grenfell fire, seems a good overview.
Residents expressed significant safety concerns prior to the fire, with criticism levelled against the council for fire safety and building maintenance failures.[32] They had also said repeatedly that in the event of a fire, their escape path was limited to a single staircase.[16]
Exposed gas pipes were another concern raised by the Grenfell Tower Leaseholders’ Association in the months before the fire; while a fire safety expert had ordered them to be covered by fire-retardant boxing, two-thirds remained exposed at the time of the fire.[33]
There is concern that cuts to Legal aid prevented tenants and tenants’ groups taking legal action over their safety concerns. Robert Bourns of The Law Society said, “There have been reports that tenants of Grenfell Tower were unable to access legal aid to challenge safety concerns because of the cuts. If that is the case then we may have a very stark example of what limiting legal aid can mean.”[34]…
ITV business editor Joel Hills stated that he had been told that the installation of sprinklers had not even been discussed.[20] In a 2012 report, the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association said that sprinklers could be retrofitted in Grenfell Tower for an average cost of £1,150 per flat, which would have added up to a total cost of £138,000 for the whole block….[38]
Plans for the renovation were publicised in 2012.[18] Overseen by Studio E Architects,[19] the £8.7 million refurbishment,[20] undertaken by Rydon Ltd…
…new aluminium composite rainscreen cladding, in part to improve the appearance of the building.[24] Two types were used: Arconic’s Reynobond, which consists of two, coil-coated, aluminium sheets that are fusion bonded to both sides of a polyethylene core; and Reynolux aluminium sheets. Beneath these, and fixed to the outside of the walls of the flats, was Celotex RS5000 PIR thermal insulation.[25][26][27][28] The work was carried out by Harley Facades of Crowborough, East Sussex, at a cost of £2.6 million. (The project cost included new windows and:
The renovation included a water-based heating system for individual flats.)
My question – If water was being piped to heaters, it would seem to have been cost-effective and efficient if extended to sprinkler systems?
The UK government is accused of having ignored warnings about fire safety in tower blocks.[39] A former chief fire officer and secretary of the all-party parliamentary group on fire safety, Ronnie King, said ministers stonewalled requests for meetings and efforts to tighten rules….
[After] the 2009 Lakanal House fire, the coroner made a series of safety recommendations for the government to consider, and the Department for Communities and Local Government agreed to hold a review in 2013. In March 2014, the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety & Rescue Group sent a letter to then–Minister for Communities Stephen Williams, which said in part:
“Surely … when you already have credible evidence to justify updating … the guidance … which will lead to saving of lives, you don’t need to wait another three years in addition to the two already spent since the research findings were updated, in order to take action?
“As there are estimated to be another 4,000 older tower blocks in the UK, without automatic sprinkler protection, can we really afford to wait for another tragedy to occur before we amend this weakness?”[41]…
A residents’ organisation, Grenfell Action Group (GAG), published a blog in which it highlighted major safety problems. In 2013, the group published a 2012 fire risk assessment done by a TMO Health and Safety Officer which recorded safety concerns. Firefighting equipment at the tower had not been checked for up to four years; on-site fire extinguishers had expired, and some had the word “condemned” written on them because they were so old. GAG documented its attempts to contact KCTMO management; they also alerted the council Cabinet Member for Housing and Property but said they never received a reply from him or his deputy.[43][44]
The casualty statistics:
On 28 June, the authorities stated that there were known survivors from 106 of the tower’s 129 flats; eighteen people among the occupants of these flats were reported as dead or missing presumed dead, whereas most of those killed were said to have been in the remaining 23 flats between the 11th and 23rd floors….
A total of 151 homes were destroyed in the tower and surrounding area. The incident ranks as the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the start of the 20th century, when detailed records began
Note: Other buildings and deaths were involved in the “surrounding area” which I hadn’t heard much about.
It’s the “deadliest structural fire” etc. illustrates how over the years responsible safety laws and measures get watered down, ignored, fudged and those supposedly responsible get complacent because nothing has ever happened, and the preventative idea becomes a nice-to-have. Keeping vigilant over all of our sensible thoughtful laws and systems is obviously a grassroots basic bit of life education we need to absorb through our pores, and connect to the brain.
The tragedy is a wake-up call to everyone who thought that creeping cuts didn’t really affect people. The fact is, as this shows, cuts to random areas multiply hazards. Everything from cladding change, to fire suppression, to fire service, even to legal aid, all of it worked together to create this tragedy, each cut being viewed individually.
+1 McFlock – all the ‘small’ changes add up. That is why piecemeal policy is not effective and even the current ‘process’ way of making decisions. Yep, it might work in a box factory having everybody doing a little task without knowing what the result might be as a sum, but it’s the big picture that counts and results in real life.
With tragic results.
We have had our Grenfell with Pike river and the CTV building, and it is people who must hold the government to account for the Pike river deaths AND their lack of interest in them or any justice to them and question our justice system over CTV building deaths.
Just got back from London drove on westway past grenfell. Just horrible if ever there was a monument to Tory governments and there attitudes to poor People . There it is. We need to fight really hard where ever we are to make our society fair and safe for all. Look at that tower, and get motivated for this September’s fight.
Start with get councils out of running housing
Start with making councils contract-in for construction. Stops cost-cutting by subbies of the lowest bidder.
That’s what they did in Grenfell, Red.
National are determined to replicate the conditions of Grenfell here in NZ.
Yes this proves that the free market model is a failure and money corrupts politics. A fully funded state housing agency independent of political interference would not let this happen
Good idea. Get the real red colour about running housing, not that shocking pink diseased Labour look seen till recently.
Scroll to replies below Sinyangwe’s initial thread.
https://twitter.com/samswey/status/881307875351646212
Actually I neither heard nor saw any mention of the residents of Barbados during the Americas Cup. They invested $100million in the Infrastructure but what about the locals? Good fun for them was it?
geography a second language?
Moan moan moan and fkn moan, enjoy it for what it was and will be in AKl 😀
Eddication, edification, elucidation – something….
The government thinks that we have a suficiently satisfactory education system to keep us in our place, which is competing with the rest of the world for the job placements going which are at present good payers. And lining up with the hundreds for advertised jobs at supermarket: literacy and numeracy a must!
Actually the status of turmoil that the world and the use of competitive technology
puts us in, requires better understanding and wider education than ever before not simplified spam handed out letter by letter and screen by screen by a machine responding to the requests for information that it itself produces so limiting thinking, self-enquiry and self-discovery.
So help the educators hold onto what we have now otherwise they will be swamped and end up on a little promontory with their main skills being needed to keep themselves alive and to jump nimbly from one precarious situation to another.
http://www.together.org.nz/keep_it_public
Keep it Public!
Public tertiary education gives all New Zealanders the opportunity to develop skills, learn trades, and create knowledge which helps our families, communities and economy.
But Paul Goldsmith, the Minister for Tertiary Education, is trying to change the law to take public funds away from our universities, polytechs and wānanga and hand them to private companies who are more concerned with profit than providing quality education.
Together, let’s make sure tertiary education stays public, local and focused on learning.
They want a minimum of 4,000 signatures. Please support. See link above.
This would be the single biggest change to tertiary education funding in a generation. If enough of us speak out, then together we can stop it happening.
By pledging to support public tertiary education you will be adding your voice to the many others that want to keep tertiary education public, local, and focused on learning, not profit.
Tertiary education belongs to all of us. Now is the time to tell Paul Goldsmith you want it to stay that way.
Keep it Public!
Don’t leave our educators all alone, stranded, and our good education being decimated by private business.
Need you
Have your say on the Scoop Hivemind discussion on housing.
Add your own statements to the discussion as well.
anybody else find this
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=11883468
disturbing.
Trumps best tweet so far #FraudNewsCNN
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881503147168071680
I guess you think the creator of the video’s other memes are marvelous, too.
//
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/07/02/trump_s_cnn_tweet_appears_to_have_originated_from_hanassholesolo_a_racist.html
Well I would encourage him to put his energies into more positive like things like the above tweet and possibly making a similar video for Slate.com for publishing stupid stuff like Trump is now inciting violence against reporters by doing this.
True too form, it seems the pumpkin pinochet has climbed into bed with the very worst so he can fuck over ordinary folk.
.
Now a Four Corners investigation will reveal how Donald Trump, as he was closing in on his political rivals, was negotiating luxury resort deals in Bali and Java, raising serious questions about presidential conflicts of interest.
“The project is going to be a huge one, a mega project.” Landowner
In Bali, plans are under way to Trumpify one of the most iconic and sacred sites in Bali – Tanah Lot. But curiously, for a tourist destination usually keen to talk up what the island paradise has to offer, government officials are not keen to talk about the proposed Trump Tower development.
“I can’t talk about this. I cannot talk about this.” Balinese government official.
In a second development on Java, the deal to build a massive gaudy theme park and resort development has been inked, leaving local farmers frightened of what the future holds.
“When the financial power of Trump comes here, we the original people who live here are powerless. Their enormous wealth buys enormous influence.”
Four Corners investigates how these deals were done through an unholy alliance formed between Donald Trump and controversial business and political figures in Indonesia.
Trump’s business partners have a troubling history with ties to the corrupt Suharto regime.
While at home in the United States, President Trump rails against Islamic extremism. In Indonesia, he has formed political alliances with politicians aligned with Islamist forces.
“He is dealing with the worst of Indonesia’s past, and he is going to deal with the worst of Indonesia’s future, the Islamists. I think Donald Trump is going to get his businesses messier and also Indonesia messier.” Human rights investigator.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2017/06/29/4693993.htm
edit: trailer from Four Corners FB page.
https://www.facebook.com/abc4corners/videos/10154749254185954/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/94324299/a-public-health-warning
If you and yours aren’t vaccinated and have no medical reason why you can’t be vaccinated and haven’t had mumps before can you please pop down to your GP and have a shot.
Yes can we have some bravery about this – the odds that anything bad will happen because of the mumps vaccination is small. Only if you are already sick, ask your GPs opinion.
I really hope that Pora is awarded the adjusted inflation compensation approx $500,000. It is way overdue that the huge injustice done to him is settled as much as it can be.
I do not want to see anymore of his life wasted on holding those to account for what he has been put through. Those who hold the power to give closure MUST not misuse their power.
To often the forgotten are expected to forgive their persecutor and somehow get over it. E.g. those who were abused in statecare or sexually assaulted in childhood.
An inquiry is necesssary because an inquiry is what maybe the only thing which gives as much healing that can be given.
I have thought about Alison (story seen on the Nation last Saturday) who was committed into psychiatric care from 1950 – 1990 when aged 11, she was sexually assaulted, shock treated, put into isolation…. Alison had a brain injury from contracting chicken pocks when she was a toddler, she was never mentally disordered. I am troubled by how she was treated by the standards of the years 1950 – 1990; not much has changed.
I would like to see a comprehensive inquiry into how her life was turned inside out and upside down. Alison is now 75 and she is in the last part of her life. She is a courageous woman. I really hope that she gets all her questions answered. Even though she has had some compensation in 1990, this would have been minimal compared to what she deserves.
How much is 40 years being imprisoned worth?
“How much is 40 years being imprisoned worth?”
40 years is a life time for some, life is priceless. Least I tell my kids I wouldn’t swap them for all the riches on the planet, with that in mind, both Teina and Alison deserve the world.
That story disturbed me as well Treetop, the most vulnerable exploited, it’s a disgusting abuse of justice.
Haley Holt, you are an incredibly brave woman. Your story will resonate with many women, THANK YOU, you are enormously courageous by making it so public
When I watched Sunday last night, your story is near on identical to a dear friend of mine, a dear friend but I just can’t stand to be around when she is drinking, in fact her behaviour has turned me off booze. Will share with her, it may just change her life.
Hayley you are even more amazing for your honesty. MASSIVE RESPECT.
Streisand effect
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/07/viral-paula-bennett-letter-defamation-and-harassment-lawyers.html
Took me two minutes to google up the content!
Too true Xanthe. Vaguely read something about the issue a few days ago but glossed over it but now…..
I thought it was gone but I read it too.
I’m sure it will be investigated by someone to prove it were true or not. After all the allegations are serious and although historic a crime is a crime.
Although they may have limited the sharing I bet there are lots of screen shots still in existence.
In any case what happens if this guy Farrell swears an affidavit? Does the fact that he is making the claims against a minister mean it is just ignored without trial?
He’d need to lay a complaint with the police in order for it to be investigated. Unless the media pick it up and it becomes a public interest issue that the govt can’t make go away. Which I would guess is why he’s approaching it this way. I expect Bennett will go hard out with the lawyers though.
Hmmm. I thought only MSD could lay charges.
In any case his mistake (if you can call it that) was to share it with MSM.
I see what you mean. I don’t know about that, especially as it’s an historic case.
why was that a mistake?
There’s always trouble at mill, and elsewhere. Big employers are refusing to employ subbies/ employees if they have been involved in disputes. That’s interesting, they don’t want to take on all the work themselves, contract it out, and then take the power out of the contractors hands.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/michael-clifford/blacklisted-workers-run-up-against-a-brick-wall-440273.html
[deleted]
[Firefox gives me a security warning on that site, so I’m not going to look at it. But please don’t post to sites that are publishing the allegations. Putting you into moderation until I see an acknowledgement of this. – weka]