News today that Hahei motor camp is on the market, as is the Whangamata one is bad news for those who cannot afford $2mil beach houses, the less well-off missing out on what used to be a seemingly Gods-own right of a beachfront summer holiday.
What happened to the policy of the Gummint buying these last remaining refuges to save them for the people ?.
It must have been a Labour policy, it obviously doesen’t fit in with “the market will provide”, for the few.
Council/DOC owned camping grounds are on reserve land that cant be sold without revocation of reserve status and that needed to be signed off by the minister of conservation*
They tend to be either leased to a mum and dad operator or run by the council/DOC itself.
* = unfortunately the government sneaked through a law change enabling councils to revoke reserve status without needing ministerial permission, meaning Tory-led councils can flog off parks and reserves with government ‘encouragement’.
I started reading it under the impression it was about how 9-11 troofers could maintain bizarre ideas in the face of evidence. Then I realised it was positing the troofers were right and the rest of us (the sane people) were the ones with the bizarre ideas. So I stopped reading it.
So, yeah, I let my prejudices get the better of me. Because I’ve wasted far too much time investigating the claims of troofer types and they never amount to anything more than paranoid fantasies.
Maybe you could provide a bullet point summary of the key information that will change my mind?
WTC7.
I’ve never heard one of the people on this website who personally attack those who apply critical thinking to the events of 9/11 explain WTC7.
Until they do, I remain sceptical to the official conspiracy theory about 9/11
hi paul,
the thing that strikes me is the abusive reaction that occurs when this subject comes up.
so far: deranged, paranoid fantasies, stfu, parroting drivel.
i am waiting to be accused of being right wing for daring to question the status quo version of events re wtc t7
ten years ago people probably had a bit more tolerance. But since then no new evidence has been presented, and many lies have been debunked (no airplane debris around the pentagon, “within its own footprint”, “freefall speeds”, yadda yadda). In contrast, the official story still stands up.
So I for one am a bit bored with nutbars making a stupid nutbar hobby around the deaths of 3000 people. Oh, and if you’re worried about being called right wing, I’m worried that a legitimate critic of the US can be silenced by comparing them with people who think mini-nukes or nanothermite demolished any of the WTC buildings.
It’s boredom. You all repeat the same long-debunked zombie arguments, and you haven’t produced a scrap of evidence in fourteen years, and not a single member of the conspiracy has come forward, and you all can’t even agree which tune to sing.
It’s like a multi-orchestra Ives collision, only not as melodious.
hi oab,” I’ve issued this challenge before and I will again: what, precisely, is wrong with the engineering calculations involved in the NIST WTC7 report?”
the wrong with the report is that there is no forensic/physical evidence at all, they are based on computer modelling.
modelling based on input data you and i are not priveleged to know about.
therefore you can not be shown the significant flaws.
@ One Anonymous Bloke at 8.57 pm [no Reply button!?]
I have no intention in ‘accepting your challenge’ and I have no idea what or whom I am “stalling”. It just seemed to me that you might not have the faintest idea of basic concepts of S & M.
Thanks for taking the time to post the link, Paul. Sure, it’s meaningless psychobabble, but after 13 and a half years without evidence, I guess there’s not much left for deniers to focus their hopes on.
Apart from an extensive engineering report, that is. And hours of computer modelling, and forensic analysis, and sums.
Which you don’t understand, a sad fact that is becoming more and more obvious. Christ, in the years of rote-learning drivel, you could have actually got a degree in civil engineering.
911 – a bit like christianity in the variation of beliefs – which 911 belief variant are you paul? If you aren’t sure which bit you are in to – check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_conspiracy_theories
But I’ll assume you are up to speed with most of them – do you think planes were involved? do you think Flight 93 was shot down? Do you think that Mossad and the CIA did it? Insider trading?
I’m interested because it is pointless discussing this subject without knowing which variant a person believes and you obviously believe this is a worthy subject to discuss because you’ve put it up on OM.
Winston Peters had every right being upset that Corin Dann tried it on, by wanting to take a live interview with the Northland buy- election losers, Nationals candidate Mark Osborne and campaign manager Stephen Joyce first. After all who convincingly trounced National giving John Key and campaign ‘master stroker’ Joyce their first blood nose since National beat Labour all those years ago.
I saw first hand what was what the following morning in Russell as I was there walking my dog and walking a hangover from the night before’s election party. Dann was up to no good trying to con Peters into a pre recorded interview, presumably so they could
try thy ole ‘edit and mash number.’ Peters was far too aloof for that dirty trick and rightfully held his ground taking the interview live. However Dann still got his way in sorts by interviewing Joyce & co first and making Peters stand around in the rain waiting for the cross. When Dann finally did interview Peters he snarled and treated him with disrespect.
What a nasty little National cheerleader Dann showed himself to be.
While the back end of the article had some useful comments – exactly what is the big oil benefit- the beginning was absolutely cringing.
Yes Winston had every right to not tolerate the fawning over the losers but FFS to compare Northland to a woman who woke to find the wrong guy in bed with her? Wrong on so many levels -sexist, implying that they would have been better waking up to Osbourne , they had a hangover , etc. Demeaning to women, to men, the voters who voted..
Maybe Paul needs to look at his own life if any of this was an acceptable metaphor.
Yup. If people here wanted a non-pokey stick, sans finger pointing discussion on rape culture, then there was the spring-board right there – blaring sirens, flashing red lights and all.
This might be a better starting point. Luddite Journo on Rape Myths in NZ and the NZ media, using a breaking story about an All Black who has been arrested on sexual assault charges and how the media are covering this. Good analysis.
In 2013, research from the specialist sexual violence sector looking at how the media report on sexual violence in Aotearoa showed some disturbing stuff: journalists do not understand the law and they do not interview experts, with no articles featuring commentary from specialist academics or researchers and just 8% featuring commentary from community experts.
This means that our news is full of rape myths, because journalists are like everyone else – they grow up in our rape culture. Despite the importance of the role of the mainstream media in educating the public about sexual violence, the only compulsory reading for student journalists in New Zealand features just three sentences about sexual violence in a 453 page book, and they are not helpful for unlearning rape myths (my emphasis):
“It is illegal to report the victims’ names in any sex crime; it can be unethical and untasteful to describe a sexual crime in graphic detail. It is particularly important to be cautious about taking sides in the reporting: with emotions running high, false complaints are often made regarding sexual offences. Both sides can be very believable in their differing accounts.”
For the record, Police estimate 8% of reports about sexual violence they receive are false. It’s far more common for people to choose not to report to the Police – just one in ten survivors report. Both of these figures come from New Zealand Police, that bastion of feminist activism.
(btw, I think a conversation about rape culture without people thinking there is stick poking going on is almost impossible, here at least. The reasons for that are a complex mix of people taking things personally to the exclusion of the politics, and low tolerance all round leading to not a lot of listening/effective communication)
btw, I think a conversation about rape culture without people thinking there is stick poking going on is almost impossible, here at least. The reasons for that are a complex mix of people taking things personally to the exclusion of the politics, and low tolerance all round leading to not a lot of listening/effective communication.
If the ‘target’ was a neutral (ie, off-site) one, as opposed to ‘half’ the bloody commenters on a particular post, then both the perception of a pokey stick being used and actual pokey sticks being used would be greatly diminished, no? (shrug)*
* really wish there was a thingy jig that produced a shrug. Anyway. (shrug)
Yes, that’s true and certainly lessening such in your face approaches to discussion would help a lot.
I think it’s also true that there are always going to be be people upset personally by the politics. And what do we do with people commenting who are perpetuating rape myths? Once responses to that start, it becomes personal and I don’t see any way around that presently (there’s also the history now, and whether people can get past that). The other unfortunate dynamic is that the conflict happens within groups that should otherwise be political allies (eg the left). I can’t see that changing much until there is greater acceptance within the left of its own issues around gender.
Paul Little is entitled to his opinion but his piece was boringly predictable and did not contain one single original thought or novel insight. Same for Rodney Hide’s piece. At least John Armstrong, John Roughan, and Fran O’Sullivan occasionally surprise me with a really nice angle or insight. There are some whose columns I almost never read, e.g. Mike Hosking’s.
Of course he is entitled to his opinion – “Northland was stupid to vote for Winston when they could have voted for NACT” but really – what a way to express it.
Imagine how much offence would have been generated by comparing NACT to say a streetwalker (who no doubt is more honest and principaled anyway) .
For decades, compulsory voting has done what it was supposed to do: maintain high and socially even turnout levels that are the envy of the industrialised voluntary-voting world. Prior to its introduction at the federal level in 1924, turnout was hovering in the 50–60% range (of registered voters). Since then, it has remained steady for many decades at around 93%.
While Australia’s young are less inclined to vote than older cohorts, because of compulsory voting 83% of 18-25 year olds still turn out to vote. Compare this to Britain where only around 44% of young people vote, or Canada where the figure hovers at around 37 to 38% or, worse still, the US. There, in the recent midterm elections, only 22% of young people bothered to cast a ballot.
IIRC, our young also don’t vote in droves.
Many studies have indicated that government attention and spending are directly related to the size of electorate cohorts. Older people vote and so governments spend far more per capita on them than they do on the young. Governments are also a lot more responsive to the policy concerns of older voters.
We see this here as governments continue to fail to do anything about bubbling house prices because it will upset the older voters who a) own houses and b) don’t want to see their paper wealth decrease.
Libertarians like Finn think that the cost of losing their freedom to stay away on polling day is too high. But what about the real-life cost to freedom of being poor, homeless, unemployed and under-employed? In every advanced voluntary system the world over, the less likely you are to vote, the more likely you are to experience one, some, or all of these things.
But in compulsory systems where voting is universal and socially even, government attention and spending is more evenly distributed. Simply put, there is less wealth inequality in compulsory systems.
Definitely worth considering. I think it’s time that we went to compulsory voting in NZ.
Indeed.
But one could argue that nobody would be forced to join a union for a specific job. After all, the tories think that working at a specific place is a choice, right? Can’t have your cake and eat it too.
We pride ourselves on religious freedom in this country, and one way to support religious freedom, is to support the right not to vote on religious grounds. We have a system where by people exercise their citizen duty by enrolling to vote. And can simply not vote, without jumping through hoops.
I also think we need to ask, rather than use force – why young people are not voting and do not want to vote. I inclined to believe they see through the corruption and hypocrisy of our politicians. Coupled with the fact, the corporations and the 1% are the ones welding power, and no vote or democratic outcome – will make a damn bit of difference with those worshippers of cupidity.
Voting could change the system if more people voted. Not voting will certainly entrench it.
IMO, the big difference between those who don’t support compulsory voting and those of us who do is a matter of perspective. They view voting as a right which people can choose to use or not while I view it as a responsibility that cannot, and should not, be avoided.
We must all have a say in our governance so that our full wisdom is brought to bear rather than just the desires of the rich and elderly.
Draco I understand where you’re coming from with this particular ‘compulsion’
IMO making voting compulsory would not equate to systematic change in an of itself
Making voting compulsory could lead to more people politicizing themselves which in turn could lead to grass roots level change through awareness but the established and entrenched will adjust as necessary to retain control the same way it has done for decades
Compulsory voting is likely to lead to little more than higher invalid vote count and fines (assuming the Australian model of compulsion) as the only way the system knows how to ‘encourage’ people is through monetary penalty
Using Northland as an example of where engagement was in higher numbers but look at what the catalysts were to achieving greater engagement
The establishment is no longer for the people and is in dire need of replacement not greater involvement is propping it up
There are many who have chosen the options of distraction and there are many who have chosen a multitude of other options
At some point in the timeline there will be a convergence as the many chosen options are dwindled into a few available options out of absolute necessity
It is once we arrive at that juncture of absolute necessity we will see what those few options actually are and how humanity individually and collectively responds
Too late by then. My comment was more about people who think they know what the future is, or how things will play out. If there’s one thing we can know about the situation we are in, it’s that the ball is in the air and we don’t know where it’s going to land.
It appears as if we have not hit rock bottom as a species yet which is disturbing and unsurprising at the same time
To me that is an indicator the juncture has not been reached so I would hope that it won’t be “too late” when it does come because as a species like with addicts it seems we will have to collectively ‘bottom out’ prior to reaching the road to healing
It’ll be too late in terms of climate change. We have a window, closing fast. Waiting for the crisis that will force people to change will be too late.
The sourness of the Paul Little article is very telling. A mark of the perennial, passive-aggressive media dissemination of the Crosby Textor construct narrative – “Key is gold !”. And its extension – “……ergo, all challengers are base”.
Oh “Boo !” Paul Little…….were there the foundation for “John Key quipped…..” you and your mates’d be writing it up as the political howler of the new century. Some would say many of your PC’s templates need serious modification if not deletion. That ain’t gonna kill ya.
Little’s sourness (not saved by cursory mention of Northland issues) reminds me of when Helen Clark appointed Peters foreign minister all those years ago – the Press Gallery in high dudgeon in the flavour of – “We simply will not tolerate this !!!”
funnily enough, I was just thinking today that both the frequency and degree of outright nutty arguments have decreased markedly over the last week or so. And then 9/11 comes up again…
Khalida Jarrar is one of the central leaders of the PFLP, a member of its politbureau.
On April 2,dozens of soldiers of the Israeli occupation forced their way into her home in Ramallah and arrested her for “terrorist” involvement – the usual Israeli designation for anyone resisting the occupation.
After holding her for a while at an Israeli detention centre in the West Bank, they moved her to a prison in Israel.
Jarrar is particularly involved with the rights of Palestinian prisoners and the liberation of Palestinian women.
Think about the sort of vote Social Credit had. Although many people who voted SC at their height are probably dead now and SC hasn’t existed as a mass force for 30 years or more, there will be plenty of people with some sort of memory of them. There was always a natural Social Credit constituency in rural areas and NZF could easily mop up whatever elements of it still exist.
Whereas other parties – Alliance, ACT, Anderton’s Progressives, Mauri Pacific, Peters’ outfit – have come and gone (and I suspect the Maori Party will go too) – the two MMP-era parties that have a future, because they have a constituency, a stable socio-political base, are the Greens and NZF.
NZF is to the left of Labour on economic policy and to the right of them on social issues. And there’s enough people like that, especially in the regions, to give them a couple of electorate seats and maybe 10% of the vote, possibly even get them back to 1996 levels (I think they got over 13% of the vote that year, I recall they had 17 MPs) as long as they have Winston and provided they manage the succession well. I think either Ron Marks or Shane Jones would do, to keep that base. I think the leader of NZF, for some time anyway, interestingly, will need to be Maori.
One thing about NZF that is also often forgotten is just how big their core base of support is in the Maori seats. They’re the only party apart from Labour to have held all the Maori seats. Moreover, when they captured all the Maori seats, they also won the party vote in all of them but one. They did far, far better than the Maori Party at its height. While that support dropped away, Winston is not just popular among old National types who recall the days when National pursued Keynesian economics; he’s also really popular among Maori because he’s seen as a ‘Maori boy made good’ who sticks it up to the establishment.
So are the so-called ‘left’ parties now going to drop the ‘two ticks’ policy for the 2017 General Election?
ie: Campaign hard and strong for the PARTY vote, but campaign strategically for the ELECTORATE vote, especially in pivotal seats?
Given that ‘doing a Northland’ has proven to be rather spectacularly successful?
ie: Vote strategically for the candidate that has the best chance of taking the seat off National, or National’s coalition allies?
In my view, that doesn’t mean so-called ‘left’ political parties not standing electorate candidates in pivotal seats, but campaigning on the issues, for PARTY not ELECTORATE votes.
The reason why I say ‘so-called left parties’ is because, in my view, that terminology became redundant after the 1984 – 87 Labour Government introduced the neo-liberal ‘Rogernomic$’ reforms.
In my view – the line in the sand is ‘public majority’ vs ‘corporate minority’ and those who serve their interests….
What I have found is a useful yardstick in deciding ‘who is the MAIN electoral enemy’ – as it were – is to check the ‘mood of the boardroom’ (BIG business CEOs) – find out who THEY would prefer to run NZ in the House – then do the opposite.
Because, in my opinion, that’s how our NZ ‘democracy’ works – according to the ‘Golden Rule’.
ie: Those who have the gold make the rules, and we get the government that the majority of BIG business wants us to have.
1) It is a counter-productive dichotomy to view politics as warfare between friends/allies versus enemies to produce “winners & losers”. This is 20th-century politics; it is time to invent and develop new paradigms;
2) It runs counter to critical independent thinking and taking full ownership of one’s own choices.
1) It is a counter-productive dichotomy to view politics as warfare between friends/allies versus enemies to produce “winners & losers”. This is 20th-century politics; it is time to invent and develop new paradigms;
Matthew Gardiner, the Northern Territory unionist who fought against ISIS has been arrested on return to Oz. He could be looking at a lengthy jail term for doing independently what Australia wants to train the Iraqi troops to do for themselves.
Look at the photo of Matthew Gardiner. An intelligent, compassionate and rational person who is on the same side as the Western powers. So, who is mad? The Australian law enforcers that’s who. Someone should arrest them and now?!!
Whose fault? Our fault. Don’t read if you want to remain ignorant
Hidden in an unknown corner of Inner Mongolia is a toxic, nightmarish lake created by our thirst for smartphones, consumer gadgets and green tech, discovers Tim Maughan…
We reached the shore, and looked across the lake. I’d seen some photos before I left for Inner Mongolia, but nothing prepared me for the sight. It’s a truly alien environment, dystopian and horrifying. The thought that it is man-made depressed and terrified me, as did the realisation that this was the byproduct not just of the consumer electronics in my pocket, but also green technologies like wind turbines and electric cars that we get so smugly excited about in the West. Unsure of quite how to react, I take photos and shoot video on my cerium polished iPhone.
This example is precisely why I switch off when it comes to discussions and articles about ‘climate change’
There are prerequisite activities not to mention systematic changes to the current ‘capitalist consumerist model’ which far precede any functionally useful discussions around ‘climate change’
Until the prerequisites are being addressed and actions taken to radically alter the mode of operation such wastelands will continue to multiply and expand
Regardless of your views on Easter Sunday/Good Friday trading, you all have to admit, that it is stupid to forbid the selling of alcohol on Easter Sunday. This is sort of the stuff that happens in Saudi Arabia…
hi millsy, not everyone would have to admit it is stupid to forbid sale of liquor on easter sunday.
people who are made to give up their time to sell it for a start.
Global warming / climate change .
Just finished watching Tony Robinson on prime , Birth of Britain .
It seems about three hundred thousand years ago Britain was at least 5 degrees warmer than today , all sorts of animals roamed the country , lions , hippos etc etc .
O’dear along came an ice age , followed by , you guessed it , global warming and of course the ice melted .
Science has proved it’s about a 300 thousand year cycle , plenty of proof this happened .
One thing for sure global warming at the time wasn’t man made .
Ignorant rto. Somebody said it happened 300,000 years ago. Is he a Climate change denier? They’re very good at making things up. Even so there are other reasons why it might have happened 300,000 years ago. Today it is largely due to a rapid increase in CO2 output caused by humankind. Hope you have grandkids. Serve you right if they die before their allotted time. More than likely they will view people like yourself with utter contempt for being so stupid (mind you most deniers can’t help that) and blind and landing them and their kids in such a terrible mess.
I watched it too, RtO. You’re almost there. Well done! Everyone give RtO a little golf clap for being so brave as to admit the recent climate change exists.
The last little baby step you need, RtO, is to discover the timescale of previous climate change events, and compare that with the timescale of this one. Google “snowball earth” if you really want to learn something.
Then for good measure, compare that with the timescale of the climate change in the Anthropocene. And the trend in the atmospheric carbon isotope ratio.
Then you can reflect on the fact that Tony Robinson can be sure of his facts because Climatology, which you claim is a hoax.
And then you can imagine my contempt and derision.
As someone who has some understanding of metal – I know that the heat generated from burning airplane fuel (kerosene) cannot possibly melt steel, and cause the Twin Towers to collapse in their own footprint at free fall speed.
You are not allowed to question 9/11 on this site.
Free thinking is banned on this subject.
Personal insults are the substitute for critical thinking and discussion.
Perhaps the fact that your modus operandum is to insult people’s intelligence by raising long-dead zombie arguments rather than admitting you’ve got nothing substantive to say, has something to do with the reaction you get.
Sums. Hard work. NIST report. Fourteen years of this inept flailing.
That’s what I tried to explain to the auditors, but they wouldn’t listen… /sarc
Seriously, are you arguing that the NIST report is wrong even if all its sums are correct? That the sums are correct, but that the conclusions the sums lead to are incorrect?
So, muphrey, when you wrote”Q. Who here knows the content of the 28 redacted pages of the report ?” in a subthread specifically about the NIST report, your reference to “the report” was a reference to a random one of the millions of other reports published in human history rather than the report that was the topic of discussion?
Thanks for your contribution. One day you might avoid being a waste of column-space.
For me, it feels a bit like when I get climate deniers on here.
When I notice it, I tend to shift from the acerbic to the outright sarcastic in my comments to them. When I have time, I take a dissection tool to whatever the fools arguments are. Basically I tear at their knowledge and their egos. Mostly because having done some training around the science, fantasists on the subject just piss me off. Since I’m not a climate scientist, I don’t need to be polite and don’t really feel constrained by their usual restraint when dealing with scientific illiterates.
This is also known as free thinking and (relatively) free speech. For me it is pleasant fun and robust debate.
The same applies to 9/11, chemtrails, vaccinations conspiracies, fluoridation and a whole pile of other theories. I generally ignore most of those. But so far I haven’t seen much evidence that convinces me that there is anything substantive on them. But they still get allowed, with the usual extremely skeptical audience.
As a moderator, about the only I usually notice ‘free-tinker’ behaviour if they start astroturfing comments, doing the diversion off topic in other posts that aren’t on those topics, making assertions of fact without linking or explaining, or when they start doing the whine that people disagree with them and are unpleasant in how they point that out. With a subtext that free speech should be allowed for them, but not for others. These are all behaviours that aren’t permitted to exist on the site to any large extent. I usually point them to policy, and if it keeps repeating, I escalate from warnings to bans.
But if it is just robust debate, I just keep an eye on them to see if anything is going over the line.
Gosh have you seen this, we know that the Nats have infiltrated all the public services and filled them at taxpayers expense with flunkies but still… astonishing the level of control!
Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy was advised to ignore calls and don’t answer the phone following concerns raised over foreign drivers.
Last month, the Otago Daily Times requested an interview with the commissioner after publishing a story on a Dunedin man who snatched keys from a foreign driver.
Following her refusal to front, the ODT filed an Official Information Act (OIA) request for all documents received or sent by the commissioner on the topic.
The first email, from an undisclosed employee of the Human Rights Commission immediately following the OIA request, advised the commissioner to “ignore calls and don’t answer phone”.
“Media are after you for comment on foreign drivers getting keys taken off them … we really don’t want to get into this … Police have had their say, PM is all over it etc etc so we are best to leave it at this.”
A follow-up email to the commissioner said: “I want to keep comments from me so that you are not seen to be commenting on this issue at all … Right now we’ve had no complaints and it’s an operational policing issue that needs to be sorted out at that level immediately, it is also anecdotal with a lot of media hype.”
My God maybe good news after all, is MSM stepping up with real news???
I agree with the final bit in that link (it’s not a race relations issue). But the emails seem weird. Pity the ODT didn’t report on that more fully. I do wonder if it speaks more to Devoy’s um lack of experience in the job and staffers trying to save themselves some bother, than Ministerial interference. Isn’t the HRC one of the depts getting cut?
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Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
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 ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
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 ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
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News today that Hahei motor camp is on the market, as is the Whangamata one is bad news for those who cannot afford $2mil beach houses, the less well-off missing out on what used to be a seemingly Gods-own right of a beachfront summer holiday.
What happened to the policy of the Gummint buying these last remaining refuges to save them for the people ?.
It must have been a Labour policy, it obviously doesen’t fit in with “the market will provide”, for the few.
were they council owned?
They look to be privately owned.
Council/DOC owned camping grounds are on reserve land that cant be sold without revocation of reserve status and that needed to be signed off by the minister of conservation*
They tend to be either leased to a mum and dad operator or run by the council/DOC itself.
* = unfortunately the government sneaked through a law change enabling councils to revoke reserve status without needing ministerial permission, meaning Tory-led councils can flog off parks and reserves with government ‘encouragement’.
‘Why Do Good People Become Silent—or Worse—About 9/11?’
By Frances T. Shure
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41437.htm
For trp and others in denial about 9/11
Is Open Mike the place where the deranged and strange are allowed to play?
If so, I’ll avoid it.
Though I’m premeptive mock Pasupial’s feeble protest. Nice to see he’s in the right place.
So you actually read the article?
Of came to a prejudiced opinion?
I started reading it under the impression it was about how 9-11 troofers could maintain bizarre ideas in the face of evidence. Then I realised it was positing the troofers were right and the rest of us (the sane people) were the ones with the bizarre ideas. So I stopped reading it.
So, yeah, I let my prejudices get the better of me. Because I’ve wasted far too much time investigating the claims of troofer types and they never amount to anything more than paranoid fantasies.
Maybe you could provide a bullet point summary of the key information that will change my mind?
WTC7.
I’ve never heard one of the people on this website who personally attack those who apply critical thinking to the events of 9/11 explain WTC7.
Until they do, I remain sceptical to the official conspiracy theory about 9/11
What’s to explain?
I’ve issued this challenge before and I will again: what, precisely, is wrong with the engineering calculations involved in the NIST WTC7 report?
Just to be clear, I want to be shown the significant flaws in NIST’s computer modelling and calculations. Or stfu.
The silencing of dissent.
No, the challenge to do some maths instead of parroting drivel.
hi paul,
the thing that strikes me is the abusive reaction that occurs when this subject comes up.
so far: deranged, paranoid fantasies, stfu, parroting drivel.
i am waiting to be accused of being right wing for daring to question the status quo version of events re wtc t7
ten years ago people probably had a bit more tolerance. But since then no new evidence has been presented, and many lies have been debunked (no airplane debris around the pentagon, “within its own footprint”, “freefall speeds”, yadda yadda). In contrast, the official story still stands up.
So I for one am a bit bored with nutbars making a stupid nutbar hobby around the deaths of 3000 people. Oh, and if you’re worried about being called right wing, I’m worried that a legitimate critic of the US can be silenced by comparing them with people who think mini-nukes or nanothermite demolished any of the WTC buildings.
It’s boredom. You all repeat the same long-debunked zombie arguments, and you haven’t produced a scrap of evidence in fourteen years, and not a single member of the conspiracy has come forward, and you all can’t even agree which tune to sing.
It’s like a multi-orchestra Ives collision, only not as melodious.
Q. Who here knows the content of the 28 redacted pages of the report ?
NIST’s reports are in the public domain and contain no redacted pages, let alone 28. Please try and pay some attention.
Q. Why would you assume I was referring to a NIST report ?
I couldn’t care less what you’re wanking on about. I issued a very specific challenge regarding NIST, and you failed to change the subject.
hi oab,” I’ve issued this challenge before and I will again: what, precisely, is wrong with the engineering calculations involved in the NIST WTC7 report?”
the wrong with the report is that there is no forensic/physical evidence at all, they are based on computer modelling.
modelling based on input data you and i are not priveleged to know about.
therefore you can not be shown the significant flaws.
What you call “input data” is simply the initial state of the model. Which is, duh, in the model.
It seems to me that you are conflating variables with parameters.
It seems to me you’re stalling rather than taking up my challenge.
@ One Anonymous Bloke at 8.57 pm [no Reply button!?]
I have no intention in ‘accepting your challenge’ and I have no idea what or whom I am “stalling”. It just seemed to me that you might not have the faintest idea of basic concepts of S & M.
S&M? Building 7 collapsed because of faulty nipple clamps?
“the wrong with the report is that there is no forensic/physical evidence at all, they are based on computer modelling.”
That sounds suspiciously similar to the rhetoric that climate science denialists use.
Thanks for taking the time to post the link, Paul. Sure, it’s meaningless psychobabble, but after 13 and a half years without evidence, I guess there’s not much left for deniers to focus their hopes on.
I agree no plausible evidence has been presented by the US govt to explain WTC7
Apart from an extensive engineering report, that is. And hours of computer modelling, and forensic analysis, and sums.
Which you don’t understand, a sad fact that is becoming more and more obvious. Christ, in the years of rote-learning drivel, you could have actually got a degree in civil engineering.
911 – a bit like christianity in the variation of beliefs – which 911 belief variant are you paul? If you aren’t sure which bit you are in to – check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_conspiracy_theories
But I’ll assume you are up to speed with most of them – do you think planes were involved? do you think Flight 93 was shot down? Do you think that Mossad and the CIA did it? Insider trading?
I’m interested because it is pointless discussing this subject without knowing which variant a person believes and you obviously believe this is a worthy subject to discuss because you’ve put it up on OM.
Good post…^
Paul Little should stop playing ‘Chicken Little.’
Winston Peters had every right being upset that Corin Dann tried it on, by wanting to take a live interview with the Northland buy- election losers, Nationals candidate Mark Osborne and campaign manager Stephen Joyce first. After all who convincingly trounced National giving John Key and campaign ‘master stroker’ Joyce their first blood nose since National beat Labour all those years ago.
I saw first hand what was what the following morning in Russell as I was there walking my dog and walking a hangover from the night before’s election party. Dann was up to no good trying to con Peters into a pre recorded interview, presumably so they could
try thy ole ‘edit and mash number.’ Peters was far too aloof for that dirty trick and rightfully held his ground taking the interview live. However Dann still got his way in sorts by interviewing Joyce & co first and making Peters stand around in the rain waiting for the cross. When Dann finally did interview Peters he snarled and treated him with disrespect.
What a nasty little National cheerleader Dann showed himself to be.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11427934
While the back end of the article had some useful comments – exactly what is the big oil benefit- the beginning was absolutely cringing.
Yes Winston had every right to not tolerate the fawning over the losers but FFS to compare Northland to a woman who woke to find the wrong guy in bed with her? Wrong on so many levels -sexist, implying that they would have been better waking up to Osbourne , they had a hangover , etc. Demeaning to women, to men, the voters who voted..
Maybe Paul needs to look at his own life if any of this was an acceptable metaphor.
+1 RB, on so many levels, and unnecessary to make the points.
Yup. If people here wanted a non-pokey stick, sans finger pointing discussion on rape culture, then there was the spring-board right there – blaring sirens, flashing red lights and all.
Oh well…. 🙁
This might be a better starting point. Luddite Journo on Rape Myths in NZ and the NZ media, using a breaking story about an All Black who has been arrested on sexual assault charges and how the media are covering this. Good analysis.
http://thehandmirror.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/telling-stories-about-rape.html
(btw, I think a conversation about rape culture without people thinking there is stick poking going on is almost impossible, here at least. The reasons for that are a complex mix of people taking things personally to the exclusion of the politics, and low tolerance all round leading to not a lot of listening/effective communication)
Thanks for the extract and link Weka.
Also thanks from me too
btw, I think a conversation about rape culture without people thinking there is stick poking going on is almost impossible, here at least. The reasons for that are a complex mix of people taking things personally to the exclusion of the politics, and low tolerance all round leading to not a lot of listening/effective communication.
If the ‘target’ was a neutral (ie, off-site) one, as opposed to ‘half’ the bloody commenters on a particular post, then both the perception of a pokey stick being used and actual pokey sticks being used would be greatly diminished, no? (shrug)*
* really wish there was a thingy jig that produced a shrug. Anyway. (shrug)
Yes, that’s true and certainly lessening such in your face approaches to discussion would help a lot.
I think it’s also true that there are always going to be be people upset personally by the politics. And what do we do with people commenting who are perpetuating rape myths? Once responses to that start, it becomes personal and I don’t see any way around that presently (there’s also the history now, and whether people can get past that). The other unfortunate dynamic is that the conflict happens within groups that should otherwise be political allies (eg the left). I can’t see that changing much until there is greater acceptance within the left of its own issues around gender.
+1 I don’t think he will have emerged from under the rock he has self inflicted himself to hide under by Tuesday. He will be a no show at work.
Paul Little is entitled to his opinion but his piece was boringly predictable and did not contain one single original thought or novel insight. Same for Rodney Hide’s piece. At least John Armstrong, John Roughan, and Fran O’Sullivan occasionally surprise me with a really nice angle or insight. There are some whose columns I almost never read, e.g. Mike Hosking’s.
Of course he is entitled to his opinion – “Northland was stupid to vote for Winston when they could have voted for NACT” but really – what a way to express it.
Imagine how much offence would have been generated by comparing NACT to say a streetwalker (who no doubt is more honest and principaled anyway) .
Compulsory voting, much like democracy, beats the alternatives
Significantly better than ours.
IIRC, our young also don’t vote in droves.
We see this here as governments continue to fail to do anything about bubbling house prices because it will upset the older voters who a) own houses and b) don’t want to see their paper wealth decrease.
Definitely worth considering. I think it’s time that we went to compulsory voting in NZ.
Agree +++ and compulsory unionism.
Compulsory unionism violates the UN declaration of Human Rights as well as the NZ Bill of Rights.
(Disclaimer – before anyone says otherwise I have no problem with unions and support unionisation)
Even if that were true, there are a myriad ways around that, from closed shops to preventing freeloading on collective conditions.
It is true. Article 20 of the UN declaration of human rights specifically outlines the freedom of association.
Indeed.
But one could argue that nobody would be forced to join a union for a specific job. After all, the tories think that working at a specific place is a choice, right? Can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Take it up with the UN
lol did they have a problem with NZ before the employment contracts act?
Surely, you could just ban freeloading on collective conditions?
Anyone not in the union has to go through a negotiating process to achieve their Ts and Cs.
And if they end up getting the same or better Ts and Cs than the union, then the union takes action.
I thought there was a move in this direction in the final Clark administration. Whatever happened to it?
too little, too late.
I’ve heard that prior to the ECA the situation was not technically “compulsory” unionism. Still managed to get a unionised workforce, though.
Disagree with compulsory voting.
We pride ourselves on religious freedom in this country, and one way to support religious freedom, is to support the right not to vote on religious grounds. We have a system where by people exercise their citizen duty by enrolling to vote. And can simply not vote, without jumping through hoops.
I also think we need to ask, rather than use force – why young people are not voting and do not want to vote. I inclined to believe they see through the corruption and hypocrisy of our politicians. Coupled with the fact, the corporations and the 1% are the ones welding power, and no vote or democratic outcome – will make a damn bit of difference with those worshippers of cupidity.
We dont need cumplsory voting, we just need decent candidates and policies.
Compulsory voting for a system which kills and maims and impoverishes …
No thanks
Voting could change the system if more people voted. Not voting will certainly entrench it.
IMO, the big difference between those who don’t support compulsory voting and those of us who do is a matter of perspective. They view voting as a right which people can choose to use or not while I view it as a responsibility that cannot, and should not, be avoided.
We must all have a say in our governance so that our full wisdom is brought to bear rather than just the desires of the rich and elderly.
Draco I understand where you’re coming from with this particular ‘compulsion’
IMO making voting compulsory would not equate to systematic change in an of itself
Making voting compulsory could lead to more people politicizing themselves which in turn could lead to grass roots level change through awareness but the established and entrenched will adjust as necessary to retain control the same way it has done for decades
Compulsory voting is likely to lead to little more than higher invalid vote count and fines (assuming the Australian model of compulsion) as the only way the system knows how to ‘encourage’ people is through monetary penalty
Using Northland as an example of where engagement was in higher numbers but look at what the catalysts were to achieving greater engagement
The establishment is no longer for the people and is in dire need of replacement not greater involvement is propping it up
We have two ways to change the system:
1. Voting for change
2. Bloody revolution
That’s it. There is no other way. You say that we need to change the system and yet you don’t want to use the first.
The system(s) all of them are completely controlled
Treating the electoral system in a vacuum will not alter where we are all headed
Regrettably option two appears the higher chance of success which is hardly an endorsement for it
The path is already decided
oh, good, we can all go back to our playstations and flatscreen teevees then.
Hi Weka
There are many who have chosen the options of distraction and there are many who have chosen a multitude of other options
At some point in the timeline there will be a convergence as the many chosen options are dwindled into a few available options out of absolute necessity
It is once we arrive at that juncture of absolute necessity we will see what those few options actually are and how humanity individually and collectively responds
Too late by then. My comment was more about people who think they know what the future is, or how things will play out. If there’s one thing we can know about the situation we are in, it’s that the ball is in the air and we don’t know where it’s going to land.
(shit, did I just use a sporting analogy).
It appears as if we have not hit rock bottom as a species yet which is disturbing and unsurprising at the same time
To me that is an indicator the juncture has not been reached so I would hope that it won’t be “too late” when it does come because as a species like with addicts it seems we will have to collectively ‘bottom out’ prior to reaching the road to healing
The ball is certainly in the air
It’ll be too late in terms of climate change. We have a window, closing fast. Waiting for the crisis that will force people to change will be too late.
https://henrytapper.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/change.jpeg
HuffPost Canada is reporting that Tom Mulcair has said that if the NDP wins the upcoming Federal election it will be Canada’s last under FPTP. He’s committed to MMP NZ-style.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/01/02/mulcair-ndp-proportional-representation_n_6407056.html
The sourness of the Paul Little article is very telling. A mark of the perennial, passive-aggressive media dissemination of the Crosby Textor construct narrative – “Key is gold !”. And its extension – “……ergo, all challengers are base”.
Oh “Boo !” Paul Little…….were there the foundation for “John Key quipped…..” you and your mates’d be writing it up as the political howler of the new century. Some would say many of your PC’s templates need serious modification if not deletion. That ain’t gonna kill ya.
Little’s sourness (not saved by cursory mention of Northland issues) reminds me of when Helen Clark appointed Peters foreign minister all those years ago – the Press Gallery in high dudgeon in the flavour of – “We simply will not tolerate this !!!”
7 days remaining until the scheduled return of the Rawshark 2.
+100 Parsupial…and hope you saw the moon last night
I only saw the partial eclipse (about the same as the; @kristen_nz, tweet pic in this RNZ article) before it clouded over and started drizzling:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/270324/-blood-moon-seen-across-nz
Wow thanks very much…I must admit I forgot to watch…distracted elsewhere….but those picture are very good!
funnily enough, I was just thinking today that both the frequency and degree of outright nutty arguments have decreased markedly over the last week or so. And then 9/11 comes up again…
Interesting article and film about a group of workers in New York struggling on five (US) dollars an hour. They’re sandwich makers at a deli.
Five dollars an hour in the land of the free: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/five-dollars-an-hour-in-the-land-of-the-free/
Meanwhile, in Mexico, fruitpickers are taking on some of the world’s biggest and richest companies: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/mexican-farm-workers-strike/
In the south of Ireland, 6,000 workers at one of the largest retail chains went on strike on Thursday against low-hours contracts, low pay, and for full recognition of their union by the retail company: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/6000-dunnes-stores-workers-strike-in-south-of-ireland/
Here, the Cotton On distribution workers won a victory, fairly rare these days for the working class: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/workers-at-cotton-on-win-pay-and-teabreak-victory/
Paleo meets Silicone.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/67613218/nicky-watson-and-paleo-pete-to-marry
lol nice line
Free Khalida Jarrar.
Khalida Jarrar is one of the central leaders of the PFLP, a member of its politbureau.
On April 2,dozens of soldiers of the Israeli occupation forced their way into her home in Ramallah and arrested her for “terrorist” involvement – the usual Israeli designation for anyone resisting the occupation.
After holding her for a while at an Israeli detention centre in the West Bank, they moved her to a prison in Israel.
Jarrar is particularly involved with the rights of Palestinian prisoners and the liberation of Palestinian women.
Story at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/free-khalida-jarrar/
Re: NZ First becoming a “country party”.
I think this is a natural constituency for them.
Think about the sort of vote Social Credit had. Although many people who voted SC at their height are probably dead now and SC hasn’t existed as a mass force for 30 years or more, there will be plenty of people with some sort of memory of them. There was always a natural Social Credit constituency in rural areas and NZF could easily mop up whatever elements of it still exist.
Whereas other parties – Alliance, ACT, Anderton’s Progressives, Mauri Pacific, Peters’ outfit – have come and gone (and I suspect the Maori Party will go too) – the two MMP-era parties that have a future, because they have a constituency, a stable socio-political base, are the Greens and NZF.
NZF is to the left of Labour on economic policy and to the right of them on social issues. And there’s enough people like that, especially in the regions, to give them a couple of electorate seats and maybe 10% of the vote, possibly even get them back to 1996 levels (I think they got over 13% of the vote that year, I recall they had 17 MPs) as long as they have Winston and provided they manage the succession well. I think either Ron Marks or Shane Jones would do, to keep that base. I think the leader of NZF, for some time anyway, interestingly, will need to be Maori.
One thing about NZF that is also often forgotten is just how big their core base of support is in the Maori seats. They’re the only party apart from Labour to have held all the Maori seats. Moreover, when they captured all the Maori seats, they also won the party vote in all of them but one. They did far, far better than the Maori Party at its height. While that support dropped away, Winston is not just popular among old National types who recall the days when National pursued Keynesian economics; he’s also really popular among Maori because he’s seen as a ‘Maori boy made good’ who sticks it up to the establishment.
So are the so-called ‘left’ parties now going to drop the ‘two ticks’ policy for the 2017 General Election?
ie: Campaign hard and strong for the PARTY vote, but campaign strategically for the ELECTORATE vote, especially in pivotal seats?
Given that ‘doing a Northland’ has proven to be rather spectacularly successful?
ie: Vote strategically for the candidate that has the best chance of taking the seat off National, or National’s coalition allies?
In my view, that doesn’t mean so-called ‘left’ political parties not standing electorate candidates in pivotal seats, but campaigning on the issues, for PARTY not ELECTORATE votes.
The reason why I say ‘so-called left parties’ is because, in my view, that terminology became redundant after the 1984 – 87 Labour Government introduced the neo-liberal ‘Rogernomic$’ reforms.
In my view – the line in the sand is ‘public majority’ vs ‘corporate minority’ and those who serve their interests….
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
What I have found is a useful yardstick in deciding ‘who is the MAIN electoral enemy’ – as it were – is to check the ‘mood of the boardroom’ (BIG business CEOs) – find out who THEY would prefer to run NZ in the House – then do the opposite.
Because, in my opinion, that’s how our NZ ‘democracy’ works – according to the ‘Golden Rule’.
ie: Those who have the gold make the rules, and we get the government that the majority of BIG business wants us to have.
Penny Bright
“check the ‘mood of the boardroom’ (BIG business CEOs) – find out who THEY would prefer to run NZ in the House”
Good point, but HOW do we or the ordinary voters find out that info from the BB CEOs?
I strongly disagree for two reasons:
1) It is a counter-productive dichotomy to view politics as warfare between friends/allies versus enemies to produce “winners & losers”. This is 20th-century politics; it is time to invent and develop new paradigms;
2) It runs counter to critical independent thinking and taking full ownership of one’s own choices.
1) It is a counter-productive dichotomy to view politics as warfare between friends/allies versus enemies to produce “winners & losers”. This is 20th-century politics; it is time to invent and develop new paradigms;
^this
Matthew Gardiner, the Northern Territory unionist who fought against ISIS has been arrested on return to Oz. He could be looking at a lengthy jail term for doing independently what Australia wants to train the Iraqi troops to do for themselves.
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/former-labor-party-president-matthew-gardiner-arrested-at-darwin-airport-20150405-1meqhx.html
Thanks for the link te reo putake – Disgraceful from the the Australian Government.
Up’s to Bill – he has said this would happen, many times over the last few months here on the standard.
+1
Shockingly disgraceful.
Look at the photo of Matthew Gardiner. An intelligent, compassionate and rational person who is on the same side as the Western powers. So, who is mad? The Australian law enforcers that’s who. Someone should arrest them and now?!!
He has been release without begin charge, but AFP are still continuing with its enquiries in regards to his time spent of overseas.
Canada beat NZ in the world sevens in Tokyo…..!shock and awe.
Whose fault? Our fault. Don’t read if you want to remain ignorant
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth?ocid=global_future_rss
This example is precisely why I switch off when it comes to discussions and articles about ‘climate change’
There are prerequisite activities not to mention systematic changes to the current ‘capitalist consumerist model’ which far precede any functionally useful discussions around ‘climate change’
Until the prerequisites are being addressed and actions taken to radically alter the mode of operation such wastelands will continue to multiply and expand
A sobering link
Thanks MM
Regardless of your views on Easter Sunday/Good Friday trading, you all have to admit, that it is stupid to forbid the selling of alcohol on Easter Sunday. This is sort of the stuff that happens in Saudi Arabia…
Meh, I don’t know if it’s that bad to have a couple of holidays in NZ that aren’t entirely piss-focused.
hi millsy, not everyone would have to admit it is stupid to forbid sale of liquor on easter sunday.
people who are made to give up their time to sell it for a start.
Global warming / climate change .
Just finished watching Tony Robinson on prime , Birth of Britain .
It seems about three hundred thousand years ago Britain was at least 5 degrees warmer than today , all sorts of animals roamed the country , lions , hippos etc etc .
O’dear along came an ice age , followed by , you guessed it , global warming and of course the ice melted .
Science has proved it’s about a 300 thousand year cycle , plenty of proof this happened .
One thing for sure global warming at the time wasn’t man made .
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Ignorant rto. Somebody said it happened 300,000 years ago. Is he a Climate change denier? They’re very good at making things up. Even so there are other reasons why it might have happened 300,000 years ago. Today it is largely due to a rapid increase in CO2 output caused by humankind. Hope you have grandkids. Serve you right if they die before their allotted time. More than likely they will view people like yourself with utter contempt for being so stupid (mind you most deniers can’t help that) and blind and landing them and their kids in such a terrible mess.
I watched it too, RtO. You’re almost there. Well done! Everyone give RtO a little golf clap for being so brave as to admit the recent climate change exists.
The last little baby step you need, RtO, is to discover the timescale of previous climate change events, and compare that with the timescale of this one. Google “snowball earth” if you really want to learn something.
Then for good measure, compare that with the timescale of the climate change in the Anthropocene. And the trend in the atmospheric carbon isotope ratio.
Then you can reflect on the fact that Tony Robinson can be sure of his facts because Climatology, which you claim is a hoax.
And then you can imagine my contempt and derision.
For the public record – I absolutely support architects and engineers for 9/11 truth, in their quest for an independent inquiry.
http://www.ae911truth.org
As someone who has some understanding of metal – I know that the heat generated from burning airplane fuel (kerosene) cannot possibly melt steel, and cause the Twin Towers to collapse in their own footprint at free fall speed.
You have GOT to be kidding.
Penny Bright
Advanced Trade
Sheetmetal Engineering
Aviation fuel was the only material burning was it, your Madness?
Q. Does it make you feel more of a man when you insult others ?
You are not allowed to question 9/11 on this site.
Free thinking is banned on this subject.
Personal insults are the substitute for critical thinking and discussion.
Perhaps the fact that your modus operandum is to insult people’s intelligence by raising long-dead zombie arguments rather than admitting you’ve got nothing substantive to say, has something to do with the reaction you get.
Sums. Hard work. NIST report. Fourteen years of this inept flailing.
Yet you keep coming back with the same responses as if the entire process and circumstances have been transparent and above board
The ineptitude you are shrieking about is not the work of commentators such as Paul
Inept is nothing but a soothing synonym for corrupt
The inept flailing is all yours. It’s so much easier to allege corruption than do sums.
Corruption outs itself and has nothing to do with ‘sums’
That’s what I tried to explain to the auditors, but they wouldn’t listen… /sarc
Seriously, are you arguing that the NIST report is wrong even if all its sums are correct? That the sums are correct, but that the conclusions the sums lead to are incorrect?
But Penny’s got a sheetmetal trade cert. That makes her practically a professor of materials engineering, ya know.
McFlock, don’t forget that science is in a permanent state of wibbly wobbly, and changes all the time. That includes Maths, even though it’s an art.
I have not been referring to a NIST report and made that clear towards the top end of open mike
Lies fraud and corruption are deeply ingrained and yet people still want to assert there is ‘truth’ in what they believe
So, muphrey, when you wrote”Q. Who here knows the content of the 28 redacted pages of the report ?” in a subthread specifically about the NIST report, your reference to “the report” was a reference to a random one of the millions of other reports published in human history rather than the report that was the topic of discussion?
Thanks for your contribution. One day you might avoid being a waste of column-space.
“You are not allowed to question 9/11 on this site.
Free thinking is banned on this subject.”
Bullshit paul The Standard team does no such thing – that is up there with pete george’s rubbish – in fact you posted on it today didn’t you.
For me, it feels a bit like when I get climate deniers on here.
When I notice it, I tend to shift from the acerbic to the outright sarcastic in my comments to them. When I have time, I take a dissection tool to whatever the fools arguments are. Basically I tear at their knowledge and their egos. Mostly because having done some training around the science, fantasists on the subject just piss me off. Since I’m not a climate scientist, I don’t need to be polite and don’t really feel constrained by their usual restraint when dealing with scientific illiterates.
This is also known as free thinking and (relatively) free speech. For me it is pleasant fun and robust debate.
The same applies to 9/11, chemtrails, vaccinations conspiracies, fluoridation and a whole pile of other theories. I generally ignore most of those. But so far I haven’t seen much evidence that convinces me that there is anything substantive on them. But they still get allowed, with the usual extremely skeptical audience.
As a moderator, about the only I usually notice ‘free-tinker’ behaviour if they start astroturfing comments, doing the diversion off topic in other posts that aren’t on those topics, making assertions of fact without linking or explaining, or when they start doing the whine that people disagree with them and are unpleasant in how they point that out. With a subtext that free speech should be allowed for them, but not for others. These are all behaviours that aren’t permitted to exist on the site to any large extent. I usually point them to policy, and if it keeps repeating, I escalate from warnings to bans.
But if it is just robust debate, I just keep an eye on them to see if anything is going over the line.
+100 Penny
An independent enquiry would shed some light on the true story behind 9/11
What is the true story waiting to be illuminated?
didn’t some lawyer have an independent enquiry? Came up with zip. Good pr exercise though, and I bet it got him a goodcareer on the speaking tour.
Yes, maybe it should be called the “911 Commission”
Have just read this very interesting article by Doug Edmeades in the nzfarmer March 16. page 7 and thought some of you might like to have a look.
Titled ‘Science, one voice among many’ it is quite thought provoking in my opinion.
http://tinyurl.com/q7phpkm
It’s behind a wall. Could you summarise?
I’ll summarise:
Climate change denial.
The title alone screams it.
Why not title it “Opinions are like arseholes, we all have one”
Or “Farmers: entitled arseholes who deny facts”
Farmers are happy with science when it makes them some coin, but it’s rude to mention the cost of their filthy emissions.
He has been release without begin charge, but AFP are still continuing with its enquiries in regards to his time spent of overseas.
Gosh have you seen this, we know that the Nats have infiltrated all the public services and filled them at taxpayers expense with flunkies but still… astonishing the level of control!
Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy was advised to ignore calls and don’t answer the phone following concerns raised over foreign drivers.
Last month, the Otago Daily Times requested an interview with the commissioner after publishing a story on a Dunedin man who snatched keys from a foreign driver.
Following her refusal to front, the ODT filed an Official Information Act (OIA) request for all documents received or sent by the commissioner on the topic.
The first email, from an undisclosed employee of the Human Rights Commission immediately following the OIA request, advised the commissioner to “ignore calls and don’t answer phone”.
“Media are after you for comment on foreign drivers getting keys taken off them … we really don’t want to get into this … Police have had their say, PM is all over it etc etc so we are best to leave it at this.”
A follow-up email to the commissioner said: “I want to keep comments from me so that you are not seen to be commenting on this issue at all … Right now we’ve had no complaints and it’s an operational policing issue that needs to be sorted out at that level immediately, it is also anecdotal with a lot of media hype.”
My God maybe good news after all, is MSM stepping up with real news???
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/338243/commissioner-quiet
I agree with the final bit in that link (it’s not a race relations issue). But the emails seem weird. Pity the ODT didn’t report on that more fully. I do wonder if it speaks more to Devoy’s um lack of experience in the job and staffers trying to save themselves some bother, than Ministerial interference. Isn’t the HRC one of the depts getting cut?