Archive for March, 2010
Ex leaders
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, March 3rd, 2010 - 27 comments
Comparing the post-leadership careers of Clark and Brash is quite a study in contrasts. Clark’s has been stellar, Brash’s an embarrassment. But the world of difference between these two leaders is much clearer with the perfect hindsight of 2010 than it was when they were locked in a tight electoral battle in 2005.
How will history look back at the leadership of John Key?
Kick in guts for recesson victims
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, March 3rd, 2010 - 10 comments
The recession has forced tens of thousands of people out of work. There are now 276,000 jobless Kiwis. The lucky ones (only a third of the officially unemployed) can get the unemployment benefit. Now, the Government is letting inflation eat into their meager benefit payments. Benefit payments are meant to be adjusted for inflation. This […]
Goff calls for SAS to come home
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, March 3rd, 2010 - 48 comments
The Nats put the SAS in Afghanistan out of a Boy’s Own worldview that glamorises war and violence by authority. But war isn’t a game and we shouldn’t be fighting unless it’s for a good cause. Our solders shouldn’t die or kill to prop up Hamid Karzai’s corrupt regime.
Open mike 03/03/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 3rd, 2010 - 16 comments
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
GST hike boon for tax cheats
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 pm, March 2nd, 2010 - 34 comments
Some contractors and small business owners record private costs as business expenses and claim back the GST. The cheats who claim enough GST back get payments from IRD. Hiking GST puts more of our money in the pockets of these tax cheats.
Have your say on unfair dismissal laws
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, March 2nd, 2010 - 9 comments
Kate Wilkinson (Minister of Labour) has opened public submissions on a review on personal grievances, with the release of a discussion paper today. Details are here on the Dept of Labour website and submissions close on 31 March.
Tolley’s road tour
Written By: - Date published: 12:54 pm, March 2nd, 2010 - 22 comments
A guest contributor reports that if you want your chance to quiz Anne Tolley and you live in West Auckland your chance is on Thursday but it sounds like the Nats would rather you didn’t come. Another guest contributor pans Tolley’s meeting last night.
Go to lunch – protest sham ‘consultation’
Written By: - Date published: 12:14 pm, March 2nd, 2010 - 9 comments
The select committee considering the 3rd super-shitty bill is sitting in Parnell now. There is a protest against the sham ‘consultation’ that National and Act have used to lock Aucklanders out of having any significant say in their city before, during and after this change.
Goto Quality Hotel Barrycourt, 20 Gladstone Road Parnell Auckland. The protest finishes at 2pm
Axe the tax
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, March 2nd, 2010 - 60 comments
Labour’s ‘Axe the Tax’ campaign has hit the road. Phil Goff is travelling around New Zealand explaining why Labour opposes National’s plan to hike GST on everyone to pay for tax cuts that will primarily go to the well-off. National are worried. They’re not promoting their package anymore, they’re lashing out at Goff.
Ashcroft owns up to “non-dom” tax status
Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, March 2nd, 2010 - 7 comments
Lord Ashcroft, the British Conservative party’s major donor, has admitted that while he is “permanently resident” in Britain he is not domiciled there for tax status.
As a result the Conservative party may have to repay donations totalling several million pounds.
Unemployment even more widespread than numbers suggest
Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, March 2nd, 2010 - 12 comments
276,000 jobless, of which 168,000 officially unemployed. 115,000 more underemployed.
Big numbers, but remember that the unemployed aren’t a static group being added to every day as the Key Government sits on its hands. In fact there’s a continual churn of people into unemployment and into work much larger than the net increase.
Privatising national parks
Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, March 2nd, 2010 - 16 comments
Over at Pundit Claire Browning points out that the National government is trying to get away with a huge con. They promised not to privatise state assets (in their first term), but now they are effectively privatising the biggest asset of them all…
Open mike 02/03/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 2nd, 2010 - 30 comments
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Aussie pay gap widening, Key does nothing
Written By: - Date published: 12:32 am, March 2nd, 2010 - 28 comments
The total pay packet fell for Kiwi workers last year and it will get worse in coming years. Aussie wages continue to rise, their unemployment is falling. If Key is serious about catching Australia he needs a full employment policy. Instead, he will keep doing nothing.
Come Aucklanders – protest tomorrow.
Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, March 1st, 2010 - 7 comments
The select committee on Rodney Hides vision of the Auckland Super-City sits in Parnell tommorrow. The National MPs complicit in foisting this idiotic vision of Auckland on us will be there along with the architect – the head of the lunatic Act party.
Spend your lunchtime demonstrating what a crock this version of the super-city is. Do it in Rodney Hide’s Epsom electorate.
Tsunami shows importance of Radio NZ
Written By: - Date published: 12:18 pm, March 1st, 2010 - 26 comments
You know, I struggle to see how the government can justify cuts to Radio New Zealand’s funding after its outstanding coverage of the tsunami yesterday. While the other radio broadcasters were jammed up with bee pollen adverts and deer horn aphrodisiac jingles, RNZ had informative, up to the minute information from all over the country.
Nats raise tax cut expectations
Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, March 1st, 2010 - 33 comments
John Key has promised to make tax changes that are revenue neutral, give huge payouts to the wealthy elite, and somehow mean the “vast bulk of taxpayers will be substantially better off”. But it’s a money-go-round. How you can make everyone better off with the same amount of money you’ve taken off them?
National’s jam tomorrow
Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, March 1st, 2010 - 5 comments
When it comes to listening to the public, National promise “jam tomorrow”. Wait for the select committee. Wait for the third reading. But the record shows that these are empty promises. The Human Rights Commission has criticised National over their latest mockery of a consultation process on Auckland…
Stupid greedy voters – Brash
Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, March 1st, 2010 - 50 comments
With true tory arrogance at the ACT conference this weekend, Don Brash has described New Zealand voters as venal and stupid.
Apparently New Zealand’s reluctance to destroy what is left of their society by implementing Brash’s discredited crazy old man economic voodoo is a sign of their stupidity.
Apparently nobody in ACT disagreed with him. Go figure.
Open mike 01/03/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 1st, 2010 - 9 comments
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
- Seismic echoes reveal a mysterious ‘donut’ inside Earth’s core
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hrvoje Tkalčić, Professor, Head of Geophysics, Director of Warramunga Array, Australian National University Rost9 / Shutterstock About 2,890 kilometres beneath our feet lies a gigantic ball of liquid metal: our planet’s core. Scientists like me use the seismic waves created by ...1 week ago - Parliament’s environment watchdog slams government’s climate plan: ‘A massive gamb...
The government says it is on track to meet climate targets, but that is 'based on optimistic assumptions', Simon Upton says. ...1 week ago - Flash fiction: The end of the beginning, by Jenna Heller
It was new ice. Solid at the edges. Thin in the middle. Nicholas slid around the perimeter in his snow boots. Venturing in a little bit, and in a little more. “It’s fine,” he called out. Then hurried back to put his skates on, tightening and double-knotting the laces. “It’s ...1 week ago - The Secret Diary of .. party leaders on the Test Match
Christopher LuxonCan the ABs beat the Boks in South Africa on Sunday?Okay well this is one question that I am happy to answer and I will give it to you straight from the hip with no shillying nor any shallying for that matter because it’s an important issue and like ...1 week ago
- London’s calling, but fewer Kiwis are picking up
When Ruth Jackson went to London in 1989, she found work as a PA to a professor of psychiatry at a teaching hospital. It wasn’t in her field, but it still gave her skills she could take home – including how to use a computer.Hugo Stewart – who spoke to ...1 week ago
- The Weekend: An attempt to create an etiquette guide for New Zealand
Madeleine Chapman introduces a new Spinoff series on etiquette. I love rules. In such an enduring and intense way that I am now actually trying to love them less. To me, rules provide necessary parameters within which I can live my life however I like. No matter the situation, if ...1 week ago - ‘You can keep your track pants on’: The scene that haunts Leon Wadham
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star conquers one interview series to rule them all. Before his role in The Rings of Power, the closest Leon Wadham came to Middle Earth was when he was a student in Wellington, and the Hobbit himself showed up to a ...1 week ago
- ‘A determinedly single woman and a fiercely singular artist’: The paintings of A Lois White
A new book called Modern Women: Flight of Time, edited by Julia Waite, is a survey of the women artists who have shaped the development of modern art in Aotearoa. In this excerpt, Stuart McKenzie talks about his obsession with A Lois White. When I moved to Wellington in 1988 ...1 week ago
- Podcast: Does accounting hold the key to climate action?
Plenty of companies are making a lot of noise about sustainability efforts, but is it all just talk? This week on When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey looks into a little-known but crucial area of climate change reporting that might hold the key to keeping companies accountable for their climate ...1 week ago
- The Spinoff Essay: Remembering Norman Kirk, New Zealand’s great internationalist
Fifty years ago today, prime minister Norman Kirk died unexpectedly. Anti-apartheid activist Trevor Richards considers his legacy. The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members. Saturday, 31 August 1974. I had been out at a party ...1 week ago
- ‘The most glorious arrangement of all time’: Revulva’s perfect weekend playlist
Phoebe Johnson of the nu-wave, nu-jazz ensemble Revulva shares her perfect weekend playlist. “Sassy, satirical, and a bit unhinged”: that’s how Revulva (yes, as in vagina) front woman Phoebe Johnson describes the ensemble’s latest release, ‘Beep Beep’. “The music video especially, is like an uncanny home video tape you’d find ...1 week ago
- US urges NZ to invest more in armed forces for policing Pacific
The US and Australia have encouraged New Zealand to invest more in its arm forces, especially in patrolling and policing the wide waters of the Pacific. US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell talked with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on the sides of the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga this ...1 week ago
- Anne Salmond: What’s the matter with the Treaty Principles Bill
Comment: A mature, thoughtful conversation about Te Tiriti o Waitangi would be timely, but the Act party should not lead it. At the last election, it was the only party to propose a referendum on this subject, and 91.6 percent of the electorate did not support them. It had no ...1 week ago
- China spat threatens Pacific calm
Comment: After a burst of morning rain on Friday, the clouds lifted and the sun shone in Nuku’alofa for the final day of the Pacific Islands Forum summit.The weather was in some respects a fitting metaphor for the week as a whole.Mere days out from the annual leaders’ meeting, there ...1 week ago
- Boilover in schools’ netball
Howick College have made school history by winning Auckland schools netball’s top grade for the first time, defeating reigning champs Avondale in a tight final.Howick and Avondale had dominated the Premier 1 grade, which is sponsored by Shakespeare Orthodontics, this season – both racking up 10 wins and fighting out ...1 week ago
- Politics with Michelle Grattan: Reserve Bank’s Andrew Hauser says don’t read too much for Austra...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Inflation remains top of mind as the Reserve Bank of Australia continues to keep interest rates on hold at a time when the United States Federal Reserve signals that it will start cutting rates. ...1 week ago
- Technology has helped para athletes compete for decades. But it can also create an unfair advantage
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Cairney, Professor and Head of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences; Director, The Queensland Centre for Olympic and Paralympic Studies, The University of Queensland The Paralympic Games, now a major global event, has a history rooted in rehabilitation. The first official ...1 week ago
- What is eastern equine encephalitis? Two mosquito researchers explain what’s behind the latest out...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cameron Webb, Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney Blue jays are an important host of eastern equine encephalitis virus in the United States. Mathew Schwartz/Unsplash Health authorities in the United States are issuing warnings and closing public parks ...1 week ago
- The Paralympics can be an economic boon for host cities – and leave a unique legacy
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsten Holmes, Professor, School of Management and Marketing, Curtin University The mega-event glow continues in Paris, with the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games now well underway. Some 4,400 athletes will take to the world stage to compete across 22 different sports. The ...1 week ago
- PM Christopher Luxon visits Tongan communities to showcase investments
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has spent time with communities in Tonga after the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum wrapped up. ...1 week ago
- US conservative Candace Owens is set to tour Australia. Can the government stop her?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University Shutterstock American conservative author and influencer Candace Owens has amassed millions of followers on YouTube and X for her controversial views. These include suggesting the Holocaust was “ethnic cleansing that ...1 week ago
- The Week in Politics: No quick fix for the energy crisis
Analysis - Government seeks solutions to the energy crisis, the media sees through Luxon's assault on councils, and the question is asked: "Where's Chippy?" ...1 week ago
- Deadline extended for Stats NZ’s investigation into misuse of census data claims
Stats NZ's investigation into whether census data was misused during the election campaign has been extended, with no new deadline. ...1 week ago
- Pacific leaders emphasise ‘solidarity’ in challenging time
The Pacific Islands Forum has emphasised solidarity in the face of the many challenges confronting the region, with climate change affecting nearly every area of discussion. ...1 week ago
- The Friday Poem: ‘Mr Explorer Douglas’ by David Eggleton
A new poem by David Eggleton. Mr Explorer Douglas Bird cries soar from shore to shore You compass islands to hear surf roll. Above iron pot’s steam, ranges writhe. Blank spaces on charts mark this place. My watch chain dangles time away. I take bearings from raptors on the wing. ...1 week ago
- The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending August 30
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Viking Press, $37) A magnificent time-and-place-spanning epic ...1 week ago
- Kiingi Tuheitia’s death leaves a massive void at a critical moment
The loss of Māori king will be felt particularly keenly this year, and much like Tuheitia’s own selection, his successor is not easy to predict. It seems somewhat fitting that a thunderstorm rolled across Aotearoa yesterday, as Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII lay in Waikato Hospital, surrounded by family. ...1 week ago
- The reign of Kīngi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII
In a profound loss for te ao Māori and Aotearoa, Kīngi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII has passed away at the age of 69. His death marks the end of an era for the Kīngitanga, a movement that has been a cornerstone of Māori unity and cultural identity for over ...1 week ago
- Watch live: Christopher Luxon speaks from Tonga after death of Kiingi Tuheitia
The Prime Minister, currently at Pacific Islands Forum, is set to speak to reporters. ...1 week ago
- Kiingi Tuheitia: Reaction from New Zealand political leaders to death of Māori king
Tributes have been paid by political leaders following the death of the Māori King, Kiingi Tuheitia, aged 69. ...1 week ago
- Local Government Minister ‘committed’ to removing iwi representation from Canterbury Reg...
Minister Simeon Brown said he was disappointed by the regional council's refusal. ...1 week ago
- Moe mai ra: Tributes flow for Kiingi Tūheitia
Following news of Kiingi Tūheitia’s death overnight, figures from the political and Māori world have paid their respects to the venerable monarch. Māoridom is in mourning with the news that Kiingi Tūheitia has died at age 69, following heart surgery. After 18 years on the throne, Tūheitia’s unexpected death comes ...1 week ago
- Hundreds likely sleeping in cars, garages after leaving emergency housing – advocate
The government doesn't know where they've gone - but an advocate says it's likely nowhere good. ...1 week ago
- Unclear whether allowing patched gang members to attend council meeting broke law – chair
Patched Mongrel Mob members performed a haka in regional council chambers to celebrate a decision to keep Māori wards. ...1 week ago
- Political editors panel: Kiingi Tuheitia, Shane Jones and Darleen Tana
Jo Moir and Jenna Lynch talk through the political week, which ended on the sombre note of the Māori King's death. ...1 week ago
- Why Shortland Street’s first fat storyline is such a big deal
Joanna McLeod has been campaigning for years for our beloved soap to include a fat character. This week, it delivered. Last week, something extraordinary happened on Shortland Street. Selina, the show’s first fat main character, used her lived experience of fat phobia and weight stigma within the health system to ...1 week ago
- ‘Great sadness’: Kiingi Tūheitia dies at the age of 69
Political leaders from across the spectrum have led tributes to Kiingi Tūheitia, who has passed away following heart surgery. Māori King Tūheitia has died overnight at the age of 69. It comes just days after Koroneihana, commemorations to celebrate Tūheitia’s coronation. A statement issued by the office of the Kīingitanga ...1 week ago
- A mayor’s decision whether to flood his own city
Hutt City’s Campbell Barry says this week’s storms highlighted the importance of costly managed retreat: ‘I thought to myself, is today going to be the day?’ The post A mayor’s decision whether to flood his own city appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 week ago
- Live updates: Māori King Kiingi Tuheitia dies
Mourning has begun after the death of Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII at the age of 69. ...1 week ago
- New primary school English curriculum to focus on grammar, punctuation
Poetry, spelling patterns and handwriting lessons are on the cards for primary-aged children. ...1 week ago
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