Who gives a shit. There was 72 hours of good weather to make it all happen and NZ failed. The people in the Bay of Plenty and Mother Earth pay the price for that failure.
Any “Compensation” in the form of dollar notes is pathetic.
So what would you have done and when? What equipment would you have needed? Where would it have come from and how long would it have taken to get there? How many people would you need and how would you deploy them?
Not interested in your irrelevant hypothesizing now.
Your trick of trying to make ME come up with 101 answers now is a BS deflection from the fact that Joyce and Key dropped the ball for the first 72 hours.
Waiting for a private sector response, setting up little bird rescue stations and dispersing the first few tonnes of oil which spilt were a waste of time and effort during the first 72 hours.
I take that to mean you haven’t got a clue about what was done and what should have been done, and are more interested in chucking around ill informed slogans. Well at least you’ve finally admitted it. There’s hope for you yet.
I would suggest that they should have a number of different plans, and when news of the grounding hit they should have been adapting the most suitable one to the specific circumstances. And shipping equipment for the more serious contingencies on that day, given that the likelihood of the worst case scenario increases exponentially once the ship actually hits rocks or the rig catches fire.
So the plan review should probably have been done on Thursday.
Whether this is a resource issue (govt fault), an department failure (slightly less of a govt fault, dept fault), best practise (communication failure -govt&dept fault), or simply a paradigm shift needed for new circumstances, I guess all that will come out in the wash.
I expect they will have a number of scenarios scoped out. you have your overall strategic response that puts in place all your command tree and your decision making principles, but you can only draw up your specific response plan as you go, because each situation is so different – dealing with a grounded ship leaking oil may be very different from a mobile ship with a similar leak. But the specific plan will be done within the broad principles of a ‘grounded ship leaking oil’ plan linked to you general ‘oil on beach’ plan etc. That’s on the oil pollution side.
The salvage plan is quite different again and it needs a professional salvor, and they have to first be appointed then brought in to examine the vessel and the resources available before they can develop it. ANd it has to complement the MNZ plan – not much point MNZ plan assuming a ship recovery when the salvor says it can’t be done, or the salvor saying offload the containers adn fuel when there is no capacity to do it.
The point being that in any complex plan there are a number of things that can be done while other parts have yet to take affect.
Especially if there are a limited range of options to choose from.
This situation seemed to have been at the mercy of a rather linear thought process.
And the gospel according to DPF in the Granny herald, is that the ship was deliberately steered onto the reef… Jezuz what a Troll he is.
Of course from what we know the Rena was not blown off course, but deliberately steered into a well known and marked reef. The captain and first officer have already been charged with offences.
It was deliberately steered into the reef, only not in the way you are interpreting. The ship was on a deliberate course, and it just so happened that they didn’t know that the reef was there, or knew it was there but forgot to avoid it (i’m tending towards the first option).
so as the captain was in charge of the ship, you can actually say that it was deliberately steered into the reef, as they were steering the ship on a deliberate course at the time it hit.
so as the captain was in charge of the ship, you can actually say that it was deliberately steered into the reef, as they were steering the ship on a deliberate course at the time it hit.
This logic seems like a BS word game.
eg
I’m ‘deliberately’ driving a car around a corner when I accidentally hit and kill a 4 year old standing there on the road in the blind spot.
The courts will recognise that as manslaughter not DELIBERATE murder.
Just because I am ‘deliberately’ cornering at the time, does not then mean I that I ‘deliberately’ killed the kid.
No deliberately means it went where it was DELIBERATELY aimed. There is no interpretation to deliberate. It means it was planned. And I don’t think the Captain and Crew got up that morning and said “I know lets hit a reef”. So Spin that away.
Which is entirely different from Farrars “deliberately steered into a … reef”.
The difference is that “deliberate” conveys intent. It means you’ve thought about what to do, considered your options, and decided what action to take.
In Farrar’s sentence the Captain’s intent is not simply to steer the ship (which was your first interpretation) but to steer the ship into a reef.
The ship is is insured for US 4.2 billion dollars with a sub limit of about US 1 billion dollars for a pollution event , thats a lot of incentive , backhanders anyone ?
With the over supply of container ships and the global down turn in trade means that a lot of ships over 18 years old go to scrap , scrapping prices have been falling as well .
This ship has been insured for 4.2 billion , second hand or as scrap it would fetch no where near this price .
You’ve misread it. That is not what the ship is worth, that is their public liability insurance value. Like you having a $5k car with comp insurance, it will pay out yours up to 5k, but if you hit someone’s Ferrari, it will pay them a lot more.
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE OCCUPYING WALL STREET AGAINST THE BANK$TERS!
TOMORROW!
SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 2011
AUCKLAND
3PM
ASSEMBLE OUTSIDE BRITOMART!
Please ditribute as widely as possible
Please come yourself and bring family, friends and placards. Let’s show that people and the planet must come before corporate greed. Join the march against corporate greed and in solidarity with the thousands who are occupying Wall Street.
Right now the Government and the Rena’s shipping owners need a very loud public message that many NZer’s are very angry about the unnecessary grounding and the subsequent environmental disaster caused by the Rena’s grounding on the Astrolabe Reef. This disaster is the tragic story of corporate greed, and neo-liberal policies that have reduced safety regulation, structures and resources to less than minimal, and the use of cheap workers.
Join the Auckland March
This Saturday 15th October
Assemble 3.00pm
Britomart at the bottom of Queen Street
March to Aotea Square
GPJA #379: SAT OCT 15 – OCCUPY AOTEAROA – “WE ARE THE 99%” – INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
by gpjanz
GLOBAL PEACE AND JUSTICE AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER No. 397, October 12, 2011
OCCUPY AOTEAROA SATURDAY OCTOBER 15 – “WE ARE THE 99%” – INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
I received this today – anyone able to comment on the authenticity? If this is really happening will the media report it?
Dear Friends,
Urgent — tomorrow at 7 am, the New York City police plan to evict the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
The only way to stop the eviction is a roaring outcry to New York’s billionaire mayor, Mike Bloomberg, and to the owners of the protest park. We must show them that their global reputations are on the line.
Let’s flood their offices with phone calls! Avaaz will tell the media about the numbers of calls made, multiplying their impact on the public image of Bloomberg and Richard B. Clark — the CEO of the company that owns the park. If enough of us call now, we could turn the tide and stop the eviction–but only hours are left!
Call the Mayor and Brookfield Properties Here:
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg: +1-212-NEW-YORK (639-9675)
Brookfield CEO Richard Clark: +1-212-417-7063
Brookfield US headquarters: +1-212-417-7000
Brookfield Canada headquarters: +1-416-369-2300
Brookfield Australia headquarters: +61-2-9322-2000
After calling, post a message about how the call went — to help Avaaz count the number of calls made, and demonstrate the wave of worldwide support for the protesters.
Say that you have a message for Brookfield CEO Richard Clark or NYC Mayor Bloomberg (depending on who you are calling)
Stop the eviction of Zuccotti Park
We have a constitutional right to protest.
This is one of the biggest shows of public outrage in decades and these people represent hundreds of thousands across the world who stand with the protesters and the movement for real democracy.
The protesters are cleaning up the park, keeping it clean and safe
We can help make sure the thousands of protesters rights to freedom of speech and assembly are respected by calling Billionare Bloomberg and Brookfield. Forward to everyone!
Emma, Morgan, Maria Paz, Alice, Ben, Rewan and the whole Avaaz team
“Note that it is not till Saturday that MNZ are reported to be -”reviewing draft salvage plan”.
This despite the Prime Minister telling the pollution affected people of Maketu:
A national plan for such disasters had been put into action the moment the ship hit the reef
John Key
Is this John Key’s most shocking lie yet?
Is John Key talking about some other plan?
If such another (draft, or full) plan does exist, will it be released?”
I think you will find that the national plan is a broad response plan, while the draft which was being reviewed was one specific to the ship as produced by the salver.
I believe the national plan has been insufficient in that there was to little response in the immediate days after the spill to contain any spilt oil or to move to protect environmentally sensitive spots like Maketu estuary. Live capture of endangered doterils (sp)etc should have begun immediately and a beach clean up effort with gear put in place and planned from the get go.
I can understand that pumping the oil off etc isn’t something that can happen straight away as it needed to be heated to allow it to flow. Which you don’t really want to do until you are sure that the tank you are heating isn’t holed as warm fluid oil will flow out much faster than cold Vegemite like stuff. I also understand that some pipes etc need repair to allow this.
Technical work like this is far better left to the experts which in this case are the salvers, than having bureaucrats and politicians putting an oar in.
This is exactly where an potential rescue went wrong at Pike…..
Technical work like this is far better left to the experts which in this case are the salvers…
MNZ should have that expertise and should also be the salvers that go in and start the salvage ASAP rather than waiting for the captain to contact the ships owners, who’ll contact the insurers, who”l then contact some salvers who will then try and decide what to do. That process wastes time.
MSM excels again.
Nothing like a journalist asking patsy questions and “… I expect you are disappointed in the politicising of this, Minister…?
WTF? Good old Geoff. He really should stick to Births, Deaths and Marriages.
Joyce spun like a top this morning, weaving an amazing web and Geoff agreed that they had done all that they could have done.
However, according to the latest despatches, the plan is to pump from tomorrow.
So in 24 hours, under much tougher conditions, they can install external heaters and pumps, and start extraction.
How does that compare with Joyce’s answers this morning.
Well Wednesday at 6 am he receives a call advising of the stranding. He could have requested/directed that they start discharging oil as soon as possible. If the ship responded that their machinery was U/S, then shore based heaters and pumps could have been despatched, and on Thursday they would have been pumping… (24 hours after stranding, just like today’s action)
Oh, and the ugly New Zealander has emerged in Tauranga it seems, with a Filipino shopkeeper being abused and some of the Rena crew being flown out allegedly due to fears for their safety.
Racist targeting by legitimately angry people, but misguided.
Yes I agree it is misguided TM. I initially thought this could be MSM spin to distract from the deeper blame but with the guilty plea of the woman who set her dogs on asian people in christchurch, and the continued racism displayed daily in this country I feel it is probably true. Very sad.
MNZ breached the manufacturers guidelines by spraying a large amount of Corexit close to shore, where it can have an adverse effect on inhabitants. They failed to check if the dispersant would be effective prior to application and have not adequately informed the public of the health risks from Corexit 9500…
What is obvious is that the larget port in New Zealand and probably the second largest port in NZ Auckland does not have a crisis responce plan or adequate large equipment including oil absorbant booms to deal with any reasonabley sizesd oil spill. One would think that it was only a matter of time before a major spill happened. And now it just has.
If ACT Party is National’s bitch, that needed a makeover and stood up to National over
covert surveilance, then what does that make Epson residents who vote ACT?
Just poor management to get into a situation
where someone cries discrimination, even worse
that MSM urges them on by shouting its okay
to discriminate sometimes. Immoral, Unethical
meets poor management, poor leadership, so NZ.
Set the bar low, then lower it, cheer, then stamp
a brand, oh NZ fair and balanced.
“It really is the arrival of Marine Le Pen that convinced me to join the National Front,” Engelmann told Reuters. “She has an economic program that is much more geared to defending the little people, the workers, the popular classes of France.“
Oh dear, this guy really doesn’t understand who the RWNJs work for does he?
Labour’s complaint about the PM hosting a non-political hour of talkback on Radio Live. is rejected on every ground argued and the BSA concludes:
…even if this programme were held to be an election programme, which we do not consider it was, it would not have breached any of the standards raised by the complainant.
One assumes that the next great leap in liberal logic will be to denounce the BSA decision as more evidence of aVast Right Wing and Non-Labour Left Wing conspiracy …
That finding was obvious from the start, but of course that didn’t stop Labour activists from instantly engaging in an exercise of guilt on (their own) accusation – as Eddie’s headline falsely claimed: “Key broke law on radio show“.
Commenting on the BSA, you linked to a post which has nothing to do with the BSA. The allegation of breaking the law relates to … the law. Not broadcasting standards. So your allegation of “falsely claiming” is meaningless, pending a finding on the law.
Read the post you linked to, and the several links within it, from Graeme Edgeler, if you really want to understand the law. But then, that’s not why you’re here, is it?
“It became clear to the authority that the legislation should be interpreted as overt or explicit encouragement or persuasion to vote in a particular way rather than incidentally or consequently amounting to encouragement or persuasion.”
The mere presence of Key did not make it an election programme under current law.
This indicates that there is some room to consider whether the current law is adequate. The law seems to assume that electioneering is a process of explicitly saying “vote for us because”. But it is pretty obvious that National’s main election strategy is to promote brand Key rather than to foreground National’s policy and performance. In fact, National’s strategy is to promote Key through photo ops and positive associations, and to avoid anything too negative associated with Key.
Joe Bloggs needs a great leap in reading comprehension skills:
We can of course see that some political advantage will accrue to the Prime Minister and the party to which he belongs from exposures of this kind. It is not for us to say whether this should or should not be permitted; we are required to deal with the law as it stands.
The word “of course” should have helped you there, Joe. It’s kind of a giveaway.
The BSA confirms that the broadcast was political propaganda, but says their hands are tied.
Yes I do agree. It is exactly what I said the other day.
And it also confirms that Labour made a strategic blunder by filing a hopeless complaint, when what they should have done was lobby for a slot for Phil. Which I also said I supported, and would probably have been advantageous to Phil, who I think would come across well in that sort of setting.
Nope, more of an own goal for National and MW. The finding that the show was political shows that law, as it presently stands, is broken which has now been highlighted by Labours actions. This will reflect badly on Key/National because people will see it as him using his position as PM for political advantage and MW will be seen as politically biased possibly due to National loaning them $43m of our money as it did not offer the same advantage to every other party leader.
Did i hear right on TV3 news last night?
I noted someone with a bulldozer trying to pull containers/stuff up the beach and they where told to stop because they did not have a correct safety plan or something like that.
Could this be government gone mad?
I don’t think it is this govt gone mad – it is the accumulation of generations of H&S regulation and generally that has been a good thing. That said, who knows what was in the container. WHat if they broke it open and it tipped something nasty onto the beach? Would the guy with the bulldozer be willing to pay to clean it up?
logie..you right dude. poor geoff. they talk about bullying but it comes from the top down doesn’t it. Nobody gets a chance till its been through their vetting machine. they self appointed gatekeepers for the tories but they claim to be objective. more malice in blunderland stuff, isnt it. He should retire and get a job on radio skawkback where he would be right at home with the used car salesman types, shouldnt he.
Just to be pedantic…since the Rena grounding I have wondered if all these years I had been mispronouncing ASTROLABE.
Every journo and pollie has been pronouncing it ASTRO LAB.
Today it finally got to me so I checked it on the interweb –
It is pronounced as-truh-leyb.
Just a bit grumpy-old-man but we must have standards! Next people will be parking across two spaces, pulling out of supermarket aisles without looking and overusing the word “ackchully”
Apparantly that is what the locals call it, according to RNZ, so they are following that pronunciation – a bit like Al -b’ney instead of Awl-b’ney.
Course the media are very selective on their application of this rule and are quite happy to impose their centralised view of what is correct when it suits – cf. Wanagnui, Waikouaiti, or Hakatere
Never took you for a post-modern, localist, relativist Insider.
I see you in a whole new way now.
Interesting.
BTW, that’s “apparently” not “apparantly” – or is that the way they spell it round your way?
Suddenly, meeting National Standards gets a whole lot easier. After all, I’m sure it is not intended to “impose their centralised view of what is correct when it suits”.
I’ve always used a short ‘a’ which is the way they call the Auckland suburb and aligned with the Welsh pronunciation of Avon but I’ve noticed in Chch they use the long A which is the English Avon. You’re a cantab, whcih is it?
Down here it’s Aaavandale (yes, van). But I hope any radio announcer uses its correct pronunciation.
Also, did you hear David Farrar and whoever was on the Panel – a couple of nights ago – with him going on about people’s problems with ‘pronOUNCiation’? I love the irony of that.
Just a bit grumpy-old-man but we must have standards! Next people will be parking across two spaces, pulling out of supermarket aisles without looking and overusing the word “ackchully”
And spelling EpsoM as EpsoN as I’ve sen a couple of times lately on The Standard.
I see John Keys showing his true colours in the Dompost this morning, wasnt he. First of all he demeaned Phill goff for rolling up his shirt sleeves and getting stuck in and then he used a dubyaism. i.e. “there are no silver clouds”. what does that mean? The subtext is that he only knows how to count other peoples money and using language that conveys any nuance or recondite meaning is foreign territory for a money manque. He should get a life.
Scientific skepticism is healthy. In fact, science by its very nature is skeptical. Genuine skepticism means considering the full body of evidence before coming to a conclusion. However, when you take a close look at arguments expressing climate ‘skepticism’, what you often observe is cherry picking of pieces of evidence while rejecting any data that don’t fit the desired picture. This isn’t skepticism. It is ignoring facts and the science.
The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism looks at both the evidence that human activity is causing global warming and the ways that climate ‘skeptic’ arguments can mislead by presenting only small pieces of the puzzle rather than the full picture.
Disgraced former Act MP David Garrett has been suspended from practise for a year after swearing a false affidavit to a court while working as a lawyer.
Am I alone in thinking a one year ban is a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket? The bloke is a liar and a criminal!
Just heard Barry Corbett on The Panel. His ‘what am I thinking about’ was a warning to ‘politicians’ not to ‘moan’.
He then detailed two examples of how Labour has been moaning – Darien Fenton’s comment about Peter Leitch on Facebook and Phil Goff (and Labour’s) complaint over the PM’s hour.
Corbett waxed lyrical about Peter Leitch and then said he thought the PMs hour was just an ‘interesting’ bit of radio and not political. He then mentioned how Geoffrey Palmer had hosted an hour of his breakfast show in 1989. When Mora – or maybe Bruce Slane – raised the question of timing, Corbett said it was just before Moore took over. Odd that, I thought Moore took over a matter of weeks before the November (?) election in 1990 (not 1989).
He strongly criticised Labour – Fenton and Goff by name – for moaning – calling them “moaners”. Defamatory?
So far as I could detect there was no ‘balance’ – just a targetted and prolonged attack on Fenton, Goff and Labour in general.
Obviously his days as a guest on The Panel are now numbered.
On Wednesday 12 October, I sent an email to Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) formally requesting under the Official Information Act 1982 a copy of the MV Rena’s inventory. I made my request because of the differing stories authorities had been telling us about what Rena is carrying…
Sorry I put this item first on weekend social. Got the date right but turned up at the wrong place. Woe is me. Perhaps the social post one could be wiped – it’s not the sort of thing to lighten your heart and encourage a smile.
Der Spiegel has a damning report on Austrian poltical and financial bigwigs. Selling off government property and getting kickbacks, etc etc. The right wing free market neo liberals whatever don’t seem to be able to keep their scheming greedy luxury power and money-obssessed brains under control.
They must have voice activated dictation machines by their beds in case they come up with a new idea in their dreams and utter some choice clues as to new ways of wringing the money out of other people’s hands and pockets And where is the payoff for the rest of us whose minds are too pedestrian for such convoluted diabolical schemes?
Wealthy TVNZ execs pay themselves more while firing staff
Stop the 1%.
Television New Zealand top bosses have scored big pay rises while laying off staff and cutting costs.
The company annual report tabled in Parliament this week showed the highest earner – believed to be chief executive Rick Ellis – was paid $910,000 to $920,000 in the year to June 30, compared to $750,000 to $760,000 for the previous year.
The second highest earner – believed to be head of sales and marketing Paul Maher – earned $680,000 to $690,000 up from $560,000-570,000 last year.
Campbell Live have revealed another wrinkle in the Rena debate.
I think the time line goes:
– NZ needed to update it’s legislation based on 1976 arrangements regarding compensation.
– Someone wrote to Annette King about this being over looked.
– A 2008 select committee forwarded the necessary legislation to the house (which I assume to mean Annette King tool heed of the problem).
– Then came the election.
– Steven Joyce takes over as minister.
– The legislation drops down the list of priority and nothing is done, (probably boy racer legislation that has never been used was more important!)
– Rena runs a ground and we lose the opportunity of another $17 mil in compensation.
Another failure of ministerial responsibility?
How much of our money has this government pissed away and sacked people to cover it?
How many other pieces of useless legislation was rushed through in urgency ahead of this one?
On Wednesday 12th October, John Key challenged all of the people who think the Government’s response to the Rena disaster was too slow to put up or shut up.
Phil Heatley, Minister of Fisheries, is not content with just allowing parts of the Ross sea to be fished so he has decided to lift the set net ban in an area at the top of the South Island which is frequented by the endangered Hector’s dolphins.
The Pike mining and the Rena disaster plus the leaky homes are the result of National Party policies.It was the Nats whe deregulated shipping and through the Employment Contract Act decimated Unions thus allowing these rust buckets in to,our ports. It was the Nats who allowed untreated timber and deregulated the building codes and it was the Nats who reduced the number of mining inspectors . The unsafe conditions now being made public in Pike mine would never have happened if we still had strong unions. Now they are spending more time trying to get photo opportunities that trying to clean up this oil polluted beach. As have said before who the hell votes for these bastards
Not entirely fair to characterise the Rena as a ‘rust bucket’. Oddly enough it would appear that the owner and operators of the Rena, Costamare Shipping Company, would seem to be one of the more reputable operators. The ship has visited the Port of Tauranga many times before and has been regularly inspected by MNZ.
Until the exact cause of this grounding is known I’m not sure I’d want to get too high and mighty about the ship itself. What does interest me is the crew operation. Clearly something has gone badly wrong at the command level and there will be a systemic reason for this.
The NZ Maritime Union has already pointed out the dangers inherent in the long hours and poor conditions these Filipino seamen have been forced to work under; conditions that would be entirely unacceptable to any Western crew. It’s my betting this will prove the root cause.
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This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
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. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
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Time line released.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/rena-crisis/5783000/Funding-freeze-strands-Maritime-NZ
Note that it is not till Saturday that MNZ are reported to be -“reviewing draft salvage plan”.
This despite the Prime Minister telling the pollution affected people of Maketu:
Is this John Key’s most shocking lie yet?
Is John Key talking about some other plan?
If such another (draft, or full) plan does exist, will it be released?
When should the salvage plan have been completed and who should have written it?
Who gives a shit. There was 72 hours of good weather to make it all happen and NZ failed. The people in the Bay of Plenty and Mother Earth pay the price for that failure.
Any “Compensation” in the form of dollar notes is pathetic.
So what would you have done and when? What equipment would you have needed? Where would it have come from and how long would it have taken to get there? How many people would you need and how would you deploy them?
Not interested in your irrelevant hypothesizing now.
Your trick of trying to make ME come up with 101 answers now is a BS deflection from the fact that Joyce and Key dropped the ball for the first 72 hours.
Waiting for a private sector response, setting up little bird rescue stations and dispersing the first few tonnes of oil which spilt were a waste of time and effort during the first 72 hours.
I take that to mean you haven’t got a clue about what was done and what should have been done, and are more interested in chucking around ill informed slogans. Well at least you’ve finally admitted it. There’s hope for you yet.
I would suggest that they should have a number of different plans, and when news of the grounding hit they should have been adapting the most suitable one to the specific circumstances. And shipping equipment for the more serious contingencies on that day, given that the likelihood of the worst case scenario increases exponentially once the ship actually hits rocks or the rig catches fire.
So the plan review should probably have been done on Thursday.
Whether this is a resource issue (govt fault), an department failure (slightly less of a govt fault, dept fault), best practise (communication failure -govt&dept fault), or simply a paradigm shift needed for new circumstances, I guess all that will come out in the wash.
Unlike the oil.
I expect they will have a number of scenarios scoped out. you have your overall strategic response that puts in place all your command tree and your decision making principles, but you can only draw up your specific response plan as you go, because each situation is so different – dealing with a grounded ship leaking oil may be very different from a mobile ship with a similar leak. But the specific plan will be done within the broad principles of a ‘grounded ship leaking oil’ plan linked to you general ‘oil on beach’ plan etc. That’s on the oil pollution side.
The salvage plan is quite different again and it needs a professional salvor, and they have to first be appointed then brought in to examine the vessel and the resources available before they can develop it. ANd it has to complement the MNZ plan – not much point MNZ plan assuming a ship recovery when the salvor says it can’t be done, or the salvor saying offload the containers adn fuel when there is no capacity to do it.
The point being that in any complex plan there are a number of things that can be done while other parts have yet to take affect.
Especially if there are a limited range of options to choose from.
This situation seemed to have been at the mercy of a rather linear thought process.
And the gospel according to DPF in the Granny herald, is that the ship was deliberately steered onto the reef… Jezuz what a Troll he is.
Of course from what we know the Rena was not blown off course, but deliberately steered into a well known and marked reef. The captain and first officer have already been charged with offences.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10758985
It was deliberately steered into the reef, only not in the way you are interpreting. The ship was on a deliberate course, and it just so happened that they didn’t know that the reef was there, or knew it was there but forgot to avoid it (i’m tending towards the first option).
so as the captain was in charge of the ship, you can actually say that it was deliberately steered into the reef, as they were steering the ship on a deliberate course at the time it hit.
This logic seems like a BS word game.
eg
I’m ‘deliberately’ driving a car around a corner when I accidentally hit and kill a 4 year old standing there on the road in the blind spot.
The courts will recognise that as manslaughter not DELIBERATE murder.
Just because I am ‘deliberately’ cornering at the time, does not then mean I that I ‘deliberately’ killed the kid.
No deliberately means it went where it was DELIBERATELY aimed. There is no interpretation to deliberate. It means it was planned. And I don’t think the Captain and Crew got up that morning and said “I know lets hit a reef”. So Spin that away.
OK, I’ll put it another way. It was DELIBERATELY piloted on a course that just happened to put it on an accidental collision course with a reef.
Which is entirely different from Farrars “deliberately steered into a … reef”.
The difference is that “deliberate” conveys intent. It means you’ve thought about what to do, considered your options, and decided what action to take.
In Farrar’s sentence the Captain’s intent is not simply to steer the ship (which was your first interpretation) but to steer the ship into a reef.
He really is a horrible little man.
Yeah and they censored my reply to him, where I said he was Donkeys ass kisser. Which he is.
The ship is is insured for US 4.2 billion dollars with a sub limit of about US 1 billion dollars for a pollution event , thats a lot of incentive , backhanders anyone ?
The ship is worth 4.2 Billion? Must have some pretty nice cabins
With the over supply of container ships and the global down turn in trade means that a lot of ships over 18 years old go to scrap , scrapping prices have been falling as well .
This ship has been insured for 4.2 billion , second hand or as scrap it would fetch no where near this price .
I think you might want to cvhange your billion to a million.
That came from the Herald article this morning
You’ve misread it. That is not what the ship is worth, that is their public liability insurance value. Like you having a $5k car with comp insurance, it will pay out yours up to 5k, but if you hit someone’s Ferrari, it will pay them a lot more.
$4.2M?
That’s the purchase price of 25 Ministerial BMWs. Might need a bit more cover than that.
The insurance guys are going to do a lot of looking around before they cut a cheque for $4B.
I think a 20% Christchurch tax is in order there…
And so they should , meanwhile the bay pays the price
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE OCCUPYING WALL STREET AGAINST THE BANK$TERS!
TOMORROW!
SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 2011
AUCKLAND
3PM
ASSEMBLE OUTSIDE BRITOMART!
Please ditribute as widely as possible
Please come yourself and bring family, friends and placards. Let’s show that people and the planet must come before corporate greed. Join the march against corporate greed and in solidarity with the thousands who are occupying Wall Street.
Right now the Government and the Rena’s shipping owners need a very loud public message that many NZer’s are very angry about the unnecessary grounding and the subsequent environmental disaster caused by the Rena’s grounding on the Astrolabe Reef. This disaster is the tragic story of corporate greed, and neo-liberal policies that have reduced safety regulation, structures and resources to less than minimal, and the use of cheap workers.
Join the Auckland March
This Saturday 15th October
Assemble 3.00pm
Britomart at the bottom of Queen Street
March to Aotea Square
GPJA #379: SAT OCT 15 – OCCUPY AOTEAROA – “WE ARE THE 99%” – INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
by gpjanz
GLOBAL PEACE AND JUSTICE AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER No. 397, October 12, 2011
OCCUPY AOTEAROA SATURDAY OCTOBER 15 – “WE ARE THE 99%” – INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
The time has come to show your support for injustices against the New Zealand people and the crimes of the Government! Let us unite and stand as one and show the world what we can do! We stand in solidarity with the Wall St Protesters and the many other protesters standing around the world that say 1% will not continue to steal from the 99%, which is happening right now. NZ is being stripped NOW! EMPOWER YOURSELF! You are the one you have been waiting for! There will be change. There will be justice! Inspired by Occupy Wall Street http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution
AUCKLAND https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=200962876639610
WELLINGTON http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Wellington-Nz/253279161382607
CHRISTCHURCH https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Christchurch/122557837848947
DUNEDIN http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Dunedin/141220149310691
_______________________________________________________________________
Forwarded by Penny Bright
Independent Public Watchdog
Candidate for Epsom
Why they are angry:
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1
I received this today – anyone able to comment on the authenticity? If this is really happening will the media report it?
“Note that it is not till Saturday that MNZ are reported to be -”reviewing draft salvage plan”.
This despite the Prime Minister telling the pollution affected people of Maketu:
A national plan for such disasters had been put into action the moment the ship hit the reef
John Key
Is this John Key’s most shocking lie yet?
Is John Key talking about some other plan?
If such another (draft, or full) plan does exist, will it be released?”
I think you will find that the national plan is a broad response plan, while the draft which was being reviewed was one specific to the ship as produced by the salver.
I believe the national plan has been insufficient in that there was to little response in the immediate days after the spill to contain any spilt oil or to move to protect environmentally sensitive spots like Maketu estuary. Live capture of endangered doterils (sp)etc should have begun immediately and a beach clean up effort with gear put in place and planned from the get go.
I can understand that pumping the oil off etc isn’t something that can happen straight away as it needed to be heated to allow it to flow. Which you don’t really want to do until you are sure that the tank you are heating isn’t holed as warm fluid oil will flow out much faster than cold Vegemite like stuff. I also understand that some pipes etc need repair to allow this.
Technical work like this is far better left to the experts which in this case are the salvers, than having bureaucrats and politicians putting an oar in.
This is exactly where an potential rescue went wrong at Pike…..
MNZ should have that expertise and should also be the salvers that go in and start the salvage ASAP rather than waiting for the captain to contact the ships owners, who’ll contact the insurers, who”l then contact some salvers who will then try and decide what to do. That process wastes time.
Herald cartoon Nails it today!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/news-cartoons/news/article.cfm?c_id=500814&objectid=10758879
MSM excels again.
Nothing like a journalist asking patsy questions and “… I expect you are disappointed in the politicising of this, Minister…?
WTF? Good old Geoff. He really should stick to Births, Deaths and Marriages.
Joyce spun like a top this morning, weaving an amazing web and Geoff agreed that they had done all that they could have done.
However, according to the latest despatches, the plan is to pump from tomorrow.
So in 24 hours, under much tougher conditions, they can install external heaters and pumps, and start extraction.
How does that compare with Joyce’s answers this morning.
Well Wednesday at 6 am he receives a call advising of the stranding. He could have requested/directed that they start discharging oil as soon as possible. If the ship responded that their machinery was U/S, then shore based heaters and pumps could have been despatched, and on Thursday they would have been pumping… (24 hours after stranding, just like today’s action)
Yeah it is getting to the stage where they just need a few ads for panel beaters and some Taylor Swift songs.
Oh, and the ugly New Zealander has emerged in Tauranga it seems, with a Filipino shopkeeper being abused and some of the Rena crew being flown out allegedly due to fears for their safety.
Racist targeting by legitimately angry people, but misguided.
Yes I agree it is misguided TM. I initially thought this could be MSM spin to distract from the deeper blame but with the guilty plea of the woman who set her dogs on asian people in christchurch, and the continued racism displayed daily in this country I feel it is probably true. Very sad.
The nationality of the crew should not have been made public as it has nothing to do with the wreck.
MNZ Misinformed on Corexit
MNZ breached the manufacturers guidelines by spraying a large amount of Corexit close to shore, where it can have an adverse effect on inhabitants. They failed to check if the dispersant would be effective prior to application and have not adequately informed the public of the health risks from Corexit 9500…
What is obvious is that the larget port in New Zealand and probably the second largest port in NZ Auckland does not have a crisis responce plan or adequate large equipment including oil absorbant booms to deal with any reasonabley sizesd oil spill. One would think that it was only a matter of time before a major spill happened. And now it just has.
Some “billboards” you can send to friends and foes
If ACT Party is National’s bitch, that needed a makeover and stood up to National over
covert surveilance, then what does that make Epson residents who vote ACT?
Just poor management to get into a situation
where someone cries discrimination, even worse
that MSM urges them on by shouting its okay
to discriminate sometimes. Immoral, Unethical
meets poor management, poor leadership, so NZ.
Set the bar low, then lower it, cheer, then stamp
a brand, oh NZ fair and balanced.
France: Far right capitalises on euro crisis.
Quoting article:
Oh dear, this guy really doesn’t understand who the RWNJs work for does he?
.
Radio Works decision reveals …
… a big fat zero
Labour’s complaint about the PM hosting a non-political hour of talkback on Radio Live. is rejected on every ground argued and the BSA concludes:
…even if this programme were held to be an election programme, which we do not consider it was, it would not have breached any of the standards raised by the complainant.
One assumes that the next great leap in liberal logic will be to denounce the BSA decision as more evidence of aVast Right Wing and Non-Labour Left Wing conspiracy …
That finding was obvious from the start, but of course that didn’t stop Labour activists from instantly engaging in an exercise of guilt on (their own) accusation – as Eddie’s headline falsely claimed: “Key broke law on radio show“.
The Electoral Commission is not the BSA.
Find out what each is responsible for, if you want to stop looking foolish.
Who said it wasn’t? You seem to think being right is foolish.
Commenting on the BSA, you linked to a post which has nothing to do with the BSA. The allegation of breaking the law relates to … the law. Not broadcasting standards. So your allegation of “falsely claiming” is meaningless, pending a finding on the law.
Read the post you linked to, and the several links within it, from Graeme Edgeler, if you really want to understand the law. But then, that’s not why you’re here, is it?
Ok let’s take this nice & slow.
1. You will find that Eddie’s post quotes the definition of “election programme” from the Broadcasting Act.
2. Eddie’s post links to Graeme’s post, also on the Broadcasting Act and the definition of “election programme”.
3. If you then look at the BSA decision, you will see under the heading “Findings”, it says:
Any questions?
Key would never have gotten an invite if he wasn’t PM, who wants
to talk to some snide yuppy who made it big in counting numbers.
The BSA also said:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5784939/DJ-Key-is-OK-says-BSA
“It became clear to the authority that the legislation should be interpreted as overt or explicit encouragement or persuasion to vote in a particular way rather than incidentally or consequently amounting to encouragement or persuasion.”
The mere presence of Key did not make it an election programme under current law.
This indicates that there is some room to consider whether the current law is adequate. The law seems to assume that electioneering is a process of explicitly saying “vote for us because”. But it is pretty obvious that National’s main election strategy is to promote brand Key rather than to foreground National’s policy and performance. In fact, National’s strategy is to promote Key through photo ops and positive associations, and to avoid anything too negative associated with Key.
Joe Bloggs needs a great leap in reading comprehension skills:
We can of course see that some political advantage will accrue to the Prime Minister and the party to which he belongs from exposures of this kind. It is not for us to say whether this should or should not be permitted; we are required to deal with the law as it stands.
The word “of course” should have helped you there, Joe. It’s kind of a giveaway.
The BSA confirms that the broadcast was political propaganda, but says their hands are tied.
Yeah, damn that thing called “the law” that “ties the hands” of the BSA from just going around making up rulings against people.
I note you do not dispute the BSA finding, that Key’s programme was about “political advantage”. I agree.
Yes I do agree. It is exactly what I said the other day.
And it also confirms that Labour made a strategic blunder by filing a hopeless complaint, when what they should have done was lobby for a slot for Phil. Which I also said I supported, and would probably have been advantageous to Phil, who I think would come across well in that sort of setting.
But as I said, it’s an own-goal by Labour here.
No, filing a complaint has drawn to public/media attention that the law is inadequate and that Key gained some advantage from the broadcast
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/88274/bsa-clears-prime-minister's-radio-show
Nope, more of an own goal for National and MW. The finding that the show was political shows that law, as it presently stands, is broken which has now been highlighted by Labours actions. This will reflect badly on Key/National because people will see it as him using his position as PM for political advantage and MW will be seen as politically biased possibly due to National loaning them $43m of our money as it did not offer the same advantage to every other party leader.
A republican monarchy ?
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/tom-nairn/republican-monarchy-england-and-revolution?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=201210&utm_campaign=0
[Bunji: off-topic, moved to OpenMike]
Did i hear right on TV3 news last night?
I noted someone with a bulldozer trying to pull containers/stuff up the beach and they where told to stop because they did not have a correct safety plan or something like that.
Could this be government gone mad?
Yes I heard that too. Bizarre.
I don’t think it is this govt gone mad – it is the accumulation of generations of H&S regulation and generally that has been a good thing. That said, who knows what was in the container. WHat if they broke it open and it tipped something nasty onto the beach? Would the guy with the bulldozer be willing to pay to clean it up?
To anyone with experience as a rigger hauling a container with a bulldozer without a safety plan sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Citing an old riggers adage, the biggest strop may not be the best simply because it may not be big enough.
logie..you right dude. poor geoff. they talk about bullying but it comes from the top down doesn’t it. Nobody gets a chance till its been through their vetting machine. they self appointed gatekeepers for the tories but they claim to be objective. more malice in blunderland stuff, isnt it. He should retire and get a job on radio skawkback where he would be right at home with the used car salesman types, shouldnt he.
It’s the usual for this Govt all chiefs and NO indians.
Just to be pedantic…since the Rena grounding I have wondered if all these years I had been mispronouncing ASTROLABE.
Every journo and pollie has been pronouncing it ASTRO LAB.
Today it finally got to me so I checked it on the interweb –
It is pronounced as-truh-leyb.
Just a bit grumpy-old-man but we must have standards! Next people will be parking across two spaces, pulling out of supermarket aisles without looking and overusing the word “ackchully”
Apparantly that is what the locals call it, according to RNZ, so they are following that pronunciation – a bit like Al -b’ney instead of Awl-b’ney.
Course the media are very selective on their application of this rule and are quite happy to impose their centralised view of what is correct when it suits – cf. Wanagnui, Waikouaiti, or Hakatere
Never took you for a post-modern, localist, relativist Insider.
I see you in a whole new way now.
Interesting.
BTW, that’s “apparently” not “apparantly” – or is that the way they spell it round your way?
Suddenly, meeting National Standards gets a whole lot easier. After all, I’m sure it is not intended to “impose their centralised view of what is correct when it suits”.
It was just my lazy fingers PG. PS, you missed Wanagnui..
As an aside, Aaaavondale or Avondale? 😉
Avonda-lé. More classier. 😀
“PS, you missed Wanagnui..”
And, on World Standards Day too … even the pedants (like me – that’s ‘ped – ants‘ not ‘pee dance‘) are getting sloppy.
At this rate I’ll start thinking that I understand John Key’s statements … 🙂
“As an aside, Aaaavondale or Avondale?”
Apparently, it’s ‘a-van-dal’ – and it has to be said with an American accent
P.S. – I couldn’t find how to put in the ‘long a’ symbol in ‘dal’
I’ve always used a short ‘a’ which is the way they call the Auckland suburb and aligned with the Welsh pronunciation of Avon but I’ve noticed in Chch they use the long A which is the English Avon. You’re a cantab, whcih is it?
Down here it’s Aaavandale (yes, van). But I hope any radio announcer uses its correct pronunciation.
Also, did you hear David Farrar and whoever was on the Panel – a couple of nights ago – with him going on about people’s problems with ‘pronOUNCiation’? I love the irony of that.
Verbal equivalent of Muphrey’s Law.
I think that’s ‘Muphry’s Law’.
But, then, you’re clever enough to mean your misspelling 🙂
Haha! Not in this case, quite wonderfully.
🙂
Even better
Just a bit grumpy-old-man but we must have standards! Next people will be parking across two spaces, pulling out of supermarket aisles without looking and overusing the word “ackchully”
And spelling EpsoM as EpsoN as I’ve sen a couple of times lately on The Standard.
I see John Keys showing his true colours in the Dompost this morning, wasnt he. First of all he demeaned Phill goff for rolling up his shirt sleeves and getting stuck in and then he used a dubyaism. i.e. “there are no silver clouds”. what does that mean? The subtext is that he only knows how to count other peoples money and using language that conveys any nuance or recondite meaning is foreign territory for a money manque. He should get a life.
The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism
Scientific skepticism is healthy. In fact, science by its very nature is skeptical. Genuine skepticism means considering the full body of evidence before coming to a conclusion. However, when you take a close look at arguments expressing climate ‘skepticism’, what you often observe is cherry picking of pieces of evidence while rejecting any data that don’t fit the desired picture. This isn’t skepticism. It is ignoring facts and the science.
The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism looks at both the evidence that human activity is causing global warming and the ways that climate ‘skeptic’ arguments can mislead by presenting only small pieces of the puzzle rather than the full picture.
Yeah, we’ve been trying to tell the climate change “skeptics” that for awhile now.
Surprised no-ones posted this yet:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/5775355/Govt-confirms-ACC-levy-cuts-to-go-ahead
So what was that about ACC being in a crisis again?…
I think you’ll find it has experienced a miraculous recovery due to National’s magical management of the economy.
*head explodes*
The contradictions inherent in that truly art a Lovecroftian mind destroy horror…
Yeah, it was noticed. Doesn’t seem to have made a big splash though probably because of the RWC and then the Rena shambles.
Nats promise wholesale ACC privatisation
Definition of madness no?
Might have to jump into that comment thread actually (after sleep/coffee), for the stupid burning bright is such an attractive delight.
For cluebat practice that is.
As In Vino Veritas is truly full of shit on the 12B liabilities issue.
Just in http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10758841
Am I alone in thinking a one year ban is a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket? The bloke is a liar and a criminal!
Still no news on Goffs Christmas undertaking to buy a gem. Hope that this was not another example of hollow utterings from a leader of a political party. All promises but no delivery.
Especially as there are now few unblemished areas within the east coast of the coromandel this becomes even more valuable to NZ inc.
http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/government-must-preserve-new-chums-beach-labour/5/76271
http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2011/01/04/preserve-new-chum-wainuiototo-beach-for-everyone/
Just heard Barry Corbett on The Panel. His ‘what am I thinking about’ was a warning to ‘politicians’ not to ‘moan’.
He then detailed two examples of how Labour has been moaning – Darien Fenton’s comment about Peter Leitch on Facebook and Phil Goff (and Labour’s) complaint over the PM’s hour.
Corbett waxed lyrical about Peter Leitch and then said he thought the PMs hour was just an ‘interesting’ bit of radio and not political. He then mentioned how Geoffrey Palmer had hosted an hour of his breakfast show in 1989. When Mora – or maybe Bruce Slane – raised the question of timing, Corbett said it was just before Moore took over. Odd that, I thought Moore took over a matter of weeks before the November (?) election in 1990 (not 1989).
He strongly criticised Labour – Fenton and Goff by name – for moaning – calling them “moaners”. Defamatory?
So far as I could detect there was no ‘balance’ – just a targetted and prolonged attack on Fenton, Goff and Labour in general.
Obviously his days as a guest on The Panel are now numbered.
Don’t be holding your breath on that one PG.
I never hold my breath when I’m waiting for consistent responses.
The audio is here here
Starts about 3min29s in. He tries to dress it up as ‘advice to politicians’.
Here we go. League tables for Early Childhood.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/5786367/More-childcare-centre-information-for-parents-Nats
Rena’s Inventory Request
On Wednesday 12 October, I sent an email to Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) formally requesting under the Official Information Act 1982 a copy of the MV Rena’s inventory. I made my request because of the differing stories authorities had been telling us about what Rena is carrying…
Sorry I put this item first on weekend social. Got the date right but turned up at the wrong place. Woe is me. Perhaps the social post one could be wiped – it’s not the sort of thing to lighten your heart and encourage a smile.
Der Spiegel has a damning report on Austrian poltical and financial bigwigs. Selling off government property and getting kickbacks, etc etc. The right wing free market neo liberals whatever don’t seem to be able to keep their scheming greedy luxury power and money-obssessed brains under control.
They must have voice activated dictation machines by their beds in case they come up with a new idea in their dreams and utter some choice clues as to new ways of wringing the money out of other people’s hands and pockets And where is the payoff for the rest of us whose minds are too pedestrian for such convoluted diabolical schemes?
Wealthy TVNZ execs pay themselves more while firing staff
Stop the 1%.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10758828
Campbell Live have revealed another wrinkle in the Rena debate.
I think the time line goes:
– NZ needed to update it’s legislation based on 1976 arrangements regarding compensation.
– Someone wrote to Annette King about this being over looked.
– A 2008 select committee forwarded the necessary legislation to the house (which I assume to mean Annette King tool heed of the problem).
– Then came the election.
– Steven Joyce takes over as minister.
– The legislation drops down the list of priority and nothing is done, (probably boy racer legislation that has never been used was more important!)
– Rena runs a ground and we lose the opportunity of another $17 mil in compensation.
Another failure of ministerial responsibility?
How much of our money has this government pissed away and sacked people to cover it?
How many other pieces of useless legislation was rushed through in urgency ahead of this one?
VSM and three strikes were clearly more important.
John Key’s Challenge
On Wednesday 12th October, John Key challenged all of the people who think the Government’s response to the Rena disaster was too slow to put up or shut up.
What does that even mean?
Phil Heatley, Minister of Fisheries, is not content with just allowing parts of the Ross sea to be fished so he has decided to lift the set net ban in an area at the top of the South Island which is frequented by the endangered Hector’s dolphins.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/5787628/Lifting-of-set-net-ban-endangers-dolphin
I have just written my second email to him this week. ( p.heatley@ministers.govt.nz )
The Pike mining and the Rena disaster plus the leaky homes are the result of National Party policies.It was the Nats whe deregulated shipping and through the Employment Contract Act decimated Unions thus allowing these rust buckets in to,our ports. It was the Nats who allowed untreated timber and deregulated the building codes and it was the Nats who reduced the number of mining inspectors . The unsafe conditions now being made public in Pike mine would never have happened if we still had strong unions. Now they are spending more time trying to get photo opportunities that trying to clean up this oil polluted beach. As have said before who the hell votes for these bastards
allowing these rust buckets in to,our ports.
Not entirely fair to characterise the Rena as a ‘rust bucket’. Oddly enough it would appear that the owner and operators of the Rena, Costamare Shipping Company, would seem to be one of the more reputable operators. The ship has visited the Port of Tauranga many times before and has been regularly inspected by MNZ.
Until the exact cause of this grounding is known I’m not sure I’d want to get too high and mighty about the ship itself. What does interest me is the crew operation. Clearly something has gone badly wrong at the command level and there will be a systemic reason for this.
The NZ Maritime Union has already pointed out the dangers inherent in the long hours and poor conditions these Filipino seamen have been forced to work under; conditions that would be entirely unacceptable to any Western crew. It’s my betting this will prove the root cause.
Desprate people, unpaid, take bribes allegdely to scuttle businesses. In the finance
industy those bribe might be known as bonuses.