Karl Du Frense positioning himself as the defender of free speech and balanced Public Broadcasting with this tacky little piece in which he pins his colours to the mast.
He was obviously disturbed by the public eviscerating of that stalwart of Free Speech Don Brash, by Kim Hill on Natrad a couple of weeks ago.
Du Frense say’s
”
Here’s where we get down to the real issue. RNZ is a public institution. It belongs to us.
The public who fund the organisation are entitled to criticise it. But can we now expect that anyone who has the temerity to do so will be subjected to a mauling by RNZ’s in-house attack dog? Or is this treatment reserved for despised white conservative males such as Brash, to make an example of them and deter others from similar foolishness?
Either way, Hill’s dismemberment of Brash was a brazen abuse of the state broadcaster’s power and showed contemptuous disregard for RNZ’s charter obligation to be impartial and balanced.
This is nothing new, of course. The quaint notion that RNZ exists for all New Zealanders was quietly jettisoned years ago. Without any mandate, the state broadcaster has refashioned itself as a platform for the promotion of favoured causes.
You’re more likely to see an aardvark riding a bike down The Terrace than to hear a conservative voice, or even a middle-of-the-road one, on smug groupthink fests such as RNZ’s current series of Smart Talk.”
Whew!
The lad sounds a little peeved.
Calling Kim Hill a ‘dominatrix’ and an ‘attack dog’….absolutely no class at all there Karl.
Another right wing apologist having a tantrum – such fun!
And that horrible little man from 7 Sharp is going going gone – wow! Do you think Australia would like him?
“Calling Kim Hill a ‘dominatrix’ and an ‘attack dog’”
Kind of rich coming from someone who’s rather like a Dr Who 1960s Dalek screaming ‘exterminate, exterminate, assimilate, assimilate’
Yes Rosemary
This mornings episode of Kim Hill Vs Blustering Steven Joyce was very reminesent of when David parker was over-burdened by discussion with Joyce during the lead up to the 2014 election; – when Steven joyce was barrelling over top of the meek David Parker in discussion about ‘finance’ as it was equally as arrogant a performance from Joyce three years ago.
This festive season Steven Joyce is likened to the mean arsed ‘Grinch’
Rosemary, Karl Du Frense is another poor loser, bitter that the left have platforms of power and are using them.
I did not see him asking for fairness every time Joyce or Boag got up to complain about the left.
He is full of it, and Kim Hill does her job, and does not tolerate self aggrandizing idiots like Brash.
Du Frense says “What made him do that?” “Ego” he suggests. Got it in one, Brash doesn’t think he has any problems, and when called out on them blames others.
We are going to get a stream of complaints about Left influence. I might pay attention, had they been more even handed in the past.
Yes, its going to be all on over the next few years.
Paradoxically, Farrar’s Ferals are also not happy with the mainstream media and Natrad in particular.
For sometime they have complained bitterly that presenters on Natrad are biased towards the left…and this includes Espiner, who many here perceive as tending right.
My hope is that if none of us are happy with the MSM…this might just indicate that they are landing somewhere in the middle.
Lmao, some men cannot deal with strong, educated women, so they resort to name calling. Interestingly by calling Kim a dominatrix karl is admitting his submission. Or is he volunteering brashes?
So many chickens are coming home to roost and it’s beautiful to watch.
Only one lesson here – if you are going up against Hill don’t be an ignorant, illogical nitwit. And outside a very narrow set of economic theories, Brash is exactly that.
This is not the first time that Kim Hill has provoked Karl Du Fresne into a state of apoplexy. In 2010 the old curmudgeon went into core meltdown after Hill had dared to ask a few challenging questions of the former Australian prime minister John Howard. On that occasion he damned Hill not for being a dominatrix, but for being “relentlessly adversarial”. He also damned her listeners as “chardonnay socialists”…..
Another who regards equality as a form of oppression… and Hosking gone too… the privileged male feels under attack today as everything isnt as they are used to it… sharing takes some getting used to.
“…Either way, Hill’s dismemberment of Brash was a brazen abuse of the state broadcaster’s power and showed contemptuous disregard for RNZ’s charter obligation to be impartial and balanced…”
Actually the RNZ charter says in section 5:
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
Kim Hill’s Saturday morning show isn’t news or current affairs. It is a magazine show driven by it’s host. Du Fresne is an idiot who appears to have not actually read the RNZ charter.
Kim Hill allowed Don Brash to have his point of view put forth. He wasn’t an expert in the area – on this topic he was as expert as any random person on the street. And a random person on the street doesn’t get so much airtime to put their point of view across.
Kim Hill basically just quoted things he had said in the past. If that made him look foolish then he shouldn’t have said such silly things.
For that interesting wording from the RNZ Charter section 5.
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
We have lost our HB/Gisborne regional voice here since 2013 and are still waiting for our
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
We in HB/Gisborne had apparently had Steven Joyce take away our regional reporter from RNZ two years ago!!!!!
We enquired with the RNZ CEO on 9th September 2017 under OIA why we lost our reporter and we still dont have one yet, and here is what we got back on 13/10/17.
NOTE; To date as of yesterday 14/12/17 we still have no RNZ reporter to cover HB/Gisborne, so the new Broadcasting Minister Claire Curran has now recieved a letter of complaint from us to provide us with a reporter ASAP.
Attached is a letter we received 20/10/17 after sending Radio NZ 9/9/17 in a OIA request as to why we in HB no longer have a Radio NZ reporter since 2016.
The date of our request was sent quite a time before the election 9/9/17 and came to us just days before the election.
Since then we have sent several letters to the new Broadcasting Minister Claire Curran for assistance to get another local reporter and to date no new reporter has been hired.
Yesterday we called Radio NZ to enquire when we are to get a reporter and the person I was sent through to was a lady named “ Paloma” who said still “no reporter has been found yet”!!!!!!! This is now late december 15/12/17.
Quote George Bignell – 13/10/27
“The Hawkes Bay regional reporting position is currently vacant and Radio New Zealand will look to fill that position in the near future.
We trust this of assistance to you.” End.
See the letter below from this person inside the old style RNZ while then under National Government control.
SEE BELOW our Letter sent to Radio NZ PA 8/9/17.
So from the 20th October 2017 till now 14th December 2017, (over eight weeks later) no replacement report as been found yet??????
URGENT
Official Information request
RADIO NZ.
CEO PAUL THOMPSON
9th September 2017.
Official Information request
HB Advocacy centre made this Official Information request to PAUL THOMPSON – RADIO NZ CEO For information 9th September 2017 for quick response please.
9th September 2017.
Dear Paul.
We are a senior NGO working within the Government & local regional authorities on issues that have been presented to our Environmental Centre for 16 yrs to date.
We have had a close communication relationship in the past particularly during the years 2009 to 2013 with your Radio NZ reporters but we now have virtually no response from your regional news, transport, environment, and rural reporters since then and I have been requested to enquire how the regional reporting structure of the Radio NZ broadcasting services now are different to the way the operations serviced the regions formerly.
We would want you to supply any detailed changes that may have affected our loss of regional reporting services how affected our ability to have press coverage of our community issues regarding the above subjects of Transport and transport relationships to community health and wellbeing please, and we ask that under the Official Information Act please from this date 9/9/17 please arrange information to be provided as soon as able please. If you
If you wish to refer this issue of ‘several communication’ also to the Minister handling the ‘Broadcasting portfolio’ who is Hon’ Maggie Barry please feel free to converse with the minister as you prepare our information request. The Minister had increased funding to Radio NZ recently we are told.
We have supplied you with a copy of yesterday’s letter that we sent from our Centre to your office & is attached (below) for your reference.
Regards.
——————————————————————————————————
letter from RNZ
October 13, 2017
Dear —–
I write in response to your request “how the regional reporting structure of the Radio NZ broadcasting services now are different to the way the operations serviced the regions formerly.”
I can advise that RNZ does not hold any specific information in this regard that we can supply to you. To answer your question, apart from the relocation of one reporting position from our Queenstown office to our Dunedin office, there has been no recent changes to our regional reporting structure.
The Hawkes Bay regional reporting position is currently vacant and Radio New Zealand will look to fill that position in the near future.
Yup, Mr Magoo is simply expressing his own fear of (progressive) women in power.
Like many on the right he wants to remove “public” platforms for those who support a more progressive New Zealand, while strangely silent on the role of the “unchallenging to the conservative regime” Hosking at TVNZ.
One almost suspects the idea of Barry and Campbell on Seven Sharp was floated to wind him up.
Thank goodness.
Grant Robertson has had some sense pushed into him regarding the National Super recipients having to apply for the grant for “winter heating”.
It will apparently be paid out automatically and there will be no need for people to go into WINZ and apply for it. Complaints about the stupidity of his demand seem to have finally got through to him.
Some common sense has been shown. Amazing.
We worry about anyone listening to Alwyn thinks they are getting the acurate true facts as he is a ‘cherry picker’, and an apologist for the trucking industry, and hence supports dirty environmental policies.
Having read the items you link to, and looking at his occupation, I can hear the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies.
Anyone who has been the union leader for Rail Workers will of course qualify for her comment about Lord Astor.
“Well he would say that wouldn’t he?”
I still think they only have very limited reason for existing in New Zealand.
Is it really worth spending half a billion dollars on getting the Auckland/Northland line to a minimum standard and putting a spur line into Marsden Point for a maximum of a short train each day?
Improving the roads makes much more sense.
The statistics quoted in the Listener article are also misleading.
A statement such as “Whereas the rail network carries 16% of freight (by tonne-kilometres), it generates only 0.2% of national emissions” is simply a ridiculous comparison. It is intended to pretend that our overall emissions would be greatly reduced if we used trains more.
I could make an equally misleading, and equally silly statement such as.
“Less than 0.01% of passengers from Wellington to Auckland travel by rail and yet the rail network generates 0.2% of our national emissions”.
There, that implies that trains are terribly inefficient doesn’t it
I have no idea what the actual number is but this could be about the correct one. There are tourist trains a couple of times a week for at least part of the year so I suppose they might carry a single Airbus 320 load of passengers each week for the whole distance.
Half a billion for trains, several billion for roads.
Yeah, much more sense to do the trains.
It is intended to pretend that our overall emissions would be greatly reduced if we used trains more.
That’s not a pretence. If we used trains more our emissions would fall quite drastically. Would use far less resources as well and thus be a hell of a lot cheaper.
I have no idea what the actual number is…
And that’s the only thing you said that actually truthful. Finally admitting that you have no idea what you’re talking about.
You did note that the half billion for trains is ONLY for the line from Auckland to Marsden Point.
God knows how may billion the puff-puff lovers want in total.
National put around $3 billion I think into rail between 2009 and 2017 and committed about a further $1.5 billion into the Auckland link.
“And that’s the only thing you said that actually truthful”.
Don’t be so bloody stupid. You are just unhappy that I can demonstrate that many of the comments made about the wonders of rail are ridiculous and founded only in fantasy.
What exactly have I said that is false. Facts please, not just an eruption of bile.
Steven Joyce has announced plans for a motorway from Puhoi to Wellsford at a cost of $2 billion
And it won’t have anywhere near the economies of rail.
You are just unhappy that I can demonstrate that many of the comments made about the wonders of rail are ridiculous and founded only in fantasy.
You’ve never done that. You’ve done a lot of talking out your arse about it though.
What exactly have I said that is false. Facts please, not just an eruption of bile.
A statement such as “Whereas the rail network carries 16% of freight (by tonne-kilometres), it generates only 0.2% of national emissions” is simply a ridiculous comparison.
You missed the context and thus produced a lie:
At the same time as the funding hurdle was lowered for big highway projects, the Land Transport Management Act – the sector’s guiding legislation – was amended in 2013 to remove the explicit requirement for sustainability to be considered.
Rail advocates say these changes have effectively served as a subsidy for the trucking industry and added to the difficulties KiwiRail faces in competing for freight business even in the context of rising concern about climate change and an increasing awareness of the potential role of rail in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Whereas the rail network carries 16% of freight (by tonne-kilometres), it generates only 0.2% of national emissions. In a 2016 report, the Royal Society of New Zealand noted that a tonne of freight moved by diesel-powered rail produces a third of the emissions the same tonnage going by truck would yield. It identified shifting more freight from road to rail or coastal shipping as a major opportunity for carbon dioxide reduction.
And you even followed it up by saying that you were talking out your arse.
The problem for KiwiRail is that none of the virtues identified and costed by EY generate an extra cent in revenue for its business, either from its customers or through Government support. At the same time, unlike trucking companies, it’s responsible for owning, maintaining and upgrading its own “road” – the core infrastructure of tracks, bridges and tunnels. As a state-owned enterprise, it is expected to make a commercial return on assets, which it has proved year after year that it is unable to do.
my bold
Trucking companies and even cars get massive cross subsidisation that rail doesn’t get and so it looks a lot better on the accounts. When that cross subsidisation is properly accounted for rail looks a hell of a lot better.
“Its a huge social shift for good in New Zealand”
Do you mean that he has apparently had second thoughts about making everyone apply or do you mean the money itself?
If the first I would agree. This must be the first time in decades that a Labour Government has altered something they have announced, and in effect admitted they got it wrong.
On the other hand the amount of money is precisely $10/year more than National were going to provide to couples with the tax cuts that were going to happen on April 1 and which Labour and its hangers-on are cancelling. Would you call that $10/year a “huge social shift”?
Good program this morning breakfast people many thanks to you.
You Lady’s are very good netures but you are so busy looking after everyone else you forget to take care of yourself my wife did this my sister my daughters well I ring them up and insist they go to the doctor when they tell me about there ailments . I tell there health is the most important as they have the care of there family in there hands an no one will care for the children like they do.
The wait time to get into a doctor in South Waikato is ridiculous especially for a wealth country. O that’s right we have Shonky bullshiet dilldow to thank for this slide back wards in all OUR State services the likes of these people will not be allowed back in OUR government how can they lift there heads with all the bad shit they have done to OUR country this is what you get when you have people who worship money over humanity and mother earth. Many thanks to Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook for seeing the big picture that’s is that all the people of OUR WORLD SOCIETY HAVE A Obligation to help all the vanurable people in our world. I hope all the Big Tech companies in our world will pay Taxes in the country’s that they draw there revenue from as this is the humane thing to do Ka pai
Hosking was first to blink in the battle of the relentlessly positive. He found now that JA is the boss he couldn’t keep up his smug schtick any longer. So like all quitters, he quit.
Doesn’t Shaw release the climate and sea level thing today – on a day when it’s almost guaranteed to be eclipsed by this general nodding approval of a budget?
Rosemary, Karl Du Frense is another poor loser, bitter that the left have platforms of power and are using them.
I did not see him asking for fairness every time Joyce or Boag got up to complain about the left.
He is full of it, and Kim Hill does her job, and does not tolerate self aggrandizing idiots like Brash.
Du Frense says “What made him do that?” “Ego” he suggests. Got it in one, Brash doesn’t think he has any problems, and when called out on them blames others.
We are going to get a stream of complaints about Left influence. I might pay attention, had they been more even handed in the past.
Many thanks to the Rock morning rumble team see hear you in the new year. PS found a present from my neo liberal neighbour a dead bird on my truck this is the mind set of these cares of OUR society Ana to kai
When instrumentation designed to “trip out” in the case of a malfunction, “trips out” because the extent of warming it’s measuring is read as a malfunction… 🙁
Well, Given that neither you nor “North” can tell me any connection I can only assume that you have screwed the pooch and got your story messed up.
The only “Alabama Bible” I have ever heard of is the Alabama State Bible in Montgomery Alabama. It was the one used to swear in Jefferson Davis as President.
However the verse I quoted isn’t in that bible.
It has, instead
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”.
Well I guess you didn’t get it right and you are too embarrassed to admit it.
About par for the course for you.
seems an appropriate comment. Seeing your comments is like eating boiled rice for dinner for three months straight, but without the sustenance value. Hence the comment “Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever”.
Visualise a hat. 195 pieces of paper within, each one bearing the name of a country around the globe. We get to close our eyes and reach in, the country we get, that’s where we’re moving to.
I’d turn down the opportunity to play. For me it would be like playing Russian Roulette with an automatic weapon and about 4 bullets missing from it’s 195 bullet magazine. For me, this new policy just put another bullet in the mag.
Regardless of the circumstances, whether flush or on the bones of my arse, I’ve always found that the most influential person when it comes to influencing outcomes in my life has been me. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I fear I would die waiting for any government to take me by the hand and lead me to a life of contentment.
Yes, we’re not going to get things sorted out in 100 days. It will be a generation before we are an international poster child of The Fair Go. Favourable trend-lines and moving up credible world rankings are the things to look for, housing, health, education, incomes. The mechanical bits that get more of us pushing on towards our personal variations of lives well led.
Really a generation? The nats managed to fuck it up quite a bit in only nine years.
But really, tell us more about how you are the master of your own destiny, when apparently you’re lucky enough to live in the best country in the world.
9 years, Left/Right, Holden/Ford, South Island/North Island
In our hearts we’re all chasing the same things, we all have similar core values. We want to be noticed and appreciated. We want to give love and be loved. We all aspire to being crucial cogs in loving families, neighbourhoods, towns, nation.
Ford, Holden, National, Labour, I think they have little to do with addressing our core aspirations.
I think what we should be asking from our government is a fairly marked out playing field. A ‘stickler for the rules’ referee and a comfy place to sit for those that can’t play.
If they were irrelevant, a change in government wouldn’t coincidentally be followed by a change in educational attainment, a change in homelessness, a change in poverty levels, etc etc etc. I guess in the early 1990s hundreds of thousands of people just decided to be poor for a while.
Oh we’re certainly positioned to create a NZ that treats more of us better.
A government that places people and the planet near the top of most agendum are much better placed to create a NZ that suits more of us.
The best we can hope for from them is that they are a brilliant band, for it to be an ace party 4.5 million of us need to dance.
I have a choice, I can say ‘McFlock you’re fulla shite.” Or I could tell the truth “McFlock I think you make a valuable contribution to this blog and it would be a less interesting place if you chose to stop.”
Your comments here today make (a lot of) sense (to me) as long as we realise that no man is an island and that we cannot make the necessary change all by ourselves but that we need to work together and help one and another: “united we stand, divided we fall”.
Which is all well and good, but still doesn’t acknowledge the massive role that sheer luck has played in your (and my) life.
The country we are in, the government of the day, the chaotic results of decisions of billions of people creating or eliminating opportunities… the privileges we have oblige us to try to make life better for those less fortunate, not just look to ourselves and assume that we played the bulk of the role that led us to our position.
Hi incognito, you’re good at making me think ‘Hmmm I hadn’t thought of that.’ I like you. Because your ‘hmmm I hadn’t thought of that’ is as often highlighting a positive as it is a negative.
You and me bro. We’ve got this.
McFlock, this sheer luck thing of yours, I can’t swallow it.
If I shoot the breeze in here for a week, my income slips away. If I apply myself, make a few calls, hustle, my income bumps up. This is the case over and over. Ain’t luck mate, it’s me getting stuck in or cruising.
You never had a happy coincidence in your life, where someone turns out to be willing and able to help you? Never had a seemingly insignificant choice of two roads “much the same” turn out to be life changing? Never met the love of your life by chance? Never had an inspiring teacher who retired shortly after your final year in school? Never had a completely unexpected opportunity fall in your lap? Never look back on your teenage love and breathe a sigh of relief that you never had a baby with them, despite foolish teenage choices? Shame.
On the flipside, most of my life has been good luck. I don’t hustle. I’m just really lucky. Papers I took randomly at university turned out to be the foundation of my second career a decade later. Whenever my life becomes inconvenienced by need for something, someone always seems to have a suitable substitute in the interim (I’m currently commenting on a surplus-to-requirements linux box with DDR2 ram, until I get funds for a gaming machine). I work 30 hours a week, and that provides me enough for a reasonable existence. I’m lucky my colleagues put up with me. I’m lucky I’m an amiable drunk. I’m lucky I recognised early that I’m prone to addiction, so avoided anything too bad in the way of drugs. I’m lucky I took so long to get my drivers license, otherwise winz would have put me into shiftwork I’d be stuck in to this day – too tired to do job interviews and all my daywalker skills evaporated. Seen it happen to others.
Sure, I could pretend I navigated the course to this life of comfort, but mostly I just went with the flow.
Whereas most people work or hustle most of their lives. Especially those on lower wages, because they don’t get the option not to. The cleaner at my workplace hustles every night, and probably works longer hours than I do for less. He deserves my luck, but he has bad luck.Never complains, but shit happens.
So you go out and hustle. Ain’t you lucky that your hustle is so much more rewarding than mike the cleaner’s.
See how you go being raped when you are a child, or starved, or your CV discarded cos of your surname… yes you are influential in your life but to have lived without the invisible barriers of systems designed for one section of society makes you privileged indeed.
The opportunity for me to get over being raped as a child and lead a quality life in spite of my harrowing experience would ultimately be down to me. Starved as a child? I think the best thing I could do would be to get myself into a position to help see that other children aren’t starving, that’s down to me. If my CV was not getting past the initial screening. Changing that is down to me. Yesterday I was Davinda, today I am David.
I hear you Tracey but regardless of the privilege some may soak up, the best way to clear the hurdles is not to rely on Susan Devoy’s intervention, it’s down to me.
If I was Davinda and the job application required a photo I’d lie. I’d look at the ‘Our Team’ on their websites. I’d steal an online photo of what I thought the company’s perfect applicant would look like and send that in with my CV.
Then I’d spend some time rehearsing what I would say at the beginning of my interview and ways of handling a variety of outcomes.
Something like: “I’m sorry to start my interview with a fib, plainly, I am not the person in my CV photo. My flatmate has convinced me that beautiful people get more interviews. He thinks they go on to enjoy privileged lives. I’m keen to prove him wrong. I’ve looked at your websites, this company does not hire people based on the colour of their skin, their age or cut of their jawline. Maybe my bogus photo helped get me here infront of you, now I’d like the chance to prove to you why I am the man for this job.”
Even with little onboard, the privilege BS can be spun in one’s favour.
I attended an author lecture for high-school aged students during the Writers Festival, and an Australian white fifty-something author, was speaking about challenging systems, and how they should – as engaged citizens – do the same.
As an example, similar to your story above, he related a personal choice of his to challenge the authority of the police who stopped him while he was speeding. He related how he believed the positioning of the police officer outside his driver’s window would tip the balance of body language in favour of the officer – so, he decided to immediately exit the car, and make a phone call so that when the officer approached the car, he would already be out and engaged in another activity. He then stopped the call, and approached the officer introducing himself.
The sheer disconnect of this author struck me. How unaware he was that his age, his race, his social status all contributed to how this was received by the officer.
Your comments today – to me – have the same cognitive dissonance.
The same actions, performed by different actors will have different consequences, and all the “clever” and can-do attitudes you espouse, will not address that fundamental truth.
You are not only missing a trick, you have missed the whole damn circus.
As much as we like to say ‘No we aren’t.’ We are guided by our emotions.
I see little value in trying to appear taller than the officer accusing me of speeding. I’d go for his heart.
“Yep, guilty as charged, but more important than that, I’ve forgotten my wife’s birthday and I’m on the way to get something. By all means give me a ticket but please accompany it with gift suggestions, what did your get your other half last birthday?”
““Yep, guilty as charged, but more important than that, I’ve forgotten my wife’s birthday and I’m on the way to get something. By all means give me a ticket but please accompany it with gift suggestions, what did your get your other half last birthday?””
Kissed the Blarney stone myself, and still wouldn’t come up with this kind of blather. What’s wrong with just accepting the ticket?
Once again, you miss the point. You are someone who can actually imagine doing this, and giving it a go. This makes you tone-deaf when it comes to listening to others about privilege and how it manifests.
I am glad life worked out for you but there is more than one version of tge world. Next you will tell me all people with a nice house and big income worked really hard to get it.
While vastly superior to the alternative (National led), yesterdays mini budget disappoints with its lack of forward thinking and begs the question have the Greens been sacrificed by having a horizon no further ahead than 2020?
Chris Trotter….
“There will be some who take umbrage at my uncompromising pessimism. To them I say: “It is only because I have been here before.” I remember another inspirational Labour leader who put an end to nine long years of National Party rule by promising to take New Zealand “up where we belong”, and who then allowed his Finance Minister to wreak havoc on the expectations and aspirations of his party’s electoral base.”
He has a very good point however…..by reaffirming the budget responsibility intent what tools will be provided to James Shaw to address ‘this generations nuclear free moment’??…..any transition is going to require massive investment and its not as if it can wait until a second or third term…..though there is a hint of a workable sleight of hand within Bernard Hickeys article..
“Grant Robertson has ‘squared the circle’ of fitting the coalition Government’s big new spending plans into its self-imposed surplus and debt restrictions, but it means he will have to embrace “innovative financing mechanisms” such as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and off balance sheet bond issuance to fix the infrastructure deficits the Government has found.”
Can you imagine how much MORE criticism and attack Labour and the Greens would have been under, leading up to the election, if they hadn’t signed up to the Budget responsibility pledge? Joyce and all his media flunkies would have had a field day, and the various economists who spoke up against the fictional $11.8 billion hole would have been entirely on their side. There’s no way in the world they would have been elected – they were already under attack on the issue of financial management and it would have buried them.
Once elected, a u-turn on this would be an absolute betrayal and a nail in the coffin of the new government. Governments are accountable to the people who elect them and the people are entitled to know their true intentions.
As for PPPs, I was really glad to know that one of the first announcements of the new Health Minister was that the rebuild of Dunedin Hospital is going ahead without one. I’m glad to see the list of areas that are now out of bounds. Better than we would have had under the Nats!
Couldnt agree more and your point re the attack pre election is noted though I suspect much the same outcome could have been achieved if the need for extending borrowing for infrastructure and transition had been promoted.
As for a u turn…..meh, could the Nats and MSM be much more disruptive than they have been to date?….there has been ample uncovered to justify a move away from the 20% target, and IF off balance sheet bonds are used the same attacks will come in any case
I just hope the plan IS to raise additional capital(off balance sheet if they must)..and not continue an austerity till collapse programme.
Poverty was a Green priority from pre election campaign, through the campaign and beyond. As a Party which garnered 6% of the vote they will be pleased to see the Families Package and rewinding of sanctions on not naming fathers going through so soon.
I do not know why some are so disappointed in the Greens because they do not believe in wagging the dog and some core policy ( albeit not as far as they campaigbed)
Coroner beats head against brick wall trying to save another child from the fate suffered by Nia and Moko.
Calls for, again mind, tracking of children so obvious red flags can be seen and action taken to save a child.
New Children’s Minister, (in a fit of what? sensitivity for her righter winged constituents?) says….
” “I don’t think [compulsory monitoring is] something that most New Zealanders would be comfortable with”.
“My initial conversations with colleagues reflect a similar view. While every child’s death is a tragedy and there are far too many, thankfully they are still rare. Most families are loving families,” she said.”
Now come on…if compulsory monitoring of all children, (and it doesn’t have to be Gestapo like) will save a single child from death by someone in loco parentis and save many more from abuse and petty fucking neglect then I say bring it on.
Sensitivities be damned.
If ALL children are expected to be seen by Plunket, doctors etc and questions asked and support offered if this is not happening, it will become apparent quite early those children who seriously need this level of monitoring.
Must do better Tracey…you’re no longer on the campaign trail, you’re in…make the most of the opportunity to get this finally right.
Rosemary I agree with you that this Government should get this right and I agree with the Children’s Commissioner that this register idea is a step too far.
A children”s register is an authoritarian move and the potential for abuse of such a register is unlimited. Nearly all children are seen now – the problem is the under funding and excessive workload of the appropriate agencies once children are referred.
While recognising that we have a serious child abuse problem in this country a band aid with fascist overtones is not the solution.
Realistically there is no single magic bullet solution but I suspect that the families package announced yesterday will help and hope that other ideas and initiatives will come to the fore over the next wee while.
Hang on a minute…did you read the article I linked to?
Moko didn’t die because there was no funding and there was an excessive workload…he died because those who were being funded to support…and I struggle to use the ‘families’ in this case…households such as this failed to take the appropriate steps to save his life.
Why? God knows…the warning signs were all there and the agencies knew and for some reason…and I suspect some misplaced sensitivities…no one put their foot down demanded to see all the children in the household and check on their welfare.
Or did you read the other article linked to in that article?
Agencies involved with Moko…
Child Youth and Family, the Auckland DHB, the Maori Women’s Welfare Refuge, the Waipahihi Kindergarten, Family Works, as well as the Rural Education Activities Programme.
But not one of them actually did their job and ensured the safety of all the children in that household.
Why? Poor training? Lack of authority? Absence of some mechanism to facilitate direct investigation and immediate intervention is there is a suspicion that a child is at risk.
If a child has come under the Lens of a government agency I would like to think we put resource into the education of the parent/carer while constantly ensuring the child is safe. It sounds like the Minister is appeasing someone/someones? Why?
Yes we are entering a serious stage of being labeled as a dirty country now sadly, after nine years of National mishandling of our environment and national must now be blamed globally for their foolish deception of using “profit first without preservation.”
Harvey Weinstein told him not to hire two young women, so he obeyed:
The spineless “Sir” Peter Jackson slithers back into our consciousness.
You may have thought the nadir of “Sir” Peter Jackson’s career came on Q+A in 2010 when he sat, cringing and obviously uncomfortable, occasionally forcing himself to parrot the brutal anti-union rhetoric of his Warner Brothers paymasters, and then squirming uncomfortably, in a fretful silence, as Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh did all the talking.
Now it transpires he was not just a slave to Warner Brothers’ lawyers, but also to Harvey Weinstein….
Awe, don’t be mean Morrissey – your just jealous. Think of all the good he’s done!
A true philanthropist. A humble man who has pulled himself up by the bootstraps and put NuZull on the global stage.
I mean……Bats Theatre – think of all those poor starving actors and actorines he’s given opportunity to. The increase in property values on the Miramar Penninsular.
The lookalike Hollywood sign – truly inspirational and fostering aspiration amongst our up and coming yoof. His contribution to arts’n’kulcha makes him a true hero – the likes of which we have not seen since Sir Edmund, or Sir John, or Dame Kurry Prendisgust and sidekick Rex, and to all those hardworking people he’s given so much sprayshun to. Why the haughty soon2b Sir Krus Seatoun Heights might have to issue you with an admonishment tackling you over your obvious bitterness. (It really isn’t a good look doncha know)
And then think of all those industries he’s helped while building his reputation! The IT sector.
You do know don’t you, that Sir Peter is actually really, really down with the people and peons, and has an undying love of all the minions that have contributed to building his empire. I know people who’d be prepared to lick the pavement clean before he puts a step on it!
What’s wrong with you man!!! I suspect it’s just envy and your inability (and desire) to reach the heights of beloved SPete . How dare you judge that icon who symbolises everything that’s put NuZull on the Whurl stage (going forward).
I’m forever indebted to the humble SPete to be be able to live in the same space (Wellington and its environs).
Sorry, Sir Peter, that irrefutable rundown of your inestimable goodness and humanity means that I shall now—to quote the great Tauranga M.P. Robert “Bob” Clarkson—withdraw and apologize….
You mean Bob Clarkson former MP…….the wacko, dribbling, multi-millionaire exemplar of inhumanity whose reaction in our parliament to the death of Mrs Folole Muliaga was to screechingly and repeatedly interject – “She didn’t pay her bill !” as though that was a sufficient moral explanation. Emailed him to express my disgust…….some staffer emailed back “sorry sorry”. BS. Not sorry at all. Just covering his own vileness.
Yes, North, the very same Bob Clarkson. That’s very interesting, to hear that he actually said something in the House. As far as I was aware, all he ever did was try to hit on young females, Trump style. Or any females, come to think of it.
In fact, I’m working on a little script involving the old goat right now. Keep your eyes peeled in the next few days, my friend….
Thanks Morrissey.
As soon as I can find my crystals, I’ll pop down to Courtenay Place and kneel under that wonderful 4 legged edifice, face the Embassy Theatre, and beg your forgiveness for any offence your selfishness and envy may have caused.
We should always remember our place.
Morrissey
I hope you have managed to buy a house. It will probably be the biggest and most complex financial transaction you ever make. If you built it also, that is complex, but not a spot on swinging a huge financial deal and technical marvel that Sir Peter Jackson did. It is funny to hear so many criticise Sir Peter unmercifully. You are good at criticising from your keyboard and your small projects. You have no idea of the weight of mega bucks and executive decisions required to make these films in New Zealand. He may not have behaved as fairly as he should, but he shouldn’t be demonised either.
Jackson made some really good movies—long ago. But, as we saw when he presented as a shambling embarrassment in that Q+A debacle, he sold his conscience to Hollywood, and he is well aware of it. Save your admiration for someone who deserves it.
Roy Moore continues to deliver gloriously nutso moments. FFS, even the White adult daycare House thinks he should have conceded by now. But no, Moore delivers a delightfully bonkers “battle rages on” statement.
Yep Andre. I watched the Moore video where he will fight on. I expect that a deeply religious man like him will have god on his side and therefore the votes will do a magnificent Russian flip giving Moore a 90% majority. Let us pray.
From the ‘thank god its Friday and we all deserve a laugh’ file…
Who will speak up for them now Mike is gone????
(Hankies optional)
“Mike Hosking fought for the luxury European car owner. He fought for the dispossessed of Orakei and St Heliers. He provided a voice for the wearers of distressed denim and funky blazers. Without him, Mark Richardson stands alone and lonely atop his mountain, a sole sane speaker of truth amid a sea of bloody pinko lefties.
Labour gets in here, and completely coincidentally, Hosking and Leighton are gone. You didn’t need Ken Ring around to predict a painful two years ahead for Mike.
Lots of time to be wasted, fiddling with your pen and providing sad-faced links to stories about Labour policies on doing nice things for the homeless and beneficiaries and children would have been tough when he could have been vacuuming his car or doing at-home spreads for Woman’s Day.”
I watched the programme with Mike and Miss Personality tonight from start to finish for the first time ever. What a cringeworthy load of kaka with the exception of the guys offering a serenade.
AS Mike fought back tears, I half expected John Hawkesby to come on set and tell us how thankful he was to have Mike as his sonny-bro.
What a complete load of self-indulgent crap.
Who is Miss Personality btw?
Never mind…. I just googled her. All over tomorrow’s fish and chip wrappers
Farrar has stooped to an all time low by posting an ‘anonymous letter from a reader’ casting even further aspersions on Golriz Ghahraman’s career.
What?
Were his rating falling and he had to come up with a scheme to incite the pack of racist misogynists who dwell there into a fervour of comment and click?
A truly pathetic effort there Farrar, and you call yourself an “Editor”.
I did laugh. Those who bemoan lack of work ethic in others couldnt wait for lunch. Shoulda taken sammies in with them given they knew they were going to delay the hell out of proceedings.
ISTR a similar story about lunches from a mines dispute decades ago. The argument that went to court was whether the miners’ half hour lunch break should start when they left the face or when they left the pit mouth. There was much discussion about how long the workers deserved, then the judge called a break in proceedings for lunch: two hours.
If you think Freudian slip, what made Laura Walters fingers say this:
National’s protestations were likely more an effort to delay the passing of the Government’s Families Package Bill, than a bout of hanger.
To me I think of those undisciplined school boys in the Gnat Party needing a ‘hanging’ judge.
Maybe they should be hung up on the tiled walls of the men’s room to cool down.
Perhaps hung from a nice pillory or, if budget constraints limit, a set of stocks outside where the public could show their feelings for them.
Yes poor Jami lee Ross the wee petal. It looks like the low wage, union busting, zero hour, employment contracts act National party doesn’t walk the talk on work ethic.
Always nice for the public to see what real hypocrites look like.
I refrained from attacking the ferrari man to much after all he is human and he toned it down a bit but one could read that he wanted to trash our Coalition Government. Did you see what happened on breakfast this morning that was when Jack mentioned someone’s career that was ________ funny I got a sore face.
I had a good day yesterday oil changed the truck got the vacuum cleaner fixed just about fix it myself the things to old to see how to open it up on youtube so I took it to Turnbuckle Electrical on Amohia st Vags they gave me excellent service Ka pai.
I’m battling one of our computers it the main one with all my business files and files on you no who I think they gave it a hand to crash Iv had help from my coder uncle I took the hard drive out put it in a external drive case I’m just scanning it at the moment because we are minimalistic I will fix the old laptop if I can load all the data on another hard drive and load Windows 10 back then reload all the data if not new computer they are cheap now. When my children were young I spent $10.000 on computers for them to play games on most of the educational games did not run my wife typed up a few letters for a friend whom had a bone to pick with a district council. But the investment payed off because we all have at least basic computer skills Thanks to my uncle influence Ka pai
When I took my computer into the computer shop and met PREBLE and Gissymo they want to keep my computer YEA RIGHT eco didn’t drop out the sky yesterday they could have said it was _____ so today it’s going again all good Ana to kai
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
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David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
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The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
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On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
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Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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”. ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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 ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
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Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
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To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
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Karl Du Frense positioning himself as the defender of free speech and balanced Public Broadcasting with this tacky little piece in which he pins his colours to the mast.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/99845282/dinosaur-v-dominatrix-don-brash-didnt-stand-a-chance
He was obviously disturbed by the public eviscerating of that stalwart of Free Speech Don Brash, by Kim Hill on Natrad a couple of weeks ago.
Du Frense say’s
”
Here’s where we get down to the real issue. RNZ is a public institution. It belongs to us.
The public who fund the organisation are entitled to criticise it. But can we now expect that anyone who has the temerity to do so will be subjected to a mauling by RNZ’s in-house attack dog? Or is this treatment reserved for despised white conservative males such as Brash, to make an example of them and deter others from similar foolishness?
Either way, Hill’s dismemberment of Brash was a brazen abuse of the state broadcaster’s power and showed contemptuous disregard for RNZ’s charter obligation to be impartial and balanced.
This is nothing new, of course. The quaint notion that RNZ exists for all New Zealanders was quietly jettisoned years ago. Without any mandate, the state broadcaster has refashioned itself as a platform for the promotion of favoured causes.
You’re more likely to see an aardvark riding a bike down The Terrace than to hear a conservative voice, or even a middle-of-the-road one, on smug groupthink fests such as RNZ’s current series of Smart Talk.”
Whew!
The lad sounds a little peeved.
Calling Kim Hill a ‘dominatrix’ and an ‘attack dog’….absolutely no class at all there Karl.
Another right wing apologist having a tantrum – such fun!
And that horrible little man from 7 Sharp is going going gone – wow! Do you think Australia would like him?
“Calling Kim Hill a ‘dominatrix’ and an ‘attack dog’”
Kind of rich coming from someone who’s rather like a Dr Who 1960s Dalek screaming ‘exterminate, exterminate, assimilate, assimilate’
How can he say that when her co-host is Guyon Espiner?
Yes Rosemary
This mornings episode of Kim Hill Vs Blustering Steven Joyce was very reminesent of when David parker was over-burdened by discussion with Joyce during the lead up to the 2014 election; – when Steven joyce was barrelling over top of the meek David Parker in discussion about ‘finance’ as it was equally as arrogant a performance from Joyce three years ago.
This festive season Steven Joyce is likened to the mean arsed ‘Grinch’
“Leopards dont change their spots’.
Rosemary, Karl Du Frense is another poor loser, bitter that the left have platforms of power and are using them.
I did not see him asking for fairness every time Joyce or Boag got up to complain about the left.
He is full of it, and Kim Hill does her job, and does not tolerate self aggrandizing idiots like Brash.
Du Frense says “What made him do that?” “Ego” he suggests. Got it in one, Brash doesn’t think he has any problems, and when called out on them blames others.
We are going to get a stream of complaints about Left influence. I might pay attention, had they been more even handed in the past.
Hiya pat.
Yes, its going to be all on over the next few years.
Paradoxically, Farrar’s Ferals are also not happy with the mainstream media and Natrad in particular.
For sometime they have complained bitterly that presenters on Natrad are biased towards the left…and this includes Espiner, who many here perceive as tending right.
My hope is that if none of us are happy with the MSM…this might just indicate that they are landing somewhere in the middle.
Lmao, some men cannot deal with strong, educated women, so they resort to name calling. Interestingly by calling Kim a dominatrix karl is admitting his submission. Or is he volunteering brashes?
So many chickens are coming home to roost and it’s beautiful to watch.
Only one lesson here – if you are going up against Hill don’t be an ignorant, illogical nitwit. And outside a very narrow set of economic theories, Brash is exactly that.
And you have to be an ignorant, illogical, nitwit to have any truck with those narrow set of economic theories of which Brash is an “expert”
This is not the first time that Kim Hill has provoked Karl Du Fresne into a state of apoplexy. In 2010 the old curmudgeon went into core meltdown after Hill had dared to ask a few challenging questions of the former Australian prime minister John Howard. On that occasion he damned Hill not for being a dominatrix, but for being “relentlessly adversarial”. He also damned her listeners as “chardonnay socialists”…..
http://karldufresne.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/howard-deserved-more-balanced-treatment.html
Another who regards equality as a form of oppression… and Hosking gone too… the privileged male feels under attack today as everything isnt as they are used to it… sharing takes some getting used to.
“…Either way, Hill’s dismemberment of Brash was a brazen abuse of the state broadcaster’s power and showed contemptuous disregard for RNZ’s charter obligation to be impartial and balanced…”
Actually the RNZ charter says in section 5:
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
Kim Hill’s Saturday morning show isn’t news or current affairs. It is a magazine show driven by it’s host. Du Fresne is an idiot who appears to have not actually read the RNZ charter.
Kim Hill allowed Don Brash to have his point of view put forth. He wasn’t an expert in the area – on this topic he was as expert as any random person on the street. And a random person on the street doesn’t get so much airtime to put their point of view across.
Kim Hill basically just quoted things he had said in the past. If that made him look foolish then he shouldn’t have said such silly things.
Well observed. It is one thing to be heard that doesnt mean a platform to bully your world view. Hill ought to be congratulated not vilified.
Thanks awfully Sanctuary;
For that interesting wording from the RNZ Charter section 5.
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
We have lost our HB/Gisborne regional voice here since 2013 and are still waiting for our
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
We in HB/Gisborne had apparently had Steven Joyce take away our regional reporter from RNZ two years ago!!!!!
We enquired with the RNZ CEO on 9th September 2017 under OIA why we lost our reporter and we still dont have one yet, and here is what we got back on 13/10/17.
NOTE; To date as of yesterday 14/12/17 we still have no RNZ reporter to cover HB/Gisborne, so the new Broadcasting Minister Claire Curran has now recieved a letter of complaint from us to provide us with a reporter ASAP.
Attached is a letter we received 20/10/17 after sending Radio NZ 9/9/17 in a OIA request as to why we in HB no longer have a Radio NZ reporter since 2016.
The date of our request was sent quite a time before the election 9/9/17 and came to us just days before the election.
Since then we have sent several letters to the new Broadcasting Minister Claire Curran for assistance to get another local reporter and to date no new reporter has been hired.
Yesterday we called Radio NZ to enquire when we are to get a reporter and the person I was sent through to was a lady named “ Paloma” who said still “no reporter has been found yet”!!!!!!! This is now late december 15/12/17.
Quote George Bignell – 13/10/27
“The Hawkes Bay regional reporting position is currently vacant and Radio New Zealand will look to fill that position in the near future.
We trust this of assistance to you.” End.
See the letter below from this person inside the old style RNZ while then under National Government control.
SEE BELOW our Letter sent to Radio NZ PA 8/9/17.
So from the 20th October 2017 till now 14th December 2017, (over eight weeks later) no replacement report as been found yet??????
URGENT
Official Information request
RADIO NZ.
CEO PAUL THOMPSON
9th September 2017.
Official Information request
HB Advocacy centre made this Official Information request to PAUL THOMPSON – RADIO NZ CEO For information 9th September 2017 for quick response please.
9th September 2017.
Dear Paul.
We are a senior NGO working within the Government & local regional authorities on issues that have been presented to our Environmental Centre for 16 yrs to date.
We have had a close communication relationship in the past particularly during the years 2009 to 2013 with your Radio NZ reporters but we now have virtually no response from your regional news, transport, environment, and rural reporters since then and I have been requested to enquire how the regional reporting structure of the Radio NZ broadcasting services now are different to the way the operations serviced the regions formerly.
We would want you to supply any detailed changes that may have affected our loss of regional reporting services how affected our ability to have press coverage of our community issues regarding the above subjects of Transport and transport relationships to community health and wellbeing please, and we ask that under the Official Information Act please from this date 9/9/17 please arrange information to be provided as soon as able please. If you
If you wish to refer this issue of ‘several communication’ also to the Minister handling the ‘Broadcasting portfolio’ who is Hon’ Maggie Barry please feel free to converse with the minister as you prepare our information request. The Minister had increased funding to Radio NZ recently we are told.
We have supplied you with a copy of yesterday’s letter that we sent from our Centre to your office & is attached (below) for your reference.
Regards.
——————————————————————————————————
letter from RNZ
October 13, 2017
Dear —–
I write in response to your request “how the regional reporting structure of the Radio NZ broadcasting services now are different to the way the operations serviced the regions formerly.”
I can advise that RNZ does not hold any specific information in this regard that we can supply to you. To answer your question, apart from the relocation of one reporting position from our Queenstown office to our Dunedin office, there has been no recent changes to our regional reporting structure.
The Hawkes Bay regional reporting position is currently vacant and Radio New Zealand will look to fill that position in the near future.
We trust this of assistance to you.
Yours sincerely
George Bignell
OIA Inquiries Coordinator
Yup, Mr Magoo is simply expressing his own fear of (progressive) women in power.
Like many on the right he wants to remove “public” platforms for those who support a more progressive New Zealand, while strangely silent on the role of the “unchallenging to the conservative regime” Hosking at TVNZ.
One almost suspects the idea of Barry and Campbell on Seven Sharp was floated to wind him up.
Du Fresne must hate listening to Hosking then. You know with TVNZ being public… I guess it is why the TVNZ Charter had to go… so Hosking could have
” contemptuous disregard for RNZ’s charter obligation to be impartial and balanced “
Thank goodness.
Grant Robertson has had some sense pushed into him regarding the National Super recipients having to apply for the grant for “winter heating”.
It will apparently be paid out automatically and there will be no need for people to go into WINZ and apply for it. Complaints about the stupidity of his demand seem to have finally got through to him.
Some common sense has been shown. Amazing.
Must be listening to you Alwyn!!!
dv well said. 100%
We worry about anyone listening to Alwyn thinks they are getting the acurate true facts as he is a ‘cherry picker’, and an apologist for the trucking industry, and hence supports dirty environmental policies.
http://www.noted.co.nz/money/the-great-rail-revival-why-its-time-to-get-rail-back-on-track/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=LISTENER_newsletter_14-12-2017&utm_term=list_nzlistener_newsletter
plus he is confused about his love/hate relationship with trains – not so much a trainspotter, more a trainsnotter.
Having read the items you link to, and looking at his occupation, I can hear the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies.
Anyone who has been the union leader for Rail Workers will of course qualify for her comment about Lord Astor.
“Well he would say that wouldn’t he?”
I still think they only have very limited reason for existing in New Zealand.
Is it really worth spending half a billion dollars on getting the Auckland/Northland line to a minimum standard and putting a spur line into Marsden Point for a maximum of a short train each day?
Improving the roads makes much more sense.
The statistics quoted in the Listener article are also misleading.
A statement such as “Whereas the rail network carries 16% of freight (by tonne-kilometres), it generates only 0.2% of national emissions” is simply a ridiculous comparison. It is intended to pretend that our overall emissions would be greatly reduced if we used trains more.
I could make an equally misleading, and equally silly statement such as.
“Less than 0.01% of passengers from Wellington to Auckland travel by rail and yet the rail network generates 0.2% of our national emissions”.
There, that implies that trains are terribly inefficient doesn’t it
I have no idea what the actual number is but this could be about the correct one. There are tourist trains a couple of times a week for at least part of the year so I suppose they might carry a single Airbus 320 load of passengers each week for the whole distance.
Half a billion for trains, several billion for roads.
Yeah, much more sense to do the trains.
That’s not a pretence. If we used trains more our emissions would fall quite drastically. Would use far less resources as well and thus be a hell of a lot cheaper.
And that’s the only thing you said that actually truthful. Finally admitting that you have no idea what you’re talking about.
You did note that the half billion for trains is ONLY for the line from Auckland to Marsden Point.
God knows how may billion the puff-puff lovers want in total.
National put around $3 billion I think into rail between 2009 and 2017 and committed about a further $1.5 billion into the Auckland link.
“And that’s the only thing you said that actually truthful”.
Don’t be so bloody stupid. You are just unhappy that I can demonstrate that many of the comments made about the wonders of rail are ridiculous and founded only in fantasy.
What exactly have I said that is false. Facts please, not just an eruption of bile.
And the road is billions of dollars for the same stretch. We know this from National’s RoNs:
And it won’t have anywhere near the economies of rail.
You’ve never done that. You’ve done a lot of talking out your arse about it though.
You missed the context and thus produced a lie:
And you even followed it up by saying that you were talking out your arse.
I’ll add this to the context as well:
my bold
Trucking companies and even cars get massive cross subsidisation that rail doesn’t get and so it looks a lot better on the accounts. When that cross subsidisation is properly accounted for rail looks a hell of a lot better.
It’s better than amazing Alwyn.
Its a huge social shift for good in New Zealand.
“Its a huge social shift for good in New Zealand”
Do you mean that he has apparently had second thoughts about making everyone apply or do you mean the money itself?
If the first I would agree. This must be the first time in decades that a Labour Government has altered something they have announced, and in effect admitted they got it wrong.
On the other hand the amount of money is precisely $10/year more than National were going to provide to couples with the tax cuts that were going to happen on April 1 and which Labour and its hangers-on are cancelling. Would you call that $10/year a “huge social shift”?
I would call lifting about 1 million New Zealanders up with straight cash a “huge social shift”.
You can use your $450 to keep doing jobs around the house.
National just got outflanked and have no answer.
I wonder why the people who dont need it as Seymour says dont just give it back or contact authorities to be excluded?
Good program this morning breakfast people many thanks to you.
You Lady’s are very good netures but you are so busy looking after everyone else you forget to take care of yourself my wife did this my sister my daughters well I ring them up and insist they go to the doctor when they tell me about there ailments . I tell there health is the most important as they have the care of there family in there hands an no one will care for the children like they do.
The wait time to get into a doctor in South Waikato is ridiculous especially for a wealth country. O that’s right we have Shonky bullshiet dilldow to thank for this slide back wards in all OUR State services the likes of these people will not be allowed back in OUR government how can they lift there heads with all the bad shit they have done to OUR country this is what you get when you have people who worship money over humanity and mother earth. Many thanks to Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook for seeing the big picture that’s is that all the people of OUR WORLD SOCIETY HAVE A Obligation to help all the vanurable people in our world. I hope all the Big Tech companies in our world will pay Taxes in the country’s that they draw there revenue from as this is the humane thing to do Ka pai
Good advice. We need to remibd the women in our lives that they can only be for others what they want to be if they stay fit and healthy and happy.
Hosking was first to blink in the battle of the relentlessly positive. He found now that JA is the boss he couldn’t keep up his smug schtick any longer. So like all quitters, he quit.
Doesn’t Shaw release the climate and sea level thing today – on a day when it’s almost guaranteed to be eclipsed by this general nodding approval of a budget?
Rosemary, Karl Du Frense is another poor loser, bitter that the left have platforms of power and are using them.
I did not see him asking for fairness every time Joyce or Boag got up to complain about the left.
He is full of it, and Kim Hill does her job, and does not tolerate self aggrandizing idiots like Brash.
Du Frense says “What made him do that?” “Ego” he suggests. Got it in one, Brash doesn’t think he has any problems, and when called out on them blames others.
We are going to get a stream of complaints about Left influence. I might pay attention, had they been more even handed in the past.
Sorry, accidentally posted twice!
Many thanks to the Rock morning rumble team see hear you in the new year. PS found a present from my neo liberal neighbour a dead bird on my truck this is the mind set of these cares of OUR society Ana to kai
When instrumentation designed to “trip out” in the case of a malfunction, “trips out” because the extent of warming it’s measuring is read as a malfunction… 🙁
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/arctic-global-warming-rapid-computer-rejected-alaska-a8110941.html
That’s really bad programming. It should still have recorded it but marked it as possibly erroneous.
Ding dong Hoskings gone
Yep – circling the wagons, retreating to the fortress of private radio to commiserate with like-minded souls and snipe from a position of safety.
Oh yes make it so; – sack Mike Hoskings.
As he sits already on the ‘can’t do’ grump mantle with Alwyn, James, and the National clingons.
And we hopefully all will gravitate to the “fortress of private radio to commiserate with like-minded souls and snipe from a position of safety.”
What have I ever done to upset you so much?
Apart from pointing out the flaws when you publish silly ideas I really don’t take any notice of you.
Just relax, read what I say and , as the Bible says in John 8:32
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set free you.”
Oh God…….Alwyn lecturing us from his Alabama Bible.
“Alabama Bible”?
What is the connection?
Yep alwyn know everything about nothing thus the worm turns.
Well, Given that neither you nor “North” can tell me any connection I can only assume that you have screwed the pooch and got your story messed up.
The only “Alabama Bible” I have ever heard of is the Alabama State Bible in Montgomery Alabama. It was the one used to swear in Jefferson Davis as President.
However the verse I quoted isn’t in that bible.
It has, instead
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”.
Well I guess you didn’t get it right and you are too embarrassed to admit it.
About par for the course for you.
You are wrong as usual – silly wee twerp.
Hebrews 13:8 King James version
Really?
You’re sure now?
seems an appropriate comment. Seeing your comments is like eating boiled rice for dinner for three months straight, but without the sustenance value. Hence the comment “Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever”.
Yet another neolib Labour govt doing nothing for the poor. Shame on them.
Visualise a hat. 195 pieces of paper within, each one bearing the name of a country around the globe. We get to close our eyes and reach in, the country we get, that’s where we’re moving to.
I’d turn down the opportunity to play. For me it would be like playing Russian Roulette with an automatic weapon and about 4 bullets missing from it’s 195 bullet magazine. For me, this new policy just put another bullet in the mag.
Regardless of the circumstances, whether flush or on the bones of my arse, I’ve always found that the most influential person when it comes to influencing outcomes in my life has been me. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I fear I would die waiting for any government to take me by the hand and lead me to a life of contentment.
” For me, this new policy just put another bullet in the mag.”
I presume that related to the crux of your post but refers to nothing.
My crystal ball is on the fritz. What are you talking about?
I’m talking about the people that are not happy about life in NZ but given an opportunity to change would still walk past 194 countries to live here.
Especially now we have a decent government. NZ was sliding down too many rankings for a while there.
Yes, we’re not going to get things sorted out in 100 days. It will be a generation before we are an international poster child of The Fair Go. Favourable trend-lines and moving up credible world rankings are the things to look for, housing, health, education, incomes. The mechanical bits that get more of us pushing on towards our personal variations of lives well led.
Really a generation? The nats managed to fuck it up quite a bit in only nine years.
But really, tell us more about how you are the master of your own destiny, when apparently you’re lucky enough to live in the best country in the world.
9 years, Left/Right, Holden/Ford, South Island/North Island
In our hearts we’re all chasing the same things, we all have similar core values. We want to be noticed and appreciated. We want to give love and be loved. We all aspire to being crucial cogs in loving families, neighbourhoods, towns, nation.
Ford, Holden, National, Labour, I think they have little to do with addressing our core aspirations.
I think what we should be asking from our government is a fairly marked out playing field. A ‘stickler for the rules’ referee and a comfy place to sit for those that can’t play.
If they were irrelevant, a change in government wouldn’t coincidentally be followed by a change in educational attainment, a change in homelessness, a change in poverty levels, etc etc etc. I guess in the early 1990s hundreds of thousands of people just decided to be poor for a while.
Oh we’re certainly positioned to create a NZ that treats more of us better.
A government that places people and the planet near the top of most agendum are much better placed to create a NZ that suits more of us.
The best we can hope for from them is that they are a brilliant band, for it to be an ace party 4.5 million of us need to dance.
I have a choice, I can say ‘McFlock you’re fulla shite.” Or I could tell the truth “McFlock I think you make a valuable contribution to this blog and it would be a less interesting place if you chose to stop.”
Making NZ a better place is down to you and me.
QFT
Your comments here today make (a lot of) sense (to me) as long as we realise that no man is an island and that we cannot make the necessary change all by ourselves but that we need to work together and help one and another: “united we stand, divided we fall”.
Which is all well and good, but still doesn’t acknowledge the massive role that sheer luck has played in your (and my) life.
The country we are in, the government of the day, the chaotic results of decisions of billions of people creating or eliminating opportunities… the privileges we have oblige us to try to make life better for those less fortunate, not just look to ourselves and assume that we played the bulk of the role that led us to our position.
‘Sheer luck’
You, nor any of us know how that plays out…
That’s what you chosen to attribute life as being based from it seems..
It’s possible that ‘luck’ is the all it is..
But luck is a human label..they all are..
Therefore the human ascribed ‘Luck’ has nothing to do with anything outside of events in this life…if that
“Labels” require denotation for to have meaning.
The origin of the label is not the origin of the thing being denoted.
Therefore your comment is confused and delusional.
But that was already highly likely, because it was prefaced by the label “One Two”.
‘Sheer luck’
‘Require detonation to have meaning’
‘Confused and delusional’
Have you considered other possibilities, or did you stop at, ‘sheer luck’?
We’ve run out of reply clickables
Hi incognito, you’re good at making me think ‘Hmmm I hadn’t thought of that.’ I like you. Because your ‘hmmm I hadn’t thought of that’ is as often highlighting a positive as it is a negative.
You and me bro. We’ve got this.
McFlock, this sheer luck thing of yours, I can’t swallow it.
If I shoot the breeze in here for a week, my income slips away. If I apply myself, make a few calls, hustle, my income bumps up. This is the case over and over. Ain’t luck mate, it’s me getting stuck in or cruising.
Really?
You never had a happy coincidence in your life, where someone turns out to be willing and able to help you? Never had a seemingly insignificant choice of two roads “much the same” turn out to be life changing? Never met the love of your life by chance? Never had an inspiring teacher who retired shortly after your final year in school? Never had a completely unexpected opportunity fall in your lap? Never look back on your teenage love and breathe a sigh of relief that you never had a baby with them, despite foolish teenage choices? Shame.
On the flipside, most of my life has been good luck. I don’t hustle. I’m just really lucky. Papers I took randomly at university turned out to be the foundation of my second career a decade later. Whenever my life becomes inconvenienced by need for something, someone always seems to have a suitable substitute in the interim (I’m currently commenting on a surplus-to-requirements linux box with DDR2 ram, until I get funds for a gaming machine). I work 30 hours a week, and that provides me enough for a reasonable existence. I’m lucky my colleagues put up with me. I’m lucky I’m an amiable drunk. I’m lucky I recognised early that I’m prone to addiction, so avoided anything too bad in the way of drugs. I’m lucky I took so long to get my drivers license, otherwise winz would have put me into shiftwork I’d be stuck in to this day – too tired to do job interviews and all my daywalker skills evaporated. Seen it happen to others.
Sure, I could pretend I navigated the course to this life of comfort, but mostly I just went with the flow.
Whereas most people work or hustle most of their lives. Especially those on lower wages, because they don’t get the option not to. The cleaner at my workplace hustles every night, and probably works longer hours than I do for less. He deserves my luck, but he has bad luck.Never complains, but shit happens.
So you go out and hustle. Ain’t you lucky that your hustle is so much more rewarding than mike the cleaner’s.
See how you go being raped when you are a child, or starved, or your CV discarded cos of your surname… yes you are influential in your life but to have lived without the invisible barriers of systems designed for one section of society makes you privileged indeed.
The opportunity for me to get over being raped as a child and lead a quality life in spite of my harrowing experience would ultimately be down to me. Starved as a child? I think the best thing I could do would be to get myself into a position to help see that other children aren’t starving, that’s down to me. If my CV was not getting past the initial screening. Changing that is down to me. Yesterday I was Davinda, today I am David.
I hear you Tracey but regardless of the privilege some may soak up, the best way to clear the hurdles is not to rely on Susan Devoy’s intervention, it’s down to me.
If I was Davinda and the job application required a photo I’d lie. I’d look at the ‘Our Team’ on their websites. I’d steal an online photo of what I thought the company’s perfect applicant would look like and send that in with my CV.
Then I’d spend some time rehearsing what I would say at the beginning of my interview and ways of handling a variety of outcomes.
Something like: “I’m sorry to start my interview with a fib, plainly, I am not the person in my CV photo. My flatmate has convinced me that beautiful people get more interviews. He thinks they go on to enjoy privileged lives. I’m keen to prove him wrong. I’ve looked at your websites, this company does not hire people based on the colour of their skin, their age or cut of their jawline. Maybe my bogus photo helped get me here infront of you, now I’d like the chance to prove to you why I am the man for this job.”
Even with little onboard, the privilege BS can be spun in one’s favour.
We regret to inform you ….
we’re racist?
I attended an author lecture for high-school aged students during the Writers Festival, and an Australian white fifty-something author, was speaking about challenging systems, and how they should – as engaged citizens – do the same.
As an example, similar to your story above, he related a personal choice of his to challenge the authority of the police who stopped him while he was speeding. He related how he believed the positioning of the police officer outside his driver’s window would tip the balance of body language in favour of the officer – so, he decided to immediately exit the car, and make a phone call so that when the officer approached the car, he would already be out and engaged in another activity. He then stopped the call, and approached the officer introducing himself.
The sheer disconnect of this author struck me. How unaware he was that his age, his race, his social status all contributed to how this was received by the officer.
Your comments today – to me – have the same cognitive dissonance.
The same actions, performed by different actors will have different consequences, and all the “clever” and can-do attitudes you espouse, will not address that fundamental truth.
You are not only missing a trick, you have missed the whole damn circus.
Nah Molly, we agree, that dude is a wanker.
As much as we like to say ‘No we aren’t.’ We are guided by our emotions.
I see little value in trying to appear taller than the officer accusing me of speeding. I’d go for his heart.
“Yep, guilty as charged, but more important than that, I’ve forgotten my wife’s birthday and I’m on the way to get something. By all means give me a ticket but please accompany it with gift suggestions, what did your get your other half last birthday?”
““Yep, guilty as charged, but more important than that, I’ve forgotten my wife’s birthday and I’m on the way to get something. By all means give me a ticket but please accompany it with gift suggestions, what did your get your other half last birthday?””
Kissed the Blarney stone myself, and still wouldn’t come up with this kind of blather. What’s wrong with just accepting the ticket?
Once again, you miss the point. You are someone who can actually imagine doing this, and giving it a go. This makes you tone-deaf when it comes to listening to others about privilege and how it manifests.
I am glad life worked out for you but there is more than one version of tge world. Next you will tell me all people with a nice house and big income worked really hard to get it.
I’m sorry you see me as someone so shallow. The life I lead flies in the face of your assumption.
While vastly superior to the alternative (National led), yesterdays mini budget disappoints with its lack of forward thinking and begs the question have the Greens been sacrificed by having a horizon no further ahead than 2020?
Chris Trotter….
“There will be some who take umbrage at my uncompromising pessimism. To them I say: “It is only because I have been here before.” I remember another inspirational Labour leader who put an end to nine long years of National Party rule by promising to take New Zealand “up where we belong”, and who then allowed his Finance Minister to wreak havoc on the expectations and aspirations of his party’s electoral base.”
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2017/12/grant-robertsons-mini-budget-presents.html
Chris Trotter unimpressed – shock, horror! Since when has this guy been anything but a grinch when commenting on anything related to Labour?
He has a very good point however…..by reaffirming the budget responsibility intent what tools will be provided to James Shaw to address ‘this generations nuclear free moment’??…..any transition is going to require massive investment and its not as if it can wait until a second or third term…..though there is a hint of a workable sleight of hand within Bernard Hickeys article..
“Grant Robertson has ‘squared the circle’ of fitting the coalition Government’s big new spending plans into its self-imposed surplus and debt restrictions, but it means he will have to embrace “innovative financing mechanisms” such as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and off balance sheet bond issuance to fix the infrastructure deficits the Government has found.”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/12/14/68554/analysis-debt-anchor-dragging-labour-into-ppps
However sleight of hand gives the opposition ammunition and isnt likely to instil the sense of common purpose required…disappointing.
Can you imagine how much MORE criticism and attack Labour and the Greens would have been under, leading up to the election, if they hadn’t signed up to the Budget responsibility pledge? Joyce and all his media flunkies would have had a field day, and the various economists who spoke up against the fictional $11.8 billion hole would have been entirely on their side. There’s no way in the world they would have been elected – they were already under attack on the issue of financial management and it would have buried them.
Once elected, a u-turn on this would be an absolute betrayal and a nail in the coffin of the new government. Governments are accountable to the people who elect them and the people are entitled to know their true intentions.
As for PPPs, I was really glad to know that one of the first announcements of the new Health Minister was that the rebuild of Dunedin Hospital is going ahead without one. I’m glad to see the list of areas that are now out of bounds. Better than we would have had under the Nats!
“Better than we would have had under the Nats!”
Couldnt agree more and your point re the attack pre election is noted though I suspect much the same outcome could have been achieved if the need for extending borrowing for infrastructure and transition had been promoted.
As for a u turn…..meh, could the Nats and MSM be much more disruptive than they have been to date?….there has been ample uncovered to justify a move away from the 20% target, and IF off balance sheet bonds are used the same attacks will come in any case
I just hope the plan IS to raise additional capital(off balance sheet if they must)..and not continue an austerity till collapse programme.
Very good comment there Red.
Labour said it was Arderns generations nuclear free moment so Robertson has hamstrung his own Party’s intention to address that?
Poverty was a Green priority from pre election campaign, through the campaign and beyond. As a Party which garnered 6% of the vote they will be pleased to see the Families Package and rewinding of sanctions on not naming fathers going through so soon.
I do not know why some are so disappointed in the Greens because they do not believe in wagging the dog and some core policy ( albeit not as far as they campaigbed)
Well, quite frankly, fuckit.
Coroner beats head against brick wall trying to save another child from the fate suffered by Nia and Moko.
Calls for, again mind, tracking of children so obvious red flags can be seen and action taken to save a child.
New Children’s Minister, (in a fit of what? sensitivity for her righter winged constituents?) says….
” “I don’t think [compulsory monitoring is] something that most New Zealanders would be comfortable with”.
“My initial conversations with colleagues reflect a similar view. While every child’s death is a tragedy and there are far too many, thankfully they are still rare. Most families are loving families,” she said.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11959003
Now come on…if compulsory monitoring of all children, (and it doesn’t have to be Gestapo like) will save a single child from death by someone in loco parentis and save many more from abuse and petty fucking neglect then I say bring it on.
Sensitivities be damned.
If ALL children are expected to be seen by Plunket, doctors etc and questions asked and support offered if this is not happening, it will become apparent quite early those children who seriously need this level of monitoring.
Must do better Tracey…you’re no longer on the campaign trail, you’re in…make the most of the opportunity to get this finally right.
Rosemary I agree with you that this Government should get this right and I agree with the Children’s Commissioner that this register idea is a step too far.
A children”s register is an authoritarian move and the potential for abuse of such a register is unlimited. Nearly all children are seen now – the problem is the under funding and excessive workload of the appropriate agencies once children are referred.
While recognising that we have a serious child abuse problem in this country a band aid with fascist overtones is not the solution.
Realistically there is no single magic bullet solution but I suspect that the families package announced yesterday will help and hope that other ideas and initiatives will come to the fore over the next wee while.
“the problem is the under funding and excessive workload of the appropriate agencies once children are referred. ”
Agree 100%. Address this and so much will fall into place.
Hang on a minute…did you read the article I linked to?
Moko didn’t die because there was no funding and there was an excessive workload…he died because those who were being funded to support…and I struggle to use the ‘families’ in this case…households such as this failed to take the appropriate steps to save his life.
Why? God knows…the warning signs were all there and the agencies knew and for some reason…and I suspect some misplaced sensitivities…no one put their foot down demanded to see all the children in the household and check on their welfare.
Or did you read the other article linked to in that article?
Agencies involved with Moko…
Child Youth and Family, the Auckland DHB, the Maori Women’s Welfare Refuge, the Waipahihi Kindergarten, Family Works, as well as the Rural Education Activities Programme.
But not one of them actually did their job and ensured the safety of all the children in that household.
Why? Poor training? Lack of authority? Absence of some mechanism to facilitate direct investigation and immediate intervention is there is a suspicion that a child is at risk.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11915525
“Fascist overtones”…wtf?
Such a pity that some would rather have a dead child than an authority figure step in…
Yes I read it. I also know a large number of social workers. All have great hearts, huge workloads, poor resources…
Did you miss comment 14.2?
If a child has come under the Lens of a government agency I would like to think we put resource into the education of the parent/carer while constantly ensuring the child is safe. It sounds like the Minister is appeasing someone/someones? Why?
“If ALL children are expected to be seen by Plunket, doctors etc”…
No
Good old counter propaganda
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/12/where-not-to-swim-this-summer-beaches-and-swimming-spots-too-dirty-to-swim-in.html
The article lists above 32 spots plus many more at a cautionary level.
Most I don’t know but the list includes places where I have swum as man and boy- Coes Ford on the Selwyn River, Lake Hayes and Lake Tekapo.
What a headline for a clean, green New Zealand.
No wonder a British paper described NZ as likened to a beautiful woman with cancer.
Yes we are entering a serious stage of being labeled as a dirty country now sadly, after nine years of National mishandling of our environment and national must now be blamed globally for their foolish deception of using “profit first without preservation.”
I’m glad you spotted the lack of reference as to who is to blame. You are right, of course. Nine long years……. etc.
After less than two months in office, such issues lie with other than the present government.
I am angry that such a legacy, having been handed on from the days of my youth and young manhood, is now so besmirched.
I do place great faith and hope in this Green-Labour- NZF government. So much important work to be done.
Harvey Weinstein told him not to hire two young women, so he obeyed:
The spineless “Sir” Peter Jackson slithers back into our consciousness.
You may have thought the nadir of “Sir” Peter Jackson’s career came on Q+A in 2010 when he sat, cringing and obviously uncomfortable, occasionally forcing himself to parrot the brutal anti-union rhetoric of his Warner Brothers paymasters, and then squirming uncomfortably, in a fretful silence, as Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh did all the talking.
Now it transpires he was not just a slave to Warner Brothers’ lawyers, but also to Harvey Weinstein….
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/99885932/sir-peter-jackson-breaks-silence-on-harvey-weinstein
Possibly a case of outing yourself before somebody else does.
Awe, don’t be mean Morrissey – your just jealous. Think of all the good he’s done!
A true philanthropist. A humble man who has pulled himself up by the bootstraps and put NuZull on the global stage.
I mean……Bats Theatre – think of all those poor starving actors and actorines he’s given opportunity to. The increase in property values on the Miramar Penninsular.
The lookalike Hollywood sign – truly inspirational and fostering aspiration amongst our up and coming yoof. His contribution to arts’n’kulcha makes him a true hero – the likes of which we have not seen since Sir Edmund, or Sir John, or Dame Kurry Prendisgust and sidekick Rex, and to all those hardworking people he’s given so much sprayshun to. Why the haughty soon2b Sir Krus Seatoun Heights might have to issue you with an admonishment tackling you over your obvious bitterness. (It really isn’t a good look doncha know)
And then think of all those industries he’s helped while building his reputation! The IT sector.
You do know don’t you, that Sir Peter is actually really, really down with the people and peons, and has an undying love of all the minions that have contributed to building his empire. I know people who’d be prepared to lick the pavement clean before he puts a step on it!
What’s wrong with you man!!! I suspect it’s just envy and your inability (and desire) to reach the heights of beloved SPete . How dare you judge that icon who symbolises everything that’s put NuZull on the Whurl stage (going forward).
I’m forever indebted to the humble SPete to be be able to live in the same space (Wellington and its environs).
(/sarc)
Sorry, Sir Peter, that irrefutable rundown of your inestimable goodness and humanity means that I shall now—to quote the great Tauranga M.P. Robert “Bob” Clarkson—withdraw and apologize….
http://cdn-webimages.wimages.net/0519f1e4f65e2f717231c0244a3f45de7c3e6c.jpg?v=3
You mean Bob Clarkson former MP…….the wacko, dribbling, multi-millionaire exemplar of inhumanity whose reaction in our parliament to the death of Mrs Folole Muliaga was to screechingly and repeatedly interject – “She didn’t pay her bill !” as though that was a sufficient moral explanation. Emailed him to express my disgust…….some staffer emailed back “sorry sorry”. BS. Not sorry at all. Just covering his own vileness.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/640942/Cutting-power-a-factor-in-Muliaga-death
Yes, North, the very same Bob Clarkson. That’s very interesting, to hear that he actually said something in the House. As far as I was aware, all he ever did was try to hit on young females, Trump style. Or any females, come to think of it.
In fact, I’m working on a little script involving the old goat right now. Keep your eyes peeled in the next few days, my friend….
http://walltoshare.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/1422028753417_wm.jpg
Thanks Morrissey.
As soon as I can find my crystals, I’ll pop down to Courtenay Place and kneel under that wonderful 4 legged edifice, face the Embassy Theatre, and beg your forgiveness for any offence your selfishness and envy may have caused.
We should always remember our place.
“sprayshun”
‘Larious
Morrissey
I hope you have managed to buy a house. It will probably be the biggest and most complex financial transaction you ever make. If you built it also, that is complex, but not a spot on swinging a huge financial deal and technical marvel that Sir Peter Jackson did. It is funny to hear so many criticise Sir Peter unmercifully. You are good at criticising from your keyboard and your small projects. You have no idea of the weight of mega bucks and executive decisions required to make these films in New Zealand. He may not have behaved as fairly as he should, but he shouldn’t be demonised either.
aGREED. But I’ve yet to see him atone.
A bit of a pathetic effort today in relation to Harvey W. But then we’re all so bloody perfect eh?
And that weight of megabucks must be something truly horrible to have to endure.
Jackson made some really good movies—long ago. But, as we saw when he presented as a shambling embarrassment in that Q+A debacle, he sold his conscience to Hollywood, and he is well aware of it. Save your admiration for someone who deserves it.
Morrissey has no problems acquiring property.
Harvey Weinstein told him not to hire two young women, so he obeyed:
Gosh, what a surprise – the story you refer to bears no relation to your description of it.
That’s what happened, though, is it not? He caved to Harvey Weinstein like he caved to Warner Brothers and Stephen Joyce.
Roy Moore continues to deliver gloriously nutso moments. FFS, even the White adult daycare House thinks he should have conceded by now. But no, Moore delivers a delightfully bonkers “battle rages on” statement.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/14/16777786/white-house-roy-moore-alabama-concede
Of course, Alex Jones has to take it to a whole ‘nother level.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alex-jones-roy-moore-conspiracy-theory_us_5a32a17ee4b00dbbcb5b97ec?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Then if you take one of the conspiracy theories and work out the logistics of actually making it happen …
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alabama-election-conspiracy-theory_us_5a321692e4b01bdd7659f2ce
Yep Andre. I watched the Moore video where he will fight on. I expect that a deeply religious man like him will have god on his side and therefore the votes will do a magnificent Russian flip giving Moore a 90% majority. Let us pray.
From the ‘thank god its Friday and we all deserve a laugh’ file…
Who will speak up for them now Mike is gone????
(Hankies optional)
“Mike Hosking fought for the luxury European car owner. He fought for the dispossessed of Orakei and St Heliers. He provided a voice for the wearers of distressed denim and funky blazers. Without him, Mark Richardson stands alone and lonely atop his mountain, a sole sane speaker of truth amid a sea of bloody pinko lefties.
Labour gets in here, and completely coincidentally, Hosking and Leighton are gone. You didn’t need Ken Ring around to predict a painful two years ahead for Mike.
Lots of time to be wasted, fiddling with your pen and providing sad-faced links to stories about Labour policies on doing nice things for the homeless and beneficiaries and children would have been tough when he could have been vacuuming his car or doing at-home spreads for Woman’s Day.”
More here….
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/99891844/mike-hosking-gone-time-for-european-car-drivers-to-unite
Once he takes all his Dysons home with him, what will happen to the state of the housekeeping at TVNZ?
He’ll still be on the radio, right? I mean, if he’s not around at all we’d lose Like Mike too and that really would be a loss.
I watched the programme with Mike and Miss Personality tonight from start to finish for the first time ever. What a cringeworthy load of kaka with the exception of the guys offering a serenade.
AS Mike fought back tears, I half expected John Hawkesby to come on set and tell us how thankful he was to have Mike as his sonny-bro.
What a complete load of self-indulgent crap.
Who is Miss Personality btw?
Never mind…. I just googled her. All over tomorrow’s fish and chip wrappers
Farrar has stooped to an all time low by posting an ‘anonymous letter from a reader’ casting even further aspersions on Golriz Ghahraman’s career.
What?
Were his rating falling and he had to come up with a scheme to incite the pack of racist misogynists who dwell there into a fervour of comment and click?
A truly pathetic effort there Farrar, and you call yourself an “Editor”.
Wow. Just wow.
Tories get cranky when they miss their lunch. Long may an opposition of this calibre last lol.
I did laugh. Those who bemoan lack of work ethic in others couldnt wait for lunch. Shoulda taken sammies in with them given they knew they were going to delay the hell out of proceedings.
ISTR a similar story about lunches from a mines dispute decades ago. The argument that went to court was whether the miners’ half hour lunch break should start when they left the face or when they left the pit mouth. There was much discussion about how long the workers deserved, then the judge called a break in proceedings for lunch: two hours.
It would be funny if it werent true
Tories’ attitudes to other people’s lunchtimes got even worse than that: Blackball miners sacked for refusing to accept 15-minute lunch break in 10-hour work day. Easy to picture Jami-Lee Ross or Rimmer doing the sackings then settling down to a nice long lunch break with food delivered by servants.
If you think Freudian slip, what made Laura Walters fingers say this:
National’s protestations were likely more an effort to delay the passing of the Government’s Families Package Bill, than a bout of hanger.
To me I think of those undisciplined school boys in the Gnat Party needing a ‘hanging’ judge.
Maybe they should be hung up on the tiled walls of the men’s room to cool down.
Perhaps hung from a nice pillory or, if budget constraints limit, a set of stocks outside where the public could show their feelings for them.
Yes poor Jami lee Ross the wee petal. It looks like the low wage, union busting, zero hour, employment contracts act National party doesn’t walk the talk on work ethic.
Always nice for the public to see what real hypocrites look like.
I refrained from attacking the ferrari man to much after all he is human and he toned it down a bit but one could read that he wanted to trash our Coalition Government. Did you see what happened on breakfast this morning that was when Jack mentioned someone’s career that was ________ funny I got a sore face.
I had a good day yesterday oil changed the truck got the vacuum cleaner fixed just about fix it myself the things to old to see how to open it up on youtube so I took it to Turnbuckle Electrical on Amohia st Vags they gave me excellent service Ka pai.
I’m battling one of our computers it the main one with all my business files and files on you no who I think they gave it a hand to crash Iv had help from my coder uncle I took the hard drive out put it in a external drive case I’m just scanning it at the moment because we are minimalistic I will fix the old laptop if I can load all the data on another hard drive and load Windows 10 back then reload all the data if not new computer they are cheap now. When my children were young I spent $10.000 on computers for them to play games on most of the educational games did not run my wife typed up a few letters for a friend whom had a bone to pick with a district council. But the investment payed off because we all have at least basic computer skills Thanks to my uncle influence Ka pai
When I took my computer into the computer shop and met PREBLE and Gissymo they want to keep my computer YEA RIGHT eco didn’t drop out the sky yesterday they could have said it was _____ so today it’s going again all good Ana to kai
The mokos have arrived so much for getting the paper work dune my little blue eyes is here to they keep a smile on my face Kia kaha
Have a good weekend with the whānau em 🙂