I disagree, though, when he says Cunliffe is capable of forging a new political, economic and social consensus. I think he had three years to do that as Labour finance spokesman and failed to make any impact. Some might say he didn’t have support but Ruth Richardson managed to completely transform National as opposition finance spokesperson between 1987 and 1990 and that was against the wishes of the party hierarchy. I also don’t really think Cunliffe is genuinely as left as he tells activists. I think that’s just to give them a bit of a thrill.
Thanks for your considered and helpful views Matthew.
I am sure they are motivated by the best of intentions and the desire to make the next Government more left wing and sensitive to the environmental issues that we face, particularly in relation to climate change.
EDIT
I am also interested in your response to this passage in Trotter’s post:
“Hence the near unanimous hatred directed at Cunliffe by the mouthpieces of the neoliberal establishment. Fran O’Sullivan, Jane Clifton and Matthew Hooton have gone to extraordinary lengths to besmirch Cunliffe’s character and ridicule his ideas. In a pincer movement with Shearer’s caucus allies they have attempted to cast the Member for New Lynn as a sly, egomaniacal (if ultimately inept) Cassius, plotting constantly to bring down Labour’s sensible Caesar.”
Not sure what “extraordinary lengths” I have gone to. I have always thought he is a nice enough fellow. It’s the people at MFAT and in Labour who I know who have worked with him to seem to hate him for his pomposity and laziness – but I don’t know him well enough to have personally observed these traits.
I know who have worked with him to seem to hate him for his pomposity and laziness – but I don’t know him well enough to have personally observed these traits.
Christ – disingenuous or what? “I’m not going to say bad things about him, but wait – I’m going to pass on nasty gossip about him from other people”.
If Hooton were in Parliament, he’d set all-new records for getting thrown out of the House for constant “I personally wouldn’t call the Member a Nazi because it’s unparliamentary, but …” shenanigans.
TIM!!!! (@ Karol and the womderfuly like=moded) /…….I thought you said you wern’t gunna comment nemor…….
True. It’s just that stating the bleeid ng obvious is SO hard – worse than giving up smoking.
When is it that Spin Doctores like Hooten and others are not actually as clever as most would have you believe -I’ll wager most think the guy is actually irrelevant and the past participle of te spent brigade (“going fprward”).
The real problem is a defunct MSM. ………being challenged daily
Oh so you don’t think that, ‘not knowing Cunliffe well enough to observe these traits’ while at the same time claiming that that you ‘think’ that Cunliffe is not as ‘left’ as what He tells activists isn’t besmirching Cunliffe’s character,
It’s just a series of unfounded pieces of Bullshit dredged up from the mind of someone that when the high priests of Torydom were dishing out the silver spoons shoved your one a long way into the wrong orifice where it’s obviously still lodged…
Seriously tho’, his associations with neonazis and racists is something far less funny and something that needs exposure to sunlight.
I personally don’t think that Hooton is a neo-nazi… I just see that he’s a completely amoral money-grubber who has no qualms about shilling for work amongst them until the media spotlight shows just how evil they are and how that’s not a “good look” for Effluvium.
Hooten says he doesn’t know him (Cunliffe) well enough to have personally observed these traits (pomposity and laziness).
Well I have observed totally different traits in Cunliffe, and I do not believe he is what the MSM and others are making him out to be – lazy, traitorous, unlikeable etc etc etc.
As an example :
We had an extraordinary public meeting in Whangarei during the last (2011) election campaign.
We held it in a school hall in the middle of a Decile 1, low income, state housing area with a population predominantly Maori., and had a large audience.
Cunliffe gave a clear and convincing presentation on economics – world economics, NZ trade , and what could be done to fix our tattered economy. He didn’t “talk down” to his audience, he put in a few jokes every so often, he answered questions with facts/figures in such a way that everyone understood him.
The feedback after that public meeting was – no-one had ever told them these details in such an easy to understand manner before, could he come again, and what a great informative evening it had been for them all.
You cannot tell me that a man who is able to deliver such a presentation to such an audience and get such a response is either pompous or lazy. He would have had to work hard to put such a presentation together. He would have had to change the presentation to suit that particular audience. He was friendly, affable, and articulate.
Maybe, but there is that disturbing rant he had at the Otara market during the last election campaign that’s on YouTube. Will have put some middle ground voters off and being on the web in will never go away.
I looked for it but now can’t find it. However, I have seen it and it is nothing to be disturbed about. I think the claim at the time was “it will not appeal to the middle class.” I took it to mean that wing of the middle class who are presently on the gravy train and do not want to see the flow of gravy disrupted.
To be fair it was neither disturbing or really kicking the right wing’s ass. He just ran through Labour’s slogans and normal accusations that were repeated all the time through the election. It was passionate and reasonably good but nothing too special – Whaleoil etc picked it up and ran with it because he put on a polynesian accent and that basically makes him the ku klux klan. Here is the link:
It was one of those whale-oil type “scandals” where only the most twisted right-wing hacks can work out what’s scandalous about it.
To anyone else it was just a video of David campaigning. Oh the horror. It’s also not at the Otara market, that’s just right-wing shorthand for brown people in Auckland.
If you think that that is a ‘faux Polynesian’ accent then your obviously not as intelligent as what you think you are,(but then we all know that except you),
What Cunliffe is doing there is slowing down His speech and over-emphasizing some words in an effort to give as much understanding as possible to what was obviously an audience of mixed race where presumably many would have English as a second language,
If you want ‘faux Polynesia’ check out Seone’s Wedding or any of the other stuff done by that particular crew for TV,
That particular tape of Cunliffe makes your radio voice of ‘large plum in the mouth as you talk down to the peasants’ sound like the rantings of an old English Lord inescapably addicted to Heroin pontificating on the sins of the hired help when all the time your nothing but a over-paid leach at the trough paid to goose the ego’s of the major suckers of the States teat by telling them that every thing they do is just fine…
LOLZ, the turd i was addressing the comment at doesn’t seem to think so, really needs His sense of humor updated as well as a few of His other personal traits like His propensity to talk s**t….
He uses a faux Polynesian accent ‘cos he’s talking to brown people
What a racist thing to assume Matthew, you should be ashamed of yourself…
As bad12 has pointed out, Cunliffe was speaking to a crowd of people that may have had English as their second language, he was using a loudspeaker, and the crowd were dispersed so the talking was slowed down.
Its a racist observation Matthew…hang your head in shame
And you Matty screech just a bit in a distinctly effete way when someone’s got ya.
Cathryn Ryan on Nine to Noon repeatedly has to chide you for the entitled wee schoolboy you are with your overtalking and cat-fighty style. Never heard it myself but that’s…
Yes. It is so important, when one is talking to the fuzzy wuzzies to talk in language they understand. Come down to their level, and such. One must refer to “da rich fullas” rather than “the rich” otherwise they will simply not understand what one is saying. And if they do not understand what one is saying one will not be able to protect them.
Bolger used to ape accents all the time. I sort of thought it was a subconsciously empathetic thing.
Although I couldn’t stand Bolger as PM, he was surprisingly egalitarian in some ways. Just not smart enough to realise his government policies were trashing the poor.
I’m not sure that anyone else can descend to that level. Interpreting and understanding “Ook” is a hell of a lot easier than expressing a simple sentence in it. It is a “subtle” language you have mastered and it has been quite apparent for some time that you don’t understand English.
(my apologies to Pratchett – but that one just begged for it :twisted:)
I’m reminded of a WWII doco that I had to switch off because it was so overwrought about Hitler’s evilness (yes, the man was evil, but I think we don’t need that repeated every thirty seconds).
One of their arguments was (read it in a conspiracy-theory American accent): “He would change the way he spoke to appeal to different audiences!!!!!”
If you’re criticising Cunliffe for using “fellas” in one context when he may well say “folks” or “people” or “wankers” in another, I sure hope you speak to your dear old granny at morning tea the way you talk to your mates at the pub after a few. Because otherwise you’d be terrible hypocrites, and also linguistic freaks.
Gormless,(obviously), it’s fella not fulla, your the only one round here thats fulla and i will leave you with the easy task of inserting what comes after the fulla…
Gormless, are you objecting to Cunliffe using the word, or how he said it? I couldn’t detect any obvious accent other than a Noo Zeelund one. And why object to fella/fulla? Why not object to his using the words Maori words like tamariki etc? You’re grasping at some pretty insubstantial straws if you think the use of one word, however it is said, means anything.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
I hope you’re joking, Cunliffe like all our current crop of politicians is a pretty hopeless orator, the most recent good orator in NZ politics was David Lange in my opinion.
Revealing of what? You and Matthew Hooton are grasping at straws here, as was Whale oil in the first place. I draw your attention to a comment made earlier this week by Max Moss, who is on Cunliffe’s LEC. This is a person who actually knows Cunliffe, and certainly runs counter to the claims of pomposity and laziness, as well as the suggestion of inauthenticity.
One thing I do know about Cunliffe is that you can actually chat with him as a regular man in a room, without the vulgar sense of his “working the room” or trying to “win them over.”
And when he had the ‘chat’ on the Herald as did other politicians. I found that he was the easiest to understand, because he does not over explain things, he keeps it simple.
It disturbs me that anyone not in the WhaleSpew Army could be disturbed by Cunliffe’s Otara speech. He’s on top of a vehicle with a megaphone and speaks clearly and slowly in his own voice. If you want to hear a fake accent, just listen to Key being a regla blok prendin to be prumster of Noozillid.
hmm, don’t think Mr Key is pretending….he just can’t speak very well….lacks ability to enunciate…just thought I’d mention that….I agree with your comment apart from that….
Well done Olsen except you miss the times when Key dumps the bloke impersonation in favour of the dude persona……to wit his use of the word “munted” when he gets on some rubbish guffawing laughter every 6 seconds radio show.
How’s that for sham ? Trying to paint himself up as an out there dude tradey or something.
Bloody embarrassing. Cringey stuff. And for you Oleo…..must you scrape the bottom of your own barrel so ?
Goodness Jane – (and Hooten et al) that wasn’t a “disturbing rant” Cunliffe gave at the Otara market (I’ve just watched/listened to it on U-Tube Sat 12 Jan). That was a basic street corner speech which is typical of any election campaign. And I didn’t hear Cunliffe say “da rich fullas” as a putdown of bro language. I heard him say “the rich fellas” which is typical NZ (Pakeha) talk. You guys are imagining or making up things about Cunliffe without any foundation whatsoever.
MH – I would say that your first comment above comes as close as possible to uninformed “character assassination”. Oh, yes, indeed, you sure do go to “extraordinary lengths” to revile him, and then have the gall to confess “I don’t know him well enough to have personally observed these traits” (of your imagination). There are few more condescending “put-downs” than to describe Cunliffe as “a nice enough fellow” (with the implied BUT). Exactly how many people at MFAT and in Labour do you actually know – or who would want to know you? Name the people who “seem” (N.B.) to hate him (what kind of people indulge in any kind of “hatred”?)
Please take care to check facts against delusions.
Do you really, think that is, for instance what ‘impact’ has David Parker had as Labour Finance spokesperson,
I think that if a person of your ilk supports David Shearer as the Labour Party leader then the members of Labour are right in having a really close look at just where His sentiments lie in the left/right paradigm of politics,
I doubt whether you have actually even met a genuine ‘member of the left’ so as to give you the perspective to judge who genuinely holds left-wing views,
I think you should crawl back into the dark spaces of the smelly, slime encrusted sewers which is your normal habitat and desist from provoking the likes of me to amounts of anger that at the least are bad for my health…
I’m always interested what people think is a “genuine member” of the left or right, as one who is generally accused of being a RWNJ on this site could you enlighten me.
Here, this might help, STFU, F off over to the Sewer where you will be aquainted with the definition of any number of Right Wing Nut Jobs,
Read the pages of the Standard and you will be aquainted with the wide ranging views of ‘genuine lefty’s plus the views of the odd Right Wing Nut Job, even a 5 year old could spot the difference…
hs, do you really not understand that Matthyawn isn’t a genuine lefty, and that everything he says or writes is paid for, and that he’s just here to disrupt and sow confusion?
In case you hadn’t noticed there’s some fairly diverse views among the mix at this site, although sometimes it does resemble a rather vitriolic echo chamber when the locals choose to attack someone.
For example the site sysop is a lefty voter with a self proclaimed ‘right’ lean in economics, then you have the likes of DTB who would suggest that most ‘lefties’ on this site are rampantly to the ‘right’.
Hence my request for you to define your view of ‘left’ and ‘right’.
For example the site sysop is a lefty voter with a self proclaimed ‘right’ lean in economics, then you have the likes of DTB who would suggest that most ‘lefties’ on this site are rampantly to the ‘right’.
Actually, I don’t. I happen to think that most of those on the left here are actually on the left I just happen to think that the Labour Party is on the right.
lolz hs, I’m sure you know that Hoots is a paid lobbyist and spin merchant. I’m sure you know that when he’s paid to appear in the media and talk politics he’s also being paid by his clients to do so in their interests. I find it inconceivable that you think he switches off the machine just for the standard.
I certainly don’t believe there were as many PR hacks in councils and government twenty or even ten years ago – it’s like HR departments they seen to have proliferated during the last couple of decades and are overflowing with weasels.
Things seem to have got along OK before they all came along……. grumpy old man rant over and out !
And that’s probably true, hs … but do you really think Matthew either
(a) completely believes everything he says when being paid for it, which is why he says exactly the same stuff when commenting in a personal capacity or
(b) isn’t smart enough to protect his paid-for “unbiased pundit” brand by continuing to say the same shit he’s paid for out-of-hours?
Jaysus Matthew, for someone who makes a living out of political commentary you are woefully poorly informed. You are a shocking dunderhead. Go to the corner.
The dogs on the street knew that Cunliffe was censored throughout the Goff era. He did all the work and had to leave the speeches for Phil Goff to try to build his leader ratings. The same shite continued under Shearer.
for someone who makes a living out of political commentary you are woefully poorly informed
No, Hooton doesn’t make his living from commentary – that just helps his media profile. He’s a professional spin doctor and lobbyist – a free-market Goebbels if you like. You can be sure that his company, “Effluvium” or whatever it’s called is not woefully poorly informed. You can be sure that it – and he – is very well paid. Hooton doesn’t shit without someone being sent an invoice.
Actually, he called it “Excelsium”, which is something someone who lives in his mum’s basement would call his avatar in World of Warcraft. “He’s Excelsium, and he’s a fifth-level mage and he… he, he has a magical sword, and he shoots acid from his fingers! He’s, like TOTALLY AWESOME!”
Hooton is really just a frustrated teenager at heart.
He can’t be much of a politician if he can be “censored” for four years. There were plenty in the National hierarchy trying to “censor” Richardson but she found ways around that. That’s how you achieve political, economic and social change. Change agents let alone revolutionaries don’t wait for permission from the existing order.
Interested in your response Matthew to Trotter’s claim that you are attempting to besmirch Cunliffe and this represents an unholy alliance between the mouthpieces of the neoliberal establishment and ABC.
Has the pay-check from RadioNZ National dried up over the summer break and you are now bored so have to drag your pompous ‘silver spoon’ banality into the Standard,
The ‘smooch-fest’ between you and Williams on that piece of pathetic puffery makes you sound like you have something hard lodged within the rear of your anatomy and are in dire need of an urgent flushing,
Your support of Shearer as Labour leader on it’s own should be enough for the caucus to trigger the Party wide vote on the issue of leadership…
So is trying to set the tone of the ‘ts’s’ discussion around a piece that was already linked to yesterday by diong a 7:21 am link to it. (ie top of the open mike).
I could be wrong Mathew. But I don’t recall you instigating discussion on topics here before. Don’t you normally just respond with a view to obscufate and derail? I think you do.
But not this time. Which could be an indication of how much ‘nonsense’ it is to suggest you and your ilk are desperate to elevate Shearer and (by extension) an ongoing neo-liberal trajectory.
‘Shearer is a good guy. Labour’s sleepwalking plan is a fine plan. Cunliffe is dead in the water. Cunliffe is allegedly incompetant and lazy and arrogant – Cunliffe isn’t liked’ – and I (Mathew Hooten) am more than happy to keep on referencing those allegations and opinions in one way or another ie, to besmirch without actually besmirching in a direct fashion.
Oh. Apart from the wee nuggets, like in your above comments, where you directly suggest that Cunliffe is a crap politician.
And, of course, mustn’t forget the obvious fact that Rhinoviper points out (again) – this time around at 1.3.1. on this thread.
“That’s how you achieve political, economic and social change.”
As opposed to donations in plain brown envelopes, swipe cards to parliament, policy for cash, and dodgy in-house agenda driven focus/polling groups like we have now.
Care to declare/deny any emails, texts, call logs or meetings?
“Change agents let alone revolutionaries don’t wait for permission from the existing order.”
I’m suspecting you know as much about change agents and revolutionaries as you do about David Cunliffe.
When real change comes, and it will, if you’re not on the first plane out with the other smug rich pricks, I’m sure they’ll be a spot up against the proverbial wall for your efforts.
Some politicians being “censored” indicates that they are, in fact, doing a bloody good job! You are (even now!) an admirer of Richardson? Enough said!
Hooton, you give Richardson as an example of being ‘censorsed’ the truth being more like
some nats thought her policies were detrimental to the health and wellbeing of those
it would affect,(although it would be a first in the right thinking of the people) indeed
her policies caused difficulties for a huge number of people,
when you remove $50pw off beneficiaries of course stress will follow,it shows
that Shipley/Richardson women could not give a continental about peoples lives and as it turns out they didn’t,but Shipley/Richardson could claim tens of thousands a year in perks and tax payer paid benefits, spot the difference.
While i am at it Shipley and Richardson left a $20 billion debt, is that good financial
management of tax payer dollars ?
Incidently,a peice of good journalism would be to find out what ex politicians are
still recieving tax payer funded air travel and remuneration, i understand it continues
to get paid until the leave this mortal coil.
This while beneficiaries are being targeted by your idol Shearer re: painter on the roof
Shearer’s credentials for the leadership of Labour are lacking and wanting.
The defence of Shearer by the right of politics and media raises questions about
his true allegiance, please, tell us more about ‘that’ barbie.
Cunliffe has been ‘censored’ by the Right clique inside caucus, even though he
won 9 out of the 10 meetings in a membership vote for the leadership, his shackles
are still on tightly and he cannot be seen to be doing anything unless the ‘clique’ give
him permission.
A manager in ChCh was bemoaning the quality of staff available, she wanted government to do something about people like the lady who took a break and never came back.
Now objectively, not something you’ll find in a third market (one on the edge of the world). Surely a manager is expected to know her customers and her employees, and that if an employee walk off the job she should have some idea why. Like Shearer, why doesn’t he know why the roofer was up there while on sicky?
Aging population, and better pay conditions in OZ mean there are fewer young people entering the work market and those that are around want to be skilled up so they can fly the ditch (only way they will own their own home). Scarcity means managers like her have to offer more, have to be aware of her employees needs, to get skills and move on to better jobs. Instead we have this blame culture from the rich, that somehow its the poor who created the economic malaise, the young who have the expertise to run the country, the sick who shouldn’t be fixing their damn roof since their TB stopped them working.
I think what passes as informed debate on TV and radio is bunkum, neoliberal talking points selected to keep wages down, keep bonuses up and power to change the econmic out of the hands of those who would change it (to serve the needs of the people).
Nice little distraction by Hooten there. However, I’m still trying to figure out why Richardson ignoring the party she belonged to, and setting her own agenda, is considered a good thing. Of all the attempts at misdirection in this thread by Hooten, that’s the one that stands out for me. It’s the idea that an individual can go against the party’s wishes and take in a different direction, and that that is not only acceptable but desirable. That idea isn’t about Cunliffe, it’s about Shearer.
The New Zealand Labour Party must find a way to achieve reform and renewal through it’s members and affiliates. Only then will we have a strong Labour victory in 2014 that will enable the execution major changes: changes that will take the country on a new path to health and prosperity.
A year ago the launch of the Constitutional Review was greeted enthusiastically by the members. Members, branches, LECs, Sector groups and NZ Councillors all worked hard to get a number of significant proposals to the Conference.
The Conference was memorable for two reasons:
-the delegates passionately debated the key items and the balance of power shifted to the membership and affiliates…….on paper.
-a potentially great Conference and subsequent passionate injection of positive activity was distorted by the damaging play to marginalise Cunliffe.
We need to find the positives from the Conference and get past the destructive cr*p formulated by a few Machiavellians in the Caucus.
My view of the constitutional changes is that if the Membership want the Parliamentary Labour MP’s to adhere to Labour Party policy,(especially while in Government), it is the membership at the annual Labour Party Conference who should vote whether or not to ‘trigger’ a Party wide vote on the issue,
Further to that it is my view that the Party wide vote should also elect the Cabinet in Labour lead Governments…
There has been a lot of discussion about the wider member leader vote, the 40% + 1 threshold and how it might be triggered in February. If it does get triggered, how every it happens what is the process then? Is there a set timeline? A postal ballot will take time to setup, candidates will need time to decide if they want to stand, time for campaigning, the voting process may take a few weeks. What is the best case for it to be complete? I’d say at the minimum six weeks, most likely it will drag on for 12+ weeks.
Who leads the party while all this is going on? Their is a reasonable chance it could all get toxic, DS, DC openly combatitive, caucus split, Patrick Gower asking everybody and anybody who’s side they are on every single night and earnestly analyzing every phrase, utterance or look. The Greens trying to stay out of it but getting more involved, Winston taking shots, backbenchers leaking and National sitting quietly and watching with glee.
When it’s over and the winner announced then what? Will the vanquished need to resign? If DC wins will it have got so bad that Mallard, King and Hipkins all go? If DC loses how many may go? Byelections towards the end of the year? It could dominate all year!
All looks very scary but then the alternative is DS stays.
“Mallard, King and Hipkins all go” They should have gone last election. But no there they sit, actively fucking up the Labour party for their own ends. Fucking Parasites. The sooner they go the better for all, and they can take some of the other dead wood and dinosaurs with them! And as for Gower how can he report if he’s just told to fuck off in no uncertain terms, every time he asks a question??
“Mallard, King and Hipkins all go” They should have gone last election. But no there they sit, actively fucking up the Labour party for their own ends. Fucking Parasites. The sooner they go the better for all, and they can take some of the other dead wood and dinosaurs with them! And as for Gower how can he report if he’s just told to fuck off in no uncertain terms, every time he asks a question??
Damn Internal server error 500 rears it’s ugly head again.
If I had to place a bet, it would be on that both Morgan and Jones are considerably more *informed/trained* and cogent of affairs than you could ever wish/pretend to be!
They’re both right wing commentators, muzza, so your support for them is curious (or is it?). Morgan has the moral highground on the gun question though and has gone up in my estimation just for having the guts to take on the NRA and its apologists.
Well, the former Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan may be the voice of reason in his American show, Chris, but his work history and personal morals strongly suggest a right wing orientation. And Rupert Murdoch isn’t known for picking Spartists to run his newspapers!
Point being if your old boss is rupert, the political affiliation is sort of a given.
Happy for mr morgan to enlighten us all with his road to Damascus conversion from murdoch’s mouthpiece to voice of the people’s heavy hitter.
If you read support for either of them in my response, you were very much mistaken. No need to have watched to know how it would have played out, with each character living up to their *expectation*, which is required to embed mind-sets.
It’s theatre, they are both pawns/tools in a game which seeks to control the perceptions/minds, via controlling a fake, *debate*!
Indeed. One is reminded of the Romans who lost the plot because they kept their wine in lead-lined containers, or a similar lead-related decline caused by drinking rice wine from bronze vessles in the late Chinese Shang dynasty.
Let us not get waylaid by the MMS talking heads like Trotter and Hooton.
Framing stories as battles between X and Y makes good press and TV sound bites.
The changes required to get ths country out of the trough of inequality and underperformance is not about two personalities.
As Laboutites we must focus on engaging with our family, friends, neighbours, communities, businesses and organisations to understand their needs and aspirations and to drive bottom up policy using our new Constitution.
Focus on the real stuff, not the side-shows.
The Trotter story is a matter for Shearer to sort.
I find it amazing that you are all still flailing around and shadow boxing about the leadership.
The battle is lost, the Feb vote is a formality. The caucus beat you. Move on.
Cunliffe got pwned. Quite unfairly probably but it will not make a blind bit of difference to the outcome. Shearer is your leader. You will not change that before the next election.
Barnsley, Hooton n the media are trying to make it a personality thing .
This Trotter story is bad for all the Labour Party.
True, members were beaten by the Caucus in November. Until the leadership has achieved legitimacy through endorsement from the members and affiliates there will be turmoil in the party.
The issue is between the members and the leadership. If the February endorsement is a “formality” then many members n affiliates will loose interest in the party.
Who will do the work for the Local Election layer this year?
“Europeans, take note: The U.S. government has granted itself authority to secretly snoop on you.
That’s according to a new report produced for the European Parliament, which has warned that a U.S. spy law renewed late last year authorizes “purely political surveillance on foreigners’ data” if it is stored using U.S. cloud services like those provided by Google, Microsoft and Facebook.”
This is something all of us should be very mindful of, when using US based service providers and cloud servers, and any traffic between the US and other countries falls into the same category as the article in “future tense” (from 08 Jan. 2013) should make clear.
There are always certain risks to consider, and this is just one of them.
while I think of it; see Sue Kedgley’s analysis of the ongoing rent of Transmission Gully to the taxpayer, pulling clay uphill and all that motor-scraping
Is to distract from the real issue: giving Labour Party members a democratic say come February, confirming the Leader.
Is to suggest that the Labour Leadership is a position which does not need or want democratic confirmation by the membership in 2013.
Is to try and turn this into an irrelevant Cunliffe versus Shearer cage fight, instead of the true crux: bringing democracy to the Labour Party, as the membership clearly intended at Conference in Nov 2012.
Is the LP membership’s participation in choosing a leader more important than the memberships ability to influence the policy decisions of the caucus? How much say does the membership now have in the latter?
Well it’s what he’s paid to do, and does it well. The smug trolling designed to undermine and distract and the cherry picking rather than responding when requested so he can keep on his message
It’s like a modern version of Muldoon in some ways and boy haven’t the NACT made that look like the good old days the way they’ve sent the economy and living standards off down the hill with wilful negligence.
They said the next revolution would be on TV, what they didn’t say was it will start on the internet.
I’ve entered a song on the audience website, to win NZonAir funding, to record the single and make a video.
I’ve chosen the protest song The faeces of the species, as a direct challenge to key’s constituency chairman who complained about the Inside child poverty documentary aired in the 2011 election campaign, and now has his feet firmly under the table.
Way to go Sir, kids with third world diseases on their beautiful little faces, and you complain about unfair electioneering. Fuck off.
Don’t care if you like the song (I do, I love it) or not, but a vote a day for the next couple of weeks and it’s win/win.
I need the publicity to kick off my campaign, and a video on tv, or a refusal by NZonAir to follow through for political reasons would sort of do the trick.
Please, bookmark the song page and vote as many times until it gets a top ten placing and thus eligible for the prize.
Email to friends/colleagues, tell them it’s for food for kids and maximum embarrassment for the pm.
I’m staying anonymous, not going to make a penny from it personally, and well up for the front line fight.
Use the system to beat the system with a mouse click.
lprent
She did – somewhere above 1 1 1 3
Rosy – “Bolger used to ape accents all the time. I sort of thought it was a subconsciously empathetic thing.”
And she mentioned ‘subconcious’ too which I am sure I didn’t read?
RNZ
-Law Society litigate a closer relationship with Lifeline; the demands of being a lawyer are greater than they have ever been 😉
-longer hours
-demanding clients
-technological speed cracking the whip
now,
Down to Business
-NZ TWI the highest in FIVE years, around 75.9
-Japanese are about to begin printing rice paper money in a “fashion not seen before”
-Cloudy forecast for mortgage interest rates in the latter half of this year and expected to be much higher over the coming 3-4 years-Shamubeel Eaqub, NZIER (I like that man)
-Rural Exodus-property values dropping (has occurred already in central and southern HB)
-Nov Trade Deficit widened, 4th consecutive month in a row
-NZ $ 84.70 US; 85 coming
yet,
the NZX 50 Index is at a new FIVE year high; business as usual.
sorry about the random graffiti (servers’ fault message) 🙂
did you know that Zephaniah was familiar with court circles and current political issues?
He announced to Judah God’s coming judgement, an immediate sign was the Scythian (fierce horse mounted peoples’) incursion into Canaan (from Southern Russia) in the 7th C BC.
main theme, coming day of the Lord, God’s punishment of the nations including apostate Judah, with the pronouncement of Doom ending on a positive note with His merciful restoration.
Baal was a common name for the chief male god amongst peoples, also
-master and owner of a house
-landowner
-owner of cattle
-son of “grain”
-storm god Hadad
Baal cult included, addiction, animal sacrifices, ritualistic meals, licentious dances. Human fertility was sacred and the High places had chambers for sacred prostitution;
I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps of rubble (formidable obstacles), when I cut off man from the face of the earth, declares the Lord.
(Zephaniah speaks of fire)
I will stretch out my hand against Judah, I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal, the names of the pagans and the idolatrous priests-those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who swear by the Lord and also by Molech (sometimes involved in child sacrifice).
On that day, declares the Lord, a cry will go up from the Fish Gate (merchants who had grown rich through corrupt business practices would be destroyed.
At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent. Their wealth will be plundered, their houses demolished. They will build houses but not live in them; they will plant vineyards but not drink the wine.
(remember how the distributor / oil pump drive used to round off on the old V6? 🙂
I had an old 1963 Ford Falcon 170 Super pursuit, and it had a bad habit of screwing them off inside the oil pump, so that if you didn’t have a long thin magnetic screwdriver, it was the sump off, then the oil pump removal to get it out. I got to be quite an expert at the removal of those bloody things on the side of the road and i kept a spare in the glove box at all times.
The World Economic Forum, hardly a hot bed of anti-capitalism, is warning that climate change, income inequality, and fiscal instability are THE issues which must be addressed IMMEDIATELY (at Davos).
Between the lines the WEF is saying we are in a global economic meltdown. Captain Mumblefuck and ABC are in denial even as capitalists elsewhere are waking up and frightened.
What the Captain Mumblefuck neo-liberals fail to see is that if we don’t get a moderate reformer like Cunliffe (comparable to FDR and Mickey Savage in the 1930’s), we are going to get a Hitler or Stalin.
One way of forcing meaning onto suffering, thereby making it more bearable, is to rename it sacrifice and believe it integral to the divine economy. We confront the the fears that threats to life arouse in us by claiming that destruction for our own, submitting to it or performing acts of violence ourself. It is not religious belief that makes us violent, violence turns us to the intense motifs of sacrifice that are particularly expressed in religion. Considering, however, the broader context of anthropogenic violence in Encyclopedia of Wars-Charles Philips and Alan Axelrod- found of 1,800 violent conflicts throughout history, only 23 of them were religious.
“There isn’t much precedent in Islamic tradition for suicide terrorism. Modern suicide terrorism became a political force with the atheistic anarchist movement that began at the end of the 19th century”-Atran (see also If You’re Not Religious Is Nothing Sacred?)
“Fictive Kinship”-living as if related-is served well by a belief in a (monotheistic) deity. Sacred values have an important functional hold over us.
Quite a passionate discussion above. Much will depend I guess on Mr Shearer’s big speech on 27 January that Chris Hipkins is hosting. The word is it will have another big policy announcement.
Thank you Matthew for the update from Party Central.
This is at the Young Labour hosted Summer School. It is in Trevor’s electorate rather than Chris Hipkin’s, I suspect.
Where: Brookfield Scout Camp, 562 Moores Valley Road, Wainuiomata
(only 40mins from Khandallah)
When: Friday 25 January – Sunday 27 January
You can contact Young Labour at summerschool@younglabour.org.nz. Find out more and register now at younglabour.org.nz/summer-school.
All paid up members are welcome. It will be a great time for all the Labour Party membership to build on the good work started at the November Conference.
Book your Air NZ flights now if you are from the regions. Auckland -Wellington return under $200.
Clare Curran will buy drinks for anyone who says they read The Standard regularly.
Matthew we have heard this “next big speech” talk for more than a year now, and the guy remains as opaque as he ever was. It is as if party central is taking its cues from North Korea.
Yeah, showing up there smooching the Rogernomes will be a better look than fishing for clients among the Neo-Nazis and racists at the Marlborough Sounds Symposia who inspired Anders Brevik, won’t it, Hoots?
Just an addendum, but I think that there’s a very interesting post that could be written on Matthew Hooton’s very dirty clients if someone could do the digging…
No doubt there are some aspects he wants hidden very deeply indeed.
Looking at all the above I am guessing that this will be keys GO TO place when he wants to feel good and confident about his chances of winning next election. I can see where he is gettin g his material from to stir up the Shearer/Cunliffe divide. Does’t even have to try,it’s all there ready and waiting.
John Key has stated that overriding the Commission is needed to protect Chorus’s profit margins and its ability to deliver broadband and the UltraFast Broadband rollout. It would seem Chorus’s profit margins have been hamstringing the development of NZ’s internet to a larger extent than already thought.
Insiders from Chorus subsidiary contractors have informed the Pirate Party that there has been massive issues with the UltraFast Broadband rollout with Chorus underpaying regional contracted businesses allowing them not enough time to complete jobs and payments being based on minimal possible time to complete jobs. Technicians are having issues and some regional contractors are finding the UFB contract is not the golden goose it once seemed.
Gee, why am I not surprised? Perhaps it’s because NAct set up the whole lot as a wealth siphon that takes taxpayer money and gives it to their rich mates.
The simple reality is that if we hadn’t sold off Telecom and went for competition we’d be a hell of a lot better off (~$17b worth), we’d already have FttH to most of the countries population and telecommunications would be a hell of a lot cheaper than they are.
If Chorus’s profits drop so does its share price which will allow an overseas buyer into the market in purchasing Chorus for a knock down price – then you will see what it costs to repair phone lines – payable in Yuan.
This country needs a climate change Churchill not a climate change Chamberlain.
Te Reo Putake claims that there will be a unanimous caucus vote in support of David Shearer in February, which will prevent the membership from having their say.
For this to happen even David Cunliffe would have to vote for David Shearer.
Even if he is the only one to do so, Cunliffe should vote against him.
Mcflock,
I just wanted to let you know that I tried out a few of the tobacco leaves that have been hanging under the house for about 8 and a half months, and it tastes just like a slightly harsher version of Camel. The reason I mention it is because you were saying that the tobacco variety I used was too bland. And it is if not cured for long enough. I may have to take it all down now. I’d hate to imagine how harsh it will be if I leave it for the entire 12 months.
*disclaimer: tobacco is very unhealthy, and it goes without saying (but I will to salve my conscience) that you’d be better off quitting, and you may well have done so.
Interesting. I might take up growing it again.
The real fun I had was progressively destroying my crop trying different methods in a fruitless search for ideal pipe tobacco (in place of being too uncoordinated to roll a decent cigar :)). Sort of like organic alchemy.
I would suggest taking it down and blending with this year’s crop, but I fear you have followed too much of my horticulture speculation already 🙂
i do a mix, well cured leaves that i grow are pretty much cigar material in terms of taste,but if you mix in the smaller leaves which seem to have less of the active ingredients in them and/or some of the half cured leaves you get a blend thats slightly harsh but still a nice smoke,
i am hard out at the moment pulling plants that have basically done their dash and cutting bigger leaves, in my main garden fertilized for the rest of the year on my kitchen scraps i am getting some great 750cm-800cm leaves…
I have one plant in my garden which is about 17 months old. I harvested the big leaves last year, but left a few plants in the vege garden expecting them to die. But it was a very mild winter. I pulled the rest out in spring, but thought I’d leave one to deter insects.
It’s thriving, and now I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be easier (if it would work) to keep the plants for as long as possible – keep cutting the flowers off, and reharvest the leaves every autumn.
I know that tobacco is usually grown as an annual. Have you ever kept them going and kept on harvesting? Easier than sowing seed every year. I find that the plants grow very slowly in the first few months. It would be good to be able to speed th process up a bit.
JS, yeah they will grow all yeah round even in a harsh Wellington winter, but, the babies don’t like the cold and are best planted in the first week in November,
I havn’t tried growing any as a multi year crop, just had a seed get away and germinate, but, the literature i have read says that the second time round the foliage gets smaller than the 8 sets of big leaves to be expected for the first crop,
I grew 20 in the first year and that wasn’t enough for a years supply, 40 the next year and still not enough, 60 last year and run out in October, LOLZ insanity took over this year and i have grown a s**t-load,
I start my seeds under lights in August/ September, separate them at about a inch high and use the lights on them untill they start blocking the light from one another and then put them on the windowsills untill it’s warm enough to plant them out, (November),
So this years from planting to pulling the ones that are starting to yellow,(they have used all the food in the soil),and flower,(really only need a couple of plants for seeds),is a pretty fast 10 weeks, and, i think that the clever plants have subtracted the weeks they spent on the window sills as part of the life-span cos while this years are far more productive and better quality they haven’t grown as tall as last years,
A really clever ‘tool’ for hanging them is to straighten out paper clips leaving the hook in one end and a V in the other, i’ve got my garden shed strung with strings across the roof inside and it can take a couple of hundred pairs of leaves at a time, the strings i set about 10cm, 4 inches apart, i am getting good smokable leaves after 3 weeks but not all of them dry out and brown up at the same time so there’s a constant sorting going on which isn’t hard work but is time consuming,(oh my kingdom for a sky-line),
Another tip is to use thick paper sacks to store the cut leaves in, i use paper rubbish sacks cut in half and staple the bottom of the half that needs it, paper sacks keep the leaves from becoming too unstable and if you need to dry the cut stuff the hot water cupboard or the windowsills on a sunny day are good,
If you want to dry cured leaves fast, in a paper bag on the dash board of a car in the sun works like an oven and you have to keep an eye on them coz the moisture gets sucked out of them real quick,
LOLZ if you crispy critter them like i did to a bag full of slightly wet but cured leaf the other day they can be fixed by tossing in half a dozen wet leaves overnight, it’s amazing to see leaves so dry that they could turn to dust overnight become soft and able to be handled again…
Wow.
Thanks for all this advice.
I have mine hanging in a similar fashion, using the green wire gardening twine hooked through the thick stem into spaced loops in the wire across the shed.
Do you have any tips for speeding up the looping/hooking/hanging process? Takes forever!
Still with tobacco at $35 for 30 grams, it’s worth the effort.
Ummm, are you pairing the leaves together, the advice is to pair the leaves with the center stems facing each other,
If you have bunches of leaves on one wire it might slow down the drying, i am lucky to have cleaned up what is quite a big area i have under the house,it’s about 4 times the area of a shed and i have that rigged with the same set up as the shed to be able to hook my pairs of leaves on,
LOLZ, the disgusting wet muddy s**t i dug out of there is actually my main garden in a raised bed made from shipping pallets which both the Ware Whare and Bunning’s give away here,(for fire-wood snigger), i systematically work my way up and down the garden over the 9 months i am not growing anything feeding it the kitchen scraps, ash from the ashtray, and bits of paper like shopping receipts and rolly paper packets,
Theres no effort in digging the garden that way as once a week i just dig a spade wide trench across it, dump in the scraps,add a small bucket of compost and hey presto utter crap soil is pumping my plants so hard out that everytime i look at it i have a bit of a giggle,
But i digress, back to hanging leaves, when my shed is full, i first run my pairs of leaves through the basement area which isn’t quite warm enough to cure them but allows them to get to that stage where they fold in on themselves,
While that happens i am checking in the shed for leaves that are near cured and moving them closest to the door, as i move them closer to the door and as space becomes available i rotate the rest of the leaves around the shed,
It’s something i do about twice a week, i don’t know how your shed sits in relation to the Sun,mine has a warm side facing the sun, so when the leaves come out from the basement they go into the shed on the un-sunny side,(the roof of the shed gets full sun), and i then rotate them round the shed as i take the cured stuff out,
Most of my cured stuff is still wet but brown when i take it out of the shed as it sucks in moisture from the less cured leaves that are constantly arriving in the shed, thats why i use the paper bag method of giving the leaves a final dry,
To use the paper bag method i first strip out the center stem,(they get buried with the kitchen scraps), i then give the leaves a first cut by squeezing a bunch in one hand and cutting them as thin as possible with the scissors,
It’s easy then to put a paper bag of cut but still damp stuff in the hot water cupboard, on a window sill in the sun, (with the curtains closed works best),or if some real heat is necessary, on the dash board of the car in a sunny spot, (gotta check them every half hour if you use the paper bag of cut stuff on the cars dashboard method tho, it doesn’t take em long to crispy critter,
LOLZ, only 30 grams, my addiction is atrocious, i have been smoking 2, 50 gram packets for the past 40 odd years,
The legal aspects as i understand them are that it is ILLEGAL to either sell or give what you have grown away, and, my reading of the law says that you can grow enough to provide YOU with 15KG of cut and smokable leaves in any year…
The legal aspects as i understand them are that it is ILLEGAL to either sell or give what you have grown away, and, my reading of the law says that you can grow enough to provide YOU with 15KG of cut and smokable leaves in any year…
Ahh didn’t know that. Nevertheless, unless they get the mainstream economy more inclusive, people will do what people will do to survive.
Aha, as the anti-smoking fanatics have all agreed, to make a smoke-free New Zealand via the current means would have a packet of tobacco costing 100 bucks by the time those fools have finished it’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that a black market will become established,
I can tell you now that tobacco as a bush crop has a greater range of growing areas than dope as tobacco doesn’t need a full sun enviroment to grow leaves, where-as dope does to grow heads,
From what i have been told the stuff,(tobacco), can be found growing wild all over the far North…
What gave me the idea (which percolated as the price went steadily up) was the old man’s neighbour dug up his entire back quarter-acre section and grew tobacco, in South Auckland, about ten years ago. Must have been a heavy smoker:-D
It broke down cultural barriers between neighbours, as my father was a keen gardener at the time, and was fascinated by watching the wholesale cropping of a back yard. I asked my father if it was legal to grow, and he said it was legal to grow – illegal to sell.
I take a bit of comfort at the extent of your habit. Sometimes I feel guilty about smoking about 30 grams a week!
Btw, I hang each leaf from a separate “hook” on a separate loop. One of the reasons it takes so damn long.
You’ve given me lots of new ideas to experiment with.
Thank you and bon apetit – or whatever the smoking equivalent is:-)
God don’t ever let anyone including yourself ‘guilt trip’ you over smoking, it’s an addiction and you were hooked after the first pack,
I am not so sure that hanging them separately would slow down the drying process, in theory it should speed it up, maybe my having a ‘mass’ of leaves in the shed at one time traps the heat of the Sun, does your shed get all day sun on at least it’s roof???,
I have found that leaving the door of the shed closed most of the time speeds the process a little bit and even when i leave the door open it’s only by 50 odd mm’s,
LOLZ, i have taken over a dead and weed infested piece of the HousingNZ estate and have a series of raised garden boxes down there as well, HousingNZ are planning on building on it at some stage but untill then i have done what all good colonizing white boys do and simply moved in on the basis of ‘they are not using it’, now where have i heard that before LOLZ,
Taking the cost out of the addiction leaves me with the money to provide a good diet across the whole range of foods where growing a vege garden would have left me with the cost of the addiction and little better off…
Let’s face it – vegetable growing is a hobby which barely covers costs and in a bad season – not even that.
There is an untended reserve over the fence. I’ve been working on the soil which is horrendusly alkaline due to decades of home fire ash being chucked over….
Advanced manufacturing: How to make a nuclear submarine
Not that I am advocating that NZ does this, obviously. But this conveys how much knowledge and expertise is required to successfully do “high tech, high value” manufacturing. Bringing NZ to this point is a generational project, and our short term political outlook can’t achieve it.
Yep, seen it a while back and loved it… agree that we shouldn’t be/couldn’t be doing that, but it serves to show how much an industry is tied up with a town.
These are real people, learning real skills in real trades and if that industry is shut down because some bean-counter decides to outsource it, then those people see their futures end and the community dies.
So when we hear that a paper mill is shutting down a line, then look at this and see how an industry supports the real aspirations (not Key’s “ashperayshums”) and livelihoods of a community.
All of Key’s and Shearer’s talk of “outsourcing” as a road to economy? Look at the real costs of “economy”.
Watch this documentary, and if you’re uncomfortable thinking about warships, then think about towns dependent on paper mills, meat works and refrigerator manufacturers.
You got to hand it to the Brits, you can see how they managed to keep an Empire going for so long, and how – amazingly – they have kept going with some pride even after the end of their Empire. Not every post-Imperial power can boast such a feat.
Cameron is a nasty bit of work. His economic policies were even more destructive than John Keys, and those big riots were not accident; rather the result of his brutal austerity measures. The UK govt steals from the poor to give to the rich, kind of the reverse of Robin Hood.
He is no friend of New Zealanders, his government introduced immigration measures that put an end to decades of OE’s.
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Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
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Interesting piece by Chris Trotter at http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/behind-mask-whos-backing-david-shearer.html?m=1
I disagree, though, when he says Cunliffe is capable of forging a new political, economic and social consensus. I think he had three years to do that as Labour finance spokesman and failed to make any impact. Some might say he didn’t have support but Ruth Richardson managed to completely transform National as opposition finance spokesperson between 1987 and 1990 and that was against the wishes of the party hierarchy. I also don’t really think Cunliffe is genuinely as left as he tells activists. I think that’s just to give them a bit of a thrill.
Thanks for your considered and helpful views Matthew.
I am sure they are motivated by the best of intentions and the desire to make the next Government more left wing and sensitive to the environmental issues that we face, particularly in relation to climate change.
EDIT
I am also interested in your response to this passage in Trotter’s post:
“Hence the near unanimous hatred directed at Cunliffe by the mouthpieces of the neoliberal establishment. Fran O’Sullivan, Jane Clifton and Matthew Hooton have gone to extraordinary lengths to besmirch Cunliffe’s character and ridicule his ideas. In a pincer movement with Shearer’s caucus allies they have attempted to cast the Member for New Lynn as a sly, egomaniacal (if ultimately inept) Cassius, plotting constantly to bring down Labour’s sensible Caesar.”
Not sure what “extraordinary lengths” I have gone to. I have always thought he is a nice enough fellow. It’s the people at MFAT and in Labour who I know who have worked with him to seem to hate him for his pomposity and laziness – but I don’t know him well enough to have personally observed these traits.
So are you saying that you went to some lengths to besmirch Cunliffe’s character but they were not extraordinary lengths?
No, I’m saying I haven’t besmirched his character at all.
I know who have worked with him to seem to hate him for his pomposity and laziness – but I don’t know him well enough to have personally observed these traits.
Christ – disingenuous or what? “I’m not going to say bad things about him, but wait – I’m going to pass on nasty gossip about him from other people”.
Could you be just a bit less obvious?
It’s obvious what’s got Hooten miffed at David Cunliffe, it’s in the ‘words i don’t know him well enough’,
Obviously Cunliffe treats Hooten as He should be treated, like LEPERS where treated prior to enlightened medical treatments…
Hey Hoots…despite what you have written, Trotter’s piece wasn’t about Cunliffe. It was about Shearer. Stop prancing around the point.
Hey Matty. Explaining is losing.
If Hooton were in Parliament, he’d set all-new records for getting thrown out of the House for constant “I personally wouldn’t call the Member a Nazi because it’s unparliamentary, but …” shenanigans.
Pointless Rhino. Shit. Hill. Pushing.
I hope I’m still around when little piggies start squeeling. (Who MOI?????, M-O-I????)
So just so I can understand things Matthew you have said today:
“I think he had three years to do that as Labour finance spokesman and failed to make any impact.”
“I also don’t really think Cunliffe is genuinely as left as he tells activists. I think that’s just to give them a bit of a thrill.”
“It’s the people at MFAT and in Labour who I know who have worked with him to seem to hate him for his pomposity and laziness ”
“He can’t be much of a politician if he can be “censored” for four years”
AND
“I’m saying I haven’t besmirched his character at all.”
Please reconcile these statements.
All just statements of fact
So you repeating gossip leaked to you by ABC is a statement of fact?
I fear Matthew that you are reinforcing Trotter’s statement about you by your comments.
Is this intended?
Or is this a sly double play where you besmirch Cunliffe and Shearer at the same time?
And if ya don’t believe me – listen to Rinnie Ryan! She’ll set you str8
Hahaha, I guess it makes sense that you don’t remember anything you say on radiolive or nine to noon.
If you did, you’d never walk into a studio again.
Hootens got Keys disease. It’s the memory that goes first, and the bullshit just runs down their chins!
TIM!!!! (@ Karol and the womderfuly like=moded) /…….I thought you said you wern’t gunna comment nemor…….
True. It’s just that stating the bleeid ng obvious is SO hard – worse than giving up smoking.
When is it that Spin Doctores like Hooten and others are not actually as clever as most would have you believe -I’ll wager most think the guy is actually irrelevant and the past participle of te spent brigade (“going fprward”).
The real problem is a defunct MSM. ………being challenged daily
Oh so you don’t think that, ‘not knowing Cunliffe well enough to observe these traits’ while at the same time claiming that that you ‘think’ that Cunliffe is not as ‘left’ as what He tells activists isn’t besmirching Cunliffe’s character,
It’s just a series of unfounded pieces of Bullshit dredged up from the mind of someone that when the high priests of Torydom were dishing out the silver spoons shoved your one a long way into the wrong orifice where it’s obviously still lodged…
Jesus Hooten Can you even lie straight in bed???
Nah, he’s so twisted, he needs two assistants to help him screw his pants on in the morning.
Eeeew.
>:)
Seriously tho’, his associations with neonazis and racists is something far less funny and something that needs exposure to sunlight.
I personally don’t think that Hooton is a neo-nazi… I just see that he’s a completely amoral money-grubber who has no qualms about shilling for work amongst them until the media spotlight shows just how evil they are and how that’s not a “good look” for Effluvium.
Hooten says he doesn’t know him (Cunliffe) well enough to have personally observed these traits (pomposity and laziness).
Well I have observed totally different traits in Cunliffe, and I do not believe he is what the MSM and others are making him out to be – lazy, traitorous, unlikeable etc etc etc.
As an example :
We had an extraordinary public meeting in Whangarei during the last (2011) election campaign.
We held it in a school hall in the middle of a Decile 1, low income, state housing area with a population predominantly Maori., and had a large audience.
Cunliffe gave a clear and convincing presentation on economics – world economics, NZ trade , and what could be done to fix our tattered economy. He didn’t “talk down” to his audience, he put in a few jokes every so often, he answered questions with facts/figures in such a way that everyone understood him.
The feedback after that public meeting was – no-one had ever told them these details in such an easy to understand manner before, could he come again, and what a great informative evening it had been for them all.
You cannot tell me that a man who is able to deliver such a presentation to such an audience and get such a response is either pompous or lazy. He would have had to work hard to put such a presentation together. He would have had to change the presentation to suit that particular audience. He was friendly, affable, and articulate.
Maybe, but there is that disturbing rant he had at the Otara market during the last election campaign that’s on YouTube. Will have put some middle ground voters off and being on the web in will never go away.
Could you provide a link to this disturbing rant please???…
It was a film of Cunliffe kicking the Right Wing’s ass. So yeah, they’d be disturbed haha
I looked for it but now can’t find it. However, I have seen it and it is nothing to be disturbed about. I think the claim at the time was “it will not appeal to the middle class.” I took it to mean that wing of the middle class who are presently on the gravy train and do not want to see the flow of gravy disrupted.
LOLZ, perhaps i should send the above commenter a tape of some of the ‘discussion’ that goes on in this house,
She would then fully ‘appreciate’ what a ‘disturbing rant’ really sounds like…
To be fair it was neither disturbing or really kicking the right wing’s ass. He just ran through Labour’s slogans and normal accusations that were repeated all the time through the election. It was passionate and reasonably good but nothing too special – Whaleoil etc picked it up and ran with it because he put on a polynesian accent and that basically makes him the ku klux klan. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvenqcfX1j8
Taa much…
It was one of those whale-oil type “scandals” where only the most twisted right-wing hacks can work out what’s scandalous about it.
To anyone else it was just a video of David campaigning. Oh the horror. It’s also not at the Otara market, that’s just right-wing shorthand for brown people in Auckland.
It’s here: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=qvenqcfX1j8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqvenqcfX1j8&gl=GB
He uses a faux Polynesian accent ‘cos he’s talking to brown people
You use a faux political commentator accent, so what’s your point, here?
If you think that that is a ‘faux Polynesian’ accent then your obviously not as intelligent as what you think you are,(but then we all know that except you),
What Cunliffe is doing there is slowing down His speech and over-emphasizing some words in an effort to give as much understanding as possible to what was obviously an audience of mixed race where presumably many would have English as a second language,
If you want ‘faux Polynesia’ check out Seone’s Wedding or any of the other stuff done by that particular crew for TV,
That particular tape of Cunliffe makes your radio voice of ‘large plum in the mouth as you talk down to the peasants’ sound like the rantings of an old English Lord inescapably addicted to Heroin pontificating on the sins of the hired help when all the time your nothing but a over-paid leach at the trough paid to goose the ego’s of the major suckers of the States teat by telling them that every thing they do is just fine…
thats funny bad
LOLZ, the turd i was addressing the comment at doesn’t seem to think so, really needs His sense of humor updated as well as a few of His other personal traits like His propensity to talk s**t….
,(but then we all know that except you),
“Thick and full of himself” as even his own clients say according to The Hollow Men
I wonder how it feels to have the people whose club he aspires to join snigger at him…
I would rather listen to Cunliffe’s truths, than Hootons LIES!
He uses a faux Polynesian accent ‘cos he’s talking to brown people
What a racist thing to assume Matthew, you should be ashamed of yourself…
As bad12 has pointed out, Cunliffe was speaking to a crowd of people that may have had English as their second language, he was using a loudspeaker, and the crowd were dispersed so the talking was slowed down.
Its a racist observation Matthew…hang your head in shame
Come on Matthew, DC is adaptable.
As are you when you want $ off the pinkos to hawk their silly ideas.
That a good one, sounds like your alluding to Hooten having been paid by the anti-Cunliffe crew to spread some rumor and innuendo…
Kate please tell us details …
???
Capitalists lesson no 1: a dollar is worth a dollar no matter where it comes from.
Cunliffe went to Pukenui School in Te Kuiti, bro he’s probably been putting on a pakeha accent and the maori accent comes pretty naturally!
Matthew, what a wanky thing to bring up, sort yourself out!
And you Matty screech just a bit in a distinctly effete way when someone’s got ya.
Cathryn Ryan on Nine to Noon repeatedly has to chide you for the entitled wee schoolboy you are with your overtalking and cat-fighty style. Never heard it myself but that’s…
…What…I’m…Told…By…The…Connected…People…I…Know…Smirk…Smirk.
15 sec search on google will do it every time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvenqcfX1j8
Not sure what is disturbing about it – pretty standard political rhetoric.
It is the faux maori accent, and I would call it revealing, rather than disturbing.
lolz. That sneaky left wing bastard, trying to pass as polynesian.
I think it’s revealing too, but not of Cunliffe.
Yes. It is so important, when one is talking to the fuzzy wuzzies to talk in language they understand. Come down to their level, and such. One must refer to “da rich fullas” rather than “the rich” otherwise they will simply not understand what one is saying. And if they do not understand what one is saying one will not be able to protect them.
Bolger used to ape accents all the time. I sort of thought it was a subconsciously empathetic thing.
Although I couldn’t stand Bolger as PM, he was surprisingly egalitarian in some ways. Just not smart enough to realise his government policies were trashing the poor.
Ole, the conclusions you jump to are exactly what I meant by “revealing”.
OK. I am thick, I get it. I wonder what accent Cunliffe would employ when talking to me.
I’m not sure that anyone else can descend to that level. Interpreting and understanding “Ook” is a hell of a lot easier than expressing a simple sentence in it. It is a “subtle” language you have mastered and it has been quite apparent for some time that you don’t understand English.
(my apologies to Pratchett – but that one just begged for it :twisted:)
no accent, just very small words.
I’m reminded of a WWII doco that I had to switch off because it was so overwrought about Hitler’s evilness (yes, the man was evil, but I think we don’t need that repeated every thirty seconds).
One of their arguments was (read it in a conspiracy-theory American accent): “He would change the way he spoke to appeal to different audiences!!!!!”
If you’re criticising Cunliffe for using “fellas” in one context when he may well say “folks” or “people” or “wankers” in another, I sure hope you speak to your dear old granny at morning tea the way you talk to your mates at the pub after a few. Because otherwise you’d be terrible hypocrites, and also linguistic freaks.
lol QoT.
What Maori or Polynesian accent? He uses some Maori words, is that what you mean?
Like “fulla”?
Gormless,(obviously), it’s fella not fulla, your the only one round here thats fulla and i will leave you with the easy task of inserting what comes after the fulla…
Gormless, are you objecting to Cunliffe using the word, or how he said it? I couldn’t detect any obvious accent other than a Noo Zeelund one. And why object to fella/fulla? Why not object to his using the words Maori words like tamariki etc? You’re grasping at some pretty insubstantial straws if you think the use of one word, however it is said, means anything.
I am not objecting to anything. He is putting on an accent to appeal to his audience. It says something about how he views them. That is all.
Yeah it was brilliant off the cuff oratory work. Did you mistake Cunliffe for someone of Pasifika origin?
“brilliant off the cuff oratory work”
I hope you’re joking, Cunliffe like all our current crop of politicians is a pretty hopeless orator, the most recent good orator in NZ politics was David Lange in my opinion.
Revealing of what? You and Matthew Hooton are grasping at straws here, as was Whale oil in the first place. I draw your attention to a comment made earlier this week by Max Moss, who is on Cunliffe’s LEC. This is a person who actually knows Cunliffe, and certainly runs counter to the claims of pomposity and laziness, as well as the suggestion of inauthenticity.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07012013/#comment-570340
One thing I do know about Cunliffe is that you can actually chat with him as a regular man in a room, without the vulgar sense of his “working the room” or trying to “win them over.”
And when he had the ‘chat’ on the Herald as did other politicians. I found that he was the easiest to understand, because he does not over explain things, he keeps it simple.
It disturbs me that anyone not in the WhaleSpew Army could be disturbed by Cunliffe’s Otara speech. He’s on top of a vehicle with a megaphone and speaks clearly and slowly in his own voice. If you want to hear a fake accent, just listen to Key being a regla blok prendin to be prumster of Noozillid.
@ Murray Olsen
hmm, don’t think Mr Key is pretending….he just can’t speak very well….lacks ability to enunciate…just thought I’d mention that….I agree with your comment apart from that….
Well done Olsen except you miss the times when Key dumps the bloke impersonation in favour of the dude persona……to wit his use of the word “munted” when he gets on some rubbish guffawing laughter every 6 seconds radio show.
How’s that for sham ? Trying to paint himself up as an out there dude tradey or something.
Bloody embarrassing. Cringey stuff. And for you Oleo…..must you scrape the bottom of your own barrel so ?
Goodness Jane – (and Hooten et al) that wasn’t a “disturbing rant” Cunliffe gave at the Otara market (I’ve just watched/listened to it on U-Tube Sat 12 Jan). That was a basic street corner speech which is typical of any election campaign. And I didn’t hear Cunliffe say “da rich fullas” as a putdown of bro language. I heard him say “the rich fellas” which is typical NZ (Pakeha) talk. You guys are imagining or making up things about Cunliffe without any foundation whatsoever.
MH – I would say that your first comment above comes as close as possible to uninformed “character assassination”. Oh, yes, indeed, you sure do go to “extraordinary lengths” to revile him, and then have the gall to confess “I don’t know him well enough to have personally observed these traits” (of your imagination). There are few more condescending “put-downs” than to describe Cunliffe as “a nice enough fellow” (with the implied BUT). Exactly how many people at MFAT and in Labour do you actually know – or who would want to know you? Name the people who “seem” (N.B.) to hate him (what kind of people indulge in any kind of “hatred”?)
Please take care to check facts against delusions.
Do you really, think that is, for instance what ‘impact’ has David Parker had as Labour Finance spokesperson,
I think that if a person of your ilk supports David Shearer as the Labour Party leader then the members of Labour are right in having a really close look at just where His sentiments lie in the left/right paradigm of politics,
I doubt whether you have actually even met a genuine ‘member of the left’ so as to give you the perspective to judge who genuinely holds left-wing views,
I think you should crawl back into the dark spaces of the smelly, slime encrusted sewers which is your normal habitat and desist from provoking the likes of me to amounts of anger that at the least are bad for my health…
I’m always interested what people think is a “genuine member” of the left or right, as one who is generally accused of being a RWNJ on this site could you enlighten me.
F off over to the sewer, there is that enough ‘enlightenment’ for you…
Very enlightening.
Here, this might help, STFU, F off over to the Sewer where you will be aquainted with the definition of any number of Right Wing Nut Jobs,
Read the pages of the Standard and you will be aquainted with the wide ranging views of ‘genuine lefty’s plus the views of the odd Right Wing Nut Job, even a 5 year old could spot the difference…
Even more enlightening.
hs, do you really not understand that Matthyawn isn’t a genuine lefty, and that everything he says or writes is paid for, and that he’s just here to disrupt and sow confusion?
Felix
1. Yes I do know that
2. I doubt that very much
3. There’s no doubt he enjoys coming here for a bit of sport.
I’d still like a genuine reply to my question to Mr bad12
Try the answer at 8.47am, that genuine enough for you…
No just another mindless rant.
In case you hadn’t noticed there’s some fairly diverse views among the mix at this site, although sometimes it does resemble a rather vitriolic echo chamber when the locals choose to attack someone.
For example the site sysop is a lefty voter with a self proclaimed ‘right’ lean in economics, then you have the likes of DTB who would suggest that most ‘lefties’ on this site are rampantly to the ‘right’.
Hence my request for you to define your view of ‘left’ and ‘right’.
Actually, I don’t. I happen to think that most of those on the left here are actually on the left I just happen to think that the Labour Party is on the right.
lolz hs, I’m sure you know that Hoots is a paid lobbyist and spin merchant. I’m sure you know that when he’s paid to appear in the media and talk politics he’s also being paid by his clients to do so in their interests. I find it inconceivable that you think he switches off the machine just for the standard.
I find it inconceivable that anyone would be paid to post or comment at this site.
I find it inconceivable that anyone would be paid to impart PR spin, but they say the world is a mysterious place.
Indeed, but apparently government and councils are full of them funded by the tax and ratepayer ?
until they make their bones enough to go work for National party HQ.
It’s the only form of publicly-funded education that national actually support.
I certainly don’t believe there were as many PR hacks in councils and government twenty or even ten years ago – it’s like HR departments they seen to have proliferated during the last couple of decades and are overflowing with weasels.
Things seem to have got along OK before they all came along……. grumpy old man rant over and out !
And that’s probably true, hs … but do you really think Matthew either
(a) completely believes everything he says when being paid for it, which is why he says exactly the same stuff when commenting in a personal capacity or
(b) isn’t smart enough to protect his paid-for “unbiased pundit” brand by continuing to say the same shit he’s paid for out-of-hours?
“Astroturfing”
Trouble is, he’s shit at it. I get the impression that he does it just to show his equally ignorant clients that he’s delivering value for money.
Jaysus Matthew, for someone who makes a living out of political commentary you are woefully poorly informed. You are a shocking dunderhead. Go to the corner.
The dogs on the street knew that Cunliffe was censored throughout the Goff era. He did all the work and had to leave the speeches for Phil Goff to try to build his leader ratings. The same shite continued under Shearer.
for someone who makes a living out of political commentary you are woefully poorly informed
No, Hooton doesn’t make his living from commentary – that just helps his media profile. He’s a professional spin doctor and lobbyist – a free-market Goebbels if you like. You can be sure that his company, “Effluvium” or whatever it’s called is not woefully poorly informed. You can be sure that it – and he – is very well paid. Hooton doesn’t shit without someone being sent an invoice.
“Effluvium” Or Effluent? Oh well it’s all shit to me.
Actually, he called it “Excelsium”, which is something someone who lives in his mum’s basement would call his avatar in World of Warcraft. “He’s Excelsium, and he’s a fifth-level mage and he… he, he has a magical sword, and he shoots acid from his fingers! He’s, like TOTALLY AWESOME!”
Hooton is really just a frustrated teenager at heart.
🙂
He can’t be much of a politician if he can be “censored” for four years. There were plenty in the National hierarchy trying to “censor” Richardson but she found ways around that. That’s how you achieve political, economic and social change. Change agents let alone revolutionaries don’t wait for permission from the existing order.
Interested in your response Matthew to Trotter’s claim that you are attempting to besmirch Cunliffe and this represents an unholy alliance between the mouthpieces of the neoliberal establishment and ABC.
I think that’s nonsense
Has the pay-check from RadioNZ National dried up over the summer break and you are now bored so have to drag your pompous ‘silver spoon’ banality into the Standard,
The ‘smooch-fest’ between you and Williams on that piece of pathetic puffery makes you sound like you have something hard lodged within the rear of your anatomy and are in dire need of an urgent flushing,
Your support of Shearer as Labour leader on it’s own should be enough for the caucus to trigger the Party wide vote on the issue of leadership…
So is trying to set the tone of the ‘ts’s’ discussion around a piece that was already linked to yesterday by diong a 7:21 am link to it. (ie top of the open mike).
I could be wrong Mathew. But I don’t recall you instigating discussion on topics here before. Don’t you normally just respond with a view to obscufate and derail? I think you do.
But not this time. Which could be an indication of how much ‘nonsense’ it is to suggest you and your ilk are desperate to elevate Shearer and (by extension) an ongoing neo-liberal trajectory.
‘Shearer is a good guy. Labour’s sleepwalking plan is a fine plan. Cunliffe is dead in the water. Cunliffe is allegedly incompetant and lazy and arrogant – Cunliffe isn’t liked’ – and I (Mathew Hooten) am more than happy to keep on referencing those allegations and opinions in one way or another ie, to besmirch without actually besmirching in a direct fashion.
Oh. Apart from the wee nuggets, like in your above comments, where you directly suggest that Cunliffe is a crap politician.
And, of course, mustn’t forget the obvious fact that Rhinoviper points out (again) – this time around at 1.3.1. on this thread.
“That’s how you achieve political, economic and social change.”
As opposed to donations in plain brown envelopes, swipe cards to parliament, policy for cash, and dodgy in-house agenda driven focus/polling groups like we have now.
Care to declare/deny any emails, texts, call logs or meetings?
“Change agents let alone revolutionaries don’t wait for permission from the existing order.”
I’m suspecting you know as much about change agents and revolutionaries as you do about David Cunliffe.
When real change comes, and it will, if you’re not on the first plane out with the other smug rich pricks, I’m sure they’ll be a spot up against the proverbial wall for your efforts.
LOLZ, well said….
Some politicians being “censored” indicates that they are, in fact, doing a bloody good job! You are (even now!) an admirer of Richardson? Enough said!
Hooton, you give Richardson as an example of being ‘censorsed’ the truth being more like
some nats thought her policies were detrimental to the health and wellbeing of those
it would affect,(although it would be a first in the right thinking of the people) indeed
her policies caused difficulties for a huge number of people,
when you remove $50pw off beneficiaries of course stress will follow,it shows
that Shipley/Richardson women could not give a continental about peoples lives and as it turns out they didn’t,but Shipley/Richardson could claim tens of thousands a year in perks and tax payer paid benefits, spot the difference.
While i am at it Shipley and Richardson left a $20 billion debt, is that good financial
management of tax payer dollars ?
Incidently,a peice of good journalism would be to find out what ex politicians are
still recieving tax payer funded air travel and remuneration, i understand it continues
to get paid until the leave this mortal coil.
This while beneficiaries are being targeted by your idol Shearer re: painter on the roof
Shearer’s credentials for the leadership of Labour are lacking and wanting.
The defence of Shearer by the right of politics and media raises questions about
his true allegiance, please, tell us more about ‘that’ barbie.
Cunliffe has been ‘censored’ by the Right clique inside caucus, even though he
won 9 out of the 10 meetings in a membership vote for the leadership, his shackles
are still on tightly and he cannot be seen to be doing anything unless the ‘clique’ give
him permission.
A manager in ChCh was bemoaning the quality of staff available, she wanted government to do something about people like the lady who took a break and never came back.
Now objectively, not something you’ll find in a third market (one on the edge of the world). Surely a manager is expected to know her customers and her employees, and that if an employee walk off the job she should have some idea why. Like Shearer, why doesn’t he know why the roofer was up there while on sicky?
Aging population, and better pay conditions in OZ mean there are fewer young people entering the work market and those that are around want to be skilled up so they can fly the ditch (only way they will own their own home). Scarcity means managers like her have to offer more, have to be aware of her employees needs, to get skills and move on to better jobs. Instead we have this blame culture from the rich, that somehow its the poor who created the economic malaise, the young who have the expertise to run the country, the sick who shouldn’t be fixing their damn roof since their TB stopped them working.
I think what passes as informed debate on TV and radio is bunkum, neoliberal talking points selected to keep wages down, keep bonuses up and power to change the econmic out of the hands of those who would change it (to serve the needs of the people).
Thanks Matthew. I subscribe to Murray Ball’s quote.
Nice little distraction by Hooten there. However, I’m still trying to figure out why Richardson ignoring the party she belonged to, and setting her own agenda, is considered a good thing. Of all the attempts at misdirection in this thread by Hooten, that’s the one that stands out for me. It’s the idea that an individual can go against the party’s wishes and take in a different direction, and that that is not only acceptable but desirable. That idea isn’t about Cunliffe, it’s about Shearer.
Well said, Weka
The New Zealand Labour Party must find a way to achieve reform and renewal through it’s members and affiliates. Only then will we have a strong Labour victory in 2014 that will enable the execution major changes: changes that will take the country on a new path to health and prosperity.
A year ago the launch of the Constitutional Review was greeted enthusiastically by the members. Members, branches, LECs, Sector groups and NZ Councillors all worked hard to get a number of significant proposals to the Conference.
The Conference was memorable for two reasons:
-the delegates passionately debated the key items and the balance of power shifted to the membership and affiliates…….on paper.
-a potentially great Conference and subsequent passionate injection of positive activity was distorted by the damaging play to marginalise Cunliffe.
We need to find the positives from the Conference and get past the destructive cr*p formulated by a few Machiavellians in the Caucus.
My view of the constitutional changes is that if the Membership want the Parliamentary Labour MP’s to adhere to Labour Party policy,(especially while in Government), it is the membership at the annual Labour Party Conference who should vote whether or not to ‘trigger’ a Party wide vote on the issue,
Further to that it is my view that the Party wide vote should also elect the Cabinet in Labour lead Governments…
+1
+1
Interesting: Monbiot on violent crime and lead poisoning.
intriguing.
Normally I take such reports with a grain of salt, but then so does Monbiot. And it certainly seems to be the gist of the evidence.
There has been a lot of discussion about the wider member leader vote, the 40% + 1 threshold and how it might be triggered in February. If it does get triggered, how every it happens what is the process then? Is there a set timeline? A postal ballot will take time to setup, candidates will need time to decide if they want to stand, time for campaigning, the voting process may take a few weeks. What is the best case for it to be complete? I’d say at the minimum six weeks, most likely it will drag on for 12+ weeks.
Who leads the party while all this is going on? Their is a reasonable chance it could all get toxic, DS, DC openly combatitive, caucus split, Patrick Gower asking everybody and anybody who’s side they are on every single night and earnestly analyzing every phrase, utterance or look. The Greens trying to stay out of it but getting more involved, Winston taking shots, backbenchers leaking and National sitting quietly and watching with glee.
When it’s over and the winner announced then what? Will the vanquished need to resign? If DC wins will it have got so bad that Mallard, King and Hipkins all go? If DC loses how many may go? Byelections towards the end of the year? It could dominate all year!
All looks very scary but then the alternative is DS stays.
So many doubts Jane! Have some faith in the uncertainty of democracy!
The only alternative is the certainty and comfort of AUTOCRACY and we wouldn’t want that now, would we. Would we?
+ 1
“Mallard, King and Hipkins all go” They should have gone last election. But no there they sit, actively fucking up the Labour party for their own ends. Fucking Parasites. The sooner they go the better for all, and they can take some of the other dead wood and dinosaurs with them! And as for Gower how can he report if he’s just told to fuck off in no uncertain terms, every time he asks a question??
“Mallard, King and Hipkins all go” They should have gone last election. But no there they sit, actively fucking up the Labour party for their own ends. Fucking Parasites. The sooner they go the better for all, and they can take some of the other dead wood and dinosaurs with them! And as for Gower how can he report if he’s just told to fuck off in no uncertain terms, every time he asks a question??
Damn Internal server error 500 rears it’s ugly head again.
Never underestimate the stupidity of an american radio talk show host. If Alex Jones was slightly smarter, he could be a moron.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2013/jan/08/alex-jones-pro-gun-tirade-piers-morgan-video
If I had to place a bet, it would be on that both Morgan and Jones are considerably more *informed/trained* and cogent of affairs than you could ever wish/pretend to be!
Keep spinning bro, and watch out for actors!
Have you watched it? The dude’s a fucking idiot.
They’re both right wing commentators, muzza, so your support for them is curious (or is it?). Morgan has the moral highground on the gun question though and has gone up in my estimation just for having the guts to take on the NRA and its apologists.
I don’t think Piers Morgan comes across as right wing – no idea how he votes or anything, but he has always seemed fairly centrist when interviewing.
News of the world editor, appointed by murdoch.
Say’s all I need to know about the bloke.
Well, the former Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan may be the voice of reason in his American show, Chris, but his work history and personal morals strongly suggest a right wing orientation. And Rupert Murdoch isn’t known for picking Spartists to run his newspapers!
edit: Snap, A1len.
I’ll have to remember next time my political affiliation is determined by old boss.
Point being if your old boss is rupert, the political affiliation is sort of a given.
Happy for mr morgan to enlighten us all with his road to Damascus conversion from murdoch’s mouthpiece to voice of the people’s heavy hitter.
Just dial 0000, piers.
If you read support for either of them in my response, you were very much mistaken. No need to have watched to know how it would have played out, with each character living up to their *expectation*, which is required to embed mind-sets.
It’s theatre, they are both pawns/tools in a game which seeks to control the perceptions/minds, via controlling a fake, *debate*!
The Allen – correct observation!
Fascinating study on the link between leaded petrol and the high crime rates of the 1990’s
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline
Indeed. One is reminded of the Romans who lost the plot because they kept their wine in lead-lined containers, or a similar lead-related decline caused by drinking rice wine from bronze vessles in the late Chinese Shang dynasty.
Although running out of rich lands to conquer and make vassal states feeding wealth to keep the imperial centre running didn’t help.
hey, did “lee.adama” get me e-mail?
Let us not get waylaid by the MMS talking heads like Trotter and Hooton.
Framing stories as battles between X and Y makes good press and TV sound bites.
The changes required to get ths country out of the trough of inequality and underperformance is not about two personalities.
As Laboutites we must focus on engaging with our family, friends, neighbours, communities, businesses and organisations to understand their needs and aspirations and to drive bottom up policy using our new Constitution.
Focus on the real stuff, not the side-shows.
The Trotter story is a matter for Shearer to sort.
Good point. No derails by talking heads.
I find it amazing that you are all still flailing around and shadow boxing about the leadership.
The battle is lost, the Feb vote is a formality. The caucus beat you. Move on.
Cunliffe got pwned. Quite unfairly probably but it will not make a blind bit of difference to the outcome. Shearer is your leader. You will not change that before the next election.
Barnsley, Hooton n the media are trying to make it a personality thing .
This Trotter story is bad for all the Labour Party.
True, members were beaten by the Caucus in November. Until the leadership has achieved legitimacy through endorsement from the members and affiliates there will be turmoil in the party.
The issue is between the members and the leadership. If the February endorsement is a “formality” then many members n affiliates will loose interest in the party.
Who will do the work for the Local Election layer this year?
“Europeans, take note: The U.S. government has granted itself authority to secretly snoop on you.
That’s according to a new report produced for the European Parliament, which has warned that a U.S. spy law renewed late last year authorizes “purely political surveillance on foreigners’ data” if it is stored using U.S. cloud services like those provided by Google, Microsoft and Facebook.”
See the following link and story for details:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/01/08/fisa_renewal_report_suggests_spy_law_allows_mass_surveillance_of_european.html
This is something all of us should be very mindful of, when using US based service providers and cloud servers, and any traffic between the US and other countries falls into the same category as the article in “future tense” (from 08 Jan. 2013) should make clear.
There are always certain risks to consider, and this is just one of them.
while I think of it; see Sue Kedgley’s analysis of the ongoing rent of Transmission Gully to the taxpayer, pulling clay uphill and all that motor-scraping
Heads up Standardistas: Hooten’s Methodology
Is to distract from the real issue: giving Labour Party members a democratic say come February, confirming the Leader.
Is to suggest that the Labour Leadership is a position which does not need or want democratic confirmation by the membership in 2013.
Is to try and turn this into an irrelevant Cunliffe versus Shearer cage fight, instead of the true crux: bringing democracy to the Labour Party, as the membership clearly intended at Conference in Nov 2012.
Is the LP membership’s participation in choosing a leader more important than the memberships ability to influence the policy decisions of the caucus? How much say does the membership now have in the latter?
Yeah, I’m hoping someone will do a post soon on how Labour works internally, with a focus on what options the membership has for action.
Well it’s what he’s paid to do, and does it well. The smug trolling designed to undermine and distract and the cherry picking rather than responding when requested so he can keep on his message
It’s like a modern version of Muldoon in some ways and boy haven’t the NACT made that look like the good old days the way they’ve sent the economy and living standards off down the hill with wilful negligence.
Heads up Standardistas: The Al1en’s Methodology
They said the next revolution would be on TV, what they didn’t say was it will start on the internet.
I’ve entered a song on the audience website, to win NZonAir funding, to record the single and make a video.
I’ve chosen the protest song The faeces of the species, as a direct challenge to key’s constituency chairman who complained about the Inside child poverty documentary aired in the 2011 election campaign, and now has his feet firmly under the table.
Way to go Sir, kids with third world diseases on their beautiful little faces, and you complain about unfair electioneering. Fuck off.
Don’t care if you like the song (I do, I love it) or not, but a vote a day for the next couple of weeks and it’s win/win.
I need the publicity to kick off my campaign, and a video on tv, or a refusal by NZonAir to follow through for political reasons would sort of do the trick.
Please, bookmark the song page and vote as many times until it gets a top ten placing and thus eligible for the prize.
Email to friends/colleagues, tell them it’s for food for kids and maximum embarrassment for the pm.
I’m staying anonymous, not going to make a penny from it personally, and well up for the front line fight.
Use the system to beat the system with a mouse click.
http://www.theaudience.co.nz/the-al1en/the-faeces-of-the-species-1/
Viva revolution.
Can you put it up somewhere where you don’t have to use a flash player, as all I get is silence.
It, and other songs are up at https://soundcloud.com/theal1en
But for the vote to count, it has to be http://www.theaudience.co.nz/the-al1en/the-faeces-of-the-species-1/
So far I have two votes, and one was from me.
A mouse click from a bunch of us and it’s getting noticed.
Game on. If you want to play, just join in.
TA
The subsconcious is amazing – Rosy mentions ape and lprent’s synapses go to the hairy Librarian at Ankh-Moorpork. What a tangled web our brains are. 😀
She did?
lprent
She did – somewhere above 1 1 1 3
Rosy – “Bolger used to ape accents all the time. I sort of thought it was a subconsciously empathetic thing.”
And she mentioned ‘subconcious’ too which I am sure I didn’t read?
RNZ
-Law Society litigate a closer relationship with Lifeline; the demands of being a lawyer are greater than they have ever been 😉
-longer hours
-demanding clients
-technological speed cracking the whip
now,
Down to Business
-NZ TWI the highest in FIVE years, around 75.9
-Japanese are about to begin printing rice paper money in a “fashion not seen before”
-Cloudy forecast for mortgage interest rates in the latter half of this year and expected to be much higher over the coming 3-4 years-Shamubeel Eaqub, NZIER (I like that man)
-Rural Exodus-property values dropping (has occurred already in central and southern HB)
-Nov Trade Deficit widened, 4th consecutive month in a row
-NZ $ 84.70 US; 85 coming
yet,
the NZX 50 Index is at a new FIVE year high; business as usual.
Ching Ching
oi
test
test (server intermission )
sorry about the random graffiti (servers’ fault message) 🙂
did you know that Zephaniah was familiar with court circles and current political issues?
He announced to Judah God’s coming judgement, an immediate sign was the Scythian (fierce horse mounted peoples’) incursion into Canaan (from Southern Russia) in the 7th C BC.
main theme, coming day of the Lord, God’s punishment of the nations including apostate Judah, with the pronouncement of Doom ending on a positive note with His merciful restoration.
Baal was a common name for the chief male god amongst peoples, also
-master and owner of a house
-landowner
-owner of cattle
-son of “grain”
-storm god Hadad
Baal cult included, addiction, animal sacrifices, ritualistic meals, licentious dances. Human fertility was sacred and the High places had chambers for sacred prostitution;
I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps of rubble (formidable obstacles), when I cut off man from the face of the earth, declares the Lord.
(Zephaniah speaks of fire)
I will stretch out my hand against Judah, I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal, the names of the pagans and the idolatrous priests-those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who swear by the Lord and also by Molech (sometimes involved in child sacrifice).
On that day, declares the Lord, a cry will go up from the Fish Gate (merchants who had grown rich through corrupt business practices would be destroyed.
At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent. Their wealth will be plundered, their houses demolished. They will build houses but not live in them; they will plant vineyards but not drink the wine.
(remember how the distributor / oil pump drive used to round off on the old V6? 🙂
I had an old 1963 Ford Falcon 170 Super pursuit, and it had a bad habit of screwing them off inside the oil pump, so that if you didn’t have a long thin magnetic screwdriver, it was the sump off, then the oil pump removal to get it out. I got to be quite an expert at the removal of those bloody things on the side of the road and i kept a spare in the glove box at all times.
Nice bit of history there mate. Good to remind people that yes, there was much culture and civilisation way before the Romans.
What did the Romans ever do for us?
OK the aqueduct,,,,,,,
The World Economic Forum, hardly a hot bed of anti-capitalism, is warning that climate change, income inequality, and fiscal instability are THE issues which must be addressed IMMEDIATELY (at Davos).
Between the lines the WEF is saying we are in a global economic meltdown. Captain Mumblefuck and ABC are in denial even as capitalists elsewhere are waking up and frightened.
What the Captain Mumblefuck neo-liberals fail to see is that if we don’t get a moderate reformer like Cunliffe (comparable to FDR and Mickey Savage in the 1930’s), we are going to get a Hitler or Stalin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/08/climate-change-debt-inequality-threat-financial-stability
Excellent Link; not looking so “foolish” on the Left now, are we. 🙂
One way of forcing meaning onto suffering, thereby making it more bearable, is to rename it sacrifice and believe it integral to the divine economy. We confront the the fears that threats to life arouse in us by claiming that destruction for our own, submitting to it or performing acts of violence ourself. It is not religious belief that makes us violent, violence turns us to the intense motifs of sacrifice that are particularly expressed in religion. Considering, however, the broader context of anthropogenic violence in Encyclopedia of Wars-Charles Philips and Alan Axelrod- found of 1,800 violent conflicts throughout history, only 23 of them were religious.
“There isn’t much precedent in Islamic tradition for suicide terrorism. Modern suicide terrorism became a political force with the atheistic anarchist movement that began at the end of the 19th century”-Atran (see also If You’re Not Religious Is Nothing Sacred?)
“Fictive Kinship”-living as if related-is served well by a belief in a (monotheistic) deity. Sacred values have an important functional hold over us.
Quite a passionate discussion above. Much will depend I guess on Mr Shearer’s big speech on 27 January that Chris Hipkins is hosting. The word is it will have another big policy announcement.
Thank you Matthew for the update from Party Central.
This is at the Young Labour hosted Summer School. It is in Trevor’s electorate rather than Chris Hipkin’s, I suspect.
Where: Brookfield Scout Camp, 562 Moores Valley Road, Wainuiomata
(only 40mins from Khandallah)
When: Friday 25 January – Sunday 27 January
You can contact Young Labour at summerschool@younglabour.org.nz. Find out more and register now at younglabour.org.nz/summer-school.
All paid up members are welcome. It will be a great time for all the Labour Party membership to build on the good work started at the November Conference.
Book your Air NZ flights now if you are from the regions. Auckland -Wellington return under $200.
Clare Curran will buy drinks for anyone who says they read The Standard regularly.
Matthew we have heard this “next big speech” talk for more than a year now, and the guy remains as opaque as he ever was. It is as if party central is taking its cues from North Korea.
Yeah, showing up there smooching the Rogernomes will be a better look than fishing for clients among the Neo-Nazis and racists at the Marlborough Sounds Symposia who inspired Anders Brevik, won’t it, Hoots?
Just an addendum, but I think that there’s a very interesting post that could be written on Matthew Hooton’s very dirty clients if someone could do the digging…
No doubt there are some aspects he wants hidden very deeply indeed.
Looking at all the above I am guessing that this will be keys GO TO place when he wants to feel good and confident about his chances of winning next election. I can see where he is gettin g his material from to stir up the Shearer/Cunliffe divide. Does’t even have to try,it’s all there ready and waiting.
The material comes from the ABCs.
NZ’s Incumbent Politicians Hell-bent on Encumbrance
Gee, why am I not surprised? Perhaps it’s because NAct set up the whole lot as a wealth siphon that takes taxpayer money and gives it to their rich mates.
The simple reality is that if we hadn’t sold off Telecom and went for competition we’d be a hell of a lot better off (~$17b worth), we’d already have FttH to most of the countries population and telecommunications would be a hell of a lot cheaper than they are.
🙁 it’s all optic fibre from where I’m gazing
If Chorus’s profits drop so does its share price which will allow an overseas buyer into the market in purchasing Chorus for a knock down price – then you will see what it costs to repair phone lines – payable in Yuan.
This country needs a climate change Churchill not a climate change Chamberlain.
Te Reo Putake claims that there will be a unanimous caucus vote in support of David Shearer in February, which will prevent the membership from having their say.
For this to happen even David Cunliffe would have to vote for David Shearer.
Even if he is the only one to do so, Cunliffe should vote against him.
If he does, he will eventually triumph.
The Market and Mother Nature
http://www.dailycamera.com/opinion-columnists/ci_22349392
from Scientific American
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2013/01/10/what-will-it-take-to-solve-climate-change/
Out of Africa
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/tobacco-farms-drive-major-deforestation-in-tanzania
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43417&Cr=deforestation&Cr1=#.UPDVvPIp2mQ
Smoke Those Trees (no filters)
Plus the fact I seem to piss my money away.
Mcflock,
I just wanted to let you know that I tried out a few of the tobacco leaves that have been hanging under the house for about 8 and a half months, and it tastes just like a slightly harsher version of Camel. The reason I mention it is because you were saying that the tobacco variety I used was too bland. And it is if not cured for long enough. I may have to take it all down now. I’d hate to imagine how harsh it will be if I leave it for the entire 12 months.
*disclaimer: tobacco is very unhealthy, and it goes without saying (but I will to salve my conscience) that you’d be better off quitting, and you may well have done so.
I did quit – gardening 🙂
Interesting. I might take up growing it again.
The real fun I had was progressively destroying my crop trying different methods in a fruitless search for ideal pipe tobacco (in place of being too uncoordinated to roll a decent cigar :)). Sort of like organic alchemy.
I would suggest taking it down and blending with this year’s crop, but I fear you have followed too much of my horticulture speculation already 🙂
Good idea!
i do a mix, well cured leaves that i grow are pretty much cigar material in terms of taste,but if you mix in the smaller leaves which seem to have less of the active ingredients in them and/or some of the half cured leaves you get a blend thats slightly harsh but still a nice smoke,
i am hard out at the moment pulling plants that have basically done their dash and cutting bigger leaves, in my main garden fertilized for the rest of the year on my kitchen scraps i am getting some great 750cm-800cm leaves…
Hi Bad12,
I have one plant in my garden which is about 17 months old. I harvested the big leaves last year, but left a few plants in the vege garden expecting them to die. But it was a very mild winter. I pulled the rest out in spring, but thought I’d leave one to deter insects.
It’s thriving, and now I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be easier (if it would work) to keep the plants for as long as possible – keep cutting the flowers off, and reharvest the leaves every autumn.
I know that tobacco is usually grown as an annual. Have you ever kept them going and kept on harvesting? Easier than sowing seed every year. I find that the plants grow very slowly in the first few months. It would be good to be able to speed th process up a bit.
JS, yeah they will grow all yeah round even in a harsh Wellington winter, but, the babies don’t like the cold and are best planted in the first week in November,
I havn’t tried growing any as a multi year crop, just had a seed get away and germinate, but, the literature i have read says that the second time round the foliage gets smaller than the 8 sets of big leaves to be expected for the first crop,
I grew 20 in the first year and that wasn’t enough for a years supply, 40 the next year and still not enough, 60 last year and run out in October, LOLZ insanity took over this year and i have grown a s**t-load,
I start my seeds under lights in August/ September, separate them at about a inch high and use the lights on them untill they start blocking the light from one another and then put them on the windowsills untill it’s warm enough to plant them out, (November),
So this years from planting to pulling the ones that are starting to yellow,(they have used all the food in the soil),and flower,(really only need a couple of plants for seeds),is a pretty fast 10 weeks, and, i think that the clever plants have subtracted the weeks they spent on the window sills as part of the life-span cos while this years are far more productive and better quality they haven’t grown as tall as last years,
A really clever ‘tool’ for hanging them is to straighten out paper clips leaving the hook in one end and a V in the other, i’ve got my garden shed strung with strings across the roof inside and it can take a couple of hundred pairs of leaves at a time, the strings i set about 10cm, 4 inches apart, i am getting good smokable leaves after 3 weeks but not all of them dry out and brown up at the same time so there’s a constant sorting going on which isn’t hard work but is time consuming,(oh my kingdom for a sky-line),
Another tip is to use thick paper sacks to store the cut leaves in, i use paper rubbish sacks cut in half and staple the bottom of the half that needs it, paper sacks keep the leaves from becoming too unstable and if you need to dry the cut stuff the hot water cupboard or the windowsills on a sunny day are good,
If you want to dry cured leaves fast, in a paper bag on the dash board of a car in the sun works like an oven and you have to keep an eye on them coz the moisture gets sucked out of them real quick,
LOLZ if you crispy critter them like i did to a bag full of slightly wet but cured leaf the other day they can be fixed by tossing in half a dozen wet leaves overnight, it’s amazing to see leaves so dry that they could turn to dust overnight become soft and able to be handled again…
Wow.
Thanks for all this advice.
I have mine hanging in a similar fashion, using the green wire gardening twine hooked through the thick stem into spaced loops in the wire across the shed.
Do you have any tips for speeding up the looping/hooking/hanging process? Takes forever!
Still with tobacco at $35 for 30 grams, it’s worth the effort.
Get a good mate to help you with it for a portion of the end result haha
By the way, tobacco makes an excellent complementary community currency, bypassing the mainstream banker controlled economy.
My mates disapprove 🙁
Ummm, are you pairing the leaves together, the advice is to pair the leaves with the center stems facing each other,
If you have bunches of leaves on one wire it might slow down the drying, i am lucky to have cleaned up what is quite a big area i have under the house,it’s about 4 times the area of a shed and i have that rigged with the same set up as the shed to be able to hook my pairs of leaves on,
LOLZ, the disgusting wet muddy s**t i dug out of there is actually my main garden in a raised bed made from shipping pallets which both the Ware Whare and Bunning’s give away here,(for fire-wood snigger), i systematically work my way up and down the garden over the 9 months i am not growing anything feeding it the kitchen scraps, ash from the ashtray, and bits of paper like shopping receipts and rolly paper packets,
Theres no effort in digging the garden that way as once a week i just dig a spade wide trench across it, dump in the scraps,add a small bucket of compost and hey presto utter crap soil is pumping my plants so hard out that everytime i look at it i have a bit of a giggle,
But i digress, back to hanging leaves, when my shed is full, i first run my pairs of leaves through the basement area which isn’t quite warm enough to cure them but allows them to get to that stage where they fold in on themselves,
While that happens i am checking in the shed for leaves that are near cured and moving them closest to the door, as i move them closer to the door and as space becomes available i rotate the rest of the leaves around the shed,
It’s something i do about twice a week, i don’t know how your shed sits in relation to the Sun,mine has a warm side facing the sun, so when the leaves come out from the basement they go into the shed on the un-sunny side,(the roof of the shed gets full sun), and i then rotate them round the shed as i take the cured stuff out,
Most of my cured stuff is still wet but brown when i take it out of the shed as it sucks in moisture from the less cured leaves that are constantly arriving in the shed, thats why i use the paper bag method of giving the leaves a final dry,
To use the paper bag method i first strip out the center stem,(they get buried with the kitchen scraps), i then give the leaves a first cut by squeezing a bunch in one hand and cutting them as thin as possible with the scissors,
It’s easy then to put a paper bag of cut but still damp stuff in the hot water cupboard, on a window sill in the sun, (with the curtains closed works best),or if some real heat is necessary, on the dash board of the car in a sunny spot, (gotta check them every half hour if you use the paper bag of cut stuff on the cars dashboard method tho, it doesn’t take em long to crispy critter,
LOLZ, only 30 grams, my addiction is atrocious, i have been smoking 2, 50 gram packets for the past 40 odd years,
The legal aspects as i understand them are that it is ILLEGAL to either sell or give what you have grown away, and, my reading of the law says that you can grow enough to provide YOU with 15KG of cut and smokable leaves in any year…
Ahh didn’t know that. Nevertheless, unless they get the mainstream economy more inclusive, people will do what people will do to survive.
Aha, as the anti-smoking fanatics have all agreed, to make a smoke-free New Zealand via the current means would have a packet of tobacco costing 100 bucks by the time those fools have finished it’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that a black market will become established,
I can tell you now that tobacco as a bush crop has a greater range of growing areas than dope as tobacco doesn’t need a full sun enviroment to grow leaves, where-as dope does to grow heads,
From what i have been told the stuff,(tobacco), can be found growing wild all over the far North…
Lol.
What gave me the idea (which percolated as the price went steadily up) was the old man’s neighbour dug up his entire back quarter-acre section and grew tobacco, in South Auckland, about ten years ago. Must have been a heavy smoker:-D
It broke down cultural barriers between neighbours, as my father was a keen gardener at the time, and was fascinated by watching the wholesale cropping of a back yard. I asked my father if it was legal to grow, and he said it was legal to grow – illegal to sell.
I take a bit of comfort at the extent of your habit. Sometimes I feel guilty about smoking about 30 grams a week!
Btw, I hang each leaf from a separate “hook” on a separate loop. One of the reasons it takes so damn long.
You’ve given me lots of new ideas to experiment with.
Thank you and bon apetit – or whatever the smoking equivalent is:-)
God don’t ever let anyone including yourself ‘guilt trip’ you over smoking, it’s an addiction and you were hooked after the first pack,
I am not so sure that hanging them separately would slow down the drying process, in theory it should speed it up, maybe my having a ‘mass’ of leaves in the shed at one time traps the heat of the Sun, does your shed get all day sun on at least it’s roof???,
I have found that leaving the door of the shed closed most of the time speeds the process a little bit and even when i leave the door open it’s only by 50 odd mm’s,
LOLZ, i have taken over a dead and weed infested piece of the HousingNZ estate and have a series of raised garden boxes down there as well, HousingNZ are planning on building on it at some stage but untill then i have done what all good colonizing white boys do and simply moved in on the basis of ‘they are not using it’, now where have i heard that before LOLZ,
Taking the cost out of the addiction leaves me with the money to provide a good diet across the whole range of foods where growing a vege garden would have left me with the cost of the addiction and little better off…
😀
Let’s face it – vegetable growing is a hobby which barely covers costs and in a bad season – not even that.
There is an untended reserve over the fence. I’ve been working on the soil which is horrendusly alkaline due to decades of home fire ash being chucked over….
Those looking for a milder smoke should favour the lower leaves on the plant.
Advanced manufacturing: How to make a nuclear submarine
Not that I am advocating that NZ does this, obviously. But this conveys how much knowledge and expertise is required to successfully do “high tech, high value” manufacturing. Bringing NZ to this point is a generational project, and our short term political outlook can’t achieve it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ODDjsK0BOg
Yep, seen it a while back and loved it… agree that we shouldn’t be/couldn’t be doing that, but it serves to show how much an industry is tied up with a town.
These are real people, learning real skills in real trades and if that industry is shut down because some bean-counter decides to outsource it, then those people see their futures end and the community dies.
So when we hear that a paper mill is shutting down a line, then look at this and see how an industry supports the real aspirations (not Key’s “ashperayshums”) and livelihoods of a community.
All of Key’s and Shearer’s talk of “outsourcing” as a road to economy? Look at the real costs of “economy”.
Watch this documentary, and if you’re uncomfortable thinking about warships, then think about towns dependent on paper mills, meat works and refrigerator manufacturers.
You got to hand it to the Brits, you can see how they managed to keep an Empire going for so long, and how – amazingly – they have kept going with some pride even after the end of their Empire. Not every post-Imperial power can boast such a feat.
Cameron is a nasty bit of work. His economic policies were even more destructive than John Keys, and those big riots were not accident; rather the result of his brutal austerity measures. The UK govt steals from the poor to give to the rich, kind of the reverse of Robin Hood.
He is no friend of New Zealanders, his government introduced immigration measures that put an end to decades of OE’s.