Frontpage of today’s Herald: ‘Record Queues For Christmas Food’.
… More than 100 people were lined up on Hobson St and round a corner into a neighbouring lot yesterday, some since 5am, to receive charity – Christmas food parcels and donated gifts for children.
The majority did not want to appear in the newspaper. “Maybe if I had won something or it was something lucky,” a woman said.
Ms Robertson said the mission’s clients were struggling with unemployment and entitlement cuts. “They’re losing options.”
And the continuing recession was adding people to the queue as those on low incomes fell into the same poverty cycle as beneficiaries.
“As an agency we really try to get people off benefits and employed – make life better than it’s been,” Ms Robertson said. “But right now we’re just alleviating poverty, because there’s no place to go.”…
That’s appalling. John Key, Bill English, Paula Bennett – this is the result of your ‘tax switch’ and benefit restructuring… don’t say no-one told you at the time. I guess the government ministers have disappeared for their summer hols so aren’t seeing this. A twitter bombardment so they can take a look may be in order methinks.
And those politicians’ salaries are being backdated by months! They’re on Cloud 9 looking down on the ants below.
A quote I’ve read applies. Timothy Noah has written The Great Divergence: America’s inequality crisis and what we can do about it, reviewed by the Listener 18/8/2012.
Noah says that although America was an angrier place in the 1960s, when it was riven by conflict over issues like civil rights and the Vietnam War, “It’s meaner today. There are quieter resentments at work in our society today, a deeper, quieter estrangement.”
Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film The Dictator has led to the praise typical of movie reviewers for corporate publications. Baron Cohen, according to most of these reviewers, is something of a maverick: an iconoclastic outsider, an unorthodox entertainer, an erstwhile rebel, a genius provocateur. None of these superlatives is accurate.
What is Baron Cohen, then? Lots of descriptors work: a gifted role-player, an excellent self-promoter, a potty-mouthed prankster, a religious zealot, a white male who uses his privileges of race and gender to exploit people who cannot access those privileges.
There is one descriptor that is too infrequently applied to him: Zionist shill. Plenty of writers have noted Baron Cohen’s ardent Zionism, but few have suggested that his Zionism should cast him in a negative light (“Before ‘The Dictator’ and ‘Borat’, friends recall, Sacha Baron Cohen was a very nerdy, very funny, Israel-oriented guy,” The Times of Israel, 11 May 2012). Even fewer have examined how that Zionism visibly influences his thematic choices and public role-playing.
His commitment to Zionism is troublesome for numerous reasons: it supports the historical and current dispossession of Palestinians, situates him as an advocate of militaristic state power, calls into question his ethical commitments, and places him in Hollywood’s safest political space, that of fealty to Israel, a space in which the title of maverick loses all significant meaning.
It isn’t difficult to find evidence of Baron Cohen’s politics in his invented characters. While there are obvious iterations of Zionism in the dictator, Shabazz Aladeen, tomfoolery on behalf of Israel is also evident in earlier characters Brüno and Borat. Through both characters, Baron Cohen engaged in questionable behavior, what can accurately be called outright exploitation.
With Borat, for example, Baron Cohen named an actual country, Kazakhstan, when the concept behind that movie could have accomplished the same comic purpose with a made-up nation. Even with a made-up nation, however, Borat’s appearance as a stupid, swarthy, sexist Muslim conflated the Third World with pre-modern sensibilities, a feat that could be accomplished only through an unspoken juxtaposition of whiteness and modernity.
Sad, Morrisey. You attack Populuxe for not backing up his assertions, then go into epic fail mode yourself when accusing Sacha Baron Cohen of support for mass murder. Buck up your ideas fella.
Mozza’s comment yesterday:
“That guy’s not funny. He’s even unfunnier when you look at his actual (not “satirical” or “ironic”) support for the mass murder perpetrated by his favorite real-life regime.”
If you defiantly assert your support for a state that is engaging in mass murder, and heaping ridicule on the victims, you are ergo supporting mass murder.
Read the article, my friend. You say it’s not proof that Baron Cohen is a militant supporter of Israel? You obviously have not read it. Please do so as soon as you can.
Then you can read more, of course, or you can keep pretending that this vile buffoon does not have a nasty agenda.
I will keep you posted over the next few days—but I should not really need to.
So no evidence at all? You’ve been looking for 24 hours and have found … nothing. Why don’t you just apologise for your hyperbole and move on? It’d be the mature thing to do.
Oh, I see your tactic, you’re just going to continue your defiance, and steadfastly refuse to look into the telescope.
You keep doing that if you want, Te Reo, but people who have an earnest desire to learn something will read that article, as well as the ones I will post up over the next few days.
Yeah, you’re still a-flailing and a-failing Mozza. Really disapointed that you could spend a couple days moaning about Populuxe not providing proof of an assertation, then failing so spectacularly when you are asked to do the same. Your credibility obviously doesn’t mean much to you.
Hence why I generally just skip Morrissey’s comments.
I don’t believe for a moment that you skip my comments.
I can, however, understand why you want to have a go at me. I recall you making a huge song and dance over a transcript I did last year of a particularly incompetent Hekia Parata interview, where most of what she said was “ummm, ahhh, errrrr, aaaaaahhhhhmmmm”. Hilariously, at one point she even used the immortal phrase “a variety of various variables”. Ms. Parata was apparently trying to play the role of a Minister of the Crown, but anybody who tuned in late would have thought she was a particularly dim, uneducated talkback caller.
Your stated “objection” was that my transcript, which I did from memory five minutes after the broadcast, was not one hundred percent verbatim. Your real objection was that she was trying to defend a corrupt and destructive government “policy” that you, for some unconvincing reason, support. For those who enjoy seeing a second-rate mind o’er-taxed, here’s that remarkable Parata performance again, followed by Lanthanide’s complaint, and a pettifogging performance by our friend Te Reo Putake, then operating under his English moniker…
Thanks for reminding me, Moz, I would have thought you would have learned from that spanking, but apparently not. Still, you at least got one thing correct:
“All right, Voice of Reason, I must concede that, strictly speaking, you are right.”
SBC is an actor supported by Hollywood which is used to sell *stories*, it also does a pretty good job at bullying governments, or lets say using their tools inside of governments to give them favours, a la Warners, John Key.
Selling stories, read branwashing the simple minded while they are incapable of defending the limited thoughts they do have, then become shaped into what the programming arm woops I mean Hollywood, want you to relate to.
Of course SBC is being used, just like almost any named politician, *official*, actor and so on, you could name….
Edit Lanthanide, were you being ironic when saying you skip over others posts, jog along!
Te Reo, you’ll note that I stressed you were correct, “strictly speaking”, as in, yes, I posted Ms. Parata’s cretinous utterances from memory, rather than from a tape recording. You yourself had to admit I got it right, however—even if I missed out several lines of “ummmmm”, “ahhhhhh” and “aaahhhhhhhhm” from this floundering embarrassment who enjoys the full support of the Prime Minister.
Thanks for the advice, McFliper. I WILL take that walk!
Lanthanide, thanks for reading me so attentively. I appreciate and enjoy your comments, even when we disagree occasionally.
It’s really way worse than that, strip the ‘growth’ currently occurring in Christchurch out of the figures and we have a 2 step economy which allows the Slippery National Government to claim an annual 2% growth for the total economy,
The ‘reality’ is that ‘the rest’ of the economy shrank over the year by 2%, it then becomes easy to see why there are lines of people lining up around the block in Auckland looking to receive Christmas charity,
The effects of the high New Zealand dollar can be said to have had a large negative effect upon the overall New Zealand economy with the rest of the -2% GDP ‘growth’ being ‘owned’ by the idiot from Dipton who has been running deliberate depressive economics,
I have been watching as the figures unfold and have had cause to think, ( i know, dangerous), that the village idiot from down Dipton way has been deliberately depressing the overall economy so as to have the Christchurch re-build occur while keeping inflation within the Reserve Bank’s inflation target band,
I take issue with the fact that the Christchurch rebuild is being classed in the GDP figures as ‘growth’ at all, ‘growth’ it obviously isn’t as that rebuild is in terms of bean counting the recovery of a loss of ‘growth’ that has previously occurred in the economy,
From a ‘human’ point of view, (as opposed to dry bean counting), if the village idiot is in fact ‘proved’ to have been deliberately suppressing economic activity in the wider New Zealand economy so as that ‘re-build’ does not breach the inflation target band i am getting the rope out of the shed and over the holidays will begin the tedious task of fashioning a noose,
There’s one hell of a load of human misery inherent in a 2% slide in over-all GDP and to think this may be occurring for no other reason than to make the village idiot from Dipton look good makes the blood boil….
Don’t forget we now need to take growth out of the economy to restock EQC coffers…
…then there is all the restrengthening and rebuilding poor design systemic to buildings,
public and private, up and down the country.
Its like kiwi kids are not taught the for-want-of-a-horse-the-battle-was-lost. Since the
higher up the totem poll a person gets, the more disinclined they are to admit error and
resign, the mor likely they build CTV building, or Pike River Mines, or roads in the
wrong place (or of the wrong design for peak oil, or not invest in flat straight low energy
rail lines), or think leaky homes are cool looking, or that climate change impacts never
happen even if we weren’t globally forcing the biosphere with huge forces (from tarmac to
digging up prehistoric carbon and burning it).
If you build a road, don’t get pathetic and make the pedestrians walk around flower beds
to cross doubling their time through the intersection, the list goes on on poor social
design in NZ. For want of a nail, the horse shoe was not ?clod?, for want of the horse
the king could not lead the army, for want of a king the battle was lost, for want of
victory the kingdom was lost, all for one nail.
“I’m fairly happy with how things have gone in the past year”.
That is from John Key on RNZ just now.
And he has every reason to feel that way. The polls have National in the same positions as at the elections of 2008 and 2011. Labour are back at the same position they had when they lost in 2008 and where they were for most of the time under Phil Goff.
Key should feel satisfied, despite multiple screw-ups by his very second rate team.
Key is getting this result because Labour has not changed it’s strategy in that time. If you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same result.
The galling frustration of being a Labour supporter at this time is watching the leadership repeat the same strategy that failed us under Phil.
The strategy of trying to get high personal ratings for the Leader (Goff/Shearer) involved suppressing the better front bench people. That has proven to be a failed failed failed failed strategy for the past four years.
Had they allowed each spokesperson space to perform we would have been stronger on a wider front. A wider connection between the Caucus and the Public would emerge. Much of the membership’s unease about the current “kitchen cabinet” would not have arisen. And the feckless macho demotion of Cunliffe would not have happened.
And we woukd be at 40%+ .
The political comment on radionz was that Key is seen as blokey, cheery sort and he’s advancing that image as when yesterday he was on some radio program doing something that appeals to the pub crowd, dancing and singing maybe. Meanwhile back in parliament, they are enjoying a ‘well-earned’ holiday, and government has to bump and grind its way through its problems. Gather round everybody, smile, cheeeese!
Fucknuckle of the week award must go to Gerry Brownlee.
The Court of Appeal has just upheld a previous High Court decision that he acted unlawfully in changing urban boundaries using his CERA powers. The Court said it was invalid because he failed to consider whether or not he should use other more democratic powers to achieve the same end. Details are at http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/8104262/Court-rules-Brownlees-actions-unlawful.
Radio NZ has just reported (no link yet) that Brownlee had criticised the Court by saying that in his affidavit he did say that he had considered using the alternative powers. He said that the Court should have contacted him before making the decision to clarify matters and darkly that he was considering his legal options.
What a doofus. He really thinks that he lives or ought to live in a banana republic.
I also heard that Radio NZ report – and was dumbfounded by Brownlee’s comment as reported and bolded in your comment in terms of court process. Power really has gone to Brownlee’s head – not unsurprisingly.
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Yourself, Lonely, Struggle
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Back, Long, Enough
Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Stationary orbit locked over southern seas.
Launching probe. HLM, you’re all go on green.
Commence your scan for intelligent life forms.
Logic machine Al1, do you read? Tell me, what do you see?
Do you see anything? Or anyone?
Make sure they receive on all frequencies?
Breaking from orbit, lighting the upper skies.
Extend your search. HLM, Keep that eye on the prize.
Continue with plan to find intelligent life forms.
Logic machine Al1, do you read? If you please. Broadcast for me.
If you hear anything, anyone.
We’re making first contact. I come in peace. Is there anyone home?
First you have to believe, I come in peace. I’m here to save the world.
Confirm you receive. M class planet diseased.
‘Cause you’ve got it so wrong, and before too long, you’ll fade away to dust.
And you need to hold on and be very strong to make the change you must.
Descending through climate over the Northern Isle.
Remember they’re hurt HLM, you’ll get quite a surprise.
Implement logic for inferior life forms.
Logic machine Al1, do you read? Good luck, friend. Now bring them to me.
If you love anything, or anyone.
I’m making first contact. I come in peace. Please just pick up the phone.
I’m not here to deceive. I come in peace. We can save the world.
Please, confirm you receive. Confirm you receive.
‘Cause you’ve got it so wrong, and before too long, we’ll fade away to dust.
And you need to hold on and be very strong to make the change you must.
And you must. You are us.
I been eating a lot of sandwiches these past two weeks D. ; luncheon and chippies are my favourite on my budget along with a lot of avocado or salmon on Burgen toast, but then, thats our egalitarian society for ya 🙂
(I read that patronage, and punctuality, of Ak rail services are down D. reminds me of Alice and the Conductor; is your memory as good as mine 🙂 )
still, what does not kill ya certainly makes ya stronger (and comparitively famous literary wise in H.B)
see ya see ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya (just a wee Jokerman)
Today on RNZ mid-day news. Report by Treasury that states Charter Schools would be worse and more expensive than public schools AND a similar report from the Ministry of Education.
So this disgraceful regime is more ideologically extreme than Treasury. In any country that took politics seriously, John Banks would be serving time in prison now; instead he is given free rein to slash and rip at our education system.
Parata was working on the Charter School Scam with Rodger Douglas and Heather Roy in NActs first term of office, now she’s trying to ram the scam through. I agree with you re Banks.
How was it that teacher salaries were paid for15-20 years without major hassle, and then the NACT party changed to Novopay. Why the need for change you might ask!
Did I get it right that John Banks sold his shares in the company just before the change was implemented? Conflict of interest?
Reasons no one should trust the Grauniad
Reason No. 94: The Grauniad fears and resents dissenters
Bradley Manning was declared the Guardian‘s ‘person of the year’ in 2012. He beat Pussy Riot to win this accolade. The Guardian then published a tiny article to celebrate the fact, while carefully including the following ‘sour grapes’ comment:
‘The Guardian‘s 2012 person of the year vote has concluded and the winner, after some rather fishy voting patterns that belied earlier reader comments on the poll, is Bradley Manning, the US whistleblower on trial for leaking state secrets.’
No further article was commissioned in memory of Manning, and nothing was said about his torture and incarceration by the Obama administration. The editorial staff had obviously decided to throw the most muted celebration imaginable.
Contrast Manning’s poor editorial treatment with a recent piece of stenography on Pussy Riot by Dorian Lynskey:
‘Pussy Riot were the Band of 2012’ [title appears on front page of the Guardian]
It seems the US State Department were not happy with the final results of the original poll, hence the need for this trashy piece of churnalism. On the positive side: most of the comments are against the article and most of the commentators seems to understand the pernicious agenda of the editorial staff. All of which is rather refreshing – don’t you think?
Unfortunately, muzza, the persecution of Assange and Manning is all too real. As is the cooperative attitude of the “liberal” media like the Grauniad and the British State Broadcasting Corporation.
Hi Morrissey, and can you confirm how you would know the stories to be genuine?
The way I see it that the bigger the resources available, the easier it is to create big lies. Actors, script writers, directors, producers etc, the wonders of *Hollywood*
Indicated when you write about the BBC, Guardian etc, and your post today (sat) on the festival protest, you believe that Hollyood is a type of Zionist propagana machine, which it clearly is, I agree.
Following on from this, to me anyway makes it all very easy that due to resources, all of them, (take a look at how the occupy/arab uprisings, got front footed and taken over, re-directed/snuffed out etc). How does that happen, well its called creating the debate, and when resources are so plentiful and professionally employed, then not only can events be front footed, they can be created, played out and killed off with ease, while giving the illusion of *revolution* , or what ever it might be referred as. By the time the technology has been used against these *uprisings*, there is little likelihood that any genuine situation/movement that might have existed, will see the light of day!
What is wrong with Wellington International Airport LTD? Do they get the WTF award of the day or what?
“Airport fire service manager Daniel Debono confirmed that the appliances had been ordered last month from the Austrian manufacturer but declined to answer questions on the contract or tender process, citing commercial sensitivity…………”
The article goes on to quote Martin Simpson of Fraser Engineering in Lower Hutt who said “Their price had been lower than 2.8 million ( the price the contract has reportedly gone for), their tender had fully complied with the specifications and also included the first five years of maintenance”
So do you cite ‘commercial sensitivity’ when you know your decision is daft and that you have shafted NZ workers and businesses and know at some level that it is wrong but you don’t have the guts to face up to it?
Hi Rosie, one would needless have to pick the way through the complex mesh of relationships, but there will be a clear reason why the foreign firm was selected, and it will have nothing to do with process or proceedure, and everything to do with influence!
Shame, this is really just another shame, hidden behind *commercial sensitivty*
“one would needless have to pick the way through the complex mesh of relationships…………” Indeed……..
Infratil owns over 66% in Wgtn airport, the council own the rest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infratil
Infratil also own airports in the UK and previously owned 90% of one in Germany. The “fingers in pies” scenario possibly comes into play and my guess its to do with Infratil’s influence rather than the Wgtn City Council. One things for sure, they don’t have any morals or any intention to repair their damaged reputation they have in Wgtn.
Yeah as soon as I saw the Infratil link, that was about where the effort to unravel the relationships ended, and will be the reason why the production went off-shore…
The real reasons are that the owners of the companies behind the Infratils of the world, have big foundations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, among others,and while the real puppet masters will be domiciled elsewhere, they are loyal to their own patch, NZ is nothing to them but another island to have control over, to be milked
So you’re right to say the Council will have had nothing to do with it.
It may be a high hope but we can only hope that Labour’s new ‘hands on’ approach to the economy will signal to all and sundry that IF it can be done here at the same or lower cost than elsewhere then HERE is where it’s done,
Infratril should in the new year perhaps seek a new company name, SCUM seems appropriate…
Kids! Thinking of doing drugs this Xmas? Just say NO! :
“Mr Key also rated the Government’s handling of a number of issues, giving Pike River 9, the Bain case 8, Dotcom 5, and their handling of the economy 7.”
Did someone slip Slippery some truth drug or something, what the Slippery little shyster is saying is that He and His Government have FAILED on most of the big issues of the year,
This Governments legacy will be seen as nothing but a puke stain across the fabric of New Zealand society….
Just listened to an ‘interesting’ discussion on RadioNZ National’s Afternoon with Jim Moron, where one of His commenter’s blames ‘lifestyle’ choices for the hundreds of people lined up at the Auckland City Mission hoping for Christmas charity,
I beg to differ, it is not lifestyle choices, it is in fact LIFE, those who earn a decent salary make as many wrong choices in life as does the average beneficiary, it is a natural part of being human and we all at times make wrong choices,
The difference??? those getting a decent living wage when they make a wrong choice usually have the discretionary income to gloss over their previous mistakes,(some even have enough coin coming in to allow them that mistake over and over),
Those living upon benefits have no such luxury, a mistake made by a beneficiary may lead to weeks, months and even years of negative repercussions simply because the benefit system is carefully costed as the bare minimum requirement of the individual or family….
Aha, i have recently decided to switch off the afternoon offering from RadioNZ National,(nine to noon is also frequently suffering the same fate),
I only listened this afternoon as the topics were advertised befor-hand, the Auckland City Missioner put that egg firmly in His place except for the fact that His preconceived notions about beneficiaries and others lining up round the block for a charity Christmas made Him deaf to what She had to say…
I do realise that teacher’s pay is reasonably complex … but there is nothing new or difficult about pay systems. They’ve been around for decades and it’s impossible in this day and age to be getting it this wrong.
But is there anyone else listening to the endless litany of absurd errors thrown up by the Novapay debacle beginning to think that this might be a deliberate attempt to ‘break the education system’?
Anytime a cock-up is seemingly so bad , to do with what is a well known set of processes/systems, by a company with a “reasonable” track record, and it breaks the way it allegedly has, then its deliberate.
You can’t accidentally make this many errors
Apply the same to the ACC leaks, deliberate attempt to break down ACC.
Aha, here too, havn’t wanted to comment on what seems best described as ‘Hekia’s revenge’ befor as other than ‘the sense’ of the absurd continuous teachers pay ‘f**k-up’ there’s no evidence of it being deliberate,
It’s not just teachers that are effected, the no-pay debacle effects the schools as well as payments come straight out of the individual schools budgets…
Light rain fall.
End of hillside workshops.
People gathered in memorial.
MPs in the three, union flags a flutter,
I stood silently and grim.
Old dear friends deepest red greeted.
Last three stood and chatted, not leaving till the end.
Now another bastion lost.
Time to take a stand.
Will it be feb or in 2014.
Take a stand united together strong, divide we beg.
Jordan Williams tries, and mostly fails, to run amok on the Panel
The Panel, National Radio, Friday 21 December 2012
Panelists: Jim Mora, Bernard Hickey, Jordan Williams
There are any number of nasty, unsympathetic and smug right-wing commentators infesting public discourse in this country. One of the nastiest is Jordan Williams. People like him thrive when they are allowed to state their extreme views without being called to explain or defend them. Jordan Williams got away with it at the start of the programme, but was then called out by a fellow Panelist (Bernard Hickey) and a guest. As usual, Jim Mora did nothing, other than an embarrassing, wandery rant at halftime about the Mayan calendar….
After what seemed an eternity of petty and dull opening pleasantries, host Jim Mora brought up the first topic for discussion: the steep increase in poverty in Auckland, as advised by aid and welfare agencies. Jordan Williams immediately poured scorn on the idea that there was any poverty in this country. Mora said that the idea there was no poverty was the Rodney Hide position. Williams snorted and said, “That’s not what Rodney says.”
But it is “what Rodney says”, and both Mora and Hickey knew that. However, neither of them uttered a word of contradiction to that barefaced lie. Williams then went on to spend the next ten minutes scoffing at the Auckland City Mission’s Diane Robertson. Outrageously, he claimed that the stingy welfare payments to the poor are “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
This time, Hickey did not stay silent.
“Our taxes being used to pay welfare for the poor is ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’?” he said, slowly, mockingly, in tones of rising exasperation.
Williams, defiant, refused to modify or explain his statement. Sadly, Mora did not insist on his responding to Hickey’s challenge. He was allowed to carry on with his assault on Diane Robertson.
Later in the programme, Williams had a go at feminist campaigner Denise Ritchie, who is in the news today for her condemnation of the crude and sexist regime run by the CEO of Air New Zealand, Rob Fyfe. When she told Williams of the extreme and brutal hate comments directed at women following a series of demeaning advertisements, and of the harassment faced by female employees on Air New Zealand flights, he was forced to back down.
It’s a pity more people don’t take on smug right-wing bullies like this in similar fashion to Denise Ritchie.
At one point when he made an insinuation “that poverty may be about not enough income or lifestyle choices … but he didn’t know which” .. I said to my partner right there and then “I’d ban someone from the The Standard” for that kind of behaviour.
It was perfectly clear he was dog-whistling what he really believed, but was too gutless to own it.
It’s just a pity that Mora lacked the presence of mind to call him to account. The contrast with his carping, nit-picking, skeptical attitude toward liberal or left wing commentators is telling.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10855577
Chief executive of Australian company Talent2 John Rawlinson said there was no reason for staff to go unpaid because they could get cash advances from their individual schools who would be reimbursed..
We as a family who has just experienced no pay yesterday – I should ring: Talent2? No, MOE ? No The school. And who is the innocent party in this group and they are the one to fix the issue. So our local headmaster has to spend their Christmas eve fixing my problem ? And as most schools have spent their budgets that these payments are to made out of. And on TV1 news an MOE official made the statement that in her opinion it will take 26 pay cycles (1 year) for confidence in the system to be established.
Rawlinson is correct in one aspect “there was no reason for staff to go unpaid” Shouldn’t that be a given and isn’t that what his company is paid to deliver?
I work in schools and was at one today and found Admin staff (who are supposed to be on holiday) at work trying to fix Payroll problems, asked how it was going I was told that Novopay was not accepting phone calls now and problems had to be emailed in, no response today so they will have to come in on Christmas eve to check, if no response back again the day after boxing day and on and on it ******* goes WTF
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New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
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While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10855446
Frontpage of today’s Herald: ‘Record Queues For Christmas Food’.
… More than 100 people were lined up on Hobson St and round a corner into a neighbouring lot yesterday, some since 5am, to receive charity – Christmas food parcels and donated gifts for children.
The majority did not want to appear in the newspaper. “Maybe if I had won something or it was something lucky,” a woman said.
Ms Robertson said the mission’s clients were struggling with unemployment and entitlement cuts. “They’re losing options.”
And the continuing recession was adding people to the queue as those on low incomes fell into the same poverty cycle as beneficiaries.
“As an agency we really try to get people off benefits and employed – make life better than it’s been,” Ms Robertson said. “But right now we’re just alleviating poverty, because there’s no place to go.”…
emboldening mine
That’s appalling. John Key, Bill English, Paula Bennett – this is the result of your ‘tax switch’ and benefit restructuring… don’t say no-one told you at the time. I guess the government ministers have disappeared for their summer hols so aren’t seeing this. A twitter bombardment so they can take a look may be in order methinks.
Poverty? What poverty? Salaries have gone up. Like $7790.
And those politicians’ salaries are being backdated by months! They’re on Cloud 9 looking down on the ants below.
A quote I’ve read applies. Timothy Noah has written The Great Divergence: America’s inequality crisis and what we can do about it, reviewed by the Listener 18/8/2012.
http://www.listener.co.nz/current-affairs/economy/americas-income-inequality-crisis/
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/12/18/government-can-reduce-inequality-but-chooses-not-to/
Sacha Baron Cohen: a buffoonish ideologue, at Israel’s service
by STEVEN SALAITA The Electronic Intifada 25 May 2012
http://electronicintifada.net/content/sacha-baron-cohen-buffoonish-ideologue-israels-service/11333
Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film The Dictator has led to the praise typical of movie reviewers for corporate publications. Baron Cohen, according to most of these reviewers, is something of a maverick: an iconoclastic outsider, an unorthodox entertainer, an erstwhile rebel, a genius provocateur. None of these superlatives is accurate.
What is Baron Cohen, then? Lots of descriptors work: a gifted role-player, an excellent self-promoter, a potty-mouthed prankster, a religious zealot, a white male who uses his privileges of race and gender to exploit people who cannot access those privileges.
There is one descriptor that is too infrequently applied to him: Zionist shill. Plenty of writers have noted Baron Cohen’s ardent Zionism, but few have suggested that his Zionism should cast him in a negative light (“Before ‘The Dictator’ and ‘Borat’, friends recall, Sacha Baron Cohen was a very nerdy, very funny, Israel-oriented guy,” The Times of Israel, 11 May 2012). Even fewer have examined how that Zionism visibly influences his thematic choices and public role-playing.
His commitment to Zionism is troublesome for numerous reasons: it supports the historical and current dispossession of Palestinians, situates him as an advocate of militaristic state power, calls into question his ethical commitments, and places him in Hollywood’s safest political space, that of fealty to Israel, a space in which the title of maverick loses all significant meaning.
It isn’t difficult to find evidence of Baron Cohen’s politics in his invented characters. While there are obvious iterations of Zionism in the dictator, Shabazz Aladeen, tomfoolery on behalf of Israel is also evident in earlier characters Brüno and Borat. Through both characters, Baron Cohen engaged in questionable behavior, what can accurately be called outright exploitation.
With Borat, for example, Baron Cohen named an actual country, Kazakhstan, when the concept behind that movie could have accomplished the same comic purpose with a made-up nation. Even with a made-up nation, however, Borat’s appearance as a stupid, swarthy, sexist Muslim conflated the Third World with pre-modern sensibilities, a feat that could be accomplished only through an unspoken juxtaposition of whiteness and modernity.
Read more…..
http://electronicintifada.net/content/sacha-baron-cohen-buffoonish-ideologue-israels-service/11333
Sad, Morrisey. You attack Populuxe for not backing up his assertions, then go into epic fail mode yourself when accusing Sacha Baron Cohen of support for mass murder. Buck up your ideas fella.
Mozza’s comment yesterday:
“That guy’s not funny. He’s even unfunnier when you look at his actual (not “satirical” or “ironic”) support for the mass murder perpetrated by his favorite real-life regime.”
Proof supplied by Mozza so far:
er, nothing.
Agreed. Bad debating form.
Are you feeling all right, “ad”? You appear to be out of your depth. What on earth are you talking about?
If you defiantly assert your support for a state that is engaging in mass murder, and heaping ridicule on the victims, you are ergo supporting mass murder.
Read the article, my friend. You say it’s not proof that Baron Cohen is a militant supporter of Israel? You obviously have not read it. Please do so as soon as you can.
Then you can read more, of course, or you can keep pretending that this vile buffoon does not have a nasty agenda.
I will keep you posted over the next few days—but I should not really need to.
However, horse, water, and all that.
So no evidence at all? You’ve been looking for 24 hours and have found … nothing. Why don’t you just apologise for your hyperbole and move on? It’d be the mature thing to do.
Oh, I see your tactic, you’re just going to continue your defiance, and steadfastly refuse to look into the telescope.
You keep doing that if you want, Te Reo, but people who have an earnest desire to learn something will read that article, as well as the ones I will post up over the next few days.
I read the article, but so what? I asked you to back up your lie about Baron Cohen and you have failed miserably. Facts, man. Give us some facts!
I read the article,
Did you really?
…but so what?
I don’t think you did read it!
Yeah, you’re still a-flailing and a-failing Mozza. Really disapointed that you could spend a couple days moaning about Populuxe not providing proof of an assertation, then failing so spectacularly when you are asked to do the same. Your credibility obviously doesn’t mean much to you.
Hence why I generally just skip Morrissey’s comments.
Hence why I generally just skip Morrissey’s comments.
I don’t believe for a moment that you skip my comments.
I can, however, understand why you want to have a go at me. I recall you making a huge song and dance over a transcript I did last year of a particularly incompetent Hekia Parata interview, where most of what she said was “ummm, ahhh, errrrr, aaaaaahhhhhmmmm”. Hilariously, at one point she even used the immortal phrase “a variety of various variables”. Ms. Parata was apparently trying to play the role of a Minister of the Crown, but anybody who tuned in late would have thought she was a particularly dim, uneducated talkback caller.
Your stated “objection” was that my transcript, which I did from memory five minutes after the broadcast, was not one hundred percent verbatim. Your real objection was that she was trying to defend a corrupt and destructive government “policy” that you, for some unconvincing reason, support. For those who enjoy seeing a second-rate mind o’er-taxed, here’s that remarkable Parata performance again, followed by Lanthanide’s complaint, and a pettifogging performance by our friend Te Reo Putake, then operating under his English moniker…
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30082011/#comment-369467
Thanks for reminding me, Moz, I would have thought you would have learned from that spanking, but apparently not. Still, you at least got one thing correct:
“All right, Voice of Reason, I must concede that, strictly speaking, you are right.”
Chillax, M, and take a look out the window.
Go for a walk in a park.
We all need to be reminded to do that, on occasion.
“I don’t believe for a moment that you skip my comments.”
LOL! Get over yourself!
SBC is an actor supported by Hollywood which is used to sell *stories*, it also does a pretty good job at bullying governments, or lets say using their tools inside of governments to give them favours, a la Warners, John Key.
Selling stories, read branwashing the simple minded while they are incapable of defending the limited thoughts they do have, then become shaped into what the programming arm woops I mean Hollywood, want you to relate to.
Of course SBC is being used, just like almost any named politician, *official*, actor and so on, you could name….
Edit Lanthanide, were you being ironic when saying you skip over others posts, jog along!
Te Reo, you’ll note that I stressed you were correct, “strictly speaking”, as in, yes, I posted Ms. Parata’s cretinous utterances from memory, rather than from a tape recording. You yourself had to admit I got it right, however—even if I missed out several lines of “ummmmm”, “ahhhhhh” and “aaahhhhhhhhm” from this floundering embarrassment who enjoys the full support of the Prime Minister.
Thanks for the advice, McFliper. I WILL take that walk!
Lanthanide, thanks for reading me so attentively. I appreciate and enjoy your comments, even when we disagree occasionally.
So …
How is everyone’s end of the world day going?
I think we’ll still be here at the end of the day ! We’d better be – I’m looking forward to a Christmas Day with a toddler grandson ………
“Knock knock”
Who’s there?”
“Death”
“Death h…”
(Rowan Atkinson)
David Shearer’s still leader of Labour, John Key still runs the country, I mean it’s not the end of the world is it?
You have a question to answer, on thread 2, above.
Good. I can definitely sense a change in the air. It;s like all the molecules are jiggling to a different dance…. anyone else feel it?
That might be the heroin, v.
ha ha, I think now it is due to the lunchtime beeeeeeerrr
Oh, I forgot. Thanks for the reminder micky. Better do the Xmas supermarket shop today. Tomorrow might be too late!
Talking of predictions, Imperator Fish’s predicts. for 2013 are worth a read.
http://www.imperatorfish.com/
Busy organising Januarys’ diary…………….
Turns out National’s policies triggered a double-dip recession in 2010
It’s really way worse than that, strip the ‘growth’ currently occurring in Christchurch out of the figures and we have a 2 step economy which allows the Slippery National Government to claim an annual 2% growth for the total economy,
The ‘reality’ is that ‘the rest’ of the economy shrank over the year by 2%, it then becomes easy to see why there are lines of people lining up around the block in Auckland looking to receive Christmas charity,
The effects of the high New Zealand dollar can be said to have had a large negative effect upon the overall New Zealand economy with the rest of the -2% GDP ‘growth’ being ‘owned’ by the idiot from Dipton who has been running deliberate depressive economics,
I have been watching as the figures unfold and have had cause to think, ( i know, dangerous), that the village idiot from down Dipton way has been deliberately depressing the overall economy so as to have the Christchurch re-build occur while keeping inflation within the Reserve Bank’s inflation target band,
I take issue with the fact that the Christchurch rebuild is being classed in the GDP figures as ‘growth’ at all, ‘growth’ it obviously isn’t as that rebuild is in terms of bean counting the recovery of a loss of ‘growth’ that has previously occurred in the economy,
From a ‘human’ point of view, (as opposed to dry bean counting), if the village idiot is in fact ‘proved’ to have been deliberately suppressing economic activity in the wider New Zealand economy so as that ‘re-build’ does not breach the inflation target band i am getting the rope out of the shed and over the holidays will begin the tedious task of fashioning a noose,
There’s one hell of a load of human misery inherent in a 2% slide in over-all GDP and to think this may be occurring for no other reason than to make the village idiot from Dipton look good makes the blood boil….
Don’t forget we now need to take growth out of the economy to restock EQC coffers…
…then there is all the restrengthening and rebuilding poor design systemic to buildings,
public and private, up and down the country.
Its like kiwi kids are not taught the for-want-of-a-horse-the-battle-was-lost. Since the
higher up the totem poll a person gets, the more disinclined they are to admit error and
resign, the mor likely they build CTV building, or Pike River Mines, or roads in the
wrong place (or of the wrong design for peak oil, or not invest in flat straight low energy
rail lines), or think leaky homes are cool looking, or that climate change impacts never
happen even if we weren’t globally forcing the biosphere with huge forces (from tarmac to
digging up prehistoric carbon and burning it).
If you build a road, don’t get pathetic and make the pedestrians walk around flower beds
to cross doubling their time through the intersection, the list goes on on poor social
design in NZ. For want of a nail, the horse shoe was not ?clod?, for want of the horse
the king could not lead the army, for want of a king the battle was lost, for want of
victory the kingdom was lost, all for one nail.
“I’m fairly happy with how things have gone in the past year”.
That is from John Key on RNZ just now.
And he has every reason to feel that way. The polls have National in the same positions as at the elections of 2008 and 2011. Labour are back at the same position they had when they lost in 2008 and where they were for most of the time under Phil Goff.
Key should feel satisfied, despite multiple screw-ups by his very second rate team.
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2012/4847/
Key is getting this result because Labour has not changed it’s strategy in that time. If you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same result.
The galling frustration of being a Labour supporter at this time is watching the leadership repeat the same strategy that failed us under Phil.
So I guess Labour will do the same thing with the same people and the same leader, and woo-hoo, get the same result as last time.
May nobody say we are grateful for 33%.
The strategy of trying to get high personal ratings for the Leader (Goff/Shearer) involved suppressing the better front bench people. That has proven to be a failed failed failed failed strategy for the past four years.
Had they allowed each spokesperson space to perform we would have been stronger on a wider front. A wider connection between the Caucus and the Public would emerge. Much of the membership’s unease about the current “kitchen cabinet” would not have arisen. And the feckless macho demotion of Cunliffe would not have happened.
And we woukd be at 40%+ .
The political comment on radionz was that Key is seen as blokey, cheery sort and he’s advancing that image as when yesterday he was on some radio program doing something that appeals to the pub crowd, dancing and singing maybe. Meanwhile back in parliament, they are enjoying a ‘well-earned’ holiday, and government has to bump and grind its way through its problems. Gather round everybody, smile, cheeeese!
Fucknuckle of the week award must go to Gerry Brownlee.
The Court of Appeal has just upheld a previous High Court decision that he acted unlawfully in changing urban boundaries using his CERA powers. The Court said it was invalid because he failed to consider whether or not he should use other more democratic powers to achieve the same end. Details are at http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/8104262/Court-rules-Brownlees-actions-unlawful.
Radio NZ has just reported (no link yet) that Brownlee had criticised the Court by saying that in his affidavit he did say that he had considered using the alternative powers. He said that the Court should have contacted him before making the decision to clarify matters and darkly that he was considering his legal options.
What a doofus. He really thinks that he lives or ought to live in a banana republic.
Morning MS.
I also heard that Radio NZ report – and was dumbfounded by Brownlee’s comment as reported and bolded in your comment in terms of court process. Power really has gone to Brownlee’s head – not unsurprisingly.
Its weird. Surely Brownlee must check himself. His flies are done up, right. So why wouldn’t he dot the power grab when he makes it. Pure doofus.
Right, thats enough from you lot for the year.
Don’t spend all your dole money over the christmas break at once.
King Kong
Apropos the line about gorillas reading Nietzsche but not understanding it – here is a link to some of his best quotes which you can imbibe over Christmas and spew out next year.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/friedrich_nietzsche.html
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Yourself, Lonely, Struggle
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Back, Long, Enough
Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.
Friedrich Nietzsche
On Red Alert, in CC Two minutes silence thread – Your comment is awaiting moderation
It didn’t make it 😆
“For the record, I don’t want my personal details released”
Maybe tomorrow I’ll upload the song I wrote and sent to CC when months ago, she censored me for the first time.
But for now, third song from my album Human (R)evolution @ http://www.al1en.org
First contact – I come in peace.
Stationary orbit locked over southern seas.
Launching probe. HLM, you’re all go on green.
Commence your scan for intelligent life forms.
Logic machine Al1, do you read? Tell me, what do you see?
Do you see anything? Or anyone?
Make sure they receive on all frequencies?
Breaking from orbit, lighting the upper skies.
Extend your search. HLM, Keep that eye on the prize.
Continue with plan to find intelligent life forms.
Logic machine Al1, do you read? If you please. Broadcast for me.
If you hear anything, anyone.
We’re making first contact. I come in peace. Is there anyone home?
First you have to believe, I come in peace. I’m here to save the world.
Confirm you receive. M class planet diseased.
‘Cause you’ve got it so wrong, and before too long, you’ll fade away to dust.
And you need to hold on and be very strong to make the change you must.
Descending through climate over the Northern Isle.
Remember they’re hurt HLM, you’ll get quite a surprise.
Implement logic for inferior life forms.
Logic machine Al1, do you read? Good luck, friend. Now bring them to me.
If you love anything, or anyone.
I’m making first contact. I come in peace. Please just pick up the phone.
I’m not here to deceive. I come in peace. We can save the world.
Please, confirm you receive. Confirm you receive.
‘Cause you’ve got it so wrong, and before too long, we’ll fade away to dust.
And you need to hold on and be very strong to make the change you must.
And you must. You are us.
Just in case you were having difficulty in deciding what’s for lunch.
I been eating a lot of sandwiches these past two weeks D. ; luncheon and chippies are my favourite on my budget along with a lot of avocado or salmon on Burgen toast, but then, thats our egalitarian society for ya 🙂
(I read that patronage, and punctuality, of Ak rail services are down D. reminds me of Alice and the Conductor; is your memory as good as mine 🙂 )
still, what does not kill ya certainly makes ya stronger (and comparitively famous literary wise in H.B)
see ya see ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya (just a wee Jokerman)
meanwhile, night slowly closes in.
TODAY – FRIDAY 21 DECEMBER 2012 – FINAL DAY FOR SUBMISSIONS ON LOCAL ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL!!!
Help to stop the dodgy John Banks electoral debacle ever happening again.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/SC/MakeSub/3/d/a/50SCJE_SCF_00DBHOH_BILL11821_1-Local-Electoral-Amendment-Bill-No-2.htm
Penny Bright
‘anti-corruption campaigner’
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
Today on RNZ mid-day news. Report by Treasury that states Charter Schools would be worse and more expensive than public schools AND a similar report from the Ministry of Education.
So this disgraceful regime is more ideologically extreme than Treasury. In any country that took politics seriously, John Banks would be serving time in prison now; instead he is given free rein to slash and rip at our education system.
Parata was working on the Charter School Scam with Rodger Douglas and Heather Roy in NActs first term of office, now she’s trying to ram the scam through. I agree with you re Banks.
How was it that teacher salaries were paid for15-20 years without major hassle, and then the NACT party changed to Novopay. Why the need for change you might ask!
Did I get it right that John Banks sold his shares in the company just before the change was implemented? Conflict of interest?
She worked for David Lange, too, where she no doubt picked up a lot of his contempt for teachers.
Morrissey
David Lange ushered in Tomorrows Schools didn’t he? Not a complete success. What did he do that showed he didn’t like teachers?
Reasons no one should trust the Grauniad
Reason No. 94: The Grauniad fears and resents dissenters
Bradley Manning was declared the Guardian‘s ‘person of the year’ in 2012. He beat Pussy Riot to win this accolade. The Guardian then published a tiny article to celebrate the fact, while carefully including the following ‘sour grapes’ comment:
‘The Guardian‘s 2012 person of the year vote has concluded and the winner, after some rather fishy voting patterns that belied earlier reader comments on the poll, is Bradley Manning, the US whistleblower on trial for leaking state secrets.’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2012/dec/10/bradley-manning-guardian-person-of-the-year-2012
No further article was commissioned in memory of Manning, and nothing was said about his torture and incarceration by the Obama administration. The editorial staff had obviously decided to throw the most muted celebration imaginable.
Contrast Manning’s poor editorial treatment with a recent piece of stenography on Pussy Riot by Dorian Lynskey:
‘Pussy Riot were the Band of 2012’ [title appears on front page of the Guardian]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/dec/20/pussy-riot-activists-not-pin-ups
It seems the US State Department were not happy with the final results of the original poll, hence the need for this trashy piece of churnalism. On the positive side: most of the comments are against the article and most of the commentators seems to understand the pernicious agenda of the editorial staff. All of which is rather refreshing – don’t you think?
First published by zemblan in Media Lens.
Actually Morrissey, for mine I happen to think that the Bradley Manning, as well as the Julian Assange stories are just that, stories.
I don’t actually believe that there is anything behind them, and they are effectively *staged*!
Total control – Thats the MSM!
Unfortunately, muzza, the persecution of Assange and Manning is all too real. As is the cooperative attitude of the “liberal” media like the Grauniad and the British State Broadcasting Corporation.
Hi Morrissey, and can you confirm how you would know the stories to be genuine?
The way I see it that the bigger the resources available, the easier it is to create big lies. Actors, script writers, directors, producers etc, the wonders of *Hollywood*
Indicated when you write about the BBC, Guardian etc, and your post today (sat) on the festival protest, you believe that Hollyood is a type of Zionist propagana machine, which it clearly is, I agree.
Following on from this, to me anyway makes it all very easy that due to resources, all of them, (take a look at how the occupy/arab uprisings, got front footed and taken over, re-directed/snuffed out etc). How does that happen, well its called creating the debate, and when resources are so plentiful and professionally employed, then not only can events be front footed, they can be created, played out and killed off with ease, while giving the illusion of *revolution* , or what ever it might be referred as. By the time the technology has been used against these *uprisings*, there is little likelihood that any genuine situation/movement that might have existed, will see the light of day!
From the company that brought you Unnecessary and Unoriginal Placename Sign That Pisses Off Locals
http://static.stuff.co.nz/1343346440/323/7362323.jpg
comes another Genuis!! moment in the form of Taking Business Offshore In A Time Of Recession and Unemployment.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/the-wellingtonian/8102573/2-8m-fire-engine-deal-goes-offshore
What is wrong with Wellington International Airport LTD? Do they get the WTF award of the day or what?
“Airport fire service manager Daniel Debono confirmed that the appliances had been ordered last month from the Austrian manufacturer but declined to answer questions on the contract or tender process, citing commercial sensitivity…………”
The article goes on to quote Martin Simpson of Fraser Engineering in Lower Hutt who said “Their price had been lower than 2.8 million ( the price the contract has reportedly gone for), their tender had fully complied with the specifications and also included the first five years of maintenance”
So do you cite ‘commercial sensitivity’ when you know your decision is daft and that you have shafted NZ workers and businesses and know at some level that it is wrong but you don’t have the guts to face up to it?
Hi Rosie, one would needless have to pick the way through the complex mesh of relationships, but there will be a clear reason why the foreign firm was selected, and it will have nothing to do with process or proceedure, and everything to do with influence!
Shame, this is really just another shame, hidden behind *commercial sensitivty*
Hi Muzza:-)
“one would needless have to pick the way through the complex mesh of relationships…………” Indeed……..
Infratil owns over 66% in Wgtn airport, the council own the rest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infratil
Infratil also own airports in the UK and previously owned 90% of one in Germany. The “fingers in pies” scenario possibly comes into play and my guess its to do with Infratil’s influence rather than the Wgtn City Council. One things for sure, they don’t have any morals or any intention to repair their damaged reputation they have in Wgtn.
Yeah as soon as I saw the Infratil link, that was about where the effort to unravel the relationships ended, and will be the reason why the production went off-shore…
The real reasons are that the owners of the companies behind the Infratils of the world, have big foundations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, among others,and while the real puppet masters will be domiciled elsewhere, they are loyal to their own patch, NZ is nothing to them but another island to have control over, to be milked
So you’re right to say the Council will have had nothing to do with it.
Anyways Rosie, have a good one, and be well.
It may be a high hope but we can only hope that Labour’s new ‘hands on’ approach to the economy will signal to all and sundry that IF it can be done here at the same or lower cost than elsewhere then HERE is where it’s done,
Infratril should in the new year perhaps seek a new company name, SCUM seems appropriate…
Kids! Thinking of doing drugs this Xmas? Just say NO! :
“Mr Key also rated the Government’s handling of a number of issues, giving Pike River 9, the Bain case 8, Dotcom 5, and their handling of the economy 7.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10855506
Did someone slip Slippery some truth drug or something, what the Slippery little shyster is saying is that He and His Government have FAILED on most of the big issues of the year,
This Governments legacy will be seen as nothing but a puke stain across the fabric of New Zealand society….
Stay away from whatever he’s on…
Is these MPs were in the private sector eh’d be giving them all and of year bonuses then.
Just listened to an ‘interesting’ discussion on RadioNZ National’s Afternoon with Jim Moron, where one of His commenter’s blames ‘lifestyle’ choices for the hundreds of people lined up at the Auckland City Mission hoping for Christmas charity,
I beg to differ, it is not lifestyle choices, it is in fact LIFE, those who earn a decent salary make as many wrong choices in life as does the average beneficiary, it is a natural part of being human and we all at times make wrong choices,
The difference??? those getting a decent living wage when they make a wrong choice usually have the discretionary income to gloss over their previous mistakes,(some even have enough coin coming in to allow them that mistake over and over),
Those living upon benefits have no such luxury, a mistake made by a beneficiary may lead to weeks, months and even years of negative repercussions simply because the benefit system is carefully costed as the bare minimum requirement of the individual or family….
That commentator was one JORDAN WILLIAMS, one of the nastiest and most ideologically rigid of the new wave of rightists in this country.
Did you note that Jim Mora did not once challenge anything that Williams said?
Aha, i have recently decided to switch off the afternoon offering from RadioNZ National,(nine to noon is also frequently suffering the same fate),
I only listened this afternoon as the topics were advertised befor-hand, the Auckland City Missioner put that egg firmly in His place except for the fact that His preconceived notions about beneficiaries and others lining up round the block for a charity Christmas made Him deaf to what She had to say…
I do realise that teacher’s pay is reasonably complex … but there is nothing new or difficult about pay systems. They’ve been around for decades and it’s impossible in this day and age to be getting it this wrong.
But is there anyone else listening to the endless litany of absurd errors thrown up by the Novapay debacle beginning to think that this might be a deliberate attempt to ‘break the education system’?
RL – Upstairs for thinking…
Anytime a cock-up is seemingly so bad , to do with what is a well known set of processes/systems, by a company with a “reasonable” track record, and it breaks the way it allegedly has, then its deliberate.
You can’t accidentally make this many errors
Apply the same to the ACC leaks, deliberate attempt to break down ACC.
Many other examples I’m sure, so fire away!
Aha, here too, havn’t wanted to comment on what seems best described as ‘Hekia’s revenge’ befor as other than ‘the sense’ of the absurd continuous teachers pay ‘f**k-up’ there’s no evidence of it being deliberate,
It’s not just teachers that are effected, the no-pay debacle effects the schools as well as payments come straight out of the individual schools budgets…
Light rain fall.
End of hillside workshops.
People gathered in memorial.
MPs in the three, union flags a flutter,
I stood silently and grim.
Old dear friends deepest red greeted.
Last three stood and chatted, not leaving till the end.
Now another bastion lost.
Time to take a stand.
Will it be feb or in 2014.
Take a stand united together strong, divide we beg.
Jordan Williams tries, and mostly fails, to run amok on the Panel
The Panel, National Radio, Friday 21 December 2012
Panelists: Jim Mora, Bernard Hickey, Jordan Williams
There are any number of nasty, unsympathetic and smug right-wing commentators infesting public discourse in this country. One of the nastiest is Jordan Williams. People like him thrive when they are allowed to state their extreme views without being called to explain or defend them. Jordan Williams got away with it at the start of the programme, but was then called out by a fellow Panelist (Bernard Hickey) and a guest. As usual, Jim Mora did nothing, other than an embarrassing, wandery rant at halftime about the Mayan calendar….
After what seemed an eternity of petty and dull opening pleasantries, host Jim Mora brought up the first topic for discussion: the steep increase in poverty in Auckland, as advised by aid and welfare agencies. Jordan Williams immediately poured scorn on the idea that there was any poverty in this country. Mora said that the idea there was no poverty was the Rodney Hide position. Williams snorted and said, “That’s not what Rodney says.”
But it is “what Rodney says”, and both Mora and Hickey knew that. However, neither of them uttered a word of contradiction to that barefaced lie. Williams then went on to spend the next ten minutes scoffing at the Auckland City Mission’s Diane Robertson. Outrageously, he claimed that the stingy welfare payments to the poor are “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
This time, Hickey did not stay silent.
“Our taxes being used to pay welfare for the poor is ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’?” he said, slowly, mockingly, in tones of rising exasperation.
Williams, defiant, refused to modify or explain his statement. Sadly, Mora did not insist on his responding to Hickey’s challenge. He was allowed to carry on with his assault on Diane Robertson.
Later in the programme, Williams had a go at feminist campaigner Denise Ritchie, who is in the news today for her condemnation of the crude and sexist regime run by the CEO of Air New Zealand, Rob Fyfe. When she told Williams of the extreme and brutal hate comments directed at women following a series of demeaning advertisements, and of the harassment faced by female employees on Air New Zealand flights, he was forced to back down.
It’s a pity more people don’t take on smug right-wing bullies like this in similar fashion to Denise Ritchie.
Yes I was listening to Jordan myself.
At one point when he made an insinuation “that poverty may be about not enough income or lifestyle choices … but he didn’t know which” .. I said to my partner right there and then “I’d ban someone from the The Standard” for that kind of behaviour.
It was perfectly clear he was dog-whistling what he really believed, but was too gutless to own it.
It’s just a pity that Mora lacked the presence of mind to call him to account. The contrast with his carping, nit-picking, skeptical attitude toward liberal or left wing commentators is telling.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10855577
Chief executive of Australian company Talent2 John Rawlinson said there was no reason for staff to go unpaid because they could get cash advances from their individual schools who would be reimbursed..
We as a family who has just experienced no pay yesterday – I should ring: Talent2? No, MOE ? No The school. And who is the innocent party in this group and they are the one to fix the issue. So our local headmaster has to spend their Christmas eve fixing my problem ? And as most schools have spent their budgets that these payments are to made out of. And on TV1 news an MOE official made the statement that in her opinion it will take 26 pay cycles (1 year) for confidence in the system to be established.
Rawlinson is correct in one aspect “there was no reason for staff to go unpaid” Shouldn’t that be a given and isn’t that what his company is paid to deliver?
I bet Talent2 isn’t going short paid this holiday season.
I work in schools and was at one today and found Admin staff (who are supposed to be on holiday) at work trying to fix Payroll problems, asked how it was going I was told that Novopay was not accepting phone calls now and problems had to be emailed in, no response today so they will have to come in on Christmas eve to check, if no response back again the day after boxing day and on and on it ******* goes WTF