Whoah, Jude that was one hell of a tanty you threw yesterday, and guess what Lady, its’ not the media’s fault Williamson lost his job, it’s Williamsons’ fault he lost his job.
Thanks Phillip … and do you think Oravida is derived to mean Golden Life, or Life of Gold ?
And in the same interview with Sabin, Collins was so avariciously callow in dismissing any concerns about the swamp kauri pillage in Northland as her husband’s company stores $50 million worth until price increases further .. Crusher is crashing, and it can’t come soon enough.
Talk of people looking like each other, the reporter at the center of ‘Crusher’s’ latest piece of verbal ugliness bares an uncanny resemblance to the Mana Parties Sue Bradford…
What I found ironic about Collins’ interview last night – apart from her bizarre behaviour – was that she was being interviewed by Brook Sabin (son of National MP Mike Sabin) and puts the boot into another offspring of a former MP.
Ironic is the wrong word, but cannot think of the right one.
Thanks for the education this morning vv – I had been wondering about the Sabins as well!
Yes, well ironic alright. Her rage must be so blind that she will lash out at anyone including the son of her comrade so to speak, or maybe she see’s the son’s challenge of her a betrayal of code. Who knows. She certainly has let the Ban- Shidhe out from under the hills though.
“age weathers us all” thanks phillip, love it. i have seen people from my past after not seeing them since their teens/early 20s & i think ‘jaysus, they got old!”, then i look in the mirror and & laugh at myself for being a bit of a dick.
Yes, it’s high time people knew that animal testing is more about profit than safety. There’s also no excuse to use to use household cleaners, make up and skin care that has been tested on animals when there is an excellent selection of such products on the market, all very good quality and many of them made in NZ.
re JB’s Camelot restaurants……yes i think they specialised in steak and chip wedges and had things like shrimp cocktail entrees…also I remember they had folksy stained glass lampshades hung low over the tables
rats are very nice intelligent creatures…and sensitive…we used to have pet rats kept in a cage in the laundry …when they died of old age i really missed them…they had a psychic presence which lingered….the kids used to keep rats in their pockets….my Mother used to keep another grandson’s pet rat in her kitchen too…although i rather drew the line at that
Being a cynic, my take is that Key has had some polling done and now finds that he cannot stick with his original comment that rats OK; rabbits and dogs, not OK.
The interview with John Banks on Morning Report was priceless! Much as I cannot stand the man as a politician, I know through personal experience that Banks has been longterm dedicated advocate for animal rights. But his take on Key’s backdown in this interview had me rolling on the floor laughing. “He looked deep into Moonbeam’s eyes ….”
Phillip,
goes to show that Cunliffe/Labour called it right in terms of their position on the issue. And yes it is a good opportunity to extend the debate.
Labour has made a number of good calls lately on policy and political positions.
Steven Joyce is hiding the figures on how much money he is funnelling to his mates through his department.
The NBR has been chasing it and so far all the department has said is that it paid out $231 million total in 2012/13 and another $97 million in 2013/14. MBIE is refusing to say how much is forecast or how the decisions are made.
“The data on MBIE handouts excludes the nearly $400 million Mr Joyce’s New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) will hand out in corporate welfare in John Key’s first three terms, and the $140 million a year handed out by the government’s Callaghan Innovation agency. There is also at least $50 million a year spent subsidising the tourism industry’s international marketing. God knows how much the Ministry of Primary Industries hands out to the farming sector. This all adds up to billions.” See http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/joyce-blocks-answers-corporate-welfare-bd-155317
Bad12 always refers to our PM as “Slippery the prime minister”.
If ever Bad needed confirmation of that description I suggest he listen to the Morning Report interview with Guyon Espiner.
Mumble,mumble,obfuscation,change the suject,etc. It was all there. Slippery even went to the extreme of declaring that Judith Collins ‘is a human being’ !
In my book, Collins is facing a stiff dose of “chickens coming home to roost”. She has been one of the Nacts most vicious bullies especially when she was in Opposition. Now under pressure she, like all bullies, is folding.
And a further item is currently on air with an interview with Grant Robertson on the further MFAT emails that have now been released on Collins’ “Oravita Tour”. It gets more and more clear that this was not just a cup of tea on the way to the airport.
From that interview – and earlier short mentions on Morning Report – the emails released by MFAT are providing a lot more indepth details of the discussions on the ‘private dinner’ prior to it taking place that indicate that it was anything but a private dinner with friends and friends of friends.
vv, I wonder if it’s going to be one of those weeks where one reaches for the popcorn.
Several weeks ago on the regular Thursday morning Radio Active interview with Grant Robertson and Alistair Thompson, Robertson said there was more to be uncovered in the Collins – Oravida affair and he really has kept up the pressure on her since then. Alistair Thompson’s view was it a case if when, not if, in regard to Collins resigning. (My words not his, I’m paraphrasing and condensing the message).
It certainly has got the feeling of a ‘popcorn’ week. Fingers crossed etc etc. Despite the grey Wellington day, I am feeling more positive on the political front than for months – hence the myriad of comments this morning! PG’s return had put me off coming here, but decided not to allow him to achieve that and just ignore him.
Must google that Radio Live Interview. My instincts tell me that the Oravida affair has a lot more legs – and that appears to be the case this morning/
I understand the PG reaction, but glad that you can rise above it – it’s the best way. I have to admit that when Greywarbler suggested to move my Open Mike domestic violence comment on to Stephanie Rodgers article on Saturday I did plan to and then saw it was a PG maelstrom so chose not to.
That interview btw, was on Radio Active and they don’t have their interviews available to listen to on line. they broadcast on line as well as on 88.6FM but that’s it.
I should imagine this Thursday should be a very interesting discussion. They are usually on between 8.15am and 8.45am and the interview lasts up to 20 minutes. Just bear in mind it won’t be a RNZ format type interview. The facilitator is a DJ first and foremost (and an excellent one)
“She has been one of the Nacts most vicious bullies ….” Yes Wyndham. Hard to feel sympathy to a White Hawk Down, given the spite that she was pleased to dish when she was “up.”
Thanks Drax and Warbs for your replies over the weekend to my comment about neighbours not calling 111 as Sarwen Lata was being murdered, on 25th November last year and apologies for the late response. (You’d be surprised at how busy the unemployed can be).
You both made suggestions as to why folks might be disinclined to help a neighbour in crisis. I thought they were good points. It also made me think of the contrast in neighbourhood behaviour in a suburb where a friend lives. Everyone knows everyone and despite the area being a higher crime area, crimes are solved quickly as neighbours keep their eyes and ears open to activities in the street.
Then this morning there was this article in the Dom Post which encourages migrant women to seek help but doesn’t discuss the importance of neighbours, and indeed family, friends and workmates keeping an eye on a potential victim of domestic violence. No woman should feel she is alone when she is feeling so unsafe.
It’s going to be hard to top Todd Barclay in this week’s edition of “Dodgy Nat Candidate Watch” but new to the list is Brett Hudson, who was selected for Ohariu, last week. Here he is displaying the stunning ignorance that only a Nat can:
““National is working hard and delivering real progress for New Zealand families,” said Mr Hudson.”
This could actually be the lefts answer to the citizens of Epsoms cynical election of ACT…..vote the seat to National to keep United Fuckwit out…..splendid.
Yep, there is at least one commenter here at the Standard that has said She/he will be campaigning in the Epsom electorate to get the National Party candidate elected,
My bones wont allow me the luxury of letterbox stuffing otherwise i would print up a pile of ‘electorate vote Hudson for Ohariu’ pamphlets for that electorate,
Neither Epsom or Ohariu are likely to favor a Labour candidate so some reverse tactics are probably the best means of ensuring National do not win in September…
Nat electorate vote in Epsom I understand bad, but Ohariu? And who would do that organising work to promote a vote for Hudson? Would it not be better to focus on the party that came closest last time?
Hudson btw, a previous sales rep for Oracle. (actually they call them “ambassadors” now, lol) I know a guy who worked for that company and in the same role. Was on about 200K. This Hudson dude wouldn’t have a clue about what happens in the real world, all those guys in that industry are running in a status race, the house, the cars, the troty wives etc. Never has there been a truer stereotype.
Rosie, whilst I don’t disagree that Oracle sales people are overpaid and would probably not have a clue about real people, but there is another story here.
In my company nothing moves unless somebody sells something. No sales means no delivering, lots of “expertise” in downtime mode costing a fortune. Everybody is valuable and some of that “expertise” due to supply and demand, restrictive practices etc get paid much more than the humble sales person. Yet the sales person is expected to keep the cash coming in, gets pressured, and has no job security unless that happens.
To me (much to pretty much everybody else s disgust) sales people are the Gods of commerce. Nasty, materialistic collectors of flash cars and trophy wives maybe. But as they don’t get thanked greatly, for doing the hardest job they take the cash instead, (and I suspect vote National to rub it in).
Hi Ennui. I should declare that I have spent many years working as a sales rep previously, although my salary was $40K, not 200K, I should add!
I do understand the vital role they play in keeping the company not only afloat but profitable. And yes indeed it is a thankless role and one that can tear the rep in two directions between customer and boss, if there isn’t enough support coming from above.
I was being rather caustic about Brett Hudson but I do know his type and I don’t trust them one bit. I’ve no problem with people making money and lots of it. My problem is either how they obtain it, or how they display it, or how they use it as a power lever.
That-person-I -know, he falls into the latter two categories. What is kind of annoying too, is the fact that he’s not particularly talented or intelligent in the realm of real life and social interaction (he’s shallow, dour and lacks a sense of humour) but he can sell, that’s where his skill lies.
I’m sure he’ll know Hudson as they would have worked in the same office around about the same time (although I do need to check time lines) The funny thing is, this-person-I know once showed me photo’s of his colleagues property that he had for sale (excessively large and full of poor taste items) and accused him of the same, being shallow, whilst we sat there in his McMansion.
Rosie, nice observations, you speak from experience. When you get to the cogs of commerce it is all rather basic and boring….I don’t know how anybody can study it, glorify it etc as anything other than transactions and dollars. The business pages drive me to distraction, economists seem to know nothing of what really goes on….all so dull. I hope you are enjoying better whatever you do today.
“I hope you are enjoying better whatever you do today.”
I really am laughing, as I am currently unemployed! I have gone for a couple of sales reppy type interviews but I felt myself glaze over as soon as they started with the corporate speak and knew my heart wasn’t in it. I can’t really bear flogging stuff any more. Also, pay and conditions have reduced for reps as a reflection of the retail market being so tight now. Many companies have removed a portion of the mileage allowance and I refuse to subsidise company costs by covering their fuel costs.
All I’ve really wanted to do is to be able to help others and what little formal education I have in this area, a community studies cert and a health psychology diploma isn’t even adequate for entry level work in the fields I’m interested in.
What I am enjoying doing with my “spare time” is helping out where I can with political activities here in Ohariu and looking after the abundance of wild ducks that hang around at my house.
Being the plant he is he doesn’t sound like he has any intention of seeking the electorate vote and said he would pursue the party vote.
I do recall your suggestion and reasoning for a push for a Nat electorate vote but I think Charles Chauvel lost out by just approx 1800 ish votes last time so perhaps if enough hard work is done, Virginia Anderson can win it??? I’m feeling so cautiously confident of this that I’d be willing to put a 50 cent bet on it! (it would be more but I can’t afford it lol)
Did you see that surprisingly good editorial from the right wing Romanos in the Wellingtonian last week? It was beaut. A hole proof argument for the resignation of Dunne. If the heat on Dunne keeps up it may be an easier job to unseat him than we’d expect.
Yes Rosie, Charles Chauval lost by 1646 electorate votes in 2011, that was as a high profile Labour Party politician, in fact Pathetic Dunne’s majority went up by 640 votes from the 2008 result where Chauval came within 1006 votes of Dunne,
National’s Katrina Shanks actually made those numbers look good for Chauval in those two elections and i doubt the relatively unknown Labour candidate will have the same amount of success as Charles Chauval did,
From the Party Votes recorded it is easy to see that National Party supporters are fully conversant with ‘tactical voting’ splitting their party votes off to National while electorate voting for Dunne,
my view is that the only slight chance for the Labour candidate to have any chance is to ensure,(if possible), that Hudson the National Party candidate gets a higher amount of the electorate vote,
Whichever way i look at the Ohariu electorate that will be the decisive factor, in a large part of the electorate it may be easier to convince the ‘blue rinsers’ to vote National than to go against everything the ‘silver spoon’ they have supped from since birth has ingrained in them and vote Labour,
A high turnout of the Electorate vote for both National and Labour may well see us rid of Dunne, a high turnout of the electorate vote for Labour alone tho i doubt will create enough of a swing to unseat him…
Thanks bad, that a helpful analysis. Yes, I had a look at the voting patterns for 08 and 11 a while ago and saw that the voters of Ohariu, like Epsom sure do know how to use MMP to suit their purposes.
From Memory Shanks came a fairly poor third the last two times, so I can see how it would be ideal if those blue rinsers you speak of gave their vote to the sales rep and weaken Dunnes chances. Maybe this will happen naturally as Dunne becomes increasingly less popular in the electorate, purely for conservative moral reasons rather than political.
Stephanie Rodgers said something once here on TS about being involved in the Labour campaign for Ohariu. Maybe she would like to offer her thoughts, I’m sure they would be welcome.
I am indeed involved in the Ohariu campaign – but it’s a complex topic! Virginia Andersen is a great candidate for Ohariu and I know we’re all working hard to win the electorate vote. No one expected National to field a particularly strong candidate for the obvious reasons. And a lot has happened for Peter Dunne since 2011.
Hi Stephanie and thanks. I bet it is a complex topic! And I’m assuming you may not be able to show the party’s hand, too much.
Although I didn’t meet Virginia Anderson I did listen to what she had to say at a recent meeting PPO hosted in J’Ville to discuss the Employment Relations Amendment Act. She comes across as very intelligent, sharp and strong. I am impressed by her.
Great to hear the campaign team has the wind in their sails – we’ll have you all to thank if we do it, if we turn this electorate red! Hey, what a party that would be, unseating Dunne after 30 years!
Lobbying for a Tobacco company doesn’t necessarily mean you are attempting to encourage smoking. It is also not illegal. Frankly this smacks of the sort of witch hunting that used to be happen around membership of the Communist party in people’s youth. Just as I think it is ridiculous to focus on that I think it is ridiculous to castigate a potential candidate based on who he preciously worked for.
BTW the linked to article and associated graphic doesn’t makes the point you are suggesting it does or at least not in a clear an unequivical manner.
I think it is a matter of the National party members of the electorate to decide whether he is a suitable candidate or not. It then becomes a matter for the voters of the electorate to decide if they think he is a suitable MP. Some left wing person on a blog has little influence over this.
you said that promoting the business of phillip morris didnt mean he was encouraging smoking, dont change it to occupations dont preclude people from being mps.
Take the example of the Prostitutes Collective. Someone working for this organisation does not mean they necessarily encourage the use of prostitutes or at least that more people should use one. There is a lot of issues you can advocate for without expanding the take up of what you advocate on.
More to the point, why are you accusing Barclay of not contributing to his corporate employer’s bottom line? Are you saying that he was a fraud in the job or just lazy?
I have no idea if he did or didn’t. I don’t particularly like many organisations but I don’t condemn people based on the fact people may have once worked for them. I understand that people are employed to do a job not to agree with the ideas or views expressed by the organisation they are part of.
So you believe that Barclay probably had no moral qualms about accepting big tobacco money? I wonder what the principled burghers of Clutha Southland are going to make of a National Party who gave them such a poorly suited candidate.
This is obviously a golden opportunity then for a candidate of a left leaning party to win in Clutha Southland at the upcoming election. Do you want to have a wager on whether this will happen?
Well, National should pull the tobacco lobbyist from their candidate list, and give the people of Clutha Southland a serious choice, a candidate who knows about the issues of the electorate and understands farming, instead of sliding in a Big Tobacco lobbyist who is wholly unsuitable.
I’d suggest this is up to the National party and the members of the Clutha Southland electorate and not a hard core leftist like yourself to decide. Nice to see you so concerned about who should represent right leaning people. I myself would like left leaning people being represented by morons. Luckily for me that seems to be the case more often than not 😉
no-one said otherwise – so again your inventing a point that was never mentioned in order to distract and derail
we are all entitled to say and discuss what ever we feel like (unless your some jack boot statist of course – are you?) – and the eyebrows raised about that particular appt was as much about his age, connections to certain party members, overall work and life experience and the fact that the revolving door relationship between politics and industry lobbyists is usually considered a less than desirable situation – regardless of left or right
it was never exclusively about phillip morris in and of itself
either you know this and are playing your usual bullshit or your shooting your mouth off without knowing the issue
one makes you a bit of a pain in the ass – the other makes you look like an idiot
Lobbying for a tobacco company, given the outcomes for those who take up the dreaded weed, gives an indication that the person is unable to link personal actions to community and social responsibility.
As a potential government representative for all demographics, who all need to have a long-term view of policy effects this is an “experience” that indicates a severe skill deficiency.
Cannabis has the potential to cause the same sort of physical harm as Tobacco AND additional harm via long term psychological damage (especially when taken frequently at a young age). Don’y try and act like Cannabis is some life preserving wonder drug. We are not all as stupid as you might be.
Why do you think Barclay accepted a job with a Big Tobacco corporate? After all, Philip Morris’ products have caused millions of deaths worldwide over the last 50 or more years. Do you think Barclay considered that before he started accepting money from Philip Morris?
The same could be argued for any number of companies from Pharmaceutical distributors through to Confectionary manufacturers. Yes Tobacco is harmful to you but so is Homeopathy if you use it instead of proper medicine. I don’t think that should rule out people from becoming an MP if they worked as a Homeopath or in the industry just as i don’t think working as a lobbyist for a tobacco company carrying out their business in a legal manner should rule you out from public office.
So did Barclay experience moral doubts about accepting Big Tobacco corporate cash, or do you think that he was paid enough by Philip Morris that he found that he could ignore any minor moral qualms that he may have had?
Tobacco distribution is not illegal in this country. Therefore Mr Barclay has done nothing wrong working for a company involved in this sector. You might not like it but I suspect you won’t be involved in deciding if he is elected to parliament.
Tobacco distribution is not illegal in this country. Therefore Mr Barclay has done nothing wrong working for a company involved in this sector.
No, he has merely avoided doing anything illegal.
Although it’s revealing that you should confuse the two. Especially if we remember that, legally speaking, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Which means that (in your worldview) if one can get away with murder one has done nothing wrong…
Only in your perverted view of the world. Someone can get away with murder if they think they are acting in self defence though so in essence you do raise an interesting, if irrelevant, point. What this has to do with Mr Barclay’s previous job is unclear though.
You said it was not illegal therefore it is not wrong.
Murder is illegal, but proving it is another matter.
And murderers are innocent until proven guilty under the law.
Someone can get away with murder if they think they are acting in self defence though
You’re an idiot. If it’s self defense, it’s not murder. According to the law, anyway (cf: s160 and s48 of the same Act).
The point I’m getting at is that your definition of “wrong” rests solely on legality. It’s almost as if you have no internal set of ethical principles which guide your actions, legal or otherwise. I.e. completely amoral.
“The effects of cannabis on health have not been studied anywhere near as much as those of tobacco smoking. However, a review has concluded that the airways of cannabis smokers have changes that indicate cancer risk , for example, “chronic inflammatory” and “pre-cancerous changes”.
This review also found one well-designed study that suggested that cannabis smoking caused cancer in the upper airways of young adults, and that the risk was highest in the most frequent users.”
Therefore there is evidence that it does have the potential to cause the same sort of physical harm as smoking Tobacco. You may disagree the risk is as high or that the evidence is not compelling but there is no doubt evidence.
What you are stating is you disagree with the conclusion of that review. That is fine. You don’t have to believe it. Just as some people don’t agree with lots of scientific conclusions. You can’t deny that there is some evidence linking the use of Cannabis and increased risk of cancer though. It exists.
Phil said what I would’ve if I’d returned earlier.
Marijuana normalisation is advocated mostly by those who will not benefit from changing the legislation, using studies to back up their claims.
Tobacco lobbyists are highly paid liars who do benefit from continued use and whose employers suppressed for many years scientific studies that showed devastating and ongoing harm from the use of their products.
Also, ignore the fact that nicotine was added specifically to make it addictive thereby ensuring the continuation of use for the whole of their customer’s shortened life.
I’d suggest this is based purely on your own personal prejudices and not on any evidence supporting the view that everyone who works as a lobbyist for a Tobacco company is a liar. If you can provide evidence that Mr Barclay knowingly lied during his time working for the Tobacco company in question though you will have won the argument. Have you such evidence?
The focus on the discussion is what excatly? Is it that Tobacco use is bad for you and society generally and therefore anyone who has worked for a company involved in that sector is bad and therefore is not fit for public office? As I pointed out that is a ridiculous position to hold.
Barclay lobbied on behalf of Big Tobacco, against the Government’s “attempts” to restrict the harmful effects of smoking on New Zealanders. Now, he plans to join the Government on the other side of the argument. Comfortable about that, are you? It doesn’t have to be illegal to be wrong. Remember “legal highs/synthetic cannabis”?
There are other ways of measuring right and wrong. Barclay chose to side with the pedlars of nicotine and now he wants to govern us. His background will worry many people, especially those who have lost family members to the various cancers cigarette smoking causes.
Do you have evidence of what his current views on Tobacco usage are and that he will be pushing the Tobacco company point of view forward if he becomes an MP?
We know he supported the actions of Philip Morris – unless of course, he was dishonest with them and they paid him under false pretences. If he didn’t support their kaupapa, he’s a hypocrite – not the sort of person you’d want representing you in Parliament. If he did side with the tobacco pedlars, he was actively working against the best interests of new Zealanders – not the sort of person you’d want representing you in Parliament.
Not the sort of person you’d want to represent you in parliament – Are you a resident of the Cluth Southland electorate then?
By the way, even assuming he was a big supporter of increased tobacco usage (there doesn’t seem to be any evidence supporting this though) he can change his mind. I believe a number of politicians may have had radically different views when younger. Phil Goff springs to mind.
I’ve lived in Southland for 28 years. The Southlanders I’ve spoken with on this issue are disgusted that the National Party have served up this tobacco lobbyist. None will vote for him.
edit: Different views when he was younger!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
!
He resigned from Philip Morris last week!
It’s always been said that a fence-post would win Clutha/Southland for National (been proved true too). Your comment/wager has no bearing on the quality of the tobacco lobbyist/candidate or his ethical standards, which are being described around here as non-existent.
‘So not enough people in the Clutha Southland electorate care enough about the issue to vote for an alternative candidate then. Case closed.’
Not enough people care about the issue?
Nonsense statement from Gosman. The election has not taken place yet, so you can’t know.
The ‘case’ is far from closed.
Case wide open and looking less than secure for what might have been an easy-win for a candidate who hadn’t recently quit a job in an industry that most people regard as odious. Let’s remember, it’s “most people”, not you, Gosman, who will decide whether Barclay is suitable for representing Southlanders in parliament. I’m hearing a lot of, “Hell no!”
Tobacco lobbyists in order to sell their product by necessity are “economical with the truth” ( admittedly my definition of a liar, perhaps not yours ) or they are a really ineffective lobbyist, one who would be fired fairly quickly.
He did not mention that he was a bad lobbyist – so I am also assuming he was fairly competent in the role.
But you are right Gosman – just because I don’t have a transcript of all his commercial utterings I cannot prove that he lied (even by my definition) in any specific incident.
Just as I cannot prove that any baker has put active yeast into all his bread products – but if he didn’t, his failure would be fairly noticeable.
Or it could be that Johnny No-Mates has given up on trying to get Colin Craig into Auckland and has told the Conservatives to have a scout around the churches in Clutha to see if there’s a potential candidate down there. After all, if Todd the Toddler loses the seat it will be no great loss to the Nats as long as they get a Conservative in his place…
I’ve managed to locate the words to National’s “Party” song.
It was heard being sung at the end of their recent conference while they were eating Hors d’oeuvres and clinking champagne flutes. Feel free to join in.
It goes like this………eeeerm….eeeerm.
It’s time to play the music
It’s time to light the lights
It’s time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.
It’s time to put on makeup
It’s time to dress up right
It’s time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight.
Why do we always come here
I guess we’ll never know
It’s like a kind of torture
To have to watch the show
Chorus
And now let’s get things started
Why don’t you get things started
It’s time to get things started
On the most sensational Aspirational celebrational Muppetational
This is what we call the Muppet Show!
Instrumental Break
[MC]To introduce our guest star
That’s what I’m here to do
So it really makes me happy
To introduce to you (drum roll)
Shonnnnnnnn Keyyyyyyyyy!!!
Chorus
And now let’s get things started
Why don’t you get things started
It’s time to get things started
On the most sensational Aspirational celebrational Muppetational
This is what we call the Muppet Show!
That is a bit of a head-scratcher isn’t it, Hooton talking of David Shearer as the leader of the Labour Party,
Perhaps this is a re-print of something wee Matty previously wrote, a little trumpet blow in Hooton’s direction to show how clever Matty is at seeing the future,
What will drive more than a few out of ‘rental investments’ is the Labour plan to plug the loophole where such ‘investors’ get to right off any losses incurred on the property against other taxable income,
i don’t know the numbers of people who piled into ‘rental investments’ based upon the taxes on ‘other income’ they could write off against the properties but the numbers i would suggest are high and the closing of this tax loophole will force more than a few to divest themselves of rental properties…
Thanks for replying Matthew, I think you would agree it is very sloppy presentation of information. Especially for a publication of the NBR’s stature. Would you be so kind as to mention this to your editors?
You could imagine the kerfuffle if PG tried to use it to establish a fact. He is bound to try to establish a fact one day, and I would hate for something like a publishing date to trip him up.
“You could imagine the kerfuffle if PG tried to use it to establish a fact. He is bound to try to establish a fact one day, and I would hate for something like a publishing date to trip him up.”
John Armstrong has emerged from the shadows…. “But Key’s reference to the length of the conversations has to be regarded as another way of him saying he canvassed various options with respect to her immediate future as a minister.
For Key not to have offered Collins some much-needed respite from the intense scrutiny that she has been under for weeks would have been neglectful of not just National’s interests, but of Collins’ as well.
Clearly Collins is very much in the wrong place mentally right now. That is plainly evident after she lashed out at TVNZ’s Katie Bradford yesterday, only to to subsequently issue a public apology to the political reporter.
Key this morning described Collins’ outburst at the press gallery journalist as being “completely inappropriate”. He added that Collins would be “very careful going forward”.
The trouble is every time Collins moves one step forward, her reputation takes five steps back. Rather than endeavouring to close down the whole farrago prompted by her highly-questionable dealings with the milk exporting company Oravida, Collins says or does something to further inflame matters……” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11249704
The real problem is that Slippery Key moves the goalposts after she gaffes.
Firstly he says she’s on her last warning then when she fucks up he says the warning was for a different topic! Opening the door for a “three strikes” wet bus ticket for all of his ministers every time there’s a screw up screwing up.
Perhaps what we are seeing is a cathartic civil war in the National Party.
Joyce, with all the gifts of MBIE to help him win support among business backers of National, is getting aid from McCully (fast OIA responses) and others to weaken Collins.
Collins, with the gift of self-belief and popularity among grass-root Nats, is willing to risk all, including the election, to gain control.
Labour should leave them space on the front pages!
Groser has helped trip up Collins also. The short wee mon is very traditional and would NOT cope with having a woman, Collins, as his boss. He is definitely in the Joyce Camp now.
The short wee mon will also be getting it in the ear from Fonterra. Fonterra will also have been chatting with John Key and Bill English.
Imagine how Fonterra are feeling: Collins goes into bat for another trader who wants to make hay in China from Fonterra’s botulism crises! Fonterra spent a few $100m opening the market and Oravida wanted to sneak in via the back door!
Collins has pissed off Fonterra, the biggest lobbyist in Parliament.
Therefore Collins has pissed off Federated Farmer, the second biggest lobbyist in Parliament.
If those two go public with their annoyance every Fonterra shareholding farmer will see Collins as a TRAITOR.
She is so close to going. Key must be afraid of how she will behave if she is fired.
If the Mongrel Mob activities are legal then there is nothing wrong with belonging to them. It is only when people carry out illegal activities under the Mongrel mob banner that belonging to them becomes an issue.
That also makes you culpable in terms of being a citizen of one of those governments.
Do you claim that culpability or do you acknowledge that personal control of those organisations to which we all belong plays a part in our guilt by association?
I don’t think one automatically leads on to the other. For example in war a nation can carry out some dreadful actions like the fire bombings of Dresden and Tokyo or the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That does not mean all citizens of the nations making up the Allies in the war are culpable for these decisions or that the war itself is suspect because of them.
Gosman, do you believe the 23 year old, Todd Barclay, who has only ever worked in Government Minister’s offices and lobbied for a tobacco firm has enough life experience to be an MP where his job is to represent the full cross-section of the electorate?
He is not looking at becoming a list MP but an electorate one. It is not for me to decide if he is suitable or not as I don’t live in his electorate. If the people of his electorate decide to vote for him who am I to quibble about his supposed lack of experience.
I don’t think freedom was asking you to decide Barclay’s political fate (you can’t, as you point out) but, instead, was inviting you to express what you believe about his life experience in relation to the tasks of an electorate MP.
The beauty of democracy is we leave it up to the voters to decide the suitability or otherwise of a candidate. As for if I would vote for him. I don’t know a lot about him or his opponents. He does seem a little on the young and inexperienced side but that does not necessarily preclude you from being a good electorate MP. Certainly the fact he worked as a lobbyist for a Tobacco company doesn’t rule him out as far as I am concerned.
The beauty of democracy is we leave it up to the voters to decide the suitability or otherwise of a candidate.
So you believe that the principled burghers of Clutha Southland should have been given a choice of decent National Party candidates, instead of having a tobacco industry lobbyist served to them from Wellington on a blue platter?
Is the way Mr Barclay is being selected as a candidate outside National party rules on candidate selection? If the answer to that is no then what is the problem here again? If the National party voters in the electorate don’t like the candidate they are free to vote for a candidate of another party. This seems to me to be a perfect opportunity for other candidates to take advantage of. Assuming of course the majority of voters in the electorate care enough about the issue. Do you think they will vote for another candidate?
I’d like to see who else in the National Party put their hand up for the job of candidate for Clutha Southland; you can bet there would be a few amongst them who would make our inexperienced tobacco lobbyist look properly shallow in comparison.
It’s not that I care so much (and I actually do know a lot of voters who live in the Clutha Southland), it’s that I am amazed that you care so little about the appalling Big Tobacco choice of candidate that National HQ has served up on a plate to that electorate.
I have not said a word about voting Gosman. I was clearly pointing to the candidate selection process. I just find it funny when supposedly intelligent people defend a candidate selection system where the members’ views are deemed irrelevant and yet these same people are somehow represented, by submitting to an arbitrary decision by their Party leaders that they, the members, had no input into.
Good thing I gave up trying to understand National voters a long time ago, even the ones I love. Some might say you should never fully understand your friends, or your family, it takes away all the mystery.
National is by far and away the most successful political party in NZ since the end of the second world war. You might not understand their internal processes or why people support them but you can’t deny that it seems to work for them. I am sure they don’t give two hoots what a bunch of largely hard core leftists think of them.
“I don’t think one automatically leads on to the other.”14.1.1.1.1 “It is only when people carry out illegal activities under the Mongrel mob banner that belonging to them becomes an issue.14.1
A bit of a contradiction there. But I do agree with your statement at 14.1.1.1.1 because fundamentally, regardless of whether you are a member or not, – your personal input or control of the decisions made by that organisation – make up a large part of whether you are responsible for those decisions or not. Mongrel Mob member, MP or democratic citizen.
Unfortunately, some of these organisations are set up to look like you have equal power to another but in actuality do not deliver.
Gosman – for some reason I can’t reply to your comment above regarding National’s electoral success in the post-world war 2 era? You are, strictly speaking, right though much of that success comes from exploiting the FPP gerrymander. In the MMP era National and Labour so far have 3 terms each.
Morally I think selling Homeopathy or most other types of CAM products/remedies is reprehensible. Does that mean people involved with this sector should be denied the opportunity of becoming an MP?
first home owners in auckland, based on neither owner having bought a home before or held a mortgage before, are paying $200 a week more than counterparts outside auckland.
but they dont get $200 a week more from similar jobs to counterparts.
This is what you get for having more than 30% of the country’s population squashed into less than 0.3% of the country’s land area.
As an added benefit, it depopulates and economically degrades all the other regions of the country. You would have thought given these facts that just a little teensy bit of central planning might be in order to even things out a bit, but no, every political party seems determined to make Auckland even bigger and denser than it is now.
Despite badgering me for weeks whilst I was on sick leave, and on three occasions questioning the veracity of my Doctor’s certificates, after my disciplinary hearing on Monday, at 5.58 pm on Friday, I finally got confirmation through I was sacked.
Not surprised at the outcome, but still gutted none the less. Cancelled my wff payments so I don’t get overpaid, booked up my ‘working for me seminar’ at winz, and ready to do what I can to get back in to work.
I don’t know what options I have, other than full hearing and more costs I can’t pay or walk away and take the hit, but I’ll decide after consultation with the brief later today. It appears a pervy old man can’t buy my silence, but can buy protection for his reputation.
That also makes you culpable in terms of being a citizen of one of those governments.
Do you claim that culpability or do you acknowledge that personal control of those organisations to which we all belong plays a part in our guilt by association?
Really sorry to hear of the outcome for you The AIlen. Good luck for your post consultation decision making on what to do next and all the best for your next move.
It really is disheartening how dodgy employers get away it, again and again. I’ve seen it happen so many times to others and have been the victim of dodgy bosses twice in a row – its so wrong that your experience is not uncommon.
Hope you find something nice to treat yourself to today.
+1. I was trying to find the right words of support for you, the Al1en; but Rosie has said it much better. I am thinking of you, as I am sure many others here are. I have been through similar but the fact that others have been down the same road does not make it any easier at the time. But you will get through. It has been obvious to me reading your posts on this issue. Kia Kaha. Keep us up to date.
Take the high road Al1en, it has better views and it’s always best to avoid the hassle of stumbling over messed up riverbeds. As you say, there does not appear to be any rewards in battling further. Do remember though, you can now freely offer advice to people as to whether they should use that particular business or not. There are lots of legal ways to adjust someone’s business reputation. I am not a spiteful person but have certainly had the unquestioning generosity of my youth sorely tested these past few years.
Look after yourself, and when jumping the WINZ hoops, breath deep and let the pointless busywork ahead be a positive challenge. There is a job out there. I keep getting told there is. Problem seems to be WINZ are talking to us all about the same job 😉
Mediation costs nothing and there is absolutely no reason to be represented by a lawyer. If you choose to be represented by a lawyer, then they can claim costs as a part of any confidential settlement.
I didn’t get a call back from my guy, so haven’t heard his considered opinion yet, but hope to tomorrow. The worst thing about the outcome is knowing I didn’t really do anything wrong, got victimised and then assaulted, and have been dismissed on the ‘evidence’ of witnesses I know weren’t present at the time.
Realistically, without being Rumpole of the Bailey, I know I can’t rip the truth out from these people. I couldn’t even get my ex boss to speak during the kangaroo court. Two and a half hours and he said nothing, just stared in to any space except my eye line.
I am full of contempt for this tool, but still bound by confidentiality, so naming and shaming isn’t an option as yet. I do have the privacy commission to fall back on, which is free to apply to, so that will probably be my next move, but first to get that job.
Soon people will be so good at managing their finances benefits won’t be needed at all. If fact, I’m surprised Bennett isn’t saying something like “we really want to support people manage their money so well that there’s even some left over each week they can pay back to the government as a contribution to the benefit system overall.”
Bennett says the funding “will ensure the services are able to keep up with demand”. What she doesn’t say is that that demand is increasing because it’s compulsory when people apply to Work and Income for special needs grants and advances, which people need to apply for because main benefit levels are so ridiculously low. Bennett, this government and Labour have absolutely no idea.
Is Maurice Williamson really a ventriloquists dummy, i had that thought as Williamson was manhandled out of TV3’s ‘the Nation’ studio on the weekend, perhaps Maurice had just filled his incontinence pants and couldn’t bring Himself to perambulate after such a dramatic event,
Maurice having just had the silver spoon rudely ripped from His over privileged mouth should face further questioning over His story,
Claiming that it wasn’t Donghua Liu who asked Him for help after putting the bash on both wife and mother-in-law Williamson claimed that it was a member of the police force who gave Him the information that Liu was in trouble for the incident,
i don’t believe Williamson’s explanation for a moment, But, if he was being truthful the plod who shared this information with Him should face discipline for giving out such information…
Ah, bad, on reading the transcript, I don’t think that’s how it went down. The final bit of the interview, Williamson is explaining why he mentioned Liu’s business interests in NZ when talking on the phone to the police.
So could you clarify for me why you told the police that he was – why you thought it was necessary to tell the police that he had all that money?
I’ve had a think about the phone call and I think the way it came about, and of course it’s hard to remember back to January the exact wording, but what I think happened is the police officer speaking to me said the assault actually took place in the Boulevard Hotel, which this Mr Liu owns. And I said ‘yes that’s right he owns it’. And I said ‘he actually owns a big chunk of land around it as well’. He said ‘that’s right, but he owns the hotel where it occurred’. It wasn’t like ‘cause he’s so rich, don’t do anything’. But I wasn’t even asking whether they could do anything or not. I was asking ‘are you going to proceed?’
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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. ...
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. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
‘
Is Judith Collins Rob Muldoon’s love child?
I’m not sure, but I think she and Key share a top drawer as well as nasty friends and an uncanny likeness to the man.
The photo of Key in your link really shows him in a different light to most of his photos! Warts and all…
…and that ridiculous rug…
do you think hes been reading slater yesterday and today.
well..he did put it about a bit…
Whoah, Jude that was one hell of a tanty you threw yesterday, and guess what Lady, its’ not the media’s fault Williamson lost his job, it’s Williamsons’ fault he lost his job.
hey jude..!..don’t take it bad…
..take a milk-spill…and make it better..
..remember…to keep that rage-lid on tight..
..and will you now go dairy-free..?..go vegan..?
..to make it better ..better..better..oowww!!!!
..la-la-la-lalala-lah..la-la-lah…hey jude..!
..hey jude..!..don’t send that txt..!
..and stop threatening – to piss on the media..
..the only dirt – we want to see..
..is the name of that official…was it mr lee..?
..hey jude…yr in a hole..
..shouldn’t you really..stop digging..?
..we know …it’s getting under yr skin..
..but you deserve nothing better..
..sitting in yr oravida-sin-bin..
…i really doubt you’ll be able to make it all..
… better..better..better..etc..
A round of applause! Lol, and an earworm for the morning.
Thanks Phillip … and do you think Oravida is derived to mean Golden Life, or Life of Gold ?
And in the same interview with Sabin, Collins was so avariciously callow in dismissing any concerns about the swamp kauri pillage in Northland as her husband’s company stores $50 million worth until price increases further .. Crusher is crashing, and it can’t come soon enough.
@ yeshe..it means ‘gold of the collins’…
chrs 2 u rosie..yr ‘jude’ was the trigger…
another ‘song for judith’…?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AwXKJoKJz4
(something about ‘milkshakes’..?..’boys’..?..’yard’..?..)
or maybe kings of leon..?
..doing ‘milk’..?
..with its’ evocative (for judith) cry from the heart:
..’staayyy..for meeee..!’..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoQA2iyH8-Q
BLip….lol!…she does look a bit like him and he did play around a bit!
Talk of people looking like each other, the reporter at the center of ‘Crusher’s’ latest piece of verbal ugliness bares an uncanny resemblance to the Mana Parties Sue Bradford…
Sue’s daughter.
Oh is she? I thought she had a remarkable resemblance to Sue. Thanks for the info.
What I found ironic about Collins’ interview last night – apart from her bizarre behaviour – was that she was being interviewed by Brook Sabin (son of National MP Mike Sabin) and puts the boot into another offspring of a former MP.
Ironic is the wrong word, but cannot think of the right one.
Thanks for the education this morning vv – I had been wondering about the Sabins as well!
Yes, well ironic alright. Her rage must be so blind that she will lash out at anyone including the son of her comrade so to speak, or maybe she see’s the son’s challenge of her a betrayal of code. Who knows. She certainly has let the Ban- Shidhe out from under the hills though.
Seriously bad? Actually she is prettier than her mum.
Just testing to see who is wide awake this morning…
unnecessary comment, seriously, ianmac.
@ ianmac..
not if you saw/knew her mother at that age..
..age weathers us all..
..tho’ i do think my son has it much more together than me at his age..
..on/in most levels/areas..
..(but then again..that’s a low bar..)
“age weathers us all” thanks phillip, love it. i have seen people from my past after not seeing them since their teens/early 20s & i think ‘jaysus, they got old!”, then i look in the mirror and & laugh at myself for being a bit of a dick.
really ianmac???
Hate-child.
key has announced there will be no testing of legal-highs on animals..
..not rats..not rabbits..not dogs..
(..nice to see some traction on what has been an outlier-issue..)
..now we should really look at all the other unnecessary-testing on animals..
..animals tortured/killed to test fucken dishwashing-liquids/make-up etc..
..everyone is ‘relaxed’ about that..?
..and the reasons these torturing-scum don’t use the computer-modelling tests available to them..
..instead of these horrible torturings/killings of animals..
..is ‘cos of cost..
..it is cheaper to torture the animals instead…
..how fucken sick is that..?
Yes, it’s high time people knew that animal testing is more about profit than safety. There’s also no excuse to use to use household cleaners, make up and skin care that has been tested on animals when there is an excellent selection of such products on the market, all very good quality and many of them made in NZ.
+100 phillip and Rosie…and all in the name of ‘Science’
….and looks like John Banks has come up trumps on this one too….he is very very good on Morning Report
”Rats should be treated with dignity and respect”–Banks, sounds like another piece of self serving bullshit from the head rat Himself…
+1
its humans he doesnt give a rats arse about.
nah..!..i have been head of the queue to pour buckets of shit over banks..
..on numerous occaisons/for numerous reasons..
..but on this issue..
..him being the only one to actually vote against animal-testing..
..(instead of just mouthing against it..then doing a neck-injury-threatening volte-face..
..and actually voting for it..eh..?..)
..banks is the only one standing tall..
..everyone else voted to torture/kill animals..
..to test legal-highs..
..the record stands..
Didn’t JB he make his millions in the food and booze business?
dunno..i’m not according him sainthood..
..he still eats them…
..(and seems to have a wee bit of a blind spot there…
..no to testing..yum!-yum! to eating them..)
..you will find that many of those 40,000 who signed that no-testing on animals petition..
..also have that banks’-mote in their eyes..
and speak of the banks’-mote..
..russel norman is cooking dinner for john campbell..
..chicken..
..they no doubt tutt-tutted over animal testing..
..as they ate that chicken..
..eh..?
yes i think he had a chain of restaurants called Camelot…never saw any ratatouille on the menu though
@ chooky..
..heh..!
re JB’s Camelot restaurants……yes i think they specialised in steak and chip wedges and had things like shrimp cocktail entrees…also I remember they had folksy stained glass lampshades hung low over the tables
rats are very nice intelligent creatures…and sensitive…we used to have pet rats kept in a cage in the laundry …when they died of old age i really missed them…they had a psychic presence which lingered….the kids used to keep rats in their pockets….my Mother used to keep another grandson’s pet rat in her kitchen too…although i rather drew the line at that
Animal testing of cleaners and cosmetics is in the name of profit, not of science.
@ Murray Olsen
‘Science’ and ‘Profit’ are very much intertwined
…atomisation, dissection, reductionism, experimentation, objectification, materialism = Science and scientific method …ever since Francis Bacon
Very lucid, but how will that work when he is in court and his first words are “I don’t recall that”.
Being a cynic, my take is that Key has had some polling done and now finds that he cannot stick with his original comment that rats OK; rabbits and dogs, not OK.
The interview with John Banks on Morning Report was priceless! Much as I cannot stand the man as a politician, I know through personal experience that Banks has been longterm dedicated advocate for animal rights. But his take on Key’s backdown in this interview had me rolling on the floor laughing. “He looked deep into Moonbeam’s eyes ….”
Key’s MR interview on animal testing
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2594687/key-rules-out-using-animals-in-legal-high-safety-tests
The must hear Banks one
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2594698/no-animal-testing-for-herbal-highs
Oh I always thought the cat was called moonshine, but if Key ever did look at it or play with it I am sure it would open him up.
Phillip,
goes to show that Cunliffe/Labour called it right in terms of their position on the issue. And yes it is a good opportunity to extend the debate.
Labour has made a number of good calls lately on policy and political positions.
Steven Joyce is hiding the figures on how much money he is funnelling to his mates through his department.
The NBR has been chasing it and so far all the department has said is that it paid out $231 million total in 2012/13 and another $97 million in 2013/14. MBIE is refusing to say how much is forecast or how the decisions are made.
“The data on MBIE handouts excludes the nearly $400 million Mr Joyce’s New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) will hand out in corporate welfare in John Key’s first three terms, and the $140 million a year handed out by the government’s Callaghan Innovation agency. There is also at least $50 million a year spent subsidising the tourism industry’s international marketing. God knows how much the Ministry of Primary Industries hands out to the farming sector. This all adds up to billions.” See http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/joyce-blocks-answers-corporate-welfare-bd-155317
nice.
The story is by Hooton. Perhaps Collins has pointed him to some of the skeletons in Joyce’s cupboard. She is desperate to shift the focus.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/right-risks-revolting-dc-p-155645
Hooton says that the Collins and Williamson corruption stories put National’s lead in the polls at risk.
i hope no one is paying him to state the obvious
@ wynham..
..collins is threatening all and sundry..
..that she will go postal if she is fired..
..and that there will be few left standing..
..and key certainly won’t be amongst those still vertical..
Bad12 always refers to our PM as “Slippery the prime minister”.
If ever Bad needed confirmation of that description I suggest he listen to the Morning Report interview with Guyon Espiner.
Mumble,mumble,obfuscation,change the suject,etc. It was all there. Slippery even went to the extreme of declaring that Judith Collins ‘is a human being’ !
In my book, Collins is facing a stiff dose of “chickens coming home to roost”. She has been one of the Nacts most vicious bullies especially when she was in Opposition. Now under pressure she, like all bullies, is folding.
Here is the link to Espiner’s interview with Key
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2594684/pm-john-key-on-judith-collins
And this is Brent Edwards’ take on the interview and Collins
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2594685/collins-feeling-the-pressure
This earlier Morning Report item is also related and worth listening to.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2594677/judith-collins-faces-further-pressure.
And a further item is currently on air with an interview with Grant Robertson on the further MFAT emails that have now been released on Collins’ “Oravita Tour”. It gets more and more clear that this was not just a cup of tea on the way to the airport.
Thanks Veuto – – – my computer savvy is limited !
So is/was mine – but I am getting good at links!
Here is the interview with Grant Robertson on Morning Report I referred to above.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2594696/labour-says-collins-oravida-ties-too-close
From that interview – and earlier short mentions on Morning Report – the emails released by MFAT are providing a lot more indepth details of the discussions on the ‘private dinner’ prior to it taking place that indicate that it was anything but a private dinner with friends and friends of friends.
An old adage has just come to mind : “Follow The Money.”
No more needs to be said really.
+100 veutoviper …..Grant Robertson was superb on Morning Report…..GO Labour!
vv, I wonder if it’s going to be one of those weeks where one reaches for the popcorn.
Several weeks ago on the regular Thursday morning Radio Active interview with Grant Robertson and Alistair Thompson, Robertson said there was more to be uncovered in the Collins – Oravida affair and he really has kept up the pressure on her since then. Alistair Thompson’s view was it a case if when, not if, in regard to Collins resigning. (My words not his, I’m paraphrasing and condensing the message).
It certainly has got the feeling of a ‘popcorn’ week. Fingers crossed etc etc. Despite the grey Wellington day, I am feeling more positive on the political front than for months – hence the myriad of comments this morning! PG’s return had put me off coming here, but decided not to allow him to achieve that and just ignore him.
Must google that Radio Live Interview. My instincts tell me that the Oravida affair has a lot more legs – and that appears to be the case this morning/
I understand the PG reaction, but glad that you can rise above it – it’s the best way. I have to admit that when Greywarbler suggested to move my Open Mike domestic violence comment on to Stephanie Rodgers article on Saturday I did plan to and then saw it was a PG maelstrom so chose not to.
That interview btw, was on Radio Active and they don’t have their interviews available to listen to on line. they broadcast on line as well as on 88.6FM but that’s it.
I should imagine this Thursday should be a very interesting discussion. They are usually on between 8.15am and 8.45am and the interview lasts up to 20 minutes. Just bear in mind it won’t be a RNZ format type interview. The facilitator is a DJ first and foremost (and an excellent one)
Lolz, i need no such confirmation, Slippery was attached as a handle to the current Prime Minister around here even befor He assumed the position….
“She has been one of the Nacts most vicious bullies ….” Yes Wyndham. Hard to feel sympathy to a White Hawk Down, given the spite that she was pleased to dish when she was “up.”
Thanks Drax and Warbs for your replies over the weekend to my comment about neighbours not calling 111 as Sarwen Lata was being murdered, on 25th November last year and apologies for the late response. (You’d be surprised at how busy the unemployed can be).
You both made suggestions as to why folks might be disinclined to help a neighbour in crisis. I thought they were good points. It also made me think of the contrast in neighbourhood behaviour in a suburb where a friend lives. Everyone knows everyone and despite the area being a higher crime area, crimes are solved quickly as neighbours keep their eyes and ears open to activities in the street.
Then this morning there was this article in the Dom Post which encourages migrant women to seek help but doesn’t discuss the importance of neighbours, and indeed family, friends and workmates keeping an eye on a potential victim of domestic violence. No woman should feel she is alone when she is feeling so unsafe.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/10007821/Migrant-women-urged-to-seek-help-to-stay-safe
It’s going to be hard to top Todd Barclay in this week’s edition of “Dodgy Nat Candidate Watch” but new to the list is Brett Hudson, who was selected for Ohariu, last week. Here he is displaying the stunning ignorance that only a Nat can:
““National is working hard and delivering real progress for New Zealand families,” said Mr Hudson.”
From http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1405/S00003/national-selects-brett-hudson-as-ohariu-candidate.htm
I guess he’s “comfortable” with being Nat’s puppet for Ohariu
Lolz, rid Ohariu of ‘the Hairdo’ Pathetic Dunne and electorate vote Hudson to change the Government should be the message…
This could actually be the lefts answer to the citizens of Epsoms cynical election of ACT…..vote the seat to National to keep United Fuckwit out…..splendid.
Yep, there is at least one commenter here at the Standard that has said She/he will be campaigning in the Epsom electorate to get the National Party candidate elected,
My bones wont allow me the luxury of letterbox stuffing otherwise i would print up a pile of ‘electorate vote Hudson for Ohariu’ pamphlets for that electorate,
Neither Epsom or Ohariu are likely to favor a Labour candidate so some reverse tactics are probably the best means of ensuring National do not win in September…
Nat electorate vote in Epsom I understand bad, but Ohariu? And who would do that organising work to promote a vote for Hudson? Would it not be better to focus on the party that came closest last time?
Hudson btw, a previous sales rep for Oracle. (actually they call them “ambassadors” now, lol) I know a guy who worked for that company and in the same role. Was on about 200K. This Hudson dude wouldn’t have a clue about what happens in the real world, all those guys in that industry are running in a status race, the house, the cars, the troty wives etc. Never has there been a truer stereotype.
Rosie, whilst I don’t disagree that Oracle sales people are overpaid and would probably not have a clue about real people, but there is another story here.
In my company nothing moves unless somebody sells something. No sales means no delivering, lots of “expertise” in downtime mode costing a fortune. Everybody is valuable and some of that “expertise” due to supply and demand, restrictive practices etc get paid much more than the humble sales person. Yet the sales person is expected to keep the cash coming in, gets pressured, and has no job security unless that happens.
To me (much to pretty much everybody else s disgust) sales people are the Gods of commerce. Nasty, materialistic collectors of flash cars and trophy wives maybe. But as they don’t get thanked greatly, for doing the hardest job they take the cash instead, (and I suspect vote National to rub it in).
We live in a strange world!
Hi Ennui. I should declare that I have spent many years working as a sales rep previously, although my salary was $40K, not 200K, I should add!
I do understand the vital role they play in keeping the company not only afloat but profitable. And yes indeed it is a thankless role and one that can tear the rep in two directions between customer and boss, if there isn’t enough support coming from above.
I was being rather caustic about Brett Hudson but I do know his type and I don’t trust them one bit. I’ve no problem with people making money and lots of it. My problem is either how they obtain it, or how they display it, or how they use it as a power lever.
That-person-I -know, he falls into the latter two categories. What is kind of annoying too, is the fact that he’s not particularly talented or intelligent in the realm of real life and social interaction (he’s shallow, dour and lacks a sense of humour) but he can sell, that’s where his skill lies.
I’m sure he’ll know Hudson as they would have worked in the same office around about the same time (although I do need to check time lines) The funny thing is, this-person-I know once showed me photo’s of his colleagues property that he had for sale (excessively large and full of poor taste items) and accused him of the same, being shallow, whilst we sat there in his McMansion.
A strange world indeed.
Rosie, nice observations, you speak from experience. When you get to the cogs of commerce it is all rather basic and boring….I don’t know how anybody can study it, glorify it etc as anything other than transactions and dollars. The business pages drive me to distraction, economists seem to know nothing of what really goes on….all so dull. I hope you are enjoying better whatever you do today.
“I hope you are enjoying better whatever you do today.”
I really am laughing, as I am currently unemployed! I have gone for a couple of sales reppy type interviews but I felt myself glaze over as soon as they started with the corporate speak and knew my heart wasn’t in it. I can’t really bear flogging stuff any more. Also, pay and conditions have reduced for reps as a reflection of the retail market being so tight now. Many companies have removed a portion of the mileage allowance and I refuse to subsidise company costs by covering their fuel costs.
All I’ve really wanted to do is to be able to help others and what little formal education I have in this area, a community studies cert and a health psychology diploma isn’t even adequate for entry level work in the fields I’m interested in.
What I am enjoying doing with my “spare time” is helping out where I can with political activities here in Ohariu and looking after the abundance of wild ducks that hang around at my house.
I hope your chooks are well and happy.
Being the plant he is he doesn’t sound like he has any intention of seeking the electorate vote and said he would pursue the party vote.
I do recall your suggestion and reasoning for a push for a Nat electorate vote but I think Charles Chauvel lost out by just approx 1800 ish votes last time so perhaps if enough hard work is done, Virginia Anderson can win it??? I’m feeling so cautiously confident of this that I’d be willing to put a 50 cent bet on it! (it would be more but I can’t afford it lol)
Did you see that surprisingly good editorial from the right wing Romanos in the Wellingtonian last week? It was beaut. A hole proof argument for the resignation of Dunne. If the heat on Dunne keeps up it may be an easier job to unseat him than we’d expect.
Yes Rosie, Charles Chauval lost by 1646 electorate votes in 2011, that was as a high profile Labour Party politician, in fact Pathetic Dunne’s majority went up by 640 votes from the 2008 result where Chauval came within 1006 votes of Dunne,
National’s Katrina Shanks actually made those numbers look good for Chauval in those two elections and i doubt the relatively unknown Labour candidate will have the same amount of success as Charles Chauval did,
From the Party Votes recorded it is easy to see that National Party supporters are fully conversant with ‘tactical voting’ splitting their party votes off to National while electorate voting for Dunne,
my view is that the only slight chance for the Labour candidate to have any chance is to ensure,(if possible), that Hudson the National Party candidate gets a higher amount of the electorate vote,
Whichever way i look at the Ohariu electorate that will be the decisive factor, in a large part of the electorate it may be easier to convince the ‘blue rinsers’ to vote National than to go against everything the ‘silver spoon’ they have supped from since birth has ingrained in them and vote Labour,
A high turnout of the Electorate vote for both National and Labour may well see us rid of Dunne, a high turnout of the electorate vote for Labour alone tho i doubt will create enough of a swing to unseat him…
Thanks bad, that a helpful analysis. Yes, I had a look at the voting patterns for 08 and 11 a while ago and saw that the voters of Ohariu, like Epsom sure do know how to use MMP to suit their purposes.
From Memory Shanks came a fairly poor third the last two times, so I can see how it would be ideal if those blue rinsers you speak of gave their vote to the sales rep and weaken Dunnes chances. Maybe this will happen naturally as Dunne becomes increasingly less popular in the electorate, purely for conservative moral reasons rather than political.
Stephanie Rodgers said something once here on TS about being involved in the Labour campaign for Ohariu. Maybe she would like to offer her thoughts, I’m sure they would be welcome.
I am indeed involved in the Ohariu campaign – but it’s a complex topic! Virginia Andersen is a great candidate for Ohariu and I know we’re all working hard to win the electorate vote. No one expected National to field a particularly strong candidate for the obvious reasons. And a lot has happened for Peter Dunne since 2011.
Hi Stephanie and thanks. I bet it is a complex topic! And I’m assuming you may not be able to show the party’s hand, too much.
Although I didn’t meet Virginia Anderson I did listen to what she had to say at a recent meeting PPO hosted in J’Ville to discuss the Employment Relations Amendment Act. She comes across as very intelligent, sharp and strong. I am impressed by her.
Great to hear the campaign team has the wind in their sails – we’ll have you all to thank if we do it, if we turn this electorate red! Hey, what a party that would be, unseating Dunne after 30 years!
Well we could use all the help we can get – so if you know anyone who wants to lend a hand, they can sign up on the Facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/virginia.andersen.ohariu
Speaking of the young tobacco lobbyist, have you seen this yet?
http://porcupinefarm.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/suck-on-this-suckers.html
Lol. Brilliant.
What is your point?
I think the point is the lad saying he doesn’t encourage smoking, while lobbying for Phillip Morris.
Lobbying for a Tobacco company doesn’t necessarily mean you are attempting to encourage smoking. It is also not illegal. Frankly this smacks of the sort of witch hunting that used to be happen around membership of the Communist party in people’s youth. Just as I think it is ridiculous to focus on that I think it is ridiculous to castigate a potential candidate based on who he preciously worked for.
BTW the linked to article and associated graphic doesn’t makes the point you are suggesting it does or at least not in a clear an unequivical manner.
are you ms collins chief political advisor?
“Lobbying for a Tobacco company doesn’t necessarily mean you are attempting to encourage smoking.”
HA HA HA – good one gossamer
” I think it is ridiculous to castigate a potential candidate based on who he preciously worked for.”
then you havent been paying attention at all have you – who he worked for is but one facet of the argument of why hes not fit for selection
I think it is a matter of the National party members of the electorate to decide whether he is a suitable candidate or not. It then becomes a matter for the voters of the electorate to decide if they think he is a suitable MP. Some left wing person on a blog has little influence over this.
you said that promoting the business of phillip morris didnt mean he was encouraging smoking, dont change it to occupations dont preclude people from being mps.
two seperate issues.
Take the example of the Prostitutes Collective. Someone working for this organisation does not mean they necessarily encourage the use of prostitutes or at least that more people should use one. There is a lot of issues you can advocate for without expanding the take up of what you advocate on.
Sophistry in extremis
More to the point, why are you accusing Barclay of not contributing to his corporate employer’s bottom line? Are you saying that he was a fraud in the job or just lazy?
Are you stating lobbying on behalf of the Prostitutes collective means you are encouraging the use of Prostitutes?
I have no idea of the work Mr Barclay did for the company. Do you?
Do you believe that young Barclay esq. felt any moral twangs about accepting tens of thousands of dollars from big Tobacco corporate Philip Morris?
Or do you believe that he slept easy the whole time, which is why he is such a good fit for the National Party?
I have no idea if he did or didn’t. I don’t particularly like many organisations but I don’t condemn people based on the fact people may have once worked for them. I understand that people are employed to do a job not to agree with the ideas or views expressed by the organisation they are part of.
So you believe that Barclay probably had no moral qualms about accepting big tobacco money? I wonder what the principled burghers of Clutha Southland are going to make of a National Party who gave them such a poorly suited candidate.
This is obviously a golden opportunity then for a candidate of a left leaning party to win in Clutha Southland at the upcoming election. Do you want to have a wager on whether this will happen?
christ your an idiot gossamer
“Are you stating lobbying on behalf of the Prostitutes collective means you are encouraging the use of Prostitutes?”
well when the prostitutes collective starts selling prostitutes then your can compare them to phillip morris
the prostitutes collective advocates for their members – phillip morris sells t-backy
What is it that the members of the Prostitutes collective sell? I’d suggest advocating on their behalf is giving tacit support to what they do.
Well, National should pull the tobacco lobbyist from their candidate list, and give the people of Clutha Southland a serious choice, a candidate who knows about the issues of the electorate and understands farming, instead of sliding in a Big Tobacco lobbyist who is wholly unsuitable.
I’d suggest this is up to the National party and the members of the Clutha Southland electorate and not a hard core leftist like yourself to decide. Nice to see you so concerned about who should represent right leaning people. I myself would like left leaning people being represented by morons. Luckily for me that seems to be the case more often than not 😉
sheesh gossy..!..
..just going on yr pot-prohibition-‘views’ in this thread..
..you get the ‘moron’-gong today..
..eh..? (insert-smiley..)
Well I think we should give Gosman the benefit of the doubt.
After all he’s here advocating on behalf of the National Party – when clearly he doesn’t actually believe in a thing they stand for.
No.
The difference is like that between a lawyer and a fence. Your tobacco lobbyest is more like the latter.
But then a person who’s cool with prostitution is doing nothing wrong, as well as nothing illegal.
I don’t think you understand what the Prostitutes Collective does, Gosman.
no-one said otherwise – so again your inventing a point that was never mentioned in order to distract and derail
we are all entitled to say and discuss what ever we feel like (unless your some jack boot statist of course – are you?) – and the eyebrows raised about that particular appt was as much about his age, connections to certain party members, overall work and life experience and the fact that the revolving door relationship between politics and industry lobbyists is usually considered a less than desirable situation – regardless of left or right
it was never exclusively about phillip morris in and of itself
either you know this and are playing your usual bullshit or your shooting your mouth off without knowing the issue
one makes you a bit of a pain in the ass – the other makes you look like an idiot
Lobbying for a tobacco company, given the outcomes for those who take up the dreaded weed, gives an indication that the person is unable to link personal actions to community and social responsibility.
As a potential government representative for all demographics, who all need to have a long-term view of policy effects this is an “experience” that indicates a severe skill deficiency.
Really? So people who advocate for Marijuana normalisation would be in a similar boat in your mind I presume.
slight difference there gossy..
..tobacco kills..
..in many cases..cannabis heals/helps…
Cannabis has the potential to cause the same sort of physical harm as Tobacco AND additional harm via long term psychological damage (especially when taken frequently at a young age). Don’y try and act like Cannabis is some life preserving wonder drug. We are not all as stupid as you might be.
Why do you think Barclay accepted a job with a Big Tobacco corporate? After all, Philip Morris’ products have caused millions of deaths worldwide over the last 50 or more years. Do you think Barclay considered that before he started accepting money from Philip Morris?
The same could be argued for any number of companies from Pharmaceutical distributors through to Confectionary manufacturers. Yes Tobacco is harmful to you but so is Homeopathy if you use it instead of proper medicine. I don’t think that should rule out people from becoming an MP if they worked as a Homeopath or in the industry just as i don’t think working as a lobbyist for a tobacco company carrying out their business in a legal manner should rule you out from public office.
So did Barclay experience moral doubts about accepting Big Tobacco corporate cash, or do you think that he was paid enough by Philip Morris that he found that he could ignore any minor moral qualms that he may have had?
Tobacco distribution is not illegal in this country. Therefore Mr Barclay has done nothing wrong working for a company involved in this sector. You might not like it but I suspect you won’t be involved in deciding if he is elected to parliament.
No, he has merely avoided doing anything illegal.
Although it’s revealing that you should confuse the two. Especially if we remember that, legally speaking, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Which means that (in your worldview) if one can get away with murder one has done nothing wrong…
Only in your perverted view of the world. Someone can get away with murder if they think they are acting in self defence though so in essence you do raise an interesting, if irrelevant, point. What this has to do with Mr Barclay’s previous job is unclear though.
You said it was not illegal therefore it is not wrong.
Murder is illegal, but proving it is another matter.
And murderers are innocent until proven guilty under the law.
You’re an idiot. If it’s self defense, it’s not murder. According to the law, anyway (cf: s160 and s48 of the same Act).
The point I’m getting at is that your definition of “wrong” rests solely on legality. It’s almost as if you have no internal set of ethical principles which guide your actions, legal or otherwise. I.e. completely amoral.
could you plse give some evidence/links of cannabis causing cancer…?
..and yr ‘ long term psychological damage’..?
here is mine..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=medicinal+marijuana+
(..and here is an excerpt from one..)
“..“..Any day now – Alabama – which was ranked the most conservative state in the country by Gallup last year –
will become the first state in the South to legalize a type of medicine derived from marijuana.
When “Carly’s Law” or Senate Bill 174 – arrived in the state House of Representatives at 2 a.m. on March 21-
politicians on both sides of the aisle reportedly stood up and began chanting for the bill to pass.
The measure – which received unanimous support in both chambers –
will fund a $1 million study at the University of Alabama –
on the effectiveness of cannabidiol in treating seizure disorders.
But the “Heart of Dixie” isn’t the only Southern state opening up to the possibility that cannabis may have medicinal value.
Here are some others fighting to pull back the veil on medical weed:..”
(‘carly’ is a young girl who used to suffer hundreds of seizures a year..
..and no conventional medicines worked to ease that..
..but cannabis oil does..)
..and i see you never went to a waste-station during yr absence..
..you’re still full of waste-material..eh..?)
http://www.cancernz.org.nz/assets/files/smokefree-resources/IS_TC_Cannabis&Cancer_9Sept2010.pdf
“The effects of cannabis on health have not been studied anywhere near as much as those of tobacco smoking. However, a review has concluded that the airways of cannabis smokers have changes that indicate cancer risk , for example, “chronic inflammatory” and “pre-cancerous changes”.
This review also found one well-designed study that suggested that cannabis smoking caused cancer in the upper airways of young adults, and that the risk was highest in the most frequent users.”
Therefore there is evidence that it does have the potential to cause the same sort of physical harm as smoking Tobacco. You may disagree the risk is as high or that the evidence is not compelling but there is no doubt evidence.
correction..those ‘hundreds of seizures every year’..
..should read ‘every day’…
gosman..yr bullshit claims are blown away by the fact that we now have a great many people who have smoked a lot of cannabis for a long time..
..but there is no blip in lung cancers etc..from these people..
..the same with yr ‘psychological-harm’..rubbish..
..pot makes you schitzo! has long been the prohibitionist-claim/lie the likes of you peddle..
..yet once again..the facts/stats blow that one away too..
..’cos as with those decades of heavy cannabis use not showing cancer-outcomes..in those users..
..the ‘schitzo’-levels in the population are about the same now..
..as they were before the wholesale uptake of cannabis in the 60’s..
..you really are just blowing hot-air..aren’t you..?
What you are stating is you disagree with the conclusion of that review. That is fine. You don’t have to believe it. Just as some people don’t agree with lots of scientific conclusions. You can’t deny that there is some evidence linking the use of Cannabis and increased risk of cancer though. It exists.
Phil said what I would’ve if I’d returned earlier.
Marijuana normalisation is advocated mostly by those who will not benefit from changing the legislation, using studies to back up their claims.
Tobacco lobbyists are highly paid liars who do benefit from continued use and whose employers suppressed for many years scientific studies that showed devastating and ongoing harm from the use of their products.
Also, ignore the fact that nicotine was added specifically to make it addictive thereby ensuring the continuation of use for the whole of their customer’s shortened life.
Are you able to distinguish differences or do you need a return to basics?
I’d suggest this is based purely on your own personal prejudices and not on any evidence supporting the view that everyone who works as a lobbyist for a Tobacco company is a liar. If you can provide evidence that Mr Barclay knowingly lied during his time working for the Tobacco company in question though you will have won the argument. Have you such evidence?
notice how your avoiding the substance of all discussion with you in order to focus on hair splitting?
The focus on the discussion is what excatly? Is it that Tobacco use is bad for you and society generally and therefore anyone who has worked for a company involved in that sector is bad and therefore is not fit for public office? As I pointed out that is a ridiculous position to hold.
what’s to lie about..?
..he’s/they’re just peddling death..
..they are in a dirty/death-peddling-addiction-industry..
..surely you aren’t denying that fact..?
..heroin dealers don’t need to lie either..
..their product does all the talking for them…
..it’s that captive-addict-audience they both service..
..and there..the addiction is all..
There is evidence that pure Heroin is not that physically harmful to you. It is the adulturated substance that causes problems.
i agree it is the adulterants that fuck junkies up..
..if they were able to register as heroin addicts..and get pure-product..
..the harm-minimisation results would be significant..
.this is what switzerland does..
..heroin addicts pick up one dose on the way to work..
..and another on the way home..
..criminals aren’t in the picture..
..and of course there is no crime needed to be committed by those addicts to feed a blackmarket-addiction..
..the purity-thesis is also confirmed by doctors who get hooked on their product..ie pure morphine..whatever..
..yes..they get the addiction..
..but they don’t suffer the physical-wasting junkies relying on blackmarket-supplies do..
..but we are a long way from any such outbreak of sanity here..
..where/when the most conservative southern states in america are unanimously passing such a law..for pot..
..and yet here we can’t even get fucken medical-marijuana over the line..
..let alone sane policies around other drugs/addiction-issues..
..our political leaders are both clowns..and fools..
..’scared’ little people..
yet we have this harmful/legal-high crap coming out our ears..
..and the most harmful drug of all..alcohol..
..normalised/peddled in ads on television..
..aarrgghh!!
..the lunatics have taken over the asylum..
..and of course..some of the most strident opponents to ending cannabis prohibition..
..are those who ‘own’ dung…the booze-pushers..
..they well know that decriminalised-cannabis will see a major move away from their dangerous/addictive ‘product’..
..it’s all about ‘preserving-market’ for them..eh..?
..and ‘their men’ dung/key etc..
..as always..when seeking the/any real story..
..follow the money..
Barclay lobbied on behalf of Big Tobacco, against the Government’s “attempts” to restrict the harmful effects of smoking on New Zealanders. Now, he plans to join the Government on the other side of the argument. Comfortable about that, are you? It doesn’t have to be illegal to be wrong. Remember “legal highs/synthetic cannabis”?
There are other ways of measuring right and wrong. Barclay chose to side with the pedlars of nicotine and now he wants to govern us. His background will worry many people, especially those who have lost family members to the various cancers cigarette smoking causes.
Do you have evidence of what his current views on Tobacco usage are and that he will be pushing the Tobacco company point of view forward if he becomes an MP?
We know he supported the actions of Philip Morris – unless of course, he was dishonest with them and they paid him under false pretences. If he didn’t support their kaupapa, he’s a hypocrite – not the sort of person you’d want representing you in Parliament. If he did side with the tobacco pedlars, he was actively working against the best interests of new Zealanders – not the sort of person you’d want representing you in Parliament.
Not the sort of person you’d want to represent you in parliament – Are you a resident of the Cluth Southland electorate then?
By the way, even assuming he was a big supporter of increased tobacco usage (there doesn’t seem to be any evidence supporting this though) he can change his mind. I believe a number of politicians may have had radically different views when younger. Phil Goff springs to mind.
I’ve lived in Southland for 28 years. The Southlanders I’ve spoken with on this issue are disgusted that the National Party have served up this tobacco lobbyist. None will vote for him.
edit: Different views when he was younger!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
!
He resigned from Philip Morris last week!
Younger!
Pathetic.
Excellent. Care to wager that National will lose the electorate then?
It’s always been said that a fence-post would win Clutha/Southland for National (been proved true too). Your comment/wager has no bearing on the quality of the tobacco lobbyist/candidate or his ethical standards, which are being described around here as non-existent.
So not enough people in the Clutha Southland electorate care enough about the issue to vote for an alternative candidate then. Case closed.
‘So not enough people in the Clutha Southland electorate care enough about the issue to vote for an alternative candidate then. Case closed.’
Not enough people care about the issue?
Nonsense statement from Gosman. The election has not taken place yet, so you can’t know.
The ‘case’ is far from closed.
Case wide open and looking less than secure for what might have been an easy-win for a candidate who hadn’t recently quit a job in an industry that most people regard as odious. Let’s remember, it’s “most people”, not you, Gosman, who will decide whether Barclay is suitable for representing Southlanders in parliament. I’m hearing a lot of, “Hell no!”
Then have the wager with me. I’ll even give you odds of 2 to 1.
what is it about tories and gambling?
Is your opinion worthless unless it gets you money?
Tobacco lobbyists in order to sell their product by necessity are “economical with the truth” ( admittedly my definition of a liar, perhaps not yours ) or they are a really ineffective lobbyist, one who would be fired fairly quickly.
He did not mention that he was a bad lobbyist – so I am also assuming he was fairly competent in the role.
But you are right Gosman – just because I don’t have a transcript of all his commercial utterings I cannot prove that he lied (even by my definition) in any specific incident.
Just as I cannot prove that any baker has put active yeast into all his bread products – but if he didn’t, his failure would be fairly noticeable.
Not likely – just 9 months in the role, he’d probably only learnt where the toilets were and what home time was.
For a new graduate a corporate affairs role takes 2-3 years to get any basic competence at, and that’s with proper mentoring.
Are you the only right winger on duty today?
What’s your view on the Collins debacle?
he’s just been bottling it up for a while. Normal destructive service will be resumed shortly 🙂
She should have resigned when this first came out. End of story.
She should only resign if it came out?
There’s that moral vacuum again.
Thought you guys had gone to ground…..
they are recovering from the national party conference this weekend. i suspect some of them have no memory of the weekend.
hehehe
and you know he sums up a few nat ministers right now,
“its just a job”
… ethics dont come into it.
Or it could be that Johnny No-Mates has given up on trying to get Colin Craig into Auckland and has told the Conservatives to have a scout around the churches in Clutha to see if there’s a potential candidate down there. After all, if Todd the Toddler loses the seat it will be no great loss to the Nats as long as they get a Conservative in his place…
I’ve managed to locate the words to National’s “Party” song.
It was heard being sung at the end of their recent conference while they were eating Hors d’oeuvres and clinking champagne flutes. Feel free to join in.
It goes like this………eeeerm….eeeerm.
It’s time to play the music
It’s time to light the lights
It’s time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.
It’s time to put on makeup
It’s time to dress up right
It’s time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight.
Why do we always come here
I guess we’ll never know
It’s like a kind of torture
To have to watch the show
Chorus
And now let’s get things started
Why don’t you get things started
It’s time to get things started
On the most sensational Aspirational celebrational Muppetational
This is what we call the Muppet Show!
Instrumental Break
[MC]To introduce our guest star
That’s what I’m here to do
So it really makes me happy
To introduce to you (drum roll)
Shonnnnnnnn Keyyyyyyyyy!!!
Chorus
And now let’s get things started
Why don’t you get things started
It’s time to get things started
On the most sensational Aspirational celebrational Muppetational
This is what we call the Muppet Show!
Love it!
lol
Bit of help?
This page has a clear date stamp of today… but all the comments are apparently from a year ago ???
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/wr-opening-salvo-dump-rental-properties-now-lf-133603
Is the article itself a year old, in which case where is the correct publication date NBR?
Or is NBR just being really green and recycling comments ?
That is a bit of a head-scratcher isn’t it, Hooton talking of David Shearer as the leader of the Labour Party,
Perhaps this is a re-print of something wee Matty previously wrote, a little trumpet blow in Hooton’s direction to show how clever Matty is at seeing the future,
What will drive more than a few out of ‘rental investments’ is the Labour plan to plug the loophole where such ‘investors’ get to right off any losses incurred on the property against other taxable income,
i don’t know the numbers of people who piled into ‘rental investments’ based upon the taxes on ‘other income’ they could write off against the properties but the numbers i would suggest are high and the closing of this tax loophole will force more than a few to divest themselves of rental properties…
Don’t even remember it. Must have been a while ago.
Thanks for replying Matthew, I think you would agree it is very sloppy presentation of information. Especially for a publication of the NBR’s stature. Would you be so kind as to mention this to your editors?
You could imagine the kerfuffle if PG tried to use it to establish a fact. He is bound to try to establish a fact one day, and I would hate for something like a publishing date to trip him up.
I agree with the worrying impact on Pete George and will pass on the suggestions you raise.
“You could imagine the kerfuffle if PG tried to use it to establish a fact. He is bound to try to establish a fact one day, and I would hate for something like a publishing date to trip him up.”
Wonderful – has to win as comment of the day!
@ veuto..+ 1..
..that’s funny..
Must be a glitch – if you click on ‘More articles by Matthew Hooton’ it takes you to a page of articles by David Cohen.
is hooton cohen..?
..is this ‘the story’ here..?
Judith Collins has just confirmed that she will not resign. Good!
The chances of Left coalition winning the election just skyrocketed.
i’m torn..
i want to see her gone..sacked/fired..
..but i also want her as a stinking/rotting albatross around keys’ neck..
..all the way thru to the election..
..the recycling options from/with the collins are both potent and ongoing..
John Armstrong has emerged from the shadows….
“But Key’s reference to the length of the conversations has to be regarded as another way of him saying he canvassed various options with respect to her immediate future as a minister.
For Key not to have offered Collins some much-needed respite from the intense scrutiny that she has been under for weeks would have been neglectful of not just National’s interests, but of Collins’ as well.
Clearly Collins is very much in the wrong place mentally right now. That is plainly evident after she lashed out at TVNZ’s Katie Bradford yesterday, only to to subsequently issue a public apology to the political reporter.
Key this morning described Collins’ outburst at the press gallery journalist as being “completely inappropriate”. He added that Collins would be “very careful going forward”.
The trouble is every time Collins moves one step forward, her reputation takes five steps back. Rather than endeavouring to close down the whole farrago prompted by her highly-questionable dealings with the milk exporting company Oravida, Collins says or does something to further inflame matters……”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11249704
The real problem is that Slippery Key moves the goalposts after she gaffes.
Firstly he says she’s on her last warning then when she fucks up he says the warning was for a different topic! Opening the door for a “three strikes” wet bus ticket for all of his ministers every time there’s a screw up screwing up.
Perhaps what we are seeing is a cathartic civil war in the National Party.
Joyce, with all the gifts of MBIE to help him win support among business backers of National, is getting aid from McCully (fast OIA responses) and others to weaken Collins.
Collins, with the gift of self-belief and popularity among grass-root Nats, is willing to risk all, including the election, to gain control.
Labour should leave them space on the front pages!
interesting take on it ps. espesh the mccully mfat connection to oias.
and mccully and joyce have been np strategists for some time.
its always interesting to see who says nothing at times like these.
thanks for yoyr thoughtful observation.
now, back to oriveida and something to stick to that lovely mr key.
Groser has helped trip up Collins also. The short wee mon is very traditional and would NOT cope with having a woman, Collins, as his boss. He is definitely in the Joyce Camp now.
The short wee mon will also be getting it in the ear from Fonterra. Fonterra will also have been chatting with John Key and Bill English.
Imagine how Fonterra are feeling: Collins goes into bat for another trader who wants to make hay in China from Fonterra’s botulism crises! Fonterra spent a few $100m opening the market and Oravida wanted to sneak in via the back door!
Collins has pissed off Fonterra, the biggest lobbyist in Parliament.
Therefore Collins has pissed off Federated Farmer, the second biggest lobbyist in Parliament.
If those two go public with their annoyance every Fonterra shareholding farmer will see Collins as a TRAITOR.
She is so close to going. Key must be afraid of how she will behave if she is fired.
How are Collins and Finlayson?
Finlayson does seem to be gliding through very quietly of late.
Surely our Attorney-General would be a good person for a comment on the Cabinet Rules?
Finlayson would find both Collins and Joyce odious. He would wish both of the ill, IMO.
so let’s hope some media type person ‘innocently’ gets him on record about the Cabinet Rules 🙂
thanks ps.
“Lobbying for a Tobacco company doesn’t necessarily mean you are attempting to encourage smoking.”
Being a member of The Mighty Mongrel Mob doesn’t mean you support the activities of your fellow mobsters either, does it, Gosman.
If the Mongrel Mob activities are legal then there is nothing wrong with belonging to them. It is only when people carry out illegal activities under the Mongrel mob banner that belonging to them becomes an issue.
Do you take an equivalent stance on our involvement in the Five Eyes network?
Yes
Guess that is a reply to 14.1.1 above.
That also makes you culpable in terms of being a citizen of one of those governments.
Do you claim that culpability or do you acknowledge that personal control of those organisations to which we all belong plays a part in our guilt by association?
(Moved as sensibly suggested by Gosman 16.1.1.1)
I don’t think one automatically leads on to the other. For example in war a nation can carry out some dreadful actions like the fire bombings of Dresden and Tokyo or the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That does not mean all citizens of the nations making up the Allies in the war are culpable for these decisions or that the war itself is suspect because of them.
a person employed to lobby for a tobacconist is not just a citizen wandering by.
Gosman, do you believe the 23 year old, Todd Barclay, who has only ever worked in Government Minister’s offices and lobbied for a tobacco firm has enough life experience to be an MP where his job is to represent the full cross-section of the electorate?
He is not looking at becoming a list MP but an electorate one. It is not for me to decide if he is suitable or not as I don’t live in his electorate. If the people of his electorate decide to vote for him who am I to quibble about his supposed lack of experience.
Hi Gosman,
I don’t think freedom was asking you to decide Barclay’s political fate (you can’t, as you point out) but, instead, was inviting you to express what you believe about his life experience in relation to the tasks of an electorate MP.
The beauty of democracy is we leave it up to the voters to decide the suitability or otherwise of a candidate. As for if I would vote for him. I don’t know a lot about him or his opponents. He does seem a little on the young and inexperienced side but that does not necessarily preclude you from being a good electorate MP. Certainly the fact he worked as a lobbyist for a Tobacco company doesn’t rule him out as far as I am concerned.
So you believe that the principled burghers of Clutha Southland should have been given a choice of decent National Party candidates, instead of having a tobacco industry lobbyist served to them from Wellington on a blue platter?
I don’t believe I stated that at all.
ok Gosman, let’s look at Colonial Viper’s question from a different angle.
Should National Party members of Clutha-Southland be given a choice about who becomes their candidate?
Is the way Mr Barclay is being selected as a candidate outside National party rules on candidate selection? If the answer to that is no then what is the problem here again? If the National party voters in the electorate don’t like the candidate they are free to vote for a candidate of another party. This seems to me to be a perfect opportunity for other candidates to take advantage of. Assuming of course the majority of voters in the electorate care enough about the issue. Do you think they will vote for another candidate?
I’d like to see who else in the National Party put their hand up for the job of candidate for Clutha Southland; you can bet there would be a few amongst them who would make our inexperienced tobacco lobbyist look properly shallow in comparison.
Why do you care who National selects as a candidate anyway? If this wasn’t a left wing blog what you are doing would be termed concern trolling.
It’s not that I care so much (and I actually do know a lot of voters who live in the Clutha Southland), it’s that I am amazed that you care so little about the appalling Big Tobacco choice of candidate that National HQ has served up on a plate to that electorate.
I have not said a word about voting Gosman. I was clearly pointing to the candidate selection process. I just find it funny when supposedly intelligent people defend a candidate selection system where the members’ views are deemed irrelevant and yet these same people are somehow represented, by submitting to an arbitrary decision by their Party leaders that they, the members, had no input into.
Good thing I gave up trying to understand National voters a long time ago, even the ones I love. Some might say you should never fully understand your friends, or your family, it takes away all the mystery.
National is by far and away the most successful political party in NZ since the end of the second world war. You might not understand their internal processes or why people support them but you can’t deny that it seems to work for them. I am sure they don’t give two hoots what a bunch of largely hard core leftists think of them.
Actually, that’s exactly what being a democracy means.
“I don’t think one automatically leads on to the other.”14.1.1.1.1
“It is only when people carry out illegal activities under the Mongrel mob banner that belonging to them becomes an issue.14.1
A bit of a contradiction there. But I do agree with your statement at 14.1.1.1.1 because fundamentally, regardless of whether you are a member or not, – your personal input or control of the decisions made by that organisation – make up a large part of whether you are responsible for those decisions or not. Mongrel Mob member, MP or democratic citizen.
Unfortunately, some of these organisations are set up to look like you have equal power to another but in actuality do not deliver.
No contradiction at all as far as I can see. Perhaps you will explain why you think one exists.
Gosman – for some reason I can’t reply to your comment above regarding National’s electoral success in the post-world war 2 era? You are, strictly speaking, right though much of that success comes from exploiting the FPP gerrymander. In the MMP era National and Labour so far have 3 terms each.
legallity isnt part of the question captain deflection
certain types get too easily mixed up between the concepts of ‘what is moral’, and ‘what is legal.’
Morally I think selling Homeopathy or most other types of CAM products/remedies is reprehensible. Does that mean people involved with this sector should be denied the opportunity of becoming an MP?
the thing is with homeopathy..there..gossy..
..is that farmers who have vets that use it..
..see how effective it can be..
..and i don’t think animals are subject to the placebo-effect..
..(i also have seen it work wonders on dogs..)
..i’m no expert on the subject..
..but just those vet-facts/personal-experiences..
..give me pause for thought..
Who’s denying anyone the opportunity of becoming an MP?
The tobacco lobbiest is allowed to run.
So is Aaron Gilmore.
But for either to be nominated would show tory arrogance. A lot of that’s been coming to light, lately.
Only to hard core leftists like you. People like me don’t think it is arrogant.
Arrogant people don’t think arrogant people are arrogant?
Fuck me.
Ah Felix. Did you miss me? I certainly didn’t miss your usual frivolous inputs to any discussion.
frivolous? He was spot on.
Didn’t know you’d been away.
“Who’s denying anyone the opportunity of becoming an MP?”
you keep saying it and when directly confronted on the issue you go all quiet
so i will ask the same question – Who’s denying anyone the opportunity of becoming an MP?
your being really weak on this one
first home owners in auckland, based on neither owner having bought a home before or held a mortgage before, are paying $200 a week more than counterparts outside auckland.
but they dont get $200 a week more from similar jobs to counterparts.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/editors-picks/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503539&objectid=11249447
This is what you get for having more than 30% of the country’s population squashed into less than 0.3% of the country’s land area.
As an added benefit, it depopulates and economically degrades all the other regions of the country. You would have thought given these facts that just a little teensy bit of central planning might be in order to even things out a bit, but no, every political party seems determined to make Auckland even bigger and denser than it is now.
Right, a little update.
Despite badgering me for weeks whilst I was on sick leave, and on three occasions questioning the veracity of my Doctor’s certificates, after my disciplinary hearing on Monday, at 5.58 pm on Friday, I finally got confirmation through I was sacked.
Not surprised at the outcome, but still gutted none the less. Cancelled my wff payments so I don’t get overpaid, booked up my ‘working for me seminar’ at winz, and ready to do what I can to get back in to work.
I don’t know what options I have, other than full hearing and more costs I can’t pay or walk away and take the hit, but I’ll decide after consultation with the brief later today. It appears a pervy old man can’t buy my silence, but can buy protection for his reputation.
Better off out of it, but what a way to go.
Bugger.
Wishing you all the best for this next stage.
Yes
Guess that is a reply to 14.1.1 above.
That also makes you culpable in terms of being a citizen of one of those governments.
Do you claim that culpability or do you acknowledge that personal control of those organisations to which we all belong plays a part in our guilt by association?
For some reason it was appearing down here even though I replied to you above. To keep this sensible repost your question above.
Really sorry to hear of the outcome for you The AIlen. Good luck for your post consultation decision making on what to do next and all the best for your next move.
It really is disheartening how dodgy employers get away it, again and again. I’ve seen it happen so many times to others and have been the victim of dodgy bosses twice in a row – its so wrong that your experience is not uncommon.
Hope you find something nice to treat yourself to today.
Kia Ora.
+100…good luck The Allen!
+1. I was trying to find the right words of support for you, the Al1en; but Rosie has said it much better. I am thinking of you, as I am sure many others here are. I have been through similar but the fact that others have been down the same road does not make it any easier at the time. But you will get through. It has been obvious to me reading your posts on this issue. Kia Kaha. Keep us up to date.
+1 and take care of yourself Al1en.
Take the high road Al1en, it has better views and it’s always best to avoid the hassle of stumbling over messed up riverbeds. As you say, there does not appear to be any rewards in battling further. Do remember though, you can now freely offer advice to people as to whether they should use that particular business or not. There are lots of legal ways to adjust someone’s business reputation. I am not a spiteful person but have certainly had the unquestioning generosity of my youth sorely tested these past few years.
Look after yourself, and when jumping the WINZ hoops, breath deep and let the pointless busywork ahead be a positive challenge. There is a job out there. I keep getting told there is. Problem seems to be WINZ are talking to us all about the same job 😉
best of luck with the job hunt.
Mediation costs nothing and there is absolutely no reason to be represented by a lawyer. If you choose to be represented by a lawyer, then they can claim costs as a part of any confidential settlement.
Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement.
I didn’t get a call back from my guy, so haven’t heard his considered opinion yet, but hope to tomorrow. The worst thing about the outcome is knowing I didn’t really do anything wrong, got victimised and then assaulted, and have been dismissed on the ‘evidence’ of witnesses I know weren’t present at the time.
Realistically, without being Rumpole of the Bailey, I know I can’t rip the truth out from these people. I couldn’t even get my ex boss to speak during the kangaroo court. Two and a half hours and he said nothing, just stared in to any space except my eye line.
I am full of contempt for this tool, but still bound by confidentiality, so naming and shaming isn’t an option as yet. I do have the privacy commission to fall back on, which is free to apply to, so that will probably be my next move, but first to get that job.
Thanks again.
Hang in there, TA. And thanks for the update. You are not alone.
My thoughts are with you, mate.
gosman you are just being silly and throwing red herrings around. Whats his name from dipton is just a silly little twerp but you wont admit it.
Explosive new art show exposes Auckland’s revolutionary labour history: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/building-bombs.html
Good to see the government’s helping the poor live on air:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/10010529/Budgeting-services-to-get-a-boost
Soon people will be so good at managing their finances benefits won’t be needed at all. If fact, I’m surprised Bennett isn’t saying something like “we really want to support people manage their money so well that there’s even some left over each week they can pay back to the government as a contribution to the benefit system overall.”
Bennett says the funding “will ensure the services are able to keep up with demand”. What she doesn’t say is that that demand is increasing because it’s compulsory when people apply to Work and Income for special needs grants and advances, which people need to apply for because main benefit levels are so ridiculously low. Bennett, this government and Labour have absolutely no idea.
+1
Talking about that:
‘Don’t ever imagine there’s not a cost’
A column by Sarah Wilson.
Is Maurice Williamson really a ventriloquists dummy, i had that thought as Williamson was manhandled out of TV3’s ‘the Nation’ studio on the weekend, perhaps Maurice had just filled his incontinence pants and couldn’t bring Himself to perambulate after such a dramatic event,
Maurice having just had the silver spoon rudely ripped from His over privileged mouth should face further questioning over His story,
Claiming that it wasn’t Donghua Liu who asked Him for help after putting the bash on both wife and mother-in-law Williamson claimed that it was a member of the police force who gave Him the information that Liu was in trouble for the incident,
i don’t believe Williamson’s explanation for a moment, But, if he was being truthful the plod who shared this information with Him should face discipline for giving out such information…
Ah, bad, on reading the transcript, I don’t think that’s how it went down. The final bit of the interview, Williamson is explaining why he mentioned Liu’s business interests in NZ when talking on the phone to the police.
to use a quaint old phrase I think Judith collins has gone “furgerko”.
Finally, after reading 14 ways a link to the entire Umberto Eco Ur-Fa**ism essay.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf&chrome=true
79 years ago today.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/john-scopes-arrested-for-teaching-evolution-may-5-1925-106325.html?