In the context of the Ministry of Education’s recent announcements about Communities of Online Learning this makes an interesting read. The October 2015 National Study of Online Charter Schools was conducted by the University of Washington, Stanford University, and Mathematica Policy Research, and provides a thorough analysis of the operations of (American) online charter schools, their policy environments and impacts on student achievement.
Being even more crap than an average US education is truly lame. I wonder whether the problem is online learning per se, or whether right wing incompetence and malice is the bigger issue.
In either event, I wonder how much the National Party took in bribes to inflict it on our kids.
A few weeks before the scheduled start of term, a small group of wealthy industry leaders who grew up in the city offered to plug the hole in the education budget with millions of their own philanthropic dollars. Foster was thrilled, but soon the donors wanted more control over how the funds were spent, and they insisted on having oversight of the district’s fiscal health. They made their support contingent on establishing a new system of ‘charter’ schools (publicly-funded but privately managed), which have become a cornerstone of efforts by billionaire philanthropists to reform the national education system.
The strings attached to the donors’ money weren’t attractive, but no support was forthcoming from the state, and retaining control over schools wouldn’t matter if they were bankrupt or closed. So Foster agreed to meet their conditions.
And we wonder why this government keeps underfunding education and other essential government services.
A great read on this proposed ‘land wars’ commeration by Moana Jackson. if you want to understand this issue from a Māori perspective then this is a good starter. And yep other Māori may have other positions on it.
I personally find Moana Jackson’s views align with mine – in some ways I wish I could vote for him in a Māori electorate and then I remember what often happens to tangata whenua when they get in the big house and I’m so glad he is removed and above party parlimentary politics.
As some have noted, they were “sovereignty wars”, which more aptly recognises them as colonising wars to take power.
Bingo!
That’s exactly what they were. The English capitalists saw land and resources that they didn’t own/control and set about taking it for themselves. And, of course, the dispossession caused Māori to look for jobs in the capitalists businesses that they never needed to do before thus increasing available manpower for exploitation.
“you’ll probably need it”
I don’t think this is the worst thing.
The worst problem we are likely to have is that the water supply will be interrupted where the supply pipelines cross faults.
Then we will have a hospital without any water. The Council refuse to build a reservoir to supply water to the hospital in an emergency. Every other Council in the country does it. The Wellington City Council would far rather spend the ratepayer’s money on the ridiculous cycle lanes and on mad plans for extending the runway at the airport or bringing back the trams.
We might have a hospital building after an earthquake but it won’t be able to provide any medical treatment.
What a Fuck up – coming to us too, soon with our Americanisation/Western ideology of disaster relief that if you combine with CV’s The “Intellectual Yet Idiot” Class – explains the problem …
“Red Cross Built Exactly 6 Homes For Haiti With Nearly Half A Billion Dollars In Donations”
All the road links will be shut for at least a couple of weeks. Will make it very difficult to get much relief into the city, except via boat (and the wharf etc are likely to be pretty smashed up).
This aligns very much with my idea that up to 85% of all crime is preventable if you get in early enough. A brave initiative and one that could transform Aboriginal life:
Declining NZ – 1st world to 5th? Stop the rot! Stop the rort!
Ambulance service declining, serious.
Legal aid services declining, non-existent in some areas.
Under the previous Liberal State govt Victoria went through a long and bitter paramedic/ambo dispute. Ugly and totally unnecessary.
Speaking from first hand knowledge of the people who do this very demanding work, work that results in the highest family break-up rates, the very high depression and suicide rates, covert substance abuse and PTSD rates … I know there is a LOT that needs addressing in this area.
No matter how calm and professional the ambo appears on the scene, it is not possible for them to avoid the psychic imprints created by dealing constantly with others in pain and profound distress.
And low pay rates merely compound the harm, reinforcing a sense of being under-valued. Their organisations absolutely need better resourcing in order to mitigate the stress. All this is well known and understood.
What a day to be a kiwi. Our leader in charge of UN world security in Americas most important city currently facing new terror. As well as managing the superpowers after escalation that could lead to World War in Syria.
Ok those comparisons are a bit unfair considering they never made it to the PM position. Personally I think all of those people could perform better than Key on that stage.
So, just to clarify, you think Goff, Shearer, Cunliffe or Little would perform better on the world then John Key who has proven to be able mix, negotiate and make friends with people in the highest positions of power on the world stage
I know you’re left and I know you hate John Key but get some perspective, John Key is a proven quantity (mind you Goff did good work on the FTA with China so maybe he could make a decent fist of it) but if you took of your blinkers you’d see the john Key is the best person available to do this
My blinkers? Has it occurred to you that it might be you who is unwilling to think critically. You’ve just written a puff piece and I don’t know if you’re taking the piss or doing your best to be a defender.
Yes, I think the Labour leaders could perform better in terms of things like leadership, diplomacy and character on the world stage than the current. Being able to mix and be nice with world leaders is something the PM is very good at. I think people want a bit more than that though, and they might ask what our glorious leader has achieved on the world stage in 8 years.
Once again you demonstrate one of the main issues of the left in NZ and that is underestimating John Key, I get that you don’t like him but acknowledging that hes very good at politics doesn’t mean you support him
When the left underestimates John Key he just cries all the way to another election win
But its ok because you got a good hit on him and called him a lapdog
No he’s not good at politics – the business is governing, not lying about governing. Key gets a 2 out of 10 for governing – tyrants that systematically shoot their citizens are a 1. If Key were not utter shit I’d support him – back when he was trying to get elected and made some promising speeches on housing I thought the Gnats had finally found someone with a shred of talent. No such luck.
I’m not underestimating him at all. Being a lapdog gives an appearance of good politics as he gets on well with all rich people but no actual good politics.
PR – Key is a toadying minor member of the Wall St. club, nothing more nothing less. History will not be kind to him as all his ‘niceties’ will be recorded as nothing more than deceit, in the course of duty to his masters.
I think it’s more that the qualities you admire in key are the qualities that some despise. The key to key is that he has normalised outright lying, pretend caring,and abhorent behaviour/slurs/non-apologies. He is the most disgusting and embarrasing PM weve ever had imo.
How do you know more people disagree than agree? The low voter turnout makes it impossible to know for sure, as you’ll attribute it to satisfaction with the system while others point to alienation from it.
There are both rational and irrational reasons to dislike John Key – as there are to uncritically admire the worst PM NZ has ever had. So what’s your deal PR, are you having his baby?
DUDE!!!! a spades a spade, I don’t see any of those labour leaders mincing a catwalk, telling rape jokes, planking, pony tail pulling, acting a buffoon on prime time US TV or a multitude of other, what a fuckwit actions by John the clown Key.
Do you think any of the world leaders will take the clown PM seriously at anything.
Dumb kiwi’s may think the sun shines out his arse like you, but the world has quite a different opinion to his parties policies and his in particular actions.
I know PR your one of a few lonely battlers for National and John but for fucks sake man, he’s a class clown admit it.
The 2017 election hasn’t happened yet and John key lost the leaders debate in 2014. Liar John key wouldn’t be where he is today if it hadn’t been for his dirty politics, abuse of the PM’s office and a lying, complicit msm Puckish Rogue.
No, I mean when future historians look at Key’s legacy of:
1. Throwing away the excellent fiscal position Clark left us
2. Failing to get the flag changed
3. Botching the Christchurch rebuild and failing to deliver a 21st century-city ready to face future energy shortages, by failing to institute basic minimum energy efficiency requirements
4. Selling off SoEs
5. Stopping contributions to the superannuation fund
6. Locking hundreds of thousands of NZers out of the housing market
7. Failing to address poverty, ensuring that we have locked in decades of increased health spending
Those seem like the biggies that will have impacts that future historians will be chastising this government for.
I’m sure there are other things; I didn’t even touch on the environment.
National is coming to the end of its 3rd term and they’re still as popular as when they started, obviously the voter considers them to be a good government.
Then you come here and read some of the stuff and you’d think you’ve either ended up in a alternative dimension where NZ is ruled by a crazed tyrant or on some parody site.
“telling rape jokes”
Citation? I did see a video were other people were making rape references towards the PM, but I’ve never seen/heard him make one.
“planking”
Citation? I saw a picture of Max Key planking, not the PM though.
“acting a buffoon on prime time US TV ”
Citation? Unless you are talking about reading a David Letterman top 10 list? In which case he is keeping good company Barack Obama (at least twice).
“or a multitude of other, what a fuckwit actions by John the clown Key”
Any other ACTUAL examples?
DUDE!!!! It looks like your spade may not be a spade afterall…
Pulls hair of young girls (plural) caught on film and you love him.
Panama papers, (more to come) and stuffed up NZ reputation. Got caught lying and you love him.
Massive amounts of corporate welfare and you love him
Declining water and land quality, but shusshhhh we not aloud to talk about that…Key says nothing, and you love him.
No ministerial responsibility, so stuck a collection of piss poor ministers who think nothing of braking the law, but all you need Bob is for the P.M. to just smile and you love him.
You’re wasting your breath, Adam. As Bomber Bradbury is so fond of saying, Key could tear the head off a kitten live on television, and he’d only go up in the estimation of people like Bob. Some folk are just doing far too nicely under our current administration, and perish the thought the gravy train is derailed by paltry considerations like… I don’t know, not being a complete bastard?
… john Key is the best person available to do this…
Are they going to be doing some currency trading? Blathering about whose shirt is gay or which celebs they’d like to fuck? It says something pretty terrible about NZ if John Key is the best person available for serious negotiations at the UN.
“No longer swimmable: A community mourns its lost river”
extract…
“The Selwyn River was once one of the world’s greatest trout fisheries.
In the 1960s, the trout population reached 65,000, enough to stock every river in the South Island.
There are now just several hundred trout in the river. Those remaining are thin and inedible due to the river’s health.
The river’s problems were the result of “poor incremental decisions” over several decades, North Canterbury Fish & Game environmental adviser Scott Pearson said.
Intensive farming had become too widespread in the area, and too much water was being extracted for irrigation.”
We are destroying the ecology of our nation, and sooner or later we will find out that it is the same ecology within which we need to live. (Contaminated aquifers, anyone)
I grew up swimming and fishing in many of those rivers in the 70’s and 80’s as I kid I think back and they always seemed pure and crystal clear, you could see the rocks ..it was pristine i’m talking the Waitaki river area.
It was also mainly sheep and grain farming back then. Says something doesn’t it.
I read that article and my heart sank. It’s like watching the foresters clear the amazon and no one can do anything about it. Unless they take proactive action and that’s the saddest part.
Farmers are doing fuck all, saying they are, and screwing us all.
Well, the MOU with the Greens was a good start but the relationship needs to go much further. Labour cannot and will not achieve electoral success on its own any more. There have been too many changing political parameters over recent times that have clouded the judgement of a shallower and more transient population. JK and his govt. can continue to be as incompetent as we have thus far witnessed and it is unlikely to dent their overall popularity.
As Bryan Gould postulates, Labour need to show a far greater willingness to respond to National with a totally different value system that means something to people in this day and age. In my view the Greens and Labour need to barnstorm the appropriate ‘new’ values message then use it [loudly] day in and day out at every opportunity. They need to show how those values would be applied to every aspect of the voters’ life and every issue that arises so voters can start to understand what will be different under a Lab/Green government.
At the moment they don’t see a hell of a lot of difference so its largely a case of…. better the devil you know etc. It is a brave exercise because there will be major efforts by the govt. and their media lackeys to ridicule both parties, but if they don’t do it they can kiss goodbye to any chance of success next year.
Dead right Anne. “At the moment they don’t see a hell of a lot of difference ‘……. believe it or not that’s because there isn’t a hell of a lot of difference. It’s the very problem we’ve been banging on about for months. Many Labour supporters on this site don’t seem to be able to understand this.
Little and co. have to stop being like dogs barking at passing cars and do far more than just trying to be the ‘softer’ side of neoliberalism.
Dead right Anne. “At the moment they don’t see a hell of a lot of difference ‘……. believe it or not that’s because there isn’t a hell of a lot of difference. It’s the very problem we’ve been banging on about for months.
For some of us it’s actually been years. The Labour leadership continue to fail to listen.
+100 Anne and Garibaldi…imo they need to extend an olive branch of peace to Hone Harawira and the Mana/Internet Party…and bring it in to the same MOU .
This would really attract the attention of voters and the working class/underclass in New Zealand!
….but I doubt Labour would be willing to do this….which means to me it is really NOT a working class party for grassroots /flaxroots NZers but has turned into a Liberal Party
Doesn’t help that Hone is trying to snuggle up to National’s Maori party that will eat up the Mana party for it’s own survival, like the Nats did to Act. Would have thought Hone should be talking to the Lab/Greens, who have given an open invitation to any party to join them to change the government, instead of the Maori party that have no intention of leaving the Nats, despite Hone saying he won’t support anyone that supports National. So what’s Hone going to do? the onus is on him.
Jeeze you can talk rubbish sometimes. You have no knowledge, no insight and no clue – but you are good at making up shit to fit your labour agenda so that’s something I spose of labour are your god.
Andrew doesn’t come across like that, over the last two years of attempting to get that angry andy label to stick, it really hasn’t.
at all mate.
In fact he’s quite calm under pressure, when his seat collapsed twice I saw a bloke who took it in his stride.
Charisma, err ive seen more from a dead fish, but there’ a glimmer, you couldn’t say Helen has Charisma, more like the matron you dare not piss off. So that’s not everything.
keys clown Charisma’s starting to wear thin though now mate, I mean there’s only so long people will support his easy going couldn’t give a fuck ways.., swings and round-abouts.
Is Keys prefered PM status still at those all time rock star highs mate? Or has Farrar been spending more time with his Nazi beliefs and running the tax and ratepayers joke.
Where does the little fuck get time to sleep I wonder..
As Bryan Gould postulates, Labour need to show a far greater willingness to respond to National with a totally different value system that means something to people in this day and age.
But you wouldn’t want to ‘scare the horses’ would you, by presenting options that ‘swing voting middle class NZ’ would find controversial, unorthodox or plain unacceptable.
The best sales people are utterly authentic in their belief in the product or service that they are trying to sell.
Labour MPs are capitalists, they believe in free markets and in free trade, they believe that NZ cannot afford NZ super without drastic cut backs.
So that’s what they have to try and sell, because they certainly don’t believe in “democratic socialism”, as stated in the party’s own constitution, no more.
Yes, that’s a real stumbling block to being successful in selling a concept or product, if you don’t believe what you’re promoting is any good then you’ll never be successful.
Which then raises the question why do left wing people support Labour?, they’re obviously not the party that’s going to promote what they want?
Which then raises the question why do left wing people support Labour?, they’re obviously not the party that’s going to promote what they want?
Well, I have been asking the same questions, and it is an unpopular subject to broach with some, because as far as I can see: old time loyalty/lesser of 2 evils.
“Which then raises the question why do left wing people support Labour?, they’re obviously not the party that’s going to promote what they want?”
I think most don’t (which is evident in Labour’s election result). From what I’ve gathered most of them no longer partake for that very reason (they see no difference between the two).
I support labour because I believe a union man like Andrew will do the right thing when he is PM. For working people, and in fact all NZ’ers.
I think he will and has the right attitude to make a fair NZ and keep the Greens better idea’s rolling along and holding their more whack idea’s in check.
But you wouldn’t want to ‘scare the horses’ would you, by presenting options that ‘swing voting middle class NZ’ would find controversial, unorthodox or plain unacceptable.
Well, that’s a view that is less acceptable to most Labour members than you are prepared to admit CV. The so-called middle of the road voters can’t be completely ignored, but my argument (and Bryan Gould’s I think) is that Lab and Greens need to re-think their values strategy in such a way they are seen to represent a whole new approach to governance that will hopefully encourage voters to contemplate voting for them again. So far, it hasn’t happened and it won’t happen unless the two parties work as one for this coming election. It will mean some concessions on both sides of course. For starters, the Greens have grown their polling numbers since the last election but they may have to be prepared to sacrifice any further growth in the interest of electoral success. Labour also will have to concede some of their voters to the Greens and not try to lure them back.
I have long viewed Lab. and the Greens as an electoral entity and that should be the way of the future. It’s time they publicly acted as such (both parties can still maintain their individual personalities) so that the rest of the population starts to recognise them in the same way. If, and when it happens the media story will start to change and that will have an impact on the voters’ perceptions.
Anne I hope your idea of ” concessions ” encompasses working the electorate seat by seat to get an optimal result for the Left? Because, like Key, I believe we have to do what it takes to win. It’s no use pussyfooting around doing otherwise and if the MOU doesn’t include this then I think it wiil be fruitless.
Anne I hope your idea of ” concessions ” encompasses working the electorate seat by seat to get an optimal result for the Left?
Totally.
I’m on record here more times than I can remember and have stated my view at in-house Labour meetings… telling them “to stop bloody pussyfooting around” and say and do what they mean dah de dah de dah. 😈
I know and you know Anne that the Labour membership is often far to the Left of the Parliamentary Labour Party. The issue is that the PLP think that the general membership are largely unrealistic and uninformed about what ‘mainstream NZ’ would be prepared to accept in terms of left wing policy.
Yes, CV. I know. But the PLP is getting closer to the membership little by little – pun wasn’t intended but appropriate. I’ve listened carefully to the rhetoric coming from some who were regarded as being to the right of the party and have picked up an encouraging move back towards the membership. In one case in particular, I’ve been so pleased with their recent reflections that I’m once again a strong supporter of the MP concerned.
So legalisation of medicinal marijuana or cannabis is NOT the problem for the elderly and those in pain in New Zealand ….but corporate capture BIG PHARMA prescription opiods is! ( are New Zealand politicians also captured ?)
….BIG PHARMA is a multi billion dollar pain killer industry and it opposes the legalisation of medicinal marijuana or medicinal cannabis!
THE PROBLEM in the USA:
‘Americans consume vast majority of the world’s opioids’
While the elderly New Zealanders and others in pain suffer because this government and Peter Dunne has denied them legal access to medicinal cannibas…there are political lobby groups involved and big Bucks..pharmaceutical companies and the alcohol industry
‘Opioid use decreases in US states that legalize medical marijuana – study’
“New research shows a decline in the use of opioid painkillers in US states that allow people to treat pain with medical marijuana, affirming the fears of Big Pharma who have been vigorously seeking to frustrate efforts to legalize the herb….
“Given the growing opioid overdose epidemic, campaigning against medical marijuana is morally repugnant.”
“We cannot allow prescription drug companies to block the legalization of #medicalcannabis http://huff.to/2clBjZY”
“Addictive painkiller profiteer donates $500k to fight cannabis legalization in #Arizona http://on.rt.com/7oux”
…”Insys isn’t the first pharmaceutical company to be found bankrolling anti-marijuana legislation though with a number of alcohol and pharmaceutical companies “heavily” invested in such laws in a number of states, according to The Intercept.
The Chinese will practice their normal approach of focussing on making profitable business, staying out of the politics, and paying whatever back handers are required to keep an operation running and in the black.
I have a feeling that Mugabe and his cronies are going to find such an approach quite acceptable.
“An insider in the tobacco industry said the Chinese company would be paying a hefty rental for the land they are now using to the “political” men who now own the farms.”
Here is the letter signed by Trump himself, which the Trump/Pence campaign delivered to his “pro-life” base of support this week, released by the anti-abortion, forced birth organization that styles itself, perversely, as the “Susan B. Anthony List:”
I am committed to:
Nominating pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Signing into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would end painful late-term abortions nationwide.
Defunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions…
Making the Hyde Amendment permanent law to protect taxpayers from having to pay for abortions.
The Susan B. Anthony list is an extremist, anti-woman group that opposes a woman’s right to an abortion in all circumstances and also opposes many forms of contraception.
“By championing child care, paid maternity leave, and over-the-counter birth control
In an attempt to chip away at Hillary Clinton’s double-digit lead with women voters, Donald Trump is ditching some aspects of GOP orthodoxy and embracing feminist stances on contraception, child care and paid leave….
( Trump on the abortion issue is still not good however…In this day and age of USA poverty, world over- population and womens rights …abortion should be a woman’s choice and safe medical abortion should be state funded and free as it is in most Western countries
…presumably Trump would support the ‘morning after pill’ as a method of contraception and over the counter
….but this is not enough for unwanted pregnancies later term, which for various reasons women and girls did not terminate earlier…women should not be forced into the desperation and dangers of backstreet abortions)
Also keep in mind, that neither of the blokes will ever be pregnant, nor will they ever take the pill, nor will they ever risk their lives by giving birth, nor will they ever have to choose between career and child rearing or home making if you prefer that term, nor will they ever be told by a Pharmacist that that over the counter pill, or plan b. or condoms, will not be handed out cause its against the religious believes of the pharmacist who happens to believe that the Pill is an abortifact and that every sexual encounter should lead to blessings from god until the uterus falls out or the incubator dies in childbirth.
but then he retracted that comment, maybe he mis – spoke or maybe his daughter told him to shut up, or maybe someone told him that a whole lot of women in the US have abortions every year and how would you punish them? Murder 1? or like the Lady in the ling below – both fetizide and murder? Ahh, i am sure tomorrow he will say something else.
and do keep in mind, that should Trump die the next in line to the Presidency is Mike Pence. Even tho, no one really likes to think about that. Cause ….Hillary. OR something.
But hey nothing of that matters, cause Trump is gonna defund Planned Parenthood, the one clinic all over the US that offers affordable healthcare to women who otherwise may not have the funds to get it.
Cause nothing says i ma gonna love me some wimmin then taking away their health care provider and the place that offers sexual health care. And his women will still get their abortions should they need them, cause they have the cash and the passports to leave the country.
Fuck sake, be a Trumpie all you want, but don’t pretend that anyone running on the republican ticket will offer anything to women in regards to healthcare.
For every 12 women who will vote for Hillary Clinton, at least ten women will vote for Trump, according to the latest LA Times/USC tracking poll of 3000 voters.
So Trump is not that far behind Clinton when it comes to support from women.
My bet is that he will close that gap further, and gain support from more women.
But hey nothing of that matters, cause Trump is gonna defund Planned Parenthood, the one clinic all over the US that offers affordable healthcare to women who otherwise may not have the funds to get it.
Yes, Trump said that he will defund PP if and only if they continue to do abortions.
But it’ll be one of those things that he won’t quite get around to actually doing, like building The Wall.
..a tragedy but at least it has water still in it….our local river is a dirty little trickle…not enough even for a swimming hole…once upon a time people from Christchurch used to spend their summer holidays by it camping
….those were the days when even the poor were wealthy in the things that mattered
WashPost Makes History: First Paper to Call for
Prosecution of Its Own Source (After Accepting Pulitzer)
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, Sept. 19, 2016
THREE OF THE four media outlets that received and published large numbers of secret NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden — The Guardian, the New York Times, and The Intercept –– have called for the U.S. government to allow the NSA whistleblower to return to the U.S. with no charges. That’s the normal course for a news organization, which owes its sources duties of protection, and which — by virtue of accepting the source’s materials and then publishing them — implicitly declares the source’s information to be in the public interest.
But not the Washington Post. In the face of a growing ACLU and Amnesty-led campaign to secure a pardon for Snowden, timed to this weekend’s release of the Oliver Stone biopic “Snowden,” the Post editorial page today not only argued in opposition to a pardon, but explicitly demanded that Snowden — the paper’s own source — stand trial on espionage charges or, as a “second-best solution,” accept “a measure of criminal responsibility for his excesses and the U.S. government offers a measure of leniency.”
Hillary Clinton: Boycotting North Carolina Is Noble
and Just; Boycotting Israel Is Bigoted and Hateful
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, Sept. 14, 2016
….Could someone explain why it’s noble, enlightened, justifiable, and progressive to boycott an American state, but hateful, bigoted, retrograde, and evil to support a boycott of a foreign country that has been imposing a brutal, discriminatory, and illegal occupation for many decades, a boycott that is led by people with virtually no political rights? How did that happen? Hillary Clinton is far from the only person espousing this bizarre distinction — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as but one example, is punishing companies that support a boycott of Israel while forcing state employees to honor the boycott of North Carolina — but what could possibly justify U.S. politicians drawing the moral and ethical lines about boycotts in this manner?
My response to Chris Trotter’s latest post on The Daily Blog promoting ‘the surge’ for ‘millennial’ Auckland Mayoral candidate, Chloe Swarbrick.
I like Chloe.
She’s friendly, personable, articulate and presents very well on the campaign trail.
Her policies – not so much.
Chloe supports privatisation via Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs).
More significantly, Chloe supports the Auckland Unitary Plan and intensification, as do Generation Zero.
In my considered opinion, this ‘One Plan’ for Auckland has been ‘democracy for developers’ and dominated by the interests of commercial property developers and investors represented by the NZ Property Council.
Auckland Council and most Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) are members of the NZ Property Council, which in my considered opinion, as an anti-corruption campaigner is a significant and arguably corrupt ‘conflict of interest’.
As ‘activists get things done’ I have petitioned Parliament for an inquiry and provided evidence recently to the Local Government and Environment Select Committee in support of my petition, calling for an inquiry into the alleged conflict of interest regarding Auckland Council’s membership of the NZ Property Council.
In my considered opinion, Generation Zero, in their support for the Auckland Unitary Plan and intensification, pushing the line that those residents and ratepayers attempting to defend their local communities against decimation by developers, are effectively been promoted as selfish baby boomers stopping young people from getting their foot on the property ladder.
How convenient for the NZ Property Council to have these young advocates, on the same page, singing their same tune, but in a way that is far more effective pushing young vs old than if this were done by suited middle-aged property developers?
In my considered opinion, Generation Zero are effectively the ‘Youth Branch’ of the NZ Property Council.
Unlike all the Auckland Mayoral candidates, (including Chloe) I am actively opposed to corrupt corporate control by the 1%, locally, nationally and internationally.
For years I have actively campaigned against Council (Corporate) Controlled Organisations (CCOs), Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).
Because I am the only Auckland Mayoral candidate directly standing up to corrupt corporate control by the 1%, the effective censorship I have been facing by (corporate controlled) mainstream media is simply breath-taking in how blatant it has been.
In 2013, in the only poll that counts, the election result, I polled 4th, with 11,723 votes.
That was before Auckland Council tried to force the rating sale of my freehold home, over my disputing and refusing to pay rates because of the Council’s failure to disclose where exactly public monies are being spent on private sector consultants and contractors.
Although some citizens (who are not familiar with their lawful rights and the Council’s statutory obligations under s.17 of the Public Records Act 2005 (google it), apparently want me to have a frontal lobotomy and forget mine, and just be a good sheepish slave and just pay my rates, like they do, I’m not budging until I get the transparency to which I, and all citizens are entitled.
So, that is why, unlike Chloe, I’m not getting the TV coverage and being excluded from mainstream media Auckland Mayoral debates.
The real debate would be between myself and Phil Goff.
The topic?
Rogernomic$ wrecked Auckland.
What do you say to that Chris?
A real ‘meat and spuds’ debate on the substantive issues, rather than the candy floss ‘bubble and fluff’ we’re getting now?
TL;DR: Here’s six links that stood out to me in the last day in Aotearoa’s political economy to 6:06am on Sunday, May 19:Aotearoa-NZ is the seventh worst in the OECD’s homelessness rankings, just behind the United States and just ahead of Australia. BlackRock thinks rate hikes actually worsen inflation because ...
Halfway up a historic tower in York, we are neither up nor down. At the top you will have views of a city steeped in antiquity, made and remade by Romans, Normans, Vikings, Tescos. Below, you will find a retired minister happy to tell you all about this most astonishing ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Does breathing contribute to CO2 ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people ...
No one knows what it's likeTo be the bad manTo be the sad manBehind blue eyesNo one knows what it's likeTo be hatedTo be fatedTo telling only liesHave you ever wondered what life must be like for Mike Hosking? Seeing things in black and white through blue tinted specs? In ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past two week’s editions.Share More Than A FeildingBike bling, London Read more ...
Hi,I think we all made it through another week — congratulations. I’ve been digesting the new Arab Strap record, which is astonishing. In other news, I’m going to be doing a Webworm popup in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday July 13. I’ll bring a bunch of merch, and some other ...
The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am going to explore the Bill from the perspective of its proponents with their ...
New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be shooting the proposal in the foot. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Associate Education Minister David Seymour is urging the PostPrimary Teachers Association to put learning ahead of ideology. He wants the union leaders to call off their teachers meetings around the country where they hope to muster the strength to undo the government’s plans to establish several ...
What are police for? "Fighting crime" is the obvious answer. If there's a burglary, they should show up and investigate. Ditto if there's a murder or sexual assault. Speeding or drunk or dangerous driving is a crime, so obviously they should respond to that. And obviously, they should respond to ...
Michael Reddell writes – I got curious yesterday about how the Australia/New Zealand real exchange rate had changed over the last decade, and so dug out the data on the changes in the two countries’ CPIs. Over the 10 years from March 2014 to March 2024, New Zealand’s ...
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: Suspended Green MP Darleen Tana has passed an unpleasant milestone: she has now been absent for as many parliamentary sitting days as she has been present for this year. Tana is on full pay while she is suspended, and will benefit from a ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is no coincidence that two Labour should-have-been MPs are making the most noise about public sector cuts. As assistant general secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons has been at the forefront of revealing where the next round of state sector job ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a ...
This is one of the (extra) weekly columns on music or movies. Plenty of solid analyses of Possession exist online and most of them – inevitably – contain spoilers. This column is more in the way of a first-timer’s aid to getting your initial bearings. You don’t need to have ...
I am painting in oil, a portrait of a manWho has taken all the heart aches,And all the pain he can stand.I am using all the colors of blue,I have here on my stand.I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man.This has been an interesting week for me. ...
Helen Clark joins the Hoon as a special guest talking whether Aotearoa should join Aukus II, and her views on the fast track legislation and how Luxon and the new Government are performing. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts ...
With an election due in less than nine months, Britain’s embattled PM, Rishi Sunak, gave a useful speech earlier this week. He made a substantial case for his government, perhaps as compelling as is possible in the current environment. Quite an achievement. His overall theme was security, first pulling ...
Open access notablesPublicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions, Pearson et al., Climatic Change:We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate ...
You can be all negative about these charter schools if you want, but I’m here to accentuate the positive. You can get all worked up, if you want to, by the contradiction of Luxon saying We’re going to make sure that every school in the country is teaching exactly the same ...
Losing The Room: One can only speculate about what has persuaded the Coalition Government that it will pay no electoral price for unreasonably pushing ahead with policies that are so clearly against the national interest. They seem quite oblivious to the risk that by doing so they will convince an increasing ...
Name suppression decisions can be tough sometimes. No matter your views on free speech, you have to be hard-hearted not to be torn by the tug of the competing arguments. I think you can feel the Supreme Court wrestling with that in M v The King. The case for ...
The Merchants of Menace: The Coalition Government has convinced itself that the “Brahmins’” emollient functions have become much too irksome and expensive. Those who see themselves as the best hope of rebuilding New Zealand’s ailing capitalist system, appear to have convinced themselves that a little bit of blunt trauma is what their mollycoddled ...
When National first proposed its Muldoonist "fast-track" law, they were warned that it would inevitably lead to corruption. And that is exactly what has happened, with Resources Minister Shane Jones taking secret meetings with potential applicants:On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, questions were raised about a dinner Jones ...
Buzz from the Beehive One day – hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point. Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Government’s failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
“Members of Parliament don’t work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPs’ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. That’s when they began to be treated like employees – public servants – whose diaries had ...
It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
David Farrar writes – Newstalk ZB report: The man responsible for a horror hit and run in central Wellington last year was on a suspended licence and was so drunk he later asked police, “Did I kill someone?” Jason Tuitama injured two women when he ran a red ...
Muriel Newman writes – Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” The fight for ...
Why Courts should have said Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Karen Chhour Gary Judd writes – In the High Court, Justice Isacs declined to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The number of voices raising concerns about the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliament’s select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the proposed legislation. Twenty-seven thousand submissions have been made to Parliament ...
An average of 166 New Zealand citizens left the country every day during the March quarter, up 54% from a year ago.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy and housing market is sinking into a longer recession through the winter after a slump in business and consumer confidence in ...
The government has made it abundantly clear they’re addicted to the smell of new asphalt. On Tuesday they introduced a new term to the country’s roading lexicon, the Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS), a little brother for the Roads of National (Party) Significance (RoNS). Driving ahead with Roads of Regional ...
School is outAnd I walk the empty hallwaysI walk aloneAlone as alwaysThere's so many lucky penniesLying on the floorBut where the hell are all the lucky peopleI can't see them any moreYesterday morning, I’d just sent out my newsletter on Tama Potaka, and I was struggling to make the coffee. ...
Hi,I wanted to check in and ask how you’re doing.This is perhaps a selfish act, of attempting to find others feeling a similar way to me — that is to say, a little hopeless at the moment.Misery loves company, that sort of deal.Some context.I wish I could say I got ...
I have hitherto been fairly quiet on the new season of Rings of Power, on the basis that the underwhelming first season did not exactly build excitement – and the rumours were fairly daft. The only real thing of substance to come out has been that they have re-cast Adar ...
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 ...
“The thing is,” Chris Luxon says, leaning forward to make his point, “this has always been my thing.”“This goes all the way back to the first multinational I worked for. I was saying exactly the same thing back then. The name of our business needs to be more clear; people ...
Buzz from the Beehive It’s been a momentous few days for Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision which blocked a summons order from the Waitangi Tribunal for her. And today she has announced the Government is putting children first by introducing to ...
In 2014 former Australian army lawyer David McBride leaked classified military documents about Australian war crimes to the ABC. Dubbed "The Afghan Files", the documents led to an explosive report on Australian war crimes, the disbanding of an entire SAS unit, and multiple ongoing prosecutions. The journalist who wrote the ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – According to the respected Pew Research Centre, “In seven of eight [European] countries surveyed, the most trusted news outlet asked about is the public news organization in each country”. For example, “in Sweden, an overwhelming majority (90%) say they trust the public broadcaster SVT”. ...
David Farrar writes – Kata MacNamara reports: Details of Tony Blakely’s involvement in the New Zealand Government’s response to the pandemic raise serious questions about the work of the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry over which he presides. It has long been clear that Blakely, a ...
Chris Trotter writes – Are you a Brahmin or a Merchant? Or, are you merely one of those whose lives are profoundly influenced by the decisions of Brahmins and Merchants? Those are the questions that are currently shaping the politics of New Zealand and the entire West. ...
RNZ reports – It’s supposed to be a haven of healing and spiritual awakening but residents of the Kawai Purapura community say they’ve been hurt and deceived. It’s the successor to the former Centrepoint commune, and has been on the bush block opposite Albany shopping centre since 2008. It ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. Usually we have a video chat to go with this wrap, but were unable to do one this week. We’ll be back next week.Several reports ...
The Transport Minister has set a hard 'fiscal envelope' of $6.54 billion for transport capital spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy is settling into a state of suspended animation as the Government’s funding freezes and job cuts chill confidence and combine with stubbornly high interest rates to ...
To be precise, the term “anti- Zionism” refers to (a) criticism of the political movement that created a modern Jewish state on the historical land of Israel, and to (b)the subjugation of Palestinians by the Israeli state. By contrast, the term “anti-Semitism” means bigotry and racism directed at Jewish people, ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Because hurricanes are one of the big-ticket weather disasters that humanity has to face, climate misinformers spend a lot of effort muddying the waters on whether climate change is making hurricanes more damaging. With the official start to the hurricane ...
Yesterday the Mayor released what he calls his “plan to save public transport” which is part of his final proposal for the Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP). This comes following consultation on the draft version that occurred in March which showed, once again, that people want more done on transport, especially ...
And it's a pleasure that I have knownAnd it's a treasure that I have gainedAotearoa’s coalition government is fragile. It’s held together by the obsequious sycophancy of Christopher Luxon, who willingly contorts his party into the fringe positions of his junior coalition partners and is unwilling to contradict them. The ...
The Select Committee hearing submissions on the fast-track consenting legislation is starting to become a beat-up of regional councils. The inflexibility and slow workings of the Councils were prominent in two submissions yesterday. One, from the Coromandel Marine Farmers Association, simply said that the Waikato Regional Council’s planning decisions were ...
Back in April, the High Court surprised everyone by ruling that Ministers are above the law, at least as far as the Waitangi Tribunal is concerned. The reason for this ruling was "comity" - the idea that the different branches of government shouldn't interfere with each other's functions. Which makes ...
Buzz from the BeehiveTolling was mentioned when Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced the government was re-introducing the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme, with 15 “crucial” projects to support economic growth and regional development across New Zealand. All RoNS would be four-laned, grade-separated highways, and all funding, financing, and ...
or the past 14 years, ever since the Spanish government cheated on an autonomy deal, Catalonia has reliably given pro-independence parties a majority of seats in their regional parliament. But now that seems to be over. Catalans went to the polls yesterday, and stripped the Catalan parties of their majority. ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ report: Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the Electoral Commission should make sure the system ran smoothly and “taking away the right of thousands of people to vote” was not the answer. “Thousands of people enroled and voted on the day. If ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
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. ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
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Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The instability comes as the party tries to refresh its brand after six years of being part of a right-wing, pro-imperialist government with both the Labour Party and, from 2017-2020, the far-right NZ First Party. ...
Based on the latest Treasury forecasts, New Zealand Government debt will tick above $90,000 per household for the first time ever at 10pm today, Sunday 19 May 2024. The Taxpayers’ Union is calling it “$90k Debt Day”. Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ ...
Arawata Shane Arawata Shane had wandered long In the wild tangled hills of the West Coast. He came to a stop on the mighty range And looked down at the wide river flats. He breathed in the clean air, And he took in the shadows playing across The face of ...
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By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist and Kelvin Anthony, RNZ Pacific digital journalist Police have used tear gas and stun grenades on rioters at an airport near Nouméa as the chaos in New Caledonia stretched into its sixth day. Five people, including two police officers, have died and hundreds of ...
Asia Pacific ReportThe global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on France to not “misuse” a crackdown in the ongoing unrest in the non-self-governing French Pacific territory of Kanaky New Caledonia in the wake of a controversial vote by the French Parliament to adopt a bill changing the territory’s ...
A major provider of school lunches fears the government's new $3 limit for most students will see them eating more pre-packaged and processed food. ...
The star of Dark City: The Cleaner takes us through his life in TV, including the VHS revolution and the John Campbell impression that started it all. Best known for his comedic roles, Cohen Holloway says he struggled at times to maintain the stone cold facade of serial killer on ...
David Hill remembers an old friend, who you’ve probably never heard of. My friend Doug never travelled; he had little interest in the world beyond his own tiny rural town. I’ve rarely known anyone who radiated such contentment. Doug (I’ll call him that) died in March. You won’t know him. ...
Some of the earliest photos of life in Aotearoa are on display at Auckland Museum right now – but the identities of some of the people in them are a mystery.What was it like to be one of the first people in New Zealand to have their photo taken? ...
Since its founding almost a decade ago, Featherston Booktown has grown into one of the country’s most interesting and idiosyncratic literary events. Erin Banks reports from the audience. “Come in, have you had lunch? I’m about to make a cheese toastie.” Mary Biggs, operations manager of Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival, ...
After 33 years abroad, Loveni Enari recently returned to Aotearoa and Samoa in what a friend joked was an “existential crisis”. He learnt and re-learnt so much about his family, friends and both countries. Almost as an afterthought, he got a Samoan tatau. This is his story. (Accompanying it are ...
Nearly 30 years ago, two people told me they’d killed a woman they knew. I thought the truth would come out, that others would tell it. In the end, I had to. The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Fact: in 1995, Angela Blackmoore ...
Editor Madeleine Chapman looks back at the week and shines a light on some increasingly rare longform journalism. Mōrena and welcome to The Weekend where there will sadly be no aurora to see. After a busy week last week of short, sharp pieces, this week we swung the other way, ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hao’ofa was to cultural advocates. Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during ...
Forget thin is in, apparently now bigger is better … or is it? After over a decade of body positivity, girls, teens and women are even more confused about what body positivity actually is. The movement began with women confronting unrealistic expectations of how their bodies should look. But sub-strands ...
Grace always sat at the bar at the back of The Cambridge, where she could watch who came in. A huge mirror ran the length of the pub, so you could sometimes watch people without them knowing. The mirror made the place seem a lot bigger than it really was. ...
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The first phase of the inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones finished this week, turning up plenty of revelations and few answers. But through all the confusion, heartbreak and antipathy on display, the simple fact at the heart of this case remains: if little Lachie’s body had ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Benjamin, Professor in Art History, University of Sydney “She’s no oil painting”. Those were the unkind words of a colleague commenting on the subject of Vincent Namatjira’s acrylic painting, Gina. Every one of the prominent Australians and cultural heroes in Namatjira’s ...
Government plans to require local councils hold a referendum on whether to have Māori wards breaches the Treaty of Waitangi, a Waitangi Tribunal report has found. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist, University of Technology Sydney This year the National Rugby League (NRL) opened its season in Las Vegas. It was an audacious move by the league’s ambitious head honcho Peter V’Landys to showcase the game in ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marnee Shay, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, The University of Queensland The 2024 federal budget contains A$110 million for Indigenous education. This includes funding for various different organisations to represent and help Indigenous people as well as scholarships in a bid to ...
Air New Zealand has confirmed Nouméa’s Tontouta International airport in New Caledonia is closed until Tuesday. The airline earlier told RNZ it would update customers as soon as it could. Earlier today, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report government officials had been working on an “hourly basis” ...
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In the context of the Ministry of Education’s recent announcements about Communities of Online Learning this makes an interesting read. The October 2015 National Study of Online Charter Schools was conducted by the University of Washington, Stanford University, and Mathematica Policy Research, and provides a thorough analysis of the operations of (American) online charter schools, their policy environments and impacts on student achievement.
https://credo.stanford.edu/pdfs/Online%20Press%20Release.pdf
Being even more crap than an average US education is truly lame. I wonder whether the problem is online learning per se, or whether right wing incompetence and malice is the bigger issue.
In either event, I wonder how much the National Party took in bribes to inflict it on our kids.
Why should Bill Gates decide how our children should be educated?
And we wonder why this government keeps underfunding education and other essential government services.
That Kellyann from Trump’s team, she got game.
A seasoned pro toe to toe against leftie luvvie Bill Mayer:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bill-maher-trump-campaign-manager-evil_us_57dd92f9e4b08cb140962d64?section=&
The full interview was scary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maL6-l3DdHk
The worst part, the Trump people have no difficulty lying. It seems like second nature.
I loathe Trump and all he stands for, but hell I respect his team and their tactics.
First nature. I’m surprised Hooton hasn’t given them his CV… Maybe he has. >:)
Yep, RWNJs have to lie else they wouldn’t be able continue their depredations on the people and society.
A great read on this proposed ‘land wars’ commeration by Moana Jackson. if you want to understand this issue from a Māori perspective then this is a good starter. And yep other Māori may have other positions on it.
I personally find Moana Jackson’s views align with mine – in some ways I wish I could vote for him in a Māori electorate and then I remember what often happens to tangata whenua when they get in the big house and I’m so glad he is removed and above party parlimentary politics.
http://e-tangata.co.nz/news/moana-jackson-facing-the-truth-about-the-wars
Bingo!
That’s exactly what they were. The English capitalists saw land and resources that they didn’t own/control and set about taking it for themselves. And, of course, the dispossession caused Māori to look for jobs in the capitalists businesses that they never needed to do before thus increasing available manpower for exploitation.
+1 Marty.
Moana Jackson is , as always, great but so is this e-tangata site. Always an interesting, well-informed read.
Totally agree Karen
Civil Defence Centres reformed into ‘Community Emergency Hubs’, which won’t stock survival supplies
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/84349936/wellingtons-civil-defence-centres-reformed-into-community-emergency-hubs-which-wont-stock-survival-supplies
Good luck to you Wellington, you’ll probably need it in the next few decades.
Unfortunately, mistakes in this won’t be acknowledged until after a disaster strikes and lives are lost as a result.
“you’ll probably need it”
I don’t think this is the worst thing.
The worst problem we are likely to have is that the water supply will be interrupted where the supply pipelines cross faults.
Then we will have a hospital without any water. The Council refuse to build a reservoir to supply water to the hospital in an emergency. Every other Council in the country does it. The Wellington City Council would far rather spend the ratepayer’s money on the ridiculous cycle lanes and on mad plans for extending the runway at the airport or bringing back the trams.
We might have a hospital building after an earthquake but it won’t be able to provide any medical treatment.
What a Fuck up – coming to us too, soon with our Americanisation/Western ideology of disaster relief that if you combine with CV’s The “Intellectual Yet Idiot” Class – explains the problem …
“Red Cross Built Exactly 6 Homes For Haiti With Nearly Half A Billion Dollars In Donations”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/04/red-cross-haiti-report_n_7511080.html
We can add to that the harden up and she’ll be right culture.
Indeed, alwyn. That’s another concern.
All the road links will be shut for at least a couple of weeks. Will make it very difficult to get much relief into the city, except via boat (and the wharf etc are likely to be pretty smashed up).
Patients are being harmed by the deteriorating finances of ambulance services, a paramedics’ group says.
“New Zealand’s two ambulance services are facing a funding crisis
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11709706
1. Why are there two ambulance services anyway?
2. Why aren’t those services fully funded by government?
Good questions.
There should only be one fully funded by the taxpayer IMO.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11711892
Doesn’t make it any better of course (encouraging/forcing someone isn’t cool) but it shows why its always good to wait for all the details to emerge
We waited: the facts came out. They vindicate Scarlette.
I note that you choose to describe forcible sexual contact as “not cool”, as though some minor social faux-pas has been committed.
Maybe however the initial furore was over Chiefs players committing the acts whereas its turned out to be a bus driver
I wasn’t describing forcible sexual contact as not cool but rather the encouraging/egging someone on
He says:
“She came up and gave me a hug and a kiss and gave one of the other players a hug. She didn’t seem upset at all.”
I think we can all agree it was rather sordid
You had it right the first time when you pointed out that in this context, “encouraging” and “forcing” are interchangeable.
As long as you realise I was referring to the encouraging/forcing aspect of it, not the actual physical contact which is a separate issue
Keep telling yourself that.
Yes I believe that encouraging someone to do something is a separate issue to that person then doing it
Both are culpable but are culpable for seperate actions
Scarlette has made reference to the violence she feared if she responded to the ‘encouragement’ in the ‘wrong’ way.
When was the last time you were physically bullied?
In a court of law would the bus driver and players involved in the incident be charged with the same or separate offences?
According to the Crimes Act, the same offence:
Thanks McFlock, I stand corrected
No, they’re culpable for the same action because the action was a direct result of their actions.
Well it’s not like inciting unlawful acts is a crime or anything.
Good interview by Winona LaDuke from Standing Rock.
http://m.democracynow.org/stories/16610
Worth noting a lot of fake photos of protest on the net esp fbook. The powers that be must be worried.
This aligns very much with my idea that up to 85% of all crime is preventable if you get in early enough. A brave initiative and one that could transform Aboriginal life:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-19/four-corners-bourkes-experiment-in-justice-reinvestment/7855114
Incidentally Bourke holds a very symbolic place in the Australian psyche as the ‘place where the outback begins’.
Declining NZ – 1st world to 5th? Stop the rot! Stop the rort!
Ambulance service declining, serious.
Legal aid services declining, non-existent in some areas.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Under the previous Liberal State govt Victoria went through a long and bitter paramedic/ambo dispute. Ugly and totally unnecessary.
Speaking from first hand knowledge of the people who do this very demanding work, work that results in the highest family break-up rates, the very high depression and suicide rates, covert substance abuse and PTSD rates … I know there is a LOT that needs addressing in this area.
No matter how calm and professional the ambo appears on the scene, it is not possible for them to avoid the psychic imprints created by dealing constantly with others in pain and profound distress.
And low pay rates merely compound the harm, reinforcing a sense of being under-valued. Their organisations absolutely need better resourcing in order to mitigate the stress. All this is well known and understood.
What a day to be a kiwi. Our leader in charge of UN world security in Americas most important city currently facing new terror. As well as managing the superpowers after escalation that could lead to World War in Syria.
Makes me proud…
It is pretty impressive, imagine if *insert any Labour leader since Helen Clark* was there, it ‘d be a shambles and NZ would be a laughing stock
Ok those comparisons are a bit unfair considering they never made it to the PM position. Personally I think all of those people could perform better than Key on that stage.
So, just to clarify, you think Goff, Shearer, Cunliffe or Little would perform better on the world then John Key who has proven to be able mix, negotiate and make friends with people in the highest positions of power on the world stage
I know you’re left and I know you hate John Key but get some perspective, John Key is a proven quantity (mind you Goff did good work on the FTA with China so maybe he could make a decent fist of it) but if you took of your blinkers you’d see the john Key is the best person available to do this
My blinkers? Has it occurred to you that it might be you who is unwilling to think critically. You’ve just written a puff piece and I don’t know if you’re taking the piss or doing your best to be a defender.
Yes, I think the Labour leaders could perform better in terms of things like leadership, diplomacy and character on the world stage than the current. Being able to mix and be nice with world leaders is something the PM is very good at. I think people want a bit more than that though, and they might ask what our glorious leader has achieved on the world stage in 8 years.
Hes the head of the International Democratic Union
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2014/11/key_elected_head_of_the_international_democrat_union.html
Hes friends with Obama (the democrat if you didn’t know) while still managing to keep China onside
He can mange this:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/key-chases-trade-deals-in-talks-uk-ministers-farewells-david-cameron while also working this at the same time http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/key-nz-will-get-there-with-europe-trade-agreement-2016071123
Do you think he won’t manage it?
So my opinion based on Keys past performance whereas yours seems to be based on nothing
You chose the wrong ballpark PR.
Goff is FA since way back – Key is two orders of magnitude down.
Shearer also has FA form – better at it than mudwrestling the greasy pigs that the Gnats put in parliament.
& Cunliffe is smarter than any of them.
If it’s snuggling up to a corrupt leader like Berlusconi Key’s your man – actual foreign policy nah.
QFT
Yep, he’s a proven lapdog to those who are rich and powerful.
No, lapdogs are pretty much useless at everything except looking decorative and doing what they’re told.
Once again you demonstrate one of the main issues of the left in NZ and that is underestimating John Key, I get that you don’t like him but acknowledging that hes very good at politics doesn’t mean you support him
When the left underestimates John Key he just cries all the way to another election win
But its ok because you got a good hit on him and called him a lapdog
No he’s not good at politics – the business is governing, not lying about governing. Key gets a 2 out of 10 for governing – tyrants that systematically shoot their citizens are a 1. If Key were not utter shit I’d support him – back when he was trying to get elected and made some promising speeches on housing I thought the Gnats had finally found someone with a shred of talent. No such luck.
Yip, if Key had actually delivered on his underclass and housing promises, then he wouldn’t be too bad.
Damn straight – aspirational future – wage parity with Oz – 170 000 jobs – what’s not to like?
I’m not underestimating him at all. Being a lapdog gives an appearance of good politics as he gets on well with all rich people but no actual good politics.
PR – Key is a toadying minor member of the Wall St. club, nothing more nothing less. History will not be kind to him as all his ‘niceties’ will be recorded as nothing more than deceit, in the course of duty to his masters.
You know how some right wingers got really irrational about Helen Clark?
I’d suggest that some of you are well down that same path
I think it’s more that the qualities you admire in key are the qualities that some despise. The key to key is that he has normalised outright lying, pretend caring,and abhorent behaviour/slurs/non-apologies. He is the most disgusting and embarrasing PM weve ever had imo.
Unfortunately for you more people disagree with you then agree
How do you know more people disagree than agree? The low voter turnout makes it impossible to know for sure, as you’ll attribute it to satisfaction with the system while others point to alienation from it.
Fair enough, enough people agree with and vote accordingly the same as me
So you voted for him – has he ever done anything to make you regret that?
There are both rational and irrational reasons to dislike John Key – as there are to uncritically admire the worst PM NZ has ever had. So what’s your deal PR, are you having his baby?
DUDE!!!! a spades a spade, I don’t see any of those labour leaders mincing a catwalk, telling rape jokes, planking, pony tail pulling, acting a buffoon on prime time US TV or a multitude of other, what a fuckwit actions by John the clown Key.
Do you think any of the world leaders will take the clown PM seriously at anything.
Dumb kiwi’s may think the sun shines out his arse like you, but the world has quite a different opinion to his parties policies and his in particular actions.
I know PR your one of a few lonely battlers for National and John but for fucks sake man, he’s a class clown admit it.
I’m pretty sure that he won’t be doing anything like that over at the UN, however if he does feel free to point this out to me
“I know PR your one of a few lonely battlers for National and John but for fucks sake man, he’s a class clown admit it.”
– Yet somehow the polls seem to disagree with you, funny that
The class clown is usually quite popular. They just get shown up at exam time.
Do you mean like the 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2017 elections or leaders debates?
Yeah we all know most people are easily led by empty promises
The 2017 election hasn’t happened yet and John key lost the leaders debate in 2014. Liar John key wouldn’t be where he is today if it hadn’t been for his dirty politics, abuse of the PM’s office and a lying, complicit msm Puckish Rogue.
yes he did lose the debate to Cunliffe; too bad the caucus was so keen to dump Cunliffe thereafter.
Agreed, but that’s politics.
No, I mean when future historians look at Key’s legacy of:
1. Throwing away the excellent fiscal position Clark left us
2. Failing to get the flag changed
3. Botching the Christchurch rebuild and failing to deliver a 21st century-city ready to face future energy shortages, by failing to institute basic minimum energy efficiency requirements
4. Selling off SoEs
5. Stopping contributions to the superannuation fund
6. Locking hundreds of thousands of NZers out of the housing market
7. Failing to address poverty, ensuring that we have locked in decades of increased health spending
Those seem like the biggies that will have impacts that future historians will be chastising this government for.
I’m sure there are other things; I didn’t even touch on the environment.
8. Winning an MMP record breaking 4th consecutive term…?
You think that future historians will be scathing of the present National Govt – but what will they make of the Labour Party of this time?
Yeah, the disconnect with reality on this site is something to behold.
Does go a long way in explaining why the left is complete shit though.
Oh look BM just going with his usual response – abuse.
Good to see you still bridled with your hard right ideological blinkers.
National is coming to the end of its 3rd term and they’re still as popular as when they started, obviously the voter considers them to be a good government.
Then you come here and read some of the stuff and you’d think you’ve either ended up in a alternative dimension where NZ is ruled by a crazed tyrant or on some parody site.
It is entertaining though.
@BM,
None of the things I have listed are opinions.
I like how you just don’t care for the dispossessed and down trodden PR, you just in your love of power mode.
At least your only a mildly dishonest Tory scum bag, I’ll give you that.
so your saying that theres two JKs, PR?
the global stateman for the top brass overseas, and the class clown type for the folks back home?
what does that say about NZers?
PS: you’re doing a fair bit of goal post shifting on this one 🙂
Phew red mist is thick with this one
“telling rape jokes”
Citation? I did see a video were other people were making rape references towards the PM, but I’ve never seen/heard him make one.
“planking”
Citation? I saw a picture of Max Key planking, not the PM though.
“acting a buffoon on prime time US TV ”
Citation? Unless you are talking about reading a David Letterman top 10 list? In which case he is keeping good company Barack Obama (at least twice).
“or a multitude of other, what a fuckwit actions by John the clown Key”
Any other ACTUAL examples?
DUDE!!!! It looks like your spade may not be a spade afterall…
Sheesh, Bob – fetish much…
PM lies, gets caught lying and you love him.
Pulls hair of young girls (plural) caught on film and you love him.
Panama papers, (more to come) and stuffed up NZ reputation. Got caught lying and you love him.
Massive amounts of corporate welfare and you love him
Declining water and land quality, but shusshhhh we not aloud to talk about that…Key says nothing, and you love him.
No ministerial responsibility, so stuck a collection of piss poor ministers who think nothing of braking the law, but all you need Bob is for the P.M. to just smile and you love him.
People like you…
You’re wasting your breath, Adam. As Bomber Bradbury is so fond of saying, Key could tear the head off a kitten live on television, and he’d only go up in the estimation of people like Bob. Some folk are just doing far too nicely under our current administration, and perish the thought the gravy train is derailed by paltry considerations like… I don’t know, not being a complete bastard?
“John Key who has proven to be able mix, negotiate and make friends with people in the highest positions of power on the world stage”
I agree, John Key makes a good MC and showman.
… john Key is the best person available to do this…
Are they going to be doing some currency trading? Blathering about whose shirt is gay or which celebs they’d like to fuck? It says something pretty terrible about NZ if John Key is the best person available for serious negotiations at the UN.
Yeah hes probably got no experience in negotiations at all 🙂
The Nats, and yes man John Key included, have shown that they couldn’t negotiate their way out of a paper bag.
To be fair, sending Key is better than sending McCully.
Pulitzer in hand, the WaPo calls for the prosecution of their own source.
https://theintercept.com/2016/09/18/washpost-makes-history-first-paper-to-call-for-prosecution-of-its-own-source-after-accepting-pulitzer/
Unfuckingbelievable.
We need a new word for “about an order of magnitude beyond hypocrisy”.
Not so much journalists as mouthpieces for the Washington DC deep state.
Have I missed something but wouldn’t that mean the Post gets prosecuted as well?
“No longer swimmable: A community mourns its lost river”
extract…
“The Selwyn River was once one of the world’s greatest trout fisheries.
In the 1960s, the trout population reached 65,000, enough to stock every river in the South Island.
There are now just several hundred trout in the river. Those remaining are thin and inedible due to the river’s health.
The river’s problems were the result of “poor incremental decisions” over several decades, North Canterbury Fish & Game environmental adviser Scott Pearson said.
Intensive farming had become too widespread in the area, and too much water was being extracted for irrigation.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/84116972/no-longer-swimmable-a-community-mourns-its-lost-river
So sad, they die slowly, one by one, and we watch and we hope and we pray and another one dies today.
We are destroying the ecology of our nation, and sooner or later we will find out that it is the same ecology within which we need to live. (Contaminated aquifers, anyone)
I grew up swimming and fishing in many of those rivers in the 70’s and 80’s as I kid I think back and they always seemed pure and crystal clear, you could see the rocks ..it was pristine i’m talking the Waitaki river area.
It was also mainly sheep and grain farming back then. Says something doesn’t it.
I read that article and my heart sank. It’s like watching the foresters clear the amazon and no one can do anything about it. Unless they take proactive action and that’s the saddest part.
Farmers are doing fuck all, saying they are, and screwing us all.
http://www.bryangould.com/what-more-can-labour-do/
What more can Labour do?
Well, the MOU with the Greens was a good start but the relationship needs to go much further. Labour cannot and will not achieve electoral success on its own any more. There have been too many changing political parameters over recent times that have clouded the judgement of a shallower and more transient population. JK and his govt. can continue to be as incompetent as we have thus far witnessed and it is unlikely to dent their overall popularity.
As Bryan Gould postulates, Labour need to show a far greater willingness to respond to National with a totally different value system that means something to people in this day and age. In my view the Greens and Labour need to barnstorm the appropriate ‘new’ values message then use it [loudly] day in and day out at every opportunity. They need to show how those values would be applied to every aspect of the voters’ life and every issue that arises so voters can start to understand what will be different under a Lab/Green government.
At the moment they don’t see a hell of a lot of difference so its largely a case of…. better the devil you know etc. It is a brave exercise because there will be major efforts by the govt. and their media lackeys to ridicule both parties, but if they don’t do it they can kiss goodbye to any chance of success next year.
Dead right Anne. “At the moment they don’t see a hell of a lot of difference ‘……. believe it or not that’s because there isn’t a hell of a lot of difference. It’s the very problem we’ve been banging on about for months. Many Labour supporters on this site don’t seem to be able to understand this.
Little and co. have to stop being like dogs barking at passing cars and do far more than just trying to be the ‘softer’ side of neoliberalism.
For some of us it’s actually been years. The Labour leadership continue to fail to listen.
+100 Anne and Garibaldi…imo they need to extend an olive branch of peace to Hone Harawira and the Mana/Internet Party…and bring it in to the same MOU .
This would really attract the attention of voters and the working class/underclass in New Zealand!
….but I doubt Labour would be willing to do this….which means to me it is really NOT a working class party for grassroots /flaxroots NZers but has turned into a Liberal Party
I couldn’t agree more Chucky. Like you I doubt that Labour has got the sense to get Hone back( by getting Kelvin higher on the list).
Sorry Chooky, bit of a blunder there on my part !
lol…dont worry…i note i have also gone from maroony purple to green…but you are blue…i would have thought you would be a red
Doesn’t help that Hone is trying to snuggle up to National’s Maori party that will eat up the Mana party for it’s own survival, like the Nats did to Act. Would have thought Hone should be talking to the Lab/Greens, who have given an open invitation to any party to join them to change the government, instead of the Maori party that have no intention of leaving the Nats, despite Hone saying he won’t support anyone that supports National. So what’s Hone going to do? the onus is on him.
Jeeze you can talk rubbish sometimes. You have no knowledge, no insight and no clue – but you are good at making up shit to fit your labour agenda so that’s something I spose of labour are your god.
Don’t be so stupid and blind Marty Mars.
You just make up stuff.
You need people with charisma,appeal and likability to be able to sell a new concept.
The dour and angry Andrew Little, in combination with the sanctimonious Metiria Turei are not really the people you want for that job.
Who could fill that role on the left?, no idea.
Andrew doesn’t come across like that, over the last two years of attempting to get that angry andy label to stick, it really hasn’t.
at all mate.
In fact he’s quite calm under pressure, when his seat collapsed twice I saw a bloke who took it in his stride.
Charisma, err ive seen more from a dead fish, but there’ a glimmer, you couldn’t say Helen has Charisma, more like the matron you dare not piss off. So that’s not everything.
keys clown Charisma’s starting to wear thin though now mate, I mean there’s only so long people will support his easy going couldn’t give a fuck ways.., swings and round-abouts.
Is Keys prefered PM status still at those all time rock star highs mate? Or has Farrar been spending more time with his Nazi beliefs and running the tax and ratepayers joke.
Where does the little fuck get time to sleep I wonder..
+1 Richard Rawshark
Such a drag.
But you wouldn’t want to ‘scare the horses’ would you, by presenting options that ‘swing voting middle class NZ’ would find controversial, unorthodox or plain unacceptable.
It’s how you sell it.
The left desperately needs sales people, the best thing they could ever do is send their MPs on a few sales courses.
The best sales people are utterly authentic in their belief in the product or service that they are trying to sell.
Labour MPs are capitalists, they believe in free markets and in free trade, they believe that NZ cannot afford NZ super without drastic cut backs.
So that’s what they have to try and sell, because they certainly don’t believe in “democratic socialism”, as stated in the party’s own constitution, no more.
Yes, that’s a real stumbling block to being successful in selling a concept or product, if you don’t believe what you’re promoting is any good then you’ll never be successful.
Which then raises the question why do left wing people support Labour?, they’re obviously not the party that’s going to promote what they want?
Is it more to do with there’s no one else?
Well, I have been asking the same questions, and it is an unpopular subject to broach with some, because as far as I can see: old time loyalty/lesser of 2 evils.
The only thing I can think of is that it would be easier to modify an existing brand such as Labour than try and start a party from scratch.
The problem with that theory is what you’ve pointed out before is that the power lies inn a very small group of people, who you can’t change.
Bm your’e full of it. According to your reasoning you would be a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn?
BM is such a drag.
There’s a pragmatism too – thus far no left block can oust Key without Labour (without resorting to physicality).
Thus far no left block can oust Key with Labour, you mean.
“Which then raises the question why do left wing people support Labour?, they’re obviously not the party that’s going to promote what they want?”
I think most don’t (which is evident in Labour’s election result). From what I’ve gathered most of them no longer partake for that very reason (they see no difference between the two).
Others have moved to the Greens or NZ First.
Still the largest left party by a long way and I don’t really consider NZ first as left, more old school conservative.
“Still the largest left party….”
For those that still partake. Largely living off its legacy of being the party of the left.
However, it’s now a centrist party.
NZF may be more old school conservative, but with Labour moving so far right, NZF have become more left than Labour in a number of areas.
+100…”NZF have become more left than Labour in a number of areas”
I support labour because I believe a union man like Andrew will do the right thing when he is PM. For working people, and in fact all NZ’ers.
I think he will and has the right attitude to make a fair NZ and keep the Greens better idea’s rolling along and holding their more whack idea’s in check.
The other lot seem to only help themselves?
What policies do you believe support your belief, Richard?
+1 Richard Rawshark
a “union man”?
You mean a white collar former union lawyer?
“union lawyer”
What’s the problem with that?
A suit and tie facsimile of a “union man”
What’s wrong with a suit and tie?
But you wouldn’t want to ‘scare the horses’ would you, by presenting options that ‘swing voting middle class NZ’ would find controversial, unorthodox or plain unacceptable.
Well, that’s a view that is less acceptable to most Labour members than you are prepared to admit CV. The so-called middle of the road voters can’t be completely ignored, but my argument (and Bryan Gould’s I think) is that Lab and Greens need to re-think their values strategy in such a way they are seen to represent a whole new approach to governance that will hopefully encourage voters to contemplate voting for them again. So far, it hasn’t happened and it won’t happen unless the two parties work as one for this coming election. It will mean some concessions on both sides of course. For starters, the Greens have grown their polling numbers since the last election but they may have to be prepared to sacrifice any further growth in the interest of electoral success. Labour also will have to concede some of their voters to the Greens and not try to lure them back.
I have long viewed Lab. and the Greens as an electoral entity and that should be the way of the future. It’s time they publicly acted as such (both parties can still maintain their individual personalities) so that the rest of the population starts to recognise them in the same way. If, and when it happens the media story will start to change and that will have an impact on the voters’ perceptions.
Anne I hope your idea of ” concessions ” encompasses working the electorate seat by seat to get an optimal result for the Left? Because, like Key, I believe we have to do what it takes to win. It’s no use pussyfooting around doing otherwise and if the MOU doesn’t include this then I think it wiil be fruitless.
Anne I hope your idea of ” concessions ” encompasses working the electorate seat by seat to get an optimal result for the Left?
Totally.
I’m on record here more times than I can remember and have stated my view at in-house Labour meetings… telling them “to stop bloody pussyfooting around” and say and do what they mean dah de dah de dah. 😈
I know and you know Anne that the Labour membership is often far to the Left of the Parliamentary Labour Party. The issue is that the PLP think that the general membership are largely unrealistic and uninformed about what ‘mainstream NZ’ would be prepared to accept in terms of left wing policy.
Yes, CV. I know. But the PLP is getting closer to the membership little by little – pun wasn’t intended but appropriate. I’ve listened carefully to the rhetoric coming from some who were regarded as being to the right of the party and have picked up an encouraging move back towards the membership. In one case in particular, I’ve been so pleased with their recent reflections that I’m once again a strong supporter of the MP concerned.
+1’s on your comments Anne!
So legalisation of medicinal marijuana or cannabis is NOT the problem for the elderly and those in pain in New Zealand ….but corporate capture BIG PHARMA prescription opiods is! ( are New Zealand politicians also captured ?)
….BIG PHARMA is a multi billion dollar pain killer industry and it opposes the legalisation of medicinal marijuana or medicinal cannabis!
THE PROBLEM in the USA:
‘Americans consume vast majority of the world’s opioids’
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/27/americans-consume-almost-all-of-the-global-opioid-supply.html
https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/legislative-activities/testimony-to-congress/2016/americas-addiction-to-opioids-heroin-prescription-drug-abuse
http://www.asam.org/docs/default-source/advocacy/opioid-addiction-disease-facts-figures.pdf
THE PROBLEM in NEW ZEALAND:
While the elderly New Zealanders and others in pain suffer because this government and Peter Dunne has denied them legal access to medicinal cannibas…there are political lobby groups involved and big Bucks..pharmaceutical companies and the alcohol industry
‘Opioid use decreases in US states that legalize medical marijuana – study’
https://www.rt.com/usa/359655-marijuana-laws-opioid-usage/
“New research shows a decline in the use of opioid painkillers in US states that allow people to treat pain with medical marijuana, affirming the fears of Big Pharma who have been vigorously seeking to frustrate efforts to legalize the herb….
“Given the growing opioid overdose epidemic, campaigning against medical marijuana is morally repugnant.”
“We cannot allow prescription drug companies to block the legalization of #medicalcannabis http://huff.to/2clBjZY”
“Addictive painkiller profiteer donates $500k to fight cannabis legalization in #Arizona http://on.rt.com/7oux”
…”Insys isn’t the first pharmaceutical company to be found bankrolling anti-marijuana legislation though with a number of alcohol and pharmaceutical companies “heavily” invested in such laws in a number of states, according to The Intercept.
https://theintercept.com/2016/09/14/beer-pot-ballot/
One percenter investors are excited.
/
.
Why are white men poised to get rich doing the same thing African-Americans have been going to prison for?
http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004642370/jay-z-the-war-on-drugs-is-an-epic-fail.html?src=vidm
Have you seen how much Gunja those dudes smoke, they need time in jail to chill between tokes man!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11712476
Well, well, well things are getting interesting in Zimbabwe
Folks have been waiting for Mugabe to drop dead for the last fifteen or twenty years.
The really “interesting” times will be after that happens.
Mugabe death and Chinese money, sounds like something Forsythe would’ve wrote
Forsythe or Joseph Conrad.
Sounds like Zimbabwe is being colonised by the Chinese. So, yeah, I suppose that would be interesting.
In the short term it might help alleviate some of the problems…maybe
The Chinese will practice their normal approach of focussing on making profitable business, staying out of the politics, and paying whatever back handers are required to keep an operation running and in the black.
I have a feeling that Mugabe and his cronies are going to find such an approach quite acceptable.
They know how to do business
well the Tibetans find them pretty political
http://freetibet.org/take-action/videos-graphics/facts
“I have a feeling that Mugabe and his cronies are going to find such an approach quite acceptable.”…so does jonkey nact and he is selling New Zealand
Mugabe has and is betraying his country
Interesting how the West hasn’t regime changed Mugabe years ago.
agreed…maybe they thought he would do himself in…but he hasnt…or his compatriots would do him in…but they havent (yet)
“An insider in the tobacco industry said the Chinese company would be paying a hefty rental for the land they are now using to the “political” men who now own the farms.”
Whereas we sell ours.
Yeah, there is that.
they should be careful….remember Idi Amin?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Asians_from_Uganda
China’s turn.
https://soundcloud.com/chinatalkingpoints/chinas-role-in-africas-looting-machine
+100…yup …and the Chinese have also looted Tibet
‘The global cost of China’s destruction of the ‘roof of the world’ ‘
http://www.theecologist.org/investigations/natural_world/1367651/the_global_cost_of_chinas_destruction_of_the_roof_of_the_world.html
https://www.savetibet.org/resources/all-about-tibet/tibetan-environment/
(Pity the West killed Gaddafi
http://libyasos.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/gaddafi-placed-97-billion-to-free.html
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2013/12/20/muammar-gaddafi-the-african-who-cleansed-the-continent-from-the-humiliation-of-apartheid/ )
Turning back the clock.
Here is the letter signed by Trump himself, which the Trump/Pence campaign delivered to his “pro-life” base of support this week, released by the anti-abortion, forced birth organization that styles itself, perversely, as the “Susan B. Anthony List:”
The Susan B. Anthony list is an extremist, anti-woman group that opposes a woman’s right to an abortion in all circumstances and also opposes many forms of contraception.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/9/16/1571102/-While-The-Media-Fixated-On-Birtherism-Here-Is-What-Trump-Pledged-To-Do-To-Women-s-Rights
On the other hand:
‘How Donald Trump Is Trying to Win Over Women Voters’
http://time.com/4495895/donald-trump-womens-issues/
“By championing child care, paid maternity leave, and over-the-counter birth control
In an attempt to chip away at Hillary Clinton’s double-digit lead with women voters, Donald Trump is ditching some aspects of GOP orthodoxy and embracing feminist stances on contraception, child care and paid leave….
( Trump on the abortion issue is still not good however…In this day and age of USA poverty, world over- population and womens rights …abortion should be a woman’s choice and safe medical abortion should be state funded and free as it is in most Western countries
…presumably Trump would support the ‘morning after pill’ as a method of contraception and over the counter
….but this is not enough for unwanted pregnancies later term, which for various reasons women and girls did not terminate earlier…women should not be forced into the desperation and dangers of backstreet abortions)
Yeah, offering pittance paid for by eliminating all those undeserving welfare bludgers is a winner.
you might want to acquaint yourself with Mike Pence before you gush to much about Trump and his ‘generosity’ to women.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/donald-trump-commits-to-defunding-abortion-planned-parenthood-if-elected
Also keep in mind, that neither of the blokes will ever be pregnant, nor will they ever take the pill, nor will they ever risk their lives by giving birth, nor will they ever have to choose between career and child rearing or home making if you prefer that term, nor will they ever be told by a Pharmacist that that over the counter pill, or plan b. or condoms, will not be handed out cause its against the religious believes of the pharmacist who happens to believe that the Pill is an abortifact and that every sexual encounter should lead to blessings from god until the uterus falls out or the incubator dies in childbirth.
but then Trump will make America great again. and who gives a shit about a few women who might not get to see that great great tremendously great day cause they could not get the health care they needed cause the life of the unborn baby (or clumps of cells that have miscarriaged).
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/19/mike-pence-republicans-defund-planned-parenthood-abortion
but then hey, as Trump said if women had abortions they should be punished?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Jpoecf0xY
but then he retracted that comment, maybe he mis – spoke or maybe his daughter told him to shut up, or maybe someone told him that a whole lot of women in the US have abortions every year and how would you punish them? Murder 1? or like the Lady in the ling below – both fetizide and murder? Ahh, i am sure tomorrow he will say something else.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/30/donald-trump-women-abortions-punishment
Maybe punishment should look like 20 years for fetizide and murder cause why the fuck not?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/22/purvi-patel-abortion-sentence-reduced
Mike Pence https://www.reddit.com/r/Indiana/comments/4u6qfr/why_is_mike_pence_disliked_in_indiana/
and do keep in mind, that should Trump die the next in line to the Presidency is Mike Pence. Even tho, no one really likes to think about that. Cause ….Hillary. OR something.
But hey nothing of that matters, cause Trump is gonna defund Planned Parenthood, the one clinic all over the US that offers affordable healthcare to women who otherwise may not have the funds to get it.
Cause nothing says i ma gonna love me some wimmin then taking away their health care provider and the place that offers sexual health care. And his women will still get their abortions should they need them, cause they have the cash and the passports to leave the country.
Fuck sake, be a Trumpie all you want, but don’t pretend that anyone running on the republican ticket will offer anything to women in regards to healthcare.
who exactly is “gushing”?…sounds like you…or is it frothing?
any other comment?
No?
No
For every 12 women who will vote for Hillary Clinton, at least ten women will vote for Trump, according to the latest LA Times/USC tracking poll of 3000 voters.
So Trump is not that far behind Clinton when it comes to support from women.
My bet is that he will close that gap further, and gain support from more women.
Yes, Trump said that he will defund PP if and only if they continue to do abortions.
But it’ll be one of those things that he won’t quite get around to actually doing, like building The Wall.
Another river stuffed up by birds and drought. Well, that is if you believe Professor Rowarth.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/84116972/no-longer-swimmable-a-community-mourns-its-lost-river
..a tragedy but at least it has water still in it….our local river is a dirty little trickle…not enough even for a swimming hole…once upon a time people from Christchurch used to spend their summer holidays by it camping
….those were the days when even the poor were wealthy in the things that mattered
WashPost Makes History: First Paper to Call for
Prosecution of Its Own Source (After Accepting Pulitzer)
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, Sept. 19, 2016
THREE OF THE four media outlets that received and published large numbers of secret NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden — The Guardian, the New York Times, and The Intercept –– have called for the U.S. government to allow the NSA whistleblower to return to the U.S. with no charges. That’s the normal course for a news organization, which owes its sources duties of protection, and which — by virtue of accepting the source’s materials and then publishing them — implicitly declares the source’s information to be in the public interest.
But not the Washington Post. In the face of a growing ACLU and Amnesty-led campaign to secure a pardon for Snowden, timed to this weekend’s release of the Oliver Stone biopic “Snowden,” the Post editorial page today not only argued in opposition to a pardon, but explicitly demanded that Snowden — the paper’s own source — stand trial on espionage charges or, as a “second-best solution,” accept “a measure of criminal responsibility for his excesses and the U.S. government offers a measure of leniency.”
……
Read more….
https://theintercept.com/2016/09/18/washpost-makes-history-first-paper-to-call-for-prosecution-of-its-own-source-after-accepting-pulitzer/
Hillary Clinton: Boycotting North Carolina Is Noble
and Just; Boycotting Israel Is Bigoted and Hateful
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, Sept. 14, 2016
….Could someone explain why it’s noble, enlightened, justifiable, and progressive to boycott an American state, but hateful, bigoted, retrograde, and evil to support a boycott of a foreign country that has been imposing a brutal, discriminatory, and illegal occupation for many decades, a boycott that is led by people with virtually no political rights? How did that happen? Hillary Clinton is far from the only person espousing this bizarre distinction — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as but one example, is punishing companies that support a boycott of Israel while forcing state employees to honor the boycott of North Carolina — but what could possibly justify U.S. politicians drawing the moral and ethical lines about boycotts in this manner?
…..
Read more….
https://theintercept.com/2016/09/13/hillary-clinton-boycotting-north-carolina-is-noble-and-just-boycotting-israel-is-bigoted-and-hateful/
+100 Morrissey…thanx for those links…Greenwald is a journalist always worth reading and listening to
voting today,
so many nice talented Labour and Greens people to give a tick.
My response to Chris Trotter’s latest post on The Daily Blog promoting ‘the surge’ for ‘millennial’ Auckland Mayoral candidate, Chloe Swarbrick.
I like Chloe.
She’s friendly, personable, articulate and presents very well on the campaign trail.
Her policies – not so much.
Chloe supports privatisation via Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs).
More significantly, Chloe supports the Auckland Unitary Plan and intensification, as do Generation Zero.
In my considered opinion, this ‘One Plan’ for Auckland has been ‘democracy for developers’ and dominated by the interests of commercial property developers and investors represented by the NZ Property Council.
Auckland Council and most Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) are members of the NZ Property Council, which in my considered opinion, as an anti-corruption campaigner is a significant and arguably corrupt ‘conflict of interest’.
As ‘activists get things done’ I have petitioned Parliament for an inquiry and provided evidence recently to the Local Government and Environment Select Committee in support of my petition, calling for an inquiry into the alleged conflict of interest regarding Auckland Council’s membership of the NZ Property Council.
In my considered opinion, Generation Zero, in their support for the Auckland Unitary Plan and intensification, pushing the line that those residents and ratepayers attempting to defend their local communities against decimation by developers, are effectively been promoted as selfish baby boomers stopping young people from getting their foot on the property ladder.
How convenient for the NZ Property Council to have these young advocates, on the same page, singing their same tune, but in a way that is far more effective pushing young vs old than if this were done by suited middle-aged property developers?
In my considered opinion, Generation Zero are effectively the ‘Youth Branch’ of the NZ Property Council.
Unlike all the Auckland Mayoral candidates, (including Chloe) I am actively opposed to corrupt corporate control by the 1%, locally, nationally and internationally.
For years I have actively campaigned against Council (Corporate) Controlled Organisations (CCOs), Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).
Because I am the only Auckland Mayoral candidate directly standing up to corrupt corporate control by the 1%, the effective censorship I have been facing by (corporate controlled) mainstream media is simply breath-taking in how blatant it has been.
In 2013, in the only poll that counts, the election result, I polled 4th, with 11,723 votes.
That was before Auckland Council tried to force the rating sale of my freehold home, over my disputing and refusing to pay rates because of the Council’s failure to disclose where exactly public monies are being spent on private sector consultants and contractors.
Although some citizens (who are not familiar with their lawful rights and the Council’s statutory obligations under s.17 of the Public Records Act 2005 (google it), apparently want me to have a frontal lobotomy and forget mine, and just be a good sheepish slave and just pay my rates, like they do, I’m not budging until I get the transparency to which I, and all citizens are entitled.
So, that is why, unlike Chloe, I’m not getting the TV coverage and being excluded from mainstream media Auckland Mayoral debates.
The real debate would be between myself and Phil Goff.
The topic?
Rogernomic$ wrecked Auckland.
What do you say to that Chris?
A real ‘meat and spuds’ debate on the substantive issues, rather than the candy floss ‘bubble and fluff’ we’re getting now?
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
‘Activists – get things done’