You can get away with lying in an election if the media is owned by foreign owned corporations who benefit from the rape and pillage of New Zealand.
There is a rich, selfish and entitled ‘elite’ who are facilitating this. These Quislings would rather have their flash cars and flash holidays rather than concern themselves with the health, employment and education of the more vulnerable citizens of the country.
I am hoping that the young of New Zealand are not listening to the fearmongering by big business and their puppets, the media and the National Party.
Neoliberalism.
A cargo cult.
And older New Zealanders appear beholden to it.
more accurately ed, our media is owned by financial institutions.
“For the first time in six years, New Zealand media companies are exclusively owned by financial institutions.”
i was thinking about this lying issue this morning. would i vote for the greens or labour if they had lied like joyce..english ….No Way. yet mr good churchgoing english seems to have no problem.
still hopeful the nz public will see it this way and give us a 40+8 lab/gr government
Its a tight election,….. with a lame duck NAct party using their $8 Million dollars in mostly pseudo anonymous donations…… to run a expensive campaign based on lies and fear…..
Labour squandered a golden opportunity to network and share in Britians Corbyn driven Labour revival preceding our election ………. ‘For the many not the Few’ … Is a world-wide desire.
And perhaps due to their reliance on their own Corporate donations, ……to try to compete against the Nacts $8 Million Advertising slush fund …… They never front footed the multi-billions missing from our Governments tax revenue every year … and which ordinary people are penalized for .
So Nationals weakness on helping hard working creative tax cheats …was never used back at them. ……
If the Nacts get back in we can be secure in all our present problems continuing to worsen …
Our Inequality will widen ….
Our Freshwater will be exploited, degraded and poisoned even more …..
Our Corporations and super rich will continue to enjoy tax segregation and a form of economic Apartheid ….. Giving us a multi-billion hole in our Governments books …. and the excuse for Austerity, privatisations , PPP rip offs etc .
Off shore companies based in tax havens will continue their buy up and asset stripping of New Zealand …. Ie Oravida
More New Zealand families will face housing stress …
.
Corruption will grow …… Along with all the other harms along the way …… in the Nacts race to the bottom.
Some Perpetrators will be sweating on NActional to win… To ensure there will be no enquiery or accountability over Pike River ……
Nothing will happen regarding The Panama papers and New Zealands quiet little South Pacific money laundering circuit
The cover-up of lies and possible criminality;;;in killing Afghanistan children and civilians will continue ….
Our murderous suicide rate will climb …….and victims of Government policy will be blamed in the most cynical and dirty of politics …….
All is not lost though …I’m picking Labour to soften to around 37%, ….. with 10% for the greens in a reward for the NZ party most representing Corbyn like political change and values.
Nats around 40% ……. If they are lucky.
TOP partys disappointing result should give Gareth Morgan pause for thought on how he might better influence NZ politics and our use of mmp…… This election sidelined his campaign and impact.
Better us of resources could be an alternative media presenting real facts, research and information…. ….
Or maybe a litigation fund …….. To sue ministers who breach their duties …. like housing ministers making NZ housing problems worse …. Same for health ministers who engage in running down or privatising public health …… Revenue ministers undermining revenue with loopholes …
Funding private prosecutions and challenges against corrupt purchases of our forestry and farms …..
These things would alter our Political landscape and conduct for the better ….
Voting like that means candidate get back on the list, it creates lazy politicians, senatorails. Now imagine all party votes going Green and all seats going Labour, Maori, we’d have 200? MPs. More representatives less ability for big money to pressure them. It’s win, win, win, two not one mp, and more voices, and keener to listen to us. Party vote Green seat labour
+ 1 yes, the election has not been yet – forget the polls, forget the billshit – focus in on how great it will feel when Labour win and the Greens get a great percentage – and then DO something to make it so.
The Colmar Brunton shows some of Labour’s support shifted to Green, which as you know doesnt bother me.
That leaves about 4% swing. Given National has been relentless in its misinformation and lies this last week it is credit that some more soft voters didnt waiver. It is still of concern to me how many people who are doing ok financially are ready to swallow this shit for 15 bucks a week. I wonder if the 6 fuel tax increases have already substantially negated that?
New line from Labour? You are not getting a tax cut, they are giving you back some of your petrol money and GST
Disappointing though the poll was last night tracey, in some respects nothing has really changed from the start of the campaign.
It’s still tight and the 2 blocs are still pretty much even.
The Herald seat projector has National on 56 + ACT 1 and Lab 49 + Greens 9. So 57 versus 58.
Both short of a majority and Winston gets to decide. If NZFirst don’t make the threshold however…
I must say that I have a problem with the BSA’s ruling on National’s attack advertisement regarding Labour’s tax policy, as does someone at RNZ, if understatedly scathing the headline is anything to go by. My problem is not so much the conclusion itself, which seems to follow quite reasonably from the premise that an ad from the National Party is in and of itself a piece of party political opinion.
What I do have a problem with, however, is the idea that broadcasting such vaguely justified opinion for the purposes of electioneering is even remotely acceptable. I think it is reasonable to expect parties to back up their opinions factually when promoting them to the electorate. Obviously there will always be grey areas and plenty of room to stretch semantics and data interpretation. I say that that is all the more reason to tighten the regulations as far as possible wherever that can be done. One thing that I think might help is a stipulation that any statement expressed as a statement of fact by a party or candidate be treated as such by the BSA. Imagine how much weaker the ad would have seemed had it been couched in phrases like, “The National Party asserts that…”.
It wouldn’t catch everything. Labour’s thing on “Chinese-sounding names” a couple of years ago would probably have been fine, for instance, as would Peters’ recent claims that market gardeners told him about the prospect of $18 cabbages. Joyce might even have been OK to put out his criticisms of Labour’s costings as he did this election campaign, but I think he would very likely have elected to be more careful. Imagine how different the discourse might have been if Stephen Joyce had felt compelled to lay out his arguments about how much Labour’s operating allowances were and debate them purely on those terms, rather than throwing out an 11.6-billion-dollar zinger that has retained currency even up to the present, irrespective of its being entirely discredited.
In many cases, I imagine that such a stipulation would simply lead to politicians’ equivocating even more, and citing dubious sources (like “three market gardeners”), but I nonetheless think that equivocating is better than lying, and citing dubious sources at least makes it easier to do a quick fact-check.
By way of diversion from the election, I just want to make a few comments about the stuff NRT has been posting about Catalonia, as I reckon he is completely off-beam with his comments. The whole Catalan situation is a dangerous farce, brought about by inept central government, irresponsible local government and economic downturn.
The first thing to note is that until the adoption of the December 1978 constitution from 1938-75 Spain was a deeply socially conservative, fascist dictatorship where the army were the standard bearers of “Spanishness” and the highly reactionary values of Francoism. Those values lie dormant, but have not necessarily vanished from Spanish society, let alone the military. Second, the semi-federal, highly autonomous nature of Spain’s internal organisation created by the 1978 constitution is in a large part a reaction to the enforced and suffocating narrowness of the Francoist cultural and social agenda. These concessions to autonomy were negotiated within the context of a highly politicised and dangerous military and one of the key aspects of the 1978 constitution is the first part of section two –
“…The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards; it recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the nationalities and regions of which it is composed and the solidarity among them all…”
In other words, to gain their semi-autonomy without losing everything in another military coup, the Spanish regions (including the Basque Country and even regions like Asturias as well as Catalonia) agreed to the INDISSOLUBLE UNITY OF THE SPANISH NATION. This promise is what the Catalan government is now trying to renege on. It is the basis to the claim the independence referendum is illegal and unconstitutional, something the irresponsible Catalan leadership refuse to recognise.
The next question is how much of a claim to independence does Catalonia actually have? Catalonia has always been a possession of the crown of Aragon, with the uniting of Aragon and Castille (Ferdinand and Isabella) Catalonia became part of Spain, with significant local autonomy. Catalonia has NEVER been an independent state and has less claim to independence than, say, the Northern League in Italy who also wish to see the richer north of the country break away to form a separatist “I’m all right jack” country. At least in Italy the state of Piedmont was a sovereign state prior to unification. In short, Catalonia has no more claim to the right of independence than the Auckland Super City has.
Finally, much of nationalist rhetoric being currently whipped up is a deflection by an autonomous government that has been caught in deeply corrupt practices. Rather than face the anti-corruption music from Madrid, the Catalan leadership has sought to claim Spain has no jurisdiction over them, thus neatly avoiding answering the questions about gross corruption and nepotism and hiding behind a thicket of nationalistic sentiment. Using independence as a shield to deflect exposure of corruption does not make for a promising start to any independent Catalonia, should one emerge.
To my mind, there is no doubt that the Catalan autonomous government is acting illegally and with massive irresponsibility for entirely self-serving reasons and in doing so it putting under threat the entire foundation of the modern, democratic Spanish state. The Spanish military simply will not allow Catalan independence and in fact legally – since the military is bound to defend the indissoluble unity of Spain – it has every right to move to protect the Spanish state. Remember, the Basques and even the Asturians and Cantabrians will be watching developments with interest. The Spanish military will not sit by while the country slowly breaks up, and the Spanish government will act in safe knowledge that not matter how hard it cracks down, it’s generals will always approve.
All peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
What is Self-determination?
Essentially, the right to self-determination is the right of a people to determine its own destiny. In particular, the principle allows a people to choose its own political status and to determine its own form of economic, cultural and social development. Exercise of this right can result in a variety of different outcomes ranging from political independence through to full integration within a state.
So, yes, Auckland does have the right to secede and so does Catalonia, Taiwan, Tibet and Crimea (Which Crimea actually did).
Just because there was a previous agreement doesn’t mean that that right was removed. If all of Catalonia wishes to remove themselves from Spain then the agreement either needs to be renegotiated or annulled.
Aucklanders are not “a people” in the terms of the UN – and the Catalans have never been an independent state, while the cultural differences from the rest of Spain are slight.
“..Just because there was a previous agreement doesn’t mean that that right was removed….”
See section 2 of the 1978 constitution I quoted above. It was explicitly given away.
“…If all of Catalonia wishes to remove themselves from Spain then the agreement either needs to be renegotiated or annulled…”
Having checked section 2, here is section 155:
“…. If an Autonomous Community does not fulfil the obligations imposed upon it by the Constitution or other laws, or acts in a way seriously prejudicing the general interests of Spain, the Government . . . may, following approval granted by an absolute majority of the Senate, take the measures necessary in order to compel the latter forcibly to meet said obligations, or in order to protect the above-mentioned general interests.
2. With a view to implementing the measures provided in the foregoing clause, the Government may issue instructions to all the authorities of the Autonomous Communities…”
Note the use of the word “forcibly”.
Even if Madrid wanted (and it doesn’t – using a crisis to political advantage is a two way street, although the central government has so far been remarkably restrained) to allow the Catalans drive a horse and cart through the constitution and seek independence, the military would most likely not let it happen. Anything less than triggering Article 155 to stop the Catalan government claiming independence would threaten Spain’s democracy with the grave possibility of a coup.
IMHO, better the Guardia Civil squashing illegal dissent in Barcelona than the Ejército de Tierra ending democracy for all Spaniards.
Aucklanders are not “a people” in the terms of the UN
We could be if we decided to be. That may be unlikely but it’s not outside the realm of possibility – especially if central government keeps fucking us over.
and the Catalans have never been an independent state,
The area first emerged as a distinct entity with the rise of the County of Barcelona to pre-eminence in the 11th century. In the 12th century, the county was brought under the same royal rule as the neighbouring kingdom of Aragon, going on to become a major medieval sea power.
Catalonia has been part of Spain since its genesis in the 15th century, when King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile married and united their realms.
Yep, seems that they were independent at one point before Spain existed and before they were part of Aragon.
Relationships between people change over time and trying to prevent them by calling ZOMG, IT’S ILLEGAL is destructive of those relationships rather than constructive. This would be one of those many cases where the law is wrong.
Really, it would be far better for both to do the split equitably if Catalonia voted to leave and become it’s own country.
I think its all over. Come Monday, Bill English will still be PM. My hope is that Cindy will stay on as leader, and try and wear National down over the next 3 years. My big worry is what is going to happen. English has made no secret of his hostility to public ownership or anything collective. We will probably get more privatisation and hacking away at the safety net.
The impact of charter schools on the public education system, the future of our rail network, whether wages and conditions will be further depressed, avalibility of state and social housing, road pricing, are all things to consider. I am picking a sharp lurch to the right for National.
National is riddled with so much corruption and dirt …. that if not voted out in a couple of days time ….. could collapse through one of the the many scandal time bombs …..That Nice Mr Key left ticking ……….
A flurry of dealings with death squad Durtee, Indonesian and Malaysia ….. Not to mention the Bahamas …. Before Johnny made-off
Oh – the old scandal time bomb story that will put National (or JK) out of politics – Jesus wept – you guys have been looking for that for coming on a decade and still havn’t found it.
The “scandal” has been unfolding since late 2007. He misled and lied and now English has taken over. The only change is the media are calling some of lies. The 40%+ that said it wasnt lies have now moved to it may be a lie but we will still vote for it. All that Joyce and English have accused Labour of doing if they get in, they have already done…
Raised taxes without flagging it in election campaigns(notably GST), ran zero budgets in 2014 and 2015 (the hole).
Or maybe it will be more mass poisonings that show up the Nats ‘direction … “The recent water crisis in Havelock North is the biggest outbreak of waterborne disease ever recorded in New Zealand. According to the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board, approximately 5200 people, one third of the town’s population, were struck by the campylobacter disease,” ….
“The outbreak has been linked to the deaths of two elderly residents, hospitalised 22, caused closures to schools and has brought about significant commercial implications.”
Who knows with your corner cutting race to the bottom party James …. so many possibilitys
We would be better off to have a sweep stake over which nat MP stuffs up first …
No. Labour was at 24% a few short weeks ago. If National wins it is because over 40% of voters do not mind being lied to their faces as long as they have their bias confirmed.
Really – it shows a real lack of depth in any of your thinking to see that you are unable to understand that there are a multitude of reasons people vote National – and not just what you think they think.
So enlighten us. Why do you think so many people are prepared to vote National? What are these “reasons” that cause them to overlook the corruption and lies that National have use to divide this country?
No Millsy. We are so close!!! They want you to fold your tent and get negative. Give Jacinda a chance by staying positive and seeking last minute support. Please don’t give James fodder!!
It is to close to call. My reading of the public mood is the negartive tax attacks worked up until English jumped the shark with his slaughter the dairy herd comments, when they became counter-productive. The number of undecided decided voters (i.e. change their mind every few days as opposed to be ing undecided) is astonishing,
The last of the polls released for newshub tonight.
Given that the one news poll has fallen back more or less in line with the newshub poll, I would guess there will be a strong showing for National in this poll.
What will be really interesting will be the greens and NZFirst results.
For me – it would be awesome if they were both below 5% but I don’t believe that will happen.
But perhaps Jacinda can eat some more of the green vote and help make that happen.
Hope you can make it back to the neo con fest in time , … mind you ,… with this oil pipeline business it might be a little hard to fly anywhere in the foreseeable future..
Well James it seems by your steadfast support for the current government that you are happy with the current state of affairs and the current direction of government.
Do you get joy from the social Darwinism practiced by the National/Act combo?
How many more families living in cars do you want?
What would like the suicide rate pushed up to?
Is not the doubling of children admitted to hospital for malnutrition enough for you?
Is the festering cowshit in rivers polluting our once beautiful land insufficient for you James?
Well perhaps this should be part of the “lefts” attack adds on the current government – it’s all true though and how many people truly want this James?
Why is it that this state of affairs is desirable to you?
Why aren’t you recoiling in the horror and misery of it?
“Well James it seems by your steadfast support for the current government that you are happy with the current state of affairs and the current direction of government.”
yes – and it would seem that most people agree with me. – see is the government moving in the right direction polls for the last x years.
If you think there were no people living in cars, no suicides, etc under Labour – you are having a laugh.
Nobody wants that – but a change in government aint going to fix it – and I believe will make a lot of things worse.
Im saying I beleive things would be considerably worse over all if Labour had of been in power for the last 9 years.
Why do you believe this? There are very few who would claim that National have been especially proactive in dealing with these issues. Are you suggesting that Labour would somehow have done less?
Kids living in Cars is A unique National party outcome …….. James
Nationals trajectory would have kids living in rubbish dumps in short order ….
Its been one of the disgusting features of the Key and now English Govt …
They don’t care about poor kids of their families ….
***************************************
“Winston Peters: Does he agree with an infamous New Zealander who said: “We are facing a severe home affordability and ownership crisis. The crisis has reached dangerous levels in recent years and looks set to get worse.”; if not, why not?…”
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No
.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is the Prime Minister aware that he was the one who said that? ………
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does he stand by his statement that “immigration settings were about right, and the Auckland housing market would take care of itself.”; if so, is he satisfied with 34,000 new migrants moving to Auckland each year, adding more pressure on demand for housing, education, health, and infrastructure?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: If he truly does not want New Zealanders to become, in his words, “tenants in their own country”—said in the campaign, of course—then why did his Government let immigration get so out of control that so many young New Zealand families today are going to be tenants and not owners of their homes? ”
************************************************
Rt Hon Winston Peters: If the latest household economic survey reports that every income decile has declined in homeownership …..except for the top 10 percent,……. when will he start governing for all New Zealanders and not just for his rich mates?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: If one looks generally at those who think the country is going in the right direction
And as I have said – I will respect the outcome of the election whoever wins. Even if its a labour – greens win.
But I bet – some the election result – if its not to your liking you will be moaning, disrespectful, and going on about how so many NZ’ers are dumb, selfish, etc etc because they dont agree with you.
James hates the Greens as they make him look stupid and bad.
Actually James very own arsehole and lower gut would make him look stupid.
If he drank our infected river water ….. his direction would be for the shit-house ..
Which is very symbolic of National ….. And the explosive dysentery James would be suffering is very symbolic of him ….
His squirty bum and sick guts would soon teach his brain to wise up … even he’s not going to keep drinking shit …. and shit himself to death ….to stick up for National.
James may be a nasty sly devious greed driven english man ….. but basically he’s stupid
Bearded, I believe James’ hates the Greens because Metiria took money straight from James’ pocket, his very pocket, his money and she smirked while she did it. Plus, Russel Norman said, “Give me back my flag!” in a voice that clearly had an Australian accent! Plus! Jeanette Fitzsimons once lit a fire when there was a fire ban on!!! Plus, Garth Hughes is Ronald McDonald and Julie Ann Genter is smarter than the whole National front bench! Bad Greens!!!
roflnui. I really am going to make a concerted effort sometime after the election to encourage you to write posts. Not personal attack on james posts 😉 but ones with that sharp and excellent turn of phrase. Maybe I’ll point you in the direction of the new opposition.
I despair for this country – a loved one yesterday had her benefit halved and she ended up in doorway of WINZ in her pyjamas in tears and the security there wouldn’t even give her a tissue, she ended up seeing a the caseworker and it has been fixed up – this person is unable to work and has massive mental health issues. This person lives everyday under the worry that they will end up on the street and it doesn’t matter how much we assure this person that we will take of her if this should happen – being mentally unwell this doesn’t compute with her.
I loathe to the bottom of my heart this Government and especially English for bringing about his vision of putting all unwell back in the work force when they haven’t a possibility of being able to work. Living under the stress of this everyday is equating to suicides every day. Family live with this constant fear for their loved ones. So many attempted suicides and the worst scenerio is that one day it will work for them and family will be in grief.
If there is a God National will be finished this weekend. Pray for all the families who live on the knife edge of grief and suicide every day of their lives and please if we get a new Government may they purge the culture at WINZ and especially the Nazi protection squads at the door.
We should be a first world country – we are now a third world country which is insulting the third world.
Shut up Awww. Sometimes we don’t want to hear a replay of that doleful refrain. Sorry about your friend Kate and that she is better for a while. Can’t wait to see if we are finally shot of these National smirking low-lifes for a while. Of course If they do go into opposition they will spend much of their time cooking up treats for the left that would make haggis look like angel’s food.
“Especially the Nazi protection squads at the door.”
the security guards are just hard working people doing their jobs – generally for a low wage (you know the kind of people the left are Supposed to represent). Calling them nazi protection squads Hardly shows solidarity with them does it.
Also remember they are there as a result of Tully going into a winz office and killing people. Something one commenter in here said he should be “hailed as a hero” for.
You don’t mention why her benefit was cut – but regardless it sounds like it was a mistake and they were professional and efficient.
She saw a case worker and it was resolved the same day.
Edit – I have great sympathy for people with needs like your loved one. It’s not good that there are issues with their payments and they should at least have the confidence that the $ is something that will just happen and it’s not another thing they need to worry about.
Anyone that is paying attention understands that the measures now taken by WINZ far exceed what is needed to keep their staff safe. The overlap between the security aspects and the dehumanising aspects is real. Plenty of stories out there that explain this if you want to open your ears.
Well, your comment displays no reflection on what it would feel like for those visiting those offices to have security at the door before facing their case managers – so it is an example of “…those watching from without”.
Given the recent public publishing of stories from those requiring assistance, and the treatment they have received (and help they haven’t), it is quite easy to find those that reflect the “…those going in”.
Of course, your “‘cos Tully” is a non-linked evidence statement as well. Well done once again for hypocrisy. (Especially if you ignore the fact that he asked for and was refused help many times before committing that tragic act of violence.)
So. Your count is three for three.
1. Ignore impact on those going for help, because from your point of view -they don’t matter.
2. Ignore evidence of personal harm offered by those who have shared their stories.
3. Ignore other factors at play apart from one man’s violent solution.
You are fairly good at ignoring evidence when it suits, but you are masterful at providing evidence on how the self-involved of this country think.
“Especially the Nazi protection squads at the door.”
the security guards are just hard working people doing their jobs – generally for a low wage (you know the kind of people the left are Supposed to represent). Calling them nazi protection squads Hardly shows solidarity with them does it.
From memory some of the security staff weren’t that happy with what they were being asked to do. Don’t think they made much headway on that though.
Also remember they are there as a result of Tully going into a winz office and killing people. Something one commenter in here said he should be “hailed as a hero” for.
So you want to use a single perspective from some years ago to rationalise the mistreatment of a seriously vulnerable NZer? That’s fucked up even by your standards James.
Again, there are large overlaps between the security issues and the dehumanising ones. What is happening at the doors of WINZ is not only about Ashburton, it’s also about the authoritarian and protocol-fascist ideology of the govt. There is no need for it to be this bad but National want it this way.
You don’t mention why her benefit was cut – but regardless it sounds like it was a mistake and they were professional and efficient.
She saw a case worker and it was resolved the same day.
Right. So NZers are entitled to welfare if they’re willing to turn up on the doorstep of WINZ in their pyjamas and in distress. Good to know where you set the bar of professionalism.
I’ll tell you how I see it. If WINZ were being run properly, then this person would have had a case manager who knew who situation and understood the particular issues that make her vulnerable. Having benefits cut for no good reason is not uncommon, but even so in this case it should have been as simple as a phone call, getting it reinstated until the problem could be sorted out.
The thing that should have jumped out at you is why someone who is so obviously ill is being required to doorstep WINZ.
Edit – I have great sympathy for people with needs like your loved one. It’s not good that there are issues with their payments and they should at least have the confidence that the $ is something that will just happen and it’s not another thing they need to worry about.
Yeah, you probably should have led with that. And expressed some of that sympathy in the body of your comment. Afterthoughts aren’t enough.
I haven’t looked closely at that one yet. It’s tricky because it involves Special Benefit, which technically pays better than TAS, so giving up SB for TAS might not be a wise move for beneficiaries.
Yeah but little grots like James cant see that and would rather troll than admit it. And that’s the mentality of these types , until we manage to get rid of National the enabling of little creeps like this will continue to go unchecked.
My heart goes out to you WK. Tragically, this is not an uncommon occurrence here in 21st century Godzone.
Arbeit macht frei.
And if not…there is death, or the dishonour of incarceration.
Your loved one WK, is she enrolled with a community mental health provider?
If she is….pay them a visit and make sure they are doing the job they are being funded for. Avoid challenging an actual community health support worker…remember…they are the group that were deliberately excluded from the Pay Equity settlement.
Yes she has the support of her Mental Health Team and they have been notified. This person was asked to go to a seminar for work – on the day before she was so unwell she phoned her worker at WINZ and had it down on the file that she would come in but on another day – so it was all Kosher. It still came through in her bank account as being halved. As for the Nazi Police at the door – nothing condones being callous and not offering help when help is needed. James go and crawl under a rock you are not welcome on this site. And remember James, if we had employment and homes for people to live in – then the sentries at the door would not be needed – its a symptom of a rotten uncaring society.
Remember this mantra – we, each and every one of us, are a heartbeat away from being vulnerable in one way or another. This Government does not serve the vulnerable, it treats them like an unwelcome pest. Just remember that.
A plague on the house of National, they are a disgrace to society.
Oh Whispering Kate, that is so sad and typical of their indifference. Their Victorian attitude of the “Deserving poor” and the “Unfit” coupled with this half baked Social schemes have caused endless misery.
We need to tell these stories and ask people to vote them out. Keep strong, we will win. There are good people out there, many who do not want this done in their name.
It is turning that into votes that counts. I know I have influenced 4 people this election, and still would like another, as when I vote I feel them standing with me.
We have nearly lost this loved one to suicide, on a ventilater for 6 days in critical care and not knowing if the outcome would be fine, if and when the overdose wore off. There were prior to this two suicide attempts. Life is like walking through a mine field and uncaring people like James just make life even more unbearable for the unwell and family. Family get shell shocked and suffer from Post Tramatic Syndrome as well.
How on earth Bill English thinks with his prized Social Investment Policy that he so worships, is going to wrench these poor sods off their benefit and into work beggars belief. All my loved one wants is not to be harrassed and threatened with benefit loss on a regular basis and to be left in peace so that she can live her life as wretched as it is – without their cruel punishing threats of cutting off her lifeline/benefit , pathetic as it is.
The Fuel outage continues to wreek havoc with International air travel and freight BUT media coverage is diminished and spinning that it’s an Auckland problem .
Meanwhile , not a single litre of Jet Fuel has been transported to Wiri by Road as yet[ as per the 2012 MBIE contingency plan.
There’ll be a a single load “trial” today 7 days after the outage occurred .
Morning report was told this morning that 6-8 Tankers would be working around the clock from tomorrow on..
Best case scenario is 32 tankers/day and we’re told that the largest Planes on long haul consume 7 Tanker loads.
Meanwhile 34 tankers are delivering ground fuel out of the Tauranga marine terminal.
Yep I noticed that Broken. The MSM don’t want this sheeted home to National being useless while people are voting. I just heard on RNZ that 100 flights had now been cancelled. Talk about a shambles.
Key/English are penny pinchers without a strategic bone in their body. $58m on greater storage would have largely sorted this-peanuts. They were told in 2012 that a jet-fuel outage would cost $466m.
Agree but why is the CEO of the Transport Ministry running the repair? You also apply this to farmers too BM. They are businesses and we currently subsidise them 450m by leaving them out of ets but leave, say, forestry in.
The problem is that the effects of climate change are ongoing and quite laggy. From just the existing inputs of greenhouse gases and heat there will be at least 2000 years of effects. Probably being the most severe over the next two to three centuries.
So you seem to think that a on-off payment is likely to cover it. Seems like a foolish idea to me.
I agree about scrapping the ETS – it simply doesn’t work. It is highly unlikely in my view that it or anything like it could be made to work.
Similarly the Green idea about sequestering carbon into wood or plants is just as useless, unless they start building anaerobic conditions. The time scales are way too short to be effective and it’d interfere with getting enough food for having a peak world population at 9 billion or above. Effectively it’d force a concentration of food production into a smaller and is likely to damage the environment there. Besides I can see many ways for the market to rort any incentives to do that.
A simple tax on all sources of fossil hydrocarbons by all governments starting with our own would be sufficient to actually curb their use and make alternatives more economically viable. Treat it like tobacco.
The problem is that the effects of climate change are ongoing and quite laggy. From just the existing inputs of greenhouse gases and heat there will be at least 2000 years of effects. Probably being the most severe over the next two to three centuries.
I completely agree trying to stop climate change is futile when you look at the timescales involved.
Any sort of carbon taxes should be put aside to be spent on protecting against sea level rise or the effects of an increasingly volatile and erratic weather system.
You’d get a hell of a lot more support for that then paying money into an ETS.
I completely agree trying to stop climate change is futile when you look at the timescales involved.
Trying to stop the use of things that cause climate change in the immediate future is a lot easier. It just involves making them expensive enough that initially more costly alternatives become viable.
Raise the price on them directly
Any sort of carbon taxes should be put aside to be spent on protecting against sea level rise or the effects of an increasingly volatile and erratic weather system.
We also can’t ameliorate or protect against it enough. If you look at continuing to burn fossil fuels or burning limestone to make concrete (which is just as bad) the numbers on effects get alarming very fast.
If we use all of the ex tractable fossil carbon resources, the potential sea level rise is about 75 metres. The potential temperature rises at the equatorial and subtropics regions are such that those regions would become largely uninhabitable by humans without significiant technological support. We are a species that developed in the midst of the ice age of the last 45 million years (since Antarctica drifted into the south polar region), and so are all of our client species like crops and farm animals. We would be part of the die back if we reproduce the world’s normal environment.
The problem is that in the geological evidence from the past against what we are seeing now makes it apparent that the icecaps that currently govern our current climate are frighteningly easy to lose. They could disappear fast over the next few centuries. There is a risk that Greenland and West Antarctica could disappear in decades one they start.
A tax on fossil carbon needs to be punitive and most of the proceeds need to go on developing alternatives.
To me, alleviating the effects of climate change is a pointless activity because it is unsustainable over the long term. The simpler and cheaper solution is to just give up the land early that will flood or become useless for farming rather than wasting resources on it. So closing off much of Florida, Bangladesh, and the Caribbean to humans is a better idea than trying to build futile dykes and hurricane/typhoon defences.
Going off and building resilience into the systems that sustain our civilisation makes far more sense. That means more food storage, redundant and communication transport systems, and evacuation systems to move people out of affected areas and preventing them from going back.
“The Government has already allocated around half a billion taxpayer dollars to subsidise industrial-scale irrigation schemes around the country, which will result in more cows and more polluted rivers,” executive director Russel Norman said.
its called strategic national interest….why else did National get the report before cabinet that they ignored? and this despite air new zealand warning them.
The storage , which is now quite apparent to be totally inadequate , at Wiri is owned by the Fuel companies.
Exxon Mobil , BP ,Zed[ formerly Shell].
Exxonmobil & BP pay next to no tax on a ~$250m/annum operating profit.
First step , whilst discussing& costing viable alternatives for supply logistics from Refinery to Wiri , would be to compel said Corporations to increase their Auckland storage to allow full continued operation at Mangere for 30 days.
It is frighting to think of the risk posed to staff. Not worth it, and passing the real names of panel menbers to the Social Security Appeals Authority should have been sufficient.
I know this has been mentioned here before, but the Three am show has stated the Reid Research poll phones 25% mobiles. Colmar Brunton only phones landlines. That must influence polling data.
A significant number of people don’t have landlines now, far fewer landlines than during the last election.
So – are you saying that you think that the reid poll is likely to be more accurate?
Thats the one that had National looking a lot better……
Only a few days ago a lot on here were saying it was waaaay out – because of the Colmar poll (which has now reverted to close to the same position of the Reid)
L0L! … what is being said time and again my little skiting braggart , – is that we watch the trends, not the individual polls. And the facts are … that no political party’s jump up and down 10 points either way in 1 or 2 weeks.
It just asking too much to believe that one week a poll says up by around 10 points then a week later the same pollsters say down by 10 points.
And all we’ve had now are wild swings by most of them.
The only consistency are the internal party polls and both major party’s are saying they are neck and neck.
James – here’s the thing. Over the past three elections, lefties like most here have suffered considerable blows at election time, around now, when their hopes have been dashed by a loss to John key’s National Party. At this point in time, readers here are very anxious that it could happen again. They are variously bouyed by news and polls and flattened by others. You are spending a great deal of time here, provoking people with your “reckons” and seeming to enjoy rubbing the noses of those here in any success National might have in this competition. You clearly enjoy doing that, but seem unable to see how that might make people feel. You gloat, you “predict”, you “wish” for the destruction of The Greens and a loss for Labour.
James, why do you bother? Couldn’t you just find a fly and pull its wings off? Perhaps there’s an elderly person living nearby who you could torment by putting dog poo in their letter box or throwing stones on their roof? James, again, why do you behave this’a’way? It can’t be that you are annoyed by what people here say – you come here by choice, don’t you? Perhaps, out of the goodness of your heart, you could choose to absent yourself for a while. Most here would enjoy time away from your irritating presence. Just a polite suggestion from someone who recognises a socially disfunctional person when I see one.
I find it cute how you follow around my post like a wee puppy dog (which is how i picture you) trying to nip at my heals – but not making it thru my socks 😉
The thing is that just because I have a different view point – it dosnt make me trolling.
Perhaps – open your eyes and try to see it from another perspective. It will make you a better person.
There is a suggestion that Colmar Brunton changed their methodology between its last two polls. Not sure if this is good or bad. CB won’t confirm or deny.
Reid tonight usually favours National over CB figures.
Just listening to K Ryan interviewing Jacinda Ardern. Disgraceful. Asking a question and interrupting before answer starts is Imo not good interviewing. Also has a very combative tone.
Jacinda Adern performed very well (again)…Kathryn Ryan I thought was firm but fair except for trying to push responsibilty for the (in)actions of future governments on JA….that aside I doubt that many who are likely to swing will have been listening so its impact either way is negligible…..fingers crossed that the polls havnt reflected the true level of desire for change…we’ll know soon enough.
Not happy with Katherine’s harsh accusative style. Jacinda battled on but boy she must be tired.
Bill on tour gets only tiny groups to speak at.
Jacinda attracts huge crowds and that must be debilitating and exhilerating. I bet she has lost a lot of weight.
Jacinda will be the next PM aided by a resurgence Green Team.
Rather than a “Leader’s Interview. It seemed to be more about Katherine Ryan, and her ego. And an opportunity to show off her knowledge on a topic.
She does this regularly. You only need to listen to any one of her interviews with Rod Oram. Where she fires off a question, and rather than shut up and listen, (to a leading business commentators opinion) Fires off with her view of the world.
To MSM sorry you can not see me through your Camera all of your actions can be read Ka Pai
Now here is the joke of a tax system that national have made
There is a person whom has $200.000 he borrow’s $800.0000 so now we have a million to invest in a business this business has a turn over of a million and has 3 full time staff
on a salary of $50.000 each total of $150.000 after main expenses have been payed they have got
$200.000. So my point is with creative accounting and the accountants
advise them to buy and replace some thing that is still running fine just to wipe out a GST bill I prefer to keep the plant and pay some GST to Inland revenue and make more of a fairer profit I’m going off track the fucken Big picture is that the 3 workers are going to pay more tax than the business that employs them and this is the facts .
The interests on the $800.000 loan is tax deductible In my view inland revenue pays the business Interest I was in business 15 years ago and you did not have all the tax deductions one has NOW . Would you like Inland revenue to pay all YOUR interest
I no this is how it works i have associated with business owners since i started working.
These business are all around US .
The most tax paid is PAYE and GST and DUTIE TAX on fuel road user charges E.C.T
So nearly all the tax is payed by the WORKERS in one way or a anther. Most business pay minimal TAX. Every thing my fellow left bloggers on this site have said about tax is right. W.T.F
Some one is pissing in the wind trying to COMPARE OBAMA’S achievements with thrumps .
In my view OBAMA had a MASSIVE mess to clean up after a neo libreal changed all the banking rules and middle class people had brought 3 houses each on the dum ass theory that there capital gains would pay there Dept .
If OBAMA did not handle this WORLD financial CATASTROPHE right this event would have damaged the whole Worlds financial markets for decades everyone should be praising OBAMA . He got alternative energy flourishing around OUR world and many
other Great achievements to help mitigate climate change well that’s my view on these facts.
So neo libreals just go out to grab as much MONEY/ POWER as they can and DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE WORKERS or the damage there dum ass policys money grab does to OUR WORLD. They Leave’s a big mess for people like OBAMA to clean up and this is the main resaon that our WORLD has so much poverty the fucken greedy neo liberals won’t shear there LOLLIES. My pick for Saturdays election
Labour 50 %
Greens 15 %
Maori P 6 %
These’s are the Ideal party’s to lead OUR beautiful Country into a fair and bright Environmentally Sustainable FUTURE for every thing. I have thought long and hard on my choices for OUR new Goverment
Hey eco M/K -you are way out with your financials -there is no GST on wages or Interest. For your bloke to “wipe out his GST” he will need to spend a heap on new plant. My annual GST,PAYE and Income Tax bills are all very similar amounts around $600k each.
As someone who regarded English as a fundamentally decent bloke, the actual English persona was present during last night’s debate for all to see who bothered to look. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Smug, deceitful, taunting and bereft of genuine remorse. The real Bill English finally stood up.
Haven’t read it yet, but am guessing it’s a class thing. That professional class, especially the liberal ones, like to be kind about each other.
I understand the inclination (I was raised in that and like that). English isn’t a sociopath like Key. It’s why he’s not as good at it as Key. But I agree he can no longer be called a decent man, his actions rule that out.
A class thing is likely, but maybe and image thing as well. He appears to be a good dad and partner, has an easy manner. People often judge decency on these things.
miravox I think Anne Salmond makes a fair comment. We have been lead to believe that English is at least honest. It is therefore sad to see that as a myth when he sits there and blatantly lies. Power corrupts?
does nobody remember the billion Billy Liar doled out to Hubbard just to keep his southern farmer mates happy when in reality the government had no liability
Mostly the article is fair comment. However I do think the description of him as ‘fundamentally decent’ is totally wrong. That’s why I put an off the top of my head list of things he has done that are not fundamentally decent.
Bill may appear to be decent, but unfortunately he’s suffering from delusions of ideology otherwise known as Right Wing Nut Job, with a robotic heart and memory loss.
He (like Key) appears to be decent, is protected by MSM, but his actions say otherwise.
During the financial melt down of 2008 2009 It did not affect US as much as other country’s Because a Labour finance Minster could see the big PICTURE and payed down our dept Michael Cullen hence no over sea’s banks SCREAMING OUT FOR THERE MONEY NOW. Which is the situation that john key and bill english have got US into now if those overseas banks want there money we are in the SHIT There you go.
Interesting article By Prof Anne-Marie Brady about the Chinese influence in New Zealand politics, Apart from other things, listing all the National politicians that have done very well having dealings with China.
Too long and too many areas to quote here, (57 pages), but well worth the time and trouble to read before you vote if you haven’t voted already.
Bruce Jesson would be proud of that one: the range and depth of the research showing paid and soft influence of the Chinese government is rich and highly detailed.
You need a good 45 minutes to really read and take it all in, but this is a really well researched academic paper.
The records showing the precision of their donations into party and local government influence is particularly striking.
Taster: “When Kenneth Wang first entered Parliament as a list MP, 47% of Chinese voters voted Labour. But in the 2014 election, 75% voted National.”
Just got a targeted lie add from the Natz on You Tube saying they will give me extra $1000 or something like that.
It’s started. The National Parties last minute social media campaign.
Very worrying how many people can be influenced by these targeted adds that have zero accountability and little traceability (shouldn’t political adds all say who paid for it)?
It pays to have friends like Mr Thiel it seems. Just a coincidence he got NZ citizenship and millions in sweet share deals courtesy of the National party and paid by the NZ taxpayer.
We are in a new political landscape, post democracy.
Vote the liars and mass surveillance National Party OUT, before they sell off the entire country and take cash for citizenship to the levels they take fake students, fake carbon credits, fake statistics, fake clean image, fake news… get the idea
How do they know I’m going to be better off under National? Are they using their surveillance techniques to find out, or just openly deceiving – because some people are worse off under National’s plans.
Not just social media. I have just had a robo call from BE. I took great pleasure in saying I don’t listen to liars F off. I wonder if these calls are analysed and if I will be counted as a no.
Jacinda has done very well for Labour (those list MPs owe her a large bottle of Whiskey, at the very least) but its difficult to remove a sitting government when the economy is running well
Gross domestic product expanded 0.8 per cent in the three months to June 30, up from a revised 0.6 per cent expansion in the March quarter and was 2.5 per cent higher on the year, Statistics New Zealand said. The median in a Bloomberg poll of 12 economists’ forecasts was for GDP to expand 0.8 per cent in the three months ended June 30 and 2.5 per cent on the year.
What use is GDP as a measure of anything? You’d have to be completely ignorant fool to use that as a measure for anything economic in NZ.
Our internal economy is so small that simply fiddling with immigration is sufficient to boost the whole internal economy in trying to provide housing, transport, and everything else required to settle an annual intake of 72,000 immigrants. It does nothing to boost our overall economy in the short-term.
All it is good for is to make stupid idiots like you vote in a foolish fashion after the the incumbent government does a ponzi boost to the internal economy before an election.
the “sitting government” has done a fine job of sitting but not governing…
and the result is an economy, an environment and social equity that have gone backwards for the majority – and there Jon Jones lies the issue ….
Pity Kiwi’s can’t afford to buy butter and profits are now our biggest export under National.
Disasters make GDP look good. But loss of life and livelihood for most people in a disaster is NOT a good thing.
We are building the most expensive road in the world under Bill English and we are running out of certain types of fuel with gross mismanagement of business.
To be human, is NOT to think like an economist.
GDP pushers are robots like Teresa May and Bill English.
“If we closed off immigration entirely the consequences for our economy would be profound. Without current levels of inward migration …
Our GDP would drop by 11.3 per cent.
And to complete the picture, GDP per capita would fall by 1.8 percent – $1,000 for every man woman and child in New Zealand.
That is a frightening picture of a blighted future that illustrates in the starkest terms why immigration matters. If any doubts about this still persist, they must surely be extinguished by the findings of this very important report.”
What little bedside quote book did you get that from? I bet there are pages in your head filled with little homilies, similar to ‘If you always put your right sock on first, the day will be happy and fulfilling’.
How good of you to drop in your little bits of rote learning to enlighten us. And the best bit is you know its not entirely true or false when immigration is being considered, but it annoys people to hear half-truths. Annoying people is what those who are a little lacking in self-esteem and not self-starters choose to do to get attention.
J J – National’s promotion of increasing immigration may appear to pump up an ailing economy, but their lack of competence in managing immigration is resulting in serious degradation in the quality of life for New Zealanders.
National has completely failed to develop long-term plans to cope with the implications of the increasing needs for public services, health, housing and infrastructure.
We really need to put a stop to this kind of feckless and reckless management of our economy
The best thing Labour and Green political groups can do now is to try and get any community groups to urge people to make sure they vote so that the under 35 year olds and women are activated to vote! Especially in Auckland.
Make it clear they can vote today, tomorrow as well as Saturday and how important it is, if they are unhappy with how things are going and want some change to do their bit.
Send the government a Message!!! They need it because Bills, only just discovered poverty, congestion and new hospitals and schools are needed. He also thought that the oil industry can do no wrong and now everyone’s flights been cancelled because his friend the oil industry failed to invest in any safe guards with 40% more usage.
The supercity is a roaring success under National. Less services, more rates, less accountability, feeding the corporate troughs with public money has burgeoned under their “SUPER city”.
I’m so pleased that Sky City has more pokie machines and that TVNZ land was sold so they can build their conference centre.
Can National really get away with saying each election they will support local people and communities and still people fall for it, after 9 years?
The normalizing of LYING was started by Key, and has continued up to today, it appears Kiwi’s either accept it now as normal behavior or simply don’t care, certainly right minded individuals are the more prevalent, winning is more important than how you win.
Howard in Aus offered Tax cuts to try and get reelected (4th term), but the Aussies weren’t that DUMB, and voted him out and Labour in, for National to win this election on a Tax bribe where a majority buy into the idea is a very poor reflection on how society has changed in this country, and not for the better.
A tweet I read this morning, Chris Bramwell RNZ, saying the Mou is officially over and it was just “their attempt to change the Government”, another example of RW’s preferring to LIE.
“On Sunday it emerged that a farmer digging up swamp kauri had damaged the pipeline, and it could be out of action for two weeks.” (1)
Digging up Swamp Kauri in Northland sounds alot like an Orivida Kauri Ltd venture and herein lies the irony is that Energy Minister Judith Collins, whos husband is CEO of Orivida Ltd (2), fronted media to reassure airline carriers and Aucklanders “that it is “unlikely” that motorists would be inconvenienced.” (1)
Once again Judith Collins and her connection with Orivida, Kauri Swamp Tree Exports (as well as water and baby formula exports) continues to raise some serious credibility issues, particularly with regards to this pipeline rupture, and her role as Energy Minister.
(1) https://www.stuff.co.nz/…/aucklands-fuel-supply-vulnerabili…
(2) https://www.tvnz.co.nz/…/national-party-donors-allegedly-in…
Well well well as if we should be surprised. Australia is experiencing severe heat waves as we speak and are reaching 40 C in September, this will drift over here and Sunday Monday we will be getting high 20’s and into 30’s. And this Government still pays lip service to climate change. The Met weather man said this will mean for Australia extreme heat conditions and extreme bush fires this coming summer. The Herald said it was unprecedented for this time of the year.
Makes me glad I voted Greens – at least they understand the seriousness of the climate and its changing for the worse for all the world.
Nicaragua is in, leaving the U.S. and Syria as the only nations not to sign the Paris climate accord,
Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega announced Monday that Nicaragua will sign the Paris Agreement in solidarity with countries most vulnerable to climate change. “We will soon adhere, we will sign the Paris Agreement. We have already had meetings addressing the issue and we have already programmed the accession of Nicaragua, “Ortega said, according to official information.
In 2015 Nicaragua refused to sign the Paris Agreement because it considered that the global proposal to fight against climate change “was not realistic”. Ortega again made clear the position of Nicaragua and the weaknesses that, in his view, is evidenced by the Paris Agreement.
“Scientists have told the political leaders, the rulers that this (the Accord) does not give, and have said that it is not true that you will be able to reduce the warming with these actions that are being committed in word, because there is no obligation to do what is being said there. That is, it is a declaration, a proclamation, “he argued.
Kirk, you and your ilk are right-wing fascists who have a very deep vested interest and emotional attachment to controlling all the power and wealth that circulates in New Zealand and as such are unable to fathom that the people who actually generate that wealth (the workers) deserve and are entitled to a fair share of it. I know you and your ilk will never accept this which is why legislation is necessary to force you into some form of compromise because without it, there exists either various forms of poverty and suffering or anarchy and war. I choose arbitration because I don’t like poverty and I don’t like war. Both scenarios lock ordinary people unlike you and your ilk into cycles of never ending destitution. Good riddance to your political bed fellows the National Party who only lie when they say they believe in improving the lives of ‘all New Zealanders’. Unfortunately many naive people actually believe that garbage that you and your cashed up ilk trot out election after election.
And another poor wretch feeling so desperate has set him/herself on fire outside Parliament at 3.50pm today – what’s that going to look like on the world stage. Oh well just an event old boy is what the citzenry of this country will be thinking. How many other poor souls are at this moment jumping off car parks or bridges, killing themselves in cars etc.
This burning will not go down well in this country – how is this Government going to explain this – another nutter is what they will be thinking. People will just go about their lives as if though this is an ordinary event in the scheme of things.
” Labour MPs were outraged by Prime Minister John Key’s reaction, saying he shouted out “You should be ashamed of yourselves. That’s down to you.”
Mr Goff said the clear implication from Mr Key was that he thought it was a Labour Party stunt.
Mr Key had used the case of a “sad situation of a guy who has mental health problems and laid the blame for that on the Labour Party as if we had instigated the action. It’s a disgrace he could even have made that allegation”, Mr Goff said.”
What a pathetic, attention-seeking little oink you are.
[two week ban – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[that ban was for blatant flaming. I’m guessing if I went back and had a look this would be a pattern of behaviour. I’ve made a note in the back end, so next time this comes up expect a lengthy ban – weka]
Pardon the lack of compassion, but the man appears to have been an angry dad protesting against the family court. That might entitle us to draw some assumptions…
Bet the FC judge is kicking themselves now! Should have given the guy day-to-day care of his kids! Clearly has the appropriate emotional equilibrium for parenting.
But no, wronged by the family court, he killed himself instead. He did this for his kids because he loves them so much.
Anyway, self-immolation occupies a special and sacred place in protest, and frankly it’s not the best way of showing the family court it has made the wrong decision.
[I didn’t write the post so that people could express their bigotry, or their sarcasm. I did it to provide a space for people to talk about the event in the context of anger and compassion. I don’t want to spend the evening moderating. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Of course there are problems with the family court system: the nats have run it down in the last 9 years just like they hacked and slashed the legal aid system.
But the dad for justice types I have little sympathy for. If they’re not self-immolating, they’re picketing the houses of practitioners, judges and professionals and screaming about feminazis.
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
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. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,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, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
You can get away with lying in an election if the media is owned by foreign owned corporations who benefit from the rape and pillage of New Zealand.
There is a rich, selfish and entitled ‘elite’ who are facilitating this. These Quislings would rather have their flash cars and flash holidays rather than concern themselves with the health, employment and education of the more vulnerable citizens of the country.
I am hoping that the young of New Zealand are not listening to the fearmongering by big business and their puppets, the media and the National Party.
Neoliberalism.
A cargo cult.
And older New Zealanders appear beholden to it.
Get everyone out to vote!
more accurately ed, our media is owned by financial institutions.
“For the first time in six years, New Zealand media companies are exclusively owned by financial institutions.”
http://www.aut.ac.nz/study-at-aut/study-areas/communications/research/journalism,-media-and-democracy-research-centre/journalists-and-projects/new-zealand-media-ownership-report
i was thinking about this lying issue this morning. would i vote for the greens or labour if they had lied like joyce..english ….No Way. yet mr good churchgoing english seems to have no problem.
still hopeful the nz public will see it this way and give us a 40+8 lab/gr government
Its a tight election,….. with a lame duck NAct party using their $8 Million dollars in mostly pseudo anonymous donations…… to run a expensive campaign based on lies and fear…..
Labour squandered a golden opportunity to network and share in Britians Corbyn driven Labour revival preceding our election ………. ‘For the many not the Few’ … Is a world-wide desire.
And perhaps due to their reliance on their own Corporate donations, ……to try to compete against the Nacts $8 Million Advertising slush fund …… They never front footed the multi-billions missing from our Governments tax revenue every year … and which ordinary people are penalized for .
So Nationals weakness on helping hard working creative tax cheats …was never used back at them. ……
If the Nacts get back in we can be secure in all our present problems continuing to worsen …
Our Inequality will widen ….
Our Freshwater will be exploited, degraded and poisoned even more …..
Our Corporations and super rich will continue to enjoy tax segregation and a form of economic Apartheid ….. Giving us a multi-billion hole in our Governments books …. and the excuse for Austerity, privatisations , PPP rip offs etc .
Off shore companies based in tax havens will continue their buy up and asset stripping of New Zealand …. Ie Oravida
More New Zealand families will face housing stress …
.
Corruption will grow …… Along with all the other harms along the way …… in the Nacts race to the bottom.
Some Perpetrators will be sweating on NActional to win… To ensure there will be no enquiery or accountability over Pike River ……
Nothing will happen regarding The Panama papers and New Zealands quiet little South Pacific money laundering circuit
The cover-up of lies and possible criminality;;;in killing Afghanistan children and civilians will continue ….
Our murderous suicide rate will climb …….and victims of Government policy will be blamed in the most cynical and dirty of politics …….
All is not lost though …I’m picking Labour to soften to around 37%, ….. with 10% for the greens in a reward for the NZ party most representing Corbyn like political change and values.
Nats around 40% ……. If they are lucky.
TOP partys disappointing result should give Gareth Morgan pause for thought on how he might better influence NZ politics and our use of mmp…… This election sidelined his campaign and impact.
Better us of resources could be an alternative media presenting real facts, research and information…. ….
Or maybe a litigation fund …….. To sue ministers who breach their duties …. like housing ministers making NZ housing problems worse …. Same for health ministers who engage in running down or privatising public health …… Revenue ministers undermining revenue with loopholes …
Funding private prosecutions and challenges against corrupt purchases of our forestry and farms …..
These things would alter our Political landscape and conduct for the better ….
We need better democracy ….
Vote Green
Two ticks from me … It feels clean to vote green:)
Rather than a dirty pact …. to vote for a NAct
Voting like that means candidate get back on the list, it creates lazy politicians, senatorails. Now imagine all party votes going Green and all seats going Labour, Maori, we’d have 200? MPs. More representatives less ability for big money to pressure them. It’s win, win, win, two not one mp, and more voices, and keener to listen to us. Party vote Green seat labour
Typo above ……Better use of his resources could be an alternative media presenting real facts, research and information…. ….
Keep the faith. Keep talking to those who are yet to vote. Say how vital every left vote is towards changing the government.
Liking people and policies isn’t enough. Commitment to voting is the main thing.
Pushing through negative vibes and fear to make a choice.
We need to vote for a “Better New Zealand”
Let’s do this!!!!
+ 1 yes, the election has not been yet – forget the polls, forget the billshit – focus in on how great it will feel when Labour win and the Greens get a great percentage – and then DO something to make it so.
Patricia, I used your comment in a post on how to respond to the poll 🙂
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-poll-that-matters-will-be-completed-on-saturday/
Thank you Weka.
thank you! Always good when someone else summarises things so well.
The Colmar Brunton shows some of Labour’s support shifted to Green, which as you know doesnt bother me.
That leaves about 4% swing. Given National has been relentless in its misinformation and lies this last week it is credit that some more soft voters didnt waiver. It is still of concern to me how many people who are doing ok financially are ready to swallow this shit for 15 bucks a week. I wonder if the 6 fuel tax increases have already substantially negated that?
New line from Labour? You are not getting a tax cut, they are giving you back some of your petrol money and GST
Disappointing though the poll was last night tracey, in some respects nothing has really changed from the start of the campaign.
It’s still tight and the 2 blocs are still pretty much even.
The Herald seat projector has National on 56 + ACT 1 and Lab 49 + Greens 9. So 57 versus 58.
Both short of a majority and Winston gets to decide. If NZFirst don’t make the threshold however…
I must say that I have a problem with the BSA’s ruling on National’s attack advertisement regarding Labour’s tax policy, as does someone at RNZ, if understatedly scathing the headline is anything to go by. My problem is not so much the conclusion itself, which seems to follow quite reasonably from the premise that an ad from the National Party is in and of itself a piece of party political opinion.
What I do have a problem with, however, is the idea that broadcasting such vaguely justified opinion for the purposes of electioneering is even remotely acceptable. I think it is reasonable to expect parties to back up their opinions factually when promoting them to the electorate. Obviously there will always be grey areas and plenty of room to stretch semantics and data interpretation. I say that that is all the more reason to tighten the regulations as far as possible wherever that can be done. One thing that I think might help is a stipulation that any statement expressed as a statement of fact by a party or candidate be treated as such by the BSA. Imagine how much weaker the ad would have seemed had it been couched in phrases like, “The National Party asserts that…”.
It wouldn’t catch everything. Labour’s thing on “Chinese-sounding names” a couple of years ago would probably have been fine, for instance, as would Peters’ recent claims that market gardeners told him about the prospect of $18 cabbages. Joyce might even have been OK to put out his criticisms of Labour’s costings as he did this election campaign, but I think he would very likely have elected to be more careful. Imagine how different the discourse might have been if Stephen Joyce had felt compelled to lay out his arguments about how much Labour’s operating allowances were and debate them purely on those terms, rather than throwing out an 11.6-billion-dollar zinger that has retained currency even up to the present, irrespective of its being entirely discredited.
In many cases, I imagine that such a stipulation would simply lead to politicians’ equivocating even more, and citing dubious sources (like “three market gardeners”), but I nonetheless think that equivocating is better than lying, and citing dubious sources at least makes it easier to do a quick fact-check.
Bill English and National have lost their moral compass. A win at all costs trumps any pretence of honesty for National. Time for them to go!
5.1 Yes. What has Bill promised the blue dragons I wonder?
Why are they slipping in the sale of government lands with no discussion?
Who stands to benefit from these “roads of National importance?” (Or is it in the name?”
If Bill is such an upstanding citizen, why no condolences to Jacinda?
Why all the lies about tax and fiscal holes? What are they distracting us from?
Why do they want us to believe it is “all over rover”
Because “the race is very tight!!’ The one true thing Bill said.
So folk on the Left…. donate, enroll and vote. Green/Red Red/Green NZ First/Mana or Maori. We use our strengths and cooperate.
The real poll is on Saturday, and they are scared so they are mean.
The BSA is another crony stacked org propping up the facade of objectivity so the sheeple think they can held accountable.
Toothless wet bus ticket distributors like the comm comm etc
All the more reason to legislate them to within an inch of their intellectual lives.
By way of diversion from the election, I just want to make a few comments about the stuff NRT has been posting about Catalonia, as I reckon he is completely off-beam with his comments. The whole Catalan situation is a dangerous farce, brought about by inept central government, irresponsible local government and economic downturn.
The first thing to note is that until the adoption of the December 1978 constitution from 1938-75 Spain was a deeply socially conservative, fascist dictatorship where the army were the standard bearers of “Spanishness” and the highly reactionary values of Francoism. Those values lie dormant, but have not necessarily vanished from Spanish society, let alone the military. Second, the semi-federal, highly autonomous nature of Spain’s internal organisation created by the 1978 constitution is in a large part a reaction to the enforced and suffocating narrowness of the Francoist cultural and social agenda. These concessions to autonomy were negotiated within the context of a highly politicised and dangerous military and one of the key aspects of the 1978 constitution is the first part of section two –
“…The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards; it recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the nationalities and regions of which it is composed and the solidarity among them all…”
In other words, to gain their semi-autonomy without losing everything in another military coup, the Spanish regions (including the Basque Country and even regions like Asturias as well as Catalonia) agreed to the INDISSOLUBLE UNITY OF THE SPANISH NATION. This promise is what the Catalan government is now trying to renege on. It is the basis to the claim the independence referendum is illegal and unconstitutional, something the irresponsible Catalan leadership refuse to recognise.
The next question is how much of a claim to independence does Catalonia actually have? Catalonia has always been a possession of the crown of Aragon, with the uniting of Aragon and Castille (Ferdinand and Isabella) Catalonia became part of Spain, with significant local autonomy. Catalonia has NEVER been an independent state and has less claim to independence than, say, the Northern League in Italy who also wish to see the richer north of the country break away to form a separatist “I’m all right jack” country. At least in Italy the state of Piedmont was a sovereign state prior to unification. In short, Catalonia has no more claim to the right of independence than the Auckland Super City has.
Finally, much of nationalist rhetoric being currently whipped up is a deflection by an autonomous government that has been caught in deeply corrupt practices. Rather than face the anti-corruption music from Madrid, the Catalan leadership has sought to claim Spain has no jurisdiction over them, thus neatly avoiding answering the questions about gross corruption and nepotism and hiding behind a thicket of nationalistic sentiment. Using independence as a shield to deflect exposure of corruption does not make for a promising start to any independent Catalonia, should one emerge.
To my mind, there is no doubt that the Catalan autonomous government is acting illegally and with massive irresponsibility for entirely self-serving reasons and in doing so it putting under threat the entire foundation of the modern, democratic Spanish state. The Spanish military simply will not allow Catalan independence and in fact legally – since the military is bound to defend the indissoluble unity of Spain – it has every right to move to protect the Spanish state. Remember, the Basques and even the Asturians and Cantabrians will be watching developments with interest. The Spanish military will not sit by while the country slowly breaks up, and the Spanish government will act in safe knowledge that not matter how hard it cracks down, it’s generals will always approve.
Wow. You put alot into that. Thanks.
Have you read the UN declaration of rights recently?
So, yes, Auckland does have the right to secede and so does Catalonia, Taiwan, Tibet and Crimea (Which Crimea actually did).
Just because there was a previous agreement doesn’t mean that that right was removed. If all of Catalonia wishes to remove themselves from Spain then the agreement either needs to be renegotiated or annulled.
Aucklanders are not “a people” in the terms of the UN – and the Catalans have never been an independent state, while the cultural differences from the rest of Spain are slight.
“..Just because there was a previous agreement doesn’t mean that that right was removed….”
See section 2 of the 1978 constitution I quoted above. It was explicitly given away.
“…If all of Catalonia wishes to remove themselves from Spain then the agreement either needs to be renegotiated or annulled…”
Having checked section 2, here is section 155:
“…. If an Autonomous Community does not fulfil the obligations imposed upon it by the Constitution or other laws, or acts in a way seriously prejudicing the general interests of Spain, the Government . . . may, following approval granted by an absolute majority of the Senate, take the measures necessary in order to compel the latter forcibly to meet said obligations, or in order to protect the above-mentioned general interests.
2. With a view to implementing the measures provided in the foregoing clause, the Government may issue instructions to all the authorities of the Autonomous Communities…”
Note the use of the word “forcibly”.
Even if Madrid wanted (and it doesn’t – using a crisis to political advantage is a two way street, although the central government has so far been remarkably restrained) to allow the Catalans drive a horse and cart through the constitution and seek independence, the military would most likely not let it happen. Anything less than triggering Article 155 to stop the Catalan government claiming independence would threaten Spain’s democracy with the grave possibility of a coup.
IMHO, better the Guardia Civil squashing illegal dissent in Barcelona than the Ejército de Tierra ending democracy for all Spaniards.
We could be if we decided to be. That may be unlikely but it’s not outside the realm of possibility – especially if central government keeps fucking us over.
And that doesn’t actually matter. Also:
Yep, seems that they were independent at one point before Spain existed and before they were part of Aragon.
Relationships between people change over time and trying to prevent them by calling ZOMG, IT’S ILLEGAL is destructive of those relationships rather than constructive. This would be one of those many cases where the law is wrong.
Really, it would be far better for both to do the split equitably if Catalonia voted to leave and become it’s own country.
I think its all over. Come Monday, Bill English will still be PM. My hope is that Cindy will stay on as leader, and try and wear National down over the next 3 years. My big worry is what is going to happen. English has made no secret of his hostility to public ownership or anything collective. We will probably get more privatisation and hacking away at the safety net.
The impact of charter schools on the public education system, the future of our rail network, whether wages and conditions will be further depressed, avalibility of state and social housing, road pricing, are all things to consider. I am picking a sharp lurch to the right for National.
Millsy – I think it is still too close to call but like you I see that the “stardust” of Jacinda has fallen away.
Her captains call on tax and the big reversal (I think) cost her a huge amount of credibility.
It’s ironic. Between Turei’s fraud admission and aderns captains call – they have possibly cost the left the election.
I think the greens will do well …. and continue a conversation about injustice and exploitation ……
https://greens.org.au/tax-reform
National is riddled with so much corruption and dirt …. that if not voted out in a couple of days time ….. could collapse through one of the the many scandal time bombs …..That Nice Mr Key left ticking ……….
A flurry of dealings with death squad Durtee, Indonesian and Malaysia ….. Not to mention the Bahamas …. Before Johnny made-off
Oh – the old scandal time bomb story that will put National (or JK) out of politics – Jesus wept – you guys have been looking for that for coming on a decade and still havn’t found it.
The “scandal” has been unfolding since late 2007. He misled and lied and now English has taken over. The only change is the media are calling some of lies. The 40%+ that said it wasnt lies have now moved to it may be a lie but we will still vote for it. All that Joyce and English have accused Labour of doing if they get in, they have already done…
Raised taxes without flagging it in election campaigns(notably GST), ran zero budgets in 2014 and 2015 (the hole).
You mean the scandal that Key was screwing Parata, and he got caught by his wife – yeah wondering when that one will hit?
Show me a picture of Parata wearing her hair ………. in a ponytail.
And I’ll give your rumor some consideration ………
It could tie in with his vasectomy 😉
Did you not hear of the Panama papers James ….. and John Key the only politician called out by name …..
Coincidentally we have politically connected people Laundering stolen Russian money for a crime and murder network ….. http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2017-03-26/local-news/Russian-Laundromat-four-Malta-based-companies-received-USD3-million-in-laundered-funds-6736172108 http://www.interest.co.nz/news/84833/michael-field-takes-look-new-offering-key-player-involved-famous-saga-nz-company-was
Or helping corrupt Politicians in Brazil, Malta and Maylasia launder their stolen loot …. some of it undoubtedly spent on buying NZ Land, Forests and infrastructure …. http://jabajabba.com/1mdb-inside-story-worlds-biggest-financial-scandal/
And then theres the Pike River bullshit with its ongoing cover-up …. http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/06/judith-collins-doesn-t-want-to-talk-about-pike-inferno.html
Or maybe it will be more mass poisonings that show up the Nats ‘direction … “The recent water crisis in Havelock North is the biggest outbreak of waterborne disease ever recorded in New Zealand. According to the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board, approximately 5200 people, one third of the town’s population, were struck by the campylobacter disease,” ….
“The outbreak has been linked to the deaths of two elderly residents, hospitalised 22, caused closures to schools and has brought about significant commercial implications.”
Who knows with your corner cutting race to the bottom party James …. so many possibilitys
We would be better off to have a sweep stake over which nat MP stuffs up first …
Who do you think ?
No. Labour was at 24% a few short weeks ago. If National wins it is because over 40% of voters do not mind being lied to their faces as long as they have their bias confirmed.
Really – it shows a real lack of depth in any of your thinking to see that you are unable to understand that there are a multitude of reasons people vote National – and not just what you think they think.
So enlighten us. Why do you think so many people are prepared to vote National? What are these “reasons” that cause them to overlook the corruption and lies that National have use to divide this country?
Don’t encourage it.
There was no big reversal. That’s just another RWNJ lie put out by National and their
sheepfollowers.Given up? ffs man I thought you were better than that
No Millsy. We are so close!!! They want you to fold your tent and get negative. Give Jacinda a chance by staying positive and seeking last minute support. Please don’t give James fodder!!
He’s not giving me fodder – I have said the same thing as all of you in reply to him – Its too close to call. Too early to give up and call it.
46 plays 45 is all over? hold your horses millsy. the nz public are not stupid and Billy Liar has gone too far by supporting Joyce.
It is to close to call. My reading of the public mood is the negartive tax attacks worked up until English jumped the shark with his slaughter the dairy herd comments, when they became counter-productive. The number of undecided decided voters (i.e. change their mind every few days as opposed to be ing undecided) is astonishing,
The last of the polls released for newshub tonight.
Given that the one news poll has fallen back more or less in line with the newshub poll, I would guess there will be a strong showing for National in this poll.
What will be really interesting will be the greens and NZFirst results.
For me – it would be awesome if they were both below 5% but I don’t believe that will happen.
But perhaps Jacinda can eat some more of the green vote and help make that happen.
Hope you can make it back to the neo con fest in time , … mind you ,… with this oil pipeline business it might be a little hard to fly anywhere in the foreseeable future..
Well James it seems by your steadfast support for the current government that you are happy with the current state of affairs and the current direction of government.
Do you get joy from the social Darwinism practiced by the National/Act combo?
How many more families living in cars do you want?
What would like the suicide rate pushed up to?
Is not the doubling of children admitted to hospital for malnutrition enough for you?
Is the festering cowshit in rivers polluting our once beautiful land insufficient for you James?
Well perhaps this should be part of the “lefts” attack adds on the current government – it’s all true though and how many people truly want this James?
Why is it that this state of affairs is desirable to you?
Why aren’t you recoiling in the horror and misery of it?
“Well James it seems by your steadfast support for the current government that you are happy with the current state of affairs and the current direction of government.”
yes – and it would seem that most people agree with me. – see is the government moving in the right direction polls for the last x years.
If you think there were no people living in cars, no suicides, etc under Labour – you are having a laugh.
Nobody wants that – but a change in government aint going to fix it – and I believe will make a lot of things worse.
A change in government has already changed it James National/Act’s have greatly worsened the situation James
Do you deny all those things have become much worse under National?
You say nobody want’s that…but James its your government of choice that has made all those things far far worse than they were.
It’s record high suicides, homelessness, malnourished children and pollution James and are you really stating it’s nothing to with government REALLY?
Don’t governments govern?
Not saying its nothing to do with the government.
Im saying I beleive things would be considerably worse over all if Labour had of been in power for the last 9 years.
Well we finally get to the heart of it James
You don’t argue that National/Act haven’t presided over RECORD increases in homelessness, suicide, malnourished children and pollution
“Im saying I beleive things would be considerably worse over all if Labour had of been in power for the last 9 years.”
This seems to be your core belief – no matter how vile, wrong or corrupt things are “Labour would be worse” /sigh
Why do you believe this? There are very few who would claim that National have been especially proactive in dealing with these issues. Are you suggesting that Labour would somehow have done less?
I believe so – yes.
It was the “why” I was looking for some input on in this case. Do you have anything further to add?
Kids living in Cars is A unique National party outcome …….. James
Nationals trajectory would have kids living in rubbish dumps in short order ….
Its been one of the disgusting features of the Key and now English Govt …
They don’t care about poor kids of their families ….
***************************************
“Winston Peters: Does he agree with an infamous New Zealander who said: “We are facing a severe home affordability and ownership crisis. The crisis has reached dangerous levels in recent years and looks set to get worse.”; if not, why not?…”
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No
.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is the Prime Minister aware that he was the one who said that? ………
***************************************************
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does he stand by his statement that “immigration settings were about right, and the Auckland housing market would take care of itself.”; if so, is he satisfied with 34,000 new migrants moving to Auckland each year, adding more pressure on demand for housing, education, health, and infrastructure?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: If he truly does not want New Zealanders to become, in his words, “tenants in their own country”—said in the campaign, of course—then why did his Government let immigration get so out of control that so many young New Zealand families today are going to be tenants and not owners of their homes? ”
************************************************
Rt Hon Winston Peters: If the latest household economic survey reports that every income decile has declined in homeownership …..except for the top 10 percent,……. when will he start governing for all New Zealanders and not just for his rich mates?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: If one looks generally at those who think the country is going in the right direction
***************************************************
https://app.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/individual/search?roleType=ALL&q=john%20key
https://app.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/individual/search?q=john+key&start=25&limit=25&entitySearch=&addressKeyword=&postalCode=&country=&addressType=&advancedPanel=&roleType=ALL
sf=&sd=
Its hard to know who Johnny made-off was working for …… but Deutsche bank are dirty as …. ditto jp morgan …
BAD NEWZ RACING TRAVELS FAST (NZ) LIMITED (2001656) (Removed) – Director
BAD NEWZ RACING TRAVELS FAST (NZ) LIMITED (2001656) (Removed) – Shareholder
KEY, John
FAUCHELLE BUILDERS LIMITED (827632) – Shareholder
KEY, John Phillip
EARL OF AUCKLAND LIMITED (1189242)
KEY, John Phillip
CLOSEBURN STATION MANAGEMENT LIMITED (863931)
KEY, John Phillip
DAIRY INVESTMENT FUND LIMITED (1276788)
KEY, John Phillip
HIGHWATER VINEYARD LIMITED (1663585)
KEY, John Philip
DEUTSCHE FINANCE NEW ZEALAND LIMITED (598443) (Removed) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
J.P. MORGAN NEW ZEALAND NOMINEES LIMITED (440888) (Removed) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
DEUTSCHE CORPORATE FINANCE NEW ZEALAND LIMITED (550561) (Removed) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
DEUTSCHE FUTURES NEW ZEALAND LIMITED (418757) (Removed) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
DEUTSCHE FINANCIAL CORPORATION NEW ZEALAND LIMITED (312930) (Removed) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
DEUTSCHE NEW ZEALAND LIMITED (321028) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
HAUNUI DAIRY LIMITED (1098943) (Removed) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
EARL OF AUCKLAND LIMITED (1189242) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
HAUNUI DAIRY LIMITED (1098943) (Removed) – Shareholder
KEY, John Phillip
DEUTSCHE PACIFIC LIMITED (587467) (Removed) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
BT FUNDS MANAGEMENT (NZ) LIMITED (447393) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
DEUTSCHE SERVICES NEW ZEALAND LIMITED (299381) (Removed) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
B.T. MANAGEMENT LIMITED (307901) (Removed) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
VALUTA INVESTMENTS LIMITED (305797) (Removed) – Ceased Director
KEY, John Phillip
THIRTY EIGHT JK LIMITED (6273390) – Director & Shareholder
KEY, John Phillip
HAUNUI DAIRY LIMITED (1098943) (Removed) – Shareholder
KEY, John Phillip
AIR NEW ZEALAND LIMITED (104799) – Director
https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/
Still having FPP wet dreams James?
Nope – I prefer MMP to FPP.
And as I have said – I will respect the outcome of the election whoever wins. Even if its a labour – greens win.
But I bet – some the election result – if its not to your liking you will be moaning, disrespectful, and going on about how so many NZ’ers are dumb, selfish, etc etc because they dont agree with you.
why do you hate the greens james?
James hates the Greens as they make him look stupid and bad.
Actually James very own arsehole and lower gut would make him look stupid.
If he drank our infected river water ….. his direction would be for the shit-house ..
Which is very symbolic of National ….. And the explosive dysentery James would be suffering is very symbolic of him ….
His squirty bum and sick guts would soon teach his brain to wise up … even he’s not going to keep drinking shit …. and shit himself to death ….to stick up for National.
James may be a nasty sly devious greed driven english man ….. but basically he’s stupid
In the interests of balance, reason, you should also tell us a bit about James’ bad side.
Bearded, I believe James’ hates the Greens because Metiria took money straight from James’ pocket, his very pocket, his money and she smirked while she did it. Plus, Russel Norman said, “Give me back my flag!” in a voice that clearly had an Australian accent! Plus! Jeanette Fitzsimons once lit a fire when there was a fire ban on!!! Plus, Garth Hughes is Ronald McDonald and Julie Ann Genter is smarter than the whole National front bench! Bad Greens!!!
roflnui. I really am going to make a concerted effort sometime after the election to encourage you to write posts. Not personal attack on james posts 😉 but ones with that sharp and excellent turn of phrase. Maybe I’ll point you in the direction of the new opposition.
Brilliant…LOL.
Was wondering why they are worth voting for. I will vote for them again and again….
I despair for this country – a loved one yesterday had her benefit halved and she ended up in doorway of WINZ in her pyjamas in tears and the security there wouldn’t even give her a tissue, she ended up seeing a the caseworker and it has been fixed up – this person is unable to work and has massive mental health issues. This person lives everyday under the worry that they will end up on the street and it doesn’t matter how much we assure this person that we will take of her if this should happen – being mentally unwell this doesn’t compute with her.
I loathe to the bottom of my heart this Government and especially English for bringing about his vision of putting all unwell back in the work force when they haven’t a possibility of being able to work. Living under the stress of this everyday is equating to suicides every day. Family live with this constant fear for their loved ones. So many attempted suicides and the worst scenerio is that one day it will work for them and family will be in grief.
If there is a God National will be finished this weekend. Pray for all the families who live on the knife edge of grief and suicide every day of their lives and please if we get a new Government may they purge the culture at WINZ and especially the Nazi protection squads at the door.
We should be a first world country – we are now a third world country which is insulting the third world.
Winz will get even worse with a 4th National term.
Shut up Awww. Sometimes we don’t want to hear a replay of that doleful refrain. Sorry about your friend Kate and that she is better for a while. Can’t wait to see if we are finally shot of these National smirking low-lifes for a while. Of course If they do go into opposition they will spend much of their time cooking up treats for the left that would make haggis look like angel’s food.
“Especially the Nazi protection squads at the door.”
the security guards are just hard working people doing their jobs – generally for a low wage (you know the kind of people the left are Supposed to represent). Calling them nazi protection squads Hardly shows solidarity with them does it.
Also remember they are there as a result of Tully going into a winz office and killing people. Something one commenter in here said he should be “hailed as a hero” for.
You don’t mention why her benefit was cut – but regardless it sounds like it was a mistake and they were professional and efficient.
She saw a case worker and it was resolved the same day.
Edit – I have great sympathy for people with needs like your loved one. It’s not good that there are issues with their payments and they should at least have the confidence that the $ is something that will just happen and it’s not another thing they need to worry about.
As professional and efficient as using a few illegal pseudonyms , eh , James ? ….
“Also remember they are there as a result of Tully going into a winz office and killing people. “
No.
They are there to remind those going in, and those watching from without, that this service is there to dehumanise them.
Tully is not going to return.
“They are there to remind those going in, and those watching from without, that this service is there to dehumanise them..”
oh really – since you state that as fact – anything to back that up ?
Yeah – no – you need a new tin foil hat.
That you thrive by coming to this site as an agitator, simply enables others to learn and understand, ‘your type’..
I’m sure that opportunity is appreciated…
I agree, One Two – it’s quite useful seeing into the way Nat voters think, as I don’t normally mix with this type. It’s not pretty, is it!
Yep
He is a good example of what we oppose.
Anyone that is paying attention understands that the measures now taken by WINZ far exceed what is needed to keep their staff safe. The overlap between the security aspects and the dehumanising aspects is real. Plenty of stories out there that explain this if you want to open your ears.
Well, your comment displays no reflection on what it would feel like for those visiting those offices to have security at the door before facing their case managers – so it is an example of “…those watching from without”.
Given the recent public publishing of stories from those requiring assistance, and the treatment they have received (and help they haven’t), it is quite easy to find those that reflect the “…those going in”.
Of course, your “‘cos Tully” is a non-linked evidence statement as well. Well done once again for hypocrisy. (Especially if you ignore the fact that he asked for and was refused help many times before committing that tragic act of violence.)
So. Your count is three for three.
1. Ignore impact on those going for help, because from your point of view -they don’t matter.
2. Ignore evidence of personal harm offered by those who have shared their stories.
3. Ignore other factors at play apart from one man’s violent solution.
You are fairly good at ignoring evidence when it suits, but you are masterful at providing evidence on how the self-involved of this country think.
You have sympathetic words but your vote preference suggests otherwise.
“Especially the Nazi protection squads at the door.”
the security guards are just hard working people doing their jobs – generally for a low wage (you know the kind of people the left are Supposed to represent). Calling them nazi protection squads Hardly shows solidarity with them does it.
From memory some of the security staff weren’t that happy with what they were being asked to do. Don’t think they made much headway on that though.
Also remember they are there as a result of Tully going into a winz office and killing people. Something one commenter in here said he should be “hailed as a hero” for.
So you want to use a single perspective from some years ago to rationalise the mistreatment of a seriously vulnerable NZer? That’s fucked up even by your standards James.
Again, there are large overlaps between the security issues and the dehumanising ones. What is happening at the doors of WINZ is not only about Ashburton, it’s also about the authoritarian and protocol-fascist ideology of the govt. There is no need for it to be this bad but National want it this way.
You don’t mention why her benefit was cut – but regardless it sounds like it was a mistake and they were professional and efficient.
She saw a case worker and it was resolved the same day.
Right. So NZers are entitled to welfare if they’re willing to turn up on the doorstep of WINZ in their pyjamas and in distress. Good to know where you set the bar of professionalism.
I’ll tell you how I see it. If WINZ were being run properly, then this person would have had a case manager who knew who situation and understood the particular issues that make her vulnerable. Having benefits cut for no good reason is not uncommon, but even so in this case it should have been as simple as a phone call, getting it reinstated until the problem could be sorted out.
The thing that should have jumped out at you is why someone who is so obviously ill is being required to doorstep WINZ.
Edit – I have great sympathy for people with needs like your loved one. It’s not good that there are issues with their payments and they should at least have the confidence that the $ is something that will just happen and it’s not another thing they need to worry about.
Yeah, you probably should have led with that. And expressed some of that sympathy in the body of your comment. Afterthoughts aren’t enough.
And today we hear that the govt is dragging its feet paying out the 19m fuck up that cost some beneficiaries a 1000 a year!
I haven’t looked closely at that one yet. It’s tricky because it involves Special Benefit, which technically pays better than TAS, so giving up SB for TAS might not be a wise move for beneficiaries.
Yeah but little grots like James cant see that and would rather troll than admit it. And that’s the mentality of these types , until we manage to get rid of National the enabling of little creeps like this will continue to go unchecked.
My heart goes out to you WK. Tragically, this is not an uncommon occurrence here in 21st century Godzone.
Arbeit macht frei.
And if not…there is death, or the dishonour of incarceration.
Your loved one WK, is she enrolled with a community mental health provider?
If she is….pay them a visit and make sure they are doing the job they are being funded for. Avoid challenging an actual community health support worker…remember…they are the group that were deliberately excluded from the Pay Equity settlement.
Kia kaha….
Yes she has the support of her Mental Health Team and they have been notified. This person was asked to go to a seminar for work – on the day before she was so unwell she phoned her worker at WINZ and had it down on the file that she would come in but on another day – so it was all Kosher. It still came through in her bank account as being halved. As for the Nazi Police at the door – nothing condones being callous and not offering help when help is needed. James go and crawl under a rock you are not welcome on this site. And remember James, if we had employment and homes for people to live in – then the sentries at the door would not be needed – its a symptom of a rotten uncaring society.
Remember this mantra – we, each and every one of us, are a heartbeat away from being vulnerable in one way or another. This Government does not serve the vulnerable, it treats them like an unwelcome pest. Just remember that.
A plague on the house of National, they are a disgrace to society.
. ” Government does not serve the vulnerable, it treats them like an unwelcome pest”
Kicks us when we’re down, then stomps on us.
Thanks WK. These personal stories are so important at this time, I truly think that most NZers haven’t a clue just about bad WINZ are now.
Oh Whispering Kate, that is so sad and typical of their indifference. Their Victorian attitude of the “Deserving poor” and the “Unfit” coupled with this half baked Social schemes have caused endless misery.
We need to tell these stories and ask people to vote them out. Keep strong, we will win. There are good people out there, many who do not want this done in their name.
It is turning that into votes that counts. I know I have influenced 4 people this election, and still would like another, as when I vote I feel them standing with me.
I don’t think this government believes there are any deserving poor. If they were deserving they’d be rich.
Why else would the government have removed all the things that could help improve life for them?
We have nearly lost this loved one to suicide, on a ventilater for 6 days in critical care and not knowing if the outcome would be fine, if and when the overdose wore off. There were prior to this two suicide attempts. Life is like walking through a mine field and uncaring people like James just make life even more unbearable for the unwell and family. Family get shell shocked and suffer from Post Tramatic Syndrome as well.
How on earth Bill English thinks with his prized Social Investment Policy that he so worships, is going to wrench these poor sods off their benefit and into work beggars belief. All my loved one wants is not to be harrassed and threatened with benefit loss on a regular basis and to be left in peace so that she can live her life as wretched as it is – without their cruel punishing threats of cutting off her lifeline/benefit , pathetic as it is.
The Fuel outage continues to wreek havoc with International air travel and freight BUT media coverage is diminished and spinning that it’s an Auckland problem .
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/97041095
Meanwhile , not a single litre of Jet Fuel has been transported to Wiri by Road as yet[ as per the 2012 MBIE contingency plan.
There’ll be a a single load “trial” today 7 days after the outage occurred .
Morning report was told this morning that 6-8 Tankers would be working around the clock from tomorrow on..
Best case scenario is 32 tankers/day and we’re told that the largest Planes on long haul consume 7 Tanker loads.
Meanwhile 34 tankers are delivering ground fuel out of the Tauranga marine terminal.
Yep I noticed that Broken. The MSM don’t want this sheeted home to National being useless while people are voting. I just heard on RNZ that 100 flights had now been cancelled. Talk about a shambles.
Key/English are penny pinchers without a strategic bone in their body. $58m on greater storage would have largely sorted this-peanuts. They were told in 2012 that a jet-fuel outage would cost $466m.
It’s up to Auckland airport to sort out and guarantee fuel supply.
Why should a private company be subsidized by the taxpayer?
Agree but why is the CEO of the Transport Ministry running the repair? You also apply this to farmers too BM. They are businesses and we currently subsidise them 450m by leaving them out of ets but leave, say, forestry in.
Personally, I think the whole ETS should be scrapped and any money raised invested into dealing with the effects of climate change.
The problem is that the effects of climate change are ongoing and quite laggy. From just the existing inputs of greenhouse gases and heat there will be at least 2000 years of effects. Probably being the most severe over the next two to three centuries.
So you seem to think that a on-off payment is likely to cover it. Seems like a foolish idea to me.
I agree about scrapping the ETS – it simply doesn’t work. It is highly unlikely in my view that it or anything like it could be made to work.
Similarly the Green idea about sequestering carbon into wood or plants is just as useless, unless they start building anaerobic conditions. The time scales are way too short to be effective and it’d interfere with getting enough food for having a peak world population at 9 billion or above. Effectively it’d force a concentration of food production into a smaller and is likely to damage the environment there. Besides I can see many ways for the market to rort any incentives to do that.
A simple tax on all sources of fossil hydrocarbons by all governments starting with our own would be sufficient to actually curb their use and make alternatives more economically viable. Treat it like tobacco.
The problem is that the effects of climate change are ongoing and quite laggy. From just the existing inputs of greenhouse gases and heat there will be at least 2000 years of effects. Probably being the most severe over the next two to three centuries.
I completely agree trying to stop climate change is futile when you look at the timescales involved.
Any sort of carbon taxes should be put aside to be spent on protecting against sea level rise or the effects of an increasingly volatile and erratic weather system.
You’d get a hell of a lot more support for that then paying money into an ETS.
Trying to stop the use of things that cause climate change in the immediate future is a lot easier. It just involves making them expensive enough that initially more costly alternatives become viable.
Raise the price on them directly
We also can’t ameliorate or protect against it enough. If you look at continuing to burn fossil fuels or burning limestone to make concrete (which is just as bad) the numbers on effects get alarming very fast.
If we use all of the ex tractable fossil carbon resources, the potential sea level rise is about 75 metres. The potential temperature rises at the equatorial and subtropics regions are such that those regions would become largely uninhabitable by humans without significiant technological support. We are a species that developed in the midst of the ice age of the last 45 million years (since Antarctica drifted into the south polar region), and so are all of our client species like crops and farm animals. We would be part of the die back if we reproduce the world’s normal environment.
The problem is that in the geological evidence from the past against what we are seeing now makes it apparent that the icecaps that currently govern our current climate are frighteningly easy to lose. They could disappear fast over the next few centuries. There is a risk that Greenland and West Antarctica could disappear in decades one they start.
A tax on fossil carbon needs to be punitive and most of the proceeds need to go on developing alternatives.
To me, alleviating the effects of climate change is a pointless activity because it is unsustainable over the long term. The simpler and cheaper solution is to just give up the land early that will flood or become useless for farming rather than wasting resources on it. So closing off much of Florida, Bangladesh, and the Caribbean to humans is a better idea than trying to build futile dykes and hurricane/typhoon defences.
Going off and building resilience into the systems that sustain our civilisation makes far more sense. That means more food storage, redundant and communication transport systems, and evacuation systems to move people out of affected areas and preventing them from going back.
+100000000
BM @ 11. 1.1.
A number of irrigating farmers are!
“The Government has already allocated around half a billion taxpayer dollars to subsidise industrial-scale irrigation schemes around the country, which will result in more cows and more polluted rivers,” executive director Russel Norman said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11863119
+111
Plenty of tax dollars for National to buy votes from their farmer mates.
its called strategic national interest….why else did National get the report before cabinet that they ignored? and this despite air new zealand warning them.
The storage , which is now quite apparent to be totally inadequate , at Wiri is owned by the Fuel companies.
Exxon Mobil , BP ,Zed[ formerly Shell].
Exxonmobil & BP pay next to no tax on a ~$250m/annum operating profit.
First step , whilst discussing& costing viable alternatives for supply logistics from Refinery to Wiri , would be to compel said Corporations to increase their Auckland storage to allow full continued operation at Mangere for 30 days.
Why is such a strategic asset privately owned and thus allowed to produce this sort of failure?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/339857/msd-staff-used-false-names-fearing-attacks
It is frighting to think of the risk posed to staff. Not worth it, and passing the real names of panel menbers to the Social Security Appeals Authority should have been sufficient.
I know this has been mentioned here before, but the Three am show has stated the Reid Research poll phones 25% mobiles. Colmar Brunton only phones landlines. That must influence polling data.
A significant number of people don’t have landlines now, far fewer landlines than during the last election.
The Reid Research poll is out tonight.
So – are you saying that you think that the reid poll is likely to be more accurate?
Thats the one that had National looking a lot better……
Only a few days ago a lot on here were saying it was waaaay out – because of the Colmar poll (which has now reverted to close to the same position of the Reid)
L0L! … what is being said time and again my little skiting braggart , – is that we watch the trends, not the individual polls. And the facts are … that no political party’s jump up and down 10 points either way in 1 or 2 weeks.
It just asking too much to believe that one week a poll says up by around 10 points then a week later the same pollsters say down by 10 points.
And all we’ve had now are wild swings by most of them.
The only consistency are the internal party polls and both major party’s are saying they are neck and neck.
the more you call me names – the more I know you love me.
But – the CB is now falling in line with the reid. And their trend hasnt been as positive to the left.
I guess we will know Sat night.
James – here’s the thing. Over the past three elections, lefties like most here have suffered considerable blows at election time, around now, when their hopes have been dashed by a loss to John key’s National Party. At this point in time, readers here are very anxious that it could happen again. They are variously bouyed by news and polls and flattened by others. You are spending a great deal of time here, provoking people with your “reckons” and seeming to enjoy rubbing the noses of those here in any success National might have in this competition. You clearly enjoy doing that, but seem unable to see how that might make people feel. You gloat, you “predict”, you “wish” for the destruction of The Greens and a loss for Labour.
James, why do you bother? Couldn’t you just find a fly and pull its wings off? Perhaps there’s an elderly person living nearby who you could torment by putting dog poo in their letter box or throwing stones on their roof? James, again, why do you behave this’a’way? It can’t be that you are annoyed by what people here say – you come here by choice, don’t you? Perhaps, out of the goodness of your heart, you could choose to absent yourself for a while. Most here would enjoy time away from your irritating presence. Just a polite suggestion from someone who recognises a socially disfunctional person when I see one.
I come here because I enjoy it.
I find it cute how you follow around my post like a wee puppy dog (which is how i picture you) trying to nip at my heals – but not making it thru my socks 😉
The thing is that just because I have a different view point – it dosnt make me trolling.
Perhaps – open your eyes and try to see it from another perspective. It will make you a better person.
Bedtime reading for you James – The goat that gloats’
It’s about a childish goat that gloats until one day… anyway I won’t spoil the ending for you – enjoy sat
” Narcissism is a personality disorder characterised by a grandiose view of one’s abilities and a craving for admiration.”
http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/narcissistic-men-are-more-likely-to-troll-on-facebook-study
Lol, Stop putting poo in Roberts letterbox James and don’t throw stones on his roof either.
THe old fella is getting quite upset
poll of polls has lab/gr 47 nats 44
Yep – it’s close right – anyone’s game to win.
Comments you make here, is a game you’re playing..
Media play games using the relentless polling ‘results’…
The All Blacks who you regularly bend over for with words on this blog, play games…
Unsurprisingly, you’re not able to identify that an election, is not a game!
There is a suggestion that Colmar Brunton changed their methodology between its last two polls. Not sure if this is good or bad. CB won’t confirm or deny.
Reid tonight usually favours National over CB figures.
No they didn’t and the did confirm this – I will see if I can find the link.
EDIT Ianmac – seems you have been fed some fake news.
They tweeted (sorry cannot link for some reason) but you can check their tweets:
In answer to this question – Hi, the poll has bee conducted using the exact same method as previous polls.
They also confirmed 100% landline calling, and that there was no changes to the weighting procedure
What the fuck is this all about?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/97051893/msd-faked-names-and-signatures-in-benefit-reviews
There us an actual risk. That’s why the Remote Claims Unit exists.
Disgusting – that person (and any person doing that) should be held to account and fired.
Why? Collins leaked a guy’s name leading to death threats. Bennett deliberately breached the Privacy Act… Both still there.
I think memes about Bill’s “fiscal hole” could swing this election
EG
Show us your fiscal hole, Bill
Stop talking about your fiscal hole, Bill
Bill talks out of his fiscal hole
etc
Why not give it a try then?
Nothing to loose at the moment right?
I could make one up in about five minutes but the two issues are:
1/ Can I use other people’s images of Bill English or does that break copyright law
2/ How do you promote a meme so lots of people see it.
Anyone have any advice?
1/ Can I use other people’s images of Bill English or does that break copyright law
I guess that depends on where you get it from – I have no idea on copyright law.
2/ How do you promote a meme so lots of people see it.
Post on facebook groups with people who you think will agree with it and hope that they share it out to all their friends.
Good Luck.
thanks!
Do you create a bigger fiscal hole by fiscing ?.
Just listening to K Ryan interviewing Jacinda Ardern. Disgraceful. Asking a question and interrupting before answer starts is Imo not good interviewing. Also has a very combative tone.
Jacinda Adern performed very well (again)…Kathryn Ryan I thought was firm but fair except for trying to push responsibilty for the (in)actions of future governments on JA….that aside I doubt that many who are likely to swing will have been listening so its impact either way is negligible…..fingers crossed that the polls havnt reflected the true level of desire for change…we’ll know soon enough.
Not happy with Katherine’s harsh accusative style. Jacinda battled on but boy she must be tired.
Bill on tour gets only tiny groups to speak at.
Jacinda attracts huge crowds and that must be debilitating and exhilerating. I bet she has lost a lot of weight.
Jacinda will be the next PM aided by a resurgence Green Team.
my gut feeling says the same.
I tried to listen but found it difficult!
Rather than a “Leader’s Interview. It seemed to be more about Katherine Ryan, and her ego. And an opportunity to show off her knowledge on a topic.
She does this regularly. You only need to listen to any one of her interviews with Rod Oram. Where she fires off a question, and rather than shut up and listen, (to a leading business commentators opinion) Fires off with her view of the world.
To MSM sorry you can not see me through your Camera all of your actions can be read Ka Pai
Now here is the joke of a tax system that national have made
There is a person whom has $200.000 he borrow’s $800.0000 so now we have a million to invest in a business this business has a turn over of a million and has 3 full time staff
on a salary of $50.000 each total of $150.000 after main expenses have been payed they have got
$200.000. So my point is with creative accounting and the accountants
advise them to buy and replace some thing that is still running fine just to wipe out a GST bill I prefer to keep the plant and pay some GST to Inland revenue and make more of a fairer profit I’m going off track the fucken Big picture is that the 3 workers are going to pay more tax than the business that employs them and this is the facts .
The interests on the $800.000 loan is tax deductible In my view inland revenue pays the business Interest I was in business 15 years ago and you did not have all the tax deductions one has NOW . Would you like Inland revenue to pay all YOUR interest
I no this is how it works i have associated with business owners since i started working.
These business are all around US .
The most tax paid is PAYE and GST and DUTIE TAX on fuel road user charges E.C.T
So nearly all the tax is payed by the WORKERS in one way or a anther. Most business pay minimal TAX. Every thing my fellow left bloggers on this site have said about tax is right. W.T.F
Some one is pissing in the wind trying to COMPARE OBAMA’S achievements with thrumps .
In my view OBAMA had a MASSIVE mess to clean up after a neo libreal changed all the banking rules and middle class people had brought 3 houses each on the dum ass theory that there capital gains would pay there Dept .
If OBAMA did not handle this WORLD financial CATASTROPHE right this event would have damaged the whole Worlds financial markets for decades everyone should be praising OBAMA . He got alternative energy flourishing around OUR world and many
other Great achievements to help mitigate climate change well that’s my view on these facts.
So neo libreals just go out to grab as much MONEY/ POWER as they can and DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE WORKERS or the damage there dum ass policys money grab does to OUR WORLD. They Leave’s a big mess for people like OBAMA to clean up and this is the main resaon that our WORLD has so much poverty the fucken greedy neo liberals won’t shear there LOLLIES. My pick for Saturdays election
Labour 50 %
Greens 15 %
Maori P 6 %
These’s are the Ideal party’s to lead OUR beautiful Country into a fair and bright Environmentally Sustainable FUTURE for every thing. I have thought long and hard on my choices for OUR new Goverment
“My pick for Saturdays election
Labour 50 %
Greens 15 %
Maori P 6 %”
Well – if one thing is certain in this election. Its that you are going to be very wrong.
For the easiest and less controversial point – Maori party on 6% ….. Not a hope.
I m still waiting for a reply James
James asks the questions here Barfly
James you are an asshole. Robert Guyton was exactly right.
Thats not very polite Nick.
What part of my post do you disagree with ?
Do you think that the Maori party will get 6%?
Nick is not impolite enough. James is not so much an asshole as the product of one.
Hey eco M/K -you are way out with your financials -there is no GST on wages or Interest. For your bloke to “wipe out his GST” he will need to spend a heap on new plant. My annual GST,PAYE and Income Tax bills are all very similar amounts around $600k each.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/20/49103/dame-anne-salmond-a-final-brief-election-thought
Anne Salmond calls Blinglish “fundamentally decent” despite resorting to lying,
Mad cow
Rent rort
Barclay
Neo-lib
Liar
Ignoring crises – housing, poverty, suicides
None of these are things are fundamentally decent imo.
Fundamentally deceny leaders do not deliberately lie and refuse to back down. The key word is “leader”.
Trying to work out how a PM with control of Billions and able to determine policy deliberately lying is better than Turei’s admission of deceit at 23?
It’s not better but it does seem to be more successful.
Faking decency. It’s a skill admired much more than actual decency.
Faking decency. Yes.
As someone who regarded English as a fundamentally decent bloke, the actual English persona was present during last night’s debate for all to see who bothered to look. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Smug, deceitful, taunting and bereft of genuine remorse. The real Bill English finally stood up.
Well trained by his mentor/ colleague/ former Boss.
Sorry can’t recall who said it today just now, but he has a lot to confess on Sunday to the “Parish priest”
Haven’t read it yet, but am guessing it’s a class thing. That professional class, especially the liberal ones, like to be kind about each other.
I understand the inclination (I was raised in that and like that). English isn’t a sociopath like Key. It’s why he’s not as good at it as Key. But I agree he can no longer be called a decent man, his actions rule that out.
A class thing is likely, but maybe and image thing as well. He appears to be a good dad and partner, has an easy manner. People often judge decency on these things.
Yes, I think that’s very true. And appearance is so important to that class.
miravox I think Anne Salmond makes a fair comment. We have been lead to believe that English is at least honest. It is therefore sad to see that as a myth when he sits there and blatantly lies. Power corrupts?
does nobody remember the billion Billy Liar doled out to Hubbard just to keep his southern farmer mates happy when in reality the government had no liability
Yes! That was fundamentally screwing the taxpayer over.
Mostly the article is fair comment. However I do think the description of him as ‘fundamentally decent’ is totally wrong. That’s why I put an off the top of my head list of things he has done that are not fundamentally decent.
Bill may appear to be decent, but unfortunately he’s suffering from delusions of ideology otherwise known as Right Wing Nut Job, with a robotic heart and memory loss.
He (like Key) appears to be decent, is protected by MSM, but his actions say otherwise.
Bill English: The Forgotten History
The story of Bill English, before he became a nice guy
http://werewolf.co.nz/2017/08/bill-english-the-forgotten-history/
During the financial melt down of 2008 2009 It did not affect US as much as other country’s Because a Labour finance Minster could see the big PICTURE and payed down our dept Michael Cullen hence no over sea’s banks SCREAMING OUT FOR THERE MONEY NOW. Which is the situation that john key and bill english have got US into now if those overseas banks want there money we are in the SHIT There you go.
National and its fellow travellers must be shitting themselves. That BusinessNZ arsehole Kirk Hope has been given space on stuff to spew his bile and lies again! (https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/97072267/labours-fair-pay-agreements-mark-biggest-industrial-relations-change-in-a-decade.)
Please don’t feed the troll.
Interesting article By Prof Anne-Marie Brady about the Chinese influence in New Zealand politics, Apart from other things, listing all the National politicians that have done very well having dealings with China.
Too long and too many areas to quote here, (57 pages), but well worth the time and trouble to read before you vote if you haven’t voted already.
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4053774-Magic-Weapons-China-s-political-influence.html#document/p32/a376226
kapai, Shorter read here:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/18/48616/expert-calls-for-inquiry-into-chinese-threat
Bruce Jesson would be proud of that one: the range and depth of the research showing paid and soft influence of the Chinese government is rich and highly detailed.
You need a good 45 minutes to really read and take it all in, but this is a really well researched academic paper.
The records showing the precision of their donations into party and local government influence is particularly striking.
Taster: “When Kenneth Wang first entered Parliament as a list MP, 47% of Chinese voters voted Labour. But in the 2014 election, 75% voted National.”
Here’s a brief interview (in the clip in the link below) with the author of the report/study.
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/chinese-soft-power-influence-in-new-zealand/8967852
This is too little too late. Voters have cast their vote, or are deciding on Bill’s honesty or Jacinda’s empathy.
Just got a targeted lie add from the Natz on You Tube saying they will give me extra $1000 or something like that.
It’s started. The National Parties last minute social media campaign.
Very worrying how many people can be influenced by these targeted adds that have zero accountability and little traceability (shouldn’t political adds all say who paid for it)?
It pays to have friends like Mr Thiel it seems. Just a coincidence he got NZ citizenship and millions in sweet share deals courtesy of the National party and paid by the NZ taxpayer.
We are in a new political landscape, post democracy.
Vote the liars and mass surveillance National Party OUT, before they sell off the entire country and take cash for citizenship to the levels they take fake students, fake carbon credits, fake statistics, fake clean image, fake news… get the idea
Do you, like Andrew Little, not understand how a progressive income tax system works?
How do they know I’m going to be better off under National? Are they using their surveillance techniques to find out, or just openly deceiving – because some people are worse off under National’s plans.
Not just social media. I have just had a robo call from BE. I took great pleasure in saying I don’t listen to liars F off. I wonder if these calls are analysed and if I will be counted as a no.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11924714
Jacinda has done very well for Labour (those list MPs owe her a large bottle of Whiskey, at the very least) but its difficult to remove a sitting government when the economy is running well
More fake news? “economy is running well”
What part of this is fake?
Gross domestic product expanded 0.8 per cent in the three months to June 30, up from a revised 0.6 per cent expansion in the March quarter and was 2.5 per cent higher on the year, Statistics New Zealand said. The median in a Bloomberg poll of 12 economists’ forecasts was for GDP to expand 0.8 per cent in the three months ended June 30 and 2.5 per cent on the year.
What use is GDP as a measure of anything? You’d have to be completely ignorant fool to use that as a measure for anything economic in NZ.
Our internal economy is so small that simply fiddling with immigration is sufficient to boost the whole internal economy in trying to provide housing, transport, and everything else required to settle an annual intake of 72,000 immigrants. It does nothing to boost our overall economy in the short-term.
All it is good for is to make stupid idiots like you vote in a foolish fashion after the the incumbent government does a ponzi boost to the internal economy before an election.
Personal attacks aside if the economy had gone backwards, even slightly, you don’t think Labour wouldn’t attack National over it?
Like it or not its something a large majority of people will take notice of and vote accordingly, enough to sway the election…maybe, maybe not
Jon Jones
WTF?
What are you unsure about?
Did you know Jon Jones that the bigger the prisons the better the effect on GST. Same happens with importing immigrants.
the “sitting government” has done a fine job of sitting but not governing…
and the result is an economy, an environment and social equity that have gone backwards for the majority – and there Jon Jones lies the issue ….
Pity Kiwi’s can’t afford to buy butter and profits are now our biggest export under National.
Disasters make GDP look good. But loss of life and livelihood for most people in a disaster is NOT a good thing.
We are building the most expensive road in the world under Bill English and we are running out of certain types of fuel with gross mismanagement of business.
To be human, is NOT to think like an economist.
GDP pushers are robots like Teresa May and Bill English.
Any expansion is a direct result of immigration, NOT govt economic policy, why do you think RW govts around the world like importing migrants?
Immigration is a good thing, brings in new ideas, cultures and peoples, the more immigration the better
Immigration is like any other phenomenon – it has good and bad sides.
A smart government regulates to get as much of the good and as little of the bad as possible.
A fucking stupid government seeks to maximize immigration so that the capital inflow temporarily obscures their failure to grow the real economy.
well said Stuart Munro
{Liar), Jonathan Coleman NOVEMBER, 2009
The Economic Impact of Immigration
“If we closed off immigration entirely the consequences for our economy would be profound. Without current levels of inward migration …
Our GDP would drop by 11.3 per cent.
And to complete the picture, GDP per capita would fall by 1.8 percent – $1,000 for every man woman and child in New Zealand.
That is a frightening picture of a blighted future that illustrates in the starkest terms why immigration matters. If any doubts about this still persist, they must surely be extinguished by the findings of this very important report.”
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/economic-impact-immigration
What little bedside quote book did you get that from? I bet there are pages in your head filled with little homilies, similar to ‘If you always put your right sock on first, the day will be happy and fulfilling’.
How good of you to drop in your little bits of rote learning to enlighten us. And the best bit is you know its not entirely true or false when immigration is being considered, but it annoys people to hear half-truths. Annoying people is what those who are a little lacking in self-esteem and not self-starters choose to do to get attention.
J J – National’s promotion of increasing immigration may appear to pump up an ailing economy, but their lack of competence in managing immigration is resulting in serious degradation in the quality of life for New Zealanders.
National has completely failed to develop long-term plans to cope with the implications of the increasing needs for public services, health, housing and infrastructure.
We really need to put a stop to this kind of feckless and reckless management of our economy
Nobody said there was gst on wages!!!!!!!!!!
The best thing Labour and Green political groups can do now is to try and get any community groups to urge people to make sure they vote so that the under 35 year olds and women are activated to vote! Especially in Auckland.
Make it clear they can vote today, tomorrow as well as Saturday and how important it is, if they are unhappy with how things are going and want some change to do their bit.
Send the government a Message!!! They need it because Bills, only just discovered poverty, congestion and new hospitals and schools are needed. He also thought that the oil industry can do no wrong and now everyone’s flights been cancelled because his friend the oil industry failed to invest in any safe guards with 40% more usage.
The supercity is a roaring success under National. Less services, more rates, less accountability, feeding the corporate troughs with public money has burgeoned under their “SUPER city”.
I’m so pleased that Sky City has more pokie machines and that TVNZ land was sold so they can build their conference centre.
Can National really get away with saying each election they will support local people and communities and still people fall for it, after 9 years?
Now’s the time to send them a message.
Community groups are a good idea
Or celebs like Lorde, Anita Moa etc, tweeting Kiwi’s to vote in the election.
The normalizing of LYING was started by Key, and has continued up to today, it appears Kiwi’s either accept it now as normal behavior or simply don’t care, certainly right minded individuals are the more prevalent, winning is more important than how you win.
Howard in Aus offered Tax cuts to try and get reelected (4th term), but the Aussies weren’t that DUMB, and voted him out and Labour in, for National to win this election on a Tax bribe where a majority buy into the idea is a very poor reflection on how society has changed in this country, and not for the better.
A tweet I read this morning, Chris Bramwell RNZ, saying the Mou is officially over and it was just “their attempt to change the Government”, another example of RW’s preferring to LIE.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/97084663/popular-auckland-cafe-ordered-to-pay-30000-over-employment-breaches
not very cool on the cafe’s part
Another one ffs:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/manukau-courier/96765858/community-seeks-new-solutions-to-homelessness-as-family-of-eight-found-sleeping-outside-cab
“They had three supermarket trolleys, one of which had food in it.
“They were polite and obliging and they swept up the place and left it neat and tidy.
“There’s another group of people who sleep around the back. There’s about seven or eight of them.”
I was wondering what had happened to this
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2017/09/suspicious.html
Justice delayed is justice denied
OUR incorruptible justice system YEA RIGHT
I have been waiting for that verdict on that case on our environment.
BIg upps Barfly
Thanks for that Eco life gets pretty discouraging at times
When you try to stiff the locals…
https://twitter.com/MailOnline/status/910209392653484032
“On Sunday it emerged that a farmer digging up swamp kauri had damaged the pipeline, and it could be out of action for two weeks.” (1)
Digging up Swamp Kauri in Northland sounds alot like an Orivida Kauri Ltd venture and herein lies the irony is that Energy Minister Judith Collins, whos husband is CEO of Orivida Ltd (2), fronted media to reassure airline carriers and Aucklanders “that it is “unlikely” that motorists would be inconvenienced.” (1)
Once again Judith Collins and her connection with Orivida, Kauri Swamp Tree Exports (as well as water and baby formula exports) continues to raise some serious credibility issues, particularly with regards to this pipeline rupture, and her role as Energy Minister.
(1) https://www.stuff.co.nz/…/aucklands-fuel-supply-vulnerabili…
(2) https://www.tvnz.co.nz/…/national-party-donors-allegedly-in…
from Bring back Campbell Live Facebook page
Well well well as if we should be surprised. Australia is experiencing severe heat waves as we speak and are reaching 40 C in September, this will drift over here and Sunday Monday we will be getting high 20’s and into 30’s. And this Government still pays lip service to climate change. The Met weather man said this will mean for Australia extreme heat conditions and extreme bush fires this coming summer. The Herald said it was unprecedented for this time of the year.
Makes me glad I voted Greens – at least they understand the seriousness of the climate and its changing for the worse for all the world.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11924891
Nicaragua is in, leaving the U.S. and Syria as the only nations not to sign the Paris climate accord,
Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega announced Monday that Nicaragua will sign the Paris Agreement in solidarity with countries most vulnerable to climate change. “We will soon adhere, we will sign the Paris Agreement. We have already had meetings addressing the issue and we have already programmed the accession of Nicaragua, “Ortega said, according to official information.
In 2015 Nicaragua refused to sign the Paris Agreement because it considered that the global proposal to fight against climate change “was not realistic”. Ortega again made clear the position of Nicaragua and the weaknesses that, in his view, is evidenced by the Paris Agreement.
“Scientists have told the political leaders, the rulers that this (the Accord) does not give, and have said that it is not true that you will be able to reduce the warming with these actions that are being committed in word, because there is no obligation to do what is being said there. That is, it is a declaration, a proclamation, “he argued.
https://translate.google.co.nz/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/nacionales/440735-ortega-informa-que-gobierno-firmara-acuerdo-paris/&prev=search
To Kirk Hopes piece in stuff today (https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/97072267/labours-fair-pay-agreements-mark-biggest-industrial-relations-change-in-a-decade), here is my reply:
Kirk, you and your ilk are right-wing fascists who have a very deep vested interest and emotional attachment to controlling all the power and wealth that circulates in New Zealand and as such are unable to fathom that the people who actually generate that wealth (the workers) deserve and are entitled to a fair share of it. I know you and your ilk will never accept this which is why legislation is necessary to force you into some form of compromise because without it, there exists either various forms of poverty and suffering or anarchy and war. I choose arbitration because I don’t like poverty and I don’t like war. Both scenarios lock ordinary people unlike you and your ilk into cycles of never ending destitution. Good riddance to your political bed fellows the National Party who only lie when they say they believe in improving the lives of ‘all New Zealanders’. Unfortunately many naive people actually believe that garbage that you and your cashed up ilk trot out election after election.
And another poor wretch feeling so desperate has set him/herself on fire outside Parliament at 3.50pm today – what’s that going to look like on the world stage. Oh well just an event old boy is what the citzenry of this country will be thinking. How many other poor souls are at this moment jumping off car parks or bridges, killing themselves in cars etc.
This burning will not go down well in this country – how is this Government going to explain this – another nutter is what they will be thinking. People will just go about their lives as if though this is an ordinary event in the scheme of things.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11924976
” People will just go about their lives as if though this is an ordinary event in the scheme of things.”
Some of us won’t.
“How is this Government going to explain this?”
They’ll say the person had ‘mental health issues’…..and move on..arseholes.
In the meantime, over on Natrad, its all giggles with Jim, as per usual…
From 2011….
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10756747
That time, remember,
” Labour MPs were outraged by Prime Minister John Key’s reaction, saying he shouted out “You should be ashamed of yourselves. That’s down to you.”
Mr Goff said the clear implication from Mr Key was that he thought it was a Labour Party stunt.
Mr Key had used the case of a “sad situation of a guy who has mental health problems and laid the blame for that on the Labour Party as if we had instigated the action. It’s a disgrace he could even have made that allegation”, Mr Goff said.”
What a pathetic, attention-seeking little oink you are.
[two week ban – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[that ban was for blatant flaming. I’m guessing if I went back and had a look this would be a pattern of behaviour. I’ve made a note in the back end, so next time this comes up expect a lengthy ban – weka]
additional moderator note for your attention.
Pardon the lack of compassion, but the man appears to have been an angry dad protesting against the family court. That might entitle us to draw some assumptions…
Bet the FC judge is kicking themselves now! Should have given the guy day-to-day care of his kids! Clearly has the appropriate emotional equilibrium for parenting.
But no, wronged by the family court, he killed himself instead. He did this for his kids because he loves them so much.
Anyway, self-immolation occupies a special and sacred place in protest, and frankly it’s not the best way of showing the family court it has made the wrong decision.
[I didn’t write the post so that people could express their bigotry, or their sarcasm. I did it to provide a space for people to talk about the event in the context of anger and compassion. I don’t want to spend the evening moderating. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
moderation note.
Was it really irrelevant to point out the reported reason for the man’s protest, given you didn’t mention it in your post?
If that’s all you’d done I wouldn’t have moderated.
Anger and compassion, the pigman, anger and compassion.
https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news-and-communications/latest-news/news/cost-and-high-rate-of-complaints-about-family-court-psychologist-reports-turning-practitioners-away-from-the-specialised-work
Troubles aplenty in the Family Court system….
oooh look!
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/family-court-cuts-questioned
budget cuts!!!
Of course there are problems with the family court system: the nats have run it down in the last 9 years just like they hacked and slashed the legal aid system.
But the dad for justice types I have little sympathy for. If they’re not self-immolating, they’re picketing the houses of practitioners, judges and professionals and screaming about feminazis.
@weka – completely off-topic on the compassion thread, but nice use if the correct “rein”.
Possibly the first time online I’ve seen it used instead of “reigning yourself in” or similar 🙂
🙂
I’d have been in a lot of trouble if I’d used ‘reign’ with james 😉