I am certain the media has played a major role in sustaining 9 years of extreme neoliberal rule over this country.
Just imagine how a neutral press would deal with Key and his gang. We got a brief glimpse he would not have coped from the BBC Hard Talk interview a few years ago.
Then imagine if Key had to face the outright hostility and partisanship of a left wing media. He would not have lasted 6 months.
Who owns the media is a BIG part of the problem
Considering his family history, Trump’s memory loss, lies and confabulation raise the possibility that we’re witnessing early-onset dementia and paint a pretty grim picture regarding his mental competence.
That’s just Trump acting like a shit and a media whore. It’s not evidence of dementia. If school boy behaviour and sense of humour is a sign of dementia there’s a whole bunch of middle aged men out there who need to be put away.
Trump seems pretty on the ball to me…he does shoot from the mouth without engaging brain at times ( like an entertainer)….but his minders have that somewhat under control now…he is a typical shrewd deal maker with his eye on winning the big picture imo …so he will say anything at times to build grassroots support…but ultimately he is a pragmatist realist…and wants Peace for the USA…certainly not more senseless wars in the Middle East or with Russia
…. way better than the systemmic mendacity and war mongering of Hillary and her corporate minders and overseas funders
while being too cowardly to own the bulshit point he was making.
My “free association” path went thusly:
monomaniacal obsessive who’s been inventing and spreading rumours about the health of a candidate he doesn’t like posts random article on a degenerative disease. Sudden cure for his obsession? Unlikely. More likely another smear, this time more cowardly after being ripped into for overtly inventing shit.
And what “agenda” is that, TheExtremist? Remember, Bill Clinton’s DNC Chair has come forward publicly and said that the party needs to consider readying a contingency plan covering Hillary withdrawing due to health reasons.
Amanda Marcotte nails it, again: “Clinton’s health is Obama’s birth certificate all over again: A barely disguised way for conservatives to wallow in bigotry”
Andre, your responses and perspective are barley at an elementary level using your comments for reference
The current POTUS is a war mongering Nobel Peace Prize Laureatte, then the party you appear to favour were exposed for committing a form of electoral fraud to ensure that a physically and mentally ill candidate would ‘prevail’ at ANY cost
My opinion is that perspectives such as yours are a primary reason why The USA is the disaster nation it now is. The ‘average american’ has allowed it to eventuate and are 99% responsible for the national and international wrong doings. The same is true in NZ and elsewhere, the ‘average kiwi’ is perpetuating the problems
Attachmemt to the system, any system is the problem so why are you seemingly comfortable as an American citizen to enable the farce to continue by taking a side?
Ok One Two, here’s a challenge for you. Explain to us why it will be better if Trump gets elected than if Clinton wins. With evidence.
Here’s your incentive. If you persuade me, I’ll have a go at persuading my friends and rellies. There’s around 20 votes I might be able to influence, most of them in swing states.
Go on, show us the power of those higher frequencies you hear that you keep telling us about.
What you the friends and rellies need to be doing is identifying the total disaster that is USA politics, and every system of governance/administration executive branch etc which directly and indirectly hangs from the rotten corpse that’rules the world’
It doesn’t matter who you vote for, the deck is stacked on all sides it makes no difference which broken soul becomes POTUS. Look at the core outcomes it’s all the same and then ask yourself WHY the direction isn’t changing
Detaching from the ‘drama’ is the best course of action because feeding it with energy is to endorse what the status quo represents
“Detaching from the drama” certainly seems attractive while sucking on a bong. But even if I (and my friends and rellies) successfully detach, in late January next year either Clinton or Trump will be inaugurated as POTUS.
Should we choose to, in the real world, we could have a very small influence on which one of those it will be. And despite what your higher frequencies are telling you, the entire world will have a very different future depending on which one of those two becomes POTUS. Just like the world would now almost certainly be a very different place had Gore become POTUS instead of Bush the lesser.
There is literally nothing I or my rellies and friends can realistically do to bring about anything more than incremental reform of the rotten system the real world has delivered us.
If you disagree and think there are actual actions we could realistically do that will bring about actual change, please do tell. Because detaching to listen to the higher frequencies just lets the rotten bastards further consolidate their hold.
Andre I understand your semtiments as well as the desire for influence into the process
There are a number of assumptions in your comment which are not at all “reality’ based
Reality needs to be created, it should not be created for you, because then you are allowing others to create ‘your reality’. Others who already destroy kill and maim as standard practice
Continuing to support the decayed corpse will only serve to prolong its existence to the detriment of all living and life giving systems
The status quo will remain if given oxygen. It can’t and won’t be ‘changed’ by feeding it nor is there time to waste on wishful ‘incrimentalist’ fantasy
I appreciate it’s not an easy concept to wrap ones consciousness around, but failing to do so ensures a rapid decline in human existence along with the natural world
Genuine change will happen outside the systems you belive can be changed from within…staying involved with systems you can’t ever beat ensures that violent outcomes will only increase for ‘all’
Make change make plans make a garden and control the outcomes by creating your own reality
That was an excellent article thanks marty mars. All 10 points are situations we’ve all witnessed, or many of us will have observed.
One thing that jumped out was the “percentage question”. Pakeha just don’t get asked this, as white, we’re seen as just white. Some of us with Celtic roots will talk among one another about our own genealogy , often it turns out our ancestors came from the same areas, and if your family is from the Highlands of Scotland you can almost count on being related. It’s never discussed in a percentage term. Like a piece of maths.
But Maori are.
I grew up with this “percentage” faux fixation because the Pakeha side of the family was always intrigued to see how they could break down the Maori side of family into ethnic units. (It was the 70’s!) What blew that outdated old way of looking at things was a visit to a Robyn Kahukiwa exhibition.
The Maori friend I was with took me over to a female mannequin who had been painted over with lines forming squares and other shapes with numbers and a percentage sign in those marked out areas. My friend said “see, the numbers don’t matter, the woman is still a whole woman”. Visually, the mannequin looked like it was a side of beef about to be carved up. The artist was making a point about how crass and false this speak of percentages is. Good learnings from younger years.
“Victoria University students, Kahu Kutia and Kayla Polamalu talk to Kathryn Ryan about growing up with two different identities in New Zealand, and about the term ‘White Māori’.
They have Māori and Pākehā parentage. Recently Kahu wrote an article for the Victoria University’s magazine, Salient, titled If You’re From Waimana, Why Are You White?…
‘Actor’s love affair with the language’ -Jennifer Ward-Lealand started learning Te Reo Māori by attending weekly night classes
Former “alt right” crazies conspiracy theories on Hillary’s health now mainstream.
Bill Clinton’s DNC Chair from the 1990s says on the record that the party must consider contingency plans on the small chance that Hillary might have to pull out of the presidential race for health reasons.
Story reported by US political MSM website Politico.
+100…and it is amazing how many put their heads in the sand when the official story lines are leaking with inconsistencies, false reports… and lies , lies, lies
…the stooges are always countering and supporting the official story, even when academics and engineers and insiders and impartial observers disagree with the official story ( the stooges denigrate them as Conspiracy theorists or truthers)
“Manuel Barroso will be seen as a lobbyist and is going to have a big problem wielding influence on behalf of the Goldman Sachs, economist and author Keith Boyfield told RT.
The former EU president is to face an ethics inquiry over taking a lucrative role as adviser at US investment bank Goldman Sachs…
Most polls seem to have about a 3% wriggle room clause in them when they get reported to the public. The other day a poll came out, again with a 3% margin of error.
So does that mean the party on 46% could be between 43% and 49% and the party on 2% could be -1% and 5%, or does it mean a 46% party could be between 44.6% and 47.4%
The error bounds indicate how close the observation of the random sample is likely to be to the actual support of the population, based on the arbitrary “confidence” level the pollsters chose. You can’t have “-1” popularity, so the error margin narrows the farther away from the 50% central value you get.
Roughly speaking, if you have a survey has a confidence leval of 95% and the error margin is +-3%, you would expect the actual support in the country to be 47 to 53% 95% of the time, but there’s a 1 in 20 chance that the actual value is outside that 47:53 range. The farther outside that range, the lower the probability though.
However, if a party was much farther away from the center in the survey, say on 5% or 95% support (in a normal distribution it’s symmetrical), the 95% confidence margin for error would be only say 1.4%, so the party’s actual support might be 3.6% to 6.4%, 19 out of 20 times.
proviso: the assumption above is based on random samples from throughout the voting population. In reality, there could well be systemic errors that push the observed results farther away from the actual, e.g. phoning lots of people who just want to talk, while the people who are busy tell the pollsters to go away. The might not get representative samples of young people, or minorities, so they give the respondents they do get from those groups greater weight to estimate what would happen if the socioeconomic distribution of their sample actually matched the population. And so on. It’s slightly better than crystal ball gazing, but often not much.
All of the above is why one survey or datapoint is meaningless – you can’t form an opinion without long term trends over all polls, and by then it’s meaningless because the polls are too far apart and inconsistent. And you sure can’t attribute a single poll result to what happened during the poll period, journalists and pollsters love doing it but it’s fucking stupid. You might be able to look at the trends before and after, and if you’re really lucky you can see a sudden jump/drop in the trend at the same time that the event happened in a vacuum, but those are few and far between and generally only good for academics looking back from a distance.
No. The margin for error exponentially reduces as it approaches the fringes.
A 2% observation might only have an MoE in the ballpark of 0.5% or less, depending on sample size. A 0.5% observation might have an MoE of 0.03%.
The question was specific, as was your answer. Your answer was specifically incorrect. It clarified nothing, and suggested that Mana might be regarded as having as much as 3.5% popularity when it polls a barely-detectable 0.5%.
You were utterly misleading and outright wrong. Saying that you don’t know shit was going light on you, given that this is a secondary-school level error.
Trade rules should move countries together towards sustainability. Instead, they consistently allow multinational corporations to continue polluting.
Free trade deals, and in particular the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), have taken a beating this election season. Most of the noise on trade from Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has focused on the loss of jobs linked to the offshoring. Much less attention has been paid to the serious impact the TPP and past trade agreements will have on our ability to respond to climate change.
In a new report on the TPP and climate commitments made by countries as part of the Paris climate agreement, we found that trade rules consistently benefit multinational corporations in high greenhouse gas emitting sectors like agriculture and energy, while creating barriers for governments in setting climate-related policies.
Our analysis found that the Trans Pacific Partnership expands the scope of past trade agreements to harm the climate in three important ways:
As I say, much easier and better to set standards that other countries must meet before we trade with them rather than FTAs that force us to trade with those not up to our standards.
EDIT:
The official signing of the Paris climate treaty is an important first step toward a global response to climate change. But no climate deal will work if it is not supported by other policies. The TPP and the WTO are outdated trade regimes modeled on 19th century ideas. The 21st century demands something very different—trade rules that move countries together towards sustainability, starting with the urgent need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and support adaptations to climate change.
I got an email from Greenpeace this morning. It said,
“Early this morning we travelled to the proposed site of the Ruataniwha irrigation dam in Hawke’s Bay. With a small crane we uplifted the construction site office, put it on the back of a truck and drove it 100kms to Napier. There we left it at the door of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC).”
A hard-headed assessment of Labour’s performance cannot but conclude that the party lacks talent along with basic political competence. Contrast its current frontbench with those that preceded Labour victories in 1984 or 1999.
(Very) Little’s way of dealing with the deadwood of his party has been abject surrender to their demands for status, blocking the promotion of much-needed latent to the front bench. Robertson is the most egregious example, a lazy imbecile with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, he’s on the front bench because no one in their right mind would let him sit behind them. Now he’s in the spotlight, we can all see just how inadequate he is… when he actually bothers to do anything (which is usually appropriating someone else’s work).
Maybe that’s Little’s cunning plan, but I doubt it. I wouldn’t credit him with that much imagination.
Appeasing the likes of Robertson and Hipkins shows that Labour is still paralysed by its internal politics and prioritises those over its duty as an opposition or government in waiting.
He has ability and is in demand, so he has somewhere to go as well.
That I suppose is the problem Labour has. It’s current frontbenchers are unemployable elsewhere, so they cling to their positions, blocking any rising talent, who become disaffected. Even younger people don’t even see the point in trying for selection if they see that their careers will go nowhere.
The best Little can do in the short term is shine some light on the less senior MPs – give them a chance to speak on issues if not complete portfolios, or pair them with seniors on specific campaigns such as the housing crisis so they get some attention and experience.
I would hope that a Labour-led coalition government could import talent from its partners, but I fear that the deadwood MPs will all demand the plum jobs and LIttle will give in to them, relegating capable members from other parties to roles as Assistant Minister of Tea and Scones and suchlike.
Fortunately opposition(s) talent pool is razor thin so this should not be an issue, finding enough people to fill cabinet will be the biggest concern, it’s not going to happen so again not really anything to worry about Rhino
if we are going to fret upon a lack of front bench talent i submit the following….Hon. Gerry Brownlee, Steven Joyce, Paula Bennet,Jonathan Coleman,Simon Bridges,Hekia Parata, Anne Tolley, Nick Smith, Murray McCully, Judith Collins and Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga.
Key said “if you act in a violent and controlling way, you can change this behaviour. Own the problem. Nothing will get better until you do. Ask for help. There is no shame in that.”
Very good. However, with the sharing of more information coupled with allowing others to apply for protection orders (and with offenders soon being marked as family violence offenders for life) what are the consequences of someone asking for help?
Moreover, will it deter people from willingly coming forward?
Will the sharing of more information result in people becoming less willing to initially share their information?
Information on peoples credit ratings, debt levels, housing histories and the social services they had been provided with to be shared to save the homeless?
Renters may have to endure tenancy sustainment courses.
New policy may force private landlords to provide longer tenure.
Awesome to see the Act party recognise the Treaty of Waitangi & also validating the Settlement process by agreeing with Te Ohu Kaimoana’s beef with the Crown, psycho Nick Smith and the confiscation of property rights over the arbitrary claim of the Kermadec rights to fish by the Crown. Poor ole John Ansell… iwi 1, Rednecks 0?
I’m a little confused on this , I read that Maori have never caught fish there under quota and would shelve the quota if it goes ahead, so why don’t they just in this case agree to a full sanctuary .
@bwaghorn. Its a property rights issue after a “Full & Final Treaty Settlement” …. you wouldn’t like me to pop over your backyard fence and pitch up a tent on it because you weren’t using it would you? You pakeha’s just don’t understand your own legal system. The law is the same for all isn’t it? Shit, I’m starting to sound like John Ansell! Haha!
The Kupapa Party (MP-Tainui Inc) walking away from the Government is as likely to happen as it is Donald Trump winning POTUS! 🙂 I’d luv that nutcase to beat Clinton … Could turnout to be another “Grassy Knoll” President-takeout?
I think the NATs have figured out that the Maori Party will get no satisfaction from Labour on this issue either, but clearly the NATs have gone about this in a rather ham fisted way.
One wonders if the Minister bothered to read the briefing papers properly.
Pre this whole sanctuary shamozzle ( and i think it’s dumb the nats didn’t consult) what were iwi’s rights around the kermadecs under the treaty , were they even included in the treaty.?
The bill is the problem. Not the wording or the many hooks in it or even the sanctuary. The problem is its existence! Even though Smith is a nutjob, he is pretty clever at creating problems deliberately. If the Nats weren’t happy with the amount of shit he’s caused in the public domain mainly around Maori issues, they would of dumped him ages ago. This is all jockeying & shenanigans and manipulation been played out to maneuver parties into awkward positions, like the Greens right now. Who’d of thought a BlueGreen alliance at this stage of the game and the massive implications that it will have on their party and especially party membership? As well as their relationship with Maori? Its a bit of high risk poker that I would of thought the Greens would be against, gambling? NZF not the only Kingmaker next year? The sanctuary isn’t the objective here for the nats I think? They’re playing poker and are doing pretty well with how they’re playing their hand….10 months in the making, I’m guessing there’s a couple of solutions that the parties have already discussed privately. Whatever they are we’ll be the last ones to find out…
I have wondered my self about it just being a pr stunt , as how the hell would we police a sanctuary from 800 kms away. far better to have sanctuaries close in .
I think labour agree with the bogus kermadec idea so no not good for them. This issue is one of those ones which unite Māori imo, against a bigger enemy.
Can do. Also, for those not sitting around the table which could be a bigger group as Nga Puhi haven’t settled their claim and not likely to start for a year or two? They could be looking for political representation once they do get into the negotiation phase. Hone or Kelvin?
Umm actually it wasn’t anything to do with Act recognising the Treaty… more to do with a few fishing companies 5 to be precise:
““This Bill amounts to an uncompensated regulatory taking, likely to cause real harm to the livelihoods of those in the fishing industry,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.”
Analysis of Secret Service and campaign staffer performance at Clinton’s 9/11 health incident.
My question: if your VIP protectee was diagnosed with pneumonia 2 days ago, and then appears to nearly and unexpectedly collapse, why would you take your protectee to her daughter’s apartment instead of to the ER of a top level hospital?
Yeah why?WHY??? What the hell are they trying to achieve? What are they trying to hide? Something is going on here, something is rotten, something smells. I can FEEL the bad vibe here, anyone could if we’re attuned.
If your VIP protectee had just been diagnosed with pneumonia 2 days before then unexpectedly almost collapses for no known reason, it rates as a potential medical emergency.
Unless the support team already knows at the time what the cause of the VIP’s near-collapse is.
Yes, known to them, and everyone else. Because, like, it’s pneumonia.
Meanwhile, all we have on Trump is that he’s only had positive test results. If it were clinton with that statement, you’d be saying that one of those tests was HIV…
If what you say is true cv why haven’t those secret service people been arrested and charged. Their most public client let down!!!! Oh that’s right it’s not true just a boys own fantasy.
Her campaign team has been deliberately concealing her condition.
At the VERY least, her pneumonia diagnosis on Fri, claim from her campaign team at the time of the incident that it was just simple “overheating” (when they clearly knew different), photo-op 2 hrs after outside Chelsea’s apartment with declarations of ‘going great again’ (when they clearly knew different), then a few hours after that, final acknowledgement of the supposed actual diagnosis from the Friday.
If Labour announced a $40 increase in benefit payments across the board (helping to address poverty and all the problems that come along with that, improve inequality and stimulate the economy) would that help give them traction in the polls?
It would help business returns (especially in the struggling regions) as beneficiaries tend to spend most of their income.
It would help encourage those in the lower social economic group that don’t tend to vote partake.
It could be paid for by taxing the very top end of income earners (improving wealth redistribution) coupled by the increase in the GST take and higher business returns.
Depends, those on a benefit would vote for it but those paying the extra tax might think differently
But then the ones on a benefit are less likely to vote National anyway so I suppose it might convince those on a benefit to get out and vote for a left wing party
i supported Labour in the last election when they advocated a Capital Gains Tax, and increase in the min wage to 16.50 (or 16 per hour not so sure anymore) and many many other things. So there is always that.
I largely support a UBI but this will fill the gap in the meantime.
Moreover, this will allow Labour to give voters something of substance that they can resonate with, which will help Labour lift their profile and get over the line.
Talk of a tax working group didn’t create much hype, whereas this would.
“If Labour announced a $40 increase in benefit payments across the board (helping to address poverty and all the problems that come along with that, improve inequality and stimulate the economy) would that help give them traction in the polls?”
Problem is Labour has already signaled a number of policies it will introduce if in Government come 2017, which all cost big $$. They will need to find another few billion $ for this idea as well Chairman.
Yep increasing the tax rate for “rich pricks” is an option, and one that Labour is already factoring in. Having said a “tax working group” will be formed to advise on tax matters etc (once they are in Government).
National has been the only party to increase benefit payments over and above the rate of inflation for decades.
Would it be a vote winner for Labour? No, not to any great extent. Labour need to appeal to middle NZ to form the next Government…even if that grates with many on this blog.
“Problem is Labour has already signaled a number of policies it will introduce if in Government come 2017…”
And one would assume they have a way to pay for them.
“Labour need to appeal to middle NZ”
Are you implying business owners aren’t? Moreover, Labour has been trying to win over the middle for years now and it hasn’t been working out for them.
This covers both ends (middle and lower) therefore has far more potential gain.
National increasing benefits didn’t hurt their support.
“A “tax working group” will be formed to advise on tax matters etc (once they are in Government)”
They got to get into government first, this (my suggestion) would help with that.
If they could build 10,000 houses a year a lot of older house would become cheaper and people that can afford the $600k ones will probably free up rentals and apartments.
Auckland is the largest City in NZ, it is the most populated City in NZ and to expect house prices like in Dunedin is simply simple minded.
IF and when NZ’lers start buying houses not as a thing to flip and make money on, but to buy and to live in and keep in the family like it is done in many old european cities including London, Paris, Rome, Florence and even in US Cities like NY you will see that 600.000$ is very affordable as you can raise several to un-count generations in that very same house.
But the thing is really with you CV is that you are so full of hate towards anything Labour that you rather see some revolution come along that burns everything and makes everyone homeless then support the ones that are full of flaws but are at least trying. And starting to build houses/apartments/units is the very first step to bring prices down.
So yes, 600.000$ for land (cause no one is buying a house, stop deluding yourself here) in the middle of million people City is affordable. Maybe not for one generation, but for two or three. And that is precisely how it is done in many place all over this planet. I mean heck, try to buy a house in Berlin, Rome, Paris, NY, London and tell me how ‘affordable’ that is.
Good morning CV, welcome to the 21 century, let me assure again, the 80’s are long gone, and the only one crying after the good old days are those that remember them.
Why do you keep trying to speak to me like you are my grandma?
By the way, what is “simple minded” are the fools like you who believe that you should keep stuffing Auckland full of people, while small towns and cities throughout the provinces slowly shut down shop.
Fuck your condescending infantalising of long time Kiwis who suffered through that time, who lost their homes, who lost their factories, who lost their careers, who lost their families.
Labour sowed neoliberalism upon our shores, and Labour has deservedly reaped the electoral whirlwind of their actions.
Thank you CV. When the Lange govt was elected almost no-one had the slightest clue what Douglas and his crew of wreckers was about to inflict on us. In the aftermath of Muldoon’s sour and bullying leadership all we wanted was a change. Of course Lange’s charisma, sharp wit and geniality turned out to be a smoke screen.
For quite a few years a large chunk on NZ was completely taken in by Douglas. Including the much younger and naive version of myself. (And in another thirty years time I predict some other dude will ruefully be saying the same thing about John Key). This was all before the internet and most of our political information was filtered through the NZ Herald.
A lot of credit must go to people like Jim Anderton and those within the NZLP who had a much better understanding of what was going on and fought against it as best they could. That’s a whole other story that doesn’t get much airtime these days.
as you can raise several to un-count generations in that very same house.
Yes my family still owns a house in Epsom and on paper it makes us quite well off, but we’re of the same basic notion that we never intend to sell it … so all that paper wealth is fairly meaningless.
Your basic premise is a good one, but most NZ housing is designed around the needs of a single nuclear family and just aren’t suited to multiple generations living in the same home.
That policy area is a complete fabrication, its impossible to achieve a significant influence on Auckland house prices (without causing an unwanted market crash). No govt can keep up with the level of supply and shifts in supply needed to control that.
If we are lucky then Labour goes about achieving a big increase in subsidized social housing in order that people who will not be in a position to own a house can have some assurance that they can have somewhere to live.
But they are not marketing that policy (unless you actually pay attention to what they are planning to do) they are saying that house prices are too high (as a way of signaling to their voter base) and implying they are going to do something about it! But people who vote hoping to see that will be as disappointed as serious Libertarians are by Key’s government.
On the other point, Labour may still have some ideas for working class people but in general have no interest in their political concerns or fixing that relationship.
Pretty much, but plenty of people around here still give Labour’s efforts solid passing grades for some reason.
None of our political leaders seem to have any concept of physical reality, or even on the optimum role of government in ensuring the interests of the people.
Government and Auckland Council have today signed Heads of Agreement on NZ’s most expensive infrastructure project to date: Cit Rail Link. Between $2.5 and $3.4b.
It’s a Crown company not a CCO. Therefore OIA and not LGOIMA applies. Makes reporting less constrained but less public.
Either way, big deal. Very different model to Chch rebuild.
And more to come tomorrow in broader Ak funding package.
Beipaotai China, looks to be in the path of Maranti ?
Looking on Google Earth it looks like a nuclear power plant, like meters from the ocean.
This was a 2009/ 2011 article but it shows several plants being built in the area? http://www.jsm.or.jp/ejam/Vol.1.No.3/GA/6/article.html
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Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
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Rachel Stewart: New Zealand moving closer to Winston Peters.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/84210902/rachel-stewart-new-zealand-moving-closer-to-winston-peters
After watching the interaction with Winny and Blingish in the house yesterday, I’m feeling even more confident that he won’t go with the nasty nats
But we don’t Winston Trump with us either.
Lets be ambitious for the Left and strive for a Labour/Green government with no NZFirst bigots anywhere near the cabinet room
I see that Key will be winning the next election, as decreed by the Herald.
The Herald.
What a rag.
Lolz I read that propaganda too.
I am certain the media has played a major role in sustaining 9 years of extreme neoliberal rule over this country.
Just imagine how a neutral press would deal with Key and his gang. We got a brief glimpse he would not have coped from the BBC Hard Talk interview a few years ago.
Then imagine if Key had to face the outright hostility and partisanship of a left wing media. He would not have lasted 6 months.
Who owns the media is a BIG part of the problem
FIFY
QFT
Another example of capitalism failing.
Don’t read the Herald. It’s that simple. Reading that crap only encourages them and increases their “readership” .
Some useful information on signs, symptoms, treatment and caring of late stage Parkinsons disease.
It usually takes many years for a case to progress to this stage, and it will be obvious to close friends, family and colleagues.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3038575/
Considering his family history, Trump’s memory loss, lies and confabulation raise the possibility that we’re witnessing early-onset dementia and paint a pretty grim picture regarding his mental competence.
That’s the real health concern in this election.
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_stages_of_alzheimers.asp
(see, two can play)
I didn’t mention anything about the US Presidential elections or candidates.
Trump is releasing the results of his full medical in a couple of days, and I agree that his data should be fully examined and questioned.
Meanwhile, you need to consider the mounting evidence in front of your nose.
Yes,
hisbluster, confabulation and age regression is plain to anyone who’s witnessed early onset dementia.What is “age regression”?
Behaving like a schoolboy, you know, name calling- Elizabeth Warren and the Pocahontas taunt, imitation and derision of Serge kovaleski, and inappropriate behaviour at the RNC through to the eventual nappy.
That’s just Trump acting like a shit and a media whore. It’s not evidence of dementia. If school boy behaviour and sense of humour is a sign of dementia there’s a whole bunch of middle aged men out there who need to be put away.
Trump seems pretty on the ball to me…he does shoot from the mouth without engaging brain at times ( like an entertainer)….but his minders have that somewhat under control now…he is a typical shrewd deal maker with his eye on winning the big picture imo …so he will say anything at times to build grassroots support…but ultimately he is a pragmatist realist…and wants Peace for the USA…certainly not more senseless wars in the Middle East or with Russia
…. way better than the systemmic mendacity and war mongering of Hillary and her corporate minders and overseas funders
‘The Hillary Doctrine’
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/358498-clinton-foreign-policy-exeptionalism/
‘The Trump Doctrine’
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/358759-trump-most-unorthodox-nominee/
Those poor poor yanker bastards really have nobody to vote for.
You actually expect us believe you weren’t making a pointed comment about Clinton?
Consider it an exercise in free association.
Bullshit – it was attempt to again twist the conversation to your agenda
while being too cowardly to own the bulshit point he was making.
My “free association” path went thusly:
monomaniacal obsessive who’s been inventing and spreading rumours about the health of a candidate he doesn’t like posts random article on a degenerative disease. Sudden cure for his obsession? Unlikely. More likely another smear, this time more cowardly after being ripped into for overtly inventing shit.
And what “agenda” is that, TheExtremist? Remember, Bill Clinton’s DNC Chair has come forward publicly and said that the party needs to consider readying a contingency plan covering Hillary withdrawing due to health reasons.
Amanda Marcotte nails it, again: “Clinton’s health is Obama’s birth certificate all over again: A barely disguised way for conservatives to wallow in bigotry”
http://www.salon.com/2016/09/13/clintons-health-is-obamas-birth-certificate-all-over-again-a-barely-disguised-way-for-conservatives-to-wallow-in-bigotry/
That the articles premise appeals to your own fears does not mean ‘it was nailed’
The comparison is a false equivalence
The only way Clintons health is not a serious problem based on the ‘evidence’ available is if the entire situation is a hoax…
Sick or a hoax are the only options Andre!
Pneumonia is almost always easily cured by antibiotics and rest.
What ails Trump and his supporters, no easy remedy.
well – a functioning education system and effective counselling when warning signs are first exhibited, maybe.
Yeah, those work, mostly. But it ain’t easy and it ain’t quick.
Andre, your responses and perspective are barley at an elementary level using your comments for reference
The current POTUS is a war mongering Nobel Peace Prize Laureatte, then the party you appear to favour were exposed for committing a form of electoral fraud to ensure that a physically and mentally ill candidate would ‘prevail’ at ANY cost
My opinion is that perspectives such as yours are a primary reason why The USA is the disaster nation it now is. The ‘average american’ has allowed it to eventuate and are 99% responsible for the national and international wrong doings. The same is true in NZ and elsewhere, the ‘average kiwi’ is perpetuating the problems
Attachmemt to the system, any system is the problem so why are you seemingly comfortable as an American citizen to enable the farce to continue by taking a side?
Doing so lowers your own level
Ok One Two, here’s a challenge for you. Explain to us why it will be better if Trump gets elected than if Clinton wins. With evidence.
Here’s your incentive. If you persuade me, I’ll have a go at persuading my friends and rellies. There’s around 20 votes I might be able to influence, most of them in swing states.
Go on, show us the power of those higher frequencies you hear that you keep telling us about.
Andre you are entirely missing the point…
What you the friends and rellies need to be doing is identifying the total disaster that is USA politics, and every system of governance/administration executive branch etc which directly and indirectly hangs from the rotten corpse that’rules the world’
It doesn’t matter who you vote for, the deck is stacked on all sides it makes no difference which broken soul becomes POTUS. Look at the core outcomes it’s all the same and then ask yourself WHY the direction isn’t changing
Detaching from the ‘drama’ is the best course of action because feeding it with energy is to endorse what the status quo represents
“Detaching from the drama” certainly seems attractive while sucking on a bong. But even if I (and my friends and rellies) successfully detach, in late January next year either Clinton or Trump will be inaugurated as POTUS.
Should we choose to, in the real world, we could have a very small influence on which one of those it will be. And despite what your higher frequencies are telling you, the entire world will have a very different future depending on which one of those two becomes POTUS. Just like the world would now almost certainly be a very different place had Gore become POTUS instead of Bush the lesser.
There is literally nothing I or my rellies and friends can realistically do to bring about anything more than incremental reform of the rotten system the real world has delivered us.
If you disagree and think there are actual actions we could realistically do that will bring about actual change, please do tell. Because detaching to listen to the higher frequencies just lets the rotten bastards further consolidate their hold.
Andre I understand your semtiments as well as the desire for influence into the process
There are a number of assumptions in your comment which are not at all “reality’ based
Reality needs to be created, it should not be created for you, because then you are allowing others to create ‘your reality’. Others who already destroy kill and maim as standard practice
Continuing to support the decayed corpse will only serve to prolong its existence to the detriment of all living and life giving systems
The status quo will remain if given oxygen. It can’t and won’t be ‘changed’ by feeding it nor is there time to waste on wishful ‘incrimentalist’ fantasy
I appreciate it’s not an easy concept to wrap ones consciousness around, but failing to do so ensures a rapid decline in human existence along with the natural world
Genuine change will happen outside the systems you belive can be changed from within…staying involved with systems you can’t ever beat ensures that violent outcomes will only increase for ‘all’
Make change make plans make a garden and control the outcomes by creating your own reality
That is the essence of ‘life’
Good article if you are Māori or have friends that are
https://trintb.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/10-things-i-wish-my-friends-knew-about-being-maori/
That was an excellent article thanks marty mars. All 10 points are situations we’ve all witnessed, or many of us will have observed.
One thing that jumped out was the “percentage question”. Pakeha just don’t get asked this, as white, we’re seen as just white. Some of us with Celtic roots will talk among one another about our own genealogy , often it turns out our ancestors came from the same areas, and if your family is from the Highlands of Scotland you can almost count on being related. It’s never discussed in a percentage term. Like a piece of maths.
But Maori are.
I grew up with this “percentage” faux fixation because the Pakeha side of the family was always intrigued to see how they could break down the Maori side of family into ethnic units. (It was the 70’s!) What blew that outdated old way of looking at things was a visit to a Robyn Kahukiwa exhibition.
The Maori friend I was with took me over to a female mannequin who had been painted over with lines forming squares and other shapes with numbers and a percentage sign in those marked out areas. My friend said “see, the numbers don’t matter, the woman is still a whole woman”. Visually, the mannequin looked like it was a side of beef about to be carved up. The artist was making a point about how crass and false this speak of percentages is. Good learnings from younger years.
The question on what % Maori you are is institutionalised.
RNZ and Kathryn Ryan have done some good interviews lately
‘What does it mean to be ‘White Māori’?’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201814861/what-does-it-mean-to-be-'white-maori‘
“Victoria University students, Kahu Kutia and Kayla Polamalu talk to Kathryn Ryan about growing up with two different identities in New Zealand, and about the term ‘White Māori’.
They have Māori and Pākehā parentage. Recently Kahu wrote an article for the Victoria University’s magazine, Salient, titled If You’re From Waimana, Why Are You White?…
‘Actor’s love affair with the language’ -Jennifer Ward-Lealand started learning Te Reo Māori by attending weekly night classes
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/teahikaa/audio/201815199/actor's-love-affair-with-the-language
Latest Polls Show Nominating Hillary Was A Huge Mistake
“When the people are presented with a Republican, or someone who sounds like a Republican, they choose the Republican every time.”
Yes didnt those in control of the Democratic Party ( Hillary’s friends) attack Bernie Sanders on account of his age and health?
Former “alt right” crazies conspiracy theories on Hillary’s health now mainstream.
Bill Clinton’s DNC Chair from the 1990s says on the record that the party must consider contingency plans on the small chance that Hillary might have to pull out of the presidential race for health reasons.
Story reported by US political MSM website Politico.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-health-replace-contingency-228037
it is almost awe inspiring to recognise how the Deep State working in coordination with the mass media can keep massive secrets from people for years.
And how willing and easily dozens of people are willing to act together to deceive the public in the pursuit of seeking and maintaining power.
Yes CV .Like Kennedy and 9/11.
+100…and it is amazing how many put their heads in the sand when the official story lines are leaking with inconsistencies, false reports… and lies , lies, lies
…the stooges are always countering and supporting the official story, even when academics and engineers and insiders and impartial observers disagree with the official story ( the stooges denigrate them as Conspiracy theorists or truthers)
Deep State has tentacles everywhere
Everywhere except the moon, because they faked the landing…
Corporate corruption in politics ( Brexit was a good thing then?)
‘Time to rethink EU as Manuel Barroso heads to Goldman Sachs’
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/359204-barroso-junker-eu-goldman-sachs/
“Manuel Barroso will be seen as a lobbyist and is going to have a big problem wielding influence on behalf of the Goldman Sachs, economist and author Keith Boyfield told RT.
The former EU president is to face an ethics inquiry over taking a lucrative role as adviser at US investment bank Goldman Sachs…
Please educate me.
Most polls seem to have about a 3% wriggle room clause in them when they get reported to the public. The other day a poll came out, again with a 3% margin of error.
So does that mean the party on 46% could be between 43% and 49% and the party on 2% could be -1% and 5%, or does it mean a 46% party could be between 44.6% and 47.4%
Thanks
Yeah its an absolute +/-3%
So 2% = a range of 0% to 5%
Thanks for that.
They could reduce that margin of error to say +/-2% but they would have to survey a lot more people to achieve that, and you know: money, time.
No, it’s not an “absolute”.
The error bounds indicate how close the observation of the random sample is likely to be to the actual support of the population, based on the arbitrary “confidence” level the pollsters chose. You can’t have “-1” popularity, so the error margin narrows the farther away from the 50% central value you get.
Roughly speaking, if you have a survey has a confidence leval of 95% and the error margin is +-3%, you would expect the actual support in the country to be 47 to 53% 95% of the time, but there’s a 1 in 20 chance that the actual value is outside that 47:53 range. The farther outside that range, the lower the probability though.
However, if a party was much farther away from the center in the survey, say on 5% or 95% support (in a normal distribution it’s symmetrical), the 95% confidence margin for error would be only say 1.4%, so the party’s actual support might be 3.6% to 6.4%, 19 out of 20 times.
check out the bottom of this report from Roy Morgan.
proviso: the assumption above is based on random samples from throughout the voting population. In reality, there could well be systemic errors that push the observed results farther away from the actual, e.g. phoning lots of people who just want to talk, while the people who are busy tell the pollsters to go away. The might not get representative samples of young people, or minorities, so they give the respondents they do get from those groups greater weight to estimate what would happen if the socioeconomic distribution of their sample actually matched the population. And so on. It’s slightly better than crystal ball gazing, but often not much.
All of the above is why one survey or datapoint is meaningless – you can’t form an opinion without long term trends over all polls, and by then it’s meaningless because the polls are too far apart and inconsistent. And you sure can’t attribute a single poll result to what happened during the poll period, journalists and pollsters love doing it but it’s fucking stupid. You might be able to look at the trends before and after, and if you’re really lucky you can see a sudden jump/drop in the trend at the same time that the event happened in a vacuum, but those are few and far between and generally only good for academics looking back from a distance.
ps: CV doesn’t know shit.
I clarified their understanding of the margin of error in 1/20 of the words you used.
I stand by my use of “absolute” +/-3% as opposed to 3% (1/34) of whatever the poll result was.
I admit though yours is the most technically correct answer.
Don’t be so childish. Sticks and stones.
No, you gave a completely incorrect response:
No. The margin for error exponentially reduces as it approaches the fringes.
A 2% observation might only have an MoE in the ballpark of 0.5% or less, depending on sample size. A 0.5% observation might have an MoE of 0.03%.
The question was specific, as was your answer. Your answer was specifically incorrect. It clarified nothing, and suggested that Mana might be regarded as having as much as 3.5% popularity when it polls a barely-detectable 0.5%.
You were utterly misleading and outright wrong. Saying that you don’t know shit was going light on you, given that this is a secondary-school level error.
3 Ways the Trans Pacific Partnership Will Help Corporations—While Ruining the Climate
As I say, much easier and better to set standards that other countries must meet before we trade with them rather than FTAs that force us to trade with those not up to our standards.
EDIT:
This.
I got an email from Greenpeace this morning. It said,
“Early this morning we travelled to the proposed site of the Ruataniwha irrigation dam in Hawke’s Bay. With a small crane we uplifted the construction site office, put it on the back of a truck and drove it 100kms to Napier. There we left it at the door of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC).”
A thoughtful, erudite piece
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/84198470/should-labour-replace-little-it-wont-solve-anything
A hard-headed assessment of Labour’s performance cannot but conclude that the party lacks talent along with basic political competence. Contrast its current frontbench with those that preceded Labour victories in 1984 or 1999.
(Very) Little’s way of dealing with the deadwood of his party has been abject surrender to their demands for status, blocking the promotion of much-needed latent to the front bench. Robertson is the most egregious example, a lazy imbecile with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, he’s on the front bench because no one in their right mind would let him sit behind them. Now he’s in the spotlight, we can all see just how inadequate he is… when he actually bothers to do anything (which is usually appropriating someone else’s work).
Maybe that’s Little’s cunning plan, but I doubt it. I wouldn’t credit him with that much imagination.
Appeasing the likes of Robertson and Hipkins shows that Labour is still paralysed by its internal politics and prioritises those over its duty as an opposition or government in waiting.
This is also the same place Cunliffe fell over badly.
But according to the UMR poll LAB+GR is clear ahead of NAT right now so they are doing it right?
Never underestimate Labour’s ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I think Kevin Hague did similar maths in his head.
He has ability and is in demand, so he has somewhere to go as well.
That I suppose is the problem Labour has. It’s current frontbenchers are unemployable elsewhere, so they cling to their positions, blocking any rising talent, who become disaffected. Even younger people don’t even see the point in trying for selection if they see that their careers will go nowhere.
The best Little can do in the short term is shine some light on the less senior MPs – give them a chance to speak on issues if not complete portfolios, or pair them with seniors on specific campaigns such as the housing crisis so they get some attention and experience.
I know people will call Quinn a traitor but this line:
“Contrast its current frontbench with those that preceded Labour victories in 1984 or 1999.”
Really should give cause for concern shouldn’t it?
I would hope that a Labour-led coalition government could import talent from its partners, but I fear that the deadwood MPs will all demand the plum jobs and LIttle will give in to them, relegating capable members from other parties to roles as Assistant Minister of Tea and Scones and suchlike.
Fortunately opposition(s) talent pool is razor thin so this should not be an issue, finding enough people to fill cabinet will be the biggest concern, it’s not going to happen so again not really anything to worry about Rhino
if we are going to fret upon a lack of front bench talent i submit the following….Hon. Gerry Brownlee, Steven Joyce, Paula Bennet,Jonathan Coleman,Simon Bridges,Hekia Parata, Anne Tolley, Nick Smith, Murray McCully, Judith Collins and Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga.
Key said “if you act in a violent and controlling way, you can change this behaviour. Own the problem. Nothing will get better until you do. Ask for help. There is no shame in that.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11708758
Very good. However, with the sharing of more information coupled with allowing others to apply for protection orders (and with offenders soon being marked as family violence offenders for life) what are the consequences of someone asking for help?
Moreover, will it deter people from willingly coming forward?
Will the sharing of more information result in people becoming less willing to initially share their information?
Elizabeth Banks is amazing, here is piece from her new project Whohaha.
http://whohaha.com/
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4pez8p_cannabis-moms-club-episode-2-the-nail-party_fun
Peters said MPs should not be “considering their own comforts” at a time when 40,000 people were homeless, and young people struggled to find a home.
He went on to say “claims that Opposition parties backed the plan were “simply not true”.
NZ First made it “very clear’ when approached that it would not sign up to the project.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/84235148/mps-putting-creature-comforts-ahead-of-struggling-families–peters
Where do Labour and the Greens stand on this one?
Information on peoples credit ratings, debt levels, housing histories and the social services they had been provided with to be shared to save the homeless?
Renters may have to endure tenancy sustainment courses.
New policy may force private landlords to provide longer tenure.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/83764609/data-project-expected-to-throw-up-big-ideas-on-tackling-homelessness
Why didn’t you respond, Penny?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/north-shore-times/84191070/auckland-mayoral-candidates-share-vision-for-north-shore
Phil Goff, independent 🙂
Vic Crony, Independent, sigh.
Bravo to The Queen, Q1 in Parliament today is fantastic, Annette King asking the outgoing PM about Louise Upton and the Chiefs.
Asking if outgoing PM is a good representative for women considering his pony tail pulling. Backed up by the Greens most awesome Jan Logie.
Want to see a bumbling bullying outgoing PM? Watch question one, kudos to the Ladies and Winston. Love your work. Bravo
Q1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhphvkOyj_I
“Hard hitting, in a generic sense” – JK
Awesome to see the Act party recognise the Treaty of Waitangi & also validating the Settlement process by agreeing with Te Ohu Kaimoana’s beef with the Crown, psycho Nick Smith and the confiscation of property rights over the arbitrary claim of the Kermadec rights to fish by the Crown. Poor ole John Ansell… iwi 1, Rednecks 0?
The kermadec issue will distance some Māori from the Greens if they don’t watch out. They being the greens.
I’m a little confused on this , I read that Maori have never caught fish there under quota and would shelve the quota if it goes ahead, so why don’t they just in this case agree to a full sanctuary .
The announcement was made before disussions were held and Māori were told what would happen is my understanding of part of the reason or the anger.
@bwaghorn. Its a property rights issue after a “Full & Final Treaty Settlement” …. you wouldn’t like me to pop over your backyard fence and pitch up a tent on it because you weren’t using it would you? You pakeha’s just don’t understand your own legal system. The law is the same for all isn’t it? Shit, I’m starting to sound like John Ansell! Haha!
This explains it quite well
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/call-maori-party-seriously-reconsider-relationship-national
The Kupapa Party (MP-Tainui Inc) walking away from the Government is as likely to happen as it is Donald Trump winning POTUS! 🙂 I’d luv that nutcase to beat Clinton … Could turnout to be another “Grassy Knoll” President-takeout?
I think the NATs have figured out that the Maori Party will get no satisfaction from Labour on this issue either, but clearly the NATs have gone about this in a rather ham fisted way.
One wonders if the Minister bothered to read the briefing papers properly.
Pre this whole sanctuary shamozzle ( and i think it’s dumb the nats didn’t consult) what were iwi’s rights around the kermadecs under the treaty , were they even included in the treaty.?
Fill your boots. http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1992/0121/latest/DLM281433.html and http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0078/latest/DLM311464.html?search=sw_096be8ed8110abd4_Maori+Fisheries+Act+2004_25_se&p=1&sr=0
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2016/0120/latest/d56e2.html?search=qs_act%40bill%40regulation%40deemedreg_kermadec+treaty_resel_25_h&p=1&sr=1
cheers ,i found this bit interesting , both labour and the greens say there should have been more consultation, will they ever learn , good luck
The bill is the problem. Not the wording or the many hooks in it or even the sanctuary. The problem is its existence! Even though Smith is a nutjob, he is pretty clever at creating problems deliberately. If the Nats weren’t happy with the amount of shit he’s caused in the public domain mainly around Maori issues, they would of dumped him ages ago. This is all jockeying & shenanigans and manipulation been played out to maneuver parties into awkward positions, like the Greens right now. Who’d of thought a BlueGreen alliance at this stage of the game and the massive implications that it will have on their party and especially party membership? As well as their relationship with Maori? Its a bit of high risk poker that I would of thought the Greens would be against, gambling? NZF not the only Kingmaker next year? The sanctuary isn’t the objective here for the nats I think? They’re playing poker and are doing pretty well with how they’re playing their hand….10 months in the making, I’m guessing there’s a couple of solutions that the parties have already discussed privately. Whatever they are we’ll be the last ones to find out…
The idea is greenwash especially when the inaction on climate change is resounding.
I have wondered my self about it just being a pr stunt , as how the hell would we police a sanctuary from 800 kms away. far better to have sanctuaries close in .
Gotta be good for Labour?
I think labour agree with the bogus kermadec idea so no not good for them. This issue is one of those ones which unite Māori imo, against a bigger enemy.
Can do. Also, for those not sitting around the table which could be a bigger group as Nga Puhi haven’t settled their claim and not likely to start for a year or two? They could be looking for political representation once they do get into the negotiation phase. Hone or Kelvin?
I’m Mana Movement and if that is Hone great.
Umm actually it wasn’t anything to do with Act recognising the Treaty… more to do with a few fishing companies 5 to be precise:
““This Bill amounts to an uncompensated regulatory taking, likely to cause real harm to the livelihoods of those in the fishing industry,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.”
Arrrh’m Bullshit! Context. Property Rights. You need a legally binding contract. The Treaty is that vehicle.Need I say anymore?
How do you become US ambassador to NZ like Mark Gilbert did?
Be the 27th biggest donor to the Democratic Party (US$1.4M) total.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-13/how-much-it-costs-get-ambassadorship-guccifer-20-leaks-dnc-pay-play-donor-list
Is trump going to stop this or charge a higher fee as part of the monetization.
lol
You could pretend this is an example of the corruption of the democrats over the republicans.
or you could just use publicly available in formation regarding the last half dozen presidents.
Non-career appointments to ambassadorships:
Obama: 30.4%
GWB: 31.8%
WJC: 28.06%
GHWB: 31.30%
RR: 37.6%
JC: 26.24%
GF: 38.2%
So, yeah – Democrats bad, Republicans consistently worse.
forgot to add – if the guy speaking to (lol) RT reckoned Obama was the worst he’d seen, the guy’s eyes were closed 2001-2008.
Analysis of Secret Service and campaign staffer performance at Clinton’s 9/11 health incident.
My question: if your VIP protectee was diagnosed with pneumonia 2 days ago, and then appears to nearly and unexpectedly collapse, why would you take your protectee to her daughter’s apartment instead of to the ER of a top level hospital?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-13/former-hillary-secret-service-agent-explains-why-her-fainting-video-really-scares-me
Yeah why?WHY??? What the hell are they trying to achieve? What are they trying to hide? Something is going on here, something is rotten, something smells. I can FEEL the bad vibe here, anyone could if we’re attuned.
If your VIP protectee had just been diagnosed with pneumonia 2 days before then unexpectedly almost collapses for no known reason, it rates as a potential medical emergency.
Unless the support team already knows at the time what the cause of the VIP’s near-collapse is.
Yes exactly!!! by the diagnosis 2 DAYS BEFORE!!! The no known reason has a reason.
An older person almost collapsing due to pneumonia is a medical emergency.
Instead of rushing to the nearest top level ER, the Secret Service elects to let their protectee go to her daughters apartment?
oh, piss off.
Known issue, known cause, known treatment, no emergency.
This, exactly.
http://www.shakesville.com/2016/09/breaking-hillary-clinton-is-human-being.html
Yes. I bet the issue and the cause is known to her protection team and her personal staffers.
Yes, known to them, and everyone else. Because, like, it’s pneumonia.
Meanwhile, all we have on Trump is that he’s only had positive test results. If it were clinton with that statement, you’d be saying that one of those tests was HIV…
If what you say is true cv why haven’t those secret service people been arrested and charged. Their most public client let down!!!! Oh that’s right it’s not true just a boys own fantasy.
Agree with CV, there is something odd going on here. Such a trustworthy candidate would always come clean on her medical condition.. right…
Her campaign team has been deliberately concealing her condition.
At the VERY least, her pneumonia diagnosis on Fri, claim from her campaign team at the time of the incident that it was just simple “overheating” (when they clearly knew different), photo-op 2 hrs after outside Chelsea’s apartment with declarations of ‘going great again’ (when they clearly knew different), then a few hours after that, final acknowledgement of the supposed actual diagnosis from the Friday.
If Labour announced a $40 increase in benefit payments across the board (helping to address poverty and all the problems that come along with that, improve inequality and stimulate the economy) would that help give them traction in the polls?
It would help business returns (especially in the struggling regions) as beneficiaries tend to spend most of their income.
It would help encourage those in the lower social economic group that don’t tend to vote partake.
It could be paid for by taxing the very top end of income earners (improving wealth redistribution) coupled by the increase in the GST take and higher business returns.
Would it be a vote winner or not?
Depends, those on a benefit would vote for it but those paying the extra tax might think differently
But then the ones on a benefit are less likely to vote National anyway so I suppose it might convince those on a benefit to get out and vote for a left wing party
Yes, no doubt beneficiaries and a number of business owners would support it.
And no doubt a number at the top end (who are unlikely to vote Labour anyway) would oppose it.
But beneficiaries coupled with a number of business owners would outnumber them.
It would certainly create a buzz and get more people taking note of Labour.
I suppose the next question is, what are you waiting for Labour?
why don’t you ask them?
They sniff around here, therefore I just did.
By the way, do you support it?
Perhaps if we can created a large enough consensus on here, they may take heed.
i supported Labour in the last election when they advocated a Capital Gains Tax, and increase in the min wage to 16.50 (or 16 per hour not so sure anymore) and many many other things. So there is always that.
That’s nice to know, but do you support my suggestion?
And if not why not?
UBI $40 pw for every >16 year old would be better IMO but we can start with existing benefits (incl Super I presume).
I largely support a UBI but this will fill the gap in the meantime.
Moreover, this will allow Labour to give voters something of substance that they can resonate with, which will help Labour lift their profile and get over the line.
Talk of a tax working group didn’t create much hype, whereas this would.
$16.25/hr
“If Labour announced a $40 increase in benefit payments across the board (helping to address poverty and all the problems that come along with that, improve inequality and stimulate the economy) would that help give them traction in the polls?”
Problem is Labour has already signaled a number of policies it will introduce if in Government come 2017, which all cost big $$. They will need to find another few billion $ for this idea as well Chairman.
Yep increasing the tax rate for “rich pricks” is an option, and one that Labour is already factoring in. Having said a “tax working group” will be formed to advise on tax matters etc (once they are in Government).
National has been the only party to increase benefit payments over and above the rate of inflation for decades.
Would it be a vote winner for Labour? No, not to any great extent. Labour need to appeal to middle NZ to form the next Government…even if that grates with many on this blog.
“Problem is Labour has already signaled a number of policies it will introduce if in Government come 2017…”
And one would assume they have a way to pay for them.
“Labour need to appeal to middle NZ”
Are you implying business owners aren’t? Moreover, Labour has been trying to win over the middle for years now and it hasn’t been working out for them.
This covers both ends (middle and lower) therefore has far more potential gain.
National increasing benefits didn’t hurt their support.
“A “tax working group” will be formed to advise on tax matters etc (once they are in Government)”
They got to get into government first, this (my suggestion) would help with that.
Labour’s idea of “middle NZ” is the comfortable middle class 20% swing voting household. Stupid really.
yes.dear.
you’re not my grandmother.
Further, my point is spot on. Like “affordable” $600,000 Auckland houses. Who does that policy target.
Definitely not blue collar waged workers.
If they could build 10,000 houses a year a lot of older house would become cheaper and people that can afford the $600k ones will probably free up rentals and apartments.
Auckland house trickle down, never thought of it like that before
If they arseholed the investors out of the game and slowed the immigration numbers right down it would help to.
although i think we need to shift to a lease hold system with the gov owning the land .
Highest new car sales ever means soon enough damn nice five year old motor vehicles will be available at the right price.
There’s no second hand car crisis, CV.
and plenty of homeless people live out of them.
Auckland is the largest City in NZ, it is the most populated City in NZ and to expect house prices like in Dunedin is simply simple minded.
IF and when NZ’lers start buying houses not as a thing to flip and make money on, but to buy and to live in and keep in the family like it is done in many old european cities including London, Paris, Rome, Florence and even in US Cities like NY you will see that 600.000$ is very affordable as you can raise several to un-count generations in that very same house.
But the thing is really with you CV is that you are so full of hate towards anything Labour that you rather see some revolution come along that burns everything and makes everyone homeless then support the ones that are full of flaws but are at least trying. And starting to build houses/apartments/units is the very first step to bring prices down.
So yes, 600.000$ for land (cause no one is buying a house, stop deluding yourself here) in the middle of million people City is affordable. Maybe not for one generation, but for two or three. And that is precisely how it is done in many place all over this planet. I mean heck, try to buy a house in Berlin, Rome, Paris, NY, London and tell me how ‘affordable’ that is.
Good morning CV, welcome to the 21 century, let me assure again, the 80’s are long gone, and the only one crying after the good old days are those that remember them.
Thats everyone over 50, the demographic which actually votes.
yes, dear.
Why do you keep trying to speak to me like you are my grandma?
By the way, what is “simple minded” are the fools like you who believe that you should keep stuffing Auckland full of people, while small towns and cities throughout the provinces slowly shut down shop.
actually the eighties were pretty crap
i know. i remember them. But then i do not cry after about what happened during them.
Fuck your condescending infantalising of long time Kiwis who suffered through that time, who lost their homes, who lost their factories, who lost their careers, who lost their families.
Labour sowed neoliberalism upon our shores, and Labour has deservedly reaped the electoral whirlwind of their actions.
Thank you CV. When the Lange govt was elected almost no-one had the slightest clue what Douglas and his crew of wreckers was about to inflict on us. In the aftermath of Muldoon’s sour and bullying leadership all we wanted was a change. Of course Lange’s charisma, sharp wit and geniality turned out to be a smoke screen.
For quite a few years a large chunk on NZ was completely taken in by Douglas. Including the much younger and naive version of myself. (And in another thirty years time I predict some other dude will ruefully be saying the same thing about John Key). This was all before the internet and most of our political information was filtered through the NZ Herald.
A lot of credit must go to people like Jim Anderton and those within the NZLP who had a much better understanding of what was going on and fought against it as best they could. That’s a whole other story that doesn’t get much airtime these days.
then it is curious you select them as your example of ‘the good old days”..no?
Hi grandma.
as you can raise several to un-count generations in that very same house.
Yes my family still owns a house in Epsom and on paper it makes us quite well off, but we’re of the same basic notion that we never intend to sell it … so all that paper wealth is fairly meaningless.
Your basic premise is a good one, but most NZ housing is designed around the needs of a single nuclear family and just aren’t suited to multiple generations living in the same home.
That policy area is a complete fabrication, its impossible to achieve a significant influence on Auckland house prices (without causing an unwanted market crash). No govt can keep up with the level of supply and shifts in supply needed to control that.
If we are lucky then Labour goes about achieving a big increase in subsidized social housing in order that people who will not be in a position to own a house can have some assurance that they can have somewhere to live.
But they are not marketing that policy (unless you actually pay attention to what they are planning to do) they are saying that house prices are too high (as a way of signaling to their voter base) and implying they are going to do something about it! But people who vote hoping to see that will be as disappointed as serious Libertarians are by Key’s government.
On the other point, Labour may still have some ideas for working class people but in general have no interest in their political concerns or fixing that relationship.
Pretty much, but plenty of people around here still give Labour’s efforts solid passing grades for some reason.
None of our political leaders seem to have any concept of physical reality, or even on the optimum role of government in ensuring the interests of the people.
Government and Auckland Council have today signed Heads of Agreement on NZ’s most expensive infrastructure project to date: Cit Rail Link. Between $2.5 and $3.4b.
It’s a Crown company not a CCO. Therefore OIA and not LGOIMA applies. Makes reporting less constrained but less public.
Either way, big deal. Very different model to Chch rebuild.
And more to come tomorrow in broader Ak funding package.
Psychopaths in suits
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/84222286/one-in-five-bosses-is-a-psychopath-research-reveals
We are not inbred ferals!!! I know for a fact that my parents were not related!!!
Not sure why the Green Party aren’t supporting the Government to get the Kermadec Marine Reserve Bill through the House. Seems like an easy win.
National wants those Blue Greens back.
I would like to hear the Green Party’s view on this Bill – I can’t seem to see anything recent.
This could be interesting over the next 24/48 hours,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/84251435/Super-Typhoon-Meranti-Earths-most-violent-storm-since-Haiyan-takes-aim-on-Taiwan-and-China
Beipaotai China, looks to be in the path of Maranti ?
Looking on Google Earth it looks like a nuclear power plant, like meters from the ocean.
This was a 2009/ 2011 article but it shows several plants being built in the area? http://www.jsm.or.jp/ejam/Vol.1.No.3/GA/6/article.html
Lovely, a taste of things to come
We see a lot on the Auckland mayoralty race, but almost nothing on other races- mayor or otherwise – from round the country.
Is this due to a lack of info, a lack of interest, or a lack of input by local candidtes?