Adam Bennett muscles in on Pete George’s territory and finds it abandoned. The larder is full. The fire is going. Adam has a good feed and puts his feet up.
Why are opposition Parties not pursuing the MSM media to get their messages and policies out there, as administrators were asking them to do?
Blogs were spending most of the time concentrating on Slatergate for two weeks every day, and some strongly suggested we now concentrate on discussing opposition parties policies so why are we still not hearing about Opposition Parties policies to discuss our views on?
Is this because the MSM are completely failing to give adequate time to opposition parties?
This while every news broadcast virtually all we hear is Key whining about other parties policies, and not much else.
We believe the MSM must begin time slot political time breaks to give all opposition parties informational opportunities to get their messages of policies directed at the electorate out so the people can hear what they are.
Take this Saturday morning 30/8/14 for example,
I turn first to RNZ, and nothing on Policics, then go to TVNZ nothing there, except for The Nation scheduled on TV3 a private channel so nothing on politics at all on our so called public broadcaster?
Is this the election we are having when we are not having an election, or Nat’s way of shutting interest down among voters?
Apologies if this has been commented on before but I was interested to hear at the formal launch of the National Party’s campaign in Manukau, an almost manic John Key, shout :
‘Breaking news, Ritchie McCaw’s texted and says ‘Yes you can”.’
In light of the Rugby News cover a while back, is this an indication that McCaw is formally backing the National Party or has TeamKey just co-opted him and the AB brand?
The lag in posts appearing is a bit annoying. I’d probably have spotted my error in my Open Mike post last night (which was caused by being distracted by my partner loudly expressing astonishment at Stuart SMITH’s ineptitude at the Hurunui electorate debate) and corrected it but the lag meant I didn’t get the chance. So I inadvertently slandered poor Stuart Nash – whose name is unfortunately fixed in my memory by virtue of Simon Lusk having described him as an ‘exceptionally gifted politician’.
His 10 points
People really do care about other people
We don’t talk enough about the really important things
There are dark shapes swirling around under the water
People who should know better seem to ignore the science with hardly a backward glance.
There is more cause for hope than ever before.
The bad guys fight dirty
We are further apart now than ever before
We’re hungry for leadership
Television can be meaningful
Things can be better
It is very suspicious that there is nothing on the state channels. The tactics that the nats are employing are straight from the Republican play book. Turn off as many voters as possible. The right can not win on policies or the popular vote. They know that and through the stacking of the public service their tactics are proving to be very effective. John really shows his American side with so many of his ideas straight out of the Republican party.i was shocked to see the blantent use of this after returning from living in the states for many years. Not only are they lacking in any original ideas they are taking the worst of the American concepts. Hurry up and return to your Republican buddies john.
Not only are they lacking in any original ideas they are taking the worst of the American concepts.
The US has done a hell of a lot of research over the years on why people react the way that they do to external stimuli. Those lessons are then used by the US Republican’s to produce manipulative advertising and word grouping, the effects noted and refined. That knowledge is then exported to other conservative parties around the world. There is, effectively, only one conservative party in the world and it’s dominated by the US.
Not surprisingly I’m not convinced. What “we” are asked to believe is that “The Republicans” or whoever the bad guys are, have the inside scoop on human motivations, a direct line to the sub-conscious; that is, there is really only one type of us and we are easily controlled. Now I’m not saying there aren’t people who are easily led or who fit the stereotype, but why then do people like you, me and the rest of the resistors exist untouched, despite our diverse backgrounds and conditioning? Do you suggest we all just give up? Why aren’t I immediately a possum in Key’s headlights? Why did I not see a couple of guys paddling a National boat and think, wow, that is soooo me yet strangely I don’t know why? Why aren’t I out right now buying the latest widget I was told to buy via email this morning? No makey the sense. As someone famous once said, it only takes one exception to disprove a scientific proof.
Just yesterday I learned that extensive effort and money has been put into the music recording studio to make sure whatever we hear on the radio or buy on CD or DVD is at 440kHz. This is a recent thing apparently. Before that it was 432kHz. There was research that 440kHz “overpowered” the ear drum with “sound waves” rather than harmonised with the natural rhythms of ancient music styles. There was/is a movement to return to 432Khz.
Now excuse me if I’ve been brain-washed by the music industry, but I know what Public Enemy were talking about (at least in so far as to the reasons why I’m not invited to their block party) same with Disposible Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Arrested Development, NWA, Mos Def etc etc etc. Then start on Fugazi, Dead Kennedys, Henry Rollins, Tori Amos, Juliana Hatfield cough Midnight Oil *cough, Pulp, Oasis, Blur, Gorillaz, Beastie Boys, Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine, Dinosaur Jnr, Guided By Voices… blah blah blah all these Bands have heavy political commentary/motivations involved. I was way off the “easily controlled” range even before I knew it existed, despite 440kHz, and this is the tame stuff. This music was no more or less powerful than listening to, say, a cruddy old recording of CCR or Country Joe and the Fish. What you’re asking me to believe is that I am powerless in the face of those tricky scientists. Why? How?
Of course there is another angle too, that the reality those bands present is a confined space in itself. I got that too. the message I got didn’t include that they were all there was, and my life was not theirs – quite obviously – even though, if I could take you back, everyone and everything else thought they owned me or could tell me what was up.
So no. To be convinced, I need to see proof that I or anyone else is powerless in the face of what “The Republicans” or John’s friends know about me, that I don’t. Prove to me I want to be John Key. Prove to me I want to uncritically pursue the aims of white culture over my own conscience. Good luck.
To clarify what 440kHz did to a person: it made them anxious, move fast rather than slow, find things outside themselves to fix inner problems, lends them to addictions etc. Since I’m the only case in my study, I’ve lived fast, “successful”, anxious, slow and quiet, so slow people would say “any slower you’d be in a coma” so slow I’m been called the proverbial “scum” et al. I’ve gone the full range and if anything I’m less easily controlled by others.
440khz: I’m immune, you might be too.
The Republican research: I’m immune, you might be too.
If we are, why, who or where are these people who aren’t? And why don’t the Left use the same Republican research?
What “we” are asked to believe is that “The Republicans” or whoever the bad guys are, have the inside scoop on human motivations, a direct line to the sub-conscious; that is, there is really only one type of us and we are easily controlled.
The information is readily available and is even used to get people to continue to play video games (Especially MMOs). Like all information it just is but people put it to different uses and some of those uses are are simply immoral.
Democrats are not exactly a party of the poor either, in fact the antipathy to the elites in the US tends to come from the right rather than the left in the US. We need to go past this left/right dichotomy if we are to win this war that has been declared on us.
Agreed, both major parties in the US rule for the rich and not the people. The same is, slowly, happening here as well and we need to stop and reverse it before it goes any further.
Are you tuned out, turned off by the election, then you need to vote. Vote our incumbents is the best way of destabilizing those who think turning you off is good for them, and also lazy politicians who dont worry about your vote. Vote them out, get their attention.
Just read Nigel Latta’s “Ten things I learned,” while making the series. Succinct and heartening. Well worth a read. For example he sums up the political issue:
We are further apart now than ever before
Elections are won and lost in the middle, so politicians play to the middle. The left can count on the left, and the right will always have the right, but the middle is where governments stand or fall. So they play to the middle. The problem is that the middle has lost touch with the bottom. There are a lot of people out there who think poor people are lazy, people in prison are all bad buggers, and anyone who wants to make something of themselves can. I hope this series has helped people to see that these things aren’t necessarily true. It’s important for all of us to look after all of us. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11316443
It’s hard to believe that people would fall for these old cliches about the poor. They have been said since we first came out of the trees. If people are still repeating them, it is a hell of a failure in education about our culture by parents, and formal education on civics which would examine the use of cliches and slogans in preventing honest thought and enquiry by the individual.
Yes Keith,
I spent 20yrs plus in Can/US and saw this also, since Watergate.
Most media both TV and Radio Channels used to be regional when I first went there in 1968 but by 1978 a lot of media was becoming corporate interests.
Then we began to witness the similarity of news coverage between them all except for Public service Television.
We lost our regional voice, and any traces of any Central Government persuasion was lost entirely as we see here.
Welcome to privatisation Corporatisation of N.Z.
All opposition should now unite and force an immediate royal commission into the corruption of our media by Government.
This morning Kim Hill show pointed out that more of our economy was finance industry that the UK’s!!!! Imagine now why the MSM is flooded with money and where it comes from. Hell, why manufacture when you can buy and sell assets thanks to the artificial risk premium of doing business in NZ. Strangely being more invested in the financial industry naturally makes a nation more risky! not less.
Another interesting point. Was how globalization is making nations more equal, but individually within nations citizens were becoming more unequal. This should not be surprising really, because in order to trade globally, and so create the means by which information and money is able to equalize the worlds economy, its often done by undermining and accentuating local inequality. Take housing, globalizing the source of capital decreases the buying power of the local citizens and accentuates the natural inequality that always exists. Government who serve their populations know that they must counter the huge power of the global market to cause huge inequality. Take China, Russia, US, Oil states, seem incapable of keeping a few grow infinity rich, whereas smaller states with rich democracies have no trouble passing citizen protecting legislative backstops.
And this reflects the political psychology of their establishments. Its about where we place the membrane separating money talk from our personal, community and family life. Whtye wants us to think, even when we’re on the dunny how much the price of a toilet roll is. He wants money, the route of all evil, invested in every aspect of our life. You could say he’s a money whore, no scruples, government must get entirely out of the way, even incest could abstractly be monetized.
Key, a keen merchant of money, you could say world class whore of world brokering, keenly knows he needs to separate himself from the emotions of a unclean life of money, for purely to keep plying the trade of money, for sure. As we all now are awaking to where its taken us, global enslavement where our owners will live on the other side of the world.
When we let them buy the MSM, when we let the likes of the right wing agitator that brings us our late night news, pushing his latest conquest of a large extremely expensive car, like our cars now are parts of our money life. To most, cars are tools for getting around, for a few they are extensions of their personality, and for even fewer they are the venal vibrators of their money whore lifestyles, extenders for their pathetic needy little persona’s in a world where the more money they have the more they are living, the more respected, the more powerful they must be.
Surely they such men cant be that sad, but yes, its true, they can’t take the money with them when they go, their super rich heros are giving it away, the likes of Gates and Buffet, because they aren’t the money, they are real people, not buffoons who merely trade in their money whoring.
Now please don’t get me wrong, its not that we all do money whore form time to time, its just its kept at the garden gate and not let in. And therein lies the problem with NZ, the whores are let into our homes every night, the MSM are filled out with money whores who every desperate moment is necessary used to pushing themselves to whore. TV used to be balanced, a few money whores at the margins of the TV schedule, necessary relief to give a fair fiscal overview of the current financial goings on. Now even ad have invaded our most loved tv series and news pushes brands of singers, etc.
Even the pissed up puffed up ranks and file must sell themselves off by keeping within Slaters framing and narrative, less they are seen as unattractive and are dropped from the brothel.
We are all dirtier after thirty years of revolutionary conservatism.
Michele Hewitson interview with Nicky Hager. Another great read. Puts Nicky into context the strange things that the Right say about him. The only jarring note was that she would include a negative quote from Matthew Hooten. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11316298
Having just finished reading Merchants of Doubt by Oreskes and Conway, it is clear that the pamphlet/emailers are relying on uninformed people in order to make their point.
The example of DDT is covered in that book and the line the emailers push was very much part of the move to create doubt in peoples’ minds re the validity of the results of sound scientific processes. In short, DDT had lost effectiveness due to having been used so widely – the line pushed that many lives were lost from banning it is false.
Those are funny, or should be, if they didn’t accurately reflect certain mind-sets. “Labour means 30% Greens.” I like to try to keep my party cheerleading at arm’s distance, and I suggest no one puts their trust in the Greens for the sake of it, but I was kind of hoping that “Labour” would this time mean roughly 85% Greens.
IMHO it is an excellent analysis of how we have got to where we are at present in respect of the situation outlined in “Dirty Politics’ and current media/public broadcasting etc. It cuts across many of the recent posts and comments on TS, including those at 1 and 2 above.
Has push polling started yet? If you get called as to political preferences, sound a little ambivalent… not sure.. etc. You may get a followup call with “Are you sure? ” “Really? I’m surprised!” when you mention parties not to their liking.
The Brethren tried it an election or two ago. I am sure it will surface again.
Whyte, astounds everyone, by arguing that citizens aren’t
being offered enough money to get them out of bed. We
could assume its because bankers are overpaid, or that
the economy is mismanaged to produce under and unemployment,
but its most likely that stupid people want to impose the
authoritarian vision of men like Whyte that government isn’t
interventionists enough, imposing even more on citizens is great
for profits of fatcats, with the rally cry, why aren’t they slaves yet!
Why haven’t we turned the dregs into slaves! They obviously listless
and lazy. They deserve enslavement, only then will they standup
for themselves Whtye believes.
There is a buzz on twitter just now, the PM has called a press release at 12.30 and the journos are speculating Collins might be resigning/being thrown out.
Sad for Judith to go. She has been excellent for the Left! Poor old John has a prickly thorn in his side. (And Pullar is taking a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner.)
Yes, since the fuss and excitement has died down, I feel like saying ‘Give ’em an Oscar’.
I think we have been utterly played. This is a big strawman game that aims to remove the apparent problem and allows the real one (severe corruption inside National circles) to carry on unobstucted.
In other words I believe Winston was on the money with what he said.
Am very very unhappy about the state of our democracy. 🙁
Those who have money and power in this country have just played a seriously cynical game today.
Give ’em an Oscar and then throw them in jail and throw away the key is what I conclude from today’s events.
Thanks Karol, Chris Trotter blog, he is onto it good on Chris I always thought he would shine.
Why are the right continuing with dirty politics?
Could it be the real poll results are stark that they continue this smear campaign process, and will the public blame shift to right being evil smear kings not the left ?
Will we ever know the true poll results as several are saying after being canvassed by these private pollsters that the questions asked are loaded or they are a series of questions like us and then told they don’t need us ?
Is the polling designed to be used to show effects of their changing election tactics?
If tis is the case then this is manipulation using the population or corruption of our democracy.
Please opposition, OUR REQUEST; coercion.
CALL FOR A OPPOSITION FORUM TO REQUEST AN URGENT REVIEW OF CORRUPT- COERCION OF OUR ELECTION POLLING PROCESS.
True that, but I think there will be plenty of internal friction.
There is every chance of those 17 forced out MPs and the different possible camps within the caucus, English camp, Joyce camp, Collins camp, Key’s camp, Slater-Lusk camp, Bennet’s camp coming out, exposing and doing political mud wrestling in private and in public. And then there are all the party electorate officials up in arms about all the ‘Dirty Politics’ stuff that affected them all. Besides, I think many voters have serious doubts now about the ‘innocence’ and ‘clean good guy’ image of Key. The reality is that National=Key! Without Key, Nats are not much! I think National have lost this election. Their last chance is Winston!
New Zealand First Tauranga candidate Clayton Mitchell said his party was now in a strong position: “We are now in a position to negotiate with National and get what we are after and that is what is best for New Zealand.”
And that means that voting NZ1st and the Conservatives is a vote for this corrupt government.
Radionz interviews and news this morning joined up some seemingly unconnected matters.
* A Waikato dairy farmer has been fined nearly $50,000 for discharging effluent into drains that led to a river, and then asking inspectors how much it would cost to make his prosecution problem disappear.
Mr Singh asked the inspectors not to report it to their supervisors and to take water samples in a manner that would not show any environmental effect. http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=192798&fm=psp,tsf
(Reports of embedded corruption in India would indicate that it is likely that people from that culture operating in business here would adopt similar behaviours. This tendency to follow learned behaviours applies of course to any new New Zealander and has to be considered, understood and watched for.)
* On Radionz there was a figure given that 2 billion people in the world do not have toilets. And there is an item below in which a soil scientist talks about the value of urine and faeces properly treated as fertiliser.
* This is a link for a very interesting clip about a long trip on a motorcycle which gave much insight into the countries visited. http://www.c90adventures.co.uk/news/76-india
The traveller found India to be one of the dirtiest. He shows in his videos women defecating in the fields. (I have learned that the Untouchable people in some areas are not allowed to use public toilets, and there is a time set aside for them to use the fields, possibly once a day early in the morning. So extending less respect for their needs and humanity than given to cows is acceptable in India. People with such warped attitudes if setting up businesses here have to be watched carefully.)
On destruction and deterioration of our precious environment, and infinitely precious drinking water. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional
Risks to water quality limits – report
Residents are being asked to pick from three council proposals relating to the Waikato River.
Modelling for the Environment Ministry shows some major water catchments will fail new water quality standards if planned dairy conversions go ahead.
Auckland water quality costly problem
A warning sign near Meola Creek in Auckland.
Half of Auckland’s fresh waterways are too polluted to use and future generations will face a multi-billion dollar bill to clean up, according to environmental managers.
These sound interesting for people interested in the money system and soil and food systems. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
8:15 John Lanchester
Lanchester JohnBritish journalist and author John Lanchester is the author of award-winning novels, including The Debt to Pleasure, Mr Phillips, Fragrant Harbour, and Capital (which he spoke about on Saturday Morning in July 2012). He wrote about the financial crisis in the 2010 book, Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay, and his new book is How to $p€ak Mone¥: What the Money People Say – and What They Really Mean (Faber & Faber, ISBN: 978-0-571-30982-5).
9:05 Stephen Nortcliff
Stephen NortcliffStephen Nortcliff is Emeritus Professor of Soil Science at Reading University, UK, was Secretary General of the International Union of Soil Sciences from 2002 to 2010, and was instrumental in making 2015 the UN International Year of Soils. Since retirement, Professor Nortcliff has been working with the charity Wherever the Need, which aims to provide sanitation for households and schools in parts of India and Africa using compost toilets. He is one of the guest speakers at Future Food for the Planet (AUT, 30 August at 12:00), an event at World Science Week New Zealand, in Auckland (25 August to 3 September).
So Winston has proved his proof after all. Sadly, it would clear the way for him to work in coalition with National because they will appear to be all cleaned up now ?
And anyone know anything more about this that is supposedly causing her resignation .. in Herald now …
“Collins’ resignation comes after evidence emerged in the past 24 hours of her role in moves to discredit SFO boss Adam Feeley.”
Whyte is just echoing the classical economical theorists of the late 19th century who thought that workers were inherently lazy and need to be threatened and yelled at to get them to do anything.They also thought that managers had inherent organizing and intellectual qualities that workers could never hope to understand. Workers were only good for physical labor and were incapable of self organizing or self managing. Like the Act party these theories have fallen in to disrepute and no educated person would embrace their outdated ideas. Thank god they won’t have any influence in the next govt.
I think everyone’s at the vege market yeshe – wait for the flood! Did you note btw how Patrick Gower is now beginning to see his futire flash before his eyes and is now being rather more sympathetic towards the non-dogma view?
More liars….
No. 41 Richard Prebble: “What I do know is that John will consider everything. He’s an honorable man….”
No. 40 Colin Craig: “I’m interested in raising the level of debate.”
No. 39 George W. Bush: “We will be standing with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq until their hopes for freedom and liberty are fulfilled.”
No. 38 Jeremy Hansen: “I read a great column by Paul Thomas in the Herald….”
No. 37 Alan Seay: “You know, we respect the rights of people to protest….”
No. 36 Paul Dykzeul: “No we won’t be changing the Listener; it’s got a terrific editor….”
No. 35 Mark Jennings: “I think Paul’s a bright guy and he will be able to bring a discipline to his performance….”
No. 34 Willie Jackson: “I thought we’d been sensitive with her yesterday….”
No. 33 Supt. Bill Searle: “I think what’s happened here is the police officers have done their very best….”
No. 32 Sonny-Bill Williams: “It’s good to get the win over Papua-New Guinea, a strong Papua-New Guinea side, aahhhh….”
No. 31 John Palino: “Suggestions that I am somehow orchestrating some grand right-wing conspiracy to unseat Len after the election are so wrong…”
No. 30 Alan Dershowitz: “I will give $10,000 to the PLO if you can find a historical fact in my book that you can prove to be false.”
No. 29 John Banks: “I have nothing to hide and nothing to fear. And never, ever would I ever knowingly sign a false electoral return. Never ever would I ever.”
No. 28 John Kerry: “…we are especially sensitive, Chuck and I, to never again asking any member of Congress to take a vote on faulty intelligence.”
No. 27 Lyse Doucet: “I am there for those without a voice.”
No. 26 Sam Wallace: “So here we are—Otahuhu. It’s just a great place to be, really.”
No. 25 Margaret Thatcher: “…no British government involvement of any kind…with Khmer Rouge…”
No. 24 John Key: “…at the end of the day I, like most New Zealanders, value the role of the fourth estate…”
No. 23 Jay Carney: “…expel Mr Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice…”
No. 22 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton had integrity beyond reproach.”
No. 21 Tim Groser: “I think the relationship is genuinely in outstanding form.”
No. 20 John Key: “But if the question is do we use the United States or one of our other partners to circumvent New Zealand law then the answer is categorically no.”
No. 19 Matthew Hooton: “It is ridiculous to say that unions deliver higher wages! They DON’T!”
No. 18 Ant Strachan: “The All Blacks won the RWC 2011 because of outstanding defence!”
No. 17 Stephen Franks: “Peter has been such a level-headed, safe pair of hands.”
No. 16 Phil Kafcaloudes: “Tony Abbott…hasn’t made any mistakes over the past eighteen months.”
No. 15 Donald Rumsfeld: “I did not lie… Colin Powell did not lie.”
No. 14 Colin Powell: “a post-9/11 nexus between Iraq and terrorist organizations…connections are now emerging…”
No. 13 Barack Obama: “Simply put, these strikes have saved lives.”
No. 12 U.K. Ministry of Defence: “Protecting the Afghan civilian population is one of ISAF and the UK’s top priorities.”
No. 11 Brendan O’Connor: “Australia’s approach to refugees is compassionate and generous.”
No. 10 Boris Johnson: “Londoners have the best police in the world to look after us and keep us safe.”
No. 9 NewstalkZB PR dept: “News you NEED! Fast, fair, accurate!”
No. 8 Simon Bridges: “I don’t mean to duck the question….”
No. 7 Nigel Morrison: “Quite frankly, they’ve been VERY tough.”
No. 6 Herald PR dept: “Congratulations—you’re reading New Zealand’s best newspaper.”
No. 5 Rawdon Christie: “…a FORMIDABLE replacement, it seems, is Claudette Hauiti.”
No. 4 Willie Jackson: “The X-Factor. Nah, nah, there’s some GREAT talent there!”
No. 3 John Key: “Yeah we hold MPs to a higher standard.”
No. 2 Colin Craig: “Oh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.”
No. 1 Barack Obama: “Margaret Thatcher was one of the great champions of freedom and liberty.”
Quote from Duncan Garner’s piece on leadership looking at Poorer Benefit. (See OABs comment for link – http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30082014/#comment-875999)
Can Labour refute what he says about their limp response to our welfare needs?
You can now have your benefit stopped, or docked, for not meeting expectations. There have been no mass welfare protests in the streets. Bennett has ushered through some big changes without controversy. She has worked closely with young mums on welfare.
Her office tells me that in 2009 there were 4300 teen mums on a benefit. At the end of last year that number had dropped to 2300. She has issued them with payment cards for the essentials.
Even Labour has struggled to criticise the changes. Labour says the numbers to look at are those children now living in poverty. In the latest Household Incomes Report, 135,000 children are now regarded as living in “severe poverty”. It has reached its highest level this century, according to Labour. So if that’s the case and Bennett is the Social Development Minister then why isn’t she copping it? She must have done something right.
Bennett may just be the National leader in waiting.
“Labour will fund the provision of emergency housing through a contestable fund so agencies like Monte Cecilia and the Salvation Army can manage the houses and provide support to help people get their lives back on track and then move into more sustainable long term housing.
Why are our politicians so determined to make things far more expensive than they need to be? All a contestable fund will do is increase bureaucracy and decrease the money going to the provision of emergency housing. Just set up a government department for the provision of the services.
“Perhaps Jared Savage might like to explain what precisely he as a journalist was doing feeding information to Cameron Slater that Savage couldn’t publish himself. If the NZ Herald can’t use certain information in a story, it’s presumably because they’re worried about the legal consequences. So why would a reputable journalist then pass that information on to a blogger to use?
Let’s look at the Len Brown sex scandal story. It wasn’t something any mainstream media outlet was going to touch. Until it was all over the Whaleoil site, which meant that it was now news. Was/Is there a similar modus operandi here from those working at the Herald? We can’t run the story, but if we give it to Slater we can report on what he’s “reported”?
Or was it simply a Herald smear campaign against the then-SFO director? “We can’t report it, but we want to take him down.” Because if that’s the case, that’s not journalism; that’s a vendetta. Worse, it’s a vendetta performed in secret by the very people we are supposed to trust as impartial reporters of fact.”
The Herald looks like it’s been up to its neck in mud over the Dirty Politics saga.
Remember Glucina’s involvement as well in spreading gossip and smears.
The Herald looks like it’s been up to its neck in mud over the Dirty Politics saga.
Remember Glucina’s involvement as well in spreading gossip and smears.
FACT or FICTION?
Fact or fiction
In the second week of a new fact-checking column, Brent Edwards checks claims made by Judith Collins, John Key, David Cunliffe, Rangi McLean and Winston Peters.
It is an effort to hold politicians to account and ensure public statements they make during the election campaign are factual – not fiction or exaggeration.
It is unlikely that we will be able to check every claim but we will try.
If you hear claims made by politicians that make you suspicious, email us at parl@radionz.co.nz. Better still, include any documented evidence that you have proving a statement made by a politician is either wrong or exaggerated.
Include “fact or fiction” in the subject field so we know to check.
As well as uncovering fiction and exaggeration, we will also confirm when politicians have got it right.
Thanks for sharing, interesting to glimpse what the expanded GCHQ budgets have been going towards. I downloaded it as I’m not sure how long that link will be active once the slipup is noticed. It looks like a powerpoint slideshow to me, it’d be interesting to know what script/ talk is intended to go with it. Also what does; “SECRET// SI// REL TO USA, FEVY” (on every page) actually mean; particularly to a member of the public who is not subject to military regulations?
THE ART of DECEPTION. Training for a new generation of online covert operations
Pages 10-12, 24, & 42 are particularly fascinating
“The SSO Optimization team’s job is to identify these types of data, and ensure appropriate corrective action is taken, throttling the data from corporate content or metadata repositories, as appropriate.”
My reply on this is in spam censorship at the moment. Basically it’s about theft of information by the NSA etc, specifically specialising in stealing contacts from our address books. This of course is to stop us from associating with the wrong sort of people.
We’re back in Rome, a Rome where if you pipe up with criticism of the Emperor then you get to choose your form of suicide. The main problem I have with that is that this was more imaginary than real originally. Our elites are basing our future condition on an idealised state as imagined by Tyrants and their minions but one that I would suggest never existed in the first place.
There was a side discussion in one of the now many Collins-bites-it posts about Cameron Slater’s social status and his part in the downfall of a government. Can’t find it now, but will post here because it should concern the Left – or usually does.
The comment went along the lines of oh the irony, unemployed mentally ill man has extremely high intelligence and brings down a government that usually hates his “kind”.
If I have that grossly wrong, taken from memory, I don’t mean to purposely misrepresent to prove something that isn’t there.
The gist reveals how mental illness is viewed in the heat of the moment by average people. I rate you all as average – myself included – you know, the person you often walk past on the street. It’s the heat of the moment that can reveal accuracies that wold otherwise be smothered with what is considered right or politically correct.
It is kind of ironic, Cameron Slater having done what he’s done, both purposely and inadvertently. On the one hand he is living testament, a far more real face of recovered illness than the stories used on those TV ads. Not everyone who is or was ill is permanently crazy, suddenly much smarter or changed in positive ways, or even at all. Some might discover bright truths about the world or themselves through mental illness. Others just go back to being whatever they were, still more find life changed dramatically and seemingly irreconcilably. What’s missing out of those ads is that fact. Those ads have no range.
Those on the Right, if we can utilise a convenient but not entirely untrue stereotype for a while, would be screaming, “See I told you, that’s why you should expel the mentally ill from society! They’re untrustable loons! They’ll bring us all down!”. My view is, leaving aside the amazing damage done and general subversion of democratic principles, his “achievements” are remarkable. If Slater can do all that strategic thinking, after battling depression and/or god knows what else for so long, he really has an impressive mind. A mind with limits, maybe a dark and seriously dangerous mind, but brilliant none the less. I don’t know if he was that smart before his illness, but if it made him smarter, why do we side line those who can contribute while they experience illness and those who have or are recovering. Even the Right would have to agree he’s disproved all their slogans about earning a place in society; being formally educated, that the rich are the only ones who know how to rule; that the unemployed are lazy bludgers (the work, the effort!) … the slogans the man has disproved are endless.
The JK ads on mental illness would have you believe that those who have seen the worst are of a singular type, their conditions leading to a similar end state: docile, retiring, friendly, shell-shocked, something that’s needs a break and a helping hand. Don’t get me wrong, many do, just don’t think it’s the rule. People are people, regardless.
Bravo, Whalemind, you evil genius. Helping us break down stigmas and exposing the lies of our well-meaning beliefs even as you destroy our democracy.
I don’t believe any of that for a minute. If there is anyone with any real intelligence in that operation, it’s not Slater. You need to remember that he doesn’t even write most of the stuff. He just puts his name to it. And as far as the right would be concerned, Blubber Boy gained his place in their society by birth into a prominent NAct family.
When the right start spreading outrageously funny “chinese” whispers among the legal fraternity about David Cunliffe’s private life, you know how VERY VERY SCARED of him they are!!! A friend of mine told me very very earnestly that she has an “impeccable source” who told her that rumours are swirling around the legal fraternity about David Cunliffe. I nearly burst out laughing – I’d believe that John Key was a rodent-swallowing alien before I would believe this latest serving of tripe – It’s got a very fishy smell, as everything whale usually does! THE RIGHT ARE GETTING REALLY DESPERATE AND SCARED!!! This makes me smile like a Cheshire Cat who swallowed the whole cow full of cream!!
Look, you want nasty stuff from the legal fraternity? Finlayson. I’ve been passed lots of dirty info on him from lawyers in the past six years. Judicial appointments. Staff issues. Personal guff. Whoever wants to play dirty needs to know that if I know this stuff, someone less discerning about privacy knows this stuff. And it’s a free for all out there. National need to clean up and you don’t do that by flinging more shit.
Why is everybody posting here worrying about trivia?
There is only one significant item of news today.
Hawkes Bay has won the Ranfurly Shield!
Hawkes Bay has won the Ranfurly Shield!
Hawkes Bay has won the Ranfurly Shield!
Hawkes Bay has won the Ranfurly Shield!
Just a thought’ If Cameron manages to get a prosecution against people who illegally received and subsequently acted on his hacked e mails, doesn’t that now include John Key? -sacking Judith Collins on the basis of a ‘stolen’ e mail would have to be an offense, wouldn’t it?
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
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Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
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Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Judith Collins, the gift that keeps on giving.
Garner joins the chorous of Bennett acolytes.
Adam Bennett muscles in on Pete George’s territory and finds it abandoned. The larder is full. The fire is going. Adam has a good feed and puts his feet up.
🙂
All today’s Judith Collins news in one handy place! This new in, Collins leaks ACC whistleblower’s name to Cam Slater: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10440930/Complaint-turns-up-heat-on-Collins
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/252810/fact-or-fiction
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11316453
Why are opposition Parties not pursuing the MSM media to get their messages and policies out there, as administrators were asking them to do?
Blogs were spending most of the time concentrating on Slatergate for two weeks every day, and some strongly suggested we now concentrate on discussing opposition parties policies so why are we still not hearing about Opposition Parties policies to discuss our views on?
Is this because the MSM are completely failing to give adequate time to opposition parties?
This while every news broadcast virtually all we hear is Key whining about other parties policies, and not much else.
We believe the MSM must begin time slot political time breaks to give all opposition parties informational opportunities to get their messages of policies directed at the electorate out so the people can hear what they are.
Take this Saturday morning 30/8/14 for example,
I turn first to RNZ, and nothing on Policics, then go to TVNZ nothing there, except for The Nation scheduled on TV3 a private channel so nothing on politics at all on our so called public broadcaster?
Is this the election we are having when we are not having an election, or Nat’s way of shutting interest down among voters?
NZ Also very light on politics.
The MSM want NZers to be asleep.
Apologies if this has been commented on before but I was interested to hear at the formal launch of the National Party’s campaign in Manukau, an almost manic John Key, shout :
‘Breaking news, Ritchie McCaw’s texted and says ‘Yes you can”.’
In light of the Rugby News cover a while back, is this an indication that McCaw is formally backing the National Party or has TeamKey just co-opted him and the AB brand?
The lag in posts appearing is a bit annoying. I’d probably have spotted my error in my Open Mike post last night (which was caused by being distracted by my partner loudly expressing astonishment at Stuart SMITH’s ineptitude at the Hurunui electorate debate) and corrected it but the lag meant I didn’t get the chance. So I inadvertently slandered poor Stuart Nash – whose name is unfortunately fixed in my memory by virtue of Simon Lusk having described him as an ‘exceptionally gifted politician’.
fixed yet..?
Brilliant article by Nigel Latta
His 10 points
People really do care about other people
We don’t talk enough about the really important things
There are dark shapes swirling around under the water
People who should know better seem to ignore the science with hardly a backward glance.
There is more cause for hope than ever before.
The bad guys fight dirty
We are further apart now than ever before
We’re hungry for leadership
Television can be meaningful
Things can be better
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11316443
If you haven’t watched his TV series , please do and encourage everyone you know to watch it!
All NZers should watch it.
It’s on TVNZ on demand.
Topics covered
1. Inequality
2. Alcohol
3. Child abuse
4. Prison
5. Sugar …not yet screened
It is very suspicious that there is nothing on the state channels. The tactics that the nats are employing are straight from the Republican play book. Turn off as many voters as possible. The right can not win on policies or the popular vote. They know that and through the stacking of the public service their tactics are proving to be very effective. John really shows his American side with so many of his ideas straight out of the Republican party.i was shocked to see the blantent use of this after returning from living in the states for many years. Not only are they lacking in any original ideas they are taking the worst of the American concepts. Hurry up and return to your Republican buddies john.
The US has done a hell of a lot of research over the years on why people react the way that they do to external stimuli. Those lessons are then used by the US Republican’s to produce manipulative advertising and word grouping, the effects noted and refined. That knowledge is then exported to other conservative parties around the world. There is, effectively, only one conservative party in the world and it’s dominated by the US.
So succinctly put Draco. “There is only one conservative party in the world and it’s dominated by the US” that’s one helluva quotable.
Not surprisingly I’m not convinced. What “we” are asked to believe is that “The Republicans” or whoever the bad guys are, have the inside scoop on human motivations, a direct line to the sub-conscious; that is, there is really only one type of us and we are easily controlled. Now I’m not saying there aren’t people who are easily led or who fit the stereotype, but why then do people like you, me and the rest of the resistors exist untouched, despite our diverse backgrounds and conditioning? Do you suggest we all just give up? Why aren’t I immediately a possum in Key’s headlights? Why did I not see a couple of guys paddling a National boat and think, wow, that is soooo me yet strangely I don’t know why? Why aren’t I out right now buying the latest widget I was told to buy via email this morning? No makey the sense. As someone famous once said, it only takes one exception to disprove a scientific proof.
Just yesterday I learned that extensive effort and money has been put into the music recording studio to make sure whatever we hear on the radio or buy on CD or DVD is at 440kHz. This is a recent thing apparently. Before that it was 432kHz. There was research that 440kHz “overpowered” the ear drum with “sound waves” rather than harmonised with the natural rhythms of ancient music styles. There was/is a movement to return to 432Khz.
Now excuse me if I’ve been brain-washed by the music industry, but I know what Public Enemy were talking about (at least in so far as to the reasons why I’m not invited to their block party) same with Disposible Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Arrested Development, NWA, Mos Def etc etc etc. Then start on Fugazi, Dead Kennedys, Henry Rollins, Tori Amos, Juliana Hatfield cough Midnight Oil *cough, Pulp, Oasis, Blur, Gorillaz, Beastie Boys, Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine, Dinosaur Jnr, Guided By Voices… blah blah blah all these Bands have heavy political commentary/motivations involved. I was way off the “easily controlled” range even before I knew it existed, despite 440kHz, and this is the tame stuff. This music was no more or less powerful than listening to, say, a cruddy old recording of CCR or Country Joe and the Fish. What you’re asking me to believe is that I am powerless in the face of those tricky scientists. Why? How?
Of course there is another angle too, that the reality those bands present is a confined space in itself. I got that too. the message I got didn’t include that they were all there was, and my life was not theirs – quite obviously – even though, if I could take you back, everyone and everything else thought they owned me or could tell me what was up.
So no. To be convinced, I need to see proof that I or anyone else is powerless in the face of what “The Republicans” or John’s friends know about me, that I don’t. Prove to me I want to be John Key. Prove to me I want to uncritically pursue the aims of white culture over my own conscience. Good luck.
To clarify what 440kHz did to a person: it made them anxious, move fast rather than slow, find things outside themselves to fix inner problems, lends them to addictions etc. Since I’m the only case in my study, I’ve lived fast, “successful”, anxious, slow and quiet, so slow people would say “any slower you’d be in a coma” so slow I’m been called the proverbial “scum” et al. I’ve gone the full range and if anything I’m less easily controlled by others.
440khz: I’m immune, you might be too.
The Republican research: I’m immune, you might be too.
If we are, why, who or where are these people who aren’t? And why don’t the Left use the same Republican research?
Watch this documentary.
The information is readily available and is even used to get people to continue to play video games (Especially MMOs). Like all information it just is but people put it to different uses and some of those uses are are simply immoral.
Democrats are not exactly a party of the poor either, in fact the antipathy to the elites in the US tends to come from the right rather than the left in the US. We need to go past this left/right dichotomy if we are to win this war that has been declared on us.
Agreed, both major parties in the US rule for the rich and not the people. The same is, slowly, happening here as well and we need to stop and reverse it before it goes any further.
Are you tuned out, turned off by the election, then you need to vote. Vote our incumbents is the best way of destabilizing those who think turning you off is good for them, and also lazy politicians who dont worry about your vote. Vote them out, get their attention.
Just thought I would follow up on an early comment on Open Mike about Dirty Politics.
If anyone living in Wellington can’t afford a copy and is keen to read the book, please post a comment. I am happy to loan my copy out!
Just read Nigel Latta’s “Ten things I learned,” while making the series. Succinct and heartening. Well worth a read. For example he sums up the political issue:
Elections are won and lost in the middle, so politicians play to the middle. The left can count on the left, and the right will always have the right, but the middle is where governments stand or fall. So they play to the middle. The problem is that the middle has lost touch with the bottom. There are a lot of people out there who think poor people are lazy, people in prison are all bad buggers, and anyone who wants to make something of themselves can. I hope this series has helped people to see that these things aren’t necessarily true. It’s important for all of us to look after all of us.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11316443
It’s hard to believe that people would fall for these old cliches about the poor. They have been said since we first came out of the trees. If people are still repeating them, it is a hell of a failure in education about our culture by parents, and formal education on civics which would examine the use of cliches and slogans in preventing honest thought and enquiry by the individual.
Yes Keith,
I spent 20yrs plus in Can/US and saw this also, since Watergate.
Most media both TV and Radio Channels used to be regional when I first went there in 1968 but by 1978 a lot of media was becoming corporate interests.
Then we began to witness the similarity of news coverage between them all except for Public service Television.
We lost our regional voice, and any traces of any Central Government persuasion was lost entirely as we see here.
Welcome to privatisation Corporatisation of N.Z.
All opposition should now unite and force an immediate royal commission into the corruption of our media by Government.
This morning Kim Hill show pointed out that more of our economy was finance industry that the UK’s!!!! Imagine now why the MSM is flooded with money and where it comes from. Hell, why manufacture when you can buy and sell assets thanks to the artificial risk premium of doing business in NZ. Strangely being more invested in the financial industry naturally makes a nation more risky! not less.
Another interesting point. Was how globalization is making nations more equal, but individually within nations citizens were becoming more unequal. This should not be surprising really, because in order to trade globally, and so create the means by which information and money is able to equalize the worlds economy, its often done by undermining and accentuating local inequality. Take housing, globalizing the source of capital decreases the buying power of the local citizens and accentuates the natural inequality that always exists. Government who serve their populations know that they must counter the huge power of the global market to cause huge inequality. Take China, Russia, US, Oil states, seem incapable of keeping a few grow infinity rich, whereas smaller states with rich democracies have no trouble passing citizen protecting legislative backstops.
And this reflects the political psychology of their establishments. Its about where we place the membrane separating money talk from our personal, community and family life. Whtye wants us to think, even when we’re on the dunny how much the price of a toilet roll is. He wants money, the route of all evil, invested in every aspect of our life. You could say he’s a money whore, no scruples, government must get entirely out of the way, even incest could abstractly be monetized.
Key, a keen merchant of money, you could say world class whore of world brokering, keenly knows he needs to separate himself from the emotions of a unclean life of money, for purely to keep plying the trade of money, for sure. As we all now are awaking to where its taken us, global enslavement where our owners will live on the other side of the world.
When we let them buy the MSM, when we let the likes of the right wing agitator that brings us our late night news, pushing his latest conquest of a large extremely expensive car, like our cars now are parts of our money life. To most, cars are tools for getting around, for a few they are extensions of their personality, and for even fewer they are the venal vibrators of their money whore lifestyles, extenders for their pathetic needy little persona’s in a world where the more money they have the more they are living, the more respected, the more powerful they must be.
Surely they such men cant be that sad, but yes, its true, they can’t take the money with them when they go, their super rich heros are giving it away, the likes of Gates and Buffet, because they aren’t the money, they are real people, not buffoons who merely trade in their money whoring.
Now please don’t get me wrong, its not that we all do money whore form time to time, its just its kept at the garden gate and not let in. And therein lies the problem with NZ, the whores are let into our homes every night, the MSM are filled out with money whores who every desperate moment is necessary used to pushing themselves to whore. TV used to be balanced, a few money whores at the margins of the TV schedule, necessary relief to give a fair fiscal overview of the current financial goings on. Now even ad have invaded our most loved tv series and news pushes brands of singers, etc.
Even the pissed up puffed up ranks and file must sell themselves off by keeping within Slaters framing and narrative, less they are seen as unattractive and are dropped from the brothel.
We are all dirtier after thirty years of revolutionary conservatism.
Amazing article by Nigel Latta today.
Nigel Latta: Ten things I’ve learned
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11316443
If you haven’t seen his TV series, you should….
http://tvnz.co.nz/nigel-latta/s1-ep5-video-6052810
Michele Hewitson interview with Nicky Hager. Another great read. Puts Nicky into context the strange things that the Right say about him. The only jarring note was that she would include a negative quote from Matthew Hooten.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11316298
+100
So the cowardly covert, smear machine manipulators have opened a new billboard front. Trotter and Idiot Savant/NRT are onto it.
Looks like billboards from Federated Farmers and an ACT front man.
That is awful
Having just finished reading Merchants of Doubt by Oreskes and Conway, it is clear that the pamphlet/emailers are relying on uninformed people in order to make their point.
The example of DDT is covered in that book and the line the emailers push was very much part of the move to create doubt in peoples’ minds re the validity of the results of sound scientific processes. In short, DDT had lost effectiveness due to having been used so widely – the line pushed that many lives were lost from banning it is false.
Of course it’s false – the right can’t win by telling the truth and so they lie and, as you say, hope that ignorance wins out.
Wondered when that front would be launched.
whatever it takes, no stoop to low and it will probably be relentless till 20/9 as theres plenty of resources to be deployed for such measures.
Hopefully, in this current climate with suspicion everywhere, they will be outed and dumped in their own manure.
Those are funny, or should be, if they didn’t accurately reflect certain mind-sets. “Labour means 30% Greens.” I like to try to keep my party cheerleading at arm’s distance, and I suggest no one puts their trust in the Greens for the sake of it, but I was kind of hoping that “Labour” would this time mean roughly 85% Greens.
If you have not already read it, I strongly recommend reading Wayne Hope’s post yesterday on TDB
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/08/29/democracy-and-cancer-a-critical-analysis-of-dirty-politics/
IMHO it is an excellent analysis of how we have got to where we are at present in respect of the situation outlined in “Dirty Politics’ and current media/public broadcasting etc. It cuts across many of the recent posts and comments on TS, including those at 1 and 2 above.
Has push polling started yet? If you get called as to political preferences, sound a little ambivalent… not sure.. etc. You may get a followup call with “Are you sure? ” “Really? I’m surprised!” when you mention parties not to their liking.
The Brethren tried it an election or two ago. I am sure it will surface again.
There’s a bit of weekend reading over on Daily Blog for those concerned about the state of the media. Wayne Hope has written a thorough analysis with a historical background plus a vision for a better future.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/08/29/democracy-and-cancer-a-critical-analysis-of-dirty-politics/
Whyte, astounds everyone, by arguing that citizens aren’t
being offered enough money to get them out of bed. We
could assume its because bankers are overpaid, or that
the economy is mismanaged to produce under and unemployment,
but its most likely that stupid people want to impose the
authoritarian vision of men like Whyte that government isn’t
interventionists enough, imposing even more on citizens is great
for profits of fatcats, with the rally cry, why aren’t they slaves yet!
Why haven’t we turned the dregs into slaves! They obviously listless
and lazy. They deserve enslavement, only then will they standup
for themselves Whtye believes.
There is a buzz on twitter just now, the PM has called a press release at 12.30 and the journos are speculating Collins might be resigning/being thrown out.
or simply ‘stood down’ as suggested by CrayCray on Nation this am …
Sad for Judith to go. She has been excellent for the Left! Poor old John has a prickly thorn in his side. (And Pullar is taking a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner.)
Yes, since the fuss and excitement has died down, I feel like saying ‘Give ’em an Oscar’.
I think we have been utterly played. This is a big strawman game that aims to remove the apparent problem and allows the real one (severe corruption inside National circles) to carry on unobstucted.
In other words I believe Winston was on the money with what he said.
Am very very unhappy about the state of our democracy. 🙁
Those who have money and power in this country have just played a seriously cynical game today.
Give ’em an Oscar and then throw them in jail and throw away the key is what I conclude from today’s events.
Thanks Karol, Chris Trotter blog, he is onto it good on Chris I always thought he would shine.
Why are the right continuing with dirty politics?
Could it be the real poll results are stark that they continue this smear campaign process, and will the public blame shift to right being evil smear kings not the left ?
Will we ever know the true poll results as several are saying after being canvassed by these private pollsters that the questions asked are loaded or they are a series of questions like us and then told they don’t need us ?
Is the polling designed to be used to show effects of their changing election tactics?
If tis is the case then this is manipulation using the population or corruption of our democracy.
Please opposition, OUR REQUEST; coercion.
CALL FOR A OPPOSITION FORUM TO REQUEST AN URGENT REVIEW OF CORRUPT- COERCION OF OUR ELECTION POLLING PROCESS.
PM holding a press conference at 12:30. Journos on Twitter saying Collins is resigning.
The only problem with that is he will go up in the estimation of the public again and be seen as showing true leadership and cleansing out the rot
True that, but I think there will be plenty of internal friction.
There is every chance of those 17 forced out MPs and the different possible camps within the caucus, English camp, Joyce camp, Collins camp, Key’s camp, Slater-Lusk camp, Bennet’s camp coming out, exposing and doing political mud wrestling in private and in public. And then there are all the party electorate officials up in arms about all the ‘Dirty Politics’ stuff that affected them all. Besides, I think many voters have serious doubts now about the ‘innocence’ and ‘clean good guy’ image of Key. The reality is that National=Key! Without Key, Nats are not much! I think National have lost this election. Their last chance is Winston!
Apparently so:
And that means that voting NZ1st and the Conservatives is a vote for this corrupt government.
And the herald suggests that Judith Collins is resigning
Radionz interviews and news this morning joined up some seemingly unconnected matters.
* A Waikato dairy farmer has been fined nearly $50,000 for discharging effluent into drains that led to a river, and then asking inspectors how much it would cost to make his prosecution problem disappear.
Mr Singh asked the inspectors not to report it to their supervisors and to take water samples in a manner that would not show any environmental effect.
http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=192798&fm=psp,tsf
(Reports of embedded corruption in India would indicate that it is likely that people from that culture operating in business here would adopt similar behaviours. This tendency to follow learned behaviours applies of course to any new New Zealander and has to be considered, understood and watched for.)
* On Radionz there was a figure given that 2 billion people in the world do not have toilets. And there is an item below in which a soil scientist talks about the value of urine and faeces properly treated as fertiliser.
* This is a link for a very interesting clip about a long trip on a motorcycle which gave much insight into the countries visited. http://www.c90adventures.co.uk/news/76-india
The traveller found India to be one of the dirtiest. He shows in his videos women defecating in the fields. (I have learned that the Untouchable people in some areas are not allowed to use public toilets, and there is a time set aside for them to use the fields, possibly once a day early in the morning. So extending less respect for their needs and humanity than given to cows is acceptable in India. People with such warped attitudes if setting up businesses here have to be watched carefully.)
On destruction and deterioration of our precious environment, and infinitely precious drinking water.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional
Risks to water quality limits – report
Residents are being asked to pick from three council proposals relating to the Waikato River.
Modelling for the Environment Ministry shows some major water catchments will fail new water quality standards if planned dairy conversions go ahead.
Auckland water quality costly problem
A warning sign near Meola Creek in Auckland.
Half of Auckland’s fresh waterways are too polluted to use and future generations will face a multi-billion dollar bill to clean up, according to environmental managers.
These sound interesting for people interested in the money system and soil and food systems.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
8:15 John Lanchester
Lanchester JohnBritish journalist and author John Lanchester is the author of award-winning novels, including The Debt to Pleasure, Mr Phillips, Fragrant Harbour, and Capital (which he spoke about on Saturday Morning in July 2012). He wrote about the financial crisis in the 2010 book, Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay, and his new book is How to $p€ak Mone¥: What the Money People Say – and What They Really Mean (Faber & Faber, ISBN: 978-0-571-30982-5).
9:05 Stephen Nortcliff
Stephen NortcliffStephen Nortcliff is Emeritus Professor of Soil Science at Reading University, UK, was Secretary General of the International Union of Soil Sciences from 2002 to 2010, and was instrumental in making 2015 the UN International Year of Soils. Since retirement, Professor Nortcliff has been working with the charity Wherever the Need, which aims to provide sanitation for households and schools in parts of India and Africa using compost toilets. He is one of the guest speakers at Future Food for the Planet (AUT, 30 August at 12:00), an event at World Science Week New Zealand, in Auckland (25 August to 3 September).
So Winston has proved his proof after all. Sadly, it would clear the way for him to work in coalition with National because they will appear to be all cleaned up now ?
And anyone know anything more about this that is supposedly causing her resignation .. in Herald now …
“Collins’ resignation comes after evidence emerged in the past 24 hours of her role in moves to discredit SFO boss Adam Feeley.”
Watch the internal blood letting within National that will get unleashed now.
You haven’t seen nothing yet!
Bye Nats. Bye ACT. Bye Dunne. Bye Banks!
You are the past. Cunliffe led Labour government is the future!
For a better fairer New Zealand!
Indeed ! Now, what if one of the 17 paid-$330K-to-leave Nats would come forward with all the details ..
And whaledump is due home from Vanuatu … or wherever he has pretended to be …
Whyte is just echoing the classical economical theorists of the late 19th century who thought that workers were inherently lazy and need to be threatened and yelled at to get them to do anything.They also thought that managers had inherent organizing and intellectual qualities that workers could never hope to understand. Workers were only good for physical labor and were incapable of self organizing or self managing. Like the Act party these theories have fallen in to disrepute and no educated person would embrace their outdated ideas. Thank god they won’t have any influence in the next govt.
and if anyone knows a livestream of the media call, pse can you post it ? thx.
Looks like there will be a TV3 News Special with Gower and Lisa Owen … ..
I think everyone’s at the vege market yeshe – wait for the flood! Did you note btw how Patrick Gower is now beginning to see his futire flash before his eyes and is now being rather more sympathetic towards the non-dogma view?
Unexpected news conference shortly …. significant…
A resignation perhaps? Key or Collins – either is OK by me
LIARS OF OUR TIME
No. 42: John Key
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“We’ve been given a tremendous gift tonight, the trust and goodwill of New Zealanders, and I do not take that trust for granted.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
—John Key, victory speech on election night, Saturday 26 November 2011
More liars….
No. 41 Richard Prebble: “What I do know is that John will consider everything. He’s an honorable man….”
No. 40 Colin Craig: “I’m interested in raising the level of debate.”
No. 39 George W. Bush: “We will be standing with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq until their hopes for freedom and liberty are fulfilled.”
No. 38 Jeremy Hansen: “I read a great column by Paul Thomas in the Herald….”
No. 37 Alan Seay: “You know, we respect the rights of people to protest….”
No. 36 Paul Dykzeul: “No we won’t be changing the Listener; it’s got a terrific editor….”
No. 35 Mark Jennings: “I think Paul’s a bright guy and he will be able to bring a discipline to his performance….”
No. 34 Willie Jackson: “I thought we’d been sensitive with her yesterday….”
No. 33 Supt. Bill Searle: “I think what’s happened here is the police officers have done their very best….”
No. 32 Sonny-Bill Williams: “It’s good to get the win over Papua-New Guinea, a strong Papua-New Guinea side, aahhhh….”
No. 31 John Palino: “Suggestions that I am somehow orchestrating some grand right-wing conspiracy to unseat Len after the election are so wrong…”
No. 30 Alan Dershowitz: “I will give $10,000 to the PLO if you can find a historical fact in my book that you can prove to be false.”
No. 29 John Banks: “I have nothing to hide and nothing to fear. And never, ever would I ever knowingly sign a false electoral return. Never ever would I ever.”
No. 28 John Kerry: “…we are especially sensitive, Chuck and I, to never again asking any member of Congress to take a vote on faulty intelligence.”
No. 27 Lyse Doucet: “I am there for those without a voice.”
No. 26 Sam Wallace: “So here we are—Otahuhu. It’s just a great place to be, really.”
No. 25 Margaret Thatcher: “…no British government involvement of any kind…with Khmer Rouge…”
No. 24 John Key: “…at the end of the day I, like most New Zealanders, value the role of the fourth estate…”
No. 23 Jay Carney: “…expel Mr Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice…”
No. 22 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton had integrity beyond reproach.”
No. 21 Tim Groser: “I think the relationship is genuinely in outstanding form.”
No. 20 John Key: “But if the question is do we use the United States or one of our other partners to circumvent New Zealand law then the answer is categorically no.”
No. 19 Matthew Hooton: “It is ridiculous to say that unions deliver higher wages! They DON’T!”
No. 18 Ant Strachan: “The All Blacks won the RWC 2011 because of outstanding defence!”
No. 17 Stephen Franks: “Peter has been such a level-headed, safe pair of hands.”
No. 16 Phil Kafcaloudes: “Tony Abbott…hasn’t made any mistakes over the past eighteen months.”
No. 15 Donald Rumsfeld: “I did not lie… Colin Powell did not lie.”
No. 14 Colin Powell: “a post-9/11 nexus between Iraq and terrorist organizations…connections are now emerging…”
No. 13 Barack Obama: “Simply put, these strikes have saved lives.”
No. 12 U.K. Ministry of Defence: “Protecting the Afghan civilian population is one of ISAF and the UK’s top priorities.”
No. 11 Brendan O’Connor: “Australia’s approach to refugees is compassionate and generous.”
No. 10 Boris Johnson: “Londoners have the best police in the world to look after us and keep us safe.”
No. 9 NewstalkZB PR dept: “News you NEED! Fast, fair, accurate!”
No. 8 Simon Bridges: “I don’t mean to duck the question….”
No. 7 Nigel Morrison: “Quite frankly, they’ve been VERY tough.”
No. 6 Herald PR dept: “Congratulations—you’re reading New Zealand’s best newspaper.”
No. 5 Rawdon Christie: “…a FORMIDABLE replacement, it seems, is Claudette Hauiti.”
No. 4 Willie Jackson: “The X-Factor. Nah, nah, there’s some GREAT talent there!”
No. 3 John Key: “Yeah we hold MPs to a higher standard.”
No. 2 Colin Craig: “Oh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.”
No. 1 Barack Obama: “Margaret Thatcher was one of the great champions of freedom and liberty.”
Quote from Duncan Garner’s piece on leadership looking at Poorer Benefit. (See OABs comment for link – http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30082014/#comment-875999)
Can Labour refute what he says about their limp response to our welfare needs?
You can now have your benefit stopped, or docked, for not meeting expectations. There have been no mass welfare protests in the streets. Bennett has ushered through some big changes without controversy. She has worked closely with young mums on welfare.
Her office tells me that in 2009 there were 4300 teen mums on a benefit. At the end of last year that number had dropped to 2300. She has issued them with payment cards for the essentials.
Even Labour has struggled to criticise the changes. Labour says the numbers to look at are those children now living in poverty. In the latest Household Incomes Report, 135,000 children are now regarded as living in “severe poverty”. It has reached its highest level this century, according to Labour. So if that’s the case and Bennett is the Social Development Minister then why isn’t she copping it? She must have done something right.
Bennett may just be the National leader in waiting.
She’s no leader, but then possibly that applies to Key as well.
Labour’s plan to end homelessness
Why are our politicians so determined to make things far more expensive than they need to be? All a contestable fund will do is increase bureaucracy and decrease the money going to the provision of emergency housing. Just set up a government department for the provision of the services.
That’s a very good question
http://jononatusch.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/serious-questions-for-jared-savage-the-nz-herald/
“Perhaps Jared Savage might like to explain what precisely he as a journalist was doing feeding information to Cameron Slater that Savage couldn’t publish himself. If the NZ Herald can’t use certain information in a story, it’s presumably because they’re worried about the legal consequences. So why would a reputable journalist then pass that information on to a blogger to use?
Let’s look at the Len Brown sex scandal story. It wasn’t something any mainstream media outlet was going to touch. Until it was all over the Whaleoil site, which meant that it was now news. Was/Is there a similar modus operandi here from those working at the Herald? We can’t run the story, but if we give it to Slater we can report on what he’s “reported”?
Or was it simply a Herald smear campaign against the then-SFO director? “We can’t report it, but we want to take him down.” Because if that’s the case, that’s not journalism; that’s a vendetta. Worse, it’s a vendetta performed in secret by the very people we are supposed to trust as impartial reporters of fact.”
The Herald looks like it’s been up to its neck in mud over the Dirty Politics saga.
Remember Glucina’s involvement as well in spreading gossip and smears.
The Herald looks like it’s been up to its neck in mud over the Dirty Politics saga.
Remember Glucina’s involvement as well in spreading gossip and smears.
Political opinion and comment on Radio nz.
Next up http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/252810/election-2014-fact-or-fiction
5:11 PM Campaign Focus
Radio New Zealand’s political editor Brent Edwards looks back at the week on the hustings (2 of 4, RNZ)
FACT or FICTION?
Fact or fiction
In the second week of a new fact-checking column, Brent Edwards checks claims made by Judith Collins, John Key, David Cunliffe, Rangi McLean and Winston Peters.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/252810/fact-or-fiction
Each week on this page, Radio New Zealand will be checking the claims made by political parties and their candidates against the facts.
It is an effort to hold politicians to account and ensure public statements they make during the election campaign are factual – not fiction or exaggeration.
It is unlikely that we will be able to check every claim but we will try.
If you hear claims made by politicians that make you suspicious, email us at parl@radionz.co.nz. Better still, include any documented evidence that you have proving a statement made by a politician is either wrong or exaggerated.
Include “fact or fiction” in the subject field so we know to check.
As well as uncovering fiction and exaggeration, we will also confirm when politicians have got it right.
Just searching for the original document from the Herald site of that Collins email, came across this;
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1021430/the-art-of-deception-training-for-a-new.pdf
Rich
Thanks for sharing, interesting to glimpse what the expanded GCHQ budgets have been going towards. I downloaded it as I’m not sure how long that link will be active once the slipup is noticed. It looks like a powerpoint slideshow to me, it’d be interesting to know what script/ talk is intended to go with it. Also what does; “SECRET// SI// REL TO USA, FEVY” (on every page) actually mean; particularly to a member of the public who is not subject to military regulations?
Pages 10-12, 24, & 42 are particularly fascinating
Yes that’s what I thought first up as well but a search on the title indicates that it was released by wikileaks. So it’s in more than one place.
As for what “SECRET// SI// REL TO USA, FEVY” is? It’s basically about Tyranny and the theft of our information and especially address books it seems;
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2013/oct/usa-nsa-sso-overview.pdf
“The SSO Optimization team’s job is to identify these types of data, and ensure appropriate corrective action is taken, throttling the data from corporate content or metadata repositories, as appropriate.”
My reply on this is in spam censorship at the moment. Basically it’s about theft of information by the NSA etc, specifically specialising in stealing contacts from our address books. This of course is to stop us from associating with the wrong sort of people.
We’re back in Rome, a Rome where if you pipe up with criticism of the Emperor then you get to choose your form of suicide. The main problem I have with that is that this was more imaginary than real originally. Our elites are basing our future condition on an idealised state as imagined by Tyrants and their minions but one that I would suggest never existed in the first place.
Just searching for the original Collins email pdf and came across this;
http dot //s3 dot documentcloud dot org slash documents slash 1021430 slash the-art-of-deception-training-for-a-new dot pdf
you’ll have to change the slash to / and the dot to .
A double up due to trying to get past the supposed spam filter.
There was a side discussion in one of the now many Collins-bites-it posts about Cameron Slater’s social status and his part in the downfall of a government. Can’t find it now, but will post here because it should concern the Left – or usually does.
The comment went along the lines of oh the irony, unemployed mentally ill man has extremely high intelligence and brings down a government that usually hates his “kind”.
If I have that grossly wrong, taken from memory, I don’t mean to purposely misrepresent to prove something that isn’t there.
The gist reveals how mental illness is viewed in the heat of the moment by average people. I rate you all as average – myself included – you know, the person you often walk past on the street. It’s the heat of the moment that can reveal accuracies that wold otherwise be smothered with what is considered right or politically correct.
It is kind of ironic, Cameron Slater having done what he’s done, both purposely and inadvertently. On the one hand he is living testament, a far more real face of recovered illness than the stories used on those TV ads. Not everyone who is or was ill is permanently crazy, suddenly much smarter or changed in positive ways, or even at all. Some might discover bright truths about the world or themselves through mental illness. Others just go back to being whatever they were, still more find life changed dramatically and seemingly irreconcilably. What’s missing out of those ads is that fact. Those ads have no range.
Those on the Right, if we can utilise a convenient but not entirely untrue stereotype for a while, would be screaming, “See I told you, that’s why you should expel the mentally ill from society! They’re untrustable loons! They’ll bring us all down!”. My view is, leaving aside the amazing damage done and general subversion of democratic principles, his “achievements” are remarkable. If Slater can do all that strategic thinking, after battling depression and/or god knows what else for so long, he really has an impressive mind. A mind with limits, maybe a dark and seriously dangerous mind, but brilliant none the less. I don’t know if he was that smart before his illness, but if it made him smarter, why do we side line those who can contribute while they experience illness and those who have or are recovering. Even the Right would have to agree he’s disproved all their slogans about earning a place in society; being formally educated, that the rich are the only ones who know how to rule; that the unemployed are lazy bludgers (the work, the effort!) … the slogans the man has disproved are endless.
The JK ads on mental illness would have you believe that those who have seen the worst are of a singular type, their conditions leading to a similar end state: docile, retiring, friendly, shell-shocked, something that’s needs a break and a helping hand. Don’t get me wrong, many do, just don’t think it’s the rule. People are people, regardless.
Bravo, Whalemind, you evil genius. Helping us break down stigmas and exposing the lies of our well-meaning beliefs even as you destroy our democracy.
I don’t believe any of that for a minute. If there is anyone with any real intelligence in that operation, it’s not Slater. You need to remember that he doesn’t even write most of the stuff. He just puts his name to it. And as far as the right would be concerned, Blubber Boy gained his place in their society by birth into a prominent NAct family.
Puddlegum clears the boundary rope – again..
http://www.thepoliticalscientist.org/a-tale-of-two-tracks-part-i-a-two-track-world/
When the right start spreading outrageously funny “chinese” whispers among the legal fraternity about David Cunliffe’s private life, you know how VERY VERY SCARED of him they are!!! A friend of mine told me very very earnestly that she has an “impeccable source” who told her that rumours are swirling around the legal fraternity about David Cunliffe. I nearly burst out laughing – I’d believe that John Key was a rodent-swallowing alien before I would believe this latest serving of tripe – It’s got a very fishy smell, as everything whale usually does! THE RIGHT ARE GETTING REALLY DESPERATE AND SCARED!!! This makes me smile like a Cheshire Cat who swallowed the whole cow full of cream!!
Isn’t this a worry? I mean I am sure it is bullshit. But the sleeping General Public fall for this stuff
Look, you want nasty stuff from the legal fraternity? Finlayson. I’ve been passed lots of dirty info on him from lawyers in the past six years. Judicial appointments. Staff issues. Personal guff. Whoever wants to play dirty needs to know that if I know this stuff, someone less discerning about privacy knows this stuff. And it’s a free for all out there. National need to clean up and you don’t do that by flinging more shit.
Why is everybody posting here worrying about trivia?
There is only one significant item of news today.
Hawkes Bay has won the Ranfurly Shield!
Hawkes Bay has won the Ranfurly Shield!
Hawkes Bay has won the Ranfurly Shield!
Hawkes Bay has won the Ranfurly Shield!
All else pales into insignificance.
Come on The Bay!
Judith Collins – goodbye and good riddance. Here’s hoping the rest get kicked out next month.
Just a thought’ If Cameron manages to get a prosecution against people who illegally received and subsequently acted on his hacked e mails, doesn’t that now include John Key? -sacking Judith Collins on the basis of a ‘stolen’ e mail would have to be an offense, wouldn’t it?
Yep, and Slater has laid a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner against the PM. He says Key did not seek his permission to publicly release one of his emails.
Why is so much of Slater’s stuff on American Dating?
And on that basis is this email the 5/10 or the 10/5?
Silly question – but were have the trolls gone?? – Lynn did they realise were are smarter and nicer people – or get themselves banned?