President Obama is in the Middle East – and it’s complicated.
So here’s a cartoon primer of the entire history of the region, captured in 3.5 minutes and set to a catchy tune that will have you humming along.
NewstalkZB: Fair and Balanced
NewstalkZB, Friday 22 March 2013, 7:45 a.m.
This radio station is the closest thing we’ve ever had in this country to a dedicated government mouthpiece. Day in, day out, hour after hour after hour, host after host, anybody stupid or unfortunate enough to listen to this station for any length of time is subjected to pretty much unremitting pro-government propaganda. Most NewstalkZB hosts don’t even bother to try to hide their overt bias. One of the most flagrant is that dedicated toady Mike Hosking, AKA the King of Contra….
SIMON BRIDGES: Oh look it’s evidence-based. Youth rates lead to more jobs. It’s evidence-based.
MIKE HOSKING:[fervently] EX-ACTLY!!!
Later that day, one Larry “Lackwit” Williams, an extraordinarily dimwitted ex-traffic cop, presides over one of the most unpleasant ten minutes on radio, “The Huddle”, unkindly referred to by sneering sophisticates as “The Muddle”…
LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Kevin Rudd turned down a poisoned chalice didn’t he? Labor is GONE!
ELLEN READ: There’s something about that guy I don’t like! He’s just so horrible and creepy. I don’t know what it is.
LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Gillard is a tough cookie though! I don’t know what it is, but she’s TOUGH!
ELLEN READ: She’s one tough cookie!
TIM WATKIN: She’s a tough cookie all right! She’s tougher than Helen Clark! She’s tough as old boots! [snickers nervously]
The rest of the discussion was equally dire and uninteresting, but there was one highly pertinent (and telling) confession….
ELLEN READ: I haven’t been in a bookshop for a long, long time.
Armstrong in the NZHerald this morning gives 10 reasons why National remain so popular. The biggest remains the popularity of PM John Key. Is this just intergenerational luck that, comparatively, they have a leader with such skill?
One other point he raises is that Labour have not yet put “hands on” economic management into broad New Zealand discourse, so in the MSM and in the home and office there remains no economic question mark hanging above the Beehive for the government to answer. Does anyone know if Labour have more housing-type speeches coming up that seek to tilt public discourse?
Yeah, theres a side story to that in the Herald as well, Armstrong,Trevit, and Dann give their ‘ideas’ about why Slippery is so popular as the Prime Minister,
Armstrong and Trevit just do the gushy thing that if it belongs in print at all it aint a supposed serious daily newspaper as what the Herald would consider it’self to be,
Dann gets a little closer to the truth with His little essay on ‘it’s the economy’ and ‘when all is said and done people vote with their pockets’
i have to presume Dann is talking there of the Tory vote where i am sure the majority do vote National based upon economics, (not the economy as Dann suggests), personal economics of course is the nature of the National Party economic voter and i would dare suggest that that vote has held up as the ‘tax switch’ for 40% higher up in the economy is still delivering for ‘them’ sizable gains in their weekly income, the rest of them would be the ‘fanclub’ type voter hearts all a flutter as Slippery does one of His public dances like a loon displays…
Is this just intergenerational luck that, comparatively, they have a leader with such skill?
Nah, bullshit it’s intergenerational luck.
A group within National saw the talent and opportunity that John Key represented, talked (bought, strong-armed) the rest of the National caucus and associated powerbrokers in to it, and put him in there.
In other words, superior networking, initial talent indentification, recruitment and internal political management.
Many deals were cut…and notice how Bill English came back with a second life after his disastrous defeat as DPM. Again part of the deal making which happened to bring the National caucus together.
Compare and contrast the Labour approach: who’s the next Wellington staffer we can promote.
Plenty of cash left to put up more suicide nets at their factories.
Maybe peter dunne could prepare some legislation that stops these crooks from ripping off our system, instead of pissing about with smart phones and laptops.
30% of 571mil, puts into context the alleged robbery committed by beneficiaries, living the dream.
And while he’s at it, get the class b and c drugs out of our sweetshops, like you promised.
A bit of passion like the ‘retort’ you gave on back benches will do.
Where were you?
Tax is of course levied on profits, not on sales – we do not tax banks for example on every deposit. It would be interesting to see the profit on an equivalent wholly New Zealand successful company with sales of $500 million . . .
Even reducing such tax rorts will be difficult – what could the left do that the IRD are not already being asked to do?
“Tax is of course levied on profits, not on sales ”
Of course it is, I misread, but still, knowing how overpriced apple stuff is, their margins would be pretty huge. 30% of 100m, 200m, 300m is still lots and lots of inadequately taxed income.
That’s an awfully good tax break they’ve got themselves.
“Even reducing such tax rorts will be difficult – what could the left do that the IRD are not already being asked to do?”
So NZ needs new legislation to combat mega corps dodgy dealings. Must be doable, but obviously not by dunne.
What they going to do? Withdraw from the market and turn down half a billion in sales, especially when android is overtaking (overtaken?) as market leader.
Take our fair share or tell them to fuck off, but doing nothing is almost as criminal and complicit in intent.
“….but still, knowing how overpriced apple stuff is, their margins would be pretty huge. ”
They make sure their margins are very low. There’s two basic methods for keeping the margins down; transfer pricing and royalties. Not sure about Apple but most of the other big corporates have been using the royalty scam, tax collectors starting wising up to transfer priciing and put the bite on.
The NZ operation pays a royalty to the parent company for the right to use the brand in this country. The royalty fee goes on the books as an expense and it’s so high they don’t make much profit. The parent that collects the royalties is located in a tax haven.
It’s bizarre that they get away with paying themselves a royalty but that’s the way it works.
So NZ needs new legislation to combat mega corps dodgy dealings.
Yep and the best way to do it is to design an all new tax system from the ground up and implement it in the next financial year. None of this tinkering around that we’re seeing from the political parties at the moment.
Unless you’re on PAYE in which case you’re taxed on your full income and not profit which is what would be left after all expenses have been taken out.
Maybe the IRD should consider applying some version of the thin cap rules for interest to royalties, management fees and other overseas service fees and maybe even payments for products – some sort of a sliding scale for some of them perhaps.
I think that’s what they’re looking at. I prefer mikesh’s view but I doubt you could write specific enough laws to cover that. It clashes with the likes of franchising and paying for the right to use an established brand is pretty common business practice that’s not intrinsically wrong in itself. These corporates are just abusing a working system for their own benefit.
They could probably use the likes of the sharemarket to work out an average profit margin on turnover and tax them at that rate as the default minimum. They certainly need to do something, and soon.
But the gst on sales is paid for by the purchaser and in this case apple just collect the tax on behalf of the govt and then on the following 28 th of the month pay the tax to the govt. the way you phrased it appears IMO that apple has incurred a tax, which they haven’t.
For those interested the IRD are taking interest in land transactions and developers, pity this was not 12 years ago with the result that the govts books would have been even more healthy. a
Think how this untaxed income would have assisted say, health, supporting those in need, pity those in power have self interest over riding what is best for nz.
CORRUPT ‘CONFLICTS OF INTEREST’ INVOLVED IN THE PURCHASE BY AUCKLAND COUNCIL OF THE FORMER ASB BUILDING?
On 21 March 2013, Auckland Councillors discussed at a workshop whether or not to move into the former ASB building at 135 Albert St.
In the interests of TRANSPARENCY and DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY – how about we ‘back up the truck’ and look at how exactly it was decided to spend a stray $100 million (without full public consultation) on the purchase of this property, and for what reason?
Peter Wall, Director of Auckland Council Property Ltd CCO, is a member of the ‘invitation-only’ / $10.000 per year membership fee private lobby group – the Committee for Auckland, along with Auckland Council CEO – Doug McKay.
“Peter George Wall
BCA – Bachelor of Commerce and Administration
ACA – Associate Chartered Accountant
Peter has enjoyed over 30 years in the Property industry participating in development, investment management and the acquisition and disposal of some $1.2 billion of Property assets. He has held CEO roles in public property companies, operated in UK, France and Canada and for 3 years was Managing Director, Property for Brookfield Multiplex in NZ and he continues to provide consulting services to this company.
Peter is a past National President of the Property Council in NZ, President and Trustee of the North Harbour Charitable Trust, Trustee of the Graeme Dingle Foundation trust and Chair of the Harbour Access Trust which has as its responsibilities the development of the National Ocean Water Sports Centre at Takapuna and ferry services to Takapuna and Browns Bay.”
Council eyes $122m ASB tower for new HQ
By Anne Gibson
5:30 AM Thursday Jun 28, 2012
The Auckland Council plans to buy new upmarket headquarters so it can quit a civic high-rise block tentatively earmarked for demolition.
The council has entered private negotiations to buy the ASB Bank Centre, valued by an Australian institutional fund at $112 million, substantially upgrading it for its staff and housing many of them under one roof.
………………………………..
ASB Bank Centre, 135 Albert St.
Valued at $112 million, owned by Brookfield Multiplex
31 levels with extensive carparking.”
____________________________________________________________
Company number:886938
Incorporation Date:17 Dec 1997
Company Status:Registered
Company Addresses:Registered Office
Level 8, 66 Wyndham St, Auckland , New Zealand
Address for service
Level 8, 66 Wyndham St, Auckland , New Zealand
View all addresses
Directors Showing 2 of 2 directors
George KOSTAS
36 Johnston St,, Annandale, Nsw 2038, Australia ,
Peter George WALL
233 Beach Road, Campbells Bay, North Shore City, 0630 , New Zealand ”
_________________________________________
What role did Peter Wall, Director of Brookfields Multiplex Constructions (NZ) Ltd; member of the ‘Executive Team of Auckland Council CCO, Auckland Council Property Ltd, play in the purchase of the former ASB building, owned by Brookfields Multiplex?
How DODGY (corrupt?) is THIS?
Auckland Council – $UPERCITY for the 1%?
Run by big business and property developers FOR big business and property developers?
Unless you bought your house or flat 15 years ago or more, then you are priced out of existence in the U.K.
People need to fucking LEAVE: I left, in 2008. Come to Sweden. You can buy a house here in the countryside for between £15k and £40 (for a REALLY nice one).
Fucking just up, and LEAVE.
I don’t regret leaving one fucking bit. The more I see of Britain, the more I realise that it is fucking FINISHED.
BRITIAN. IS FUCKING FINISHED. YOUR CHILDREN HAVE NO FUTURE THERE. LEAVE.
· 25 in reply to 1984Nareik (Show the comment)
Van Couver
Van Couver 6 hours ago
YOU, my friend, taxi driver, NEED TO BE ON THE MAINSTREAM NEWS EVERY SINGLE DAY! This news needs to be played over and over again on every single channel on tv. If people can’t see the writing on the wall by now they might as well just walk to the extermination camps and get it over with.”
A good example of the elitist NeoLiberal Washington Concensus mind f*ck that John Yankee has signed up to:
“Chavez Wasted His Money on Healthcare When He Could Have Built Gigantic Skyscrapers”
“Associated Press business reporter Pamela Sampson (3/5/13):” :
“Chavez invested Venezuela’s oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. But those gains were meager compared with the spectacular construction projects that oil riches spurred in glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world’s tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi.”
Chavez was a world leader. Unlike US politicians, Chavez was respected throughout the non-western world. He was awarded honorary doctorates from China, Russia, Brazil, and other countries, but not from Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, and Oxford.
Chavez was a miracle. He was a miracle, because he did not sell out to the United States and the Venezuelan elites. Had he sold out, Chavez would have become very rich from oil revenues, like the Saudi Royal Family, and he would have been honored by the United States in the way that Washington honors all its puppets: with visits to the White House. He could have become a dictator for life as long as he served Washington.”
Shows the unbelievable meanness of spirit and money grubbing darkness of John Yankee not to have gone to Chavez’s funeral.
“President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood that security for the rich required economic security for the underclasses. Roosevelt established in the US a weak form of social democracy that European politicians had already understood was necessary for social cohesion and political and economic stability.
The Clinton, Bush, and Obama regimes set about undermining the stability that Roosevelt provided, as Thatcher, Major, Blair, and the current prime minister of the UK undermined the social agreement between classes in the UK. Politicians in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also made the mistake of handing power over to private elites at the expense of social and economic stability.
Gerald Celente predicts that the elites will not survive the hatred and anger that they are bringing upon themselves. I suspect that he is correct. The American middle class is being destroyed. The working class has become a proletariat, and the social welfare system is being destroyed in order to reduce the budget deficit caused by the loss of tax revenues to jobs offshoring and the expense of wars, overseas military bases, and financial bailouts. The American people are being compelled to suffer in order that elites can continue with their agendas.”
“Politicians in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also made the mistake of handing power over to private elites at the expense of social and economic stability.”
The NeoLiberal disaster in the U$K by George Monbiot
“The model is dead; long live the model. Austerity programmes are extending the crises they were meant to solve, yet governments refuse to abandon them. The United Kingdom provides a powerful example. The cuts, the coalition promised, would hurt but work. They hurt all right – and have pushed us into a double dip recession(1).
This result was widely predicted. If you cut government spending and the income of the poor during an economic crisis, you are likely to make it worse. But last week David Cameron insisted that “we will go on and finish the job”(2), while the chancellor maintained that the government has a “credible plan, and we’re sticking to it.”(3)”
“A programme that promised freedom and choice has instead produced something resembling a totalitarian capitalism, in which no one may dissent from the will of the market and in which the market has become a euphemism for big business. It offers freedom all right, but only to those at the top. ” Got that John Yankee!?
I sometimes wonder if the elites have made a conscious decision that their forces of repression are so strong and technically sophisticated that they no longer need to scatter any welfare crumbs around to keep the peasants happy. They certainly like loosening the leash on their attack dogs now and then, presumably to teach us all our place via routine bashings of John Minto, the piracy against Elvis Teddy, and the invasion of Tuhoe land.
An invalid beneficiary from Gore died from burns after he tried to light a cigarette while connected to an oxygen supply, an Otago-based coroner has found….
The headline on the top of the front page of the herald right now.
Could they have whistled that dog any harder than they have?
Apparently his beneficiary status was so relevant that it needed to be stated twice in the first six words.
I have been showing one all day. But most likely it is a missing box. That is likely to a bad cached copy of the jQuery javascript. Try pressing Shift when hitting the Refresh button. That will cause the cached items will load.
The RSS all gets redirected through Feedburner because they do a single pickup and feed it out to multiple readers. This causes a major reduction on the load on the database server because on average we have a RSS pickup from either a human or more commonly a bot every few seconds. But we don’t control their pickup schedule.
The e-mails are off because I moved the server at the start of the year and didn’t have time to put them back on or test them. My work project finished a few weeks back. So I’ve been working through the backlog of maintenance tasks that have accumulated from the last year..
I checked. The comment RSS seems to pick up about every 15 minutes.
The email is a pain as I want to keep the actual server locations anonymous behind cloudflare. Looks like I will have to build an internal vpn network so I can spool messages at the local server level, transport to and release from a public network. Digging my way to simpler solution.
“FFS yeah time to target the “mentally ill” again, that’s a good old canard to trot out, guns don’t kill people, mentally ill people do etc.”
I would suggest that most if not all the mass killings are done by those who are mentally ill.
I would also suggest that part of the problem is if anyone suggests taking away a right from the mentally ill (like maybe the right to bear arms…) then you got a lot of well meaning idiots piping up and saying how bad it is…
But I do agree with you on one thing and that is guns don’t kill people.
I would also suggest that part of the problem is if anyone suggests taking away a right from the mentally ill (like maybe the right to bear arms…) then you got a lot of well meaning idiots piping up and saying how bad it is…
You still on about this “Mentally ill” bullshit?
Do people who keep assault weapons in their bedroom along with several thousand rounds of ammo, automatically count in your criteria?
“I would also suggest that part of the problem is if anyone suggests taking away a right from the mentally ill (like maybe the right to bear arms…) then you got a lot of well meaning idiots piping up and saying how bad it is…”
Citation needed 🙄
To get a firearms licence, you need a medical certificate. If you have a psychiatric condition then your doctor has to put that on the certificate. That’s not an automatic disqualification, but it will make the scrutiny much closer. In NZ I think this is as much about preventing suicide as anything.
I mentioned somewhere else that NZ has almost a million firearms. And very very little problem with deliberate shootings. (Accidental and self harm are another issue).
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Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
President Obama is in the Middle East – and it’s complicated.
So here’s a cartoon primer of the entire history of the region, captured in 3.5 minutes and set to a catchy tune that will have you humming along.
http://blog.ninapaley.com/2012/10/01/this-land-is-mine/
Sorry about the clumsy link paste, I’m working from an ipad and I just couldn’t make it nice.
NewstalkZB: Fair and Balanced
NewstalkZB, Friday 22 March 2013, 7:45 a.m.
This radio station is the closest thing we’ve ever had in this country to a dedicated government mouthpiece. Day in, day out, hour after hour after hour, host after host, anybody stupid or unfortunate enough to listen to this station for any length of time is subjected to pretty much unremitting pro-government propaganda. Most NewstalkZB hosts don’t even bother to try to hide their overt bias. One of the most flagrant is that dedicated toady Mike Hosking, AKA the King of Contra….
SIMON BRIDGES: Oh look it’s evidence-based. Youth rates lead to more jobs. It’s evidence-based.
MIKE HOSKING: [fervently] EX-ACTLY!!!
Later that day, one Larry “Lackwit” Williams, an extraordinarily dimwitted ex-traffic cop, presides over one of the most unpleasant ten minutes on radio, “The Huddle”, unkindly referred to by sneering sophisticates as “The Muddle”…
LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Kevin Rudd turned down a poisoned chalice didn’t he? Labor is GONE!
ELLEN READ: There’s something about that guy I don’t like! He’s just so horrible and creepy. I don’t know what it is.
LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Gillard is a tough cookie though! I don’t know what it is, but she’s TOUGH!
ELLEN READ: She’s one tough cookie!
TIM WATKIN: She’s a tough cookie all right! She’s tougher than Helen Clark! She’s tough as old boots! [snickers nervously]
The rest of the discussion was equally dire and uninteresting, but there was one highly pertinent (and telling) confession….
ELLEN READ: I haven’t been in a bookshop for a long, long time.
NewstalkZB: Tune Your Mind.
Top notch, morrissey, thanks.
So, pray tell me, who owns the Herald ?
Thanks M. Keep it up, love your posts.
Armstrong in the NZHerald this morning gives 10 reasons why National remain so popular. The biggest remains the popularity of PM John Key. Is this just intergenerational luck that, comparatively, they have a leader with such skill?
One other point he raises is that Labour have not yet put “hands on” economic management into broad New Zealand discourse, so in the MSM and in the home and office there remains no economic question mark hanging above the Beehive for the government to answer. Does anyone know if Labour have more housing-type speeches coming up that seek to tilt public discourse?
Yeah, theres a side story to that in the Herald as well, Armstrong,Trevit, and Dann give their ‘ideas’ about why Slippery is so popular as the Prime Minister,
Armstrong and Trevit just do the gushy thing that if it belongs in print at all it aint a supposed serious daily newspaper as what the Herald would consider it’self to be,
Dann gets a little closer to the truth with His little essay on ‘it’s the economy’ and ‘when all is said and done people vote with their pockets’
i have to presume Dann is talking there of the Tory vote where i am sure the majority do vote National based upon economics, (not the economy as Dann suggests), personal economics of course is the nature of the National Party economic voter and i would dare suggest that that vote has held up as the ‘tax switch’ for 40% higher up in the economy is still delivering for ‘them’ sizable gains in their weekly income, the rest of them would be the ‘fanclub’ type voter hearts all a flutter as Slippery does one of His public dances like a loon displays…
Nah, bullshit it’s intergenerational luck.
A group within National saw the talent and opportunity that John Key represented, talked (bought, strong-armed) the rest of the National caucus and associated powerbrokers in to it, and put him in there.
In other words, superior networking, initial talent indentification, recruitment and internal political management.
Many deals were cut…and notice how Bill English came back with a second life after his disastrous defeat as DPM. Again part of the deal making which happened to bring the National caucus together.
Compare and contrast the Labour approach: who’s the next Wellington staffer we can promote.
FFS, Labor did exactly the same thing except you picked a retired UN wanker.
They must have stopped teaching comprehension by the time you got to school. Or did you only go to laugh at the poor kids?
The Hearald:
“Apple’s New Zealand division made sales of $571 million last year but paid only 0.4 per cent of that in tax.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10873068
Plenty of cash left to put up more suicide nets at their factories.
Maybe peter dunne could prepare some legislation that stops these crooks from ripping off our system, instead of pissing about with smart phones and laptops.
30% of 571mil, puts into context the alleged robbery committed by beneficiaries, living the dream.
And while he’s at it, get the class b and c drugs out of our sweetshops, like you promised.
A bit of passion like the ‘retort’ you gave on back benches will do.
Where were you?
Tax is of course levied on profits, not on sales – we do not tax banks for example on every deposit. It would be interesting to see the profit on an equivalent wholly New Zealand successful company with sales of $500 million . . .
Even reducing such tax rorts will be difficult – what could the left do that the IRD are not already being asked to do?
“Tax is of course levied on profits, not on sales ”
Of course it is, I misread, but still, knowing how overpriced apple stuff is, their margins would be pretty huge. 30% of 100m, 200m, 300m is still lots and lots of inadequately taxed income.
That’s an awfully good tax break they’ve got themselves.
“Even reducing such tax rorts will be difficult – what could the left do that the IRD are not already being asked to do?”
So NZ needs new legislation to combat mega corps dodgy dealings. Must be doable, but obviously not by dunne.
What they going to do? Withdraw from the market and turn down half a billion in sales, especially when android is overtaking (overtaken?) as market leader.
Take our fair share or tell them to fuck off, but doing nothing is almost as criminal and complicit in intent.
“….but still, knowing how overpriced apple stuff is, their margins would be pretty huge. ”
They make sure their margins are very low. There’s two basic methods for keeping the margins down; transfer pricing and royalties. Not sure about Apple but most of the other big corporates have been using the royalty scam, tax collectors starting wising up to transfer priciing and put the bite on.
The NZ operation pays a royalty to the parent company for the right to use the brand in this country. The royalty fee goes on the books as an expense and it’s so high they don’t make much profit. The parent that collects the royalties is located in a tax haven.
It’s bizarre that they get away with paying themselves a royalty but that’s the way it works.
Royalties should be treated as profit since they don’t actually contribute to production. and profit earned in this country should be taxed.
Yep and the best way to do it is to design an all new tax system from the ground up and implement it in the next financial year. None of this tinkering around that we’re seeing from the political parties at the moment.
Unless you’re on PAYE in which case you’re taxed on your full income and not profit which is what would be left after all expenses have been taken out.
Maybe the IRD should consider applying some version of the thin cap rules for interest to royalties, management fees and other overseas service fees and maybe even payments for products – some sort of a sliding scale for some of them perhaps.
Just make them non-deductible. That’d have to be done at the political level though and I doubt if any party would be brave enough to do it.
I think that’s what they’re looking at. I prefer mikesh’s view but I doubt you could write specific enough laws to cover that. It clashes with the likes of franchising and paying for the right to use an established brand is pretty common business practice that’s not intrinsically wrong in itself. These corporates are just abusing a working system for their own benefit.
They could probably use the likes of the sharemarket to work out an average profit margin on turnover and tax them at that rate as the default minimum. They certainly need to do something, and soon.
This is horrendous.
Import levies on all Apple products please. They do not have a right to sell their product in this country.
By the way, I presume 15% GST was paid on that $571M sales figure. It would be hard for them to escape that.
But the gst on sales is paid for by the purchaser and in this case apple just collect the tax on behalf of the govt and then on the following 28 th of the month pay the tax to the govt. the way you phrased it appears IMO that apple has incurred a tax, which they haven’t.
For those interested the IRD are taking interest in land transactions and developers, pity this was not 12 years ago with the result that the govts books would have been even more healthy. a
Think how this untaxed income would have assisted say, health, supporting those in need, pity those in power have self interest over riding what is best for nz.
Ahhh thanks you are correct of course.
CORRUPT ‘CONFLICTS OF INTEREST’ INVOLVED IN THE PURCHASE BY AUCKLAND COUNCIL OF THE FORMER ASB BUILDING?
On 21 March 2013, Auckland Councillors discussed at a workshop whether or not to move into the former ASB building at 135 Albert St.
In the interests of TRANSPARENCY and DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY – how about we ‘back up the truck’ and look at how exactly it was decided to spend a stray $100 million (without full public consultation) on the purchase of this property, and for what reason?
Let’s also have a good, hard look at who has been involved…….
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/auckland-council-headquarters-move-vy-124051
Any untoward conflicts of interest between those who bought this property and those from whom this property was bought?
Where are the publicly-available ‘Registers of Interest’?
WHO IS CHECKING?
I did some checking.
This is what I found…………….
AND IT STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN WITH THE STENCH OF ‘CORRUPT CRONY CAPITALISM’!
http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz/membership/member-organisations
Peter Wall, Director of Auckland Council Property Ltd CCO, is a member of the ‘invitation-only’ / $10.000 per year membership fee private lobby group – the Committee for Auckland, along with Auckland Council CEO – Doug McKay.
Peter Wall is also:
EXECUTIVE TEAM OF AUCKLAND COUNCIL PROPERTY LTD
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/ABOUTCOUNCIL/REPRESENTATIVESBODIES/CCO/Pages/council_property.aspx
“Peter George Wall
BCA – Bachelor of Commerce and Administration
ACA – Associate Chartered Accountant
Peter has enjoyed over 30 years in the Property industry participating in development, investment management and the acquisition and disposal of some $1.2 billion of Property assets. He has held CEO roles in public property companies, operated in UK, France and Canada and for 3 years was Managing Director, Property for Brookfield Multiplex in NZ and he continues to provide consulting services to this company.
Peter is a past National President of the Property Council in NZ, President and Trustee of the North Harbour Charitable Trust, Trustee of the Graeme Dingle Foundation trust and Chair of the Harbour Access Trust which has as its responsibilities the development of the National Ocean Water Sports Centre at Takapuna and ferry services to Takapuna and Browns Bay.”
________________________________________________
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10816011
Council eyes $122m ASB tower for new HQ
By Anne Gibson
5:30 AM Thursday Jun 28, 2012
The Auckland Council plans to buy new upmarket headquarters so it can quit a civic high-rise block tentatively earmarked for demolition.
The council has entered private negotiations to buy the ASB Bank Centre, valued by an Australian institutional fund at $112 million, substantially upgrading it for its staff and housing many of them under one roof.
………………………………..
ASB Bank Centre, 135 Albert St.
Valued at $112 million, owned by Brookfield Multiplex
31 levels with extensive carparking.”
____________________________________________________________
http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/886938
_______________________________________________________
BROOKFIELD MULTIPLEX CONSTRUCTIONS (NZ) LIMITED (886938)
Last updated on 14 Dec 2011
Company number:886938
Incorporation Date:17 Dec 1997
Company Status:Registered
Company Addresses:Registered Office
Level 8, 66 Wyndham St, Auckland , New Zealand
Address for service
Level 8, 66 Wyndham St, Auckland , New Zealand
View all addresses
Directors Showing 2 of 2 directors
George KOSTAS
36 Johnston St,, Annandale, Nsw 2038, Australia ,
Peter George WALL
233 Beach Road, Campbells Bay, North Shore City, 0630 , New Zealand ”
_________________________________________
What role did Peter Wall, Director of Brookfields Multiplex Constructions (NZ) Ltd; member of the ‘Executive Team of Auckland Council CCO, Auckland Council Property Ltd, play in the purchase of the former ASB building, owned by Brookfields Multiplex?
How DODGY (corrupt?) is THIS?
Auckland Council – $UPERCITY for the 1%?
Run by big business and property developers FOR big business and property developers?
Anyone else got concerns about this?
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
2013 Auckland Mayoral Candidate
Thanks Penny. I want to say that I really appreciate your work on corruption. Keep it up.
Another dispatch from the artist taxi driver on the U$K’s austerity class war.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3uAPwn3t9Y&list=UUGThM-ZZBba1Zl9rU-XeR-A&index=1
OMFG!!!! The BBC Sucks O Cocks news *Exclusive News*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rraACARjgMk&list=UUGThM-ZZBba1Zl9rU-XeR-A
BBC Sucks O Cocks News Budget+Obama in Isra-hell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AelV-U0m1hk&list=UUGThM-ZZBba1Zl9rU-XeR-A&index=2
The Government the dream snatchers
”
MorallyBankruptUK 4 hours ago
Unless you bought your house or flat 15 years ago or more, then you are priced out of existence in the U.K.
People need to fucking LEAVE: I left, in 2008. Come to Sweden. You can buy a house here in the countryside for between £15k and £40 (for a REALLY nice one).
Fucking just up, and LEAVE.
I don’t regret leaving one fucking bit. The more I see of Britain, the more I realise that it is fucking FINISHED.
BRITIAN. IS FUCKING FINISHED. YOUR CHILDREN HAVE NO FUTURE THERE. LEAVE.
· 25 in reply to 1984Nareik (Show the comment)
Van Couver
Van Couver 6 hours ago
YOU, my friend, taxi driver, NEED TO BE ON THE MAINSTREAM NEWS EVERY SINGLE DAY! This news needs to be played over and over again on every single channel on tv. If people can’t see the writing on the wall by now they might as well just walk to the extermination camps and get it over with.”
A good example of the elitist NeoLiberal Washington Concensus mind f*ck that John Yankee has signed up to:
“Chavez Wasted His Money on Healthcare When He Could Have Built Gigantic Skyscrapers”
“Associated Press business reporter Pamela Sampson (3/5/13):” :
“Chavez invested Venezuela’s oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. But those gains were meager compared with the spectacular construction projects that oil riches spurred in glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world’s tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi.”
Paul Craig Roberts:
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/03/12/hugo-chavez-paul-craig-roberts-4/
“Chavez was a friend of truth and justice, and this made him unpopular throughout the Western World where every political leader regards truth and justice as dire threats.
Chavez was a world leader. Unlike US politicians, Chavez was respected throughout the non-western world. He was awarded honorary doctorates from China, Russia, Brazil, and other countries, but not from Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, and Oxford.
Chavez was a miracle. He was a miracle, because he did not sell out to the United States and the Venezuelan elites. Had he sold out, Chavez would have become very rich from oil revenues, like the Saudi Royal Family, and he would have been honored by the United States in the way that Washington honors all its puppets: with visits to the White House. He could have become a dictator for life as long as he served Washington.”
Shows the unbelievable meanness of spirit and money grubbing darkness of John Yankee not to have gone to Chavez’s funeral.
“President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood that security for the rich required economic security for the underclasses. Roosevelt established in the US a weak form of social democracy that European politicians had already understood was necessary for social cohesion and political and economic stability.
The Clinton, Bush, and Obama regimes set about undermining the stability that Roosevelt provided, as Thatcher, Major, Blair, and the current prime minister of the UK undermined the social agreement between classes in the UK. Politicians in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also made the mistake of handing power over to private elites at the expense of social and economic stability.
Gerald Celente predicts that the elites will not survive the hatred and anger that they are bringing upon themselves. I suspect that he is correct. The American middle class is being destroyed. The working class has become a proletariat, and the social welfare system is being destroyed in order to reduce the budget deficit caused by the loss of tax revenues to jobs offshoring and the expense of wars, overseas military bases, and financial bailouts. The American people are being compelled to suffer in order that elites can continue with their agendas.”
“Politicians in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also made the mistake of handing power over to private elites at the expense of social and economic stability.”
The NeoLiberal disaster in the U$K by George Monbiot
“The model is dead; long live the model. Austerity programmes are extending the crises they were meant to solve, yet governments refuse to abandon them. The United Kingdom provides a powerful example. The cuts, the coalition promised, would hurt but work. They hurt all right – and have pushed us into a double dip recession(1).
This result was widely predicted. If you cut government spending and the income of the poor during an economic crisis, you are likely to make it worse. But last week David Cameron insisted that “we will go on and finish the job”(2), while the chancellor maintained that the government has a “credible plan, and we’re sticking to it.”(3)”
http://www.monbiot.com/2012/07/30/scorched-earth-economics/
“A programme that promised freedom and choice has instead produced something resembling a totalitarian capitalism, in which no one may dissent from the will of the market and in which the market has become a euphemism for big business. It offers freedom all right, but only to those at the top. ” Got that John Yankee!?
I sometimes wonder if the elites have made a conscious decision that their forces of repression are so strong and technically sophisticated that they no longer need to scatter any welfare crumbs around to keep the peasants happy. They certainly like loosening the leash on their attack dogs now and then, presumably to teach us all our place via routine bashings of John Minto, the piracy against Elvis Teddy, and the invasion of Tuhoe land.
The headline on the top of the front page of the herald right now.
Could they have whistled that dog any harder than they have?
Apparently his beneficiary status was so relevant that it needed to be stated twice in the first six words.
Cruel, hateful stuff.
Some Employers Finally Get It (alas not in NZ):
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2013/03/economic-case-paying-your-cashiers-40k-year/5037/
Will I be able to see my past comments in future? I can’t at moment even though I ticked the comment button.
Top right of the page, search field, tick comments and freshness, enter prism and click search.
It should work but at the moment that returns no results. Problems with search – lprent, if you’re about?
Was me. Accident doing an upgrade. Fixed now.
Fixed. I managed to upgrade the search plugin that I modded for the site. Overwrote the mods.
Hi lprent
Now there is no recent comments list. Still – just saying – Don’t worry be happy.
I have been showing one all day. But most likely it is a missing box. That is likely to a bad cached copy of the jQuery javascript. Try pressing Shift when hitting the Refresh button. That will cause the cached items will load.
Does the box show up, or is it just old comments?
more from “the machine”; The details of 9700 EQC homeowner claiments e-mailed externally.
Anno Domini- 16000dead pigs recovered from the river tributaries supplying water to Shanghai.
Welcome to the Patriarchy, part [depressingly large-number here]:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/03/22/adria-richards-did-everything-exactly-right/
T_T
Somedays…
Jesus Wept; some of these techy types can be vicious predators.
CRIME WATCH
It appears that burglars in the Bay of Plenty are targeting the particularly stupid….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10873122
The REAL New World Order
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/putin-russia-china-build-world-order-18787492
and one for The Left
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/world/europe/italys-president-asks-democratic-party-to-form-a-government.html?_r=0
(chalice anyone?)
ON THE PERILS OF WORKING FOR SLY JUDY
There was a girl called Sue
Sport gave her endless fame
In fact she was so very good
They made of her a Dame
Then ‘long came Sly Old Judy
Offering big flash earn
Said Susy Girl I’ll do it Ma’am
But really I must learn
Don’t worry girl you’re sporty
The people love your name
Race relations ain’t no thing
It’s just my shitty game
Now Susy she worked very hard
And she hit her straps
She respected every race
Sly Judy thought that crap
Bugger bugger bugger shit
Fumed Sly One nearly cracking
I’ll bloody well finish this
She’ll get a public smacking
Never trust a sporting girl
I yearn for bum so skinny
I’ll dash her off a nasty note
And chuck her in the Binnie !
Don’t give up your day job.
Comments RSS question. I go to the end of http://thestandard.org.nz/the-human-cost/ and click on the “Comments RSS” link http://thestandard.org.nz/the-human-cost/feed/ . That takes me to http://feeds.feedburner.com/CommentsForTheStandard which has comments for all articles but doesn’t seem up to date. So what do I do to get comments on a specific article?
One reason I’m asking is that email notifications didn’t work when I left a comment some weeks ago.
The RSS all gets redirected through Feedburner because they do a single pickup and feed it out to multiple readers. This causes a major reduction on the load on the database server because on average we have a RSS pickup from either a human or more commonly a bot every few seconds. But we don’t control their pickup schedule.
The e-mails are off because I moved the server at the start of the year and didn’t have time to put them back on or test them. My work project finished a few weeks back. So I’ve been working through the backlog of maintenance tasks that have accumulated from the last year..
Right OK I’ll just check back for comments. Thanks a lot for all your work on this site.
I checked. The comment RSS seems to pick up about every 15 minutes.
The email is a pain as I want to keep the actual server locations anonymous behind cloudflare. Looks like I will have to build an internal vpn network so I can spool messages at the local server level, transport to and release from a public network. Digging my way to simpler solution.
Colonial Viper …
23 March 2013 at 7:31 pm
“FFS yeah time to target the “mentally ill” again, that’s a good old canard to trot out, guns don’t kill people, mentally ill people do etc.”
I would suggest that most if not all the mass killings are done by those who are mentally ill.
I would also suggest that part of the problem is if anyone suggests taking away a right from the mentally ill (like maybe the right to bear arms…) then you got a lot of well meaning idiots piping up and saying how bad it is…
But I do agree with you on one thing and that is guns don’t kill people.
well, that’s a “no sane scotsman” argument if ever there was one.
lol.
TBF, I know Scotsmen and ‘sanity’ is a sassenach tool of oppression.
You still on about this “Mentally ill” bullshit?
Do people who keep assault weapons in their bedroom along with several thousand rounds of ammo, automatically count in your criteria?
People who store rifles to fight the US government? Yep, totally sane. *side-eye*
Where is the original comment that chris quotes? Can’t find it on this page.
THat’s odd. I do remember writing the comment. I may have edited it and its gone into a black hole…
Yesterday’s OM
Do people who keep assault weapons in their bedroom along with several thousand rounds of ammo, automatically count in your criteria?
Do you think people who commit these mass killings are sane or have a mental illness?
“I would also suggest that part of the problem is if anyone suggests taking away a right from the mentally ill (like maybe the right to bear arms…) then you got a lot of well meaning idiots piping up and saying how bad it is…”
Citation needed 🙄
To get a firearms licence, you need a medical certificate. If you have a psychiatric condition then your doctor has to put that on the certificate. That’s not an automatic disqualification, but it will make the scrutiny much closer. In NZ I think this is as much about preventing suicide as anything.
I mentioned somewhere else that NZ has almost a million firearms. And very very little problem with deliberate shootings. (Accidental and self harm are another issue).
Thats my point from earlier in the discussion. They don’t need to ban firearms so much as they need to start enforcing the laws they already have.
2243 additional US gun deaths since Newtown shootings 98 days ago
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/gun-deaths-us-newtown_n_2935686.html
In contrast, we’ve probably had around 100 road fatalities in that same timeframe.
Hmmm. Cyprus has just passed banking and capital controls, irrespective of what the powers that be in the EU and Russia decide.
This is going to be a very interesting (and not in a good way) year.