Latest TPP U.S., Australia Move Toward Biologics Compromise With Options
ATLANTA – The United States and Australia are inching toward a compromise on the exclusivity period for biologic drugs that would give Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries more than one option for providing an appropriate level of intellectual property (IP) protection, according to informed sources. http://insidetrade.com/
Burcu Kilic @burcuno 13m13 minutes ago
#TPP Ministerial is extended for another 24 hours now.
Burcu Kilic @burcuno 22m22 minutes ago
Reportedly, Amari told Froman to conclude dairy & biologics negotiations within 24 hrs. Japan is getting anxious #TPP
“Meanwhile, New Zealand has significantly softened its stance on market access for dairy products. Up until now, the country had been calling for lower barriers for its dairy products. By Saturday, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was saying the TPP would greatly benefit his country even if he couldn’t gain more progress on the issue.”
‘A push by the United States to set a longer period of exclusivity for drug makers who develop biological drugs like Genentech’s Avastin cancer-treatment has run into opposition from other TPP economies.
The United States allows pharmaceutical companies an exclusive period of 12 years to use clinical data behind the approval for a new biological drug.
The Obama administration had previously proposed lowering that threshold to seven years but has pushed a proposal for an eight-year minimum in the TPP talks in Atlanta.
Drug companies argue that a longer period is needed to create an incentive for developing treatments for diseases such as cancer and arthritis.’
‘Harper’s Conservatives are on course to win the most seats in the October 19 election but may lose their majority, and the main opposition party has said it would not feel itself bound by any TPP deal that Harper negotiated.’
75% of drug development in the US is funded by the federal government under the Orphan Drugs scheme. It’s around US$9b per year worth of subsidies (The Entrepreneurial State by Mariana Mazzucato) and I believe that the drug companies actually get to keep the IP rights contrary to most US government grants.
Now, just think of what our own pharmaceutical industry could do with $9b per year of government funding. That’d employ about 100,000 people.
+ 1. Yes Mariana Mazzucato also shows that the development new biologic drugs – the subject of much negotiation in the TPPA – were also funded by public money – mostly in the UK. Venture capitalists and big Pharma only got interested when all of the substantive risks were mitigated and the proofs of effectiveness were rolling in.
She shows that much of the IP claims of big Pharma are in new uses for existing drugs and that the most innovative thing some big pharmaceutical companies do is share buy backs because they are unwilling to take the risks of – the very thing we are supposed to laud these corporate titans for doing – spending actual money on actual research for new drugs.
She describes many companies, Apple for example, as being unfit recipients of public investment because of how they behave – avoiding taxes, moving production offshore and so on.
No one can calibrate with a reasonable degree of confidence the impact of tighter intellectual property protections or harmonized regulations, which are likely to do more to transfer income from one group (consumers) to another (producers) than to affect the overall size of the economy.
— Alan Beattie, Financial Times
This is actually wrong. It’s not shifting income from consumers to producers but from consumers and producers to shareholders. You can pretty much guarantee that there will be a rise in Patent Trolls once the TPPA is in force and everyone will suffer while the bludgers take us to the cleaners.
While I don’t read THIS article as reflecting it……watch out for the insinuation (just quietly) that this victim somehow contributed to her ordeal.
“Prisoner X could have this…..Prisoner X could have that…..BEFORE she was slung into mainstream……etc etc etc. Hang on, maybe her lawyer could have done more…..blah blah blah.”
Yes. She might also have respected this government’s advised ‘kaitiaki’ role in relation to Serco’s licensed lust for profit taking. And said nothing at all.
A la Amanda Bailey. I can see it coming. Hosking’ll be champing at the bit I daresay…..just waiting for the word.
C’mon Peseta Sam……out of hiding and give it your fumbling, inglorious best !
Here’s some context then.
The Independent, a UK newspaper, reporting on the day England played, had 2 stories not to do with sport with greater prominence than the rugby loss.
I’m highlighting how awful our news reporting is.
And therefore how ill informed our population is.
And therefore how a bunch like Key’s gang make parliament.
Police, The Department of Corrections and Corrections Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga were all investigating after the prisoner, previously segregated, was moved into the “mainstream” jail population, then allegedly beaten up and sexually assaulted.
Labour’s acting Corrections spokeswoman Jacinda Ardern said the incident was “clear evidence” Serco was not fit to run New Zealand’s prisons.
“After the chaos and violence we saw at Mt Eden Prison, we are now seeing Serco isn’t fit to run Wiri prison either.
“It’s there in black and white in Serco’s contract that they have to run proper segregation policies at Wiri to keep at-risk prisoners safe. They clearly aren’t living up to that.”
Yes serco are not fit to run prisons or anything – they and the people who gave them this role are scum and… (I really really want to go medieval on these bastards, I really really want to describe horrendous fates for these bastards – but doesn’t that make me like them?)
I don’t think Hosking or any media are going to start insinuating this transgender inmate did anything to provoke being raped. I reckon coverage will be neutral (and probably minimal – more’s the pity). It’s a gross failing on the part of Serco, culpable negligence amounting to abuse. Anybody with any sense could have seen that risk, surely. I hope she successfully sues Serco and Corrections.
OPEN LETTER TO JOSIE PAGANI: SECOND PUBLICATION
Sunday 4 October
Dear Josie Pagani,
Two and a half weeks ago on this forum, I asked you to answer two questions:
1.) In the light of your support for the destruction of Afghanistan, do you support the invasion of the United States and Great Britain, the bombing and obliteration of British and American schools, hospitals, power stations and churches, and the killing of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of American and British civilians?
2.) Can you explain your statement that Hezbollah and Hamas are anti-Semitic?
Canadian Treaty ratification process is basically the same as ours, Maybe Harper is spinning.
“After signature of an international treaty, once Canada is ready to be bound by it, a document is prepared establishing that the formalities for the coming into force and implementation of the treaty have been completed and that Canada agrees to be bound by the treaty. More formally, Cabinet prepares an Order in Council authorizing the Minister of Foreign Affairs to sign an Instrument of Ratification or Accession.13 Once this instrument is deposited with the appropriate authority, the treaty is officially ratified. At this point, Canada is bound by the treaty as soon as it comes into force (if it is not already in force).14
The Canadian government and public servants have continued to negotiate on the TPPA as if there was no pre-election period rather than following the usual convention of becoming a care-taker government.
Advice to public servants has been amended from the usual practice. However the advice does say that no deal will be signed until post election but it is still a rather shocking departure from the usual process.
Dear Mr Morrissey
As you know my politics are from the left and therefore cannot provide you with an unequivocal answer. I speak in riddles, just like messers Cunliffe, Little and Geoff.
Yours Josie
[r0b: In case it is not obvious, this comment is not from JP]
“Where do they think they are? Fal-LUJAH!?!?!??”*
Death toll rises in suspected US airstrike on Afghan hospital
by SUNE ENGL RASMUSSEN in Kabul The Guardian, 3 October 2015
Nine staff dead and up to 37 injured in Médecins Sans Frontières hospital as charity says bombing continued for 30 minutes after it raised alarm
A US airstrike appears to have hit a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières in the Afghan city of Kunduz, killing nine staff members and injuring up to 37 people.
MSF said its hospital in the northern city was bombed and badly damaged in an aerial attack early on Saturday morning.
The charity claimed it had circulated the coordinates of the site to all sides engaged in fighting in the country, adding that the bombing continued for 30 minutes after it had raised the alarm with Afghan and US authorities.
At the time of the bombing, 105 patients and its carers, and more than 80 MSF international and national staff were in the hospital, the charity said.
Some members of staff were still unaccounted for on Saturday, and there are fears the death toll will rise considerably. Up to 10 international aid workers who were based in the hospital are believed to have survived the attack. ….
A spokesman for the US military admitted it might be responsible.
“US forces conducted an airstrike in Kunduz city at 2:15am [local time] on 3 October against individuals threatening the force. The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility. This incident is under investigation,” said Col Brian Tribus, spokesman for international forces in Afghanistan. ….
Morrissey – this is dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. When will the USA stop its stupid war-mongering?
And as for the “collateral damage” bullshit …… its time they spoke plain English and said straight-out – “we the USA bombed a hospital with over 200 people in it – patients and carers” The use of such language helps them hide their atrocities.
“When will the USA stop its stupid war-mongering?”
They won’t. Their whole economy is based on bombs, bullets and violence.
These conflicts in the middle east plus the Jews bombing Gaza are, as Arther Daily would say ” nice little earners ” . You don’t make bombs to put into a store somewhere, you make them to use.
As for the “collateral damage” bullshit, the yanks have used “sanitised ” language for ages. They no longer do precision bombing, precision is something the bloody yanks don’t know the meaning off, They are now called “Surgical Strikes” sounds very clean antiseptic and sterilized. Another term is “take out” a term that is now creeping into our thugby. It is the American culture and that is why I avoid as much as possible looking, reading, or listening to anything that comes out of that sewer.
Who are they then? They are not exactly Scots in Kilts are they? I am also under the impression the regime that bombed Gaza was returned to power at the last election, So who were the people who voted for them then?
Israel is a pariah state, it is not “the Jews”. It is a militaristic, racist regime that has been condemned by most of the world. Much of the most eloquent testimony against this rogue state comes from Jews—many of them conscientious objectors from its own armed forces. ….
I think you should be referring to the Israelis half crown, as opposed to the Jews. Jews reside in many countries and do not all by any means condone the Israeli regime’s apartheid and attacks against Palestinians. The IDF seem to be the main agents of the regime.
Precision bombing and Americans is an oxymoron! Joseph Heller summed it up pretty well in Catch-22:
“Did we hit the bridge?” McWatt would ask.
“I couldn’t see, sir, I kept getting bounced around back here pretty hard and I couldn’t see . . .”
“Hey, Aarfy, did the bombs hit the target?”
“What target?” . . . “I don’t think we’re at the target yet. Are we?”
“Yossarian, did the bombs hit the target?”
“What bombs?” answered Yossarian, whose only concern had been the flak.
“Oh well,” McWatt would sing, “what the hell.”
Although I said I don’t read anything that comes out of that sewer, I do read some of the more intelligent thought provoking literature that comes from there. Catch 22 is one of my favorites. The novel is far superior than the film, though I did like Orson Wells (Brigadier General Dreedle) B25 with the white walled tyres. and John Voight (Milo Minderbinder) doing his deals with the Germans to bomb their base at cost plus 10% Fantastic and cynical.
I also like Major Major Major and how he was named Major Major Major. Just to name a few highlights.
Brings back good memories of an ill spent youth in Pomgolia.
Richard Madan @RichardMadan 1h1 hour ago
Also, chances of #TPP Ministerial talks extending *past* Sunday = slim. G20 Trade Min Summit begins Monday in Istanbul, so there’s that.
TPPA
Burcu Kilic @burcuno 5m5 minutes ago
Trade ministers will hold another plenary session at 10 PM tonight. Another night of #TPP stakeholdering, perfect Saturday night in Atlanta!
re- …”This may be dubious but it’s caught the ear of the 800-pound gorilla in the GOP presidential nomination – Donald Trump. He has built a fair degree of his campaign on opposition to TPP, and recently met with Jeff Sessions, a leading TPP opponent among conservatives, to talk trade. Heck, Trump wants to cancel NAFTA, along with stopping any Obama-negotiated trade agreements. “We need fair trade, not free trade,” Trump told 60 Minutes on Sunday, sounding more like Dick Gephardt than a conservative. But he has the ear of a significant portion of the conservative base.”
Go DONALD TRUMP! obviously a free thinker ( ha ha never thought I would say that)
…and interesting that Dotcom has also been texting him!
Hilarious the way this post assumes that left wingers are middle class careerists. No mention of workers (Bunnings, Affco,teachers, bank workers anyone) who are union members, who get the job done as well as being active in political work. That’s the strength of the union movement. Not people with Pol Sci degrees fretting about their mortgage and their career, and what to wear to work today.
[lprent: I’ve never been part of a union. There are no unions that cover the areas I work in and never have been. Unlike people who are in unionised industries and work places, I cannot rely upon a collective herd immunity. Nor can many people who are supporters of the labour movement. This post was clearly directed at them.
Many people who support labour movements aren’t likely to be even have the opportunity to join a union. There aren’t any available to them.
Kind of freaky the way that you assume leftie middle class careerists have PolSci degrees. I don’t. BSc, MBA and a lot of experience on factory floors and running them. I know very few people with polsci degrees outside of a few bureaucrats in Wellington.
But I suspect that you are just a idiot, and probably a troll. Looking at your comments – you are banned from the post that these came from for attempted diversion. Use OpenMike where this got moved to. You are now being moderated. If I see you try here again, I will give you a long ban.
Moved the whole thread to OpenMike to discourage similar fuckwits ]
“Not people with Pol Sci degrees fretting about their mortgage and their career, and what to wear to work today.”
Way to minimise political concerns. Given that the people who control what’s happening to all of us are likely to be Pol Sci grads (and business school grads with careers to fret about), it makes sense to look at the politics of coercion in that context.
(you can of course also write about the pressures on working class people to be silent).
Lols. I just deleted my reply to CR (I had the identical experience as them when working for an NGO) as I’m not middle class careerist enough. Figured this post isn’t for me after all.
Way to dismiss the place of unions in left politics and pretend that belonging to a union isn’t one of the best ways to advance “leftist” politics. And that only working class people belong to unions. Teachers, nurses, medical specialists, university staff, finance and retail sector workers – all middle class and members of strong, active and successful unions. That is one very powerful way to be politically active, have a career, be middle-class and left.
Advising me to write a separate post about unions and the working class kind of underscores the point.
If people join unions, or form unions when there isn’t one that covers your profession, unions have more strength, and are able to influence politics more.
Careerists are by definition more concerned with their individual selves and prospects of “getting ahead”, as demonstrated here, and collective action and strength seems not to appeal to them. How does that sit with be “lefty”?
Unions members have mortgages too. Stop being such cowards.
…because…do you get it? People here are complaining of feeling isolated, and vulnerable and unable to speak out. How many of you saying that belong to your union? That’s what unions are – groups of workers middle class and working class, banding together to protect their pay and conditions, yes, but also to protect their professional standards, and to have political influence, and the right an ability to speak out without fear. Why is that not an option for you guys? I am genuinely interested to know.
The people that I was thinking about like the “small business owner” are not in a union situation, trendy lefty. Also the people that used to work for larger govt departments or firms who are now classified as contractors.
Part of the rationale for this trend was to help disestablish the rights of the workers and deal to unions at the same time. I agree, if you have the opportunity to be in a union, you should take it.
The people that I was thinking about like the “small business owner” are not in a union situation,
I think that small business owners should be in a union and I’m not talking about the Chamber of Commerce. They could do much to help each other. Unfortunately, someone would probably get round to calling it a guild which is an illegal entity.
I don’t understand why people dont. In July I got a $23 a fortnight pay increase because of TEU. I pay $18 a fortnight to the Union. My non union colleages go tno increase, so financially alone, i am ahead BUT most importantly the TEU works to challenge the change being proposed where I work, and it will protect its own workers jobs first and foremost
I can see why some big bosses don’t like unions, but not anyone earning less than $90k per annum.
Anytime a colleague has a work problem and they come to me (as a former lawyer) , I always ask them first “are you in the union” When they say “no” I say join the union, and they will help you.
I can see why some big bosses don’t like unions, but not anyone earning less than $90k per annum.
Big bosses love unions. It’s why they belong to so many – Manufacturing Associations, Business Roundtables, Chambers of Commerce, The National Party. What they don’t like is the small people having unions.
Tracey..Pleased to hear that non union colleagues didn’t get the increase that you as a union member got. It didn’t use to be that way and the freeloaders (Duh. I don’t believe in unions..duh!) used to get the same increases that union members paid,negotiated and even withdrew services for.
When they complained about being treated poorly my advice always was.. ‘discuss it with your union delegate..oh what? your not a member?..oh well,,’
A colleague of mine a few years ago challenged her redundancy. She had not been a union member, but once made redundant joined up. They went in to battle for her. She had a poor case (legally) but with the union she got a VERY good payout.
I can see why they do it, they want to protect workers but honestly, if you knew your insurance company would pay you out without paying premiums until you needed to, why would you bother?
“..and forgo your career arc”, or words to that effect. Not so. You make it sound as if being a member of the union automatically means your career is over. Bullshit, I say. Sure unions don’t always win, and small businesses are businesses, so yeah hard for them to join a union – but is that a new thing? And if you are a small business, you can be left wing by treating and paying your employees well, and encouraging them to belong to their union.
However, most people in New Zealand are employees, and less than 20% are members of their unions. I hear people say, why should I join a union? They have no power. They didn’t do anything for me..etc…acting as if a union is a separate entity, rather than themselves and their colleagues.
If you are an employee or a contractor, join your union. Be active in your union, and encourage other colleagues to join. Be brave.
Union member with a good career and senior position, speaking out, telling it like it is to the Minister of Education. Not scared, surrounded by member colleagues, who know that they, not the union staff, are the union:
Well, your comment reads as though addressed directly to me. But see, I didn’t say anything about foregoing a career arc in relation to unionism per se. Hmm, and I was formerly heavily involved in unionism. Anyway…
I hear people say, why should I join a union? They have no power. They didn’t do anything for me..etc…acting as if a union is a separate entity, rather than themselves and their colleagues.
That is true and it is also true of greater society.
I think many of Ad’s points, in the abstract, do apply to working class employment too (whether or not that was Ad’s ‘target’).
My Dad worked in factories almost all of his life. When he was an operator of a cable extruder (did that for about 12 years) I remember him saying that he trained probably half a dozen new men (always men) to become a ‘driver’ on the machine – which was the lead role on the machine and paid more than a ‘hand’.
Dad would apply to get a ‘driver’s’ job but was never offered it despite being relied upon to train the new recruits. The reason, according to him, was that he was disliked by his managers. Why?
Well, he was a staunch unionist and, using basic logic and his intuitive principles he would point out when management was in breach of the award that they had signed up to or were acting in bad faith, etc..
Back then – the 1970s – that amounted to being labelled a ‘pommy stirrer’.
Mum used to tell him to stop arguing with the bosses so that he’d become a driver and get a pay rise. He didn’t, which I guess meant that we were less wealthy than we could have been if he’d compromised what, to him, were pretty basic principles of fairness (e.g., rule of law, abiding by a contract, being honest). I guess you could say he sacrificed his ‘career’ by not compromising his principles.
He also used to complain about the fact that, at smoko and lunches (he worked 12 hour shifts, sometimes overnight so they weren’t always lunches) he’d try to talk about politics but his co-workers were completely uninterested and didn’t want to engage – they just read the sports pages of the paper on the cafeteria tables.
He became very frustrated and quite bitter – I guess a bit of an outcast both in terms of his treatment by the bosses but, more importantly, the responses of his fellow workers to his politicised view of life and work.
I think the same applies in middle class workplaces – and sites of middle class socialising in general. The person who wants to discuss or ‘come out’ about their political concerns is either an embarrassment or seen as an unhelpful bore and, quick, someone start talking about something else – anything else.
BTW, at that time Dad wasn’t a shop steward or a union staffer – just an active member of the union.
I think, in general, being political is a good way to not be accepted by most groups, working or middle class.
At best I think it’s often seen as an unfortunate ‘hobby’ for someone to have – especially if it goes beyond brief and bland comments about, for example, ‘the government’s not doing too bad, eh’ or ‘did you here what [politician X] said? What a jerk/joke/idiot!’.
Jonah Hull’s scandalously biased “report” on “Russia’s bombardment of Syria”:
Qatari state TV is, as usual, repeating U.S. State Dept. talking points.
Al Jazeera News, Sunday 4 October 2015, 11 a.m.
Al Jazeera’s biased and incendiary coverage of Syria has always been a disgrace. As the mouthpiece of the ISIL-supporting Qatari dictatorship, Al Jazeera diligently parrots the dictatorship’s line, which is a faithful reiteration of the U.S.-Saudi line, on every dispute involving Syria, Yemen, Iran and Lebanon.
In fact, it is more upsetting to see such crude propaganda emanating from an ostensible news channel than it is to watch the same words coming from the mouths of Samantha Power, John Kerry and Barack Obama. At least we expect Power, Kerry and Obama to routinely tell lies. With a television channel on the other hand, even one from an anti-democratic state like Qatar, we should expect at least a nominal commitment to the facts.
Instead, Al Jazeera insults its viewers with “reports” like the one this morning from Jonah Hull, in Macedonia….
After soberly announcing that the “moderate armed opposition” in Syria—a technical term for Al Qaeda, ISIL and Al Nusra—in Syria is “demanding” that its Western supporters “get serious” about supporting them, Hull goes in search of some vox pop, presumably to lend an appearance of credibility to his “report”…
JONAH HULL: Do you think Russia’s involvement in Syria will make things better?
CAREFULLY SELECTED SYRIAN REFUGEE: Ehhhhh, no.
Then it’s back to Jonah Hull for a few pompous, minatory final words. Summoning up all the gravitas he can, Hull intones: “It’s about the Russian bombing of Syria now, of course. Jonah Hull, Al Jazeera, on the Macedonia-Serbia border.”
Democrats are as likely to participate in the revolving door as Republicans; which incentivizes them to support and propose legislation that redistributes income to the wealthy and harms the middle class. In his progressive agenda, President Sanders would be taking this lucrative escape from representative duties away from them.
Not only this but those regulatory agencies which have been captured by industry and finance will be against him. The criminal (in)justice system which has benefited from militarization and the drug war will be against him. The entire pharmaceutical and insurance industries will be against him. The military that wants to be able to fight the Soviet Union two times over will be against him.
This is why “political revolution” is so important.
And we have similar problems here as well as we saw with the ABCs in Labour prior to the last election. Our entire bureaucratic system fights against the changes that we need to make NZ, and the world, better.
An Auckland mother-of-three spent seven months on home detention after her former employer at upmarket bathroom ware chain Spazio Casa wrongly accused her of theft.
Rachel Wilkinson was acquitted at a retrial last month when ex-franchisees of the company came forward to counter the claims of Spazio Casa director, Paulo Cozzolino.
Cozzolino had accused Wilkinson of taking $40,000 worth of bathroom products and selling them on Trade Me.
But 32-year-old Wilkinson has always maintained that Cozzolino told her to do it, to get rid of unwanted stock.
The allegations came as Spazio Casa was investigated by the Commerce Commission for promoting its products as Italian, when in fact most were made in China.
Right, now that he’s left can we make it so that he can’t come back?
I disagree, justice must be proportionate, as we are now seeing the quite disreproporate way kiwi are treated in oz. Seven months home detention for the boss.
I agree. You don’t see why politics of distraction exists to undermine your power. Do the sums, when media in oz or nz do immigration stories whose harmed.
When we throw out a crime they do the same, it all equals up, but its worse for all, as the criminals have families, they have mortgages their kids are attached to their community, when you cut them out, you not only damage them but also the wealth around them. That’s why mob mentality is dumb, you are dumb, you are serving the media distraction industry, you are being uneconomic, u are harming innocents, or at least that would be the effect if people listened to you.
Free trade is undermined when we make it harder for world class experts to move around the globe, and know they are just as likely to gecaught in a lie. Take vw, some engineer wrote a testing regime for smooth running diseal that out performed petrol, marketering got a hold of it and not understanding the physics got the boss sacked. WE chuck crimes out and they chuck their crimes out and we’ll get the same amount of crimes shared around. Well worse since there ate so many more kiwis aboard and so more criminals.
Oh, andhen as the returnee come home poorer caught at the I lowest hour, they can thank you for your mercy.
When we throw out a crime they do the same, it all equals up, but its worse for all, as the criminals have families, they have mortgages their kids are attached to their community, when you cut them out, you not only damage them but also the wealth around them.
As I said, he’s already left to go back to Italy. All I’m saying is that we don’t let him back in. Hopefully he hasn’t got full citizenship in which case all we have to do is to revoke his permanent residency.
Free trade is undermined when we make it harder for world class experts to move around the globe, and know they are just as likely to gecaught in a lie.
Can you define what “world class” means?
I’m pretty sure you can’t and the reason for that is because it’s a meaningless phrase. It, quite literally, means nothing.
Take vw, some engineer wrote a testing regime for smooth running diseal that out performed petrol, marketering got a hold of it and not understanding the physics got the boss sacked.
Calls to invoke immigration fascism is self defeating, as other countries do the same. And given the present issue where kiwis in oz are denied access to welfare, and are more likely to get caught out by the law, it seems astounding anyone on the left for the reasons above, or the right for free trade in workers or the huge dispropionate loss of wealth forcing a whole family to up root and move. Just saying I think you need to back using immigration as a arm of justice. People make mistakes, they do so at home or aboard, companies lose when chefs have to be replaced. And don’t give me that argument that a person whose committed an offences lesser a human being, or not beter at their jobs, or have kids, or won’t cost the economy if we stuff them up a bit with some arbritary historical boundary merely as they are in the public eye. Judges don’t take licenses away from drivers, so way should immigration stuff up a foreigners life that may take decades to get back. Now if it was a violent crime, then the society that raised them should have to deal wih them. Oz chewing up kiwi born but aussie raised to throw themut is just beyond nasty its bout owning the problem. What would that say about a person if they don’t take responisility. Australia should be taken to task by its citizens.
TPPA Jane Kelsey’s take on the situation.
Jane Kelsey: “TPPA ministerial extended another day, still stuck on meds and dairy ”
“But Professor Kelsey warns that a ‘final’ TPPA that assumes any compromise wording would survive the US political process could be built on sand, as the US could still demand a longer term as a quid pro quo for making concessions on other areas.
Allowing countries to keep their current 5 years would have to pass the scrutiny of the US Congress and, more significantly, the process whereby the US certifies the other country has complied with the US understanding of its obligations under agreement. Professor Kelsey observed that ‘any flexibility given to New Zealand on biologics to allow us to keep our current 5 years of data exclusivity could prove an illusion at that final hurdle.’
As for dairy, the chess game remains much the same: what Canada and Japan have given the US is not enough to satisfy the US industry that it can compensate for increased market access to New Zealand.”
– See more at: http://livenews.co.nz/2015/10/04/jane-kelsey-tppa-ministerial-extended-another-day-still-stuck-on-meds-and-dairy/#sthash.4tzsdjl7.dpuf
On Friday I posted this about the comments on NZ Herald stories, a topic which had previously been raised here:
“I have been watching one particular story today, so here’s what has happened so far.
Brian Rudman’s “Don’t waste takahe’s cash on panda porn” was posted at 9.24am. (Presumably too late for the print edition – will it be in that tomorrow?)
The 24 comments the Herald opted to reproduce are all denoted as having been made at c.11.48am. However, they were not actually posted till after 1pm.
I made a comment on the article sometime around 12.30 and that has not been posted. In fact it is now 5.25pm and no further comments have been added at all. That seems odd.
(The tone of the existing comments was pretty nearly 100% against the government. The usual RWNJs were absent, having decided that this one was too hot too handle.)”
Just coming back to report that the missing comments- or such of them as the Herald wants to print – have now been posted, TWO DAYS LATE. Posted late this morning, Sunday. They’re pretty heavily critical of the government’s actions, but I doubt that many people will now read them. That’s one way to deal with criticism.
Keep an eye on the Herald’s techniques with its comments. They are up to no good.
1. One of the aspects of TPPA that concerns me the most is the rules about SOE’s . As far as I am concerned, state-backed enterprises should be able to have public service/ public good considerations and not be subject to forced competition with overseas providers.
“The TPP is about more than tariffs and quotas, said Cam Vidler of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. He said it’s a rare opportunity for the international community to modernize itself in several important ways:
2. In his q and a interview this morning Mr Key says he can’t say if New Zealand will benefit from the TPPA deal at the moment. He said Kiwis are worrying because they are misinformed. He also says he doesn’t believe NZ could be sued.
Mr Key, I have just looked at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development paper headed “Recent Developments in Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS).”
“By end of 2013, 98 States have been respondents in a total of 568 known
treaty-based cases.” 57 were initiated in 2013. http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/webdiaepcb2014d3_en.pdf
You John might have a faith-based belief that NZ could not be sued, but looking at the information that I have just read, can you forgive me for having a nagging doubt?
TPPA update
Burcu Kilic @burcuno 2m2 minutes ago
Tonight’s plenary is over. The ministers will meet tomorrow afternoon but not before. Japan is still hopeful of conclusion. #TPP
Burcu Kilic Retweeted
Anna Vidot @AnnaVidot 1h1 hour ago
tl;dr: Robb sounds optimistic,hopeful, but not necessarily confident re biologics agreement. Doesn’t sound like a man about to concede. #TPP
Burcu Kilic Retweeted
Anna Vidot @AnnaVidot 1h1 hour ago
Robb: Aust & US acting in good faith, “but fact is we’ve got different systems and just splitting it down the middle is not the answer. #TPP
‘As it stands at the moment Prime Minister John Key says the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) isn’t “a very good deal for dairy”.
But despite that the benefits in other areas are more “impressive” than the deal struck under the free trade agreement with China, he said.
“So when I say to New Zealanders, look I’m not going to sign you up to something unless I think it’s in your best interests – I don’t do that by whistling in the wind.”
The much-anticipated announcement on the Pacific trade deal has been pushed back again after negotiating countries failed to front at a scheduled press conference at midday on Saturday (Sunday 5am NZT).
It’s understood negotiations will continue through the night in an effort to get it across the line after talks ground to a halt in recent weeks over dairy and biologics.
Key told TVNZ’s Q+A that New Zealand wouldn’t get everything it wanted on dairy but it was about getting something that’s “acceptable”.
He also dismissed claims that New Zealand was opening itself up to being sued by a big US corporation through investor-state or losing its sovereignty over the deal.
“Well we’ve had it in four FTAs now, we’ve never ever been sued. New Zealand has never had a case taken against us in investor state.”‘
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
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 Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],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, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Latest TPP U.S., Australia Move Toward Biologics Compromise With Options
ATLANTA – The United States and Australia are inching toward a compromise on the exclusivity period for biologic drugs that would give Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries more than one option for providing an appropriate level of intellectual property (IP) protection, according to informed sources. http://insidetrade.com/
Burcu Kilic @burcuno 13m13 minutes ago
#TPP Ministerial is extended for another 24 hours now.
Burcu Kilic @burcuno 22m22 minutes ago
Reportedly, Amari told Froman to conclude dairy & biologics negotiations within 24 hrs. Japan is getting anxious #TPP
Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari said he had agreed to stay on until Sunday, but this was the last extension possible for talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which began on Wednesday. http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKKCN0RX0OZ20151003?irpc=932
Good explanation of biologicals issue in this Huff Post article
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-sander-/is-tpp-the-most-progressive-trade-agreement-in-history-_b_7461734.html
“Meanwhile, New Zealand has significantly softened its stance on market access for dairy products. Up until now, the country had been calling for lower barriers for its dairy products. By Saturday, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was saying the TPP would greatly benefit his country even if he couldn’t gain more progress on the issue.”
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Negotiations-on-Pacific-trade-deal-to-go-on-another-day
Thanks, John!
We’re being softened up for a dirty dirty deal.
‘A push by the United States to set a longer period of exclusivity for drug makers who develop biological drugs like Genentech’s Avastin cancer-treatment has run into opposition from other TPP economies.
The United States allows pharmaceutical companies an exclusive period of 12 years to use clinical data behind the approval for a new biological drug.
The Obama administration had previously proposed lowering that threshold to seven years but has pushed a proposal for an eight-year minimum in the TPP talks in Atlanta.
Drug companies argue that a longer period is needed to create an incentive for developing treatments for diseases such as cancer and arthritis.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/286007/tpp-talks-bogged-down-over-pharmaceuticals
From the same article
‘Harper’s Conservatives are on course to win the most seats in the October 19 election but may lose their majority, and the main opposition party has said it would not feel itself bound by any TPP deal that Harper negotiated.’
Could we hear the same form Mr Little please?
75% of drug development in the US is funded by the federal government under the Orphan Drugs scheme. It’s around US$9b per year worth of subsidies (The Entrepreneurial State by Mariana Mazzucato) and I believe that the drug companies actually get to keep the IP rights contrary to most US government grants.
Now, just think of what our own pharmaceutical industry could do with $9b per year of government funding. That’d employ about 100,000 people.
+ 1. Yes Mariana Mazzucato also shows that the development new biologic drugs – the subject of much negotiation in the TPPA – were also funded by public money – mostly in the UK. Venture capitalists and big Pharma only got interested when all of the substantive risks were mitigated and the proofs of effectiveness were rolling in.
She shows that much of the IP claims of big Pharma are in new uses for existing drugs and that the most innovative thing some big pharmaceutical companies do is share buy backs because they are unwilling to take the risks of – the very thing we are supposed to laud these corporate titans for doing – spending actual money on actual research for new drugs.
She describes many companies, Apple for example, as being unfit recipients of public investment because of how they behave – avoiding taxes, moving production offshore and so on.
On the topic of the TPPA it appears that there is concern in Canada that people believe the CBC is at risk because of the SOE chapter of the proposed agreement. It seems odd that no-one has raised the possibility of the same risk for Radio New Zealand. Radio New Zealand is not an SOE but the TPPA definition could well differ from the NZ definition.
http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/cbc-could-be-on-the-table-at-next-round-of-tpp-talks-this-wednesday-529823071.html
From you last link:
This is actually wrong. It’s not shifting income from consumers to producers but from consumers and producers to shareholders. You can pretty much guarantee that there will be a rise in Patent Trolls once the TPPA is in force and everyone will suffer while the bludgers take us to the cleaners.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11523403
While I don’t read THIS article as reflecting it……watch out for the insinuation (just quietly) that this victim somehow contributed to her ordeal.
“Prisoner X could have this…..Prisoner X could have that…..BEFORE she was slung into mainstream……etc etc etc. Hang on, maybe her lawyer could have done more…..blah blah blah.”
Yes. She might also have respected this government’s advised ‘kaitiaki’ role in relation to Serco’s licensed lust for profit taking. And said nothing at all.
A la Amanda Bailey. I can see it coming. Hosking’ll be champing at the bit I daresay…..just waiting for the word.
C’mon Peseta Sam……out of hiding and give it your fumbling, inglorious best !
4 headlines in the Herald online about rugby.
None about the TPP.
Bread and circuses.
try and keep it in context paul ffs
Here’s some context then.
The Independent, a UK newspaper, reporting on the day England played, had 2 stories not to do with sport with greater prominence than the rugby loss.
I’m highlighting how awful our news reporting is.
And therefore how ill informed our population is.
And therefore how a bunch like Key’s gang make parliament.
sure Paul I’m talking about the actual story you commented on which was about the awful alleged abuse of that person.
Apologies.
I had meant to start a new thread rather then reply to North’s story.
all good mate
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11523360
Yes serco are not fit to run prisons or anything – they and the people who gave them this role are scum and… (I really really want to go medieval on these bastards, I really really want to describe horrendous fates for these bastards – but doesn’t that make me like them?)
I don’t think Hosking or any media are going to start insinuating this transgender inmate did anything to provoke being raped. I reckon coverage will be neutral (and probably minimal – more’s the pity). It’s a gross failing on the part of Serco, culpable negligence amounting to abuse. Anybody with any sense could have seen that risk, surely. I hope she successfully sues Serco and Corrections.
OPEN LETTER TO JOSIE PAGANI: SECOND PUBLICATION
Sunday 4 October
Dear Josie Pagani,
Two and a half weeks ago on this forum, I asked you to answer two questions:
1.) In the light of your support for the destruction of Afghanistan, do you support the invasion of the United States and Great Britain, the bombing and obliteration of British and American schools, hospitals, power stations and churches, and the killing of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of American and British civilians?
2.) Can you explain your statement that Hezbollah and Hamas are anti-Semitic?
Could you please respond?
http://thestandard.org.nz/all-the-left-wants-is-a-clean-contest-of-ideas/#comment-1071118
This Open Letter to Josie Pagani was also published on Saturday 3 October 2015. So far, Josie Pagani has failed to justify herself.
Stephen Harper, the Canadian pm has promised that the final decision on TPP for Canada will be decided by the parliament in Ottawa. Why isn’t the same thing happening here?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/harper-trans-pacific-partnership-1.3255564
Canadian Treaty ratification process is basically the same as ours, Maybe Harper is spinning.
“After signature of an international treaty, once Canada is ready to be bound by it, a document is prepared establishing that the formalities for the coming into force and implementation of the treaty have been completed and that Canada agrees to be bound by the treaty. More formally, Cabinet prepares an Order in Council authorizing the Minister of Foreign Affairs to sign an Instrument of Ratification or Accession.13 Once this instrument is deposited with the appropriate authority, the treaty is officially ratified. At this point, Canada is bound by the treaty as soon as it comes into force (if it is not already in force).14
The Canadian government and public servants have continued to negotiate on the TPPA as if there was no pre-election period rather than following the usual convention of becoming a care-taker government.
Advice to public servants has been amended from the usual practice. However the advice does say that no deal will be signed until post election but it is still a rather shocking departure from the usual process.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2015/08/canadian-government-amends-caretaker-rules-to-give-itself-power-to-continue-negotiating-tpp/
Perhaps this statement is in response to the criticism that this approach has created
Our flag should be a green mere on a red background, referencing the Maori wars.
Dear Mr Morrissey
As you know my politics are from the left and therefore cannot provide you with an unequivocal answer. I speak in riddles, just like messers Cunliffe, Little and Geoff.
Yours Josie
[r0b: In case it is not obvious, this comment is not from JP]
Thanks r0b. I was kind of on to this one.
Who, by the way, is the “Geoff” this faux-Josie references?
Goff, I imagine.
“Where do they think they are? Fal-LUJAH!?!?!??”*
Death toll rises in suspected US airstrike on Afghan hospital
by SUNE ENGL RASMUSSEN in Kabul
The Guardian, 3 October 2015
Nine staff dead and up to 37 injured in Médecins Sans Frontières hospital as charity says bombing continued for 30 minutes after it raised alarm
A US airstrike appears to have hit a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières in the Afghan city of Kunduz, killing nine staff members and injuring up to 37 people.
MSF said its hospital in the northern city was bombed and badly damaged in an aerial attack early on Saturday morning.
The charity claimed it had circulated the coordinates of the site to all sides engaged in fighting in the country, adding that the bombing continued for 30 minutes after it had raised the alarm with Afghan and US authorities.
At the time of the bombing, 105 patients and its carers, and more than 80 MSF international and national staff were in the hospital, the charity said.
Some members of staff were still unaccounted for on Saturday, and there are fears the death toll will rise considerably. Up to 10 international aid workers who were based in the hospital are believed to have survived the attack. ….
A spokesman for the US military admitted it might be responsible.
“US forces conducted an airstrike in Kunduz city at 2:15am [local time] on 3 October against individuals threatening the force. The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility. This incident is under investigation,” said Col Brian Tribus, spokesman for international forces in Afghanistan. ….
Continues….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/03/three-medecins-sans-frontieres-staff-killed-in-afghanistan-hospital-bombing?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
* David Letterman’s nightly joke during 2004-5. Always met with a roar of laughter from his audience.
Are NZ SAS forces still involved in supplying target information to the US ?
+1 Morrissey
Don’t think we will hear John Key lecturing the security council over this. What a hypocrite.
Morrissey – this is dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. When will the USA stop its stupid war-mongering?
And as for the “collateral damage” bullshit …… its time they spoke plain English and said straight-out – “we the USA bombed a hospital with over 200 people in it – patients and carers” The use of such language helps them hide their atrocities.
“When will the USA stop its stupid war-mongering?”
They won’t. Their whole economy is based on bombs, bullets and violence.
These conflicts in the middle east plus the Jews bombing Gaza are, as Arther Daily would say ” nice little earners ” . You don’t make bombs to put into a store somewhere, you make them to use.
As for the “collateral damage” bullshit, the yanks have used “sanitised ” language for ages. They no longer do precision bombing, precision is something the bloody yanks don’t know the meaning off, They are now called “Surgical Strikes” sounds very clean antiseptic and sterilized. Another term is “take out” a term that is now creeping into our thugby. It is the American culture and that is why I avoid as much as possible looking, reading, or listening to anything that comes out of that sewer.
“the Jews bombing Gaza”
Please don’t call this rogue, criminal regime “the Jews”. The worldwide opposition to Israel is led by Jewish thinkers and activists.
Israel does not represent “the Jews” any more than the similarly brutal regime in Riyadh represents “the Arabs”.
Who are they then? They are not exactly Scots in Kilts are they? I am also under the impression the regime that bombed Gaza was returned to power at the last election, So who were the people who voted for them then?
Israel is a pariah state, it is not “the Jews”. It is a militaristic, racist regime that has been condemned by most of the world. Much of the most eloquent testimony against this rogue state comes from Jews—many of them conscientious objectors from its own armed forces. ….
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/
I think you should be referring to the Israelis half crown, as opposed to the Jews. Jews reside in many countries and do not all by any means condone the Israeli regime’s apartheid and attacks against Palestinians. The IDF seem to be the main agents of the regime.
Precision bombing and Americans is an oxymoron! Joseph Heller summed it up pretty well in Catch-22:
“Did we hit the bridge?” McWatt would ask.
“I couldn’t see, sir, I kept getting bounced around back here pretty hard and I couldn’t see . . .”
“Hey, Aarfy, did the bombs hit the target?”
“What target?” . . . “I don’t think we’re at the target yet. Are we?”
“Yossarian, did the bombs hit the target?”
“What bombs?” answered Yossarian, whose only concern had been the flak.
“Oh well,” McWatt would sing, “what the hell.”
Although I said I don’t read anything that comes out of that sewer, I do read some of the more intelligent thought provoking literature that comes from there. Catch 22 is one of my favorites. The novel is far superior than the film, though I did like Orson Wells (Brigadier General Dreedle) B25 with the white walled tyres. and John Voight (Milo Minderbinder) doing his deals with the Germans to bomb their base at cost plus 10% Fantastic and cynical.
I also like Major Major Major and how he was named Major Major Major. Just to name a few highlights.
Brings back good memories of an ill spent youth in Pomgolia.
TPPA
Burcu Kilic @burcuno 5m5 minutes ago
Thanks 2 NZ Minister Groser, we have a new #TPP term; DRI (dead rat index) swallowing dead rats- making compromises. http://ipolitics.ca/2015/10/03/tpp-talks-bogging-down-meltdown-
Richard Madan @RichardMadan 1h1 hour ago
Also, chances of #TPP Ministerial talks extending *past* Sunday = slim. G20 Trade Min Summit begins Monday in Istanbul, so there’s that.
TPPA
Burcu Kilic @burcuno 5m5 minutes ago
Trade ministers will hold another plenary session at 10 PM tonight. Another night of #TPP stakeholdering, perfect Saturday night in Atlanta!
TPPA — maybe some unanticipated help from a most unexpected quarter …..
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/29/the_unexpected_upshot_of_john_boehners_ouster_the_trans_pacific_partnership_is_in_danger/
+100 … thanks for that !…interesting
re- …”This may be dubious but it’s caught the ear of the 800-pound gorilla in the GOP presidential nomination – Donald Trump. He has built a fair degree of his campaign on opposition to TPP, and recently met with Jeff Sessions, a leading TPP opponent among conservatives, to talk trade. Heck, Trump wants to cancel NAFTA, along with stopping any Obama-negotiated trade agreements. “We need fair trade, not free trade,” Trump told 60 Minutes on Sunday, sounding more like Dick Gephardt than a conservative. But he has the ear of a significant portion of the conservative base.”
Go DONALD TRUMP! obviously a free thinker ( ha ha never thought I would say that)
…and interesting that Dotcom has also been texting him!
Hilarious the way this post assumes that left wingers are middle class careerists. No mention of workers (Bunnings, Affco,teachers, bank workers anyone) who are union members, who get the job done as well as being active in political work. That’s the strength of the union movement. Not people with Pol Sci degrees fretting about their mortgage and their career, and what to wear to work today.
[lprent: I’ve never been part of a union. There are no unions that cover the areas I work in and never have been. Unlike people who are in unionised industries and work places, I cannot rely upon a collective herd immunity. Nor can many people who are supporters of the labour movement. This post was clearly directed at them.
Many people who support labour movements aren’t likely to be even have the opportunity to join a union. There aren’t any available to them.
Kind of freaky the way that you assume leftie middle class careerists have PolSci degrees. I don’t. BSc, MBA and a lot of experience on factory floors and running them. I know very few people with polsci degrees outside of a few bureaucrats in Wellington.
But I suspect that you are just a idiot, and probably a troll. Looking at your comments – you are banned from the post that these came from for attempted diversion. Use OpenMike where this got moved to. You are now being moderated. If I see you try here again, I will give you a long ban.
Moved the whole thread to OpenMike to discourage similar fuckwits ]
This is definitely a post for middle class careerists.
Hope you can cope with that.
Someone else can do a post on the union movement.
In fact the union movement and workers – whom we all support – get more posts here than middle class careerists.
“Not people with Pol Sci degrees fretting about their mortgage and their career, and what to wear to work today.”
Way to minimise political concerns. Given that the people who control what’s happening to all of us are likely to be Pol Sci grads (and business school grads with careers to fret about), it makes sense to look at the politics of coercion in that context.
(you can of course also write about the pressures on working class people to be silent).
Lols. I just deleted my reply to CR (I had the identical experience as them when working for an NGO) as I’m not middle class careerist enough. Figured this post isn’t for me after all.
Way to dismiss the place of unions in left politics and pretend that belonging to a union isn’t one of the best ways to advance “leftist” politics. And that only working class people belong to unions. Teachers, nurses, medical specialists, university staff, finance and retail sector workers – all middle class and members of strong, active and successful unions. That is one very powerful way to be politically active, have a career, be middle-class and left.
Advising me to write a separate post about unions and the working class kind of underscores the point.
If people join unions, or form unions when there isn’t one that covers your profession, unions have more strength, and are able to influence politics more.
Careerists are by definition more concerned with their individual selves and prospects of “getting ahead”, as demonstrated here, and collective action and strength seems not to appeal to them. How does that sit with be “lefty”?
Unions members have mortgages too. Stop being such cowards.
…because…do you get it? People here are complaining of feeling isolated, and vulnerable and unable to speak out. How many of you saying that belong to your union? That’s what unions are – groups of workers middle class and working class, banding together to protect their pay and conditions, yes, but also to protect their professional standards, and to have political influence, and the right an ability to speak out without fear. Why is that not an option for you guys? I am genuinely interested to know.
The people that I was thinking about like the “small business owner” are not in a union situation, trendy lefty. Also the people that used to work for larger govt departments or firms who are now classified as contractors.
Part of the rationale for this trend was to help disestablish the rights of the workers and deal to unions at the same time. I agree, if you have the opportunity to be in a union, you should take it.
I think that small business owners should be in a union and I’m not talking about the Chamber of Commerce. They could do much to help each other. Unfortunately, someone would probably get round to calling it a guild which is an illegal entity.
I belong to the TEU.
I don’t understand why people dont. In July I got a $23 a fortnight pay increase because of TEU. I pay $18 a fortnight to the Union. My non union colleages go tno increase, so financially alone, i am ahead BUT most importantly the TEU works to challenge the change being proposed where I work, and it will protect its own workers jobs first and foremost
I can see why some big bosses don’t like unions, but not anyone earning less than $90k per annum.
Anytime a colleague has a work problem and they come to me (as a former lawyer) , I always ask them first “are you in the union” When they say “no” I say join the union, and they will help you.
Big bosses love unions. It’s why they belong to so many – Manufacturing Associations, Business Roundtables, Chambers of Commerce, The National Party. What they don’t like is the small people having unions.
Tracey..Pleased to hear that non union colleagues didn’t get the increase that you as a union member got. It didn’t use to be that way and the freeloaders (Duh. I don’t believe in unions..duh!) used to get the same increases that union members paid,negotiated and even withdrew services for.
When they complained about being treated poorly my advice always was.. ‘discuss it with your union delegate..oh what? your not a member?..oh well,,’
A colleague of mine a few years ago challenged her redundancy. She had not been a union member, but once made redundant joined up. They went in to battle for her. She had a poor case (legally) but with the union she got a VERY good payout.
I can see why they do it, they want to protect workers but honestly, if you knew your insurance company would pay you out without paying premiums until you needed to, why would you bother?
From the post.
“..and forgo your career arc”, or words to that effect. Not so. You make it sound as if being a member of the union automatically means your career is over. Bullshit, I say. Sure unions don’t always win, and small businesses are businesses, so yeah hard for them to join a union – but is that a new thing? And if you are a small business, you can be left wing by treating and paying your employees well, and encouraging them to belong to their union.
However, most people in New Zealand are employees, and less than 20% are members of their unions. I hear people say, why should I join a union? They have no power. They didn’t do anything for me..etc…acting as if a union is a separate entity, rather than themselves and their colleagues.
If you are an employee or a contractor, join your union. Be active in your union, and encourage other colleagues to join. Be brave.
Union member with a good career and senior position, speaking out, telling it like it is to the Minister of Education. Not scared, surrounded by member colleagues, who know that they, not the union staff, are the union:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOuRU4MHnsQ
Well, your comment reads as though addressed directly to me. But see, I didn’t say anything about foregoing a career arc in relation to unionism per se. Hmm, and I was formerly heavily involved in unionism. Anyway…
That is true and it is also true of greater society.
I think many of Ad’s points, in the abstract, do apply to working class employment too (whether or not that was Ad’s ‘target’).
My Dad worked in factories almost all of his life. When he was an operator of a cable extruder (did that for about 12 years) I remember him saying that he trained probably half a dozen new men (always men) to become a ‘driver’ on the machine – which was the lead role on the machine and paid more than a ‘hand’.
Dad would apply to get a ‘driver’s’ job but was never offered it despite being relied upon to train the new recruits. The reason, according to him, was that he was disliked by his managers. Why?
Well, he was a staunch unionist and, using basic logic and his intuitive principles he would point out when management was in breach of the award that they had signed up to or were acting in bad faith, etc..
Back then – the 1970s – that amounted to being labelled a ‘pommy stirrer’.
Mum used to tell him to stop arguing with the bosses so that he’d become a driver and get a pay rise. He didn’t, which I guess meant that we were less wealthy than we could have been if he’d compromised what, to him, were pretty basic principles of fairness (e.g., rule of law, abiding by a contract, being honest). I guess you could say he sacrificed his ‘career’ by not compromising his principles.
He also used to complain about the fact that, at smoko and lunches (he worked 12 hour shifts, sometimes overnight so they weren’t always lunches) he’d try to talk about politics but his co-workers were completely uninterested and didn’t want to engage – they just read the sports pages of the paper on the cafeteria tables.
He became very frustrated and quite bitter – I guess a bit of an outcast both in terms of his treatment by the bosses but, more importantly, the responses of his fellow workers to his politicised view of life and work.
I think the same applies in middle class workplaces – and sites of middle class socialising in general. The person who wants to discuss or ‘come out’ about their political concerns is either an embarrassment or seen as an unhelpful bore and, quick, someone start talking about something else – anything else.
BTW, at that time Dad wasn’t a shop steward or a union staffer – just an active member of the union.
I think, in general, being political is a good way to not be accepted by most groups, working or middle class.
At best I think it’s often seen as an unfortunate ‘hobby’ for someone to have – especially if it goes beyond brief and bland comments about, for example, ‘the government’s not doing too bad, eh’ or ‘did you here what [politician X] said? What a jerk/joke/idiot!’.
At worst – well, it gets pretty tough.
Jonah Hull’s scandalously biased “report” on “Russia’s bombardment of Syria”:
Qatari state TV is, as usual, repeating U.S. State Dept. talking points.
Al Jazeera News, Sunday 4 October 2015, 11 a.m.
Al Jazeera’s biased and incendiary coverage of Syria has always been a disgrace. As the mouthpiece of the ISIL-supporting Qatari dictatorship, Al Jazeera diligently parrots the dictatorship’s line, which is a faithful reiteration of the U.S.-Saudi line, on every dispute involving Syria, Yemen, Iran and Lebanon.
In fact, it is more upsetting to see such crude propaganda emanating from an ostensible news channel than it is to watch the same words coming from the mouths of Samantha Power, John Kerry and Barack Obama. At least we expect Power, Kerry and Obama to routinely tell lies. With a television channel on the other hand, even one from an anti-democratic state like Qatar, we should expect at least a nominal commitment to the facts.
Instead, Al Jazeera insults its viewers with “reports” like the one this morning from Jonah Hull, in Macedonia….
After soberly announcing that the “moderate armed opposition” in Syria—a technical term for Al Qaeda, ISIL and Al Nusra—in Syria is “demanding” that its Western supporters “get serious” about supporting them, Hull goes in search of some vox pop, presumably to lend an appearance of credibility to his “report”…
JONAH HULL: Do you think Russia’s involvement in Syria will make things better?
CAREFULLY SELECTED SYRIAN REFUGEE: Ehhhhh, no.
Then it’s back to Jonah Hull for a few pompous, minatory final words. Summoning up all the gravitas he can, Hull intones: “It’s about the Russian bombing of Syria now, of course. Jonah Hull, Al Jazeera, on the Macedonia-Serbia border.”
More shoddy recent repetition of U.S. State Dept. talking points….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-03102015-2/#comment-1077971
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21022015/#comment-972803
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-06022015/#comment-964190
Patrick Cockburn writing in the Independent says the the West should welcome Russia’s intervention.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-crisis-lets-welcome-russias-entry-into-this-war-a6678526.html
Thanks for that, Paul. Excellent.
What a President Sanders Can Expect The Day After Inauguration and Why We Need a “Political Revolution”
And we have similar problems here as well as we saw with the ABCs in Labour prior to the last election. Our entire bureaucratic system fights against the changes that we need to make NZ, and the world, better.
Woman’s conviction overturned after boss wrongly accuses her of theft
Right, now that he’s left can we make it so that he can’t come back?
I disagree, justice must be proportionate, as we are now seeing the quite disreproporate way kiwi are treated in oz. Seven months home detention for the boss.
I don’t see what’s disproportionate about keeping a foreign criminal out of NZ.
I agree. You don’t see why politics of distraction exists to undermine your power. Do the sums, when media in oz or nz do immigration stories whose harmed.
When we throw out a crime they do the same, it all equals up, but its worse for all, as the criminals have families, they have mortgages their kids are attached to their community, when you cut them out, you not only damage them but also the wealth around them. That’s why mob mentality is dumb, you are dumb, you are serving the media distraction industry, you are being uneconomic, u are harming innocents, or at least that would be the effect if people listened to you.
Free trade is undermined when we make it harder for world class experts to move around the globe, and know they are just as likely to gecaught in a lie. Take vw, some engineer wrote a testing regime for smooth running diseal that out performed petrol, marketering got a hold of it and not understanding the physics got the boss sacked. WE chuck crimes out and they chuck their crimes out and we’ll get the same amount of crimes shared around. Well worse since there ate so many more kiwis aboard and so more criminals.
Oh, andhen as the returnee come home poorer caught at the I lowest hour, they can thank you for your mercy.
As I said, he’s already left to go back to Italy. All I’m saying is that we don’t let him back in. Hopefully he hasn’t got full citizenship in which case all we have to do is to revoke his permanent residency.
Can you define what “world class” means?
I’m pretty sure you can’t and the reason for that is because it’s a meaningless phrase. It, quite literally, means nothing.
That sounds remarkably like BS.
Calls to invoke immigration fascism is self defeating, as other countries do the same. And given the present issue where kiwis in oz are denied access to welfare, and are more likely to get caught out by the law, it seems astounding anyone on the left for the reasons above, or the right for free trade in workers or the huge dispropionate loss of wealth forcing a whole family to up root and move. Just saying I think you need to back using immigration as a arm of justice. People make mistakes, they do so at home or aboard, companies lose when chefs have to be replaced. And don’t give me that argument that a person whose committed an offences lesser a human being, or not beter at their jobs, or have kids, or won’t cost the economy if we stuff them up a bit with some arbritary historical boundary merely as they are in the public eye. Judges don’t take licenses away from drivers, so way should immigration stuff up a foreigners life that may take decades to get back. Now if it was a violent crime, then the society that raised them should have to deal wih them. Oz chewing up kiwi born but aussie raised to throw themut is just beyond nasty its bout owning the problem. What would that say about a person if they don’t take responisility. Australia should be taken to task by its citizens.
TPPA Jane Kelsey’s take on the situation.
Jane Kelsey: “TPPA ministerial extended another day, still stuck on meds and dairy ”
“But Professor Kelsey warns that a ‘final’ TPPA that assumes any compromise wording would survive the US political process could be built on sand, as the US could still demand a longer term as a quid pro quo for making concessions on other areas.
Allowing countries to keep their current 5 years would have to pass the scrutiny of the US Congress and, more significantly, the process whereby the US certifies the other country has complied with the US understanding of its obligations under agreement. Professor Kelsey observed that ‘any flexibility given to New Zealand on biologics to allow us to keep our current 5 years of data exclusivity could prove an illusion at that final hurdle.’
As for dairy, the chess game remains much the same: what Canada and Japan have given the US is not enough to satisfy the US industry that it can compensate for increased market access to New Zealand.”
– See more at: http://livenews.co.nz/2015/10/04/jane-kelsey-tppa-ministerial-extended-another-day-still-stuck-on-meds-and-dairy/#sthash.4tzsdjl7.dpuf
On Friday I posted this about the comments on NZ Herald stories, a topic which had previously been raised here:
“I have been watching one particular story today, so here’s what has happened so far.
Brian Rudman’s “Don’t waste takahe’s cash on panda porn” was posted at 9.24am. (Presumably too late for the print edition – will it be in that tomorrow?)
The 24 comments the Herald opted to reproduce are all denoted as having been made at c.11.48am. However, they were not actually posted till after 1pm.
I made a comment on the article sometime around 12.30 and that has not been posted. In fact it is now 5.25pm and no further comments have been added at all. That seems odd.
(The tone of the existing comments was pretty nearly 100% against the government. The usual RWNJs were absent, having decided that this one was too hot too handle.)”
Just coming back to report that the missing comments- or such of them as the Herald wants to print – have now been posted, TWO DAYS LATE. Posted late this morning, Sunday. They’re pretty heavily critical of the government’s actions, but I doubt that many people will now read them. That’s one way to deal with criticism.
Keep an eye on the Herald’s techniques with its comments. They are up to no good.
1. One of the aspects of TPPA that concerns me the most is the rules about SOE’s . As far as I am concerned, state-backed enterprises should be able to have public service/ public good considerations and not be subject to forced competition with overseas providers.
“The TPP is about more than tariffs and quotas, said Cam Vidler of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. He said it’s a rare opportunity for the international community to modernize itself in several important ways:
He said it would establish clear rules in China’s backyard. Guidelines regulating the behaviour of state-backed enterprises would provide an international precedent, should the emerging giant ever join the agreement.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/tpp-talks-bogged-down-over-pharmaceuticals/article26641388/
As Donald Trump would say, “It’s about China”
2. In his q and a interview this morning Mr Key says he can’t say if New Zealand will benefit from the TPPA deal at the moment. He said Kiwis are worrying because they are misinformed. He also says he doesn’t believe NZ could be sued.
Mr Key, I have just looked at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development paper headed “Recent Developments in Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS).”
“By end of 2013, 98 States have been respondents in a total of 568 known
treaty-based cases.” 57 were initiated in 2013.
http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/webdiaepcb2014d3_en.pdf
You John might have a faith-based belief that NZ could not be sued, but looking at the information that I have just read, can you forgive me for having a nagging doubt?
TPPA update
Burcu Kilic @burcuno 2m2 minutes ago
Tonight’s plenary is over. The ministers will meet tomorrow afternoon but not before. Japan is still hopeful of conclusion. #TPP
Burcu Kilic Retweeted
Anna Vidot @AnnaVidot 1h1 hour ago
tl;dr: Robb sounds optimistic,hopeful, but not necessarily confident re biologics agreement. Doesn’t sound like a man about to concede. #TPP
Burcu Kilic Retweeted
Anna Vidot @AnnaVidot 1h1 hour ago
Robb: Aust & US acting in good faith, “but fact is we’ve got different systems and just splitting it down the middle is not the answer. #TPP
We are being softened up.
‘As it stands at the moment Prime Minister John Key says the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) isn’t “a very good deal for dairy”.
But despite that the benefits in other areas are more “impressive” than the deal struck under the free trade agreement with China, he said.
“So when I say to New Zealanders, look I’m not going to sign you up to something unless I think it’s in your best interests – I don’t do that by whistling in the wind.”
The much-anticipated announcement on the Pacific trade deal has been pushed back again after negotiating countries failed to front at a scheduled press conference at midday on Saturday (Sunday 5am NZT).
It’s understood negotiations will continue through the night in an effort to get it across the line after talks ground to a halt in recent weeks over dairy and biologics.
Key told TVNZ’s Q+A that New Zealand wouldn’t get everything it wanted on dairy but it was about getting something that’s “acceptable”.
He also dismissed claims that New Zealand was opening itself up to being sued by a big US corporation through investor-state or losing its sovereignty over the deal.
“Well we’ve had it in four FTAs now, we’ve never ever been sued. New Zealand has never had a case taken against us in investor state.”‘
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/72678881/a-good-dairy-deal-under-the-tpp-is-unlikely-as-talks-begin-to-wrap-up
Key: “Well we’ve had it in four FTAs now, we’ve never ever been sued. New Zealand has never had a case taken against us in investor state.”
We’ve not had a trade agreement before with what’s probably the world’s most litigious country though, have we?
Shanghai Maling’s offer (if it gets over the line) will allow them to decide the company’s CEO, the budget and business plan.
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/clipping-the-ticket-on-nzs-primary-produce-2015100310#axzz3nRUQwwik
Thoughts?
Key photo ops…