Police say they cannot discuss the Christchurch man’s claim, but do not accept the allegations and will be “vigorously” defending the proceedings.
The draft claim alleges that, on the instructions of police, Mr Gilchrist foiled a plan to “gas” 50,000 battery chickens.
Stuff.co.nz @ Farifax News
Apart from the civil action…..
When will see senior police commanders in the dock to answer for their alleged crimes?
For Incitement:
For aiding and abetting Rob Gilchrist in his campaign to incite his unwitting victims to commit crimes.
For collecting fake evidence:
For aiding and abetting Gilchrist in the manufacture and collection and the storage of false evidence.
For knowingly accepting and holding this fake evidence, knowing it was fake, against citizens accused of no crimes.
Evidence produced through the use of staged photo shoots, with protesters holding weapons. Weapons supplied from an arsenal kept by Gilchrist, presumably with the full knowledge police.
For still holding this illegally obtained staged photographic evidence of ‘domestic political terrorism’.
If Gilchrist’ double life had not been uncovered. It is quite likely that under the Suppression of Terrorism Act this photographic evidence could quite legitimately have been used to arrest those depicted. Serving the political purpose of discrediting them, as “terrorists”.
Why aren’t the police officers responsible not facing charges?
Am I wrong in thinking that such serious actions against protesters are illegal in this country?
Are these sort of politically motivated police tactics legal in New Zealand?
Is it legal for the police to pay agent provocateurs to cause incitement and discredit those they see as political enemies of the authorities?
Aren’t these the sort of tactics more normal in a police state?
Are these sort of political police tactics being normalised here?
Or is this just a one-off aberration?
Is there any politician in this country prepared to stand up for civil liberties in parliament prepared to forward a private members bill making it a crime punishable by imprisonment, for the police to wittingly, or unwittingly hire, or otherwise engage, or encourage an agent provocateur or provocateur to act against protesters or any other political target?
It it is not already, let us make the use of agent provocateurs by the state forces a criminal offence in this country.
Under the NZSIS Act 1969 and Ammendment Act 1977 such things are perfectly legal. And the numbers of these would be “Johhny English” types like Ghilchrist are large enough to stop the majority of people that apply for a copy of their SIS file to either be refused or get pages of black marker pen. The identity cover of these junior snoopers (stasi indeed) is more important to the service than the freedom of information for other citizens.
allegedly police had Gilchrist SPY on EPMU, SFW, MU, CTU, environment, peace, animal rights and political groups (with no related charges found against animal rights groups; wtf is wrong with these conformist idiots?)
“Aren’t these the sort of tactics more normal in a police state?”
“Are these sort of political police tactics being normalised here?”
“Or is this just a one-off aberration?”
I am sure you and many others know the answers.
What is most worrying is that key persons in this government, same as in former governments, know about all this, were at least in part informed about certain activities by state agencies, and they are sitting there silently, condoning it all.
So draw your conclusions, those that do not quite get it yet.
If in a small country like NZ true freedom of speech and other actions were allowed, this country would indeed look very different to what it looks like now (as it has looked like for a damned long time already).
I would not believe everything Gilchrist claims, but for sure, it is nothing new, that Police and SIS have their focus on certain groups in society, who generally and to my best knowledge all just act within the law.
One prime evidence of excessive surveillance was to see police film anti social welfare reform protest actions in Henderson, West Auckland on 04 October 2012, from even before the start, to the very end, non-stop! Every attending person was filmed!
Now, what was the reason for that, I ask? There were only limited numbers of protestors and supporters, there was NO threat or danger to the public or anybody else at all, at no time then.
This kind of stuff going on makes you wonder, yes indeed quite scared!
Shouldn’t they be out blocking roads and checking wof and reggos in low decile areas at school drop off/pick up times?
The thin blue line – Debt collectors in drag.
I do agree that that seems like a total waste of time and sinister too, especially in combination with jenny above talking about that scum gilchrist. I wonder if they check the blogs for moaners and stick-pokerers – you could be on the list A 🙂
I’m egotistical enough to think I deserve to be on it, but I doubt a no-one like me is 😉
I got stopped the other day, and when the officer came over I said my warrant had just run out. His face lit up. That’ll make Ma proud – Join the force and protect us from criminals.
Then I said, oh, hang on, I’ve still got four months left, my mistake.
Gutted. 😆
During the Rugby World Cup, it allowed police to detect a boy racer convoy heading from Auckland to Hamilton.
The drivers “felt they would be able to get away with dangerous behaviour on the roads because they believed police resources would be busy elsewhere”, he said.
One wonders why the police think a convoy of people being sociable is dangerous.
I love the over-dramatic phrasing – “allowed police to detect a boy racer convoy heading from Auckland to Hamilton”.
Because “police ran a Twitter search for “road trip to the Tron this weekend?” and found a number of tweets saying “You guys wanna road trip to the Tron this weekend?” and freed up a couple of officers to set up a checkpoint” sounds far less futuristically awesome.
Let’s also note that there is no mention of anyone being arrested, or of the police’s exact response to the Great Boy Racer Convoy, because that isn’t at all relevant.
There was no indication of danger, there was no arrests made. Sounds to me like young people being sociable and the police then turning that into fear mongering.
Signal was developed as part of a $60,000 emergency management tool.
Is this attempting to insinuate the tool was inclusded in the 60k EMT costs?
If so, this is bull pucky – The social media monitoring capability, will not have been developed (as a part of anything else, let alone in silo) for 60k, and its unlikely that it was developed in NZ, I would guess it to have been given provided to the police, free of charge from offshore!
There are deliberate attempts to ratchet up the *scare factor* in NZ, but the best thats been come up with was , Uruwera, and in this article, car convoys, and possible rugby team protests..
One could speculate that some other *event* might be hatched to bring in the police state, but on reflection, we are long past that stage, and the weapon used, was apathy of the NZ public, job done!
Michael Jackon said it well – * Just (a) Beat Up!* –
Not just apathy but ignorance. NZers are purposefully kept ignorant of what the government is doing and that ignorance produces a feeling of powerlessness.
I do not agree with DOC cutting down a 500 year old tree to make extensions on a tramping hut. The excuse that it was a health and safety issue and that there are plenty of more trees is bullshit – it was all about saving money. D for DOC on this one, they have let us all down.
Completely agree marty. NZ still has a long way to go putting right our relationship nature, and DOC, who should be aware of the spiritual, cultural and social issues, treat the conservation estate as a fucking resource.
I notice that DOC didn’t way what the actual safety issues are.
Did DOC go through a public consultation process on this? Imagine if a council or private person cut down a tree like that because they wanted to extend a building. Unbelievable arrogance. Looks like the real issue is increasing income for DOC (not just saving money).
The ACT Party will hold it’s annual general meeting this weekend under a banner of ”rejuvenation” of the party,
i have to assume that this will mean that the Doctors will be in attendance and a full public display of John Bank’s being pumped full of Botox will take place,
Bank’s in what appears to have been a panic filled nervous fit heaped praise on incoming Prez of ACT John Boscowan for the latter’s ability to raise money, money money,
2013 is probably a bit early for Boscowan to avail Bank’s that the Party doesn’t ‘see’ Him as the candidate for Epsom at the 2014 election and i expect the move to knife Bank’s wont occur until the 2014 meeting where Boscowan will become the ACT Party candidate for Epsom…
Remove John Banks from ACT Party and Parliament=a slightly lessened stench of corruption+whip the tired discredited philosophy of naked greed around the track for another election on the back of the nod of electoral gerrymandering from a Slippery Prime Minister=
1 seat in the 2015 Parliament and bye bye to this FAILURE of a National Government…
Yes well the Labour party know all about corruption I guess
However in the interests of democracy its good that Act (like I grudgingly concede the Mana party) are in parliament however if they were to get back to core values then they’d do a lot better
James Thrace
The Standard commenters require an ability to understand irony, sarcasm amongst other things. Everyone knows that Mr Field is in his house now, (different from The House in case you don’t understand the allusion) and that was the sarcastic response used to reply to a weak comment. You need to exercise your brain cells here.
Unless I’m mistaken he was a member of the Labour party at the time of his offending and his offending was minimized by Labour and Dear Leader at the time…
Something about only being guilty of being helpful comes to mind
Also I don’t know if its troughing but certain labour MPs certainly spent up a storm on the taxpayers dime…Chris Carters a good example
“Ring ring, can you hear that bell, it is the one which gives an estimate of your time left here at the Standard, the clock just struck 5 to midnight,”
– Are you telling the moderators of this blog what to do? Is that because you think they can’t make decisions of their own?
You should be more careful of making such insinuations, you make claim of corruption in the Labour PARTY, proof please,
– You are a sad, strange little man and I pity you 🙂
Lolz, me tell the mods who to spank, nah, i just like making little predictions about how close to being past their use-by you wing-nuts are on any given day,
Even if i do say so myself i am getting quite good at identifying the nut-jobs in your little tribe that have committed hari-kari on the mountain of their own stupidity,
2 in the last 3 weeks have bit the dust after having been handed the poison chalice of my little prediction,
Ah i see the usual wing-nut tactic you have employed here, when called upon to provide ‘facts’ for a baseless accusation and having none it’s change of subject time…
ACT needs to ditch the neo-liberal bullshit and start looking to the libertarian left (as much as the libertarian right). Things that a new look ACT party could adopt:
Universal Basic Income – the whole ‘free money’ think may rub a few of the faithful the wrong way, but it would fit into the whole small government thing. All you would need to do is fill out a form at the post office, show your ID, and you get paid. No MSD/WINZ to administer the whole thing. ACT’s idol, Freidman, proposed a form of UBI to Nixon, but the volatile changes in the 1970’s kinda meant that it came to nothing.
Direct consumer ownership of utilities. Everyone owns shares in Genesis/MRP/MERI via their power account. Full democratic collective control and no big government in sight.
The whole dope decrimisation thing.
Universal health insurance, similar to the ACC system. People pay into a universal healthcare scheme, and get to choose what hospital/doctor they go to, etc.
I heard that the annual general meeting will be on private farm land just up from Auckland. Were the meeting to be be held in Wellington (a mid point) the media would out number the party faithful attending.
Banks probably thinks that the Dotcom donations are all forgotten just because he got away with it.
I wonder if Dotcom would be welcome at the annual general meeting?
Would the ACT meeting at a farm north of Whangarei be at the Newmans, of the living on the Smell of an Oily Rag advice book for prols, and why can’t Maoris just agree with us and be happy with what they’ve got, beliefs?
No it is at the property of rich lister Alan Gibbs, Banks along with going all gushy over Mr money money money Boscowan also went into a thrall possibly the closest He has been in the past time of His life to that of sexual orgasm over the Gibbs property,
1000 acres of productive land that Gibbs treats as if it’s a front lawn and it is glowingly described how once a week 5 tractors are used to mow the grass amid a few statues that the owner having more money than brains paid ten times the going rate for such art to obtain…
I remember seeing in some psycophantic womens magazine, a long solid fencelike sculpture, I think painted orange snaking over the Gibbs pad. I think it is so nice of him to spread his money around the needy artistic community.
Take your blubber boy sewerage back to the sewer where it belongs and seek the opinion of the inhabitants of that particular dark place, it appears to be your natural ‘home’ after-all…
So didn’t read the opinion of the well-known bastion of right wing thinking The Guardian then…
Gives more insight into charter schools, you really should read it. Its less about what experts say may happen (in their opinion) and what actually is happening in practice
“Before Katrina, the graduation rate was less than 50 percent. Now it’s more than 75 percent. Test scores are up 33 percent.”
“Over the past few years, there is a story that has been unfolding down on the Gulf Coast that all Americans need to hear or read about. It is the story of the turnaround of the New Orleans Schools. This major city school system has gone from being one of the worst in the nation to one of the best. It is important to understand that we are talking major city schools here, not all schools, and there is a huge difference.
There has been renewed national focus on New Orleans schools and its students’ progress. The school system has slowly ramped up the number of students served. In 2005, just before Katrina, it had 65,000 students; the next year it was down to 25,600. Enrollment has now climbed to 38,000. The demographics are still daunting: 95 percent of students are minorities and 83 percent are eligible for free or reduced lunches. Last year, 61 percent went to charter schools (a number that will increase this school year), by far the largest percentage of children in an urban area attending charters in the county. And the students have made progress.”
The most interesting thing about that quote is the post-Katrina school population recovery, or lack thereof.
As to whether charter schools are responsible for any of the apparent improvement: who knows? Nobody knows. As mentioned in the Guardina artice:
A study by the Cowen Institute at Tulane University notes the improvement, but is cautious about the reasons why. Many claims have been put forward “but few have been proven by the available data,” it says.
Hence “ambivalent”. No data = no verifiable claim = more WO propaganda.
Sorry, yes, charter schools must be wonderful. It can’t be because of:
reduced school population
federal or charity funding injections post-Katrina
greater community spirit among those who stayed or returned
housing relocations removing the poorest-performing students
or sample bias as poorest-performing students slip through the cracks and aren’t registered at any school
Or a thousand other reasons.
Any source of improvement must be charter schools, because otherwise there wouldn’t be a single item from the tory catechism that actually works in the real word. The economics are bunk, private prisons and no rehabilitation increase crime, and kicking beneficiaries doesn’t seem to lower unemployment. What is a poor toryboy to do?
Yep, that’s what you RWNJs do all the bloody time when reality fails to be what you want it to be. Hell, you and WO are taking some research that conclusively proved nothing, which is what the researchers say, and are now ranting about it as if it proved your ideology. That is most definitely “clutching at straws”.
Yes, because in the land of the blind the one eyed is king. If anything NZ should focus on standard orientated and not populist today’s fashion ragout education. Private or public – the difference is the quality of the teacher and parent support. EVERY child has potential – EVERY one o them. It is the adults who mess it all up.
I’m offended you even linked to that hate driven site from this one. I don’t need nor want to know what that nasty piece of right wing trash has to say.
Teachers evaluated on each lesson? Throwing out crisp questions that demand instant return.
Sounds like a military academy.
In NZ we already know that peer pressure can stop bright children from extending themselves mentally. In fact in the country there was hostility to facts and ideas from universities. They were called ‘ivory tower’ academics.
As quoted in google –
” It is a world where people are remote from worldly or practical affairs.” But the common-sense practical approach can’t handle change well as it can’t be bothered studying ivory tower facts. That’s our problem in NZ. Charter schools won’t help that.
Here’s another article from the same Guardian journalist (when he wrote this and the one linked to by you, he was the Guardian education editor, I believe).
Basically, it’s a sad tale of the consequences of the impoverished view of education that hails rote learning and teaching to the test as much-needed reform (also note the motivation for it in the US – ‘slipping behind’ East Asia in producing engineers – we’re all Koreans and Singaporeans now).
It also betrays the view that all an education should produce is conformist workers willing to do what they are told (i.e., it trains children in being monitored, evaluated and told what they should do – excellent preparation for the modern workforce, if ever there was one).
Why would ‘Bill from Dipton’ be in anyway surprised by the fact that the States coal miner Solid Energy this week declared it’self all but insolvent,
As the Minister of Finance Bill is the shareholding Minister who yearly negotiates with Solid Energy over what dividend that company will pay to Government and is fully briefed on future plans of the company including it’s proposed debt structure,
Perhaps Bill had either a hangover or brain fade during that briefing…
Over the last few years, when coal prices were up, Bill English would have known the consequences would be this if coal prices dropped. It was widely known that the mining boom would come to an end, as it did, and coal prices have dropped back.
Given this knowledge, why did the shareholder (English) take so much money out of the company by way of dividents? And why did he let it take on so much debt?
The responsibility rests entirely with him.
It is in fact eerily similar to the Mainzeal collapse, who had ex-National Party PM Jenny Shipley as a director.
Given this knowledge, why did the shareholder (English) take so much money out of the company by way of dividents? And why did he let it take on so much debt?
Because it allows him to:
1.) Help cover up the holes he made in the budget by giving the rich tax cuts and
2.) to say that it’s losing money and should therefore be sold at which point he’ll sell it for far less than what it’s worth to his rich mates
You really expect the farm boy to support the people of NZ? It should by now be crystal clear that his mates are his foremost and major concern. He does not want to know the peasant’s woes, the market will take care of everything!
Oh don’t be so hard on Billy, after all he has been very busy filling in for Key to do with the GCSB and has not had a lot of spare time to run his own portfolio.
+1 another manufactured crises a-la ACC, etc what are they up to while the hand wringing routine’s performed over SE.
It’ll be WOMD if the opposition ever gets it’s shite together enough to place some serious sunlight on this nasty corrupt NACT regime and show them for the life sucking vampires they are.
+1 another manufactured crises a-la ACC, etc what are they up to while the hand wringing routine’s performed over SE.
It’ll be WOMD wheeled out if the opposition ever gets it’s shite together enough to place some serious sunlight on this nasty corrupt NACT regime and show them for the life sucking vampires they are.
When issues like SkyCity come up it’s an opportunity to check the mettle of various journalists. John Armstrong has the bit between his teeth & written three very scathing articles on it. John Roughan, on the other hand, writes this bizzare psycophantic whitewash;
There must be a few versions of the AO report. The one I read doesn’t have the phrase “social regulations” in it. In my copy the AO call it an “exchange of value” where the Govt trades regulatory changes with a monetary value for something of similar value.
Nothing social or ambiguous about this John;
“Even if the Government provided little or no upfront funding, SkyCity had made clear that it would need regulatory reform to create an enhanced revenue stream for the project to be viable. It was apparent that any further discussion would eff ectively be a commercial negotiation about an exchange of value to achieve the desired outcome”
Then there’s this gem from Roughan……
“And the casino is the best place for them if their gambling is to be monitored and limited.”
The gaming machines at SkyCity rake in more money than the non-casino ones, monitoring and limiting really works there doesn’t it.
And let us not forget they want to make it easier to spend your money by just using an innocent looking plastic card. And they also want the Taxpayers to help with god knows what, to the tune of 10 Million bucks a year.
Any deal which manipulates the government and exploits addicts is morally corrupt.
The biggest problem in Christchurch resulting from the earthquakes is being caused by home and land owners being manipulated and exploited.
The land in the CBD is more earthquake prone than the land in the red zone, they are rebuilding in the CBD and not in the red zone. I am wondering if it is too expensive to replace the water system and roads in the red zone compared to the CBD.
The government is going to be the biggest land owner in Christchurch, they may even want to turn Christchurch into a Vegas gambling mecca. That would really bring the tourists in.
Too many people are repeating the line that National & Key will loose in 2014 and that some type of Shearer led coalition will follow. A “political cycle” change of government.
The coach of any team would ban such talk: VERBOTEN!
Let s not believe our own wishful thinking.
The talk has complacency underlying every word. It is the surest way to loose. Ask any team coach. Self-belief is critical for success. I see an element of self-delusion. We need more self-awareness.
Key, English, Joyce and their well funded supporters are not about to give up. Parata will be sacrificed-up at a suitable time. They are not stupid despite the series of cock-ups.
Labour needs to have its best possible team in best possible mental condition.
That is what Shearer has to achieve with his shuffle. Anything less will blow our chances.
vto, sweetie darling, I spotted the mistakes and some wrong hyphenation as Soonbas I pasted it from Pages and read through. Unfortunately the delete command would not work in the site,
No worries, those who have a bit of tolerance read beyond that – alas the new methodology introduced for reading classes some 2 decades ago: “recognize the word”. 😉
In any case, I am not convinced that the current labor party formation has anything to offer. So far only intrigue – invented or otherwise – and a”plan” for affordable housing. With the amount of unemployed people we have we may see them selling their property and there will be plenty of those “affordable” ones around. So for all intend and purposes, where is a plan to get people into meaningful paid full employment? Any such undertaking would in itself solve a lot of other ills.
Well the alternative is what we saw in 2011: everyone talking about how National were surely going to win, resulting in a low turnout and bad performance for Labour, when actually they were within striking distance of winning (assuming Winston played ball) if only there had been a stronger turn out.
Just about snuck the impossible under the wire in 2011, commenting on another web-site at the time i happily whipped up the chances of NZFirst being in the Parliament after that election, even going so far to predict their vote at 6.2%,
i can easily ‘see’ a Labour/Green majority in the House after November 2014 without either the Maori Party or NZFirst…
Sharing the Cabinet seats with demanding bodies from other parties of the left could be the only way of getting some new blood into Labour – stir up the cocoa instead of it just falling to the bottom of the cup. I should cocoa!
Wishful thinking???, my opinion is that this far out from the 2014 election a blind donkey called Brucie, after the current Slippery Prime Minister has taken a break from plucking the soft hairs from between it’s anal crack to use as replacement for the hair He is fast losing could topple the present Government on any given day,
This far out it’s a 1-2% game for Labour/Green to be able to form a Government, the economy does not perform some miraculous recovery this or next year and unemployment has not stopped at the usual suspects and is now beginning to bite the middle class severely in the butt,
That middle class will be unforgiving as tax cuts and asset sales are of no use to those of them personally or with family or friends facing the job cutting axe…
KV is right. Underestimate the enemy at your own peril.
National can win an election easy-peasy. Three easy steps.
1) A massive affordable housing programme. Trade apprenticeships and new employment galore. And the kicker – housing built to outstanding environmental and energy efficiency standards.
2) Secondly: a true blue-green strategy, not a PR facade. Vast steps to improve waterway quality throughout NZ. This is already underway in a stuttering fashion but National can lend its weight and make it happen. Scientific monitoring, regulations, enforcement. New R&D and environmental monitoring positions, grants for universities.
Make the Blue-Green thing real and suck 1%-2% back off the Green Party.
3) Thirdly: immediately phase in the $15/hr minimum wage. A 75c increase this year, with another planned for 2014 before the election. Head the pressure for a living wage off at the pass by saying that we need to get there, but the economy is not yet ready for it and doing more will harm jobs. But that the Government recognises that ordinary NZ workers are doing it tough and need help.
And close a few more tax loopholes. Which will only cost National supporters a hundred million or three but will be a hat tip towards making the ‘everyone pay their fair share’.
Yep I hear National is working on a big phat housing plan. Yes, their private sector mates are going to hit paydirt with the scheme (of course), but cheap affordable housing will be built.
“2) Secondly: a true blue-green strategy, not a PR facade. Vast steps to improve waterway quality throughout NZ. This is already underway in a stuttering fashion but National can lend its weight and make it happen. Scientific monitoring, regulations, enforcement. New R&D and environmental monitoring positions, grants for universities.”
Except that is utterly incompatible with industrial dairying. The only ‘true’ way to clean up that part of the environment (water and land) is to change the farming model, including reducing intensity. Can’t see that happening under NACT.
Indeed, however no one is going to get rid of industrial dairying, not National, not Labour, not the Greens. The best we can hope for is enforcement of regulations and ‘best practice’ to minimise run off into waterways.
To change the farming model, the government would probably have to take over financing of the dairy industry as well as deflating the value of dairy farms.
The GP position is to promote organic conversions, and to route research funding into sustainable farming. Along with regulation, I think those things will take time but will influence dairying in the medium long term. Then there is Peak Oil….
I still can’t see NACT doing anything meaningful in terms of real green solutions, because they go against everything else they are trying to do. eg making the Regional Councils adopt sensible regulations that protect the environment vs what is happening in Canty?
LOLZ CV, you is being funny right, the National Government Cabinet doing any one of those things???
All of those things??? they would all rather have their genitalia removed with a chainsaw,
Bill from Dipton saw the recovery yesterday out of the corner of His eye, triple doses of self medicating alcohol and a prescription for double ups on the prozac dose should see no-one in the Cabinet blinking and business as usual till 2014,
Bill from Dipton has His own record to break after all….
KV is right. Underestimate the enemy at your own peril.
Erm, that should read :*Fail to recognise your enemy at your own peril*
In this case the enemy is the entire system, but lets keep the focus to parliament only for now.
This constant belief that a change of govt is going to make the beneficial differnce in direction, is starting to reek of desperation.
Instead of waiting for the system to right itself (it won’t, it can’t, because the owners of the system don’t want to change it). go out and take it back for yourselves – Stand as independents, for your tactics amongst friends and strangers who would love to see some real people in parliament, who were not controlled, corrupted and bent over to do the bidding of others..
In a potential blow to his defense, Pfc. Bradley Manning has been largely denied the opportunity to present evidence about his motives for leaking documents to WikiLeaks in his upcoming trial.
Manning’s defense attorney David Coombs has argued in the soldier’s pretrial hearings at Fort Meade that Manning’s intentions to act as a whistleblower show he had no desire to harm U.S. interests. However, military judge Col. Denise Lind on Thursday’s pretrial session ruled that the defense would not be permitted to argue motive except against the specific charge that Manning knew giving information to WikiLeaks meant he was “dealing with the enemy” . . .
A former CIA officer, who was the first member of the agency to publicly acknowledge that torture was official US policy under the administration of President George W. Bush, has been sentenced to thirty months in jail. He was convicted in October of last year of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) when he provided the name of an officer involved in the CIA’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation (RDI) program to a reporter . . .
. . . John Kiriakou is wearing his conviction as a badge of honour; as, indeed, he should.
. . . where has that SysOp/Admin chap got to? Bloody edit function has been on the blink for days. And, yes, I have checked that everything is plugged in, yes I have turned everything off and back on again, so, no, it is not a PEBCAK error!!
So rather than gold, Brian Kelly of Shelter Harbor Capital is eyeing a currency he’s calling the new gold: the New Zealand dollar. New Zealand is not participating in whatever currency wars are taking place, and he expects that to keep the currency relatively strong.
NZs failure to invoke policies to lower the forex value of our dollar has been noted by the country that is steadily working to lower the value of theirs.
Australia isn’t either, though, so surely you’d treat the Oz $ as gold before you treated NZ the same, just on their fundamentals? This is backed up by the fact that the Oz $ is quite a bit more valued than the NZ one.
Fundamental valuation is not a driver of financial market pricing any longer, and previously rarely has been particularly for currencies.
Ability to speculate on a predictable currency that is free from Government interference is a more valuable characteristic to traders than any ‘fundamental (asset or financial statement based) valuation’ of a currency.
The ‘driver’ of both currencies at the moment is the US$, $40 billion dollars a month of printed money by the US will continue to devalue their currency and over-value ours…
Be interesting to see whether the ‘rejuvenated’ ACT Party still believe in ‘ONE LAW FOR ALL’?
YES or NO?
If YES – the ‘rejuvenated’ ACT Party still DO believe in ‘ONE LAW FOR ALL’ – will they support the private prosecutions lodged by Graham McCready against the current and former Leaders of the ACT Party, John Banks and Don Brash, who both signed, as former fellow Directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd, Huljich Kiwisave Scheme registered prospectuses and investment statements which contained untrue statements?
“Second, directors are already personally accountable for their actions when managing the affairs of the company. It is the directors who are in the firing line after a company fails if they have in any way acted in bad faith, had a conflict of interest, acted recklessly, misled investors, or traded while insolvent.”
Not if your names are John Banks or Don Brash and the company that they were the Directors of – was Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd?
Unless, of course, private prosecutor Graham McCready is successful?
EPMU organiser- “there is desperation out there” (1500 apply for 48? jobs at a Warehouse) while Solid Energy pay 23M in bonuses in the last two years.
On RNZ this am, Transpacific to lay wastage to up to 200 jobs to “reduce costs” in unprofitable waste management.
Eurozone economy will contract (where did we read that before), unemployment will expand to 20M / approx 12%
the insect swarm above NI “beyond comprehension”; another aussie pest.
China officially acknowledges “Cancer Villages” mutating out of waste and pollutants. Dioxin anyone?
HBT-Road maintenance to become increasingly difficult to afford with “very serious long-term effects”- council assets management group manager
Dom- paediatrician doctor sentenced for possessing images of child abuse “could be back treating”
new entrant ” patients by next year”.
Gluckman-“the greater the mismatch between biological maturation and acceptance as an “adult” (wtf that is) the greater the morbidity; Resilience is what is necessary yet majority of children are experiencing greater mollycoddling (risk protection) while increased exposure to digital life. what a dilemma; brain death by social media?
awhi to Helen; in FORESTRY, since 2008, 900 Serious Injuries, 23 deaths
fine print- 9 prosecutions by 2010 with the industry narrative felling the workers as root cause.
while in the UK operation “Prevent” extremism (Islamic), despite millions of pounds spent, not making any inroads into domestic IED interception.
“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge; fitter to bruise than polish.
-Anne Bradsheet
I think Robert Guyton’s Art is beautiful yet “I couldn’t possibly comment” 🙂 (btw, was reading the intro to 1 John this morning (yes in the NIV) and it was very interesting 🙂 what was your occupation? was it that “branch” you linked to all those months ago?)
Ahhhh, I am nought more than a pilgrim on a long and dusty road. One which although beset by inequity from all sides, along which I am hoping to find some suitable clothes and a gourd of sustaining water for the long journey ahead.
14: I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
15: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16: For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17: And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Cv, so you will be standing in local elections this year, or perhaps as an independent next year then?
With all that time on your hands, and no financial pressure (by your words), surely not doing so, yet blogging all over the place, might not be best use of those *understandings* RT seems to feel you have.
Most on this site indicate little idea what understanding truly means, RT might be one of the few who does, although I must say that economics would not fall into the understandings category, but could be a helpful tool in the journey!
Gluckman-”the greater the mismatch between biological maturation and acceptance as an “adult” (wtf that is) the greater the morbidity;
I’d say this is bullshit. Remembering that the life expectancy for most was no more than 35 or 40, only a couple of centuries ago. People did not tend to spend the first 30 of them as immature teenie wannabes.
You could once serve as an officer in the Royal Navy at age 15, with powers over many men, and over life and death itself.
“morbidity” not mortality; for a number of researched and documented reasons humans (well, in the West anyway) are reaching biological and socially constructed “maturity” milestones earlier in their lifespans, yet, as Gluckman identifies, not the required brain development maturity, therefore the increased risks of morbidity I would suggest? Keh? (occupations? go on give us a clue) I showd ya mine… :). (was watching a Doco on The Forbidden City last night briefly, gotta love those people).
lack of EEA pressures not as helpful as a World War, or “life red in tooth and claw” I would suggest (not much “feel” in these modern technologies); anyway evidence appears to be in the escalating morbidity stats, whether it be meds, cancers, PTSD, hyperventilation, well, just tragedy in general, and yes, it’s “innit”, not “ofit”; nothing new there, been followed since Origen 🙂 and does require the od dusting off of the sandals 🙂 (who wuld a thunk it)
-i thought the Farquar et al; was Very insightful! (was all over Town yet she too has gone to OZ)
Just a small point, most of the life expectancy figures are at birth, and infant mortality was a huge factor back then, hence the low average expectancies. Once people were out of the danger zone of childhood their life expectancy increased greatly, many people lived to ripe old ages, not infrequently 60+. That’s not to say there haven’t been improvements since either, just that it’s not as dramatic as the figures seem to suggest.
I don’t disagree that people in the past did seem to mature much earlier though.
Brain Gaynor, Herald columnist, sometimes writes some revealing stories about listed and not listed companies in New Zealand, or active here. Today he wrote a revealing article about Richina Pacific and Mainzeal:
So no reports to shareholders for years, no annual meetings since 2008, a registration in Bermuda, and Shipley, former NZ Prime Minister is in the midst of all this.
No wonder she suddensy resigned from the Mainzeal board of directors not long ago.
More must be revealed on her role in all this, and about how much she knew about what went on at Mainzeal Construction.
I would have thought her role in all this is perfectly obvious. To collect a fat directors fee and associated benefits and to ensure she would be unaccountable when it went belly up through mismanagement. It’s the New Zealand company directors’ standard isn’t it? It’s only the fools who neglect the steps necessary to be unaccountable who end up in Court.
Maybe she was coned and used as an “advertisement tool” overseas – since she was once PM of NZ, that would have given Richina some credibility. I think that vanity got her as she promoted for a very long time the “fantastic opportunities” in the Asian Market. Somehow she had to follow trough – maybe?
Looking at some markers, it was already clear in 2009 that something does not work as well as shareholders got news that they will not be paid as quickly (??) as promised.
I don want to be mischievous – but everybody right down to the cleaner of the beehive would realize that something is up when a company is listing in Bermuda. Sad part: not everybody knew that the NZ shareholder has had basically no regulatory protection. Who was the Trade Minister at the time of restructure 2008 when Richina was de listed?
Hey, you have just “revealed” something else by commenting this:
“Maybe she was coned and used as an “advertisement tool” overseas – since she was once PM of NZ, that would have given Richina some credibility.”
That explains why John Key was so keen to become PM of New Zealand, right?!
So it enhances his CV/Resume and “reputation”! His own personal reputation is not much worth by now, so having been PM of NZ may make him look a lot better again, that is in front of overseas representatives, who only know very little about what Key has been up to here.
NZ’s reputation is not quite so bad yet overseas, this would enable him to put on a new “coat” and get up to more mischief kind of deals in big business and finance.
It is all falling into place now, the use of that “childhood dream” story.
Hey peeps, Hello People, Kia Ora, Non bloody Jour – etc.
What do you reckon John Key’s greatest fear is?
I reckon it’s that one day, an offspring (though they may lerv the cnut) will wake up and realise what a shallow, lacking in intelligence, ideologically-driven, over-ambitoius, wiki-defined-psycopath the guy ‘ekshly’ is. They’ll have no problem understanding how and why the specimen was propped up for so long, but when shit comes to push – I’m happy to keep a distance
Lolz, funny you should mention this, and, probably the reason why a certain journo is now not ‘with Murray McCully but instead now is said to be with Trev,
Prodigal son of the Slippery one is said to have, according to Jane writing in the Dominion Newspaper, is said to have txted His old man calling Him a wanker over some offense real or imagined…
Since ‘Edit duz’t werk dot dot dot’ I meant Bon bloody Jour, not Non Bloody Jour, though in the case of our Proim Minsta – Non bloody Jour could be more appropriate
That’s awesome. Still, there’s the problem of generating that power in the first place. I also don’t think he really has an issue with mass production:
English translation: He painted a DVD with a liquid carbon solution and stuck it into a standard-issue DVD burner.
I mean, really, how many billion DVD burners are there in the world?
That is the power of 3d printing. It doesn’t have to be fast, it just has to fit in any garage.
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
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Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
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Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
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New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
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The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
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From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
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Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
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RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
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“A DECADE OF DECEPTION”
Apart from the civil action…..
When will see senior police commanders in the dock to answer for their alleged crimes?
For Incitement:
For aiding and abetting Rob Gilchrist in his campaign to incite his unwitting victims to commit crimes.
For collecting fake evidence:
For aiding and abetting Gilchrist in the manufacture and collection and the storage of false evidence.
For knowingly accepting and holding this fake evidence, knowing it was fake, against citizens accused of no crimes.
Evidence produced through the use of staged photo shoots, with protesters holding weapons. Weapons supplied from an arsenal kept by Gilchrist, presumably with the full knowledge police.
For still holding this illegally obtained staged photographic evidence of ‘domestic political terrorism’.
If Gilchrist’ double life had not been uncovered. It is quite likely that under the Suppression of Terrorism Act this photographic evidence could quite legitimately have been used to arrest those depicted. Serving the political purpose of discrediting them, as “terrorists”.
Why aren’t the police officers responsible not facing charges?
Am I wrong in thinking that such serious actions against protesters are illegal in this country?
Are these sort of politically motivated police tactics legal in New Zealand?
Is it legal for the police to pay agent provocateurs to cause incitement and discredit those they see as political enemies of the authorities?
Aren’t these the sort of tactics more normal in a police state?
Are these sort of political police tactics being normalised here?
Or is this just a one-off aberration?
Is there any politician in this country prepared to stand up for civil liberties in parliament prepared to forward a private members bill making it a crime punishable by imprisonment, for the police to wittingly, or unwittingly hire, or otherwise engage, or encourage an agent provocateur or provocateur to act against protesters or any other political target?
It it is not already, let us make the use of agent provocateurs by the state forces a criminal offence in this country.
Under the NZSIS Act 1969 and Ammendment Act 1977 such things are perfectly legal. And the numbers of these would be “Johhny English” types like Ghilchrist are large enough to stop the majority of people that apply for a copy of their SIS file to either be refused or get pages of black marker pen. The identity cover of these junior snoopers (stasi indeed) is more important to the service than the freedom of information for other citizens.
allegedly police had Gilchrist SPY on EPMU, SFW, MU, CTU, environment, peace, animal rights and political groups (with no related charges found against animal rights groups; wtf is wrong with these conformist idiots?)
Jenny –
“Aren’t these the sort of tactics more normal in a police state?”
“Are these sort of political police tactics being normalised here?”
“Or is this just a one-off aberration?”
I am sure you and many others know the answers.
What is most worrying is that key persons in this government, same as in former governments, know about all this, were at least in part informed about certain activities by state agencies, and they are sitting there silently, condoning it all.
So draw your conclusions, those that do not quite get it yet.
If in a small country like NZ true freedom of speech and other actions were allowed, this country would indeed look very different to what it looks like now (as it has looked like for a damned long time already).
I would not believe everything Gilchrist claims, but for sure, it is nothing new, that Police and SIS have their focus on certain groups in society, who generally and to my best knowledge all just act within the law.
One prime evidence of excessive surveillance was to see police film anti social welfare reform protest actions in Henderson, West Auckland on 04 October 2012, from even before the start, to the very end, non-stop! Every attending person was filmed!
Now, what was the reason for that, I ask? There were only limited numbers of protestors and supporters, there was NO threat or danger to the public or anybody else at all, at no time then.
This kind of stuff going on makes you wonder, yes indeed quite scared!
Will that make me a star if they add it into a documentary, could I ask for royalties?
“Police software mines social media”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10867135
Shouldn’t they be out blocking roads and checking wof and reggos in low decile areas at school drop off/pick up times?
The thin blue line – Debt collectors in drag.
I do agree that that seems like a total waste of time and sinister too, especially in combination with jenny above talking about that scum gilchrist. I wonder if they check the blogs for moaners and stick-pokerers – you could be on the list A 🙂
I’m egotistical enough to think I deserve to be on it, but I doubt a no-one like me is 😉
I got stopped the other day, and when the officer came over I said my warrant had just run out. His face lit up. That’ll make Ma proud – Join the force and protect us from criminals.
Then I said, oh, hang on, I’ve still got four months left, my mistake.
Gutted. 😆
lol
One wonders why the police think a convoy of people being sociable is dangerous.
I love the over-dramatic phrasing – “allowed police to detect a boy racer convoy heading from Auckland to Hamilton”.
Because “police ran a Twitter search for “road trip to the Tron this weekend?” and found a number of tweets saying “You guys wanna road trip to the Tron this weekend?” and freed up a couple of officers to set up a checkpoint” sounds far less futuristically awesome.
Let’s also note that there is no mention of anyone being arrested, or of the police’s exact response to the Great Boy Racer Convoy, because that isn’t at all relevant.
“One wonders why you think a convoy of people being dangerous is sociable.”
FIFY
There was no indication of danger, there was no arrests made. Sounds to me like young people being sociable and the police then turning that into fear mongering.
Hey now, they were young people in cars. And therefore a clear and present threat to good wholesome society.
oh look…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10867167
Is this attempting to insinuate the tool was inclusded in the 60k EMT costs?
If so, this is bull pucky – The social media monitoring capability, will not have been developed (as a part of anything else, let alone in silo) for 60k, and its unlikely that it was developed in NZ, I would guess it to have been given provided to the police, free of charge from offshore!
There are deliberate attempts to ratchet up the *scare factor* in NZ, but the best thats been come up with was , Uruwera, and in this article, car convoys, and possible rugby team protests..
One could speculate that some other *event* might be hatched to bring in the police state, but on reflection, we are long past that stage, and the weapon used, was apathy of the NZ public, job done!
Michael Jackon said it well – * Just (a) Beat Up!* –
Not just apathy but ignorance. NZers are purposefully kept ignorant of what the government is doing and that ignorance produces a feeling of powerlessness.
NAct song and dance show – Key the Clown, Gerry-the-showman (all performance, little political substance).
I was looking for the Onion by-line, but’s all Vicki Anderson and Fairfux.
Reid poll into Brownlees’ performance as earthquake czar; 50% approval (chancer)
Insurers response to claims; 27% approval (Two years on 70% of claims still not processed)
while a poll on forcing beneficiaries to relocate to a recent disaster zone revealed 39% support
I do not agree with DOC cutting down a 500 year old tree to make extensions on a tramping hut. The excuse that it was a health and safety issue and that there are plenty of more trees is bullshit – it was all about saving money. D for DOC on this one, they have let us all down.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10867084
http://www.mars2earth.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/dr-doc.html
Completely agree marty. NZ still has a long way to go putting right our relationship nature, and DOC, who should be aware of the spiritual, cultural and social issues, treat the conservation estate as a fucking resource.
I notice that DOC didn’t way what the actual safety issues are.
Did DOC go through a public consultation process on this? Imagine if a council or private person cut down a tree like that because they wanted to extend a building. Unbelievable arrogance. Looks like the real issue is increasing income for DOC (not just saving money).
An anchor has now been cut from the earth. Gaia awakens
Yes and check out this photo to see this tree before DOC killed it
HT Mike
https://twitter.com/izogi/status/305080585871847425/photo/1
The USK situation
The Artistic Taxi Driver. Key has the same agenda.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_viGMBe1fg&list=UUGThM-ZZBba1Zl9rU-XeR-A&index=3
🙁 🙂 The Benes in this country have been stigmatised for a long time.
The ACT Party will hold it’s annual general meeting this weekend under a banner of ”rejuvenation” of the party,
i have to assume that this will mean that the Doctors will be in attendance and a full public display of John Bank’s being pumped full of Botox will take place,
Bank’s in what appears to have been a panic filled nervous fit heaped praise on incoming Prez of ACT John Boscowan for the latter’s ability to raise money, money money,
2013 is probably a bit early for Boscowan to avail Bank’s that the Party doesn’t ‘see’ Him as the candidate for Epsom at the 2014 election and i expect the move to knife Bank’s wont occur until the 2014 meeting where Boscowan will become the ACT Party candidate for Epsom…
Remove John Banks from pary and issue apology+ Promote younger talent + Stop cosying up to the SST = More seats in parliament
Remove John Banks from ACT Party and Parliament=a slightly lessened stench of corruption+whip the tired discredited philosophy of naked greed around the track for another election on the back of the nod of electoral gerrymandering from a Slippery Prime Minister=
1 seat in the 2015 Parliament and bye bye to this FAILURE of a National Government…
Yes well the Labour party know all about corruption I guess
However in the interests of democracy its good that Act (like I grudgingly concede the Mana party) are in parliament however if they were to get back to core values then they’d do a lot better
Meh, seems like their core values only attract a point or two. Without cosying up to the SST they’re nothing really.
You guess??? proof please…
Taito Phillip Field ring any bells…
It’s a disgrace that he’s still in the house. Labour should’ve stood him down as a minister and booted him from the party.
TPF isn’t in Parliament anymore..
uh, I reckon fv saw that memo 😀
James Thrace
The Standard commenters require an ability to understand irony, sarcasm amongst other things. Everyone knows that Mr Field is in his house now, (different from The House in case you don’t understand the allusion) and that was the sarcastic response used to reply to a weak comment. You need to exercise your brain cells here.
Ring ring, can you hear that bell, it is the one which gives an estimate of your time left here at the Standard, the clock just struck 5 to midnight,
You should be more careful of making such insinuations, you make claim of corruption in the Labour PARTY, proof please,
Taito Phillip Field was an ex MP and i now assume ex member of the Labour Party, get something right wont you…
yep.
ACT would have made him party leader because he was the only MP that remained. And lauded his entrepreneurial spirit.
Unless I’m mistaken he was a member of the Labour party at the time of his offending and his offending was minimized by Labour and Dear Leader at the time…
Something about only being guilty of being helpful comes to mind
Also I don’t know if its troughing but certain labour MPs certainly spent up a storm on the taxpayers dime…Chris Carters a good example
“Ring ring, can you hear that bell, it is the one which gives an estimate of your time left here at the Standard, the clock just struck 5 to midnight,”
– Are you telling the moderators of this blog what to do? Is that because you think they can’t make decisions of their own?
You should be more careful of making such insinuations, you make claim of corruption in the Labour PARTY, proof please,
– You are a sad, strange little man and I pity you 🙂
Lolz, me tell the mods who to spank, nah, i just like making little predictions about how close to being past their use-by you wing-nuts are on any given day,
Even if i do say so myself i am getting quite good at identifying the nut-jobs in your little tribe that have committed hari-kari on the mountain of their own stupidity,
2 in the last 3 weeks have bit the dust after having been handed the poison chalice of my little prediction,
Ah i see the usual wing-nut tactic you have employed here, when called upon to provide ‘facts’ for a baseless accusation and having none it’s change of subject time…
No, no it was more an observation 🙂
ACT r fucked they should join the crazy Con servatives!
ACT needs to ditch the neo-liberal bullshit and start looking to the libertarian left (as much as the libertarian right). Things that a new look ACT party could adopt:
Universal Basic Income – the whole ‘free money’ think may rub a few of the faithful the wrong way, but it would fit into the whole small government thing. All you would need to do is fill out a form at the post office, show your ID, and you get paid. No MSD/WINZ to administer the whole thing. ACT’s idol, Freidman, proposed a form of UBI to Nixon, but the volatile changes in the 1970’s kinda meant that it came to nothing.
Direct consumer ownership of utilities. Everyone owns shares in Genesis/MRP/MERI via their power account. Full democratic collective control and no big government in sight.
The whole dope decrimisation thing.
Universal health insurance, similar to the ACC system. People pay into a universal healthcare scheme, and get to choose what hospital/doctor they go to, etc.
So which phone box will be unavailable ?
I heard that the annual general meeting will be on private farm land just up from Auckland. Were the meeting to be be held in Wellington (a mid point) the media would out number the party faithful attending.
Banks probably thinks that the Dotcom donations are all forgotten just because he got away with it.
I wonder if Dotcom would be welcome at the annual general meeting?
Would the ACT meeting at a farm north of Whangarei be at the Newmans, of the living on the Smell of an Oily Rag advice book for prols, and why can’t Maoris just agree with us and be happy with what they’ve got, beliefs?
No it is at the property of rich lister Alan Gibbs, Banks along with going all gushy over Mr money money money Boscowan also went into a thrall possibly the closest He has been in the past time of His life to that of sexual orgasm over the Gibbs property,
1000 acres of productive land that Gibbs treats as if it’s a front lawn and it is glowingly described how once a week 5 tractors are used to mow the grass amid a few statues that the owner having more money than brains paid ten times the going rate for such art to obtain…
I haven’t looked up where the farm is. Banks would be orgasmic over Gibbs money.
I remember seeing in some psycophantic womens magazine, a long solid fencelike sculpture, I think painted orange snaking over the Gibbs pad. I think it is so nice of him to spread his money around the needy artistic community.
Gibb has got to spend his money on something. I’d like to see him donate to breakfast and lunch programmes in schools.
i got that book LOTSOAOR on my table 🙂
“i got that book LOTSOAOR on my table:
Are you using it for a placemat, that would be useful for a start.
Would like some opinions on this (best to read in this order):
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/02/why-do-they-just-repeat-pptanzei-nonsense-without-questioning-anything/
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/02/embedded-journalists-an-interesting-twist/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/26/new-orleans-charter-schools-model
Have decided to try to be more open-minded and attempt to get get different sides to the story
Take your blubber boy sewerage back to the sewer where it belongs and seek the opinion of the inhabitants of that particular dark place, it appears to be your natural ‘home’ after-all…
So didn’t read the opinion of the well-known bastion of right wing thinking The Guardian then…
Gives more insight into charter schools, you really should read it. Its less about what experts say may happen (in their opinion) and what actually is happening in practice
I didn’t read any of it, but I blame you for saying we should read them in order and then putting Slater’s dreck at the top.
+1
Again, why would we want to follow the US considering that our education system is already better than theirs?
Because the results in New Orleans are quite astounding…
No, not really. Even the thinktank that did the research was ambivalent about its results.
From the Guardian:
“Before Katrina, the graduation rate was less than 50 percent. Now it’s more than 75 percent. Test scores are up 33 percent.”
“Over the past few years, there is a story that has been unfolding down on the Gulf Coast that all Americans need to hear or read about. It is the story of the turnaround of the New Orleans Schools. This major city school system has gone from being one of the worst in the nation to one of the best. It is important to understand that we are talking major city schools here, not all schools, and there is a huge difference.
There has been renewed national focus on New Orleans schools and its students’ progress. The school system has slowly ramped up the number of students served. In 2005, just before Katrina, it had 65,000 students; the next year it was down to 25,600. Enrollment has now climbed to 38,000. The demographics are still daunting: 95 percent of students are minorities and 83 percent are eligible for free or reduced lunches. Last year, 61 percent went to charter schools (a number that will increase this school year), by far the largest percentage of children in an urban area attending charters in the county. And the students have made progress.”
The most interesting thing about that quote is the post-Katrina school population recovery, or lack thereof.
As to whether charter schools are responsible for any of the apparent improvement: who knows? Nobody knows. As mentioned in the Guardina artice:
Hence “ambivalent”. No data = no verifiable claim = more WO propaganda.
Something about clutching at straws comes to mind…
Sorry, yes, charter schools must be wonderful. It can’t be because of:
reduced school population
federal or charity funding injections post-Katrina
greater community spirit among those who stayed or returned
housing relocations removing the poorest-performing students
or sample bias as poorest-performing students slip through the cracks and aren’t registered at any school
Or a thousand other reasons.
Any source of improvement must be charter schools, because otherwise there wouldn’t be a single item from the tory catechism that actually works in the real word. The economics are bunk, private prisons and no rehabilitation increase crime, and kicking beneficiaries doesn’t seem to lower unemployment. What is a poor toryboy to do?
Yep, that’s what you RWNJs do all the bloody time when reality fails to be what you want it to be. Hell, you and WO are taking some research that conclusively proved nothing, which is what the researchers say, and are now ranting about it as if it proved your ideology. That is most definitely “clutching at straws”.
What do you do, Draco, when your reality collapses around you and doesn’t correspondent to what you want it to be?
Hi chris73, being open-minded about these things, you’ll be interested in this link from the comments on the Guardian piece.
Seems that superintendent White is in a bit of a bind …
Yes, because in the land of the blind the one eyed is king. If anything NZ should focus on standard orientated and not populist today’s fashion ragout education. Private or public – the difference is the quality of the teacher and parent support. EVERY child has potential – EVERY one o them. It is the adults who mess it all up.
This is one of those moments where Draco says something not stupidly crazy.
Agreed – the education system in the US is fucked. We don’t want to emulate it.
I’m offended you even linked to that hate driven site from this one. I don’t need nor want to know what that nasty piece of right wing trash has to say.
Yeah ‘casue the Guardian is well known for being a tool of the tories…ideology is not a good way to run things…
Ideology is critical, otherwise you will never understand why you are in charge or why you should even be there.
By the way, not all stories have different sides, and sometimes those ‘different sides’ are plain BS.
Teachers evaluated on each lesson? Throwing out crisp questions that demand instant return.
Sounds like a military academy.
In NZ we already know that peer pressure can stop bright children from extending themselves mentally. In fact in the country there was hostility to facts and ideas from universities. They were called ‘ivory tower’ academics.
As quoted in google –
” It is a world where people are remote from worldly or practical affairs.” But the common-sense practical approach can’t handle change well as it can’t be bothered studying ivory tower facts. That’s our problem in NZ. Charter schools won’t help that.
chris73,
Here’s another article from the same Guardian journalist (when he wrote this and the one linked to by you, he was the Guardian education editor, I believe).
Basically, it’s a sad tale of the consequences of the impoverished view of education that hails rote learning and teaching to the test as much-needed reform (also note the motivation for it in the US – ‘slipping behind’ East Asia in producing engineers – we’re all Koreans and Singaporeans now).
It also betrays the view that all an education should produce is conformist workers willing to do what they are told (i.e., it trains children in being monitored, evaluated and told what they should do – excellent preparation for the modern workforce, if ever there was one).
Why would ‘Bill from Dipton’ be in anyway surprised by the fact that the States coal miner Solid Energy this week declared it’self all but insolvent,
As the Minister of Finance Bill is the shareholding Minister who yearly negotiates with Solid Energy over what dividend that company will pay to Government and is fully briefed on future plans of the company including it’s proposed debt structure,
Perhaps Bill had either a hangover or brain fade during that briefing…
Over the last few years, when coal prices were up, Bill English would have known the consequences would be this if coal prices dropped. It was widely known that the mining boom would come to an end, as it did, and coal prices have dropped back.
Given this knowledge, why did the shareholder (English) take so much money out of the company by way of dividents? And why did he let it take on so much debt?
The responsibility rests entirely with him.
It is in fact eerily similar to the Mainzeal collapse, who had ex-National Party PM Jenny Shipley as a director.
You have to wonder…
Because it allows him to:
1.) Help cover up the holes he made in the budget by giving the rich tax cuts and
2.) to say that it’s losing money and should therefore be sold at which point he’ll sell it for far less than what it’s worth to his rich mates
You really expect the farm boy to support the people of NZ? It should by now be crystal clear that his mates are his foremost and major concern. He does not want to know the peasant’s woes, the market will take care of everything!
Oh don’t be so hard on Billy, after all he has been very busy filling in for Key to do with the GCSB and has not had a lot of spare time to run his own portfolio.
Let’s all just remember that Solid Energy is sitting on assets worth billions upon billions of dollars.
Companies like this might be illiquid, but they are definitely not balance sheet insolvent, far from it.
+1 another manufactured crises a-la ACC, etc what are they up to while the hand wringing routine’s performed over SE.
It’ll be WOMD if the opposition ever gets it’s shite together enough to place some serious sunlight on this nasty corrupt NACT regime and show them for the life sucking vampires they are.
+1 another manufactured crises a-la ACC, etc what are they up to while the hand wringing routine’s performed over SE.
It’ll be WOMD wheeled out if the opposition ever gets it’s shite together enough to place some serious sunlight on this nasty corrupt NACT regime and show them for the life sucking vampires they are.
When issues like SkyCity come up it’s an opportunity to check the mettle of various journalists. John Armstrong has the bit between his teeth & written three very scathing articles on it. John Roughan, on the other hand, writes this bizzare psycophantic whitewash;
“SkyCity deal insight into PM’s mind”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10867117
There must be a few versions of the AO report. The one I read doesn’t have the phrase “social regulations” in it. In my copy the AO call it an “exchange of value” where the Govt trades regulatory changes with a monetary value for something of similar value.
Nothing social or ambiguous about this John;
“Even if the Government provided little or no upfront funding, SkyCity had made clear that it would need regulatory reform to create an enhanced revenue stream for the project to be viable. It was apparent that any further discussion would eff ectively be a commercial negotiation about an exchange of value to achieve the desired outcome”
Then there’s this gem from Roughan……
“And the casino is the best place for them if their gambling is to be monitored and limited.”
The gaming machines at SkyCity rake in more money than the non-casino ones, monitoring and limiting really works there doesn’t it.
(Roughan is the Herald Assistant Editor)
DH
Very terse new word to me ‘psycophantic’ – could be used a lot these days.
And let us not forget they want to make it easier to spend your money by just using an innocent looking plastic card. And they also want the Taxpayers to help with god knows what, to the tune of 10 Million bucks a year.
Any deal which manipulates the government and exploits addicts is morally corrupt.
The biggest problem in Christchurch resulting from the earthquakes is being caused by home and land owners being manipulated and exploited.
The land in the CBD is more earthquake prone than the land in the red zone, they are rebuilding in the CBD and not in the red zone. I am wondering if it is too expensive to replace the water system and roads in the red zone compared to the CBD.
The government is going to be the biggest land owner in Christchurch, they may even want to turn Christchurch into a Vegas gambling mecca. That would really bring the tourists in.
I am worried.
Too many people are repeating the line that National & Key will loose in 2014 and that some type of Shearer led coalition will follow. A “political cycle” change of government.
The coach of any team would ban such talk: VERBOTEN!
Let s not believe our own wishful thinking.
The talk has complacency underlying every word. It is the surest way to loose. Ask any team coach. Self-belief is critical for success. I see an element of self-delusion. We need more self-awareness.
Key, English, Joyce and their well funded supporters are not about to give up. Parata will be sacrificed-up at a suitable time. They are not stupid despite the series of cock-ups.
Labour needs to have its best possible team in best possible mental condition.
That is what Shearer has to achieve with his shuffle. Anything less will blow our chances.
It’s not “loose” it’s “lose”
sheesh, it’s becoming out of control…
vto, sweetie darling, I spotted the mistakes and some wrong hyphenation as Soonbas I pasted it from Pages and read through. Unfortunately the delete command would not work in the site,
I’ll go to my grave in shame.
No worries, those who have a bit of tolerance read beyond that – alas the new methodology introduced for reading classes some 2 decades ago: “recognize the word”. 😉
In any case, I am not convinced that the current labor party formation has anything to offer. So far only intrigue – invented or otherwise – and a”plan” for affordable housing. With the amount of unemployed people we have we may see them selling their property and there will be plenty of those “affordable” ones around. So for all intend and purposes, where is a plan to get people into meaningful paid full employment? Any such undertaking would in itself solve a lot of other ills.
Well the alternative is what we saw in 2011: everyone talking about how National were surely going to win, resulting in a low turnout and bad performance for Labour, when actually they were within striking distance of winning (assuming Winston played ball) if only there had been a stronger turn out.
Just about snuck the impossible under the wire in 2011, commenting on another web-site at the time i happily whipped up the chances of NZFirst being in the Parliament after that election, even going so far to predict their vote at 6.2%,
i can easily ‘see’ a Labour/Green majority in the House after November 2014 without either the Maori Party or NZFirst…
Labour can form the next government with just 31% or 32% of the vote. Assuming as you say NZF plays ball.
Sure, that’ll be a much improved result on 2011. But what kind of Labour Government will it be.
And do they realise with that result on e-day, that they’ll have to give away 1/3 of the seats around the Cabinet table.
Sharing the Cabinet seats with demanding bodies from other parties of the left could be the only way of getting some new blood into Labour – stir up the cocoa instead of it just falling to the bottom of the cup. I should cocoa!
Wishful thinking???, my opinion is that this far out from the 2014 election a blind donkey called Brucie, after the current Slippery Prime Minister has taken a break from plucking the soft hairs from between it’s anal crack to use as replacement for the hair He is fast losing could topple the present Government on any given day,
This far out it’s a 1-2% game for Labour/Green to be able to form a Government, the economy does not perform some miraculous recovery this or next year and unemployment has not stopped at the usual suspects and is now beginning to bite the middle class severely in the butt,
That middle class will be unforgiving as tax cuts and asset sales are of no use to those of them personally or with family or friends facing the job cutting axe…
KV is right. Underestimate the enemy at your own peril.
National can win an election easy-peasy. Three easy steps.
1) A massive affordable housing programme. Trade apprenticeships and new employment galore. And the kicker – housing built to outstanding environmental and energy efficiency standards.
2) Secondly: a true blue-green strategy, not a PR facade. Vast steps to improve waterway quality throughout NZ. This is already underway in a stuttering fashion but National can lend its weight and make it happen. Scientific monitoring, regulations, enforcement. New R&D and environmental monitoring positions, grants for universities.
Make the Blue-Green thing real and suck 1%-2% back off the Green Party.
3) Thirdly: immediately phase in the $15/hr minimum wage. A 75c increase this year, with another planned for 2014 before the election. Head the pressure for a living wage off at the pass by saying that we need to get there, but the economy is not yet ready for it and doing more will harm jobs. But that the Government recognises that ordinary NZ workers are doing it tough and need help.
By the way, this is only $2B-$3B in spending over a term. Easy.
Oh yeah, re-introduce a 39% tax rate on those earning over $200K pa as a 4th step.
And close a few more tax loopholes. Which will only cost National supporters a hundred million or three but will be a hat tip towards making the ‘everyone pay their fair share’.
And they have all of that budget allocated to Roads of National Significance to play with.
I see them doing a great U Turn on the roads investment and putting it all into housing an R&D or some such like…
We need all out top players included in the re-shuffle including those the ABC faction want obliterated.
Yep I hear National is working on a big phat housing plan. Yes, their private sector mates are going to hit paydirt with the scheme (of course), but cheap affordable housing will be built.
Is that as in affordable in Auckland – today’s news 480k? I think I need a break to have a good laugh cause I cannot hit the keyboard anymore…
“2) Secondly: a true blue-green strategy, not a PR facade. Vast steps to improve waterway quality throughout NZ. This is already underway in a stuttering fashion but National can lend its weight and make it happen. Scientific monitoring, regulations, enforcement. New R&D and environmental monitoring positions, grants for universities.”
Except that is utterly incompatible with industrial dairying. The only ‘true’ way to clean up that part of the environment (water and land) is to change the farming model, including reducing intensity. Can’t see that happening under NACT.
a great stonking fuck-off tunnel under the southern alps to pipe that lovely rainwater from the Coast across to the cash cows of canterbury…
Indeed, however no one is going to get rid of industrial dairying, not National, not Labour, not the Greens. The best we can hope for is enforcement of regulations and ‘best practice’ to minimise run off into waterways.
To change the farming model, the government would probably have to take over financing of the dairy industry as well as deflating the value of dairy farms.
The GP position is to promote organic conversions, and to route research funding into sustainable farming. Along with regulation, I think those things will take time but will influence dairying in the medium long term. Then there is Peak Oil….
I still can’t see NACT doing anything meaningful in terms of real green solutions, because they go against everything else they are trying to do. eg making the Regional Councils adopt sensible regulations that protect the environment vs what is happening in Canty?
LOLZ CV, you is being funny right, the National Government Cabinet doing any one of those things???
All of those things??? they would all rather have their genitalia removed with a chainsaw,
Bill from Dipton saw the recovery yesterday out of the corner of His eye, triple doses of self medicating alcohol and a prescription for double ups on the prozac dose should see no-one in the Cabinet blinking and business as usual till 2014,
Bill from Dipton has His own record to break after all….
A strategy based on another person’s failure rather than a strategy based on something under one’s own control is lazy stupid and gutless.
The election will be won by the choices and action plans undertaken by the Labour Party.
Erm, that should read :*Fail to recognise your enemy at your own peril*
In this case the enemy is the entire system, but lets keep the focus to parliament only for now.
This constant belief that a change of govt is going to make the beneficial differnce in direction, is starting to reek of desperation.
Instead of waiting for the system to right itself (it won’t, it can’t, because the owners of the system don’t want to change it). go out and take it back for yourselves – Stand as independents, for your tactics amongst friends and strangers who would love to see some real people in parliament, who were not controlled, corrupted and bent over to do the bidding of others..
What are you waiting for by not getting involved!
.
As Bradley Manning’s 1000th day in capitivity approaches, his legal options for presenting his case are, again, arbitrarily narrowed . . .
Meanwhile . . .
. . . John Kiriakou is wearing his conviction as a badge of honour; as, indeed, he should.
.
Link for Kiriakou story – http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/01/25/cia-whistleblower-john-kiriakou-sentenced-to-30-months-in-jail-wears-conviction-as-badge-of-honor/
. . . where has that SysOp/Admin chap got to? Bloody edit function has been on the blink for days. And, yes, I have checked that everything is plugged in, yes I have turned everything off and back on again, so, no, it is not a PEBCAK error!!
RT interview with Kiriaku, from earlier in Feb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXI_U2w0WSM
.
Chur bro’ – missed that one.
Your Currency Trade on Tarnished Gold
NZs failure to invoke policies to lower the forex value of our dollar has been noted by the country that is steadily working to lower the value of theirs.
Now all I need is many more of them.
Australia isn’t either, though, so surely you’d treat the Oz $ as gold before you treated NZ the same, just on their fundamentals? This is backed up by the fact that the Oz $ is quite a bit more valued than the NZ one.
Fundamental valuation is not a driver of financial market pricing any longer, and previously rarely has been particularly for currencies.
Ability to speculate on a predictable currency that is free from Government interference is a more valuable characteristic to traders than any ‘fundamental (asset or financial statement based) valuation’ of a currency.
Actually, due to Australia’s dependence upon commodities, I wouldn’t be so sure that the value of their dollar will stay as stable as ours.
The ‘driver’ of both currencies at the moment is the US$, $40 billion dollars a month of printed money by the US will continue to devalue their currency and over-value ours…
“Affordable” housing at only $400,000 or less!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10867157
Bargain!! If only I could be one of the priviliged few to be able to secure this nice 400K stone around my neck.
FYI
Be interesting to see whether the ‘rejuvenated’ ACT Party still believe in ‘ONE LAW FOR ALL’?
YES or NO?
If YES – the ‘rejuvenated’ ACT Party still DO believe in ‘ONE LAW FOR ALL’ – will they support the private prosecutions lodged by Graham McCready against the current and former Leaders of the ACT Party, John Banks and Don Brash, who both signed, as former fellow Directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd, Huljich Kiwisave Scheme registered prospectuses and investment statements which contained untrue statements?
IF NOT – WHY NOT?
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/should-directors-be-held-more-liable-company-performance-set-go-weekend-review-db-136267
“Second, directors are already personally accountable for their actions when managing the affairs of the company. It is the directors who are in the firing line after a company fails if they have in any way acted in bad faith, had a conflict of interest, acted recklessly, misled investors, or traded while insolvent.”
Not if your names are John Banks or Don Brash and the company that they were the Directors of – was Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd?
Unless, of course, private prosecutor Graham McCready is successful?
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
(For more background information – check out:
http://www.pennybright4epsom.org.nz
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
Koinonia- in for a penny, in for a Poundcake,
EPMU organiser- “there is desperation out there” (1500 apply for 48? jobs at a Warehouse) while Solid Energy pay 23M in bonuses in the last two years.
On RNZ this am, Transpacific to lay wastage to up to 200 jobs to “reduce costs” in unprofitable waste management.
Eurozone economy will contract (where did we read that before), unemployment will expand to 20M / approx 12%
the insect swarm above NI “beyond comprehension”; another aussie pest.
China officially acknowledges “Cancer Villages” mutating out of waste and pollutants. Dioxin anyone?
HBT-Road maintenance to become increasingly difficult to afford with “very serious long-term effects”- council assets management group manager
Dom- paediatrician doctor sentenced for possessing images of child abuse “could be back treating”
new entrant ” patients by next year”.
Gluckman-“the greater the mismatch between biological maturation and acceptance as an “adult” (wtf that is) the greater the morbidity; Resilience is what is necessary yet majority of children are experiencing greater mollycoddling (risk protection) while increased exposure to digital life. what a dilemma; brain death by social media?
awhi to Helen; in FORESTRY, since 2008, 900 Serious Injuries, 23 deaths
fine print- 9 prosecutions by 2010 with the industry narrative felling the workers as root cause.
while in the UK operation “Prevent” extremism (Islamic), despite millions of pounds spent, not making any inroads into domestic IED interception.
“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge; fitter to bruise than polish.
-Anne Bradsheet
China isn’t the only place where people are going to be growing gills. US hanford site dating back to Manhattan project looks real bad.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-22/radioactive-waste-leaking-washingtons-hanford-nuclear-reservation
I think Robert Guyton’s Art is beautiful yet “I couldn’t possibly comment” 🙂 (btw, was reading the intro to 1 John this morning (yes in the NIV) and it was very interesting 🙂 what was your occupation? was it that “branch” you linked to all those months ago?)
Ahhhh, I am nought more than a pilgrim on a long and dusty road. One which although beset by inequity from all sides, along which I am hoping to find some suitable clothes and a gourd of sustaining water for the long journey ahead.
true.you certainly have a broad understanding though, particularly of economics it appears
add this up…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10867176
(I always stock-pile water in me emergency kit; might live as long as Methuselah…)
I feel that I have an incomparable advantage in economics: I never studied it at university.
Cv, so you will be standing in local elections this year, or perhaps as an independent next year then?
With all that time on your hands, and no financial pressure (by your words), surely not doing so, yet blogging all over the place, might not be best use of those *understandings* RT seems to feel you have.
Most on this site indicate little idea what understanding truly means, RT might be one of the few who does, although I must say that economics would not fall into the understandings category, but could be a helpful tool in the journey!
I’d say this is bullshit. Remembering that the life expectancy for most was no more than 35 or 40, only a couple of centuries ago. People did not tend to spend the first 30 of them as immature teenie wannabes.
You could once serve as an officer in the Royal Navy at age 15, with powers over many men, and over life and death itself.
“morbidity” not mortality; for a number of researched and documented reasons humans (well, in the West anyway) are reaching biological and socially constructed “maturity” milestones earlier in their lifespans, yet, as Gluckman identifies, not the required brain development maturity, therefore the increased risks of morbidity I would suggest? Keh? (occupations? go on give us a clue) I showd ya mine… :). (was watching a Doco on The Forbidden City last night briefly, gotta love those people).
Ahhhh but brain development is stimulated by the pressures and environment (or lack of) placed upon the brain…
lack of EEA pressures not as helpful as a World War, or “life red in tooth and claw” I would suggest (not much “feel” in these modern technologies); anyway evidence appears to be in the escalating morbidity stats, whether it be meds, cancers, PTSD, hyperventilation, well, just tragedy in general, and yes, it’s “innit”, not “ofit”; nothing new there, been followed since Origen 🙂 and does require the od dusting off of the sandals 🙂 (who wuld a thunk it)
-i thought the Farquar et al; was Very insightful! (was all over Town yet she too has gone to OZ)
Just a small point, most of the life expectancy figures are at birth, and infant mortality was a huge factor back then, hence the low average expectancies. Once people were out of the danger zone of childhood their life expectancy increased greatly, many people lived to ripe old ages, not infrequently 60+. That’s not to say there haven’t been improvements since either, just that it’s not as dramatic as the figures seem to suggest.
I don’t disagree that people in the past did seem to mature much earlier though.
The mangled mess of Mainzeal .. can Shipley be held accountable ? Complete lack of governance … Brian Gaynor this morning …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10867172
Hah, good one, I did not notice, hence my post just below! Sorry!
Brain Gaynor, Herald columnist, sometimes writes some revealing stories about listed and not listed companies in New Zealand, or active here. Today he wrote a revealing article about Richina Pacific and Mainzeal:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10867172
So no reports to shareholders for years, no annual meetings since 2008, a registration in Bermuda, and Shipley, former NZ Prime Minister is in the midst of all this.
No wonder she suddensy resigned from the Mainzeal board of directors not long ago.
More must be revealed on her role in all this, and about how much she knew about what went on at Mainzeal Construction.
I would have thought her role in all this is perfectly obvious. To collect a fat directors fee and associated benefits and to ensure she would be unaccountable when it went belly up through mismanagement. It’s the New Zealand company directors’ standard isn’t it? It’s only the fools who neglect the steps necessary to be unaccountable who end up in Court.
Maybe she was coned and used as an “advertisement tool” overseas – since she was once PM of NZ, that would have given Richina some credibility. I think that vanity got her as she promoted for a very long time the “fantastic opportunities” in the Asian Market. Somehow she had to follow trough – maybe?
Looking at some markers, it was already clear in 2009 that something does not work as well as shareholders got news that they will not be paid as quickly (??) as promised.
I don want to be mischievous – but everybody right down to the cleaner of the beehive would realize that something is up when a company is listing in Bermuda. Sad part: not everybody knew that the NZ shareholder has had basically no regulatory protection. Who was the Trade Minister at the time of restructure 2008 when Richina was de listed?
Foreign Waka:
Hey, you have just “revealed” something else by commenting this:
“Maybe she was coned and used as an “advertisement tool” overseas – since she was once PM of NZ, that would have given Richina some credibility.”
That explains why John Key was so keen to become PM of New Zealand, right?!
So it enhances his CV/Resume and “reputation”! His own personal reputation is not much worth by now, so having been PM of NZ may make him look a lot better again, that is in front of overseas representatives, who only know very little about what Key has been up to here.
NZ’s reputation is not quite so bad yet overseas, this would enable him to put on a new “coat” and get up to more mischief kind of deals in big business and finance.
It is all falling into place now, the use of that “childhood dream” story.
Lightbulb (strobe)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10867166
m.sadness / sl. loss
seroquel nation
more Chinese puzzles Monkey
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10867213
Hey peeps, Hello People, Kia Ora, Non bloody Jour – etc.
What do you reckon John Key’s greatest fear is?
I reckon it’s that one day, an offspring (though they may lerv the cnut) will wake up and realise what a shallow, lacking in intelligence, ideologically-driven, over-ambitoius, wiki-defined-psycopath the guy ‘ekshly’ is. They’ll have no problem understanding how and why the specimen was propped up for so long, but when shit comes to push – I’m happy to keep a distance
Lolz, funny you should mention this, and, probably the reason why a certain journo is now not ‘with Murray McCully but instead now is said to be with Trev,
Prodigal son of the Slippery one is said to have, according to Jane writing in the Dominion Newspaper, is said to have txted His old man calling Him a wanker over some offense real or imagined…
Since ‘Edit duz’t werk dot dot dot’ I meant Bon bloody Jour, not Non Bloody Jour, though in the case of our Proim Minsta – Non bloody Jour could be more appropriate
Well if this plays out, it looks good for the battery side of a whole of issues:
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/science/more-good-news-on-those-carbon-supercapacitors.html
That’s awesome. Still, there’s the problem of generating that power in the first place. I also don’t think he really has an issue with mass production:
I mean, really, how many billion DVD burners are there in the world?
That is the power of 3d printing. It doesn’t have to be fast, it just has to fit in any garage.