From RadioNZ National news, the latest round of of talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal have ended in failure to reach agreement,
This piece of ‘pull your pants down and let us have our way with you’ stupidity is just that because the US Senate simply will not agree to a ‘trade deal’ that strips away the ‘protections’ of the US farming lobby,
‘Free trade’ is a lie, the cost of it, free trade that is, can be found in the rising number of unemployed people in our economy after every act of ‘trade liberalization’,
This cost, the unemployment on a ‘rotational basis’ so as to disguise its true effects, simply equates to a shifting of wealth within our society with the creation of a demographic of have nots as much out of employment as they are in,
The true cost of this unemployment has remained unmeasured as it has occurred over multi-decades with those negatively effected being so over periods that measure weeks, months and years, there is no measurement of the ‘human cost’…
agree. On this matter I was recently told by a good source about the Chinese Trains, apparently they are really struggling, recently needed some SKF branded bearings changed, it turned out that the SKF Bearings fitted were actually counterfeit SKF bearings. I don’t know a lot about Trains but I do know that if you purchase from a Chinese manufacturer who has fitted counterfeit bearings then you will have major major problems coming up.
The human cost of a train set that can barely keep its wheels on, all those who gave their labour year after year for the benefit of both business freight and passenger travel in this country, those from the Dunedin railway workshop made rendundant, thrown on the ever growing scrapheap of employment destroyed by trade liberalization…
I was on a picket line opposing the arrival and use of wagons from China. It makes me shiver thinking back, it was the coldest day of the year, 4.am kick off, I’ll never forget my teeth chattering on the loud hailer lol.
The subsequent amount of problems with these inferior made wagons were shameful. Brakes, bearings, poor welds, inadequate primmer/paint coating. A lession learnt is ‘you pay and continue to pay’ for what you get, and the taxpayer will pay through the nose for both Chinese made trains and wagons for many years to come.
Meanwhile many of the highly skilled workers from the workshops took their skills abroad to Aussie, others left the undignified task of battling WINZ for a subsistence payment (dole) probably the first time in their working life.
For this reason and others I am proud to have joined our local protest against the TPPA last Saturday. The TPPA will not ‘Keep New Zealanders working’.
The fake bearings wouldn’t surprise me at all. I was told a few years back by the CEO of a tool manufacturer of a worrying increase in product failure in the Asian market. Turns out it was inferior pirate copies being badged as their stuff, right down to their own website and toll free number being prominently promoted on the packaging if customers had any complaints!
That Phillis is Laughable, i should have included the word She somewhere in the comment so you could accuse me of Missongloaphology as well,(did i get that spelling write,snigger)…
Your stupidity deepens Phillis,it’s good to see tho that you are blind to the subtle differences in the thinking of Asians V Europeans in a broad context,
Had the train set highlighted by Saarbo above been built in the US with such faults alluded to, those having used ‘pirate parts’ in the manufacture would never have ‘thunk’ for a moment to set up a 0800 number and a website to deflect and handle complaints,
An interesting story broke in the past couple of days about a supposed Lawyer attached to the TPPT negotiations having fraudulently claimed to have such a university qualification, a European He simply relied upon the claim,
i would suggest that the Asian mindset would have if such a false claim were to be made resulted in the claimant either having had someone hack the university web-site and include them in the years for having sat the relevant Lawyers degree, OR,the person wishing to assume a law degree without the intellectual capacity to have passed such a qualification would have got someone else to sit the degree for them in their name,
Drug use they say Phillis, broadens the mind, in your case tho, poly abuse of various drugs have in fact seemed to have created the opposite effect, the fact that you continue to use in spite of this would tend to suggest a reinforcement of such damage…
..shortly..we can branch into the long history of that (unfortunate)-fact of the strong ties between fascist/racist/eugenics/far-right..and what we loosely call the ‘green’ movement..
..won’t that be fun..?
..we will be able to trace yr lineage..right back..
Yes of course Phillis, everyone on the planet thinks to a lesser extent just like you,
How you see ”i do love the Asian minds ability for attention to detail” as a racist slur is beyond me,
The fact that you can trot out a list of your favorites in the comment below shows that you have a tidy amount of racism you so deplore set deeply into your mind…
Gallstone, stop it please, Phillis has already delivered that gut-buster, the neighbors will be getting itchy phone fingers listening to the gales of mad laughter emanating from my place at the likes of you…
Phillis, keep em coming, it appears that it is not my head that is full of racist smears, the little list you trot out with the greatest of ease tells us all a story of an entirely different nature…
Racism isn’t something where intent actually matters. Racism is something that can cause hurt and be completely unintentional by the speaker/writer. Just because you don’t think it’s racism doesn’t make it so.
Just like, me saying it is racism doesn’t automatically makes it racism, but I suspect I’m in the vast majority when saying that “yes, it is.”
Gallstone, as a latecomer to this little discussion i am going to ignore you as you have only chosen to be Phillis’s little tool on this occasion for personal spite,
That and the not inconsiderable fact that i don’t give a fuck what you think…
Aw Phillis, so childish of you to play little ego games of victory or loss…done and dusted has simply got me chortling again…
The fact that you have to get into a little love–fest with Gallstone in an effort to do or dust me makes me wonder…along with your little list of racist slurs so glibly trotted out in the comment above not only if the Junk has scrambled whats left of your brains…but…whether or not you are,as Gallstone appears to be…a closet ‘wing-nut’…
Phillis…you can suggest whatever it is that fires up whatever neurons that have survived the self inflicted drug binging to no effect…a bit like me suggesting that you go fetch that which you wake up every morning craving like nothing else on this earth and fire as much as possible into those aching veins…
Racism is oppression, discrimination, fear or hatred of another race.
bad12’s comment was none of these. It was certainly racial or cultural stereotyping, but I think Ure (and Gladstone) making the racist call is oversensitive.
bad12 for his part is responding in a personal way to Ure which is wholly unnecessary.
The Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, and South Koreans built their industries upon wholesale and detailed copying of western designs and technologies. This was very obvious in the early decades of both the Japanese and South Korean car industries, as well as the many cheap electronic toys and consumer goods you would get out of places like Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong in the 70’s and 80’s.
Japan pre-WWII and post WWII modelled its entire heavy industry on American approaches, right down to copying exactly the paperwork and statistical methods used in the USA.
None of this is in question.
The calls of “racism” are meaningless in the context that entire Asian nations, their leaders and their workers used these highly detailed and methodical approaches to economically leapfrog ahead. To me these calls are especially funny as it appears to underline how little understanding some people in western nations have of what actually happened and how it happened.
One bit which is actually racist IMO is all the self righteous pronouncements based solely on ones own cultural outlook and values. That and how the western powers treated SE Asia and China as backward colonies to exploit and wage horrific wars of empire in.
Exploitation of Asian workers by western powers and corporates is still rife. Now that’s actual racism. Not the silly little comments that the PC brigade appear to take great pride in demonstrating all kinds of offence at.
My whole point, obviously one that escapes both Phillis, and Gallstone as they come ‘ a hunting’ wishing to vent their personal little hard on’s they have for me is in the modern context of thought as set out in Saarbo’s comment,
i should imagine that ‘copy fraud’ is rampant in the US,(they have a whole spy network which services such),
Had the ‘train sets’ being discussed been sourced from the US with the same copy-fraud parts attached i doubt the Americans would have the subtly of thought nor the attention to detail to have set up an 0800 number or a website with which to snare complaints over the faulty parts,
Then again, that of course is simply my opinion having not deeply researched such an issue…
Phillis, losing comments to a blank page is simply a reflection of the inner workings of your mind…and…the effect your squirts of increasingly abusive invective have upon me…
Which equates to zero, zilch,nada,none in other words…Pssst…stop beating up on your computer…you are barely coherent…and…the blank pages might just stop…
1) Not racism: Saying counterfeiting is rife in China.
2) Not racism: Saying that some Chinese counterfeits can be really hard to tell from the real thing because they go to a lot of trouble to make the counterfeits seem genuine.
3) Is racism: Saying that all Chinese people can’t innovate and all they can do is copy.
Gallstone, go fetch…take a poll of commenters of the Standard of Asian descent…if the majority of those polled are offended and consider my comment,(and the other comments which lead to my comment) racist…
Then i will happily withdraw and apologize for having made the remark…as far as your pretense at offense goes tho…go have sex with Phillis it will give your hand a rest…
o/t Disraeli, not sure if you would see this so am linking. This doesn’t need a response necessarily but I felt given the accusation that I had right of reply
Bad 12, the fact that you’re so obsessed with sex and masturbation suggest you are quite young so I’m going to stop now. Like you said, you seem to think you’re done and you haven’t responded to what I said constructively but with insult.
Hey CV? You overlooking the historical fact that Britain built up a lot of its industrial base by copying, for example, Indian ship building technology of the time? Maybe stealing would be a more accurate term insofar as they used extreme stand over tactics to ensure that, for example, Indian ship building ceased.
Same for cotton manufacturing – chopped off weavers’ thumbs and then had all raw cotton exported to Britain.
Interestingly, the rise of “entrepreneurship” as a notion in Britain very quickly led to slavery… so the free market has always been more free to some than others.
‘Aston Martin has recently made a big announcement of a major recall which will affect about 75 percent of all cars manufactured since 2007.
This huge recall will affects at least 17,590 cars made by Aston Martin.
This reason behind the massive recall is a Chinese sub-supplier who was using counterfeit plastic material for a component which they supplied to Aston Martin.
Maybe we should consider changing TPP to a five way deal excluding USA and Japan.
We might find that we could have an effective relationship with the other five and forget about the machinations of USA and Japan trying to protect their own markets while being free to dump whatever they like on the rest of us.
Ron, as an opposed view, not saying you are entirely wrong, but, maybe we should consider that the economies which are buying in massive bulk our raw milk products and raw timber logs are doing so ‘in spite of’ any trade deals we may have with them,
i would suggest that such economies with growing populations are buying our primary produce simply because they ‘need’ the stuff,
The proof of this will be in 5–10 years time when the Chinese dairy industry is sufficiently geared up to supply a larger part of their ‘needs’ at which point we, a nation, will be left sitting here dick in hand with a very large problem,
i would suggest to you that the current enrichment of 40,000 dairy farmers has lead to 40,000 manufacturing jobs being lost to the Asian economies as the trade off, now the increased tax take from dairy that accrues to the Government books might look fine as it pays the extra dole payments and more,
BUT,
The miserable level of dole payments, and yes, in the current climate of rotational employment such misery is ‘shared around’,(mostly among the already poor), no account of the human misery inherent in such a system is thought of as of such import as to be quantified…
Free trade is good. It is a largely responsible for the huge drop in worldwide poverty. It has its flaws. There are some concerns. Developed countries need to make sure they still offer protection for developing countries (and the GATT/WTO does this). But free trade is good.
The TPPA isn’t free trade. It looks like it is going to have various level of protectionism written into it to protect the US while removing any worthwhile protection for the other countries.
Interestingly, the rise of “entrepreneurship” as a notion in Britain very quickly led to slavery… so the free market has always been more free to some than others.
I don’t really see how you can make such a general statement. Free trade in itself is neither good or bad, what really matters is the outcome of free trade.
In an extreme example, let’s say country X produced all their food using slave labour and country Y does not uses slaves and instead has workers that are paid fairly. Originally country Y had trade barriers to prevent the food from country X entering their markets, but a free trade agreement removed these barriers. Next thing, the food from country X starts dominating the market in country Y because it is cheaper, so country X acquires more slaves to increase production volume.
Was free trade in this example good?
Yes, I know you caveated your response, but I think simply shouting slogans like “free trade is good” is extremely unhelpful to proper discourse.
We built ourselves up to a first world nation through protectionism (So did the UK and USA) and now that we’ve dropped that we’re steadily going backwards. We seeing increased poverty and a declining manufacturing base (it really is the manufacturing base that puts a country into “developed” status). And we’ve done it all because a few people wanted to be richer.
Are you arguing for the legalization of the current addiction which you use as the poly-addicts crutch to subdue your craving for a stronger addiction simply based upon your personal financial situation and availability of supply Phillip…
”What if it is a prominent Green”, well Phillip what if i am, my denial of course quickly follows but then i am one of the opinion that ‘prominence’ or lack of it is simply an ego contest and the Green’s have need of ‘leaders’ with prominence only as far as being able to fit into the current power structures,
In reality i am a supporter of legalization with no attached codicils and i neither smoke the Lady Jane nor drink alcohol,
Got your heart rate going at a normal level for the morning did i Phillis…
I don’t use either drug but I’d be happy to see decriminalisation – if I thought that people like Mr Ure would take some personal responsibility for their ellipsis abuse.
Hmmm, not so sure Matt McCarten’s consistent history of great ideas that go nowhere is the right fit for Labour. But Greg Presland (who he?) sounds like our kinda guy.
Talk about fear and loathing in the beehive. I will eat my leather stetson if Matt gets this role. Someone with Unite type views would have to top the usual bland “yes Minister” careerists though.
Still, on the bright side, I suspect a chief or staff would not be free to blog at TS.
Those being mentioned seem to be actual left-wingers which must be a good sign (desperate for good signs from Labour – but won’t be holding my breath).
Micky, you are one of the reasons I still have faith in the Labour party. Not that I vote for them you understand 😉 but am still hoping they get their shit together (for their own sake and everyone else’s) and it’s people like you that make think this is still possible.
Interesting, might fit in with the big ‘Slurp’ Matt gave to the Alfred E. Nuemann of television jonolism Patrick Gower in His weekend Herald column,
Getting onside with the media would probably fit in with the ‘job description’ but did Matt have to be so blatant in what looked like giving Gower a tongue bath with the comment He,(Gower), was ”a frighteningly good journalist”…
It all makes sense to me now Bad12. I was somewhat bemused with Matt’s suck up to Gower, actually thought he was taking the piss. Truth be known Gower is Garner’s attack dog… all be it a skittery goofy type dog at that.
Matt would bring a much needed double edge sword to the messaging being relayed. He would as you say counter the media spin on things. Of course the bias media would try bypassing him altogether. I note Helen Kelly has said it’s highly unlikely. Must be some push back from the ‘old’ Unions. Nice thinking of what might have been I guess.
It would be a real back straightener if Mc Carten got the job. I’ve always liked Matt’s skills campaigning as he cuts through the nonsense and remains focused on the task at hand.
I won’t hold my breath he will get the appointment, too many obstacles like the beltway and last stand MP’s. If he does, expect a much needed no nosense approach. Are you in or are out!
“hooten was just on nat-rad..and seems to be somewhat panicky..”
heard that too – it seems to be scaring him (Hooton) shitless – not just panicky. Out came all that “far left” kaka.
……. and just as an aside PU – do you know of a recent study that shows excessive use of pot is as bad as alcohol regarding Hep C recovery, etc. (That’s a question btw). It’d certainly explain my brother’s demise. But then he was a greedy guts when it came to anything, along with a needle fetish.
Can you imagine how much fun Kiwiblog, WO, Gower, Garner, etc are going to have with McCarten is in Cunliffe’s office considering his less than stellar history with UNITE paying tax. Anytime, Labour brought up multinational companies not paying their fair share, it would instantly be shut out with questions about “doesn’t your Chief of Staff have the same problems?”
After your desperate attempt to secure a wife the other day I felt a little sorry for you and I decided to play match-maker. I searched high and low for someone special who would get you out of your rut and had all but convinced a slightly crazy eccentric vegan lady I know to take a chance on you. Once she answered affirmative to the ‘do you really really like Nutella’ question I was certain there was some hope for you.
But this age-limit you have suggested for wearing lycra has given her cold feet because she’s a keen cyclist and (although prefers her birthday suit when riding) often wears the tight-fitting apparel.
So I’m sorry but you’ll have to be content for the time being with your four legged pet dog for a little while longer, but all is not lost; just be thankful Lucy(?) doesn’t have a nut allergy 😀
Beautiful. Enjoyed yesterdays Jeff Healey track too. Was a shame to lose Jeff in 2008, a rare talent and another amazing example of a blind person having an other-worldly talent for making music.
Interesting readers poll on Stuff.co this morning asking what are the main concerns for voters in this election year,
At number one by a country mile, the economy 39.4%,(its–the–economy–stupid),
Second, who would have thunk it,Affordable Housing 12.7%,(hopefully the relevant parties can ‘see’ that this also includes affordable rentals, rebuild the numbers in the States portfolio please),
Third, but hardly least, Unemployment 8.2%,(i should imagine that if the dole wasn’t such a disgustingly low level of ‘at least they can eat but only if they ‘choose’ to live under a bridge’ the employment issue might have rated higher than 3rd)…
I voted afforable housing. It has a significant direct impact on more people than unemployment. Those worried about affordable housing include the unemployed as well as many low paid, precarious and employed people.
Edit: That poll is a bit of a push poll, with “the economy” at the top of the list. It’s a general term that encompasses aspects of most of the other things on the list.
I don’t generally pay attention to self-selecting polls such as that on Stuff – can you “vote” multiple times on that one the way you can with the NZH?
The recent Roy Morgan has a better sampling method than most published polls (still phone interviews, but at least includes cell phones – though the 14+ age-group will include some not eligible to vote this year). They also define what issues they regard as “economic” (42%, but that includes 7% “unemployment/ job security”), no category directly corresponds to “Affordable Housing” but “Cost of Living/ Increasing Prices/ Financial Hardship/ Household Debt” seems closest (5% also categorised as “economic”).
“Poverty/ The Gap Between Rich & Poor/ Imbalance of Wealth” (16%) was the largest issue of the “Economic” category (42%). “Social Apathy/ Lack of Values/ Lack of Empathy Toward Others/ Intolerance” (5%) for the “Social issues” (21%). “Government/ Politicians/ Leadership/ Government Spending” (8%) for “Government/ Public Policy/ Human Rights issues” (19%). “Environmental Issues/ Degradation” (4%) for “Environmental issues” (9%). However 8% were “Can’t say”; of the “993 men and women aged 14 or over [who] were interviewed by telephone in February 2014”.
Looking at the trend from Oct 2012, it appears economic issues have reduced in priority for the population studied (from 57% to 42%). Whereas; Social issues (13% to 21%); Government issues (14% to 19%); & Environmental issues (4% to 9%), have all increased.
Interesting. Fran reckons that Mr Prebble will get Mr Key out of a tricky spot by “forcing” the retirement age up to 67 as part of a deal when/if ACT gets some MPs into Parliament. Mr Key would be able to say, “They made me break my vows. Pity that.”
Key has recently said that if they broke their word on that, voters would ask what else they would break their word on.
So I think it’s a bridge to far for Key, and they’d really only go there if Act had a significant, required, presence (say 6+ seats) which I don’t think they have a hope in hell of getting.
Prebble thinks they can get to 9 seats, which is just la-la-land thinking. Jamie Whyte himself is aiming for 5, but I think they’ll be lucky to get 2-3.
If it was a condition for regaining power, Key would claim that it is the price of that MMP that people wanted and that his hands were tied.
Like Charter Schools? An ACT condition but not what National wanted. Really. National did not want Charter Schools. Really and truly!
Was that wee Matty Hooton i just heard on RadioNZ’s Nine to Noon, screeching like a demented child that David Cunliffe had promised a far left Government over and over as if some psychiatrist practicing hypnosis had put the ‘spinner under’ and then forgot to bring Him back to reality,
Labour wee Matty is a very broad church and thus must appeal to a broad cross section of the community from those living on benefits to those in the comfortable middle class,
So of course the message to different audiences is going to be different, just as Slippery the Prime Minister carries in His carpet bag various disguises so as to enable Him to ponce among those attending the Big Gay Out, and, preen among the fat-cats of the Business Roundtable or whatever their new disguise happens to be…
Usually, but Ryan got both Hooton and Williams on again this morning to discuss the McCarten rumour. She kept stressing that it was the middle of the night or similar for Hooton, so don’t know where he was calling in from. Obviously somewhere overseas.
Hi James. Thanks for your response on Open Mike on Monday in regard to newly “announced” Labour candidate for Ohariu, Virginia/Ginny Anderson.
I detected a sense of annoyance from you, that I hadn’t read your earlier comment from 11th February stating that she was indeed the candidate, as a response to my questioning when Labour would announce their Ohariu candidate. Apologies – I spend too much time here at TS as it is and usually don’t get overly involved in discussions, as much as I would like too, so hadn’t checked up on follow on comments.
It would have been good if I had on that occasion however because I would have known two weeks earlier.
I continue to remain in a state of puzzlement about the way the candidacy hasn’t been trumpeted given the importance of this electorate,and Epsom, is to National.
Sorry Rosie, didn’t mean for it to come across as annoyed! Definitely not my intention though I can appreciate it did seem like it.
I am concerned that this late in the piece, for a new candidate with no name recognition, Labour will lost Ohariu.
Chauvel did well in Ohariu in successive elections through constant door knocking and street corner meetings over 8(?) years.
I don’t believe that the new girl will achieve the same level of succes, and moreso that Wadestown, a highly blue area, is now included in Ohariu.
Although, it could be seen that Dunnes sell out may be the death of his political career, but unfortunately people are so anti labour that they may yet again allow the Hair to live again.
I share your concerns, but as mentioned, am trying to keep a lid on them, as I may potentially offer to support her campaign in this electorate. (I have no idea who she is, apart from the small amount of her work history outlined in the RNZ piece).
One thing possibly to go on is the 64.6% out of a 49% turn out of Ohariu voters who voted NO in the asset sales referendum. If they come out in force with a Labour vote there may be some hope. In the meantime there is a huge amount of work to be done, quickly!
Confused. “TDB is calling the Chief-of-Staff position for Matt McCarten.” is not the same thing as announcing his appointment to the position. Just curious as to whether that’s designed as a way to break an embargo on an announcement or if it’s wishful thinking on the part of ‘Bomber’.
Well, I’ve already blathered on about the reasons enough here at TS and don’t want to bore folks, but for your benefit I will blather a little more.
Main reason: same as you, previous censorship experiences such as not having comments posted, albeit just a couple, or them being held in moderation all day.
Other reasons:
Bad experiences with trolls, I just couldn’t be bothered continuing commenting. The worst was a guy who high jacked a conversation I was having with a woman about men who use porn as form of harassment towards women (I don’t want to go into this discussion here by the way: the example I had given was about a close friend who had been traumatised by her partner) The guy went on and said it was her fault etc and was being a complete A- hole. He ended up with heaps of “thumbs up” and I got plenty of “thumbs down”. Sounds petty but I felt quite freaked out about that and annoyingly he got free reign in the comments section where as I had to wait in moderation.
Bad experiences with Martyn: One time he just nutted out in an anti Wellington tirade of an article. His trigger for the tirade was a report he linked that indicated that Auckland received less infrastructure dollar per capita than anywhere else and that Wellington received more than Auckland per capita. It was basically a a no holds barred hate speech in which he made up all sorts of bullshit about Wellingtonians as a group. He sounded like a 5 year old who had his toys taken from him. I tried to reason with him but he just packed a sad.
Disappointing, as previously I had given positive feedback and had been supportive of their efforts in the early days.
This article came a couple of weeks after the TICS talk that TDB hosted in Wellington in late August last year. There was an embarrassingly poor turnout and that would have left him out of pocket. Maybe the article was him taking his revenge. I don’t know.
Personally although I believe his heart is in the right place he does appear to have a fragile ego and is prone to outbursts. (Remember Green Storm troopers!).
Yes, there are excellent authors in TDB but I don’t want to support a site where I don’t’ feel welcome and where I am insulted. You could say it’s personal.
It was “Emerald Storm Troopers” (as in “Imperial Storm Troopers”; Star Wars allusion). Which I found ironic due to one of 4 principles of the Green Party charter being Non-Violence.
Bradbury isn’t really about facts as such; not that he intentionally deceives, but neither he does he let excessive consideration get in the way of a turn of phrase. I actually think his persona worked best back when he was doing his Bomber’s Blog comedic infotainment TV bit. The demands of running TDB may not be the best fit for his talents. Though he does seem to have boundless energy – when QoT was disentangling herself from TDBs clutches she had a line about three-quarters of the posts being written by half a dozen middle-aged white men. My opinion is that fully half the content (barring comments) is produced by that one man.
That said, I still read it; though rarely comment and often get snagged in moderation limbo myself when I try. If I boycotted every publication where I disagreed with the editorial decisions I’d never read any newspapers.
Coulda been the potentially defamatory things I said about Martyn Bradbury, seeing as we’re being watchful of fragile ego’s and their propensity for defamation cases – although I wouldn’t put Bradbury in the same league as Craig…………
Not cheered.
Anyone who says he thinks Parick Gower is an outstanding journalist either lacks judgment, or is a liar. Also his tactical and uniting skills didn’t work out that well for the Alliance.
Was a time when I would have been happy – but reading McCarten’s column doesn’t inspire confidence.
Just had a thought though, McCarten was an honourary ABC before Cunliffe won. Maybe there is some Mchiavellian genius at work here, not yet visible to the naked eye.
Neither. Sure, there might be good tactical/political reasons as to why DC (or whoever gets to make the call) would appoint a man who is so consistently ‘out for himself’ and willing to ride any bandwagon on the go, to such a team leading position. Bit beyond me to figure it though.
remember lailla hare’s parental leave stuff has mad eit to law, braddford’s change to s59a and other alliance measures are implemented. It seems only natural that IF labour is moving toward its roots, that alliance type policy and thinking wouldbe re-embraced
I am trying to think why Williams would leak it. he’s a cunliffe supporter isn’t he, or did he just think Cunliffe would win leadership which isnt the same thing at all.
perhaps they think the alliance leaning labour non voter is highh among the 800,000 non voters?
did you hear hooton whining and lying again on RNZ this morning.
He is sh*t scared because Matt Mcarten will get the job done and he will have lost his number one client and have to sell weetbix for a living.
Matt mcarten? What is David Cunliffe and his advisors thinking?
We need a voice of moderation and common sense to counteract National, not a shill unionist.
Ernst & Young consulting partner walks away from million dollar job to blow whistle on Dubai blood Gold trade
Going against big money, defying your own institution, and killing your corporate career in the process. Sometimes that’s exactly what it takes, but so few people do it, deciding to succumb to careerism instead.
Wow right at the start of that story the journalist’s name is outstanding – Andy Verity.
But reading on I wonder would withholding gold mined in conflict areas be good, because it furthers human rights abuses and funds armed guerilla groups which could be people like the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda? Or would it be bad because it denied armed guerilla groups funding so that they could carry on a fight against cruel, totalitarian governments?
Then another confusing thing – it is normal for gold-painted silver to be received as if it was real gold?
Alice in Wonderland seems like an imaginative scenario for today.
Then another confusing thing – it is normal for gold-painted silver to be received as if it was real gold?
Well, it would be normal if the “gold” came from legitimate sources and you had a stash of real gold from other sources – it adds up in the books. 4 tons in (silver), 4 tons out(gold), profit is essentially the same as the gold price (silver’s pretty cheap on that scale).
And if you’re also refining silver ore, you simply record after the fact that the ore’s purity was surprisingly high, so you got 4 tons of silver from dirt. And everything you have to sell looks kosher.
I just heard on National radio 11am news that Mighty River Power has an increased return to its shareholders. Partly this was achieved by some weasel words along the lines of, “reduced exposure to commercial interests”.
Now, I read recently that power prices to business are cheaper, deliberately so, and the price to domestic consumers is higher since we don’t have the same commercial clout/interests/favour. The Mighty River website confirms today that its sales in the low-price commercial sector are down 9%, and sales are down 11% over all.
Am I right therefore in saying that the recently sold Might River Power, once an asset wholly owned by the state and people, with returns going back to the people, is now more profitable, and that this profit which was taken from the backs of the domestic consumer, i.e. the people, is now being returned half to its new private and wealthy owners and half to the government which also represents the wealthy?
Could this increased profit have been engineered as a fillip to the government’s further assets sales, the viability of which which have been compromised by low share prices and demand?
Mighty River Power was a pork barrel job pure and simple.
The New Zealand economy is not big enough to hide financial depredations and legalised liens on the taxpayer so this is the only way they can do it.
Anselma Dell’Olio, the founder of the New Feminist Theatre, in New York, was the first to speak publicly about trashing. In a 1970 address, titled “Divisiveness and Self-Destruction in the Women’s Movement: A Letter of Resignation,” which was delivered to the Congress to Unite Women, in New York City, she warned that women’s “rage, masquerading as a pseudo-egalitarian radicalism under the ‘pro-woman’ banner,” was turning into “frighteningly vicious anti-intellectual fascism of the left.” After hearing about the speech, several women, including Freeman, met and vowed to fight the problem. “Instead, each of us slipped back into our own isolation,” Freeman said. “The result was that most of the women at that meeting dropped out, as I had done. Two ended up in the hospital with nervous breakdowns.” After Ti-Grace Atkinson resigned from the Feminists, a group she had founded in New York, she declared, “Sisterhood is powerful. It kills. Mostly sisters.” The observation rang true for so many that it soon became one of the lines most frequently quoted by feminists, or, rather, misquoted: the “mostly” was dropped.
The second-wave feminists had hoped to alleviate this isolation through the refuge of sisterhood. “We were like pioneers who’d left the Old Country,” Phyllis Chesler, a feminist psychologist and the author of “Women and Madness” (1972), told me. “And we had nowhere to go back to. We had only each other.” That is, until the movement’s collapse. Last fall, as I interviewed New York’s founding radical feminists, the stories of “social defeat” mounted: painful solitude, poverty, infirmity, mental illness, and even homelessness. In a 1998 essay, “The Feminist Time Forgot,” Kate Millett lamented the lengthening list of her sisters who had “disappeared to struggle alone in makeshift oblivion or vanished into asylums and have yet to return to tell the tale,” or who fell into “despairs that could only end in death.” She noted the suicides of Ellen Frankfort, the author of “Vaginal Politics,” and Elizabeth Fisher, the founder of Aphra, the first feminist literary journal. “We haven’t helped each other much,” Millett concluded. We “haven’t been able to build solidly enough to have created community or safety.”
Thanks for the link to a very interesting article, CV.
You have been very selective with your cherry picked quotes there, failing to put them in context. The article is from mid 2013, is an obituary for Shilamuth Firestone, and sets this in context of her role among New York radical feminists.
The kinds of factions, struggles and personality conflicts referred to, can be seen across the left in various countries, and not just within the US feminist movement. And it puts that in the context of the first and second waves of feminism – the way each wave has risen, bringing with it much needed changes, then been appropriated and weakened – and along with that, often the full story has been revised and/or written out of history.
Firestone is characterised as a brilliant, energised, but divisive figure, suffering from schizophrenia. Ultimately the story of her final years makes sad reading. I read her book, “The Dialectic of Sex”, way back. An interesting but flawed theory. She did provide some very significant insights: she modelled her theory on Marx’s dialectic, but posited that the primary social divide was one of gender. She was criticised for her biological determinism, as she argued that the basis of female oppression was the role of women in the reproduction of the species. She argued that the rise of new technologies (of birth control etc), would free women from their biology and their oppression.
In Faludi’s article, she outlines Firestone’s role within the US radical feminist strand of feminism, especially in the late 60s and early 70s. In the US liberal feminism dominated. They wanted an equal role for women within the existing social structure. Radical feminists wanted to change the whole social structure.
Unfortunately, it seems that Firestone wanted to hold on to some key features of US culture: she wasn’t keen on the move to non-hierarchical structures favoured by both the radical left, and left wing feminists, including most radical feminists. The whole of the NY radical feminist strand seemed also to not want to let go of aspects of the wider US celebrity culture, favoring “star” writers/leaders etc.
My understanding of Firestone and the work of Kate Millet, was gained from my perspective in the late 70s early 80s women’s movement in London. The dominant strand of feminism in the UK in the 70s was socialist feminism. There was a secondary strand of radical feminists – there was much cross fertilisation of ideas and practice between strands. There was far less of a tendency to make stars out of key theorists.
The Auckland Electoral Officer confirmed yesterday to Grace Haden the former Police Prosecutor that her complaint of a $750,000 election donation fraud has been referred to the Police for investigation.
Len Brown now finds himself in the same position as John Banks in 2012. That police investigation led eventually by way of a private prosecution to hi(s) committal to trial in the High Court.
Again if the Police do not prosecute the New Zealand Private Prosecution Service will.
The Len Brown election allegation may be coupled with a Police investigation for money laundering the donations through the New Auckland Council Trust
Graham McCready
Prosecutor for NZPPS Ltd
…………………….
Again – ever wondered why you haven’t heard Prime Minister John Key say a bad thing against Auckland Mayor Len Brown?
Because, in my considered opinion, Auckland Mayor Len Brown, is Prime Minister John Key’s ‘little helper’, doing a GREAT job looking after Sky City, property developers and BIG business interests ……
Grrace Haden once said and did some disgraceful things in her blind pursuit of a single person. She did not give a damn about the innocent folks she damaged along the way. There is searching for truth and there is distorting the reality to fit your version of truth.I have little faith in the integrity of any allegations and alleged supporting evidence supplied by Ms Haden. Statistically, even the misguided, can be right once.
I know many people make out the Greens are crazy but you knnow, they are the only party that could have plans to alleviate the kinds of “disasters” that would impact hugely on big business. ironic yeah?
I speak of their exploration of solar and wind technologies which could one day cut off major black outs at the pass.
Sorry mate, you should realise by now that the mainstream political parties are by definition part of the establishment. And they will not do anything radical without radical pressure placed upon them by the wider populace through mass movements.
Having a bitch about them is good and all, but won’t change that simple political fact.
MEDIA ALERT: ‘Len Brown – Stand Down Coalition’ PROTEST:
Auckland Mayor Len Brown is certainly NOT ‘New Zealander of the Year!’
According to the following Auckland Mayoral Office Media Advisory, Len Brown is to attend the Kiwibank ‘New Zealander of the Year’ award, to be held at the Auckland Langham Hotel, (83 Symonds Street, Grafton) tonight, at 7pm.
The attendance of Mayor Len Brown at this event, is a disgrace.
We believe that he is not fit for duty, and should resign forthwith,” says coalition Spokesperson Dick Cuthbert.
“The pressure on Mayor Len Brown to stand down, has significantly increased with today’s news that a complaint to the Electoral Office, alleging electoral fraud against Len Brown, has been handed over to the Police for investigation,” says coalition member, anti-corruption campaigner, Penny Bright.
Penny Bright …………………..
Dick Cuthbert ………………….
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
26 February 2014
Graham McCready
The Auckland Electoral Officer confirmed yesterday to Grace Haden the former Police Prosecutor that her complaint of a $750,000 election donation fraud has been referred to the Police for investigation.
Len Brown now finds himself in the same position as John Banks in 2012. That police investigation led eventually by way of a private prosecution to hi(s) committal to trial in the High Court.
Again if the Police do not prosecute the New Zealand Private Prosecution Service will.
The Len Brown election allegation may be coupled with a Police investigation for money laundering the donations through the New Auckland Council Trust
It might be a little difficult finding a former police persecutor who was willing to use her dubious professional skills against Key. I can’t think of any profession that I would trust less. That sex is involved makes me think instantly of Graeme Capill. This whole thing against Brown is sordid and cheap, especially when there is no campaign for a left wing candidate to replace him.
A huge number of Labour electorates across the country have electorate nominations closing on Friday, 28 February. This will be interesting when we hear the results in March. CViper are you there?
Joan Withers …. not a patch on Joan Rivers – not even Joan River’s nether regions.
But I’ll give her an A+ for trying hard. Give the neolibs another + for appointing her.
No doubt she’ll be joining Jenny and Burton down on the ranch for a BeeBee Q in the not-too-distant – unless some “far left cnut” jumps up and spoils their plan.
Oh well – burnt steaks darling! We can improvise. A haw haw haw.
(I think you’ve already said that! – such is the nature of our 3rdWorld Interweb)
It seems that earlier this month, the first vehicle number plate recognition cameras went live in Dunedin. An extensive network of these cameras is being planned around the city. The cameras digitally record the number plate of every single passing vehicle for real time character recognition analysis, number plate data matching and storage. The data is currently being used to issue instant fines to vehicles without current WOFs and rego’s.
There will be many other uses to this real time data as well, beyond that of mass traffic enforcement.
Personally, I think that the way these cameras have been introduced, and their potential uses within a surveillance state apparatus, are extremely disturbing.
Does anyone here know what legislation empowers the use of these cameras in the issuance of vehicle infringements?
Pity that it doesn’t work out for you this time CV, but if you can increase your public interaction, perhaps you can provide some balance in the Council next time and seek an electorate position later.
I’ll be interested in what you find Colonial Viper about this surveillance. I find it very disturbing that checking to see if WoFs and other certificates are current is being used as an excuse to place the populace under surveillance.
And particularly seeing that WoFs are being downgraded as a regular check.
It’s like creating a type of law that will be easy to break (forgetting) and then hitting people with large fines, not to encourage people to keep current, but just as an automatic machine printing money for the authorities.
I hated Dunedin for fining me $65 for parking illegally for 10 minutes in an empty street, years ago. It appears that Dunedinites have a very authoritarian, grasping, top down council. Councillors were prepared to satisfy personal desires for sport enjoyment and force debt to be incurred to the tune of $millions to the ratepayer. Apparently it will do anything it wants to its residents and there is nothing that can stop its old-money, mean-minded, presbyterian tight-minded approach to its citizens.
I was in Dunedin recently and noticed the over the top parking enforcement. The street where I was staying was so empty that the warden couldn’t even walk from one car to another, but had a motorbike. I suppose someone has to pay for the Rugby stadium, much as citizens paid for cathedrals in past centuries.
Murry O
Yes I believe they had little scooters when I was there way back. And the bit about the cathedrals is too right. Pyramids also. Ozymandias despair. Let the rats get into the larder and they will take more than they should. Question to ask each electorate candidate at meetings – Are you a rat who wants to raid the community larder? And see them start and how they respond, calling on their dignity and affronted, or with a sharp look and a firm answer as to why they aren’t.
This Aussie report refers in several places to an NZ Law Commission report. It looks like the NZ Law Commission felt there were gaps in the legislation and that it needs a specific new law governing it. e.g p25:
In March 2009 the New Zealand Law
Commission (NZLC) released an issues paper
on the adequacy of New Zealand’s civil and
criminal laws in dealing with invasions of
privacy. They found a number of significant
gaps in the law.36
1.41 In February 2010 the NZLC published its
final report, Invasion of Privacy: Penalties
and Remedies, which recommended a
comprehensive model to reform the gaps
identified in the existing law regulating the use
of surveillance in New Zealand. Central to these
recommendations was the creation of a new
Surveillance Devices Act that would establish
both civil and criminal remedies in relation to
the misuse of visual surveillance, interception
and tracking devices.37
Thanks karol. I fear we are going down the paranoid surveillance state route of the UK, where you even get schools hiring private investigators using tax payers money, to follow parents they deem to be suspicious, around.
So the government asset sales now includes selling more state houses – ones that are either “in the wrong place”, or are the “wrong” sort of house. sigh is there no end to their hatred of struggling Kiwi?
Yeah Karol, i too seen Bill the Minister of Ever Widening Deficits admitting to what i have posted here a couple of times,
Got a hole in ya budget, who do you call, sure as hell ain’t Ghost Busters, get Bill ex of Dipton having tired of actually representing anyone except His self serving troughing, the right bloke to get you out of that hole,
Having double dipped His way to infamy via double dipping on His own Parliamentary housing allowance Bills going to get you all out of that hole, which incidently is the one He has overseen the making of for the past 5 years, by kicking 20% of the poorest people/families out of their’s, houses that is, so He can flog them off in an exercise of book balancing,
No worries right, after all the houses are all too big or too small and the ones Bill has no fucking intention whatsoever to build will all fit just fine, after all shop doorways are of a one size fits all nature if the poor need to get out of the winter weather and there are some fine bridges scattered across the whole country so those who Bill gives the kick will have a wide choice of accommodation,
Bills mate Nick Smith having changed the law to be able to give anyone the kick from a HousingNZ home for any old reason, strange, bizarre. or, normal, and, believe me Nick has very few of the latter, reasons that is, but, the strange and bizarre when Nick is allowed to be himself he has a veritable smogasboard of, will quite happily balance Bills books by simply ridding the poorest of their homes and selling them off to the richest,
Yea… I remember an interview (I think it was Barbara Wood) where the lady was talking about how children subjected to incest still felt powerless to stop further sexual violation by the same perpetrator as an adult.
Does Jamie White think “consent” in this type of power dynamic is ok? Sounds like another JT and Willie type to me.
I always suspected ACT on Campus was a group of guys who’d like having their invisible hands inside the intimate apparel of close relatives. Truth is almost always stranger than fiction with that lot. Given that the overt racism spewed by Banks was acceptable to the good burghers of Epsom, will this be the straw that breaks the thoroughbred horses back? No camels in Epsom, mate. Dirty Arab things!!
It’s not just the disinclination to accept the long established societal condemnation of incestuous relationships (he’s the leader of Act, so won’t believe in the existence of such a thing as society). It’s also his comparison of the risks in pregnancy over the age of 35 with; “the increased risk of congenital disorders in children from incestuous relationships”:
” The probability of having some problem with the children is greater when the mother is over the age of 35 but I’ve never heard anyone suggest that anyone over the age of 35 shouldn’t be allowed to have sex.”
This, mind you, is Whyte’s idea of a “virtuous” position. I’d hate to read the statements of his that he considers sleazy and manipulative. But no doubt there’ll be ample opportunity in coming months.
My ears didn’t deceive me today when i heard on RadioNZ National that all the ‘partners’ in 5 eyes, those who spy on their own and share the info with each other, have all been tutored in how to use various means to disrupt on-line blogs that they feel are not supportive of a particular Government,
Here i was thinking the likes of SSLands was a lowly bean counting serf for a little firm of Wellington tax lawyers with an office on the Terrace, my mind has been changed by one small article of news, the cubicle i will now have to have a think about could for all we know be one located in Pipitea Street instead,
Can anyone contemplate the stupidity of Government organizations like our GCSB or SIS, in my view stupidity personafied, having actual people in their employ with a job description of entering online debates at the likes of the Standard so as to disrupt our opposition to the current Government,
Lolz, poor old Fish-head, if He is one of the aforementioned a quick redeployment will obviously be necessary as Lprent cancelled His contract last night,
David Cunliffe says review the whole NZ apparatus of spying, my view is scrap the lot, simply close them down, turn their office building into a homeless shelter,
These people having had a taste of snooping on the citizens and even using human means to try and disrupt political blogs cannot be trusted to obey laws that would restrict their activities even if such existed,
Yes, I posted about those strategies re – the Snowden leaks yesterday. I partly meant it by way of a warning about how the right are deliberately promoting such techniques of covert action.
The various agencies may enlist others to do their actual covert action, infiltration, etc. Much like has been done in the past offline re various activist groups.
Global gold prices may have been manipulated on 50 per cent of occasions between January 2010 and December 2013, according to analysis by Fideres, a consultancy.
The findings come amid a probe by German and UK regulators into alleged manipulation of the gold price, which is set twice a day by Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, Bank of Nova Scotia and Société Générale in a process known as the “London gold fixing”.
Fideres’ research found the gold price frequently climbs (or falls) once a twice-daily conference call between the five banks begins, peaks (or troughs) almost exactly as the call ends and then experiences a sharp reversal, a pattern it alleged may be evidence of “collusive behaviour”.
“[This] is indicative of panel banks pushing the gold price upwards on the basis of a strategy that was likely predetermined before the start of the call in order to benefit their existing positions or pending orders,” Fideres concluded.
“The behaviour of the gold price is very suspicious in 50 per cent of cases. This is not something you would expect to see if you take into account normal market factors,“ said Alberto Thomas, a partner at Fideres.
I was just listening to the radio report on the USA training spy agencies to interfere with activists called hacktivists. The GCSB won’t comment as it is an operational matter. Key of course doesn’t know about it, but throws in some words about warrants being necessary.
See Karol’s post 25 February 2014 The surveillance state online.
I was wondering in today’s climate, if the terrible doctor from World War 2 Mengeles was being questioned about his horrors, would he say that he couldn’t comment because ‘it was an operational matter?. It seems as if there are no standards against which some of these people today measure their behaviour. Truly hollow men, and women too.
Key said something about the GCSB working within the law, and that he hadn’t actually seen the Snowden material. As you can see in my post, the strategies being promoted by the NSA, 5 Eyes, etc, involve ways of working around the law, so what they do is legal – but not acting within the spirit and intentions of the laws.
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It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
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From RadioNZ National news, the latest round of of talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal have ended in failure to reach agreement,
This piece of ‘pull your pants down and let us have our way with you’ stupidity is just that because the US Senate simply will not agree to a ‘trade deal’ that strips away the ‘protections’ of the US farming lobby,
‘Free trade’ is a lie, the cost of it, free trade that is, can be found in the rising number of unemployed people in our economy after every act of ‘trade liberalization’,
This cost, the unemployment on a ‘rotational basis’ so as to disguise its true effects, simply equates to a shifting of wealth within our society with the creation of a demographic of have nots as much out of employment as they are in,
The true cost of this unemployment has remained unmeasured as it has occurred over multi-decades with those negatively effected being so over periods that measure weeks, months and years, there is no measurement of the ‘human cost’…
agree. On this matter I was recently told by a good source about the Chinese Trains, apparently they are really struggling, recently needed some SKF branded bearings changed, it turned out that the SKF Bearings fitted were actually counterfeit SKF bearings. I don’t know a lot about Trains but I do know that if you purchase from a Chinese manufacturer who has fitted counterfeit bearings then you will have major major problems coming up.
The human cost of a train set that can barely keep its wheels on, all those who gave their labour year after year for the benefit of both business freight and passenger travel in this country, those from the Dunedin railway workshop made rendundant, thrown on the ever growing scrapheap of employment destroyed by trade liberalization…
I was on a picket line opposing the arrival and use of wagons from China. It makes me shiver thinking back, it was the coldest day of the year, 4.am kick off, I’ll never forget my teeth chattering on the loud hailer lol.
The subsequent amount of problems with these inferior made wagons were shameful. Brakes, bearings, poor welds, inadequate primmer/paint coating. A lession learnt is ‘you pay and continue to pay’ for what you get, and the taxpayer will pay through the nose for both Chinese made trains and wagons for many years to come.
Meanwhile many of the highly skilled workers from the workshops took their skills abroad to Aussie, others left the undignified task of battling WINZ for a subsistence payment (dole) probably the first time in their working life.
For this reason and others I am proud to have joined our local protest against the TPPA last Saturday. The TPPA will not ‘Keep New Zealanders working’.
It’s not supposed to. It’s supposed to keep lowering wages so that the rich can keep getting richer.
The fake bearings wouldn’t surprise me at all. I was told a few years back by the CEO of a tool manufacturer of a worrying increase in product failure in the Asian market. Turns out it was inferior pirate copies being badged as their stuff, right down to their own website and toll free number being prominently promoted on the packaging if customers had any complaints!
Lolz, i do so love the Asian minds ability for attention to detail…
racist..?
..with an underpinning of eugenics..?
..ew..!
phillip ure..
That Phillis is Laughable, i should have included the word She somewhere in the comment so you could accuse me of Missongloaphology as well,(did i get that spelling write,snigger)…
no..it’s not ‘laughable’..
..it is blatant..if a tad retro..anti-asian racism..
..they are yr words..all yr own work..
..and so ‘casual’ with it..eh..?
..phillip ure..
Your stupidity deepens Phillis,it’s good to see tho that you are blind to the subtle differences in the thinking of Asians V Europeans in a broad context,
Had the train set highlighted by Saarbo above been built in the US with such faults alluded to, those having used ‘pirate parts’ in the manufacture would never have ‘thunk’ for a moment to set up a 0800 number and a website to deflect and handle complaints,
An interesting story broke in the past couple of days about a supposed Lawyer attached to the TPPT negotiations having fraudulently claimed to have such a university qualification, a European He simply relied upon the claim,
i would suggest that the Asian mindset would have if such a false claim were to be made resulted in the claimant either having had someone hack the university web-site and include them in the years for having sat the relevant Lawyers degree, OR,the person wishing to assume a law degree without the intellectual capacity to have passed such a qualification would have got someone else to sit the degree for them in their name,
Drug use they say Phillis, broadens the mind, in your case tho, poly abuse of various drugs have in fact seemed to have created the opposite effect, the fact that you continue to use in spite of this would tend to suggest a reinforcement of such damage…
keep digging..
..you might even reach china..
..the rate you are going at..
..shortly..we can branch into the long history of that (unfortunate)-fact of the strong ties between fascist/racist/eugenics/far-right..and what we loosely call the ‘green’ movement..
..won’t that be fun..?
..we will be able to trace yr lineage..right back..
..as it were..
..phillip ure..
Yes of course Phillis, everyone on the planet thinks to a lesser extent just like you,
How you see ”i do love the Asian minds ability for attention to detail” as a racist slur is beyond me,
The fact that you can trot out a list of your favorites in the comment below shows that you have a tidy amount of racism you so deplore set deeply into your mind…
keep digging..
..you are almost out of sight..
phillip ure..
Racism.
Gallstone, stop it please, Phillis has already delivered that gut-buster, the neighbors will be getting itchy phone fingers listening to the gales of mad laughter emanating from my place at the likes of you…
what’s next..?
..black people make good field-hands..?
..you can’t trust those jews..?
..arabs are shifty..?
..do give us yr match-up list..
..phillip ure..
Phillis, keep em coming, it appears that it is not my head that is full of racist smears, the little list you trot out with the greatest of ease tells us all a story of an entirely different nature…
ah..!..the old he’s-a-racist-‘cos-he-said-i’m-a-racist racist/racism-defence..
..i haven’t heard that hoary old chestnut for awhile..
..and it always was a shaky defence/come-back..that one..
..phillip ure..
It doesn’t matter what you think.
Racism isn’t something where intent actually matters. Racism is something that can cause hurt and be completely unintentional by the speaker/writer. Just because you don’t think it’s racism doesn’t make it so.
Just like, me saying it is racism doesn’t automatically makes it racism, but I suspect I’m in the vast majority when saying that “yes, it is.”
Gallstone, as a latecomer to this little discussion i am going to ignore you as you have only chosen to be Phillis’s little tool on this occasion for personal spite,
That and the not inconsiderable fact that i don’t give a fuck what you think…
you’ve stopped laughing..?
..your neighbours will no doubt be relieved..
..phillip ure..
Bad12’s comment translated:
“I don’t have any way to respond so I’m going to ignore you instead.”
That’s fine. I just hope you’ve learnt that words matter.
ka-boom..!
..well..that’s bad done and dusted..
..(and obviously now marked as one to now ‘go to’ for racial-characteristic-updates..who knew..?..)
..can i suggest you go and seethe in a corner..
..somewhere..?
..(i’m almost tempted to use a smiley-face-emoticon..)
..phillip ure..
Aw Phillis, so childish of you to play little ego games of victory or loss…done and dusted has simply got me chortling again…
The fact that you have to get into a little love–fest with Gallstone in an effort to do or dust me makes me wonder…along with your little list of racist slurs so glibly trotted out in the comment above not only if the Junk has scrambled whats left of your brains…but…whether or not you are,as Gallstone appears to be…a closet ‘wing-nut’…
Phillis…you can suggest whatever it is that fires up whatever neurons that have survived the self inflicted drug binging to no effect…a bit like me suggesting that you go fetch that which you wake up every morning craving like nothing else on this earth and fire as much as possible into those aching veins…
bad12’s comment was NOT racism.
Racism is oppression, discrimination, fear or hatred of another race.
bad12’s comment was none of these. It was certainly racial or cultural stereotyping, but I think Ure (and Gladstone) making the racist call is oversensitive.
bad12 for his part is responding in a personal way to Ure which is wholly unnecessary.
Settle down all of you.
The Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, and South Koreans built their industries upon wholesale and detailed copying of western designs and technologies. This was very obvious in the early decades of both the Japanese and South Korean car industries, as well as the many cheap electronic toys and consumer goods you would get out of places like Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong in the 70’s and 80’s.
Japan pre-WWII and post WWII modelled its entire heavy industry on American approaches, right down to copying exactly the paperwork and statistical methods used in the USA.
None of this is in question.
The calls of “racism” are meaningless in the context that entire Asian nations, their leaders and their workers used these highly detailed and methodical approaches to economically leapfrog ahead. To me these calls are especially funny as it appears to underline how little understanding some people in western nations have of what actually happened and how it happened.
One bit which is actually racist IMO is all the self righteous pronouncements based solely on ones own cultural outlook and values. That and how the western powers treated SE Asia and China as backward colonies to exploit and wage horrific wars of empire in.
Exploitation of Asian workers by western powers and corporates is still rife. Now that’s actual racism. Not the silly little comments that the PC brigade appear to take great pride in demonstrating all kinds of offence at.
My whole point, obviously one that escapes both Phillis, and Gallstone as they come ‘ a hunting’ wishing to vent their personal little hard on’s they have for me is in the modern context of thought as set out in Saarbo’s comment,
i should imagine that ‘copy fraud’ is rampant in the US,(they have a whole spy network which services such),
Had the ‘train sets’ being discussed been sourced from the US with the same copy-fraud parts attached i doubt the Americans would have the subtly of thought nor the attention to detail to have set up an 0800 number or a website with which to snare complaints over the faulty parts,
Then again, that of course is simply my opinion having not deeply researched such an issue…
just yet another orifice-pluck..?..then..?
phillip ure..
and dunno if it is happening for others..but i have ‘lost’ three comments to header/blank white page..
phillip ure..
Phillis, losing comments to a blank page is simply a reflection of the inner workings of your mind…and…the effect your squirts of increasingly abusive invective have upon me…
Which equates to zero, zilch,nada,none in other words…Pssst…stop beating up on your computer…you are barely coherent…and…the blank pages might just stop…
So you stand by “Lolz, i do so love the Asian minds ability for attention to detail…” as not being remotely racist or offensive?
1) Not racism: Saying counterfeiting is rife in China.
2) Not racism: Saying that some Chinese counterfeits can be really hard to tell from the real thing because they go to a lot of trouble to make the counterfeits seem genuine.
3) Is racism: Saying that all Chinese people can’t innovate and all they can do is copy.
Gallstone, go fetch…take a poll of commenters of the Standard of Asian descent…if the majority of those polled are offended and consider my comment,(and the other comments which lead to my comment) racist…
Then i will happily withdraw and apologize for having made the remark…as far as your pretense at offense goes tho…go have sex with Phillis it will give your hand a rest…
o/t Disraeli, not sure if you would see this so am linking. This doesn’t need a response necessarily but I felt given the accusation that I had right of reply
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-25022014/#comment-778635
Bad 12, the fact that you’re so obsessed with sex and masturbation suggest you are quite young so I’m going to stop now. Like you said, you seem to think you’re done and you haven’t responded to what I said constructively but with insult.
So, we might as well stop.
wtl, i do not know if (3) is directed at CV’s comment above, but, it got a laugh outta me as i am sure it would have from CV…
tsk tsk..such a potty-mouth..
..and from such a ‘prominent’-green..
..too..
phillip ure..
There should be a Godwin-like law regarding the use of the term “potty mouth”.
Hey CV? You overlooking the historical fact that Britain built up a lot of its industrial base by copying, for example, Indian ship building technology of the time? Maybe stealing would be a more accurate term insofar as they used extreme stand over tactics to ensure that, for example, Indian ship building ceased.
Same for cotton manufacturing – chopped off weavers’ thumbs and then had all raw cotton exported to Britain.
Probably many, many more examples…
That’s because copying is the most obvious and usually the best way of learning something new. Even non-human animals do it.
Counterfeiting, of course, is not the same thing as copying, as it contains an element of deception or fraud.
Interestingly, the rise of “entrepreneurship” as a notion in Britain very quickly led to slavery… so the free market has always been more free to some than others.
that’s a first..!
..being called a member of the ‘pc brigade’…
..heh..!
..phillip ure..
For example . . .
‘Aston Martin has recently made a big announcement of a major recall which will affect about 75 percent of all cars manufactured since 2007.
This huge recall will affects at least 17,590 cars made by Aston Martin.
This reason behind the massive recall is a Chinese sub-supplier who was using counterfeit plastic material for a component which they supplied to Aston Martin.
http://speedlux.com/aston-martin-recall-75-percent-cars-2007-affects-17590-units/
Maybe we should consider changing TPP to a five way deal excluding USA and Japan.
We might find that we could have an effective relationship with the other five and forget about the machinations of USA and Japan trying to protect their own markets while being free to dump whatever they like on the rest of us.
Ron, as an opposed view, not saying you are entirely wrong, but, maybe we should consider that the economies which are buying in massive bulk our raw milk products and raw timber logs are doing so ‘in spite of’ any trade deals we may have with them,
i would suggest that such economies with growing populations are buying our primary produce simply because they ‘need’ the stuff,
The proof of this will be in 5–10 years time when the Chinese dairy industry is sufficiently geared up to supply a larger part of their ‘needs’ at which point we, a nation, will be left sitting here dick in hand with a very large problem,
i would suggest to you that the current enrichment of 40,000 dairy farmers has lead to 40,000 manufacturing jobs being lost to the Asian economies as the trade off, now the increased tax take from dairy that accrues to the Government books might look fine as it pays the extra dole payments and more,
BUT,
The miserable level of dole payments, and yes, in the current climate of rotational employment such misery is ‘shared around’,(mostly among the already poor), no account of the human misery inherent in such a system is thought of as of such import as to be quantified…
Free trade is good. It is a largely responsible for the huge drop in worldwide poverty. It has its flaws. There are some concerns. Developed countries need to make sure they still offer protection for developing countries (and the GATT/WTO does this). But free trade is good.
The TPPA isn’t free trade. It looks like it is going to have various level of protectionism written into it to protect the US while removing any worthwhile protection for the other countries.
So, free trade is good.
TPPA is not so good.
Interestingly, the rise of “entrepreneurship” as a notion in Britain very quickly led to slavery… so the free market has always been more free to some than others.
I don’t really see how you can make such a general statement. Free trade in itself is neither good or bad, what really matters is the outcome of free trade.
In an extreme example, let’s say country X produced all their food using slave labour and country Y does not uses slaves and instead has workers that are paid fairly. Originally country Y had trade barriers to prevent the food from country X entering their markets, but a free trade agreement removed these barriers. Next thing, the food from country X starts dominating the market in country Y because it is cheaper, so country X acquires more slaves to increase production volume.
Was free trade in this example good?
Yes, I know you caveated your response, but I think simply shouting slogans like “free trade is good” is extremely unhelpful to proper discourse.
to be fair, he didnt purport to have any evidence, just an opinion.
Tree good.
Fire bad.
All the evidence indicates that it’s not.
We built ourselves up to a first world nation through protectionism (So did the UK and USA) and now that we’ve dropped that we’re steadily going backwards. We seeing increased poverty and a declining manufacturing base (it really is the manufacturing base that puts a country into “developed” status). And we’ve done it all because a few people wanted to be richer.
11 Outrageous Arguments Against Legalizing Marijuana
“..Nearly 80 years ago –
the feature film “Reefer Madness” hit theaters –
projecting demonstrably false anti-marijuana propaganda all over the big screen.
In today’s era of legal medical and recreational cannabis-
the tone of this movie is often mocked.
But drug warriors are still employing many of the same hysterical arguments –
to prop up their campaign against weed..”
(cont..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/marijuana-legalization-arguments_n_4789444.html
phillip ure..
Are you arguing for the legalization of the current addiction which you use as the poly-addicts crutch to subdue your craving for a stronger addiction simply based upon your personal financial situation and availability of supply Phillip…
i understand the above ‘commenter’ is a ‘green’..(!)..(they do say it’s a broad church..but..y’know..!..)
..and i had the thought the other day..
..what if it is a ‘prominent’ green..?
..whoar..!
..eh..?
..phillip ure..
”What if it is a prominent Green”, well Phillip what if i am, my denial of course quickly follows but then i am one of the opinion that ‘prominence’ or lack of it is simply an ego contest and the Green’s have need of ‘leaders’ with prominence only as far as being able to fit into the current power structures,
In reality i am a supporter of legalization with no attached codicils and i neither smoke the Lady Jane nor drink alcohol,
Got your heart rate going at a normal level for the morning did i Phillis…
Exactly bad12.
I don’t use either drug but I’d be happy to see decriminalisation – if I thought that people like Mr Ure would take some personal responsibility for their ellipsis abuse.
i can’t..i’ve got a 300 a day ellipsis-monkey on my back..
..i’ve tried uses dashes (-) as a form of methadone..
..but i seem to lapse on a regular basis..
..phillip ure..
lol – guess I need to own up to my own hyphen habit.
i congratulate you on yr ‘hyphen-habit’..
..if it means you have banished that most annoying of all punctuation-affectations..
..the ever-ugly comma..
(the only other that comes close in ugliness..is that (neither here nor there)..semi-colon..)
..tho’ i am a firm fan of the colon..
..it’s brutalist efficiency appeals..
..you know where you stand..with a colon..
phillip ure..
Hmmm, not so sure Matt McCarten’s consistent history of great ideas that go nowhere is the right fit for Labour. But Greg Presland (who he?) sounds like our kinda guy.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9763705/Matt-McCarten-tipped-for-top-Labour-position
Hehe.
I can confirm that I will not be the next chief of staff. Announcement today at 1 pm …
Talk about fear and loathing in the beehive. I will eat my leather stetson if Matt gets this role. Someone with Unite type views would have to top the usual bland “yes Minister” careerists though.
d’ya want some sauce with that stetson..?
..phillip ure..
habanero thanks…
will you be ‘streaming’ the sauce-smothered-stetson eating-deed..?
..(i’ll supply the sauce..if that’ll help make it happen..)
..shall we say 1.10 pm 2day..?
..shortly after the official announcement of mccartens’ appointment is made..?
phillip ure..
um..stetson-eating..?
…when..?..where..?
phillip ure..
Bugger!
Damn.
Still, on the bright side, I suspect a chief or staff would not be free to blog at TS.
Those being mentioned seem to be actual left-wingers which must be a good sign (desperate for good signs from Labour – but won’t be holding my breath).
Can we get Frank Underwood ex House of Cards. He would be so helpful
Micky, you are one of the reasons I still have faith in the Labour party. Not that I vote for them you understand 😉 but am still hoping they get their shit together (for their own sake and everyone else’s) and it’s people like you that make think this is still possible.
ditto, in every respect
Thanks weka 😳
Interesting, might fit in with the big ‘Slurp’ Matt gave to the Alfred E. Nuemann of television jonolism Patrick Gower in His weekend Herald column,
Getting onside with the media would probably fit in with the ‘job description’ but did Matt have to be so blatant in what looked like giving Gower a tongue bath with the comment He,(Gower), was ”a frighteningly good journalist”…
It all makes sense to me now Bad12. I was somewhat bemused with Matt’s suck up to Gower, actually thought he was taking the piss. Truth be known Gower is Garner’s attack dog… all be it a skittery goofy type dog at that.
I think the idea behind Matt is that they can’t rely on the media to tell their story so they are putting energy into grassroots organising.
Matt would bring a much needed double edge sword to the messaging being relayed. He would as you say counter the media spin on things. Of course the bias media would try bypassing him altogether. I note Helen Kelly has said it’s highly unlikely. Must be some push back from the ‘old’ Unions. Nice thinking of what might have been I guess.
It would be a real back straightener if Mc Carten got the job. I’ve always liked Matt’s skills campaigning as he cuts through the nonsense and remains focused on the task at hand.
I won’t hold my breath he will get the appointment, too many obstacles like the beltway and last stand MP’s. If he does, expect a much needed no nosense approach. Are you in or are out!
tho’ surprised at mccarten getting in bed with what has been his ‘enemy’ ..for so many neo-lib years..
..i am encouraged at the (possible) confirmation of some seachange-policies coming up from labour..
..as i can’t see mccarten signing up to help steer a same-old same-old neo-lib ship…
..so all in all..
..good news..
..and yes..!..as noted above..mccartens’ surprise tongue-bath of/on gower the other day..
..now comes clearer into focus..
..as to ‘why?’..
phillip ure..
hooten was just on nat-rad..and seems to be somewhat panicky..
..and we are told that a david talbot will be labours’ campaign-director..
..i know nothing of him..
..but i understand he has strong mana/green ties..
..(the neo-lib apologist labour mp’s will be freaking out..
(..lefties to the left of them..lefties to the right..)
..the walls having been breached..and all that..)
..but i am encouraged by these straws in the winds of change..
..phillip ure..
mod -mod mod..mod mod-eration..
..(sung to tune ”barbara-ann’..beach boys..)
phillip ure..
“hooten was just on nat-rad..and seems to be somewhat panicky..”
heard that too – it seems to be scaring him (Hooton) shitless – not just panicky. Out came all that “far left” kaka.
……. and just as an aside PU – do you know of a recent study that shows excessive use of pot is as bad as alcohol regarding Hep C recovery, etc. (That’s a question btw). It’d certainly explain my brother’s demise. But then he was a greedy guts when it came to anything, along with a needle fetish.
don’t know of that..
..that wasn’t my recent experience..
..and i was very open about my pot-use..
..and/yet received no health/pot-warnings..
..when raised..it was brushed aside as inconsequential..
..sorry to hear about yr brother..
..did he turn to alcohol..?
..many ex-junkies do..
..and that is perhaps the worst thing they could do..
..for their already battered liver..
..phillip ue..
Can you imagine how much fun Kiwiblog, WO, Gower, Garner, etc are going to have with McCarten is in Cunliffe’s office considering his less than stellar history with UNITE paying tax. Anytime, Labour brought up multinational companies not paying their fair share, it would instantly be shut out with questions about “doesn’t your Chief of Staff have the same problems?”
Its been confirmed on RNZ via text to Hooten from Mc Carten.
alliance breaks from labour, now an alliance man advising the labour leader…
I got to self-righteously and triumphantly ring my bell at a member of the lycra-clad plutocratic cycling elite today.
A small victory for the working man.
i hate that ‘ lycra-clad plutocratic cycling elite’..
..(mainly ‘cos of the ‘lycra’..)
phillip ure..
Now what we need the complete netwrk of dedicated fully separated bike lanes across every city in the country.
BTW TransportBlog and GenZero guys did a good presentation ot the Auckland Transport Board yesterday – very slick, very positive, and challenging.
And a separate lanes for working class three-speeds and another for the lyrca-clad plutes….
@ red-logix..
1..
..can’t we put them in a tunnel..?
..so we don’t have to look at them..?
..oh..!..the humanity..!
..phillip ure..
i think there should be an age-limit on lycra-use..
..(i dunno what the cut-off age should be..but as an example..mallard is well past that date..)
..and at that (to be determined) age..cyclists must be forced to shed the ever-more-spongy to the touch lycra..
..and into (sensible) jodhpur-styling trousers..
..preferably made of corduroy ..(and whale-cord..at that..)..
..can we have a referendum on this..?
..phillip ure..
You’ve just blown it Phillip.
After your desperate attempt to secure a wife the other day I felt a little sorry for you and I decided to play match-maker. I searched high and low for someone special who would get you out of your rut and had all but convinced a slightly crazy eccentric vegan lady I know to take a chance on you. Once she answered affirmative to the ‘do you really really like Nutella’ question I was certain there was some hope for you.
But this age-limit you have suggested for wearing lycra has given her cold feet because she’s a keen cyclist and (although prefers her birthday suit when riding) often wears the tight-fitting apparel.
So I’m sorry but you’ll have to be content for the time being with your four legged pet dog for a little while longer, but all is not lost; just be thankful Lucy(?) doesn’t have a nut allergy 😀
fender…sometimes i just feel like breaking up some somebodys home…
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Jimmy+Johnson+Blues+Band/_/Feel+Like+Breaking+Up+Somebody%27s+Home
(many have covered this..but this is my favourite..the jimmy johnson blues band are/were basically the muscle shoals house-band..
..it must be listened to loud..)
..phillip ure..
Beautiful. Enjoyed yesterdays Jeff Healey track too. Was a shame to lose Jeff in 2008, a rare talent and another amazing example of a blind person having an other-worldly talent for making music.
Interesting readers poll on Stuff.co this morning asking what are the main concerns for voters in this election year,
At number one by a country mile, the economy 39.4%,(its–the–economy–stupid),
Second, who would have thunk it,Affordable Housing 12.7%,(hopefully the relevant parties can ‘see’ that this also includes affordable rentals, rebuild the numbers in the States portfolio please),
Third, but hardly least, Unemployment 8.2%,(i should imagine that if the dole wasn’t such a disgustingly low level of ‘at least they can eat but only if they ‘choose’ to live under a bridge’ the employment issue might have rated higher than 3rd)…
I voted afforable housing. It has a significant direct impact on more people than unemployment. Those worried about affordable housing include the unemployed as well as many low paid, precarious and employed people.
Edit: That poll is a bit of a push poll, with “the economy” at the top of the list. It’s a general term that encompasses aspects of most of the other things on the list.
I don’t generally pay attention to self-selecting polls such as that on Stuff – can you “vote” multiple times on that one the way you can with the NZH?
The recent Roy Morgan has a better sampling method than most published polls (still phone interviews, but at least includes cell phones – though the 14+ age-group will include some not eligible to vote this year). They also define what issues they regard as “economic” (42%, but that includes 7% “unemployment/ job security”), no category directly corresponds to “Affordable Housing” but “Cost of Living/ Increasing Prices/ Financial Hardship/ Household Debt” seems closest (5% also categorised as “economic”).
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5445-issues-facing-new-zealand-world-february-2014-201402210457
“Poverty/ The Gap Between Rich & Poor/ Imbalance of Wealth” (16%) was the largest issue of the “Economic” category (42%). “Social Apathy/ Lack of Values/ Lack of Empathy Toward Others/ Intolerance” (5%) for the “Social issues” (21%). “Government/ Politicians/ Leadership/ Government Spending” (8%) for “Government/ Public Policy/ Human Rights issues” (19%). “Environmental Issues/ Degradation” (4%) for “Environmental issues” (9%). However 8% were “Can’t say”; of the “993 men and women aged 14 or over [who] were interviewed by telephone in February 2014”.
Looking at the trend from Oct 2012, it appears economic issues have reduced in priority for the population studied (from 57% to 42%). Whereas; Social issues (13% to 21%); Government issues (14% to 19%); & Environmental issues (4% to 9%), have all increased.
I said affordable housing also… People first baby!
I take it to mean rent too karol.
Just an observation, but 1 and 3 are concerns that essentially ‘get in behind’ and push in the direction of unsustainability.
Interesting. Fran reckons that Mr Prebble will get Mr Key out of a tricky spot by “forcing” the retirement age up to 67 as part of a deal when/if ACT gets some MPs into Parliament. Mr Key would be able to say, “They made me break my vows. Pity that.”
Key has recently said that if they broke their word on that, voters would ask what else they would break their word on.
So I think it’s a bridge to far for Key, and they’d really only go there if Act had a significant, required, presence (say 6+ seats) which I don’t think they have a hope in hell of getting.
Prebble thinks they can get to 9 seats, which is just la-la-land thinking. Jamie Whyte himself is aiming for 5, but I think they’ll be lucky to get 2-3.
If it was a condition for regaining power, Key would claim that it is the price of that MMP that people wanted and that his hands were tied.
Like Charter Schools? An ACT condition but not what National wanted. Really. National did not want Charter Schools. Really and truly!
Was that wee Matty Hooton i just heard on RadioNZ’s Nine to Noon, screeching like a demented child that David Cunliffe had promised a far left Government over and over as if some psychiatrist practicing hypnosis had put the ‘spinner under’ and then forgot to bring Him back to reality,
Labour wee Matty is a very broad church and thus must appeal to a broad cross section of the community from those living on benefits to those in the comfortable middle class,
So of course the message to different audiences is going to be different, just as Slippery the Prime Minister carries in His carpet bag various disguises so as to enable Him to ponce among those attending the Big Gay Out, and, preen among the fat-cats of the Business Roundtable or whatever their new disguise happens to be…
it’s wednesday, i thought monday was his soapbox day?
Usually, but Ryan got both Hooton and Williams on again this morning to discuss the McCarten rumour. She kept stressing that it was the middle of the night or similar for Hooton, so don’t know where he was calling in from. Obviously somewhere overseas.
so now it’s news to discuss something not actually official yet? Good God. Did mike say ” I agree with Mathew?”
The sooner we legalise dope, the better, especially for Hooton’s blood pressure come election time
It would mean less stupid, mindless ranting though 😉
For James Thrace:
Hi James. Thanks for your response on Open Mike on Monday in regard to newly “announced” Labour candidate for Ohariu, Virginia/Ginny Anderson.
I detected a sense of annoyance from you, that I hadn’t read your earlier comment from 11th February stating that she was indeed the candidate, as a response to my questioning when Labour would announce their Ohariu candidate. Apologies – I spend too much time here at TS as it is and usually don’t get overly involved in discussions, as much as I would like too, so hadn’t checked up on follow on comments.
It would have been good if I had on that occasion however because I would have known two weeks earlier.
I continue to remain in a state of puzzlement about the way the candidacy hasn’t been trumpeted given the importance of this electorate,and Epsom, is to National.
Sorry Rosie, didn’t mean for it to come across as annoyed! Definitely not my intention though I can appreciate it did seem like it.
I am concerned that this late in the piece, for a new candidate with no name recognition, Labour will lost Ohariu.
Chauvel did well in Ohariu in successive elections through constant door knocking and street corner meetings over 8(?) years.
I don’t believe that the new girl will achieve the same level of succes, and moreso that Wadestown, a highly blue area, is now included in Ohariu.
Although, it could be seen that Dunnes sell out may be the death of his political career, but unfortunately people are so anti labour that they may yet again allow the Hair to live again.
No worries James 🙂
I share your concerns, but as mentioned, am trying to keep a lid on them, as I may potentially offer to support her campaign in this electorate. (I have no idea who she is, apart from the small amount of her work history outlined in the RNZ piece).
One thing possibly to go on is the 64.6% out of a 49% turn out of Ohariu voters who voted NO in the asset sales referendum. If they come out in force with a Labour vote there may be some hope. In the meantime there is a huge amount of work to be done, quickly!
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/02/26/breaking-exclusive-matt-mccarten-to-be-appointed-cunliffes-chief-of-staff-the-revolution-will-be-televised/#comments
Confused. “TDB is calling the Chief-of-Staff position for Matt McCarten.” is not the same thing as announcing his appointment to the position. Just curious as to whether that’s designed as a way to break an embargo on an announcement or if it’s wishful thinking on the part of ‘Bomber’.
MS says above there will be an announcement at 1pm today…………
Yay, didn’t have to click on TDB link.
@ rosie..
..can i ask what you have got against tdb..?
..to be so averse as to cheer at not having to click on a link to it..?
..i don’t comment there because of past censorship..
..(i would rather have the likes of bad ranting on about junkie-me at me..boring tho’ it may be..than he be silenced..)
..but there are useful articles posted there,,
..and their roundups of local blog-action are well worth the effort..
..and show up the offerings of pete-george-pimp/wannabe-acceptable-gatekeeper edwards-the-younger..in his corporate-trout role in the herald..
..as the lite-weight efforts they are..
..what’s yr prob..?
..phillip ure..
Hi phillip.
Well, I’ve already blathered on about the reasons enough here at TS and don’t want to bore folks, but for your benefit I will blather a little more.
Main reason: same as you, previous censorship experiences such as not having comments posted, albeit just a couple, or them being held in moderation all day.
Other reasons:
Bad experiences with trolls, I just couldn’t be bothered continuing commenting. The worst was a guy who high jacked a conversation I was having with a woman about men who use porn as form of harassment towards women (I don’t want to go into this discussion here by the way: the example I had given was about a close friend who had been traumatised by her partner) The guy went on and said it was her fault etc and was being a complete A- hole. He ended up with heaps of “thumbs up” and I got plenty of “thumbs down”. Sounds petty but I felt quite freaked out about that and annoyingly he got free reign in the comments section where as I had to wait in moderation.
Bad experiences with Martyn: One time he just nutted out in an anti Wellington tirade of an article. His trigger for the tirade was a report he linked that indicated that Auckland received less infrastructure dollar per capita than anywhere else and that Wellington received more than Auckland per capita. It was basically a a no holds barred hate speech in which he made up all sorts of bullshit about Wellingtonians as a group. He sounded like a 5 year old who had his toys taken from him. I tried to reason with him but he just packed a sad.
Disappointing, as previously I had given positive feedback and had been supportive of their efforts in the early days.
This article came a couple of weeks after the TICS talk that TDB hosted in Wellington in late August last year. There was an embarrassingly poor turnout and that would have left him out of pocket. Maybe the article was him taking his revenge. I don’t know.
Personally although I believe his heart is in the right place he does appear to have a fragile ego and is prone to outbursts. (Remember Green Storm troopers!).
Yes, there are excellent authors in TDB but I don’t want to support a site where I don’t’ feel welcome and where I am insulted. You could say it’s personal.
Rosie
It was “Emerald Storm Troopers” (as in “Imperial Storm Troopers”; Star Wars allusion). Which I found ironic due to one of 4 principles of the Green Party charter being Non-Violence.
Bradbury isn’t really about facts as such; not that he intentionally deceives, but neither he does he let excessive consideration get in the way of a turn of phrase. I actually think his persona worked best back when he was doing his Bomber’s Blog comedic infotainment TV bit. The demands of running TDB may not be the best fit for his talents. Though he does seem to have boundless energy – when QoT was disentangling herself from TDBs clutches she had a line about three-quarters of the posts being written by half a dozen middle-aged white men. My opinion is that fully half the content (barring comments) is produced by that one man.
That said, I still read it; though rarely comment and often get snagged in moderation limbo myself when I try. If I boycotted every publication where I disagreed with the editorial decisions I’d never read any newspapers.
Lol. In moderation whilst talking about moderation on TDB, phillip. Hopefully you will receive your answer shortly.
Hmmm, o.k, it’s been one hour twenty now…………….was it the t….s?
i find singing ‘mod mod mod mod mod-eration’..
to the tune of barbara -ann..
..sometimes works..
..phillip ure..
I noticed. I’ll do the harmony.
Coulda been the potentially defamatory things I said about Martyn Bradbury, seeing as we’re being watchful of fragile ego’s and their propensity for defamation cases – although I wouldn’t put Bradbury in the same league as Craig…………
Bradbury links to a Stuff article calling it for McCarten – via an alleged leak from Mike Williams.
Why does it need to be leaked at all?
Not cheered.
Anyone who says he thinks Parick Gower is an outstanding journalist either lacks judgment, or is a liar. Also his tactical and uniting skills didn’t work out that well for the Alliance.
Was a time when I would have been happy – but reading McCarten’s column doesn’t inspire confidence.
Just had a thought though, McCarten was an honourary ABC before Cunliffe won. Maybe there is some Mchiavellian genius at work here, not yet visible to the naked eye.
“Not cheered”
Neither. Sure, there might be good tactical/political reasons as to why DC (or whoever gets to make the call) would appoint a man who is so consistently ‘out for himself’ and willing to ride any bandwagon on the go, to such a team leading position. Bit beyond me to figure it though.
To be fair, the alliance was royally fucked by anderton – Mccarten mad a decent attempt, as I recall.
But I’ve never been into his column – and wasn’t he one of the bold Waitakere Men for a comment or two? Or was that just JT and WJ?
remember lailla hare’s parental leave stuff has mad eit to law, braddford’s change to s59a and other alliance measures are implemented. It seems only natural that IF labour is moving toward its roots, that alliance type policy and thinking wouldbe re-embraced
true true
Breath ain’t bated, tho’ 🙂
I am trying to think why Williams would leak it. he’s a cunliffe supporter isn’t he, or did he just think Cunliffe would win leadership which isnt the same thing at all.
perhaps they think the alliance leaning labour non voter is highh among the 800,000 non voters?
Bit much entrails-reading for me
williams was a shane jones supporter..then a robertson supporter..
..he is a fully paid up member of the abc’s…
..a man who took every opportunity to sneer at/belittle any idea of cunnliffe being the one to lead labour..
..week after week he used his pulpit on nat-rad to push this message..
..a man totally on the wrong side of history..in so many ways..
..(who tho’..will rewrite his own..on the hoof..)
..a man so drenched in hubris/ignorance..
..he can’t even seem to see how bad/wrong neo-lib was/is..
..not a hint of any contrition from him..(of..’shit..!..we got it wrong..!’..)
..let alone any acceptance of the needed change..
..he is now just doomed to forever ‘agree with matthew’..
..phillip ure..
did you hear hooton whining and lying again on RNZ this morning.
He is sh*t scared because Matt Mcarten will get the job done and he will have lost his number one client and have to sell weetbix for a living.
Matt mcarten? What is David Cunliffe and his advisors thinking?
We need a voice of moderation and common sense to counteract National, not a shill unionist.
bring back stuart nash..?..y’reckon..?
..he’s got enough ‘moderation’ and ‘common sense’ to bore the opposition into submission..
..is this the tactic you are advocating..?
(and nice typo..on the ‘shill’..eh..?..)
phillip ure..
Ernst & Young consulting partner walks away from million dollar job to blow whistle on Dubai blood Gold trade
Going against big money, defying your own institution, and killing your corporate career in the process. Sometimes that’s exactly what it takes, but so few people do it, deciding to succumb to careerism instead.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26341072
Wow right at the start of that story the journalist’s name is outstanding – Andy Verity.
But reading on I wonder would withholding gold mined in conflict areas be good, because it furthers human rights abuses and funds armed guerilla groups which could be people like the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda? Or would it be bad because it denied armed guerilla groups funding so that they could carry on a fight against cruel, totalitarian governments?
Then another confusing thing – it is normal for gold-painted silver to be received as if it was real gold?
Alice in Wonderland seems like an imaginative scenario for today.
Well, it would be normal if the “gold” came from legitimate sources and you had a stash of real gold from other sources – it adds up in the books. 4 tons in (silver), 4 tons out(gold), profit is essentially the same as the gold price (silver’s pretty cheap on that scale).
And if you’re also refining silver ore, you simply record after the fact that the ore’s purity was surprisingly high, so you got 4 tons of silver from dirt. And everything you have to sell looks kosher.
According to RadioSport hosts no one would ever walk away from big money.
I just heard on National radio 11am news that Mighty River Power has an increased return to its shareholders. Partly this was achieved by some weasel words along the lines of, “reduced exposure to commercial interests”.
Now, I read recently that power prices to business are cheaper, deliberately so, and the price to domestic consumers is higher since we don’t have the same commercial clout/interests/favour. The Mighty River website confirms today that its sales in the low-price commercial sector are down 9%, and sales are down 11% over all.
Am I right therefore in saying that the recently sold Might River Power, once an asset wholly owned by the state and people, with returns going back to the people, is now more profitable, and that this profit which was taken from the backs of the domestic consumer, i.e. the people, is now being returned half to its new private and wealthy owners and half to the government which also represents the wealthy?
Could this increased profit have been engineered as a fillip to the government’s further assets sales, the viability of which which have been compromised by low share prices and demand?
Mighty River Power was a pork barrel job pure and simple.
The New Zealand economy is not big enough to hide financial depredations and legalised liens on the taxpayer so this is the only way they can do it.
Feminist infighting and activist groups self destructing: “Death of a Revolutionary”
(By Susan Faludi)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/04/15/130415fa_fact_faludi
Thanks for the link to a very interesting article, CV.
You have been very selective with your cherry picked quotes there, failing to put them in context. The article is from mid 2013, is an obituary for Shilamuth Firestone, and sets this in context of her role among New York radical feminists.
The kinds of factions, struggles and personality conflicts referred to, can be seen across the left in various countries, and not just within the US feminist movement. And it puts that in the context of the first and second waves of feminism – the way each wave has risen, bringing with it much needed changes, then been appropriated and weakened – and along with that, often the full story has been revised and/or written out of history.
Firestone is characterised as a brilliant, energised, but divisive figure, suffering from schizophrenia. Ultimately the story of her final years makes sad reading. I read her book, “The Dialectic of Sex”, way back. An interesting but flawed theory. She did provide some very significant insights: she modelled her theory on Marx’s dialectic, but posited that the primary social divide was one of gender. She was criticised for her biological determinism, as she argued that the basis of female oppression was the role of women in the reproduction of the species. She argued that the rise of new technologies (of birth control etc), would free women from their biology and their oppression.
In Faludi’s article, she outlines Firestone’s role within the US radical feminist strand of feminism, especially in the late 60s and early 70s. In the US liberal feminism dominated. They wanted an equal role for women within the existing social structure. Radical feminists wanted to change the whole social structure.
Unfortunately, it seems that Firestone wanted to hold on to some key features of US culture: she wasn’t keen on the move to non-hierarchical structures favoured by both the radical left, and left wing feminists, including most radical feminists. The whole of the NY radical feminist strand seemed also to not want to let go of aspects of the wider US celebrity culture, favoring “star” writers/leaders etc.
My understanding of Firestone and the work of Kate Millet, was gained from my perspective in the late 70s early 80s women’s movement in London. The dominant strand of feminism in the UK in the 70s was socialist feminism. There was a secondary strand of radical feminists – there was much cross fertilisation of ideas and practice between strands. There was far less of a tendency to make stars out of key theorists.
FYI
LATEST LEN BROWN UPDATE:
26 February 2014
Graham McCready
9:04 AM (2 hours ago)
The Auckland Electoral Officer confirmed yesterday to Grace Haden the former Police Prosecutor that her complaint of a $750,000 election donation fraud has been referred to the Police for investigation.
Len Brown now finds himself in the same position as John Banks in 2012. That police investigation led eventually by way of a private prosecution to hi(s) committal to trial in the High Court.
Again if the Police do not prosecute the New Zealand Private Prosecution Service will.
The Len Brown election allegation may be coupled with a Police investigation for money laundering the donations through the New Auckland Council Trust
Graham McCready
Prosecutor for NZPPS Ltd
…………………….
Again – ever wondered why you haven’t heard Prime Minister John Key say a bad thing against Auckland Mayor Len Brown?
Because, in my considered opinion, Auckland Mayor Len Brown, is Prime Minister John Key’s ‘little helper’, doing a GREAT job looking after Sky City, property developers and BIG business interests ……
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption/ anti-privatisation’ campaigner.
Grrace Haden once said and did some disgraceful things in her blind pursuit of a single person. She did not give a damn about the innocent folks she damaged along the way. There is searching for truth and there is distorting the reality to fit your version of truth.I have little faith in the integrity of any allegations and alleged supporting evidence supplied by Ms Haden. Statistically, even the misguided, can be right once.
I have worked with Grace Haden for many years, know her to be both very capable and helpful, and have the evidence to support this.
I am not aware of the matter to which you are referring, but would equally remind you of the old adage ‘ one swallow doesn’t make a summer’.
Penny Bright
I would remind you that wrecking one innocent person’s life is not a trifle.
As a non-Aucklander bemused by this sad vendetta against Len Brown, I do hesitate to ask but,where did this $750,000 “fraud” come from?
I know many people make out the Greens are crazy but you knnow, they are the only party that could have plans to alleviate the kinds of “disasters” that would impact hugely on big business. ironic yeah?
I speak of their exploration of solar and wind technologies which could one day cut off major black outs at the pass.
yep..!..that’ll do it..!
..slap a solar panel on the roof..and buy a prius..
..we won’t need to do anything else..eh..?
..we can still nod and wink to the really big elephant in the ‘green’ room..
..the dairy industry..eh..?
..no mention of the upcoming massive changes we are going to have to undertake..
..as a people and as a country..
..to have any hope of staving off disaster..
..don’t want to scare the horses..!..eh..?
..have to be seen as ‘a safe/calm pair of hands..eh..?
..when what they should be doing..
..is screaming alarms/warnings from the bloody roof-tops..
..they should be flaming radicals..using their pulpit for what it is meant..
..telling people what is coming up,,
..if we/they don’t get our shit together..
..and soon..
..but i think they are too busy..
..bbq-ing…
..the blind..gently leading the blind to the cliff-edge.
..(but they were so polite/nice!..with it..)
Sorry mate, you should realise by now that the mainstream political parties are by definition part of the establishment. And they will not do anything radical without radical pressure placed upon them by the wider populace through mass movements.
Having a bitch about them is good and all, but won’t change that simple political fact.
you are denying all the major changes of history..
..and yes..they will have to be dragged there..
..but dragged there they will be..
..or else they will be swept away..
..phillip ure..
I’m not “denying all the major changes of history” as much as I am describing them. I think that much was clear about the point I was making.
i think it’s ok to harangue/yell at them..
..to hurry them up..
..to get their shit together..
..what else are ya gonna do..?
..phillip ure..
Oh yeah I do that too, online, on paper, in person.
MEDIA ALERT: ‘Len Brown – Stand Down Coalition’ PROTEST:
Auckland Mayor Len Brown is certainly NOT ‘New Zealander of the Year!’
According to the following Auckland Mayoral Office Media Advisory, Len Brown is to attend the Kiwibank ‘New Zealander of the Year’ award, to be held at the Auckland Langham Hotel, (83 Symonds Street, Grafton) tonight, at 7pm.
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/SiteCollectionDocuments/aboutcouncil/mayorelectedrepresentatives/mayordiary20140224.pdf
” Wednesday 26 February
7pm Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year”
“Members of the ‘Len Brown – Stand Down’ coalition and supporters, will be holding a colourful protest outside the Langholm Hotel, from 6pm.
https://maps.google.co.nz/maps?ie=UTF-8&q=The+Langham&fb=1&gl=nz&hq=Map+Langham+Hotel+Auckland&cid=17989029583253604632&ei=dyUNU-OhLueciAfHq4BQ&ved=0CPoBEPwSMAs
The attendance of Mayor Len Brown at this event, is a disgrace.
We believe that he is not fit for duty, and should resign forthwith,” says coalition Spokesperson Dick Cuthbert.
“The pressure on Mayor Len Brown to stand down, has significantly increased with today’s news that a complaint to the Electoral Office, alleging electoral fraud against Len Brown, has been handed over to the Police for investigation,” says coalition member, anti-corruption campaigner, Penny Bright.
Penny Bright …………………..
Dick Cuthbert ………………….
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
26 February 2014
Graham McCready
The Auckland Electoral Officer confirmed yesterday to Grace Haden the former Police Prosecutor that her complaint of a $750,000 election donation fraud has been referred to the Police for investigation.
Len Brown now finds himself in the same position as John Banks in 2012. That police investigation led eventually by way of a private prosecution to hi(s) committal to trial in the High Court.
Again if the Police do not prosecute the New Zealand Private Prosecution Service will.
The Len Brown election allegation may be coupled with a Police investigation for money laundering the donations through the New Auckland Council Trust
Graham McCready
Prosecutor for NZPPS Ltd
Any reason your group doesn’t demand Key step down for qall his lies and lies and lies… he’s an Auckland Mp afterall?
It might be a little difficult finding a former police persecutor who was willing to use her dubious professional skills against Key. I can’t think of any profession that I would trust less. That sex is involved makes me think instantly of Graeme Capill. This whole thing against Brown is sordid and cheap, especially when there is no campaign for a left wing candidate to replace him.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11210282
interesting when bloggers from the left and right all have issues with the article
A huge number of Labour electorates across the country have electorate nominations closing on Friday, 28 February. This will be interesting when we hear the results in March. CViper are you there?
Hi GW, I will not be standing as a candidate this year, but will be very active in the Labour Party on other fronts.
Joan Withers …. not a patch on Joan Rivers – not even Joan River’s nether regions.
But I’ll give her an A+ for trying hard. Give the neolibs another + for appointing her.
No doubt she’ll be joining Jenny and Burton down on the ranch for a BeeBee Q in the not-too-distant – unless some “far left cnut” jumps up and spoils their plan.
Oh well – burnt steaks darling! We can improvise. A haw haw haw.
(I think you’ve already said that! – such is the nature of our 3rdWorld Interweb)
not sure whether this has been featured on TS…but interesting to see a former National cabinet minister having a good poke at the current lot… http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/perspective/9732947/Doughnut-represents-Ceras-failings
Mass surveillance state reaches Dunedin roads
It seems that earlier this month, the first vehicle number plate recognition cameras went live in Dunedin. An extensive network of these cameras is being planned around the city. The cameras digitally record the number plate of every single passing vehicle for real time character recognition analysis, number plate data matching and storage. The data is currently being used to issue instant fines to vehicles without current WOFs and rego’s.
There will be many other uses to this real time data as well, beyond that of mass traffic enforcement.
Personally, I think that the way these cameras have been introduced, and their potential uses within a surveillance state apparatus, are extremely disturbing.
Does anyone here know what legislation empowers the use of these cameras in the issuance of vehicle infringements?
Disturbing – but maybe it’ll drive more people onto public transport, or to walk, or get a bicycle?
Pity that it doesn’t work out for you this time CV, but if you can increase your public interaction, perhaps you can provide some balance in the Council next time and seek an electorate position later.
I’ll be interested in what you find Colonial Viper about this surveillance. I find it very disturbing that checking to see if WoFs and other certificates are current is being used as an excuse to place the populace under surveillance.
And particularly seeing that WoFs are being downgraded as a regular check.
It’s like creating a type of law that will be easy to break (forgetting) and then hitting people with large fines, not to encourage people to keep current, but just as an automatic machine printing money for the authorities.
I hated Dunedin for fining me $65 for parking illegally for 10 minutes in an empty street, years ago. It appears that Dunedinites have a very authoritarian, grasping, top down council. Councillors were prepared to satisfy personal desires for sport enjoyment and force debt to be incurred to the tune of $millions to the ratepayer. Apparently it will do anything it wants to its residents and there is nothing that can stop its old-money, mean-minded, presbyterian tight-minded approach to its citizens.
Cheers, GW.
I was in Dunedin recently and noticed the over the top parking enforcement. The street where I was staying was so empty that the warden couldn’t even walk from one car to another, but had a motorbike. I suppose someone has to pay for the Rugby stadium, much as citizens paid for cathedrals in past centuries.
Murry O
Yes I believe they had little scooters when I was there way back. And the bit about the cathedrals is too right. Pyramids also. Ozymandias despair. Let the rats get into the larder and they will take more than they should. Question to ask each electorate candidate at meetings – Are you a rat who wants to raid the community larder? And see them start and how they respond, calling on their dignity and affronted, or with a sharp look and a firm answer as to why they aren’t.
Surveillance systems seem to be covered by a mix of government regulations and council regulations or by laws.
This is Auckland Council’s guidance documents on it.
This Aussie report refers in several places to an NZ Law Commission report. It looks like the NZ Law Commission felt there were gaps in the legislation and that it needs a specific new law governing it. e.g p25:
Thanks karol. I fear we are going down the paranoid surveillance state route of the UK, where you even get schools hiring private investigators using tax payers money, to follow parents they deem to be suspicious, around.
And no doubt the infringement notices will be much more expensive than the sentences handed down by law courts for much more serious offences.
So the government asset sales now includes selling more state houses – ones that are either “in the wrong place”, or are the “wrong” sort of house. sigh is there no end to their hatred of struggling Kiwi?
Yeah Karol, i too seen Bill the Minister of Ever Widening Deficits admitting to what i have posted here a couple of times,
Got a hole in ya budget, who do you call, sure as hell ain’t Ghost Busters, get Bill ex of Dipton having tired of actually representing anyone except His self serving troughing, the right bloke to get you out of that hole,
Having double dipped His way to infamy via double dipping on His own Parliamentary housing allowance Bills going to get you all out of that hole, which incidently is the one He has overseen the making of for the past 5 years, by kicking 20% of the poorest people/families out of their’s, houses that is, so He can flog them off in an exercise of book balancing,
No worries right, after all the houses are all too big or too small and the ones Bill has no fucking intention whatsoever to build will all fit just fine, after all shop doorways are of a one size fits all nature if the poor need to get out of the winter weather and there are some fine bridges scattered across the whole country so those who Bill gives the kick will have a wide choice of accommodation,
Bills mate Nick Smith having changed the law to be able to give anyone the kick from a HousingNZ home for any old reason, strange, bizarre. or, normal, and, believe me Nick has very few of the latter, reasons that is, but, the strange and bizarre when Nick is allowed to be himself he has a veritable smogasboard of, will quite happily balance Bills books by simply ridding the poorest of their homes and selling them off to the richest,
What could be more fairer than that…
Act Leader Jamie Whyte stands by incest comments
um, er, eh, pffftttt! Go Epsom voters, your all the smartest voters in NZ (cf Mathew Hooton).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11210373
Yea… I remember an interview (I think it was Barbara Wood) where the lady was talking about how children subjected to incest still felt powerless to stop further sexual violation by the same perpetrator as an adult.
Does Jamie White think “consent” in this type of power dynamic is ok? Sounds like another JT and Willie type to me.
Jesus though, what a way for ol’ John Banks to end his political career though eh.
The trial, and now his party leader going on about how incest should be legal.
I always suspected ACT on Campus was a group of guys who’d like having their invisible hands inside the intimate apparel of close relatives. Truth is almost always stranger than fiction with that lot. Given that the overt racism spewed by Banks was acceptable to the good burghers of Epsom, will this be the straw that breaks the thoroughbred horses back? No camels in Epsom, mate. Dirty Arab things!!
It’s not just the disinclination to accept the long established societal condemnation of incestuous relationships (he’s the leader of Act, so won’t believe in the existence of such a thing as society). It’s also his comparison of the risks in pregnancy over the age of 35 with; “the increased risk of congenital disorders in children from incestuous relationships”:
” The probability of having some problem with the children is greater when the mother is over the age of 35 but I’ve never heard anyone suggest that anyone over the age of 35 shouldn’t be allowed to have sex.”
This, mind you, is Whyte’s idea of a “virtuous” position. I’d hate to read the statements of his that he considers sleazy and manipulative. But no doubt there’ll be ample opportunity in coming months.
My ears didn’t deceive me today when i heard on RadioNZ National that all the ‘partners’ in 5 eyes, those who spy on their own and share the info with each other, have all been tutored in how to use various means to disrupt on-line blogs that they feel are not supportive of a particular Government,
Here i was thinking the likes of SSLands was a lowly bean counting serf for a little firm of Wellington tax lawyers with an office on the Terrace, my mind has been changed by one small article of news, the cubicle i will now have to have a think about could for all we know be one located in Pipitea Street instead,
Can anyone contemplate the stupidity of Government organizations like our GCSB or SIS, in my view stupidity personafied, having actual people in their employ with a job description of entering online debates at the likes of the Standard so as to disrupt our opposition to the current Government,
Lolz, poor old Fish-head, if He is one of the aforementioned a quick redeployment will obviously be necessary as Lprent cancelled His contract last night,
David Cunliffe says review the whole NZ apparatus of spying, my view is scrap the lot, simply close them down, turn their office building into a homeless shelter,
These people having had a taste of snooping on the citizens and even using human means to try and disrupt political blogs cannot be trusted to obey laws that would restrict their activities even if such existed,
Information after all equates to power…
Lolz, that’ll learn me for not looking, Karol has a Post up on this very subject,and, this comment is possibly more appropriate over there…
Yes, I posted about those strategies re – the Snowden leaks yesterday. I partly meant it by way of a warning about how the right are deliberately promoting such techniques of covert action.
The various agencies may enlist others to do their actual covert action, infiltration, etc. Much like has been done in the past offline re various activist groups.
Financial Times reports gold price is manipulated 50% of the time: then pulls article
So you right wing free market morons…what do you make of this…it should clue you in on how rotten the financial markets used by the power elite are…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-25/here-fts-gold-price-manipulation-article-was-removed
I was just listening to the radio report on the USA training spy agencies to interfere with activists called hacktivists. The GCSB won’t comment as it is an operational matter. Key of course doesn’t know about it, but throws in some words about warrants being necessary.
See Karol’s post 25 February 2014 The surveillance state online.
I was wondering in today’s climate, if the terrible doctor from World War 2 Mengeles was being questioned about his horrors, would he say that he couldn’t comment because ‘it was an operational matter?. It seems as if there are no standards against which some of these people today measure their behaviour. Truly hollow men, and women too.
Key said something about the GCSB working within the law, and that he hadn’t actually seen the Snowden material. As you can see in my post, the strategies being promoted by the NSA, 5 Eyes, etc, involve ways of working around the law, so what they do is legal – but not acting within the spirit and intentions of the laws.