Continued daily media bias from the Herald, who are clearly wanting National re-elected.
More on the Cunliffe story, no mention of Collins.
Derp is not the word to describe the PM. I can think of more colourful terms.
As to the media, paid puppets is about as generous as I can get. I don’t wish to get a ban.
Just in case people start paying attention to the state of New Zealand, distract them with a foreign crime story involving a celebrity.
Crime…tick
Celebrity …tick
“Just in case people start paying attention to the state of New Zealand”
The NZ economy is doing pretty well compared with others so most kiwi’s are thankful for the way the government has managed it. That is why National is polling at around 50%
So you don’t think a famous athlete murdering a beautiful model is news worthy. These people are trying to sell newspapers not bore people to death. Most of us are sick to death of hearing about parents who don’t look after their kids and people trying to pedal poverty.
Paul, your link, it took me to a story of Len Brown increasing Auckland City debt, i agree with you whole-heartedly on the debt issue,
While i realize that the GFC meant there were 4 options for Governments, cut spending to match the shortfall in Government revenue, increase taxation to match the shortfall in Government revenue, borrow the money to match the shortfall in Government spending, or, print the needed monies, there is still an economic narrative that Labour should be putting befor the public,
Again obviously, it is a hard narrative to establish as Slippery the Prime Minister will simply use the tame media to reverse the issue in a what would Labour have done differently spin,
The Rock-Bottom Economy, 80 billion gross Government debt,an ongoing Government yearly deficit of 1.79 Billion dollars and a business tax take again light by +300 odd million dollars because the National Government has stripped the IRD of employees leaving it unable to follow up on owed taxes,
Attached to that narrative need be the fact that Labour would not have kneecapped the economy in 2009 with a raise in GST, would have raised the top tax rate for those earning the most and would have bolstered the number of IRD employees allowing them to chase owed taxes and chase the 1–5 billion dollars a year of tax avoided/evaded by those in a position to do so which would have seen far less government borrowing across the period,
It is the economy which sways a large demographic of the vote, while Labour remains mainly out of the limelight, not having an ongoing narrative with which to sway the minds of voters, Slipperry’s National Government then have the floor able to claim to be a safe pair of hands…
The Christchurch Earthquake is also a part of that debt. Borrow and spend was the only way to keep the economy moving at that time given that most people agree that printing money is not a good idea. The trick now is to balance the books and start paying the debt back.
The Christchurch Earthquake is also a part of that debt.
Pretty sure that Christchurch was supposed to be mostly funded by the private insurance companies. Doesn’t seem to have worked out to well – probably because they’re spending their time trying not to pay out.
Borrow and spend was the only way to keep the economy moving at that time given that most people agree that printing money is not a good idea.
Almost all of that borrowed money would have been printed by the private banks so it really doesn’t appear to have made any difference in that regard. Of course the private banks, because they charge interest on the money that they print, get to make a killing.
The trick now is to balance the books and start paying the debt back.
See, that actually really easy – just print some money back to the private banks.
I read recently, in the Herald I think, that the Taxpayer share of the Christchurch rebuild is expected to be $16 Billion.
The balance of $24 Billion has/is being paid by Insurance Companies.
That is with an estimated $40 Billion, which may well reach $50 Billion.
15 or $16 Billion that is about what I was thinking, The estimate keeps getting bigger.
You have to admit it would be a difficult time for any government.
Nakahi Man, i would suggest that ‘most people’ have very little understanding of what can be achieved ‘printing money’, having to rely instead on the words of Slippery the Prime Minister happily broadcast by the media decrying such ‘money printing’ as pixie dust,
Obviously the up-side to the Government having produced the money to cover the 100–300 million dollar weekly shortfall are that we would not be saddled with the current 80 billion dollars of gross government debt,
The downside to this of course is that the NZdollar remains highly valued at a level that is said to have cost 40,000+ manufacturing jobs since the borrowing binge began,
Would ‘printing’ that 100–300 million dollars a week have become highly inflationary,???, i say NO, ‘printed money’ is no different than ‘borrowed money’ and in simple terms there is no difference in inflationary expectations between the two,
YES, we could expect some inflation as the ‘printing’ of money would obviously have lowered the value of the NZdollar,
Could we have avoided most of that inflation, i say YES, most of such inflation would have an inescapable cost to the consumer at the petrol pump and the flow on effect in the economy of higher fuel costs through having a lower dollar,
The Solution,??? pretty simple, as the value of the NZDollar slid any Government would have only needed to direct a sum of the printed monies into the budget gained from taxation upon fuels, currently at 30% of the cost of a liter of fuel such taxation could have been lowered and the budget shortfall ‘plugged’ by the same amount as the lowering of the fuel taxes, such would have stopped any fuel price rises creating inflation in the wider economy,
Other imports???, obviously with a lower dollar value which would be the result of ‘printing’ money other imports would have become more expensive, most of such imports from the point of view of the consumer are a matter of ‘choice’,
Sugar,??? another import widely used,(mis-used), in manufacturing would become more expensive but then according to Health statistics we need to dramatically lower our use of sugar so a price push might have gone some way to achieving this aim,
LOLZ, close the 1.8 annual deficit between what the Government takes in tax and what it spends, currently 10 billion dollars of the current Government debt, WE TOLD YOU SO, the tax cuts given by Slippery’s National government created this Hole, we told you so at the time, reverse the tax cuts for the rich and the Hole is closed…
Oh hang on I’ll go to the TV3 website and find it for you. It was on TV this morning. So it’s not up yet, but it may never turn up there as TV3 may hide it, as no Gower wrap up of the week in politics has been on the site since feb 11
March 03, 2014 “Information Clearing House – International law is suddenly very popular in Washington. President Obama responded to Russian military intervention in the Crimea by accusing Russia of a “breach of international law.” Secretary of State John Kerry followed up by declaring that Russia is “in direct, overt violation of international law.”
Unfortunately, during the last five years, no world leader has done more to undermine international law than Barack Obama. He treats it with rhetorical adulation and behavioral contempt, helping to further normalize a might-makes-right approach to global affairs that is the antithesis of international law.
Fifty years ago, another former law professor, Senator Wayne Morse, condemned such arrogance of power. “I don’t know why we think, just because we’re mighty, that we have the right to try to substitute might for right,” Morse said on national TV in 1964. “And that’s the American policy in Southeast Asia — just as unsound when we do it as when Russia does it.”
Today, Uncle Sam continues to preen as the globe’s big sheriff on the side of international law even while functioning as the world’s biggest outlaw.
Rather than striving for an evenhanded assessment of how “international law” has become so much coin of the hypocrisy realm, mainline U.S. media are now transfixed with Kremlin villainy.
On Sunday night, the top of the New York Times home page reported: “Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has pursued his strategy with subterfuge, propaganda and brazen military threat, taking aim as much at the United States and Europe as Ukraine itself.” That was news coverage.
Following close behind, a Times editorial appeared in print Monday morning, headlined “Russia’s Aggression,” condemning “Putin’s cynical and outrageous exploitation of the Ukrainian crisis to seize control of Crimea.” The liberal newspaper’s editorial board said that the United States and the European Union “must make clear to him that he has stepped far outside the bounds of civilized behavior.”
Such demands are righteous — but lack integrity and credibility when the same standards are not applied to President Obama, whose continuation of the Bush “war on terror” under revamped rhetoric has bypassed international law as well as “civilized behavior.”
In these circumstances, major U.S. media coverage rarely extends to delving into deviational irony or spotlighting White House hypocrisy. Yet it’s not as if large media outlets have entirely excluded key information and tough criticism.
For instance, last October the McClatchy news service reported that “the Obama administration violated international law with top-secret targeted-killing operations that claimed dozens of civilian lives in Yemen and Pakistan,” according to reports released by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Last week, just before Obama leapt to high dudgeon with condemnation of Putin for his “breach of international law,” the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed piece that provided illuminating context for such presidential righteousness.
“Despite the president’s insistence on placing limits on war, and on the defense budget, his brand of warfare has helped lay the basis for a permanent state of global warfare via ‘low footprint’ drone campaigns and special forces operations aimed at an ever-morphing enemy usually identified as some form of Al Qaeda,” wrote Karen J. Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University’s law school.
Greenberg went on to indicate the scope of the U.S. government’s ongoing contempt for international law: “According to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the Obama administration has killed 4,700 individuals in numerous countries, including Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Obama has successfully embedded the process of drone killings into the executive branch in such a way that any future president will inherit it, along with the White House ‘kill list’ and its ‘terror Tuesday’ meetings. Unbounded global war is now part of what it means to be president.”
But especially in times of crisis, as with the current Ukraine situation, such inconvenient contradictions go out the mass-media window. What remains is an Orwellian baseline, melding conformist ideology and nationalism into red-white-and-blue doublethink.
Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Information about the documentary based on the book is at http://www.WarMadeEasyTheMovie.org.
When EQC insures an entire city against an earthquake disaster how then can it complain that the event, when it happens, is unprecedented ?
This constant complaint by EQC that the Chch earthquake was not foreseen is the very best example in existence of spin and lies by government bullshitters…
How can it be unforeseen when they insured for it?
What sort of lawyer would suggest to an MP that they don’t need to disclose their Trusts
I have said this before but it is time the left got their game together and stopped making silly mistakes
David has made mistakes but he has been quick to own them but it would be nice if those around him stopped stuffing about and showed some Unity
Yep, there is a lot of wailing against the bias msm but surely it would be a good start to stop giving them the stick to beat you round the head with…
Not to mention that its highly likely certain long in the tooth mp’s are whispering sweet nothings into Gowers ears rather than accept they didn’t get their choice as leader and to pitch in or at least shut up.
Grant Robertson is onto it, making the point this morning that He wants to ‘see’ the Cabinet Office’s advice to Slippery the Prime Minister tabled in the House,
Allowing Slippery the PM to stand up in the House and claim to have received such advice without ‘tabling’ the relevant document from the Cabinet Office is simply asking to be played for a fool by a Prime Minister with only a passing relationship with the truth,
Collins visiting of this company while on official taxpayer business and later appearing in printed literature with claims that She directly supports that companies products when Her husband is a director of the company in question is shifty enough,
Add in the $50,000 this company gave directly to the National Party and the reek of corruption creeps into the story,
IF, the Cabinet Office gave the PM advice that such an endorsement is within the rules then there should be a paper trail of such advice and Robertson is right in demanding it be produced,
The next question being begged here would be: in light of the revelation of the $50,000 donation to the National party from the company in question would the Cabinet Office,still claim that Collins open endorsement of the company and it’s products was within the rules as laid out in the Cabinet Manual…
This visit was published in the Herald in October 2013.
Why drag it up now – when David Cunliffe’s mis-demeanours are the flavour ?
Obfuscation abounds.
Was the fact that Collins was shown in printed literature to be personally endorsing the companies products also discussed in that Herald article,
Was the fact that this particular company which just happens to have Collins husband as a Director also gave 50,000 dollars to the National Party also discussed by this article in the Herald…
PPPrivatising coming soon……Just gets better and better for Christchurch. They also won’t say where the Auckland one is as there are already too many schools in the area!
“1.4. Project Scope
The Project scope includes the design, construction, finance and maintenance of four schools.
The table below presents the opening dates and estimated rolls for the included schools.
Table 1: Project Scope School Opening Dates Estimated Roll
Aranui Community School Jan 2017 1,300
Rolleston Secondary Jan 2017 1,500
Wakatipu Secondary School Jan 2018 1,200
An Auckland School Jan 2017 1,130”
As a Father this really does worry me. And yes I do have a dog. And she’s trained but I still keep an eye on her especially at feeding time. And she’s just had pups too so we kept the runt for her.
“Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull yesterday stepped in and stopped the auction of a historic item, claimed to be leg irons, and instigated an investigation into their authenticity… If they were found to be authentic leg irons, the Dunedin City Council would consider buying them as they would be significant to the Parihaka community in Taranaki.”
“Toitu Otago Settlers Museum acting director Jennifer Evans said it was working to authenticate the shackles. The release date of investigation findings was not yet known, she said. A Parihaka spokesman, Ruakere Hond, of New Plymouth, said the auction of the ”stolen” shackles was ”obscene and morally repugnant”.”
So not over yet, but at least there’ll be some precedent for council control on the sale of taonga (which of course, may just push future sales underground). Many unanswered questions yet: Are they genuine (or if not a flatout fake, just horse hobbles)? How do you preserve old iron using a railway furnace (my guess, based on Tuesday’s ODT pic, is he replaced the chain links)? What happened to the other shackles reported to be in the cave in the 1970s?
If only the finder had reported the find to the council or museum back in the 70s, we could know so much more by the examination of the artifacts in situ. But historical interest hardly seems to be his priority:
“Mr McCormack said he would still sell the irons. He said Mr Hond should be appreciative he had preserved the leg irons and if the Parihaka people wanted the item, they could place a bid. ”I’m not giving them away”.”
The auction got me thinking…beyond the shackles, burying the seawall those prisoners built below road works, having the caves blocked and inaccessible and a memorial set back ‘out the way’ at a busy intersection …is there anything in the museum that acknowledges that episode in Dunedin/NZ history?
I think I once saw something at the Settlers Museum about the Māori prisoners back before it was refurbished into Toitu, the artifacts they possess are not always on exhibit. It is good to know that they are in charge of ascertaining authenticity as they will have any amount of contemporary ironwork with which to compare the shackles.
In a way it doesn’t matter if they are genuine leg-irons, they were being sold as such; which is quite distasteful enough to be getting on with.
This 2012 opinion article by Bill Dacker (who is quoted in today’s ODT article questioning the authenticity of cave and irons) mentions three monuments, and includes a pic of the one on Portsmouth Drive. The other two are at cemeteries (he notes 18 deaths in Pakakohe group, and 3 deaths in the Parihaka group of prisoners):
I suspect that the government is just using Outlook and the operator just copy/pasted the addresses into the To: field. What they obviously need is some software that does mass mail-outs correctly.
That doesn’t work. These were quite clearly fault-related events right across the region, not localised events that could be attributed to the aquifers. Also Christchurch has regularly experienced earthquakes throughout recorded history; the spire of the Cathedral was knocked off by quakes in 1888 and 1901.
Christchurch sits on top of the underground flood plain of the Waimakariri…virtually all of the thousands of Christchurch hinterland earthquakes were within the parameters of this Waimakariri River underground flood plain
Not very Bright,from the Herald Online’s economics editor Brian Fallow, no matter how much rhetoric Fallow tries to smother the issue of poverty under the truth cannot be escaped,
Titled ”Playing poverty politics hides truth” Fallow attempts to make poverty and child poverty in particular take on the simple aspects of a ‘game’ in a gush of information in which the ‘real’ figures of poverty are given scant regard and the human cost of such poverty no mention what-so-ever,
There can be no escape from the fact that between the years 2007 and 2013 child poverty in this country rose by an ugly 5%,
What also cannot be escaped, although Fallow dare not produce a comparison,is the comparable fact that those who sit at the apex of the economy with the greater incomes and assets have seen their wealth increase by at least that 5%,
This when described in terms of %’s might not move the average person to alarm, but, when considered against the income and wealth share of the poorest in society a 5% rise in both the income and wealth held by the richest sector of our society in dollar terms far out-weighs the total annual income of the poorest in our society,
The 2009 tax switch, leaving those at the bottom of the economy to pay more as a % of their total income in taxes sure works for the already rich, Fallow seems to think that those who object to such Government redirection of wealth to the haves from the have not’s are simply playing a ‘game’…
The 2009 tax switch, leaving those at the bottom of the economy to pay more as a % of their total income in taxes sure works for the already rich, Fallow seems to think that those who object to such Government redirection of wealth to the haves from the have not’s are simply playing a ‘game’…
QFT
Same seems to be true of all RWNJs. They really don’t understand that the people at the top having more means that the people at the bottom must have less.
From an otherwise crappy wee piece in The Independent
A report last year from the Centre for Economics and Business Research found that at least 4.7 million Brits could be described as being in food poverty. Food poverty is defined as having no choice but to spend 10 per cent or more of their household income on food.
Anyone know the definition in NZ? 10% of income for an unemployed person would be no more than $30. 10% for a single person on $15 in a full time job would be $60 max. (Assuming the 10% is based on pre- tax income. Otherwise, it’s much less)
Can’t see what accommodation costs or any other costs have to do with it. If 10% (or more) of a household’s income has to be spent on food, then, by the definition above, that household is living in food poverty.
By your figures, anyone claiming unemployment entitlements having to spend $20.06 or more on food per week is in that category.
Anyone on $15 an hour would have to spending no more than (at 20% PAYE) $58 per week.
Now. How many hungry children are there again? And are we to believe that the parents of these hungry children are themselves well fed?
I guess what I’m interested in is whether that 10% definition applies to NZ, and if not, then why not? And if not, then what is it here?
Two people on the dole. One person has no accommodation costs, the other spends 50% of their income on rent. The 10% on food thing will affect those two people differently (First person can spend a lot more % on food without causing other hardship relative to the person with rent to pay).
So I would want to know how the 10% figure came about. I’ve seen similar figures for accommodation (that it shouldn’t be above x% of income). But whereas accommodation costs can vary hugely, food costs can’t really. Everyone has to eat.
At a parliamentary select committee meeting yesterday, EQC chief executive Ian Simpson confirmed that there had been five “formal” requests for information, but information tabled in Parliament shows more than 200 approaches were made by Labour MPs.
I wonder how that compares to the number raised by Brownlee and Wagner.
This event highlights something more serious, even more starkly.
The Minister responsible for earthquake recovery appears not to have tasked anyone to ensure that elderly quake victims were priorities, or at the very least properly tracked and monitored.
Three years on.
Fourth winter approaching.
The Minister tells us there is not a single person whose job it is to be aware of this information.
Lolz, no thanks, i want National and the ‘wing-nuts’ to have the belief that they are sailing into the 2014 election with the numbers to Govern alone,
While it can be said with some accuracy that the ‘Left’ vote is inclined to stay home if they think its all a done deal as far as elections go, the ‘Right’, having had it’s paid shills and news media create that impression in the first place are all likely to get lazy also thinking its a done deal, the lazy ‘Right’ will then be likely to put less effort into the campaign,
Lolz again,i would suggest Labour analyze which policy ‘might’ have cost it 2+% of the vote last time round and modify such a policy,(and yes i do know that the persistent banging of ones head on a brick wall leads to brain damage, too late to stop now i already have it)…
I’m with you on that one, Bad 12 – I’m still banging on about it ….. haven’t stopped … one day the message might get thru !
As to Bryce Edwards – this guy is a charlatan. Pretending to be a political blogger when all he does is scan other people’s opinions/thoughts and then gets paid for putting them all into one article.
I hope no-one from this site contributes to his “overconfidence prob”
I regard Edwards the Lesser as just another Farrar. I can’t understand why his bias isn’t obvious to more people. Have a look at how he describes bloggers differently, depending on whether they are on the left or right of the great divide.
Apart from his bias, he’s just a cut and paste merchant, as you say. How the hell is he a lecturer in political studies, or whatever it is?
Edward’s question doesn’t interest me – it’s all part of the neoliberal way of focusing on the horse race – the game – and avoiding dealing with issues of substance. I’ve no motivation to write on his set topic.
A Fire Upon the Deep may be the most exciting and important of all modern space operas. Latter day purveyors of galactic epics like Alastair Reynolds and Pete Hamilton doubtless cut their teeth on it. Published at the advent of the information age, when the Internet was in most people’s future and even mobile phones were still a little exotic, Vernor Vinge had his finger on its pulse. While it isn’t accurate to say the book predicted the Internet — the geek elite were, after all, long entrenched in Usenet newsgroups even then — it can be said to have accurately bullseyed what became the Internet’s character. While it’s been a most wonderful innovation, certainly the most important epoch-making technology since the printing press, it is also, in many ways, a wretched hive of scum and villainy, a home for every crank, political extremist, sicko or malcontent you could imagine, giving them access to an audience they’d never have enjoyed otherwise. When Vinge nicknamed his fictitious interstellar network the “Net of a Million Lies,” he saw what was coming, even if a simple grasp of human nature at its dark core was as visionary as he had to be about it.
Q and A in the house today, funny at the end of Q 9:
Hon Trevor Mallard: Has he discussed his oneirataxia with the Prime Minister?
Hon PETER DUNNE: I have discussed a number of things with the Prime Minister, but, frankly, the meaning of that word escapes me and I am sure it is something that if I had a dictionary I might bother to look up.
link to a transcript
I think you can safely say it drives the message home
the message being how a growing number of people have had enough of greed as a social imperative
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Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
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The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
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Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
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This is what happens when you encourage the Gambling industry.
They “grow sales and strengthen” their “product portfolio by expanding” their “portfolio across the week”.
Not nice.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11214677
Continued daily media bias from the Herald, who are clearly wanting National re-elected.
More on the Cunliffe story, no mention of Collins.
Derp is not the word to describe the PM. I can think of more colourful terms.
As to the media, paid puppets is about as generous as I can get. I don’t wish to get a ban.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11214656
Just in case people start paying attention to the state of New Zealand, distract them with a foreign crime story involving a celebrity.
Crime…tick
Celebrity …tick
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11214771
“Just in case people start paying attention to the state of New Zealand”
The NZ economy is doing pretty well compared with others so most kiwi’s are thankful for the way the government has managed it. That is why National is polling at around 50%
So you don’t think a famous athlete murdering a beautiful model is news worthy. These people are trying to sell newspapers not bore people to death. Most of us are sick to death of hearing about parents who don’t look after their kids and people trying to pedal poverty.
^^ More wishful thinking by a RWNJ
“Sociopathic people like me are sick to death of hearing about kids in poverty”
FIFY
And yet they failed to mention all the National MPs that were on the same list.
Pieman Brownlee finally admits he is useless.. NOT!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/9795245/Brownlee-let-down-by-EQC
I have never seen the Herald investigate how much Key has increased New Zealand’s debt since his party came to power in 2008.
Wonder why?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11214657
Paul, your link, it took me to a story of Len Brown increasing Auckland City debt, i agree with you whole-heartedly on the debt issue,
While i realize that the GFC meant there were 4 options for Governments, cut spending to match the shortfall in Government revenue, increase taxation to match the shortfall in Government revenue, borrow the money to match the shortfall in Government spending, or, print the needed monies, there is still an economic narrative that Labour should be putting befor the public,
Again obviously, it is a hard narrative to establish as Slippery the Prime Minister will simply use the tame media to reverse the issue in a what would Labour have done differently spin,
The Rock-Bottom Economy, 80 billion gross Government debt,an ongoing Government yearly deficit of 1.79 Billion dollars and a business tax take again light by +300 odd million dollars because the National Government has stripped the IRD of employees leaving it unable to follow up on owed taxes,
Attached to that narrative need be the fact that Labour would not have kneecapped the economy in 2009 with a raise in GST, would have raised the top tax rate for those earning the most and would have bolstered the number of IRD employees allowing them to chase owed taxes and chase the 1–5 billion dollars a year of tax avoided/evaded by those in a position to do so which would have seen far less government borrowing across the period,
It is the economy which sways a large demographic of the vote, while Labour remains mainly out of the limelight, not having an ongoing narrative with which to sway the minds of voters, Slipperry’s National Government then have the floor able to claim to be a safe pair of hands…
+1
The Christchurch Earthquake is also a part of that debt. Borrow and spend was the only way to keep the economy moving at that time given that most people agree that printing money is not a good idea. The trick now is to balance the books and start paying the debt back.
Pretty sure that Christchurch was supposed to be mostly funded by the private insurance companies. Doesn’t seem to have worked out to well – probably because they’re spending their time trying not to pay out.
Almost all of that borrowed money would have been printed by the private banks so it really doesn’t appear to have made any difference in that regard. Of course the private banks, because they charge interest on the money that they print, get to make a killing.
See, that actually really easy – just print some money back to the private banks.
I read recently, in the Herald I think, that the Taxpayer share of the Christchurch rebuild is expected to be $16 Billion.
The balance of $24 Billion has/is being paid by Insurance Companies.
That is with an estimated $40 Billion, which may well reach $50 Billion.
15 or $16 Billion that is about what I was thinking, The estimate keeps getting bigger.
You have to admit it would be a difficult time for any government.
Nakahi Man, i would suggest that ‘most people’ have very little understanding of what can be achieved ‘printing money’, having to rely instead on the words of Slippery the Prime Minister happily broadcast by the media decrying such ‘money printing’ as pixie dust,
Obviously the up-side to the Government having produced the money to cover the 100–300 million dollar weekly shortfall are that we would not be saddled with the current 80 billion dollars of gross government debt,
The downside to this of course is that the NZdollar remains highly valued at a level that is said to have cost 40,000+ manufacturing jobs since the borrowing binge began,
Would ‘printing’ that 100–300 million dollars a week have become highly inflationary,???, i say NO, ‘printed money’ is no different than ‘borrowed money’ and in simple terms there is no difference in inflationary expectations between the two,
YES, we could expect some inflation as the ‘printing’ of money would obviously have lowered the value of the NZdollar,
Could we have avoided most of that inflation, i say YES, most of such inflation would have an inescapable cost to the consumer at the petrol pump and the flow on effect in the economy of higher fuel costs through having a lower dollar,
The Solution,??? pretty simple, as the value of the NZDollar slid any Government would have only needed to direct a sum of the printed monies into the budget gained from taxation upon fuels, currently at 30% of the cost of a liter of fuel such taxation could have been lowered and the budget shortfall ‘plugged’ by the same amount as the lowering of the fuel taxes, such would have stopped any fuel price rises creating inflation in the wider economy,
Other imports???, obviously with a lower dollar value which would be the result of ‘printing’ money other imports would have become more expensive, most of such imports from the point of view of the consumer are a matter of ‘choice’,
Sugar,??? another import widely used,(mis-used), in manufacturing would become more expensive but then according to Health statistics we need to dramatically lower our use of sugar so a price push might have gone some way to achieving this aim,
LOLZ, close the 1.8 annual deficit between what the Government takes in tax and what it spends, currently 10 billion dollars of the current Government debt, WE TOLD YOU SO, the tax cuts given by Slippery’s National government created this Hole, we told you so at the time, reverse the tax cuts for the rich and the Hole is closed…
WTF Gower having a go at Collins and Key calling them Arrogant and out of touch…. Wow now the Colin Craig gets a beating from mccully
Link?
Oh hang on I’ll go to the TV3 website and find it for you. It was on TV this morning. So it’s not up yet, but it may never turn up there as TV3 may hide it, as no Gower wrap up of the week in politics has been on the site since feb 11
But here’s a little good news.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Cunliffe-turns-tables-in-donations-saga/tabid/1607/articleID/334635/Default.aspx
Here’s the link:
http://www.3news.co.nz/This-week-in-politics-March-6-2014/tabid/370/articleID/334804/Default.aspx
Cheers
Heard the One About Obama Denouncing a Breach of International Law?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37824.htm
by NORMAN SOLOMON
March 03, 2014 “Information Clearing House – International law is suddenly very popular in Washington. President Obama responded to Russian military intervention in the Crimea by accusing Russia of a “breach of international law.” Secretary of State John Kerry followed up by declaring that Russia is “in direct, overt violation of international law.”
Unfortunately, during the last five years, no world leader has done more to undermine international law than Barack Obama. He treats it with rhetorical adulation and behavioral contempt, helping to further normalize a might-makes-right approach to global affairs that is the antithesis of international law.
Fifty years ago, another former law professor, Senator Wayne Morse, condemned such arrogance of power. “I don’t know why we think, just because we’re mighty, that we have the right to try to substitute might for right,” Morse said on national TV in 1964. “And that’s the American policy in Southeast Asia — just as unsound when we do it as when Russia does it.”
Today, Uncle Sam continues to preen as the globe’s big sheriff on the side of international law even while functioning as the world’s biggest outlaw.
Rather than striving for an evenhanded assessment of how “international law” has become so much coin of the hypocrisy realm, mainline U.S. media are now transfixed with Kremlin villainy.
On Sunday night, the top of the New York Times home page reported: “Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has pursued his strategy with subterfuge, propaganda and brazen military threat, taking aim as much at the United States and Europe as Ukraine itself.” That was news coverage.
Following close behind, a Times editorial appeared in print Monday morning, headlined “Russia’s Aggression,” condemning “Putin’s cynical and outrageous exploitation of the Ukrainian crisis to seize control of Crimea.” The liberal newspaper’s editorial board said that the United States and the European Union “must make clear to him that he has stepped far outside the bounds of civilized behavior.”
Such demands are righteous — but lack integrity and credibility when the same standards are not applied to President Obama, whose continuation of the Bush “war on terror” under revamped rhetoric has bypassed international law as well as “civilized behavior.”
In these circumstances, major U.S. media coverage rarely extends to delving into deviational irony or spotlighting White House hypocrisy. Yet it’s not as if large media outlets have entirely excluded key information and tough criticism.
For instance, last October the McClatchy news service reported that “the Obama administration violated international law with top-secret targeted-killing operations that claimed dozens of civilian lives in Yemen and Pakistan,” according to reports released by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Last week, just before Obama leapt to high dudgeon with condemnation of Putin for his “breach of international law,” the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed piece that provided illuminating context for such presidential righteousness.
“Despite the president’s insistence on placing limits on war, and on the defense budget, his brand of warfare has helped lay the basis for a permanent state of global warfare via ‘low footprint’ drone campaigns and special forces operations aimed at an ever-morphing enemy usually identified as some form of Al Qaeda,” wrote Karen J. Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University’s law school.
Greenberg went on to indicate the scope of the U.S. government’s ongoing contempt for international law: “According to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the Obama administration has killed 4,700 individuals in numerous countries, including Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Obama has successfully embedded the process of drone killings into the executive branch in such a way that any future president will inherit it, along with the White House ‘kill list’ and its ‘terror Tuesday’ meetings. Unbounded global war is now part of what it means to be president.”
But especially in times of crisis, as with the current Ukraine situation, such inconvenient contradictions go out the mass-media window. What remains is an Orwellian baseline, melding conformist ideology and nationalism into red-white-and-blue doublethink.
Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Information about the documentary based on the book is at http://www.WarMadeEasyTheMovie.org.
Oops, Another Leaked Conversation: The Murderers Are Now The Masters In The Ukraine
We are not being told the truth about the Ukraine.
Information Clearing House a good site for other perspectives.
When EQC insures an entire city against an earthquake disaster how then can it complain that the event, when it happens, is unprecedented ?
This constant complaint by EQC that the Chch earthquake was not foreseen is the very best example in existence of spin and lies by government bullshitters…
How can it be unforeseen when they insured for it?
gives me the shits
What sort of lawyer would suggest to an MP that they don’t need to disclose their Trusts
I have said this before but it is time the left got their game together and stopped making silly mistakes
David has made mistakes but he has been quick to own them but it would be nice if those around him stopped stuffing about and showed some Unity
Yep, there is a lot of wailing against the bias msm but surely it would be a good start to stop giving them the stick to beat you round the head with…
Not to mention that its highly likely certain long in the tooth mp’s are whispering sweet nothings into Gowers ears rather than accept they didn’t get their choice as leader and to pitch in or at least shut up.
more likely that the speakers office has published a list that includes mps from almost all parties, and the media cherry-picks.
Grant Robertson is onto it, making the point this morning that He wants to ‘see’ the Cabinet Office’s advice to Slippery the Prime Minister tabled in the House,
Allowing Slippery the PM to stand up in the House and claim to have received such advice without ‘tabling’ the relevant document from the Cabinet Office is simply asking to be played for a fool by a Prime Minister with only a passing relationship with the truth,
Collins visiting of this company while on official taxpayer business and later appearing in printed literature with claims that She directly supports that companies products when Her husband is a director of the company in question is shifty enough,
Add in the $50,000 this company gave directly to the National Party and the reek of corruption creeps into the story,
IF, the Cabinet Office gave the PM advice that such an endorsement is within the rules then there should be a paper trail of such advice and Robertson is right in demanding it be produced,
The next question being begged here would be: in light of the revelation of the $50,000 donation to the National party from the company in question would the Cabinet Office,still claim that Collins open endorsement of the company and it’s products was within the rules as laid out in the Cabinet Manual…
This visit was published in the Herald in October 2013.
Why drag it up now – when David Cunliffe’s mis-demeanours are the flavour ?
Obfuscation abounds.
October 2013 was later than either of those two “mis-demeanours”. And wasn’t it first dragged up by Brooke (son of Mike) Sabin on TV3?
Was the fact that Collins was shown in printed literature to be personally endorsing the companies products also discussed in that Herald article,
Was the fact that this particular company which just happens to have Collins husband as a Director also gave 50,000 dollars to the National Party also discussed by this article in the Herald…
A NaT/Bennet U turn for the day..
Proposed child harm prevention orders are being shelved by the Government.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11214336
PPPrivatising coming soon……Just gets better and better for Christchurch. They also won’t say where the Auckland one is as there are already too many schools in the area!
“1.4. Project Scope
The Project scope includes the design, construction, finance and maintenance of four schools.
The table below presents the opening dates and estimated rolls for the included schools.
Table 1: Project Scope School Opening Dates Estimated Roll
Aranui Community School Jan 2017 1,300
Rolleston Secondary Jan 2017 1,500
Wakatipu Secondary School Jan 2018 1,200
An Auckland School Jan 2017 1,130”
As a Father this really does worry me. And yes I do have a dog. And she’s trained but I still keep an eye on her especially at feeding time. And she’s just had pups too so we kept the runt for her.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9795025/Father-stunned-after-dog-charges-dropped
Update on the slave-shackle sale:
“Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull yesterday stepped in and stopped the auction of a historic item, claimed to be leg irons, and instigated an investigation into their authenticity… If they were found to be authentic leg irons, the Dunedin City Council would consider buying them as they would be significant to the Parihaka community in Taranaki.”
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/294040/mayor-stops-leg-irons-sale
“Toitu Otago Settlers Museum acting director Jennifer Evans said it was working to authenticate the shackles. The release date of investigation findings was not yet known, she said. A Parihaka spokesman, Ruakere Hond, of New Plymouth, said the auction of the ”stolen” shackles was ”obscene and morally repugnant”.”
So not over yet, but at least there’ll be some precedent for council control on the sale of taonga (which of course, may just push future sales underground). Many unanswered questions yet: Are they genuine (or if not a flatout fake, just horse hobbles)? How do you preserve old iron using a railway furnace (my guess, based on Tuesday’s ODT pic, is he replaced the chain links)? What happened to the other shackles reported to be in the cave in the 1970s?
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/293800/leg-irons-removed-cave-auction
If only the finder had reported the find to the council or museum back in the 70s, we could know so much more by the examination of the artifacts in situ. But historical interest hardly seems to be his priority:
“Mr McCormack said he would still sell the irons. He said Mr Hond should be appreciative he had preserved the leg irons and if the Parihaka people wanted the item, they could place a bid. ”I’m not giving them away”.”
The auction got me thinking…beyond the shackles, burying the seawall those prisoners built below road works, having the caves blocked and inaccessible and a memorial set back ‘out the way’ at a busy intersection …is there anything in the museum that acknowledges that episode in Dunedin/NZ history?
I think I once saw something at the Settlers Museum about the Māori prisoners back before it was refurbished into Toitu, the artifacts they possess are not always on exhibit. It is good to know that they are in charge of ascertaining authenticity as they will have any amount of contemporary ironwork with which to compare the shackles.
In a way it doesn’t matter if they are genuine leg-irons, they were being sold as such; which is quite distasteful enough to be getting on with.
This 2012 opinion article by Bill Dacker (who is quoted in today’s ODT article questioning the authenticity of cave and irons) mentions three monuments, and includes a pic of the one on Portsmouth Drive. The other two are at cemeteries (he notes 18 deaths in Pakakohe group, and 3 deaths in the Parihaka group of prisoners):
http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/221295/truths-far-greater-myths
Nice to see that the Govt has sorted out it’s E-Mail and privacy problems
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11214671
I suspect that the government is just using Outlook and the operator just copy/pasted the addresses into the To: field. What they obviously need is some software that does mass mail-outs correctly.
So Christchurch has sunk….Brownley admits the obvious:
Worth revisiting some of the theories as to why?
http://www.codeotaku.com/journal/2011-03/why-are-we-having-earthquakes/index
That doesn’t work. These were quite clearly fault-related events right across the region, not localised events that could be attributed to the aquifers. Also Christchurch has regularly experienced earthquakes throughout recorded history; the spire of the Cathedral was knocked off by quakes in 1888 and 1901.
Christchurch sits on top of the underground flood plain of the Waimakariri…virtually all of the thousands of Christchurch hinterland earthquakes were within the parameters of this Waimakariri River underground flood plain
…and water extraction can cause earthquakes
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-20025807
Not very Bright,from the Herald Online’s economics editor Brian Fallow, no matter how much rhetoric Fallow tries to smother the issue of poverty under the truth cannot be escaped,
Titled ”Playing poverty politics hides truth” Fallow attempts to make poverty and child poverty in particular take on the simple aspects of a ‘game’ in a gush of information in which the ‘real’ figures of poverty are given scant regard and the human cost of such poverty no mention what-so-ever,
There can be no escape from the fact that between the years 2007 and 2013 child poverty in this country rose by an ugly 5%,
What also cannot be escaped, although Fallow dare not produce a comparison,is the comparable fact that those who sit at the apex of the economy with the greater incomes and assets have seen their wealth increase by at least that 5%,
This when described in terms of %’s might not move the average person to alarm, but, when considered against the income and wealth share of the poorest in society a 5% rise in both the income and wealth held by the richest sector of our society in dollar terms far out-weighs the total annual income of the poorest in our society,
The 2009 tax switch, leaving those at the bottom of the economy to pay more as a % of their total income in taxes sure works for the already rich, Fallow seems to think that those who object to such Government redirection of wealth to the haves from the have not’s are simply playing a ‘game’…
QFT
Same seems to be true of all RWNJs. They really don’t understand that the people at the top having more means that the people at the bottom must have less.
From an otherwise crappy wee piece in The Independent
Anyone know the definition in NZ? 10% of income for an unemployed person would be no more than $30. 10% for a single person on $15 in a full time job would be $60 max. (Assuming the 10% is based on pre- tax income. Otherwise, it’s much less)
For a comparison with what a healthy diet costs in NZ, the Food Cost Survey (2013 figures are in the PDF).
http://www.otago.ac.nz/humannutrition/research/food-cost-survey/index.html
If we take an average of $65/wk, that’s 31% of the dole (post-tax) for a single adult. I’m working off the dole being $206/wk.
I ‘m not sure that the UK comparison works here though, because aren’t our accommodation costs higher than elsewhere?
Our food costs are higher as well.
Can’t see what accommodation costs or any other costs have to do with it. If 10% (or more) of a household’s income has to be spent on food, then, by the definition above, that household is living in food poverty.
By your figures, anyone claiming unemployment entitlements having to spend $20.06 or more on food per week is in that category.
Anyone on $15 an hour would have to spending no more than (at 20% PAYE) $58 per week.
Now. How many hungry children are there again? And are we to believe that the parents of these hungry children are themselves well fed?
I guess what I’m interested in is whether that 10% definition applies to NZ, and if not, then why not? And if not, then what is it here?
Two people on the dole. One person has no accommodation costs, the other spends 50% of their income on rent. The 10% on food thing will affect those two people differently (First person can spend a lot more % on food without causing other hardship relative to the person with rent to pay).
So I would want to know how the 10% figure came about. I’ve seen similar figures for accommodation (that it shouldn’t be above x% of income). But whereas accommodation costs can vary hugely, food costs can’t really. Everyone has to eat.
Could the Pacific be the key to a Labour election victory in 2014?
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/why-labour-needs-pacific-strategy.html
Brownlee apologises:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9795547/Brownlee-apologises-to-Labour-M
I wonder how that compares to the number raised by Brownlee and Wagner.
lol
Someone’s been ducking the boss’s phone calls.
Talk about a waste of space as a minister.
This event highlights something more serious, even more starkly.
The Minister responsible for earthquake recovery appears not to have tasked anyone to ensure that elderly quake victims were priorities, or at the very least properly tracked and monitored.
Three years on.
Fourth winter approaching.
The Minister tells us there is not a single person whose job it is to be aware of this information.
actually Minister, there is!
Tweeted invitation to bloggers from Bryce Edwards this afternoon.
Lolz, no thanks, i want National and the ‘wing-nuts’ to have the belief that they are sailing into the 2014 election with the numbers to Govern alone,
While it can be said with some accuracy that the ‘Left’ vote is inclined to stay home if they think its all a done deal as far as elections go, the ‘Right’, having had it’s paid shills and news media create that impression in the first place are all likely to get lazy also thinking its a done deal, the lazy ‘Right’ will then be likely to put less effort into the campaign,
Lolz again,i would suggest Labour analyze which policy ‘might’ have cost it 2+% of the vote last time round and modify such a policy,(and yes i do know that the persistent banging of ones head on a brick wall leads to brain damage, too late to stop now i already have it)…
I’m with you on that one, Bad 12 – I’m still banging on about it ….. haven’t stopped … one day the message might get thru !
As to Bryce Edwards – this guy is a charlatan. Pretending to be a political blogger when all he does is scan other people’s opinions/thoughts and then gets paid for putting them all into one article.
I hope no-one from this site contributes to his “overconfidence prob”
I regard Edwards the Lesser as just another Farrar. I can’t understand why his bias isn’t obvious to more people. Have a look at how he describes bloggers differently, depending on whether they are on the left or right of the great divide.
Apart from his bias, he’s just a cut and paste merchant, as you say. How the hell is he a lecturer in political studies, or whatever it is?
Edward’s question doesn’t interest me – it’s all part of the neoliberal way of focusing on the horse race – the game – and avoiding dealing with issues of substance. I’ve no motivation to write on his set topic.
Maybe Edwards could write something about Key’s overconfidence that the rules are only a guideline..
Yes, I said goodbye to the Internet and this is a plan, but there are moments in History, which dictates that you have to come back to the internet.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS REAL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4vE_vpkr90
Goodbye for the last time (this time really)
This is why im giving up the internet, tony fuckin hawke admitted it was fake, and
hes selling the fake boards as a business/charity thing.
seya internet, nothing you say is true.
link proving ‘fake’..?..surely..!
phillip ure..
Fake
The Net of a Million Lies
http://sfreviews.net/vvinge_fire_upon_the_deep.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/30021154/hoverboard-hoax-leaves-fan-stinging
wave I’ll let the Police know that your death need not be treated as suspicious.
(jim mora had a personal-nadir during his panel-segment today..
..this is the email i have set him..)
the scoffing treatment of/loaded-questions around yr coverage of the meat/dairy causing cancer/diabetes etc..
..was the most biased coverage i have ever heard on yr show..(and factually wrong..to boot..!..)
..(and given the seriousness of the topic..for shame..!..eh..?..)
..are you seriously denying the (long-proven) fact that red meat/animal-fat is a carcinogen/diabetes-causer….?
..are you seriously denying the (recently-proven) fact that dairy is a carcinogen/diabetes-causer..?
..and are yr denials based on any facts/research at all..?..
..or is it just a disbelieving-opinion – underpinned by yr defence of yr personal lifestyle/diet..?
..it is the latter..isn’t it..?
..and if not..i wd like to see this groundbreaking-research proving meat/dairy are not carcinogens..
..(‘proof’ of this outright lie that you have peddled..)
..’cos it ain’t bloody there..jim..
..at the very least i wd expect a retraction from you..
..and an apology to yr listeners wouldn’t hurt either..
..and..how can you be in such deep denial..?
..phillip ure..
(for a man of his intelligence..on such a powerful forum..
..to peddle these/such lies..
..has kinda done my head in..
..mora could not have been more sneering..)
http://www.tv3.co.nz/tabid/3692/MCat/3901/Default.aspx
Skip to 7.45 for a good summation of David Cunliffe
Q and A in the house today, funny at the end of Q 9:
Hon Trevor Mallard: Has he discussed his oneirataxia with the Prime Minister?
Hon PETER DUNNE: I have discussed a number of things with the Prime Minister, but, frankly, the meaning of that word escapes me and I am sure it is something that if I had a dictionary I might bother to look up.
Found a definition:
Yes! Nice word.
Next time, Trevor should ask this question:
Does he realise that both he and the Prime Minister have been koshing about the Kitteridge report leaking?
koshing
A nice obscure word for contumelious lying bastards.
Clemgeopin – I give up ! I thought it was something to do with gold trading, but that doesn’t make sense with the context you’ve put it in.
No?
May be you could rephrase it better?
Come on, have a go.
Some good viewing from Australia (Green Senator telling Tony Abbott to stick it):
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/greens-senator-scott-ludlams-blunt-speech-to-an-almost-empty-room-goes-viral-20140306-348zx.html
Quite a bit of it is about Western Australia, but don’t let that put you off. It could almost as easily be said to John Key.
link to a transcript
I think you can safely say it drives the message home
the message being how a growing number of people have had enough of greed as a social imperative