the praiseworthy and the pitiful

Categories under the praiseworthy and the pitiful

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The Treaty of Waitangi Principles Bill gets slammed

Written By: - Date published: 12:42 pm, November 8th, 2024 - 14 comments

The Treaty of Waitangi Principles Bill has now been released and it appears that the provisions take away more rights from Māori than originally proposed.

The Government’s cynical manipulation of the Treaty Principles Bill

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, November 6th, 2024 - 20 comments

In a cynical manipulation of Parliamentary Processes the Government is changing the date of introduction of the Treaty Principles Bill. And the Waitangi Tribunal has said that the bill is a deliberate attempt to destroy the treaty relationship.

Government succumbs to Sensible Sentencing Trust pressure and makes Three Strikes Bill worse

Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, October 22nd, 2024 - 10 comments

The Goverment has bowed to pressure from the Sensible Sentencing Trust and made the Three Strikes Bill even more unworkable.

The Hospital Dunedin needs?

Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, September 28th, 2024 - 69 comments

The question has to be asked, can we trust National to do anything that it has promised?

Luxon loses his cool when asked about doctoring gang membership statistics

Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, September 20th, 2024 - 47 comments

On the same day that National had Parliament pass onerous anti gang laws to address allegedly dramatically increasing numbers of gang members Christopher Luxon lost his cool when it was pointed out to him that the Government is purging the list to reduce the numbers.

When you remove nuts & bolts, things tend to fall over

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, June 22nd, 2024 - 21 comments

Nuts and loose screws are holding together this callous coalition government.

Court of Appeal rules against Chhour

Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, May 15th, 2024 - 16 comments

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the summons issued to Children’s Minister Karen Chhour was valid but decline to enforce it as the date has passed. And the Government has hastily introduced the bill to stop any further action being taken by the Tribunal.

John Pilger, RIP

Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, January 2nd, 2024 - 8 comments

A bright star in the firmament of justice has gone out.   One of the greatest journalists of our era has passed away. John Pilger was always on the side of the oppressed.

Shame Jones

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, December 13th, 2023 - 24 comments

In one speech Shane Jones has talked about the “hysteria surrounding climate change”, promised to disregard targets agreed to under the Paris Agreement, ordered the halting of work at the Ministry for the Environment, promised the lifting the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration at pace, and said that Mining on Department of Conservation (DoC) and Stewardship land is also in the pipeline.

National’s credibility problem

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, October 6th, 2023 - 31 comments

National has suffered further damage to its credibility with its promise of a $250 tax cut per fortnight for an average family only being realised if that family spent at least $300 per week on childcare and was a two income family with each adult earning between $53,500 and $66,000.

NZ First and Winston seek anti vax vote

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, August 14th, 2023 - 53 comments

Winston Peters clearly hopes that enough of us have short memories. He was an integral part of the 2017 Government whose Covid policies saw our death rate from the disease amongst the lowest in the developed world.  But now his party is clearly courting the anti vaccination community.

Nanny state National wants to ban cell phones at schools

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, August 10th, 2023 - 62 comments

luxon sheep

National has this propensity of announcing policies that scratch conservative itches, cost nothing and hog media attention. Yesterday we had a classic example of this as they announced that cell phones would be banned at schools.

Rules-based cricket disorder

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 pm, July 6th, 2023 - 12 comments

“It isn’t cricket” supposedly set the ethical standard around the British Empire for over a century. Last week saw Lords, the ‘home of cricket,’ validate a damning report about racism, elitism, classism and sexism in British cricket just days after it was issued.

Making s%*t up

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, March 15th, 2023 - 41 comments

Is it just me or is Mike Hosking becoming more unbalanced?  The recent misrepresentation of a speech from Deborah Russell would suggest that he is getting worse.

Why right wing media is bad for democracy and the planet

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, February 19th, 2023 - 37 comments

Newstalk ZB hosts have rightfully been criticised for minimising the danger posed by Cyclone Gabrielle.  Which funnily is that they have been doing about climate change for the past few decades.

National is showing its class prejudice

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, January 27th, 2023 - 26 comments

National Deputy Leader Nicola Willis said yesterday that it was a great shame that the minimum wage had increased by so much because it means the Government can’t do it now to help low-income Kiwis make ends meet without stoking inflation.

Why is everything always Jacinda’s fault?

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, January 10th, 2023 - 57 comments

Son of former National MP and former Political reporter and currently self branded travel reporter Brook Sabin has produced potentially the most ridiculous article of the year by blaming the Government for not sorting out Auckland Airport’s baggage handling problems.  And we are only 10 days in.

The use of rumour as a political weapon

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, November 1st, 2022 - 26 comments

US conservative figures are downplaying the right’s involvement in a hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband by spreading completely unfounded rumours.  And in Aotearoa rumours continue to be spread about Jacinda Ardern’s pending resignation despite her repeatedly ruling this out.  Clearly some see the use of rumours as a valid political weapon even if they are based on complete falsehoods.

Male privilege is a fragile thing

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, October 28th, 2022 - 22 comments

Golriz Ghahraman wanted Parliament to condemn the Iranian Government’s oppression of women’s rights.  David Seymour moved to block the motion because Golriz had raised points of order against him during a previous speech.  Fancy putting your hurt feelings in front of making a statement of support and principle.

The difference between Simon Wilson and Mike Hosking

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, October 3rd, 2022 - 47 comments

Wayne Brown’s mayoral campaign hit a really big pothole on the weekend when he was caught bad mouthing Herald reporter Simon Wilson.  His comments received a lot of support from the right on social media who made comments about Wilson similar to the comments the left make about Mike Hosking. Are these examples of the same phenomenon, political bias against critical commentators?

The world needs more Izzy Cooks and fewer Heather Du Plessis-Allans

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, September 26th, 2022 - 92 comments

Just when you thought that talk back radio could not be worse there has been a recent incident where Heather Du Plessis-Allan basically bullied a young woman who wants to make the world a better place.

Newshub’s incredibly bad gang take

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, September 6th, 2022 - 55 comments

Yesterday the Government announced a slate of new powers designed to address gang violence.  Newshub chose that day to imply that Labour was soft on gangs because a gang member said on social media not to vote for National.

Luxon goes to Te Puke Hawaii

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 27th, 2022 - 58 comments

The question of what has happened to Christopher Luxon was answered yesterday in a shambolic messy way that must have National operatives in despair.

The inside story of National’s civil war

Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, July 25th, 2022 - 16 comments

Andrea Vance’s book Blood Bath provides an insider’s view of the carnage that erupted in the National Party from 2017 to 2021.  And while things have calmed down under Christopher Luxon’s his weaknesses, including his glossing over the importance of policy detail and his tendency to bag businesses has been noted.

Mansplaining Luxon

Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, June 30th, 2022 - 14 comments

Fresh from his attempt to alienate the female vote by being equivocal on if a National Government would move to restrict access to abortions yesterday Christopher Luxon compounded things by purporting to speak for all women.

Luxon has been Susied on National Radio

Written By: - Date published: 11:04 am, June 22nd, 2022 - 68 comments

This morning on Morning Report Christopher Luxon was well and truly Susied as Susie Ferguson asked him how can we have tax cuts yet improved public services.

The Media and the Australian election

Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, May 20th, 2022 - 28 comments

I cannot understand why in Australia Scotty from Marketing still has a fighting chance of remaining as Prime Minister.  But the recent tightening in the polls suggests that this is a possibility.

Shane Jones’ weird premature budget take

Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, May 14th, 2022 - 11 comments

Former Labour MP Shane Jones has criticised the 2021 budget even though he has no idea what is going to be in it.

Latest poll result – all steady but the Herald needs an English lesson

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 pm, May 3rd, 2022 - 109 comments

The latest Reid Research poll result has been released.  Basically it reflects other polls that have been recently conducted.  But the Herald have chosen to suggest it shows a dramatic change.

Luxon’s triple backward summersault on Labour Day

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 21st, 2022 - 72 comments

In the space of one day Chris Luxon called repeatedly for the scrapping of Labour Day as a holiday then confirmed that a future National Government would not do this and said that his earlier comment was facetious.

RNZ’s weird take on MIQ

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, April 20th, 2022 - 93 comments

RNZ’s recent shock horror reporting on a memo from November 2021 proposing a wind back of MIQ is severely deficient.  The framing is one sided and ignores the subsequent emergence of Omicron as a variant of concern.