“As I write, with over 75% of all yesterday’s English local election results in, Labour has a net gain of 55 councillors compared to the high water mark of the 2014 result in these wards, while the Tories have a net gain of one seat against a 2014 result which was regarded at the time as disastrous for them, and led the Daily Telegraph to editoralise “David Cameron Must Now Assuage the Voters’ Rage”.
Yet both the BBC and Sky News, have all night and this morning, treated these results, in which the Labour Party has increased by 3% an already record number of councillors in this election cycle, as a disaster. What is more, they have used that false analysis to plug again and again the “anti-Semitism in the Labour Party” witch-hunt. It was of course the continuous exacerbation of this mostly false accusation by Blairite MP’s which – deliberately on their part – stopped the Labour Party doing still better. The Blairites are all over the airwaves plugging this meme again today.”
@Ed +1, The establishment ‘western left’ ie the neo liberal Blairites, DNC, and most of our own Labour Party etc, including all their associated ‘liberal’ media arms would rather see the right win than see a real Left Progressive project gain any ground at all, that much is plain for all to see.
May I ask
.
What is Morrissey ? Is he /she proposing a reopening of Auschwitz ?. Buchenwald perhaps. Clearly, he is yet another misogynist misfit bully, kicking the ass off Jacinda.
The sissy Morressy
Whatever, he/she is, he/she is rather spiteful. Smacking women around has become a major national party trait. Sickening.
+1 Morrissey, the lack of pretty much any ongoing MSM coverage of the massacres taking place in Gaza right now is shameful, but also unfortunately unsurprising.
I don’t think Jacinda would never put herself on the line for an issue of morality if it would hurt her politically, remember she is of course only another third way neoliberal, just enabling in softening the multiple blows of a debunked economic ideology.
I have come to the conclusion Corbyn will never be the PM of the UK. Which isn’t to say I don’t think he can – and probably will – win the next general election over there. It is just he will never be allowed to form a government.
Here is what will happen. Labour will win the next election under Corbyn and the Blairite Torys in Labour, having coat tailed back into parliament under a Labour banner, will declare that they “cannot in good conscience” allow Corbyn to rule and implement his “disasterous policies” and that for the “good of the UK” they’ll form a rump centrist party and prop up the Tories for five more years.
That doing so might fatally damage UK democracy and even trigger violent rioting and a semi-coup will be ignored; The Blairites have demonstrated no powers of reflection or introspection. They’ll absolve themselves of all blame, and smear their opponents and pass ever harsher laws to repress dissent until such time as they get their tunr to ascend to the house of Lords and the boards of various financial institutions.
“I have come to the conclusion Corbyn will never be … allowed to form a government.”
Quite possibly – and I have to confess that I’m impatient to see how such a prospect would play out. Your scenario is certainly imaginable – and there are darker alternatives in the background.
What lengths will a corrupt and anti-democratic UK establishment go to in order to prevent it happening? Is there a chance that they will over-reach themselves so disgracefully that they lose control of the narrative? I hope we get the opportunity to see.
WH: What about the global situation, have things turned out as you expected?
KM: Pretty much. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and Party-state leaderships who never read my work properly, we have for the first time in human history unrestricted capitalism across the Earth. The world proletariat has never been larger. But, with the neoliberal roll-back of socialism and social democracy the flaws of capitalism are starkly obvious. Stagnant economic growth, overproduction, underconsumption, massive private debt throughout the system and everyday life, financial bubbles and collapses, periodic economic crises, a truly massive slum population increasingly angry at their plight, wanting to migrate…. Capitalism is not in great shape, don`t you agree?
Sadly we also have ‘tyrants’ still terrorising us all; – destroying our world as this one is;
Fact;
The historic curse of John Key has now finally been visited on every other country he has chosen to curse and live.
It is a fact that during the last decade, the US mainland, Hawaii, and NZ have all been at the centre of either earthquakes, volcanic activity, adverse weather events, or unstable governance.
It just dawned on me that everywhere John Key has resided in has been severely affected by either earthquakes, floods, eruptions and unstable governments.
I just hope that John key just resides elsewhere permanently now so NZ can find a way to recover from the earthquakes, floods, and all the other terrible effects this man has caused us all during his cured rein over us.
I don’t recognise key as morally ‘fit’ for a knighthood.
My goodness.
Your leader must be Brian Tamaki.
Your ridiculous rant about John Key is exactly the same thing as Tamaki was postulating.
According to Brian gays, sinners and murderers were responsible for earthquakes. You pin it on John Key.
Do you really believe this stuff, as Tamaki seems to, or is it simply the hangover from excessive consumption of mind-altering substances?
For your Prophet’s views on the same events see https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11749215
Well maybe Ruth Richardson (Limited) then, as her website used to proudly tell us – as adviser to various Sth American ‘jurisdictions’ (on their policies – going forward).
I’m not too sure she’d be too keen on visiting some of those places now (going forward).
Bloody interesting btw, how you appear to be so protective of JK – that poor wee boy who struggled with a solo-mum having to do her best to put food on the table in a State House, and who rose to fame and fortune (‘on the back of’) his own efforts. Notwithstanding most others were doing loikwoise in those poorer suburbs of ChCH – some even faintly remembering the ‘night cart’.
God how he must have felt SO bloody indequate having to attend BoiseHi rather than Christs.
What rotters we all are to be so cynical of JK’s rise to fame because we happen to disagree with the morals and ethics with which he did so.
JK should probably be shouting Nick Leeson a lunch somewhere in the Middle East where they can both have a replay of throwing the dice – winner takes all
You really have very little connection with the real world.
Protective of JK? Really? Can you demonstrate that or is it like so many of your statements, merely a product of your fetid imagination?
“he must have felt SO bloody indequate having to attend BoiseHi “. I suppose you have access to his deepest thoughts. He doesn’t seem to have ever expressed the thoughts publicly. The only senior politician I have ever seen who expressed such views was Michael Cullen. He of course seems to blame all his bitterness on the fact that he went to Christs, not that he was excluded.
Surely you aren’t as irrational as cleangreen. You do seem to be supporting this little epistle of his so it seems only reasonable to assume that you also think the Key can cause earthquakes.
Can you explain the actual mechanism? Just what does he do to cause the faults to move? How does he cause the volcanoes to erupt?
Please tell us. I am sure there are Geologists and Geophysicists who are dying to know. Of course if you did try and explain they would probably die from laughing about your views.
Maybe you’ve forgotten the spin and bullshit when JK first came to be PM.
There were so many sad sack stories circulating about his rags to riches shit going round that it reminded me that a good many had bogs in the back yard and that for them it was Norman Normal.
I’m not suggesting Key can cause Earthquakes, I am suggesting there are a good many who still think the sun shines brightly from an anus supported by a couple of knock-knees, and that there is a persona of someone that you appear to still idolise that’s about as genuine as a Chinese made Rolex.
You started this comment so well.
Yes I do remember the rather over the top reaction to Key at the beginning. It happens with all of them and you are quite entitled to talk about it.
The problem is that in the second paragraph you went from the general, “there were so many …..” to the particular “you appear to still idolise ….”.
If you are going to make claims about me then I suggest you provide some evidence. Otherwise you are no different, in principle, to the rat-bags making up the stories about Gayford.
You can’t be all bad. Anyone who appreciates Joe Cocker has some redeeming features.
I have had a soft spot for McFlock’s opinions ever since I found that he was a cigar enthusiast. Nobody who can understand the appeal of a good cigar can really be other than a gentleman underneath.
“With the Budget fast approaching perhaps our government should when selling us a vision not be too quick in over promising. (Included is the broken promise of the “deferred” $10 doctor visit that was to commence 1st July 2018)”
Its too late – they have already done the over selling – now they are in the letting people down phase.
James I lot of people will understand being “let down” but labour having to phase in their policies such as cheaper GP visits given the disgusting underspending and deliberate move to cover up the state of Middlemore Hospital.
Did you read the bit in the link that says we will plant half a billion trees at current rates anyway.. With a bit of creative accounting they could probably get to a billion without lifting a finger 🙂
In the 1930s USA half a million coal miners mined 600million tons.
Today a hundred thousand miners mine a billion tons.
Be careful judging today’s potential by 1930s outputs.
Which explains how only a few thousand forestry workers can “plant” 50-odd million trees a year. The biggest barrier seems to be finding 50,000 more hectares to put pine on over ten years.
As the dike grew, physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz calculated the force of the tide as the smaller gap made it stronger. Ten thousand workers, 27 large dredges, 13 floating cranes, 132 barges, and 88 tugs worked on the project at the end, timed to close the dike at low tide; it was finished on 28 May 1932.[2] Construction progressed better than expected; at three points along the line of the dike there were deeper underwater trenches where the tidal current was much stronger than elsewhere. These had been considered to be major obstacles to completing the dike, but all of them proved to be relatively straightforward. Two years earlier than initially thought, the Zuiderzee ceased to be, as the last tidal trench, the Vlieter, was closed by a final bucket of till. The IJsselmeer was born, even though it was still salty at the time.
…
The amount of material used is estimated at 23 million cubic metres (810,000,000 cu ft) of sand and 13.5 million cubic metres (480,000,000 cu ft) of till and over the years an average of around four to five thousand workers were involved with the construction every day, relieving some of the unemployment following the Great Depression. [my bold]
Herodotus, slaves built many great structures, so did armies way back then.
Tell me again why some men joined the army, was it to avoid prison or a harsh sentence back in the day?
Re the bridge the Romans built… “Since he (Caesar) had over 40,000 soldiers at his disposal, they built the first bridge in only 10 days using local lumber”
What was the punishment for abandoning or disobeying the Roman army?
To plant one billion trees at 1000 per day would be:
1 billion divided by 1000 = 1 million days
1 million days divided by 365 = 2739.72602739726 years
For one person it’s a bit much so it probably pays to hire more than one person to do it. If they hired three thousand they could probably get it done in about a year.
This is why you do at least some basic research before making bollocks assertions.
His figures are supported by a usually reputable source. https://www.history.com/topics/civilian-conservation-corps
You will of course have noted that he never said that there were 3 million people employed for the whole of the 10 years. He just said 3 million were involved.
These people also did lots of other things you know
Why don’t you read the link and then tell us whether you want to revise your comment after considering the facts.
Oh, dear.
Never let a few facts get in the way of a good moan.
Come on. It isn’t a very long article and I’m sure you can face the fact that you may, just occasionally, be wrong.
I did in fact point that out.
“These people also did lots of other things you know”
It doesn’t really make it moot of course, in the meaning of the word that is “no longer relevant”.
It just makes DTB’s calculations look rather silly and the definition of moot as “subject to debate, dispute, or uncertainty” is certainly applicable.
IMO it displays the vacuum in the promise of 1b trees when you include existing replenishment replanting to achieve the desired numbers. https://www.labour.org.nz/speech_from_the_throne
This government is committed to a new planting programme, planting 100 million trees a year to reach a billion more trees in ten years. This New Zealand First initiative also connects directly to this government’s determination to take action on climate change.”
See that reach a billion MORE trees, nothing about adding 500m to the existing 500m current replanting program. https://www.labour.org.nz/red_letter_day_for_the_east_coast
“At the heart of this wide-ranging policy is the Government’s billion trees programme with enormous opportunities for our Māori people. It has to be remembered that nurseries are going to be needed for the millions of native trees that will have to be planted this year.
IMO our govt has been found out and they are scrambling to find a way of keeping their vision, even if it requires to act as the way Nation would.
When the policy was announced it was perfectly clear. When Jones was made minister it was perfectly clear: “It is understood that about 50 million trees are already planted in New Zealand each year, meaning the new Government’s planting will double that.” From your own link in the previous comment.
And the goal is a billion trees planted. That is not misleading.
“See that reach a billion MORE trees, nothing about adding 500m to the existing 500m current replanting program.” Well, yeah, it’s a billion more trees than we have now.
Seriously, if your problem with the planting policy is that the new government will only double the number of trees rather than triple it, you’re doing pretty well. And if the challenge were so difficult, how did the nats get to 70million in 2012?
So, can you tell me how to compare a conservation effort doing everything and involving millions of people over a decade can be compared to a single, specific, task that will be done by a couple of thousand people over a year or so?
Can you tell me how, given the maths, it’s not actually possible to plant a billion trees as implied by Herodotus ?
The assertion Herodotus made, and that you objected to was very simple.
“During the depression in the USA the CCC planted over 3 billion trees, that involved 3 million people over 10 years”.
You then tried to claim that these numbers must be false and said
“This is why you do at least some basic research before making bollocks assertions”.
The assertion as stated was not bollocks. There were that many people involved and they did plant that many trees.
You then tried to claim that these numbers must be false
I didn’t say that they were false – I said that they were bollocks and they are. He tried to claim that planting lost of trees couldn’t be done because three million couldn’t do it in the 1930s.
That’s what my calculation was about. There’s absolutely no way that even a volunteer program would have people planting one tree per three and a half days each. It’s obvious that they would have had far fewer people planting 1000+ per day each.
The assertion as stated was not bollocks. There were that many people involved and they did plant that many trees.
No, it was complete bollocks.
There were that many people involved in CCC.
There weren’t that many of them planting trees. There weren’t even that many involved with planting trees.
If there had actually been three million people planting trees it wouldn’t have taken them 10 years. It would have taken them a day.
It’s a hypothetical question on a school homework site. You might as well suppose that the average speed of trains from pittsburgh is 30mph.
I linked to last year’s forestry projections from MPI in this comment here (although I boo-bood the pdf link pasting). Try a thousand trees per hectare, not 120. And it’s bringing total production to a billion trees when we’re on 50mil/yr anyway.
But I did tumble the land area math, over ten years a total of 500million trees at 1000/hectare = 500,000 hectares. Assuming none of that is replanting, that’s a little under 2% rather than 30% of NZ’s land area, and our current production forest land area is 1.7million hectares (according to the NEFD report on that MPI link).
This is what Herodotus wrote. “During the depression in the USA the CCC planted over 3 billion trees, that involved 3 million people over 10 years !!!”
That states baldly and plainly that the planting involved 3 million people.
Of course, you then read the article, and it says this. “the CCC planted more than three billion trees and constructed trails and shelters in more than 800 parks nationwide during its nine years of existence.”
alwyn, there is a difference between what Herodotus paraphrased and what the cited article said.
What Herodotus wrote was an inaccurate and misleading reporting of that article. And indefensible.
That comment btw used “love of the language and a sense of fair play.”
What he said was, in fact, true.
Did you perchance accept some of the efforts at misleading people that the present Government get up to?
When they promised us $700/year in a heating allowance isn’t that just a tad crooked when they meant about $400 this year?
When they said $10 per visit reduction in GP visits from July 1 did they really get free rein to change it to “But not this year”.
And on and on and on.
Did you complain that people had interpreted it in a different way and they should do what everyone thought they meant?
Thought not. If you had you might have been entitled to your complaint on the grounds that you were being consistent. If you didn’t then you political bias is showing.
What he said was not true. Three million people were involved in a whole heap of work more than planting 3 billion trees for the CCC.
To then claim that just as the planting of three billion trees would require three million workers, so the NZ government target of i billion trees would require presumably one million workers is just plain wrong.
Herodotus said, “to give you some idea of the scale of this” referring to the planting of a billion trees, he cited an article and then said, ” “During the depression in the USA the CCC planted over 3 billion trees, that involved 3 million people over 10 years !!!”
That is totally inaccurate as an example of scale.
Land value capture (which allows councils to capture the estimated paper gain increase in the value new infrastructure adds to private property) may be coming to your neighbourhood.
The problems I have with this is it hits low income households the hardest, thus may result in forcing people to sell up and move or become indebted.
Moreover, it will add to the cost of home ownership and potentially add inflationary pressure to rents.
Therefore, if the Government is going to allow this, low income households should be protected by being made exempt.
Additionally, it may backfire as the new tax may deter buyers from purchasing in locations that are targeted, opting to buy in the next street over, resulting in homes just outside of the targeted area increasing in value instead.
Chairman this is definitely a debate to track towards the latter part of this year.
It is going to come to a head with light rail in Auckland, which means it will probably open up the entire Unitary Plan debate. It is certainly building inside government.
Labour has lost elections before just on tax issues – I hope they have the skills for playing ‘capital gain harvest’ taxes.
He is quoted. “”You can believe Stuart believes this stuff, but the guys and girls above him are going to rumble him. There’s no chance they’re going to have a harder approach to the gangs.”
Not only is there that putdown by age and sex, but the reference to ‘rumble’ connects to a second meaning of the word ‘to have a gang fight’ as well as the primary sense he is using of ‘discover his true intent’.
Maybe Bridges is being clever and using this choice of language relating the issue to gangs? Maybe this language is also carefully meant to associate Labour with being gang associated? The term ‘guys’ is often used as a term for gangsters. Maybe the issue of gangs just triggers word associations.
Certainly, the ‘guy and girls’ is a putdown, and unworthy of the Leader of the Opposition to use.
Why did he not say “the men and women above him” or ‘the people above him” or ‘the leadership”or ” senior Cabinet members’ or ‘the cabinet executive’ or even ‘the party bosses’?
That Bridges boy just ain’t sensitive to nuance – and neither are you, so only it slags the Left. But that’s the Right for you – not even intellectual pygmies, much less intellectual giants.
Yup – because my little cabbage you’re an uncritical admirer of all things Right – however inane.
Gone are the days when rightwing trolls aspired to have a shred of intellectual credibility or economic competence – Key and English exhausted that pretention.
Bridges just calls people names. And that’s good enough for you – your expectations are so debased.
What don’t you recall exactly? My criticising the last National led government? I believe I have mentioned my disappointment in them on topics such as tax and regulatory reform on numerous occasions. Their refusal to do anything radical held back the country hugely.
It probably astonishes you to know Gosman, that the Left does not await your every utterance with bated breath. And, as you say, you focus on tax and regulatory reform because you have no interest in people or people’s issues.
Take a large scale political failing like Key’s dishonesty or Carter’s treacherous subversion of ministerial questions however, and you are silent as the grave – if not actually defending the wrongdoers.
It is ethically bereft MF like you that are holding the country back.
No, no.
If you had claimed a sense of humour as well as the other things I wouldn’t have used the phrase I did.
I would have said, instead “Five things listed and you fail four of them”.
There, does that make you feel better?
John Minto points out the anti-social nature of land-banking and ghost houses in this article. In my region, ten per cent of dwellings are unoccupied by permanent residents.
Instead we have some 600 Air B&Bs and Rent a Baches.
I hope the government can first do smiting (should have read ‘something’ but I like my spell checker’s (cocker’s) version) about first the issue of empty housing whilst people are homeless, and second that the tax fraudsters amongst the renters are brought to account financially and legally.
Not if the compliance cost involved in monitoring this are excessive. It could also involve a massive increase in the coercive power of the State if it involves inspectors going around to private property to see what is happening.
Straight off the top of my head, no research, how about a ‘vacancy fee’ for absentee home owners which could be incorporated into rates; or better still, a tax on the capital gains earned on ghost housing when sold over and above the usual taxation.
After all, New Zealand had a problem at the turn of the 19th Century under the Liberal government when land was all locked up in the hands of land owners.
My family benefited from John Mckenzie’s land tax when land was freed up for balloting. Taxation was the method of righting that particular problem.
Taxation was the method of righting the issue of poverty amongst our people and the welfare state and earlier the Liberal’s Old Age Pension which addressed the issue of income for older citizens.
Fair taxation, justly applied and large social, with financial and legal sanctions for the betrayers of the social contract. who at the moment remove from social expenditure use anywhere from $1.5 to $7 billion annually.
As much as I would love to see the left try and implement such a dumb tax it isn’t likely to be implemented any time soon for the main reason the Labour party wants to remain electable
So, what would you do, Gosman, to ensure that all our citizens are housed healthily and safely?
Such a ‘dumb’ tax provided enough land for four families within my grandparent’s generation to survive well enough. Those families then produced great rugby players, priests, district councillors, war heroes, teachers, nurses, etc etc.
Who complained? “Ready Money” Robinson might have. The owner of the Kinloch estate on the Banks Peninsula might have.
But the hundreds of families who benefited did not complain.
The Liberal Party policy was easy to implement in contrast to what is being suggested here. You can’t easily hide how big your land is but you can hide the fact it is not being used for something.
It’s no more difficult than operating Winz’s rules on relationships. In fact staff no longer needed to be punitive to the poor could readily transfer to a role monitoring sociopathic speculators.
We could use the 1800 new police that Stuart Nash is proposing. After they’ve cleaned up the “P” problem, they can move onto the “H” problem. 🙂
Seriously, though, when society accepts the depth of the problem and the social ills concomitant with homelessness and sub-standard housing, part of which is “P”, then it can find solutions equally in depth that most of us can accept and justify.
No need for “a massive increase in the coercive power of the State”.
Those Search And Surveillance powers enable this already.
How about a camera mounted on every telephone pole/street light to monitor the use of housing?
Smart meter data would paint an accurate picture re: occupancy. Spurts of consumption over weekends and long weekends would indicate air bnb or holiday house usage. Flat lining water/power consumption = empty house. Doesn’t need inspectors, just a robotic drill into the data.
While I agree that it would be good to discourage leaving houses empty for long periods of time, I can’t see a workable solution as there so many variables for why people may leave a house empty – e.g. working away from home, family commitments, changes in household, house empty for renovations, repair after major damage or sale.
Water meter usage is not monitored across New Zealand and how would the goverment access that information for the places that do? Do we want government to have access to that information (water and power) about individual households?
There were many houses empty for months and years after the earthquakes in Christchurch and in the east of Christchurch there still are – some at least are due to people not being in a position to repair and or sell. Even Housing New Zealand houses have been empty for monthes and monthes even in 2018.
My point is how can government differentiate between those that are landbanking and those whose circumstances mean that their house is empty (or is occupied but doesn’t use much power).
Actually Gos, there are a few ways. You know how your ilk were in favour of water meters and privatising power companies and telcos? There’s also this thing called ‘big data’ you’d be an advocate for.
At the moment though, the only problem is the purpose for which it is used, and you do realise those nanny state authorities actually have supremacy (unless of course some jumped up little army general decides otherwise and is able to persuade his underlings to agree)
Whilst any profiling is in its infancy, it does allow ‘officials’, or those ‘in authority’ to direct their attention to a particular property (going forward).
It’s not too dissimilar to all that demographic profiling thingy that MBIE had heavily invested in – until they were told to pull their heads in. Even though they haven’t YET come to grips with it all ….
Unless someone wants to leave the garden hose on as a drip, and perhaps run a modest hooch operation in the attic, if you provided me with the data, I’d be happy to direct those ‘officials’ in the right direction ….. for a modest fee of course (plus GST). I won’t even charge for any intermediary consultancy – such as finder’s fees or those ‘independent’ people verifying my impartiality (going forward).
I’m bloody sure there are others that’ll do likewise.
Clip go the shears boys clip clip clip
Bloody good points john makes that we should all seriously consider carefully now as the ‘land/house banking system is only used by banks and very rich investors trying to push prices up and will distort the whole economy again like 2007 what Enron did.
Wake up kiwis, we are being rorted here.
Ban these ‘leeches’ as house/land bankers and send them packing.
I agree chairman, but why stop at state housing.
Why not make a 3-5 kw array grid tied, compulsory on every new dwelling or building?
Water catchment/tanks too while we are at it.
Spinoff: “Considering your WORLD clothing tags say “Fabriqué en Nouvelle Zelande”, would customers reasonably assume these t-shirts and more have been made in New Zealand?”
Dame Denise: “As already stated, the WORLD clothing tags that say Made in NZ are Made in NZ, so there is nothing misleading about this. As explained, the t-shirts do not state this”.
Oh dear, that’s a frightfully wobbly defense. The garment swing tags that state ‘Made in NZ’ were die-cut and printed in NZ so they’re not deceptive…..what a load of bollix. I thought she was smarter than trying to float such a leaky boat.
Spinoff asked…
“Considering your WORLD clothing tags say “Fabriqué en Nouvelle Zelande”, would customers reasonably assume these t-shirts and more have been made in New Zealand?”
Dame Whatsherface replies…
“As already stated, the WORLD clothing tags that say Made in NZ are Made in NZ, so there is nothing misleading about this. As explained, the t-shirts do not state this.”
How embarrassing though.
Particularly as it was this Government that gave her the award entitling her to call herself “Dame”
I hope that Ardern hasn’t been wearing any of these clothes in her numerous woman’s magazine photo ops?
Please tell us she wasn’t wearing anything from this lot in the Vogue article.
alwyn I think you might be wrong. My understanding is the Honours awards are determined around six months in advance of their publication date. Since she received a dame-hood in the 2018 New Year, that means it was the previous National led government who determined her award.
I think you would be right if you said they started the process at that time. That would be immediately after the last lot were announced. In his case of course the last Government would have gone into caretaker mode in about mid-August and stayed there until the coalition took over. The new Government had about two and a half months to change things. I’m afraid they have to carry the, not very massive, can.
After all a whole bunch of them flew off on a jolly to the Chatham Islands to claim credit for something they had opposed in Opposition.
You take it one way you have to wear it the other.
Yes, given that there is no evidence of Ardern patronising the business. That would have been a little embarrassing but the presentation of a gong doesn’t matter.
They took lots and lots of their own, tax-payer funded, booze.
Then they dined on crayfish, lots and lots of crayfish.
I could easily be tempted to describe that as a jolly.
Shane may have missed out on his pornographic videos but the others were probably quite happy.
Actually gsays… I didn’t like john Key. I didn’t like his MO and I didn’t like is often sneaky ways. But he was PM for eight years and not everything he did was bad. So he was deserving of a gong. And bear in mind not many Kiwis care about who has gongs and who doesn’t anyway.
Put it another way. All prime ministers are offered a knighthood after they cease to be PM. Most but not all accept them. So, it was inevitable John Key would be offered a knighthood and equally inevitable he would be one of those who accept it. It was in that sense I used the term “deserving”.
Yep, as is usually the case, Dame Denise would of been much better off telling the truth . Said something like: “Thanks for drawing this to our attention Spinoff and I think you’re right, the wording could be taken the wrong way. It should read ‘Designed in NZ’ and that’s what they will say in the future.”
Spinoff would have their scalp, Dame Denise would prove she does the right thing when she can and the story would die.
“You might very well now feel that $99 is an outrageous price to pay for a locally produced swing tag Mr McFlock but you entered into the transaction of your own free will.”
““You might very well now feel that $99 is an outrageous price to pay for a locally produced swing tag Mr McFlock but you entered into the transaction of your own free will.””
Someone, please, check that them there tags are actually fabriqué en Nouvelle Zelande….
When I put ‘Designed in New Zealand’ into Google translate, the French is: Conçu en Nouvelle-Zélande. I think most of Dame Denise’s local customers would read that and still surmise that it says ‘Made in New Zealand’….I think I would…
“Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet has slammed a report by the Spinoff, calling it “trash” and “gutter journalism”.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB, she said she found the report disgusting and that it has damaged her brand.
“I am furious,” she told Newstalk ZB.
“I will not be torn down by some two-bit writer who thinks she can air her opinions that are not truthful.””
Btw, did anyone count the number of “but”s and “I don’t know”s DL’E-C said during her JC interview on Checkpoint?
And Christ! at the end of that interview, she put it all back on the consumer for being ‘stupid’ …… as in “I thought [the consumer] was smarter”.
Gorgeous darling! Almost gorgeous enough to come back for a fling on “The Panel”
And I’m sincerely hoping she’s not related to a former registrar because if he’s not tucked up somewhere with a minimum-waged Filipino wiping his arse, he’s sure as shit busy rolling in discomfort 3 feet below
Very interesting slice of history, and extremely relevant to today’s discussion.
Politics…
“”Named after Sir Edwin Airey, a construction magnate, around 200 of the houses were built on the estate in the late 50s as homes for miners, and few thought they would see in the millennium.
Made from prefabricated concrete and scrap metal salvaged from military vehicles, they were designed to meet the housing needs of the growing numbers of workers living outside cities.
Barry and Mavis Abbey, both in their early 70s, have lived on the estate since 1970, when the homes were owned by the National Coal Board.
At one stage the Abbeys had been led to believe they would be able to buy their home under the Thatcher government’s right-to-buy scheme. But this option was denied them for reasons that remain opaque. Ex-miners like Barry believe it was in revenge for them going on strike in the mid-1980s.
The estate was sold off by the NCB in 1986, after which the homes passed through a series of owners until they ended up in the hands of the Pemberstone Group, a private investment firm that boasts a diverse portfolio of interests including an Italian tour operator, an indoor ski slope and the Ilford camera-film brand.
Pemberstone’s “scheme” involves replacing the existing 70 Airey houses with 71 new properties, only 11 of which will be reserved for “affordable accommodation”, a number that it says is in line with Leeds city council’s Strategic Homes plan.
Locals have heard that the new homes will be priced at around £300,000 – 10 times what a three-bedroom Airey house on another estate fetched recently. Surrounded by attractive green spaces, close to motorways and 20 minutes from the city centre, they should sell easily.”
And in the important issues of the day:
does anybody else happen to listen to RNZ’s business news (going forward)?
I find it bloody hard whenever I have to listen to Nona Pelletier reporting.
I know I’m living ‘on the back of’ the age of the curmudgeon, but it’s not just that. Just as I need to listen to Soimun 10 Bridges twice before I’m able to decipher his wuzdim words, or avail moisef of a tranny, Nona sounds like she’s singing the descant.
Can she not be promoted to an off-ear pizzishun?
OR maybe I should just fuck off somewhere else where basic things like communicating with other human beings are no longer such an earfit.
Ekshully, I’ll take it all back and count myself lucky I’m not Donny the Don Brash who has to deal with listening to Mary
I have no issue with Nona’s voice … maybe that’s because I watch her on TV rather than just listen – on RNZ on channel 50. Sometimes I find it hard to understand on the phone or radio but if I can see them it’s easier for some reason. Similarly if I know where they are from I find it easier to tune into their accent.
“Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been meeting with New Zealand ministers and members of the opposition over the past couple of days in Wellington.
Before the Sheikh arrived at Ardern’s 9th floor office for the meeting he sent up a somewhat mysterious gift, in a large box, on a gurney. It was wheeled into Ardern’s office where she was later expected to open it.”
“Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on United Arab Emirates authorities to disclose the whereabouts and condition of a daughter of Dubai’s ruler, following reports she was forcibly returned after fleeing the Gulf Arab state”
Today I helped a family member who had to take a Medical Certificate to the Hamilton central WINZ office.
In the past we’ve waited in the cue inside the building. Today we had to wait in a cue of 12 people standing outside on the footpath. One of the three security gaurds said he had been told to only let one person through the door when someone else left. The footpath cue included a very frail elderly lady and a person with one leg using crutches. It took around 40 minuites waiting on the footpath just to get into the building.
The five parking spaces directly outside were blocked with orange cones. I asked why and was told that only WINZ staff could park there.
The fact that any government department can treat people like this is truly shocking and humilating.
Thank you Fireblade. I am not familiar with that particular location as being a WINZ office-sorry-“Service Centre”. The only one I could think of around here with 5 parking places outside the building was Dinsdale.
Have you or your family member complained about this? Who you’d complain to I’d be guessing. Complain to a local Nat MP? They’d really get off on blaming this on the current incumbents. Complain to Labour/Green/NZF? Who?
Perhaps someone in the local media? Treating people like this is totally unacceptable.
Actually…I might wander down there with a camera, take a few pictures, post them somewhere….
Obviously the office didn’t get the “show a little kindness” memo.
It’s quite interesting really – the degree to which some in the public service are pushing back against their political elected masters – probably on the basis that they’re ‘independent’ and immune from matters that are of an ‘operational’ nature.
(not just MSD/WINZ).
It’s going to be the true test of this coalition government – i.e. just how far politicians are prepared to accept obvious obfuscation, lies, spin and bullshit from their ‘officials’ before they react.
As things stand, so many hints have been given re the expectations of the public service and the policies on which they (the government) were elected.
Just as happened in the 80s, public service reform is long overdue, and they’re doing themselves no favours.
We’ll see over the next few months whether the new government is up to the challenge.
Ummm… David Seymour doesn’t look anything like the character of Alfred E Neuman. It would be like asking has anyone ever seen Chewbacca and David Seymour in the same room together.
There IS a superficial resemblance to the actor Chris Barrie who played/plays Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf and Gordon Brittas from The Brittas Empire. But so what?
There’s a pretty bloody good resemblance when Barrie is actually in character.
The “so what” is that it might partially explain why he’s spending more time on Dancing with the Lols rather than being a caucus leader.
Whether he is electoral cyanide because he does things like that, or whether he has the time to do things like that because he’s electoral cyanide, is a point of passing interest.
Concerning the Shameful Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet:
A Message from the Knights and Dames of the British Empire
May 7, 2018
It comes down to education. Don’t smoke it, don’t drink it, don’t buy Lotto tickets. I don’t believe there IS a shortage of jobs in New Zealand….
—Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, Sept. 5, 2014
We would like to point out that the rogue Denise L’Estrange-Corbet is an aberration, an abomination, an irritant, a boor, an exploiter, a liar, a racist, and a cad. An asshole, if one were to employ the vernacular. The rest of New Zealand’s, and indeed the Empire’s, knights and dames, however, are men and women of the highest character.
So let’s condemn Denise L’Estrange-Corbet by all means, but let us also praise good men and true (and good women and true), like the following exemplars of moral courage and intellectual excellence…..
Sir Paul Holmes
Sir Robert Jones
Sir John Howard
Sir William Gallagher
Sir Thomas Eichelbaum
Sir James Savile
Dame Margaret Thatcher
Sir Peter Leitch
Sir Jeremiah Mateparae
Sir John Key
Sir Clive Woodward
Easier to just add her to your list Morrisey.
She’d have been better off to have just fessed up and said she had no idea, and that she is disappointed and will make changes.
And IF, as she claims, the problem is a mere 1% of her business enterprise, and IF she has the concerns she claims she has, then I’d have expected her to forgo that 1%.
But then as I said yesterday, we should let Jim Mora’s “The Panel” resolve it all. She might even end up being the new Brian Edwards ‘on the back of’ a Gallery interview and resolution of an industrial dispute.
We could even call in Julie Christie to make a reality TV show of proceedings and she could clip the ticket to compensate for the loss of that 1%.
There ya go see @ Morrisey. Jim and his ‘The Panel’ have dealt with the issue and it’s now resolved.
End of story!
How could we have been so foolish as to have made such a mountain out of a molehill.
And btw ….. there’s no mole a bit of mascara can’t cover – even if it’s to highlight it as a fashion asset (going forward)
What sets apart Gaza from Gandhi and Martin Luther King is not that children participate in the Gaza marches…
…. but that unlike the British in India, and the white racists in the American South, only Israel targets and kills innocent children in demonstrations.
Add to that the famines England caused in Ireland (1840s) and in Bengal (1940s) – and that Russia caused in Ukraine (1930s) – still not good company for Bibi the Butcher to find himself in.
Good evening Newshub adventure tourism is a great way to bring vip tourist to Aotearoa.
I had a good escort this morning on the way to Auckland Im working and I get to see my mokos and daughter at the same time the youngest is 4 months old she really chubby.
Football NZ is going to pay the Football Ferns I’m a bit late tonight Ka kite ano P.S sorry about the heat they are just a bunch of intimidating bullies just ignore them there intimidation does not work on ECO MAORI
Good morning Newshub it shows that the last government did not want to help our Pacific Islands slashing the aid we gave the. If we give aid for renewable energy this will solve two problems lower there carbon footprint and save them money. Our other Pacific Islands cousins ad a lot of good thing to OUR country.
The old Maori way was to try and give back better than what was received.
I say this is the way a society should behave. As for Trump and Iran there is always another story behind the seens like the trade sanctions they are being employed to slow China from catching the west Technology domanince.
Many thanks to the Labour government for there new Labour laws the big employers are just screwing the employee with there no minimum hours temporary contracts I no some one who has all the bills one has like rent ect one week she gets 2 days work and the next 5 how can one live on 2 days a week work when rents cost 2 days work to pay for it.
Ka kite ano
I thought Winston was a Maori he is stuck in the 1940 when Maori we tricked in to a believing that the crown had OUR wellbeing in there policy truth be told they just want us to disappear so they can have our Whenua heres the link.
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 ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
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The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
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Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
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Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
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Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
What do a sombrero in Argentina and cognitive driving tests have in common? Don’t worry, we’re not setting up a bad joke. Hinengaro Clinic dementia clinician Gregory Winkelman has the answer on today’s episode of The Detail. “We ask a patient’s spouse or son or daughter: If you went to ...
Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
After replacing a fifth of their caucus in just four months, the Greens’ opportunity to reset, reshuffle and refocus on the Government is quickly slipping away The post Persistent Green Party scandals delay caucus reset appeared first on Newsroom. ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
Opinion: Nicholas Khoo looks at two key points in the high-stakes foreign policy pact debate – and asks if NZ can engage with as little drama as possible. The post Where to next for the Aukus ruckus? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Opinion: ‘Reference-class forecasting’ is at the heart of improving pricing a project and identifying the expected timeframe but it doesn’t appear to be in use here The post ‘Think fast and act slowly’ is failing big projects appeared first on Newsroom. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
By Robin Martin, RNZ News reporter A New Zealand local authority, Whanganui District Council, has passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of all acts of violence and terror against civilians on both sides of the conflict and the immediate return of hostages. It comes as ...
Asia Pacific Report The Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has appealed to the New Zealand government to call out Israel over the “cruel and barbaric use of force” in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire. The league’s open letter was sent to Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will invest $566 million over a decade on data, maps and other tools to promote exploration and development in Australia’s resources industry. The project will fund “the first comprehensive map of what’s ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Ground Picture/Shutterstock The anti-cancer drug abemaciclib (also known as Vernezio) has this month been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat certain ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Robbie Porter, OzFish Unlimited Around Australia, hundreds of people are coming together to help a once-prized, but decimated and largely forgotten marine ecosystem. They’re busy restoring Australia’s native oyster and mussel reefs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology Austin Human/Unsplash How does Earth stop meteors from hitting Earth and hurting people? –Asher, 6 years 11 months, New South Wales Alright, let’s embark on a meteor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rory Mulcahy, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of the Sunshine Coast Professional sports organisations regularly promote and develop initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion. While sport has the power to change attitudes by sparking conversations about political issues and social ...
Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
International audiences are starting to discover what New Zealand already knew about After the Party.When After the Party aired in New Zealand last year, the response was fast and furious. In his preview for Rec Room, Duncan Greive said it was a “gritty, wrenching and highly confronting” series. By ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Convenor of the Middle East Studies Forum (MESF), and Acting Director the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University Iran’s leadership has been a direct beneficiary of the months-long war in Gaza. With every missile that Israel fires ...
Claire Mabey reviews the haunting and sexy debut novel from Sinéad Gleeson, who is about to touch down in Aotearoa for a string of live events.When Irish writer Sinéad Gleeson was in Aotearoa in 2018 with her spectacular collection of essays, Constellations, she told me she was working on ...
PNG Post-Courier Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba has described the Post-Courier’s front page story yesterday regarding a meeting between Bougainville and national government leaders as “sensationalised” and without substance. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (AGB) had warned it might use “other avenues to gain its independence” should the PNG government “continue ...
Where some saw the worst press conference given by the government to date, Anna Rawhiti-Connell recognised girl maths game.Nicola Willis, recently exasperated by comparisons to Ruth Richardson, said she was “a bit sick of being compared with every female finance minister that’s ever been out there.”Some think that’s ...
The March results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2023 (HYEFU 2023), published on 20 December 2023 and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Jamie Arbuckle, the district councillor who became an MP but decided to keep getting paid for both roles, will instead donate one salary to charity. ...
Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, an 18-year-old who’s studying and working in hospo shares their approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Transmasc Age: 18 Ethnicity: Pākehā/Māori Role: Student, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Resources Minister Shane Jones has reportedly asked officials for advice on whether oil and gas companies could be offered “bonds” as compensation if drilling rights offered by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Gleeson, Associate Professor of Law, Macquarie University Shutterstock The Albanese government is weighing up the costs of delivering an election promise to protect religious people from discrimination in Commonwealth law. Such protections were relatively uncontroversial when included in state anti-discrimination ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yen Ying Lim, Associate Professor, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio Dementia is often described as “the long goodbye”. Although the person is still alive, dementia slowly and irreversibly chips away at their memories and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judy Bush, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock I met with a friend for a walk beside Merri Creek, in inner Melbourne. She had lived in the area for a few years, and as we walked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Throsby, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Macquarie University Arts companies and individual artists in Australia are supported by government arts agencies, philanthropists, industry bodies, private donors and patrons. However, it is frequently overlooked that a major source of support for the arts ...
Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa, a new incorporated society dedicated to ending harmful drug policies, officially launched today, seeks a new fit-for-purpose drug law for Aotearoa New Zealand, rooted in science, experience and evidence. ...
The Corrections Minister admits he "muddied the water" after he and the Prime Minister repeatedly provided incorrect information about a $1.9 billion prison spend-up. ...
It took a post-post-cabinet statement to confirm that 810 new beds will be built at Waikeria, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Lili Tokaduadua was only 15 when she left her family in Fiji to pursue her netball dream in New Zealand. She’d been playing the sport for 10 years and was offered a netball scholarship at Auckland’s Howick College. Now, in her first year out of high school, the 19-year-old defender ...
The beloved local grocers lost a legal challenge to stop a new cycleway outside their store. Joel MacManus reports. In the annals of New Zealand legal history, there are a few brave people who have dared to stand up to the powers that be, no matter how bleak the odds ...
How what we produce and what we eat connects us to the world beyond our shores, visualised. Walking around a supermarket or vege shop, it might be obvious that everything on the shelves came from somewhere. But you might ...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza – H5N1, or bird flu – has been flying around the world since the late 1990s. New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands are so far free of it, but now it’s been discovered in mainland Antarctica and scientists say it’s only a matter of time ...
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The following interview with auto electrician and former caver Stu Berendt, 68, of Charleston on the West Coast, came about because he was part of the caving team that found the rare and amazing fossil remains of the giant Haast eagle, the subject of one of the year’s best books, ...
A $1.8b funding boost for Pharmac still won’t enable it to buy more drugs, raising questions about the Government’s approach to the agency The post Can Pharmac do more with the same pot of money? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Professor Jemma Geoghegan, of the University of Otago, Otakou Whakaihu Waka, co-leads a Te Niwha project aimed at understanding how and where avian influenza could affect Aotearoa New Zealand, as the highly infectious H5N1 virus spreads globally. The virus has now spread to all continents except Oceania and was recently ...
Thirty years on from Rwanda’s genocide, is guilt over the atrocities is blinding the world to the true nature of its current leadership? The post The repressive underside of Rwanda’s regime appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Last week, important recommendations for our criminal justice system were made by the international community. Every five years, each member of the United Nations has its human rights practices reviewed. This rolling event – the Universal Periodic Review – is the culmination of a government reporting on its human ...
We live in 1984.
“As I write, with over 75% of all yesterday’s English local election results in, Labour has a net gain of 55 councillors compared to the high water mark of the 2014 result in these wards, while the Tories have a net gain of one seat against a 2014 result which was regarded at the time as disastrous for them, and led the Daily Telegraph to editoralise “David Cameron Must Now Assuage the Voters’ Rage”.
Yet both the BBC and Sky News, have all night and this morning, treated these results, in which the Labour Party has increased by 3% an already record number of councillors in this election cycle, as a disaster. What is more, they have used that false analysis to plug again and again the “anti-Semitism in the Labour Party” witch-hunt. It was of course the continuous exacerbation of this mostly false accusation by Blairite MP’s which – deliberately on their part – stopped the Labour Party doing still better. The Blairites are all over the airwaves plugging this meme again today.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/05/37463/
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/05/05/people-are-showing-they-will-not-be-fooled-by-the-bbcs-anti-corbyn-bias/
We do and we also note that you haven’t done your morning exercises…
Chris73 – “Big Brother is watching you!”
That shirts a good look on you, you should wear it more often
@Ed +1, The establishment ‘western left’ ie the neo liberal Blairites, DNC, and most of our own Labour Party etc, including all their associated ‘liberal’ media arms would rather see the right win than see a real Left Progressive project gain any ground at all, that much is plain for all to see.
How the New York Times and Israel coordinate propaganda
By the way, has our media darling Jacinda uttered a word of support for the peaceful protestors being murdered every Friday?
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/05/06/how-the-ny-times-and-israel-coordinate-propaganda/
May I ask
.
What is Morrissey ? Is he /she proposing a reopening of Auschwitz ?. Buchenwald perhaps. Clearly, he is yet another misogynist misfit bully, kicking the ass off Jacinda.
The sissy Morressy
Whatever, he/she is, he/she is rather spiteful. Smacking women around has become a major national party trait. Sickening.
I think you might have the wrong guy OT. Morrissey is a mild mannered feminist leftie and not obviously a Neo Nazi…
A.
From your comment – Im guessing the “Observer” in your handle is being ironic.
/agreed
lol that makes three of us in agreement – one for the pool room, that…
????
Moron alert! Moron alert!
+1 Morrissey, the lack of pretty much any ongoing MSM coverage of the massacres taking place in Gaza right now is shameful, but also unfortunately unsurprising.
I don’t think Jacinda would never put herself on the line for an issue of morality if it would hurt her politically, remember she is of course only another third way neoliberal, just enabling in softening the multiple blows of a debunked economic ideology.
I have come to the conclusion Corbyn will never be the PM of the UK. Which isn’t to say I don’t think he can – and probably will – win the next general election over there. It is just he will never be allowed to form a government.
Here is what will happen. Labour will win the next election under Corbyn and the Blairite Torys in Labour, having coat tailed back into parliament under a Labour banner, will declare that they “cannot in good conscience” allow Corbyn to rule and implement his “disasterous policies” and that for the “good of the UK” they’ll form a rump centrist party and prop up the Tories for five more years.
That doing so might fatally damage UK democracy and even trigger violent rioting and a semi-coup will be ignored; The Blairites have demonstrated no powers of reflection or introspection. They’ll absolve themselves of all blame, and smear their opponents and pass ever harsher laws to repress dissent until such time as they get their tunr to ascend to the house of Lords and the boards of various financial institutions.
The solution is mandatory deselection.
“I have come to the conclusion Corbyn will never be the PM of the UK”
On that part we agree.
“I have come to the conclusion Corbyn will never be … allowed to form a government.”
Quite possibly – and I have to confess that I’m impatient to see how such a prospect would play out. Your scenario is certainly imaginable – and there are darker alternatives in the background.
What lengths will a corrupt and anti-democratic UK establishment go to in order to prevent it happening? Is there a chance that they will over-reach themselves so disgracefully that they lose control of the narrative? I hope we get the opportunity to see.
Is Marx still relevant?
Philosopher Peter Singer says that he fundamentally misconstrued human nature.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/karl-marx-200th-birthday-by-peter-singer-2018-05?utm_source=Project+Syndicate+Newsletter&utm_campaign=e151c95e72-sunday_newsletter_6_5_2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73bad5b7d8-e151c95e72-105758597
I am pretty sure we’ll be still talking about Marx long after Peter Singer’s ghost disappears from the land of the dead.
Sorry…Peter who?
🙂
He’s a utilitarian ethicist.
One of the biggest recent data-driven analyses of Marx is Piketty.
Personally I prefer the Frankfurt variations, plus David Harvey and Freddy Jamieson.
good on you Ad for seeing the comic irony in my comment, but you have piqued my interest.
Hey I am absolutely with you on Habermas and David Harvey
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/04/30/karl-marx-200-years-on-exclusive-interview/
You do realise that is not the real Karl Marx Draco? 😉
Peter ‘we are all marxists now’, that’s who.
And not only ‘Marxists’ Gabby;
Sadly we also have ‘tyrants’ still terrorising us all; – destroying our world as this one is;
Fact;
The historic curse of John Key has now finally been visited on every other country he has chosen to curse and live.
It is a fact that during the last decade, the US mainland, Hawaii, and NZ have all been at the centre of either earthquakes, volcanic activity, adverse weather events, or unstable governance.
It just dawned on me that everywhere John Key has resided in has been severely affected by either earthquakes, floods, eruptions and unstable governments.
I just hope that John key just resides elsewhere permanently now so NZ can find a way to recover from the earthquakes, floods, and all the other terrible effects this man has caused us all during his cured rein over us.
I don’t recognise key as morally ‘fit’ for a knighthood.
My goodness.
Your leader must be Brian Tamaki.
Your ridiculous rant about John Key is exactly the same thing as Tamaki was postulating.
According to Brian gays, sinners and murderers were responsible for earthquakes. You pin it on John Key.
Do you really believe this stuff, as Tamaki seems to, or is it simply the hangover from excessive consumption of mind-altering substances?
For your Prophet’s views on the same events see
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11749215
Well maybe Ruth Richardson (Limited) then, as her website used to proudly tell us – as adviser to various Sth American ‘jurisdictions’ (on their policies – going forward).
I’m not too sure she’d be too keen on visiting some of those places now (going forward).
Bloody interesting btw, how you appear to be so protective of JK – that poor wee boy who struggled with a solo-mum having to do her best to put food on the table in a State House, and who rose to fame and fortune (‘on the back of’) his own efforts. Notwithstanding most others were doing loikwoise in those poorer suburbs of ChCH – some even faintly remembering the ‘night cart’.
God how he must have felt SO bloody indequate having to attend BoiseHi rather than Christs.
What rotters we all are to be so cynical of JK’s rise to fame because we happen to disagree with the morals and ethics with which he did so.
JK should probably be shouting Nick Leeson a lunch somewhere in the Middle East where they can both have a replay of throwing the dice – winner takes all
You really have very little connection with the real world.
Protective of JK? Really? Can you demonstrate that or is it like so many of your statements, merely a product of your fetid imagination?
“he must have felt SO bloody indequate having to attend BoiseHi “. I suppose you have access to his deepest thoughts. He doesn’t seem to have ever expressed the thoughts publicly. The only senior politician I have ever seen who expressed such views was Michael Cullen. He of course seems to blame all his bitterness on the fact that he went to Christs, not that he was excluded.
Surely you aren’t as irrational as cleangreen. You do seem to be supporting this little epistle of his so it seems only reasonable to assume that you also think the Key can cause earthquakes.
Can you explain the actual mechanism? Just what does he do to cause the faults to move? How does he cause the volcanoes to erupt?
Please tell us. I am sure there are Geologists and Geophysicists who are dying to know. Of course if you did try and explain they would probably die from laughing about your views.
Maybe you’ve forgotten the spin and bullshit when JK first came to be PM.
There were so many sad sack stories circulating about his rags to riches shit going round that it reminded me that a good many had bogs in the back yard and that for them it was Norman Normal.
I’m not suggesting Key can cause Earthquakes, I am suggesting there are a good many who still think the sun shines brightly from an anus supported by a couple of knock-knees, and that there is a persona of someone that you appear to still idolise that’s about as genuine as a Chinese made Rolex.
You started this comment so well.
Yes I do remember the rather over the top reaction to Key at the beginning. It happens with all of them and you are quite entitled to talk about it.
The problem is that in the second paragraph you went from the general, “there were so many …..” to the particular “you appear to still idolise ….”.
If you are going to make claims about me then I suggest you provide some evidence. Otherwise you are no different, in principle, to the rat-bags making up the stories about Gayford.
That’s different Alwyn. The made up stories about Gayford are false whereas the made up stories about you are quite obviously true 😉
I defer to your spectacular superiority. i’M TRULY IN AWE
You can’t be all bad. Anyone who appreciates Joe Cocker has some redeeming features.
I have had a soft spot for McFlock’s opinions ever since I found that he was a cigar enthusiast. Nobody who can understand the appeal of a good cigar can really be other than a gentleman underneath.
Now there’s a point Cleangreen (5.1) … Old Nick himself do you think walking amongst us?
Agree with your last comment. Key is morally bankrupt in just about every respect. A traitor of the highest degree!
With the Budget fast approaching perhaps our government should when selling us a vision not be too quick in over promising. (Included is the broken promise of the “deferred” $10 doctor visit that was to commence 1st July 2018)
Re 1 Billion trees, to give some idea as to the scale of this
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/funding-and-programmes/forestry/planting-one-billion-trees/
During the depression in the USA the CCC planted over 3 billion trees, that involved 3 million people over 10 years !!!
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/funding-and-programmes/forestry/planting-one-billion-trees/
http://www.ccclegacy.org/CCC_Brief_History.html
NZ has had enough of empty visions we had 9 years of it, and for the current govt to continue the trend …. Really doesn’t help NZ.
“With the Budget fast approaching perhaps our government should when selling us a vision not be too quick in over promising. (Included is the broken promise of the “deferred” $10 doctor visit that was to commence 1st July 2018)”
Its too late – they have already done the over selling – now they are in the letting people down phase.
James I lot of people will understand being “let down” but labour having to phase in their policies such as cheaper GP visits given the disgusting underspending and deliberate move to cover up the state of Middlemore Hospital.
Did you read the bit in the link that says we will plant half a billion trees at current rates anyway.. With a bit of creative accounting they could probably get to a billion without lifting a finger 🙂
Maybe declare wilding pines a protected species.
In the 1930s USA half a million coal miners mined 600million tons.
Today a hundred thousand miners mine a billion tons.
Be careful judging today’s potential by 1930s outputs.
as mauī points out, we’re halfway there already.
And the Pantheon was built in in 8-9 years
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unlocking-mysteries-of-the-parthenon-16621015/
and the Romans built a bridge over the Rhine in 10 days
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar%27s_Rhine_bridges
and finally Xerxes bridge built 480 bc reported by ,.. me !! ha ha Quicker than what was achieved last century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerxes%27_Pontoon_Bridges
Also don’t think that in todays world what we can achieve is always something special
You used the Depression as a benchmark. So I did, too.
I love discussions like these – one ends up in the most interesting (legal) places of the internet.
Gabby’s comment about making wilding pines a protect species wasn’t far off the mark: the industry calls it “control pollinated” (pdf report here).
Which explains how only a few thousand forestry workers can “plant” 50-odd million trees a year. The biggest barrier seems to be finding 50,000 more hectares to put pine on over ten years.
The Great Depression you say?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsluitdijk
Herodotus, slaves built many great structures, so did armies way back then.
Tell me again why some men joined the army, was it to avoid prison or a harsh sentence back in the day?
Re the bridge the Romans built… “Since he (Caesar) had over 40,000 soldiers at his disposal, they built the first bridge in only 10 days using local lumber”
What was the punishment for abandoning or disobeying the Roman army?
Did you even bother doing the sums on that assertion?
3 billion divided by 3 million = 1000.
1000 divided by 10 = 100
100 divided by 356 = 0.356
Or one tree planted every three and a half days.
Meanwhile, in reality, a three person crew can do 10,000 in an eight hour shift if using a machine. Doing it by hand isn’t as fast but can still do 1000 to 3000 per day.
To plant one billion trees at 1000 per day would be:
1 billion divided by 1000 = 1 million days
1 million days divided by 365 = 2739.72602739726 years
For one person it’s a bit much so it probably pays to hire more than one person to do it. If they hired three thousand they could probably get it done in about a year.
This is why you do at least some basic research before making bollocks assertions.
His figures are supported by a usually reputable source.
https://www.history.com/topics/civilian-conservation-corps
You will of course have noted that he never said that there were 3 million people employed for the whole of the 10 years. He just said 3 million were involved.
These people also did lots of other things you know
Why don’t you read the link and then tell us whether you want to revise your comment after considering the facts.
But it was certainly implied.
Nope. Same reason applies – it’s simply not comparable.
Oh, dear.
Never let a few facts get in the way of a good moan.
Come on. It isn’t a very long article and I’m sure you can face the fact that you may, just occasionally, be wrong.
All a bit moot because they didn’t just plant trees, anyway.
I did in fact point that out.
“These people also did lots of other things you know”
It doesn’t really make it moot of course, in the meaning of the word that is “no longer relevant”.
It just makes DTB’s calculations look rather silly and the definition of moot as “subject to debate, dispute, or uncertainty” is certainly applicable.
So you’d agree that 1 billion trees is a reasonable goal and not an “empty vision” as Herodotus put it?
refer to my calcs below, whist the vision is commendable not sure about the ability to achieve this vision, the same about the 100,000 affordable modern houses regarding Kiwibuild over 10 years .
https://thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/KiwiBuild_Factsheet.pdf
The ability of our govt to achieve anything like there visions is highly questionable.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/10/revealed-shane-jones-minister-for-100-million-trees-1-billion-regional-fund.html
So from this article of 1000 stems/ha. Many will be thinned out so there will not be 1billion tress grown. Even at 1000/ha this will still require 1m ha it still is 10,000km2 or 3.7% of the area on NZ
1billion including the current 500million
IMO it displays the vacuum in the promise of 1b trees when you include existing replenishment replanting to achieve the desired numbers.
https://www.labour.org.nz/speech_from_the_throne
This government is committed to a new planting programme, planting 100 million trees a year to reach a billion more trees in ten years. This New Zealand First initiative also connects directly to this government’s determination to take action on climate change.”
See that reach a billion MORE trees, nothing about adding 500m to the existing 500m current replanting program.
https://www.labour.org.nz/red_letter_day_for_the_east_coast
“At the heart of this wide-ranging policy is the Government’s billion trees programme with enormous opportunities for our Māori people. It has to be remembered that nurseries are going to be needed for the millions of native trees that will have to be planted this year.
IMO our govt has been found out and they are scrambling to find a way of keeping their vision, even if it requires to act as the way Nation would.
When the policy was announced it was perfectly clear. When Jones was made minister it was perfectly clear: “It is understood that about 50 million trees are already planted in New Zealand each year, meaning the new Government’s planting will double that.” From your own link in the previous comment.
And the goal is a billion trees planted. That is not misleading.
“See that reach a billion MORE trees, nothing about adding 500m to the existing 500m current replanting program.” Well, yeah, it’s a billion more trees than we have now.
Seriously, if your problem with the planting policy is that the new government will only double the number of trees rather than triple it, you’re doing pretty well. And if the challenge were so difficult, how did the nats get to 70million in 2012?
Riiiight.
So, can you tell me how to compare a conservation effort doing everything and involving millions of people over a decade can be compared to a single, specific, task that will be done by a couple of thousand people over a year or so?
Can you tell me how, given the maths, it’s not actually possible to plant a billion trees as implied by Herodotus ?
The assertion Herodotus made, and that you objected to was very simple.
“During the depression in the USA the CCC planted over 3 billion trees, that involved 3 million people over 10 years”.
You then tried to claim that these numbers must be false and said
“This is why you do at least some basic research before making bollocks assertions”.
The assertion as stated was not bollocks. There were that many people involved and they did plant that many trees.
I didn’t say that they were false – I said that they were bollocks and they are. He tried to claim that planting lost of trees couldn’t be done because three million couldn’t do it in the 1930s.
That’s what my calculation was about. There’s absolutely no way that even a volunteer program would have people planting one tree per three and a half days each. It’s obvious that they would have had far fewer people planting 1000+ per day each.
No, it was complete bollocks.
There were that many people involved in CCC.
There weren’t that many of them planting trees. There weren’t even that many involved with planting trees.
If there had actually been three million people planting trees it wouldn’t have taken them 10 years. It would have taken them a day.
Just a quick use of google
https://www.chegg.com/homework-help/questions-and-answers/average-density-trees-acre-forest-53-trees-peracre–assuming-number-trees-per-
Don’t know of how reliable the source is BUT 1 billion trees by 53, so for ease of my maths ability say 50 trees/acre
so 1 Billion (US of 1,000,000,000 not the UK of 1,000,000,000,000) = 20,000,000 acres is need or 8.09m hectares, or 80,900km2 The area of land that NZ covers is 268,000km2 so 30% of the country. (I think my cals are correct, BUT could be out)
It’s a hypothetical question on a school homework site. You might as well suppose that the average speed of trains from pittsburgh is 30mph.
I linked to last year’s forestry projections from MPI in this comment here (although I boo-bood the pdf link pasting). Try a thousand trees per hectare, not 120. And it’s bringing total production to a billion trees when we’re on 50mil/yr anyway.
But I did tumble the land area math, over ten years a total of 500million trees at 1000/hectare = 500,000 hectares. Assuming none of that is replanting, that’s a little under 2% rather than 30% of NZ’s land area, and our current production forest land area is 1.7million hectares (according to the NEFD report on that MPI link).
This is what Herodotus wrote. “During the depression in the USA the CCC planted over 3 billion trees, that involved 3 million people over 10 years !!!”
That states baldly and plainly that the planting involved 3 million people.
Of course, you then read the article, and it says this. “the CCC planted more than three billion trees and constructed trails and shelters in more than 800 parks nationwide during its nine years of existence.”
alwyn, there is a difference between what Herodotus paraphrased and what the cited article said.
What Herodotus wrote was an inaccurate and misleading reporting of that article. And indefensible.
That comment btw used “love of the language and a sense of fair play.”
What he said was, in fact, true.
Did you perchance accept some of the efforts at misleading people that the present Government get up to?
When they promised us $700/year in a heating allowance isn’t that just a tad crooked when they meant about $400 this year?
When they said $10 per visit reduction in GP visits from July 1 did they really get free rein to change it to “But not this year”.
And on and on and on.
Did you complain that people had interpreted it in a different way and they should do what everyone thought they meant?
Thought not. If you had you might have been entitled to your complaint on the grounds that you were being consistent. If you didn’t then you political bias is showing.
What he said was not true. Three million people were involved in a whole heap of work more than planting 3 billion trees for the CCC.
To then claim that just as the planting of three billion trees would require three million workers, so the NZ government target of i billion trees would require presumably one million workers is just plain wrong.
Herodotus said, “to give you some idea of the scale of this” referring to the planting of a billion trees, he cited an article and then said, ” “During the depression in the USA the CCC planted over 3 billion trees, that involved 3 million people over 10 years !!!”
That is totally inaccurate as an example of scale.
Draco T has worked the figures to show this.
Alwyn, you’re just wasting my time.
Land value capture (which allows councils to capture the estimated paper gain increase in the value new infrastructure adds to private property) may be coming to your neighbourhood.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/103631686/wellingtons-mayors-want-a-piece-of-new-transport-funding–and-are-open-to-using-new-taxes-to-get-it
The problems I have with this is it hits low income households the hardest, thus may result in forcing people to sell up and move or become indebted.
Moreover, it will add to the cost of home ownership and potentially add inflationary pressure to rents.
Therefore, if the Government is going to allow this, low income households should be protected by being made exempt.
Additionally, it may backfire as the new tax may deter buyers from purchasing in locations that are targeted, opting to buy in the next street over, resulting in homes just outside of the targeted area increasing in value instead.
Chairman this is definitely a debate to track towards the latter part of this year.
It is going to come to a head with light rail in Auckland, which means it will probably open up the entire Unitary Plan debate. It is certainly building inside government.
Labour has lost elections before just on tax issues – I hope they have the skills for playing ‘capital gain harvest’ taxes.
I don’t think councils see driving poor people out of home ownership as a problem chairy.
What gives with Simon Bridges and his new naming of the Labour leadership?
He’s getting a hammering on Facebook for these comments, btw.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/05/simon-bridges-says-labour-guys-and-girls-won-t-get-tough-on-gangs.html
He is quoted. “”You can believe Stuart believes this stuff, but the guys and girls above him are going to rumble him. There’s no chance they’re going to have a harder approach to the gangs.”
Not only is there that putdown by age and sex, but the reference to ‘rumble’ connects to a second meaning of the word ‘to have a gang fight’ as well as the primary sense he is using of ‘discover his true intent’.
Maybe Bridges is being clever and using this choice of language relating the issue to gangs? Maybe this language is also carefully meant to associate Labour with being gang associated? The term ‘guys’ is often used as a term for gangsters. Maybe the issue of gangs just triggers word associations.
Certainly, the ‘guy and girls’ is a putdown, and unworthy of the Leader of the Opposition to use.
Why did he not say “the men and women above him” or ‘the people above him” or ‘the leadership”or ” senior Cabinet members’ or ‘the cabinet executive’ or even ‘the party bosses’?
100% mac 1
Yes Simon Bridges is a slippery character alright.
But he will be rolled sooner than later as he is weak and in-decisive.
The ghost of SS Joyce will overtake and consume him as the bloodletting within the diminishing National Party emerges.
Why is it unworthy of the Leader of the Opposition to use? Who determines this – You?
All of us, Gosman, all of us with a shred of decency and a love of the language and a sense of fair play and respect for office.
I would suggest not. I see nooone from the right or centre of politics who has an issue with what he is saying.
That Bridges boy just ain’t sensitive to nuance – and neither are you, so only it slags the Left. But that’s the Right for you – not even intellectual pygmies, much less intellectual giants.
Whatever. At the end of the day the only people concerned over his use of language are lefties like you.
Yup – because my little cabbage you’re an uncritical admirer of all things Right – however inane.
Gone are the days when rightwing trolls aspired to have a shred of intellectual credibility or economic competence – Key and English exhausted that pretention.
Bridges just calls people names. And that’s good enough for you – your expectations are so debased.
I’ve criticised numerous elements of the last National led government so you cannot be meaning myself.
I don’t recall that at all.
What don’t you recall exactly? My criticising the last National led government? I believe I have mentioned my disappointment in them on topics such as tax and regulatory reform on numerous occasions. Their refusal to do anything radical held back the country hugely.
It probably astonishes you to know Gosman, that the Left does not await your every utterance with bated breath. And, as you say, you focus on tax and regulatory reform because you have no interest in people or people’s issues.
Take a large scale political failing like Key’s dishonesty or Carter’s treacherous subversion of ministerial questions however, and you are silent as the grave – if not actually defending the wrongdoers.
It is ethically bereft MF like you that are holding the country back.
So has/does Mathew the Hoot. He’s even been known to criticise JK (probably more in the interests of being fair and balanced)
‘Whatever. At the end of the day the only people concerned over his use of language are lefties like you.’
So are you saying it was not the Right who was up in arms when Julie Anne Genter made mention of certain Old White Men
You silly wee Trolling Hypocrite
What has that got to do with what Bridges said?
if you cannot see the equivalence then you really are as dim witted as i presumed from your history of trolling
Well that leaves you out of it.
Four things listed and you fail all of them.
You know me that well, eh? Sorry, I’m not supposed to have a sense of humour, either.
No, no.
If you had claimed a sense of humour as well as the other things I wouldn’t have used the phrase I did.
I would have said, instead “Five things listed and you fail four of them”.
There, does that make you feel better?
Wasn’t feeling that bad actually., thanks, alwyn.
Slick Britches is disappointed that the work Nastynil did on eradicating gangs (and in no way profiting from the P explosion) is going to be reversed.
Crosby Textor focus groups at work.
A moral issue for our times.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2018/05/30-000-empty-homes-in-auckland-is-it-time-to-tax-the-owners.html
John Minto points out the anti-social nature of land-banking and ghost houses in this article. In my region, ten per cent of dwellings are unoccupied by permanent residents.
Instead we have some 600 Air B&Bs and Rent a Baches.
I hope the government can first do smiting (should have read ‘something’ but I like my spell checker’s (cocker’s) version) about first the issue of empty housing whilst people are homeless, and second that the tax fraudsters amongst the renters are brought to account financially and legally.
How will you check whether a property is being deliberately left unoccupied?
Is it worthwhile to find a solution to this problem?
Not if the compliance cost involved in monitoring this are excessive. It could also involve a massive increase in the coercive power of the State if it involves inspectors going around to private property to see what is happening.
Compliance costs could be lumped onto those that are targeted, strengthening the deterrent.
How would they be lumped on to those being targeted?
Via the new tax.
Straight off the top of my head, no research, how about a ‘vacancy fee’ for absentee home owners which could be incorporated into rates; or better still, a tax on the capital gains earned on ghost housing when sold over and above the usual taxation.
After all, New Zealand had a problem at the turn of the 19th Century under the Liberal government when land was all locked up in the hands of land owners.
My family benefited from John Mckenzie’s land tax when land was freed up for balloting. Taxation was the method of righting that particular problem.
Taxation was the method of righting the issue of poverty amongst our people and the welfare state and earlier the Liberal’s Old Age Pension which addressed the issue of income for older citizens.
Fair taxation, justly applied and large social, with financial and legal sanctions for the betrayers of the social contract. who at the moment remove from social expenditure use anywhere from $1.5 to $7 billion annually.
As much as I would love to see the left try and implement such a dumb tax it isn’t likely to be implemented any time soon for the main reason the Labour party wants to remain electable
So, what would you do, Gosman, to ensure that all our citizens are housed healthily and safely?
Such a ‘dumb’ tax provided enough land for four families within my grandparent’s generation to survive well enough. Those families then produced great rugby players, priests, district councillors, war heroes, teachers, nurses, etc etc.
Who complained? “Ready Money” Robinson might have. The owner of the Kinloch estate on the Banks Peninsula might have.
But the hundreds of families who benefited did not complain.
The Liberal Party policy was easy to implement in contrast to what is being suggested here. You can’t easily hide how big your land is but you can hide the fact it is not being used for something.
It’s no more difficult than operating Winz’s rules on relationships. In fact staff no longer needed to be punitive to the poor could readily transfer to a role monitoring sociopathic speculators.
Don’t you agree the WINZ rules around relationship status are unworkable?
What they are is morally repugnant. They’d be workable were Winz not too ashamed to state them plainly and publicly.
We could use the 1800 new police that Stuart Nash is proposing. After they’ve cleaned up the “P” problem, they can move onto the “H” problem. 🙂
Seriously, though, when society accepts the depth of the problem and the social ills concomitant with homelessness and sub-standard housing, part of which is “P”, then it can find solutions equally in depth that most of us can accept and justify.
No need for “a massive increase in the coercive power of the State”.
Those Search And Surveillance powers enable this already.
How about a camera mounted on every telephone pole/street light to monitor the use of housing?
Smart meter data would paint an accurate picture re: occupancy. Spurts of consumption over weekends and long weekends would indicate air bnb or holiday house usage. Flat lining water/power consumption = empty house. Doesn’t need inspectors, just a robotic drill into the data.
What happens if I go off grid?
I think it’s unlikely you’d be going to that expense just to lock the house up and leave it empty.
Maybe the house is 50 kms from nowhere. It’s not needed as a family rental.
That’s easy. Check water and electricity use. It is already being done.
While I agree that it would be good to discourage leaving houses empty for long periods of time, I can’t see a workable solution as there so many variables for why people may leave a house empty – e.g. working away from home, family commitments, changes in household, house empty for renovations, repair after major damage or sale.
Water meter usage is not monitored across New Zealand and how would the goverment access that information for the places that do? Do we want government to have access to that information (water and power) about individual households?
There were many houses empty for months and years after the earthquakes in Christchurch and in the east of Christchurch there still are – some at least are due to people not being in a position to repair and or sell. Even Housing New Zealand houses have been empty for monthes and monthes even in 2018.
My point is how can government differentiate between those that are landbanking and those whose circumstances mean that their house is empty (or is occupied but doesn’t use much power).
Actually Gos, there are a few ways. You know how your ilk were in favour of water meters and privatising power companies and telcos? There’s also this thing called ‘big data’ you’d be an advocate for.
At the moment though, the only problem is the purpose for which it is used, and you do realise those nanny state authorities actually have supremacy (unless of course some jumped up little army general decides otherwise and is able to persuade his underlings to agree)
Whilst any profiling is in its infancy, it does allow ‘officials’, or those ‘in authority’ to direct their attention to a particular property (going forward).
It’s not too dissimilar to all that demographic profiling thingy that MBIE had heavily invested in – until they were told to pull their heads in. Even though they haven’t YET come to grips with it all ….
Unless someone wants to leave the garden hose on as a drip, and perhaps run a modest hooch operation in the attic, if you provided me with the data, I’d be happy to direct those ‘officials’ in the right direction ….. for a modest fee of course (plus GST). I won’t even charge for any intermediary consultancy – such as finder’s fees or those ‘independent’ people verifying my impartiality (going forward).
I’m bloody sure there are others that’ll do likewise.
Clip go the shears boys clip clip clip
Yes mac 1.
Bloody good points john makes that we should all seriously consider carefully now as the ‘land/house banking system is only used by banks and very rich investors trying to push prices up and will distort the whole economy again like 2007 what Enron did.
Wake up kiwis, we are being rorted here.
Ban these ‘leeches’ as house/land bankers and send them packing.
If the Government is serious about their green credentials, they would equip (and allow) all state houses to have solar panels.
Good to see the Greens speaking up on this.
Must see: (from 19.55 into the clip)
https://www.threenow.co.nz/shows/the-hui/season-3%3A-sunday-6-may-2018/125685/M21250-300
An initiative to provide free solar power setup for the poor is declined by Housing NZ? WTF?
See clip in the link above.
I agree chairman, but why stop at state housing.
Why not make a 3-5 kw array grid tied, compulsory on every new dwelling or building?
Water catchment/tanks too while we are at it.
Solar panels are part of the building code in California.
Because it will increase the cost of housing which is already high.
‘World’ label boss who trumpeted locally-sourced fashion caught out reselling overseas-made goods with ‘Made in NZ’ tags: https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/07-05-2018/t-shirts-from-bangladesh-sequin-patches-from-china-all-sold-by-world-as-made-in-nz/
Said boss responds at length to article: https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/07-05-2018/those-world-t-shirts-dame-denise-lestrange-corbet-responds/
Hahahaha, what a hoot.
Spinoff: “Considering your WORLD clothing tags say “Fabriqué en Nouvelle Zelande”, would customers reasonably assume these t-shirts and more have been made in New Zealand?”
Dame Denise: “As already stated, the WORLD clothing tags that say Made in NZ are Made in NZ, so there is nothing misleading about this. As explained, the t-shirts do not state this”.
Oh dear, that’s a frightfully wobbly defense. The garment swing tags that state ‘Made in NZ’ were die-cut and printed in NZ so they’re not deceptive…..what a load of bollix. I thought she was smarter than trying to float such a leaky boat.
Anyway, why are the tags written in French rather than in either of our 2 official written languages?
So wish I had read that before I grumpily commented here….https://thestandard.org.nz/a-great-business-opportunity/#comment-1481867
I have no time for these people….
Spinoff asked…
“Considering your WORLD clothing tags say “Fabriqué en Nouvelle Zelande”, would customers reasonably assume these t-shirts and more have been made in New Zealand?”
Dame Whatsherface replies…
“As already stated, the WORLD clothing tags that say Made in NZ are Made in NZ, so there is nothing misleading about this. As explained, the t-shirts do not state this.”
Is it to late to get dame whatserface on dancing with the stars?
Those are a coupla handy pirouettes she is pulling off on that pin.
How embarrassing though.
Particularly as it was this Government that gave her the award entitling her to call herself “Dame”
I hope that Ardern hasn’t been wearing any of these clothes in her numerous woman’s magazine photo ops?
Please tell us she wasn’t wearing anything from this lot in the Vogue article.
alwyn I think you might be wrong. My understanding is the Honours awards are determined around six months in advance of their publication date. Since she received a dame-hood in the 2018 New Year, that means it was the previous National led government who determined her award.
I think you would be right if you said they started the process at that time. That would be immediately after the last lot were announced. In his case of course the last Government would have gone into caretaker mode in about mid-August and stayed there until the coalition took over. The new Government had about two and a half months to change things. I’m afraid they have to carry the, not very massive, can.
After all a whole bunch of them flew off on a jolly to the Chatham Islands to claim credit for something they had opposed in Opposition.
You take it one way you have to wear it the other.
I’m afraid they have to carry the, not very massive, can.
I get the feeling this case (can’t be bothered looking up her fancy name)
is a storm in a tea cup so who cares who gave her the gong anyway. 😐
Yes, given that there is no evidence of Ardern patronising the business. That would have been a little embarrassing but the presentation of a gong doesn’t matter.
A jolly in the Chathams wynny? Livin the dream.
They took lots and lots of their own, tax-payer funded, booze.
Then they dined on crayfish, lots and lots of crayfish.
I could easily be tempted to describe that as a jolly.
Shane may have missed out on his pornographic videos but the others were probably quite happy.
Not as embarrassing as the gong handed out to the last prime minister for services to nest feathering.
Actually gsays… I didn’t like john Key. I didn’t like his MO and I didn’t like is often sneaky ways. But he was PM for eight years and not everything he did was bad. So he was deserving of a gong. And bear in mind not many Kiwis care about who has gongs and who doesn’t anyway.
Are you serious!
PM for 8 years and he deserves a gong!
I would rather acknowledge and celebrate the people who foster children or the volunteers who enrich and strengthen communities.
Put it another way. All prime ministers are offered a knighthood after they cease to be PM. Most but not all accept them. So, it was inevitable John Key would be offered a knighthood and equally inevitable he would be one of those who accept it. It was in that sense I used the term “deserving”.
I see.
Phew.
To be fair I was quite hungry when I read your comment – with a full belly, I am largely unmoved by slippery John’s gong.
😀
Yep, as is usually the case, Dame Denise would of been much better off telling the truth . Said something like: “Thanks for drawing this to our attention Spinoff and I think you’re right, the wording could be taken the wrong way. It should read ‘Designed in NZ’ and that’s what they will say in the future.”
Spinoff would have their scalp, Dame Denise would prove she does the right thing when she can and the story would die.
lol
buy a World tag that was made in NZ, get a free tshirt from Bangladesh.
I wonder if comcom will buy that?
Hahahaha yeah, it’s a situation made for satire.
“You might very well now feel that $99 is an outrageous price to pay for a locally produced swing tag Mr McFlock but you entered into the transaction of your own free will.”
““You might very well now feel that $99 is an outrageous price to pay for a locally produced swing tag Mr McFlock but you entered into the transaction of your own free will.””
Someone, please, check that them there tags are actually fabriqué en Nouvelle Zelande….
This is a wound that deserves extra salt.
When I put ‘Designed in New Zealand’ into Google translate, the French is: Conçu en Nouvelle-Zélande. I think most of Dame Denise’s local customers would read that and still surmise that it says ‘Made in New Zealand’….I think I would…
The new tags will add Ceci n’est pas une tshirt.
I reckon we should leave it to Jim Mora and ‘The Panel’ to sort out.
Hah! The Dame ain’t happy…
“Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet has slammed a report by the Spinoff, calling it “trash” and “gutter journalism”.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB, she said she found the report disgusting and that it has damaged her brand.
“I am furious,” she told Newstalk ZB.
“I will not be torn down by some two-bit writer who thinks she can air her opinions that are not truthful.””
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12046775
or, if that link doesn’t work anymore…
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:M1cuSw7QzuMJ:https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm%3Fc_id%3D3%26objectid%3D12046775
“I will not be torn down”
Ah – this is the problem. Clearly believes she is in a place from which she can be torn down. Hubris is a horrible thing.
Btw, did anyone count the number of “but”s and “I don’t know”s DL’E-C said during her JC interview on Checkpoint?
And Christ! at the end of that interview, she put it all back on the consumer for being ‘stupid’ …… as in “I thought [the consumer] was smarter”.
Gorgeous darling! Almost gorgeous enough to come back for a fling on “The Panel”
And I’m sincerely hoping she’s not related to a former registrar because if he’s not tucked up somewhere with a minimum-waged Filipino wiping his arse, he’s sure as shit busy rolling in discomfort 3 feet below
While doing some follow up googling on empty house taxes, homelessness and the influence of developers I stumbled across this….
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/07/oulton-leeds-prefab-airey-houses-demolition-eviction
Very interesting slice of history, and extremely relevant to today’s discussion.
Politics…
“”Named after Sir Edwin Airey, a construction magnate, around 200 of the houses were built on the estate in the late 50s as homes for miners, and few thought they would see in the millennium.
Made from prefabricated concrete and scrap metal salvaged from military vehicles, they were designed to meet the housing needs of the growing numbers of workers living outside cities.
Barry and Mavis Abbey, both in their early 70s, have lived on the estate since 1970, when the homes were owned by the National Coal Board.
At one stage the Abbeys had been led to believe they would be able to buy their home under the Thatcher government’s right-to-buy scheme. But this option was denied them for reasons that remain opaque. Ex-miners like Barry believe it was in revenge for them going on strike in the mid-1980s.
The estate was sold off by the NCB in 1986, after which the homes passed through a series of owners until they ended up in the hands of the Pemberstone Group, a private investment firm that boasts a diverse portfolio of interests including an Italian tour operator, an indoor ski slope and the Ilford camera-film brand.
Pemberstone’s “scheme” involves replacing the existing 70 Airey houses with 71 new properties, only 11 of which will be reserved for “affordable accommodation”, a number that it says is in line with Leeds city council’s Strategic Homes plan.
Locals have heard that the new homes will be priced at around £300,000 – 10 times what a three-bedroom Airey house on another estate fetched recently. Surrounded by attractive green spaces, close to motorways and 20 minutes from the city centre, they should sell easily.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/103591593/jeanette-fitzsimons-says-greens-could-reject-waka-jumping-bill–and-it-wont-bring-down-the-government
Justice Minister Andrew Little said of the submissions he had read he was surprised by how many were flawed.
“I haven’t seen any convincing arguments to change much.”
Some of those who submitted are here if anyones interested:
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/a-submission-on-the-electoral-integrity-amendment-act
My reply.
And in the important issues of the day:
does anybody else happen to listen to RNZ’s business news (going forward)?
I find it bloody hard whenever I have to listen to Nona Pelletier reporting.
I know I’m living ‘on the back of’ the age of the curmudgeon, but it’s not just that. Just as I need to listen to Soimun 10 Bridges twice before I’m able to decipher his wuzdim words, or avail moisef of a tranny, Nona sounds like she’s singing the descant.
Can she not be promoted to an off-ear pizzishun?
OR maybe I should just fuck off somewhere else where basic things like communicating with other human beings are no longer such an earfit.
Ekshully, I’ll take it all back and count myself lucky I’m not Donny the Don Brash who has to deal with listening to Mary
I have no issue with Nona’s voice … maybe that’s because I watch her on TV rather than just listen – on RNZ on channel 50. Sometimes I find it hard to understand on the phone or radio but if I can see them it’s easier for some reason. Similarly if I know where they are from I find it easier to tune into their accent.
Okay. Now I’m not creating a rumour here or anything, but seems just a tad strange that just a few days after this…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/103586961/uae-foreign-minister-meets-with-jacinda-ardern-in-wellington
“Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been meeting with New Zealand ministers and members of the opposition over the past couple of days in Wellington.
Before the Sheikh arrived at Ardern’s 9th floor office for the meeting he sent up a somewhat mysterious gift, in a large box, on a gurney. It was wheeled into Ardern’s office where she was later expected to open it.”
….there’s this,
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/356797/dubai-princess-forcibly-returned-after-attempt-to-flee-reports
“Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on United Arab Emirates authorities to disclose the whereabouts and condition of a daughter of Dubai’s ruler, following reports she was forcibly returned after fleeing the Gulf Arab state”
Are you suggesting that Princess Cindys gift was…an actual princess?
Of course not! Don’t be silly!
I’m just exploring an interesting juxtaposition of articles. That’s all. Honest.
Besides, our friends from UAE would NEVER, EVER treat a woman like some kind of chattel.
I guess there is precedence:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19591_6-most-ridiculous-abuses-diplomatic-immunity.html
Check out number 4 🙂
Today I helped a family member who had to take a Medical Certificate to the Hamilton central WINZ office.
In the past we’ve waited in the cue inside the building. Today we had to wait in a cue of 12 people standing outside on the footpath. One of the three security gaurds said he had been told to only let one person through the door when someone else left. The footpath cue included a very frail elderly lady and a person with one leg using crutches. It took around 40 minuites waiting on the footpath just to get into the building.
The five parking spaces directly outside were blocked with orange cones. I asked why and was told that only WINZ staff could park there.
The fact that any government department can treat people like this is truly shocking and humilating.
Barbarism.
It will be interesting to see if our resident right wing trolls have anything to say on this matter.
I doubt it.
Fireblade….which Hamilton WINZ office exactly?
Street address?
Parking places coned off when elderly /disabled clients might need close parking?
Three security guards? How many with clipboards?
So…this is how they respond to Ardern’s instructions to be kind?
Making clients wait in that cold southerly that blew up in Hamilton today?
Maybe they should be reminded what the Boss’s instructions were?
Rosemary. This WINZ office is 468 Anglesea St, Hamilton.
Thank you Fireblade. I am not familiar with that particular location as being a WINZ office-sorry-“Service Centre”. The only one I could think of around here with 5 parking places outside the building was Dinsdale.
Have you or your family member complained about this? Who you’d complain to I’d be guessing. Complain to a local Nat MP? They’d really get off on blaming this on the current incumbents. Complain to Labour/Green/NZF? Who?
Perhaps someone in the local media? Treating people like this is totally unacceptable.
Actually…I might wander down there with a camera, take a few pictures, post them somewhere….
You should have taken a photo and put it on Facebook. When are they going to try kindness and be “flexible?
Obviously the office didn’t get the “show a little kindness” memo.
It’s quite interesting really – the degree to which some in the public service are pushing back against their political elected masters – probably on the basis that they’re ‘independent’ and immune from matters that are of an ‘operational’ nature.
(not just MSD/WINZ).
It’s going to be the true test of this coalition government – i.e. just how far politicians are prepared to accept obvious obfuscation, lies, spin and bullshit from their ‘officials’ before they react.
As things stand, so many hints have been given re the expectations of the public service and the policies on which they (the government) were elected.
Just as happened in the 80s, public service reform is long overdue, and they’re doing themselves no favours.
We’ll see over the next few months whether the new government is up to the challenge.
Ha WINZ. Where the general public are seen as fraudulent self-entitled scum.
Bonus if you make your client cry.
Anyways…
I’m not one to start rumors but must just ask: Has anyone ever seen David Seymour and Alfred E Neuman in the same room together?
Ummm… David Seymour doesn’t look anything like the character of Alfred E Neuman. It would be like asking has anyone ever seen Chewbacca and David Seymour in the same room together.
There IS a superficial resemblance to the actor Chris Barrie who played/plays Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf and Gordon Brittas from The Brittas Empire. But so what?
There’s a pretty bloody good resemblance when Barrie is actually in character.
The “so what” is that it might partially explain why he’s spending more time on Dancing with the Lols rather than being a caucus leader.
Whether he is electoral cyanide because he does things like that, or whether he has the time to do things like that because he’s electoral cyanide, is a point of passing interest.
Do not try having a laugh around Gosman.
Has anyone ever seen Judith Collins and Pink Floyd The Walls Mother in the same room together?
Concerning the Shameful Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet:
A Message from the Knights and Dames of the British Empire
May 7, 2018
We would like to point out that the rogue Denise L’Estrange-Corbet is an aberration, an abomination, an irritant, a boor, an exploiter, a liar, a racist, and a cad. An asshole, if one were to employ the vernacular. The rest of New Zealand’s, and indeed the Empire’s, knights and dames, however, are men and women of the highest character.
So let’s condemn Denise L’Estrange-Corbet by all means, but let us also praise good men and true (and good women and true), like the following exemplars of moral courage and intellectual excellence…..
Sir Paul Holmes
Sir Robert Jones
Sir John Howard
Sir William Gallagher
Sir Thomas Eichelbaum
Sir James Savile
Dame Margaret Thatcher
Sir Peter Leitch
Sir Jeremiah Mateparae
Sir John Key
Sir Clive Woodward
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-06092014/#comment-881331
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10072014/#comment-846842
Easier to just add her to your list Morrisey.
She’d have been better off to have just fessed up and said she had no idea, and that she is disappointed and will make changes.
And IF, as she claims, the problem is a mere 1% of her business enterprise, and IF she has the concerns she claims she has, then I’d have expected her to forgo that 1%.
But then as I said yesterday, we should let Jim Mora’s “The Panel” resolve it all. She might even end up being the new Brian Edwards ‘on the back of’ a Gallery interview and resolution of an industrial dispute.
We could even call in Julie Christie to make a reality TV show of proceedings and she could clip the ticket to compensate for the loss of that 1%.
There ya go see @ Morrisey. Jim and his ‘The Panel’ have dealt with the issue and it’s now resolved.
End of story!
How could we have been so foolish as to have made such a mountain out of a molehill.
And btw ….. there’s no mole a bit of mascara can’t cover – even if it’s to highlight it as a fashion asset (going forward)
What sets apart Gaza from Gandhi and Martin Luther King is not that children participate in the Gaza marches…
…. but that unlike the British in India, and the white racists in the American South, only Israel targets and kills innocent children in demonstrations.
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/05/06/w%E2%80%8Bhat-sets-apart-gaza-from-gandhi-and-martin-luther-king-is-not-that-children-%E2%80%8Bparticipate-in-the-gaza-marches-but-that-unlike-the-british-in-india-and-the-white-racists-in-the-ameri/
I believe the Nazi’s killed children with impunity so Israel isn’t the only one here to be fair.
The Armenian genocide and Pol Pot’s genocide weren’t child friendly I believe – The Zionist murderers are hardly in stellar company though are they?
Add to that the famines England caused in Ireland (1840s) and in Bengal (1940s) – and that Russia caused in Ukraine (1930s) – still not good company for Bibi the Butcher to find himself in.
It’s not only Bibi. It’s the entire Israeli political class that’s involved in this, going right back to Ben Gurion.
You still slapping Jacinda around eh! You got other women to bash up too ?
I get the feeling you are full of something sick. Something we don’t need in Aoteoroa.
… This comment does not appear to have any connection to the comment it is replying to…
Well I’m in Auckland at the moment I will be a bit busy Duncan Ka kite ano
New job got pay the bills
Good evening Newshub adventure tourism is a great way to bring vip tourist to Aotearoa.
I had a good escort this morning on the way to Auckland Im working and I get to see my mokos and daughter at the same time the youngest is 4 months old she really chubby.
Football NZ is going to pay the Football Ferns I’m a bit late tonight Ka kite ano P.S sorry about the heat they are just a bunch of intimidating bullies just ignore them there intimidation does not work on ECO MAORI
Good morning Newshub it shows that the last government did not want to help our Pacific Islands slashing the aid we gave the. If we give aid for renewable energy this will solve two problems lower there carbon footprint and save them money. Our other Pacific Islands cousins ad a lot of good thing to OUR country.
The old Maori way was to try and give back better than what was received.
I say this is the way a society should behave. As for Trump and Iran there is always another story behind the seens like the trade sanctions they are being employed to slow China from catching the west Technology domanince.
Many thanks to the Labour government for there new Labour laws the big employers are just screwing the employee with there no minimum hours temporary contracts I no some one who has all the bills one has like rent ect one week she gets 2 days work and the next 5 how can one live on 2 days a week work when rents cost 2 days work to pay for it.
Ka kite ano
Well don brash ECO MAORI is going to change that phenomenon here’s a link.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/103716508/don-brash-joel-maxwells-on-the-wrong-side-of-history Ka kite ano
I thought Winston was a Maori he is stuck in the 1940 when Maori we tricked in to a believing that the crown had OUR wellbeing in there policy truth be told they just want us to disappear so they can have our Whenua heres the link.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/103716538/nanaia-mahuta-compulsory-te-reo-in-schools-not-if-but-when Ana to kai Ka kite ano
I no one can produce more with a few less cows it’s all about working smarter. Link below Ka kite ano
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/103716889/hold-your-heifers-for-all-of-david-parkers-problems-he-has-a-point many thanks to Our coalition government for taking the lead on this issue.