From the article “The overwhelming feeling at the meeting was that we had been screwed over by a corporation that didn’t care about our children….”
That’s how national ran education so is anyone surprised this behaviour exists in the sector. Felt like how some describe Akl grammar these days to me also.
Living in a zone and forking out the cash doesn’t mean youre getting value…..it never did, wake up people.
Awesome to hear Trump blame the Democrats for forcing the separation of children at Mexican border when it’s not law and he controls all parts of government.
…evil against children may not be okay, but abusing Democrats works…
This isn’t a byproduct. Child separation as punishment, on display, was always a feature not a bug.
Sanctions on his business interests, his real estate, his children, his enablers. Interpol arrest warrants for the lot of them. Bullets wouldn’t be an ideal solution but I could live with it.
I don’t care if they get burned. I want them to swallow shit and piss for the rest of their lifes, and that includes ANY cheerleaders that could not wait for that orange piece of shit to get voted in in order to bring ‘change’. And i include all and any of the resident cheerleaders especially CV. Shit and piss no matter what you eat, not matter how much and how often you brush your teeth, cut your tongue and it will still be shit and piss.
I am fully out of snark.
I would also like to remind people of Theresienstadt, who was inspected by the international Red Cross with much fanfare to find ‘nothing untowards’.
Fuck goodwin, and fuck his cheerleaders, enablers and third party voters. Fuck em.
You want to know why not voting for these people is so important, that the lesser evil is sometimes the better choice, The lesser evil, while not being the Unicorn the left seems to need in order to get ‘engaged and inspired and lovely dovey’ does not remove the progress made, progress for women, children, and all others that are not white, male, heterosexual and their assorted arsekissers and bootlickers.
honestly if people are’nt put off after everyday Gosman, Wayne, and other assorted bullshitters come here and infect every thread with their offerings, they surely will not be offended by me wishing Trump supporters to taste shit and piss every time they swallow.
But then, who knows there are a lot of things right wingers have no issue with it, child abuse – be it by witholding funds from the mother as Winz drones under Anne Tolley and Paula Bennett have done,, – or by republicans in the US seems to not give them a hard time. Cause ….reasons.
James, you are trolling; taking “offensive” words and repeating them ad nauseum, being a smart-arse, adding nothing to the discussion. Leave out the “butter wouldn’t melt in mouth” crap; you’re trying to disrupt, put a spanner in the works, take the “high” ground; but your no more than a troll, stirring muck for your own perverse pleasure. Others here suggest that you “grow up”, b*gger off”, get a life and I’m sympathetic to their calls. James, you are boring us to death, we don’t trust what you say, we don’t enjoy your contributions, we don’t respect your point of view. What more can I say? The quality of your comments, dull and pointless in months gone by, has deteriorated into foul-mouthed sniping; have you no personal pride, no standards of behaviour? Puckish Rogue, for all his faults, is rarely offensive: you James, are unfailingly offensive. Grow. Up.
And enjoy the experience 🙂
Yep the trump is going to pay a heavy price for this with a bit of luck but probably not
“US President Donald Trump has attacked the German government’s approach to immigration, as he comes under pressure over his own crackdown on migrants.”
What a scum trump is and many other governments are not too far behind including our one. Separating children from their parents – colonisation 101 – they’ve been doing it, like forever!
At no extra cost you get the hypocrisy of quoting the bible as a defense by the white house just to rub some salt in.
This is a deliberate and provocative action with wonderful examples of humanity like Jeff Sessions supporting it.
Parents are being told their kids are being taken away for a bath…..it’s dickensian shit.
Colbert was scathing about this practice in an opening monologue last week. Notice it’s the comedians actually standing up against this whereas the msm……mmmm.
Since we’re all about the Godwins today I’ll admit to wondering how long it would be before Trump announced his final solution to the problem of the Mexican untermenschen.
The first use of concentration camps was the in the US in 1830’s, the Brits used them during the Boer War. Both countries, like their eugenics programs, preceded/inspired the Nazis use of them.
If these people are to be believed, and I have no personal expertise in the topic. they go back to the Assyrians. although the actual name only came into use about at the end of the nineteenth century.
“The idea of forced resettlement is nothing new; it was first recorded as being used by the ancient Assyrians, and was sporadically used throughout history, by such groups as the Ottomans and Russians. The term “concentration camp” was first coined by the Spanish in the late 19th century, when the Spanish army in Cuba rounded up civilians in these camps to fight guerrilla armies in the area. Shortly after this, the US used concentration camps in the Philippines.”
I do believe even in NZ parents are separated from their children if they are incarcerated. So lets all calm down people. Obama did it too and nary a cry. Hypocrisy much!
The trouble with your reasoning is that first it starts with the false premiss that these people entering the US from Mexico are doing something illegal. They are not. Seeking asylum is not an illegal activity.Trump has made it “illegal” contrary to the declaration of Human Rights and is blaming it on the Democrats. But in placing blame upon them he is telling lies.
This is not true. There is no law that requires immigrant families to be separated. The decision to charge everyone crossing the border with illegal entry — and the decision to charge asylum seekers in criminal court rather than waiting to see if they qualify for asylum — are both decisions the Trump administration has made.
The extreme Right Wing media is already starting the narrative that the kids are “Crisis Actors” coached by people paid by the Democrats.
The same exact words they have also used to try and discredit the survivors of school shootings pushing for tougher gun laws.
Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions in his speech defending the policy of separating the children from their families used the very same bible verse that was popular among slave owners in the southern US States to support their right to own slaves.
Meanwhile, Trump himself has apparently been breaking US law every day by ripping up memos, screwing them up and tossing them in the bin after he has finished reading them. A whole team of document specialists is now having to retrieve them from the bins and reconstruct them so that they can be preserved and archived as required by US law.
I couldn’t read past the first few comments. These creatures (I was going to call them animals but that’s a gross insult to animals) are craven lunatics.
Trump continues to show the worst side of humanity.
He and Session’s should be taken to the Hague for trial.
This is the old dead cat tactic every time prosecutors get closer to bringing him and his cronies to trial for treason the more outrageous his distractions,!
‘The National Party has expressed shock after the government ditched two of its key police policies – and it is calling for them to be reinstated.
The then National government last year announced an aim of attending 98 percent of burglaries in 48 hours. It also set a target of having 95 percent of the population living within 25 kilometres of an all-hours police station.’
These seem to be the kind of policies that everyone would agree are good ideas and much needed so since Labours ditching them what are they replacing them with?
Having been witness to a few burglaries of the Dairy located next to me, that National Policy was nothing more then a policy.
So yeah, its a nothing burger to can a policy that was not worth the toilet paper National wrote it on.
Judith Collins probably wiped her backside with that policy to parfume it a bit. .
National, cutting police numbers to bare bones in order to ‘achieve a surplus’.
National, hard against crime in name only.
National, its not crime if it helps me.
PR your faux outrage with a gutted police force how were National ever going to meet that ridiculous target.
Low taxes means cheap nasty govt services.
But the uber wealthy like yourself can afford 24 hr private security on top of police priority.
“But the uber wealthy like yourself can afford 24 hr private security on top of police priority.”
Not even close to being uber wealthy 🙂 (depending on your definition of course) unless in comparison to the entire world but if you do that then most of us would probably be considered the 1%
PR you fell into my trap of exposing your crap.
You are for lower taxes then you provide security for your house self and family.
Yet the coalition is putting more cops on the beat yet you complain about an unachievable goal which if it were to be achieved other areas of policing would suffer.
This 98%within 48 hrs was a PR spin BS damage control for a party that pretends to be tough on crime.
“You are for lower taxes then you provide security for your house self and family.”
– Not sure what you mean, can you reword it please
“Yet the coalition is putting more cops on the beat yet you complain about an unachievable goal which if it were to be achieved other areas of policing would suffer.”
– I think more cops on the beat is a good as does Labour considering how many of the cops were budgeted under National but what “achievable goal” am I complaining about
“This 98%within 48 hrs was a PR spin BS damage control for a party that pretends to be tough on crime.”
– So why wouldn’t the COL carry through with it, its a vote and it’d shut National up pretty quickly
Thats funny, whenever the impossibility of the COL managing to get anywhere close to planting a billion trees or building a 100 000 houses is mentioned I get told at least they tried
So I guess at least National which is more than what the COL is doing
However this is a chance for the COL to steal a march on National, take on the policies for themselves, implement them properly and then National will find it a lot harder to criticise
“”The new Government’s come in, and perhaps the expectations that we’ve given them are too high.”
Yep – Labour made promises to their union backers – and now cannot follow thru – Instead they give Winny a billion dollars to holiday around the pacific.
“I wonder if Shane Jones personal slush fund could have been better utilised”.
Tell me you are kidding? You are far to smart to have to ask that question aren’t you?
A better question would be
“I wonder if Shane Jones personal slush fund could have been utilised in a worse manner”
It actually is much harder to answer. You have to think quite hard before you can come up with enough ways to completely waste a billion dollars a year that are worse than Shane’s load of rubbish.
You wrote, “Yep – Labour made promises to their union backers – and now cannot follow thru – Instead they give Winny a billion dollars to holiday around the pacific.”
Now let’s see how ‘worthless’ that is.
Firstly, it’s a political statement and could be attacked as such. References to the deputy prime minister as “Winny” and secondly the slur that a billion dollars budgeted for Pacific (note spelling with capital) foreign aid is being used as “holiday money” by Winston Peters show that your statement which I have quoted is a very political and partisan one.
Secondly, you said that Labour made promises to their union backers. What evidence have you to show that in the first place that actually happened (what promises, made when and to whom)? That is also a very political statement as it implies quid quo pro deals, and lack of governmental honesty and freedom of action.
Thirdly, you link a budgeted item of expenditure in foreign aid to non-fulfilment of alleged promises to union backers, as if it were a either/or arrangement. Your purpose there was I believe to slur Labour and Winston Peters both, as well as the unions.
ianmac says yours was a worthless statement. I would agree.
Feeling hurt by being told to “dry up”? Not the worst injunction you could have received to stop inflicting such arrant nonsense upon the Standard’s readers.
You’re right. I didn’t comment. I failed to see it. Bad form.
But, saying they do it too is not a secure argument.
And accusing me of failure to do something, is also not an argument to counter my critique of your lack of argument.
I also have a policy that I choose to respond to those I choose. I do not respond to everything or everyone with whom I disagree or agree. That way is futility.
Thanks Mc 1. James is really just playing silly beggars. I think that he only intent to draw as many responses as he can regardless of any fact or valid opinion. For me why bother to respond to him/her?
James your right of right.
Why don’t you set up your own right wing Web site.
Instead of all the right wing cuckoos trying to take over this site with your stubborn unyielding Dogma!
DHBs says no more money would be put on the table for nurses.
Peters points to the Government’s Budget Responsibility Rules.
Interestingly, when it comes to the Budget Responsibility Rules and expenditure, Labour thought they had the balance about right.
However, it looks as if members of the Public Services Association (PSA), Inland Revenue (IRD) and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (Mbie) along with teachers and nurses disagree.
It seems the realisation of Labour’s campaign rhetoric is starting to sink in.
I don’t think people were expecting Labour to put everything right overnight, but clearly they were expecting more than what’s currently on offer. Thus, it’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.
On a side note, National aren’t offering anything better, which will help Labour stand their ground as they know voters will have nowhere else to turn.
The problem is the nurses and doctors want to capture the health service for their own benefit and resent and oppose being managed. People argue they should be “paid what they are worth” without considering that the real skill lies in managing them. They are quite manipulative too, with their carefully cultivated image as selfless souls working long hours in a vocation to ease the suffering of the ill and disabled. It needs strong and pervasive management to cut through this cant and keep these pious do-gooders acting in the public interest. More powerful and well resourced management is what is required here !
As Cindy said nz just has to come round to her way of thinking or labour has failed and they will be a one term government Looking odds on bet this will be the case
“cock sucker” – an indication of some level of misogyny if uttered by a heterosexual male, or just another of those “go to” put downs that people just kinda thoughtlessly let trip off their tongue (eg – motherfucker etc)?
“cunt” – hmm. Good cunt or bad cunt? Cunt of the desirable variety or something else entirely?
Apparently all cultures use references to genitalia as put downs. Sometimes it gets a bit amusing/enlightening. So for example, the “go to” put down for a man in some African culture (I forget which one but it featured in some Stephen Fry programme about language) is to suggest that the man is hung like a donkey. 🙂
I thought “cock sucker” was more a homophobic put down rather than a misogynistic one. I guess on some level it could be both, but it was certainly to imply that a man was gay when i used to use it in my homophobic youth.
James, i have been quite open and honest about my feelings about the current lot of National Party members and their enablers.
You can use what ever word for me or anyone else for that matter that you see befitting. I still think that ugly – the insides you know the soul heart and mind – fits Judith Collins, and vile – as in her every action and word – fits Paula Bennett.
I stand by that.
As for chubby – i fit that description. Even tho, when much younger i was called a board with warts :).
A trout? cooked with lemon butter? blue – cooked in whitewine, or rather with almond butter? Ha, so hard to decide. But then I like meat :), and its not good friday. so what ever suits you.
Cock sucker? I have sucked my fair share of cocks, and can’t really see the insult in it, i might add that the sucked cocks did not complain, so again, where is the insult?
the thing is James, as a women of a certain age, a women who grew up poor, was assaulted at home by her stepfather, who lived as a transient teenager on the street as that was safer than living at home, i have been called my fair share of things in my life.
Heck, one lady in NZ even commented how ‘lady like’ i looked when i wore a nice dress and heels to an official dinner.
So no i don’t care. Judith Collins, Paula Bennett, Nick Smith, Simon Bridges, Bill English, John Key, Brownlee, and the other assorted clowns are vile and very very ugly, unlikable, and should be unelectable. And unless you can show me where one of these people have done something to better the life of someone else – they clearly don’t give a shit about this country other then it benefitting them – i might change my mind.
please show one example of the National Party giving a ‘hand up’ to any person in NZ that is not called Bill English, Paula Bennet, Oravida Collins, Nick Smith, Brownlee, Amy Adams, John ‘State House’ Key and any other of the National Party buffoons.
And no ‘zip it sweety’ ain’t gonna cut it.
And while you are at it, could you explain to me why National never got rid of that ‘socialism on steroids’ called working for families?
Is it because silly Farmer blokes with signs calling J. Adern a ‘pretty communist’ need it to feed their 8 children that they have despite obviously not making enough money to afford these 8 kids. Or is having children one can not afford only a crime against humanity when non white Farmer blokes and their wifes do eeet?
Right Alan, this whole “hand up” thing should be pretty easy for you to explain and please include examples from the previous government where it was put into practice, funded properly, and has the ongoing funding/support for long term beneficial impact.
Or was that a random RWKJ bs throw away line which, has no real substance or reasoning behind it.
Whilst you might be OK being called those names (and for whatever reason you are OK with it) – others might not be.
There will be plenty of women out there who get very upset being called chubby, or blokes who dont like being called cock suckers.
Cunt is not a nice name – you might be ok being called one – but others are not. Would you be happy with other people calling your family members that?
Perhaps we can start using the term for Jacinda – after all if you are OK for it to be used about Key – why not allow people call Jacinda that if they so feel like it?
In recent weeks your comments have contained more instances of these ‘offensive’ words than any other single poster.
A prediction: James will continue to incorporate these words into his comments at every opportunity – he believes it’s a strong ‘argument’, and his ‘duty’ to criticise offensive words and comments on this site. I guess that will keep him busy, which seems important to him.
“James does that “thing” where he repeats words he claims to be offended by. It’s a method favoured by 8-year olds generally, those who get some sort of buzz from using “bad words” under the guise of someone else having said them.”
again, i agree with you. We can call Jacinda or other women that, and i guess more then one National Party member, enabler and sponsor has called her that word the night National lost the Election.
John Key however will never be a cunt, he will always just be a selfish hair pulling young girl tormenting limp prick.. I am all for equality of the sexes. There.
Don’t go down that road, your false idea of a do good liberal with ‘political correctness’ is lost on me.
I don’t care about your feefee’s no more then you care about feeling sleeping in cars and raising their children in vans. I don’t care about Paula Bennetts feelings, if she is sad being called a vile human being, she can try to be a better one. Same for Judith Collins, she could try justice for all instead of just for those that give her money. Mr. Bridges could try to get bridges build instead of squandering time and money of others. Nick Smith could just go and retire. Brownlee can also retire, and the National Party could just find a soul, a heart, some guts and maybe be electable without friends. Not holding my breath tho.
But your whinging about how you hurt because the National Party is called on their bullshit, the national party member being called out for the callouls soulless ghouls they are? Nah, not buying it.
Mind you could try harder. I am having fun here.
But remember, there is not one word you can call me – a women, or a poor person, or a homeless person, or an abused person, that i have not heard, and that the National Party and its enablers and sponsors have not uttered themselves in order to score some cheap points with those that are suffering from white economic anxiety and who would like to go back to the 1850’s when people knew their place.
it’s gonna be fun when the multimillion hovels on the coast line of akl, wlgtn, etc etc will not be insurable.
That’s when the gnashing the teeth and the pulling of the hair begins, and maybe some will even realise just how stupid they have been.
i mean i spend that much money on couple of arborists to give my fruit trees a trim. But at least these trees bring forth kai, and much of it. Much better investment. House ….worth nothing, fruit trees? Priceless.
Imagine what that is going to do to rents let alone peoples ability to own a home.
And add to that Wellington Regional Council has proposed a 6.7 per cent average rates increase across the region coupled with Wellington City Council’s 3.9 percent rates increase.
People will be wanting and will require far larger pay increases now.
i guess that the houses that become uninsurable due to flooding etc etc will become slums of last resort and the rich will still have enough money to buy what ever property there is to buy. As for rents going up, they don’t need a reason to increase rents. They can buy law raise rent every 6 month willy nilly.
Going off the rate of that increase, far more will find they can’t afford to insure their home. As many more will find they can’t afford to buy one due to the increasing related costs of owning one.
And as landlord costs are continually increasing higher than the rate of inflation, it’s no wonder landlords are forced to increase rents.
The landlord has probably already worked quite hard to get themselves into a situation to afford investment property – is that a crime to you Sabine?
Do you have a problem with people working hard, being smart and having a few assets to show for it?
Sounds like it
Most people buy an investment property by borrowing against the capital gains from their home. That’s not work. There are plenty of people working bloody hard who can’t even pay the rent. There is huge generation inequality here as older people who already own squeeze young people out of the market. Are you OK with people making money from OTHER peoples hard work?
Boo hoo, virtually everyone I know who has accumulated a bit of wealth has worked bloody hard and often taken business risks, take your concerns to councils and get more land freed up for development, that is where the problem lies.
But, if the Landlord finds him overextended as due to rising cost he can not maintain his various mansions, then commercial interest would behoove it that he starts selling properties to better his income streem.
I think they call it “Free Market’ in National Party parlance.
Also, it helps to think first before buying properties in so called Million Dollar Suburbs if these are located in a flood plain, earth quake prone zone, or near a beach that might rise several meters of the next few decades.
Just because someone made an investment does not mean that person is entitled to income from it. If he/she is lucky the investment pays off, if not, Bugger.
repeat after me, Free Market. Free Market. Free Market. 🙂
There are the immediate impacts on things such as rents and property values etc but my thoughts were more towards the systemic….the implications of a failed property insurance industry could potentially collapse the current economic paradigm…..some may welcome that, then again what fills the void may be worse.
I don’t think we have yet to play a requiem for the insurance company.
There are already a great number of people that don’t have insurance on their houses, their cars, or their persons, simply because they don’t have the money. They have enough to serve the mortgage and pay either electricity or food. Never mind the roof that needs fixing.
The ones that can offset Insurance costs as an expense against income – which it would be in the Rentiers scenario will load the cost over to the tenant. IF the tenant can’t afford it, that tenant will move, another one will move in, rinse repeat until the kingdom comes.
The houses that will be uninsurable, will become slums, slowly but surely. Still bringing income, but at literally no cost, and no government – regardless of their stripes and dots – will do anything as at that stage housing will have become so rare that any dog kennel will do.
The favelas of South Americas, or the slums of Asia, will come to NZ at some stage. And the likes of our current National Party enablers will have no issue with it, they will yell, Free Market provides, Free Market provides.
We know high levels of private debt can cause financial crises. The Bank of England identified “the high level of UK household indebtedness” as one of the “most significant near-term domestic risks to financial stability”.
Taylor and Schularick, who examined 14 advanced economies over 140 years, show that
“the best pre-crisis indicator is a rapid build up of private debt.”
And the former chairman of the UK’s Financial Services Authority, Adair Turner, has argued that:
“The financial crisis of 2007/08 occurred because we failed to constrain the private financial system’s creation of private credit and money”.
So, right now, one of the biggest risks to our economy is being used as the primary solution.
This ‘hair of the dog’ strategy shows how unsound the foundations of our economy are. It exposes why the banking system doesn’t work for the people, and that the Bank of England’s monetary policy toolbox urgently needs updating.
With Donald Trump cruelly separating babies from their mothers, as wealthy people do, our Trolls will be delighted and distracted.
They will be petting and patting Donald all over his incredible body and purple heart. Melania will get roughed up of course. She is just a waste to be shat upon by the Evil trolls.
Think of the rewards that Gosman and James will get ! Evil is so rewarding. As all trolls know.
Good morning The AM Show how would trump like it if those Mokopunas were his own Mokopunas this action of taking mokos from there parents and lock them in cages creates a whole lot of trauma they will all resent USA its unhumane don’t blame the demarcats Don its the changes to your laws you made that have cause this what’s that the rest of the World has to live up to the standards you set but the USA can do what it wants.If your wrong just get over it and change your law/attitude.
The changes made by Labour to the NZ House ownership laws is what a responsible government does you make plans for a law and when you see those changes need to be refine that’s the wise why to handle that situation not like national who would deny there was a problem and ram the law through parliament and hide the problems it creates.
ECO MAORI Says yes to all the council having a fuel tax carbon tax you want to know why because national have denied human caused global warming for 9 years and this lack of leadership /blocking on climate change has left all the councils with a lot of catching up to mitigate climate change problems we face now. Yes I know its going to be hard on the common person but with some senseable thinking I’m sure we will survive the fuel taxs better that trying to survive a Papatuanukue with a extremely bad environment. Ka kite ano P.S the sandflys did not like my words over the last few days days they provided a swam of a escort on my way back to Auckland
The AM Show ECO MAORI Says we need to integrate OUR elderly in our society may be some sort of employment with the main goal of getting the elderly out of their houses once and a while I Back Mark Sainsbury move to get people to know that our valuerable elderly are being taken advantage of Ka pai e hoa some people just can’t help themselves and just pray on the elderly wallets idiots
Kai pai Paddy Grower the story on the government using the private investigation company to spy on innocent Kiwis Ka kite ano
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On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
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https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/06/17/123505/when-corporate-culture-clashes-with-education
Who’d have thought it, they don’t give a toss.
From the article “The overwhelming feeling at the meeting was that we had been screwed over by a corporation that didn’t care about our children….”
That’s how national ran education so is anyone surprised this behaviour exists in the sector. Felt like how some describe Akl grammar these days to me also.
Living in a zone and forking out the cash doesn’t mean youre getting value…..it never did, wake up people.
We would have seen more of this had charter schools taken root.
Trickle-down erodes the middle class. Who to eat next?
I’m sure they were responsible and bought posh school closure insurance.
Hector Espiner back to his usual badgering bullying tone. Doesn’t seem to be working though.
Wasn’t it Soozy’s turn today? Winnie wasn’t too impressed.
Awesome to hear Trump blame the Democrats for forcing the separation of children at Mexican border when it’s not law and he controls all parts of government.
Worth a read..
Sanctions on his business interests, his real estate, his children, his enablers. Interpol arrest warrants for the lot of them. Bullets wouldn’t be an ideal solution but I could live with it.
he advertised it.
He was very vocal about what he was going to do , and he is doing it.
Those of us that warned the cheerleaders of the future to come were poopoo’ed.
I hope that his cheerleaders will suffer a life time of swallowing saliva that tastes like shit.
There are already plenty of Senators and Congress reps and Fox News commentators saying cages for children aren’t that bad, or aren’t really cages.
Every time a film clip is sneaked out of the Detention Centres from here on in, they are going to get burnt hard.
I don’t care if they get burned. I want them to swallow shit and piss for the rest of their lifes, and that includes ANY cheerleaders that could not wait for that orange piece of shit to get voted in in order to bring ‘change’. And i include all and any of the resident cheerleaders especially CV. Shit and piss no matter what you eat, not matter how much and how often you brush your teeth, cut your tongue and it will still be shit and piss.
I am fully out of snark.
I would also like to remind people of Theresienstadt, who was inspected by the international Red Cross with much fanfare to find ‘nothing untowards’.
Fuck goodwin, and fuck his cheerleaders, enablers and third party voters. Fuck em.
You want to know why not voting for these people is so important, that the lesser evil is sometimes the better choice, The lesser evil, while not being the Unicorn the left seems to need in order to get ‘engaged and inspired and lovely dovey’ does not remove the progress made, progress for women, children, and all others that are not white, male, heterosexual and their assorted arsekissers and bootlickers.
cunts last night and now shit, piss and fuck.
Weka, Weka?
oh dear, you are upset?
Sad!
no, not at all, but it probably puts a few people off reading and commenting, which after all is the point of a blog
honestly if people are’nt put off after everyday Gosman, Wayne, and other assorted bullshitters come here and infect every thread with their offerings, they surely will not be offended by me wishing Trump supporters to taste shit and piss every time they swallow.
But then, who knows there are a lot of things right wingers have no issue with it, child abuse – be it by witholding funds from the mother as Winz drones under Anne Tolley and Paula Bennett have done,, – or by republicans in the US seems to not give them a hard time. Cause ….reasons.
Weka never pulled me up for swearing. I’ve never used that “c” word though.
Count the number of times James used those words…
(like a pig in muck).
Context Robert, context.
I say it’s bad. You seem happy accepting it.
James, you are trolling; taking “offensive” words and repeating them ad nauseum, being a smart-arse, adding nothing to the discussion. Leave out the “butter wouldn’t melt in mouth” crap; you’re trying to disrupt, put a spanner in the works, take the “high” ground; but your no more than a troll, stirring muck for your own perverse pleasure. Others here suggest that you “grow up”, b*gger off”, get a life and I’m sympathetic to their calls. James, you are boring us to death, we don’t trust what you say, we don’t enjoy your contributions, we don’t respect your point of view. What more can I say? The quality of your comments, dull and pointless in months gone by, has deteriorated into foul-mouthed sniping; have you no personal pride, no standards of behaviour? Puckish Rogue, for all his faults, is rarely offensive: you James, are unfailingly offensive. Grow. Up.
And enjoy the experience 🙂
Yep the trump is going to pay a heavy price for this with a bit of luck but probably not
“US President Donald Trump has attacked the German government’s approach to immigration, as he comes under pressure over his own crackdown on migrants.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44524873
What a scum trump is and many other governments are not too far behind including our one. Separating children from their parents – colonisation 101 – they’ve been doing it, like forever!
At no extra cost you get the hypocrisy of quoting the bible as a defense by the white house just to rub some salt in.
This is a deliberate and provocative action with wonderful examples of humanity like Jeff Sessions supporting it.
Parents are being told their kids are being taken away for a bath…..it’s dickensian shit.
Colbert was scathing about this practice in an opening monologue last week. Notice it’s the comedians actually standing up against this whereas the msm……mmmm.
Isn’t that what they were told about the showers at Auschwitz ?
Fair game now to call Trump et al Nazis
Since we’re all about the Godwins today I’ll admit to wondering how long it would be before Trump announced his final solution to the problem of the Mexican untermenschen.
Any mention of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin (pick your favourite) in reference to Trump is now fair game.
How can the Brits justify inviting him to visit Britain next month now?
And Prince Harry tells his Dad-in-law to “give Trump a chance”. What a chump!
Didn’t the Brits invent the concentration camp?
No.
The first use of concentration camps was the in the US in 1830’s, the Brits used them during the Boer War. Both countries, like their eugenics programs, preceded/inspired the Nazis use of them.
I used to think that too, until someone pointed out that the Brits were copying ACW prison camps.
Yes, interesting. And in turn inspired by the US ‘reservations’ for the region’s original inhabitants https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_camp
If these people are to be believed, and I have no personal expertise in the topic. they go back to the Assyrians. although the actual name only came into use about at the end of the nineteenth century.
“The idea of forced resettlement is nothing new; it was first recorded as being used by the ancient Assyrians, and was sporadically used throughout history, by such groups as the Ottomans and Russians. The term “concentration camp” was first coined by the Spanish in the late 19th century, when the Spanish army in Cuba rounded up civilians in these camps to fight guerrilla armies in the area. Shortly after this, the US used concentration camps in the Philippines.”
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-the-first-concentration-camps-were-a-British-invention-during-the-Boer-War
Who would have thought it?
Anne, According to a journalist/magazine?
Released just now by BBC world:
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-44503978/the-sound-of-migrant-children-separated-from-parents
I hope this turn of events marks the beginning of the end of the road for Trump and his evil team of despots and religious nuts.
I never thought the day would come when I would support the “lock em up and throw away the key” brigade but in this instance… bring it on!
I do believe even in NZ parents are separated from their children if they are incarcerated. So lets all calm down people. Obama did it too and nary a cry. Hypocrisy much!
Obama did it too and nary a cry.
citation needed.
Obama did it too and nary a cry.
Liar!
The trouble with your reasoning is that first it starts with the false premiss that these people entering the US from Mexico are doing something illegal. They are not. Seeking asylum is not an illegal activity.Trump has made it “illegal” contrary to the declaration of Human Rights and is blaming it on the Democrats. But in placing blame upon them he is telling lies.
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/11/17443198/children-immigrant-families-separated-parents
Whilst some unaccompanied teenagers were place in immigration detention whilst their cases were sorted out during the Obama administration there were no instances of young children being separated from their parents.
The extreme Right Wing media is already starting the narrative that the kids are “Crisis Actors” coached by people paid by the Democrats.
The same exact words they have also used to try and discredit the survivors of school shootings pushing for tougher gun laws.
Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions in his speech defending the policy of separating the children from their families used the very same bible verse that was popular among slave owners in the southern US States to support their right to own slaves.
Meanwhile, Trump himself has apparently been breaking US law every day by ripping up memos, screwing them up and tossing them in the bin after he has finished reading them. A whole team of document specialists is now having to retrieve them from the bins and reconstruct them so that they can be preserved and archived as required by US law.
What percentage of ‘mainstream news and events’ is completely scripted, would be impossible to estimate, or to comprehend…
Theatre and scripting runs long, wide and deep…
Giving of emotional energy, is what the the script writers require…
It gets worse. This is the kind of mentality afoot. If you think it’s bad, just try reading the comments at the end of the article. Makes kiwiblog’s poo-flinging monkeys look like sages:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-06-17/democrat-admits-child-migrant-crisis-was-kept-very-quiet-under-obama
I couldn’t read past the first few comments. These creatures (I was going to call them animals but that’s a gross insult to animals) are craven lunatics.
The full video of the separated children. I didn’t last till the end. Too distressing.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/18/us-border-families-separated-audio-recording
Will re-link at Daily Review. Must be seen by everybody.
True NZJester – full on sickos that crew.
Trump continues to show the worst side of humanity.
He and Session’s should be taken to the Hague for trial.
This is the old dead cat tactic every time prosecutors get closer to bringing him and his cronies to trial for treason the more outrageous his distractions,!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/359841/national-party-shock-at-government-scrapping-police-policies
‘The National Party has expressed shock after the government ditched two of its key police policies – and it is calling for them to be reinstated.
The then National government last year announced an aim of attending 98 percent of burglaries in 48 hours. It also set a target of having 95 percent of the population living within 25 kilometres of an all-hours police station.’
These seem to be the kind of policies that everyone would agree are good ideas and much needed so since Labours ditching them what are they replacing them with?
Having been witness to a few burglaries of the Dairy located next to me, that National Policy was nothing more then a policy.
So yeah, its a nothing burger to can a policy that was not worth the toilet paper National wrote it on.
Judith Collins probably wiped her backside with that policy to parfume it a bit. .
National, cutting police numbers to bare bones in order to ‘achieve a surplus’.
National, hard against crime in name only.
National, its not crime if it helps me.
Are you feeling ok Sabine, your replies today seem a bit different than usual
Your concern is noted PR.
and my comment regarding the Naitonal Party and Judith Collins is standard.
National Party still full of useless fucks, and Judith Collins is still full of shit and unlikable and undetectable.
I hope i have restored you faith in me.
Thats good to hear, we have different political beliefs but it doesn’t mean we can’t have concern for each other
Caring conservatism PR?
Like the P tests that unhomed people and the health and safety bullshit used as a smokescreen for the culprits at Pike River.
Take it somewhere else – the decks are awash with Gosman vomit already.
Obviously PR you are just another Auckland wanker.
50 kms between 24 hour manned police staions FFS.
Oh, I see thats only NORTH of the Bombay Hills.
PR your faux outrage with a gutted police force how were National ever going to meet that ridiculous target.
Low taxes means cheap nasty govt services.
But the uber wealthy like yourself can afford 24 hr private security on top of police priority.
“But the uber wealthy like yourself can afford 24 hr private security on top of police priority.”
Not even close to being uber wealthy 🙂 (depending on your definition of course) unless in comparison to the entire world but if you do that then most of us would probably be considered the 1%
PR you fell into my trap of exposing your crap.
You are for lower taxes then you provide security for your house self and family.
Yet the coalition is putting more cops on the beat yet you complain about an unachievable goal which if it were to be achieved other areas of policing would suffer.
This 98%within 48 hrs was a PR spin BS damage control for a party that pretends to be tough on crime.
“PR you fell into my trap of exposing your crap.”
– A trap so cunning only you can see it
“You are for lower taxes then you provide security for your house self and family.”
– Not sure what you mean, can you reword it please
“Yet the coalition is putting more cops on the beat yet you complain about an unachievable goal which if it were to be achieved other areas of policing would suffer.”
– I think more cops on the beat is a good as does Labour considering how many of the cops were budgeted under National but what “achievable goal” am I complaining about
“This 98%within 48 hrs was a PR spin BS damage control for a party that pretends to be tough on crime.”
– So why wouldn’t the COL carry through with it, its a vote and it’d shut National up pretty quickly
How did they get on with achieving those goals puckers?
Thats funny, whenever the impossibility of the COL managing to get anywhere close to planting a billion trees or building a 100 000 houses is mentioned I get told at least they tried
So I guess at least National which is more than what the COL is doing
However this is a chance for the COL to steal a march on National, take on the policies for themselves, implement them properly and then National will find it a lot harder to criticise
So you reckon they tried then do you puckers?
I reckon its not a left v right issue to the voters
“”The new Government’s come in, and perhaps the expectations that we’ve given them are too high.”
Yep – Labour made promises to their union backers – and now cannot follow thru – Instead they give Winny a billion dollars to holiday around the pacific.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/06/we-can-t-put-everything-alright-overnight-winston-peters-on-nurses-pay.html
“We’ve still got to keep a surplus for a rainy day down the stream, which is almost inevitable – especially if this Government goes on for two terms.”
I don’t think he meant to put it quite that way or is he saying this government is going to make a major blunder?
I wonder if Shane Jones personal slush fund could have been better utilised
You 2 created your own blog yet so you can chat amongst yourselves ?
What a bloody good idea.
What – and miss your insightful analysis and political arguments?
Oh – Im sorry – Babies !!!! happier now.
“I wonder if Shane Jones personal slush fund could have been better utilised”.
Tell me you are kidding? You are far to smart to have to ask that question aren’t you?
A better question would be
“I wonder if Shane Jones personal slush fund could have been utilised in a worse manner”
It actually is much harder to answer. You have to think quite hard before you can come up with enough ways to completely waste a billion dollars a year that are worse than Shane’s load of rubbish.
Labour can only blame themselves for over promising when they knew they wouldn’t be able to deliver
Mind you after 18 years of stable government it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out
Oh dry up James. Worthless!
Ahh – being rude to the poster – the last defence of someone who know that the comment is right and has nothing reasonable to answer with.
You know Im right.
James, in defence of my fellow ‘mac’.
You wrote, “Yep – Labour made promises to their union backers – and now cannot follow thru – Instead they give Winny a billion dollars to holiday around the pacific.”
Now let’s see how ‘worthless’ that is.
Firstly, it’s a political statement and could be attacked as such. References to the deputy prime minister as “Winny” and secondly the slur that a billion dollars budgeted for Pacific (note spelling with capital) foreign aid is being used as “holiday money” by Winston Peters show that your statement which I have quoted is a very political and partisan one.
Secondly, you said that Labour made promises to their union backers. What evidence have you to show that in the first place that actually happened (what promises, made when and to whom)? That is also a very political statement as it implies quid quo pro deals, and lack of governmental honesty and freedom of action.
Thirdly, you link a budgeted item of expenditure in foreign aid to non-fulfilment of alleged promises to union backers, as if it were a either/or arrangement. Your purpose there was I believe to slur Labour and Winston Peters both, as well as the unions.
ianmac says yours was a worthless statement. I would agree.
Feeling hurt by being told to “dry up”? Not the worst injunction you could have received to stop inflicting such arrant nonsense upon the Standard’s readers.
You show your bias with commenting on ” References to the deputy prime minister as “Winny”
Yet fail to see you commenting on National members being called everything right up to “cunt” – see last nights post.
i did not see that comment, but for once i agree with you.
Cunts are beautiful warm things, nurturing, loving, welcoming (well most of the times). The National Party and its supporters are non of this.
You’re right. I didn’t comment. I failed to see it. Bad form.
But, saying they do it too is not a secure argument.
And accusing me of failure to do something, is also not an argument to counter my critique of your lack of argument.
I also have a policy that I choose to respond to those I choose. I do not respond to everything or everyone with whom I disagree or agree. That way is futility.
You’re lucky. 🙂
Thanks Mc 1. James is really just playing silly beggars. I think that he only intent to draw as many responses as he can regardless of any fact or valid opinion. For me why bother to respond to him/her?
You’re both right and wrong James – so far right Genghis Khan would be ashamed of you, and consistently in error about everything except barbecue.
James your right of right.
Why don’t you set up your own right wing Web site.
Instead of all the right wing cuckoos trying to take over this site with your stubborn unyielding Dogma!
DHBs says no more money would be put on the table for nurses.
Peters points to the Government’s Budget Responsibility Rules.
Interestingly, when it comes to the Budget Responsibility Rules and expenditure, Labour thought they had the balance about right.
However, it looks as if members of the Public Services Association (PSA), Inland Revenue (IRD) and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (Mbie) along with teachers and nurses disagree.
It seems the realisation of Labour’s campaign rhetoric is starting to sink in.
I don’t think people were expecting Labour to put everything right overnight, but clearly they were expecting more than what’s currently on offer. Thus, it’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.
On a side note, National aren’t offering anything better, which will help Labour stand their ground as they know voters will have nowhere else to turn.
The problem is the nurses and doctors want to capture the health service for their own benefit and resent and oppose being managed. People argue they should be “paid what they are worth” without considering that the real skill lies in managing them. They are quite manipulative too, with their carefully cultivated image as selfless souls working long hours in a vocation to ease the suffering of the ill and disabled. It needs strong and pervasive management to cut through this cant and keep these pious do-gooders acting in the public interest. More powerful and well resourced management is what is required here !
As Cindy said nz just has to come round to her way of thinking or labour has failed and they will be a one term government Looking odds on bet this will be the case
lol, our resident rightwingers really have an issue today with rudeness.
OHMYGOSH, someone please pass the smelling salts for the dears. Someone must loosen their ties, lest they faint. Poor things.
Sabine –
Are you OK with women being called “chubby” or “trout”
Or being called a “cock sucker” should someone disagree with you.
Perhaps you dont like a minister – do you think its OK to call them a cunt?
Perhaps you should have an issue with it as well.
After all the behaviour you tolerate is the behaviour you endorse.
“cock sucker” – an indication of some level of misogyny if uttered by a heterosexual male, or just another of those “go to” put downs that people just kinda thoughtlessly let trip off their tongue (eg – motherfucker etc)?
“cunt” – hmm. Good cunt or bad cunt? Cunt of the desirable variety or something else entirely?
Apparently all cultures use references to genitalia as put downs. Sometimes it gets a bit amusing/enlightening. So for example, the “go to” put down for a man in some African culture (I forget which one but it featured in some Stephen Fry programme about language) is to suggest that the man is hung like a donkey. 🙂
I thought “cock sucker” was more a homophobic put down rather than a misogynistic one. I guess on some level it could be both, but it was certainly to imply that a man was gay when i used to use it in my homophobic youth.
James, i have been quite open and honest about my feelings about the current lot of National Party members and their enablers.
You can use what ever word for me or anyone else for that matter that you see befitting. I still think that ugly – the insides you know the soul heart and mind – fits Judith Collins, and vile – as in her every action and word – fits Paula Bennett.
I stand by that.
As for chubby – i fit that description. Even tho, when much younger i was called a board with warts :).
A trout? cooked with lemon butter? blue – cooked in whitewine, or rather with almond butter? Ha, so hard to decide. But then I like meat :), and its not good friday. so what ever suits you.
Cock sucker? I have sucked my fair share of cocks, and can’t really see the insult in it, i might add that the sucked cocks did not complain, so again, where is the insult?
the thing is James, as a women of a certain age, a women who grew up poor, was assaulted at home by her stepfather, who lived as a transient teenager on the street as that was safer than living at home, i have been called my fair share of things in my life.
Heck, one lady in NZ even commented how ‘lady like’ i looked when i wore a nice dress and heels to an official dinner.
So no i don’t care. Judith Collins, Paula Bennett, Nick Smith, Simon Bridges, Bill English, John Key, Brownlee, and the other assorted clowns are vile and very very ugly, unlikable, and should be unelectable. And unless you can show me where one of these people have done something to better the life of someone else – they clearly don’t give a shit about this country other then it benefitting them – i might change my mind.
I hope that clears it up for you dear.
Ouch! James: you’ve just been masticated (not a rude word, fyi).
They do give a shit about helping the country Sabine, just not in the way you think is best, hand up versus hand out etc.
Don’t you mean “push down”?
please show one example of the National Party giving a ‘hand up’ to any person in NZ that is not called Bill English, Paula Bennet, Oravida Collins, Nick Smith, Brownlee, Amy Adams, John ‘State House’ Key and any other of the National Party buffoons.
And no ‘zip it sweety’ ain’t gonna cut it.
And while you are at it, could you explain to me why National never got rid of that ‘socialism on steroids’ called working for families?
Is it because silly Farmer blokes with signs calling J. Adern a ‘pretty communist’ need it to feed their 8 children that they have despite obviously not making enough money to afford these 8 kids. Or is having children one can not afford only a crime against humanity when non white Farmer blokes and their wifes do eeet?
Alan, James! Challenging someone who has plainly stated they’re “fully out of snark” seems … foolhardy; are you both soft in the head?
Right Alan, this whole “hand up” thing should be pretty easy for you to explain and please include examples from the previous government where it was put into practice, funded properly, and has the ongoing funding/support for long term beneficial impact.
Or was that a random RWKJ bs throw away line which, has no real substance or reasoning behind it.
Whilst you might be OK being called those names (and for whatever reason you are OK with it) – others might not be.
There will be plenty of women out there who get very upset being called chubby, or blokes who dont like being called cock suckers.
Cunt is not a nice name – you might be ok being called one – but others are not. Would you be happy with other people calling your family members that?
Perhaps we can start using the term for Jacinda – after all if you are OK for it to be used about Key – why not allow people call Jacinda that if they so feel like it?
In recent weeks your comments have contained more instances of these ‘offensive’ words than any other single poster.
A prediction: James will continue to incorporate these words into his comments at every opportunity – he believes it’s a strong ‘argument’, and his ‘duty’ to criticise offensive words and comments on this site. I guess that will keep him busy, which seems important to him.
again, i agree with you. We can call Jacinda or other women that, and i guess more then one National Party member, enabler and sponsor has called her that word the night National lost the Election.
John Key however will never be a cunt, he will always just be a selfish hair pulling young girl tormenting limp prick.. I am all for equality of the sexes. There.
Don’t go down that road, your false idea of a do good liberal with ‘political correctness’ is lost on me.
I don’t care about your feefee’s no more then you care about feeling sleeping in cars and raising their children in vans. I don’t care about Paula Bennetts feelings, if she is sad being called a vile human being, she can try to be a better one. Same for Judith Collins, she could try justice for all instead of just for those that give her money. Mr. Bridges could try to get bridges build instead of squandering time and money of others. Nick Smith could just go and retire. Brownlee can also retire, and the National Party could just find a soul, a heart, some guts and maybe be electable without friends. Not holding my breath tho.
But your whinging about how you hurt because the National Party is called on their bullshit, the national party member being called out for the callouls soulless ghouls they are? Nah, not buying it.
Mind you could try harder. I am having fun here.
But remember, there is not one word you can call me – a women, or a poor person, or a homeless person, or an abused person, that i have not heard, and that the National Party and its enablers and sponsors have not uttered themselves in order to score some cheap points with those that are suffering from white economic anxiety and who would like to go back to the 1850’s when people knew their place.
“John Key however will never be a cunt, he will always just be a selfish hair pulling young girl tormenting limp prick.. ”
James ???: crikey!!
And the worst of all those epithets for Sir John Key is ‘hair-pulling’.
Because it was a repeated, bullying, power-strutting action from a man to whom empathy and propriety are foreign concepts.
What future property insurance?
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/359931/wellington-woman-shocked-at-300-percent-insurance-hike
i guess next will be people living near the cost and flood plains.
I can see certain areas of akl become ‘uninsurable’ not because the people don’t want to pay for it, but essentially are priced out of it.
and as the pool decreases the less and less viable the model becomes.
yep.
it’s gonna be fun when the multimillion hovels on the coast line of akl, wlgtn, etc etc will not be insurable.
That’s when the gnashing the teeth and the pulling of the hair begins, and maybe some will even realise just how stupid they have been.
i mean i spend that much money on couple of arborists to give my fruit trees a trim. But at least these trees bring forth kai, and much of it. Much better investment. House ….worth nothing, fruit trees? Priceless.
Imagine what that is going to do to rents let alone peoples ability to own a home.
And add to that Wellington Regional Council has proposed a 6.7 per cent average rates increase across the region coupled with Wellington City Council’s 3.9 percent rates increase.
People will be wanting and will require far larger pay increases now.
i guess that the houses that become uninsurable due to flooding etc etc will become slums of last resort and the rich will still have enough money to buy what ever property there is to buy. As for rents going up, they don’t need a reason to increase rents. They can buy law raise rent every 6 month willy nilly.
Going off the rate of that increase, far more will find they can’t afford to insure their home. As many more will find they can’t afford to buy one due to the increasing related costs of owning one.
And as landlord costs are continually increasing higher than the rate of inflation, it’s no wonder landlords are forced to increase rents.
yes, pity the poor landlord, who has to increase prices to continue making a profit on his houses that are owned by the bank.
pity pity pity
not.
Pity has nothing to do with it. Merely stating a fact. And the realisation of that.
the poor landlord can sell any and all houses other then the one he lives in and try work for a living.
Problem solved.
The landlord has probably already worked quite hard to get themselves into a situation to afford investment property – is that a crime to you Sabine?
Do you have a problem with people working hard, being smart and having a few assets to show for it?
Sounds like it
Most people buy an investment property by borrowing against the capital gains from their home. That’s not work. There are plenty of people working bloody hard who can’t even pay the rent. There is huge generation inequality here as older people who already own squeeze young people out of the market. Are you OK with people making money from OTHER peoples hard work?
Boo hoo, virtually everyone I know who has accumulated a bit of wealth has worked bloody hard and often taken business risks, take your concerns to councils and get more land freed up for development, that is where the problem lies.
So they worked hard, so fucking what. Lots of people work hard..
Nope it is not Alan.
But, if the Landlord finds him overextended as due to rising cost he can not maintain his various mansions, then commercial interest would behoove it that he starts selling properties to better his income streem.
I think they call it “Free Market’ in National Party parlance.
Also, it helps to think first before buying properties in so called Million Dollar Suburbs if these are located in a flood plain, earth quake prone zone, or near a beach that might rise several meters of the next few decades.
Just because someone made an investment does not mean that person is entitled to income from it. If he/she is lucky the investment pays off, if not, Bugger.
repeat after me, Free Market. Free Market. Free Market. 🙂
yes agree with all of that, what is your point?
There are the immediate impacts on things such as rents and property values etc but my thoughts were more towards the systemic….the implications of a failed property insurance industry could potentially collapse the current economic paradigm…..some may welcome that, then again what fills the void may be worse.
I don’t think we have yet to play a requiem for the insurance company.
There are already a great number of people that don’t have insurance on their houses, their cars, or their persons, simply because they don’t have the money. They have enough to serve the mortgage and pay either electricity or food. Never mind the roof that needs fixing.
The ones that can offset Insurance costs as an expense against income – which it would be in the Rentiers scenario will load the cost over to the tenant. IF the tenant can’t afford it, that tenant will move, another one will move in, rinse repeat until the kingdom comes.
The houses that will be uninsurable, will become slums, slowly but surely. Still bringing income, but at literally no cost, and no government – regardless of their stripes and dots – will do anything as at that stage housing will have become so rare that any dog kennel will do.
The favelas of South Americas, or the slums of Asia, will come to NZ at some stage. And the likes of our current National Party enablers will have no issue with it, they will yell, Free Market provides, Free Market provides.
Bank of England is alarmed about the increase of personal debt
So, how is NZ’s private debt bubble going?
70K in the hole on education. Wide skill set for a brave new world. Who’s hiring?
What a relief !
With Donald Trump cruelly separating babies from their mothers, as wealthy people do, our Trolls will be delighted and distracted.
They will be petting and patting Donald all over his incredible body and purple heart. Melania will get roughed up of course. She is just a waste to be shat upon by the Evil trolls.
Think of the rewards that Gosman and James will get ! Evil is so rewarding. As all trolls know.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/359959/inquiry-into-spying-claims-extended-to-all-govt-agencies
Thompson & Clarke SSC investigation expands.
Today, Mr Hughes announced that the inquiry would now cover all government agencies.
He said he was concerned about what has surfaced in the inquiry to date and new information now available about other agencies.
The fresh material came to light in official information requests to the Ministry of Primary Industries and the Security Intelligence Service
Good ,another example of the rot that set in under national.
I wonder if Slater or his mates involved as he was in the ‘security industry’ before blogging and would know of lot of the principals
Good morning The AM Show how would trump like it if those Mokopunas were his own Mokopunas this action of taking mokos from there parents and lock them in cages creates a whole lot of trauma they will all resent USA its unhumane don’t blame the demarcats Don its the changes to your laws you made that have cause this what’s that the rest of the World has to live up to the standards you set but the USA can do what it wants.If your wrong just get over it and change your law/attitude.
The changes made by Labour to the NZ House ownership laws is what a responsible government does you make plans for a law and when you see those changes need to be refine that’s the wise why to handle that situation not like national who would deny there was a problem and ram the law through parliament and hide the problems it creates.
ECO MAORI Says yes to all the council having a fuel tax carbon tax you want to know why because national have denied human caused global warming for 9 years and this lack of leadership /blocking on climate change has left all the councils with a lot of catching up to mitigate climate change problems we face now. Yes I know its going to be hard on the common person but with some senseable thinking I’m sure we will survive the fuel taxs better that trying to survive a Papatuanukue with a extremely bad environment. Ka kite ano P.S the sandflys did not like my words over the last few days days they provided a swam of a escort on my way back to Auckland
The AM Show ECO MAORI Says we need to integrate OUR elderly in our society may be some sort of employment with the main goal of getting the elderly out of their houses once and a while I Back Mark Sainsbury move to get people to know that our valuerable elderly are being taken advantage of Ka pai e hoa some people just can’t help themselves and just pray on the elderly wallets idiots
Kai pai Paddy Grower the story on the government using the private investigation company to spy on innocent Kiwis Ka kite ano
This link is to trump
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12073187
Here some music to
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6ad4MH7fMLs Ana to kai Ka kite ano