The latest sick message from Min Ed Spindoctors (Dept of Lying)….
“Dont mention deciles, we dont want people to make the link between school “performance” and social disadvantage. Put the pressure on the teachers to achieve the unachievable…blame the poor for their failure to meet our cosy pampered private school standards….justify Charter schools”.
The reason the ministry spokes-person gave on TV One news last night is that people misunderstand the numbers used for deciles! Children? What children?
Did anyone read the interview with Anton Oliver in last weekend’s Sunday Star Times. It does not appear to be online.
In the article Oliver indicated that he was considering a political career. I wonder which party he is thinking of.
Conventionally you would expect an ex all black to go with National but Oliver is not conventional. He is a deep thinker and is a committed environmentalist.
Perhaps he is thinking of Labour or the Greens. It would be great to see him run in Central Otago.
Sunday Star Times, 19 August 2012: p1 – from Press Display:
Now based in London – where he is completing an Executive MBA at Cambridge University – he said he would not be so hesitant to knock back future approaches. ‘‘ Perhaps, I wouldn’t say no to that,’’ Oliver told the Sunday StarTimes. ‘‘ It is an everchanging picture in New Zealand.’’
While he rejected approaches to run at last year’s general election, he still made his presence felt in the lead-up to polling, fronting a campaign to retain MMP as our electoral system. ‘‘ I did stick my head up out of the parapet to support MMP. Any electoral system is flawed. I just think MMP is less flawed than the rest.’’
Oliver supports reforming the electoral cycle, including increasing the present term from three years to four or even five, believing the country would benefit from a longer term. ‘‘A lot of the policies we see being put in place by national and local government are short- term focused because politicians and councillors have to get re-elected. We need to get some long- term thinking in place because at the moment it’s non-existent, everything is short- term profit- orientated and it’s not smart.’’
I did see the headline for that article about Anton Oliver on the cover of STT at the supermarket but thats it, I haven’t read it. I was vaguely interested because Anton Oliver does come across as a thinker, unlike his other rugby collegaues I dare say. He once spoke out, several years ago about their (AB’s) boozey violent culture which was impressive and brave.
He was also once on the panel of the Roger awards, named after Roger Douglas, who handed out annual awards to the worst multi national corporates operating in NZ. That, I thought was interesting too. He’s deeply anti windfarms however and was involved in action to prevent a large scale wind farm going ahead in the South Island several years ago. Sorry, I don’t have references for that, its just from memory. Those living in the area of the proposed wind farm might be able to shed some light on that issue.
I’d be surprised if his flavour was left, maybe it’s centrist, or like Carol suggests, maybe that odd group of Blue-Greens.
Did anyone read the interview with Anton Oliver in last weekend’s Sunday Star Times.
My first thought was ‘who’? Seriously, there’s something wrong in the fact that All Blacks have an ‘in’ because people (many people, not all!) know who they are.
3 News banging on about the thugby career of one of the people killed in Afghanistan. As if it matters.
Mike McNitwit then says ‘he was just x years old when the Taliban struck’. So now, TV3 reporters believe that the perpetrators of 9/11 were the Taliban?
He was also a ‘boy’s boy, a man’s man’. lolwut?
How American are we exactly?
I’m not sure if I think this is a good thing in that we can review a schools performance without the decile information and focus primarily on the outcomes it produces or if I think this is a bit of a whitewash to hide the effect the socioeconomic environment has on schools.
One thing is sure though, it masks information about the makeup of the school role and I think that’s a mistake. You can’t manage something if you can’t measure it.
Yeah well, I dont know about you, but I like having an education system where people of all backgrounds go to the same schools, rather than rich/middle class parents sending their kids to private and intergrated god bothering schools across town because they might end up coming in contact with one of those messy poor kids that they talk about. God forbid that for their little darlings.
Choice is all good, but there is something wrong when you have the levels of socio-economic stratification that parents sending their kids to the rich schools across town get you…
Don’t try to muddy the waters. If you don’t want to send your kids to charter school then don’t send them to a public school. If you think a charter school is best for your kid then send them there.
I blame Chris’s teachers, felix. Any composition problems Chris has are clearly the responsibility of the public schools that so badly let him down. If only his parents had the option of sending him to remedial reading classes at a top notch charter school, these embarrasing blunders would not be blighting his adult life.
Thanks RedB, with neo-libs and their acolytes it helps to turn their arguments back on them. You are “on the money”, C73 only understands life in terms of money and transactions. It’s sad how reduced this can make the world appear.
C73, I never commented on your honesty which definitely stands up to scrutiny.
As I said, it is a sad and reduced world view. Given it reduces us all to a measurable transactional status maybe calling yourself Chris73 is very appropriate.
I guess all is not well in Rodney Hide’s super-city – you know the one he claims as one of his greatest achievements. Senior staff have been leaking their views to the media about bullying in the organisation from a top level manager.
One IES manager yesterday said senior management were closing ranks and supporting Mr Dragicevich while asking staff to trust all was good.
“There has been lots of fob-off bull**** from management telling us we could have faith in the ‘process’ … and a lecture about not talking to media,” the manager said.
A former council staff member said there was a strong division between senior management and other council staff, many of whom had taken stress leave after pressure from the top.
“The Super City has brought some things together, but it has destroyed any positive working culture that the previous councils had,” the former staffer said.
I’m not going to get into the speech in any great detail, or restate the abundantly obvious, as it wouldn’t add anything to what’s already been said. What was surprising to me – and heartening – was in fact how many people voiced their anger. Entire networks that had up to that point either actively supported Shearer’s centrist line or maintained a degree of public discipline turned aggressively onto the leader. There were renunciations and denunciations, as well as much calm and dispassionate analysis. Most damningly of all, the speech was unanimously exposed as a cynical ploy: a dishonest attempt at triangulation from a leadership that, nine months into its tenure, has comprehensively failed to define itself or articulate an alternative and bold political vision for the nation. What this failure might suggest is to what extent Labour misjudged the political moment when it chose an inexperienced leader whose best, whose only idea seems to be to enact a soft version of Blairism, but also that third-way political strategy has become too transparent to be feasible. Nobody buys the stuff anymore. So in this instance, whilst there may be a broad support in the country for the odious welfare reforms enacted by National, the Labour Party finds itself unable to plug into that sentiment without coming unstuck at its core.
What remains is a disconnect whose depth is truly difficult to measure. After linking to one of the harshest responses to the speech, I had the following brief exchange with deputy leader Grant Robertson:….
Embolding mine.
He’s talking about Bill’s post here. I waiting for a reply from my (Labour) MP to whom I sent a copy with a letter.
Whether Salmond et al like it or not – this has become a line in the sand.
… Those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to pay taxes have a straightforward reason to support the welfare state: it’s simple prudence. One day, it may be our turn to depend on the state.
But when we criticise people who receive welfare, we are not just imprudent. We also undermine the security of our friends and family members and fellow citizens who depend on the welfare system.
If we complain about teenage mothers, and insist that someone ought to control their income and make them stop having babies, we make every sole mother worry about interference. If we mutter about a person on the dole who spends time working on his house instead of looking for a job, we tell unemployed people that their every action is subject to scrutiny. We become a surveillance society, rather than a civil society. We are ever ready to pop our heads over the back fence, and complain about the neighbours. We turn everyone who receives a welfare benefit into an object of suspicion. That creates a society where no- one trusts each other, and where each person must always act with an eye to staying on the right side of those in power.
Our health and welfare systems are based on need, not some notion of worthiness. If we are in need, we are entitled to assistance, and that means that we may live as free citizens. It means that we are secure from economic fear, secure from absolute want, and secure from the interference of our neighbours. That freedom and security makes all of us beneficiaries of the welfare system.
The disclosure at the end states that Deborah Russell is a lecturer in taxation at Massey University and has recently joined the Labour Party and that Richard Long is currently on leave. Hope it is a long leave and that they continue to use Deborah in his place!
Otago Daily Times have an article today on the changes to Youth Benefits that came in yesterday. No other paper seems to have covered it. It involves a significant amount of privatisation through contracting out the services to ticket-clippers that can surely only add to the costs of provisions?
The first stage of the Government’s welfare reforms came into force yesterday, with a shake-up to youth benefits, as services were contracted out to 43 different local providers.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said the changes introduced yesterday would affect about 17,000 youths and targeted those between 16 and 18 who were either on benefits or not in education or employment, and parents under the age of 19 on benefits.
As part of the changes more than $148 million was being invested in support services aimed at helping young people become independent and not reliant on benefits, Ms Bennett said.
The changes also saw the introduction of 43 different “youth service” providers, selected through a tendering process.
The main provider mentioned is an organisation with charity status, called Community Colleges NZ:
I’ve never heard of them before, but the name is one that echoes the US community college system (in the UK and Aussie when I worked in the equivalent state provided tertiary sector it was referred to as “further education” and targeted students over 16 years who had failed at school and/or did not have qualifications to go to uni).
I’m glad that the new provisions put a focus on education and training for beneficiaries, but I’m not happy that it’s been contracted out to a little known organisation that operates largely in only one of NZ’s two main islands.
Yesterday I commented that the new provisions also include promotion of long term contraceptives for young women:
rosy also commented that So they’ll give teens a controversial long-acting contraception with significant side-effects, including osteoporosis, delayed return to fertility and an increased risk of STDs … but nothing to protect against STDs and HIV infection.
Another important thing is that these NGO’s have now been brought into the system. Previously, a WINZ ‘client’ could go to these organizations and get help with dealing with the likes of WINZ ie, a youth worker would come to someone’s appointment with WINZ as a support person, etc. Now they are dishing out the money on behalf of the government, they become embedded into the system.
The thing grabbing attention is something manager Leigh Finlay says and some of the teens confirm off their own bat.
It’s that a third of them are prepared to tear up their benefit card, shrug off the support of family, friends and Government and wing it to Australia.
The latest changes to the dole will bring hardship, no question, but it’s really peripheral to any kind of life plan going on in this city basement. They don’t want it, they want the work they can’t find.
On a Waikato day beaten up with rainstorms, serving in Perth or digging mines in the desert seems way better.
Dunno if this has been picked up elsewhere, but one of the soldiers killed yesterday had this to say on facebook a few days ago about the PM bunking off to the States instead of doing his job:
“If I was a leader of a country I would attend the funerals of our fallen soldiers….. I wouldn’t be at a f****** baseball game!!”
Ironic that Key will have the last laugh at Corporal Luke Tamatea’s funeral, eh?
One of the three soldiers killed in Afghanistan on Sunday had criticised the Prime Minister for not attending the funerals of two soldiers killed earlier this month.
…
Just days before he was killed, Corporal Tamatea voiced his belief that the Prime Minister should have stayed in New Zealand to honour the slain soldiers.
“If I was a leader of a country I would attend the funerals of our fallen soldiers….. I wouldn’t be at a f****** baseball game!!” he posted on Facebook on August 9.
As a former NZ infantry soldier and having deployed to Afghanistan I believe I can comment on this thread. This year alone I have lost 4 friends in Afghanistan, having served closely with 3 of them, most recently Corporal Tamatea. As sad as the situation is the consensus among all my mates still serving is that the last thing they want is to be withdrawn from theatre. As far as they’re concerned they have a job to do and a duty to uphold which they haven’t fulfilled. To them, 2013 is to soon to come out. All this talk about John Key having no respect? He went to the homes of my friends(Durrer and Malone) and offered his personal condolences then, remember he also has a family and an obligation to them. Ask anybody serving now and they’ll tell you that’s how they feel. On backing Labour because they would prefer that our troops were withdrawn sooner rather than later. We were sent in by labour in the first place, I served in Afghanistan under a Labour government. In summary, as soldiers they know the risks of deploying to such environments as Afghanistan, they know there is a chance they could pay the ultimate price. As a former infantryman I know that Luke would be happy that he died doing what he loved to do- soldiering. He was an excellent operator, with exceptional “soldier skills”. Today there are a lot of heavy hearts in the NZDF because of this tragedy. Mourn for them and their families, and pray that nothing else happens to the rest of our brave men and women serving there but know that they would all rather be there making a difference than here. All my currently serving friends want to deploy to do there part(some again).
“If I was a leader of a country I would attend the funerals of our fallen soldiers….. I wouldn’t be at a f****** baseball game!!” he posted on Facebook on August 9.
Its the values the view represents which is important. As you well know. Sorry Mr Key, sometimes you have to be PM first, not Father first.
I’m glad that Key has already said that nothing will keep him away from the latest funerals. Not rugby, not baseball, not league, not snowboarding, nothing. Good on you for expressing your values as PM.
The question of Key’s non attendance was irrelevant to begin with, a media ‘hot’ issue, not worthy of comment, since that what deputy PMs are for as its understood stopping
government would be a victory for terrorists.
The problem with Key is his tendency to popup on TV and smother an issue to breathless boredom, which came across for me, as highly inappropriate give the deaths.
I suspect soldiers, in theater, all have a good inappropriate rant, again not news.
Shock, horror! A large group of people have different views…oh the humanity
Polls in the United States show that most Americans believe the U.S. should leave Afghanistan immediately.
Polls show that an overwhelming percentage of another group of people believes that the foreign troops must leave Afghanistan immediately. That group? The people of Afghanistan.
Oh, the inhumanity.
Not that you would care, of course, with your smug right wing certainties.
I re-posted it because it’s something I would have like to written myself (I’m not the wordsmith I’d like to be) but I think its important to provide a balance to the (sometimes) OTP reactions of people on here.
Well, that disposes of the myth that Key’s fan club were putting about that all the soldiers in Afghanistan were totally supportive of Key’s decision to skip the funerals.
Yeah but come hell or high water he’s gonna attend these three funerals, even flagging the Asia Pacific Conference (so work can be missed for a funeral but not baseball) That is, of course, unless Max-a-million’s Tiddle-wink competition clashes. Moveable principles are so hard to keep up with.
A question: I seem to recall Pollywog was going to sail the ocean on a waka? I saw the waka returning from an epic round Pacific voyage on the News recently. Polly, are you out there? Anybody heard anything?
Been wondering about that myself B. Here’s his post about the proposed 2012 voyage and a follow up post but the last activity on his blog was Christmas day last year.
Great minds and all that …. Having probably heard the same news item yesterday as you, I too was wondering about Pollywog and the journey.
I have just spent a fascinating half hour on the website for the journey which I found through Joe90’s first link. Seems that the journey has not yet concluded but has been inspirational for all involved. I certainly came away from the link feeling that the world was a much better place and there is hope for the future after all.
Subject: OPEN LETTER: Request for speaking rights at Auckland Council CEO Review Subcommittee 22 August 2012, 10am Auckland Town Hall.
17 August 2012
REQUEST FOR SPEAKING RIGHTS AT THE CEO REVIEW SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING
to be held on Wednesday 22 August 2012, 10am,
Council Chambers, Auckland Town Hall, 301-305 Queen Street, Auckland
SUBJECT MATTER:
1) The failure of the Auckland Council CEO Doug McKay to meet his statutory duties under s.42 2(e) of the Local Government Act 2002 re:
“maintaining systems to enable effective planning and accurate reporting of the financial and service performance of the local authority; ”
LGOIMA REPLY 21 November 2011 from Darryl Griffin (Manager for Democracy Services)
“The Auckland Council Annual Report:
1) Is the Auckland Council, in a truly ‘open,transparent and democratically-accountable’ way, going to ensure that citizens and ratepayers of the Auckland region are going to be given the ‘devilish’ detail, so we can see exactly where out rate monies are being spent on private sector consultants and contractors?
a) Are the names of the consultants/contractors; the scope,term and value of these contracts going to be published in the Auckland Council Annual Report so that they’re available for public scrutiny?
b) If not – why not?
________________________________________________________________________________________________
(ANSWER) Not at this stage. There are 5,000 contracts related to 12,500 suppliers.
To collate and publish these would be a major exercise logistically and cost-wise. ”
________________________________________________________________________________________________
2) The alleged ‘conflict of interest’ of CEO Doug McKay in being a member of the unelected private lobby group – the Committee for Auckland, in his capacity as CEO of Auckland Council.
IE: Is the CEO of Auckland Council primarily working in the interests of the public majority of citizens and ratepayers or a private minority of big business /corporate interests?
(Is this the reason why Auckland Council rates keep going up?
Because the primary reason for the establishment of the Auckland SUPERCITY was to ensure bigger contracts – for (fewer) but bigger private contractors, an unknown number of which have been awarded to member companies of the Committee for Auckland?)
I was sent an FB post this a.m. regarding a bizarre registration at the NZ Registrar of Companies Office. Three attempts to post the following information from my phone resulted in a force close of my browser each time. This has never happened on any page, on any blog, email, comment box, or other net service in the seven months I have had the phone.
I contacted some people I know who had shared the info and they also had experienced some odd behaviour on their phones, but things seemed ok on their machines. Despite the repeated apparent failure to post from my phone, the miraculous success of the above test, followed by another two failures, I decided that the information would be of enough interest to others that i would walk the six km to my nearest Public Internet connection and try again to share it. Odd thing is, it is obviously a prank registration but how it happened does surely need some explanation;
search : 3238729 Limited
or simply: NZ Police Limited
Why has the international community continued to persist with negotiated settlements and even-handedness in cases where one side was clearly at fault? The reason, for the most part, is self interest. Such an approach avoids direct intervention and the subsequent political risks.
GIVE WAR A CHANCE
Outright victories, rather than negotiated peace settlements, have ended the greater part of the twentieth century’s internal conflicts.
The private military sector can allow policymakers to achieve their foreign-policy goals free from the need to secure public approval and safe in the knowledge that should the situation deteriorate, official participation can be fudged.”
As the political and economic costs of peacekeeping continue to escalate, it may increasingly make sense for multilateral organizations and Western governments to consider outsourcing some aspects of these interventions to the private sector.
Western countries are more reluctant to intervene militarily in weak states, and their politicians are disinclined to explain casualties to their electorates. Furthermore, Western armies, designed primarily to fight the sophisticated international conflicts envisaged by Cold War strategists, are ill equipped to tackle low-intensity civil wars, with their complicated ethnic agendas, blurred boundaries between combatants and civilians, and loose military hierarchies.
UN peacekeeping efforts have fallen victim to Western governments’ fears of sustaining casualties, becoming entangled in expanding conflicts, and incurring escalating costs.
So, you and other RWNJs are saying that governments should just hire mercenaries and tell them to win no matter what and that they should do it this was because the public won’t get to have a say get so upset.
Dave reminds me of those who have fried their brains with one too many acid trips, the little ‘private armies thesis’ just adds proof to the assertion,
it should have been titled, ‘Back to the future with Dave as seen through a multi-coloured prism of light,
Perhaps subtitled, ‘the acid years, how i went from Mango skins to high public office’…
All a rather amusing and ill informed concept. The Italian condotierri experience in the fourteenth century is more than adequate proof that mercenaries are just that, mercenary. They fight for the highest bidder, no moral authority required or practiced. No holds barred if you are paying, and open to any counter bid. It is a sad commentary upon how much we have become subservient to the concept that money can sanction whatever we want, in this case lets “buy” expendable mercenaries rather than risk death for our own people. “Outsource”, make the provision of deadly force contractual.
It’s an extremely dangerous concept, an army of such a size to be able to pacify something like the ongoing conflict in Somalia still has to be paid for by someone,
One must assume that Dave sees the UN in the roll of paymaster in this instance,
However, it would become a lottery if such a force would, after having fulfilled it’s mission be happy just to disband and quietly go home,
Such a rouge army would simply see a far more profitable future in ‘owning’ which-ever ‘weak’ country it was let loose into…
I dunno, theres a difference between winning a war and running a country (look at the middle east) far easier to bank the cheque and move on to the next one
My point being, what happens to such an army once there is no ‘next one’ to bank the check from???
Should that army,(company), decide it need a ‘retirement complex’ while not ‘on contract’ what’s to stop them becoming like the present mercenary army presently masquerading as ‘freedom fighters’ in Syria…
Isn’t a certain ex Labour MP over there being paid by Herr Klark to corrupt young Afghani boys? Wonder how many “refugees” he will sponsor into West Auckland.
Sadly Kate Wilkinson is doing what many National Ministers do, reinterpreting the law and ensuring the “facts” are shaped to suit their agenda. Considering the amount of stress and anxiety she is causing amongst those of us who care about preserving our natural heritage within our conservation parks I think she should be called the Minister of Consternation. http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/kate-wilkinson-minister-of-consternation.html
Peters has just staged a kind of protest by using a point of order to continually question the truth of John Key’s reply with regard to the Minister of (Overseas Development?) on his explanation to the House on the Wang affair.
He repeatedly used points of order to question Mr Key’s answers on whether he had confidence in Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson.
Mr Smith said Mr Peters was incorrectly “litigating” answers using points of order.
“This is parliament and we’ve just had a serious debate about New Zealanders losing their lives overseas and we carry on like spoiled brats,” Mr Smith said.
When Mr Peters kept interjecting, he was ordered to leave the house.
PS: I don’t think peters was acting like a spoilt brat, but, think Peters is just gettin POed with the way Key and co to get away with slippery and untruthful statements, and with the way Lockwood -Smith sometimes protects Key and co from having to answer truthfully.
OK, It’s been updated – maybe because Peters called a press conference on it. So it now includes Peters criticisms of the government, ….and of Lockwood-Smith:
The exchange occurred during normal parliamentary business and question time after MPs delivered speeches honouring the dead soldiers. Mr Peters was disputing the way Prime Minister John Key had answered a question.
Mr Peters called a press conference following his ejection from the House.
“The New Zealand public, I think, is entitled to answers,” he said.
NZ First was seeking clarification about the Crafar Farms issue.
Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson should admit that he misled Parliament, Mr Peters said.
“We don’t stand around excusing incompetent behaviour in this business, surely?”
Williamson last week had to correct himself after earlier telling Parliament legal action against Crafar farm bidders Jack Chen and May Wang was over.
It is not.
Peters said Prime Minister John Key should consider sacking a minister who could not answer “basic questions” like Williamson.
And Speaker Lockwood Smith’s behaviour today was “appalling”.
Peters said his own behaviour was not inappropriate.
“I’ve been pursuing this issue now for considerable time.”
Yes, and Peters press conference and response seems to confirm my view that Peters wasn’t being a brat, but was staging a bit of a protest aimed at media attention for a government minister misleading the House…. because it was being masked by Key’s slippery response.
The more arrests, the happier it is.
Every arrest is carried out with love for the sexist
Who botoxed his cheeks and pumped his chest and abs.
But you can’t nail us in the coffin.
Throw off the yoke of former KGB!
Putin is lighting the fires of revolution
He’s bored and scared of sharing silence with the people
With every execution: the stench of rotten ash
With every long sentence: a wet dream
The country is going, the country is going into the streets boldly
The country is going, the country is going to bid farewell to the regime
The country is going, the country is going, like a feminist wedge
And Putin is going, Putin is going to say goodbye like a sheep
Arrest the whole city for May 6th
Seven years isn’t enough, give us 18!
Forbid us to scream, walk and curse!
Go and marry Father Lukashenko
oh dear, mora is going to have an exCIA on the program talking about lying – as james said they will learn from the torture inflicted on others – that seems morally wrong to me – come on morrissey we need one of your excellent posts on this.
I was going to fix your sweeping statement, but it’s so extreme as to be unfixable.
I assume you’re actually bright enough to know that this American Idiot (think Green Day, I am) – doesn’t come close to representing the billions of theists in the world…
As soon as I saw the word ‘Calvinist’ in that woman’s article, I felt ill – which is how Calvinism makes me feel… but I don’t know if you can even grasp that there is a difference, let alone what it is.
Last week Bill wrote an article on the reality of living on a sickness benefit, in response to Shearer’s inappropriate and ill considered remark regarding the sickness beneficiary painting his roof. In the following comments some one asked Bill for his permission to post his article on Red Alert, which he gave, and hence it was posted. Today’s online Dom Post has published an article counterting beneficiary bashing. It’s written by a Labour Party member and tax lecturer at Massey
Bennett claims poverty is alright since kids just drop back over the line into non-poverty.
so that’s okay right. What did they get a job, any chimneys to sweep gov???
Or did they get a benefit stand down, and were without food….
Bennett ‘out’ as best I can peg it, is that she did not breach privacy because she
just hazarded the guess about the two beneficiaries entitlements she exposed,
doing so however required her to count the children, which means invading their
privacy, but even that, since using the wrong information is still a breach as we
can’t check the figures, their private damnit. which means that citizens rightly
fear the MSD exposing their information, as they have no way to remedy the
matter, Key and Bennett both are happy that no breach occurred.
Its a sad day for parliament that such obvious misleading goes on there., I mean
how seriously can we believe it, that the privacy took such a long time to
declare nothing untoward occurred, that they released their report the same
day a gold medalist was found guilt of cheapening the Olympics by having taken
drugs. When even a impartial commissioner knows how weaselly Keys government
is, and need to frame the timing of the release, leaving poor Bennett hanging for
months. And don’t get me started on Joyce, what a numbskull, his prescription
to weather a rain storm is to strip off and do a dance for more rain.
Just saying at 5 above provided a link to a blog by Giovanni Tiso which I think you would appreciate. Deborah Russell, the author of the Stuff opinion piece which you refer to, is one of the commentors on Giovanni’s blog which led me to read her article which I thought was well written and thought out IMO. Also hope that she will replace Richard Long, currently on leave, for a very long time!
Draco! How dare you question the Holy Septagram of Innovation! At least they managed not to embed any highlighted spelling errors in this one. But then, that’s because Innovation has nothing to do with any pesky second official languages we may have …
I’d tried to debate this on several threads, but people (hello BM, DJ, Steve W, etc) just disappear when asked.
So, once more –
Is an early withdrawal from Afghanistan “cut and run”?
Why is it “running away from terrorists” if proposed by the opposition, but “managed redeployment” (or other euphemism) if decided by Key? Why aren’t the troops staying until 2014? Or late 2013?
If you want them to stay, please say so, and why. Then e-mail the PM.
Noticed on BBC News last night that Australia have introduced a “world first” beneficiary debit card. Only certain shops may be used to purchase certain goods. Alcohol is not allowed. Some cash is also given.
Wise use of taxpayers money or an insult to beneficiaries?
I worried about the Wellington lawn, all those evil protestors destroying the place….
…but wait, if only they’d driven madly around wellington sticking their bums out the
window. Seriously though, when does a gathering become a riot? when the participates
use their cars threatening, to disturb, to raise all hell? Yes, I fed up with being harassed,
this time a car at around 3.30am this morning, I recorded myself sleeping and a car was way
louder than my snoring – which can be beached whale loud. These boring people who
rework their cars to mimic v8 motors are really creepy, they push the pedal to the
metal and then you hear of kids being hit in driveways, as some dick needed to make
his point about their lack of virility by slamming on the speed… my 2 cents.
Feel for you there aerobubble. My new neighbourhood has FWits with dancefloor speakers installed in their BMW 4WD’s and Mercs that make it sound like an earthquake is coming. The chorus usually builds between 7-9am and 5-10pm weekdays and peaks all weekend long but also occurs at random hours post midnight – 6am. Are they boy racers? The odd one is but mainly they are brattish wealthy ill mannered ‘people’ from the flash end of the hood. There may be a recession but some are profiting, and they’re showing off their toys in the tackiest and most annoying way possible. Like JK’s lot from the 80’s.
Its worse than tacky, its anger, its leads to aggressive vehicular behavior, kids run over in
driveways, kid run over, kids driving into power polls and trees. Its happen before, they were
called I believe, Dandies. People who need attention but unlike Mods and rockers have no
actual artists ability, but unlike Dandies their street ballet culture leads to vehicles being
used as toys rather than the actual weapon they are. Laws in this country do not reflect
the harm a vehicle even at low speed can do, if people went around wield a hammer to
get attention (without actually harming anyone, just waving it), Police who lock them up.
Yet do the same with a car, and its a lifestyle choice. Humbug,
So an OIA request was made to see where John Key got his costings of how much the looter bonus would cost. The reply was, paraphrasing, John Key made up unrealistic figures to show that the MSM were being unrealistic.
Definitely gone batty. My reply to Carol had FireFox asking for a security certificate (The address was showing https:) and clicking reply to do this message has the comments all over the place (Picture worth a thousand words).
Yeah I am getting the same problem also the site loading is a bit of a lottery as well as to what I will get and thats between pages and I too have the same security cert problem as well..
Ok. That should fix it. Turned all SSL off (and I have no idea how it got turned on).
The cache was getting severely mucked up earlier today on mobiles so I killed all of the caches. Seems to be taking some time to get operational. That SSL option has a strange set of effects when on. In particular the SSL between cloudflare and the main server
I’m a pc dummy so can’t tell you what’s wrong. All I can say is: there’s a heading ‘OUT NOW’ followed by ‘CD/DVD/DIGITAL’ and a thing that says ‘FLY MY PRETTIES’. From there it’s all over the place -hard to follow. 😯
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency. It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government. Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 19 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/7513835/ERO-drops-decile-ratings-from-reports
The latest sick message from Min Ed Spindoctors (Dept of Lying)….
“Dont mention deciles, we dont want people to make the link between school “performance” and social disadvantage. Put the pressure on the teachers to achieve the unachievable…blame the poor for their failure to meet our cosy pampered private school standards….justify Charter schools”.
The reason the ministry spokes-person gave on TV One news last night is that people misunderstand the numbers used for deciles! Children? What children?
Did anyone read the interview with Anton Oliver in last weekend’s Sunday Star Times. It does not appear to be online.
In the article Oliver indicated that he was considering a political career. I wonder which party he is thinking of.
Conventionally you would expect an ex all black to go with National but Oliver is not conventional. He is a deep thinker and is a committed environmentalist.
Perhaps he is thinking of Labour or the Greens. It would be great to see him run in Central Otago.
I don’t know. Oliver’s line on the environment doesn’t really match that of the Green Party either. And his currently the ambassador for Fonterra.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/opinion/columnists/7508709/Huge-gulf-divides-All-Black-captains
Maybe a Blue-Green?
Sunday Star Times, 19 August 2012: p1 – from Press Display:
Hi Carol I think McCaw is the Fonterra ambassador and Oliver is fronting Forest and Bird’s campaign
🙂
Ah. OK Thanks, Micky. That makes more sense.
Hey Mickey,
I did see the headline for that article about Anton Oliver on the cover of STT at the supermarket but thats it, I haven’t read it. I was vaguely interested because Anton Oliver does come across as a thinker, unlike his other rugby collegaues I dare say. He once spoke out, several years ago about their (AB’s) boozey violent culture which was impressive and brave.
He was also once on the panel of the Roger awards, named after Roger Douglas, who handed out annual awards to the worst multi national corporates operating in NZ. That, I thought was interesting too. He’s deeply anti windfarms however and was involved in action to prevent a large scale wind farm going ahead in the South Island several years ago. Sorry, I don’t have references for that, its just from memory. Those living in the area of the proposed wind farm might be able to shed some light on that issue.
I’d be surprised if his flavour was left, maybe it’s centrist, or like Carol suggests, maybe that odd group of Blue-Greens.
My first thought was ‘who’? Seriously, there’s something wrong in the fact that All Blacks have an ‘in’ because people (many people, not all!) know who they are.
3 News banging on about the thugby career of one of the people killed in Afghanistan. As if it matters.
Mike McNitwit then says ‘he was just x years old when the Taliban struck’. So now, TV3 reporters believe that the perpetrators of 9/11 were the Taliban?
He was also a ‘boy’s boy, a man’s man’. lolwut?
How American are we exactly?
Conventionally you would expect an ex all black to go with National…
Wrong. Chris Laidlaw and Ken Gray—-to name just two ex-All Black Labour MPs….
from Stuff: ERO drops decile ratings from reports
I’m not sure if I think this is a good thing in that we can review a schools performance without the decile information and focus primarily on the outcomes it produces or if I think this is a bit of a whitewash to hide the effect the socioeconomic environment has on schools.
One thing is sure though, it masks information about the makeup of the school role and I think that’s a mistake. You can’t manage something if you can’t measure it.
Yeah well, I dont know about you, but I like having an education system where people of all backgrounds go to the same schools, rather than rich/middle class parents sending their kids to private and intergrated god bothering schools across town because they might end up coming in contact with one of those messy poor kids that they talk about. God forbid that for their little darlings.
I like people having choice about where to send their kids
Choice is all good, but there is something wrong when you have the levels of socio-economic stratification that parents sending their kids to the rich schools across town get you…
Don’t try to muddy the waters. If you don’t want to send your kids to charter school then don’t send them to a public school. If you think a charter school is best for your kid then send them there.
One size does not fit all.
“If you don’t want to send your kids to charter school then don’t send them to a public school.”
Eh?
I blame Chris’s teachers, felix. Any composition problems Chris has are clearly the responsibility of the public schools that so badly let him down. If only his parents had the option of sending him to remedial reading classes at a top notch charter school, these embarrasing blunders would not be blighting his adult life.
“If you don’t want to send your kids to a charter school don’t, send them to a public school instead.”
Hey I thought I did pretty well considering I’m trying to finish max payne 3 at the same time
And if you want a charter school, use your own money, not public money. Sounds fair to me.
Thanks RedB, with neo-libs and their acolytes it helps to turn their arguments back on them. You are “on the money”, C73 only understands life in terms of money and transactions. It’s sad how reduced this can make the world appear.
Fair enough, can’t argue with that. So whos in charge of the public? Oh thats right, Nationals in charge of the money, not you or me.
Guess we’ll wait and see what happens.
C73, I never commented on your honesty which definitely stands up to scrutiny.
As I said, it is a sad and reduced world view. Given it reduces us all to a measurable transactional status maybe calling yourself Chris73 is very appropriate.
I guess all is not well in Rodney Hide’s super-city – you know the one he claims as one of his greatest achievements. Senior staff have been leaking their views to the media about bullying in the organisation from a top level manager.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10828341
A must-read from Giovani at Bat-Bean-Beam:
http://bat-bean-beam.blogspot.co.nz/
I’m not going to get into the speech in any great detail, or restate the abundantly obvious, as it wouldn’t add anything to what’s already been said. What was surprising to me – and heartening – was in fact how many people voiced their anger. Entire networks that had up to that point either actively supported Shearer’s centrist line or maintained a degree of public discipline turned aggressively onto the leader. There were renunciations and denunciations, as well as much calm and dispassionate analysis. Most damningly of all, the speech was unanimously exposed as a cynical ploy: a dishonest attempt at triangulation from a leadership that, nine months into its tenure, has comprehensively failed to define itself or articulate an alternative and bold political vision for the nation. What this failure might suggest is to what extent Labour misjudged the political moment when it chose an inexperienced leader whose best, whose only idea seems to be to enact a soft version of Blairism, but also that third-way political strategy has become too transparent to be feasible. Nobody buys the stuff anymore. So in this instance, whilst there may be a broad support in the country for the odious welfare reforms enacted by National, the Labour Party finds itself unable to plug into that sentiment without coming unstuck at its core.
What remains is a disconnect whose depth is truly difficult to measure. After linking to one of the harshest responses to the speech, I had the following brief exchange with deputy leader Grant Robertson:….
Embolding mine.
He’s talking about Bill’s post here. I waiting for a reply from my (Labour) MP to whom I sent a copy with a letter.
Whether Salmond et al like it or not – this has become a line in the sand.
Thanks for that link – I agree it is a Must Read. A very well thoughtout blog by Giovanni.
The comments also led me to a related opinion article by Deborah Russell on Stuff this morning, which is also well worth reading
https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/7512486/People-who-need-a-benefit-should-get-it&sa=U&ei=G8AyUOi9CqPi2gXBsIH4BA&ved=0CA4QFjAD&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNF1q6Q5kPMp56a_eLsUcGpsNKTEsQ
… Those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to pay taxes have a straightforward reason to support the welfare state: it’s simple prudence. One day, it may be our turn to depend on the state.
But when we criticise people who receive welfare, we are not just imprudent. We also undermine the security of our friends and family members and fellow citizens who depend on the welfare system.
If we complain about teenage mothers, and insist that someone ought to control their income and make them stop having babies, we make every sole mother worry about interference. If we mutter about a person on the dole who spends time working on his house instead of looking for a job, we tell unemployed people that their every action is subject to scrutiny. We become a surveillance society, rather than a civil society. We are ever ready to pop our heads over the back fence, and complain about the neighbours. We turn everyone who receives a welfare benefit into an object of suspicion. That creates a society where no- one trusts each other, and where each person must always act with an eye to staying on the right side of those in power.
Our health and welfare systems are based on need, not some notion of worthiness. If we are in need, we are entitled to assistance, and that means that we may live as free citizens. It means that we are secure from economic fear, secure from absolute want, and secure from the interference of our neighbours. That freedom and security makes all of us beneficiaries of the welfare system.
The disclosure at the end states that Deborah Russell is a lecturer in taxation at Massey University and has recently joined the Labour Party and that Richard Long is currently on leave. Hope it is a long leave and that they continue to use Deborah in his place!
Otago Daily Times have an article today on the changes to Youth Benefits that came in yesterday. No other paper seems to have covered it. It involves a significant amount of privatisation through contracting out the services to ticket-clippers that can surely only add to the costs of provisions?
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/222477/welfare-reforms-affect-17000
The main provider mentioned is an organisation with charity status, called Community Colleges NZ:
http://www.comcol.ac.nz/
I’ve never heard of them before, but the name is one that echoes the US community college system (in the UK and Aussie when I worked in the equivalent state provided tertiary sector it was referred to as “further education” and targeted students over 16 years who had failed at school and/or did not have qualifications to go to uni).
I’m glad that the new provisions put a focus on education and training for beneficiaries, but I’m not happy that it’s been contracted out to a little known organisation that operates largely in only one of NZ’s two main islands.
Yesterday I commented that the new provisions also include promotion of long term contraceptives for young women:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20082012/comment-page-1/#comment-510397
https://provider.midlandshn.health.nz/news/financial-assistance-for-female-beneficiaries-contraception
rosy also commented that
So they’ll give teens a controversial long-acting contraception with significant side-effects, including osteoporosis, delayed return to fertility and an increased risk of STDs … but nothing to protect against STDs and HIV infection.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20082012/comment-page-1/#comment-510778
She provided this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depo-Provera
Why is this not getting wider media coverage and comments from left wing MPs?
Another important thing is that these NGO’s have now been brought into the system. Previously, a WINZ ‘client’ could go to these organizations and get help with dealing with the likes of WINZ ie, a youth worker would come to someone’s appointment with WINZ as a support person, etc. Now they are dishing out the money on behalf of the government, they become embedded into the system.
Stuff has an article (out of Hamilton) and comments section on the changes (nothing about contraception though):
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/7513942/Rules-hard-on-jobless-teens-who-want-work
Gordon Campbell has a great article on public-private partnerships in this month’s Werewolf.
Dunno if this has been picked up elsewhere, but one of the soldiers killed yesterday had this to say on facebook a few days ago about the PM bunking off to the States instead of doing his job:
“If I was a leader of a country I would attend the funerals of our fallen soldiers….. I wouldn’t be at a f****** baseball game!!”
Ironic that Key will have the last laugh at Corporal Luke Tamatea’s funeral, eh?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10828343
http://www.3news.co.nz/Three-Kiwi-soldiers-dead-in-Afghanistan/tabid/423/articleID/265979/Default.aspx#ixzz243uTzRS5
Heres another viewpoint:
R.D wrote:
As a former NZ infantry soldier and having deployed to Afghanistan I believe I can comment on this thread. This year alone I have lost 4 friends in Afghanistan, having served closely with 3 of them, most recently Corporal Tamatea. As sad as the situation is the consensus among all my mates still serving is that the last thing they want is to be withdrawn from theatre. As far as they’re concerned they have a job to do and a duty to uphold which they haven’t fulfilled. To them, 2013 is to soon to come out. All this talk about John Key having no respect? He went to the homes of my friends(Durrer and Malone) and offered his personal condolences then, remember he also has a family and an obligation to them. Ask anybody serving now and they’ll tell you that’s how they feel. On backing Labour because they would prefer that our troops were withdrawn sooner rather than later. We were sent in by labour in the first place, I served in Afghanistan under a Labour government. In summary, as soldiers they know the risks of deploying to such environments as Afghanistan, they know there is a chance they could pay the ultimate price. As a former infantryman I know that Luke would be happy that he died doing what he loved to do- soldiering. He was an excellent operator, with exceptional “soldier skills”. Today there are a lot of heavy hearts in the NZDF because of this tragedy. Mourn for them and their families, and pray that nothing else happens to the rest of our brave men and women serving there but know that they would all rather be there making a difference than here. All my currently serving friends want to deploy to do there part(some again).
or perhaps:
“If I was a leader of a country I would attend the funerals of our fallen soldiers….. I wouldn’t be at a f****** baseball game!!” he posted on Facebook on August 9.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10828343
Shock, horror! A large group of people have different views…oh the humanity
Distraction.
Its the values the view represents which is important. As you well know. Sorry Mr Key, sometimes you have to be PM first, not Father first.
I’m glad that Key has already said that nothing will keep him away from the latest funerals. Not rugby, not baseball, not league, not snowboarding, nothing. Good on you for expressing your values as PM.
The question of Key’s non attendance was irrelevant to begin with, a media ‘hot’ issue, not worthy of comment, since that what deputy PMs are for as its understood stopping
government would be a victory for terrorists.
The problem with Key is his tendency to popup on TV and smother an issue to breathless boredom, which came across for me, as highly inappropriate give the deaths.
I suspect soldiers, in theater, all have a good inappropriate rant, again not news.
Shock, horror! A large group of people have different views…oh the humanity
Polls in the United States show that most Americans believe the U.S. should leave Afghanistan immediately.
Polls show that an overwhelming percentage of another group of people believes that the foreign troops must leave Afghanistan immediately. That group? The people of Afghanistan.
Oh, the inhumanity.
Not that you would care, of course, with your smug right wing certainties.
If Key has such a big obligation to his family, why does he not pull out of his job and give them his full attention? After all, he can afford to!
I don’t think hes doing this job for the money.
Agredd.
Ego, hobby, favours for big business, gongs, meeting celebrities and international players, a nice DPS entourage . . . anything else?
Yeah his next level promotion up the Goldman Sachs/JP Morgue/Citi Bankster hierarchy.
Chris73
Proud of your comments.
Thanks, could not have said better.
I have military family too.
Cheers.
I re-posted it because it’s something I would have like to written myself (I’m not the wordsmith I’d like to be) but I think its important to provide a balance to the (sometimes) OTP reactions of people on here.
I have military family too.
Was any of them bullied into handing over Afghani captives to possible torture and summary execution?
Well, that disposes of the myth that Key’s fan club were putting about that all the soldiers in Afghanistan were totally supportive of Key’s decision to skip the funerals.
Yeah but come hell or high water he’s gonna attend these three funerals, even flagging the Asia Pacific Conference (so work can be missed for a funeral but not baseball) That is, of course, unless Max-a-million’s Tiddle-wink competition clashes. Moveable principles are so hard to keep up with.
Oops, Pacific Island Forum before I get told off for telling lies.
A question: I seem to recall Pollywog was going to sail the ocean on a waka? I saw the waka returning from an epic round Pacific voyage on the News recently. Polly, are you out there? Anybody heard anything?
Been wondering about that myself B. Here’s his post about the proposed 2012 voyage and a follow up post but the last activity on his blog was Christmas day last year.
Mr PW, are you out there?.
Great minds and all that …. Having probably heard the same news item yesterday as you, I too was wondering about Pollywog and the journey.
I have just spent a fascinating half hour on the website for the journey which I found through Joe90’s first link. Seems that the journey has not yet concluded but has been inspirational for all involved. I certainly came away from the link feeling that the world was a much better place and there is hope for the future after all.
http://www.pacificvoyagers.org/
Really recommend people go there . Pollywog was/is on the Samoan vessel – Gaualofa.
From his distinctive pictogram, I think PW is around now and then.
Thanks Joe / Dueto / Just, links are really interesting. We may hear from him soon then.
All welcome – this meeting is open to the public.
SPEAKING RIGHTS CONFIRMED!
COME ALONG AND HEAR WHY THE AUCKLAND COUNCIL CEO IS NOT ‘FIT FOR DUTY’.
Wed 22 August 2012
10am
Auckland Town Hall
_____________________________________________________
21 August 2012
Good morning Penny
Thanks for your request to speak for 5 minutes during the Public Input section of the CEO Review Subcommittee.
The Committee meets in the Council Chamber on the Ground Floor of the Town Hall at 10.00 am Wednesday, 22 August 2012.
Regards
…………| Committee Secretary
Democracy Services
____________________________________________________
Subject: OPEN LETTER: Request for speaking rights at Auckland Council CEO Review Subcommittee 22 August 2012, 10am Auckland Town Hall.
17 August 2012
REQUEST FOR SPEAKING RIGHTS AT THE CEO REVIEW SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING
to be held on Wednesday 22 August 2012, 10am,
Council Chambers, Auckland Town Hall, 301-305 Queen Street, Auckland
SUBJECT MATTER:
1) The failure of the Auckland Council CEO Doug McKay to meet his statutory duties under s.42 2(e) of the Local Government Act 2002 re:
“maintaining systems to enable effective planning and accurate reporting of the financial and service performance of the local authority; ”
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0084/latest/DLM171859.html
LGOIMA REPLY 21 November 2011 from Darryl Griffin (Manager for Democracy Services)
“The Auckland Council Annual Report:
1) Is the Auckland Council, in a truly ‘open,transparent and democratically-accountable’ way, going to ensure that citizens and ratepayers of the Auckland region are going to be given the ‘devilish’ detail, so we can see exactly where out rate monies are being spent on private sector consultants and contractors?
a) Are the names of the consultants/contractors; the scope,term and value of these contracts going to be published in the Auckland Council Annual Report so that they’re available for public scrutiny?
b) If not – why not?
________________________________________________________________________________________________
(ANSWER) Not at this stage. There are 5,000 contracts related to 12,500 suppliers.
To collate and publish these would be a major exercise logistically and cost-wise. ”
________________________________________________________________________________________________
2) The alleged ‘conflict of interest’ of CEO Doug McKay in being a member of the unelected private lobby group – the Committee for Auckland, in his capacity as CEO of Auckland Council.
IE: Is the CEO of Auckland Council primarily working in the interests of the public majority of citizens and ratepayers or a private minority of big business /corporate interests?
http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz/membership/member-organisations
Doug McKay Chief Executive Officer Auckland Council http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
(Is this the reason why Auckland Council rates keep going up?
Because the primary reason for the establishment of the Auckland SUPERCITY was to ensure bigger contracts – for (fewer) but bigger private contractors, an unknown number of which have been awarded to member companies of the Committee for Auckland?)
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
[lprent: Off topic. Moved to OpenMike. ]
Daises and puppies and marshmallow rainbows
(will all be explained soon)
I was sent an FB post this a.m. regarding a bizarre registration at the NZ Registrar of Companies Office. Three attempts to post the following information from my phone resulted in a force close of my browser each time. This has never happened on any page, on any blog, email, comment box, or other net service in the seven months I have had the phone.
I contacted some people I know who had shared the info and they also had experienced some odd behaviour on their phones, but things seemed ok on their machines. Despite the repeated apparent failure to post from my phone, the miraculous success of the above test, followed by another two failures, I decided that the information would be of enough interest to others that i would walk the six km to my nearest Public Internet connection and try again to share it. Odd thing is, it is obviously a prank registration but how it happened does surely need some explanation;
search : 3238729 Limited
or simply: NZ Police Limited
Isn’t SERCO lucky not to be on a 90 day trial period.
Well, lucky that this government isn’t going to sack them no matter what.
This is a really good idea
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/shearer-outsourcing-war.pdf
Hat tip to whaleoil
Why has the international community continued to persist with negotiated settlements and even-handedness in cases where one side was clearly at fault? The reason, for the most part, is self interest. Such an approach avoids direct intervention and the subsequent political risks.
GIVE WAR A CHANCE
Outright victories, rather than negotiated peace settlements, have ended the greater part of the twentieth century’s internal conflicts.
The private military sector can allow policymakers to achieve their foreign-policy goals free from the need to secure public approval and safe in the knowledge that should the situation deteriorate, official participation can be fudged.”
As the political and economic costs of peacekeeping continue to escalate, it may increasingly make sense for multilateral organizations and Western governments to consider outsourcing some aspects of these interventions to the private sector.
Western countries are more reluctant to intervene militarily in weak states, and their politicians are disinclined to explain casualties to their electorates. Furthermore, Western armies, designed primarily to fight the sophisticated international conflicts envisaged by Cold War strategists, are ill equipped to tackle low-intensity civil wars, with their complicated ethnic agendas, blurred boundaries between combatants and civilians, and loose military hierarchies.
UN peacekeeping efforts have fallen victim to Western governments’ fears of sustaining casualties, becoming entangled in expanding conflicts, and incurring escalating costs.
So, you and other RWNJs are saying that governments should just hire mercenaries and tell them to win no matter what and that they should do it this was because the public won’t
get to have a sayget so upset.I’m saying its an idea worth looking into. I’m just surprised that it was David Shearer that came up with it.
Dave reminds me of those who have fried their brains with one too many acid trips, the little ‘private armies thesis’ just adds proof to the assertion,
it should have been titled, ‘Back to the future with Dave as seen through a multi-coloured prism of light,
Perhaps subtitled, ‘the acid years, how i went from Mango skins to high public office’…
All a rather amusing and ill informed concept. The Italian condotierri experience in the fourteenth century is more than adequate proof that mercenaries are just that, mercenary. They fight for the highest bidder, no moral authority required or practiced. No holds barred if you are paying, and open to any counter bid. It is a sad commentary upon how much we have become subservient to the concept that money can sanction whatever we want, in this case lets “buy” expendable mercenaries rather than risk death for our own people. “Outsource”, make the provision of deadly force contractual.
Takes a PPE to a whole new level
It’s an extremely dangerous concept, an army of such a size to be able to pacify something like the ongoing conflict in Somalia still has to be paid for by someone,
One must assume that Dave sees the UN in the roll of paymaster in this instance,
However, it would become a lottery if such a force would, after having fulfilled it’s mission be happy just to disband and quietly go home,
Such a rouge army would simply see a far more profitable future in ‘owning’ which-ever ‘weak’ country it was let loose into…
I dunno, theres a difference between winning a war and running a country (look at the middle east) far easier to bank the cheque and move on to the next one
My point being, what happens to such an army once there is no ‘next one’ to bank the check from???
Should that army,(company), decide it need a ‘retirement complex’ while not ‘on contract’ what’s to stop them becoming like the present mercenary army presently masquerading as ‘freedom fighters’ in Syria…
Much easier for a western democratic govt to blitzkrieg a mercenary ruling force I would suspect.
Let the mercenary force know exactly what they can do and what would happen if they don’t play ball
Which is simply ridiculous, negating any ‘profit’ from having such a mercenary force in the first place,
Exactly the answer you were meant to give of course…
Yawn. This was dug up 3 years ago by the Nats, to chuck at Shearer in the Mt Albert by-election. Melissa Lee had other plans …
Next – Chris discovers re-runs of Friends.
I think its an idea that has some merit and shouldn’t be completely discounted
Isn’t a certain ex Labour MP over there being paid by Herr Klark to corrupt young Afghani boys? Wonder how many “refugees” he will sponsor into West Auckland.
Mark’s managed three different types of bigotry in a two-sentence post. That’s classy.
Look out, fellas! It’s a moron!
Sadly Kate Wilkinson is doing what many National Ministers do, reinterpreting the law and ensuring the “facts” are shaped to suit their agenda. Considering the amount of stress and anxiety she is causing amongst those of us who care about preserving our natural heritage within our conservation parks I think she should be called the Minister of Consternation.
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/kate-wilkinson-minister-of-consternation.html
Peters has just staged a kind of protest by using a point of order to continually question the truth of John Key’s reply with regard to the Minister of (Overseas Development?) on his explanation to the House on the Wang affair.
So Peters has been slung out of the House.
eh? That’s not the issue Peters was ordered to leave the House over – total mis-representation by Stuff.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7519333/Peters-ejected-as-soldier-tribute-marred
Agreed, Carol. That is a complete distortion of what happened by Tracey Watkins, who should know better.
The Herald’s report on it is closer to the truth, but omits the questioning of ministerial veracity – the main point Peters was taking issue with:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10828456
PS: I don’t think peters was acting like a spoilt brat, but, think Peters is just gettin POed with the way Key and co to get away with slippery and untruthful statements, and with the way Lockwood -Smith sometimes protects Key and co from having to answer truthfully.
Would that Labour MPs showed the same commitment as Winston.
That is a disgraceful headline and report by Stuff/Watkins.
I’m not defending Winston, only the simple facts. It was a row during Question Time, after – and nothing to do with – the tribute to the soldiers.
Then Steven Joyce was forced to withdraw and apologise by Lockwood. So … “Minister mars tribute to fallen, apologises”. Why not?
OK, It’s been updated – maybe because Peters called a press conference on it. So it now includes Peters criticisms of the government, ….and of Lockwood-Smith:
And Peters is also critical of Tracy Watkins reporting of the issue:
http://nzfirst.org.nz/news/fairfax-reporter-gets-it-seriously-wrong
He also mentions the tributes to the dead soldiers that he attended, and that he didn’t see Watkins at any of them.
Instant rebuttal.
See how it’s done, Labour? Not six meetings and a bland statement tomorrow.
Yes, and Peters press conference and response seems to confirm my view that Peters wasn’t being a brat, but was staging a bit of a protest aimed at media attention for a government minister misleading the House…. because it was being masked by Key’s slippery response.
Disgraceful abuse of power from the speaker !
Pussy Riot’s new single: Putin Lights Up the Fires.
This state may be stronger than time in jail.
The more arrests, the happier it is.
Every arrest is carried out with love for the sexist
Who botoxed his cheeks and pumped his chest and abs.
But you can’t nail us in the coffin.
Throw off the yoke of former KGB!
Putin is lighting the fires of revolution
He’s bored and scared of sharing silence with the people
With every execution: the stench of rotten ash
With every long sentence: a wet dream
The country is going, the country is going into the streets boldly
The country is going, the country is going to bid farewell to the regime
The country is going, the country is going, like a feminist wedge
And Putin is going, Putin is going to say goodbye like a sheep
Arrest the whole city for May 6th
Seven years isn’t enough, give us 18!
Forbid us to scream, walk and curse!
Go and marry Father Lukashenko
oh dear, mora is going to have an exCIA on the program talking about lying – as james said they will learn from the torture inflicted on others – that seems morally wrong to me – come on morrissey we need one of your excellent posts on this.
Thanks for the heads-up, marty, but I missed this one.
Theists, revolting people, the whole fucking lot.
The Theological Roots of Akin’s “Legitimate Rape” Comment.
I was going to fix your sweeping statement, but it’s so extreme as to be unfixable.
I assume you’re actually bright enough to know that this American Idiot (think Green Day, I am) – doesn’t come close to representing the billions of theists in the world…
As soon as I saw the word ‘Calvinist’ in that woman’s article, I felt ill – which is how Calvinism makes me feel… but I don’t know if you can even grasp that there is a difference, let alone what it is.
Last week Bill wrote an article on the reality of living on a sickness benefit, in response to Shearer’s inappropriate and ill considered remark regarding the sickness beneficiary painting his roof. In the following comments some one asked Bill for his permission to post his article on Red Alert, which he gave, and hence it was posted. Today’s online Dom Post has published an article counterting beneficiary bashing. It’s written by a Labour Party member and tax lecturer at Massey
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/7512486/People-who-need-a-benefit-should-get-it
I wonder if the author has been reading Red Alert……………………
More likely to have been reading the standard…
Bennett claims poverty is alright since kids just drop back over the line into non-poverty.
so that’s okay right. What did they get a job, any chimneys to sweep gov???
Or did they get a benefit stand down, and were without food….
Bennett ‘out’ as best I can peg it, is that she did not breach privacy because she
just hazarded the guess about the two beneficiaries entitlements she exposed,
doing so however required her to count the children, which means invading their
privacy, but even that, since using the wrong information is still a breach as we
can’t check the figures, their private damnit. which means that citizens rightly
fear the MSD exposing their information, as they have no way to remedy the
matter, Key and Bennett both are happy that no breach occurred.
Its a sad day for parliament that such obvious misleading goes on there., I mean
how seriously can we believe it, that the privacy took such a long time to
declare nothing untoward occurred, that they released their report the same
day a gold medalist was found guilt of cheapening the Olympics by having taken
drugs. When even a impartial commissioner knows how weaselly Keys government
is, and need to frame the timing of the release, leaving poor Bennett hanging for
months. And don’t get me started on Joyce, what a numbskull, his prescription
to weather a rain storm is to strip off and do a dance for more rain.
Yes, the prevaricating by Bennett and Key is disgraceful. The latest questioning on this in the House today is transcribed here:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Business/QOA/6/2/b/50HansQ_20120821_00000005-5-Social-Development-Minister-Statements.htm
Hi Rosie
Just saying at 5 above provided a link to a blog by Giovanni Tiso which I think you would appreciate. Deborah Russell, the author of the Stuff opinion piece which you refer to, is one of the commentors on Giovanni’s blog which led me to read her article which I thought was well written and thought out IMO. Also hope that she will replace Richard Long, currently on leave, for a very long time!
I’ve seen pretty diagrams like this before, now where was it it? Oh, I know, it was here.
Draco! How dare you question the Holy Septagram of Innovation! At least they managed not to embed any highlighted spelling errors in this one. But then, that’s because Innovation has nothing to do with any pesky second official languages we may have …
I’d tried to debate this on several threads, but people (hello BM, DJ, Steve W, etc) just disappear when asked.
So, once more –
Is an early withdrawal from Afghanistan “cut and run”?
Why is it “running away from terrorists” if proposed by the opposition, but “managed redeployment” (or other euphemism) if decided by Key? Why aren’t the troops staying until 2014? Or late 2013?
If you want them to stay, please say so, and why. Then e-mail the PM.
Noticed on BBC News last night that Australia have introduced a “world first” beneficiary debit card. Only certain shops may be used to purchase certain goods. Alcohol is not allowed. Some cash is also given.
Wise use of taxpayers money or an insult to beneficiaries?
A good start but will probably require some tweaking
Its a slippery slope that one….
I had heard that on BBC WS radio yesterday.. Isn’t that what the youth benefit card is? The same thing?
Same principle Vicky but in Australia it seems that all Beneficiaries are on it, not just youth. As for “world first’ ???
I worried about the Wellington lawn, all those evil protestors destroying the place….
…but wait, if only they’d driven madly around wellington sticking their bums out the
window. Seriously though, when does a gathering become a riot? when the participates
use their cars threatening, to disturb, to raise all hell? Yes, I fed up with being harassed,
this time a car at around 3.30am this morning, I recorded myself sleeping and a car was way
louder than my snoring – which can be beached whale loud. These boring people who
rework their cars to mimic v8 motors are really creepy, they push the pedal to the
metal and then you hear of kids being hit in driveways, as some dick needed to make
his point about their lack of virility by slamming on the speed… my 2 cents.
Feel for you there aerobubble. My new neighbourhood has FWits with dancefloor speakers installed in their BMW 4WD’s and Mercs that make it sound like an earthquake is coming. The chorus usually builds between 7-9am and 5-10pm weekdays and peaks all weekend long but also occurs at random hours post midnight – 6am. Are they boy racers? The odd one is but mainly they are brattish wealthy ill mannered ‘people’ from the flash end of the hood. There may be a recession but some are profiting, and they’re showing off their toys in the tackiest and most annoying way possible. Like JK’s lot from the 80’s.
Its worse than tacky, its anger, its leads to aggressive vehicular behavior, kids run over in
driveways, kid run over, kids driving into power polls and trees. Its happen before, they were
called I believe, Dandies. People who need attention but unlike Mods and rockers have no
actual artists ability, but unlike Dandies their street ballet culture leads to vehicles being
used as toys rather than the actual weapon they are. Laws in this country do not reflect
the harm a vehicle even at low speed can do, if people went around wield a hammer to
get attention (without actually harming anyone, just waving it), Police who lock them up.
Yet do the same with a car, and its a lifestyle choice. Humbug,
So an OIA request was made to see where John Key got his costings of how much the looter bonus would cost. The reply was, paraphrasing, John Key made up unrealistic figures to show that the MSM were being unrealistic.
DTB, the “reply was” link gives me a “file not found” response.
I got it.
It’s just the PDF linked from the main link. Should be able to get it there.
Fixing a problem with some of the caching. Hopefully the odd effects from today are now gone.
Definitely gone batty. My reply to Carol had FireFox asking for a security certificate (The address was showing https:) and clicking reply to do this message has the comments all over the place (Picture worth a thousand words).
And the edit function seems broken as well.
This is the message I’m getting with the security cert request:
Yeah I am getting the same problem also the site loading is a bit of a lottery as well as to what I will get and thats between pages and I too have the same security cert problem as well..
Ok. That should fix it. Turned all SSL off (and I have no idea how it got turned on).
The cache was getting severely mucked up earlier today on mobiles so I killed all of the caches. Seems to be taking some time to get operational. That SSL option has a strange set of effects when on. In particular the SSL between cloudflare and the main server
Still getting the oddness in Firefox (text page, security cert warning)
All the gravatars seem to have disappeared.
No. It’s gone batts.
I’m a pc dummy so can’t tell you what’s wrong. All I can say is: there’s a heading ‘OUT NOW’ followed by ‘CD/DVD/DIGITAL’ and a thing that says ‘FLY MY PRETTIES’. From there it’s all over the place -hard to follow. 😯
anyway how is the PM’s carbon fotprint after jettingoff to the US last wekend.
how many trips has he made to the US this year?