Want to keep up with the latest developments relating to climate change?
Or just uncertain of the facts and want to know more?
Then check out the Daily Climate News. You couldn’t go far past dailyclimate.org as a good simple factual resource. Here gathered in one place, are climate related news stories from around the globe.
The lead story today is about the phenomenon known as ‘weather whiplash’ hitting farming in the US.
The wettest autumn since records began, followed by the coldest spring in 50 years, has devastated British wheat, forcing food manufacturers to import nearly 2.5m tonnes of the crop.
“Normally we export around 2.5m tonnes of wheat but this year we expect to have to import 2.5m tonnes,”
Charlotte Garbutt UK Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board analyst
But it is not all bad news. There is some good news, and some mixed news.
Relating to OM yesterday. Your inability to see the super power proxy war unfolding in Syria, or the fact that there is no popular uprising (except possibly in your own mind) because the majority of the fighters in the conflict are imported mercenaries and jihadists, undermines any humanitarian point you have tried to make.
Do you know what you have in common with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz? You’re a supporter of regime change through foreign military force. These are intentions that General Wesley Clark revealed years ago, after he left the military.
And please don’t try and threaten my Labour Party membership. I’ve had a number of MPs make the attempt, and to you I will also say, fuck off.
And please donât try and threaten my Labour Party membership. Iâve had a number of MPs make the attempt, and to you I will also say, fuck off.
Colonial Viper
CV the only one threatening your Labour Party membership is yourself. No self respecting democratic party can be seen to tolerate an intemperate extremist who openly supports mass murder.
You still telling other political parties what they should be doing?
You still support the foreign sponsored military overthrow of Assad, you support mass murder, feel that itch in your conscience? Those are the heavy weapons that the west are now openly supplying to foreign Islamist fighters in Syria.
Here is a list of the different Islamist groups now fighting in Assad. To be clear: these are the people you are supporting, Jenny.
The Syrian Islamic Front (SIF)
AFFILIATES: Islamic Ahrar al-Sham Movement
The Free Syrian Army:
Affiliated fighters Many different claims. Most recently, in June 2013, Idriss claimed he is the leader of 80,000 fighters
AFFILIATES Syria Martyrs Brigades, Farouq Battalions, Tawhid Brigade, Suqour al-Sham Brigades and Islam Brigade
The Syrian Islamic Liberation Front (SILF)
AFFILIATES Farouq Battalions, Tawhid Brigade, Suqour al-Sham Brigades and Islam Brigade
Those are the heavy weapons that the west are now openly supplying to foreign Islamist fighters in Syria.
3500 tons of armaments,brought from Croatia,.
the Kerry /haig beatup for a no fly zone lasted about 5 minutes at the G8 when the Russians told them what their expected losses would be.A point emphasized by the US chief of staff,who stated that a no fly zone would require neutralizing a fully integrated state of the art air defense system and in addition the US did not have the economic capability due to sequestration (read funding cuts) hence it would require dual house approvals.
So most of the names of the organisations you have supplied CV care of the Independent, have titles that include the words Islamic or Islam. So what?
I support a people’s right to overthrow a monstrous dictatorship.
While you CV are more and more revealing yourself as an ignorant Islamaphobe who supports a regime that uses torture and bombardment from the air against civilian populations who have rejected the dictatorship.
You are an Islamaphobe who admires a murderous dictator with a fashionable wife, because he has been publicly feted and admired by useful idiots in the West for being “Secular” and “Progressive“. While in private more valued by the West for providing a safe haven for torture for the shadowy CIA rendition program, As well as keeping Israel’s Northern Border trouble free.
So why in your opinion CV is “Islamic” in a rebel organisations name, enough to discredit them in your eyes?
Around the world where all other means of popular expression has been suppressed, people have turned to religious faiths and organisations and charities that not only provide succor for a besieged people, but also give a space to give voice to their hopes and dreams for a better life.
IMHO, Mainly because such organisations are the only ones that can still operate under the harsh conditions of dictatorship.
In most of the Arab world, which until recently due to the Arab Spring has been overwhelmingly dominated by pro-Western despots who banned all political meetings. Friday prayers were the natural place where people could gather in large numbers without interference or attack from their various regimes. And so space was gained for the birth of Arab Spring under conditions of harsh repressive dictatorship in which all other means of popular expression were violently suppressed.
For instance the rise of Hamas in Palestine occurred mainly through their welfare charity and health provision when all secular organisations had either failed or become corrupted or infiltrated.
You still telling other political parties what they should be doing?
Colonial Viper
Not at all CV. Just pointing out to one of them, and the rest of the country that they harbour an admirer of a fascist style regime in their ranks.
It is up to the Labour Party if they are happy to tolerate supporters of mass murder and torture in their ranks. If the Labour Party are happy with this situation, then they will have to judged by it.
It seems to me that the next national election campaign has already started.
Key has been repeating the theme that NZ Labour is a radical left party, not fit to be trusted with the Treasury benches.
Repetition is a powerful rhetorical tool, akin to conditioning.
He would not be doing so on his own. It is probable that the National strategy
committee [Collins, Lusk, Joyce, Textor, Crosby .. ad nauseam] has decided on
a long term strategy of a long march through the swamps of electoral politics to
set the stage and control the parameters of the campaign.
We will probably soon have other National parliamentarians echoing the theme.
It seems to me that the next national election campaign has already started.
Yep, there was a reason why the previous government set the election period as from Jan of the year of the election and it’s the same reason why National dropped it as soon as they got power – because the electioneering happens throughout the entire year. Some academics think that electioneering never stops.
I see that some within Labour are proposing that Clayton Cosgrove is selected as its candidate for the Christchurch East by election. The thinking is that this will shore up support for Shearer as it will bring into Parliament Kelvin Davis who is said to be a Shearer supporter.
Can I suggest an alternative thinking, that Labour selects the best possible candidate for the job. This person should preferably be a local of have strong links to the area. They should be capable of doing the job, of helping local people with their problems and of holding the Government to account for the shyte situation it has created in Christchurch. They should also have the judgment to not do stupid stuff like accepting free beer and food in a Sky City Corporate Box.
I do not give a toss who they support for the leadership. In fact if they are selected for loyalty reasons rather than on ability there is something seriously wrong.
*sigh* How much longer is the wider left going to be subjected to the weakening impacts of the self-serving shenanigans of the current inadequate Labour caucus leadership? It’s thoroughly depressing.
And it is so self serving. At the time that all focus should be on Dalziel’s bid for the mayoralty we are talking instead about internal shyte. Dalziel should be given some clean air to get her campaign going. For Christchurch’s sake it is vital that she beats Mr Lego Clown.
Agree Karol, if this is true. Very depressing if members of the Labour caucus continue to feel it is necessary to play this game and continue to sure up David Shearer’s position. If true it certainly lowers my opinion of Davis, I didn’t think he was too bad. Difficult to respect someone that backs Shearer.
Maybe Shearer can terrorise opponents in Chch East by-election as well, really working well in Ikaroa-Rawhiti!
Noble idea SP but cannot see it happening, based on some of the candidates that ran in 2011 its looking like a members only club which excludes and discourages talented committeid folk who can conribute.
“Labour has signalled it will drop at least three of its economic policies, although more for reasons of fiscal restraint than unpopularity: paying into the Cullen super fund before the country returns to surplus, removing GST from fruit and vegetables and making the first $5000 of income tax-free.”
Now it may not be much but 5k tax free would make a difference to the poorest or the poor, but now I see that Labour are starting to show their true light blue colours, fiscal restraint my arse, they are just trying to pull in the blue center vote and to hell with the poor typical Shearer shit! And how much, has the NOT putting in to the Cullen Fund cost us? And if you are really poor even the Gestapo Tax off of the Greenery would be a help.
Just makes my decision to vote Green this time even more correct. I will not vote for a Haters party, and Labour has become a haters party under the mismanagement of Shearer Mallard King Robertson Hipkins and the Rest,
Yeah but the problem with that is Key understands money and its place in the world (as opposed to how you lot would like money to work in a utopian fantasy world) and the good Ginga Dr has no fucking idea at all.
The Primary Dealers can access billions in newly created money from the Federal Reserve at a less than 0% real interest rate.
I think it’s this current system which is the unsustainable, utopian fantasy (for the elite).
and the good Ginga Dr has no fucking idea at all.
Russel Norman has got a very good grip on the problems we face today. On the other hand, you should stop listening to the shit heads who are actually responsible for the GFC and the subsequent Great Recession, and who in the main, are still in charge pretending they know what they are doing.
David H, You have highlighted a quote attributed to Labour which is in fact shit made up by Audrey Young. Where have you heard or seen anyone from Labour actually ” signal ” such a thing ?. Young, Armstrong et al are part of the Nat disinformation and ” left wing ” denigration campaign which is only given credence by repetition on Labour/Green associated forums. You are playing their game for them.
It strikes me that you and your ilk do not want a left Government because you are only happy constantly complaining and bitching.
You’re not going to get one if you keep repeating their made up shit and I repeat playing their game for them. The All Blacks ( and all great teams ) are at their best and unbeatable ( Chch last Sat ) when they get the other team to play the way they want. Simple, it’s the first rule of warfare.
Get out and do some bloody work, doorknocking and phone calling and stop being so fucking negative.
I doubt that Audrey is simply day dreaming those policy changes. She meets Labour front bench MPs on a weekly basis.
As for door knocking for Labour…which I have done a lot of…I’ve decided that I don’t door knock for centrist parties. Not where my political leanings are.
I will be very frustrated if Labour drop the income tax free zone. It simply means that they are not willing to significantly raise taxes on those earning higher incomes.
CV
I can see that it would be useful to have all in the taxation system with all contributing something. But if the first $20,000 on wages was at 5% it would be fairer. The government gets extra tax from GST on the spending of the net income.
That’s what should happen for low income people now the GST has been introduced. And it should be brought down to 10% again. It’s a burden on the spending on necessities, which can include expensive items like frig’s, maintenance on houses and vehicles. It just loads expense on the low income sector which has the biggest bit of the pie chart – the only place where their pie portion is large.
Then decent progressive steps. This country has overused the excuse of simplicity of tax structure which is a lazy approach in this age that has moved on from individual clerks penning everything and working from printed tables to fast calculators and automation. Income tax needs to move on to systems that provide subsidies for transport, allowances for tools, and more tax steps that are inflation indexed.
In general I very much agree. Whether everyone needs to be paying income tax is worth a discussion. People paying income tax on their UB which is so low already…what’s the point.
But in general terms yes the tax system has to become far more progressive, and also far simpler to administer with Far fewer gaps for avoidance.
I don’t know about the third policy David H mentions (the $5000) but the other two (GST and Cullen Fund) have both been publicly mentioned by Shearer/Parker. The Cullen fund was in Shearer’s speeches over a year ago.
Just calling Labour voters gullible tools of the MSM really doesn’t work. Nor does blaming people for not door-knocking in the cold on behalf of the warm corporate box. Clearly some Labour MPs don’t need less criticism, they need more, until they get it.
It’s a really tiresome ploy to ask questions you don’t want the answer to. Pretending to want information, but actually just being contrary for the sake of it.
If you did genuinely want the answer, you could simply Google “david shearer speech cullen fund”. It would save us both time.
actually, fair call on that one about google. Bit busy today though, and it didn’t ring any bells.
But I did actually want the answer, that’s why I asked the question.
The Cullen fund thing according to DTB’s links is not ” drop [ing …] paying into the Cullen super fund before the country returns to surplus”. It is “until we are back in surplus, any new spending will have to be paid for out of existing budget provisions, new revenue, or by re-prioritising.” Note the “new revenue” and “re-prioritising”. Lots of room there, like a CGT or higher tax band counting as “new revenue”. But definitely reporters are “interpreting” what is said, rather than quoting.
And the vege thing is simply a long way down the list at this stage. Depends on what the policy committee comes up with. And given that they’ll need the Greens to be in government, it would be difficult for Labour to refuse to do it should the Greens ask, it being recent policy and all.
Then let me put it this way Adrian. I have voted Labour ever since I was able to vote. I have helped by door knocking, driving people to vote, and in the other 1001 ways the volunteers help out. This time I will vote Green. I am so disappointed with the direction the party has taken, and the list of screw ups are getting longer by the day, so there is a leadership problem there, the absolute debacle that was the Paddy Gower Chris Hipkins hate Cunlife day live on TV3, turned me right off of Labour there and then. And nothing they have done since leads me to believe they will change. It seems to me that Labour are completely at war within the Party hierarchy and they don’t give a rats arse about the voters it’s more about hanging onto the pay packet. So if you want my vote then you have policy that will help those that are less well of that will help the Children and will put work to get jobs out there. Now for the last 40 years every time Labour has won I have been in full time well paid employment. I lose said employment under National as any extra money is gone. This time if labour get in I fear I will have no such employment as they don’t seem to have a clue I would not trust their front bench as far as I could spit against the wind.
The largest employment growth area in government (by percentage) is this department. Maybe we should just start calling it the Central Committee of the Dictatorship
“A government controlled by one person, or a small group of people. In this form of government the power rests entirely on the person or group of people. The dictator(s) may also take away much of its peoples’ freedom. In contemporary usage, dictatorship refers to an autocratic form of absolute rule by leadership unrestricted by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors within the state.”
Changing those laws is the first step in being unrestricted by laws. Undermining the power of the Judiciary is also key (no pun intended).
If calling Labour’s last rule “helengrad” was an acceptable epithet (and it was used by mainstream journalists including John Armstrong) then why such horror if we start to call this government “the Dictatorship”?
Peter Dunne wants the rules changed so that he can keep 100’s of thousands in party cash. How long has UF been duping the electoral commission re the numbers they really have in their party?
“Please please let me keep my nose in the trough really deeply, please don’t pull me back to the edge where I only get a little.”
With everything he has been caught out doing, he still demands things to be as they were, even tho’ he has Leaked sensitive docs (thanks for that Pete) has NO party but still wants the money (no thanks Pete)
Yesterday he said they had enough members to form 4 parties. He also said it was their largest membership in a long time. 2000? That’s as many people who put their hand in their pocket for this party? I am a MMP fan but guys like this and Banks are taking the piss.
On RadioNZ National this morning ‘the Hairdo’ backed down from His claim of having 2000 members calling that claim a slight over estimation,
Apparently the Hairodo’s party has 1000 members via electronic medium which the Electoral Commission will not accept for the purpose of registering United Future as a party,
Dunne today will have a discussion with the Speaker of the House who would in a sane world where there wasn’t being operated a protection racket for errant Ministers and MP’s withdraw the ‘Leaders’ funding for the non-existent United Future party but don’t hold your breath,
Dunnes legacy when He finally ceases supping at the trough will be to have been the ‘black hole in space’ of New Zealand politics having sucked in every fledgling ‘movement’ and political party from christians to hunters’n’fishers whereupon anything such may have stood for has disappeared immediately from the political sphere…
Actually, I/S has an interesting post and makes a good point on that:
Because in 2002, Parliament passed the Electronic Transactions Act 2002, the thrust of which is basically “electronic stuff counts”.
So basically the Electoral Commission could accept electronic membership records; they just choose not to. And that choice appears to be contrary to S 8 of the Electronic Transactions Act 2002.
It seems that it may be the electoral commission that’s breaking the law.
Actually, I understood that the electoral commission now say they will accept electronic records. But the stuff originally submitted electronically was just a spreadsheet of names “not supported by any signed and dated evidence from members”. This was judged to be inadequate. They want signed and dated forms and will accept those that have been submitted to the party electronically.
Not sure about that – looking at the Herald article, apparently the EC is cool with electronic, but wants the members signatures (basically scans of the forms). UF just wanted to give them an excel spreadsheet of the membership details (my guess is no signatures).
The real problem for Dunne is that the EC claims no facility to “reregister” parties, so UF comes under as a new registration and he loses his party leadership $$$ because a new parliamentary party needs 6 MPs.
heh, heh, heh
edit: snap karol – that’ll teach me to have a work chat halfway through writing a comment đ
So David Cameron and Lynton Crosby have set out to destroy the Labour Party ?
“The Prime Minister insisted, when challenged on this point, that he is only interested in learning one thing from Mr Crosby: “How we destroy the credibility of the Labour Party.” Mr Cameron added that this was a subject in which Mr Crosby has “considerable expertise”, but is something Labour is even better at doing for itself.
One might add that this is also a subject in which Mr Cameron has considerable expertise. On leaving Oxford, he went straight into the Conservative Research Department, where he mastered the technique of making a close study of Labour policy in order to demonstrate, with the help of quotation, that it is riven by fatal contradictions.
So what we get nowadays at Prime Minister’s questions is a perpetual assault by Mr Cameron on the Labour Party, of a kind which a gifted desk officer in the Conservative Research Department of the late 1980s might make. It is a professional performance, but also a rather mean-spirited and constricted one.”
.. and a role model for John Key and the National Party front bench from which Aaron Gilmore took his cue.
Raa
That’s all interesting – especially the bit about David Cameron doing a virtual PhD on the anomalies of the Labour Party. Is that on google under David Cameron? Have you a link?
I was commenting on Guava’s link above .. but I don’t think
John Key can match Cameron’s performance in this respect
because he has not put in the effort, love him or hate him, which Cameron has.
I’m not big on crime news stories, they always feel a bit manipulative, but this:
“A nun has admitted breaking the arm of a 9-year-old at Sunday School after the girl failed to get an action song right.
Leva-i-Fangalupe Fono – known as Sister Leva – yelled at the girl, flicked her in the head and broke the girl’s arm when she twisted it behind her back. ” http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/261704/nun-admits-breaking-girls-arm
This just feels wrong on every level! Breaking a nine-year old’s arm at Sunday School – even if she had been playing up that would have been grossly inappropriate, but for getting a song wrong?
I know the Catholics already have semi-public schools, but I see this as a taste of things to come if religious groups get to run Charter Schools away from the public eye. What would Destiny thugs do to a kid who blew one of Bishop(/ Messiah) Tamaki’s photo ops?
Pasupial
The buzz word these days is to be ‘passionate’ about what you do. Could this be the ultimate effect – Ultimate Passion Fighting? The Army manages to lose a few of its trainees now and then which apparently is collateral damage when looking at the overall objective. I guess when you want to produce successful stats and stars that illuminate your education organisation positively, what’s a few broken arms while trying to control the poor material you are working with? /sarc
I was watching The Wire and a white teacher without street experience trying to teach the belligerent, negative, malicious and troubled young people from a very depressed area. One girl suddenly slashed the face of another with a razor in a recent view. The teachers and school leaders are now trying a new approach and mentally dividing the children into those from the stoops, and those from the corners. This indicates two different types of response by the youngsters to their education and each will be met by a shaped method that responds to the way that group behaves. The idea is that each group should be taught in a way that specially meets their approach so they can be controlled and led into education with their minds readied to concentrate, and not just to think up playing disruptive games with the teacher.
There is an interview on 9toNoon this morning that would be good for all interested in NZ employment and smart business providing it to listen to. It’s about Lego’s rise and fall and scramble to rise again and keep selling and coping with low cost labour competition. We need to follow similar trajectory in trying to scramble out of our low operating economy using our wits not reverting to reliance on primary and extractive industries till we have metaphorically chopped all the kauri trees.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/presenters/kathryn-ryan (audio available probably after 11am if you miss it live).
10:05 Professor David Robertson – the story behind Lego
Why the iconic Danish company faced near collapse in 2003, and how it managed to recover and become one of the world’s biggest toy companies, and what this turnaround can teach other companies about surviving and thriving. Professor Robertson teaches Innovation and Product Development at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry
It appears that Wellington mayoral contender and long-time rubbish batsman John Morrison has been plagiarising the council’s chief executive for his own puff-piece in last week’s Dom Post:
On the topics of Wellington
-the Wellington Regional Transport Committee; Fran Wilde-go with buses. Celia Wade-Brown-light rail. Light-rail in Wellington?
and the ‘comfortable” response to begging in the streets? Charity-boxes to fund charity organizations!ffs, there is that ‘deserving” of the corralled poor.
“The Hillsborough Room at The Fickling Centre. Cnr of Mt Eden and Mt Albert Rd, (behind 3 Kings Shops in rear of car park and opposite Club Physical) Plenty of parking and on a bus route.
After the enthusiasm of the March Against Monsanto come and find what is happening in NZ and Australia on the GE front?
Australian farmer Bob Mackley and Green Party MP Steffan Browning are visiting to tell you about the impact of an Australian GE crop contamination; and what is happening around GE in New Zealand.
Bob Mackley is speaking about the contamination of his farm by genetically engineered crops.
Come and hear about his experience.
(I heard him last year and he is very knowledgeable and interesting.)
Bob Mackley is a canola farmer in Victoria. He is a strong community figure; a past District Council Chairman and a member of the Victorian Farmers Federation.
He has experience as a convener of a grain marketing group formed to empower local small farmers to get their crops to market, and is past president of the Wimmera Conservation Farming Association.
His crops were contaminated by his neighbourâs GE canola and he is very concerned about the impact of this on his business. He is also concerned about the divisive effect the introduction of GE crops has had on community relationships.
Steffan Browning is working very hard on our behalf to keep NZ GE free. I am delighted to be running this meeting for him.
He will speak about our position in New Zealand and what is happening, not only about keeping crops out of the environment, but about how the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and Food Standards (FSANZ) is approving GE food for release here, even before it has been approved by the US!
Please bring along as many people as you can. The more people who really understand about GE the sooner the movement will grow to ensure it is kept out of our environment.”
(Lisa Er from the ‘Awareness Party’ has helped to organise this meeting.)
In a now legendary incident, Schmeiser’s fields were contaminated by seeds from a neighbor’s genetically modified Roundup Ready canola plants, which had blown onto his land. When the farmer, who was the subject of the 2009 film “David Versus Monsanto,” saved the seeds from these “accidental migrants” for replanting, Monsanto sued him for patent infringement and won the case but received no damages, since the court determined that Schmeiser had gained no economic benefit from the incident. Later Schmeiser countersued Monsanto for “libel, trespass, and contamination of his fields with Roundup Ready Canola.” But that case was dismissed.
Schmeiser, who reportedly spent more than $400,000 on legal fees, says he can no longer use his strain of canola, which took him 50 years to develop, because he cannot prove that it doesn’t include the Roundup Ready gene.
Stopping GE seems like a good idea to me because it would stop shit like this happening. The rest of the article is a must read as it covers how Monsanto are raking in the dollars from lawsuits. IMO, Patents are past their use-by dates and are now a very good example of law gone wrong.
off the subject of suits, was watching Bill O’Reilly on Letterman last night (now there is a program that indicates the States of America…) opined that Snowden could have sued the govt. and that he is likely to get a “ten-stretch”.
It’s more a case of updating patent laws to deal with the implications of GE.
Especially as in the past farmers would have been able to keep seed without threat of legal action, from commercially developed crop lines that usually take even longer than GE techniques to breed and oft used mutagenic methods to generate novel variations. Thus I see a problematic legal contradiction in giving GMO’s patent protection, as frankly, unless you’re making a whole new species, all it is, is a much faster and direct method of adding desired genetic variation to an organism.
*cough*
Anyhow – from actually having done considerable amounts of course work (BSc is in Molecular Biology, so biochemistry and genetics Nick knowth) and regular readings in the years since, the main issues with GMO’s biologically speaking are thus:
1) What changes occur in the global regulation of genes for the GMO vs the parent strain and do we understand if the differences have negative consequences in context of ecological relationships and human usage? Case in point – Monsanto removed the selectivity filter from 3 of the bt toxin proteins, which means those bt toxins now worked on insect species that they previously worked on. While global changes in gene expression vs parent may lead to other issues, that are more difficult to pin down if functions/context of specific genes is unknown.
2) Are their any significant biochemical changes to the introduced protein products? i.e. proteins are often modified post-translation with phosphate groups and/or sugar polymers (branching and linear). Especially if the the RNA they are derived on is tagged for export to the cell membrane or excretion into the extracellular environment. These can cause changes in protein function, dependant on the protein’s sequence and 3d structure + any binding substrates or allosteric moderators. Addition of sugar polymers can also cause immunological reactions in humans if the immune system of the individual carries antibodies against a matching sugar polymer.
3) Is gene flow to wild species possible? i.e. can the GMO reproduce with any relatives, where mating systems allow for it? In the case of some plant families, the historical species barriers were geographic isolation, rather than via incompatibilities. Which means that you need to be very, very careful in developing plant GMO’s to insure that genes for herbicide resistances or bt toxins do not leak into wild or weedy relatives. Basically – plants can be really, really “fun” when it comes to dealing with hybrids due to quirks of their sexual reproduction and are prone to all sorts of weird stuff (polyploidy being the main one) that can create means for genes to flow from crops to weeds and vis versa.
As to GE in generally – it’s an extremely useful tool, we use it daily for producing a wide variety of biological products and can be used to rapidly introduce phenotypes that otherwise would take very large numbers of generations to find and select for. For example, we use GE yeast and other fungi to produce stuff like insulin, human growth factor and rennet enzymes, along with other proteins (antibodies for example), that would otherwise be harvested from animals or humans. Allowing for high levels of purity and avoids carrying over viral diseases.
References: spread all through out 2 years of biochem and genetics notes ;-; Probably a bit straightforward to find via google scholar though, aiming for review articles, but suspect key papers stuck behind paywalls…
The leader of one of Labour’s biggest union backers has been accused of making a “spiteful” attack on the Duchess of Cambridge after comparing her to “young women having babies to get state handouts”.
This buys into right wing framing, loses votes on the Left, and loses votes on the Right, it’s just stupid.
I read it and disagree: by my reading, he was sending up the right wing framing, not feeding into it. He described the bedroom tax as vile and vicious, and also said:
“We must not support a Labour Government that does not: put an end to privatisation and market madness or restore our NHS- invest in our public services, restore the facility time taken away from our activists, restore workers rights and remove the shackles on trade unions.”
These are not the words of someone buying into right wing framing.
Aus deports NZ offenders in record numbers
The Taliban are back.
Brazil’s increasing middle-classes represented in protests; we can only hope and pray.
Rankin- “a parenting crisis”
Clark- “both matter”
Rankin- went straight to “dysfunctional families”
Wills- “poverty rate triple that when we were kids (I quote ‘kids’ reluctantly, another weakness in the national discourse)”
-“poverty of children triple that of the elderly”
-“outgoings too high”
Rankin- believes “that life skills overcome poverty”.
McCroskie- straight to stereo-typing the PI -“money going back to the islands, loan sharks, poverty”.
Lashlie- “poverty is less than 15K…issues are not at arm’s length like they are for the middle classes and above”.
410 Notifications to CYFS a day.”a bleakness of life” (check your privilage ‘pete’)
McCroskie- concedes ” money is a factor” and that ” poorer areas ARE targeted by the liquor and pokie industries”.
Tamaki (had to have a stiff pipe to watch that) -“hey, in a cold house you can still cuddle a child”
“I’m a… I’m a ….I’m a …sensational mother and grandmother” (who clearly has never heard the sweet voice of Jesus in her, MY MY MY , ear).
Hone (Love that man)- “medium income in the North is 12K, many less than that…colds go on and on ‘cos families can’t afford the medicine…whanau (in the studio audience) know this to be true”.
GRINDING LEVELS OF POVERTY place people under stress, lowers the wairua.
Tamaki- “I am , in my own eyes” (give that woman a pill đ ) families working themselves out of debt, into debt with Destiny Church. King takes Bishop.
Interesting watching the nervous throat swallowings of the studio audience when faced with the evidence.
McCroskie- “key driver, family breakdown” stigmatizing the single-parent household, protecting themselves from useless men. Widows and orphans, widows and orphans, what is that blinds ‘Christians’ to that scripture?
Hone (love that man) “poverty can lead to family breakdown”.
Rank in- “why don’t we look at the successful?”
Food Insecurity.
Anyway, I was hosting a man in poverty, with a large family, and he believed from his own extensive experience that both factors, poverty and parenting play a part.
Rankin- believes âthat life skills overcome povertyâ.
Having the skill to make the most of your looks, dress well (with a little accidental cleavage), choose interesting earrings, show off your knees etc. is all useful stuff for women. Women don’t find many good-paying jobs (average out to 80% of men’s wages, which only gives a rough guide to the arid planet that some women try to live on). Hopefully all the effort will enable her to find a well-paid partner so anything she can earn can go towards extra goodies and holidays and better clothes still. Que sera.
I would still contend that there has been a massive drop off of the sort of basic survival skills my mother taught me – cooking, clothing repair, budgeting etc.
I strongly oppose the intent of this Bill to legislatively remove functions from Housing New Zealand (HNZ) under the proposed amended Part 5.
ie: Assessing eligibility for a State house.
· The functions of reviews, eligibility, and income-related rent
subsidy calculations should not be transferred to any other body
(including WINZ) from HNZ.
· HNZâs role as the major provider of State houses should not be
delegated to a multiple provider of âsocial housingâ. Under no
circumstances should Part 5 of the Principal Act:
The Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Act 1992,
be amended.
· No âsocial housingâ agency should be recipients of existing State
housing stock.
· This Bill should not apply to existing State housing tenants.
· State housing is a function of central Government â private âsocial
housingâ entities, should be totally separate entities to Housing
New Zealand.
· I oppose this privatized model for State housing.
REALLY important that we get as many submissions in as possible!
Submissions need to be received by the Social Services Select Committee before midnight, Thursday 27 June 2013.
They can be mailed FREEPOST to Parliament to:
MAIL TO THE CLERK OF THE SOCIAL SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE :
Private Bag 18041 Parliament Buildings Wellington 6061
I have checked with the Clerk of the Social Services Select Committee, regarding whether or not there will be hearings in Auckland on this Bill.
At this stage, it has not yet been decided.
Recommend that as many Auckland people as possible circle YES to the
‘I WISH TO BE HEARD IN PERSON BY THE SOCIAL SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE’ bit on this submission form.
Have just put this up on my website, and will help get the message out as FAR and WIDE as possible đ
I’m sure Roy Morgan is the biggest cause of depression amongst leftie political activists currently.
One fortnight he bounces his results up giving all sorts of hope for the death of the hated Key, then the next fortnight the numbers bounce down again and suddenly Shearer is wearing Kevlar under his shirt to avoid the inevitable knife in the back.
Maybe they should only survey once a month to help reduce the number of stomach ulcers suffered by the L&G supporters?
You distancing yourself from Shearer yet? I think its a good idea to start the verbal pre-positioning quite soon so it doesn’t look all sudden and panicky.
Personally, I like to base my assessments on facts. So in that case it’s still “too close to call”, or even on occasion leaving national “well behind”.
Besides, I’d find it pretty difficult to maintain an 18-month tantrum. You’re still going strong, though.
An 18 month tanty? I suppose I like to be consistent.
Personally, I like to base my assessments on facts. So in that case itâs still âtoo close to callâ, or even on occasion leaving national âwell behindâ.
Sometimes you have to start turning the wheel well before the evidential point of impact. Just saying.
BTW I think that Labour have a solid 50/50 chance of winning the election in 2014. But “winning” is merely an event and it isn’t the sole criteria of how I judge this thing called “leadership”.
I have never seen such an incompetent Government enjoy such support. I have never seen the Greens so popular. In the inner city liberal suburbs it is touch and go if Labour or the Greens are the most popular liberal party.
I have never seen the Greens win the party vote like they did in Wellington Central last time. I have never seen an electorate lose 10% points of the party vote like Labour did in Auckland Central.
I have never seen Dunedin swing so powerfully to the Greens like it did in 2011.
So nothing to worry about if you are a Green supporter. But if you are a Labour supporter well what can I say?
Oh well. Before there is time for anyone to get restless, the two main papers will put out polls in which Shearer’s Labour is on 35 or 36%, and the volatility of polls will be commented on and blah blah blah, sigh. It’s like watching the little wheels go round in a toy water mill.
You must be joking you naughty Roman. I doubt McFlock is a real Celt.
33% is where Labour has been for the whole Goff Robertson Shearer era.
John Key’s incompetent ministers and MPs mess up daily and Labour can’t make a dent in their grip on power.
Key could call an election if Banks or Dunne get booted.
And would the voters go for Shearer?
Bear in mind only half of this poll occurred before the Sky City Box fiasco.
That may have gone out of the media. It has not gone out of people’s minds
People are silently gobsmacked at the sheer stupidity of Shearer & co.
Not sure if you are talking to me Boadicea, but what I meant was, the polls always seem to stay just high enough for the ABC lot to retain control of the party. And where the main polls fall short, the newspaper ones tend to make up for it. But I agree that the 29-35% range replicates the Goff period, the difference being that Key was a lot more popular then.
Your bare faced jumping from trend data to point data is shallow and unconvincing,
You do not help the case of the leadership by pushing such a weak case in a weak manner.
Here is a link to the figures. The current Labour leadership faction has been driving the strategy since the 2008 loss. And that faction has achieved the square root of sweet-fuck-all.
The polls are a massive failure for Labour. The Labour strategy is wrong. The wrong people are at the top table. Look at the figures. Every member of the party sees them.
Sadly the members found out at the 2011 Annual Conference that their voice is not wanted. Only the Caucus can sort this mess out.
I respect Loyalty. Your support of the leadership is not a real loyalty. It is blinkered support. Keep it up! It strengthens those who want to win Labour for ALL the members.
The polls say Labour/Green Government. Hardly a massive failure.
The members drove the conference, and made historic changes to the party. Ok, if by ‘the members’ you mean the mugs putting DC up when he had no chance, then, yeah, it was a tough conference for them.
I suspect McFlock, like me, doesn’t much care who leads the party. It’s the policies that count, because, on the left, that’s what we’re about. And if Shearer scrapes in, as it appears he will, then we get the best of Labour and the Greens to set our country’s future. That’s a pretty cool outcome, whoever the PM is.
The polls are a whisker away from a Labour/Green/NZ First government which could be the death knell for Labour.
This is at a time when this Government has been as useless, incompetent, disrespective of citizens rights and utterly incompetent in running the economy. And don’t me get started on the environment.
But they are still 11 points ahead of Labour. What gives?
This discussion three months ago on the Standard would have caused a huge number of comments. Are lefties that numb that they now do no longer care?
“This discussion three months ago on the Standard would have caused a huge number of comments. Are lefties that numb that they now do no longer care?”
Yes, many are disappointed or disillusioned. Those who collected Asset Sales petitions saw it mismanaged and we had to back out again.
Then we found out that our “Leaders” were flying up from Wellington and Christchurch to sup in the Sky Box the same day.
The sense of hope that existed last year has been replaced with numbness.
I suspect McFlock, like me, doesnât much care who leads the party. Itâs the policies that count, because, on the left, thatâs what weâre about.
Yes, policies, that’s right, that’s what we’re about.
Uh, and so that means that leadership is not that important.
So. We going to put our Leader on the hoardings this time? You know, because who leads our party…uh…isn’t something we need to much care about.
Sweetie, you can start here.
National ’08 45%, ’11 47.5% now 44%.
Labour/ Green ’08 41%, ’11 38.5% now 44.5%
NZ1 ’08 4%, ’11 6.5% now 6%
National has not been impacted by their own foul ups or by the efforts of the opposition.
Labour Greens have closed the gap with the Nats by 4 pc points. However Winston and his 6% will go Nat rather than share power with the Greens.
That is not a success given all that has gone on since ’08.
That is a failure given that an election could be called anytime ( due to self inflicted wounds by Natz&co) and that a full term election is a little over 12 months away.
Nothing cool there. It is very chilling. All Labour people should be very very concerned.
What were the polls reading especially for national just before the elections? If you’re going to compare survey points with actual observations, you might want to see what the survey bias was.
A few percent skewed towards national, if I recall correctly.
the six and a half points was election results. I.e., actual votes, not “voter intention” estimates. That’s the difference between actual starting points, of which surveys like roymorgan estimate support periodically between the actual elections.
If I wanted to compare survey point data, I’d look at the 23% result Labour got under goff shortly before the election.
Love the way you speak for all labour party members, though.
The comparison was between goff and shearer’s leadership performance.
Moving from the low/mid thirties into the high/mid twenties is not the same as moving from the hih/mid twenties into the low/mid thirties in half the time.
The comparison was between goff and shearerâs leadership performance.
There you fucking go again
What you actually mean is
The comparison was between goff and shearerâs polling performance.
Which is something different entirely. My prediction for next year is that Goff in 2011 will have shown himself a far stronger and more experienced campaigner than Shearer in 2014. Feel free to disagree.
I may need to learn to read McFlock but you need to learn about politics. Given the appalling nature of this Government Labour should be ahead in the polls. Figuring out relative comparisons to show that it is slightly better now than it was before is frankly shyte.
The Labour party is doing fine under MMP. MMP, if you don’t recall, is supposed to have coalition governments. They provide the meat, the greens provide the healthy veges. National is trying to be a monolith party under MMP, and it’s in serious long term strife. Basically, my ideal labour vote is 38-40-odd percent. With 12-15% greens or another left wing party to drag government policy left.
Labour had a poor election response in 2011. But it needs to move through current levels to get to the 40-odd mark in 2014. It’s made it halfway, pretty much, and seems to be consistently improving, if slowly.
Oh, and the silent majority might just turn out to be a vocal minority who can’t deal with the fact that they supported a losing candidate.
So David Shearer is the person who will deliver us to the promised land?
FFS man he can hardly tie his shoe laces without help.
Do you ever get out and talk to people on the street? The message I hear is that Labour is just not cutting it. There is no oomph. There is no passion. There is no explanation of what NZ has to do to improve things.
Do you really want to rely on Winston Peters to provide a majority next time?
I dunno who the fucking polls talk to mate, but they’re not talking to anyone without a landline at home, and they’re not talking to anyone who just uses a mobile phone.
Thanks for leaping to the defence of Shearer et al over and over and over this evening, always good to see an Alliance supporter muck in to cheerlead a centrist political party.
I hope you’re right McFlock. I came here looking for reasons to vote Labour and I think his leadership image and his ability to articulate and sell policy are going to be important to those voters who make their choices on the basis of what they see on the telly and the messages they remember. If I were to vote Labour on the basis of my own personal perception of Shearer’s ability to be elected to deliver a better alternative government right now it would be on the basis of gamble and hope, expecting failure, nothing like conviction.
Labour people are stoic and not too mouthey. They have jobs and families and hobbies. They have been doing the the Enrollment stuff, the renewals, the boring meetings, the poorly led Asset Campaign. And they are generally silent while supporting their MPs and waiting for the Caucus to sort it’s shit out.
Your sneering attitude towards the members disgust at the attendance at the Sky Box is disgusting.
Oh fuck off McFlock, if I recall according to you, you’ve never been a member of the Labour Party but do support the Alliance.
So the arrogance you have being a non-member and a supporter of a different party, sneering at someone who is a member, over their comment relating to a membership to which you have never belonged yourself, makes me sneer.
Ah, so the labour members who disagree with boudica aren’t really labour party members, hence how b’s blanket description of the opinions of labour party membership cannot be wrong.
It’s not just the Sky City box fiasco that so infuriating… it’s the fact that every bloody week they fuck up and undermine some supposedly key policy point.
Every week with every single major policy they give the NACTS an opportunity to shout “Show me the money!”
And all NACT’s useful idiots are saying “Clark was rating lower in the Precambrian, Goff was at a lower point in the Triassic…”
It’s all grasping at straws.
Even Dalziel was desperately scrambling on Nine to Noon the other day, pretending that “normal voting patterns” would resume.
I feel sorry for, and am amazed at the faith and persistence of, party workers who sincerely and passionately devote themselves to policy development only to be spat on at the last conference and humiliated by a recurring cycle of fiascoes that happen so regularly you could set your watch by them. It’s as if Sisyphus can’t even get his boulder to the top of the mountain – it rolls away the moment he moves it.
Mothers chew food for their babies, baby food is mash, to make it easy to digest, so was it any wonder a faster food chain would utilize food science to make food that produce a quick feeling of fullness. Food that was easily digestible within 5 hours. So I was a bit struck when the lawyer before the privy council seem to suggest that a MacDonald fast food takeout should be near the upper limit of five hour before it would be digested. And what is near alibi that would exonerate him, we here a lot about the speeding to get home, and how the computer clock was wrong, well there was a clock at the alibi event too, if you were going to kill someone and came across a clock that was wrong… ..anyway this is why courts should be trusted with the process and why Bain should get compensation, for Justice to be fair the court must prove guilt, and when they can’t…
Given that McDonalds buns take a good year to develop mold/decompose behind my couch, it would not surprise me at all if they were at the upper limits of what’s digestible.
The only evidence suggesting he was in Petone at midnight is the alibi of a prostitute – I look forward to her testimony at the rehearing.
In the meantime, pro-Lundy nutbars are going to have to explain:
a) the bedroom window broken and surrounding blood stains of Mum when the “stranger jewellery-box-robber hypothesis” is premised on the intruder leaving through the door, which was after all open (the defence case was “No true pre-meditated murderer would be such an amateur”);
b) The stranger invader grabbing the key off the divider, going outside to grab Lundy’s tools, unlocking the garage, THEN murdering mother and child; and
c) The increase in Mum’s and Dad’s life insurance policy when dad was facing over 100k in debt.
Instead you want to jump up and defend how easily digestible McDonalds would be? Please.
I’ve never understood why people seem to get so personally involved with court cases they presumably have nothing to do with, and take up such entrenched positions on matters they know nothing more about than anyone else.
Someone who disagrees with you on the interpretation of a very limited set of facts isn’t necessarily a nutbar. They’re just another uninformed person like yourself but with a slightly different perspective.
Also you seem to be scornful of evidence provided by a sex worker. Why is that?
A part of what sex workers are paid for is to keep men’s secrets.
As to nutbar, that was sloppy language, and not intended to be founded on the fact of aerobubble was being pro-Lundy (but rather anti-judicial-process-but-only-parts-of-it-that-don’t-suit-Lundy, and the vaguely conspiratorial ring of the post…) – anyway, I retract and apologize.
However, I do think presuming that both the computer clock and the motel’s/sex worker’s clock were wrong is simply reading in facts that do not exist (and have not even been alleged by the defence) is fringe behaviour.
Same with an appeal court overturning a decision (which having watched the closing arguments at the P.C., and the way they were received by the judges, I believe Lundy will get a retrial) and coming out with “why courts should [not] be trusted with the process” is fringey tinfoilhat behaviour.
Burgers behind couches, dry out, whereas a burger introduced to a wet billion year old evolved stomach is quite a different thing. Obviously people who eat burgers digest them… duh.
Considering that Labour appears to follow the Greens on every harebrained initiative, a few questions arise:
Where is David Shearer?
What is he doing?
What leadership does he provide other than follow Norman?
Who is advising him?
Why isn’t Grant Robertson stepping in?
Grant Robertson is the problem and therefore can’t be “stepping in” to fix anything.
He has all the Leaders Staff under his control – he picked most.
Robertson, along with WaionouimataMan, devised the election strategy for 2011, the image strategy for Goff and now the image strategy for Shearer. Along with Goff, Mallard and King he picked Shearer to block Cunliffe, who would have sent them to their well earned retirment/Embassy etc.
If you are wondering what Shearer is doing wrong, the answer is he is doing whatever Grant Roberson is telling him to do.
Remove Robertson and we are on the way to fixing the Labour Party.
So you are saying that Robertson is the VRWC plant and not Shearer? That is quite devious as most folk assumed that Shearer was ballsing up Labour by himself without any help from his deputy?
Whoever the fuck killed these men forgot that unless you’ve got control over the local police and media, the truth will always come to the fucking surface. Murder just leaves too many loose ends for investigators to follow, particularly when intelligence orgs are involved.
No wonder Snowden’s in hidding then if this is their standard operating procedure for closing leaks đ
At this stage of the game Labour needs to be in the low 40s not the low 30s.
Why?
The Governor General will invite the leader of the largest party to try to form a government first. Winston would go with National if the only alternative is a Labour Green NZ First Threesome. If Winstonâs supporters thought that he would even think of working with the Green they would run to the Natz in droves.
The electorate will not give Labour the boost it needs if it thinks that will lead to a Threeesome Govt.
To win, Labour needs to be in a position to choose between the Greens and Winston. They need to be in the 40s That is not going to happen unless the Caucus decides to make a very significant change.
As long as Shearer Robertson are there Labour will remain in the low 30s and Natz will lead the next Government.
.
formally requesting the leader of the political party with support of a majority in the House of Representatives to form a government,
So s/he’d only invite the leader of the biggest party to form a government if they had an outright majority. Failing that, whatever party can get the confidence and supply agreement of enough MPs to form a majority alliance, will get the GG’s invite.
It is a well known phenomenon that EQC is the most woeful government department ever. It goes back to not even having a plan to deal with the thousands and thousands of claims that would result from a disaster hitting one of our major cities. This is of course gross negligence of the highest order given that is exactly their purpose. (holding back expletives here..)….. and that negligence rests entirely on the shoulders of previous Ministers responsible for the organisation and the governments they were part of.
Now as part of that complete incompetence it has also committed other astounding blunders such as emailing out private details to all and sundry.
But now get this – documents necessary to get repairs underway for claimants are no longer emailed, they are snail-mailed because they simply cannot trust themselves to not make a mistake with email…
… excuse me here but …… ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
It is the fist of control that this represents. Someone makes a mistake then everyone is not allowed to do that which is by far the most efficient way of sending out information.
The managers need to worry less about the possible mistakes and more about the best way to send out information. That is if helping ordinary people sort out their problems is important.
Te Hamua Nikora has outlined the Mana Movement’s new housing policy very very well in the speech linked to below. And he doesn’t pull any punches where labour is concerned either. I can’t wait for him to get into parliament.
MANA wants to build 10,000 state houses a year, 500 immediately in Ikaroa Rawhiti, as a first step to ensuring that every whanau that needs a home can get one, either to rent or to own.
MANA would run the scheme through a restructured Te Puni Kokiri, in the same way that Maori Affairs ran the scheme in the past.
Government finance would come through Te Puni Kokiri, effectively cutting out banks and their mean-spirited attitude to Maori homeowners.
Only Maori first home owners would be able to apply.
There would be no deposit.
Interest rates would be no higher than the rates government pays on money it borrows.
Applicants can either build new or buy an existing property
Applicants will be able to negotiate mortgage arrangements that suit their circumstances.
MANAâs policy would fully restart Maori Trade Training in all the housing apprenticeships â carpentry, electrician, plumber, glazier, painting, roofing and drain-laying â and provide direct employment to hundreds of young Maori, reversing unemployment of 5,000 in Ikaroa Rawhiti and sending a positive message to those in Australia as well.
It is a win-win â our people get jobs building decent homes for our whanau.
An incredibly nasty peice on TV3 news by Tova Obrien on Te Hamua Nikora and pakehas lack of understanding of koha. Just let it go MSM, understand what Koha is about and fuck off. This sort of ignorant shit from the msm just pisses me off.
That was a classic TV3 misrepresentation…my understanding is that Marama is completely supportive of the Koha to Te Hauma Nikora (Native Affairs from a couple of weeks ago). TV3 played that clip in such a way to cause confusion.
Severe global financial market crash may be starting. Expect massive paper asset deflation. The banksters and their puppet politicians kicking the can down the road, may have just run out of road.
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TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this yearâs Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran OâSullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm â a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon â note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinsonâs analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana â or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. Itâs a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealandâs highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes –Â Â Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – âIt is often said that behind every great man is a great womanâ. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their âLadies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxonâ. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Petersâ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes â If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshubâs closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague â whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak â has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
âIt is often said that behind every great man is a great womanâ. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their âLadies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxonâ. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Ministerâs ...
The Coalition Governmentâs plan to âget Auckland movingâ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities sheâs meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Governmentâs archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the Americaâs Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it wonât stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Memberâs Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labourâs change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand Firstâs State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared âco-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te PÄti MÄori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. âIâm calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to âtake back our countryâ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jonesâ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Governmentâs fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Governmentâs miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesnât act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. âIt was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. âThe Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend.  âThis travel will focus on a range of New Zealandâs traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,â Mr Peters says.  Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. âRoad safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. âOur relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliamentâs order paper. âThe Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,â Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams wonât be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. âThe coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. âDam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. âI have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. âThe Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023â24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the governmentâs finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Governmentâs Budget objectives. âThe coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says.                                        âThe Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says.  âThese changes are long overdue â the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealandâs growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Ministerâs Prizes for Space today. âNew Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealandâs concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. Â Â âThe Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Educationâs School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. âThere is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âToday I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of Peopleâs Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. âThe use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,â Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. âWeâre sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealandâs ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. Â Â âI am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. âI have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commissionâs online consultation portal.â Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. âComprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. âI would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. âThis is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women donât ...
Good morning, itâs great to be here.  First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Governmentâs ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Governmentâs commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools MÄori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. âThe Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, Iâm proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of todayâs address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and Iâm sorry I canât be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the WhangÄrei site where the facility will be constructed. âNorthland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata MÄori 20 years ago, says MÄori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisationâs 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the âdisappearanceâ of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people âsequesteredâ in this weekâs raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Itâs Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether youâre a boomer, or an â80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fijiâs Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? â Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems thereâs one luxury most Australians wonât sacrifice â their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Educationâs claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxonâs fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20â24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50â44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayersâ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the Peopleâs Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether youâre facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, itâs always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. Itâs an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
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Want to keep up with the latest developments relating to climate change?
Or just uncertain of the facts and want to know more?
Then check out the Daily Climate News. You couldn’t go far past dailyclimate.org as a good simple factual resource. Here gathered in one place, are climate related news stories from around the globe.
The lead story today is about the phenomenon known as ‘weather whiplash’ hitting farming in the US.
AS DROUGHT TURNS TO FLOOD, FARMERS GET “WEATHER WHIPLASH”
Many New Zealand farmers currently suffering flooding after an unprecedented drought could relate.
Other lead stories
How British farmers have been badly effected by changes in weather patterns.
UK FARMERS FAIL TO FEED NATION AFTER EXTREME WEATHER HITS WHEAT CROP
But it is not all bad news. There is some good news, and some mixed news.
First the good news:
Emission cuts lead to cleaner California air
In a marriage that replaces coal, natural gas and renewable energy will power the future Texas grid
Renewables growth shifts to developing nations
Now the mixed news:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday a $19.5 billion plan to defend New York City against rising seas and severe storms
Relating to OM yesterday. Your inability to see the super power proxy war unfolding in Syria, or the fact that there is no popular uprising (except possibly in your own mind) because the majority of the fighters in the conflict are imported mercenaries and jihadists, undermines any humanitarian point you have tried to make.
Do you know what you have in common with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz? You’re a supporter of regime change through foreign military force. These are intentions that General Wesley Clark revealed years ago, after he left the military.
And please don’t try and threaten my Labour Party membership. I’ve had a number of MPs make the attempt, and to you I will also say, fuck off.
tsk tsk. trouble in the sandbox. đ
CV the only one threatening your Labour Party membership is yourself. No self respecting democratic party can be seen to tolerate an intemperate extremist who openly supports mass murder.
You still telling other political parties what they should be doing?
You still support the foreign sponsored military overthrow of Assad, you support mass murder, feel that itch in your conscience? Those are the heavy weapons that the west are now openly supplying to foreign Islamist fighters in Syria.
Here is a list of the different Islamist groups now fighting in Assad. To be clear: these are the people you are supporting, Jenny.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/freedom-fighters-cannibals-the-truth-about-syrias-rebels-8662618.html
Those are the heavy weapons that the west are now openly supplying to foreign Islamist fighters in Syria.
3500 tons of armaments,brought from Croatia,.
the Kerry /haig beatup for a no fly zone lasted about 5 minutes at the G8 when the Russians told them what their expected losses would be.A point emphasized by the US chief of staff,who stated that a no fly zone would require neutralizing a fully integrated state of the art air defense system and in addition the US did not have the economic capability due to sequestration (read funding cuts) hence it would require dual house approvals.
Jenny, being a warmonger, will be well pleased.
As I just commented, it seems that the US (global) financial situation may be about to get much worse. Very pleased to be in NZ.
Only people who don’t know how lucky they are to be in a democracy.
can justify the use of massive violence to deny it to others.
So most of the names of the organisations you have supplied CV care of the Independent, have titles that include the words Islamic or Islam. So what?
I support a people’s right to overthrow a monstrous dictatorship.
While you CV are more and more revealing yourself as an ignorant Islamaphobe who supports a regime that uses torture and bombardment from the air against civilian populations who have rejected the dictatorship.
You are an Islamaphobe who admires a murderous dictator with a fashionable wife, because he has been publicly feted and admired by useful idiots in the West for being “Secular” and “Progressive“. While in private more valued by the West for providing a safe haven for torture for the shadowy CIA rendition program, As well as keeping Israel’s Northern Border trouble free.
So why in your opinion CV is “Islamic” in a rebel organisations name, enough to discredit them in your eyes?
Around the world where all other means of popular expression has been suppressed, people have turned to religious faiths and organisations and charities that not only provide succor for a besieged people, but also give a space to give voice to their hopes and dreams for a better life.
IMHO, Mainly because such organisations are the only ones that can still operate under the harsh conditions of dictatorship.
In most of the Arab world, which until recently due to the Arab Spring has been overwhelmingly dominated by pro-Western despots who banned all political meetings. Friday prayers were the natural place where people could gather in large numbers without interference or attack from their various regimes. And so space was gained for the birth of Arab Spring under conditions of harsh repressive dictatorship in which all other means of popular expression were violently suppressed.
For instance the rise of Hamas in Palestine occurred mainly through their welfare charity and health provision when all secular organisations had either failed or become corrupted or infiltrated.
Not at all CV. Just pointing out to one of them, and the rest of the country that they harbour an admirer of a fascist style regime in their ranks.
It is up to the Labour Party if they are happy to tolerate supporters of mass murder and torture in their ranks. If the Labour Party are happy with this situation, then they will have to judged by it.
It seems to me that the next national election campaign has already started.
Key has been repeating the theme that NZ Labour is a radical left party, not fit to be trusted with the Treasury benches.
Repetition is a powerful rhetorical tool, akin to conditioning.
He would not be doing so on his own. It is probable that the National strategy
committee [Collins, Lusk, Joyce, Textor, Crosby .. ad nauseam] has decided on
a long term strategy of a long march through the swamps of electoral politics to
set the stage and control the parameters of the campaign.
We will probably soon have other National parliamentarians echoing the theme.
Winston is onto it
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8810045/Key-puts-boot-into-Opposition
.. so is Mad Max
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/10130073/American-Mad-Max-angers-Australians.html
Winston The Toe-Cutter.
Yep, there was a reason why the previous government set the election period as from Jan of the year of the election and it’s the same reason why National dropped it as soon as they got power – because the electioneering happens throughout the entire year. Some academics think that electioneering never stops.
still got hoardings masquerading as public announcements out west – theyve never gone away
Yep, seen that. National Party advertising courtesy of the taxpayer.
Yip still getting mail outs from that numpty Shearer.
http://www.social-europe.eu/2013/06/one-more-reason-to-end-this-depression-now-fascism/
yep, lacing up those boots.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10891752. Can it get much worse? Kids starving while shyster politicians and their hired help pay spin doctors to avoid democratic transparency.
I see that some within Labour are proposing that Clayton Cosgrove is selected as its candidate for the Christchurch East by election. The thinking is that this will shore up support for Shearer as it will bring into Parliament Kelvin Davis who is said to be a Shearer supporter.
Can I suggest an alternative thinking, that Labour selects the best possible candidate for the job. This person should preferably be a local of have strong links to the area. They should be capable of doing the job, of helping local people with their problems and of holding the Government to account for the shyte situation it has created in Christchurch. They should also have the judgment to not do stupid stuff like accepting free beer and food in a Sky City Corporate Box.
I do not give a toss who they support for the leadership. In fact if they are selected for loyalty reasons rather than on ability there is something seriously wrong.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8817400/Cosgrove-not-flavour-of-the-moment
So in other words. No one in the current crop?
*sigh* How much longer is the wider left going to be subjected to the weakening impacts of the self-serving shenanigans of the current inadequate Labour caucus leadership? It’s thoroughly depressing.
And it is so self serving. At the time that all focus should be on Dalziel’s bid for the mayoralty we are talking instead about internal shyte. Dalziel should be given some clean air to get her campaign going. For Christchurch’s sake it is vital that she beats Mr Lego Clown.
Excellent to see Lianne has the backing of Vicky Buck, Sam Johnston and possibly Garry Moore?
Definitely Gary Moore! He was on RNZ this morning promoting her big time.
Amen to that; time for Bob to park up. Never been a touch on Moore and Buck.
Agree Karol, if this is true. Very depressing if members of the Labour caucus continue to feel it is necessary to play this game and continue to sure up David Shearer’s position. If true it certainly lowers my opinion of Davis, I didn’t think he was too bad. Difficult to respect someone that backs Shearer.
Maybe Shearer can terrorise opponents in Chch East by-election as well, really working well in Ikaroa-Rawhiti!
Stop making sense
Noble idea SP but cannot see it happening, based on some of the candidates that ran in 2011 its looking like a members only club which excludes and discourages talented committeid folk who can conribute.
“Labour has signalled it will drop at least three of its economic policies, although more for reasons of fiscal restraint than unpopularity: paying into the Cullen super fund before the country returns to surplus, removing GST from fruit and vegetables and making the first $5000 of income tax-free.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10891744
Now it may not be much but 5k tax free would make a difference to the poorest or the poor, but now I see that Labour are starting to show their true light blue colours, fiscal restraint my arse, they are just trying to pull in the blue center vote and to hell with the poor typical Shearer shit! And how much, has the NOT putting in to the Cullen Fund cost us? And if you are really poor even the Gestapo Tax off of the Greenery would be a help.
Just makes my decision to vote Green this time even more correct. I will not vote for a Haters party, and Labour has become a haters party under the mismanagement of Shearer Mallard King Robertson Hipkins and the Rest,
Basically the main policies which differentiate them from National as giving a fuck about low income folks.
I can’t see myself voting for them either.
And if quantitative easing is good enough for the UK and the USA then it’s good enough for Norman…
He needs to start calling Key on his “funny money” jibes and asking if he said that when last speaking to US or UK government officials or ministers.
Yeah but the problem with that is Key understands money and its place in the world (as opposed to how you lot would like money to work in a utopian fantasy world) and the good Ginga Dr has no fucking idea at all.
You speak of a “utopian fantasy world of money”
The Primary Dealers can access billions in newly created money from the Federal Reserve at a less than 0% real interest rate.
I think it’s this current system which is the unsustainable, utopian fantasy (for the elite).
Russel Norman has got a very good grip on the problems we face today. On the other hand, you should stop listening to the shit heads who are actually responsible for the GFC and the subsequent Great Recession, and who in the main, are still in charge pretending they know what they are doing.
David H, You have highlighted a quote attributed to Labour which is in fact shit made up by Audrey Young. Where have you heard or seen anyone from Labour actually ” signal ” such a thing ?. Young, Armstrong et al are part of the Nat disinformation and ” left wing ” denigration campaign which is only given credence by repetition on Labour/Green associated forums. You are playing their game for them.
It strikes me that you and your ilk do not want a left Government because you are only happy constantly complaining and bitching.
We complain and bitch because we DO want a left government.
You’re not going to get one if you keep repeating their made up shit and I repeat playing their game for them. The All Blacks ( and all great teams ) are at their best and unbeatable ( Chch last Sat ) when they get the other team to play the way they want. Simple, it’s the first rule of warfare.
Get out and do some bloody work, doorknocking and phone calling and stop being so fucking negative.
I doubt that Audrey is simply day dreaming those policy changes. She meets Labour front bench MPs on a weekly basis.
As for door knocking for Labour…which I have done a lot of…I’ve decided that I don’t door knock for centrist parties. Not where my political leanings are.
I will be very frustrated if Labour drop the income tax free zone. It simply means that they are not willing to significantly raise taxes on those earning higher incomes.
CV
I can see that it would be useful to have all in the taxation system with all contributing something. But if the first $20,000 on wages was at 5% it would be fairer. The government gets extra tax from GST on the spending of the net income.
That’s what should happen for low income people now the GST has been introduced. And it should be brought down to 10% again. It’s a burden on the spending on necessities, which can include expensive items like frig’s, maintenance on houses and vehicles. It just loads expense on the low income sector which has the biggest bit of the pie chart – the only place where their pie portion is large.
Then decent progressive steps. This country has overused the excuse of simplicity of tax structure which is a lazy approach in this age that has moved on from individual clerks penning everything and working from printed tables to fast calculators and automation. Income tax needs to move on to systems that provide subsidies for transport, allowances for tools, and more tax steps that are inflation indexed.
In general I very much agree. Whether everyone needs to be paying income tax is worth a discussion. People paying income tax on their UB which is so low already…what’s the point.
But in general terms yes the tax system has to become far more progressive, and also far simpler to administer with Far fewer gaps for avoidance.
CV…but the war will be won in the center as always? you disagree?
The world will be lost in the centre, DavidC.
I don’t know about the third policy David H mentions (the $5000) but the other two (GST and Cullen Fund) have both been publicly mentioned by Shearer/Parker. The Cullen fund was in Shearer’s speeches over a year ago.
Just calling Labour voters gullible tools of the MSM really doesn’t work. Nor does blaming people for not door-knocking in the cold on behalf of the warm corporate box. Clearly some Labour MPs don’t need less criticism, they need more, until they get it.
Where did Shearer or anyone in labour say they would drop the Cullen fund payments before surplus? Or drop any of the other policies mentioned?
It’s a really tiresome ploy to ask questions you don’t want the answer to. Pretending to want information, but actually just being contrary for the sake of it.
If you did genuinely want the answer, you could simply Google “david shearer speech cullen fund”. It would save us both time.
Read first search result. And many more.
actually, fair call on that one about google. Bit busy today though, and it didn’t ring any bells.
But I did actually want the answer, that’s why I asked the question.
The Cullen fund thing according to DTB’s links is not ” drop [ing …] paying into the Cullen super fund before the country returns to surplus”. It is “until we are back in surplus, any new spending will have to be paid for out of existing budget provisions, new revenue, or by re-prioritising.” Note the “new revenue” and “re-prioritising”. Lots of room there, like a CGT or higher tax band counting as “new revenue”. But definitely reporters are “interpreting” what is said, rather than quoting.
And the vege thing is simply a long way down the list at this stage. Depends on what the policy committee comes up with. And given that they’ll need the Greens to be in government, it would be difficult for Labour to refuse to do it should the Greens ask, it being recent policy and all.
Still busy supporting NZ’s centrist capitalist monetary orthodoxy party?
still throwing your toys around the cot?
Sure, I thought that was obvious. Now you answer.
No Cullen Fund restart until surplus, says Shearer – but did he tell his MPs?
Labour gone cold on GST-free food
Then let me put it this way Adrian. I have voted Labour ever since I was able to vote. I have helped by door knocking, driving people to vote, and in the other 1001 ways the volunteers help out. This time I will vote Green. I am so disappointed with the direction the party has taken, and the list of screw ups are getting longer by the day, so there is a leadership problem there, the absolute debacle that was the Paddy Gower Chris Hipkins hate Cunlife day live on TV3, turned me right off of Labour there and then. And nothing they have done since leads me to believe they will change. It seems to me that Labour are completely at war within the Party hierarchy and they don’t give a rats arse about the voters it’s more about hanging onto the pay packet. So if you want my vote then you have policy that will help those that are less well of that will help the Children and will put work to get jobs out there. Now for the last 40 years every time Labour has won I have been in full time well paid employment. I lose said employment under National as any extra money is gone. This time if labour get in I fear I will have no such employment as they don’t seem to have a clue I would not trust their front bench as far as I could spit against the wind.
Re Dunne and GCSB reports
Apparently 2 reports could not been “found”
One with an unnamed minister
AND
One with the department of the PM that WAS shredded.
That seems very odd as the report was going to be released any way.
Really weird.
“One with the department of the PM ”
The largest employment growth area in government (by percentage) is this department. Maybe we should just start calling it the Central Committee of the Dictatorship
“A government controlled by one person, or a small group of people. In this form of government the power rests entirely on the person or group of people. The dictator(s) may also take away much of its peoples’ freedom. In contemporary usage, dictatorship refers to an autocratic form of absolute rule by leadership unrestricted by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors within the state.”
Changing those laws is the first step in being unrestricted by laws. Undermining the power of the Judiciary is also key (no pun intended).
If calling Labour’s last rule “helengrad” was an acceptable epithet (and it was used by mainstream journalists including John Armstrong) then why such horror if we start to call this government “the Dictatorship”?
Peter Dunne wants the rules changed so that he can keep 100’s of thousands in party cash. How long has UF been duping the electoral commission re the numbers they really have in their party?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10891755
“Please please let me keep my nose in the trough really deeply, please don’t pull me back to the edge where I only get a little.”
With everything he has been caught out doing, he still demands things to be as they were, even tho’ he has Leaked sensitive docs (thanks for that Pete) has NO party but still wants the money (no thanks Pete)
Yesterday he said they had enough members to form 4 parties. He also said it was their largest membership in a long time. 2000? That’s as many people who put their hand in their pocket for this party? I am a MMP fan but guys like this and Banks are taking the piss.
On RadioNZ National this morning ‘the Hairdo’ backed down from His claim of having 2000 members calling that claim a slight over estimation,
Apparently the Hairodo’s party has 1000 members via electronic medium which the Electoral Commission will not accept for the purpose of registering United Future as a party,
Dunne today will have a discussion with the Speaker of the House who would in a sane world where there wasn’t being operated a protection racket for errant Ministers and MP’s withdraw the ‘Leaders’ funding for the non-existent United Future party but don’t hold your breath,
Dunnes legacy when He finally ceases supping at the trough will be to have been the ‘black hole in space’ of New Zealand politics having sucked in every fledgling ‘movement’ and political party from christians to hunters’n’fishers whereupon anything such may have stood for has disappeared immediately from the political sphere…
Actually, I/S has an interesting post and makes a good point on that:
It seems that it may be the electoral commission that’s breaking the law.
Actually, I understood that the electoral commission now say they will accept electronic records. But the stuff originally submitted electronically was just a spreadsheet of names “not supported by any signed and dated evidence from members”. This was judged to be inadequate. They want signed and dated forms and will accept those that have been submitted to the party electronically.
Fair enough.
Not sure about that – looking at the Herald article, apparently the EC is cool with electronic, but wants the members signatures (basically scans of the forms). UF just wanted to give them an excel spreadsheet of the membership details (my guess is no signatures).
The real problem for Dunne is that the EC claims no facility to “reregister” parties, so UF comes under as a new registration and he loses his party leadership $$$ because a new parliamentary party needs 6 MPs.
heh, heh, heh
edit: snap karol – that’ll teach me to have a work chat halfway through writing a comment đ
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2013/06/by-andrew-gimsonfollow-andrew-on-twitter-lynton-crosby-has-never-lobbied-david-cameron-on-anything-to-do-with-cigarettes-or.html
So David Cameron and Lynton Crosby have set out to destroy the Labour Party ?
“The Prime Minister insisted, when challenged on this point, that he is only interested in learning one thing from Mr Crosby: “How we destroy the credibility of the Labour Party.” Mr Cameron added that this was a subject in which Mr Crosby has “considerable expertise”, but is something Labour is even better at doing for itself.
One might add that this is also a subject in which Mr Cameron has considerable expertise. On leaving Oxford, he went straight into the Conservative Research Department, where he mastered the technique of making a close study of Labour policy in order to demonstrate, with the help of quotation, that it is riven by fatal contradictions.
So what we get nowadays at Prime Minister’s questions is a perpetual assault by Mr Cameron on the Labour Party, of a kind which a gifted desk officer in the Conservative Research Department of the late 1980s might make. It is a professional performance, but also a rather mean-spirited and constricted one.”
.. and a role model for John Key and the National Party front bench from which Aaron Gilmore took his cue.
Raa
That’s all interesting – especially the bit about David Cameron doing a virtual PhD on the anomalies of the Labour Party. Is that on google under David Cameron? Have you a link?
I was commenting on Guava’s link above .. but I don’t think
John Key can match Cameron’s performance in this respect
because he has not put in the effort, love him or hate him, which Cameron has.
I’m not big on crime news stories, they always feel a bit manipulative, but this:
“A nun has admitted breaking the arm of a 9-year-old at Sunday School after the girl failed to get an action song right.
Leva-i-Fangalupe Fono – known as Sister Leva – yelled at the girl, flicked her in the head and broke the girl’s arm when she twisted it behind her back. ”
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/261704/nun-admits-breaking-girls-arm
This just feels wrong on every level! Breaking a nine-year old’s arm at Sunday School – even if she had been playing up that would have been grossly inappropriate, but for getting a song wrong?
I know the Catholics already have semi-public schools, but I see this as a taste of things to come if religious groups get to run Charter Schools away from the public eye. What would Destiny thugs do to a kid who blew one of Bishop(/ Messiah) Tamaki’s photo ops?
I don’t want to be a catholic boy,
i just want to have some fun,
i don’t want to be a catholic boy
and get beaten by the nun…
Pasupial
The buzz word these days is to be ‘passionate’ about what you do. Could this be the ultimate effect – Ultimate Passion Fighting? The Army manages to lose a few of its trainees now and then which apparently is collateral damage when looking at the overall objective. I guess when you want to produce successful stats and stars that illuminate your education organisation positively, what’s a few broken arms while trying to control the poor material you are working with? /sarc
I was watching The Wire and a white teacher without street experience trying to teach the belligerent, negative, malicious and troubled young people from a very depressed area. One girl suddenly slashed the face of another with a razor in a recent view. The teachers and school leaders are now trying a new approach and mentally dividing the children into those from the stoops, and those from the corners. This indicates two different types of response by the youngsters to their education and each will be met by a shaped method that responds to the way that group behaves. The idea is that each group should be taught in a way that specially meets their approach so they can be controlled and led into education with their minds readied to concentrate, and not just to think up playing disruptive games with the teacher.
There is an interview on 9toNoon this morning that would be good for all interested in NZ employment and smart business providing it to listen to. It’s about Lego’s rise and fall and scramble to rise again and keep selling and coping with low cost labour competition. We need to follow similar trajectory in trying to scramble out of our low operating economy using our wits not reverting to reliance on primary and extractive industries till we have metaphorically chopped all the kauri trees.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/presenters/kathryn-ryan (audio available probably after 11am if you miss it live).
10:05 Professor David Robertson – the story behind Lego
Why the iconic Danish company faced near collapse in 2003, and how it managed to recover and become one of the world’s biggest toy companies, and what this turnaround can teach other companies about surviving and thriving. Professor Robertson teaches Innovation and Product Development at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry
It appears that Wellington mayoral contender and long-time rubbish batsman John Morrison has been plagiarising the council’s chief executive for his own puff-piece in last week’s Dom Post:
http://wccwatch.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/morrison-caught-out/
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=56433
What an idiot. Also: Jack Yan just tweeted “I guess thatâs what happens when you donât have any of your own policies.”
The Right must be genuinely desperate to have put up this clown as a serious mayoral contender.
On the topics of Wellington
-the Wellington Regional Transport Committee; Fran Wilde-go with buses. Celia Wade-Brown-light rail. Light-rail in Wellington?
and the ‘comfortable” response to begging in the streets? Charity-boxes to fund charity organizations!ffs, there is that ‘deserving” of the corralled poor.
ANTI-GE PUBLIC MEETING TONIGHT!
Thursday 20 June 2013, 7.15pm – 9.30pm
See you there? đ
___________________________________________________________________________
https://www.facebook.com/events/662356430445771/
“The Hillsborough Room at The Fickling Centre. Cnr of Mt Eden and Mt Albert Rd, (behind 3 Kings Shops in rear of car park and opposite Club Physical) Plenty of parking and on a bus route.
After the enthusiasm of the March Against Monsanto come and find what is happening in NZ and Australia on the GE front?
Australian farmer Bob Mackley and Green Party MP Steffan Browning are visiting to tell you about the impact of an Australian GE crop contamination; and what is happening around GE in New Zealand.
Bob Mackley is speaking about the contamination of his farm by genetically engineered crops.
Come and hear about his experience.
(I heard him last year and he is very knowledgeable and interesting.)
Bob Mackley is a canola farmer in Victoria. He is a strong community figure; a past District Council Chairman and a member of the Victorian Farmers Federation.
He has experience as a convener of a grain marketing group formed to empower local small farmers to get their crops to market, and is past president of the Wimmera Conservation Farming Association.
His crops were contaminated by his neighbourâs GE canola and he is very concerned about the impact of this on his business. He is also concerned about the divisive effect the introduction of GE crops has had on community relationships.
Steffan Browning is working very hard on our behalf to keep NZ GE free. I am delighted to be running this meeting for him.
He will speak about our position in New Zealand and what is happening, not only about keeping crops out of the environment, but about how the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and Food Standards (FSANZ) is approving GE food for release here, even before it has been approved by the US!
Here is some news just released by Steffan about the food bill:
http://www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/green-party-celebrates-changes-food-bill
Please bring along as many people as you can. The more people who really understand about GE the sooner the movement will grow to ensure it is kept out of our environment.”
(Lisa Er from the ‘Awareness Party’ has helped to organise this meeting.)
Life in the Rural Police State of Monsanto
Stopping GE seems like a good idea to me because it would stop shit like this happening. The rest of the article is a must read as it covers how Monsanto are raking in the dollars from lawsuits. IMO, Patents are past their use-by dates and are now a very good example of law gone wrong.
off the subject of suits, was watching Bill O’Reilly on Letterman last night (now there is a program that indicates the States of America…) opined that Snowden could have sued the govt. and that he is likely to get a “ten-stretch”.
It’s more a case of updating patent laws to deal with the implications of GE.
Especially as in the past farmers would have been able to keep seed without threat of legal action, from commercially developed crop lines that usually take even longer than GE techniques to breed and oft used mutagenic methods to generate novel variations. Thus I see a problematic legal contradiction in giving GMO’s patent protection, as frankly, unless you’re making a whole new species, all it is, is a much faster and direct method of adding desired genetic variation to an organism.
*cough*
Anyhow – from actually having done considerable amounts of course work (BSc is in Molecular Biology, so biochemistry and genetics Nick knowth) and regular readings in the years since, the main issues with GMO’s biologically speaking are thus:
1) What changes occur in the global regulation of genes for the GMO vs the parent strain and do we understand if the differences have negative consequences in context of ecological relationships and human usage? Case in point – Monsanto removed the selectivity filter from 3 of the bt toxin proteins, which means those bt toxins now worked on insect species that they previously worked on. While global changes in gene expression vs parent may lead to other issues, that are more difficult to pin down if functions/context of specific genes is unknown.
2) Are their any significant biochemical changes to the introduced protein products? i.e. proteins are often modified post-translation with phosphate groups and/or sugar polymers (branching and linear). Especially if the the RNA they are derived on is tagged for export to the cell membrane or excretion into the extracellular environment. These can cause changes in protein function, dependant on the protein’s sequence and 3d structure + any binding substrates or allosteric moderators. Addition of sugar polymers can also cause immunological reactions in humans if the immune system of the individual carries antibodies against a matching sugar polymer.
3) Is gene flow to wild species possible? i.e. can the GMO reproduce with any relatives, where mating systems allow for it? In the case of some plant families, the historical species barriers were geographic isolation, rather than via incompatibilities. Which means that you need to be very, very careful in developing plant GMO’s to insure that genes for herbicide resistances or bt toxins do not leak into wild or weedy relatives. Basically – plants can be really, really “fun” when it comes to dealing with hybrids due to quirks of their sexual reproduction and are prone to all sorts of weird stuff (polyploidy being the main one) that can create means for genes to flow from crops to weeds and vis versa.
As to GE in generally – it’s an extremely useful tool, we use it daily for producing a wide variety of biological products and can be used to rapidly introduce phenotypes that otherwise would take very large numbers of generations to find and select for. For example, we use GE yeast and other fungi to produce stuff like insulin, human growth factor and rennet enzymes, along with other proteins (antibodies for example), that would otherwise be harvested from animals or humans. Allowing for high levels of purity and avoids carrying over viral diseases.
References: spread all through out 2 years of biochem and genetics notes ;-; Probably a bit straightforward to find via google scholar though, aiming for review articles, but suspect key papers stuck behind paywalls…
Rock On! NickS
NickS uses SCIENCE
It’s super effective!
(sounds of brains imploding heard across the land)
UK union leader loses plot
This buys into right wing framing, loses votes on the Left, and loses votes on the Right, it’s just stupid.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/10128822/Unison-leader-Dave-Prentis-Labour-should-not-fall-into-trap-of-Coalition-with-Liberal-Democrats.html
I read it and disagree: by my reading, he was sending up the right wing framing, not feeding into it. He described the bedroom tax as vile and vicious, and also said:
“We must not support a Labour Government that does not: put an end to privatisation and market madness or restore our NHS- invest in our public services, restore the facility time taken away from our activists, restore workers rights and remove the shackles on trade unions.”
These are not the words of someone buying into right wing framing.
Aus deports NZ offenders in record numbers
The Taliban are back.
Brazil’s increasing middle-classes represented in protests; we can only hope and pray.
THE VOTE:
Moot-it is parenting, held.
Rankin- “a parenting crisis”
Clark- “both matter”
Rankin- went straight to “dysfunctional families”
Wills- “poverty rate triple that when we were kids (I quote ‘kids’ reluctantly, another weakness in the national discourse)”
-“poverty of children triple that of the elderly”
-“outgoings too high”
Rankin- believes “that life skills overcome poverty”.
McCroskie- straight to stereo-typing the PI -“money going back to the islands, loan sharks, poverty”.
Lashlie- “poverty is less than 15K…issues are not at arm’s length like they are for the middle classes and above”.
410 Notifications to CYFS a day.”a bleakness of life” (check your privilage ‘pete’)
McCroskie- concedes ” money is a factor” and that ” poorer areas ARE targeted by the liquor and pokie industries”.
Tamaki (had to have a stiff pipe to watch that) -“hey, in a cold house you can still cuddle a child”
“I’m a… I’m a ….I’m a …sensational mother and grandmother” (who clearly has never heard the sweet voice of Jesus in her, MY MY MY , ear).
Hone (Love that man)- “medium income in the North is 12K, many less than that…colds go on and on ‘cos families can’t afford the medicine…whanau (in the studio audience) know this to be true”.
GRINDING LEVELS OF POVERTY place people under stress, lowers the wairua.
Tamaki- “I am , in my own eyes” (give that woman a pill đ ) families working themselves out of debt, into debt with Destiny Church. King takes Bishop.
Interesting watching the nervous throat swallowings of the studio audience when faced with the evidence.
McCroskie- “key driver, family breakdown” stigmatizing the single-parent household, protecting themselves from useless men. Widows and orphans, widows and orphans, what is that blinds ‘Christians’ to that scripture?
Hone (love that man) “poverty can lead to family breakdown”.
Rank in- “why don’t we look at the successful?”
Food Insecurity.
Anyway, I was hosting a man in poverty, with a large family, and he believed from his own extensive experience that both factors, poverty and parenting play a part.
Did I say check your privilage?
Rankin- believes âthat life skills overcome povertyâ.
Having the skill to make the most of your looks, dress well (with a little accidental cleavage), choose interesting earrings, show off your knees etc. is all useful stuff for women. Women don’t find many good-paying jobs (average out to 80% of men’s wages, which only gives a rough guide to the arid planet that some women try to live on). Hopefully all the effort will enable her to find a well-paid partner so anything she can earn can go towards extra goodies and holidays and better clothes still. Que sera.
I would still contend that there has been a massive drop off of the sort of basic survival skills my mother taught me – cooking, clothing repair, budgeting etc.
Awesome:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/06/18/191279201/3-d-printer-brings-dexterity-to-children-with-no-fingers
now that’s a way better use for the technology, rather than the printing of bloody guns.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10890588
OPPOSE the PRIVATISATION of State Housing via the ‘social housing’ model!
Sue Henry (Spokesperson for the Housing Lobby) has asked me to send this FAR and WIDE!
ATTENTION â SOCIAL SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE:
SUBMISSION ON THE SOCIAL HOUSING REFORM (HOUSING RESTRUCTURING AND TENANCY MATTERS ) BILL:
http://www.parliament.nz/enNZ/PB/SC/MakeSub/4/0/7/50SCSS_SCF_00DBHOH_BILL12226_1-Social-Housing-Reform-Housing-Restructuring.htm
I strongly oppose the intent of this Bill to legislatively remove functions from Housing New Zealand (HNZ) under the proposed amended Part 5.
ie: Assessing eligibility for a State house.
· The functions of reviews, eligibility, and income-related rent
subsidy calculations should not be transferred to any other body
(including WINZ) from HNZ.
· HNZâs role as the major provider of State houses should not be
delegated to a multiple provider of âsocial housingâ. Under no
circumstances should Part 5 of the Principal Act:
The Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Act 1992,
be amended.
· No âsocial housingâ agency should be recipients of existing State
housing stock.
· This Bill should not apply to existing State housing tenants.
· State housing is a function of central Government â private âsocial
housingâ entities, should be totally separate entities to Housing
New Zealand.
· I oppose this privatized model for State housing.
____________________________________________________________________________
REALLY important that we get as many submissions in as possible!
Submissions need to be received by the Social Services Select Committee before midnight, Thursday 27 June 2013.
They can be mailed FREEPOST to Parliament to:
MAIL TO THE CLERK OF THE SOCIAL SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE :
Private Bag 18041 Parliament Buildings Wellington 6061
I have checked with the Clerk of the Social Services Select Committee, regarding whether or not there will be hearings in Auckland on this Bill.
At this stage, it has not yet been decided.
Recommend that as many Auckland people as possible circle YES to the
‘I WISH TO BE HEARD IN PERSON BY THE SOCIAL SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE’ bit on this submission form.
Have just put this up on my website, and will help get the message out as FAR and WIDE as possible đ
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz/?p=175
Her Warship đ
FAR and WIDE, I tell you!
Roy Morgan out.
Lab 33% (-2)
grn 11.5% (-0.5)
nat 44% (+3)
“Too close to call”.
NZ First = 6%
I’m sure Roy Morgan is the biggest cause of depression amongst leftie political activists currently.
One fortnight he bounces his results up giving all sorts of hope for the death of the hated Key, then the next fortnight the numbers bounce down again and suddenly Shearer is wearing Kevlar under his shirt to avoid the inevitable knife in the back.
Maybe they should only survey once a month to help reduce the number of stomach ulcers suffered by the L&G supporters?
I dunno. The trends are not too bad.
Nat + 3% isnt bad? LOL
one datapoint in a survey with a nominal MoE of ~3%? Nope.
labgrn moving from well behind to consistently too close to call (even nudging ahead at times, not seen for years)? That’s what people call a “trend”.
You distancing yourself from Shearer yet? I think its a good idea to start the verbal pre-positioning quite soon so it doesn’t look all sudden and panicky.
I’m sure you do.
Personally, I like to base my assessments on facts. So in that case it’s still “too close to call”, or even on occasion leaving national “well behind”.
Besides, I’d find it pretty difficult to maintain an 18-month tantrum. You’re still going strong, though.
An 18 month tanty? I suppose I like to be consistent.
Sometimes you have to start turning the wheel well before the evidential point of impact. Just saying.
BTW I think that Labour have a solid 50/50 chance of winning the election in 2014. But “winning” is merely an event and it isn’t the sole criteria of how I judge this thing called “leadership”.
How about these for facts?
I have never seen such an incompetent Government enjoy such support. I have never seen the Greens so popular. In the inner city liberal suburbs it is touch and go if Labour or the Greens are the most popular liberal party.
I have never seen the Greens win the party vote like they did in Wellington Central last time. I have never seen an electorate lose 10% points of the party vote like Labour did in Auckland Central.
I have never seen Dunedin swing so powerfully to the Greens like it did in 2011.
So nothing to worry about if you are a Green supporter. But if you are a Labour supporter well what can I say?
nothing to worry about if you’re a left supporter.
McFlock, your “trust me, it’s all under control” meme is very calming and reassuring.
well, some of us are natural-born chicken littles, and some of us prefer to look at the facts.
What do your pretense of “facts” and objectivity (you have no such thing) have to do with it?
Facts are the difference between discussing the real world and living in Narnia.
You’re welcome to present your own.
The Government has been under constant pressure through multiple fuck ups and it goes up in the polls?
well, it went down in the one just after the budget. I would have expected them to get a bounce from that, but it didn’t happen then. Maybe a lag?
compliance.
Oh well. Before there is time for anyone to get restless, the two main papers will put out polls in which Shearer’s Labour is on 35 or 36%, and the volatility of polls will be commented on and blah blah blah, sigh. It’s like watching the little wheels go round in a toy water mill.
You must be joking you naughty Roman. I doubt McFlock is a real Celt.
33% is where Labour has been for the whole Goff Robertson Shearer era.
John Key’s incompetent ministers and MPs mess up daily and Labour can’t make a dent in their grip on power.
Key could call an election if Banks or Dunne get booted.
And would the voters go for Shearer?
Bear in mind only half of this poll occurred before the Sky City Box fiasco.
That may have gone out of the media. It has not gone out of people’s minds
People are silently gobsmacked at the sheer stupidity of Shearer & co.
Not sure if you are talking to me Boadicea, but what I meant was, the polls always seem to stay just high enough for the ABC lot to retain control of the party. And where the main polls fall short, the newspaper ones tend to make up for it. But I agree that the 29-35% range replicates the Goff period, the difference being that Key was a lot more popular then.
And that goff started six and a half points higher than Shearer did.
McFlock,
Your bare faced jumping from trend data to point data is shallow and unconvincing,
You do not help the case of the leadership by pushing such a weak case in a weak manner.
http://www.roymorgan.com/~/media/Files/Findings/2013/June/4978-NZ-National-Voting-Intention.pdf
Here is a link to the figures. The current Labour leadership faction has been driving the strategy since the 2008 loss. And that faction has achieved the square root of sweet-fuck-all.
The polls are a massive failure for Labour. The Labour strategy is wrong. The wrong people are at the top table. Look at the figures. Every member of the party sees them.
Sadly the members found out at the 2011 Annual Conference that their voice is not wanted. Only the Caucus can sort this mess out.
I respect Loyalty. Your support of the leadership is not a real loyalty. It is blinkered support. Keep it up! It strengthens those who want to win Labour for ALL the members.
Where to start?
The polls say Labour/Green Government. Hardly a massive failure.
The members drove the conference, and made historic changes to the party. Ok, if by ‘the members’ you mean the mugs putting DC up when he had no chance, then, yeah, it was a tough conference for them.
I suspect McFlock, like me, doesn’t much care who leads the party. It’s the policies that count, because, on the left, that’s what we’re about. And if Shearer scrapes in, as it appears he will, then we get the best of Labour and the Greens to set our country’s future. That’s a pretty cool outcome, whoever the PM is.
The polls are a whisker away from a Labour/Green/NZ First government which could be the death knell for Labour.
This is at a time when this Government has been as useless, incompetent, disrespective of citizens rights and utterly incompetent in running the economy. And don’t me get started on the environment.
But they are still 11 points ahead of Labour. What gives?
This discussion three months ago on the Standard would have caused a huge number of comments. Are lefties that numb that they now do no longer care?
“This discussion three months ago on the Standard would have caused a huge number of comments. Are lefties that numb that they now do no longer care?”
Yes, many are disappointed or disillusioned. Those who collected Asset Sales petitions saw it mismanaged and we had to back out again.
Then we found out that our “Leaders” were flying up from Wellington and Christchurch to sup in the Sky Box the same day.
The sense of hope that existed last year has been replaced with numbness.
Yes, policies, that’s right, that’s what we’re about.
Uh, and so that means that leadership is not that important.
So. We going to put our Leader on the hoardings this time? You know, because who leads our party…uh…isn’t something we need to much care about.
Doesn’t bother me. I think its pretty obvious that Shearer is best when he’s not around.
Sweetie, you can start here.
National ’08 45%, ’11 47.5% now 44%.
Labour/ Green ’08 41%, ’11 38.5% now 44.5%
NZ1 ’08 4%, ’11 6.5% now 6%
National has not been impacted by their own foul ups or by the efforts of the opposition.
Labour Greens have closed the gap with the Nats by 4 pc points. However Winston and his 6% will go Nat rather than share power with the Greens.
That is not a success given all that has gone on since ’08.
That is a failure given that an election could be called anytime ( due to self inflicted wounds by Natz&co) and that a full term election is a little over 12 months away.
Nothing cool there. It is very chilling. All Labour people should be very very concerned.
There has been absolutely nothing to suggest NZF will go with National
except that it IS winston. Who knows wtf he’ll do? He might even resign prior to the campaign, ffs.
What were the polls reading especially for national just before the elections? If you’re going to compare survey points with actual observations, you might want to see what the survey bias was.
A few percent skewed towards national, if I recall correctly.
the six and a half points was election results. I.e., actual votes, not “voter intention” estimates. That’s the difference between actual starting points, of which surveys like roymorgan estimate support periodically between the actual elections.
If I wanted to compare survey point data, I’d look at the 23% result Labour got under goff shortly before the election.
Love the way you speak for all labour party members, though.
So the 2011 result was a good one because Labour got 27%? McFlock you need to get a grip on reality.
You need to learn to read.
The comparison was between goff and shearer’s leadership performance.
Moving from the low/mid thirties into the high/mid twenties is not the same as moving from the hih/mid twenties into the low/mid thirties in half the time.
There you fucking go again
What you actually mean is
Which is something different entirely. My prediction for next year is that Goff in 2011 will have shown himself a far stronger and more experienced campaigner than Shearer in 2014. Feel free to disagree.
I’m sure you’ll find plenty of excuses if shearer is the next pm.
Uh…no, I’m still pretty confident that Shearer will not be as good in the campaign as Goff in 2011, regardless of “winning”.
They aren’t mutually exclusive you see.
working on it already. That’s good.
I may need to learn to read McFlock but you need to learn about politics. Given the appalling nature of this Government Labour should be ahead in the polls. Figuring out relative comparisons to show that it is slightly better now than it was before is frankly shyte.
Or you’re just projecting that everyone sees the same things and thinks the same way you do.
Ah, the silent majority strikes again
Well you tell me McFlock. How does the Labour Party get out of the shyte that it is in right now?
And don’t diss the silent majority. From what I hear they are talking a whole load of sense.
The Labour party is doing fine under MMP. MMP, if you don’t recall, is supposed to have coalition governments. They provide the meat, the greens provide the healthy veges. National is trying to be a monolith party under MMP, and it’s in serious long term strife. Basically, my ideal labour vote is 38-40-odd percent. With 12-15% greens or another left wing party to drag government policy left.
Labour had a poor election response in 2011. But it needs to move through current levels to get to the 40-odd mark in 2014. It’s made it halfway, pretty much, and seems to be consistently improving, if slowly.
Oh, and the silent majority might just turn out to be a vocal minority who can’t deal with the fact that they supported a losing candidate.
So David Shearer is the person who will deliver us to the promised land?
FFS man he can hardly tie his shoe laces without help.
Do you ever get out and talk to people on the street? The message I hear is that Labour is just not cutting it. There is no oomph. There is no passion. There is no explanation of what NZ has to do to improve things.
Do you really want to rely on Winston Peters to provide a majority next time?
And yet the polls seem to be trending up. I recall when a 2 point dip would take labour into the 20s.
FFS man have you ever heard about the margin of error?
yes. That doesn’t take labour into the twenties any more, either. Under goff, it was lucky to take labour out of the twenties.
I dunno who the fucking polls talk to mate, but they’re not talking to anyone without a landline at home, and they’re not talking to anyone who just uses a mobile phone.
still more reliable than “CV reckons people think this”, though.
Thanks for leaping to the defence of Shearer et al over and over and over this evening, always good to see an Alliance supporter muck in to cheerlead a centrist political party.
you’re the one who thinks the fate of a nation comes down to a single person’s job description.
You think that leadership is unimportant. I don’t.
I think the style of leadership is unimportant.
I hope you’re right McFlock. I came here looking for reasons to vote Labour and I think his leadership image and his ability to articulate and sell policy are going to be important to those voters who make their choices on the basis of what they see on the telly and the messages they remember. If I were to vote Labour on the basis of my own personal perception of Shearer’s ability to be elected to deliver a better alternative government right now it would be on the basis of gamble and hope, expecting failure, nothing like conviction.
Labour people are stoic and not too mouthey. They have jobs and families and hobbies. They have been doing the the Enrollment stuff, the renewals, the boring meetings, the poorly led Asset Campaign. And they are generally silent while supporting their MPs and waiting for the Caucus to sort it’s shit out.
Your sneering attitude towards the members disgust at the attendance at the Sky Box is disgusting.
Bollocks to the silent majority! Most LP members and supporters I’ve talked to since the weekend have been far from silent.
The arrogance you have to speak for all members is what makes me sneer.
Oh fuck off McFlock, if I recall according to you, you’ve never been a member of the Labour Party but do support the Alliance.
So the arrogance you have being a non-member and a supporter of a different party, sneering at someone who is a member, over their comment relating to a membership to which you have never belonged yourself, makes me sneer.
I sneer at anyone who thinks they have a mainline into the internal desires of everyone in a particular group.
Especially if I know members of that group who support shearer as leader and still actually like the party they belong to.
It’s not hard to find people who like a centrist political party mate.
Tell that to Peter Dunne.
But he’s not an MP for any party, and likely hasn’t been for quite some time.
QED
Ah, so the labour members who disagree with boudica aren’t really labour party members, hence how b’s blanket description of the opinions of labour party membership cannot be wrong.
The “no true socialist” fallacy.
To be fair though, you’re not going to find many socialists in the Labour party these days.
they left in 1989.
Yep. So it’s not exactly a fallacy, as long as we’re speaking in general.
lol
touché
It’s not just the Sky City box fiasco that so infuriating… it’s the fact that every bloody week they fuck up and undermine some supposedly key policy point.
Every week with every single major policy they give the NACTS an opportunity to shout “Show me the money!”
And all NACT’s useful idiots are saying “Clark was rating lower in the Precambrian, Goff was at a lower point in the Triassic…”
It’s all grasping at straws.
Even Dalziel was desperately scrambling on Nine to Noon the other day, pretending that “normal voting patterns” would resume.
I feel sorry for, and am amazed at the faith and persistence of, party workers who sincerely and passionately devote themselves to policy development only to be spat on at the last conference and humiliated by a recurring cycle of fiascoes that happen so regularly you could set your watch by them. It’s as if Sisyphus can’t even get his boulder to the top of the mountain – it rolls away the moment he moves it.
And all the time, it’s excuses, excuses, excuses…
FFS I’m getting seasick, up, down, up, down, it’s like real bad porn film.
gentle swells. The trick is to watch the tides.
Tides = ‘election cycles’ , the “in phrase” for Robertson’s strategists.
Thanks McFlock. It’s nice to see your Party Central credentials confirmed.
CV, McFlock is not an Alliance bod.
lol
A fantacist in action, right there.
Although I am confidant in saying “and you, madam, are no Celt”.
Boadicea…thanks, I appreciate it.
Don’t.
The only relationship I have with Robertson is that he was present of the students’ association at about the same time I started uni.
Mothers chew food for their babies, baby food is mash, to make it easy to digest, so was it any wonder a faster food chain would utilize food science to make food that produce a quick feeling of fullness. Food that was easily digestible within 5 hours. So I was a bit struck when the lawyer before the privy council seem to suggest that a MacDonald fast food takeout should be near the upper limit of five hour before it would be digested. And what is near alibi that would exonerate him, we here a lot about the speeding to get home, and how the computer clock was wrong, well there was a clock at the alibi event too, if you were going to kill someone and came across a clock that was wrong… ..anyway this is why courts should be trusted with the process and why Bain should get compensation, for Justice to be fair the court must prove guilt, and when they can’t…
Ooh good, a pro-Lundy nutbar.
Given that McDonalds buns take a good year to develop mold/decompose behind my couch, it would not surprise me at all if they were at the upper limits of what’s digestible.
The only evidence suggesting he was in Petone at midnight is the alibi of a prostitute – I look forward to her testimony at the rehearing.
In the meantime, pro-Lundy nutbars are going to have to explain:
a) the bedroom window broken and surrounding blood stains of Mum when the “stranger jewellery-box-robber hypothesis” is premised on the intruder leaving through the door, which was after all open (the defence case was “No true pre-meditated murderer would be such an amateur”);
b) The stranger invader grabbing the key off the divider, going outside to grab Lundy’s tools, unlocking the garage, THEN murdering mother and child; and
c) The increase in Mum’s and Dad’s life insurance policy when dad was facing over 100k in debt.
Instead you want to jump up and defend how easily digestible McDonalds would be? Please.
I’ve never understood why people seem to get so personally involved with court cases they presumably have nothing to do with, and take up such entrenched positions on matters they know nothing more about than anyone else.
Someone who disagrees with you on the interpretation of a very limited set of facts isn’t necessarily a nutbar. They’re just another uninformed person like yourself but with a slightly different perspective.
Also you seem to be scornful of evidence provided by a sex worker. Why is that?
A part of what sex workers are paid for is to keep men’s secrets.
As to nutbar, that was sloppy language, and not intended to be founded on the fact of aerobubble was being pro-Lundy (but rather anti-judicial-process-but-only-parts-of-it-that-don’t-suit-Lundy, and the vaguely conspiratorial ring of the post…) – anyway, I retract and apologize.
However, I do think presuming that both the computer clock and the motel’s/sex worker’s clock were wrong is simply reading in facts that do not exist (and have not even been alleged by the defence) is fringe behaviour.
Same with an appeal court overturning a decision (which having watched the closing arguments at the P.C., and the way they were received by the judges, I believe Lundy will get a retrial) and coming out with “why courts should [not] be trusted with the process” is fringey tinfoilhat behaviour.
Burgers behind couches, dry out, whereas a burger introduced to a wet billion year old evolved stomach is quite a different thing. Obviously people who eat burgers digest them… duh.
Considering that Labour appears to follow the Greens on every harebrained initiative, a few questions arise:
Where is David Shearer?
What is he doing?
What leadership does he provide other than follow Norman?
Who is advising him?
Why isn’t Grant Robertson stepping in?
Santi, God Bless your sweet Innocence.
Grant Robertson is the problem and therefore can’t be “stepping in” to fix anything.
He has all the Leaders Staff under his control – he picked most.
Robertson, along with WaionouimataMan, devised the election strategy for 2011, the image strategy for Goff and now the image strategy for Shearer. Along with Goff, Mallard and King he picked Shearer to block Cunliffe, who would have sent them to their well earned retirment/Embassy etc.
If you are wondering what Shearer is doing wrong, the answer is he is doing whatever Grant Roberson is telling him to do.
Remove Robertson and we are on the way to fixing the Labour Party.
So you are saying that Robertson is the VRWC plant and not Shearer? That is quite devious as most folk assumed that Shearer was ballsing up Labour by himself without any help from his deputy?
Oh shit:
https://twitter.com/cstross/status/346589204144353280
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/mi6-coder-death-foul-play/
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/08/codebreaker-death/
http://www.alternet.org/story/40485/two_strange_deaths_in_european_wiretapping_scandal
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3305
Whoever the fuck killed these men forgot that unless you’ve got control over the local police and media, the truth will always come to the fucking surface. Murder just leaves too many loose ends for investigators to follow, particularly when intelligence orgs are involved.
No wonder Snowden’s in hidding then if this is their standard operating procedure for closing leaks đ
if one follows the MSM, even, bodies in boots, sniper take-outs; the capitalists have a lot at stake.
One of us is the killer đ
This of great sadness (at 51)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10891822
a very talented Boss.
MANA housing plan (love that man).
This is another load of sh*t MSM editorial; Justice and the military, and nuclear developments are under the control of hard-line clerics obedient to The Supreme Leader, backed by the powerful Revolutionary Guard
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/international-politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503226&objectid=10891736
At this stage of the game Labour needs to be in the low 40s not the low 30s.
Why?
The Governor General will invite the leader of the largest party to try to form a government first. Winston would go with National if the only alternative is a Labour Green NZ First Threesome. If Winstonâs supporters thought that he would even think of working with the Green they would run to the Natz in droves.
The electorate will not give Labour the boost it needs if it thinks that will lead to a Threeesome Govt.
To win, Labour needs to be in a position to choose between the Greens and Winston. They need to be in the 40s That is not going to happen unless the Caucus decides to make a very significant change.
As long as Shearer Robertson are there Labour will remain in the low 30s and Natz will lead the next Government.
.
The Governor General will invite the leader of the largest party to try to form a government first.
Wrong.
It happens like this: The GG’s role includes
So s/he’d only invite the leader of the biggest party to form a government if they had an outright majority. Failing that, whatever party can get the confidence and supply agreement of enough MPs to form a majority alliance, will get the GG’s invite.
said it before, but from my perspective ideally:
(lab+grn)>((nat+NZ1)=(lab+NZ1)).
For that I reckon lab+grn are on track to be in a good position for the beginning or 2014, considering their starting point.
Absolute rubbish, Willem.
As karol says, all that counts is a majority in the house.
Party share of that majority simply does not come into it in any way shape or form.
It is a well known phenomenon that EQC is the most woeful government department ever. It goes back to not even having a plan to deal with the thousands and thousands of claims that would result from a disaster hitting one of our major cities. This is of course gross negligence of the highest order given that is exactly their purpose. (holding back expletives here..)….. and that negligence rests entirely on the shoulders of previous Ministers responsible for the organisation and the governments they were part of.
Now as part of that complete incompetence it has also committed other astounding blunders such as emailing out private details to all and sundry.
But now get this – documents necessary to get repairs underway for claimants are no longer emailed, they are snail-mailed because they simply cannot trust themselves to not make a mistake with email…
… excuse me here but …… ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
it brings tears to the eyes …….
It is the fist of control that this represents. Someone makes a mistake then everyone is not allowed to do that which is by far the most efficient way of sending out information.
The managers need to worry less about the possible mistakes and more about the best way to send out information. That is if helping ordinary people sort out their problems is important.
Maybe they should just pack up all their computers back in to their boxes, and send them back, because they are obviously too stupid to use them.
Te Hamua Nikora has outlined the Mana Movement’s new housing policy very very well in the speech linked to below. And he doesn’t pull any punches where labour is concerned either. I can’t wait for him to get into parliament.
http://mana.net.nz/2013/06/mana-housing-policy-announcement-for-maori-te-hamua-nikora-ikaroa-rawhiti-mana-candidate/
An incredibly nasty peice on TV3 news by Tova Obrien on Te Hamua Nikora and pakehas lack of understanding of koha. Just let it go MSM, understand what Koha is about and fuck off. This sort of ignorant shit from the msm just pisses me off.
Now I feel better.
Saarbo.
Maybe you would like to explain why I as a tax paying Whitey should just fuck off when it comes to bribes for Maori?
I’m sure you could get your donation back – if you asked nicely.
So sad to see the bit from Marama – she’s gone down in my estimation now.
That was a classic TV3 misrepresentation…my understanding is that Marama is completely supportive of the Koha to Te Hauma Nikora (Native Affairs from a couple of weeks ago). TV3 played that clip in such a way to cause confusion.
I’m very pleased to hear that Saarbo – thanks – It did seem so out of character from someone I admire so much.
All hands, action stations, this is not a drill
Severe global financial market crash may be starting. Expect massive paper asset deflation. The banksters and their puppet politicians kicking the can down the road, may have just run out of road.