For some reason I’m logged out on individual pages and although this comment is intended to be repeated on the ABP recess page it can fit here as well.
The only change the Labour Party has made since this is to take the history off their website. At least that’s more honest that promoting things they don’t believe in.
And it took National to increase benefits – not all and not enough but it’s still not Labour policy to do that.
Labour caters to the aged conservative baby boom voting superannuation who have the voting power just as National does. The price of that is being paid by the young, the unwell and the ordinary. The right blames the individual, the left offers no solution.
Well there’s little evidence that Labour is pushing the needs of beneficiaries and workers. 2012 was the year of the manifesto. 2013 was supposed to be the year of the policy.
“And no it’s not unrealistic to know this far out what they believe in and stand for – you build a brand and a connection with people over time – and that’s why I don’t particularly care who is leader.
And here’s the other thing if I as a voter can’t figure out what they stand for is it any wonder those within seem disconnected and rudderless and disloyal.
It seems to me they don’t know either – you can’t have a group of people consistently articulate a vision if the vision is a secret.”
So anyway we have a (draft) Labour policy document that is, like their website strongly focused on past glories and like a National Party document focused strongly on non-specific aspirational shit.
When this document does get specific about an actual work or welfare policy guess what – it’s to lift the age of super to 67. This both shows that they can put specific policy in their policy documents when they want and where their actual priorities are.
I just love phrases like this in the document:
“Today and into the future, we stand for the hopes and aspirations of all New Zealanders to a life of security, dignity, and fulfilment.”
“Labour believes in the innovative and creative powers of New Zealanders.”
“Labour will govern in the spirit of the age, with a new focus on the state as an enabler of community action and citizen involvement.”
Given the prominence National have given to aspiration in their policies wtf is that word even doing in a Labour party document and overall this stuff isn’t visionary it’s corporate mission statement speak.
“For young and old, women and men, Labour’s social policy will ensure that adequate support is available when people have a genuine need.”
“Labour believes that people who can work, should.”
Yep still have their neo-liberal qualifiers in there.
“Labour will continue to improve the quality of the state housing stock”
No mention of quantity – actually building more houses.
No mention of 8 hour working days, 40 hour working weeks, some waffle about protecting workers and union rights but little mention of how. Some talk of regional development which is good. No mention of increasing benefit rates to help the poorest in our society.
Here in this post I try and help Labour be showing how a vision of something can be articulated.
Tell me how Labour will once again make it a positive to be living in a state house, something to be proud of. They continue to see it as charity.
Finally
“Our history and our values mean nobody will be surprised when we fight for a fairer and more inclusive New Zealand, when we fight against inequality, and when we fight to preserve freedom and opportunity for all: this is what Labour believes in, and what drives the activity of our party and its
members.”
Yep I’ll be surprised – particularly since 84/85..
Back in 2012 I asked Mike Smith whether Labour actually believed in the 8 hour day, 40 hour week they claimed so proudly on their website. He chose not to answer that twice despite ostensibly being their to champion Labour’s new direction and it’s policy development.
The simple answer is that it doesn’t and as one of the basic fundamental principles historically to help workers have better lives, decent incomes, spread limited work around and to allow them to spend more time with their families that this policy is missing says they don’t really have workers interests at heart.
I have this picture in my head, of the family standing over the headstone of their parents generation, the boomers and asking why they never helped them into a home like their parent parents did their kids. Its about how we remember the boomers, who sure, many lost parents in the war so the govt reworked the system to make it look like they were self made. Its how we remember them as selfish and stupid.
Some guy at Cracked magazine, of all places, has read all the ISIS Dabiq magazines and has a more solid piece about what they think than most other news orgs:
Graeme Edgeler, the constitutional law guru and pedant extraordinaire, has an excellent post on the Public Address blog site explaining the various voting options and consequences for the first flag referendum.
Well that is interesting! My comment has come up with a new name for me – “Undefined” rather than my usual “veutoviper”.
It happened while I was trying to edit my comment to add in a note in reply to Graeme’s comment re randomised voting papers.
The situation re this is covered in the comments under the PA post starting midway down page 2.
Apparently the selection of the position of the five flag options on the voting paper format was randomised in line with the provisions of the Flag Referendum Act; but then all voting papers are in this format/positioning.
I can understand this. For example, printing costs would be much higher if individual voting papers were then also randomised. It would also be necessary to ensure that equal numbers of each of the various voting paper options were distributed to avoid claims of bias if this did not happen.
(I wonder what name I get for this comment!)
EDIT – both comment back to vv. All is good with the world.
Voting by ranking all of them at a 5 would invalidate your vote.
Actually, it turns it into an informal vote which does get counted.
For example, printing costs would be much higher if individual voting papers were then also randomised.
Only if they haven’t worked on the software. After all, the printer is simply a large commercial laser printer that will print any digital file sent to it and randomising a digital file is relatively simple.
It would also be necessary to ensure that equal numbers of each of the various voting paper options were distributed to avoid claims of bias if this did not happen.
Normalised psuedo-random number generators do exist.
Done properly, a person wouldn’t even have the possibility of touching the form until the person it’s addressed to opens their mail.
A proper randomisation procedure doesn’t stop at the printing press, though. The randomised papers need to be send out evenly across the country: two people at the same address, or two people on the same street, or two people in the same city, should have a random chance of getting any particular printout.
So, we can’t just mail out all of design A to Auckland, all of design B to Wellington and all of design C to Christchurch. Instead, all cities need to get a mix of A, B and C.
What we’d want is a fully automatic system. Randomises the layout/address, prints it, sticks it in an envelope and posts it. A computer can do that easily.
Yes, it can be done, but it costs more money to implement it and test it.
Also, I think you’ll find that large production runs of this print all of design A, then all of design B, then all of design C in batches, because it is more cost effective and quicker to do it that way. This then gives you the problem as I noted of how to randomly distribute them.
Your approach of printing each form individually and individually addressing it would likely end up costing a lot more.
Yes, it can be done, but it costs more money to implement it and test it.
Yes but it’s something that I would expect already to be done.
Also, I think you’ll find that large production runs of this print all of design A, then all of design B, then all of design C in batches, because it is more cost effective and quicker to do it that way.
That would be true if the printers were still using a screen printing process whereas I’d expect something more like these followed by something like these on a fully automated production line. They would then be automatically sorted to go to the right mail centre.
Your approach of printing each form individually and individually addressing it would likely end up costing a lot more.
There is actually 120 combinations (e.g. 5!) of the way the flag could appear on the voting form – which makes things a bit hard keeping track of.
Possibly the easiest way would be to have a random order and just rotate it, so that every flag could be first, and then there are only 5 possible orderings. It’s position (usually the first position) on the voting form that matters.
But all that needs to be done is create 5 stacks of the same kind of sheet and randomise voters to one of 5 address lists and randomly assign an address list to a stack and then it’s good to go.
I had been wondering what to do. Filing the ballot paper in the recycling felt wrong. After reading this I have decided to put an X in each box beneath each flag. I’ve also gone with Winnie’s suggestion of K.O.F as well.
The ballot paper, I understand (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong) gets counted as an invalid vote. Your voice still gets heard. It’s like a protest vote. It’s like a fingers up to the PM.
As I understand it, yes your vote will be counted as an invalid vote. CORRECTION – Informal not invalid. Used incorrect word in my earlier comments also, as Draco pointed out. Need to wake up properly before posting …
However, as discussed on the Public Address blog, the total number of informal votes is counted – but not broken down by the various types of reasons for votes be informal – eg just simple errors, KOF written on vote paper, X in each box, etc. So there will no way of quantifying the extent of protest votes per se.
Not criticising your choice – still haven’t made up my mind which way to go, but have not yet got my voting papers. We have a lot of problems in our street with late and non-delivery of mail and I will be REALLY ANGRY if my papers don’t turn up. I want the right to exercise my option to throw it away, invalidate it, or vote strategically with the ferns as my lowest choices.
Hi vv. I saw your public address link and am yet to read it – thanks for summarising the point around how invalid votes are counted. Still ok though, if all the invalid votes are counted as a block? Given the issues around this referendum there may a higher number of invalid votes than usual and it will get reported upon in the media?
Re not receiving your voting paper in the mail yet. I’ve got a friend in the Postal Workers Union. He said they’ve had real problems with NZ Post going to three day delivery. Rostering the posties has proved to problematic and there has been delays with mail being delivered.
You can give them a call at their contact centre to find out what has happened to your mail:
Thanks Rosie. That is interesting re the rostering problems. I was not criticising the postees as such. Our problems relate more to the fact that 18 townhouses were built on the site of a former old peoples home. The Council or whoever decides these things, numbered the townhouses from 1 to 18 rather than A to R(?) and so the pre-existing properties in the street numbered 1 – 18 often get mail, courier deliveries etc intended for the townhouses and vice versa. Many of the townhouses are tenanted with regular turnovers of the occupants who often do not redeliver our mail to us. Very annoying.
That is a real kerfuffle about your address issues vv. What a nuisance. I do hope you get your voting papers soon…….
I’ve read the two links you provided. Thanks. So, yes you’re right, it’s an “informal” vote I’ve cast. (democracy learnings for today) 🙂
I take on board what Graeme Edgeler is saying about intentionally doing this isn’t a protest vote BUT it feels like it, to me at least. I felt like I had no choice when our government is literally trolling the democratic process of voting.
I also see what Stephanie is saying here:
” High numbers of informal/spoiled votes could say that many of us think the process is corrupt – or it could, and probably will, be spun as “those weirdos on the Left who hate democracy” ”
Yes, we will have to brace ourselves for spin, if a higher number of informal votes are reported on. That is a function of our media parroting government spin. We’ve come to expect that. I can see Patrick Gower’s big pointy finger poking the air already.
But but but, for those of us who genuinely dislike any of the flag options we haven’t got much in the way of choice for ref 1. It’s either spoil your ballot paper or bin it.
You ring your local NZ Postbranch veutoviper? Today is the last day for the refs to go out, by law. The branch leader will be very concerned if you do not get your refs today.
Voting papers arrived yesterday luckily – now what to do?
Our local NZ Post branch has been as helpful as they are able to be over our ongoing problems. The prime problem is getting the occupants of the townhouses to ensure they give people their correct addresses in the first place.
Syria is being reduced to rubble – in this morning’s Herald. Just disgusting, and our government is playing a part in this. No wonder millions of people are leaving Syria, and trying to find some other place to go to. And after Syria …. what country will be next ?
As the conflict drags into a fifth year with no end in sight, little heed is being paid to the enormity of the damage in the country. Some 2.1 million homes, half the country’s hospitals and more than 7000 schools have been destroyed, according to the United Nations.
Westlake Boys, a public school built an $11 million auditorium ten years ago. Impressive facilities are now quite common at our largest secondary schools whether they are public or private. Burnside built a very expensive facility about 3 years ago.
As they say, modern schools are not like the one you went to thirty years ago.
It’s the pedagogy that counts. All the facilities in the world won’t turn right wing dogma into good education practice, and nor will Parata’s venal and fraudulent rhetoric.
Why does the National Party hate children so much?
Neither of us are singling Westlake out: Wayne mentioned it as an example of his belief that modern buildings are somehow significant to the nature of education. I think the teaching model is more important.
Yes ONB it is very important to remember that real estate and physical assets are more important than occupants and staff. i.e. children and teachers in a school.
That is number 1 rule in Charter schools and prisons. In fact in the US they don’t even bother to open the schools they just buy the real estate and run out of money. You don’t have to pay it back.
Under Neoliberalism and the Natz that doesn’t matter – it is the profit that counts.
Just as an interesting aside, Fallout 4 computer game has recently been launched and sold tens of millions of copies. One of the sub plots is a satire of a Charter School where the students are forced to eat nothing but pink gloop as part of a commercial sponsorship deal.
I did a nationwide survey of parents of secondary school students for some govt/edcuational organisation and once thing I commented on was how much money gets spent on Auckland schools compared to the rest of NZ. I think some parents and teachers from where I live would be shocked at seeing what facilities AGGS, EGGS, MAGS, Westlake etc have. Numerous schools around Wellington have been battling for years to get basic remedial work done that should have been sorted at once on health and safety reasons alone.
I’m unaware that more is being spent by the government on state schools in Auckland than in other parts of the country.
I do know that some schools in Auckland have had leaky building fiascos which have been/are being remediated but I don’t think they are getting more than their share, Rangitoto college for example is getting a huge number of buildings sorted out at the moment.
Wayne’s examples are somewhat mischievous as I know in Westlake’s case that the vast majority of the spend was via fundraising with some funds from foreign fee paying students rather than anything from his or previous governments.
I’m pretty sure it will be a very similar situation at Burnside which is also a state school.
Just imagine if someone told you that the citizens and ratepayers of Auckland had been paying billions of dollars to private sector consultants and contractors for services and regulatory functions – which have not been subject to transparency, accountability or ‘cost-benefit’ analysis?
Just imagine if someone told you that there can be up to three layers of private sector, for profit, ‘contractocracy’, clipping the ticket, before you get to the boots and overalls, who actually fix the footpaths / roads / water pipes etc, compared with a former single layer of not-for-profit, public service ‘bureaucracy’?
As soon as you get into contracting (privatisation) of Council services and regulatory functions, Council staff are regarded as being ‘too dumb’ to know how to do that, so contract management is further contracted out to private consultants, who then ‘project manage’ the works contractors, a number of whom then sub-contract ….
How on earth can that be a more effective use of ratepayer monies?
No wonder Auckland Council and CCOs don’t want to OPEN THE BOOKS and make available for public scrutiny exactly where every dollar is being spent on private sector contracts?
I stand for OPENING THE BOOKS and the full and thorough implementation and enforcement of the Public Records Act 2005.
NO more ‘corporate welfare’!
(Please be reminded that this contracting out – privatisation of public services at central and local government, was started under the 1984 – 87 ‘Rogernomic$’ Labour Government, in which 2016 Auckland Mayoral aspirant Phil Goff was a Cabinet Minister.)
As someone who’s had to draft a few Annual Plans in my time, any citizen who wants to wade through that foot-high degree of detail as it is, is welcome to. I can count on one hand those who really want to. Good luck to them.
But that won’t tell you the difference between price and value. That is, what do you want the money spent on? Any wannabe accountant can tell me the price of something, but they can’t tell me the value of anything.
The thing you value in public policy terms is the thing you vote to have money spent on.
Penny, as Mayor, what will you spend public money on?
I agree the image of the fern leaf dropping like a tear is powerful but leave it there you dumb f*ck. This is not the time to use a person’s death to your advantage.
(This morning I will be posting my ballot paper. All 5 flag option’s have an X beneath them).
Been thinking lately that Key has issues around the sacred aspects of death.
He promised the families of the Pike River victims that he would do everything in his power to get the men out, so they can have a proper burial. He doesn’t. He changes laws on the hoof and uses his power to do that but doesn’t seem to find it within himself to keep his promise to grieving families.
He thinks it’s ok to leave Vietnam war veterans buried in foreign soil, away from their families, in ground that has been designated for future public works. His Aussie mates have decided this year they will bring their dead back, which is the right thing to do. But he just can’t bring himself to give the go ahead to do the same.
Now he disrespects an NZer whose career was tied to a team whose relationship he exploits for political gain and appears to be disconnected from the fact that he is using Jonah Lomu’s death to promote an agenda.
Key did say he never cries and had not even cried when his mother died (sorry don’t have a link for this ,perhaps someone else has). ,so you may be correct Rosie@9.42am.
Interesting. Potentially he’s been conditioned to not show any emotion (although his outbursts in the house over the years would suggest otherwise), or there is something dysfunctional in how he processes grief, or doesn’t even connect with loss?
His mother died around the turn of the millennium, I think. I find it a very bizarre reaction, the not-crying. We do all mourn in different ways and sometimes we experience a delayed reaction if we consciously or unconsciously put our grief on hold. Maybe his experience of grief is yet to come, or maybe it never will.
No matter what his personal feeling is he needs to learn to at least pretend at showing respect. Keeping his mouth shut would be a good start.
I recall there was an article about Key in a womans weakly or no idea mag or something a short while after 22.02.11. He “revealed” that he had considered resigning because of the emotional strain of coping with the Pike disaster, followed a few months later by the CHCH earthquake.
I had been thinking prior to that that he was looking really grey and like he just wanted to be outta there. It would be hard for any leader to steer a nation through such tragedies but clearly he was not emotionally equipped to deal with one let alone two.
And he chose his son’s baseball game over attending funerals for members of our armed services who were killed overseas doing his bidding! Can’t really see how anyone could be more crass and classless than that!
Another shameful NZ problem:
The number of people seeking emergency accommodation and turning to Citizens Advice Bureau for help has doubled in five years.
Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) received more than 3000 enquiries about emergency accommodation this year, up from 1500 in 2010, a recent report shows.
Overall there have been 10,000 such enquiries in the past five years.
Today I met a someone via my old dog. The Lady and her dog are living in her car. I offered her coffee, as that is all I can offer. Fucking brighter future indeed….its so fucking bright the world seems to wear blinkers.
That is interesting news. Sean may have been a pain in the proverbial and pugnacious if that is the word but he did ring true on some rare occasions. Mark Sainsbury will be an awful choice. Just what Radio Live are aiming for – wet and woolly flim flam rubbish. I can see in the future that Willie will not have his contract renewed and Alison Mau will take over that slot on her own in the afternoon – and that for me is goodbye for everything on Radio Live. Karyn Hay has lost it now her other half Andrew Fagan has gone from her show, between the two of them they were an absolute hoot, now she is doing a magazine type format and she doesn’t spark at all on her own.
David Slack is my choice for the replacement or bring back Mitch Harris – can see it happening – yeh right.
More strength to your right arm, Whispering Kate. I thought I was the only one in NZ who thought like this. I really enjoyed Fagan and Karyn. Apart from anything else, every so often he would say something fairly off the planet and she would gently, bit by bit, over a series of comments, bring him back to his, that is, her senses. I had been secretly hoping that he was off on a yacht trip somewhere and one day he would be back. Sigh, dream destroyed.
Willy I like too but he is on less now, and Ali does most of the talking even when he is there. Ali is pretty good but Willy has the passion. It looks to me like he is being eased out. Perhaps that is what he wants as he does a lot of other things outside this radio slot.
Sean Plunkett is strong medicine but quite OK when he is on stuff that I agree with, (of course.)
I was also disappointed when J.T. left. He would amble along with Willy most of the time and then spit out something really pointed and sharp eyed about politics, Key or Labour. Sadly, once too often for the corporate management.
Anyone seen the latest YouTube spotlight video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgOV1dYdYVk
It is titled (#OursToLose: Climate Change Affects the Things We Love)
A number of YouTubers from various countries are featured in it including Kiwi Jamie Currie of Jamie’s World.
Climate change affects the things we love. But this December we have a huge opportunity. Sign the global petition and ask world leaders to agree to a deal at the COP21 climate conference in Paris.
“Greenpeace said Tangaroa was refitted at taxpayer expense to exploit hydrocarbons in an operation likely to undermine New Zealand’s obligations to fighting the greenhouse effect and climate change-related issues.
Greenpeace said the taxpayer-funded boat had been surveying the East Cost of the North Island on behalf of petroleum giants Statoil and Chevron.”
Yes probably, that is why National want to have us blaming the middle class and bene bashing to hide the fact that our taxes are actually being used to help his corporate mates in corporate welfare.
Yes. I received that email too. Some of the content, from the activist aboard the Tangaroa.
“The ship we’re on is the NIWA research boat Tangaroa which has recently been refitted for oil and gas exploration at a cost of 24 million to the tax-payer. Now on the eve of the Paris climate talks, it has been searching for deep sea oil reserves off the East Coast of the North Island on behalf of Statoil and Chevron! It’s just madness.”
First I’d heard!
24 mill? If thats the case then why isn’t that money being spent on keeping women’s refuge’s and mental health services open? And why are we funding fossil fuel exploration?
Hi Poission. Do you have a link to info about the refit? I guess you’re saying that a 2010 refit means that it isn’t recent. Ok, but what about the fact that it was refitted for oil and gas exploration in the first place?
I received the same email today from Greenpeace. Another form of disgraceful corporate welfare for FJK’s cronies – $24m – Absolutely it’s another WTF moment or two! Disturbing as well!
This might be very very good news: The conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is now in doubt following the defeat in the US Senate of a proposal to advance the FastTrack Bill. The Fast Track Bill would prevent the U.S. Congress from amending the TPP, and instead …U.S. Senate votes down TPP FastTrack bill: TPP deal now in doubt………The Fast Track Bill would prevent the U.S. Congress from amending the TPP, and instead allow only a yes or no vote,”
If the USA does not sign it Key won’t.
If the USA is able to amend the Treaty, then so should we.
(No date on this.) http://itsourfuture.org.nz/u-s-senate-votes-down-tpp-fasttrack-bill/
Oh. 15 May?
Oh again. Fast Track was passed in June. My mistaken hope.
Even if the US pull out of TPP I bet Key can’t wait to get us all competing for 35 cents an hour like Vietnam as well as selling our country off via Meryl Lynch and Offshore contacts.
I have suggested before that the reason she was kept on as deputy leader was that she could keep the extra money, the perks of the job (Limo for example) and a promise of a well paid sinecure when Labour became the Government if she would retire and give Little a free run at the Rongatai seat in 2017.
From this story, where Little has suddenly gone public with his claim on the seat, I think that King has decided that Labour cannot win in 2017 and that after the election Little will have ben dumped, Labour will continue in opposition, and there will be no-one in a position to provide her with a job. By 2020, if Labour can win then she will have been forgotten and the party won’t feel they owe her anything.
She has decided therefore that the best thing she can do is hang on to the seat and stay at the trough for another 3 years.
Little is now on a desperate campaign to try and force her out. I wonder what attempts he is making to try and get his own supporters to sign up in the Rongatai electorate to provide support for the moves he is now going to have to make to dump her?
Little will be top of the list at 1 so he doesn’t need a seat. It’s better for him to not have an electorate because then he has to deal with electorate stuff. Or if he does, to go for an Auckland seat because labour need to work up their presence in Auckland.
There are too many people in Wellington who see first hand what is going on in government so it’s pretty safe as a Labour/Green stronghold.
All politicians prefer an electorate seat. Like it or not it gives them greater credibility.
Little can’t really afford to stand in a by-election for, say Goff’s seat if he really quits because it will be less than a year out from a General Election. If his majority was, as it almost certainly would be, below Goff’s it leaves him open to comments about how unpopular he is.
He can’t possibly better Goff’s result, no matter how popular he might prove, because not that many people vote in by-elections. Even if Little was to run and win he is on a hiding to nothing.
Of course Wellington is a Labour/Green stronghold. There are far to many Government Department Head Office types. One shudders to think how many “Policy Analysts” there are and what they do.
No Little wants King to go and she is clinging on.
“Like it or not it gives them greater credibility”
Only because too many pundits and voters have still not grown out of First Past Post expectations. Representing a population group well rather than an area is no less difficult.
“Only because too many pundits and voters have still not grown out of First Past Post”.
That’s right. However Little, like all politicians, would be a fool to ignore what is a general perception. We have had MMP for 20 years now. Those of us who aren’t politicians can happily complain about the ignorance of hoi polloi but the real politicians can’t.
They have to compete, and try and win, in the world the way it is, not the world we might prefer. In general people still seem to think that an electorate MP is in some way superior to a list one.
And no. I can’t point you to a poll that PROVES that comment to be true.
My workmates say Annette King has chosen the mantle of ABC Godmother, rather than serve the Leader who appointed her and work for the interest of a cooperative broader caucus, as well as the party’s true working class interests.
I reckon she has made the call to create a legacy that will strengthen the careerist and right-wing factions to take on the leadership post-Little. A ‘King’ maker, in a cynical sense of the expression.
Little did the right thing many months ago by attempting to unify the party, but the right-wing and careerist factions (and the incompetents who are clinging on to their electorates) are not interested in unifying but are determined to have absolute control of caucus.
Little surrounded himself with those factions and it will be seen next whether he will be asphyxiated by them. Grant Robertson is happy to wait a bit longer. His thinking is that the tide will run out even more for National when 2020 approaches and he will take Labour to a resounding victory, such as the likes of 1984.
Can some of you (posters or commenters) who are politically thoughtful, astute, honest and insightful provide a candid updated version of the following piece please? Perhaps, something like “Labour’s Three Factions 2.0”?
Can update that in the light of whoever is left [not a pun] in caucus, whoever has changed (or not changed) spots, etc? If ‘Eddie’ is still keen to write, it will be nice to read an updated version from the original author.
There is no good time like now, on this side of Christmas, nearing the end of the first year of the third electoral cycle of being in opposition, and clearing the way for more house-keeping and house-cleaning for next year, just before the 2017 election year. If not now, things will just go further downhill for Labour until 2020.
I believe trp is correct and credit to Andrew Little for achieving it. Although in some ways he’s had an easier ride than the two previous incumbents because both the Left and the Right were prepared to accept him as leader.
The reshuffle is a tricky one. To ensure continuing peace and tranquility inside the caucus, Little will need to ensure both sides have been accommodated. So we can expect some mumblings and grumblings on The Standard and elsewhere in the next little while. 😉 (not trying to be provocative)
For my part I don’t care who gets on the front bench so long as the values that saw me join Labour first time around (40 plus years ago) are no longer being compromised.
It works because Labour has a leader who has managed to sort the differences between them. His legal qualifications together with his many years as a union leader have given him the expertise and knowledge that was essential for the job. He’s strong and Key and co. know it. They’re worried alright.
Just imagine the difference in this country when Little becomes PM. Things would get done and done properly. Legislation would be fair and reasonable. A living wage? I reckon so, although it might have to be implemented incrementally. No more asset sales. And that’s just for starters. Too tired tonight to go into more detail.
What a load of fantastical tripe alwyn. You missed the bit where you would say that Andrew has to keep shaving bits off the horns growing out of his forehead while your mate John is floating around on fairy wings. And you will be knighted for your perceptions. Huh!
Your imagination must be admired. Peter Jackson needed someone like you when he was making The Hobbit. Apparently he didn’t know what “fantastical” story he was going to tell when he started.
“From this story, where Little has suddenly gone public with his claim on the seat, I think that King has decided that Labour cannot win in 2017 and that after the election Little will have ben dumped, Labour will continue in opposition, and there will be no-one in a position to provide her with a job. By 2020, if Labour can win then she will have been forgotten and the party won’t feel they owe her anything.
She has decided therefore that the best thing she can do is hang on to the seat and stay at the trough for another 3 years.”
I think that ianmac is on the money as to what is fantastical. The word that gave it away in the text provided is the word coming after “I”. Not much thinking shown, but a lot of surmise, fantasy, fiction and falsely attributed motivation.
I think that the piece you put in quotation marks, starting at “from this” and finishing with “3 years”, is an amazingly intelligent and thoughtful review. This is certainly one of the very best comments ever posted on this blog.
The paragraph at the end starting with “I think that ianmac is on” doesn’t really hack it though.
Mauricio Macri, who was elected president on Sunday, is (normally) bland by Argentina’s exuberant standards. The changes he heralds, after 12 years of kirchnerismo, are anything but. The populism, economic controls, phony statistics and hostility toward foreign investors of the current president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and her late husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner, have stalled growth, stoked inflation and distanced the country from international capital markets. Mr Macri, previously mayor of Buenos Aires, aims to end currency and exchange controls, allow the peso to devalue, restore central-bank independence and reach agreement with foreign creditors, who pushed Argentina into default in 2014. His victory changes politics elsewhere, too: he will call on Mercosur, a regional trade grouping, to suspend Venezuela from membership unless a parliamentary election there next month is conducted democratically. No other Latin American leader has been so outspoken.”
What are the chances we will have democracy, and sanity, restored to Venezuela as well?
“It’s very unusual for a terrorist group to hold territory and run a government.”
Neil Miller’s fatuous and ideological remarks go unchallenged. The Panel, RNZ National, Monday 23 November 2015
Jim Mora, Neil Miller, Sally Wenley, Julie Moffett
derelictionn. Deliberate, conscious, or willful neglect, as of duty or principle (esp. in the phrase dereliction of duty)
First topic up for discussion after the 4 o’clock news: ISIS and the threat of terrorism. Dr Clark Jones from the Australian National University in Canberra was on the line and ready to speak, but instead of going straight to someone who knew what he was talking about, Mora asked his two guests what THEY thought. Miller did all the talking, droning on for more than a minute, pompously and tediously, in a rambling monologue which included the following gem: “It’s very unusual for a terrorist group to hold territory and run a government.”
Long-time sufferers of this joke of a program will not have been at all surprised that neither Sally Wenley nor Jim Mora dared to throw a log under the wheel of Miller’s carriage by saying something irritating such as: “What about Israel? That state, founded by terrorists, based on terrorism, has managed, by a combination of extreme violence and the diplomatic protection of the United States, to ‘hold territory and run a government’ for more than sixty years.”
But the producers of this show knew better than to put the bombastic Miller on with someone who might have have contradicted or challenged him. Sally Wenley did not so much as demur at what Miller said, and neither did host Jim Mora.
This in today’s print version of The Press. Probably in the online version too, but I couldn’t find it.
“24% of kiwi kids live in poverty (260,000)
180,000 missing out on basic needs like health, food and warm clothes
40,000 kids hospitalised each year because of poverty and inadequate housing
100,000 kids live in conditions that stop them from educational development success
80,000 kids go to school hungry each day . . .”
My God, we, as a nation, should be thoroughly ashamed of such figures!
We should be shouting at our politicians, demanding to know why these figures exist.
Jacinda Ardern shouts it as loud as she can in the House during question time, along with NZ First and Greens … only by voting out this bloody government can any change be effected.
But don’t forget that the PM’s departments budget has more than doubled since 2009.
Since 2009/10, Radio NZ’s allocation has stayed the same; $31,816,000.
By contrast, the amounts allocated to the Prime Minister’s Department has increased, and in the 2015/16 Budget was allocated $49,298,000 – an increase of $24,476,000 since 2008 and a near-doubling of John Key’s department and Cabinet expenditure since Michael Cullen’s last budget, seven years ago.
In the 2015/16 Budget, Radio NZ was allocated $31,816,000 – a nil increase.
“40,000 kids hospitalised each year because of poverty and inadequate housing” – are you sure about that? That’s 109 kids for every day of the year. Was any source quoted for these figures?
It does seem high, I agree. These figures appear to come from UNICEF, as quoted in The Press, via Deborah Morris-Travers, NZ advocacy manager.
But let’s not quibble over the figures – the fact that a high number of OUR kids are hospitalised because of poverty and inadequate housing is the salient point – that is what is a disgrace!
A poll purporting to show that one in five British Muslims had “sympathy for jihadis” was constructed by calling people with “Muslim surnames” in an effort to complete an affordable survey of opinion in the week after the Paris terror attacks.
That is almost as silly as deciding that people from China were purchasing all the Auckland houses by looking for “Chinese” names among the buyers.
Surely no-one is really that stupid?
The only one silly enough to suggest that ALL the Auckland houses are being bought by Chinese buyers is you. Or are you purposely lying? So which is it, are you a liar or terminally stupid?
Hi mods. I’m having a problem with the site. According to the recent comments bar (I don’t know what it’s actually called) to the right of the frame there are people commenting on Stephanie’s post about the flag referendum and Micky’s post about RNZ’s story about Housing NZ referring people to CAB. but when you go to Stephanie’s post it shows one comment and Mickey’s post shows no comments. Comments that people have made are just not showing up.
This has happened a few times before and normally seems to correct itself fairly quickly but this time the problem is remaining………..
In 2014, Australia sold Port of Newcastle, the world’s busiest coal terminal, to state-owned China Merchants Group Ltd and local firm Hastings. A year earlier, it sold the second busiest container terminal to a consortium partly owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Hastings and the Abu Dhabi investment firm, along with Chinese, Canadian, Kuwaiti and local interests, are expected to bid for the New South Wales electricity network sale, people familiar with the matter have said.
As countries scramble to remain upright in the international game of dominoes, they are selling off bits of their infrastructure and resources. Australia is trying to balance China and the USA. And they always have the aboriginal land to reneg on.
They may as well bring back Hosking; he couldn’t be worse than Paul Brennan.
Crass and credulous fan-boy interview with U.S. Army propagandist a new low for RNZ. Afternoons, RNZ National, Tuesday 24 November 2015
In March 2006 the controversial British prime minister Tony “Bliar” Blair had the gall to make a state visit to New Zealand. Unfortunately for him, his handlers forgot to vet the Radio New Zealand journalist Eva Radich, who doggedly went after him about the illegality of the Iraq invasion and occupation, and his bogus “45 minute” claim. She would not let him evade her questions or divert the focus of the interview. In the end, of course, Blair just resorted to his usual insulting menu of vague platitudes. But she had clearly discomfited him, in a way he rarely faced back in the United Kingdom.
Over the years, several other politicians and ideologues have come unstuck on Radio New Zealand, most notably Jeffrey Archer, John Howard and William Shawcross. [1]
But Radio New Zealand is no longer what it was. Its only decent political interviewer (Mary Wilson) has been kicked upstairs to management, where she can no longer torment the likes of Bill English and Gerry Brownlee. And softball P.R.-type interviews, even with controversial subjects, are becoming more and more common. A month ago, Jesse Mulligan granted a free half hour for Blair’s notorious henchman Alistair Campbell to blather on about “strategy, leadership, and teamship”. [2]
This afternoon, Paul Brennan’s “interview” of one Gayle Tzemach Lemmon was a case study in the softball interview. [3] It was billed on the RNZ website in the following manner…..
Female Soldiers – Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
For almost ten years, U.S Special Forces working in Afghanistan were working blind, unable to gather intelligence from the largest group of citizens in the country, women. When soldiers raided compounds, or entered homes, they were not allowed to make contact with Afghan women. In 2010, 100 women were deployed alongside the Army Rangers as so called “Cultural Support Teams” to gather information from wives and daughters. First Lieutenant Ashley White was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while working on the Cultural Support Team. Author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, describes the important role these sister soldiers played in her book, “Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield”.
Appalled, I sent the following e-mail to Paul Brennan….
Your interview with Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Dear Paul,
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon glibly talked about raiding Afghanistan homes at late night, “while the Rangers went about their business.” That “business”, as has been made painfully clear in the last 14 years, is nothing more than terrorizing and brutalizing thousands of Afghani citizens. It is all illegal, and all a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon also spoke as if the Afghani women in the houses being raided were just waiting to be liberated by her and her woman colleagues. The facts are diametrically different to what she claims.
Near the end of the interview, she boasted: “Make no mistake about it, these women are warriors.”
I was surprised that you seemed to endorse everything she said. Surely, as an interviewer, you are expected to test and challenge what people say on your show—especially someone saying such radical and controversial things as Gayle Tzemach Lemmon did this afternoon.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
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Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
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Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
The rich get richer…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11550050
And the poor get poorer….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11539592
Equal opportunities in John Key’s New Zealand?
What a joke!
As designed with the joke being on middle nz who keep voting these clowns in like turkey’s voting for Xmas.
For some reason I’m logged out on individual pages and although this comment is intended to be repeated on the ABP recess page it can fit here as well.
The only change the Labour Party has made since this is to take the history off their website. At least that’s more honest that promoting things they don’t believe in.
And it took National to increase benefits – not all and not enough but it’s still not Labour policy to do that.
Labour caters to the aged conservative baby boom voting superannuation who have the voting power just as National does. The price of that is being paid by the young, the unwell and the ordinary. The right blames the individual, the left offers no solution.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-01012014/#comment-752261
Well there’s little evidence that Labour is pushing the needs of beneficiaries and workers. 2012 was the year of the manifesto. 2013 was supposed to be the year of the policy.
http://thestandard.org.nz/amidst-thencircling-gloom/#comment-566641
“Next year will be where the detail gets done.” Mike Smith
Here’s some posts of mine speaking for those people though.
http://thestandard.org.nz/on-david-shearers-leadership/#comment-546121
Take note of this in that comment in 2012:
“And no it’s not unrealistic to know this far out what they believe in and stand for – you build a brand and a connection with people over time – and that’s why I don’t particularly care who is leader.
And here’s the other thing if I as a voter can’t figure out what they stand for is it any wonder those within seem disconnected and rudderless and disloyal.
It seems to me they don’t know either – you can’t have a group of people consistently articulate a vision if the vision is a secret.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/labour-shoots-themselves-in-the-foot-again/#comment-740795
So anyway we have a (draft) Labour policy document that is, like their website strongly focused on past glories and like a National Party document focused strongly on non-specific aspirational shit.
https://www.labourparty.org.nz/sites/default/files/130803%20-%20Policy%20Platform%20-%20Version%201%206_0.pdf
When this document does get specific about an actual work or welfare policy guess what – it’s to lift the age of super to 67. This both shows that they can put specific policy in their policy documents when they want and where their actual priorities are.
I just love phrases like this in the document:
“Today and into the future, we stand for the hopes and aspirations of all New Zealanders to a life of security, dignity, and fulfilment.”
“Labour believes in the innovative and creative powers of New Zealanders.”
“Labour will govern in the spirit of the age, with a new focus on the state as an enabler of community action and citizen involvement.”
Given the prominence National have given to aspiration in their policies wtf is that word even doing in a Labour party document and overall this stuff isn’t visionary it’s corporate mission statement speak.
“For young and old, women and men, Labour’s social policy will ensure that adequate support is available when people have a genuine need.”
“Labour believes that people who can work, should.”
Yep still have their neo-liberal qualifiers in there.
“Labour will continue to improve the quality of the state housing stock”
No mention of quantity – actually building more houses.
No mention of 8 hour working days, 40 hour working weeks, some waffle about protecting workers and union rights but little mention of how. Some talk of regional development which is good. No mention of increasing benefit rates to help the poorest in our society.
Here in this post I try and help Labour be showing how a vision of something can be articulated.
http://thestandard.org.nz/why-charity-cannot-replace-the-state/#comment-583166
Tell me how Labour will once again make it a positive to be living in a state house, something to be proud of. They continue to see it as charity.
Finally
“Our history and our values mean nobody will be surprised when we fight for a fairer and more inclusive New Zealand, when we fight against inequality, and when we fight to preserve freedom and opportunity for all: this is what Labour believes in, and what drives the activity of our party and its
members.”
Yep I’ll be surprised – particularly since 84/85..
Back in 2012 I asked Mike Smith whether Labour actually believed in the 8 hour day, 40 hour week they claimed so proudly on their website. He chose not to answer that twice despite ostensibly being their to champion Labour’s new direction and it’s policy development.
The simple answer is that it doesn’t and as one of the basic fundamental principles historically to help workers have better lives, decent incomes, spread limited work around and to allow them to spend more time with their families that this policy is missing says they don’t really have workers interests at heart.
I have this picture in my head, of the family standing over the headstone of their parents generation, the boomers and asking why they never helped them into a home like their parent parents did their kids. Its about how we remember the boomers, who sure, many lost parents in the war so the govt reworked the system to make it look like they were self made. Its how we remember them as selfish and stupid.
Aye the incessant lowering of taxes, the reducing of workers rights and the demonising of the disabled and poor.
The blaming the victims who resulted from the policies of looking after number one.
The loss of community and sense of common purpose.
Jack is as good as his master was somehow lost once they felt they were the masters.
The thing is that they lost many of their own generation as well – not all benefited by a long shot.
Orwell had it thus:
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
That’s the modern state of politics in a nutshell. Swap pig and man with Labour and National and it remains as apt as the original.
Some guy at Cracked magazine, of all places, has read all the ISIS Dabiq magazines and has a more solid piece about what they think than most other news orgs:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/isis-wants-us-to-invade-7-facts-revealed-by-their-magazine_p2/
Seriously how should we vote on keys vanity flag to both register it as a valid vote and send a clear message they are all unworthy.
How about a 5 on all of them?
I’m intrigued how a valid preferential vote can be run without the candidate positions being randomised on the voting paper.
Seen 3 papers now, and they’re all the same. Anyone else noticed this?
I posted on this at the end of the distraction thread the other day, but the world had moved on by then… http://thestandard.org.nz/flag-distraction-first-referendum/#comment-1099279
Graeme Edgeler, the constitutional law guru and pedant extraordinaire, has an excellent post on the Public Address blog site explaining the various voting options and consequences for the first flag referendum.
http://publicaddress.net/legalbeagle/voting-in-the-flag-referendum/
The post and comments are well worth reading as they cover all the various options and questions.
Voting by ranking all of them at a 5 would invalidate your vote.
Well that is interesting! My comment has come up with a new name for me – “Undefined” rather than my usual “veutoviper”.
It happened while I was trying to edit my comment to add in a note in reply to Graeme’s comment re randomised voting papers.
The situation re this is covered in the comments under the PA post starting midway down page 2.
Apparently the selection of the position of the five flag options on the voting paper format was randomised in line with the provisions of the Flag Referendum Act; but then all voting papers are in this format/positioning.
I can understand this. For example, printing costs would be much higher if individual voting papers were then also randomised. It would also be necessary to ensure that equal numbers of each of the various voting paper options were distributed to avoid claims of bias if this did not happen.
(I wonder what name I get for this comment!)
EDIT – both comment back to vv. All is good with the world.
Actually, it turns it into an informal vote which does get counted.
Only if they haven’t worked on the software. After all, the printer is simply a large commercial laser printer that will print any digital file sent to it and randomising a digital file is relatively simple.
Normalised psuedo-random number generators do exist.
Done properly, a person wouldn’t even have the possibility of touching the form until the person it’s addressed to opens their mail.
A proper randomisation procedure doesn’t stop at the printing press, though. The randomised papers need to be send out evenly across the country: two people at the same address, or two people on the same street, or two people in the same city, should have a random chance of getting any particular printout.
So, we can’t just mail out all of design A to Auckland, all of design B to Wellington and all of design C to Christchurch. Instead, all cities need to get a mix of A, B and C.
That suddenly becomes a more difficult problem.
What we’d want is a fully automatic system. Randomises the layout/address, prints it, sticks it in an envelope and posts it. A computer can do that easily.
Yes, it can be done, but it costs more money to implement it and test it.
Also, I think you’ll find that large production runs of this print all of design A, then all of design B, then all of design C in batches, because it is more cost effective and quicker to do it that way. This then gives you the problem as I noted of how to randomly distribute them.
Your approach of printing each form individually and individually addressing it would likely end up costing a lot more.
Yes but it’s something that I would expect already to be done.
That would be true if the printers were still using a screen printing process whereas I’d expect something more like these followed by something like these on a fully automated production line. They would then be automatically sorted to go to the right mail centre.
Nope, it would cost a lot less.
There is actually 120 combinations (e.g. 5!) of the way the flag could appear on the voting form – which makes things a bit hard keeping track of.
Possibly the easiest way would be to have a random order and just rotate it, so that every flag could be first, and then there are only 5 possible orderings. It’s position (usually the first position) on the voting form that matters.
But all that needs to be done is create 5 stacks of the same kind of sheet and randomise voters to one of 5 address lists and randomly assign an address list to a stack and then it’s good to go.
Hi tc. Did you see this post? There’s some discussion about that in the comments.
http://thestandard.org.nz/flag-distraction-first-referendum/
I had been wondering what to do. Filing the ballot paper in the recycling felt wrong. After reading this I have decided to put an X in each box beneath each flag. I’ve also gone with Winnie’s suggestion of K.O.F as well.
The ballot paper, I understand (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong) gets counted as an invalid vote. Your voice still gets heard. It’s like a protest vote. It’s like a fingers up to the PM.
As I understand it, yes your vote will be counted as an invalid vote. CORRECTION – Informal not invalid. Used incorrect word in my earlier comments also, as Draco pointed out. Need to wake up properly before posting …
However, as discussed on the Public Address blog, the total number of informal votes is counted – but not broken down by the various types of reasons for votes be informal – eg just simple errors, KOF written on vote paper, X in each box, etc. So there will no way of quantifying the extent of protest votes per se.
Not criticising your choice – still haven’t made up my mind which way to go, but have not yet got my voting papers. We have a lot of problems in our street with late and non-delivery of mail and I will be REALLY ANGRY if my papers don’t turn up. I want the right to exercise my option to throw it away, invalidate it, or vote strategically with the ferns as my lowest choices.
UPDATE – Stephanie says this much better https://bootstheory.wordpress.com/2015/11/24/flag-referendum-1/
Hi vv. I saw your public address link and am yet to read it – thanks for summarising the point around how invalid votes are counted. Still ok though, if all the invalid votes are counted as a block? Given the issues around this referendum there may a higher number of invalid votes than usual and it will get reported upon in the media?
Re not receiving your voting paper in the mail yet. I’ve got a friend in the Postal Workers Union. He said they’ve had real problems with NZ Post going to three day delivery. Rostering the posties has proved to problematic and there has been delays with mail being delivered.
You can give them a call at their contact centre to find out what has happened to your mail:
https://www.nzpost.co.nz/contact-support/contact-list
Thanks Rosie. That is interesting re the rostering problems. I was not criticising the postees as such. Our problems relate more to the fact that 18 townhouses were built on the site of a former old peoples home. The Council or whoever decides these things, numbered the townhouses from 1 to 18 rather than A to R(?) and so the pre-existing properties in the street numbered 1 – 18 often get mail, courier deliveries etc intended for the townhouses and vice versa. Many of the townhouses are tenanted with regular turnovers of the occupants who often do not redeliver our mail to us. Very annoying.
That is a real kerfuffle about your address issues vv. What a nuisance. I do hope you get your voting papers soon…….
I’ve read the two links you provided. Thanks. So, yes you’re right, it’s an “informal” vote I’ve cast. (democracy learnings for today) 🙂
I take on board what Graeme Edgeler is saying about intentionally doing this isn’t a protest vote BUT it feels like it, to me at least. I felt like I had no choice when our government is literally trolling the democratic process of voting.
I also see what Stephanie is saying here:
” High numbers of informal/spoiled votes could say that many of us think the process is corrupt – or it could, and probably will, be spun as “those weirdos on the Left who hate democracy” ”
Yes, we will have to brace ourselves for spin, if a higher number of informal votes are reported on. That is a function of our media parroting government spin. We’ve come to expect that. I can see Patrick Gower’s big pointy finger poking the air already.
But but but, for those of us who genuinely dislike any of the flag options we haven’t got much in the way of choice for ref 1. It’s either spoil your ballot paper or bin it.
You ring your local NZ Postbranch veutoviper? Today is the last day for the refs to go out, by law. The branch leader will be very concerned if you do not get your refs today.
Voting papers arrived yesterday luckily – now what to do?
Our local NZ Post branch has been as helpful as they are able to be over our ongoing problems. The prime problem is getting the occupants of the townhouses to ensure they give people their correct addresses in the first place.
The Belgian response to the police lockdown/ raids somehow made a lot of sense to me:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/11/23/cats-take-over-brusselslockdown-on-twitter/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/belgian-cats-brussels-tweets-1.3330918
Syria is being reduced to rubble – in this morning’s Herald. Just disgusting, and our government is playing a part in this. No wonder millions of people are leaving Syria, and trying to find some other place to go to. And after Syria …. what country will be next ?
As the conflict drags into a fifth year with no end in sight, little heed is being paid to the enormity of the damage in the country. Some 2.1 million homes, half the country’s hospitals and more than 7000 schools have been destroyed, according to the United Nations.
Westlake Boys, a public school built an $11 million auditorium ten years ago. Impressive facilities are now quite common at our largest secondary schools whether they are public or private. Burnside built a very expensive facility about 3 years ago.
As they say, modern schools are not like the one you went to thirty years ago.
It’s the pedagogy that counts. All the facilities in the world won’t turn right wing dogma into good education practice, and nor will Parata’s venal and fraudulent rhetoric.
Why does the National Party hate children so much?
Not sure where yours and Wayne’s comments came from. But in terms of “It’s the pedagogy that counts.”
I can tell you that the teachers and the teaching at Westlake Boys High are amongst the very best in Auckland if not New Zealand.
Are they required by law to implement Notional Standards? I rest my case.
It’s a High School so no, also not sure what point you and/or Wayne are trying to make.
Oh. Oops.
Neither of us are singling Westlake out: Wayne mentioned it as an example of his belief that modern buildings are somehow significant to the nature of education. I think the teaching model is more important.
Yes ONB it is very important to remember that real estate and physical assets are more important than occupants and staff. i.e. children and teachers in a school.
That is number 1 rule in Charter schools and prisons. In fact in the US they don’t even bother to open the schools they just buy the real estate and run out of money. You don’t have to pay it back.
Under Neoliberalism and the Natz that doesn’t matter – it is the profit that counts.
Just as an interesting aside, Fallout 4 computer game has recently been launched and sold tens of millions of copies. One of the sub plots is a satire of a Charter School where the students are forced to eat nothing but pink gloop as part of a commercial sponsorship deal.
+100 One Anonymous Bloke
I did a nationwide survey of parents of secondary school students for some govt/edcuational organisation and once thing I commented on was how much money gets spent on Auckland schools compared to the rest of NZ. I think some parents and teachers from where I live would be shocked at seeing what facilities AGGS, EGGS, MAGS, Westlake etc have. Numerous schools around Wellington have been battling for years to get basic remedial work done that should have been sorted at once on health and safety reasons alone.
@mpledger
I’m unaware that more is being spent by the government on state schools in Auckland than in other parts of the country.
I do know that some schools in Auckland have had leaky building fiascos which have been/are being remediated but I don’t think they are getting more than their share, Rangitoto college for example is getting a huge number of buildings sorted out at the moment.
Wayne’s examples are somewhat mischievous as I know in Westlake’s case that the vast majority of the spend was via fundraising with some funds from foreign fee paying students rather than anything from his or previous governments.
I’m pretty sure it will be a very similar situation at Burnside which is also a state school.
Just imagine if someone told you that the citizens and ratepayers of Auckland had been paying billions of dollars to private sector consultants and contractors for services and regulatory functions – which have not been subject to transparency, accountability or ‘cost-benefit’ analysis?
Just imagine if someone told you that there can be up to three layers of private sector, for profit, ‘contractocracy’, clipping the ticket, before you get to the boots and overalls, who actually fix the footpaths / roads / water pipes etc, compared with a former single layer of not-for-profit, public service ‘bureaucracy’?
As soon as you get into contracting (privatisation) of Council services and regulatory functions, Council staff are regarded as being ‘too dumb’ to know how to do that, so contract management is further contracted out to private consultants, who then ‘project manage’ the works contractors, a number of whom then sub-contract ….
How on earth can that be a more effective use of ratepayer monies?
No wonder Auckland Council and CCOs don’t want to OPEN THE BOOKS and make available for public scrutiny exactly where every dollar is being spent on private sector contracts?
I stand for OPENING THE BOOKS and the full and thorough implementation and enforcement of the Public Records Act 2005.
NO more ‘corporate welfare’!
(Please be reminded that this contracting out – privatisation of public services at central and local government, was started under the 1984 – 87 ‘Rogernomic$’ Labour Government, in which 2016 Auckland Mayoral aspirant Phil Goff was a Cabinet Minister.)
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
As someone who’s had to draft a few Annual Plans in my time, any citizen who wants to wade through that foot-high degree of detail as it is, is welcome to. I can count on one hand those who really want to. Good luck to them.
But that won’t tell you the difference between price and value. That is, what do you want the money spent on? Any wannabe accountant can tell me the price of something, but they can’t tell me the value of anything.
The thing you value in public policy terms is the thing you vote to have money spent on.
Penny, as Mayor, what will you spend public money on?
This is incredibly sick.
Key uses Jonah Lomu’s death as a springboard to have a plug for his fave silver fern flag:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/the-flag-debate/74337045/jonah-lomu-tribute-shows-need-for-a-new-flag-pm-says
I agree the image of the fern leaf dropping like a tear is powerful but leave it there you dumb f*ck. This is not the time to use a person’s death to your advantage.
(This morning I will be posting my ballot paper. All 5 flag option’s have an X beneath them).
FJK.
He has no shame whatsoever. If he and his flag panel did their job properly then maybe one of the options would have been a regular silver fern.
The Prime Minister used Paul Henry’s show to advertise for a new flag.
We apparently need a new flag because an Irish newspaper did not feature the New Zealand flag in their graphic about Jonah Lomu.
The guy showed (again) that not only is he a drongo but that he is a desperate one.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/the-flag-debate/74337045/jonah-lomu-tribute-shows-need-for-a-new-flag-pm-says
Snap. Commented at the same time.
Been thinking lately that Key has issues around the sacred aspects of death.
He promised the families of the Pike River victims that he would do everything in his power to get the men out, so they can have a proper burial. He doesn’t. He changes laws on the hoof and uses his power to do that but doesn’t seem to find it within himself to keep his promise to grieving families.
He thinks it’s ok to leave Vietnam war veterans buried in foreign soil, away from their families, in ground that has been designated for future public works. His Aussie mates have decided this year they will bring their dead back, which is the right thing to do. But he just can’t bring himself to give the go ahead to do the same.
Now he disrespects an NZer whose career was tied to a team whose relationship he exploits for political gain and appears to be disconnected from the fact that he is using Jonah Lomu’s death to promote an agenda.
It’s all just wrong.
He’s a morally weak little boy. No idea how people find that attractive.
Key did say he never cries and had not even cried when his mother died (sorry don’t have a link for this ,perhaps someone else has). ,so you may be correct Rosie@9.42am.
@ seeker (9.1.2) – What sort of man boasts about not crying when his mother died? Demonstrates he is a psychopath of the worst possible kind I’d say.
I can think of a couple of ways to make FJK cry.
1) … hit his bank account to the extent his funds would either disappear or are frozen (much like what happened to Kim Dotcom).
2) … stick a very sharp pitchfork up his jacksie!
Both guaranteed to bring tears to his eyes and have him squealing!
Interesting. Potentially he’s been conditioned to not show any emotion (although his outbursts in the house over the years would suggest otherwise), or there is something dysfunctional in how he processes grief, or doesn’t even connect with loss?
His mother died around the turn of the millennium, I think. I find it a very bizarre reaction, the not-crying. We do all mourn in different ways and sometimes we experience a delayed reaction if we consciously or unconsciously put our grief on hold. Maybe his experience of grief is yet to come, or maybe it never will.
No matter what his personal feeling is he needs to learn to at least pretend at showing respect. Keeping his mouth shut would be a good start.
He once said he was going to resign because he blurted out an incorrect tally of the dead on the day of the ChCh earthquakes. Odd guy.
I recall there was an article about Key in a womans weakly or no idea mag or something a short while after 22.02.11. He “revealed” that he had considered resigning because of the emotional strain of coping with the Pike disaster, followed a few months later by the CHCH earthquake.
I had been thinking prior to that that he was looking really grey and like he just wanted to be outta there. It would be hard for any leader to steer a nation through such tragedies but clearly he was not emotionally equipped to deal with one let alone two.
And he chose his son’s baseball game over attending funerals for members of our armed services who were killed overseas doing his bidding! Can’t really see how anyone could be more crass and classless than that!
+1 Hami. That was a shameful decision.
Unforgivably shameful, definitely down there with his ‘desecration’ of Ireland’s wondrous tribute to Mr. Jonah Lomu.
The only residential drug treatment program north of Chch in the SI is having it,s funding cut.
Yay for a Better Future. Arseholes.!!
Another shameful NZ problem:
The number of people seeking emergency accommodation and turning to Citizens Advice Bureau for help has doubled in five years.
Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) received more than 3000 enquiries about emergency accommodation this year, up from 1500 in 2010, a recent report shows.
Overall there have been 10,000 such enquiries in the past five years.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/290380/emergency-housing-enquiries-double
Today I met a someone via my old dog. The Lady and her dog are living in her car. I offered her coffee, as that is all I can offer. Fucking brighter future indeed….its so fucking bright the world seems to wear blinkers.
Shameful, shameful, shameful. It all trickles down from the top.
Interesting to see Sean Plunket is being given the boot – http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/74333320/sean-plunket-to-leave-radiolive–and-may-be-replaced-by-colleague-mark-sainsbury
That is interesting news. Sean may have been a pain in the proverbial and pugnacious if that is the word but he did ring true on some rare occasions. Mark Sainsbury will be an awful choice. Just what Radio Live are aiming for – wet and woolly flim flam rubbish. I can see in the future that Willie will not have his contract renewed and Alison Mau will take over that slot on her own in the afternoon – and that for me is goodbye for everything on Radio Live. Karyn Hay has lost it now her other half Andrew Fagan has gone from her show, between the two of them they were an absolute hoot, now she is doing a magazine type format and she doesn’t spark at all on her own.
David Slack is my choice for the replacement or bring back Mitch Harris – can see it happening – yeh right.
More strength to your right arm, Whispering Kate. I thought I was the only one in NZ who thought like this. I really enjoyed Fagan and Karyn. Apart from anything else, every so often he would say something fairly off the planet and she would gently, bit by bit, over a series of comments, bring him back to his, that is, her senses. I had been secretly hoping that he was off on a yacht trip somewhere and one day he would be back. Sigh, dream destroyed.
Willy I like too but he is on less now, and Ali does most of the talking even when he is there. Ali is pretty good but Willy has the passion. It looks to me like he is being eased out. Perhaps that is what he wants as he does a lot of other things outside this radio slot.
Sean Plunkett is strong medicine but quite OK when he is on stuff that I agree with, (of course.)
I was also disappointed when J.T. left. He would amble along with Willy most of the time and then spit out something really pointed and sharp eyed about politics, Key or Labour. Sadly, once too often for the corporate management.
Anyone seen the latest YouTube spotlight video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgOV1dYdYVk
It is titled (#OursToLose: Climate Change Affects the Things We Love)
A number of YouTubers from various countries are featured in it including Kiwi Jamie Currie of Jamie’s World.
From the info below the video
Published on Nov 23, 2015
** Sign the petition: https://goo.gl/j3xOYg **
Climate change affects the things we love. But this December we have a huge opportunity. Sign the global petition and ask world leaders to agree to a deal at the COP21 climate conference in Paris.
Learn how climate change might affect …
New York: http://goo.gl/bzcKmj
Sports and fitness: http://goo.gl/WmwPuf
Fall leaves: http://goo.gl/OXQtPW
Chocolate: http://goo.gl/SwQXEg
Skiing: http://goo.gl/3fOca4
The ocean: https://goo.gl/uJNSgp
New Zealand: http://goo.gl/xxquDf
Coral reefs: http://goo.gl/kKceCa
Many thanks to the creators who are participating in this campaign. In order of appearance:
It’s Okay to be Smart: https://youtube.com/user/itsokaytobes…
Casey Neistat: https://youtube.com/user/caseyneistat
Flavia Calina: https://youtube.com/user/Fla1982
Blogilates: https://youtube.com/user/blogilates
Finn Harries (JacksGap): https://youtube.com/user/JacksGap
FunForLouis: https://youtube.com/user/FunForLouis
Marques Brownlee: https://youtube.com/user/marquesbrownlee
SORTEDfood: https://youtube.com/user/sortedfood
Golden Moustache: http://youtube.com/GoldenMoustacheVideo
DeevaJessica: https://youtube.com/user/deevajessica
Jamie’s World: https://youtube.com/user/theJamiesWorld
Just got an email from Greenpeace….
http://i.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/74342252/Greenpeace-activists-storm-Niwa-ship-in-Wellington-harbour
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11550347
“Greenpeace said Tangaroa was refitted at taxpayer expense to exploit hydrocarbons in an operation likely to undermine New Zealand’s obligations to fighting the greenhouse effect and climate change-related issues.
Greenpeace said the taxpayer-funded boat had been surveying the East Cost of the North Island on behalf of petroleum giants Statoil and Chevron.”
If this is correct…..WTF???
Yes probably, that is why National want to have us blaming the middle class and bene bashing to hide the fact that our taxes are actually being used to help his corporate mates in corporate welfare.
The email direct from Greenpeace this morning said the total spent was $24 million .
Oh, the execrating and vicious irony of John Key. Converting the only NIWA weather/climate change research vessel we have to oil researching.
WTF indeed Rosemary. I came here to make the same post.
Yes. I received that email too. Some of the content, from the activist aboard the Tangaroa.
“The ship we’re on is the NIWA research boat Tangaroa which has recently been refitted for oil and gas exploration at a cost of 24 million to the tax-payer. Now on the eve of the Paris climate talks, it has been searching for deep sea oil reserves off the East Coast of the North Island on behalf of Statoil and Chevron! It’s just madness.”
First I’d heard!
24 mill? If thats the case then why isn’t that money being spent on keeping women’s refuge’s and mental health services open? And why are we funding fossil fuel exploration?
WTF indeed!
Hi Rosie! Hope someone in the House questions this spending.
We have suffered too many WTF incidents with FJK.
Following on from your statement:
“Oh, the execrating and vicious irony of John Key. Converting the only NIWA weather/climate change research vessel we have to oil researching”.
Well, there should be a “scumbag PM meme” for it.
Scumbag PM makes climate scientists redundant – funds oil exploration.
(Reference to science funding cuts)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/285230/research-'abandoned'-in-agresearch-cuts
Tangaroa which has recently been refitted for oil and gas exploration at a cost of 24 million to the tax-payer
The recent refit was 2010.
Hi Poission. Do you have a link to info about the refit? I guess you’re saying that a 2010 refit means that it isn’t recent. Ok, but what about the fact that it was refitted for oil and gas exploration in the first place?
Hi Rosemary
I received the same email today from Greenpeace. Another form of disgraceful corporate welfare for FJK’s cronies – $24m – Absolutely it’s another WTF moment or two! Disturbing as well!
This might be very very good news:
The conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is now in doubt following the defeat in the US Senate of a proposal to advance the FastTrack Bill. The Fast Track Bill would prevent the U.S. Congress from amending the TPP, and instead …U.S. Senate votes down TPP FastTrack bill: TPP deal now in doubt………The Fast Track Bill would prevent the U.S. Congress from amending the TPP, and instead allow only a yes or no vote,”
If the USA does not sign it Key won’t.
If the USA is able to amend the Treaty, then so should we.
(No date on this.)
http://itsourfuture.org.nz/u-s-senate-votes-down-tpp-fasttrack-bill/
Oh. 15 May?
Oh again. Fast Track was passed in June. My mistaken hope.
Even if the US pull out of TPP I bet Key can’t wait to get us all competing for 35 cents an hour like Vietnam as well as selling our country off via Meryl Lynch and Offshore contacts.
There is a minor little Politics story in the Dom/Post this morning.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/74292130/andrew-little-keeping-tabs-on-annette-kings-rongotai-seat
I think that Annette King is trying to back out of a deal she made with Little to keep the deputy leader job in the Labour Party.
I have suggested before that the reason she was kept on as deputy leader was that she could keep the extra money, the perks of the job (Limo for example) and a promise of a well paid sinecure when Labour became the Government if she would retire and give Little a free run at the Rongatai seat in 2017.
From this story, where Little has suddenly gone public with his claim on the seat, I think that King has decided that Labour cannot win in 2017 and that after the election Little will have ben dumped, Labour will continue in opposition, and there will be no-one in a position to provide her with a job. By 2020, if Labour can win then she will have been forgotten and the party won’t feel they owe her anything.
She has decided therefore that the best thing she can do is hang on to the seat and stay at the trough for another 3 years.
Little is now on a desperate campaign to try and force her out. I wonder what attempts he is making to try and get his own supporters to sign up in the Rongatai electorate to provide support for the moves he is now going to have to make to dump her?
Little will be top of the list at 1 so he doesn’t need a seat. It’s better for him to not have an electorate because then he has to deal with electorate stuff. Or if he does, to go for an Auckland seat because labour need to work up their presence in Auckland.
There are too many people in Wellington who see first hand what is going on in government so it’s pretty safe as a Labour/Green stronghold.
All politicians prefer an electorate seat. Like it or not it gives them greater credibility.
Little can’t really afford to stand in a by-election for, say Goff’s seat if he really quits because it will be less than a year out from a General Election. If his majority was, as it almost certainly would be, below Goff’s it leaves him open to comments about how unpopular he is.
He can’t possibly better Goff’s result, no matter how popular he might prove, because not that many people vote in by-elections. Even if Little was to run and win he is on a hiding to nothing.
Of course Wellington is a Labour/Green stronghold. There are far to many Government Department Head Office types. One shudders to think how many “Policy Analysts” there are and what they do.
No Little wants King to go and she is clinging on.
“Like it or not it gives them greater credibility”
Only because too many pundits and voters have still not grown out of First Past Post expectations. Representing a population group well rather than an area is no less difficult.
“Only because too many pundits and voters have still not grown out of First Past Post”.
That’s right. However Little, like all politicians, would be a fool to ignore what is a general perception. We have had MMP for 20 years now. Those of us who aren’t politicians can happily complain about the ignorance of hoi polloi but the real politicians can’t.
They have to compete, and try and win, in the world the way it is, not the world we might prefer. In general people still seem to think that an electorate MP is in some way superior to a list one.
And no. I can’t point you to a poll that PROVES that comment to be true.
oh I agree, sadly.
My workmates say Annette King has chosen the mantle of ABC Godmother, rather than serve the Leader who appointed her and work for the interest of a cooperative broader caucus, as well as the party’s true working class interests.
I reckon she has made the call to create a legacy that will strengthen the careerist and right-wing factions to take on the leadership post-Little. A ‘King’ maker, in a cynical sense of the expression.
Little did the right thing many months ago by attempting to unify the party, but the right-wing and careerist factions (and the incompetents who are clinging on to their electorates) are not interested in unifying but are determined to have absolute control of caucus.
Little surrounded himself with those factions and it will be seen next whether he will be asphyxiated by them. Grant Robertson is happy to wait a bit longer. His thinking is that the tide will run out even more for National when 2020 approaches and he will take Labour to a resounding victory, such as the likes of 1984.
addendum:
Can some of you (posters or commenters) who are politically thoughtful, astute, honest and insightful provide a candid updated version of the following piece please? Perhaps, something like “Labour’s Three Factions 2.0”?
http://thestandard.org.nz/labours-three-factions/
Can update that in the light of whoever is left [not a pun] in caucus, whoever has changed (or not changed) spots, etc? If ‘Eddie’ is still keen to write, it will be nice to read an updated version from the original author.
There is no good time like now, on this side of Christmas, nearing the end of the first year of the third electoral cycle of being in opposition, and clearing the way for more house-keeping and house-cleaning for next year, just before the 2017 election year. If not now, things will just go further downhill for Labour until 2020.
It’s be a bit tricky as the factions appear to have faded away. At the moment the caucus seem entirely united and on message. Boring but true!
o i n k !
I believe trp is correct and credit to Andrew Little for achieving it. Although in some ways he’s had an easier ride than the two previous incumbents because both the Left and the Right were prepared to accept him as leader.
The reshuffle is a tricky one. To ensure continuing peace and tranquility inside the caucus, Little will need to ensure both sides have been accommodated. So we can expect some mumblings and grumblings on The Standard and elsewhere in the next little while. 😉 (not trying to be provocative)
For my part I don’t care who gets on the front bench so long as the values that saw me join Labour first time around (40 plus years ago) are no longer being compromised.
I’d also credit King.
Don’t have to like her, but I respect her delivery and her work.
ditto
How does that work if all the people that were in the three factions in 2013 are still there as MPs?
It works because Labour has a leader who has managed to sort the differences between them. His legal qualifications together with his many years as a union leader have given him the expertise and knowledge that was essential for the job. He’s strong and Key and co. know it. They’re worried alright.
Just imagine the difference in this country when Little becomes PM. Things would get done and done properly. Legislation would be fair and reasonable. A living wage? I reckon so, although it might have to be implemented incrementally. No more asset sales. And that’s just for starters. Too tired tonight to go into more detail.
What a load of fantastical tripe alwyn. You missed the bit where you would say that Andrew has to keep shaving bits off the horns growing out of his forehead while your mate John is floating around on fairy wings. And you will be knighted for your perceptions. Huh!
Your imagination must be admired. Peter Jackson needed someone like you when he was making The Hobbit. Apparently he didn’t know what “fantastical” story he was going to tell when he started.
Alwyn, just read the following.
“From this story, where Little has suddenly gone public with his claim on the seat, I think that King has decided that Labour cannot win in 2017 and that after the election Little will have ben dumped, Labour will continue in opposition, and there will be no-one in a position to provide her with a job. By 2020, if Labour can win then she will have been forgotten and the party won’t feel they owe her anything.
She has decided therefore that the best thing she can do is hang on to the seat and stay at the trough for another 3 years.”
I think that ianmac is on the money as to what is fantastical. The word that gave it away in the text provided is the word coming after “I”. Not much thinking shown, but a lot of surmise, fantasy, fiction and falsely attributed motivation.
I think that the piece you put in quotation marks, starting at “from this” and finishing with “3 years”, is an amazingly intelligent and thoughtful review. This is certainly one of the very best comments ever posted on this blog.
The paragraph at the end starting with “I think that ianmac is on” doesn’t really hack it though.
There, that what you wanted to hear?
Alwyn, I am minded of the lyrics of The Boxer.
“Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”
What I just heard was the next line, “Li de li de li de li de li de li.” 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYPJOCxSUFc
From the Economist.
“Adios, kirchnerismo: Argentina’s switch
Mauricio Macri, who was elected president on Sunday, is (normally) bland by Argentina’s exuberant standards. The changes he heralds, after 12 years of kirchnerismo, are anything but. The populism, economic controls, phony statistics and hostility toward foreign investors of the current president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and her late husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner, have stalled growth, stoked inflation and distanced the country from international capital markets. Mr Macri, previously mayor of Buenos Aires, aims to end currency and exchange controls, allow the peso to devalue, restore central-bank independence and reach agreement with foreign creditors, who pushed Argentina into default in 2014. His victory changes politics elsewhere, too: he will call on Mercosur, a regional trade grouping, to suspend Venezuela from membership unless a parliamentary election there next month is conducted democratically. No other Latin American leader has been so outspoken.”
What are the chances we will have democracy, and sanity, restored to Venezuela as well?
“It’s very unusual for a terrorist group to hold territory and run a government.”
Neil Miller’s fatuous and ideological remarks go unchallenged.
The Panel, RNZ National, Monday 23 November 2015
Jim Mora, Neil Miller, Sally Wenley, Julie Moffett
dereliction n. Deliberate, conscious, or willful neglect, as of duty or principle (esp. in the phrase dereliction of duty)
First topic up for discussion after the 4 o’clock news: ISIS and the threat of terrorism. Dr Clark Jones from the Australian National University in Canberra was on the line and ready to speak, but instead of going straight to someone who knew what he was talking about, Mora asked his two guests what THEY thought. Miller did all the talking, droning on for more than a minute, pompously and tediously, in a rambling monologue which included the following gem: “It’s very unusual for a terrorist group to hold territory and run a government.”
Long-time sufferers of this joke of a program will not have been at all surprised that neither Sally Wenley nor Jim Mora dared to throw a log under the wheel of Miller’s carriage by saying something irritating such as: “What about Israel? That state, founded by terrorists, based on terrorism, has managed, by a combination of extreme violence and the diplomatic protection of the United States, to ‘hold territory and run a government’ for more than sixty years.”
But the producers of this show knew better than to put the bombastic Miller on with someone who might have have contradicted or challenged him. Sally Wenley did not so much as demur at what Miller said, and neither did host Jim Mora.
+1 Morrissey –
“It’s very unusual for a terrorist group to hold territory and run a government”
they could have added this gem too
unless they are a puppet government run by an off shore goverment and supported by offshore military
We keep seeing a lot of those too popping up in the Middle East.
So democratic….
“Je suis chat” arises in Belgium … heart warming it is.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/22/national-emergency-belgians-respond-with-cats?CMP=share_btn_fb
and they were thanked later by Belgian Police via Twitter … be sure to scroll to the very end !
“Heartwarming”? More like twee social media time-wasting.
Yes, heartwarming. For me, at any rate. You ? Not so much. Toujours le difference to you, in your ‘tweeleries’ .
It is well known cats have a calming influence on people during times of stress. It was a spontaneous and inspired response.
Congratulations to the Belgian participants.
I’ll take it Morrissey is not a cat person 😉
This in today’s print version of The Press. Probably in the online version too, but I couldn’t find it.
“24% of kiwi kids live in poverty (260,000)
180,000 missing out on basic needs like health, food and warm clothes
40,000 kids hospitalised each year because of poverty and inadequate housing
100,000 kids live in conditions that stop them from educational development success
80,000 kids go to school hungry each day . . .”
My God, we, as a nation, should be thoroughly ashamed of such figures!
We should be shouting at our politicians, demanding to know why these figures exist.
THIS IS DISGRACEFUL!
I think it is treasonous criminality.
Jacinda Ardern shouts it as loud as she can in the House during question time, along with NZ First and Greens … only by voting out this bloody government can any change be effected.
But look ! Have a flag ! Have a panda !
and now this … staff to be halved at Ministry of Youth Development … to save aq paltry $1 million … at what true cost ??
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11550489
But don’t forget that the PM’s departments budget has more than doubled since 2009.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/11/21/the-slow-starvation-of-radio-nz-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-the-fourth-estate/
“40,000 kids hospitalised each year because of poverty and inadequate housing” – are you sure about that? That’s 109 kids for every day of the year. Was any source quoted for these figures?
It does seem high, I agree. These figures appear to come from UNICEF, as quoted in The Press, via Deborah Morris-Travers, NZ advocacy manager.
But let’s not quibble over the figures – the fact that a high number of OUR kids are hospitalised because of poverty and inadequate housing is the salient point – that is what is a disgrace!
What is this “high number”?
2400 children alone in the Hutt Valley each year, so maybe it is that high nationally. Shocking.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/69058217/New-5-million-study-to-boost-childrens-health-by-improving-housing
Jist…
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/23/sun-poll-respondents-found-using-list-of-muslim-surnames
Jist, is that the Islamic version of Gist ;-p
Muslin, the “murican” version.
Rabih Alameddine
@rabihalameddine
You let muslin in and then you’ll get rayon, chenille, chintz, shantung, and omg, taffeta
Keep our fabrics pure
https://twitter.com/rabihalameddine/status/668463757832556544
joe90
Thats no seersucker.
That is almost as silly as deciding that people from China were purchasing all the Auckland houses by looking for “Chinese” names among the buyers.
Surely no-one is really that stupid?
The only one silly enough to suggest that ALL the Auckland houses are being bought by Chinese buyers is you. Or are you purposely lying? So which is it, are you a liar or terminally stupid?
Hear ye! Hear ye!
Natrad…Radio New Zealand…RNZ…whatever floats your boat has ‘specialed’ Greenpeace this afternoon.
Interviewed the protesters, talked to activists who were there when the Rainbow Warrior was bombed by the French.
Played tracks from the fundraising concert….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZD8dA678ss
Drove home from town with a lump in my throat.
Proud again to be a Kiwi.
Take that Key!
When things need repairing or improving then it’s got to be done in stages, and monitored. The idea of a predator free NZ working on one nasty after another can backfire apparently. It needs to be done more evenly across the species.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/289893/caution-urged-over-predator-free-vision
Hi mods. I’m having a problem with the site. According to the recent comments bar (I don’t know what it’s actually called) to the right of the frame there are people commenting on Stephanie’s post about the flag referendum and Micky’s post about RNZ’s story about Housing NZ referring people to CAB. but when you go to Stephanie’s post it shows one comment and Mickey’s post shows no comments. Comments that people have made are just not showing up.
This has happened a few times before and normally seems to correct itself fairly quickly but this time the problem is remaining………..
Australia and China — and USA
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-19/australia-reviewing-asset-sales-after-obama-discusses-china-buy
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/nov/19/malcolm-turnbull-shrugs-off-us-concern-over-darwin-port-lease-to-chinese-firm
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/obama-queries-turnbull-over-china-port-deal
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/13/chinese-company-secures-99-year-lease-of-darwin-port-in-506m-deal
Darwin port yeah
Giant station near Woomera weapons nah.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/290103/australia-blocks-sale-of-giant-property-portfolio
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/22/australia-investment-idUSL3N13H0DP20151122
Turnbull was speaking to reporters hours after the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) blocked the A$350 million ($252 million) sale of Australia’s largest cattle ranch to Chinese firms on the grounds of national interest.
In 2014, Australia sold Port of Newcastle, the world’s busiest coal terminal, to state-owned China Merchants Group Ltd and local firm Hastings. A year earlier, it sold the second busiest container terminal to a consortium partly owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Hastings and the Abu Dhabi investment firm, along with Chinese, Canadian, Kuwaiti and local interests, are expected to bid for the New South Wales electricity network sale, people familiar with the matter have said.
What about getting back aboriginal land.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-12/priest-native-title/6307896
April 2015 http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2847089/forced_evictions_are_australias_latest_racist_assault_on_aboriginal_people.html
and from The Australian Independent Media Network –
http://theaimn.com/the-great-land-grab-of-2015-continues/
Northern Territory
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/02/northern-territory-chief-minister-adam-giles-vows-to-boost-indigenous-jobs
Central govt moves
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5492
Aborigines opinion.
https://newmatilda.com/2015/08/09/right-development-indigenous-lands/
As countries scramble to remain upright in the international game of dominoes, they are selling off bits of their infrastructure and resources. Australia is trying to balance China and the USA. And they always have the aboriginal land to reneg on.
They may as well bring back Hosking; he couldn’t be worse than Paul Brennan.
Crass and credulous fan-boy interview with U.S. Army propagandist a new low for RNZ.
Afternoons, RNZ National, Tuesday 24 November 2015
In March 2006 the controversial British prime minister Tony “Bliar” Blair had the gall to make a state visit to New Zealand. Unfortunately for him, his handlers forgot to vet the Radio New Zealand journalist Eva Radich, who doggedly went after him about the illegality of the Iraq invasion and occupation, and his bogus “45 minute” claim. She would not let him evade her questions or divert the focus of the interview. In the end, of course, Blair just resorted to his usual insulting menu of vague platitudes. But she had clearly discomfited him, in a way he rarely faced back in the United Kingdom.
Over the years, several other politicians and ideologues have come unstuck on Radio New Zealand, most notably Jeffrey Archer, John Howard and William Shawcross. [1]
But Radio New Zealand is no longer what it was. Its only decent political interviewer (Mary Wilson) has been kicked upstairs to management, where she can no longer torment the likes of Bill English and Gerry Brownlee. And softball P.R.-type interviews, even with controversial subjects, are becoming more and more common. A month ago, Jesse Mulligan granted a free half hour for Blair’s notorious henchman Alistair Campbell to blather on about “strategy, leadership, and teamship”. [2]
This afternoon, Paul Brennan’s “interview” of one Gayle Tzemach Lemmon was a case study in the softball interview. [3] It was billed on the RNZ website in the following manner…..
Appalled, I sent the following e-mail to Paul Brennan….
Your interview with Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Dear Paul,
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon glibly talked about raiding Afghanistan homes at late night, “while the Rangers went about their business.” That “business”, as has been made painfully clear in the last 14 years, is nothing more than terrorizing and brutalizing thousands of Afghani citizens. It is all illegal, and all a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon also spoke as if the Afghani women in the houses being raided were just waiting to be liberated by her and her woman colleagues. The facts are diametrically different to what she claims.
Near the end of the interview, she boasted: “Make no mistake about it, these women are warriors.”
I was surprised that you seemed to endorse everything she said. Surely, as an interviewer, you are expected to test and challenge what people say on your show—especially someone saying such radical and controversial things as Gayle Tzemach Lemmon did this afternoon.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
[1] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-01082011/#comment-359152
[2] http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201776237/alistair-campbell-strategy-leadership-and-teamship
[3] http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201780051/female-soldiers-gayle-tzemach-lemmon
Our media are just puppets for the powerful.
You are brave/foolhardy to listen.
Morrissey…I’m usually with you 100%, but did you hear this….?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201780036/greenpeace-action-siana-fitzjohn
and this…..
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201780040/great-new-zealand-concerts-rainbow-warrior-1986
nearly a whole hour devoted to Greenpeace, then and now.
Paul almost flicked aside the emails from the “we need more fossil fuels” brigade and read out those more inclined towards mitigating global warming.
This perennial cynic was cheering him on.
Yes, I heard that too, Rosemary, and I agree with you.
I was extremely disappointed, though, to hear his utterly uncritical interview with that glib Army propagandist a half hour later.
I did not engage with that next hour…too busy discussing the previous session…I was genuinely surprised at the tone….
One member of the household suggested that Paul was on his way out from Natrad…and chose the blaze of glory route. ?