Dirty Politics shows that sitting Ministers, specifically “Hon.” Judith Collins, are prepared to use their position and contact with paid bloggers to incite public hatred towards certain groups of people such as disabled, beneficiaries, Maori and PI, or any other group that they select.
This would strongly suggest it is no longer safe to contact our elected Ministers lest our details be passed on to abuse us into submission.
No, I mean that until National ministers are held accountable for their sleazy behaviour of dubious legality they must be pursued the length and breadth of the country by citizens, journalists and probably the SIS.
The election is not going to be the final arbiter of the legality or otherwise of the government’s actions. Win or lose the National Party is under investigation.
Edit: just figured out you were responding to Aww. Need breakfast.
I did see Nationals launch last night and it is a very slick professional production. Key spoke very well. But it was mostly about Key and their recent history. Clinical rather than warm. Not enticing.
Greens excellent production and message.
Labour aimed at being of the people for the people and succeeded. David a little too cheerful and jiggled a bit much but we could identify with the issues and the people messaging..
The Left win by miles.
Mora has Farrar and Jordan Williams on The Panel often. And Sam Johnson, the chch student volunteer army guy, also appears regularly. Lusk says Johnson is a client of his in Dirty Politics. Johnston did not deny this when he was on The Panel last week.
True Tory Mora never takes any of these guys to task for the links with Whale Oil.
I can remember Sam Johnson saying after the Christchurch earthquakes, that his political leanings were to the ACT party. Another wolf in sheep’s clothing possibly.
My thoughts too Tigger. Given the average Joe and Mary Bloggs’ insatiable appetite for salacious gossip and subsequent hypocritical outrage, I think its the one thing that will make them sit up and take notice. Hopefully there would be a few sportspeople – or ex sportspeople – in the mix. Now that would be pennies from heaven – gold plated ones.
I honour Hager’s rationale that ‘personal stuff’ in the emails should not get an airing.
This however may be pregnant – From Chapter 10 – “Sex Scandal” at Location 2344 Amazon Kindle –
“Even when hypocrisy justifies publication, for instance with an outspoken morals campaigner [*], revealing an affair is still very different from publishing the intimate details. But according to Cameron Slater’s selective morality, it was fine for him to do to an opponent what he would be incensed to see done to someone he liked [**].”
[*] and [**] are my interpolations. Mmmm……makes you wonder if there’s a philandering “someone” morals campaigner out there whom Cameron Slater “liked”. Over whose public humiliation Slater would be “incensed”.
it’s an old one I think .. from a few days back. Nothing new since the ‘I am in Vanuatu. Don’t have any important briefings while I am gone”.
At first on Friday I read it as an admonition to us as readers not to do anything exciting! OIn re-read this monring, I think it’s actually advice that thee will be no more updates until back in NZ.
Of course, the whole thing could be a trick to confuse those wishing to find her/him …
I hope the IMP launch gets its due in media attention, but can fully see any questions with Harawira being diverted into this story:
Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira survived unscathed when he lost control of his car south of the Mangamuka Gorge, but he was more upset by the police response, saying they weren’t as swift at getting in touch with him when his office was shot at six weeks ago.
Which is itself a cute diversion from HH. The IMPs need this as much as the Nats have needed weeks long examination of their corrupt practices. Those who are directing today’s campaign launches have probably put weeks of effort into organising and preparation. It seems a shame that everyone who wasn’t there on the day is unlikely to appreciate their efforts; as our collective gaze will be directed elsewhere by the media gatekeepers.
When I saw this on 3news I was quite surprised at the tone of accusation towards Hone when he was the one to suffer the experience of being involved in a car accident. Not a peep of concern expressed for his well being.
I hope it doesn’t get twisted into a “bad Hone” narrative as has been the case for many years.
The charge would be careless driving at worst which is a fine only offence although a disqualification can be ordered. I heard that Hone sneezed at the time and if so he shouldn’t be charged.
If Hone sneezed as I have been lately, then he is lucky that worse didn’t happen. The sneezing and coughing reflex takes you and shakes you quickly and involuntarily. And then develops into a spasm that you have to fight before it continues to where you throw up. It’s been a hard and mean virus that has been roaming NZ this winter.
I feel sorry for people under the WINZ no-welfare regime, struggling to manage, sickness is something that you’re not allowed to have (my school teacher relative has been criticised when forced to take time off, though a dedicated long employee at her school). If you are a beneficiary with children, all sick, but forced to go to work to ensure you stay on the rosters, how long can you carry on with all your duties?
There was a case in Levin District Court many years ago .. an serious accident at Te Horo on main SH1 was caused by the driver sneezing. They had evidence produced that you could not sneeze and keep your eyes open. Even now, I remember that fact every time I sneeze !
Humans are so cleverly designed, if only wisdom could aslo have been built in with learning not required.
Goodness. That’s unfortunate. He’s been on a long road trip and may have been feeling a little run down, on the verge of getting a cold. Hope he doesn’t get charged, that would be unfair.
I hadn’t heard about the sneeze, it wasn’t mentioned in the article. Unless there’s been some major roadworks in the area in the past decade, it is a pretty winding stretch of road. Wouldn’t take much of a break in concentration to cause disaster.
But we can’t expect the MSM to play fair – they’ll be slavering for a distraction from the Nat meltdown. And as adam says @ comment 12:
This is just odd – prosecution before an investigation.
The police response! The roaring of cars with sirens wailing and lights flashing is so testosterone building! Tearing off from the police station, slowing and swerving at traffic lights, petrifying the populace. What fun, you can’t get these thrills at any other job in the country.
And you feel that you are actually doing something, a great cop when you pull over some jerk. And then you get to do all the entries that will bring your section up to your target. Join the police force – ride round in smooth, responsive new cars – have car chases with idle morons and frighten the hell out of them.
I fear that the police response is responsive to that sort of thinking.
When George Bush invaded Iraq I was glad that Helen Clark was PM with her strong moral principles and not John Key who’s lack of principles said we were ‘missing in action’. In his eagerness to please the USA and its trade I believe he would have embroiled us in the fiasco.
With the current international turmoil I sincerely hope David Cunliffe will soon be PM and not John Key.
I attended the local ANZAC parade, with my son who was in scouts at the time Helen Clark made that decision.
A fairly balanced and appropriate event – was then marred by our National MP, Dr Paul Hutchinson getting up to speak and using that phrase “missing in action”. Along with “we need to stick with our allies” and other trite comments that lasted an interminable 15 minutes.
First time I had heard him speak, and was disgusted with his appropriation of a memorial service to essentially give a party political broadcast.
(Must add: Not a usual attendee at ANZAC days, and this added to my personal aversion of the day.)
My original comment I hope will persuade any wavering voters, or those we may talk to who have teenage kids , boys probably, that John Key’s re election could have serious consequences re invasions, conscription and young NZ fodder for US inspired wars- and yes I’m a peacenick.
Molly -I appreciate your thoughts but I go to ANZAC parades and silently think about those who suffered believing that they were doing the right thing and think about my kid’s futures.
But John Key shouting like a performing seal in parliament about how we should be foddering our youth off to serve his Wall street friends in foreign wars gives me the furies.
And when people like Hutchinson echo the war criminal Dick Cheney’s of this world, words fail me.
I think the contrasting attitudes of the right and left to international relations is a forgotten election issue of which needs discussion as well as the current domestic obsession with the malicious crimes of Slater, Lusk and co.
Brooke Sabin (TV3 News reporter) has just been pinged on Media Watch for lying over the OIA request for the release of the Cunliffe letter on Liu’s immigration. He knew the OIA was going to reveal the letter, yet TV3 said they had no idea this was going to happen.
Anything Sabin says in the future can now never be trusted.
You know @ Paul …. anyone that goes near Slater is compromised – let alone those that profess to be ‘journalists’ …. Whether they be Eastern Suburb-living, raspy-voiced, alcohol-induced wife beaters (or maybe former wife); former Labourite-now neo-lib-converts; what the gay ‘community’ know as “bog-crawlers”; Nation and Q+A commentators and ‘experts’.
Christ Almighty! …. if I’ve heard these things, as well as being very close to some of them (as in 2 degrees of separation), I’m bloody sure Cam Slator has (or will get) the details.
Best policy is (and always was) to avoid the prick. Unfortunately some things can’t be undone. It just seems to me that there are too many a wishin and a hopin …. they might get away with it, they might not. Roll the dice.
Have Labour yet announced where they stand on the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership?
I don’t like it just on the few things we’ve heard about it that have been leaked from the ‘confidential’ negotiations, and the fact that Key and the Nats have been pushing for it as hard as they can – no doubt eager to please the US – makes me suspect we ought to be backing Japan on this and treat it like an Ebola victim’s handkerchief.
AFAICT the remit pointed to by Tautoko Viper (thanks) would make the present contents as being pushed by the US a complete non-starter for a Labour Govt – while any proposal to release its contents to the public before they’ve been trussed like Xmas turkeys to be stuffed by it will be stamped on by the US until it’s signed, sealed and binding on Sovereign Nations.
Labour did not say in the remit what its position would be if the TPP fails to meet any of its terms. I was looking for some kind of statement along the lines of bottom lines rather than a declaration as to what it would have been nice to have but, “well, this is what we had to sign up to. Disappointing, we know but ‘good international citizen’ and all that, and at least we get a seat in the back row of the conferences.”
Anyone know if the Greens have come up with anything stronger than this waffle?
It covers the following points in detail:
– Threat to New Zealands Sovereignty
– Threat to Internet Freedom
– More IP rights for the big players
– Lack of Transparency
TPP is hopefully dead in the water, fortunately stymied by the Japanese taking offence at the crass (offensively unJapanese) bullying tactics by the US and – incredibly – the Republicans in the Senate refusing to give Obama fast-track approval powers for the deal for fear he won’t screw enough out of the Pacific Rim for their paymasters.
However if it rears its ugly head again we know the Nats would roll over to be screwed like a prostitute on peice-work but we really, really know where the other parties stand on this as it could be a defining issue of the next Parliament, with repercussions into infinity.
Could not resist joining in. There is lots of us who changed to Vipers in support of the original – Colonial Viper – after an unsavoury attack on CV (not here on TS).
You could be ‘RichViper’. we don;t have one of those yet, in the name sense; don’t know about the $ sense. LOL.
According to the book of Hager, this pharmaceutical-company beat-up could lead to a National Party bribe this election. Because men are so downtrodden, and National seems to be going hard-out for the boofhead vote…
To the extent that Nicky Hager logically implicates the MSM as ‘enablers’ of dirty politics we have this morning Q + A actually reinforcing that implication by its own choice of commentatory panel.
Why, before one word came out of David Farrar’s ‘commentator’ mouth, was he not directly asked to refute the clear assertions by Hager that he Farrar was a complicit actor in the dirty politics Hager exposes ?
No. Farrar is a ‘commentator’ (Tui’s). Not the vaguest intimation of his true involvement in the whole nefarious carry-on. Journalistic laziness (a quote in the book attributed to some US right-wing strategist), an arrogant two fingers in the air ? Hard to say. I favour an hubristic, aging, cafe ‘double-shot’, subliminal sense that “however we do it, we do it right…..”. Coupled with – “that’s it, time to move on folks…..”. Which again reinforces the by and large MSM preparedness to pitch in politically…..in whose favour we identify at once.
Imagine how inquisitorially animated would have been Susan Wood were Nicky Hager on that panel blithely masquerading as a ‘commentator’.
It is risible particularly given the extraordinary airs and graces, the pretensions to elevated ‘appreciation’ of things. Shouldn’t complain though I guess…..they might have had the Clayton’s political scientist Claire Robinson riding shotgun to Farrar.
confluence of names here into the polluted National river …..
“A new politician has been dragged into the saga of Donghua Liu’s funding of political parties.
National’s Coromandel MP Scott Simpson received a $5000 donation from the controversial Chinese-born property developer for his 2011 election campaign, after meeting Liu about 10 times, including a couple of dinner dates.
The donation was declared in Simpson’s post-election return, and has been uncovered by the Sunday Star-Times during a forensic trawl of donations to MPs.
But Simpson did not flag the donation with National Party leadership when Liu and the cash-for-favours scandal hit the headlines this year. “I had made my declaration which, as far as I was concerned, was all that I was required to do,” Simpson said.”
Yes. A smear campaign against Scott Simpson was orchestrated by Simon Lusk and carried out by Slater in a series of attack posts on wail oil. (p.61.62 and 63)
“A former Whangarei Boys’ High pupil who describes himself as a “hobby hacker” has exposed security flaws in the National Party’s website.
Josh Brodie, formerly of Whangarei but now living in Wellington, said his discovery left Prime Minister John Key open to accusations of “throwing ‘Labour left the security off’ stones from within a glass house”.
Wallace Chapman let himself, and his listeners, down this morning
Radio NZ National, Sunday 24 August 2014
This morning featured an excellent Counterpoint contribution by Wayne Brittenden, outlining the shameful record of collaboration between two pariah states: apartheid South Africa and Israel. Following that, Sunday host Wallace Chapman interviewed the Australian-based ANC official, Kolin Thumbadoo. This was mostly an enlightening ten minutes, but it was marred when Wallace Chapman thoughtlessly repeated a nasty cliché: he asked his guest if “this seemingly intractable situation” could ever be “resolved”.
If Wallace Chapman wants to ever progress beyond the stage of wringing his hands in anguish about the ongoing oppression of the people in besieged Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, he will have to start some serious reading about the situation. The fact that he could so casually describe Israel’s crimes as “intractable” is a worrying indicator that he has not done much.
I flicked him the following email. Keep listening, guys!….
Please stop calling the Israel-Palestine conflict “intractable”
Dear Wallace,
In your interview with Kolin Thumbadoo, you described the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as “intractable”. That’s not true; in fact it is perhaps the easiest conflict in the world to solve: Israel must withdraw to the pre-1967 borders, it must allow the people it expelled to return, it must stop its murderous siege on Gaza and it must tear down the illegal annexation wall it has been erecting for the last two decades. International law is clear and unequivocal about every one of these points.
When you or any other commentator repeats the line that the situation in Palestine is “intractable”, you are, perhaps unwittingly, repeating a core trope of Israeli propaganda.
Worth a listen – Andrew Geddis with Wallace Chapman 9.00 am today RNZ. Geddis’s thesis – ‘this is not so much about the instant electoral outcome – it is about where we are prepared to allow New Zealand politics to go in the long term’ – words to that effect. ‘Will we blink at the filthing of the New Zealand political dynamic ?’
It was worth a listen. However ‘Will we blink at the filthing of the New Zealand political dynamic ?’.
Probably not until we reach rock bottom – at which time consultants/pundits/sperts et al will be lining up to clip the ticket and give advice on how we might get our democracy back.
Though we might know exactly who to ‘blame’, that’ll be of little comfort but great cost.
Shudda Cudda Wudda
‘Blogging vs Journalism vs Politics – The 7 latest revolting revelations’
By Martyn Bradbury / August 24, 2014
“The Titanic is the National Party, Key the Captain, Whaleoil the iceberg & Sean Plunket, Mike Hosking and Paul Henry are the band playing on the deck….
“The real issue about the election is whether New Zealanders want one nation or whether they want two…in the past three years Government members have done everything they could to start the process of entrenching a two-nation New Zealand whereby one does very well and the other is left without hope.
The struggle within the National Party over one-nation or two-nation Toryism has been resolved in favour of the two-nation Tories led by the Minister of Finance followed by an inadequate Prime Minister.
Those who are doing well perceive very little identity of interest with those who are not doing well. Of course there has been some limited recovery in economic indicators – there had to be as we bounced back from the depths of a recession the government itself created. But who’s benefited?
Not very many.
Everybody wants things to be better, but few people can link the desire for things to be better with any material improvement in their own circumstances or in the circumstances of family and friends.
There are stark choices for this election. Government members will settle for the ‘smug society’ and try to marginalise the one-third of people they do nothing for and try to buy off the rest”
That was in 1993 – Rt Hon Helen Clarks budget speech.
21 years later – an entire generation – that exact same speech could be stated word for word apopo and still be entirely relevant.
How sad for New Zealand that we’ve just been treading water all this time.
Thank heavens to murgatroyd that at least Grabour together, have decent policies to lift us from our mire.
See 26 below u 2 (Rosie and Yeshe). Unfortunately my 115 yo cold as a frog’s tit house meant my aging fingers weren’t at their best and I shoved in a comment in the wrong place.
Israeli teenagers: Racist and proud of it
Ethnic hatred has become a basic element in the everyday life of Israeli youth, a forthcoming book finds.
by OR KASHTI, Haaretz, Sunday 24 August 2014
“For me, personally, Arabs are something I can’t look at and can’t stand,” a 10th-grade girl from a high school in the central part of the country says in abominable Hebrew. “I am tremendously racist. I come from a racist home. If I get the chance in the army to shoot one of them, I won’t think twice. I’m ready to kill someone with my hands, and it’s an Arab. In my…”
I wouldn’t call a tenth grade girl racist. She’s too young to know anything other than what she’s been told. If she’d grown up being told by her family and friends that people who eat chocolate ice cream are deviants she’d believe that too. To imply that a child freely arrives at racism as if from within a vacuum is just plain wrong. She has a big personal problem to solve, no doubt, but glibly throwing ideological newspaper headlines at her won’t reveal anything useful.
I wouldn’t call a tenth grade girl racist. She’s too young to know anything other than what she’s been told. If she’d grown up being told by her family and friends that people who eat chocolate ice cream are deviants she’d believe that too.
You must hang out with really really dumb teenagers.
“Dumb” is unfair. Too many kids today are brought up in what is essentially a closed society, denied any insight into any other viewpoint. Put another way it’s brainwashing, often of a religious nature which is often reinforced with threats of damnation if you even pick up a ‘non-approved’ book let alone open it. “God knows if you touch yourself,” is a pretty potent threat if you’ve never been exposed to the possibility of a less Draconian God let alone no God at all.
“Give me the boy until he is seven and I will give you the man.” – “Saint” Francis Xavier.
Well in the Israel case, polls show that the adults there – not the kids – are strongly approving of the level of force used on Gaza…so something is definitely going on, and your concept of an insular family home may very much apply to both communities and to entire nations.
Certainly she is simply repeating what she hears in her home, her school and on Israeli television, which is remarkably narrow, and heavily censored. But there are kids in Israel, even in tenth grade, who do have the intellect to decipher the murderous propaganda with which they are barraged, and the integrity to reject it…..
For all the calls of corruption and sleeze over Dirty Politics, one thing should make us all feel better – there are no bodies yet. Don’t you find it encouraging that no one has been assisted into a permanent sabbatical over the massive damage they’ve done? If this stuff happened anywhere else in the world, if it happened in the commercial world, someone would be swimming with the fishes. Encouraging, or disappointing? New Zealanders really are “easy going” and our “corrupt pollies with links to organised crime” aren’t making any use off their supposed contacts. Even when their democracy and government are being dismantled in front of their eyes, New Zealanders just shout and shake their fists. Good on you New Zealand, you’re tame, but fair.
Too many sheep just swallow what Key has to say about the revelations, but there have been some damning opinion polls indicating Collins should resign or be sacked.
I’d guess that there have been many behind closed door right-wing discussions about arranging an accident for Nicky Hager by the rabid right. After National lose the election and Key goes home to Hawaii will be when extra vigilance will be required.
I’d like to think Slater went to Israel to escape the blowback but he’s probably just arranging delivery of his very own National Party sponsored spy drone..
Especially the Wayne Brittenden’s Counterpoint on Israeli Apartheid
….and the hard hitting interview with Koilin Thumbadoo ( a founding member of ANC) on the military State of Israel ( fourth largest military state in the world)…Zionism and Apartheid are the heirs of Nazism
@ Chooky 11.59
True about Wallace Chapman being good. Wayne Brittenden is tops also, Wallace’s other interviewees were insightful.
Now can we get someone better than Jim Mora, for breadth of vision beyond comfortable middle-class memes with right wing bias, to run the Panel so that we don’t hear from cotton-wool puffheads there. Let’s have interesting people who do worthwhile things, make stuff, build stuff, achieve stuff, think stuff, who like humanity, and aren’t celebrities of the ‘right fit’ with charming easy laughter and recipes for living.or wise grumping about the state of the world without a positive idea of their own.
@ greywarbler….glad you are up on deck again from the lurgy…i wondered where you had gotten to
…yes although on occasion Jim Mora has some good commentary and interviewees….a lot of it is as you say “comfortable middle-class memes with right wing bias”…so bad that even he finds it necessary to challenge them
@ Rosie and Yeshe
You’ll recall I posed the question the other day as to whether the GG had the power to rescind Ministerial warrants. I attempted to get Wallace Chapman to pose that question to Andrew Geddes this morning on RNZ (to no avail).
I’m still wondering.
I’m also wondering about the Chief Justice.
So far however, I’ve heard that “technically … YES he/she (the GG) does – except that Jenny Shipley did something a while back that effectively put the GG’s office UNDER the PM’s Office.
One wonders whether that was in fact ‘technically’ legal too.
Sheeple don’t seem that concerned however – so in future when I wake up one morning in a 3rd world country afar, and hear that NZ has descended into a fascist regime, and everyone is clutching their pearls and worrying and lamenting, I’ll be finding it a little hard to show any sympathy. I don’t even think I’ll ask for my ashes to be sent back for a sprinkling
Thx for trying Once Was Tim .. what was it Shipley did ? Surely, nothing can put GG below PM … GG is Her Majesty The Queen’s local incarnation isn’t he ? Any details welcome, thx.
On the ‘sheeple’? I trust Kiwis. I believe they are concerned. And it only takes a few % to be concerned enough. Have faith a little, from wherever you are ! All is not yet lost.
To Once Was Tim, and Yeshe @ 26 re GG’s role. John Armstrong wrote a column in the Herald 15 November last year after attending a function at which the GG spoke. He summarised part of the GG’s speech as follows :
“The most important task is the appointment of a Prime Minister after an election. It was to that task that Sir Jerry devoted most of his speech to a dinner he hosted last Friday for journalists in the Parliamentary press gallery. That role is to have as little or no role as possible. It is for the politicians to reach agreement which allows the leader of a party to inform the Governor-General that he or she has the confidence of the House – that is, sufficient MPs on board to defeat a no-confidence motion. That principle was enunciated by Sir Michael Hardie-Boys, Governor-General when the first MMP election was held in 1996 and no one was quite sure whether New Zealand’s unwritten constitution could cope with a multi-party Parliament. ”
@ Once Was Tim 12.04
You have got me thinking. Bryan Gould said yesterday that NZ is not now a country in the style that our elders envisaged or fought and died for.
New Zealand started off as a speculator’s dream. Getting the land off Maori and onselling it to those who couldn’t get any in the Auld Country, or who wanted more. Just the thing for those second and later sons who couldn’t inherit the family estate. And there was money in not owning land but clipping the ticket as it passed along.
Maori saw that it wasn’t panning out and a little integrity from some pollies and aristos at the top meant there was something to build better legals on, to claim contra proferentem on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_proferentem And Maori are getting some back and will be able to do good things if they can prevent themselves changing into aliens when they get a scholarship to Harvard or some other flash business school. Or military academy of the type that trained Fijian leaders.
In the meantime the struggle to make a good society was messy and seemed to be solved by the suggestion that too much government control slowed down the move to modernism and a well-balanced economy. Try our free market snake oil said Roger Douglas, who had just enough Labour credentials to enable him to mask his alien change. (Excerpt from wikipedia on Rogernomics – In 1980, he described New Zealand as a country living on borrowed money, unable – in spite of the record efforts of its exporters – to pay its own way in the world.) And in 2014 the siutation is? In addition he put forward ideas of positive future directions which would have been of immense benefit if only they had been implemented. “He argued in 1982 that the government should actively support small business, and intervene to stop the aggregation of assets by big business. In his view, the government should use the tax system to encourage productive investment and discourage speculative investment.” Wikipedia.
Now what’s left of NZ is now being sold as part of a speculator’s dream. Only Maori are putting up a sustained fight. The rest of the country are riding round in their elevated people movers or getting drunk, or sick, or looking as Janis Ian aptly puts it, In books and magazines on how to be and what to see while you are being https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSmSf153-8A
Or the better off are sitting in their tastefully decorated lounge rooms watching large screen television including reality television because the reality of reality is too hard to take. There is no fun and pleasure in it.
We might as well consider taking ourselves elsewhere and bury our ashes in the corner of some other foreign country. Perhaps I should try to go to France and be where my birth father, or bits of him, lie in a Commonwealth war grave near Nancy.
+1
… and for a minute there @ Grey, I was thinking we may have come across each other somewhere along life’s journey.
Interesting too your reference to Fiji. There were attempts at a workable constitution (by Reeves et al). It appears it wasn’t ‘efficient and effective’ enough to progress various agendas and so those well trained military conduct putchs and coups when it suits. Both Slator and Chapman are familiar with that situation – Slator approves apparently.
Interesting post from Jenny Kirk above as well re the GG’s ‘role’. In theory that’s as it should be right up until the time things all turn to shit, but I hope he’s ‘comfortable’ in having enabled Judith Collins’ bad behaviour, just as I hope the judiciary are ‘comfortable’ with politicians of all stripes chipping away at their role (i.e. interpreting law and administering sanctions).
We have a unicameral system without a formal constitution (BORA and Treaty and bits and pieces aside). But why worry – even if we did …. who the fuck have we got to enforce one anyway?
And we continue to pretend we’re a 1st world democracy based on the fact that we’re ‘nice people’?
Easy to see why New Zealand is spectacularly placed for experimentation.
A fine opportunity to raise such a question (yes, as previously discussed), and a shame that your very valid question wasn’t put forward. Interesting about the Shipley intervention – I wonder what that was about?
I do have this nagging worry that the Hager revelations will fall on the deaf ears of the the majority of the public, despite the high profile media attention. I would like to have yeshe’s faith in folk, but the last few years, decade really, have made me feel cynical towards the reasoning of our fellow NZer’s, their apathy and cognitive dissonance.
Alex Salmond, on the telly awhile ago said that an Independent Scotland would consider granting citizenship to NZer’s who have a Scottish born grandparent. If they win the independence vote on 18th September and we lose the election I might just consider taking them up on that offer! It would be overwhelmingly incomprehensible to live in a country that legitimises and rewards corruption by voting back in those same corrupt leaders.
On the bright side, this election has a completely different feel to 2011 and there is hope. Good and great things could be afoot. And despite the odds I have a feeling that here in Ohariu, “Our Ginny” might just knock Dunne off his comfy perch, by a whisker. One critical Nat coalition partner gone. She’s doing well, getting out and about…………….and for the lols, check out the photo of Ginny photo bombing Dunne in the mall:
Tempting as it is to leave the problem to someone else, it’s more tempting to try and show the world how to move forward in my view. Get Labour into Govt and then set up ‘free movement’ for citizens between Scotland and New Zealand. We could try it with other countries of a similar size as well. I don’t see why it should only be the rich who have free movement of State.
@ Rich 2.14
Sounds a good idea. Join in an association with Scotland of small states, countries, that are trying to achieve greater stability and prosperity and discuss matters relevant to their size and status and independence. and sovereignty. States that want to avoid merely being the lackey of some big power playing chess with the world.
I don’t know whether Australia could join, I think its tendencies would diminish the value of the association. Scotland would need some criteria of judgment as to suitability to prevent some craven tool of the corporate nations getting in and white-anting the association. And if the left don’t win this election here then Scotland shouldn’t touch us with a barge pole for fear of catching whatever disease is diminishing us. Rickets perhaps.
I don’t how serious Alex Salmond was when he said that! He was really referring the strong ancestral ties between the two countries. I viewed it as a welcoming gesture to those who wanted to return to their ancestral home land.
First things first though, we have an election to win! I’d have no thoughts of leaving NZ if we did.
Hi Warbs. Peoples Power Ohariu kicked off last week with billboards and leafletting.
We have six billboards that say “Hey Peter! We don’t want a ‘willing seller’ MP for Ohariu” put up around various suburbs.
Our leaflet covers 4 aspects of Dunne’s deals and fence sitting status:
His “willing seller’ stance on the GCSB
His promotion of asset sales as being advantageous to ‘mum and dad’ investors when less than 2% bought them
His claim (in a video on his website) that he his “neither National or Labour” in the political spectrum but he has a confidence and supply agreement with National
His refusal to discuss concerns PPO put to him about the TPPA saying he wasn’t going to waste time speculating on what the TPPA might contain..
We’ve done about 4000 households so far and have another week to complete the whole electorate or what we can manage – it’s a huge area to cover!
We’ve had feedback trickling in. Two supportive, two hostile and one right winger feeling resigned that he had to vote for Dunne to keep the Nats in.
It will be interesting to see how audiences respond to Dunne during the candidates meetings which start 1st September. A lot has happened in the last 3 years, hopefully he will have lost some of his shine and hopefully this will show in those meetings.
power to you, Rosie, you got two out of five as a good start.
I take heart remembering that the whole nuclear-free movement began in Devonport with us putting up A4 sheets in our windows, saying “WE SAY NO TO NUCLEAR SHIPS”.
It was slow, but it was steady and sure .. eventually the whole suburb had white signs in their windows. And so it began.
I think the effect of Nicky’s book is similar … slow, but steady and inexorable, with more to come. And it takes such a small percentage to tip it over.
Honestly, I don’t think Kiwis in general are reactive .. it takes a slow burn, but once the decision is made, it’s irrevocable. And I think one the biggest cons from National has been they they had a mandate to rule when more people voted against them than voted for them last time.
It won’t take so much imho !!! This shit has to stop.
Great that you were part of such an effective movement yeshe 🙂 My generation owes so much to yours for the stands you took and in the courage required in certain fights. (I’m thinking of the ’81 Springboks tour).
Luckily the scariest thing we have to do is face one man!
PS. One of the hostile emails doesn’t really count as pro Dunne. He was just really angry with the shouty capitals accusing us of being the Conservative Party and how he didn’t want any more material from us. Clearly he didn’t even read our leaflet and can’t see the difference between a glossy four page colour brochure and a black and white photocopied A5 leaflet.
………..and Annette Sykes, candidate vote for Waiariki, shift Flavell out.
Although Tame Iti has announced he is standing for the Maori Party, which is a huge draw card for them. Could his influence strengthen a coalition party that looked like it was on the way out?
Hi anker. Apologies for the late reply. We had a power cut last night which put the evenings agenda in a bit of a spin.
Yes, thank you very much for your offer, we will gladly accept!
Probably the best thing to do is to go to our face book page, if you’re on face book that is (I’m not and can’t access it through google but those who are can get to the People’s Power Ohariu page easily enough) and the person over seeing the page will get your message and make arrangements with you,
Thanks again for your offer anker. It’s really encouraging to see the growing number of volunteers we have for leafleting. Folks are keen to do what they can to contribute to making the change we so desperately need.
I’ll actually be happy if the election result moves the left-right pendulum back to where it should be … and that would be somewhere that ensures the will of the people (not just their economic interests, but their SOCIAL interests as well) trump all. Not just that, but one where democratic principles (open to various definitions I know) are paramount.
At the moment we actually have faux democracy and not one where disenfranchised people are any better off than they would be under undemocratic regimes where a benevolent dictator rulz.
If sheeple want to waltz their way into fascism – so be it – I’m off … there’ll a noice 3 bedroom house on the Kapiti Coast going cheap. Might even give it cheap to a certain Natzi politicians’ former pot dealer (he never inhaled dontcha know) – he’s desperate to collect property and get himself ‘respectable’.
The Sovereign’s powers are absolute. That’s what Sovereignty means. In its ultimate manifestation a Sovereign can’t even divest itself of its powers – it’s a local example of the mind-teaser as to whether an All-powerful God can make a stone too heavy for Him to pick up. A King (and some would say a Pope, too) can’t abdicate because their power is not a thing they can transfer any more than you can transfer who you are to another. All they can do is delegate the exercise of that power to another.
Hence while the Sovereign might delegate its legislative or other powers to Parliament the Sovereign can never surrender them, and so remains able to exercise them at will. Thus the GG’s office might have been absorbed into the Prime Minister’s for administrative reasons I doubt any Constitutional lawyer would say this makes the GG subject to the PM.
Too, the 1975 dismissal of Whitlam and his Government in Australia by the Governor-General seems to make it abundantly clear that the GG can withdraw a Ministerial Warrant at any time as it is, after all, granted by the Crown and held at its pleasure.
Constitutional convention provides that Warrants are granted and revoked at the request of the Prime Minister of the day, and a GG arbitratily revoking Ministerial Warrants would likely provoke a Constitutional crisis and be a boon for the Republican Movement,
However part of the argument in favour of a Monarchy is that it cuts the Geordian Knot of whether a written Consitution can protect itself from future amendment or even revocation? If it can’t how useful is it? If it can what happens if a desperate and unforseen need to amend or revoke it arises? A Monarchy is far more flexible and responsive – at least in theory although Charles I and Louis XIV demonstrate it doesn’t always work that way.
At least, tho’, if enough ‘subjects’ petitioned the Crown to revoke the Warrant of a Minister who was clearly acting improperly and the PM refused to act I like to think that we appoint GG’s who have enough respect for their Office to exercise its powers responsibly and in the public interest.
Auction items are either gifted by well-known firms or donated by wealthy and well-connected parents.
The items include:
• Two weeks at Vivre La Vie, a three-bedroom apartment in the Ribaute wine village in the south of France — value $7500.
• An internship with top Sydney ad agency DDB — priceless.
• A Rarotonga holiday for six at a beachside villa in Titikaveka, with flights for two including Koru Lounge access — value $4800.
• A commercial-grade La Spaziale coffee machine with accessories and a two-hour coffee appreciation course — value $4800.
• A bronze sculpture by artist and parent Richard Wells of a Dio girl reading a book — value $5000.
• A two-week internship at Kiwi Energy in New York, including airfares and an apartment — priceless
• A “very convenient” and envied private undercover carpark at the school — understood to be one of the most coveted items listed.’
‘Inequality between New Zealand’s European, and Maori and Pacific populations has worsened over the past decade, according to a new study.
The University of Victoria research built on a report released by the Ministry of Social Development in 2003.
Associate Professor of accounting and commercial law Dr Lisa Marriott and statistical consultant from the school of mathematics, statistics and operations research Dr Dalice Sim examined 21 social inequality indicators, including measures of health, knowledge and skills, employment, standards of living, cultural identity and social connectedness.’
Doubtless going to be ignored for the most part but along with the World Bank & several other big ‘economic’ names, Standard & Poors has apparently discovered that Income Inequality is not only bad for poor people but bad for the Economy http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11313342
Not necessarily bad for the rich though. See Southern Italy, mafia economy, rubbish economy but the mafia itself is turning over huge amounts. And do they care squat for the result of that?
I’m not meaning that we are looking at a mafia economy here of course…..
I would like to know all the Political Parties views on the housing shortage and causal factors (…artificial scarcity ?…I have heard anecdotally of overseas students buying up houses not just in New Zealand but in Australia )
…because yet again this housing shortage is undermining young New Zealander’s rights to own a home ( first young NZers are being costed out of education and now housing)
…Once upon a time a New Zealander could trade in a good car and put the money in the bank as deposit on buying a house…no more! ….why?…why are houses so expensive for New Zealanders?
..Is it because overseas investors are buying up New Zealand housing?…this is not fair !.
I know Act supports building new housing and encroaching on farmland …but imo the housing crisis is an artificial one manufactured by the Capitalist class ( NZ and International)
…. (and it is not just happening in New Zealand)
…it is a betrayal of the working class in their own countries to own their own homes ( not only are we becoming peasants in our own land but also tenants in our own land)
For Chooky – Yes – Labour is concerned that overseas investors are falsely increasing the cost of NZ’s housing stock. Labour’s policies – including Housing – can be found at the following link –
…i hope this legislation will be very tight indeed!…and restricted to New Zealanders who have lived here for a number of years
… .because I hear of overseas students not just buying one house but several!…. when many New Zealanders struggle to find adequately paid work and save for one house for their family
this is increasingly a problem not just in New Zealand
@yeshe …thanks, well we know where Winston stands …and I wonder why John Key’ NACTs allow this?!…what is in it for them ?…or are they a part of this!… and getting kick backs?
Young New Zealanders struggling to afford ONE house ..or RENTING in terrible conditions ….should be VERY VERY ANGRY!
It is a BETRAYAL of the Capitalist class of New Zealand’s working class and youth struggling to make their way in the world ….and it must stop!
“and I wonder why John Key’ NACTs allow this?!…what is in it for them ?…or are they a part of this!… and getting kick backs?
On a personal level, I think you have answered your own question. There certainly appears to be something in it for them – Key doesn’t seem to give a damm about New Zealanders or our country – he just appears to be helping overseas interests to exploit us all, and our land, and our seas.
I find the actions of him and his government sickening.
As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide, we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonisation of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world
Because the media’s owners don’t want the public to be aware of the issues.
They will do anything to distract.
Sabin was shown up as a puppet of Slater’s in Mediawatch this morning.
Now add Michael Parkin to the list of media puppets.
TVNZ is not an impartial observer or reporter.
Having a head press sec of a political party swear at the media is a story. She made it into a story – because getting unhinged on camera, as a representative of a political party weeks before an election, is news.
Biased reporting on TVOne News tonight. Pam Corkery didn’t have a “meltdown”. She was emphatic in the decision regarding interviewing Kim Dotcom. They didn’t show how the journalists were behaving. The journos could have been louder than Pam. OK, she talked about a
“sock puppet” but then that’s the truth. How refreshing having someone talking the truth.
I say that Pam Corkery did have a meltdown. She was making good points but needs to have some Nat media training. All their puppets know how to modulate their voices and do the broken record thing, keep coming back to the main point you wish to make.
She must be more professional, the pack always go for the weakest and easiest target. Judith Collins wouldn’t behave like that!
Corkery isn’t running for office. She may also be deliberately playing to the FJK-crowd, who are apparently suspicious and/or bored of a sanitised media environment, rather than to the more bourgeois voters who tend towards Labour, National or even the Greens. Whether it’s a good or successful tactic is one matter, but I’d hesitate before assuming that it wasn’t deliberate.
Sure, she shouldn’t have given the journos such an easy target, but Sabin’s name has long been a byword for hatchedit jobs on the Nats political opponents. He would have found a pretext, and the hacking story was one that was fairly predictable from Dotcom. One shouldn’t necessarily judge based on family connections, but it seems to me that; his father being an ex-national MP, is as much a coincidence as Slater’s being ex-National Party President.
No it wasn’t, she spoke to the truth. These guys just made up a story. They avoided what was said and they attacked Internet Mana any way they could. Not policy but personality, what a joke – well good to see dirty politics is still alive and well.
Just wow, TheContrarian, the media are fully in bed with the right wing propaganda trip of personality attacks, and you join in. Prop to personality attacks, by default, or design TheContrarian and others, by design or default?
I know it is a staple, but for the benefit of IMP it was silly, anyone could see how it would be interpreted by the media, in fact he probably knew that – which is why he did it.
Phillip, he was quoted as saying “I hacked our German credit rating system and put our Prime Minister’s credit rating to zero because I didn’t like the guy,”, “And we have all figured by now there’s another prime minister I don’t like.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10418540/Dotcom-tells-of-hacking-skill
This when National is saying that ‘the left is just as bad’ when it comes to ‘Dirty Politics’ has just given National back the platform to win the media and the election.
It is about time people started opening their eyes to this psychopath with delusions of grandeur!
From what I know, I tend to agree with you. Why is Dotcom even on the stage at the launch? Hacking is the last thing anyone should have talked about. I think his essential narcissism is going to cause more problems.
Pam Corkery possibly has a role, but not as press secretary.
I find Internet Mana very frustrating. They do some very good things, then do something stupid and lose momentum. I wish they’d get their act together.
Pam Corkery must resign. She lost her temper. She can do that on her own time. It was was self indulgent, embarrassing and let the rest of a very hard working team down. This election is too important to have this type of distraction.
However the story was around Kim saying that he did not want an interview. So he walked away then drove away. A fuss ensued.
Meanwhile after the Nat Launch a reporter asked Key a question. He said that he didn’t want to talk about that and walked away. No fuss ensued.
Excepting Keys press sec didnt go mad call the journo Kims puppet etc all on film so although Gower mentioned it Keys blank refusal to except question regarding the book it became a non story.
I expect most New Zealanders would like to say the same to Brooke Sabin. He’s a serial offender in jumping to conclusions for a dramatic sound bite. Previously he drove hard on the fictitious deal between Labour and Harawira in TTT.
The right wing press hate anything which will challenge the status quo. Internet Mana will, and will continue to do that.
So get with the programme people. It is a war of ideas. There are no rules, the Tory scum have thrown them out. Pam, can say what she likes, why get sanctimonious about her actions?
And any way, Annette gave the best speech of the day. And no one from the Tory media will print a word she said.
PUBLIC NOTICE
Nicky Hagar – Auckland Public Meeting
A public meeting meeting with Jesson Prize winner Nicky Hagar will be held Wednesday 27th August, 7.30pm, at the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall (Cnr Dominion Rd & Balmoral Rd).
Chaired by Sir Edmund Thomas
Hosted by the Human Rights Foundation & Equal Justice Project.
I’ve had something on moderation for almost half an hour and want people to see the notice about Nicky Hager so could someone help me out of the naughty corner.
@Rich
Thanks for caring. My comment was actually a call to whoever was moderating the site. Now and then something triggers off moderation and it gets freed when the person in charge gets time. The comment of course shows up on my screen but nobody else would know what I was talking about.
At one time using the word N.zi would take you to moderation – I don’t know if that still applies.
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
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David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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 Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
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 ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
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 ...
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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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. ...
Dirty Politics shows that sitting Ministers, specifically “Hon.” Judith Collins, are prepared to use their position and contact with paid bloggers to incite public hatred towards certain groups of people such as disabled, beneficiaries, Maori and PI, or any other group that they select.
This would strongly suggest it is no longer safe to contact our elected Ministers lest our details be passed on to abuse us into submission.
You’re looking at this the wrong way. This strongly suggests that our government ministers must not be offered any safe haven.
Or those sexually assaulted by diplomats…
No, I mean that until National ministers are held accountable for their sleazy behaviour of dubious legality they must be pursued the length and breadth of the country by citizens, journalists and probably the SIS.
The election is not going to be the final arbiter of the legality or otherwise of the government’s actions. Win or lose the National Party is under investigation.
Edit: just figured out you were responding to Aww. Need breakfast.
Quite right, not time for shrinking
Anyone aware if the National campaign launch video from last night is on the interwebs?
try tvnzondemand ‘vote 2014’..they screened them all..so i suppose it’ll be there..
I did see Nationals launch last night and it is a very slick professional production. Key spoke very well. But it was mostly about Key and their recent history. Clinical rather than warm. Not enticing.
Greens excellent production and message.
Labour aimed at being of the people for the people and succeeded. David a little too cheerful and jiggled a bit much but we could identify with the issues and the people messaging..
The Left win by miles.
My bet is Key’s campaign launch will announce further major tax cuts by 2017, and a second Auckland crossing.
And a whole lot more sporting analogies after last night.
He’ll do socialist stuff like promise an extra $5M for save the dolphins and rape crisis etc (over 10 years)
@Ad 7.27
“My bet is Key’s campaign launch will announce further major tax cuts by 2017, and a second Auckland crossing.”
By Key walking on water! Now that would be an attention-getter. Perhaps a hologram could be hastily arranged.
All PPB on TV One – On Demand
a day of two choices..
..the national campaign launch..
..reason to go:..to read the mood of the party-faithful..to count the quivering bottom-lips..
..to feel/smell the spreading-panic..
.(i’m picking the slater/eade whaledump 2day…you’d think..?..)
..to slater/lusk/eade spot..
..in essence..a schadenfreude-feast..
..or..
..the internet/mana launch..
..reasons to go:..too many to list…
..no choice..really..
I was going to go to the IMP launch but I’m thinking that I should stay home with this cold 🙁
q &a has farrar as a commentator..?
..why not slater/ede..?
..isn’t this taking getting commentators to comment on their ownactions to a new level..?
..farrar worked hand in glove with slater in running/publicising his dirt-campaigns..
..the record shows that..
..then of course there was farrars’kiwiblog story featuring the fake maori benificiary..’tania heke’..
farrar is babbling…
It is clear from “the book” that Farrar knew exactly what Slater/Ede/Lusk were up to yet told the media nothing. This alone makes him complicit.
Mora has Farrar and Jordan Williams on The Panel often. And Sam Johnson, the chch student volunteer army guy, also appears regularly. Lusk says Johnson is a client of his in Dirty Politics. Johnston did not deny this when he was on The Panel last week.
True Tory Mora never takes any of these guys to task for the links with Whale Oil.
Bomber remains banned from The Panel.
I can remember Sam Johnson saying after the Christchurch earthquakes, that his political leanings were to the ACT party. Another wolf in sheep’s clothing possibly.
I recall seeing him on TV a couple of times and thinking to myself that he sounded scripted. Doesn’t surprise me that he was being managed.
From whaledump:
Does this mean a lot of personal, non-Hager approved stuff is going to follow?
no, it’ll be the corporation industry stuff, the tobacco/alcohol stuff, i assume.
I’m learning not to assume anything with this situation. I hope there is personal stuff, might be the only thing that can wake the electorate up.
My thoughts too Tigger. Given the average Joe and Mary Bloggs’ insatiable appetite for salacious gossip and subsequent hypocritical outrage, I think its the one thing that will make them sit up and take notice. Hopefully there would be a few sportspeople – or ex sportspeople – in the mix. Now that would be pennies from heaven – gold plated ones.
I honour Hager’s rationale that ‘personal stuff’ in the emails should not get an airing.
This however may be pregnant – From Chapter 10 – “Sex Scandal” at Location 2344 Amazon Kindle –
“Even when hypocrisy justifies publication, for instance with an outspoken morals campaigner [*], revealing an affair is still very different from publishing the intimate details. But according to Cameron Slater’s selective morality, it was fine for him to do to an opponent what he would be incensed to see done to someone he liked [**].”
[*] and [**] are my interpolations. Mmmm……makes you wonder if there’s a philandering “someone” morals campaigner out there whom Cameron Slater “liked”. Over whose public humiliation Slater would be “incensed”.
Fascinating.
@Anne
Hopeful that it would be real gold plated pennies with real substance behind. Not just those chocolate gold foil-wrapped ones.
i think it will be the slater/ede comms..
..which will nail key to the cross..
..(this is my hope..anyway..)
..ede/slater is the shoe that has not yet dropped..
..and today..being nationals’ launch..
..is the perfect day to do that..
..and it’s sunny too..!
One can hope.
Don’t see that post there on whaledump’s twitter.
it’s an old one I think .. from a few days back. Nothing new since the ‘I am in Vanuatu. Don’t have any important briefings while I am gone”.
At first on Friday I read it as an admonition to us as readers not to do anything exciting! OIn re-read this monring, I think it’s actually advice that thee will be no more updates until back in NZ.
Of course, the whole thing could be a trick to confuse those wishing to find her/him …
popcorn ready again !
Winston on Q and A, discussing the SIS and Judith Collins, with biased media puppet Susan Woods.
Suggesting he’ll lean to the right.
I hope the IMP launch gets its due in media attention, but can fully see any questions with Harawira being diverted into this story:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/election-2014/313552/unhappy-hone-may-face-driving-charge
Which is itself a cute diversion from HH. The IMPs need this as much as the Nats have needed weeks long examination of their corrupt practices. Those who are directing today’s campaign launches have probably put weeks of effort into organising and preparation. It seems a shame that everyone who wasn’t there on the day is unlikely to appreciate their efforts; as our collective gaze will be directed elsewhere by the media gatekeepers.
When I saw this on 3news I was quite surprised at the tone of accusation towards Hone when he was the one to suffer the experience of being involved in a car accident. Not a peep of concern expressed for his well being.
I hope it doesn’t get twisted into a “bad Hone” narrative as has been the case for many years.
That shouldn’t even be a story.
The charge would be careless driving at worst which is a fine only offence although a disqualification can be ordered. I heard that Hone sneezed at the time and if so he shouldn’t be charged.
If Hone sneezed as I have been lately, then he is lucky that worse didn’t happen. The sneezing and coughing reflex takes you and shakes you quickly and involuntarily. And then develops into a spasm that you have to fight before it continues to where you throw up. It’s been a hard and mean virus that has been roaming NZ this winter.
I feel sorry for people under the WINZ no-welfare regime, struggling to manage, sickness is something that you’re not allowed to have (my school teacher relative has been criticised when forced to take time off, though a dedicated long employee at her school). If you are a beneficiary with children, all sick, but forced to go to work to ensure you stay on the rosters, how long can you carry on with all your duties?
There was a case in Levin District Court many years ago .. an serious accident at Te Horo on main SH1 was caused by the driver sneezing. They had evidence produced that you could not sneeze and keep your eyes open. Even now, I remember that fact every time I sneeze !
Humans are so cleverly designed, if only wisdom could aslo have been built in with learning not required.
Goodness. That’s unfortunate. He’s been on a long road trip and may have been feeling a little run down, on the verge of getting a cold. Hope he doesn’t get charged, that would be unfair.
I hadn’t heard about the sneeze, it wasn’t mentioned in the article. Unless there’s been some major roadworks in the area in the past decade, it is a pretty winding stretch of road. Wouldn’t take much of a break in concentration to cause disaster.
But we can’t expect the MSM to play fair – they’ll be slavering for a distraction from the Nat meltdown. And as adam says @ comment 12:
The police response! The roaring of cars with sirens wailing and lights flashing is so testosterone building! Tearing off from the police station, slowing and swerving at traffic lights, petrifying the populace. What fun, you can’t get these thrills at any other job in the country.
And you feel that you are actually doing something, a great cop when you pull over some jerk. And then you get to do all the entries that will bring your section up to your target. Join the police force – ride round in smooth, responsive new cars – have car chases with idle morons and frighten the hell out of them.
I fear that the police response is responsive to that sort of thinking.
When George Bush invaded Iraq I was glad that Helen Clark was PM with her strong moral principles and not John Key who’s lack of principles said we were ‘missing in action’. In his eagerness to please the USA and its trade I believe he would have embroiled us in the fiasco.
With the current international turmoil I sincerely hope David Cunliffe will soon be PM and not John Key.
@rodel..there is not a shadow of doubt that key wd have been an eager spear-carrier for that invasion based on lies..of bush jnr/blair..
..simon power said to the parliament..(showing a distinct lack of originality/creativity..but there ya go..!..)
..power said:..’all the way with george bush!’..
..always been happy to kill for the ruling empire..the tories..
..key is a wannabe warmonger..
..and as the spooking-dump five days before the election will show..
..he has already well and truly sold nz out to the americans..
..’holy vote collapse..!..batman..!’..
I attended the local ANZAC parade, with my son who was in scouts at the time Helen Clark made that decision.
A fairly balanced and appropriate event – was then marred by our National MP, Dr Paul Hutchinson getting up to speak and using that phrase “missing in action”. Along with “we need to stick with our allies” and other trite comments that lasted an interminable 15 minutes.
First time I had heard him speak, and was disgusted with his appropriation of a memorial service to essentially give a party political broadcast.
(Must add: Not a usual attendee at ANZAC days, and this added to my personal aversion of the day.)
Paul Hutchinson — I thought he was one of the more moderate, liberal National MP’s…
My original comment I hope will persuade any wavering voters, or those we may talk to who have teenage kids , boys probably, that John Key’s re election could have serious consequences re invasions, conscription and young NZ fodder for US inspired wars- and yes I’m a peacenick.
Molly -I appreciate your thoughts but I go to ANZAC parades and silently think about those who suffered believing that they were doing the right thing and think about my kid’s futures.
But John Key shouting like a performing seal in parliament about how we should be foddering our youth off to serve his Wall street friends in foreign wars gives me the furies.
And when people like Hutchinson echo the war criminal Dick Cheney’s of this world, words fail me.
I think the contrasting attitudes of the right and left to international relations is a forgotten election issue of which needs discussion as well as the current domestic obsession with the malicious crimes of Slater, Lusk and co.
Brooke Sabin (TV3 News reporter) has just been pinged on Media Watch for lying over the OIA request for the release of the Cunliffe letter on Liu’s immigration. He knew the OIA was going to reveal the letter, yet TV3 said they had no idea this was going to happen.
Anything Sabin says in the future can now never be trusted.
Audio will be available on Radion NZ in a while.
I wonder how many of the media are compromised by Slater..
And by the information held by whale dump.
You know @ Paul …. anyone that goes near Slater is compromised – let alone those that profess to be ‘journalists’ …. Whether they be Eastern Suburb-living, raspy-voiced, alcohol-induced wife beaters (or maybe former wife); former Labourite-now neo-lib-converts; what the gay ‘community’ know as “bog-crawlers”; Nation and Q+A commentators and ‘experts’.
Christ Almighty! …. if I’ve heard these things, as well as being very close to some of them (as in 2 degrees of separation), I’m bloody sure Cam Slator has (or will get) the details.
Best policy is (and always was) to avoid the prick. Unfortunately some things can’t be undone. It just seems to me that there are too many a wishin and a hopin …. they might get away with it, they might not. Roll the dice.
This is just odd – prosecution before an investigation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11313008
Is anyone covering Internet/Mana launch from here?
@ adam..
..yes..
Have Labour yet announced where they stand on the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership?
I don’t like it just on the few things we’ve heard about it that have been leaked from the ‘confidential’ negotiations, and the fact that Key and the Nats have been pushing for it as hard as they can – no doubt eager to please the US – makes me suspect we ought to be backing Japan on this and treat it like an Ebola victim’s handkerchief.
http://www.exposethetpp.org/
Man in a Barrel,
Remit passed at National Conference
http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/labour-party-tppa-remit-as-passed/
@Tautoko V
Thanks for that link about TPPA scrutiny.
Labour wants a public release of the details of the TPP so that it can be fully debated and discussed. Labour is pro-FTAs in general.
AFAICT the remit pointed to by Tautoko Viper (thanks) would make the present contents as being pushed by the US a complete non-starter for a Labour Govt – while any proposal to release its contents to the public before they’ve been trussed like Xmas turkeys to be stuffed by it will be stamped on by the US until it’s signed, sealed and binding on Sovereign Nations.
Labour did not say in the remit what its position would be if the TPP fails to meet any of its terms. I was looking for some kind of statement along the lines of bottom lines rather than a declaration as to what it would have been nice to have but, “well, this is what we had to sign up to. Disappointing, we know but ‘good international citizen’ and all that, and at least we get a seat in the back row of the conferences.”
Anyone know if the Greens have come up with anything stronger than this waffle?
The Greens released a statement with the Australian and Canadian Green Parties on their position in Aug 2012 which stated a willingness to engage, and set out a number of bottom lines: Joint Statement Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement – Green Party Aotearoa New Zealand
It covers the following points in detail:
– Threat to New Zealands Sovereignty
– Threat to Internet Freedom
– More IP rights for the big players
– Lack of Transparency
Additionally, they were asked on the Nation earlier this year which was not so equivocal:
– Herald Article
– The Nation – Sunday March 30 2014
…
Hmmm. Not too encouraging from any angle.
TPP is hopefully dead in the water, fortunately stymied by the Japanese taking offence at the crass (offensively unJapanese) bullying tactics by the US and – incredibly – the Republicans in the Senate refusing to give Obama fast-track approval powers for the deal for fear he won’t screw enough out of the Pacific Rim for their paymasters.
However if it rears its ugly head again we know the Nats would roll over to be screwed like a prostitute on peice-work but we really, really know where the other parties stand on this as it could be a defining issue of the next Parliament, with repercussions into infinity.
http://triplecrisis.com/tpp-would-deepen-income-divide/
Oops, should read
What’s going on with all these Vipers?
@ Rich 11.59
There is an interesting history around Vipers here. An interesting tale too but a bit time-consuming.
Could not resist joining in. There is lots of us who changed to Vipers in support of the original – Colonial Viper – after an unsavoury attack on CV (not here on TS).
You could be ‘RichViper’. we don;t have one of those yet, in the name sense; don’t know about the $ sense. LOL.
Yourself, and many others, have my lasting gratitude re: that little unfortunate ‘event’.
What ‘event’? Any links?
it was around this time http://thestandard.org.nz/i-vipertacus/
No don’t qualify in the $ sense. Thanks, good to see whoever it was was run off.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/10417384/Drug-giant-incites-war-of-the-sexes
According to the book of Hager, this pharmaceutical-company beat-up could lead to a National Party bribe this election. Because men are so downtrodden, and National seems to be going hard-out for the boofhead vote…
To the extent that Nicky Hager logically implicates the MSM as ‘enablers’ of dirty politics we have this morning Q + A actually reinforcing that implication by its own choice of commentatory panel.
Why, before one word came out of David Farrar’s ‘commentator’ mouth, was he not directly asked to refute the clear assertions by Hager that he Farrar was a complicit actor in the dirty politics Hager exposes ?
No. Farrar is a ‘commentator’ (Tui’s). Not the vaguest intimation of his true involvement in the whole nefarious carry-on. Journalistic laziness (a quote in the book attributed to some US right-wing strategist), an arrogant two fingers in the air ? Hard to say. I favour an hubristic, aging, cafe ‘double-shot’, subliminal sense that “however we do it, we do it right…..”. Coupled with – “that’s it, time to move on folks…..”. Which again reinforces the by and large MSM preparedness to pitch in politically…..in whose favour we identify at once.
Imagine how inquisitorially animated would have been Susan Wood were Nicky Hager on that panel blithely masquerading as a ‘commentator’.
It is risible particularly given the extraordinary airs and graces, the pretensions to elevated ‘appreciation’ of things. Shouldn’t complain though I guess…..they might have had the Clayton’s political scientist Claire Robinson riding shotgun to Farrar.
confluence of names here into the polluted National river …..
“A new politician has been dragged into the saga of Donghua Liu’s funding of political parties.
National’s Coromandel MP Scott Simpson received a $5000 donation from the controversial Chinese-born property developer for his 2011 election campaign, after meeting Liu about 10 times, including a couple of dinner dates.
The donation was declared in Simpson’s post-election return, and has been uncovered by the Sunday Star-Times during a forensic trawl of donations to MPs.
But Simpson did not flag the donation with National Party leadership when Liu and the cash-for-favours scandal hit the headlines this year. “I had made my declaration which, as far as I was concerned, was all that I was required to do,” Simpson said.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10416871/New-Donghua-Liu-donation-uncovered
In Dirty Politics, didn’t Scott Simpson lose a National selection in Rodney due to Slater’s machinations?
Yes. A smear campaign against Scott Simpson was orchestrated by Simon Lusk and carried out by Slater in a series of attack posts on wail oil. (p.61.62 and 63)
@ Eosie and Yeshe
See Below. (@ 26)
oops @ Rose and Yeshe
An interesting little article hidden away on the Northern Advocate yesterday – h/t a commentator on Pundit.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11313017
A taste
“A former Whangarei Boys’ High pupil who describes himself as a “hobby hacker” has exposed security flaws in the National Party’s website.
Josh Brodie, formerly of Whangarei but now living in Wellington, said his discovery left Prime Minister John Key open to accusations of “throwing ‘Labour left the security off’ stones from within a glass house”.
Wallace Chapman let himself, and his listeners, down this morning
Radio NZ National, Sunday 24 August 2014
This morning featured an excellent Counterpoint contribution by Wayne Brittenden, outlining the shameful record of collaboration between two pariah states: apartheid South Africa and Israel. Following that, Sunday host Wallace Chapman interviewed the Australian-based ANC official, Kolin Thumbadoo. This was mostly an enlightening ten minutes, but it was marred when Wallace Chapman thoughtlessly repeated a nasty cliché: he asked his guest if “this seemingly intractable situation” could ever be “resolved”.
If Wallace Chapman wants to ever progress beyond the stage of wringing his hands in anguish about the ongoing oppression of the people in besieged Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, he will have to start some serious reading about the situation. The fact that he could so casually describe Israel’s crimes as “intractable” is a worrying indicator that he has not done much.
I flicked him the following email. Keep listening, guys!….
Please stop calling the Israel-Palestine conflict “intractable”
Dear Wallace,
In your interview with Kolin Thumbadoo, you described the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as “intractable”. That’s not true; in fact it is perhaps the easiest conflict in the world to solve: Israel must withdraw to the pre-1967 borders, it must allow the people it expelled to return, it must stop its murderous siege on Gaza and it must tear down the illegal annexation wall it has been erecting for the last two decades. International law is clear and unequivocal about every one of these points.
When you or any other commentator repeats the line that the situation in Palestine is “intractable”, you are, perhaps unwittingly, repeating a core trope of Israeli propaganda.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
Worth a listen – Andrew Geddis with Wallace Chapman 9.00 am today RNZ. Geddis’s thesis – ‘this is not so much about the instant electoral outcome – it is about where we are prepared to allow New Zealand politics to go in the long term’ – words to that effect. ‘Will we blink at the filthing of the New Zealand political dynamic ?’
It was worth a listen. However ‘Will we blink at the filthing of the New Zealand political dynamic ?’.
Probably not until we reach rock bottom – at which time consultants/pundits/sperts et al will be lining up to clip the ticket and give advice on how we might get our democracy back.
Though we might know exactly who to ‘blame’, that’ll be of little comfort but great cost.
Shudda Cudda Wudda
‘Blogging vs Journalism vs Politics – The 7 latest revolting revelations’
By Martyn Bradbury / August 24, 2014
“The Titanic is the National Party, Key the Captain, Whaleoil the iceberg & Sean Plunket, Mike Hosking and Paul Henry are the band playing on the deck….
“The real issue about the election is whether New Zealanders want one nation or whether they want two…in the past three years Government members have done everything they could to start the process of entrenching a two-nation New Zealand whereby one does very well and the other is left without hope.
The struggle within the National Party over one-nation or two-nation Toryism has been resolved in favour of the two-nation Tories led by the Minister of Finance followed by an inadequate Prime Minister.
Those who are doing well perceive very little identity of interest with those who are not doing well. Of course there has been some limited recovery in economic indicators – there had to be as we bounced back from the depths of a recession the government itself created. But who’s benefited?
Not very many.
Everybody wants things to be better, but few people can link the desire for things to be better with any material improvement in their own circumstances or in the circumstances of family and friends.
There are stark choices for this election. Government members will settle for the ‘smug society’ and try to marginalise the one-third of people they do nothing for and try to buy off the rest”
That was in 1993 – Rt Hon Helen Clarks budget speech.
21 years later – an entire generation – that exact same speech could be stated word for word apopo and still be entirely relevant.
How sad for New Zealand that we’ve just been treading water all this time.
Thank heavens to murgatroyd that at least Grabour together, have decent policies to lift us from our mire.
Think forward to Sunday morning four weeks from now. Will the Nat nightmare finally be over?
God please let it be so.
Amen, to that.
and over without having to wait for negotiations of any kind ….
Absolutely! Hopefully there won’t be the agony of waiting.
See 26 below u 2 (Rosie and Yeshe). Unfortunately my 115 yo cold as a frog’s tit house meant my aging fingers weren’t at their best and I shoved in a comment in the wrong place.
thx Tim … replied to you down there …
I’d like it to be clear-cut and dried by 9 pm on the Saturday night ! ( idealism I know, but we can aspire!!)
Israeli teenagers: Racist and proud of it
Ethnic hatred has become a basic element in the everyday life of Israeli youth, a forthcoming book finds.
by OR KASHTI, Haaretz, Sunday 24 August 2014
“For me, personally, Arabs are something I can’t look at and can’t stand,” a 10th-grade girl from a high school in the central part of the country says in abominable Hebrew. “I am tremendously racist. I come from a racist home. If I get the chance in the army to shoot one of them, I won’t think twice. I’m ready to kill someone with my hands, and it’s an Arab. In my…”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.611822
I wouldn’t call a tenth grade girl racist. She’s too young to know anything other than what she’s been told. If she’d grown up being told by her family and friends that people who eat chocolate ice cream are deviants she’d believe that too. To imply that a child freely arrives at racism as if from within a vacuum is just plain wrong. She has a big personal problem to solve, no doubt, but glibly throwing ideological newspaper headlines at her won’t reveal anything useful.
You must hang out with really really dumb teenagers.
“Dumb” is unfair. Too many kids today are brought up in what is essentially a closed society, denied any insight into any other viewpoint. Put another way it’s brainwashing, often of a religious nature which is often reinforced with threats of damnation if you even pick up a ‘non-approved’ book let alone open it. “God knows if you touch yourself,” is a pretty potent threat if you’ve never been exposed to the possibility of a less Draconian God let alone no God at all.
“Give me the boy until he is seven and I will give you the man.” – “Saint” Francis Xavier.
Well in the Israel case, polls show that the adults there – not the kids – are strongly approving of the level of force used on Gaza…so something is definitely going on, and your concept of an insular family home may very much apply to both communities and to entire nations.
…
I’d be wary of condemning communities and entire nations on the strength of what polls say.
CV the Israeli govt is suppressing protests by moderate Israeli’s
Certainly she is simply repeating what she hears in her home, her school and on Israeli television, which is remarkably narrow, and heavily censored. But there are kids in Israel, even in tenth grade, who do have the intellect to decipher the murderous propaganda with which they are barraged, and the integrity to reject it…..
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/israel-imprisons-youth-for-refusing-army-service.html
The article Morrissey linked to is behind a pay wall so here’s more to point out that Israeli teenagers are indeed racists.
.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.602661
http://www.vice.com/read/israeli-racism-gaza-kleinfeld-511
http://open.salon.com/blog/libbyliberalnyc/2014/08/09/the_fertilization_thru_harvest_of_israeli_racism
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2014/0702/Why-36-000-Israelis-joined-Facebook-campaign-calling-for-revenge-video
For all the calls of corruption and sleeze over Dirty Politics, one thing should make us all feel better – there are no bodies yet. Don’t you find it encouraging that no one has been assisted into a permanent sabbatical over the massive damage they’ve done? If this stuff happened anywhere else in the world, if it happened in the commercial world, someone would be swimming with the fishes. Encouraging, or disappointing? New Zealanders really are “easy going” and our “corrupt pollies with links to organised crime” aren’t making any use off their supposed contacts. Even when their democracy and government are being dismantled in front of their eyes, New Zealanders just shout and shake their fists. Good on you New Zealand, you’re tame, but fair.
Too many sheep just swallow what Key has to say about the revelations, but there have been some damning opinion polls indicating Collins should resign or be sacked.
I’d guess that there have been many behind closed door right-wing discussions about arranging an accident for Nicky Hager by the rabid right. After National lose the election and Key goes home to Hawaii will be when extra vigilance will be required.
I’d like to think Slater went to Israel to escape the blowback but he’s probably just arranging delivery of his very own National Party sponsored spy drone..
Wallace Chapman’s Sunday Morning has real gems …it is becoming a must listen!
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday
Especially the Wayne Brittenden’s Counterpoint on Israeli Apartheid
….and the hard hitting interview with Koilin Thumbadoo ( a founding member of ANC) on the military State of Israel ( fourth largest military state in the world)…Zionism and Apartheid are the heirs of Nazism
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/20146879/wayne-brittenden's-counterpoint-israeli-apartheid
@ Chooky 11.59
True about Wallace Chapman being good. Wayne Brittenden is tops also, Wallace’s other interviewees were insightful.
Now can we get someone better than Jim Mora, for breadth of vision beyond comfortable middle-class memes with right wing bias, to run the Panel so that we don’t hear from cotton-wool puffheads there. Let’s have interesting people who do worthwhile things, make stuff, build stuff, achieve stuff, think stuff, who like humanity, and aren’t celebrities of the ‘right fit’ with charming easy laughter and recipes for living.or wise grumping about the state of the world without a positive idea of their own.
@ greywarbler….glad you are up on deck again from the lurgy…i wondered where you had gotten to
…yes although on occasion Jim Mora has some good commentary and interviewees….a lot of it is as you say “comfortable middle-class memes with right wing bias”…so bad that even he finds it necessary to challenge them
@ Rosie and Yeshe
You’ll recall I posed the question the other day as to whether the GG had the power to rescind Ministerial warrants. I attempted to get Wallace Chapman to pose that question to Andrew Geddes this morning on RNZ (to no avail).
I’m still wondering.
I’m also wondering about the Chief Justice.
So far however, I’ve heard that “technically … YES he/she (the GG) does – except that Jenny Shipley did something a while back that effectively put the GG’s office UNDER the PM’s Office.
One wonders whether that was in fact ‘technically’ legal too.
Sheeple don’t seem that concerned however – so in future when I wake up one morning in a 3rd world country afar, and hear that NZ has descended into a fascist regime, and everyone is clutching their pearls and worrying and lamenting, I’ll be finding it a little hard to show any sympathy. I don’t even think I’ll ask for my ashes to be sent back for a sprinkling
Thx for trying Once Was Tim .. what was it Shipley did ? Surely, nothing can put GG below PM … GG is Her Majesty The Queen’s local incarnation isn’t he ? Any details welcome, thx.
On the ‘sheeple’? I trust Kiwis. I believe they are concerned. And it only takes a few % to be concerned enough. Have faith a little, from wherever you are ! All is not yet lost.
To Once Was Tim, and Yeshe @ 26 re GG’s role. John Armstrong wrote a column in the Herald 15 November last year after attending a function at which the GG spoke. He summarised part of the GG’s speech as follows :
“The most important task is the appointment of a Prime Minister after an election. It was to that task that Sir Jerry devoted most of his speech to a dinner he hosted last Friday for journalists in the Parliamentary press gallery. That role is to have as little or no role as possible. It is for the politicians to reach agreement which allows the leader of a party to inform the Governor-General that he or she has the confidence of the House – that is, sufficient MPs on board to defeat a no-confidence motion. That principle was enunciated by Sir Michael Hardie-Boys, Governor-General when the first MMP election was held in 1996 and no one was quite sure whether New Zealand’s unwritten constitution could cope with a multi-party Parliament. ”
@ Once Was Tim 12.04
You have got me thinking. Bryan Gould said yesterday that NZ is not now a country in the style that our elders envisaged or fought and died for.
New Zealand started off as a speculator’s dream. Getting the land off Maori and onselling it to those who couldn’t get any in the Auld Country, or who wanted more. Just the thing for those second and later sons who couldn’t inherit the family estate. And there was money in not owning land but clipping the ticket as it passed along.
Maori saw that it wasn’t panning out and a little integrity from some pollies and aristos at the top meant there was something to build better legals on, to claim contra proferentem on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_proferentem And Maori are getting some back and will be able to do good things if they can prevent themselves changing into aliens when they get a scholarship to Harvard or some other flash business school. Or military academy of the type that trained Fijian leaders.
In the meantime the struggle to make a good society was messy and seemed to be solved by the suggestion that too much government control slowed down the move to modernism and a well-balanced economy. Try our free market snake oil said Roger Douglas, who had just enough Labour credentials to enable him to mask his alien change. (Excerpt from wikipedia on Rogernomics – In 1980, he described New Zealand as a country living on borrowed money, unable – in spite of the record efforts of its exporters – to pay its own way in the world.) And in 2014 the siutation is? In addition he put forward ideas of positive future directions which would have been of immense benefit if only they had been implemented. “He argued in 1982 that the government should actively support small business, and intervene to stop the aggregation of assets by big business. In his view, the government should use the tax system to encourage productive investment and discourage speculative investment.” Wikipedia.
Now what’s left of NZ is now being sold as part of a speculator’s dream. Only Maori are putting up a sustained fight. The rest of the country are riding round in their elevated people movers or getting drunk, or sick, or looking as Janis Ian aptly puts it, In books and magazines on how to be and what to see while you are being https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSmSf153-8A
Or the better off are sitting in their tastefully decorated lounge rooms watching large screen television including reality television because the reality of reality is too hard to take. There is no fun and pleasure in it.
We might as well consider taking ourselves elsewhere and bury our ashes in the corner of some other foreign country. Perhaps I should try to go to France and be where my birth father, or bits of him, lie in a Commonwealth war grave near Nancy.
Thoughtful, Warbs.
+1
… and for a minute there @ Grey, I was thinking we may have come across each other somewhere along life’s journey.
Interesting too your reference to Fiji. There were attempts at a workable constitution (by Reeves et al). It appears it wasn’t ‘efficient and effective’ enough to progress various agendas and so those well trained military conduct putchs and coups when it suits. Both Slator and Chapman are familiar with that situation – Slator approves apparently.
Interesting post from Jenny Kirk above as well re the GG’s ‘role’. In theory that’s as it should be right up until the time things all turn to shit, but I hope he’s ‘comfortable’ in having enabled Judith Collins’ bad behaviour, just as I hope the judiciary are ‘comfortable’ with politicians of all stripes chipping away at their role (i.e. interpreting law and administering sanctions).
We have a unicameral system without a formal constitution (BORA and Treaty and bits and pieces aside). But why worry – even if we did …. who the fuck have we got to enforce one anyway?
And we continue to pretend we’re a 1st world democracy based on the fact that we’re ‘nice people’?
Easy to see why New Zealand is spectacularly placed for experimentation.
A fine opportunity to raise such a question (yes, as previously discussed), and a shame that your very valid question wasn’t put forward. Interesting about the Shipley intervention – I wonder what that was about?
I do have this nagging worry that the Hager revelations will fall on the deaf ears of the the majority of the public, despite the high profile media attention. I would like to have yeshe’s faith in folk, but the last few years, decade really, have made me feel cynical towards the reasoning of our fellow NZer’s, their apathy and cognitive dissonance.
Alex Salmond, on the telly awhile ago said that an Independent Scotland would consider granting citizenship to NZer’s who have a Scottish born grandparent. If they win the independence vote on 18th September and we lose the election I might just consider taking them up on that offer! It would be overwhelmingly incomprehensible to live in a country that legitimises and rewards corruption by voting back in those same corrupt leaders.
On the bright side, this election has a completely different feel to 2011 and there is hope. Good and great things could be afoot. And despite the odds I have a feeling that here in Ohariu, “Our Ginny” might just knock Dunne off his comfy perch, by a whisker. One critical Nat coalition partner gone. She’s doing well, getting out and about…………….and for the lols, check out the photo of Ginny photo bombing Dunne in the mall:
https://www.facebook.com/virginia.andersen.ohariu
Tempting as it is to leave the problem to someone else, it’s more tempting to try and show the world how to move forward in my view. Get Labour into Govt and then set up ‘free movement’ for citizens between Scotland and New Zealand. We could try it with other countries of a similar size as well. I don’t see why it should only be the rich who have free movement of State.
@ Rich 2.14
Sounds a good idea. Join in an association with Scotland of small states, countries, that are trying to achieve greater stability and prosperity and discuss matters relevant to their size and status and independence. and sovereignty. States that want to avoid merely being the lackey of some big power playing chess with the world.
I don’t know whether Australia could join, I think its tendencies would diminish the value of the association. Scotland would need some criteria of judgment as to suitability to prevent some craven tool of the corporate nations getting in and white-anting the association. And if the left don’t win this election here then Scotland shouldn’t touch us with a barge pole for fear of catching whatever disease is diminishing us. Rickets perhaps.
I don’t how serious Alex Salmond was when he said that! He was really referring the strong ancestral ties between the two countries. I viewed it as a welcoming gesture to those who wanted to return to their ancestral home land.
First things first though, we have an election to win! I’d have no thoughts of leaving NZ if we did.
@ Rosie
I hope all is well with campaign in Ohariu. Your positive comments are strengthening medicine to the blog.
Hi Warbs. Peoples Power Ohariu kicked off last week with billboards and leafletting.
We have six billboards that say “Hey Peter! We don’t want a ‘willing seller’ MP for Ohariu” put up around various suburbs.
Our leaflet covers 4 aspects of Dunne’s deals and fence sitting status:
His “willing seller’ stance on the GCSB
His promotion of asset sales as being advantageous to ‘mum and dad’ investors when less than 2% bought them
His claim (in a video on his website) that he his “neither National or Labour” in the political spectrum but he has a confidence and supply agreement with National
His refusal to discuss concerns PPO put to him about the TPPA saying he wasn’t going to waste time speculating on what the TPPA might contain..
We’ve done about 4000 households so far and have another week to complete the whole electorate or what we can manage – it’s a huge area to cover!
We’ve had feedback trickling in. Two supportive, two hostile and one right winger feeling resigned that he had to vote for Dunne to keep the Nats in.
It will be interesting to see how audiences respond to Dunne during the candidates meetings which start 1st September. A lot has happened in the last 3 years, hopefully he will have lost some of his shine and hopefully this will show in those meetings.
power to you, Rosie, you got two out of five as a good start.
I take heart remembering that the whole nuclear-free movement began in Devonport with us putting up A4 sheets in our windows, saying “WE SAY NO TO NUCLEAR SHIPS”.
It was slow, but it was steady and sure .. eventually the whole suburb had white signs in their windows. And so it began.
I think the effect of Nicky’s book is similar … slow, but steady and inexorable, with more to come. And it takes such a small percentage to tip it over.
Honestly, I don’t think Kiwis in general are reactive .. it takes a slow burn, but once the decision is made, it’s irrevocable. And I think one the biggest cons from National has been they they had a mandate to rule when more people voted against them than voted for them last time.
It won’t take so much imho !!! This shit has to stop.
and this made me laugh if you haven’t seen it .. dry and clever in 60 secs …
http://www.3news.co.nz/Jeremy-Corbett–Paul-Ego-Politics-In-60-Seconds/tabid/1348/articleID/358117/Default.aspx
Lols. They can be quite cutting on 7 Days too, especially on the “No Minister” segment.
Great that you were part of such an effective movement yeshe 🙂 My generation owes so much to yours for the stands you took and in the courage required in certain fights. (I’m thinking of the ’81 Springboks tour).
Luckily the scariest thing we have to do is face one man!
PS. One of the hostile emails doesn’t really count as pro Dunne. He was just really angry with the shouty capitals accusing us of being the Conservative Party and how he didn’t want any more material from us. Clearly he didn’t even read our leaflet and can’t see the difference between a glossy four page colour brochure and a black and white photocopied A5 leaflet.
so maybe you got three out of five ? 😀
maybe you can buy some old toilet bowls from a wrecker and place one under each Dunne billboard ? ( not yours, the others!)
good and effective visual .. and cheap !
+100 Rosie. And we should all remember when voting starts on 3rd September the best way to get rid of Key is:
Green Party Supporters-Party Vote Green
Labour Party Supporters-Party Vote Labour
Internet-Mana Supporters-Party Vote Internet-Mana
Te Tai Tokerau Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote Mana-Hone Harawira
Epsom Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote National-Paul Goldsmith
East Coast Bays Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote National-Murray McCully
Ohariu Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote Labour-Virginia Andersen
………..and Annette Sykes, candidate vote for Waiariki, shift Flavell out.
Although Tame Iti has announced he is standing for the Maori Party, which is a huge draw card for them. Could his influence strengthen a coalition party that looked like it was on the way out?
Is Sykes ahead in Waiariki? Have there been polls?
Rosie, do you need help with deliveries in Ohariu?
Hi anker. Apologies for the late reply. We had a power cut last night which put the evenings agenda in a bit of a spin.
Yes, thank you very much for your offer, we will gladly accept!
Probably the best thing to do is to go to our face book page, if you’re on face book that is (I’m not and can’t access it through google but those who are can get to the People’s Power Ohariu page easily enough) and the person over seeing the page will get your message and make arrangements with you,
Thanks again for your offer anker. It’s really encouraging to see the growing number of volunteers we have for leafleting. Folks are keen to do what they can to contribute to making the change we so desperately need.
I’ll actually be happy if the election result moves the left-right pendulum back to where it should be … and that would be somewhere that ensures the will of the people (not just their economic interests, but their SOCIAL interests as well) trump all. Not just that, but one where democratic principles (open to various definitions I know) are paramount.
At the moment we actually have faux democracy and not one where disenfranchised people are any better off than they would be under undemocratic regimes where a benevolent dictator rulz.
If sheeple want to waltz their way into fascism – so be it – I’m off … there’ll a noice 3 bedroom house on the Kapiti Coast going cheap. Might even give it cheap to a certain Natzi politicians’ former pot dealer (he never inhaled dontcha know) – he’s desperate to collect property and get himself ‘respectable’.
Sorry, meant as a reply to Once was Tim above
The Sovereign’s powers are absolute. That’s what Sovereignty means. In its ultimate manifestation a Sovereign can’t even divest itself of its powers – it’s a local example of the mind-teaser as to whether an All-powerful God can make a stone too heavy for Him to pick up. A King (and some would say a Pope, too) can’t abdicate because their power is not a thing they can transfer any more than you can transfer who you are to another. All they can do is delegate the exercise of that power to another.
Hence while the Sovereign might delegate its legislative or other powers to Parliament the Sovereign can never surrender them, and so remains able to exercise them at will. Thus the GG’s office might have been absorbed into the Prime Minister’s for administrative reasons I doubt any Constitutional lawyer would say this makes the GG subject to the PM.
Too, the 1975 dismissal of Whitlam and his Government in Australia by the Governor-General seems to make it abundantly clear that the GG can withdraw a Ministerial Warrant at any time as it is, after all, granted by the Crown and held at its pleasure.
Constitutional convention provides that Warrants are granted and revoked at the request of the Prime Minister of the day, and a GG arbitratily revoking Ministerial Warrants would likely provoke a Constitutional crisis and be a boon for the Republican Movement,
However part of the argument in favour of a Monarchy is that it cuts the Geordian Knot of whether a written Consitution can protect itself from future amendment or even revocation? If it can’t how useful is it? If it can what happens if a desperate and unforseen need to amend or revoke it arises? A Monarchy is far more flexible and responsive – at least in theory although Charles I and Louis XIV demonstrate it doesn’t always work that way.
At least, tho’, if enough ‘subjects’ petitioned the Crown to revoke the Warrant of a Minister who was clearly acting improperly and the PM refused to act I like to think that we appoint GG’s who have enough respect for their Office to exercise its powers responsibly and in the public interest.
Thanks Vinscreen Viper. Helpful to get some clarity on the subject.
Indeed!
Calling Jerry! Earth to Jerry do you read … over?
Further evidence of our growing inequality
‘Posh school’s auction offers the stuff of dreams
Auction items are either gifted by well-known firms or donated by wealthy and well-connected parents.
The items include:
• Two weeks at Vivre La Vie, a three-bedroom apartment in the Ribaute wine village in the south of France — value $7500.
• An internship with top Sydney ad agency DDB — priceless.
• A Rarotonga holiday for six at a beachside villa in Titikaveka, with flights for two including Koru Lounge access — value $4800.
• A commercial-grade La Spaziale coffee machine with accessories and a two-hour coffee appreciation course — value $4800.
• A bronze sculpture by artist and parent Richard Wells of a Dio girl reading a book — value $5000.
• A two-week internship at Kiwi Energy in New York, including airfares and an apartment — priceless
• A “very convenient” and envied private undercover carpark at the school — understood to be one of the most coveted items listed.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11313395
‘Inequality in NZ worsens over decade’
‘Inequality between New Zealand’s European, and Maori and Pacific populations has worsened over the past decade, according to a new study.
The University of Victoria research built on a report released by the Ministry of Social Development in 2003.
Associate Professor of accounting and commercial law Dr Lisa Marriott and statistical consultant from the school of mathematics, statistics and operations research Dr Dalice Sim examined 21 social inequality indicators, including measures of health, knowledge and skills, employment, standards of living, cultural identity and social connectedness.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11312322
That flash crowd have very powerful, extensive and well resourced networks.
Doubtless going to be ignored for the most part but along with the World Bank & several other big ‘economic’ names, Standard & Poors has apparently discovered that Income Inequality is not only bad for poor people but bad for the Economy
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11313342
Not necessarily bad for the rich though. See Southern Italy, mafia economy, rubbish economy but the mafia itself is turning over huge amounts. And do they care squat for the result of that?
I’m not meaning that we are looking at a mafia economy here of course…..
I would like to know all the Political Parties views on the housing shortage and causal factors (…artificial scarcity ?…I have heard anecdotally of overseas students buying up houses not just in New Zealand but in Australia )
…because yet again this housing shortage is undermining young New Zealander’s rights to own a home ( first young NZers are being costed out of education and now housing)
…Once upon a time a New Zealander could trade in a good car and put the money in the bank as deposit on buying a house…no more! ….why?…why are houses so expensive for New Zealanders?
..Is it because overseas investors are buying up New Zealand housing?…this is not fair !.
I know Act supports building new housing and encroaching on farmland …but imo the housing crisis is an artificial one manufactured by the Capitalist class ( NZ and International)
…. (and it is not just happening in New Zealand)
…it is a betrayal of the working class in their own countries to own their own homes ( not only are we becoming peasants in our own land but also tenants in our own land)
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/aucklands-housing-crisis-investor-driven-not-shortage-nzier-bd-156835
http://tonyalexander.co.nz/regular-publications/bnz-weekly-overview/housing-market/housing-shortage-was-foreseen-and-it-will-worsen/
For Chooky – Yes – Labour is concerned that overseas investors are falsely increasing the cost of NZ’s housing stock. Labour’s policies – including Housing – can be found at the following link –
http://campaign.labour.org.nz/all_our_announced_policies
thankyou …yes I see it here
http://campaign.labour.org.nz/overseas_speculation
…i hope this legislation will be very tight indeed!…and restricted to New Zealanders who have lived here for a number of years
… .because I hear of overseas students not just buying one house but several!…. when many New Zealanders struggle to find adequately paid work and save for one house for their family
this is increasingly a problem not just in New Zealand
http://theconversation.com/the-end-of-affordable-housing-in-melbourne-8273
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/young-heads-look-to-solve-sydney-housing-crisis-20140703-zss5a.html
http://www.sydneyalliance.org.au/sydney_s_housing_affordability_crisis_putting_young_lives_on_hold
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2597354/Chinese-fuel-UK-housing-shortage-Far-East-speculators-price-Britons-market-country.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/07/10/chinese-to-spend-billions-on-american-real-estate/
Winston on to it again … just now
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10418387/Winston-Peters-points-at-laundering-scheme
@yeshe …thanks, well we know where Winston stands …and I wonder why John Key’ NACTs allow this?!…what is in it for them ?…or are they a part of this!… and getting kick backs?
Young New Zealanders struggling to afford ONE house ..or RENTING in terrible conditions ….should be VERY VERY ANGRY!
It is a BETRAYAL of the Capitalist class of New Zealand’s working class and youth struggling to make their way in the world ….and it must stop!
Chooky – you ask :
“and I wonder why John Key’ NACTs allow this?!…what is in it for them ?…or are they a part of this!… and getting kick backs?
On a personal level, I think you have answered your own question. There certainly appears to be something in it for them – Key doesn’t seem to give a damm about New Zealanders or our country – he just appears to be helping overseas interests to exploit us all, and our land, and our seas.
I find the actions of him and his government sickening.
Decent people speaking out.
As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide, we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonisation of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/15/gaza-propaganda-machines
A young Palestinian does the ice bucket challenge – with rubble.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=438919456249567
@Joe 90 …thanks for “Decent people speaking out.”…gives hope!
brooke sabin is a total fucken creep..
..his report on int/mana launch is unadulterated horseshit..
..corkery called him and that michael wood from tvone..’slaters’ sock-puppets’…
..the hacking story when he was 19.told by dotcom..is the one he has told multiple times..
..and these ‘sock-puppets’ try to make the case that he must be whaledump..’cos he mentioned hacking..(f.f.s..!..)
..and tho’ being told it was the campaign-launch..and therefor for the politicians..so he was doing no interviews..
..this fucken pathetic excuse for a fucken journalist makes that the fucken story..?
..possibly the worst example of sock-puppet/pissweak journalism..
..in many a long year..
If Corkery had kept her head it would have been a non event… losing her rag and going to war with the media is hardly a sign of a good press sec…
that case cd b made..
..however satisfying/accurate her ‘slater-sock-puppet’ jibe was/must have been….
What the fuck was up with her rant?
She sounded like she’d been drinking, there’s no reason to lose one’s rag in such a manner
it wasn’t a ‘rant’..it was a snarl…..
..that both those media clowns/sock-puppets turned into the story..
Because the media’s owners don’t want the public to be aware of the issues.
They will do anything to distract.
Sabin was shown up as a puppet of Slater’s in Mediawatch this morning.
Now add Michael Parkin to the list of media puppets.
TVNZ is not an impartial observer or reporter.
i quite liked how corkery pointed out to them that they wd both be featuring in future whaledumps…
..how the evidence wd be presented they both ‘worked’ for slater..were his ‘sock-puppets’..pushed his rightwing spin-stories/lies for him..
..that’ll be the media-links one…
..i look forward to it..
Having a head press sec of a political party swear at the media is a story. She made it into a story – because getting unhinged on camera, as a representative of a political party weeks before an election, is news.
Pam’s a very, very experienced media person – and this is the pure authentic Corkery.
possibly a side-story..funny a p.s..’oh..!..by the way..corkery lost her rag at me/us..’
..but not ‘the’ story..
..the only story..
..from both of them..
..that is complete and utter bullshit-journalism..
..making it all about them not getting their own way..
..packing little sads..
..and ‘getting back’ at corkery for that..
..fucken pathetic..
Biased reporting on TVOne News tonight. Pam Corkery didn’t have a “meltdown”. She was emphatic in the decision regarding interviewing Kim Dotcom. They didn’t show how the journalists were behaving. The journos could have been louder than Pam. OK, she talked about a
“sock puppet” but then that’s the truth. How refreshing having someone talking the truth.
I say that Pam Corkery did have a meltdown. She was making good points but needs to have some Nat media training. All their puppets know how to modulate their voices and do the broken record thing, keep coming back to the main point you wish to make.
She must be more professional, the pack always go for the weakest and easiest target. Judith Collins wouldn’t behave like that!
Corkery isn’t running for office. She may also be deliberately playing to the FJK-crowd, who are apparently suspicious and/or bored of a sanitised media environment, rather than to the more bourgeois voters who tend towards Labour, National or even the Greens. Whether it’s a good or successful tactic is one matter, but I’d hesitate before assuming that it wasn’t deliberate.
Why cover the policies and issues when they can attack IMP?
See my post earlier today Phillip on the OIA request.
It follows from this that Sabin’s credibility as a journalist is zero.
The Fairfax coverage is pretty solidly policy based, with not a word about Corkery’s meltdown.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10418342/Internet-Mana-promises-jobs-for-all
Sure, she shouldn’t have given the journos such an easy target, but Sabin’s name has long been a byword for hatchedit jobs on the Nats political opponents. He would have found a pretext, and the hacking story was one that was fairly predictable from Dotcom. One shouldn’t necessarily judge based on family connections, but it seems to me that; his father being an ex-national MP, is as much a coincidence as Slater’s being ex-National Party President.
I think Corkery just happened to be going off at someone when Sabin was in front of her talking to camera,. So she got into Sabin’s frame.
Sabin was just being opportunist, going for a cheap headline, and not really looking at context.
Not Sabin, she was talking to Michael Parkin.
Come on, why are you defending this shit? She made a fucking hash-up of it. There’s no excuses, it was an awful display.
No it wasn’t, she spoke to the truth. These guys just made up a story. They avoided what was said and they attacked Internet Mana any way they could. Not policy but personality, what a joke – well good to see dirty politics is still alive and well.
Just wow, TheContrarian, the media are fully in bed with the right wing propaganda trip of personality attacks, and you join in. Prop to personality attacks, by default, or design TheContrarian and others, by design or default?
“These guys just made up a story.”
No, she made a story. She openly swore at the gathering media – what the fuck did you think would happen?
You have to be delusional to not see Corkery’s behaviour was idiotic for a PRESS SECRETARY.
Sanctimonious crap Ant.
Calling someone a shit? Oh please, that’s not a fucking story!
It was completely unprofessional and needlessly antagonistic. But hey, I’m sure if it were anyone from the right you be totally as forgiving.
F’ fucks sake, shit behaviour is shit behaviour no matter what side of the fence they are from.
Nah it was media beat up.
Dotcom was an arrogant fool to talk about hacking in the current political context.
Corkery is a twit.
@ ant..his hacking-story from his teenage yrs is his stage-staple…
..to try to link that to whaledump..is ridiculous..
Yeah, Ant must have been in the same cave as Brooke Sabin and Michael Parkin the last four weeks.
I know it is a staple, but for the benefit of IMP it was silly, anyone could see how it would be interpreted by the media, in fact he probably knew that – which is why he did it.
He’s reinforced National’s narrative for them.
yr descending into wholesale orifice-plucking there ant..
..why give the false-equivalences of these clowns the credit it doesn’t deserve..?
Phillip, he was quoted as saying “I hacked our German credit rating system and put our Prime Minister’s credit rating to zero because I didn’t like the guy,”, “And we have all figured by now there’s another prime minister I don’t like.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10418540/Dotcom-tells-of-hacking-skill
This when National is saying that ‘the left is just as bad’ when it comes to ‘Dirty Politics’ has just given National back the platform to win the media and the election.
It is about time people started opening their eyes to this psychopath with delusions of grandeur!
Golly Bob, a teenage hacker – who knew!.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom#Criminal_investigations
From what I know, I tend to agree with you. Why is Dotcom even on the stage at the launch? Hacking is the last thing anyone should have talked about. I think his essential narcissism is going to cause more problems.
Pam Corkery possibly has a role, but not as press secretary.
I find Internet Mana very frustrating. They do some very good things, then do something stupid and lose momentum. I wish they’d get their act together.
ahem..michael parkyn from tvone..not ‘wood’..
..and he ran the same story as sabin….
Pam Corkery must resign. She lost her temper. She can do that on her own time. It was was self indulgent, embarrassing and let the rest of a very hard working team down. This election is too important to have this type of distraction.
First rule of media relations; don’t become the story.
However the story was around Kim saying that he did not want an interview. So he walked away then drove away. A fuss ensued.
Meanwhile after the Nat Launch a reporter asked Key a question. He said that he didn’t want to talk about that and walked away. No fuss ensued.
Spot the difference?
Excepting Keys press sec didnt go mad call the journo Kims puppet etc all on film so although Gower mentioned it Keys blank refusal to except question regarding the book it became a non story.
Garner tweets “Thought John Key walking out on media today was identical to 2011 walkout at Westpac Stadium during tea-tapes saga.”
So what? Given that the media is going all out to strangle the IMP in its cradle, she has every reason to let rip.
I expect most New Zealanders would like to say the same to Brooke Sabin. He’s a serial offender in jumping to conclusions for a dramatic sound bite. Previously he drove hard on the fictitious deal between Labour and Harawira in TTT.
Son of a Tory MP
I agree millsy
The right wing press hate anything which will challenge the status quo. Internet Mana will, and will continue to do that.
So get with the programme people. It is a war of ideas. There are no rules, the Tory scum have thrown them out. Pam, can say what she likes, why get sanctimonious about her actions?
And any way, Annette gave the best speech of the day. And no one from the Tory media will print a word she said.
that’s what surprises me..i stood behind those clowns for most of the launch..
..and i know they saw/heard sykes lift the roof off the place..
..and saw/felt the energy in the room..
..saw/heard the reaction to the full-employment policies articulated by harre..
..but nah..!..
..they have a minor squabble with corkery..
..and that becomes their/the story of the launch..
..fucken pathetic excuses for journalists..
..hacks..both of them….
..’sock-puppets’..indeed..!..
..corkery wasn’t being insulting..she was being descriptive..
Hear, hear.
She can do a package deal with Key, Joyce, Collins, and Brownlee. The election is too important to have corrupt candidates standing.
Stuff just changed the headline of their latest tabloid piece from “Was it Dotcom?” to “Hacking Tales”.
Not sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing in that outfit.
@ Weepus Beard
Just a few small changes would transform to Barking Tails.
the actual coverage of the policies etc is ok from both stuff and herald..
..maybe sabin and parkyn need to read them..to see what they clearly missed…
PUBLIC NOTICE
Nicky Hagar – Auckland Public Meeting
A public meeting meeting with Jesson Prize winner Nicky Hagar will be held Wednesday 27th August, 7.30pm, at the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall (Cnr Dominion Rd & Balmoral Rd).
Chaired by Sir Edmund Thomas
Hosted by the Human Rights Foundation & Equal Justice Project.
Also here is link to Nicky Hager’s 2012 text http://www.brucejesson.com/?p=394#comment-305
for his lecture to Bruce Jesson Foundation audience
and Sir Edmund Thomas 2013 lecture http://www.brucejesson.com/?p=475.
I’ve had something on moderation for almost half an hour and want people to see the notice about Nicky Hager so could someone help me out of the naughty corner.
Well I might if I knew what it is that you are saying.
Is there some sort of yellow card on this site?
And I have no idea what the Nicky reference is (of course I know who you’re talking about)
@Rich
Thanks for caring. My comment was actually a call to whoever was moderating the site. Now and then something triggers off moderation and it gets freed when the person in charge gets time. The comment of course shows up on my screen but nobody else would know what I was talking about.
At one time using the word N.zi would take you to moderation – I don’t know if that still applies.
Ok thanks for the explanation, greywarbler.
GO Internet /Mana!..Young people should be voting Internet MANA and/or GREEN!…to support a Cunliffe Labour led Left coalition
‘Internet MANA announce free tertiary education & full employment – media ego blocks it’
By Martyn Bradbury / August 24, 2014
“I was looking forward to the headlines. The headlines were a train wreck…
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