UNITED STATES PUBLICLY CONDEMNS ISRAEL
National Radio, Wednesday 26 September 2012
In a great rush a few minutes ago, I turned on National Radio for the news and could hardly believe my ears: the U.S. has finally come out and condemned Israel, just as it eventually did with other protégés such as Suharto’s Indonesia, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and apartheid South Africa.
This is the only part I heard from the news broadcast: “President Obama said that if there is a case that should arouse protests across the world today, it is a regime that tortures children and fires rockets into apartments.”
No doubt we’ll be hearing more of this remarkable political and moral volte-face as the day goes on.
Here’s what our friend Morrissey transcribed from the radio: “President Obama said that if there is a case that should arouse protests across the world today, it is a regime that tortures children and fires rockets into apartments.”
“A regime that tortures children and fires rockets into apartments.” That’s the Israeli regime.
No kidding! It’s also the NZ regime and every other country on the planet bar Switzerland. Obama was referring to Syria, Mozza was riffing on that. I’m starting to think you’re not really a Professor.
“It’s also the NZ regime and every other country on the planet bar Switzerland.”
That statement is either deliberately nonsensical, or simply dishonest.
“Obama was referring to Syria,”
The president was talking about “a regime” that “tortures children and fires rockets into apartments.” That describes Israel, which has done those things for a much longer time than Syria has.
“Mozza was riffing on that.”
To any non-ideologue of good faith who was listening, the condemnation of a regime that tortures children and fires rockets into apartments would have to be a condemnation of Israel. Of course, after the statement has been fed through the filter of hypocrisy, it only applies to officially designated enemies.
“I’m starting to think you’re not really a Professor.”
By gad, sir! I have a good mind to thrash you with a horse-whip, on the steps of your club.
Horse whipping eh? It’s the only language the likes of me understand!
Like it or not, it was a direct quote from Obama about Syria, not Israel, though as I pointed out, it could apply to pretty much any country. NZ, for example, did the first in Samoa, Parihaka, the Ureweras and elsewhere and that SAS soldier chappie who’s just retired got a VC for the latter.
(Just for the record, I’m anti-zionist and I believe in a two state solution, with the Palestinion people having a country with contiguous borders and a working port)
Some very good points there, my man. I think I’ll shelve the horse-whipping for the time being, seeing as you seem to be someone who might enjoy it a little too much for your own good.
Would you like me to put you in touch with like-minded people?
Can I just check that I’ve got Joyce and Blinglish right: basically, give up your legal rights, forget about protecting the environment, forsake the conservation estate and National Ltd™ will, maybe, provide some extra jobs . . . blackmail, divide and rule, with a touch of “serves you right”, is that how it goes?
Yep, but the important thing is the newly announced extension to the John Key Memorial Cycleway which will Joyce reckons will create at least a million jobs on the West Coast. I understand the route will now terminate inside the Spring Creek Mine, echoing the NZ economy’s disappearence down a deep, dark hole.
If you read the report, you’ll see that we at National Ltd cannot just “make some jobs” for you people. The only exception is when we say we can make some jobs. Those jobs are not jobs that can be worked, per se, they are ledger jobs for reporting purposes only. We have not read the report and don’t intend to, since we take our word. It’s about integrity. You see, it’s about the economy. We cannot go on redistributing tax payer money. This does not exclude us selling thing you own to our friends.
If you have any further questions, please make an appointment for Tuesday. We will be unexpectedly unavailable on Tuesday while we watch softball overseas. Nothing will happen between then and now, except for the stuff that is already happening, of which we have no knowledge.
Whilst watching the softball overseas can you please consider this “redistribution of taxpayer money”. If I stop paying tax do I still qualify? As a “citizen”. Do I have rights as a “citizen” or only as a taxpayer? Can you redistribute it to “citizens” or only those paying taxes? I really need to understand where I fit into your governments re distributive plans.
You are right to be humble, or at least meek. However, our lawyers have instructed us to tell you that this is no gaurantee you shall inherit the earth or the profits of your time under the National Ltd administration.
If you stop paying taxes, we will have you arrested, though this action may not be taken depending on the evaluation of your personal valuation you have yet to supply. We of course cannot view your valuation ourselves, or consider it’s contents. It is a matter of integrity. You will have to supply a certified viewer who will give us the signal by running over a person poorer than you, in a town of your choosing.
Going forward, we encourage your intent to not pay taxes, in principle, and this alone may enhance our reading of your personal valuation. As a Tradeable Work Unit, you qualify to pay us tax, but the rights of citizenship are unsure. What is citizenship? A ship made of buddhist cities? I bet I could find a lawyer who could say the opposite. Obligations on our part remain strictly defined. It is a matter of integrity, except in the case of you being unable to arouse our interest in your personal fortune or the poor person you run down surviving.
To avoid arrest the money has been ETed (I figured habeus corpus was at risk if I said it “was in the mail”. Recent events indicate the NZ Police dont quite “understand” the law). The IRD when presented with the extra payment charged me interest on not declaring this as provisional tax at the beginning of the FY, thereby defining my relationship as a taxpayer rather nicely (from their viewpoint). What was intriguing was that they had a copy of all my emails to you via GCSB, maybe they are watching you because you still talk to foreign criminal types who you used to work with.
I did take your advice: I ran down a rather rotund man with a German accent, injuring myself in the process. ACC state that they wont pay for my injuries because the gent was rather too large and should have been avoidable. My counter claim is that he was too big to avoid. Either way they are checking out my ACC levy via the aforementioned IRD. The vehicle went to the panel beater who suggested that I flag the insurance excess claim because the said German gent represents a credit risk and cant pay me for the “accident”. He was apparently formerly rich but by some dint of misfortune he met up with bad company (an MP from Epsom) and its been all downhill since. The insurance claim came back nicely, good riddance Mr B, we went bust with Christchuch, thanks for your money……
So in summary thank you for the explanation of my relationship with the state as a taxpayer: I keep paying, you transfer to your mates in Reemers who dont pay tax. With regard to citizenship I am now more informed: it is off to Greenland where plenty of new land becomes available weekly.
Thanks for your note. John is out of town and has left me in charge of correspondence and crises. If we could keep this on the hush hush, that would be good. Don’t worry about GCSB. Those guys are all pinstripes and salad lunches. Sorry to hear about the damage to your car. Germans, what have they ever given us?
Will be driving the new BMW home for Christmas. Plan to start a boutique brewery making Doppelbockbeir. Could be fun. Have you considered The South as a holiday destination? I could hook you up. Call me maybe?
Maybe the South will be good for a holiday: currently the beach in Greenland is unseasonably balmy. Even the bears have left. Do you still have penguins?
Pretty galling to hear last night the Minister of Economic Development blame the Forest and Bird Society for holding up jobs on the west cost because apparently they are stopping the whole of a plateau from being strip-mined. Actually encouraging the quarry-enclave economy to continue in New Zealand is no economic strategy and should simply embarrass him. But doubling down on making the West Coast more vulnerable to global unprocessed commodity prices such as coal is mind-spinningly dumb, and then offloading the blame to environmental defenders is just nasty.
Even worse for Minister of State owned Enterprises for not topping up Solid Energy to keep the Springfield Mine open. Not even bothering to run the ruler over social welfare and wider economic benefit costs vs keeping the mine going is bad. But holding out a cruel hope to turn miners into carpenters on the Christchurch rebuild that will never happen is reprehensible.
In reality mining on the West Coast will eventually become a thing of the past. We are at a point with the planets climate where we cant continue to burn fossil fuels regardless of the economic circumstance. As a consequence would it not be a clever move from a far sighted society to transition to a solid state economic model that does not rely upon depleting resources. Something todays and future generations can aspire to as viable and rewarding. Starting with the West Coast. Any ideas?
Latest MediaLens report released today. Follows the events of the protests across the ME.
Poses the question was the initial Embassy attack a concerted attack…
If so are the Mainstream media responsible for setting off a chain of religiously motivated protests around the world in an attempt to cover up an obvious failure in the Western intervention in the Middle east. What does this mean for the Syrian situation??
Quoted:
reporting suggested that the initial media consensus blaming a provocative film was false. The Telegraph noted:
‘A security guard wounded in the attack… has insisted it was a planned assault by Islamist fighters, and not a protest that got out of hand.
‘The guard, who works for a British firm, said there was no demonstration over a controversial anti-Islamic film before extremists stormed the compound in the eastern city of Benghazi.’
Matthew Olsen, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: ‘I would say [the four Americans] were killed in the course of a terrorist attack.’
What National have not been able to achieve…
Roads of National Significance – reduced, delayed and not wanted
Ultra Fast Broadband – not going to hit target dates
National Standards – up shit creek
Keeping NZdrs in NZ – record numbers moving to Australia
Thousands upon thousands of new jobs – increasing unemployment
Reaching parity with Australian wages – the gap geting wider
Restore integrity to government – John Banks is still a minister
Sale of assets to mum and dad investors – in a slow, uncontrolled decent into failure
Fiscally responsible government – increased government debt
Push to get people to invest in business – house prices increasing again
Earthquake recovery – people still living in damaged houses while slap-up dinners for business people and unqualified people/friends paid large sums for unskilled work.
What National have been able to achieve…
Restrictions on beneficiaries – affects the poor
Tax cuts for the rich – makes our country poorer
Reduced public service – makes public servants unemployed and poorer
Restrictive labour laws – forces the poor to stay in work and keep there mouths shut
Halved the Kiwisaver member tax credit
No national cycleway but disjointed cycleways
Fraction of the jobs promised by the national cycleway
ECE subsidies changed
Thousand more children living in welfare dependant homes
More children in poverty
Used our money to pay people sell our assets that we don’t want sold
Shifted $2 billion in wealth from taxpayers to SFC investors
Increased GST to remove more wealth from taxpayers
$400 million taken away from Working for Families
Lovely list…..its amazing how well Lord Haw Haw Key has managed to avoid the opprobrium.
PS Love the photostream picture of Betty Windsor with Shonkers.
thanks for sorting out linking tidiness for luddites like me guys 🙂
hookie; please forward me a blank cheque. today i am gonna try and find a free scholarship in my “field” of interest
NZ- a kiwi-Fruit Republic, dayo…dayaayo…daylight come and me wanna go home…
Obama startin to pound those war drums on Assad and Iran; catch a few more disillusioned Republicans i spose,
now Joyce wants to leverage Spring Creek losses to ‘get on up’ on the Denniston Plateau; what a callous, transparent, blind, optimist.
See! any body can intercept IT information in transit according to Martin Cocker of Netsafe.
China’s first aircraft carrier enters service-TWP
Christian Conservatives? – i pray they get a LIFE. Dawks! (stumbling blocks) who the freak do they think they are? God?
Christ was the most radical man the world had ever seen until the next great prophet (blessings and peace be upon his name)
and now, when i go to NEWS NOW .co.uk, i get a freakin Herald ad; ggod thing my breakfast had settled; too early int the day to throw up.
u can read all the herald has to tell in one front webpage; it sorta goes like this
crime
sex
corruption
sport
violence
social deterioration
gossip
celebrity
the worst government in my lifetime
health epidemics
poverty
blame the parents
tar the unions
crime
sex
corruption
sport
violence
gossip
drugs
celebrity
crime
sex….
Ultimately, the fading of democracy comes as little surprise. Neoliberal capitalism, already ascendant before the earthquake, has little interest in community participation, the environment, or very much besides economic gain. Rod Carr, a year on from his talk at TEDxEQCHCH, was telling staff members at the University to ‘dob in’ underperforming colleagues. A department strongly critical of the earthquake response, American Studies, has now been disestablished. Further cuts are ahead. Westfield, the owners of Riccarton Mall, has recommended to the City Council that it sells off its stock of social housing; the National government has recommended that the CCC sell its other assets. Brownlee has mobilized anti-Council sentiment to broaden the powers of CERA, an unelected body. The BNZ Tower, on the edge of Cathedral Square, has gained approval to rebuild to thirteen storeys, eliminating the possibility of a low-rise central city. The principles of the Draft Central City Plan, namely ‘community involvement’ and ‘business investment’, have never been placed in starker opposition. Government and business—the TEDxCHCH crowd—have staged a counter-revolution, using the language of ‘disaster capitalism’ to lock out the hopes and dreams of those who took part in the performance of democracy at CBS. Gerry Brownlee now fronts the advertising campaign for TEDxEQCHCH: Uncontained, which is scheduled for this September.
It seems the SAS needs a brand spanking new training facility South of Auckland. To be build by a foreign designer and ready to train our boys to work through battle scenarios on buses, trains and oil rigs. We are not allowed to know the budget and how big it’s going to be but it will be ready in 2015. Can you say US bases?
Ardmore is nicely convenient to Auckland too, which means when we have the “event” which will allow the permanent stationing of the mercenaries, they will be here quick smart.
High tech tooled up choppers, and jacked up psychos who love to blow things up and kill people, all just a stones throw away!
And right next to the commercial airport too, gee I hope all the live munitions in the area will not bother the jumbo jets!
I feel much safer already knowing that this facility will be so close by.
Commercial sensitivities = BS, and an open cheque!
WTF are they looking offshore for designers? I’m sure that any competent architect could do it after speaking with the SAS about they want in such a facility.
How to throttle protests.
How to storm a social housing complex.
How to breach a citizen advocacy clinic.
How to protect state property from the citizenry.
How to recover occupied assets of trans-national corporations.
“I frankly think that crisis initiation is very tough and it’s very hard for me to see how the US president can get us to war with Iran” says Israel lobbyist Patrick Clawson, who continues with a call for the mass murder of Americans, along the lines of the USS Maine, Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, USS Liberty, and (by implication) 9/11 orchestrated war-trigger events to get the President of the US to help Israel to start a war with Iran.
Not that he’s advocating a false flag of course! Well… maybe a sinking sub or something like that I mean “We’re in the game of using covert means against Iranians, we could get nasty about it”!!
Some well-dressed and well-spoken young protesters in Britain gatecrashed a farewell dinner for the boss of Britain’s Inland Revenue Department recently to protest against his close links with the regulated.
He was accused of signing off on a deal that saved Goldman Sachs £20m in tax payments and another which cut Vodafone’s tax bill from £8bn to £1.25bn.
Miners loose jobs, next day joyce is telling enviromentalists to pull their protests out of
the court system,to allow bathhurst to mine,there is something shonkey about this,
shonkey has shares in bank of america which funds loans to bathurst,shonkey opened
the bathhurst conference,why? this also needs some investigation,perhaps another
shonkey deal to be bought out into the public arena.
China now see Japanese aggression, the same aggression
Japanese for decades has used in whale hunting in
the southern oceans, as if Japan had a historical
right to hunt Whales in the Southern Hemisphere.
Atleast with European Whalers they came, and stayed,
married, and settled, what has Japan done but aggressively
seized resources.
It has worked out pretty well for them I reckon. And the loss of carriers at Midway was bad luck, fortunes of battle – but guaranteed in the long run Uncle Sam would pay for Japan’s defense while Mitsubishi, Toyota, Sanyo etc etc got on with the job. Ever read about a crooked Jap firm or product ???
Jap = quality and reliability.
Hmmmmm I think your memory is a little short. “Jap Crap” was a pretty accurate description of most Japanese manufactured consumer products up until the late 60’s/early 70’s.
And the loss of carriers at Midway was bad luck, fortunes of battle
Nope – the Americans knew the exact date and target of the Japanese attack, as well as the exact disposition of the enemy forces and order of battle.
The Japanese also decided to split their fleets up into smaller groups which could not support each other.
It has worked out pretty well for them I reckon.
Uh, you gotta be kidding. Hiroshima and Nagasaki for starters. What do you consider that acceptable collateral damage?
aerobubble 15
Different culture and tightened borders now – can’t compare with previous history. Also I understand there is some power group that wants to catch whales that has influence with their political leaders. Sort of like the SCF investors that got everything they wanted in NZ. Or did they? Near enough anyway. And the oil industry etc..
given the large number of state agencies with
search powers, one does need to ask the question
if evidence say discovered about ACC clients was
safe if the same ‘legal’ understanding has been
used to that against Dot Com.
It’s apparent that the GCSB routinely spies on the electronic communications of New Zealand citizens and residents. In doing so it grossly breaches our right to privacy and ignores the well defined laws it’s meant to adhere to. The lack of proper oversight and avenues for redress when things go wrong shows that the current system is not operating in the best interests of the country or its people. But what’s going to be done about the problem? Absolutely nothing while John Key is in charge…
Roll up and enjoy a great left versus right argument between Red Logix and Tighty Righty on
“Work” and the false economy of Bennett’s welfare reforms. Some good stuff gone down there.
The Whale has been doing some spouting about this analysis:
—–
[WO said:] I am proud that I am easier to read than other bloggers. But very upset to lose to Pinko in these ratings and ask for a recount.
…
Mr Bradbury’s legendary stream-of-conciousness, fifty line, single sentence paragraphs on the blog would have completely munted those stats. I’m guessing it wasn’t one of those days. I find them easy to read though – but that’s me.
Perhaps unsurprisingly Wha***** and Kiwib*** find themselves in the special class/remedial learners end of the spectrum. Indeed 🙂
well, heres my summary of a day through the looking glass;
‘in the house; 400 notifications to CYPFs a DAY-do the math
(poverty and poor human education; REPARENT)
I very comfortable listening to David Cunliffe speak; he speaks to the Worker.
Hollande requests UN enter Syria
Greece; Poverty takes hold of the middle classes, the middle classes disappearing
the “New Poor” coming to a bungalow near you.
see Key on 3; “ahhh, (residency publicity) that runs to the heart of the matter”; wotta Dick
Spain; ” load up…load up …those rubber bullets..”
Fonterra; “drop in forthcoming capital projects, farmers to hunker down”
fortunately at present,
a “hungry market” for arable crops, yet very climate contingent
btw, Tolley the Trolley did come to carry Key’s excuses
and it’s Good Night from Him, and it’s Good Night from me. 😉
The latest Roy Morgan is out (hat tip Gobsmacked on the ‘Polls’ post).
National 43.5, Maori Party 2.5%, ACT NZ 0.5% and United Future a big fat duck egg. Totalling 46.5%.
Support for Labour is 33% (up 2%); Greens are 11.5%, New Zealand First 5%, Mana Party 1.5%, totalling 51 percent. And this before the Dotcom cock up hit the news stands.
…And only 3% of New Zealanders think the Prime Minister has done a good job trying to sell privatisation. Dotcom also inferred there was more to come that will no doubt further discredit John Key… Talk about Hoist with his own petard.
Dotcom also inferred there was more to come that will no doubt further discredit John Key…
I was quite taken aback at Key’s appearance on TV tonight. He looked almost a shadow of his former self – drawn and hollowed out looking eyes. Methinks he’s not been getting his beauty sleep…
I wonder what he was really doing in the USA when he wasn’t watching his son’s base ball game.
Electorally, assuming the MP get 3, UF 1 and ACT 1, its game on.
55 seats Lab + Greens. Add in two seats for Mana (Tiger Mountain will be pleased!) for 57 positive votes. The lukewarm puddle of piss that passes for a Government right now can only muster 58.
Winston has the casting vote with six.
Note that I’ve assumed ACT win Epsom. If the Nats run a candidate who passes the critical test of a) being alive and b) no, that’s it, breathing and upright should do it, then Key only has 57. Lab/Green/NZF have a comfortable 4-6 seat majority.
It’s this kind of polling that will see the Maori Party wondering if its best to start cuddling up to Shearer. After all, Government’s where its at for them. What would be the point of the MP in opposition? It would be a death sentence to go down with Key.
I read that poll as saying that up to 85% of kiwis want a government somewhere between the centre right and the far right. I don’t feel encouraged by it at all.
Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce has launched a broadside against the environmental opponents of The privately owned Denniston mine project. To do this Stephan Joyce has tried to draw a bow linking those who wish to stop the opening of the Dennistion mine, with the closing of the Spring Creek mine.
Everyone has been told this, including the Minister. Spring Creek is being closed because to the falling global price of commodities, especially coal, due to the recession and falling global demand.
The Minister is drawing a very long bow to suggest otherwise, and he knows this.
But he is doing it for a reason and his target is very clear.
For those of us concerned about climate change, to which burning coal is the single greatest contributor, it is an inescapable fact that we need to work with the West Coast communities that currently rely on coal as their mainstay industry….
On the other side….
Joyce and his fossil fuel mates are opportunistically trying to take advantage of the suffering of the West Coast workers and their communities to remove all environmental safeguards. Listen to his complaints about environmental “mitigations”, specifically his complaint against raising climate change. Joyce is a liar. The Minister is trying to get these workers on his side when it is he who is attacking them.
Blaming environmentalists for these job losses is a lie. This is clearly not the position in this case.
For misleading the public, the Green Party should be demanding that Joyce be forced to apologise in the house.
Because Spring Creek and Denniston are both coal exporting mines in competition with each other in a shrinking market, It is in the interests of the Spring Creek mine and the Greymouth community that Denniston never open.
Opening Denniston in the hope that coal prices will eventually recover. (dubious as this argument might be). Is the same argument being put by the workers and their union for keeping Spring Creek open. With the world slump in coal demand, to have in existence an already producing mine competing in the same area of the market, is a dagger in the heart of the Denniston project.
The publicly owned Spring Creek mine is in direct competition with the privately owned Denniston project.
The question must be asked;
With Solid Energy on the market – has possible private investor in Solid Energy, namely Bathhurst Resources, requested as a condition of sale that Spring Creek be closed?
Would an Official Information Request, if granted, reveal this?
Is Spring Creek being closed because it makes the Denniston project unviable?
Do, the underground workers of Spring Creek and the anti-coal lobby have a common interest in seeing that Denniston never opens?
Does the minister know this?
Is this the reason the Minister is trying to turn the Greymouth community’s anger against Solid Energy against the environmental opponents of Denniston?
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In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
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 ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
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. ...
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. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
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NEWSFLASH!!!!
UNITED STATES PUBLICLY CONDEMNS ISRAEL
National Radio, Wednesday 26 September 2012
In a great rush a few minutes ago, I turned on National Radio for the news and could hardly believe my ears: the U.S. has finally come out and condemned Israel, just as it eventually did with other protégés such as Suharto’s Indonesia, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and apartheid South Africa.
This is the only part I heard from the news broadcast: “President Obama said that if there is a case that should arouse protests across the world today, it is a regime that tortures children and fires rockets into apartments.”
No doubt we’ll be hearing more of this remarkable political and moral volte-face as the day goes on.
Meanwhile, back to the books….
wotta u like? u satirist u.
“u satirist u”.
Nothing satirical about it. It seems our friend Morrissey took the president’s words as genuine.
The satire on view here is entirely by President Obama.
George W. Obama.
Pur the pipe down, Prof, Mozza was clearly being satirical. Obama was talking about Syria, obviously.
Here’s what our friend Morrissey transcribed from the radio: “President Obama said that if there is a case that should arouse protests across the world today, it is a regime that tortures children and fires rockets into apartments.”
“A regime that tortures children and fires rockets into apartments.” That’s the Israeli regime.
No kidding! It’s also the NZ regime and every other country on the planet bar Switzerland. Obama was referring to Syria, Mozza was riffing on that. I’m starting to think you’re not really a Professor.
“It’s also the NZ regime and every other country on the planet bar Switzerland.”
That statement is either deliberately nonsensical, or simply dishonest.
“Obama was referring to Syria,”
The president was talking about “a regime” that “tortures children and fires rockets into apartments.” That describes Israel, which has done those things for a much longer time than Syria has.
“Mozza was riffing on that.”
To any non-ideologue of good faith who was listening, the condemnation of a regime that tortures children and fires rockets into apartments would have to be a condemnation of Israel. Of course, after the statement has been fed through the filter of hypocrisy, it only applies to officially designated enemies.
“I’m starting to think you’re not really a Professor.”
By gad, sir! I have a good mind to thrash you with a horse-whip, on the steps of your club.
Horse whipping eh? It’s the only language the likes of me understand!
Like it or not, it was a direct quote from Obama about Syria, not Israel, though as I pointed out, it could apply to pretty much any country. NZ, for example, did the first in Samoa, Parihaka, the Ureweras and elsewhere and that SAS soldier chappie who’s just retired got a VC for the latter.
(Just for the record, I’m anti-zionist and I believe in a two state solution, with the Palestinion people having a country with contiguous borders and a working port)
Yep.
Some very good points there, my man. I think I’ll shelve the horse-whipping for the time being, seeing as you seem to be someone who might enjoy it a little too much for your own good.
Would you like me to put you in touch with like-minded people?
here’s a link to what he said and what he was talking about. Welcome to realpolitik.
The relationship is definitely changing, this sort of thing would have been unheard of not very long ago.
US Envoys Stay Seated For Ahmadinejad’s UN Speech, Israel Walks Out Alone!
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2012/09/25/us-envoys-stay-seated-for-ahmadinejads-un-speech-israel-walks-out-alone/
God bless Israel and Lebanon , let’s hope they finally recognise each others’ existence.
And before long, Israel will be condemning the U.S.?
thats funny!
It’s a tricky one, presedent Obama needs to do this, I doubt Israel will retaliate, it’s about opening the dialog at the moment.
.
Can I just check that I’ve got Joyce and Blinglish right: basically, give up your legal rights, forget about protecting the environment, forsake the conservation estate and National Ltd™ will, maybe, provide some extra jobs . . . blackmail, divide and rule, with a touch of “serves you right”, is that how it goes?
Thanks National Ltd™ – I’m lovin’ it.
Yep, but the important thing is the newly announced extension to the John Key Memorial Cycleway which will Joyce reckons will create at least a million jobs on the West Coast. I understand the route will now terminate inside the Spring Creek Mine, echoing the NZ economy’s disappearence down a deep, dark hole.
Ha! progress, I will pump up the tyres and add a parachute.
Sorry only the rich get Parachutes…. Golden ones!
If you read the report, you’ll see that we at National Ltd cannot just “make some jobs” for you people. The only exception is when we say we can make some jobs. Those jobs are not jobs that can be worked, per se, they are ledger jobs for reporting purposes only. We have not read the report and don’t intend to, since we take our word. It’s about integrity. You see, it’s about the economy. We cannot go on redistributing tax payer money. This does not exclude us selling thing you own to our friends.
If you have any further questions, please make an appointment for Tuesday. We will be unexpectedly unavailable on Tuesday while we watch softball overseas. Nothing will happen between then and now, except for the stuff that is already happening, of which we have no knowledge.
Dear John,
Whilst watching the softball overseas can you please consider this “redistribution of taxpayer money”. If I stop paying tax do I still qualify? As a “citizen”. Do I have rights as a “citizen” or only as a taxpayer? Can you redistribute it to “citizens” or only those paying taxes? I really need to understand where I fit into your governments re distributive plans.
Most humbly,
Mr Bored
Dear Mr Bored,
You are right to be humble, or at least meek. However, our lawyers have instructed us to tell you that this is no gaurantee you shall inherit the earth or the profits of your time under the National Ltd administration.
If you stop paying taxes, we will have you arrested, though this action may not be taken depending on the evaluation of your personal valuation you have yet to supply. We of course cannot view your valuation ourselves, or consider it’s contents. It is a matter of integrity. You will have to supply a certified viewer who will give us the signal by running over a person poorer than you, in a town of your choosing.
Going forward, we encourage your intent to not pay taxes, in principle, and this alone may enhance our reading of your personal valuation. As a Tradeable Work Unit, you qualify to pay us tax, but the rights of citizenship are unsure. What is citizenship? A ship made of buddhist cities? I bet I could find a lawyer who could say the opposite. Obligations on our part remain strictly defined. It is a matter of integrity, except in the case of you being unable to arouse our interest in your personal fortune or the poor person you run down surviving.
Stay humble, bottomfeeder,
National Ltd
Dear John,
To avoid arrest the money has been ETed (I figured habeus corpus was at risk if I said it “was in the mail”. Recent events indicate the NZ Police dont quite “understand” the law). The IRD when presented with the extra payment charged me interest on not declaring this as provisional tax at the beginning of the FY, thereby defining my relationship as a taxpayer rather nicely (from their viewpoint). What was intriguing was that they had a copy of all my emails to you via GCSB, maybe they are watching you because you still talk to foreign criminal types who you used to work with.
I did take your advice: I ran down a rather rotund man with a German accent, injuring myself in the process. ACC state that they wont pay for my injuries because the gent was rather too large and should have been avoidable. My counter claim is that he was too big to avoid. Either way they are checking out my ACC levy via the aforementioned IRD. The vehicle went to the panel beater who suggested that I flag the insurance excess claim because the said German gent represents a credit risk and cant pay me for the “accident”. He was apparently formerly rich but by some dint of misfortune he met up with bad company (an MP from Epsom) and its been all downhill since. The insurance claim came back nicely, good riddance Mr B, we went bust with Christchuch, thanks for your money……
So in summary thank you for the explanation of my relationship with the state as a taxpayer: I keep paying, you transfer to your mates in Reemers who dont pay tax. With regard to citizenship I am now more informed: it is off to Greenland where plenty of new land becomes available weekly.
Yours far less humbly
Mr B Esq.
Hello Mr. B Esq.,
Thanks for your note. John is out of town and has left me in charge of correspondence and crises. If we could keep this on the hush hush, that would be good. Don’t worry about GCSB. Those guys are all pinstripes and salad lunches. Sorry to hear about the damage to your car. Germans, what have they ever given us?
Will be driving the new BMW home for Christmas. Plan to start a boutique brewery making Doppelbockbeir. Could be fun. Have you considered The South as a holiday destination? I could hook you up. Call me maybe?
Bill E.
Dear Bill,
Maybe the South will be good for a holiday: currently the beach in Greenland is unseasonably balmy. Even the bears have left. Do you still have penguins?
B Esq
Uturn – key words, “of which we have no knowledge” – message for the day?
Shearer did some really good straight talk on the Key/Banks/English scandal just now on Morning Report.
If he keeps this up he could be leader of the opposition some day.
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20120926-0714-pm_under_pressure_over_dotcom_spy_scandal-048.mp3
Thanks for that felix, ‘Dottie’ has really got them dazed and confused. Blinglish takes the fall? don’t think he likes Key enough to do that.
Shearer did way better than usual in terms of knowing his subject.
Could be?, that’s mean.
Thanks for the link as I missed it live. Yep, he’s definitely getting better. Agree re clear straight talk. Good to give credit where credit due 🙂
“Yep, he’s definitely getting better.”
In the same manner, Mr John Banks, who has not told any ooutrageous lies this week, is also “getting better.”
You are without doubt a man of infinite generosity, LynW.
felix – great, Shearer finally showed after nearly one year!!
Pretty galling to hear last night the Minister of Economic Development blame the Forest and Bird Society for holding up jobs on the west cost because apparently they are stopping the whole of a plateau from being strip-mined. Actually encouraging the quarry-enclave economy to continue in New Zealand is no economic strategy and should simply embarrass him. But doubling down on making the West Coast more vulnerable to global unprocessed commodity prices such as coal is mind-spinningly dumb, and then offloading the blame to environmental defenders is just nasty.
Even worse for Minister of State owned Enterprises for not topping up Solid Energy to keep the Springfield Mine open. Not even bothering to run the ruler over social welfare and wider economic benefit costs vs keeping the mine going is bad. But holding out a cruel hope to turn miners into carpenters on the Christchurch rebuild that will never happen is reprehensible.
Not to mention claiming the miners’ union opposed the new Denniston mine proposal, when the opposite is true.
In reality mining on the West Coast will eventually become a thing of the past. We are at a point with the planets climate where we cant continue to burn fossil fuels regardless of the economic circumstance. As a consequence would it not be a clever move from a far sighted society to transition to a solid state economic model that does not rely upon depleting resources. Something todays and future generations can aspire to as viable and rewarding. Starting with the West Coast. Any ideas?
You know, I wonder if SE’s retrenchment is more because union membership at the SOE’s is greater than among the privately owned coal companies?
Latest MediaLens report released today. Follows the events of the protests across the ME.
Poses the question was the initial Embassy attack a concerted attack…
If so are the Mainstream media responsible for setting off a chain of religiously motivated protests around the world in an attempt to cover up an obvious failure in the Western intervention in the Middle east. What does this mean for the Syrian situation??
Quoted:
reporting suggested that the initial media consensus blaming a provocative film was false. The Telegraph noted:
‘A security guard wounded in the attack… has insisted it was a planned assault by Islamist fighters, and not a protest that got out of hand.
‘The guard, who works for a British firm, said there was no demonstration over a controversial anti-Islamic film before extremists stormed the compound in the eastern city of Benghazi.’
Matthew Olsen, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: ‘I would say [the four Americans] were killed in the course of a terrorist attack.’
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=697:us-consulate-killings-spontaneous-religious-or-planned-political&catid=25:alerts-2012&Itemid=69
Shalom. and now the news..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/iconic-israeli-newspaper-maariv-faces-collapse-critics-allege-its-part-of-anti-media-blitz/2012/09/25/4345d464-0749-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html?
Feel free to add to this lists…
What National have not been able to achieve…
Roads of National Significance – reduced, delayed and not wanted
Ultra Fast Broadband – not going to hit target dates
National Standards – up shit creek
Keeping NZdrs in NZ – record numbers moving to Australia
Thousands upon thousands of new jobs – increasing unemployment
Reaching parity with Australian wages – the gap geting wider
Restore integrity to government – John Banks is still a minister
Sale of assets to mum and dad investors – in a slow, uncontrolled decent into failure
Fiscally responsible government – increased government debt
Push to get people to invest in business – house prices increasing again
Earthquake recovery – people still living in damaged houses while slap-up dinners for business people and unqualified people/friends paid large sums for unskilled work.
What National have been able to achieve…
Restrictions on beneficiaries – affects the poor
Tax cuts for the rich – makes our country poorer
Reduced public service – makes public servants unemployed and poorer
Restrictive labour laws – forces the poor to stay in work and keep there mouths shut
Halved the Kiwisaver member tax credit
No national cycleway but disjointed cycleways
Fraction of the jobs promised by the national cycleway
ECE subsidies changed
Thousand more children living in welfare dependant homes
More children in poverty
Used our money to pay people sell our assets that we don’t want sold
Shifted $2 billion in wealth from taxpayers to SFC investors
Increased GST to remove more wealth from taxpayers
$400 million taken away from Working for Families
Lovely list…..its amazing how well Lord Haw Haw Key has managed to avoid the opprobrium.
PS Love the photostream picture of Betty Windsor with Shonkers.
+1
Sums up capitalism quite well.
thanks for sorting out linking tidiness for luddites like me guys 🙂
hookie; please forward me a blank cheque. today i am gonna try and find a free scholarship in my “field” of interest
NZ- a kiwi-Fruit Republic, dayo…dayaayo…daylight come and me wanna go home…
Obama startin to pound those war drums on Assad and Iran; catch a few more disillusioned Republicans i spose,
now Joyce wants to leverage Spring Creek losses to ‘get on up’ on the Denniston Plateau; what a callous, transparent, blind, optimist.
See! any body can intercept IT information in transit according to Martin Cocker of Netsafe.
China’s first aircraft carrier enters service-TWP
Christian Conservatives? – i pray they get a LIFE. Dawks! (stumbling blocks) who the freak do they think they are? God?
Christ was the most radical man the world had ever seen until the next great prophet (blessings and peace be upon his name)
and now, when i go to NEWS NOW .co.uk, i get a freakin Herald ad; ggod thing my breakfast had settled; too early int the day to throw up.
u can read all the herald has to tell in one front webpage; it sorta goes like this
crime
sex
corruption
sport
violence
social deterioration
gossip
celebrity
the worst government in my lifetime
health epidemics
poverty
blame the parents
tar the unions
crime
sex
corruption
sport
violence
gossip
drugs
celebrity
crime
sex….
An post about Chch from the inside…
Ultimately, the fading of democracy comes as little surprise. Neoliberal capitalism, already ascendant before the earthquake, has little interest in community participation, the environment, or very much besides economic gain. Rod Carr, a year on from his talk at TEDxEQCHCH, was telling staff members at the University to ‘dob in’ underperforming colleagues. A department strongly critical of the earthquake response, American Studies, has now been disestablished. Further cuts are ahead. Westfield, the owners of Riccarton Mall, has recommended to the City Council that it sells off its stock of social housing; the National government has recommended that the CCC sell its other assets. Brownlee has mobilized anti-Council sentiment to broaden the powers of CERA, an unelected body. The BNZ Tower, on the edge of Cathedral Square, has gained approval to rebuild to thirteen storeys, eliminating the possibility of a low-rise central city. The principles of the Draft Central City Plan, namely ‘community involvement’ and ‘business investment’, have never been placed in starker opposition. Government and business—the TEDxCHCH crowd—have staged a counter-revolution, using the language of ‘disaster capitalism’ to lock out the hopes and dreams of those who took part in the performance of democracy at CBS. Gerry Brownlee now fronts the advertising campaign for TEDxEQCHCH: Uncontained, which is scheduled for this September.
http://keaandcattle.com/cultureandsociety/goodbye-letter-to-christchurch
i have said it before; that V.C is a VERY unhelpful man 🙁
It seems the SAS needs a brand spanking new training facility South of Auckland. To be build by a foreign designer and ready to train our boys to work through battle scenarios on buses, trains and oil rigs. We are not allowed to know the budget and how big it’s going to be but it will be ready in 2015. Can you say US bases?
Great, just what we need to guarantee New Zealand remaining a free country.
Ardmore is nicely convenient to Auckland too, which means when we have the “event” which will allow the permanent stationing of the mercenaries, they will be here quick smart.
High tech tooled up choppers, and jacked up psychos who love to blow things up and kill people, all just a stones throw away!
And right next to the commercial airport too, gee I hope all the live munitions in the area will not bother the jumbo jets!
I feel much safer already knowing that this facility will be so close by.
Commercial sensitivities = BS, and an open cheque!
QFT
WTF are they looking offshore for designers? I’m sure that any competent architect could do it after speaking with the SAS about they want in such a facility.
How to throttle protests.
How to storm a social housing complex.
How to breach a citizen advocacy clinic.
How to protect state property from the citizenry.
How to recover occupied assets of trans-national corporations.
Look stop telling them what to do bud, I want u too write out ten times ….
“I will not speak Evil to National” 🙂
The SAS have been based at Ardmore as long as I can remember. What is it exactly that’s “brand spanking new” about this base?
“I frankly think that crisis initiation is very tough and it’s very hard for me to see how the US president can get us to war with Iran” says Israel lobbyist Patrick Clawson, who continues with a call for the mass murder of Americans, along the lines of the USS Maine, Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, USS Liberty, and (by implication) 9/11 orchestrated war-trigger events to get the President of the US to help Israel to start a war with Iran.
Not that he’s advocating a false flag of course! Well… maybe a sinking sub or something like that I mean “We’re in the game of using covert means against Iranians, we could get nasty about it”!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=M84l19H68mk#!
This is worth a look at Interest.co
http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/61291/wednesdays-top-10-nz-mint-tax-avoidance-protesters-black-tie-pain-spain-mainly-around-
Some well-dressed and well-spoken young protesters in Britain gatecrashed a farewell dinner for the boss of Britain’s Inland Revenue Department recently to protest against his close links with the regulated.
He was accused of signing off on a deal that saved Goldman Sachs £20m in tax payments and another which cut Vodafone’s tax bill from £8bn to £1.25bn.
John Key receives a letter from a jilted lover: http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/dear-john-love-has-gone.html
Miners loose jobs, next day joyce is telling enviromentalists to pull their protests out of
the court system,to allow bathhurst to mine,there is something shonkey about this,
shonkey has shares in bank of america which funds loans to bathurst,shonkey opened
the bathhurst conference,why? this also needs some investigation,perhaps another
shonkey deal to be bought out into the public arena.
Indeed, it comes under the – Who are the major shareholders in Bathurst file…
followed by
Who has shares/interest in the major shareholders of Bathurst!
SNAFU
China now see Japanese aggression, the same aggression
Japanese for decades has used in whale hunting in
the southern oceans, as if Japan had a historical
right to hunt Whales in the Southern Hemisphere.
Atleast with European Whalers they came, and stayed,
married, and settled, what has Japan done but aggressively
seized resources.
Japan’s plans ran into problems off Midway in 1942
Yeah Japan was pretty much screwed from the time the US managed to break their naval code.
Choosing war against the USA was never going to work out well for Japan.
It has worked out pretty well for them I reckon. And the loss of carriers at Midway was bad luck, fortunes of battle – but guaranteed in the long run Uncle Sam would pay for Japan’s defense while Mitsubishi, Toyota, Sanyo etc etc got on with the job. Ever read about a crooked Jap firm or product ???
Jap = quality and reliability.
Hmmmmm I think your memory is a little short. “Jap Crap” was a pretty accurate description of most Japanese manufactured consumer products up until the late 60’s/early 70’s.
Nope – the Americans knew the exact date and target of the Japanese attack, as well as the exact disposition of the enemy forces and order of battle.
The Japanese also decided to split their fleets up into smaller groups which could not support each other.
Uh, you gotta be kidding. Hiroshima and Nagasaki for starters. What do you consider that acceptable collateral damage?
aerobubble 15
Different culture and tightened borders now – can’t compare with previous history. Also I understand there is some power group that wants to catch whales that has influence with their political leaders. Sort of like the SCF investors that got everything they wanted in NZ. Or did they? Near enough anyway. And the oil industry etc..
given the large number of state agencies with
search powers, one does need to ask the question
if evidence say discovered about ACC clients was
safe if the same ‘legal’ understanding has been
used to that against Dot Com.
Spooks – a law unto themselves
It’s apparent that the GCSB routinely spies on the electronic communications of New Zealand citizens and residents. In doing so it grossly breaches our right to privacy and ignores the well defined laws it’s meant to adhere to. The lack of proper oversight and avenues for redress when things go wrong shows that the current system is not operating in the best interests of the country or its people. But what’s going to be done about the problem? Absolutely nothing while John Key is in charge…
Roll up and enjoy a great left versus right argument between Red Logix and Tighty Righty on
“Work” and the false economy of Bennett’s welfare reforms. Some good stuff gone down there.
Yes, prism. Some comments have made a very good read, with various people, including RL & DTB providing some very good arguments and evidence.
Pete, stand up. Your stats on blog readability as posted on the Standard,
http://thestandard.org.nz/bloggers-and-ripping-off-content/comment-page-1/#comment-525184
are getting some comment on other blogs. Tim Selwyn over at Tumeke put up a post on it this afternoon:
http://www.tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/and-you-thought-national-standards-were.html
Onya Pete!, we got a “Yeah Na M8” from Whaleoil M8!
Hey we should throw a party and invite them over M8.
Yeah Naa M8!
Pete: thumbs up mate. I’ll get the choir to do an extra chorus of the Red Flag for ya.
Cheers. It’s nice to be appreciated.
well, heres my summary of a day through the looking glass;
‘in the house; 400 notifications to CYPFs a DAY-do the math
(poverty and poor human education; REPARENT)
I very comfortable listening to David Cunliffe speak; he speaks to the Worker.
Hollande requests UN enter Syria
Greece; Poverty takes hold of the middle classes, the middle classes disappearing
the “New Poor” coming to a bungalow near you.
see Key on 3; “ahhh, (residency publicity) that runs to the heart of the matter”; wotta Dick
Spain; ” load up…load up …those rubber bullets..”
Fonterra; “drop in forthcoming capital projects, farmers to hunker down”
fortunately at present,
a “hungry market” for arable crops, yet very climate contingent
btw, Tolley the Trolley did come to carry Key’s excuses
and it’s Good Night from Him, and it’s Good Night from me. 😉
The latest Roy Morgan is out (hat tip Gobsmacked on the ‘Polls’ post).
National 43.5, Maori Party 2.5%, ACT NZ 0.5% and United Future a big fat duck egg. Totalling 46.5%.
Support for Labour is 33% (up 2%); Greens are 11.5%, New Zealand First 5%, Mana Party 1.5%, totalling 51 percent. And this before the Dotcom cock up hit the news stands.
…and before the job losses in the mines and Nuplex? Labour may have just hit the ‘there is an alternative to doing nothing’ button at the right time.
http://www.roymorgan.com/ Up to 23 September
…And only 3% of New Zealanders think the Prime Minister has done a good job trying to sell privatisation. Dotcom also inferred there was more to come that will no doubt further discredit John Key… Talk about Hoist with his own petard.
Dotcom also inferred there was more to come that will no doubt further discredit John Key…
I was quite taken aback at Key’s appearance on TV tonight. He looked almost a shadow of his former self – drawn and hollowed out looking eyes. Methinks he’s not been getting his beauty sleep…
I wonder what he was really doing in the USA when he wasn’t watching his son’s base ball game.
Electorally, assuming the MP get 3, UF 1 and ACT 1, its game on.
55 seats Lab + Greens. Add in two seats for Mana (Tiger Mountain will be pleased!) for 57 positive votes. The lukewarm puddle of piss that passes for a Government right now can only muster 58.
Winston has the casting vote with six.
Note that I’ve assumed ACT win Epsom. If the Nats run a candidate who passes the critical test of a) being alive and b) no, that’s it, breathing and upright should do it, then Key only has 57. Lab/Green/NZF have a comfortable 4-6 seat majority.
It’s this kind of polling that will see the Maori Party wondering if its best to start cuddling up to Shearer. After all, Government’s where its at for them. What would be the point of the MP in opposition? It would be a death sentence to go down with Key.
true, and instead of getting crumbs, they’ll get mango skins.
Better watch that your roof painting ass doesn’t get reported to Paula Benefit.
I read that poll as saying that up to 85% of kiwis want a government somewhere between the centre right and the far right. I don’t feel encouraged by it at all.
not sure if anyone else has drawn this comparison yet: Paula Bennett = Dolores Umbridge.
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Dolores_Umbridge
Also, every time she talks about ‘wrapping around’ all I can think of is the face-hugging alien in Alien.
Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce has launched a broadside against the environmental opponents of The privately owned Denniston mine project. To do this Stephan Joyce has tried to draw a bow linking those who wish to stop the opening of the Dennistion mine, with the closing of the Spring Creek mine.
Minister Blames environmentalists for the closing of Spring Creek
The Forest and Bird Protection Society has branded Joyce’s comments as “mischievious” and “opportunistic”.
Let’s get this clear.
Everyone has been told this, including the Minister. Spring Creek is being closed because to the falling global price of commodities, especially coal, due to the recession and falling global demand.
The Minister is drawing a very long bow to suggest otherwise, and he knows this.
But he is doing it for a reason and his target is very clear.
For those of us concerned about climate change, to which burning coal is the single greatest contributor, it is an inescapable fact that we need to work with the West Coast communities that currently rely on coal as their mainstay industry….
On the other side….
Joyce and his fossil fuel mates are opportunistically trying to take advantage of the suffering of the West Coast workers and their communities to remove all environmental safeguards. Listen to his complaints about environmental “mitigations”, specifically his complaint against raising climate change. Joyce is a liar. The Minister is trying to get these workers on his side when it is he who is attacking them.
Blaming environmentalists for these job losses is a lie. This is clearly not the position in this case.
For misleading the public, the Green Party should be demanding that Joyce be forced to apologise in the house.
Because Spring Creek and Denniston are both coal exporting mines in competition with each other in a shrinking market, It is in the interests of the Spring Creek mine and the Greymouth community that Denniston never open.
Opening Denniston in the hope that coal prices will eventually recover. (dubious as this argument might be). Is the same argument being put by the workers and their union for keeping Spring Creek open. With the world slump in coal demand, to have in existence an already producing mine competing in the same area of the market, is a dagger in the heart of the Denniston project.
The publicly owned Spring Creek mine is in direct competition with the privately owned Denniston project.
The question must be asked;
With Solid Energy on the market – has possible private investor in Solid Energy, namely Bathhurst Resources, requested as a condition of sale that Spring Creek be closed?
Would an Official Information Request, if granted, reveal this?
Is Spring Creek being closed because it makes the Denniston project unviable?
Do, the underground workers of Spring Creek and the anti-coal lobby have a common interest in seeing that Denniston never opens?
Does the minister know this?
Is this the reason the Minister is trying to turn the Greymouth community’s anger against Solid Energy against the environmental opponents of Denniston?