It sems the Stuff site does not like people mentioning Shipley’s place on the board of the Chinese Constrction Bank or the fact she was part of a rural Southland property tour with Chinese investors last year. My submitted comment on Stuff (about 430pm) yesterday seems to have been ‘misplaced’ because Stuff wouldn’t censor factual statements. Would it?
the following is the comment i submitted to Stuff yesterday which has not been posted
” If the Government pick up the travel costs, accommodation etc as they will have to anyway, then why are these people not doing this for a nominal perdiem? Every person on this panel could well afford to do it for free. Surely the rebuilding of CHCH is more important than another fee collection.
Also why is a current board member of the China Construction Bank,(China’s third largest bank) namely Jenny Shipley, on the panel and what are her intentions and or instructions? Surely her South Island interests were fully displayed by all the rural property Investment tours she personally attended last year”
Oh, this is getting better and better:
The Bank of America reported a record loss of $9.1 billion in the last quarter of last year due to its record-breaking settlement over subprime mortgage claims stemming from the financial crisis!
Apparently they lost $ 0.90 on the dollar on their shares! Added to that they have put $ 14 Billion aside for more repayments to angry investors in their dodgy mortgage derivatives products.
BoA bought Merrill Lynch when it collapsed due to it’s exposure to these selfsame products and John Key’s shares in Merrill were converted to BoA shares.
Is this perhaps why he is so worried about the state if America’s economy and why he is meeting with some of the hoipeloi of the US finance world such as Geithner during his “state visit”?
Does it mean that for every $ 1 million in shares he now only owns $ 1.000.000?
Nope no such luck, BAC lost $0.90 per share, which they then padded up with accounting trickery to make it look like a $0.33 EPS gain. Clever eh. But none of the serious players are fooled in the slightest.
a loss per share is merely a measure of how the company did financially; however shareholders do not actually lose that money per share personally as the loss is onfined to the company itself.
The way shareholders lose out is the negative response of the market (i.e. the share price dropping – and BAC has been dropping for a long time now – the insiders know that they are toast and have been quietly selling into every rally).
Would the sell off of John Key’s shares be open to public scrutiny as they are not in his blind trust?
Would him selling them off be insider trading?
Would it show he still has considerable interests in the International “too big to fail” banks making his Prime Minister role fraught with conflict of interest?
And why are his shares not sensitive to the actual share price? He did concede that he lost value in the collapse of ML but that he had diversified in time by selling some of his shares! (Just honest curiosity here)
Well it would only be insider trading if someone was forewarned of the financial result before it was made public.
The thing is, US financial markets have stopped pretending to be credible, impartial, exchanges for buying and selling now. (This has been the case for the last few years). The entire set up is rigged like a casino. Oridnary investors and retirement funds get totally destroyed on a daily basis as the game makers skim money millisecond by millisecond.
Put another way, the only real serious trading in the international financial markets today is insider trading. For instance, everyone who needs to know, already knows whether the Federal Reserve is going to print more money in QE3 and who that money is likely to go to.
And why are his shares not sensitive to the actual share price?
Not sure I understand your point; the value of his shares will certainly directly reflect the share price of the day. If the share price drops 10%, so will the realisable value of the shares that he holds should he wish to sell on that day.
Yeah as you know, companies can report a loss, and the shareprice will rocket up on the basis that the loss was less than expected.
In this case, the big banks have been padding their numbers in a big way and soon its gonna be obvious that the emperor has no clothes, even with mounds of interest free money care of the US tax payer.
Hard assets count in this new world, vege gardens, hydrodams, steel, silver, gold, clean water, a full tank of gas, a well insulated home with solar hot water, and good relations with friends, neighbours and family.
Nah, look at what used to trade over the long duration land and sea trade routes in the past. Look at the dutch east indies or the land route between europe and india. Try pepper and other spices.
If you go back further in history then you look at the salt caravans that allowed people to live inland.
In WWII in Europe tobacco and alcohol were major bartering tools. People didn’t give a fuck about spices. they didn’t have the food to spice in the first place (In Holland in the last year of the war people ate cats and tulip bulbs. hence the name tulip munchers which contrary to popular belief are not on our daily menu and taste pretty horrible)
When/If it all goes pear-shaped and after the inital ‘problems’ things will eventually settle.We have plenty of wood for building and still have ability to run forges, mine essentials etc. We have a range of herbs and spices we can grow here, we can make bread and have plenty of milk. There is more than enough land to grow veges and fruit so feeding people will be possible. Which is nice.
The true horror awaiting us all is what the hell do we do about coffee?
Key must be shitting himself on a personal financial basis. When you consider that the political elite worldwide hold their wealth in much the same places as Key it becomes really easy to understand why gains are privatized and losses socialized. What Obama is effectively proposing to Congress and the Senate currently is to extend the bail out at the future expense of the taxpayer, to be paid for as the Tea party suggests by slashing pensions, welfare etc. It is the 21rst century equivalent of “let them eat cake”, willful blindness to reality just to keep the show ticking over a little longer.
Key might not be the only person worried. The majority of the dairy industry here is in hock to the finance industry. Over the last fortnight world dairy prices crashed nearly 7%. This plus the rising dollar must be worrying both farmers and financiers, they are both facing the barrel. Anybody for a cheap polluted piece of land, going fast?
Yesterday I commented on the strange state of point price inflation and overall deflation. Watch the markets to respond with far more emotional illogic than usual. The DOW surged a few % yesterday on the basis that Obama would extend the bail out…any regression they will crash. The whole system is clearly out of touch with the world around it.
I had the same thought as No Right Turn in wondering if he who would be dictator of Christchurch had actually asked if those appointed to the CERA advisory board would actuslly do the job for the standard rate. I see this morning he is refering to John Hansen the boards chair not actually submitting asn invoice or asking for payment. Does that make John Key & Brownlee liars?
I thought this media statement by Phil Goff was worthy of note but haven’t seen it picked up by any media…
Playcentre closures not an option
Anne Tolley should immediately rule out a proposal to slash funding to Playcentre, a 70-year-old institution attended by generations of Kiwi kids, Labour Leader Phil Goff says.
A Government taskforce looking into investment in the early childcare sector is calling for a 63% cut in funding to Playcentre, a move the Playcentre Federation says will force the country’s 460 centres to close.
“To borrow a quote from National, that sort of cut is like taking a dagger to the heart of New Zealand’s children,” Phil Goff said. “My kids went to Playcentre. To think of it not being there for other kids is a real concern.”
“This Government has already slashed subsidies to ECE centres, with funding cuts to more than 2000 services over the last year affecting 93,000 children and resulting in fee rises for thousands of families
“It abandoned the target for having 100 per cent qualified teachers and its policy of improving ratios for children under two to 1:4. Now it’s attacking what has come to be seen as a world-leader in low-cost, parent-led early childhood education.
“It’s a complete about-face. The Prime Minister’s chief science advisor has continually stressed the importance of early childhood education, noting that investment in the earlier years results in less expenditure later.
“Here’s Paula Bennett in 2006: ‘Parent-led centres are the backbone of many communities…parents and their children get huge advantages from attending kohanga reo and Playcentres. It would be a big blow to many communities to not have these centres supported.’
“And in 2008 Anne Tolley attacked Labour on the issue, saying ‘Labour does not think that parents who take their kids to Playcentre are worth supporting…’
“Well Anne Tolley, Labour does back our Playcentres. They’ve long been a valuable part of ECE and a great training ground for parents. Our message to the Minister is – step in and act now,” Phil Goff said.
Thanks for pointing that out I have posted it on FB in the hope that more people will see it. Playcentre is an amazing organisation for families to be involved in.
Thanks for spreading the word–I don’t do FB. ACE Aotearoa (Adult and Community Ed) has also done a media release:
Media Release
July 19 2011
Valuable Whānau Learning Opportunities Threatened by
Proposed Funding Cuts to Playcentres
ACE Aotearoa is concerned that proposed funding cuts to Playcentres pose
a threat to whānau learning in Aotearoa. The umbrella organisation for the
Adult and Community Education Sector actively promotes the concept of
families learning together because of the huge benefits it brings for families
and communities.
ACE Aotearoa co- chair Wendel Richardson says when families learn
together, everyone benefits. “There are many examples of how models of
family learning enhance the wellbeing of families and communities. Some
studies have shown that families benefit financially when parents learn
alongside their children.”
For over 70 years, Playcentres have led the way in providing unique
whānau learning opportunities. Funding cuts to centres would be a great
step backwards for both early childhood and community education.
And Anne Tolly responded to a journalist who was doing a story on it by saying that this is just scare-mongering by the Labour Party. What a load of bull-shit–this is a bottom-up campaign from concerned parents and educators.
A Government taskforce looking into investment in the early childcare sector is calling for a 63% cut in funding to Playcentre, a move the Playcentre Federation says will force the country’s 460 centres to close.
What conceivable reason would they have for doing that? It’s insane…
the comments from the PM are predictable, the various articles showing up repeat the story but do raise a few questions… and then there is the article above. The whole timeline of these events is what does not add up. Within hours of the Quake the Israeli Ambassador flew in from Canberra? The bodies would have barely been discovered let alone identified. Yet in the space of a few hours the Ambassador was not only in the country, but gave the surviviors a ride to the airport?
Some expert or other was on Nine to Noon this morning. He concluded that there is undoubtedly something going on, and even if they don’t find out anything more than the 5 passports, those in themselves will be very valuable intelligence that can be disseminated internationally to other intelligence agencies around the world.
He said that they were almost certainly not Mossad agents, due to their age – average of 23. He suggested that they were ‘helpers’, people who help out the Israeli government around the world to do various missions, and likely they had just finished their compulsory military training and were effectively on the mission as a way to gain entrance to Mossad. He suggested they were likely in NZ so they could steal identities for use in fake NZ passports (as happened 7 years ago), because it’s not something that full Mossad agents would normally spend time on.
Makes sense i.e. it was a very routine low level op that got upended by an unexpected situation that they had no decent contingency for (except to abandon their ‘mate’, turn tail and bail).
or… during a routine low level op, id aquisition and asset generation, there is a quake which presented an Operation potential of a far grander scale, having S&R teams get a private NZPolice backdoor seperate to the exisiting private back door that is part and parcel of Interntional Security arrangements. (these are the same people that had to admit to StuxNet)
And is anyone buying that the Israeli Pm tries four times to call Key and it doesn’t happen?
Mr Key’s story has changed, now it seems that the NZ PM did talk to the Israeli PM on the day but the calls were to offer help and support. Only four hours and he already flip-flops.
Is that a record?
Hi Freedom,
Just downloaded the Downloadhelper firefox plugin. The one I was using didn’t want to download it but it is now happily downloading the video.
I think there is a fair use for the purpose of information clause like making sure people know the source and no profit jadajada and no mass use.
Anyway I can down load it myself now so problem solved.
love dlhelper, oh yeah thanks for the Zero link the other day, had not gotten to it yet. Certainly a strong contender for most balanced doco on the subject to date.
no math degrees needed to see something here does not add up
No offense to the dead but are we to believe every time a few citizens are killed in a natural disaster, within a couple of hours the Ambassador runs to see what he can do?
When do you last recall this ever occurring? Anywhere?
how do they just desert their mate in the van ? getting out of the van to safety, sure, but actually deserting the body? Scum seems an apt moniker of their character
Some expert or other was on Nine to Noon this morning.
That was Dr. Paul Buchanan, one of the most informed and brilliant security and espionage commentators in the world.
A few years ago, following a dirty tricks campaign worthy of Mossad or the Stasi, he was railroaded out of his job as a professor at Auckland University.
If you have listened or read Buchanans work he is no sympathizer with the left .So the question has to be asked who is the controller and is he embedded with the SIS or otherwise how come our SIS can,t find these people.IF they can,t find theses people how can they find a terrorist organization . with these guys having a free reign in our country its just making our country and our people overseas more of a terrorist target .
having them present comment from people like PB is a good thing
have you never heard the term ” know thy enemy?”
Paul Buchanan is not “the enemy”. Nor, strictly speaking, is Mossad or MI5 or the CIA “the enemy”. They are simply agents of the states they serve. The crimes committed by these organizations are the responsibility of Israel, the UK and the US.
i would suggest you kind of have that backwards, the state is and always has been a servant of its agents. Be it commercial, military or intelligence based, the lies of spies have darkened the skies
the state is and always has been a servant of its agents.
So Mossad is killing dissidents, stealing the identities of dead people and hacking into computer systems without the Tel Aviv regime knowing anything about it?
And those American “agents” who tried to kill Giuliana Sgrena (they only killed her driver) and killed Reuters and Al Jazeera journalists in Iraq were operating in a rogue fashion?
You are saying that the spies and the military are out of control in the U.S. and Israel. Have you ever thought that, just possibly, these admittedly brutal state servants have far more integrity and honesty than the politicians they report to?
If you have listened or read Buchanans work he is no sympathizer with the left.
Have to disagree wuth you there mik e. While he may not be a ‘lefty’ as such, my reading of some of his posts (I admit I’m not a regular reader) suggest he is agreeably impartial in his judgements.
ooops… I see Tiger Mountain has already challenged mik e and co. The man has an exceptional brain and I can understand why some people feel threatened by him.We are darn lucky to have him.
Mind you, Paul Buchanan appears to know fuck-all about the Israel-Palestine conflict. His argument in a recent kiwipolitico piece (and even more so in his follow-up comments) suggested an astonishing lack of knowledge.
Incidently, NZ Listener Chomsky-smear outline still in the pipeline. I’ll have one or two things to say about this latest Mossad Affair as well.
even if they don’t find out anything more than the 5 passports,
Which had mysteriously become two passports on 3 News. Their treatment of it all amounted to “nothing to see here, move on!” I was texting my son about this, and bizarrely, Jews in predictive text, is “keys”!
I agree with Na Raihana, the Maori Party’s Ikaroa Rawhiti candidate, that Dr Brash’s conjecture that Sir Apirana would be an ACT supporter if he were still alive is “despicable.”
brash said, “In our current context, I’m confident he (Sir Apirana Ngata) would feel his values were best embodied in the ACT Party’s philosophy and policies.”
What a lowlife and he is likely to get back because of the deal with the gnats in Epsom – who can hold the line against their foul agenda? Mana and Greens that’s who.
patsy question after patsy question, can you just imagine the room of lawyers and advisors in the office screening then sending them to Paul then the reply back then the screening then the return, finally the posting. Up to four minutes between questions and answers.
The great illusion of open-participation in the shaping of modern media continues unabated.
strangely enough my question(s) about the timeline of the Israeli Ambassadors travel from Canberra and his subsequent assistance to the survivors seems to have missed the cut :]
Please refer to my post on
‘Jum 13
20 July 2011 at 2:56 pm’
for validation of your comment of patsy questions and controlled answers. (Personally, I hope Tiger Mountain is believable in his 1.29pm comment) because this coming election will be ‘the perfect exercise in how to manipulate the public by John Key and advisers’.
Any New Zealander that wants a fairer, egalitarian New Zealand needs to have all paperwork ready when Roger Douglas, the numbers manipulator and John Key, the ‘forget that expert; I have others’ begin their bloody assault on Kiwi hearts and minds. This year is a pivotal one for which road we want to take as a people – people over profit or profit over people. Simple really.
“mik e” and others here should check out http://www.kiwipolitico.com/ before more assumptions are made about Paul Bs position on the political spectrum.
He is an immensely skilled analyst and commentator.
‘‘We are protesting outside the Maxim dinner on Friday night because we seek to stand in solidarity with beneficiaries in the UK, and because we want to highlight the extent to which the recommendations of the Government’s Rebstock report are based on UK welfare reforms.’
‘Direct actions are a part of political discourse, and given the nature of Government onslaughts against beneficiaries and unemployed people in both New Zealand and the UK, we need to do more than simply listen politely to what conservative ‘experts’ brought in from overseas have to tell us.
‘If Maxim had really wanted a fair debate, they would have brought out a UK claimants’ representative to speak as well, so people attending this function could hear both sides of the story.’
The picket will take place this Friday 22 July from 5.30pm onwards, outside the Heritage Hotel, 35 Hobson St, Auckland.’
This is exactly what occurred during the last decade with Maxim, a far right religious think tank, pretending in various columns that it cared about all New Zealanders. There are only a few New Zealanders they care about and trust me it aint us.
Watch this year when they hold campaign meetings for all election candidates – they get questions from the audience but only ask the ones they want to.
That is NOT democracy; that is neo-conservatism that seeks to control women and anyone who believes in a society where all people have equal rights.
Attend the picket and stand up for all New Zealanders’ rights.
The most puzzling question on these Isreali arseholes is that within minutes of the quake Israeli “officials” had set up a rendevous in Latimer Square for the surviving 3 in the van. How? Cell phones wern’t working very well by my recollection. Who and where did these “officials come from, what were they doing in Chch, hardly a diplomatic hot zone? Don’t expect Key to do anything, he hasn’t got the guts, it should be 3 strikes and you’re out of the country. Is Key an Israeli plant? Anything is possible, he’s as incompetent as Mossad.
Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations were going on at the same time, maybe that was of interest? I remember readings something about he US delegation being there at the time of the earthquake.
Craven politicians bring shame on the Baltic states
07.17.2011
From: ulme muld
Date: Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 11:32 AM
Subject: Israel-friendly MEPs lobby Ashton on Palestine
To: normfinkelst…@gmail.com
Some 100 members of the European Parliament have sent Catherine Ashton a letter against Palestine’s declaration of an independent state in September. http://eurobserver.com/9/32613
“Israeli-friendly MEPs lobby Ashton on Palestine.”
What is especially shameful about this letter is that some of the signatories are from the Baltic States, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These three countries were occupied by the Soviet Union; all three declared unilateral independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Yet these very same MEPs are quite ready to ask the Palestinians to continue to “negotiate” with Israel. Had they applied the same principles to their own countries, these countries would still be “negotiating” with the Soviets.
I would especially like to point out Tunne Kelam, a so-called “dissident” during the Soviet occupation in Estonia, and who has made a career out of his “dissident” anti-occupation credentials of 1991. Yet he fails to see the irony, the double standard, and his utter lack of morals in his negation of an independent Palestinian state.
It has been said that some slaves do not want freedom — they just want to become slaveholders themselves.
Seriously this needs to be in a main post, not just in open mike; Key et al promised, amongst other things, they would deal with youth crime
They didn’t listen to experts when they told them bowing to the lemons at the Sensible Sentencing Trust would be a disaster. They wouldn’t and continue to not listen to the links between poverty and deprivation and crime.
Its been nearly three long years, plenty of time for even an Epsilon-minus semi-moron to provide a km or two of cycleway. So Jokey Hen, you let us down, fail us, fail yourself. Wheres my fekkin cycleway??????????
These Nat fellows are, to draw on the link to the ACT poster noted further above, busy fellating Act to stay in power. Expect to see Nat candidates at work in such manner in Epsom and other similar electorates.
Re that picture in the poster: would have been more appropriate to have the faces of don and key.
Radionz today gave a full report on the latest moves in the Destiny church and Hannah Tamaki taking control of the Maori Womens Welfare League. There are ways to maneouvre inside charitable, non-profit organisations with broad concerns, wrest control of the assets and channel these with a narrow focus. It is wise for those trying to do good things in society and who have achieved a good flow of bequests, gifts and donations to be aware of the dangers and have some sort of legal injunction in the rules so that a stop can be put on any move that takes control out of the hands of the historical supporters.
It reminded me of what I heard about the Dunedin Corso office. I googled that and found info under – “nz corso dunedin office takeover” in an academic review from Victoria. I made some notes –
From 1984 Corso’s direction was changed so that two-thirds of its income would be spent in NZ whereas it had previously been majorly concerned with overseas assistance. The program was called Justice begins at Home and a Maori Development Fund called the Aotearoa Putea Fund was developed from 1986. It then gained a fulltime coordinator, H. Halkyard Harawira.
It appeared that in the late 1970s the organisation was captured by different agenda with discussion on the relevance of the Treaty and central control causing branches concern. Relations deteriorated and in 1988 there was a physical assault on one member by people from the Harawira faction. There were no annual accounts issued from 1986 for a few years. Workers and funds began to drift away. Many supporters moved to Oxfam. CORSO came to be regarded as a fringe group with a radical agenda based on Maori development and Tiro rangitiratanga or sovereignty.
The ideals of the Maori group may have been good, but knowing what is achievable and having the ability to run a project that isn’t too ambitious is necessary for success. This faction gave the chop to a long-standing and useful organisation when they gained control and the funds.
Another long-running group this time gutted by unscrupulous people. was the Whangarei Hearing Assocition which was taken over by an outsider couple who got control of valuable assets and funds. The Court hearing was reported on 26 October 2007 by the Northern Advocate. In his submission to Justice Asher, Crown prosecutor Sam Wimsett detailed –
He said the committee allowed president Erika Kemp’s husband Mark Whitfield, the association’s manager, to purchase a property at Henry St, Kensington, for $298,000 when it was valued at $335,000.
The property was leased back to the association at a rental of $2600 a month – a move the Registrar of Incorporated Societies called unjustified because a house wasn’t necessary for the organisation to conduct its affairs.
Mr Whitfield sold his Holden Commodore to the association for $40,000 which was later traded in at $18,000 on a Landcruiser worth $83,000.
Justice Asher… the association had lost nearly 60 percent of its assets in a short time and it seemed that this year’s pending financial statement would show a deficit worst than that of 2006.
When the current committee stormed into the role in 2005, the association had purpose-built premises, qualified hearing practitioners working there, and $100,000 in the bank.
The liquidation hearing yesterday heard that at the beginning of this year it had $12 in the bank, and owned no building.
hi millsy I didn’t have time and was tired last might to check up on possible family connections but it could be. Let’s hope the Maori Womens Welfare League doesn’t get used in a similar to a mixture of the drives that were apparent in both Corso and the Whangarei Hearing group takeovers.
Colmar Brunton will probably/possibly be out in a few days. A poller mistakenly called my work tonight — she was very apologetic when she found out she rang a business.
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Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
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 year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, 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 – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s 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 – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s 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 Zealand’s 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 – 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 – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. 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 Peters’ 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 — 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 Newshub’s 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 ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ 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 she’s 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 Government’s 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 America’s 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 won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s 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 Labour’s 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 First’s 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 ‘co-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 Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
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 ‘take back our country’ 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 Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
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. “It 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. “The 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. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” 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. “Road 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. “Our 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 Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam 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. “I 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. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, 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 government’s 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 Government’s Budget objectives. “The 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. “The 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. “These changes are long overdue – 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 Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The 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 Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There 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. “Today 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 People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” 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. “We’re 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 Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I 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. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” 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. “Comprising 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. “I 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. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s 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 Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s 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 I’m sorry I can’t 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 Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 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 ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
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More jobs for the boys (and girls)
It sems the Stuff site does not like people mentioning Shipley’s place on the board of the Chinese Constrction Bank or the fact she was part of a rural Southland property tour with Chinese investors last year. My submitted comment on Stuff (about 430pm) yesterday seems to have been ‘misplaced’ because Stuff wouldn’t censor factual statements. Would it?
the following is the comment i submitted to Stuff yesterday which has not been posted
” If the Government pick up the travel costs, accommodation etc as they will have to anyway, then why are these people not doing this for a nominal perdiem? Every person on this panel could well afford to do it for free. Surely the rebuilding of CHCH is more important than another fee collection.
Also why is a current board member of the China Construction Bank,(China’s third largest bank) namely Jenny Shipley, on the panel and what are her intentions and or instructions? Surely her South Island interests were fully displayed by all the rural property Investment tours she personally attended last year”
How is this any different from the other comments posted?
Or do you think the “…instructions” question crossed a line.
I would like to know what you guys and gals think…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/5309089/Jenny-Shipley-on-Cera-review-panel
Also why is a current board member of the China Construction Bank,(China’s third largest bank) namely Jenny Shipley
Shipley wears her pro-China views on her sleeve.
I guarantee it she will be heading our puppet Chinese controlled government when they end up occupying us.
Oh, this is getting better and better:
The Bank of America reported a record loss of $9.1 billion in the last quarter of last year due to its record-breaking settlement over subprime mortgage claims stemming from the financial crisis!
Apparently they lost $ 0.90 on the dollar on their shares! Added to that they have put $ 14 Billion aside for more repayments to angry investors in their dodgy mortgage derivatives products.
BoA bought Merrill Lynch when it collapsed due to it’s exposure to these selfsame products and John Key’s shares in Merrill were converted to BoA shares.
Is this perhaps why he is so worried about the state if America’s economy and why he is meeting with some of the hoipeloi of the US finance world such as Geithner during his “state visit”?
Does it mean that for every $ 1 million in shares he now only owns $ 1.000.000?
Nope no such luck, BAC lost $0.90 per share, which they then padded up with accounting trickery to make it look like a $0.33 EPS gain. Clever eh. But none of the serious players are fooled in the slightest.
a loss per share is merely a measure of how the company did financially; however shareholders do not actually lose that money per share personally as the loss is onfined to the company itself.
The way shareholders lose out is the negative response of the market (i.e. the share price dropping – and BAC has been dropping for a long time now – the insiders know that they are toast and have been quietly selling into every rally).
Would the sell off of John Key’s shares be open to public scrutiny as they are not in his blind trust?
Would him selling them off be insider trading?
Would it show he still has considerable interests in the International “too big to fail” banks making his Prime Minister role fraught with conflict of interest?
And why are his shares not sensitive to the actual share price? He did concede that he lost value in the collapse of ML but that he had diversified in time by selling some of his shares! (Just honest curiosity here)
And added to that; this is what Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge has to say about the BoA fiasco and he is usually right!
Well it would only be insider trading if someone was forewarned of the financial result before it was made public.
The thing is, US financial markets have stopped pretending to be credible, impartial, exchanges for buying and selling now. (This has been the case for the last few years). The entire set up is rigged like a casino. Oridnary investors and retirement funds get totally destroyed on a daily basis as the game makers skim money millisecond by millisecond.
Put another way, the only real serious trading in the international financial markets today is insider trading. For instance, everyone who needs to know, already knows whether the Federal Reserve is going to print more money in QE3 and who that money is likely to go to.
Not sure I understand your point; the value of his shares will certainly directly reflect the share price of the day. If the share price drops 10%, so will the realisable value of the shares that he holds should he wish to sell on that day.
Your response is very much my own opinion based on what I have been reading.
This sentence confused me. 🙂
haha sorry about that
Yeah as you know, companies can report a loss, and the shareprice will rocket up on the basis that the loss was less than expected.
In this case, the big banks have been padding their numbers in a big way and soon its gonna be obvious that the emperor has no clothes, even with mounds of interest free money care of the US tax payer.
Its gonna be uglier than 2008.
Here is what I said in April 2008 on this blog about what was going to happen!
I told you so. LOL!!! (God, that feels good) No not you CV, but all the other philistines here.
🙂 very nice.
Hard assets count in this new world, vege gardens, hydrodams, steel, silver, gold, clean water, a full tank of gas, a well insulated home with solar hot water, and good relations with friends, neighbours and family.
Have all that! (Well… maybe not the gold but I hear your own distilled is a good bartering tool too. LOL)
Nah, look at what used to trade over the long duration land and sea trade routes in the past. Look at the dutch east indies or the land route between europe and india. Try pepper and other spices.
If you go back further in history then you look at the salt caravans that allowed people to live inland.
In WWII in Europe tobacco and alcohol were major bartering tools. People didn’t give a fuck about spices. they didn’t have the food to spice in the first place (In Holland in the last year of the war people ate cats and tulip bulbs. hence the name tulip munchers which contrary to popular belief are not on our daily menu and taste pretty horrible)
When/If it all goes pear-shaped and after the inital ‘problems’ things will eventually settle.We have plenty of wood for building and still have ability to run forges, mine essentials etc. We have a range of herbs and spices we can grow here, we can make bread and have plenty of milk. There is more than enough land to grow veges and fruit so feeding people will be possible. Which is nice.
The true horror awaiting us all is what the hell do we do about coffee?
I have a coffee and some tea plants too. But the coffee won’t fruit here but perhaps up in the Northland area?
I’m pretty sure it is too cold there as well (and isn’t likely to rise enough), and not the best soils for it.
But I’d bet you’d have problems even with bananas down there…
interestingly, NZ is going to do OK on renewable salt 🙂
No I, We actually can grow bananas here. I’ve got a couple of friends who do. I haven’t started yet
Yeah, I’ve had good bananas here. Small but fat and very sweet.
The only challenge is getting to them before the birds do.
Key must be shitting himself on a personal financial basis. When you consider that the political elite worldwide hold their wealth in much the same places as Key it becomes really easy to understand why gains are privatized and losses socialized. What Obama is effectively proposing to Congress and the Senate currently is to extend the bail out at the future expense of the taxpayer, to be paid for as the Tea party suggests by slashing pensions, welfare etc. It is the 21rst century equivalent of “let them eat cake”, willful blindness to reality just to keep the show ticking over a little longer.
Key might not be the only person worried. The majority of the dairy industry here is in hock to the finance industry. Over the last fortnight world dairy prices crashed nearly 7%. This plus the rising dollar must be worrying both farmers and financiers, they are both facing the barrel. Anybody for a cheap polluted piece of land, going fast?
Yesterday I commented on the strange state of point price inflation and overall deflation. Watch the markets to respond with far more emotional illogic than usual. The DOW surged a few % yesterday on the basis that Obama would extend the bail out…any regression they will crash. The whole system is clearly out of touch with the world around it.
FTSE dropped seriously too!
I had the same thought as No Right Turn in wondering if he who would be dictator of Christchurch had actually asked if those appointed to the CERA advisory board would actuslly do the job for the standard rate. I see this morning he is refering to John Hansen the boards chair not actually submitting asn invoice or asking for payment. Does that make John Key & Brownlee liars?
Violence likely if US income/wealth in equality deteriorates further
Slightly worrying when its CNN saying this, and they are doing it in all seriousness.
http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=15271
I thought this media statement by Phil Goff was worthy of note but haven’t seen it picked up by any media…
Playcentre closures not an option
Anne Tolley should immediately rule out a proposal to slash funding to Playcentre, a 70-year-old institution attended by generations of Kiwi kids, Labour Leader Phil Goff says.
A Government taskforce looking into investment in the early childcare sector is calling for a 63% cut in funding to Playcentre, a move the Playcentre Federation says will force the country’s 460 centres to close.
“To borrow a quote from National, that sort of cut is like taking a dagger to the heart of New Zealand’s children,” Phil Goff said. “My kids went to Playcentre. To think of it not being there for other kids is a real concern.”
“This Government has already slashed subsidies to ECE centres, with funding cuts to more than 2000 services over the last year affecting 93,000 children and resulting in fee rises for thousands of families
“It abandoned the target for having 100 per cent qualified teachers and its policy of improving ratios for children under two to 1:4. Now it’s attacking what has come to be seen as a world-leader in low-cost, parent-led early childhood education.
“It’s a complete about-face. The Prime Minister’s chief science advisor has continually stressed the importance of early childhood education, noting that investment in the earlier years results in less expenditure later.
“Here’s Paula Bennett in 2006: ‘Parent-led centres are the backbone of many communities…parents and their children get huge advantages from attending kohanga reo and Playcentres. It would be a big blow to many communities to not have these centres supported.’
“And in 2008 Anne Tolley attacked Labour on the issue, saying ‘Labour does not think that parents who take their kids to Playcentre are worth supporting…’
“Well Anne Tolley, Labour does back our Playcentres. They’ve long been a valuable part of ECE and a great training ground for parents. Our message to the Minister is – step in and act now,” Phil Goff said.
Thanks for pointing that out I have posted it on FB in the hope that more people will see it. Playcentre is an amazing organisation for families to be involved in.
Thanks for spreading the word–I don’t do FB. ACE Aotearoa (Adult and Community Ed) has also done a media release:
Media Release
July 19 2011
Valuable Whānau Learning Opportunities Threatened by
Proposed Funding Cuts to Playcentres
ACE Aotearoa is concerned that proposed funding cuts to Playcentres pose
a threat to whānau learning in Aotearoa. The umbrella organisation for the
Adult and Community Education Sector actively promotes the concept of
families learning together because of the huge benefits it brings for families
and communities.
ACE Aotearoa co- chair Wendel Richardson says when families learn
together, everyone benefits. “There are many examples of how models of
family learning enhance the wellbeing of families and communities. Some
studies have shown that families benefit financially when parents learn
alongside their children.”
For over 70 years, Playcentres have led the way in providing unique
whānau learning opportunities. Funding cuts to centres would be a great
step backwards for both early childhood and community education.
Ends
For more information on whānau learning go to http://www.aceaotearoa.org.nz
And Anne Tolly responded to a journalist who was doing a story on it by saying that this is just scare-mongering by the Labour Party. What a load of bull-shit–this is a bottom-up campaign from concerned parents and educators.
What conceivable reason would they have for doing that? It’s insane…
Israeli spies back in NZ and Key KNOWS NOTHING!
Except he knows enough to say that its not in our interests for us to know either. Despite not knowing the details himself. Apparently.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10739639
And this ..
“Apparently [New Zealand passports are] worth their weight in gold when it comes to intelligence operations”
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/questions-remain-over-israeli-spying-claims-4313751
Now, who told Key that?
Next thing you know, our New Zealand passports might be up for sale.
I’m a graduate immigrant with a couple of million to invest in NZ businesses.
Is that good enough? 😉
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5311497/Quake-victims-no-Mossad-agents
the comments from the PM are predictable, the various articles showing up repeat the story but do raise a few questions… and then there is the article above. The whole timeline of these events is what does not add up. Within hours of the Quake the Israeli Ambassador flew in from Canberra? The bodies would have barely been discovered let alone identified. Yet in the space of a few hours the Ambassador was not only in the country, but gave the surviviors a ride to the airport?
Some expert or other was on Nine to Noon this morning. He concluded that there is undoubtedly something going on, and even if they don’t find out anything more than the 5 passports, those in themselves will be very valuable intelligence that can be disseminated internationally to other intelligence agencies around the world.
He said that they were almost certainly not Mossad agents, due to their age – average of 23. He suggested that they were ‘helpers’, people who help out the Israeli government around the world to do various missions, and likely they had just finished their compulsory military training and were effectively on the mission as a way to gain entrance to Mossad. He suggested they were likely in NZ so they could steal identities for use in fake NZ passports (as happened 7 years ago), because it’s not something that full Mossad agents would normally spend time on.
Makes sense i.e. it was a very routine low level op that got upended by an unexpected situation that they had no decent contingency for (except to abandon their ‘mate’, turn tail and bail).
or… during a routine low level op, id aquisition and asset generation, there is a quake which presented an Operation potential of a far grander scale, having S&R teams get a private NZPolice backdoor seperate to the exisiting private back door that is part and parcel of Interntional Security arrangements. (these are the same people that had to admit to StuxNet)
And is anyone buying that the Israeli Pm tries four times to call Key and it doesn’t happen?
update info from RNZ midday news
Mr Key’s story has changed, now it seems that the NZ PM did talk to the Israeli PM on the day but the calls were to offer help and support. Only four hours and he already flip-flops.
Is that a record?
Can you download or stream save the video? I can’t but love to have a you tube version of it!
anyone have a quick answer as to what is the legal position of uploading a 3news video from Scoop onto youtube?
downloads with Downloadhelper on Firefox,
Hi Freedom,
Just downloaded the Downloadhelper firefox plugin. The one I was using didn’t want to download it but it is now happily downloading the video.
I think there is a fair use for the purpose of information clause like making sure people know the source and no profit jadajada and no mass use.
Anyway I can down load it myself now so problem solved.
love dlhelper, oh yeah thanks for the Zero link the other day, had not gotten to it yet. Certainly a strong contender for most balanced doco on the subject to date.
Cheers, by the way horrible news! Danny Jovenko died in a car crash
yeah, not good news, far too much silencing of experts going on. Notice the road intersection on which he died is a high visibility T road yet they say he drove straight into a tree.
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?q=zomp+Wilgenhoekweg+/+Hondegemseweg&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl
and according to the local Bobbies there’s nothing suspicious about a certain whistleblowers death in th UK either, right
keepvid.com can also be useful
cut n paste the URL and it will show any available download formats
I prefer Karbon myself with Aurora
my last post on this today i promise…
feb 22
http://yeahthatskosher.com/2011/02/chabad-house-in-christchurch-new-zealand-destroyed-in-earthquake-young-israeli-traveler-killed/
“Contact information and personal details were gathered and presented to the Israeli Embassy in Wellington. With the airport shut down, Shemi Tzur, Israel’s Ambassador to New Zealand, has been unable to travel to the site of the disaster by air, but is scheduled to arrive by car”
July 20
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/5311491/SIS-on-trail-of-suspected-Israeli-spies#graphic
“Israel’s Ambassador in the South Pacific, Shemi Tzur, who is based in Australia, booked flights to Christchurch, where he visited the morgue.”
no math degrees needed to see something here does not add up
No offense to the dead but are we to believe every time a few citizens are killed in a natural disaster, within a couple of hours the Ambassador runs to see what he can do?
When do you last recall this ever occurring? Anywhere?
Turns out there were actually 6 in this group, 3 of whom were killed and 3 who fled the country.
The ones most talked about are the 4 that were in the van, 1 was killed and the other 3 took photos. There were also 2 pedestrians that were killed.
how do they just desert their mate in the van ? getting out of the van to safety, sure, but actually deserting the body? Scum seems an apt moniker of their character
Simple explanation is that they were not mates. At least not in the usual sense of the word.
Some expert or other was on Nine to Noon this morning.
That was Dr. Paul Buchanan, one of the most informed and brilliant security and espionage commentators in the world.
A few years ago, following a dirty tricks campaign worthy of Mossad or the Stasi, he was railroaded out of his job as a professor at Auckland University.
If you have listened or read Buchanans work he is no sympathizer with the left .So the question has to be asked who is the controller and is he embedded with the SIS or otherwise how come our SIS can,t find these people.IF they can,t find theses people how can they find a terrorist organization . with these guys having a free reign in our country its just making our country and our people overseas more of a terrorist target .
having them present comment from people like PB is a good thing
have you never heard the term ” know thy enemy?”
and in the world of espionage etc there is no Left or Right,
just different brands on the same brown paper bags
having them present comment from people like PB is a good thing
have you never heard the term ” know thy enemy?”
Paul Buchanan is not “the enemy”. Nor, strictly speaking, is Mossad or MI5 or the CIA “the enemy”. They are simply agents of the states they serve. The crimes committed by these organizations are the responsibility of Israel, the UK and the US.
i would suggest you kind of have that backwards, the state is and always has been a servant of its agents. Be it commercial, military or intelligence based, the lies of spies have darkened the skies
the state is and always has been a servant of its agents.
So Mossad is killing dissidents, stealing the identities of dead people and hacking into computer systems without the Tel Aviv regime knowing anything about it?
And those American “agents” who tried to kill Giuliana Sgrena (they only killed her driver) and killed Reuters and Al Jazeera journalists in Iraq were operating in a rogue fashion?
You are saying that the spies and the military are out of control in the U.S. and Israel. Have you ever thought that, just possibly, these admittedly brutal state servants have far more integrity and honesty than the politicians they report to?
heads of State change and are oft forgotten, heads on staffs are often remembered
If you have listened or read Buchanans work he is no sympathizer with the left.
Have to disagree wuth you there mik e. While he may not be a ‘lefty’ as such, my reading of some of his posts (I admit I’m not a regular reader) suggest he is agreeably impartial in his judgements.
ooops… I see Tiger Mountain has already challenged mik e and co. The man has an exceptional brain and I can understand why some people feel threatened by him.We are darn lucky to have him.
Mind you, Paul Buchanan appears to know fuck-all about the Israel-Palestine conflict. His argument in a recent kiwipolitico piece (and even more so in his follow-up comments) suggested an astonishing lack of knowledge.
Incidently, NZ Listener Chomsky-smear outline still in the pipeline. I’ll have one or two things to say about this latest Mossad Affair as well.
Which had mysteriously become two passports on 3 News. Their treatment of it all amounted to “nothing to see here, move on!” I was texting my son about this, and bizarrely, Jews in predictive text, is “keys”!
blaaaaargh, there goes my morning tea.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/BackBencher-Debate-web.jpg
Wow. Just… ugh…
Jeez HS, it curdles the milk, truly ugly …afternoon tea goes west too..
Quite interesting with regard to what the picture reveals about the mind behind it and the kind of people who are promoting it.
Well, at least now we know who’s probably behind the steamy Key/Goff slash fan fictions…
*ahem*
There is such a thing as Key/Goff slash fiction? Oh noes, where’s the brain bleach?
Rule 34: If it exists, there is porn of it. No Exceptions.
I agree with Na Raihana, the Maori Party’s Ikaroa Rawhiti candidate, that Dr Brash’s conjecture that Sir Apirana would be an ACT supporter if he were still alive is “despicable.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/80420/maori-party-upset-by-act-using-ngata%27s-name
brash said, “In our current context, I’m confident he (Sir Apirana Ngata) would feel his values were best embodied in the ACT Party’s philosophy and policies.”
http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/apirana-and-act-real-solutions-maori-problems-brash/5/95536
What a lowlife and he is likely to get back because of the deal with the gnats in Epsom – who can hold the line against their foul agenda? Mana and Greens that’s who.
http://mars2earth.blogspot.com/2011/07/its-life-jim-but-not-as-we-know-it.html
Holy shit – I thought that it was a joke when I heard someone claim he’d said it. Laughed like a drain. I didn’t know it was true!
Hey whatsup with Mossad agents in CHCH stealing identities.I wonder who their controller is ,wouln,t be a smiling assassin with connections to the SIS
Mik e – go to the top of the class.
Is John Key lying over the Israeli presence in New Zealand?
Thank you Prime MInister.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10739676
live chat with paul buchanan on now
patsy question after patsy question, can you just imagine the room of lawyers and advisors in the office screening then sending them to Paul then the reply back then the screening then the return, finally the posting. Up to four minutes between questions and answers.
The great illusion of open-participation in the shaping of modern media continues unabated.
strangely enough my question(s) about the timeline of the Israeli Ambassadors travel from Canberra and his subsequent assistance to the survivors seems to have missed the cut :]
Freedom,
Please refer to my post on
‘Jum 13
20 July 2011 at 2:56 pm’
for validation of your comment of patsy questions and controlled answers. (Personally, I hope Tiger Mountain is believable in his 1.29pm comment) because this coming election will be ‘the perfect exercise in how to manipulate the public by John Key and advisers’.
Any New Zealander that wants a fairer, egalitarian New Zealand needs to have all paperwork ready when Roger Douglas, the numbers manipulator and John Key, the ‘forget that expert; I have others’ begin their bloody assault on Kiwi hearts and minds. This year is a pivotal one for which road we want to take as a people – people over profit or profit over people. Simple really.
“mik e” and others here should check out http://www.kiwipolitico.com/ before more assumptions are made about Paul Bs position on the political spectrum.
He is an immensely skilled analyst and commentator.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1107/S00219/uk-welfare-groups-back-auckland-picket.htm
‘‘We are protesting outside the Maxim dinner on Friday night because we seek to stand in solidarity with beneficiaries in the UK, and because we want to highlight the extent to which the recommendations of the Government’s Rebstock report are based on UK welfare reforms.’
‘Direct actions are a part of political discourse, and given the nature of Government onslaughts against beneficiaries and unemployed people in both New Zealand and the UK, we need to do more than simply listen politely to what conservative ‘experts’ brought in from overseas have to tell us.
‘If Maxim had really wanted a fair debate, they would have brought out a UK claimants’ representative to speak as well, so people attending this function could hear both sides of the story.’
The picket will take place this Friday 22 July from 5.30pm onwards, outside the Heritage Hotel, 35 Hobson St, Auckland.’
This is exactly what occurred during the last decade with Maxim, a far right religious think tank, pretending in various columns that it cared about all New Zealanders. There are only a few New Zealanders they care about and trust me it aint us.
Watch this year when they hold campaign meetings for all election candidates – they get questions from the audience but only ask the ones they want to.
That is NOT democracy; that is neo-conservatism that seeks to control women and anyone who believes in a society where all people have equal rights.
Attend the picket and stand up for all New Zealanders’ rights.
Would love to be there but can’t make it this time. All the best!
P.S.
The UK group:
http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=93
The most puzzling question on these Isreali arseholes is that within minutes of the quake Israeli “officials” had set up a rendevous in Latimer Square for the surviving 3 in the van. How? Cell phones wern’t working very well by my recollection. Who and where did these “officials come from, what were they doing in Chch, hardly a diplomatic hot zone? Don’t expect Key to do anything, he hasn’t got the guts, it should be 3 strikes and you’re out of the country. Is Key an Israeli plant? Anything is possible, he’s as incompetent as Mossad.
Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations were going on at the same time, maybe that was of interest? I remember readings something about he US delegation being there at the time of the earthquake.
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/letter-of-the-day-2/
Craven politicians bring shame on the Baltic states
07.17.2011
From: ulme muld
Date: Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 11:32 AM
Subject: Israel-friendly MEPs lobby Ashton on Palestine
To: normfinkelst…@gmail.com
Some 100 members of the European Parliament have sent Catherine Ashton a letter against Palestine’s declaration of an independent state in September.
http://eurobserver.com/9/32613
“Israeli-friendly MEPs lobby Ashton on Palestine.”
What is especially shameful about this letter is that some of the signatories are from the Baltic States, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These three countries were occupied by the Soviet Union; all three declared unilateral independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Yet these very same MEPs are quite ready to ask the Palestinians to continue to “negotiate” with Israel. Had they applied the same principles to their own countries, these countries would still be “negotiating” with the Soviets.
I would especially like to point out Tunne Kelam, a so-called “dissident” during the Soviet occupation in Estonia, and who has made a career out of his “dissident” anti-occupation credentials of 1991. Yet he fails to see the irony, the double standard, and his utter lack of morals in his negation of an independent Palestinian state.
It has been said that some slaves do not want freedom — they just want to become slaveholders themselves.
Ulme Muld
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/letter-of-the-day-2/
Apologies if I’m timelined
John Key and Mark Zuckerberg
http://hellameke.com/dev/awesome/files/10/keyzuck.jpg
[deleted]
[lprent: I wasn’t due to see you for a few more weeks – ummm 7th August.
More comments. Banned permanently. ]
When NAct came into power they cut successful rehabilitation schemes and put in place Fresh Start Result?
Also worth reading is When is a Boot Camp Not a Boot Camp? When it’s a Big Mac!
Seriously this needs to be in a main post, not just in open mike; Key et al promised, amongst other things, they would deal with youth crime
They didn’t listen to experts when they told them bowing to the lemons at the Sensible Sentencing Trust would be a disaster. They wouldn’t and continue to not listen to the links between poverty and deprivation and crime.
Its been nearly three long years, plenty of time for even an Epsilon-minus semi-moron to provide a km or two of cycleway. So Jokey Hen, you let us down, fail us, fail yourself. Wheres my fekkin cycleway??????????
Wasn’t that the jewel of the crown from the, cough, jobs summit?
The scoundrel took us for a ride.
Dodgy deals being done by National and Act:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10739621
We need to reform that ‘get one electorate seat and get five MPs in Parliament’ thing stat.
What’s dodgy about that? Parties are free to arrange anything they like with each other.
And voters are free to judge what parties arrange vote for whoever they like.
These Nat fellows are, to draw on the link to the ACT poster noted further above, busy fellating Act to stay in power. Expect to see Nat candidates at work in such manner in Epsom and other similar electorates.
Re that picture in the poster: would have been more appropriate to have the faces of don and key.
I’d like to see the Greens and Labour do this tbh.
Me too. But try convincing Gareth.
Radionz today gave a full report on the latest moves in the Destiny church and Hannah Tamaki taking control of the Maori Womens Welfare League. There are ways to maneouvre inside charitable, non-profit organisations with broad concerns, wrest control of the assets and channel these with a narrow focus. It is wise for those trying to do good things in society and who have achieved a good flow of bequests, gifts and donations to be aware of the dangers and have some sort of legal injunction in the rules so that a stop can be put on any move that takes control out of the hands of the historical supporters.
It reminded me of what I heard about the Dunedin Corso office. I googled that and found info under – “nz corso dunedin office takeover” in an academic review from Victoria. I made some notes –
From 1984 Corso’s direction was changed so that two-thirds of its income would be spent in NZ whereas it had previously been majorly concerned with overseas assistance. The program was called Justice begins at Home and a Maori Development Fund called the Aotearoa Putea Fund was developed from 1986. It then gained a fulltime coordinator, H. Halkyard Harawira.
It appeared that in the late 1970s the organisation was captured by different agenda with discussion on the relevance of the Treaty and central control causing branches concern. Relations deteriorated and in 1988 there was a physical assault on one member by people from the Harawira faction. There were no annual accounts issued from 1986 for a few years. Workers and funds began to drift away. Many supporters moved to Oxfam. CORSO came to be regarded as a fringe group with a radical agenda based on Maori development and Tiro rangitiratanga or sovereignty.
The ideals of the Maori group may have been good, but knowing what is achievable and having the ability to run a project that isn’t too ambitious is necessary for success. This faction gave the chop to a long-standing and useful organisation when they gained control and the funds.
Another long-running group this time gutted by unscrupulous people. was the Whangarei Hearing Assocition which was taken over by an outsider couple who got control of valuable assets and funds. The Court hearing was reported on 26 October 2007 by the Northern Advocate.
In his submission to Justice Asher, Crown prosecutor Sam Wimsett detailed –
He said the committee allowed president Erika Kemp’s husband Mark Whitfield, the association’s manager, to purchase a property at Henry St, Kensington, for $298,000 when it was valued at $335,000.
The property was leased back to the association at a rental of $2600 a month – a move the Registrar of Incorporated Societies called unjustified because a house wasn’t necessary for the organisation to conduct its affairs.
Mr Whitfield sold his Holden Commodore to the association for $40,000 which was later traded in at $18,000 on a Landcruiser worth $83,000.
Justice Asher… the association had lost nearly 60 percent of its assets in a short time and it seemed that this year’s pending financial statement would show a deficit worst than that of 2006.
When the current committee stormed into the role in 2005, the association had purpose-built premises, qualified hearing practitioners working there, and $100,000 in the bank.
The liquidation hearing yesterday heard that at the beginning of this year it had $12 in the bank, and owned no building.
Prism you should google Hugh Watt Society, Chris Diack, ACT and Onehunga Labour hall …
Talk about assets accumulated for a good cause being used for the purposes of evil …
ms thanks will
The Harawiras you mention. Any relation to the currently ‘exiled’ Mana Party leader?
hi millsy I didn’t have time and was tired last might to check up on possible family connections but it could be. Let’s hope the Maori Womens Welfare League doesn’t get used in a similar to a mixture of the drives that were apparent in both Corso and the Whangarei Hearing group takeovers.
Oh, I had forgotten all about the existence of CORSO! So that’s what became of it…
New Roy Morgan out.
Labour 33.5, Greens 7.5, Nats 49, ACT 3.
Still bouncing around but better than the last Colmar Brunton.
Leftie response, it is heartening but accuracy of the polls are uncertain.
RWNJ response – silence. It does not provide them with a weapon to bash Phil Goff with …
I can haz linky?
Sure
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2011/4685/
Colmar Brunton will probably/possibly be out in a few days. A poller mistakenly called my work tonight — she was very apologetic when she found out she rang a business.
Disaster Capitalism
This week it was revealed that CERA officials are being paid over twice as much as was officially recommended. Former National Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, Anake Goodall and Murray Sherwin are being paid $1000 a day while the panel’s convenor, Sir John William Hansen, has been set at $1400 a day.