Are the bloggers on “The Standard” the cause of the divisions in he Labour Party?
Mike Smith, a Standard luminary, who i’ve heard recently went on the payroll of the Labour Caucus offices, effectively says so. See his post http://thestandard.org.nz/amidst-thencircling-gloom/
“our aim was to set up a labour movement blog and offer a counter to Kiwiblog’s pro-National line; not to join Farrar in making the prospect of Labour government the principal target for attack”.
I’m perplexed frustrated and angry with this comment by Mike Smith.
As a Labour activist I want to kick John Key and his team out of the Treasury Benches and install a Labour led government ASAP.
Mike Smith and the current Labour Caucus leadership, and the bloggers and their fellow travellers are being painted into two opposing camps within the New Zealand Labour Party.
–What has caused this division within the Party?
–What is characterising and feeding the ongoing divide?
–How can the destructive spell be broken and the ground prepared for a Labour victory in 2014?
My view- at the heart of the ongoing tensions within Labour is the divide between the Neo-Liberals and what could be seen as the traditional Labour membership, the ‘cloth cap’…
One suspects after 220 comments Mike Smith realises that sometimes not even the Jesuits could convert such a rebellious, stinky, furious, mucky, inchoate, atavistic, ebullient, wilful, growly, vituperative, beastly bunch of heathens as The Standard.
And Mike, just as we took back the constitution, we are going to convert you as well.
You are going to go Native by the time we’ve finished.
Nice post kandalla.
I see a party a a cross roads, desperate to embrace modernitively practices and ideas but scared of the reactionary element – the loud vocal voices crying for a new direction or any direction but rightwards.
We have the Fabian influence steering middlewards, the traditionale neoliberal neo glib centralists do nothing scare no one, and then the progressives, the young bloods who desire change, open govt. we also have the coming home to roost misaligned lefties, all splintered and cross aligned into different ideological matrix makeup.
Poor shearer twisting turning pulled in every direction.
We have CC back off message and on segregation on gift giving at hillside for the workers but for only the deep red ones. Message to the electorate from CC this xmas. Love me tender love me true but only if you are a extreme red, an extreme feminist and or anti freedom of speecher and I will love you too.
Way to reconnect to all the people in Dunedin south CC and regain those lost and turned off voters.
Way to go reframing the message and your image to the electorate.
Framed from the centre voter viewpoint anything not centre or middle wide wide middle is extreme my friend, scary scary scary and too easy for the spinners and the msm spin adopters to twist.
The problem being though that the political centre has swung to the right over the past quarter century – which unfortunately is the way many in the Labour Party parly r munt like it.
From my perspective, its a case of “I didn’t leave Labour, Labour left me”.
I see the problem as being many with loud vocal voices crying for a new direction. They do want Labour to get into power and National gone. The change and policy direction they are asking for is good and just and for the benefit of many. It is direction that understands the importance and value of people over money.
The problem is that this is at odds with the party leaders current focus to recapture the centre ground. There are many centre/swing voters out there that are not yet as open to (or more accurately unaware) of the values and policies being pushed at a more grass roots level. Yet it is these very voters that may very well be needed to secure a Labour victory. Getting their vote is the goal of the party leaders and therefore the apparant direction of the party and policies that will do this. This is scary for many longterm Labour voters who see themselves as not aligned with this direction. They feel they have been deserted by their party.
What all this fails to take into account is the effects of MMP on this situation. Make no mistake Labour need to shift their policy to appeal to the centre/swing voter, but they will not be in power without the Greens and even Mana and as a result what is implemented policywise once in power may be much more aligned with what it is that the left and grassroots Labour are wanting. But again they have to do what is necessary to get into power first, such is the nature of our system.
What we need is to do away with mass private automobile ownership, get lots of young hoodlums to give the private car a bad name, have them running around killing people like the women just a few days ago when a boy racer run the lights.
Once in power they will be limited in what they can do if they get in on the promise of a pretty right wing government. The shift to a new direction needs to happen well before the election, and in a way that carries a significant number of people with it.
segregation on gift giving at hillside for the workers but for only the deep red ones
funny. Publicly it was a bit of an oversight, but at worst it was a case of “National Party member who didn’t join the union did not receive a union service and ran crying about it to the ODT”. Fuck freeloaders.
” Lawyers had challenged the decision in court, arguing there was “no logical reason” Paige could not receive the same payment in Britain, but the case was dismissed.
Wellington firm John Miller Law, representing the family, launched further tribunal action.
Practice manager Jonathon Miller said the case was a result of Parliament establishing that payment for overseas claimants was available only through attendant care, with decisions at the discretion of ACC and not challengeable.
“No one denies that if Paige was back here in New Zealand, she’d be getting attendant care – but it’s just really the stopping of the payments, and whether we can legally challenge that,” he said.
“It’s not a matter of how horrible the ACC decision seems, or how unjustified it is – the bottom line is there’s a provision in the act which says you’re not allowed to challenge these types of decisions.”
Mr Little said he had not seen anything like the case. “From what I’ve seen, I can’t understand why ACC has made the payments, stopped the payments, and then put them through the extra hassle of demonstrating their situation,” he said.
“I just think there’s got to be a better and more streamlined way for ACC to handle their particular case. There just seems to be a lack of transparency about it at the very least, and that needs to be clarified.”
Citing privacy reasons, ACC said it could not comment on the case.”
This is one of those awful bad cross border policies. Our economies are interwoven, our ability to live in each other countries is taken up, so let’s to the cost analysis. Scenario A,
i.) pay lawyers to get the same access to health care they would of,
ii.) just provide the same access across the border (based around some metric like how much our economies are engaged in activity together). So if we have the same economic integration as another state of Australia has internally to Australia, then matching provisions must be made. If its only 80% then pay only 80% of the ACC provision. Similar to the UK, if we are integrated with their economy in the billions a significant part of our own economy, then pay a proportion. If we have no economy with say an country then pay zilch. Why should Chinese NZ suffer because some UK NZ can use the legal system to get a remedy? We should have a ranking of our economic friends, and above some amount payment should be 100% maybe. All those pacific islands who get tempted by China might think twice if many of their potential retires are living in NZ with a pension coming to them.
Similarly with Tarp. Why should a country pay out the full amount, as if a international company were equal to a national company. Pay a proportion of the fine to the international firm based on their proportion of their business in the country, since their loses would only be proportional to their activity in that country. So if a company won an action against a nation for loses, then the lose would be much less if the company has a wide international foot print.
Lucky. The last one I recall hitting the news was signed. The Chinese govt assured the customer who complained about it (apparently the note quite disrupted their Christmas) that it wouldn’t happen again.
Not sure that sexy people are all that “ordinary” but effectively this is the same as forcing women to wear burkas because they might inspire lustful thoughts in weak-willed, childish men. I rest my case.
A simple thought on a dull morning, as part of the extensive sloganeering that accompanied the ‘neo-liberal revolution’ we were constantly fed new-speak slogans such as ”the Government has no business in business”,
It’s the same part of the ism which provides the ‘justification’ for the present Slippery lead National Government to offer up the most profitable of the remaining State Owned Assets for sale,
Looked at seriously though in a small economy with continual high levels of unemployment the Government would seem to be the only institution of such a size to have the means at hand to alter these statistics in any meaningful way,
Lets take something simple like clothing manufacture, this is a highly labour intensive area of business where a Government need only,(if the business owner),’break even’ to turn an actual ‘real’ profit for itself,
The real profit for a Government to be involved in business, especially that which is labor intensive can be found in the other areas of Government concern, for every 1 person employed a Government would pay 1 less unemployment benefit and collect 1 more weekly PAYE payment, those 2 previous items alone would make a ‘break even’ business for a Government highly profitable,
Obviously if we follow the money, the wages paid to our Government owned factory workers, out into the real world of the economy we can see that having come from the unemployment benefit to a wage the workers would now spend more into their local community where Government would again collect more profit from it’s investment in the form of increased business and the taxes it collects from this,
Yeah but computers, automation, petrol powered machines, have done away with work. So much so that by Thatcher revolution was required to create a service economy, where the huge glut of cheap middle eastern fuel would create excesses of activity for its own sake. Enter thirty years of declining government integrity, enter in rout education for kids, universities that publish publish publish, the modern sprawl all forcing longer commutes, housing shonkier every decade….
Its call national socialism, its fascism, as all fascism is, its cannibalizes to create a veneer of success.
That’s a interestingly negative view of my comment, i would imagine every neo-liberal politician past and present would agree with you,
By your reckoning Government ownership of Solid Energy and various Power company’s is National Socialism???,
The fact is that ‘globalization’ of economy has lead directly to a glut of ‘labour’, this over-supply of labour will not become less into the future, instead becoming even more pronounced where the Asian and Indian economy’s use their advantage of ‘low priced labour’ to make more and more of the worlds consumer products,
A large part of the shift of production to the ‘low priced labour’ economy’s’ is the cost of capital and the profit motive, funded from the tax base with only the impetus to ‘break even’ Government owned and operated factory’s of production would easily match or better the ‘low priced labour’ economy’s on a retail price of product basis…
We can feed, house, entertain, educate everyone on the planet. We don’t because the debt machine is at work, having turned money into the new one God to rule us all. All money is is a abstract construction of the people to facilitate society, its the MSM and corporations that demand we keep the status quo by imposing government upon the people (either by deregulaing and letting corporations run roughshot over the people, or regulating badly so needing the private sector either sell offs of state functions or PPPs). Science and industry have reduced the need for people to work, Thatcher came along, and using the cheap oil of the middle east, decided we all needed to be active, the alternative was a more leisure oriented society, so in order to create this new utopia of activity we have cannibalized the one off energy windfall of hydrocarbons, all to build a unbalanced economy design upon the precept of continuing cheapening energy supplies. Until we recognize that the free market can only work when the right wing stop their mantras used to cover up how they are gaming the market. The relative question of the merits of the low wage economy is irrelevant in the present context of peak oil induced climate change.
My view is that the ‘free market’ would have worked fine if there had of been at the outset that other mantra force fed us all at the time we ‘globalized’ our economy and went all international free trade,
Remember ‘the level playing field’, not often mentioned these days simply because it was one of the bigger lies that sold the masses the ism,
If all country’s had an ‘internationally policed minimum wage of an equal value, AND, if all country’s had their individual currency’s of an equal value then and only then would we have ‘a level playing field’ on which to base competitive capitalism,
As far as i can tell you are agreeing with me on the issue of a global over-supply of labor, but, there will obviously be no move by either of the major political party’s to truthfully address such an over-supply where the dialog is firmly entrenched in labeling those who have no work in a negative way,
Back to my original question tho, if a Government owned clothing factory is ‘national socialism’, then is not Government ownership of Solid Energy and various Power company’s the same…
Helen. Yes, Saint Helen herself…Sorta…
She, and the then Party leadership including M. Smith, failed to move the Constitution forward with the times and especially failed to put a democratic leadership process in place.
Also Helen (&H2) ran a very tight centrist and autocratic shop. She and Michael were doing such a good job on many fronts that they were forgiven failings.
Many of the current team like Ardern, Hipkins, Robertson, Faafoi and more learned, as Beehive interns, to believe that this was the NZ Labour way. When Phil Goff became leader, under an opaque process, he surrounded himself with these neophytes.
But the world has changed: Helen is gone and only mere mortals were available to succeed her. Also the take-up of Social Media has changed the dynamic of the relationship between the foot-soldiers and the leaders in organisations, whether business, governmental, social or political.
Once the party leadership (Moira) announced that the members would attend Leadership debates the Jeannie was truly out of the bottle. And the membership were very very disappointed with how all the leadership gig was conducted.
The Majority of the Membership did not buy into the self anointing of the current Leadership team. And that team said: Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers!
They embraced division rather than unity.
The division will remain until Shearer and leadership do something to fix otherwise many of us will simply move to the greens. A very interesting and well researched article by Chris Trotter in Bowally today on David Shearer, for me it supports some the reasons I have about his weaknesses to lead Labour. Shearer needs to make sure there is a membership vote for Labour leader in Feb. If he wins then fine, if not that is the way it is. Then we can work together, otherwise I am very uncomfortable with the structure of the labour party caucus given the shenanigans that went on in the days after the conference.
What was interesting was what they did do at the conference. Reconnect to the root of the party rank and file. The Labour was able to go far right into neo-liberalism because it disengaged from the roots, Clark was able to run a strong leadership because the party was disengaged. So the current batch of MPs know they would be washed up, exposed as they were, out of touch with a party base. The base had been shrinking because members could not get a voice. Obama election and re-election was due to a strong rank and file, and Labour’s collapse in vote matches up with a party not representing its members. The strength of the Greens emphasis this, Labour is tired insular and boring. Geez, Shearer looks tired, uninteresting and as closed to evaluation as John Key. They want the power but not the accountability. As for the up coming challenge, the new opening up will not have the effect on the leadership to change anything, that’s why the rush in the Shearer camp, over time they will have to move to a new way to deal with politics. The politics of huge fiscal activity force driven by cheapening middle east fuel is over. Welcome back to the return of compromise and the death of ‘don’t they miscarry if its rape’, ‘our children are patriots they should fear gun violence even at school’.. …elder abuse does mean denying your bedridden relative a mobile phone for emergencies.
I suspect Helen’s tight management style was a delayed reaction to Lange’s loose management style, which had the lasting effect of making neoliberalism the new kiwi paradigm. Even though she did little to roll back the changes in favour of capital, she made sure she knew what was going on and that any further changes would be the ones she approved of.
Until the neoliberal Rogergnomes are finally cleared out of caucus, Labour needs Helen’s style, not David Lange’s. I see Shearer as having the management style of David Lange, but without the wit, oratory, or vision. Lange was obviously a narcissist, but a very bright and talented one. Shearer is a dreary and mediocre narcissist who would let the remaining Rogergnomes run amok as long as they complimented his guitar playing and his (wooden) stance on a longboard. He really is hopeless and we should all be worried because just when we have some new blood entering the political scene with the Greens and Mana, we have the ABC crowd, who should probably change their initials to ABCEKOC (Anyone but Cunliffe, even Key or Collins). They, not the left activists, will be the ones responsible for a potential loss at the next elections. There is no reason to vote for Mallard that doesn’t equally hold for Key, for example. Ditto Shane Jones and Tau Henare.
I want them to clean up their act not so that we can end up with a Labour government, but so that the Greens and Mana can have some access to the levers of power and actually change a few things. A government formed by the Mallards and Hipkins of this world would be little different from the one we’ve got now. The idea will not inspire the hundreds of thousands who didn’t vote last time to get out and vote. I hope Shearer is gone in the New Year and we can get to work building some sort of real alternative to the financial sector driven “business as usual” that we have now.
Kia kaha and Happy New Year.
Having read Trotter’s post on Shearer’s back-story, and some of Shearer’s 1990s-2001 articles on private military companies, I am thinking he may not be the toothless, guitar-strumming hippy I took him for. Consider some of the things that have happened int he ,last year under Shearer’s watch?
Well he’s definitely shown an authoritarian streak.
* Support for the intimidation of party members who speak out
* Support for Jones’ bullying attacks on the Green Party
* Showtrial-like punishment of those who even look like they might ever challenge him
Interestingly, this authoritarian streak only seems to come out when he’s attacking to his left.
But these pro-privatisation writings perhaps offer an insight into the reason that extreme right-wing free-marketeers like O’Sullivan and Hooton are such big fans.
It seems that DS has privatisation/outsourcing tendencies driven by his experience in the UN, perhaps mainly the success at Sierra Leone which he failed to replicate to the same level later in his career. Trotter’s article does show that DS operated at a higher level than I thought he was cable of, given his atrocious mismanagement throughout most of 2012. But perhaps the biggest problem is that he was clearly buried in the business of the UN over the 1990’s and 2000’s…which does explain his performance, he is not au fait with New Zealand.
But these pro-privatisation writings perhaps offer an insight into the reason that extreme right-wing free-marketeers like O’Sullivan and Hooton are such big fans.
Would that not also mean they both knew about Shearer’s links to the secretive world of the military, foreign intelligence agencies and sub-contracting ‘security’ companies? If so, I want to know how they knew…
Chris Trotter has done a magnificent job hunting this information down, and I’m interested in his timing – under cover of Christmas?
It wasn’t unknown previously. When I was researching for my (tomorrow’s) post, I found some old posts on NZ, very well-known, right wing blogs, having a go at Shearer, some with images of Blackwater etc (postings from 2009). I think Trotter has some extra info via personal communication.
Also Shearer’s articles, or at least abstracts for them, were easy to find using google – needed to use my public library login to access the full texts. Shearer wrote a few articles between 1990s & 2001, on use of private military companies, especially for UN and peace-keeping operations.
(I’m not keen to link to the sewer or the blubbery one).Try searching on:
Amongst the dust there has to be a story,so i went the the source, the labour party website,
there i found some crucial fundamental principles the labour party was founded on and it
all involves the care, welfare and concern for the people of NZ, those aspects have been
tossed aside and today the labour party caucus beliefs and principles certainly don’t resemble
anything it was founded on, below is a paragraph i thought i would use.
‘ Labour started it’s life as a party of change – a voice for the working classes who believed
that a fairer future was possible.
Many of those first involved just wanted the basics – adequate food,clothing and shelter,a
job with reasonable conditions and regular wages; support in illness or old age; and a hope
for an even brighter future for their children.
When Micheal Joseph Savage led labour to a sweeping victory in 1935,he promised major
changes.
Over the next few years labour introduced a series of measures which would become
fundamentals of NZ society and culture.
For the first time accesss to health care became affordable for all, the state assumed a
major responsibility to provide low cost housing to those in need.
A comprehensive social welfare system that gave support and security to the elderly,the
sick and those without employment’, end of paragraph.
The labour party representatives in cacus over the years have strayed far from the core values
and fundamentals and that is the problem.
The current housing policy, ie, building 100.000 homes is only targeted at those who can afford
a deposit, the beneficiaries have been made to feel like ‘bludgers’ and in the Clark era it was ‘pay as you go’ for our elderly in rest homes,some lost their life long homes because of Clark’s changes to the health policies.
It’s is easy to see why so many of us here are disturbed by the continual movement
away by the current caucus to exact even more destruction of what was an
amazing,respectable Labour party,it brings tears to the eyes.
Leadership’s of the labour party change but there is one aspect that doesn’t change and
that is the fundamental needs of the people,those needs are forever.
“the labour party was founded on and it
all involves the care, welfare and concern for the people of NZ”
Fine and great, but having been through what I went through, even under Labour, I feel “tossed aside”, sames as I feel they “tossed aside” some of their principles.
I recall back in the day that local MP (especially opposition) staff were dynamite at dealing with people “tossed aside”. If Labour were no good, try the Greens or Mana. Or a charity/church advocate (see your Citizens Advice Bureau).
A lot of the time things were dealable without expensive court action as soon as the people doing the shafting realised that you had people who knew the system on your side. Good luck.
ream (did two front axles, both sides, hangars and eyes, one time, arms above my head, with
adjustable hand reamers)
Thomas Oord-The Polkinghorne Reader
Keith Ward-The God Conclusion (which reminds me, listened to Lloyd Geering up last night
more to come)
Roy Baumeister-The Cultural Animal. Meanings of Life.
Antonio Damasio-Self Comes To Mind; constructing the conscious brain
Iain McGilchrist-The Divided Brain and the Making of The Modern World
Jerome Bruner-Acts of Meaning. Making Stories
Jung- Answer to Job (just throwing that out there)
Rodney Stark-One True God. The Victory of Reason; how Christianity led to Freedom, Capitalism
and (former) Western Success
Stephen Toulmin-Cosmopolis; the hidden agenda of modernity
Jurgen Habermas-The Future of Human Nature
Joshua Berman-Created Equal
Martin Buber-I and Thou
William P. Brown-The Seven Pillars of Creation (remember T.E Lawrence?)
John F. Haught-God After Darwin; a theology of evolution
Martin J. Rees-Just Six Numbers. Our Cosmic Habitat (and now he’s formed an “existential” society
For God’s Sake) 😉
Gerald L. Schroeder-Genesis and the Big Bang
Robert D. Putnam-American Grace
Peter L. Berger-The Desecularization of the World. Resurgent Religion and World Politics
Mark Lilla-The Stillborn God
Steven Solomon-Water;the epic struggle for wealth, power, and civilization
Reinhold Niebuhr-Moral Man and Immoral Society
“Let us face the fact that the monastic vocation tends to present itself to the modern world as a
problem, and, a scandal”
-Merton (it’s a scandal i tell ya, a scandal; not a sandal)
“But often, in the crowded streets, but often in the din of strife, there rises an unspeakable desire
After the knowledge of our buried life…”
-Arnold
“I circle around God, around our primordial tower. I’ve been circling for thousands of years
And I still don’t know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song.”
-Rilke, Book of Hours
“Word I was in the house alone
Somehow 😉 must have gotten abroad,
Word I was in my life alone,
Word I had no one left but God.(that’s “deception” for ya)
-Robert Frost, Bereft.
(i know which Spirit i prefer) and how that story ends.
I guess when solo parents are unable to partake in the usual “holiday season” activities many people enjoy at this time of year then today at 9am is as good as any day to phone them (behind the veil of “unknown number”) to “gently” terrorise them with questions about their job seeking activities and to “remind” them of their obligations to seek part-time work for those caring for children under 14, and full-time work once their youngest reaches 14 years of age.
Heck if they are not exactly a “box of fluffies” at this time we could get some of them off their “welfare dependency” by making them feel worse and maybe drive them to suicide if we hassle them enough.
It makes no difference at all that the present Govt. have done NOTHING to create any employment whatsoever, in fact despite them shrinking the job market today would be a fine day to ring around these “bludgers” and terrorise them some more.
Oops, I had wanted to point out this paragraph by Cohen:
“There is, of course, an easier solution to this problem: do nothing. Let the tax cuts expire on 1 January, with taxes going up on every American. Then, Congress can quickly pass a massive tax cut for those making less than $250,000, retroactive to 1 January. Neither side will want to wait long and force Americans to pay higher taxes, but especially Republicans won’t – as they will likely be blamed if no deal is swiftly reached. To do so would mean that all sides are politically satisfied: President Obama can say he stuck to his word about raising taxes on rich Americans, and taxes will have gone up without Republicans having to cast a vote; and both parties can reap the political benefit and claim credit for having cut taxes for the middle class.”
RNZ-Lloyd, coal and the commotion;
cosmogenesis-our common origins-“adam”-Hebrew for mankind
communication and cooperation for a viable for future (even Lloyd is a semi-pessimist)
We can tell. Expanding U? Red Shift; Let us expand.Universality is a safe assumption
Singularity and homogenesis follow.quarks, hadrons and me sons et al;
“Come together…right now..over you.” Here we are, Back in the USSR.
Dark Energy-mysterious or not.Red Giant.oils the white dwarf and the Black Hole
for Satan himself masquerades from Berlin as an angel of light.It is not surprising if his servants
Masquerade. Sex…I’M a man, I’m a goddess, I’m a one night stand and we make love
Together we can do know wrong is Right (he hardens whom he wants to harden)
a slice of Lemon with your Corona?
Tasmanian devils-hardwood.Shearer Hawkes Bay Today?”Leopard does not change it’s spots”
Space and Time drawing the Son out with the bathwater; There’s always the Son
ahhh…The circle of life
-Man in Black (does the lion sleep at night?) I witnessed a meteorite yesterday p.m
these thoughts are fading, will not see them again.See that chameleon there like
The News of The World pressing down on your receiver.Is there anybody out there…
“run run away”.Meanwhile, whose singing lullabyes?; the Arab world’s gettin in tune http://www.abeautifullie.org/ Who do not lie.She don’t like that kind of behaviour
Like Scott on the ant arctic, faith, if not accompanied by action is dead.
home is just an emotion sticking in our throat, Home is Close to control, home is “i don’t recall”
Let’s go to hawaii for the “Holy Days”. Home’s mind your business, “well pay the fine”
Fuck you all very much; we value ENZA.Let the good times roll down the sluice…
“rollin, rollin, rollin down the highway of no return.Not Fragile,Production’s in Overdrive
concrete catchment.Time for some parchment anarchristic
“but it’s not sphere, raising taxes will tie up our boats.”
Ho, blind Bartimaeus…your faith is healing you…no more occular reduction. Think Globally
act locally. Chavez is up and about. Beautiful Gate to the south the Golden Bay.
The greatest amongst you will be your servant; Einstein and The Reverend Hone Kaa.III John
poverty tours missionaries.you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come scoffing
following their evil desires. 270,000 children living in poverty.The wealth of the rich is their
Fortified City, but poverty is the ruin of the poor Refuges funded for 2000 women and children
Respond to 30,000 while principals chalk reaching breaking point.Yes, it will break now,
I think it will break now this is Permanent.Love lies bleeding in the Strand while lawyers milk the
ERA.”pack mentality” as the Brethren “king of this world” bites back, yet our real furry friends
lead the way; modify that science priests (no funeral for a friend quite yet) Don’t give up 🙂
Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.
an inspection of the pharoah’s surplus grain reveals the draft papyri passes with nearly two thirds
while parts of China duck the coldest temperatures on record (judgement without mercy will be
demonstrated to any merchant not merciful; the potter has the right to make from the same lump
of clay, some soldiers for noble purposes and some for common serfdom, yet Mao’s vision-
That every chinese citizen prosper.However, cars are not just a particulate matter or a polished
Customline.White Detroit Noise; freeze block parking. Got hot near the former freezing works
Klan Lab? burn like a fire, burn like a fire in Cairo; neither can you bear fruit unless you remain
In Lyn e. Love each other and not serve the apple. Make every effort to ad to your faith, goodness
To goodness, knowledge to knowledge, self-control to self-control…perseverance cos the
Spooks are comin’ outta the hoodwork, disclosing to Facebook HQ.ED (where upon 17M
Iranians are disobeying their Holy Father, or following above) cultivation of virtue = called
Benediction; lets talk 16 Times about ending the slaughter of Syria.shoulda sucked it up Hillary
he is not William Jefferson by accidental cigar. Did you know that a foundational function of the
ACLU was to defend against the pitch poured upon the cause of radical labour rights following
the arrest and deportation of leftist activists deemed to be communist, Bolshevik or Anarchist
During the 20’s? Scope it out.leek out into the world the love that God leeks into us-AB of C
self preserve not (are we agee jars, or Jars of Clay?). Consequently, faith will come from
Hearing the Message in a Bottle, we are spirits, in a material world (no need to break a leg
walking on the moon) or be carried away into Babylon at 5 by strange teachings.
There are three magisteria
-The Police (speaking on behalf of Hermes Trismegistus)
A merry festive New Year to our furry bouncy government immune to the storm due to their rich fur coats, happily bouncing around like Tigger, and making as much sense.
Obama returns home from Hawaii early……
………there goes a social climbing slippery Dick Wanker’s chance to meet and fraternise aye!
Oh well……there’s always next year I ‘spose.
Hope and Change (and all that kaka).
I bet Dippery Slick has done more hoping and changing than Obama has though
He wakens me morning by mourning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught
The sovereign Lord has opened my ears,
No longer rebellious and practicing the “withdrawl” method; ahhh…the sweet and sour release 🙂
Under Pressure…people on the street, It’s a terror knowing what the world’s about
Watching the good people scream “let me out”
Shameful to mention what the disobedient do in secret Banks (do not dwell on evils that The Sun
exposes)
These columns have renounced secret and shameful ways, using deception sparingly
Aero, Baby won’t you had me a line. Set forth truth plainly
For The Sandman has Entered and blinded
the minds of the unbelievers.To paraphrase “American slavery is not a spaghetti western”-Spike
You did not choose me, but i chose you and lprent gives us shelter. Standardize to go and bear fruit
that will last longer than Zespri; lepers and famine. Starvation, Self, or, Shares? 2 Kings 3-
Each of you may look not only to their own interests; Look to the interests of others.
Follow the money trail as it comes round the mountain social climbing.
As for us? Let Him lead you, and the road will rise as you follow the way.
Pr 10:9 The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.
Pr 10:20 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value
Heb 5:1
-Billy The Kid, beyond the Pale.Rider. (off to clean and oil the Revolver)
Wish you would talk in English, as you write it in your comments it hurts my head to read and attempt to de-cypher so much that i have taken to skimming past your comments un-read…
Maybe if I still lived in New Zealand, the country has lost it’s charm for me. In 2014 though things could change, but while National is in total power I don’t think I could cope living there either psychologically or financially.
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
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While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
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Are the bloggers on “The Standard” the cause of the divisions in he Labour Party?
Mike Smith, a Standard luminary, who i’ve heard recently went on the payroll of the Labour Caucus offices, effectively says so. See his post http://thestandard.org.nz/amidst-thencircling-gloom/
“our aim was to set up a labour movement blog and offer a counter to Kiwiblog’s pro-National line; not to join Farrar in making the prospect of Labour government the principal target for attack”.
I’m perplexed frustrated and angry with this comment by Mike Smith.
As a Labour activist I want to kick John Key and his team out of the Treasury Benches and install a Labour led government ASAP.
Mike Smith and the current Labour Caucus leadership, and the bloggers and their fellow travellers are being painted into two opposing camps within the New Zealand Labour Party.
–What has caused this division within the Party?
–What is characterising and feeding the ongoing divide?
–How can the destructive spell be broken and the ground prepared for a Labour victory in 2014?
My view- at the heart of the ongoing tensions within Labour is the divide between the Neo-Liberals and what could be seen as the traditional Labour membership, the ‘cloth cap’…
One suspects after 220 comments Mike Smith realises that sometimes not even the Jesuits could convert such a rebellious, stinky, furious, mucky, inchoate, atavistic, ebullient, wilful, growly, vituperative, beastly bunch of heathens as The Standard.
And Mike, just as we took back the constitution, we are going to convert you as well.
You are going to go Native by the time we’ve finished.
LOLZ…we bad…
Nice post kandalla.
I see a party a a cross roads, desperate to embrace modernitively practices and ideas but scared of the reactionary element – the loud vocal voices crying for a new direction or any direction but rightwards.
We have the Fabian influence steering middlewards, the traditionale neoliberal neo glib centralists do nothing scare no one, and then the progressives, the young bloods who desire change, open govt. we also have the coming home to roost misaligned lefties, all splintered and cross aligned into different ideological matrix makeup.
Poor shearer twisting turning pulled in every direction.
We have CC back off message and on segregation on gift giving at hillside for the workers but for only the deep red ones. Message to the electorate from CC this xmas. Love me tender love me true but only if you are a extreme red, an extreme feminist and or anti freedom of speecher and I will love you too.
Way to reconnect to all the people in Dunedin south CC and regain those lost and turned off voters.
Way to go reframing the message and your image to the electorate.
The Labour party has extreme feminists?
Framed from the centre voter viewpoint anything not centre or middle wide wide middle is extreme my friend, scary scary scary and too easy for the spinners and the msm spin adopters to twist.
The problem being though that the political centre has swung to the right over the past quarter century – which unfortunately is the way many in the Labour Party parly r munt like it.
From my perspective, its a case of “I didn’t leave Labour, Labour left me”.
I see the problem as being many with loud vocal voices crying for a new direction. They do want Labour to get into power and National gone. The change and policy direction they are asking for is good and just and for the benefit of many. It is direction that understands the importance and value of people over money.
The problem is that this is at odds with the party leaders current focus to recapture the centre ground. There are many centre/swing voters out there that are not yet as open to (or more accurately unaware) of the values and policies being pushed at a more grass roots level. Yet it is these very voters that may very well be needed to secure a Labour victory. Getting their vote is the goal of the party leaders and therefore the apparant direction of the party and policies that will do this. This is scary for many longterm Labour voters who see themselves as not aligned with this direction. They feel they have been deserted by their party.
What all this fails to take into account is the effects of MMP on this situation. Make no mistake Labour need to shift their policy to appeal to the centre/swing voter, but they will not be in power without the Greens and even Mana and as a result what is implemented policywise once in power may be much more aligned with what it is that the left and grassroots Labour are wanting. But again they have to do what is necessary to get into power first, such is the nature of our system.
What we need is to do away with mass private automobile ownership, get lots of young hoodlums to give the private car a bad name, have them running around killing people like the women just a few days ago when a boy racer run the lights.
Once in power they will be limited in what they can do if they get in on the promise of a pretty right wing government. The shift to a new direction needs to happen well before the election, and in a way that carries a significant number of people with it.
So there aren’t any extreme feminists in the Labour party?
funny. Publicly it was a bit of an oversight, but at worst it was a case of “National Party member who didn’t join the union did not receive a union service and ran crying about it to the ODT”. Fuck freeloaders.
+100
+ another 100.
Can all the right-wing anti-union commenters please register your thoughts on this freeloader here, for the record? kthanx.
Smith should stick to chopping down pine trees.
ACC makes another family miserable because they can, top lawyers powerless to stop the bastards:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10856177
” Lawyers had challenged the decision in court, arguing there was “no logical reason” Paige could not receive the same payment in Britain, but the case was dismissed.
Wellington firm John Miller Law, representing the family, launched further tribunal action.
Practice manager Jonathon Miller said the case was a result of Parliament establishing that payment for overseas claimants was available only through attendant care, with decisions at the discretion of ACC and not challengeable.
“No one denies that if Paige was back here in New Zealand, she’d be getting attendant care – but it’s just really the stopping of the payments, and whether we can legally challenge that,” he said.
“It’s not a matter of how horrible the ACC decision seems, or how unjustified it is – the bottom line is there’s a provision in the act which says you’re not allowed to challenge these types of decisions.”
Mr Little said he had not seen anything like the case. “From what I’ve seen, I can’t understand why ACC has made the payments, stopped the payments, and then put them through the extra hassle of demonstrating their situation,” he said.
“I just think there’s got to be a better and more streamlined way for ACC to handle their particular case. There just seems to be a lack of transparency about it at the very least, and that needs to be clarified.”
Citing privacy reasons, ACC said it could not comment on the case.”
This is one of those awful bad cross border policies. Our economies are interwoven, our ability to live in each other countries is taken up, so let’s to the cost analysis. Scenario A,
i.) pay lawyers to get the same access to health care they would of,
ii.) just provide the same access across the border (based around some metric like how much our economies are engaged in activity together). So if we have the same economic integration as another state of Australia has internally to Australia, then matching provisions must be made. If its only 80% then pay only 80% of the ACC provision. Similar to the UK, if we are integrated with their economy in the billions a significant part of our own economy, then pay a proportion. If we have no economy with say an country then pay zilch. Why should Chinese NZ suffer because some UK NZ can use the legal system to get a remedy? We should have a ranking of our economic friends, and above some amount payment should be 100% maybe. All those pacific islands who get tempted by China might think twice if many of their potential retires are living in NZ with a pension coming to them.
Similarly with Tarp. Why should a country pay out the full amount, as if a international company were equal to a national company. Pay a proportion of the fine to the international firm based on their proportion of their business in the country, since their loses would only be proportional to their activity in that country. So if a company won an action against a nation for loses, then the lose would be much less if the company has a wide international foot print.
Chinese slave labourer slips desperation note into Halloween decorations, discovered by US housewife.
Indicative of the character of the nation. Is this who we want buying our farms? Do we really need more cheap plastic shit??
http://www.oregonlive.com/happy-valley/index.ssf/2012/12/halloween_decorations_carry_ha.html
Anonymous desperation note. Which as we all know means not valid.
Lucky. The last one I recall hitting the news was signed. The Chinese govt assured the customer who complained about it (apparently the note quite disrupted their Christmas) that it wouldn’t happen again.
Can’t have the world’s privileged being reminded what their lifestyle expectations are actually built on.
I’m so glad we’re in business with the Chinese Govt.
This is why we have batch control numbers, so we can fire a worker who puts political stuff in with the NZ product.
Ah hahha ha. It’s from 2008 and parodies the Reserve Bank (Australian). Watchout for the bit at the end just after the first credits run…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NIfH0vY2ANA
Some good points made
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10856144
Saw this the other day…
Employers can fire workers they find too sexy, US court rules
Yeah, apparently the Taliban have taken over the Supreme Court of Oregon
No, it’s just that the US judicial system no longer consistently protects the rights of ordinary citizens.
Not sure that sexy people are all that “ordinary” but effectively this is the same as forcing women to wear burkas because they might inspire lustful thoughts in weak-willed, childish men. I rest my case.
A simple thought on a dull morning, as part of the extensive sloganeering that accompanied the ‘neo-liberal revolution’ we were constantly fed new-speak slogans such as ”the Government has no business in business”,
It’s the same part of the ism which provides the ‘justification’ for the present Slippery lead National Government to offer up the most profitable of the remaining State Owned Assets for sale,
Looked at seriously though in a small economy with continual high levels of unemployment the Government would seem to be the only institution of such a size to have the means at hand to alter these statistics in any meaningful way,
Lets take something simple like clothing manufacture, this is a highly labour intensive area of business where a Government need only,(if the business owner),’break even’ to turn an actual ‘real’ profit for itself,
The real profit for a Government to be involved in business, especially that which is labor intensive can be found in the other areas of Government concern, for every 1 person employed a Government would pay 1 less unemployment benefit and collect 1 more weekly PAYE payment, those 2 previous items alone would make a ‘break even’ business for a Government highly profitable,
Obviously if we follow the money, the wages paid to our Government owned factory workers, out into the real world of the economy we can see that having come from the unemployment benefit to a wage the workers would now spend more into their local community where Government would again collect more profit from it’s investment in the form of increased business and the taxes it collects from this,
Just a thought…
Yeah but computers, automation, petrol powered machines, have done away with work. So much so that by Thatcher revolution was required to create a service economy, where the huge glut of cheap middle eastern fuel would create excesses of activity for its own sake. Enter thirty years of declining government integrity, enter in rout education for kids, universities that publish publish publish, the modern sprawl all forcing longer commutes, housing shonkier every decade….
Its call national socialism, its fascism, as all fascism is, its cannibalizes to create a veneer of success.
That’s a interestingly negative view of my comment, i would imagine every neo-liberal politician past and present would agree with you,
By your reckoning Government ownership of Solid Energy and various Power company’s is National Socialism???,
The fact is that ‘globalization’ of economy has lead directly to a glut of ‘labour’, this over-supply of labour will not become less into the future, instead becoming even more pronounced where the Asian and Indian economy’s use their advantage of ‘low priced labour’ to make more and more of the worlds consumer products,
A large part of the shift of production to the ‘low priced labour’ economy’s’ is the cost of capital and the profit motive, funded from the tax base with only the impetus to ‘break even’ Government owned and operated factory’s of production would easily match or better the ‘low priced labour’ economy’s on a retail price of product basis…
We can feed, house, entertain, educate everyone on the planet. We don’t because the debt machine is at work, having turned money into the new one God to rule us all. All money is is a abstract construction of the people to facilitate society, its the MSM and corporations that demand we keep the status quo by imposing government upon the people (either by deregulaing and letting corporations run roughshot over the people, or regulating badly so needing the private sector either sell offs of state functions or PPPs). Science and industry have reduced the need for people to work, Thatcher came along, and using the cheap oil of the middle east, decided we all needed to be active, the alternative was a more leisure oriented society, so in order to create this new utopia of activity we have cannibalized the one off energy windfall of hydrocarbons, all to build a unbalanced economy design upon the precept of continuing cheapening energy supplies. Until we recognize that the free market can only work when the right wing stop their mantras used to cover up how they are gaming the market. The relative question of the merits of the low wage economy is irrelevant in the present context of peak oil induced climate change.
My view is that the ‘free market’ would have worked fine if there had of been at the outset that other mantra force fed us all at the time we ‘globalized’ our economy and went all international free trade,
Remember ‘the level playing field’, not often mentioned these days simply because it was one of the bigger lies that sold the masses the ism,
If all country’s had an ‘internationally policed minimum wage of an equal value, AND, if all country’s had their individual currency’s of an equal value then and only then would we have ‘a level playing field’ on which to base competitive capitalism,
As far as i can tell you are agreeing with me on the issue of a global over-supply of labor, but, there will obviously be no move by either of the major political party’s to truthfully address such an over-supply where the dialog is firmly entrenched in labeling those who have no work in a negative way,
Back to my original question tho, if a Government owned clothing factory is ‘national socialism’, then is not Government ownership of Solid Energy and various Power company’s the same…
—-What has caused this division within the Party?
Helen. Yes, Saint Helen herself…Sorta…
She, and the then Party leadership including M. Smith, failed to move the Constitution forward with the times and especially failed to put a democratic leadership process in place.
Also Helen (&H2) ran a very tight centrist and autocratic shop. She and Michael were doing such a good job on many fronts that they were forgiven failings.
Many of the current team like Ardern, Hipkins, Robertson, Faafoi and more learned, as Beehive interns, to believe that this was the NZ Labour way. When Phil Goff became leader, under an opaque process, he surrounded himself with these neophytes.
But the world has changed: Helen is gone and only mere mortals were available to succeed her. Also the take-up of Social Media has changed the dynamic of the relationship between the foot-soldiers and the leaders in organisations, whether business, governmental, social or political.
Once the party leadership (Moira) announced that the members would attend Leadership debates the Jeannie was truly out of the bottle. And the membership were very very disappointed with how all the leadership gig was conducted.
The Majority of the Membership did not buy into the self anointing of the current Leadership team. And that team said: Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers!
They embraced division rather than unity.
Double jeapody double bind, double division or twin unity, party and caucus. Trouble is we have an election to win and time is ticking.
The division will remain until Shearer and leadership do something to fix otherwise many of us will simply move to the greens. A very interesting and well researched article by Chris Trotter in Bowally today on David Shearer, for me it supports some the reasons I have about his weaknesses to lead Labour. Shearer needs to make sure there is a membership vote for Labour leader in Feb. If he wins then fine, if not that is the way it is. Then we can work together, otherwise I am very uncomfortable with the structure of the labour party caucus given the shenanigans that went on in the days after the conference.
If he doesn’t win Labour may not win the next election….. Unless the replacement also covets the centre vote.
What was interesting was what they did do at the conference. Reconnect to the root of the party rank and file. The Labour was able to go far right into neo-liberalism because it disengaged from the roots, Clark was able to run a strong leadership because the party was disengaged. So the current batch of MPs know they would be washed up, exposed as they were, out of touch with a party base. The base had been shrinking because members could not get a voice. Obama election and re-election was due to a strong rank and file, and Labour’s collapse in vote matches up with a party not representing its members. The strength of the Greens emphasis this, Labour is tired insular and boring. Geez, Shearer looks tired, uninteresting and as closed to evaluation as John Key. They want the power but not the accountability. As for the up coming challenge, the new opening up will not have the effect on the leadership to change anything, that’s why the rush in the Shearer camp, over time they will have to move to a new way to deal with politics. The politics of huge fiscal activity force driven by cheapening middle east fuel is over. Welcome back to the return of compromise and the death of ‘don’t they miscarry if its rape’, ‘our children are patriots they should fear gun violence even at school’.. …elder abuse does mean denying your bedridden relative a mobile phone for emergencies.
I suspect Helen’s tight management style was a delayed reaction to Lange’s loose management style, which had the lasting effect of making neoliberalism the new kiwi paradigm. Even though she did little to roll back the changes in favour of capital, she made sure she knew what was going on and that any further changes would be the ones she approved of.
Until the neoliberal Rogergnomes are finally cleared out of caucus, Labour needs Helen’s style, not David Lange’s. I see Shearer as having the management style of David Lange, but without the wit, oratory, or vision. Lange was obviously a narcissist, but a very bright and talented one. Shearer is a dreary and mediocre narcissist who would let the remaining Rogergnomes run amok as long as they complimented his guitar playing and his (wooden) stance on a longboard. He really is hopeless and we should all be worried because just when we have some new blood entering the political scene with the Greens and Mana, we have the ABC crowd, who should probably change their initials to ABCEKOC (Anyone but Cunliffe, even Key or Collins). They, not the left activists, will be the ones responsible for a potential loss at the next elections. There is no reason to vote for Mallard that doesn’t equally hold for Key, for example. Ditto Shane Jones and Tau Henare.
I want them to clean up their act not so that we can end up with a Labour government, but so that the Greens and Mana can have some access to the levers of power and actually change a few things. A government formed by the Mallards and Hipkins of this world would be little different from the one we’ve got now. The idea will not inspire the hundreds of thousands who didn’t vote last time to get out and vote. I hope Shearer is gone in the New Year and we can get to work building some sort of real alternative to the financial sector driven “business as usual” that we have now.
Kia kaha and Happy New Year.
Having read Trotter’s post on Shearer’s back-story, and some of Shearer’s 1990s-2001 articles on private military companies, I am thinking he may not be the toothless, guitar-strumming hippy I took him for. Consider some of the things that have happened int he ,last year under Shearer’s watch?
Well he’s definitely shown an authoritarian streak.
* Support for the intimidation of party members who speak out
* Support for Jones’ bullying attacks on the Green Party
* Showtrial-like punishment of those who even look like they might ever challenge him
Interestingly, this authoritarian streak only seems to come out when he’s attacking to his left.
But these pro-privatisation writings perhaps offer an insight into the reason that extreme right-wing free-marketeers like O’Sullivan and Hooton are such big fans.
Agreed. Though it’s kind of joining up some dots, because the writings are over 10 years old. Still, does make one wonder?
Wouldn’t have to wonder if he’d said anything to contradict his earlier statements in the intervening years.
Indeed. I have a post on it scheduled for publication tomorrow morning.
It seems that DS has privatisation/outsourcing tendencies driven by his experience in the UN, perhaps mainly the success at Sierra Leone which he failed to replicate to the same level later in his career. Trotter’s article does show that DS operated at a higher level than I thought he was cable of, given his atrocious mismanagement throughout most of 2012. But perhaps the biggest problem is that he was clearly buried in the business of the UN over the 1990’s and 2000’s…which does explain his performance, he is not au fait with New Zealand.
Would that not also mean they both knew about Shearer’s links to the secretive world of the military, foreign intelligence agencies and sub-contracting ‘security’ companies? If so, I want to know how they knew…
Chris Trotter has done a magnificent job hunting this information down, and I’m interested in his timing – under cover of Christmas?
It wasn’t unknown previously. When I was researching for my (tomorrow’s) post, I found some old posts on NZ, very well-known, right wing blogs, having a go at Shearer, some with images of Blackwater etc (postings from 2009). I think Trotter has some extra info via personal communication.
Also Shearer’s articles, or at least abstracts for them, were easy to find using google – needed to use my public library login to access the full texts. Shearer wrote a few articles between 1990s & 2001, on use of private military companies, especially for UN and peace-keeping operations.
(I’m not keen to link to the sewer or the blubbery one).Try searching on:
David Shearer Private military companies
Test message. Checking on the reedit.
Amongst the dust there has to be a story,so i went the the source, the labour party website,
there i found some crucial fundamental principles the labour party was founded on and it
all involves the care, welfare and concern for the people of NZ, those aspects have been
tossed aside and today the labour party caucus beliefs and principles certainly don’t resemble
anything it was founded on, below is a paragraph i thought i would use.
‘ Labour started it’s life as a party of change – a voice for the working classes who believed
that a fairer future was possible.
Many of those first involved just wanted the basics – adequate food,clothing and shelter,a
job with reasonable conditions and regular wages; support in illness or old age; and a hope
for an even brighter future for their children.
When Micheal Joseph Savage led labour to a sweeping victory in 1935,he promised major
changes.
Over the next few years labour introduced a series of measures which would become
fundamentals of NZ society and culture.
For the first time accesss to health care became affordable for all, the state assumed a
major responsibility to provide low cost housing to those in need.
A comprehensive social welfare system that gave support and security to the elderly,the
sick and those without employment’, end of paragraph.
The labour party representatives in cacus over the years have strayed far from the core values
and fundamentals and that is the problem.
The current housing policy, ie, building 100.000 homes is only targeted at those who can afford
a deposit, the beneficiaries have been made to feel like ‘bludgers’ and in the Clark era it was ‘pay as you go’ for our elderly in rest homes,some lost their life long homes because of Clark’s changes to the health policies.
It’s is easy to see why so many of us here are disturbed by the continual movement
away by the current caucus to exact even more destruction of what was an
amazing,respectable Labour party,it brings tears to the eyes.
Leadership’s of the labour party change but there is one aspect that doesn’t change and
that is the fundamental needs of the people,those needs are forever.
“the labour party was founded on and it
all involves the care, welfare and concern for the people of NZ”
Fine and great, but having been through what I went through, even under Labour, I feel “tossed aside”, sames as I feel they “tossed aside” some of their principles.
SAD!
I recall back in the day that local MP (especially opposition) staff were dynamite at dealing with people “tossed aside”. If Labour were no good, try the Greens or Mana. Or a charity/church advocate (see your Citizens Advice Bureau).
A lot of the time things were dealable without expensive court action as soon as the people doing the shafting realised that you had people who knew the system on your side. Good luck.
“The Saint is a sinner too” (not a love song, or Pop :))
ream (did two front axles, both sides, hangars and eyes, one time, arms above my head, with
adjustable hand reamers)
Thomas Oord-The Polkinghorne Reader
Keith Ward-The God Conclusion (which reminds me, listened to Lloyd Geering up last night
more to come)
Roy Baumeister-The Cultural Animal. Meanings of Life.
Antonio Damasio-Self Comes To Mind; constructing the conscious brain
Iain McGilchrist-The Divided Brain and the Making of The Modern World
Jerome Bruner-Acts of Meaning. Making Stories
Jung- Answer to Job (just throwing that out there)
Rodney Stark-One True God. The Victory of Reason; how Christianity led to Freedom, Capitalism
and (former) Western Success
Stephen Toulmin-Cosmopolis; the hidden agenda of modernity
Jurgen Habermas-The Future of Human Nature
Joshua Berman-Created Equal
Martin Buber-I and Thou
William P. Brown-The Seven Pillars of Creation (remember T.E Lawrence?)
John F. Haught-God After Darwin; a theology of evolution
Martin J. Rees-Just Six Numbers. Our Cosmic Habitat (and now he’s formed an “existential” society
For God’s Sake) 😉
Gerald L. Schroeder-Genesis and the Big Bang
Robert D. Putnam-American Grace
Peter L. Berger-The Desecularization of the World. Resurgent Religion and World Politics
Mark Lilla-The Stillborn God
Steven Solomon-Water;the epic struggle for wealth, power, and civilization
Reinhold Niebuhr-Moral Man and Immoral Society
“Let us face the fact that the monastic vocation tends to present itself to the modern world as a
problem, and, a scandal”
-Merton (it’s a scandal i tell ya, a scandal; not a sandal)
“But often, in the crowded streets, but often in the din of strife, there rises an unspeakable desire
After the knowledge of our buried life…”
-Arnold
“I circle around God, around our primordial tower. I’ve been circling for thousands of years
And I still don’t know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song.”
-Rilke, Book of Hours
“Word I was in the house alone
Somehow 😉 must have gotten abroad,
Word I was in my life alone,
Word I had no one left but God.(that’s “deception” for ya)
-Robert Frost, Bereft.
(i know which Spirit i prefer) and how that story ends.
-“When The Man Comes Around”
I guess when solo parents are unable to partake in the usual “holiday season” activities many people enjoy at this time of year then today at 9am is as good as any day to phone them (behind the veil of “unknown number”) to “gently” terrorise them with questions about their job seeking activities and to “remind” them of their obligations to seek part-time work for those caring for children under 14, and full-time work once their youngest reaches 14 years of age.
Heck if they are not exactly a “box of fluffies” at this time we could get some of them off their “welfare dependency” by making them feel worse and maybe drive them to suicide if we hassle them enough.
It makes no difference at all that the present Govt. have done NOTHING to create any employment whatsoever, in fact despite them shrinking the job market today would be a fine day to ring around these “bludgers” and terrorise them some more.
FenderViper on 27 Dec – did this really happen ? please explain further ….
Yes this happened on 27th, the (surely more costly) “contractor” may get paid by the phone call.
Has anyone been keeping an eye on this?
Fiscal cliff – or “a slope, or a slow but steady decline, down the road of fiscal austerity (for the US)”
1. “The New Zealand dollar fell against most major currencies as the looming US fiscal cliff sapped risk appetite, stoking demand for the greenback …” (http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/124395/nz-dollar-continues-fall-ahead-of-fiscal-cliff)
2. Obama shortens his Hawaii holiday to return to the White House for talks (http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/8121789/Fiscal-cliff-threat-nears-reality)
3. Let it fall … and pick up the pieces – as Michael Cohen, last month, was picking would/should happen (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/28/falling-off-fiscal-cliff-scenario)
Much ado about nothing (till 1 Jan) ?
Oops, I had wanted to point out this paragraph by Cohen:
“There is, of course, an easier solution to this problem: do nothing. Let the tax cuts expire on 1 January, with taxes going up on every American. Then, Congress can quickly pass a massive tax cut for those making less than $250,000, retroactive to 1 January. Neither side will want to wait long and force Americans to pay higher taxes, but especially Republicans won’t – as they will likely be blamed if no deal is swiftly reached. To do so would mean that all sides are politically satisfied: President Obama can say he stuck to his word about raising taxes on rich Americans, and taxes will have gone up without Republicans having to cast a vote; and both parties can reap the political benefit and claim credit for having cut taxes for the middle class.”
testing (ok, i do make random notes; i’m not a machine yet)
-The Swedenborg (a replicant)
RNZ-Lloyd, coal and the commotion;
cosmogenesis-our common origins-“adam”-Hebrew for mankind
communication and cooperation for a viable for future (even Lloyd is a semi-pessimist)
We can tell. Expanding U? Red Shift; Let us expand.Universality is a safe assumption
Singularity and homogenesis follow.quarks, hadrons and me sons et al;
“Come together…right now..over you.” Here we are, Back in the USSR.
Dark Energy-mysterious or not.Red Giant.oils the white dwarf and the Black Hole
for Satan himself masquerades from Berlin as an angel of light.It is not surprising if his servants
Masquerade. Sex…I’M a man, I’m a goddess, I’m a one night stand and we make love
Together we can do know wrong is Right (he hardens whom he wants to harden)
a slice of Lemon with your Corona?
Tasmanian devils-hardwood.Shearer Hawkes Bay Today?”Leopard does not change it’s spots”
Space and Time drawing the Son out with the bathwater; There’s always the Son
ahhh…The circle of life
-Man in Black (does the lion sleep at night?) I witnessed a meteorite yesterday p.m
these thoughts are fading, will not see them again.See that chameleon there like
The News of The World pressing down on your receiver.Is there anybody out there…
“run run away”.Meanwhile, whose singing lullabyes?; the Arab world’s gettin in tune
http://www.abeautifullie.org/ Who do not lie.She don’t like that kind of behaviour
Like Scott on the ant arctic, faith, if not accompanied by action is dead.
home is just an emotion sticking in our throat, Home is Close to control, home is “i don’t recall”
Let’s go to hawaii for the “Holy Days”. Home’s mind your business, “well pay the fine”
Fuck you all very much; we value ENZA.Let the good times roll down the sluice…
“rollin, rollin, rollin down the highway of no return.Not Fragile,Production’s in Overdrive
concrete catchment.Time for some parchment anarchristic
“but it’s not sphere, raising taxes will tie up our boats.”
Ho, blind Bartimaeus…your faith is healing you…no more occular reduction. Think Globally
act locally. Chavez is up and about. Beautiful Gate to the south the Golden Bay.
The greatest amongst you will be your servant; Einstein and The Reverend Hone Kaa.III John
poverty tours missionaries.you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come scoffing
following their evil desires. 270,000 children living in poverty.The wealth of the rich is their
Fortified City, but poverty is the ruin of the poor Refuges funded for 2000 women and children
Respond to 30,000 while principals chalk reaching breaking point.Yes, it will break now,
I think it will break now this is Permanent.Love lies bleeding in the Strand while lawyers milk the
ERA.”pack mentality” as the Brethren “king of this world” bites back, yet our real furry friends
lead the way; modify that science priests (no funeral for a friend quite yet) Don’t give up 🙂
-Gabriel (from the burning bush)
Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.
an inspection of the pharoah’s surplus grain reveals the draft papyri passes with nearly two thirds
while parts of China duck the coldest temperatures on record (judgement without mercy will be
demonstrated to any merchant not merciful; the potter has the right to make from the same lump
of clay, some soldiers for noble purposes and some for common serfdom, yet Mao’s vision-
That every chinese citizen prosper.However, cars are not just a particulate matter or a polished
Customline.White Detroit Noise; freeze block parking. Got hot near the former freezing works
Klan Lab? burn like a fire, burn like a fire in Cairo; neither can you bear fruit unless you remain
In Lyn e. Love each other and not serve the apple. Make every effort to ad to your faith, goodness
To goodness, knowledge to knowledge, self-control to self-control…perseverance cos the
Spooks are comin’ outta the hoodwork, disclosing to Facebook HQ.ED (where upon 17M
Iranians are disobeying their Holy Father, or following above) cultivation of virtue = called
Benediction; lets talk 16 Times about ending the slaughter of Syria.shoulda sucked it up Hillary
he is not William Jefferson by accidental cigar. Did you know that a foundational function of the
ACLU was to defend against the pitch poured upon the cause of radical labour rights following
the arrest and deportation of leftist activists deemed to be communist, Bolshevik or Anarchist
During the 20’s? Scope it out.leek out into the world the love that God leeks into us-AB of C
self preserve not (are we agee jars, or Jars of Clay?). Consequently, faith will come from
Hearing the Message in a Bottle, we are spirits, in a material world (no need to break a leg
walking on the moon) or be carried away into Babylon at 5 by strange teachings.
There are three magisteria
-The Police (speaking on behalf of Hermes Trismegistus)
A merry festive New Year to our furry bouncy government immune to the storm due to their rich fur coats, happily bouncing around like Tigger, and making as much sense.
Obama returns home from Hawaii early……
………there goes a social climbing slippery Dick Wanker’s chance to meet and fraternise aye!
Oh well……there’s always next year I ‘spose.
Hope and Change (and all that kaka).
I bet Dippery Slick has done more hoping and changing than Obama has though
He wakens me morning by mourning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught
The sovereign Lord has opened my ears,
No longer rebellious and practicing the “withdrawl” method; ahhh…the sweet and sour release 🙂
Under Pressure…people on the street, It’s a terror knowing what the world’s about
Watching the good people scream “let me out”
Shameful to mention what the disobedient do in secret Banks (do not dwell on evils that The Sun
exposes)
These columns have renounced secret and shameful ways, using deception sparingly
Aero, Baby won’t you had me a line. Set forth truth plainly
For The Sandman has Entered and blinded
the minds of the unbelievers.To paraphrase “American slavery is not a spaghetti western”-Spike
You did not choose me, but i chose you and lprent gives us shelter. Standardize to go and bear fruit
that will last longer than Zespri; lepers and famine. Starvation, Self, or, Shares? 2 Kings 3-
Each of you may look not only to their own interests; Look to the interests of others.
Follow the money trail as it comes round the mountain social climbing.
As for us? Let Him lead you, and the road will rise as you follow the way.
Pr 10:9 The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.
Pr 10:20 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value
Heb 5:1
-Billy The Kid, beyond the Pale.Rider. (off to clean and oil the Revolver)
Wish you would talk in English, as you write it in your comments it hurts my head to read and attempt to de-cypher so much that i have taken to skimming past your comments un-read…
+1
+2
+3
I rather like it myself. Just let it soak in.
Turns on those nice under used non-rational parts of the brain.
New Zealand really needs anti-corruption legislation, Roger Douglus would have been imprisoned rather than been given a knighthood. But I can dream.
New Zealand really needs anti-corruption legislation, Roger Douglus would have been imprisoned rather than been given a knighthood.
As would David Caygill, Richard Prebble and Trevor De Cleene.
But I can dream.
Don’t dream; SCHEME.
Don’t agonize, ORGANIZE.
“Don’t dream; SCHEME.
Don’t agonize, ORGANIZE.”
Maybe if I still lived in New Zealand, the country has lost it’s charm for me. In 2014 though things could change, but while National is in total power I don’t think I could cope living there either psychologically or financially.
I’m sorry to hear that, my friend.
We need you back here, pronto.
nice thought 🙂