This government reminds me of the family of Chris and Crew Kahui in that if you just erect a wall of silence and stick to it, you can get away with anything.
Given the premature birth and high probability of death in the early days, close watch was kept on the mother as this situation and probable outcome can be a precursor to disassociation and non-bonding. As the twins progressed it was noted that the bonding between mother and children was not as positive as would be optimal. It was recorded that further follow up from mental services for post-natal support was recommended.
This recommendation, according to a friend who worked at MMH was never implemented, and was never mentioned at all after the death of the twins.
I have no idea about the nature of what occurred at that home – or who was culpable. The images of the room were striking in that it was a typical nursery, well organised and well-kept – exactly what you would expect for loved new additions to a family.
However, the failure of the health department to provide essential services, should make everyone aware that we must continue to lobby and advocate for an improvement in this area.
True, Molly. I also don’t know what happened in that case. What I should have said is that NAct remind me of the old patriarchal bible-bashing family, within which all sorts of abuse was hidden. I had an aunty who was the product of her father raping her sister at a young age. No one outside the family knew. That’s the sort of family I think of when Tories start wanking on about belonging to a family. It’s sick shit whether it’s pedophilia or whether it’s helping with the commission of a few war crimes.
Well, if troll like shills such as Te Reo Putake can gravitate up there is something seriously wrong in the loosely organised group of the Standard writers. God forbid if he ever becomes a moderator too. Every other writer that gravitated here over the years I could see a reason for even if I did not agree with the things he said but for me the Standard just lowered it’s Standard shockingly with that one. IMHO.
I’ve run across TRP a couple of times in person, and many times via the net. What he says is what his own opinions are.
He reflects quite a large portion of the activist left, in the same way that I do as well. We’re far less interested in ideological purity than the need of the left need to win elections. You can’t do much to improve the country or that of less affluent voters from opposition benches.
It takes time before people become learn to be good moderators, and they tend to be irritatingly constrained by our policies. The reason for that is quite clear when you look at the disaster that Bomber has made with his Goebbels style policy at The Daily Blog.
I’d also ask what that has to do with *this* post so I am moving this to Open Mike.
“..He reflects quite a large portion of the activist left, in the same way that I do as well…”
you identify as rightwing/incrementalist-labour..do you not..?
..didn’t we have nine years of that with clark..?
..and what did that get us..?
..poverty/inequality rife…environment further degraded..etc. etc…i don’t need to list it all..
..do you not see that more has to be done on these issues than was done before..?
..that the imperatives are getting louder (esp. on climate-change..) by the day..?
..so how can yet another ‘nothing for the poor/steady as she goes’ labour govt make the difference/changes needed..? (c.f. labour ’14 election-policies..)
..how is that (esp. for those hurting the most..the poorest and the environment) that much better than these tory pricks..?
..only ‘incrementally’ really…eh..?
..and with each passing day we fall further behind the rest of the world..
..in the last 24 hrs..cameron/milliband/clegg have signed a joint-pledge that no matter who wins their upcoming election..
..they will go gangbusters on fighting climate-change..
..here..we have the bloody green party giving nods/winks to the dairy-polluters..
..and an/that promising to be even more incremental than was that radical cunnliffe..(!)..labour party..
..in their policy prescriptions..
..how the hell is that going to help anyone/in any way..?
Not the least bit true, Paul. The left political party I was a member of during the Lange/Douglas years had a complicated relationship with the LP, recognising the need to get rid of the divisive and financially incompetent Muldoon Government, but being blind sided by the radical rightward turn Douglas engineered.
Blair was and is awful and it was only the unfortunate death of John Smith* that allowed him his shot. The Blairite ‘third way’ is a load of tosh and it’s great that the influence of those who promote it with the NZLP is finally waning.
I admit liking Clinton, his saxophone playing is pretty good. The politics not so much.
You know … I caught a bus yesterday, from Wellington to Te Puke, and I’ve been circulating around the environs.
Today’s little outing – Papamoa, Tauranga et al.
I know this must be many people’s idea of Nirvana (I mean where the Joyce moto’way begins and ends), but a can’t think of a better description of the area than the Benidorm of the South Pacific.
There’s even ripened old leather faced English expats trundling along in moto-assisted 3 wheelers with their pot-bellied long-suffering husbands in tow. Even the Polis force has their share. (No amount of bllody avocado or kiwfruit-infused moiseuriser is going to see them back to what they think is their former ‘beauty’.
NONE.
(I’m sure they all had their superannuation transfers sorted out before the deadlines expired).
CHRIST! UGLINESS all around – and I dont just mean ‘the examples for a case study in NZ obeisity one could pluck at every coner. You just have to look at the car parked next to you sags to its extemity as two occupants “seat” themselves before exiting the same car park.
IT’s not just that aesthetic FUGLINESS of appearance – it’s the FUGLINESS of consumerism and expansionism at work.
But I cannot comment further – because that would be expressing my prejudices based on looks – and as we know, that’s not a go! And describing the ‘feel’is a hard task.
I’ll head back to Te Puke and parts more remote – hoping that Benidorm goes bust and expansion stays put.
Actually, the best thing around here is that there is a functioning railway line where trains go by reasonably regularly. I bet some in Gizzy’s are envious. The ground shakes – but then it has reason to do so – not like the thundering FUGLINESS ground shaking greed laden human specimens I sampled when waliking down one of those Papamoa “boulevards” that shook. (admitedly it was built on sand)
Give Te Reo Putake a chance as an author. I think his first post was a worthwhile effort and provoked some good discussions.
Authoring is a very different skill to blog commenting. TRP is well known as a petty attack activist in commenting but that won’t necessarily be reflected in posting where you put yourself and your ideas out for much greater scrutiny so generally take a more reasoned and responsible approach.
Thank you, Pete. Admittedly Muldoon’s “I love you, Mr Lange” instantly popped into my head when I read your comment, but the essence of what you say is correct. I think it’s inevitable that being, ahem, authorised will change how I comment on OM and other posts and I’ll probably be a little less bombastic as a result. Probably.
Just for the record, and in case my regular sparring partners are worried, I’m not big on banning and you’re not likely to see me even attempting any kind of moderation at least until the training wheels come off. Having said that, the crap Stephanie Rodgers has put up with in recent days comes pretty close to what I would consider ban worthy.
There are many Labour people who would agree with TRP. They are classified by most as being on the left. It is therefore important to debate their positions. We do not do this by calling them troll like shills.
It’s not just the fact of these Lefties wanting to send troops to Iraq. It’s also their complete lack of any concept of what the troops are getting into (IMO it is degenerating into a sectarian civil war against the Baghdad regime), and the lack of any realistic accompanying political plan to let the Kiwis make an effective difference in the long run.
These are actually two dimensional unthinking characteristics that we often associate with right wingers.
I ask – the US and UK have bitter long experience fighting in Iraq and poured 12 years and billions into training the Iraqi Army – and the Iraqi Army ran from a lightly armed militia. What makes these ‘Lefties’ think the NZ Army (which apart from the SAS has next to no combat experience in Iraq) is going to do any better as trainers in 2 years?
And then its the sound of fucking crickets chirping.
At one point in the last week or to I recall key saying that the trainers will be safe because there are sending security forces with them ,I took that to mean the SAS would be going with them . But as our media are useless none seem to digging very deep so I could be wrong.
The SAS don’t usually get sent to do sentry duty. Any environment where you need the SAS to play a role as guards is ipso facto a very dangerous environment.
Interesting article. It’s impossible that he would ever win the Democratic primary, but there is growing anger over income inequality and feelings that the system is rigged. At the very least, him running in the Democratic Party primary would force Hillary Clinton leftwards. She has already been attempting to use more left wing rhetoric (i.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyUoCiWsTfI), but it’s obviously just rhetoric. But it’s proof she is scared of someone coming from her left in the primaries. If Bernie runs in the primaries, he will force up those issues that the neoliberal Democrats don’t want to talk about.
And lets remember that Hilary Clinton hasn’t ever been elected to sweet FA to represent voting constituents previously. Like Bill, she represents the interests of the 0.1%.
Speaking of slick Willy Clinton, I heard a tale the other week of what a hound dog he is. An American friend of mine won a state title (Arkansas) of Miss America. She was attending a function as part of her role, where she met the then Governor Bill Clinton. Cutting a long story short, later that evening Billy offers to drop her off at her hotel after her minder had taken ill and left early. Off they went in the charming Governor’s limo, on arrival at her hotel Bill insists on seeing her to her room and practically invites himself in for a coffee. Being a young and innocent girl from Hicksville she thinks it’s the least she can do. She puts the jug and excuses herself to go to the bathroom, when she comes out horror or horrors there is Slick Willy laying buck naked on her bed. In stunned disbelief she says Mr Governor I’m going to turn around and go back into the bathroom and when I come back out you better be gone, which he was. They met on numerous other occasions and never a word said.
Hooton my old China where have ya been, I had directed some questions about SkyCity to you over the last few days.
How is the mandarin lessons going?
You can tell your iwi group they were a bit stiff not getting the tender reopened for their proposed Waterfront convention centre. I must say you gave it a very good crack. Anyway on the bright side you’re probably done enough to get the nod as the new ACT party President when that comes up.
“And lets remember that Hilary Clinton hasn’t ever been elected to sweet FA to represent voting constituents previously”.
Really? I thought that, in the universe I inhabit, she was elected by the people of New York State to the United States Senate in 2000 and re-elected in 2006.
New York may not be the largest state anymore but it still has a population of nearly 20 million people.
It also seems a bit extreme to describe the job as being “sweet FA”
Still perhaps you inhabit a parallel universe where these elections never took place.
ps. Bugger. While I was composing this Hooton responded with the same information.
Sanders may have been a socialist back in the 80s when he was Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, but he’s more of a hawkish liberal Democrat these days. While he remains admirably progressive on most domestic social issues, he’s unfortunately backed all of Obama’s nasty little wars in the Middle East, never opposes increased Defence spending, always has an eye on lucrative US military contracts and the jobs they bring to Vermont.
He’s also a chum of AIPAC and Israeli Governments of all stripes, never questions the unconditional financial and diplomatic support the US gives to Israel’s occupation and ethnic-cleansing and can usually be relied upon to support the never-ending pro-Israeli resolutions in the Senate.
Yeah but unfortunately that’s about as good as we can get in the US of A nowadays. He does speak strongly against the 1% and the 0.1%. But he has to get his campaign funds from somewhere…
Canterbury growers have struck another roadblock for growing hemp seed as authorities remain uneasy about its closeness to its drug cousin.
Health ministers from New Zealand and Australia met in Auckland last month to consider a recommendation from Food Standards Australia New Zealand that governments change the food law to enable hemp seed to be grown for human consumption.
Grower hopes hemp growing would be made more freely available to them were dashed when this was rejected because of transport concerns.
Hemp has very very low THC – you’d hijack a seed truck of hemp ummm to grow more hemp not to get high.
and one the best reasons for allowing hemp is that you cannot grow the cousins together – your dope gets wasted.
Hemp is really a wonder plant and would provide many opportunities as it did in the past.
Hemp (from Old English hænep) is a commonly used term for high-growing varieties of the Cannabis plant and its products, which include fiber, oil, and seed. Hemp is refined into products such as hemp seed foods, hemp oil, wax, resin, rope, cloth, pulp, paper, and fuel.
Marty, I just had a conversation two days ago with someone who was part of the Hemp Association of NZ for many years. He said that they sometimes travelled with Nandor Tanczos to maraes trying to inform and persuade the elders to consider this as a sustainable crop.
He was saying that they were really disappointed with the Nandor’s advocacy for legalisation of marijuana because after seeing the reaction on the maraes – they considered it a step too far too soon.
There is a recent documentary that can be purchased on the historical use, the benefits and sustainability of hemp crops.
The trailer is worth looking at if anyone is interested.
A more tikanga centric cash crop for Māori is harakeke, not hemp. Harakeke has equally admirable qualities and benefits. Its relatively easy to grow and has a multitude of good uses.
A big plus is that it will never be mistaken for cannabis proper and smoked. Should the ridiculous happen, it has a laxative effect.
Yes, have been wondering about cropping harakeke for some time. The last old style mill was down Southland I think and still operating until recently-ish. Some parts of our land grow harakeke like, well, they have been growing here for millions of years…
We have a bunch of them in a garden and they punch out screeds of seeds easily and consistently, and that’s just one of their uses.
Yes, I believe that Riverton may still have a working harakeke mill. It is as versatile as hemp. There was work done some time ago on developing a commercial fabric industry using harakeke.
From my understanding a variety of harakeke has been patented as the most ideal variety for creating cloth.
I am rather excited about the prospect of making paper from harakeke for an art project I am involved with. Should be fun although I am a wee bit concerned about the caustic soda thing. I can be a wee bit clumsy.
If I start typing nice things, you will know that I’ve burnt my hands off and now have a ghost writer
Hemp, has a multitude of uses: construction, materials, regeneration of land, food – including providing essential Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils in a way readily assimilated by the body. It is also fast growing, cropping in just over 3 months, and requiring no external fertilisers or pesticides – entirely in keeping with kaitiakitanga principles.
I’m not a cannabis user – though I agree with philure’s comments regarding decriminalisation – but when I looked into hemp, as an easy to grow, harvest and utilise, this crop has a lot going for it.
Regarding the maraes, the impression I got from the person I was talking to was that they could not separate in their heads the difference between industrial hemp and cannabis, and that was why they had no traction. There also may have been the possibility that because of that general association, the marae would be loathe to get the label of supporting pot use. Which is understandable.
So, that opportunity was not taken by those Maori who were offered it, and begins to get picked up by others interested in sustainable farming, and customers interested in great organic products.
Firstly, Harakeke would be considered more in keeping with a sustainable ethic for Maori than hemp. Indigenous people using an indigenous plant. Hemp is an imported species.
Secondly, Maori and Marae have a fairly sophisticated understanding on the use, growing and dealing in cannabis. It’s more common in some communities than wine. Who do you think grow most of the supply in New Zealand?
I think Marae are being quite sensible because they obviously know how mischevious their rangatahi can be.
I have little knowledge of marae based protocol so I accept your assertion.
But you still make the assumption that industrial hemp and cannabis are the same in terms of drug use. They are not.
Hemp also provides great food supplements and benefits, which is an easier market to approach rather than high end materials. (As well as building materials. I know MIT in Auckland many years ago was investigated harakeke as a component of earth building, but I never heard how that worked out, and never heard about it again.)
If the plant was not connected with cannabis in any way, and was shown to be regenerative of land, able to be cropped three or four times a year, requiring little or no chemical applications, and able to be used for foodstuffs, materials, building materials etc – wouldn’t you at least be open to finding out more?
I know the difference between industrial hemp and cannabis. I have even visited the hemp store in Auckland.
Māori have used harakeke mai rānō. For centuries we have used harakeke to bind, to build, to catch, to clothe, and to heal.
I would rather advocate the industrial use of harakeke than hemp. In fact, I would go so far as to say to Marae – “forget hemp, grow harakeke instead.”
By growing harakeke, the security issues would be non existent: no high fences; or regular drug testing on plant or people required; no need to grow in remote areas away from population centres. With harakeke, the compliance regime would be way less involved, intensive, or expensive. Most importantly, our people will be able to work all facets of the industry and not be banned because of criminal or drug convictions.
I’m not an advocate for one crop being “better than” another. Just that hemp is another choice that could deliver.
” In fact, I would go so far as to say to Marae – “forget hemp, grow harakeke instead.””.
Despite understanding the valid reasons for your aversion – if a marae did choose to try hemp – why would you persuade them otherwise?
That seems disrespectful to me, and negates any benefits that occur, especially those that come from the attempt even if successful outcomes are not achieved. I’m assuming a decision has been made after discussions and there are enthusiastic people who are prepared to commit time and effort into making it work. Why would you say to them – that their choices and enthusiasms are not valued?
(If any progression on the decriminalisation of marijuana is achieved, then some of your concerns would be addressed.)
That said, would like to see the maraes thrive in any sustainable way, and if that comes via harakeke – all well and good.
“Despite understanding the valid reasons for your aversion – if a marae did choose to try hemp – why would you persuade them otherwise?
What’s so disrespectful about reminding Marae of the values we espouse as Māori? Indigenous peoples and their environments are not separate entities.
What is more disrespectful is to pursue a sustainability model that neglects to sustain the people who whakapapa to the whenua. Marae are meant to be the bastions of Te Ao Māori, not a gateway to its assimilation.
All things being equal, if Māori had to choose between harakeke and hemp. I am fairly sure most would choose harakeke.
“What’s so disrespectful about reminding Marae of the values we espouse as Māori? Indigenous peoples and their environments are not separate entities. “
I don’t believe it is disrespectful to be part of a community discussion and put your point forward – I do think it is disrespectful to criticise afterwards a consensus decision.
“All things being equal, if Māori had to choose between harakeke and hemp. I am fairly sure most would choose harakeke.”
I am suburban Māori, and this kind of blanket dismissal of the values and interests that my life have provided to me so far, is the reason that I have found no comfortable place to be in Te Ao Māori.
Which I am trying to belatedly remedy.
But the disconnect between the kaitiakitanga of Te Ao Māori, and the groundswell movement for sustainability is one that I find difficult to comprehend. The worldview of Māori, is as you have stated, one of balance and harmony. The sustainability movement is similar. My exposure and experience to date has been with the sustainability movement, perhaps this will change as I progress in learning more about Te Ao Māori.
I appreciate the time you have taken for this conversation.
“Growing hemp and marijuana together isn’t an option. By doing that you get cross pollination which leaves both plants infertile. When they cross pollinate you loose the buds of the flowers and the seeds.”
I don’t think it’s as clear cut as that. Over successive generations you would get lessening of the value of the THC crop, but at first there would be a decrease in THC in the MJ plant and and increase in the Hemp. It’s unclear to what extent that would still be enough THC in the plants to give a high. It might not be enough for big growers to bother, but it probably does present some problems for lawmakers in that the plants both now contain enough THC to be an illegal drug.
I haven’t heard the argument against from the authorities point of view, but I’m guessing that ‘growers won’t bother’ isn’t sufficient for them.
I read an article some time back that asserted that one of the major backers of making hemp illegal was the cotton growers. Apparently hemp cloth can be finer and stronger than cotton while also being cheaper because it’s so easy to grow and grows so fast.
And Dow etc as cotton requires lots of pesticides so good for them whereas hemp very little if any so cue reefer madness etc after WW2 as hemp was in large scale production for rope, fabric etc and needed to be discredited.
It also has a fine paper market that last time I looked couldn’t get enough as demand exceeded supply.
Can’t remember the documentary, but oil and chemical companies did have a major role to play in the “reefer madness” propanganda after the war, along with the cotton growers.
As an experiement for the last couple of years have been growing chia seeds in the garden. I have harvested the seeds (which cost a fair bit in the supermarket) but also grow them as pollinators as they provide for the bees. They grow fast, survive without very much water, and have a very strong stalk. The seeds have a very good Omega 3 and Omega 6 content.
Because of this thread I’ve just googled the plant, and found out it is part of the same family.
Scene- A well appointed lounge in the penthouse office of an undisclosed metropolitan eyesore. A gentle levity fills the air as glasses clink and cheques cashed are fondly remembered. There is an urgent knocking at the door.
X- Who is it?
JK- It’s me, John
X- ( under the breath -okay ) Come in John.
JK- Hi guys, really sorry to interrupt you all, but I think we have a bit of a problem!
X- What happened this time? Drop your handicap ? (guffaws and back-slaps ensue)
JK- No, Really, we have a big problem.
X- Ok John, just move those files and sit down
NOT THOSE ! that’s [redacted]’s pile
JK- Oh, I didn’t see it
X- Well, that’s what you pay us for. So tell us, What’s the matter buddy?
JK- I was just updating my facebook page, letting all my fans know how super awesome my summer hol’s were, when I saw a post about people asking to be unfriended if any of their friends think Zero Hour contracts are a fair and reasonable idea.
X- So… ?? … look, we’ll fake you up some new friends.
JK- No, no, it’s not that, no, well Yes! thanks!! That would be great!!
Maybe you don’t understand what I’m saying, Zero Hour contracts!!!
X- Yeah ! Aren’t they just the answer to every bosses’ prayers?
JK- No you fools! They are a huge problem.
X- How so?
JK- We state repeatedly how we use the Household Labour Force Survey to gauge the levels of employment in New Zealand. Right?
X- yes.., with you so far….
JK- That survey uses a benchmark of one hour of paid work a week for a job to qualify as employment. Right?
X- Yes it does and it is a beautiful thing. (high fives for all) The journos lap it up.
JK- That’s the problem… How are we going to sell the employment figures when thousands of jobs are shifting to Zero Hour contracts?
X- Oh! fuck
JK- yeah. exactly.
X- It will be fine John. You’ve got the new war, the flag, the cricket world cup is good for a few more weeks. There is that whole Centenary thing coming up. Wall to wall photo ops -no one will even notice.
JK- Ok guys, if you say so. Bit of a relief to be honest. Now have you had any ideas about fixing this mess with Sky City ?
Stuff prints propaganda from Reuters: No alternative to bulk data collection
These are utter lies. Firstly, the NSA (and therefore the NZ services) are collecting and have access to all content passing on the internet, in addition to the very critical and important associated metadata. The metadata is crucial for searching and indexing the sea of content they are collecting on everyone.
Secondly, Bill Binney has explained in detail how peoples privacy can be completely protected by automatically encrypting everyone’s identities during the collection process, and only decrypting the identities of those people who are suspects, via court warrant. That is the system he designed, and the protections that the NSA stripped out of his programme.
I’m not a gambler but I thought it would be topical to have a punt on how much Joyce is going to give to Sky City today.
They were never going to put in $140m. My guess is they threw out a number and waited for the focus group results to come in before making an announcement for much lesser figure.
$140m is a number picked so that it looks like the govt. is on our side when they manage to negotiate it down to what will now be spun as a “better deal”. Hey, they are working for New Zealand, right?
As we have seen, the public reaction has been severe, and even National’s perennial and faithful lapdogs have growled (a little bit), so my punt is on 1/3 of the original figure announced, rounded down to:
Morrissey recently made mention of those honourable politicians in the west (often, it has to be said, of the independent Left) who speak truth to power.
Here’s a brilliant (and highly amusing) example from a couple of years ago. Clare Daly, Left-wing MP for Dublin North, takes on the Irish PM and Irish MSM for their horrendous brown-nosing of Obama during his visit there…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF5PChW5WDY
A few excerpts…
“The almost unprecedented slobbering over (Obama and wife Michelle) that the nation has been exposed to over the last number of days. And it’s really hard to know which is worse – whether it’s the outpourings of the Obamas themselves or the sycophantic fawning over them by sections of the media and the political establishment”
…….And, of course, the biggest irony of all – the professtations of Obama himself in is speech to children in Northern Ireland about peace…Now I ask you, is this person going for the hypocrite of the century award ? … By any serious examination this man is a War Criminal….
(to the Taoiseach) But is it not a reality that you have showcased us as a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head. To be honest with ya, we were really speculating this morning whether you were going to deck the Cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of stars and stripes to really mark our abject humiliation here.”
The organisation which runs Mt Hobson, Villa Education Trust, is also facing fresh controversy over another of its schools, West Auckland Middle School.
Regan Bennett’s family say the 14-year-old suffers from epilepsy and has been assessed as requiring Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding for his education.
The government funding is hard to get and is available only for the highest needs students. The ministry paid more than $4000 to the school for extra help for Regan.
But in the first term Regan received a maximum of 30 hours’ teacher aide support and no one-on-one teacher time as stipulated by the ministry, his family said.
A large amount of that teacher aide time was used during school swimming lessons.
The school said it had discussed the teacher aide resourcing with Regan’s mother who was in full agreement. The school believed it would be “educationally detrimental” to have a teacher aide in the traditional morning classes as it would act as a barrier between the student and the teacher.
ACT MP David Seymour, under-secretary to Education Minister Hekia Parata, said the issues surrounding Haggett were not an indictment on the partnership school policy.
Compared with village idiot Cameron Slater, I guess David Farrar might look almost infellectual. But here’s an interesting piece, actually published nearly three years ago, about how prejudice is a core part of Farrar’s view of the world. His ‘explanation’ of the economic meltdown in Greece is that Greeks have a “CBF attitude” to life.
The poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti used the phrase “Totalitarian Democracy” in a poem that ends with the lines, “The last lament for lost democracy,/ The total triumph of/ totalitarian plutocracy.”
In the 1960s, Herbert Marcuse argued that the “free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves,” and that even liberty itself “could be made into a powerful instrument of domination.” The term he coined to describe the phenomenon was “repressive tolerance.”
Describes precisely where our democracy is today – owned by the 1%.
The Times said it received an advance copy of an upcoming report by Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab that details how banks in Russia, Japan, the United States, and other countries fell victim to malware starting in late 2013 that allowed the hackers to watch video feeds, view daily operations, and impersonate bank officials.
The malware apparently allowed the hackers to transfer money from the banks to fake accounts. According to the Times, Kaspersky Lab said the total theft could be more than $300 million, although the cybersecurity firm has not nailed down an exact figure. Each transaction was limited to $10 million and some banks were hit more than once, according to the publication.
And as the NSA has been systematically weakening internet, network and computer systems security for their own intrusion purposes, they have been making the whole environment more vulnerable to hackers than ever before.
Good to see that Porirua City Council Mayor Nick Leggett came out on 10 February 2015, against the Hutt and Wairarapa being ‘bullied’ into the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’ proposed amalgamation.
Of course, this should help effectively sink the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity Titanic’, because, as I understand it, for the Draft Wellington Reorganisation Proposal to go ahead, there must be ‘demonstrable community support’ across each one of the ‘Territorial Authorities’ (TAs).
If there is ‘demonstrable’ community OPPOSITION from 5 out of 9 of the TAs
– Hutt CC, Upper Hutt CC, South Wairarapa DC, Carterton DC and Masterton DC (for starters) – then – in my considered opinion, the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’ will be stuffed.
Good job.
Who on earth would want an effective corporate takeover – as we have experienced under the Auckland ‘Supercity’ (for the 1%), happen anywhere else in NZ?
‘Economies of scale’ and greater (business) opportunities for investors, BIG business, property developers, speculators and financial interests?
A bigger ‘public trough’ for fewer but bigger ‘private snouts’?
BEWARE folks from the Wellington region!
The public focus is on ‘governance’ – but behind the scenes ( as in Auckland) the corporate focus is on ‘infrastructure’.
The mechanism is through CCOs – which are hardly being mentioned by either the Local Government Commission (LGC) or those people or organisations which purportedly want ‘Better’.
John Key and Steven Joyce have stood up to Sky City and made them keep the written contract to build the convention centre. I was correct as always and not a single cent of taxpayer money will be spent on the Auckland convention centre. This is huge win for the Government and people of New Zealand. Glad you can all celebrate.
On the contrary, this episode has made the Govt look weak and indecisive. It should not have dragged on for this long. How hard was it for National simply to say No!
not so much that as key pushing for that massive handout..
..i wonder if sy-citys’ value will slump by the $77 million it jumped when ‘the market’/shareholders thought they were going to be pocketing that serious wedge of money..
..(i mean..john key promised them..it’s not fair..!..)
No that’s a lose by Key & Joyce and simply not good enough, in Key’s own words Aucklanders do not want a cheap eye sore. The country agrees with him we want SkyCity to spend an extra 130 million dollars so we get an international quality convention centre, not some ugly eyesore that blights the Auckland sky line. Mike Hosking is all for the extra spend also.
Troubled child you are Fizzy, as always ! Key, Joyce, SkyCity sing in unison from one of several, long prepared song sheets. This one marked “Contingency Plan In Case We Get Busted”.
But good news. The ultimate heist has failed…….not to say the concept wasn’t a heist from the start…….not to say our prime minister hasn’t in the round-up handed fat extra money to SkyCity.
There’s gonna be an ugly concrete cube in the CBD which forever’ll be known as “Key’sEyeSore”. That’ll go down great in international convention centre marketing now won’t it ? Waipuna Lodge must be heartened !
I guess it will be a team effort to turn what is a big hit on key into key being such a competent poly he’s saved nz 130 mil, so its better to have it being front footed buy there mates in the TPU so they can control the story
“The Crown has also indicated today that it may be prepared to accept slightly smaller NZICC if that is required to meet the agreed total construction cost,” Mr Joyce said.
But no reduction in the number of pokies they will be allowed, presumably. So the citizens of NZ still lose and the house wins.
Commonly known as ‘PRODUCT SIZE REDUCTION’ or in corporate jargon its called sweating the asset.
OK so how many pokie machines and gambling tables did lead snake oil salesman Stephen Joyce negotiate will be taken off the deal. Let’s hear the idiot media ask that question of him.
Excellent result for the Government over Sky City. No matter how much the Left try to spin this it will be seen as a victory for John Key. Read it in the history books.
When asked what about the eyesore on Auckland’s sky line Key will mutter something
that makes no sense
. When the media ask Morrison the silver tongued Aussie SkyCity boss, he will be struggling to contain himself from crying with laughter and reply;
“It’s not like a convention centre the size of a shoe box is going to be a blight on anyone’s sky line, say for Mr & Mrs Sewer Rat….God I love doing business with you Kiwi’s.”
You are seriously claiming that Auckland and the people of New Zealand do not want 800 jobs and a $49,000,000 economic boost. That’s some powerful stuff you’re smoking.
No reputable international organisation would want to hold a conference at a bloody casino, what send their delegates off to a gambling den only to come back
a gambling addict. New Zealand will become a laughing stock. The only conference will be the National Party ones.
Exactly, this is just a big party centre for NACTUM piss ups. Not a nice venue for the people of Auckland to enjoy, like a library or a pool.
Key was played for a fool again, just like the Hobbit deal with WB. The taxpaying public did not vote for this shit while we have a housing crisis, rampant inequality, and Christchurch in ruins.
And now the public will shell out to fund a new HQ for TVNZ. The Keymaster has shafted us again.
That would be, maybe, 200 jobs, an ongoing loss to the country as the government guarantees SkyCity’s profits and ever more social damage due to gambling addiction. Yeah, I’m sure that NZers don’t want it.
These lefties are just bitter that Key was able to keep his promise that no tax payers money would be used.
People on welfare don’t care about more jobs.
Missed most of this discussion but it occurred to me that the jubilation around the country can now be interpreted that we now support the Convention Centre and its pokies.
We won but we still lose and Key can claim that he listens to the people. Huh!
Yes, but I find it quite odd and am uncomfortable with a national convention centre being so closely associated with the unsavoury business of gambling.
I assume a lot of the business this Sky City convention centre will be in hosting foreign delegates and here we are shoving floors and floors of gambling at them as their first experience of the country.
I was roundly abused for pointing out that John Key never insisted we pay a cent. Hysterical over reaction from the poster as usual. The sky is falling said Chicken Little.
Next time you leave the rock you live under remember to put on a sun hat on, you’re really fried that pea brain of yours today. I refreshed my memory by reading that link.
All I could make of your ramblings was you swinging your undies in the air cheerleadering for Key, oh and reinventing yourself as a litigation lawyer.
Tough times being in coalition with the Brit RW during times of depression. (A Guardian piece about past politics.)
[Ramsay] MacDonald, still reviled in some leftwing circles as a class traitor, was abandoned by most of his Labour colleagues and by the Liberals, when as Labour prime minister in 1931 he accepted George V’s invitation to head a coalition government with the Tories during the economic slump.
Home Office files [released today at the National Archives at Kew] show that in office he became powerless even to insist on the just treatment of the communist leaders of the hunger marches – though some of them had been close colleagues in the founding years of the Labour party….
…Home Office files… show that MacDonald was “broken-hearted” over his failure to secure the release of the veteran trade union agitator Tom Mann, a leader of the 1889 “great dock strike” and a founder of the Transport and General Workers’ Union.
The first marches took place in 1927, and Churchill, then chancellor, told the home secretary he was concerned that those taking part were getting into “a very distressed condition” and thought their arrival in London, “footsore and hungry,” would create a difficult situation. He wanted them intercepted while some distance from London, “treated decently and tactfully, but turned back somehow or other”.
The Home Office was apparently not very interested, regarding them more as figures of farce than dangerous revolutionaries. MI5 reports said the Lancashire group had proved the most difficult: they had demanded hotpot when they reached Manchester and had to be dispersed with a hose.
…But as unemployment mounted and the marches became a regular feature in British life, attitudes hardened. In the winter of 1932 the biggest of the hunger marches ended in a 200,000-strong demonstration in Trafalgar Square and brutal clashes with the police, and the leaders of the NUWM were arrested, including Tom Mann, 76. http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/oct/20/past.politics
Could NZ summon a proportionate number of protesters? And how would we be treated by the majesty of government. Tasered? Shot at? If UNACTS took off their masks the Dorian Gray personas would be nasty.
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Helwig, Associate Professor, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland SmartS/Shutterstock Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Victims who experience family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are treated differently, depending on which part of the justice system they turn to for help. But a new member’s bill ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Tesch, Visiting Fellow at the ANU Centre for European Studies, Australian National University In perhaps the least surprising news of the year, Vladimir Putin has triumphed at the Russian ballot box and been enthroned for the fifth time as president. He ...
The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court has stopped a byelection for the Madang Open seat being held until an appeal filed by former MP Bryan Kramer is concluded. Kramer had appealed to the Supreme Court over a National Court decision not to review his application of the Leadership Tribunal decision ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Despite a “historic” ceasefire agreement in Papua New Guinea between Enga authorities and tribal leaders after months of bitter warfare, a young woman has been found brutally killed near Kaekin village, Wapenamanda. Despite the peace agreement and signing concluded in Port Moresby last Thursday ...
The second season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud is a sadder and slower entry into his canon of true story-telling, leaning heavily on a verdict about the cost of a single work of art. Hollywood heavyweight Ryan Murphy has had a bit of “ick” about him in the last few years. ...
Are you deeply passionate about sharing Māori stories? We’re on the hunt for an experienced writer/editor to lead coverage in our Ātea section.Ātea is a deeply valued section of The Spinoff site, offering Māori perspectives and insights across politics, current affairs and culture. We are thrilled to be looking ...
By Aisha Azeemah in Suva With the lights on one of his sneakers blinking as he ran through the gallery, a little boy looked up at several works of art. One of them was a sculpture of his grandfather: the man who changed how we see the Pacific — Epeli ...
WHAT: Uber drivers are holding a rally outside the Court of Appeal in Wellington tomorrow, as the company begins its appeal against 2022’s Employment Court verdict (in a case taken jointly by FIRST Union and E tū) that four drivers were permanent ...
RNZ Pacific The Fiji Meteorological Service has a heavy rain warning still in place for the whole of the country after a weekend of flooding, although some floodwaters have receded. Flood and flash flood warnings and alerts are also in place, including a warning for all flash flood-prone areas, small ...
Responding to Grant Robertson’s recent admission on a Q+A with Jack Tame that his only regret from his time in office was that he didn’t take on more debt, Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson, Alex Murphy, said: “Grant Robertson has now admitted that he ...
Can I believe my eyes? Rodney (Perkbuster) Hide in todays Herald:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/Rodney-Hide/news/headlines.cfm?a_id=978
This government reminds me of the family of Chris and Crew Kahui in that if you just erect a wall of silence and stick to it, you can get away with anything.
does anyone else notice keys’ lying-‘tells’..?
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/states-consider-increasing-taxes-for-the-poor-and-cutting-them-for-the-affluent-comment-how-to-tell-when-john-key-is-lying/
To me I can tell he’s lying if lips are moving.
“Hello,” he lied.
Very much so. NAct is a dysfunctional family, protecting abusers.
And just like what should of been done in the kahui case, the screws should be tightened until someone cracks .
Interesting backstory to the Kahui twins.
Given the premature birth and high probability of death in the early days, close watch was kept on the mother as this situation and probable outcome can be a precursor to disassociation and non-bonding. As the twins progressed it was noted that the bonding between mother and children was not as positive as would be optimal. It was recorded that further follow up from mental services for post-natal support was recommended.
This recommendation, according to a friend who worked at MMH was never implemented, and was never mentioned at all after the death of the twins.
I have no idea about the nature of what occurred at that home – or who was culpable. The images of the room were striking in that it was a typical nursery, well organised and well-kept – exactly what you would expect for loved new additions to a family.
However, the failure of the health department to provide essential services, should make everyone aware that we must continue to lobby and advocate for an improvement in this area.
True, Molly. I also don’t know what happened in that case. What I should have said is that NAct remind me of the old patriarchal bible-bashing family, within which all sorts of abuse was hidden. I had an aunty who was the product of her father raping her sister at a young age. No one outside the family knew. That’s the sort of family I think of when Tories start wanking on about belonging to a family. It’s sick shit whether it’s pedophilia or whether it’s helping with the commission of a few war crimes.
i think it is the first time i have linked to hide..
..and he doesn’t hold back..
..and in fact – is saying things keys’ opposition should be saying..
..but don’t (yet?) seem to be..
Well, if troll like shills such as Te Reo Putake can gravitate up there is something seriously wrong in the loosely organised group of the Standard writers. God forbid if he ever becomes a moderator too. Every other writer that gravitated here over the years I could see a reason for even if I did not agree with the things he said but for me the Standard just lowered it’s Standard shockingly with that one. IMHO.
I’ve run across TRP a couple of times in person, and many times via the net. What he says is what his own opinions are.
He reflects quite a large portion of the activist left, in the same way that I do as well. We’re far less interested in ideological purity than the need of the left need to win elections. You can’t do much to improve the country or that of less affluent voters from opposition benches.
It takes time before people become learn to be good moderators, and they tend to be irritatingly constrained by our policies. The reason for that is quite clear when you look at the disaster that Bomber has made with his Goebbels style policy at The Daily Blog.
I’d also ask what that has to do with *this* post so I am moving this to Open Mike.
“..He reflects quite a large portion of the activist left, in the same way that I do as well…”
you identify as rightwing/incrementalist-labour..do you not..?
..didn’t we have nine years of that with clark..?
..and what did that get us..?
..poverty/inequality rife…environment further degraded..etc. etc…i don’t need to list it all..
..do you not see that more has to be done on these issues than was done before..?
..that the imperatives are getting louder (esp. on climate-change..) by the day..?
..so how can yet another ‘nothing for the poor/steady as she goes’ labour govt make the difference/changes needed..? (c.f. labour ’14 election-policies..)
..how is that (esp. for those hurting the most..the poorest and the environment) that much better than these tory pricks..?
..only ‘incrementally’ really…eh..?
..and with each passing day we fall further behind the rest of the world..
..in the last 24 hrs..cameron/milliband/clegg have signed a joint-pledge that no matter who wins their upcoming election..
..they will go gangbusters on fighting climate-change..
..here..we have the bloody green party giving nods/winks to the dairy-polluters..
..and an/that promising to be even more incremental than was that radical cunnliffe..(!)..labour party..
..in their policy prescriptions..
..how the hell is that going to help anyone/in any way..?
what is the value of victory..
..if you then do nothing with it..?
..except trying to stave off the other side getting their turn..
..for a long as possible..?
..as clark did..as key does..
‘He reflects quite a large portion of the activist left’
You mean the left that believed the nonsense that Roger Douglas, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.
FIFY.
Not the least bit true, Paul. The left political party I was a member of during the Lange/Douglas years had a complicated relationship with the LP, recognising the need to get rid of the divisive and financially incompetent Muldoon Government, but being blind sided by the radical rightward turn Douglas engineered.
Blair was and is awful and it was only the unfortunate death of John Smith* that allowed him his shot. The Blairite ‘third way’ is a load of tosh and it’s great that the influence of those who promote it with the NZLP is finally waning.
I admit liking Clinton, his saxophone playing is pretty good. The politics not so much.
* http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/12/john-smith-labour-britain-prime-minister
Yep @ Paul – that very same ‘Left’.
You know … I caught a bus yesterday, from Wellington to Te Puke, and I’ve been circulating around the environs.
Today’s little outing – Papamoa, Tauranga et al.
I know this must be many people’s idea of Nirvana (I mean where the Joyce moto’way begins and ends), but a can’t think of a better description of the area than the Benidorm of the South Pacific.
There’s even ripened old leather faced English expats trundling along in moto-assisted 3 wheelers with their pot-bellied long-suffering husbands in tow. Even the Polis force has their share. (No amount of bllody avocado or kiwfruit-infused moiseuriser is going to see them back to what they think is their former ‘beauty’.
NONE.
(I’m sure they all had their superannuation transfers sorted out before the deadlines expired).
CHRIST! UGLINESS all around – and I dont just mean ‘the examples for a case study in NZ obeisity one could pluck at every coner. You just have to look at the car parked next to you sags to its extemity as two occupants “seat” themselves before exiting the same car park.
IT’s not just that aesthetic FUGLINESS of appearance – it’s the FUGLINESS of consumerism and expansionism at work.
But I cannot comment further – because that would be expressing my prejudices based on looks – and as we know, that’s not a go! And describing the ‘feel’is a hard task.
I’ll head back to Te Puke and parts more remote – hoping that Benidorm goes bust and expansion stays put.
Actually, the best thing around here is that there is a functioning railway line where trains go by reasonably regularly. I bet some in Gizzy’s are envious. The ground shakes – but then it has reason to do so – not like the thundering FUGLINESS ground shaking greed laden human specimens I sampled when waliking down one of those Papamoa “boulevards” that shook. (admitedly it was built on sand)
Give Te Reo Putake a chance as an author. I think his first post was a worthwhile effort and provoked some good discussions.
Authoring is a very different skill to blog commenting. TRP is well known as a petty attack activist in commenting but that won’t necessarily be reflected in posting where you put yourself and your ideas out for much greater scrutiny so generally take a more reasoned and responsible approach.
no doubt he will be cheered by yr support..
..what is known in some quarters (fact-checking?..anyone..?..)..
..as the beige-kiss-of-death..
forked-tongue-of-death?
Thank you, Pete. Admittedly Muldoon’s “I love you, Mr Lange” instantly popped into my head when I read your comment, but the essence of what you say is correct. I think it’s inevitable that being, ahem, authorised will change how I comment on OM and other posts and I’ll probably be a little less bombastic as a result. Probably.
Just for the record, and in case my regular sparring partners are worried, I’m not big on banning and you’re not likely to see me even attempting any kind of moderation at least until the training wheels come off. Having said that, the crap Stephanie Rodgers has put up with in recent days comes pretty close to what I would consider ban worthy.
that was a fast u-turn..
in that second paragraph..
..from ‘not big on banning’ to ‘i wd have banned yesterday’..
..whoar..!
..that was an awfully quick power-corrupts…eh..?
..you wanna be more stringent than the self-admitted ‘more stringent’ moderator..?..(!)
..double-whoar..!
..two sentences is a long time in moderating..eh..?
..and..who wd u have banned yesterday..?
Read it again, Phil. Slowly this time.
“…who wd u have banned yesterday..?..”
..and for why..?
Nobody. Read the comment again.
i have..
“.. the crap Stephanie Rodgers has put up with in recent days comes pretty close to what I would consider ban worthy…”
what ‘crap’..?
..and who from..?
..was ‘considered ban worthy’..?
..and for why..?
Take some modern spiritual guidance, Phil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg
a good clip..
..but i still feel an answer is deserved to the questions in response to what you said..
..esp. as you have moderator-ambitions..eh..?
There are many Labour people who would agree with TRP. They are classified by most as being on the left. It is therefore important to debate their positions. We do not do this by calling them troll like shills.
It’s not just the fact of these Lefties wanting to send troops to Iraq. It’s also their complete lack of any concept of what the troops are getting into (IMO it is degenerating into a sectarian civil war against the Baghdad regime), and the lack of any realistic accompanying political plan to let the Kiwis make an effective difference in the long run.
These are actually two dimensional unthinking characteristics that we often associate with right wingers.
I ask – the US and UK have bitter long experience fighting in Iraq and poured 12 years and billions into training the Iraqi Army – and the Iraqi Army ran from a lightly armed militia. What makes these ‘Lefties’ think the NZ Army (which apart from the SAS has next to no combat experience in Iraq) is going to do any better as trainers in 2 years?
And then its the sound of fucking crickets chirping.
At one point in the last week or to I recall key saying that the trainers will be safe because there are sending security forces with them ,I took that to mean the SAS would be going with them . But as our media are useless none seem to digging very deep so I could be wrong.
The SAS don’t usually get sent to do sentry duty. Any environment where you need the SAS to play a role as guards is ipso facto a very dangerous environment.
That would be all of Iraq ” a very dangerous environment.” And the surrounds .
How many trainers have been killed by the trainees in the last 10 years
that ‘right’ in labour also fully supports giving the poorest s.f.a..
(c.f. labour election-policies ’14..)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7D6bx8j4d-Y
If you need a laugh early Sunday morning this is from 2011
Bernie Sanders, independent Democratic Socialist US Senator, may try to run for President on the Democratic ticket.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/232706-bernie-sanders-for-president-really
Interesting article. It’s impossible that he would ever win the Democratic primary, but there is growing anger over income inequality and feelings that the system is rigged. At the very least, him running in the Democratic Party primary would force Hillary Clinton leftwards. She has already been attempting to use more left wing rhetoric (i.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyUoCiWsTfI), but it’s obviously just rhetoric. But it’s proof she is scared of someone coming from her left in the primaries. If Bernie runs in the primaries, he will force up those issues that the neoliberal Democrats don’t want to talk about.
Edit: btw, here is a link to Bernie’s agenda: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/an-economic-agenda-for-am_b_6249022.html
And lets remember that Hilary Clinton hasn’t ever been elected to sweet FA to represent voting constituents previously. Like Bill, she represents the interests of the 0.1%.
Speaking of slick Willy Clinton, I heard a tale the other week of what a hound dog he is. An American friend of mine won a state title (Arkansas) of Miss America. She was attending a function as part of her role, where she met the then Governor Bill Clinton. Cutting a long story short, later that evening Billy offers to drop her off at her hotel after her minder had taken ill and left early. Off they went in the charming Governor’s limo, on arrival at her hotel Bill insists on seeing her to her room and practically invites himself in for a coffee. Being a young and innocent girl from Hicksville she thinks it’s the least she can do. She puts the jug and excuses herself to go to the bathroom, when she comes out horror or horrors there is Slick Willy laying buck naked on her bed. In stunned disbelief she says Mr Governor I’m going to turn around and go back into the bathroom and when I come back out you better be gone, which he was. They met on numerous other occasions and never a word said.
Were it not for the money and connections that the Rodham family held, Clinton would still be chasing ambulances in Little Rock.
during the time he was governor..
..arkansas became one of the main destinations for cocaine smuggled in by air from sth amarica..
..coincidence..?..much..?
..his brother roger was often mentioned in dispatches..
..as sniffing around in those smugglers’ quarters..
..and in those days..everyone used cocaine..
Sounds about right…it seems very unlikely that he waited until the Oval Office to start trying it out with younger women.
That was my thoughts exactly.
Yes she has been. She was elected US Senator for New York in 2000 with 3,747,310 votes (55%), and was re-elected in 2006 with 3,008,428 votes (67%).
Darn it I knew I had missed something obvious. Thanks, Matthew.
Hooton my old China where have ya been, I had directed some questions about SkyCity to you over the last few days.
How is the mandarin lessons going?
You can tell your iwi group they were a bit stiff not getting the tender reopened for their proposed Waterfront convention centre. I must say you gave it a very good crack. Anyway on the bright side you’re probably done enough to get the nod as the new ACT party President when that comes up.
“And lets remember that Hilary Clinton hasn’t ever been elected to sweet FA to represent voting constituents previously”.
Really? I thought that, in the universe I inhabit, she was elected by the people of New York State to the United States Senate in 2000 and re-elected in 2006.
New York may not be the largest state anymore but it still has a population of nearly 20 million people.
It also seems a bit extreme to describe the job as being “sweet FA”
Still perhaps you inhabit a parallel universe where these elections never took place.
ps. Bugger. While I was composing this Hooton responded with the same information.
Yeah I totally missed that one, thanks for the info Alwyn.
elizabeth warren is the best/only hope for any real change..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=elizabeth+warren
Sanders may have been a socialist back in the 80s when he was Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, but he’s more of a hawkish liberal Democrat these days. While he remains admirably progressive on most domestic social issues, he’s unfortunately backed all of Obama’s nasty little wars in the Middle East, never opposes increased Defence spending, always has an eye on lucrative US military contracts and the jobs they bring to Vermont.
He’s also a chum of AIPAC and Israeli Governments of all stripes, never questions the unconditional financial and diplomatic support the US gives to Israel’s occupation and ethnic-cleansing and can usually be relied upon to support the never-ending pro-Israeli resolutions in the Senate.
Yeah but unfortunately that’s about as good as we can get in the US of A nowadays. He does speak strongly against the 1% and the 0.1%. But he has to get his campaign funds from somewhere…
idiot rejection
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/cropping/66137801/farmers-denied-highvalue-hemp-crop
Hemp has very very low THC – you’d hijack a seed truck of hemp ummm to grow more hemp not to get high.
and one the best reasons for allowing hemp is that you cannot grow the cousins together – your dope gets wasted.
Hemp is really a wonder plant and would provide many opportunities as it did in the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp
I think we may need a few of those things as society slips further down the slope due to CC and no easy picking oil.
Marty, I just had a conversation two days ago with someone who was part of the Hemp Association of NZ for many years. He said that they sometimes travelled with Nandor Tanczos to maraes trying to inform and persuade the elders to consider this as a sustainable crop.
He was saying that they were really disappointed with the Nandor’s advocacy for legalisation of marijuana because after seeing the reaction on the maraes – they considered it a step too far too soon.
There is a recent documentary that can be purchased on the historical use, the benefits and sustainability of hemp crops.
The trailer is worth looking at if anyone is interested.
Kiaora Molly
A more tikanga centric cash crop for Māori is harakeke, not hemp. Harakeke has equally admirable qualities and benefits. Its relatively easy to grow and has a multitude of good uses.
A big plus is that it will never be mistaken for cannabis proper and smoked. Should the ridiculous happen, it has a laxative effect.
Yes, have been wondering about cropping harakeke for some time. The last old style mill was down Southland I think and still operating until recently-ish. Some parts of our land grow harakeke like, well, they have been growing here for millions of years…
We have a bunch of them in a garden and they punch out screeds of seeds easily and consistently, and that’s just one of their uses.
Kiaora VTO
Yes, I believe that Riverton may still have a working harakeke mill. It is as versatile as hemp. There was work done some time ago on developing a commercial fabric industry using harakeke.
From my understanding a variety of harakeke has been patented as the most ideal variety for creating cloth.
I am rather excited about the prospect of making paper from harakeke for an art project I am involved with. Should be fun although I am a wee bit concerned about the caustic soda thing. I can be a wee bit clumsy.
If I start typing nice things, you will know that I’ve burnt my hands off and now have a ghost writer
Flax is also a great crop.
It is not one or the other, and industrial hemp should not be confused with cannabis.
Hemp, has a multitude of uses: construction, materials, regeneration of land, food – including providing essential Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils in a way readily assimilated by the body. It is also fast growing, cropping in just over 3 months, and requiring no external fertilisers or pesticides – entirely in keeping with kaitiakitanga principles.
I’m not a cannabis user – though I agree with philure’s comments regarding decriminalisation – but when I looked into hemp, as an easy to grow, harvest and utilise, this crop has a lot going for it.
Regarding the maraes, the impression I got from the person I was talking to was that they could not separate in their heads the difference between industrial hemp and cannabis, and that was why they had no traction. There also may have been the possibility that because of that general association, the marae would be loathe to get the label of supporting pot use. Which is understandable.
So, that opportunity was not taken by those Maori who were offered it, and begins to get picked up by others interested in sustainable farming, and customers interested in great organic products.
Kiaora Molly
Firstly, Harakeke would be considered more in keeping with a sustainable ethic for Maori than hemp. Indigenous people using an indigenous plant. Hemp is an imported species.
Secondly, Maori and Marae have a fairly sophisticated understanding on the use, growing and dealing in cannabis. It’s more common in some communities than wine. Who do you think grow most of the supply in New Zealand?
I think Marae are being quite sensible because they obviously know how mischevious their rangatahi can be.
I have little knowledge of marae based protocol so I accept your assertion.
But you still make the assumption that industrial hemp and cannabis are the same in terms of drug use. They are not.
Hemp also provides great food supplements and benefits, which is an easier market to approach rather than high end materials. (As well as building materials. I know MIT in Auckland many years ago was investigated harakeke as a component of earth building, but I never heard how that worked out, and never heard about it again.)
If the plant was not connected with cannabis in any way, and was shown to be regenerative of land, able to be cropped three or four times a year, requiring little or no chemical applications, and able to be used for foodstuffs, materials, building materials etc – wouldn’t you at least be open to finding out more?
Kiaora Molly,
I know the difference between industrial hemp and cannabis. I have even visited the hemp store in Auckland.
Māori have used harakeke mai rānō. For centuries we have used harakeke to bind, to build, to catch, to clothe, and to heal.
I would rather advocate the industrial use of harakeke than hemp. In fact, I would go so far as to say to Marae – “forget hemp, grow harakeke instead.”
By growing harakeke, the security issues would be non existent: no high fences; or regular drug testing on plant or people required; no need to grow in remote areas away from population centres. With harakeke, the compliance regime would be way less involved, intensive, or expensive. Most importantly, our people will be able to work all facets of the industry and not be banned because of criminal or drug convictions.
Kia ora, Adele,
Understand where you are coming from.
I’m not an advocate for one crop being “better than” another. Just that hemp is another choice that could deliver.
” In fact, I would go so far as to say to Marae – “forget hemp, grow harakeke instead.””.
Despite understanding the valid reasons for your aversion – if a marae did choose to try hemp – why would you persuade them otherwise?
That seems disrespectful to me, and negates any benefits that occur, especially those that come from the attempt even if successful outcomes are not achieved. I’m assuming a decision has been made after discussions and there are enthusiastic people who are prepared to commit time and effort into making it work. Why would you say to them – that their choices and enthusiasms are not valued?
(If any progression on the decriminalisation of marijuana is achieved, then some of your concerns would be addressed.)
That said, would like to see the maraes thrive in any sustainable way, and if that comes via harakeke – all well and good.
Kiaora Molly
“Despite understanding the valid reasons for your aversion – if a marae did choose to try hemp – why would you persuade them otherwise?
What’s so disrespectful about reminding Marae of the values we espouse as Māori? Indigenous peoples and their environments are not separate entities.
What is more disrespectful is to pursue a sustainability model that neglects to sustain the people who whakapapa to the whenua. Marae are meant to be the bastions of Te Ao Māori, not a gateway to its assimilation.
All things being equal, if Māori had to choose between harakeke and hemp. I am fairly sure most would choose harakeke.
Kia ora, Adele,
“What’s so disrespectful about reminding Marae of the values we espouse as Māori? Indigenous peoples and their environments are not separate entities. “
I don’t believe it is disrespectful to be part of a community discussion and put your point forward – I do think it is disrespectful to criticise afterwards a consensus decision.
“All things being equal, if Māori had to choose between harakeke and hemp. I am fairly sure most would choose harakeke.”
I am suburban Māori, and this kind of blanket dismissal of the values and interests that my life have provided to me so far, is the reason that I have found no comfortable place to be in Te Ao Māori.
Which I am trying to belatedly remedy.
But the disconnect between the kaitiakitanga of Te Ao Māori, and the groundswell movement for sustainability is one that I find difficult to comprehend. The worldview of Māori, is as you have stated, one of balance and harmony. The sustainability movement is similar. My exposure and experience to date has been with the sustainability movement, perhaps this will change as I progress in learning more about Te Ao Māori.
I appreciate the time you have taken for this conversation.
No hemp but let’s wait to see the perspective when the GMO discussion picks up again
I expect once the strains have been modified and patented there will be a shift
Even if the TTp % is low do the plants look so similar that the illegal plants can grow in with the legal?
no, dope cannot grow (so you get something you can get high from) within hemp – but they do look similar
“Growing hemp and marijuana together isn’t an option. By doing that you get cross pollination which leaves both plants infertile. When they cross pollinate you loose the buds of the flowers and the seeds.”
http://rediscoverhemp.com/tag/plant/
I don’t think it’s as clear cut as that. Over successive generations you would get lessening of the value of the THC crop, but at first there would be a decrease in THC in the MJ plant and and increase in the Hemp. It’s unclear to what extent that would still be enough THC in the plants to give a high. It might not be enough for big growers to bother, but it probably does present some problems for lawmakers in that the plants both now contain enough THC to be an illegal drug.
I haven’t heard the argument against from the authorities point of view, but I’m guessing that ‘growers won’t bother’ isn’t sufficient for them.
http://www.newheadnews.com/hemp/hybrids.html
Having said all that, I think we should be legalising hemp growing in NZ. It’s a no brainer really.
Perhaps someone is worried that Mr Plod won’t be able to tell the difference. Or that consumers may be fed an underpowered product.
Police not being able to differentiate easily might be an issue, esp with dried plant.
“Or that consumers may be fed an underpowered product.”
lolz. It might be a good thing to tone the dak down a bit. Interesting that they don’t see the potential for widespread wrecking of the crop 😉
I read an article some time back that asserted that one of the major backers of making hemp illegal was the cotton growers. Apparently hemp cloth can be finer and stronger than cotton while also being cheaper because it’s so easy to grow and grows so fast.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp#Fiber
And Dow etc as cotton requires lots of pesticides so good for them whereas hemp very little if any so cue reefer madness etc after WW2 as hemp was in large scale production for rope, fabric etc and needed to be discredited.
It also has a fine paper market that last time I looked couldn’t get enough as demand exceeded supply.
Can’t remember the documentary, but oil and chemical companies did have a major role to play in the “reefer madness” propanganda after the war, along with the cotton growers.
As an experiement for the last couple of years have been growing chia seeds in the garden. I have harvested the seeds (which cost a fair bit in the supermarket) but also grow them as pollinators as they provide for the bees. They grow fast, survive without very much water, and have a very strong stalk. The seeds have a very good Omega 3 and Omega 6 content.
Because of this thread I’ve just googled the plant, and found out it is part of the same family.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-13/thirst-war-sen-inhofe-releases-fake-photos-russian-troops-ukraine
Proving once again that the US really, really wants to go to war.
The Spin Bites Back
Scene- A well appointed lounge in the penthouse office of an undisclosed metropolitan eyesore. A gentle levity fills the air as glasses clink and cheques cashed are fondly remembered. There is an urgent knocking at the door.
X- Who is it?
JK- It’s me, John
X- ( under the breath -okay ) Come in John.
JK- Hi guys, really sorry to interrupt you all, but I think we have a bit of a problem!
X- What happened this time? Drop your handicap ? (guffaws and back-slaps ensue)
JK- No, Really, we have a big problem.
X- Ok John, just move those files and sit down
NOT THOSE ! that’s [redacted]’s pile
JK- Oh, I didn’t see it
X- Well, that’s what you pay us for. So tell us, What’s the matter buddy?
JK- I was just updating my facebook page, letting all my fans know how super awesome my summer hol’s were, when I saw a post about people asking to be unfriended if any of their friends think Zero Hour contracts are a fair and reasonable idea.
X- So… ?? … look, we’ll fake you up some new friends.
JK- No, no, it’s not that, no, well Yes! thanks!! That would be great!!
Maybe you don’t understand what I’m saying, Zero Hour contracts!!!
X- Yeah ! Aren’t they just the answer to every bosses’ prayers?
JK- No you fools! They are a huge problem.
X- How so?
JK- We state repeatedly how we use the Household Labour Force Survey to gauge the levels of employment in New Zealand. Right?
X- yes.., with you so far….
JK- That survey uses a benchmark of one hour of paid work a week for a job to qualify as employment. Right?
X- Yes it does and it is a beautiful thing. (high fives for all) The journos lap it up.
JK- That’s the problem… How are we going to sell the employment figures when thousands of jobs are shifting to Zero Hour contracts?
X- Oh! fuck
JK- yeah. exactly.
X- It will be fine John. You’ve got the new war, the flag, the cricket world cup is good for a few more weeks. There is that whole Centenary thing coming up. Wall to wall photo ops -no one will even notice.
JK- Ok guys, if you say so. Bit of a relief to be honest. Now have you had any ideas about fixing this mess with Sky City ?
X- We’re spinmeisters John, not miracle workers.
Stuff prints propaganda from Reuters: No alternative to bulk data collection
These are utter lies. Firstly, the NSA (and therefore the NZ services) are collecting and have access to all content passing on the internet, in addition to the very critical and important associated metadata. The metadata is crucial for searching and indexing the sea of content they are collecting on everyone.
Secondly, Bill Binney has explained in detail how peoples privacy can be completely protected by automatically encrypting everyone’s identities during the collection process, and only decrypting the identities of those people who are suspects, via court warrant. That is the system he designed, and the protections that the NSA stripped out of his programme.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/65187271/No-alternative-to-bulk-data-collection?cid=outbrain:starter
“..Bill Clinton Apologizes To Mexico – For War On Drugs..
..Former President Bill Clinton apologized to Mexico during a speech there last week –
– for a backfired U.S. war on drugs –
– that has fueled spiraling violence..”
(cont..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/13/bill-clinton-apology-drug-war-mexico_n_6680412.html
I’m not a gambler but I thought it would be topical to have a punt on how much Joyce is going to give to Sky City today.
They were never going to put in $140m. My guess is they threw out a number and waited for the focus group results to come in before making an announcement for much lesser figure.
$140m is a number picked so that it looks like the govt. is on our side when they manage to negotiate it down to what will now be spun as a “better deal”. Hey, they are working for New Zealand, right?
As we have seen, the public reaction has been severe, and even National’s perennial and faithful lapdogs have growled (a little bit), so my punt is on 1/3 of the original figure announced, rounded down to:
$45m.
i think $60 million was the endgame-target..
..and yep..!..we have been ‘played’ yet again..
..by both skycity and key…
(and let us not forget that skycity made $66 million profit in the last six months..
..and that their share-price jump at the news of this upcoming present from the mug-punters..
..increased the value of their casino by $77 million..)
..that all seems ‘fair’..eh..?
I’d go for $60 million. That way they get to say that they have been tough and forced Sky Shitty to come up with more than half.
both wrong..they get zip…
Ahem. I was closest.
but not even close enough for the faintest whiff of a cigar..
It ain’t over till the fat convention center is finished.
Anyone else suspect that there was no $140m top up required at all?
Anyone else suspect it was just a Crosby-Textor trick to dampen previous criticism of the pokies-for-convention-centre deal?
No I can’t see the nats setting them self up for this big a beating over something most have put in the to late to change basket.
no..it was a spike in hubristic-activity..
..they wanted to do it alright..
I notice the Stuff headline was “Sky City backs down (to the Government)”, and not “Government backs down (to the tax-payer)”.
Morrissey recently made mention of those honourable politicians in the west (often, it has to be said, of the independent Left) who speak truth to power.
Here’s a brilliant (and highly amusing) example from a couple of years ago. Clare Daly, Left-wing MP for Dublin North, takes on the Irish PM and Irish MSM for their horrendous brown-nosing of Obama during his visit there…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF5PChW5WDY
A few excerpts…
“The almost unprecedented slobbering over (Obama and wife Michelle) that the nation has been exposed to over the last number of days. And it’s really hard to know which is worse – whether it’s the outpourings of the Obamas themselves or the sycophantic fawning over them by sections of the media and the political establishment”
…….And, of course, the biggest irony of all – the professtations of Obama himself in is speech to children in Northern Ireland about peace…Now I ask you, is this person going for the hypocrite of the century award ? … By any serious examination this man is a War Criminal….
(to the Taoiseach) But is it not a reality that you have showcased us as a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head. To be honest with ya, we were really speculating this morning whether you were going to deck the Cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of stars and stripes to really mark our abject humiliation here.”
One of the more progressive unions in New Zealand in recent years has been the firefighters:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/02/15/firefighters-coverage-on-redline/
Phil
Oops charter school doing well for puils NOT
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/66204362/private-school-failed-our-autistic-son
The organisation which runs Mt Hobson, Villa Education Trust, is also facing fresh controversy over another of its schools, West Auckland Middle School.
Regan Bennett’s family say the 14-year-old suffers from epilepsy and has been assessed as requiring Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding for his education.
The government funding is hard to get and is available only for the highest needs students. The ministry paid more than $4000 to the school for extra help for Regan.
But in the first term Regan received a maximum of 30 hours’ teacher aide support and no one-on-one teacher time as stipulated by the ministry, his family said.
A large amount of that teacher aide time was used during school swimming lessons.
The school said it had discussed the teacher aide resourcing with Regan’s mother who was in full agreement. The school believed it would be “educationally detrimental” to have a teacher aide in the traditional morning classes as it would act as a barrier between the student and the teacher.
ACT MP David Seymour, under-secretary to Education Minister Hekia Parata, said the issues surrounding Haggett were not an indictment on the partnership school policy.
(Translation Charter school)
Hi DV, just a heads up for future reference 🙂
http://thestandard.org.nz/faq/comment-formatting/#quoting
Ta Time i learned to format!!!
Yipee
Compared with village idiot Cameron Slater, I guess David Farrar might look almost infellectual. But here’s an interesting piece, actually published nearly three years ago, about how prejudice is a core part of Farrar’s view of the world. His ‘explanation’ of the economic meltdown in Greece is that Greeks have a “CBF attitude” to life.
We looked at Farrar’s nonsense here: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/farrars-blog-a-pile-of-prejudices/
Phil
Totalitarian Democracy Now
Describes precisely where our democracy is today – owned by the 1%.
Aaah, schadenfreude….
The Times said it received an advance copy of an upcoming report by Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab that details how banks in Russia, Japan, the United States, and other countries fell victim to malware starting in late 2013 that allowed the hackers to watch video feeds, view daily operations, and impersonate bank officials.
The malware apparently allowed the hackers to transfer money from the banks to fake accounts. According to the Times, Kaspersky Lab said the total theft could be more than $300 million, although the cybersecurity firm has not nailed down an exact figure. Each transaction was limited to $10 million and some banks were hit more than once, according to the publication.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02/report-millions-stolen-from-banks-through-sophisticated-malware/
And as the NSA has been systematically weakening internet, network and computer systems security for their own intrusion purposes, they have been making the whole environment more vulnerable to hackers than ever before.
Toby Ziegler.
Good to see that Porirua City Council Mayor Nick Leggett came out on 10 February 2015, against the Hutt and Wairarapa being ‘bullied’ into the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’ proposed amalgamation.
Of course, this should help effectively sink the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity Titanic’, because, as I understand it, for the Draft Wellington Reorganisation Proposal to go ahead, there must be ‘demonstrable community support’ across each one of the ‘Territorial Authorities’ (TAs).
If there is ‘demonstrable’ community OPPOSITION from 5 out of 9 of the TAs
– Hutt CC, Upper Hutt CC, South Wairarapa DC, Carterton DC and Masterton DC (for starters) – then – in my considered opinion, the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’ will be stuffed.
Good job.
Who on earth would want an effective corporate takeover – as we have experienced under the Auckland ‘Supercity’ (for the 1%), happen anywhere else in NZ?
‘Economies of scale’ and greater (business) opportunities for investors, BIG business, property developers, speculators and financial interests?
A bigger ‘public trough’ for fewer but bigger ‘private snouts’?
BEWARE folks from the Wellington region!
The public focus is on ‘governance’ – but behind the scenes ( as in Auckland) the corporate focus is on ‘infrastructure’.
The mechanism is through CCOs – which are hardly being mentioned by either the Local Government Commission (LGC) or those people or organisations which purportedly want ‘Better’.
‘Better’ for whom?
Follow the dollar ….
Penny Bright
(For more background information – http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz )
sky city have u-turned..and won’t get any money..
..power to the people..eh..?
..see what we can do when we put our minds to it..eh..?
John Key and Steven Joyce have stood up to Sky City and made them keep the written contract to build the convention centre. I was correct as always and not a single cent of taxpayer money will be spent on the Auckland convention centre. This is huge win for the Government and people of New Zealand. Glad you can all celebrate.
On the contrary, this episode has made the Govt look weak and indecisive. It should not have dragged on for this long. How hard was it for National simply to say No!
They had to wait and see if the key spin/bullshit around it being an eyesore would change there polling on it .
not so much that as key pushing for that massive handout..
..i wonder if sy-citys’ value will slump by the $77 million it jumped when ‘the market’/shareholders thought they were going to be pocketing that serious wedge of money..
..(i mean..john key promised them..it’s not fair..!..)
No that’s a lose by Key & Joyce and simply not good enough, in Key’s own words Aucklanders do not want a cheap eye sore. The country agrees with him we want SkyCity to spend an extra 130 million dollars so we get an international quality convention centre, not some ugly eyesore that blights the Auckland sky line. Mike Hosking is all for the extra spend also.
we know what to call it now..
..’the eyesore’…
hosking supporting that was like trp supporting some more middle-east war..
..both lonely voices..
this could well act as a hubris-detox for key/joyce..
c’mon folks..!..in a fair world..for that one..
.. fisi would walk away with this weeks’ top-spinner gong..
..’the twisted-neck-award’…
Troubled child you are Fizzy, as always ! Key, Joyce, SkyCity sing in unison from one of several, long prepared song sheets. This one marked “Contingency Plan In Case We Get Busted”.
But good news. The ultimate heist has failed…….not to say the concept wasn’t a heist from the start…….not to say our prime minister hasn’t in the round-up handed fat extra money to SkyCity.
There’s gonna be an ugly concrete cube in the CBD which forever’ll be known as “Key’sEyeSore”. That’ll go down great in international convention centre marketing now won’t it ? Waipuna Lodge must be heartened !
They’ll get their reward another way this time.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/66210105/SkyCity-backs-down-over-convention-centre-top-up
Joyce seems to be claiming the credit
What on earth Jordan Williams of the taxpayers association is claiming victory for is beyond me.
Whatever next Hooton claiming credit for the ACT party.
I guess it will be a team effort to turn what is a big hit on key into key being such a competent poly he’s saved nz 130 mil, so its better to have it being front footed buy there mates in the TPU so they can control the story
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11402393
“The Crown has also indicated today that it may be prepared to accept slightly smaller NZICC if that is required to meet the agreed total construction cost,” Mr Joyce said.
But no reduction in the number of pokies they will be allowed, presumably. So the citizens of NZ still lose and the house wins.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2524032/Mars-Snickers-chocolate-bars-shrink-size-price-stays-same.html
the house always wins..
..that’s why..come the day..
..they will be nationalised..
..best to have that gambling income stay here @ home..
Commonly known as ‘PRODUCT SIZE REDUCTION’ or in corporate jargon its called sweating the asset.
OK so how many pokie machines and gambling tables did lead snake oil salesman Stephen Joyce negotiate will be taken off the deal. Let’s hear the idiot media ask that question of him.
A positive farming story for your Sunday
http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/66138029/Work-of-dedicated-greenie-on-view
Very cool, thanks. Would love to have seen it.
Excellent result for the Government over Sky City. No matter how much the Left try to spin this it will be seen as a victory for John Key. Read it in the history books.
😆
Yes, a complete redesign is sure to reduce the eventual cost. Rats taste better with lots of hot sauce, nom nom nom Fisi.
Nothing to stop SkyCity from building its own convention centre off its own bat without the government giving ‘concessions’.
When asked what about the eyesore on Auckland’s sky line Key will mutter something
that makes no sense
. When the media ask Morrison the silver tongued Aussie SkyCity boss, he will be struggling to contain himself from crying with laughter and reply;
“It’s not like a convention centre the size of a shoe box is going to be a blight on anyone’s sky line, say for Mr & Mrs Sewer Rat….God I love doing business with you Kiwi’s.”
They have already built the eyesore. The thing that looks like a hypodermic.
+1
Auckland and the people of NZ still don’t want the convention centre and know that this government screwed them over to give it to SkyCity.
You are seriously claiming that Auckland and the people of New Zealand do not want 800 jobs and a $49,000,000 economic boost. That’s some powerful stuff you’re smoking.
No reputable international organisation would want to hold a conference at a bloody casino, what send their delegates off to a gambling den only to come back
a gambling addict. New Zealand will become a laughing stock. The only conference will be the National Party ones.
+100 Skinny….John Key’s tacky conference casino centre… déclassé
Exactly, this is just a big party centre for NACTUM piss ups. Not a nice venue for the people of Auckland to enjoy, like a library or a pool.
Key was played for a fool again, just like the Hobbit deal with WB. The taxpaying public did not vote for this shit while we have a housing crisis, rampant inequality, and Christchurch in ruins.
And now the public will shell out to fund a new HQ for TVNZ. The Keymaster has shafted us again.
That would be, maybe, 200 jobs, an ongoing loss to the country as the government guarantees SkyCity’s profits and ever more social damage due to gambling addiction. Yeah, I’m sure that NZers don’t want it.
These lefties are just bitter that Key was able to keep his promise that no tax payers money would be used.
People on welfare don’t care about more jobs.
You on anti depressants since the arse fell out of milk powder.
All low wage zero hour jobs.
Missed most of this discussion but it occurred to me that the jubilation around the country can now be interpreted that we now support the Convention Centre and its pokies.
We won but we still lose and Key can claim that he listens to the people. Huh!
Sky city in its current form is an ugly leech on society without the convention centre.
And with the convention centre and hotel it becomes a boon for Auckland.
Yes, but I find it quite odd and am uncomfortable with a national convention centre being so closely associated with the unsavoury business of gambling.
I assume a lot of the business this Sky City convention centre will be in hosting foreign delegates and here we are shoving floors and floors of gambling at them as their first experience of the country.
It’s Las Vegas in the South Pacific.
I guess that is what John Key intends.
seems to be how it will work.
The centre itself will lose money most years, but SC will profit overall in the rest of the building.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/world/middleeast/clashes-continue-in-iraq-near-base-of-us-troops.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0
TRP’s little fantasy unfolding as expected.
Indeed. People have short memories don’t they?
It’s as if this is a whole new war, yet not 3 years ago three ill-trained defence force soldiers lost their lives in the same war in Afghanistan.
The soldiers being sent this time will be even more poorly trained.
http://thestandard.org.nz/say-no-to-the-140m-skycity-bailout/
I was roundly abused for pointing out that John Key never insisted we pay a cent. Hysterical over reaction from the poster as usual. The sky is falling said Chicken Little.
Next time you leave the rock you live under remember to put on a sun hat on, you’re really fried that pea brain of yours today. I refreshed my memory by reading that link.
All I could make of your ramblings was you swinging your undies in the air cheerleadering for Key, oh and reinventing yourself as a litigation lawyer.
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/protesters-storm-national-party-fundraiser-2015021517#axzz3RmDPyoTC
Top reporting from three as usual calling the back down of the government a ” show of force” and then not bothering to tell us what the protest was about.
Tough times being in coalition with the Brit RW during times of depression. (A Guardian piece about past politics.)
[Ramsay] MacDonald, still reviled in some leftwing circles as a class traitor, was abandoned by most of his Labour colleagues and by the Liberals, when as Labour prime minister in 1931 he accepted George V’s invitation to head a coalition government with the Tories during the economic slump.
Home Office files [released today at the National Archives at Kew] show that in office he became powerless even to insist on the just treatment of the communist leaders of the hunger marches – though some of them had been close colleagues in the founding years of the Labour party….
…Home Office files… show that MacDonald was “broken-hearted” over his failure to secure the release of the veteran trade union agitator Tom Mann, a leader of the 1889 “great dock strike” and a founder of the Transport and General Workers’ Union.
The first marches took place in 1927, and Churchill, then chancellor, told the home secretary he was concerned that those taking part were getting into “a very distressed condition” and thought their arrival in London, “footsore and hungry,” would create a difficult situation. He wanted them intercepted while some distance from London, “treated decently and tactfully, but turned back somehow or other”.
The Home Office was apparently not very interested, regarding them more as figures of farce than dangerous revolutionaries. MI5 reports said the Lancashire group had proved the most difficult: they had demanded hotpot when they reached Manchester and had to be dispersed with a hose.
…But as unemployment mounted and the marches became a regular feature in British life, attitudes hardened. In the winter of 1932 the biggest of the hunger marches ended in a 200,000-strong demonstration in Trafalgar Square and brutal clashes with the police, and the leaders of the NUWM were arrested, including Tom Mann, 76.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/oct/20/past.politics
Could NZ summon a proportionate number of protesters? And how would we be treated by the majesty of government. Tasered? Shot at? If UNACTS took off their masks the Dorian Gray personas would be nasty.
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