Key couldn’t remember what he was doing in the early 1980s.
He was possibly thumbing through his “Battler Britain” comics.
Seems now he might also have been captured by the Falklands and is now
hoping for his own “Thatcher” moment.
hi paul, ref a rogue government: perhaps we do, however till the sheeple wake up to this, nothing changes.
to raise awareness perhaps a day of action akin to the anti tppa protests coming up early march?
If the NZ role is just training, then why not bring the trainees here to New Zealand and teach them all the tactics they need in a non-war zone, peaceful environment.
Because then our “force protection” troops could not help to secure a Forward Operating Base in Iraq from which assault operations on ISIS will be launched from.
Was Key channeling Jack Nicholson in a Few Good Men for his performance in parliament yesterday?
Once again key simply does not ring true.Little is a true leader, calm, capable and cogent.
Mr Little was in very good form on tv3 this morning he gave solid reasoned views on Iraq.
Paddy giving not a bad breakdown of the cost of keys announcement in his eyes its when not if we get a retaliation from I S.
To an extent. But he said it doesn’t take guts to sit in Wellington making tough decisions. I think he’s wrong about that.
If he believes what he said then I don’t think he’s ready to step up to Prime Ministerial level, which is a very tough job involving many tough decisions.
Nowhere near that les. I think Key should have sought Parliamentary support, but it wasn’t a democratic requirement.
If it had come to the crunch would Labour have voted against it? There’s no way of knowing now, but as this is at the request of Iraq it’s arguably more legitimate than decisions made by the Clark Government and Parliament at the time.
Seeing as Labour and the Greens both put forward a motion for a vote – which National objected to both times – your “no way of knowing” is as empty as Key’s credibility.
ha ha that is the funniest thing heard in a long time. Well actually not that long as it has been heard quite a lot lately. Not surprised you fall for it Pete.
I think Key should have sought Parliamentary support, but it wasn’t a democratic requirement.
Yeah, actually, it was. We don’t get democracy by having a few people in cabinet making executive decisions. Going to war is a major policy and really should have been put to referendum even if the nation that we’d be fighting for requested it.
Many of them genuinely seem to think that if they got away with it (so far), it can’t be wrong.
A similar but lighter example is an opinion piece in Stuff today that argued the underarm ball incident was not actually wrong: it was legal, it might have been possible to still hit a six and tie the game, even if it wasn’t possible then the bowler could have bowled a perfect ball that was impossible to hit for six, or that the aussie team could have turned into the keystone cops and allowed NZ to get six runs via fielding errors.
There’s a basic inability to recognise a dick move when it’s there. That winning a game of athletic skill via bureaucratic oversight is preferable to getting a draw. That exploiting a tax loophole to pay less than your fair share is fine because it’s temporarily legal. That taking the ability the Executive has to use the armed forces speedily to react to threats and using it to avoid gaining parliament’s permission for a contentious, planned, long term deployment is not an abuse of the very democracy that parliament is there to exercise.
And the signature of a dick is to not know or care that it’s a dick. That’s why key shrugs his shoulders so often.
actually it’s more like Timothy Dalton’s character thinking that pronouncing it “super marshay” is a cool thing to do, rather than mildly greasy and irritating. 🙂
What tough decisions? A tough decision would be to kick all pedophiles out of the NAct party, or to up the top tax rate, or to chase after corporate fraudsters. Sending our kids to war, or selling state houses are not tough decisions. They come naturally to Tory scum.
“When we’re talking about guts, I think I’ll reserve that for the soldiers who we’re sending up there,” Mr Little responded on Firstline this morning.
“This is one of the most dangerous conflict zones in the world – you don’t need much guts to sit on a leather couch in Wellington and send people off to do your bidding for you, so let’s get that in perspective.”
Sorry chaps. Forgot the rules. DNFTT. Starting at A.
The aardvark (/ˈɑrd.vɑrk/ ard-vark; Orycteropus afer) is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike New World edentates such as the giant anteater, it has a long pig-like snout, which is used to sniff out food. It roams over most of the southern two-thirds of the African continent, avoiding mainly rocky areas. A nocturnal feeder, it subsists on ants and termites, which it will dig out of their hills using its sharp claws and powerful legs. It also will utilize its digging ability to create burrows in which to live and rear its young.
As it turns out I didn’t like Key’s second speech, I don’t think that was appropriate. But there was an unusual amount of emotion expressed so fair enough for Key to say what he thought.
And the Green faithful will have lapped up Norman’s naivety and contradictions.
Chard and the other beets are chenopods, a group which is either its own family Chenopodiaceae or a subfamily within the Amaranthaceae. Although the leaves of chard are eaten, it is in the same species as beetroot (garden beet), which is grown primarily for its edible roots. Both are cultivated descendants of the sea beet, Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, but they were selected for different characteristics.
Chard is also known by its many common names such as Swiss chard,[7] silverbeet, perpetual spinach, spinach beet, crab beet, bright lights, seakale beet, and mangold.[8] In South Africa, it is simply called spinach.[9]
Key’s performance yesterday was Oscar worthy. He has to make an effort to convince NZer’s he’s made the right decision. And I agree with freedom, he is under stress and losing his composure.
Bullshitting to save your arse can be really stressful, and add all that acting effort, it’s no wonder he’s looking a bit undone.
E. lecontei adults are smaller than most terrestrial weevils, measuring only 3 mm in length. This weevil is generally dark-colored with a pattern of dark brown/black and yellowish stripes on the dorsal half, fading to a lighter, yellow-beige underbelly. However, some weevil individuals vary in color from almost completely tan to beige.
“From observing your pet every day, you’ll have noticed that your cat has a pattern that it follows quite religiously. For example, your adult indoor cat might spend the mornings lying in a pool of sunshine in the corner of the dining room. Later, he watches you as you go about your household chores, and then his rigorous day winds down with a patient vigil by the kitchen door waiting for his children – otherwise known as your children – to come home. Your feline has developed these routines to protect his territory and frequently your pet’s definition of “territory” includes his human family members.
As your cat grows older, he becomes less capable of adapting to changes in his environment. Your pet gets particular about even the smallest detail of his surroundings and will notice changes in food (brand or type), the consistency of his litter and even in your schedule or in the schedules of other family members. Abrupt or drastic changes in your cat’s routine and environment can produce a great deal of stress, which can result in a variety of stress-induced behaviors – including litter box problems, aggression, self-mutilation or general despondency.
The best possible way to keep your cat stress free is to try to maintain your daily routine and to keep changes to a minimum. When changes are necessary, try introducing them to your cat gradually while leaving every other aspect of the routine in place. Limit exposure to new people and new foods, etc., on the first day and increase the exposure to newness over a seven-day period. If you have houseguests or other situations where the household is materially changed, remember to give your cat as much extra attention as you can.”
what with: spying in tangimoana on behalf of the us,
rounding up that pesky german,
altering nz labour law,
offering tax breaks to american film companies,
sending kiwi soldiers to help clean up another us war,
and being a golf buddy to the pousa.
i am reminded of a the the song, heartland.
youtube.com/watch?v=1osdqwaiu08
” The ammunition’s being passed and the lords been praised
But the wars on the televisions will never be explained
All the bankers gettin’ sweaty beneath their white collars
As the pound in our pocket turns into a dollar
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
this may give an insight to what our dear leader wants our new flag to look like.
Alcohol is not so much the elephant in the room – It’s were is the room, because I can’t see anything but the elephant.
As long as we keep up prohibition – people suffer, people dying suffer, families suffer, criminals are made for no reason, racist cops have laws which enable them to be racists, and we can’t tell children not to smoke pot in a public debate.
Clemgeopin, live pure – like that going to happen. I’d rather we had open debate around drugs and drug use rather than it being hidden.
Hell I dream of the day we can have adds on TV which say.
“Don’t smoke pot and drink alcohol together – why? Because – it really does make you into an arsehole”
or
“Smoking pot under the age of 21 is like drinking under 21 – a licence to make you stupid and compliant. Wait till your 21 ah.”
alcohol and cannabis aren’t the problem. Why some people use in unhealthy ways is where to look if we want to see the problem. Take away the drugs, what are those people going to do?
No, no, I do enjoy a drink or three.
Don’t do drugs and will most certainly NEVER visit a NZ casino EVER AGAIN after the recent fiasco and the disgraceful dodgy nexus between the two evils : The nasty Nats and the gambling Casino goons.
Cripes phillip u can you stay off pot for a week? I am not talking about what happens at your place just give us a break here. Make that a month would you. I and some others would be grateful to not have that subject for a good while.
Regulating it is fine but taxing it ‘heavily’ is not so much because, as is always the case, be it tobacco, dope, or GST, it will hit the poorest the most…and in the case of dope, I think it will be the gangs that will rub their hands with joy and heartily support ‘heavy’ taxes!
I was wondering how long it would take you to reference that red herring of a study.
They simply compared the lethal dose 50 of alcohol to the lethal dose 50 of marijuana.
The LD50 of alcohol is significantly lower than marijuana. That’s it. That’s all the study found.
It doesn’t mention anything about societal use or injuries / damage caused by the drugs, it’s purely looking at the dose it would take to kill you.
You might notice, that very few people actually die of alcohol poisoning. Virtually no one dies of marijuana poisoning.
These findings are not news nor surprising to anyone who understands what the study is *actually* about. Unfortunately, as usual, the media have boiled it down to the lowest-common-denominator and written a headline and article that distorts the study to a huge degree and presents it as if it is some great new finding and is somehow relevant to the marijuana vs alcohol debate, when really it warrants nothing more than a passing interest.
No, I’m not arguing against that proposition. Alcohol is obviously much more damaging to society and individuals than marijuana is.
I’m saying *this* article doesn’t offer any new insight to anyone who would be making legislative decisions about this. Anyone trumpeting this as some sort of grand new evidence is misguided.
In simple terms: this study is telling us what we already knew and what was already obvious.
Just a couple of pieces to remind people that rabid right wing have no morals. They love money not people and are only interested in “the bottom line”. The sooner we stand up against this greed mentality – the better for humanity and an increased chance for it’s survival, as we approach the end of the golden weather.
Barry Gustafson I think was on Radionz – came to know her well. She was very supportive of old Fartface and was a true blue lady herself. She probably enjoyed a relationship with Margaret Thatcher. I think she had a pretty good time of it all.
Cf Margaret Thorn’s life. Now that was a staunch and beautiful woman to admire. Does anyone remember her?
Thanks for that greywarshark. Just read a short piece about her on Te Ara website. Sounds like an interesting and admirable woman, and the experience of her and her husband is a timely one to read regarding the ISIS discussion.
As for the title of her last book: “Stick out, and keep left”. Pretty much sums it up.
Yes Molly I had the book in the back of my mind for yonks but couldn’t get the name right and I think Ennui or one of the stalwarts here gave me the steer.
And the difference between now and how politics used to be! At one stage she and her husband filled a major political role, can’t remember the exact position and she visited an organisation in her elevated capacity. Then they were out of government, her husband got sick, and she was back at that organisation as a cook working flat out in the kitchens. Real Cinderella stuff. A very hard worker. Both of the Thorns were.
Thea Muldoon was a genuine conservative lady – one of the old fashioned
Conservatives who believed in following and supporting her husband at all cost. I met her once after her husband had died and realised she was a kind and genuine person. She was a product of her conservative upbringing, but I came to admire her for her loyalty and decency.
Grey – Best not to compare and contrast these very different women in this manner.
Would you do the same if a man you disliked passed away (find a ‘worthy’ man with whom to compare him)?
Massive methane gas blowholes opening up in SIberia
Seems like Russian scientists think that the “clatharate gun” has gone off. That 2 degree C target is history, methinks, and with it, hundreds of millions of human lives.
I have been expecting that to start showing up in the far north. They’re still estimating how much is stored there on land, but it looks like a lot.
Fortunately there is less of a tundra land mass in the south. It looks like the WAIS has been burnt off several times for shortish periods in the last 25 million years anyway which means that it probably has little methane stored.
US Police now using Stasi secret police tactics on protestors
Chicago’s “Homan Square” police facility where protestors can get disappeared to and chained up without access to lawyers, phone calls, or contact with the outside world. Detainees are not officially charged.
This is what the gradual evolution of a totalitarian security state looks like, people.
Can I add, one of the Anarchy-capitalist I talk to sometimes. He’s always good for a argument. Got pulled into something similar to this. Luckily he was missed, and his friends/family knew/guessed it was the cops – so eventually got a lawyer – after 3 days from memory.
So if you think it’s only us on the left they are targeting – think again.
With their new systems they are targetting anyone who is identified as a potential dissenter to the current systems of privilege and power. That’s why they’ll target lefty protestors, Tea Party members, whistle blowers and journalists.
This more than anything else, signals how the Left/Right paradigm is breaking down. Now it is about the Inner Circle (and their professional enablers/hangers ons) and Everybody else.
The PTB want you to think the left/right paradigm is breaking down. It’s actually the monopolist right versus everyone else as we head into peak capitalism.
Don’t know about Snowden’s politics, but he is currently sheltering in an authoritarian country and Assange is a fan of surprise sex, so probably a wee bit of the do as I say style bastard about him, too. Hitler right, Stalin left, as we know. I think Snowden is probably the only one who might conceivably be ‘left’ but Assange is clearly some sort of libertarian, and, as most of them do when opportunity arises, likes taking an authoritarian line. Though of course it’s not just opportunity that arises with Jules, if you get my drift.
The point is that Marx is still entirely correct about the class divide and the inevitable tendency of capital to coalesce around itself, sort of a black hole of money, sucking in everything of value including the light of understanding. Unless the working class and its allies recognise that their class interests are not shared by their masters, then we will not have control of our destiny. The bollocks about the left/right paradigm is defeatist and ignorant. But, that’s the way the 1% want it.
Snowden is a right wing libertarian, while Assange is a left wing libertarian.
Hitler was right wing authoritarian and Stalin a left wing authoritarian.
I guess then (and it is only a guess) that you’d have been among the millions lauding Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin et al last century even as they sent non-authoritarian leftists to the gulags and worse. (Right wing libertarianism didn’t exist back then as a political field of thought as far as I’m aware.)
And Marx had only a partial insight to class divisions. He missed the co-ordinators – the managers if you prefer – those with a penchant for authoritarianism (wielders of, and/or faithful adherents to) who breath life into the hierarchies of our systems of production and distribution and who, on a 9 – 5 basis, help ‘teach’ workers that ‘this (servility to authority) is the way’.
Apart from the fact that self labelled ‘right wing libertarians’ are under the delusion that markets are neutral, they exhibit far more understanding of, and appetite for, such basic ‘leftist’ values as liberty, freedom etc than many a supposed left wing liberal…and waaay more than any apologist (many still around!) for what what flowed from Lenin and the Bolsheviks’ successful defeat of the Russian Revolution.
Smoking, growing and owning small amounts of marijuana became legal in Alaska on Tuesday as a growing decriminalization movement reached the United States’ northwest frontier.
Alaska, which narrowly passed the measure in November, followed Colorado and Washington among states allowing recreational use, reflecting a rapidly shifting legal landscape for the drug.
One aspect of that article niggles me bones. The article fails to say why rent has not been paid since October. That seems too obvious a question for the journalist – or the editor – to ignore. Call me a cynic, but could it be they want it to grow negative suspicions in the minds of the reader as to why it has not been paid?
it seems to be the date her mother was removed to hospital … then her mother’s death .. fear of winz and generally overwhelmed … who knows ? but the cynic in me agrees with the cynic in you …
and that must have been her home for her whole life .. imagine the hurt and horror of it …
Yeah, that was what I was thinking. I suspect that it has something to do with the house being in her mother’s name and with her mother moving into a rest home and then dying has stuffed things up. She’s probably been trying to get things sorted but that’s not mentioned in the article.
did you see the picture of her belongings under what looks like cardboard at the back of the house ? Shame on the Winz enforcers treating a young mother and two children like this. THERE ARE NO HOUSES ! and yes, dying has a habit of stuffing things up .. you;d think Winz might fairly know this ? Yeah ? Nah. Not under this regime.
“In adopting such an approach, Key was seeking to go over the heads of the media and talk directly to New Zealanders about the reasons why such a deployment is necessary without his rationale being analysed and criticised before the public had actually heard that rationale.”
The media think that they need to be told first so they can then tell the plebs (sorry people of NZ) what to think
Yes, Field was corrupt. Gaining benefit from his role as an MP. He was stood down when the charges were made, and thoroughly investigated and prosecuted by the police.
As opposed to, say, using his role as an MP to ask questions that directly pertained to a significant share investment.
Are you saying that National MP’s just cost more to buy?
Or that they do not need bribes while in power as they have lucrative retirement plans, in figurehead directors jobs.
Funding by their US corporate pay masters, when they leave Parliament.
” ‘access to minsters’ via the Cabinet Club. $25,000 entry fee”
That is the declared open amount. God knows how much more is given under the table, hidden and unaccounted. I won’t be surprised knowing the way the rich crooks and the corrupt politicians work around many corrupt countries.
thanks for that saveNZ, a better illustration of The Fear would be hard to find.
from the comments in the linked article
“I think that this art installation has accomplished something by uncovering the fact that just seeing something that they don’t understand is sending many into a xenophobic panic.”
I feel so incensed about the whole Dong Liu donations saga and the spin about Labour and Liu, that I contacted the Press Council last night and asked them to re-consider Frank Mac’s submission to them about the Herald’s claims that Dong Liu donated $$$$ to Labour. The complaint from Frank wasn’t upheld, because the Herald maintained there was “more to come” about Liu and Labour. And of course nothing has come about Labour and Liu, but indeed we find out it was National receiving donations.
Last night I re-submitted Frank’s complaint to the Press Council, copied a link about National’s donations and asked them to re-consider Frank’s complaint. (hope that’s o.k. Frank???? didn’t know how to contact you to get your permission);
Much to my surprize I had an email this morning saying it would be re-presented to the council.
Thanks Adam, I will contact him to make sure he is o.k. about it. Should have done so first, but feeling very cross, so just went ahead and assumed he would be o.k.
Autralians (Tarn Yabbit and Joe Joe) just announcing changes to foreign ownership of houses and farms.
… a register
… a $5k application fee for houses under 1 mill
… a 10k application fee over 1 mill
… breaking the rules, $25k fine with the potential for confiscation
… a claim that the rules will be strictly enforced
probably the latter but the potential for confiscation might be a deterrent. We’ll see just how strictly the rules are enforced. I was just interested to see on Planet Key the Prime Munster still appears to be ‘comfortable’ by comparison
In some areas fierce fights break out when a person is wearing the wrong colours which denote a rival gang. Pretty awful that a PM indulges in gang colour sneers.
” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an invitation to meet with US Senate Democrats during his trip to Washington next week.
“Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit,” Netanyahu wrote in a letter to Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein.”
What a cheek coming from an awful chap who is so backed by the republicans. Hypocrisy?
At least 10 banks, including Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG, are being probed by the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential.
Precious metals have come under scrutiny as authorities around the world investigate allegations that other financial benchmarks have been rigged. While the Justice Department’s probe is in its early stages, the Swiss finance regulator included the issue in a November settlement with UBS Group AG over currency-rate manipulation. Switzerland’s antitrust regulator said Tuesday that it opened a preliminary probe into the possibility of price fixing in the precious-metals market.
Great news that once again a person endangering lives has been stopped – this person was under the influence of ‘foreign’ and weaving all over his lies – concerned citizens confiscated Mr Key and handed him over to the police. “No comet” was the only comment Mr Key could make as he sat dejectedly in his mobile awaiting orders.
I have no reason to question the charges but Carmel did the right thing by immediately telling Little’s CoS and by agreeing to stand down and Little has done the right thing by standing her down. The charges relate to her mother and she had no idea they existed until she was asked about them today. Note no attempt to hide or suppress the information unlike other cases. And it will be interesting to see how the right spin this.
AND it would be interesting to find out how TV one found out …
paula bennet minster for welfare, & opposit of carmel sepuloni at parlement & elections. hope this is not extra special utu from bennet for carmel. can be or not, I think yes.
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“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
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 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 ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
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 ...
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Key couldn’t remember what he was doing in the early 1980s.
He was possibly thumbing through his “Battler Britain” comics.
Seems now he might also have been captured by the Falklands and is now
hoping for his own “Thatcher” moment.
We have a rogue government that does not ask its people or parliament whether it should go to war or not.
hi paul, ref a rogue government: perhaps we do, however till the sheeple wake up to this, nothing changes.
to raise awareness perhaps a day of action akin to the anti tppa protests coming up early march?
If the NZ role is just training, then why not bring the trainees here to New Zealand and teach them all the tactics they need in a non-war zone, peaceful environment.
Because then our “force protection” troops could not help to secure a Forward Operating Base in Iraq from which assault operations on ISIS will be launched from.
Was Key channeling Jack Nicholson in a Few Good Men for his performance in parliament yesterday?
Once again key simply does not ring true.Little is a true leader, calm, capable and cogent.
Mr Little was in very good form on tv3 this morning he gave solid reasoned views on Iraq.
Paddy giving not a bad breakdown of the cost of keys announcement in his eyes its when not if we get a retaliation from I S.
To an extent. But he said it doesn’t take guts to sit in Wellington making tough decisions. I think he’s wrong about that.
If he believes what he said then I don’t think he’s ready to step up to Prime Ministerial level, which is a very tough job involving many tough decisions.
so is NZ a dictatorship now Pete?
Nowhere near that les. I think Key should have sought Parliamentary support, but it wasn’t a democratic requirement.
If it had come to the crunch would Labour have voted against it? There’s no way of knowing now, but as this is at the request of Iraq it’s arguably more legitimate than decisions made by the Clark Government and Parliament at the time.
‘at the request of Iraq’…really…is it a legitimate,democratic ‘Iraq’ that made the request?
Seeing as Labour and the Greens both put forward a motion for a vote – which National objected to both times – your “no way of knowing” is as empty as Key’s credibility.
“at the request of Iraq ”
ha ha that is the funniest thing heard in a long time. Well actually not that long as it has been heard quite a lot lately. Not surprised you fall for it Pete.
at the request of Iraq
ha ha ha
at the request of Iraq
Pete:
“I think Key should have sought Parliamentary support, but it wasn’t a democratic requirement.”
Nope. It wasn’t a legal requirement to be democratic, so he chose not to be democratic.
+1
Yeah, actually, it was. We don’t get democracy by having a few people in cabinet making executive decisions. Going to war is a major policy and really should have been put to referendum even if the nation that we’d be fighting for requested it.
The normal right wing excuses for their latest antisocial, cruel and sadistic actions.
“It is legal”.
“Some one else would have done it (And creamed off the money) if I hadn’t”.
“Eastasia or Westasia this week?
yeah.
Many of them genuinely seem to think that if they got away with it (so far), it can’t be wrong.
A similar but lighter example is an opinion piece in Stuff today that argued the underarm ball incident was not actually wrong: it was legal, it might have been possible to still hit a six and tie the game, even if it wasn’t possible then the bowler could have bowled a perfect ball that was impossible to hit for six, or that the aussie team could have turned into the keystone cops and allowed NZ to get six runs via fielding errors.
There’s a basic inability to recognise a dick move when it’s there. That winning a game of athletic skill via bureaucratic oversight is preferable to getting a draw. That exploiting a tax loophole to pay less than your fair share is fine because it’s temporarily legal. That taking the ability the Executive has to use the armed forces speedily to react to threats and using it to avoid gaining parliament’s permission for a contentious, planned, long term deployment is not an abuse of the very democracy that parliament is there to exercise.
And the signature of a dick is to not know or care that it’s a dick. That’s why key shrugs his shoulders so often.
Imagine the cast of Hot Fuzz intoning “The letter of the law, the letter of the law…”
National Party values.
actually it’s more like Timothy Dalton’s character thinking that pronouncing it “super marshay” is a cool thing to do, rather than mildly greasy and irritating. 🙂
What tough decisions? A tough decision would be to kick all pedophiles out of the NAct party, or to up the top tax rate, or to chase after corporate fraudsters. Sending our kids to war, or selling state houses are not tough decisions. They come naturally to Tory scum.
Boy, Pete, you know how to twist words.
“When we’re talking about guts, I think I’ll reserve that for the soldiers who we’re sending up there,” Mr Little responded on Firstline this morning.
“This is one of the most dangerous conflict zones in the world – you don’t need much guts to sit on a leather couch in Wellington and send people off to do your bidding for you, so let’s get that in perspective.”
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/little-doesnt-take-guts-to-boss-troops-around-2015022509#ixzz3Si1IYSLK
Andrew Little was contrasting the amount of guts shown by Key sitting on his couch and the guts shown by the soldiers sent by John Key.
Sorry chaps. Forgot the rules. DNFTT. Starting at A.
The aardvark (/ˈɑrd.vɑrk/ ard-vark; Orycteropus afer) is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike New World edentates such as the giant anteater, it has a long pig-like snout, which is used to sniff out food. It roams over most of the southern two-thirds of the African continent, avoiding mainly rocky areas. A nocturnal feeder, it subsists on ants and termites, which it will dig out of their hills using its sharp claws and powerful legs. It also will utilize its digging ability to create burrows in which to live and rear its young.
Yep key went for the oscar – simplistic messages delivered as if he believed them – his non-thinking minions will lap it up – pg 101
As it turns out I didn’t like Key’s second speech, I don’t think that was appropriate. But there was an unusual amount of emotion expressed so fair enough for Key to say what he thought.
And the Green faithful will have lapped up Norman’s naivety and contradictions.
attack the Greens, attack the Greens – maintain low tones – attack the Greens, attack the Greens…
Chard and the other beets are chenopods, a group which is either its own family Chenopodiaceae or a subfamily within the Amaranthaceae. Although the leaves of chard are eaten, it is in the same species as beetroot (garden beet), which is grown primarily for its edible roots. Both are cultivated descendants of the sea beet, Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, but they were selected for different characteristics.
Chard is also known by its many common names such as Swiss chard,[7] silverbeet, perpetual spinach, spinach beet, crab beet, bright lights, seakale beet, and mangold.[8] In South Africa, it is simply called spinach.[9]
😀
or
lol!!!
pete wants to beet his green – all of the day and all of the night
As predictable as the sun coming up each day is old petey.
“emotion” ? or a loss of composure, due to stress grown from insincere motives
“emotion ? or a loss of composure..”.
I thought it was an act. ShonKey using some false “emotion” to try to show sheeples that he really does believe this tripe about needing to go to war.
The guy is an actor. A puppet. Whose strings are pulled from afar, and who has never shown his real self to NZers.
+1 Jenny and freedom.
Key’s performance yesterday was Oscar worthy. He has to make an effort to convince NZer’s he’s made the right decision. And I agree with freedom, he is under stress and losing his composure.
Bullshitting to save your arse can be really stressful, and add all that acting effort, it’s no wonder he’s looking a bit undone.
I remember Peter Sellers on The Muppet Show, where he said, “There isn’t a me, I’ve had it surgically removed!”
E. lecontei adults are smaller than most terrestrial weevils, measuring only 3 mm in length. This weevil is generally dark-colored with a pattern of dark brown/black and yellowish stripes on the dorsal half, fading to a lighter, yellow-beige underbelly. However, some weevil individuals vary in color from almost completely tan to beige.
O, vole mio !!
“From observing your pet every day, you’ll have noticed that your cat has a pattern that it follows quite religiously. For example, your adult indoor cat might spend the mornings lying in a pool of sunshine in the corner of the dining room. Later, he watches you as you go about your household chores, and then his rigorous day winds down with a patient vigil by the kitchen door waiting for his children – otherwise known as your children – to come home. Your feline has developed these routines to protect his territory and frequently your pet’s definition of “territory” includes his human family members.
As your cat grows older, he becomes less capable of adapting to changes in his environment. Your pet gets particular about even the smallest detail of his surroundings and will notice changes in food (brand or type), the consistency of his litter and even in your schedule or in the schedules of other family members. Abrupt or drastic changes in your cat’s routine and environment can produce a great deal of stress, which can result in a variety of stress-induced behaviors – including litter box problems, aggression, self-mutilation or general despondency.
The best possible way to keep your cat stress free is to try to maintain your daily routine and to keep changes to a minimum. When changes are necessary, try introducing them to your cat gradually while leaving every other aspect of the routine in place. Limit exposure to new people and new foods, etc., on the first day and increase the exposure to newness over a seven-day period. If you have houseguests or other situations where the household is materially changed, remember to give your cat as much extra attention as you can.”
lol thank you !
what with: spying in tangimoana on behalf of the us,
rounding up that pesky german,
altering nz labour law,
offering tax breaks to american film companies,
sending kiwi soldiers to help clean up another us war,
and being a golf buddy to the pousa.
i am reminded of a the the song, heartland.
youtube.com/watch?v=1osdqwaiu08
” The ammunition’s being passed and the lords been praised
But the wars on the televisions will never be explained
All the bankers gettin’ sweaty beneath their white collars
As the pound in our pocket turns into a dollar
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
this may give an insight to what our dear leader wants our new flag to look like.
song on my mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts
“Another head hangs lowly,
Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence.
Who are we mistaken?…”
zombie indeeds
The 51st state is the great state of Saudi Israelia
Last year there we not going to be boots on the ground this year….
Tough decision HA
The tough decision would be Not to go
And it is not his kids that he is putting in danger.
my problem is I find it difficult to trust anything Key says.
Key says we are sending Army ‘trainers’ to Iraq in order to keep us Kiwis safe. You cannot be serious!
…and his announcement has just made Kiwis less safe!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/66608944/brace-for-is-threats-analyst-warns
a reply given in a discussion of what children should be taught in schools..
“What about: a history of morals, ethics and decency – self realisation and why being a dick gets you no where”
brilliant!!
Key makes even more of a joke of himself when he yells like a show-off schoolboy.
He has no gravitas, no mana. He is just an empty hollow man and his yelling speech yesterday evidenced this yet again.
Yes vto you are dead right , Empty wine glasses make the loudest noise.
Meanwhile, in one of the great cities of our friend the USA, the rule of law is ? ? ?
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/chicago-police-operating-cia-style-black-site-for-domestic-interrogations-report
“..Pot is 114 Times Safer Than Booze – Says Study..
..New research finds pot is the least deadly among recreational drugs –
– by far..”
(cont..)
http://www.alternet.org/pot-114-times-safer-booze-says-study
But isn’t it better, healthier and safer to live without either of those?
And Oh, also by boycotting and without visiting our casinos ever again for good measure?
ideally..i guess..
(but that is really up there with ‘wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had a pony?’..
..as in..it isn’t going to happen..)
..and the facts of the matter are that young people (esp.) of most cultures like to take intoxicants of some form..
..(it is/always has been – thus..and not only for ‘the young’..)
..so we have the intoxicant safest by ‘114 times’..being prohibited..
..and the intoxicant ‘114’ times more dangerous..
..the killer-drug alcohol..
..is advertised/encouraged..
True, true.
Like the rum or the coke dilemma. ‘Which is more harmful?’
Alcohol is not so much the elephant in the room – It’s were is the room, because I can’t see anything but the elephant.
As long as we keep up prohibition – people suffer, people dying suffer, families suffer, criminals are made for no reason, racist cops have laws which enable them to be racists, and we can’t tell children not to smoke pot in a public debate.
Clemgeopin, live pure – like that going to happen. I’d rather we had open debate around drugs and drug use rather than it being hidden.
Hell I dream of the day we can have adds on TV which say.
“Don’t smoke pot and drink alcohol together – why? Because – it really does make you into an arsehole”
or
“Smoking pot under the age of 21 is like drinking under 21 – a licence to make you stupid and compliant. Wait till your 21 ah.”
Making marijuana medically available and also an R21 drug has merits worth considering.
I think we need to put alcohol back to R21.
I have no issue with it going to R21 retail.
alcohol and cannabis aren’t the problem. Why some people use in unhealthy ways is where to look if we want to see the problem. Take away the drugs, what are those people going to do?
“Clemgeopin, live pure”
I didn’t say I don’t enjoy a drink.
“But isn’t it better, healthier and safer to live without either of those?”
What did you mean by that? I took that to mean you support complete abstinence as ideal.
What Weka said
No, no, I do enjoy a drink or three.
Don’t do drugs and will most certainly NEVER visit a NZ casino EVER AGAIN after the recent fiasco and the disgraceful dodgy nexus between the two evils : The nasty Nats and the gambling Casino goons.
Cripes phillip u can you stay off pot for a week? I am not talking about what happens at your place just give us a break here. Make that a month would you. I and some others would be grateful to not have that subject for a good while.
legalise it and i’ll shut up…
..’till then…
…and regulate and tax it heavily.
(You always seem to miss that crucial part)
not really…
..legalise..regulate..tax is/has been the/my basic argument all along..
..i just don’t necessarily restate the pillars in every story/link..
..and as for txing..
..didyaknow that colorado has taken so much income from tax from legal pot..
….it breaches some sort of government-greed stricture..
..and that excess tax will be distributed back to the citizens of colorado..
..legal pot..and a tax-refund..?
..only a true curmudgeon wd sneer @ that..
“…and regulate and tax it heavily”
Regulating it is fine but taxing it ‘heavily’ is not so much because, as is always the case, be it tobacco, dope, or GST, it will hit the poorest the most…and in the case of dope, I think it will be the gangs that will rub their hands with joy and heartily support ‘heavy’ taxes!
Even after heavy taxation the price is going to be cheaper than today’s black market prices.
I was wondering how long it would take you to reference that red herring of a study.
They simply compared the lethal dose 50 of alcohol to the lethal dose 50 of marijuana.
The LD50 of alcohol is significantly lower than marijuana. That’s it. That’s all the study found.
It doesn’t mention anything about societal use or injuries / damage caused by the drugs, it’s purely looking at the dose it would take to kill you.
You might notice, that very few people actually die of alcohol poisoning. Virtually no one dies of marijuana poisoning.
These findings are not news nor surprising to anyone who understands what the study is *actually* about. Unfortunately, as usual, the media have boiled it down to the lowest-common-denominator and written a headline and article that distorts the study to a huge degree and presents it as if it is some great new finding and is somehow relevant to the marijuana vs alcohol debate, when really it warrants nothing more than a passing interest.
oh..!..ok..lath..
..how about you link us to yr research that shows how cannabis is a far more dangerous drug than alcohol..
..u r dancing around the edges..
..deliberately missing the point..
..is it only 95 times worse than alcohol..not 114..?
..50 times..?
..and factcheck…unless a bale of it falls on yr head..
..there is no ‘lethal-dose’ of pot..
..booze however..?
Who needs a link? The damage is obvious every time you post, Phil.
correlation != causation 🙂
waiting for the body-bags..?..war-monger..?
..will you still be such an armchair-warrior when that happens..eh..?
..you fucken unthinking-fool..
..trp..supporting/handwringing-around cia propaganda-campaigns..
.. since at least..gadfaffi..
Change down man, find your neutral space …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_hyG0uZMjo
war-mongering/unthinking clowns piss me off..
..i have no ‘neutral-space’ for fools such as that..
(and i can roll joints like that..)
who said americans as a nation are warmongering psycopathic-bastards..?
..is it because in the 237 yrs since the foundation of america -america has largely been at war..?
– guess how many years of those 237 america was not at war with someone..?
..21 yrs…
.21 out of 237..
..that means that since its’ founding..
..america has been in a state of war for 93% of the fucken time..
..deserving of a ‘whoar!’..?..surely..?
You’ve completely missed my point, of course.
How about we compare the boiling points of THC and ethanol and use that guide us as to whether the drugs should be illegal or not?
That would only be slightly less relevant that what the study is talking about.
no..u miss the point..
..that alcohol is far more dangerous than cannabis..
..r u arguing against that proposition..?
..legalise..!..regulate..!..tax..!
No, I’m not arguing against that proposition. Alcohol is obviously much more damaging to society and individuals than marijuana is.
I’m saying *this* article doesn’t offer any new insight to anyone who would be making legislative decisions about this. Anyone trumpeting this as some sort of grand new evidence is misguided.
In simple terms: this study is telling us what we already knew and what was already obvious.
so why isn’t it legal..?
..if it is so fucken ‘obvious’..?
..and i thought the article/information was useful..
..emphasising how dangerous alcohol is..
..and how not dangerous cannabis is..
You’re either wilfully ignoring what I’m saying, or incapable of understanding it.
Heavy recreational dope use might make him wilfully incapable 🙂
Just a couple of pieces to remind people that rabid right wing have no morals. They love money not people and are only interested in “the bottom line”. The sooner we stand up against this greed mentality – the better for humanity and an increased chance for it’s survival, as we approach the end of the golden weather.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/02/20/16796/hsbcs-political-committee-goes-dark-days-swiss-leaks-scandal
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/02/24/16809/mitt-romney-rand-paul-and-porno-spoof
Anybody notice that Thea Muldoon passed away? It’s on Stuff. Given his turbulent political career I can only hope she enjoyed a peaceful widowhood.
Barry Gustafson I think was on Radionz – came to know her well. She was very supportive of old Fartface and was a true blue lady herself. She probably enjoyed a relationship with Margaret Thatcher. I think she had a pretty good time of it all.
Cf Margaret Thorn’s life. Now that was a staunch and beautiful woman to admire. Does anyone remember her?
Thanks for that greywarshark. Just read a short piece about her on Te Ara website. Sounds like an interesting and admirable woman, and the experience of her and her husband is a timely one to read regarding the ISIS discussion.
As for the title of her last book: “Stick out, and keep left”. Pretty much sums it up.
Yes Molly I had the book in the back of my mind for yonks but couldn’t get the name right and I think Ennui or one of the stalwarts here gave me the steer.
And the difference between now and how politics used to be! At one stage she and her husband filled a major political role, can’t remember the exact position and she visited an organisation in her elevated capacity. Then they were out of government, her husband got sick, and she was back at that organisation as a cook working flat out in the kitchens. Real Cinderella stuff. A very hard worker. Both of the Thorns were.
Thea Muldoon was a genuine conservative lady – one of the old fashioned
Conservatives who believed in following and supporting her husband at all cost. I met her once after her husband had died and realised she was a kind and genuine person. She was a product of her conservative upbringing, but I came to admire her for her loyalty and decency.
RIP Thea Muldoon.
Grey – Best not to compare and contrast these very different women in this manner.
Would you do the same if a man you disliked passed away (find a ‘worthy’ man with whom to compare him)?
I agree with Anne’s sentiments; nicely put.
Massive methane gas blowholes opening up in SIberia
Seems like Russian scientists think that the “clatharate gun” has gone off. That 2 degree C target is history, methinks, and with it, hundreds of millions of human lives.
http://rt.com/news/235219-craters-siberia-yamal-lake/
thanks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis
https://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/awakening-the-horrors-of-the-ancient-hothouse-hydrogen-sulfide-in-the-worlds-warming-oceans/
Might be of interest to some along with the other links.
H2s was the thing that scared me most when I worked on oil rigs.
I have been expecting that to start showing up in the far north. They’re still estimating how much is stored there on land, but it looks like a lot.
Fortunately there is less of a tundra land mass in the south. It looks like the WAIS has been burnt off several times for shortish periods in the last 25 million years anyway which means that it probably has little methane stored.
US Police now using Stasi secret police tactics on protestors
Chicago’s “Homan Square” police facility where protestors can get disappeared to and chained up without access to lawyers, phone calls, or contact with the outside world. Detainees are not officially charged.
This is what the gradual evolution of a totalitarian security state looks like, people.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site
More.
America, rotten to the core.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/18/american-police-brutality-chicago-guantanamo
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/19/chicago-police-richard-zuley-abuse-innocent-man
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20022015/#comment-972472
I agree, this story cannot be linked to often enough 😉
CRIPES!!
Can I add, one of the Anarchy-capitalist I talk to sometimes. He’s always good for a argument. Got pulled into something similar to this. Luckily he was missed, and his friends/family knew/guessed it was the cops – so eventually got a lawyer – after 3 days from memory.
So if you think it’s only us on the left they are targeting – think again.
With their new systems they are targetting anyone who is identified as a potential dissenter to the current systems of privilege and power. That’s why they’ll target lefty protestors, Tea Party members, whistle blowers and journalists.
This more than anything else, signals how the Left/Right paradigm is breaking down. Now it is about the Inner Circle (and their professional enablers/hangers ons) and Everybody else.
The PTB want you to think the left/right paradigm is breaking down. It’s actually the monopolist right versus everyone else as we head into peak capitalism.
Pretty sure peak capitalism was reached by the early 80’s. Crony capitalism and financialisation began to take over then.
Pretty sure it’s well gone.
Snowden and Assange? Hitler and Stalin?
Which ones are left and which ones are right? Which ones a penchant for authoritarianism and which ones not?
Answering that gives a far clearer picture of potential political friends and enemies 😉
Is it a trick question, Bill!?
Don’t know about Snowden’s politics, but he is currently sheltering in an authoritarian country and Assange is a fan of surprise sex, so probably a wee bit of the do as I say style bastard about him, too. Hitler right, Stalin left, as we know. I think Snowden is probably the only one who might conceivably be ‘left’ but Assange is clearly some sort of libertarian, and, as most of them do when opportunity arises, likes taking an authoritarian line. Though of course it’s not just opportunity that arises with Jules, if you get my drift.
The point is that Marx is still entirely correct about the class divide and the inevitable tendency of capital to coalesce around itself, sort of a black hole of money, sucking in everything of value including the light of understanding. Unless the working class and its allies recognise that their class interests are not shared by their masters, then we will not have control of our destiny. The bollocks about the left/right paradigm is defeatist and ignorant. But, that’s the way the 1% want it.
It wasn’t a trick question.
Snowden is a right wing libertarian, while Assange is a left wing libertarian.
Hitler was right wing authoritarian and Stalin a left wing authoritarian.
I guess then (and it is only a guess) that you’d have been among the millions lauding Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin et al last century even as they sent non-authoritarian leftists to the gulags and worse. (Right wing libertarianism didn’t exist back then as a political field of thought as far as I’m aware.)
And Marx had only a partial insight to class divisions. He missed the co-ordinators – the managers if you prefer – those with a penchant for authoritarianism (wielders of, and/or faithful adherents to) who breath life into the hierarchies of our systems of production and distribution and who, on a 9 – 5 basis, help ‘teach’ workers that ‘this (servility to authority) is the way’.
Apart from the fact that self labelled ‘right wing libertarians’ are under the delusion that markets are neutral, they exhibit far more understanding of, and appetite for, such basic ‘leftist’ values as liberty, freedom etc than many a supposed left wing liberal…and waaay more than any apologist (many still around!) for what what flowed from Lenin and the Bolsheviks’ successful defeat of the Russian Revolution.
Another jurisdiction does the right thing.
Smoking, growing and owning small amounts of marijuana became legal in Alaska on Tuesday as a growing decriminalization movement reached the United States’ northwest frontier.
Alaska, which narrowly passed the measure in November, followed Colorado and Washington among states allowing recreational use, reflecting a rapidly shifting legal landscape for the drug.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/24/us-usa-alaska-marijuana-idUSKBN0LS0ZH20150224
To think we were once the envy of the world for our compassionate social justice and welfare …
Paula Bennett and Key are cruel beyond belief … read and weep …
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/66578463/housing-shortage-hits-young-mum-hard
One aspect of that article niggles me bones. The article fails to say why rent has not been paid since October. That seems too obvious a question for the journalist – or the editor – to ignore. Call me a cynic, but could it be they want it to grow negative suspicions in the minds of the reader as to why it has not been paid?
it seems to be the date her mother was removed to hospital … then her mother’s death .. fear of winz and generally overwhelmed … who knows ? but the cynic in me agrees with the cynic in you …
and that must have been her home for her whole life .. imagine the hurt and horror of it …
Nope, 15 years but she’s only 26 so most of her life.
Yeah, that was what I was thinking. I suspect that it has something to do with the house being in her mother’s name and with her mother moving into a rest home and then dying has stuffed things up. She’s probably been trying to get things sorted but that’s not mentioned in the article.
did you see the picture of her belongings under what looks like cardboard at the back of the house ? Shame on the Winz enforcers treating a young mother and two children like this. THERE ARE NO HOUSES ! and yes, dying has a habit of stuffing things up .. you;d think Winz might fairly know this ? Yeah ? Nah. Not under this regime.
This is funny though
“In adopting such an approach, Key was seeking to go over the heads of the media and talk directly to New Zealanders about the reasons why such a deployment is necessary without his rationale being analysed and criticised before the public had actually heard that rationale.”
The media think that they need to be told first so they can then tell the plebs (sorry people of NZ) what to think
is it funny ?? like really ha ha funny, or just too twisted for words funny ? what did you mean ?
O, vole mio and all that.
How do you envisage the plebs knowing about what the Govt is deciding without the media? Examples?
When Key says “talk directly to nzers” he doesn’t mean all of them of course.
Just the important ones.
You still have it wrong Felix, just the ones who voted for him
Voted? With their cheque books?
With cheque books it’s called ‘access to minsters’ via the Cabinet Club. $25,000 entry fee. Saves having to vote, knowing that.
Its about value for money, I mean access to a Labour mp would be a packet of biscuits at the most
PR
Systematic corruption is indeed not so entrenched in the Labour caucus as in NAct’s.
Well lets talk MPs that have been convicted of corruption then
I’ll start with Labour and Phillip Field, your turn
corruption? You mean like fraud, identity theft, of filing false returns?
stupid mistakes, nothing to compare to out and out corruption
Sabin.
“The NBR understands that the party has known since before the 2011 election…”
lolright. Stupid mistakes 🙄
Yes, Field was corrupt. Gaining benefit from his role as an MP. He was stood down when the charges were made, and thoroughly investigated and prosecuted by the police.
As opposed to, say, using his role as an MP to ask questions that directly pertained to a significant share investment.
or stealing a dead babies identity. Even accepting garrets claim of doing it for a joke its way worse than a stupid mistake
Are you saying that National MP’s just cost more to buy?
Or that they do not need bribes while in power as they have lucrative retirement plans, in figurehead directors jobs.
Funding by their US corporate pay masters, when they leave Parliament.
He seems to saying the National MPs understand the Golden Rule: He with the gold, rules.
” ‘access to minsters’ via the Cabinet Club. $25,000 entry fee”
That is the declared open amount. God knows how much more is given under the table, hidden and unaccounted. I won’t be surprised knowing the way the rich crooks and the corrupt politicians work around many corrupt countries.
Billboard Art Project Sets Off Terrorism Scare Near US/Mexico Border
http://hyperallergic.com/183852/billboard-art-project-sets-off-terrorism-scare-near-usmexico-border/
thanks for that saveNZ, a better illustration of The Fear would be hard to find.
from the comments in the linked article
21st birthday celebration balloons gets read as “IS” – cops called
http://rt.com/news/235135-21-birthday-balloons-isis/
Hi everyone,
I feel so incensed about the whole Dong Liu donations saga and the spin about Labour and Liu, that I contacted the Press Council last night and asked them to re-consider Frank Mac’s submission to them about the Herald’s claims that Dong Liu donated $$$$ to Labour. The complaint from Frank wasn’t upheld, because the Herald maintained there was “more to come” about Liu and Labour. And of course nothing has come about Labour and Liu, but indeed we find out it was National receiving donations.
Last night I re-submitted Frank’s complaint to the Press Council, copied a link about National’s donations and asked them to re-consider Frank’s complaint. (hope that’s o.k. Frank???? didn’t know how to contact you to get your permission);
Much to my surprize I had an email this morning saying it would be re-presented to the council.
I will keep you updated!
brilliant action — awesome awesomeness!
ripples are the promises the waves make to the flood 😀
Great idea. Do keep us in the loop
+3 thanks anker!
+1
That is 4 pluses, anke-raw-shark!….Well done! Now you are on to the boot camp and hopefully get to boot the bastards.
Frank runs his own blog
https://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/author/fmacskasy/
Thanks Adam, I will contact him to make sure he is o.k. about it. Should have done so first, but feeling very cross, so just went ahead and assumed he would be o.k.
That’s very cool, great work!
He’s got away with it, again.
http://bluenationreview.com/breaking-zimmerman-cleared-federal-charges/
Autralians (Tarn Yabbit and Joe Joe) just announcing changes to foreign ownership of houses and farms.
… a register
… a $5k application fee for houses under 1 mill
… a 10k application fee over 1 mill
… breaking the rules, $25k fine with the potential for confiscation
… a claim that the rules will be strictly enforced
(Sky News)
will 25k be a detterent or merely seen as a business cost?
probably the latter but the potential for confiscation might be a deterrent. We’ll see just how strictly the rules are enforced. I was just interested to see on Planet Key the Prime Munster still appears to be ‘comfortable’ by comparison
Correction:
That fine is ‘… up to 25 PERCENT of the value of the property ….’
Reasons why National don’t stand in the Maori seats, No94:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/266807/blue-t-shirt-sales-stopped-after-pm%27s-comments
In some areas fierce fights break out when a person is wearing the wrong colours which denote a rival gang. Pretty awful that a PM indulges in gang colour sneers.
” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an invitation to meet with US Senate Democrats during his trip to Washington next week.
“Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit,” Netanyahu wrote in a letter to Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein.”
What a cheek coming from an awful chap who is so backed by the republicans. Hypocrisy?
(meh..!..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/new-zealand-parliament-list-of-questions-for-oral-answer-wednesday-25-february-2015/
Another day, another rort.
( heh, gold buggers can’t quite get it right)
At least 10 banks, including Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG, are being probed by the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential.
Precious metals have come under scrutiny as authorities around the world investigate allegations that other financial benchmarks have been rigged. While the Justice Department’s probe is in its early stages, the Swiss finance regulator included the issue in a November settlement with UBS Group AG over currency-rate manipulation. Switzerland’s antitrust regulator said Tuesday that it opened a preliminary probe into the possibility of price fixing in the precious-metals market.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-24/banks-said-to-face-u-s-manipulation-probe-over-metals-pricing?
Big Barbie is watching….
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/02/23/the-internet-of-things-meet-the-wifi-connected-barbie-doll-that-talks-to-your-children-and-records-them/
News I’d like to hear
Great news that once again a person endangering lives has been stopped – this person was under the influence of ‘foreign’ and weaving all over his lies – concerned citizens confiscated Mr Key and handed him over to the police. “No comet” was the only comment Mr Key could make as he sat dejectedly in his mobile awaiting orders.
“I wasnt driving – it was my office”
“I am a different Mr Key. Can’t you see my different hat?”
2015: Mr Key is adamant that NZ will be in Iraq for no more than 2 years. Adamant! Repeated and adamant.
2017: Mr Key says his statement about 2 years was misunderstood. He really meant that 2 years meant about 2 years and maybe as much as 10 years.
Journalists accepted his word and applauded his resoluteness.
That was very convenient.
Wonder if the charges were timed to distract from any criticism of Key the warmonger.
Dirty Politics again.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11407862
Yes timing very interesting.
I have no reason to question the charges but Carmel did the right thing by immediately telling Little’s CoS and by agreeing to stand down and Little has done the right thing by standing her down. The charges relate to her mother and she had no idea they existed until she was asked about them today. Note no attempt to hide or suppress the information unlike other cases. And it will be interesting to see how the right spin this.
AND it would be interesting to find out how TV one found out …
paula bennet minster for welfare, & opposit of carmel sepuloni at parlement & elections. hope this is not extra special utu from bennet for carmel. can be or not, I think yes.
Some contemporary kiwiland commentary from Tourettes, and it’s only a dollar
https://tourettesone.bandcamp.com/track/john-keys-sons-a-dj