“The New Zealand dollar LIBOR (bbalibor) interest rate is the average interbank interest rate at which a large number of banks on the London money market are prepared to lend one another unsecured funds denominated in New Zealand dollars” and
“The New Zealand dollar LIBOR interest rate serves as a base rate for all sorts of other products such as savings accounts, mortgages and loans”
“The FSA has identified price-rigging dating back to 2005, yet some current and former traders say that problems go back much further than that. “Fifteen years ago the word was that LIBOR was being rigged,” says one industry veteran closely involved in the LIBOR process. “It was one of those well kept secrets, but the regulator was asleep, the Bank of England didn’t care and…[the banks participating were] happy with the reference prices.” Says another: “Going back to the late 1980s, when I was a trader, you saw some pretty odd fixings…With traders, if you don’t actually nail it down, they’ll steal it.””
Wasn’t our popular, esteemed leader a money-market trader during this period?
This article from Seumus Milne from The Guardian on the the thieving lying manipulative ‘get away with it if you can’ culture endemic in private sector banks…
Barclays bank and others fixed the lending rate on trillions of pounds of debt holdings. The result of this: borrowers & lenders pay more or receive less than they should have. Ultimately it’s consumers, companies & the economy that picks up the tab.
And the bank directors simply can’t see – or agree – that this is corruption on a massive scale….
A soon to be released study will show that the use of cannabis when young can lead to impaired intellectual ability at age 38 – this was mentioned last night during a debate by the director of the Dunedin Study.
It wasn’t made clear whether dopes smoke dope, or dope smoking makes you dopey – probably both.
The same may be said about excessive alcohol use – booze to bozoness?
PG the hairpiece smoked when he was young explains it all .
Alcohol does similar damage to formative minds.
The WHO research shows that putting up the minimum price reduces consumption significantly.Stopping glamorization (advertising ) also reduces consumption.
Nactuf don’t care about the harm it does their more worried about the harm to their electoral chance’s.
By george its about time they grew some.
What I care about is penalising many to address the abuses of a few.
CHAUVEL JUMPS GUN ON ALCOHOL LAW REFORMS
There are rumbles within Labour over MP Charles Chauvel promoting a minimum pricing regime for upcoming alcohol law changes as party policy.
TVNZ reported Labour had the numbers to pass the minimum pricing regime but it appears Mr Chauvel may not have all his colleagues on board, let alone the crucial votes of United Future and ACT.
pathetic Grovelar your just like an alcoholic.Every excuse under the sun.
You and your Tory mates are drug pushers.
Alcohol is NZs 2nd most dangerous drug.
PG your tacky coalition has no morality at all.
Allowing the Alcohol Industry to Glamorize and push
Cheap Alcohol onto young people so they get addicted.
Puts you up their with the likes of the mongrel mob black power bikie and other gangs
morally.
You live in Dunedin and see the results in the main St and university should know better but just keep pushing the pushers(alcohol industry) propaganda against a thorough cross party enquiry and over whelming evidence no wonder your so hated by most people on this site.
PG your in their back pocket.
It’s a pity your rant isn’t based on anything factual.
I’m looking for information, asking for information and promoting discussion. It’s a big and complex issue with no simple solutions. I’m aware we have massive problems with alcohol and as a society we need to address them better.
Throwing an over the top spaz like you’ve done here is about as counterproductive to getting anywhere that you can get.
What do you want to see happen in the Alcohol Reform Bill? I’ve got no idea, you’ve been too busy hallucinating.
But I like to buy a bottle of wine at $7 or $8. When Lianne Dalziel starts getting zealous about reducing alcohol consumption so people don’t get trashed I think she should be concentrating on RTDS and spirits and high alcohol fortified wine, sherry etc. I don’t think wine is so bad and it would take a lot for that quick feeling of silly, stupid, funny and don’t care that I think is the desire of binge drinkers.
It’s all very well for her on nearly $100,000 a year salary and reimbursements.
I get considerably less and like my Corbans white Muller Thurgau (although Austin Whatsisname said that was very passe’ when he came back to NZ. Wine snob!) The delicate traces of passionfruit flowers and hay with a touch of honey or whatever that I get from my cheap wine is pleasant and good enough for me. I don’t want to pay the price that Lianne would consider cheap.
How would it be that the pollies base pay is whatever the averge is for all NZs. Then add reasonable allowances, uses of taxis, transport etc with a cap on those. I think they need a reality check. And can we say that we haven’t got monkeys now that we are paying them quality nuts.
Quite agree. How many Labour voters have few pleasures left these days apart from a glass of wine here and there. Labour are determined to lose votes one way or another. Sort it out Labour, I cannot believe where they are coming from at times.
It’s not just Labour – in fact it’s not all Labour according to reports, there’s mixed feelings amongst Labour MPs and it’s a conscience vote for them – it’s a Green Party position and also a Maori Party position.
PG you should give up politics and start a waffle business.
How long did the parliamentary enquiry go on for.
How many tax payers Dollars were put into it.
Waffle on troll.
no wonder your so hated by most people on this site.
mike e, it’s got nothing to do with how I am, you hate the image you’ve created because that’s something you want to hate. But it’s nonsense. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you enter into a reasonable discussion here.
I read that a couple of cretins managed to put themselves in hospital last week after ‘hufffing’ gas from a 9kg bottle, so we clearly need to increase the price of filling gas bottles.
No petes solution would be to glamorise it on TV And make sure its available to as many young people as possible.Only maybe 1’000 people huff inNZ several million drink.
Alcohol damage is much worse its been identified in the enquiry as costing 5to6 billion dollars a year huffing even as a flying kiwi you must be huffing all the time would have a harm factor of less than a $million a year .
Now deaths attributted.Alcohol over 10 years 5to6 thousand deaths
Huffing 10 deaths.
What exactly is the point of comment 2? Apart from providing an opportunity for Pete to link to Pete’s blog, the comment is almost entirely useless. Without the actual research (which hasn’t been released yet) in front of us, there is nothing to discuss. And people can’t resist reacting to Pete’s hooks, so yet again we have another round of Georgiandrivel clogging up the start of Open Mike.
I’m grateful to RedFred for having gotten up earlier this morning than Pete.
“We needed to control their sovereign right to do whatever suited their fancy. The whole point of international law is to put limits around countries’ sovereignty on the basis of negotiated understandings.”
Little Timmy Grosser, the corporate poodle, and global government cheerleader!
And, of course, Groser’s focus is all on “free trade” benefiting NZ.
New Zealand’s problem had been the “excess sovereignty” other countries had exerted over it, such as introducing export subsidies, when it tried to diversify its markets away from Europe.
“Because we have operated in agriculture, in particular, where there were such inadequate legal frameworks internationally, people have just screwed us.
[…]
He said increased domestic wealth generated by free trade agreements meant New Zealand would be less reliant on foreign investment.
But the people who opposed foreign investment also opposed free trade agreements.
Concerns have been mounting over part of the deal which gives foreign investors power over countries.
The article doesn’t report him as saying anything about impact of social welfare, health, environment, etc. So which Kiwis benefit most from these deals, and which ones overall lose out?
Sound tom me like a benefit for the wealthy, losses in the extent of access to social welfare, health, clean living environment, affordable housing etc, for the majority.
Absolutely, Carol. I think a great deal could be added to your “etc” as concerns the majority! This morning’s Herald right wing columnists are in full flourish and as sickening as ever. Key is restored to all his (supposed) glory as he triumphs over the Aussies.
I am at a loss as to whether she is actually , completely clueless or corrupted now that these type of writings are all she is capable of!
Fran genuinely seems to believe that “business” and “winning”, are important, and use of quotes such as “NZ Envy”
“After years of “big brother little brother” sentiment about the transtasman relationship, it is good to see NZ politicians once again footing it in a competitive fashion”
Fran really does not (want to) see that what the Ozzies are holding out on in regards to the TPPA is, in fact the right thing. Too busy looking for anything that resembles “a win” by her team, even when that means selling out the country to business…
+1 Muzza. Groser’s loyalty is to Trade Agreements in themselves, not to New Zealanders and any advantage they might get from clever competent negotiation.
Putting Groser, a pure Trade wonk, into this role was stupid. Unlike Labour’s Jim Sutton or Phil Goff, who have mandates and experience as publically elected politicians, Groser would find gaming a negotiation for the benefit of working Kiwis abhorrent.
Key has sent a wee flawed mon into the TPPA gunfight armed with a butter knife. http://nzh.tw/10817941
I would say it was deliberate to send Groser to the negotiations, because they would have already “vetted” him in advance to see how weak he was, and know what his push back was going to be. These guys are all brothers, in it for themselves, thats as far as it goes. Little Timmy being on the world stage is about all he cares about, the fellating goes on, and the damage is going to be to the rest of this country, outside the few.
Once consessions are made, the door is open, and we can be reasonably sure what way the traffic flow!
Its just a stage in which the outcomes are already known…I understand that people don’t want to believe it, but how much more obvious does it have to bget, until people are going to stand up to these sorts of abuses?
Muz they will just give growsum a reefer and he will just agree to everything including the spin(dope Pun not intended).
They will give him the propaganda (spin again) lines to remember and he will blatantly lie to the public as these negotiations will not be released for 4 years because of commercial sensitivity the same old rip off bullshit that the US body corporate con us every time!
Maybe Petey George’s soon to be released study above is superfluous………Little Timmy Groser is ample proof.
No, Petey in his sneaky round about way is saying he supports dope testing for those ghastly beneficiaries. Groser doesn’t even address the matter of those ghastly beneficiaries.
You’re proving yourself to be the repeat liar there, absent any proof as usual. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.
Your stalking attack obsessions have been going for, what, nearly a year? That you seem to have a free pass to continue with immunity says quite a bit. Funny telling me to harden up from cowardly cover.
I guess you’re angling for me to be labelled the thread disruptor again. Try a mirror. What you keep doing reflects on you.
Ho ho, Pete. You can easily prove me wrong by supplying the evidence you claim to hold, yet, oddly, you don’t. That’s because you are a liar, Pete, and you can’t fudge that fact.
The good news is that it doesn’t affect your credibility; you have none.
I don’t have to prove anything – you repeat accusations with zero proof.
micky knows but has chosen to remain silent on it. I wouldn’t trust you with information because you have a record of ignoring facts to continue your cowardice. That’s not a good look with your Labour connections, is it.
Don’t blame other posters, Pete. Put up or shut up. If you aren’t a liar, defend yourself.
*For the benefit of younger readers, Pete lied about having the support of the Labour Party for his weak Super discussion site and has consistently refused to put up the evidence that he claims will clear him. This, despite the obvious fact that if Labour had endorsed it, there is no reason why the method of endorsement should be hidden. It can’t be both a public endorsement and a priviliged communication.
This is one of your more pathetic lines of attack, and as usual you don’t know when to give it up. Your accusation, no proof. I don’t have to do anything, with you especially.
I have contact with MPs. An email from Trevor Mallard yesterday (and others), from Charles Chauvel the day before. You just sound hissy, is that because it’s your party who talk to me? Do they ignore you?
You can stop me any time you choose to post the evidence that you are not a liar. But you can’t, you silly goose, because the evidence doesn’t exist.
Anyhoo, must dash, championship threepeats don’t win themselves and I’ve got to go do my weekly red faced, red nosed Alec Fergusson impression down the park. Hairdryers and squeaky bum time!
Sorry to upset you Petey………it was just a comment on your extraordinary ability to have dollars each way on everything……….but end up rooting for the right wing anyway……..usually. Just like your boss. Because despite your sham earnestness you’re a right winger who just wants power.
Having just read Gordon Campbell on Maher Arar (Google him), I now think that the Yanks cannot be trusted for anything and we should not sign any agreements with them.
I would go further and suggest that NZ get Dotcom to set up a file sharing system to distribute US music and US movies for free.
That’s a good article and spot on about the memories of the MSM. As for the US administration, I realised some time ago that they habitually break both international and their law and get away with it. As they get away with it it becomes even more embedded in the corrupt culture that is the US administration and it then gets copied to other administrations – our present government is a case in point. Being able to do so is part of the trappings of the height of power in every empire ever recorded.
Doom and gloom merchants may have to take a back seat for a month or two after the Government accounts released yesterday showed an improvement in both corporate tax and GST for the 11 months ended May.
The accounts show that core Crown tax revenue in the 11 months was $50.54 billion, up 1.3% on the Budget economic fiscal update figure of $49.87 billion.
More startling was that the tax take in the year to May was 6.7% higher than the $47.4 billion collected in the previous corresponding period – again throwing doubt on the accuracy of Treasury figures.
The May 2012 operating balance before losses and gains (obegal) was an improvement at a deficit of $5.9 billion compared with a Treasury forecast of $7 billion.
Finance Minister Bill English has been one of the most conservative commentators on his own figures but was moved yesterday to call the reduction in the operating deficit “encouraging” – with a caveat.
“But the global environment remains uncertain, leading to a number of fluctuations in the tax take from month to month.”
Perhaps another sign that we are coming out of the worst of the economic woes. We just have to keep hoping the wider economic world doesn’t custardise.
Now we have the green “I don’t drive a car” politician Gareth Hughes flying to Europe on a tax payer funded junket, for what? They are all the same ……… bloody politicians are full of shit
RA this parliamentary exchange has been occurring for maybe 50 to 60 years.
Its apart of helping democracies flourish at 160,000 dollars its cheap compared to the bio security fuck up on nationals cost cutting at bio security of $400 million which the government could be liable for as they made many mistakes which allowed the psa virus to damage the kiwifruit crop. now farmers are suing biosecurity .
Because of staff and funding cuts.
Regardless of how long it has been running – Gareth Hughes – the green MP likes to go on about how good to the planet he is by not owning a car, yet he is responsible for helping to create at least 2 more humans (the most environment destroying species on the planet), and he is lying to us about Kiwi Saver, and flying to Europe. We are in the age of video conferencing and Skype, surly a GREEN MP doesn’t have to fly anywhere?
Maybe the greeds can launch an inquiry into the size of each party’s foot print? Over what they actually do in parliament verses what they consume.
Anyone remotely concerned that the money people are turning our natural gas into methanol and exporting it, I guess as the population starves to death we will not need to heat empty houses.
RA the synfuel plant has been moth balled for many years as far as I know.
Most of our excess of natural gas that’s not used for heating commercial or domestic is being used for generating electricity
Mike, they have just spent $100 million de mothballing it, and don’t New Zealanders use electricity to heat their homes?
Oh and if he does own a car, it wouldn’t surprise me that he lied about it, you know politician and all that, maybe the car is in the dogs name, and they just borrow it?
I’m not sure whether it’s irony, humour, cynicism or silliness… Karl Marx was recently chosen from a list of 10 contenders to appear on a new issue of MasterCard by customers of German bank Sparkasse in Chemnitz.
Perhaps these quotes may shed light on the rebirth of some ideas:
Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.
Marx
The more the division of labor and the application of machinery extend, the more does competition extend among the workers, the more do their wages shrink together.
Marx
Political Economy regards the proletarian … like a horse, he must receive enough to enable him to work. It does not consider him, during the time when he is not working, as a human being. It leaves this to criminal law, doctors, religion, statistical tables, politics, and the beadle.
Little Johny Howard talking to Little Johny Key on TV last night about State Asset sales ” Private ownership is always more efficient, that’s a truism” . Gordon Campbell on Private Public Partnerships so favoured by Shonkey and his lot, in England they cost 12 times more than purely State run Assets!
Funny that.
I doubt that, this is about acquisition of assets and the “little folks” will be swept aside either by persuasion or forcing circumstances to lead to the same goal. Watch and learn.
You mean aged blowhard Ozzie fuck black liar “they throw their babies overboard” Little Johnny Howard ? A prime candidate for the Ponce’s affections, of course.
They really are a scam. One of the parties in the partnership that won the Hobsonville school PPP contract is an Aus property management company. They get a guaranteed income for a quarter of a century. So much for competitive tenders.
The whole bunch were pretty scary.Certainly Key was looking very comfortable with Howard and his far Right cronies. I rememeber Yasmin Brown saying on “Dateline London ” that the two most dangerous men in the world were Bush and Howard. I have said before that Key is dangerous and watching him with Howard confirms that. The nuclear issue , privatisation , low wages are what they have in common ,and dont forget their ghastly beliefs on refuges, in nutshell as both have said “we
dont want you here. Even if it means drowning.
The whole bunch were pretty scary.Certainly Key was looking very comfortable with Howard and his far Right cronies. I rememeber Yasmin Brown saying on “Dateline London ” that the two most dangerous men in the world were Bush and Howard. I have said before that Key is dangerous and watching him with Howard confirms that. The nuclear issue , privatisation , low wages are what they have in common ,and dont forget their ghastly beliefs on refuges, in nutshell as both have said “we
dont want you here. Even if it means drowning.
On Radionz this morning grilled by Kim Hill – he was some hot potato! Be ready to think important and uneasy thoughts.
(There were many good thinkers and talkers this a.am.)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
11:05 Guy McPherson http://guymcpherson.com/
Conservation biologist Guy McPherson is Emeritus Professor, Natural Resources and the Environment, at the University of Arizona, and lives off the grid in a straw bale house in New Mexico, raising small livestock and interacting with his rural community. He is visiting New Zealand as keynote speaker for the School Executive Officers’ Conference 2012 (4-6 July).
The case has been described as “destroying the savings and affecting the mental health” of a group of people whose retirement plans have been ruined . . the scheme was an early public-private partnership using private money to underwrite a public project.
We’re usually compliant with anything said from ‘overseas’ and especially the USA. But now overseas scientists, according to Steven Joyce are ‘silly’ to complain that a drop in NIWA scientists doing important climate change ozone hole monitoring will make a hole in the science network studying this. ‘Silly’, a new scientific word for describing low scientific priorities. Meanwhile SPARC will probably get big bucks as usual.
Quite frankly, Stephen “Juvenile and Silly” Joyce should desist from name-calling and, in his own word, “respect” the comment from the internationally respected Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS), as well as explain how job cuts will not compromise the valuable work NIWA has been doing.
The city where the Waldo Canyon fire destroyed 346 homes and forced more than 34,000 residents to evacuate turned off one-third of its streetlights two years ago, halted park maintenance and cut services to close a $28 million budget gap after sales-tax revenue plummeted and voters rejected a property-tax increase.
The municipality, at 416,000 the state’s second-largest, auctioned both its police helicopters and shrank public-safety ranks through attrition by about 8 percent; it has 50 fewer police and 39 fewer firefighters than five years ago. More than 180 National Guard troops have been mobilized to secure the city after the state’s most destructive fire. At least 32 evacuated homes were burglarized and dozens of evacuees’ cars were broken into, said Police Chief Pete Carey.
“It has impacted the response,” said Karin White, a 54- year-old accountant, who returned home June 28 to a looted and vandalized house, with a treasured, century-old family heirloom smashed.
i’m truly sorry for those who lost their homes, but will the libertarian mayor and populace recognise that the ‘market’ isn’t going to help them to fight fires and rebuild their city… or will they just see what they can screw out of the US federal system…
The sentence is in addition to others that had already received the former dictator.
The former dictator Jorge Videla of Argentina (1976-1981) was sentenced Thursday to 50 years in prison, while the former dictator Reynaldo Bignone (1982-1983) to 15 years in prison, guilty of a systematic theft of babies, children of prisoners -disappeared, said the court.
“Sentencing the former general Jorge Videla (86 years) to 50 years imprisonment (…) and the former general Reynaldo Bignone (84) to 15 years,” read the court’s president, Mary Roqueta, before a packed room in the presence Estela de Carlotto, the leader of the humanitarian organization Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.
Hundreds of relatives of the victims, grandmothers and grandchildren recovered by humanitarian activists celebrated the verdict with shouts and chants, amid scenes of tears and relief against a giant screen installed in the door of the Courts.
For the implementation of the system and change of identity theft of minors were other judgments to different jail terms between 40 and 15 years, other agents exjerarcas and dictatorial (1976-1983), including a military doctor that operated on midwife clandestine maternity scheme.
Videla just confessed in a book “about 7 or 8 thousand people had to die” in the repression of opponents and is serving two life sentences in common cell for crimes against humanity, so that the Court decided on Thursday to unify the penalties to maintain life in prison.
About Bignone (84 years) also weighs a sentence of imprisonment and a sentence of 25 years in prison in two other trials for serious human rights violations.
A far more satisfying and just outcome than that for the dictators of Iraq and Libya. Who were murdered judicially (or ex-judicially) keeping their crimes and their accomplices secret.
All human rights abusers take note. No matter how much you think you have the support of the rulers of your nation and your backers and supporters. One day all your support networks will fall away and you will be held to account for your actions
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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 ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Photo by Jari Hytönen on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
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. ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto A shift to hybrid and remote work continues to affect worker presence in Toronto’s downtown.(Shutterstock) Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
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Wondering if we are being screwed, me too.
“The New Zealand dollar LIBOR (bbalibor) interest rate is the average interbank interest rate at which a large number of banks on the London money market are prepared to lend one another unsecured funds denominated in New Zealand dollars” and
“The New Zealand dollar LIBOR interest rate serves as a base rate for all sorts of other products such as savings accounts, mortgages and loans”
http://www.global-rates.com/interest-rates/libor/new-zealand-dollar/new-zealand-dollar.aspx
From http://www.economist.com/node/21558281 – “The rotten heart of finance”
“The FSA has identified price-rigging dating back to 2005, yet some current and former traders say that problems go back much further than that. “Fifteen years ago the word was that LIBOR was being rigged,” says one industry veteran closely involved in the LIBOR process. “It was one of those well kept secrets, but the regulator was asleep, the Bank of England didn’t care and…[the banks participating were] happy with the reference prices.” Says another: “Going back to the late 1980s, when I was a trader, you saw some pretty odd fixings…With traders, if you don’t actually nail it down, they’ll steal it.””
Wasn’t our popular, esteemed leader a money-market trader during this period?
That’s right and he’s now trying to steal our State Assets.
This article from Seumus Milne from The Guardian on the the thieving lying manipulative ‘get away with it if you can’ culture endemic in private sector banks…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/03/private-banks-failed-barclays-scandal
Barclays bank and others fixed the lending rate on trillions of pounds of debt holdings. The result of this: borrowers & lenders pay more or receive less than they should have. Ultimately it’s consumers, companies & the economy that picks up the tab.
And the bank directors simply can’t see – or agree – that this is corruption on a massive scale….
To them its not corruption, its business as usual.
Dope to dope
A soon to be released study will show that the use of cannabis when young can lead to impaired intellectual ability at age 38 – this was mentioned last night during a debate by the director of the Dunedin Study.
It wasn’t made clear whether dopes smoke dope, or dope smoking makes you dopey – probably both.
The same may be said about excessive alcohol use – booze to bozoness?
http://yournz.org/2012/07/07/dope-to-dope/
PG the hairpiece smoked when he was young explains it all .
Alcohol does similar damage to formative minds.
The WHO research shows that putting up the minimum price reduces consumption significantly.Stopping glamorization (advertising ) also reduces consumption.
Nactuf don’t care about the harm it does their more worried about the harm to their electoral chance’s.
By george its about time they grew some.
What I care about is penalising many to address the abuses of a few.
It sounds like some in Labour have already woken up to how unpopular doubling the price of wine and beer will be amongst there own voters.
Problems should be targeted, nanny state shouldn’t be imposed on everyone.
The Green Party hasn’t looked at the Labour proposals yet (according to spokesperson Kevin Hague).
They support “all the measures in Te Ururoa’s SOP” – the Maori Party proposals.
pathetic Grovelar your just like an alcoholic.Every excuse under the sun.
You and your Tory mates are drug pushers.
Alcohol is NZs 2nd most dangerous drug.
PG your tacky coalition has no morality at all.
Allowing the Alcohol Industry to Glamorize and push
Cheap Alcohol onto young people so they get addicted.
Puts you up their with the likes of the mongrel mob black power bikie and other gangs
morally.
You live in Dunedin and see the results in the main St and university should know better but just keep pushing the pushers(alcohol industry) propaganda against a thorough cross party enquiry and over whelming evidence no wonder your so hated by most people on this site.
PG your in their back pocket.
It’s a pity your rant isn’t based on anything factual.
I’m looking for information, asking for information and promoting discussion. It’s a big and complex issue with no simple solutions. I’m aware we have massive problems with alcohol and as a society we need to address them better.
Throwing an over the top spaz like you’ve done here is about as counterproductive to getting anywhere that you can get.
What do you want to see happen in the Alcohol Reform Bill? I’ve got no idea, you’ve been too busy hallucinating.
Good minimising of the massive harm and costs alcohol inflicts across ALL of society.
But I like to buy a bottle of wine at $7 or $8. When Lianne Dalziel starts getting zealous about reducing alcohol consumption so people don’t get trashed I think she should be concentrating on RTDS and spirits and high alcohol fortified wine, sherry etc. I don’t think wine is so bad and it would take a lot for that quick feeling of silly, stupid, funny and don’t care that I think is the desire of binge drinkers.
It’s all very well for her on nearly $100,000 a year salary and reimbursements.
I get considerably less and like my Corbans white Muller Thurgau (although Austin Whatsisname said that was very passe’ when he came back to NZ. Wine snob!) The delicate traces of passionfruit flowers and hay with a touch of honey or whatever that I get from my cheap wine is pleasant and good enough for me. I don’t want to pay the price that Lianne would consider cheap.
MP base pay is $141K pa or thereabouts.
How would it be that the pollies base pay is whatever the averge is for all NZs. Then add reasonable allowances, uses of taxis, transport etc with a cap on those. I think they need a reality check. And can we say that we haven’t got monkeys now that we are paying them quality nuts.
Quite agree. How many Labour voters have few pleasures left these days apart from a glass of wine here and there. Labour are determined to lose votes one way or another. Sort it out Labour, I cannot believe where they are coming from at times.
It’s not just Labour – in fact it’s not all Labour according to reports, there’s mixed feelings amongst Labour MPs and it’s a conscience vote for them – it’s a Green Party position and also a Maori Party position.
PG you should give up politics and start a waffle business.
How long did the parliamentary enquiry go on for.
How many tax payers Dollars were put into it.
Waffle on troll.
‘What I care about is penalising many to address the abuses of a few.’
This is exactly how most of us feel about you and your party’s support of asset sales.
no wonder your so hated by most people on this site.
mike e, it’s got nothing to do with how I am, you hate the image you’ve created because that’s something you want to hate. But it’s nonsense. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you enter into a reasonable discussion here.
Mmm, waffles, delicious! (Keep the troll though, it’ll spoil the taste.) 😀
I read that a couple of cretins managed to put themselves in hospital last week after ‘hufffing’ gas from a 9kg bottle, so we clearly need to increase the price of filling gas bottles.
No petes solution would be to glamorise it on TV And make sure its available to as many young people as possible.Only maybe 1’000 people huff inNZ several million drink.
Alcohol damage is much worse its been identified in the enquiry as costing 5to6 billion dollars a year huffing even as a flying kiwi you must be huffing all the time would have a harm factor of less than a $million a year .
Now deaths attributted.Alcohol over 10 years 5to6 thousand deaths
Huffing 10 deaths.
for those who would like a more balanced breakfast than the current bowls of reefer madness that are being offered. . .
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/05/study-the-gateway-drug-is-alcohol-not-marijuana/
One of the most obvious deflections of all time of its type, is the lie that pot is the gateway drug..
Alcohol, has been, and will always be, the gateway drug to other substances, whatever they might be.
The blantant spin and lies around this disgraceful, as if alchohol is not the first drug that most will encounter!
What exactly is the point of comment 2? Apart from providing an opportunity for Pete to link to Pete’s blog, the comment is almost entirely useless. Without the actual research (which hasn’t been released yet) in front of us, there is nothing to discuss. And people can’t resist reacting to Pete’s hooks, so yet again we have another round of Georgiandrivel clogging up the start of Open Mike.
I’m grateful to RedFred for having gotten up earlier this morning than Pete.
Of course trade agreements involve concessions over the sovereign rights of countries to do things,” he told the Weekend Herald. ” That’s the point of international law.”
“We needed to control their sovereign right to do whatever suited their fancy. The whole point of international law is to put limits around countries’ sovereignty on the basis of negotiated understandings.”
Little Timmy Grosser, the corporate poodle, and global government cheerleader!
And, of course, Groser’s focus is all on “free trade” benefiting NZ.
The article doesn’t report him as saying anything about impact of social welfare, health, environment, etc. So which Kiwis benefit most from these deals, and which ones overall lose out?
Sound tom me like a benefit for the wealthy, losses in the extent of access to social welfare, health, clean living environment, affordable housing etc, for the majority.
Will be able to keep its labour/employment laws, or will they be “in the way”?
Absolutely, Carol. I think a great deal could be added to your “etc” as concerns the majority! This morning’s Herald right wing columnists are in full flourish and as sickening as ever. Key is restored to all his (supposed) glory as he triumphs over the Aussies.
DT – Just read FOS’s article,
I am at a loss as to whether she is actually , completely clueless or corrupted now that these type of writings are all she is capable of!
Fran genuinely seems to believe that “business” and “winning”, are important, and use of quotes such as “NZ Envy”
“After years of “big brother little brother” sentiment about the transtasman relationship, it is good to see NZ politicians once again footing it in a competitive fashion”
Fran really does not (want to) see that what the Ozzies are holding out on in regards to the TPPA is, in fact the right thing. Too busy looking for anything that resembles “a win” by her team, even when that means selling out the country to business…
Well done Fran, you are a bloody idiot!
Quoting article:
Yeah, there’s a reason for that – they’re essentially the same thing.
+1 Muzza. Groser’s loyalty is to Trade Agreements in themselves, not to New Zealanders and any advantage they might get from clever competent negotiation.
Putting Groser, a pure Trade wonk, into this role was stupid. Unlike Labour’s Jim Sutton or Phil Goff, who have mandates and experience as publically elected politicians, Groser would find gaming a negotiation for the benefit of working Kiwis abhorrent.
Key has sent a wee flawed mon into the TPPA gunfight armed with a butter knife.
http://nzh.tw/10817941
I would say it was deliberate to send Groser to the negotiations, because they would have already “vetted” him in advance to see how weak he was, and know what his push back was going to be. These guys are all brothers, in it for themselves, thats as far as it goes. Little Timmy being on the world stage is about all he cares about, the fellating goes on, and the damage is going to be to the rest of this country, outside the few.
Once consessions are made, the door is open, and we can be reasonably sure what way the traffic flow!
Its just a stage in which the outcomes are already known…I understand that people don’t want to believe it, but how much more obvious does it have to bget, until people are going to stand up to these sorts of abuses?
Muz they will just give growsum a reefer and he will just agree to everything including the spin(dope Pun not intended).
They will give him the propaganda (spin again) lines to remember and he will blatantly lie to the public as these negotiations will not be released for 4 years because of commercial sensitivity the same old rip off bullshit that the US body corporate con us every time!
Maybe Petey George’s soon to be released study above is superfluous………Little Timmy Groser is ample proof.
No, Petey in his sneaky round about way is saying he supports dope testing for those ghastly beneficiaries. Groser doesn’t even address the matter of those ghastly beneficiaries.
That’s a blatantly false attribution, I didn’t say (or intend to say) anything like that.
Harden up, Pete, it’s an opinion, not an attribution. You know the difference, being a proven liar yourself.
You’re proving yourself to be the repeat liar there, absent any proof as usual. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.
Your stalking attack obsessions have been going for, what, nearly a year? That you seem to have a free pass to continue with immunity says quite a bit. Funny telling me to harden up from cowardly cover.
I guess you’re angling for me to be labelled the thread disruptor again. Try a mirror. What you keep doing reflects on you.
PG stalking and lying about alcohol and Dunny can’t do anything.
Yeah right right you need winding up. when youcan’t stop blatantly BSing .
Ho ho, Pete. You can easily prove me wrong by supplying the evidence you claim to hold, yet, oddly, you don’t. That’s because you are a liar, Pete, and you can’t fudge that fact.
The good news is that it doesn’t affect your credibility; you have none.
I don’t have to prove anything – you repeat accusations with zero proof.
micky knows but has chosen to remain silent on it. I wouldn’t trust you with information because you have a record of ignoring facts to continue your cowardice. That’s not a good look with your Labour connections, is it.
Don’t blame other posters, Pete. Put up or shut up. If you aren’t a liar, defend yourself.
*For the benefit of younger readers, Pete lied about having the support of the Labour Party for his weak Super discussion site and has consistently refused to put up the evidence that he claims will clear him. This, despite the obvious fact that if Labour had endorsed it, there is no reason why the method of endorsement should be hidden. It can’t be both a public endorsement and a priviliged communication.
This is one of your more pathetic lines of attack, and as usual you don’t know when to give it up. Your accusation, no proof. I don’t have to do anything, with you especially.
I have contact with MPs. An email from Trevor Mallard yesterday (and others), from Charles Chauvel the day before. You just sound hissy, is that because it’s your party who talk to me? Do they ignore you?
PG Are you sure you didn’t talk to your mummy as well.
You can stop me any time you choose to post the evidence that you are not a liar. But you can’t, you silly goose, because the evidence doesn’t exist.
Anyhoo, must dash, championship threepeats don’t win themselves and I’ve got to go do my weekly red faced, red nosed Alec Fergusson impression down the park. Hairdryers and squeaky bum time!
Seconded, Pete! (One of the few times I agree with you). He drives me mental, and gets away with all sorts of nastiness, I have no clue why!
Satire poor little pete!
Sorry to upset you Petey………it was just a comment on your extraordinary ability to have dollars each way on everything……….but end up rooting for the right wing anyway……..usually. Just like your boss. Because despite your sham earnestness you’re a right winger who just wants power.
Having just read Gordon Campbell on Maher Arar (Google him), I now think that the Yanks cannot be trusted for anything and we should not sign any agreements with them.
I would go further and suggest that NZ get Dotcom to set up a file sharing system to distribute US music and US movies for free.
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2012/07/05/gordon-campbell-on-the-lack-of-context-and-love-of-tears-in-our-news-bulletins/
That’s a good article and spot on about the memories of the MSM. As for the US administration, I realised some time ago that they habitually break both international and their law and get away with it. As they get away with it it becomes even more embedded in the corrupt culture that is the US administration and it then gets copied to other administrations – our present government is a case in point. Being able to do so is part of the trappings of the height of power in every empire ever recorded.
A sign of economic improvement??
Perhaps another sign that we are coming out of the worst of the economic woes. We just have to keep hoping the wider economic world doesn’t custardise.
No dickhead the global situation is in fact deteriorating!
We are not immune down here!
How is our debt situation looking!
Yeah. Peak debt and peak oil are landing body blows on the global economy. PG: about the world economy, even a dead body can twitch.
Now we have the green “I don’t drive a car” politician Gareth Hughes flying to Europe on a tax payer funded junket, for what? They are all the same ……… bloody politicians are full of shit
Suckling on the taxpayers tit for their own personal benefit is one thing that they all agree on.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/215353/speakers-tour-cost-158000
Damn their eyes !!
Pathetic Grovelar RA thisOne quarter of economic growth in seven years as finance minister still makes Dipstick the worst finance minister ever.
RA this parliamentary exchange has been occurring for maybe 50 to 60 years.
Its apart of helping democracies flourish at 160,000 dollars its cheap compared to the bio security fuck up on nationals cost cutting at bio security of $400 million which the government could be liable for as they made many mistakes which allowed the psa virus to damage the kiwifruit crop. now farmers are suing biosecurity .
Because of staff and funding cuts.
Regardless of how long it has been running – Gareth Hughes – the green MP likes to go on about how good to the planet he is by not owning a car, yet he is responsible for helping to create at least 2 more humans (the most environment destroying species on the planet), and he is lying to us about Kiwi Saver, and flying to Europe. We are in the age of video conferencing and Skype, surly a GREEN MP doesn’t have to fly anywhere?
Maybe the greeds can launch an inquiry into the size of each party’s foot print? Over what they actually do in parliament verses what they consume.
Anyone remotely concerned that the money people are turning our natural gas into methanol and exporting it, I guess as the population starves to death we will not need to heat empty houses.
RA the synfuel plant has been moth balled for many years as far as I know.
Most of our excess of natural gas that’s not used for heating commercial or domestic is being used for generating electricity
Mike, they have just spent $100 million de mothballing it, and don’t New Zealanders use electricity to heat their homes?
Oh and if he does own a car, it wouldn’t surprise me that he lied about it, you know politician and all that, maybe the car is in the dogs name, and they just borrow it?
I’m pretty sure he does own a car, at least there’s one parked outside his house and I’m sure I’ve seen his family getting into it.
I’m not sure whether it’s irony, humour, cynicism or silliness…
Karl Marx was recently chosen from a list of 10 contenders to appear on a new issue of MasterCard by customers of German bank Sparkasse in Chemnitz.
Perhaps these quotes may shed light on the rebirth of some ideas:
Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.
Marx
The more the division of labor and the application of machinery extend, the more does competition extend among the workers, the more do their wages shrink together.
Marx
Political Economy regards the proletarian … like a horse, he must receive enough to enable him to work. It does not consider him, during the time when he is not working, as a human being. It leaves this to criminal law, doctors, religion, statistical tables, politics, and the beadle.
Marx, Wages of Labour (1844)
Little Johny Howard talking to Little Johny Key on TV last night about State Asset sales ” Private ownership is always more efficient, that’s a truism” . Gordon Campbell on Private Public Partnerships so favoured by Shonkey and his lot, in England they cost 12 times more than purely State run Assets!
Funny that.
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2012/07/06/gordon-campbell-on-private-sector-delivery-as-an-inter-generational-scam/
Hope the morons in Treasury take note.
I doubt that, this is about acquisition of assets and the “little folks” will be swept aside either by persuasion or forcing circumstances to lead to the same goal. Watch and learn.
You mean aged blowhard Ozzie fuck black liar “they throw their babies overboard” Little Johnny Howard ? A prime candidate for the Ponce’s affections, of course.
They really are a scam. One of the parties in the partnership that won the Hobsonville school PPP contract is an Aus property management company. They get a guaranteed income for a quarter of a century. So much for competitive tenders.
The whole bunch were pretty scary.Certainly Key was looking very comfortable with Howard and his far Right cronies. I rememeber Yasmin Brown saying on “Dateline London ” that the two most dangerous men in the world were Bush and Howard. I have said before that Key is dangerous and watching him with Howard confirms that. The nuclear issue , privatisation , low wages are what they have in common ,and dont forget their ghastly beliefs on refuges, in nutshell as both have said “we
dont want you here. Even if it means drowning.
The whole bunch were pretty scary.Certainly Key was looking very comfortable with Howard and his far Right cronies. I rememeber Yasmin Brown saying on “Dateline London ” that the two most dangerous men in the world were Bush and Howard. I have said before that Key is dangerous and watching him with Howard confirms that. The nuclear issue , privatisation , low wages are what they have in common ,and dont forget their ghastly beliefs on refuges, in nutshell as both have said “we
dont want you here. Even if it means drowning.
On Radionz this morning grilled by Kim Hill – he was some hot potato! Be ready to think important and uneasy thoughts.
(There were many good thinkers and talkers this a.am.)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
11:05 Guy McPherson http://guymcpherson.com/
Conservation biologist Guy McPherson is Emeritus Professor, Natural Resources and the Environment, at the University of Arizona, and lives off the grid in a straw bale house in New Mexico, raising small livestock and interacting with his rural community. He is visiting New Zealand as keynote speaker for the School Executive Officers’ Conference 2012 (4-6 July).
Very interesting, and a good mix of political and environmental understanding as well as having intelligent solutions.
“The industrial world is irredeemably corrupt”
Interesting he doesn’t like public health via tax.
When MoM goes bad . . .
Public pays for court clash over flats
The case has been described as “destroying the savings and affecting the mental health” of a group of people whose retirement plans have been ruined . . the scheme was an early public-private partnership using private money to underwrite a public project.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10817969
We’re usually compliant with anything said from ‘overseas’ and especially the USA. But now overseas scientists, according to Steven Joyce are ‘silly’ to complain that a drop in NIWA scientists doing important climate change ozone hole monitoring will make a hole in the science network studying this. ‘Silly’, a new scientific word for describing low scientific priorities. Meanwhile SPARC will probably get big bucks as usual.
Quite frankly, Stephen “Juvenile and Silly” Joyce should desist from name-calling and, in his own word, “respect” the comment from the internationally respected Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS), as well as explain how job cuts will not compromise the valuable work NIWA has been doing.
Is this what we can look forward to after the sale of our energy companies?
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jul2012/heat-j06.shtml
Here’s a pic of the auction held at John Key’s house today:
http://i49.tinypic.com/167p8gp.jpg
It was announced that the house was bought by Kim Dotcom.
Wonderful, LOL! And is that a cardboard cutout Bennett that I can see there? Not an Aucklander, so a little more info would be welcome………..
Another outstanding turnout
Yes there were several cardboard cutouts:
http://i49.tinypic.com/2hxvv4p.jpg
It was an excellent protest. It was covered by TV1 and TV3 and Radio NZ and Sky and the Herald and Stuff.
Good one Jay.Great work. Would have liked to been there. (Had to work that day.)
Memo to Bronagh – next house should have a front and back driveway. Oh, don’t worry we’ll be out of here soon anyway.
Who would’ve thunk.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-02/wildfire-tests-police-force-in-colorado-anti-tax-movement-s-home.html
The city where the Waldo Canyon fire destroyed 346 homes and forced more than 34,000 residents to evacuate turned off one-third of its streetlights two years ago, halted park maintenance and cut services to close a $28 million budget gap after sales-tax revenue plummeted and voters rejected a property-tax increase.
The municipality, at 416,000 the state’s second-largest, auctioned both its police helicopters and shrank public-safety ranks through attrition by about 8 percent; it has 50 fewer police and 39 fewer firefighters than five years ago. More than 180 National Guard troops have been mobilized to secure the city after the state’s most destructive fire. At least 32 evacuated homes were burglarized and dozens of evacuees’ cars were broken into, said Police Chief Pete Carey.
“It has impacted the response,” said Karin White, a 54- year-old accountant, who returned home June 28 to a looted and vandalized house, with a treasured, century-old family heirloom smashed.
edit: this too
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=753
i’m truly sorry for those who lost their homes, but will the libertarian mayor and populace recognise that the ‘market’ isn’t going to help them to fight fires and rebuild their city… or will they just see what they can screw out of the US federal system…
I hear the invisible hand materialising new subdivisions as we speak.
Good riddance.
Google translation
The sentence is in addition to others that had already received the former dictator.
The former dictator Jorge Videla of Argentina (1976-1981) was sentenced Thursday to 50 years in prison, while the former dictator Reynaldo Bignone (1982-1983) to 15 years in prison, guilty of a systematic theft of babies, children of prisoners -disappeared, said the court.
“Sentencing the former general Jorge Videla (86 years) to 50 years imprisonment (…) and the former general Reynaldo Bignone (84) to 15 years,” read the court’s president, Mary Roqueta, before a packed room in the presence Estela de Carlotto, the leader of the humanitarian organization Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.
Hundreds of relatives of the victims, grandmothers and grandchildren recovered by humanitarian activists celebrated the verdict with shouts and chants, amid scenes of tears and relief against a giant screen installed in the door of the Courts.
For the implementation of the system and change of identity theft of minors were other judgments to different jail terms between 40 and 15 years, other agents exjerarcas and dictatorial (1976-1983), including a military doctor that operated on midwife clandestine maternity scheme.
Videla just confessed in a book “about 7 or 8 thousand people had to die” in the repression of opponents and is serving two life sentences in common cell for crimes against humanity, so that the Court decided on Thursday to unify the penalties to maintain life in prison.
About Bignone (84 years) also weighs a sentence of imprisonment and a sentence of 25 years in prison in two other trials for serious human rights violations.
A far more satisfying and just outcome than that for the dictators of Iraq and Libya. Who were murdered judicially (or ex-judicially) keeping their crimes and their accomplices secret.
All human rights abusers take note. No matter how much you think you have the support of the rulers of your nation and your backers and supporters. One day all your support networks will fall away and you will be held to account for your actions