“It’s probably necessary to stop here and point out a couple of things. First of all, the fact that free trade is bad policy doesn’t mean that every kind of trade barrier is good policy. The habit of insisting that the only possible points along a spectrum are its two ends, common as it is, is an effective way to make really bad decisions; as in most things, there’s a middle ground that yields better results than either of the two extremes. Finding that middle ground isn’t necessarily easy, but the same thing’s true of most economic and political issues.”
That link was discussed here yesterday. Glad you brought it up again.
Excerpt:
“People who are aligned to the Labour cause actually genuinely take action about improving housing, about lifting incomes, about making sure that schools are properly funded, and our hospitals are properly funded.
“What they don’t do is go around looking for those on the highest incomes to back them – to challenge whoever because that’s all they want. Labour people, passionate Labour in their heart – they stick with Labour, they campaign on Labour issues, and for the Labour Party. Nick’s not one of those people.”
Andrew Little is bang on. Pseudo supporters who are only in the party for what they can get out of it. Having used Labour to its fullest capacity, they then scarper off to greener pastures. I think you could put people like Phil Quin and Josie Pagani into much the same boat.
I note on Q&A today that Pagani has given herself a new title – Public Affairs specialist.
Yeah, Labour can afford to be really picky about who they approve as left wing enough.
Leggett, Pagani, Quin and the other 10-15% of voters that Labour has lost are all dispensable. If they lose some all they need to do is accept their reduced party status and use Greens and maybe NZ First to make up the difference.
Good luck with that one. It’s a strategy that has failed before, but maybe if it’s repeated enough times it will work eventually.
The problem is that Labour seems to expect the non-voters to understand them and support them. They don’t seem to try let alone succeed in understanding the non-voters.
Repeatedly trying to sell a a failed product to very reluctant buyers is a bit of a challenge.
If two terms of key’s government wasn’t enough motivation to get the missing million off their bums on election day and voting for any opposition party to prevent a third, then their hearts, and minds, really can’t be in it.
I wouldn’t advocate writing them off, they’re still a huge potential voting block, but I wouldn’t build a campaign around them or labour under the expectation they’ll all of a sudden engage.
Labour/Greens just need to keep the policy coming.
Oh for fuck’s sake. It’s the “Labour” Party – even for someone as incapable of understanding what people are telling him as you are, that name should be a bit of a giveaway as to whom the part exists for. Just in case you are as obtuse as ever, it’s for people who are on the side of labour – Leggett, Pagani et al are not and should be pissing into someone else’s tent.
Leggett, Pagani, Quin, Shane Jones, the Maori MPs et al are people who helped get Clark’s Labour into Government and stay there for for nine years.
If Labour wants to ditch it’s ‘broad church’ appeal and piss on anyone who won’t accept their narrowing appeal without criticism then they are heading towards voluntary minor party status.
They’ve already ditched ‘Labour’ and replaced it with ‘Labour+Greens’ and expect to appeal to non-voters who don’t even like large and confident parties.
Oh ffs again. Legget is considering standing for National. So unless you think that Labour should be so broad as to also be National, you’re spouting a self-serving, the centre is god mythology that isn’t born out by what is happening in the world.
“They’ve already ditched ‘Labour’ and replaced it with ‘Labour+Greens’ and expect to appeal to non-voters who don’t even like large and confident parties.”
Telling lies this early on a Sunday Pete, really. (that or you simply don’t understand the MoU and what it means).
National and Labour are not mutually exclusive, as has been pointed out here many times. There’s quite an overlap in the centre and has been for a long time.
And get stuffed with your accusing me of lying just because you happen to disagree. Try arguing on the issue, if you have an argument.
Yes, I’ve read it, it’s so vague that you can’t clearly explain it.
It appears to mean that Greens and Labour are open to building relationships with other parties, people and organisations that share their goal but recognise that is a decision for themselves.
Unless Greens and Labour have decided they are from the Maori Party, the Mana Party, or are amongst the 15% of voters who have previously voted for Labour or Greens, but have now been deemed to be RWNJs?
At least we have this though. PG has just admitted he doesn’t understand the MoU, which makes his original statement about Labour having ditched Labour and is not L+G a confirmed idiocy.
I didn’t admit I don’t understand the MoU. I said it appears to be too vague for OAB to explain it, but OAB seems to rarely try and explain anything, they seem more intent on playing dirty.
The way Labour and Greens have worked with each other and not worked with each other suggests to me that it isn’t a hard and fast agreement, it is simply a general understanding that they will try and work together better until the election to present a Labour+Green alternative to voters and to defeat National.
Meanwhile, on Earth, I encouraged this dishonest bore to explain which clauses he can’t understand. It’s written in plain English. Instead, the lying troll puts words in my mouth.
It’s because he’s an astroturfing waste of bandwidth.
There’s nothing vague about agreeing to work together in Parliament and select committees, for example, unless you’re a lying trolling petty poison-pen.
There’s nothing vague about “no surprises”, unless you are pretending to be an illiterate idiot to advance your ongoing unoriginal repetition of right wing smears.
There’s nothing vague about monthly meetings, unless you have no original thoughts of your own and a list of right wing memes to faithfully copy.
No wonder people 🙄 whenever his latest ban expires.
It’s vague where it’s most critical – what Labour and Greens might do after the election.
The MoU seems to be an attempted con, selling Labour+Greens as a viable alternative to National (Labour having conceded they can’t go head to head with National any more) but with no indication what the end coalition would look like.
That’s been Winston’s trick in the past (and still is, the ‘wait until the voters decide’ trick, but the voters don’t know what to base their decision on).
No concession from Labour: a recidivist liar made it up.
No “attempted con” either – the MOU means exactly what it says. Unless you’re determined to bad-mouth the parties in question, that is. Because you’re motivated by hate.
Yes: the reason Petty George runs these plagiarised lies is pure and simple: malice, and a desperate cry for attention.
The comparison with NZF is a lie too, because unlike Peters, L and the G are being very up front about who they will do deals with post-election.
Can’t really fault the rest of your assessments OAB, although I would say the nasty comes from fear of the left and wanting to consolidate power in the centre because that’s the only place he can tolerate.
No, Pete, I’m not going to tell you how I understand the MoU, because you are a troll who looks intent on running attack lines against the left.
“L and the G are being very up front about who they will do deals with post-election.”
The wording of the MOU implies it will run only until the election and it is not being presented as a coalition deal.
Asked about NZ First’s role Little said: “We both agree this is not a monogamous relationship.”
He would welcome any other party committed to changing the government and advancing progressive policies.
But he refused to say whether he would leave the Greens out in the cold and form a government with NZ First if it had the numbers and its leader Winston Peters insisted.
Yes, we’ve already established you either have no idea what is going on or are lying.
I”m not going to show you anything because you are a troll.
Labour and the Greens were explicit that the MoU lasted until the election and that any coalition deals would be negotiated after the election. And they’ve also been explicit that they are willing to work together in government. And they’ve also been explicit that they’re not guaranteeing that, because obviously how the voting goes will have a big impact on who gets to form govt. Duh.
Only a fucking idiot* would criticise them for not having a coalition deal 12 months out from an election.
I haven’t seen anyone say they should have a coalition deal before the election. No one does that, it would be absurd to even suggest it.
Yes Labour and Greens have indicated they would work together in Government – maybe. Greens will almost certainly need Labour if they still won’t work in government with National.
But Andrew Little wouldn’t rule out jilting the Greens and doing a deal with Winston if that allowed him to form a government.
Even this “statement of the bleeding obvious” is barbed with Petty’s feeble smears – “jilting” – seriously? Is Petty George in fact a teenage fashion victim with a very unfortunate skin condition?
I think it would be more useful for New Zealand if Labour and National just went into a long-term coalition. Spare me the tedium of another election.
National under Key have hardly cracked down on social welfare as they have done, accelerated resolution of Maori issues, retained all the Helen Clark government’s innovations and in some places improved them, plus the earthquakes and Auckland’s needs have simply forced Key to become more and more Keynesian as he stays on.
Whereas Labour in policy terms are about the same as when Helen Clark left – even dumping the 90 day fire at will clause was beyond fighting.
Sure, there’s lots to differ on, but it’s too small and country, and our politics overall now too centrist.
Labour and National’s caucuses should simply get together over Christmas, share a good long bong session, and move in together.
We’ve been waiting for a long-term compact that would steady the country and push it along harder. Well, Labour and National, do it.
@ Petey boy:
Leggett, Pagani and Quin are dispensable. No-one in the LP has shed any tears at their loss Pete dear. Labour has not been so unified since the departure of these trouble makers, but we know that is all a bit hard for someone like you to comprehend.
“picky about who they approve as left wing enough”. Right wing is not acting to improve housing, not lifting incomes, not making sure schools and public hospitals are properly funded,
A scab is someone who betrays his or her fellow workers. Nick Leggett has never violated a strike, to my knowledge, so of course Andrew Little would not call him a scab.
Dr Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan White House official, talks about the state of Anglo-US imperial activities with regards to Syria, Russia and other hot spots around the world.
Russia:
Gangster state led by a KGB dictator where political opponents and non compliant journalists just disappear, get murdered or are jailed.
Initiates an aggressive expansionist policy, which threatens several independent sovereign nation states on it’s borders who commit to and view western Europe as their ally, as is their given right.
Sanctions and tactical slashing of oil prices hit the bank balance of Putin and his crony pet pussy cats, and faced with diminishing wealth, and above all, dents to his ruskie male chauvinist ego, he sets in motion a plan to destabilize.
During the Arab spring, in Syria, instead of supporting the popular people led call for regime change he frustrated attempts in order to protect his energy deals and local influence, which in turn caused the vacuum in which isil filled and has led to propping up a barrel bombing, chlorine gas using murderer who because of this has no hope of ever running a united country, ever, no matter how many hospitals or aid convoys the Russian military can target and destroy.
Best you stick your “anglo-US imperial activities with regards to Syria, Russia and other hot spots around the world” up your agenda motivated cossack.
A perfect summary of false smear focused Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda, thank you.
By the way, do you not understand that Russophobic PR, economic sanctions against Russia and undermining the oil price has finally successfully forced Russia to diversify its economy.
It has become more self reliant on localised manufacturing and technology, accelerate its military modernisation and to seek new ties to India, China and South East Asia.
Who you spin and shill for and why you’ve accepted the mission is your call, but don’t expect all the people all the time to be as dimwitted and gullible as you’ll need them to be to have your version of history regarded as fact. There just isn’t enough RT propaganda around to do it.
So yeah, insert your “false smear focused Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda” up your swollen Gorky.
By the way, do you not understand that Russophobic PR, economic sanctions against Russia and undermining the oil price has finally successfully forced Russia to diversify its economy.
Most of us don’t need “Russophobic PR” to tell us that an authoritarian right-wing kleptocracy in charge a huge military isn’t a good thing. Also, it’s superfluous to say “Russia” has been forced to diversify “its” economy, as though it had some kind of representative democracy running it. Putin and his cronies have been forced to diversify their economy – no need for euphemisms.
You have to recognise that other countries, not just ours, have legitimate national and security interests. With NATO moving more and more forces and bases to within 100km of Russian borders, of course Russia will respond accordingly.
Russia runs a managed democracy just like the USA does, though of course not managed in the same way.
However, Putin has far higher public approval and favourability ratings than either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump – neither of whom the American people would choose if they had a true choice.
In contrast, most Russians would far more enthusiastically vote for Vladimir Putin.
Russia runs a managed democracy just like the USA does, though of course not managed in the same way.
“…not managed in the same way.” Ah, yes – let’s draw a discreet false-equivalence veil over the hugely consequential difference between an actual democracy and a pretend one, because… well, damned if I know why you do it, unless you’re a right-wing authoritarian yourself.
Putin is popular electorally based on his results and his leadership. From failed oligarchic state to prosperous re-emerging super power in under 20 years.
Having said that most Russians do seem to think that the machinery of their government remains bureaucratic, slow and inevitably corrupt to one degree or another.
Putin is popular electorally based on his results and his leadership.
So was Hitler. Which I mention not to compare Putin to Hitler, just to illustrate that a leader’s popularity or lack of it says nothing useful about quality of governance. As a general rule, Big Brother making the trains run on time isn’t a substitute for rule of law, separation of powers, press freedom and a functioning democracy.
Every western country is deteriorating in each one of those counts, while Russia is getting its act together.
Especially compared to the 1990s. When a disastrous US engineered post-Soviet collapse put Russia in the hands of a dozen hand picked oligarchs loyal to foreign powers and criminal ethnic mafias causing havoc in local communities.
And the Russian people credit Putin for putting that disintegrating chaotic country back together.
One more point. I’m quietly confident that the rest of the world has had quite enough of western colonialists trying to tell them how to behave and how to run government.
Especially given the incompetent rigged display of a US democratic debacle this year.
When I was a teenager my day would be given a magazine smuggled out of Czechoslovakia by one of his friends who was a communist. I remember it well, for it contained wonderful descriptions of the superb life the people there enjoyed under the Russian rule. Of course it was all bull shit.
RT delivers much the same now.
You know Macro, I tire of old cold war types and old cold war stereotypes.
If you can’t understand that Putin’s Russia is a completely different nation to Yeltsin’s Russia, which was completely different to the Soviet Union which was a completely different nation to Tsarist Russia, there is no way that you can make sensible judgements on important issues to do with that nation.
Anyway for a laugh, here is Steven Seagal receiving his Russian citizenship from Putin this week.
Every western country is deteriorating in each one of those counts, while Russia is getting its act together.
I’m not sure what you mean by “getting its act together,” since Russia is deteriorating on all those counts a lot faster than any western democracy and from a much lower base.
…western colonialists…
Just for giggles, how do you think the Russian Federation got to be the size it is today? And why do you think it considers various of its neighbours to be part of its “sphere of influence?”
falling apart – ha! the 5 year plan is well above target, everyone is happy and well fed and everyone love vlad oh yes that is the truth I am not being forced to say this…
As I said where? The Russian Federation isn’t falling apart. Russia could continue to deteriorate on those good governance measures to the point where it’s one of the shittiest countries in the world and still not fall apart – in fact, it’s already done that once, as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Putin’s got a long way to go before he could even aspire to the same league as earlier Russian efforts at bad governance.
It’s what Russia always needed, to get out more and smell the roses. Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda aside. Who do think Russia’s new ties with India, China and South East Asia will really benefit ?
Mostly the 50%-60% of the world’s population living right there.
This is an Eurasian 21st Century.
Marked by the return of the old civilisations of the world: Russia 1100 years old, China 3000+ years old, India 3000+ years old, Persia 2500+ years old.
NZ, while remaining aligned with our strong US-Anglo roots, has to realise that we have to be flexible and adaptable to the change at hand.
You really embarrass yourself every time you come on this messageboard. I cannot imagine you spouting such ignorant comments in any half sane work place, so the question arises: Are you a radio talkback host?
You use that ‘you embarrass yourself’ line a lot and, in context, it doesn’t bother me a bit what you think. I can easily live with your fragility.
I’m not the one whose been stalking a radio show for years and years. lol
I guess it would be difficult for anyone to match the breadth of your research on the subject, extending as it does all the way from John Pilger to Russia Today…
The RWNJs go on about the oppression of the USSR, China, DPRK etc and then they go round doing this sort of shit:
Last week, the U.K.’s Parliament approved the Investigatory Powers Bill, dubbed the “Snoopers’ Charter” by critics. The law, which is expected to come into force before the end of the year, was introduced in November 2015 after the fallout from revelations by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden about extensive British mass surveillance. The Investigatory Powers Bill essentially retroactively legalizes the electronic spying programs exposed in the Snowden documents — and also expands some of the government’s surveillance powers.
And then they wonder why we compare them to Hitler and Stalin.
As Paul Craig Roberts states, the few countries left with independent foreign and monetary policies (Iran, Syria, Russia, China, and formerly Libya and Iraq) must be demonised and destabilised.
But you get a total pass if you are a co-operative part of the Anglo-US empire.
Big business bristles at possible $86m tax crackdown (from Granny Herald)
“Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the delays made it seem that Inland Revenue had double standards in tax enforcement.
“What it looks like is the Government is sending in metaphorical SWAT teams to catch beneficiaries and student loan borrowers, while they’re letting [large taxpayers] not pay millions of dollars in taxes, year after year,” he said.
Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson said Woodhouse “needs to decide whose side he’s on. Is he on the side of working New Zealanders who pay their PAYE every week and do the right thing, or is he on the side of companies who seek to limit their tax paid in New Zealand?”
On a similar note from Bernard Hickey (also on Granny Herald)
“The default position for many now is to distrust apparently rootless multinational companies who have played countries off against each other to reduce their tax bills and generate ever-bigger profits for their equally rootless investors.
Prime Minister John Key has his ear close to the ground and this week he told Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to win back the trust of the globalised masses by paying its taxes.
“I think if they don’t, the same people who are its users will wake up one day and say, ‘Why do I have to pay my tax if this company is not going to?'” Key said.
It’s a bit late for that now. People are wide awake. Key hopes the social contract supporting globalisation here can be repaired with a few tweaks and some good PR.
The trouble is globalisation is global. It only works when everyone globally believes in that social contract, and that is broken.”
More profiteering on apartments – so helpful for first home buyers (sarc) (from Granny herald)
“At the St James Suites planned for Queen St, a buyer who in 2014 signed a contract to pay $775,000 was stunned last week when that figure escalated to $999,000 for exactly the same two-bedroom place.
Across in Takapuna, one buyer at The Sargeson apartment project told how the price of a unit was rising from $465,000 to $535,000, while at Rose Gardens Apartments in Albany, where work is well advanced, buyers were being asked for 15 per cent more.
Rising construction costs, funding cost hikes and difficulty getting access to funding are some of the issues being mentioned in letters sent to buyers, citing clauses which allow changes, offering to cancel and pay interest on deposits.
Auckland apartment developer Marty Kells said some overseas players were ratcheting up unit prices.”
Those developers are getting screwed by the materials suppliers; in particular Fletchers and its subsidiaries in cement, steel, hardware, and wood.
They are also having their construction workers sucked away by the big public sector infrastructure jobs.
While interest rates stay low, immigration goes high, and demand for housing continues to climb and climb, prices will continue to escalate by the month.
Also it is not just ‘bodies on the build’ – it is the level of building skills that’s lacking – they should never have taken away the apprentices and so forth.
But I think the main factor going up is materials not labour. But MSM does not talk about that as nobody is lobbying for cheaper materials and investigations into building monopolies and price fixing.
It seems that there is price fixing going on at all the major building firms. As soon as one puts up the prices the rest follow.
The Army Corps of Engineers has issued an eviction notice to one of the Standing Rock camps (which is on Indian land, but the govt think it’s theirs). They’re meant to leave by 5th Dec. As far as I can tell the camp is continuing to build in prep for winter.
This impressive rant from a US Navy Vet on what’s going down,
/ In his meetings, Flynn is said to have claimed Trump’s controversial campaign-trail remarks were merely part of the rhetoric needed to secure an election win, according to informed sources. His actual policies after taking office would be different from what he said to galvanize his support base, Flynn predicted.
… Frydl too saw the Trump win in such areas as a vote against the status quo in the same way that a vote for Obama was in 2008. In that way, she thinks Trump’s upset is a “de facto” judgment on Obama’s failure to be the “change agent” many thought they were voting for.
“The people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the steel belt that voted for Trump were aware that the steel mills closed in 1983,” she said. “They were aware of that in 2012 when they voted for Obama. There is something specific to the opioid crisis in the last four years that is a social policy failure that deserves to be treated as discrete.”
Frydl, who has written a history of the drug war in America, believes that the Obama administration’s response to the opioid crisis signaled to many addiction-ravaged areas that “their suffering was not registering with the Democratic Party establishment.” …
… After decades of systemic economic decline and the government’s failure to address the subsequent public-health crisis, Trump’s outsider campaign was perfectly primed to capitalize on the so-called Oxy electorate’s fears about foreign influence and loss of status.
Every time Trump turned up in New Hampshire he would talk about stopping drugs coming in from Mexico, he would talk about stamping out the heroin/opioid problem, he would talk about getting addicts proper treatment and making sure they get better and that they could get good jobs again, he would meet with public officials and community groups dealing with this problem.
More than 50,000 abusive and offensive tweets were sent celebrating Labour MP Jo Cox’s murder and lauding her killer, Thomas Mair, as a “hero” or “patriot” in the month following her death, prompting calls for the government to do more to tackle hate speech online.
It’s a difficult line to draw but there has to be some limits to free-speech. It’s this type of stuff that leads to stuff like this:
They include the killing of 77 and injuring of 242 people in Norway by Anders Breivik in July 2011 in shooting and bomb attacks fuelled by his rightwing views and belief in the Islamisation of Europe.
If it translates into the voting pattern next year, it will mean more homeless working families and dead children, and you’ll have something to celebrate.
I am not envious of policies that can only achieve economic growth through increasing immigration. Nor do I envy the wealth that goes with crony capitalist corruption: I have enough of my own gained by honest means, thanks.
If you had a rebuttal to my valid criticism you’d have stated it. Instead you chose to attack me.
Thanks for conceding my point so quickly. Console yourself with your feelings for Dear Leader.
Pragmatically speaking that would lead to a Labour/NZF government with the Greens providing confidence and supply. However, I note that you seem much more confident in your opinion of what Winston will or won’t do than I am, so perhaps it is you who needs your head read.
I’d be surprised if National don’t win out right next year.
Apart from the left being a joke, Key has finally realised the jokey jokey stuff with the media isn’t the best idea as he loses control of the narrative so has peeled that right back.
From now on the message will be Key the dependable, the guy you can rely on etc, Angry boy really doesn’t have a chance, if he was honest the best thing he could do is throw the towel in now and save the country quite a few million.
Hey, OAB. Is it true you have hired Dr Death to relieve you of your miserable existence after the next election is won by National? I say that because you seem to be an abusive prick who is exempt from moderation and offers little to a debate. You also make a mockery of the good behaviour rule for this thread. Or doesn’t that apply to you?
Outgoing PMs popularity is trending downwards and has been for some time. JS
Arrogance does not keep a government in power, Northland springs to mind, and if the current government was any good (popular) they would be able to take Mt Roskill, but they won’t because they aren’t.
Don’t rely on the polls, Brexit and Trump should have taught everyone that lesson by now.
But hey if all you want to do is gloat, then gloat away, makes you look foolish considering the information I’ve just provided.
Dude, don’t make fun of suicide, the stats in our country are naught to be proud of, thanks to the current government, taking ones own life has never been more popular.
Key’s Colmar Brunton / Reid Research – combined average is now just under 38% (for 2016)
So he’s Down 15 points on 2011,
11 points on 2010
and 14 points on 2009
His 2/2 of 2016 combined average is now just under 37%
In reality, he’s probably down a little more than that. Key is usually slightly weaker in the Reid Research polls. And an unusually small number of RR polls have been carried out this year (2 to Colmar Brunton’s 5). Usually these 2 Pollsters conduct roughly the same number of polls each year.
Based off what Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, said about Hillary Clinton’s popularity.
Does Labour’s polling appear to be benefitting from Key’s weakening ratings relative to 2011?
Or is Labour’s polling still demonstrating a polling ceiling (that I would place at roughly 28% to 30%) which it cannot seem to break through and stay through, even as Key’s support declines?
And finally – is Little’s numbers going up as Key’s numbers over the last 2 years has been going down?
(2) Da (although has occassionally broken through to 32/33% over last 2 years)
(3) Nyet !!!
You’re quite right, of course, CV. I should point out here that I was simply backing up Cinny’s broad point – largely with a view to irritating our regular Tory chums.
Still looking just a teensy weensy weensy weensy bit grim for Labour and the Left at this juncture.
Kellyanne Conway, who also runs her own polling organisation, said that they noticed every time their candidate Trump got hit hard with a new media revelation his poll numbers would briefly dip.
But those dips almost never translated into boosts for Hillary Clinton who they saw had a pretty hard polling ceiling of 45% to 46%.
So they knew that she was vulnerable to undecideds and wouldn’t tells moving against her.
The big difference is that while Key’s a bit of a dick who harms the country, he’s not quite the same level of racist fascist imbecilic fraudster who makes voters voters ashamed to admit what they intend to do in a secret ballot.
I wonder then why the outgoing government appears to be underfunding our National Parks aka DOC?
No doubt many come here for the scenery.
Government is happy to exploit the tourism income earner, but it appears they are not so happy to keep our parks up to scratch.
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The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
What do a sombrero in Argentina and cognitive driving tests have in common? Don’t worry, we’re not setting up a bad joke. Hinengaro Clinic dementia clinician Gregory Winkelman has the answer on today’s episode of The Detail. “We ask a patient’s spouse or son or daughter: If you went to ...
Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
After replacing a fifth of their caucus in just four months, the Greens’ opportunity to reset, reshuffle and refocus on the Government is quickly slipping away The post Persistent Green Party scandals delay caucus reset appeared first on Newsroom. ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
Opinion: Nicholas Khoo looks at two key points in the high-stakes foreign policy pact debate – and asks if NZ can engage with as little drama as possible. The post Where to next for the Aukus ruckus? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Opinion: ‘Reference-class forecasting’ is at the heart of improving pricing a project and identifying the expected timeframe but it doesn’t appear to be in use here The post ‘Think fast and act slowly’ is failing big projects appeared first on Newsroom. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
By Robin Martin, RNZ News reporter A New Zealand local authority, Whanganui District Council, has passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of all acts of violence and terror against civilians on both sides of the conflict and the immediate return of hostages. It comes as ...
Asia Pacific Report The Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has appealed to the New Zealand government to call out Israel over the “cruel and barbaric use of force” in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire. The league’s open letter was sent to Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will invest $566 million over a decade on data, maps and other tools to promote exploration and development in Australia’s resources industry. The project will fund “the first comprehensive map of what’s ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
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Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
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Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
International audiences are starting to discover what New Zealand already knew about After the Party.When After the Party aired in New Zealand last year, the response was fast and furious. In his preview for Rec Room, Duncan Greive said it was a “gritty, wrenching and highly confronting” series. By ...
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Claire Mabey reviews the haunting and sexy debut novel from Sinéad Gleeson, who is about to touch down in Aotearoa for a string of live events.When Irish writer Sinéad Gleeson was in Aotearoa in 2018 with her spectacular collection of essays, Constellations, she told me she was working on ...
PNG Post-Courier Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba has described the Post-Courier’s front page story yesterday regarding a meeting between Bougainville and national government leaders as “sensationalised” and without substance. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (AGB) had warned it might use “other avenues to gain its independence” should the PNG government “continue ...
Where some saw the worst press conference given by the government to date, Anna Rawhiti-Connell recognised girl maths game.Nicola Willis, recently exasperated by comparisons to Ruth Richardson, said she was “a bit sick of being compared with every female finance minister that’s ever been out there.”Some think that’s ...
The March results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2023 (HYEFU 2023), published on 20 December 2023 and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Jamie Arbuckle, the district councillor who became an MP but decided to keep getting paid for both roles, will instead donate one salary to charity. ...
Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Resources Minister Shane Jones has reportedly asked officials for advice on whether oil and gas companies could be offered “bonds” as compensation if drilling rights offered by ...
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It took a post-post-cabinet statement to confirm that 810 new beds will be built at Waikeria, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Lili Tokaduadua was only 15 when she left her family in Fiji to pursue her netball dream in New Zealand. She’d been playing the sport for 10 years and was offered a netball scholarship at Auckland’s Howick College. Now, in her first year out of high school, the 19-year-old defender ...
The beloved local grocers lost a legal challenge to stop a new cycleway outside their store. Joel MacManus reports. In the annals of New Zealand legal history, there are a few brave people who have dared to stand up to the powers that be, no matter how bleak the odds ...
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Highly pathogenic avian influenza – H5N1, or bird flu – has been flying around the world since the late 1990s. New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands are so far free of it, but now it’s been discovered in mainland Antarctica and scientists say it’s only a matter of time ...
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The following interview with auto electrician and former caver Stu Berendt, 68, of Charleston on the West Coast, came about because he was part of the caving team that found the rare and amazing fossil remains of the giant Haast eagle, the subject of one of the year’s best books, ...
A $1.8b funding boost for Pharmac still won’t enable it to buy more drugs, raising questions about the Government’s approach to the agency The post Can Pharmac do more with the same pot of money? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Professor Jemma Geoghegan, of the University of Otago, Otakou Whakaihu Waka, co-leads a Te Niwha project aimed at understanding how and where avian influenza could affect Aotearoa New Zealand, as the highly infectious H5N1 virus spreads globally. The virus has now spread to all continents except Oceania and was recently ...
Thirty years on from Rwanda’s genocide, is guilt over the atrocities is blinding the world to the true nature of its current leadership? The post The repressive underside of Rwanda’s regime appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Last week, important recommendations for our criminal justice system were made by the international community. Every five years, each member of the United Nations has its human rights practices reviewed. This rolling event – the Universal Periodic Review – is the culmination of a government reporting on its human ...
“It’s probably necessary to stop here and point out a couple of things. First of all, the fact that free trade is bad policy doesn’t mean that every kind of trade barrier is good policy. The habit of insisting that the only possible points along a spectrum are its two ends, common as it is, is an effective way to make really bad decisions; as in most things, there’s a middle ground that yields better results than either of the two extremes. Finding that middle ground isn’t necessarily easy, but the same thing’s true of most economic and political issues.”
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2016/11/the-free-trade-fallacy.html
deja vu…..plus climate change
Is Seismic blasting a good idea in Napier and Kaikoura?
https://act.greenpeace.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1939&ea.campaign.id=58837&ea.tracking.id=facebook_promotion&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=climate&utm_term=fbstatoilchevron03&utm_content=paid_promo
Inside The Invisible Government: John Pilger On War, Propaganda, Clinton And Trump
https://newmatilda.com/2016/10/28/inside-the-invisible-government-john-pilger-on-war-propaganda-clinton-and-trump/
Andrew little showing his class. Might as well have called him a scab.
Makes him look like the “union man” he is.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/nick-leggett-wasnt-true-labour—andrew-little-2016112615
That link was discussed here yesterday. Glad you brought it up again.
Excerpt:
Andrew Little is bang on. Pseudo supporters who are only in the party for what they can get out of it. Having used Labour to its fullest capacity, they then scarper off to greener pastures. I think you could put people like Phil Quin and Josie Pagani into much the same boat.
I note on Q&A today that Pagani has given herself a new title – Public Affairs specialist.
Ah, so she’s gone full RWNJ.
Yeah, Labour can afford to be really picky about who they approve as left wing enough.
Leggett, Pagani, Quin and the other 10-15% of voters that Labour has lost are all dispensable. If they lose some all they need to do is accept their reduced party status and use Greens and maybe NZ First to make up the difference.
Labour moving away from the RWNJ’s (Leggett, Pagani, Quin) will mean the missing millions might feel confident voting for them again..
Good luck with that one. It’s a strategy that has failed before, but maybe if it’s repeated enough times it will work eventually.
The problem is that Labour seems to expect the non-voters to understand them and support them. They don’t seem to try let alone succeed in understanding the non-voters.
Repeatedly trying to sell a a failed product to very reluctant buyers is a bit of a challenge.
Were the Greens not left enough for the missing million, were Internet Mana too right wing?
Its not like there weren’t options for the voters, I think the idea that the missing million are all disaffected Labour voters is pie in the sky stuff
If two terms of key’s government wasn’t enough motivation to get the missing million off their bums on election day and voting for any opposition party to prevent a third, then their hearts, and minds, really can’t be in it.
I wouldn’t advocate writing them off, they’re still a huge potential voting block, but I wouldn’t build a campaign around them or labour under the expectation they’ll all of a sudden engage.
Labour/Greens just need to keep the policy coming.
For a start there aren’t millions of missing voters .
Arrogantly assuming there are and not only that they will vote left is silly.
Are you saying this indolent class of person who can’t get of there arse to vote , ipso facto demonstrating left wing characteristics .
Aren’t there any indolent right wing voters?
Oh for fuck’s sake. It’s the “Labour” Party – even for someone as incapable of understanding what people are telling him as you are, that name should be a bit of a giveaway as to whom the part exists for. Just in case you are as obtuse as ever, it’s for people who are on the side of labour – Leggett, Pagani et al are not and should be pissing into someone else’s tent.
Oh FFS yourself.
Leggett, Pagani, Quin, Shane Jones, the Maori MPs et al are people who helped get Clark’s Labour into Government and stay there for for nine years.
If Labour wants to ditch it’s ‘broad church’ appeal and piss on anyone who won’t accept their narrowing appeal without criticism then they are heading towards voluntary minor party status.
They’ve already ditched ‘Labour’ and replaced it with ‘Labour+Greens’ and expect to appeal to non-voters who don’t even like large and confident parties.
Oh ffs again. Legget is considering standing for National. So unless you think that Labour should be so broad as to also be National, you’re spouting a self-serving, the centre is god mythology that isn’t born out by what is happening in the world.
“They’ve already ditched ‘Labour’ and replaced it with ‘Labour+Greens’ and expect to appeal to non-voters who don’t even like large and confident parties.”
Telling lies this early on a Sunday Pete, really. (that or you simply don’t understand the MoU and what it means).
National and Labour are not mutually exclusive, as has been pointed out here many times. There’s quite an overlap in the centre and has been for a long time.
And get stuffed with your accusing me of lying just because you happen to disagree. Try arguing on the issue, if you have an argument.
🙄
So you don’t understand the MOU or what it means. It’s more charitable to assume you’re a liar instead.
No, you keep calling anyone a liar you try and set up for weka to ban.
Can you clearly explain what the MoU means to the Greens, and to Labour?
Poor little martyr battles evil conspiracy 🙄
Have you even read the MOU (pdf)? I doubt it, because it’s written in plain English.
Which particular clause or clauses are you incapable of grasping?
Yes, I’ve read it, it’s so vague that you can’t clearly explain it.
It appears to mean that Greens and Labour are open to building relationships with other parties, people and organisations that share their goal but recognise that is a decision for themselves.
Unless Greens and Labour have decided they are from the Maori Party, the Mana Party, or are amongst the 15% of voters who have previously voted for Labour or Greens, but have now been deemed to be RWNJs?
3 b) has some points you could learn something from, if you understand it.
“We support each other’s right to express alternate views”. And “we agree to articulate differences in a collegial and respectful manner”.
Incapacity it is then.
Wilful ignorance.
At least we have this though. PG has just admitted he doesn’t understand the MoU, which makes his original statement about Labour having ditched Labour and is not L+G a confirmed idiocy.
I didn’t admit I don’t understand the MoU. I said it appears to be too vague for OAB to explain it, but OAB seems to rarely try and explain anything, they seem more intent on playing dirty.
The way Labour and Greens have worked with each other and not worked with each other suggests to me that it isn’t a hard and fast agreement, it is simply a general understanding that they will try and work together better until the election to present a Labour+Green alternative to voters and to defeat National.
Can you explain what the MoU means to you weka?
Meanwhile, on Earth, I encouraged this dishonest bore to explain which clauses he can’t understand. It’s written in plain English. Instead, the lying troll puts words in my mouth.
It’s because he’s an astroturfing waste of bandwidth.
There’s nothing vague about agreeing to work together in Parliament and select committees, for example, unless you’re a lying trolling petty poison-pen.
There’s nothing vague about “no surprises”, unless you are pretending to be an illiterate idiot to advance your ongoing unoriginal repetition of right wing smears.
There’s nothing vague about monthly meetings, unless you have no original thoughts of your own and a list of right wing memes to faithfully copy.
No wonder people 🙄 whenever his latest ban expires.
It’s vague where it’s most critical – what Labour and Greens might do after the election.
The MoU seems to be an attempted con, selling Labour+Greens as a viable alternative to National (Labour having conceded they can’t go head to head with National any more) but with no indication what the end coalition would look like.
That’s been Winston’s trick in the past (and still is, the ‘wait until the voters decide’ trick, but the voters don’t know what to base their decision on).
More venomous lies then.
No concession from Labour: a recidivist liar made it up.
No “attempted con” either – the MOU means exactly what it says. Unless you’re determined to bad-mouth the parties in question, that is. Because you’re motivated by hate.
Yes: the reason Petty George runs these plagiarised lies is pure and simple: malice, and a desperate cry for attention.
The comparison with NZF is a lie too, because unlike Peters, L and the G are being very up front about who they will do deals with post-election.
Can’t really fault the rest of your assessments OAB, although I would say the nasty comes from fear of the left and wanting to consolidate power in the centre because that’s the only place he can tolerate.
No, Pete, I’m not going to tell you how I understand the MoU, because you are a troll who looks intent on running attack lines against the left.
“L and the G are being very up front about who they will do deals with post-election.”
That doesn’t look up front to me.
Can you show where Labour or Greens have been up front about what they would do after the election?
“That doesn’t look up front to me.”
Yes, we’ve already established you either have no idea what is going on or are lying.
I”m not going to show you anything because you are a troll.
Labour and the Greens were explicit that the MoU lasted until the election and that any coalition deals would be negotiated after the election. And they’ve also been explicit that they are willing to work together in government. And they’ve also been explicit that they’re not guaranteeing that, because obviously how the voting goes will have a big impact on who gets to form govt. Duh.
Only a fucking idiot* would criticise them for not having a coalition deal 12 months out from an election.
*or troll, and round and round we go.
I haven’t seen anyone say they should have a coalition deal before the election. No one does that, it would be absurd to even suggest it.
Yes Labour and Greens have indicated they would work together in Government – maybe. Greens will almost certainly need Labour if they still won’t work in government with National.
But Andrew Little wouldn’t rule out jilting the Greens and doing a deal with Winston if that allowed him to form a government.
🙄
Only you needed half a day to state the bleeding obvious. You just prefer to lie and smear along the way.
Even this “statement of the bleeding obvious” is barbed with Petty’s feeble smears – “jilting” – seriously? Is Petty George in fact a teenage fashion victim with a very unfortunate skin condition?
Blairites.
Power for power’s sake.
Haven’t you learnt from Brexit and Trump yet?
I think it would be more useful for New Zealand if Labour and National just went into a long-term coalition. Spare me the tedium of another election.
National under Key have hardly cracked down on social welfare as they have done, accelerated resolution of Maori issues, retained all the Helen Clark government’s innovations and in some places improved them, plus the earthquakes and Auckland’s needs have simply forced Key to become more and more Keynesian as he stays on.
Whereas Labour in policy terms are about the same as when Helen Clark left – even dumping the 90 day fire at will clause was beyond fighting.
Sure, there’s lots to differ on, but it’s too small and country, and our politics overall now too centrist.
Labour and National’s caucuses should simply get together over Christmas, share a good long bong session, and move in together.
We’ve been waiting for a long-term compact that would steady the country and push it along harder. Well, Labour and National, do it.
@ Petey boy:
Leggett, Pagani and Quin are dispensable. No-one in the LP has shed any tears at their loss Pete dear. Labour has not been so unified since the departure of these trouble makers, but we know that is all a bit hard for someone like you to comprehend.
Unified at 28% support compared to National on 50% (Greens 11%, NZF 10% in the latest Colmar Brunton poll). Labour+Greens are 11% behind.
I guess those left in Labour can rejoice in their unity.
Pete thinks effect = cause. Nothing else has happened since Clark to drop Labour’s vote.
And there it is: Petty’s concern trolling at it’s maximum strength: point two on the Richter scale.
“picky about who they approve as left wing enough”. Right wing is not acting to improve housing, not lifting incomes, not making sure schools and public hospitals are properly funded,
@Anne
James thinks Leggett saying Labour are anti immigration and anti free trade is going to win-over voters.
Like Leggett, he’s out of touch.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/poll-kiwis-want-to-cut-immigration-2016080915
http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/kiwis-still-to-be-convinced-on-tpp-2015112017
A scab is someone who betrays his or her fellow workers. Nick Leggett has never violated a strike, to my knowledge, so of course Andrew Little would not call him a scab.
Your comment is ignorant.
Dr Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan White House official, talks about the state of Anglo-US imperial activities with regards to Syria, Russia and other hot spots around the world.
‘The west is about to devour itself.’
An excellent talk.
Russia:
Gangster state led by a KGB dictator where political opponents and non compliant journalists just disappear, get murdered or are jailed.
Initiates an aggressive expansionist policy, which threatens several independent sovereign nation states on it’s borders who commit to and view western Europe as their ally, as is their given right.
Sanctions and tactical slashing of oil prices hit the bank balance of Putin and his crony pet pussy cats, and faced with diminishing wealth, and above all, dents to his ruskie male chauvinist ego, he sets in motion a plan to destabilize.
During the Arab spring, in Syria, instead of supporting the popular people led call for regime change he frustrated attempts in order to protect his energy deals and local influence, which in turn caused the vacuum in which isil filled and has led to propping up a barrel bombing, chlorine gas using murderer who because of this has no hope of ever running a united country, ever, no matter how many hospitals or aid convoys the Russian military can target and destroy.
Best you stick your “anglo-US imperial activities with regards to Syria, Russia and other hot spots around the world” up your agenda motivated cossack.
A perfect summary of false smear focused Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda, thank you.
By the way, do you not understand that Russophobic PR, economic sanctions against Russia and undermining the oil price has finally successfully forced Russia to diversify its economy.
It has become more self reliant on localised manufacturing and technology, accelerate its military modernisation and to seek new ties to India, China and South East Asia.
“By the way” lmfao
Who you spin and shill for and why you’ve accepted the mission is your call, but don’t expect all the people all the time to be as dimwitted and gullible as you’ll need them to be to have your version of history regarded as fact. There just isn’t enough RT propaganda around to do it.
So yeah, insert your “false smear focused Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda” up your swollen Gorky.
You still believe the corporate media after ‘weapons of mass destruction.’
You are either a fool or a shill.
By the way, do you not understand that Russophobic PR, economic sanctions against Russia and undermining the oil price has finally successfully forced Russia to diversify its economy.
Most of us don’t need “Russophobic PR” to tell us that an authoritarian right-wing kleptocracy in charge a huge military isn’t a good thing. Also, it’s superfluous to say “Russia” has been forced to diversify “its” economy, as though it had some kind of representative democracy running it. Putin and his cronies have been forced to diversify their economy – no need for euphemisms.
You have to recognise that other countries, not just ours, have legitimate national and security interests. With NATO moving more and more forces and bases to within 100km of Russian borders, of course Russia will respond accordingly.
Russia runs a managed democracy just like the USA does, though of course not managed in the same way.
However, Putin has far higher public approval and favourability ratings than either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump – neither of whom the American people would choose if they had a true choice.
In contrast, most Russians would far more enthusiastically vote for Vladimir Putin.
Kool-aidski for sale. Who will by my lovely Kool-aidski? Someone please drink the Kool-aidski lol
Who pays you to come on this site?
Who’d pay me to leave? Is the question deserving of an answer.
Russia runs a managed democracy just like the USA does, though of course not managed in the same way.
“…not managed in the same way.” Ah, yes – let’s draw a discreet false-equivalence veil over the hugely consequential difference between an actual democracy and a pretend one, because… well, damned if I know why you do it, unless you’re a right-wing authoritarian yourself.
Putin is popular electorally based on his results and his leadership. From failed oligarchic state to prosperous re-emerging super power in under 20 years.
Having said that most Russians do seem to think that the machinery of their government remains bureaucratic, slow and inevitably corrupt to one degree or another.
Putin is popular electorally based on his results and his leadership.
So was Hitler. Which I mention not to compare Putin to Hitler, just to illustrate that a leader’s popularity or lack of it says nothing useful about quality of governance. As a general rule, Big Brother making the trains run on time isn’t a substitute for rule of law, separation of powers, press freedom and a functioning democracy.
Every western country is deteriorating in each one of those counts, while Russia is getting its act together.
Especially compared to the 1990s. When a disastrous US engineered post-Soviet collapse put Russia in the hands of a dozen hand picked oligarchs loyal to foreign powers and criminal ethnic mafias causing havoc in local communities.
And the Russian people credit Putin for putting that disintegrating chaotic country back together.
One more point. I’m quietly confident that the rest of the world has had quite enough of western colonialists trying to tell them how to behave and how to run government.
Especially given the incompetent rigged display of a US democratic debacle this year.
When I was a teenager my day would be given a magazine smuggled out of Czechoslovakia by one of his friends who was a communist. I remember it well, for it contained wonderful descriptions of the superb life the people there enjoyed under the Russian rule. Of course it was all bull shit.
RT delivers much the same now.
You know Macro, I tire of old cold war types and old cold war stereotypes.
If you can’t understand that Putin’s Russia is a completely different nation to Yeltsin’s Russia, which was completely different to the Soviet Union which was a completely different nation to Tsarist Russia, there is no way that you can make sensible judgements on important issues to do with that nation.
Anyway for a laugh, here is Steven Seagal receiving his Russian citizenship from Putin this week.
Every western country is deteriorating in each one of those counts, while Russia is getting its act together.
I’m not sure what you mean by “getting its act together,” since Russia is deteriorating on all those counts a lot faster than any western democracy and from a much lower base.
…western colonialists…
Just for giggles, how do you think the Russian Federation got to be the size it is today? And why do you think it considers various of its neighbours to be part of its “sphere of influence?”
If Russia really is falling apart as you say, then the Anglo-US empire just needs to wait it out.
falling apart – ha! the 5 year plan is well above target, everyone is happy and well fed and everyone love vlad oh yes that is the truth I am not being forced to say this…
If Russia really is falling apart as you say…
As I said where? The Russian Federation isn’t falling apart. Russia could continue to deteriorate on those good governance measures to the point where it’s one of the shittiest countries in the world and still not fall apart – in fact, it’s already done that once, as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Putin’s got a long way to go before he could even aspire to the same league as earlier Russian efforts at bad governance.
It’s what Russia always needed, to get out more and smell the roses. Anglo-US centric imperial propaganda aside. Who do think Russia’s new ties with India, China and South East Asia will really benefit ?
Mostly the 50%-60% of the world’s population living right there.
This is an Eurasian 21st Century.
Marked by the return of the old civilisations of the world: Russia 1100 years old, China 3000+ years old, India 3000+ years old, Persia 2500+ years old.
NZ, while remaining aligned with our strong US-Anglo roots, has to realise that we have to be flexible and adaptable to the change at hand.
You really embarrass yourself every time you come on this messageboard. I cannot imagine you spouting such ignorant comments in any half sane work place, so the question arises: Are you a radio talkback host?
You use that ‘you embarrass yourself’ line a lot and, in context, it doesn’t bother me a bit what you think. I can easily live with your fragility.
I’m not the one whose been stalking a radio show for years and years. lol
But you clearly are not in any way informed on this matter.
Do you read widely on the issue or is ZB your one source on this matter?
I guess it would be difficult for anyone to match the breadth of your research on the subject, extending as it does all the way from John Pilger to Russia Today…
In a nut shell. Narrow world view.
Thanks CV. It was a good listen.
The RWNJs go on about the oppression of the USSR, China, DPRK etc and then they go round doing this sort of shit:
And then they wonder why we compare them to Hitler and Stalin.
As Paul Craig Roberts states, the few countries left with independent foreign and monetary policies (Iran, Syria, Russia, China, and formerly Libya and Iraq) must be demonised and destabilised.
But you get a total pass if you are a co-operative part of the Anglo-US empire.
Well done guys. Only trouble is too many in the west think like Peter Swift does !
Think is not the verb I would use.
Big business bristles at possible $86m tax crackdown (from Granny Herald)
“Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the delays made it seem that Inland Revenue had double standards in tax enforcement.
“What it looks like is the Government is sending in metaphorical SWAT teams to catch beneficiaries and student loan borrowers, while they’re letting [large taxpayers] not pay millions of dollars in taxes, year after year,” he said.
Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson said Woodhouse “needs to decide whose side he’s on. Is he on the side of working New Zealanders who pay their PAYE every week and do the right thing, or is he on the side of companies who seek to limit their tax paid in New Zealand?”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11754352
On a similar note from Bernard Hickey (also on Granny Herald)
“The default position for many now is to distrust apparently rootless multinational companies who have played countries off against each other to reduce their tax bills and generate ever-bigger profits for their equally rootless investors.
Prime Minister John Key has his ear close to the ground and this week he told Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to win back the trust of the globalised masses by paying its taxes.
“I think if they don’t, the same people who are its users will wake up one day and say, ‘Why do I have to pay my tax if this company is not going to?'” Key said.
It’s a bit late for that now. People are wide awake. Key hopes the social contract supporting globalisation here can be repaired with a few tweaks and some good PR.
The trouble is globalisation is global. It only works when everyone globally believes in that social contract, and that is broken.”
More profiteering on apartments – so helpful for first home buyers (sarc) (from Granny herald)
“At the St James Suites planned for Queen St, a buyer who in 2014 signed a contract to pay $775,000 was stunned last week when that figure escalated to $999,000 for exactly the same two-bedroom place.
Across in Takapuna, one buyer at The Sargeson apartment project told how the price of a unit was rising from $465,000 to $535,000, while at Rose Gardens Apartments in Albany, where work is well advanced, buyers were being asked for 15 per cent more.
Rising construction costs, funding cost hikes and difficulty getting access to funding are some of the issues being mentioned in letters sent to buyers, citing clauses which allow changes, offering to cancel and pay interest on deposits.
Auckland apartment developer Marty Kells said some overseas players were ratcheting up unit prices.”
Those developers are getting screwed by the materials suppliers; in particular Fletchers and its subsidiaries in cement, steel, hardware, and wood.
They are also having their construction workers sucked away by the big public sector infrastructure jobs.
While interest rates stay low, immigration goes high, and demand for housing continues to climb and climb, prices will continue to escalate by the month.
What Ad said. As far as I can tell, “Rising construction costs” = the rort that exists within the materials supply chain.
I heard that the cost per m2 of building has gone up some astronomical amount this year. I tried to find the article but it’s disappeared.
It’s also not the cost of new builds effected, but the costs of upgrading older houses too (aka rentals).
The cost of wool, timber and steel all the raw materials that we produce seem to be rising…
Materials are run by the duopoly. Which is bad.
What is the killer is shortage of staff and hence labour rates going through the roof.
Labour rates are about 20% more than when i was building. Hardly through the roof.
Materials, however, have more than doubled.
Also it is not just ‘bodies on the build’ – it is the level of building skills that’s lacking – they should never have taken away the apprentices and so forth.
But I think the main factor going up is materials not labour. But MSM does not talk about that as nobody is lobbying for cheaper materials and investigations into building monopolies and price fixing.
It seems that there is price fixing going on at all the major building firms. As soon as one puts up the prices the rest follow.
The price of building is lower in Australia, still!
Despite labour costs being much higher in Australia.
The Army Corps of Engineers has issued an eviction notice to one of the Standing Rock camps (which is on Indian land, but the govt think it’s theirs). They’re meant to leave by 5th Dec. As far as I can tell the camp is continuing to build in prep for winter.
This impressive rant from a US Navy Vet on what’s going down,
https://www.facebook.com/kashjackson2016/videos/573518852854067/
Hmmm saw this decision come out last night. The Commander and Chief Barack Obama could of course rescind this order with a phone call. I hope he does.
Was Trump lying then, or is he lying now?.
/
In his meetings, Flynn is said to have claimed Trump’s controversial campaign-trail remarks were merely part of the rhetoric needed to secure an election win, according to informed sources. His actual policies after taking office would be different from what he said to galvanize his support base, Flynn predicted.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Trump-adviser-meeting-pays-off-for-Suga?
The revenge of ‘the Oxy electorate’ helped fuel Trump’s election upset
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2016/11/25/why-the-deplorables-voted-for-trump/
Every time Trump turned up in New Hampshire he would talk about stopping drugs coming in from Mexico, he would talk about stamping out the heroin/opioid problem, he would talk about getting addicts proper treatment and making sure they get better and that they could get good jobs again, he would meet with public officials and community groups dealing with this problem.
Jo Cox’s murder was followed by 50,000 tweets celebrating her death
It’s a difficult line to draw but there has to be some limits to free-speech. It’s this type of stuff that leads to stuff like this:
Latest Colmar Brunton poll has Labour at 28% and Andrew Little at 8% as preferred PM. Surely an outlier?
If it translates into the voting pattern next year, it will mean more homeless working families and dead children, and you’ll have something to celebrate.
Just stating the results, OAB. I hope you don’t choke on your own bile.
These sorts of poll results just confirm that your odious politics of envy type of approach can’t get any traction.
I am not envious of policies that can only achieve economic growth through increasing immigration. Nor do I envy the wealth that goes with crony capitalist corruption: I have enough of my own gained by honest means, thanks.
If you had a rebuttal to my valid criticism you’d have stated it. Instead you chose to attack me.
Thanks for conceding my point so quickly. Console yourself with your feelings for Dear Leader.
“I have enough of my own gained by honest means, thanks”.
Get you. The Big Noise!
I note that your feeble and derivative attempt to invoke the politics of envy exposes your bad faith again.
😜
Polls should be a tool, not a a crutch.
However, the outgoing PM appears to be on a downward spiral.
Yep. 36% vs 8% for Andy.
I’m sure the PM will be battling to sleep a wink tonight.
Cue the line about whoever is oppo always having single figure favourability numbers.
It can’t be an outlier, OAB is even more stupid than usual.
Even a complete thicky like me can spot the connection between the National Party and preventable infectious diseases.
Don’t worry, the market will provide for the first time in history: magical thinking is the answer.
Well, I suppose the polls were wrong about Trump, so there may be hope for you yet.
50% playing 28% does seem a tad unfair though.
In fact, 28+10+11=49.
It’s nice that you tried to pretend MMP still exists though. It demonstrates that you are either dishonest or stupid.
I’m going to be charitable and assume you’re dishonest
The last time I checked, MMP does still exist.
28+10+11=49. Go Einstein. And the Nats are on 50 in the latest poll.
You’ve gone full retard OAB.
I’m so retarded, I got you running away from your 28 vs 50 boast in the space of one comment. Thanks for your contribution. It’s so valuable.
What am I running away from? My view hasn’t changed.
If you think you can lock Winnie in to your bloc of lightweight numbers, then Dale Kerrigan would have some advice for you.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jL2DH-nKBeA
🙄
If you think Winston will join a govt with the Greens you need your head read
Pragmatically speaking that would lead to a Labour/NZF government with the Greens providing confidence and supply. However, I note that you seem much more confident in your opinion of what Winston will or won’t do than I am, so perhaps it is you who needs your head read.
I’d be surprised if National don’t win out right next year.
Apart from the left being a joke, Key has finally realised the jokey jokey stuff with the media isn’t the best idea as he loses control of the narrative so has peeled that right back.
From now on the message will be Key the dependable, the guy you can rely on etc, Angry boy really doesn’t have a chance, if he was honest the best thing he could do is throw the towel in now and save the country quite a few million.
Quavering wet says Dear Leader can’t control the narrative.
Keys biggest weakness, far too trusting.
After the soap rape debacle he’s finally realised certain sectors of the media really aren’t his friend and he shouldn’t waste his time with them.
He’s going to be near on impossible to beat next year, tough times being a leftie that’s foe sure.
Not as tough as being a child in a homeless working family. I’m sure he’ll cope somehow. Avoid any substantive long-form interviews is my advice.
It won’t help him though.
Hey, OAB. Is it true you have hired Dr Death to relieve you of your miserable existence after the next election is won by National? I say that because you seem to be an abusive prick who is exempt from moderation and offers little to a debate. You also make a mockery of the good behaviour rule for this thread. Or doesn’t that apply to you?
Your little violent fantasies say something about you, saddo.
I heard he doesn’t trust the treasury, well at least not all their figures, he only trusts the figures that paints the outgoing government in a positive light. As demonstrated on the Nation yesterday morning.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/interview-john-key-2016112611
BM why is Keys popularity on a downward trend?
He’s been around a long time, still light years in front of David Little though.
BM you believe that Keys popularity has been dropping because he has been around for too long?
I do agree with you, he has been around for way to long
Outgoing PMs popularity is trending downwards and has been for some time. JS
Arrogance does not keep a government in power, Northland springs to mind, and if the current government was any good (popular) they would be able to take Mt Roskill, but they won’t because they aren’t.
Don’t rely on the polls, Brexit and Trump should have taught everyone that lesson by now.
But hey if all you want to do is gloat, then gloat away, makes you look foolish considering the information I’ve just provided.
Much love. Cinny x
If those thoughts keep you from dissolving into a weeping suicidal mess, I’m not going to burst your bubble.
Yeah, that David Little, he’s going to be PM and it’s going to be amazing.
Dude, don’t make fun of suicide, the stats in our country are naught to be proud of, thanks to the current government, taking ones own life has never been more popular.
What a douche.
You haven’t provided information, you’ve provided a completely subjective rant.
You must be an MSM journalist!
Keys popularity on a downward trend..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11643893
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/poll-john-key-could-lose-grip-on-power-2016080815
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1609/S00346/rmr-poll-national-415-labour-335-up-8-greens-125.htm
Not to forget the recent poll where he has dropped 2%
Mt Roskill…
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/mt-roskill-election-has-labour-got-video-6505792
Pollsters get it wrong for Trump and Brexit..
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/11/donald-trump-win-pollsters-wrong-161109225338646.html
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/pollsters-know-why-they-were-wrong-about-brexit-2016-7?r=UK&IR=T
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-09/how-did-media-pollsters-get-election-so-wrong
Colmar Brunton Polls: Key – Preferred PM
2016
Nov 36%
Sep 38%
May 39%
April 39%
Feb 40%
2015
0ct 40%
Sep 40%
July 40%
May 44%
April 42%
Feb 41%
2014
Sep (late) 43%
Sep (mid) 46%
Sep (early) 48%
looking like a trend
For a rough comparison with previous years …
From my comment here in April 2016
Preferred PM Averages – John Key
(Colmar Brunton / Reid Research – combined)
…………………………Average……………High……….Compare 2/2 2015-16
2/2 2015-16………..39………………………40…………………………..-
1/1 2015……………..42………………………44…………………..Down 3 Points
2014…………………. 45………………………48……………………Down 6 Points
2013…………………..41………………………44……………………Down 2 Points
2012…………………..43………………………48……………………Down 4 Points
2011…………………..53………………………59……………………Down 14 Points
2010…………………..49………………………54……………………Down 10 Points
2009…………………..52………………………56……………………Down 13 Points
Key’s Colmar Brunton / Reid Research – combined average is now just under 38% (for 2016)
So he’s Down 15 points on 2011,
11 points on 2010
and 14 points on 2009
His 2/2 of 2016 combined average is now just under 37%
In reality, he’s probably down a little more than that. Key is usually slightly weaker in the Reid Research polls. And an unusually small number of RR polls have been carried out this year (2 to Colmar Brunton’s 5). Usually these 2 Pollsters conduct roughly the same number of polls each year.
Let me ask you a question, swordfish.
Based off what Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, said about Hillary Clinton’s popularity.
Does Labour’s polling appear to be benefitting from Key’s weakening ratings relative to 2011?
Or is Labour’s polling still demonstrating a polling ceiling (that I would place at roughly 28% to 30%) which it cannot seem to break through and stay through, even as Key’s support declines?
And finally – is Little’s numbers going up as Key’s numbers over the last 2 years has been going down?
(1) Nyet !!!
(2) Da (although has occassionally broken through to 32/33% over last 2 years)
(3) Nyet !!!
You’re quite right, of course, CV. I should point out here that I was simply backing up Cinny’s broad point – largely with a view to irritating our regular Tory chums.
Still looking just a teensy weensy weensy weensy bit grim for Labour and the Left at this juncture.
Aaaaah thanks swordfish. That was my gut feeling.
Kellyanne Conway, who also runs her own polling organisation, said that they noticed every time their candidate Trump got hit hard with a new media revelation his poll numbers would briefly dip.
But those dips almost never translated into boosts for Hillary Clinton who they saw had a pretty hard polling ceiling of 45% to 46%.
So they knew that she was vulnerable to undecideds and wouldn’t tells moving against her.
The big difference is that while Key’s a bit of a dick who harms the country, he’s not quite the same level of racist fascist imbecilic fraudster who makes voters voters ashamed to admit what they intend to do in a secret ballot.
Undercover Trump voters had had enough of nasty lefty bullyshaming and condescension.
Bullyshaming and condescension that you still think is quite righteous and justifiable, by the sounds of it.
Undercover trump voters were cowards who knew that they were supporting a fascist idiot and did it anyway.
At least the “red meat” deplorables baying for blood were too dumb to realise how contemptable they were.
Thanks SwordFish, for all those stats, really really appreciate it big time, you’ve put much work into supplying that info. Cheers.
More good news for NZ
For the fourth consecutive year, Telegraph Travel readers named New Zealand their favourite country.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/telegraph-travel-awards-2015-16-winners/
Awesome, tourism is our number one export earner.
I wonder then why the outgoing government appears to be underfunding our National Parks aka DOC?
No doubt many come here for the scenery.
Government is happy to exploit the tourism income earner, but it appears they are not so happy to keep our parks up to scratch.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86702463/the-price-of-paradise-new-zealands-great-walks-are-losing-millions-of-dollars