“..How 3D printing and land reform could help to solve the housing crisis..” (ed:..why are there no discussions of this ilk here in nz..?..why is tearing up the environmental-protections contained in the resource management act the only ‘solution’ this brain-dead/imagination-free government can come up with..?..)
:..and the small-house movement..?..
..they apparently have not heard of that either..
..now..3d-printing ‘small’ houses in well-planned clusters..?..)
Phil, went to a couple of affordable housing meetings, and realised that they were all still talking about more of the same, and just affordable to build.
If you are interested in the tiny house movement and other alternatives have a look at these links.
We had a look at the 3D printing a while ago, but remain attached to the use of good design for site, and the use of local materials. As part of our home ed curriculum we are accumulating materials to build a small cob building for a project.
So, a sensible property developer sees all the things we might see as valuable about housing – quality, affordability sustainability, community leadership – not as investments, but as costs. No matter how much land we may release to housebuilders, no sensible executive will ever release so many new properties onto the market that they cause prices to fall. Their shareholders would (rightly) sack them if they did.
In other words, traditional property developers cannot solve the housing crisis, because they are almost perfectly designed not to.
Bingo!!!
There is only one group with a direct reason to build homes with – for example – better energy performance, and that is the people who are going to pay the heating bills: us.
Actually, that both right and wrong but mostly wrong. When it comes down to it we have an energy budget that equates to the present sustainable rate of generation. We need to know this information so that we can then choose where that budget is spent. The pricing model is supposed to do this but it’s actually terrible at it as it drives a significant minority into not having access to that resource. We see this in people not being able to pay their power bills and/or having enough food to eat despite there being enough of food and power for them to have both.
But we also need to reform the land market, to make it dramatically easier for those without much capital to buy a plot of land and commission their own homes – either individually or as a group.
And back to the failed must make land available demand.
I’m all for people building their own homes but we need to encourage them to build high density in already built up areas while we work to return land back to its natural state.
Agree with your final statement. That’s why I’m so keen on cohousing. The residents are not necessarily the builders but they are the developers and as such they get to create their own design. The majority of designs will cluster the homes and design for one big carpark on the edge.
The lack of ‘dead space’ between houses, and area gain through no driveways or separate parking release land to be utilised for shared spaces including regeneration of natural habitats if that is what is decided upon.
That option is not available to lower-middle income owners of standard homes on small sections, whether they build or not.
Mr Little on tv3 this morning asked about whether a drought should be declared got caught completely flat footed and decided to take the just flap his lips and hope something good flies out of his mouth approach. 3/10
Oh for goodness sake, b waghorn. Andrew Little doesn’t have to know everything and dairying in the south – Canterbury – or wherever is a stupid thing to be doing in such a well known dry place.
to people in rural centres everywhere it is a signal as to whether Labour keeps track of and cares about the very basics of what is happening to the farming sector. The answer unfortunately, remains “No”
People farming in the Waikato or Bay of Plenty will be very aware of what farmers are facing further down south currently and will note that Little does not.
Labour has Damien O’Connor who is well regarded in farming circles maybe they should have him at the front of all things rural . I know he upset a few with his gaggle of gays comments but onwards and upwards
Yes it is rather astounding what we humans will do at times – fly completely in the face of nature and history… only to get swatted down like a fly some time later and then act all surprised …..
… good example in exactly this region was the windstorms about a year ago which upturned and wrecked countless irrigators etc across Canterbury. When dairy turned up in Canterbury and all the hedgerows were being taken out to allow the irrigator machines to meander across vast flat paddocks many old-timers said “oh woe, you watch you silly people, the winds will return and you will rue the day you laid waste to these hedgerows..”
and lo, the winds returned, screaming down the Rakaia and the Rangitata, and instead of screaming over their heads at the height of hedgerows itr screamed at grass height level, destroying all in its path ….
manwomankind eh? Never learns. Plain silly. Same with investing into reliance on water being pumped and drained and spread onto land by electric and mechanical means – the risk of failure is high …
Watched a good water documentary that outlined the creation of the dustbowl in the US.
Good old Little House on the Prairie approach to farming, saw acres of natural grasslands burnt off so that they could access the fertile soil beneath. Of course the grasslands held the moisture and nutrients and a natural balance of growth, decay and regeneration was occurring. After a few decades of cropping, with more topsoil lost every year, they reached a point where there was nothing left.
Hi Molly. I watched a doco about the dust bowl of the 1930’s. They interviewed some families of the Oklahoma Pan handle who grew up in that time. Most of the family members interviewed, now well into in their senior years, were forced off their land due to their impoverished state and made the long journey to California, where they were referred to as “Okies”
I can’t remember what the doco was called but I wonder if it was the same one.
Lessons from that era:
Trust the wisdom of the indigenous people of the plains – the land was unsuitable for cropping. They knew the food yields from that land were low, so that land was never permanently settled.
If you’re promised a quick easy buck but it looks too good to be true it probably is.
Don’t fight nature, she will always win. Prevent an economic and environmental catastrophe by only using the most appropriate resources in the most respectful and sustainable ways.
Rosie, like you I can’t remember the name but it was an eight part series on either Prime or TVNZ7 a few years back. If anyone else remembers it and knows the name I’d appreciate it.
It also reasoned that one of the most credible reasons for some of the abandoned cities of antiquity was the loss of renewal water systems , and showed how some were trying to re-establish the underground quanats of Iran and Persia, when the NGO well-systems and pumps were failing due to the depletion of fossilised water and lack of parts and service for pumping mechanisms.
I did a super quick google but couldn’t find it. It was a doco we downloaded maybe two (?) years ago. It didn’t discuss the underground aquifers of ancient Persia however, (although we did watch a BBC doco about that) so it can’t be the same one.
And even if you had trillions of dollars, they would not be able to restore water to depleted fossil water sources, or refreeze the glaciers, or even grow a full grown kauri in ten years.
There is a complete lack of reciprocity in thinking that you can continue to take without replenishment… and sheer arrogance to believe that you should.
There is a complete lack of reciprocity in thinking that you can continue to take without replenishment… and sheer arrogance to believe that you should.
QFT
As I say, our economic system is uneconomic. It merely takes without even considering how long that taking can last never mind renewing what’s been taken.
It is crazy to put dairy farms in known drought-prone areas.
Dairy farms need huge amounts of water and most of Canterbury is unsuitable. Not only that, but droughts in Canterbury are predicted to become more frequent in coming years thanks to climate change.
This has been known for some time, yet farmers were encouraged to convert to dairy and put in irrigation. It cost a fortune, and with all the interest on the loans going to Australian banks, there is is no benefit to the NZ economy.
+100 Karen….and people dont seem to realise, or ignore the fact that aquifers are finite and that water taken out of the ground or from rivers at one point …always affects those farmers further down stream…whether by the rivers drying up or the underground aquifers being depleted
…drinking water nitrate poisoning is also a result for local populations (eg. ‘blue baby syndrome’ warnings to South Island mothers)
….not only this , the the cost to tourism by environmental degradation and trashing of our rivers for fishing and recreation and aesthetics is enormous..overseas visitors are NOT impressed
France designates what crops/farming/ vineyards are suitable for the local natural terroir/environments …and legislates accordingly….New Zealand under John Key Nact has a slash and burn approach to natural resources…..and the environment is being trashed …this is New Zealand’s greatest economic resource
Now that bounty is threatened by a crisis of geological proportions: The land is sinking – crippling the region’s irrigation and flood control infrastructure and damaging aquifers that are buffers against climate change.
Nature, though, is not to blame. This problem is self-inflicted, driven by the frontier-style exploitation of the last unregulated resource in California: groundwater.
How much is the land in Southland sinking as the farmers pump out more and more water?
“But unlike other Western states, California has no state standards for groundwater management. Instead, responsibility rests with a patchwork of local and regional entities where oversight varies from careful monitoring and allocation in some places to little or no control elsewhere.”
And in NZ we have this right wing government foisting the same on rural regions of NZ, moving control of our resources from central to local authority. Local authority in NZ regions where this happens is controlled by farmers who simply get distracted by the lure of money.
I’ve been wondering whether the canterbury climate would be ok for olives.
One of the best decisions NZers made was looking at what grew in similar climates to their locality in the northern hemisphere, and applying kiwi ingenuity to the production – now our wine industry is a bulwark for rural areas.
Canterbury was traditionally sheep and wheat. Olives could work in some areas, I guess, but may need a longer summer.
The main thing is you need crops that are deep rooting if you get regular droughts. The surface soil gets dried up very quickly without regular rain. Cutting down the shelter belts has made the problem worse as the wind dries up the topsoil, and eventually will blow it away.
I have know problem with him not being across every topic but he could of said something like’ I haven’t been breifed on that get back to me tomorrow ‘
Honesty is a good policy I believe
+1
I would much rather hear that than an attempt to disguise a lack of knowledge. That’s the first thing I teach students to stop doing, but in this world of consultants and spin merchants, it’s not easy.
“Mr Little on tv3 this morning asked about whether a drought should be declared got caught completely flat footed and decided to take the just flap his lips and hope something good flies out of his mouth approach. 3/10”
And for those of us that didn’t see it, what exactly did he do or say?
“Mr Little on tv3 this morning asked about whether a drought should be declared got caught completely flat footed and decided to take the just flap his lips and hope something good flies out of his mouth approach. 3/10”
Mr Waghorn had not had his morning coffee and was completely flatfooted when the Labour Leader talked competently about the effect of the extended hot weather on farms. 3/10
Yes, I did. I linked to it and specified when his interview started! The question is, have you? Y’know, with your eyes open. Little does fine, there isn’t a damn thing wrong with his response. What are you on?
@ te reo putake I just watched that clip now I don’t have very hot short term momery but I’m sure that clip was very kindly edited as he didn’t start his reply with the wairarapa comments.
If you can prove that was the start of his interview on the clip you posted I’ll humbly apologize.
Watch the whole clip. It’s the entire segment, including the first five minutes with the bloke from fed farms. Then the interviewer introduces Little and says “Good morning and happy new year to you” then directly moves to asking about the drought. No cut, no edit. Straight to the question about the drought.
mr waghorn, as a farmer I was wondering if you could answer a question related to the issue of inappropriate farming of land in places like Canterbury discussed above
why don’t farmers stay within the boundaries of their land and farm with the resources that exist there?
Why do they bring water from elsewhere? Why do they dump their waste elsewhere? Why do they bring fertiliser from elsewhere?
Why don’t they farm sustainably on the land they have? In other words, use the soil they have, the rain that falls on their land and the sun that shines on their land? Plant and raise what will grow and raise within the conditions on their land?
Why do they go elsewhere and upset the balance of nature? Why do they not live within the means of the particular land?
Because in not doing so the environment is being thrown all out of kilter and having a great vomit over all of us in return. Serious question – why do farmers not farm within the bounds of the land they occupy?
edit: aware that some do, reference is to those that don’t (being the vast majority)
That’s a lot to lay on a lowly Shepherd but I’ll have a crack.
Humans buy there nature are mostly greedy and self serving and given free riegn seem to be ‘future eaters’ I believe the term is, be it do’dos Moas or the earths resources.
My understanding of fertilizer is that at the end of ww2 they had great big munitions factories that were turned to a new use then the marketing came with it. I personally have no problem fertilizer use or irrigation done right ,
As for cantubury it sounds like a recipe for failure gambling on being able to store enough water to sustain dairy I milked cows 20 years ago and man those girls go through the water. I heard a story 4 or so years ago about a farmer not needing all his water allocation so he sold it to his neighbour for a healthy profit it makes my guts burn to think about that still.
NZ farming was made strong buy our low input farming, sheep and beef farming is still mainly that way.
Thanks, good stuff. I think you’re second sentence is the one – it is a large part of human nature to want more and more and those resources external to the particular farm have simply been available for the taking. Particularly in colonised countries and particularly following widespread mechanisation, both of which have made that taking even easier.
Those external resources have been there for the taking so they have been taken. It has been simple to do so and the upside has been enormous, so why wouldn’t a person take them?
As per exchange last night – it is in our nature to do so, with little regard for the future. Just hope we wake up and learn before it is too late because, as we are rapidly learning, the reaction of the earth to all of that taking has been and continues to be one huge vomit …. all over us
shame this national party government and its supporters continue this practice of simple unsustainable greedy taking. shame shame shame
Nah, fair enough, pal. As you suspect, I’m running cover and the techies at TV3 have edited the clip just to make you look like a tosser. Still great discussion about fertilser with VTO. It’s clearly an area you’re familiar with 🙂
Don’t want to go on about this, but as someone who has considerable experience in editing for TV I can assure you there was no edit in the clip of Andrew Little going from Happy New Year to talking about the Wairarapa. Memory is a strange thing – my guess was you were a bit frustrated that he didn’t deal with this subject particularly well (I would agree with this to some extent) and this was reflected in how you remembered the interview.
No reflection on you at all. I think we all do this at times.
@ b waghorn.
Actually, Andrew Little spoke well regarding the drought as well as about the Oxfam inequality report AND the RMA and the housing issue AND the coming Ratana celebrations.
This is what he said about the drought problem that the government is reluctant to acknowledge:
“Certainly from what I’ve seen, and I was in the Wairarapa in the weekend, it is intensely dry,” he said on Firstline this morning.
“I think what has happened this season, although there was a fair amount of moisture in the period just before Christmas, it has dried out very quickly. It looks to me like it is going to continue.
“I don’t know what the tests are that the ministry applies, but when you hear news of farmers now rapidly destocking and the land’s as dry as it is, I would have thought there was a case there to look closely at it, and to provide whatever assistance is available to farmers.”
“Without assistance, farmers run the risk of not being able to pay their staff and prepare adequately for the winter”, says Mr Little.
“We’ve been through periods like this before, so you know that it’s going to come to an end at some point but you want to assist the farmers through a very difficult time, make sure that they can continue to pay their staff and keep their outgoings going until the moisture comes back, the grass and crops can return and they can get their livestock going again and start generating an income.”
b waghorn, watch that interview here again. You were wrong in your post!
Not sure what you mean by ‘clip is edited’. Edited by who? Labour party or TV3?….Unless, the first report you saw was incomplete or faulty and TV3 rectified it later. I don’t know. What time was the interview? Did you watch it live on TV or on demand on their website later? or are you implying that TV3 re-did a freah interview all over again?
I watched just after 7 am the interview started with happy new year then when asked whether a drought should be declared Little looked a bit lost mumbled a few things the wairarapa comment wasn’t the 1 st thing out of his mouth.
I lost interest a bit after that because I despise poly s pissing in my ear. All I want is a straight shooter and looking at Murray Raw sharks comment in this thread that makes at least 2 of us.
Ok. I am not doubting what you say or what you thought you saw, but you did not address all the questions I put. [Not sure what you mean by ‘clip is edited’. Edited by who? Labour party or TV3?….Unless, the first report you saw was incomplete or faulty and TV3 rectified it later. I don’t know or are you implying that TV3 re-did a freah interview all over again?]
I have no problem you taking any politician to task, including little, as long as it is accurate and fair.
What you claim is puzzling, based on the following link!
Take a look again to see if it jogs your memory because you say you ‘lost interest a bit’.
Often on three news in the am you get a live interview with some one and then that interview gets tidied up and used later in the show .
If 3 wants to be kind to Little that’s awesome in my books hopefully it means the end of the liar key is on its way.
I’d be gobsmacked if tv3 started even editing interviews in a neutral manner.
A year or two back I was gobsmacked when comparing the edited reports with the raw footage of the lobby questions: key and the Labour leader had about the same level of placeholders, hesitations, and equivocations/corrections in the raw footage. Of course, when it came to the edited version on polly was all ums and ahs and hesitant 4sec sound bites, and the other polly got longer to expand on an idea at 10sec a time. Guess which way around it went 🙂
I didn’t see this since I have better things to do in the morning than watch breakfast TV but one thing I do know is that if Mr Little was caught out this morning he won’t be tomorrow morning.
Talk of a by election in the Northland seat grows stronger. Looks like Nationals Mike Sabin is heading out the backdoor, which has me thinking.
I would like to see a different approach taken by the main opposition party’s. A primary contest amongst themselves with the wining candidate becoming the sole electorate candidate running off against the National puppet. The losers are party vote only and endorse the candidate who won the primary. It wouldn’t cost much and not too hard to work a voting structure, proportionate to members plus a cross party voting panel. A couple of hustings and then the major husting with pre and on the day voting. Certainly gain new members for the party’s and a good deal of public interest, local and natiional. Be a great shakedown for future contests.
@Skinny:
Better would be for the Greens not to stand a candidate and suggest their supporters vote Labour. (I voted Green in September).
This is because if Sabin loses to Labour and Dunne refuses to back the RMA reforms then they are stymied again with only 59 Nats and 1 Act equals 60 votes versus 61 against. This is important and the Greens really should try to throw the seat to Labour for this reason alone.
Well explained Beaded Git,
About time we had straight talk about how the opposition MUST work together to defeat this evil empire we have wrecking our future.
After all it is in the collective interests of all opposition to reduce the majority of the wrecking ball operators, to reduce their devastation.
No best candidate wins the chance to topple the National patsy. Wouldn’t it be great if Peters stood against his sworn enermy Sabin, under my proposed scenario Peters would almost certainly get the nod and a much better tally of the overall vote free of vote splitting.
Not sure about the logistics of it. I didn’t clearly understand what you meant ‘It wouldn’t cost much and not too hard to work a voting structure, proportionate to members plus a cross party voting panel. A couple of hustings and then the major husting with pre and on the day voting.”
Personally, it would be great if Labour, Greens, NZF agree to endorse Hone Harawira as the joint electorate candidate under the mana banner.
Mana is never going to get back into parliament. Hone blew it and frankly couldn’t pull enough votes from Maori outside of his own Rohe. Too much of a loose cannon is the general view of Maori I know.
Yes I tend to agree Phil. His attack on pot was stupid when you consider the poor he represents, the simple pleasure is one of the few treats they enjoy. And for those living on a substance income a little cash crop tops up their income. I once held a high leadership position when Mana first formed, spurred on by my Leftie mates. I found Hone too alpha male and it annoyed me that he frowned on my smoking. Helped signal my moving on.
I’ve read your case but it seems to me to be drawing a pretty long bow.
As you state your impassioned advocacy at the meeting ‘turned’ it – that shows open minds not closed ones. Sure we all know Hone doesn’t rate cannabis, he never has and whilst it is easy to say, “hey mate get with the program” it is also valid to have different views, even strongly different views.
We are all coloured by our experiences – you, me, skinny, Hone and although we may have had nothing but positive, uplifting contact with weed – many haven’t – and that could be due to the illegality of the activity and the heaviness of the state – doesn’t matter, it is there. And we know that some who smoke just really struggle with it, should keep away from it, not really for them – for all sorts of reasons. And those that do get caught and sentenced end up in that unforgiving environment with all of the ‘ruboff’ that occurs and they come out – some good, some bad and some ugly.
I don’t see the election loss as coming down to this issue – mistakes were made, big ones and made by Hone and others. The PTB wanted Mana (and Hone) gone especially after the hook up with the Internet party and they used all their dirty tools in their dirty toolbox to achieve that. Whether nicekelvin was active or passive doesn’t matter – he imo isn’t some wide-eyed innocent – crafty that one is, learned at the knee of a master he did.
I do think your analysis is valuable because all of these issues need to be aired and discussed and debated and sorted – and then we can get on with the jobby of getting Mana back into that uninviting house.
I agree, mm. Anyone who claims Hone lost because of his position on cannabis needs to cut down on their own consumption. I think it was a combination of going with Dotcom and the dirty getting together of the other parties behind Kelvin Davis. The campaign against Dotcom was run at full steam for quite a while, and that didn’t help either.
Mana does have its own problems as well, but that’s up to them to recognise and sort out.
Hey Jenny with respect let’s cut Kelvin and his team of Kay & Rudy, Tracey and others some credit for the hard campaigning they done in the region. They really gained mana for the sterling effort helping those who were suffering as a result of the flooding, while Hone was swaning off around the country with the Dotcom circus.
When Mana’s campaign manager rang me the night before polling day calling out an SOS in West Auckland, I took it instantly Hone was weak there, I asked are you calling me because your light on the ground there? Answer yes, I told Davis election day when he came thanked the local team, to relax I think you have done enough and as it transpired he did.
They didn’t gain mana imo – but working with enemies to get rid of someone you don’t like is not uncommon within Māoridom so I suppose they are tika.
Scoring points off someone who asks for help is low and weak imo – the name dropping doesn’t add credibility it is another expression of that weakness too imo.
Marty you can make all the excuses under the sun, however the facts are indeed the facts. Mana was doomed with the Dotcom association the big man himself was man enough to admit it.
One other thing Marty, Kelvin and his team didn’t need prompting during the flooding they rolled their sleeves up and got on with the mahi, no fanfare or media hype. And the good people of the North rewarded the effort. So you pipe down little man and be a gracious loser.
No I won’t pipe down, thanks anyway – and I’m not a ‘little man’ although I’m prepared to give him a fair go for the folks middling along that need a leader of the folks who like a bit of a fair go for the folks in the middle.
“One other thing Marty, Kelvin and his team didn’t need prompting during the flooding they rolled their sleeves up and got on with the mahi, no fanfare or media hype.”
True that, I could tell from the interview I watched (I think, maybe read) with him, where he said he was helping with the flood victims rather than swanning of around the country complaining. Maybe it was a video on Facebook, but that’s how I knew there was no fanfare and no politicking involved. He just got stuck into the mahi. He said so himself.
Thanks Penny. I wish I just didn’t feel/think that the Davos Forum is just another big waste of money and a talk-fest for the very rich (ShonKey included) – Like the final comment says above, “a radical shift is needed ” to get anywhere for the 99% who are not ultra-rich . What will it take to get this “radical shift” started ?
sure the plan didn’t work doesn’t mean we or he gives up
“Too much of a loose cannon”
I know Māori that think like that too – I wonder if it is genuine, an acquiescence to the predominate MSM propaganda, or part of the head above the parapet syndrome.
Fair enough mate, I attended a TTT meet the candidate meeting and I will say Hone cleaned the others ( including Kelvin )out in the Q & A part. And I was highly annoyed when Key then Peters sprayed Hone and endorsed voting Davis. So much so I put out a late press release in support of HH. Labour should never have put Davis that far out on the party list ‘again’ so he had to win the electorate seat, it could easily have cost them a win if they had their shit together.
I know an old guy from Ngati Wai very well. He’s a Mormon farmer and has been quite conservative all his life, but last time I saw him he was speaking well of Mana. He has realised that being quiet and leaving the talking to the professionals just results in big bills. Others in his whanau were militant in Mana. I got a real feeling that change is in the air.
When you consider the alliance with National was hurting Maori in general, and the Maori/Tory party were losing their main players, Mana and Labour would have benefited with the party vote as a natural result. I felt for the grafters, Sykes especially who I feel would have been a shoe in to come in on the party list. Hone’s dismissive approach to Sue Bradford was both disrespectful and arrogant considering her flagging Dotcom ideology was poles apart from that of a party representing the underclass.
Depends on which Maori you’ve talked to Skinny, and when. I talk to many Maori to whom the MSM’s traditional “loose cannon” narrative always was and remains unintelligible. And to many to whom once accepting it now reject it. What I did notice for many months leading up to the election was a much greater readiness to see Harawira as NOT a loose cannon.
Just as ‘winning’ can falsely define – look at Key – so can ‘losing’.
This from the diary of Count Galeazzo Ciano (Italian Foreign Minister 1936-43) – “As always, victory finds a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan”. You’d expect him to know !
The reasons for Harawira’s loss are manifold. Some of them sheet home to Harawira’s strategy. Some do not. We know them without trotting them out. In the outcome it’s seductive to default to the dismissive and essentially racist MSM narrative of old. It is also facile.
That said what concerns me most in the here and now is that Maori north of Whangarei have one Maori parliamentary representative rather than two. That is hardly cause for rejoicing.
If only, in the event of Sabin’s arse being kicked out of here, Harawira could be multi-party endorsed. I know……a pipe dream.
“Mana is never going to get back into parliament. Hone blew it and frankly couldn’t pull enough votes from Maori outside of his own Rohe. Too much of a loose cannon is the general view of Maori I know.”
You are of course entitled to your opinion, but let’s just lay some facts out,
if a by-election is held and Hone won it, why wouldn’t that be more than a person for person swap? Surely the winner is part of the MMP system, and the election night party votes could be used in any re-jigging?
Rather than stating the obvious Gosman how about you crunch my concept of a primary. Let’s use Auckland Central as an example based on last election, with Adern wining the opposition primary contest. Or shall I call on the wisdom of Pete G and Hooton?
It would fly in the face of the purpose of our political system (which is party based). I am not sure it would even be legal as holding an inter-party primary would require some sort of organisation that might not be permitted unless formal agreements are entered in to between parties. It is also likely many people would see through this and be turned off by it. You would then likely get a number of independents standing which would have the same effect that you are clumsily trying to resolve i.e. splitting the opposition vote between multiple candidates.
Have to disagree about a formal arrangement and the legality of what I propose. Hope Hooton shows up to enlighten on process. I would keep it informal ‘gentlemen agreement’ winner takes all. I think the gains would out way the losses. The status quo of ‘throat slitting’ is just gifting seats to National. Even see it working in Epsom where the ACT incumbent is heads and shoulders a superior candidate to Goldsmith, well from what I observed at the main meet the candidates gig last year in Mt Eden I attended.
Any primary would have to have formal rules not some informal arrangement. For example who qualifies to vote in any such primary. Would it be party members of the relevant parties? If so, then how would this be validated by each party? Also, if it was restricted to party members only, that would mean the larger parties would automatically have the advantage over the smaller parties. It means NZ First or Mana (if they were involved) would be very unlikely to ever get someone selected via such a method.
No bit players the 3 main party’s L/G/NZF if they agreed. Party members of the 3, a time available to recruit new voting members. 1 vote value divided and equal so all 3 party’s are level regardless of actual membership numbers. Say 70 % party members vote of the ballot and 30% of the panel made up from 1 from each party. Cream rises to the top, so expect an open contest relatively free of party lines, within reason and they are looking to work together remember.
How would each party validate the party members in each electorate? You would have to either expect each to trust the numbers each party puts forward (unlikely to happen I would suggest) or you would have to allow each party to know the membership details of the others in the electorate in question.
Also how is the primary election carried out? Are voting papers sent out to members or do each party get to bloc vote? Your proposal wasn’t clear and seems an odd mix of both options.
These are questions that need answering before you can even select a joint candidate. Then the problems really begin.
As I pointed out already. However the plan is unworkable in my mind even if they were close. It is likely to alienate potential voters rather than energise them.
Suppurating hypocrite Gooseman – stuff all the conventions and proprieties when it suits the Right. “Democracy Under Attack” otherwise. Epsom ? Last not the playground of political chicanery when Rodney Hide won it – early 2000’s wasn’t it ?
Thanks Bearded Git for the math! Gosman and his sparring partners well know what I’m getting at. This is as safer a blue ribbon seat as you get, a combined strategy bring the margins a lot closer. Now line up a number of seats with not such a high winning majority and Gosman is wearing thermals in hell.
That IS close. Winnable if a single opposition candidate is put forward with support from Labour, Greens, NZF and Mana.
2014 PARTY VOTES:
Green Party 3,855
ACT New Zealand 162
Labour Party 5,913
Focus New Zealand 216
National Party 17,412
Conservative 2,243
Democrats for Social Credit 64
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party 193
Ban1080 51
Internet MANA 601
Māori Party 210
New Zealand First Party 4,546
NZ Independent Coalition 9
The Civilian Party 7
United Future 71
————
————
Party Informals…..154
Party Informals…..154
TOTAL…………..35,707
Candidate Informals—-419
TOTAL—————–35,056
————-
Looks like a Labour candidate will have best chance of beating a National candidate here if other parties, (other than National, ACT, The Cons and Maori), especially The Greens, NZF and Mana do not field a candidate, but instead endorse and work to help the Lab candidate to win, especially if Sabin has to leave under disgrace. This will boost Labour, Andrew Little and the Opposition and will put the Nats at a back foot, even if the Lab candidate loses narrowly.
If such an arrangement is made here, then it could be a precursor for future smart electoral adjustments at the next election between these four parties.
I am trying to find the expansion of the conservative party initials, CNSP. Tried google and the Cons website with no luck! Do any of you know or guess what those four letters stand for? TIA.
What? No views on this from anyone on a hot political topic?!
I think the joint opposition candidate will have a very good chance of unseating National here in a by election , considering that (a) Key and National have been shown to be dodgy/incompetent in various ways (b) are straight faced lying bull-shitters and untrustworthy, (c) the incumbent is being kicked out in disgrace, AND (d) there is bound to be ‘voter’s remorse’ setting in by now against NATS and ACT and this debt ridden pro rich government.
What a tremendous boost it will be for the opposition and morale booster for the nation if their joint opposition candidate wins! Worth doing it, I think.
The problem in the North is that the electorate is divided into two parts. The Maori electorate where National doesn’t seem to bother standing because they lose so badly and the consequently rather National leaning general electorate.
3K is a hell of a step even in a general election. In a by-election with something like a 30% turnout at best, you are looking at the Everest.
Also the idea of political parties cooperating to that extent electorally is laudable and rather naive. They don’t. They are there to promote their own party and the best way to do that is to put up a candidate.
The point is to show the voters that the four opposition parties can get united on certain important issues such as trying to wrest the seat from national and increase the opposition number by one while depriving the government of one MP.
Of course, Nats may still win, but it is worth a try for the opposition to unleash an united and exciting fight together and energise the pro opposition voters, especially because it is a by election and has no party votes counted.
Of course, nothing can be more likely than Nats winning if the opposition do not TRY to win this by a combined effort rather than simply be pessimistic, selfish, stupid and split the opposition votes between them.
Anyway, all this is a little premature and academic for now because the Nats may try to protect Sabin and keep him on just like they did to Judith Collins, Nick Smith, Bill English, Gerry Brownlee and Maurice Williamson in spite of shocking disgraceful behaviour from each of those!
I don’t think there is a party vote in a by election, just the electorate vote. I agree that the opposition should put a single candidate up against NAct, but I don’t expect a win. Pakeha up there are pretty bloody ugly in their addiction to Tory members.
Yes quite correct a by election doesn’t include the party vote, that suits a pilot contest even better and saves on resources and costs for the non winning party’s, basically cutting their cost early.
Does the tolerance of the “je suis Charlie” Parisians and their grand ability not to be offended by others free expression also extend to people who wish to express themselves by getting around the streets of Paris in the nude?
The French give out prison time and fines to anyone who mocks the WWII Holocaust. Charlie Hebdo fired a cartoonist in 2009 for mocking Israel. But I guess that’s different, it wasn’t Muslims being mocked…
This is directly related to yesterdays discussion on debt levels, the state of the economy, and whether or not the politicians have anything to do with it as “good economic managers.”
The initial problem I have with it (Still watching it) is that it simply blames ‘central banks’ rather than central banks that are out of government control and are thus actually in the control of the private sector. This is important as we actually need a central bank that creates the money and keeps track of how much money is in the economy and we need that bank to be answerable to the populace through democratic methods.
I would not say that the film reveals that the central banks are “in the control of the private sector”. The central banks appear to be under the direction of a small number of trans-national elites who span both private and public sectors and who in fact do not see the two sectors as separate. Just as they do not recognise the sovereignty of individual nations.
Create a bubble and then collapse it. Isn’t this the type of thing that we’ve been seeing for centuries? Where there are always a few winners while everyone else gets to pay the bill?
It’s only since the 1980s they’ve been doing it to break apart nation states in order to progress the aims and ownership of a trans-national elite class who have loyalty to no country.
Thanks to Paul, I have it on my list. Will probably do so this weekend.
I have a relative that works in luxury retail, and tells similar stories of people ordering boxes of solid gold pens at $100,000 each. They are used to subtly indicate their net worth as they sign documents, then casually give them away or leave them behind.
The admiring relating of this story, was jarred when I expressed my disgust. Made for an interesting few minutes at a family Christmas. 🙂
Yes. They’re an incredible waste of resources but that’s entirely how our economic system works. The more waste, the higher the profit. This is why we have personal cars despite the fact that they’re a massive waste of resources.
I thought we could ring Putin, tell him we will hold the owner til the Russian police have time to come and get him, and in return we will impound and sell the boat. $450m goes a long way. If the USA doesn’t want us to do it, they know our price 😉
I think Stuart Nash has gone off the reservation with his calls for an amnesty on tax penalties. For one thing, he’s not on the finance team – it muddies the waters and this matter really falls into Clayton Cosgrove’s revenue portfolio. It’s being reported as Labour calls for amnesty, not “Labour MP calls for amnesty”
For another, people should pay their taxes and there should be sanctions against those who don’t. The average Joe Blow pays his PAYE and GST. People should not be dipping into the money that belongs to the public.
I had thought this might have been an offhand comment that he may have just doubled-down on this morning, but it’s an issue he’s been pushing for at least a week
Yes, most of the tax dodgers I presume would be rich crooked right wing crooks and rogues. Why Stuart Nash wants to bat for them is a mystery! In any case, amnesty would send a wrong message and also be unfair for those that have paid their taxes.
I think a lot of them are small business people or contractors who can’t afford tricky accountants. Many of them will be struggling as bigger businesses don’t pay them for work done, or the general public pay up late. They’re not evaders. They’re just late. They’re probably people who have voted for NAct’s aspirations recently, and Nash may think this is a way of attracting them to Labour.
But the tax is incurred on profit after expenses and liabilities. So will exclude unpaid bills/debts, won’t it? And the max tax is not all the profit, but only about 1/3 rd of it. Forgiving tax with an amnesty is not an option. Sure, suspending ‘some’ of the penalty may be, but not all the penalty as it will send a bad message and precedent and unfair to the ones that manage their business well and do the right thing in the first place.
In any case, the party leader should be the one to make such announcements, unless the issue was discussed by the caucus and Nash was authorised to do so.
Education, including tertiary, and health should be free and universal. Otherwise the wealthy are advantaged over the rest. Make it universal, but raise taxes.
I favour Transaction tax, capital tax and capital gains tax, living wage and universal basic living allowance for all.
The inequality should reduce and the society should be fairer and ethical.
Nash has got it in his head that he is the rising star. A candidate on his way to future party leader and strong potential Prime Ministerial material. The Labour Party is a useful vehicle to his career and ambition.
Straw poll: Should Andrew Little promote him further up?
Oh, great. A Labour MP wants it to be OK for people not to bother paying their taxes, and leaves himself wide open for a National cabinet minister to state the obvious in response:
McClay says a debt amnesty wouldn’t be fair to those who pay tax on time.
No wonder Nat bloggers are talking Nash up – he’s a free gift to the government.
“The insensitivity level of the phrase seems to rank somewhere between, e.g., “management has sold us down the river” said to an African-American, and “the traffic authorities need to come up with a Final Solution to the Jaywalker Question” said to a Jew.
None of those phrases is actually meant to insult the ethnic group whose history inspired it. But turning a historical tragedy into a jesting metaphor can be in rather poor taste even without being intentionally insulting.”
I’m not trying to have a go at you Ovid – but ‘going rogue’ is my preferred term.
And the penalties IS the big problem. IRD are a completely inflexible, bloody-minded organisation with no understanding that everyones circumstances are different.
For example, Child Support payments MUST be paid by or on the 20th of the month, period, despite the fact that not everyone has been paid by this date. So, as a result you get penalised 10%.
So someone who is happy to pay their share is constantly penalised for the crime of not being paid themselves before the 20th of the month.
I can a only comment on my own case I was self employed for 7 years and some of them very lean years with the GFC coming in the middle ( no body can stop spending as well as a farmer with a big mortgage if things get tight).
I managed to pay my PAYE and gst on time ,I did have a very helpful and not to expensive accountant who was part of tax link which buys you a bit of time.
seems odd that they didnt accommodate you getting that into line around your pay… so only a penalty on the first payment, thereafter you could adjust … did you call them and tell them that you got paid on the 10th and would struggle with the first payment on time?
I used to work for IRD in the contact centre – the issue I found was that people were unaware that setting up payment arrangements before the due date for the tax saved substantial penalties, and that IRD can remit penalties or write off debts given good reason e.g. hardship.
IRD’s inflexibility is often not administrative, it’s legislative – the tax laws don’t always leave room for flexibility…
exactly. I think this is Little coming through his promise to be supportive of SME’s… but when does the amnesty for everyone who has committed a burglary but not been nabbed begin? As long as they identify which burglary and the police can cross it off the unsolved list.
Why are we burdening some of the poorest mothers in the country with lifetime debts while writing off the tax debts of some of our richest citizens?
Inland Revenue has wiped $5 billion in tax debt since 2008. This includes money owed by property developers who continue to live ostentatious lifestyles, despite failing to pay money owed to the Government, as well as 720,000 companies with unpaid taxes. On top of that, more than one million New Zealanders have had their tax debts written off in the past six years. In the past year alone, the Government has cancelled $930 million in tax debt owed by individuals.
That can be contrasted with the punitive way in which mothers who owe benefit debt are pursued for the rest of their lives – even if it is plain that they will never be able to repay the sum.
And Labour’s talking about forgiving the tax fraudsters. You know, the people who steal billions of dollars off of us each and every year compared to the few measly million that benefit fraud, most of which is actually done by employees at WINZ, cost us.
“And Labour’s talking about forgiving the tax fraudsters. You know, the people who steal billions of dollars off of us each and every year …”
Nope. Complete bollocks, Draco. Nash was very specifically talking about small to medium business, particularlarly in the provinces, which as we know have been abandoned by the Tory government.
“Nash said this was debt held by small-to-medium business owners, not “large corporates or high-net-worth individuals who have engaged expensive lawyers”.”
Have a read, it’s actually reasonably sound politics that will be attractive to both the owners of these businesses and the 5-9 workers that the average Kiwi small business employs.
Outstanding taxes have increased in Nelson by $67.9 million (119 per cent), Timaru $15.6m (76 per cent) and Greymouth $5.6m (51 per cent) in the last six years.
Palmerston North ($139m), Napier ($496m), Whangarei ($86m) also have significant levels of unpaid taxes.
That’s still significantly more than benefit fraud. Especially where Nash happens to be the MP which has unpaid taxes of about 40 times the national total of benefit fraud.
Now, chances are that that outstanding amount is due to the old, dysfunctional, Provisional Tax which itself needs reform but there’s no reason to make that reform retrospective.
And yet he’s still got more credibility than you, Phil. Funny old world, eh?
PS, Nash had the briefest of tenures with Shearer, wasn’t there for the ‘roof’ anecdote, and in quitting, showed more political nous in 5 minutes than you’ve showed in your entire life.
You’re not walking around at all, Phil, if your prolific posting is any guide to your lifestyle. Maybe the occasional excursion to the garden for, ahem, organic supplies, but no exertion that might risk a bead of sweat breaking out. How’s your roof, btw? Need a lick of paint? (See what I did there?).
As Sinatra sez, doobie doobie doo, Phil. Keep taking the money, keep spliffing up, and keeping telling the rest of us where we’re going wrong. You’re doing fine work.
@Ovid:
What I can’t understand is how we got into a situation where people owe $6.8 BILLION.
This will be treated as an asset (debtor) in the governments books. Larf!
It must be mostly Nats mates owing the money and so they are not chasing them. On Nat Rad this morning they said the tax department spends $90 million a year on chasing bad debts-this is a pittance when nearly $7 billion is owed.
I would like to see a list of the people who owe the tax-this should be publicly available as it is owed to the Crown, that is US.
Davos delegates don’t care about inequality or your debt
Elite retreat. World Economic Forum, CC BY-SA
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The world’s rich and powerful are gathering for the World Economic Forum at the Swiss ski resort of Davos to discuss, and hopefully find solutions to, the world’s economic and social problems. The 45th meeting will be attended by kings, princes, presidents, prime ministers, leading politicians and controllers of large corporations. Amidst mutual back-slapping they will deliver set-piece speeches and soothing words at various seminars and workshops to support solutions to the world’s ecological, economic, security and social problems.
It is right that such events should exist – no nation can solve the problems on its own. In the aftermath of the banking crash and weak economic recovery in Europe, the agenda of the Davos summit is to restore trust in capitalist system and build global institutions for a better future. But this is easier said than done, especially as Davos is often far removed from the concerns of ordinary people.
The grand narrative of previous summits has been that we must not do anything to upset the rich because a nation’s salvation depends not on having a good system of education, healthcare, pensions and transport, but on keeping people happy even though their wealth is built on the sweat and blood of ordinary folk. Economic policies are increasingly formed to appease financial markets where vast amounts are gambled everyday though they produce little tangible economic activity.
In this narrative there is no space for workers, trade unions, industrial democracy, or people who want to live fulfilling lives. Markets are supposed to serve society but people are increasingly forced to dance to their short-term financial tunes. How are governments going to develop long-term economic and social policies? There is little sign that the latest summit will signal a much needed change of direction.
Previous Davos summits have carved out policies for the rich to advance their own interests and done little to check inequalities. Past failures are evident from Oxfam’s latest report which states that very soon 1% of the world’s adult population will own more than the rest. In the UK, the richest 1,000 people have doubled their wealth over the past five years to £519 billion. At the same time, millions of people have seen a real decrease in their income and lack the resources to stimulate the economy. Indeed, rising income inequality in developed economies are forcing even people in paid employment to rely on food banks.
Food banks are booming. Danny Lawson/PA
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Political leaders at Davos will deliver their ritual affirmation for greater economic competition. Yes, competition gives people choices, but its present state is a cause for concern as corporations are frequently able to hold governments to ransom: “give us what we want or we are off” has become a familiar call from companies to discipline governments.
The top 500 transnational corporations control 70% of the worldwide trade, 80% of the foreign investments, one-third of all manufacturing exports, 75% of all commodities trade and 80% of the trade in management and technical services. Only four companies account for between 75% and 90% of the global grain trade. Breaking up these global behemoths and making them accountable to the public is not on the Davos agenda.
Political leaders will talk about tackling public debt, a cue for more austerity, reduction in public expenditure and further privatisation of state-owned enterprises, often at knock-down prices resulting in huge wealth transfers. Even in the western world, the neoliberal experiment for the last 35 years has failed to deliver full employment economic stability or equitable distribution of wealth. Still, politicians won’t rock the boat, though some of the NGOs attending the summit will raise uncomfortable questions.
Despite the financial crisis, western nations remain addicted to light-touch regulation and supremacy of markets. Despite the biggest banking crash, there has been little effective reform of the financial system as governments seem unwilling to upset the financial wheeler and dealers.
Low-interest policy has been used to persuade ordinary people to borrow money and stimulate the economy. Personal debt in the UK alone is around £1.432 trillion, just short of one year’s gross domestic product. What if people can’t repay this? It would be good if Davos leaders could on reflect on the consequences of huge personal debts.
International forums are increasingly essential to solve global problems, but they can’t be addressed by pursuing the interests of the 1%. A radical shift is needed to develop policies that place the interests of the 99% at the heart of the debate.
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Norman Finkelstein : Charlie Hebdo n’est pas satirique, il est sadique
by Mustafa Caglayan, NEW YORK, 19 January 2015
In Nazi Germany, there was an anti-Semitic weekly newspaper called Der Stürmer. Run by Julius Streicher, it was notorious for being one of the most virulent advocates of the persecution of Jews during the 1930s. What everybody remembers about Der Stürmer was its morbid caricatures of Jews, the people who were facing widespread discrimination and persecution during the era. Its depictions endorsed all of the common stereotypes about Jews – a hook nose, lustful, greedy.
“Let’s say, … amidst all of this death and destruction, two young Jews barged into the headquarters of the editorial offices of Der Stürmer, and they killed the staff for having humiliated them, degraded them, demeaned them, insulted them,” queried Norman Finkelstein, a professor of political science and author of numerous books including The Holocaust Industry and Method and Madness.
“How would I react to that?,” said Finkelstein, who is the son of Holocaust survivors. Finkelstein was drawing an analogy between a hypothetical attack on the German newspaper and the deadly Jan. 7 attack at the Paris headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, that left 12 people dead, including its editor and prominent cartoonists. The weekly is known for printing controversial material, including derogatory cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 and 2012.
The attack sparked a global massive outcry, with millions in France and across the world taking to the streets to support freedom of the press behind the rallying cry of “Je suis Charlie,” or “I am Charlie.”
What the Charlie Hebdo caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad achieved was “not satire,” and what they provoked was not “ideas,” Finkelstein said. Satire is when one directs it either at oneself, causes his or her people to think twice about what they are doing and saying, or directs it at people who have power and privilege, he said.
“But when somebody is down and out, desperate, destitute, when you mock them, when you mock a homeless person, that is not satire,” Finkelstein said. “That is, I give you the word, sadism. There’s a very big difference between satire and sadism. Charlie Hebdo is sadism. It’s not satire.”
The “desperate and despised people” of today are Muslims, he said, considering the number of Muslim countries racked by death and destruction as in the case of Syria, Iraq, Gaza, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. “So, two despairing and desperate young men act out their despair and desperation against this political pornography no different than Der Stürmer, who in the midst of all of this death and destruction decide its somehow noble to degrade, demean, humiliate and insult the people. I’m sorry, maybe it is very politically incorrect. I have no sympathy for [the staff of Charlie Hebdo]. Should they have been killed? Of course not. But of course, Streicher shouldn’t have been hung. I don’t hear that from many people,” said Finkelstein.
Streicher was among those who stood trial on charges at Nürnberg, following World War II. He was hung for those cartoons.
Finkelstein said some might argue that they have the right to mock even desperate and destitute people, and they probably have this right, he said, “But you also have the right to say ‘I don’t want to put it in my magazine … When you put it in, you are taking responsibility for it.”
Finkelstein compared the controversial Charlie Hebdo caricatures to the “fighting words,” doctrine, a category of speech penalized under American jurisprudence. The doctrine refers to certain words that would likely cause the person to whom they are directed, to commit an act of violence. They are a category of speech unprotected by the First Amendment.
“You are not allowed to utter fighting words, because they are equivalent of a smack to the face and it is asking for trouble,” Finkelstein said.
“So, are the Charlie Hebdo caricatures the equivalent of fighting words? They call it satire. That is not satire. It is just epithets, there is nothing funny about it. If you find it funny, depicting Jews in big lips and (a) hook nose is also funny.”
Finkelstein pointed to the contradictions in the Western world’s perception of the freedom of the press by giving the example of the pornographic magazine Hustler, whose publisher, Larry Flynt, was shot and left paralyzed in 1978 by a white supremacist serial killer for printing a cartoon depicting interracial sex.
“I don’t remember everyone celebrating ‘We are Larry Flynt’ or ‘We are Hustler,’” he said. “Should he have been attacked?”…..
Look carefully and you’ll see I’ve only posted a taster of the article, and provided a link for people—obviously not including you—who are interested in reading something written by one of the most outstanding scholars in the United States.
I see others have taken you to task on your vacuous quibbles. Instead of upbraiding me, wouldn’t you have used your time more intelligently by clicking on the link and doing some reading?
who, for example, was the white haired man sitting with the public who summoned Marshall mid meeting into a whispered private conference from which he emerged even more defensive and inflexible?
Very good question. Who was this person who obviously wields a great amount of power over our lives?
Don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that if that was the case he would have been recognised. Possibly with AT but if so why was he sitting with the public? Also, most of the top dogs at AT would also have been recognised.
As I said yesterday Davos is another leg of The Infamous Bilderberg Group.
This Bilderberg Group is the most elitist global power club of industrialists, & corporations along with an array of greedy bought politicians.
So expect Key will again go see his Bilderberg mates at Davos also.
Key has previously attended Bilderberg’s unpublished meetings secretly.
Key with held ths fact, without telling us, so if the shoe fits wear it corrupt Keyster.
Key has demonstrated he loves secretive dark ops organisations such as his own liaison with his Ede/Slater combo so same Bilderberg black Ops group activities fits perfectly for key’s activities to act in secret.
The Bilderberg Group must be the most publicised secret organisation in the world. For a group that is meant to be trying to manipulate world events behind the scenes it isn’t very successful at keeping itself secret. I even remember a documentary showing people turning up to one of their meetings. You would have thought they could have dealt to pesky journalists to stop that happening.
Yes, you are right everyone knows about these meetings.
But most also know, that in the age of technology – the best place to hide is out in the open – and then lie, obfuscate, redirect using external methods.
Such as MSM, fanatical supporters or blogging comments on a political blog…
The fact that Gossie identifies with them as “we” is a bit pathetic given that the invitees to the Bilderberg meetings would consider the likes of Gossie common low life, like the rest of the 99.9%.
It’s never tried to be secret but we also don’t get transcripts of what’s said at the meetings nor the agreements that they come to. Considering that it is a meeting between business and governments these are things that we’re entitled to as they’re obviously having an effect on our societies – a non-democratic one.
These days Labour is very much the party of social liberalism (indeed, National too is fairly socially liberal these days).
However, that wasn’t always the case. Labour was a strong supporter of the White New Zealand policy in the years after World War 1; the second Labour government went along with keeping Maori out of an All Blacks team to South Africa; and the third Labour government, especially Kirk, were anti-gay rights and anti women’s right to abortion. The first homosexual law reform bill was actually put forward by a National MP, Venn Young.
Big Norm’s government came down hard on bikers, coming out with slogans about taking the bikes off the gangs and such like. Several police districts went well outside the law in attacks on biker meetings, seemingly to official approval. I also heard from a journalist friend that he wasn’t all that hot on freedom of the press.
In New Zealand, the women’s liberation movement largely emerged on the campuses, albeit by women active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and left groups like the Socialist Action League.
In Britain three struggles by working class women in 1968 were pivotal. Two of them – a fight by fishermen’s wives for better safety conditions on trawlers and by London bus conductresses – are very little known about these days. The other struggle – by women at Ford’s massive Dagenham car plant – had passed into the mists as well, except a couple of years ago a ‘feel-good movie’ was made on their struggle, ‘Made in Dagenham’.
Although there were certain distortions in the movie – the makers even admitting they downplayed the class politics and up-played a feminist take in order to make the movie more commercial – it’s still a very interesting movie.
I used to teach the British sixties, so I was really interested to see the film when it first came out. It’s also been on TV here – I think it was on Xmas/New Year 2013/14. The ‘feelgood factor’ makes it fit in as Xmas/New Year fare (it was made by the same folks that made ‘Calendar Girls’). Anyway, I have a review of it, which also contextualises the actual struggle that occurred in 1968. It’s here: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/class-gender-the-1960s-and-made-in-dagenham/
Looks like another Socialist ‘Paradise’ is heading rapidly for economic collapse. Amazing how it seems to be the Socialist nations that tend to fall over when Socialist theory suggests it is Capitalism that is inherently unstable and destined for destruction.
A 9% increase in family homelessness in the USA between 2007 & 2009 says that Gosman won’t recognise an economic collapse until the pitchforks come out.
We are talking unattainable not unaffordable. Noone is able to access sufficent supplies of toilet paper in Venezuela (except I suspect those closely connected with the government). This just doesn’t impact on the poorer sections of society.
I like how you can brush off shortages of toilet paper as if it is merely the middle and upper classes experiencing what the poor suffer daily. Not many people at the lower end of the income scale in NZ go without toilet paper I would suggest.
As I pointed out to Hariet the other day – Venezuela is still capitalist. As CV said it’s also being attacked financially by the US and other Western nations.
“Juan Pablo Fuentes, economist at Moody’s Analytics, explained,”The decrees that President Nicolás Maduro recently announced will do little to lift the economy or slow inflation. The focus of Maduro’s announcements was a series of fiscal measures aimed at increasing tax revenues, including a new luxury tax, an increase in the sales tax for alcoholic beverages and the elimination of some tax exemptions.””
Should be interesting to see how the Venezuelan economy recovers as a result of these measures or if gets worse. I know what I have my money on.
On Earth, the NZ Left is far more interested in lessons that can be learned from the Scandinavian model. Plus what McFlock said about your honesty and integrity.
I’d suggest some maybe. Some dislike any form of Free market Welfare state. Scandinavian countries tend to have very open markets which is not something an awful lot of hard left leaning people like very much.
oh, fuck off.
OAB made a clear statement that there is more interest in lessons from Scandinavia than Venezuela, not that nobody is interested in learning from Venezuela or that noboy in NZ is “hard left”.
Saying that some in NZ are “hard left” when someone else has said that most are comparatively moderate is a pretty half-arsed effort, even for you.
Venezuela is under active economic attack by the financial markets and the capitalist class.
They have lifted a million people out of poverty and given them access to free healthcare and education. And the free market cheerleaders can’t have that kind of nonsense going on.
Ummm… I stated tend. Sweden, Denmark and Finland are much more open than Norway I believe. Of course Norway relies heavily on Oil. Would you like our welfare state to be funded by Oil?
You introduced the Scandinavian theme into the discussion OAB. How does it become a ‘false narrative’ when I follow up on your lead?
Yes, Finnish education is excellent, and the emphasis on high level qualifications for teachers is something I would love to see adopted here.
But on the other hand, if you talk about ‘GINI’ then you should also understand that Finland has one of the fastest rates of increasing inequality in Europe.
And if you talk about ‘getting to Denmark’, you should be warned that the Danes have the highest rate of personal indebtedness in the World, pay the highest tax rates, have a crap education system, the worlds highest cancer rates, and the Danish Govt. is currently warning that their pattern of very low growth in productivity / unrealistic wage increases are causing a slide in competitiveness that seriously threatens Denmark’s ongoing prosperity.
Norway is a model in lots of things, but we would have to double our NZ GDP levels to match the wealth that supplies the Norwegian Social welfare state. Lucky they have that oil.
Sweden is fueled by intense corporate industrialization….
Nonsense OAB.
And I’ve been here long enough by now to know your angle pretty well.
You’re a sniper at heart. Get off a shot or two, but always have a plan for retreat close at hand.
One of your classic exit strategies is the one you are attempting here – laying down a smoke screen of semantics and hoping you’ll confuse the enemies view of the battlefield.
Bollocks!
The narrative here is very clear.
Gosman brought up Venezuela as evidence that the policies many Leftists here wish to see do not work, and you jumped in and countered with the view that learning lessons from Scandinavia was of far more interest to the Left.
Now if ‘learning’ isn’t ‘instructive’, then what is?
And if ‘instructive’ doesn’t have the potential to lead to ‘applicable’, whats the bloody point of it?
Just a barren indulgence in intellectual masturbation?
So my points were completely applicable to the instructive nature of the narrative.
And nonsense again that the World Bank were using ‘Denmark’ as a ‘metaphor’.
They used the word Denmark, because Denmark was exactly the literal country they see as the ideal starting point for the discussion on future models of economic and political development.
Funny, that was the other link I considered citing.
Learning certainly begets application; your ability to articulate a tautology is testament to that.
Whether the applications one learns from are universally applicable is another matter. I’ve suggested income equality and education as places where applications abound.
Speaking of education, your support for a government that destroyed the right to collective bargaining, signalled well before the election, makes you a very special creature to be pretending concern about this country’s future, especially after the way you cited your Dad’s policics, eh.
Despite your sanctimonious observation yesterday that the Left was superior in the way they “understood the value of diversity”, you are actually extremely intolerant when it comes to diversity of political thought aren’t you OAB?
There are only 2 modes you can comprehend, you only value one of them, and you are as intolerant and dismissive of the other as any RW Bible belt gay hating red neck.
I am exactly what I say I am, a lifetime Left wing voter currently so pissed off with the lack of unity, vision, practicality, intelligence, and leadership of the NZ political Left that I am unable to bring myself to vote for them.
I might just stick around and keep reminding you of that. Anything that helps break down the smug ill founded sense of superiority of people like you has to be good for our country.
Glad we agree on the value of the Economist article. Will post a little further on that tomorrow.
you are actually extremely intolerant when it comes to diversity of political thought aren’t you OAB?
There’s no need to be tolerant of political thought which aims to harm most people to extract even more privilege for the few who are already the most well off and powerful.
Gosman also has an M.O. And venezuela is one of his to show how “socialism” fails people. he then spins like a top about why the GFC etc is not a failure of capitalism.
So perhaps OAB and Gosman are just different sides of the same coin cos when you wrote
“… Anything that helps break down the smug ill founded sense of superiority of people like you has to be good for our country.”
The social democrats still show a limited understanding of the low carbon future that we are rapidly descending into. (But then again so do all political parties).
What would really help parties like the Democrats for Social Credit (and NZ politics in general) is halving our MMP threshold to 2.5%. That means a party would would get into Parliament if they won enough votes to get at least 3 MPs.
I think the image associated with this story is a bad mistake. Bomber has blown the shark with this one. I haven’t seen this type of image before and I am a bit shocked that he has done it. This will end very badly imo.
A well chosen image by Bomber. Key the sociopath doesn’t care about spilling the blood of NZ troops, as long as he can rub shoulders with the billionaires club.
images like that are used to create all sorts of horrible outcomes for the left and the people all around the world and this country is no different and that is because of the first part of your second sentence.
@ marty mars
I agree. It’s ‘overkill’. I won’t put into words what his response reminds me of, but I do think more restraint is needed on his part. And would result in more respect for him.
Text of the State of the Union, which President Obama is delivering right now. Interesting policy platform he’s pushing – paid sick leave, help with childcare and free education in community colleges (kinda like our polytechs, but course credits can be transferred to universities).
Doubtful if any of this will make it through a Republican majority Congress, but he talks a good game.
Obama should do what Vladimir Putin does every year – a 3hr press conference in front of the world media, no teleprompters, no scripts, no questions barred.
Fantastic piece from Monbiot. Should be front page of every goddamn news outlet, but that ain’t gonna happen! Nuggets:
Our ‘impartial’ broadcasters have become mouthpieces of the elite
If you think the news is balanced, think again. Journalists who should challenge power are doing its dirty work. Until I came across the scandal currently erupting in Canada, I hadn’t understood just how quickly standards are falling. [Saga of conflict of interest and attempted cover up by a bank and a senior reporter, and threats to other journos]
A study by the Cardiff School of Journalism examined the BBC’s reporting of the bank bailouts in 2008. It discovered that the contributors it chose were “almost completely dominated by stockbrokers, investment bankers, hedge fund managers and other City voices. Civil society voices or commentators who questioned the benefits of having such a large finance sector were almost completely absent from coverage.” The financiers who had caused the crisis were asked to interpret it.
The BBC’s business reporting breaks its editorial guidelines every day by failing to provide alternative viewpoints. Every weekday morning, the Today programme grovels to business leaders for 10 minutes. On BBC News at Six, business representatives outnumbered trade union representatives by 19 to one.
Those entrusted to challenge power are the loyalists of power. [Hence the rise of social media and people such as Russell Brand…]
As Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East bureau chief and pullitzer prize winner, says: our news media have simply become courtiers to the power elite, amplifying their narrative, not examining and challenging it.
The following comment was submitted to The Daily Blog at 4pm for publication on an item published yesterday & headlined “Scoop’s latest attempt to rebrand itself”.
In the post by Martyn Bradbury it was asserted that Scoop’s essay on Friday, “Reinventing News As A Public Right – A Public Conversation”, which launched Scoop’s, “State of NZ News Media – A Public Conversation” editorial series, was a “desperate attempt” at rebranding.
In his post after first agreeing that NZ News Media is in a parlous state, Bradbury concluded, “I don’t think Scoop, with its looming internal problems will be around long enough to be part of the solution”.
Scoop is a valuable resource but its huge volume of in-depth research is simply indigestible for the casual reader. I think it needs a redesign and better curation of stories.
The Daily Blog is in sore need of a rethink as well, it just doesn’t look professional at all. I admire Bomber’s passion and hard work but he’s a bit OTT, spraying friendly fire and crushing dissent
I agree that Scoop could be more accessible, but they are reviewing stuff with the Chrysalis Project. I really don’t bother with the Daily Blog any more, although John Minto and Keith Locke write some good stuff now and then.
Yeah, I don’t bother with TDB as it’s got a horrible interface and most of it’s just whinging. Get some good stuff from Minto, Locke, Rankin and Genter but they don’t post often enough to make TDB a daily read.
#bringbackourgirls is probably as impotent as #jesuischarlie
There are currently 59 groups designated by the US State Department as foreign terrorist organisations, Boko Haram was designated as such in November 2013.
French Algerians who said they were from Al Qaeda Yemen shot up people in Paris so that means NZ should send soldiers to fight the few thousand ISIS gunmen in Iraq, because the US (nor the Iraqi security forces they spent billions to train) somehow can’t handle it themselves.
Geddit? Because that’s all the sense western leadership is making right now.
We are a crucial lynchpin in the defense of western civilisation against the hordes of maniacs with guns. (Not counting the 8000 annual homicides in the US)
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 ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
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. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
“..Can Medical Marijuana Curb Heroin Addiction?..” (ed:..i can confirm the answer to that is ‘yes’..)
“..New research shows that medical marijuana states have lower opiate overdose rates.
Maybe it’s time to consider pot as a substitute for smack..”
(ed:..i was addicted to heroin for approx. 15 yrs..
..and cannabis was of great assistance in helping me kick/shed that addiction..(i have not used heroin for longer than i was addicted to it..)
..and i think medical-cannabis should be offered to anyone trying to kick anything..
..and no..i went nowhere near that vile muck..methadone..)
(cont..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/can-medical-marijuana-curb-heroin-addiction-ed-i-can-confirm-the-answer-to-that-is-yes/
“..A year after marijuana legalisation in Colorado – ‘everything’s fine’ – confirm police..
..Not only has the legalisation of cannabis not come with a rise in crime –
– it has also created thousands of jobs –
– as tourists flock to the city’s 60+ marijuana outlets.
A local newspaper even appointed its first cannabis critic in April.
‘So the sky isn’t falling?’ a CBC reporter asked the officer.
“The sky isn’t falling” he replied.
Impaired driving – property crime – and violent crime were all dropping in Denver prior to legalisation –
– and the trend has only continued.
Even drug use among young people is down – the report claims..”
(cont..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/a-year-after-marijuana-legalisation-in-colorado-everythings-fine-confirm-police-9989723.html
now..’cannabis-critic’..
..that is a job i wd feel qualified to do..
“..How 3D printing and land reform could help to solve the housing crisis..” (ed:..why are there no discussions of this ilk here in nz..?..why is tearing up the environmental-protections contained in the resource management act the only ‘solution’ this brain-dead/imagination-free government can come up with..?..)
:..and the small-house movement..?..
..they apparently have not heard of that either..
..now..3d-printing ‘small’ houses in well-planned clusters..?..)
(cont..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/how-3d-printing-and-land-reform-could-help-to-solve-the-housing-crisis-ed-why-are-there-no-discussions-of-this-ilk-here-in-nz-why-is-tearing-up-the-environmental-protections-contained-i/
Phil, went to a couple of affordable housing meetings, and realised that they were all still talking about more of the same, and just affordable to build.
If you are interested in the tiny house movement and other alternatives have a look at these links.
We The Tiny House People – film by Kirsten Diksen (who has a Youtube channel)
Jay Schaffer from theTumbleweed Tiny House Company: speaks on The Politics of Tiny Houses
Dan Phillips (Ted Talk) from the for-profit business of Phoenix Commotion that uses recycled materials and unskilled labour to build and teach at the same time. His workforce then have the ability to work for others or to build their own low-cost dwelling.
Texas Tiny Houses – works of art that you can easily transport and live in.
Japanese design of small houses
There are many looking at alternatives but at personal decision levels, not official ones. In Auckland, a young couple have blogged their projects.
We had a look at the 3D printing a while ago, but remain attached to the use of good design for site, and the use of local materials. As part of our home ed curriculum we are accumulating materials to build a small cob building for a project.
If we ever finish it will post link.
@ molly..chrs 4 that..
..if u go to this link..
http://tinyhouselistings.com/?utm_source=New+Properties&utm_campaign=978d83a785-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN+%28New+Tiny+House+Listings%29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_548c403727-978d83a785-291537637
you can sign up for a cool newsletter..
Thanks, phil.
Bingo!!!
Actually, that both right and wrong but mostly wrong. When it comes down to it we have an energy budget that equates to the present sustainable rate of generation. We need to know this information so that we can then choose where that budget is spent. The pricing model is supposed to do this but it’s actually terrible at it as it drives a significant minority into not having access to that resource. We see this in people not being able to pay their power bills and/or having enough food to eat despite there being enough of food and power for them to have both.
And back to the failed must make land available demand.
I’m all for people building their own homes but we need to encourage them to build high density in already built up areas while we work to return land back to its natural state.
Thanks Draco.
Agree with your final statement. That’s why I’m so keen on cohousing. The residents are not necessarily the builders but they are the developers and as such they get to create their own design. The majority of designs will cluster the homes and design for one big carpark on the edge.
The lack of ‘dead space’ between houses, and area gain through no driveways or separate parking release land to be utilised for shared spaces including regeneration of natural habitats if that is what is decided upon.
That option is not available to lower-middle income owners of standard homes on small sections, whether they build or not.
Mr Little on tv3 this morning asked about whether a drought should be declared got caught completely flat footed and decided to take the just flap his lips and hope something good flies out of his mouth approach. 3/10
Oh for goodness sake, b waghorn. Andrew Little doesn’t have to know everything and dairying in the south – Canterbury – or wherever is a stupid thing to be doing in such a well known dry place.
to people in rural centres everywhere it is a signal as to whether Labour keeps track of and cares about the very basics of what is happening to the farming sector. The answer unfortunately, remains “No”
People farming in the Waikato or Bay of Plenty will be very aware of what farmers are facing further down south currently and will note that Little does not.
Good to hear Andrew Little is out and about, although the general sense or impression I have had is that ‘Labour’ is on summer holiday.
Am I right? Do please correct me, otherwise.
Labour has Damien O’Connor who is well regarded in farming circles maybe they should have him at the front of all things rural . I know he upset a few with his gaggle of gays comments but onwards and upwards
Yes it is rather astounding what we humans will do at times – fly completely in the face of nature and history… only to get swatted down like a fly some time later and then act all surprised …..
… good example in exactly this region was the windstorms about a year ago which upturned and wrecked countless irrigators etc across Canterbury. When dairy turned up in Canterbury and all the hedgerows were being taken out to allow the irrigator machines to meander across vast flat paddocks many old-timers said “oh woe, you watch you silly people, the winds will return and you will rue the day you laid waste to these hedgerows..”
and lo, the winds returned, screaming down the Rakaia and the Rangitata, and instead of screaming over their heads at the height of hedgerows itr screamed at grass height level, destroying all in its path ….
manwomankind eh? Never learns. Plain silly. Same with investing into reliance on water being pumped and drained and spread onto land by electric and mechanical means – the risk of failure is high …
1000% VTO good analogy.
Watched a good water documentary that outlined the creation of the dustbowl in the US.
Good old Little House on the Prairie approach to farming, saw acres of natural grasslands burnt off so that they could access the fertile soil beneath. Of course the grasslands held the moisture and nutrients and a natural balance of growth, decay and regeneration was occurring. After a few decades of cropping, with more topsoil lost every year, they reached a point where there was nothing left.
Just dry dust, and high winds.
Hi Molly. I watched a doco about the dust bowl of the 1930’s. They interviewed some families of the Oklahoma Pan handle who grew up in that time. Most of the family members interviewed, now well into in their senior years, were forced off their land due to their impoverished state and made the long journey to California, where they were referred to as “Okies”
I can’t remember what the doco was called but I wonder if it was the same one.
Lessons from that era:
Trust the wisdom of the indigenous people of the plains – the land was unsuitable for cropping. They knew the food yields from that land were low, so that land was never permanently settled.
If you’re promised a quick easy buck but it looks too good to be true it probably is.
Don’t fight nature, she will always win. Prevent an economic and environmental catastrophe by only using the most appropriate resources in the most respectful and sustainable ways.
Did we learn? No.
Rosie, like you I can’t remember the name but it was an eight part series on either Prime or TVNZ7 a few years back. If anyone else remembers it and knows the name I’d appreciate it.
It also reasoned that one of the most credible reasons for some of the abandoned cities of antiquity was the loss of renewal water systems , and showed how some were trying to re-establish the underground quanats of Iran and Persia, when the NGO well-systems and pumps were failing due to the depletion of fossilised water and lack of parts and service for pumping mechanisms.
I did a super quick google but couldn’t find it. It was a doco we downloaded maybe two (?) years ago. It didn’t discuss the underground aquifers of ancient Persia however, (although we did watch a BBC doco about that) so it can’t be the same one.
Qanats. Those were pretty damn freaky as an engineering feat
One of the best is The Dustbowl by Ken Burns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dust_Bowl_(film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYOmjQO_UMw
Yep Molly, the lesson was right there in front of us – the dust bowl of the 1930’s mid-west ……
why was it not heeded? human lust for money and capacity for blinker-wearing is what I put it down to ….
gotta be one of mankind’s most consistent traits… worth betting a dollar on, are those traits.
vto, true.
And even if you had trillions of dollars, they would not be able to restore water to depleted fossil water sources, or refreeze the glaciers, or even grow a full grown kauri in ten years.
There is a complete lack of reciprocity in thinking that you can continue to take without replenishment… and sheer arrogance to believe that you should.
QFT
As I say, our economic system is uneconomic. It merely takes without even considering how long that taking can last never mind renewing what’s been taken.
Yep. Easter Island here we come ………
+100%
Very sad but too true.
It is crazy to put dairy farms in known drought-prone areas.
Dairy farms need huge amounts of water and most of Canterbury is unsuitable. Not only that, but droughts in Canterbury are predicted to become more frequent in coming years thanks to climate change.
This has been known for some time, yet farmers were encouraged to convert to dairy and put in irrigation. It cost a fortune, and with all the interest on the loans going to Australian banks, there is is no benefit to the NZ economy.
+100 Karen….and people dont seem to realise, or ignore the fact that aquifers are finite and that water taken out of the ground or from rivers at one point …always affects those farmers further down stream…whether by the rivers drying up or the underground aquifers being depleted
…drinking water nitrate poisoning is also a result for local populations (eg. ‘blue baby syndrome’ warnings to South Island mothers)
….not only this , the the cost to tourism by environmental degradation and trashing of our rivers for fishing and recreation and aesthetics is enormous..overseas visitors are NOT impressed
France designates what crops/farming/ vineyards are suitable for the local natural terroir/environments …and legislates accordingly….New Zealand under John Key Nact has a slash and burn approach to natural resources…..and the environment is being trashed …this is New Zealand’s greatest economic resource
San Joaquin Valley sinking as groundwater stores are depleted
How much is the land in Southland sinking as the farmers pump out more and more water?
And note this, from that article;
“But unlike other Western states, California has no state standards for groundwater management. Instead, responsibility rests with a patchwork of local and regional entities where oversight varies from careful monitoring and allocation in some places to little or no control elsewhere.”
And in NZ we have this right wing government foisting the same on rural regions of NZ, moving control of our resources from central to local authority. Local authority in NZ regions where this happens is controlled by farmers who simply get distracted by the lure of money.
We have the exact same thing
I’ve been wondering whether the canterbury climate would be ok for olives.
One of the best decisions NZers made was looking at what grew in similar climates to their locality in the northern hemisphere, and applying kiwi ingenuity to the production – now our wine industry is a bulwark for rural areas.
Canterbury was traditionally sheep and wheat. Olives could work in some areas, I guess, but may need a longer summer.
The main thing is you need crops that are deep rooting if you get regular droughts. The surface soil gets dried up very quickly without regular rain. Cutting down the shelter belts has made the problem worse as the wind dries up the topsoil, and eventually will blow it away.
Just looked at Olives NZ website and it seems olives are already being grown in Canterbury by a few farmers.
http://www.olivesnz.org.nz
cheers for that
I have know problem with him not being across every topic but he could of said something like’ I haven’t been breifed on that get back to me tomorrow ‘
Honesty is a good policy I believe
+1
I would much rather hear that than an attempt to disguise a lack of knowledge. That’s the first thing I teach students to stop doing, but in this world of consultants and spin merchants, it’s not easy.
“Mr Little on tv3 this morning asked about whether a drought should be declared got caught completely flat footed and decided to take the just flap his lips and hope something good flies out of his mouth approach. 3/10”
And for those of us that didn’t see it, what exactly did he do or say?
Bumbled around a bit and said something about the wairarapa being dry .
“Mr Little on tv3 this morning asked about whether a drought should be declared got caught completely flat footed and decided to take the just flap his lips and hope something good flies out of his mouth approach. 3/10”
Mr Waghorn had not had his morning coffee and was completely flatfooted when the Labour Leader talked competently about the effect of the extended hot weather on farms. 3/10
Actual interview here:
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/fed-farmers-drought-an-overused-word-2015012111#axzz3PQF4Qp4v
Little starts speaking (perfectly well) from about the 5 minute mark.
Did you see the actual interview? He’s lucky old what’s his name that was asking the questions is not one of those go for the throat reporters .
Yes, I did. I linked to it and specified when his interview started! The question is, have you? Y’know, with your eyes open. Little does fine, there isn’t a damn thing wrong with his response. What are you on?
I’ve watched it and have no idea what you are talking about. Seemed okay to me. Not dynamic, but perfectly adequate..
@ te reo putake I just watched that clip now I don’t have very hot short term momery but I’m sure that clip was very kindly edited as he didn’t start his reply with the wairarapa comments.
If you can prove that was the start of his interview on the clip you posted I’ll humbly apologize.
Watch the whole clip. It’s the entire segment, including the first five minutes with the bloke from fed farms. Then the interviewer introduces Little and says “Good morning and happy new year to you” then directly moves to asking about the drought. No cut, no edit. Straight to the question about the drought.
Your word is not proof they are very good at there job these tech people.
Could it be you’re running a cover defence.
mr waghorn, as a farmer I was wondering if you could answer a question related to the issue of inappropriate farming of land in places like Canterbury discussed above
why don’t farmers stay within the boundaries of their land and farm with the resources that exist there?
Why do they bring water from elsewhere? Why do they dump their waste elsewhere? Why do they bring fertiliser from elsewhere?
Why don’t they farm sustainably on the land they have? In other words, use the soil they have, the rain that falls on their land and the sun that shines on their land? Plant and raise what will grow and raise within the conditions on their land?
Why do they go elsewhere and upset the balance of nature? Why do they not live within the means of the particular land?
Because in not doing so the environment is being thrown all out of kilter and having a great vomit over all of us in return. Serious question – why do farmers not farm within the bounds of the land they occupy?
edit: aware that some do, reference is to those that don’t (being the vast majority)
That’s a lot to lay on a lowly Shepherd but I’ll have a crack.
Humans buy there nature are mostly greedy and self serving and given free riegn seem to be ‘future eaters’ I believe the term is, be it do’dos Moas or the earths resources.
My understanding of fertilizer is that at the end of ww2 they had great big munitions factories that were turned to a new use then the marketing came with it. I personally have no problem fertilizer use or irrigation done right ,
As for cantubury it sounds like a recipe for failure gambling on being able to store enough water to sustain dairy I milked cows 20 years ago and man those girls go through the water. I heard a story 4 or so years ago about a farmer not needing all his water allocation so he sold it to his neighbour for a healthy profit it makes my guts burn to think about that still.
NZ farming was made strong buy our low input farming, sheep and beef farming is still mainly that way.
Thanks, good stuff. I think you’re second sentence is the one – it is a large part of human nature to want more and more and those resources external to the particular farm have simply been available for the taking. Particularly in colonised countries and particularly following widespread mechanisation, both of which have made that taking even easier.
Those external resources have been there for the taking so they have been taken. It has been simple to do so and the upside has been enormous, so why wouldn’t a person take them?
As per exchange last night – it is in our nature to do so, with little regard for the future. Just hope we wake up and learn before it is too late because, as we are rapidly learning, the reaction of the earth to all of that taking has been and continues to be one huge vomit …. all over us
shame this national party government and its supporters continue this practice of simple unsustainable greedy taking. shame shame shame
Nah, fair enough, pal. As you suspect, I’m running cover and the techies at TV3 have edited the clip just to make you look like a tosser. Still great discussion about fertilser with VTO. It’s clearly an area you’re familiar with 🙂
Don’t want to go on about this, but as someone who has considerable experience in editing for TV I can assure you there was no edit in the clip of Andrew Little going from Happy New Year to talking about the Wairarapa. Memory is a strange thing – my guess was you were a bit frustrated that he didn’t deal with this subject particularly well (I would agree with this to some extent) and this was reflected in how you remembered the interview.
No reflection on you at all. I think we all do this at times.
@ b waghorn.
Actually, Andrew Little spoke well regarding the drought as well as about the Oxfam inequality report AND the RMA and the housing issue AND the coming Ratana celebrations.
This is what he said about the drought problem that the government is reluctant to acknowledge:
“Certainly from what I’ve seen, and I was in the Wairarapa in the weekend, it is intensely dry,” he said on Firstline this morning.
“I think what has happened this season, although there was a fair amount of moisture in the period just before Christmas, it has dried out very quickly. It looks to me like it is going to continue.
“I don’t know what the tests are that the ministry applies, but when you hear news of farmers now rapidly destocking and the land’s as dry as it is, I would have thought there was a case there to look closely at it, and to provide whatever assistance is available to farmers.”
“Without assistance, farmers run the risk of not being able to pay their staff and prepare adequately for the winter”, says Mr Little.
“We’ve been through periods like this before, so you know that it’s going to come to an end at some point but you want to assist the farmers through a very difficult time, make sure that they can continue to pay their staff and keep their outgoings going until the moisture comes back, the grass and crops can return and they can get their livestock going again and start generating an income.”
b waghorn, watch that interview here again. You were wrong in your post!
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/fed-farmers-drought-an-overused-word-2015012111#ixzz3PR3Ko9f5
Been through this with TRP above as I said if you can prove that your clip is not edited I will eat all the humble pie you wish to serve.
Not sure what you mean by ‘clip is edited’. Edited by who? Labour party or TV3?….Unless, the first report you saw was incomplete or faulty and TV3 rectified it later. I don’t know. What time was the interview? Did you watch it live on TV or on demand on their website later? or are you implying that TV3 re-did a freah interview all over again?
I watched just after 7 am the interview started with happy new year then when asked whether a drought should be declared Little looked a bit lost mumbled a few things the wairarapa comment wasn’t the 1 st thing out of his mouth.
I lost interest a bit after that because I despise poly s pissing in my ear. All I want is a straight shooter and looking at Murray Raw sharks comment in this thread that makes at least 2 of us.
Ok. I am not doubting what you say or what you thought you saw, but you did not address all the questions I put. [Not sure what you mean by ‘clip is edited’. Edited by who? Labour party or TV3?….Unless, the first report you saw was incomplete or faulty and TV3 rectified it later. I don’t know or are you implying that TV3 re-did a freah interview all over again?]
I have no problem you taking any politician to task, including little, as long as it is accurate and fair.
What you claim is puzzling, based on the following link!
Take a look again to see if it jogs your memory because you say you ‘lost interest a bit’.
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/fed-farmers-drought-an-overused-word-2015012111#ixzz3PR3Ko9f5
Often on three news in the am you get a live interview with some one and then that interview gets tidied up and used later in the show .
If 3 wants to be kind to Little that’s awesome in my books hopefully it means the end of the liar key is on its way.
I’d be gobsmacked if tv3 started even editing interviews in a neutral manner.
A year or two back I was gobsmacked when comparing the edited reports with the raw footage of the lobby questions: key and the Labour leader had about the same level of placeholders, hesitations, and equivocations/corrections in the raw footage. Of course, when it came to the edited version on polly was all ums and ahs and hesitant 4sec sound bites, and the other polly got longer to expand on an idea at 10sec a time. Guess which way around it went 🙂
To be fair, bw, I have seen a lot worse than what Little did in that interview. I would have given him 5/10. Mediocre performance.
I didn’t see this since I have better things to do in the morning than watch breakfast TV but one thing I do know is that if Mr Little was caught out this morning he won’t be tomorrow morning.
(this is an interesting development..
..and something the labour party should grasp with both hands..)
“..Democrats Take on Wall Street – With Financial Transactions Tax..”
..The House Democratic Party leadership made a remarkable step forward last week –
– in putting out a proposal for a financial transactions tax (FTT)..”
(cont..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/democrats-take-on-wall-st_b_6503730.html
“Roger, Rafa and Novak would play anywhere for money. No wonder each man is sponsored by a bank”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/65231157/reason-tennis-stars-like-federer-nadal-and-djokovic-only-care-about-cash-not-fans
Talk of a by election in the Northland seat grows stronger. Looks like Nationals Mike Sabin is heading out the backdoor, which has me thinking.
I would like to see a different approach taken by the main opposition party’s. A primary contest amongst themselves with the wining candidate becoming the sole electorate candidate running off against the National puppet. The losers are party vote only and endorse the candidate who won the primary. It wouldn’t cost much and not too hard to work a voting structure, proportionate to members plus a cross party voting panel. A couple of hustings and then the major husting with pre and on the day voting. Certainly gain new members for the party’s and a good deal of public interest, local and natiional. Be a great shakedown for future contests.
that’s a good idea..
@Skinny:
Better would be for the Greens not to stand a candidate and suggest their supporters vote Labour. (I voted Green in September).
This is because if Sabin loses to Labour and Dunne refuses to back the RMA reforms then they are stymied again with only 59 Nats and 1 Act equals 60 votes versus 61 against. This is important and the Greens really should try to throw the seat to Labour for this reason alone.
Well explained Beaded Git,
About time we had straight talk about how the opposition MUST work together to defeat this evil empire we have wrecking our future.
After all it is in the collective interests of all opposition to reduce the majority of the wrecking ball operators, to reduce their devastation.
No best candidate wins the chance to topple the National patsy. Wouldn’t it be great if Peters stood against his sworn enermy Sabin, under my proposed scenario Peters would almost certainly get the nod and a much better tally of the overall vote free of vote splitting.
That is another option Skinny. Lab and Gr would have to hold their noses but…61-60 on some issues sounds good to me.
A novel idea!
Not sure about the logistics of it. I didn’t clearly understand what you meant ‘It wouldn’t cost much and not too hard to work a voting structure, proportionate to members plus a cross party voting panel. A couple of hustings and then the major husting with pre and on the day voting.”
Personally, it would be great if Labour, Greens, NZF agree to endorse Hone Harawira as the joint electorate candidate under the mana banner.
Mana is never going to get back into parliament. Hone blew it and frankly couldn’t pull enough votes from Maori outside of his own Rohe. Too much of a loose cannon is the general view of Maori I know.
@ skinny..i think harawira in part ‘blew it’..with/by his reactionary attitudes towards cannabis..
here i make that case..
comment@whoar:..did wrong-footing it on cannabis cost harawira the election..?..and will he/mana make the same mistakes again in 2017..?
ed:..the more i have been thinking about it..
..the more i think harawiras’ reactionary attitudes to cannabis..
..and the tantrum he threw to kill the internet party campaign to drive support for ending prohibition..
..and the attendant publicity around that..
..would have gone a long way towards causing him to lose his seat..
..and i wd submit could be cited as a main reason for that unfortunate outcome..
..(cont..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/commentwhoar-did-wrong-footing-it-on-cannabis-cost-harawira-the-election-and-will-hemana-make-the-same-mistakes-again-in-2017/
Yes I tend to agree Phil. His attack on pot was stupid when you consider the poor he represents, the simple pleasure is one of the few treats they enjoy. And for those living on a substance income a little cash crop tops up their income. I once held a high leadership position when Mana first formed, spurred on by my Leftie mates. I found Hone too alpha male and it annoyed me that he frowned on my smoking. Helped signal my moving on.
I thought of all people, Hone would appreciate the illogic of youg Maori being dragged though the court for having an ounce of pot in them…
I’ve read your case but it seems to me to be drawing a pretty long bow.
As you state your impassioned advocacy at the meeting ‘turned’ it – that shows open minds not closed ones. Sure we all know Hone doesn’t rate cannabis, he never has and whilst it is easy to say, “hey mate get with the program” it is also valid to have different views, even strongly different views.
We are all coloured by our experiences – you, me, skinny, Hone and although we may have had nothing but positive, uplifting contact with weed – many haven’t – and that could be due to the illegality of the activity and the heaviness of the state – doesn’t matter, it is there. And we know that some who smoke just really struggle with it, should keep away from it, not really for them – for all sorts of reasons. And those that do get caught and sentenced end up in that unforgiving environment with all of the ‘ruboff’ that occurs and they come out – some good, some bad and some ugly.
I don’t see the election loss as coming down to this issue – mistakes were made, big ones and made by Hone and others. The PTB wanted Mana (and Hone) gone especially after the hook up with the Internet party and they used all their dirty tools in their dirty toolbox to achieve that. Whether nicekelvin was active or passive doesn’t matter – he imo isn’t some wide-eyed innocent – crafty that one is, learned at the knee of a master he did.
I do think your analysis is valuable because all of these issues need to be aired and discussed and debated and sorted – and then we can get on with the jobby of getting Mana back into that uninviting house.
I agree, mm. Anyone who claims Hone lost because of his position on cannabis needs to cut down on their own consumption. I think it was a combination of going with Dotcom and the dirty getting together of the other parties behind Kelvin Davis. The campaign against Dotcom was run at full steam for quite a while, and that didn’t help either.
Mana does have its own problems as well, but that’s up to them to recognise and sort out.
oh ? and Winston Peters telling NZ First voters to support Kel Davis didn’t have anything to do with it ?
Hey Jenny with respect let’s cut Kelvin and his team of Kay & Rudy, Tracey and others some credit for the hard campaigning they done in the region. They really gained mana for the sterling effort helping those who were suffering as a result of the flooding, while Hone was swaning off around the country with the Dotcom circus.
When Mana’s campaign manager rang me the night before polling day calling out an SOS in West Auckland, I took it instantly Hone was weak there, I asked are you calling me because your light on the ground there? Answer yes, I told Davis election day when he came thanked the local team, to relax I think you have done enough and as it transpired he did.
They didn’t gain mana imo – but working with enemies to get rid of someone you don’t like is not uncommon within Māoridom so I suppose they are tika.
Scoring points off someone who asks for help is low and weak imo – the name dropping doesn’t add credibility it is another expression of that weakness too imo.
Marty you can make all the excuses under the sun, however the facts are indeed the facts. Mana was doomed with the Dotcom association the big man himself was man enough to admit it.
One other thing Marty, Kelvin and his team didn’t need prompting during the flooding they rolled their sleeves up and got on with the mahi, no fanfare or media hype. And the good people of the North rewarded the effort. So you pipe down little man and be a gracious loser.
No I won’t pipe down, thanks anyway – and I’m not a ‘little man’ although I’m prepared to give him a fair go for the folks middling along that need a leader of the folks who like a bit of a fair go for the folks in the middle.
“One other thing Marty, Kelvin and his team didn’t need prompting during the flooding they rolled their sleeves up and got on with the mahi, no fanfare or media hype.”
True that, I could tell from the interview I watched (I think, maybe read) with him, where he said he was helping with the flood victims rather than swanning of around the country complaining. Maybe it was a video on Facebook, but that’s how I knew there was no fanfare and no politicking involved. He just got stuck into the mahi. He said so himself.
@ jenny kirk..
..of course that was a final tipping-point factor..
..but if u read the case i make..i think what i say re the role cannabis/harawira had to play..hangs together mathematically etc..
Thanks Penny. I wish I just didn’t feel/think that the Davos Forum is just another big waste of money and a talk-fest for the very rich (ShonKey included) – Like the final comment says above, “a radical shift is needed ” to get anywhere for the 99% who are not ultra-rich . What will it take to get this “radical shift” started ?
“Mana is never going to get back into parliament”
wrong skinny
“Hone blew it”
sure the plan didn’t work doesn’t mean we or he gives up
“Too much of a loose cannon”
I know Māori that think like that too – I wonder if it is genuine, an acquiescence to the predominate MSM propaganda, or part of the head above the parapet syndrome.
Fair enough mate, I attended a TTT meet the candidate meeting and I will say Hone cleaned the others ( including Kelvin )out in the Q & A part. And I was highly annoyed when Key then Peters sprayed Hone and endorsed voting Davis. So much so I put out a late press release in support of HH. Labour should never have put Davis that far out on the party list ‘again’ so he had to win the electorate seat, it could easily have cost them a win if they had their shit together.
I know an old guy from Ngati Wai very well. He’s a Mormon farmer and has been quite conservative all his life, but last time I saw him he was speaking well of Mana. He has realised that being quiet and leaving the talking to the professionals just results in big bills. Others in his whanau were militant in Mana. I got a real feeling that change is in the air.
This was before joining with Dotcom.
When you consider the alliance with National was hurting Maori in general, and the Maori/Tory party were losing their main players, Mana and Labour would have benefited with the party vote as a natural result. I felt for the grafters, Sykes especially who I feel would have been a shoe in to come in on the party list. Hone’s dismissive approach to Sue Bradford was both disrespectful and arrogant considering her flagging Dotcom ideology was poles apart from that of a party representing the underclass.
@ murray..
..my barometer was my sons’ friends..(educated early 20 somethings..the usual multi-cultural mix of these days..)
..he reported to me that at the best of times in the campaign..most of them were going to vote internet man..
(it was indicators such as this that made me optimistic..at that time..)
..then..just before the election..after everything went pear-shape..he told me none of them were now going to vote internet-mana..
..and yes..the reasons for that loss are multi-fold..
..and more than a few weren’t external..
..and what concerns me..is that many of those internals will just be repeated..in 2017..
Depends on which Maori you’ve talked to Skinny, and when. I talk to many Maori to whom the MSM’s traditional “loose cannon” narrative always was and remains unintelligible. And to many to whom once accepting it now reject it. What I did notice for many months leading up to the election was a much greater readiness to see Harawira as NOT a loose cannon.
Just as ‘winning’ can falsely define – look at Key – so can ‘losing’.
This from the diary of Count Galeazzo Ciano (Italian Foreign Minister 1936-43) – “As always, victory finds a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan”. You’d expect him to know !
The reasons for Harawira’s loss are manifold. Some of them sheet home to Harawira’s strategy. Some do not. We know them without trotting them out. In the outcome it’s seductive to default to the dismissive and essentially racist MSM narrative of old. It is also facile.
That said what concerns me most in the here and now is that Maori north of Whangarei have one Maori parliamentary representative rather than two. That is hardly cause for rejoicing.
If only, in the event of Sabin’s arse being kicked out of here, Harawira could be multi-party endorsed. I know……a pipe dream.
“Mana is never going to get back into parliament. Hone blew it and frankly couldn’t pull enough votes from Maori outside of his own Rohe. Too much of a loose cannon is the general view of Maori I know.”
You are of course entitled to your opinion, but let’s just lay some facts out,
http://thestandard.org.nz/the-standards-ten-most-commented-on-posts-in-2014/#comment-945403
if a by-election is held and Hone won it, why wouldn’t that be more than a person for person swap? Surely the winner is part of the MMP system, and the election night party votes could be used in any re-jigging?
Hone would get about 17 votes in the general Northland seat. These are the farmers and business people who supported Titford, and probably still do.
A snowball has more of a chance of surviving in Hell than the Opposition has of wrestling Northland from the National Party’s grasp.
Rather than stating the obvious Gosman how about you crunch my concept of a primary. Let’s use Auckland Central as an example based on last election, with Adern wining the opposition primary contest. Or shall I call on the wisdom of Pete G and Hooton?
It would fly in the face of the purpose of our political system (which is party based). I am not sure it would even be legal as holding an inter-party primary would require some sort of organisation that might not be permitted unless formal agreements are entered in to between parties. It is also likely many people would see through this and be turned off by it. You would then likely get a number of independents standing which would have the same effect that you are clumsily trying to resolve i.e. splitting the opposition vote between multiple candidates.
Have to disagree about a formal arrangement and the legality of what I propose. Hope Hooton shows up to enlighten on process. I would keep it informal ‘gentlemen agreement’ winner takes all. I think the gains would out way the losses. The status quo of ‘throat slitting’ is just gifting seats to National. Even see it working in Epsom where the ACT incumbent is heads and shoulders a superior candidate to Goldsmith, well from what I observed at the main meet the candidates gig last year in Mt Eden I attended.
Any primary would have to have formal rules not some informal arrangement. For example who qualifies to vote in any such primary. Would it be party members of the relevant parties? If so, then how would this be validated by each party? Also, if it was restricted to party members only, that would mean the larger parties would automatically have the advantage over the smaller parties. It means NZ First or Mana (if they were involved) would be very unlikely to ever get someone selected via such a method.
No bit players the 3 main party’s L/G/NZF if they agreed. Party members of the 3, a time available to recruit new voting members. 1 vote value divided and equal so all 3 party’s are level regardless of actual membership numbers. Say 70 % party members vote of the ballot and 30% of the panel made up from 1 from each party. Cream rises to the top, so expect an open contest relatively free of party lines, within reason and they are looking to work together remember.
How would each party validate the party members in each electorate? You would have to either expect each to trust the numbers each party puts forward (unlikely to happen I would suggest) or you would have to allow each party to know the membership details of the others in the electorate in question.
Also how is the primary election carried out? Are voting papers sent out to members or do each party get to bloc vote? Your proposal wasn’t clear and seems an odd mix of both options.
These are questions that need answering before you can even select a joint candidate. Then the problems really begin.
Your plan only has a point if the combined left votes exceed those of the right. In the Northland electorate, you’re dreaming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northland_%28New_Zealand_electorate%29#2014_election
As I pointed out already. However the plan is unworkable in my mind even if they were close. It is likely to alienate potential voters rather than energise them.
Trying something different is better than doing the same old same old.
Suppurating hypocrite Gooseman – stuff all the conventions and proprieties when it suits the Right. “Democracy Under Attack” otherwise. Epsom ? Last not the playground of political chicanery when Rodney Hide won it – early 2000’s wasn’t it ?
Party Vote in Northland in 2014; Nats 17412 Lab/Gr/NZF 14314.
Hell must be cooling down Gosman.
Thanks Bearded Git for the math! Gosman and his sparring partners well know what I’m getting at. This is as safer a blue ribbon seat as you get, a combined strategy bring the margins a lot closer. Now line up a number of seats with not such a high winning majority and Gosman is wearing thermals in hell.
That IS close. Winnable if a single opposition candidate is put forward with support from Labour, Greens, NZF and Mana.
2014 PARTY VOTES:
Green Party 3,855
ACT New Zealand 162
Labour Party 5,913
Focus New Zealand 216
National Party 17,412
Conservative 2,243
Democrats for Social Credit 64
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party 193
Ban1080 51
Internet MANA 601
Māori Party 210
New Zealand First Party 4,546
NZ Independent Coalition 9
The Civilian Party 7
United Future 71
————
CANDIDATE VOTES:
CLENDON, David—–GP 3,639
NELSON, Craig——-ACT 200
PRIME, Willow-Jean—LAB 8,969
RINTOUL, Ken—–FNZ 1,661
ROBERTSON, Murray–IND 96
SABIN, Mike——–NAT 18,269
TAYLOR, Mel——CNSP 1,555
TIMMS, Glen——-MFP 75
WILSON, David Angus—NZDSC 173
————
Party Informals…..154
Party Informals…..154
TOTAL…………..35,707
Candidate Informals—-419
TOTAL—————–35,056
————-
Looks like a Labour candidate will have best chance of beating a National candidate here if other parties, (other than National, ACT, The Cons and Maori), especially The Greens, NZF and Mana do not field a candidate, but instead endorse and work to help the Lab candidate to win, especially if Sabin has to leave under disgrace. This will boost Labour, Andrew Little and the Opposition and will put the Nats at a back foot, even if the Lab candidate loses narrowly.
If such an arrangement is made here, then it could be a precursor for future smart electoral adjustments at the next election between these four parties.
I am trying to find the expansion of the conservative party initials, CNSP. Tried google and the Cons website with no luck! Do any of you know or guess what those four letters stand for? TIA.
What? No views on this from anyone on a hot political topic?!
I think the joint opposition candidate will have a very good chance of unseating National here in a by election , considering that (a) Key and National have been shown to be dodgy/incompetent in various ways (b) are straight faced lying bull-shitters and untrustworthy, (c) the incumbent is being kicked out in disgrace, AND (d) there is bound to be ‘voter’s remorse’ setting in by now against NATS and ACT and this debt ridden pro rich government.
What a tremendous boost it will be for the opposition and morale booster for the nation if their joint opposition candidate wins! Worth doing it, I think.
What do you think?
The problem in the North is that the electorate is divided into two parts. The Maori electorate where National doesn’t seem to bother standing because they lose so badly and the consequently rather National leaning general electorate.
3K is a hell of a step even in a general election. In a by-election with something like a 30% turnout at best, you are looking at the Everest.
Also the idea of political parties cooperating to that extent electorally is laudable and rather naive. They don’t. They are there to promote their own party and the best way to do that is to put up a candidate.
The point is to show the voters that the four opposition parties can get united on certain important issues such as trying to wrest the seat from national and increase the opposition number by one while depriving the government of one MP.
Of course, Nats may still win, but it is worth a try for the opposition to unleash an united and exciting fight together and energise the pro opposition voters, especially because it is a by election and has no party votes counted.
Of course, nothing can be more likely than Nats winning if the opposition do not TRY to win this by a combined effort rather than simply be pessimistic, selfish, stupid and split the opposition votes between them.
Anyway, all this is a little premature and academic for now because the Nats may try to protect Sabin and keep him on just like they did to Judith Collins, Nick Smith, Bill English, Gerry Brownlee and Maurice Williamson in spite of shocking disgraceful behaviour from each of those!
I don’t think there is a party vote in a by election, just the electorate vote. I agree that the opposition should put a single candidate up against NAct, but I don’t expect a win. Pakeha up there are pretty bloody ugly in their addiction to Tory members.
Yes quite correct a by election doesn’t include the party vote, that suits a pilot contest even better and saves on resources and costs for the non winning party’s, basically cutting their cost early.
would there be a prid quo pro for the Greens in 2017?
Does the tolerance of the “je suis Charlie” Parisians and their grand ability not to be offended by others free expression also extend to people who wish to express themselves by getting around the streets of Paris in the nude?
If not, why not?
(prepare for some mighty fine hair-splitting…)
The French give out prison time and fines to anyone who mocks the WWII Holocaust. Charlie Hebdo fired a cartoonist in 2009 for mocking Israel. But I guess that’s different, it wasn’t Muslims being mocked…
Exactly. And it is this very hypocrisy that sees the “je suis Charlie” lot smell so disgusting
It’s also rather poetic that the hypocrites’ solemn slogan of choice is so easily applied to highlight the fevered hypocrisy.
“Je Suis Gaza……100 Fold.”
Do you want to understand how powerful central banking is over a country’s economy and politics?
Princes of the Yen
How long term crisis was engineered to forcefully “open up” the Japanese economy to “structural reforms” enabling firesale to big foreign investors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Ac7ap_MAY
This is directly related to yesterdays discussion on debt levels, the state of the economy, and whether or not the politicians have anything to do with it as “good economic managers.”
The initial problem I have with it (Still watching it) is that it simply blames ‘central banks’ rather than central banks that are out of government control and are thus actually in the control of the private sector. This is important as we actually need a central bank that creates the money and keeps track of how much money is in the economy and we need that bank to be answerable to the populace through democratic methods.
I would not say that the film reveals that the central banks are “in the control of the private sector”. The central banks appear to be under the direction of a small number of trans-national elites who span both private and public sectors and who in fact do not see the two sectors as separate. Just as they do not recognise the sovereignty of individual nations.
Create a bubble and then collapse it. Isn’t this the type of thing that we’ve been seeing for centuries? Where there are always a few winners while everyone else gets to pay the bill?
It’s only since the 1980s they’ve been doing it to break apart nation states in order to progress the aims and ownership of a trans-national elite class who have loyalty to no country.
Does anyone else view these floating ostentatious palaces as a waste of resources and a horror of intent?
I also cringe at the breathless real estate reporting style of the article.
The links to the BBC’s programme on the “Super-Rich” is worth watching, in this regard.
Thanks to Paul, I have it on my list. Will probably do so this weekend.
I have a relative that works in luxury retail, and tells similar stories of people ordering boxes of solid gold pens at $100,000 each. They are used to subtly indicate their net worth as they sign documents, then casually give them away or leave them behind.
The admiring relating of this story, was jarred when I expressed my disgust. Made for an interesting few minutes at a family Christmas. 🙂
Ha! It’s a shock when worshippers of extreme wealth realise that you don’t bow down at the same temple.
+ 100%
Yes. They’re an incredible waste of resources but that’s entirely how our economic system works. The more waste, the higher the profit. This is why we have personal cars despite the fact that they’re a massive waste of resources.
I thought we could ring Putin, tell him we will hold the owner til the Russian police have time to come and get him, and in return we will impound and sell the boat. $450m goes a long way. If the USA doesn’t want us to do it, they know our price 😉
This is what a currency dealer would do.
I think Stuart Nash has gone off the reservation with his calls for an amnesty on tax penalties. For one thing, he’s not on the finance team – it muddies the waters and this matter really falls into Clayton Cosgrove’s revenue portfolio. It’s being reported as Labour calls for amnesty, not “Labour MP calls for amnesty”
For another, people should pay their taxes and there should be sanctions against those who don’t. The average Joe Blow pays his PAYE and GST. People should not be dipping into the money that belongs to the public.
I had thought this might have been an offhand comment that he may have just doubled-down on this morning, but it’s an issue he’s been pushing for at least a week
“..I think Stuart Nash has gone off the reservation..”
..he has never been ‘on the reservation’..
..he is/always has been..a rightwing outlier…
..he is a rightwing trojan-horse inside labour..
..(i mean..he was shearers’ chief-adviser..(!)
..’benificiary on a hot tin roof’..?..anyone..?..)
Googled for a picture of Stuart Nash, and found this gem from TV3: Labour MP Nash wanted own party.
Surprisingly informative from Patrick Gower I thought, and indicative of Nash’s loyalty, and the company he keeps.
I agree Ovid. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Why the hell should there be an amnesty for people who don’t pay their taxes?
Yes, most of the tax dodgers I presume would be rich crooked right wing crooks and rogues. Why Stuart Nash wants to bat for them is a mystery! In any case, amnesty would send a wrong message and also be unfair for those that have paid their taxes.
+1
Perhaps he’s one of them and realises that he’s fucked if Labour get in and actually start prosecuting these thieves.
I think a lot of them are small business people or contractors who can’t afford tricky accountants. Many of them will be struggling as bigger businesses don’t pay them for work done, or the general public pay up late. They’re not evaders. They’re just late. They’re probably people who have voted for NAct’s aspirations recently, and Nash may think this is a way of attracting them to Labour.
But the tax is incurred on profit after expenses and liabilities. So will exclude unpaid bills/debts, won’t it? And the max tax is not all the profit, but only about 1/3 rd of it. Forgiving tax with an amnesty is not an option. Sure, suspending ‘some’ of the penalty may be, but not all the penalty as it will send a bad message and precedent and unfair to the ones that manage their business well and do the right thing in the first place.
In any case, the party leader should be the one to make such announcements, unless the issue was discussed by the caucus and Nash was authorised to do so.
Yeah, I don’t particularly like Nash or his idea. If he extended it to student loans, which they class as a tax debt, I might change my mind 🙂
I agree.
Education, including tertiary, and health should be free and universal. Otherwise the wealthy are advantaged over the rest. Make it universal, but raise taxes.
I favour Transaction tax, capital tax and capital gains tax, living wage and universal basic living allowance for all.
The inequality should reduce and the society should be fairer and ethical.
I imagine the amnesty would apply only to those who “come clean”, and who otherwise would not have been detected.
Another right wing driven, Nash fronted initiative. God how I love Labour.
Nash has got it in his head that he is the rising star. A candidate on his way to future party leader and strong potential Prime Ministerial material. The Labour Party is a useful vehicle to his career and ambition.
Straw poll: Should Andrew Little promote him further up?
Little should show things have changed by promptly demoting Nash and anyone else who flaps their gums to media.
+ 1
on his way to future party leader… Will Seymour resign before 2017?
Oh, great. A Labour MP wants it to be OK for people not to bother paying their taxes, and leaves himself wide open for a National cabinet minister to state the obvious in response:
McClay says a debt amnesty wouldn’t be fair to those who pay tax on time.
No wonder Nat bloggers are talking Nash up – he’s a free gift to the government.
BUT neither robertson or Little has contradicted him, have they? It’s been a few days…
For those interested in understanding the where and how of the term “off the reservation”.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/06/29/326690947/should-saying-someone-is-off-the-reservation-be-off-limits
http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/off-the-reservation
http://blog.nrcprograms.org/off-the-reservation/
I think this person sums up well
I’m not trying to have a go at you Ovid – but ‘going rogue’ is my preferred term.
Thanks Marty, I shall expunge that particular idiom from my vocabulary.
Little said similar on tv3 this morning about waiving penalties as long as the tax owed was played.
And the penalties IS the big problem. IRD are a completely inflexible, bloody-minded organisation with no understanding that everyones circumstances are different.
For example, Child Support payments MUST be paid by or on the 20th of the month, period, despite the fact that not everyone has been paid by this date. So, as a result you get penalised 10%.
So someone who is happy to pay their share is constantly penalised for the crime of not being paid themselves before the 20th of the month.
I can a only comment on my own case I was self employed for 7 years and some of them very lean years with the GFC coming in the middle ( no body can stop spending as well as a farmer with a big mortgage if things get tight).
I managed to pay my PAYE and gst on time ,I did have a very helpful and not to expensive accountant who was part of tax link which buys you a bit of time.
seems odd that they didnt accommodate you getting that into line around your pay… so only a penalty on the first payment, thereafter you could adjust … did you call them and tell them that you got paid on the 10th and would struggle with the first payment on time?
I used to work for IRD in the contact centre – the issue I found was that people were unaware that setting up payment arrangements before the due date for the tax saved substantial penalties, and that IRD can remit penalties or write off debts given good reason e.g. hardship.
IRD’s inflexibility is often not administrative, it’s legislative – the tax laws don’t always leave room for flexibility…
exactly. I think this is Little coming through his promise to be supportive of SME’s… but when does the amnesty for everyone who has committed a burglary but not been nabbed begin? As long as they identify which burglary and the police can cross it off the unsolved list.
Catriona MacLennan: Benefit debt punishment out of all proportion to ‘crime’
And Labour’s talking about forgiving the tax fraudsters. You know, the people who steal billions of dollars off of us each and every year compared to the few measly million that benefit fraud, most of which is actually done by employees at WINZ, cost us.
Labour’s new motto: Double Standards R us
“And Labour’s talking about forgiving the tax fraudsters. You know, the people who steal billions of dollars off of us each and every year …”
Nope. Complete bollocks, Draco. Nash was very specifically talking about small to medium business, particularlarly in the provinces, which as we know have been abandoned by the Tory government.
“Nash said this was debt held by small-to-medium business owners, not “large corporates or high-net-worth individuals who have engaged expensive lawyers”.”
Have a read, it’s actually reasonably sound politics that will be attractive to both the owners of these businesses and the 5-9 workers that the average Kiwi small business employs.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/65227271/tax-debt-rockets-labour-calls-for-amnesty
That’s still significantly more than benefit fraud. Especially where Nash happens to be the MP which has unpaid taxes of about 40 times the national total of benefit fraud.
Now, chances are that that outstanding amount is due to the old, dysfunctional, Provisional Tax which itself needs reform but there’s no reason to make that reform retrospective.
given everything out of nashs’ mouth is in the cause of neo-liberalism/the rightwing..
..and that he wd prefer to see bneficiaries have even more support ripped away from them..
..a man who wd do nothing about poverty/inequality..(he’s got his rightwing mates/backers/financiers to think of eh..?
..and an mp who is only there because that rightwing-tool garth mcvicar split the rightwing vote for him..
..if that had not happened..he wd not be there..
..a man who was the cheif of staff/adviser to that brief/disasterous shearer-period..(benny-on-a-hot-tin-roof..?..anyone..?..)
..why should we listen to anything this man says..?..ever..?
..if the vote isn’t split again for him..he’ll be gone in 2017..
And yet he’s still got more credibility than you, Phil. Funny old world, eh?
PS, Nash had the briefest of tenures with Shearer, wasn’t there for the ‘roof’ anecdote, and in quitting, showed more political nous in 5 minutes than you’ve showed in your entire life.
i thought he was fired..(my mistake.)
..and i’m not walking around proclaiming myself as the future leader of labour/p.m..am i..?
..and nash was there for enough of that wretched rightwing-shearer-exercise..to know what he is about..
.wasn’t he..?
You’re not walking around at all, Phil, if your prolific posting is any guide to your lifestyle. Maybe the occasional excursion to the garden for, ahem, organic supplies, but no exertion that might risk a bead of sweat breaking out. How’s your roof, btw? Need a lick of paint? (See what I did there?).
strengthened yr benny-bashing credentials..yep..!
..i see that..
..so..nothing to come back on what i said about nash..
..and taking the ad-hom route to rout..i see..
..the fact of the matter is..that nash and the other rightwingers/poor-bashers in labour..
..are labours’ ‘big-problem’.
As Sinatra sez, doobie doobie doo, Phil. Keep taking the money, keep spliffing up, and keeping telling the rest of us where we’re going wrong. You’re doing fine work.
q.e.d..
@Ovid:
What I can’t understand is how we got into a situation where people owe $6.8 BILLION.
This will be treated as an asset (debtor) in the governments books. Larf!
It must be mostly Nats mates owing the money and so they are not chasing them. On Nat Rad this morning they said the tax department spends $90 million a year on chasing bad debts-this is a pittance when nearly $7 billion is owed.
I would like to see a list of the people who owe the tax-this should be publicly available as it is owed to the Crown, that is US.
$89 million of that is probably spent chasing up student loans. They don’t seem to write them off like they do corporate taxes.
Hi folks – seen this?
https://theconversation.com/davos-delegates-dont-care-about-inequality-or-your-debt-36511
Davos delegates don’t care about inequality or your debt
Elite retreat. World Economic Forum, CC BY-SA
.
The world’s rich and powerful are gathering for the World Economic Forum at the Swiss ski resort of Davos to discuss, and hopefully find solutions to, the world’s economic and social problems. The 45th meeting will be attended by kings, princes, presidents, prime ministers, leading politicians and controllers of large corporations. Amidst mutual back-slapping they will deliver set-piece speeches and soothing words at various seminars and workshops to support solutions to the world’s ecological, economic, security and social problems.
It is right that such events should exist – no nation can solve the problems on its own. In the aftermath of the banking crash and weak economic recovery in Europe, the agenda of the Davos summit is to restore trust in capitalist system and build global institutions for a better future. But this is easier said than done, especially as Davos is often far removed from the concerns of ordinary people.
The grand narrative of previous summits has been that we must not do anything to upset the rich because a nation’s salvation depends not on having a good system of education, healthcare, pensions and transport, but on keeping people happy even though their wealth is built on the sweat and blood of ordinary folk. Economic policies are increasingly formed to appease financial markets where vast amounts are gambled everyday though they produce little tangible economic activity.
In this narrative there is no space for workers, trade unions, industrial democracy, or people who want to live fulfilling lives. Markets are supposed to serve society but people are increasingly forced to dance to their short-term financial tunes. How are governments going to develop long-term economic and social policies? There is little sign that the latest summit will signal a much needed change of direction.
Previous Davos summits have carved out policies for the rich to advance their own interests and done little to check inequalities. Past failures are evident from Oxfam’s latest report which states that very soon 1% of the world’s adult population will own more than the rest. In the UK, the richest 1,000 people have doubled their wealth over the past five years to £519 billion. At the same time, millions of people have seen a real decrease in their income and lack the resources to stimulate the economy. Indeed, rising income inequality in developed economies are forcing even people in paid employment to rely on food banks.
Food banks are booming. Danny Lawson/PA
.
Political leaders at Davos will deliver their ritual affirmation for greater economic competition. Yes, competition gives people choices, but its present state is a cause for concern as corporations are frequently able to hold governments to ransom: “give us what we want or we are off” has become a familiar call from companies to discipline governments.
The top 500 transnational corporations control 70% of the worldwide trade, 80% of the foreign investments, one-third of all manufacturing exports, 75% of all commodities trade and 80% of the trade in management and technical services. Only four companies account for between 75% and 90% of the global grain trade. Breaking up these global behemoths and making them accountable to the public is not on the Davos agenda.
Political leaders will talk about tackling public debt, a cue for more austerity, reduction in public expenditure and further privatisation of state-owned enterprises, often at knock-down prices resulting in huge wealth transfers. Even in the western world, the neoliberal experiment for the last 35 years has failed to deliver full employment economic stability or equitable distribution of wealth. Still, politicians won’t rock the boat, though some of the NGOs attending the summit will raise uncomfortable questions.
Despite the financial crisis, western nations remain addicted to light-touch regulation and supremacy of markets. Despite the biggest banking crash, there has been little effective reform of the financial system as governments seem unwilling to upset the financial wheeler and dealers.
Low-interest policy has been used to persuade ordinary people to borrow money and stimulate the economy. Personal debt in the UK alone is around £1.432 trillion, just short of one year’s gross domestic product. What if people can’t repay this? It would be good if Davos leaders could on reflect on the consequences of huge personal debts.
International forums are increasingly essential to solve global problems, but they can’t be addressed by pursuing the interests of the 1%. A radical shift is needed to develop policies that place the interests of the 99% at the heart of the debate.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Kind regards
Penny Bright
We can all click on a link Penny. No need to paste the whole article here. Get with the times.
Q. Is that the sum total of your contribution ?
It’s a pattern.
Q. What does it matter to you ?
Get tired of scrolling for hours when it’s unnecessary. Nice problem to have, right. 🙂
Norman Finkelstein : Charlie Hebdo n’est pas satirique, il est sadique
by Mustafa Caglayan, NEW YORK, 19 January 2015
In Nazi Germany, there was an anti-Semitic weekly newspaper called Der Stürmer. Run by Julius Streicher, it was notorious for being one of the most virulent advocates of the persecution of Jews during the 1930s. What everybody remembers about Der Stürmer was its morbid caricatures of Jews, the people who were facing widespread discrimination and persecution during the era. Its depictions endorsed all of the common stereotypes about Jews – a hook nose, lustful, greedy.
“Let’s say, … amidst all of this death and destruction, two young Jews barged into the headquarters of the editorial offices of Der Stürmer, and they killed the staff for having humiliated them, degraded them, demeaned them, insulted them,” queried Norman Finkelstein, a professor of political science and author of numerous books including The Holocaust Industry and Method and Madness.
“How would I react to that?,” said Finkelstein, who is the son of Holocaust survivors. Finkelstein was drawing an analogy between a hypothetical attack on the German newspaper and the deadly Jan. 7 attack at the Paris headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, that left 12 people dead, including its editor and prominent cartoonists. The weekly is known for printing controversial material, including derogatory cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 and 2012.
The attack sparked a global massive outcry, with millions in France and across the world taking to the streets to support freedom of the press behind the rallying cry of “Je suis Charlie,” or “I am Charlie.”
What the Charlie Hebdo caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad achieved was “not satire,” and what they provoked was not “ideas,” Finkelstein said. Satire is when one directs it either at oneself, causes his or her people to think twice about what they are doing and saying, or directs it at people who have power and privilege, he said.
“But when somebody is down and out, desperate, destitute, when you mock them, when you mock a homeless person, that is not satire,” Finkelstein said. “That is, I give you the word, sadism. There’s a very big difference between satire and sadism. Charlie Hebdo is sadism. It’s not satire.”
The “desperate and despised people” of today are Muslims, he said, considering the number of Muslim countries racked by death and destruction as in the case of Syria, Iraq, Gaza, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. “So, two despairing and desperate young men act out their despair and desperation against this political pornography no different than Der Stürmer, who in the midst of all of this death and destruction decide its somehow noble to degrade, demean, humiliate and insult the people. I’m sorry, maybe it is very politically incorrect. I have no sympathy for [the staff of Charlie Hebdo]. Should they have been killed? Of course not. But of course, Streicher shouldn’t have been hung. I don’t hear that from many people,” said Finkelstein.
Streicher was among those who stood trial on charges at Nürnberg, following World War II. He was hung for those cartoons.
Finkelstein said some might argue that they have the right to mock even desperate and destitute people, and they probably have this right, he said, “But you also have the right to say ‘I don’t want to put it in my magazine … When you put it in, you are taking responsibility for it.”
Finkelstein compared the controversial Charlie Hebdo caricatures to the “fighting words,” doctrine, a category of speech penalized under American jurisprudence. The doctrine refers to certain words that would likely cause the person to whom they are directed, to commit an act of violence. They are a category of speech unprotected by the First Amendment.
“You are not allowed to utter fighting words, because they are equivalent of a smack to the face and it is asking for trouble,” Finkelstein said.
“So, are the Charlie Hebdo caricatures the equivalent of fighting words? They call it satire. That is not satire. It is just epithets, there is nothing funny about it. If you find it funny, depicting Jews in big lips and (a) hook nose is also funny.”
Finkelstein pointed to the contradictions in the Western world’s perception of the freedom of the press by giving the example of the pornographic magazine Hustler, whose publisher, Larry Flynt, was shot and left paralyzed in 1978 by a white supremacist serial killer for printing a cartoon depicting interracial sex.
“I don’t remember everyone celebrating ‘We are Larry Flynt’ or ‘We are Hustler,’” he said. “Should he have been attacked?”…..
Read more……
http://www.aa.com.tr/en/headline/452396–norman-finkelstein-charlie-hebdo-is-sadism-not-satire
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2015/01/19/norman-finkelstein-charlie-hebdo-is-sadism-not-satire/
see comment above.
Look carefully and you’ll see I’ve only posted a taster of the article, and provided a link for people—obviously not including you—who are interested in reading something written by one of the most outstanding scholars in the United States.
I see others have taken you to task on your vacuous quibbles. Instead of upbraiding me, wouldn’t you have used your time more intelligently by clicking on the link and doing some reading?
Thanks Morrissey – the hypocrisy screams out loud as shown here when Finkelstein gives it to them right between the eyes – Oh the weeping…….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZBZX4ZxPjA
Of Experts, Damned Lies, and Pohutukawa
Very good question. Who was this person who obviously wields a great amount of power over our lives?
One of our (democratically elected?) SuperCity public servants, here to make Auckland great. (by covering it with asphalt)
Don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that if that was the case he would have been recognised. Possibly with AT but if so why was he sitting with the public? Also, most of the top dogs at AT would also have been recognised.
The best post on TransportBlog so far in 2015… passionate and articulate. Hope TS picks it up.
Will do and I agree.
Good stuff Penny Wright,
Well spotted,
As I said yesterday Davos is another leg of The Infamous Bilderberg Group.
This Bilderberg Group is the most elitist global power club of industrialists, & corporations along with an array of greedy bought politicians.
So expect Key will again go see his Bilderberg mates at Davos also.
Key has previously attended Bilderberg’s unpublished meetings secretly.
Key with held ths fact, without telling us, so if the shoe fits wear it corrupt Keyster.
Key has demonstrated he loves secretive dark ops organisations such as his own liaison with his Ede/Slater combo so same Bilderberg black Ops group activities fits perfectly for key’s activities to act in secret.
The Bilderberg Group must be the most publicised secret organisation in the world. For a group that is meant to be trying to manipulate world events behind the scenes it isn’t very successful at keeping itself secret. I even remember a documentary showing people turning up to one of their meetings. You would have thought they could have dealt to pesky journalists to stop that happening.
Yes, you are right everyone knows about these meetings.
But most also know, that in the age of technology – the best place to hide is out in the open – and then lie, obfuscate, redirect using external methods.
Such as MSM, fanatical supporters or blogging comments on a political blog…
Oh yes I forgot how perfidious and ingenious we are on the right…
I assumed that the only way to classify people as perfidious and ingenious, is to label those who practice it as such.
Thanks for the clarification that it is: we… “on the right”.
+ 1 Molly – sadly for gossie he isn’t even at footsoldier level yet – his ‘we’ is really a wee we.
The fact that Gossie identifies with them as “we” is a bit pathetic given that the invitees to the Bilderberg meetings would consider the likes of Gossie common low life, like the rest of the 99.9%.
It’s never tried to be secret but we also don’t get transcripts of what’s said at the meetings nor the agreements that they come to. Considering that it is a meeting between business and governments these are things that we’re entitled to as they’re obviously having an effect on our societies – a non-democratic one.
These days Labour is very much the party of social liberalism (indeed, National too is fairly socially liberal these days).
However, that wasn’t always the case. Labour was a strong supporter of the White New Zealand policy in the years after World War 1; the second Labour government went along with keeping Maori out of an All Blacks team to South Africa; and the third Labour government, especially Kirk, were anti-gay rights and anti women’s right to abortion. The first homosexual law reform bill was actually put forward by a National MP, Venn Young.
An interesting piece on Labour’s socially illiberal past here: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/labour-always-in-the-rearguard-never-the-vanguard/
Phil
Big Norm’s government came down hard on bikers, coming out with slogans about taking the bikes off the gangs and such like. Several police districts went well outside the law in attacks on biker meetings, seemingly to official approval. I also heard from a journalist friend that he wasn’t all that hot on freedom of the press.
In New Zealand, the women’s liberation movement largely emerged on the campuses, albeit by women active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and left groups like the Socialist Action League.
In Britain three struggles by working class women in 1968 were pivotal. Two of them – a fight by fishermen’s wives for better safety conditions on trawlers and by London bus conductresses – are very little known about these days. The other struggle – by women at Ford’s massive Dagenham car plant – had passed into the mists as well, except a couple of years ago a ‘feel-good movie’ was made on their struggle, ‘Made in Dagenham’.
Although there were certain distortions in the movie – the makers even admitting they downplayed the class politics and up-played a feminist take in order to make the movie more commercial – it’s still a very interesting movie.
I used to teach the British sixties, so I was really interested to see the film when it first came out. It’s also been on TV here – I think it was on Xmas/New Year 2013/14. The ‘feelgood factor’ makes it fit in as Xmas/New Year fare (it was made by the same folks that made ‘Calendar Girls’). Anyway, I have a review of it, which also contextualises the actual struggle that occurred in 1968. It’s here:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/class-gender-the-1960s-and-made-in-dagenham/
Phil
Looks like another Socialist ‘Paradise’ is heading rapidly for economic collapse. Amazing how it seems to be the Socialist nations that tend to fall over when Socialist theory suggests it is Capitalism that is inherently unstable and destined for destruction.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6f6436a2-a0ae-11e4-8ad8-00144feab7de.html#axzz3PPQ1gZsr
Sleep through the GFC, did you?
I’m not sure the GFC led to major shortages of toilet paper and other key items in places like the US.
A 9% increase in family homelessness in the USA between 2007 & 2009 says that Gosman won’t recognise an economic collapse until the pitchforks come out.
I’d suggest not having enough toilet paper in the shops would qualify as an economic collapse. Wouldn’t you agree?
When you’ve decided whether to suggest it or not I’ll still think homelessness is a more useful measure.
There may have been toilet paper in the shops – doesn’t mean that the people without homes could afford to buy it.
unaffordable is unaffordable, whether it’s on the shelves or not.
We are talking unattainable not unaffordable. Noone is able to access sufficent supplies of toilet paper in Venezuela (except I suspect those closely connected with the government). This just doesn’t impact on the poorer sections of society.
“Let them use the hebdomadaire.”
Marie Antoinette, when asked whether the French peasants had enough toilet paper.
A rise in homelessness leads to an oversupply of toilet paper. The Gosman index tells us all is well.
god forbid the middle class or wealthy experience hardship alongside the poor
I like how you can brush off shortages of toilet paper as if it is merely the middle and upper classes experiencing what the poor suffer daily. Not many people at the lower end of the income scale in NZ go without toilet paper I would suggest.
Would you? That’s super.
Now go to google maps. Look up Venezuela, look up New Zealand. Notice that their borders do not overlap.
Gossie forgets that western governments and central banks put in over US$20 trillion to bail out those malfeasant banks.
Of course those same elite are happy to let the people of Spain, Greece or Venzuela go under and drown.
As I pointed out to Hariet the other day – Venezuela is still capitalist. As CV said it’s also being attacked financially by the US and other Western nations.
Looks like Venezuela is actually implementing policies that many leftists here wish to see put in place in NZ
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanielparishflannery/2014/12/09/how-serious-are-venezuelas-economic-problems/
“Juan Pablo Fuentes, economist at Moody’s Analytics, explained,”The decrees that President Nicolás Maduro recently announced will do little to lift the economy or slow inflation. The focus of Maduro’s announcements was a series of fiscal measures aimed at increasing tax revenues, including a new luxury tax, an increase in the sales tax for alcoholic beverages and the elimination of some tax exemptions.””
Should be interesting to see how the Venezuelan economy recovers as a result of these measures or if gets worse. I know what I have my money on.
On Earth, the NZ Left is far more interested in lessons that can be learned from the Scandinavian model. Plus what McFlock said about your honesty and integrity.
I’d suggest some maybe. Some dislike any form of Free market Welfare state. Scandinavian countries tend to have very open markets which is not something an awful lot of hard left leaning people like very much.
oh, fuck off.
OAB made a clear statement that there is more interest in lessons from Scandinavia than Venezuela, not that nobody is interested in learning from Venezuela or that noboy in NZ is “hard left”.
Saying that some in NZ are “hard left” when someone else has said that most are comparatively moderate is a pretty half-arsed effort, even for you.
Venezuela is under active economic attack by the financial markets and the capitalist class.
They have lifted a million people out of poverty and given them access to free healthcare and education. And the free market cheerleaders can’t have that kind of nonsense going on.
So not as the result of any wrong headed policy decisions from the Venezuelan government then?
zzzzzz
Venezuela is being caned by collapsing oil prices, just like Russia.
Also, for some reason Bolivians keep voting for that scary socialist Evo Morales. It’s rather annoying for the Washington elite.
He has picked up Wayne’s meme…
The Norwegian tariff profile.
http://stat.wto.org/TariffProfiles/NO_e.htm
Ummm… I stated tend. Sweden, Denmark and Finland are much more open than Norway I believe. Of course Norway relies heavily on Oil. Would you like our welfare state to be funded by Oil?
Sweden, Denmark and Finland are EU single market members, you know, where NZ agriculture is routinely blocked and Iceland is a closed shop.
http://stat.wto.org/TariffProfiles/IS_e.htm
Scandinavia is in deep do do,
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/04/22/scandinavia-is-looking-scary/
The conclusion to the article is Maybe the Scandinavian economies will muddle through. But there are reasons to stay alert to the region’s problems.
As I said: lessons to be learned.
What specific lessons from Scandinavia do you think are applicable to the NZ situation OAB?
A lesson can be instructive without being applicable. Is there a chance we can discuss this without you attempting a false narrative?
Finnish education is a case in point. So is the GINI. There’s a reason the World Bank talks about “Getting to Denmark”.
You introduced the Scandinavian theme into the discussion OAB. How does it become a ‘false narrative’ when I follow up on your lead?
Yes, Finnish education is excellent, and the emphasis on high level qualifications for teachers is something I would love to see adopted here.
But on the other hand, if you talk about ‘GINI’ then you should also understand that Finland has one of the fastest rates of increasing inequality in Europe.
And if you talk about ‘getting to Denmark’, you should be warned that the Danes have the highest rate of personal indebtedness in the World, pay the highest tax rates, have a crap education system, the worlds highest cancer rates, and the Danish Govt. is currently warning that their pattern of very low growth in productivity / unrealistic wage increases are causing a slide in competitiveness that seriously threatens Denmark’s ongoing prosperity.
Norway is a model in lots of things, but we would have to double our NZ GDP levels to match the wealth that supplies the Norwegian Social welfare state. Lucky they have that oil.
Sweden is fueled by intense corporate industrialization….
Lessons yes. But not simple or easy ones.
Clearly, the World Bank’s talk of “Denmark” uses “Denmark” as a metaphor, rather than the more literal interpretation you’ve chosen.
It’s a false narrative by virtue of your decision to frame lessons as “applicable” rather than instructive.
Did I say the lessons were simple and easy? No. in fact, I used them as a contrast to Gosman’s feverish assertions about the Left.
And you knew that.
Nonsense OAB.
And I’ve been here long enough by now to know your angle pretty well.
You’re a sniper at heart. Get off a shot or two, but always have a plan for retreat close at hand.
One of your classic exit strategies is the one you are attempting here – laying down a smoke screen of semantics and hoping you’ll confuse the enemies view of the battlefield.
Bollocks!
The narrative here is very clear.
Gosman brought up Venezuela as evidence that the policies many Leftists here wish to see do not work, and you jumped in and countered with the view that learning lessons from Scandinavia was of far more interest to the Left.
Now if ‘learning’ isn’t ‘instructive’, then what is?
And if ‘instructive’ doesn’t have the potential to lead to ‘applicable’, whats the bloody point of it?
Just a barren indulgence in intellectual masturbation?
So my points were completely applicable to the instructive nature of the narrative.
And nonsense again that the World Bank were using ‘Denmark’ as a ‘metaphor’.
They used the word Denmark, because Denmark was exactly the literal country they see as the ideal starting point for the discussion on future models of economic and political development.
Link below is very instructive, essential reading for anyone on the Left interested in Scandinavian lessons.
http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21570840-nordic-countries-are-reinventing-their-model-capitalism-says-adrian
Funny, that was the other link I considered citing.
Learning certainly begets application; your ability to articulate a tautology is testament to that.
Whether the applications one learns from are universally applicable is another matter. I’ve suggested income equality and education as places where applications abound.
Speaking of education, your support for a government that destroyed the right to collective bargaining, signalled well before the election, makes you a very special creature to be pretending concern about this country’s future, especially after the way you cited your Dad’s policics, eh.
“makes you a very special creature to be pretending concern about this country’s future”
Despite your sanctimonious observation yesterday that the Left was superior in the way they “understood the value of diversity”, you are actually extremely intolerant when it comes to diversity of political thought aren’t you OAB?
There are only 2 modes you can comprehend, you only value one of them, and you are as intolerant and dismissive of the other as any RW Bible belt gay hating red neck.
I am exactly what I say I am, a lifetime Left wing voter currently so pissed off with the lack of unity, vision, practicality, intelligence, and leadership of the NZ political Left that I am unable to bring myself to vote for them.
I might just stick around and keep reminding you of that. Anything that helps break down the smug ill founded sense of superiority of people like you has to be good for our country.
Glad we agree on the value of the Economist article. Will post a little further on that tomorrow.
There’s no need to be tolerant of political thought which aims to harm most people to extract even more privilege for the few who are already the most well off and powerful.
What CR said: I respect political thought when it qualifies as thought.
the lost sheep
Gosman also has an M.O. And venezuela is one of his to show how “socialism” fails people. he then spins like a top about why the GFC etc is not a failure of capitalism.
So perhaps OAB and Gosman are just different sides of the same coin cos when you wrote
“… Anything that helps break down the smug ill founded sense of superiority of people like you has to be good for our country.”
I thought of Gosman
“As I said: lessons to be learned.”
The first would be voting the Social Democrats back in now the economic liberals have done the damage.
The social democrats still show a limited understanding of the low carbon future that we are rapidly descending into. (But then again so do all political parties).
What would really help parties like the Democrats for Social Credit (and NZ politics in general) is halving our MMP threshold to 2.5%. That means a party would would get into Parliament if they won enough votes to get at least 3 MPs.
How many votes did the Social democrays get last election!
Not even worth counting, although the good folk at the Electoral Commission did.
I think the image associated with this story is a bad mistake. Bomber has blown the shark with this one. I haven’t seen this type of image before and I am a bit shocked that he has done it. This will end very badly imo.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/01/21/first-rule-of-isis-fight-club-is-that-you-dont-mention-5-eyes/
Agree not good at all, and political commentary in NZ does not want to go down this road.
+1 +1
use a tinyurl so as not to give him the clicking numbers.
that photoshoppping is appalling.
A well chosen image by Bomber. Key the sociopath doesn’t care about spilling the blood of NZ troops, as long as he can rub shoulders with the billionaires club.
images like that are used to create all sorts of horrible outcomes for the left and the people all around the world and this country is no different and that is because of the first part of your second sentence.
OK, on second thoughts I don’t want to see horrific images become the norm in NZ media. But Key is still a crapstain on the reputation of NZ.
@ marty mars
I agree. It’s ‘overkill’. I won’t put into words what his response reminds me of, but I do think more restraint is needed on his part. And would result in more respect for him.
Text of the State of the Union, which President Obama is delivering right now. Interesting policy platform he’s pushing – paid sick leave, help with childcare and free education in community colleges (kinda like our polytechs, but course credits can be transferred to universities).
Doubtful if any of this will make it through a Republican majority Congress, but he talks a good game.
Soldiers of the Donetsk Peoples Republic proudly show that they have taken control of “Donetsk International Airport” from Ukranian/Kiev forces.
Sadly, what was a modern international airport is nothing but a shit pile of rubble. Who knows how many lives was lost for this insanity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84359240&x-yt-ts=1421782837&v=mdABmuJLils
Pres. Obama’s state of the union address was very impressing.
I found it depressing, relentlessly compressing PR fluff, and ultimately distressing in its focus on the infallible greatness of the US empire.
Obama should do what Vladimir Putin does every year – a 3hr press conference in front of the world media, no teleprompters, no scripts, no questions barred.
it’s like Boko Haram doesn’t even exist
(how does this guy..sitting in england..know so much about the new zealand mainstream-media..?..
..those putting the whore in journalism..)
“..George Monbiot:..Our ‘impartial’ broadcasters have become mouthpieces of the elite..
..If you think the news is balanced – think again.
Journalists who should challenge power –
– are doing its dirty work..”
(cont..)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/20/broadcasters-mouthpieces-of-elite-balanced-news-journalists
Fantastic piece from Monbiot. Should be front page of every goddamn news outlet, but that ain’t gonna happen! Nuggets:
As Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East bureau chief and pullitzer prize winner, says: our news media have simply become courtiers to the power elite, amplifying their narrative, not examining and challenging it.
Watch RT’s
Amy PondAbby Martin talk to Tyrell Ventura (son of Jesse) about the CIA placing agents in state legislatures and no doubt in the MSM.Right of Reply – Scoop Responds To The Daily Blog
Bomber doesn’t seem to do the left very many favours at all. I’d rather lose his blog than Scoop, if we had to lose one.
Scoop is a valuable resource but its huge volume of in-depth research is simply indigestible for the casual reader. I think it needs a redesign and better curation of stories.
The Daily Blog is in sore need of a rethink as well, it just doesn’t look professional at all. I admire Bomber’s passion and hard work but he’s a bit OTT, spraying friendly fire and crushing dissent
I agree that Scoop could be more accessible, but they are reviewing stuff with the Chrysalis Project. I really don’t bother with the Daily Blog any more, although John Minto and Keith Locke write some good stuff now and then.
Yeah, I don’t bother with TDB as it’s got a horrible interface and most of it’s just whinging. Get some good stuff from Minto, Locke, Rankin and Genter but they don’t post often enough to make TDB a daily read.
So where is the thunderous condemnation of Boko Haram? More thunderous is the silence emanating from just about everywhere, including New Zealand.
We present ourselves as a caring compassionate nation. So where is the horror and the outrage?
Too many things to be outraged about these days.
#bringbackourgirls is probably as impotent as #jesuischarlie
There are currently 59 groups designated by the US State Department as foreign terrorist organisations, Boko Haram was designated as such in November 2013.
Kim DotCom is the real threat to NZ, stop raising inconvenient facts.
French Algerians who said they were from Al Qaeda Yemen shot up people in Paris so that means NZ should send soldiers to fight the few thousand ISIS gunmen in Iraq, because the US (nor the Iraqi security forces they spent billions to train) somehow can’t handle it themselves.
Geddit? Because that’s all the sense western leadership is making right now.
We are a crucial lynchpin in the defense of western civilisation against the hordes of maniacs with guns. (Not counting the 8000 annual homicides in the US)