Welcome to a state of affairs he helped create not expecting to be subject to it, oh the irony and still took his inside contacts and the soapbox at granny he enjoys to shake a form of reply out.
Welcome to life outside the beltway bubble rortney.
Sounds very odd – a private investigator undertaking the questioning after being summons issued and sworn in by a government official.
When to the govt web page for insolvency
I see the official assignee looks like they only investigate under the bankruptcy act and the companies act.
I assume that they only investigate under bankruptcy if someone claims assets / income has been hidden in the process. Does this just leave companies act offences then? What would you do if you didn’t have a column like Rodney.
On ANZAC Day Key speaks of New Zealand’s nationhood and sovereignty.
And the day after we’re reminded he’ll sign the TPP and sign away our rights and freedoms.
He is a traitor.
a rather sickening interview with Lucy Hockings too on BBC WN where he speaks of our respect of democracy and freedom.
That whole concept of ‘the ANZAC spirit’ is rather interesting. It’s something that seems to exist amongst various peer groups (such as the military, fire service, police, family groups spread across two nations), but which is immediately fucked up by politicians on each side of the Tasman Sea. (e.g. Howard’s rule changes that put Kiwis at a disadvantage as non-citizens/deprivation of healthcare/welfare etc despite paying taxes – how frikken ANZAC spirited is THAT?!)
I see the NZHerald has a story this morning about performance artist Cherry Lazar having a show coming up on the 7th of May at the Jewelry Shop Gallery 79 Rue Charlot in Paris, France.
Cherry real name Stephie is the daughter of a famous ponytail puller. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11438715
Would be interesting to see what art critics think of her work.
I recall when one well known NZ artist was asked to comment on her work he said something about how artists should not be asked about that sort of material.
Too much of a coincidence.
We know the Herald’s political colours after the Glucina story.
I’d predict they’ve had this ‘story’ on the backburner for a while.
The Herald is an extreme right wing tabloid rag.
I am as always a little leery of bringing Stephanie Key into any discussion about NZ politics. It’s typically been used as an excuse to objectify her and demean her art in order to get in a dig on her father.
If you really want to know what “art critics” think of her work you could try reading the article, which extensively quotes a the gallery owner, who’s also a fine art photographer, on the subject.
“The definition of beauty is different everywhere, but the sense of self-confidence and power is universal,” Key said in a statement to the Herald on Sunday from gallerist Trevor Mansfield.
Still pondering on the impact this young woman will have on her generation??
Power and money behind her, she has chosen a very deliberately provocative way to express herself, what she is expressing could very easily be….take your clothes off and be outrageous girls, try to shock, and attract attention.
Might get her a long way, and she has people to fall back on, but average kiwi young women can’t afford to risk it, let alone make a living out of it.
In fact one young kiwi woman dared to speak up, and be “strong” when repeatedly “touched” in her workplace, and look what has happened to her.
And again, I see no need to bring Stephanie Key into a conversation about Amanda Bailey.
If Stephanie Key had actually done something relevant to the story besides “be John Key’s daughter and make art which shocks some people” it would be a different story, but attacking a young woman because her father is a prat is simply unnecessary.
Not attacking her akshully,
she is inviting questions by her own actions, and I am asking….”What impact will your actions have on your peers?”
Would ask the same of any person on the public stage , including Amanda Bailey, although her message to be a “strong woman” is pretty clear, and respectful of women
I sort of agree, except that I doubt if she is making her own way in the world. How much would enrolment in the private American art school in Paris cost? It’s a bit like Abbott’s daughter, who won a previously non-existent scholarship to a private design school. Totally on merit, apparently.
The story is not so much what the two of them are doing, but how politicians are using their positions to build dynasties. It’s very American.
Your comment prompted me to read the article, reluctantly. I don’t quite get the “art” stuff and the message that she’s trying to convey is lost on me, I’m afraid.
BTW, when I saw #divonnelesbains (Pole dance Studio – dlb) under one of the Instagram photos in the Herald article my brain played tricks on me and I read “divine lesbians”. Perhaps I did get Cherry Lazar’s message after all?
The Herald would never have published this if she wasn’t Key’s daughter; she ain’t Lorde, Eleanor Catton, or Lydia Ko, as far as I can tell.
The French seem to have an interesting relationship with food and sensuality; when I saw La Grande Bouffe for the first time I was intrigued and puzzled.
Stephy doesn’t protect that pseudonym very well, though, does she. As she is her own subject, she is an images search away and that is just how she wants it – a bit of a tease, all part of that reclaiming “the naughty girl” in a fearless and amusing fashion. And all about the cult of celebrity. Perhaps she’s being ironic ….pffft. Whatever, she really doesn’t want your alliance or protection.
Many artists perform under pseudonyms despite their real names being well known, so I’m not sure what your point was, and I’ll protect any young woman who’s being subjected to petty personal attacks just because some leftwing douchebags think it’s a clever way to destroy her father.
left wing douchebags with daughters who are struggling through uni, trying to find part time work to sustain them through masters, in the hope of one day making a meaningful contribution to society.
Stop “rescuing” Stephanie and hear what people who aren’t being precious are saying, without prejudice.
I have no problem with being “precious” when a young woman is being exploited, and I don’t give a toss what your personal circumstances are. Sexism is sexism – and sexist put-downs like “being precious” are, too.
I have worked for 30 years in the health service, at the shop floor, and am proud of doing so. I am proud of my daughters working hard to do the right things in life.
Clearly you do not understand, mine, and others point regarding Key’s daughter.
You are patronising, blinkered and out of touch, I doubt young Stephie gives a toss about your “protection”, she doesn’t need it, and …
” and sexist put-downs like “being precious” are, too”
umm, left wing douchbags? and what is “sexist” about “precious”?
Don’t worry it’s a rhetorical question, and I am not interested in being patronised by either of you any further.
Can you tell the story without linking to that corporate propaganda outlet?
These people have no moral qualms about outing a waitress who clearly didn’t want to be the centre of a media shitstorm.
Fair question ropata, and yes I (we) should use donotlink more often because we still need to present the original information. As we all know, when we quote stuff, rather than having trust and confidence in others’ integrity the rwnj’s, who need a dictionary a flow chart and six weeks of HR work-shopping to digest the definition of those terms, stand on their crumbling soapboxes and scream ‘citation – source – lies – etc’
On a side issue – Although using donotlink does hurt their search ratings it still creates page hits at the source which helps get them $$$ – unless I am completely misunderstanding how it works so would appreciate any clarification on that.
If you don’t want to visit donotlink.com every time you use the service, you can also put “http://www.donotlink.com/” before the website’s url like this:
+1 @ Marty. There are deaths and damage across northern Indian states as well (Haryana Punjab UP Bihar W Bengal etc. – thankfully India appears to be responding with aid to Nepal promptly)
Catastrophic. I watched Times of India TV until the end of daylight over there last night .. here’s a link, though it has become more India-centric this morning.
Kudos to Indian gvt for having C130’s landing at Kathmandu airport before the light disappeared … very swift and compassionate response to help this impoverished land.
There was very brief footage from Pokhara, whcih was almost the epicentre with 7.9 only 2 kms underneath them .. the photo I saw showed a road where one side of the cracked surface was about 30-50 feet higher than the other side. Horrors.
Also Tibet has suffered great damage and many deaths being reported.
Wish you well in finding your friends Marty … I have many friends there and the days will be very long while we wait.
(Maybe the Chinese govt will recconsider its’ ill-thought- through plans to build a road tunnel under Everest and the Himalayas through to Kathmandu. What could possibly go wrong.)
US Gov abandons Yemeni Americans in war zone – Russians evacuate them
Chinese and Russian governments have been busy evacuating international citizens out of Yemen, while the US state department has provided no travel assistance and has been advising its own nationals to stay in the war zone.
Russia has now evacuated over 1700 people from 20 countries out of Yemen.
Meanwhile the Syrian civil war has produced 3.5 million refugees and a wave of mass drownings as desperate people flee the bombs and bullets and poisonous gas.
it’s not just my eyes then 🙂
imho, they are poorly designed ill-defined messes, take “evil” for example, it doesn’t look evil at all, more like a hungover grape 👿
whatever happened to “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” seems to be antithesis to IT types, look how often you turn on FB or something similar & everything has changed for whatever reasons.
Nothing is perfect and believing otherwise is detrimental to making the world a better place. In this case, though, nothing was actually fixed. Whoever designed those icons seems to have fallen for fashionable nonsense:
Before iOS 7, icons were highly differentiated. You could immediately discern which app belonged to which brand, and you knew the app’s purpose.
In iOS 7, Apple has done away with the concept of branding. Popular companies like Facebook have eagerly followed suit not only in their icon concepts, but in their palettes too. One might assume that Apple bought Facebook given the striking similarity of their icon designs post-iOS 7.
Notice Apple’s Remote app and Safari in comparison to Facebook’s Messenger. Or consider Apple’s Game Center in relation to Facebook’s Groups. Each app, Apple or Facebook has roughly the same appearance.
This is true not only of Facebook. Almost universally, the designers at the standard-setting tech companies throughout the industry immediately employed flat design as an opportunity to increase their efficiency and prove their adherence to trends.
Hey folks, can anyone explain why it was LA International Airport where John Key had to make his hurried apologies over the ponytail interfering, while on his way to Turkey. Is there some other place he had to be, before his ANZAC appointment – isn’t the usual flight path to Europe via Singapore, Hongkong etc – seems odd to be going a very long way around – was he seeing Warner Brothers over Kim Dot Com maybe?? Have I missed something in the media???
Don’t know exactly where he went on the way over, but the PM did deliver a speech at the International Peace Summit in Turkey, where he said ““New Zealand must play a role, along with others here today, in standing up to the brutality and extremism of ISIL,”
He then went on to the ANZAC Centenary events to show how much he respects the fallen. On the way back he has the NZ Ambassador’s “Networking reception” in Dubai with his “business delegation”. You know Dubai, that place that also beheads people, stones women, kills homosexuals and lashes journalists but apparently we’re cool with them doing all that.
On the way over to Turkey, it appears that he went via LA (where he was interviewed) and then onto Turkey (possibly with a transfer at London?).
He is visiting not only Dubai on the way back to NZ (arriving May 1), but also Saudia Arabia and Kuwait, with a trade delegation which includes amongst others, Michelle Boag. Perhaps he could leave Michelle in Dubai or Saudia Arabia ….
Sorry, did not see Barbara’s comment. From what I saw on the media and Twitter, Key would only have been in LA an hour or so at the most on this trip.
Travel to Europe via LA is just as common as via Asia these days, as the via LA routes often fly the shorter route over the Artic rather than across the US and then the Atlantic.
Its really not that hard:
-If your staff worked on Saturday then that was their Public Holiday.
-If they didn’t then Monday is the Public Holiday.
-If you manipulated the Roster to try to not have to pay them extra then whichever of those days they would normally have worked is the Public Holiday, there is no way out.
Seems getting toilet paper isn’t the problem, the problem is the hotelier can’t get toilet paper at the correct price.
“In the black market you have to pay 110 bolivares [$0.50] for a roll of toilet paper that usually costs 17 bolivares [$ 0.08] in the supermarket,” Camacho told Fusion. “We don’t want to participate in the corruption of the black market, and I don’t have four hours a day to line up for toilet paper” at a supermarket….
I think you’ll need to read a little further than the link I provided to get the full picture. But I guess if you haven’t noticed that socialism always fails yet then you won’t be wanting to read the full context of the failure of one size fits all state monopoly in Venezuela.
If you google around this subject you will find that like always in socialism the state has willingly served it’s own best interests and that is the problem in a nutshell.
Venezuela has a complex history and its suffering is mostly due to US commercial imperialism and its elites strip mining out all the wealth for themselves. The oil price has collapsed and the USA is indulging in propaganda games.
Why is it that oil states without nukes get picked on like this?
The Danes, by old tradition, have been accustomed to the concept that the land belongs to the people. The rapid industrialisation and land enclosures of the 18th and 19th centuries, begun in England, saw this tradition come under sustained attack; attacks which grew more intense as industrialisation grew.
In 1957 the Justice Party, together with the Social Democrats (Labour) and the Radical Left Wing Party (Liberals actually) formed what was to become the most prosperous ever Danish Government – later termed the Ground Rent Government.
It was therefore generally expected that after formation of the government, some kind of land value taxation would be introduced. Land speculation ceased immediately. Legislation on taxation of increased land value was prepared, presented to parliament and passed.
After three years in power, Denmark had no foreign debt, no inflation and an unemployment level of 1%, considered full employment.
General election 2015: the main parties are all staring into a pitch-black night of the soul
Andrew Rawnsley
The Tories set out with a plan so simple that even the dimmest of their candidates could be expected to follow it. Say often enough that Ed Miliband isn’t up to being prime minister. Say often enough that the economy is now doing well. Say often enough that Labour’s numbers don’t add up. Add amplification from your allied propagandists in the rightwing press and the Conservatives roll back to power.
It sounded quite plausible. To many Labour people, it sounded terrifyingly plausible. At the outset of the campaign, there was deep neuroticism in Labour’s ranks. For the Tory plan is one that has traditionally worked in British politics. When a party has the lead on economic competence, the preferred candidate for prime minister, the advantages of incumbency, plus the majority of press support and the most money, the conventional rules of political gravity say that they ought to win.
firstly I believe in equality
secondly I believe the Treaty should actually be enacted and that Māori should be recognised as partners in our country
thirdly I really feel for the sentiment Mae espouses regarding reflecting diversity and our changing ethnic makeup
fourthly I don’t see gender being overtaken at all – but is this just a oppression olympic position?
“Bank of New Zealand’s newest director, Auckland lawyer Mai Chen, says ethnic representation has now overtaken gender as one of the biggest concerns for boardrooms.”
Who goes to the boardroom shows which groups are being bought off. Having an Asian woman on the board of ANZ will not stop the bank ripping off customers any more than having Thatcher as PM made Britain a better place for women. We should be doing away with private banks and their boards, not trying to disguise them as inclusive.
Maori have long recognised that with the present welcoming of moneyed migrants they would become just another minority in their own country. Instead of the bi-cultural sharing in running the country, they would just be part of the multi-racial mix.
And there is pressure always to follow this line from many pakeha and now from the competitive, clever Asians who have come here to make their mark and their wealth. They may be family oriented, but are more individualistic than traditional Maori with their whanau and hapu tradition with shared land and resources.
I didn’t think Murdoch owned SBS yet. In Oz it is almost seen as treasonous to question the official myths, and NAct is trying hard to import the same sentiment. The big media is soon going to be indistinguishable from that of North Korea, except that the flag shown on each page will be different.
WASHINGTON — The secrecy surrounding the National Security Agency’s post-9/11 warrantless surveillance and bulk data collection program hampered its effectiveness, and many members of the intelligence community later struggled to identify any specific terrorist attacks it thwarted, a newly declassified document shows.The document is a lengthy report on a once secret N.S.A. program code-named Stellarwind. The report was a joint project in 2009 by inspectors general for five intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and it was withheld from the public at the time, although a short, unclassified version was made public. The government released a redacted version of the full report to The New York Times on Friday evening in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
Also, United in Compassion, a group that is winning with policy change in Australia, is coming to NZ, we need submissions to send to the RH Peter Dunne from Medical Cannabis patients, there supporting friends and family, and Medical Practitioners. If you can help, please contact me, Philip Ure, please get in touch. see the post here…. https://www.facebook.com/MFMCNZ
And what about the likes of your humble correspondent? That endangered species known as the “Fourth Estate”? Are New Zealand’s journalists, commentators, newspaper columnists and bloggers to be guided now, in the fulfilment of their professional ethical obligations, by the shining example of Rachel Glucina?
paddy gower reported in 3news that bandar key did not get is royal family meeting in dubai today. paddy said he has been bumped, with no idea of whether he will be ‘un-bumped’ tomorrow.
It is 2 p.m. and Muhammad Hashem*, 14, has walked several kilometers home in the blistering Jordan Valley heat after working a back-breaking seven hours, with only half an hour’s break, in the agricultural fields of the Israeli settlement Tomer, north of Jericho.
He is too weary to stand as his picture is taken and there are dark bags under his eyes from exhaustion.
Muhammad is one of hundreds of Palestinian children who has dropped out of school and started working for low wages in exploitive conditions to ensure some Israeli agricultural settlements prosper, aided and abetted by Palestinian middlemen who are employed by the Israelis as managers of these agricultural fields.
I doubt if this Ben guy is Rawshark. Ben comes across as a big noting idiot, yet Rawshark managed to stay out of the limelight. I don’t think Lauda Finem consistently gets things right either.
some weird shit is going down, lots of suff abuot the standard https://twitter.com/B3nRaching3r following this page, hes updating it every few minutes at the moment
A HIGH-PROFILE SBS reporter has been fired after tweeting “highly inappropriate and disrespectful comments” about the Anzacs.
He mentioned the truth and some idiots found this offensive. Seems that it was going against the culture and lies that the people in charge want to propagate.
I’d be more proud of NZ had Key’s wife had followed Michelle Obama, Condoleezza Rice and Princess Diana in refusing to comply with misogynist cultural nonsense all for the hope of a financial deal… but I guess that’s the key way of wheeling and dealing.
Bill English last week commented that even though housing was experiencing excessive demand over supply in Auckland, the rest of the country was fine and the problem was unique to Auckland.
Is this the start of the government backing out of the problem? By passing Auckland off as the country’s problem child?
How about it doing more to keep people in the regions?
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. 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 economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
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 ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
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 ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
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 ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
I’m no fan of Rodney Hide and maybe we’re not getting the whole story but this all appears very odd and maybe worrying for all of us.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11438698&ref=rss&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
Welcome to a state of affairs he helped create not expecting to be subject to it, oh the irony and still took his inside contacts and the soapbox at granny he enjoys to shake a form of reply out.
Welcome to life outside the beltway bubble rortney.
Sounds very odd – a private investigator undertaking the questioning after being summons issued and sworn in by a government official.
When to the govt web page for insolvency
I see the official assignee looks like they only investigate under the bankruptcy act and the companies act.
I assume that they only investigate under bankruptcy if someone claims assets / income has been hidden in the process. Does this just leave companies act offences then? What would you do if you didn’t have a column like Rodney.
Hide wouldn’t be the first former ACT MP who got in shit for dodgy business practices.
Lol Rodney. Karma comes around! hahaha
On ANZAC Day Key speaks of New Zealand’s nationhood and sovereignty.
And the day after we’re reminded he’ll sign the TPP and sign away our rights and freedoms.
He is a traitor.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-brown/the-transpacific-partnership_b_7136112.html
Key works for American interests and Nat party backers, if those interests dont happen to be in NZ best interests then tough luck voters.
a rather sickening interview with Lucy Hockings too on BBC WN where he speaks of our respect of democracy and freedom.
That whole concept of ‘the ANZAC spirit’ is rather interesting. It’s something that seems to exist amongst various peer groups (such as the military, fire service, police, family groups spread across two nations), but which is immediately fucked up by politicians on each side of the Tasman Sea. (e.g. Howard’s rule changes that put Kiwis at a disadvantage as non-citizens/deprivation of healthcare/welfare etc despite paying taxes – how frikken ANZAC spirited is THAT?!)
I see the NZHerald has a story this morning about performance artist Cherry Lazar having a show coming up on the 7th of May at the Jewelry Shop Gallery 79 Rue Charlot in Paris, France.
Cherry real name Stephie is the daughter of a famous ponytail puller.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11438715
Would be interesting to see what art critics think of her work.
I recall when one well known NZ artist was asked to comment on her work he said something about how artists should not be asked about that sort of material.
she has very luxuriant ponytails!
les, somewhat reassuring to note your lack of knowledge in this area – Cherry Lazaar is sporting “pigtails” – a completely different hairstyle. 🙂
The timing is interesting. Has Glucina been on the phone to Paris recently ?
Too much of a coincidence.
We know the Herald’s political colours after the Glucina story.
I’d predict they’ve had this ‘story’ on the backburner for a while.
The Herald is an extreme right wing tabloid rag.
Somewhat ironic that her art is to champion the rights of women.
She would not last long in Wellington’s current blustery weather
http://metservice.com/towns-cities/wellington/wellington-city
I am as always a little leery of bringing Stephanie Key into any discussion about NZ politics. It’s typically been used as an excuse to objectify her and demean her art in order to get in a dig on her father.
If you really want to know what “art critics” think of her work you could try reading the article, which extensively quotes a the gallery owner, who’s also a fine art photographer, on the subject.
“The definition of beauty is different everywhere, but the sense of self-confidence and power is universal,” Key said in a statement to the Herald on Sunday from gallerist Trevor Mansfield.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11438715
Hmm .. Ayn Rand ? ‘Might makes right’ ? Or just self-realisation ?
I do not see any need for people mentioning Key’s daughter whatsoever. Smacks of desperation after all she is making her own way in the world.
Still pondering on the impact this young woman will have on her generation??
Power and money behind her, she has chosen a very deliberately provocative way to express herself, what she is expressing could very easily be….take your clothes off and be outrageous girls, try to shock, and attract attention.
Might get her a long way, and she has people to fall back on, but average kiwi young women can’t afford to risk it, let alone make a living out of it.
In fact one young kiwi woman dared to speak up, and be “strong” when repeatedly “touched” in her workplace, and look what has happened to her.
And again, I see no need to bring Stephanie Key into a conversation about Amanda Bailey.
If Stephanie Key had actually done something relevant to the story besides “be John Key’s daughter and make art which shocks some people” it would be a different story, but attacking a young woman because her father is a prat is simply unnecessary.
Not attacking her akshully,
she is inviting questions by her own actions, and I am asking….”What impact will your actions have on your peers?”
Would ask the same of any person on the public stage , including Amanda Bailey, although her message to be a “strong woman” is pretty clear, and respectful of women
Her own way???? Don’t be soooo naive.
I sort of agree, except that I doubt if she is making her own way in the world. How much would enrolment in the private American art school in Paris cost? It’s a bit like Abbott’s daughter, who won a previously non-existent scholarship to a private design school. Totally on merit, apparently.
The story is not so much what the two of them are doing, but how politicians are using their positions to build dynasties. It’s very American.
Your comment prompted me to read the article, reluctantly. I don’t quite get the “art” stuff and the message that she’s trying to convey is lost on me, I’m afraid.
BTW, when I saw #divonnelesbains (Pole dance Studio – dlb) under one of the Instagram photos in the Herald article my brain played tricks on me and I read “divine lesbians”. Perhaps I did get Cherry Lazar’s message after all?
The Herald would never have published this if she wasn’t Key’s daughter; she ain’t Lorde, Eleanor Catton, or Lydia Ko, as far as I can tell.
The French seem to have an interesting relationship with food and sensuality; when I saw La Grande Bouffe for the first time I was intrigued and puzzled.
It’s almost lunch time …
Interesting she is not leveraging the family name… or has it become a liability these days?
Radical third option: like many, many artists before her she’s chosen to use a pseudonym for artistic reasons.
Stephy doesn’t protect that pseudonym very well, though, does she. As she is her own subject, she is an images search away and that is just how she wants it – a bit of a tease, all part of that reclaiming “the naughty girl” in a fearless and amusing fashion. And all about the cult of celebrity. Perhaps she’s being ironic ….pffft. Whatever, she really doesn’t want your alliance or protection.
Many artists perform under pseudonyms despite their real names being well known, so I’m not sure what your point was, and I’ll protect any young woman who’s being subjected to petty personal attacks just because some leftwing douchebags think it’s a clever way to destroy her father.
left wing douchebags with daughters who are struggling through uni, trying to find part time work to sustain them through masters, in the hope of one day making a meaningful contribution to society.
Stop “rescuing” Stephanie and hear what people who aren’t being precious are saying, without prejudice.
I have no problem with being “precious” when a young woman is being exploited, and I don’t give a toss what your personal circumstances are. Sexism is sexism – and sexist put-downs like “being precious” are, too.
struggles thru uni justify villifying a young woman cos you dont like her father? what meaningful contribution do you want to make?
I have worked for 30 years in the health service, at the shop floor, and am proud of doing so. I am proud of my daughters working hard to do the right things in life.
Clearly you do not understand, mine, and others point regarding Key’s daughter.
You are patronising, blinkered and out of touch, I doubt young Stephie gives a toss about your “protection”, she doesn’t need it, and …
” and sexist put-downs like “being precious” are, too”
umm, left wing douchbags? and what is “sexist” about “precious”?
Don’t worry it’s a rhetorical question, and I am not interested in being patronised by either of you any further.
Lazar is her grandmother’s family name, I think.
Correct. John Key’s mother was Ruth Lazar. John Key’s older sister, Susan, now uses the name Susan Lazar.
Nothing unusual about using a pseudonym, protected or otherwise.
Her father’s money likely provides some useful leverage, but I doubt his name would mean a lot for her career.
hey, the emperors daughter’s got no clothes on!
🙂
I wouldn’t get to excited about it , its just one of the idle youth of the rich finding a way to fill there days in.
Meanwhile in the ”are we surprised?’ pile
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11437319
“Turner’s departure follows a relatively smooth path for the company since its banker owners put the firm into receivership and emerged last November as the new shareholders of the company.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11286388
” The company was subsequently sold to MediaWorks Holdings Limited, a syndicate of banks and equity companies,” – Mediaworks website
bankers owning media companies always seems so obvious 😉
Can you tell the story without linking to that corporate propaganda outlet?
These people have no moral qualms about outing a waitress who clearly didn’t want to be the centre of a media shitstorm.
donotlink.com
Fair question ropata, and yes I (we) should use donotlink more often because we still need to present the original information. As we all know, when we quote stuff, rather than having trust and confidence in others’ integrity the rwnj’s, who need a dictionary a flow chart and six weeks of HR work-shopping to digest the definition of those terms, stand on their crumbling soapboxes and scream ‘citation – source – lies – etc’
On a side issue – Although using donotlink does hurt their search ratings it still creates page hits at the source which helps get them $$$ – unless I am completely misunderstanding how it works so would appreciate any clarification on that.
I think that when using donotlink, the NZH will still get a page hit, but won’t be able to track you or improve their google rank.
Appreciate the info anyway, it is a serious concern when the MSM is entirely controlled by one or two powerful corporations.
If you don’t want to visit donotlink.com every time you use the service, you can also put “http://www.donotlink.com/” before the website’s url like this:
http://www.donotlink.com/www.example.com/rwnj/education.html
My heart is going out to Nepal and the people after this earthquake – I have friends over there, no word about them or from them.
+1 @ Marty. There are deaths and damage across northern Indian states as well (Haryana Punjab UP Bihar W Bengal etc. – thankfully India appears to be responding with aid to Nepal promptly)
Catastrophic. I watched Times of India TV until the end of daylight over there last night .. here’s a link, though it has become more India-centric this morning.
Kudos to Indian gvt for having C130’s landing at Kathmandu airport before the light disappeared … very swift and compassionate response to help this impoverished land.
There was very brief footage from Pokhara, whcih was almost the epicentre with 7.9 only 2 kms underneath them .. the photo I saw showed a road where one side of the cracked surface was about 30-50 feet higher than the other side. Horrors.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earthquake-in-north-India/liveblog/47047920.cms
and also this for anyone who has been to this very sacred Buddhist site …
http://indianexpress.com/article/world/neighbours/iconic-swayambhunath-stupa-stands-amidst-the-rubble-of-its-complex/
Also Tibet has suffered great damage and many deaths being reported.
Wish you well in finding your friends Marty … I have many friends there and the days will be very long while we wait.
(Maybe the Chinese govt will recconsider its’ ill-thought- through plans to build a road tunnel under Everest and the Himalayas through to Kathmandu. What could possibly go wrong.)
correction … not C130’s but Globemaster C17’s … thx
Death toll is up to 1130. Arohanui Nepal…
US Gov abandons Yemeni Americans in war zone – Russians evacuate them
Chinese and Russian governments have been busy evacuating international citizens out of Yemen, while the US state department has provided no travel assistance and has been advising its own nationals to stay in the war zone.
Russia has now evacuated over 1700 people from 20 countries out of Yemen.
Meanwhile the Syrian civil war has produced 3.5 million refugees and a wave of mass drownings as desperate people flee the bombs and bullets and poisonous gas.
Pity about the new smilies. Not as clear as the old ones I think (on the laptop, haven’t looked on the phone). Was that a wordpress upgrade thing?
it’s not just my eyes then 🙂
imho, they are poorly designed ill-defined messes, take “evil” for example, it doesn’t look evil at all, more like a hungover grape 👿
whatever happened to “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
😈
That’s twisted. I have to look really closely to see what it is saying.
“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” seems to be antithesis to IT types, look how often you turn on FB or something similar & everything has changed for whatever reasons.
Nothing is perfect and believing otherwise is detrimental to making the world a better place. In this case, though, nothing was actually fixed. Whoever designed those icons seems to have fallen for fashionable nonsense:
Yeah, can’t say I like the new smilies. The new ones just don’t have the character that the old ones had.
eeep, I’ll just check ‘old faithful’, the rolly-eyes:
🙄
edit: boooo. Now I’ll have to use my wordiness to express that sentiment.
and they no longer roll [insert actual rolling eyes emoji here]
My take on Anzac day On Bravery, Anzac Day And Lies, Damn Lies.
a song for john key..
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/a-song-for-john-key/
Hey folks, can anyone explain why it was LA International Airport where John Key had to make his hurried apologies over the ponytail interfering, while on his way to Turkey. Is there some other place he had to be, before his ANZAC appointment – isn’t the usual flight path to Europe via Singapore, Hongkong etc – seems odd to be going a very long way around – was he seeing Warner Brothers over Kim Dot Com maybe?? Have I missed something in the media???
The US is home from home for Key.
Don’t know exactly where he went on the way over, but the PM did deliver a speech at the International Peace Summit in Turkey, where he said ““New Zealand must play a role, along with others here today, in standing up to the brutality and extremism of ISIL,”
He then went on to the ANZAC Centenary events to show how much he respects the fallen. On the way back he has the NZ Ambassador’s “Networking reception” in Dubai with his “business delegation”. You know Dubai, that place that also beheads people, stones women, kills homosexuals and lashes journalists but apparently we’re cool with them doing all that.
tragedy is Key would not even notice …. Dubai is where the money is and likely the underpinnings of his next job … Bandar Key and all that.
On the way over to Turkey, it appears that he went via LA (where he was interviewed) and then onto Turkey (possibly with a transfer at London?).
He is visiting not only Dubai on the way back to NZ (arriving May 1), but also Saudia Arabia and Kuwait, with a trade delegation which includes amongst others, Michelle Boag. Perhaps he could leave Michelle in Dubai or Saudia Arabia ….
Full details here.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/68055160/john-key-hopes-for-talks-with-saudi-royals
Sorry, did not see Barbara’s comment. From what I saw on the media and Twitter, Key would only have been in LA an hour or so at the most on this trip.
Travel to Europe via LA is just as common as via Asia these days, as the via LA routes often fly the shorter route over the Artic rather than across the US and then the Atlantic.
for a depressing read, here’s the world according to Amnesty international
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol10/0001/2015/en/
Waitresses know their place in Dubai. They get flogged if they complain about what powerful men do to them. FJK will love it.
murray … have a look at #27 below …
Last time I went it was Auk-LA-London
Confirming again what international surveys repeatedly find: Lots of NZ managers are overpaid idiots
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/68046042/mondayisation-causing-a-headache-for-employers
Its really not that hard:
-If your staff worked on Saturday then that was their Public Holiday.
-If they didn’t then Monday is the Public Holiday.
-If you manipulated the Roster to try to not have to pay them extra then whichever of those days they would normally have worked is the Public Holiday, there is no way out.
Yep, the headache only comes when the managers try to avoid obeying the law.
Champion Racehorse
love elizabeth warren .. calling on obama to put up or shut up and make tppa documents public
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/25/elizabeth-warren-tells-ob_n_7142850.html
Look what you unionist lovers of big monopoly state control will bring to NZ If you get things your way;
Venezuela Reaches the Final Stage of Socialism: No Toilet Paper
Cato Institute: an unimpeachable source. In any case, if FJK ever visits Venezuela, he can just take Mike Hosking along and Bob’s your uncle.
The Cato institute’s version of “capitalism” is racketeering, market manipulation and dirty politics under a veneer of free enterprise.
Ever heard of confirmation bias burt?
Seems getting toilet paper isn’t the problem, the problem is the hotelier can’t get toilet paper at the correct price.
“In the black market you have to pay 110 bolivares [$0.50] for a roll of toilet paper that usually costs 17 bolivares [$ 0.08] in the supermarket,” Camacho told Fusion. “We don’t want to participate in the corruption of the black market, and I don’t have four hours a day to line up for toilet paper” at a supermarket….
I think you’ll need to read a little further than the link I provided to get the full picture. But I guess if you haven’t noticed that socialism always fails yet then you won’t be wanting to read the full context of the failure of one size fits all state monopoly in Venezuela.
If you google around this subject you will find that like always in socialism the state has willingly served it’s own best interests and that is the problem in a nutshell.
and when capitalism fails 95% of a population your answer is
“please sir can i have more”
Venezuela has a complex history and its suffering is mostly due to US commercial imperialism and its elites strip mining out all the wealth for themselves. The oil price has collapsed and the USA is indulging in propaganda games.
Why is it that oil states without nukes get picked on like this?
I googled the subject and found that Denmark is the no.1 Happiest Nation on Earth.
I also found this article
burt,
As it’s the 100 year anniversary of WWI, did you know that Britain was on the verge of a peaceful social revolution when one maniac in Sarajevo plunged the world into war?
hey burt,
it’s natural to turn a blind eye to the problems inherent in the current capitalist paradigm, everyone is doing it.
burt, you’re still a delusional idiot by ignoring reality and history. Reality and history show that it’s always capitalism that doesn’t work.
What’s causing any shortages in Venezuela isn’t socialism but capitalism as the capitalists demand their blood price.
Workers who resisted militarism in the early twentieth century here, while pursuing the class war vigorously:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/opposing-war-abroad-fighting-the-class-war-at-home-radical-workers-in-new-zealand-1905-1925/
On the British coming election. Catchy description.
http://whoar.co.nz/
General election 2015: the main parties are all staring into a pitch-black night of the soul
Andrew Rawnsley
The Tories set out with a plan so simple that even the dimmest of their candidates could be expected to follow it. Say often enough that Ed Miliband isn’t up to being prime minister. Say often enough that the economy is now doing well. Say often enough that Labour’s numbers don’t add up. Add amplification from your allied propagandists in the rightwing press and the Conservatives roll back to power.
It sounded quite plausible. To many Labour people, it sounded terrifyingly plausible. At the outset of the campaign, there was deep neuroticism in Labour’s ranks. For the Tory plan is one that has traditionally worked in British politics. When a party has the lead on economic competence, the preferred candidate for prime minister, the advantages of incumbency, plus the majority of press support and the most money, the conventional rules of political gravity say that they ought to win.
I really am in a bit of a quandary about this
firstly I believe in equality
secondly I believe the Treaty should actually be enacted and that Māori should be recognised as partners in our country
thirdly I really feel for the sentiment Mae espouses regarding reflecting diversity and our changing ethnic makeup
fourthly I don’t see gender being overtaken at all – but is this just a oppression olympic position?
“Bank of New Zealand’s newest director, Auckland lawyer Mai Chen, says ethnic representation has now overtaken gender as one of the biggest concerns for boardrooms.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/68042718/top-lawyer-calls-for-more-asians-on-boards
should I really care about the boardroom? Is it an issue or is it a manifestation of the bigger, larger, deeper issue of diversity?
Who goes to the boardroom shows which groups are being bought off. Having an Asian woman on the board of ANZ will not stop the bank ripping off customers any more than having Thatcher as PM made Britain a better place for women. We should be doing away with private banks and their boards, not trying to disguise them as inclusive.
Maori have long recognised that with the present welcoming of moneyed migrants they would become just another minority in their own country. Instead of the bi-cultural sharing in running the country, they would just be part of the multi-racial mix.
And there is pressure always to follow this line from many pakeha and now from the competitive, clever Asians who have come here to make their mark and their wealth. They may be family oriented, but are more individualistic than traditional Maori with their whanau and hapu tradition with shared land and resources.
The Stuart McIntyre case – The pitfalls of social media and work
[He was sacked today for his tweets]
https://accidentalaussie.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/the-stuart-mcintyre-case-the-pitfalls-of-social-media-and-work/
I didn’t think Murdoch owned SBS yet. In Oz it is almost seen as treasonous to question the official myths, and NAct is trying hard to import the same sentiment. The big media is soon going to be indistinguishable from that of North Korea, except that the flag shown on each page will be different.
Who woulda thunk it.
/
WASHINGTON — The secrecy surrounding the National Security Agency’s post-9/11 warrantless surveillance and bulk data collection program hampered its effectiveness, and many members of the intelligence community later struggled to identify any specific terrorist attacks it thwarted, a newly declassified document shows.The document is a lengthy report on a once secret N.S.A. program code-named Stellarwind. The report was a joint project in 2009 by inspectors general for five intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and it was withheld from the public at the time, although a short, unclassified version was made public. The government released a redacted version of the full report to The New York Times on Friday evening in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/us/politics/value-of-nsa-warrantless-spying-is-doubted-in-declassified-reports.html
My latest blog post on medical cannabis, this time calling for use in terminal cancer.
http://yournz.org/2015/04/26/medical-cannabis-and-cancer-a-call-for-compassion/
Also, United in Compassion, a group that is winning with policy change in Australia, is coming to NZ, we need submissions to send to the RH Peter Dunne from Medical Cannabis patients, there supporting friends and family, and Medical Practitioners. If you can help, please contact me, Philip Ure, please get in touch. see the post here….
https://www.facebook.com/MFMCNZ
Chris Trotter writes a good post:
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/weep-zealandia-weep.html
Final paragraph. Nice one.
paddy gower reported in 3news that bandar key did not get is royal family meeting in dubai today. paddy said he has been bumped, with no idea of whether he will be ‘un-bumped’ tomorrow.
😀
but.. but.. NZ flew the flags at half mast and everything!
they probably don’t want to be seen with Key the international embarrassment.
lprent .. any chance we can have the old face icons back please ? these new ones are very tiny!!
Vile people.
It is 2 p.m. and Muhammad Hashem*, 14, has walked several kilometers home in the blistering Jordan Valley heat after working a back-breaking seven hours, with only half an hour’s break, in the agricultural fields of the Israeli settlement Tomer, north of Jericho.
He is too weary to stand as his picture is taken and there are dark bags under his eyes from exhaustion.
Muhammad is one of hundreds of Palestinian children who has dropped out of school and started working for low wages in exploitive conditions to ensure some Israeli agricultural settlements prosper, aided and abetted by Palestinian middlemen who are employed by the Israelis as managers of these agricultural fields.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently released a 74-page report entitled
“Ripe for Abuse – Palestinian Child Labor in Israeli Agricultural Settlements in the West Bank.”
http://www.dw.de/israeli-settlements-profit-from-palestinian-children/a-18395612
Ah, capitalism at its finest.
Just spotted this new tune from Darren Watson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQrmbxtr09k
Nice.
But the biggest advantage of horse-race journalism is that it permits reporters and pundits to “play up their detachment.”
bit of a twitter battle going on & this link came up, http://laudafinem.com/2015/04/21/whale-oil-hack-dirty-politics-new-zealand-police-arrest-cyber-activist-with-strong-labour-party-connections/ just thought i’d bring it up coz the standard gets a mention. might also be part of those ‘rawshark’ got arrested rumours the other day.
a ‘twattle’?
bloody awful if it’s true.
I doubt if this Ben guy is Rawshark. Ben comes across as a big noting idiot, yet Rawshark managed to stay out of the limelight. I don’t think Lauda Finem consistently gets things right either.
Yep. Ben is a master of BS. Very insincere.
thx murray and CR ..
??
B
@B3nRaching3r
Now your slandering ass is following me, @Laudafinem ? Did you seek comment from me before you ran your lines? Put my family and I at risk?.
https://twitter.com/B3nRaching3r/status/592248089479491584
some weird shit is going down, lots of suff abuot the standard https://twitter.com/B3nRaching3r following this page, hes updating it every few minutes at the moment
The thought police are out in force:
He mentioned the truth and some idiots found this offensive. Seems that it was going against the culture and lies that the people in charge want to propagate.
I’d be more proud of NZ had Key’s wife had followed Michelle Obama, Condoleezza Rice and Princess Diana in refusing to comply with misogynist cultural nonsense all for the hope of a financial deal… but I guess that’s the key way of wheeling and dealing.
Bill English last week commented that even though housing was experiencing excessive demand over supply in Auckland, the rest of the country was fine and the problem was unique to Auckland.
Is this the start of the government backing out of the problem? By passing Auckland off as the country’s problem child?
How about it doing more to keep people in the regions?
Oh Rodders. Nothing to Hyde nothing to fear! lolol hahaha.