“They’re my brothers and to see one of them goes [sic]—it’s tough.”
—Whenua Patuwai, re last week’s voting out of Tom Batchelor, The X-Factor, TV3, Sunday 30 June 2013
Humbug Corner is dedicated to gathering, and highlighting, the most striking examples of faux solicitude, insincere apologies, and particularly stupid recycling of official canards. It is produced by the Insincerity Project®, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
Whenua’s basically a nice guy. But THESE humbugs are just nasty….
No. 10 “Sir” Owen Glenn: “I do care that every person, especially children, have [sic] the right to feel safe.”
No. 9 “Sir” Owen Glenn: His abuse inquiry is floundering after revelations he was accused of physically abusing a young woman in 2002.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30062013/#comment-655616 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10889282
No. 8 Barack Obama: “…people standing up for what’s right…yearning for justice and dignity…” No. 7 Barack Obama: “Nelson Mandela is my personal hero…”
No. 6 John Key: “Yeah well the Greens’ answer to everything is rail, isn’t it.”
No.5 Dr. Rodney Syme: “If you want good, open, honest practice, you have to make it transparent.” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09062013/#comment-645826
No. 4 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton’s… integrity beyond reproach…such great character…”
No. 3 Dean Lonergan: “Y’ know what? The only people who will mock them are people who are dwarfists.”
No. 2 Peter Dunne: “What a load of drivel and sanctimonious humbug…” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09062013/#comment-645811
No.1 Dominic Bowden: “It’s okay to be speechless.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02062013/#comment-642288
“A criminally irresponsible and cynical policy”
How Thatcher gave Pol Pot a Hand
by JOHN PILGER, New Statesman, 17 April 2000 http://www.newstatesman.com/node/137397
Almost two million Cambodians died as a result of Year Zero. John Pilger argues that, without the complicity of the US and Britain, it may never have happened.
[….] Until 1989, the British role in Cambodia remained secret. The first reports appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, written by Simon O’Dwyer-Russell, a diplomatic and defence correspondent with close professional and family contacts with the SAS. He revealed that the SAS was training the Pol Pot-led force. Soon afterwards, Jane’s Defence Weekly reported that the British training for the “non-communist” members of the “coalition” had been going on “at secret bases in Thailand for more than four years”. The instructors were from the SAS, “all serving military personnel, all veterans of the Falklands conflict, led by a captain”.
The Cambodian training became an exclusively British operation after the “Irangate” arms-for-hostages scandal broke in Washington in 1986. “If Congress had found out that Americans were mixed up in clandestine training in Indo-China, let alone with Pol Pot,” a Ministry of Defence source told O’Dwyer-Russell, “the balloon would have gone right up. It was one of those classic Thatcher-Reagan arrangements.” Moreover, Margaret Thatcher had let slip, to the consternation of the Foreign Office, that “the more reasonable ones in the Khmer Rouge will have to play some part in a future government”. In 1991, I interviewed a member of “R” (reserve) Squadron of the SAS, who had served on the border. “We trained the KR in a lot of technical stuff – a lot about mines,” he said. “We used mines that came originally from Royal Ordnance in Britain, which we got by way of Egypt with marking changed . . . We even gave them psychological training. At first, they wanted to go into the villages and just chop people up. We told them how to go easy . . .”
The Foreign Office response was to lie. “Britain does not give military aid in any form to the Cambodian factions,” stated a parliamentary reply. The then prime minister, Thatcher, wrote to Neil Kinnock: “I confirm that there is no British government involvement of any kind in training, equipping or co-operating with Khmer Rouge forces or those allied to them.” On 25 June 1991, after two years of denials, the government finally admitted that the SAS had been secretly training the “resistance” since 1983. A report by Asia Watch filled in the detail: the SAS had taught “the use of improvised explosive devices, booby traps and the manufacture and use of time-delay devices”. The author of the report, Rae McGrath (who shared a joint Nobel Peace Prize for the international campaign on landmines), wrote in the Guardian that “the SAS training was a criminally irresponsible and cynical policy”.
When a UN “peacekeeping force” finally arrived in Cambodia in 1992, the Faustian pact was never clearer. Declared merely a “warring faction”, the Khmer Rouge was welcomed back to Phnom Penh by UN officials, if not the people. The western politician who claimed credit for the “peace process”, Gareth Evans (then Australia’s foreign minister), set the tone by calling for an “even-handed” approach to the Khmer Rouge and questioning whether calling it genocidal was “a specific stumbling block”. [….]
And even our own Keith Locke was relatively relaxed until the dreadful silence of Phnom Penh could no longer be ignored http://www.greens.org.nz/speeches/people-glass-houses-should-not-throw-pol-pots
Though hardly surprising given his support for the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1980 – but of course that was a while ago and like most of the left his views have matured somewhat. Hindsight is always 20/20.
In fact, I would go so far as to call a moratorium on finger pointing and calling the Pol Pot black for this very reason – it’s just another version of Argumentum ad Hitlerium.
Your distortions and lies about Chomsky are a reflection on your moral character, or more precisely, your utter lack of character.
And even our own Keith Locke was relatively relaxed…
No he wasn’t. He had no idea what the Khmer Rouge was going to do. Your attempt to smear him is as disgusting and as laughable as your attempt to smear Chomsky. I note your complete lack of censure for the U.S. government, which supported the Khmer Rouge in 1979 and after—long after the horror of its genocide had been revealed. As did the U.K. (your democratic champion Thatcher again), Australia and New Zealand.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
No doubt you will quote that saw some time in the future when the mainstream press is praising Snowden and Assange in the same way they now praise Mandela.
In fact, I would go so far as to call a moratorium on finger pointing and calling the Pol Pot black
What? You are STILL supporting Pol Pot? It’s not 1979 any more, Winston.
for this very reason – it’s just another version of Argumentum ad Hitlerium.
No M – they’re just an indication of the guy’s superficial/artificial/egotistically-driven/quick-to-judge/scene-queen/I’m a minority so I know best/bullshit artist nature.
Wipe it up, Wipe it up with XLO!
Pledge – the housewife’s best fren.
Finger-in-air – which way is that wind? ….
Who me? Why I never voted National – what are you talking about…
etc.
…. the reason I can’t even give my grandson a popsicle these days without thinking twice.
And wasn’t it a wonderful thing that the Communist government came to power in Vietnam and subsequently invaded and overthrew the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
On the contrary – I have quite a detailed knowledge of the mendacious old fart. He has never encountered a genocidal revolutionary army or terrorist organisation he was not content to give a slap on the wrist with a moist bus ticket and describe as ‘not as bad as imperialist America’. He flatly refuses to take on board new information if it contradicts his pet speculations – something particularly noticeable in his linguistic theories, his politics, and in his arrogant dismissal of much poststructural theory . He describes university education as psychological indoctrination for wage slavery and yet is quite content to continue supporting it as long as he recieves his hefty salary from MIT as he has for the last fifty years or so.
While he has made some valid an important contributions is some areas, these are tarnished by the many other frauds and hypocrisies that follow the old fart around, and you sound much like him – what with you being a fraud, a hypocrite, and a fart. But what is worse is you are also gullible because you put the old bugger on a pedestal and can’t read him critically or with any objectivity. Meanwhile Saint Chomsky trundles on, defending the indefensible, laughing all the way to the next worthless prize giving or celebrity public presentation, all flaws forgiven, feted by saps like you.
“On the contrary – I have quite a detailed knowledge of the mendacious old fart. He has never encountered a genocidal revolutionary army or terrorist organisation he was not content to give a slap on the wrist with a moist bus ticket and describe as ‘not as bad as imperialist America’.”
Which, OF COURSE, you do.
(Maaaaaate !!!!) – you could single-handedly explain the reason for likes of a Waitakere man are as bigoted as they are.
A holier-than-thou – I paid-me dues – politically correct ‘minority’ – intelligent (to the extent that an above average knowledge and intellect is a dangerous thing) – self-serving, soon to become – bitter old queen.
Anyway, I vowed I wasn’t going to engage with the likes of yee in outlets such as these – I hope we never meet.
On behalf of everyone who fought for the 1986 homosexual law reform act, go fuck yourself with a chainsaw you tragic little throwback to the neanderthals.
If that’s directed at me Populuxicle, I think I probably did as much as anybody re the 1986 law reform – even engaging with that ghastly FW woman – the one not above using her feigned left-wing principle as a means of self-promotion (delving into slush funds et al),
and unlike you,
I’ve not made assumptions as to anyone’s sexuality, their attitudes towards race or anything else – on the basis of their expressing an opinion on some X-Factor judge/contestant,
and nor have I attempted to divert, introduce completely irrelevant material, or any other manipulative “bitchy little technique” (as you did above) into an argument.
I acknowledge however that you almost single-handedly brought about the 1986 law reform, and that you’re intellect, lack of bias despite whatevers predisposition you have, your fight for truth, justice and the American way just leave us ALL in awe.
” don’t have the time or energy to assist you any further in this endeavour.”
I’m quite sure you don’t. But rest assured that future posts will be those that are talking ABOUT you rather than AT you.
All such posts are good though yes?
Besides which Glastonbury is a damn sight more entertaining than internet dialogue with the male entering a mid-life crisis desperately trying to stake his claim.
Btw Pops – I recommend Palmolive ‘Charmis’.
It not only has Vitamins a and c, but E as well.
You almost sound like Chomsky. You have the same habit of dismissing any contrary data as unimportant otherwise of course you would have considered it. You also have the same condescending tone and the tendency to respond to everything with “America is worse” down pat – the master would be proud.
Experts had found that four consecutive years of quality teaching eliminated any trace of socio-economic disadvantage.
And I’m pretty sure that research has proved the exact opposite. No amount of teaching can overcome the inherent disadvantages associated with poverty.
This seems to be one of John Key’s can find someone else to to say the opposite of what the research shows that we saw on the HardTalk interview.
David Shearer appeared on a special edition of TV3’s The Nation and said: “I’ve asked my colleagues and they haven’t heard anything about it [leadership challenge]”.
“I can’t comment any further when I don’t know who this person is.”
Shearer should ask Beltway Grant again. The ABC’c are now turning on Shearer.
Time for the Natz to have a “Popcorn and Coke” moment.
Time for Labour people to get ready for an early General Election.
So far we have Gower and Hooton making the claim (and they both have their own agendas that don’t serve the left), and some internet speculation. Anything else?
Gower’s not making it up. He’s protecting his source. Close your eyes and imagine Shearer in a leaders debate then decide whether he’s making it up or not.
I believe that the National party is increasingly in election mode, suggesting that it may call a snap election – blindsiding the NZLP and (perhaps mercifully) ending Shearers incumbency.
Key and Smith in recent public appearances have been demonising Greens as ‘radical’ (substituting greens for reds under the bed). This momentum only makes sense if soon exploited in a snap poll.
I have just received a questionnaire in my letter box from my local National Party candidate enquiring about
1. “.. issues that are most important to you”,
2. “What is the most important issue to you ?” and
3. “Please tick one of the following options”
“I ALWAYS support the following political party [blah, blah, blah]
OR I USUALLY support the following political party [ditto]
OR I don’t support any political party in particular”
.. which suggests that they are profiling the electorate or electorates in order to effectively target election campaigning and resources when it is called.
In an age of instant communication, mobile smartphones, text, and internet execution is connected, dynamic, agile, and responsive.
Goff and Shearer belong to an older generation of politicos. Key belongs to a younger tech-savvy generation, with socially autistic and libertarian leanings.
The Australian economy has been recently described as a “property credit bubble depending on the Chinese economy which itself depends on a credit bubble” suggesting that a hard landing may be ahead .. been across the Tasman recently ?
We got one from Paula Bennett – pretty sure it had the logo/crest attached. It got dispatched immediately to the recycling bin – I didn’t need the NActs to have any information from this household, the questions were totally intrusive.
What does the crest look like? Is it “NZ” encircled by a band with “house of representatives” and the crown on top? If so, yes, it has the crest on it.
“I ALWAYS support the following political party [blah, blah, blah]
OR I USUALLY support the following political party [ditto]
OR I don’t support any political party in particular”
It’s a push poll, so it won’t provide them with any useful information. If its intention is to reassure the morons who vote for them that they’re being listened to I suppose that might work.
I believe that the National party is increasingly in election mode,
Yes, but that doesn’t really mean anything – electioneering starts quite awhile before the election. It’s why Labour changed the electioneering period from 6 weeks to January 1st of election year. At the time National had just proved that electioneering starts months before hand. It’s also why National changed it back – they’d have to account for the spend if they hadn’t.
Funnily enough, a number of suspects have been in the same spotlight (being asked to answer to allegations of unknown origin). Regardless of their guilt or innocence, their best option is to say “no comment”. Why? Because without knowing the source and exactly what was alleged, one can’t distinguish between the actual allegation and hopeful fishing by the interviewer.
I can understand why we are such a close intelligence partner of the USA. Revelations that the US has attacked EU diplomatic missions in DC and in New York, in direct contravention of the Vienna Convention, are leading papers all through Europe. French, Italian and Greek diplomatic cables were also targetted. Germany the largest target. European officials are calling for abandonment of upcoming trade talks with the US.
The news is nowhere to be seen on the NZ Herald online front page. Something about Kiwisaver help for buying homes leads. This must be why we are “trusted”.
Entirely relevant actually. The thing about secretly acquired information is that it is secret. It is not being broadcast to all and sundry by amateurs. And while I don’t approve of spying on one’s own citizens, foreign intelligence is a very different matter.
Note how the “foreigners” e.g. the Germans, Italian and the French, think that excuse is a crock.
Further, the US system doesn’t just spy on the activities of those foreign governments, it spies on the activities of ordinary citizens within those countries as well, which is quite a different matter from states spying on states.
The thing about secretly acquired information is that it is secret.
Well that’s been proven wrong. Haven’t you noticed.
That would be the French who sent their special forces to blow up the Rainbow Warrior in one of our ports. I’m sure they’re not beyond a bit of spying.
And everybody does it. Hence the specs for the footprint of Australia’s JMA weather satellite expands further in our direction than Canberra would prefer to be widely known, China and Russia are hacking everyone in sight, and New Zealand civilians who are likely to be going anywhere commercially interesting usually get a briefing by NZSIS to keep their eyes open. In that kind of environment you would be insane NOT to be spying.
Probably – but then I’m highly unlikely to be of much interest because I’m not a sad, ageing Che Guevara wannabe like you – but if they have all my passwords and logins, they almost certainly have all yours too. C’est la vie – my generation is pretty much used to the idea that access to the web runs both ways.
A tad more seriously Pop1, the constant and endemic surveillance of citizens in the Eastern Bloc was one reason that innovation and creativity wilted there. Trust quickly disappears, and taking a risk disappears too – especially when you realise that risk could come back and haunt you forever, with data in whoever’s hands.
A panoptical surveillance state undermines the fundamental, essential basis for modern western civilisation.
Ask a hacker to get them for you, in anycase it’s a cultural thing. Using a service like Google or Facebook, for example, is a tacit agreement to have your data monitored for patterns. Common knowledge for many years now. Why wouldn’t governments be doing it on a larger scale.
And no – the decade before, without the overweening sense of entitlement, and clear memories of the tale end of the Cold War.
So now Manning and Snowden have an “overweening sense of entitlement” to add to their list of grievous human rights abuses, which include “a narcissistic personality disorder and fantasies of being James Bond”, seeking “international media martyrdom”, and fleeing to Hong Kong. Not to mention the crime of being “a computer geek playing secret agent man from the safety of Chinese territory.”
So Populuxicle’s sense of entitlement came a little later.
It must have come with his deep and meaningful understanding of EVERYTHING, as well as the answer to life and the universe.
And while I don’t approve of spying on one’s own citizens,
Now that is a major backflip! Just yesterday this bloke was trying to tell us that these crimes were all legal crimes. (No, I am not making that up; check out his stellar oeuvre for yourself if you have time to kill.)
I think it was about the time he was citing the moronic Australian Aborigine-baiter Keith Windschuttle as an authority in his comical bid to blacken the reputation of Noam Chomsky.
What’s that you’re saying Ms. Moroney? “Maybe it’s the fluoride in the water down that way”? Well, THAT makes as much sense as anything this bloke wrote yesterday. Hmmmmm, have you ever considered a position in academe, Ms. Moroney? Canterbury is hiring people of your calibre….
Every few months we will read/hear reports of international ratings agencies placing our education on a scale, and we don’t do too badly. But what does it all mean?
Is the child of 2013 receiving any better education than that of 1990, 1980, 1970, 1960, 1950 …?
There have been tomes written by experts on how to deliver number, writing and reading.
But has it made any difference? (I have heard it said that Maths has been dumbed down over the decades.)
We certainly don’t see any increase in the graduates of our schooling lining up at the university doors to become brain surgeons.
The question to ask therefore, given all of these changes that have swept through/and over schools, (and those of 40 years in the profession who are nearing the end of their careers have sure seen copious and many) – have they made a slight bit of difference? Yeah … naahh!
Well, the privileged will always enjoy innate advantages, but if literacy rates have improved among the less fortunate, that would be a result of pedagogy, no? If so, and the same pedagogical tools are used to teach te reo, then it cannot be the cause of the decline.
By pedagogy do you mean how things are taught? Literacy may have improved or declined because of that, or because of other factors, or both. Not really sure where you are going with this.
Improvements in general literacy due to changes in teaching are unlikely to improve te reo (it needs its own way of being taught).
True insofar as it goes, but my point is that teaching methods have (probably) improved; that will affect the teaching of te reo Māori as much as English, so if te reo has declined (link?) it is unlikely to be teaching methods that are the problem.
Do you think that people being able to do maths with a calculator but not in their head or on paper is a loss of skill or not?
btw, I did google, because I was curious, but couldn’t find anything useful. Perhaps you might have more luck (don’t need facetious comparisons with the 1800s though, thanks).
Yeah I’m still trying to find the right search terms too 🙂
I think the ability to do sums in ones head is valuable, I also know so many younger people who can. Most of them work in retail. Anecdotes are not data, naturally, but neither are they suggestive of a decline.
The computer has become a key literacy and numeracy tool. Broadly, work computer use or non-use can be seen as dividing jobs into those requiring and those not requiring higher literacy and numeracy. Home computer use was associated with greater involvement in personal literacy activities.
“Do you think that people being able to do maths with a calculator but not in their head or on paper is a loss of skill or not?”
Yes, I do. Even the ability to do a rough estimate in their head is useful – it prevents pushing the wrong button on a calculator and not noticing that the answer is ridiculous.
Yes of course – was mixing up advancement in the countless other ways we have achieved, with today’s apparently sole manner of advancement, economic. We are certainly stuck in a time warp as a society today where everything is measured in economic terms (epitomised by our currnet government and Prime Minister). One day I am sure we humans will wake up once again.
Personally I am looking forward to my roses advancement this coming spring as the recent frigid and wintry conditions have coincided nicely with the shortest daze to create the perfect winter rose storm and subsequent budding and flowering in coming months ……..
Unless it’s at the expense of something else (not talking about vto here). eg creating the perfect x rose, if it means using lots of toxic chemicals, is not a useful advancement IMO. The idea that advancement is inherently good has gotten us into a lot of trouble.
You guys are questioning our current civilisation’s civil religion and orthodoxy of perpetual and infinite progress (oft disguised as “growth”). Please stop it. The middle classes will get unsettled with this kind of radical extremist talk.
Weka, that seems like sophistry to me. “Advancement” for example, in fuel economy, or battery technology, is exactly what we need. “Advancement” such as neo-liberal economic theory, not so much, in fact any sane observer would regard it as a backward step.
You familiar with the Jeavons paradox? Advancement in fuel efficiency is only useful if it leads to less use of finite resources or makes transport more affordable without negative environmental consequences. But it often doesn’t. Hence my point – advancement isn’t inherently Good. Its goodness is context specific. Some advancement is downright bad.
You’re the one that made the generalisation about fuel efficiency (ie fuel efficiency Is Good. I just pointed out that it depends on context, hence my point: advancement isn’t always Good.
The idea that advancement is inherently good has gotten us into a lot of trouble.
That’s not what got us into trouble. What got us into trouble was believing anything new was an advancement.
Fuel efficiency is good but the economic paradigm that we run our society under sees more use of fuel as good. It’s the economic paradigm that is the problem as it forces us to use more and more of the scarce resources that we’re supposed to be managing efficiently.
Do you think the Jevons paradox is only at play because of certain kinds of economies? I would think it’s embedded in human nature. Or even nature itself. It’s not like humans naturally conserve resources unless they have to.
The problem here is that the embedded energy in fossil fuels has given us a huge boost far too quickly, so the natural limits haven’t had time to kick in. Probably not long now though.
“That’s not what got us into trouble. What got us into trouble was believing anything new was an advancement.”
That implies something can only be seen to be an advancement in hindsight. Probably true some of the time, but not all of the time.
It’s not like humans naturally conserve resources unless they have to.
Actually, they do if they’re not living in capitalistic societies. IMO, overuse of resources is a learned behaviour.
That implies something can only be seen to be an advancement in hindsight.
Not really, it means something can only be seen as an advancement with proper research. We’ve been jumping on the new and not doing the research until after it’s been in use and then finding out that it wasn’t an advance.
There are several societies that lived within the limits of their resources – Eskimos, Native North Americans, societies throughout Africa. What you see in history is that the civilisations that developed agriculture also developed capitalist systems of ownership and ever greater use, eventually leading to overuse, of resources. Jared Diamonds* Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed lists some of them and details some of the mistakes. What comes through is the overuse of resources as a main driver of the collapse of those societies.
This dichotomy would tend to indicate that it’s not human nature that causes over use but the socio-economic system that the society uses. Ones that have a hierarchical structure with private ownership have inevitably collapsed from over use of resources.
* Yes, I’m aware of the disagreements and even agree with some of them.
Hunter gatherer cultures do seem to manage much better than agricultural ones in terms of learning to live within their means. But IMO they do so because of the limits they strike, not because of some inherent ability to not exhaust their resource base. We are adapted to increase population, and we will until we cannot. I agree that human intelligence and learning can and does overcome this, but I don’t think we have something inbuilt (I could be wrong).
Tim Flannery is a good one to read on this. The Future Eaters focussed on Australasia, but he’s also written about North America, where native peoples greatly modified the natural landscape. I’m not sure whether they didn’t do markedly more damage because they learnt not to, or whether because their systems were more sustainable but not completely, and the timescales where very long so what they were doing was going to take a long time to become apparent (compared to say using up most of the easily accessibly fossil fuels within a few hundred years).
The National Curriculum – do you mean the latest document that took a good few years to create and begin to implement before it was largely circumvented by the introduction of National Standards? The document that the proposed Charter Schools will be able to ignore?
Enjoying the thread but I do not think the improvements (if any) have justified the constant upheaval caused by the directions and meddling of the ministers from above.
If anyone promotes the “free” market, they’re actually promoting a system where the powerful can steal wealth and power from the rest of us.
If some players have significantly more power than other players, then the market can be successfully manipulated and is no longer free. If there ever is a point at which all players have about the same power/significance/influence, then the players will inevitably work to accumulate power/significance/influence. Ie. the “free” market is, at best, an initial condition, after which it works to descend into a few power centers which battle for control over the powerless.
Maybe “free” market should be replaced by “fair” market. Ie. the market actively monitored and managed to cull power accumulation. But that requires political power that’s more significant than the power of the ones that need to be culled. I guess beheadings are in order to things into a manageable initial condition.” Or a government that does not subscribe to the free market.
“But as we come up to the point where we’re looking at the business case, which is about how it’s funded and all the other aspects of it, he’ll have to have some answers”.
^^^^Gerry Brown
Fuck off fatso. When it comes to the money, you won’t even be around, so how Auckland chooses to do it and with whom is none of your business. Also, Auckland is not a company, its a community. Selling essential infrastructure assets and casino sharemarket IPOs to raise money is a silly idea. Other options are to borrow the funds from KiwiSaver necessary to create Auckland’s train links ourselves. Employ Aucklanders to build Auckland and then capture the created assets. Might as well take back the buses as well while we’re at it. This is about Aucklanders, not just John Key’s bankster mates.
Blip
I’ll see your Auckland cards, and raise you with Christchurch planning ones. What is all this hoopla about the nz international planning standards agency refusing to recognise Christchurch’s planning procedures. Who gives this agency the right to make such pronouncements? If it takes time to plan and make safe and good decisions so be it.
Considering this hurry-up brings anxiety. This after a previous functionary in Christchurc h decided that he would follow the approved deficient approach to not enforce controls and inspections but accept assurances from self-interested companies. With disastrous results.
Now RWNJ NACTs encourage more of the same. In an area where there has been a ground-breaking disaster! They want to hurriedly decide on what to do next. Plans drawn up in a month. Buildings coming down, buildings shooting up. Statues no doubt to Brownlee and Key and inscribed building stones with their names on them.
This in a country that has not recovered from the leaky homes disgrace. When there were well-paid functionaries who should have been on top of the problem and warning NZs of the dangers. No, we had things pushed through with no oversight, no interest in facts from overseas as to the results of the bad practices we were adopting. All the time we hear about what they are doing overseas. We seem to not do anything in NZ unless they have done it first overseas. At least we could take note of what has resulted overseas! No!! Charge ahead, no worries- this our catchcry.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
blah blah – there is nothing grand and noble about being stupid arses.
So more indecent haste. Christchurch castigated, personal attention from Key and Brownlee to run the Christchurch Council plus the Environment Council (into the ground)
on top of their responsibilities to the nation. Which they are not fulfilling in anything like a satisfactory way.
When there were well-paid functionaries who should have been on top of the problem and warning NZs of the dangers.
Some of those well paid functionaries are most likely to be part of the problem. Some will be trying to warn us but they’re being drowned out by the others with the self-interest.
We seem to not do anything in NZ unless they have done it first overseas.
That attitude is relatively new. We used to believe that we could do anything and now all we have is a bunch of politicians saying that all we can do is bloody farming despite the fact that farming takes up less than 10% of the workforce.
When you are logged in at your blog (eg to write a post), you should have access to the controls that change how it looks. I haven’t used blogger before, but I’m guessing it’s something like changing the ‘template’ or ‘skin’ (this changes the layout, colour, font style etc all in one go). You probably chose a specific template when you set the blog up, but you should be able to change it to another one now.
Maybe someone else who knows Blogger can be more specific.
In tonight’s 5.30 Sky News ‘bulletin’, that $5m turns out to be $3m.
They’re going to approach the Commerce Commission apparently and are still deciding whether the costs of storm damage can be ‘absorbed’
What that tells me is that if they can’t (be absorbed), then Wellington Electricity must be in pretty bad shape!.
As I pointed out – in the link – or at least tried to get across – is that $3m in the overall scheme of things is Sweet Fcuk All, and if that amount can’t be absorbed without an increase in power charges, then it says more about management than it does the actual state of their ‘network.
They try it on at EVERY opportunity!
If they can’t absorb such a cost, then maybe a return to a Municipal Electricity Department – with a Webb Street Depot that contained all the spare parts necessary, and a crew that could respond in a damn sight less time that has occurred to correct faults (one that had an actual concern for “consumers”; didn’t have to rely on bullshit artsists rehearsed in call centre spin; and all the rest of it; with Heads of Departments/CEO’s that were paid adequately – rather than excessively; who didn’t try to shunt their costs of doing “biznuss” onto the self-employed, paid-by-incident, ready/needing-to scam contractor) would be a better alternative.
The privatisation of natural monopolies?? More Fektiv in Fishint in Cow-nable?
I think not.
It appears there’s definitely some undermining afoot-just spotted this comment over on kiwi blog: RF says ‘Just had a phone call from a usually reliable source within Labours ranks. Recent Internal polling has put them in the high 20s and this is causing problems for Shearer who is in denial. In spite of him claiming that his caucus is happy with him. Bull shit.’ Wonder if the source is the same as the journos? I read somewhere else (?) about internal polling being leaked. Seems pretty nasty on the inside… Why would I want to view for any of them again?
Takeover NZ . This was the title of a book written by the late Dr Bill Sutch decades ago.
and its what this National Govt is trying to do with local govt. It tried with SuperCity Auckland
and didn’t quite succeed because Len Brown and his progressive mates got in the way.
It did it with ECAN, and right now – according to TV3 news tonight – and Campbell Live – this govt is trying it again with Christchurch City. They gave Chch City the targets for getting building consents processed, they gave them a deadline. Chch City met those targets and that deadline, but now the accreditation agency says that’s not enough. They’ll call in private experts if the City can’t meet the new requirements next week. Privatisation of local govt – that’s what’s on the cards right now …..privatisation of all the infrastructure that big business has wanted to get its hands on, and the profits it generates, for years. And this govt is trying to hand it to big bus on a plate. I hope like heck that Ch’ch continues to meet the shifting targets and slippery deadlines as it battles not only to re-build its city, but also the govt takeover. Good luck to Ch’ch. Dont let the bastards take over.
This government’s approach to Christchurch City Council and the issue of consents is the most abhorrent lying fucking stinking bullshit yet by this government, and that is really saying something. Fuck Key and Brownlee and their cheap-arse mule they ride in on. I hope they fall into it and eat shit for the rest of their days.
It is a fucking quiet revolution we are being subjected to.
Dotcom today issued a challenge to the Prime Minister through Twitter, saying he would tell the Government why the GCSB legislation would not work.
“If you want to witness John Key and the #GCSB getting exposed join me in Parliament this Wednesday. It’s a public hearing,” Dotcom said on the social media site.
Mr Key today confirmed he would chair the committee. Act Party leader John Banks will also be in attendance.
I guess this little tete a tete won’t be televised?
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
Humbug Corner
No. 11: WHENUA PATUWAI
“They’re my brothers and to see one of them goes [sic]—it’s tough.”
—Whenua Patuwai, re last week’s voting out of Tom Batchelor, The X-Factor, TV3, Sunday 30 June 2013
Humbug Corner is dedicated to gathering, and highlighting, the most striking examples of faux solicitude, insincere apologies, and particularly stupid recycling of official canards. It is produced by the Insincerity Project®, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
Whenua’s basically a nice guy. But THESE humbugs are just nasty….
No. 10 “Sir” Owen Glenn: “I do care that every person, especially children, have [sic] the right to feel safe.”
No. 9 “Sir” Owen Glenn: His abuse inquiry is floundering after revelations he was accused of physically abusing a young woman in 2002.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30062013/#comment-655616 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10889282
No. 8 Barack Obama: “…people standing up for what’s right…yearning for justice and dignity…” No. 7 Barack Obama: “Nelson Mandela is my personal hero…”
No. 6 John Key: “Yeah well the Greens’ answer to everything is rail, isn’t it.”
No.5 Dr. Rodney Syme: “If you want good, open, honest practice, you have to make it transparent.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09062013/#comment-645826
No. 4 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton’s… integrity beyond reproach…such great character…”
No. 3 Dean Lonergan: “Y’ know what? The only people who will mock them are people who are dwarfists.”
No. 2 Peter Dunne: “What a load of drivel and sanctimonious humbug…” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09062013/#comment-645811
No.1 Dominic Bowden: “It’s okay to be speechless.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02062013/#comment-642288
“A criminally irresponsible and cynical policy”
How Thatcher gave Pol Pot a Hand
by JOHN PILGER, New Statesman, 17 April 2000
http://www.newstatesman.com/node/137397
Almost two million Cambodians died as a result of Year Zero. John Pilger argues that, without the complicity of the US and Britain, it may never have happened.
[….] Until 1989, the British role in Cambodia remained secret. The first reports appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, written by Simon O’Dwyer-Russell, a diplomatic and defence correspondent with close professional and family contacts with the SAS. He revealed that the SAS was training the Pol Pot-led force. Soon afterwards, Jane’s Defence Weekly reported that the British training for the “non-communist” members of the “coalition” had been going on “at secret bases in Thailand for more than four years”. The instructors were from the SAS, “all serving military personnel, all veterans of the Falklands conflict, led by a captain”.
The Cambodian training became an exclusively British operation after the “Irangate” arms-for-hostages scandal broke in Washington in 1986. “If Congress had found out that Americans were mixed up in clandestine training in Indo-China, let alone with Pol Pot,” a Ministry of Defence source told O’Dwyer-Russell, “the balloon would have gone right up. It was one of those classic Thatcher-Reagan arrangements.” Moreover, Margaret Thatcher had let slip, to the consternation of the Foreign Office, that “the more reasonable ones in the Khmer Rouge will have to play some part in a future government”. In 1991, I interviewed a member of “R” (reserve) Squadron of the SAS, who had served on the border. “We trained the KR in a lot of technical stuff – a lot about mines,” he said. “We used mines that came originally from Royal Ordnance in Britain, which we got by way of Egypt with marking changed . . . We even gave them psychological training. At first, they wanted to go into the villages and just chop people up. We told them how to go easy . . .”
The Foreign Office response was to lie. “Britain does not give military aid in any form to the Cambodian factions,” stated a parliamentary reply. The then prime minister, Thatcher, wrote to Neil Kinnock: “I confirm that there is no British government involvement of any kind in training, equipping or co-operating with Khmer Rouge forces or those allied to them.” On 25 June 1991, after two years of denials, the government finally admitted that the SAS had been secretly training the “resistance” since 1983. A report by Asia Watch filled in the detail: the SAS had taught “the use of improvised explosive devices, booby traps and the manufacture and use of time-delay devices”. The author of the report, Rae McGrath (who shared a joint Nobel Peace Prize for the international campaign on landmines), wrote in the Guardian that “the SAS training was a criminally irresponsible and cynical policy”.
When a UN “peacekeeping force” finally arrived in Cambodia in 1992, the Faustian pact was never clearer. Declared merely a “warring faction”, the Khmer Rouge was welcomed back to Phnom Penh by UN officials, if not the people. The western politician who claimed credit for the “peace process”, Gareth Evans (then Australia’s foreign minister), set the tone by calling for an “even-handed” approach to the Khmer Rouge and questioning whether calling it genocidal was “a specific stumbling block”. [….]
Read the whole article here….
http://www.newstatesman.com/node/137397
No one has anything to be particularly proud of as regards Cambodia, but while the British SAS might have trained the non-Communist members of the Khmer Rouge, eminent leftists were in complete denial about what the Khmer Rouge were actually up to. Case in point your buddy Noam Chomsky:
http://www.paulbogdanor.com/chomsky/wma.html
http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/chomsky.htm
http://www.chomsky.info/letters/19780626.htm
http://www.khmer440.com/k/2013/05/cambodia-the-chomsky-problem/
And many others on the left
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_genocide_denial
And even our own Keith Locke was relatively relaxed until the dreadful silence of Phnom Penh could no longer be ignored
http://www.greens.org.nz/speeches/people-glass-houses-should-not-throw-pol-pots
Though hardly surprising given his support for the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1980 – but of course that was a while ago and like most of the left his views have matured somewhat. Hindsight is always 20/20.
In fact, I would go so far as to call a moratorium on finger pointing and calling the Pol Pot black for this very reason – it’s just another version of Argumentum ad Hitlerium.
Your distortions and lies about Chomsky are a reflection on your moral character, or more precisely, your utter lack of character.
And even our own Keith Locke was relatively relaxed…
No he wasn’t. He had no idea what the Khmer Rouge was going to do. Your attempt to smear him is as disgusting and as laughable as your attempt to smear Chomsky. I note your complete lack of censure for the U.S. government, which supported the Khmer Rouge in 1979 and after—long after the horror of its genocide had been revealed. As did the U.K. (your democratic champion Thatcher again), Australia and New Zealand.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
No doubt you will quote that saw some time in the future when the mainstream press is praising Snowden and Assange in the same way they now praise Mandela.
In fact, I would go so far as to call a moratorium on finger pointing and calling the Pol Pot black
What? You are STILL supporting Pol Pot? It’s not 1979 any more, Winston.
for this very reason – it’s just another version of Argumentum ad Hitlerium.
That’s not even slightly amusing, sorry.
The New Zealand Government of time also supported the Pol Pot regime.
Plenty more on Chomsky’s denial of the scale of the Killing Fields
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/10/malcolm-caldwell-pol-pot-murder
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/chomsky-peace-award-blasted/story-fn59niix-1226068256064
http://jim.com/canon.htm
No M – they’re just an indication of the guy’s superficial/artificial/egotistically-driven/quick-to-judge/scene-queen/I’m a minority so I know best/bullshit artist nature.
Wipe it up, Wipe it up with XLO!
Pledge – the housewife’s best fren.
Finger-in-air – which way is that wind? ….
Who me? Why I never voted National – what are you talking about…
etc.
…. the reason I can’t even give my grandson a popsicle these days without thinking twice.
And wasn’t it a wonderful thing that the Communist government came to power in Vietnam and subsequently invaded and overthrew the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
Well someone had to – it wasn’t going to be Chomsky
Something called “Populuxe1” attempts, unwisely, to be clever….
“Well someone had to – it wasn’t going to be Chomsky”
Damn fool has no knowledge of Chomsky. Therefore not clever, just stupid.
On the contrary – I have quite a detailed knowledge of the mendacious old fart. He has never encountered a genocidal revolutionary army or terrorist organisation he was not content to give a slap on the wrist with a moist bus ticket and describe as ‘not as bad as imperialist America’. He flatly refuses to take on board new information if it contradicts his pet speculations – something particularly noticeable in his linguistic theories, his politics, and in his arrogant dismissal of much poststructural theory . He describes university education as psychological indoctrination for wage slavery and yet is quite content to continue supporting it as long as he recieves his hefty salary from MIT as he has for the last fifty years or so.
While he has made some valid an important contributions is some areas, these are tarnished by the many other frauds and hypocrisies that follow the old fart around, and you sound much like him – what with you being a fraud, a hypocrite, and a fart. But what is worse is you are also gullible because you put the old bugger on a pedestal and can’t read him critically or with any objectivity. Meanwhile Saint Chomsky trundles on, defending the indefensible, laughing all the way to the next worthless prize giving or celebrity public presentation, all flaws forgiven, feted by saps like you.
“On the contrary – I have quite a detailed knowledge of the mendacious old fart. He has never encountered a genocidal revolutionary army or terrorist organisation he was not content to give a slap on the wrist with a moist bus ticket and describe as ‘not as bad as imperialist America’.”
Which, OF COURSE, you do.
(Maaaaaate !!!!) – you could single-handedly explain the reason for likes of a Waitakere man are as bigoted as they are.
A holier-than-thou – I paid-me dues – politically correct ‘minority’ – intelligent (to the extent that an above average knowledge and intellect is a dangerous thing) – self-serving, soon to become – bitter old queen.
Anyway, I vowed I wasn’t going to engage with the likes of yee in outlets such as these – I hope we never meet.
On behalf of everyone who fought for the 1986 homosexual law reform act, go fuck yourself with a chainsaw you tragic little throwback to the neanderthals.
If that’s directed at me Populuxicle, I think I probably did as much as anybody re the 1986 law reform – even engaging with that ghastly FW woman – the one not above using her feigned left-wing principle as a means of self-promotion (delving into slush funds et al),
and unlike you,
I’ve not made assumptions as to anyone’s sexuality, their attitudes towards race or anything else – on the basis of their expressing an opinion on some X-Factor judge/contestant,
and nor have I attempted to divert, introduce completely irrelevant material, or any other manipulative “bitchy little technique” (as you did above) into an argument.
I acknowledge however that you almost single-handedly brought about the 1986 law reform, and that you’re intellect, lack of bias despite whatevers predisposition you have, your fight for truth, justice and the American way just leave us ALL in awe.
By all means continue to sound like a dick – I don’t have the time or energy to assist you any further in this endeavour.
” don’t have the time or energy to assist you any further in this endeavour.”
I’m quite sure you don’t. But rest assured that future posts will be those that are talking ABOUT you rather than AT you.
All such posts are good though yes?
Besides which Glastonbury is a damn sight more entertaining than internet dialogue with the male entering a mid-life crisis desperately trying to stake his claim.
Btw Pops – I recommend Palmolive ‘Charmis’.
It not only has Vitamins a and c, but E as well.
Alelujah.
Maybe I been here before.
On the contrary – I have quite a detailed knowledge…
No you don’t. Every word you utter serves to underline your ignorance and malice.
You almost sound like Chomsky. You have the same habit of dismissing any contrary data as unimportant otherwise of course you would have considered it. You also have the same condescending tone and the tendency to respond to everything with “America is worse” down pat – the master would be proud.
You almost sound like Chomsky.
Thank you, my friend. That’s very generous of you.
You have the same habit of dismissing any cont—
Arrrrrggghhhh! Forgot you have no idea.
You flattered to deceive.
Sucker that I am, I fell for it. For one and a half sentences.
Germans compare U.S. snooping to Stasi
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/statuses/351108326500741120
Here we go. Looks like the National Party’s clients aren’t satisfied with public-funded private schools.
And I’m pretty sure that research has proved the exact opposite. No amount of teaching can overcome the inherent disadvantages associated with poverty.
This seems to be one of John Key’s can find someone else to to say the opposite of what the research shows that we saw on the HardTalk interview.
David Shearer appeared on a special edition of TV3’s The Nation and said: “I’ve asked my colleagues and they haven’t heard anything about it [leadership challenge]”.
“I can’t comment any further when I don’t know who this person is.”
Shearer should ask Beltway Grant again. The ABC’c are now turning on Shearer.
Time for the Natz to have a “Popcorn and Coke” moment.
Time for Labour people to get ready for an early General Election.
Asked his colleagues?
Was that his colleague he sees in the mirror?
That is an odd word to use ‘colleague’ in that context.
To me it implies someone who is somewhat distant from the people he is referring to – his caucus.
Surely if everything was tickity boo he would have said I have spoken to all my caucus members and none of them know anything about a challenge.
It kind of feels like Shearer is feeling isolated within his party – must be like Chinese water torture.
I sense your concern. It’s so sincere.
And if Shonky calls an early election prepare for the landslide of the century. Labour will still be infighting on election night.
Australian Labor primary vote highest in 6 months, Abbott fades in Newspoll
QED.
http://www.afr.com/p/business/sunday/labor_primary_vote_highest_in_months_WvmlVKXyNbjYaibVG32v4O
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/kevin-rudd-once-again-running-the-nation-from-his-back-deck-in-brisbane8217s-norman-park/story-fnii5v70-1226672194878
“The ABC’c are now turning on Shearer.”
[citation needed]
So far we have Gower and Hooton making the claim (and they both have their own agendas that don’t serve the left), and some internet speculation. Anything else?
Someone has been leaking Labour’s internal polling to the gallery for about a month now.
Well Gower has to find something juicy to report/make up.
Gower’s not making it up. He’s protecting his source. Close your eyes and imagine Shearer in a leaders debate then decide whether he’s making it up or not.
It is a narrative which suits their cause.
I believe that the National party is increasingly in election mode, suggesting that it may call a snap election – blindsiding the NZLP and (perhaps mercifully) ending Shearers incumbency.
Key and Smith in recent public appearances have been demonising Greens as ‘radical’ (substituting greens for reds under the bed). This momentum only makes sense if soon exploited in a snap poll.
I have just received a questionnaire in my letter box from my local National Party candidate enquiring about
1. “.. issues that are most important to you”,
2. “What is the most important issue to you ?” and
3. “Please tick one of the following options”
“I ALWAYS support the following political party [blah, blah, blah]
OR I USUALLY support the following political party [ditto]
OR I don’t support any political party in particular”
.. which suggests that they are profiling the electorate or electorates in order to effectively target election campaigning and resources when it is called.
In an age of instant communication, mobile smartphones, text, and internet execution is connected, dynamic, agile, and responsive.
Goff and Shearer belong to an older generation of politicos. Key belongs to a younger tech-savvy generation, with socially autistic and libertarian leanings.
The Australian economy has been recently described as a “property credit bubble depending on the Chinese economy which itself depends on a credit bubble” suggesting that a hard landing may be ahead .. been across the Tasman recently ?
Good luck.
Parliamentary crest onnit by any chance? Not sure it should have with those questions on it.
We got one from Paula Bennett – pretty sure it had the logo/crest attached. It got dispatched immediately to the recycling bin – I didn’t need the NActs to have any information from this household, the questions were totally intrusive.
What does the crest look like? Is it “NZ” encircled by a band with “house of representatives” and the crown on top? If so, yes, it has the crest on it.
That’s the one.
these Qs look dodgy to me :
“I ALWAYS support the following political party [blah, blah, blah]
OR I USUALLY support the following political party [ditto]
OR I don’t support any political party in particular”
It’s a push poll, so it won’t provide them with any useful information. If its intention is to reassure the morons who vote for them that they’re being listened to I suppose that might work.
It’s to get emails and more importantlty addresses to match up agin the electoral toll. Put dots on maps, turn out the vote.
Hey, that’s an idea. Perhaps I’ll fill it in after all, see if I can get myself recruited 😈
If it’s got the parlimentary crest on it, does that mean the information they gather belongs to the country not NACT?
Nope, just means we paid for it. Parliamentary services, so not OIAable AFAIK
“House of Representatives” encircled around large font “NZ” with diagram of the Crown of Queen Elizabeth dominating the border at the top.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Queen_Elizabeth
Yes, but that doesn’t really mean anything – electioneering starts quite awhile before the election. It’s why Labour changed the electioneering period from 6 weeks to January 1st of election year. At the time National had just proved that electioneering starts months before hand. It’s also why National changed it back – they’d have to account for the spend if they hadn’t.
Yes and the issues listed that you had to rank read like the slogans you will hear in the campaign.
Shearer: “I can’t comment any further when I don’t know who this person is.”
Eh? How does that work? He can’t comment on the allegation that someone in his caucus said it?
Whatever. He can’t comment because he’s not allowed to.
Funnily enough, a number of suspects have been in the same spotlight (being asked to answer to allegations of unknown origin). Regardless of their guilt or innocence, their best option is to say “no comment”. Why? Because without knowing the source and exactly what was alleged, one can’t distinguish between the actual allegation and hopeful fishing by the interviewer.
Or “Gower won’t tell me who it is so he must be making it up.” Watertight logic, Shearer-style.
So every rumour gower has repeated using unnamed MPs as a source has been correct? I’m thinking about something around conference-time last year…
Sure, but this time Shearer’s performance must make the odds pretty high. If the TAB were running a book I’d put my house on it being true.
I believe you might be able to place bets on iPredict…
What are the odds? 100 to 1 that Gower made it up, and money back if he didn’t?
no idea. They run it like a sharemarkety thing I think.
I don’t recommend betting your house, though.
No I wouldn’t bet the house, but then no-one’s likely to ask me to.
Unfortunately for Shearer, he doesn’t seem to want to “bet the house” either.
Well, he wants at least 61 seats for him and his friends, so of course he’d need a house to put them in.
I would. Isn’t it bleedin’ obvious Shearer’s the problem? Money for jam.
I can understand why we are such a close intelligence partner of the USA. Revelations that the US has attacked EU diplomatic missions in DC and in New York, in direct contravention of the Vienna Convention, are leading papers all through Europe. French, Italian and Greek diplomatic cables were also targetted. Germany the largest target. European officials are calling for abandonment of upcoming trade talks with the US.
The news is nowhere to be seen on the NZ Herald online front page. Something about Kiwisaver help for buying homes leads. This must be why we are “trusted”.
But it’s ok when Wikileaks releases US diplomatic comuniques apparently – well that’s fair and balanced then /sarc
If they have nothing to hide they should have nothing to fear
Irrelevant, but thanks.
Entirely relevant actually. The thing about secretly acquired information is that it is secret. It is not being broadcast to all and sundry by amateurs. And while I don’t approve of spying on one’s own citizens, foreign intelligence is a very different matter.
Note how the “foreigners” e.g. the Germans, Italian and the French, think that excuse is a crock.
Further, the US system doesn’t just spy on the activities of those foreign governments, it spies on the activities of ordinary citizens within those countries as well, which is quite a different matter from states spying on states.
Well that’s been proven wrong. Haven’t you noticed.
That would be the French who sent their special forces to blow up the Rainbow Warrior in one of our ports. I’m sure they’re not beyond a bit of spying.
lol
Rubbish Pops. Spying is an act of war. Hence “The Art of War” devoting an entire chapter to it.
And everybody does it. Hence the specs for the footprint of Australia’s JMA weather satellite expands further in our direction than Canberra would prefer to be widely known, China and Russia are hacking everyone in sight, and New Zealand civilians who are likely to be going anywhere commercially interesting usually get a briefing by NZSIS to keep their eyes open. In that kind of environment you would be insane NOT to be spying.
P1: sucker. They have all your passwords and all your logins. Enjoy.
Probably – but then I’m highly unlikely to be of much interest because I’m not a sad, ageing Che Guevara wannabe like you – but if they have all my passwords and logins, they almost certainly have all yours too. C’est la vie – my generation is pretty much used to the idea that access to the web runs both ways.
Cheese eating surrender monkey.
lol
A tad more seriously Pop1, the constant and endemic surveillance of citizens in the Eastern Bloc was one reason that innovation and creativity wilted there. Trust quickly disappears, and taking a risk disappears too – especially when you realise that risk could come back and haunt you forever, with data in whoever’s hands.
A panoptical surveillance state undermines the fundamental, essential basis for modern western civilisation.
access to the web runs both ways
eh? So am I the only one who doesn’t have access to everyone else’s passwords and login?
Missing a logical step somewhere.
Ask a hacker to get them for you, in anycase it’s a cultural thing. Using a service like Google or Facebook, for example, is a tacit agreement to have your data monitored for patterns. Common knowledge for many years now. Why wouldn’t governments be doing it on a larger scale.
So, Pop, is “your” generation the same as that of Bradley Manning (born 1987) and/or Edward Snowden (born 1983)?
And no – the decade before, without the overweening sense of entitlement, and clear memories of the tale end of the Cold War.
And no – the decade before, without the overweening sense of entitlement, and clear memories of the tale end of the Cold War.
So now Manning and Snowden have an “overweening sense of entitlement” to add to their list of grievous human rights abuses, which include “a narcissistic personality disorder and fantasies of being James Bond”, seeking “international media martyrdom”, and fleeing to Hong Kong. Not to mention the crime of being “a computer geek playing secret agent man from the safety of Chinese territory.”
(Top class analysis courtesy of Populuxe1.)
So Populuxicle’s sense of entitlement came a little later.
It must have come with his deep and meaningful understanding of EVERYTHING, as well as the answer to life and the universe.
Besides – he’s considerably RICHER than you.
And while I don’t approve of spying on one’s own citizens,
Now that is a major backflip! Just yesterday this bloke was trying to tell us that these crimes were all legal crimes. (No, I am not making that up; check out his stellar oeuvre for yourself if you have time to kill.)
I think it was about the time he was citing the moronic Australian Aborigine-baiter Keith Windschuttle as an authority in his comical bid to blacken the reputation of Noam Chomsky.
What’s that you’re saying Ms. Moroney? “Maybe it’s the fluoride in the water down that way”? Well, THAT makes as much sense as anything this bloke wrote yesterday. Hmmmmm, have you ever considered a position in academe, Ms. Moroney? Canterbury is hiring people of your calibre….
It would seem to be exactly why we are “trusted”. Because we are a bunch of dumb sheep.
Dumber than sheep in fact, as sheep are anything but dumb.
It also struck me that it was a bit low down on Al Jazeera’s news agenda.
Qatar. Who’s got a massive military base in Qatar.
New Zealand’s ratings in the Education world.
Every few months we will read/hear reports of international ratings agencies placing our education on a scale, and we don’t do too badly. But what does it all mean?
Is the child of 2013 receiving any better education than that of 1990, 1980, 1970, 1960, 1950 …?
There have been tomes written by experts on how to deliver number, writing and reading.
But has it made any difference? (I have heard it said that Maths has been dumbed down over the decades.)
We certainly don’t see any increase in the graduates of our schooling lining up at the university doors to become brain surgeons.
The question to ask therefore, given all of these changes that have swept through/and over schools, (and those of 40 years in the profession who are nearing the end of their careers have sure seen copious and many) – have they made a slight bit of difference? Yeah … naahh!
Many of the changes have been suggested and implemented by educators. The national curriculum, for example.
Check the literacy rate in 1850 if you think there’s been no improvement.
Better than 1850 no doubt. How about better than 1960?
How about it? Would you like me to Google it for you?
Look forward to the links. (I suppose literacy in IT might be one improvement – but how much of that can be put down to schooling?)
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. If you have links that show no improvement in literacy (or numeracy for that matter), since 1960, bring them.
Does it count as an improvement that students don’t get punished for using te reo in class?
And yet te reo is still in decline. Why is that?
Good question. I suspect the answer has more to do with privilege than pedagogy.
Which could be said of literacy in general too.
Well, the privileged will always enjoy innate advantages, but if literacy rates have improved among the less fortunate, that would be a result of pedagogy, no? If so, and the same pedagogical tools are used to teach te reo, then it cannot be the cause of the decline.
By pedagogy do you mean how things are taught? Literacy may have improved or declined because of that, or because of other factors, or both. Not really sure where you are going with this.
Improvements in general literacy due to changes in teaching are unlikely to improve te reo (it needs its own way of being taught).
True insofar as it goes, but my point is that teaching methods have (probably) improved; that will affect the teaching of te reo Māori as much as English, so if te reo has declined (link?) it is unlikely to be teaching methods that are the problem.
Review a few kids CVs and job application letters for starters. Then ask them to do some mental arithmetic (that’s the kind without a calculator).
What? Anecdotes? It’s sad to see a left winger using right wing “logic”.
PS: I expect people are less proficient with the chalk-board and abacus too.
Do you think that people being able to do maths with a calculator but not in their head or on paper is a loss of skill or not?
btw, I did google, because I was curious, but couldn’t find anything useful. Perhaps you might have more luck (don’t need facetious comparisons with the 1800s though, thanks).
Yeah I’m still trying to find the right search terms too 🙂
I think the ability to do sums in ones head is valuable, I also know so many younger people who can. Most of them work in retail. Anecdotes are not data, naturally, but neither are they suggestive of a decline.
This is interesting:
Until just a few years ago, home computer use was associated with a household with enough money to buy a $1500 home computer.
Well, most of the low income people on my radar get a second hand one for $150-$200 from a local computer guy.
PS: this has been going on for more than “a few years”.
“Do you think that people being able to do maths with a calculator but not in their head or on paper is a loss of skill or not?”
Yes, I do. Even the ability to do a rough estimate in their head is useful – it prevents pushing the wrong button on a calculator and not noticing that the answer is ridiculous.
And the chances are that they’ll be able to do it faster than you.
What use eduactional advancement if there is no manwomankind advancement?
What was the rate of human advancement in 1850?
What is the rate of human advancement in 2013?
Mesuspects the rate is slower today than our superiors in 1850….
can’t keep advancing forever, sometimes it’s ok to stop and enjoy where we are 🙂
Couldn’t agree more. Such a sentiment seems to be a minority view today….. gotta keep up the ponzi scheme “growth” payments don’t we …..
“Growth” (I assume you mean economic growth) is not the only opportunity for advancement.
Yes of course – was mixing up advancement in the countless other ways we have achieved, with today’s apparently sole manner of advancement, economic. We are certainly stuck in a time warp as a society today where everything is measured in economic terms (epitomised by our currnet government and Prime Minister). One day I am sure we humans will wake up once again.
Personally I am looking forward to my roses advancement this coming spring as the recent frigid and wintry conditions have coincided nicely with the shortest daze to create the perfect winter rose storm and subsequent budding and flowering in coming months ……..
Nothing wrong with advancing your ability to grow roses 🙂
Unless it’s at the expense of something else (not talking about vto here). eg creating the perfect x rose, if it means using lots of toxic chemicals, is not a useful advancement IMO. The idea that advancement is inherently good has gotten us into a lot of trouble.
You guys are questioning our current civilisation’s civil religion and orthodoxy of perpetual and infinite progress (oft disguised as “growth”). Please stop it. The middle classes will get unsettled with this kind of radical extremist talk.
‘cept the parts of the middle class that agree ;-p
Weka, that seems like sophistry to me. “Advancement” for example, in fuel economy, or battery technology, is exactly what we need. “Advancement” such as neo-liberal economic theory, not so much, in fact any sane observer would regard it as a backward step.
You familiar with the Jeavons paradox? Advancement in fuel efficiency is only useful if it leads to less use of finite resources or makes transport more affordable without negative environmental consequences. But it often doesn’t. Hence my point – advancement isn’t inherently Good. Its goodness is context specific. Some advancement is downright bad.
Then it doesn’t qualify as advancement, but I guess that’s sophistry too.
Lol, no, I think what you are doing is sophistry.
You’re the one that made the generalisation about fuel efficiency (ie fuel efficiency Is Good. I just pointed out that it depends on context, hence my point: advancement isn’t always Good.
Jevons Paradox applies to claims that fuel efficiency is “good”.
We’re at cross purposes: I meant my response was sophistry.
That’s not what got us into trouble. What got us into trouble was believing anything new was an advancement.
Fuel efficiency is good but the economic paradigm that we run our society under sees more use of fuel as good. It’s the economic paradigm that is the problem as it forces us to use more and more of the scarce resources that we’re supposed to be managing efficiently.
Do you think the Jevons paradox is only at play because of certain kinds of economies? I would think it’s embedded in human nature. Or even nature itself. It’s not like humans naturally conserve resources unless they have to.
The problem here is that the embedded energy in fossil fuels has given us a huge boost far too quickly, so the natural limits haven’t had time to kick in. Probably not long now though.
“That’s not what got us into trouble. What got us into trouble was believing anything new was an advancement.”
That implies something can only be seen to be an advancement in hindsight. Probably true some of the time, but not all of the time.
Intelligence and education can overcome that.
Actually, they do if they’re not living in capitalistic societies. IMO, overuse of resources is a learned behaviour.
Not really, it means something can only be seen as an advancement with proper research. We’ve been jumping on the new and not doing the research until after it’s been in use and then finding out that it wasn’t an advance.
“It’s not like humans naturally conserve resources unless they have to.”
“Actually, they do if they’re not living in capitalistic societies”
[citation needed] And several examples I think, from different kinds of cultures.
There are several societies that lived within the limits of their resources – Eskimos, Native North Americans, societies throughout Africa. What you see in history is that the civilisations that developed agriculture also developed capitalist systems of ownership and ever greater use, eventually leading to overuse, of resources. Jared Diamonds* Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed lists some of them and details some of the mistakes. What comes through is the overuse of resources as a main driver of the collapse of those societies.
This dichotomy would tend to indicate that it’s not human nature that causes over use but the socio-economic system that the society uses. Ones that have a hierarchical structure with private ownership have inevitably collapsed from over use of resources.
* Yes, I’m aware of the disagreements and even agree with some of them.
Hunter gatherer cultures do seem to manage much better than agricultural ones in terms of learning to live within their means. But IMO they do so because of the limits they strike, not because of some inherent ability to not exhaust their resource base. We are adapted to increase population, and we will until we cannot. I agree that human intelligence and learning can and does overcome this, but I don’t think we have something inbuilt (I could be wrong).
Tim Flannery is a good one to read on this. The Future Eaters focussed on Australasia, but he’s also written about North America, where native peoples greatly modified the natural landscape. I’m not sure whether they didn’t do markedly more damage because they learnt not to, or whether because their systems were more sustainable but not completely, and the timescales where very long so what they were doing was going to take a long time to become apparent (compared to say using up most of the easily accessibly fossil fuels within a few hundred years).
The National Curriculum – do you mean the latest document that took a good few years to create and begin to implement before it was largely circumvented by the introduction of National Standards? The document that the proposed Charter Schools will be able to ignore?
Enjoying the thread but I do not think the improvements (if any) have justified the constant upheaval caused by the directions and meddling of the ministers from above.
massive protests in Egypt today.
https://mobile.twitter.com/search?q=Egypt&s=hash
Lots of photos similar to this one : http://t.co/pTU3deO170
Brotherhood hq reportedly attacked and burning; reports of Shura members fleeing the country
People setting Muslim Brotherhood headquarters on fire .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtEl4r65YFU&feature=youtu.be
http://qz.com/99180/protestors-throughout-egypt-tell-morsi-to-leave/
http://tahrirsquared.com/node/5108
Sadness and hearsay.
https://twitter.com/nadinemarroushi/statuses/351456834109980672
So far today: 4 ppl dead in Upper Egypt, over 250 injured, and 30 women mob sexually assaulted in Tahrir Sq. The ugly side of #June30 #Egypt
https://twitter.com/HatemRushdy/status/351454081094647810
Breaking: Ahmed Gamal to be announced soon as new Minister of Interior. New constitutional declaration being drafted.
Have read a very good expose of “the free market”
““Free Market” can’t exist in reality.
If anyone promotes the “free” market, they’re actually promoting a system where the powerful can steal wealth and power from the rest of us.
If some players have significantly more power than other players, then the market can be successfully manipulated and is no longer free. If there ever is a point at which all players have about the same power/significance/influence, then the players will inevitably work to accumulate power/significance/influence. Ie. the “free” market is, at best, an initial condition, after which it works to descend into a few power centers which battle for control over the powerless.
Maybe “free” market should be replaced by “fair” market. Ie. the market actively monitored and managed to cull power accumulation. But that requires political power that’s more significant than the power of the ones that need to be culled. I guess beheadings are in order to things into a manageable initial condition.” Or a government that does not subscribe to the free market.
Indeed, it can’t, and has never existed.
The *human condition*, will not allow for it!
And it can’t be that as some people started with more wealth and power to begin with.
Interesting stuff here on the legal aspects of the US surveillance program:
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/06/30/what-happened-to-that-third-branch-oversight/
And there we have it:
City’s shares eyed for rail
National are planning to bankrupt this country and turn all of us into serfs.
^^^^Gerry Brown
Fuck off fatso. When it comes to the money, you won’t even be around, so how Auckland chooses to do it and with whom is none of your business. Also, Auckland is not a company, its a community. Selling essential infrastructure assets and
casinosharemarket IPOs to raise money is a silly idea. Other options are to borrow the funds from KiwiSaver necessary to create Auckland’s train links ourselves. Employ Aucklanders to build Auckland and then capture the created assets. Might as well take back the buses as well while we’re at it. This is about Aucklanders, not just John Key’s bankster mates.Agree 100% with that, BLiP.
Unfortunately, Auckland has already been captured, that’s what the supercity was about, IMO.
That was exactly what the SuperCity was about – giving Auckland’s wealth to the rich.
Blip
I’ll see your Auckland cards, and raise you with Christchurch planning ones. What is all this hoopla about the nz international planning standards agency refusing to recognise Christchurch’s planning procedures. Who gives this agency the right to make such pronouncements? If it takes time to plan and make safe and good decisions so be it.
Considering this hurry-up brings anxiety. This after a previous functionary in Christchurc h decided that he would follow the approved deficient approach to not enforce controls and inspections but accept assurances from self-interested companies. With disastrous results.
Now RWNJ NACTs encourage more of the same. In an area where there has been a ground-breaking disaster! They want to hurriedly decide on what to do next. Plans drawn up in a month. Buildings coming down, buildings shooting up. Statues no doubt to Brownlee and Key and inscribed building stones with their names on them.
This in a country that has not recovered from the leaky homes disgrace. When there were well-paid functionaries who should have been on top of the problem and warning NZs of the dangers. No, we had things pushed through with no oversight, no interest in facts from overseas as to the results of the bad practices we were adopting. All the time we hear about what they are doing overseas. We seem to not do anything in NZ unless they have done it first overseas. At least we could take note of what has resulted overseas! No!! Charge ahead, no worries- this our catchcry.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
blah blah – there is nothing grand and noble about being stupid arses.
So more indecent haste. Christchurch castigated, personal attention from Key and Brownlee to run the Christchurch Council plus the Environment Council (into the ground)
on top of their responsibilities to the nation. Which they are not fulfilling in anything like a satisfactory way.
Some of those well paid functionaries are most likely to be part of the problem. Some will be trying to warn us but they’re being drowned out by the others with the self-interest.
That attitude is relatively new. We used to believe that we could do anything and now all we have is a bunch of politicians saying that all we can do is bloody farming despite the fact that farming takes up less than 10% of the workforce.
Foreign jihadis at work.
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2013/06/bishops-2/
http://openparachute.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/june-13-nz-blogs-sitemeter-ranking/#more-28020
Just thought you’d like to see the stats 🙂
Wahoo number 80, baby!
Your ranking might improve if you made your blog more readable by changing from white text on black background.
Thanks for the tip, but i no where near have the brain power to change all that sort of stuff.
What would you suggest?
When you are logged in at your blog (eg to write a post), you should have access to the controls that change how it looks. I haven’t used blogger before, but I’m guessing it’s something like changing the ‘template’ or ‘skin’ (this changes the layout, colour, font style etc all in one go). You probably chose a specific template when you set the blog up, but you should be able to change it to another one now.
Maybe someone else who knows Blogger can be more specific.
Ok, looks like you download the template you want (you can try this with free ones).
eg http://btemplates.com/ or http://www.bloggerthemes.net/
This looks like the instructions for installing a new ‘theme’.
http://btemplates.com/faqs/#how-to-install-a-blogger-template
weka:
Cool thanks for the advice.
No worries. I posted another post, but it looks like the spam monster got it. Will try again…
You can download a new theme, try this with a free one first. Then you follow the instructions to install.
eg http://btemplates.com/
Instructions http://btemplates.com/faqs/#how-to-install-a-blogger-template
Again, thanks, have to have a wee play, see if i can come up with
something decent.
be careful brett – you might want to back up your blog before changing to a theme – although when I did it – it worked and backup not needed – whew!
Yeah, back up, good idea!
You can also start a dummy blog, so you can experiment without mucking up your main one.
WE and “the Big Con” – second attempt:
…. not that this is about to become some sort of campaign – rather yet another example of the bullshit artists trying it on.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30062013/#comment-655656
In tonight’s 5.30 Sky News ‘bulletin’, that $5m turns out to be $3m.
They’re going to approach the Commerce Commission apparently and are still deciding whether the costs of storm damage can be ‘absorbed’
What that tells me is that if they can’t (be absorbed), then Wellington Electricity must be in pretty bad shape!.
As I pointed out – in the link – or at least tried to get across – is that $3m in the overall scheme of things is Sweet Fcuk All, and if that amount can’t be absorbed without an increase in power charges, then it says more about management than it does the actual state of their ‘network.
They try it on at EVERY opportunity!
If they can’t absorb such a cost, then maybe a return to a Municipal Electricity Department – with a Webb Street Depot that contained all the spare parts necessary, and a crew that could respond in a damn sight less time that has occurred to correct faults (one that had an actual concern for “consumers”; didn’t have to rely on bullshit artsists rehearsed in call centre spin; and all the rest of it; with Heads of Departments/CEO’s that were paid adequately – rather than excessively; who didn’t try to shunt their costs of doing “biznuss” onto the self-employed, paid-by-incident, ready/needing-to scam contractor) would be a better alternative.
The privatisation of natural monopolies?? More Fektiv in Fishint in Cow-nable?
I think not.
There’s a theme developing that Shearer’s “two months’ notice” is just Gower being Gower. Not true:
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/corin-dann-crucial-two-months-david-shearer-5478908?ref=rss
Two MPs are cited, similar language used. Clearly somebody was blabbing to the journos.
Sure, Gower is a slimeball who thinks politics is all about him. That doesn’t somehow make Shearer’s MPs a disciplined team. They aren’t.
It appears there’s definitely some undermining afoot-just spotted this comment over on kiwi blog: RF says ‘Just had a phone call from a usually reliable source within Labours ranks. Recent Internal polling has put them in the high 20s and this is causing problems for Shearer who is in denial. In spite of him claiming that his caucus is happy with him. Bull shit.’ Wonder if the source is the same as the journos? I read somewhere else (?) about internal polling being leaked. Seems pretty nasty on the inside… Why would I want to view for any of them again?
Takeover NZ . This was the title of a book written by the late Dr Bill Sutch decades ago.
and its what this National Govt is trying to do with local govt. It tried with SuperCity Auckland
and didn’t quite succeed because Len Brown and his progressive mates got in the way.
It did it with ECAN, and right now – according to TV3 news tonight – and Campbell Live – this govt is trying it again with Christchurch City. They gave Chch City the targets for getting building consents processed, they gave them a deadline. Chch City met those targets and that deadline, but now the accreditation agency says that’s not enough. They’ll call in private experts if the City can’t meet the new requirements next week. Privatisation of local govt – that’s what’s on the cards right now …..privatisation of all the infrastructure that big business has wanted to get its hands on, and the profits it generates, for years. And this govt is trying to hand it to big bus on a plate. I hope like heck that Ch’ch continues to meet the shifting targets and slippery deadlines as it battles not only to re-build its city, but also the govt takeover. Good luck to Ch’ch. Dont let the bastards take over.
This government’s approach to Christchurch City Council and the issue of consents is the most abhorrent lying fucking stinking bullshit yet by this government, and that is really saying something. Fuck Key and Brownlee and their cheap-arse mule they ride in on. I hope they fall into it and eat shit for the rest of their days.
It is a fucking quiet revolution we are being subjected to.
And a sneaky fucking revolution.
And I hope that they publish all the shifting targets and other corruption that this government is participating in.
Kim Dotcom to tell the PM what’s wrong with his GCSB Bill on Wednesday.
PS: This was my line and shouldn’t be part of the above quote:
I guess this little tete a tete won’t be televised?
marty mars:
Thanks for the advice, going be very careful and try when im good and
rested.
Update: Native Affairs has unconfirmed reports that Sharples has stood down as leader of the Maori Party. Now it’s on The Herald. Too little too late.
Sad and surprised, he was a great politician.
He could have been a great politician, but he fell in with a bad crowd.
heh. bad things result from going into government with key the trickster.