This is what reading Pravda every day must have felt like.
Relentless propaganda from the corporate media.
The Herald ran at 28:1 last week, according to micky savage’s excellent post, which attracted 600+ comments.
Yet Soper and his cronies continue to pump it out, day after day after day….
Barry Soper: Can Labour do anything right at the moment?
Heather du Plessis-Allan: How Labour just lost the 2020 election.
John Oliver nails it. Watch the clip at the bottom.
Nothing says we value independent media like dozens of reporters forced to repeat the same message over and over again like members of a brainwashed cult.
Here is a list of NZ reporters repeating the same message over and over again like members of a brainwashed cult.
Soper
duplicity Allen
Hosking
Hawkesby
Garner
Trevett
Kirk
Young
Richardson
Watkins
Roughan
Armstrong
Read
Vance
Feel free to add the list .
it is long.
Members of a brain washed cult.
The cult is neoliberalism.
It may well be that every single reporter and presenter in the country is wrong, but if this government doesn’t get better at presenting its message then it will get voted out at the next election. And then those MPs can all enjoy being right, from the Opposition benches.
Labour will give Auckland Council the power to introduce a regional petrol tax – understood to be 10 cents a litre – to help pay for light rail. Infrastructure bonds and targeted rates will also be used to fund transport in Auckland.
Then perhaps a strongly worded “please explain” to the Herald’s chief uberpropagandaführer (or whatever they call the editors at the Herald).
The MSM are not the enemy.
Really good media operators know what the MSM need, and deliver. The frist two terms of Helen Clark’s government show that with enough hard work, it can look easy.
Who do you think pays the MSM bills?…why is a concerted campaign being waged?
Your theory only works if you believe the MSM is impartial and has the interests of the wider public at heart….it hasn’t for some time and is in survival mode …..you can apply all the best theoretical PR BS at it you like to no avail.
The first two terms of the Clark government were an exercise in appeasement that is constantly referenced on sites like these….you are in effect saying that this administration needs to abandon any hope of implementing its outlined policy direction and maintain the status quo….and placate the MSMs paymasters.
The left’s complaints about a “concerted campaign” is merely a set of excuses.
If you think the mainstream media are not relevant, try doing without them.
The first two terms of the Clark government actually got quite a lot done. I know referencing the most successful Labour government since Savage doesn’t appease people like you. She and her media team were really good at their jobs, so she got re-elected three times.
That government is the closest we have in relevant political memory to now: implement precisely what they said they were going to do before the election, keeping the media with them, and then getting re-elected.
The MSM are key to this , in no small part because politics really is a popularity contest.
The first two terms of the Clark admin were thrown some scraps but were left in no doubt where the line was….and at the time the incremental approach was probably justifiable…though in hindsight it wasted two decades of opportunity….want to waste another two?
Adam, I think another way of looking at what Ad said is: Exploit the aspects of the status quo that are almost impossible to change and keep the powder dry for those battles when there is a decent chance of meeting popular NZs’ popular desires and looking good. Thereby creating a favorable circle.
Agreeing with Ad’s view does not quell a radical. He’s talking about greasing the wheels of change that a radical pines for. I agree with him, using rather than kicking or ignoring the media will carry a radical much further towards their ideal outcomes.
curiously this point is not addressed…’you are in effect saying that this administration needs to abandon any hope of implementing its outlined policy direction and maintain the status quo’….so we must get reelected but we cant make any meaningful change…..unless you wish to suggest that the status quo wasnt maintained or that it needed to change …..and this all under time constraint.
Unless of course you don’t think there is such a time constraint?
David Mac, and when has that ever worked? I’m struggling to find one instance of that actually working in all of human history. Please if you have some example, please put them up.
Because I’m dumbfounded by your notions. You do know the first labour government kicked over the media sand castle? And removed the road blocks by will, and by force. No greasy little muppets there.
But then again, the left had an asemblance of courage back in those days. Hard to see much of it these days. Everyone’s a keyboard warrior, unwilling to get their real hands dirty.
The pile on strategy has been obvious from day 1 Ad-surprised you cant see it.
The government needs to stick to its guns while making sure the good things it is doing, for instance increased spending on public transport and cycleways, gets in to the publics conciousness by repeating this ad infinitum at every media opportunity.
Yes. They badly need a media strategy that works for them.
Be bold, remake the media landscape to everyone’s betterment. I mentioned Scandinavian style self regulation and then questioned myself when Ed started to talk about it.
I really do think it’s a good option though, but would require breaking some of the media conglomerates to work well in all likelihood: https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2012/jul/04/us-press-publishing-sweden
Well, I’ve noted in the past 36 hrs Jacinda has finally started to hit back at the ludicrous claims currently being made by the Opposition Nats and certain high profile anti-Labour/Green MSM hacks.
It’s about time! Positivity alone and pc-motivated gentle remonstrances don’t cut it in today’s world. You have to give as good as you get so Jacinda… keep it up and make sure your ministers follow suit.
First the look she gave Simon Bridges as she replied “Yes” to his Question in the House- straight in the eye and the smile saying ‘bring on the debate.’
And then throwing back at Bridges the research she had done into the huge volume of answers to questions which had been subsequently altered by Ministers in the previous government, to help counter the current Curran furore.
Then the response she gave to former responsible Minster Simon Bridges enumerating the National government’s cuts in regional roading when it was in office.
And acknowledging that Ministers do make mistakes, with the veiled message that they will be told so, and to perform better.
It’s not that they’re “wrong”. It’s that they are part of media institutions that reflect very clear (and in concert) preferences (or bias). Obviously, to get ahead within those environments, it’s necessary to reflect or accept the institutional mind set. SO there’s a cycle of reinforcement at work.
You could argue that the general antagonism to “left” is incidental. Or you could argue it’s all in the systemic nature of the beast.
Regardless, they’re a road block permitting only the flow of “acceptable” information/memes/angles.
That’s always been a problem for the “left”, and something it just has to deal with. It’s not going to change.
Ardern’s NZ Labour are merely being “encouraged” to play a particular game and being generally kept in line. If they actually tacked left, the gloves would be off, and somewhat ‘naturally’ occurring institutional bias would give way to overt hostility.
“You could argue that the general antagonism to “left” is incidental. Or you could argue it’s all in the systemic nature of the beast.”
and either way you could also identify the elements that support its increase.
“That’s always been a problem for the “left”, and something it just has to deal with. It’s not going to change.”
but but…PR dont you know…that’ll fix it!
“Ardern’s NZ Labour are merely being “encouraged” to play a particular game and being generally kept in line. If they actually tacked left, the gloves would be off, and somewhat ‘naturally’ occurring institutional bias would give way to overt hostility.”
Think the overt hostility point may have arrived…..when the gloves really come off it wont be the MSM attacking it’ll be capital and investment that enters the fray.
Labour is getting unpopular here now in HB/Gisborne over the lack of RNZ willingness to cover our community groups fight to publicly express our disgust at the truck gridlocked roads and with no rail.
Clare Curran in her letter to us showed she will not assist us to get RNZ media coverage for our disgusting transport issues here, as the roads to Gisborne are so bad that many now fear to drive the roads here with the roads now crammed full of heavy trucks.
Jacinda needs to take over RNZ and make it our voice and access to our communities to have our say over RNZ before the bureaucrats decide our future without us having the voice to be heard that jacinda promised us all during her election speeches.
If she fails us on this she will suffer at the next election.
But you don’t debate james, you just repeat the same lies over and over. Hard to have a debate with someone who does not think, and relies on memes to communicate.
They should be jailed and exported back to where they came from
Where did they come from? Same place as the rest of us one would assume? Or by “corrupted” are you suggesting there was a time when media outlets were not controlled by class interests? In Britain they have always understood this as so, and it is only in the colonies with our various delusions that we ever thought that media could be independent.
That’s a bit extreme isn’t it? To jail the NZ media (whoever that is?). On what grounds?
In case you didn’t realise it. The liberal left puts the freedom of the press on a pedestal as a fundamental democratic value. Thats even when parts of the press says things I/you/we don’t agree with.
Its only dictators and anti democrats that propose what you’re proposing.
cleangreen, do you REALLY believe in jailing people because they havedifferent political beliefs than you? Think about it…
I agree that the government need to be doing more front-footing. Ardern is great, but she can’t be everywhere. Others need to lift their game. My worry is how things will be handled when she’s on leave.
Having said that, we also need to help shift the narrative. That includes things like commenting on Stuff or The Herald, sending in letters to the editor, using Twitter…etc. Not many politically undecided people are likely to be reading this site, after all.
Basic things like pointing out that Labour policy leading into the election said there’d probably be a petrol tax for Auckland and that they’d continue to raise excises on fuel, tobacco and alcohol (as per normal practice) would help spike the guns of some of the crap that’s being thrown about at the moment.
But we wouldn’t’ be in this fight with the media, if Clare Curran had just been smart and re-opened up the only honest channel we had before National came along, and closed down our Channel seven.
Clare Curran could just as easily have switched back on channel seven without getting into a fight with RNZ which to us is now a waste of time with all those talking heads.
Why business can’t be trusted to act on climate change.
And why government regulation is necessary to give business the “certainty” to help enable business put their words into deeds.
“Businesses need to act on climate change: Westpac”
Newshub
Westpac commissioned the report to better target investment, as New Zealand grapples with the impact of climate change.
It found adopting green technologies and carbon zero policies sooner will help meet the Paris Agreement targets and bring billions in GDP growth.
“Businesses need certainty in order to plan,” says Mr Stephens.
“If they get that certainty now, they can plan and the transition is slower and less disruptive.”
Ah, the old ‘certainty’ canard. ‘Certainty’ means a guarantee that future profit streams will not be adversely affected. ‘Certainty’ for business, market discipline for the rest of us poor saps.
Nope, we should be taking out all the people who have polluted, and destroyed in the name of profit, and making them do hard labour to pay back their debt to society.
Business will not change until there are consequences for their destructive and greedy approach to the world.
Bathurst actually now has enough $ to finance the mine themselves, and if Westpac does not step in then they will just get the $ from their shareholders.
The petition to Ministers Wood and Sage was presented to MPs Kiritapu Allan (Labour) and Gareth Hughes (Greens) by representatives from 350 Aotearoa and CANA, together with Forest and Bird, on Tuesday 20 March. You can watch 350 Aotearoa’s stream of the presentation here:
We’ve heard a lot of great talk from the Prime Minister and her Cabinet about their determination to act on climate change. The climate doesn’t respond to words – it responds to actions. Te Kuha provides an early test of whether this Government is prepared to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Had a chat with the girls re fuel prices. Funny thing is they expect fuel prices to keep rising as they understand the damage from vehicles re climate change. They see it as a deterrent and a move to help people think more about the mode of transport they use and reasons for it.
I did explain that it was to help pay for better roads and public transport, we are all fine with that.
Climate change is their major concern, for them, that’s far more important than having to pay extra $ per litre
The discussion needs to move further than that too Cinny. Too many decision makers present this fuel tax as the only funding option for improved public transport and alternative transport investment.
My personal opinion is that those making these decisions, tend to ignore the fact that many households (especially in Auckland) are living in precarious financial situations, where this tax means another bill not paid, food not bought, lifestyle choices further constrained. These decision makers are quite likely those who have all their transport costs met by their employer, even though they are in an income bracket that could quite likely accommodate the increase without too much pain.
Like any budget – the Ministry of Transport has to determine their priorities. And then they have to cut costs on those projects or additional items that don’t meet their priorities. They have to stop inflicting further financial stress on those households already struggling, and unable to offload those increases to their employer.
Climate change is a major topic in our household as well, so I recognise the conversations you have with your children. Who pays? is an ongoing topic, and how much is enough? is another.
My personal opinion is that those making these decisions, tend to ignore the fact that many households (especially in Auckland) are living in precarious financial situations, where this tax means another bill not paid, food not bought, lifestyle choices further constrained. These decision makers are quite likely those who have all their transport costs met by their employer, even though they are in an income bracket that could quite likely accommodate the increase without too much pain.
Which is why transport to and from work needs to be paid for by the business.
And just because something won’t go all the way to address the problem doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t happen. Other things can also happen to make it all work.
“And just because something won’t go all the way to address the problem doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t happen. Other things can also happen to make it all work.”
“The discussion needs to move further than that too Cinny. Too many decision makers present this fuel tax as the only funding option for improved public transport and alternative transport investment.
“My personal opinion is that those making these decisions, tend to ignore the fact that many households (especially in Auckland) are living in precarious financial situations, where this tax means another bill not paid, food not bought, lifestyle choices further constrained. These decision makers are quite likely those who have all their transport costs met by their employer, even though they are in an income bracket that could quite likely accommodate the increase without too much pain.”
Funny thing is they expect fuel prices to keep rising as they understand the damage from vehicles re climate change. They see it as a deterrent and a move to help people think more about the mode of transport they use and reasons for it.
OMG, they actually understand the pricing mechanism which is something that the RWNJs and many on the Left don’t get.
T’is crunch time for Genter and Davidson’s co-leadership campaigns this weekend. Which one will the GP members choose?
Newsroom has an article about it, in which both candidates are reported as saying they don’t agree with the budget restriction rules that the GP signed up to before last election. They also both say that National is too far away from the GP for any Teal Deal.
Carolyn
Both incredible women, its a hard choice
For me, Marama appeals, she keeps that grass roots activism aspect of the Greens alive.She’s authentic, she’s got heart, she’s of the people, she lives tiriti, she’s real
She might take risks , she might blunder
Genter is hugely effective, articulate, concise, strategic, with an impressive intellect
She’s careful, measured, she’d be a safe pair of hands.Is that enough?
But the look of Shaw/Genter makes my heart sink
The greens are already in danger of looking like just another white middle class party on bikes.I want to feel a bit more frisson or something
When it gets down to it, I can live with either, they’re both terrific
I was interested to note in a discussion among friends how passionate the Kiwis were about Treaty matters, colonisation and how much Green environmental ethos and Maori cultural values are aligned
Recent immigrants, (Brits and American )were bemused, didn’t quite get it
The former were in favour of Marama, the latter, Julie-Anne
All agreed both were fantastic
my feelings are similar. Both are outstanding and would make great co-leaders, but it’s just wrong for Shaw and Genter to lead the party, on class and ethnicity grounds. I am so glad that Genter is a Minister, because if the party chooses MD, then Genter will still have a very good role in which to use her talents. Also, she’s still in caucus and would be using them there too.
“Newsroom has an article about it, in which both candidates are reported as saying they don’t agree with the budget restriction rules that the GP signed up to before last election. ”
They should have made more noise at the time (before they signed up to it). Hence, it’s a bit late now.
When does Shaw’s leadership get re-looked at? Anybody know?
Both leaders are elected by delegate vote at the AGM each year, so in a couple of months. I would think that there is zero chance he won’t be re-elected.
Some would argue the party wouldn’t have needed saving if the leadership initially managed things better.
And despite Shaw fully backing her (Turei) all the way, he was quick to avoid accountability. Didn’t see him offering to stand down. Moreover, he’s done nothing to further the cause, hence his commitment to the cause is becoming hollower by the day.
As for giving their questions away, it was reported (see link below) that Shaw made the decision without consulting the party membership. Therefore, it seems it was a leadership decision.
The Greens further declining in the polls is a very real concern. And if you can’t acknowledge that, then hell knows where your head is at.
The Greens need to face up to criticism, not merely call people concern trolls. If they fall much further in the polls, their survival will require Shaw to stand down.
Clearly you are out of touch, calls for Shaw to go are growing. He’s seen as too soft and far too willing to kowtow to Labour.
With the Greens only having a small number of MPs, they require a far more assertive leader.
As for giving their questions away, it was reported (see link below) that Shaw made the decision without consulting the party membership. Therefore, it seems it was a leadership decision.
There was no requirement for them to consult members over what is clearly a Caucus decision. The action was within the principles the Party has for improving parliamentary practice.
Therefore, it seems it was a leadership decision.
No, it was a Caucus decision.
First you say it was Shaw’s decision to give away the questions but then you say he is “far too willing to kowtow to Labour”. Full of shit much i think you are.
As shown in the link provided above, Shaw said he made the decision, not the Caucus.
“The action was within the principles the Party has for improving parliamentary practice.”
Allowing National to frame more questions in a right wing way isn’t a Green Party principle.
“First you say it was Shaw’s decision to give away the questions but then you say he is “far too willing to kowtow to Labour.”
So willing to kowtow to them he’s limited Labour being held to account from a left perspective. Seems he’d rather National hold them account from a right perspective.
I know many Green voters that expected the Greens to keep Labour in check. Shaw is showing he is unable or unwilling to do this. Hence, the widespread outrage within the Greens support base. Thus, the growing calls for him to go.
He may have consulted with his Caucus but ultimately he made the decision (according to the report).
As for giving questions away, I definitely have a problem with it. I didn’t vote for the Greens to have them get National to hold (in a right wing framing) Labour and NZF to account.
As for how big a concern it is, we’ll soon get some indication from the next poll. As I stated above, I expect there will be further decline in their support.
As for calls for Shaw to go, I think the party lacks depth in regards to male co-leaders, which will go a long way in saving him. But if their support tanks badly, there will only be so much he (and the party) can sustain.
“As shown in the link provided above, Shaw said he made the decision, not the Caucus.”
No, Shub say he said that. We don’t know what he actually said, but we do know that a co-leader is not empowered to make decisions like that on their own. Try educating yourself. Solkta has just been explaining GP process to you, why don’t you learn from that?
That’s correct. It was reported Shaw said he made the decision.
Hence, that is the perception me and others that read the report are left with.
And you know what they say about perception and politics.
Personally, I don’t know if he can make that call or not as Party leader, but that was how 3 reported it. And at the end of the day he supports it nonetheless and seems to fail to see the problem with it.
And if it (the report) is incorrect, don’t the Greens have someone overseeing how they are being reported? Thus, calling for corrections?
Most medium level idiots would be able to interpret “Mr Shaw then said he made the decision without consulting party membership” as meaning he hadn’t consulted the membership but that he had obviously consulted his Caucus.
And at the end of the day he supports it nonetheless and seems to fail to see the problem with it.
Most members i have spoken to, and most who have commented here, don’t see a problem with it either. You clearly only have a ‘problem’ with it because you are a concern troll.
“Hence, that is the perception me and others that read the report are left with.”
Sure, but there is no excuse for your position given you are talking with two people who know the GP far better than you do and have told you that Shaw is not able to make such decisions on his own. I think he has misspoken, or Shub have misinterpreted his words.
You have even less excuse because we’ve been in these kinds of conversations a number of times before where you’ve had GP process explained to you and you continue to instead go with something in your own head rather than what is known about how the GP work. Your ignorance is now willful.
“Sure, but there is no excuse for your position given you are talking with two people who know the GP far better than you do and have told you that Shaw is not able to make such decisions on his own.”
Two people that I don’t know that haven’t produced any citation to back their claim.
Mr Shaw emphasised that he had given the questions to the Opposition, not specifically to National.
“We are giving them to the office of the Leader of the Opposition, if Parliament had a different make up and there was someone else in Opposition, they’d be the recipient.”
I’m not worried that you claim to think that Shaw dictates decisions to the Green caucus.
I’m merely somewhat amused that you and newshub seem to think that Shaw habitually refers to himself in the first person plural.
“Two people that I don’t know that haven’t produced any citation to back their claim.”
And yet you believed Shub 🙄
Like I said, willful ignorance. Go read the GP official documents if you can find them, and talk to GP officials and activists, if you can bring yourself to believe them. That’s how I informed myself.
You will have to do some thinking with the information you find, but given your propensity to see everything through the negative I’m not sure how far you will get.
“Let’s see, the word of a news organisation over the word of two online randoms with a potential bias? It’s a no-brainer isn’t it?”
MSM with bias towards sensationalism and a history of not understanding the Greens and of reporting inaccurately either out of sensationalism and/or RW bias.
vs
two long time online activists, one who is as far as I can tell active within the GP and has commented a lot about how the GP functions, and the other who writes posts on the largest LW blog in NZ including posts about the GP, their kaupapa and how they operate. Those posts are taken largely from information in the public domain (i.e. information you also could access if you wanted to educate yourself), and from talking with GP activists online (something you can also do but obviously choose not to).
So yeah, it is a no brainer. Not that you should discard Shub (false dichotomy there), but that you should assess all sources of information. Which you have done and I think if you trust Shub with no criticism and discard online activists because you don’t know their RL names, then that just reinforces what I said. Willful ignorance.
You don’t even need to take notice of me and Solkta, there are plenty of other people around who understand how the GP functions and are on records with that. There is no other way to take your interpretations than deliberately misrepresenting the party.
“Moreover, surely the Greens would not allow such an error to stand uncorrected. I’ve seen no correction put forward by James Shaw.”
He probably understands a few things more than you do. Most people can parse that article and interpret what happened. Those that skew it towards something anti-green are going to be anti-green anyway. Also, getting a correction how? Only a complete idiot believes that a party could meaningfully correct every little mistake that the MSM make in reporting.
I’m not deliberately misrepresenting the party. I’m working with what was reported. Which nobody has refuted with substance.
Solkta and you had the opportunity to substantiate your claim, both of you failed too.
Instead of directing me to scroll through all the Green’s literature, searching for something that is unlikely to be there, you could have directly pointed it out to me, but you didn’t. So why should I believe you when you can’t back up your claim?
Moreover, you claim that you are both long time activist, yet tell me to talk to activists, which if you are both activists as you claim, I’m already doing. Moreover, I want more than mere opinion, I’m seeking substance what was reported was wrong.
Only a complete idiot you say, well thanks a lot. The reality is if it is an error, it’s far from little.
It has attributed to calls for Shaw to stand down. Many within the party are not happy with this decision and more would be calling for Shaw’s head if they knew it was solely his decision (as was reported).
Therefore, if it was an error, it would be vital for Shaw to correct it.
As you seem to be struggling to understand how he would go about correcting it, I’ll explain it for you.
First off, contact the reporter (Finn Hogan) and ask for a correction to be made. Secondly, issue a press release and ensure activists further spread the word.
Evidently, Shaw has done neither. Which, if it wasn’t an error would be expected. Hence, you’ve yet to convince me.
Thus, here’s another opportunity for you to show me exactly where in all the Green Party literature does it say the leadership (being Shaw at the time) can’t decide to give away their questions?
Not for you Chairman but for anybody who might be genuinely interested (my bold):
Constitution of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
…
12
CAUCUS
12.1 The role of Caucus is to organise and co-ordinate the Green Party’s parliamentary activities. The Caucus shall exist for the period that the Green Party has members of New Zealand’s Parliament
12.2
The Caucus shall comprise:
12.2.1
The Co-Leaders;
12.2.2
All persons elected as Green Members of Parliament;
12.2.3
Any representative of the national Policy Committee or the Executive appointed by those bodies and agreed by Caucus; and
12.2.4
Such other persons as the Caucus may appoint as members or as are provided for in these rules.
12.3 The Caucus shall make such rules for its conduct as it sees fit in accordance with the objects of the Green Party.
12.4 Co-Leaders and MPs shall be the voting members of Caucus.
12.5
Any Green Party member may normally attend a Caucus meeting subject to the rules contained in the Party Caucus Agreement.
…
14
CONSENSUS DECISION MAKING
14.1 All decisions by: any Group, Electorate, or Province; General Meeting; Executive; Caucus; Executive Working Group or any other body overseen by the Green Party shall be made by consensus. This means by the agreement of most participants, with dissenters and abstainers agreeing to recognise the majority opinion as being the decision.
14.2 If consensus on a motion is not achieved after reasonable attempts, a vote can be taken. A motion shall be carried with a 75% majority of the votes cast. Those who do not agree with the decision may have their objections included in any minutes recorded.
“Not for you Chairman but for anybody who might be genuinely interested (my bold):…”
I was going to thank you.
Seems 14.1 covers it.
Nevertheless, it raises more questions why Shaw didn’t correct the report. Considering the blow-back, one can understand why the Caucasus would be happy not to be associated with it.
Thanks National, to give the rich a few extra bucks you will be killing people.
Also contrast the tone of the herald article with those on the increase in fuel tax + better funding for public transport. It is almost like this under-funding is all Labour’s fault. I know they get around to saying that National passed the substance abuse law change, but no real analysis of exactly how our health system got to the point where it needs billions upon billions of dollars just to bring it back to an average condition.
Or worse yet, Labour are putting up petrol taxes!!! Oh the shock horror! I mean it isn’t like National raised it by the same amount over the same time, without telling us at any election. Or that National didn’t raise GST after explicitly ruling out GST increase.
It is sad this is the world we live in, where just to get us to a space where we are actually where we all think we are, or expect us to be at, will require Labour to run a big deficit, and they will be blamed for mismanagement, promising too much or what ever. No analysis or critique of how we got to the place we are at…
The traditional old recipe.
“But National did it too”
Doesn’t really excuse the fact that the Labour Party leaders lied about there tax policies before the election though does it?
Don’t get too upset though. The Labour Party, although it will go back to the Opposition benches in 2020, won’t have to try and work out how to co-operate with New Zealand First and the Greens. They will be defunct.
Then perhaps the Labour Party can spend their time rebuilding and coming up with a sensible and relevant set of policies by 2026.
Prove you are not a fool with Duplicity Syndrome by proving where “the Labour Party leaders lied about there tax policies before the election”……….. I won’t be holding my breath.
Nobody’s actually saying that. They’re saying that when National did it the MSM applauded them while they berate Labour.
It’s the double standards.
But you knew that and are now just trying to distract from it so as to protect National from their own actions while also hiding the double standards of the MSM.
Doesn’t really excuse the fact that the Labour Party leaders lied about there tax policies before the election though does it?
They didn’t lie but you know that which means that you’re lying now.
You poor little fellow.
If what the comment I was replying to wasn’t a case of “But National ….” what was it?
It is the standard line by the CoL and its supporters on almost everything.
Even Sage was trying it when she was being interviewed on RNZ this morning.
The comment that has a second paragraph “It is sad this is the world we live in, where just to get us to a space where we are actually where we all think we are, or expect us to be at, will require Labour to run a big deficit, and they will be blamed for mismanagement, promising too much or what ever. No analysis or critique of how we got to the place we are at…”?
You know, in reply to ed’s explicit comment about the media double standard.
Yeah, that was a comment about the media’s double standards. Glad you asked.
Edit: to be absolutely clear, the comment reads that national did it too, but the media mostly blame Labour
I am actually OK with my comment being a “national did it too” comment, as it is ridiculous that the vitriol about this petrol tax has been so strong, even from the National party itself, but they did exactly the same thing twice! When there is hypocrisy then I am OK with pointing that out, even if Alwyn needs to have a little cry over it all
In any case, what is the bigger story; Petrol taxes to pay for safer roads and better transport or a chronically under-funded health system that is so underfunded that people will actually die because of the underfunding?
“Did you miss me pointing out”.
I have given up reading any of your comments that aren’t direct replies to something I said. You never have anything original or interesting to say.
Stop talking about yourself – or anyone else – like that. Address the issues, not the person.
Did you miss me pointing out over and over before the election, that labour are right wing economically?
Yes and you also said on more than one occasion that the US would be back in the TPP by the end of March. We both know how credible that prediction of yours was – or more correctly, wasn’t.
alwyn, have a look at the policy: Labour has responded to the request of the Auckland Council to give it the ability to use new methods of funding infrastructure, like infrastructure bonds and targeted rates. It will also give Auckland Council the ability to implement a regional fuel tax. The regional fuel tax for Auckland is estimated to generate $150 million a year for transport improvements. Labour does not have plans for any other regional fuel taxes.
Alcohol, Petrol and Tobacco Levies – will be adjusted as per normal government practice and as set out in Budget documents.
You are of course right. The levies comment is there, as the very last line in something hardly anyone reads.
We should ignore all public comments by their leaders and look for the fish hooks hidden away.
When The Labour Party said, in http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11922151
“”There will be no new taxes or levies introduced in our first term of government beyond those we have already announced.”
and
“Ardern said it was her “captain’s call” to back down from introducing new taxes in a first term of a Labour Government because it was clear the public were concerned.”
We were obviously mean to realise that this was a completely meaningless comment and that it wasn’t going to bind them at all.
More fool us I suppose. Still we did know that Ardern and Robertson were trained in the Clark PM’s Office where if you had to choose between a truth and a lie one always chose the lie.
Remember Robertson shortly after he got elected? He was in the Back Benchers Bar, on TV, and was asked where Alf was. Alf was a couple of metres away, in direct line of the TV camera.
Rather than say something like “Alf is not involved in Politics and doesn’t want to be the story or to be interviewed” Robertson looked straight at the camera and lied. “Alf isn’t here tonight”.
So much for telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
…and then later on in the same article, here’s Steven Joyce.
National’s finance spokesman Steven Joyce said Labour’s move had only postponed two new taxes, while leaving five in place that would slow down the economy and restrict growth.
“They’ve postponed the introduction of two taxes but have reaffirmed their intention to impose a water tax, regional fuel tax, tourism tax, income tax increases, and bringing farming into the ETS,” he said.
Perhaps you didn’t read that far, or perhaps you’re lying. I think you’re lying. Labour were slammed during the election campaign for the new taxes they announced, including a regional fuel tax and water tax. I bet you were one of the losers who slammed them, too.
Of course I read that far. I didn’t expect that you would take Stephen Joyce’s opinion as being the beginning and end of all wisdom though. Clearly I was mistaken. You do. You regard a statement as true if Stephen Joyce said it.
From now on I shall simply quote Stephen Joyce to you and you will clearly accept it as being factual.
If it is any consolation I feel the same way about you as you seem to feel about me. I think you are lying, now, in the past, and no doubt in the future. Well trained by the experts in the current Government I suppose.
Nope, fool. I regard your statement as false if Labour campaigned on it and Steven Joyce complained about it, and many other news articles plus a Morrinsville farmers’ rally (which you whinged about at the time) totally contradict you.
I think you’re lying (as opposed to being simply ignorant) because this is a long established pattern in your comments.
Accusing others of lying is a long established pattern in your comments.
“Alcohol, Petrol and Tobacco Levies – will be adjusted as per normal government practice and as set out in Budget documents.”
I haven’t seen any evidence that Labour campaigned on that. It can be found in their policies if you search for it (plus a lot of other things not campaigned on), but I can’t see any relevant mention in the Fiscal Plan that was a core part of Labour’s campaign.
I don’t recall Jacinda Ardern or Grant Robertson campaigning on raising fuel excise tax during the current term
Robertson did say ““There will be no new taxes or levies introduced in our first term of government beyond those we have already announced.” Again, I don’t know of any fuel excise tax announcement.
Ardern said “Everything that we have announced in public is already able to be fully funded from the re-prioritisation that we have set out, and it’s all in our fiscal plan.”
Again, nothing in the Fiscal Plan and nothing announced in public that I know about.
Published policy is campaigned on by definition, but I’m sure you feel like nitpicking over that until your boring gobshite sends everyone to sleep, so I’d just like to reiterate my contempt for you and your affected opinions before ignoring the rest of whatever you have to say.
Falling back on abuse doesn’t make a good argument. The opposite.
NZH on Ardern: “it was her “captain’s call” to back down from introducing new taxes in a first term of a Labour Government because it was clear the public were concerned.”
So apparently “duelling transport policy releases where the fuel tax raise is part of the launch reported August 6 last, that doesn’t count as campaigning.
From the nbr article.
At a rally at Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, new Labour leader Jacinda Ardern confirmed rumours her party would re-animate its previous policy to allow the council to introduce a regional fuel tax.
The 10 cents per litre tax would raise around $160 million per year: not enough to pay for various new policies announced this afternoon — the most ambitious of which was light rail from downtown Auckland to the airport within 10 years. The first leg, linking Wynyard Quarter (several blocks along from the CRL under construction) to Mt Albert via Dominion Rd would be built in four years, Ms Ardern says. At a later date, it would be extended in the opposite direction to the North Shore (bringing Labour into line with the Greens’ plan for rail to the Shore).
There were no announcements about fuel excise taxes going up that I’m aware of. Do you know of any?
Regardless, the fuel excise tax has been a bit of a PR disaster for Labour going by wide ranging negative reactions.
Labour’s communications over the last few weeks has been poor, and unless they get their act together soon – before Peters takes charge – they might inflict unrecoverable self inflicted damage to the current Government. That wouldn’t be good for the country.
@McFlock – I don’t think anyone is arguing about the Auckland (regional) additional fuel tax. The problem is with the proposed nationwide increase (with the possibility other regions could slap on their own top up tax as well).
Labour will:
• Introduce regional fuel taxes to enable regions to raise funds for specific projects that are a regional priority, but would not otherwise qualify for funding from the National Land Transport Fund
• Review the whole vehicle levy system (WOFs, vehicle registration fees, fuel tax, and road user charges) to see if it is still fit for purpose in an era of rapid disruption
“We should ignore all public comments by their leaders and look for the fish hooks hidden away.”
Yes we looked at the fish hooks in the last nine years of national and found plenty and of course the National Party always did many u turns on all their plans so we were always left with nothing but confusion.
Eugenie Sage needs her ass kicked.
Can’t tell whether she met with the Chief of the EPA or the Chief of the MfE.
And looks like she was trying to heavy one of the staff members out.
Close to identical fault to Curran.
Griffin will now be able to “correct the record” this morning at Select Committee and be made to look like a saint.
If the PM can’t instill discipline into her Ministers, then she and State Services Commissioner need to start restricting the contacts of Ministers to their written advice and to Chairs and Departmental heads.
This is going to be an awesome day for the Opposition.
And another day that this government continues to lose the media.
Griffin is out anyway. Natz are going to Bullshit about any issue anyway and the natz media also. Ardern is doing well and policies are being rolled out.
Oh, such confidence
“Ardern is doing well and policies are being rolled out”
It reminds me rather more of Monty Python – The Black Knight.
“Tis just a flesh wound” Jacinda announced.
Yesterday, RNZ with Campbell gave the former National government a twenty minute serve over the issues of Christchurch post earthquake, Middlemore Hospital and failure to recall faulty air bags.
Yesterday’s local paper has the following ‘political’ news, nothing criticising the government apart from the local MP’s opinion piece where after three years he finally dares to criticise a Minister.
Temporary housing provider delays opening as renovations not completed.
Ardern says safety is a big issue in road plans.
Clean slate bill set to pass.
Ethical business prospering.
Editorial on Safety from sex offenders and managing prison release. Recidivism among child sex offenders is amongst the lowest in all crime categories.
National MP has a go at Shane Jones.
Optimism up for farmers.
An article on a bus firm seeks migrant drivers opens with this sentence. “The Government should reject a national bus company’s request to fill 110 driver jobs with migrant workers, a union says.”
“Close to identical fault to Curran.”.
Quite the opposite I would have thought.
Rather like the electron and its anti-particle the positron in particle physics.
Curran starts by denying there was an organised meeting and then flips into saying it was, Throws Hirschfeld under the bus of course but the important thing for Curran is for herself to survive.
Sage does the opposite. Says that there was a meeting and when that turns to custard denies the fact that she was at any such thing. Wrong person seems to be the excuse and she didn’t even know who the people she met were.
Then she tried to blame it5 on the National Government!.
I hope they don’t end up next to each other in Parliament. Total annihilation is the result in any particle/anti-particle interaction.
“Eugenie Sage needs her ass kicked.
Can’t tell whether she met with the Chief of the EPA or the Chief of the MfE.
And looks like she was trying to heavy one of the staff members out.”
The first link there – ie the RNZ article – will give you a general background including re “Can’t tell whether she met with the Chief of the EPA or the Chief of the MfE.” Sage’s own personal explanation in the House on Tues 3 April also addresses this point from Sage herself. Hansard in 10 and video in 10.1.1
It would not surprise me at all, katipo. The National Government stacked every appointment they could. And thanks for those very interesting links.
But the matters raised in the links including those re Mike Joy, and matters relating to both Dr Freeth’s and Dr Rowarth’s credibility as individuals, and their relationship as employer/employee are all separate issues to the ones relating to Sage.
Sage, as a Minister, on two occasions failed to check her own facts and answered questions in the House incorrectly, despite the fact that she was being accused by National of interfering in EPA matters outside her Ministerial purview. That is not a trivial matter, and not helped by her having to make a Personal Explanation to the House to correct her answers.
Like the Griffin situation, it also resulted in Dr Freeth having to also re-appear before a Select Committee yesterday. Not a good look for Sage and her credibility and competency, nor for that of the Government.
Earlier on Morning Report in a 4 min interview with Jane Patterson on this morning’s meeting, Patterson made a point of calling Griffin RNZ’s “outgoing Chairman “- and mentioned that Griffin had earlier said he was leaving at an earlier meeting on 31 March. This is at about 0.40 mins in this audio. His contract is due to expire on 30 April. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018639121
The Labour MPs are certainly doing their best to smear Griffin aren’t they?
I wonder why Eagle is going at it so hard? Is he under instructions to antagonise the man? If so I wonder which way it will turn out.
That was a bit of a bummer for me. Audio very bad.
To answer alwyn above and from the bits I was able to hear… it sounded to me that Paul Eagle was trying to counter Melissa Lee who was hogging the show for political gain of course.
From my recollection at the time of the Mt. Albert byelection back in 2009, she was an arrogant, pushy little madam. Doesn’t sound like she’s changed.
Agreed re audio, but still useful to read the written real time blog on the same page.
Re Lee, her arrogance has certainly come across in her questions to Curran in the House over the last few weeks. She has certainly never had so much face time in the House since she started there ten years ago in 2008.
Parliament TV – live and On Demand – is down right now, otherwise I would put up videos of one or two of the Questions. Light Bulb moment ? Perhaps that is why the bad audio. Hope they got the Select Committee hearing on record. Just checked Audio and while the page opened unlike the Watch one, no recordings for today as yet.
” She has certainly never had so much face time in the House since she started there ten years ago in 2008″.
Can you tell me of any Government back bench MP who ever gets any “face time” in the house? We had some discussion on this when talking about “patsy” questions a while ago.
Opposition is the chance for backbenchers to shine. Find something juicy and stick your teeth in. In Government you have to shut up, make up the numbers and only talk when no one is listening.
Mr Griffin was also asked about the voicemail message Ms Curran left him this week about this appearance. Mr Griffin said it was a “strong suggestion” that he provide just a written statement rather than turn up.
He said he had a copy of the voice message, but he would not play it for the committee.
Not only a Tui moment but a deja vu one for me. LOL.
But presumably that was Griffin’s last public appearance for RNZ with only 25 days to go.
I see Brownlee was there in the background (In the photo).
I have no doubts Lee has heard the voicemail. She had a further question for Curran in Question Time today. Curran is in Australia, so Lee wanted to hold the question over until Curran was back, but there was objection, so Chris Hipkins answered Lee’s questions on Curran’s behalf – verbal chess.
Lee skirted around the message Curran left for Griffin which gives a pretty good idea of the angle Lee is taking vis a vis the voicemail, though.
I was just reading the blog, which was quoting Eagle but not Lee. I wasn’t up to trying to decipher the audio. The blog bringing up Eagle talking about “collusion” and “working for the National Party” did seem to be pushing things. With nothing quoted from Lee it only comes across as Eagle throwing mud around.
Try the video in 8.2.3 above which is RNZ’s full video of the questioning. (37+ minutes). I have not actually watched it as yet as I have another priority elsewhere at present, but the little I have seen indicated that the audio from the questioners’ mikes is pretty bad.
When the noise from Thompson putting a glass down on the table is about 30 db louder than the questioners I think I shall wait until it is either cleaned up or transcribed. I refuse to listen to 37 minutes like that.
That voicemail is going to be interesting as it sound like its going to be subpoenaed.
I really dont get why Curran would be that stupid I would have thought getting a staffer to talk to him directly would have been better.
If it doesnt quite say what she’s told Jacinda is says it’ll get ugly fast.
Iain Lees-Galloway appears on Morning Report with 90 minutes notice of a new profiling technology he not been briefed on. This is good for democracy.
Meanwhile, after five years of never being able to speak to him, John Campbell was reduced to door stopping Gerry Brownlee to try and get some accountability for his part in the 160+ million dollar re-re-repair disaster. Brownlee hung up on Campbell. An incompetent and unaccountable National party autocrat has cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars.
Barry Soper will focus on Labour being “caught out” and will completely ignore the hundreds of millions of wasted dollars.
what amazes me @Sanctuary is the length of time its taken anyone on this site (or TDB for that matter) to make a comment on the subject.
Something that’s potentially politically explosive as demographic profiling that includes an ethnic component, and SFA!!!
In brief, Sage has been accused of ministerial interference in EPA staffing matters in relation to Dr Rowarth, who resigned earlier this year after Ms Sage, the associate Environment Minister, and others raised concerns about her conduct with Dr Freeth, EPA’s chief executive. As well as forwarding a highly critical article about Dr Rowarth to the EPA, Ms Sage told Parliament 10 days ago she met with Dr Freeth and discussed her.
Eugenie Sage, in a Personal Statement in the House on Tues 3 April, now says she didn’t meet with Dr Freeth when she previously said she did, and doesn’t think she discussed the EPA’s controversial chief scientist with him like she said she had.
Sage’s original statements have led to Dr Freeth having to return to Parliament today, to explain why he told MPs he’d had “absolutely no discussions” with Ms Sage on the matter.
Now Ms Sage says it was actually a meeting with the Ministry for the Environment – not with the EPA, when she raised Dr Rowarth’s behaviourwith the chief executive of the MfE. She now says that she met with the EPA’s Dr Freeth at a later date, When asked whether she discussed Dr Rowarth at the meeting she responded “my memory is that I didn’t”.
On the Parliamentary front, this issue was first raised by National’s Scott Simpson in Question 7 in Question Time on Thursday, 22 March (NOTE – Parliament TV site is down so cannot provide videos at present):
To clarify, the four paras from “In brief, … ” through to the para ending “she responded “my memory is that I didn’t”.” are my paraphrasing of the RNZ New article. The accusations are not mine. I failed to complete my edit to clarify the above before the edit time ran out – meaning my original unclear draft went up as the final.
It took her rather a long time to come up with the correction didn’t it?
I wonder if someone in her office was chasing her to do so?
I don’t really think that anyone much cares about Sage of course. She isn’t Labour, Ardern hasn’t defended her and her role is a pretty innocuous one.
With bigger targets like Curran and Jones they will probably not bother that much about a nonentity like Sage.
It’s a Triple Crown for the Green Party though isn’t it?
A shambles brewing over the Census for Shaw. Misandry, ageism and racism from Genter about “old white men” and now Sage’s memory problems.
As I mentioned in my 10, Bridges raised this Sage matter with the PM on Tuesday in Question Time. You say Ardern did not defend her. I disagree but will leave others to make up their own minds. As it is short here is quote from the entire section of the Bridges/Ardern interchange on the matter from the draft Hansard:
Hon Simon Bridges: Has the Prime Minister had any conversations with Eugenie Sage about whether the Associate Minister had discussions with the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) about the performance or tenure of the Chief Scientist, Jacqueline Rowarth?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Not directly, but as the House will know, the Minister corrected the record based on previous answers at the beginning of question time today.
Hon Simon Bridges: So is the Prime Minister now clear that the chief executive, Dr Freeth, is correct when he says that the Associate Minister is “mistakenly confused” about meeting with the EPA’s chief executive about the Chief Scientist?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The Minister herself corrected the record on that very matter today at the beginning of question time.
Hon Simon Bridges: What does it say about the state of her Government that this week Radio New Zealand and the independent Environmental Protection Authority are having to reappear before select committees over Ministers interfering in independent agencies and covering thing up?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I do not accept the premise of that question. [Interruption]
I also meant to address your remarks re Sage – ie that “her role is a pretty innocuous one” and “a nonentity like Sage”
In this instance, Sage was acting in her capacity as “Associate Minister for the Environment” – with David Parker being the Minister for the Environment and Nanaia Mahuta also being an Associate Minister for the Environment, indicating that considerable importance is accorded to the environment.
Sage also holds the positions of Minister of Conservation and Minister for Land Information – neither of which I would class as innocuous ones, despite the fact there are no Associate Ministers for either of these areas.
I doubt that many people here would consider someone holding those positions as a “nonentity”.
I don’t think the defence of Sage was anything like the one Ardern has put on for Curran. Ardern has come out publicly on Curran’s side as opposed to statements like this answer you quote.
“Not directly, but as the House will know, the Minister corrected the record based on previous answers at the beginning of question time today.”
Hardly a ringing defence of anything is it?
Sage wouldn’t be a scalp for the Opposition the way that Curran would be. Not her party, apart from anything else. I think it is also the case that the General Public haven’t any real knowledge about who the EPA is or what the Conservation Department has to do with them. As for the Chief Scientist I, for one, had never heard of her before this came up.
On the other hand T think almost everybody has heard of RNZ and a lot of people have views on how it operates, particularly when dealing with Politicians. The views may be inaccurate but they are there.
The minimum wage just went up 75c to $16.50, the biggest jump since 2007, still leaving people in poverty.
“….. if you’re paying people less than the living wage, effectively you’re asking them to subsidise your business.”
That’s because low earners get more tax credits and subsidies from the Government, for example through Working for Families, which costs taxpayers $2.2 billion a year.
The living wage takes Government subsidies into account.
“It would have gone up by another $2 an hour if that Families Package hadn’t come in.”
This is another quandary for governments. Continue to subsidise employers via such packages as Working for Families, or work to change the whole system so that wages and benefits are of a ‘living wage standard.”
The Living Wage raise for 2018 has also just been announced, and can be found here.
Am i the only person to almost choke on my muesli this morning at the announcement of a massive new profiling tool aimed at overstayers??
If nothing else you would think self interested NZers might at least show some interest in the fact that profiling technology will only spread..young male maori =future criminal….old white dude from Remuera=white collar criminal…middle class female working accounts=fraud etc etc..are we really going to stand by and have people ‘convicted’ based on statistics and probability?? Really??
No you’re not the only one Siobhan. Sanctuary alluded to it above.
As you will have seen (listened) …. the Minister was obviously blindsided by his ‘officials’ and hearing about it at only 6.15AM – what’s that? an hour or so before having to front speaks volumes as to what this coalition gummint is facing.
We could go into specific examples of the type of thing that this ‘big data’ as opposed to ‘good data’ this profiling will produce.
But then @Ad and others are going to assure us we should place (blind) faith in the likes of the Munstry and our betters, so its all good. Better little lady (or genteel homme) to rest your weary head in the knowledge our betters are looking after us with their vast expertise and experience.
Shorter.
Quieter. Trevor tightened up on Questions asked.
Stopped several Opposition questions as soon as the question was asked and would not allow the tag lines supporting each question.
Also stopped answers if going on too long. (Especially patsy ones.)
Lee questioning an absent Cullen didn’t have the effect she expected. Leader of the House Hitchens was the one giving advice instruction to Cullen and answered succinctly.
Seymour had a question but the Minister didn’t have to answer any of them. (DAVID SEYMOUR to the Minister of Finance: Will the Government introduce any of the following taxes which were raised by Sir Michael Cullen on 2 March 2018; a financial transactions tax, a wealth tax, an equalisation tax, a capital gains tax, a land tax, a progressive company tax, environmental taxes, and behavioural taxes?)
Trevor also stopped Brownlie’s point of order especially after Question 12.
Bet there is muttering in the Opposition tonight.
It is a bit pedantic but it is Hipkins, not Hitchens and Curran not Cullen. The thought of Michael Cullen back in the House is not something New Zealand deserves.
(It is also Brownlee not Brownlie but that one isn’t of any moment as it isn’t confusing the way the others could be).
edit. You got in the partial correction while I was typing. The rest stands though.
“The thought of Michael Cullen back in the House is not something New Zealand deserves.”
To be fair MC is a clever chap and confusing him with the overly woeful Curran is unbelievable, I’d also prefer Cullen to the current finance minister, I don’t think Grant Robertson is anywhere near the same level.
Mallard has been briefed. There are many, many questions the Govt doesn’t want to have to answer at the moment.
There are also many Ministers the Govt doesn’t want to have to answer any questions at all.
One would think that as the Media are so obviously biased, corrupt and “unfairly against this Govt and poor wee Jacinda” that the Coalition would be raring to go and get the facts out there at Question Time.
Strangely they are not.
Exactly. They are running very scared. The puppetmeister Peters gets much leeway however. Looking at the Leaders of the Parties making up Govt it isn’t hard to understand the sheer incompetence of their minions – many of whom have obviously learned dishonesty around the caucus tables. In many years of watching QT I have never seen such an ongoing farce, although the 3rd Term of Klarkula came close.
Mallard just requires a high standard of questioning as well as of answers.
We are still getting questions from the opposition which do not have anything to do with a Minster’s responsibilities, which is a basic error. There are questions not allowed for having non sequiturs, for irony, for having nothing to do with the original question.
Nick Smith twice (to my certain knowledge as I heard him both times) has misread a primary question, with the Speaker requiring a second attempt at reading aloud from a prepared script.
Faroutdude, you’d better come out with something more concrete than a lazy, unsubstantiated slur against the integrity of the Speaker.
Newshub people will see my phone GPS go all the way to the heart of Ngati-porou country te tairwhiti congratulations to the common wealth game medal winning people. Theres is a story behind the bike sport in Atoearoa. I figure it out last time I watched that program at 7.pm
Nice suit Duncan can’t write to much I’m off on my journey all the best to you Mark and Amanda Ka kite ano
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
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 I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
This is what reading Pravda every day must have felt like.
Relentless propaganda from the corporate media.
The Herald ran at 28:1 last week, according to micky savage’s excellent post, which attracted 600+ comments.
Yet Soper and his cronies continue to pump it out, day after day after day….
Barry Soper: Can Labour do anything right at the moment?
Heather du Plessis-Allan: How Labour just lost the 2020 election.
John Oliver nails it. Watch the clip at the bottom.
Here is a list of NZ reporters repeating the same message over and over again like members of a brainwashed cult.
Soper
duplicity Allen
Hosking
Hawkesby
Garner
Trevett
Kirk
Young
Richardson
Watkins
Roughan
Armstrong
Read
Vance
Feel free to add the list .
it is long.
Members of a brain washed cult.
The cult is neoliberalism.
John Oliver – Propaganda.
repeating the same message over and over again like members of a brainwashed cult.
Um yeah. That would be bad, right: repeating the same message over and over again. Something to be avoided.
.
I see what you did there 🙂
The point Ed is making is that dozens of (National supporting) journalists are repeating the same message.
He’s not wrong.
Benedict Collins – a Parliamentary reporter for RNZ
Ed is right,
National have planted their ‘stool pigeons’ everywhere over the last nine years.
Anyone who can’t see that must be blind and deaf.
*affects sing-song childlike tone*
Really? You don’t say! How clever you are.
Aye. It’s a point well made.
Mb
As do dozens of Labour/NZ First supporting journalists.
Boom.
It may well be that every single reporter and presenter in the country is wrong, but if this government doesn’t get better at presenting its message then it will get voted out at the next election. And then those MPs can all enjoy being right, from the Opposition benches.
They could start by citing some articles in The Herald from before the election.
Then perhaps a strongly worded “please explain” to the Herald’s chief uberpropagandaführer (or whatever they call the editors at the Herald).
Like every member of the UK propaganda machine has been wrong about Skripal.
And was wrong about wmd.
The current New Zealand government certainly needs to be a far better propaganda machine.
If this government loses the mainstream media, it is fucked. And it is losing it.
You are asking the impossible…..it will have to succeed DESPITE the MSM….and there is only one way to do that.
Rubbish.
The MSM are not the enemy.
Really good media operators know what the MSM need, and deliver. The frist two terms of Helen Clark’s government show that with enough hard work, it can look easy.
Who do you think pays the MSM bills?…why is a concerted campaign being waged?
Your theory only works if you believe the MSM is impartial and has the interests of the wider public at heart….it hasn’t for some time and is in survival mode …..you can apply all the best theoretical PR BS at it you like to no avail.
The first two terms of the Clark government were an exercise in appeasement that is constantly referenced on sites like these….you are in effect saying that this administration needs to abandon any hope of implementing its outlined policy direction and maintain the status quo….and placate the MSMs paymasters.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/04/05/must-read-piling-on-the-pressure/
The left’s complaints about a “concerted campaign” is merely a set of excuses.
If you think the mainstream media are not relevant, try doing without them.
The first two terms of the Clark government actually got quite a lot done. I know referencing the most successful Labour government since Savage doesn’t appease people like you. She and her media team were really good at their jobs, so she got re-elected three times.
That government is the closest we have in relevant political memory to now: implement precisely what they said they were going to do before the election, keeping the media with them, and then getting re-elected.
The MSM are key to this , in no small part because politics really is a popularity contest.
The first two terms of the Clark admin were thrown some scraps but were left in no doubt where the line was….and at the time the incremental approach was probably justifiable…though in hindsight it wasted two decades of opportunity….want to waste another two?
https://www.nbr.co.nz/comment/ben-thomas/the-winter-business-discontent
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0810/S00187.htm
and whats a ‘people like you’?
Ad just threw you into the radical camp. Mind you disagree with him on anything, and your a filthy communist who wants to much 🙂
Adam, I think another way of looking at what Ad said is: Exploit the aspects of the status quo that are almost impossible to change and keep the powder dry for those battles when there is a decent chance of meeting popular NZs’ popular desires and looking good. Thereby creating a favorable circle.
Agreeing with Ad’s view does not quell a radical. He’s talking about greasing the wheels of change that a radical pines for. I agree with him, using rather than kicking or ignoring the media will carry a radical much further towards their ideal outcomes.
one mans radical is anothers realist.
curiously this point is not addressed…’you are in effect saying that this administration needs to abandon any hope of implementing its outlined policy direction and maintain the status quo’….so we must get reelected but we cant make any meaningful change…..unless you wish to suggest that the status quo wasnt maintained or that it needed to change …..and this all under time constraint.
Unless of course you don’t think there is such a time constraint?
David Mac, and when has that ever worked? I’m struggling to find one instance of that actually working in all of human history. Please if you have some example, please put them up.
Because I’m dumbfounded by your notions. You do know the first labour government kicked over the media sand castle? And removed the road blocks by will, and by force. No greasy little muppets there.
But then again, the left had an asemblance of courage back in those days. Hard to see much of it these days. Everyone’s a keyboard warrior, unwilling to get their real hands dirty.
I agree Ad.
There are a number of ways to deal with barking dogs.
Some put in earplugs and don blindfolds and refuse to be exposed to 75% of the popular media.
Others bang the desk and demand that the most troublesome dogs are muzzled.
The best way to deal with barking dogs is to throw them bones.
‘If you think the mainstream media are not relevant, try doing without them.’
two words….Trump,Corbyn
“The MSM are key to this , in no small part because politics really is a popularity contest.”
Politics is indeed a popularity contest…and not necessarily one that requires the blessing of the MSM.
The pile on strategy has been obvious from day 1 Ad-surprised you cant see it.
The government needs to stick to its guns while making sure the good things it is doing, for instance increased spending on public transport and cycleways, gets in to the publics conciousness by repeating this ad infinitum at every media opportunity.
Exactly!
The Hollow Men is as relevant today as it was in Brasch’s time
Dirty Politics laid it all out fair and square
Yes. They badly need a media strategy that works for them.
Be bold, remake the media landscape to everyone’s betterment. I mentioned Scandinavian style self regulation and then questioned myself when Ed started to talk about it.
I really do think it’s a good option though, but would require breaking some of the media conglomerates to work well in all likelihood:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2012/jul/04/us-press-publishing-sweden
Well, I’ve noted in the past 36 hrs Jacinda has finally started to hit back at the ludicrous claims currently being made by the Opposition Nats and certain high profile anti-Labour/Green MSM hacks.
It’s about time! Positivity alone and pc-motivated gentle remonstrances don’t cut it in today’s world. You have to give as good as you get so Jacinda… keep it up and make sure your ministers follow suit.
Yes, Anne.
First the look she gave Simon Bridges as she replied “Yes” to his Question in the House- straight in the eye and the smile saying ‘bring on the debate.’
And then throwing back at Bridges the research she had done into the huge volume of answers to questions which had been subsequently altered by Ministers in the previous government, to help counter the current Curran furore.
Then the response she gave to former responsible Minster Simon Bridges enumerating the National government’s cuts in regional roading when it was in office.
And acknowledging that Ministers do make mistakes, with the veiled message that they will be told so, and to perform better.
Yes Mac1 but apart from we who watched QT, how much of the Bridge duplicity was reported?
Not in the local paper, ianmac.
A letter to Ye Ed perhaps?
It never had it.The corporate media wants a government that makes life easier for corporates.
It’s not that they’re “wrong”. It’s that they are part of media institutions that reflect very clear (and in concert) preferences (or bias). Obviously, to get ahead within those environments, it’s necessary to reflect or accept the institutional mind set. SO there’s a cycle of reinforcement at work.
You could argue that the general antagonism to “left” is incidental. Or you could argue it’s all in the systemic nature of the beast.
Regardless, they’re a road block permitting only the flow of “acceptable” information/memes/angles.
That’s always been a problem for the “left”, and something it just has to deal with. It’s not going to change.
Ardern’s NZ Labour are merely being “encouraged” to play a particular game and being generally kept in line. If they actually tacked left, the gloves would be off, and somewhat ‘naturally’ occurring institutional bias would give way to overt hostility.
“You could argue that the general antagonism to “left” is incidental. Or you could argue it’s all in the systemic nature of the beast.”
and either way you could also identify the elements that support its increase.
“That’s always been a problem for the “left”, and something it just has to deal with. It’s not going to change.”
but but…PR dont you know…that’ll fix it!
“Ardern’s NZ Labour are merely being “encouraged” to play a particular game and being generally kept in line. If they actually tacked left, the gloves would be off, and somewhat ‘naturally’ occurring institutional bias would give way to overt hostility.”
Think the overt hostility point may have arrived…..when the gloves really come off it wont be the MSM attacking it’ll be capital and investment that enters the fray.
Ad is right also;
Labour is getting unpopular here now in HB/Gisborne over the lack of RNZ willingness to cover our community groups fight to publicly express our disgust at the truck gridlocked roads and with no rail.
Clare Curran in her letter to us showed she will not assist us to get RNZ media coverage for our disgusting transport issues here, as the roads to Gisborne are so bad that many now fear to drive the roads here with the roads now crammed full of heavy trucks.
Jacinda needs to take over RNZ and make it our voice and access to our communities to have our say over RNZ before the bureaucrats decide our future without us having the voice to be heard that jacinda promised us all during her election speeches.
If she fails us on this she will suffer at the next election.
Perhaps they are seeing something you are not.
I see idiot comments with no substance are still all the vogue with our resident rwnj’s.
I at least addressed the original comment – you simply insult and walk away without debating or discussing the point.
But you don’t debate james, you just repeat the same lies over and over. Hard to have a debate with someone who does not think, and relies on memes to communicate.
i would imagine the russians would know how to deal with reporters that they disagreed with , maybe Ardern could get some tips off mad Vlad
Still no word from our MSM of the aerial bombing strikes on Hamas in response to the peaceful mass protests.
Violence is only news when it comes from “them”, and not “us”.
https://thestandard.org.nz/love-war-fear-and-hate/#comment-1468674
Yes the media is not on the people’s side.
who qualifies as a “people” Ed?
The 99%
Absolutely agree, woah Ed youre on fire this morning!
If only.
Totally agree! LOL. Yesterday’s OM was sooooo good, as were the two weeks pre-1 April.
Excellent blog Ed bang on 100%.
The NZ Media has been fully corrupted now by the deep dark agenda of the corporate world for their lust for power & control and greed.
They should be jailed and exported back to where they came from, for the good of our children’s future.
They should be jailed and exported back to where they came from
Where did they come from? Same place as the rest of us one would assume? Or by “corrupted” are you suggesting there was a time when media outlets were not controlled by class interests? In Britain they have always understood this as so, and it is only in the colonies with our various delusions that we ever thought that media could be independent.
CG
That’s a bit extreme isn’t it? To jail the NZ media (whoever that is?). On what grounds?
In case you didn’t realise it. The liberal left puts the freedom of the press on a pedestal as a fundamental democratic value. Thats even when parts of the press says things I/you/we don’t agree with.
Its only dictators and anti democrats that propose what you’re proposing.
cleangreen, do you REALLY believe in jailing people because they havedifferent political beliefs than you? Think about it…
I agree that the government need to be doing more front-footing. Ardern is great, but she can’t be everywhere. Others need to lift their game. My worry is how things will be handled when she’s on leave.
Having said that, we also need to help shift the narrative. That includes things like commenting on Stuff or The Herald, sending in letters to the editor, using Twitter…etc. Not many politically undecided people are likely to be reading this site, after all.
Basic things like pointing out that Labour policy leading into the election said there’d probably be a petrol tax for Auckland and that they’d continue to raise excises on fuel, tobacco and alcohol (as per normal practice) would help spike the guns of some of the crap that’s being thrown about at the moment.
Fair enough Red-blooded,solkta,Grantoc,
Maybe jail is a bit to far.
But we wouldn’t’ be in this fight with the media, if Clare Curran had just been smart and re-opened up the only honest channel we had before National came along, and closed down our Channel seven.
Clare Curran could just as easily have switched back on channel seven without getting into a fight with RNZ which to us is now a waste of time with all those talking heads.
Fine words from Westpac.
Why business can’t be trusted to act on climate change.
And why government regulation is necessary to give business the “certainty” to help enable business put their words into deeds.
“Businesses need to act on climate change: Westpac”
Newshub
“Westpac: Stop Financing Coal Mining on the Denniston Plateau”
350.org. Aotearoa
Maybe Westpac should ask Exxon Mobil that?
Didn’t they know about climate change 40 years ago?
And do nothing?
Ah, the old ‘certainty’ canard. ‘Certainty’ means a guarantee that future profit streams will not be adversely affected. ‘Certainty’ for business, market discipline for the rest of us poor saps.
+111
Business owners tend to think business drives society and so society needs to do what business wants.
What our politicians should be doing is forcing the businesses into what society needs and wants.
Nope, we should be taking out all the people who have polluted, and destroyed in the name of profit, and making them do hard labour to pay back their debt to society.
Business will not change until there are consequences for their destructive and greedy approach to the world.
Bathurst actually now has enough $ to finance the mine themselves, and if Westpac does not step in then they will just get the $ from their shareholders.
Stop Te Kuha coal mine.
“TE KUHA UPDATE: PETITION PRESENTED, APPEAL CONTINUES!”
Coal Action Network
Related:
Aspirational?
Or, Actual?
Some time in the future?
Or, now?
We are about to find out.
https://thestandard.org.nz/megan-woods-speech-to-the-petroleum-conference/#comment-1467763
Had a chat with the girls re fuel prices. Funny thing is they expect fuel prices to keep rising as they understand the damage from vehicles re climate change. They see it as a deterrent and a move to help people think more about the mode of transport they use and reasons for it.
I did explain that it was to help pay for better roads and public transport, we are all fine with that.
Climate change is their major concern, for them, that’s far more important than having to pay extra $ per litre
The discussion needs to move further than that too Cinny. Too many decision makers present this fuel tax as the only funding option for improved public transport and alternative transport investment.
My personal opinion is that those making these decisions, tend to ignore the fact that many households (especially in Auckland) are living in precarious financial situations, where this tax means another bill not paid, food not bought, lifestyle choices further constrained. These decision makers are quite likely those who have all their transport costs met by their employer, even though they are in an income bracket that could quite likely accommodate the increase without too much pain.
Like any budget – the Ministry of Transport has to determine their priorities. And then they have to cut costs on those projects or additional items that don’t meet their priorities. They have to stop inflicting further financial stress on those households already struggling, and unable to offload those increases to their employer.
Climate change is a major topic in our household as well, so I recognise the conversations you have with your children. Who pays? is an ongoing topic, and how much is enough? is another.
Which is why transport to and from work needs to be paid for by the business.
“Which is why transport to and from work needs to be paid for by the business.”
That won’t cover the related increase in the cost of goods and services.
It would go a long way.
And just because something won’t go all the way to address the problem doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t happen. Other things can also happen to make it all work.
“And just because something won’t go all the way to address the problem doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t happen. Other things can also happen to make it all work.”
I can agree with that.
“The discussion needs to move further than that too Cinny. Too many decision makers present this fuel tax as the only funding option for improved public transport and alternative transport investment.
“My personal opinion is that those making these decisions, tend to ignore the fact that many households (especially in Auckland) are living in precarious financial situations, where this tax means another bill not paid, food not bought, lifestyle choices further constrained. These decision makers are quite likely those who have all their transport costs met by their employer, even though they are in an income bracket that could quite likely accommodate the increase without too much pain.”
Indeed.
OMG, they actually understand the pricing mechanism which is something that the RWNJs and many on the Left don’t get.
Lmao, I’ll have to tell them that Draco 🙂 They love nature, love being outside, there is no Planet B
T’is crunch time for Genter and Davidson’s co-leadership campaigns this weekend. Which one will the GP members choose?
Newsroom has an article about it, in which both candidates are reported as saying they don’t agree with the budget restriction rules that the GP signed up to before last election. They also both say that National is too far away from the GP for any Teal Deal.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/04/04/102290/green-leadership-contenders-oppose-budget-rules
Carolyn
Both incredible women, its a hard choice
For me, Marama appeals, she keeps that grass roots activism aspect of the Greens alive.She’s authentic, she’s got heart, she’s of the people, she lives tiriti, she’s real
She might take risks , she might blunder
Genter is hugely effective, articulate, concise, strategic, with an impressive intellect
She’s careful, measured, she’d be a safe pair of hands.Is that enough?
But the look of Shaw/Genter makes my heart sink
The greens are already in danger of looking like just another white middle class party on bikes.I want to feel a bit more frisson or something
When it gets down to it, I can live with either, they’re both terrific
Which one will you vote for?
I was interested to note in a discussion among friends how passionate the Kiwis were about Treaty matters, colonisation and how much Green environmental ethos and Maori cultural values are aligned
Recent immigrants, (Brits and American )were bemused, didn’t quite get it
The former were in favour of Marama, the latter, Julie-Anne
All agreed both were fantastic
“Which one will you vote for?”
It’s not a vote.
my feelings are similar. Both are outstanding and would make great co-leaders, but it’s just wrong for Shaw and Genter to lead the party, on class and ethnicity grounds. I am so glad that Genter is a Minister, because if the party chooses MD, then Genter will still have a very good role in which to use her talents. Also, she’s still in caucus and would be using them there too.
“Newsroom has an article about it, in which both candidates are reported as saying they don’t agree with the budget restriction rules that the GP signed up to before last election. ”
They should have made more noise at the time (before they signed up to it). Hence, it’s a bit late now.
When does Shaw’s leadership get re-looked at? Anybody know?
Both leaders are elected by delegate vote at the AGM each year, so in a couple of months. I would think that there is zero chance he won’t be re-elected.
“I would think that there is zero chance he won’t be re-elected.”
And why do you think that? He hasn’t performed too well.
He was expected to grow their support. After giving their questions to National, I’m expecting there will be further decline in their support.
He saved the Party during the election with his ability to stay calm in it would seems any situation. He is very popular amongst the membership.
James cannot make decisions like giving away the questions and anything that is done needs as the very bare minimum 75% support of Caucus.
But enough of your concern trolling.
“He saved the Party during the election”
Some would argue the party wouldn’t have needed saving if the leadership initially managed things better.
And despite Shaw fully backing her (Turei) all the way, he was quick to avoid accountability. Didn’t see him offering to stand down. Moreover, he’s done nothing to further the cause, hence his commitment to the cause is becoming hollower by the day.
As for giving their questions away, it was reported (see link below) that Shaw made the decision without consulting the party membership. Therefore, it seems it was a leadership decision.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/03/green-party-split-over-james-shaw-handing-questions-to-national.html
The Greens further declining in the polls is a very real concern. And if you can’t acknowledge that, then hell knows where your head is at.
The Greens need to face up to criticism, not merely call people concern trolls. If they fall much further in the polls, their survival will require Shaw to stand down.
Clearly you are out of touch, calls for Shaw to go are growing. He’s seen as too soft and far too willing to kowtow to Labour.
With the Greens only having a small number of MPs, they require a far more assertive leader.
As for giving their questions away, it was reported (see link below) that Shaw made the decision without consulting the party membership. Therefore, it seems it was a leadership decision.
There was no requirement for them to consult members over what is clearly a Caucus decision. The action was within the principles the Party has for improving parliamentary practice.
Therefore, it seems it was a leadership decision.
No, it was a Caucus decision.
First you say it was Shaw’s decision to give away the questions but then you say he is “far too willing to kowtow to Labour”. Full of shit much i think you are.
“No, it was a Caucus decision.”
As shown in the link provided above, Shaw said he made the decision, not the Caucus.
“The action was within the principles the Party has for improving parliamentary practice.”
Allowing National to frame more questions in a right wing way isn’t a Green Party principle.
“First you say it was Shaw’s decision to give away the questions but then you say he is “far too willing to kowtow to Labour.”
So willing to kowtow to them he’s limited Labour being held to account from a left perspective. Seems he’d rather National hold them account from a right perspective.
I know many Green voters that expected the Greens to keep Labour in check. Shaw is showing he is unable or unwilling to do this. Hence, the widespread outrage within the Greens support base. Thus, the growing calls for him to go.
As shown in the link provided above, Shaw said he made the decision, not the Caucus.
All i can find is this:
“Mr Shaw then said he made the decision without consulting party membership.”
You might need this:
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com
Re, your comment at 8:11 pm
He may have consulted with his Caucus but ultimately he made the decision (according to the report).
As for giving questions away, I definitely have a problem with it. I didn’t vote for the Greens to have them get National to hold (in a right wing framing) Labour and NZF to account.
As for how big a concern it is, we’ll soon get some indication from the next poll. As I stated above, I expect there will be further decline in their support.
As for calls for Shaw to go, I think the party lacks depth in regards to male co-leaders, which will go a long way in saving him. But if their support tanks badly, there will only be so much he (and the party) can sustain.
“As shown in the link provided above, Shaw said he made the decision, not the Caucus.”
No, Shub say he said that. We don’t know what he actually said, but we do know that a co-leader is not empowered to make decisions like that on their own. Try educating yourself. Solkta has just been explaining GP process to you, why don’t you learn from that?
“No, Shub say he said that.”
That’s correct. It was reported Shaw said he made the decision.
Hence, that is the perception me and others that read the report are left with.
And you know what they say about perception and politics.
Personally, I don’t know if he can make that call or not as Party leader, but that was how 3 reported it. And at the end of the day he supports it nonetheless and seems to fail to see the problem with it.
And if it (the report) is incorrect, don’t the Greens have someone overseeing how they are being reported? Thus, calling for corrections?
Most medium level idiots would be able to interpret “Mr Shaw then said he made the decision without consulting party membership” as meaning he hadn’t consulted the membership but that he had obviously consulted his Caucus.
And at the end of the day he supports it nonetheless and seems to fail to see the problem with it.
Most members i have spoken to, and most who have commented here, don’t see a problem with it either. You clearly only have a ‘problem’ with it because you are a concern troll.
“Hence, that is the perception me and others that read the report are left with.”
Sure, but there is no excuse for your position given you are talking with two people who know the GP far better than you do and have told you that Shaw is not able to make such decisions on his own. I think he has misspoken, or Shub have misinterpreted his words.
You have even less excuse because we’ve been in these kinds of conversations a number of times before where you’ve had GP process explained to you and you continue to instead go with something in your own head rather than what is known about how the GP work. Your ignorance is now willful.
“Sure, but there is no excuse for your position given you are talking with two people who know the GP far better than you do and have told you that Shaw is not able to make such decisions on his own.”
Two people that I don’t know that haven’t produced any citation to back their claim.
from newshub link, my emphasis added:
I’m not worried that you claim to think that Shaw dictates decisions to the Green caucus.
I’m merely somewhat amused that you and newshub seem to think that Shaw habitually refers to himself in the first person plural.
“Two people that I don’t know that haven’t produced any citation to back their claim.”
And yet you believed Shub 🙄
Like I said, willful ignorance. Go read the GP official documents if you can find them, and talk to GP officials and activists, if you can bring yourself to believe them. That’s how I informed myself.
You will have to do some thinking with the information you find, but given your propensity to see everything through the negative I’m not sure how far you will get.
I’m merely somewhat amused that you and newshub seem to think that Shaw habitually refers to himself in the first person plural.
😆
Sooner they get a co-leader the better 😉
Perhaps he thinks he’s the Queen.
“And yet you believed Shub”
Let’s see, the word of a news organisation over the word of two online randoms with a potential bias? It’s a no-brainer isn’t it?
Moreover, surely the Greens would not allow such an error to stand uncorrected. I’ve seen no correction put forward by James Shaw.
“Let’s see, the word of a news organisation over the word of two online randoms with a potential bias? It’s a no-brainer isn’t it?”
MSM with bias towards sensationalism and a history of not understanding the Greens and of reporting inaccurately either out of sensationalism and/or RW bias.
vs
two long time online activists, one who is as far as I can tell active within the GP and has commented a lot about how the GP functions, and the other who writes posts on the largest LW blog in NZ including posts about the GP, their kaupapa and how they operate. Those posts are taken largely from information in the public domain (i.e. information you also could access if you wanted to educate yourself), and from talking with GP activists online (something you can also do but obviously choose not to).
So yeah, it is a no brainer. Not that you should discard Shub (false dichotomy there), but that you should assess all sources of information. Which you have done and I think if you trust Shub with no criticism and discard online activists because you don’t know their RL names, then that just reinforces what I said. Willful ignorance.
You don’t even need to take notice of me and Solkta, there are plenty of other people around who understand how the GP functions and are on records with that. There is no other way to take your interpretations than deliberately misrepresenting the party.
“Moreover, surely the Greens would not allow such an error to stand uncorrected. I’ve seen no correction put forward by James Shaw.”
He probably understands a few things more than you do. Most people can parse that article and interpret what happened. Those that skew it towards something anti-green are going to be anti-green anyway. Also, getting a correction how? Only a complete idiot believes that a party could meaningfully correct every little mistake that the MSM make in reporting.
I’m not deliberately misrepresenting the party. I’m working with what was reported. Which nobody has refuted with substance.
Solkta and you had the opportunity to substantiate your claim, both of you failed too.
Instead of directing me to scroll through all the Green’s literature, searching for something that is unlikely to be there, you could have directly pointed it out to me, but you didn’t. So why should I believe you when you can’t back up your claim?
Moreover, you claim that you are both long time activist, yet tell me to talk to activists, which if you are both activists as you claim, I’m already doing. Moreover, I want more than mere opinion, I’m seeking substance what was reported was wrong.
Only a complete idiot you say, well thanks a lot. The reality is if it is an error, it’s far from little.
It has attributed to calls for Shaw to stand down. Many within the party are not happy with this decision and more would be calling for Shaw’s head if they knew it was solely his decision (as was reported).
Therefore, if it was an error, it would be vital for Shaw to correct it.
As you seem to be struggling to understand how he would go about correcting it, I’ll explain it for you.
First off, contact the reporter (Finn Hogan) and ask for a correction to be made. Secondly, issue a press release and ensure activists further spread the word.
Evidently, Shaw has done neither. Which, if it wasn’t an error would be expected. Hence, you’ve yet to convince me.
Thus, here’s another opportunity for you to show me exactly where in all the Green Party literature does it say the leadership (being Shaw at the time) can’t decide to give away their questions?
Not for you Chairman but for anybody who might be genuinely interested (my bold):
Constitution of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
…
12
CAUCUS
12.1
The role of Caucus is to organise and co-ordinate the Green Party’s parliamentary activities. The Caucus shall exist for the period that the Green Party has members of New Zealand’s Parliament
12.2
The Caucus shall comprise:
12.2.1
The Co-Leaders;
12.2.2
All persons elected as Green Members of Parliament;
12.2.3
Any representative of the national Policy Committee or the Executive appointed by those bodies and agreed by Caucus; and
12.2.4
Such other persons as the Caucus may appoint as members or as are provided for in these rules.
12.3
The Caucus shall make such rules for its conduct as it sees fit in accordance with the objects of the Green Party.
12.4
Co-Leaders and MPs shall be the voting members of Caucus.
12.5
Any Green Party member may normally attend a Caucus meeting subject to the rules contained in the Party Caucus Agreement.
…
14
CONSENSUS DECISION MAKING
14.1
All decisions by: any Group, Electorate, or Province; General Meeting; Executive; Caucus; Executive Working Group or any other body overseen by the Green Party shall be made by consensus. This means by the agreement of most participants, with dissenters and abstainers agreeing to recognise the majority opinion as being the decision.
14.2
If consensus on a motion is not achieved after reasonable attempts, a vote can be taken. A motion shall be carried with a 75% majority of the votes cast. Those who do not agree with the decision may have their objections included in any minutes recorded.
“Not for you Chairman but for anybody who might be genuinely interested (my bold):…”
I was going to thank you.
Seems 14.1 covers it.
Nevertheless, it raises more questions why Shaw didn’t correct the report. Considering the blow-back, one can understand why the Caucasus would be happy not to be associated with it.
Also 12.1 and 12.3 show it was their decision to make.
How underfunded is our health system? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12025882
Thanks National, to give the rich a few extra bucks you will be killing people.
Also contrast the tone of the herald article with those on the increase in fuel tax + better funding for public transport. It is almost like this under-funding is all Labour’s fault. I know they get around to saying that National passed the substance abuse law change, but no real analysis of exactly how our health system got to the point where it needs billions upon billions of dollars just to bring it back to an average condition.
An underfunded health care system?
That’s not important, says Barry and Heather.
Look over there .
Carol and Claire are having coffee.
Look over there.
Jacinda can’t manage.
Barry and Heather…. Fake newz
Or worse yet, Labour are putting up petrol taxes!!! Oh the shock horror! I mean it isn’t like National raised it by the same amount over the same time, without telling us at any election. Or that National didn’t raise GST after explicitly ruling out GST increase.
It is sad this is the world we live in, where just to get us to a space where we are actually where we all think we are, or expect us to be at, will require Labour to run a big deficit, and they will be blamed for mismanagement, promising too much or what ever. No analysis or critique of how we got to the place we are at…
Of course when Gerry did the exact same petrol tax thing bout 5 years ago it was for the good of the country or the economy, “motorways are everyone’s friend” or something. The media gives it a free pass and Gerry and Joyce go unquestioned.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/more-petrol-tax-to-pay-for-motorways-2012121809
But when Ardern does it…. drum roll please… “Labour are taxing us”, “Think of the poor people who can’t afford all this extra tax”, “Rail ?!?!?”!
The traditional old recipe.
“But National did it too”
Doesn’t really excuse the fact that the Labour Party leaders lied about there tax policies before the election though does it?
Don’t get too upset though. The Labour Party, although it will go back to the Opposition benches in 2020, won’t have to try and work out how to co-operate with New Zealand First and the Greens. They will be defunct.
Then perhaps the Labour Party can spend their time rebuilding and coming up with a sensible and relevant set of policies by 2026.
Prove you are not a fool with Duplicity Syndrome by proving where “the Labour Party leaders lied about there tax policies before the election”……….. I won’t be holding my breath.
Did you and the media say that National was going to lose the 2011 election after raising GST?
Nobody’s actually saying that. They’re saying that when National did it the MSM applauded them while they berate Labour.
It’s the double standards.
But you knew that and are now just trying to distract from it so as to protect National from their own actions while also hiding the double standards of the MSM.
They didn’t lie but you know that which means that you’re lying now.
You poor little fellow.
If what the comment I was replying to wasn’t a case of “But National ….” what was it?
It is the standard line by the CoL and its supporters on almost everything.
Even Sage was trying it when she was being interviewed on RNZ this morning.
The comment that started “or worse yet”?
The comment that has a second paragraph “It is sad this is the world we live in, where just to get us to a space where we are actually where we all think we are, or expect us to be at, will require Labour to run a big deficit, and they will be blamed for mismanagement, promising too much or what ever. No analysis or critique of how we got to the place we are at…”?
You know, in reply to ed’s explicit comment about the media double standard.
Yeah, that was a comment about the media’s double standards. Glad you asked.
Edit: to be absolutely clear, the comment reads that national did it too, but the media mostly blame Labour
I am actually OK with my comment being a “national did it too” comment, as it is ridiculous that the vitriol about this petrol tax has been so strong, even from the National party itself, but they did exactly the same thing twice! When there is hypocrisy then I am OK with pointing that out, even if Alwyn needs to have a little cry over it all
lol fair enough
In any case, what is the bigger story; Petrol taxes to pay for safer roads and better transport or a chronically under-funded health system that is so underfunded that people will actually die because of the underfunding?
The idiot speaks again, sheesh alwyn it is always the same with you.
Did you miss me pointing out over and over before the election, that labour are right wing economically?
Part of that was links to their economic policy, including transport policy. It was all there, I disagree with then as I disagree with it now.
As for tax, labour said they would let a tax working group look at that – and they did.
You really need to stop lying, not healthy for you. But as lying is all you got…
“Did you miss me pointing out”.
I have given up reading any of your comments that aren’t direct replies to something I said. You never have anything original or interesting to say.
Poor alwyn, irrelevant as always.
Must be all that pent up frustration that no one worships you like they should.
Stop talking about yourself – or anyone else – like that. Address the issues, not the person.
Did you miss me pointing out over and over before the election, that labour are right wing economically?
Yes and you also said on more than one occasion that the US would be back in the TPP by the end of March. We both know how credible that prediction of yours was – or more correctly, wasn’t.
I own that failed prediction, it was wrong. Which I think I’ve said to you twice now, how many times would you like me to repeat that?
As for person not issue, when the person has a track record of spin, I will call them on a personal level to own their spin, alwyn is one such person.
Edit: alywn by the way defamed people on this site, really don’t see you getting upset by that, so, jog on…
Hey. What is with the abuse. Surely you can debate without personal abuse.
Yeahh
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-03-04-2018-2/#comment-1470242
Highlighted as humour and not a dig. Poor attempt.
That was what I was thinking…
That was funny in the context of what I wrote. Nice.
Given that level of humour why resort to name calling clearly you are smarter than that.
alwyn, have a look at the policy:
Labour has responded to the request of the Auckland Council to give it the ability to use new methods of funding infrastructure, like infrastructure bonds and targeted rates. It will also give Auckland Council the ability to implement a regional fuel tax. The regional fuel tax for Auckland is estimated to generate $150 million a year for transport improvements. Labour does not have plans for any other regional fuel taxes.
Alcohol, Petrol and Tobacco Levies – will be adjusted as per normal government practice and as set out in Budget documents.
Oh, talk about gotcha!
Just to confirm, was there before the election too, so have a good cry babies! No lies here….
https://web.archive.org/web/20170916020732/http://www.labour.org.nz/tax
You are of course right. The levies comment is there, as the very last line in something hardly anyone reads.
We should ignore all public comments by their leaders and look for the fish hooks hidden away.
When The Labour Party said, in
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11922151
“”There will be no new taxes or levies introduced in our first term of government beyond those we have already announced.”
and
“Ardern said it was her “captain’s call” to back down from introducing new taxes in a first term of a Labour Government because it was clear the public were concerned.”
We were obviously mean to realise that this was a completely meaningless comment and that it wasn’t going to bind them at all.
More fool us I suppose. Still we did know that Ardern and Robertson were trained in the Clark PM’s Office where if you had to choose between a truth and a lie one always chose the lie.
Remember Robertson shortly after he got elected? He was in the Back Benchers Bar, on TV, and was asked where Alf was. Alf was a couple of metres away, in direct line of the TV camera.
Rather than say something like “Alf is not involved in Politics and doesn’t want to be the story or to be interviewed” Robertson looked straight at the camera and lied. “Alf isn’t here tonight”.
So much for telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
beyond those we have already announced.
…and then later on in the same article, here’s Steven Joyce.
Perhaps you didn’t read that far, or perhaps you’re lying. I think you’re lying. Labour were slammed during the election campaign for the new taxes they announced, including a regional fuel tax and water tax. I bet you were one of the losers who slammed them, too.
Lift your game.
Of course I read that far. I didn’t expect that you would take Stephen Joyce’s opinion as being the beginning and end of all wisdom though. Clearly I was mistaken. You do. You regard a statement as true if Stephen Joyce said it.
From now on I shall simply quote Stephen Joyce to you and you will clearly accept it as being factual.
If it is any consolation I feel the same way about you as you seem to feel about me. I think you are lying, now, in the past, and no doubt in the future. Well trained by the experts in the current Government I suppose.
Nope, fool. I regard your statement as false if Labour campaigned on it and Steven Joyce complained about it, and many other news articles plus a Morrinsville farmers’ rally (which you whinged about at the time) totally contradict you.
I think you’re lying (as opposed to being simply ignorant) because this is a long established pattern in your comments.
Accusing others of lying is a long established pattern in your comments.
“Alcohol, Petrol and Tobacco Levies – will be adjusted as per normal government practice and as set out in Budget documents.”
I haven’t seen any evidence that Labour campaigned on that. It can be found in their policies if you search for it (plus a lot of other things not campaigned on), but I can’t see any relevant mention in the Fiscal Plan that was a core part of Labour’s campaign.
I don’t recall Jacinda Ardern or Grant Robertson campaigning on raising fuel excise tax during the current term
Robertson did say ““There will be no new taxes or levies introduced in our first term of government beyond those we have already announced.” Again, I don’t know of any fuel excise tax announcement.
Ardern said “Everything that we have announced in public is already able to be fully funded from the re-prioritisation that we have set out, and it’s all in our fiscal plan.”
Again, nothing in the Fiscal Plan and nothing announced in public that I know about.
@Peter George:
🙄
Published policy is campaigned on by definition, but I’m sure you feel like nitpicking over that until your boring gobshite sends everyone to sleep, so I’d just like to reiterate my contempt for you and your affected opinions before ignoring the rest of whatever you have to say.
Falling back on abuse doesn’t make a good argument. The opposite.
NZH on Ardern: “it was her “captain’s call” to back down from introducing new taxes in a first term of a Labour Government because it was clear the public were concerned.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11922151
That’s campaigning, picking which policies to promote and which ones to put aside.
@Petty George: from Alwyn’s link that you also linked to.
Thanks for pointing that out, five hours after Alwyn pointed it out. I wonder what you think your point is.
Lol
Let me actually google that for you.
So apparently “duelling transport policy releases where the fuel tax raise is part of the launch reported August 6 last, that doesn’t count as campaigning.
From the nbr article.
.
@OAB
There were no announcements about fuel excise taxes going up that I’m aware of. Do you know of any?
Regardless, the fuel excise tax has been a bit of a PR disaster for Labour going by wide ranging negative reactions.
Labour’s communications over the last few weeks has been poor, and unless they get their act together soon – before Peters takes charge – they might inflict unrecoverable self inflicted damage to the current Government. That wouldn’t be good for the country.
@McFlock – I don’t think anyone is arguing about the Auckland (regional) additional fuel tax. The problem is with the proposed nationwide increase (with the possibility other regions could slap on their own top up tax as well).
@McFlock: boom!
@Petty George: 😆
Labour’s transport manifesto 2017, page 6:
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/nzlabour/pages/8454/attachments/original/1503367750/Labour_Transport_policy_2017.pdf?1503367750
My bold
“We should ignore all public comments by their leaders and look for the fish hooks hidden away.”
Yes we looked at the fish hooks in the last nine years of national and found plenty and of course the National Party always did many u turns on all their plans so we were always left with nothing but confusion.
It’s on the Labour Party website policy page:
http://www.labour.org.nz/policy
Transport policy linked from there:
http://www.labour.org.nz/transport
At the bottom of that page is a link to the full Transport manifesto, which I lined to @ 8.48pm
All voters should try to look at the main policies of parties they are considering voting for – and not rely on the MSM.
Eugenie Sage needs her ass kicked.
Can’t tell whether she met with the Chief of the EPA or the Chief of the MfE.
And looks like she was trying to heavy one of the staff members out.
Close to identical fault to Curran.
Griffin will now be able to “correct the record” this morning at Select Committee and be made to look like a saint.
If the PM can’t instill discipline into her Ministers, then she and State Services Commissioner need to start restricting the contacts of Ministers to their written advice and to Chairs and Departmental heads.
This is going to be an awesome day for the Opposition.
And another day that this government continues to lose the media.
Get your shit together Ardern.
Griffin is out anyway. Natz are going to Bullshit about any issue anyway and the natz media also. Ardern is doing well and policies are being rolled out.
Oh, such confidence
“Ardern is doing well and policies are being rolled out”
It reminds me rather more of Monty Python – The Black Knight.
“Tis just a flesh wound” Jacinda announced.
Yesterday, RNZ with Campbell gave the former National government a twenty minute serve over the issues of Christchurch post earthquake, Middlemore Hospital and failure to recall faulty air bags.
Yesterday’s local paper has the following ‘political’ news, nothing criticising the government apart from the local MP’s opinion piece where after three years he finally dares to criticise a Minister.
Temporary housing provider delays opening as renovations not completed.
Ardern says safety is a big issue in road plans.
Clean slate bill set to pass.
Ethical business prospering.
Editorial on Safety from sex offenders and managing prison release. Recidivism among child sex offenders is amongst the lowest in all crime categories.
National MP has a go at Shane Jones.
Optimism up for farmers.
An article on a bus firm seeks migrant drivers opens with this sentence. “The Government should reject a national bus company’s request to fill 110 driver jobs with migrant workers, a union says.”
That is because Fairfax is owned by the finance industry.
“Close to identical fault to Curran.”.
Quite the opposite I would have thought.
Rather like the electron and its anti-particle the positron in particle physics.
Curran starts by denying there was an organised meeting and then flips into saying it was, Throws Hirschfeld under the bus of course but the important thing for Curran is for herself to survive.
Sage does the opposite. Says that there was a meeting and when that turns to custard denies the fact that she was at any such thing. Wrong person seems to be the excuse and she didn’t even know who the people she met were.
Then she tried to blame it5 on the National Government!.
I hope they don’t end up next to each other in Parliament. Total annihilation is the result in any particle/anti-particle interaction.
“Eugenie Sage needs her ass kicked.
Can’t tell whether she met with the Chief of the EPA or the Chief of the MfE.
And looks like she was trying to heavy one of the staff members out.”
Could you be more specific??
Background is at 10. With links.
The first link there – ie the RNZ article – will give you a general background including re “Can’t tell whether she met with the Chief of the EPA or the Chief of the MfE.” Sage’s own personal explanation in the House on Tues 3 April also addresses this point from Sage herself. Hansard in 10 and video in 10.1.1
Like Griffin & Kerry Prendergast, Freeth was just another partisan appointment with an axe to grind with the new government …
https://www.wakeupnz.net/nz-epa-glyphosate-findings-biased-due-monsanto-connection/
https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/14-03-2018/why-is-nzs-environmental-regulator-trying-to-muzzle-scientist-mike-joy/
It would not surprise me at all, katipo. The National Government stacked every appointment they could. And thanks for those very interesting links.
But the matters raised in the links including those re Mike Joy, and matters relating to both Dr Freeth’s and Dr Rowarth’s credibility as individuals, and their relationship as employer/employee are all separate issues to the ones relating to Sage.
Sage, as a Minister, on two occasions failed to check her own facts and answered questions in the House incorrectly, despite the fact that she was being accused by National of interfering in EPA matters outside her Ministerial purview. That is not a trivial matter, and not helped by her having to make a Personal Explanation to the House to correct her answers.
Like the Griffin situation, it also resulted in Dr Freeth having to also re-appear before a Select Committee yesterday. Not a good look for Sage and her credibility and competency, nor for that of the Government.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/354231/epa-head-insists-he-did-not-mislead-mps
Why are you repeating the Tory memes?
@Ed. “why are you repeating….. etc.” That really should be obvious
As mentioned above the RNZ bosses (Chairman Richard Griffin and CEO Paul Thompson) are fronting up to the Select Committee this morning.
RNZ is running a live blog from the meeting which is already underway as from 9.00am when the meeting started and can be accessed here:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/354153/watch-live-rnz-fronts-to-select-committee-over-minister-s-meeting
Earlier on Morning Report in a 4 min interview with Jane Patterson on this morning’s meeting, Patterson made a point of calling Griffin RNZ’s “outgoing Chairman “- and mentioned that Griffin had earlier said he was leaving at an earlier meeting on 31 March. This is at about 0.40 mins in this audio. His contract is due to expire on 30 April.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018639121
The Labour MPs are certainly doing their best to smear Griffin aren’t they?
I wonder why Eagle is going at it so hard? Is he under instructions to antagonise the man? If so I wonder which way it will turn out.
That was a bit of a bummer for me. Audio very bad.
To answer alwyn above and from the bits I was able to hear… it sounded to me that Paul Eagle was trying to counter Melissa Lee who was hogging the show for political gain of course.
From my recollection at the time of the Mt. Albert byelection back in 2009, she was an arrogant, pushy little madam. Doesn’t sound like she’s changed.
Agreed re audio, but still useful to read the written real time blog on the same page.
Re Lee, her arrogance has certainly come across in her questions to Curran in the House over the last few weeks. She has certainly never had so much face time in the House since she started there ten years ago in 2008.
Parliament TV – live and On Demand – is down right now, otherwise I would put up videos of one or two of the Questions. Light Bulb moment ? Perhaps that is why the bad audio. Hope they got the Select Committee hearing on record. Just checked Audio and while the page opened unlike the Watch one, no recordings for today as yet.
” She has certainly never had so much face time in the House since she started there ten years ago in 2008″.
Can you tell me of any Government back bench MP who ever gets any “face time” in the house? We had some discussion on this when talking about “patsy” questions a while ago.
Opposition is the chance for backbenchers to shine. Find something juicy and stick your teeth in. In Government you have to shut up, make up the numbers and only talk when no one is listening.
Latest article on RNZ News website with full video of the appearance of Griffin and Thompson before the Select Committee this morning.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/354159/rnz-bosses-set-the-record-straight-we-feel-very-foolish
At the end the article states;
Mr Griffin was also asked about the voicemail message Ms Curran left him this week about this appearance. Mr Griffin said it was a “strong suggestion” that he provide just a written statement rather than turn up.
He said he had a copy of the voice message, but he would not play it for the committee.
Not only a Tui moment but a deja vu one for me. LOL.
But presumably that was Griffin’s last public appearance for RNZ with only 25 days to go.
I see Brownlee was there in the background (In the photo).
I suspect Lee has already heard the voicemail, Griffin having played it to her privately.
I have no doubts Lee has heard the voicemail. She had a further question for Curran in Question Time today. Curran is in Australia, so Lee wanted to hold the question over until Curran was back, but there was objection, so Chris Hipkins answered Lee’s questions on Curran’s behalf – verbal chess.
Lee skirted around the message Curran left for Griffin which gives a pretty good idea of the angle Lee is taking vis a vis the voicemail, though.
The video is up already – https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=199331
I was just reading the blog, which was quoting Eagle but not Lee. I wasn’t up to trying to decipher the audio. The blog bringing up Eagle talking about “collusion” and “working for the National Party” did seem to be pushing things. With nothing quoted from Lee it only comes across as Eagle throwing mud around.
Try the video in 8.2.3 above which is RNZ’s full video of the questioning. (37+ minutes). I have not actually watched it as yet as I have another priority elsewhere at present, but the little I have seen indicated that the audio from the questioners’ mikes is pretty bad.
When the noise from Thompson putting a glass down on the table is about 30 db louder than the questioners I think I shall wait until it is either cleaned up or transcribed. I refuse to listen to 37 minutes like that.
Cannot say that I disagree with that!
Perhaps RNZ need some better funding for better equipment, alwyn?
Cannot be easy having your funding frozen for nine (?) long years.
Nicely played!
That voicemail is going to be interesting as it sound like its going to be subpoenaed.
I really dont get why Curran would be that stupid I would have thought getting a staffer to talk to him directly would have been better.
If it doesnt quite say what she’s told Jacinda is says it’ll get ugly fast.
Can a Select Committee actually subpoena such a thing?
What are their powers in that regard?
No idea, read it on stuff
Iain Lees-Galloway appears on Morning Report with 90 minutes notice of a new profiling technology he not been briefed on. This is good for democracy.
Meanwhile, after five years of never being able to speak to him, John Campbell was reduced to door stopping Gerry Brownlee to try and get some accountability for his part in the 160+ million dollar re-re-repair disaster. Brownlee hung up on Campbell. An incompetent and unaccountable National party autocrat has cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars.
Barry Soper will focus on Labour being “caught out” and will completely ignore the hundreds of millions of wasted dollars.
what amazes me @Sanctuary is the length of time its taken anyone on this site (or TDB for that matter) to make a comment on the subject.
Something that’s potentially politically explosive as demographic profiling that includes an ethnic component, and SFA!!!
Some background information on the Eugenie Sage/Environment Protection Agency issue mentioned by Ad in 7 above.
This issue as to what Sage (as Associate Environment Minister) said and to whom re the EPA’s former Chief Scientist, Dr Rowarth, has been simmering for the last two weeks and was one of the leads on this morning’s Morning Report. Here is the audio of the main item: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018639116/green-minister-changes-tune-on-epa-meeting
This article on the RNZ News page provides more information, plus links to some earlier background articles also listed alongside the article:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/354148/green-party-minister-changes-tune-on-epa-meeting
In brief, Sage has been accused of ministerial interference in EPA staffing matters in relation to Dr Rowarth, who resigned earlier this year after Ms Sage, the associate Environment Minister, and others raised concerns about her conduct with Dr Freeth, EPA’s chief executive. As well as forwarding a highly critical article about Dr Rowarth to the EPA, Ms Sage told Parliament 10 days ago she met with Dr Freeth and discussed her.
Eugenie Sage, in a Personal Statement in the House on Tues 3 April, now says she didn’t meet with Dr Freeth when she previously said she did, and doesn’t think she discussed the EPA’s controversial chief scientist with him like she said she had.
Sage’s original statements have led to Dr Freeth having to return to Parliament today, to explain why he told MPs he’d had “absolutely no discussions” with Ms Sage on the matter.
Now Ms Sage says it was actually a meeting with the Ministry for the Environment – not with the EPA, when she raised Dr Rowarth’s behaviourwith the chief executive of the MfE. She now says that she met with the EPA’s Dr Freeth at a later date, When asked whether she discussed Dr Rowarth at the meeting she responded “my memory is that I didn’t”.
On the Parliamentary front, this issue was first raised by National’s Scott Simpson in Question 7 in Question Time on Thursday, 22 March (NOTE – Parliament TV site is down so cannot provide videos at present):
Hansard https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20180322_20180322_08
Simpson then raised a further Question 11 on Tues, 27 March:
Hansard https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20180327_20180327_12
Sage then made a personal statement before Question Time this Tuesday, 3 April:
Hansard https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20180403_20180403_04
Immediately following this, Simon Bridges then raised this issue in the second half of his Q1 to the PM in Question Time:
Hansard https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20180403_20180403_08
All was quiet re this issue in yesterday’s Question Time. Then the story surfaced on Morning Report this morning.
To clarify, the four paras from “In brief, … ” through to the para ending “she responded “my memory is that I didn’t”.” are my paraphrasing of the RNZ New article. The accusations are not mine. I failed to complete my edit to clarify the above before the edit time ran out – meaning my original unclear draft went up as the final.
And here are the videos for all of the Questions and Personal Statement mentioned above.
Question 7 in Question Time on Thursday, 22 March
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=198958
Simpson then raised a further Question 11 on Tues, 27 March:
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=199011
Sage then made a personal statement before Question Time this Tuesday, 3 April:
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=199174
Immediately following this, Simon Bridges then raised this issue in the second half of his Q1 to the PM in Question Time:
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=199184
It took her rather a long time to come up with the correction didn’t it?
I wonder if someone in her office was chasing her to do so?
I don’t really think that anyone much cares about Sage of course. She isn’t Labour, Ardern hasn’t defended her and her role is a pretty innocuous one.
With bigger targets like Curran and Jones they will probably not bother that much about a nonentity like Sage.
It’s a Triple Crown for the Green Party though isn’t it?
A shambles brewing over the Census for Shaw. Misandry, ageism and racism from Genter about “old white men” and now Sage’s memory problems.
As I mentioned in my 10, Bridges raised this Sage matter with the PM on Tuesday in Question Time. You say Ardern did not defend her. I disagree but will leave others to make up their own minds. As it is short here is quote from the entire section of the Bridges/Ardern interchange on the matter from the draft Hansard:
Hon Simon Bridges: Has the Prime Minister had any conversations with Eugenie Sage about whether the Associate Minister had discussions with the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) about the performance or tenure of the Chief Scientist, Jacqueline Rowarth?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Not directly, but as the House will know, the Minister corrected the record based on previous answers at the beginning of question time today.
Hon Simon Bridges: So is the Prime Minister now clear that the chief executive, Dr Freeth, is correct when he says that the Associate Minister is “mistakenly confused” about meeting with the EPA’s chief executive about the Chief Scientist?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The Minister herself corrected the record on that very matter today at the beginning of question time.
Hon Simon Bridges: What does it say about the state of her Government that this week Radio New Zealand and the independent Environmental Protection Authority are having to reappear before select committees over Ministers interfering in independent agencies and covering thing up?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I do not accept the premise of that question. [Interruption]
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Both sides, please.
And here is the video of Q1 on 3 April. The interchange re Sage begins at about 4. 35 mins
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=199184
I also meant to address your remarks re Sage – ie that “her role is a pretty innocuous one” and “a nonentity like Sage”
In this instance, Sage was acting in her capacity as “Associate Minister for the Environment” – with David Parker being the Minister for the Environment and Nanaia Mahuta also being an Associate Minister for the Environment, indicating that considerable importance is accorded to the environment.
Sage also holds the positions of Minister of Conservation and Minister for Land Information – neither of which I would class as innocuous ones, despite the fact there are no Associate Ministers for either of these areas.
I doubt that many people here would consider someone holding those positions as a “nonentity”.
I don’t think the defence of Sage was anything like the one Ardern has put on for Curran. Ardern has come out publicly on Curran’s side as opposed to statements like this answer you quote.
“Not directly, but as the House will know, the Minister corrected the record based on previous answers at the beginning of question time today.”
Hardly a ringing defence of anything is it?
Sage wouldn’t be a scalp for the Opposition the way that Curran would be. Not her party, apart from anything else. I think it is also the case that the General Public haven’t any real knowledge about who the EPA is or what the Conservation Department has to do with them. As for the Chief Scientist I, for one, had never heard of her before this came up.
On the other hand T think almost everybody has heard of RNZ and a lot of people have views on how it operates, particularly when dealing with Politicians. The views may be inaccurate but they are there.
I suppose I should have added to this that I doubt that the Department of the Environment is top of anybody’s “must know about” list.
Stalin would be proud of our media.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2018/04/minimum-wage-a-subsidy-for-business-owners.html
The minimum wage just went up 75c to $16.50, the biggest jump since 2007, still leaving people in poverty.
“….. if you’re paying people less than the living wage, effectively you’re asking them to subsidise your business.”
That’s because low earners get more tax credits and subsidies from the Government, for example through Working for Families, which costs taxpayers $2.2 billion a year.
The living wage takes Government subsidies into account.
“It would have gone up by another $2 an hour if that Families Package hadn’t come in.”
This is another quandary for governments. Continue to subsidise employers via such packages as Working for Families, or work to change the whole system so that wages and benefits are of a ‘living wage standard.”
The Living Wage raise for 2018 has also just been announced, and can be found here.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/04/05/20-55-the-2018-new-zealand-living-wage-rate/
Am i the only person to almost choke on my muesli this morning at the announcement of a massive new profiling tool aimed at overstayers??
If nothing else you would think self interested NZers might at least show some interest in the fact that profiling technology will only spread..young male maori =future criminal….old white dude from Remuera=white collar criminal…middle class female working accounts=fraud etc etc..are we really going to stand by and have people ‘convicted’ based on statistics and probability?? Really??
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/102836086/Immigration-NZ-profiles-overstayers-as-Government-considers-digital-rights
yes another disturbing aspect of the previous admin….so many its hard to keep up.
No you’re not the only one Siobhan. Sanctuary alluded to it above.
As you will have seen (listened) …. the Minister was obviously blindsided by his ‘officials’ and hearing about it at only 6.15AM – what’s that? an hour or so before having to front speaks volumes as to what this coalition gummint is facing.
We could go into specific examples of the type of thing that this ‘big data’ as opposed to ‘good data’ this profiling will produce.
But then @Ad and others are going to assure us we should place (blind) faith in the likes of the Munstry and our betters, so its all good. Better little lady (or genteel homme) to rest your weary head in the knowledge our betters are looking after us with their vast expertise and experience.
That was a curious Question Time today.
Shorter.
Quieter. Trevor tightened up on Questions asked.
Stopped several Opposition questions as soon as the question was asked and would not allow the tag lines supporting each question.
Also stopped answers if going on too long. (Especially patsy ones.)
Lee questioning an absent Cullen didn’t have the effect she expected. Leader of the House Hitchens was the one giving advice instruction to Cullen and answered succinctly.
Seymour had a question but the Minister didn’t have to answer any of them. (DAVID SEYMOUR to the Minister of Finance: Will the Government introduce any of the following taxes which were raised by Sir Michael Cullen on 2 March 2018; a financial transactions tax, a wealth tax, an equalisation tax, a capital gains tax, a land tax, a progressive company tax, environmental taxes, and behavioural taxes?)
Trevor also stopped Brownlie’s point of order especially after Question 12.
Bet there is muttering in the Opposition tonight.
Oops. I meant Lee questioning Clare Curran.
Haven’t been having a good day today ianmac. We’ll put it down to a “senior moment” 😉
It is a bit pedantic but it is Hipkins, not Hitchens and Curran not Cullen. The thought of Michael Cullen back in the House is not something New Zealand deserves.
(It is also Brownlee not Brownlie but that one isn’t of any moment as it isn’t confusing the way the others could be).
edit. You got in the partial correction while I was typing. The rest stands though.
“The thought of Michael Cullen back in the House is not something New Zealand deserves.”
To be fair MC is a clever chap and confusing him with the overly woeful Curran is unbelievable, I’d also prefer Cullen to the current finance minister, I don’t think Grant Robertson is anywhere near the same level.
Mallard has been briefed. There are many, many questions the Govt doesn’t want to have to answer at the moment.
There are also many Ministers the Govt doesn’t want to have to answer any questions at all.
One would think that as the Media are so obviously biased, corrupt and “unfairly against this Govt and poor wee Jacinda” that the Coalition would be raring to go and get the facts out there at Question Time.
Strangely they are not.
Exactly. They are running very scared. The puppetmeister Peters gets much leeway however. Looking at the Leaders of the Parties making up Govt it isn’t hard to understand the sheer incompetence of their minions – many of whom have obviously learned dishonesty around the caucus tables. In many years of watching QT I have never seen such an ongoing farce, although the 3rd Term of Klarkula came close.
Mallard just requires a high standard of questioning as well as of answers.
We are still getting questions from the opposition which do not have anything to do with a Minster’s responsibilities, which is a basic error. There are questions not allowed for having non sequiturs, for irony, for having nothing to do with the original question.
Nick Smith twice (to my certain knowledge as I heard him both times) has misread a primary question, with the Speaker requiring a second attempt at reading aloud from a prepared script.
Faroutdude, you’d better come out with something more concrete than a lazy, unsubstantiated slur against the integrity of the Speaker.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/04/sir-john-key-says-biggest-regret-as-pm-was-not-changing-flag.html
So, this is what John Key says was his greatest regret of his 8 year Prime Ministership.
I wonder what others, contemporaries as we are, and historians later, will say………
My biggest regret about his 8 year Prime Ministership was its existence.
Newshub people will see my phone GPS go all the way to the heart of Ngati-porou country te tairwhiti congratulations to the common wealth game medal winning people. Theres is a story behind the bike sport in Atoearoa. I figure it out last time I watched that program at 7.pm
Nice suit Duncan can’t write to much I’m off on my journey all the best to you Mark and Amanda Ka kite ano