THE ENVIRONMENT….
“Fracking. I’ve read a few articles in the Economist on it, and I’m okay with it, as long as it’s done safely.”— Larry Williams, 29 August 2012
THE NEED FOR INTELLIGENT PUBLIC DEBATE….
“I’m here to make people think. That’s all I want.” — Mike Hosking, 30 August 2012
THE GAY MARRIAGE BILL….
“All this talk about rights. Do I have the right to walk into a women’s toilet?”—Leighton Smith, 30 August 2012
He wouldn’t be able to be such a shit stirrer if he hadn’t been treated so abysmally by the Auckland National Party elite, who have been shown to be a bunch of craven cads and dishonourable in their dealings. The whole shameful treatment of Mr. Dotcom by people he clearly considered were his friends but who were really only mongrels with cupboard love and nice suits to my my mind cracks the edge of the manhole cover and allows us a glimpse into the sewer that is the inner machinations of that class of rich, conservative Aucklanders who assume to rule the city.
I am sure there is something there. It is beyond comprehension that the Minister in charge of the SIS would only have been told about a pending raid on the day of the raid.
It is also unbelievable that a free spending multi millionaire who made a major donation to a right wing politician would not have wanted to meet the PM. I quite like Kim and mean this in the nicest way but he does appear to be the sort of person who wants to mix with the rich and powerful and why wouldn’t he have met Key?
Two questions that I would love to have the answers to:
1. Did he actually meet Key and when?
2. Has he donated money to the National Party?
Excellent, I have maintained for months that ShonKey lied on “Campbell Live” about being unaware of Mr Dotcom’s existence till the day of the raid because of his SIS link and the FBI involvement.
And he dropped himself in it with his earlier remarks that he definitely didn’t meet Dotcom and if he had, he definitely would have remembered such an unusual name.
Key said he had never heard of Dotcom till the day before the raids. So according to the hearing I went to, the FBI were here in New Zealand in September and October 2011, we have the copyright dude and lots of others travelling here, and not one person mentioned this to the Prime Minister?
Also just about everyone in Auckland knew Dotcom had paid for the New Years eve fireworks at SkyCity (you know, Sky City, good friends of the PM), yet John Key hadn’t heard that?
And that’s not even to mention the gymnastics that took place so John Key could avoid any constituency work relating to Dotcom.
Don’t get me wrong – I’d love to see dotcom expose Key – but he’s always known the score.
There is no love lost between rich and powerful men when one of them is scorned. Dotcom is that one. He’s as bad as the rest, it’s just his interests coincide with ours at the moment. It doesn’t make him some sort of Everyman hero.
Dotcom will be the gift that keeps on giving, he’s smart, well resourced and understands the necessity of backup and redundancy in times of disaster.
Santuary sums it up nicely and what an arrogant foolish lot if they thought they could treat him like this, guess that’s what happens when you didn’t go to the right schools and clubs and have that automatic ‘get off scot free’ card that Blinky carries.
Wonder if Kim has some evidence that proves beyond all doubt Key’s a lying SOB he’d like to share with us all, come on Kim they will never ever be trustworthy but you know that already.
Brilliant! Thanks for that. The comments section underneath it is interesting: that bloke calling himself UNI (“Another impressive interview in a row by John Key..”) seems so bewildered and doctrinaire that I suspect he is actually our friend “Gosman”.
This article takes up most of the front page of today’s hard copy of the west Auckland paper, Western Leader. It’s about the dire housing shortage, especially affordable and safe housing for families in west Auckland – and the inadequate government plans to deal with it.
A whopping $45 million being spent on state housing in Auckland within the next three years won’t lead to more homes.
Housing New Zealand is spending the funds on refurbishing and upgrading 80 existing houses, including 68 in West Auckland. It’ll then subdivide the land and sell to developers to build private rental properties and community housing.
Half of the homes will be refurbished and others will be demolished and rebuilt, meaning the number of state houses available remains the same.
…
Henderson Salvation Army operations manager Rhondda Middleton says Housing New Zealand’s latest project does not help what she describes as the worst housing crises she’s ever seen.
“We have four or five families come in here every week who are in desperate need of affordable housing and there just isn’t enough to go around,” she says.
“Some people are taking months to find houses and in the meantime they have to resort to caravan parks or living in incredibly cramped situations with extended family.”
Carol, yesterday I was wondering if MSM are very slowly waking up to the fact we have a crisis in NZ. In the space of a week the Dom Post had 2 stories about families in Porirua who are living in dire circumstances due to poverty wages and two weeks prior to that the Dom had Deborah Russell’s welcome and refreshing piece regarding our prejudiced attitudes around beneficiaries. In each three instances however, fairfax had the comments section turned on which unleashed the usual contempt and misunderstanding that is prevelant within a sector of the public. It’s so upsetting to read those vile comments. Its highlights the selfish nastiness within our society. With voters like no wonder we have a National govt.
Yes, it’s dispiriting to read some of those nasty comments, Rosie.
I think decades of neoliberal propaganda has fed such beliefs – not just through direct bennie-bashing by politicians and the MSM, but through the underlying myths about individualism, meritocracy etc.
It’ll take a long time to turn the general public away from such destructive ways of thinking.
Advancing on merit ended with Thatcher, when monetarism forced on us by gushing cheap middle eastern oil emerged to dominant the polis. Better government would have been the
answer, but instead we got thirty years of right and left wing government bad, profits good.
If we keep dumb-ing down government any parent can eventually sell their kid into slavery,
well we have, we just did not do it explicitly, we just borrowed and borrowed…
…neo-liberals didn’t just build endless inefficient sprawl but also elevated zombies into power.
The global market failure is due to the mismatch between the perceived needs and the
real current results of current socio-economics. The demand-supply mismatch. We
as a people do not want to gift our children a hell on earth.
New from International Labour Rights Forum: Freedom at work: Democracy and ecomony for all
This will be a good resource to read if you’re interested in global Labour Rights/Union news. This is fresh from the inbox this am, so have just had a skim read. Interesting stat on page 5 though. The chart shows that voter turnout is higher in areas that have greater union density. If this is a factor in voter turnout it could be part of the reason,of which there are several, that our voters strayed away from the polling booths last year.
Gina Rinehart represents the ALP’s best chance of retaining power in Australia. Because she is really, really scary. Her particular mix of belligerent stupidity and gross superiority is bad enough, but her desire to affect Australian politics makes Rupert Murdoch look like a weak wristed Social Democrat.
Her latest pronouncements include:
1. Those who are jealous of the wealthy should start working harder and cut down on drinking, smoking and socializing, and although not mentioned it helps if their father leaves them valuable mineral rights;
2. Billionaires like herself who were doing more than anyone to help the poor by investing their money and creating jobs;
3. The government should lower the minimum wage of $606.40 a week and cut taxes to stimulate employment.
I guess this sense of superiority is necessary because otherwise she would, or should, feel deeply ashamed for hoarding so much of the world’s wealth beyond any conceivable need.
Rinehart makes the common assumption of the disgustingly (fat) and rich, that we lowly people actually envy them. Probably a majority simply despise them. Not everybody, by any means, has a singular desire to be hugely wealthy. Most are content if they can support themselves and/or dependents without a struggle (which, of course, many NZ’ers have to do) and manage something by way of savings (or ability to meet mortgage payments).
I would want to be like Rinehart? My gosh, I would rather have never lived.
Scary physically, financially and emotionally. Born with the biggest silver spoon in Oz , sued her stepmother (Rose) , threatening her kids if they don’t come to heel so the Oz governments and the media don’t frighten her one little bit, she’s as hard as a coffin nail.
So far she’s looking like she’s destroyed Fairfax, whose management had done a fair job of ruining it under Kirk etc. 2 possibilities a) It’s likely to be split up which would make for bigger enemies with the separately rescued and owned Age (melbourne) and Sydney MH by locals keen to keep the heritage. b) she’ll sweep back in and buy the whole lot for a song.
You get a fair go in OZ, it’s part of the convict pysche that bred the ‘Aussie battler’ image or suffer the consequences and she’s pushed it out way to far.
Thanks, ’tis always good to be reminded that we do have some allies on the right, if even they can be rather fickle on expanding civil rights some times 😉
Fortunately for Australia she’s too damn thick to play teh politics properly and has a bad case of foot-in-mouth syndrome. So her rather vocal support will likely carry with it potentially negative effects 😉
This just reminds us that we “never have seen it all”. Does apartheid and its laws continue even under black African leadership? Some of us paid dearly to install this current government.
Of the 34 miners killed at Marikana, no more than a dozen of the dead were captured in news footage shot at the scene. The majority of those who died, according to surviving strikers and researchers, were killed beyond the view of cameras at a nondescript collection of boulders some 300 metres behind Wonderkop
[…]
…It is becoming clear to this reporter that heavily armed police hunted down and killed the miners in cold blood. A minority were killed in the filmed event where police claim they acted in self-defence. The rest was murder on a massive scale.
If the “World” demands Justice these charges cannot go ahead. Translate this into the NZ situation where strikes happen and could we accept it? Bizzare!
A friend has put together a site to discuss the claims the tobacco companies are making about the upcoming regulation of their packaging. For example, they think they are the thin end of the wedge: what other products might have mandated packaging requirements? Personally I’m thinking food for one, and medicine for another! (oh and booze, but that’s a whole other website 🙂
Now that we have controlled substances like laudanum, lead based makeup and sippin’ meths, cigarettes are the obvious next risky thing to control. Maybe growing for personal use will be the way to go, I don’t know. But once the pointless and dangerous addictive tobacco is controlled, food will be next on the agenda – and that’s a good thing.
I don’t care anymore about the Latte labour party. They’re f*#k’d! Having the marriage bill front & centre at a time when the country’s on it’s knees and bleeding money/debt, real unemployment at 9.1% economy is dead, asset sales & water ri
ghts are the real battle ground, the TPPA being put together in secret and has killed off any new trade deals since 2008. An incompetent government that spends money on go nowhere programmes and the Latte club can’t get a target in their sites! Roll on the Greens & Mana,NZ First coalition!
The simple reply is that, yes, there are a lot of problems, but to solve those problems we need everyone knowing they belong, before we begin to tackle the problems. We may even find some problems go away naturally once people aren’t fighting themsleves. It’s foundational work, for small cost. Smart stuff.
I don’t care anymore about the Latte labour party. They’re f*#k’d! Having the marriage bill front & centre at a time when the country’s on it’s knees and bleeding money/debt, real unemployment at 9.1% economy is dead, asset sales & water rights..
Pretty much, although I don’t blame the whole Labour party for that.. If I did, I don’t know what I’d do – the Greens are dishonest, so what would that leave? 🙁
Well V32 I think a party with a leader like George Galloway would be a great start. A principled working class party would be great as well. I think if you watch this clip by George you’d kinda see what I mean, principled & leadership & values. Isn’t that what the Labour party use to be instead of what it’s morphed into? A bunch of white lily-livered middle class tossers! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eB49BabRxk
Talking about British politicians, I just hope that he is more competent than these principled people who demand values and leadership in british politics…
It has been amusing me ever since I saw it, and I really can’t tell one british politician from another….
You must be talking about tories & the British Labour party …. with those two NZ’s Nat’s & Labour party have a lot in common? Completely f*#k’n useless!
Via the “Keeping Stock” blog, via “Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow” blog which keeps updated headlines from a variety of blogs, here is what Josie Pagani said in this week’s Listener:
“Someone on the internet says I’m a “post-modernist twit”. How would you text that insult? “U po mo”? I’ve also become an “ism”; Pagani-ism. I’d rather be a “nomics”. Do I have to destroy an economy to be known for Pagani-nomics? Those insults appeared on left-wing blogs after I defended Labour leader David Shearer when he said, and I paraphrase: “Someone who shouldn’t be on the dole shouldn’t be on the dole.” The political left needs to argue a principled case for welfare reform. People have a right to be looked after when they can’t provide for themselves, yet today if you are on a benefit, you live in poverty. You get stuck.
I’ve lived in a family where joining a gang was a way to make something of yourself. But by equating any reform with beneficiary bashing, the left has allowed the expression “welfare reform” to be owned by people who neither believe in welfare nor want to see it last another century. Postmodern Pagani-nomics stresses respect for responsibilities as well as rights.”
I have two things to say:
1. You have to wonder about the difference, if any, between PR spin and outright lies. Is there any limit to what those in the business may invent to manipulate public discourse. Josie Pagani knows perfectly well that the “anecdote” she says she was defending was not about whether “someone who shouldn’t be on the dole, shouldn’t be on the dole”. It was about whether neighbours should surveil sickness beneficiaries and assume they are fraudsters until proven otherwise. (yes I also paraphrase, but within the actual facts).
2. Given that Ms Pagani objected to Standard commenters allegedly making assumptions about her political views based on her husband’s political views, does anyone else find it ironic that she has usurped the title ‘Paganiism’ earned by her husband by his public expressions of his political views, as being due to her own efforts? I hadn’t heard of Josie Pagani until some while after I started using the phrase.
There is was so much wrong with that “man on the roof” speech, and the associated defence of it, that it is a dimspiration to us all.
The most stultifying aspect is that the defenders (well, some of them) clearly have the basic tools to examine their own arguments and find the errors and contradictions, but instead they use those basic tools to defend the errors and contradictions.
Yes, that bothers me. Shearer made a complete hash of it yesterday, trying to defend the thing but doing so in a way that had no logic whatsoever. It’s quite a twist to compromise one’s own intellectual capacity that way. God knows what that does to a person’s core self.
js’s point 1 – I think it is both – lies and spin. This isn’t just a disagreement about policy direction (although it could have been just that). She can keep defending Shearer and the path they are taking with all the spinlies she likes but Ms Pagani has no integrity at all, and there is no coming back from that.
As for welfare reform, here’s top of my list: do a proper review of the benefit abatement rules, making sure to consult with experts and stakeholders from outside the department. The biggest disincentive for sickness and other beneficiaries is the fact that taking part time work will cost them money.
Beyond that, review what contributing to society means in real terms, not just how it looks in the stats of unemployment or welfare payments. Put value on all the things that people do, not just the one’s that have a formal pay check.
<blockquoteShearer made a complete hash of it yesterday, trying to defend the thing but doing so in a way that had no logic whatsoever. It’s quite a twist to compromise one’s own intellectual capacity that way. God knows what that does to a person’s core self.
Could someone please give Shearer a light tap with a brass striker and and see if he rings.
Mentioned this a few days previous….if Pagani(s)=Labour……show over, Shonkey wins by default, or National Lite beat Shonkeys mob. We have a problem Houston.
B. Don’t forget the wishy washy middle class are a bit flakey and are starting to fall out of luv with PinoKeyo …. and are more likely to jump onto the green waka.
David Shearer’s cute little ‘sickness beneficiary’ story showed him blindly agreeing with a prejudiced bigot without knowing any of the facts of the situation.
He had no idea of the situation of the man painting his roof and made no attempt to find out his side of the story and whether he should or should not have been on a benefit. And no, painting his roof does not automatically mean he shouldn’t have been, as Bill’s excellent post here on The Standard demonstrated.
That anecdote is what you expect from the leader of the National Party, the natural home of benny bashing voters. You don’t expect it from the leader of Labour.
But the reason you don’t get all this is because, unbeknownst to you, you are in the wrong party yourself. The party that traditionally runs lines about ‘responsibility as well as rights’ is the right wing party, not the left wing one.
It’s never too late to correct your error and join National. I’m sure they will be glad to listen to Pagani-nomics.
The ‘rights and responsibilities’ bullshit needs demolishing. Beneficiaries are generally well aware of their responsibilities, or they find out pretty bloody quick – they lose income if they’re don’t. They’re also usually very aware of how much and how often their rights are disregarded by WINZ (and the Minister), because likewise, it directly affects their income. Often their right to personhood and human decency is ignored or overridden too.
What Pagani and Bennett mean by ‘responsibility’ is that beneficiaries are now supposed to take on the burden of proving they’re not a bludger. Everyone on SB is a bludger until proven otherwise just like the man painting his roof. Everyone on the dole is a bludger until they get a job. Apparently beneficiaries are now also responsible for there not being enough jobs, because if they just took on their responsibilities then there would be enough and society wouldn’t have a problem with welfare.
To give Shearer the benefit of the doubt, he probably was largely unaware of the damage done by the bludger meme to people on sickness benefit in particular. But you’d have to be a heartless bastard to not understand now that the issue has been raised.
I very much doubt Shearer has been acquainted with arguments like ours about how and why his anecdote was harmful to almost all sickness beneficiaries, and also about how his following National’s agenda in the manner he has been practising is harmful to the health of the Labour Party.
The Labour leadership could not function as it does if it was not wilfully disconnected from all centre left and left criticisms of it, and also from the wider centre-left/leftwing discourse.
There is a reason that Shearer is happy to engage with right-wing talkback audiences yet refuses to engage here or with any other wider-left medium, and why the leadership team and it’s hangers-on like to demonise us all as nasty and irrational and beyond the pale.
Js, do you mean that Ms Pagani won’t have discussed with Shearer or caucus why she is defending him or disparaging the left blogosphere over the issue?
Giovanni Tiso’s post (just linked) suggests that Shearer knows there is an issue. He interrupts the interviewer and then goes on to defend his speech without having to have the issue explained to him. Sounds like he knows enough to know there is an issue, so if he doesn’t know the detail by now, then that is willful ignorance.
He’s knows there’s an issue from a PR point of view. That’s different to understanding what the issues are.
As for Ms Pagani, if she has discussed this with Shearer at all, it will have been to sympathise with him about the “overreaction” from the likes of you and I, and possibly the best angles to mitigate the damage, imho.
I think it is difficult, from the transcript of Shearers words, to get any clear idea about what he thinks or knows about anything at all.
I very much doubt Shearer has been acquainted with arguments like ours about how and why his anecdote was harmful to almost all sickness beneficiaries
Because as as UN functionary, he was safely protected in the role as savour to the benighted, savage masses. He’s finding it really hard to realise that he’s not the white knight descending from high to save the poor savages, but a servant, a representative, put forward to champion citizens, and as such, beholden to listen to them, and if not, to be sacked.
Sorry Dave, but mago rinds tossed over the side of your truck aren’t enough. Don’t worry however, I’m sure the ghost of Marie Antoinette will console you. I’m sure that she felt that the peasants treated her unfairly too when she said some really, really sincerely intended things about eating brioche if there wasn’t enough bread to go around.
Postmodern Pagani-nomics stresses respect for responsibilities as well as rights.”
Yes, Josie, and that’s what makes you a fucking beneficiary-basher.
If I constantly add “but remember some men are rapists” to the end of every sentence I utter about sexual violence, I’m pretty sure people would start saying (not that they don’t already) “hey QoT, that sounds pretty man-hating, like you want to constantly reinforce the men = rapists idea in our heads.”
Likewise, if you feel the need to add “but people have responsibilities not to be evil bludgers!” to the end of literally every speech you make about our social welfare system, people might just start suspecting that you’re a little bit hyper-focused on the bludgers. Who aren’t actually a big problem, and whose criminality (such as exists) should never be used by an allegedly leftwing person to frame discussions of social welfare.
Because, and you know, I shouldn’t have to explain this to a politician, much less one married to a key political strategist (you know, the way the Briscoes Lady’s partner probably knows a lot about flatware), but when you frame shit in a way that benefits your opponent’s arguments, you make it easier for them to win. Duh.
If I constantly add “but remember some men are rapists” to the end of every sentence I utter about sexual violence, I’m pretty sure people would start saying (not that they don’t already) “hey QoT, that sounds pretty man-hating, like you want to constantly reinforce the men = rapists idea in our heads.”
Such a lovely self-aware sense of self deprecation.
You got it your Highness. She’s either thick as pig shit or a closet tory.
Every amoeba with half a milli-ounce of grey matter knows that the terms “individual responsibility” “welfare dependency” and “welfare reform” are the carefully-constructed propaganda-bites of the divide-and-conquer Right, to be repeated ad nauseam at each an every opportunity.
Instead of railing at the inanity and deliberate manipulation from the outset – all are as valid as, say, “employer dependency” or “taxpayer dependency” for workers and politicians – wee Jose and her cobbers have sat on their fat, worker-funded arses and now peddle the same steaming pus with bells on.
If it’s now entrenched in the voting public that you purport to woo, Josie, it means you failed. Since 1998. Either apologise and change or piss off. You too Trev, real people are hurting out here.
These members of the Labour Party who don’t mind dishing it out to beneficiaries seem oddly sensitive to criticism of themselves. Surely you only go into politics if you think you are up for facing some criticism and strongly worded disagreement. And there is something vulgar about sulking in salaried comfort because some people didn’t like the mean things you said about people whose everyday misery dwarfs your own hurt feelings.
According to an annual survey of global arms sales conducted by the Congressional Research Service, US arms sales have tripled between 2010 to 2011 to record levels. The US now accounts for over 75% of global arms deals. One commentator remarks:
“The tripling of US arms sales abroad to a record $66.3 billion is an accurate barometer of the accelerating drive to war in the Persian Gulf and on a world scale. This one violently surging sector of American exports reflects a diseased capitalist economy and society, whose financial-corporate elite resorts to militarism as a means of offsetting the overall economic decline of the United States.
…
The arms industry is massively subsidized by the American taxpayer. While the political establishment and media insist “there is no money” when it comes to jobs, decent wages, education and vital public services, endless billions are lavished on America’s merchants of death.”
This article also notes that of the US$66.3 billion in arms trades, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates account for a combined total of US$38.2 billion.
“The purchases by the monarchical regimes in the Arab world stem, on the one hand, from their reaction to the popular upheavals that were dubbed the “Arab Spring” and, on the other, from the buildup by the US and its allies for another war, this time against Iran.”
closer to home I listened to Chrtis Trotter yesterday express grave doubts about the constitutional advisory panel.googled it this morning and it
looks like they are going to try and dream one up of their own and then foist it on us with a bit of consultation at the end of their deliberations just to make it look good.
corporatist authoritarian post modernism at its worst.
just about to listen to Mitt Romney address the RNC. After listening to that snake Ryan yesterday I am looking forward to hearing Romney lie to me also.
Oh. OK. Washington Post wouldn’t make it up.
The underlying message though is “Beware of those who make great promises. They all do that but only a few actually intend to action let alone actually achieve what they promised.”
Watching his gruesome performance, it is clear that the doddering Eastwood has pretty much lost his marbles. However, whoever wrote his lines for him did insert some provocations that need to be addressed. I’ll deal with just the most idiotic of them….
You know they are all left wingers out there, left of Lenin.
“Left of Lenin”? Clearly Eastwood’s script-writer knows nothing about Lenin’s politics. Lenin’s utter contempt for democracy has far more in common with the braindead flag-wavers in that convention hall than it does with any Hollywood “liberals”.
OK, I thought maybe it was just because somebody had the stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown New York City.
Eastwood clearly doesn’t have a clue, and could not care less, but surely his scriptwriter (David Frum? Donald Trump? Gerry Seinfeld?) knows that many, perhaps most, of the captives in Guantanamo Bay are not terrorists. They are captives, illegally held without charges in defiance of international law. Not that Clint Eastwood or the zombies in the audience would care, of course.
Of course we all now Biden is the intellect of the Democratic party.
(LAUGHTER)
Kind of a grin with a body behind it.
(LAUGHTER)
Whoever wrote those unfunny quips was pretty cheeky to write them for someone best summed up as a scowl with a body behind it.
Earlier on in the week yeshe posted a link to a herald article about a govt funded gene technology agri business meeting going on with all the big players from the various bio tech companies. We had a bit of a chat about it.
Gee. I wonder if they sat around the table and said “theres a bit of an image problem with introducing GE food crops to NZ, what shall we do?” “I know, we’ll get our buddies at Fearfux to write some pro GE PR material and label those who oppose it ‘luddites’ to make them look bad”
I think that article translates to: All these other countries are doing it and so we should to despite the fact that some of our largest markets (the EU) is predominantly against GMO and the fact that using natural plants doesn’t come with a patent cost. Also the fact that research is showing that GMO crops aren’t as good as advertised either.
Unfortunately this kind of corrupt judgement makes people lose all faith in the justice system as it clearly shows there’s one law for the rich and another for the rest of us…
Unfortunately this kind of corrupt judgement makes people lose all faith in the justice system as it clearly shows there’s one law for the rich and another for the rest of us…
Absolutely! I read the account in the Herald – what a disgusting man – did he have no idea how he sounded?
An eye witness has also come out and slammed the idiot judge. I really do hope Kim takes up Dr Michael Kidd’s offer to appeal Raoul Neave’s decision. What a travesty of justice.
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 ...
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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 ...
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This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“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 to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
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 ...
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 ...
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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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, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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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” ...
As a young gymnast, Aimee Didierjean was always conscious of making sure her underwear wasn’t showing on the competition floor. A peek of a bra strap, or briefs if a leotard rode up, would cost a gymnast points in her routines. “When I was growing and going through puberty, it ...
Jubi/West Papua Daily Repeated cases of Indonesian military (TNI) soldiers torturing civilians in Papua have been evident, as seen in the viral video depicting the torture of civilians in the Puncak Regency allegedly done by soldiers of Raider 300/Brajawijaya Infantry Battalion. There is a pressing need for stringent law enforcement ...
Great Minds Grapple With The Great Issues
THE ENVIRONMENT….
“Fracking. I’ve read a few articles in the Economist on it, and I’m okay with it, as long as it’s done safely.”— Larry Williams, 29 August 2012
THE NEED FOR INTELLIGENT PUBLIC DEBATE….
“I’m here to make people think. That’s all I want.” — Mike Hosking, 30 August 2012
THE GAY MARRIAGE BILL….
“All this talk about rights. Do I have the right to walk into a women’s toilet?”—Leighton Smith, 30 August 2012
NewstalkZB. Tune Your Mind.
Three dimwitted, dismal and doleful dunces there, Morrissey.
Two questions: How on earth can you listen to such dopey fellows? And: Why do you listen to them?
That Mr DotCom appears to be somewhat of an epic shitstirrer au.
https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/241239891843878912
He wouldn’t be able to be such a shit stirrer if he hadn’t been treated so abysmally by the Auckland National Party elite, who have been shown to be a bunch of craven cads and dishonourable in their dealings. The whole shameful treatment of Mr. Dotcom by people he clearly considered were his friends but who were really only mongrels with cupboard love and nice suits to my my mind cracks the edge of the manhole cover and allows us a glimpse into the sewer that is the inner machinations of that class of rich, conservative Aucklanders who assume to rule the city.
I am sure there is something there. It is beyond comprehension that the Minister in charge of the SIS would only have been told about a pending raid on the day of the raid.
It is also unbelievable that a free spending multi millionaire who made a major donation to a right wing politician would not have wanted to meet the PM. I quite like Kim and mean this in the nicest way but he does appear to be the sort of person who wants to mix with the rich and powerful and why wouldn’t he have met Key?
Two questions that I would love to have the answers to:
1. Did he actually meet Key and when?
2. Has he donated money to the National Party?
Sounds like we may know soon.
Excellent, I have maintained for months that ShonKey lied on “Campbell Live” about being unaware of Mr Dotcom’s existence till the day of the raid because of his SIS link and the FBI involvement.
He was mummbling so he was lying.
Just like when he lied about armoured vehicles he looked very old and shifty eyed when lied there.
Well if he didn’t know about it I’m Vladimir Putin !
So he’s a cheap little fibber and one day he gonna get caught out bad.
Sir Kiwi Kim Dotcom may well be the lie detector.
Definitely lying on Campbell Live.
And he dropped himself in it with his earlier remarks that he definitely didn’t meet Dotcom and if he had, he definitely would have remembered such an unusual name.
Key said he had never heard of Dotcom till the day before the raids. So according to the hearing I went to, the FBI were here in New Zealand in September and October 2011, we have the copyright dude and lots of others travelling here, and not one person mentioned this to the Prime Minister?
Also just about everyone in Auckland knew Dotcom had paid for the New Years eve fireworks at SkyCity (you know, Sky City, good friends of the PM), yet John Key hadn’t heard that?
And that’s not even to mention the gymnastics that took place so John Key could avoid any constituency work relating to Dotcom.
but he does appear to be the sort of person who wants to mix with the rich and powerful
Should read: was the sort of person who wants to mix with the rich and powerful.
Now he knows what s—ts the rich and powerful are, he might like to throw a few campaign dimes in the way of the opposition parties. 🙂
Don’t get me wrong – I’d love to see dotcom expose Key – but he’s always known the score.
There is no love lost between rich and powerful men when one of them is scorned. Dotcom is that one. He’s as bad as the rest, it’s just his interests coincide with ours at the moment. It doesn’t make him some sort of Everyman hero.
Dotcom will be the gift that keeps on giving, he’s smart, well resourced and understands the necessity of backup and redundancy in times of disaster.
Santuary sums it up nicely and what an arrogant foolish lot if they thought they could treat him like this, guess that’s what happens when you didn’t go to the right schools and clubs and have that automatic ‘get off scot free’ card that Blinky carries.
Wonder if Kim has some evidence that proves beyond all doubt Key’s a lying SOB he’d like to share with us all, come on Kim they will never ever be trustworthy but you know that already.
Brilliant! Thanks for that. The comments section underneath it is interesting: that bloke calling himself UNI (“Another impressive interview in a row by John Key..”) seems so bewildered and doctrinaire that I suspect he is actually our friend “Gosman”.
This article takes up most of the front page of today’s hard copy of the west Auckland paper, Western Leader. It’s about the dire housing shortage, especially affordable and safe housing for families in west Auckland – and the inadequate government plans to deal with it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/7578075/Desperate-for-a-home
Carol, yesterday I was wondering if MSM are very slowly waking up to the fact we have a crisis in NZ. In the space of a week the Dom Post had 2 stories about families in Porirua who are living in dire circumstances due to poverty wages and two weeks prior to that the Dom had Deborah Russell’s welcome and refreshing piece regarding our prejudiced attitudes around beneficiaries. In each three instances however, fairfax had the comments section turned on which unleashed the usual contempt and misunderstanding that is prevelant within a sector of the public. It’s so upsetting to read those vile comments. Its highlights the selfish nastiness within our society. With voters like no wonder we have a National govt.
Yes, it’s dispiriting to read some of those nasty comments, Rosie.
I think decades of neoliberal propaganda has fed such beliefs – not just through direct bennie-bashing by politicians and the MSM, but through the underlying myths about individualism, meritocracy etc.
It’ll take a long time to turn the general public away from such destructive ways of thinking.
Advancing on merit ended with Thatcher, when monetarism forced on us by gushing cheap middle eastern oil emerged to dominant the polis. Better government would have been the
answer, but instead we got thirty years of right and left wing government bad, profits good.
If we keep dumb-ing down government any parent can eventually sell their kid into slavery,
well we have, we just did not do it explicitly, we just borrowed and borrowed…
…neo-liberals didn’t just build endless inefficient sprawl but also elevated zombies into power.
The global market failure is due to the mismatch between the perceived needs and the
real current results of current socio-economics. The demand-supply mismatch. We
as a people do not want to gift our children a hell on earth.
Go read Debunking Economics. In it Keen points out that the supply curve of neo-liberalism doesn’t apply.
Has Collins at last been shown to be fluff?
Looks like a complete fail on her “get tough” on alcohol measures.
No change, by all accounts,
Didn’t she say once “You know me, I never back down” or was that someone else.
She will be crushing ice for her cock tails
Don’t be silly, the crushed ice will just magically appear in her cocktails when she speaks to the air.
New from International Labour Rights Forum: Freedom at work: Democracy and ecomony for all
This will be a good resource to read if you’re interested in global Labour Rights/Union news. This is fresh from the inbox this am, so have just had a skim read. Interesting stat on page 5 though. The chart shows that voter turnout is higher in areas that have greater union density. If this is a factor in voter turnout it could be part of the reason,of which there are several, that our voters strayed away from the polling booths last year.
http://laborrights.org/sites/default/files/publications-and-resources/FAW2012.pdf
Gina Rinehart represents the ALP’s best chance of retaining power in Australia. Because she is really, really scary. Her particular mix of belligerent stupidity and gross superiority is bad enough, but her desire to affect Australian politics makes Rupert Murdoch look like a weak wristed Social Democrat.
Her latest pronouncements include:
1. Those who are jealous of the wealthy should start working harder and cut down on drinking, smoking and socializing, and although not mentioned it helps if their father leaves them valuable mineral rights;
2. Billionaires like herself who were doing more than anyone to help the poor by investing their money and creating jobs;
3. The government should lower the minimum wage of $606.40 a week and cut taxes to stimulate employment.
I guess this sense of superiority is necessary because otherwise she would, or should, feel deeply ashamed for hoarding so much of the world’s wealth beyond any conceivable need.
Gina Rinehart’s formula for success:
1. Work harder.
2. Drink less.
3. Inherit a billion dollars.
Rinehart makes the common assumption of the disgustingly (fat) and rich, that we lowly people actually envy them. Probably a majority simply despise them. Not everybody, by any means, has a singular desire to be hugely wealthy. Most are content if they can support themselves and/or dependents without a struggle (which, of course, many NZ’ers have to do) and manage something by way of savings (or ability to meet mortgage payments).
I would want to be like Rinehart? My gosh, I would rather have never lived.
Inherit billions that was a fluke of her farther landing his plane on the hammersley ranges in a violent rain storm an accidently finding iron ore.
Scary physically, financially and emotionally. Born with the biggest silver spoon in Oz , sued her stepmother (Rose) , threatening her kids if they don’t come to heel so the Oz governments and the media don’t frighten her one little bit, she’s as hard as a coffin nail.
So far she’s looking like she’s destroyed Fairfax, whose management had done a fair job of ruining it under Kirk etc. 2 possibilities a) It’s likely to be split up which would make for bigger enemies with the separately rescued and owned Age (melbourne) and Sydney MH by locals keen to keep the heritage. b) she’ll sweep back in and buy the whole lot for a song.
You get a fair go in OZ, it’s part of the convict pysche that bred the ‘Aussie battler’ image or suffer the consequences and she’s pushed it out way to far.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/revolt-of-the-rich/
Yep
Thanks, ’tis always good to be reminded that we do have some allies on the right, if even they can be rather fickle on expanding civil rights some times 😉
Look who she inherited the mines from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RV9reCDbY
Fortunately for Australia she’s too damn thick to play teh politics properly and has a bad case of foot-in-mouth syndrome. So her rather vocal support will likely carry with it potentially negative effects 😉
Crazy shit, several hundred SA miners get arrested and charged with murder re the striking miners the cops shot!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19424484
Yep and using the old apartheid law of “common purpose”. There is something deeply unsettling here.
This just reminds us that we “never have seen it all”. Does apartheid and its laws continue even under black African leadership? Some of us paid dearly to install this current government.
The elite will not have their rule challenged, no matter what colour they are.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss 🙁
The unacceptable face of capitalism never left.
http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-08-30-the-murder-fields-of-marikana-the-cold-murder-fields-of-marikana
Of the 34 miners killed at Marikana, no more than a dozen of the dead were captured in news footage shot at the scene. The majority of those who died, according to surviving strikers and researchers, were killed beyond the view of cameras at a nondescript collection of boulders some 300 metres behind Wonderkop
[…]
…It is becoming clear to this reporter that heavily armed police hunted down and killed the miners in cold blood. A minority were killed in the filmed event where police claim they acted in self-defence. The rest was murder on a massive scale.
edit: http://news.linktv.org/videos/police-open-fire-on-south-african-miners-dramatic-footage
If the “World” demands Justice these charges cannot go ahead. Translate this into the NZ situation where strikes happen and could we accept it? Bizzare!
A friend has put together a site to discuss the claims the tobacco companies are making about the upcoming regulation of their packaging. For example, they think they are the thin end of the wedge: what other products might have mandated packaging requirements? Personally I’m thinking food for one, and medicine for another! (oh and booze, but that’s a whole other website 🙂
its at http://www.agree2disagree.co.nz/ (witty, n’est pas?)
Cool – have posted some apt comments already! Great to see some web activism against big tobacco.
plain packaging on harmful foods and alcohol would be great
Now that we have controlled substances like laudanum, lead based makeup and sippin’ meths, cigarettes are the obvious next risky thing to control. Maybe growing for personal use will be the way to go, I don’t know. But once the pointless and dangerous addictive tobacco is controlled, food will be next on the agenda – and that’s a good thing.
There be dragons: been there this week. We’ve had a show trial: subject closed.
The simple reply is that, yes, there are a lot of problems, but to solve those problems we need everyone knowing they belong, before we begin to tackle the problems. We may even find some problems go away naturally once people aren’t fighting themsleves. It’s foundational work, for small cost. Smart stuff.
culture deceptive
nations instruments
(welcome the PRC; is on the Way round)
Ah, I see you don’t understand how Parliament works. Carry on then.
Pretty much, although I don’t blame the whole Labour party for that.. If I did, I don’t know what I’d do – the Greens are dishonest, so what would that leave? 🙁
Well V32 I think a party with a leader like George Galloway would be a great start. A principled working class party would be great as well. I think if you watch this clip by George you’d kinda see what I mean, principled & leadership & values. Isn’t that what the Labour party use to be instead of what it’s morphed into? A bunch of white lily-livered middle class tossers! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eB49BabRxk
Talking about British politicians, I just hope that he is more competent than these principled people who demand values and leadership in british politics…
It has been amusing me ever since I saw it, and I really can’t tell one british politician from another….
You must be talking about tories & the British Labour party …. with those two NZ’s Nat’s & Labour party have a lot in common? Completely f*#k’n useless!
You must be talking about tories & the British Labour party
Not if the number plates and Brit nationalistic graphics are anything to go by.
Note also the short haircuts, T-shirts and bovver boots.
Yep, it’s the BNP. When you’re the master race you don’t need to read no stinking signs, eh!
Yes, indeed! I do favour Galloway… Thanks for the link.. 🙂
Via the “Keeping Stock” blog, via “Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow” blog which keeps updated headlines from a variety of blogs, here is what Josie Pagani said in this week’s Listener:
“Someone on the internet says I’m a “post-modernist twit”. How would you text that insult? “U po mo”? I’ve also become an “ism”; Pagani-ism. I’d rather be a “nomics”. Do I have to destroy an economy to be known for Pagani-nomics? Those insults appeared on left-wing blogs after I defended Labour leader David Shearer when he said, and I paraphrase: “Someone who shouldn’t be on the dole shouldn’t be on the dole.” The political left needs to argue a principled case for welfare reform. People have a right to be looked after when they can’t provide for themselves, yet today if you are on a benefit, you live in poverty. You get stuck.
I’ve lived in a family where joining a gang was a way to make something of yourself. But by equating any reform with beneficiary bashing, the left has allowed the expression “welfare reform” to be owned by people who neither believe in welfare nor want to see it last another century. Postmodern Pagani-nomics stresses respect for responsibilities as well as rights.”
I have two things to say:
1. You have to wonder about the difference, if any, between PR spin and outright lies. Is there any limit to what those in the business may invent to manipulate public discourse. Josie Pagani knows perfectly well that the “anecdote” she says she was defending was not about whether “someone who shouldn’t be on the dole, shouldn’t be on the dole”. It was about whether neighbours should surveil sickness beneficiaries and assume they are fraudsters until proven otherwise. (yes I also paraphrase, but within the actual facts).
2. Given that Ms Pagani objected to Standard commenters allegedly making assumptions about her political views based on her husband’s political views, does anyone else find it ironic that she has usurped the title ‘Paganiism’ earned by her husband by his public expressions of his political views, as being due to her own efforts? I hadn’t heard of Josie Pagani until some while after I started using the phrase.
There is was so much wrong with that “man on the roof” speech, and the associated defence of it, that it is a dimspiration to us all.
The most stultifying aspect is that the defenders (well, some of them) clearly have the basic tools to examine their own arguments and find the errors and contradictions, but instead they use those basic tools to defend the errors and contradictions.
Yes, that bothers me. Shearer made a complete hash of it yesterday, trying to defend the thing but doing so in a way that had no logic whatsoever. It’s quite a twist to compromise one’s own intellectual capacity that way. God knows what that does to a person’s core self.
js’s point 1 – I think it is both – lies and spin. This isn’t just a disagreement about policy direction (although it could have been just that). She can keep defending Shearer and the path they are taking with all the spinlies she likes but Ms Pagani has no integrity at all, and there is no coming back from that.
As for welfare reform, here’s top of my list: do a proper review of the benefit abatement rules, making sure to consult with experts and stakeholders from outside the department. The biggest disincentive for sickness and other beneficiaries is the fact that taking part time work will cost them money.
Beyond that, review what contributing to society means in real terms, not just how it looks in the stats of unemployment or welfare payments. Put value on all the things that people do, not just the one’s that have a formal pay check.
<blockquoteShearer made a complete hash of it yesterday, trying to defend the thing but doing so in a way that had no logic whatsoever. It’s quite a twist to compromise one’s own intellectual capacity that way. God knows what that does to a person’s core self.
Could someone please give Shearer a light tap with a brass striker and and see if he rings.
Mentioned this a few days previous….if Pagani(s)=Labour……show over, Shonkey wins by default, or National Lite beat Shonkeys mob. We have a problem Houston.
Membership revolt
B. Don’t forget the wishy washy middle class are a bit flakey and are starting to fall out of luv with PinoKeyo …. and are more likely to jump onto the green waka.
Dear Josie,
David Shearer’s cute little ‘sickness beneficiary’ story showed him blindly agreeing with a prejudiced bigot without knowing any of the facts of the situation.
He had no idea of the situation of the man painting his roof and made no attempt to find out his side of the story and whether he should or should not have been on a benefit. And no, painting his roof does not automatically mean he shouldn’t have been, as Bill’s excellent post here on The Standard demonstrated.
That anecdote is what you expect from the leader of the National Party, the natural home of benny bashing voters. You don’t expect it from the leader of Labour.
But the reason you don’t get all this is because, unbeknownst to you, you are in the wrong party yourself. The party that traditionally runs lines about ‘responsibility as well as rights’ is the right wing party, not the left wing one.
It’s never too late to correct your error and join National. I’m sure they will be glad to listen to Pagani-nomics.
We mustn’t criticise the Labour leader. He is doing a great job. because … well, because he’s the Labour leader. QED.
If you criticise, Captain Hook will call you an “agent provocateur”. Always remember – our leaders are wise, and we are the real problem.
The ‘rights and responsibilities’ bullshit needs demolishing. Beneficiaries are generally well aware of their responsibilities, or they find out pretty bloody quick – they lose income if they’re don’t. They’re also usually very aware of how much and how often their rights are disregarded by WINZ (and the Minister), because likewise, it directly affects their income. Often their right to personhood and human decency is ignored or overridden too.
What Pagani and Bennett mean by ‘responsibility’ is that beneficiaries are now supposed to take on the burden of proving they’re not a bludger. Everyone on SB is a bludger until proven otherwise just like the man painting his roof. Everyone on the dole is a bludger until they get a job. Apparently beneficiaries are now also responsible for there not being enough jobs, because if they just took on their responsibilities then there would be enough and society wouldn’t have a problem with welfare.
To give Shearer the benefit of the doubt, he probably was largely unaware of the damage done by the bludger meme to people on sickness benefit in particular. But you’d have to be a heartless bastard to not understand now that the issue has been raised.
I very much doubt Shearer has been acquainted with arguments like ours about how and why his anecdote was harmful to almost all sickness beneficiaries, and also about how his following National’s agenda in the manner he has been practising is harmful to the health of the Labour Party.
The Labour leadership could not function as it does if it was not wilfully disconnected from all centre left and left criticisms of it, and also from the wider centre-left/leftwing discourse.
There is a reason that Shearer is happy to engage with right-wing talkback audiences yet refuses to engage here or with any other wider-left medium, and why the leadership team and it’s hangers-on like to demonise us all as nasty and irrational and beyond the pale.
If anyone missed it, here’s the transcript of Shearer being interviewed about the “roof bludger” … scroll down:
http://bat-bean-beam.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/the-man-on-roof.html#addendum
Js, do you mean that Ms Pagani won’t have discussed with Shearer or caucus why she is defending him or disparaging the left blogosphere over the issue?
Giovanni Tiso’s post (just linked) suggests that Shearer knows there is an issue. He interrupts the interviewer and then goes on to defend his speech without having to have the issue explained to him. Sounds like he knows enough to know there is an issue, so if he doesn’t know the detail by now, then that is willful ignorance.
He’s knows there’s an issue from a PR point of view. That’s different to understanding what the issues are.
As for Ms Pagani, if she has discussed this with Shearer at all, it will have been to sympathise with him about the “overreaction” from the likes of you and I, and possibly the best angles to mitigate the damage, imho.
I think it is difficult, from the transcript of Shearers words, to get any clear idea about what he thinks or knows about anything at all.
I very much doubt Shearer has been acquainted with arguments like ours about how and why his anecdote was harmful to almost all sickness beneficiaries
Because as as UN functionary, he was safely protected in the role as savour to the benighted, savage masses. He’s finding it really hard to realise that he’s not the white knight descending from high to save the poor savages, but a servant, a representative, put forward to champion citizens, and as such, beholden to listen to them, and if not, to be sacked.
Sorry Dave, but mago rinds tossed over the side of your truck aren’t enough. Don’t worry however, I’m sure the ghost of Marie Antoinette will console you. I’m sure that she felt that the peasants treated her unfairly too when she said some really, really sincerely intended things about eating brioche if there wasn’t enough bread to go around.
Postmodern Pagani-nomics stresses respect for responsibilities as well as rights.”
Yes, Josie, and that’s what makes you a fucking beneficiary-basher.
If I constantly add “but remember some men are rapists” to the end of every sentence I utter about sexual violence, I’m pretty sure people would start saying (not that they don’t already) “hey QoT, that sounds pretty man-hating, like you want to constantly reinforce the men = rapists idea in our heads.”
Likewise, if you feel the need to add “but people have responsibilities not to be evil bludgers!” to the end of literally every speech you make about our social welfare system, people might just start suspecting that you’re a little bit hyper-focused on the bludgers. Who aren’t actually a big problem, and whose criminality (such as exists) should never be used by an allegedly leftwing person to frame discussions of social welfare.
Because, and you know, I shouldn’t have to explain this to a politician, much less one married to a key political strategist (you know, the way the Briscoes Lady’s partner probably knows a lot about flatware), but when you frame shit in a way that benefits your opponent’s arguments, you make it easier for them to win. Duh.
Such a lovely self-aware sense of self deprecation.
You got it your Highness. She’s either thick as pig shit or a closet tory.
Every amoeba with half a milli-ounce of grey matter knows that the terms “individual responsibility” “welfare dependency” and “welfare reform” are the carefully-constructed propaganda-bites of the divide-and-conquer Right, to be repeated ad nauseam at each an every opportunity.
Instead of railing at the inanity and deliberate manipulation from the outset – all are as valid as, say, “employer dependency” or “taxpayer dependency” for workers and politicians – wee Jose and her cobbers have sat on their fat, worker-funded arses and now peddle the same steaming pus with bells on.
If it’s now entrenched in the voting public that you purport to woo, Josie, it means you failed. Since 1998. Either apologise and change or piss off. You too Trev, real people are hurting out here.
Not mutually exclusive, mate.
These members of the Labour Party who don’t mind dishing it out to beneficiaries seem oddly sensitive to criticism of themselves. Surely you only go into politics if you think you are up for facing some criticism and strongly worded disagreement. And there is something vulgar about sulking in salaried comfort because some people didn’t like the mean things you said about people whose everyday misery dwarfs your own hurt feelings.
+1
I feel like getting out the violins for poor Ms P.
Pagani-ism is a wonderful neologism
NZ MSM-spectacle
TS-community
anyway,
Relativity-“exploded the myth of common-sense”-Polkinghorne
‘because we cannot perceive the structure of space-time with our senses, it encourages humility towards surprising events’-T.F Torrance
Today, gardening, washing, wood chopped, boil-up, and something else but oh, the stm aint what it used to be, aint what it used to be…
According to an annual survey of global arms sales conducted by the Congressional Research Service, US arms sales have tripled between 2010 to 2011 to record levels. The US now accounts for over 75% of global arms deals. One commentator remarks:
“The tripling of US arms sales abroad to a record $66.3 billion is an accurate barometer of the accelerating drive to war in the Persian Gulf and on a world scale. This one violently surging sector of American exports reflects a diseased capitalist economy and society, whose financial-corporate elite resorts to militarism as a means of offsetting the overall economic decline of the United States.
…
The arms industry is massively subsidized by the American taxpayer. While the political establishment and media insist “there is no money” when it comes to jobs, decent wages, education and vital public services, endless billions are lavished on America’s merchants of death.”
This article also notes that of the US$66.3 billion in arms trades, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates account for a combined total of US$38.2 billion.
“The purchases by the monarchical regimes in the Arab world stem, on the one hand, from their reaction to the popular upheavals that were dubbed the “Arab Spring” and, on the other, from the buildup by the US and its allies for another war, this time against Iran.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/pers-a30.shtml
closer to home I listened to Chrtis Trotter yesterday express grave doubts about the constitutional advisory panel.googled it this morning and it
looks like they are going to try and dream one up of their own and then foist it on us with a bit of consultation at the end of their deliberations just to make it look good.
corporatist authoritarian post modernism at its worst.
too much!
just about to listen to Mitt Romney address the RNC. After listening to that snake Ryan yesterday I am looking forward to hearing Romney lie to me also.
After that you will need a laugh. Get over to Pundit Kitchen for some low brow humour. It’s Mittens galore
http://roflrazzi.cheezburger.com/news
Here’s the transcript of Eastwood’s speech, WTF?.
Yeah, that was really bizarre. He interviewed an empty chair.
#Eastwooding.
edit: Obama Eastwooding.
http://www.salon.com/2012/08/31/clint_eastwood_tells_chair_to_get_out_of_afghanistan/
http://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/241392153148915712/photo/1
I am confused. Did Eastwood give the speech to the Republicans or was it a spoof? Either way it is fun and or serious.
Oh. OK. Washington Post wouldn’t make it up.
The underlying message though is “Beware of those who make great promises. They all do that but only a few actually intend to action let alone actually achieve what they promised.”
Here’s the transcript of Eastwood’s speech, WTF?.
Watching his gruesome performance, it is clear that the doddering Eastwood has pretty much lost his marbles. However, whoever wrote his lines for him did insert some provocations that need to be addressed. I’ll deal with just the most idiotic of them….
You know they are all left wingers out there, left of Lenin.
“Left of Lenin”? Clearly Eastwood’s script-writer knows nothing about Lenin’s politics. Lenin’s utter contempt for democracy has far more in common with the braindead flag-wavers in that convention hall than it does with any Hollywood “liberals”.
OK, I thought maybe it was just because somebody had the stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown New York City.
Eastwood clearly doesn’t have a clue, and could not care less, but surely his scriptwriter (David Frum? Donald Trump? Gerry Seinfeld?) knows that many, perhaps most, of the captives in Guantanamo Bay are not terrorists. They are captives, illegally held without charges in defiance of international law. Not that Clint Eastwood or the zombies in the audience would care, of course.
Of course we all now Biden is the intellect of the Democratic party.
(LAUGHTER)
Kind of a grin with a body behind it.
(LAUGHTER)
Whoever wrote those unfunny quips was pretty cheeky to write them for someone best summed up as a scowl with a body behind it.
Earlier on in the week yeshe posted a link to a herald article about a govt funded gene technology agri business meeting going on with all the big players from the various bio tech companies. We had a bit of a chat about it.
Check out this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/7583448/Luddite-approach-to-GE-hampering-NZ-Inc
Gee. I wonder if they sat around the table and said “theres a bit of an image problem with introducing GE food crops to NZ, what shall we do?” “I know, we’ll get our buddies at Fearfux to write some pro GE PR material and label those who oppose it ‘luddites’ to make them look bad”
I think that article translates to: All these other countries are doing it and so we should to despite the fact that some of our largest markets (the EU) is predominantly against GMO and the fact that using natural plants doesn’t come with a patent cost. Also the fact that research is showing that GMO crops aren’t as good as advertised either.
Raoul Neave – Asshole of the Week
Unfortunately this kind of corrupt judgement makes people lose all faith in the justice system as it clearly shows there’s one law for the rich and another for the rest of us…
Absolutely! I read the account in the Herald – what a disgusting man – did he have no idea how he sounded?
An eye witness has also come out and slammed the idiot judge. I really do hope Kim takes up Dr Michael Kidd’s offer to appeal Raoul Neave’s decision. What a travesty of justice.
AND Findlayson has been VERY critical of a QC who thought the sentence was rubbish too.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/outraged-finlayson-says-judge-critic-tony-molloy-should-quit-qc-rank
Am I to understand that Hallwright was the victim here ??????
The Sensible Sentencing Trust is strangely quiet…….lost your tongue McVicar ?
Hallright the victim? No, but the judge would like you to think so.
Wolfhart Pannenberg. now there is an interesting man
Upsetting .
http://alturl.com/wa59i
all ways
Jean Luc says…frak you , Apple
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rAtje5weAU0
“Apple” not by chance
“What business are u in?…This is the apple-pickin business massah.”-Irving (paraphr.)