Open mike 25/09/2015

57 comments on “Open mike 25/09/2015 ”

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1. The Chairman 1

   25 September 2015 at 6:23 am

   Apartment owners face maintenance timebomb

   Underfunded apartment buildings around the country are set to fall into disrepair unless owners stump up the thousands of dollars required to fix them.

   The law requires unit title complexes to have long term maintenance plans (LTMPs), but not long term maintenance funds to back them up.

   It is more and more of an issue as Auckland in particular intensifies, according to Home Owners and Buyers Association (HOBANZ) president John Gray.

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/72149091/apartment-owners-face-maintenance-timebomb
2. Tinfoilhat 2

   25 September 2015 at 6:37 am

   Where’s cv been hiding?

   Haven’t seen him about for a while.
   • AmaKiwi 2.1

     25 September 2015 at 9:22 am

     I am also concerned. I sent him an email yesterday afternoon asking if he was alright. I have had no reply yet.
     • AmaKiwi 2.1.1

       25 September 2015 at 5:16 pm

       I just heard from CV.

       He is out of town but alive and well.
       • weka 2.1.1.1

         25 September 2015 at 5:19 pm

         thanks for letting us know!
   • Rosie 2.2

     25 September 2015 at 10:29 am

     I was wondering that. I’ve been away for awhile and have come back to see that Te Reo Putake, CV and Stephanie haven’t been around. Mind you I haven’t read every single post.

     Hopefully folks are ok and getting on with that life thing.
     • veutoviper 2.2.1

       25 September 2015 at 11:03 am

       TRP last commented here on 12 August, but has not issued a post for quite some time. TRP is on Twitter and the last tweet is dated 19 Sept, and he/she has also been an active commentator on a certain Dunedinite’s blog – YourNZ – which I will not link to. Its starting to rival WO or Kiwiblog these days in terms of the nature of most comments. TRP’s latest comment there was just yesterday.

       CV last commented here on 19 Sept, so only a few days ago. He has a Twitter account under his real name, but tweets infrequently with the latest on 2 Sept.

       SR last commented here on 30 August, but has done so less frequently recently than earlier this year and last year. She is very active on her Twitter account including today.

       Karol is the one that I have been concerned about for months. After her departure from here, she continued to post on her own blog Edge Times and on her Twitter account, but there has been no activity on either of these since March. I hope she is OK.
       • maui 2.2.1.1

         25 September 2015 at 11:12 am

         Could all be part of a right wing conspiracy..
       • Anne 2.2.1.2

         25 September 2015 at 11:38 am

         Hi veutoviper.
         I recall karol mentioning not long before she withdrew from being a TS author that she had other projects she wanted to pursue. I had the impression they were not related to politics. She is sorely missed because her analytical ability was second to none.
       • Rosie 2.2.1.3

         25 September 2015 at 11:51 am

         Thank you detective v!

         I’m not on twitter, or fb for that matter either, so am self limiting with access to communications in the political world. Twittter seems to be a good platform for that kind of activity.

         I also had been thinking of karol and had looked at her Edge Times blog but then everything went quiet.

         karol seemed to put a lot of heart and soul into her thoughtful and intelligent writing. I hope this world we live in with it’s constant struggles hasn’t got on top of her. If so, I hope she is making the best of taking time out. I think this can be helpful to do at times. Our social – political world is more than an intellectual experience, it’s creates an emotive response and some times it’s personal.

         If you’re listening karol, maybe say hi, let us know you’re ok. If you want.

         And lols, TRP, don’t tell us you joined the beige brigade!!!
         • Anne 2.2.1.3.1

           25 September 2015 at 4:37 pm

           I imagine he’s there to stir up a hornets nest for the beige one. Not prepared to go there to check.
     • b waghorn 2.2.2

       25 September 2015 at 1:00 pm

       I heard they where concocting a stable far left political party that will provide a party to the missing miliion and not chase the biggest donor that comes along.

       This may be a nasty rumour started by me.:-)
       • Rosie 2.2.2.1

         25 September 2015 at 1:19 pm

         😀
     • tinfoilhat 2.2.3

       25 September 2015 at 3:45 pm

       amen to that Rosie.
     • Rodel 2.2.4

       25 September 2015 at 8:12 pm

       Also…
       …………….Philip…..
       Ure………………………Hope……..hes-OK .
       …….but…….don’t…….
       miss…………him
       …………….though
       ……………………. !
   • swordfish 2.3

     25 September 2015 at 1:36 pm

     CV and Stephanie both went AWOL around the same time – late August/early September.

     But neither could resist Jeremy Corbyn’s win – both resuming with a few comments on the day of his victory (Stephanie just using her first name which is why you won’t find these more recent comments in a search). Stephanie hasn’t been heard of since (apart, of course, from twitter and boots theory), and although Corby drew CV back, he seems to have become just an occasional commenter.

     All of which is a bit of a shame. They both produced some very incisive posts.
     I particularly miss CV’s concise, lucid, hard-hitting arguments, especially on the implications of Sanders/Corbymania.

     Rightly or wrongly, I’m assuming there’s been some ructions behind the scenes at some point with the various authors (CV published my fairly blunt criticism of Rob Salmond’s Go to the Centre thesis as a post and I’m hoping that wasn’t the cause of any grief or fallout). Then, again, maybe given their heavy workload – writing/researching regular posts while simultaneously juggling demanding careers – they just need a bit of a break.

     The very sharp, witty and incisive Felix, of course, has also gone absent-without-leave following fisticuffs with TRP in early June here…
     http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10062015/#comment-1028912
     TRP was pretty heavy-handed and felix (whose been with The Standard right from the start) was obviously pissed off enough not bother returning from his brief ban. So, another important voice lost to us.

     A couple of months later, TRP disappears off the face of the earth.

     Go figure.

     All of which leads me to express a great deal of thanks to 1prent, Bill, Tracey and, perhaps above all, Micky and Anthony for taking up the slack and producing well-written posts day-after-day over the last few weeks. Exhausting schedule when you also have heavy work commitments.

     (Hoping not to cop a ban myself for all of this wild speculation)
     • lprent 2.3.1

       25 September 2015 at 2:53 pm

       No ban from that. That is just observation rather than making up stories (which is what the anti-conspiracy rules are about).

       As usual (I have been around here for 8 years now), The Standard is in a state of transition at present. We always seem to be in the year after an election. We lose people who were heavily involved prior to the election. We have new people being brought on board and finding out that it is a pain in the arse and requires sheer bloody minded persistence to hang in and fading out. It has been particularly frustrating this time around from my perspective.

       We have the usual problems with authors arguing and disagreeing about courses of action. It is more complicated over the last year by having a private authors area in which to do it. Some of the turnover will be from my expressing the side edge of my irritation as I see valuable time that has been invested in bringing authors and moderators up to speed on this site getting wasted by people not agreeing to disagree. (That comes from my family and my professional instincts, which are those from operations and production backgrounds where training other people to be effective is the hardest and most expensive task we do)

       Historically, the site has had several different ‘management’ styles, which I have provided the semi-autocratic sysop technical and net-cultural underpinning for.

       From my perspective, the main thing being discussed at present is the way to bring new authors and moderators on board without having the inevitable ideological and personality disagreements/backbiting driving them away. I neither have time nor the inclination to waste my effort and time trying to bring people up to speed unless that organisational issue is solved.

       If it gets solved, then fine. If not, then we will have to execute an orderly shutdown to free up time to work on other things. The only thing really preventing that is the ever increasing popularity of the site.

       According to google analytics, we are also having a hell of growth spurt in readership, the like of which we haven’t seen in percentage terms since startup. Umm, you like numbers…

       Looking at the 6 month period from March to August across non-general election years. The page views are ‘corrected’ by me downwards because of a problem in 2011 with facebook async protocols causing excessive page lookups. (For the inevitable trolls, these are not Whaleoil style figures. These are close to being accurate for real humans and without paid for added readership boosters).

       per month
       year	corrected page views	sessions	users
       2009	Election
       2009	167k-206k	60k-70k	14k-18k
       2010	218k-287k	72k-92k	17k-22k
       2011	Election
       2012	305k-403k	93k-112k	24k-33k
       2013	333k-440k	103k-115k	21k-37k
       2014	Election
       2015	480k-530k	148k-165k	40k-50k

       Since these are largely the winter months, they are pretty good for looking at base levels of readership. What we are getting is a lot more people reading the site, and most of them are either daily readers or they read several times per week. The levels of less than a few times per month readers hasn’t increased by anything as much. In other words we are less affected by the vagaries of google as our local base of readers has continued to rise.
       • b waghorn 2.3.1.1

         25 September 2015 at 5:23 pm

         Have you considered changing you’re no advertising stance , so there is cash to pay someone to do some of the heavy lifting.
       • weka 2.3.1.2

         25 September 2015 at 7:16 pm

         Since these are largely the winter months, they are pretty good for looking at base levels of readership. What we are getting is a lot more people reading the site, and most of them are either daily readers or they read several times per week. The levels of less than a few times per month readers hasn’t increased by anything as much. In other words we are less affected by the vagaries of google as our local base of readers has continued to rise.

         I’ve been thinking a bit lately about what it must be like for readers to read the comments and if this affects their willingness or otherwise to comment (eg long threads that are really in house conversations often bickering that won’t make sense to people who don’t understand the players). I’d like to see us (commenters) make more of an effort to wrote comments for everyone, readers as well as the people we are talking to. There is so much to learn here and one of the great values and potentials of ts is its ability to inform and encourage people to think.

         A couple of questions then for admin/authors. Do you think that high readership is enough of a goal to keep ts going irrespective of what the commenters are doing (both in terms of content and numbers)?

         Are readership stats important for you in why you write posts or continue to write posts?
       • McFlock 2.3.1.3

         25 September 2015 at 9:11 pm

         can I suggest an acknowledgement email for submissions, with maybe a very rough timeframe for posting? And especially an email when it gets published.

         At the moment it’s a bit like throwing it into a void, when if there was a plunk from the void they might throw another one (and yes, I’m tossing around an idea or two).

         I recall someone else complaining that they’d sent something to the TS gmail and not heard anything back.
       • swordfish 2.3.1.4

         26 September 2015 at 1:23 pm

         Cheers, 1prent.

         “wasted by people not agreeing to disagree…….the inevitable ideological and personality disagreements/backbiting…….”

         Isn’t that always the way on the Left. We’re our own worst enemies.

         “ever increasing popularity of the site…….a hell of a growth spurt in readership.”

         Yep, the numbers tell the story. It’s easy for us regular commenters to forget that there’s a vast number of largely silent readers. Which almost certainly means that each of the few hundred of us who do regularly comment on the site probably have a massive fan-base out there.

         All of which probably explains the scene I saw the other day driving along Lambton Quay. Down opposite the new District Court, a whole lot of drunken yobos suddenly poured out of a Sports Bar and started screaming and swinging wild punches at each other. Others were lying almost comatose in the gutter, surrounded by their own vomit. About half were wearing t-shirts with a large Purple Identicon with the word “Swordfish” below, the other half wore shirts with a bright Red Identicon and the name “Puckish Rogue”.

         It slowly dawned on me that these two warring tribes were our respective fan-bases. They’d obviously all been watching The Standard posts and comments coming up Live on the big screen in the Sports Bar and presumably a particularly erudite reply I’d just posted to Puckers had caused an eruption of excitement and triumphant chanting among my own loyal followers (“Puckers, Puckers, Puckers, Out, Out, Out !!!”), leading, in turn, to total outrage and fisticuffs from Puckers’ loyalists.*

         * The last 2 paragraphs may not entirely correspond with reality. But, then again, they just might.
     • Anne 2.3.2

       25 September 2015 at 4:53 pm

       Hi swordfish,
       I recall that stoush between felix and TRP and was disappointed at the outcome. TRP was always entertaining to read, but on that occasion he overdid his responses to felix. An apology may have solved the problem – who knows. In the end we lost two commentators whose contributions for different reasons were highly valued.
       • weka 2.3.2.1

         25 September 2015 at 5:28 pm

         I also miss felix and hope he returns at some point.
     • Stephanie Rodgers 2.3.3

       26 September 2015 at 11:10 am

       Thanks swordfish. I’m still around but I’m not planning on posting here in the future. lprent has given his version of events. Long story short for me is I’m having a very busy year and don’t have the energy to keep running up against some of the shittier parts of this site’s community.

       I could only bash my head against the brick wall trying to shift its position before realising it was far more comfortable posting in my own space where I’m not expected to put up with patriarchal bullying. Fewer readers maybe, fewer headaches definitely.

       So anyone who’s interested in my posts can find them at bootstheory.wordpress.com or @bootstheory on Twitter. Peace.
3. b waghorn 3

   25 September 2015 at 7:27 am

   http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/285193/flag-'debate'-ideal-for-point-scoring
   This article maps out how key played the red peak for all its worth ,and he got the added bonus of some from labour and the greens tearing at each others throats to there shame.
   #cunning as a shit house ratkey
   • tc 3.1

     25 September 2015 at 11:18 am

     Wouldn’t have been an issue if they stayed out of the flag process from day 1 with the clear message that there’s alot more important issues for $26m to be applied to.
     • Sabine 3.1.1

       25 September 2015 at 11:48 am

       bing bing bing

       we have a winner.
     • b waghorn 3.1.2

       25 September 2015 at 12:08 pm

       I just hope the ones who at making all the noise about who did what to who are not the same ones who where making a lot of noise about getting the red rag added to the mix.
       • Sabine 3.1.2.1

         25 September 2015 at 12:25 pm

         it’s a tea towel, come on. Mind a rag is also a tea towel, just an older one?
         • b waghorn 3.1.2.1.1

           25 September 2015 at 12:30 pm

           I was leaning towards red rag to a bull as that’s what its become to some
           • Sabine 3.1.2.1.1.1

             25 September 2015 at 12:34 pm

             well i have been quite clear about not wanting this whole shebang to go ahead in the first place. I believe we have more pressing issues at hand. If I would have magical powers, i would go ‘Pouf, the magic dragon, we have never spoken about the tea towels in this fair land”. But i guess instead i will have to vote for Hypno Flag, and then NO.

             lol. we are still gonna end up with an ugly, meaningless rag/towel.
4. dv 4

   25 September 2015 at 7:33 am

   https://www.facebook.com/winstonpeters

   Five Kiwi companies have missed out on buying the RNZAF’s Iroquois.
   It was an opportunity to grow their business and add jobs, especially in places like Taranaki and Rotorua.
   But instead the government selected a US bid – and the copters will be cut up for spare parts and sold back to NZ companies at a huge cost.
   One company we know of bid $4.5 million – the winning bid was $3m-$5m, according to the government.
   Why are Kiwi companies the losers?

   Natonomics.
   • Gabby 4.1

     25 September 2015 at 9:31 am

     Browneye doesn’t seem to be too forthcoming on what happened.
   • Draco T Bastard 4.2

     25 September 2015 at 10:41 am

     Those Iroquois are old. I certainly wouldn’t buy one to use as the maintenance on them would probably cost more than simply buying a new helicopter of similar capability.

     Then I suspect that there’s the avionics which the US probably has a say in who it can be sold to and without which the things couldn’t be flown. But if that’s the case then they shouldn’t have been made available to general tender.

     Really, this is one of those times when it looks like NZ1st are making a mountain out of a molehill.
5. Penny Bright 5

   25 September 2015 at 9:26 am

   “But Mark Thomas, deputy chairman of Auckland Council’s Orakei local board, told the Local Government Commission earlier this month that, for all their concerns, the local boards were actually quite happy with the super-city structure.”

   (Dominion Post 15 April 2015)

   As a confirmed 2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate – my proven track record is one of absolute opposition to the proposed Auckland ‘Supercity’ for NINE years – since 5 September 2006 – the day of the failed ‘Mayoral coup’.

   Unlike any of the other 2016 Auckland Mayoral candidates (confirmed or not) my proven track record shows I have worked (successfully) with those opposing the proposed Wellington, Northland and Hawke’s Bay ‘Supercities’, by exposing what a disaster this (forced) Auckland amalgamation has been for the majority of Auckland regional citizens and ratepayers.

   What did Phil Goff do to oppose the Wellington, Northland or Hawke’s Bay proposed ‘Supercities’?

   What has Phil Goff ever done to oppose this disastrous Auckland ‘Supercity’ ( for the1%) ?

   What, in my view, helped to wreck Auckland – were the ‘Rogernomics reforms’ – during which Phil Goff was a Cabinet Minister.

   In my opinion, Phil Goff might keep his pants on in the Ngati Whatua room, but nothing else will fundamentally change.

   Auckland, under Phil Goff as Mayor, in my opinion, will continue to be run ‘like a business, by business – FOR business’ – with the mechanism for this corporate takeover – Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) remaining intact.

   Penny Bright
   • greywarshark 5.1

     25 September 2015 at 10:49 am

     Penny
     Interesting comment. If you can keep future ones to that length and spaced like that so points separate and easy to read I think you will get more traction. And if you want to get excerpts of longer documents set that up as a separate comment with a link to the rest of the document. My feedback. Good politicking!
     edited
6. ianmac 6

   25 September 2015 at 9:40 am

   What’s the bet that the Report on the awful state of CYF’s functions, is a deliberate strategy to prepare us for Privatisation? We will be soon made to understand that the State has failed so there is only one answer; privatise. Obvious I suppose. And cunning.
   • Draco T Bastard 6.1

     25 September 2015 at 10:43 am

     Yep, National will have another privatisation option similar to Social Bonds or they may just widen the scope of those bonds. Basically, we’ll be seeing a lot more government subsidies of the private sector.
7. adam 7

   25 September 2015 at 11:17 am

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5m5B_C2VB0
8. Sabine 8

   25 September 2015 at 11:18 am

   OZ detaining Kiwis on Christmas Island?

   http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/285207/detaining-kiwis-in-australia-'displays-contempt‘

   There have been suggestions up to 75 New Zealanders and Pacific Islanders are being held on Christmas Island but Australian authorities refuse to discuss numbers.
   Radio New Zealand News has been told more and more New Zealanders have been arriving, including about 20 in the past few days.
   Prime Minister John Key said he wanted Australia to provide better information about the treatment of people it was deporting to New Zealand.

   oh well, surely nothing can be done about it.
   • Rosie 8.1

     25 September 2015 at 12:04 pm

     I listened to an Oz/NZer woman being interviewed the other day on this situation. She said last year there were 125 NZer’s in these detention centres and now it has ramped up to 400. That was on RNZ too, but there a big difference between those numbers and the one quoted above……..

     One woman, a mother of two and a permanent resident of Australia who has been there since she was three years old, was put in a detention centre with the view to being deported back to NZ, a country she doesn’t know at all.
     She had a small string of petty crimes she had been charged with, the last one being the theft of $1300 worth of cosmetics from a department store (thats just a few items of lancome for goodness sake). She was actually was put in jail for three months for this crime and was then sent on to the detention centre where she had been for six months.

     The treatment of Oz/NZer’s is barbaric. It’s like Australia have regressed to their convict days.
     • weston 8.1.1

       25 September 2015 at 7:49 pm

       ausie rw goverment acting like the pricks they are
9. RedLogix 9

   25 September 2015 at 12:47 pm

   A great item in the Herald of all places:

   Professional director Rob Campbell says the only ‘bubble’ economy the world has to worry about is the “sealed bubble in which most finance professionals work”, buoyed up by “their hangers on and mutual admiration society colleagues in the other professions and upper echelons of corporate and state management.”

   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11518824
10. esoteric pineapples 10

    25 September 2015 at 12:52 pm

    Ironic that all it takes for the Left to start tearing itself apart is a flag design.
    • weka 10.1

      25 September 2015 at 12:59 pm

      Or the GP working cross party like it’s always said it would.
      • esoteric pineapples 10.1.1

        25 September 2015 at 1:08 pm

        See what I mean?
        • weka 10.1.1.1

          25 September 2015 at 1:51 pm

          not really. Can you explain?
    • Planet Earth 10.2

      25 September 2015 at 3:27 pm

      Yep, looks like we’ve finally reached “Peak Red” (TM)
11. Penny Bright 11

    25 September 2015 at 2:04 pm

    Know about this folks? It will be FUN!

    Media Release: 25 September 2015
    Issued by: TPPA Auckland Call to Action

    I am Key/Groser – Anti-TPPA protesters gather at Britomart

    A large group of Anti-TPPA protesters donned in suits wearing John Key and Tim Groser masks will gather outside Britomart from 4.30pm today to send a peaceful but strong message to the Prime Minister and Trade Minister in the lead up to next week’s TPPA Ministerial.

    “There is a strong majority of New Zealanders who do not want our Government to sign the controversial deal without the text being released and people having a say.” says Chantelle Campbell co-organiser of today’s event.

    “As Trade Minister Groser gathers in Atlanta next week along with the eleven other Trade Ministers negotiating the TPPA, we want to remind him that as the people’s representative we do not want him to agree to signing a deal that is going to be substandard and detrimental to our country for generations to come.”

    Concerned citizen Kevin Hester says he will be attending today’s event as “Signing the TPPA will severely limit our ability to confront the threat of runaway global warming and the ongoing 6th great extinction as described by the WWF and National Geographic.”

    Saturday sees Chief Negotiators from the 12 countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement gather in Atlanta, US, to reconvene the negotiations, with Trade Ministers joining them on Wednesday with the aim to conclude the controversial deal.

    “If the TPPA is not gold star for New Zealand nor even gold plated for dairy according to Groser now, it will obviously be Tinpot so what is left to negotiate?” says aggrieved citizen Jacqueline Taylor.

    The message is strong and clear – Walk Away from the TPPA!

    Ends
12. Draco T Bastard 12

    25 September 2015 at 2:47 pm

    When Entire Economies are Held Hostage

    For those familiar with the idea of a Sovereign Money System, the contrast between it and our current system makes clear an important reality of today’s power structure. This reality is that the privilege of private banks to create for profit the public currency represents a massive implicit subsidy to some of the world’s most powerful financial institutions at the expense of sovereign governments everywhere, and the people they represent. It is a lot like if your neighbourhood mafia chief dropped into your produce shop and informed you that all your inventory now belonged to him, and you now had to borrow it back from him in order to stay in business.

    Yes, our present monetary system actually subsidises the banks at our expense (Yes, it would be nice to have NZ research but we’ll have to make do). No wonder they keep brining in record profits. This isn’t a sign of the country doing well but of the country being ripped off for more and more with the increasing poverty in the country showing that the country is failing because of that theft.
    • John Shears 12.1

      25 September 2015 at 4:15 pm

      And just so we are clear the National Debt is now

      $66,886,200,000 and rising as we breath.
      • Draco T Bastard 12.1.1

        25 September 2015 at 4:29 pm

        Is that National debt or Government debt? There’s a difference as National debt would also include all the private debt which is presently at ~100% of GDP and rising. Combine the two and our total indebtedness to the world is close to the fall over and play dead point.
13. Smilin 13

    25 September 2015 at 3:08 pm

    Maybe when we sling National out in the next election Key can rebrand the party to “NATIONALCORP International” for hire, it cost you your democracy to have us run your country
14. Anthony 14

    25 September 2015 at 3:33 pm

    Do we need to be thinking and being scared about WWIII now? The desperation seems so high and the leaders seem so incompetent.
15. Draco T Bastard 15

    25 September 2015 at 3:54 pm

    #FreeKaren Explained: The Fictional Environmentalist Accused Of Terrorism

    Karen is nobody. And everybody. She’s a fictional crusader created in response to the Federal Government’s Radicalisation Awareness Kit designed for school students, that paints environmental activism and the alternative music scene as a gateway to terrorism.

    In the 32-page booklet is this case study on violent extremism about a girl named Karen who was on the right track until she listened to alternative music and moved to a forest camp:

    It’s amazing and truly disturbing the BS that the RWNJs paint as real.
16. Morrissey 16

    25 September 2015 at 5:16 pm

    Lords of the Dance

    No. 2: TREVOR MALLARD

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7_tdzKUyzI

    “Lords of the Dance” is curated by Morrissey Breen, for Daisycutter Sports Inc.

    Aficionados of such spectacles may also like to check out…..

    No. 1 Rodney Hide
    http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-24092015/#comment-1073954
17. Penny Bright 17

    25 September 2015 at 9:00 pm

    Update on the “I am Key / Groser” anti-TPPA protest this evening, outside Btitomart.

    The John Key / Tim Groser masks – particularly when worn with a suit and blue tie, are creepily effective ( as it were :).

    Never been on a protest where the public stared so hard!

    (Having been a ‘protestor ‘ since 18, and I’m now in my 61st year, that’s quite a thing to say 🙂

    Signatures are now being collected for a new petition, addressed to PM John Key, MP for Helensville, which says;

    “We the undersigned:

    Are deeply concerned that as a key advocate for the ‘Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement’ (TPPA), you are a shareholder in the Bank of America, as detailed in the 2015 MPs Register of Financial Interests : (Pg 29)

    ” Rt Hon John Key (National, Helensville)

    2 Other companies and business entities

    ………………………………………………..

    Bank of America – banking”

    We see this as a serious ‘conflict of interest’, given that big banks like the Bank of America, stand to benefit, and profit from this pro-corporate TPPA.

    If this National Government, which you lead, does not ‘walk away from the secretive, undemocratic, ‘Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement’ (TPPA), then we pledge to campaign vigorously amongst our friends, families, neighbours and workmates, for the voting public to ‘walk away’ from National.”

    ———————————————————————

    Penny Bright

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