So what steps are you taking to make sure this doesn’t happen to other families? Have you contacted your M.P. and demanded he/she press the prime minister to pull our troops out?
Bunter Bennett won’t speak to me or call back after I told her to “F” off my property so I went into Cam Calders office while out South but each time I ask for a reply to my demands they ignore me, so I don’t even try anymore.
Bunter Bennett won’t speak to me or call back after I told her to “F” off my property so I went into Cam Calders office while out South but each time I ask for a reply to my demands they ignore me, so I don’t even try anymore.
I sympathize with you. Be careful not to antagonize that ghastly woman or she’ll mount a campaign of defamation against you.
Have you?
Yes. He was polite enough. Like everyone, he knows that this war has no justification, but I hold little hope that he will find the courage to actually speak that truth.
It is worth pointing out that women also serve in our armed forces, including in Afghanistan – and it is rumoured that one of those killed may be a female soldier.
Public reaction to a female KIA or one taken prisoner can sometimes be different. Male and female soldiers cannot be assigned the same roles when dealing with a Muslim population. Modern military forces commonly distinguished roles (formally and informally) which are not filled by women.
It doesn’t Draco – but a number of comments on the Standard today have referred to the NZ troops in Afghanstan being ‘our boys’ , or ‘sons, fathers, brothers’ etc without any appreciation/recognition that those troops also include women.
My condolences also to the families, friends and colleagues – Stuff are now reporting that one of the three is a woman.
Goff is currently being interviewed on Nime to Noon and, if I heard him correctly, is saying that in his opinion, there is no longer a prospect of achieving the original objectives of our participation in Afghanstan and we should possibly withdraw.
Goff is… saying that there is no longer a prospect of achieving the original objectives of our participation in Afghanstan and we should possibly withdraw.
Goff and Helen Clark are as culpable in this criminal fiasco as Key is. In fact, their culpability is greater, for they sent the troops there in the first place. They mouthed the propaganda about “reconstruction” and fibbed about good-natured Kiwi soldiers winning the hearts and minds of the locals.
The revelations about those good-natured Kiwi soldiers being bullied by American grunts into handing over captive civilians for possible torture and summary execution make the lies of Clark, Goff and Key even more craven.
Amazing what rubbish goes through what passes through a tories mind nowadays….. Only an incurable bigot with the attention span of a goldfish would feel competent to make the kind of statement you’ve just made morris minor….
try again.. and this time, spend more than five seconds absorbing tory slogans to use as your intellectual basis….
You may not make such an ass of yourself….(i’m assuming you have the wit to understand the big words contained in the articles outlining reality as it is, not as the tories would wish it to be)
Amazing what rubbish goes through what passes through a tories mind nowadays…
Whatever hallucinogenic substance you are on, I don’t think it improves your writing style. I enjoyed being called a “tory” for a moment or two there, until I realized it came from a confused mind.
Hungarian soldiers responsible for security in the Baghlan province “unfortunately … have been reluctant to actively patrol the area”, Mr Patman told TVNZ’s Breakfast this morning.
But at the end of the article this:
Mr Patman said Hungarian troops were not likely to change their tactics.
“Many countries now know that the international presence is going to be pulled out by 2014. [Hungarian soldiers] are probably not going to adopt new techniques that … could run the risk of unnecessary casualties before a major troop pull-out.
Perhaps New Zealand could learn something of the Hungarian strategy after all…
With our withdrawal already announced, and with the fair expectation that all our brave men and women could all be returned safely to their families.
Such stupid pointless meaningless deaths #?*!!
To be prepared to die for a cause can be a noble sentiment. But just as in Vietnam after the American withdrawal was announced, no one wanted to be the last GI to die in a lost cause.
What could more New Zealand deaths in Afghanistan possibly achieve?
Can anyone tell me?
Key needs to speed up the withdrawal so that more kiwis don’t die pointlessly.
Only people with the heads up Uncle Sam’s arse can think that NZ ever had any business in Afghanistan. It was and is a US war using the UN to cover for its blind rage over 9/11. Clark and Co bought it because it has the UN stamp of approval. NZ became the US deputy’s (Howard’s) dog. It doesn’t matter if the Taliban (created by the US to fight a pro-US regime in the 80s) or ‘Afghan’ army killed NATO troops, they are all Afghans in their own country defending themselves from those who are occupying it. However you read it it proves the old cliche that Western countries that venture into Afghanistan to conquer it, always end up getting wiped out. Good. http://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2009/08/afghanistan-defeat-imperialist-invaders.html
Only people with the heads up Uncle Sam’s arse can think that NZ ever had any business in Afghanistan. It was and is a US war using the UN to cover for its blind rage over 9/11.
Well, not so much blind rage, but an attempt to secure oil and NG pipelines from central asia which bypass the instability of the middle east and the political whims of Russia.
I just don’t think today is the day for debating our length of tenure in Afghanistan. Give it a few weeks and sure. But the headlines about Goff and Shearer saying we need to pull out make me sick:
Following your logic, Monique, if soldiers were dying every day we’d stay there forever with no debate. The fact that more have died over nothing worthwhile makes it exactly the right time to debate this.
Just to keep you updated, Monique, the “length of tenure” is being debated this afternoon/evening on Radio NZ, Newstalk ZB, Radio Live, TVNZ, TV 3 news, Campbell Live, Stuff.co.nz, etc, etc.
Even some bereaved family members are speaking on the TV news, about bringing the troops home.
Deem me a cnut if you will, but I’ve followed all this since the time it became public – from VERy early morn. Then I witnessed a Jonkey press conference at 11.30 and I was truly embarassed – especially as he shuffled together the pages of his speech just given at the end. Atually- he kept the media waiting just to show who was in control.
A Performace!!!. I’m not suggesting the man does not have sympathy or genuine concern, simply that his concern is MORE about him and how people perceive him first and foremost, THEN the deaths.
I MUST come across all staunch and concerned. Stay the course!. {Look left at photos of the dead}.
The guy sounded drunk as he shhhhsssstraifed his way through a prepared speech full of the usual platitudes….ultimate sekrfois et al. Keep it up… PLEASE John! A few more hobbits will awake.
My sincere condolences, sympathy and prayers go out to the families of these brave soldiers. Am feeling deep grief myself so I cannot imagine what their families are going through. I just pray they stay strong.
It is good to see the Taliban have worked out that to get the invades out of their country it is smarter to kill the Alliance soldiers than the US ones, killing a US soldier just reduces the unemployment # in the US, and whats another yank? Where as poping off our guys really hurts the Alliance, a dead Kiwi has got to be worth more points in the ‘game of war’ than several dead yanks.
I am amazed people are upset by our guys dying, I mean it is a war zone? They are ALL coming back with death sentences anyway, what with all the radioactive crap they have been living around while in Afghanistan – specifically Depleted Uranium.
And don’t they volunteer for this adventure? it wouldn’t be as much fun if you didn’t stand the chance of dying or better still killing someone.
In the end these people are just state funded murderers.
Not at all.
New Zealand troops are just backing the lie that is 9/11.
They are supporting an occupying force?
Why get pissed at me? It is the government that has sent them into harms way, and most Kiwis are happy with that. Sure the Taliban are a bad lot, but so are the Israelis when they get fired up, and there are plenty of other countries that ‘need’ invading, to bring democracy, consumerism, and everything we enjoy …. ignoring the fact that we are passed peak ‘luxury’.
Politicians and TPTB are a bunch of 3 year olds, they would literally crawl over dead babies to maintain their lifestyles, like most people they are unable to grasp the end of growth, some even think we should or have to ‘climate change’ to the brink of extinction to bring the second coming of Christ, then his dad and him are going to turn the planet back to like it was before we fucked it ????? people are just stupid. And politicians are a great representative of this useless gene pool.
‘We’ are being lied to and ripped off daily by our government, EVERY politician is lying to us everyday.
Happy Kiwi Saving.
In the end we are just bacteria, but a real dumb one, a bit like yeast.
While I offer my prayers and sympathies for those soldiers that have been killed in Afghanistan I am also mindful of the futility of war. Both the war in Iraq and Afghanistan should have never been authorized and waged because the justification for it was based on a bunch of lies.
The US imports more oil from Iraq than they do from Saudi Arabia. Afghanistan is of strategic importance to the US so one wonders how genuine thier motives are? Do they care about bringing democracy to these countries? I don’t think so.
I am also deeply saddened by the millions of innocent civilians no different from you and I in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen who have been killed by the bombs dropped by US and NATO forces. Somehow our media fails to mention this
@TRP p= I hope he does regret it when he sobers up. I wonder though WHAT of Jomkey when he does.
Over the millenium, I think its almost safe to say 50% of my family engaged in the military.intelligenc wing have either been killed or traumatised by all this sort of total SHITE.
It’s why Jonkeys 11.30 am “press conference” was so fucking hollow and offensive.
How the hell did a usually smart NZ electorate be conned by a used-car salesman dressed in the so-called respectability of “suited finacial market free-trader’ professionalism”. Not only is there a really UGLY emperor with no clothes, but the protestations of sympathy and “utlimate proice” crap are beginning to be recognised as the spin and bullshit they really are.
Fuck off John. There’s a cute little Hawaiian retreat – go for it now rather than when the shit really hits the fan – save us all the anguish. Current course – result inevitable it’s really only about your pathetic ego when it comes down to it
He’s going to fuck off – my pick is towards the end next year. Why not. All the doors that can be opened to him have been opened. Not much point in hanging around any longer. He’s done his dash as PM, and there’s an even bigger stash to be made on the international financial markets.
It gives Stephen Joyce about nine months to enjoy his honeymoon and have an election before the voters twig they’ve swopped one egomaniac for yet another…. who could turn out to be even worse.
I was sorry to hear that the number of New Zealanders killed in Afghanistan now totals 10.
My immediate thoughts went to their loved ones and families.
I then thought, how many of the enemy have our troops killed? Is it two of theirs, for every one of ours?
I would expect with us having unlimited ammunition and supplies, far superior weapons, hi tech body armor, reliable transport, logistics and communications, our total firepower and professional training would ensure that the ratio of enemy killed would be much higher than the 10 kiwi dead.
Is it 20, 30, 50, 100, who knows?
My next thought was; Wouldn’t it be better to just end the cycle of violence?
I would suggest that it’s going to escalate, the cycle of violence that is, the Chief of Defense Reece Jones was saying on RadioNZ this afternoon that permission has been given for New Zealand to also operate in the neighbouring Baghlan Province,
If the Kiwi troops go playing gang busters in Baghlan looking for revenge we all can expect more body bags back here via Bagram…
My heart is with those people the soldiers. Equally with their shattered loved-ones. Facing a hellish life without their loved-one.
So I mentally gulped when today I heard John Key quoted saying along the lines that to pull out of Afghanistan (presumably “now”) would horrify the families as offensive to the memories of the soldiers and their service. In a just cause. Does he know all those aspects personally and at first hand ? Bit of a question if he doesn’t.
Well it’s 7.04 pm and we’re into John Key on “Close Up”. Everyman Sainsbury giving John Key a good run at looking vaguely “Churchill in wartime” to overstate.
Pretty surely it’s John Key looking after John Key. Apologies to the people who got a hiding above for being political too early. Key has declared the politics of it imperative.
The grandmother of slain Kiwi soldier Corporal Luke Tamatea says she wanted him to come home after the last deadly attack on New Zealand troops two weeks ago.
Loraine O’Brien said she was devastated after hearing the news ……
O’Brien told Te Kaea News that Tamatea phoned her about a week ago because he knew she was worried about him.
‘‘He said, ‘don’t worry about me nana. I’m alright’ and those were his last words to me,’’ she said.
‘‘We’d been hoping that [Prime Minister] John Key would have sent him back by now, after the last lot passed away.’’…..
stuff.co.nz
Is this why our Prime Minister does not want to attend the funerals for those slain?
That he might have to face the families of those he has put in harms way?
Will John Key attend the funerals?
Or will John Key continue making excuses for avoiding his duty as Premier to honour these soldiers?
What a ridiculous disrespectful post. Shame on you. He personally visited those families last time and I am sure he will do the same again. Did anyone else do this? No!
I personally would not want all the politicians at my son’s funeral grandstanding to the world, pretending they cared whilst dropping a well rehearsed tear for the cameras.
Soldiers have “fallen” or died for eons of times in human history, for good, bad, right, wrong and whatever causes that were claimed, usually by dominant, privileged rulers that had no scruples to send the young ones off to sacrifice their lives for whatever nationalistic, idealistic or whatever causes.
This whole soldier ethos of dying for your country, your mates, your family, for a good cause and so on, it has been repeated throughout history endlessly.
Now even the Hitler youth believed they were right and sacrificed their lives for the right cause, so did the kamikaze youth from Japan, so did Mao’s brigades, Lenin’s fighting troups, and further back the ones fighting for the dominance of Rome, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt and whatever.
Who ever paid the bloody price?
The ordinary foot soldier and their families! Who won, who lost, what did it usually achieve?
A plaque on some rock or what, how is that for “spirit” and liveliness?
The RSA fought in good faith agains dictators, but any sensible person knows also, they also in part committed atrocities!
Shove your over-holy crap into the grave, where it belongs, thank you.
Every person who dies deserves fair respect and consideration. Soldier, voluntary nun or aid worker in the slums of Calcutta maybe even more so than some highly armed soldiers in Afghanistan, trying to protect a rotten, corrupt government that also allows opium trade.
What have the dumbed down and manipulated masses in this country come to, if the media gets away every time to glorify the so called “sacrifice” for bloody what?
I am sick to death of all this shit. Throw away you uniforms, get naked, real, human and put your lively human effort and strenght where it is most needed: To fight for justice against unfairness and poverty, first of all in your own country, and in the realm around it. Then you deserve a bloody medal, that will be in spirit not rotten or rusty metal.
I seriously suspect that that one is the false face of one who recently copped a little stretch of a banning from The Standard, (like as in life-time),
Have carefully studied ‘its’ appearances in various debates going back a bit and ‘it’ seems to have some twisted motive (revenge) as the basis for ‘its’ comments…
Gordon Campbell writes that it is gutless crawling to the Americans by our leaders that New Zealanders are dying for.
“…… we should be clear about the motives at work here.”
“…… when Prime Minister John Key wears his sad face and talks gravely about sacrifice, we need to keep in mind that the lives in question have been sacrificed for a political commitment that is meaningless. There is no noble purpose involved here, only the usual grubby business of politicking – that by joining the effort in Afghanistan, New Zealand might gain some political or trade favours from the Americans.”
Gordon Campbell August 20, 2012
“….our soldiers will continue to be sitting ducks, who are doing little more than trying to survive a totally arbitrary period of deployment.”
“On the current timetable, our PRT forces are not due to be withdrawn until September 2013. That timeframe lacks any intrinsic sense. There is no reason to believe that between now and then, our PRT presence will make Bamiyan safer for the locals in any sustainable fashion, or that the aid projects with which the PRT has been involved will survive their withdrawal. Nothing that New Zealand will achieve between now and September 2013 can justify the further loss of life that now seems inevitable….”
Gordon Campbell August 20, 2012
“Whenever he is pressed on the purpose of our Afghan deployment, Key usually responds by saying that we’re fighting global terrorism and/or enabling Afghanistan to rebuild. Well, if it ever made any sense, the ‘fighting global terrorism’ rationale ended many years ago, after the destruction of al Qaeda as a functioning global network and the capture and/or killing of its leaders……”
“The Dutch saw the writing on the wall and pulled out their troops two years ago. There is no good reason why we should not do likewise, and get our forces home by Christmas. Because what our troops in Afghanistan are really defending – and dying for – in 2012 is John Key’s reputation, and his welcome mat in Washington.”
It’s honesty like that, along with the fact that he’s humiliated Graham Bell and Richard Griffin on air, that means Campbell is not asked to appear on National Radio’s wretched “Panel” programme any more.
i.e. a “Free Trade” agreement giving all the advantages to multinational corporates, a few morsels to big NZ interests, and sells our ordinary citizens down the river.
The “war on terrorism” has always been b.s. How do you have a war with no specific enemy?
The first Christians were terrorists in the eyes of the Romans. The revolutionaries in the British and Spanish American colonies were terrorists in the eyes of their European masters; freedom fighters in the eyes of their neighbors. And so it has been with every protest movement. Heck, in some countries outspoken women are terrorists.
“Be afraid, very afraid. Embrace Big Brother. Only he can protect you.”
This is highly classified so don’t spread it around. The Teleban sent a suicide squad to blow up the Inter-Island ferry but our police intercepted them, which is why Big Brother will be expanding civilian surveillance. It’s for your own good.
I felt a 1984 chill back when Bush was talking about the ‘war on terror’ going on for as long as it takes. A war without end. Since then I can just turn on Fox news and get that chill anytime I want.
Sad all this, yet, has anyone ever seriously looked at near death experiences?
Generally the reports and feed-backs are very consoling and calming. Those that have been there usually no longer fear death. Combatants of course are on the very front line of life and death challenges, survival and so forth. I feel extremely sorry for those that get maimed, disabled and seriously injured and survive to live a life of misery.
It is disgusting what Taleban are doing, using these hideous, cunning IEDs.
Yet anyone exposed to such threats would only wish for her or him to hit it straight and for sure, to be spared any suffering.
Maybe the madness of yihadis does also explain that death is not really that much to fear about. If life is crap, then it may be a salvation, especially if it serves a cause.
Extreme these thoughts are, but I dare to raise the unthinkable, to ponder about in times of distress and unbearable pain.
Voluntary euthanasia is becoming more acceptable to me, looking at all this stuff.
It is disgusting what Taleban are doing, using these hideous, cunning IEDs.
About the same as hellfire equipped killer drones being controlled by “pilots” half a world away, who fight a distant war impersonally, from the luxury of their own home town.
I feel extremely sorry for those that get maimed, disabled and seriously injured and survive to live a life of misery.
This is exactly what anti-personnel mines have been designed to do for the longest time. But who says that civilisation does not advance? For in every new war, they find new ways of killing and maiming people.
The second time he told me a story… about how someone offered him a boat cloak on a cold night. And he said no, he didn’t need it. That he was quite warm. His zeal for his king and country kept him warm.
Key’s self-interest in attending his son’s ball-game in the US rather than representing NZ at the funeral for one of his soldiers who died in Afghanistan can only hurt him at the next election.
He was his Commander-in-Chief. Loyalty flows both ways ..
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One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency. It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government. Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
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My condolences.
Yup Carol very sad, sincere condolences to the families while their sons, husbands ,fathers may sign up for this the families don’t.
This is so sad – I’m gutted for the soldiers families.
So what steps are you taking to make sure this doesn’t happen to other families? Have you contacted your M.P. and demanded he/she press the prime minister to pull our troops out?
Bunter Bennett won’t speak to me or call back after I told her to “F” off my property so I went into Cam Calders office while out South but each time I ask for a reply to my demands they ignore me, so I don’t even try anymore.
Have you?
Bunter Bennett won’t speak to me or call back after I told her to “F” off my property so I went into Cam Calders office while out South but each time I ask for a reply to my demands they ignore me, so I don’t even try anymore.
I sympathize with you. Be careful not to antagonize that ghastly woman or she’ll mount a campaign of defamation against you.
Have you?
Yes. He was polite enough. Like everyone, he knows that this war has no justification, but I hold little hope that he will find the courage to actually speak that truth.
It is worth pointing out that women also serve in our armed forces, including in Afghanistan – and it is rumoured that one of those killed may be a female soldier.
Why is the fact that one of our soldiers was a women make any difference?
Public reaction to a female KIA or one taken prisoner can sometimes be different. Male and female soldiers cannot be assigned the same roles when dealing with a Muslim population. Modern military forces commonly distinguished roles (formally and informally) which are not filled by women.
It doesn’t Draco – but a number of comments on the Standard today have referred to the NZ troops in Afghanstan being ‘our boys’ , or ‘sons, fathers, brothers’ etc without any appreciation/recognition that those troops also include women.
My condolences also.
My condolences also to the families, friends and colleagues – Stuff are now reporting that one of the three is a woman.
Goff is currently being interviewed on Nime to Noon and, if I heard him correctly, is saying that in his opinion, there is no longer a prospect of achieving the original objectives of our participation in Afghanstan and we should possibly withdraw.
Goff is… saying that there is no longer a prospect of achieving the original objectives of our participation in Afghanstan and we should possibly withdraw.
Goff and Helen Clark are as culpable in this criminal fiasco as Key is. In fact, their culpability is greater, for they sent the troops there in the first place. They mouthed the propaganda about “reconstruction” and fibbed about good-natured Kiwi soldiers winning the hearts and minds of the locals.
The revelations about those good-natured Kiwi soldiers being bullied by American grunts into handing over captive civilians for possible torture and summary execution make the lies of Clark, Goff and Key even more craven.
Amazing what rubbish goes through what passes through a tories mind nowadays….. Only an incurable bigot with the attention span of a goldfish would feel competent to make the kind of statement you’ve just made morris minor….
try again.. and this time, spend more than five seconds absorbing tory slogans to use as your intellectual basis….
You may not make such an ass of yourself….(i’m assuming you have the wit to understand the big words contained in the articles outlining reality as it is, not as the tories would wish it to be)
Amazing what rubbish goes through what passes through a tories mind nowadays…
Whatever hallucinogenic substance you are on, I don’t think it improves your writing style. I enjoyed being called a “tory” for a moment or two there, until I realized it came from a confused mind.
“They mouthed the propaganda about “reconstruction” and fibbed about good-natured Kiwi soldiers winning the hearts and minds of the locals.”
So you knew, with 100% certainty, that it was all for naught before the soldiers were sent?
Maybe you should buy lotto tickets if you’re so good at predicting the future.
Kaua koe e whai atu i ngā mahi a te hukehuke rā, kei raru kōrua tahi
So you knew, with 100% certainty, that it was all for naught before the soldiers were sent?
I know with 100 per cent certainty that no New Zealand soldiers were killed in Afghanistan before Helen Clark had her arm twisted and sent them there.
I know with 100 per cent certainty that the overwhelming majority of Afghanistan’s people want the invading troops out.
But why don’t you listen to one of them yourself, accompanied by the world’s most respected dissenter?…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcZhQLbvgEw&feature=related
Such a tragic loss for the families and friends of these 3 men. Deepest sympathy.
hmm assumption… *soliders
Holy sh*t.
The NY Times reports that most of the recent attacks on NATO troops were by our “allies,” the Afghan army, NOT by the Taliban!
Read the NY Times article. According to the NATO high command our soldiers were probably ambushed by Afghan army soldiers, NOT the Taliban!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/world/asia/afghan-attacks-on-allied-troops-prompt-nato-to-shift-policy.html?ref=global-home
Enough is Enough.
There was never a right time to send our boys and girls into harms way. However now is definitley the time to pull them out.
Clark and Key should not be able to sleep tonight thinking of the families of these troops who have been killed for no reason whatsoever.
Lance Corporal Jacinda Baker (26), Private Richard Harris (21) and Corporal Luke Tamatea (31).
It’s a damn shame.
🙁
The Herald are quick to run a piece which supports Key’s “blame it on the Hungarians” line.
But at the end of the article this:
Perhaps New Zealand could learn something of the Hungarian strategy after all…
With our withdrawal already announced, and with the fair expectation that all our brave men and women could all be returned safely to their families.
Such stupid pointless meaningless deaths #?*!!
To be prepared to die for a cause can be a noble sentiment. But just as in Vietnam after the American withdrawal was announced, no one wanted to be the last GI to die in a lost cause.
What could more New Zealand deaths in Afghanistan possibly achieve?
Can anyone tell me?
Key needs to speed up the withdrawal so that more kiwis don’t die pointlessly.
Only people with the heads up Uncle Sam’s arse can think that NZ ever had any business in Afghanistan. It was and is a US war using the UN to cover for its blind rage over 9/11. Clark and Co bought it because it has the UN stamp of approval. NZ became the US deputy’s (Howard’s) dog. It doesn’t matter if the Taliban (created by the US to fight a pro-US regime in the 80s) or ‘Afghan’ army killed NATO troops, they are all Afghans in their own country defending themselves from those who are occupying it. However you read it it proves the old cliche that Western countries that venture into Afghanistan to conquer it, always end up getting wiped out. Good.
http://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2009/08/afghanistan-defeat-imperialist-invaders.html
Well, not so much blind rage, but an attempt to secure oil and NG pipelines from central asia which bypass the instability of the middle east and the political whims of Russia.
That’s true, 9/11 gave them the pretext to ‘act’ in a blind rage.
Absolutely right! Seconded, thirded, fourthed and so on….
I just don’t think today is the day for debating our length of tenure in Afghanistan. Give it a few weeks and sure. But the headlines about Goff and Shearer saying we need to pull out make me sick:
http://nowoccupy.blogspot.com/2012/08/your-soldier-was-hero-you-hold-that-to.html
Today belongs to remembrance of the dead.
I don’t see how you honour the dead by allowing more to die without good cause.
If the NZDF are taking casualties more frequently now, when will we ever get a chance to debate what we are doing in Afghanistan?
Following your logic, Monique, if soldiers were dying every day we’d stay there forever with no debate. The fact that more have died over nothing worthwhile makes it exactly the right time to debate this.
Actually – this thread is a memorial one, Monique. There’s another thread for discussing the issue. You are politicising a memorial thread.
According to Monique’s logic, Afghanistan must not be discussed in the US Presidential election. Or at any time over the past decade.
If they had to “give it a few weeks” after suffering casualties, given the scale of their losses, they would never discuss the war at all.
The problem with not discussing is that it leads to not understanding, which leads to more deaths, and not only in Afghanistan.
Just to keep you updated, Monique, the “length of tenure” is being debated this afternoon/evening on Radio NZ, Newstalk ZB, Radio Live, TVNZ, TV 3 news, Campbell Live, Stuff.co.nz, etc, etc.
Even some bereaved family members are speaking on the TV news, about bringing the troops home.
So your swipe at Shearer/Goff is unwarranted.
Deem me a cnut if you will, but I’ve followed all this since the time it became public – from VERy early morn. Then I witnessed a Jonkey press conference at 11.30 and I was truly embarassed – especially as he shuffled together the pages of his speech just given at the end. Atually- he kept the media waiting just to show who was in control.
A Performace!!!. I’m not suggesting the man does not have sympathy or genuine concern, simply that his concern is MORE about him and how people perceive him first and foremost, THEN the deaths.
I MUST come across all staunch and concerned. Stay the course!. {Look left at photos of the dead}.
The guy sounded drunk as he shhhhsssstraifed his way through a prepared speech full of the usual platitudes….ultimate sekrfois et al. Keep it up… PLEASE John! A few more hobbits will awake.
My sincere condolences, sympathy and prayers go out to the families of these brave soldiers. Am feeling deep grief myself so I cannot imagine what their families are going through. I just pray they stay strong.
It is good to see the Taliban have worked out that to get the invades out of their country it is smarter to kill the Alliance soldiers than the US ones, killing a US soldier just reduces the unemployment # in the US, and whats another yank? Where as poping off our guys really hurts the Alliance, a dead Kiwi has got to be worth more points in the ‘game of war’ than several dead yanks.
I am amazed people are upset by our guys dying, I mean it is a war zone? They are ALL coming back with death sentences anyway, what with all the radioactive crap they have been living around while in Afghanistan – specifically Depleted Uranium.
And don’t they volunteer for this adventure? it wouldn’t be as much fun if you didn’t stand the chance of dying or better still killing someone.
In the end these people are just state funded murderers.
IrishBill: Take a month off.
Robert, seek help.
Parawai.
You’re probably going to regret this comment when you sober up, Robert.
Not at all.
New Zealand troops are just backing the lie that is 9/11.
They are supporting an occupying force?
Why get pissed at me? It is the government that has sent them into harms way, and most Kiwis are happy with that. Sure the Taliban are a bad lot, but so are the Israelis when they get fired up, and there are plenty of other countries that ‘need’ invading, to bring democracy, consumerism, and everything we enjoy …. ignoring the fact that we are passed peak ‘luxury’.
Politicians and TPTB are a bunch of 3 year olds, they would literally crawl over dead babies to maintain their lifestyles, like most people they are unable to grasp the end of growth, some even think we should or have to ‘climate change’ to the brink of extinction to bring the second coming of Christ, then his dad and him are going to turn the planet back to like it was before we fucked it ????? people are just stupid. And politicians are a great representative of this useless gene pool.
‘We’ are being lied to and ripped off daily by our government, EVERY politician is lying to us everyday.
Happy Kiwi Saving.
In the end we are just bacteria, but a real dumb one, a bit like yeast.
Yeast aint that dumb, i have a potato one on the cook in my hot-water cupboard right now, in 2 days time it will be banana bread,
And,
Banana bread aint dumb it’s the bomb…
IB it appears I am not alone http://cloudsouthfilms.blogspot.ca/2012/08/public-enemy-number-one.html
While I offer my prayers and sympathies for those soldiers that have been killed in Afghanistan I am also mindful of the futility of war. Both the war in Iraq and Afghanistan should have never been authorized and waged because the justification for it was based on a bunch of lies.
The US imports more oil from Iraq than they do from Saudi Arabia. Afghanistan is of strategic importance to the US so one wonders how genuine thier motives are? Do they care about bringing democracy to these countries? I don’t think so.
I am also deeply saddened by the millions of innocent civilians no different from you and I in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen who have been killed by the bombs dropped by US and NATO forces. Somehow our media fails to mention this
@TRP p= I hope he does regret it when he sobers up. I wonder though WHAT of Jomkey when he does.
Over the millenium, I think its almost safe to say 50% of my family engaged in the military.intelligenc wing have either been killed or traumatised by all this sort of total SHITE.
It’s why Jonkeys 11.30 am “press conference” was so fucking hollow and offensive.
How the hell did a usually smart NZ electorate be conned by a used-car salesman dressed in the so-called respectability of “suited finacial market free-trader’ professionalism”. Not only is there a really UGLY emperor with no clothes, but the protestations of sympathy and “utlimate proice” crap are beginning to be recognised as the spin and bullshit they really are.
Fuck off John. There’s a cute little Hawaiian retreat – go for it now rather than when the shit really hits the fan – save us all the anguish. Current course – result inevitable it’s really only about your pathetic ego when it comes down to it
Fuck off John.
He’s going to fuck off – my pick is towards the end next year. Why not. All the doors that can be opened to him have been opened. Not much point in hanging around any longer. He’s done his dash as PM, and there’s an even bigger stash to be made on the international financial markets.
It gives Stephen Joyce about nine months to enjoy his honeymoon and have an election before the voters twig they’ve swopped one egomaniac for yet another…. who could turn out to be even worse.
I was sorry to hear that the number of New Zealanders killed in Afghanistan now totals 10.
My immediate thoughts went to their loved ones and families.
I then thought, how many of the enemy have our troops killed? Is it two of theirs, for every one of ours?
I would expect with us having unlimited ammunition and supplies, far superior weapons, hi tech body armor, reliable transport, logistics and communications, our total firepower and professional training would ensure that the ratio of enemy killed would be much higher than the 10 kiwi dead.
Is it 20, 30, 50, 100, who knows?
My next thought was; Wouldn’t it be better to just end the cycle of violence?
What could more deaths achieve?
He āhua rite tēnei tono ki te kōrero nenekara rā, “Ko koutou mā kāore anō kia tae mai, tēnā whakatūhia mai ō koutou ringa.”
I would suggest that it’s going to escalate, the cycle of violence that is, the Chief of Defense Reece Jones was saying on RadioNZ this afternoon that permission has been given for New Zealand to also operate in the neighbouring Baghlan Province,
If the Kiwi troops go playing gang busters in Baghlan looking for revenge we all can expect more body bags back here via Bagram…
My heart is with those people the soldiers. Equally with their shattered loved-ones. Facing a hellish life without their loved-one.
So I mentally gulped when today I heard John Key quoted saying along the lines that to pull out of Afghanistan (presumably “now”) would horrify the families as offensive to the memories of the soldiers and their service. In a just cause. Does he know all those aspects personally and at first hand ? Bit of a question if he doesn’t.
Well it’s 7.04 pm and we’re into John Key on “Close Up”. Everyman Sainsbury giving John Key a good run at looking vaguely “Churchill in wartime” to overstate.
Pretty surely it’s John Key looking after John Key. Apologies to the people who got a hiding above for being political too early. Key has declared the politics of it imperative.
Key must listen to the families of our soldiers.
‘‘We’d been hoping that [Prime Minister] John Key would have sent him back by now, after the last lot passed away.’’
What a ridiculous disrespectful post. Shame on you. He personally visited those families last time and I am sure he will do the same again. Did anyone else do this? No!
I personally would not want all the politicians at my son’s funeral grandstanding to the world, pretending they cared whilst dropping a well rehearsed tear for the cameras.
For DJ
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/slain-soldier-criticised-key-missing-troops-funeral-5035471
DJ: Excuse me, what are you worked up for?
Soldiers have “fallen” or died for eons of times in human history, for good, bad, right, wrong and whatever causes that were claimed, usually by dominant, privileged rulers that had no scruples to send the young ones off to sacrifice their lives for whatever nationalistic, idealistic or whatever causes.
This whole soldier ethos of dying for your country, your mates, your family, for a good cause and so on, it has been repeated throughout history endlessly.
Now even the Hitler youth believed they were right and sacrificed their lives for the right cause, so did the kamikaze youth from Japan, so did Mao’s brigades, Lenin’s fighting troups, and further back the ones fighting for the dominance of Rome, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt and whatever.
Who ever paid the bloody price?
The ordinary foot soldier and their families! Who won, who lost, what did it usually achieve?
A plaque on some rock or what, how is that for “spirit” and liveliness?
The RSA fought in good faith agains dictators, but any sensible person knows also, they also in part committed atrocities!
Shove your over-holy crap into the grave, where it belongs, thank you.
Every person who dies deserves fair respect and consideration. Soldier, voluntary nun or aid worker in the slums of Calcutta maybe even more so than some highly armed soldiers in Afghanistan, trying to protect a rotten, corrupt government that also allows opium trade.
What have the dumbed down and manipulated masses in this country come to, if the media gets away every time to glorify the so called “sacrifice” for bloody what?
I am sick to death of all this shit. Throw away you uniforms, get naked, real, human and put your lively human effort and strenght where it is most needed: To fight for justice against unfairness and poverty, first of all in your own country, and in the realm around it. Then you deserve a bloody medal, that will be in spirit not rotten or rusty metal.
Thank you!
Any chance we can leave this post for condolences and remembrance?
Any politicising should be made on Open mike.
Too late the wankers went into full post mode straight away …….
Hi DJ, if you don’t want to “politicise” here, there’s a wide-ranging debate on the other thread. Feel free to join in.
Te standard tērā e haunga mai nei.
Tēnā koe, Pukeko
Ko wai koe?
Why are you repeating practically verbatim phrases from the Māori online dictionary? The original phrase that you have erroneously bastardised is thus
“He ika tērā e haunga mai nei. / That fish is smelly”
Every recent post you have made in the reo has been similarly taken from the same Maori online dictionary and misused. So why the pretence?
I seriously suspect that that one is the false face of one who recently copped a little stretch of a banning from The Standard, (like as in life-time),
Have carefully studied ‘its’ appearances in various debates going back a bit and ‘it’ seems to have some twisted motive (revenge) as the basis for ‘its’ comments…
PG? Looking at his blog right now, he does seem quite obsessed with TS.
Heh, much better than looking at this blog and seeing how obsessed he is with TS 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uCC-venMtU
No comment!
Gordon Campbell writes that it is gutless crawling to the Americans by our leaders that New Zealanders are dying for.
yup, nice one Jenny.
It’s honesty like that, along with the fact that he’s humiliated Graham Bell and Richard Griffin on air, that means Campbell is not asked to appear on National Radio’s wretched “Panel” programme any more.
Campbell would have a lot more credibility if he had written those comments years ago and substituted “Clark” for “Key”……….
Campbell would have a lot more credibility if he had written those comments years ago and substituted “Clark” for “Key”……….
He did, and on many occasions. You really need to catch up on your reading, my friend.
Key wants a FTA with the USA in order to brag to his pals in Hawaii
i.e. a “Free Trade” agreement giving all the advantages to multinational corporates, a few morsels to big NZ interests, and sells our ordinary citizens down the river.
An FTA is the goal. .nothing changed since the Clark days…….wait, didn’t Helen get a plum job at the UN?
a quarter century of globalised neoliberal free markets has been a huge wealth pump from the many to the few.
+10
The “war on terrorism” has always been b.s. How do you have a war with no specific enemy?
The first Christians were terrorists in the eyes of the Romans. The revolutionaries in the British and Spanish American colonies were terrorists in the eyes of their European masters; freedom fighters in the eyes of their neighbors. And so it has been with every protest movement. Heck, in some countries outspoken women are terrorists.
“Be afraid, very afraid. Embrace Big Brother. Only he can protect you.”
This is highly classified so don’t spread it around. The Teleban sent a suicide squad to blow up the Inter-Island ferry but our police intercepted them, which is why Big Brother will be expanding civilian surveillance. It’s for your own good.
Shades of 1984.
I felt a 1984 chill back when Bush was talking about the ‘war on terror’ going on for as long as it takes. A war without end. Since then I can just turn on Fox news and get that chill anytime I want.
Sad all this, yet, has anyone ever seriously looked at near death experiences?
Generally the reports and feed-backs are very consoling and calming. Those that have been there usually no longer fear death. Combatants of course are on the very front line of life and death challenges, survival and so forth. I feel extremely sorry for those that get maimed, disabled and seriously injured and survive to live a life of misery.
It is disgusting what Taleban are doing, using these hideous, cunning IEDs.
Yet anyone exposed to such threats would only wish for her or him to hit it straight and for sure, to be spared any suffering.
Maybe the madness of yihadis does also explain that death is not really that much to fear about. If life is crap, then it may be a salvation, especially if it serves a cause.
Extreme these thoughts are, but I dare to raise the unthinkable, to ponder about in times of distress and unbearable pain.
Voluntary euthanasia is becoming more acceptable to me, looking at all this stuff.
About the same as hellfire equipped killer drones being controlled by “pilots” half a world away, who fight a distant war impersonally, from the luxury of their own home town.
This is exactly what anti-personnel mines have been designed to do for the longest time. But who says that civilisation does not advance? For in every new war, they find new ways of killing and maiming people.
It is an unfortunate business.
CV – do you ever sleep? O is the revolutionary fervour giving you 24/7 energy to burn?
Key’s self-interest in attending his son’s ball-game in the US rather than representing NZ at the funeral for one of his soldiers who died in Afghanistan can only hurt him at the next election.
He was his Commander-in-Chief. Loyalty flows both ways ..