“Investigative Journalism: Why Bernie may have actually won New York
Even after Tuesday’s voting debacle, many have assumed that even without election-day mishaps, Hillary Clinton would have won New York. Fairly reasonable, right? After all, it was a decisive sixteen-point win in her home state.
Not so fast; I’m going to present a series of facts that should lead the rational observer to be suspicious of these results.
Before we begin, I want you to know that I am a staunch Sanders supporter; therefore, I will do my best to remove my “Bernie bias” from the equation (please join me in keeping a close eye on my personal beliefs, lest they color my analysis or cause me to omit relevant counter-evidence).
We’re going to examine the situation using a device called Occam’s razor, which essentially says to choose the simplest theory that covers all of the bases.
Let’s look at what we know.
… ”
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“With human beings, perception is e everything”
JENNY
or in this case the creation of misperception
…..there is a misperception, which has spread since Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver appeared on MSNBC last night. Numerous reports quoted Weaver and suggested the campaign plans to upend the will of voters and flip superdelegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination at the convention in July.
However, what Bump, Walsh, and others seem to misunderstand is Weaver made his comments under the presumption that neither Clinton nor Sanders will meet the 2,383 pledged delegate threshold needed to clinch the nomination before the convention. Both candidates will need to make cases to superdelegates to clinch the nomination.
Just because it hurts your delicate feelings it does not make it wrong The left now have a propensity to blame every loss and or poll result on corruption, the media and or the voters, never looking at there own inadequacies and that joe public just doesn’t want to buy their Kool Aid
“Just because it hurts your delicate feelings it does not make it wrong The left now have a propensity to blame every loss and or poll result on corruption…” Reddelusion
Reddelusion if you had read my comment and attached link, you would have seen that it is the Right that are claiming that Sanders is acting undemocratically, for daring to presume that he can lobby super delegates at the Democratic Convention in July. A tactic it seems is only permitted to born to rule establishment figures.
Is smugness the problem with the left? A long read in The Vox analysing the alienation of the liberal left from the ‘red neck’ working class they used to represent. http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism
I know I’m guilty of many of the examples the writer gives, as are so many of the commentatators of all of the left wing blogs. Maybe we need to change our attitudes and not underestimate the size of the chasm that has to crossed if we want to gain the reins of government ever again
Think the problems of the left have a lot to do with the consumer driven neolib world we now live in. Working class organisations have lost their influence while the workers now toil away for ever increasing hours for stagnated wages, they simply don’t have the conditions, resources or luxury of time to formulate any cohesive response.
One thing that I’ve noted over the last couple of years is that the people we need the least, the people who could be so easily replaced, these people are paid the most. And the inverse of course – the people we need the most are paid the least.
Pay matters. How much you earn can determine your lifestyle, where you can afford to live, and your aspirations and status. But to what extent does what we get paid confer ‘worth’?
What makes all this especially shocking is that it’s happening in a capitalist system, a system founded on capitalist values like efficiency and productivity. While politicians endlessly stress the need to downsize government, they remain largely silent as the number of bullshit jobs goes right on growing. This results in scenarios where, on the one hand, governments cut back on useful jobs in sectors like healthcare, education, and infrastructure – resulting in unemployment – while on the other investing millions in the unemployment industry of training and surveillance whose effectiveness has long been disproven.
Garbage men should earn more than bankers, but part of the problem is that garbage men will always earn more than cleaners and rest home workers. Traditional socialist movements lost many politicised women to feminism in the 70s because women were still being expected to make cups of tea and lie on their backs as their main role in the movement, and to put their own agenda and political needs aside until after the revolution.
That’s a generalisation, and not intended to render invisible all the socialist women who have done good work, nor the fact that not all of the traditional left was so biased. From the feminist side, women were talking about why they left those movements and committed to feminist politics instead. It’s hard to see how those women would go back, esp when there is still a strong stream of thought on the left that denigrates human rights issues (so called identity politics) and basically tells everyone that their needs can wait until after the revolution.
Likewise other people who don’t see class as the overarching issue that should take precedence over all others.
I do agree there is a big problem for the left though, in that the party political is now run by the middle classes. Plus the neoliberal capture.
another way to look at it rather than rolling out the stock lefty Neo liberal bollocks is that they can’t be bothered as most are happy enough and just getting on with it in the 21st century. This is to the disgust of the old liberal elite lefty institution (e.g. Academics, unions, labour) that are loosing their power base trying to create misery that is not there to manufacture victims to form a constituency for their own self interest, wealth and power
That smugness is one of the reasons I gave up on Russell Brown and his Public Address cronies. I have a Christian friend who spent years in Ethiopia working with victims of leprosy, war and rape at great psychological cost to herself and when I told them about her, they simply ridiculed her faith. I don’t forgive them for that, but then I’m not a Christian.
Not quite fair… I too am an atheist, but would not have used ridicule to diminish what your friend did. (Unless I thought it very funny and witty at the time…) I hope would not have diminished it at all.
The problem is that many people are desperately trying to justify the stance they have taken, and in conversation do not have time to consider where others are coming from.
It is all part of aging and becoming a grumpy old person. I know.. I think I have been there, but I can’t quite remember.
How many generations ago did the idea gain traction, that by voting in a given party – Labour in most of the English speaking world – that things would get better as society embarked on an ever upward trajectory of improvement that would eventually deliver (remember this?) a world based on socialist principles?
The left said that was never going to happen, because parliament could never be a route to socialism. Nevertheless, enough people were blindsided, improvements flowed to many for a time, and parliamentary statism became synonymous with ‘the left’…at the same time as the left was being systematically marginalised and its thoughts and vision eradicated from the consciousness of the population at large.
And now we’re in a cul-de-sac.
Statism cannot deliver. Markets cannot deliver. They’ve ‘done their dash’ and it’s all decline from now on in. Meanwhile, society at large has largely lost the vision and inspiration that used to inform and drive a substantial proportion of the people within it. What we have now is the spectacle of a shrinking faux left, flailing around trying to convince itself that it has something to offer…that its state bound, bastardised version of left vision and thought continues to carry any water. It’s got nothing.
Only those fortunate enough to be from families that were ‘lifted up’ and who have so far, not been dashed back down, are keen to perpetuate the myth of ‘progress’ by some supposedly ‘left’ parliamentary party fiddling with the art of chrematistics. (Google it). But growing numbers of people, staring back into a quality of life they imagine to be not a million miles away from the shite their great grandparents might have had to endure, just aren’t buying it any more.
Those people don’t need to be convinced that they should stick the course because things will work out. It’s the still comfortable liberals who need to be convinced that a wrong step was taken; that despite their current well being, failure to back track and get off the path we’re on is going to end in nothing but tears.
You doubt that? Then look around you.
The natural world is saying that you can’t have the life that you have. The natural world is saying that you can’t preserve it or build on it. We can’t fool the natural world, and the natural world is essentially saying that time’s up.
The natural world is saying that you can’t have the life that you have. The natural world is saying that you can’t preserve it or build on it. We can’t fool the natural world, and the natural world is essentially saying that time’s up.
Gaia doesn’t negotiate and doesn’t take prisoners.
Aristotle established the fundamental difference between economics and chrematistics. The accumulation of money itself is an unnatural activity that dehumanizes those who practice it. Like Plato, he condemns the accumulation of wealth. Trade exchanges money for goods and usury creates money from money. The merchant does not produce anything: both are reprehensible from the standpoint of their philosophical ethics.
According to Aristotle, the “necessary” chrematistic economy is licit if the sale of goods is made directly between the producer and buyer at the right price; it does not generate a value-added product. By contrast, it is illicit if the producer purchases for resale to consumers for a higher price, generating added value. The money must be only a medium of exchange and measure of value.
In other words, according to two of the greatest thinkers of all time – capitalism is unethical and reprehensible.
Before Capitalism, Goethe in Faust Part 1 described the human condition. I cannot remember exactly now, but the image is of mankind leaping into the air like a grasshopper, only to find his nose buried in a pile of dung when he comes back down.
It appears that nothing has changed, despite all our supposed advances.
“The trouble is that stupid hicks don’t know what’s good for them. They’re getting conned by right-wingers and tent revivalists until they believe all the lies that’ve made them so wrong. They don’t know any better. That’s why they’re voting against their own self-interest.”
Very good article questioning what we are gaining from our bizarre immigration experiment over the last 15 years in which our non-citizen immigration programme is already one of the largest (per capita) in the world and immigration in Auckland will increase nearly 10% the Auckland population in just National term of government) but over 15 years have gained no economic gains in the tradable sector. But Steven Joyce’s answer is to increase immigration.
“A reader pointed me to an article on the NBR website in which Science and Innovation Minister [isn’t there something wrong when we even have a government “innovation minister?] was quoted as telling a business audience yesterday that:
more migration is the only way to bridge the current skills gap for ICT companies in New Zealand.
and
“That’s one of the reasons I’m leery of calls to halt immigration – apart from the fact there’s not much reason to because of the economic gains,” he said.
In the last fifteen years, we have had huge waves of immigration, under both governments, and yet there is not the slightest evidence of economic gains accruing to the New Zealand population as a whole. Tradables sector production per capita has gone nowhere in fifteen years, productivity growth has been lousy, and there is no sign of any progress at all towards meeting Mr Joyce’s own governments (well-intentioned but flawed) exports target.
And yet the Minister’s answer is even more immigration.”
GDP per head remains static or lowers.
A lot of ICT gaps have been filled and now the wages are just being lowered. $50000 five years ago, $35000 now.
The actual skills shortage list that immigration has for jobs that cannot be filled easily, is not large.
Our points based cutoff lets in skilled people (although there can be a mismatch between their job level description and the local equivalent) who want a job (not to start a company) in the local market.
The investment category should be removed. I believe Canada did it.
Where are all the new modern cutting edge factories providing great local jobs and keeping profits local. – I don’t see them – no investment there.
But plenty in property and political donations – they look like more trouble than they are worth…
The only way to increase our nations capability in anything is more R&D. As a small nation with huge resources we should have about 25% of our working populace in R&D and probably more. Instead we’re pushing the Bullshit Jobs for all their worth which is nothing.
Expecting to be able to benefit from imported the skills when those imported skills are then constrained by failed managers is nothing more than vain hope.
We need to decrease some other sectors as well. Farming comes to mind. Trade isn’t benefiting us as instead of encouraging development the economy it actually forces stagnation. Pushes us to produce more of the same rather than allowing increased productivity to increase the diversity of our economy. The end result is what’s just happened to our farmers with the collapse in milk solid prices.
As a small nation with huge resources we should have about 25% of our working populace in R&D and probably more. Instead we’re pushing the Bullshit Jobs for all their worth which is nothing.
For a case study, see the current destruction of AgResearch at the hands of Joyce-appointed examples of just how bad NZ’s managers are. I can only assume the mismanagement in this case is intentional, so Joyce can later claim that AgResearch is dysfunctional and needs to be privatised or absorbed into other research centres.
Speaking of destruction, Paula Bennet has talked about R&D for climate change research AFTER the Natz have just fired a whole load of scientists. They really are idiots.
From jonolist Heather Duplicitous Talons…….a risible twist on Nat harpy Michelle Boag’s perennial claim that the housing crisis is largely down to first home buyers refusing to contemplate other than Remuera and St Mary’s Bay.
Let’s say the millenials do embrace Otara for other than rental investment. Where do the poor people go once they’re shunted out of Otara Heather ? You’ll help them throw up some tents down Meremere way will you Heather ? Idiotic perpetual smirk ‘couldn’t actually give a fuck’ wee jonolist you.
So much offensiveness in that its hard to know where to begin. Shes quickly becoming the heralds star reporter. The end bit where she says Otara can be recolonised by the rich and renamed Ostentatious Heights is pretty sickening.
So much offensiveness in that its hard to know where to begin… The bit that strikes me is her assumption that people have no attachment to an area – that everyone else is a slightly-worse-off version of herself, with grandiose aspirations and no attachment to anywhere. Here’s a fact: In 2009, someone I know, after getting outbid by property developers a few times on $350,000-$420,000 family sized rundown houses in the Newton-Arch Hill area decided they had to make two moves out, not one, to escape their influence, and did so.
That is how recently the whole of central Auckland became too good for ordinary mortals, some of whom have been part of that community for generations. A large group of people, from an ever widening area, simply HATE seeing the HDPA class arrive, and look upon improved facilities with fear and suspicion rather than delighted anticipation. It will not be long before people will be happier to see a gang setting up headquarters in their area, than a bunch of HDPA-types deeming it NZ’s latest answer to Tuscany/Manhattan/Paris/you-name-it.
If there is one central tennet of neoliberalism it’s that there’s no such thing as community. So people having to move is simply a matter of economics.
I know that transport costs are a big issue for people too, both in accessing jobs, but also where families are split and children are under shared care. It’s all very well to say that people can move across town but what if they then can’t afford the petrol to pick their kids up? Never mind, all hail the neoliberal machine where everyone else serves Heather Duplicitous’ class.
Your use of grammar and tense in that statement says it all.
Once you’ve thought about the ethical issues in people being moved, have a think about the effect on existing communities and families. What about kids that are under shared care arrangements? Or solo parents taht are dependent on friends and families for support?
I think there are huge issues with the numbers of people that want to live in Auckland, but suggesting they can be moved isn’t a useful starting point.
Just skip the house and go back to institutions and poor houses.
Anyway surely you are more likely to get this:
Houses for everyone and re-invigoration of smaller communities.
if you move the rich people out to the small communities – logic would dictate this as much more sensible.
They could take their businesses with them, there would be less demand for housing in Auckland, local small businesses would get spin-off work from the successful businesses these rich people can build and develop. They wouldn’t need million dollar salaries and lower paid workers could get more.
So yeah campaign for the rich to move out to the provinces – after all it’s the rich that are our saviours.
I know a few CEO wives that fit that description, then there’s old people, and those with disabilities, not sure if Irish Catholics still meet that description but we could start sending young mums to the country to have their children again – save them the embarrassment of their parents friends knowing they had sex …
Where to Invade Next is out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KeAZho8TKo
the school cafeteria in France makes an interesting contrast to new Zealand in fact a lot of whats in the film does the full film is out if you look for it.
You have to ask, why the hell are we not importing immigrants who actually create NEW businesses that Create NEW job for KIWIS and export and the criteria is to make a profit?
Instead we seem to be importing migrants for internal jobs like Chefs and IT workers and wanting immigrants to invest in Auckland property in an already overheated market and P importers.
Likewise companies here, who’s sole purpose is to take what they can, and then move to the cheapest Labour market.
An insider who worked there has alleged they are now moving to Nigeria for cheaper Labour. Many of the migrants they have imported are now alledgedly on the NZ dole queue.
Game over: NZ’s largest gaming studio to shut
New Zealand’s largest video gaming studio is closing down and 150 people are losing their jobs.
Gameloft is a French-owned company which was set up in Auckland ten years ago.
So just talking to this guy from Florida, how about this as a policy. First generation to attend university (defined as grandparents and parents) all fees free and a living allowance paid…
Anyone hear Paula Bennett on Q and A this morning – she was talking about climate change and said in the conversation “that’s all hyperbole” (she pronounced it hyper-bowl) – not the best educated woman out there – only outdone by Rodney Hide who years ago talked about a cacophony (he pronounced it “cakka-phoney”) Nice to hear something funny for a change with all the terrible stuff going on!
So nice to know our politicians (and ex politicians), those who make the rules and laws, by which we should live, are not the brightest stars in the sky! Well I think we knew that didn’t we? It’s just sometimes they confirm our suspicions regarding their ignorance and stupidity with their ridiculous utterances!
To Hami Shearlie at 10: I must have switched Paula Bennet off before that ‘blue’ in pronunciation because the shame I felt that a person with her portfolio could be so unlearned on the subject, indicated the garden more demanding of my time and general well-being! Thank you for providing a wry smile, though surely this Minister has had ample time since becoming our official face on climate change to have attained a real understanding of the issues. I grieve, and because rain ( though welcome ) has arrived, the garden solution no longer possible.
As much as I dislike the politics of Paula Bennett, mispronounced word could be because the person is smart enough to read an understand the words, and use them correctly, but may have never heard them. It’s is not necessarily a case of ignorance, but a case of unfamiliarity with the sound of the word.
Belittling formal education/intellectual heritage is close to calling a person unintelligent. A dangerous assumption, in my experience.
PSI released the new report on 18 March 2015 at the “SDGs for Workers”, a Parallel Event sponsored by Global Unions at the NGO CSW Forum during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW).
The report assesses the PPP experience in both industrialised and developing countries and contains a combination of 30 years of research by David Hall, former Director of Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) University of Greenwich, UK.
The many case studies analysed, from United Kingdom to Chile, show that PPPs have failed to live up to their promise. In most cases, they are an expensive and inefficient way of financing infrastructure and services, since they conceal public borrowing, while providing long-term state guarantees for profits to private companies.
The author proposes a public alternative to this system, in which national and local governments can continue to develop infrastructure by using public finance for investment, and public sector organisations to deliver the service.
“Public services are massive pools of potential corporate profit, and PPPs serve to access them. The ‘clients’ are captive, the services are often monopoly,” comments David Boys, Deputy General Secretary of PSI.
“This paper provides a synthesis of many years of research, and should be used by union activists, concerned citizens, but also by policy makers around the world.”
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Sacha mentioned Action Station as being an alternative to political parties. I guess there are some other people like me who haven’t heard about it yet. It sounds promising to be involved with while we wait for Labour to get over its sad case of sleeping sickness.
We could join in this, and also support our favourite leftie party, and others which are fighting to forge a name for themselves as being honest workers for the people. We are still allowed this freedom, to have multi-interests, and not just board the train and travel the line to wherever.
http://www.actionstation.org.nz/about
ActionStation is an independent, member-led not-for-profit organisation representing over 100,000 Kiwis holding power to account, standing for a fair society, healthy environment & economic fairness.
@Skinny
I don’t know much about ActionStation. When I looked them up I liked the look of their web page, nice design. Everyone has to start somewhere. But they are lacking something you think? I just don’t feel confident that enough is happening on the political scene. If there is too much of a void a hologram of Trump might beam over and dazzle us with hijinks.
Meanwhile, Obama went undercover for the Brexit crowd in the UK by stating that should the UK opt to leave the EU, then they wouldn’t get to be party to TTIP. Not only that, but the UK would go to the back of the queue as far as ‘negotiating’ any free trade deals with the US was concerned.
Oh. But then, along with the Clinton, pointed out that the US wanted the UK to remain in Europe to act as leverage for the US in Europe.
I don’t know why I used ‘but’ for that second statement. Be an economically crushed vassal of the US of A situated on the geographical fringes of Europe, or…well, there is no ‘or’. Apparently those two things are just what the ordinary people of the UK always wanted…I mean, it must be, innit?
For those of you interested in what Bill Black, a man who put over a thousand bankers in jail and who travels around the globe to educate entire Governments about why Control fraud is such a pervasive, hideous form of fraud, has to say about putting a Merrill Lynch banker on the board of Guardians of the Cullen fund and John Key making New Zealand into a secrecy haven also known as a tax haven here is the link to Vinny Eastwood’s show with Bill Black, recorded last WednesdayVinnie Eastwood’s show with Bill Black In the first half Vinny interviews Bill about his work and his past victories over banking fraud. I have the opportunity to ask Bill a ton of questions pertaining to New Zealand in the second hour! Conclusion? John Key is a banker fraudster who should be in jail like his Icelandic colleagues and the Cullen fund is f&*ked!
Another silly silly article trying to tell people if you only worked harder and saved harder, they can afford a house in Auckland.
Luckily most people don’t believe a word the Herald says anymore.
“Buying your own house is so hard now it seems, that the @nzherald considers it front page news when someone can afford one.” A pearler from the Twitterverse.
Methinks the tide is beginning to turn with the middle classes, here in Auckland at least. I see from the series of articles in the Herald about the housing situation that some of our middle class people are now housing half of their children in their spare bedrooms and kids in their mid-twenties to thirties at that along with their spouses/partners and professionally educated as well, because they cannot afford a down payment on a house. So even with a professional education and joint salaries they still cannot manage a down payment because of high rents and so they are back living with Mum and Dad. Can see this going down like a lead balloon when Mum and Dad want to kick back and go on a overseas trip.
Some of the parents are paying for the down payment/deposit, others are buying land for their kids and its taking a dent in their retirement savings. The rot is setting in, a lot of people on this site have said it will have to be the middle classes being affected by the housing crisis here for the tide to turn. Let’s hope and pray this happens and they see what a complete shambles the Auckland market has been turned into by not having good effective restraints on overseas buyers having carte blanche here to buy up our housing stock.
Some parents may have to, in the end, gift over one or two of their rented properties to the kids and miss out on the income from them. Then we will see them starting to “complain” in a big way. Happy days folks.
It’s not that long ago when it was normal for people to live in extended family situations. In fact it’s been the norm for most of human history. I know we’ve lost the knack of it, but I don’t see people having to share housing with family as the end of the world, or even necessarily a negative.
Add to that that the size of housing and expectations around everyone having their own space is not realistic in an age of climate change and resource depletion.
I have a lot of sympathy for the people who are struggling to pay rent or mortgage, because having a home is central to wellbeing. But it’s hard to feel sorry for the middle classes who are struggling because they are treating home ownership as an investment. I was fortunate to buy and eventually sell a house at a time when it worked financially but I was never under the illusion that it was anything other than a crock of shit that we all pay for and some more than others.
There’s a lot of bitching between the boomers and their offspring generation but I’d take it more seriously if I saw them being also concerned for people who can’t find a place to live, or who are struggling to have a meaningful life because their housing costs suck up so much of their income. Because let’s not forget that most of the people complaining about the difficulties of home ownership would in a flash buy and sell a house as an investment if they could.
I really think that we are at the end of the age of privilege, and I hope that the Gen Y wake up to this and start looking at creative solutions to working with what we’ve got. We should be looking at new models of co-housing, sharing land etc and stepping out of the millieu that says buying a home and saving for retirement is the best thing, because it’s all going to fall over in their life times anyway.
I understand Weka completely, but I feel that the tide will turn now as its the Middle Classes which keep voting in this Government and they are starting to feel the effects. I fully agree that we should help our families out and in my own circumstances that is we are doing, giving one of ours a helping hand, the only difference is we have never voted for National and do not condone what they have done to this country. As Bomber over on the Daily Blog says, once the Middle Classes start to bitch and whinge then we may see the tide turn. In the end it will be a battle between the 1% and the rest of us, Middle Classes included. If that’s what it takes, it can’t come soon enough.
Federated Farmers Arable Industry Group is watching with interest the increasing tonnage of supplementary feeds being imported.
This, at a time, when there is leftover maize and cereal feed grain which could be consumed by these sectors for an equally competitive price.
Maize harvest has begun in the North Island and in many cases they have had an exceptional growing season but the low dairy payout and cheap price of palm kernel expeller have meant they don’t have a home for the product.
Some, meanwhile, are burning the maize in the paddock and writing the season off.
Imported feeds risk bringing in new weeds, pests and diseases. While New Zealand has import health standards to try to manage these risks, sometimes things slip through the cracks. (Latest is something called velvet leaf, looks a bit like bindweed.)
Velvet leaf came in with imported fodder beet seed. Looks like fodder beet is a newish crop desired by dairy farmers. Don’t know why NZ can’t grow its own seed.
Neoliberal, market knows best, system failure, exactly.
@weka
The fodder beet bit interested me too. I think it was fodder beet developed to withstand Roundup that was involved in a large number of cow deaths. Those beets had concentrated toxins in the leaves due to some climatic effect.
So that raises the questions – why are beets being more used, why is the seed imported, do all farmers understand the proper use of it and the times the animals need to be withheld from it, are they taking a risk on using it and then claiming on insurance if it turns out badly, is it something to lay on the now shown as unprofitable over-stocking with non-grass extra feed method?
Are farmers being sold a sick system that is rebounding on them?
(And about imported stuff there was a piece in The Press about searching for the entry point of black grass that is being found in the middle of paddocks, and is not wanted. A little para says it has nothing to do with the roadside drop of tainted seed from trucks carting it to and from the big agricultural importing companies. The plants are growing too far away to result from any dropped seed at roadsides. But weeds are those plants that have amazing reproductive powers and they find ways to get around. A cover up for our big corporates making money from modern industrial farming-with warnings ‘contains collateral damage’?)
The roundup ready issue was with swedes. Both happened inSouthland.
The politics of who controls the world’s seed stores is a major issue for NZ food security. Lots of good work has been done on preserving NZ’s seed banks but if we had a hard crash I think we’d be struggling.
Same old shit. This is why I place relocalisation so high in political priorities. The sooner we get the stuff that matters out of the hands of the greedy people the better all round.
Just another bit on velvet leaf piece earlier that raises questions for the country. That is whether subsidies are good for farmers and the country in certain situations like this. If the MPI is called will they charge the farmer? If so they may not be called and not get to know the extent of the infestation.
MPI will make arrangements for removing the plants, inspect the rest of the crop to ensure there are no more plants and then together with FAR, DairyNZ have developed a farm management plan to manage the velvetleaf to prevent it being moved around the farm or out the gate.
Better to help the farmer and we bear the cost. Better not to allow this Lazy Maisey government free market leave everything to business no regulation contract out stuff to continue. It isn’t working for us. And remember contractors work to rule, in a different way to unionists, but it is still damaging to the country to have people tied to set parameters who must ignore matters outside their contract that need investigation or attention, because they are not being paid to do so.
Well said Miravox. I find it unpleasant when people mock the pronunciation or spelling of others as a sign of their own intellectual superiority – which it rarely is. Some towering geniuses have been rotten spellers.
Whatever we think of her politics, Paula Bennett has an impressive career after starting as a young solo mum, going to university and rising in the political ranks where she has had some demanding roles. It doesn’t help to ridicule successful women and often verges on misogyny.
However I did have to laugh at Mihi Forbes this morning on Radio NZ talking about the first ‘calvary’ charge in a NZ battle. She said it over and over again so it was clearly an unfamiliar word for her despite radio and TV announcing being the profession she is supposedly trained for.
Try to remember to hit the reply button in future Bea Brown then your comment will come up beneath – or closely beneath – the person you are replying to.
As for your fit of pique over a few grins concerning Bennett’s mispronunciation:
Ms Bennett has done well but to describe her as having had an impressive career is over the top given she just happened to be in the right place at the right time and… knew the right people. Her actual qualifications have been attained by many, many thousands of young NZers – lots of them in far more straitened circumstances than herself. In fact from what I’ve heard… she may have been a solo mum but her situation was never straitened.
More important is her language in respect of Climate Change matters. She has a very superficial understanding of the subject -if she has even that – and that is deeply disturbing for a Minister of Climate Change! There is also historical evidence of her spiteful, bullying behaviour towards anyone who dares to cross her, so I personally don’t mind people having a giggle or two over a mispronounced word. Not a big deal in the scheme of things.
‘fit of pique’;’in the right place at the right time and… knew the right people’; ‘she may have been a solo mum but her situation was never straitened’; ‘very superficial understanding of the subject’; ‘spiteful, bullying’.
Wow.
Hyperbole?
But if you share your opinion, don’t be surprised when others share theirs.
You might think it’s just sloganeering, others might feel that the minister responsible for social welfare has not just overseen increased hardship and degradation of those who need help from society, but has in several instances denied people the assistance that she herself received when she walked, however fleetingly, in their shoes.
Personally I have nothing but contempt for the person.
You said something. Someone disagreed with it. You don’t like that someone disagreed with you. I’m just pointing out that that won’t work on this site, esp if the disagreement is over Paula Bennett. You might want to read the site policy too, top of the page.
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
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A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
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Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
On an unusually hot night in January 2019, a little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a small town’s sewage oxidation pond. To the police, it was an open and shut case: three-year-old Lachlan Jones had run away from his home in the Southland town of Gore, climbed ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
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Seen this?
“Investigative Journalism: Why Bernie may have actually won New York
Even after Tuesday’s voting debacle, many have assumed that even without election-day mishaps, Hillary Clinton would have won New York. Fairly reasonable, right? After all, it was a decisive sixteen-point win in her home state.
Not so fast; I’m going to present a series of facts that should lead the rational observer to be suspicious of these results.
Before we begin, I want you to know that I am a staunch Sanders supporter; therefore, I will do my best to remove my “Bernie bias” from the equation (please join me in keeping a close eye on my personal beliefs, lest they color my analysis or cause me to omit relevant counter-evidence).
We’re going to examine the situation using a device called Occam’s razor, which essentially says to choose the simplest theory that covers all of the bases.
Let’s look at what we know.
… ”
____________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
or in this case the creation of misperception
http://www.businessballs.com/elisabeth_kubler_ross_five_stages_of_grief.htm
The Sanders supporters are just starting to go through their five stages of grief.
Questions in and around corruption, and Ad reaches for the cheap shot.
Questions around money buying elections – and Ad decides this is not an issue – and goes for a cheap shot.
Ever thought you just parrot the establishment media Ad? -Ever thought you were a weak individual who only good at the, cheap shot?
Cheap and nasty shot.
Just because it hurts your delicate feelings it does not make it wrong The left now have a propensity to blame every loss and or poll result on corruption, the media and or the voters, never looking at there own inadequacies and that joe public just doesn’t want to buy their Kool Aid
What does your comment have to do with mine or Adam’s or Ads? Or are you just jumping on the back of them to whine about lefties?
Reddelusion if you had read my comment and attached link, you would have seen that it is the Right that are claiming that Sanders is acting undemocratically, for daring to presume that he can lobby super delegates at the Democratic Convention in July. A tactic it seems is only permitted to born to rule establishment figures.
It ain’t over till it’s over …..
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Or to [deleted]
[Only warning. Not fucking acceptable. Don’t go down that track again.] – Bill
Study accuses American Psychological Association of complicity in CIA torture program.
It could not happen to a nicer bunch. I wonder how our lot would fare …
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/report-says-american-psychological-association-collabor
http://t.co/Htg3Ia6miW
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2069718/report.pdf
http://t.co/EeTFQ3vBoZ
https://t.co/nkA0CKJmjI
https://twitter.com/trevortimm/status/593769313552601089
https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/salim-v-mitchell-statement-interest-united-states
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-cia-torture-20160422-story.html
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/salim_v._mitchell_-_complaint_10-13-15.pdf
https://twitter.com/hashtag/GitMo?src=hash
http://t.co/pT7rzVTNpG
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ue0VIHVz8Hg
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/593765237343531008
Is smugness the problem with the left? A long read in The Vox analysing the alienation of the liberal left from the ‘red neck’ working class they used to represent. http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism
I know I’m guilty of many of the examples the writer gives, as are so many of the commentatators of all of the left wing blogs. Maybe we need to change our attitudes and not underestimate the size of the chasm that has to crossed if we want to gain the reins of government ever again
Thanks for that – a challenging article.
A really annoying article.
Typical leftie self-loathing.
Worth a debate though.
Think the problems of the left have a lot to do with the consumer driven neolib world we now live in. Working class organisations have lost their influence while the workers now toil away for ever increasing hours for stagnated wages, they simply don’t have the conditions, resources or luxury of time to formulate any cohesive response.
http://evonomics.com/why-garbage-men-should-earn-more-than-bankers/
+1
One thing that I’ve noted over the last couple of years is that the people we need the least, the people who could be so easily replaced, these people are paid the most. And the inverse of course – the people we need the most are paid the least.
Summed up here:
Quoting article:
Sounds about right.
+ several million bonus points, DTB.
Garbage men should earn more than bankers, but part of the problem is that garbage men will always earn more than cleaners and rest home workers. Traditional socialist movements lost many politicised women to feminism in the 70s because women were still being expected to make cups of tea and lie on their backs as their main role in the movement, and to put their own agenda and political needs aside until after the revolution.
That’s a generalisation, and not intended to render invisible all the socialist women who have done good work, nor the fact that not all of the traditional left was so biased. From the feminist side, women were talking about why they left those movements and committed to feminist politics instead. It’s hard to see how those women would go back, esp when there is still a strong stream of thought on the left that denigrates human rights issues (so called identity politics) and basically tells everyone that their needs can wait until after the revolution.
Likewise other people who don’t see class as the overarching issue that should take precedence over all others.
I do agree there is a big problem for the left though, in that the party political is now run by the middle classes. Plus the neoliberal capture.
another way to look at it rather than rolling out the stock lefty Neo liberal bollocks is that they can’t be bothered as most are happy enough and just getting on with it in the 21st century. This is to the disgust of the old liberal elite lefty institution (e.g. Academics, unions, labour) that are loosing their power base trying to create misery that is not there to manufacture victims to form a constituency for their own self interest, wealth and power
“Most are happy enough and getting on with it” yeah right
Longer working hours…
http://www.dol.govt.nz/publications/nohsac/evolving_workplace/008_content.asp
Increasing Inequality…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/68600911/Income-inequality-How-NZ-is-one-of-the-worst-in-the-world
High Child poverty rates…
https://www.unicef.org.nz/learn/our-work-in-new-zealand/Child-Poverty-in-New-Zealand
If the author of Twitterature World’s Greatest Books in 20 tweets says so…..
/
That smugness is one of the reasons I gave up on Russell Brown and his Public Address cronies. I have a Christian friend who spent years in Ethiopia working with victims of leprosy, war and rape at great psychological cost to herself and when I told them about her, they simply ridiculed her faith. I don’t forgive them for that, but then I’m not a Christian.
I’ve seen similar happen on ts too. I think it’s more about the fundamentalist atheists than class.
Not quite fair… I too am an atheist, but would not have used ridicule to diminish what your friend did. (Unless I thought it very funny and witty at the time…) I hope would not have diminished it at all.
The problem is that many people are desperately trying to justify the stance they have taken, and in conversation do not have time to consider where others are coming from.
It is all part of aging and becoming a grumpy old person. I know.. I think I have been there, but I can’t quite remember.
How many generations ago did the idea gain traction, that by voting in a given party – Labour in most of the English speaking world – that things would get better as society embarked on an ever upward trajectory of improvement that would eventually deliver (remember this?) a world based on socialist principles?
The left said that was never going to happen, because parliament could never be a route to socialism. Nevertheless, enough people were blindsided, improvements flowed to many for a time, and parliamentary statism became synonymous with ‘the left’…at the same time as the left was being systematically marginalised and its thoughts and vision eradicated from the consciousness of the population at large.
And now we’re in a cul-de-sac.
Statism cannot deliver. Markets cannot deliver. They’ve ‘done their dash’ and it’s all decline from now on in. Meanwhile, society at large has largely lost the vision and inspiration that used to inform and drive a substantial proportion of the people within it. What we have now is the spectacle of a shrinking faux left, flailing around trying to convince itself that it has something to offer…that its state bound, bastardised version of left vision and thought continues to carry any water. It’s got nothing.
Only those fortunate enough to be from families that were ‘lifted up’ and who have so far, not been dashed back down, are keen to perpetuate the myth of ‘progress’ by some supposedly ‘left’ parliamentary party fiddling with the art of chrematistics. (Google it). But growing numbers of people, staring back into a quality of life they imagine to be not a million miles away from the shite their great grandparents might have had to endure, just aren’t buying it any more.
Those people don’t need to be convinced that they should stick the course because things will work out. It’s the still comfortable liberals who need to be convinced that a wrong step was taken; that despite their current well being, failure to back track and get off the path we’re on is going to end in nothing but tears.
You doubt that? Then look around you.
The natural world is saying that you can’t have the life that you have. The natural world is saying that you can’t preserve it or build on it. We can’t fool the natural world, and the natural world is essentially saying that time’s up.
Gaia doesn’t negotiate and doesn’t take prisoners.
Yeah well. Neither do basic physics and chemistry – law of thermo-dynamics and all of that jazz.
Chrematistics
In other words, according to two of the greatest thinkers of all time – capitalism is unethical and reprehensible.
Before Capitalism, Goethe in Faust Part 1 described the human condition. I cannot remember exactly now, but the image is of mankind leaping into the air like a grasshopper, only to find his nose buried in a pile of dung when he comes back down.
It appears that nothing has changed, despite all our supposed advances.
This quote from article says it all
“The trouble is that stupid hicks don’t know what’s good for them. They’re getting conned by right-wingers and tent revivalists until they believe all the lies that’ve made them so wrong. They don’t know any better. That’s why they’re voting against their own self-interest.”
Very good article questioning what we are gaining from our bizarre immigration experiment over the last 15 years in which our non-citizen immigration programme is already one of the largest (per capita) in the world and immigration in Auckland will increase nearly 10% the Auckland population in just National term of government) but over 15 years have gained no economic gains in the tradable sector. But Steven Joyce’s answer is to increase immigration.
http://sciblogs.co.nz/the-dismal-science/2016/04/09/question-steven-joyce/
“A reader pointed me to an article on the NBR website in which Science and Innovation Minister [isn’t there something wrong when we even have a government “innovation minister?] was quoted as telling a business audience yesterday that:
more migration is the only way to bridge the current skills gap for ICT companies in New Zealand.
and
“That’s one of the reasons I’m leery of calls to halt immigration – apart from the fact there’s not much reason to because of the economic gains,” he said.
In the last fifteen years, we have had huge waves of immigration, under both governments, and yet there is not the slightest evidence of economic gains accruing to the New Zealand population as a whole. Tradables sector production per capita has gone nowhere in fifteen years, productivity growth has been lousy, and there is no sign of any progress at all towards meeting Mr Joyce’s own governments (well-intentioned but flawed) exports target.
And yet the Minister’s answer is even more immigration.”
GDP per head remains static or lowers.
A lot of ICT gaps have been filled and now the wages are just being lowered. $50000 five years ago, $35000 now.
The actual skills shortage list that immigration has for jobs that cannot be filled easily, is not large.
Our points based cutoff lets in skilled people (although there can be a mismatch between their job level description and the local equivalent) who want a job (not to start a company) in the local market.
The investment category should be removed. I believe Canada did it.
Where are all the new modern cutting edge factories providing great local jobs and keeping profits local. – I don’t see them – no investment there.
But plenty in property and political donations – they look like more trouble than they are worth…
The only way to increase our nations capability in anything is more R&D. As a small nation with huge resources we should have about 25% of our working populace in R&D and probably more. Instead we’re pushing the Bullshit Jobs for all their worth which is nothing.
Expecting to be able to benefit from imported the skills when those imported skills are then constrained by failed managers is nothing more than vain hope.
We need to decrease some other sectors as well. Farming comes to mind. Trade isn’t benefiting us as instead of encouraging development the economy it actually forces stagnation. Pushes us to produce more of the same rather than allowing increased productivity to increase the diversity of our economy. The end result is what’s just happened to our farmers with the collapse in milk solid prices.
As a small nation with huge resources we should have about 25% of our working populace in R&D and probably more. Instead we’re pushing the Bullshit Jobs for all their worth which is nothing.
For a case study, see the current destruction of AgResearch at the hands of Joyce-appointed examples of just how bad NZ’s managers are. I can only assume the mismanagement in this case is intentional, so Joyce can later claim that AgResearch is dysfunctional and needs to be privatised or absorbed into other research centres.
Speaking of destruction, Paula Bennet has talked about R&D for climate change research AFTER the Natz have just fired a whole load of scientists. They really are idiots.
From jonolist Heather Duplicitous Talons…….a risible twist on Nat harpy Michelle Boag’s perennial claim that the housing crisis is largely down to first home buyers refusing to contemplate other than Remuera and St Mary’s Bay.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11627701
Let’s say the millenials do embrace Otara for other than rental investment. Where do the poor people go once they’re shunted out of Otara Heather ? You’ll help them throw up some tents down Meremere way will you Heather ? Idiotic perpetual smirk ‘couldn’t actually give a fuck’ wee jonolist you.
So much offensiveness in that its hard to know where to begin. Shes quickly becoming the heralds star reporter. The end bit where she says Otara can be recolonised by the rich and renamed Ostentatious Heights is pretty sickening.
So much offensiveness in that its hard to know where to begin… The bit that strikes me is her assumption that people have no attachment to an area – that everyone else is a slightly-worse-off version of herself, with grandiose aspirations and no attachment to anywhere. Here’s a fact: In 2009, someone I know, after getting outbid by property developers a few times on $350,000-$420,000 family sized rundown houses in the Newton-Arch Hill area decided they had to make two moves out, not one, to escape their influence, and did so.
That is how recently the whole of central Auckland became too good for ordinary mortals, some of whom have been part of that community for generations. A large group of people, from an ever widening area, simply HATE seeing the HDPA class arrive, and look upon improved facilities with fear and suspicion rather than delighted anticipation. It will not be long before people will be happier to see a gang setting up headquarters in their area, than a bunch of HDPA-types deeming it NZ’s latest answer to Tuscany/Manhattan/Paris/you-name-it.
I’m so glad I haven’t read that article.
If there is one central tennet of neoliberalism it’s that there’s no such thing as community. So people having to move is simply a matter of economics.
I know that transport costs are a big issue for people too, both in accessing jobs, but also where families are split and children are under shared care. It’s all very well to say that people can move across town but what if they then can’t afford the petrol to pick their kids up? Never mind, all hail the neoliberal machine where everyone else serves Heather Duplicitous’ class.
The permanently unemployed could be moved to free Housing NZ homes in the provinces. Houses for everyone and reinvigoration of smaller communities.
Your use of grammar and tense in that statement says it all.
Once you’ve thought about the ethical issues in people being moved, have a think about the effect on existing communities and families. What about kids that are under shared care arrangements? Or solo parents taht are dependent on friends and families for support?
I think there are huge issues with the numbers of people that want to live in Auckland, but suggesting they can be moved isn’t a useful starting point.
Just skip the house and go back to institutions and poor houses.
Anyway surely you are more likely to get this:
Houses for everyone and re-invigoration of smaller communities.
if you move the rich people out to the small communities – logic would dictate this as much more sensible.
They could take their businesses with them, there would be less demand for housing in Auckland, local small businesses would get spin-off work from the successful businesses these rich people can build and develop. They wouldn’t need million dollar salaries and lower paid workers could get more.
So yeah campaign for the rich to move out to the provinces – after all it’s the rich that are our saviours.
Most state houses in the provinces have been sold off
Or neglected so the government can take a dividend from poor peoples rent.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/283700/english-defends-$118m-housing-nz-dividend
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/09/13/nationals-blatant-lies-on-housing-nz-dividends-the-truth-uncovered/
And as well who are the “permanently unemployed”.
I know a few CEO wives that fit that description, then there’s old people, and those with disabilities, not sure if Irish Catholics still meet that description but we could start sending young mums to the country to have their children again – save them the embarrassment of their parents friends knowing they had sex …
Where to Invade Next is out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KeAZho8TKo
the school cafeteria in France makes an interesting contrast to new Zealand in fact a lot of whats in the film does the full film is out if you look for it.
You have to ask, why the hell are we not importing immigrants who actually create NEW businesses that Create NEW job for KIWIS and export and the criteria is to make a profit?
Instead we seem to be importing migrants for internal jobs like Chefs and IT workers and wanting immigrants to invest in Auckland property in an already overheated market and P importers.
Likewise companies here, who’s sole purpose is to take what they can, and then move to the cheapest Labour market.
For example GameLoft based in Parnell, which by it’s own admission employs only 30% Kiwis and 70% non Kiwis, has received $600,000 in grants, but employees complained of excessive hours. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10875615
An insider who worked there has alleged they are now moving to Nigeria for cheaper Labour. Many of the migrants they have imported are now alledgedly on the NZ dole queue.
Game over: NZ’s largest gaming studio to shut
New Zealand’s largest video gaming studio is closing down and 150 people are losing their jobs.
Gameloft is a French-owned company which was set up in Auckland ten years ago.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/295207/game-over-nz's-largest-gaming-studio-to-shut
we are importing immigrates to help bilingenglishl cook the books as there inst much of anything in the economy
+1
To build and develop the economy then we actually need to build and develop the economy – not hope that someone else will do it for us.
+1 Draco. exactly.
So just talking to this guy from Florida, how about this as a policy. First generation to attend university (defined as grandparents and parents) all fees free and a living allowance paid…
Exclusive Bretheren found to be extreme child abusers.
Not a good look for National Party.
Ok, I’ll bite. What the hell does the Exclusive Bretheren have to do with National?
Dnftt
Heavy transport and roading industry
The last thing they want is sunlight on their practices and those places of worship that seen to have insufficient safety exits let alone any windows.
Anyone hear Paula Bennett on Q and A this morning – she was talking about climate change and said in the conversation “that’s all hyperbole” (she pronounced it hyper-bowl) – not the best educated woman out there – only outdone by Rodney Hide who years ago talked about a cacophony (he pronounced it “cakka-phoney”) Nice to hear something funny for a change with all the terrible stuff going on!
Thanks Hami Shearlie (10) … 🙂
So nice to know our politicians (and ex politicians), those who make the rules and laws, by which we should live, are not the brightest stars in the sky! Well I think we knew that didn’t we? It’s just sometimes they confirm our suspicions regarding their ignorance and stupidity with their ridiculous utterances!
Geeze where do we get them from?
To Hami Shearlie at 10: I must have switched Paula Bennet off before that ‘blue’ in pronunciation because the shame I felt that a person with her portfolio could be so unlearned on the subject, indicated the garden more demanding of my time and general well-being! Thank you for providing a wry smile, though surely this Minister has had ample time since becoming our official face on climate change to have attained a real understanding of the issues. I grieve, and because rain ( though welcome ) has arrived, the garden solution no longer possible.
As much as I dislike the politics of Paula Bennett, mispronounced word could be because the person is smart enough to read an understand the words, and use them correctly, but may have never heard them. It’s is not necessarily a case of ignorance, but a case of unfamiliarity with the sound of the word.
Belittling formal education/intellectual heritage is close to calling a person unintelligent. A dangerous assumption, in my experience.
Some humanity on beggars and who we should ban:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/life/79090057/jeremy-elwood–michele-acourt-should-beggars-be-banned
Seems that a push for PPPs is underway – seen this?
30 years of research into PPPs – which show why they don’t work?
http://www.world-psi.org/en/why-public-private-partnerships-dont-work
PSI released the new report on 18 March 2015 at the “SDGs for Workers”, a Parallel Event sponsored by Global Unions at the NGO CSW Forum during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW).
The report assesses the PPP experience in both industrialised and developing countries and contains a combination of 30 years of research by David Hall, former Director of Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) University of Greenwich, UK.
The many case studies analysed, from United Kingdom to Chile, show that PPPs have failed to live up to their promise. In most cases, they are an expensive and inefficient way of financing infrastructure and services, since they conceal public borrowing, while providing long-term state guarantees for profits to private companies.
The author proposes a public alternative to this system, in which national and local governments can continue to develop infrastructure by using public finance for investment, and public sector organisations to deliver the service.
“Public services are massive pools of potential corporate profit, and PPPs serve to access them. The ‘clients’ are captive, the services are often monopoly,” comments David Boys, Deputy General Secretary of PSI.
“This paper provides a synthesis of many years of research, and should be used by union activists, concerned citizens, but also by policy makers around the world.”
______________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Sacha mentioned Action Station as being an alternative to political parties. I guess there are some other people like me who haven’t heard about it yet. It sounds promising to be involved with while we wait for Labour to get over its sad case of sleeping sickness.
We could join in this, and also support our favourite leftie party, and others which are fighting to forge a name for themselves as being honest workers for the people. We are still allowed this freedom, to have multi-interests, and not just board the train and travel the line to wherever.
http://www.actionstation.org.nz/about
ActionStation is an independent, member-led not-for-profit organisation representing over 100,000 Kiwis holding power to account, standing for a fair society, healthy environment & economic fairness.
Their latest campaign was on freshwater standards.
http://www.actionstation.org.nz/campaigns
There not up to it is the problem.
@Skinny
I don’t know much about ActionStation. When I looked them up I liked the look of their web page, nice design. Everyone has to start somewhere. But they are lacking something you think? I just don’t feel confident that enough is happening on the political scene. If there is too much of a void a hologram of Trump might beam over and dazzle us with hijinks.
Keiser Report: Secret of TTIP and TPP(A)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dHZEjJbz0c&w=560&h=315%5D
Japanese President wants to hold back on ratification of TPPA due to fear of voter backlash
Meanwhile, Obama went undercover for the Brexit crowd in the UK by stating that should the UK opt to leave the EU, then they wouldn’t get to be party to TTIP. Not only that, but the UK would go to the back of the queue as far as ‘negotiating’ any free trade deals with the US was concerned.
Oh. But then, along with the Clinton, pointed out that the US wanted the UK to remain in Europe to act as leverage for the US in Europe.
I don’t know why I used ‘but’ for that second statement. Be an economically crushed vassal of the US of A situated on the geographical fringes of Europe, or…well, there is no ‘or’. Apparently those two things are just what the ordinary people of the UK always wanted…I mean, it must be, innit?
For those of you interested in what Bill Black, a man who put over a thousand bankers in jail and who travels around the globe to educate entire Governments about why Control fraud is such a pervasive, hideous form of fraud, has to say about putting a Merrill Lynch banker on the board of Guardians of the Cullen fund and John Key making New Zealand into a secrecy haven also known as a tax haven here is the link to Vinny Eastwood’s show with Bill Black, recorded last WednesdayVinnie Eastwood’s show with Bill Black In the first half Vinny interviews Bill about his work and his past victories over banking fraud. I have the opportunity to ask Bill a ton of questions pertaining to New Zealand in the second hour! Conclusion? John Key is a banker fraudster who should be in jail like his Icelandic colleagues and the Cullen fund is f&*ked!
Wow…….this one’s pre-nup’ would be a bastard !
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11627945
Herald online’s really cracked a threshhold though…….anything more than cereal, rice, bread…….you’re a wastrel !
Key hand hovers over the panic button…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79271237/pm-hints-at-land-tax-to-rein-in-foreign-speculators
Still doesn’t look like a joined up plan.
Agree. Poll-driven, reactionary, and disjointed. The hallmarks of this government.
Another silly silly article trying to tell people if you only worked harder and saved harder, they can afford a house in Auckland.
Luckily most people don’t believe a word the Herald says anymore.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11627945
“Buying your own house is so hard now it seems, that the @nzherald considers it front page news when someone can afford one.” A pearler from the Twitterverse.
Methinks the tide is beginning to turn with the middle classes, here in Auckland at least. I see from the series of articles in the Herald about the housing situation that some of our middle class people are now housing half of their children in their spare bedrooms and kids in their mid-twenties to thirties at that along with their spouses/partners and professionally educated as well, because they cannot afford a down payment on a house. So even with a professional education and joint salaries they still cannot manage a down payment because of high rents and so they are back living with Mum and Dad. Can see this going down like a lead balloon when Mum and Dad want to kick back and go on a overseas trip.
Some of the parents are paying for the down payment/deposit, others are buying land for their kids and its taking a dent in their retirement savings. The rot is setting in, a lot of people on this site have said it will have to be the middle classes being affected by the housing crisis here for the tide to turn. Let’s hope and pray this happens and they see what a complete shambles the Auckland market has been turned into by not having good effective restraints on overseas buyers having carte blanche here to buy up our housing stock.
Some parents may have to, in the end, gift over one or two of their rented properties to the kids and miss out on the income from them. Then we will see them starting to “complain” in a big way. Happy days folks.
It’s not that long ago when it was normal for people to live in extended family situations. In fact it’s been the norm for most of human history. I know we’ve lost the knack of it, but I don’t see people having to share housing with family as the end of the world, or even necessarily a negative.
Add to that that the size of housing and expectations around everyone having their own space is not realistic in an age of climate change and resource depletion.
I have a lot of sympathy for the people who are struggling to pay rent or mortgage, because having a home is central to wellbeing. But it’s hard to feel sorry for the middle classes who are struggling because they are treating home ownership as an investment. I was fortunate to buy and eventually sell a house at a time when it worked financially but I was never under the illusion that it was anything other than a crock of shit that we all pay for and some more than others.
There’s a lot of bitching between the boomers and their offspring generation but I’d take it more seriously if I saw them being also concerned for people who can’t find a place to live, or who are struggling to have a meaningful life because their housing costs suck up so much of their income. Because let’s not forget that most of the people complaining about the difficulties of home ownership would in a flash buy and sell a house as an investment if they could.
I really think that we are at the end of the age of privilege, and I hope that the Gen Y wake up to this and start looking at creative solutions to working with what we’ve got. We should be looking at new models of co-housing, sharing land etc and stepping out of the millieu that says buying a home and saving for retirement is the best thing, because it’s all going to fall over in their life times anyway.
I understand Weka completely, but I feel that the tide will turn now as its the Middle Classes which keep voting in this Government and they are starting to feel the effects. I fully agree that we should help our families out and in my own circumstances that is we are doing, giving one of ours a helping hand, the only difference is we have never voted for National and do not condone what they have done to this country. As Bomber over on the Daily Blog says, once the Middle Classes start to bitch and whinge then we may see the tide turn. In the end it will be a battle between the 1% and the rest of us, Middle Classes included. If that’s what it takes, it can’t come soon enough.
Here is another example of our not-wonderful running of our country under free market, low regulation, trust business to know whats best. system failure.
This from Northland Age
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northland-age/rural/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503397&objectid=11622597
Federated Farmers Arable Industry Group is watching with interest the increasing tonnage of supplementary feeds being imported.
This, at a time, when there is leftover maize and cereal feed grain which could be consumed by these sectors for an equally competitive price.
Maize harvest has begun in the North Island and in many cases they have had an exceptional growing season but the low dairy payout and cheap price of palm kernel expeller have meant they don’t have a home for the product.
Some, meanwhile, are burning the maize in the paddock and writing the season off.
Imported feeds risk bringing in new weeds, pests and diseases. While New Zealand has import health standards to try to manage these risks, sometimes things slip through the cracks. (Latest is something called velvet leaf, looks a bit like bindweed.)
Velvet leaf came in with imported fodder beet seed. Looks like fodder beet is a newish crop desired by dairy farmers. Don’t know why NZ can’t grow its own seed.
Neoliberal, market knows best, system failure, exactly.
http://robertguyton.blogspot.co.nz/2016/04/velvet-leaf-panic.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/9335886/Farmer-rates-fodder-beet-miles-ahead-of-silage
@weka
The fodder beet bit interested me too. I think it was fodder beet developed to withstand Roundup that was involved in a large number of cow deaths. Those beets had concentrated toxins in the leaves due to some climatic effect.
So that raises the questions – why are beets being more used, why is the seed imported, do all farmers understand the proper use of it and the times the animals need to be withheld from it, are they taking a risk on using it and then claiming on insurance if it turns out badly, is it something to lay on the now shown as unprofitable over-stocking with non-grass extra feed method?
Are farmers being sold a sick system that is rebounding on them?
(And about imported stuff there was a piece in The Press about searching for the entry point of black grass that is being found in the middle of paddocks, and is not wanted. A little para says it has nothing to do with the roadside drop of tainted seed from trucks carting it to and from the big agricultural importing companies. The plants are growing too far away to result from any dropped seed at roadsides. But weeds are those plants that have amazing reproductive powers and they find ways to get around. A cover up for our big corporates making money from modern industrial farming-with warnings ‘contains collateral damage’?)
The roundup ready issue was with swedes. Both happened inSouthland.
The politics of who controls the world’s seed stores is a major issue for NZ food security. Lots of good work has been done on preserving NZ’s seed banks but if we had a hard crash I think we’d be struggling.
Same old shit. This is why I place relocalisation so high in political priorities. The sooner we get the stuff that matters out of the hands of the greedy people the better all round.
+1
Just another bit on velvet leaf piece earlier that raises questions for the country. That is whether subsidies are good for farmers and the country in certain situations like this. If the MPI is called will they charge the farmer? If so they may not be called and not get to know the extent of the infestation.
MPI will make arrangements for removing the plants, inspect the rest of the crop to ensure there are no more plants and then together with FAR, DairyNZ have developed a farm management plan to manage the velvetleaf to prevent it being moved around the farm or out the gate.
Better to help the farmer and we bear the cost. Better not to allow this Lazy Maisey government free market leave everything to business no regulation contract out stuff to continue. It isn’t working for us. And remember contractors work to rule, in a different way to unionists, but it is still damaging to the country to have people tied to set parameters who must ignore matters outside their contract that need investigation or attention, because they are not being paid to do so.
Well said Miravox. I find it unpleasant when people mock the pronunciation or spelling of others as a sign of their own intellectual superiority – which it rarely is. Some towering geniuses have been rotten spellers.
Whatever we think of her politics, Paula Bennett has an impressive career after starting as a young solo mum, going to university and rising in the political ranks where she has had some demanding roles. It doesn’t help to ridicule successful women and often verges on misogyny.
However I did have to laugh at Mihi Forbes this morning on Radio NZ talking about the first ‘calvary’ charge in a NZ battle. She said it over and over again so it was clearly an unfamiliar word for her despite radio and TV announcing being the profession she is supposedly trained for.
Try to remember to hit the reply button in future Bea Brown then your comment will come up beneath – or closely beneath – the person you are replying to.
As for your fit of pique over a few grins concerning Bennett’s mispronunciation:
Ms Bennett has done well but to describe her as having had an impressive career is over the top given she just happened to be in the right place at the right time and… knew the right people. Her actual qualifications have been attained by many, many thousands of young NZers – lots of them in far more straitened circumstances than herself. In fact from what I’ve heard… she may have been a solo mum but her situation was never straitened.
More important is her language in respect of Climate Change matters. She has a very superficial understanding of the subject -if she has even that – and that is deeply disturbing for a Minister of Climate Change! There is also historical evidence of her spiteful, bullying behaviour towards anyone who dares to cross her, so I personally don’t mind people having a giggle or two over a mispronounced word. Not a big deal in the scheme of things.
‘fit of pique’;’in the right place at the right time and… knew the right people’; ‘she may have been a solo mum but her situation was never straitened’; ‘very superficial understanding of the subject’; ‘spiteful, bullying’.
Wow.
Hyperbole?
You really are in the wrong place of you want to praise Bennett and not have people disagree with you.
So we have to show unalloyed hatred?
That goes way beyond disagreement.
What does that remind me of?
Two legs good four legs bad…
And I love the notion of degrees of solo motherhood.
Nope. We don’t have to do a damned thing.
But if you share your opinion, don’t be surprised when others share theirs.
You might think it’s just sloganeering, others might feel that the minister responsible for social welfare has not just overseen increased hardship and degradation of those who need help from society, but has in several instances denied people the assistance that she herself received when she walked, however fleetingly, in their shoes.
Personally I have nothing but contempt for the person.
You said something. Someone disagreed with it. You don’t like that someone disagreed with you. I’m just pointing out that that won’t work on this site, esp if the disagreement is over Paula Bennett. You might want to read the site policy too, top of the page.