Happy to lie to get power.
Happy to put their interests above the vulnerable.
Happy to accept poisoned rivers, increasing poverty and inequality, more mental health issues, worsening health and education services…
As long as they are alright and get their flash holidays and flash cars……
It’s the media peddled fake economy, the lavish private taxes and levies introduced by govts on us all. National are the party of high hidden taxes. Taxes that take time from parenting, take time from community, take time from participation in society, take time off life from pollution causing ill health. It’s the fake economy the corrupt media manufactures to cover all the external costs unpaid for except by the people.
Our biased media have shown their Dirty side with their reliable amplification and repeating of Nact lies and smears ….. Its what they do at election times.
Lies by omission is their usual method of mis-reporting …..
Which brings me to John Key and the comprehensive con job they pulled on behalf of that disgusting man … although they did lie a hell of a lot for him …
Keys early currency speculation in NZ was possibly rigged with insider trading, …..if he was in on the Douglas pre-devaluation tip off …
Currency speculation makes normal trading for businesses which actually produce something more difficult…….. Key left NZ for Merrill Lynch.
Keys work for Merrill Lynch in Ireland, seems to have consisted of using tax havens and things like the double irish dutch sandwich ….. to entice mainly American companies to creatively become Irish ones, In name ……
He made large money …. by Gutting UsA tax revenue, and that of other countries….. as corporations opted out of paying tax where they make their sales and profits …..
Its impossible to estimate the costs and harms John Key has inflicted on poor and middle class citizens everywhere ,,,,, through reduced Governments revenue.
His work for merrill in Asia is where he gained the reputation for smiling while sacking people ,,,,
The Asian currency crisis took place in 1997 ……and like most crashes involved speculation …. along eith innocent workers paying the price for the greed of the financial sector ….
Corruption was also rife in Asia …regularly 25% of funding for projects and sometimes up to 50% was being taken and skimmed by corrupt regimes like a suharto or his Generals.
…… In many cases institutions like Merrill when raising funding and making the loans … would then help the corrupt leaders move their stolen portion off-shore …. High ranking jobs were given to corrupt Politicians children or other relatives …..
When or if the corrupt illegitimate leaders were removed from power …..the corrupt banksters debts remained ……….
These corrupt debts get paid in either privatisation and theft of resources ….or through tax on the poor …
s
Sometimes over 50%) of a governments expenditure will be interest on never ending debt …….. while poor children die from lack of sanitation and basics in healthcare and food ….
Poor people are not worth a dollar missing from bankers profits to the Keys of this world.…
In our country and other developed nations, corporate and uber rich tax cheating ….. means things like ‘voluntary’ school fees for financially stressed parents,….. large student debts for something that used to be free for Key, English, Joyce,Collins and co …. longer waiting lists in the health sector, underfunded police etc etc
In poor countries this economic apartheid kills children……
Ask yourself , would you steal from a baby ? …. people who build and use tax havens do …..
Key has personally helped steal from Millions of children ……
Keys investment skills suggest he left the largest portion of his paper wealth in his old firm ….It almost hit $100 per share ….. before it poisoned itself with its on products and dodgy creative accounting … Merrill was the third big firm after Bear-sterns and Lehmans to collapse …
Bank of America was backing out of a deal to buy merrill …. when Merrills portfolio revealed itself as a pile of toxic crap …. with 21 Billion dollar operating losses revealed in a three month period ……
Merrill and the financial sector were vaporizing wealth at a rate which is hard to comprehend ….. 46 Billion was the final amount in losses from Merrill …… 46 Billion
The American government stepped in and the Bank of America was forced to rescue the imploding Merrill and stop a domino collapsing of the american financial system …..
american taxpayers, pension funds and other victims paid for the bailout in Govt cash to the perpetrators ….. and then they paid again ….. with GFC loss of jobs wealth and security for themselves and other ordinary people.
Despite Keys statements dissing and distancing himself from Merrill …… when the GFC revealed their sham products, creative dishonesty and reckless gambling behavior …
His Bank of America shares are testimonty to him staying firmly invested with Merrill …..
He benefited from the Usa Govt forcing the merger ….. and paying Billions to cover Merrills loses
Key started his Merrill career by costing ordinary taxpayers money with his base erosion tax dodge work …
And he finished it with a direct bailout for his worthless Merrill shares ….
What a hard working creative millionare …… he cant swing a hammer but builds things which blow Billion dollar holes in Government revenue
How many millions in charity he took from usa citizens …. depends on how many Merrill shares he had hoarded
He could be summed up as an anti-Robin Hood ….. Stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
Good at greed driven cheating ……….. But a shit Greed driven investor.
Its all a bit of a scam how our media never reported his personal multi million bailout at the start of the GFC ….
Protecting the image ….. by many lies ….and lots of omission.
As Bill and National is benefiting from.
Keys and Englishs economic model ……of speculation and cheating is of course doomed to failure ……
It can only benefit the few by the losses of the many.
I’ve been out and about in Onehunga and Mangere taking people to enrol and vote early over the last week. The vibe for change is strong and I’m pleased to have seen young people skipping into the booths and coming out with the “I’ve voted” sticker. For me the last two days have been emotional, feeling nervous and butterflies multiplying in the puku…hoping and praying for the best outcome for all our people tomorrow…we can do this…let’s do this!
I agree Wild Katipo…the stickers are good…we took our young children along with us to vote this week and they said to me quietly “vote for me” to which a man overheard and replied “I just did”…we all walked out with our stickers! Proud!
Good on you Pacific Princess. I have been out and about in Papatoetoe. People are desperate for a change and they really want to vote this time. They are getting family out to vote. They are encouraging each other. It could be 2005 all over again -turnout confounding the polls.
Some MSM must have Australian decency because some of them Keep underarm bowling Jacainda.
Nice try but I all ready read that someone was under arm bowling me last nite or was it a SPIN bowling on TV 3.
I agree with Draco T Bastard we will ban all polls a month before election nite.
What a load of rubbish bill already knows he has lost its written all over his face I will courier a couple of boxes of tissues to TV 3 for Saturday nite
My pick
Lab 50
Grn 18
Maori party 6
We want a future for OUR children
70 000 immigrants a year. That is 700 000 in ten years, 100 000 new houses required at 7 per house, at least 350 000 new jobs required, 4 new hospitals and another cities worth of services,. Just so National can pretend the economy is growing
Yip and half of the growth has been coming from the earthquake rebuild and increased infrastructure spend. Projections certainly aren’t so impressive going forward.
Yip. Reminds me of Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney and their poignant song.
The National Herd have passed their suitability test to be an exalted citizen, they have made money and worked at something enough so they feel virtuous. The Virtue Religion it’s the new one, probably a bit like Scientology.
National! Note – Al they don’t want you in their nation.
Yip’s song.
Brother Can You Spare a Dime
Say don’t you remember you called me Al,
It was Al all the time,
Buddy can you spare a dime.
‘Don’t want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard.’ For Gnashional politicians.
Paul Simon You can call me Al. Al certainly has difficulties and in NZ he’s the tail end of the nation. Let’s see the tail wagging the dog eh!
Nationals standard election procedure.
1. Pretend to be socialist.
2. Fudge statistics so they look socialist.
3. Make things up about the opposition.
4. Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie………
Duncan stop trying to justify your polls which are designed to confuse voters what a good under arm bowl the business of OUR country need to pay more to OUR society because they ain’t paying much NOW Ka Pai
Values learned: Avoid the truth, disrespect, unfairness, profit over people
Virtues displayed: Deviousness, win at all costs, dishonesty
Sometimes I wonder whether calling out lies & liars is actually having the intended effect of achieving a more truthful society. It seems that more often (?) it is portrayed & viewed as a shining example of how to get ahead and succeed. Think Gordon Gekko and “greed is good”.
That said, not pulling them up on lies is not the way either …
The problem is that there’s no consequences to lying. Blinglish and many other National Party MPs lied and they’re still eligible to be in parliament. This should not happen.
It just seems that there are no negative consequences to lying. Indeed, it appears to pay off in the short term. However, in the longer term the lies will catch up with you and you start to distrust others and suspect them from lying to you too. In the end, you cannot trust anyone, not even yourself … A truly Faustian Pact!
In the end, you cannot trust anyone, not even yourself … A truly Faustian Pact!
Which is just one of the aspects of the RWNJ Greed is Good paradigm that destroys society. When no one can trust anyone else then relationships break down and society fragments and eventually we see civil war or worse.
I got told off for trying to tell my sons whom to vote for she was right I had to apologise Please go and vote Labour Green or Maori party If you want a future
We have commentators telling us who to vote for, PR firms and pamphlets and billboards galore.
Depending on “how” you were telling your sons, I would think that anyone else should stay out of it, (unless it falls under party campaigning at the booth). Especially if they had asked your advice. In the end, you are just another source of information, they get to decide whether to listen to you or not.
As an aside, meant to act as a casual scrutineer this time at my father-in-law’s rest home this election. We went to take him to the voting booth last time, and found out he had already voted. He thought he had just confirmed his vote, with “helpers” telling him where to tick. He had no idea which party he had voted for. Unfortunately, when the early voting came around I was unable to get there to watch. Back on the to-do list for next time.
We went to take him to the voting booth last time, and found out he had already voted. He thought he had just confirmed his vote, with “helpers” telling him where to tick. He had no idea which party he had voted for.
I hope you reported that to the electoral commission so that it could be properly investigated.
I worked as a poll clerk at a polling booth at one election a long time ago. We did it as a fund raising exercise for a charity where we put in the time and they got the money.
It was in a rest home and a fair number of the people there were showing distinct signs of dementia.
They were being “helped” by the staff. I think that quite a lot of the people “voting” had no idea what was going on.
From what you say it appears the practice continues.
He was not concerned with the outcome, and I was not going to appropriate his experience and perhaps put him in a situation that caused him discomfort.
(I was instead, going to actively be present at the home for this election process, in order to make any complaints from a personal perspective but unfortunately was occupied with being with him over that two weeks in his last illness. He passed away the day after the vote was taken in the home, a week before the elections.)
I can already see the effects of my fellow bloggers and I fighting equal rights For OUR female”s you go get that power Ladys I mite be a bit bias because I have granddaughter”s but OUR females need all the help to right this wrong we fight for equal rights For every Human in OUR WORLD
GET THE TRUTH OF WHATS HAPPENING AROUND OUR WORLD WITH SOCIAL MEDIA KA PAI
It seems to be the season for making predictions on the outcome of the election, and who am I to resist the fashion.
So: Labour on 41%, just ahead of National on 39% (which, God knows is about 15 per cent more than they deserve!) Greens on 9% or even more – the message about climate change/breakdown finally getting through. NZ First, just over 5%, but with Winnie losing his seat in Northland. Act 1 seat (a real travesty of natural justice) The Maori Party 1 seat.
I don’t know how that would break down into seats, but the progressive bloc half of parliament!
Whether that means we can begin to roll back the neoliberal cancer that has wracked this country for over 30 years – remains to be seen!
It’s possible TV (not etc) if the rumours that the “youthquake” has finally emerged are true, but don’t count on it. I don’t trust the integrity of the majority of the rest of the punters. They are politically inept and easily led by the duplicitous, unscrupulous Nats.
Sources told Newsroom that National’s latest internal polling has it at 43 percent and Labour at 39 percent. NZ First and the Greens were both on six percent. But there were suggestions from those close to National that its figures had softened overnight
haveseen two conflicting reports (but no numbers) RNZ suggest he has little chance of holding whereas Newsroom suggests he will…as to threshold, i wouldnt be highly surprised….mildly perhaps
An average of those puts left block ahead by a mere half a percent… in my electorate I heard from a colleague who’s scrutineering early mostly left in a Conservative seat. Winnie still a lynch pin I think
That’s right Ianmac .Tory numbers will come down in my view & Labour
up…but not enough for Greens/Labour to govern alone unfortunately.Hope
Jacinda chooses the right single malt
Are scrutineers really allowed to look at the polling papers before election day?
I thought the boxes remained sealed and early counting wasn’t allowed until the polls opened on polling day.
I also thought it was illegal to provide anyone not part of the election with information about the vote before the close of the polls.
Don’t be naif mate… yes the votes are sealed and you cant talk but some people can read body language pretty well & wearing a rosette is also allowed. Also only anecdotal
“But there were suggestions from those close to National that its figures had softened overnight”
Gee hope so. Maybe early voting is not such a good idea. Remember a couple of elections ago John Key on mounting the victory dais gave his first hearty thanks to David Farrar. So his polling and focus grouping engineered a victory rather than a Party with merit.
Chairman I listened to that link you posted last weekend, it was really interesting, am following what’s going on re subject matter and researching because it’s entirely plausible and logical. Appreciate these links you have posted. Thanks Cinny.
PS am not racist and i love love refugees, but this isn’t about race, it’s about power
I’m afraid Mr Chairman you are on money with this one, especially when Australia and NZ governments are reducing aid in the South Pacific (incl PNG and East Timor) weather is civilian aid or under the Mutual Aid Pact (MAP) and China fills void with its cheap loans, cheap labour for its aid projects instead of employing and training up the local workforce like Oz and NZ do. Then the Chinese government puts pressure on the South Pacific counties to under report fishing quotas/ catches, threatened to withdraw market access for goods when there is a enquiry into the Chinese dumping of low quality goods aka cheap reo bar used in NZ building projects or worst calls in the so called cheap loans etc and then we have got the Chinese government/ proxies actions in to freedom of speech within the our universities or in the fourth estate.
The Chinese use of soft power is straight out of the thinking of the great Chinese general of Sun Tuz with a bit Mahan and Clausewitz thrown in for good measure.
The NZ establishment to busy trying to make as money as they can in the short term than rather look at the long term consequences, which is so typical of NZ governments and corporate NZ.
As Marx pointed out – the capitalists will sell you the rope used to hang them. And that is exactly how our governments have been acting for the last few decades.
Hey, James….how about putting your faith in the status quo into action and give your home address to one of the overworked charities trying to find homes for those without.
I’m sure they can satisfy your probable desire to only help those who are making the effort to help themselves by sending you a couple of working poor families who need a home.
If you go over to the National site, you can see particularly in their property section that they are far better at expressing their policies in terms of rational self interest. Both to younger people trying to get in to property, and to those who already own property.
Most of my work colleagues noticed this.
They also put up the banner headline on their site about “More of your income for you” or thereabouts.
I work for a University with schools in South Auckland and see the effects of this everyday. There is not a school I work with (and I work with primary schools) that doesn’t have kids who are self harming and or have made suicide attempts. FFS 10 year olds so disillusioned by your brigther future that they do not want to live.
With my brother (a patched gang member who your Deputy thinks has less human rights than her ) I also do volunteer work coaching sports teams and fundraising so kids can pay fees, have boots and have a chance for a better life and the need just keeps getting bigger and bigger under National.
We both grew up poor and brown in South Auckland but things were never as bad as they are right now.
Despite my own battles with drug and alcohol addiction (15 years sober) and depression I have been lucky and done well for myself. I earn six figures and my wife who is a Deputy Principal earns just under six figures. We can afford to pay more tax so that others have decent healthcare, access to mental health services and more money in their pockets to provide for themselves and their whanau.
As a country we need to do better. As a country we need to be fairer. That is why James I hope you are wrong and National do not win on Saturday. That is why I hope this election people vote for what is best for others and not what is best for them.
Kia Kaha James. I respect your right to hold your beliefs I just do not agree with them
Thanks ianmac. I just want to live in a country where I get to volunteer to help kids just because I want to not because I also “need” to. I am sitting at home today filling out forms and jumping through hoops so that the low decile schools I work with can access money to pay for professional development (PLD) for their teachers. Prior to this Governmentthis money was earmarked for them in a priority learners (Maori, Pasifika, Low SES, special needs) fund. The schools that really need it, now have to compete with high decile schools who can afford to fund the PLD themselves. It is a friggin joke.
I’m inclined to think that you may get better support from Charter Schools for your voluntary services – in fact I would think that Charter Schools would be more inclined to pay for your services.
I do my volunteer work in the community not in schools (although I have done some work with schools uncharged when I have had free time).
I would never work in a charter school as the philosophy behind them is at odds with my own beliefs that were formed by research. You may think they are great and if you do then good for you but for me I would rather see better funding for state schools.
Thank you Trey. So well expressed with no bitterness.
We all who have worked with struggling and disadvantaged families and individuals know that right wing parties cut services severely when they first get power. (austerity budget)
Following that they change the playing field to assist their own while berating the rest as lazy or making bad choices. (Ring fencing opportunities).
After 6/9 years of this, as opposition grows, they say yes we have made provision for improving that, but it is still less than before. (small loaded tax cuts/ contestible funding)
By now youth who were 9/10 years old when the right got in, at 18 are voting for something they have never had. Fairness and Hope.
Some are already lost souls hoping against hope for change.
Youth, you have the power to enroll vote and change this. Please do.
Yes james many fools have believed the polling – if you actually knew what they do, how they do it and then the interpretation of what information they receive – then you would not follow their lines so easily – but as a gnat voter you are easily led.
“For the trolls, know-it-alls and daredevils among us, the above options may seem laughably tame. After all this is your time to shine!
Fear not. Any and all situations can be turned into an opportunity for you to demonstrate your penchant for provocation with aplomb.
You know you’re the smartest. Elections are the time to make that apparent. Election night is the crescendo of your campaign of intellectual superiority and you cannot let it go to waste. In the mood for company? Wear a controversial t-shirt. Interrupt people loudly. Make your thoughts on controversial issues crystal clear. Staying in? Use the internet as it was intended: taunting, goading and antagonising those you disagree with.
You may not make friends but you will MAKE YOURSELF HEARD. And after all – isn’t that what democracy is all about? “
James
Everyone is so nice and polite to you. Bugger that. You have said that it is going to be a National led government I don’t know how many times. You are
just a stupid troll who doesn’t know that elections are a competition for ideas and methods of government. It’s not a sporting match, it’s not my side against yours and getting the ball over the line is the big deal.
This is about life and you waste our time, but not yours because you don’t know how to value time and effort. So you come here for amusement and interrupt the grown-ups. As time goes by, you and we may not be so polite when we are fighting for our lives and resources and have reached the end of our tether.
Marty… Maureen Pugh doesnt get back in? I’m so down with that, that leader ad happened again, lololol 7 weeks in a row, super funny. She’s already removed her hoardings from the main street here, Hooray.
May I add to that prediction please, Greens gain at least one more seat 2 weeks later after the special are counted.
Election time in NZ should never be source of severe angst and anxiety to any segment of the population. We should all be able to be confident that, whatever the outcome we will be able to accept it. But in what I thought I’d never see happen in NZ, the outcome of a general election is now literally a matter of life or death for some- make that a lot more than some, it’s multiplying every 3 years. So that anxiety is more than justified.
Those who are yet to vote, please also consider the literal lives of your fellow human beings/citizens.
Indeed , Kay ,… it is PROFOUNDLY crazy that this country , … has gotten to the point that there is anxiety about who wins this election. And its not just the sort of anxiety of team pride ,… it is something completely different ,… it is the same sort of anxiety experienced by many in third world country’s that are war torn,…
Whereby for many , – it is a matter of urgency of life or death.
That is ridiculous in a country full of natural resources like this. And it is even more ridiculous that it is present in a country that was once the 6th wealthiest ( per head of population ) in the late 1960s.
And , it is a direct result of 33 years of neo liberalism.
That’s beautifully put, Kay and so true. There is a great deal of unnecessary anxiousness out in the community that benefits no one. I hope that tomorrow night, there’ll be a great deal less. In the towns and cities anyway 🙂
I hear you, Kay, and please remember that voting is personal but it’s not personal, if you know what I mean. Some people care, some don’t. I don’t know you but I still care for you and for my fellow humans. Is my vote going to make a difference? A vote is just a vote, once every three years. It is pretty meaningless in the greater scheme of things unless you let it define your life. I know this may sounds very patronizing – it is to some extent – but those who have a one or two-seat majority in Parliament do not own me, they are not telling me what to think, say or do. They have as much power over me as I’m willing to give to them. Stay strong, find other strong people and join forces and help and love each other. Kia kaha, Kay! [I’m as pakeha as they come]
After tomorrow I look forward to driving all the way down a six lane highway to our holiday house on the Coromandel in our new Bentayga. The future is bright. Abigail and Felicity are doing well at school and looking forward to their trip to Italy with their school chums.
The MSM should not be printing rubbish like I saw this morning. It brings the country down when we are so buoyant and everything is great. We truly are in ‘Godzone.’
Publishing this sort of stuff before an election is unethical. What happened to integrity? Thank goodness we have a man like Mr English at the top. Hopefully such an ethical man, of such strong religious views and moral perspective, will see that nonsense like this will never be allowed to be printed.
The publishers of the Herald and the midwife should be the first into his new bootcamps.
A touch of irony would be not being able to top up the 13l+/100km transport because some Northern scum had buggered up delivery of the supplies!
Great confidence that Bull will have St Judith on that case though. Might stop in to see her on the way through actually. Just in for a cup of tea like. Now, how many kms from the airport? In what direction? ….
… ” The publishers of the Herald and the midwife should be the first into his new bootcamps ” …
Yep , – I can just see it now , Herr English and Herr Joyce in their riding boots , peaked caps and bullwhips. The image suits them well. A sign with the words ‘Arbeit macht frei’ would be a suitable backdrop to ram the message home as well….
That’s right Ianmac .Tory numbers will come down in my view & Labour
up…but not enough for Labour /Greens to govern alone unfortunately.Hope
Jacinda chooses the right single malt
Millsy the youth are turning out. Lines of them at most polling booths. Yesterday, 178785 people voted. It was reported many were young and enrolling as well.
Today on facebook the lines are 20 deep at all unis, so they are responding. Chin up.
A breakthrough in soft robotics means scientists are now one step closer to creating lifelike machines. Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a 3D printed synthetic tissue that can act as active muscle
So I just hope that whatever way the result goes we can all accept it with good grace and that we call get in behind whatever government is formed
Even if the government formed is not the one we’re hoping for its still the government of NZ so we should all get in behind and support it however we can
We don’t want to be (at least I hope we don’t) like the USA and have protests, start a petition etc etc
NZ is the overall best country in the world and we have one of the most stable political systems in the world as well and we should proud of that
Go democracy!
[I’ve done a couple of moderation requests on top of previous moderations. Given it’s the election and I don’t want to have to think about this for a while, I’m banning you for 4 weeks. When you come back you still need to answer the questions that have been asked. See https://thestandard.org.nz/is-nz-doomed-to-lying-politics-now/#comment-1388685 – weka]
Section 80 of the Electoral Act 1993 prohibits someone from being a candidate if they’re being detained for treatment under order or if they’re unfit to stand trial, but that’s a pretty massive threshold.
If you can breath and write your name, you can be a candidate and therefore a minister (with a few other exceptions, like prinoners or defence force personnel).
Im not joking…..having dealt with a parent with dementia for the past 5 years I was seriously concerned to read this a short time ago….
“Richard Prosser responds:
Morning Tim
Just for clarity, my statement concerning the re-nationalisation of power company shares was not wrong as your otherwise splendid article proclaims.
Perhaps the Member for Northland had simply changed his mind and not bothered to tell anyone else. Or perhaps he had forgotten our established and agreed position. Or perhaps he simply forgot that he’d changed his mind.
Recent behavioural trends lead me to suspect that any of the above are possibilities.
On the other hand, given NZ1st’s slide in the polls and Mr Prosser’s change in list position from 3rd to 15th, he may … erm…not perhaps be the most reliable witness.
My message to my father and the rest of rural New Zealand is this: a National victory may add to growing resentment, in which case expect the opposition to demand harsher policy. This narrative of town versus country is propagated by one party alone. By accepting it you are laying down a gauntlet against an enemy that you are creating. An enemy you cannot beat.
Turns out the young Syrian man bagged by the usual suspects in their efforts to vilify refugees, had nothing to do with Parson’s Green attack.
The second suspect detained was named as Yahyah Farroukh, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee who was arrested outside a chicken shop in Hounslow on Saturday night.
He was released with no further action by the Metropolitan Police on Thursday.
Voted at 2:22 on the 22nd (Spring Equinox) 😀 Crikey it was busy at the polling booth in Motueka, am on the unpublished roll so have do a a special vote, and by crikey the specials ballot box was bursting at the seams with special votes, that’s a good sign 😀
Michelle Boag adroitly manages to shift a conversation about the poor sod who immolated himself yesterday to one about Nikki Kaye wanting to encourage ‘resilience’ in our youth. My bad for having ‘Giggles With Jim’ on in the background.
(I’m not going to link to the show, mods…masochists can find it for themselves. 😉
Great, now she and Mike Williams are having a pretend fight…great for ratings…
However, not why I’m here.
Went to a busy Pak n Save today and observed that a very high proportion of shoppers were using the small trolleys, rather than the large family sized ones.
Commented on such to the understandably bored looking Checkout Operator, with the tongue in cheek explanation that perhaps folk were preparing for when National get back in tomorrow and austerity bites even harder.
Eyeroll from CO…”they’re all the same so I don’t bother…”
I think, using the little amount of subtle diplomacy I am capable of, I managed to persuade her that a vote for Labour, and one for the Greens (to keep Labour honest) would be beneficial for for those workers struggling to make ends meet. I told her that National supporters are crapping themselves at the thought of any revision of labour regulations and raising the minimum wage. I explained to her that there was more to the Greens than pollution and legalising dope.
Also had a similar conversation with a young person on a casual contract working in a bank….
Boag was dreadful (so at least consistent) on RNZ’s The Panel this afternoon, referring (at ~7:45 minutes) to “The children who are going to be the problems of tomorrow.” In Boag’s value system, these children don’t have problems, they are the problem. Odious.
“When the former National Party president Michelle Boag left her passport at home before an international flight yesterday, she did the obvious thing – called the Westpac rescue helicopter to fetch it for her.
Ms Boag, who is chairwoman of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Foundation, made the 5.30am call on her way to Auckland Airport after she realised her passport was still at home on Waiheke Island.
The chopper, with the mandatory crew of three including a paramedic, flew from Mechanics Bay to Waiheke and then out to the helipad near the international terminal. It then returned to Mechanics Bay. ”
If there ever was a good reason to distrust and despise anyone and everyone aligned with the National Party….this is it.
Good link Ad the double edged sword of the internet we need to sort that shit out cannot have another like that person off the Simpson fuck that.
Those idiots in Tauranga think that because they zip around in there flash cars I won’t notice them. Just like one lot that thought that wearing a black beanie would make them invisible WTF they are costing me thousands in lost good will and lost income
but they have given me some big targets I will keep you up to date with my process
I no they have jack shit on me and the police are still trying to damage my credibility and undermine my social media credibility So don’t believe there bullshit they are barking up the wrong tree.Like there masters national
Ffs. Just seen PARTAY GIRL Bennett on The Bus leading the sing along while strap hanging Billy Liar was very excited about the amount of POSITIVE TOOTS they have been getting.
Can’t unsee it now. Question. How can you tell if a toot is positive?.
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
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National.
Happy to lie to get power.
Happy to put their interests above the vulnerable.
Happy to accept poisoned rivers, increasing poverty and inequality, more mental health issues, worsening health and education services…
As long as they are alright and get their flash holidays and flash cars……
C’mon New Zealand ,… vote Labour / Green and end all the poverty !!!
One in Ten – UB40 (lyrics) – YouTube
Video for one in ten you tube▶ 4:34
And it is that corruption, there really is no other word for it, that destroys societies and has done throughout history.
It’s the media peddled fake economy, the lavish private taxes and levies introduced by govts on us all. National are the party of high hidden taxes. Taxes that take time from parenting, take time from community, take time from participation in society, take time off life from pollution causing ill health. It’s the fake economy the corrupt media manufactures to cover all the external costs unpaid for except by the people.
Our biased media have shown their Dirty side with their reliable amplification and repeating of Nact lies and smears ….. Its what they do at election times.
Lies by omission is their usual method of mis-reporting …..
Which brings me to John Key and the comprehensive con job they pulled on behalf of that disgusting man … although they did lie a hell of a lot for him …
Keys early currency speculation in NZ was possibly rigged with insider trading, …..if he was in on the Douglas pre-devaluation tip off …
Currency speculation makes normal trading for businesses which actually produce something more difficult…….. Key left NZ for Merrill Lynch.
Keys work for Merrill Lynch in Ireland, seems to have consisted of using tax havens and things like the double irish dutch sandwich ….. to entice mainly American companies to creatively become Irish ones, In name ……
He made large money …. by Gutting UsA tax revenue, and that of other countries….. as corporations opted out of paying tax where they make their sales and profits …..
Its impossible to estimate the costs and harms John Key has inflicted on poor and middle class citizens everywhere ,,,,, through reduced Governments revenue.
His work for merrill in Asia is where he gained the reputation for smiling while sacking people ,,,,
The Asian currency crisis took place in 1997 ……and like most crashes involved speculation …. along eith innocent workers paying the price for the greed of the financial sector ….
Corruption was also rife in Asia …regularly 25% of funding for projects and sometimes up to 50% was being taken and skimmed by corrupt regimes like a suharto or his Generals.
…… In many cases institutions like Merrill when raising funding and making the loans … would then help the corrupt leaders move their stolen portion off-shore …. High ranking jobs were given to corrupt Politicians children or other relatives …..
When or if the corrupt illegitimate leaders were removed from power …..the corrupt banksters debts remained ……….
These corrupt debts get paid in either privatisation and theft of resources ….or through tax on the poor …
s
Sometimes over 50%) of a governments expenditure will be interest on never ending debt …….. while poor children die from lack of sanitation and basics in healthcare and food ….
Poor people are not worth a dollar missing from bankers profits to the Keys of this world.…
In our country and other developed nations, corporate and uber rich tax cheating ….. means things like ‘voluntary’ school fees for financially stressed parents,….. large student debts for something that used to be free for Key, English, Joyce,Collins and co …. longer waiting lists in the health sector, underfunded police etc etc
In poor countries this economic apartheid kills children……
Ask yourself , would you steal from a baby ? …. people who build and use tax havens do …..
Key has personally helped steal from Millions of children ……
Keys investment skills suggest he left the largest portion of his paper wealth in his old firm ….It almost hit $100 per share ….. before it poisoned itself with its on products and dodgy creative accounting … Merrill was the third big firm after Bear-sterns and Lehmans to collapse …
Bank of America was backing out of a deal to buy merrill …. when Merrills portfolio revealed itself as a pile of toxic crap …. with 21 Billion dollar operating losses revealed in a three month period ……
Merrill and the financial sector were vaporizing wealth at a rate which is hard to comprehend ….. 46 Billion was the final amount in losses from Merrill …… 46 Billion
The American government stepped in and the Bank of America was forced to rescue the imploding Merrill and stop a domino collapsing of the american financial system …..
american taxpayers, pension funds and other victims paid for the bailout in Govt cash to the perpetrators ….. and then they paid again ….. with GFC loss of jobs wealth and security for themselves and other ordinary people.
Despite Keys statements dissing and distancing himself from Merrill …… when the GFC revealed their sham products, creative dishonesty and reckless gambling behavior …
His Bank of America shares are testimonty to him staying firmly invested with Merrill …..
He benefited from the Usa Govt forcing the merger ….. and paying Billions to cover Merrills loses
Key started his Merrill career by costing ordinary taxpayers money with his base erosion tax dodge work …
And he finished it with a direct bailout for his worthless Merrill shares ….
What a hard working creative millionare …… he cant swing a hammer but builds things which blow Billion dollar holes in Government revenue
How many millions in charity he took from usa citizens …. depends on how many Merrill shares he had hoarded
He could be summed up as an anti-Robin Hood ….. Stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
Good at greed driven cheating ……….. But a shit Greed driven investor.
Its all a bit of a scam how our media never reported his personal multi million bailout at the start of the GFC ….
Protecting the image ….. by many lies ….and lots of omission.
As Bill and National is benefiting from.
Keys and Englishs economic model ……of speculation and cheating is of course doomed to failure ……
It can only benefit the few by the losses of the many.
Key, Nz’s George Bush junior. Bush started wars, Key destroyed his own nation, shitty rivers, shitty housing, shitty tourism all over the country…
I’ve been out and about in Onehunga and Mangere taking people to enrol and vote early over the last week. The vibe for change is strong and I’m pleased to have seen young people skipping into the booths and coming out with the “I’ve voted” sticker. For me the last two days have been emotional, feeling nervous and butterflies multiplying in the puku…hoping and praying for the best outcome for all our people tomorrow…we can do this…let’s do this!
L0l yes !… my son and I both smiled and wore the ‘ I’ve voted ‘ sticker after casting our votes ,… its really a good idea . 🙂
I agree Wild Katipo…the stickers are good…we took our young children along with us to vote this week and they said to me quietly “vote for me” to which a man overheard and replied “I just did”…we all walked out with our stickers! Proud!
We voted for our kids and everyone elses too – this is change in action!!!
Excellent work. Pleased to read about the vibe for change – south Auckland needs it; Tāmaki Makaurau needs it; Aotearoa- NZ needs it.
Top Work Pacific Princess. Keep it up.
Nice one – good mahi – let’s make a diffrence, together
Having an I’ve voted’ sticker is a good idea. Me with the butterflies too. Good on you Pacific Princess.
Good on you Pacific Princess. I have been out and about in Papatoetoe. People are desperate for a change and they really want to vote this time. They are getting family out to vote. They are encouraging each other. It could be 2005 all over again -turnout confounding the polls.
This is heartening!
Some MSM must have Australian decency because some of them Keep underarm bowling Jacainda.
Nice try but I all ready read that someone was under arm bowling me last nite or was it a SPIN bowling on TV 3.
I agree with Draco T Bastard we will ban all polls a month before election nite.
What a load of rubbish bill already knows he has lost its written all over his face I will courier a couple of boxes of tissues to TV 3 for Saturday nite
My pick
Lab 50
Grn 18
Maori party 6
We want a future for OUR children
Youth vote today please. So so important.
70 000 immigrants a year. That is 700 000 in ten years, 100 000 new houses required at 7 per house, at least 350 000 new jobs required, 4 new hospitals and another cities worth of services,. Just so National can pretend the economy is growing
Yip and half of the growth has been coming from the earthquake rebuild and increased infrastructure spend. Projections certainly aren’t so impressive going forward.
All the growth has been coming from increased debt created by the housing boom.
To have increased GDP requires having more money in the system and the only way money increases is through borrowing from the private banks.
Yip. Reminds me of Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney and their poignant song.
The National Herd have passed their suitability test to be an exalted citizen, they have made money and worked at something enough so they feel virtuous. The Virtue Religion it’s the new one, probably a bit like Scientology.
National! Note – Al they don’t want you in their nation.
Yip’s song.
Brother Can You Spare a Dime
Say don’t you remember you called me Al,
It was Al all the time,
Buddy can you spare a dime.
Al Jolson (Old time famous in USA, interesting historic and Depression shots)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4yT0KAMyo
Bing Crosby’s version.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eih67rlGNhU
Depression history images.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpfY8kh5lUw
‘Don’t want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard.’ For Gnashional politicians.
Paul Simon You can call me Al. Al certainly has difficulties and in NZ he’s the tail end of the nation. Let’s see the tail wagging the dog eh!
Nationals standard election procedure.
1. Pretend to be socialist.
2. Fudge statistics so they look socialist.
3. Make things up about the opposition.
4. Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie………
Duncan stop trying to justify your polls which are designed to confuse voters what a good under arm bowl the business of OUR country need to pay more to OUR society because they ain’t paying much NOW Ka Pai
In recent days an awful (!) lot has been said about lying.
I thought this piece was very good: http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/decor/97045612/how-not-to-be-a-good-human-according-to-the-block
Sometimes I wonder whether calling out lies & liars is actually having the intended effect of achieving a more truthful society. It seems that more often (?) it is portrayed & viewed as a shining example of how to get ahead and succeed. Think Gordon Gekko and “greed is good”.
That said, not pulling them up on lies is not the way either …
The problem is that there’s no consequences to lying. Blinglish and many other National Party MPs lied and they’re still eligible to be in parliament. This should not happen.
It just seems that there are no negative consequences to lying. Indeed, it appears to pay off in the short term. However, in the longer term the lies will catch up with you and you start to distrust others and suspect them from lying to you too. In the end, you cannot trust anyone, not even yourself … A truly Faustian Pact!
Which is just one of the aspects of the RWNJ Greed is Good paradigm that destroys society. When no one can trust anyone else then relationships break down and society fragments and eventually we see civil war or worse.
Good link Incognito. Just as well Jacinda, aware of those crook values, said,
“Let’s NOT do it.” And she hasn’t and nor has James.
Yes, they don’t sink to these lows because they have values and it shows. We need more …
I got told off for trying to tell my sons whom to vote for she was right I had to apologise Please go and vote Labour Green or Maori party If you want a future
We have commentators telling us who to vote for, PR firms and pamphlets and billboards galore.
Depending on “how” you were telling your sons, I would think that anyone else should stay out of it, (unless it falls under party campaigning at the booth). Especially if they had asked your advice. In the end, you are just another source of information, they get to decide whether to listen to you or not.
As an aside, meant to act as a casual scrutineer this time at my father-in-law’s rest home this election. We went to take him to the voting booth last time, and found out he had already voted. He thought he had just confirmed his vote, with “helpers” telling him where to tick. He had no idea which party he had voted for. Unfortunately, when the early voting came around I was unable to get there to watch. Back on the to-do list for next time.
I hope you reported that to the electoral commission so that it could be properly investigated.
I worked as a poll clerk at a polling booth at one election a long time ago. We did it as a fund raising exercise for a charity where we put in the time and they got the money.
It was in a rest home and a fair number of the people there were showing distinct signs of dementia.
They were being “helped” by the staff. I think that quite a lot of the people “voting” had no idea what was going on.
From what you say it appears the practice continues.
Hi Alwyn, what was the process that was undertaken to review this practice – if any?
He was not concerned with the outcome, and I was not going to appropriate his experience and perhaps put him in a situation that caused him discomfort.
(I was instead, going to actively be present at the home for this election process, in order to make any complaints from a personal perspective but unfortunately was occupied with being with him over that two weeks in his last illness. He passed away the day after the vote was taken in the home, a week before the elections.)
I can already see the effects of my fellow bloggers and I fighting equal rights For OUR female”s you go get that power Ladys I mite be a bit bias because I have granddaughter”s but OUR females need all the help to right this wrong we fight for equal rights For every Human in OUR WORLD
GET THE TRUTH OF WHATS HAPPENING AROUND OUR WORLD WITH SOCIAL MEDIA KA PAI
It seems to be the season for making predictions on the outcome of the election, and who am I to resist the fashion.
So: Labour on 41%, just ahead of National on 39% (which, God knows is about 15 per cent more than they deserve!) Greens on 9% or even more – the message about climate change/breakdown finally getting through. NZ First, just over 5%, but with Winnie losing his seat in Northland. Act 1 seat (a real travesty of natural justice) The Maori Party 1 seat.
I don’t know how that would break down into seats, but the progressive bloc half of parliament!
Whether that means we can begin to roll back the neoliberal cancer that has wracked this country for over 30 years – remains to be seen!
It’s possible TV (not etc) if the rumours that the “youthquake” has finally emerged are true, but don’t count on it. I don’t trust the integrity of the majority of the rest of the punters. They are politically inept and easily led by the duplicitous, unscrupulous Nats.
That’s right Anne, we see it every election, much to our chagrin.
National Party Internal Poll (Curia) (2 days ago)
Nat 43%
Lab 39%
NZF 6%
Greens 6%
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/20/48879/election-2017-live-an-awkward-jet-fuel-crisis
Still everything to play for – “softened” = Voters swinging back to the Left ???
you seen anything on Northland?….what chance Winston holds the seat?
Northland ? …. None that I know of
Polls of Whangarei & Te Tai Tokerau …. but no Northland – go figure
Still – I’d be highly surprised if NZF fell below 5% threshold
haveseen two conflicting reports (but no numbers) RNZ suggest he has little chance of holding whereas Newsroom suggests he will…as to threshold, i wouldnt be highly surprised….mildly perhaps
So, latest Polls
Nat (Curia) … Lab (UMR) … CB ……… RR
Nat … 43% ………… 43% ……… 46% …… 45.8
Lab … 39% ………… 38% ……… 37% …… 37.3
NZF … 6% ………….. 8% ………… 5% …….. 7.1
Green 6% ………….. 7% ………… 8% …….. 7.1
NZF and Greens wouldn’t want to drop too much off that if they want a job come Monday.
That will be interesting to watch on the night.
difference is Greens trending up whereas NZF trending down….I know which position Id prefer to be in
I, for one, would be happy to see NZF drop considerably to deny this idiot a return to Parliament. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11925275
An average of those puts left block ahead by a mere half a percent… in my electorate I heard from a colleague who’s scrutineering early mostly left in a Conservative seat. Winnie still a lynch pin I think
Redlion. I think you said that early voters were voting Left in a Conservative seat?
That’s right Ianmac .Tory numbers will come down in my view & Labour
up…but not enough for Greens/Labour to govern alone unfortunately.Hope
Jacinda chooses the right single malt
Are scrutineers really allowed to look at the polling papers before election day?
I thought the boxes remained sealed and early counting wasn’t allowed until the polls opened on polling day.
I also thought it was illegal to provide anyone not part of the election with information about the vote before the close of the polls.
Don’t be naif mate… yes the votes are sealed and you cant talk but some people can read body language pretty well & wearing a rosette is also allowed. Also only anecdotal
True A single rossette is allowed but no car flags.
“But there were suggestions from those close to National that its figures had softened overnight”
Gee hope so. Maybe early voting is not such a good idea. Remember a couple of elections ago John Key on mounting the victory dais gave his first hearty thanks to David Farrar. So his polling and focus grouping engineered a victory rather than a Party with merit.
Expert calls for inquiry into Chinese ‘threat’
Well, well. There seems to be an interesting development following on from my post on the 16th (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16092017/#comment-1385067).
A leading academic has called for New Zealand to follow Australia and take the threat of China’s growing influence in its affairs seriously.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/18/48616/expert-calls-for-inquiry-into-chinese-threat
Chinese-owned New Zealand dairy farms said to possibly being used to test advanced missile technology
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11924169
This from ABC: Chinese “soft power” influence becomes election issue in New Zealand
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/chinese-soft-power-influence-in-new-zealand/8967852
And of course, this from Winston: China’s Growing Control in NZ Must Be Investigated
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1709/S00237/chinas-growing-control-in-nz-must-be-investigated.htm
An interesting related read:
http://www.stephenfranks.co.nz/q-e-d-on-spies-from-the-minister-responsible-for-our-security-intelligence-sevices/
http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-You-Are-a-Racist
Playing the race card, Marty? How original.
US power, economic paradigms and influence, in New Zealand is much more frightening at present. That may change as China already “owns” the USA.
Hey KJT – do you have any idea when that pipeline from the wharf to Wiri could have been removed after?
I can’t find it anywhere
Chairman I listened to that link you posted last weekend, it was really interesting, am following what’s going on re subject matter and researching because it’s entirely plausible and logical. Appreciate these links you have posted. Thanks Cinny.
PS am not racist and i love love refugees, but this isn’t about race, it’s about power
Thanks, Cinny.
I’m afraid Mr Chairman you are on money with this one, especially when Australia and NZ governments are reducing aid in the South Pacific (incl PNG and East Timor) weather is civilian aid or under the Mutual Aid Pact (MAP) and China fills void with its cheap loans, cheap labour for its aid projects instead of employing and training up the local workforce like Oz and NZ do. Then the Chinese government puts pressure on the South Pacific counties to under report fishing quotas/ catches, threatened to withdraw market access for goods when there is a enquiry into the Chinese dumping of low quality goods aka cheap reo bar used in NZ building projects or worst calls in the so called cheap loans etc and then we have got the Chinese government/ proxies actions in to freedom of speech within the our universities or in the fourth estate.
The Chinese use of soft power is straight out of the thinking of the great Chinese general of Sun Tuz with a bit Mahan and Clausewitz thrown in for good measure.
The NZ establishment to busy trying to make as money as they can in the short term than rather look at the long term consequences, which is so typical of NZ governments and corporate NZ.
+111
As Marx pointed out – the capitalists will sell you the rope used to hang them. And that is exactly how our governments have been acting for the last few decades.
I’ll make a prediction – LANDSLIDE FOR LABOUR – NATIONAL MPs LOSE SEATS EVERYWHERE – GREEN VOTE MASSIVE.
I’ll make a prediction that you are wrong.
Whatever way it will go it will be close.
I think National ahead of Labour. Winston goes with National (being the largest vote).
3 more years of National led government.
Hey, James….how about putting your faith in the status quo into action and give your home address to one of the overworked charities trying to find homes for those without.
I’m sure they can satisfy your probable desire to only help those who are making the effort to help themselves by sending you a couple of working poor families who need a home.
Sorted, then?
If you go over to the National site, you can see particularly in their property section that they are far better at expressing their policies in terms of rational self interest. Both to younger people trying to get in to property, and to those who already own property.
Most of my work colleagues noticed this.
They also put up the banner headline on their site about “More of your income for you” or thereabouts.
I appreciate the precision of that messaging.
(but I will still be voting for the red team).
If you are right James then New Zealand will suffer three more years of this.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11924968 because this is the legacy of nine years of National.
I work for a University with schools in South Auckland and see the effects of this everyday. There is not a school I work with (and I work with primary schools) that doesn’t have kids who are self harming and or have made suicide attempts. FFS 10 year olds so disillusioned by your brigther future that they do not want to live.
With my brother (a patched gang member who your Deputy thinks has less human rights than her ) I also do volunteer work coaching sports teams and fundraising so kids can pay fees, have boots and have a chance for a better life and the need just keeps getting bigger and bigger under National.
We both grew up poor and brown in South Auckland but things were never as bad as they are right now.
Despite my own battles with drug and alcohol addiction (15 years sober) and depression I have been lucky and done well for myself. I earn six figures and my wife who is a Deputy Principal earns just under six figures. We can afford to pay more tax so that others have decent healthcare, access to mental health services and more money in their pockets to provide for themselves and their whanau.
As a country we need to do better. As a country we need to be fairer. That is why James I hope you are wrong and National do not win on Saturday. That is why I hope this election people vote for what is best for others and not what is best for them.
Kia Kaha James. I respect your right to hold your beliefs I just do not agree with them
An inspiring story Trey. Thanks.
Thanks ianmac. I just want to live in a country where I get to volunteer to help kids just because I want to not because I also “need” to. I am sitting at home today filling out forms and jumping through hoops so that the low decile schools I work with can access money to pay for professional development (PLD) for their teachers. Prior to this Governmentthis money was earmarked for them in a priority learners (Maori, Pasifika, Low SES, special needs) fund. The schools that really need it, now have to compete with high decile schools who can afford to fund the PLD themselves. It is a friggin joke.
I’m inclined to think that you may get better support from Charter Schools for your voluntary services – in fact I would think that Charter Schools would be more inclined to pay for your services.
I do my volunteer work in the community not in schools (although I have done some work with schools uncharged when I have had free time).
I would never work in a charter school as the philosophy behind them is at odds with my own beliefs that were formed by research. You may think they are great and if you do then good for you but for me I would rather see better funding for state schools.
+ 100%
Thank you Trey. So well expressed with no bitterness.
We all who have worked with struggling and disadvantaged families and individuals know that right wing parties cut services severely when they first get power. (austerity budget)
Following that they change the playing field to assist their own while berating the rest as lazy or making bad choices. (Ring fencing opportunities).
After 6/9 years of this, as opposition grows, they say yes we have made provision for improving that, but it is still less than before. (small loaded tax cuts/ contestible funding)
By now youth who were 9/10 years old when the right got in, at 18 are voting for something they have never had. Fairness and Hope.
Some are already lost souls hoping against hope for change.
Youth, you have the power to enroll vote and change this. Please do.
Yes james many fools have believed the polling – if you actually knew what they do, how they do it and then the interpretation of what information they receive – then you would not follow their lines so easily – but as a gnat voter you are easily led.
James! Saturday night!
“For the trolls, know-it-alls and daredevils among us, the above options may seem laughably tame. After all this is your time to shine!
Fear not. Any and all situations can be turned into an opportunity for you to demonstrate your penchant for provocation with aplomb.
You know you’re the smartest. Elections are the time to make that apparent. Election night is the crescendo of your campaign of intellectual superiority and you cannot let it go to waste. In the mood for company? Wear a controversial t-shirt. Interrupt people loudly. Make your thoughts on controversial issues crystal clear. Staying in? Use the internet as it was intended: taunting, goading and antagonising those you disagree with.
You may not make friends but you will MAKE YOURSELF HEARD. And after all – isn’t that what democracy is all about? “
James
Everyone is so nice and polite to you. Bugger that. You have said that it is going to be a National led government I don’t know how many times. You are
just a stupid troll who doesn’t know that elections are a competition for ideas and methods of government. It’s not a sporting match, it’s not my side against yours and getting the ball over the line is the big deal.
This is about life and you waste our time, but not yours because you don’t know how to value time and effort. So you come here for amusement and interrupt the grown-ups. As time goes by, you and we may not be so polite when we are fighting for our lives and resources and have reached the end of our tether.
Hooray marty mars – roll out the red carpet, we know what colour is the best for
a flying carpet.
yep if you look up on Saturday night and see a shooting star- then you will know we are just flying around here in the bay 🙂
Only a landslide can defeat ‘counting fraud’…
It’s who counts the votes…
No doubt there is a shift and ground swell rising MM…
If it doesn’t sweep this time, the nats will be gone forever should they have another 3 years…
Kia Kaha Aotearoa
Marty… Maureen Pugh doesnt get back in? I’m so down with that, that leader ad happened again, lololol 7 weeks in a row, super funny. She’s already removed her hoardings from the main street here, Hooray.
May I add to that prediction please, Greens gain at least one more seat 2 weeks later after the special are counted.
lets hope saint nick gets an early christmas and is banished to the workshop with the elves. Come on Matt get on up there!!!!!
Here’s some exciting music and images to carry the fight and spirit on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3cXcS49D64
O Fortuna we cry.
Toby Manhire tweeted a quote from Clarke Gayford:
He;s just “a hunka-hunka burnin’ lerve”.
That came out of a very, very short interlude in Jacinda being interviewed by Duncan Garner this morning.
A very good and positive interview worth watching despite the title.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/clarke-gayford-looking-forward-to-being-first-ladyman.html
According to Toby, Jacinda’s schedule today is gruelling – 12 media intteractions and five public events – plus her grandmother’s funeral in Waikato.
Kia kaha to Jacinda and family.
Looks like I found my Mark we will see who wins !!!!!!!! I already no
Election time in NZ should never be source of severe angst and anxiety to any segment of the population. We should all be able to be confident that, whatever the outcome we will be able to accept it. But in what I thought I’d never see happen in NZ, the outcome of a general election is now literally a matter of life or death for some- make that a lot more than some, it’s multiplying every 3 years. So that anxiety is more than justified.
Those who are yet to vote, please also consider the literal lives of your fellow human beings/citizens.
Indeed , Kay ,… it is PROFOUNDLY crazy that this country , … has gotten to the point that there is anxiety about who wins this election. And its not just the sort of anxiety of team pride ,… it is something completely different ,… it is the same sort of anxiety experienced by many in third world country’s that are war torn,…
Whereby for many , – it is a matter of urgency of life or death.
That is ridiculous in a country full of natural resources like this. And it is even more ridiculous that it is present in a country that was once the 6th wealthiest ( per head of population ) in the late 1960s.
And , it is a direct result of 33 years of neo liberalism.
That’s beautifully put, Kay and so true. There is a great deal of unnecessary anxiousness out in the community that benefits no one. I hope that tomorrow night, there’ll be a great deal less. In the towns and cities anyway 🙂
I hear you, Kay, and please remember that voting is personal but it’s not personal, if you know what I mean. Some people care, some don’t. I don’t know you but I still care for you and for my fellow humans. Is my vote going to make a difference? A vote is just a vote, once every three years. It is pretty meaningless in the greater scheme of things unless you let it define your life. I know this may sounds very patronizing – it is to some extent – but those who have a one or two-seat majority in Parliament do not own me, they are not telling me what to think, say or do. They have as much power over me as I’m willing to give to them. Stay strong, find other strong people and join forces and help and love each other. Kia kaha, Kay! [I’m as pakeha as they come]
After tomorrow I look forward to driving all the way down a six lane highway to our holiday house on the Coromandel in our new Bentayga. The future is bright. Abigail and Felicity are doing well at school and looking forward to their trip to Italy with their school chums.
The MSM should not be printing rubbish like I saw this morning. It brings the country down when we are so buoyant and everything is great. We truly are in ‘Godzone.’
Publishing this sort of stuff before an election is unethical. What happened to integrity? Thank goodness we have a man like Mr English at the top. Hopefully such an ethical man, of such strong religious views and moral perspective, will see that nonsense like this will never be allowed to be printed.
The publishers of the Herald and the midwife should be the first into his new bootcamps.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11924968
God forbid that this Midwife should work in Remuera where the effects of long term inbreeding are also too obvious.
Great slant Pete. Touch of irony?
A touch of irony would be not being able to top up the 13l+/100km transport because some Northern scum had buggered up delivery of the supplies!
Great confidence that Bull will have St Judith on that case though. Might stop in to see her on the way through actually. Just in for a cup of tea like. Now, how many kms from the airport? In what direction? ….
Pete,like the cut of your jib.
… ” The publishers of the Herald and the midwife should be the first into his new bootcamps ” …
Yep , – I can just see it now , Herr English and Herr Joyce in their riding boots , peaked caps and bullwhips. The image suits them well. A sign with the words ‘Arbeit macht frei’ would be a suitable backdrop to ram the message home as well….
That’s right Ianmac .Tory numbers will come down in my view & Labour
up…but not enough for Labour /Greens to govern alone unfortunately.Hope
Jacinda chooses the right single malt
If I don’t post on here again, just want to wish everyone good luck. Hopefully we will see a change of government.
If National does get back in, Ill probably won’t post for a little bit, at least until the trolls lose interest. But we shall see.
On the bright side, it’s going to be a warm weekend forecast, and daylight saving kicks off this weekend.
mate I like your posts (mainly) – whatever happens we will need your shoulder – go well, refresh and come back fire breathing and flying. Kia kaha.
Know how you feel Millsy. Let’s keep popping in with some interesting tidbit. And we may yet make it through the night.
Millsy the youth are turning out. Lines of them at most polling booths. Yesterday, 178785 people voted. It was reported many were young and enrolling as well.
Today on facebook the lines are 20 deep at all unis, so they are responding. Chin up.
in the 2005 election 172,052 advance votes were made in total.
The future is arriving pretty god damn fast
A breakthrough in soft robotics means scientists are now one step closer to creating lifelike machines. Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a 3D printed synthetic tissue that can act as active muscle
https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/21/synthetic-muscle-soft-robot-breakthrough/
So I just hope that whatever way the result goes we can all accept it with good grace and that we call get in behind whatever government is formed
Even if the government formed is not the one we’re hoping for its still the government of NZ so we should all get in behind and support it however we can
We don’t want to be (at least I hope we don’t) like the USA and have protests, start a petition etc etc
NZ is the overall best country in the world and we have one of the most stable political systems in the world as well and we should proud of that
Go democracy!
[I’ve done a couple of moderation requests on top of previous moderations. Given it’s the election and I don’t want to have to think about this for a while, I’m banning you for 4 weeks. When you come back you still need to answer the questions that have been asked. See https://thestandard.org.nz/is-nz-doomed-to-lying-politics-now/#comment-1388685 – weka]
The Maori Party is investigating allegations its first Chinese candidate threatened violence against a journalist.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/ill-beat-him-up-maori-party-investigating-allegations-candidate-threatened-nz-herald-reporter
The Scream..Jacinda Ardern.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1422629158
And sorry if someone has already posted it.
Does the ban on talking bout politics from midnight tonight apply to the Standard?-can I still come here to be depressed?
Does anyone know whether there is any requirement for an MP or more importantly a Minister to have full control of his/her mental faculties?
Available evidence suggests not.
Section 80 of the Electoral Act 1993 prohibits someone from being a candidate if they’re being detained for treatment under order or if they’re unfit to stand trial, but that’s a pretty massive threshold.
If you can breath and write your name, you can be a candidate and therefore a minister (with a few other exceptions, like prinoners or defence force personnel).
Not in Nationals MP’s requirements.-nick smith sets the mental target,a goal they all strive to achieve.
Im not joking…..having dealt with a parent with dementia for the past 5 years I was seriously concerned to read this a short time ago….
“Richard Prosser responds:
Morning Tim
Just for clarity, my statement concerning the re-nationalisation of power company shares was not wrong as your otherwise splendid article proclaims.
Perhaps the Member for Northland had simply changed his mind and not bothered to tell anyone else. Or perhaps he had forgotten our established and agreed position. Or perhaps he simply forgot that he’d changed his mind.
Recent behavioural trends lead me to suspect that any of the above are possibilities.
Best regards
Richard Prosser”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/21/49216/winstons-last-stand
On the other hand, given NZ1st’s slide in the polls and Mr Prosser’s change in list position from 3rd to 15th, he may … erm…not perhaps be the most reliable witness.
perhaps…but on top of his bizarre performance on RNZ the other day (was it last week?) the questions mount
nice article from a farmers son
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/97062007/on-the-eve-of-the-election-a-farmers-sons-letter-to-his-father
What a dag. It’s all Labour no Greens fault and the farmers just need to handle it right and get out of jail free./sarc
Today’s word is “dotard”.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/09/21/dotard-trump-kim-jong-un-merriam-webster/691564001/
Lil’Kim wins this round.
Turns out the young Syrian man bagged by the usual suspects in their efforts to vilify refugees, had nothing to do with Parson’s Green attack.
The second suspect detained was named as Yahyah Farroukh, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee who was arrested outside a chicken shop in Hounslow on Saturday night.
He was released with no further action by the Metropolitan Police on Thursday.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/parsons-green-attack-latest-teenager-17-sixth-person-arrested-london-underground-bomb-a7958486.html
Voted at 2:22 on the 22nd (Spring Equinox) 😀 Crikey it was busy at the polling booth in Motueka, am on the unpublished roll so have do a a special vote, and by crikey the specials ballot box was bursting at the seams with special votes, that’s a good sign 😀
I can feel a youthquake!
IKR 😀 so good
Ye gods and little fishes….
Michelle Boag adroitly manages to shift a conversation about the poor sod who immolated himself yesterday to one about Nikki Kaye wanting to encourage ‘resilience’ in our youth. My bad for having ‘Giggles With Jim’ on in the background.
(I’m not going to link to the show, mods…masochists can find it for themselves. 😉
Great, now she and Mike Williams are having a pretend fight…great for ratings…
However, not why I’m here.
Went to a busy Pak n Save today and observed that a very high proportion of shoppers were using the small trolleys, rather than the large family sized ones.
Commented on such to the understandably bored looking Checkout Operator, with the tongue in cheek explanation that perhaps folk were preparing for when National get back in tomorrow and austerity bites even harder.
Eyeroll from CO…”they’re all the same so I don’t bother…”
I think, using the little amount of subtle diplomacy I am capable of, I managed to persuade her that a vote for Labour, and one for the Greens (to keep Labour honest) would be beneficial for for those workers struggling to make ends meet. I told her that National supporters are crapping themselves at the thought of any revision of labour regulations and raising the minimum wage. I explained to her that there was more to the Greens than pollution and legalising dope.
Also had a similar conversation with a young person on a casual contract working in a bank….
Never too late. 🙂
Great, now she and Mike Williams are having a pretend fight…great for ratings…
How did that end? With Williams declaring that he agreed with her, Napoleon and then the ashtray?
Williams declared at the start of the show that he’d promised a friend not to ‘agree with Michele.’
If I remember rightly he had a reputation for agreeing with Hooten too often so, maybe, that was the ‘friend’ he was referring to?
Boag was dreadful (so at least consistent) on RNZ’s The Panel this afternoon, referring (at ~7:45 minutes) to “The children who are going to be the problems of tomorrow.” In Boag’s value system, these children don’t have problems, they are the problem. Odious.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/201859613/the-panel-with-michelle-boag-and-mike-williams-part-2
Her finest hour….http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10369999
“When the former National Party president Michelle Boag left her passport at home before an international flight yesterday, she did the obvious thing – called the Westpac rescue helicopter to fetch it for her.
Ms Boag, who is chairwoman of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Foundation, made the 5.30am call on her way to Auckland Airport after she realised her passport was still at home on Waiheke Island.
The chopper, with the mandatory crew of three including a paramedic, flew from Mechanics Bay to Waiheke and then out to the helipad near the international terminal. It then returned to Mechanics Bay. ”
If there ever was a good reason to distrust and despise anyone and everyone aligned with the National Party….this is it.
Facebook finally admits that it is now a major determinant in the outcome of elections and starts regulating itself for political advertising:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-fec-election-ads_us_59c4251be4b0cdc773300bf8?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Good link Ad the double edged sword of the internet we need to sort that shit out cannot have another like that person off the Simpson fuck that.
Those idiots in Tauranga think that because they zip around in there flash cars I won’t notice them. Just like one lot that thought that wearing a black beanie would make them invisible WTF they are costing me thousands in lost good will and lost income
but they have given me some big targets I will keep you up to date with my process
I no they have jack shit on me and the police are still trying to damage my credibility and undermine my social media credibility So don’t believe there bullshit they are barking up the wrong tree.Like there masters national
Ffs. Just seen PARTAY GIRL Bennett on The Bus leading the sing along while strap hanging Billy Liar was very excited about the amount of POSITIVE TOOTS they have been getting.
Can’t unsee it now. Question. How can you tell if a toot is positive?.
Bennett was also screaming a hysterical sounding song from the steps of the bus to a crowd of ummm- 3 journalists.
I no what’s going to happen landslide win for Labour Green’s and Maori Party . That reporter for bill doesn’t have enough fingers
don’t stress I WON’T comment again I like your show
I got the big picture I want a game of chest with who organized this illusion !!!!!!!!