(Oops slept in) Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
The proposal involves three main changes in statute for the Electricity Authority:
An amended objective: “to promote greater use of renewable energy including from distributed generation sources”,
An amended function: “to establish and administer a fair regime for small scale renewable distributed electricity generation power purchase agreements” and
An entirely new section 43 in the Electricity Industry Act detailing how this will be achieved. Including 10 year power purchase agreements and a price set by the Electricity Authority.
The fight against climate change will be the defining struggle of this age.
It is great to see that the Green Party is talking about practical actions that, (hopefully) will turn us away from fossil fuels, to renewable energy use.
Distributed small scale electricity generation will be part of the mix.
But Gareth has gone even further, attacking the big fossil fuel suppliers at their source, and the government, who are conspiring with Solid Energy and the banks, to keep us hooked on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, with a huge taxpayer subsidy for our country’s biggest coal company.
“The National Government need to take responsibility for their mismanagement of Solid Energy and cut their losses,” said Mr Hughes.
“The banks that made risky loans to Solid Energy need to bear the cost of their mistakes.
“Coal is not going to be the fuel of our future if we are to stabilise our climate.
“New Zealanders and Solid Energy workers need a just transition into more sustainable jobs – jobs that don’t fry the planet.
With these above statements Gareth and the Greens are well on the way to setting up climate change as a major defining election issue for the Greens, sharply differentiating themselves from both Labour and National, who both as well as having broad agreement on other issues of climate change, both support the bailout of Solid Energy, reinforceng and gauranteeing our iron bound addiction to fossil fuels at a time when we should be taking every opportunity to loosen its grip.
Jenny – you were proven yesterday to be a liar regarding Labour’s position and yet you still repeat the same hyperbole ad nauseum today?
One rule I work with is “Never trust an extremist” because they are never honest. Ever. No matter how “correct” the facts behind your argument may be (such as climate change being a real man made thing that’s going to impact over the next 100 years) you are completely misrepresenting the political situation in NZ in order to meet your other preconceptions.
IMO Labour will likely support Solid Energy’s continued existence, and retention as a full SOE. Not only are there many NZ jobs at stake, but also extensive technical and engineering knowledge plus a vital strategic energy source for the nation.
I have been trying to popularise for some, time now the scandal that is Rauauru Ma Raki.
1033 permanent jobs “blown away” in the renewable sector. What is remarkable about this project is that it is but a short commute from Huntly where many coal miners are losing their jobs.
All that is needed to restart this project and give all these laid off workers good jobs according to Wind Energy CEO Eric Pyle is the “right policy settings”, which I imagine would cost little in comparison to the current huge $100 million plus, (and more to come), bail out of Solid Energy.
The Nacts may cry crocodile tears about jobs being lost. But we know they don’t care for working people. The Bailout of Solid Energy is a blatant a case of Corporate Welfare as you can get. Nothing else. As Gareth Hughes says the government should “cut their losses”. What we should be asking CV is why we are covering the losses of the foreign owned Aussie banks?
I have been trying to popularise for some, time now the scandal that is Rauauru Ma Raki.
1033 permanent jobs “blown away” in the renewable sector.
None of these jobs exist. They were future “potential jobs”. You are proposing getting rid of higher paid jobs for jobs which do not exist yet, would take several years to reach a full payroll of staff, and likely pay much less than mining jobs.
As Gareth Hughes says the government should “cut their losses”. What we should be asking CV is why we are covering the losses of the foreign owned Aussie banks?
Who knows. Probably so they don’t take possession of the company and firesale it.
Bottom line is that your religious crusade is all about you Jenny, and very little else.
lprent – in my mind it is not laziness on her part but rather an admission that she is what I stated she is, an extremist. She is looking for evidence that supports her own initial conclusions and ignoring anything else that may *potentially* undermine that.
Jenny – I don’t really know what Labour’s position on the matter of Solid Energy is and, at the moment, I only really have the extra energy to continue being pissed off at National. I come to The Standard because the level of intelligent coverage here outstrips all other available sources but I keep seeing your screeds of outraged bullshit popping up everywhere and it rankles.
It’s difficult to argue with you on the “climate change is bad and we should be doing something about it” because I agree, climate change *is* bad and we *should* do something about it. When it comes to communicate about that *something* though you manage to go jump in to the deep end and shout a giant “fuck you” to anyone who isn’t willing to dive right in next to you. By doing so you alienate anyone who doesn’t share your personal belief and this is no way to build broad support for your position.
Hence why I felt the need this morning to call you on your extremist bullshit.
In my opinion, feel free to continue to post your extremist rhetoric here. It reminds me why I chose to escape association with similar people and why I will continue to.
…in my mind it is not laziness on her part but rather an admission that she is what I stated she is, an extremist.
I’d agree. But really she could be an extremist that looked things up rather her current habit of simply making things up. It has gotten to the point that whenever I read her comments then I treat it exactly like I would for some poor troll coming from Whaleoil or No Minister… I assume it is wrong or quoted completely out of context.
Her habit of usually not leaving links to those she is accusing reinforces that. It implies that she hasn’t used search either on this site or on google to actually find out anything about what she is talking about. As importantly it makes it harder for people to find out if she is sprouting crap or not.
Basically she acts like a modern-day Joseph Goebbels who in Nazi Germany had the role of making inflammatory and inaccurate memes as minister of propaganda. He also had the role of destroying the ability of people to check the veracity of those memes by destroying books that contradicted those memes published as books, pamphlets, speeches, etc…
There are some quite strong extremists (in my view) on this site. But you have to give them credibility because they usually leave links and reasoned argument. They also respond to people disagreeing with them rather than Jenny’s current passion for flying into boring rants and lying about what they said…
I like Gareth, and I vote Green, but he is a bit off about what this deal does. the banks won’t be too happy about this at all.
The shares they are getting do not pay dividends, and can only be sold back to the crown at the price they paid for them, when and if the crown ever wants to buy them.
Basically SE has had a lot of debt to the banks written off, 350M has been paid off by the crown, and the rest of the debt will be recovered if and when the crown buys back those shares.
The alternative is winding the company up. That doesn’t mean the mines close. It means a receiver tries to get as much value as possible out of SE’s assets, (that would be the mines and licenses to mine), as they can in order to pay back as much of the debt as they can.
Yes, great to see the moves by the Green Party on Solar Power, what such Regulation and Legislation will allow anyone with a mind to to become a power supplier the legal framework which will allow them to do so and presumably be able to sell the power generated at much the same rates as the present Electricity Cartel does,
From what the Green Party are saying it seems likely that those wishing to install solar power arrays will be able to, instead of having to also install very expensive battery systems, feed the power they generate straight into the retail system making such a system far more streamlined than what has presently been achieved,
In a Green future i can well see a large industry being built up around household solar arrays where the home-owner could add solar panels to their own system as they have spare funds to do so and where eventually households doing so would be supplying much of the countries daytime electricity needs,
It doesn’t take much to imagine the average workers solar paneling generating power by day into the grid while they are busy at work and thus creating enough credit for those doing so to have basically the free use of electricity while they are at home via the credits earned,
What is needed is work on a standardized design of such solar power systems with work being put into the efficacy of producing the whole systems here in New Zealand, which along with the installation and maintanence of will create clean green sustainable employment…
Yeah you may have a point, but, just for arguments sake, say an investment in Solar Thermal of a billion dollars generates X amount of power, this is owned either by Government or private companies, (with the threat of privatization if Government owned), and such electricity is then sold to the consumer at a profit,
Consider then IF the same billion dollars spent on household solar generation arrays on the roof of average homes produced the same X of power which is then sold by the householder via a binding agreement at a fair set price to the retailer, given that there is room on the average houses roof for one hell of an array of solar paneling it would not be inconceivable that the average house could generate and sell enough electricity during the day to make a households electricity usage all up basically free,
i am tho fascinated by the thought of having some very big magnifying glasses able to track around with the sun being able to direct beans of light to ‘a boiler’, thus creating steam and thus creating usable energy in a number of forms…
I wouldn’t preclude larger scale thermal plants, but I think that distributed installations for households, motels, hotels, schools, hospitals etc. would be (and in fact are) very workable.
For a typical household, a power bill saving of $50-$60 month would be quite significant.
Yesterday I praised Gareth Hughes and the Green Party for coming out and and strongly condemning the bailout of Solid Energy.
I asked why, almost a week later, there had been no post on The Standard by any author about the criminal and immoral Bailout of Solid Energy. karol kindly took the time to reply saying that, they were working on it.
“An author has been working on a draft of a solid energy post.”
I also asked yesterday why Labour had not commented on the bail out.
Qot pointed out to me something that I had missed, that Clayton Cosgrove for the Labour Party had actually come out in support of the bailout. With a cryptic comment that “the deal announced on Tuesday was too little too late.”
So I can understand why the mysterious Standard poster is haveing trouble trying to finish their agonised philosophical wrestling over their “draft Solid Energy post”, before most likely, finally deciding to leave it in the too hard basket.
[lprent: good thing that karol saw it before me. I’d have simply banned you for a week for trying to tell us how we should be running the site. ]
Almost certainly less than 15kg of carbon released, depending on how it is done. Sadly, I’ve just seen a notice that the man who self immolated in the US National Mall in Washington DC has died. Another milestone in the match of the plutocrats.
The solid energy post is a post that I am working on but I need to understand the intricacies of the recent announcements and get these right before I finish it.
You should also understand that the Standard bloggers are a disparate diffuse group of people who have things like jobs and lives. Posts and contributions are a totally voluntary thing. For me I am also in the middle of a local body election campaign so posts will be made
And your original comment was that Labour has stayed silent on the issue and as shown by QoT you are totally incorrect.
And your original comment was that Labour has stayed silent on the issue and as shown by QoT you are totally incorrect.
mickysavage
But you must admit mj that there is some confusion around where Labour sit on this issue, as evidenced by Zorr at at 9:33 am.
Hopefully you will be able to clear this up for us.
[lprent: Get off your lazy bigoted and obviously stupid arse and look it up. FFS it isn’t hard – read the press releases, they stream in the Feeds every day.
If you *ever* use this type of line again on either Labour, the Greens or even National without doing some research yourself.
To encourage you in this endeavour, I will take a page out of your book and assume you are guilty unless it is clear in the first paragraph that you have searched. And I will impose a 12 week ban if you do not show evidence of having looked for what you are asking for from political parties before accusing them. Everyone is welcome to point out what she missed… ]
So Jenny, the Labour Party did comment on the Solid Energy bailout, instead of posting even more bullshit here, an ”i was wrong with my assertion yesterday” would have been sufficient,
Perhaps you are a masochist and feel that when you do, after what seems huge effort on your part, get a spanking, you spend your time in purgatory nurturing along your view of having been ‘the victim’…
Posted yesterday… ” *Yes I did miss this. But that is not the same as being a “fucking liar” ”
I think Jenny is passionate about her cause and far less rude, abrasive, insulting and retarded as some commenters are in stating their positions.
I don’t see what she posts as a problem. Like anything (or anyone’s opinions) it can be ignored or dismissed without rancour or resorting to obscenities that make point scoring a hollow gesture.
I think you’re being incredibly charitable towards Jenny. She has had opportunity after opportunity to check her shit.
When she hated the Greens, it was daily postings on how “the Greens have been silent!!!!” and when she had multiple blog posts and press releases pointed out to her, her defence was “oh, well it’s not on the front page of their website”.
Now she hates Labour, so it’s daily postings on how “Labour have been silent!!!!!” and when multiple media statements are again pointed out to her, her defence is “well that’s not clear enough for me.”
The only reasonable conclusion for anyone to draw after this amount of time and a complete refusal to back up her statements is that Jenny is – and I’m so not ashamed to “resort to obscenties” – a fucking liar.
The only reasonable conclusion for anyone to draw after this amount of time and a complete refusal to back up her statements is that Jenny is – and I’m so not ashamed to “resort to obscenties” – a fucking liar.
Funny that you should mention Rob Gilchrist again Lynn. I had been thinking of this despicable individual since you tried to compare him to me in a nasty piece of character assassination.
That was an outright lie and made me kind of annoyed, especially as it was part of the kind of rethorical accusorial waffle that seems to be all that she can maintain these days.
Sure I compared her to Gilchrist because the previous comment from Murray Olsen responding to one from Pascal’s bookie was about cops and police spies acting like her in movements. But my comment was hardly comparing her to Rob Gilchrist because I think that she is mostly just a bit of a extremist nutter. Unfortunately Rob never acted like that or he’d have never have had as much penetration into a variety of movements as he did.
My disagreement with Pascal’s bookie was that you had to always be wary of any extremist credulous fools who couldn’t credibly explain how they get from their ideological position to actually being able to implement some of it. You don’t need to use the “cop” to think that people acting that way are dangerous to the movement and to those around them.
This was rather signalled by my first paragraph quoting Murray
..you have just made one of the most stupid and cowardly statements that it’s possible for an activist to make.
Wrong approach. Treat any activist going over the top with due caution and suspicion.
Basically like you, I just call people I consider to be misguided, unthinking, fools, idiots or liars just that with some reasons why. This allows others to make up their own minds.
Hell with QoT, I’ve even be known to do milder forms of it to her (and her to me – but of course i was *right* 😉 ). But I just disagree and I’m usually quite willing to explain why. It usually provokes some interesting discussion and much of the time falls into “agree to disagree”.
But Jenny these days mostly just accuses people who disagree with her of being some kind of traitor as she asks rhetorical questions and in my case lies about what I have previously said. Not a behaviour that I’m particularly tolerant on. And it is a pity that she doesn’t seem to have enough perspective to understand that people disagreeing with her is a good thing. It is when they don’t bother then she has lost her argument and audience.
I tend to take accusations of being police or government agents personally and seriously. I was accused of being an SIS agent back in the 80s, before I understood the dynamic of much of the left and that this has been a historical tactic of the 3rd International since at least 1926. It has been suggested here, by travellerev, that I could be a government agent, basically on the grounds that I was an admin of a Facebook page aimed against John Key and banned people who couldn’t get past the WTC, the Illuminati, and cut and pastes from Alex Jones sites. There is basically no reasonable defence against it, which is why I am so careful and make sure I have a hell of a lot of evidence before I would even raise such an issue.
For the record, Jenny has never rung any of my bells in this area. She comes across as more of an unreasoning fundamentalist who, even if she does have something worthwhile to say, says it in such a manner that she loses any potential audience pretty quickly.
By the standards of many here, I am undoubtedly an extreme Marxist, but I do my best to address people somewhere near the level they can identify with. My being right on any particular issue is actually not that important to me. Any latent ability I have to help people think outside their comfort zones is far more important. By the nature of this blog, we are potential leaders, not followers. We have a duty to check supposedly factual material when we post it, and I feel I have a duty to treat fellow contributors with respect until they prove to my satisfaction that they deserve otherwise. We also have a duty to challenge what we consider misinformation and diversion. I think Jenny and Penny Worth both act to divert issues, mainly via the style they use.
As always, I never claim infallibility in my politics, and not even always in my Physics, but I like to think that I can defend my positions without personal attacks. However, I am not above retaliating with a dose of passion when something is directed against me personality.
As far as the mechanics of this blog is concerned, they are not decided by me. If I object too strongly, I can always leave. Free speech to me on this blog means you don’t charge me to post, as long as I stay within the guidelines. If I ever set up my own blog, I would probably take a similar approach to my contributors, even though I doubt I’d have to take my socks off to count them.
PS The closest to my views are expressed by Red Rattler, although we use quite different styles of expression.
“I think you’re being incredibly charitable towards Jenny.”
Perhaps, but in truth, no more so than to most others.
Doesn’t mean I don’t see or feel your pain where other posters are concerned. Interestingly, just this week I’ve been guilted for not remembering commentators are real people and this isn’t just a blog, but a serious blog for the big boys and girls.
I should harden the fu*k up and just get on with it 😆
“I think Jenny is passionate about her cause and far less rude, abrasive, insulting and retarded as some commenters are in stating their positions.”
True, but most commenters are less rude than shes is. And it’s not rudeness, abrasiveness etc that is the problem with Jenny. It’s her tr0lling. Tr0lling isn’t even the right word, because I don’t think she does it intentionally. She just garners herself alot of negative attention because of how she posts and how she consequently behaves..
“I don’t see what she posts as a problem. Like anything (or anyone’s opinions) it can be ignored or dismissed without rancour or resorting to obscenities that make point scoring a hollow gesture.”
It’s true that I can ignore her. But why should I have to ignore the huge number of other people that stop commenting on other things in order to respond to her ‘inaccuracies’ and flamming? It’s the long threads of blah fucking blah that annoy me.
A report commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of 20 developing countries threatened by climate change was released to the media in September 2012. The report concluded that:
More than 100 million people will die…
The causes of this mega-death were listed as:
….five million deaths occur each year from air pollution, hunger and disease as a result of climate change and carbon-intensive economies, and that toll would likely rise to six million a year by 2030 if current patterns of fossil fuel use continue.
More than 90 percent of those deaths will occur in developing countries….
Reuters LONDON Sept 26, 2012
“A combined climate-carbon crisis is estimated to claim 100 million lives between now and the end of the next decade,” the report said.
Well, I’m glad others have responded to Jenny today, because I’m in no mood for her constant attacks – made worse by being based on unreliable info/judgments.
As one included in the authors attacked for not posting on her chosen issue, I am more than pissed off. Very tired tonight after a day’s work and a particularly busy and stressful week. And I suspect that’s the same for many TS authors.
Jenny only needs to look to see how few new posts there have been in the last couple of days – on any topic. Under this government there are many crucial issues that need highlighting. Most of us post mostly on issues we know most about. Science and the economy are not my strengths – unless it’s about how they are represented in the MSM. It takes a fair amount of research for me to comment on such things.
Also, the strength of this site is in the discussions. Jenny doesn’t really seem to come here to engage in discussion. She mostly spends her time here in attack mode. She most often sounds to me like she’s on a soap box: haranguing people and talking down to us, and not taking much notice of any responses to her attacks.
Then when she breaks some basic TS rules (like not telling authors what to write) and gets banned for it, she starts complaining that her views on climate change are being censored. No matter how many times the reason for the bans are explained, and the evidence presented, she just seems to choose not to understand.
Why should I bother to read any more of Jenny’s comments?
I think you are exceptionally patient Karol. I’m sorry you have to put up with this shit. Despite what I said above to the Al1en, it’s ulitmately not so onerous for me to ignore Jenny or get over what she is doing because my input here is fairly uncommitted. But if I had been putting in the effort you have and had that degree of committment, I’d be spitting tacks by now.
Jenny is a very nice girls name…all the Jennys I have ever known have been nice , sweet, charming girls….
From wiki:
Jennifer is a feminine given name, a Cornish form of Gwenhwyfar[1] adopted into English during the 20th century.
It may mean “white fairy” (from Proto-Celtic *Uindo-seibrā “white phantom”). Despite the name’s similarity to the Old English words jenefer, genefer and jinifer, all of which were variants of Juniper used to describe the juniper tree,[2] there is no evidence that it comes from these.
Other meanings of Jenny:
An amazing, beautiful, caring, creative girl. She is the epitome of a goddess, and anyone would kill to have her. She can do anything she sets her mind to, and she’s wonderful.
A girl who acts like a true sister. She may not be blood line relatives, but she will care for you no matter what, even when hated she will love you. She tends to fall for the wrong type, but in the end she will never give up on someone she loves. She’s socially active but naughty at times.
Wow Chooky that Cornish name is really something. But I’ve gone off Jenny after Jenny Shipley. While the name has sweet connotations too often the owner doesn’t.
Greywarbler & the Allen…..smirk….well parents choose lovely names for their baby girls ….but they dont always turn out as expected…they could grow up to be a troll(ess) or a horrible old witch with nasty duplicitous designs and spells.
….yes Jenny Shipley is a Jenny I hadn’t thought of….you are very realistic greywarbler …adds a whole new complexion to the name Jenny….
…Now Gwenhwyfar is a very romantic name …maybe a better name to write songs about or have sweet dreams upon……not too many Gwenhwyfars around (down under) to spoil the illusion….
Hi Chooky I had a look at name meanings. My Mum was Gwendolyn and great greats came from Cornwall so I guess that was a connection with the name. I noticed that Gwenhwyfar is the Cornish, Welsh, Celtic? form of Guinevere. Gwen means white, holy, blessed and there are St Gwens.
There is a rich source of names in the Celtic directory. Maybe people could look there for a more personal name than following pop stars or adopting country’s names, Hello New Zealand how are you today – Austria, Australia to Zambia? A bit weird.
The Allen
I had to check on your irrelevant remark about an oggie so went to the Urban Dictionary for total irrelevance. You do learn something every day – sometimes two things!
Mmmm Cornish pasties, and i liked that idea of savoury one end and sweet the other. How practical – a two course meal in one.
Thanks, weka. Well, it’s also that there are authors here that post very knowledgeably about things like climate change (and economic issues) but Jenny still goes on about authors ignoring the topic. And it seems completely unrealistic to expect those kind of posts to be prepared every few days…. or even every week. But, anyway, as I comments before, we had a couple of very good ones on climate change last weekend.
To many issues, too much destructive NAct actions, so much needing to be done to take a positive new direction, so little time to post on all of them.
“To many issues, too much destructive NAct actions, so much needing to be done to take a positive new direction, so little time to post on all of them.”
It’s also the case that climate change is a global issue. There are hundreds of excellent websites from around the world dealing with climate change, the science behind it, etc. There aren’t nearly so many websites on the internet dealing with general NZ politics. Why should this site focus solely or mainly on climate change, when there are plenty of other sites that do it already?
And didn’t he add something to the effect “yes Matthew we all know you’re running a campaign against the living wage”. I think Susan Wood did a wee squeal at that one.
Hooton was trying on his old trick… taking control of the conversation and interrupting and talking over the top of his rival. Rod Oram wasn’t having it. Love to see him up against Hooton on the Monday morning RNZ political slot. Unfortunately he’s not a political commentator by profession which is a pity.
Oram is always a good listen to, i missed Q@A but always have a good listen to rod when He is on RadioNZ,
He tends to give a far fuller answer to any question of economics being discussed, usually giving the right-wing view an airing as well while pointing out why He thinks that is wrong and offering the alternatives…
Thanks Curtis. And others who raised the Q&A item. The Right claim huge job losses if Living Wage was begun. (Would it follow that if the Min Wage was dropped to say $5 an hour there would be wholesale increase in Employment?)
If Firms paid a Living Wage then maybe there would be an exodus from those firms paying Min Wage and those firms would have to compete by lifting wages up from the Min to match the Living wage to hang on to their staff.
Shame that Hooton wasn’t picked up on two claims he made – that NZ has the highest min wage in $ terms and the fourth highest min wage to average wage ratio in the OECD.
I’ll assume those claims are true. And so the question that needs answering is, is there any merit in having the highest min wage in absolute and comparative terms if you also have disproportionately large numbers of people only earning the min wage and employers receiving tax payers money to ‘take the edge off’ widespread and systemic poverty?
what’s that tactic where they come up with bullshit with such frequency that taking the time to correct anything simply gets one swamped with more bullshit, but trying to keep up simply leaves them to say “but you agreed earlier” and their bullshit unchallenged?
“Gish Gallop”. That sounds about right for Mr Hooten.
And for that matter the famous Campbell interview with John Key. Breathless Key Gallop to run over the top of any tricky questions and a dig or two at the honesty/integrity of John Campbell. If the cap fits…..
Country Minimum wage Annual Standard Hourly Percent of
(US$)[2] workweek (US$) GDP per
Australia A$16.37 per hour 33355 38 16.88 0.471
Luxembourg €1,921.03 per month 29611 40 14.24 0.253
Monaco €1,593.67 per month 25744 39 12.69 15.8%[106]
France €1,430.22 per month 22003 35 12.09 0.534
Belgium €1,501.82 per month 23104 38 11.69 0.503
San Marino €8.96 per hour 22400 37.5 11.49 0.389
New Zealand NZ$13.75 per hour 23252 40 11.18 0.555
Ireland €1,461.85 per month 22490 39 11.09 0.428
Netherlands €1,477.80 per month 22735 40 10.93 0.461
United Kingdom £6.31 per hour 19896 38.2 10.02 0.472
Canada C$9.95 to C$11.00 per hour 22766 44[40] 9.95 0.415
Sorry Phillip, have to disagree with you on this one. Rod did make some good points which any sensible, fair minded person would have to agree with but Hooton just carried on as if nothing had happened and always got the last word in – people tend to remember the last word. He just kept repeating his lines and there is no answer to that if you don’t have a killer blow up your sleeve so to speak. Hooton also ignored what the Australian CTU president had to say with regards to the minimum wage etc.
I noticed also there was no mention of the latest Roy Morgan poll, and a dig at Cunliffe for the gaffe about the young property investor finding it harder to buy his ‘first home’.
Though. Hooton’s continued talking made him look pretty shallow and waffley along side Oram. I don’t know how the majority of viewers would see it though.
To ALL sick, disabled and with incapacity for work – on WINZ benefits: Download and read the PDF submission to be found via this link, and READ IT, please!
Please DO take NOTE of this, which I tried to point out the other night, but it appears to have not been noticed by most, it is EXTREMELY important:
This affects ALL sick and disabled on BENEFITS: THERE are major changes happening, yet again, and it is highly worrying stuff!!!
MSD’s Principal Health Advisor Dr Bratt and his team seem to be preparing new ways of outsourcing Work Capability Assessments, to be done by selected professionals!
This smells too much like the “stench” that has been attached to the involvement of Atos Healthcare as the private assessor for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in the UK.
I have not heard or read anything about MSD’s plans in this direction yet, but it sounds extremely worrying, hence the serious concerns also, the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) expresses.
Something is being prepared to involve people to make assessments for WINZ, who are not even proper medical experts.
I will try to keep you posted, but this is a must read, and must be taken very seriously!
Hi Xtasy
IMHO This government fairly obviously intends to duplicate at least partly, the fascist treatment of beneficiaries in the U$K. A cruel and heartless attitude which has no justification for NZ, It is not the Kiwi way, but this government is led by a neoliberal puppet called Key and his opportunist collaborator Bennett.
johnm – I agree, but the brainwashing, distraction and whole bureaucratic agenda is so “perfected” now, Goebbles could not have done a better job, they are getting away with it, while most are scared into submission, lulled into misinformation and indifference, or simply lied to to a degree, they do not dare to question anything anymore.
We have fascism at work here, right now in NZ, but most do not realise it, as they think, hey this cannot be fascism, as that is much worse. Those will wake up too late to what is going on, and too many woke up too late in the 1930s and 1940s in Germany too!
Spurs have significant historic links with the jewish community and the Hammers were a bastion against fascism in the thirties, supporters of the club having shielded East End jews against the Black Shirts and succesfully opposed them in the battle of Cable Street.
The last time the clubs met a moronic minority of WHU fans disgraced the club and its traditions by using anti-Semitic chants and hissing to mimic gas chambers. Hopefully there won’t be a repeat tomorrow.
Well said Muzza, I could write a book on my experiences as a kid in the fifties how we were treated and looked after by the “adults” mainly dockers when we went to watch Millwall play at New Cross. Visited the pie & eel shop first for a bit of lunch, then got the underground to New Cross. A great afternoon for an east end kid that did not cost much. Millwall was always in the third division,but what the fuck we went there for the football(soccer)
Don’t watch hardly any sport these days, fucking sick of hearing team “A” with this sponsored shirt going to “take out” team “B” with that sponsored shirt playing on this sponsored ground. brought to you by such & such product on the fucking minute /half minute. Sport is now a load of fucking crap.
Hope you are right but WHU seem to have a core of knuckle dragging diehards determined to have fun ‘cmon guvnor ….you awwright then my son …..just havin a larf’ like when they play millwall.
lets hope millwalls current issues put them in a good mood and they behave.
Fingers crossed, TC. The Hammers have a proud history of anti-racism (even their hooligan crew, the ICF, were multi-racial) and the club were rightly mortified at last year’s events. However, there has been significant growth in the influence of neo-nazis in the East End, which may be reflected in the stands. Not much that can be done about it, but life bans would be a start.
Yes and the financial and football gap developed recently between the 2 isn’t helping with Joe Lewis’s billions backing Spurs onto the champions league so he can allegedly cash out the asset.
Whereas the more frugal streetwise Gold/Sullivan saw a club in need of their backing at West Ham after cashing up at Birmingham City and rescued it from an Icelandic meltdown.
The growing divide between the haves and have nots feeds all sorts of discontent.
Something is being prepared to involve people to make assessments for WINZ, who are not even proper medical experts.
Well who would be surprised? It’s bit like Charter Schools beings set up with teachers who are not teachers by profession. It’s all part of a culture/mindset that looks down on those considered inferior stock (unemployed people and sickness beneficiaries head the list) and who they deem to be only worthy of second class assistance.
It’s also part of a campaign to employ ‘yes men/women’ who they know will come up with the answers the government are wanting enforced. And on that note:
I saw recently that John Key looks like he is about to do another ‘Ian Fletcher’ only this time it’s the SIS. A new position of SIS deputy C.E.O has been created. The successful applicant will be spending most of his/her time attached to the PM’s office, and will be liasing with the SIS etc. on matters raised by the PM. Watch this space. Another mate about to be appointed to an highly sensitive position?
In Slippery the PM’s language i would consider that ”being attached to the PM’s Office and liasing with the SIS etc on matters raised by the PM” to mean ”people He wants the SIS to open a file on”….
Maybe Key’s got a Cousins, Aunts, Brothers, Sisters, Best Mate’s, number mysteriously on his phone, And it was, just an Accident that he bumped into him in town the other day..
Its quite clever from the nats, the more cronies they appoint, and stuff they break up, merge, realign, refocus etc makes a new govts job a shed load tougher with installed obstacles and broken structures.
I just had a good idea for better and more satisfying education for youngsters. Spend time on helping them with the basics plus teach them a variety of things. And then make the goal to help them find what they like doing and give them the chance to do more of it. And use that as a carrot and reward to get them through their basic learning in a capable manner. To use a current expression, the child then ‘owns’ his or her education.
There was an interview on radionz today on a place called the Corelli school which encourages children with artistic interests and will take them from an early age, and they also do educational subjects to Cambridge level. Parents said it was working out well for children who had been too shy, hadn’t the chance to flourish at school.
Now that would be a good educational experiment. And one that would be done principally to suit the children’s interests. Unlike what I heard educational scientists discuss this week about Christchurch. Apparently money saving and efficiency was not the basis for many of the school closures and amalgamations there, it was a desire to experiment with new processes. The ground zero effect after the earthquakes was to be the genesis of a new approach to education with of course the object of ‘better educational performance’ or such.
The fact that the children actually needed security, continuity, accessibility without lengthy travel and so on, didn’t come into the thinking of these highly educated, highly paid educational policy queens. From their royal height they pushed around the children of the poor so they could watch to see which maze they progressed through best.
There are no doubt some kings in the mix, but it seems to me post-women’s lib has enabled a great bunch of university trained middle class girls to become professional women with little interest or empathy with wider society beyond their own sculpted lives and suburbs.
Ok for those of you who were querying about it, I have fixed a timeout on the cookies that was showing up in W3 Total Cache. It was setting the timeout on cookies to 7200 seconds (about 2 hours). I have changed that to 1512000 seconds (~30 days).
This should prevent you from having re-enter your cookie values more often than that.
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
“The Green Party launches clean energy proposals”
Good on Gareth Hughes.
The fight against climate change will be the defining struggle of this age.
It is great to see that the Green Party is talking about practical actions that, (hopefully) will turn us away from fossil fuels, to renewable energy use.
Distributed small scale electricity generation will be part of the mix.
But Gareth has gone even further, attacking the big fossil fuel suppliers at their source, and the government, who are conspiring with Solid Energy and the banks, to keep us hooked on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, with a huge taxpayer subsidy for our country’s biggest coal company.
With these above statements Gareth and the Greens are well on the way to setting up climate change as a major defining election issue for the Greens, sharply differentiating themselves from both Labour and National, who both as well as having broad agreement on other issues of climate change, both support the bailout of Solid Energy, reinforceng and gauranteeing our iron bound addiction to fossil fuels at a time when we should be taking every opportunity to loosen its grip.
Jenny – you were proven yesterday to be a liar regarding Labour’s position and yet you still repeat the same hyperbole ad nauseum today?
One rule I work with is “Never trust an extremist” because they are never honest. Ever. No matter how “correct” the facts behind your argument may be (such as climate change being a real man made thing that’s going to impact over the next 100 years) you are completely misrepresenting the political situation in NZ in order to meet your other preconceptions.
OK Zorr. Giving you the benefit of the doubt.What in your opinion is the Labour Party position on the multimillion dollar bailout of Solid Energy?
Does Labour support the Bailout?
Does Labour oppose the Bailout?
IMO Labour will likely support Solid Energy’s continued existence, and retention as a full SOE. Not only are there many NZ jobs at stake, but also extensive technical and engineering knowledge plus a vital strategic energy source for the nation.
What’s your proposed alternative Jenny?
I am glad you asked CV. Thank you.
I have been trying to popularise for some, time now the scandal that is Rauauru Ma Raki.
1033 permanent jobs “blown away” in the renewable sector. What is remarkable about this project is that it is but a short commute from Huntly where many coal miners are losing their jobs.
“Heartbreak for Huntly East miners”
All that is needed to restart this project and give all these laid off workers good jobs according to Wind Energy CEO Eric Pyle is the “right policy settings”, which I imagine would cost little in comparison to the current huge $100 million plus, (and more to come), bail out of Solid Energy.
The Nacts may cry crocodile tears about jobs being lost. But we know they don’t care for working people. The Bailout of Solid Energy is a blatant a case of Corporate Welfare as you can get. Nothing else. As Gareth Hughes says the government should “cut their losses”. What we should be asking CV is why we are covering the losses of the foreign owned Aussie banks?
None of these jobs exist. They were future “potential jobs”. You are proposing getting rid of higher paid jobs for jobs which do not exist yet, would take several years to reach a full payroll of staff, and likely pay much less than mining jobs.
Who knows. Probably so they don’t take possession of the company and firesale it.
Bottom line is that your religious crusade is all about you Jenny, and very little else.
Jenny, why don’t you go to the effort of reading their press releases. Or even to just ask them? Find the shadow minister..
Whining here about something that you can almost certainly just look up simply makes you look lazy
lprent – in my mind it is not laziness on her part but rather an admission that she is what I stated she is, an extremist. She is looking for evidence that supports her own initial conclusions and ignoring anything else that may *potentially* undermine that.
Jenny – I don’t really know what Labour’s position on the matter of Solid Energy is and, at the moment, I only really have the extra energy to continue being pissed off at National. I come to The Standard because the level of intelligent coverage here outstrips all other available sources but I keep seeing your screeds of outraged bullshit popping up everywhere and it rankles.
It’s difficult to argue with you on the “climate change is bad and we should be doing something about it” because I agree, climate change *is* bad and we *should* do something about it. When it comes to communicate about that *something* though you manage to go jump in to the deep end and shout a giant “fuck you” to anyone who isn’t willing to dive right in next to you. By doing so you alienate anyone who doesn’t share your personal belief and this is no way to build broad support for your position.
Hence why I felt the need this morning to call you on your extremist bullshit.
In my opinion, feel free to continue to post your extremist rhetoric here. It reminds me why I chose to escape association with similar people and why I will continue to.
I’d agree. But really she could be an extremist that looked things up rather her current habit of simply making things up. It has gotten to the point that whenever I read her comments then I treat it exactly like I would for some poor troll coming from Whaleoil or No Minister… I assume it is wrong or quoted completely out of context.
Her habit of usually not leaving links to those she is accusing reinforces that. It implies that she hasn’t used search either on this site or on google to actually find out anything about what she is talking about. As importantly it makes it harder for people to find out if she is sprouting crap or not.
Basically she acts like a modern-day Joseph Goebbels who in Nazi Germany had the role of making inflammatory and inaccurate memes as minister of propaganda. He also had the role of destroying the ability of people to check the veracity of those memes by destroying books that contradicted those memes published as books, pamphlets, speeches, etc…
There are some quite strong extremists (in my view) on this site. But you have to give them credibility because they usually leave links and reasoned argument. They also respond to people disagreeing with them rather than Jenny’s current passion for flying into boring rants and lying about what they said…
I like Gareth, and I vote Green, but he is a bit off about what this deal does. the banks won’t be too happy about this at all.
The shares they are getting do not pay dividends, and can only be sold back to the crown at the price they paid for them, when and if the crown ever wants to buy them.
Basically SE has had a lot of debt to the banks written off, 350M has been paid off by the crown, and the rest of the debt will be recovered if and when the crown buys back those shares.
The alternative is winding the company up. That doesn’t mean the mines close. It means a receiver tries to get as much value as possible out of SE’s assets, (that would be the mines and licenses to mine), as they can in order to pay back as much of the debt as they can.
In other words, the mines would be sold.
Yes, great to see the moves by the Green Party on Solar Power, what such Regulation and Legislation will allow anyone with a mind to to become a power supplier the legal framework which will allow them to do so and presumably be able to sell the power generated at much the same rates as the present Electricity Cartel does,
From what the Green Party are saying it seems likely that those wishing to install solar power arrays will be able to, instead of having to also install very expensive battery systems, feed the power they generate straight into the retail system making such a system far more streamlined than what has presently been achieved,
In a Green future i can well see a large industry being built up around household solar arrays where the home-owner could add solar panels to their own system as they have spare funds to do so and where eventually households doing so would be supplying much of the countries daytime electricity needs,
It doesn’t take much to imagine the average workers solar paneling generating power by day into the grid while they are busy at work and thus creating enough credit for those doing so to have basically the free use of electricity while they are at home via the credits earned,
What is needed is work on a standardized design of such solar power systems with work being put into the efficacy of producing the whole systems here in New Zealand, which along with the installation and maintanence of will create clean green sustainable employment…
Solar thermal is still the best use of sun power at this stage. I do hope that more focus is placed on that technology before long.
Yeah you may have a point, but, just for arguments sake, say an investment in Solar Thermal of a billion dollars generates X amount of power, this is owned either by Government or private companies, (with the threat of privatization if Government owned), and such electricity is then sold to the consumer at a profit,
Consider then IF the same billion dollars spent on household solar generation arrays on the roof of average homes produced the same X of power which is then sold by the householder via a binding agreement at a fair set price to the retailer, given that there is room on the average houses roof for one hell of an array of solar paneling it would not be inconceivable that the average house could generate and sell enough electricity during the day to make a households electricity usage all up basically free,
i am tho fascinated by the thought of having some very big magnifying glasses able to track around with the sun being able to direct beans of light to ‘a boiler’, thus creating steam and thus creating usable energy in a number of forms…
Lolz, BeaMs of light, only i know about the magic ‘beans of light’ and i aint telling you all…
I reckon household solar thermal needs to be considered. For most house holds a power saving of 25%-40% would be very realistic.
Ah here i was thinking you was thinking on large scale solar thermal, your thinking of solar heating of the hot water needs of a house only???…
I wouldn’t preclude larger scale thermal plants, but I think that distributed installations for households, motels, hotels, schools, hospitals etc. would be (and in fact are) very workable.
For a typical household, a power bill saving of $50-$60 month would be quite significant.
Solar energy is so mainstream now..
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/store/thurrock/solar_panels
Passive solar heating of houses is also possible reducing the need for heaters in winter.
And as expected very little costing information or any indication of how that energy is to be generated.
Hydro, sun, wind; the costs are very well understood as these are all established energy technologies in commercial use in NZ.
Yesterday I praised Gareth Hughes and the Green Party for coming out and and strongly condemning the bailout of Solid Energy.
I asked why, almost a week later, there had been no post on The Standard by any author about the criminal and immoral Bailout of Solid Energy. karol kindly took the time to reply saying that, they were working on it.
I also asked yesterday why Labour had not commented on the bail out.
Qot pointed out to me something that I had missed, that Clayton Cosgrove for the Labour Party had actually come out in support of the bailout. With a cryptic comment that “the deal announced on Tuesday was too little too late.”
So I can understand why the mysterious Standard poster is haveing trouble trying to finish their agonised philosophical wrestling over their “draft Solid Energy post”, before most likely, finally deciding to leave it in the too hard basket.
[lprent: good thing that karol saw it before me. I’d have simply banned you for a week for trying to tell us how we should be running the site. ]
Am I the only reader wondering how much carbon burning martyrs contribute to the atmosphere?
I dunno. But if you could harness energy from Jenny’s switching back and forth about who is selling out the planet, the problem could well be solved.
Almost certainly less than 15kg of carbon released, depending on how it is done. Sadly, I’ve just seen a notice that the man who self immolated in the US National Mall in Washington DC has died. Another milestone in the match of the plutocrats.
Jenny totally untrue.
The solid energy post is a post that I am working on but I need to understand the intricacies of the recent announcements and get these right before I finish it.
You should also understand that the Standard bloggers are a disparate diffuse group of people who have things like jobs and lives. Posts and contributions are a totally voluntary thing. For me I am also in the middle of a local body election campaign so posts will be made
And your original comment was that Labour has stayed silent on the issue and as shown by QoT you are totally incorrect.
But you must admit mj that there is some confusion around where Labour sit on this issue, as evidenced by Zorr at at 9:33 am.
Hopefully you will be able to clear this up for us.
[lprent: Get off your lazy bigoted and obviously stupid arse and look it up. FFS it isn’t hard – read the press releases, they stream in the Feeds every day.
If you *ever* use this type of line again on either Labour, the Greens or even National without doing some research yourself.
To encourage you in this endeavour, I will take a page out of your book and assume you are guilty unless it is clear in the first paragraph that you have searched. And I will impose a 12 week ban if you do not show evidence of having looked for what you are asking for from political parties before accusing them. Everyone is welcome to point out what she missed… ]
You must admit that you jump straight to conclusions, making declarative statements as fact, when they are not.
The question tho Jenny, is upon seeing the lack of Post’s by the Standards authors why did you not put in a ‘Guest Post’ if you were so concerned,
Yesterday’s little effort from you seemed to contain an attack upon the author’s for not having posted on your particular concern of the moment…
Your failure to just automatically make shit up and leap to extreme conclusions just shows you don’t really care about climate change 😉
So Jenny, the Labour Party did comment on the Solid Energy bailout, instead of posting even more bullshit here, an ”i was wrong with my assertion yesterday” would have been sufficient,
Perhaps you are a masochist and feel that when you do, after what seems huge effort on your part, get a spanking, you spend your time in purgatory nurturing along your view of having been ‘the victim’…
Posted yesterday… ” *Yes I did miss this. But that is not the same as being a “fucking liar” ”
I think Jenny is passionate about her cause and far less rude, abrasive, insulting and retarded as some commenters are in stating their positions.
I don’t see what she posts as a problem. Like anything (or anyone’s opinions) it can be ignored or dismissed without rancour or resorting to obscenities that make point scoring a hollow gesture.
I think you’re being incredibly charitable towards Jenny. She has had opportunity after opportunity to check her shit.
When she hated the Greens, it was daily postings on how “the Greens have been silent!!!!” and when she had multiple blog posts and press releases pointed out to her, her defence was “oh, well it’s not on the front page of their website”.
Now she hates Labour, so it’s daily postings on how “Labour have been silent!!!!!” and when multiple media statements are again pointed out to her, her defence is “well that’s not clear enough for me.”
The only reasonable conclusion for anyone to draw after this amount of time and a complete refusal to back up her statements is that Jenny is – and I’m so not ashamed to “resort to obscenties” – a fucking liar.
Amen to that. She said this:-
That was an outright lie and made me kind of annoyed, especially as it was part of the kind of rethorical accusorial waffle that seems to be all that she can maintain these days.
Sure I compared her to Gilchrist because the previous comment from Murray Olsen responding to one from Pascal’s bookie was about cops and police spies acting like her in movements. But my comment was hardly comparing her to Rob Gilchrist because I think that she is mostly just a bit of a extremist nutter. Unfortunately Rob never acted like that or he’d have never have had as much penetration into a variety of movements as he did.
My disagreement with Pascal’s bookie was that you had to always be wary of any extremist credulous fools who couldn’t credibly explain how they get from their ideological position to actually being able to implement some of it. You don’t need to use the “cop” to think that people acting that way are dangerous to the movement and to those around them.
This was rather signalled by my first paragraph quoting Murray
Basically like you, I just call people I consider to be misguided, unthinking, fools, idiots or liars just that with some reasons why. This allows others to make up their own minds.
Hell with QoT, I’ve even be known to do milder forms of it to her (and her to me – but of course i was *right* 😉 ). But I just disagree and I’m usually quite willing to explain why. It usually provokes some interesting discussion and much of the time falls into “agree to disagree”.
But Jenny these days mostly just accuses people who disagree with her of being some kind of traitor as she asks rhetorical questions and in my case lies about what I have previously said. Not a behaviour that I’m particularly tolerant on. And it is a pity that she doesn’t seem to have enough perspective to understand that people disagreeing with her is a good thing. It is when they don’t bother then she has lost her argument and audience.
Peace Out!
I tend to take accusations of being police or government agents personally and seriously. I was accused of being an SIS agent back in the 80s, before I understood the dynamic of much of the left and that this has been a historical tactic of the 3rd International since at least 1926. It has been suggested here, by travellerev, that I could be a government agent, basically on the grounds that I was an admin of a Facebook page aimed against John Key and banned people who couldn’t get past the WTC, the Illuminati, and cut and pastes from Alex Jones sites. There is basically no reasonable defence against it, which is why I am so careful and make sure I have a hell of a lot of evidence before I would even raise such an issue.
For the record, Jenny has never rung any of my bells in this area. She comes across as more of an unreasoning fundamentalist who, even if she does have something worthwhile to say, says it in such a manner that she loses any potential audience pretty quickly.
By the standards of many here, I am undoubtedly an extreme Marxist, but I do my best to address people somewhere near the level they can identify with. My being right on any particular issue is actually not that important to me. Any latent ability I have to help people think outside their comfort zones is far more important. By the nature of this blog, we are potential leaders, not followers. We have a duty to check supposedly factual material when we post it, and I feel I have a duty to treat fellow contributors with respect until they prove to my satisfaction that they deserve otherwise. We also have a duty to challenge what we consider misinformation and diversion. I think Jenny and Penny Worth both act to divert issues, mainly via the style they use.
As always, I never claim infallibility in my politics, and not even always in my Physics, but I like to think that I can defend my positions without personal attacks. However, I am not above retaliating with a dose of passion when something is directed against me personality.
As far as the mechanics of this blog is concerned, they are not decided by me. If I object too strongly, I can always leave. Free speech to me on this blog means you don’t charge me to post, as long as I stay within the guidelines. If I ever set up my own blog, I would probably take a similar approach to my contributors, even though I doubt I’d have to take my socks off to count them.
PS The closest to my views are expressed by Red Rattler, although we use quite different styles of expression.
“I think you’re being incredibly charitable towards Jenny.”
Perhaps, but in truth, no more so than to most others.
Doesn’t mean I don’t see or feel your pain where other posters are concerned. Interestingly, just this week I’ve been guilted for not remembering commentators are real people and this isn’t just a blog, but a serious blog for the big boys and girls.
I should harden the fu*k up and just get on with it 😆
Yep.
either love and let fly or Live and Let Die 😎
“I think Jenny is passionate about her cause and far less rude, abrasive, insulting and retarded as some commenters are in stating their positions.”
True, but most commenters are less rude than shes is. And it’s not rudeness, abrasiveness etc that is the problem with Jenny. It’s her tr0lling. Tr0lling isn’t even the right word, because I don’t think she does it intentionally. She just garners herself alot of negative attention because of how she posts and how she consequently behaves..
“I don’t see what she posts as a problem. Like anything (or anyone’s opinions) it can be ignored or dismissed without rancour or resorting to obscenities that make point scoring a hollow gesture.”
It’s true that I can ignore her. But why should I have to ignore the huge number of other people that stop commenting on other things in order to respond to her ‘inaccuracies’ and flamming? It’s the long threads of blah fucking blah that annoy me.
I was going to ignore my own post as the ultimate example of practice what I preach, but I couldn’t do it.
At least I only write short posts and piss off a handful at a time. 🙂
The Allen
You are exemplary and a shining example to us all. I write long posts sometimes but not always on the same subject. 😉
“You are exemplary and a shining example to us all”
:halo: 😆
A Voodoo Transistor
The Fuzz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnEucQYf5bg
read an online article; some chap from a reputable kiwi band is being swamped with orders for his hand-crafted fuzz boxes and effect pedals.
A lot of heat. Not much light.
Can we discuss the substantive issues now?
Is National’s bail out of Solid Energy Corporate Welfare, which only really benefits the foreign owned Aussie banks?
Is Gareth Hughes right in saying that the government should “cut their losses”
Is the Solid Energy bailout a breach of the letter and intent of the Majuro Declaration to which we are a signatory?
Would wind power projects like Rauauru Ma Raki employ as many, or more workers than the coal industry?
Is James Hansen correct when he says, “If we can’t stop coal it is all over for climate”?
Does the Labour Party support, or oppose the bailout of Solid Energy?
The voting public need to know
The stakes couldn’t be higher
The figures are chilling
A report commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of 20 developing countries threatened by climate change was released to the media in September 2012. The report concluded that:
More than 100 million people will die…
The causes of this mega-death were listed as:
Millions of human beings will be sentenced to miserable lives and early deaths by our actions and inaction. Today.
We have to get it right.
Hopefully mickysavage will be able to clarify some of these issues in his post on the Bailout, when it comes out.
Hopefully you can respect the fact that you’ve been banned.
Your link says nothing of the sort. Go and read it again carefully.
You’re right. I misread it, and I apologise.
pity though
edit – whoops, I spake too soon 🙂
Well, I’m glad others have responded to Jenny today, because I’m in no mood for her constant attacks – made worse by being based on unreliable info/judgments.
As one included in the authors attacked for not posting on her chosen issue, I am more than pissed off. Very tired tonight after a day’s work and a particularly busy and stressful week. And I suspect that’s the same for many TS authors.
Jenny only needs to look to see how few new posts there have been in the last couple of days – on any topic. Under this government there are many crucial issues that need highlighting. Most of us post mostly on issues we know most about. Science and the economy are not my strengths – unless it’s about how they are represented in the MSM. It takes a fair amount of research for me to comment on such things.
Also, the strength of this site is in the discussions. Jenny doesn’t really seem to come here to engage in discussion. She mostly spends her time here in attack mode. She most often sounds to me like she’s on a soap box: haranguing people and talking down to us, and not taking much notice of any responses to her attacks.
Then when she breaks some basic TS rules (like not telling authors what to write) and gets banned for it, she starts complaining that her views on climate change are being censored. No matter how many times the reason for the bans are explained, and the evidence presented, she just seems to choose not to understand.
Why should I bother to read any more of Jenny’s comments?
It is really hard to know what Lynn is trying to do here.
Is Lynn trying to give me more notoriety than I have already, so that more people read me, is he secretly trying to help me, I am really not sure.
I think you are exceptionally patient Karol. I’m sorry you have to put up with this shit. Despite what I said above to the Al1en, it’s ulitmately not so onerous for me to ignore Jenny or get over what she is doing because my input here is fairly uncommitted. But if I had been putting in the effort you have and had that degree of committment, I’d be spitting tacks by now.
Jenny is a very nice girls name…all the Jennys I have ever known have been nice , sweet, charming girls….
From wiki:
Jennifer is a feminine given name, a Cornish form of Gwenhwyfar[1] adopted into English during the 20th century.
It may mean “white fairy” (from Proto-Celtic *Uindo-seibrā “white phantom”). Despite the name’s similarity to the Old English words jenefer, genefer and jinifer, all of which were variants of Juniper used to describe the juniper tree,[2] there is no evidence that it comes from these.
Other meanings of Jenny:
An amazing, beautiful, caring, creative girl. She is the epitome of a goddess, and anyone would kill to have her. She can do anything she sets her mind to, and she’s wonderful.
A girl who acts like a true sister. She may not be blood line relatives, but she will care for you no matter what, even when hated she will love you. She tends to fall for the wrong type, but in the end she will never give up on someone she loves. She’s socially active but naughty at times.
Wow Chooky that Cornish name is really something. But I’ve gone off Jenny after Jenny Shipley. While the name has sweet connotations too often the owner doesn’t.
All that Cornish talk, now I fancy an oggie.
Greywarbler & the Allen…..smirk….well parents choose lovely names for their baby girls ….but they dont always turn out as expected…they could grow up to be a troll(ess) or a horrible old witch with nasty duplicitous designs and spells.
….yes Jenny Shipley is a Jenny I hadn’t thought of….you are very realistic greywarbler …adds a whole new complexion to the name Jenny….
…Now Gwenhwyfar is a very romantic name …maybe a better name to write songs about or have sweet dreams upon……not too many Gwenhwyfars around (down under) to spoil the illusion….
Hi Chooky I had a look at name meanings. My Mum was Gwendolyn and great greats came from Cornwall so I guess that was a connection with the name. I noticed that Gwenhwyfar is the Cornish, Welsh, Celtic? form of Guinevere. Gwen means white, holy, blessed and there are St Gwens.
There is a rich source of names in the Celtic directory. Maybe people could look there for a more personal name than following pop stars or adopting country’s names, Hello New Zealand how are you today – Austria, Australia to Zambia? A bit weird.
@greywarbler….I love Welsh names and the sound of the language …not that I understand it…Gwendolyn is a great name!
The Allen
I had to check on your irrelevant remark about an oggie so went to the Urban Dictionary for total irrelevance. You do learn something every day – sometimes two things!
Mmmm Cornish pasties, and i liked that idea of savoury one end and sweet the other. How practical – a two course meal in one.
Thanks, weka. Well, it’s also that there are authors here that post very knowledgeably about things like climate change (and economic issues) but Jenny still goes on about authors ignoring the topic. And it seems completely unrealistic to expect those kind of posts to be prepared every few days…. or even every week. But, anyway, as I comments before, we had a couple of very good ones on climate change last weekend.
To many issues, too much destructive NAct actions, so much needing to be done to take a positive new direction, so little time to post on all of them.
“To many issues, too much destructive NAct actions, so much needing to be done to take a positive new direction, so little time to post on all of them.”
It’s also the case that climate change is a global issue. There are hundreds of excellent websites from around the world dealing with climate change, the science behind it, etc. There aren’t nearly so many websites on the internet dealing with general NZ politics. Why should this site focus solely or mainly on climate change, when there are plenty of other sites that do it already?
matthew hooten is getting his arse kicked all over the Q & A studio..by rod oram..on the topic of the living-wage..
..i am trying to write a review..but can’t stop laughing..
..it is a must-watch..
.and a fracturing of a long-pushed rightwing myth to justify paying workers shit-wages..
..bloody brilliant..!
..philip ure..
I did love the bit where Rod Oram Said “Matthew, listen for a moment, because you are not very good at that”
And didn’t he add something to the effect “yes Matthew we all know you’re running a campaign against the living wage”. I think Susan Wood did a wee squeal at that one.
Hooton was trying on his old trick… taking control of the conversation and interrupting and talking over the top of his rival. Rod Oram wasn’t having it. Love to see him up against Hooton on the Monday morning RNZ political slot. Unfortunately he’s not a political commentator by profession which is a pity.
Oram is always a good listen to, i missed Q@A but always have a good listen to rod when He is on RadioNZ,
He tends to give a far fuller answer to any question of economics being discussed, usually giving the right-wing view an airing as well while pointing out why He thinks that is wrong and offering the alternatives…
It’ll be there on demand, or You tube, Bad12.
Heres the link here
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/panel-living-wage-video-5600782
Thanks Curtis. And others who raised the Q&A item. The Right claim huge job losses if Living Wage was begun. (Would it follow that if the Min Wage was dropped to say $5 an hour there would be wholesale increase in Employment?)
If Firms paid a Living Wage then maybe there would be an exodus from those firms paying Min Wage and those firms would have to compete by lifting wages up from the Min to match the Living wage to hang on to their staff.
No but there would be a wholesale increase in poverty and the fortunes of the parasites would increase.
Shame that Hooton wasn’t picked up on two claims he made – that NZ has the highest min wage in $ terms and the fourth highest min wage to average wage ratio in the OECD.
I’ll assume those claims are true. And so the question that needs answering is, is there any merit in having the highest min wage in absolute and comparative terms if you also have disproportionately large numbers of people only earning the min wage and employers receiving tax payers money to ‘take the edge off’ widespread and systemic poverty?
Yeah, nah.
It appears at least one of those claims isn’t true.
Big surprise. Hooten’s a professional liar.
Well, yeah – it doesn’t surprise me that he was lying. But even his lies (accepted as accurate) could have been turned against him.
Anyways….
what’s that tactic where they come up with bullshit with such frequency that taking the time to correct anything simply gets one swamped with more bullshit, but trying to keep up simply leaves them to say “but you agreed earlier” and their bullshit unchallenged?
Ah – the Gish Gallop sounds like it.
Sounds like hootles tries to do that when he’s on air.
“Gish Gallop”. That sounds about right for Mr Hooten.
And for that matter the famous Campbell interview with John Key. Breathless Key Gallop to run over the top of any tricky questions and a dig or two at the honesty/integrity of John Campbell. If the cap fits…..
Country Minimum wage Annual Standard Hourly Percent of
(US$)[2] workweek (US$) GDP per
Australia A$16.37 per hour 33355 38 16.88 0.471
Luxembourg €1,921.03 per month 29611 40 14.24 0.253
Monaco €1,593.67 per month 25744 39 12.69 15.8%[106]
France €1,430.22 per month 22003 35 12.09 0.534
Belgium €1,501.82 per month 23104 38 11.69 0.503
San Marino €8.96 per hour 22400 37.5 11.49 0.389
New Zealand NZ$13.75 per hour 23252 40 11.18 0.555
Ireland €1,461.85 per month 22490 39 11.09 0.428
Netherlands €1,477.80 per month 22735 40 10.93 0.461
United Kingdom £6.31 per hour 19896 38.2 10.02 0.472
Canada C$9.95 to C$11.00 per hour 22766 44[40] 9.95 0.415
Sorry Phillip, have to disagree with you on this one. Rod did make some good points which any sensible, fair minded person would have to agree with but Hooton just carried on as if nothing had happened and always got the last word in – people tend to remember the last word. He just kept repeating his lines and there is no answer to that if you don’t have a killer blow up your sleeve so to speak. Hooton also ignored what the Australian CTU president had to say with regards to the minimum wage etc.
I noticed also there was no mention of the latest Roy Morgan poll, and a dig at Cunliffe for the gaffe about the young property investor finding it harder to buy his ‘first home’.
Though. Hooton’s continued talking made him look pretty shallow and waffley along side Oram. I don’t know how the majority of viewers would see it though.
Saw it as you did Karol. Interesting how virtually overnight a seeming asset can turn into a liability. Thank you Matthew thank you RNZ.
Hopefully the same effect will settle in for that emerging world leader global mover and shaker “Nooo Zeeerllind Praamm Ministirrr Jaaahn Keee”.
To ALL sick, disabled and with incapacity for work – on WINZ benefits: Download and read the PDF submission to be found via this link, and READ IT, please!
Please DO take NOTE of this, which I tried to point out the other night, but it appears to have not been noticed by most, it is EXTREMELY important:
This affects ALL sick and disabled on BENEFITS: THERE are major changes happening, yet again, and it is highly worrying stuff!!!
http://www.nzma.org.nz/sites/all/files/sub-WorkAbilityAssessments-Providers.pdf
MSD’s Principal Health Advisor Dr Bratt and his team seem to be preparing new ways of outsourcing Work Capability Assessments, to be done by selected professionals!
This smells too much like the “stench” that has been attached to the involvement of Atos Healthcare as the private assessor for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in the UK.
I have not heard or read anything about MSD’s plans in this direction yet, but it sounds extremely worrying, hence the serious concerns also, the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) expresses.
Something is being prepared to involve people to make assessments for WINZ, who are not even proper medical experts.
I will try to keep you posted, but this is a must read, and must be taken very seriously!
Hi Xtasy
IMHO This government fairly obviously intends to duplicate at least partly, the fascist treatment of beneficiaries in the U$K. A cruel and heartless attitude which has no justification for NZ, It is not the Kiwi way, but this government is led by a neoliberal puppet called Key and his opportunist collaborator Bennett.
johnm – I agree, but the brainwashing, distraction and whole bureaucratic agenda is so “perfected” now, Goebbles could not have done a better job, they are getting away with it, while most are scared into submission, lulled into misinformation and indifference, or simply lied to to a degree, they do not dare to question anything anymore.
We have fascism at work here, right now in NZ, but most do not realise it, as they think, hey this cannot be fascism, as that is much worse. Those will wake up too late to what is going on, and too many woke up too late in the 1930s and 1940s in Germany too!
Quite a sobering interview with West Ham United’s chairman David Gold ahead of the game against Spurs tomorrow. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/05/west-ham-david-gold-fans-tottenham-hotspur
Spurs have significant historic links with the jewish community and the Hammers were a bastion against fascism in the thirties, supporters of the club having shielded East End jews against the Black Shirts and succesfully opposed them in the battle of Cable Street.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AQDOjQGZuA
The last time the clubs met a moronic minority of WHU fans disgraced the club and its traditions by using anti-Semitic chants and hissing to mimic gas chambers. Hopefully there won’t be a repeat tomorrow.
And yet the Yid Army, have been threatened with possible arrest by the police, should they decide to continue using that particular expression!
Never underestimate the gutter level of football as an entity, and its support base!
The “game” was finished long ago, the day that FIFA/UEFA corrupted itself, which it is still doing on a daily basis, re Brazil/Qatar!
Watching “football men” like Platini rent their souls to the establishment, is all that is necessary to know about Big
BusinessSport!The average football fan clings to the entertainment factor, despite the fact their continued funding, ensures the death of their, beautiful game!
No argument from me, muz (tho I do think Spurs’ fan’s use of Yid is problematic). Ian Holloway is the Voice of Reason: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utb-coxjkK8
Well said Muzza, I could write a book on my experiences as a kid in the fifties how we were treated and looked after by the “adults” mainly dockers when we went to watch Millwall play at New Cross. Visited the pie & eel shop first for a bit of lunch, then got the underground to New Cross. A great afternoon for an east end kid that did not cost much. Millwall was always in the third division,but what the fuck we went there for the football(soccer)
Don’t watch hardly any sport these days, fucking sick of hearing team “A” with this sponsored shirt going to “take out” team “B” with that sponsored shirt playing on this sponsored ground. brought to you by such & such product on the fucking minute /half minute. Sport is now a load of fucking crap.
Hope you are right but WHU seem to have a core of knuckle dragging diehards determined to have fun ‘cmon guvnor ….you awwright then my son …..just havin a larf’ like when they play millwall.
lets hope millwalls current issues put them in a good mood and they behave.
Fingers crossed, TC. The Hammers have a proud history of anti-racism (even their hooligan crew, the ICF, were multi-racial) and the club were rightly mortified at last year’s events. However, there has been significant growth in the influence of neo-nazis in the East End, which may be reflected in the stands. Not much that can be done about it, but life bans would be a start.
There is also a polarising debate about whether Spur’s fans positive embracing of the ‘Y’ word is encouraging negative use among fans of other clubs: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/17/david-cameron-yid-really-is-race-hate-word
Yes and the financial and football gap developed recently between the 2 isn’t helping with Joe Lewis’s billions backing Spurs onto the champions league so he can allegedly cash out the asset.
Whereas the more frugal streetwise Gold/Sullivan saw a club in need of their backing at West Ham after cashing up at Birmingham City and rescued it from an Icelandic meltdown.
The growing divide between the haves and have nots feeds all sorts of discontent.
Well who would be surprised? It’s bit like Charter Schools beings set up with teachers who are not teachers by profession. It’s all part of a culture/mindset that looks down on those considered inferior stock (unemployed people and sickness beneficiaries head the list) and who they deem to be only worthy of second class assistance.
It’s also part of a campaign to employ ‘yes men/women’ who they know will come up with the answers the government are wanting enforced. And on that note:
I saw recently that John Key looks like he is about to do another ‘Ian Fletcher’ only this time it’s the SIS. A new position of SIS deputy C.E.O has been created. The successful applicant will be spending most of his/her time attached to the PM’s office, and will be liasing with the SIS etc. on matters raised by the PM. Watch this space. Another mate about to be appointed to an highly sensitive position?
In Slippery the PM’s language i would consider that ”being attached to the PM’s Office and liasing with the SIS etc on matters raised by the PM” to mean ”people He wants the SIS to open a file on”….
Here’s the link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11134454
This link does not state that the ‘spy master’ is based in the PM’s office, but I thought I read something, somewhere… along those lines.
Maybe Key’s got a Cousins, Aunts, Brothers, Sisters, Best Mate’s, number mysteriously on his phone, And it was, just an Accident that he bumped into him in town the other day..
Its quite clever from the nats, the more cronies they appoint, and stuff they break up, merge, realign, refocus etc makes a new govts job a shed load tougher with installed obstacles and broken structures.
That is why such **appointees** must be sacked…..
NEF (New Economics Foundation) in the UK release their latest (62 page) report: Distant Neighbours – Poverty and Inequality in Islington.
Might be good for a Sunday read, especially if you need something to counteract today’s opinion columns in the Herald.
I just had a good idea for better and more satisfying education for youngsters. Spend time on helping them with the basics plus teach them a variety of things. And then make the goal to help them find what they like doing and give them the chance to do more of it. And use that as a carrot and reward to get them through their basic learning in a capable manner. To use a current expression, the child then ‘owns’ his or her education.
There was an interview on radionz today on a place called the Corelli school which encourages children with artistic interests and will take them from an early age, and they also do educational subjects to Cambridge level. Parents said it was working out well for children who had been too shy, hadn’t the chance to flourish at school.
Now that would be a good educational experiment. And one that would be done principally to suit the children’s interests. Unlike what I heard educational scientists discuss this week about Christchurch. Apparently money saving and efficiency was not the basis for many of the school closures and amalgamations there, it was a desire to experiment with new processes. The ground zero effect after the earthquakes was to be the genesis of a new approach to education with of course the object of ‘better educational performance’ or such.
The fact that the children actually needed security, continuity, accessibility without lengthy travel and so on, didn’t come into the thinking of these highly educated, highly paid educational policy queens. From their royal height they pushed around the children of the poor so they could watch to see which maze they progressed through best.
There are no doubt some kings in the mix, but it seems to me post-women’s lib has enabled a great bunch of university trained middle class girls to become professional women with little interest or empathy with wider society beyond their own sculpted lives and suburbs.
Ok for those of you who were querying about it, I have fixed a timeout on the cookies that was showing up in W3 Total Cache. It was setting the timeout on cookies to 7200 seconds (about 2 hours). I have changed that to 1512000 seconds (~30 days).
This should prevent you from having re-enter your cookie values more often than that.
And drat it was on my side after all.
An honest sysop 🙂
🙂
Much appreciated Lynn, cheers.
cheers LP it’s been a right pain, thanks for sorting it.
I find the standard on android pretty unworkable now, no ‘reply’ or ‘edit’….PC/iPad sweet as.
While we’re on the subject of the user experience can I get the desktop/mobile theme switch at the top please
Get a mac or an iPhone 😀