Young is a willing enabler and shill for key and his cabal.
CT has probably produced a plan they will work to involving a lot of distraction, this worked a treat last Election. Anything celebrity/all black/sporty JK can hitch his wagon to.
Also a bad dose of miserablelitus, key symptoms I see misery in everything, and when I don’t I go looking for it , severe symptoms include obsessive googling, uncontrollable desire to cut and paste plus delusions of ones intelligence
Not sure why Granny Herald’s role as an approved outlet of the ruling classes is ever in question.
They might from time to time run a good piece or interview a good economist, but that only happens outside of election years, and it is only there for a veneer of “balance”.
That’s right CV ,it has always been that way. Just seems to be getting worse.
I see Gavin Ellis is even getting concerned about the problem with what’s going on.
There, Glazyev proposed a five-year ‘road map’ to Russia’s economic sovereignty and long-term growth. It was aimed toward building up the country’s immunity to external shocks and foreign influence, and ultimately, toward bringing Russia out of the periphery and into the core of the global economic system. Goals included raising industrial output by 30-35 percent over a five year period, creating a socially-oriented ‘knowledge economy’ via the transfer of substantial economic resources to education, health care and the social sphere, the creation of instruments aimed at increasing savings as a percent of GDP, and other initiatives, <b?including a transition to a sovereign monetary policy.
I expect character assassination of Russia by the Western MSM will step up quite markedly.
Yes, but it’s an oligarchy at odds with the US oligarchy and if they start getting massive economic boost from a sovereign monetary policy they also become a Good Example of a system that works better than the Western private credit system.
Try addressing the point of DtB’s comment rather than derailing it. All large nations are corrupt to some degree and Russia is no exception. But that is not all that Russia is about and this is actually a very interesting report.
You have to keep in mind that while Putin is no angel, in a historic context he is still by far the best leader the Russian people have had since … well ever. Hence his enduring popularity.
Well I have worked there for a short period and spent much of last Friday evening chatting with the head of our Russian office. This absolutely does not qualify me as our resident Russia expert, but it gives me just enough appreciation of what you are saying to confirm you are 100% correct.
In a nutshell it’s like this: on the surface the Russians are very buttoned down and grim. Think Leonid Brezhnev stereotype. The reason is that that their history teaches them to always be circumspect in the public domain. By contrast in private I found them to be a wonderful mix of mad party animals, scholars and artistic souls.
And while life in Russia is very tough in many respects, they are as you say a deeply civilised people almost completely misunderstood in the West.
They survived the Golden Horde and still welcome Muslims as a massively growing demographic.
They survived Napolean and Hitler and NATO, and still want to engage with Western Europe as military, economic and diplomatic partners.
They view their own government authorities as chokingly bureaucratic, and often corrupt, but give Putin far higher approval ratings than any western population gives its own political leaders.
Interestingly the West’s efforts to isolate, sanction and demonise Russia has forced that nation’s acceleration towards fully expressing its own civilisational perspective, one which is neither Tsarist nor Soviet in character.
Pretty easy to have enduring popularity when you can disappear journalists and jail dissidents.
No, my point to Draco and his comment was while it may look good on paper I have my serious doubts that Russia is in anyway better or more trustworthy than any other so I take everything with a grain of salt and hefty dose of skepticism.
Pretty easy to have enduring popularity when you can disappear journalists and jail dissidents.
No .. in fact that sort of thing generally causes much unpopularity over time. And in fact the kind of thing you refer to, while it does have an undoubted chilling effect, does not happen all that often. Certainly not remarkably more often than many other places in the world. Even NZ has it’s local and quite recent examples of govt. intimidation of journos it doesn’t like.
But the point is, while none of this is defendable, it’s not the purpose of DtB’s comment. Which is that for the first time in my adult life a major economy is officially abandoning neo-liberal policy and trying something different.
Which is that for the first time in my adult life a major economy is officially abandoning neo-liberal policy and trying something different.
And the big part of that difference is the use of sovereign money. If they do it well, and that’s a big if, then Russia will find out very rapidly that it doesn’t need foreign investment or trade and the rest of the world will also realise that. Especially all those poor countries that happen to be dependent upon foreign ‘aid’ – the ‘aid’ that more often than not subsidises private businesses in the country that the aid is coming from.
As I say, it becomes an example of a state that’s not dependent upon the present private credit system.
Which is that for the first time in my adult life a major economy is officially abandoning neo-liberal policy and trying something different.
Putin can head in this direction now because the West’s attempts to destabilise Russia by creating issues like a Ukrainian coup, trying to turn Sevastapol in Crimea into a NATO base, Olympics faux drug scandal, blocking Gazprom pipelines into Europe, degrading Russia’s nuclear deterrent by placing ABM systems close to her borders, and others.
Not to mention the US continuously attempting to use the western controlled financial, monetary and banking system against Russia.
The sum of this has ended up incrementally and effectively discrediting the formerly powerful neoliberals and Atlanticists that Putin has always had to include in his government structures including the central bank.
And so now the Kremlin can start heading in a different direction.
(As an interesting note, Russia has through all of this continued to supply US forces in Afghanistan with fuel, NASA with rocket engines, and the US military industrial complex with titanium aerospace alloys.)
You are so right Colonial, and hasn’t the western airforces adopted the Russian Ejector seat after it had a very good demonstration at the Paris Airshow in 1993 when two of their MIG 29’s collided
I remember at the time the air chiefs of the west were astounded that both pilots walked away from this mid air collision.
Also Apple incorporating the Russian GLONASS geolocation system into their iPhones alongside the traditional GPS; Samsung has done the same in its flagship Galaxy S phones.
Basically, Russia would prefer to partner most closely economically and technologically with the west rather than with China, which is the only option that is left open to Russia nowadays.
Even NZ has it’s local and quite recent examples of govt. intimidation of journos it doesn’t like.
Did you seriously write that in response to a comment about the Russian government having journalists murdered?
I think it is relevant to the original comment. If an economy is being governed by a guy who thinks the collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy and has journalists who expose his corruption killed, then news of great prospects for success of that economy isn’t good news for liberal society.
Psycho Milt, the US doesn’t kill its own journalists, but in the 20th and 21st century it has installed and supported plenty of regimes which did.
then news of great prospects for success of that economy isn’t good news for liberal society.
The Russian people prefer Putin’s mildy conservative traditional societal values style of politics to that of the liberal and neoliberal Atlanticists.
by a guy who thinks the collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy
In particular, how the Soviet Union collapsed was a tragedy, and specifically the fact that the West used it as an opportunity to maim and gut the country from the inside out.
Exactly. PM confuses the fall of the Soviet Union with the neo-liberal gutting of the country post-Gorbachev.
I personally saw the heart-breaking poverty and hardship the Russian people endured through the 90’s. And yet Russia was never a poor country, it was always rich in resource both material and cultural. It was poor because it was being looted.
In the Soviet era, while there was a lack of political freedom, almost everyone had a warm home, access to a decent education, medical care and some sort of job to go to. A decade later and this happened.
I was walking back to my apartment from the center of the city and for a slight change I decided to detour through the war memorial gardens at the end of the main road. About 200m into the park, I could see a small circular monument, with gardens and some seating around an ‘eternal flame’ in memory to all those who’d died defending Russia.
As I got closer I could see a figure huddled just out of sight, on the side of that would be normally out of sight from the road. At -10 degC there was a boy, no more than 11 or 12 huddled as best he could for some warmth from the flame. He was clearly homeless, and I stood rooted to the spot for some moments. He could so easily have been my own son, yet there was nothing I could think to do about it.
Poverty is a warm country is one thing, in a cold country it’s lethal. And all of this was entirely avoidable, Russia did not have to endure this.
Anytime someone challenges you on Russia’s fairly…errr…poor record in freedom of speech (i.e. assasinating political foes and journalists) you immediately leap to pointing the finger at the US.
Yes, the US is a poor international actor but that does not validate Russia’s own behaviour. Russia should be condemened for its actions the same as the US.
…the West used it as an opportunity to maim and gut the country from the inside out.
Of course, it was all the fault of the wicked West. No ex-Soviet citizens could possibly have had anything to do with looting the place and turning it into a Mafia state, because… well, because the West are the bad guys and that explains everything ever.
In particular, how the Soviet Union collapsed was a tragedy, and specifically the fact that the West used it as an opportunity to maim and gut the country from the inside out.
RL:
… the heart-breaking poverty and hardship the Russian people endured through the 90’s … It was poor because it was being looted.
The excellent Prof Stephen F Cohen:
A large majority of Russians, as they have regularly made clear in opinion surveys, regret the end of the Soviet Union, not because they pine for “communism” but because they lost a secure way of life.
They do not share the nearly unanimous western view that the Soviet Union’s “collapse” was “inevitable” because of inherent fatal defects.
They believe instead, and for good reason, that three “subjective” factors broke it up: the way Gorbachev carried out his political and economic reforms; a power struggle in which Yeltsin overthrew the Soviet state in order to get rid of its president, Gorbachev; and property-seizing Soviet bureaucratic elites, the nomenklatura, who were more interested in “privatising” the state’s enormous wealth in 1991 than in defending it.
Most Russians, including even the imprisoned oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, therefore still see December 1991 as a “tragedy”.
In addition, a growing number of Russian intellectuals have come to believe that something essential was lost – a historic opportunity to democratise and modernise Russia by methods more gradualist, consensual and less traumatic, and thus more fruitful and less costly, than those adopted after 1991.
Having ended the Soviet state in a way that lacked legal or popular legitimacy – in a referendum nine months before, 76% had voted to preserve the union – the Yeltsin ruling group soon became fearful of real democracy … Yeltsin’s armed overthrow of the Russian parliament soon followed.
Dissolving the union without any preparatory stages shattered a highly integrated economy and was a major cause of the collapse of production across the former Soviet territories, which fell by almost half in the 1990s. That in turn contributed to mass poverty and its attendant social pathologies, which are still, in the words of a respected Moscow economist, the “main fact” of Russian life today.
And, as a one-time Yeltsin supporter wrote later, “almost everything that happened in Russia after 1991 was determined to a significant extent by the divvying-up of the property of the former USSR”. Soviet elites took much of the state’s enormous wealth with no regard for fair procedures or public opinion. To enrich themselves, they wanted the most valuable state property distributed from above, without the participation of legislatures. They achieved that, first by themselves, through “spontaneous nomenklatura privatisation”, and after 1991, through Kremlin decrees issued by Yeltsin …
… Yeltsin abolished the Soviet Union with the backing of the nomenklatura elites – pursuing the “smell of property like a beast after prey”, as Yeltsin’s chief minister put it – and an avowedly pro-democracy wing of the intelligentsia. Traditional enemies in the pre-Gorbachev Soviet system, they colluded in 1991 largely because the intelligentsia’s radical market ideas seemed to justify nomenklatura privatisation.
But the most influential pro-Yeltsin intellectuals were neither coincidental fellow travellers nor real democrats. Since the late 1980s they had insisted that free-market economics and large-scale private property would have to be imposed on Russian society by an “iron hand” regime using “anti-democratic measures”.
Like the property-seeking elites, they saw Russia’s newly elected legislatures as an obstacle. Admirers of Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, they said of Yeltsin: “Let him be a dictator!” Not surprisingly, they cheered (along with the US government and mainstream media) when he used tanks to destroy Russia’s popularly elected parliament in 1993.
And … recent analysis from Cohen on the US MSM’s demonization of Russia:
American media on Russia today are less objective, less balanced, more conformist and scarcely less ideological than when they covered Soviet Russia during the Cold War.
The history of this degradation is also clear. It began in the early 1990s, following the end of the Soviet Union, when the US media adopted Washington’s narrative that almost everything President Boris Yeltsin did was a “transition from communism to democracy” and thus in America’s best interests.
This included his economic “shock therapy” and oligarchic looting of essential state assets, which destroyed tens of millions of Russian lives; armed destruction of a popularly elected Parliament and imposition of a “presidential” Constitution, which dealt a crippling blow to democratization and now empowers Putin; brutal war in tiny Chechnya, which gave rise to terrorists in Russia’s North Caucasus; Yeltsin rigging of his own re-election in 1996; and leaving behind, in 1999, his approval ratings in single digits, a disintegrating country laden with weapons of mass destruction.
Indeed, most American journalists still give the impression that Yeltsin was an ideal Russian leader. Since the early 2000s, the media have followed a different leader-centric narrative, also consistent with US policy, that devalues multifaceted analysis for a relentless demonization of Putin, with little regard for facts.
Russia today has serious problems and many repugnant Kremlin policies. But anyone relying on mainstream American media will not find there any of their origins or influences in Yeltsin’s Russia or in provocative US policies since the 1990s—only in the “autocrat” Putin who, however authoritarian, in reality lacks such power.
Nor is he credited with stabilizing a disintegrating nuclear-armed country, assisting US security pursuits from Afghanistan and Syria to Iran or even with granting amnesty, in December, to more than 1,000 jailed prisoners, including mothers of young children.
Cheers swordfish. I enjoy listening to the talk show segment that Cohen and John Batchelor does every week.
The other side of Cohen’s comments helps explain part of Putin’s popularity.
After just a decade and a half in power, Putin has largely economically rehabilitated Russia from the wrecked sold out shell that Yeltsin and the Oligarchs had created out of the old USSR>
The US doesnt kill its own journalists ??really ?some how i doubt that michael hastings is the first name to come to mind died in 2013 after his late model merc hit a palm tree and then burst into flame later the engine of the car was found 100meters or so down the street perhaps the mechanics at mercedes didnt bolt it down properly !! so hard to get good staff these days .
Hastings had done a story on Gen Stanley McCrystal which had led to obama accepting his resignation.
The other guy who comes to mind was that journo who discovered that drugs were being flown into the states in us military planes to fund a dirty and secret war cant remember which administration that was i think the journos name might have been garry ..webb ?….
Psycho Milt. Many Americans have died, by foul means, for questioning Corporate America. Many of them could just as easily be described as journalists rather than whistleblowers.
“The open society and its enemies.” A few of its enemies can be found commenting on blogs, attempting to create false equivalence between liberal societies and appallingly illiberal ones. It’s not pleasant to watch.
No-one is claiming Putin’s Russia conforms to our Western liberal ideals. But then again considering how rarely we actually live up to these ideals, the point is rather mute.
And yes I do understand the large difference between murdering a journalist and raiding their home/office and illegally seizing their computers. But in the context of two very different nations, with different histories and cultures … the chilling effect on journalism might not be so very different.
Frankly it doesn’t take a long or hard look to find plenty that is ugly and appalling about any of the major powers. They each tend to specialise in their own particular appalling and none of it is defendable. But at the same time I do try to avoid falling into that weirdly unhelpful binary trap of thinking this is ALL they are about.
You are a refreshing informer who breaks the pattern of incessant biased drivel that we get fed.
I think that some Germans are still wondering just how the Russians defeated them in World War 2. We didn’t – the Russians did. They defeated 80% of Hitler’s war effort, while we claim victory in fighting only 20% – slow and late.
Communist/Socialist/Capitalist hardly mattered. The Russians did it.
But, of course, only Capitalism may be seen as successful…
Put behind a pay wall, now my tax dollars are going to pay for it… Yeah right. No wait I really am paying for the shitty thing I could not watch because I won’t help Muppet Murdoch be even more of a slime ball.
There isn’t one. I can restrict linked video to sites that do maintain moderation control and that check the contents of videos, but I have never found anything similar for images. And there are a number of ways that images can be abused.
The only possible way is to sequester images while my server side runs scans on them. Then put them into our media library rather than linking to other sites. Since the vast bulk of the site’s data is already images, I’m reluctant to increase the backup footprint. Besides putting the images directly into our site is likely to cause copyright issues.
“Mr Rankin will be laying a complaint with TV One’s management over the actions of its staff. “Our team were surprised at the cowardly behaviour of the reporters. We were at risk of being seriously assaulted, or worse, and this man’s child was in extreme danger, but the reporters just fled the scene.”
Mr Rankin will be approaching TV One management today asking for a full investigation.
I found it interesting the story on Stuff and the Herald didn’t mention anything about Rankin laying a complaint over the cowardly behaviour of the TV One news crew
Wondering why Rankin believes the man was on “P” I guess it’s an excuse as to why someone is so angry. Time will tell what the real story is rather than a press release from a right wing council candidate.
Maybe the reporters backed off to get a wider camera angle?
Puckish Rogue the second link you posted came up as a 403 forbidden for me
hmm – the man with the sword wasnt attempting to attack the child (the child was back in the car presumably) – so its a bit weird to try and claim the journos have done something wrong.
Im pretty sure the advice from the police would be “dont get involved – call us”
sure the guy sounds like he was dangerous – but the rest of it all seems to be desperate profile building.
i struggle to see what a complaint to TVNZ would actually be about – journos arent keepers of law and order after all
(happy to retract once more info comes to light of course)
When interviewed about this on morning report, Brash seemed to think no one had any photos and no one had called the police. Really? Man with sword not filmed? By anyone? Brash sounded concerned for the boy, but no one called police . Really?
Thought the right wing were big on ” law and order”
Whoops, I guess Rankin did a Lochte, and got a bit carried away with his version of events, Brash tried to paint Rankin and himself as ‘victims’ turns out Brash did a runner.
TVNZ news boss John Gillespie this morning said the ONE News team did not feel they or Mr Rankin were in any danger from the man.
“Our team said the man was not waving the sword about nor did he appear to have any violent intent,” Mr Gillespie said in a statement.
“The sword was pointed towards the ground. The boy with the man was smiling and appeared happy. Our cameraman had finished filming by this point and was packing up his gear.
“Our team said Mr Rankin approached the man, shook hands with him and spoke to him.
“Our team were by now in their car ready to leave. Dr Brash had left. Mr Rankin got into his car and as he was driving off, rolled down his window and spoke with the team.
“Our team were the last to leave.
“Our team never felt in danger and nor were they concerned about the safety of anyone else.”
I read that – lots of facts, tenuous connections, and the worst possible conclusions made. It is not news that some try to get access and favours and sometimes they even succeed overtly and/or covertly.
LOL never would have thought you to be a bleeding heart hillary supporter i saw a clip of her once where she was giving a talk in a packed auditorium on …i kid you not free speech …when a guy stands up wearing a tee shirt with something apparrently provocative on it an turns his back to her in order to display it whereupon he is immediately jumped on by two goons who manhandle him very roughly out of the room. Meanwhile hillary doesnt even hesitate for a nanno secend on how its so important to have democratic rights etc etc The other yuk thing was the totally absorbed almost fixated attention of the audience almost noone even turned around when the “protester”was dragged out .They reminded me of a bunch of sheep or christians at a gathering of the flock .Ithought what a fucking cold bitch no way shed get my vote .
But no obviously a right wing attack meme trp /sarc
[lprent: You appear to confuse “free speech” with your “right” to be a arrogant offensive fuckwit. Hosts at any venue, both public or private, make the rules about behaviour, just as they do here. “Free speech” doesn’t mean that you or any other gormless idiotic wanker gets the right to crap all over our site, nor like the protagonist in your story – to wave your diseased mind around like a demented stage 3 syphilitic patient. But obviously that is what you think you can and should be able to do.
Well around here you cannot. On this site you obey our rules as a guest. If you don’t want to then you can take your stupidity elsewhere and whine there like any other tormented puppy after being disciplined for weeing on the carpet. If you look hard enough around the net, I am sure that you can find somewhere that will tolerate adult children with spoilt tantrum issues.
So I’m giving you 2 weeks freedom from the need to comment here while you read our policies about the behaviour of guests on our site and/or look for another site to be a fuckwit on. Based on your profound ignorance of civilised behaviour, I suspect you will need that kind of time to look up and understand some of the concepts in the policy. Like “guest”, “responsibility”, “respect for hosts”, and what real “sarcasm” looks like.
And incidentially, I hope you liked me exercising my “free speech” on your pissant behaviour. ]
A Sulphurous Blast from the Past:
Seven minutes that disgusted New Zealand
This disgraceful, foul-mouthed, unintelligent spray doesn’t get any better, even after thirteen years. At about the two-minute mark in his ignorant and hateful rant, Paul Holmes opines that “the greatest perk, do-nothing job in the world is at the U.N.”
In fact, of course, as these bigots invariably do, he was talking about himself….
Seems I’m not the only one who thinks that Larry lost his job for criticizing the media establishment. Obama took it well, it just seems all the white people did not think it was funny.
Unlikely, Colbert roasted Bush Jr a lot worse. Difference is Colbert was/is very popular and funny. Wilmore was cutting but just not very funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-a2KeyCAY
School-age students will be able to enrol in an accredited online learning provider instead of attending school, under new Government legislation.
The radical change will see any registered school, tertiary provider such as a polytechnic or an approved body corporate be able to apply to be a “community of online learning” (COOL).
Any student of compulsory schooling age will be able to enrol in a COOL – and that provider will determine whether students will need to physically attend for all or some of the school day.
It sounds like something from “In the Thick of It”
Edmund Burke set out in an address to the electors of Bristol in 1774: “Your representative owes you not his industry only but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
I’m especially partial to Mr Burke’s notion that parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.
Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different
and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain,
as an agent and advocate, against other agents and
advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one
nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local
purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the
general good, resulting from the general reason of the
whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have
chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he is a member
of parliament. If the local constituent should have an
interest, or should form an hasty opinion, evidently opposite
to the real good of the rest of the community, the
member for that place ought to be as far, as any other,
from any endeavour to give it effect. I beg pardon for
saying so much on this subject. I have been unwillingly
drawn into it; but I shall ever use a respectful frankness
of communication with you. Your faithful friend, your devoted
servant, I shall be to the end of my life: a flatterer
you do not wish for.
It’s not perfect, what with all the different networks of corporate connection, but it does require that environmental, social, and corporate governance issues be part of the fiduciary calculation (i.e. “maximised profits” include the long term good as well as short term mercenary motivations).
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Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from 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 public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
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:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
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. ...
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 ...
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. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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305 000 in poverty.
People living in cars, containers and garages.
Over 4000 people poisoned by polluted water.
Yet, Audrey Young New Zealand Herald’s political editor, finds this more important to talk about.
Not their sports editor.
Not their entertainment editor.
Their political editor.
‘John Key: Don’t jump to conclusions about bugging device found in All Blacks’ hotel.’
(without mentioning the new spy bill in parliament)
The media sucks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11698962
Young is a willing enabler and shill for key and his cabal.
CT has probably produced a plan they will work to involving a lot of distraction, this worked a treat last Election. Anything celebrity/all black/sporty JK can hitch his wagon to.
Why bother with granny herald.
Seriously when last week it was all about John Keys ties – this is a paper that is so out of touch Whale Oil looks a better read.
Why bother with granny herald.
Media derangement Syndrome. Paul’s got it bad and is not expected to recover.
Also a bad dose of miserablelitus, key symptoms I see misery in everything, and when I don’t I go looking for it , severe symptoms include obsessive googling, uncontrollable desire to cut and paste plus delusions of ones intelligence
@Adam +1 – yep don’t click on Granny – you are enabling them.
Not sure why Granny Herald’s role as an approved outlet of the ruling classes is ever in question.
They might from time to time run a good piece or interview a good economist, but that only happens outside of election years, and it is only there for a veneer of “balance”.
That’s right CV ,it has always been that way. Just seems to be getting worse.
I see Gavin Ellis is even getting concerned about the problem with what’s going on.
Putin: Nyet to Neo-liberals, Da to National Development
I expect character assassination of Russia by the Western MSM will step up quite markedly.
Russia might as well be an oligarchy at this stage so I won’t hold my breath.
Yes, but it’s an oligarchy at odds with the US oligarchy and if they start getting massive economic boost from a sovereign monetary policy they also become a Good Example of a system that works better than the Western private credit system.
I’m as suspicious of Russia as I am the US. They are both corrupt dictatorial plutocracies.
Try addressing the point of DtB’s comment rather than derailing it. All large nations are corrupt to some degree and Russia is no exception. But that is not all that Russia is about and this is actually a very interesting report.
You have to keep in mind that while Putin is no angel, in a historic context he is still by far the best leader the Russian people have had since … well ever. Hence his enduring popularity.
I think Russia has been so demonised and vilified over so many generations that we have absolutely no bloody idea what it is about..
the mystery wrapping the riddle tied up in an enigma
one of the most civilised and advanced nations on the planet
we have no idea
Well I have worked there for a short period and spent much of last Friday evening chatting with the head of our Russian office. This absolutely does not qualify me as our resident Russia expert, but it gives me just enough appreciation of what you are saying to confirm you are 100% correct.
In a nutshell it’s like this: on the surface the Russians are very buttoned down and grim. Think Leonid Brezhnev stereotype. The reason is that that their history teaches them to always be circumspect in the public domain. By contrast in private I found them to be a wonderful mix of mad party animals, scholars and artistic souls.
And while life in Russia is very tough in many respects, they are as you say a deeply civilised people almost completely misunderstood in the West.
They survived the Golden Horde and still welcome Muslims as a massively growing demographic.
They survived Napolean and Hitler and NATO, and still want to engage with Western Europe as military, economic and diplomatic partners.
They view their own government authorities as chokingly bureaucratic, and often corrupt, but give Putin far higher approval ratings than any western population gives its own political leaders.
Interestingly the West’s efforts to isolate, sanction and demonise Russia has forced that nation’s acceleration towards fully expressing its own civilisational perspective, one which is neither Tsarist nor Soviet in character.
Pretty easy to have enduring popularity when you can disappear journalists and jail dissidents.
No, my point to Draco and his comment was while it may look good on paper I have my serious doubts that Russia is in anyway better or more trustworthy than any other so I take everything with a grain of salt and hefty dose of skepticism.
Pretty easy to have enduring popularity when you can disappear journalists and jail dissidents.
No .. in fact that sort of thing generally causes much unpopularity over time. And in fact the kind of thing you refer to, while it does have an undoubted chilling effect, does not happen all that often. Certainly not remarkably more often than many other places in the world. Even NZ has it’s local and quite recent examples of govt. intimidation of journos it doesn’t like.
But the point is, while none of this is defendable, it’s not the purpose of DtB’s comment. Which is that for the first time in my adult life a major economy is officially abandoning neo-liberal policy and trying something different.
And that is news.
And the big part of that difference is the use of sovereign money. If they do it well, and that’s a big if, then Russia will find out very rapidly that it doesn’t need foreign investment or trade and the rest of the world will also realise that. Especially all those poor countries that happen to be dependent upon foreign ‘aid’ – the ‘aid’ that more often than not subsidises private businesses in the country that the aid is coming from.
As I say, it becomes an example of a state that’s not dependent upon the present private credit system.
Your points are well taken
Putin can head in this direction now because the West’s attempts to destabilise Russia by creating issues like a Ukrainian coup, trying to turn Sevastapol in Crimea into a NATO base, Olympics faux drug scandal, blocking Gazprom pipelines into Europe, degrading Russia’s nuclear deterrent by placing ABM systems close to her borders, and others.
Not to mention the US continuously attempting to use the western controlled financial, monetary and banking system against Russia.
The sum of this has ended up incrementally and effectively discrediting the formerly powerful neoliberals and Atlanticists that Putin has always had to include in his government structures including the central bank.
And so now the Kremlin can start heading in a different direction.
(As an interesting note, Russia has through all of this continued to supply US forces in Afghanistan with fuel, NASA with rocket engines, and the US military industrial complex with titanium aerospace alloys.)
Thanks … interesting points.
You are so right Colonial, and hasn’t the western airforces adopted the Russian Ejector seat after it had a very good demonstration at the Paris Airshow in 1993 when two of their MIG 29’s collided
I remember at the time the air chiefs of the west were astounded that both pilots walked away from this mid air collision.
Also Apple incorporating the Russian GLONASS geolocation system into their iPhones alongside the traditional GPS; Samsung has done the same in its flagship Galaxy S phones.
Basically, Russia would prefer to partner most closely economically and technologically with the west rather than with China, which is the only option that is left open to Russia nowadays.
Even NZ has it’s local and quite recent examples of govt. intimidation of journos it doesn’t like.
Did you seriously write that in response to a comment about the Russian government having journalists murdered?
I think it is relevant to the original comment. If an economy is being governed by a guy who thinks the collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy and has journalists who expose his corruption killed, then news of great prospects for success of that economy isn’t good news for liberal society.
Psycho Milt, the US doesn’t kill its own journalists, but in the 20th and 21st century it has installed and supported plenty of regimes which did.
The Russian people prefer Putin’s mildy conservative traditional societal values style of politics to that of the liberal and neoliberal Atlanticists.
In particular, how the Soviet Union collapsed was a tragedy, and specifically the fact that the West used it as an opportunity to maim and gut the country from the inside out.
Exactly. PM confuses the fall of the Soviet Union with the neo-liberal gutting of the country post-Gorbachev.
I personally saw the heart-breaking poverty and hardship the Russian people endured through the 90’s. And yet Russia was never a poor country, it was always rich in resource both material and cultural. It was poor because it was being looted.
In the Soviet era, while there was a lack of political freedom, almost everyone had a warm home, access to a decent education, medical care and some sort of job to go to. A decade later and this happened.
I was walking back to my apartment from the center of the city and for a slight change I decided to detour through the war memorial gardens at the end of the main road. About 200m into the park, I could see a small circular monument, with gardens and some seating around an ‘eternal flame’ in memory to all those who’d died defending Russia.
As I got closer I could see a figure huddled just out of sight, on the side of that would be normally out of sight from the road. At -10 degC there was a boy, no more than 11 or 12 huddled as best he could for some warmth from the flame. He was clearly homeless, and I stood rooted to the spot for some moments. He could so easily have been my own son, yet there was nothing I could think to do about it.
Poverty is a warm country is one thing, in a cold country it’s lethal. And all of this was entirely avoidable, Russia did not have to endure this.
“But America does it too” is not a valid argument.
Why is providing information on context and common international behaviour not valid?
Anytime someone challenges you on Russia’s fairly…errr…poor record in freedom of speech (i.e. assasinating political foes and journalists) you immediately leap to pointing the finger at the US.
Yes, the US is a poor international actor but that does not validate Russia’s own behaviour. Russia should be condemened for its actions the same as the US.
There’s a really old fashioned idea about proclaiming righteous indignation and condemnation about another nation.
It’s that your own nation has the ethical and moral standing to do it from.
…the West used it as an opportunity to maim and gut the country from the inside out.
Of course, it was all the fault of the wicked West. No ex-Soviet citizens could possibly have had anything to do with looting the place and turning it into a Mafia state, because… well, because the West are the bad guys and that explains everything ever.
CV:
RL:
The excellent Prof Stephen F Cohen:
And … recent analysis from Cohen on the US MSM’s demonization of Russia:
Cheers swordfish. I enjoy listening to the talk show segment that Cohen and John Batchelor does every week.
The other side of Cohen’s comments helps explain part of Putin’s popularity.
After just a decade and a half in power, Putin has largely economically rehabilitated Russia from the wrecked sold out shell that Yeltsin and the Oligarchs had created out of the old USSR>
The US doesnt kill its own journalists ??really ?some how i doubt that michael hastings is the first name to come to mind died in 2013 after his late model merc hit a palm tree and then burst into flame later the engine of the car was found 100meters or so down the street perhaps the mechanics at mercedes didnt bolt it down properly !! so hard to get good staff these days .
Hastings had done a story on Gen Stanley McCrystal which had led to obama accepting his resignation.
The other guy who comes to mind was that journo who discovered that drugs were being flown into the states in us military planes to fund a dirty and secret war cant remember which administration that was i think the journos name might have been garry ..webb ?….
anyone else remember that story ?
The US also imprisoned and interrogated an innocent Al Jazeera journalist in Guantanamo Bay for many years, if that counts.
Psycho Milt. Many Americans have died, by foul means, for questioning Corporate America. Many of them could just as easily be described as journalists rather than whistleblowers.
Just look at how the First Nations are treated today. As well as homeless veterans.
“The open society and its enemies.” A few of its enemies can be found commenting on blogs, attempting to create false equivalence between liberal societies and appallingly illiberal ones. It’s not pleasant to watch.
No-one is claiming Putin’s Russia conforms to our Western liberal ideals. But then again considering how rarely we actually live up to these ideals, the point is rather mute.
And yes I do understand the large difference between murdering a journalist and raiding their home/office and illegally seizing their computers. But in the context of two very different nations, with different histories and cultures … the chilling effect on journalism might not be so very different.
Frankly it doesn’t take a long or hard look to find plenty that is ugly and appalling about any of the major powers. They each tend to specialise in their own particular appalling and none of it is defendable. But at the same time I do try to avoid falling into that weirdly unhelpful binary trap of thinking this is ALL they are about.
Thanks RedLogix
You are a refreshing informer who breaks the pattern of incessant biased drivel that we get fed.
I think that some Germans are still wondering just how the Russians defeated them in World War 2. We didn’t – the Russians did. They defeated 80% of Hitler’s war effort, while we claim victory in fighting only 20% – slow and late.
Communist/Socialist/Capitalist hardly mattered. The Russians did it.
But, of course, only Capitalism may be seen as successful…
Put behind a pay wall, now my tax dollars are going to pay for it… Yeah right. No wait I really am paying for the shitty thing I could not watch because I won’t help Muppet Murdoch be even more of a slime ball.
Great cartoon from Mr Evans
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/08/23/malcolm-evans-the-last-medal/
Meanwhile in the alternative universe occupied by the British Conservative party…
https://twitter.com/HeatherWheeler/status/767756321219379201
PS – what is the code to post an image directly to this site?
There isn’t one. I can restrict linked video to sites that do maintain moderation control and that check the contents of videos, but I have never found anything similar for images. And there are a number of ways that images can be abused.
The only possible way is to sequester images while my server side runs scans on them. Then put them into our media library rather than linking to other sites. Since the vast bulk of the site’s data is already images, I’m reluctant to increase the backup footprint. Besides putting the images directly into our site is likely to cause copyright issues.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1608/S00252/david-rankin-statement-alleging-sword-attack.htm
Former National Party leader and Council Candidate hold off “P” sword attacker in West Auckland as TV One news crew flees.
David Rankin and Don Brash have:
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/8392e9004b296f1fd4ebf6bf1c1e5485.jpg
And as for the media:
“Mr Rankin will be laying a complaint with TV One’s management over the actions of its staff. “Our team were surprised at the cowardly behaviour of the reporters. We were at risk of being seriously assaulted, or worse, and this man’s child was in extreme danger, but the reporters just fled the scene.”
Mr Rankin will be approaching TV One management today asking for a full investigation.
Desperate stuff. And no, I don’t mean the man with the sword.
I found it interesting the story on Stuff and the Herald didn’t mention anything about Rankin laying a complaint over the cowardly behaviour of the TV One news crew
Wondering why Rankin believes the man was on “P” I guess it’s an excuse as to why someone is so angry. Time will tell what the real story is rather than a press release from a right wing council candidate.
Maybe the reporters backed off to get a wider camera angle?
Puckish Rogue the second link you posted came up as a 403 forbidden for me
I wouldn’t worry about it, it was just an image of some big, brass balls
hmm – the man with the sword wasnt attempting to attack the child (the child was back in the car presumably) – so its a bit weird to try and claim the journos have done something wrong.
Im pretty sure the advice from the police would be “dont get involved – call us”
sure the guy sounds like he was dangerous – but the rest of it all seems to be desperate profile building.
i struggle to see what a complaint to TVNZ would actually be about – journos arent keepers of law and order after all
(happy to retract once more info comes to light of course)
To take on the media in this instance and to call them out as they did you’d assume that Brash and Rankin were on some pretty sure footing to do so
I mean I know if I was contemplating being a politician the last thing I’d do is take a dump on the media but that’s just me of course
Since when did the msm become security personnel for candidates.
The sense of entitiement is hilarious and misguided as expected.
Harden up son your not an overpaid manager anymore, a choice you made.
When interviewed about this on morning report, Brash seemed to think no one had any photos and no one had called the police. Really? Man with sword not filmed? By anyone? Brash sounded concerned for the boy, but no one called police . Really?
Thought the right wing were big on ” law and order”
I suspect Brash and Rankin were slightly indisposed with guy with the sword, maybe the one news journos could have called?
Whoops, I guess Rankin did a Lochte, and got a bit carried away with his version of events, Brash tried to paint Rankin and himself as ‘victims’ turns out Brash did a runner.
TVNZ news boss John Gillespie this morning said the ONE News team did not feel they or Mr Rankin were in any danger from the man.
“Our team said the man was not waving the sword about nor did he appear to have any violent intent,” Mr Gillespie said in a statement.
“The sword was pointed towards the ground. The boy with the man was smiling and appeared happy. Our cameraman had finished filming by this point and was packing up his gear.
“Our team said Mr Rankin approached the man, shook hands with him and spoke to him.
“Our team were by now in their car ready to leave. Dr Brash had left. Mr Rankin got into his car and as he was driving off, rolled down his window and spoke with the team.
“Our team were the last to leave.
“Our team never felt in danger and nor were they concerned about the safety of anyone else.”
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/live-stream-one-news-tonight-q01253
Hillary Clinton bought?
’15k new Hillary emails discovered as evidence of Clinton Foundation pay-to-play scheme grows’
https://www.rt.com/usa/356782-clinton-emails-bahrain-prince/
I read that – lots of facts, tenuous connections, and the worst possible conclusions made. It is not news that some try to get access and favours and sometimes they even succeed overtly and/or covertly.
How is it not news that a US Sec State accepted millions in foreign donations while presiding over decisions affecting those same foreign donors?
Or is it just the norm now and not newsworthy.
Could just be that only a few are fooled by right wing attack memes. Particularly memes that aren’t actually true and don’t stand up to scrutiny.
LOL never would have thought you to be a bleeding heart hillary supporter i saw a clip of her once where she was giving a talk in a packed auditorium on …i kid you not free speech …when a guy stands up wearing a tee shirt with something apparrently provocative on it an turns his back to her in order to display it whereupon he is immediately jumped on by two goons who manhandle him very roughly out of the room. Meanwhile hillary doesnt even hesitate for a nanno secend on how its so important to have democratic rights etc etc The other yuk thing was the totally absorbed almost fixated attention of the audience almost noone even turned around when the “protester”was dragged out .They reminded me of a bunch of sheep or christians at a gathering of the flock .Ithought what a fucking cold bitch no way shed get my vote .
But no obviously a right wing attack meme trp /sarc
[lprent: You appear to confuse “free speech” with your “right” to be a arrogant offensive fuckwit. Hosts at any venue, both public or private, make the rules about behaviour, just as they do here. “Free speech” doesn’t mean that you or any other gormless idiotic wanker gets the right to crap all over our site, nor like the protagonist in your story – to wave your diseased mind around like a demented stage 3 syphilitic patient. But obviously that is what you think you can and should be able to do.
Well around here you cannot. On this site you obey our rules as a guest. If you don’t want to then you can take your stupidity elsewhere and whine there like any other tormented puppy after being disciplined for weeing on the carpet. If you look hard enough around the net, I am sure that you can find somewhere that will tolerate adult children with spoilt tantrum issues.
So I’m giving you 2 weeks freedom from the need to comment here while you read our policies about the behaviour of guests on our site and/or look for another site to be a fuckwit on. Based on your profound ignorance of civilised behaviour, I suspect you will need that kind of time to look up and understand some of the concepts in the policy. Like “guest”, “responsibility”, “respect for hosts”, and what real “sarcasm” looks like.
And incidentially, I hope you liked me exercising my “free speech” on your pissant behaviour. ]
A Sulphurous Blast from the Past:
Seven minutes that disgusted New Zealand
This disgraceful, foul-mouthed, unintelligent spray doesn’t get any better, even after thirteen years. At about the two-minute mark in his ignorant and hateful rant, Paul Holmes opines that “the greatest perk, do-nothing job in the world is at the U.N.”
In fact, of course, as these bigots invariably do, he was talking about himself….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNdk7Hsj_R0
Seems I’m not the only one who thinks that Larry lost his job for criticizing the media establishment. Obama took it well, it just seems all the white people did not think it was funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMqgTAVDh7Y
Unlikely, Colbert roasted Bush Jr a lot worse. Difference is Colbert was/is very popular and funny. Wilmore was cutting but just not very funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-a2KeyCAY
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11699382
Govt has officially gone mad:
School-age students will be able to enrol in an accredited online learning provider instead of attending school, under new Government legislation.
The radical change will see any registered school, tertiary provider such as a polytechnic or an approved body corporate be able to apply to be a “community of online learning” (COOL).
Any student of compulsory schooling age will be able to enrol in a COOL – and that provider will determine whether students will need to physically attend for all or some of the school day.
It sounds like something from “In the Thick of It”
Someone in the Ministry has been drinking the ACT-supplied COOL-AID.
Peeni Henare has made some interesting comments about the claim by Kīngi Tūheitia that Labour had ruled out working with the Māori Party.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83462254/maori-kings-claims-andrew-little-wont-work-with-maori-party-wrong-labour
Edmund Burke set out in an address to the electors of Bristol in 1774: “Your representative owes you not his industry only but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/08/why-it-duty-labour-party-try-stop-brexit
I’m especially partial to Mr Burke’s notion that parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch13s7.html
Just on ethical investments for retirement funds, apparently investment managers can sign up to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.
It’s not perfect, what with all the different networks of corporate connection, but it does require that environmental, social, and corporate governance issues be part of the fiduciary calculation (i.e. “maximised profits” include the long term good as well as short term mercenary motivations).