Big Data Question. I took my daughter to the doctor, vary rare event but needed for allergy medicine occasionally. The receptionist asks me to confirm her ethnicity because it “doesn’t match”. Doesn’t match what? DHB? IRD? How many databases have her data? We have been at the same GP/practice since before she was born. Are they cross checking the data of every child? Maybe every child who has “NZ European” and some other ethnicity? Maybe in one database she is only NZ European because I filled in a form casually, I don’t know. Or are they only checking flagged children by some criteria? I have never been a subscriber to conspiracy theories but now I feel watched and it is weird.
Privacy Commissioner John Edwards has come out against the government’s plan to require community groups to hand over clients’ private details if they want state funding.
The policy will kick in from July for most community agencies seeking state funding.
The new arrangement has already come into effect for budgeting advisors. Sexual violence groups have been given a year’s reprieve after they argued it could scare off people from coming forward.
She was probably checking that against their own records.
However, as I understand it, GPs can look at all your (relatively recent) medical records online e.g. see what happened to you in hospital, at another GPs, at a district nurses clinic. And you can see a very much lighter version of that via “Manage My Health”. https://www.managemyhealth.co.nz
However, as I understand it, GPs can look at all your (relatively recent) medical records online e.g. see what happened to you in hospital, at another GPs, at a district nurses clinic.
And I should bloody well hope so. I most definitely want the medical professionals helping me to look after my health to have access to that information.
“However, as I understand it, GPs can look at all your (relatively recent) medical records online e.g. see what happened to you in hospital, at another GPs, at a district nurses clinic.”
Are you sure about that? That’s a massive privacy breach if true.
I have moved around a lot recently and when you see a new doctor they have to request the information from your previous doctor and do not have automatic access to it.
You have one file that all your medical history, hospital admissions etc are added to but they just can’t be pulled up willy-nilly by any medical professional.
The collections are usually for after the fact analyses, and can take six months to two years for the data to be finalised. I doubt the GP office would be looking at those.
That “manage my health” place doesn’t seem to be an official programme, am I wrong?
I do know that lab tests and prescription history are accessible by a variety of healthcare folks, for obvious reasons. So it was either that profile the medical receptionist was looking at in order to get the records for the doctor, or it was just that in their own patient management system the child’s ethnicity didn’t match from one attendance to another.
Ethnicity data in official records is notorious, because people turn up several times over the years and might have a different ethnic identity each time, or friends/parents provide the data because patient is unconscious, or the cops fill it in because the person is drunk and tells them to f-off, or there are three ticks on the form and it’s always entered in a different order…
@ TAT Westie … I had a similar experience renewing my driver’s licence. In 2009 I went renew it, but was told I need a security clearance because of my place of birth! I was born at sea. Despite producing a current NZ passport, a birth certificate was demanded to prove my ID. I refused and was told my licence will not be renewed until I have clarified my birth details. When I queried the issue further, I was advised my place of birth does not fit their criteria of being an acceptable birth place. In other words there wasn’t a box on their forms to be ticked!
I wasn’t aware a person’s place of birth became an issue for a NZ citizen, particularly if they have held a legitimate NZ driver’s licence for 40 years, without incident, as was my case!
Went to the government, who did manage to clear up the issue. But it did alert me to wonder if we are under some kind of surveillance! I suspect we are being watched!
USA and our media are speaking of a ‘chemical attack’ as a result of airstrikes saying that Assad is responsible.
Meanwhile RT are saying that a chemical weapons depot site was destroyed, apparently the ‘air strikers’ did not know chemical weapons were being stored there when they blew it up.
So who is correct? And who is broadcasting fake news or using the news to spin their own narrative in an attempt to manipulate the public? One thing we all know is that people and children are suffering and they sure have suffered enough over the years.
“Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, said reliable evidence would be needed to confirm the alleged use of chemical weapons, let alone establish who was responsible for it.”
To Cinny,
“Meanwhile RT are saying that a chemical weapons depot site was destroyed, apparently the ‘air strikers’ did not know chemical weapons were being stored there when they blew it up.”
If the chemical depot was hit, this would cause the chemicals inside the projectiles to be ineffective as an airstrike weapon. RT is merely an extension of Putin’s Russian regime.
You’re saying that a storage facility that contained precursors or/and premixed chemical stocks that were going to be packed into improvised projectiles (eg – water heaters, gas canisters) and launched at the Syrian army and/or civilians (as happened in Aleppo), would be rendered useless by dint of being damaged or punctured or whatever by an air-strike?
RT definitely isn’t the only broadcaster calling bullshit on the western narrative btw – far from it.
RT should be calling bullshit on its own government’s narrative. From the Guardian:
Russia, which is heavily backing the Assad government, said a Syrian government airstrike had hit a “terrorist warehouse” holding “toxic substances”.
That claim does not fit with facts on the ground, for several reasons. An airstrike on a weapons depot with high explosives would have destroyed much of the sarin immediately, and distributed any that survived over a much smaller area.
“The pattern of casualties isn’t right for the distribution of materials that you would get if you had a location with toxic materials breached by an airstrike. It’s more consistent with canisters that have distributed [chemical weapons] over a wider population,” Guthrie said.
While it is impossible to assess the exact amount of chemical agent used immediately, the extent and distribution of the casualties are consistent with the use of hundreds of kilos.
Sarin is too complicated and expensive for rebels to have manufactured themselves, and while they might potentially have obtained some supplies of stolen nerve agents or other gas, it is very unlikely to be more than a few kilos.
“If they have [sarin], it would be in minute quantities, maybe a kilo or so,” said De Bretton Gordon. The high numbers of woman and children among the casualties was not consistent with a military depot, he added.
Finally, the Syrian manufacturing process for sarin involves creating and storing two key components, both far more stable than the nerve agent itself. They are mixed to create sarin hours – or at most days – before it is used, said Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert and former officer in the US Army’s chemical corps.
So an airstrike on a storage facility would be unlikely to release sarin itself. And because one of the two components is highly flammable isopropyl alcohol, or rubbing alcohol, you would expect a fireball, which has not been observed.
That is my viewpoint as well. The facts of the video of the event, the methods used, and the known requirements for the type of organophosphate nerve toxin that was obviously used (I remember going through some stuff on this when I was a army medic) do not appear to be in anyway consistent with either the Russian or Syrian government statements.
Both governments appear to be lying in concert. That makes me highly suspicious about why? Did the frigging Russians drop this crap?
Of course there is an easy way to show that there is nothing to hide. The Syrian government needs to cooperate fully and wholeheartedly with international investigators. However based on past experience, they only do that when it is those other arseholes from ISIL using their primitive mustard gas.
If it was sarin (as opposed to other chemicals or no chemicals), you just might want to bear in mind that Jihadists in Syria likely do have sarin.
Delve into the Khan al-Assal sarin attack and the Ghouta sarin gas attack and even ignoring Carla Del Ponte’s findings, reflect that the UN (not the independent body many western liberals like to believe it to be) finally concluded that sarin had been used but wouldn’t/couldn’t apportion blame.
That’s an odd conclusion to reach if Jihadists don’t have sarin, don’t you think?
While you’re at it, you may want to do a wee bit of basic google searching on both John Cantlie and at least one of the men, Shajul Islam, charged over his kidnapping – the same Shajul Islam who is now acting as a major source of information regarding this incident in Idlib.
…finally concluded that sarin had been used but wouldn’t/couldn’t apportion blame.
You are completely full of shit when it comes to this. Dancing on the head of a pin and selectively summarizing a rather long report (which BTW I have read).
They also didn’t state that any ‘jihadists’ had any primitive mustard gas. Which by your very low standards of ‘proof’ must mean that it is was impossible for ISIL to have used it even after they boasted that they did.
The report was a judicial report and meant EXACTLY what was said. They could not apportion blame for the Ghouta sarin attack because they didn’t have definitive proof. Among other reasons because they were denied access to where and by whom they think that the attack was most likely launched from. The Syrian military denied ALL access.
What you are carefully ignoring was their conclusions about the most likely source – which was probably the nerve gas program by the Syrian military. Coincidentally, and of course having (according to the Syrian government) nothing to do with the UN investigation, the Syrian government joined the convention on war gases soon after the reports release and is still apparently engaged years later in trying to prove that they no longer have any. They have apparently ‘forgotten’ that they had several labs producing the stuff.
There has been no evidence of any of the ‘jihardist’ groups having any access to being able to manufacture, acquire or any ability to store any nerve agents. That latter is a pretty tricky task.
Essentially, anyone who isn’t blinded by wishful thinking as you seem to be would have to point to the Syrian military as by far the most probable attacker in this case, and their close and active was ally Russia as being a direct or indirect collaborator in the dreadful deed. Apart from anything else, Russia appears to be providing almost all (if not all) of the type of warplane support to the Syrian armed forces at present that would have been required for the type of attack.
With wargases, my burden of proof is simple. It is that the people and countries most likely to be able to perform the action have to prove their likely innocence.
Playing dumbarse word games and claims of plausible deniability rather than jumping to disprove their complicity is (in my view) tantamount to a plea of guilt.
Åke Sellström was heading a UN team that was slated to investigate the chemical attack in Khan al-Assal, Aleppo that the Syria government had requested the UN to investigate. They (the UN team) were in Damascus at the time of the Ghouta attack and secured access to the area.
But step back for a sec.
Why would the Syrian government launch a chemical attack on the eave of the Brussels Conference? In case you missed it, calls for regime change have been weakening of late. Are we being asked to believe that the Syrian government would stupidly reverse that drift because of a lack of awareness over the propaganda effect of launching a chemical weapons attack at this time?
They are winning the war on the ground. Official western calls for regime change have weakened. There may even have been talk of relaxing sanctions (I don’t know if that’s been the case, but given the background, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest it was a possibility) The US President had publicly backed away from regime change.
The question “Why would the alleged perp commit such a sickening violent crime that serves no purpose? It makes no sense” is all very well, but has to be weighed up against evidence that Alleged Perp did actually commit the crime. Also, the question’s relevance diminishes somewhat if Alleged Perp has extensive previous form for pointless, sickening violent crime. Because, in that case, the answer may well be “Yes, Perp really is that stupid.”
The mainstream media who spend their day berating Assad and pinning anything on him is not evidence. Neither are videos from the questionable white helmets organisation evidence.
Enter former British ambassador to Syria, Peter Ford who calls your evidence fake news:
The mainstream media who spend their day berating Assad and pinning anything on him is not evidence.
Well, no, but the content of their reports, ie witness statements, video footage and still photos, is evidence. Likewise the expert analysis on why it’s likely the chemical agents were dropped from aircraft and highly unlikely they were a released via an air strike hitting a storage facility. If you’re inclined to dismiss that evidence, consider the evidence Hager and Stephenson have for the NZDF having killed civilians in Operation Burnham – would you dismiss them as lightly as you dismiss these journalists?
And Peter Ford knows as much about who carried out this attack as you or I do, so spare us the appeals to authority.
Interesting. So bastards are bastards and will commit heinous acts if they’ve committed heinous acts. That’s you’re way of evaluating stuff, right?
Well, that the Al Nusra affiliated White Helmets crowd have released their own video footage where (according to analysis carried out by the Swedish Doctors for Human Rights) they are either a) killing living babies with the faux treatments they administer or are b) using dead babies as props…
I could be kind and opt for the latter option given they have other videos where babies in obvious states of rigour mortis are passed to mothers from incubators and a whole charade of ‘normality’ is played out.
These pieces of footage are easy to find if you do even a basic search and all are produced by the white helmets
Then there’s their penchant for head chopping and of cheering on head choppers and attending executions carried out by head choppers (again, all on video and none of it contested).
Call me a fool, but I can’t see any reason for the Syrian government to do what is alleged. I can imagine a dump was hit. I can imagine it all being ‘a have’. And sadly (somewhat darkly) given the void of humanity displayed by Al Nusra, I can also imagine them simply slaughtering shi’ites (by chemical or physical instrument) and then using their corpses for propaganda purposes.
It’s highly questionable evidence because it’s coming from a source such as the white helmets who are funded to the tune of tens of millions by western governments (who publicly state they want Assad gone) and are seen posing with terrorist fighters. You know that. Its been pointed out to you many times.
Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett are acting as independent journalists in Syria, yes equivalent to the likes of our Hager of Stephenson. Their work isn’t owned by the mainstream press which is your go to source and includes commentators towing the media line.
Your dismisal of the ex-ambassador to Syria as knowing as much as anyone else is.. enlightening to say the least.
All the video footage (as far as I can tell so far) is being provided by the White Helmets and one of the principle sources for claims is Shajul Islam (look him up ffs!). There are no journalists. There is only the spoon-feeding of journalists.
Call me a fool, but I can’t see any reason for the Syrian government to do what is alleged.
There are various possible reasons: violent murderers aren’t rational to start with, the Assad regime’s spent the last five years learning it can act with complete impunity, etc. You can imagine all kinds of things about what happened, but there’s a fairly obvious explanation that has some pretty good evidence for it and doesn’t require a whole lot of baseless speculation about dastardly plots.
Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett are acting as independent journalists in Syria, yes equivalent to the likes of our Hager of Stephenson.
They are claiming to be independent journalists while working as regime shills. You can tell the extent of their independence by the fact that they never once mention the regime minders who are issued to journalists and monitor what the locals tell them. Actual journalists mention that in their stories and remind readers to take it into account when assessing what the locals are saying in front of these minders. You grossly insult Hager and Stephenson by putting them in the same category as these two appalling propagandists.
Your dismisal of the ex-ambassador to Syria as knowing as much as anyone else is.. enlightening to say the least.
He knows as much about this attack as anyone else.
Why would the Syrian government launch a chemical attack on the eave of the Brussels Conference?
Trying it on?.
WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials were left confused after President Donald Trump appeared to signal a potential future policy change toward Syria with tough words against the government’s deployment of chemical weapons.
[…]
The three defense officials told BuzzFeed News they believe Assad may have launched Tuesday’s attack to test the president, particularly after members of his administration had indicated Assad could stay in power. Most notably, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that: “I think the status and the longer-term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people.”
Hey Cinny (and anyone else) – for a number of weeks I’ve been unable to load anything from RT. I can get youtube RT reports and what not, but no access at all to RT.com (or any of their subsidiary sites).
Any ‘heads up’ would be appreciated.
The message I always get is “www.rt.com took too long to respond”
Thanks Cinny. It’s been every computer at this location and on every browser. I’ve previously turned off all adware, virus protection, firewalls – the whole caboodle – and still can’t connect.
I’ll try flushing the DNS when I figure which key is the windows key 🙂
The experts I heard on the BBC overnight said it was farcical to claim that bombs had hit a rebel (actually that should be freedom fighter) store of chemicals which had caused the gas cloud. Not feasible.
Assad started the war. Assad tortures en masse. Assad uses chemical warfare, which is a war crime. He must go.
The reasoning behind the claims being made by these BBC experts, what was it?
That punctured or scattered chemical agents would be inert? That it was preposterous to claim Jihadists had access to chemical weapons?
Did they offer any reasoning and if they did, did they back it up?
Large numbers of Jihadists seeking to create a Caliphate = “Assad started the war”. Hm. k.
A government that attempts to open up safe corridors for its citizens in occupied cities, that offers amnesty to anyone who lays down their arms, that gives safe passage for Jihadists surrendering cities they occupy, that has overwhelming popular support from the Syrian population … that stacks up against claims of “tortures en masse” how exactly?
There have been previous claims made that the Syrian government used chemical weapons. Not one of those claims was ever backed up by proof. There have also been claims that Jihadists have used chemical weapons. Given that Syria surrendered its stock of chemical weapons and given that chemical stock-piles were found in eastern Aleppo after its liberation…..
The jihadists wouldn’t have had an opening if Assad hadn’t been a dictator whose first impulse had been to crack down rather than address the problems back in 2010.
He ceded to every demand made in those initial demonstrations. (If you’re aware of any demands that were made and not met, feel free to list them)
The problem (it’s argued) is that Jihadists were already integral to the protest movement, playing an increasingly leading role and didn’t give a hoot for any compromises.
And as we know, there are now swarms of Jihadists throughout Syria and Iraq seeking the formation of a Caliphate that would involve a dissolution of the Syrian state (something a number of western governments are quite keen on).
Yes, now there are caliphists. That’s what happens when a defunct regime can’t control a nation but can hang onto some bits long enough to be bailed out by a fellow dictator. Extremists fill the void that would have been filled by the regular civil power structures during a genuine transition away from the failed regime.
well, in these days of cartesian doubt about current events, isn’t there a universal equivalence between information sources? Everyone has an agenda, everyone with an agenda is distributing at least some biased “news”, and everyone distributing biased news is distributing propaganda. And anyone who tries to elevate one news source over another in terms of reliability (or lack thereof) does so in order to protect their worldview. Isn’t that how it goes?
So what’s your fragile worldview that you need to protect – that we can know nothing and therefore do nothing?
Wikipedia is good for info on objective stuff – physics, chemistry and what not, but generally not much use for anything beyond a cursory glance when it comes to politics.
There are some sources of news that are generally more reliable or better informed than others, and some that are more reliable or better informed in specific areas or on specific events – so no, as far as I’m concerned, there is no “universal equivalence between information sources”.
As for my world view, it’s pretty much indicated by what I write here. And I certainly don’t ascribe to any such notion that “we can know nothing and therefore do nothing”. (I actually just wish more people would be more critical, less receptive and as a result, hopefully better informed)
As for my take on the so-called “fake news” phenomenon that you linked, yeah, I stand by that.
So which bit of the wikipedia article is wrong: were people not shot? Had his regime existed under a 50 year state of emergency?
Your comment “He ceded to every demand made in those initial demonstrations.” completely ignores everything his regime did right up until it was obvious that the country was going to burn. A smart dictator would have jumped in his chopper and fucked off to Switzerland or somewhere. Assad’s dicking around with that and getting bailed out by the Russians has fucked the country for the next few decades, and yes it’s down precisely to his decision to cling to what power he could.
Well, it’s the same educated guess that makes me suspect that you’re a pretentious fuckwit in real life as well as online. You’re just an expanding gas ball of ego in an infinite vacuum of ignorance.
Why do you even come here if not to wank? You can never know anything, so therefore you will never acquire new information. Other people share ideas, debate positions, and thereby develop and expand their perspectives. Whereas you’re just a dollop of jizz plonked on top of a chocolate brownie, and you expect us to believe it’s cream.
You haven’t answered my question above. I didn’t see the BBC footage and bar a link would appreciate you sharing what, if any, reasoning the experts you refer to based their conclusion on.
if we go back 4 years wasn’t it Obama that was ready to invade Syria due to another chemical attack. Wasn’t Syria also one of seven countries that the US wanted regime change in. Syria was invaded anyway by what we know are terrorists backed by the likes of Saudi and the US.
Interesting comments by journo Seymour Hersh and there appears to be a good amount of deja vu from what happened in 2013.
Wouldn’t be nice if a chemical weapons attack on the eave of a peace conference was to shift the US President’s stance from one of not seeking regime change to one of seeking regime change?
For someone like me who’s teaches CBRND and a who is trained to do CBRND reconnaissance/ surveys (In plan English a human guinea pig) its a pain in the ass ATM shifting through the data. But it did make very interesting day when I was talking to a couple Combat engineers about what happen over there and to us it looks like sarin base chemical agent and no doubt we will find out what agent it was in the coming days. If it was a VX nerve agent the casualty rate would’ve gone through the roof as it takes just one droplet to be absorb onto the skin is enough to kill you within a minute and VX very nasty stuff.
Have been watching footage of the attack and it appears to me it was delivered from the air. The first bomb was your typical HE explosion followed by two sinister looking gas clouds, one laying low to the ground and the other one forming a mushroom type cloud formation which collapse on itself. This was very standard chemical attack using a HE bomb to mask the two Chemical bombs as make popping sound when the sort of explode. It the same for artillery bombardment as will be a mix of HE and Chemical agent.
As this has come up here and elsewhere in social media I wish to advise that I am now allowed by the Court to reveal a limited amount of information about legal action started against me in July 2015.
“The private prosecutions brought by Mr Dermot Nottingham against Allied Press and Peter George have been withdrawn by leave of the District Court. Allied Press Limited and Mr George face no further charges. Details of the evidence and submissions filed in the case are suppressed until further notice of the Court.”
The court deems the withdrawal of charges to be an acquittal.
Due to matters I am not involved in those are the only details I can disclose about it ‘until further notice of the Court’, and this limits what anyone else should say about it too.
I found the comment in the Trash. I have no idea how it got there if you didn’t put it there.
The moderators aren’t meant to be able to use Trash – it is meant to be restricted to users with their own comments only. So I’ll have a look at the history later.
However this is very good news for a number of personal reasons (that I am unable to discuss due to ongoing court actions and court orders). It will be quite good when the lid can be lifted on this whole sorry saga.
Its a fluff piece. The more important question is why the hell is Little in court on trial in election year ? Surely this could have been averted earlier on ? where is Littles management team on this ? Come in Matt McCarten ? Really, having the leader of the opposition on trial in election year is not a good look whatever way you spin it.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[lprent: Banned until one month after the election for a deliberate post diversion. The post was not on the Hagaman case. ]
Charen – Unless there’s a miracle in court this week, Jacinda will be buying the pizza and whiskey from now on. Andrew will be lucky to still be on the road with her.
They are saying the Sarin gas attacks in Syria are a war crime.
So is not giving medical assistance to wounded civilians, destroying property without a military objective and handing a prisoner over to a third party knowing that they will be tortured…
And it only takes ONE COMPLAINANT to trigger an investigation / trial by the International Criminal Court.
I wouldn’t be gloating too long or loud just yet if I were you….
It will work. Come next Monday it is all over. Of course 12 months ago you ridiculed my assertion that the corruption allegations about Earl and Lani would be taken seriously. Not looking too flash now is it?
I expect an apology from you.
BTW the Hagamans are not to my knowledge members of the Party. Your recent comments suggest the contrary.
I ask that you withdraw and apologise. You should also take some meds for your constant aggressive behavior. About everything.
Lots of RWNJ donated to Labour in the 1980s because back in the 1980s Labour made a radical shift to the right. National followed and then went further which is why those people then started supporting National again.
Lani doesn’t want a cash settlement, she just wants an apology and costs, but then her intentions just sort of inexplicably fell off and she ended up accidentally suing for $2M.
What exactly is the reputation of National Party scum worth?
So have a lot of people that have donated a lot to many charity’s – that doesn’t mean they behave in a crass manner by trying to bring down legitimate democratic party’s or their leaders, however . Particularly when it is a democratic and legal principle in this country to question where each party’s donations originated from, the amount and if there is any possibility of any conflicts of interest.
And yet are unwilling to pay their fair share of taxes.
So giving to charity is a crook, and oddly enough it is somthing criminals and the like always bring out as well to show how good they are. When in reality all they would need to do, is pay a fair amount of tax.
I’ve always wondered what this meant? If as is likely they are in the top tax bracket – and well into it – they’ll be paying more tax than pretty much everyone that posts here. How is that not a “fair share”?
@adam – too tax rate a small amount? Except it’s likely that their income is well into the top tax bracket. And that’s not even taking into account the fact they’ve invested in business, and therefore people working for them, and services for their businesses as well.
No, I’d suggest they’re paying more than their “fair share” both directly and indirectly.
I don’t think we’ve ever seen you thinking clearly in the things you post as opposed to Little and most of the other party’s leaders who seem to be thinking very clearly that Bill English has conducted a sham inquiry.
Sorry folks, but even without this weeks court case Andrew just does not cut it as a leader for the Labour party. Sad, as NZ does need a strong and creditable opposition leader. When he has gone, which he will be, there is no way that Jacinda will be a creditable Labour leader either.
He tried to sort it properly; unfortunately, the Hagamans are thoroughly vile individuals determined to bankrupt a political opponent. Hence the ridiculous court case.
Does anyone else smell a rat when just before the election Phil Goff was smeared by Warren Tucker head of SIS and made to look like a fool and a liar. He lost.
Then David Culiffe was smeared about writing the letter for Donghua Liu. He lost.
And now Andrew Little is being sued right before the election from right winger’s who donate to the National party to try to undermine and distract him right before the election?
I smell a rat. In every election in the past decade, someone goes after the leader of the opposition to influence the election.
National love to play dirty, but maybe the tactic is getting a bit old?
charen – Little is in court because the rich are playing dirty politics. As Leader of the Opposition Little was entitled to question the Nats accepting a big donation and then letting the donor have a contract for building. The fact the Nats’ friends leapt onto the chance of playing dirty politics in election year stinks. They know there’s nothing anyone can do to “manage it” when a defamation case is in the court system. It just has to happen. Hopefully it’ll be out of the media range by the time the actual election campaign starts.
So when the AG cleared the deal, why didn’t he just apologise? it was obvious that Little was wrong so he should have sucked up his pride and acknowledged his mistake, great opportunely to look prime ministerial gone begging.
I don’t recall you ever showing any interest or giving any credence to Andrew Little as a PM before ? , … so why the faux concern now about a ‘ great opportunely to look prime ministerial gone begging.?’
Seems Little’s more of a threat to the RWNJ’s than we ever could of estimated. Particularly now he has Jacinda as his Deputy.
So when the AG cleared the deal, why didn’t he just apologise?
For what? Doing his job? I don’t want opposition politicians to either apologise for doing their jobs or be rendered afraid to do their job due to the prospects of vexatious litigation. The fact that he can be taken to court at all for this should be prompting changes to legislation.
“I’m sorry for being an elected representative”
“I’m sorry for being a responsible leader of the opposition”
“I’m sorry for holdingthe government accountable for its actions”
Why do these gits love money so much? Why do they put so much stock in their relationship to money representing them as humans? And why are they so politically motivated to act like two year old brats?
The only problem with this summation is the fact it was an independent trust board that awarded the contract. A board that a certain Mr Ardern was sitting on.
Does anyone else smell a rat when just before the election Phil Goff was smeared by Warren Tucker head of SIS and made to look like a fool and a liar. He lost.
Then David Culiffe was smeared about writing the letter for Donghua Liu. He lost.
And now Andrew Little is being sued right before the election from right winger’s who donate to the National party to try to undermine and distract him right before the election?
I smell a rat. In every election in the past decade, someone goes after the leader of the opposition to influence the election.
if the people of NZ vote for National then they a. must believe they are better, or b. they really don’t care about the last 9 years and want more of it.
in both cases they would then get what they deserve.
btw, this case has been in the making since last year at least, and it could as easily backfire against the National Party practice to ‘squander foreign aid’ in order to prop up private business.
So things happen, and you forget that the National Party this year runs on its own merits rather then the made up persona of a Rock N Roll PM who just ran away.
The manufactured outrage of the 5th wife for the dying husband – its called the gold-digger syndrome – and in this case encouraged by RW political strategists.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Yeah, love how instead of being at his dying side, the wife’s in court trying to claw more money in his name. Say’s a lot about their values and relationship!
I wonder if she would have done the same if she donated to the Labour party and it was John Key or now Bill English who asked the same questions as Little asked ?
“While I think it is unfortunate that the voting public are likely to respond very well to this puff piece, the reality is, this is how it works, how you win elections.”
While the Labour leader is in court facing defamation it doesn’t !
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Why was it that John Key could mince down a catwalk , repeatedly pull a workers hair , admit to pissing in a shower on a radio station , get caught out lying about the XKEYSCORE program , publicly insult his opponents like a 12 year old child ,…
YET !,… here we have Andrew Little and Jacinda Adern demonstrating their political unity and amiability in the Womans Weekly and all of a sudden it is called a ‘ puff piece’ ???
LEST WE FORGET : THIS is what we had to put up with for 8 long years.
It was me that termed it a puff piece. I don’t object as such. I am glad Labour are doing it if it helps us win. I think it only reflects on the the voters (some anyway) ability to think critically about the issues.
I am not quite sure what the public are going to make of the court case (and by the public, I don’t mean people who always vote Labour or people who always vote National). That wont sway their voting.
I think there are three possibilities.
1. Don’t care, its irrelevant to me
2. Andrew L has defamed someone, that’s bad.
3. Find the haggamans (not sure if I have spelt that right) very unsympathetic and
think that restoring their reputation has already happened and the 2 million is excessive and vindictive.
Of course these are just my speculations. The jury of course will likely be considering two and three.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
This woman was in court for wilful neglect of her children in March. Roundly derided by budget advisor who is no doubt on contract to the government. Nobody referred to in this newpaper item saying that she must be suffering depression. Why? Depression is getting featured with John Kirwan on TV but seemingly only to be understood when celebrities get it. Being extremely poor with five children and losing your way and your marbles as it stretches on with no hope for better outcomes, doesn’t enter anyone’s thoughts. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/88439627/Auckland-mother-sentenced-for-wilfully-neglecting-children-who-ate-rotten-bread-t
She has received a home detention sentence and the children taken away from her.
Okay, but is she receiving counselling, parental and life skills training, education to increase her work skills and self-esteem? Some caring from our government to restore and enable her?
What happens to government ministers who neglect the NZ people they are supposed to care about? I suggest that there should be a charge and a jail term for wilfully neglecting their responsibilities and not meeting the requirements of their favoured position. An enquiry by a citizen should result in an immediate investigation and public report of findings.
Did someone in labour not get the opportunity to see/approve/edit the magazine cover before it was published?
Who would approve that without raising concern?
[lprent: Why? Explain. I view idiotic questions like this as a particular astroturfing style. Your comment appears to have nothing to do with the topic of the post. But doesn’t quite edge into diversion.
Dumping to OpenMike. And if I see you do any further attempts to do a astroturf ‘question’, then you won’t be back here until after the election. I really don’t like trolls who are too scared to actually argue their points and try to hide behind plausible tenability. ]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
This sounds bad – like all political moves these days there be deviants and dragons.
This can’t go on, censorship of blogs, collecting of names of people who use govt funded services. It all comes from the belief among the Gnashional fraternity that they were born to rule, and having a democracy is just a vehicle that allows them to dispense with any noblesse oblige and f..k up anyone they want. We aren’t a banana republic, we are well on our way to being run on South American despotic lines – is it fascism or is there another description more applicable.
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
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Big Data Question. I took my daughter to the doctor, vary rare event but needed for allergy medicine occasionally. The receptionist asks me to confirm her ethnicity because it “doesn’t match”. Doesn’t match what? DHB? IRD? How many databases have her data? We have been at the same GP/practice since before she was born. Are they cross checking the data of every child? Maybe every child who has “NZ European” and some other ethnicity? Maybe in one database she is only NZ European because I filled in a form casually, I don’t know. Or are they only checking flagged children by some criteria? I have never been a subscriber to conspiracy theories but now I feel watched and it is weird.
This is kind of related. I’m not sure how much data is currently shared with GPs. Maybe ask your local MP for clarification?
From RNZ today: Data for funding ‘excessive and disproportionate’
Of course the fewer who come forward, the lower the cost…
AND add to that the MSD data leak recently.
All about the National Health Index
http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/health-identity/national-health-index/national-health-index-overview
She was probably checking that against their own records.
However, as I understand it, GPs can look at all your (relatively recent) medical records online e.g. see what happened to you in hospital, at another GPs, at a district nurses clinic. And you can see a very much lighter version of that via “Manage My Health”.
https://www.managemyhealth.co.nz
There are also the MoH “Collections” (of data)
http://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/national-collections-and-surveys/collections
And, you might be interested in this…
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/integrated-data-infrastructure.aspx
And I should bloody well hope so. I most definitely want the medical professionals helping me to look after my health to have access to that information.
“However, as I understand it, GPs can look at all your (relatively recent) medical records online e.g. see what happened to you in hospital, at another GPs, at a district nurses clinic.”
Are you sure about that? That’s a massive privacy breach if true.
I have moved around a lot recently and when you see a new doctor they have to request the information from your previous doctor and do not have automatic access to it.
You have one file that all your medical history, hospital admissions etc are added to but they just can’t be pulled up willy-nilly by any medical professional.
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
The collections are usually for after the fact analyses, and can take six months to two years for the data to be finalised. I doubt the GP office would be looking at those.
That “manage my health” place doesn’t seem to be an official programme, am I wrong?
I do know that lab tests and prescription history are accessible by a variety of healthcare folks, for obvious reasons. So it was either that profile the medical receptionist was looking at in order to get the records for the doctor, or it was just that in their own patient management system the child’s ethnicity didn’t match from one attendance to another.
Ethnicity data in official records is notorious, because people turn up several times over the years and might have a different ethnic identity each time, or friends/parents provide the data because patient is unconscious, or the cops fill it in because the person is drunk and tells them to f-off, or there are three ticks on the form and it’s always entered in a different order…
Genetics does apply when we’re talking about drugs and treatments and so having that information be correct is essential.
@ TAT Westie … I had a similar experience renewing my driver’s licence. In 2009 I went renew it, but was told I need a security clearance because of my place of birth! I was born at sea. Despite producing a current NZ passport, a birth certificate was demanded to prove my ID. I refused and was told my licence will not be renewed until I have clarified my birth details. When I queried the issue further, I was advised my place of birth does not fit their criteria of being an acceptable birth place. In other words there wasn’t a box on their forms to be ticked!
I wasn’t aware a person’s place of birth became an issue for a NZ citizen, particularly if they have held a legitimate NZ driver’s licence for 40 years, without incident, as was my case!
Went to the government, who did manage to clear up the issue. But it did alert me to wonder if we are under some kind of surveillance! I suspect we are being watched!
The other national database not yet mentioned is the National Immunisation Register – the NIR.
Re Syria…
USA and our media are speaking of a ‘chemical attack’ as a result of airstrikes saying that Assad is responsible.
Meanwhile RT are saying that a chemical weapons depot site was destroyed, apparently the ‘air strikers’ did not know chemical weapons were being stored there when they blew it up.
So who is correct? And who is broadcasting fake news or using the news to spin their own narrative in an attempt to manipulate the public? One thing we all know is that people and children are suffering and they sure have suffered enough over the years.
“Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, said reliable evidence would be needed to confirm the alleged use of chemical weapons, let alone establish who was responsible for it.”
To Cinny,
“Meanwhile RT are saying that a chemical weapons depot site was destroyed, apparently the ‘air strikers’ did not know chemical weapons were being stored there when they blew it up.”
If the chemical depot was hit, this would cause the chemicals inside the projectiles to be ineffective as an airstrike weapon. RT is merely an extension of Putin’s Russian regime.
Lemme get this right.
You’re saying that a storage facility that contained precursors or/and premixed chemical stocks that were going to be packed into improvised projectiles (eg – water heaters, gas canisters) and launched at the Syrian army and/or civilians (as happened in Aleppo), would be rendered useless by dint of being damaged or punctured or whatever by an air-strike?
RT definitely isn’t the only broadcaster calling bullshit on the western narrative btw – far from it.
RT should be calling bullshit on its own government’s narrative. From the Guardian:
Russia, which is heavily backing the Assad government, said a Syrian government airstrike had hit a “terrorist warehouse” holding “toxic substances”.
That claim does not fit with facts on the ground, for several reasons. An airstrike on a weapons depot with high explosives would have destroyed much of the sarin immediately, and distributed any that survived over a much smaller area.
“The pattern of casualties isn’t right for the distribution of materials that you would get if you had a location with toxic materials breached by an airstrike. It’s more consistent with canisters that have distributed [chemical weapons] over a wider population,” Guthrie said.
While it is impossible to assess the exact amount of chemical agent used immediately, the extent and distribution of the casualties are consistent with the use of hundreds of kilos.
Sarin is too complicated and expensive for rebels to have manufactured themselves, and while they might potentially have obtained some supplies of stolen nerve agents or other gas, it is very unlikely to be more than a few kilos.
“If they have [sarin], it would be in minute quantities, maybe a kilo or so,” said De Bretton Gordon. The high numbers of woman and children among the casualties was not consistent with a military depot, he added.
Finally, the Syrian manufacturing process for sarin involves creating and storing two key components, both far more stable than the nerve agent itself. They are mixed to create sarin hours – or at most days – before it is used, said Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert and former officer in the US Army’s chemical corps.
So an airstrike on a storage facility would be unlikely to release sarin itself. And because one of the two components is highly flammable isopropyl alcohol, or rubbing alcohol, you would expect a fireball, which has not been observed.
That is my viewpoint as well. The facts of the video of the event, the methods used, and the known requirements for the type of organophosphate nerve toxin that was obviously used (I remember going through some stuff on this when I was a army medic) do not appear to be in anyway consistent with either the Russian or Syrian government statements.
Both governments appear to be lying in concert. That makes me highly suspicious about why? Did the frigging Russians drop this crap?
Of course there is an easy way to show that there is nothing to hide. The Syrian government needs to cooperate fully and wholeheartedly with international investigators. However based on past experience, they only do that when it is those other arseholes from ISIL using their primitive mustard gas.
If it was sarin (as opposed to other chemicals or no chemicals), you just might want to bear in mind that Jihadists in Syria likely do have sarin.
Delve into the Khan al-Assal sarin attack and the Ghouta sarin gas attack and even ignoring Carla Del Ponte’s findings, reflect that the UN (not the independent body many western liberals like to believe it to be) finally concluded that sarin had been used but wouldn’t/couldn’t apportion blame.
That’s an odd conclusion to reach if Jihadists don’t have sarin, don’t you think?
While you’re at it, you may want to do a wee bit of basic google searching on both John Cantlie and at least one of the men, Shajul Islam, charged over his kidnapping – the same Shajul Islam who is now acting as a major source of information regarding this incident in Idlib.
You are completely full of shit when it comes to this. Dancing on the head of a pin and selectively summarizing a rather long report (which BTW I have read).
They also didn’t state that any ‘jihadists’ had any primitive mustard gas. Which by your very low standards of ‘proof’ must mean that it is was impossible for ISIL to have used it even after they boasted that they did.
The report was a judicial report and meant EXACTLY what was said. They could not apportion blame for the Ghouta sarin attack because they didn’t have definitive proof. Among other reasons because they were denied access to where and by whom they think that the attack was most likely launched from. The Syrian military denied ALL access.
What you are carefully ignoring was their conclusions about the most likely source – which was probably the nerve gas program by the Syrian military. Coincidentally, and of course having (according to the Syrian government) nothing to do with the UN investigation, the Syrian government joined the convention on war gases soon after the reports release and is still apparently engaged years later in trying to prove that they no longer have any. They have apparently ‘forgotten’ that they had several labs producing the stuff.
There has been no evidence of any of the ‘jihardist’ groups having any access to being able to manufacture, acquire or any ability to store any nerve agents. That latter is a pretty tricky task.
Essentially, anyone who isn’t blinded by wishful thinking as you seem to be would have to point to the Syrian military as by far the most probable attacker in this case, and their close and active was ally Russia as being a direct or indirect collaborator in the dreadful deed. Apart from anything else, Russia appears to be providing almost all (if not all) of the type of warplane support to the Syrian armed forces at present that would have been required for the type of attack.
With wargases, my burden of proof is simple. It is that the people and countries most likely to be able to perform the action have to prove their likely innocence.
Playing dumbarse word games and claims of plausible deniability rather than jumping to disprove their complicity is (in my view) tantamount to a plea of guilt.
They weren’t denied access at all.
Åke Sellström was heading a UN team that was slated to investigate the chemical attack in Khan al-Assal, Aleppo that the Syria government had requested the UN to investigate. They (the UN team) were in Damascus at the time of the Ghouta attack and secured access to the area.
But step back for a sec.
Why would the Syrian government launch a chemical attack on the eave of the Brussels Conference? In case you missed it, calls for regime change have been weakening of late. Are we being asked to believe that the Syrian government would stupidly reverse that drift because of a lack of awareness over the propaganda effect of launching a chemical weapons attack at this time?
They are winning the war on the ground. Official western calls for regime change have weakened. There may even have been talk of relaxing sanctions (I don’t know if that’s been the case, but given the background, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest it was a possibility) The US President had publicly backed away from regime change.
Now this.
The question “Why would the alleged perp commit such a sickening violent crime that serves no purpose? It makes no sense” is all very well, but has to be weighed up against evidence that Alleged Perp did actually commit the crime. Also, the question’s relevance diminishes somewhat if Alleged Perp has extensive previous form for pointless, sickening violent crime. Because, in that case, the answer may well be “Yes, Perp really is that stupid.”
The mainstream media who spend their day berating Assad and pinning anything on him is not evidence. Neither are videos from the questionable white helmets organisation evidence.
Enter former British ambassador to Syria, Peter Ford who calls your evidence fake news:
The mainstream media who spend their day berating Assad and pinning anything on him is not evidence.
Well, no, but the content of their reports, ie witness statements, video footage and still photos, is evidence. Likewise the expert analysis on why it’s likely the chemical agents were dropped from aircraft and highly unlikely they were a released via an air strike hitting a storage facility. If you’re inclined to dismiss that evidence, consider the evidence Hager and Stephenson have for the NZDF having killed civilians in Operation Burnham – would you dismiss them as lightly as you dismiss these journalists?
And Peter Ford knows as much about who carried out this attack as you or I do, so spare us the appeals to authority.
Interesting. So bastards are bastards and will commit heinous acts if they’ve committed heinous acts. That’s you’re way of evaluating stuff, right?
Well, that the Al Nusra affiliated White Helmets crowd have released their own video footage where (according to analysis carried out by the Swedish Doctors for Human Rights) they are either a) killing living babies with the faux treatments they administer or are b) using dead babies as props…
I could be kind and opt for the latter option given they have other videos where babies in obvious states of rigour mortis are passed to mothers from incubators and a whole charade of ‘normality’ is played out.
These pieces of footage are easy to find if you do even a basic search and all are produced by the white helmets
Then there’s their penchant for head chopping and of cheering on head choppers and attending executions carried out by head choppers (again, all on video and none of it contested).
Call me a fool, but I can’t see any reason for the Syrian government to do what is alleged. I can imagine a dump was hit. I can imagine it all being ‘a have’. And sadly (somewhat darkly) given the void of humanity displayed by Al Nusra, I can also imagine them simply slaughtering shi’ites (by chemical or physical instrument) and then using their corpses for propaganda purposes.
It’s highly questionable evidence because it’s coming from a source such as the white helmets who are funded to the tune of tens of millions by western governments (who publicly state they want Assad gone) and are seen posing with terrorist fighters. You know that. Its been pointed out to you many times.
Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett are acting as independent journalists in Syria, yes equivalent to the likes of our Hager of Stephenson. Their work isn’t owned by the mainstream press which is your go to source and includes commentators towing the media line.
Your dismisal of the ex-ambassador to Syria as knowing as much as anyone else is.. enlightening to say the least.
What journalists PM?
All the video footage (as far as I can tell so far) is being provided by the White Helmets and one of the principle sources for claims is Shajul Islam (look him up ffs!). There are no journalists. There is only the spoon-feeding of journalists.
Call me a fool, but I can’t see any reason for the Syrian government to do what is alleged.
There are various possible reasons: violent murderers aren’t rational to start with, the Assad regime’s spent the last five years learning it can act with complete impunity, etc. You can imagine all kinds of things about what happened, but there’s a fairly obvious explanation that has some pretty good evidence for it and doesn’t require a whole lot of baseless speculation about dastardly plots.
Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett are acting as independent journalists in Syria, yes equivalent to the likes of our Hager of Stephenson.
They are claiming to be independent journalists while working as regime shills. You can tell the extent of their independence by the fact that they never once mention the regime minders who are issued to journalists and monitor what the locals tell them. Actual journalists mention that in their stories and remind readers to take it into account when assessing what the locals are saying in front of these minders. You grossly insult Hager and Stephenson by putting them in the same category as these two appalling propagandists.
Your dismisal of the ex-ambassador to Syria as knowing as much as anyone else is.. enlightening to say the least.
He knows as much about this attack as anyone else.
There are no journalists. There is only the spoon-feeding of journalists.
One could say the same of any reporting from regime-held areas or anything published by Russian media. Conflicts don’t issue us with easy answers.
Trying it on?.
WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials were left confused after President Donald Trump appeared to signal a potential future policy change toward Syria with tough words against the government’s deployment of chemical weapons.
[…]
The three defense officials told BuzzFeed News they believe Assad may have launched Tuesday’s attack to test the president, particularly after members of his administration had indicated Assad could stay in power. Most notably, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that: “I think the status and the longer-term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people.”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/nancyyoussef/the-pentagon-is-confused-over-trumps-apparent-about-face-on?utm_term=.stbvvvexqN#.drpMMMvweY
Hey Cinny (and anyone else) – for a number of weeks I’ve been unable to load anything from RT. I can get youtube RT reports and what not, but no access at all to RT.com (or any of their subsidiary sites).
Any ‘heads up’ would be appreciated.
The message I always get is “www.rt.com took too long to respond”
Obviously the link you provided is dead to me.
Bill, I found a youtube link for a similar RT report about said topic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raMrOjnjwLQ
That sucks you are having issues with pages loading. Could be a number of reasons
I use Firefox, and did a quick search, found this info, maybe it could help?
https://support.mozilla.org/t5/Fix-problems-with-websites/Websites-show-a-spinning-wheel-and-never-finish-loading/ta-p/2040
Hope that helps. C x
Thanks Cinny. It’s been every computer at this location and on every browser. I’ve previously turned off all adware, virus protection, firewalls – the whole caboodle – and still can’t connect.
I’ll try flushing the DNS when I figure which key is the windows key 🙂
The experts I heard on the BBC overnight said it was farcical to claim that bombs had hit a rebel (actually that should be freedom fighter) store of chemicals which had caused the gas cloud. Not feasible.
Assad started the war. Assad tortures en masse. Assad uses chemical warfare, which is a war crime. He must go.
The reasoning behind the claims being made by these BBC experts, what was it?
That punctured or scattered chemical agents would be inert? That it was preposterous to claim Jihadists had access to chemical weapons?
Did they offer any reasoning and if they did, did they back it up?
Large numbers of Jihadists seeking to create a Caliphate = “Assad started the war”. Hm. k.
A government that attempts to open up safe corridors for its citizens in occupied cities, that offers amnesty to anyone who lays down their arms, that gives safe passage for Jihadists surrendering cities they occupy, that has overwhelming popular support from the Syrian population … that stacks up against claims of “tortures en masse” how exactly?
There have been previous claims made that the Syrian government used chemical weapons. Not one of those claims was ever backed up by proof. There have also been claims that Jihadists have used chemical weapons. Given that Syria surrendered its stock of chemical weapons and given that chemical stock-piles were found in eastern Aleppo after its liberation…..
The jihadists wouldn’t have had an opening if Assad hadn’t been a dictator whose first impulse had been to crack down rather than address the problems back in 2010.
He ceded to every demand made in those initial demonstrations. (If you’re aware of any demands that were made and not met, feel free to list them)
The problem (it’s argued) is that Jihadists were already integral to the protest movement, playing an increasingly leading role and didn’t give a hoot for any compromises.
And as we know, there are now swarms of Jihadists throughout Syria and Iraq seeking the formation of a Caliphate that would involve a dissolution of the Syrian state (something a number of western governments are quite keen on).
lol that’s one position, I guess.
here’s another.
Yes, now there are caliphists. That’s what happens when a defunct regime can’t control a nation but can hang onto some bits long enough to be bailed out by a fellow dictator. Extremists fill the void that would have been filled by the regular civil power structures during a genuine transition away from the failed regime.
wikipedia. I see.
well, in these days of cartesian doubt about current events, isn’t there a universal equivalence between information sources? Everyone has an agenda, everyone with an agenda is distributing at least some biased “news”, and everyone distributing biased news is distributing propaganda. And anyone who tries to elevate one news source over another in terms of reliability (or lack thereof) does so in order to protect their worldview. Isn’t that how it goes?
So what’s your fragile worldview that you need to protect – that we can know nothing and therefore do nothing?
That a straw man constructed from tetchiness?
Wikipedia is good for info on objective stuff – physics, chemistry and what not, but generally not much use for anything beyond a cursory glance when it comes to politics.
There are some sources of news that are generally more reliable or better informed than others, and some that are more reliable or better informed in specific areas or on specific events – so no, as far as I’m concerned, there is no “universal equivalence between information sources”.
As for my world view, it’s pretty much indicated by what I write here. And I certainly don’t ascribe to any such notion that “we can know nothing and therefore do nothing”. (I actually just wish more people would be more critical, less receptive and as a result, hopefully better informed)
As for my take on the so-called “fake news” phenomenon that you linked, yeah, I stand by that.
So which bit of the wikipedia article is wrong: were people not shot? Had his regime existed under a 50 year state of emergency?
Your comment “He ceded to every demand made in those initial demonstrations.” completely ignores everything his regime did right up until it was obvious that the country was going to burn. A smart dictator would have jumped in his chopper and fucked off to Switzerland or somewhere. Assad’s dicking around with that and getting bailed out by the Russians has fucked the country for the next few decades, and yes it’s down precisely to his decision to cling to what power he could.
You can’t know what would have eventuated to Syria had Assad ‘jumped’…
PNAC appreciates the ignorance, however!
Know? No.
Make an educated guess based on contemporary and past events of a similar nature? Yes.
Thanks for playing. You can’t know I’m wrong, by your measure.
Taking an educated guess using unrelated, and in its essence, third party ‘srories’
Your so called educated guess is as useless as those stories you use to make it…
Quality!
Well, it’s the same educated guess that makes me suspect that you’re a pretentious fuckwit in real life as well as online. You’re just an expanding gas ball of ego in an infinite vacuum of ignorance.
Why do you even come here if not to wank? You can never know anything, so therefore you will never acquire new information. Other people share ideas, debate positions, and thereby develop and expand their perspectives. Whereas you’re just a dollop of jizz plonked on top of a chocolate brownie, and you expect us to believe it’s cream.
Keep digging Bill, your desperate line of thinking is flawed.
You haven’t answered my question above. I didn’t see the BBC footage and bar a link would appreciate you sharing what, if any, reasoning the experts you refer to based their conclusion on.
if we go back 4 years wasn’t it Obama that was ready to invade Syria due to another chemical attack. Wasn’t Syria also one of seven countries that the US wanted regime change in. Syria was invaded anyway by what we know are terrorists backed by the likes of Saudi and the US.
Interesting comments by journo Seymour Hersh and there appears to be a good amount of deja vu from what happened in 2013.
Cheers for the links Maui
Wouldn’t be nice if a chemical weapons attack on the eave of a peace conference was to shift the US President’s stance from one of not seeking regime change to one of seeking regime change?
Oh look! How propitious!
Damn that cunning Syrian government.
Not exactly on topic but…this is a hell of a lot of Syrian’s
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-05/germans-concerned-after-270000-syrian-refugees-granted-permission-bring-family-membe
All of them, you cannot believe any of them after all it is war and shit loads of money to be made.
I think you maybe right Peter, it’s a bloody circus of contradicting info, people suffering and arms manufacturers profiting.
For someone like me who’s teaches CBRND and a who is trained to do CBRND reconnaissance/ surveys (In plan English a human guinea pig) its a pain in the ass ATM shifting through the data. But it did make very interesting day when I was talking to a couple Combat engineers about what happen over there and to us it looks like sarin base chemical agent and no doubt we will find out what agent it was in the coming days. If it was a VX nerve agent the casualty rate would’ve gone through the roof as it takes just one droplet to be absorb onto the skin is enough to kill you within a minute and VX very nasty stuff.
Have been watching footage of the attack and it appears to me it was delivered from the air. The first bomb was your typical HE explosion followed by two sinister looking gas clouds, one laying low to the ground and the other one forming a mushroom type cloud formation which collapse on itself. This was very standard chemical attack using a HE bomb to mask the two Chemical bombs as make popping sound when the sort of explode. It the same for artillery bombardment as will be a mix of HE and Chemical agent.
I hope this helps anyone out.
Thanking you once again EKF, that’s why I enjoy TS, the knowledge base of those who contribute is super valuable and helpful.
As this has come up here and elsewhere in social media I wish to advise that I am now allowed by the Court to reveal a limited amount of information about legal action started against me in July 2015.
“The private prosecutions brought by Mr Dermot Nottingham against Allied Press and Peter George have been withdrawn by leave of the District Court. Allied Press Limited and Mr George face no further charges. Details of the evidence and submissions filed in the case are suppressed until further notice of the Court.”
The court deems the withdrawal of charges to be an acquittal.
Due to matters I am not involved in those are the only details I can disclose about it ‘until further notice of the Court’, and this limits what anyone else should say about it too.
Hi Pete,
I found the comment in the Trash. I have no idea how it got there if you didn’t put it there.
The moderators aren’t meant to be able to use Trash – it is meant to be restricted to users with their own comments only. So I’ll have a look at the history later.
However this is very good news for a number of personal reasons (that I am unable to discuss due to ongoing court actions and court orders). It will be quite good when the lid can be lifted on this whole sorry saga.
I remember that nut case from reading ACC forum.
That must be a relief for you. Thanks for posting that Pete.
Its a fluff piece. The more important question is why the hell is Little in court on trial in election year ? Surely this could have been averted earlier on ? where is Littles management team on this ? Come in Matt McCarten ? Really, having the leader of the opposition on trial in election year is not a good look whatever way you spin it.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[lprent: Banned until one month after the election for a deliberate post diversion. The post was not on the Hagaman case. ]
Charen – Unless there’s a miracle in court this week, Jacinda will be buying the pizza and whiskey from now on. Andrew will be lucky to still be on the road with her.
They are saying the Sarin gas attacks in Syria are a war crime.
So is not giving medical assistance to wounded civilians, destroying property without a military objective and handing a prisoner over to a third party knowing that they will be tortured…
And it only takes ONE COMPLAINANT to trigger an investigation / trial by the International Criminal Court.
I wouldn’t be gloating too long or loud just yet if I were you….
How that going to work? Labour will change their leader because he upset some right wing asswipe?
Yeah that sounds likely 😆
L0L0L0L !!!
It will work. Come next Monday it is all over. Of course 12 months ago you ridiculed my assertion that the corruption allegations about Earl and Lani would be taken seriously. Not looking too flash now is it?
I expect an apology from you.
BTW the Hagamans are not to my knowledge members of the Party. Your recent comments suggest the contrary.
I ask that you withdraw and apologise. You should also take some meds for your constant aggressive behavior. About everything.
@ srylands
” BTW the Hagamans are not to my knowledge members of the Party ”
D O N A T O R S – T O – T H E – N A T I O N A L – P A R T Y
Well , with that logic you display I’m sure the Hagaman’s would also have donated to the McGillycuddy Serious Party had they not disbanded as well…
As would of members of the then Business Roundtable ( now re-branded as the NZ Institute )
C’mon mate – pull the other one .
They donated to NZ First and apparently Labour back in the 1980’s.
And then realized they were onto a good thing donating to National post 1984 after Douglas gave advantages to the rich.
How much? And that was to the Labour Party of Rogernomics.
I remember hitchhiking in NZ in 1985 and getting picked up by a guy with a Jag who loved Roger.
Lots of RWNJ donated to Labour in the 1980s because back in the 1980s Labour made a radical shift to the right. National followed and then went further which is why those people then started supporting National again.
Especially after this, talk about shoot yourself in the face.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/04/labour-leader-andrew-little-gives-evidence-in-defamation-case.html
I do wonder if Andrew Little isn’t having some sort of mental breakdown?
Lani doesn’t want a cash settlement, she just wants an apology and costs, but then her intentions just sort of inexplicably fell off and she ended up accidentally suing for $2M.
What exactly is the reputation of National Party scum worth?
What exactly is the reputation of National Party scum worth
I’d say about 500k + expenses.
Perhaps, but if you have a clear and obvious reputation of being scum, is it possible to defame you?
L00L !… It gets richer and richer…
🙂
Why are the Hagamans scum?, from what I read they’ve donated a tonne of money to many charities in NZ.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/79425604/Of-political-sideswipes-Meet-the-Hagamans-of-Christchurch
So have a lot of people that have donated a lot to many charity’s – that doesn’t mean they behave in a crass manner by trying to bring down legitimate democratic party’s or their leaders, however . Particularly when it is a democratic and legal principle in this country to question where each party’s donations originated from, the amount and if there is any possibility of any conflicts of interest.
And yet are unwilling to pay their fair share of taxes.
So giving to charity is a crook, and oddly enough it is somthing criminals and the like always bring out as well to show how good they are. When in reality all they would need to do, is pay a fair amount of tax.
How do you know they’re not paying their fair share of taxes?
The top tax rate. How do you know they are even paying that low amount?
@BM
Please can you define “their fair share of tax”?
I’ve always wondered what this meant? If as is likely they are in the top tax bracket – and well into it – they’ll be paying more tax than pretty much everyone that posts here. How is that not a “fair share”?
@adam – too tax rate a small amount? Except it’s likely that their income is well into the top tax bracket. And that’s not even taking into account the fact they’ve invested in business, and therefore people working for them, and services for their businesses as well.
No, I’d suggest they’re paying more than their “fair share” both directly and indirectly.
my pick is wife number 5 isn’t in the will for much money so he’s said you can keep what you win
[lprent: A rather cynical viewpoint and somewhat tasteless – however within the policies.
However you appear to be edging up to an edge that I might have to notice as a moderator. I suggest that you don’t do that. ]
If I were you , BM ,… Id be watching Blinglish very closely for anxiety and neuroses syndromes over the next weeks and months….
ONE complainant is all it will take…
Why? who’s going to complain and about what?
The victims from Hit and Run.
“I do wonder if Andrew Little isn’t having some sort of mental breakdown?”
I do wonder if you aren’t using someone’s stressful situation to undermine them politically.
Is that latest memo meme from Crosby Textor?
Did you watch the video in the link?
It didn’t really portray a Man thinking clearly.
Yes I did. It was a selective cut and paste. I’d need to see the whole thing to have an opinion on it beyond it’s a stressful situation.
“It didn’t really portray a Man thinking clearly.”
Ah, the backup clause from CT.
I don’t think we’ve ever seen you thinking clearly in the things you post as opposed to Little and most of the other party’s leaders who seem to be thinking very clearly that Bill English has conducted a sham inquiry.
ONE complaint is ALL that’s needed.
Sorry folks, but even without this weeks court case Andrew just does not cut it as a leader for the Labour party. Sad, as NZ does need a strong and creditable opposition leader. When he has gone, which he will be, there is no way that Jacinda will be a creditable Labour leader either.
andy didn’t say anything anyone else wouldnt have said if they were him. this is going to be laughed out of court!
~ tui
He tried to sort it properly; unfortunately, the Hagamans are thoroughly vile individuals determined to bankrupt a political opponent. Hence the ridiculous court case.
Does anyone else smell a rat when just before the election Phil Goff was smeared by Warren Tucker head of SIS and made to look like a fool and a liar. He lost.
Then David Culiffe was smeared about writing the letter for Donghua Liu. He lost.
And now Andrew Little is being sued right before the election from right winger’s who donate to the National party to try to undermine and distract him right before the election?
I smell a rat. In every election in the past decade, someone goes after the leader of the opposition to influence the election.
National love to play dirty, but maybe the tactic is getting a bit old?
Isn’t it time Labour started doing the same all’s fare in love and war and it is war.
A fluff piece is cool – there are plenty of fluffies in our country who read these fluffy magazines and identify with them – whatever it takes!
charen – Little is in court because the rich are playing dirty politics. As Leader of the Opposition Little was entitled to question the Nats accepting a big donation and then letting the donor have a contract for building. The fact the Nats’ friends leapt onto the chance of playing dirty politics in election year stinks. They know there’s nothing anyone can do to “manage it” when a defamation case is in the court system. It just has to happen. Hopefully it’ll be out of the media range by the time the actual election campaign starts.
Why didn’t Little apologise after the AG cleared the Niue deal?
Andrew Little only has himself to blame,
Because it was entirely correct to bring it to the attention of the attorney general in the first place.
So when the AG cleared the deal, why didn’t he just apologise? it was obvious that Little was wrong so he should have sucked up his pride and acknowledged his mistake, great opportunely to look prime ministerial gone begging.
I don’t recall you ever showing any interest or giving any credence to Andrew Little as a PM before ? , … so why the faux concern now about a ‘ great opportunely to look prime ministerial gone begging.?’
Seems Little’s more of a threat to the RWNJ’s than we ever could of estimated. Particularly now he has Jacinda as his Deputy.
So when the AG cleared the deal, why didn’t he just apologise?
For what? Doing his job? I don’t want opposition politicians to either apologise for doing their jobs or be rendered afraid to do their job due to the prospects of vexatious litigation. The fact that he can be taken to court at all for this should be prompting changes to legislation.
+111
lol
“I’m sorry for being an elected representative”
“I’m sorry for being a responsible leader of the opposition”
“I’m sorry for holdingthe government accountable for its actions”
Because there was nothing to apologise for.
Why do these gits love money so much? Why do they put so much stock in their relationship to money representing them as humans? And why are they so politically motivated to act like two year old brats?
Ever seen the biggest piglet pushing aside the smaller ones to suck on the teat?
Thats why.
That’s an example or amoral creatures trying to survive. Not a real answer to my question, but I get where you are trying to go.
Hi Adam, as I am find of saying:
Tories love money, socialists love people.
How can we talkj about Niue and the national party ………… without talking about how they have built a corrupt tax dodging network in the south pacific….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8515361/Money-trail-leads-home-to-New-Zealand
Is this “foreign aid” hotel for the use of bent accountants and lawyers ????
They don’t even contribute tax for ……………. foreign aid.
Haggerman ………… the corpse who sued.
The only problem with this summation is the fact it was an independent trust board that awarded the contract. A board that a certain Mr Ardern was sitting on.
Does anyone else smell a rat when just before the election Phil Goff was smeared by Warren Tucker head of SIS and made to look like a fool and a liar. He lost.
Then David Culiffe was smeared about writing the letter for Donghua Liu. He lost.
And now Andrew Little is being sued right before the election from right winger’s who donate to the National party to try to undermine and distract him right before the election?
I smell a rat. In every election in the past decade, someone goes after the leader of the opposition to influence the election.
if the people of NZ vote for National then they a. must believe they are better, or b. they really don’t care about the last 9 years and want more of it.
in both cases they would then get what they deserve.
btw, this case has been in the making since last year at least, and it could as easily backfire against the National Party practice to ‘squander foreign aid’ in order to prop up private business.
So things happen, and you forget that the National Party this year runs on its own merits rather then the made up persona of a Rock N Roll PM who just ran away.
The manufactured outrage of the 5th wife for the dying husband – its called the gold-digger syndrome – and in this case encouraged by RW political strategists.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Yeah, love how instead of being at his dying side, the wife’s in court trying to claw more money in his name. Say’s a lot about their values and relationship!
I wonder if she would have done the same if she donated to the Labour party and it was John Key or now Bill English who asked the same questions as Little asked ?
“While I think it is unfortunate that the voting public are likely to respond very well to this puff piece, the reality is, this is how it works, how you win elections.”
While the Labour leader is in court facing defamation it doesn’t !
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Why was it that John Key could mince down a catwalk , repeatedly pull a workers hair , admit to pissing in a shower on a radio station , get caught out lying about the XKEYSCORE program , publicly insult his opponents like a 12 year old child ,…
YET !,… here we have Andrew Little and Jacinda Adern demonstrating their political unity and amiability in the Womans Weekly and all of a sudden it is called a ‘ puff piece’ ???
LEST WE FORGET : THIS is what we had to put up with for 8 long years.
( for comparisons sake’s )
John Oliver – John Key – YouTube
It was me that termed it a puff piece. I don’t object as such. I am glad Labour are doing it if it helps us win. I think it only reflects on the the voters (some anyway) ability to think critically about the issues.
Yeah , you are right… just heading off any potential ammunition from any RWNJ , that’s all .
Cheers.
🙂
Little looks alright here but jeez he cut a tragic figure in the courtroom. I felt really sorry for the guy.
[lprent: Deliberate diversion commenting. Banned until one month after the election. I do hope you think that comment was worth posting now. ]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Hi Stigie @ 5.
I am not quite sure what the public are going to make of the court case (and by the public, I don’t mean people who always vote Labour or people who always vote National). That wont sway their voting.
I think there are three possibilities.
1. Don’t care, its irrelevant to me
2. Andrew L has defamed someone, that’s bad.
3. Find the haggamans (not sure if I have spelt that right) very unsympathetic and
think that restoring their reputation has already happened and the 2 million is excessive and vindictive.
Of course these are just my speculations. The jury of course will likely be considering two and three.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
This woman was in court for wilful neglect of her children in March. Roundly derided by budget advisor who is no doubt on contract to the government. Nobody referred to in this newpaper item saying that she must be suffering depression. Why? Depression is getting featured with John Kirwan on TV but seemingly only to be understood when celebrities get it. Being extremely poor with five children and losing your way and your marbles as it stretches on with no hope for better outcomes, doesn’t enter anyone’s thoughts.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/88439627/Auckland-mother-sentenced-for-wilfully-neglecting-children-who-ate-rotten-bread-t
She has received a home detention sentence and the children taken away from her.
Okay, but is she receiving counselling, parental and life skills training, education to increase her work skills and self-esteem? Some caring from our government to restore and enable her?
What happens to government ministers who neglect the NZ people they are supposed to care about? I suggest that there should be a charge and a jail term for wilfully neglecting their responsibilities and not meeting the requirements of their favoured position. An enquiry by a citizen should result in an immediate investigation and public report of findings.
Alan, you shag someone you have Dad jokes with?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
88 journalists in Mexico murdered – newspaper shuts down saying too dangerous to continue.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/world/americas/el-norte-closes-mexican-newspaper.html
We are so lucky in this country. Thank you TS.
Think we might need one of these “tsunami balls”.
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/silicon-valley-survivalist-builds-diy-extreme-weather-tsunamiball-to-ride-out-disaster_04052017
Did someone in labour not get the opportunity to see/approve/edit the magazine cover before it was published?
Who would approve that without raising concern?
[lprent: Why? Explain. I view idiotic questions like this as a particular astroturfing style. Your comment appears to have nothing to do with the topic of the post. But doesn’t quite edge into diversion.
Dumping to OpenMike. And if I see you do any further attempts to do a astroturf ‘question’, then you won’t be back here until after the election. I really don’t like trolls who are too scared to actually argue their points and try to hide behind plausible tenability. ]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
While Little is tied up in court and making himself available for a puff piece, the right have come out with this:
https://nzinitiative.org.nz/insights/media/the-new-zealand-initiative-delivers-policy-manifesto-to-inform-election-debate/
Where is the lefts counter piece?
Seeing as the Greens have finished making their smiley campaign commercial, perhaps they will attempt to counter it?
Sue & co are playing catch up: https://esra.nz/march-2017-update/
PROTEST!
The lack of transparency
in NZ Courts!
PROTEST!
The secret process of appointing NZ Judges!
(Did you know that the NZ Attorney-General Chris Finlayson alone, appoints all Judges?)
WHERE: Outside NZ Supreme Court
85 Lambton Quay Wellington
WHEN: Friday 7 April 2017
TIME: 3 – 5pm
Protest called by fellow
‘anti-corruption campaigner’
Vince Siemer.
For more information, check out Vince Siemer’s website:
http://www.kiwisfirst.co.nz
I support this protest, and if I was in Wellington, I’d be there.
Please attend if you can, and if you support NZ judicial transparency and accountability.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation /
anti-corruption campaigner’.
Oh boy…
http://www.labour.org.nz/auditor_general_must_investigate_niue_deal_for_donor
… hollow apology, not really sorry after all.
And whats defamatory about that press release ?.
Has Netsafe become the new bully on the yard?
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/04/06/exclusive-dear-netsafe-you-can-censor-the-daily-blog-the-day-you-take-the-keyboard-from-my-cold-dead-hands/
This sounds bad – like all political moves these days there be deviants and dragons.
This can’t go on, censorship of blogs, collecting of names of people who use govt funded services. It all comes from the belief among the Gnashional fraternity that they were born to rule, and having a democracy is just a vehicle that allows them to dispense with any noblesse oblige and f..k up anyone they want. We aren’t a banana republic, we are well on our way to being run on South American despotic lines – is it fascism or is there another description more applicable.
We seem to be heading down that slippery slope.