As an unashamed righty – this was far from the result I was wanting. But Nation ran a terrible campaign – and lets face it Winston (Love or loath him) really does have that “X” factor.
Personally I hope that this does not impact the RMA reforms, but I can see that this is going to be an issue now.
Oh well, lets hope the cricket goes well. On that at least most of us will agree.
Why do you want the RMA reforms? The current system does not prevent development, provided it is environmentally sustainable. And conversely, the proposed reforms were simply a return to colonial times of greed, slash and burn and fuck the environment. The proposed reforms were indicative of Neanderthal thinking.
The beginning of the end of an evil dishonest RW era of Key. Well done Winston, Well done NZF, Well done Willow-Jean, Well done Labour, Well done Andrew Little, Well done all the Opposition of NAT/ACT, Well done Northland and Well done New Zealand!
Thanks especially to; Clendon and his Northland team, for convincing the Wellington GP strategists that contesting this byelection would be a waste of time and money. His 3639 voters from last election certainly helped make Peters’ victory an emphatic one.
+I
Actually I would credit both the Whangarei and Northland electorate teams who were very smart working together with Labour & NZF during the 2014 election campaign. The local Greens was never in doubt supportIng Peter’s for a collective win.
Now watch the crafty Peters slowly but surely lance the NACT abscess and let NZ see the pus ooze out over the remainder of this term. Payback for 2008 just begun.
So much material to work with, starting with the former member for northland.
‘Waaaahh they all ganged up on us’ probably, be good to see some real journos in Oz get in his face.
CT will have the lines are prepared however the fact remains they just lost one of the safest rural national seats after throwing the kitchen sink at it in terms if on the ground presence and pork barrelling.
This happened to me yesterday as well, Lynn. The edit link was available, but clicking on it said I didn’t have permission. This was when the timer was at about the 7 min mark. Refreshing the page, the edit link had vanished.
This has sporadically happened in the past, as well. I wonder if it’s related to moderator activity happening elsewhere in the comments?
My problem of late has been that my comments often just disappear until the 10 minute editing window has expired (at which point I notice some obvious typos I would have corrected). Yestereve, I just put that down to the elevated amount of site traffic, but it’s been happening sporadically for the past week.
Ah. That one is due to some kind of combination of server and client side caching.
Try doing a Shift+F5 or Shift+Refresh when you next see it. And get back to me if it doesn’t fix it.
What that does is force the local cache to be flushed and a new request to load to be sent to server. The problem is that there are several layers of caching going on.
The closest one is your browser cache that shows when you use the back button.
The next is the signature that your browser sends to the server based on its cache info. The server uses that to determine if it has a “new” copy of that page, if not it tells your browser to reload the existing copy on your system. Sometimes the page hasn’t ‘changed’ after you async save a comment because it hasn’t ‘stored’ that update yet.
In those cases it may tell your browser to reuse the stored copy of the page, or it may send you one that has been cached on the server side.
Then there is the database cache that keeps track of updates. That sometimes doesn’t update immediately after a change is made because the database is still async processing it.
Nett effect is that sometimes, usually under heavy load you won’t get the page displaying with your comment on it. Doing a forced refresh will usually get it for you.
I’ll have a review of the current cache settings. But they are optimized for readers rather than commenters for the obvious reason – more than 95% of the page loads are from pure site reads. What I am wondering is if the memcached signatures are set to clear when a comment is made, but are reloaded by something else while the comment is being saved.
That has happened to me quite often. Sometimes I have been away from the post or even to another blog and when I have returned and want to edit and improve? my comment I am not allowed back in though plenty of time is available still. And refreshing wipes out the time available.
And I did wonder if it relates to activity in other areas of the blog, big downloads, new posts, etc. It’s still possible to put a separate amending note – it’s not being locked out – just from your own original comment.
trying to correct a loaded one to edit it with 7min’s plus remaining on it and I’ve never seen this message before.
It was on a first gen iPad which is just about ready for the technology scrapheap….imac is fine but the android pad has always had issues with the site and while I’m on the subject the iPhone never shows a ‘reply’ button for any comments in safari.
I’m on the subject the iPhone never shows a ‘reply’ button for any comments in safari.
On the usual desktop site? Or the mobile one?
The mobile site doesn’t have a reply button per comment. It is a problem with the theme.
The desktop theme shouldn’t do that. I wonder what the Shift-F5 equivalent is on a tablet…
BTW: I just splashed out $120 and grabbed the “Agency” version of WPTouch so I could get the developer documentation so I can correct issue properly. Lyn in Vietnam for a few weeks so I should have some extra spare time.
BTW2: The Agency version of the mobile theme has a pile of speed enhancements. Seem to do great things on my android phone. What about others?
I have logged in using my Android phone looks like a good deal for your $$$ speed is way better. BUT.. Sorry to say no reply button in Android even after logging in.
“Has the current PM made any statements too his media puppies?”
……..you mean since he said Winston had “no chance”? is his radar malfunctioning? will he be having a serious think about his future after last night, like he did after the cup of tea debacle? I think he should.
As a Northland electorate voter, all I can do is give thanks as well – to Winston for standing, to Andrew Little and Willow-Jean for giving us “permission” (“approval” ?) to vote for Winston, and to the Nats for giving us almost six weeks of constant entertainment and amusement as evidenced by these cartoons –
Agree with your sentiments, except that the party organisations do not give permission to anyone to vote. The enlightened voters make that choice, and there were still over 1000 who do not understand first-past-the-post up there.
And as an aside, National took two on the chin yesterday. Hope Slater recovers from that headache quickly, andthat it may have knocked some sense into him. Wonder if he will change his attitude to “bullying”
It’s actually a shame to see you go this time. Twitter seems to have engendered more conciseness to your comments. I’ve only just caught up on last night’s conflageration and see why you feel that a boycott is required in this instance.
I don’t know what “quite literally” means. Something like “pretty legal”?
Meh, ban who you like. Bit rich though to ascribe a view to him that he quite definitely didn’t literally write, after warning him for ascribing views to other parties.
However, I think the Pigman has the best solution when he says:
Personally, I think it makes participating in discussions on her [Stephenie Rodgers’] posts a tense and unpleasant experience akin to walking on eggshells.
Of course, the easiest way to avoid it is simply not to comment on anything she posts, a practice I’ll be adopting forthwith.
(For the record, until her derailing on Bill’s Assange post, served with scattershot derision for ma[l]e commenters on ts generally, and subsequent excessively controlling discussions in another post this week, I regarded her as a good author whose views I often accorded with.)
It seems a shame to have lost the commentary of; yourself, marty mars, rawshark –
yeshe, & greywarshark, all over the needless banning of Murray Rawshark on a night when those opposed to NACT should have been celebrating their ability to work together. Especially since at the time he was banned, he had already announced:
I’m taking a holiday from here. I can’t handle the approach taken by a couple of authors in their moderation. It feels too much like abuse of power and suppression of debate to me. See you all sometime. Maybe.
Therefore until at least the 12th of next month, I will join the Pigman in not commenting on any of the posts of Stephenie Rodgers. I see no reason to boycott the Standard as a whole as other authors have shown no similar tendancies to abuse their powers of moderation. Perhaps those in voluntary exile might consider doing the same and not depriving TS of your viewpoints?
Let her speak only with; the trolls, and her own echos, for a while.
Yep, I’ll be boycotting Stephanie’s posts from now on. Her aggressive stance towards any sort of criticism is an on-going problem for The Standard. A mix of self-martyrdom and control-freakery. Needs to be confronted once and for all.
It’s true that Stephanie comes in for an unusual amount of flak. But I’d ask her defenders (like, for example, Weka) – those who agree that it’s all to do with her gender – to consider the stark contrast between reactions to Karol and Stephanie.
Karol is a woman and a feminist but received very little criticism. Why ? Because she dealt reasonably with anyone who took issue with her arguments. Typically, she’d reply with something like: “Show me the evidence”.
Stephanie, on the other hand, seems to regard any criticism or disagreement as some sort of vicious attack upon her person. It really is Hyper-sensitivity gone mad. Unlike Karol, Stephanie’s reply would usually be along the lines of either:
(1) Don’t you dare tell me what to think or say !
or
(2) Don’t you dare demonise me !
Trigger-happy aggression dressed-up as self-defence.
And she’ll never have to stand back and objectively scrutinise her own behaviour because, of course, she has “200 years of feminist scholarship” to reassure her that it’s all about “men not being able to deal with a strong, decisive woman” rather than her own deeply controlling personality.
All of which may cop me a lifetime ban, but, as I say, it’s a problem that needs to be confronted once and for all. The shame of it is that Stephanie does, in fact, contribute some very important and interesting posts.
“those who agree that it’s all to do with her gender”
I haven’t said it’s all about gender. Neither has Stephanie (and none of us know what Stephanie is thinking). The only person who has run that line is felix, and now yourself. Please don’t misrepresent what I say.
Myself, I think there is room on ts for a range of moderation styles. I could criticise every moderator here, or praise them. But I don’t because I believe that the moderation here is set to protect the site and the authors not to suit the ideals of the commenters. That keeps the place functional and vibrant.
Unfortunately the comparison with karol just buys into the whole women/feminists have to behave in certain ways thing. It’s ok for Lynn to be rude and abusive when he moderates, but Stephanie has to behave like a well behaved feminist.
I would also point out that Stephanie is in a completely different situation than karol with regards to being a feminist blogger and what that means, and that those things need to be taken into account (i.e. context has meaning).
I’m gobsmacked to see you psychoanalysing an author and moderator. I think your characterisation of Stephanie is off and it’s really disappointing to see people thinking they can use their own characterisations of her to criticise her moderation.
+100…and I feel that Murray Rawshark, Colonial Rawshark and others have also come in for some quite unwarranted, personal, distasteful and vicious attacks at times eg…”rape apologists” with extras ( check out the posts on Julian Assange issue)
…sexism in reverse?
… or disguised trolling ie their arguments (and in fact the whole initial Post) was illegitimately hijacked , overturned and twisted into something they never meant
Greens have gone from 1 seat to 4 seats in the NSW Lower House. They’ve taken the 2, formerly safe North Coast seats of Ballina and Lismore off the Nationals as the issue of Coal Seam Gas extraction became a major election issue. They held Balmain and gained the adjacent newly created inner Sydney seat of Newtown. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-28/nsw-election-greens-balmain-newtown-ballina-lismore/6356098
Where are all the headlines reporting this tremendous rout?
Where is John key putting in his usual two cents worthless worth?
Where is the pig?
Useless media!!
Great win and a fantastic nights celebration. Have shaken the hangover, helped by the shock of our little dog befriending a kiwi when I let her out for a pee. Taken her for a walk along the water front. The media are intviewing Peters now, ha some lady just yelled out go Winston you beauty! which really does sum things up nicely.
I’ve turned on Q & A late, so far seen an interview with Joyce, and now one with Marama Fox from the MP. First time I’ve seen Marama do anything, and she appears a very capable politician – I’d say better than some of the government ministers when it comes to explaining their position and interviews.
It’s still going on now on TV1, or you can catch it at 10am on 1 + 1.
In the latest ruling he has lost an estimated $67 million to the US. Im not sure if this means assets held in NZ and HK as yet. He seems to think that this wont be touched, but then again he has not been right for some time.
nice to see the slug hit the canvass so swiftly in his ‘fight’ with Ryder.Maybe the useless loudmouth should hand in his ‘man card’,he fought like a woman!
He keeps his Idiot Card for doing it at all. I don’t think he ever had a “man card” and trying to punch people in the head while wearing your undies is no way to get one.
physically it was an even match…Ryder is an over weight cricketer who is not toned or quick and I was expecting the slug,given his macho verbosity to actually fight.He did get up after being knocked over ,but offerred about as much resistant as a brightly coloured punching bag.
Agreed. I don’t want to open up any jokes about intelligence or whether he has a brain or not, even a few blows to the head can cause concussion and brain damage, which can have a lasting effect on your life.
Mind you, some people get brain damage and become better people for it. I’m not wishing brain damage on him, but maybe it’ll be for the better in the long term.
Those according him courage for self promoting himself in a boxing ring are the kind of people that mean we struggle to get justice for many vulnerable in this county, they perpetuate a dangerous and outdated definition of “man”. Being prepared to fight someone for personal gain (be it financial or publicity) is not manly.
Nah, the problem is: A couple of weeks back, Fisi suddenly changed his tune and covered his ass by predicting a Winnie win. (And I see he’s turned up today on another thread).
A leaked copy of the report, led by University of Auckland research fellow Dr Glenn Simmons, estimated that over 60 years, 40.4 million tonnes of catch was taken. That was roughly 2.9 times the 14 million tonnes reported officially during the period.
Government officials are braced for the impact of the report, acknowledging that New Zealand’s data on historic catch levels are poor.
Since the quota management system was introduced, Simmons “conservatively” estimated that the actual catch was 2.2 times official reported data.
Simmons, who could not be reached for comment on Friday, blamed the “vast majority” of the unreported catch on industrial catch and discards, in large part pointing the finger at foreign flagged vessels.
This is why we need better reporting and oversight of fishing. We need to know how much is being taken so that we can set quotas so that the fish in our seas get back to historic levels. We can’t do that if catches are being misreported.
Also note that the report was leaked by the fishing industry in what appears, IMO, to be an attempt to attack it before it’s official release.
Talking to both commercial and recreational fishermen the days of plenty are well in the past with some recreational outings yielding nothing.
We also need to factor in the non NZ fishing fleets who take advantage of our lack of enforcement and plunder what they can and the damage bottom trawling has done to the ecosystem.
Naturally our government introduced voluntary self-reporting for fishing vessels rather than having MAF inspectors on each one as previously. Though these figures suggest maybe that made little overall difference either.
This is effectively a black market twice the size of the official one. You’d think any state might want to do something about that in their own territory.
Anagrams from ‘one lout in that side of the house’.
Come to mind – tools, snide, hades, deus, nest, nose, tint, foist, nous, haste, lost, etc
and funny all have relevance to some or all of our parliamentarians.
Here is a link to making a submission to Parliamentary select committee on Inquiry into the 2014 general election
This is particularly essential for all those people – especially in the Northland electorate – who think they were unjustly turned away from voting in last year’s general election.
The closing date for submissions is Tuesday, 31 March 2015
By convention, a select committee inquiry is conducted following a general election into the legal and administrative aspects of that election. This process provides a multi-party approach to the review and any reform of the law and administration relating to Parliamentary elections.
The terms of reference for the inquiry are: “To examine the law and administrative procedures for the conduct of Parliamentary elections in light of the 2014 general election”.
The committee requires 2 copies of each submission if made in writing. Those wishing to include any information of a private or personal nature in a submission should first discuss this with the clerk of the committee, as submissions are usually released to the public by the committee. Those wishing to appear before the committee to speak to their submissions should state this clearly and provide a daytime telephone contact number. To assist with administration please supply your postcode and an email address if you have one.
And is there a business waiting to take off building furniture out of the pine they have planted in the past which I think is still abundant, and barging it south from Opua or a suitable port nearbuy to the big markets elsewhere in NZ though presumably mainly Auckland? The barges would also carry other produce. Another local business looking to the future when road making and vehicle costs are affected badly by high oil prices.
Juken wood treatment company has had a plant in Kaitaia for years connected with the MDF board industry. And there are a number of businesses working with this material but I don’t know how many are fully in NZ and NZowned. http://www.paneltec.co.nz/ (An Australian firm with sales office in Dargaville) http://www.applefurniture.co.nz/ (A NZ enterprise based in Kaiwaka)
Jim Anderton in 2005 launched this book on the growth of MDF board. http://www.beehive.govt.nz/node/24157
Another site is hotfrog that is listing businesses and promoting them which gives an extra boost to small businesses.
It listed Make Enterprises Dargaville connected with Paneltec.
BBS Timbers NZ owned timber firm providing a range of species.
Juken have a big plant in Wairarapa and this item refers to the amount of wood available there. So perhaps Northland needs to keep up its plantings to get the right mass of wood to enable the local business to be ongoing.
Some comments in a stuff article on the business. http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/9411743/Juken-primed-for-growth-with-founders-added-value-strategies While over half the timber logged in New Zealand leaves the country in this “primary” form, Juken focuses on tertiary production, which is only around 15 per cent of the country’s timber output, he said.
“There’s enough wood in Wairarapa to have another 10 mills. We have the single largest ownership, 15,000ha – but that’s only 20 per cent of what’s available in Wairarapa.”
Volatile prices and exchange rates have sent many domestic mills to the wall, such as Rotorua’s Tachikawa Forest Products which went into receivership last month with the loss of 120 jobs.
But Juken has insulated itself against the worst impacts by buying its logs for milling from its own forests, at a long-term average price.
Juken appear to have brains and foresight. Perhaps we should just throw out our politicians and contract out much of the business side of NZ to them. That however sounds suspiciously like an ACT idea so there is bound to be a worm in the apple.
The spokesperson refers to volatile prices which NZ must adjust to, but this difficulty is worsened by the exchange rates affected by the mafia protection system we are locked
into. Something that a government for NZ with guts, and explanations to the citizens of our true economic state, needs to do something about. Particularly the volatility of casino-like overseas financial entities playing with our money as if it was casino chips.
I noticed that my fingers produced nearbuy for nearby. I am wondering if there isn’t something of a Freudian slip here. Maybe nearbuy is going to be a new useful word that indicates local trading and business?
Northland produces higher-density timber that is too valuable to be chipped into MDF. Making solid furniture from it locally would create skilled jobs and better export revenues.
Well well:
“NZ First leader Winston Peters says NZ First may decide not to bring an extra MP into Parliament after his Northland byelection win because his party supports a smaller Parliament.”
Interesting. Won’t make any difference to the Government power. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424888
@ianmac I’m sure Winston will resign his list seat and bring in another NZF member.
What people are missing here is the fact that the public of Northland knew this was going to happen if they elected Peters (or if they didn’t they don’t may attention-no excuse) yet they elected Peters with a stonking great majority.
People who whinge about this outcome need to accept that a democratic process has taken place where the electorate knew the consequences of their vote, rather than focusing on the effect on the result of an election 6 months ago.
Actually, I’m pretty sure that everyone who voted for Winston on Saturday fully expected him to resign his seat and that NZF would be up a seat afterwards. For him to now not do that would be against those expectations and thus against democracy.
This is a problem with our democracy in that our ‘representatives’ can go off and do what they like once they’ve been voted in no matter what their policies or the expectation of the populace was when they were voted in.
It is actually a very complicated legal situation, as no explicit legal provisions exist for the current situation. Too tired tonight to try to explain but suggest you read Graeme Edgeler’s latest post on Public Address; together with his earlier post there and Philip Lyth’s earlier post there today. Links are included in Edgeler’s latest post.
. Let us be quite definite about this. Any Democratic politician who thinks this is a bad situation — or, worse, will not stand by a Democratic colleague in this situation — is not worth the hankie to blow Joe Lieberman’s nose.
Representatives from Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, have met to discuss ways to urge Democrats, including Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, to soften their party’s tone toward Wall Street, sources familiar with the discussions said this week. Bank officials said the idea of withholding donations was not discussed at a meeting of the four banks in Washington but it has been raised in one-on-one conversations between representatives of some of them. However, there was no agreement on coordinating any action, and each bank is making its own decision, they said.
My god, what a prodigious bluff. Also, my god, what towering arrogance? These guys own half the world and have enough money to buy the other half, and they’re threatening the party still most likely to control the White House because they don’t like the Senator Professor’s tone?Her tone? Sherrod Brown’s tone? These are guys who should be worried about the tone of the guard who’s calling them down to breakfast at Danbury and they’re concerned about the tenderness of their Savile Row’d fee-fees? Honkies, please.
So now Yemen joins Syria, most of Iraq, northern Jordan, northern Lebanon, and northern Saudi Arabia into social chaos.
The United States is aligned alongside Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and against them in Yemen. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, who have joined in the Saudi offensive in Yemen, are bombing factions in Libya backed by Turkey and Qatar, who also support the Saudi offensive in Yemen. The Syrian conflict has been fueled by competition among all regional powers to outmaneuver one another on battlefields far from home.
Neither the US nor Saudi Arabia have any consistency, and even Iran is beginning to look coherent in its positioning.
This is going to get broader and much, much worse before it gets better.
There was a well attended and very noisy protest outside Sky City this afternoon where the
“New Zealand’s premier annual upstream event- featuring the government’s launch of block offer 2015-the exclusive tender for exploration permits”, was taking place.
Topics include-expert speakers presenting with NZ context,
-insights into NZ regulatory system,
– best practice local community engagement.
I guess we were helping inform them about the last topic. All protesters had been invited to bring a drum and were entertained by Michael Franti before marching from Victoria Park to Sky City.
One major sponsor is Halliburton. Another is Fragomen which is a global corporate immigration law firm. This doesn’t indicate jobs for locals to me.
KiwiRail are saying that ‘no final decision has been made’, but when someone says that, it is pretty much always a done deal.
New Zealanders paid a lot of money for that electrification, plus interest, and it is madness for it to be ripped out only about 30 year later and sold for scrap. Fuel prices may be low, but that doesnt mean that they will be low forever…
When Lab VI bought Toll Rail back in 2008, it was supposed to be a new era for rail in NZ. Unfortunately since National won the election that year, their attacks on the rail system have been more savage than ever before.
Why don’t the nats go the whole hog and go back to steam trains , we could hire the unemployed on contracts to cut all those pesky trees down in the central north island to fuel them.
Where does Key get off?
The Northland-safe-as-houses seat for National was lost for no other reason than the usual die-hard Nat voters were actually not sure what sort of National Party is running the country – its complexion appears to have changed over the last couple of months and they couldn’t be convinced enough to get out and vote. I don’t think they are actually impressed by the likes of Bennett, Bridges, Woodhouse sitting on or near the front benches. They want stability and substance, not flash Harrys.
Perhaps the issues of the TPPA, RMA were not as important to them to motivate them to get out and vote. Surely they don’t need the presence of a campaign to get them to the polling booth.
They must have known that their government’s programme was under threat if Winston Peters rested the seat from them. That surely should have been motivation enough.
So Mr Key needs a bit deeper analysis than blaming the opposition for this defeat.
I’m happy for the nats to stay in denial with “the left and winnie ganged up on us” excuses.
The longer they take to lose their hubris, the better it’ll be for everyone else in 2017 (or earlier).
If dunnokeyo lives up to the form roughan confirmed, in a very short while our glorious pm will be reconsidering whether he wants to stay in the job. And mr didn’t-fix-it fucking up again leaves an opening for the minister for oravida, petulent bean, woodhead, mcshouty, and whoever else to battle for the iron throne…
If Saturdays 4,000 majority to Winston is combined with a National majority of 9,000 (last general election night) there is a loss of 13,000 to National.
How many National supporters chose not to vote last Saturday?
The spy agency probably has the answer to my question.
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I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from 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 public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
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:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
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. ...
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 ...
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. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
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The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
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Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
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The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
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The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Thank you Northland. 🙂
+100
As an unashamed righty – this was far from the result I was wanting. But Nation ran a terrible campaign – and lets face it Winston (Love or loath him) really does have that “X” factor.
Personally I hope that this does not impact the RMA reforms, but I can see that this is going to be an issue now.
Oh well, lets hope the cricket goes well. On that at least most of us will agree.
Why do you want the RMA reforms? The current system does not prevent development, provided it is environmentally sustainable. And conversely, the proposed reforms were simply a return to colonial times of greed, slash and burn and fuck the environment. The proposed reforms were indicative of Neanderthal thinking.
I’m glad you answered your own question because there was fuck all chance that James was going to.
The beginning of the end of an evil dishonest RW era of Key. Well done Winston, Well done NZF, Well done Willow-Jean, Well done Labour, Well done Andrew Little, Well done all the Opposition of NAT/ACT, Well done Northland and Well done New Zealand!
And so say all of us!
+100
Thanks especially to; Clendon and his Northland team, for convincing the Wellington GP strategists that contesting this byelection would be a waste of time and money. His 3639 voters from last election certainly helped make Peters’ victory an emphatic one.
+I
Actually I would credit both the Whangarei and Northland electorate teams who were very smart working together with Labour & NZF during the 2014 election campaign. The local Greens was never in doubt supportIng Peter’s for a collective win.
Well done Mora and the GT!
+100…great to hear the co-operation Skinny….
+1000
Now watch the crafty Peters slowly but surely lance the NACT abscess and let NZ see the pus ooze out over the remainder of this term. Payback for 2008 just begun.
So much material to work with, starting with the former member for northland.
Oh Doctor please do! Bring your healing fingers. Goodness gracious me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03DKl3lOY4k
+100 tc …yes I would love to see this…in fact I think most of New Zealand is waiting to see Winston play this…
Well done Winston,a real David and Goliath performance.Has the current PM made any statements too his media puppies?
‘Waaaahh they all ganged up on us’ probably, be good to see some real journos in Oz get in his face.
CT will have the lines are prepared however the fact remains they just lost one of the safest rural national seats after throwing the kitchen sink at it in terms if on the ground presence and pork barrelling.
Worm turning….tick.
Would like correct my dodgy typing but it says I have no permission to edit.
That is odd unless the time has expired. Is this when you save an edited comment?
This happened to me yesterday as well, Lynn. The edit link was available, but clicking on it said I didn’t have permission. This was when the timer was at about the 7 min mark. Refreshing the page, the edit link had vanished.
This has sporadically happened in the past, as well. I wonder if it’s related to moderator activity happening elsewhere in the comments?
My problem of late has been that my comments often just disappear until the 10 minute editing window has expired (at which point I notice some obvious typos I would have corrected). Yestereve, I just put that down to the elevated amount of site traffic, but it’s been happening sporadically for the past week.
Ah. That one is due to some kind of combination of server and client side caching.
Try doing a Shift+F5 or Shift+Refresh when you next see it. And get back to me if it doesn’t fix it.
What that does is force the local cache to be flushed and a new request to load to be sent to server. The problem is that there are several layers of caching going on.
The closest one is your browser cache that shows when you use the back button.
The next is the signature that your browser sends to the server based on its cache info. The server uses that to determine if it has a “new” copy of that page, if not it tells your browser to reload the existing copy on your system. Sometimes the page hasn’t ‘changed’ after you async save a comment because it hasn’t ‘stored’ that update yet.
In those cases it may tell your browser to reuse the stored copy of the page, or it may send you one that has been cached on the server side.
Then there is the database cache that keeps track of updates. That sometimes doesn’t update immediately after a change is made because the database is still async processing it.
Nett effect is that sometimes, usually under heavy load you won’t get the page displaying with your comment on it. Doing a forced refresh will usually get it for you.
I’ll have a review of the current cache settings. But they are optimized for readers rather than commenters for the obvious reason – more than 95% of the page loads are from pure site reads. What I am wondering is if the memcached signatures are set to clear when a comment is made, but are reloaded by something else while the comment is being saved.
That has happened to me quite often. Sometimes I have been away from the post or even to another blog and when I have returned and want to edit and improve? my comment I am not allowed back in though plenty of time is available still. And refreshing wipes out the time available.
And I did wonder if it relates to activity in other areas of the blog, big downloads, new posts, etc. It’s still possible to put a separate amending note – it’s not being locked out – just from your own original comment.
Nope. What I am wondering about is how it determines that time. Maybe there is a absolute UTC time transmitted as part of the Javascript.
trying to correct a loaded one to edit it with 7min’s plus remaining on it and I’ve never seen this message before.
It was on a first gen iPad which is just about ready for the technology scrapheap….imac is fine but the android pad has always had issues with the site and while I’m on the subject the iPhone never shows a ‘reply’ button for any comments in safari.
I get the missing reply button as well. I find that logging in solves the problem. but it is random.
Umm…
On the usual desktop site? Or the mobile one?
The mobile site doesn’t have a reply button per comment. It is a problem with the theme.
The desktop theme shouldn’t do that. I wonder what the Shift-F5 equivalent is on a tablet…
BTW: I just splashed out $120 and grabbed the “Agency” version of WPTouch so I could get the developer documentation so I can correct issue properly. Lyn in Vietnam for a few weeks so I should have some extra spare time.
BTW2: The Agency version of the mobile theme has a pile of speed enhancements. Seem to do great things on my android phone. What about others?
I usually use the desktop site, and can leave a couple or 3 computers logged at once maybe that’s it???
I have logged in using my Android phone looks like a good deal for your $$$ speed is way better. BUT.. Sorry to say no reply button in Android even after logging in.
I still have to write that. Part of the package was the documentation and the barebones framework.
Except Winston was the Goliath.
When Winston ran his first electorate campaign in the north, Mark Osborne was 3 years old.
He still is?
Shouldn’t say that.Sorry Mark.
“Has the current PM made any statements too his media puppies?”
……..you mean since he said Winston had “no chance”? is his radar malfunctioning? will he be having a serious think about his future after last night, like he did after the cup of tea debacle? I think he should.
The FBI used to recommend encryption. Now they want to ban it! What?
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/28/the-fbi-used-to-recommend-encryption-now-they-want-to-ban-it
a p.s…before my two-week absence/protest in support of murray kicks off..
..see you all in a couple of weeks..
..but first i have to give thanks..
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/comment-whoar-those-we-need-to-thank-for-the-victory-in-northland/
As a Northland electorate voter, all I can do is give thanks as well – to Winston for standing, to Andrew Little and Willow-Jean for giving us “permission” (“approval” ?) to vote for Winston, and to the Nats for giving us almost six weeks of constant entertainment and amusement as evidenced by these cartoons –
http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2015/03/cartoons-about-the-northland-by-election.html
Agree with your sentiments, except that the party organisations do not give permission to anyone to vote. The enlightened voters make that choice, and there were still over 1000 who do not understand first-past-the-post up there.
And as an aside, National took two on the chin yesterday. Hope Slater recovers from that headache quickly, andthat it may have knocked some sense into him. Wonder if he will change his attitude to “bullying”
JK Thanks. Those cartoons are priceless. I think Emersons ‘morepork’ was no. 1.
And what will the cartoons be like when they find out why it was that there was a by-election, as Tremain’s cartoon refers ?
pu
I thought your thank qus were very well said. You summed it up pretty well.
phillip ure
It’s actually a shame to see you go this time. Twitter seems to have engendered more conciseness to your comments. I’ve only just caught up on last night’s conflageration and see why you feel that a boycott is required in this instance.
Comment 31 & associated replies on:
http://thestandard.org.nz/winston-takes-northland/
Comment 28 & associated replies on:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-28032015/
Felix’s responses are good:
However, I think the Pigman has the best solution when he says:
It seems a shame to have lost the commentary of; yourself, marty mars, rawshark –
yeshe, & greywarshark, all over the needless banning of Murray Rawshark on a night when those opposed to NACT should have been celebrating their ability to work together. Especially since at the time he was banned, he had already announced:
Therefore until at least the 12th of next month, I will join the Pigman in not commenting on any of the posts of Stephenie Rodgers. I see no reason to boycott the Standard as a whole as other authors have shown no similar tendancies to abuse their powers of moderation. Perhaps those in voluntary exile might consider doing the same and not depriving TS of your viewpoints?
Let her speak only with; the trolls, and her own echos, for a while.
Yep, I’ll be boycotting Stephanie’s posts from now on. Her aggressive stance towards any sort of criticism is an on-going problem for The Standard. A mix of self-martyrdom and control-freakery. Needs to be confronted once and for all.
It’s true that Stephanie comes in for an unusual amount of flak. But I’d ask her defenders (like, for example, Weka) – those who agree that it’s all to do with her gender – to consider the stark contrast between reactions to Karol and Stephanie.
Karol is a woman and a feminist but received very little criticism. Why ? Because she dealt reasonably with anyone who took issue with her arguments. Typically, she’d reply with something like: “Show me the evidence”.
Stephanie, on the other hand, seems to regard any criticism or disagreement as some sort of vicious attack upon her person. It really is Hyper-sensitivity gone mad. Unlike Karol, Stephanie’s reply would usually be along the lines of either:
(1) Don’t you dare tell me what to think or say !
or
(2) Don’t you dare demonise me !
Trigger-happy aggression dressed-up as self-defence.
And she’ll never have to stand back and objectively scrutinise her own behaviour because, of course, she has “200 years of feminist scholarship” to reassure her that it’s all about “men not being able to deal with a strong, decisive woman” rather than her own deeply controlling personality.
All of which may cop me a lifetime ban, but, as I say, it’s a problem that needs to be confronted once and for all. The shame of it is that Stephanie does, in fact, contribute some very important and interesting posts.
+100…yes come back karol!
“those who agree that it’s all to do with her gender”
I haven’t said it’s all about gender. Neither has Stephanie (and none of us know what Stephanie is thinking). The only person who has run that line is felix, and now yourself. Please don’t misrepresent what I say.
Myself, I think there is room on ts for a range of moderation styles. I could criticise every moderator here, or praise them. But I don’t because I believe that the moderation here is set to protect the site and the authors not to suit the ideals of the commenters. That keeps the place functional and vibrant.
Unfortunately the comparison with karol just buys into the whole women/feminists have to behave in certain ways thing. It’s ok for Lynn to be rude and abusive when he moderates, but Stephanie has to behave like a well behaved feminist.
I would also point out that Stephanie is in a completely different situation than karol with regards to being a feminist blogger and what that means, and that those things need to be taken into account (i.e. context has meaning).
I’m gobsmacked to see you psychoanalysing an author and moderator. I think your characterisation of Stephanie is off and it’s really disappointing to see people thinking they can use their own characterisations of her to criticise her moderation.
+1 Weka.
+100…and I feel that Murray Rawshark, Colonial Rawshark and others have also come in for some quite unwarranted, personal, distasteful and vicious attacks at times eg…”rape apologists” with extras ( check out the posts on Julian Assange issue)
…sexism in reverse?
… or disguised trolling ie their arguments (and in fact the whole initial Post) was illegitimately hijacked , overturned and twisted into something they never meant
Greens have gone from 1 seat to 4 seats in the NSW Lower House. They’ve taken the 2, formerly safe North Coast seats of Ballina and Lismore off the Nationals as the issue of Coal Seam Gas extraction became a major election issue. They held Balmain and gained the adjacent newly created inner Sydney seat of Newtown.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-28/nsw-election-greens-balmain-newtown-ballina-lismore/6356098
NSW still loses its power network tho.
Fark, those North Coast wins for the Greens are amazing. That’s true-blue territory. (Lismore in particular).
A massive 32% swing in Ballina and 26% in Lismore.
Where are all the headlines reporting this tremendous rout?
Where is John key putting in his usual two cents worthless worth?
Where is the pig?
Useless media!!
As expected, please John stay the F away from the black caps and keep your losing touch where it belongs….around Steven Joyce’s neck.
Great win and a fantastic nights celebration. Have shaken the hangover, helped by the shock of our little dog befriending a kiwi when I let her out for a pee. Taken her for a walk along the water front. The media are intviewing Peters now, ha some lady just yelled out go Winston you beauty! which really does sum things up nicely.
Hope you guys enjoyed my babbling last night 🙂
Yep glad your karma? gave you little hangover. Shane Jones with NZF next time ?
Commented on Jones under mickeys recent post, go there cobbah.
Thanks saw that
+100 ..yup…on the spot commentary …cant beat it!
I’ve turned on Q & A late, so far seen an interview with Joyce, and now one with Marama Fox from the MP. First time I’ve seen Marama do anything, and she appears a very capable politician – I’d say better than some of the government ministers when it comes to explaining their position and interviews.
It’s still going on now on TV1, or you can catch it at 10am on 1 + 1.
Apparently Peter Dunne has made an urgent appointment at the hairdressers and can’t take a call from John just now …
I see Dotcom has had another setback. Its been a while since he had any good news in the courts.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424752
In the latest ruling he has lost an estimated $67 million to the US. Im not sure if this means assets held in NZ and HK as yet. He seems to think that this wont be touched, but then again he has not been right for some time.
Maybe if he had gone there he could defend himself. Hopefully he will be gone soon.
nice to see the slug hit the canvass so swiftly in his ‘fight’ with Ryder.Maybe the useless loudmouth should hand in his ‘man card’,he fought like a woman!
He was outclassed, and out skilled. But he actually got in there. He keeps the “man card”. Anyone who has boxed would agree.
He keeps his Idiot Card for doing it at all. I don’t think he ever had a “man card” and trying to punch people in the head while wearing your undies is no way to get one.
physically it was an even match…Ryder is an over weight cricketer who is not toned or quick and I was expecting the slug,given his macho verbosity to actually fight.He did get up after being knocked over ,but offerred about as much resistant as a brightly coloured punching bag.
Doubt it. Cam looked like shit. He had shit cardio. He was puffed after 30s.
He was happy that he could now run 8km, when at the start of his training he couldn’t run at all.
I doubt Ryder would have much trouble running 16km.
the fat feral fucker got his head smashed into the ground…
how apt
what goes around comes around… every time
🙄
There is nothing man about Slater as it was for self promotion, if you think other wise you have been suckered by the biggest coward in NZ.
Not so tough without a laptop to hide behind…
WhaleOil – I know hes not the most liked here, but regardless takes stones to get into a boxing ring (More so on television).
So all credit for raising the $$$ for charity. But I wouldn’t think he will be stepping into the ring again. Simply seriously outclassed on the night.
I agree with tc (at cmnt 15 below); “slater is all about self promotion”. I fail to see why we should celebrate his macho posturings here.
+1
Not enjoying the confluence of politics and violence either. Boxing match, Peters giving National a bloody nose analogy etc.
“Man card”? “stones” ? “fought like a woman”?
Hey this is the 21st century.
+1
+1
Also boxing is stupid. If Slayer has to express himself through a violent one-on-one competition then why can’t the gun freak make it pistols at dawn?
Can you confirm that he didnt receive any recompense at all, with documented proof. Thanks.
A little Sunday humor, http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/jesse-ryder-knocks-cameron-slater-video-6272354
Was that a left hook or a right one?
resplendent in red …knocked out by Ryder in the blue corner…says he may fight again…must like lying on the canvass!
Stones or stupidity either way the slater is all about self promotion and this was an opportunity to do so without expensive lawyers or govt MP’s.
Boxing is pure stupidity.
Agreed. I don’t want to open up any jokes about intelligence or whether he has a brain or not, even a few blows to the head can cause concussion and brain damage, which can have a lasting effect on your life.
Mind you, some people get brain damage and become better people for it. I’m not wishing brain damage on him, but maybe it’ll be for the better in the long term.
Those according him courage for self promoting himself in a boxing ring are the kind of people that mean we struggle to get justice for many vulnerable in this county, they perpetuate a dangerous and outdated definition of “man”. Being prepared to fight someone for personal gain (be it financial or publicity) is not manly.
where is the Key-sucker fisiani today I wonder?
Even Key is speechless and has gone into hiding! Winston had Zero chance of winning, he had said!
I think Key has gone to get his photo taken with Abbot at the cricket. They can share exit strategies together.
Abbott is not in Melbourne for the cricket. He is in Singapore for Lee Kuan Yew’s funeral – which is where Key should also be IMO.
+1
Nah, the problem is: A couple of weeks back, Fisi suddenly changed his tune and covered his ass by predicting a Winnie win. (And I see he’s turned up today on another thread).
NZ fishery catch may be three times more than reported
This is why we need better reporting and oversight of fishing. We need to know how much is being taken so that we can set quotas so that the fish in our seas get back to historic levels. We can’t do that if catches are being misreported.
Also note that the report was leaked by the fishing industry in what appears, IMO, to be an attempt to attack it before it’s official release.
the sea is rapidly being depleted of fish.
just like the kauri, the seals, the whales and now the rivers and waterways, the greed of primary sector takers has no limits.
we have idiots in government so what do we expect?
Talking to both commercial and recreational fishermen the days of plenty are well in the past with some recreational outings yielding nothing.
We also need to factor in the non NZ fishing fleets who take advantage of our lack of enforcement and plunder what they can and the damage bottom trawling has done to the ecosystem.
Naturally our government introduced voluntary self-reporting for fishing vessels rather than having MAF inspectors on each one as previously. Though these figures suggest maybe that made little overall difference either.
This is effectively a black market twice the size of the official one. You’d think any state might want to do something about that in their own territory.
Feeling a bit sorry for the hostage in Northland, there’s no way Joyce will release him now that his face has been all over the tv.
They’re going to have to kill him.
Hapless suitor of female reporters stirs up a hornet’s nest
Steven Joyce, the campaign manager from Hell, is not the only right wing politician suffering massive ridicule at the moment….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67527214/Peter-Dunne-takes-on-New-Zealand-comedians
Oh god what a wally. What’s that old line about not getting into a war of words with anyone who buys ink by the barrel?
It also applies to “people who take the piss for a living”
never go into a war unarmed… and in a war of humour he is most definitely unarmed.
Would he rather be lightly roasted by Sandy Tosksvig? I don’t think so…
Which National MP is out?
Did you mean to write: “Which National MP is a lout?”
Answer:
Jonathan Coleman
There is more than one lout in that side of the house.
stout?
Anagrams from ‘one lout in that side of the house’.
Come to mind – tools, snide, hades, deus, nest, nose, tint, foist, nous, haste, lost, etc
and funny all have relevance to some or all of our parliamentarians.
The answer is no change since Sabin resigned.
Here is a link to making a submission to Parliamentary select committee on Inquiry into the 2014 general election
This is particularly essential for all those people – especially in the Northland electorate – who think they were unjustly turned away from voting in last year’s general election.
The closing date for submissions is Tuesday, 31 March 2015
By convention, a select committee inquiry is conducted following a general election into the legal and administrative aspects of that election. This process provides a multi-party approach to the review and any reform of the law and administration relating to Parliamentary elections.
The terms of reference for the inquiry are: “To examine the law and administrative procedures for the conduct of Parliamentary elections in light of the 2014 general election”.
The committee requires 2 copies of each submission if made in writing. Those wishing to include any information of a private or personal nature in a submission should first discuss this with the clerk of the committee, as submissions are usually released to the public by the committee. Those wishing to appear before the committee to speak to their submissions should state this clearly and provide a daytime telephone contact number. To assist with administration please supply your postcode and an email address if you have one.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/business-summary/00DBSCH_INQ_59471_1/inquiry-into-the-2014-general-election
Thinking about Northland and one of its industries – timber. Does that work well for them? Does it create lots of permanent jobs? A bit of background around the MDF (medium density fibreboard or squashed bits of timber making large panels of uniform strength and size.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-density_fibreboard
An alternative view of MDF. http://www.joshuakennon.com/why-i-avoid-mdf-and-furniture-built-with-mdf-and-think-you-should-too/
And is there a business waiting to take off building furniture out of the pine they have planted in the past which I think is still abundant, and barging it south from Opua or a suitable port nearbuy to the big markets elsewhere in NZ though presumably mainly Auckland? The barges would also carry other produce. Another local business looking to the future when road making and vehicle costs are affected badly by high oil prices.
Juken wood treatment company has had a plant in Kaitaia for years connected with the MDF board industry. And there are a number of businesses working with this material but I don’t know how many are fully in NZ and NZowned.
http://www.paneltec.co.nz/ (An Australian firm with sales office in Dargaville)
http://www.applefurniture.co.nz/ (A NZ enterprise based in Kaiwaka)
Jim Anderton in 2005 launched this book on the growth of MDF board.
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/node/24157
Another site is hotfrog that is listing businesses and promoting them which gives an extra boost to small businesses.
It listed Make Enterprises Dargaville connected with Paneltec.
BBS Timbers NZ owned timber firm providing a range of species.
Juken have a big plant in Wairarapa and this item refers to the amount of wood available there. So perhaps Northland needs to keep up its plantings to get the right mass of wood to enable the local business to be ongoing.
Some comments in a stuff article on the business.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/9411743/Juken-primed-for-growth-with-founders-added-value-strategies
While over half the timber logged in New Zealand leaves the country in this “primary” form, Juken focuses on tertiary production, which is only around 15 per cent of the country’s timber output, he said.
“There’s enough wood in Wairarapa to have another 10 mills. We have the single largest ownership, 15,000ha – but that’s only 20 per cent of what’s available in Wairarapa.”
Volatile prices and exchange rates have sent many domestic mills to the wall, such as Rotorua’s Tachikawa Forest Products which went into receivership last month with the loss of 120 jobs.
But Juken has insulated itself against the worst impacts by buying its logs for milling from its own forests, at a long-term average price.
Juken appear to have brains and foresight. Perhaps we should just throw out our politicians and contract out much of the business side of NZ to them. That however sounds suspiciously like an ACT idea so there is bound to be a worm in the apple.
The spokesperson refers to volatile prices which NZ must adjust to, but this difficulty is worsened by the exchange rates affected by the mafia protection system we are locked
into. Something that a government for NZ with guts, and explanations to the citizens of our true economic state, needs to do something about. Particularly the volatility of casino-like overseas financial entities playing with our money as if it was casino chips.
I noticed that my fingers produced nearbuy for nearby. I am wondering if there isn’t something of a Freudian slip here. Maybe nearbuy is going to be a new useful word that indicates local trading and business?
Northland produces higher-density timber that is too valuable to be chipped into MDF. Making solid furniture from it locally would create skilled jobs and better export revenues.
Well well:
“NZ First leader Winston Peters says NZ First may decide not to bring an extra MP into Parliament after his Northland byelection win because his party supports a smaller Parliament.”
Interesting. Won’t make any difference to the Government power.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424888
@ianmac I’m sure Winston will resign his list seat and bring in another NZF member.
What people are missing here is the fact that the public of Northland knew this was going to happen if they elected Peters (or if they didn’t they don’t may attention-no excuse) yet they elected Peters with a stonking great majority.
People who whinge about this outcome need to accept that a democratic process has taken place where the electorate knew the consequences of their vote, rather than focusing on the effect on the result of an election 6 months ago.
Actually, I’m pretty sure that everyone who voted for Winston on Saturday fully expected him to resign his seat and that NZF would be up a seat afterwards. For him to now not do that would be against those expectations and thus against democracy.
This is a problem with our democracy in that our ‘representatives’ can go off and do what they like once they’ve been voted in no matter what their policies or the expectation of the populace was when they were voted in.
It is actually a very complicated legal situation, as no explicit legal provisions exist for the current situation. Too tired tonight to try to explain but suggest you read Graeme Edgeler’s latest post on Public Address; together with his earlier post there and Philip Lyth’s earlier post there today. Links are included in Edgeler’s latest post.
http://publicaddress.net/legalbeagle/what-next-for-winston/
Charles Pierce says what he really thinks.
.
Let us be quite definite about this. Any Democratic politician who thinks this is a bad situation — or, worse, will not stand by a Democratic colleague in this situation — is not worth the hankie to blow Joe Lieberman’s nose.
My god, what a prodigious bluff. Also, my god, what towering arrogance? These guys own half the world and have enough money to buy the other half, and they’re threatening the party still most likely to control the White House because they don’t like the Senator Professor’s tone? Her tone? Sherrod Brown’s tone? These are guys who should be worried about the tone of the guard who’s calling them down to breakfast at Danbury and they’re concerned about the tenderness of their Savile Row’d fee-fees? Honkies, please.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a33971/the-senator-professor-has-some-interesting-enemies/
Hate fueled pricks can’t take a trick.
Sarah LeavittVerified account @sarahleavittcbc
Hard to estimate but 3-10 people identified themselves as being sympathetic to #Pegida #cbcmtl
https://twitter.com/sarahleavittcbc/status/581915649150181376
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/pegida-cancels-anti-islam-demonstration-in-little-maghreb
The unforgettable photo of the winner and the vanquished:
http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1823/821/original.jpg?w=600&h
The Herald is not even trying to hide its bias with a headline like this.
“Greenies say ‘frack off’ to drilling.”
Roughan on duty, I’d guess.
Unbelievable.
What an awful rag.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424932
Sharing economy gets shared.
http://gizmodo.com/stolen-uber-accounts-are-on-sale-for-a-dollar-on-a-dark-1694273240
So now Yemen joins Syria, most of Iraq, northern Jordan, northern Lebanon, and northern Saudi Arabia into social chaos.
The United States is aligned alongside Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and against them in Yemen. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, who have joined in the Saudi offensive in Yemen, are bombing factions in Libya backed by Turkey and Qatar, who also support the Saudi offensive in Yemen. The Syrian conflict has been fueled by competition among all regional powers to outmaneuver one another on battlefields far from home.
Neither the US nor Saudi Arabia have any consistency, and even Iran is beginning to look coherent in its positioning.
This is going to get broader and much, much worse before it gets better.
Been following this bloke.
https://twitter.com/alialahmed_en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_al-Ahmed
There was a well attended and very noisy protest outside Sky City this afternoon where the
“New Zealand’s premier annual upstream event- featuring the government’s launch of block offer 2015-the exclusive tender for exploration permits”, was taking place.
Topics include-expert speakers presenting with NZ context,
-insights into NZ regulatory system,
– best practice local community engagement.
I guess we were helping inform them about the last topic. All protesters had been invited to bring a drum and were entertained by Michael Franti before marching from Victoria Park to Sky City.
One major sponsor is Halliburton. Another is Fragomen which is a global corporate immigration law firm. This doesn’t indicate jobs for locals to me.
Meanwhile, Kiwi Rail is going to chop the NIMT electrification
OMGWTF.
KiwiRail are saying that ‘no final decision has been made’, but when someone says that, it is pretty much always a done deal.
New Zealanders paid a lot of money for that electrification, plus interest, and it is madness for it to be ripped out only about 30 year later and sold for scrap. Fuel prices may be low, but that doesnt mean that they will be low forever…
When Lab VI bought Toll Rail back in 2008, it was supposed to be a new era for rail in NZ. Unfortunately since National won the election that year, their attacks on the rail system have been more savage than ever before.
Why don’t the nats go the whole hog and go back to steam trains , we could hire the unemployed on contracts to cut all those pesky trees down in the central north island to fuel them.
Where does Key get off?
The Northland-safe-as-houses seat for National was lost for no other reason than the usual die-hard Nat voters were actually not sure what sort of National Party is running the country – its complexion appears to have changed over the last couple of months and they couldn’t be convinced enough to get out and vote. I don’t think they are actually impressed by the likes of Bennett, Bridges, Woodhouse sitting on or near the front benches. They want stability and substance, not flash Harrys.
Perhaps the issues of the TPPA, RMA were not as important to them to motivate them to get out and vote. Surely they don’t need the presence of a campaign to get them to the polling booth.
They must have known that their government’s programme was under threat if Winston Peters rested the seat from them. That surely should have been motivation enough.
So Mr Key needs a bit deeper analysis than blaming the opposition for this defeat.
I’m happy for the nats to stay in denial with “the left and winnie ganged up on us” excuses.
The longer they take to lose their hubris, the better it’ll be for everyone else in 2017 (or earlier).
If dunnokeyo lives up to the form roughan confirmed, in a very short while our glorious pm will be reconsidering whether he wants to stay in the job. And mr didn’t-fix-it fucking up again leaves an opening for the minister for oravida, petulent bean, woodhead, mcshouty, and whoever else to battle for the iron throne…
I reckon that Collins is sorry that she did not have the Orivida Kauri milled.
If Saturdays 4,000 majority to Winston is combined with a National majority of 9,000 (last general election night) there is a loss of 13,000 to National.
How many National supporters chose not to vote last Saturday?
The spy agency probably has the answer to my question.