Archive for September, 2013
Open mike 25/09/2013
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 25th, 2013 - 81 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
National goes dirty
Written By: - Date published: 10:37 pm, September 24th, 2013 - 131 comments
It’s not been surprising to see National’s dirty tricks machine groan back to life over the last week to attack Cunliffe.
And you’ll not be surprised to know more is due over the next few days.
What is surprising is just how hamfistedly they’re doing it.
Dear media….
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 pm, September 24th, 2013 - 9 comments
Just for the record, if you or any other idiot accuse me of homophobia, genocide, necrophilia, child kidnapping or just not being nice enough please use this photo; not the ones you used recently which make me look disturbingly like my mother – whom I love and admire dearly but she is, after all, 81. […]
Anti-democratic tendencies
Written By: - Date published: 6:45 pm, September 24th, 2013 - 16 comments
John Key: “I don’t think New Zealand should rush to become a republic. It may happen one day, but I can’t for the life of me see the benefits of it other than you get to spend a lot of money electing heads of state as opposed to the government appointing one.”
Doing what we’re best at
Written By: - Date published: 2:37 pm, September 24th, 2013 - 53 comments
National is a very traditional party. They think that NZ is good at clearing land and raising animals, with a bit of mining on the side. The population is there to service farmers and miners on low wages. That may have been the case in the 1950’s. But as usual they’re hopelessly dated. Sometimes in recent years it has appeared to me that Labour thinks that way as well. But it looks like David Cunliffe is intent on refocusing us back on the burgeoning hi-wage and hi-growth hi-tech sector.
Cunliffe makes space for the Greens
Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, September 24th, 2013 - 58 comments
The cleverness of David Cunliffe’s reshuffle extends beyond how he has united Labour by keeping worthy MPs who opposed him in senior positions while demoting no-hopers like Curran. He’s also left space for the Greens to move into both in opposition and in government. That acknowledges the reality that Labour and the Greens need each other.
Open mike 24/09/2013
Written By: - Date published: 6:21 am, September 24th, 2013 - 107 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Labour’s reshuffle
Written By: - Date published: 3:31 pm, September 23rd, 2013 - 83 comments
Details of the Labour Caucus changes are now appearing in the media. The update is Parker, Robertson and Jones will be the core of the economic team, King retains Health, Shearer gains Foreign Affairs and Cosgrove and Hipkins retain their current responsibilities. Mahuta and Moroney are elevated to the front bench and this will help gender balance.
Updated with full list.
Hooton – please apologise
Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, September 23rd, 2013 - 220 comments
Matthew Hooton accused David Cunliffe of lying about his involvement with the Boston Management Group when it was providing advice that led to the development of Fonterra. A little research supports Cunliffe’s claims and not Hooton’s.
“Predistribution”: From Miliband to Cunliffe
Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, September 23rd, 2013 - 41 comments
Ed Miliband got the idea of pre-distribution from Jacob Hacker. Cunliffe has followed. Can “pre-distribution” underpin a new direction for the left in NZ: one relevant to the challenges of the 21st century, especially in countering the too wide inequality gap & re-instating social democracy?
Open mike 23/09/2013
Written By: - Date published: 6:59 am, September 23rd, 2013 - 97 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Have the Nats been at the insanity peppers?
Written By: - Date published: 6:57 am, September 23rd, 2013 - 23 comments
Selling Mighty River shares was bad enough: $66m taxpayer dollars spent on selling shares with a dividend yield of 6% (the total shareholder return for the Crown last year was 11%) to avoid borrowing at 4% . That’s spending money to lose money. Not crazy enough, apparently. For the Meridian sale, they’ve doubled down. The cost will be $100m and they’ll be selling shares with a dividend yield of 8%.
Have National’s asset sales officially cost more than they’ll earn?
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 pm, September 22nd, 2013 - 51 comments
In a previous post at The Standard I did a wee bit of math and came to the conclusion that National has already made $5.26 billion worth of spending promises out of the Future Investment Fund, the not-actually-a-fund chunk of cash they plan to make from selling taxpayer-built infrastructure to their mates. Things have developed. […]
Sunday Reading
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, September 22nd, 2013 - 10 comments
My semi-regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the last fortnight. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere. This week: happiness, income, Germany (election today!), and the US security services. Not to mention why time-travellers can’t kill Hitler. (Bonus extra-large edition with more videos and pictures!)
Unions Auckland’s list of supported Council candidates
Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, September 22nd, 2013 - 25 comments
Unions Auckland has released a how to vote card based on candidates who will support a living wage, no privatisation of Council assets and sorting out a fair deal for the POAL workers.
Open mike 22/09/2013
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, September 22nd, 2013 - 213 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Labour chooses Poto Williams for Christchurch East
Written By: - Date published: 4:19 pm, September 21st, 2013 - 58 comments
Labour has selected Poto Williams to be its candidate for Christchurch East. I hadn’t heard of her before but a few phone calls has convinced me she’ll be a great candidate and a great MP. It’s fantastic to see a Maori woman being selected for a general roll seat in a open competition with people from a variety of backgrounds. That shows it’s a meritocratic system.
About Judith Tizard
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, September 21st, 2013 - 125 comments
Matthew Hooton has raised the spectre of Judith Tizard working out of David Cunliffe’s office as if it was a bad thing. But this has made me reflect that Judith’s treatment by the right was not fair, and we should not tolerate these sorts of attacks on our own.
Open mike 21/09/2013
Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, September 21st, 2013 - 249 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Weekend social 20/09/2013
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, September 20th, 2013 - 30 comments
Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can’t we all just get along?
What’s in the friday dump this week?
Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, September 20th, 2013 - 18 comments
The spinners in parliament and government are rather predictable. They dump their embarrassments late on a friday, preferably on a long holiday weekend or with a sporting event. I’m picking that today we will see some material dropping off the rear of DOC related to what Nick Smith saw and can no longer remember….
NRT: More lies from Smith
Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, September 20th, 2013 - 11 comments
Yesterday in Question Time Nick Smith continued to pretend that he had not forced DoC to shitcan its submission on the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme. He even went so far as to claim that he had no idea that the submission even existed until this week. But it was just more lies
Stop the TICS Bill – Meeting
Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, September 20th, 2013 - 6 comments
Can Wellington outdo Auckland for the revival of town hall meetings? Come to an urgent Stop the TICS Bill meeting on Monday 23 September, 7pm at Old St Paul’s, Mulgrave St.
Beyond the MSM? You Bet!
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, September 20th, 2013 - 221 comments
David Cunliffe spoke to the Left base in the Daily Blog Live interview last night: economy, tax, employment, GCSB, TPPA & more. He raises hopes for a new, post GFC social democratic vision. But he spoke to those with economic & policy knowledge. His nods towards better social security, away from bennie bashing, need fleshing out.
Open mike 20/09/2013
Written By: - Date published: 6:46 am, September 20th, 2013 - 94 comments
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Nats’ City Rail Link delay to cost $500m
Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, September 19th, 2013 - 46 comments
National is now ‘officially on board’ with getting the Auckland City Rail Link built. But they won’t start building it until 2020 at the earliest, and there’s no government money actually budgeted for that. Why not start building in 2015, like the Council wants? Maybe because that would mean committing actual funding. It turns out the Nats’ 5-year delay will cost $500m.
You’re paying for interest-free loans to foreign bankers
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 19th, 2013 - 89 comments
You will have heard of this ‘buy now, pay later’ plan that the Nats have to try to save the Meridian sale. Pay 60% of your shares’ price up front, the remaining 40% in 18 months. It’s an interest-free loan, funded by higher government borrowing. What we didn’t know is this outrageous fact: this taxpayer-funded interest-free loan will be extended to foreign banks
Nick Smith and the Ruataniwha dam
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, September 19th, 2013 - 37 comments
Nick Smith says he did not even know a document existed even though he was given a full briefing on it. And after he gets involved a submission critical of the environmental effect the proposed Ruataniwha Dam will have on the Tukituki River is drastically altered. There is something distinctly smelly about this.
Dom protecting its favoured mayoral candidate
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, September 19th, 2013 - 58 comments
Did you know that Wellington mayoral candidate John Morrison told an audience at an arts awards ceremony that he would see a body-painted model in the shower later? Did you know he’s engaged in voter suppression of young voters? Did you know at a recent debate he told Celia Wade-Brown to be quiet, saying ‘the men are talking’? If you do, it’s not from reading the Dompost.
Suffrage Day
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 19th, 2013 - 8 comments
It’s 120 years since women got the vote – what are you doing to celebrate?
Wendy Brandon: DC’s chief of staff
Written By: - Date published: 6:45 am, September 19th, 2013 - 65 comments
Ok, I’m very pleasantly surprised. David Cunliffe has made a very interesting choice for chief of staff. Based on what I know about the task, she looks like a damn good fit for the role. In fact I’m just surprised that he managed to attract her at all for the thankless task.
I’ve always thought that the Chief of Staff role should be exercised by someone who was more managerial and staff orientated rather than being deeply embedded in the political game.
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By April Reside, Lecturer in Conservation, The University of Queensland An endangered golden-shouldered parrot Imogen Warren/Shutterstock Australia has already lost at least 100 species since European colonisation. Across land and freshwater habitats, 1,657 species are currently threatened with the same fate. Their populations ...1 day ago
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The Green Party has increasingly faced the probably unfair (at least inaccurate) criticism that it’s abandoned its raison d’être.During the 2024 adjournment debate, where Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick refused to stick with the convention of making niche political jokes and bad puns, Act leader David Seymour accused Swarbrick of ...1 day ago - A plea for more politicians of conviction
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- Where is she now? Wendy Frew
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 7 January appeared first on Newsroom. ...1 day ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University ZR10/Shutterstock Exercise training while wearing a weighted vest is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance. Social media posts and trainers are promoting them as a potential strategy for improving fitness and health. ...2 days ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Senior Lecturer of Urban Risk & Resilience, UNSW Sydney Marian Weyo/Shutterstock If someone bumps into us on the footpath or in the mall, we’re generally quite forgiving. We instinctively apologise or step aside, and usually don’t scream at, stalk, ...2 days ago
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